An Extremely Official Guide to Picking the Right Gifts

[puff1n]

Stuns are King! (Rush Rules!)
Hit Blast is Flat Damage Added
Status Effects (Curse<Burn<Bleed)
---Application Method (Hit<Trinket<Dodge)

Weapon Effects can skew things a bit but it's hard to plan around getting a specific bonus, late in the run, that fits the rest of your build.

For the most part i find myself following this basic priority. Thoughts?

[Impotence]

I only pick rush if I really have to. Alterattacks and many weapons have good enough stun proc.
Blast is decent but for many hard hitting builds with alterattacks, echo and especially critical echo (because alterattacks are crits) is far better.
Curse is king of effects. Burn, even with absolutely everything optimal, is garbage at best. Bleed scaling into higher tiers and late game is really not great compared to just about everything else.

Generally for gifts I'll target boosts first early, if possible, then attack speed (cursed) or damage based ones -- hp over max to damage (easily 100%+ damage), shells to damage (100% bonus), Isolate, 40% to bosses, etc.

[puff1n]

Originally posted by Impotence:

I only pick rush if I really have to. Alterattacks and many weapons have good enough stun proc.
Blast is decent but for many hard hitting builds with alterattacks, echo and especially critical echo (because alterattacks are crits) is far better.
Curse is king of effects. Burn, even with absolutely everything optimal, is garbage at best. Bleed scaling into higher tiers and late game is really not great compared to just about everything else.

Generally for gifts I'll target boosts first early, if possible, then attack speed (cursed) or damage based ones -- hp over max to damage (easily 100%+ damage), shells to damage (100% bonus), Isolate, 40% to bosses, etc.

I find it helpful to grab a +10% coins boost early on, among others.

I would have a lot of trouble beating anything harder than Stormy without a Rush Gift. And if I get one early, it can make the run super smooth. I also find rush can negate the need for CC trinkets.

Critical Echo is indeed good but requires 2 slots. Hit-Blast is +40% damage to every hit with no buildup or potential drop-off. Crit version is nearly as good and both require only one slot.

I was aiming for early game, generally powerful suggestions, that fit any build. So much depends on build and play style though.

[Impotence]

Originally posted by puff1n:

Originally posted by Impotence:

I only pick rush if I really have to. Alterattacks and many weapons have good enough stun proc.
Blast is decent but for many hard hitting builds with alterattacks, echo and especially critical echo (because alterattacks are crits) is far better.
Curse is king of effects. Burn, even with absolutely everything optimal, is garbage at best. Bleed scaling into higher tiers and late game is really not great compared to just about everything else.

Generally for gifts I'll target boosts first early, if possible, then attack speed (cursed) or damage based ones -- hp over max to damage (easily 100%+ damage), shells to damage (100% bonus), Isolate, 40% to bosses, etc.

I find it helpful to grab a +10% coins boost early on, among others.

I would have a lot of trouble beating anything harder than Stormy without a Rush Gift. And if I get one early, it can make the run super smooth. I also find rush can negate the need for CC trinkets.

Critical Echo is indeed good but requires 2 slots. Hit-Blast is +40% damage to every hit with no buildup or potential drop-off. Crit version is nearly as good and both require only one slot.

I was aiming for early game, generally powerful suggestions, that fit any build. So much depends on build and play style though.

For sure, Rush can be good it's just not to my playstyle. Rush after trinket use can be especially devastating with suction too, just depends on your use.

I don't grab the boost to shells unless I'm really hurting. Buying the potions at the end of every run, if needed, as well as buying the gift slots and maybe an item or two at the end of the 2nd/3rd areas, can still make it to the final bosses with 2000+ shells remaining.

On an *optimized* build you will do far, far more overall damage with a Beatbolt, Heavy, Charge, and similar high damage single hit weapons using crit boosts and echo, especially with crit echo. A Beatbolt off a Heavy blade alterattack proc using leafade can easily do well over 10k damage, with the critical echo doing far more. As the echo is 105% of your damage, which if it's critical damage that's already multiplied by your damage and crit values, and then again by the echo damage modifiers and again the crit values. You can easily one shot the final bosses on cataclysmic.

Blast is absolutely more effective for smaller mobs, especially if you have nado to aoe them all, and is less reliant on specific triggers or items. It's just flat bonus damage that scales with your other damage bonuses.