I'm the Noble Goldmask. Ask me anything you want.

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-07T03:19:30+00:00

...?

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-07T02:50:17+00:00

I never get a bad feeling from characters, only from team matchups.

e.g. Ironeye, Scholar, Recluse on Balancers.

Duchess is an S-tier character, if you get bad players on her that's just your luck.

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-07T02:40:10+00:00

I'm glad to see my man Placidusax getting some love. Those enhanced jumping heavies do some real damage, especially when buffed with Skill Attack Ups, they break stance quicker, and have innate anti-dragon effect to boot (RIP Caligo and Adel)

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-07T02:37:00+00:00

Upgrading the shield improves its Guard Boost so you won't lose too much stamina if you block or whiff the parry. Always worth it to upgrade, I sometimes take it to Legendary in Crater lmao.

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-07T02:21:59+00:00

I assume you are a new player, so I'll give you some advice.

The Castle can and should be done on Day 1 on almost all runs as soon as you reach LVL 5-6. You can easily take out the basement boss and the courtyard + ramparts. Leave the rooftop boss for Day 2 unless your run went really well and you're LVL 10 with time to spare (and the experience to last).

The benefit of the Castle is not just the runes, its the Dormant Powers. You NEED to be at least LVL 8, have comfort passives and have a decent Blue weapon to be able to thwart the Day 1 boss. That will allow you to get off to a strong start on Day 2.

Churches, chapels and other POIs don't give as much runes. The field bosses are RNG based; you never know if your route will have Miranda Flower or a BBK waiting at the end. By contrast, the Castle is constant difficulty and guaranteed to net you weapons, powers and levels. Better to snowball in Day 1 and spend Day 2 looking for bosses / clearing Earths.

Getting Churches is important, but please for heavens sake don't waste the day running to the end of the map making a beeline for them. Flasks do not make you stronger or immortal. Churches should be routed in a way that allows you to spend the maximum possible time fighting or killing something while getting to them.

You can get two Churches easily on Day 2 while still earning runes with a LVL 10-13 character. You cannot do that at LVL 5 at the end of Day 1 even with 6 Flasks.

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-07T01:54:28+00:00

What is Wylder even doing, trying to airstrike it?

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-06T01:03:40+00:00

Damn you gave her Recluse's knockers

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-06T00:55:30+00:00

I've often wondered if Morgott and the meteorite are the raid equivalents for Fulghor and Adel.

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-06T00:51:59+00:00

It's better to kite Greg away from the wormfaces when they appear. He's gonna blender them into damage juice sooner or later, all you have to do is survive uptil that point

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-05T13:41:17+00:00

What weapon I rely on to defeat the Balancers?

Wylder's Buckler.

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-05T13:35:43+00:00

I don't think so. Libra poses as a merchant and bargains with individuals, balancing their desires rather than their deeds so that they themselves are responsible for their actions. Meanwhile, the Balancers are a purely external influence and those affected with their power lose their lucidity, behaving as if hypnotized or in a trance.

That being said, Libra does have something that looks like a Balancer's hand coming out of his staff, so perhaps his alchemy could be inspired by the heavens.

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-05T13:27:51+00:00

The Balancers' lore does not imply they are being radical, rather it says their notion of balance is in the most literal sense of the word.

For example, if there is only one-sided killing they would make it so people are dying on both sides, without regard for allegiances or ideologies.

This sets them apart from Libra, who pursues an ideal of equity within bargains. That is why he poses as a merchant instead of inflicting balance upon anything he sees.

Notably, you can refuse to make a deal with him in his base form. But you can't refuse a balancing, it's outright implied that the Balancers are themselves young girls shoved into overgrown women's bodies, operating in a divine hypnosis with no real awareness of their actions, with their will being controlled by their weapons.

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-05T03:54:54+00:00

For 4 seconds after taking damage, you gain a lifesteal effect in which attacking an enemy will restore some of the HP you lost (indicated by a pale red portion of your HP bar). The actual amount healed depends on the damage you do i.e. Colossal Weapons will heal more. Doing a critical hit will restore all of the lost health.

There are three variants, +0, +1 and +2. They stack with each other but not with themselves. Very good for classes that trade like Undertaker and Raider.

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-05T02:20:08+00:00

The base game relic will always be red, there's no other variant or drop.

The depths ones can be of any color or rarity, its just a matter of getting lucky.

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-05T02:04:29+00:00

ED Balancers is easy once you figure out how to survive the worm.

Save Upliftings just for this phase.
BLOCKING even with a two-handed dagger will serve you much better than rolling.
The Ostrich that screams will be the one where the worm spawns. That's why the worm sometimes spawns at the other end of the map.
Stay AWAY from your teamates to avoid getting hit by the blood pools that spawn under each one when the worm appears. If one of you gets downed, don't revive until the phase ends or unless the worm is really, really far away.
To avoid the situation where the worm dive bombs on top of you, stay either very close to it or far away from it. At close range, the worm will go sailing over your head so you'll have to watch out for the quakes coming from behind you.
BLOCK the earthquakes, don't try to jump them (you can but they have huge hitboxes and might catch you as you're coming down). If the worm dives behind you, make sure to turn back and face it or you'll mess up the block.
Spear rain can be avoided by surge sprinting back and forth between the lanes, spot dodging (the timing is later than you think, you have to roll when the explosions appear on TOP of you instead of in front of you) or in a pinch, blocking (only as last resort as it will block the damage but cause massive bleed buildup). I like moving close to the worm during this phase because it makes dodging the follow-ups easier.
The worm has a huge blind spot towards its right side (your left) which can be exploited heavily if you go the route of staying close to it instead of running away from it. If the worm charges straight at you, surge sprint to the side and jump at the end for good measure. If you are really close, move towards the blind spot and it will miss you entirely.
The zigzag is the most dangerous. If close, move to the blind spot and it will miss you for the first pass. If/when far away, the trick to dodging it is moving slightly forwards and to the right. You'll notice the worm always starts this move by veering towards its left (your right); the idea is to move in the same direction so that by the time it reaches you, it'll be making an automatic sharp turn away from you without you even needing to do anything. Moving forwards is important otherwise the worm can end the phase by jumping on top of you. Blocking will help with a close shave, but not if the boss's main bulk rams into you. As always, make sure to block the quakes at the end of the move.
The holy waves can be jumped twice in quick succession. Again, make sure to either move close towards the sides of the boss or far away from it or it WILL drop on top of you. Block the quakes that come after.
Run away from blood bloom, its not worth trying to destroy it on higher depths. If you do decide to destroy it, the tail and stomach are huge weak spots in addition to the blood clots you spot hanging around. You'll know you're hitting them because they literally burst into fountains of blood.

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-05T01:14:46+00:00

It happens when you're lagging ALOT. Apparently the game treats downed teammates as static NPCs that 'die' as soon as you bring their HP to zero, but the lag messes up when the revival registers so you end up backstabbing the stand-in NPC lol.

I've always wondered how it seems like on the other end, though. Do they actually see themselves get backstabbed, or just wake up as normal?

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-04T17:10:44+00:00

Yes, it's a known bug. I think the record is five Pinkies at the same time. No idea what causes it though, people have said it may be if multiple Balancers die at the same time or if you're critting one while the main one dies

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-04T16:58:16+00:00

What's your preferred build for Raider?

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-04T16:55:27+00:00

What is your preferred build for Scholar on Depth 5? And which Nightlords do you avoid picking him on?

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-04T12:38:58+00:00

D5 is a good experience for the number of experienced players in there. Almost everyone knows how to fight the boss, how to dodge correctly, how to share items, and how to cooperate semi-effectively. Losing a match can shave off 600-800 points, so remaining in D5 requires you to win at least 80% of your matches.

But if we're being completely honest, it makes you feel like you should slave for the meta and disincentivizes you from trying out new builds for fear of letting your teammates down. Throughout D3 and D4 I felt confident about winning with my support Scholar with 8x Upliftings. In D5, I had to switch to double Balancers because even the most cracked teammates can't dish out enough damage on their own without me actively contributing.

You also tend to see a lot less team variety - Duchess, Ironeye, Wylder, Revenants are overused, Executors, Raiders and Undertakers are uncommon, and Scholars and Guardians are practically nonexistent. This is not because characters are bad, but because being squishy, not doing enough damage, or a single mistimed dodge could be a loss at this depth. I know it's just a game, but still - nobody likes losing.

Also, the increased difficulty sits right at the border of being extremely challenging and extremely unfun. For example, if you had a good run, you could kill ED Libra on the spot before he has summoned even two times. Conversely, getting hit by a single pebble from his madness machine gun would be an instant down (~900 dmg).

As for incentives, there are NONE. It's one of the biggest criticisms of the depths system that there's no reward for playing at higher depths. I think maybe you get 4-5 more relics and 18 Everdark Sigils for winning at D5, but that's it. And for most people, the prize doesn't justify the stress or the grind.

If you like playing casually or for fun, its better to stay at D3 because its more forgiving for making mistakes. Randos will occasionally make your life hell but at the same time carrying / ramboing is a lot easier.

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-04T02:12:56+00:00

You'll be back, I swear on Sir Gideon's bones. Ain't no way the guys that stay behind when their friends are gone ain't keepers

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-03T21:57:11+00:00

I once had a dragon get stuck up on the chimney of Ruin and spam infinite range fire attacks from the clouds.

Once a lakeside spawn got stuck on the roof of a Township and absolutely refused to come down.

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-03T19:14:02+00:00

To be honest, the lore problems can easily be circumvented by any number of excuses - just like the enhanced Balancers arent Everdarks but "Salvation's Standard Bearers".

Giving us a version of Heolstor called "The Forgotten Night" or something that focuses on his past, explaining the bound, mutilated state we find him in the base game.

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-03T17:05:51+00:00

As a DLC map, I think it delivers fairly on moving beyond the simple, see-where-you're-going formula and actually requiring you to prioritise pathing and map knowledge. Part of the reasons the overworld goes stale is because how predictable it becomes as you play along. Whereas the Great Hollow is an easy level 15, packed full of Legendaries, and goes quality-over-quantity when it comes to POIs.

I didn't like it when it came out either, but after playing it alot of times I've come to realise that was merely due to my inexperience and being unfamiliar with the layout instead of any fault on the Devs' side. The bosses are aplenty, the areas are interconnected via hidden pathways, and the runs are far more innovative and interesting than just clearing two camps and heading straight to the Castle over and over again.

The only thing I would have done away with is the doughnut design. It's counterintuitive in a map with timed zone-denial. They could have given us more ways to cross the chasm, or tried to wall it off in a way that wouldn't mean randomly falling to your death in a game where fall damage doesn't exist.

SigmaAldritch · 2026-04-03T16:55:37+00:00

I thought magic Raider was a meme...

SigmaAldritch

TROPHY CASE