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Version 2.1 Guide: Advanced Cultivation - High Crit Based On Soul Cores & Gears

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This time we’ll run through some of the new gears and Soul Cores, especially focusing on building a high critical attack style.

Four Elemental Debuffs

How do you release all four elemental debuff effects to the enemies? It’s easy in co-op mode; each teammate has a weapon of a different element to cover all four. In solo mode, you’ll always trigger your primary-element debuff but still need the other three.

You can rely on your armor’s ancient affix [when you cast a skill, having a chance to apply a random elemental debuff to the target], but it is too random; a more reliable way is to take different Soul Cores of each elemental debuff (using the Soul Core Substitution function to preserve affinity completion) and then use their Skill 1's elemental damage to apply the debuffs. Here are a few Soul Cores that are renowned for their strong sole capabilities:

Fire: The Dragon of the End (Mythic) and The Bombardment (Primal) both have the same skill 2 Extreme Blade, which boosts your ATK, making them incredibly versatile and easy to slot into almost any build.

Ice: The Deep Diver (Primal) delivers massive CD reduction in the early stage, letting you cycle light-and-heavy-weapon skills easily. The Deep Diver will lose elemental-damage boost on Skill 2, but their other benefits are enough to make up for that trade-off.

Thunder: The Allfather (Mythic) and The Immortal (Primal), both “Odin” variants with broad applicability. The Allfather is essential for crit-based builds based on its third skill’s huge critical-damage buff, while The Immortal gives you Extreme Blade on Skill 2 and a general elemental improvement on Skill 3, so it is very worthy to take.

Poison: The Monster Wolf (Mythic), The Wise One (Primal), Ymir Shell (Primal), and The Goddess of Youth (Mythic). Monster Wolf and Wise One both have Extreme Blade on Skill 2, Ymir Shell is essential for triggering crit, and Goddess of Youth offers sustained recovery, which is suitable for the early stage.

Summary: Take The Dragon of the End, The Deep Diver, The Allfather, and Ymir Shell to reliably trigger all four elemental debuffs.

Other Soul Core Choices

The God of the Moon. Lezard: As an essential Poisonous Soul Core, previous guide pointed out that Poisonous Core suffered from a lack of DMG reduced RES, but now with Lezard filling that gap. I’ll revisit the full Poisonous Core recommendation in more detail later.
The Moderator & The Goddess of Fertility: Both received an enhancement to their Skill 1 damage; just be aware that their skill range is fairly small, so you’ll want to release them right next to your target for maximum effect.

Gears & Sets Suggestions

Abstract: Optional upgrade; not mandatory.

“Chalky Sacred” Set

This set is gotten from the “Warrior Co-op: Cold Ice. Ancestor Shell” dungeon, Level 60 (40). Its four-piece bonus grants +15 % Critical Rate and +40 % Critical Damage, and its base stats are the same as the previous version’s Level 60 (10) Melted Iron Best-in-Slot gear, with the sole addition of 16 % All-elemental Damage Reduction. Consider the current version, pervasive damage overflow; this set is by no means a required upgrade. However, if you already possess three Mythic or Immortal gear with the “Set-1” affix, you may consider replacing the fourth piece with a Chalky Sacred gear to secure the extra Crit Damage boost.

“Blood Spirit Oath” Set

Got from the (Warrior Co-op – Thunderstorms. Skoll) dungeon, Level 60(40). Its four-piece bonus grants +5 % Attack and +22 % All Elemantal DMG. Although this set sounds generally useful, now we already have Twisted Meteor and Abyssal Prism, which increase higher sustain and DMG. The Nephesh slot is replaced by the Mythic Thunder Spirit Fox, offering extreme increasing skill damage, and the skill level improves. So, the Blood Spirit Oath Set sees almost no use once those alternatives are available and is recommended only as a short-term choise for new players until they secure Best-in-Slot gear.

Mythic Gear Gear

Abstract: It is recommended to reroll weapon affixes to optimize their attributes.

Light and Heavy Weapons

Compared to the previous version, the basic fixed affixes have received only marginal increases—insufficient to affect overall balance.

Chaos Slot

In high-output scenarios, Storm Heart outperforms Twisted Meteor.
Although Twisted Meteor was the Best-in-Slot chaos in the previous version, based on its exceptional sustain. However, by the introduction of the Talent—Fearless Warrior and unlocked cooldown-reduction attributes has greatly eased sustained concerns.
So, Storm Heart can be chosen as a transitional choice until you get higher-tier Immortal chaos.

Immortal Gear

Abstract: Strongly recommend to choose and rerolling the affixes.Chaos Slot – Abyssal Prism

Its permanent critical damage increase is very useful in the current version, where cooldown pressure is no longer an issue in the current version.
For players with insufficient Critical Rate, its 18 % Critical Rate increase is also useful.

Soul Core Build Recommendations for Each Elemental Style

For detailed strategies, please read my previous guide. This summary follows the same foundation; the only adjustment is to choose new Soul Cores based on your current Crit Rate (e.g., have you over 100%?).

Fire Soul Core Affinities

Unlocking Talent III greatly relaxes cooldown constraints on fire skills. By taking the Solar Eclipse and Divine Blaze affinities, you maximize your damage output, though these affinities need time to gradually stack their damage increase during combat and is not burst damage output.

Solar Eclipse: The Dragon of the End + The Sun Goddess
Divine Blaze: The Mortal Snake + The Bombardment
Judgment of Demonic Flame: The Lawvataine Creator + The Filthy Demon (equip The Filthy Demon in your soul core substitution)
Elegy of Nibelungen: The Solemn + The Dragonslayer (equip The Dragonslayer in soul core substitution; The Solemn serves as the reduction anchor and should at the front of skill combo)
Crossroads of Fate: Amorphous Eyes + The Tyrant

Substitution Affinities

Depending on your needs, you can add substitution affinities:

War of Gods (Final Damage increase)
Ancestral Frost (Attack Power increase; note that Fire’s Attack buffs may dilute this effect)

Thunder Soul Core Affinity

Thunder Soul Core has the highest damage ceiling among the four elements, but they rely on the Rune Whisper and requirement of Crit Rate.

War of the Gods: The Allfather + The God of Thunder (The God of Thunder as the core of Thunder RES Reduction, place at the front of your Skill Combo.)
A Knight’s Dream: The Goddess of Fertility + The Immoral Knight (After adjusted. The Goddess of Fertility can be equipped directly.)
Ancestral Frost: Ymir Shell + Ymir The Origin

Additional Support Affinities:

Divine Blaze: The World Serpent + The Bombardment （High ATK increase）
Elegy of Nibelungen: The Solemn + The Dragonslayer （Gian high ATK after dodging）

Recommended Soul Core Substitutes:

The Dragon of the End / The Dragonslayer / The Monster Wolf / The Wise One / The Bombardment / Audhum / The Warrior (sustain + Crit Damage)

Poisonous Soul Core Affinity

Amorphous Havoc (The Amorphous Soul+The Wise One) Decent final DMG+huge Crit rate provides huge advantage in the early stage; also, the soul skill of Hela can make a realm range to prevent flying attacks, which does amazing help in Caravan Co-op.

Crossroads of Fate: Amorphous Eyes + The Tyrant (proper enemy defense reduction+huge all-elemental buff)

Soulbane Fenrir (The Monster Wolf+The Devil Lord) The passive skill of affinity is not impressive, but the sole Soul Core has good performance. The character will have a long invincible period when the active affinity is triggered, which helps the character who lacks that.

Forbidden Fantasy (The Goddess of Youth+The Mistmon) Key output affinity, The Mistmon itself is not impressive, but The Goddess of Youth has a high recovery function, suggested to but it on the Break skill button.

Battle Soul of the Moon (The God of the Moon + The Warrior) Active affinity can trigger invincible with free movement, which is super useful in high difficulty dungeons. The God of the Moon itself is also a key one to reduce the enemy's resistance. Please put it in the front of the skill chain. The Warrior can support Hela's affinity, build a fast first stage of Crit hit.

Extra Affinity

You may equip an extra affinity. Recommended options include the Divine Blaze affinity (high ATK), Elegy of Nibelungen (granting great ATK boosts after dodging), or the Ancestral Forest affinity (which offers high basic attack, also the Ymir Shell is a Poisonous one already). Note that the existing Amorphous Hela already contributes great Final Damage bonuses.

Usually Poisonous Soul Core doesn't really need a substitute. The substitute affinity can be applied to the following strong sole Soul Core: The Dragon of the End, The Bombardment, Audhum, The Immortal, The Dragonslayer

High Critcal ATK Style

The Soul Core/Affinity you must have：

Amorphous Havoc (Affinity), Ynir Shell, The Allfather, The Warrior

The Soul Core which reduces enemy resist

The Solemn, The God of Thunder, The God of The Moon

Key Affinity (A Knight's Dream, Forbidden Fantasy, Judgment of Demonic Flame)

It is better to use the Thunder group if you want to hit on the highest Crit, here comes the perfect combinationAmorphous Eyes+Hydra (The Tyrant as the subsitution)

The Immoral Knight+The Goddess of Fertility

The Allfather+The God of Thunder

Ymir Shell+Ymir The Origin

The Immortal, The Immoral Knight, The Goddess of Fertility can increase performance by being equipped on the substitute position of The Monster Wolf and Nidhogg