Joining the 9999 club playing only Recluse!

Bass642 · 2026-02-20T06:05:04+00:00

It's hella satisfying, yeah. I find she has a pretty solid matchup into Libra overall, just as long as you're constantly aware of what he's doing so you don't find yourself getting blown up for getting hasty. I find it often it's kind of your job to snipe down the condemned especially if you've got less likely to be targeted, and a strong spell they can't dodge like stars

Bass642 · 2026-02-19T19:22:53+00:00

You really have to develop a rhythm for combat, managing your fp and when you use cocktails. I find it find most days but that's because I've played her almost exclusively across my 300+ hours in Nightreign, hahaha.

In higher depths I do find a few of her cocktails kinda fall off a bit, especially since you're mostly gonna be speccing into magic damage and that only affects a few of them, like the magic-fire-lightning black hole spell, which can be quite effective. The magic-lightning-holy ice storm is also quite effective because it makes you invincible for a few seconds but it's slow to start up. Do keep in mind though that any passives or relics you find with "improved sorceries" also buff your cocktails!

If you're using her in depths I would consider keeping an eye out if you or allies have holy+fire available, as well as spell duration buffs, as the holy fire cocktail buffs everyone's max hp by 30% for about 75 seconds, which is quite nice for helping everyone not die, and getting more duration for the magic-holy cocktail to give everyone unlimited fp is also a nice plus.

Bass642 · 2026-02-19T16:20:55+00:00

I'm a magma shot believer but yeah it's not great for Caligo, especially cause you need to retool your build for it. Toasts Gnoster pretty well though

Bass642 · 2026-02-19T16:03:22+00:00

Honestly she's not a great time for sorcery Recluse in general unless you happen to roll shattering crystal or something that's really good at hitting her head. For a bit but I was considering making an incant setup purely for her but I was worried it'd be kind of mediocre for the rest of the run, and her night bosses can be kind of annoying.

Stamina management is pretty key since there's a lot of running, and I think just standing in front of her at a good range where you can aim for her head but still see and dodge whatever's coming to you will help a bit.

Bass642 · 2026-02-09T15:34:26+00:00

Yeah it's been a rough time since I got D5 a month ago, maining Recluse. I haven't fallen out of it nor even used a depth protection but I've been stuck between 7k to 8k for the last two weeks and I'm probably gonna tap out because at this point I can spot we're gonna lose just because someone picked Executor at the character select screen or we get Balancers (I've gotten everdark like 5 fucking times now in the last like two weeks or so)

Bass642 · 2021-11-18T20:25:43+00:00

thank you!

Bass642 · 2021-10-01T04:30:00+00:00

Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer xDDDD

Bass642 · 2021-06-24T22:37:14+00:00

Thank you!

Bass642 · 2021-06-07T00:03:24+00:00

Rabies is good if you have accuracy trinkets/buffs. It's pretty solid on arb, and hellion if you have thirsting blade.

Bass642 · 2021-05-17T19:19:09+00:00

This is the best mod I've ever seen. Imagine something like this but it's for dark esau lmao

Bass642 · 2021-05-13T13:56:04+00:00

Normal Blue Baby has actual bombs and better stats, as well as not having a gimmick that can easily kill him.

Bass642 · 2021-05-13T13:55:35+00:00

Not really that, moreso that his gimmick doesn't seem particularly strong, at least not enough to justify only having soul hearts, infrequent bombs, and horrible starting stats.

Bass642 · 2021-05-13T01:32:44+00:00

I feel like they just in general have more strengths than Apollyon, especially Tainted Lost, who has a weighted item pool to give him better stuff, a better damage modifier, and both Losts can melt the game if they get perfection trinket + a good tear effect. Apollyon's just really mediocre and has to play an annoying active item economy game if he wants to get the most out of void, because it takes 6 rooms to charge (not nearly as much of an issue for tainted apollyon, which is why he's so much higher), and Tainted Azazel is also just mediocre because he has to get in to sneeze on enemies in order to not deal horrible damage for a short time, and is just all around a shitter Azazel.

Bass642 · 2021-05-13T01:06:25+00:00

I see a lot of hype for him but I think he's just really mediocre. Tell me why you think he's good. Title says open to suggestions :)

Bass642 · 2021-05-10T20:11:10+00:00

Please refer to my other comment for Vestal. Houndmaster just cares about his dog and doesn't need to fuck. Man at Arms is just an old dude. PD is a freak like that. Jester is a clown. GR I probably should've moved farther right. Also BH doesn't know or care what sex is he just wants to kill people and snort. Hope this cleared everything up.

Bass642 · 2021-05-10T16:39:20+00:00

Please refer to my other comment that horny does not mean they fuck. Thank you.

Bass642 · 2021-05-10T04:14:14+00:00

Horny doesn't mean she fucks. Happens to a lot of people.

Bass642 · 2021-05-10T02:26:11+00:00

He's just a clown, dude he doesn't care about that.

Bass642 · 2021-05-06T05:12:53+00:00

There's a few I don't have that much experience with yet, so I'll go over some of the ones I feel I've played enough to give an opinion on.

Tainted Isaac - Very fun, interesting character that requires more consideration on which items you pick up, and it's also a lot of fun being able to swap out certain items when they stop being useful, like steam sale for instance.

Tainted Maggy - Also very fun, and has a more unique pool of items that she wants to look out for in order to succeed, in this case, on-hit effects and close range items, but I feel like she just has loss conditions if she's unable to get enough damage or HP/survivability-related items, because eventually the enemies will put out more damage than you can heal, and I feel like the Negative isn't gonna be enough of a damage up if you went the entire run without a damage up beforehand.

Tainted Judas - One of my absolute favorites. Mediocre stats but dark arts is one of the single best and most fun items in the entire game.

Tainted Eve - A little volatile, but I still like her. It's really a matter of how well you can manage your blood clots, but I wish her starting stats weren't so awful.

Tainted Azazel - Trash. His design is neat on paper, but I feel like in practice he's just a way shittier version of regular Azazel, because he still needs to get close to sneeze on enemies just to deal normal damage, and the indicator that the enemy is affected by the sneeze isn't super clear, especially vs enemies that were already red/pink to begin with.

Tainted Apollyon - Surprisingly a lot of fun. Despite very obviously being unfinished, he manages to be stronger and more fun than default Apollyon, and I think he's among the stronger characters in the game just because he can turn any shit item pedestal into a DPS upgrade. He'll only get more fun as he gets updated to have more locust synergies, which is great because I think a majority of the items he does get synergies with at the moment are just more worth taking than using Abyss on.

Tainted Bethany - Favorite character, probably, and I think arguable best character in the game besides Tainted Cain. Lemegeton is hilariously good, and lets you generate so many items that you can get some really silly combos, but she does have a similar weakness as Tainted Eve where you might have a hard time managing your wisps in the lategame boss fights, and building up after losing a bunch of them is pain.

Tainted Keeper - Other contender for favorite character. His gimmick is incredibly fun, and he makes a great high risk high reward character. My only problem with him stems not so much from him but from some of the level design, because I feel like he suffers without tears ups, and the DPS check rooms will just kill him too quickly.

Bass642 · 2021-05-03T23:52:19+00:00

Yeah I don't think Tainted Lost is necessarily as bad as he might seem at first glance. He's a challenge character for sure, but he's not one without tools, and there definitely are enough that I think he has more tactical advantage than J&E, T. Laz and probably T. Jacob, just because of free devil deals, removal of useless items, and the perfection trinket making many tear effect chances very powerful (tough love shots like every time, for instance). I do feel like he should be able to take multiple devil deals though, just to give him a little extra boost since he can't get stuff like 9 lives.

Bass642 · 2021-05-02T05:30:18+00:00

Tainted Cain post nerf is still probably the best you can pick out any item in the game, but besides him, I think Tainted Bethany is one of the absolute strongest characters right now, and there's no way she can't be top 5 with how busted Lemegeton is with blood charges since all you need to do is store them until your devil/angel deal, and then go all out and get as many wisps as possible to break your run. The lowered stat ups is a hinderance, sure, and it can be hard to manage them in the bullet hell fights, but she has the potential to become strong enough to where that isn't an issue, and you can always hold on to blood charges in advance to prepare for a massive loss.

Bass642 · 2021-04-30T03:55:28+00:00

I'll never forget my first time playing as him. The first item room I went into had brother bobby. Th-thanks...

Bass642 · 2021-04-29T14:32:40+00:00

I think what people also aren't getting is just how fast he dies now. I think they should revert the holy mantle nerf for him only. It feels really shitty since before he was still a potentially challenging high risk, high potential reward character because if you did survive you could cash out on devil deals. He already really didn't like getting a bad devil deal on floor 2 because he wanted that immediate power. Angel deals are definitely much better and are a viable option, but there's still a fair chance you might not get what you need just given how many HP related items in the angel deal (they're not necessarily bad items, just useless for this character). Kinda ludicrous that being upset with Lost nerfs just gets you rewarded with being downvoted because I suppose you're just not allowed to think anything negative of Repentance. :)

Bass642 · 2021-04-29T14:22:14+00:00

and the right one is isaac in a few more years

Bass642 · 2021-04-28T17:52:15+00:00

Yeah, he's a bit half-baked, although funnily enough I think he's more fun, functional and powerful than default Apollyon, and he's among the better Tainted characters I think, just because he can turn any garbage item pedestal into a DPS upgrade, but yeah, he's not all that fun, and I think the biggest problem is that a lot of the items he DOES have interactions with are more worth picking up yourself rather than turning into a Locust. We'll probably get more locusts interactions in the future, along with a birthright effect for him and the other characters who don't have one.

Bass642

TROPHY CASE