How to Git Gud - Class Rankings, Bosses, and Tips

This Rogue Legacy 2 guide will teach you how to git gud by mastering the ins and outs the game, especially classes, bosses, and relics. I start by ranking the classes and listing their strengths and weaknesses, then give you some tips on what you can do to make the best use of those traits. There are a ton of classes in the game, and they define the gameplay of your run. Every single one has tricks and nuances, and the more knowledge and skill you have about your tools the better you'll do. Some relics compliment specific classes, and some bosses are best faced with specific relics, classes, and tactics.

Introduction

Greetings, gentle reader.

Ranking classes in a game like this is subjective, but I've done my best to bring some objectivity to this guide. To start with, tier placement is based on how easily you can progress through the game with each class. This is not a guide to speedrunning and I don't treat this like a competitive e-sport. This tiers are based on the assumption that you're somewhat (or completely) new to the game and your goal is to beat the game a few times and finish the story.

I'm confident that most people are going to do better with classes from higher ranks than lower ones in general, but keep in mind that your playstyle make some of these work better or worse for you. The huge variety of classes is one of the best parts of this game, so I encourage you to try everything. There are very few truly bad classes, and you may surprise yourself by doing exceptionally well with one particular class due to your unique strengths as a player.

It is impossible to rate the usefulness of classes throughout the entire game and in every circumstance since so many things change between early and late game. This list is written with late in the first run up until NG+8 as the balance point, specifically because this is when crits really start shine. You can use it for any point in the game to get a pretty good idea of who you may want to use, though if you haven't unlocked much that boosts crits or if you have low dexterity then you can ignore the critical damage stats.

Relics appear in two different ways in this guide. There is a section on relics in general, because some relics are so good that every class benefits from them. I also have some specific relics listed for each class, as the traits of those classes make those relics particularly desirable.

Finally... you have all these amazing tools, what can you do with them? You can show those bosses who the real boss is! They're the biggest challenge in the game. I'll give you some tips on what threats they pose and what weapons, talents, and relics you can bring to the fight to tip the odds in your favor.

Who Are You Anyway?

I'm just some guy who has played a lot of roguelikes and a lot of Rogue Legacy 2. I've played a whole lot more than most people, having made it all the way to NG+100. More importantly, along the way I was experimenting with different classes and spells and strategies and relics and using that to make this guide. I put in some work to gain some knowledge in order to share it with you, my friend.

All About Crits

Before we jump into the classes you'll use to become a grandmaster monster killer, we need to talk a little about crits.

Crits start off useless and become incredibly powerful as you upgrade your character. There are three kinds of crits - skill, random, and super. Skill crits are things you can trigger with a weapon by hitting an enemy in a certain way. These add bonus damage based on dexterity (or focus for spells). Some ways to get skill crits are to dash while attacking with the sword, bounce the spoon off walls, or swing the axe on the ground. A random crit happens when you hit something normally while having a % chance to crit on hit through runes or relics. A super crit happens when you get a skill crit and a random crit at the same time.

Crits act as a damage multiplier, and there are a ton of ways to increase that multiplier. There are runes, relics, and equipment that raise your random crit chance, increase the power of your crits, increase the power of super crits, and even increase the chance of a regular crit turning into super crits. They're multiplicative! The more of these things you get, the stronger all the others become. It is something to build toward in the late game. Early on, though, crits barely do any more damage. The intention of the developers was to get players to learn how to use the weapon in a basic way before encouraging them to go for crits.

What this means in terms of weapons is that weapons with poor crit potential are weaker the later you go in the game, and weapons with good crit potential are stronger the further you go in the game. You can easily do 500% or more of your regular damage if you get a super crit when you've got a lot of upgrades.

Relics

Most classes have relics that work particularly well for them. There are some relics, however, that are just so strong that they're a good choice for everybody. These relics are...

The War Drum - By itself, a 6% damage boost is not terrible. But with even one other relic this starts to outstrip conditional damage boosters like the Ivy Roots and Incandescent Telescope. By three it beats almost everything in every situation, and it only gets better from there.


Demeter's Trial and Gnawed Bone - Both of these provide a huge bonus to health. Do not underestimate them!




Hyperion's Ring - Nothing can save the day quite like Hyperion's ring when it resurrects you with half health in the middle of aboss fight.



Lachesis' Measure - Early on, this can be a better source of healing than anything else by a huge margin. It becomes relatively weaker as you gain life steal runes, but it is always useful.



Vanguard's Banner - This essentially gives you a completely new ability, letting you increase survivability greatly by blocking many projectiles.



Weird Mushrooms - The description says it "applies spore burst", but a better description would be that it just makes enemies explode for a guaranteed skill crit whenever they die. Magnificent at clearing out densely packed rooms.

Class Ranking - Intro

Here we go! I've rated them on several criteria, so I start with a basic rating from 1 to 5. Especially important traits are in bold. Here's how I define these things:

Health - What their max health is. Simple but crucial.
Reach - How far away they can hit stuff. This is not just range, but also what directions they can attack. Boxers get a lower rank for their range because they attack straight ahead, while Gunslingers get a higher rank for their range because they can attack in every direction.
Ease of Use - How easy this class is to use. You get better with every class the more you use it, but some classes need more practice to even be sort of good in the first place.
Evasion - How easy it is to avoid getting hit with this class while still attacking. Major factors in this score are weapon reach, attack speed, and special ability.
Pierce - Do their attacks go through walls and enemies? Not too important for bosses but an absolute game changer for fighting regular enemies.

A Tier - Legendary Immortal Heroes

To qualify for the A tier, a class needs to excel in almost every situation, do a lot of damage safely, and have no glaring weaknesses. Without further ado, here are the very best classes -

Valkyrie

Stat	Value
Health	85%
Reach	4/5
Ease of Use	5/5
Damage Potential	4/5
Crit Potential	4/5
Evasion	5/5
Boss Fights	4/5
Pierce	Yes

Valkyries have it all. They do great damage, have a good range that pierces through walls, and can attack in four directions. Their skill is incredibly powerful - they block any incoming projectile and if they block even one with their skill then the cooldown is instantly refreshed. No more worries about missile spamming bosses.

To git gud as a Valkyrie, you need to master projectile deflection and dashing attacks. Deflection is pretty easy, but dashing attacks are harder. The way Valkyries get skill crits is by attacking while dashing. Dashing at an enemy is pretty risky (though than other classes with crit-on-dash), so you need good timing if you do this. It is far safer to air dash above or below an enemy and stab downward or upward. This makes them especially well suited to fighting flying bosses because you're going to be above or below them most of the time anyway.

As such a well-rounded class, Valkyries don't have any weaknesses that need covering by relics and can just use the general list to pick their best relics from.

Ronin

Stat	Value
Health	60%
Reach	5/5
Ease of Use	4/5
Damage Potential	5/5
Crit Potential	4/5
Evasion	3/5
Boss Fights	4/5
Pierce	Yes

Despite their tiny health pool Ronin are one of the the safest classes in the game. Their reach is incredible and you can hit almost anything you can see. You'd think a guy with a sword would count as melee, but this is better classified as a ranged fighter. So, while you're vulnerable in close quarters, the Ronin is better than anybody else at killing enemies before they can even get close! If you can hit with the edge of your blade then you can crit almost every time. They can clean out a room full of densely packed enemies in a matter of seconds, having better range and damage than even the Valkyrie. However, they are significantly less survivable than Valkyries because they have a miniscule health pool and their skill is only okay instead of fantastic. An overall very solid choice, especially in cramped areas with lots of walls such as Pishon.

To git gud as a Ronin, the main thing you need to do is master hitting enemies with the edge of his sword. Next, recognize you're somewhat vulnerable in close quarters and practice eliminating enemies before you get in their range. The most important thing to know is that you really need to be hopping around - you're stuck while attacking on the ground, but can move while attacking in the air. Once you do, you can crit almost every time. Two reasons for this - you do more damage this way, and it trains you to stay away from bad dudes. Getting skilled at aerial fighting is a critical as well, if you dash and diagonally slash you can kill things really quickly. Of particular note is the diagonal down slash - once you get a bunch of air vault runes it is very effective to stay above and to the right or left of many enemies and slash at them, since many don't have an attack that hits diagonally upward.

Relics that work very well as a Ronin are...

The Incandescent Telescope - This is wonderful for the Ronin because it is a visual indicator of what the perfect range for your sword is.


The Gnawed Bone and Demeter's Trial - You will really appreciate the extra health.



Coeus' Shell - You will also appreciate the extra shield!

Gunslinger

Stat	Value
Health	70%
Reach	4/5
Ease of Use	4/5
Damage Potential	4/5
Crit Potential	3/5
Evasion	5/5
Boss Fights	5/5
Pierce	No

Gunslingers are another powerful, well-rounded class. They do good damage and are really simple to use – just point and shoot. They are exceptional because it is so easy to attack without putting yourself in harm’s way. Your gun lets you hover as long as you hold attack, even when the gun is empty. It is easy to aim and does automatic skill crits once the magazine is mostly empty. Their main weakness is that while reloading, your character moves while you hit the fire button... which is different from how it usually works, and until you get used to it will cause you some extra pain. Their talent is also not great offensively or defensively.

To git gud as a Gunslinger, you need to be able to keep track of how much ammo you have, and use the skill crits from your last rounds effectively. Typically I keep the gun at the point where it starts getting skill crits, though I will use it with more ammo if I know I am going to shoot something beefy. The other thing you need to get good at is your air game. The ability to hover infinitely is really, really good. Once you master how to use this to stay safe, you will be able to blast through enemies while they can’t even hit you. This is especially useful for bosses that put nasty things on the ground, such as Lamech or Enoch.

Relics that work very well as a Gunslinger are...

The Boxing Bell and Serqet's Stinger - Your super fast attacks will stack combo and poison very quickly. Both will increase your damage significantly, especially the bell.


The Ivy Seed - The platform this creates is an excellent place to shoot enemies from.

A Tier - Legendary Immortal Heroes (continued)

Ranger - Bow

Stat	Value
Health	85%
Reach	5/5
Ease of Use	3/5
Damage Potential	3/5
Crit Potential	5/5
Evasion	5/5
Boss Fights	5/5
Pierce	No

This class' main draw is the bow - and exceptional tool. It is harder to use than the gun, but with skill you can get a crit every single time and land almost all of your shots. You can kill the vast majority of enemies before they even get close to you, and with high DEX and crit multipliers you can delete most regular enemies in one well-timed shot. You can attack several bosses in relative safety, and the flying bosses won't stand a chance since you can hit them from anywhere. Another unexpected strength of the Ranger is that they are one of the few things that really benefit from FOC, since their talent's spore burst effect always skill crits and so adds FOC to the damage.

To git gud as a Ranger, the main thing you need is reliable skill at hitting your targets and getting skill crits. It is important to remember that you can fire in the air. It is really useful to jump to avoid attacks and shoot your attacker, especially since you retain your height a bit when you shoot. The ivy platform is well worth getting familiar with as it gives you a perch as well as the very powerful spore burst ability on every arrow you shoot from on top of it.

Relics that work very well as a Ranger are...


Amaterasu's Sun - This lets you pick off enemies from far away even more easily, as a single ping will trigger a lot of damage from the burn.



Atropos' Scissors and the Obelisk - Since you can skill crit almost every single time, these will be a huge damage boost.



The Red Sand Hourglass - Your slow attack speed and ability to attack from range will let you get a large percentage of hits benefiting from this.


Lachesis' Measure - Most of your kills will be from crits, so this will provide a lot of healing.

Duelist

Stat	Value
Health	85%
Reach	2/5
Ease of Use	4/5
Damage Potential	5/5
Crit Potential	3/5
Evasion	3/5
Boss Fights	5/5
Pierce	Too short to matter

The duelist does one thing and one thing only - insane amounts of damage to targets up close while they are jumping. They do good damage per hit and hit really quickly, giving them an incredible damage per second. They are one of the best boss killers in the game. They are at their best compared to other classes before crits become great, but they are strong compared to others even when crits get strong. Ignore the totem’s advice, attacking in the air and then immediately attacking on the ground does far less damage than staying in the air. Their talent is a pretty good defensive trick with a short recharge.

To git gud as a Duelist, you need to learn to stab the ♥♥♥♥ out of everything while in the air. It is not rocket science. The only other thing you need to do is learn to use their evasive roll effectively. It has a very quick cooldown time, and is vital since the Duelist is otherwise very vulnerable due to their short range.

Relics that work very well as a Duelist are...

The Boxing Bell. Your great attack speed will give you a lot of combo very quickly, boosting your already ridiculous damage output. Serqet's Stinger is not as important for the Duelist as, despite their ability to inflict poison stacks quickly, their sheer damage reduces the need for other damage sources.

Barbarian - Axe

Stat	Value
Health	100%
Reach	2/5
Ease of Use	4/5
Damage Potential	5/5
Crit Potential	5/5
Evasion	3/5
Boss Fights	4/5
Pierce	Yes

This guy is an absolute beast. Swinging the axe while on the ground is a guaranteed hit, as well as having a high base damage to start with. This class benefits from crit damage boosts more than any other in the game. The bonus vitality the Barbarian gets makes the class even tougher than the 100% health would suggest. You have two very different attack modes, too – using your axe in the air lets you spin. While not as powerful as your ground attack, it hits around you constantly, making you dangerous to anything nearby as well as invincible to those black spirit projectiles. Their talent is very good, destroying all nearby projectiles and freezing enemies. A very solid class that can obliterate bosses faster than almost any other class in the game.

To git gud as a Barbarian, you need to get used to dash cancelling out of your various attacks. The main ground attack is powerful and easy, so apart from dash cancelling there’s nothing to learn about it. The spinning jump is a whole new subject. You will need to get very familiar with the range, and become skilled at air dashing while using it in order to get constant crits. You can also work on dashing out of the delay that happens when you hit the ground after spinning.

Relics that work very well as a Barbarian are...

Atropos' Scissors and the Obelisk - Since you can skill crit almost every single time, these will be a huge damage boost.



Lachesis' Measure - Ground attacks will account for most of your kill, so this will provide a lot of healing.



The Boxing Bell - A bit tricky to utilize to its fullest potential for a Barbarian, but if you're skilled enough (or fighting a chunky boss) you can rack up stacks of combo with your spin attack and use them to boost your ground attack.

A Tier - Legendary Immortal Heroes (continued)

Pirate

Stat	Value
Health	100%
Reach	4/5
Ease of Use	4/5
Damage Potential	4/5
Crit Potential	4/5
Evasion	5/5
Boss Fights	3/5
Pierce	No

This is a very versatile class. It has both a melee strike (with a lot of knockback) and a ranged cannonball. The melee strike is nothing special, but the cannonball really is. It does good damage, has a useful arc, and has a small area of effect radius. In order to do good damage as the Pirate, though, you must fire the cannonball while dashing. That ensures a skill crit, which results in very good damage, and without those skill crits your damage potential wil lbe very low. The Pirate is very survivable due to its ranged attack and 100% base health. Their special skill is also one of the best in the game, summoning an airship that not lets you fly on it if you like but can also just float there and shoot cannonballs. There's a whole lot you can do with that - get off the floor in boss fights, use it as a firing platform, or even just summon it in front of something and let it blast and then ignite in safety.

To git gud as a Pirate, you need to git gud at that cannon. It has a significant arc, and you will need to get practice with shooting in that arc as well as figuring out the radius of the explosion where it hits. The timing of your melee attack is weird too, since it has a delay before it hits. Finally, once you get a hang of that you'll need to master aiming while dashing, since that can double or even triple your damage!

Relics that work very well as a Pirate are...

The Ivy Seed - This charming seed will give you a nice platform from which to shoot enemies from relative safety.



Amaterasu's Sun - This is a great addition to your cannon as you can shoot enemies from afar and have plenty of time for the burn damage to do its thing before the enemies can get close to you.


Atropos' Scissors and Obelisk - With such good skill crit potential, bonuses that improve crits will improve your damage quite a lot.

B Tier - Timeless Champions

To qualify for B tier, a class must either have both good offense and defense, or be incredibly effective at specific tasks. Here they are -

Knight – Pizza

Stat	Value
Health	100%
Reach	3/5
Ease of Use	4/5
Damage Potential	4/5
Crit Potential	3/5
Evasion	3/5
Boss Fights	5/5
Pierce	Yes

The pizza Knight is almost a straight upgrade from the sword Knight. Same general style, but the pizza has better range and does a lot more damage because it crits on the way back. The pizza is a simple weapon, just throw it and watch those nice skill crits. It is a very easy weapon to use at a basic level, and quite effective even without any fancy tricks. However, if you’re feeling fancy you can learn to dodge the pizzas to get a spinning swarm of them around you. Not all that useful during most of the game, but very powerful against some bosses.

To git gud as a pizza Knight, the best place to start is actually not the pizza but rather your shield. The shield block is just about useless if you stand there with your shield up, but if you time it perfectly you get a moment of invulnerability to reposition yourself or keep tossing pizzas. You can perform a perfect block even easier if you block while dashing at an enemy!. Dodging pizzas to get more hits per throw it pretty tricky against most enemies, but it is much easier against flying bosses that you can go under rather than just over. Learn how to do this and show those floaty jerks who the real boss is.

Relics that work very well as a pizza Knight are...

The Boxing Bell and Serqet's Stinger - Your high attack speed lets you stack combo and poison quite quickly.


Amaterasu's Sun - Your weird pizza trajectory will sometimes only be able to hit an enemy that is in an awkward spot occasionally for just one or two hits. Make those count by setting them on fire!

Mage - Rod

Stat	Value
Health	70%
Reach	4/5
Ease of Use	2/5
Damage Potential	5/5
Crit Potential	4/5
Evasion	Yes
Boss Fights	5/5
Pierce	Yes

The Mage is a very high damage class. Like, face-melting high. Don’t be fooled by that wand of blasting being a wizard tool, it scales with STR and DEX and because of constant skill crits it can do a hell of a lot of damage. This is combined with their spells, which are stronger than normal due to their INT bonus and they can spam them due to their mana drain special. They have one severe problem, though – they are heavily dependent on getting good spells. They are also pretty squishy at 70% health. Some spells to look for are the orbiting fire shield since it drains mana (and thus activates skill crits) constantly, as well as anything else that fires off instantly. You can take something brutal like gravity beam or prismatic spectrum as well to destroy things that are out of range.

To git gud as a Mage, you need to master the timing and range of the rod of blasting. It can hit twice if you time it right. Unfortunately, to really excel at this class you’re going to need to get to know basically every spell in the game. The good news is that you get two of them, so you have two chances to get one you are really good with.

Relics that work very well as a Mage are...


Antikythera - Magic gear for the Mage. An easy choice.



Lamech's Whetstone - Since casting magic is what makes you skill crit with your weapon in the first place, this relic that makes those crits weaken enemies against magic is a perfect tool for a Mage.


Zealot's Ring - With your mana drain, you are going to be at max MP more than most classes.

B Tier - Timeless Champions (continued)

Chef – Spoon

Stat	Value
Health	70%
Reach	4/5
Ease of Use	2/5
Damage Potential	4/5
Crit Potential	4/5
Evasion	5/5
Boss Fights	5/5
Pierce	No

Yes, really. While the spoon looks silly and is hard to use, once you get the hang of it you can do a tremendous amount of damage. It does damage based on both STR and INT, it sets enemies on fire, and best of all it auto-crits when it hits on a ricochet. A hard class to learn, but very rewarding to master. Like the regular chef, the self-heal talent is decent. They are one of the safest classes to use, since they have so much range. The biggest threat, unlike basically every other class, are enemies right in front of you. They are exceptional boss killers, since they do the most damage if they are far away from bosses, which is also the safest place to be.

To git gud as a spoon Chef, you obviously need to master using the quirky spoon. You need to learn the angles and range especially. Understanding how much burn damage you’re going to do is also important as you can often stop attacking enemies that will burn to death on their own. An important think to learn is the range of your spoons if thrown straight ahead. Most bosses are dudes standing on the ground on flat terrain, so with a bit of practice you can do constant skill crits!

Relics that work very well as a spoon Chef are...

Boxer – Enkindled

Stat	Value
Health	100%
Reach	4/5
Ease of Use	2/5
Damage Potential	5/5
Crit Potential	5/5
Evasion	2/5
Boss Fights	5/5
Pierce	No (but there is an explosion)

So dramatic! This class is the premier boss killer in early-mid game, doing more sustained DPS at ranged than anything by a large margin. You can constantly crit if you get the range down, and the range is so far you can even hit enemies offscreen with it. Unfortunately your talent is not very useful without the huge combo stacks of a regular boxer, but it is useful to just get stuff out of your way. This tremendous damage comes with a tremendous drawback… the glove explosion hurts you too! This is a huge deal early on, and surprisingly gets much worse as the game goes on. They're borderline unusable lategame, since you kill yourself in two hits.

Eventually your offensive stats will be so high that you can (and will) kill yourself in two hits.
To git gud as an Enkindled Boxer, you need to become a grandmaster of those explosions. Remembering that your character can slip past most enemies is very important too, but tough because no other class works this way. This is especially helpful for bosses - once they get too close you stop being able to skill crit, and as they get even closer the area in which you are safe from your own weapon and able to dodge boss attacks gets smaller. Keep your distance!

Relics that work very well as an ekindled gloves Boxer are...

Coeus' Shell - This may save you from obliterating yourself.



The Incandescent Telescope - This helps give some frame of reference when judging skill crit distance.



Lotus Stem - While not as good as Coeus' Shell, this may also prevent your attack from causing your own doom.

B Tier - Timeless Champions (continued)

Boxer – Gloves

Stat	Value
Health	100%
Reach	2/5
Ease of Use	5/5
Damage Potential	3/5
Crit Potential	2/5
Evasion	4/5
Boss Fights	5/5
Pierce	Too short to matter

A really cool concept! This class gets better the bigger and tougher your enemies are, as they gain power the longer the fight goes on. The Boxer attacks straight ahead and usually stunlocks opponents. This class relies on building up combo through attacks, but due to their short range it is pretty tough to keep the combo going without putting yourself in danger. They're the best class at moving enemies around - both their uppercut (attack+up) and talent move enemies a significant distance. They excel against flying bosses since while they are punching they hover in place. They also do well in the "arenas" because constantly appearing enemies means constant combo buildup.

To git gud as the Boxer, you need to master their air game. Floating while punching is important, and while this is best against bosses it can be helpful for some specific enemies as well. The flying ones are the most obvious targets, but the spear maidens for example can be attacked while you are too high up for their spear throw to hit. There's also a lot of potential in being able to move enemies away with your attacks, a skill that only the Boxer (and to a lesser degree, Pirate) have, so that's an entirely new skill to learn.

Relics that work very well as a Boxer are...

The Boxing Bell and Serqet's Stinger - Your fast attacks will stack and poison very quickly. You'd think the Boxing Bell would be less important for actual Boxers, but that is not true. Since combo is the only way you can get skill crits with your gloves, more combo per hit means getting to skill crits faster.

Knight – Sword

Stat	Value
Health	100%
Reach	2/5
Ease of Use	5/5
Damage Potential	3/5
Crit Potential	2/5
Evasion	4/5
Boss Fights	3/5
Pierce	Too short to matter

Ahh, the character from Rogue Legacy 1 is back! The Knight is pretty solid all-around. A bit offensively weak but it does have the highest health a character can start with (tied with some others) and a very solid defensive talent. The sword is really easy to use, but there are two things to note - it hits above you in addition to in front, and it skill crits on dashes. You can get a whole lot of damage out of this class if you master the perfect block because it makes enemies temporarily take skill crit damage from any attack.

To git gud as a Knight, you’ll have to become skilled at dash attacks. Something interesting and often overlooked is that if you turn on the two-button dash option, you can initiate an attack and then immediately dash backwards and get a skill crit. The shield block is just about useless if you stand there with your shield up, but if you time it perfectly you get a moment of invulnerability to reposition yourself or keep slashing at the enemy your perfect block has just made vulnerable. You can perform a perfect block even easier if you block while dashing at an enemy!

Because your weapon is average at basically everything, there are no relics that help you more than most other classes. Use the general relic list to choose the best gear for your knight.

C Tier - Determined Fighters

To classify as C tier, a class must have no real strengths or a very significant drawback.

Astromancer

Stat	Value
Health	60%
Reach	4/5
Ease of Use	3/5
Damage Potential	3/5
Crit Potential	4/5
Evasion	3/5
Boss Fights	3/5
Pierce	Yes

While I’ve always wanted to harness the power of a black hole, the Astromancer really doesn’t quite live up to my expectations. While the black hole is cool and his talent is very good, the Astromancer is crippled by abysmal health and a main attack with more windup than most. They can become better if you get good spells, though, as they drain mana really quickly. This class also has amazing synergy with relics that need you to hit quickly, such as Serqet’s Stinger or the Boxing Bell.

To git gud at using the Astromancer, you need to master the black hole. It does good damage and is unique in that it is a damage-over-time attack. You also need to get comfortable using spells at the same time as you’re attacking. Once you set up the black hole it just sort of does its thing, and during that time you need to be casting spells.

Relics that work very well as an Astromancer are...

The Gnawed Bone and Demeter's Trial - You will really appreciate the extra health.



Coeus' Shell - You will also appreciate the extra shield!



Boxing Bell and Serqet's Stinger - A single black hole can give you a ton of combo as well as give an enemy a full ten stacks of poinson. A great addition to your otherwise lackluster damage.


Heavy Stone Bargain - This barely impacts your cooldown time at all since it is already so slow. It sure does impact your damage though, this is a must-have!

Chef – Frying Pan

Stat	Value
Health	70%
Reach	1/5
Ease of Use	3/5
Damage Potential	4/5
Crit Potential	2/5
Evasion	3/5
Boss Fights	4/5
Pierce	Too short to matter

Another very interesting class with a lot going on. Unfortunately, all of the Chef’s quirks don’t really combine to make something all that great. You can set enemies on fire and reflect projectiles, but both of those things rely on hitting things with your very short range pan. Incinerating enemies is very good, but requires INT which is usually secondary to STR and even DEX. The self-heal talent is pretty nice. This class has a pretty high skill cap since you need to learn how to play tennis with projectiles, so if you really git gud with it you can consider it to be bumped up a tier. This can be especially useful for bosses with some kind of projectile spam, which is most of them!

To git gud as a Chef you need to figure out a lot of things. First, you need to get familiar with exactly how far away your frying pan can hit because the range is so low. The next thing is to understand exactly how much fire damage you do, since bonking an enemy and then retreating while they burn is a very valid strategy. Last, you need to get a handle on deflecting projectiles back to their source, including not just knowing the timing but also knowing when it is worth the risk trying to deflect and when it is best to just dodge.

Relics that work very well as a Chef are...

The Catalyst - Your basic attack sets enemies on fire, so this is a free 20% damage boost. This applies to all damage, so except for the first hit, everything you do will do more damage to your target - more weapon hits, spells, and the burn damage itself.


Weird Mushrooms - These are even more fun than usual on a Chef. This will let you whack an enemy once, retreat, and smile as the single enemy burns to death and then destroys the other enemies around them with spore burst.

C Tier - Determined Fighters (continued)

Ranger - Ballista

Stat	Value
Health	85%
Reach	5/5
Ease of Use	3/5
Damage Potential	4/5
Crit Potential	5/5
Evasion	3/5
Boss Fights	1/5
Pierce	No

This is a significant downgrade from the regular ranger. It has no arc and a significantly stronger attack. However, it also suffers from severe drawbacks. It is slower than the bow. More importantly, it must be fired from the ground and you cannot dash or jump out of it - once you push attack you have committed to taking the shot. It sure is fun, though, as shooting a harpoon-sized projectile at things on the other side of the screen in the Tower exterior is very satisfying. While this class can go through some areas in perfect safety, they are in serious danger in many zones such as Pishon or the Study. There are some bosses that are almost impossible for these guys as well, since they don't leave enough time for your ballista to attack

To git gud at the ballista Ranger, you need to master the timing of your projectile. You'll also need to accomplish the significantly harder task of determining when it is safe to stat an attack, which requires knowledge of basically every enemy in the game. The skill floor of this class is very high simply because you need to know whether you're going to be safe for long enough to attack, or if you are going to be able to take out an enemy that will hit you if you don't manage to kill it. This class requires a lot more strategy than most.

Relics that work very well as a ballista Ranger are...

Atropos' Scissors and the Obelisk - Just like the regular Ranger, since you can skill crit almost every single time, these will be a huge damage boost.



The Red Sand Hourglass - Your slow attack speed and ability to attack from range will let you get a large percentage of hits benefiting from this.



Weird Mushrooms - This already-great relic is even more important for ballista users. The ballista struggles against hordes, and this can give you great area of effect damage to clear out many weak enemies at a time.

Mage – Scythe

Stat	Value
Health	70%
Reach	5/5
Ease of Use	2/5
Damage Potential	4/5
Crit Potential	3/5
Evasion	1/5
Boss Fights	3/5
Pierce	Yes

This is a strange fellow, and very different from the basic mage. Your mana siphon is going to be a bit slower but still pretty good. The scythe seems like an awful weapon at first, but the trick is to use it while above enemies and just go back and forth slashing them each way. As your base class is still Mage, you still have awesome spellcasting abilities. Your range is unreal, and your attack covers more area than anything else in the entire game. You can hit basically anything you can even see. Unfortunately, your attack makes you so vulnerable and your health is so low that this is a pretty squishy class.

To git gud as a scythe Mage, you need to git gud at using that scythe to dash back and forth above stuff. You also need to recognize how far through barriers you can hurt enemies. Everything applicable to the basic Mage still applies, but you don’t get crits for your main weapon based on mana expenditure anymore. You’ll need to get familiar with every spell to truly excel at this class. The way skill crits work with the weapon is very strange, and to master the weapon you'll need to always know if you can kill an enemy in one double slash or not.

Relics that work very well as a scythe Mage are...

Antikythera - Magic gear for the Mage. An easy choice.



Lamech's Whetstone - You can get one skill crit more easily than almost any other class in the game, so this is a great boost.



Zealot's Ring - With your mana drain, you are going to be at max MP more than most classes.

C Tier - Determined Fighters (continued)

Bard – Electric Lute

Stat	Value
Health	85%
Reach	1/5
Ease of Use	2/5
Damage Potential	4/5
Crit Potential	5/5
Evasion	2/5
Boss Fights	3/5
Pierce	No

Not to be confused with the Bard using a regular lute, the electric lute bard is strange yet powerful in the right circumstances. You need to kick off an enemy or object to charge your weapon, then blast them with a bolt of music. Every hit with your weapon is a skill crit, and as a Bard you build up stacks of Dance whenever you spin kick an enemy. This is a very fun class, and honestly should just replace the regular Bard completely. It is a high-risk, high-reward class. Although a blast fully boosted with crit enhancements and five stacks of Dance is very powerful, the spin kick you need to use to get there has the shortest range of anything in the game.

To git gud as an electric lute Bard, you will need to excel at jumping around kicking stuff. That’s the real challenge while playing as this class, shooting something with your weapon is relatively easy. It will be easier to get stacks of Dance while fighting bosses than regular enemies most of the time, so I recommend beginning there.

Relics that work very well as an electric lute Bard are...

Atropos' Scissors - Your primary attack always skill crits, so this is a great relic as an electric lute user.



Corrupting Reagent - You're likely to be dashing a lot, so you might as well get something extra out of it.



Steel-Toed Boots and Weighted Anklets - Since you're going to be spin-kicking a lot anyway, these two augments to spin kicks will serve you well.



Lachesis' Measure - Most of your kills will be from crits, so this will provide a lot of healing.



Icarus' Wings - Risky, but these will let you preserve dance stacks much more easily by staying in the air for basically as long as you want.

Dragon Lancer

Stat	Value
Health	100%
Reach	4/5
Ease of Use	3/5
Damage Potential	2/5
Crit Potential	3/5
Evasion	1/5
Boss Fights	3/5
Pierce	Yes

An incredibly cool class that is mechanically not quite as good as it could be. Their charge attack does good damage if your STR and INT are high, but not so much damage if you have only one or the other. Dragon Lancers are soft countered by basically anything that shoots projectiles, as they will hit you if you try to charge through them. The charge does have a nice AoE attack that pierces. The easiest way to deal with those is to use the talent (which has a cooldown). One big advantage is their toughness – they have high health and a good defensive talent. Not too bad so far, but they are at a severe disadvantage against bosses. They do low sustained damage with their regular attack, even worse sustained damage with their stab in the air, and they often can't charge safely due to bosses having huge AoE attacks or projectiles.

To git gud as a Dragon Lancer, you’re clearly going to have to master that lance. The range and angle are important to understand clearly. To be great, you’ll need to know the charge time and attack time too. Your talent is pretty good, and it also reduced the risk of using your charge attack, especially against enemies with projectile attacks.

Relics that work very well as a Dragon Lancer are...

Atropos' Scissors and the Obelisk - These will boost the power of your lance charge a whole lot since you always skill crit.



The Red Sand Hourglass - While not useful for your regular attack, this will boost your lance charge damage per second a ton. It will also help you start strong, destroying enemies in the first attack so they aren't around to threaten you.

D Tier - Struggling Soldiers

To be stuck down here in D tier, a class must have no real strengths and be bad in most situations, or have a crippling weakness that will define your entire run.

Assassin

Stat	Value
Health	70
Reach	1/5
Ease of Use	4/5
Damage Potential	5/5
Crit Potential	4/5
Evasion	2/5
Boss Fights	4/5
Pierce	Too short to matter

Another high-risk, high-reward class... but the risk is higher and the reward is lower. The basic problem is that it is a very short-ranged class with very poor health, and the attack is kind of wonky and hard to time. This means you're at serious risk of getting smashed at basically all times. Their talent is great - it will let you navigate sections of the map much faster and more safely than otherwise, and is a "get out of jail free" card against bosses. This can be a decent choice if you have great skill crit multipliers but are not good at getting skill crits with other weapons - it gets them automatically just by attacking. It shreds slow bosses pretty easily, and you don't have to know or time anything with your weapon.

To git gud at the Assassin you need to get the timing of your attacks down. This is the bread and butter of the Assassin, and you need it to make the class work. This is easier said than done since their range is so short, but with enough practice you should be decent at it... once you memorize most enemies and their attack patterns. Once you git gud enough at dodging, though, you should graduate yourself to another class and learn to get skill crits with other weapons.

Relics that work very well as an Assassin are...

The Gnawed Bone and Demeter's Trial - You will really appreciate the extra health.



Coeus' Shell - You will also appreciate the extra shield!



The Boxing Bell and Serqet's Stinger - These make the first two slashes actually useful as they will be able to build combo or poison.

D Tier - Struggling Soldiers (continued)

Barbarian - Hammer

Stat	Value
Health	100%
Reach	2/5
Ease of Use	4/5
Damage Potential	1/5
Crit Potential	3/5
Evasion	4/5
Boss Fights	1/5
Pierce	Yes

This is serious downgrade from the regular Barbarian due to the massive decrease in damage output. The difference between the two is that the hammer replaces the incredibly damaging ground attack of the Barbarian with a constant spin similar to what the Barbarian's axe does in the air. This is fun, and Barbarians are supposed to spin to win, but with the powerful-looking hammer you're going to be doing just about the worst damage of any class in the game. You can kill wimpy enemies really quickly, but even tough enemies will last for a long time and bosses are likely to beat you badly in a battle of attrition unless you are exceptionally good at dodging. One positive is that since you're basically always attacking, the mental burden for playing is even lower since you just need to dodge and stay close to enemies to kill them.

To git gud with the hammer, you will need to get familiar with the range of your hammer spin. You also need learn how to use constant air dashes to get crits by dashing back and forth above or below enemies. Be mindful of how much (if at all) your hammer slows enemies down when you hit them - that can be the difference between being safe and being stabbed when fighting something tough like a Partisan Maiden. More than any other class, to win with this class you need to git gud at dodging. Your tiny damage output means enemies will survive a very long time and get a lot of attacks off on you.

Relics that work very well as a hammer Barbarian are...

The Boxing Bell - Your spin hits really fast and hits a lot of times before enemies go down because it is so weak, so the Bell is a big boost.


Serqet's Stinger - Good because you hit quickly, of course, but also it adds damage not dependent on your weak weapon. Once you get a bunch of stacks inflicted, you can also flee and not be at risk due to your short range.


Amaterasu's Sun and Corrupting Reagent - More sources of non-weapon damage. While you don't benefit from these any due to your attack speed, this does help make up for your low weapon damage.

F Tier - Unprepared Conscripts

Classes that have a place in the F tier must require a very high amount of skill to be at all useful, or be unable to succeed with any level of skill.

Bard - Lute

Stat	Value
Health	85%
Reach	4/5
Ease of Use	0/5
Damage Potential	4/5
Crit Potential	3/5
Evasion	0/5
Boss Fights	4/5
Pierce	Yes

Here we have it, the hardest to use class entire game. The gap between the Bard and everything else is huge – this class is terrible at everything in the game without a significant amount of practice. In order to do its main attack, the Bard has to first set up a note, then jump up on the note and kick it. If there is anything bad above you, or even platforms you can go through the bottom of, you are screwed. If there are spikes or other enemies, forget it. The one thing Bards can do easily is kill certain bosses, especially that fella at the top of the Tower (both normal and especially prime). If there's a safe spot to put a note near a ceiling, the Bard can crank out some serious damage against a slow boss and can obliterate the one immobile boss of the game.

To git gud at using the Bard, you need to pick up a different weapon. Their passive is extraordinarily powerful - they are like Magikarp from Pokemon. A Bard with the weapon of a Valkyrie or Ronin can slice through the whole entire world. If you are stuck with the lute, you can improve your damage a lot with air dashing right after you hit notes. Playing a note and dashing into it, kicking it, then dashing and kicking again can actually do pretty good damage in an area. Like all other classes, the Bard can be pretty strong with practice, but the skill level to even make this class work at all is insane, and it will always be more vulnerable than something with a non-insane weapon.

Relics that work very well as a Bard are...

Steel-Toed Boots and Weighted Anklets - These will help you much more than they will other classes since you will need to spin kick so often.



Diogenes' Bargain - This will boost your experience gain so that you can spend less time as a bard while maxing out class mastery.



Icarus' Wings - While not normally something I'd recommend, these help you stay in the air longer to preserve your dance stacks.

Boss Fights - General Tips

Time to put what you've learned to the ultimate test - killing those bosses! We'll go into who you're up against, what to bring to the fight, and how to use it to take them down. Before we get into specific bosses though, I've got some knowledge to lay on you.

First, you're not going to be able to trade blows with these guys. Face tanking a giant magic sword that is four times as big as you will go as poorly as you'd think. Dodging is going to be very important. Which is fine, because every boss will tell you what it is about to do before it does it. This game is fantastic about giving you a warning. The tips section in the game tells you it is possible to dodge every attack, and except for one boss this is completely true.

It is important to know that some the effectiveness of many classes is vastly above or below their effectiveness in general exploration and clearing rooms. The Enkindled Boxer, for example, is almost as dangerous to herself as enemies in close quarters and has a skill crit range that is mostly useless. But because you fight bosses in large open areas, the Enkindled Boxer can obliterate any boss really effectively.

Finally, the best way to beat bosses in the long run is to spend a good amount of time not attacking them, but instead keeping your distance and observing the first couple of times you fight them. You need to know what their attacks look like and how to dodge them. You can read about it or watch it on YouTube, but nothing comes close to the efficiency of just practicing. If you just get in their faces and focus only on attacking and hope they don't hit you, you're not gonna learn much and you're not gonna do much better the second time. Wait. Watch. Learn. The Architect can help a lot with this.

You will note that there are several repeats for the things I suggest bringing to boss fights. That's because some things are just really good against bosses. I'm not going to let everybody have a turn, I'll suggest only the best options to you even if those options are similar from boss to boss. The only thing I do not repeat is the War Drum. That relic is awesome and adds good damage if you have at least two other relics, and does great damage if you have even more than that.

Boss Fights - Lamech

Preparation

Your first boss, and a worthy challenge. Lamech will teach you a lot about the game, mostly that you need to pay attention to dodging and that you can dodge by paying attention to what the boss does right before attacking. How do we start this off right?

Good classes for Lamech - Enkindled Boxer, Boxer, Barbarian, Duelist
Good talents for Lamech - Ivy Platform, Deflect, Bastion
Good relics for Lamech - Serqet's Stinger, Boxing Bell

The reason for these things is that Lamech is not terribly aggressive and moves very slowly. He has a lot of really big attacks that cover a ton of area, but he leaves himself open and so classes that can do a lot of damage up close are his weakness. Likewise, Serqet's Stinger and the Boxing Bell get better if you can do steady damage against a boss, and Lamech is polite enough to let you do that.

Strategy

The basic strategy for this boss is to dodge his attacks until he is vulnerable and then strike. Notice the wording there - you want to dodge until you have an opening, not try to get off an attack while he's throwing knives in your face. You can hit him during those attacks, but you'll get less hits off and be far more vulnerable than if you waited. He'll give you some time to hit him between attacks - that's your cue. He'll also be vulnerable during Gravity Beam and at the end of his Dual Slash. To git gud at this fight, you'll need to identify and exploit his vulnerable periods.

Boss Attacks

Gravity Beam: The same spell you have! Lamech charges a giant laser beam looking thing and lets loose an epic blast. This is your chance to do big damage. Get in close and beat him up, you are in no danger up close.

Knife Throw: He aims at where you are whenever he starts this attack, and throws two volleys of blue knives. The way to beat this is to be in a very different spot each time. There are a couple ways to do this, but here's an easy one - stand on the ground for his first volley. Jump when he flings the knives and his next volley will try to hit you in the air, but will miss because you have fallen back to the ground by the time his knives get to where you are.

Lance Chaaaaarge: Lamech rears back and then charges at you. Just jump over this one, no big deal.

Blue Projectile Spam: Lamech holds his weapon overhead and sprays blue projectiles everywhere. You have a choice here. Get in close if this is easier for you to dodge and attack him, or flee to the side for easier dodging. I recommend attacking during this phase but you'll find what works best for you with some experimentation.

Spinning Axe Jump: Lamech does a dramatic spinning jump that sprays magma balls. This is a pretty simple one - there is more distance between balls the further from the center you are, so get off to the side!

Dual Slash: Lamech does an epic downward slash followed by an upward slash that releases pillars of fire. This is a great time to attack - jump over his head and attack while he's performing and recovering from his slash. But beware! He will usually do both slashes in the same direction, but if you go over his head too soon he will switch direction (in which case you need to quickly get on the other side again).

Phase Change+Fireballs: Lamech stops what he's doing, creates an explosion around himself, and then shoots some small fireballs at you. This seems like a big problem at first - they chase you forever and seem impossible to avoid. But! You can deal with them in several ways. If your talent blocks any kind of projectiles, it will destroy these. If your talent can't help you, the trick is to make them run into a wall. You'll need to lure them very close to a wall and jump - it isn't easy, but you'll be able to do it reliably with practice.

Boss Fights - Skeleton Pirates

Preparation

Yarrrrr! A slower, less dangerous boss than Lamech... with a twist. Once you take off enough of the boss' health, he summons another boss! Fortunately, they are both the same and are significantly less aggressive than Lamech.

Good classes for Skeleton Pirates - Enkindled Boxer, Boxer, Barbarian, Duelist
Good talents for Skeleton Pirates - Obscura, Ivy Platform
Good relics for Lamech - Boxing Bell, Amaterasu's Sun, Serqet's Stinger, Atropos' Scissors, Corrupting Reagent

This is probably the easiest boss fight in the game, so there's not as much going on here. It is easier to get crits since the bosses are stationary so often, and you can rack up hits with the boxing bell. However, Amaterasu's Sun is a bit better here than normal because you can ping one skeleton one time and focus on the other while your burn effect does its work.

Strategy

The boss(es) are slow and quite passive. Just whomp them while they stand still. You don't even need to git gud at this fight, just pay attention to the projectiles and you'll be fine.

Boss Attacks

Giant Bone - The boss tosses a giant bone! The trick is to go through the gap according to the bone's spin - you'll know it when you see it.

Small Overhead Bones - The boss reaches into his ear and throws some small bones in an overhead arc. These are pretty straightforward. The easiest and safest thing to do is just flee, though if you see a gap that is close enough to the boss that you can attack him, get in there and do it!

Cannonball Summon - The boss dances and summons five red pillars. The pillars themselves do no damage, but are instead markers showing where five cannonballs are going to come down. Get out of the way, obviously.

Jump - The boss does a cartoony pre-jump squat and then... jumps. A bunch of bones spray out when he lands, covering a lot of distance to his left and right, but not much upward.

And that's pretty much it. Congratulations on your victory, and I hope you enjoyed your little break because this next boss takes it up a notch.

Boss Fights - Namaah

Preparation

Here she is - the first of our two flying bosses. These are quite different from ground-based bosses, and they call for a change of strategy. Because the boss is harder to hit and will be in places other than directly in front of directly behind you, the most effective tools for this fight are a bit different than the ones you used before.

Good classes for Naamah - Ranger, Gunslinger, Valkyrie, Ronin, Enkindled Boxer
Good talents for Naamah - Comet, Obscura
Good relics for Naamah - Amaterasu's Sun, Ambrosia, Corrupting Reagent

The idea here is that when you get hit, it is usually because there are too many darn projectiles to deal with. Anything that can give you a breather is nice. Until you get some practice, the Boxing Bell and Serqet's Stinger are not as good because you'll have a bit of trouble keeping the pressure on her. That means Amaterasu's Sun can be extra good because you can get off a hit before you have to do some dodging and it will do a good amount of damage.

Strategy

This boss is a testament to the design skill of the developers. You need to do something different to succeed here - neutralize dangers in advance so you don't get overwhelmed later. Though it is tempting to hit her when she is in a good position, you need to destroy her attacks before they destroy you.

Naamah does two things that you need to take care of before you go back to attacking. First are homing jellyfish, which you need to destroy with a spin kick. She will also create an entire wall of jellyfish, which you will again need to create a gap in with your spin kick. Aim for the top (for the vertical wall) and the side (for the horizontal wall) to create a gap in, it is easier to get through than a gap in the middle.

Second, in the final phase of the fight she summons nightmare balls. You need to shut the center ball and one side ball down immediately! They shoot at you if you attack, but a very important thing to know is that spin kicks count as attacks. If you don't shut these off, you'll get shot at not just while attacking her, but also when destroying her jellyfish. You're in serious danger if you leave these on, so don't! To git gud at this fight, you need to be proactive about shutting down the dangers in this fight.

Attacks

Blue Projectile Summon: Naamah will lean her head up and summon a bunch of red markers. They don't hurt, but they shoot blue fireballs in both directions.

Jellyfish Summon: Naamah draws some sparkles into herself, points, and then throws some jellyfish at you. They'll follow you basically forever, so you need to spin kick them as soon as they show up. There's no benefit to waiting, Namaah is a surprisingly durable boss and you're not going to do much damage trying to dodge them while attacking her.

Spin Rush: Namaah starts spinning, then charges you, and fires some blue projectiles when she stops. She gives you a ton of time to dodge on this one, so not much to worry about here.

Jellyfish Wall: Namaah moves her head down and then up, and summons an entire wall of jellyfish. This can take two configurations - a vertical/pillar configuration, or a horizontal/floor configuration. If it is a tall pillar, spin kick your way to the top and go through the gap. If it is a rising floor configuration, create a gap (ideally at the side of the room) and drop through. Mercifully, there is no top-to-bottom configuration.

Boss Fights - Enoch

Preparations

The second and last flying boss. A lot of the tools we used for Namaah are applicable here, though he is different in that there's less proactive neutralization of dangers and more good old-fashioned dodging. I recommend trying to beat him by yourself for the fun twist without me spoiling it for you. After you beat him, it turns out that you beat a puppet, and the real Enoch is a giant mimic who is the third phase of the boss.

Good classes for Enoch - Ranger, Gunner, Enkindled Boxer, Duelist, Astromancer, Ronin
Good talents for Enoch - Ivy Canopy, Deflect, Bastion
Good relics for Enoch - Ivy Seed, Vanguard's Banner, Amaterasu's Sun, Corrupting Reagent, Serqet's Stinger (if ranged class), Boxing Bell (if ranged class),

Ivy Canopies, either created through the class talent of through the Ivy Seed relic, are a huge boost here. Enoch's deal is mostly spamming projectiles, and the canopy will let you ignore those if he is underneath you. The Boxing Bell and Serqet's stinger are strong if you are somebody with a long range that will let you ping him occasionally to keep stacks up. Amerarasu's Sun is useful because sometimes when he's flipping out and shooting stuff everywhere you'll need to just keep your distance for a while.

The Boxer, Gunner, and Duelist have an advantage here because of their good air game, and the Astromancer is nice because he can create a Black Hole and then peace out while Enoch spams projectiles. Amaterasu's Sun is also nice because when you fight true Enoch as a mimic, you can hit him once during his back-and-forth charge to set him on fire and then focus on dodging, while the Corrupting Reagent is good because you can easily hit Enoch with the poison cloud while he's jumping at you.

Strategy

Don't. Get. Overconfident. Yes, he looks a bit silly. Yes, he mostly just projectile spams. But if you don't take those projectiles seriously, you're going to be eating dirt. For the first time, there are not very many safe times to attack him. Get close, get as many hits off as you can, then get far away from him. There's a twist here, too, as when you beat his first form, the boss treasure chest turns out to BE the second form. This part of the fight is completely different. It is not too hard, but is a bit tricky because you may already be damaged and it is a bit jarring the first time you encounter it. During this form, you're going to want to wait for him to hop around to do most of your damage. Later, after you get more familiar with him, you will be able to do good damage when he is tossing potions at you.

Attacks

Explosions & Shadows: Enoch raises his hand and summons a bunch of red explosion markers. They explode, as you've learned to expect, but then they also release a homing shadow. Break them or they will break you.

Seeking Circle: Enoch arranges his hands (why does he have so many?) in a circle and then summons a circle of those cosmic shadow things around you. They circle stays around you, and you need to dash when they close in to attack you.

Fireball Spray!!!!: Enoch opens his coat, reveals an eyeball, then sprays a ton of fireballs at you, ending the attack by radiating dark cosmic ring that you need to dash through. You need to get as far away as possible from this, as there's not enough room to dodge all the projectiles if you're close.

Fireball Explosion: Enoch folds his head in and looks sad, then shoots fireballs outward in an even ring. Not too dangerous, just pay attention and you'll be fine.

Chaaaaaaarge: Enoch raises his hands and looks like he wants to grab you, then charges forward. Nothing special here, just get out of the way.

Circling Balls: When you get him to half health, Enoch does the typical radial explosion thing, then summons some shadow balls that circle around him. They don't chase you but do hurt if they hit you. Fortunately, you can dash through them without taking damage.

And also...

Potion Toss: Enoch tosses a whole bunch of exploding red potions at you. If you practice a bit you can project their trajectory and attack him where it is safe. I recommend staying back a bit and figuring out the range and radius of his potions a few times before trying to get close to hit him.

Chaaaaarge: Enoch gets mad and runs back and forth, dropping poison green coins everywhere. If you can stay in the air or become invincible (Pirate, Gunner, Astromancer, Assassin), now is a good time to do it. If not, you'll have to either destroy the coins with a talent or spell, or as a last resort follow and spin kick off him. This is NOT the time to try to beat him up unless you have something with a ton of vertical range like a Gunner, Valkyrie, or Ronin.

Hop: Enoch hops around, aiming for you. A pretty easy attack to dodge, and you can inflict a lot of damage on him while he hops at you since he is slowish and predictable. Just dash underneath him and keep up the heat.

Boss Fights - Irad

Preparations

Ahh, another different kind of boss! Irad is unique in a couple ways. First, he is completely stationary. Second, he is made up of multiple parts. This changes things a lot in terms of his weaknesses.

Good classes for Irad - Ranger, Boxer, Enkindled Boxer, Barbarian, Spoon Chef, Valkyrie, Bard
Good talents for Irad - Ivy Canopy, Deflect, Comet Form, Obscura, Shout, Crescendo
Good relics for Irad - Corrupting Reagent, Serqet's Stinger, Amaterasu's Sun, Ivy Seed, Boxing Bell

Irad's strength is that he can shoot a ton of different kinds of projectiles at you. Anything that destroys projectiles, with Ivy Canopy being king of the universe here because you can put one at the top of the screen and block most of his projectiles while you beat him up. Comet Form and Obscura are here because sometimes things get too hot to handle until you've practice and they can be a panic button for you. The classes that do best against Irad tend to be ones who do a ton of damage up close, though the bard is uniquely suited to this fight because she can ensure her notes are always going to do damage.

Irad is especially vulnerable to status effects. He can't move, so you can inflict things on him easily. Of particular note is the Corrupting Reagent - just dash away from him and he'll get a ton of poison stacks. After you do that, approach and then dash away from the other eye to poison that one too - repeat as necessary and, if your intelligence and focus are high, he will take a ton of poison damage. Once his third eye opens you can own him even harder with poison. This works to a lesser degree with burn effects.

Strategy

As I explained above, you can beat Irad down hard with poison. Damage per second is the main defining feature of classes as it pertains to this fight - everybody can hit him easily, the only questions are "how hard" and "how fast". It is fortunate that he is easy to attack, because dodging his attacks is a different story. Unlike other bosses, it can sometimes pay to play a bit risky, since you need to just kill him before he beats you in a battle of attrition with his projectiles. There are far fewer windows of opportunity for you to attack him safely, so you need to get hits in whenever you can.

Attacks

Explosion: Irad creates a red zone around an eye and then it explodes. Move - you don't want to get exploded.

Dark Ring: Irad radiates some of those black rings that you need to dash through.

Electric Seekers: More of those electricity balls. You need to destroy these, as they'll follow you until you do or until they hit you. Spin kick, as usual.

Dark Seekers: Simple dark balls that chase you. The good news is that you can hit them with anything to destroy them.

Blue Fireballs: You should be used to these by now. There's no real trick, just don't be in the way.

Boss Fights - Tubal

Preparation

Well, I've got some bad news. This fight is terrible. There are going to be a billion things to keep track of and you're not going to be able to do that. It is so bad that I (and quite a few others) have asked the developers to remove Tubal's cheese and give him a chill pill instead. He's unremarkable except that he'll summon four minions that all have a five-hit invincibility shield and a timed invincibility shield. He also summons a ball to chase you around, so you're fighting six enemies, some of which are invincible sometimes and one of which is invincible all of the time.

Good classes for Tubal - Boxer, Barbarian, Duelist, Knight, Chef, Spoon Chef
Bad classes for Tubal - Ranger, Ballista Ranger, Assassin, Astromancer, Mage
Good talents for Tubal - Dynamite, Shout, Pirate Ship
Good relics for Tubal - Corrupting Reagent, War Drum, Gnawed Bone, Amaterasu's Sun, Ambrosia, Boxing Bell, Rage Tincture

We've got three goals here. First, you need to be able to do as much damage as possible to keep Tubal from grinding you down with his summons. High damage classes are the key here; as much as I love Ranger and Gunslinger they are not the right tool for the job here. Second, you gotta be tough. Until you get the patterns down and unless you have good reflexes and the ability to keep track of a billion things, you are going to get hit, possibly a lot. So no low HP classes invited to this party. Third, you need to be able to hit enemies a lot of times to take out those damage shields, so no classes that only have slow attacks are invited either unless they bring a burn or poison effect. The good news is that damage over time relics reduce the summons' damage shield once per tick, so they are invaluable here and will save your bacon if you are a class with a slow attack like a Ranger.

Strategy

Kill him as fast as possible. His attacks are extraordinarily easy to dodge considering how late in the game you fight him. You'll need to be aware of what his summons do - how they attack and how they move. Other than that, try to ignore his summons a bit until their damage shield wears off, then hit them with multi-hit attacks or something that inflicts damage over time.

Attacks

Summon - Tubal creates an explosion warning around him, hits his anvil, and breaks the balance of the game. He also summons quintuple-double-invincible minions, which I've written quite a bit about. These minions are basically the same as floating weapons/armor you've already encountered and attack in basically the same way. To counter this move, write the developers or leave a message on the feedback channel on their Discord server and tell them to take it out.

Shadow Wave - Tubal rears back, charges up some purple-black cosmic shadow energy, then shoots a wall of it at you. No big deal, just dash through it.

Fire Floor - Tubal electrifies his hammer, then turns the ground fiery. Obviously, don't stand on the ground while it is on fire.

Spirit Spray - Tubal rears back, charges up some red-black shadow energy, then sprays some slightly-homing spirits at you. You can either dodge or attack them. These are roughly the same thing as the traps that have been pestering you while you were in Pishon, so do whatever worked best for those.

Sword Rain - Tubal does a slow, high leap that makes swords start falling from the sky when he lands. Not a tough attack to dodge on its own.

Saw Slam - Tubal rears waaaay back with his hammer out, then smashes it against the ground. This summons spinning sawblades on the ground. You need to jump over these, and in this case you'll probably want to air dash as well.

Phase Change - Tubal has two phase changes. He summons an explosive warning marker around himself. The first time he summons another minion, a spiky ball that follows you for the entire rest of the battle. The second time, he summons sawblades that stay on the wall and hurt you if you touch them (duh).

Boss Fights - *REDACTED 1*

Preparation

This is the boss you fight in the nice white garden. I'm not going to spoil who it is, you'll know him when you see him. This boss has two unique twists. First, he's fast! Easily the speediest boss in the game, you're going to need to work for your hits. Second, you can challenge him immediately any time you have a new character.

Good classed for this boss - Enkindled Boxer, Ranger, Valkyrie, Barbarian, Knight, Ronin, Spoon Chef, Duelist
Good talents for this boss - Deflect, Bastion, Shout, Crescendo
Good relics for this boss - War Drum, Amaterasu's Sun, Vanguard's Banner, Corrupting Reagent

There's no real secret here. We take the standard loadout appropriate for faster bosses, only this one is much faster than the others so our loadout is even more limited. Corrupting Reagent will help since this jerk moves a lot, and the Sun will help us wear him down since we won't be hitting him as much as some other bosses.

Strategy

This is even more of a mirror match than with Lamech! Every weapon this fella uses is a superpowered version of your own. He is kind enough to hold it up dramatically before he uses it so that you know it is coming. The trick to doing a lot of damage here is to pick somebody who can either hit him from far away or someone who can dash attack. This boss does not hurt you if you touch him, so dash back and forth with classes that can do that for big damage.

Attacks

Spoons - The boss throws a bunch of spoons in the air. This is a harder attack to avoid even if you know it is coming because it covers so much area. But it is all about predicting where they'll land and you'll get the hang of it with practice. They also bounce once when they land, so watch out!

Scythe - Stay away from him during this one, either far back or in the air. After he shows the weapon he will attack without further warning and cover a whole lot of space doing so.

Pizzas - The only thing he uses requiring any real strategy. There is a pause when he tosses these before they start moving - that's when you need to spin kick them. You need to take them out instead of focusing on him, because these will chase you and probably hit you if you don't. You can put less priority on them if you have something like Deflect or Bastion, though.

Katana - Tough to deal with until you know what to do. He emits some dark... darkness, then slashes as he dashes toward you. The way to avoid this is to dash when he does this, too. You can be dashing in any direction, just as long as you're dashing when he does it.

Bow - He shoots three flaming arrows. Sometimes he does this on the ground, and sometimes in the air. Either way, the further away you are the better - the projectiles travel really fast and it is hard to dodge up close. Don't worry, you have plenty of time to nail him during other attacks.

Lightning - He summons a bunch of red markers, the clouds that shoot lightning down where the pillars were. Stand in a safe spot and hit him as much as you can before he moves on to his next attack.

Boss Fights - *REDACTED 2*

Preparation

This is the large angry fellow you fight right after he goes through a painful looking transformation. Hope you were paying attention to the previous fights, because every attack this boss uses is a more powerful version of what other bosses have used!

Good classes for this boss - Barbarian, Boxer, Enkindled Boxer, Ronin, Ranger, Spoon Chef, Duelist
Good talents for this boss - Deflect, Ivy Canopy, Comet Form, Obscura, Bastion
Good relics for this boss - Serqet's Stinger, Boxing Bell, Atropos' Scissors, Corrupting Reagent

This boss is nice and slow and you're only fighting him, a combination we haven't enjoyed since those spooky scary skeletons. That means classes that can dish out the pain up close are good, but there is a spot for very long range fighters as well, because if you are really far away you are safe from several of his attacks.

Strategy

Here it is, the big one. This is a surprisingly straightforward fight. There are no traps in the room, no summoned enemies, no complex formations of things for you to kick. This fight is about two things - beating him up while he is not attacking and dodging when he is. By this point I'm assuming you know how to hurt a giant, slow target. The real challenge is dodging. His attacks are intense, but he telegraphs them using a combination of two different signals. What he does depends on whether the room is light or dark. It starts off light, then changes to dark after his first phase change. Then, after his third phase change, he will switch the room between light and dark at random!

Attacks

Red Ball Wall/Black Dash Wall - The boss pulls his hands toward his body and...
If it is light, he will use Murmur's wall of red balls. You need to spin kick to the top of the room for the first wall, then hop over the one-ball high danger zone on the floor through the gap.
If it is dark, he will use Murmur's shadow wall. This shoots two in a row, so you need to dodge twice. If it is dark and you see him charging this, get far away so that you have room to dash twice, otherwise you'll end up running into him!

Magma Leap/Sawblade Leap - The boss crouches down a bit and does a high jump. When he hits the ground...
If it is light, he will spray magma balls upward like Lamech. He sprays two layers, so it is harder to dodge, but the same idea applies and you need to get between the gaps as the balls come down.
If it is dark, he will summon sawblades along the floor like Tubal. Not hard if you know it is coming, just stay off the floor!

Blue Fireball Spray/Electrofire - The boss holds a scepter overhead and...
If it is light, he sprays blue fireballs radially like Lamech. One catch, though - these fireballs have slight homing capability, so watch out.
If it is dark, he does a two different things. He charges up lightning over himself and sets the ground on fire like Tubal, and shoots three of Irad's giant homing electrospheres at you. Just like with Irad, you need to spinkick these.

Bone Throw/Jellyfish Throw - The boss rears back for a toss, and throws...
If it is light, he throws a massive plus-shaped bone at you plus a bunch of little bones overhear in an arc, like a superpowered version of the pirate skeletons.
If it is dark, he throws jellyfish at you like Namaah, but they're full of the cosmic shadow balls Enoch uses. You need to spin kick them first, then dash through them to destroy them.

Inward Punch/Outward Punch - The boss pulls his fist back and...
If it is light, he creates what is basically a safe zone marker around you. Stay in the middle and you'll be safe - this is a good time to attack him.
It it is dark, he creates a danger zone marker on you. Move out of it, then be ready to dodge the large blue fireballs that come from the circle.

Phase Change - The boss creates an explosive area around himself, then sprays blue fireballs at you. They have no homing capability, but there are a lot of them. If you have something that lets you block or turn invincible now is the time to use it. After the first phase change he will turn the room dark, which changes all his attacks. After the first phase change he will start changing the room light or dark whenever he feels like it, so you'd better be on your toes!

Whew. That was a doozy of a fight. If you put in the work to git gud at dodging these attacks, you will be able to beat him reliably and eventually without even taking much damage. Congratulations on your epic win!

Conclusion

That's all a lot to take in, isn't it? One of the best parts of Rogue Legacy 2 is that there is that there are just a ton of possibilities. It presents a lot of challenges and a lot of tools you can use to overcome those challenges. I hope you enjoyed the ride, I know I did!

Special Thanks

Big thanks to darkly77, who helped this guide itself git gud by putting everything in tables and getting me icons to use! darkly77 was a ton of help with making this guide look much better than before. He just showed up with a ton of tips and images - he's the hero we need.

[P4wn4g3]

Seems like some content is missing here, Lich isn't here.

[TheNthOne]

Barbarian with icarus wings is a great cheese. Become flying spinning saw of death.

[the Fox of the Asterisk]

Well, they nerfed Tubal's minions - now they "only" have the timed invincibility shield, not the multi-hit-shield. Still tough, but it does mean that multi-hit weapons are no longer required, so that opens up several options.

[Hells Malice]

You must've never equipped good gear on a mage or built their stats cuz they do absurd damage and can obliterate most bosses with the correct spell (usually 8ball). And they're entirely ranged making them absurdly safe.

[Kamikater]

I'm at NG+4 right now and for me the strongest class is by far the astromancer. With a few relics (boxing bell, heavy stone bargain, serpent sting) the damage is insane! And it makes boss fights quite easy, because you only have to recast the black hole once every ~10 seconds, so you can dodge around, recast it, keep on dodging etc. + the talent is complete invincibility and is only a few seconds to recharge so you can easily get out of tight spots.

Even Aite's Sword becomes viable for the boss fights, because you can cast the black hole and then just easily avoid blows.

My personal list would be
S Tier: Astromancer, Ranger (with mouse extremely strong), Assassin (on paper he is only mid tier, but I play exceptional well with him), Barbarian
Mid Tier: Mage, Valkyre, Cook, Pirate
Garbage Tier: Boxer, Bard, Knight, Lancer (he's strong but the moveset is so annoying), Gunslinger (the talent is extremly weak and the reload is annoying, especially for boss fights)

[Nathaniel Prime]

Megatherion, I worked more on Barbarian and between the massive health and ability to switch between being a slow-attack high-crit class and a fast hit class they got bumped to A.

Roddy, Obscura is definitely useful for boss fights. Assassins are decent against slow bosses, but the flying ones they can have trouble with and they're just so vulnerable to regular enemies I am not going to bump them up for now. You are absolutely right about the Heavy Stone for Astromancer, I have added it. Thanks for the tip!

Sir Squirrelsalot, I will update the Dragon Lancer to make note of their pierce, thanks for that.

Sonic, I'm sorry you disagree on Dragon Lancer. With balanced STR/DEX/INT/FOC they do significantly less than most classes - INT doesn't add as much to the charge as the game implies. Their poor damage against bosses and the vulnerability their charge has puts them firmly below classes that can do more damage (most of them) or do damage much more safely (Ranger, Gunslinger, Ronin).

[Nathaniel Prime]

Pensiveowl, I agree that lutes can be powerful once you master them. There are still a ton of downsides, though. Their skill floor is insane, they can't react as quickly to threats as basically anybody else, they put a bigger mental load on the player, they need a lot of runes to reach their full potential, and so on.

Mrinin, can you explain your electric lute playstyle? Perhaps I'm missing an important technique for them.

[Nathaniel Prime]

ADMIN, I tried your Pirate trick and holy heck that makes a huge difference. I'm not entirely sure if it is a bug or not, but for now I'm pushing Pirate all the way to A tier. This doubles (or at endgame, triples) their damage output. Combined with their toughness and ability to attack from afar that makes them a top pick. Thank you so much for the info!

Hauauwaon, I will try that shield trick you're talking about. It hasn't been useful for me so far but I'll do a full clear with Knight and see how the shield serves me.

[Hauauwaon]

The knight's shield skill is actually very useful since it applies the debuff that makes all attacks skill crits on the anything in range of the burst for a short time, and the range of it is much larger if you time the block right. Also you can dash into enemies and pull up your shield to basically do a shield slam into things and applying the debuff at will instead of waiting for attacks/enemies to collide with you.

Shield slamming bosses is great, especially if you have rage tincture, since even if you time the block right and take no damage, it still activates the tincture, so you then have 100% (or more if you have multiple) bonus damage on top of having a boss with a debuff making all your attacks skill crits for a bit.

[roddy]

Hi, just NG +4 here. I would bump up assassin to B or even A tier. the invi skill is just too good for boss fights.

Also, I would add the relic that allows you to attack every 2 seconds with 100% increased damage to astromancer as top pick. It basically doubles your attack for free.