INTRODUCTION:
Shadow of the Depth (SOTD) is an action RPG rogue-lite. You can view a review of the game here. In this article we will go over general tips for the game to help you progress and complete the game. This guide is completed with Arthur as the main focus. However, some general tips may apply to any class in the game. If you’re looking for a review of the game, you can check out this article.
SKILL BOOKS (POWER UPS):
The most important aspect of your build will come in the form of the skill books (power ups) that you select. Firstly, dragon’s heart (increases health) and any power ups that allow you to increase your max health points (HP) are always helpful. Having more HP allows more room for errors. In addition to this reliable ways to gain a shield can go a long way. Being able to gain and re-gain a shield can mitigate a lot of damage and keep you at full health. In addition, items that reduce damage like melee, mob or boss damage help a lot in your overall ability to survive.
On the attack side the biggest difference I found was prioritizing my gold coins on skill books (and dragon’s hearts) vs weapons. For skill books specifically, the most effective type of power ups are those with on attack effects that affect damage. Anything that creates another source of damage when you attack can be powerful. By grabbing a few of these and leveling them up you’ll be able to stack up a lot of damage. For example, you can gain power ups that allow you to shoot projectiles, deal elemental damage on hit and also create damage over time effects (like a cold aura or a fire trail when you walk). In addition, anything that increases attack power can also be very potent. For instance, dragon knight will increase both your attack power and HP. This adds up to a very significant amount throughout the game especially if you grab it early. All of these sources of damage can stack and this is how you can melt mobs and bosses. In addition, to on attack effects, anything that increases damage to bosses (or single targets) and mobs specifically is usually a good choice. For support skills I prefer something with crowd control like a stun. Executing your combo and then using a stun can be enough to wipe out a mob before it has a chance to even touch you.
For a secondary weapon something with high burst damage and/or mobility is really helpful. This can then become part of your combo and/or give you another option to avoid damage. Most weapons from other classes are viable. I did however find that the channel abilities (magic orb) to be less useful per MP used. In addition, some pet summons (that allow multiple summons like 6 hawks) were amazing while others were very lackluster in survivability and damage.
Lastly, for ultimates, I prefer a damaging ultimate vs a survivability one. Each type can have its uses. The damaging ones can also help with surviving as the faster you can kill a dangerous mob the less chance it has to attack you. A survivability ultimate can be helpful when you are new to the game and have issues dodging or blocking/parrying damage.
TALENTS:
The most important meta-progression tool is in the form of talents. Unlocking certain talents early will help you boost your overall progress. Important talents to consider unlocking early:
Support: unlocks other characters’ weapons
Statue: allows statues to appear (weapon upgrades, ability to buy runes and healing)
Rune Statue: allows you to buy runes
Innate Strength: allows ultimate to store multiple charges
Fast Movement: allows you to position more easily to avoid damage
Focus Choice: allows more skill book options
Possibility: allows you to re-roll skill books
Attack Enhancement: Increases your base attack
HP Enhancement: Increases your base HP
RUNES:
There are a wide selection of runes and due to the random nature it can take a long time to get the right ones. So far the most helpful runes are those that help you deal with bosses. This can include things that allow you to ignore their physical or magical defense. In addition, runes that increase damage to bosses are also helpful. Things like menace that increase your damage as the number of enemies decrease around you. Next, survivability runes can also help a lot. Anything that reduces damage from mobs or bosses. Lastly, items that augment the amount of treasure/gold that is available like increasing the number of chests can help you gain more gold/items in a run.
SETTINGS:
There are a few settings you may want to adjust. The first is the lock setting. This is listed in the settings menu under battle. You can select the lock type. This will adjust how the system auto targets enemies. I found that the best setup for me was to switch it to none. It was a bit confusing with auto as the system may select an enemy that you do not want to target and can mess up your attack or block. The other setting you may want to adjust is the loot details. This is under settings and then UI. You can select how much information is shown when you hover over loot. This can make it more convenient for you and match your preference.
MOBS:
As you progress, the mobs become more dangerous. Learn their move sets and which enemies need to be prioritized. It also helps to know when to rotate through your skills and use crowd control or ultimate abilities. In general, enemies that shoot projectiles or charge at you should be prioritized first so they dont chip away at your health while you are fighting others. Also know when to back off. As you venture further, often mobs become chained together drawing you in further into a non-stop fight. If it’s getting too chaotic, back off and tackle one section at a time. Certain skill books can help a lot with mobs. Things like dropping a frost nova every few kills works wonders to damage and crowd control a group. In relation to that, abilities that stun or paralyze an enemy can keep dangerous enemies unable to act.
BOSSES:
Most of the bosses are some form of a DPS check. Meaning the higher your overall damage the easier the fight will be. If you’ve been able to stack certain power ups that have been mentioned above you should have the right amount of damage. If you are struggling with a boss lean their move set so that you can avoid most of their most damaging attacks. This is where focusing on dragon’s hearts to increase your health will help a lot. You’ll also want to be more conservative in MP use if you are having trouble so that you have enough MP to block attacks.
First Boss: Learn their move and attack set. This will allow you to understand when you can attack them and avoid damage. It’s not too complicated but you should be able to block or dodge most of the attacks.
Second Boss: This encounter is all about understanding each phase. There will be phases when the boss can not be damaged. During these phases, you need to avoid the obstacles that can drop on you. When mobs are added, try to deal damage both to the boss and the mobs. Otherwise, you will ended up killing the mobs but not damaging the boss. Lastly, the trickiest aspect is avoiding the boss’s ability to pull you in. If you have enough HP, this shouldn’t be an issue at all.
Third Boss: This encounter is fairly straight forward. Once again you should be able to dodge and block most of its attacks. Once it’s HP reaches a low level it will spawn a copy of itself. Nothing too tricky here. If you are having issues with this boss, most likely you need more HP or damage mitigation and/or higher DPS. Once your DPS is at a certain level, the fight isn’t too tough.
EXAMPLE BUILD 1: High HP + On attack effects
An example build is displayed below. As you can see dragon’s heart can help with overall survivability. This is a very tank build with damage through on hit effects. This can be helpful if you are new. DPS is increased with menace (higher damage when there are less enemies). In addition, on hit effects: chain lightning, gale shockwave, and spike storm all trigger while attacking. Other forms of passive damage include: blazing path. For mobs: gale shockwave (shoots projectiles if at max HP) and frost nova (trigger every 10 kills) help to clear packs easily. Crowd control is in the form of frost nova (freeze), lightning damage (paralyze) and the ultimate.
EXAMPLE BUILD 2: High attack (lower HP) + damage reduction
In the next example, we once again take a lot of dragon hearts but this time combine it with dragon knight (increases your HP less but also increases your attack power). You end up with a lot of attack power especially if you grab dragon knight early. At the final boss, I had 300+ attack power. The overall HP in this build is a lot lower (half as much as in build one) but damage is mitigated with armor enhancement (reduce flat amount of damage) and melee resistance (% melee damage reduction). Once again there are on attack effects from shockwave and static electric. Single target damage is increased with menace. This build still has very good survivability along with very high damage. This will easily melt bosses.
CONCLUSION:
Overall, by focusing on skill book selection, unlocking key talents and careful rune selection will help you progress through the game. Getting the right amount of DPS and survivability will enable you to finish all of the bosses. If you’re struggling in any area, be patient and learn the mechanics and analyze your build and skill book selection strategy. The learning curve in the game isn’t too difficult and with a few runs and experience in boss fights you’ll be able to finish them off.
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