Best Builds

Rating: honestly this build just works everywhere I've taken it through the entire game twice now and there's literally no boss that hard counters it like some builds dominate one fight and then get completely destroyed by the next one but Hybrid Flex is just consistently good across the whole game which is kind of rare tbh because usually in these games the safe build is also the boring one but this one is actually fun to play which surprised me ngl I thought I'd switch off it after the tutorial area but here I am 40 hours later still running it

Sha-Chi Strategy: 60/40 split 60% offensive for Power Surge and 40% defensive for Phantom Edge utility and I know that sounds like a boring balanced split but the key is building Sha-Chi with dual blades because they're fast as hell then spending it on sword Power Surges for way higher single-target damage and trust me on this one because I tried the 50/50 split first and it felt terrible you really need that 60% offense to hit the damage thresholds otherwise you're just tickling bosses and fights drag on forever which is not fun at all

Playstyle: this build is just super forgiving and that's what makes it so good for new players like you use dual blades for general fighting and building Sha-Chi then swap to Jagged Steel when you need bleed buildup for burst windows and the most important rule is keep your Sha-Chi between 40 and 80 percent never let it empty completely because then you lose all your momentum and also never let it hit the cap either because that's just wasted potential and I've seen so many new players sit at capped Sha-Chi for minutes without using it and it physically hurts to watch ugh

Skill Tree Priority: Sha-Chi regeneration rate is number one then combo extension then parry window duration in that order and honestly don't overthink it just follow that priority list and you'll be fine

Rating: absolutely deletes single-phase bosses like it's not even close the damage numbers are honestly kind of stupid but tbh it struggles hard against groups and any boss with aerial phases and I found this out the hard way on my first playthrough when I stubbornly refused to switch builds and spent like 2 hours on a boss that should have taken 15 minutes so you gotta know when to use it and when to just accept that another build would be better for the situation which is something I definitely did not do at first because I was too stubborn to admit my build was wrong

Sha-Chi Strategy: 90/10 offensive basically every single essence point goes straight into Power Surge and you only use Phantom Edges to set up your burst windows never for utility or defense or whatever it's pure aggression all the time and I'm not gonna lie this feels amazing when it works like you're just a freight train of damage and nothing can stop you but the second something goes wrong you're basically a paper bag getting blown around in the wind

Playstyle: you need to be on the boss constantly with this one apply bleed stacks with Jagged Steel then swap to greatsword and Power Surge to detonate everything at once and the damage is honestly stupid like I've seen 40% HP bars just disappear but the timing has to be perfect because you literally cannot afford to block every single Sha-Chi point is for offense and if you waste one on defense your burst window is gone and now you're just flailing around doing zero damage waiting for Sha-Chi to come back which takes forever and the boss is just laughing at you

Skill Tree Priority: attack damage first bleed stack duration second Power Surge damage third pretty straightforward honestly not much to think about here just pump damage and pray

Rating: this build destroys multi-phase bosses especially blue-heavy ones it's S-tier for those fights and I've literally beaten bosses 10 levels above me with this setup which should not be possible but somehow it works but honestly aerial bosses are a real problem like they're the one thing that makes this build feel terrible so keep a backup build ready for those and I learned that the hard way when I ran into an aerial boss 3 hours into a session and had no backup build prepared and just had to bang my head against it until I got lucky which took way too long

Sha-Chi Strategy: 30/70 offensive most of your essence comes from parrying the enemy's attacks so the gameplan is basically let the boss spend their Sha-Chi attacking you then punish them during recovery windows it's a patient playstyle but super effective and honestly it kind of feels like you're playing a different game from the Aggressive Chi Rush people because they're just facerolling damage while you're sitting there waiting for your moment and then boom you delete half their HP bar in one punish window and the boss is probably confused about what just happened

Playstyle: you just methodically drain the enemy Sha-Chi through parries and Venomous Softblade has extended parry frames so it's way more forgiving than it looks and I was honestly shocked at how generous the parry window is with this weapon like I was hitting parries I had no business hitting once the enemy Sha-Chi is gone you switch to Celestial Lance and unload on them and this build absolutely shines against aggressive bosses that leave tons of parry windows the kind of bosses that never stop attacking and with other builds you're just dodging forever

Skill Tree Priority: parry window duration first Sha-Chi drain on parry second counter damage third and honestly that parry window extension is the whole reason this build works so max it first before anything else or you're gonna have a bad time mkay

Strategy: the idea is simple apply bleed stacks with Jagged Steel up to 5 stacks then switch to Flame Tongue because its passive combusts all those bleed stacks into fire explosions which deals bonus damage and also applies a burn DoT on top so you just keep both status effects rolling and in fights longer than like 2 minutes this sustained damage absolutely outpaces any burst window setup I've tested this against bosses with huge HP pools and the bleed build actually pulls ahead of Chi Rush around the 2 minute mark which is kind of wild when you think about it because Chi Rush has way higher burst but it can't sustain and the bleed just keeps ticking and ticking and ticking

Strategy: elemental proc stacking is the name of the game here Phoenix Wing triggers a fire explosion on every third hit and that combines with Flame Vial's AoE for massive group damage and I'm not kidding when I say you can clear entire rooms of normal enemies in like 3 seconds flat then you swap to Thunder Edge for charged heavies that release electric bursts everywhere and honestly this is the best AoE build in the game by a mile nothing else even comes close for clearing trash mobs and those annoying group encounters where the game throws 10 enemies at you at once and you're just supposed to deal with it somehow

Weakness: single-target DPS is pretty bad honestly not recommended for boss fights with no adds you'll be there forever chipping away and it gets really boring really fast trust me I tried using this for a pure boss fight and after 8 minutes of slowly whittling down the HP bar I just gave up and switched builds it's just not what this build is for you get the idea