▲ 39 r/Silksong
Attempt at an Objective Crest Ranking
you read the title. im going to try to objectively rank all crests, but in the end we're all humans, we're all biased. but to do this i'll rank them based on a few criteria then weigh those together. in the end, the crest system is insanely well balanced so there is no right answer.
i will be taking into account average strength, potential strength, ease of use, skill ceiling, tool slots, and a bunch of other random criteria that it isn't worth mentioning.
Combat:
- Architect- shreds through everything other than a few bosses and very easy to use, just cogflys, curvesickle and voltvessels.
- Hunter- also shreds through enemies, but this time also works on basically everything. architect had certain bosses that it wasn't effective against, hunter's good against everything. that said, its much harder as you have to avoid taking damage to build up more stacks to get the best damage, though in the end it'll have the second highest dps in the game.
- Beast- also shreds through everything, but this time its much harder to use than both previous crests. cycling furies is very hard, but when done correctly you have the highest dps in the game with pretty consistent uptime.
- Wanderer- lower skill ceiling and potential strength than the previous 3, but much, MUCH easier to use. probably the highest dps for any normal player because it doesn't need you to not take damage, or cycle your furies, or rely on your shell shards, and even its passive (crit) is passive. with the third highest dps, it will do the highest damage usually. though its low potential means the highest i could see it being is maybe 3rd.
- Witch- witch is very unique, and definitely my favourite crest. that said, it unfortunately is very hard to play. its strength comes in bursts, and its below average attack speed means there will be downtime between its bursts of power. but it can shred bosses if done correctly. it also makes up for this by having double hit pogos and dash attacks, both top 3 in the game imo, and that's what does pull it above shaman.
- Shaman- its very close between witch and shaman. you can play it extremely safe with the shaman while thread storm, pale nails and silkspear deal insane amounts of damage while you can play as agressively as you want with cross stitch. however, similar to the witch it's strength comes in bursts, however, because of its horrendous attack speed it will have lots of downtime between its spells where it can't do much. it has a very strong needle art but you don't really want to build around it, because of the extremely limiting slots you get.
- Reaper- reaper doesn't have much going for it. it actually only has longer range than wanderer and hunter, and its slow attack speed negates the extra silk it gets from its passive for average silk gen. you can play EXTREMELY safe however, and its very easy to use, but once you get used to any other crest they're gonna be a lot better at killing bosses.
Platforming:
- Wanderer- this is the knight after all. you'll already be pretty used to this moveset, plus its made for platforming being the only crest with an instant pogo. its small range isn't much of a problem, because longclaw, and it has a regular heal thank god.
- Reaper- i could see an argument for reaper being #1, but i'm an impatient person. reaper will be much slower than wanderer because it has a delayed pogo, even if technically it is easier to use.
- Hunter- for the love of god people, the hunter pogo is NOT BAD. genuinely it just takes a little bit of getting used to. and once you do, it is gonna be a pretty great crest to platform with, considering it technically has the longest pogo.
- Witch- as i said before, witch has an absolutely amazing pogo. it would be maybe even higher than reaper, but its biggest strength when it comes to combat is what holds it back in platforming, and that is it's unique bind. needing enemies to heal is very annoying and limiting but is doable, and its pogo is just that good and easy to use that despite these missteps i can put it 4th.
- Architect- a weird angled pogo that you need to charge up to use properly. try doing mount fay with this, you'll lose so much time from charging up the pogo. it feels janky as well, but it does have good enough tool slots to pull this high.
- Shaman- it has a decently short pogo, actually. only 4th longest, directly in the middle. on top of that, missing a pogo with this feels weird because you can't glide immediately for some reason, and the delay means you'll definitely fall. and you have to heal on the ground. and it has no tool slots to save it.
- Beast- like the witch, it needs enemies to heal, but unlike the witch, it doesn't have anything else going for it platforming-wise.
General Exploration:
- Hunter- the hunter has the perfect balance of damage to kill trash mobs, speed to go through areas you've already been through, and platforming capabilities to get through general platforming challenges you'll encounter.
- Wanderer- same as hunter, it can kill trash mobs easily, and do platforming very well, and its decently fast as well. not nearly as fast as hunter, but it makes up for that by having 3 native yellow slots or 4 total with vesticrest. this means you can have dice, anklets, compass and grip, just perfect for exploration. it does land lower because going through an area afterwards means you won't really need the compass, and it's not as fast as hunter.
- Architect- tools can clear halls of enemies and gauntlets easily. its not bad at platforming, perse, just slow, which isnt a problem in exploration when you're gonna have killed everyone already.
- Reaper- good in platforming, but can't kill otherwise. good tool slot setup, i'll give it that, but its also very slow.
- Witch- it pains me to see witch so low every time, but needing enemies to heal is just not viable when you have basically only trash mobs that will only take one hit from the bind and die, meaning you only heal one. that said, once again it's carried by its amazing dash and pogo attacks.
- Shaman- having to bind on the floor with the longest bind animation in the game is not ideal for the many emergency situations you're gonna be in.
- Beast- sorry beast mains, but same problem as witch. need enemies to heal, and they're gonna die before you can cycle or get a full heal off. very hard pogo to get used to, and even if you do get used to it, its still a bottom two pogo in the game for platforming.
Speedrunning:
- Hunter- this is a smaller section so i'll skim over these quickly. you start with it, you don't need to go out of your way. the hunter pogo tech is insane.
- Shaman- easier to get its full damage than hunter, and you don't need to go much out of your way to get it in act 3.
- Wanderer- good, easy damage. not a hassle to get.
- Reaper- slow, but easy to get. good for platforming if you don't want to go all the way around for wanderer.
- Architect- you need to get so many tools for it, but it shreds through bosses.
- Beast- acquirable early for great dps but you need to beat multiple bosses first.
- Witch- too long to get, unreliable, even if good.
Overall (and tl;dr):
so overall, with all factors considered, i'd say the weighting of a crest is:
- Combat: 40%
- Exploration: 35%
- Platforming: 24%
- Speedrunning: 1%
Each crest gets points based on placement in each category (lower is better), then those placements are weighted according to the percentages above.
- Hunter- 210 Points
- Wanderer- 246 Points
- Architect- 292 Points
- Reaper- 450 Points
- Witch- 467 Points 😭
- Beast- 539 Points
- Shaman- 596 Points
u/DEATHapproaches69420 — 8 days ago