When you first boot up the game and click start, you'll have to choose a difficulty. There will be a breakdown later regarding difficulty. In short, stats are cranked up for enemies. After choosing your difficulty, you'll only have access to one class to start off with. This is the berserker class. He starts with a curse (Brand of Sacrifice), a "One-Hundred-Man Slayer" and an unwavering determination.

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Now, you're finally into the game. You'll get thrust into the hub area. In this area there isn't much to do right now. You could try talking to Helena, but she won't have much to say. Instead, follow the purple message circles on the ground. These will lead you to Divino and the Dungeon. Before venturing in through the portal, I would advise you press the pause button and look for the "shuffle combo" option. Turn that on and make your way to Divino. He will explain much of what this section will cover in his dialogue so feel free to read that instead of reading the other sections. This should present you with a combo tutorial as well as how the shuffle combos work. To put it simply, the shuffle combo is a way to see different combos that are available to you, I think you have to finish a combo for a new one to pop up. Completing the shuffle combos, or any combo, rewards combo points. Accumulate enough combo points and your combo level will increase. I believe this increases your damage and gives you invincibility frames. Utilizing shuffle combos to do this might be good practice as there is a modifier later utilizes that game mechanic. Regardless, enter the dungeon, fight some enemies, succeed or fail, it doesn't matter. You'll see the different enemies and what they have to offer. This is a good introduction into the game. It'll give you a brief introduction into combat and combos, if you play well, it'll have you go into 3 of the available areas (see areas section) and just let you experiment with the game mechanics.

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When it comes to combat, it's important you know what tools you have available for you to use. These are the following actions you can take in combat:

This is your standard move, you swing your sword, axe, halberd, etc. Sometimes in an arc, sometimes a thrust and sometimes a whirlwind. Going to be used frequently, especially when trying to execute combos.
A damaging move that is also crucial for movement. This move, especially when combined with some skills, can make this a very strong utility for handling any situation. On top of that, it remains a vital piece of combos.
It's there. Some combos use it, it provides very good knock-back. Not the most useful but handy in a pinch
Probably the single strongest action you can take in combat. Blocking at the right time causes a massive shockwave, boosts the combo meter and stuns every enemy in proximity. On top of that, when you attack after a parry, you get an enhanced attack that I am calling a "riposte". This is probably what will carry you through the early stages on torment.
If you have great anticipation and reflexes you might do fine in the combat alone. However, once you add scares, frost, blood pools, and waves of enemies; Movement determines whether or not you live or die. You can use some of your other actions to create space but being able to identify windows to maneuver will keep you alive more than blocking or parrying. Used in conjunction, you're unstoppable.

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Every class and weapon has a variety of combos available to them. After performing all of the actions in a specific sequence, the last action performs a special attack.. You can always see the list of combos by pausing and viewing the menu on the right side of the screen. Combos look like this:


Combos also have tags associated with them that describe what attack is performed. A few notable tags include:

Keep an eye out for those tags as they interact with skills that you can acquire.
Now you're probably wondering how to actually perform a combo. Here is a breakdown of what each icon means:



Using those icons and our combo from earlier we need to:
(Shift) Bash -> (Spacebar) Kick -> (R) Ability -> (Left Click) Whirlwind

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There are a wide range of enemies that are unique to each area. Those specific enemies will be discussed in the Areas and Their Enemies[ /b] section. This section focuses on how enemies behave and the special infusions they can spawn with.

Enemy Attack Behaviors

This is ripped from this developer post:
https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/news/app/1494810/view/4525647157467807969?l=english

In short, there are 4 different states for enemies to exist in:

Wander

Originally posted by Nikola Todorovic (Creator):

Works similar to as before, an idle state before the enemy sees the player

Pursue

Originally posted by Nikola Todorovic (Creator):

is the most sophisticated behaviour, taking different routes to the player, alternating between run and walk, and judging the best attack range for each attack. It will also react to your movements, walking backwards or strafing depending on your position.

Retreat

Originally posted by Nikola Todorovic (Creator):

happens either when the enemy has no available attacks, or after a ranged enemy attacks. It will try to find the best route away from the player. This dynamic adds a lot of strategic consideration where you must either bash to close the distance, risking moving into a bad spot with other enemies, or take your time to reposition and find a better angle.

Flail

Originally posted by Nikola Todorovic (Creator):

is the new headless behaviour. Enemies will move about and rotate in random directions while swinging wildy. Healdess enemies feel no pain, so they can't be stunned and will attack until killed. Sometimes, headless makes the enemy more dangerous than it was before so it's more important now to consider which limbs to remove based on your current position and situation.

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Special Enemy Types

Each area has their own subset of enemies, except for knights which I think appear on multiple stages. Usually this means there are at least 4 unique enemies. 3 regular mobs and one unique elite one. Just to be clear, these are not regular enemies that are large, but rather a unique enemy that is usually larger than most of the regular ones.

Sometimes these elites, and regular enemies, can spawn infused with buffs. There are 4 types that each have a special effect.

Frost (Blue)

These enemies conjure an aoe frost effect which slows all of your actions down (block, attack, movespeed). When they die, they leave behind the frost effect.

Minis (Gold)

These enemies sometimes spawn in miniature versions of themselves on death. I say sometimes because I have not found it to be consistent.

Before:

After:

Angry Guy (Red)

I honestly don't have a clear idea of what this one does, my assumption is that the mob deals way more damage and maybe takes less. Need to investigate more.

(insert picture)

Shield (& Maybe Scares) (Purple)

This enemy periodically gains a shield that prevents all damage. I think it might spawn based on damage done over a period of time.So if you deal a lot of damage quickly, it will spawn a shield to protect the enemy. It could just be coincidence but I tend to get scares more often when they guys spawn.

There are several areas to choose from when routing. They will be covered under the Areas and Enemies section. The important thing to know is that you cannot enter the same area twice in the same run. I.E. you cannot go from Dungeon -> Dungeon or Dungeon -> Cave -> Dungeon.

Looking at the progress screen which can be opened with (T), we see a bunch of icons. Here is a breakdown of what this means.



The blue line indicates where we have already been and explored.

The yellow line indicates what options are left for us to choose going forward.

The values under each box (A-1, B-3, C-5) are floors of an area.
"My run ended at C-5!"
"Darn, you almost made it to the Maw"

I have successfully completed every floor so I have a flag but the icon will either be a broken flag to indicate you got somewhere and didn't pass that floor, the starting icon (Which I can't remember as it's been so long, Author please update.) Or a special quest icon. We will go over quests at a later point but just know they are an optional challenge that reward powerful boons.

The quest icon will change to have a check to indicate you completed the quest, or a red x to indicate you failed the event

Finally, the icons under each floor are permanent upgrades that you keep between runs if you successfully complete that floor. I will list the rewards under the Permanent Upgrades section.

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Completing a floor in a given area for the first time awards a permanent upgrade to help you in your runs.

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Quests are events that happen once you go to a given floor of an area. They usually award powerful buffs, upgrades to existing equipment, Essence or to manipulate curses. There is never a time when you should skip one of these, the events while challenging, catapult you forward in your capacity for carnage. Below is a breakdown of all of the Quests that I know to exist in the game at this time.

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This section is a work in progress as the game does not have a compendium of enemies. Instead I have to manually die to each enemy to see what actually killed me.
All of the areas can host the same quests (See quests section) and same rewards for completing a (floor) but differ in their inclusion of unique enemies, traps, and layouts. Each time you complete one of the major areas you are completing either A-B-C or Maw. Each area has 5 (floors) associated with it. After completing floor 1, you get a skill. Floor 2 is the option of taking a curse for better rewards. Then repeat for 3 and 4. On floor five, it ends with a battle arena. After that you open up the exit. You might think the reward is the potential for chests and bodies to loot but it's actually the sweet sweet blue portal back to the hub. That's where you can gamble spend your hard earned yellow essence.


This will most likely be the first area you encounter when you start the game. It is the furthest from spawn and right next to Divino. Made mostly of stone and eyes (you'll know what I mean.) This is probably the easiest area simply because of the zombie enemy.





Very weak, saunters towards you, slow low damage attack with arms.


Shoots fireballs, annoying, can sometimes hit enemies for you!


One track, heat-seeking, fast moving attacker. These guys catch up quick and hurt a lot more than zombies if you get hit by them.

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The second area you will most likely venture into. Made primarily of cobble stone, the cave's blue tone and dark aesthetic gives rise to mummified enemies.

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The third area you unlock. Not many trees to encounter while you're here, this area presents slowing roots, spring loaded branches and a claustrophobic environment. It has enemies with scythes, a weird bigfoot monster that flings skulls at you.

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The vessel in question is a seemingly very large pirate ship. This ship spans several floors and comes with an included cursed black pearl crew. Skeletons roam the decks and they come with guns, cannons, and wall mounted cannons. Did I mention they have cannons? Oh and bombs too.

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This area is one "floor" that is a simple battle arena with a few pillars included. Besides the skeletons that are thankfully not armed with cannons, you get to be in view of the main bad guy of the game, Enimatik. He will watch over as you will face waves of enemies that get progressively more difficult. This area is unique in that you can visit it after each other area you complete. If I finish A-5 and make it back to the hub, you unlock the first trial of resolve. Complete B-5, second trial, and so on. These award a skill of choice as well as tons of sin essence.

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The final area of the game. A simple path of blood and viscera awaits you as you drive straight towards "the boss." After passing through two arenas chalk full of the hardest enemies in the game, you see a hulking mass of flesh and bones, an amalgamation of gore. He also has a big sword.

Helena is one of the few characters you can interact with throughout the game. She has dialogue, a questline, and game mechanics. This guide won't go over the dialogue and lore behind her character but what she adds to the gameplay. In short, she has 3 primary interactions with gameplay. Quest rewards, Oaths, and a secret reward that is necessary to fight the final boss. In the Oaths section we will go over the modifiers they bring. In the quests section we go over what quests exist. In this section I'll mention briefly the rewards for completing quests

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• Upgrade your choice of current weapon
  
• Upgrade your choice of current armor (You only get 3 of the 4 armor types)
  
• Choose a powerful weapon type and then choose one from 3 versions of that weapon
  
• Choose a powerful armor type and then choose one from 3 versions of that armor
  
• Purge a curse
  
• Get a large amount of Essence
  
• Max out a base skill

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As you progress with Helena, besides dialogues you will eventually unlock something called Oaths. Oaths are modifiers to your run that change the dynamic of the run, not necessarily in a good or bad way. Just different. The current Oaths can be found below:

The following content was taken from the following post: https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/news/app/1494810/view/541109583272215073?l=english

🧩 Fractured Realm
Each level becomes a branching puzzle of floor plates and locked rooms.
Rewards and traps appear more frequently.
Rooms from other areas always appear at the end of branching paths.
Portal rooms are longer and have branching paths.

🔥 Crucible Path
Each area has fewer rooms.
All rooms are replaced with arena battles.
Bosses drop up to 3 skill chests per arena battle.

💨 Divine Grace
Your block is replaced with a dodge.
Dodges consume guard meter and grant brief invincibility.
Dodging in time triggers a dodge parry.
Your next attack becomes a slow power strike dealing 400% bonus damage.

😱 Feast of Fright
Scares occur more frequently.
Scares have a chance to spawn Sinful Essence, up to 5 per level.

🧠 Gift of Insight
Equipment no longer provides stats.
All equipment grants skill stacks increasing with rarity.

💪 Gift of Might
Equipment no longer grants skills.
All equipment provides +50% increased stats.
Your stat limits are increased by 10%.

🕳 Hollow Tribute
Loot rooms no longer appear during the run.
Gain +30% more gold essence.

🌕 Providence Path
Each level becomes a long winding corridor.
Loot appears in each corridor and improves the farther you go.

⚔️ Sacred Flow
Only Shuffle Combos generate combo meter.
Combo meter gain is doubled when performing a Shuffle Combo.

🛡 Sacred Reflex
Parries have a much stricter timing window.
Parries grant more combo meter and unleash a shockblast.

💎 Snare of Avarice
Each room is either filled with traps or filled with rewards.
Breakable objects have a chance to drop loot chests.

🧬 Twisted Lineage
Enemies are randomized in each room.
Gain +15% chance to find rare items.

Alchemist
Armor Mastery
Bloodthirst
Brawler
Chains Of Ice
Combo Mastery
Devils Luck
Frenzy
Haste
Juggernaut
Light Foot
Mental Fortitude
Overpower
Perfectionist
Precision
Resilience
Ruin
Savagery
Shared Misery
Spell Dance
Temporal Rift
Vigor
Vitality
Weapon Mastery
Wizards Touch

Berserker Rage
Bloody Palm
Body Slam
Cheat Death
Clarity
Deliverance
Echo
Escape Artist
Fists Of Steel
Focused Strike
Fracture
Headhunter
Hot Streak
Icy Veins
Indomitable Spirit
Inner Fire
Iron Grip
Judgement
Mana Battery
Mana Shield
Manifest Weapon
Power Infusion
Quake
Quick Step
Reactive Mind
Regenerator
Roundhouse Kick
Sin Ward
Soul Cleave
Soul Siphon
Thorns
Trapper
Unyielding Faith
Volatility
Vortex
Waveblade

Fractured / Echo / A Projectile of choice- Keep in mind that this might crash your game. Actually anything fractured/echo may crash your game. Too many fractured getting echo lags your game, if those projectiles hit an enemy.....Just be careful with this

Below is a breakdown of the strengths, weaknesses, tips, and what I think are the best skills for a given class.


Very strong class, very good starter class at that. Starts with the Brand of Sacrifice curse which basically makes enemies run at you from a further distance. Definitely not much of a downside at all.

Dash forward and gain invulnerability on your next attack. Cooldown is reduced by doing non-whirlwind attacks.

• Vortex
  
• Berserker Rage
  
• Shared Misery
  
• Judgement

Generally, I use the whirlwind combo (Bash, Kick, Ability, Attack) with the ability. Otherwise using any of the other combos in between ability cooldowns are very strong with the Hundred Man Slayer. You have good reach and damage. Keep in mind that while berserker makes you invulnerable, it doesn't usually last as long as the whirlwind.

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Slow to start class. Requires getting some good weapons and skills to make the reaper really shine. While a class like berserker is usually relevant at all stages with whatever skills he picks up, reaper needs to play a bit more carefully as he doesn't have the health, or damage, to run through enemies until later in the run.
Gain invincibility and saw through enemies. (Spawns a saw a small distance away from the reaper which sticks to the center of the screen. Enemies can be hit by this ability and take very fast tick damage.)

• Vortex
  
• Shared Misery
  
• Judgement

SPIN TO WIN. That's what reaper is all about. He can whirlwind after every attack. Anything that helps you kill enemies in an AOE is valuable to pick up. Once you get rolling he is a beast. If you stack vortex you don't even have to play the game. It's actually unfair.

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Defense. Vitality, and Invincibility. Get as much of that as you can and you will dominate. Transcendence is a S tier skills but with the long cooldown that Paladin has on his Ability, he gets more value than most with that skill.
While active, blocking or bashing shoots holy yellow beams in front of you.

• Perfectionist
  
• Quick Step
  
• Body Slam
  
• Sin Ward

Stack defensive traits. The best one is probably sin ward as you are going to be parrying/blocking A LOT. Body slam is also important to reposition. Time to get good at right clicking :P

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FALCON...PUNCH. Ability after ability...(are you sensing a theme?). A martial arts master who creates shockwaves with her punches. She detonates mini-nukes with every punch. She is the first person I beat enimatik with
Go invincible while you perform a high damage uppercut that causes an explosion[/h3]

• Fists of Steel
  
• Roundhouse Kick
  
• Hot Streak

Spam dragon punch. Absurdly strong. The real tech though is stacking luck and attack, getting hot streak, a caestus, and the dodge oath. This is basically the pieces of Exodia for monk. One shot almost every single enemy in the game. Perfectly dodging grants a 400% retaliation attack, crits double damage (need to verify this) and hot streak takes that damage and increases it by a further 200% damage. In other words (((damage * 4) * 2 ) * 2.4). Throw in the damage of dragon punch and you are annihilating anything in range. Currently the strongest character right now IMO.

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Can purge curses without losing out on damage