What this changes in a fight
You live longer if the parry lands, and you move faster while spirits stay on you. Getting hit dumps the spirits and, if you took Rage Spirits, also dumps the damage they were adding.
The three buttons
- Left click attacks.
- Right click or F blocks. A parry is the block that meets the swing.
- Q rolls on the ground and air-dashes in the air. Guides say you can hold up to three air-dash charges and that dashes spend the yellow stamina bar.
- E is the weapon ability in boot camp and later combat notes. Activating an ability slows you for about a second, then the skill fires.
Guides describe a spacing rhythm: dash, touch the ground, jump, dash again. Enemies show a yellow mark when they see you and a red mark as the swing starts. Dash when it turns red.
What a parry does
Holding block as the attack lands stuns the attacker. Guides put the next-hit bonus between 1.5x and 2x and say the target is Vulnerable. One combat note says parrying a projectile sends it back. Spears are called out as weapons that cannot parry. Version 2.0.4 added colored flashes: blue for parry, white for dodge, green for heal, purple for shield.
World 4 has exceptions. Gatekeeper and Korth use attacks that guides mark unavoidable. Q's invincibility does not cover those. You step out of the marker or break line of sight.
Spirits
Defeated enemies drop spirits, shown as white dots. They raise move speed. Bosses can drop a red orb that counts as two. An unblocked hit makes you drop what you are holding. Clyde's boot camp line matches that rule.
Banner picks
Between rooms you choose one of three random upgrades. This ordering is a community ranking for solo and heroic runs, not an official list.
| Band | Upgrades | Why they are grouped there |
|---|---|---|
| Take first | Rage Spirits, Spirit Capacity, Stamina | Damage scales with spirits, capacity is capped at 6 in that guide, stamina means more dashes |
| Strong | Flame, Life Steal, Recovery | Flame is listed as 21 burn damage over 3 ticks and ignores armor. Life Steal heals on orb pickup. Recovery shortens skill cooldowns |
| Situational | Poison, Elemental Circle | Poison is listed as 15.8 damage over 2 ticks. Elemental Circle is an aura of burn, poison, or freeze |
| Low | Frost, Health Boost | Frost is listed as 10.4 damage over 4 ticks. Flat health matters less once you stop getting hit |
| Skip unless forced | Agility, Thorns | Dodge chance is inconsistent. Thorns only pays when you take the hit that also drops your spirits |
If Rage Spirits is active, a hit that drops spirits also drops your damage until you pick orbs back up.