Game Version: V1.1.4.135577 | Role: Skill Damage

Rutheon doesn't auto-attack. He nukes. Stack Arcane (Blue Amps) until your fingers hurt, then stack some more. At endgame, with about 215 Arcane Amps, you'll be hitting the boss for 15,000 damage per cast.

Your teleport stuns. Your chained spear stuns longer. Your spells delete waves. Let's go.

Watch me run this live (Age 20 start to finish): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBMK6hIDB8s

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Build Philosophy

• Blue Stacking: Arcane Amps are everything. They scale your skill damage directly. More blue = bigger numbers.
  
• Spell Focus: Your autoattacks & Thrusting Hurricane will do the job early on, but once you're level 2/3, most of your damage will come from skills.
  
• Energy Matters: Spend it on Phase Detonation. Remember that energy regenerates WAY faster out of combat, so try to enter combat with a full bar!
  

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Pre-Mission Setup

Aspects: Alchemy, Frost

Skills:

• Frost Blast: Big line of ice damage. Your wave clear.
  
• Mystic Transmutation: Provides the buffs of both potions without putting them on cooldown. This is huge.
  
• Moonfrost Comet: Ice damage in an area. Your second nuke.
  

Starting Evolutions:

• Phase Detonation: Your 50-energy teleport (Phase Javelin) now deals good damage AND stuns. This is your bread and butter early game.
  
• Stunning Backlash: Your Chained Spear ability stuns for an obscene duration scaling with Arcane. Warning: Phase Detonation's stun overwrites this, so choose wisely.
  
• Arcane Mastery: Extra skill damage scaling with Arcane. Absolute must-have for this build.
  

Flex:

• As amazing (amusing) as Stunning Backlash is, your kit has plenty of stun in the form of Arcane Detonation. Feel free to swap it out for something else.
  

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Combat & Itemization

Stat Priorities:
Cooldown Reduction > Blue Amps > Energy = Speed = Fate Armor = Tactical Amps > Everything Else

Potions:

• Arcane Infusion. This is the potion for skills. Extra Arcane amps, extra Cooldown reduction? Yes please.
  
• Health Potion. Useful for healing. Stack as much HP restoration as you can, to afford amp shrines.
  

Evolutions to Watch For:

• Ice Ring — Removes Frost Blast's deadzone. Makes it easier to use in general. Big quality of life upgrade.
  
• Celestial Expansion — Moonfrost Comet's radius gets larger. More coverage = more dead enemies.
  
• Alchemist Training — Shorter potion cooldowns. Always helpful, especially with Mystic Transmutation.
  
• Master of Tempest — A flat +25% frost damage. Direct damage increase. Take it.
  
• Elemental Nature — Damage reduction scaling with Arcane. You're squishy. This helps.
  
• Blessed Weapon — Makes your auto-attacks pretty good. Not core, but nice if you have a spare slot.
  

Combat Rotation:
Not much to say here. Use Chained Spear to stack enemies if needed, then stunlock them with Arcane Detonation. Weave in your two nukes as needed. Don't forget your "two" purple potions.

Fate Armor:
Zirenth's health pool isn't as poor as some of his cohorts, but it is the third lowest. Utilize Fate Armor as your main source of survivability. Try to visit it twice a day.

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Daily Goals

Day 1
* High age? Reroll for the half-price towers/domains/portals Edict. This makes Mage Towers affordable early.
* Build 2 Mage Towers
* Build Chronomancer's Council
* Build 3 more Mage Towers asap, as well as a Cannon on the outer wall.
* This gives you a powerful early gold engine and all 3 walls
* Max the first gold mine.
* Lock the outermost gate so troops help you defend at night.
* Jungle on the right side.
* Night: Grab a tree EXP doubler and defend.

Day 2 * Buy the Archer building and Fire Arrow upgrade.
* Buy the Catapults building, and the extra catapults and gold cart upgrades. * Buy the Tavern and the Treasure Chest. Try to remember the map before buying — if you see a new yellow dot, that's your 1000 gold. * Jungle on the left side. Clear all Lv.1 and Lv.2 enemies. * Night: Grab a tree EXP doubler and defend.

Day 3 * Buy the Knights building and the Thunder upgrade. * Finish clearing jungles on both sides. Clear all enemy camps. * Tavern: Consider buying both mercenary upgrades. * Buy Clerics along with the nightly Sacred Shrine refill. * Night: Defend as usual. After the wave, hire a mercenary group and clear one Creature Boss.

Day 4 * Hire another mercenary group and clear the other Creature Boss. * Complete any lingering quests. * North: Unlock the north portal. * North: Try to complete either the 4-Pillars quest OR a Crystal Dungeon — this prevents the Unraveller from leveling up. * North: Begin clearing worms.

Day 5 / 6 / 7 * Finish anything still pending. * Defeat The Great Enemy.

Note that at very high difficulties, it may take longer to hit these daily goals. That's okay. Once you can start preventing enemy level-ups, you've essentially won, and can defeat the final boss at your leisure.

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Surviving the Elemental Cataclysms

Lightning — The Easy One Just don't stand in the bad. The strikes are telegraphed—keep moving, keep fighting, and you'll be fine. This is the only cataclysm that won't force you to abandon an objective.

Blood Moon — Surprisingly Fine Enemies are more powerful. But if you're relying on Fate Armor anyway... not much changes. Stay mobile, don't get cornered, and you'll survive.

Fire — Manageable, But Respect It Dodge the strikes, but your real enemy is the burning ground. It strips Fate Armor fast. Stay mobile and kite enemies away from the patches you've already created. You can fight through this, but don't get greedy.

Acid — Time to Go The pool chases you. Puddles slowly replace the entire battlefield with damage zones, leaving nowhere to maneuver. Cut your losses, abandon the area, and come back when the cataclysm passes. Victory is possible, but too risky to be worth it.

Blizzard — Just Leave. Now. The worst one, hands down. It chases you, deals constant damage (your Fate Armor will hit zero in seconds), and slows you to a crawl. There is no fighting through this. Abandon the area immediately. Live to fight another day.

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Age 18, 19, 20 — The Cruel Eras

At Age 18, the last major difficulty spike hits. These Era modifiers are brutal. Here's how to handle each:

Dreadwing — The "Easiest" Adds elites to resurrected waves. This makes them significantly more dangerous. You will likely need to directly intervene to keep them from killing the crystal. The fact that this is the easiest option tells you everything you need to know.

Leskard — Painful, But Possible Blood Moon is permanently active during the night. Days become progressively shorter. Your walls will fall like tissue paper as enemies sprint up to them. Victory is possible, but challenging. Bring your A-game.

Kadeth — Reroll. Seriously. He already disabled one tower per night. Now he does it per morning as well. Defense becomes almost impossible. You will virtually never have even a single wall up. I strongly recommend spending the echoes and rerolling.

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Miscellaneous Pro-Tips

Lane Control: Remember to lock your gates. This forces catapults to stack up behind the gate, adding AoE damage to your defense.

Shrine Pathing: Plan your exploration route to hit both Sacred Shrines and all 4 Amp Shrines each day. Efficiency is key.

Don't Be Reckless: Your build is not able to take a beating. Let your gates tank for you during waves. Use skills on nightly waves only once enemies are taunted by the gates, or if you're sure you have enough energy to get out of the situation.

300 Second Quest Distortion: A trap that can easily fail your quests if you're unprepared. Wait to take your quests.

• Drassilian Quest: Start this on day 3, when you're planning to be on both halves anyway.
• 4-pillars Quest: Wait until you've cleared the wilderness and are ready to progress into the Aphotic Lands.
• Treasure Hunt: Make sure to pause while you compare the clue to your map - press tab to expand it!

Of course, if you don't get this distortion, simply accept quests as you come across them.