New to game: good builds?

[Jacques Dupont]

I'm pretty new to the game and I'm loving it. Last run I saw the second bosses for the first time and I somehow managed to beat them, but I died pretty hard then on the third area. So I guess it was a good build overall (high HP, reduction of damage and physical damage). But I wouldn't really know.

My questions are:

1) What types of builds are?
2) Which skulls should I be aiming for?
3) What items or stats should I focus on for those particular skulls?
4) Which quintessentials are better for each build?
5) And I'm also unclear about what should I focus first: money doors, skull doors or item doors.
6) How important is upgrading skulls? Should I focus on getting bones for it or should I try to just get a rarer skull later in the shop or a green door?

[ZexxCrine]

you asking for an essay my man. i cant just lay out every possible build with every possible skull. what you need changes from a run to run basis depending on what you have been given. all of the skulls in the game are viable to beat the final boss. I can give you a few skulls to avoid I guess

aqua skull-low damage. needs a lot of help with magic damage and survivability in order to do what other skuls can do better. still pretty decent at dealing with enemy swarm rooms like most power skulls.

mummy/hunter skull-these skulls can be made really good but they require heavy build investment. chase inscription items make these skulls shine along with upgrading to legendary. if your build can support them when they are given to you, take them. if you have little to no chase items when they drop it is usually better to skip them.

warrior/minotaur/ghoul/yaksha- these skulls arnt bad per say. they are just very slow and require good fundementals to make them work while other skulls take less effort. they are all still good for general room clearing though

as far as skulls that can literally carry you to victory

Predator/berserker-these physical skulls stand leages beyond any other physicals skulls. its not required to upgrade them, but it makes them even more powerful

rocker/grim reaper/warlock(if it has meteor)/archlich(if it has deathtrap) the absurd damage these magical skulls can churn out will shred everything to ribbons. magical items are already crazy good, but these magical skulls scale super hard with them.

as you get better at the game you truely can use any skull combination to win. you will also get a feel for what works and what doesn't.

as far as answering your question about resources

money rooms are the most important followed by skull rooms. only take skull rooms if you dont already have decent skulls. then concentrate on getting a workable build together. once that build starts coming together and you feel ahead of the curve you can go for more skull rooms.

the only time item rooms should even be considered is if you have an abundance of gold and have already visited the shop for the level. only exception is if you already have good skulls, don't need more bones, and your options are item door or skull door. money to reset shop stock will carry your run further than hoping an item room will grant you an item you want.

before you have the experience I wouldnt recomend hyper focusing skull upgrades. unless you get lucky you are most likely to be able to upgrade a skull to legendary around the halfway point of stage three and if you cant get to that point consistantly, hording bones wont help you.

[Jacques Dupont]

Thanks for all the data! I will definitely be using it. For now, I'm enojying much more the speed skulls than the others, but I will try some of the heavier ones for sure.

I just met magnifico and I'm not understanding what he does for the money I give to him :/

[Leviathan]

Originally posted by Jacques Dupont:

1) What types of builds are?
2) Which skulls should I be aiming for?
3) What items or stats should I focus on for those particular skulls?
4) Which quintessentials are better for each build?
5) And I'm also unclear about what should I focus first: money doors, skull doors or item doors.
6) How important is upgrading skulls? Should I focus on getting bones for it or should I try to just get a rarer skull later in the shop or a green door?

1) You have to consider two things. First one is the type of damage, i.e. magical, physical, or mixed skulls, and Speed, Power and Balance skulls, For example, Petty thief and Clown are speed skulls with both physical and magical attacks, but Predator and Berserker are physical power skulls, and Reaper is a magical balance skull.

If you're using a mixed damage skull, you have to consider to eventually replace items which only increase one kind of damage. For example, with Petty thief you should use stuff which increases attack and movement speed, reduce cooldowns, and that thing.

2) I think most stuff works well if you upgrade it. Overall I don't usually play power skulls besides predator because they feel really slow, but they still hit like a truck.

3) Since you get items randomly, anything which suits the performance of your skull. If you use Lancer or Ninja (Or both), for example, they´re both skulls which benefit from dash-related items. There is an item with a 30% chance of resetting dash cooldown every time you dash so you can dash (and dodge) a lot with the ninja which can dash three times before cooldown. Lancer also benefits from that since it can dash twice and dashing causes damage. But if you don't get it there is no reason to reject Carleon Sword and Bow.

4) It depends, but any legendary quintessence you can get is really good for any build.

5) I go all the way for skull doors. I can take more than half the game going in every skull door I find until I have two legendary skulls. Then I go through every item door until I have 9 of them. Then I go to money doors so I can improve my items in the market, since there are three to choose, and you can reroll, it's easier to find what you're looking for.

6) I think it's important. Being able to upgrade a skull is a consistent way of getting a legendary skull. I usually get a common skull, pay some quartz to get some bones and start upgrading it. I will work really well when you get it to unique, and by then you may have found another good unique or legendary skull. Then you'll end up upgrading both of them and having two legendary skulls is the best thing lol.

[Jacques Dupont]

Thanks a lot! 🤗