News Tag: LotF Vigor

I’ve been waiting for any updates on whether the developers would patch multiplayer and its associated rewards, and we finally got one.

While it’s nice that certain Covenant items can now be obtained from enemies, I don’t think the current changes are sufficiently rewarding, and they’re actually more likely to cause people to burn out while playing the game. So let’s break it down.

Covenant Rewards

Now, let’s assume you’re not familiar with Lords of the Fallen’s Covenant. It’s divided into three dominant factions, each with a Shrine where players can turn in Covenant items for rewards. Most rewards are cosmetic in nature, such as a Tinct or Shader, or a specific set of armor.

For each Shrine, purchasing all Cosmetic Tincts costs 1,000 Lords of the Fallen Vigor, while purchasing Armor Tincts costs 1,600 Vigor, for a total of 2,600 Vigor.

Now here’s the fun part. Each activity’s rewards are weighted differently, so for every kill of a specific enemy, you’ll get 3 Plucked Eyeballs for Shrine of the Putrid Mother.

When you go online, these enemies will appear randomly and a Red Lantern will appear in the world. If you soulflay a Red Lantern, a red trail of butterflies will appear, leading you to an enemy that killed another player in another world. Only these enemies are buffed compared to normal enemies, having about twice the normal health and defense.

In order to get all the rewards of Putrid Mother Covenant, players need to kill 867 empowered enemies. It’s a bit much, but it’s doable, at least on paper.

Problems

The problem with this system is that it depends on the spawning of these enemies in the first place. Because it’s randomized, you can’t effectively actively farm these Covenant items. It felt bad, like a drag.

So now, with the latest update, if you kill each faction’s elite, they can drop 2 related Covenant rewards. This is great, but the drop rate for the rewards is still frustratingly low.

We guarantee even though elite enemies to drop Covenant items, you still need to kill at least 1,300 enemies to get all of Shrines associated rewards.

However, based on my limited anecdotal experience, you’ll probably need to kill at least 3-4 elites on average to get Covenant reward. So even if we conservatively say you get rewards for every 2-4 enemies, you’d need to kill 2,600-5,200 elites to get all the rewards.

If that doesn’t sound bad enough, I think it’s important to reiterate that these are elite enemies. So they’re harder to deal with than your regular enemies.

And there are only a handful of these enemies in any given area, so if you’re actively trying to farm them, you’ll need to constantly reset the area. This means you’ll be spending a lot of time running between enemies.

To ensure that enemies drop items at an optimal rate, players also need to use items that increase the drop rate. Therefore, players will also need to spend a lot of time and resources returning to Skyrest Bridge to purchase more Rabbit’s Feet and Vestige Moths so that they can reset the area without having to run back to Lantern.

Of course, every time you reset a zone, you’ll need to reapply your buffs. So I think it really becomes a tedious thing that ends up sucking all the fun out of the game.

Improvements

So how do we solve this problem? Thankfully, the developers seem to be open to player feedback, and there are plenty of ways to tweak it.

Adjust Rewards

First, perhaps the most boring way to solve these problems is to adjust the rewards available to us. I know that in Oceanic region, players get 150 Plucked Eyeballs per Red Lantern, which might be a bit too much.

The second thing developers can do is adjust the frequency with which rewards are earned, such as making enemies guaranteed to drop Covenant items. But it’s a little boring and I think there’s more that could be done.

Improve Boss Mode

In co-op multiplayer games, when players help other players defeat a boss, they can earn 15 Pilfered Coins, but only if they defeat the boss.

There are 38 bosses in the game, and assuming NPC boss battles count towards the total, you can fight 37 bosses for each new game cycle. So you can earn 555 Pilfered Coins by going out of your way to help someone complete the game.

Assuming you actually kill 37 bosses per run, you’d need to help someone complete the game 4.7 times to get all Shrine of Orius rewards. Or in other words, you need to kill 147 bosses in total.

So it might be nice if there is a Boss Rush mode or something that helps players get all the kills.

But in reality, there’s a pretty enormous gap between most boss encounters. So if someone just wants to get Shrine reward, this gives them a tremendous incentive to disconnect from the console when they’re not far away from fighting a boss.

This could actually dis-incentivize players from the cooperative experience, especially if they can now more reliably farm Pilfered Coins on their own.

However, if every enemy in the host world dropped one Pilfered Coin, and elites dropped 2 or 3 Pilfered Coins, this would give players more incentive to help each other. And this will be a viable way for people to farm Deralium Chunk to fully upgrade their weapons.

Quality Of Life Fixes

Now, in addition to rewards, more quality of life fixes are needed to make the multiplayer experience smoother.

Foremost, being able to launch multiplayer games only from the Lantern or Vestige site is absolutely terrible, especially when they were removed in New Game+.

It effectively limits how far I’m willing to go in a given area, since there’s a chance I’ll be instantly disconnected from the host and have to run all the way back to Lantern to get in line.

Last but not least, stores should not have limited stock of Eyes of Vengeance or Charred Fingers.

Controlling these quality-of-life features feels arbitrary, and some players feel the need to ask to visit vendors in other players’ worlds so they can restock items. Limiting them doesn’t make the game better, so they should change it.

Final Thoughts

As I said before, though, I appreciate the changes to multiplayer rewards and it’s a step in the right direction. But I do think they need to go further. Because I think the current solution runs the risk of burning out players, and I think there’s a lot of potential for them to do better with what they have.

Obviously, my solution is not the only one. If you have any ideas on how to improve multiplayer, please feel free to share them with us.

Way of the Bucket in Lords of the Fallen is a new mysterious questline that provides players with rewards of uncertain value. This questline is included in the latest patch 1.1.348. Players who take part in the new quest line activities will receive generous rewards after figuring out the clues.

In this update, you’ll find new quests from Bucketlord NPC. After completing the mission, you will also receive Bucketlord’s special weapon, Gilded Bucket.

In this quest, you need to find 12 Pride of the Bucketlords Quest Items and give them to Bucketlord NPC. Below, you’ll find a walkthrough guide on how to start your quest to find the 12 items and the secret weapon.

How To Get Started?

To start Bucketlord quest, you need to first get Bucketlord’s Salute gesture. You can find this gesture at Vestige of Chabui. Exit from there and go left. There, you will find a lot of wooden crates that need to be broken. After breaking them, you’ll find Bucketlord’s Salute gesture.

Then head back from Vestige of Chabui to find the stairs and continue forward until you find Bucketlord NPC. If you try to interact with an NPC, you won’t actually receive any responses. You need to equip three emotes and a bucket weapon and perform them in front of NPCs.

You need to remove all armor and weapons except Broken Bucket, and equip three gestures: Greeting, Pointing Downward, and Bucketlord’s Salute. Then make three emotes in front of NPC and interact to start the mission.

Pride Of The Bucketlords Quest Items Locations

To complete the quest, you need to find 12 Pride of the Bucketlords Quest Items and give them to Bucketlords NPC. Just a note of caution: make sure you don’t collect more than 4 at a time. Once you have collected 4 Pride of the Bucketlords, return to Bucketlords NPC and give it to them.

You can earn Pride of the Bucketlords by defeating bosses in different areas. If you have defeated the boss, you can revisit the area and receive LotF Vigor reward. The locations of these bosses are:

• Scourged Sister Delyth: On the lower level at Pilgrim Perch.
• Gentle Gaverus Mistress Of Hounds: In Pilgrim Perch.
• Crimson Rector Percival: You will find him in Fitzroy’s Gorge. However, progressing too far in the game will lock you out of combat, and you won’t be able to earn Pride of the Bucketlords.
• Ruiner: Located in Fitzroy’s Gorge bridge area.
• Sacred Resonance of Tenacity: Teleport to Vestige of Blind Agatha and find the boss through the bell door.
• Kinrangr Guardian Folard: Teleport to Vestige of Marco the Axe and go through the bell door into the cave and find the water with the wolf. There you will find the boss you need to defeat.
• Griefbound Rowena: You’ll find this boss in Fief of the Chill Curse.
• Blessed Carrion Knight Sanisho: You can find him in Tower of Penance on the bridge before entering the tower.
• Abbess Ursula: You’ll find her in Abbey of the Hallowed Sisters. Starting from Vestige of Rosamund, you will find this boss.
• Skinstealer: Located in Cistern area in front of the elevator to Upper Calrath.
• Infernal Enchantress: You’ll find this boss near an enormous bonfire in Lower Carath, and can be found by teleporting to Vestige of Sebastian.
• Abiding Defenders: You can find him in Manse of the Hallowed Brothers. From the door that requires Abbot Vernoff’s key, look back to find the stairs on the left. Go through the stairs and instead of going inside the castle, head towards the open octagonal side area on the right to find the boss.

Gilded Bucket

After giving all Pride of the Bucketlords Quest Items to Bucketlords NPC, head to Vestige of Lydia the Numb Witch in Lower Carath.

Keep going until you reach an area with a big burning tree and Ruiner enemy. To the left of the burning tree, you’ll find a ramp that will lead you to a secret room filled with buckets. In that room, you’ll find Bucketlords’ weapon, called Gilded Bucket, which is an upgraded version of Broken Bucket you already have.

Obliterating your enemies with devastating Umbral magic is one of the most satisfying ways to enjoy your time in Lords of the Fallen. Combining this with the ability to maintain a steady flow of Life Leech ensures you are a highly resilient scourge of destruction.

In this guide, I will break down what is in my opinion one of the best melee caster builds that has a specialism in life leeching at both range and in close quarters combat to keep ourselves sustained.

I will go over the stats, weapons, armor, rings, pendants and rune choices that make this build an undying blood sucking Umbral menace that’s difficult to contend with.

Stats & Starting Class

In the early game, the main stats to focus on in this build are Inferno and Radiance for damage scaling and vitality for survivability.

As the build focuses on dual-wielding Bloodlust, we only require 13 points in Agility to ensure we can use them. The rest can then go into our main stats.

Initially, you’ll require around 20 points in Endurance to have ample Stamina to utilize in the early to mid game. My advice here would be to get Inferno to around 70 and Radiance to around 50 and then fill the rest in any order of your choosing. You’ll gain damage from statting into Radiance and Inferno and more HP from Vitality.

The Orian Preacher and the Orian Preacher Hammer are, as usual, your best choice of starting class and weapon due to the 18 points of radiant damage the class starts with and the fact it has an absolutely powerful weapon in the early to mid game.

Main Weapon & Runes

For the primary weapon, I am dual wielding Bloodlust short swords. This choice is underpinned by two reasons.

First of all, when delivering a final hit via a malee attack or spell, these swords have a life leeching effect. Wielding two also stack this effect.

Secondly, the rune slots allow us to use a total of 4 Tumul runes to further enhance our vampiric life leeching effect when we kill enemies. This weapon also comes with 60 Bleed and 60 Burn in the status effects department.

Combining this with Bleed Salts further emphasizes this effect and also allows us to further lean into the Undying Umbral Vampire kind of look. This can be acquired from the chest in the area where you fight Crimson Rector Percival and you’ll need to complete two playthroughs or find a willing friend to drop you a second one to complete this build.

For those of you with only one Bloodlust, this build still works, or be it with a slightly diminished return on the Life Leech. You could try another weapon to dual wield or go with a shield and some Tumul or Nartun runes for either Mana or HP Regeneration.

The three rune slots in this weapon are integral to the functionality of the build. 2 Tumul runes are non-negotiable to further improve our life leeching capabilities. When duel wielding two Bloodlust with two Tumul runes, we leech around 90 HP per kill.

The final rune slot is an Agility slot and you’ll have a number of choices here. You could go with:

• Vixys for increased bleed buildup
• Dimexus, which increases physical damage whilst dual wielding
• Ornx for increased Grievous Strikes damage
• Nhelaq for those choosing to Lords of the Fallen Vigor farm

I opt to go for Vixys to maximize how quickly bleed builds up to stay with the theme of blood and vampires, but all these options are completely viable catalyst folks.

Catalyst

In terms of catalyst, the best in slot choice here for this build is the Lost Berescu’s Catalyst at +10.

This provides us with exceptional spell power that is just shy of 800 and it also has A tier Radiance and Inferno scaling with 5 spell slots, a simply superb choice here. This is acquired in the Revelation Depths via an Umbral Belly.

In terms of rings and pendants, our pendant of choice is the Pendant of Atroph. This pendant allows us to continue to spam cast Umbral spells even when we’ve depleted our Mana. This makes it very easy to spam enemies down with a barrage of Umbral devastation.

The ring choices are also very straightforward. A Barrage Root and a Puissance Root provide us with increased damage to our sorceries, with the Barrage Root removing 1 spell slot as a penalty, which leaves us with 4 instead of 5. This is completely worthable and not a problem the off of this build.

You can also double down on either ring, with Barrage Root being the most desirable for those who want the highest DPS increase possible and at the cost of two spell slots being removed.

Spells

Speaking of spamming Umbral spells, our main source of range damage comes from Latimer’s Javelin.

This can be acquired from the Remembrance of the Hushed Saint. This thing hits like an absolute truck and offers both single target and AOE damage output.

I’ve seen this thing hit numbers of around 1.8k per throw and I’m not even maxed out on damage stats. But from what I’ve read and seen, apparently this can hit up to around 2.5k if you have both your Radiance and your Inferno stats maxed out.

This is in combination with the Pendant of Atrophy and it makes it absolutely insane for anyone favoring the caster approach. It also works well in combination with melee attacks as a way to chip the mob’s health and posture down before they even reach you.

The second spell is Diminishing Missile, which sends a homing projectile of Umbral magic that debuffs an enemy by reducing their attack damage and their defenses. This is another highly viable and useful choice here.

Our third choice of spell is Umbral Agony. This fires a slow-moving orb of Umbral energy that deals large chunks of damage to foes and takes huge chunks of stagger bars off. You can cast this at your enemy’s feet or at walls nearby to ensure that it explodes, dealing solid AOE damage to multiple enemies. It’s excellent for breaking stagger bars if you’re the sort of player that likes to look to run in and finish enemies off with Grievous Strikes for those extra style points.

Our fourth slot is flexible. I go with either Barrage of Echoes for extremely tasty first damage or Painful Echo, which sends a bolt of Umbral energy that bounces and chains between enemies. This is down to your personal preference, and I tend to swap between these two spells to keep things fresh.

Armour

I know a lot of you like to know how we complete the character looks, so in this case, I’m using:

• Grace of Adyr Mask
• Crimson Rector Armour
• Crimson Rector Leggings
• Lord Gauntlet

All of these are colored with the cell sword tint.

Mechanics

The mechanics of this build are very simple.

Buff up with Bleed Salts, favorably position yourself, cast your of Diminishing Missile and begin spamming whichever skills you see fit.

Latimer’s Javelin has excellent range and damage. The projectile also moves pretty quickly too, which makes this my most favorite choice. You can situationally use the other spells and I usually throw a cast or two of Barrage of Echoes at my feet as enemies approach, with what is left of the HP and stagger bar then being melted. I then either dispatch them with the well-timed attack or administer a vampiric life leeching Grievous Strike.

The build can be played as a full caster or a combination of melee and caster, in both styles allow us to gain 90 HP per kill, which makes us very difficult to kill in return.

Upgrading weapons to their maximum level in Lords of the Fallen is an expensive and time-consuming process, especially when collecting the upgrade materials needed to strengthen them.

Upgrade materials are items used to improve the level and attributes of different equipment such as Weapons, Armor, and Shields. Includes important items such as Sanguinarix and Umbral Lamp.

Large Deralium Shards

Among them, Large Deralium Shards are important upgrade materials in Lords of the Fallen and are difficult to get. Large Deralium Shards upgrade Weapons, Armor, and Shields to +9.

Players looking to max out their first Lords of the Fallen weapon shouldn’t have too much trouble finding Large Deralium Shards. But this becomes more difficult when upgrading a second or even third weapon. This also means that Lords of the Fallen Vigor cost will be very high for players when upgrading multiple weapons.

Fortunately, players can farm Large Deralium Shards on their own. Players can get enough Shards if they know where to look.

How To Farm Large Deralium Shards?

Large Deralium Shards can be picked up in pairs from very specific locations in Axiom. Of course, these locations are often hidden. There’s enough there to max out the boss’ weapons, but they only spawn once per campaign.

Defeat Holy Bulwarks

To start farming Large Deralium Shards, players need to first find and defeat Holy Bulwarks. This is the same enemy type as the first boss that appears after the tutorial section.

Holy Bulwarks have a typical Crusader look, complete with Bucket-Style Helmets, Heavy Armor, and Two-Handed Maces. It generated two of them in Forsaken Fen.

They are located in the mountain pass region near Forsaken Fen waypoint. You can get here by climbing up the bone ladder in Umbral. The ladder can be found by teleporting to Forsaken Fen waypoint and crossing the flooded cave tunnel shortcut.

Continue following the road and you will eventually find Hallowed Sentinel patrols guarding the pass. They hid the first Holy Bulwark behind a destructible object near the bone ladder. The second site is further down the pass, guarding the winding dirt road leading to Congregator of Flesh’s chasm. Kill them and you’ll get 2 Large Deralium Shards.

To make this farming route run more smoothly, players can place a Vestige Seed on the opposite side of the path to the second Holy Bulwark. From Forsaken Fen waypoint, head to the pass normally, and after crossing Skyrest Bridge, go left instead of right. The flowerbed is located in a clearing overlooking the marsh. Plant a Vestige Seed here so it can serve as a fast travel point.

Manse Of The Hallowed Brothers

Another farming site is Manse of Hallowed Brothers. There are many flower beds here near where Holy Bulwark spawns. These locations include the flower bed near the kitchen and the hallway near the path to Abiding Defender boss arena.

At the end of Abiding Defenders, there will be a door that leads to a shortcut that opens back to the room where you entered Umbral, revealing a ladder. Then, defeat Avowed on the balcony. Climb the ladder at the end up and re-enter the building through the arch at the top. There are 2 Large Deralium Shards at the end of the wooden platform.

Keep in mind that Large Deralium Shards have a low chance of dropping, so all you need to do is keep repeating this process. But luckily, players may also get the full Holy Bulwark armor set when farming Shards. Good luck!

In this guide, we’ll create S-Tier Radiance Build that’s absolutely devastating while still making the game a ton of fun. If you choose to make a small change to your play style and spells again, this is a great build for the endgame.

Currently, my level is around 150-165. But I would throw away all the stats on the screen. Then you can work towards that from the beginning of the game. Because of what we’ve done with this build and our setup, you’re going to be very tanky and be able to do a lot of damage.

Weapons

The armor you can wear will be Pieta’s Helm, which you can get early in the game. Then there’s Sovereign Protector Set which you can get mid-game. This will provide the weapon with a range of damage reduction and overall resistance.

The weapon we will be using is Judge Cleric’s Corrupted Sword. It has many advantages and can be extended to almost any field. Therefore, it is definitely worth investing more LotF Vigor in this weapon to improve its overall stats.

Apparently in Radiance’s starting specs you’ll be able to reach over 4K with heavy swing. Then assign whatever Strength, Agility or Infernal you want to increase its damage later.

Now for the secondary weapon, I chose Jeffrey’s Dagger over the shield, which gives us more damage potential since this build is tanky enough. It will help those heavy swings deal tremendous damage to spells.

Radiant Spells

Radiant Weapon is 100% necessary. With this, you will take on almost any enemy in the game with great ease. Because it allows for those simple staggers and also helps you increase the damage you cast. This is one of my absolute favorite Radiant Spells in the game.

It can also give you about 25% additional relief. But it means your mana will need to be constantly replenished. We will add this later in another Radiant Spells.

I want this build to have maximum health regeneration and be able to defeat the toughest enemies at around 40 HP per second. This means you’ll be able to take on almost all the toughest enemies and most bosses in the game with ease. Our next spell can begin as soon as you are seated within Sigil.

I use Piercing Light and it’s easy to use in almost all situations. It has a very wide range of applications and can cause a lot of damage. But for the mana cost of its use, it’s beneficial. It can also help us knock down enemy positions if we need to be within a certain range before reaching them.

Now our other Radiant Spell will be Orius’ Judgment. This is my favorite overall Radiant Spell in the game. It can hit a target up to 16 times before moving on to the next target. It’s absolutely perfect for this Radiance Build.

Now, another Radiant Spell that you might want to swap in or out at your own leisure is Lucent Beam. It will hit any single target like a tank, such as those tough bosses and Invigorating Aura. This will allow you to regain health and permanently stay on your character again. But be aware that it drains your mana, so you can turn it on to use all those spells when you need to.

Items

Also, we need Exacter Scripture, which is the best Radiant Catalyst. Because it will scale all the way up to S at max level X and allow you to have 5 spell slots.

Now, for Rings, you can use an Orian Sorcerer’s Ring to get around 10% more holy damage. We will then use Manastone Ring to restore our mana. This just helps offset the cost a little since we have a lot of aura buffs. This will allow us to maintain our mana easily. If we exhaust it, we can still return it somehow.

For Pendants, I think Hallowed Triptych is absolutely amazing. This Pendant allows you to break enemy poses and you can smash bosses into pieces. Overall, once this is done, it’s one of the best items in the game.

Umbral Eyes

But we’re still missing our Umbral Eyes. You can use Umbral Eye of Loash to make our heavy swing more feasible.

We will also equip Umbral Eye of Betrayed Eliard and Umbral Eye of Lydia the Numb Witch. Because if we get knocked down and go right into Umbral Lamp, especially in those tougher boss fights, this will get an extra 50% healing for this build. You will be able to fully restore your health in approximately 10 seconds. This is actually very useful for some of the toughest bosses in New Game Plus.

Overall, this is a really fun build to play with. I found it to have almost all the features we need in the endgame. If you're playing Endgame and New Game Plus and want to rack up some serious damage, this well-rounded Radiance Build is perfect for perfecting your defenses and dealing insane damage.

For many players, including myself, there is nothing more satisfying than using a strength build in a soul-like game. Being able to wield some of the heaviest and most powerful weapons in Lords of the Fallen feels extremely rewarding and will also turn you into a killing machine.

The beautiful thing about raw strength builds is the fact that they’re effective against every single enemy in the game. If you want to feel extremely powerful with no weaknesses whatsoever, this is going to be the perfect build for you. 

Here, I'll breaking down one of the best strength builds in Lords of the Fallen and going over the best stats, weapons, and gear. Please prepare enough Lords of the Fallen Vigor to join me in making this build!

Best Starting Classes

For starting classes, you actually have several options. 

Anyone that purchased the deluxe edition of Lords of the Fallen will immediately gain access to the Dark Crusader class, which is actually one of the best starting classes in the game, especially for a strength build. 

The weapon and armor are both incredible for early game and the class has high Strength, Endurance, and Vitality. 

The Hollowed Knight, Udirangr Warwolf, Partisan, and the Mournstead Infantry will all work as starting classes for a strength build since all of these prioritize melee combat and provide a decent starting point for a powerful strength build during endgame.

Stats

The main stats to focus on for this build are Strength, Endurance, and Vitality.

Strength is going to be the main contributor of your weapon’s overall damage and your crossbows damage since the Trapper Crossbow skills exclusively with strength, providing a powerful ranged option for your slow heavy hitting warrior. This is a stat that you can afford to increase over time, considering each level will gradually increase your overall base damage. 

At some point, there will be diminishing returns. But anyone around level 100 to 125, you want to get this somewhere around 70 to 80, so you can deal some serious damage against your enemies.

Since strength builds are generally slower, you’ll want as much damage as possible to compensate for that.

Endurance is important, but you really shouldn’t increase this to any more than 25 for your first play through. It’s way more beneficial to focus on Strength and Vitality since the gains after 25 Endurance are very minimal.

This stat can be increased once your main stats are in a comfortable spot. If you find yourself in a situation where your Encumbrance is too heavy, then maybe investing some points into Endurance will help. But generally, if you’re around level 100, you don’t need to increase this any more than 20 to 25.

Vitality is your character’s overall HP. The more you increase this, the more Health your character will have. Vitality is very important for a strength build since you leave yourself open at times to execute powerful heavy attacks. 

You also want high Vitality to survive enemy attacks when you’re trying to finish a powerful combo. If you want to have high Poise, you need to have a higher Health pool.

Weapons

The main weapon on this build probably the best strength weapon in the entire game, The Iron Wayfarer’s Hammer. 

Once fully upgraded, this powerful Hammer provides S Tier scaling for Strength, giving you the most amount of damage possible.

I have over 1,000 Attack Power with 80 Strength, divided into Physical, Holy, Fire, and Wither damage. 3 additional status effects in addition to the weapon's already high physical attack power, making it the perfect hammer to use against every single enemy in the game. You will need at least 31 Strength to wield this weapon.

I also have three runes equipped on this hammer: 

• 2 Ruq runes, which increase posture damage. This is going to help break an enemy’s guard, and it’s also going to help interrupt their attacks when you hit them more often.
• 1 Pertiax rune, which increases my overall physical damage.

To get this weapon, you have to defeat the Iron Wayfarer boss, which is guarding the entrance to the Bramis Castle later on in the game.

Before you get the Iron Wayfarer’s Hammer, I recommend using the Sword of Skin and Tooth, which can be found pretty early in the game near the Lower Calrath Alehouse, aka the Vestige of Lydia the Numb Witch. 

This is a massive sword that scales incredibly well with Strength and also has 200 burn buildup on enemies. Just keep in mind, you will need at least 36 Strength to wield this weapon. 

The Proselyte Sword is also a decent option if you don’t want to use a heavy great sword. This sword can be dropped from the Proselyte enemies you encounter several times throughout your journey. It has decent scaling for Strength, 100 burn buildup, and it only requires 19 strength to wield.

Ranged Weapon

For my ranged weapon, I’m using the Trapper Crossbow.

This crossbow can be purchased from vendors relatively early and it’s the best crossbow for a Strength build since it offers A Tier scaling for Strength once fully upgraded.

On top of that, it also causes 200 burn buildup over time, which can be combined with Cinder Bolts to amplify the effect. I also have Radiant Bolts for enemies weak against Holy damage and Weighted Bolts, which deal almost 1,000 physical damage alone.

Lords of the Fallen has a lot of ranged enemies to the point of frustration they’re everywhere, which means you need a ranged option to eliminate them as soon as possible.

Throwables

If you’re not a fan of crossbows in Lords of the Fallen, you also have throwables as an option, which are equally effective. 

The most powerful throwable for a Strength build is the Enhanced Lump Hammer. It has B+ scaling for Strength and can be extremely effective against all enemies in the game.

I also recommend using the Accusing Spirit. This throwable is very powerful and extremely underrated. It basically debuffs your enemies, amplifying your damage against them while also nerfing the damage that they deal to you in the process. On top of that, this debuff will also transfer to nearby enemies upon death.

Lastly, I do have the Throwing Rock just to get Lords of the Fallen Items that are hanging from trees.

Apparel

Let’s take a quick second to break down my apparel for anyone that’s interested. I love the way this outfit turned out and I feel like it really fits the build overall.

For the head, I have the Udirangr Warwolf Hood. 

For the torso, I’m using the Tancred’s Armour.

For the gloves, I have the Pilgrim’s Bandages just to help me maintain a medium Encumbrance and the Drustan’s Leggings to finish it off.

Pendant & Rings

For the jewelry, I’m using the Warrior’s Claw pendant, the Melchior’s Ring, and the Mineowner’s Ring.

The Warrior’s Claw pendant is one of the best in slot pendants for a raw Strength build since it increases physical damage and physical defense. This pendant increases your damage and survivability simultaneously.

The Melchior’s Ring increases your physical damage even further.

The Mineowner’s Ring increases maximum stamina and stamina regeneration rate. The Mineowner’s Ring is probably the most important ring just because The Iron Wayfarer’s Hammer is heavy and takes a lot of Stamina to swing. You want that Stamina back as quick as possible, so you can dodge attacks or land a final killing blow.

Quick Access Items

For quick access items, you obviously want to have your health potions handy.

You also want to make sure you have Ammunition Pouches and Ammunition Satchels if you want to keep up with your crossbow. These are pretty cheap and can be purchased from Gerlinde at Skyrest. 

Unripe Berries are also good to have during boss battles, so you can execute more attacks and dodge when needed.

In Lords of the Fallen, if you want to build the best, most powerful build, you’ll want to upgrade your weapons all the way to the max. But to do this is not that simple. You need to find a resource that is actually very rare, and that is Deralium Chunk. There are only five locations available in the game, and I’ll cover them one by one.

1. Revelation Depths

Among them, Revelation Depths is the first location where you can find Deralium Chunk in the game. You’re going to go over here and pull the lever. Then you can just go all the way down from there.

Follow the path and you’ll eventually stumble upon stone structures or an enemy camp, where the road is barricaded. The road splits into two here, one leading deep into the cave and the other leading to stone structures.

Depth is where we need to go first, as this is an optional exploration area. Note that you will need to clear out the miners working inside before you can safely explore the area. You can pick up 3 Regular Deralium Nuggets near the miner’s location.

What will pique your interest here is 1 Deralium Chunk located around this area. It’s not far from Regular Deralium Nuggets you looted.

2. Fief Of The Chill Curse

Next we set off from Vestige of Loash and go through the arch to Hollow Crow’s Boss arena. You need to defeat this boss, then head to the door and down the ladder, continuing across the bridge to the next tower.

Go to the tower to reach the beacon. There is a chest next to it. Open it you can find 1 Deralium Chunk, 2 Large Deralium Shards, 3 Regular Deralium Nuggets, 4 Small Deralium Fragment.

3. Tower Of Penance

After picking up Tower of Penance map, take the elevator up and enter the tower through the arch above. You will then see an Umbral Flowerbed. Go past it and through the doorway onto some wooden platforms in the next room. At the end, you enter Umbral area.

Stand on the small Umbral platform and look to the left to find another platform that can be pulled towards you. Jump on it and continue to the next platform.

Next, you need to defeat Ardent Penitent that breaks through the nearby planks, then stand on the ladder without looking down. If you look up the ledge, you’ll find a lower platform you can jump to where the ladder can’t reach. Jump down and find a chest inside the cell containing Deralium Chunk.

4. Bramis Castle

Now is pretty much the last place you can look for Deralium Chunk in the game. You will travel to Bramis Castle, where is Vestige of Bloody Pilgrim.

Before you enter this area, if you already have quite a few Lords of the Fallen Vigor, you can take some shortcuts. If you can’t use them like the ladders here, then you’ll need to complete more areas and discover some shortcuts on your own. But just keep walking towards Bramis Castle, which will take you up the stairs and keep walking in that direction.

You’ll then want to jump off that ledge, where several powerful enemies will appear. If you have a decent build, you can defeat them for decent loot.

Then, we started from Umbral Flowerbed outside the tower library and continued along the path to the exit of King’s bedroom. Head to the balcony on the right, then twist into Umbral and cross the platform on the left to reach Giant Crystal.

Follow the crystal down and when you reach the fork in the road, take the path to the left. Defeat the enemies in the area, head to the stairs on the right, and break the wooden structure. Look down to see a small area with an item, jump on it and pick up the fourth Deralium Chunk.

5. Skyrest Bridge

Now onto the location of our fifth and final piece, Deralium Chunk, an absolutely amazing idea in theory. You can purchase Deralium Chunk from the coop-dedicated altar next to Eustace on Skyrest Bridge. So if you’re playing with friends, this might be a good way to get Deralium Chunks.

That’s everything you need to know about where to find Deralium Chunk and how to use it in Lords of the Fallen. Hope this helps some of you.

Close combat in Lords of the Fallen is extremely dangerous. It’s especially easy to get surrounded by enemies in Umbral, and the situation isn’t much better in Axiom.

When melee weapons like Swords and Hammers are so dangerous in Soulslike, many people will turn to ranged options. Bows, Crossbows, and Spells can all help you stay safe at a distance. But they’re not the only options.

Even if your character already uses a ranged weapon or spell, throwables can expand their tactical arsenal with different effects. From healing yourself to bashing your enemies over the head, you can’t go wrong with these. So, here I will introduce the 5 best throwables in Lords of The Fallen.

Bloody Hatchet & Lump Hammer

Of course, we all know that Bloody Hatchet and Lump Hammer are powerful, and they are easily the two strongest throwables in the game. But I need to make sure I don’t show something that you obviously don’t already have. So I wouldn’t include these two in my top five list. Let’s not waste any time and get started.

5. Enhanced Accusing Spirit

The fifth is Enhanced Accusing Spirit. Enemies hit by Enhanced Accusing Spirit will have their damage debuffed. They also take more damage from your attacks.

Best of all, we can transfer this effect to another enemy as long as the curse remains in effect. So stacking buffs, debuffs, and special effects into a single throw is great.

The requirements to use Enhanced Accusing Spirit are only 8 Radiance and 8 Inferno, so you can use it almost immediately regardless of your starting level. It also has an ammunition cost of 2, which is cheaper than most of the best throwables in Lords of the Fallen, so you won’t be depleting your LotF Vigor immediately.

4. Corrupted Banner Javelin

Fourth is Corrupted Banner Javelin, which can both heal and deal damage. Corrupted Banner Javelin can be thrown at enemies or planted on the ground to produce area-of-effect healing.

But its recovery speed is slow, so it’s not suitable for intense battles. But if used wisely, it’s still one of the best throws around.

Use this Javelin during certain boss fights or after depleting your Sanguinarix while exploring, and you’ll find how valuable its healing effects are. Exploration in Lords of the Fallen is tough, so you’ll need all the help you can get. The only major drawback to this throwables item is its ammunition cost of 4.

3. Enhanced Cursed Dart

The third is Enhanced Cursed Dart, which is an Ammunition in Lords of the Fallen. Players can actively use ammunition against enemies, bosses, or other players during PVP to cause damage to them. But they need to use a ranged weapon like a bow or be equipped with a Throwing Hand.

Throwing Cursed Dart in Umbral will cause wither damage to the enemy. It even rebounds, hitting the same target multiple times on these enemies. It doesn’t cost much for 2 ammunition and is well worth it considering what you get in exchange.

2. Enhanced Lacerating Knife

The second is Enhanced Lacerating Knife. This throwable item is perfect for Agility builds. With B+ AGI scaling, low weight, and an Ammunition Cost of 1, there’s little risk in adding this to a fast, mobile character’s arsenal.

This Enhanced Lacerating Knife also inflicts physical damage and causes bleeding. You’ll need to land several knives to get real value from this weapon. So it’s no problem that ammunition costs so little.

It requires 9 Strength and 11 Agility, which means it may be out of reach for pure spellcasters. But others should at least consider adding this weapon to their builds.

1. Enhanced Poison Javelin

Last but not least, we have Enhanced Poison Javelin. It is a lightweight, throwable spear that can impale enemies and cause severe physical damage and poison buildup. It’s easily one of the best throws in Lords of the Fallen.

And B+ STR scaling and high physical damage make this weapon deadly in Poison builds. Just as important as DPS is the stagger effect of this weapon. Each hit inflicts poison accumulation on the enemy. This means that any monster you don’t kill immediately will at least gradually weaken.

If you’ve been doing a purely melee building and got stuck in a difficult boss fight, consider bringing an Enhanced Poison Javelin into the fight.

These are the 5 throwables items that I think are the best in PVP and PVE. What do you think of this list? Happy gaming!

Inferno magic is one of the most powerful sources of damage in Lords of the Fallen. Each Inferno Spell can deal tons of damage with the right build, with some spells feeling incredibly broken.

If you’re looking for an all-out offensive spellcaster build based around brutal fire magic that can also destroy enemies with the best dual swords in the game, then this build is perfect for you.

In this guide, we are breaking down one of the best Inferno builds in Lords of the Fallen, going over the best stats, weapons, rings, spells, etc.

Best Starting Class

The best starting class for this build is the Pyric Cultist.

This class pretty much comes with every everything you need for the opening hours of the game. The Pyric Cultist Staff is a great starting weapon that skills actually very well with Inferno and also deals both physical and fire damage, which can be extremely useful against tough enemies.

This class also comes with one of the best and most well-rounded Infernal Spells in the game - Infernal Orb. This spell pretty much carried me through the entire first half of the game. It barely uses any mana. And the further you upgrade your Catalyst and increase your Inferno stat, the more damage the spell will deal.

Best Starting Weapon

The best starting weapon for this Inferno build is the Bloodlust short sword.

This is going to be your main weapon until you kill the Lightreaper boss to obtain the Lightreaper dual swords.

The Bloodlust sword is easily one of the best weapons in Lords of the Fallen. It scales equally with Agility and Inferno. It has 60 bleed and burn buildup on enemies, which is great considering you’re applying two status effects at once. It’s a short sword, which means it’s a light weapon with super fast attacks.

It can also be found very early in the game. This sword can be found in inside of the chest where you fight the Crimson Rector Percival mini boss in Fitzroy’s George.

To use the Bloodlust short sword, keep in mind you will need at least 13 agility and 13 Inferno to wield this weapon.

Best Early-Game Vigor Farm

Next, I want to show you the best early-game LotF Vigor farming spot in Lords of the Fallen.

This is going to give you a huge advantage since you can basically increase all of your primary stats very quickly over time.

This farm is located right next to the Vestige of Blind Agatha, also known as the Ballroom Vestige. This farm is incredibly easy to do, and it doesn’t require you to fight any enemies at all. So, as soon as you spawn at the vestige, run directly past the nail headed enemy and run towards the edge of the cliff.

Don’t worry. As soon as you run past him, he will immediately start sprinting towards you. And all you have to do is get him to fall off the cliff by dodging at the very last second. This does take some getting used to. But once you get the hang of it, you can average roughly 600 Lords of the Fallen Vigor every 20 seconds, which is 1,800 Vigor per minute, leading up to 108,000 Vigor per hour.

I still use this farm even after dozens of hours playing when I need to upgrade weapons or purchase rings from vendors.

Stats

The main stats to focus on for this build are Vitality and Inferno, which is going to be your main damage scaling stat.

strength is pretty useless for this build since your weapon scale with Inferno.

Agility should only be increased to meet weapon requirements and honestly, you only need to increase it to 13 since the Bloodlust sword and the Lightreaper swords only require 13 Agility.

Endurance is going to affect your Stamina and Equipment Load. But since this build has a light Encumbrance, you don’t need much Endurance at all. This is because you’ll be wearing light armor and the weapons themselves are pretty light as well. If you do want to carry heavier weapons and armor, I would increase this as much as you need.

Vitality affects your character’s HP and I would recommend increasing this to at least 30 during your playthrough.

You don’t really need to touch Radiance at all unless you plan on using specific Radiance spells, which you don’t really need.

Lastly, Inferno, which is the main stat on the build. This stat contributes to your weapon physical and fire attack power and it also increases the damage of your spells over time. Inferno is going to be your highest stat on the build.

Primary Weapon

For my primary weapon, I’m using the Lightreaper dual swords.

In my opinion, these are the coolest looking swords in the game and they also fit perfectly on this build.

To get these swords, you will need to defeat the Lightreaper boss. Now, you’ll run into this boss several times throughout your journey. But eventually, you will have to face him and defeat him to progress through the story.

To be honest, this boss fight wasn’t the easiest. The Lightreaper is incredibly fast, very agile, and he can also regenerate in combat, which means you constantly have to deal damage over time. Otherwise, he’s just going to heal up.

The best strategy I found for this boss was to play super aggressive, learn his move set, and only attack when his combos were over. Whenever the Lightreaper wasn’t in melee range, I basically nuked him with the infernal orb spell. The key is to always deal damage with this boss. You cannot afford to play slow.

Besides, the weapons dropped by this boss are well worth the headache. I have both Lightreaper swords fully upgraded +5. Both swords have a tier scaling for Agility and Inferno. These swords deal both physical and fire damage simultaneously, making it a perfect choice for any Inferno build.

Please note: these swords have a secret move set that you can unlock.

I have three runes equipped for each sword: 2 Berlam runes, which increase Inferno attribute scaling, giving you more damage overall, and 1 Pertiax rune, which increases your physical damage even further.

I have these same exact runes for each sword, giving me the most amount of damage possible.

Also Read: 3 Best Starting Classes In Lords Of The Fallen

Catalyst & Spells

For the Catalyst, I’m using the Searing Accusation fully upgraded + 10.

This is easily one of the best Inferno Catalysts in the game. It has ‘A’ tier scaling for Inferno, almost 600 Spellpower and 4 spell slots.

*The first spell I’m using is Magma Surge. This spell summons an explosive surge of magma from beneath the ground. The reason this spell is so powerful is that it can pretty much be casted anywhere and it will always hit your target as long as you can lock on to them.

You need at least 30 Inferno to use this spell, but it makes sense because it’s easily one of the strongest Inferno spells in the game. It offers so much burst damage. It can be casted repeatedly, and it doesn’t use much Mana at all.

*The second spell I’m using is Infernal Orb. If you remember, this is the very first spell you unlock when you start playing as the Pyric Cultist and I wasn’t lying when I said it’s one of the most well-rounded spells in the game.

There is a stronger version of this spell called Lava Burst. But it’s almost double the Mana, and it takes way too long to cast.

*The third spell I’m using on the build is Adyr’s Rage. A shout sorcery which allows you to summon the rage of Adyr within yourself, increasing all of your damage types, which means your swords and spells will deal more damage.

*The last spell on the build is Seismic Slam. This spell lets you summon an infernal hammer to strike the ground, sending forth a line of explosions.

I have to say this spell is up there with Magma Surge for being one of the most powerful Infernal Spells. It’s also incredibly easy to chain the spell into your melee attacks as well.

Rings

For the rings, I’m going to show you two different ring combinations. Obviously, the possibilities are endless. There’s so many different rings in this game. But these are my personal recommendations.

The first combination here is going to favor melee over spellcasting, so we have the Princess’ Sting pendant, which allows you to deal additional damage when you have a lighter equipment load. This works extremely well for this build because we do have a light Encumbrance.

The Mineowner’s Ring increases maximum Stamina. But most importantly, Stamina regeneration rate. This ring is a must-have for melee combat.

Lastly, the Ring of Knight’s Fire, which increases your overall fire damage. If you want to go the spellcaster route, I would recommend using:

• The Hysteria Pendant, which increases Spellpower;
• The Puissance Root, which increases the power of sorceries;
• The Anchorite’s Ring, which increases defense while casting sorceries.

There are many elites in Lords of the Fallen. You may find them difficult to deal with, but at least some of them can be easily overwhelmed if you know how.

Stagger Elites

Now let’s dig a little deeper. We begin by analyzing the stagger behavior of elites and identifying the necessary characteristics we require. No impact knockdown can easily defeat the toughest enemies. But the good news is that they are indeed rare.

Well, most of the elites we usually encounter may be knocked down by impact, but will never be truly defeated. Only some of the simplest enemies can be knocked down by huge impacts, but they are strong enough to withstand multiple hits.

If you have enough LotF Vigor budget, you can also choose a weapon with high critical hit like Executioner’s Blade to defeat them quickly.

Note that most elites temporarily gain powerful super heavy armor when attacking or dodging. Meanwhile, when the staggered animation ends, they will actively look for opportunities to counter-attack or dodge. This way, it’s impossible to link interleaved animations together.

But if our target is of the easiest elite type, we still have a chance. By knocking them down, we increase the duration of their stagger animation. This allows the next attack to be made before the stagger animation ends. This is our key.

Technique

Let’s look at the whole technique. First, wait patiently for their attack to end. Seize the opportunity and start our attack with a heavy blow from two-handing weapon. After that, just use the charged attacks one by one. This will bog them down and deal a lot of damage at the same time. However, your stamina will soon run out.

If your target is still alive when you run out of stamina, it’s time to switch to our second combo. Take a small step back to cancel the post-attack animation and regain a bit of stamina, then start Sprinting and Dash to attack again. This allows you to unleash more attacks almost endlessly, guaranteeing you a kill.

When elites are present as external enemies, you can focus primarily on clearing out adds, you don’t necessarily lure them away. You can use AOE attacks to stagger adds and easy-to-stagger elites with the same hit.

And then we’ll leave the hard-to-cross elites for last. You can lure the elite away from the battlefield first to give them more space to fight other enemies. When we’re done with everything, ideally you can single out elites, which is a tactical situation we’re familiar with. So if you have ranged or AOE magic, use them and don’t just rely on melee.

Example

Let’s look at an example. Let’s say we have some ranged guys, several dogs, and two hard-to-stagger elites. I will deal with ranged enemies first and eliminate their threat.

I would then use melee attacks or AOE magic to draw the dogs out and destroy them. When there are only two elites left in the end, we will kill them with high-damage long-range magic. If we do this, we can quickly kill one of them and return the fight to single player mode.

Summarize

Now, this is our overwhelming skill against certain elites, including but not limited to: Infernal Enchantress, Hallowed Knight, and Bringer of Stillness.

More powerful elites are beyond the capabilities of that technology, and for that, you usually need to combine your skills with a powerful build. So just remember to clearly identify which enemies are suitable for our new technology and which are not.

The other thing is to plan your killing priorities and improve your combat skills so that you will be less hit in the first place. Overall, as long as you follow this guide, you will overwhelm most of the elites in the game!