Introduction
Those builds are easy to play, also really fun in my opinion ( as most builds in this game are ), and depend very little upon RNG !
I have tested all those builds while writing the guide without using a single circle or shrine, so you can probably win with them as a beginner by playing efficiently !
I should however advise you to try to play by yourself and read this guide only if you’re getting really frustrated ! It took me 25 hours to get my first win and I’ve enjoyed those as much as the 100+ (for now) that followed.
Ah and for most of those builds, Anim. speed : turbo as well as holding 5 to wait will be your best friends.
Please comment or send me pictures of you using those builds as I need pictures to illustrate this guide !
I ) The OP Blue Lion
Conjuring builds are the most fun builds to play for me, and usually don’t require a lot of skills to play except choosing acceptable rifts and estimating how many summons you need for a given rift.
This one uses the fact that Blue Lion is IMHO currently really OP. It provides you with shielding and has a really nice damage output at a distance.
It is kind of a low damage build so fights are going to be long
Early game ( Realms 1 through 8 ) :
You often want to start with Wolf because 2 or 3 grouped wolves should easily clear the first rift, enter the second rift on a memory orb then TP on another one, providing you with a total of 5 SPs, and buy the blue lion directly.
Alternatively you can spawn on a memory orb then TP on a conjuration/holy/nature/arcane circle, OR try to clear the second realm with 9-10 wolves which often works on open maps.
You could also buy any two cantrips (level 1 spells) before the second rift and clear it with those, although I encourage you to grab Wolf anyways since you’re going to be buying Nature Lord.
You should be able to clear any second rift with two blue lions and all your wolves although you can try to spare some for rift 3.
You can then choose your 3rd rift, almost any will do except the ones containing ghosts or witches - who spawn ghosts - since your blue lions are currently only dealing physical damage. You can use all of your remaining spell charges.
At the end of rift 3, congratulations ! You can finally buy the holy bolt upgrade. Now your lions can hit almost any enemy, and at a distance ! You should have 3 mana potions by now. Use one before entering the 4th rift or after spending your last charges in it.
Realms 4 and 5 should be really easy, you should now have 6 SPs. Enter the 6th rift in order to land on a memory orb, and purchase the Nature Lord skill which will provide you with more health, charges, and damage on your wolves and blue lions. Do try to buy Nature Lord before using a mana potion since it will give you more charges.
You can now buy all the upgrades of Blue lion, preferably in that order : minion damage -> shield max -> shield cooldown. Alternatively you can buy minion damage before Nature Lord since it’s only 1SP but you won’t have Nature Lord immediately upon entering realm 6.
7th and 8th realms should be really easy as well, I usually make short work of them with 4/5 blue lions and 7/8 wolves each.
Congratulations, you have just cleared the first rifts without a sweat !
Early game purchases in short :
Wolf
Blue Lion
Blue Lion - Holy Bolt
Nature Lord
Blue Lion - Minion Damage
Blue Lion - Shield Max
Blue Lion - Shield Cooldown
Mid game ( Realms 9 through 16 ) :
The beginning of this build can actually be a core to any number of different builds. You could now focus on summoning packs of clay wolves with Venom Spit and Spider Spawning, Ice hound + Pounce + Storm Caller, Aether Spider Queen …
But we are going to be focusing on Fae Court instead for a very simple reason : it allows you to flood the board really fast upon entering a realm !
You should have 5 SPs to spend upon entering the 10th realm : buy Fae Court and use 1 or 2 charges upon entering each realm.
Do try to start in an isolated part of the map to get your first summons going. You bear a very limited risk of getting locked since your blue lions have ranged attacks, but you should still be careful. Be weary of enemies that can teleport your summons like Towering Toadbeasts who can easily isolate and kill your Blue Lions on closed maps ! Use your wolves as a meat shield, they won’t hit that hard but will benefit from the Blue Lions’ shields.
Your blue lion is already hitting like a truck ( 23 holy damage at 6 of range ) but don’t hesitate to take any shrine that would buff his damage or give him another damage source.
You should grab the very strong fae queen upgrade at the end of realm 12. I don’t think the other upgrades are necessary once you have fae queen but do as you see fit.
You should then go for the Cracklevoid + Stormcaller skill combo ! The arcane damage from your faeries will deal lightning damage which will proc stormcaller which will then proc on the whole map ! very handy to deal with masses of enemies because until now we only had single target damage.
In my current playthrough I had to buy Stormcaller to go with Storm Drakes from a Dragon Horn before I bought fae queen and Cracklevoid because I misplayed and got stuck in a choke point against slimes … you never know ! You might as well go for Ice Hound and an early Stormcaller if you’re stuck.
Anyways this combo should be up and running upon entering Realm 16 on a memory orb !
Mid game purchases in short :
Fae Court
Fae Court - Summon Queen
Cracklevoid
Stormcaller
Late game ( Realms 17 through 24 ) :
The difficulty here is to summon enough to clear the realm without wasting too many charges. But remember : better have an easy fight by wasting a few resources than be overconfident and end up using way more charges than you thought !
! Danger ! Care about enemies who can cast chain lightning like Aelf Lightning Artists, those proved to be my nemesis over many moments of inattention. Once you enter their Realm it is very hard to get out alive, except if you can get 4 shields up on some blue lion right from the beginning.
Also, f**k enemy Faery Queens, ESPECIALLY Faery Queen Gates. Don’t, just don’t enter those rifts.
Although you have mixed damage try not to enter Realms that have too much arcane resist.
Try to gather as many mana potions as possible because even if you feel comfortable right now you’ll be needing a lot of them against the final boss !
We’re now going to be rushing my favourite spell in the entire game : the Spider Queen with its Aether Queen upgrade ! Allows you to outscale most enemies, spreads on the map to get to difficult targets like a soul jar, and spreads the Cracklevoid + Stormcaller everywhere ! Spawn them after you already have a solid Faeries + Blue Lions Army, although you could also use them as a meatshield. I like to think of it as a late game Sweeper in Pokemon !
Void spikes have been ( deservedly ) heavily nerfed in the past but it is still really strong, especially in this build ! You should now have completed realm 21 with 2 spare SPs.
Now many advanced players like to keep their builds consistent and stick to a “Theme”, which is a great way to play the game once you’re more experienced and kind of constitutes its own kind of Roleplaying ? However our goal here is to WIN, the game is already hard enough so we are going to pick up a spell that will help us in the fight against Mordred since it is often a tough one for Conjuration builds.
You’re going to pick up blik and purchase its blindcasting, max charges and range upgrades, and enter the Mordred fight with 1SP.
Late game purchases in short :
Spider Queen
Spider Queen - Aether Queen
Void Spikes
Blink
Blink - Blindcasting
Blink - Range
Blink - Max Charges
Mordred :
This is going to be quite a long fight and you’ll be spamming summons then using blink to escape danger AND pick up mana potions. Each mana potion is a gift so don’t miss out on them ! Don’t get close to Mordred ( even though the Lions’ shields will protect you from dark touch), learn what his spells do and keep an eye on his cooldowns.
Don’t use too many summon charges at once, as you’ll lose most of them each 12 turns. Blue lions are precious because they defend you. Use blink offensively to get close - not too close - to Mordred and spam summons around him, Fae Court in particular hurts a lot when concentrated on a single enemy. You should have a lot of health potions - use them !
This and the late game are the hardest parts of the run, you’ll probably lose a few times before succeeding. Don’t be discouraged !
CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR FIRST WIN !
I ) The OP Blue Lion Part 2
Either steam guides sections are short or I write too much !
Honorable mentions / possible improvements / alternatives :
Shatter Shards ( actually extremely good with Stormcaller )
Prince of Ruin ( works on storm clouds, wolves, Cracklevoid, itself, and shatter shards’ physical damages if you picked it up )
Venom spit + Spider Spawning ( Aether Spiders are not nature type though )
Icy vengeance
Wolf - Wolf Pack + Ice Hound
Faery Queen - Num Summons upgrade instead of queen since starting faeries benefit from shrines etc
II ) Dragon Rage
This one I think is the easiest to play. There is very little decision making and the battles are very short.
Early game ( Realms 1 through 12 ) :
The first realms of this build might actually be the hardest ones so don’t hesitate to use all your mana potions in the first 5 realms, you won’t be needing a lot of those later !
Start with Fireball, enter the second realm on a memory orb and buy Ice Drake. At the end of Realm 4, buy Arcane Drake.
Try to always summon the same type of drakes for now, as they can damage each other. Clear the distance enemies with your fireball as your Drakes don’t have any means of healing by now.
At the end of Realm 6 you can buy Dragon Lord, providing your drakes with tankiness, damage and 3 additional charges !
You should then buy Fire Drake upon entering realm 8 to make this purchase even more efficient.
There are then 2 extremely important skills to purchase in any order, Scalespinner and Pyrophilia. Scalespinner allow your drakes to be hit less by the others, and also to resist many enemies. Pyrophilia provides them with a TON on regen especially on open maps, as long as you have 1 or 2 fire drakes.
I prefer to grab Scalespinner before as I don’t like to be mixing Fire and Ice Drakes when they still have -50% resistance to the other’s element.
You’re then going to be purchasing the Dragon Roar Spell, especially for the breath reduction cooldown. It is very important because your Drakes will spend less time running at your enemies to land a melee attack. You should be easily rolling through rifts by now !
Don’t forget to use your fireball since it heals your drakes for each target it hits ! Stay really far away from enemies that can grab you as you don’t want to be frozen and killed by your own drakes...
Early game purchases in short :
Fireball
Ice Drake
Void Drake
Dragon Lord
Fire Drake
Scalespinner
Pyrophilia
Dragon Roar
Mid and Late game ( Realms 13 through 24 ) :
Again you have a powerful core build that could go in some different directions, many of those getting you to a win.
You’re going to buy Steam Anima at the end of Realm 14. It procs easily thanks to Ice Drakes, and Steam Elementals resist breaths with Scalespinner and deal more fire damage to heal your Drakes.
Take Gold Drake and its Dragon Mage upgrade to heal your Drakes even more. Don’t summon them all at once so that they don’t cast Healing Light at the same time.
At the end of Realm 20 you can buy Holy Water which will give you and your drakes shields, then the Essence Dragon of the Void Drake will make your Steam Elementals last longer.
Then during the last rifts you’re going to buy Blink -> Blindcasting -> Range and try to gather the SPs for the Max Charges upgrade during the Mordred fight.
Mid and Late game purchases in short :
Steam Anima
Gold Drake
Gold Drake - Dragon Mage
Void Drake - Essence Dragon
Blink
Blink - Blindcasting
Blink - Range
Mordred :
Not an easy fight. Just constantly spam summon drakes even if it’s discouraging. Similar to the Blue Lion build fight except you do not have a reliable shield source.
Honorable mentions / possible improvements / alternatives :
Minion Regeneration can go a long way especially as an early purchase ( after Dragon Lord though )
Arch Conjurer
Word of Chaos
Stormdrake + Stormcaller + Shatter Shards + Prince of Ruin etc
Other stuff to make the Mordred fight easier ?
III ) Dark And Fire Nightmare
Nightmare Aura is a nice spell that clears the board very efficiently and you could pick it up in any build that struggles with early game, but it can also synergize very strongly with some spells.
This build is really strong since it relies on two different strategies to conquer the board.
Early game ( Realms 1 through 8 ) :
You’re going to start with Fireball, then pick up nightmare aura. You can reset your game until you get either an Arcane, Dark, or enchantment circle in the second floor, that way Nightmare Aura and its 3 basic upgrades will cost you only 5 SPs ! ( I went through the struggle of playing without it in order to write this guide, 8 SPs spent, never again… )
You should buy Radius then Duration then Max Charges. Without any circle this will be done by realm 3, and at the end of realm 4 you will be able to purchase Ghostfire.
Now that’s a really strong and funny skill that will spawn a fire ghost each time an enemy is hit by fire and dark in the same turn. You got it : fire ball + nightmare aura = ghost army. Funny thing is ghosts hit with fire so they will generate more ghosts themselves. Try not to run into big enemies with fire resist and you should be fine and have some fun !
Small tip for enchantment spells : you can click on a rift portal, exit the preview with escape, use the spell, then press i to interact with the portal and enter it. This way you can enter the rift with your spell already active and you don’t waste one more turn by walking to the portal.
At the end of realm 6 (or upon entering it on an orb) you can purchase The Restless Dead spell that will raise undeads when living enemy creatures die.
From now on you should always try to enter realms with either no fire resist or a lot of living creatures (watch out for vampire spawners !!!)
At the end of realm 7 buy the Hungry Dead skill to give a dark attack to all of your undeads. This will make spawning fire ghosts even easier !
The build is already up and running and you should already be terrorising your opponents with ghosts and skeletons …
Early game purchases in short :
Fire ball
Nightmare Aura
Nightmare Aura - Radius
Nightmare Aura - Duration
Nightmare Aura - Max Charges
Ghostfire
The Restless Dead
Hungry Dead
Mid and Late game ( Realms 9 through 24 ) :
You’re used to it, this is an efficient build template that could go in many directions.
We’re going to take it to the suffering way (not for us don't worry).
End of Realm 9 : Dark lord is already useful, especially since it will upgrade damages from skeletons, ghosts, as well as the Hunger attack provided by the Hungry dead skill.
Also grab the Duration upgrade of The Restless Dead and don’t forget to use it again once it runs out.
At the end of realm 12, buy the Void Spikes skill (free damage on all hits on your skeletons and ghosts).
The Fever Dream upgrade of the Nigtmare Aura is honestly great in this build and allows you to deal fire damage even when you run out of charges on your Fire Ball
In realm 16, Soul Tax will give you the ability to quickly take down a huge living creature to quickly get chunky skeletons, as well as some healing.
Soul Harvest will provide you with basically infinite charges for your dark spells.
Word of undeath is an incredible spell that will double every undead’s HPs and halve the HPs of all living units. You can spam it thanks to Soul Harvest and get your skeletons to absurd amounts of health.
Icy vengeance then deals a portion of your skeleton’s max health when they die. I’m sure you understand the synergy with Word of Undeath !
Always try to prioritise getting health and health potions now since you should be pretty non-reliant on mana.
You can then pick up whatever, I chose Touch of death because it helps me kill strong enemies.
Mid and Late Game purchases in short :
Dark Lord
The Restless Dead - Duration
Void Spikes
Nightmare Aura - Fever Dream
Soul Tax
Soul Harvest
World of Undeath
Icy Vengeance
Touch of Death
Mordred :
THE FIGHT AGAINST MORDRED IS VERY EASY.
Just spam Words of undeath and kill nearby enemies with soul tax, with this build you don’t really need any mobility !
Honorable mentions / possible improvements / alternatives :
Necrostatics + chain lightning + lightning shield
Fiery Tormentor (risky) + disperse so you can send it away if it hurts you
Other fire spells to trigger ghostfire but it should not oneshot the target and fireball is handy enough
Searing Heat allows you to spawn fire ghosts easily aswell
Melting Armor
Twilight Gaze to reduce Dark resists
Conclusion
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the builds, feel free to comment or contact me on the game's discord ! My name there is "R1". As an intermediate player I might be taking some decisions “instinctively” and not detailing them enough in the guide.
I almost lost my pleasure to play the game while dodging every circle and shrine but I think in the end it was worth it !
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2613121050
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