...so, the basics?

[Ryan]

I came here looking for guides, tutorials, anything really; I cannot figure out a vast majority of the game's systems.

Why can't I unlock various skills in the Soul Enhancement screen? There's no indication of what's necessary to 'unlock' them, even though I have enough of the purple currency I can't click them or upgrade them.

Do certain "classes" counter others? Meaning, if I put points in Demon is that why I can't open certain paths on Body or Spirit? How do you know what's what?

How does the meta-progression work outside of that system? What are cultivations methods exactly and what do they do?

How does the chi system work in the game? When I press tab I see what having the various chi levels does by hovering, but what about the ? that talks about multi-cast? What *IS* multi-cast anyway? Talismans?

I see in the hidden skill tree body there are various 'quenching' things that the only guide I can somewhat understand seems to value highly, but again to point 1 above I'm unable to upgrade them despite having plenty of purple cheddar.


This game looks awesome, and I really enjoy deep systems like it (appears) to have. I feel like a moron because I expected this forum to have others like me and I wouldn't have to write this post out and admit ignorance while all of you are masterfully enjoying this game lol.

[Ikkiz0]

I've been playing this game since yesterday so I can't answer all of your question but I can answer some of them :

For the Soul Enhancement, you gotta, most of the time, start from the first skill on the top and it will unlock the others going down, you'll see when it does because the skill will go from a red frame to a white one. Also, you can try as much as you want and just reset with right-click, you get back as much as you used, you don't lose anything so just try anything you want to. (In case it doesn't unlock, sometimes you need to unlock skills in other "branches" but it's always the ones directly right,left,top or under)

It kinda does at the beggning because if you go full body cultivator, you can't get the others. But later on, as you can see in the Soul Enhancement menu, on top there are 4 differents "preset" that you get by ending a run with a specific build. And when you get every build, you'll unlock the Unitary one which gives you the possibility to pick anything you want.

For cultivations methods, it kinds of defines your "main" build, you can get as much as three differents cultivations methods in each runs. For example, there's one for the weapon "Flying sword", so you'll only pick that cultivation methods if you're doing a run with this specific weapon. And when you select a cultivation method in a run, there'll be 3 "skills" you can pick out of 4, and in each of those cultivation method, the second choice is between 2 differents skills, you'll see that in game when it will say smth like "if you pick this one, you won't be able to pick that one"

Chi is the element you're going for, for exemple if you get Water Chi, and you're playing with a water spell, you'll get more water damages, more frequent status debuff like slow the ennemies, and also multi-cast for that spell, getting more Chi gets you more multi-cast.
Multi-cast is simply the fact that each time you use your spell, it'll cast it X times instead of just 1, but still using as much spirit as if you cast it once. So it basically multiplies your damages.

For the quenching it just that, going full body build means you're gonna play with a weapon only and not use skill (one of the main upgrade gives you the ability to equip 2 weapons instead of a weapon and a skill), which makes having Chi kind of useless. So by getting that quenching upgrades, it'll transform the Chi you get to flat stats like base attack, movement speed etc..

I don't know if everything I said is understandable, I'm not a native english speaker, but if you need me to clarify something, don't hesitate to ask !

[Ryan]

Hmm... okay, so just starting out, where should I be focusing my efforts?

I can get to and sometimes kill the second boss, but I am just picking things at random. I had been going down the Demonic line, which makes the entire "Years Left of Life" mechanic do something entirely different that I'm not clear on.

Maybe I avoid the Demon line to start and just do all the Body ones? The presets at the top are all locked and I am unclear on how to meta progress to the point where I get powerful enough to finish the game.

The cultivation methods I can't do anything with. It says I need to unlock 9 to choose one, and I've unlocked one other than the main starting 4. No clue how to really unlock the rest.

I want to start progressing and getting stronger and trying new builds, but I'm just so damn lost on how to get going.

[Ikkiz0]

I think you should focus on actually just playing as to try weapon and skill while getting that purple currency so you'll be able to unlock further in the Soul Enhancement menu. Because early on, you don't have much and it'll be easier to win by getting more upgrades if you struggle.

I believe that the demonic line ain't really good to start with because you need to get some mains upgrades that are not cheap early, like Lifespanless. So you should probably just go with body or soul line.

If I take myself as an example, I remember doing my first win with mainly focus on getting upgrades related to skills, like more spirit, CD reduce, damages per extra spirit etc... and having the Ice spike spell upgrade (here you should focus on getting also Chi upgrade related to your skill, for example the Ice spike is a water skill, so get water Chi upgrades). For the upgrades, you can get like an evolution of weapons/skills by getting specific upgrades/items. You can look at those combo in the guide tab here in the steam community, there's a guide about the achivements in-game.

For the cultivations methods, I'm not sure if choosing a cultivation method actually matters, maybe it makes the odd of getting it in your choices better. As for getting them in a run, you'll have to choose a cultivation method with each breakthrough you do (you get 3 choices each time), breakthrough being that thing bottom left of your screen where you press C when you have enough cultivation XP. You can get as much as 3 cultivations methods in each run, you'll see that in the TAB menu, on the right those 4 nodes things.
As for unlocking new ones, you can also look at the guide I talked about if you want.

Early on, I'd recommend trying to do runs so as the unlock new cutlivations methods and farming a bit of that purple currency. Also, try to get upgrades about damages like the ones who gives damages for extra stats : damage for extra health, extra spirit. Later on, you can get at the point where you legit kill everything in 5 sec when getting the good upgrades. And of course, more importantly, just try a bit of everything and have fun !

[Ryan]

Thanks so much for being so helpful and responsive. :)

Should I wait until I have double exp to press C or should I do it right away? I understand I get more base stats by waiting, but don't I miss out on a potential cultivation upgrade? Not sure which is better.

I'm guessing it'll be along while before I can take on the merchants/librarian/wishing well bosses then?

I almost beat the wishing well boss with just the water turtle shell spell. That seems absurdly powerful for hit and run tactics, but it does take ages. I've avoided them since.

What do you spend on at the merchants? I always buy as many of the 'pick one of three upgrades' books as I can and nothing else really.

I noticed these 'relic' like upgrades started showing up (starts with a T I can't recall now) so if I see those I try to grab them too.

I find many spells to be kind of crappy (fireballs, or the earth spell that stays in one area or grabs like a fist). I like the thunderbolt, but it looks like I'll need to work on the Xian tree before I can upgrade thunder so instead I take the spell that works similarly but brings swords down. I also like the water sword spell. Range seems to be king in this game.

I have about 10k of the purple currency so far. I'll keep doing runs to farm up more. Thank you again for your kindness and patience in explaining these things to me.

[Ikkiz0]

No problem !

Further in the game it's probably worth, didn't really think about it that much actually, but early on I think you should just breakthrough whenever you can. You'll get more xp later on.

Mhhh, it really depends on your run, I could take them on my first win which was quite early on, just had enough luck to get good upgrades I think. Tho ofc they're not really easy but clearly not that hard to kill.

Yeah the spell seems quite nice but I personnally don't really like to pick it, I prefer having damages ones. Also, you get some pets in the shop called Fabaos. With those pets there's the turtle pet which gives you the same shield as the water turtle shell spell. And there's a hidden passiv if you get at least 3 of the holy beasts fabao that makes them use their spell more frequently iirc.

I do so aswell, and also if I can, I buy those Fabaos aswell. I sometimes look at the weapons or spell if I'm doing a specific run for exemple with the Ice spike spell, then if I don't have it at that point and it's in the shop I'll buy it. I also steal from the shop everytime coz when you kill the NPC you get rewards, and if the smith is here too, he'll attack too and drop rewards aswell. Talking about the smith, you probably shouldn't use him early on coz his currency is the purple thing, you'll get a lot of them later.

I personnally like to play with them, and if you get some Chi to multi-cast early on, it's really destructive. And getting the evolution of those spell is always fun, for exemple the Ice spike one launches auto so you basically just run through everything, the fireball one is good aswell.

Yeah that's good already, remember that, the further you go, the more soul fragments you get (purple currency), so if you manage to get to the end, you'll get a good bunch of them. And if you can get those spell/weapon combo, it'll help a lot !

No problem, have fun :)

[Krasus]

i am no expert, but i did go for the mortal way, go for it and after filling one tree, others open, 2 more for body and a xian, go further in body (mortal) until you beat peach boss.

the new skill trees are hiding on another page look for arows that apear after filling the skill tree

if i remember right beating peach using a certain tree will make the rest in it free.
beat peach next using demonic and xian build.

hope i remember it right, after beating peach boss using all 3 skill trees another skill tree opens, this one let you mix all and is the most important one.

there are better guides look for the bookself one everything is there.

[Labram]

I don't have energy to read all the above. But if you want to do an all clear on the first time I suggest go full demonic build cuz you don't have to to worry about years of life and you get life steal as well. I also suggest you fully upgrade the spirit tree so you get to choose a bound skill. Choose the turtle shield as your bound skill and you'll find it super easy to play.

BTW you'll automatically unlock some good combos along the way after you do a few runs, some combos can be very strong.

[deatheven13]

I'm doing pretty well and the best luck I've had was getting something busted like meteor or black dragon shield and just trying to progress as far as you can to get soul fragments for meta progression.
Start filling up Spirit and Body to unlock Xian as that tree has a lot of things that will extend your life and make your level ups better. Soul bound weapons / skills / and techniques are great. Always pick things that give you "Extra" Damage for other stats like based on your max health / spirit / crit / crit damage. That adds loads of damage and applies to both your weapon and your skills.
I recommend trying to go fire early on with body training / inner fire / king bar / meteor
It gets pretty dumb but can be a paper tiger since you'll be squishy. Just keep playing and unlocking meta perks and the game will start to make sense. You'll always be unlocking extra stuff as you progress.

[Ryan]

Cheers all, thanks. I ended up with a run with flying sword and ice spikes, and somehow the ice spikes spell like 'evolved' into an always on spell.

Made it to the elemental lord final boss but lost to it with like 15% of its life left. Prior to that I was wiping out every room just by walking into it.

That run unlocked a *ton* of stuff. Still don't have much of a clue what's going on in a lot of ways, but I'm having more fun.

[iamtheblight]

I came here with all of OP's questions and it's just kind of crazy there isn't a more comprehensive guide here or in-game in the 3 months since it was posted, to address them more thoroughly.