Tips & Strategy

General advice for surviving and thriving in the world.

Character Builds

Balanced (Beginner-Friendly)

STR 2, REF 2, INT 2, FOR 2 — You can do a bit of everything. Decent HP, okay mana, moderate carry capacity. Not specialized but won't have obvious weaknesses.

Tank (Vanguard Preset)

STR 4, FOR 3, REF 1, INT 0 — Massive HP pool (120). High carry capacity. Can only use physical techniques. Slow action speed means enemies often go first. Survives through brute force.

Glass Cannon (Arcanist Preset)

INT 4, REF 2, FOR 1, STR 1 — High mana for magic spam. Magic always hits so low Reflex doesn't matter for offense. Fragile (50 HP). Must kill enemies before they reach you.

Speedster (Ranger Preset)

REF 4, STR 2, FOR 1, INT 1 — Goes first in combat. Good hit chance and evasion. Low HP (50) means mistakes are costly. Relies on killing quickly.

If you spread your points thin

Your eight points are yours to place, and where you place them decides what you can build: a technique's weight cannot exceed your strength, or your intelligence for a magic one. Both techniques you are lent to start with are weight 3, so a character with strength 2 and intelligence 1 cannot craft anything as good as what it already holds — and crafting spends both of them.

That is not a dead end, it is a different opening. Do not go looking for fights you cannot win. Run from what you meet, and spend the early game finding things instead: equipment to wear, and shards to socket into it. Gear raises what you can do without asking anything of your stats, and a shard in the right slot is worth more than a technique you were never able to craft.

Come back to fighting when you are carrying something worth fighting with.

Combat Tactics

Manage Reflex Debt

Heavy physical techniques build reflex debt fast. If you're using high-density attacks, expect to go later in turn order after a few rounds. Mix in lighter attacks or magic to avoid becoming too slow.

Magic Is Reliable

Magic always hits — no miss chance. If you have the mana, magic is consistent damage. Save physical attacks for when mana is low or against enemies with magic resistance.

Know When to Run

Running uses your Reflex vs the highest enemy Reflex. Rangers (REF 4) escape most fights easily. Vanguards (REF 1) will struggle — but a failed attempt makes the next one better, so a slow character that commits to leaving does get out. Keep at it rather than alternating: attacking in between resets that build-up, and the bonus costs stamina each time. If a fight is going badly, run early — every turn you stay is more damage taken, and a full stamina bar is what pays for the exit.

Target Priority

Kill the most dangerous monster first. If there are multiple enemies, focus fire one down rather than spreading damage. Dead enemies can't attack.

Don't Idle

Ten seconds is the longest a turn can last, not how long it lasts: the turn resolves the moment everyone has acted. If you don't submit anything, you do nothing that turn and everyone else waits out your clock. Always have a plan — even running or using an item is better than standing still.

Technique Design

Physical Techniques

Kinetic reduces reflex debt — use it to stay fast
Density increases damage but slows you over time
A balanced physical technique (moderate density, moderate kinetic) keeps you competitive in action order

Magic Techniques

Caloric is only available on magic — use it for extra elemental damage
Higher weight = more damage but more mana cost
Watch your mana — a technique you can't afford to cast is useless

Neural Capacity

Don't fill your capacity with many weak techniques. A few well-designed techniques are better than a dozen mediocre ones. Fortitude directly increases your capacity, so tanky builds can support more techniques.

Exploration

Stamina Budgeting

Walking drains stamina. Plan your routes — if you're low on stamina, head toward a Meditation Sanctum before you run out. At 0 stamina you're safe from encounters but can't rest.

It is also what buys you out of a fight you cannot win. Repeated escape attempts get easier, but each one's bonus is paid for in stamina — so arriving somewhere dangerous already drained means the exit may not be affordable. Keep a reserve for the fight you did not plan on.

Sector Distance = Risk vs Reward

Further sectors have harder monsters but more XP. Don't rush outward with low stats. Grind nearby sectors to level up first.

Watch the Map

Red glowing markers are fights already happening — often another player's.

Walking onto one puts you in it, without being asked. Against monsters that makes you an ally: you share the experience, split by the damage each of you does, so joining a fight you can contribute to is worth doing.

Two warnings. You cannot choose not to join once you step there, so a marker is a decision you make from a tile away. And if the fight is a duel between two players, joining makes you a third side — hostile to both of them, and both of them hostile to you. Helping is not an option there; you are simply in a three-way fight you walked into.

If you are not ready for any of that, path around it.

Rest

Always rest in a Meditation Sanctum when you can. The regen rates (2 HP/sec, 2 mana/sec, 0.5 stamina/sec) are free and safe — as long as no encounter triggers. Rest before and after fights to stay topped off.

Items

Carry Weight Matters

Don't hoard. Your carry capacity is limited by STR and FOR. Drop items you don't need, especially heavy containers. A full inventory blocks loot drops — the pending drops screen is disruptive mid-exploration.

Use Consumables

Recovery Vials heal HP. Use them in combat when low rather than dying. They're not worth hoarding if you're dead.

Death

Death is permanent. If you're low on HP and can't heal, run. A living character at 1 HP is infinitely more valuable than a dead one with full inventory.

Do not over-reach when fusing shards

Fusing is the only action in the game that leaves you with nothing when it fails — the shards and the Binding Salt are spent either way. The chance is your intelligence against the weight of the shard you are reaching for, and it is shown to you before you commit.

Ask for the odds, and if they are bad, fuse for something smaller. A guaranteed weight-6 shard beats a one-in-three weight-10.

Tickets are wealth you are carrying

A market ticket is small and light, so it is easy to forget you have four of them. Each one is a claim on an item you cannot see — and whoever ends up holding it owns that claim, including whoever kills you.

Collect what you can before a long walk, and think twice about hauling a stack of claims through somewhere dangerous. The ticket is the only copy.