| Name of the file: Striving for Light: Survival Cheat Codes - Author: DAV |
| Striving for Light: Survival Cheat Codes: ------------ Submitted by: David K. Hints: ------ Written by Jean Everything here is opinion. Everything here will be disagreed with by someone, sometime vehemently. That's okay. -=Bursting Wield and Bursting Shot=- Do not underestimate those chaining On Death skill. The damage is low and it doesn't scale well but their range is huge. Often only one or two kill is needed to start a chain reaction that will destroy an entire pack of monster instantly. One skill point is enough, after getting a good AoE skill. -=Fragmentation=- An alternative to the two previous "On Death" skill mentioned above for Ranged characters. It's a pretty bad Skill in the first waves but it can absolutely clear a screen full of enemy in the last few waves. -=Picking a good Area of Effect skill (Basics)=- Should be your number one priority after Wave 1 is complete. This is particularly important if you start with a character who very weak initially but strong later. If you have only 1 or 2 heart, a good beginning will involve getting at least one extra heart and one good area of effect skill. If you're Melee: Double Hit (general skill) and Explosive Hit (unlockable) are your bread and butter. Clash of Steel (unlockable) isn't that great but it's stronger base damage help make up for its shorter range (but bigger AoE) and 50% Chance on Attack. * If you're Ranged: Explosive Projectile (unlockable) is your best option. If not available or not unlocked yet, Additional Projectile combined with Attack Speed (general skill) and Projectile Multiplier (unlockable) will help you get started. Unfortunately, the area of effect options for ranged tend to be of the... shudder... damage over time variety. * If you're open to picking the best option based on the situation: Even better. Often a good skill of the opposite damage option is better than a bad skill of your focused damage option. * If you're a Summoner: That's a bit beyond the scope of this guide... try getting more chickens or something. -=Damage over Time=- They are terrible sources of damage, requiring too much pointless specialization. Pick them for fun and experimentation, not for power. This might change if skills that reduce the time between their tick rate are introduced but right now those skills don't exist. Fire is not as bad as Poison. I'd rather have monster die instantly but if I have to wait, I'd rather wait 1 second rather than 3. Makes sense to me anyway. -=Ranged is better=- As a general rule, in the current balance. This is not to say you should play ranged, just that it's good to know if you have some trouble with the game. * Heleja start with roughly 7 skill point worth of skills while other characters have between -2 to +2. * Dark Staff, Focus and Lighting Staff all multiply your damage. Every other wand is terrible compared to them in term of raw maximum damage. * Melee skills are at their best when they work for your Ranged Skills. By example using Scattering Hit or Scattering Sweep, melee skills which fire multiple full damage projectiles. Both of those skill can also be fired from two powerful melee abilities: Trembling Ground or Ranged Construct. * Use Double Hit to fire even more Scattering Hit or Scattering Sweep. * ... but wait, there's more! Since you're ranged, you don't have to (if you don't want) pay attention to Melee weapon damage. You are free to use a quick weapon like a dagger to use your "Melee" ranged-based skills even faster. -=There is a limit to chained combo=- This vary enormously and is hard coded depending on the skills used. In general that limit is, roughly, three. That is to say, by example: Scattering Sweep -> Cutting Shot -> Scattering Sweep -> No more. This is not a rule but more of a very rough guideline. * As of writing the game is still in heavy development. Last week your weapon effect transmitted to Scattering skills. No more :( Unless it's changed... again! * Range Construct is the ultimate of Ranged builds. The damage penalty is a joke, maybe 3 damage lower with a typical wand... but the attack speed penalty is worth 3.3 Attack Speed Increase skill nodes. So you'll probably want to wait until you're around at least ~120 Attack Speed before activating "Range Construct". Which vary of course, based on the speed of your Ranged weapon. -=What about melee?=- * There is no good "melee" character. Goladir has a bonus of 50% damage, which is not even a single skill point worth of Increased Melee Damage. In other words: The best melee character is also Heleja. As of time of writing, anyway. * That being said Goladir is a brick and Heleja is made out of paper, so do what you want, there are other character to unlock and pick if you like them which is what really matter. * Unlock the Hammer quickly. It's the ranged weapon equivalent of having a "damage multiplier" built-in. Other weapons can be cute but they are usually not as versatile as the good ol' hammer. * Double Hit is your bread and butter damage multiplier. Once unlocked Explosive Hit are nodes to include and pick too. * Similarly to a Ranged build using Ranged Construct, a Melee Construct will almost always give the best results in the endgame. Trembling Ground used to be good, until 24 hours ago, now it's the second best option. Boomerang and Cyclic are for fun, not power. |