Jades Tier List - Edited

[Anderson]

So let's have some fun. I'm going to put all the Jades in a tierlist, and give an explanation for my choices. In general, Nine Sols does a good job of balancing these (unlike Hollow Knight, where you have 40 charms and 10 or less have any use at all). Nothing is overpowered, and even things I didn't like have some use cases.

I did a bit of testing to try to get the numbers on these, but given the lack of damage numbers in the game, some of them are estimates. If you think I got a number wrong, let me know in the comments.

I'm going to use the following Tiers:
Good - Jades here are ones that are more or less always good to have equipped.
Useful - These Jades are useful, but not all the time. Still, they perform well in the cases when they are useful
Niche - Interesting, but ultimately not worth it in my opinion. Some of the "speedrunner" Jades will go into this tier.
Bad - Either little or no use case, or the downside/cost is far too large to justify.

Without further ado, let's proceed:
(Jades within tiers are in no particular order. Also, number in parenthesis is the Computing Unit cost)


GOOD TIER:

Breather Jade (2): Hitting enemies converts some internal damage back to health
- Very easy and reliable way to recover from internal damage. Gets even better due to the existence of Swift Blade. Also complements Iron Skin well.

Iron Skin Jade (3): Converts (around 40%) of damage taken to Internal Damage
- Great way to stay alive. If a Boss is giving you a hard time, this will help to survive longer. Also great for general exploring if you are struggling. Keep in mind that if you get hit multiple times, subsequent hits will not have the damage resistance, since the internal damage will just be taken off your health.

Stasis Jade (2): Attaching a talisman will temporarily immobilize an enemy
- Regular enemies will not be able to move at all before you detonate, so this often acts as free damage. Works very well with Water Flow, letting you freeze enemies and then keep attacking. VERY useful when dealing with mutant enemies. Not good against Bosses, however. In those cases, Steely Jade will be better.

Swift Blade Jade (2): Increases Triple Slash speed, but take internal damage when you attack
- I'm surprised this doesn't cost 3 slots, given how significant the increase is. The downside can be entirely mitigated with Breather Jade. In fact, with Breather equipped, you actually recover more damage than you take, meaning that you still recover Internal Damage when hitting enemies. Once you put those two on, it's hard to take them off.

Revival Jade (2): When HP reaches 0 for the first time, revive with 25% health
- This Jade would be easy #1 in the game, if not for a weakness. While the description says that you revive with 25% health, this is NOT like Sekiro. You have NO immunity when you take fatal damage, you just get set to 1 health. The green blobs need a moment to reach you, meaning that if you died during a multi-hit combo, there is a high chance that you will die before you get the health back.
That said, the Jade is still incredibly useful.

USEFUL TIER

Mob Quell Jade - Yin and Yang (2): Talismans can attach to an additional target
- Both of these have the same effect, and you can stack them (so you can hit 3 enemies). It's a weird Jade, because it doesn't come up that often, but when you actually manage to tag 2 enemies, boy is it great (especially with Stasis Jade). Having 1 of these on can be nice, but I'd only recommend equipping both for encounters with the pink mutants.

Steely Jade (2): Talisman detonation cannot be interrupted (you take Internal Damage if struck)
- This is the boss counterpart for Stasis Jade. The reason why it is a lower tier is because it is only really needed if using Full Control, in which case this Jade guarantees that it goes off, and any internal damage you take can be recovered with Breather Jade.

Avarice Jade (2): Enemies drop 33% more Jin when defeated
- Handy for farming, but also decent when you don't feel like you need anything else equipped. 33% is pretty good, and helps you afford some of the high ticket items. To be fair, farming Jin isn't really needed (unless you are both paying for EVERY map chip AND you want to buy absolutely everything from Chiyou, and even then it's not much).

Hedgehog Jade (3): Precise parries will inflict Internal Damage to the enemy
- Mainly used against Bosses. The amount inflicted isn't much, but against some of the bosses (who attack A LOT), this can add up throughout the fight. Can also help deal with minibosses, if you struggle to otherwise land hits. Basically, use this when Swift Blade Jade isn't helping you with the boss (Lady Ethereal comes to mind).

Swift Descent Jade (1): Reduces the cooldown of Dash, and allows you do Dash downwards
- This is the only 1-cost Jade that I think has any use at all. The effect isn't that great, but at 1 cost, you sometimes find yourself with a spare slot, and this Jade is a nice way to use it. Dashing down is pretty handy (if you don't forget to use it). Frankly, I think this should have been unlocked via the skill tree, instead of being a Jade.

Quick Dose Jade (2): Shortens the time needed to use the Medicinal Pipe
- AKA Quick Focus from Hollow Knight. The reason I don't rank it in the Good Tier is because the default healing animation is already decently fast, and I rarely found myself not being able to find a spot to heal. That said, the effect is still good, and can help deal with tougher bosses/minibosses who are making it hard to find time to heal.

NICHE TIER

Divine Hand Jade (2): After a successful Unbounded Counter, deflecting will perform continuous Unbounded Counters
- This can rack up a lot of Internal Damage if you pull it off, but it can be tricky, and only really works against fast combos. Comparable to the Hedgehog; I rate this one lower, because, while cheaper, it is MUCH more difficult to pull off. I'd argue that if you are good enough to pull this off, you are probably good enough to beat every boss and miniboss regardless of your Jades. Feels to me like this should have been a unlockable ability, rather than a Jade.

Cultivation Jade (2): Slightly increases experience gained from defeating enemies
- So many of the skill points come from Tao Fruit that I never found this to be necessary. Even with 0 XP farming, I end up 2/3rds of the way into the skill tree by the time I get to Lady Ethereal.

Immovable Jade (2): Reduces the time to execute a Charged Strike when standing still
- The effect is significant, but I personally don't use the Charged Strike much, outside of landing backstabs, or just starting an encounter. Main thing that annoys me is that this is only when standing still, and not anytime you charge it.

Focus Jade (3): Charged Strike consumes a Qi charge, but deals more damage (75% is my guess)
- Interesting effect, but I much prefer to use my Qi for talismans (especially when they can refund Azure Sand). Likewise, Cloud Piercer generally does a better job of dealing mass damage to multiple enemies, so spending 3 Computing slots for an alternative doesn't look appealing. Combining this with Immovable Jades can let you spam these high-damage moves, but it's a little awkward. I much prefer Breather + Swift Blade.

Reciprocation Jade (2): A successful Unbounded Counter transfers (around 2.5 bars worth) internal damage to the enemy
- Breather Jade does a better job of recovering Internal Damage (without having to time Unbounded against regular attacks), and the extra Internal Damage isn't that good. Still, I could imagine this combining with Swift Blade (without Breather), to always have extra Internal damage, and then use Unbounded Counters to stack extra Internal damage on the enemy. Goes into the category of "high skill" approaches, for those who want it.

Ricochet Jade (1): Projectiles can be reflected even with imprecise parries
- This really has only one purpose, and that is help in solving the "deflection" puzzles in the Grotto of Scriptures, where you have to successfully deflect multiple projectiles. If you are struggling, this can help. Otherwise, it's hardly needed. If you don't deflect a projectile, it's not a big deal.

Recovery Jade (2): Increases the recovery rate of Internal Damage (recovery starts after 3 seconds instead of 5, and you recover faster)
- During combat, Breather Jade will recover Internal Damage more reliably that this, and outside of combat, you have all the time you need. The reason this in in NICHE and not BAD is because of a (possibly unintended) interaction with Medical Jade, which makes it much better.

Medical Jade (2): Medicine pipe recovers 50% more health, but is applied over time instead of immediately. Taking damage interrupts the effect.
- This would in the BAD tier, if not for it becoming much better if paired with Recovery Jade. When you have both, the healing-over-time is MUCH faster when using this Jade. So much so, that it almost gets rid of the downside, making it possibly useful in bosses, and generally decent in regular encounters, if you find yourself running low on health.

(The next 3 Jades form what I call "Super Glass Cannon" build. It also uses Swift Blade, but that Jade is good on it's own).

Last Stand Jade (2): When you fall below 25% health, you deal more damage (33% I think, not entirely sure)
- Being at 25% health means you are probably just going to heal, so this Jade is only here for those who want to play the "Super Glass Cannon" build. The idea is that, since this also activates when your internal damage builds up to over 80%, you can combine this with Swift Blade, Qi Swipe, and Qi Blade, to result in dealing massive damage, but dying to a single hit. Your internal damage gets maxed out, so you just enjoy the extra damage all the time.

Qi Blade Jade (3): Consumes 2 Qi charges on the third hit of Triple Slash, to inflict more damage (also sends out a wave)
- This is only usable with the "Super Glass Cannon" build. Otherwise, 2 Qi is a big price to pay (not to mention 3 Computing slots). To be fair, the shockwave does do decent damage, but just like Focus Jade, use Cloud Piercer when dealing with multiple foes.

Qi Swipe Jade (3): Increases Qi capacity by 1; precise parries gain 2 Qi charges but you take internal damage
- Same as above , only usable with "Super Glass Cannon". Otherwise, this Jade is pretty terrible. 3 cost is a lot, and you take A LOT of internal damage when parrying. Accumulating Qi is not hard, so getting 2 per parry is just overkill. Qi Blade Jade is about the only thing that can spend it.

BAD TIER

Pauper Jade (1): Increases Jin collection radius
- Not worth a slot. To be useful, this would have to have a massive radius (the whole screen). Really, this ability should just be baseline.

Soul Reaper Jade (1): Any Jin and experience absorbed by an enemy that killed you, can be recovered with a talisman explosion
- There was never a time in the game where this would have been useful to me. If an enemy absorbed your Jin, just use the Bow to eliminate it.

Harness Force Jade (1): Performing a precise parry will complete any ongoing charging of Charged Strike, making it available immediately
- I tried this a little, and it was VERY clunky. When you parry, you might not be able to even use Charge Strike right away, because the enemy is still attacking. If you want to use Charged Strike more, Immovable Jade is more useful.

Bearing Jade (2): Reduces knockback from enemy attacks when parrying
- Why does this cost 2 slots? The knockback is hardly a problem (you get used to it throughout the game), so spending 2 slots to remove it makes no sense to me. Not even sure I would take it at 1 slot.

Health Thief Jade (2): Recovers health (about half of a bar), after a successful Shadow Strike
- After some thought, I dropped this to the bottom tier, because of how much better Medical + Recovery Jades are for general longevity, not to mention Transmute onto Life already giving you an alternative way to heal. As such, this Jade server little practical purpose.

These are my thoughts. Share yours, and let me know if you think I got something wrong. Cheers.

[Morthgarrow]

Good writeup and list! I pretty much completely agree with your analysis on the jades.

[CJones]

I have seen videos of people using the "Harness Force" jade to great effect, but I sure couldn't do it. Usually I'm too busy trying to parry attacks to think about also holding and releasing the attack button at the right time.

The Immovable Jade and the Stasis Jade are probably the ones I used to most often.

[Titan]

So wait, Steely Jade gives you INTERNAL damage rather than ACTUAL damage? Do you still take some actual damage or is it ALL internal?

[leo_gear]

Medical Jade is good if you're like me and don't do well with platforming. When I did my first time through Sky Tower or something, it gave me more than twice the failure attempts. It's a good field option as well as it's not hard to kite stuff to get more healing. If anything, Health Thief is not really that good unless you have arrows to spam and if you have arrows to spam, you probably don't need a bunch of extra healing.

That said, I don't really use Medical Jade unless I feel super pressured about healing and by the time you get 5+ pots, it's not often you're running out in the field.

Also, I find Revival Jade kinda trash. It's not horrible but it feels niche to me. The times I tried using it really didn't help. I'd rather just die and try again lol.

As a niche user of Immovable Jade, you can't discount the amount of stagger locking you can get out of charged strike spams.

[Zelakon]

I agree mostly with this list except Medical Jade should be in niche tier rather than poor, because I found it extending my lifespan significantly during corpse runs (particularly during early-mid game).

Also it seems that its regen is greatly sped up by synergy with Recovery Jade (despite that saying internal damage), which is perhaps unintentional?

[Anderson]

Zelakon lähetti viestin:

I agree mostly with this list except Medical Jade should be in niche tier rather than poor, because I found it extending my lifespan significantly during corpse runs (particularly during early-mid game).

Also it seems that its regen is greatly sped up by synergy with Recovery Jade (despite that saying internal damage), which is perhaps unintentional?

I'll have to test this interaction, that sounds interesting. I'm considering bumping up Medical, perhaps out of respect for its potential use, even if I never needed.

[Anderson]

Edited the guide, to adjust Recovery + Medical (both going into NICHE), and Health Thief getting dumped into BAD. I think I overrated the healing from that Jade by a lot, especially given the aforementioned combo, and Transmute Onto Life.

[Anderson]

Titan lähetti viestin:

So wait, Steely Jade gives you INTERNAL damage rather than ACTUAL damage? Do you still take some actual damage or is it ALL internal?

It is entirely Internal Damage.