How to break the game and win at any difficulty

Game-breaking combos (infinite HP/damage/money/etc.), choosing contracts, picking curses & penalties, farming currency, selecting floors and others. Everything you need to know about how to successfully complete a run.

About me

My name is Spark11 and as of writing this guide, I have about 150 hours ingame. I've finished it plenty of times on maximum difficulty (level 15 breakdown) with a variety of different weapons.

In my previous guide (linked below), I went over the weapons in this game. Now, I'll be discussing various other topics, presenting you with tips, tricks and how I make my decisions ingame to help me complete a run on any difficulty.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3021132869

As always, this guide is based on MY PERSONAL OPINION regarding different aspects of the game. Feel free to try out everything for yourself and see what works for you. And if you have more useful tips, share with the rest of us in the comments below.

Without further ado, let's kick off this guide by quickly summing up how to get powerful in this game.

Getting stronger

There are three main aspects in which you get stronger during a run:

• Weapons
  
  Both finding new weapons and upgrading your current ones. This is easily the most important part of the game as your weapons choice could make or break your whole run. (Check my other guide, if you want to know more about choosing weapons.)
  
  
• Stat buffs
  
  These include your HP, Defense, Mana and others. Always useful to get a stat buff as long as it doesn't clash with your game plan. (For example, getting Mana buffs is pointless, if you plan on doing a Spell-free run.)
  
  
• Curses
  
  These are your permanent upgrades for the run and can provide you with extra bonuses like Mana Regen, extra Damage per weapon, more Anima slots, more Anima healing, more Soulary and others. The higher the level of the curses, the more powerful they could be, although there are useful curses at any level.

Now that we know how to get stronger, let's take a look at the ingame currencies that you collect during your run that enable you to use these three main aspects.

Farming currency

Types of currency and where to use them

There are three main types of currency in this game:

• Soulary - your basic, use-for-everything type of currency.
  
• Prismium - your premium currency, worth about ~625 Soulary each.
  
• Ingots - your permanent next-run-buffs currency, you only use it at the beginning of each run.

There are three main places that you use your currency at - the Shop, the Control room and the Break room.

• Shop
  
  • Using Soulary you can buy weapons, buffs, heals and curses.
    
  • Using Prismium you can unlock next level of the Shop (more info below).
• Control room
  
  • Using Soulary or Prismium you can upgrade your weapons.
    
  • Using Prismium you can change your scythe's form.
• Break room
  
  • Using Soulary you can restock the fridge or buy more Animas.

Now that we know where we can spend our currency, how do we actually farm it?

Farming Soulary

Easiest and most effective way to farm Soulary is by using one of the BLUE CURSES:

• "Gain 1 Soulary per termination" [rank 3] - best curse for farming Soulary. Could be used to get INFINITE Soulary via the bone hands that appear from the ground. (More on that in other sections.)
  
• "20% chance of getting 5 Soulary per termination" [rank 1] - same as above.
  
• "First upgrades from Control room is ALMOST FREE" [rank 1] - saves you about 56 Soulary per weapon upgraded.
  
• "Shop prices are reduced by 50%" [rank 5] - really good as long as you plan on actually visiting the Shop.
  
• "Infuse gain 5% chance of gaining 1 Soulary" [rank 4] - decent pick.
  
• "Arenas drop +5 Soulary" [rank 3] - not as good as the top 3 but still useful.
  
• "15% discount at the Control Room" [rank 2] - not nearly as good as the other Control room one but still okay.

There are other curses from the Blue tree that are also related to Soulary but they aren't as important or there are better choices in their rank. (Green tree also has a "Gain 30 Soulary" curse at rank 1 which could be useful, if you don't plan on using Spells.)

Another good option is to SELL WEAPONS at the Shop. Make sure to always pick a weapon, if given the chance, as long as you have an open slot. You have up to 3 slots (1 is only used for carrying the weapon to the Shop). If you don't plan on using one of your two main weapons and it's cheap to sell, feel free to switch it with a more expensive one, if you can - you won't be using any of them but the latter will fetch you more Soulary.

Here's a table to help you know how much any weapon is worth:

Rarity \ Upgrade Level	0	1	2	3
White	10	20	30	50
Green	20	30	40	75
Blue	30	40	75	1p
Purple	40	75	1p	2p
Orange	50	1p	2p	3p

Where 1p = 1 Prismium. (Selling weapons is a good way to obtain Prismium.)

Keep an eye out for weapons even at level 0 Shop - often you can get offers like Level 1 Blue weapon for 37 Soulary, which sells for 40 Soulary. These 3 Soulary may not seem like much but could sometimes be the difference between 1 more upgrade for your weapons and going into the Sorrow fight with a lower level weapon.

Is the shop upgrade worth it?

Yes, the shop's 2nd and 3rd levels are definitely worth it. Their main purpose is to provide you with higher caliber weapon options. (The higher the shop's level, the more chance you have of scoring a good weapon or at least a decently upgraded one that you could sell immediately for some cash.)

Upgraded shops also provide you with options to heal as well as some stat buffs (HP or Mana), which are both useful but the sole purpose of upgrading the shop (other than you having too many Prismiums on your hands than you could use, of course) is to gain access to better weapons.

The Curse/Prismium slot is available for all levels of the Shop and remains the second most important part of the Shop. (Finding yourself a good weapon that could carry your run should always be a priority for you.)

Managing your currency

Upgrading weapons at the Control Room at the latest breakdown costs 62/156/625 Soulary for levels 1/2/3 upgrades. Don't even bother collecting Soulary for the last upgrade (unless you're swimming in cash from taking one of the aforementioned Blue curses) - use a Prismium instead. Normally, for any weapon you would use Soulary for level 1/2 upgrades and Prismium for level 3 upgrade. (Don't upgrade weapons that you don't intend on using or that you're actively looking to replace. Unless you have the "almost free first upgrade" curse that lets you upgrade for 6 Soulary.)

Try prioritizing your Prismium usage correctly - a Billhooks form upgrade to the Scythe is VERY useful but it's not as essential as leveling up your Rocket Launcher to level 3; unlocking a new level for the Shop is useful but not essential if you already have a good Scythe and one good weapon. Remember: Prismium is rare; spend it wisely.

Lastly, since the Shop and the Control Room pop up once per world at maximum and a lot of the time they appear as an option for the same floor (meaning you need to choose only one), you should prioritize going to the Control room to upgrade your weapons. However, there are a couple of instances where going to the Shop might be the better option here, like:

• You don't have enough Soulary to upgrade your weapons. (Most likely you have them at Level 1 and you don't have 156 Soulary for level 2 or you have them at Level 2 but don't have Prismium.)
  
• Your weapons are at a sufficient level already, next upgrades are not as important as the ones you already got. (For example, having Piercing Ray at level 1 is essential, upgrading to levels 2/3 is purely optional.)
  
• You don't have a good weapon. (Remember - finding a good weapon could make or break your whole run; no point in going to the Control Room if you have nothing of value to upgrade.)
  
• You're low on HP. (Not an ideal situation but at least the Shop could provide you with some way of healing - Animas or Healing items.)
  
• You have a weapon that you absolutely need to sell. (For example, you're holding a Blue level 2 weapon and an Orange level 1 weapon in 2 of your slots and you don't intend to use them in your run - the 1 Prismium from the Orange weapon specifically is very important, especially since you don't run the risk of getting another Prismium-worth weapon and not having a slot to put it in.)

Break Room items

Finally, let's look at the Break Room and what items you should be looking to buy from there.

• Fridge
  
  • Items change every time you enter the room but you have to refill the Fridge any time you get an item. First refill is 25, second is 75. I don't advice on refilling it more than once usually.
    
  • ALWAYS get the "Gain 25 max HP as long as you defeat a Thanager/Sorrow" item - this is free max HP and both rooms are worth the visit anyway.
    
  • Situationally, feel free to take the "Pure 50 HP heal" or "3 Animas" items.
    
  • ALWAYS take whatever is in the Fridge at the last Break Room.
• Anima fountain
  
  • Feel free to buy the first 2-3 Animas that costs 10-25-40 Soulary each, if you need them. Try having an Anima in each slot, if possible - at level 15 breakdown, you start with only 2 Anima slots so having Animas in both is very important in case you find a Secret room that you need to unlock.
• Distribig
  
  • I usually avoid it at all costs because I don't like slot machines and pure randomness.

Choosing contracts

Always choose the maximum number of contracts that are available to you. All of the completing conditions are possible to achieve but some are harder than others.

"Defeat 2nd Thanager in 10 minutes" or "Defeat 2 Thanagers in 10 minutes" require some luck getting the Thanager room on an earlier floor in World 2. Both of these contracts are great options because they DELAY your penalty: at level 15 you start with only 35 HP so you could stand to immediately lose a maximum of 30 HP from contract penalties, but by using a contract like the above two, you could get a reward NOW and take some damage LATER, giving you plenty of time to heal up and expand your HP. "Defeat 1st/2nd Sorrow without getting hit" are also great options for that same reason.


What to choose as rewards?

• Best choices:
  
  • Max HP.
    
  • Prismium.
    
  • Purple weapon. (Hope for something like Piercing Ray, Wishtorm or Vladislaw.)
• Situational choices:
  
  • Max Mana. (Not nearly as useful as max HP especially since you don't know what weapons are you going to get.)
    
  • 100 Soulary. (Not as good as a Prismium but still usable.)
• Horrible choices:
  
  • White, Green or Blue weapons. (If you're confused about the weapons, check out my other guide.)

What to choose as penalties?

• Best choices:
  
  • Take 10/20/30 damage. (Damage can be healed, Soulary can't be returned.)
    
  • Lose 25 Soulary. (Still not as bad, especially if you gain a Prismium immediately.)
• Situational choices:
  
  • Lose 15/20 Mana. (Great choice if you're set on having a Spell-free run but otherwise a bit of a risk.)
• Horrible choices:
  
  • Lose 15/20 max HP. (Only somewhat acceptable if you're going for a "Lose 20 max HP now but win 50 max HP in about 10 mins" contract but still - there are better options out there.)

The ORDER in which you choose your contracts matters when it comes to your HP:

• Choosing a "Gain 20 max HP" contract and then a "Lose 30 HP" one will get you 35+20-30 = 25/55 HP.
  
• BUT choosing a "Lose 30 HP" contract first and then a "Gain 20 max HP" one will only get you 8/55 HP. (Yes, this might be a bug with the way the game is coded, just be prepared for it.)

Generally, you should try choosing contracts that offer you rewards NOW, not in the future, so you don't care that much whether you complete or fail the contract. Getting 1 Prismium NOW is indefinitely better that getting 1 Prismium LATER (MAYBE).


Finally, what I normally try to go for at the start of my run:

• +20 max HP now, take 20 damage later (or lose 25 Soulary later).
  
• +1 Prismium now, take 20 damage later (or lose 25 Soulary later).
  
• Purple weapon now, take 30 damage now.

Even if the weapon is trash, I could always sell it at the first shop at the 5th Floor for 40 Soulary. It's not as good as getting 100 Soulary for 30 damage, of course, but it's worth it for the chance of getting a great weapon that could carry the entire run.

Room selection

Here's my personal tier list of all possible Floors:


And now for some explanations:

Tier S (Priority)

• Control Room
  
  • Your top priority - if you can upgrade your weapons, you should almost always upgrade your weapons. (Unless the next upgrades are not as meaningful as the ones you already have.)
  
  
• Prismium Deposit
  
  • Only three possible reasons why you wouldn't want to choose this room:
    
    • You absolutely HAVE to go to the Control Room on the same floor.
      
    • You have passed the last Control Room and Shop of the run and you have no use for Prismium anymore.
      
    • You have too much Prismium already. (Veeeeeeeeeeery unlikely.)
  
  
• Shop
  
  • You can buy a Curse or even a Prismium at any time.
    
  • You can buy weapons, especially good ones at higher level Shops.
    
  • You can buy stat buffs or heal yourself.
    
  • You can sell weapons.
    
  • (Check previous section "Farming currency" for a quick run-down of when to choose Shop over Control Room.)
  
  
• HR Office - T. O'Shah
  
  • Free curse.
  
  
• Thanager's office
  
  • Free curse but you have to fight a Thanager.

Tier A (Good)

• Vitam Department
  
  • Free max HP + small heal.
  
  
• Spell Store
  
  • Free spell. (The reason this is higher than the other weapon rooms, is that in my Weapons guide I specified a tier list and 5/7 of the top weapons in it are all Spells.)
  
  
• Soulary-Prismium Deposit
  
  • Soulary is always useful and the chance to get a Prismium on top of that is just excellent.
  
  
• Vitam-Mana Department
  
  • More max HP + small heal is always useful.
    
  • The only reason more mana could be useless to you is if you're doing a Spell-free run. Otherwise it's a win-win situation, whichever you get.

Tier B (Situational)

• Relaxation Area
  
  • The definition of "situational". Heals you a great amount but you won't get any stronger by visiting it. Could be an absolute life-saver or a wasted room, depending on your situation.
  
  
• Mana Department
  
  • Very useful if you have Spells that require Mana*, completely useless otherwise.
    
  • (*So spells that are not Vladislaw, Voracious Burst, Sacrifix, Tempus Abjuratum, Dark Talons or Anvilaunch, which do not require much Mana in order to be effective at what they do.)
  
  
• Curse-Reroll Department
  
  • Decent pick if no better options are available. Pretty essential if you have no curse rerolls left.
  
  
• Soulary Deposit
  
  • Extra Soulary.
  
  
• Equipment Storage
  
  • Random weapon - spell or cloak. Very useful, if you don't have a good weapon for your run already, pretty pointless otherwise.
  
  
• Cloak Store
  
  • Same as above but you won't get spells, only cloak items.

Tier C (Okay)

• Prestigious Anima Deposit
  
  • Pure healing is always nice and getting an Anima if you don't have any is always important (in case you run into a Secret room).
    
  • Still, there are way better ways of healing.
  
  
• Anima Deposit
  
  • Same as above but will grant you Blue Animas instead of Golden ones. You would normally receive a greater amount of Animas because of this.
    
  • Could actually be a pretty decent pick for a room, if you have a curse like "Gain +1 damage permanently per Anima used" (Blue, rank 2) or "Gain +10 Mana per Anima used" (Green, rank 4).
  
  
• Intriguing Floor
  
  • Either a platforming challenge, an arena fight or a teleport maze.
    
  • Rewards vary greatly - some could be as good as a Prismium (!), some could be completely useless (like Ingots). I tend to skip it as it's pure randomness.

Tier D (Trash)

• Hazardous Floor!
  
  • Random reward, just like Intriguing Floor. For some reason, it seems like I get Ingots from it 4/5 times so I don't recommend risking it.
  
  
• Vault
  
  • Gain Ingots. Absolute worst room in the entire game. At least the Ingots quantity could have been made meaningful (like 1000) but it's so minimal (100-something) that it's completely worthless.
    
  • Not to mention that Ingots are only useful for your next run, 100% useless in your current one.
    
  • You know what's better than getting some extra Ingots now? Well... literally anything... but also getting stronger, getting further into the game and earning more Ingots in the process of doing so.

Status effects

Here's some advice on what status effects to choose:

• Best choices
  
  
  • Stuck (Blue curses, rank 2) - at higher breakdowns Sorrows and Thanagers gain some resistance to it to reduce its effectiveness but it's still one of the two strongest statuses that you could get.
    
    
  • Bleed (Red curses, rank 1) - simply put, more Damage. Works especially well with fast-hitting weapons. Could be stacked with some more Bleed-related Red curses or Weapons (like Dark Claws and Arrashi-Kunai) to get you even more Bleed, i.e. more Damage.
  
  
• Okay choices
  
  
  • Frozen (Red curses, rank 1) - not completely horrible and it provides you with a lot of wiggle room against Bosses. It's just simply not as good as Bleed and the two are mutually exclusive.
  
  
• Meh choices
  
  
  • Poison (Blue curses, rank 1) - some extra damage but pretty underwhelming.
    
    
  • Burn (Blue curses, rank 1) - same as above.
  
  
• Horrible choices
  
  
  • Arcane (Blue curses, rank 1) - meh damage on a timer.
    
    
  • Lightning (Green curses, rank 1) - meh damage.

Curses and penalties

There are already quite a few Curses guides out there so I'm not going to deep dive into them but I still would like to give you my 2 cents worth on what I usually look for when choosing curses.

Most broken curses

These curses grant you infinite healing and should be top priority to take whenever you see them:

• "Periodic creates Animas" [Green, rank 2]
  
  
• "Periodic pure heal of 5 HP" [Blue, rank 5]

Both of these curses allow you to heal all of your missing HP at the start or end of any level - just sit in one place and wait for the pure heal to do its magic or the Animas to generate. (Obviously the Animas one requires more time but no run in this game is ever on a timer.)

What to avoid from all Curse trees?

Anything related to the Ceasefire or Periodic effects that is NOT one of the two aforementioned curses that heal you. (Yes, that includes the "Periodic +1 NON PURE heal" from the Blue curses at rank 2".)

Also anything related to your dash cooldown or charge attack.

Red Curses

Mostly related to dealing more weapon damage.

• Best choices
  
  • "Bleed" [rank 1] and any Bleed-related Curses in the next ranks.
• Great choices
  
  • More Scythe damage (+5, +10, +15, +20%, +35% damage)
    
  • More Cloak damage (+5, +10, +15, +25, +25%, +100%) - obviously ONLY if you have Cloak item(s).
    
  • Lifesteal
• Decent choices
  
  • "Frozen" [rank 1] - a huge compromise from "Bleed" but still alright.
    
  • Smaller Scythe or Cloak damage buffs (+2, +10%, +15%, etc.)
    
  • Retaliate permanently gain +1 HP or +1 damage [both rank 2] - can be abused for infinite HP/damage with the right setup.
    
  • More Frenzy damage (+25%, +50%)
• Horrible choices
  
  • Cloakswish launches bombs
    
  • Anything related to your Charged attack
    
  • Anything related to the Ceasefire or Periodic effects

Blue Curses

Mostly related to Soulary management, Healing and HP.

• Best choices
  
  • "Periodic pure heal of 5 HP" [rank 5]
    
  • "10% chance of Stuck" [rank 2]
• Great choices
  
  • "Gain +1 permanent bonus damage per Anima used" [rank 2]
    
  • Extra max HP (+15, +30, +45, +25% HP) - "1 HP every time you leave elevator" is also a good pick as long as you get it during the first World.
    
  • Extra Soulary - "Termination gain 1 Soulary" [rank 3], "20% chance of getting 5 Soulary per termination" [rank 1], "Infuse gain 5% chance of gaining 1 Soulary" [rank 4]
    
  • "First upgrades at Control Room are almost FREE" [rank 1]
    
  • Extra Anima slots (+1, +2)
    
  • Extra Anima heal % (+15%, +25%, +100% HP)
    
  • "Shop prices are reduced by 50%" [rank 5]
    
  • "Each alteration lasts +3 seconds" - only if you have "Stuck" already.
• Decent choices
  
  • "Sorrow termination grants +20 HP pure heal" [rank 1]
    
  • "Arenas drop +5 Soulary" [rank 3]
    
  • Extra Defense (+1, +2) - I usually stay away from the +5 or +100% defense curses as there are better options in their ranks.
    
  • "15% discount at Control Room" [rank 2]
• Horrible choices
  
  • Anything related to the Poison, Burn or Arcane effects
    
  • Anything related to your dash cooldown
    
  • Anything related to the Ceasefire or Periodic effects (except the "Periodic pure heal of 5 HP" curse)

Green Curses

Mostly related to Spells - Mana, Mana Regen, Spell Damage, etc.

• Best choices
  
  • "Periodic creates Animas" [rank 2]
• Great choices
  
  • Spell damage buffs (+4, +8, +10, +25%, +50% spell damage)
    
  • +10 Mana per Anima used [rank 4] - truly broken if used with "Periodic creates Animas".
    
  • Extra mana (+20, +30, +50%, +75% max mana)
    
  • Extra mana regen (+40% for every Sorrow, +0.5% for every termination, +150%) - you don't need all of them but try to get at least one.
    
  • +10 Damage per Anima in possession [rank 5] - really good if you unlock some more Anima slots via the Blue curses.
    
  • "Infuse launches butterfly" [rank 3], "Infuse launches even more butterflies" [rank 6], "Butterflies deal +15 damage" [rank 5] - all very solid and very broken if paired with fast hitting weapons.
• Decent choices
  
  • "Reduce damage below 10 to 1" [rank 2]
    
  • "Cancels out a hit received, 20 second cooldown" [rank 4]
    
  • "+30 Soulary" [rank 1] - usually there are better rank 1 Green curses.
• Horrible choices
  
  • Anything related to "Lightning"
    
  • Anything related to Periodic (except the "creates Animas" one) or Ceasefire effects

Penalties

Finally, what do choose as penalties and what to avoid:

• Best choices
  
  • Anything related to any given enemy - try to get penalties related to enemies from Worlds that you don't plan on visiting during your run but any enemy-related penalty is a great choice. (The "Blobs spawn small blobs" penalty is actually a blessing in disguise.)
• Decent choices
  
  • Minions deal extra damage (+4, +7, +10, etc.)
    
  • Map is no longer accessible - I try to not pick this one for as long as possible but it's not that punishing.
    
  • Retaliate lose 10 Soulary - by the time you run into this penalty, chances are you won't be needing much Soulary anymore.
• Not the worst of choices (but try to avoid if possible)
  
  • Shop prices increase by 10%/25%
    
  • Next Shop/Control Room purchase increases by 15%/25%
    
  • Price of Cloak/Scythe upgrades in Control Room increase by 25%/50% - pick if you already had upgraded your weapons past said upgrade level or you don't plan on using Cloak items.
    
  • Each dash loses 30 Mana, Retaliate lose 100 Mana - great choice if you don't need any Mana for your run, otherwise pretty bad.
    
  • Retaliate enemies deal +35% damage for 10s - pretty bad against bosses.
• Bad choices
  
  • Thanagers inflict Poison
    
  • Thanagers gain +500 HP
    
  • Destroying a Stele inflicts Poison on you
    
  • Cannot change equipped weapons - may not be that bad, if you're satisfied with your setup.
    
  • Shop is closed - might not be that bad, if you don't plan on visiting it.
    
  • Consuming Animas inflicts Frozen on you
    
  • "Cloak gains 100% cooldown" or "Spells gain 100% Mana cost" - feel free to choose any of them, if you don't have a Cloak/Spell item and you don't intend to use one in your run. Otherwise - GOD AWFUL choice to make.
    
  • Shop prices increase by 50%
    
  • Price of curse in Shop increases by 100%
• Horrible choices
  
  • Sorrows gain +1000 HP and +10 damage
    
  • Sorrows and Thanagers gain Conviction
    
  • Lose 1 HP every 10s
    
  • All interface elements are hidden - you won't know not only when you need to heal, but when your Frenzy bar is full.
    
  • Animas heal -25%
    
  • Each Prismium gives you -25 max HP
    
  • Control Room is closed - might not be that bad, only if you've fully upgraded all your weapons already.
    
  • Shop prices increase with each purchase
    
  • Retaliate lose 5 max HP

Game-breaking combos

And now let's take a look at how to break the game completely and setup your run for an easy clear on any difficulty. Almost all of these require time to execute but since none of your runs are on a timer, the real limit on how far you're willing to push it is really determined by how long you want to grind for a specific outcome.

Of course, some of these could be considered unethical so feel free to not use any of them in your runs if you feel that way but I'm certain a lot of players would like to know about them.

Infinite enemy spawn

The bone hands that appear from the ground in the First World and the Modern Warfare Department (World 3, red curses) are considered an enemy by the game. In fact, they are the only enemy that respawns INDEFINITELY.


Knowing that, you could absolutely abuse them to get so many different outcomes - fill up your Frenzy bar, farm currency, etc. I'll mention some of these in the sections below.

The bone hands could also be used to complete contracts such as "Kill 30 enemies without getting hit", "Kill 30 enemies in 2 minutes" and others. It's usually not that worth it but if you're having trouble with a specific contract - feel free to farm them. Regardless, if you have a contract that is dependent on killing enemies, make sure to give them a quick smack while you're passing them by - it's a free kill.

Save scumming

The game saves your progress ONLY at the start of each level (when you exit the elevator). That means that if you exit to the main menu at any point during a level, you will restart back at the beginning of the floor with the exact same stats as the ones you entered it the first time.

Everything in the room will remain the same in terms of layout, enemies, arena fight, arena prize, room prize, secret room (if any) and secret room prize. Only thing changing would be the random drops from enemies and even those could get identical at some higher levels.

So you could absolutely abuse this information by replaying any level as many times as you like in order to get the best possible outcome for you.

Took too much damage in a boss or arena fight? Restart level.
Failed a contract by getting hit? Restart level.
Mistakenly sold your main weapon or upgraded the wrong one? Restart level.

You can exit through the elevator door at the end of the room only when you're satisfied with how you played the level.

Infinite Healing

Get any of the two aforementioned broken curses - "Periodic pure heal of 5 HP" [Blue, rank 5] or "Periodic creates Animas" [Green, rank 2]. Then just wait somewhere safe - start of the level, end of the level, even in the middle of the level - as long as there are no enemies around you, you could just wait for the curses to do their job. (The Animas curse takes a bit longer since you would need to wait for your Anima slots to fill up first before you start turning Blue Animas into Golden ones to heal missing HP.)

Infinite healing could also be achieved through the Vladislaw or Voracious Burst spells by using their main effect before and after abusing the game for infinite HP (read section below).

Infinite HP

Get the Vladislaw or Voracious Burst spell - their Frenzy gives you bonus max HP.

• Vladislaw
  
  • Frenzy gives you +5 max HP whenever you use it.
    
  • Use the bone hands to fill up your bar and then use the Frenzy.
    
  • Alternatively (and even more easily), find a Slaygore weapon and upgrade it to max level 3. From there on, your Frenzy bar will refill automatically. You don't even need the bone hands - just sit in one spot, wait for the bar to fill up and fire the Vladislaw Frenzy every minute or so.
  
  
• Voracious Burst
  
  • Frenzy gives you +3 max HP for every enemy killed.
    
  • Use the bone hands to fill up your bar and then use Frenzy on them - make sure to have at least 2-3-4 of them on screen to maximize your max HP gain.
    
  • Slaygore helps a lot with filling up your Frenzy bar but you'll need the bone hands too for the spell to work.

Another option that you can abuse is the "Retaliate gain +1 max HP" [Red, rank 2] curse and then either make sure you have very high defense (hard to achieve realistically) so the bone hands don't do damage or get one of the two healing curses mentioned in the "Infinite healing" section. Let the bone hands hit you, increase your max HP, use one of the healing curses to heal up.

Infinite Damage

Get the "Retaliate gain +1 max damage" [Red, rank 2] curse and abuse the bone hands. Use the healing curses to heal all the damage that you take.

Another option is by getting "Gain +1 permanent bonus damage per Anima used" [Blue, rank 2] and "Periodic creates Animas" [Green, rank 2] curses. Sit in one spot, generate Animas and consume them until you're satisfied with your damage.

Infinite Soulary

Get one of the Soulary-generating Blue curses - "Termination gain 1 Soulary" [rank 3], "20% chance of getting 5 Soulary per termination" [rank 1], "Infuse gain 5% chance of gaining 1 Soulary" [rank 4]. Now just spend however much time you want just killing the bone hands.

Another option is by getting "Gain 10 Soulary per Anima used" [Blue, rank 5] and "Periodic creates Animas" [Green, rank 2] curses. Sit in one spot, generate Animas and consume them.

Infinite Mana

Get the "+10 Mana per Anima used" [Green, rank 4] and "Periodic creates Animas" [Green, rank 2] curses. Sit in one spot, generate Animas and consume them. Again.

Alternatively you can use the "Retaliate gain +1 Mana" [Green, rank 2] and one of the Healing curses from the "Infinite Healing" section, then spend some time getting hit by the bone hands and healing your missing HP back.

Random tips & tricks

And finally, here are some random tips, tricks and facts that I couldn't really find a spot to put in the previous sections:

• Always try to have at least 1 Anima with you at all times so you can unlock a Secret room, if you happen to find any. Use the Anima Fountain in the Break Room, if needed to restock or fight a Thanager who is guaranteed to reward you with 1 Golden or 2 Blue Animas.
  
  
• The most common place to find Secret rooms is right after the Arena fight room. Look for straight lines in the edges of the room; walls with arced edges will never have a Secret room in them but a Secret room could spawn right below a little ledge.
  
  
  A Secret room would never appear more than once per level or in a level with a visible basement room with something to collect (stat buff, curse reroll, weapon, etc.). Also a Secret room would never spawn in the room where the arena fight takes place or right at the start/end of the level, near the elevator doors.
  
  Some Secret rooms could spawn in weird locations at earlier breakdowns but are completely gone by the last one (level 15). Also, turn your sound on while playing - you could often find a Secret room by identifying the sound that plays when you walk near it, even if you didn't see the lock icon. If you wait for a couple of seconds (like 5 or so), the icon would reappear again - so if you're unsure if you saw a Secret room or you're going back for a Secret room after obtaining an Anima, just wait by the wall.
  
  
• It really doesn't matter what Worlds you choose to go to. Even if the text would read "Upgrade next red/green/blue curses", in reality there is nothing stopping you from getting curses from any tree and there is no significant change in curses in any world. Pick whatever Worlds you find easiest (or most fun) and do them. (I find the First->Green->Red->Red->Time path to be the easiest for me.)
  
  
• There is no "best" Curse tree - pick whatever you feel like works best for your run. The blue one seems more universally useful and then focusing more on Red/Green depending on your weapon choices works best for me. (For example, getting Bleed + some Scythe damage from the Red tree and then leveling up both the Blue and Green trees to a high level and going with a Damage Spell + Support Weapon build is a good option.)
  
  
• It's almost always best to go to the top most place at the start of an Arena fight. The higher you are, the better. So try to get up to the highest possible ledge before enemies start spawning.
  
  
• When fighting the Gordon Grimes boss (Industrial Pollution Department Sorrow, Green world 2), try and get to the right side of him (behind him). This is easiest done when he's entering his second phase (happens automatically at the start of the battle at latest breakdown). His throwing punch attack and the spitting projectiles attacks only hit to the left of him. The hands-from-the-ground attack can appear anywhere on the screen for the first three hits but the final one (that covers the larger portion) will only appear from the left side of the screen up to the boss. So stay on his right side and keep punishing him.
  
  
  
• Restarting a run doesn't grant you any Ingots. That is most likely a bug in the game but regardless, if you plan on restarting your run, better let some enemy kill you in order to gain those Ingots.
  
  Truth be told, you don't earn that much Ingots by just completing a run regardless. Dying on the first screen on the last breakdown level gets you 285 Ingots, finishing the game by defeating the final Sorrow gets you 435. So if you want to farm Ingots, just start a run, take some damage directly from the contracts and die to the first enemy in sight.
  
  
• The Ulcermonner enemy (the black blob enemy that appears in the Physical Illness Department (Red world 3) that spawns other enemies) has a bug that would sometimes trigger during an arena fight, when the enemy tries spawning another enemy but couldn't correctly do it. This could lock you in the arena indefinitely so if that happens, just return to the main menu and enter your last save again (i.e. restart the level).
  
  
  
• Some of the levels from the First world that take place in the Hall of Eternity (the corridor-looking levels) have a single Soulary left of the elevator door at the start of the room, between the two other static elevator doors that cannot be entered.
  
  
  
• Another possible slightly hidden location is in the Hall of Eternity right after an Arena fight where you can just get over the room with the Arena. You can find between 2-3 Soulary there.
  
  
  
• Additionally, there is a single platform at the top left of the rooms in the Addictions Department (Green world 3) that could be accessed by jumping left from the top main platform and dashing. This platform will contain a Soulary deposit about 50% of the time so make sure to visit it.
  
  
  
• Furthermore, there is a Soulary deposit on top of one of the labyrinth-like rooms in the Natural Disasters Department (Blue world 4). If you climb on top of it and double jump upwards, you can reach it. (Or use a weapon like Piercing Ray.)
  
  
  
• The first room of the Inevitable Time Department will always contain no enemies, some Soulary and one Prismium in a basement room. The level might sometimes have spikes.
  
  

Shop prices reference sheet

Here are the price sheets for all three rooms that you can use Soulary in:

Shop

Selling a weapon

Rarity \ Upgrade Level	0	1	2	3
White	10	20	30	50
Green	20	30	40	75
Blue	30	40	75	1p
Purple	40	75	1p	2p
Orange	50	1p	2p	3p

(Where 1p = 1 Prismium.)

Break Room

• Fridge refill: 25 -> 75 -> 125 ... (+50 Soulary for every new refill).
  
• Anima fountain: 10 -> 25 -> 40 -> 55 ... (+15 for every new Anima).

Control Room

Upgrade Level	Soulary Cost
1	62
2	156
3	625

Closing remarks

So that pretty much wraps up this whole guide. I sincerely hope that you found something useful in it and that it would help you with your future runs of the game.

If you have any more tips or tricks that you'd like to share with us, feel free to add a comment below. Or if you disagree with any of my statements, again - I'm always open to hearing your opinion on the matter.

For more information on all weapons in this game, check out my other guide:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3021132869

If you've made it this far, I salute you for your patience and hope you found the information here useful!

[Guide finished on 4/9/2023 for version 1.0.2.54033]

[haoxinlin1]

Is lightning that bad? My first spell build winning run was with bees with lightning curses (infuse, more dmg and more bolts) that paired with spell dmg and dmg per posessed anima a single bolt could deal more than 20 dmg. I was melting bosses.

[star6824.ch]

I was about to rage quite this game! I thought the game mechanics were unbalanced and kept dying without making any new progress over and over. Now I'm on breakdown IV and on track to get all the game achievements! Thank you for this guide; I'm enjoying this game a lot more now and stopped feeling like I'm wasting hours of my time grinding.

[supertek]

This helped a lot! Was 4 hours into the game and struggling to beat the 2nd boss, but after reading this I immediately won a run for the first time (on easy).

[Lucky7916]

By using vladisaw I was able to beat Time first try

[Zellency]

also I want to try that vladislaw slaygore combo, seems goofy!

[Zellency]

What an awesome guide! basically factually true opinions for most things here, the only thing I don't agree with too much is the "hide interface" negative, its annoying but not as bad as you think, as well as lightning, since the Selenite scythe can make lighting vile with its massive lighting buff on its last prismium upgrade. while bleed is still way better, its a good alternative if you got bad luck, especially paired with quick hitting weapons like arash kunai. And the hid interface is possible to tell when you have you frenzy, though its annoying, since your pitbook sprite will be flashing purple when its ready, as well as the pause menu providing lots for that info. still sucks to not see your health except for pausing mid bossfight tho.