What exactly is the meta in this game?

[PewPew]

Just finished my first run after countless resets (to speed up progression). But I never really learned what is the priority. Like do people go for keys, or quartz? It seems on my first run atleast is that you can work on 1 magic and build it up while replacing all the other ones (cause what you can buy with quartz is almost always better).

Then the keys that do upgrade your stats is in general better in the long run over upgrading a single magic, but you also need said magic (the one you decide to focus on) to be relevant all the way till the end.

Like maybe my approach to the game is wrong. But this game is just like every other roguelite where you can make up with the lack of skill (git gud) with pure dps and that's how my first successful run ended, since besides the final boss, every boss didn't even manage to build half their desperation attack.

TLDR: I didn't learn anything but now I'm willing to learn what the actual strat is going forward.

[ntfreakyz]

you always want to have at least 10 keys or so, dont ever go into an exploration room without keys if you can help it, because the point of those rooms is the key portals. always pick the 5 key option because its more bang for your buck, and if you get the pavo feather echo, always go for the feathers. and if you got everything, always go for the most stars portal obviously.

[PewPew]

Originally posted by ntfreakyz:

you always want to have at least 10 keys or so, dont ever go into an exploration room without keys if you can help it, because the point of those rooms is the key portals. always pick the 5 key option because its more bang for your buck, and if you get the pavo feather echo, always go for the feathers. and if you got everything, always go for the most stars portal obviously.

Over chameleon? I thought stats are the way to go, but is leveling one spell outweight all stats added?

[iamtheblight]

After I completed the full journey a few times and buffed my pregame stats, I changed my focus on lots of 1 mana spells and on-cast effects. Early on I focuses on very defensive play, but now I generally favor Mana>Crit>Strength<Armor<Speed<HP in that order. I seek out auras until I hit the cap and once I've got a viable Astral or Mythical, I build all of my gambits around that effect. Sometimes it's crits, sometimes it's creating more missles or ice swords. With this setup I always prioritize stats over feathers, since my spells are doing minimal damage and I just want to get to next batch of effects. In addition to spell refresh, whatever echoes I have, and maybe even a summon, I usually don't have to heal until the last couple of bosses.

[ntfreakyz]

Originally posted by PewPew:

Originally posted by ntfreakyz:

you always want to have at least 10 keys or so, dont ever go into an exploration room without keys if you can help it, because the point of those rooms is the key portals. always pick the 5 key option because its more bang for your buck, and if you get the pavo feather echo, always go for the feathers. and if you got everything, always go for the most stars portal obviously.

Over chameleon? I thought stats are the way to go, but is leveling one spell outweight all stats added?

get whatever echo you want man i was just saying if you get the feather echo always go for feathers obviously.

there is no real meta, the game is not that difficult once you get decent enough its just a matter of not getting hit by every single attack and dodging a good amount of them. the advanced versions of some of the zodiacs have some crazy attack patterns

[Blowfeld]

Go with the flow.

See what options you have.
Useone of the 3 daily buffs to enhance a planned direction or use a neutral one for more flexibility.

[Astral Pork]

Originally posted by PewPew:

TLDR: I didn't learn anything but now I'm willing to learn what the actual strat is going forward.

The game starts to get more intricate as you go up destiny levels. Mostly on account of neither "git gud" or having just a good build not being good enough anymore. I'm working on destiny level 26 and bosses are sitting at +70% damage and +120% hp which means you need dps and actually dodging (less than you'd think though). The hardest parts are actually the stages at this point, especially early ones where you don't have anything good set up.

I'm at dl 26 but I know there's some guy on this forum who posted that he was running 36 which is kind of crazy.

1. Try to have 10 keys. You can run around with up to 20 because before the final boss you can count on being able to spend 10 more. Any more than 20 runs a risk of wasting rooms
2. Some stats are additive (ex: +5% strength at 0 strength is more than +5% strength at 200%). Some are multiplicative (attack speed multiplies strength (though attack speed arguably gets worse at higher dls)). Life multiplies with armour. You'd want to either go all in on armour or crit since armour gains in value with each point (67 -> 70% is better than 30 -> 33%).
3. Crit synergy is strong but only worth going all in on with auras (ex: snowflake on crit, missile on crit, +% crit damage). On the flip side any aura with sustain (+15% life on hit) goes up in value with armour.
4. Pavos feathers start weaker but they're a multiplier on spells (which you can spam with + mana stats and you can get up to 75-100% mana restored per room with dl levels). This makes them more powerful as the game goes on and makes the most damaging part of the game (stage rooms) easier. Also spell damage (and dot I think) scale with stats so they're a multiplier for everything.
5. You are correct about replacing spells with quartz. Try to replace 1-2 on stage 3/4 because the final boss shop is ridiculous (1000-1600 quartz per spell). Last shop is better for getting astral/mythic gambits which are extremely hard to find
6. You can run multi-hit spells at 0% power with aura + dot effects (burn, poison, etc.) since those scale off hits + aura multipliers (+ poison stacks, +% gambit effects) meaning you don't have to replace that
7. Gambit unlock costs go up per stage which means if you know you're going to synergize off poison, you can just unlock all slots for a multi-slot spell knowing you're not going to replace it
8. You get one elemental room per game. This gives you an astral gambit for free and lets you pivot the spell you've been going all in with pavo feathers to match your auras. Alternatively, lets you get an astral mana gambit for sustaining spell spamming if you're already set up.
9. Pavo feather rooms suck your life but you can basically get a spell up at least +100%. You want to take this at stage 3/4 because they take a flat amount of life and you have more life later on. If you don't have 5 life crystal charges... don't take it because you're wasting the room and/or going to kill yourself
10. The first 2 stage modifiers to your character (signature spell + basic attack) don't matter really cuz you don't know what your auras are. Mana ones are always good (5% mana on attack, 3 mana on signature spell). If you're going crit you can get +20% crit chance on basic attack which is insane for things like snowflake on crit/missile on crit, etc. Otherwise just take something that's consistent (burn, poison, nimbus, etc.).

[PewPew]

^ Alright thanks for that I will try to do that moving forward then.

Unrelated question, how do I check my prowess in game? Like I quit halfway through the run, and came back today and I forgot what choices I made for prowess, but I cannot find the menu to check what I have.

[Astral Pork]

Originally posted by PewPew:

^ Alright thanks for that I will try to do that moving forward then.

Unrelated question, how do I check my prowess in game? Like I quit halfway through the run, and came back today and I forgot what choices I made for prowess, but I cannot find the menu to check what I have.

I think you can pause, scroll down to the slot that has your basic attack in it and check those

[Walrus Clan (Wally)]

Originally posted by Astral Pork:

10 great tips listed above

Thanks a ton for these 10 tips! How do you feel about stat prioritization? Meaning do you tend to prefer Strength over attack speed? Mana over everything? only armor or Crit if its your number one stat? Any more info on this would be hugely helpful.

I currently do Mana > Strength> Attack Speed > life > armor > Crit. I have gone through close to 90 attempts without making it through though so happy to learn from someone better than me :)

Also do you always stick to the order of your prioritized list or is there a time where you might say "thats enough strength. Time for attack speed." etc.