HentaiVerse Advice Advanced

Important disclaimer

Information on this page may be outdated, biased or plain wrong. It is highly recommended that you use the HentaiVerse forum to ask for advanced advice.

Melee Builds

Melee Weapon

Do note that the following are general guidelines to help you choose your weapons. These are not absolute rules about what is good or what is bad.

Keep in mind that every player has his own preferences/tastes, so please do not label given equipment as better or bad when giving advice yourself and be wary of higher level players who may attempt to bend your choices by doing so.

• Ethereal weapons are usually preferred for their Void damage type, which bypasses certain monster damage mitigations (crushing, slashing, piercing), as well as having no Burden or Interference.
  • This does not mean non-ethereal weapons are useless. Non-ethereal weapons can gain these benefits from Charms, so while they may not be optimal they can make for a good budget option or a more temporary weapon.
• Rapiers/Estocs have a low base damage output, but the Penetrated Armor can lower the monster's Physical Mitigation by 25-75% and bypasses it completely on a proc.
  • Rapiers and Estocs are the go-to choice for their ease of play, as they require neither Imperil nor particular equipment setups/gameplay strats to perform well.
• Clubs/Maces can stun the monsters, which is useful to prevent them from evading/parrying your attacks while avoiding getting hit yourself.
  • Clubs and Maces are the best at dealing damage consistently, but they are unable to reduce the monster's Physical Mitigation.
    • To inflict Penetrated Armor, Clubs can be paired with a Rapier when dual-wielding, and Mace users get access to the Rending Blow skill. Otherwise, the Imperil spell provides a similar effect.
• Slashing weapons (Axes, Shortswords, etc) have slightly higher stats in various aspects, and the Bleeding Wound proc can do a lot of damage.
  • While being impractical at first glance, or performing poorly when used randomly, the slashing weapons/the Bleeding Wound proc are excellent candidates in expert builds/strats designed to deal the largest damage output or achieve the best clear times.
  • These builds/strats can't be detailed in this page, so feel free to ask for the advice of an expert on forums if you want to try them.
• 1H: Usually played with Rapier/Shortsword (good offense+defense) or Wakizashi (low offense, but maximum defense) and a Shield with a higher block chance (in order of goodness: Tower of the Barrier, Kite of the Barrier, any Force shield or Buckler of the Barrier).
  • Slaughter is the preferred suffix. Nimble provides extra parry, but is usually overly defensive.
  • While technically possible, playing 1H with a Club is not recommended. The stun of a Club is basically redundant for 1H.
  • A Buckler of the Nimble can do a good job too if you have a low budget, but such Shields are bad at blocking the occasional magical attacks.
  • Kite Shields are usually discarded due to their moderately lower Block stat, but some still can have a higher Block than a Buckler of the Barrier/Force Shield, and some others offer the highest damage mitigation, such as a Reinforced Kite Shield of Protection/Warding.
  • Imperil 1H: 1H with Imperil is faster than 1H without Imperil, at the cost of more consumables and interrupting Overwhelming Strikes stacks.
    • Using Imperil makes Shortswords and Rapiers roughly equal in performance, whereas without Imperil Rapier is a clear winner.
    • For charms setup, see the advice page.
• 2H:
  • For lower level, it is fastest to make use of the short cooldown of the skills and spam Rending Blow when multiple monsters can be hit and Great Cleave on single strong monsters.
  • For high level and with great gear, using an Estoc, no Imperil, and maximizing use of Spirit Stance works well. Make sure you have high accuracy by equipping 2 (or at least 1) balance armor next to slaughter armors. Savage is preferred of course.
  • Do note that in the current meta (HV 0.91), power armor is optimal. Savage of Slaughter & 2 or 1 of Balance.
  • Scythe of Slaughter and, a bit under that Longsword of Slaughter, sports the highest raw physical damage output in the game.
  • Mace will provide the best defense for the 2H playstyle, by stunning the monsters.
  • Katana will provide the most accuracy from the weapon.
  • Swordchucks are a joke.
• DW: There are various weapon combinations possible. Usually a high damage weapon (so not Wakizashi), preferably of Slaughter, goes in the main hand, with a parrying weapon (Shortsword/Rapier/Wakizashi) in the offhand.
  • For the offhand weapon, Slaughter is the usual offensive suffix and Nimble is the defensive option. If you need accuracy, it is better to have the Balance suffix on your power armor than on your weapon.
  • Club of Slaughter + Rapier of Slaughter is the most popular offensive combination. The stun from the club prevents the enemy from evading or parrying, and the rapier cuts through their defenses.
  • Rapier of Slaughter + Wakizashi of the Nimble is a very defensive combination, providing a very high parry chance.
  • Shortswords can work in the main or offhand.
  • In the current meta (HV 0.91), Club of the Nimble and Shortsword of Swiftness are usually not advised, as the bonus provided by the suffix is mediocre compared to what can be obtained by just playing another weapon.
• Niten: It's all about what Katana and what Wakizashi you will use. There is no particular better setup.
  • Katana of Slaughter + Wakizashi of Slaughter sports the maximum speed.
• Users of FUS RO DAH (usually 2H and Niten players on difficult content) like to have some attack speed in order to be able to reapply it just after the stun wears off to minimize hits taken. This is usually achieved by using (Agile) Light armor, but other options include Swiftness weapons and the Swift Strike charm.

Melee Armor

• Light: Shade "of Fleet/Shadowdancer" or Kevlar "of Protection" gears are suggested. If possible, Reinforced prefix on Kevlar and Savage Shade of the Shadowdancer.
  • At low levels, Kevlar is fine to use because it is easier to repair and has higher damage mitigation. Once stats scale enough, Shade offers ample defense due to higher evade, and much better offense.
• Heavy: For lower levels, "of Protection" in combination with "of Warding" suffix is preferred for defensive boost, with Plate providing better defense while Power hits harder offensively. Reactive is a better defensive option than plate but is much rarer. At high levels, a combination of Power of Slaughter and one or two Power of Balance is faster. Power of Balance is not recommended for 1H due to it having much more accuracy from Overwhelming Strikes. The "Savage" prefix gives an offensive bonus, but any elemental prefix is better for defense. "Ruby" and "Zircon" provide a bit more safety against average pool of monsters. If you're having trouble surviving, consider using a piece of Reactive of the Barrier or Shielding Plate.

Melee Stats

(Does not include stats from equipment).

INT provides SP which is useful for Spirit Stance, but is not necessary. The following table contains the general idea of how to build a melee build: this is not an absolute rule to follow, as some melee playstyles do require some stats at higher/lower amounts than indicated.

Stat	Equal to	Priority
STR	Above your level	High
DEX	Above your level	High
AGI	Above your level	(Mid-low/High depending on builds)
END	Above your level	High
INT	0 to Level * ~0.7	Lowest
WIS	Around your level	Mid

Melee Abilities

• Recommended: Better Heartseeker.
• Optional: Better Silence.

Accuracy

• The benefit from Accuracy stops at around x7.5 the player's level, unless attempting challenges where the monsters scale above the player's level such as The Tower or Item World.
  • Each point of Accuracy gives somewhat dimishing returns after around x2.5 the player's level.
  • Accuracy needs can be lowered by using an Overpower charm.

Mage Builds

Also check out Nezu's Mage Equipment Guide.

Mage Getting Started

• Step 1: Gain Proficiency

It only takes a single cast of a spell in a round to gain proficiency so this can be done on top of a melee playstyle. In a couple of rounds, your proficiency will be high enough to get access to the T3 spells. It is advised to train 1 to 5 levels of Assimilator training.

• Step 2: Gearing Up

Stick to one element. Go on the lookout for decent Legendary Phase of your element and a matching staff (see Mage Weapon) on the auctions. Look for the Radiant Prefix for damage and the Charged prefix for survivability. Decide how many proficiency pieces to get. Cotton can be used for proficiency pieces if on a budget. End goal is to get proficiency factor of at least:

Mage build	Imperil style	Prof factor
Elemental	Imperil	0.79
Dark	Imperil	1.0
Dark	No imperil	1.0
Holy	No imperil	1.0

• Step 3: Getting Somewhere

Once your effective elemental proficiency goes above your level it's time to actually do something with it. By now you should have some stuff from Step 2, so ramp up the difficulty a bit and include Imperil as you'll have to get up deprecating proficiency as well to be effective. Start each round by imperiling then cast a T3 spell. Finish off with T2/1 spells. Your MP consumption will steeply ramp up at this point (you're likely spending more mana on Imperil than damage spells), so check that you have enough potions. It is advised to get the proficiency Hath Perk for your element at this stage.

• Step 4: Looking Forward

You now should have at least 0.7 proficiency factor. You should have your base set bought, IW'ed, and full of Charms. Monsters no longer resist every spell you cast so go ahead and try what you can do. This is the point where Forging gets relatively expensive.

Mage Weapon

• EDB-suffix (Surtr, Heimdall, etc.) or Destruction staff. High MDB or EDB for the elements you use.
  • Preferably Willow/Redwood if you use elemental spells, Oak/Katalox for Holy spells, Willow/Katalox for Dark spells.
  • Redwood is the cheapest alternative for new players.
  • The optimal suffix depends on the rest of the build, but there isn't much different between Destruction and the EDB suffixes.
  • Try to find a prefix, wood type, and suffix combo that matches a certain element and its abilities. All prefixes are available for each type of wood, but suffixes aren't.

Mage Armor

• Matching Phase gear of the element you use, with a useful prefix if you can get it. Recommended to stick with one element.
• Proficiency phase or cloth (Demon-fiend, Heaven-sent, or Elementalist) to get the proficiency factor you need (0.79 for elemental mage).
• EDB > PAB ≥ Evade, generally speaking.
• Charged prefix increases survival chance.

Mage Stats

(Does not include stats from equipment).

END, AGI, and DEX are important defensive stats, in that order. INT and WIS, the offensive stats, can be below them for extra defense, or above them for extra offense. Against the hardest content, going more defensive is usually better.

Stat	Equal to	Priority
STR	Can be kept at 0	Lowest
DEX	A bit above your level	Mid
AGI	Somewhat above your level	High
END	Well above your level	Highest
INT	Above your level	Mid-High
WIS	Above your level	Mid-High

• Adding STR increases spirit, but that does not improve Spirit Shield.
• Adding DEX is only for parry, it doesn't do anything else for mage.

Mage Abilities

• Recommended: Cloth armor abilities, Staff magic damage, Better Arcane Focus.
• Holy Build: Holy spells, Holy Imperil, Spike Shield (type to your own taste).
• Dark Build: Dark spells, Dark Imperil, Spike Shield (type to your own taste).
• Elemental Builds: Elemental spells, Spike Shield; use one that benefits your spell cycle (e.g. if you cast Cold spells a lot pick Flame Spike Shield).
• Discouraged: Staff Damage; you rarely melee and the damage is negligible compared to your spells. And Spirit theft is crap.

Equipment

See also Superlatanium's guidelines for auctionable items for (slightly outdated) help on which equipment is valuable.

Principles for worthy equipment, in order of importance:

1. Suitability to the playing style (refer to Equipment Ranges for max/min base values)
   • High weapon damage (of Slaughter) for main-hand one-handed weapons (Rapier, Club) and two-handed weapons
   • High parry chance for off-hand weapons (Rapier, Wakizashi)
     • Alternatively, high attack accuracy so procs will occur more often
   • High chance/duration/damage for procs (bleeding, stun, penetrated armor, ether tap)
   • High MDB/EDB for staffs
   • High EDB for Phase armor
   • High Evade/ADB/PABs for Shade, high Crit rate for of Shadowdancer suffix
   • High ADB for Power armor of Slaughter
   • High mitigation (of Protection) for Plate and Power armor
   • High Block rate for shields and Shielding prefixed armor
2. Ethereal weapons
   • Rare and worth more than normal equips because of Void damage
3. Rarity
   • Rare equips: Phase, Shade, Power, Force
4. Prefix
   • Better quality produces better equips
5. Primary Attribute Bonuses
   • Make sure the equips have the best PAB for specific styles.
     • INT/WIS for mage builds.
     • STR/END/DEX for melee builds. Also AGI if the melee plays with Shade armors.

Innate Arcana

Spark of Life is less necessary when playing on low difficulty. Remember that putting SoL and Spirit Shield on IA has risks since they can dissipate if you fall below 10% mana. SoL will not be recast if you are below 25% and its effect is triggered.

Hath Perks

Stat Perks

Vigorous Vitality -> Effluent Ether

• VV/EE increases your base HP/MP, so restorative items will have a greater impact.
• Melee can skip EE as it carries no major benefit for them.

Suffusive Spirit (SS) is of no major benefit to any play style and is not recommended.

Damage Perks

The first damage perk, Dæmon Duality, is a good investment if you play regularly. The other damage perks are useful for high level players with good gear and high income.

Proficiency Perks

For mages: Elemental proficiency perk for your element -> Evil Enchantress when playing Imperil style.

Crystal Perks

More valuable the more rounds you can survive in Grindfest (minimum 200+).

Other Perks

After the ones mentioned above, consider the following: Postage Paid, Thinking Cap, Long Gone Before Daylight, Tokenizer I, Enigma Energizer, Dark Descent.

Strategies for Experience gain

Most experience is gained when stamina is above 60. Best battles for experience gain are the last few arenas (A Dance with Dragons through Secret Pony Level and To Kill a God through The Trio and the Tree). Highest possible experience gain per round is Secret Pony Level arena at stamina above 60. Note that three points of stamina are lost every 100 rounds when stamina is above 60, and two per 100 rounds when stamina is below 60.

Some player prefer to have less experience gain, because lower level equipment can be sold for more credits in the current market. Other players prefer to level up fast, because level 500 equipment can be bought much cheaper and there is much more available for sale. Also, more experience gain gives you more proficiency gain.

Ring of Blood Strategies

• Universal: Weaken, Slow, Imperil, Silence (if available). If possible, keep Spark and Spirit Shield and Haste up at all times. Shadow Veil is also good, but is not a must for Melee.
• The real danger in these challenges is from the monsters' MP and SP attacks. Silence prevents them from being used.
• Mages:
  • Strategy: Don't play Ring of Blood as mage unless your build is complete. You can first switch back to 1h heavy for RoB. You can also use infusions to raise the spell's power.
• Melee:
  • Armor: Preferably mitigation armor with high mitigation bonus. Usual armor is also okay, but you'll receive more damage.
  • Weapon(s): Void weapon is recommended (either ethereal weapon or use a voidseeker shard). For Dual Wield a club for Main Hand and a rapier as Off-hand. For two-handed, either a mace or estoc. Use the weapon with highest weapon damage.
  • Strategy: Just beware of the health left. Always keep Silence on.

Training

Warning: Training is a massive credit sink and generally offers very little rewards except for Adept Learner, Ability Boost, and Assimilator.

• Train Adept Learner to ~100. Possibly more when you'll raise your level.
• Train Assimilator to ~5 to increase the proficiency gain rate, so you'll be able to raise proficiency to above your level.
• Train Ability Boost whenever you need more AP for your main abilities, as you will eventually reach a point where you have more abilities to train than AP.
• Train Pack Rat as your item consumption dictates. Same goes for Scholar of War and Tincture. An extra point in Pack Rat can be useful to allow you to use 1 draught and potion of each type (not including elixirs).
• Keep Scavenger, Archaeologist, LotD, and Quartermaster balanced cost-wise.
  • Note that Quartermaster slightly decreases the drop chance of Tokens and artifacts.
• Set Collector isn't useful unless you have enough equipment and want to try different Fighting Styles.

Monster Lab

• Maximize gifts by using Chaos Tokens to unlock more monsters, rather than upgrading existing ones.
  • Slight exception being that it's worth upgrading 1 level of Scavenging per 40 cost of a new monster (80 with gold star), and 1 level of everything else per 200 cost of a new monster (400 with gold star). After unlocking all monsters, continue with the ratio of 5 Scavenging levels per 1 of everything else.
• Use crystals instead of happy pills to boost morale until you have stronger monsters (PL 400+).
• Monsters need a ludicrous amount of crystals to reach high enough PL to regularly show up in combat. It's more economical to sell excess crystals.
• Increasing the INT of any monsters without magical attacks does not help in combat, but is useful to inflate their PL.
• For Chaos Upgrades: Scavenging > Fortitude > Swiftness > Brutality > Dissipation > (Everything Else)
  • Chaos upgrades do not slow a monster's morale drain rate in the current version of the HentaiVerse.
• You can check for gifts as often as you want but remember that it takes at least 1 hour for new gifts to appear and weaker monsters likely won't have them that frequently.
  • Remember that monsters which haven't given you a gift in 3 days will acquire one automatically.
• Tip: When naming monsters, you can use your fantasy, so funny monster/attack names are recommended. Do not use the same name with numbering for all, this type of naming may result in monsters getting flagged and you won't get gifts from them.

The Armory

• Any piece of equipment must be soulbound to be improved in the Armory.
• Soul Fragments should almost never be bought. They can be easily farmed by clearing Random Encounters (regardless of difficulty).

Helpful Scripts and Resources

• Userscript Index. A curated catalog of useful userscripts.
• The Forums. Ask advice from experts, get price checks, rent equipment, buy or sell in weekly auctions, get free prizes from giveaways, and make some friends too!

See also

• HentaiVerse FAQ
• HentaiVerse Advice