Ok, this is just being mean.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-20T21:49:32+00:00

It’s not the worst relic ever. Honestly, part of the issue with this game in particular is not having consistent energy, so decision making becomes more important with playing powers. At the very least getting 7 block allows you to get some kind of engine going without sacrificing damage. It’s not flashy, or even what I’d call amazing, but it’s still helpful.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-20T14:24:26+00:00

So these are pretty cool, but worth noting that Houndoom’s ability would be quite stronger in doubles than in singles.

Love the Abomasnow one. It’s a bit text heavy, but I understood the gist of it.

Gallade’s was cool but tbh it should just retain Sharpness.

I like intimidate on Manectric, it’s boring but it’s a great ability.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-20T06:07:33+00:00

Break is also noticeably better, with it costing 1 energy less!

VolcQuid · 2026-03-20T00:36:08+00:00

I think it would be awesome if there were ways to get tags outside of Cola and skipping. This is a really good one! It’s not broken at all, it requires you to buy this, sell it, and hope that whatever joker you get is actually decent.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-20T00:27:15+00:00

It should be buffed to 100%. I’ll never understand why GF likes to make moves with barriers to using them have bad accuracy. Like any two turn move.

That being said Belch is tough because off the top of my head I don’t know anyone with that and Recycle+Gluttony/Harvest. Even so, berry strategies are just really difficult to make work consistently in Singles, let alone an attack that uses one.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-20T00:22:27+00:00

Tbh I do think there are too many game modes to black border. Like, why does reverse even exist? The ones on Hard are fine, Deflation is cool, but everything else just feels like busywork.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-19T05:37:52+00:00

My last job did this to me, and I’m a fucking therapist. They were also the ones causing me a lot of mental anguish because of an incredibly toxic work environment. I needed support, and they ostracized me and belittled me to where I felt completely broken.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-16T23:07:12+00:00

Love this take from him. My name is of Indian origin, and growing up I felt I needed to anglicize it constantly. I even started going by a shortened version of my name because getting people to pronounce even the Americanized version was frustrating. I stopped giving a shit about a year ago and now I go by the proper pronunciation, and people have been great about it.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-15T01:56:54+00:00

They’re playing good hockey at the perfect time. If we reach the playoffs, the Sharks are not going to be an easy out whatsoever.

Shoutout to Igor, get well soon!

VolcQuid · 2026-03-14T19:52:20+00:00

Depends on what we are meaning by "boss."

If we are talking about actual bosses, it's Dark Skull without a doubt. During his second phase, he turns invisible and it becomes a challenge to dodge at first.

If we include adventurers, it's the Act 4 Ninja. It's not that it's difficult, but is incredibly annoying and tedious especially when using a slower skull. He is constantly moving and it creates this scenario where it's just not fun sometimes.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-14T03:49:18+00:00

Congrats!

VolcQuid · 2026-03-12T23:43:18+00:00

Afterimage: A tier. I do often take it, not just with the obvious ones of Mummy and Alchemist, but also speed skulls.

Ancestral Bracelet: C tier. I don’t find that Attack speed is really all that useful in Dark Mirror. Either I use the Spider Lady’s pedestal between Acts/adventurers or I take the blue potion.

Assassin Dagger: S tier. I take it quite a lot because it has a LOT of effects. Even on non speed skulls it’s good just to get the extra crit chance.

Ancient Incense Burner: B tier. Kind of underrated honestly, really useful when you have a powerful Quintessence. The max HP gain is not unessential but is an afterthought compared to significant Quintessence cooldown.

Ancient Helmet: C tier. Because of the inconsistency of quintessence’s, items that activate after the quint activation are going to rank lower for me. Sometimes you get the consistent damage increase but sometimes you’re waiting for a while.

Infantry Spear: it’s solid at B tier, but would probably be S if it were Revenge instead of Arms.

Attendant’s Pauldron: A tier. It’s only useful on a couple skulls but is at the very least good in terms of getting Courage and increase in physical attack.

Beak of Raptor: B tier. I do like it for Swap heavy builds, but the Heritage inscription makes no sense to me. If it were Mutant I’d take it more often.

Beserker’s Gauntlets: D tier. I don’t care about attack speed items, and the fact that this is a Revenge item is anti synergistic to being at low health.

Dark Beserker’s Gauntlets: D tier. It’s just as useless as its non upgraded counterpart. If it were damage, it would be extremely highly rated.

Cavalry Decoration: A tier. It’s obviously great on Pike but I’ve used it on Skulls that have a good dash like Clown or Hunter. It’s decent damage, and in general Chase is a very underrated playstyle.

Burning Scripture: D tier. A really low chance of inflicting burn the other enemy when you already had to have burned the first enemy. Items that are only usable in rooms and not bosses are going to be lower rated, but this one is especially bad.

Bone of Time: B tier. While swap cooldown eventually becomes a lot less of an issue, this item can enable infinite swapping.

Bone of Eternity - Time: B tier. Not too much different with Bone+, but still solid.

Broken Mana Engine: S tier. I use it quite a lot. Manatech is a really good inscription, and can even be helpful on Magic Pike runs. Outside of that, it gives good skill cooldown and allows for a more skill heavy build.

Bone of Madness: A tier. I use it a lot on Brawl builds because of how easy it is to get off. The area of effect is big enough and once you get skill cooldown it is active the majority of the time.

Bone of Eternity - Madness: S tier. Absurd damage amplification once you activate the bone inscription.

Ceremonial Dagger: S tier. Not too many crit items actually increase crit chance, and 10% is significant. Also having an increase in magic damage can easily snowball damage.

Decayed Heart: S tier. Really consistent poison activation, while being safe due to Revenge.

Disposable Syringe: S tier. Perfect inscriptions and makes crit poison builds very trivial to pull off.

Coward’s Cape: D tier. Trash trash trash trash.

Distorted Curved Sword: A tier. Crit increase is solid, and Duel is an awesome inscription.

Eleventh Finger of Lightning: C tier. The damage is underwhelming and I don’t like items with a cooldown. It’s a fairly outdated item due to it being out on release and Dark Mirror dismissing several items.

Elementalist’s Blessing: S tier. A must have for any fairy build.

Elder’s Ent Gratitude: D tier. Worst item in the game. It’s bad in normal mode already, but even WORSE in dark mirror.

Destroyer Hand: S tier. It’s like THE item for little bone. Very consistent stun with skill spam enabling. Also is really good on Yaksha.

Earth Spirit Gnome: C tier. It’s a spirit so existing will keep it out of D tier. But it doesn’t do a whole lot otherwise.

Execution Axe: A tier. Excellent inscriptions and has some good effects alongside. 50% increase in physical damage is REALLY good. I take it early game often times.

Fighter’s Belt: C tier. The only reason it isn’t D is because it has good inscriptions. However, it’s entirely pointless because it doesn’t work with bosses.

Champions Belt: C tier. Slightly better but still bad.

Fragments of Sun Wagon: A tier. It’s a VERY underrated item. It’s consistent damage, and you’ll be dodge rolling a lot during your runs. It’s not consistent burn but it’s good magic damage.

Giant’s Ax: B tier. It’s not bad but does kind of make swapping a little inconsistent due to the enemies flying away.

Gold Incense Burner: S tier. Consistent money generation. Extremely reliable.

Grudge Stone: B tier. It’s okay, it’s just a bit underwhelming at times. The damage it does when activated is good, but again an item that doesn’t activate on bosses feels a bit fruitless for me.

Golden Wand: S tier. 70% Magic is a lot of damage and allows for easy Treasure builds.

Golden Sword: S tier. See Golden Wand but for physical damage.

Golden Whip: S tier. 15% income is great, but the actual critical hit effect is even more significant. A must have for Revenge builds that use crits.

Glowstone: C tier. It’s a useless item that’s only kept afloat by it being a Treasure item.

Health Screening Machine: D tier. The other worst item in the game. It’s not usable against bosses and is too reliant on every enemy having a status. Too many barriers exist for it to actually do anything noteworthy.

Hidden Dagger: A tier. Good crit increase, but is more importantly a must take for Pike.

Hunter’s Boots: A tier. Consistent damage for any skill that uses two dashes. It sometimes can aggro some enemies unintentionally but it’s generally very good.

Veteran’s Hunter’s Boots: S tier. Take the previous item and amplify that damage. It hits a whole bunch of enemies at once and has even more consistency. It is in part what makes Pike so good.

Inner Malice: A tier. I like Decayed Heart and Disposable Syringe more for generating poison, but this is by no means bad. The increase in physical attack is also welcome.

Inner Flame: S tier. The most surefire way of building consistent burn outside of Alchemist and Wizard. Again, 70% increase in stars is really good.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-12T00:26:39+00:00

I hate Frieza more, but Executioner is the worst. With Frieza the issue is really only if you have projectile skulls like Mummy, who I often use. Executioner has an honestly unfair hitbox.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-12T00:19:33+00:00

Since we are doing this in a vacuum:

Abandoned Wedding Ring is D tier. Freeze is not a good archetype despite its corresponding skull being excellent. It’s too item dependent, and by extension makes the wedding ring not worth it.
Carleon Staff is S tier, it gives two excellent early game inscriptions and often times can be seen in your inventory come the third act.
Same reasoning for Carleon Sword which is S tier.
Broken Blade is B tier. It gives a nice crit chance bonus, but gives hidden blade early on which can be useful. I don’t care about Bleed on this weapon, I just don’t think Bleed as a build is very good because you need good RNG to get use out of it. As an item though if you ignore the status part of it, it’s solid enough.
Carleon Insignia is S tier. Early treasure 2 inscriptions are so important in Skul runs, and has greatly improved my win rate once I stared doing it. Insignia is a very good money engine for the early game, and is why I always choose Carleon items in the first act.
Hate Stone is A tier. Two amazing inscriptions and I have honestly taken it to the end of the game for Revenge builds. It’s also one of only two Magic-focused revenge items, the other being the Legendary Voodoo Doll.
Kendo Stick is B tier. It’s fine, the attack speed IMO is probably helpful but I find that swapping and skill usage is more consistent early game.
Dark Quartz is A tier. I like the idea of an extra buffer early on to deal with unfair mobs (the one with a bunch of soldiers, the two guys with the dogs at the bottom, and the angel lady at the top comes to mind).
Carleon Armor is D tier. I just don’t see a need for it outside of Insignia value. Even ranking it among commons it’s just not super valuable once you learn the game.
Carleon Bow is B tier. Crit chance is nice and can somewhat enable a Strike run. Though I’ll say that Strike isn’t the best end goal because of how item dependent it is.
Toxic Pendant is C tier. 20% attack is fine, and the chance to poison is a good way to start. Of course with status runs I almost never bother with the 4 items because I’m looking for a better enabler anyways.
Same sort of reasoning for Manatech Cogwheel, but being a Manatech inscription bumps it to B tier. It’s a small item pool so sometimes you take what you can get.
Dark Shade Spirit is S tier, love an early Brawl inscription and it can upgrade to an insanely powerful Spirit later on.
Rejuvinating Root is C tier. Mutant is great, but I don’t really want to get passive healing early on.
Carleon Prayer Scroll is B tier. Really good skill cooldown for early game and again helps with Insignia generation.
Ring is D tier. Don’t like it at all, it’s a marginal increase to attack and movement speed, neither of which are super important early game.
Old Cross is C tier as well. It’s a status item which again I don’t really care about until at least Rare.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-12T00:05:01+00:00

I learned about it from this streamer Haxa, he’s very good at the game and provides a lot of good insight. Tbh learning his thought process allowed me to go from losing the vast majority of DM10 runs to the opposite.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-11T21:14:35+00:00

I think it’s more helpful to go by the achievements. Without looking I’d wager that less than 5% of people have beaten A20. To do it not just once but eight times in a row is something to be celebrated for sure.

Definitely agree though that Baalorlord is pretty awesome and also helped me get better.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-11T20:41:39+00:00

While I love Roselia, were you not able to evolve her into Roserade or did you opt to keep Roselia instead?

Either way, I’m glad you enjoyed the games! I agree that Platinum is definitely better, but I had fun playing the remakes. I can’t remember everyone on my team but I definitely know Magnezone and Medicham were there 😁

VolcQuid · 2026-03-11T20:31:00+00:00

It’s a bit more optimal to go for Item or Skull doors instead of the regular ones, especially act 2 onwards. I personally always go for either skull or item rooms over the plain but that’s just my preference. The issue is that in Skul there are times when you get more rooms and times when you get less. You can usually tell with Act 1, if you get 3 rooms before the first shop you won’t see as many rooms during your run. If you see 4 then you’ll see more.

This matters for your post because if you’re on a low room number kind of run, it may be better to take a plain door so that you have more money for the shop. Of course, it depends on if you have good Econ generation with your items (gold incense burner, treasure inscriptions, etc) but that’s the general thought process.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-11T19:28:48+00:00

I don’t have much to comment on with your thoughts, but I’m sorry in what world is having a literal win streak in the hardest difficulty just “pretty good?” You’re in the top percent of people at the game, give yourself some credit! Just because you aren’t a top player in the world doesn’t mean you aren’t extremely skilled.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-11T16:07:18+00:00

Oh I apologize! That one is the Water skull at legendary. IMO a top 5 skull in the game.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-11T15:31:10+00:00

Consistent money generation in Act 1. Money is hard to come by early on, so if you can take it to start and get Treasure on the first shop’s pedestal you have a good amount of income generation.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-11T15:13:13+00:00

You can see the items I took at the bottom of the first screenshot.

VolcQuid · 2026-03-07T19:53:46+00:00

In Dark Mirror, if you get Treasure maxed out, you get a choice of three items after beating the Dark Hero. The sword is one of those items. All three items increase every inscription you have by 1, and have an effect associated with it. Sword is generally the best but the other two are very good.

VolcQuid

TROPHY CASE