u/RockyBirdy

"Well, we don't really have goblins in Lordran, good sir"

Elite Knight custom from Dark Souls 1

Caught em cheating twice, and now on the 3rd time we match up…he runs away.

Pretty safe to assume they load up stupid amount of trinkets before every co-op run, so just avoid on sight if you want to enjoy the game (they were also horrible at co-op in general, hording everything and rushing through screens)

Corrupted areas can vary wildly in how difficult they are. Sometimes, you get through pretty smoothly and getting 3 rituals as rewards. Some other times, the game throws tons of tough elites at you and overwhelms you so much that you lose tons of hp...or even mother's graces. This is especially rough in Grandery, where you are at your weakest, so here is a detailed guide for each areas.

WHAT MAKES CORRUPTED ZONES EASIER:

- Scripted Fights: some screen has scripted fights that are unaffected by the corruption while still rewarding rituals

- Crimson Order Fights: some screen has a chance to replace regular enemies with Crimson order enemies, which are unaffected by corruption

- Boss Fights: some area will replace a screen with a boss fight. Do note that some of them replace ritual rewards with inspirations

*since this is a guide for late game system, there will be spoilers.

GRANDERY

WILD COAST (hard)

- no easy events

While most screens are wide and easy to move around, corrupted coast pretty much guarantees to have portals popping up in all 3 screens. This being the 1st area right at the start of the run makes it especially tough.

GIGGLING FOREST (hard)

- chance of boss fight (2 elite goblins + grenade throwers)

There are many screens with narrow path and traps, making them even more hectic. The boss fight still give you ritual reward plus a trinket, but it is considered hard for many players. Pray for boars...

MOULDY CAVE (moderate)

- chance of boss fight

Despite being a cave, most screens are surprisingly wide. Mushtroll boss fight is considered to be one of the easiest im the game, while replacing ritual reward with inspiration.

UPPER STONEDALE (easy)

- GUARANTEED scripted fight

- chance of scripted fight

The 1st screen will always only have a few spearmen with volley of arrows, making it a free ritual room. If you have beaten the dragon in Karl's quest, there is a chance for it to appear to "chase" you and replace the 1st half of the fight in a room. The additional fight to get a treasure chest full of coins is also unaffected by corruption. Overall, this is the most free corrupted area in the game.

STONEDALE (hard)

- no easy events

Apart from some small fights you can encounter when entering houses, this area is completely corrupted.

GREEN RIVER

- chance of scripted fight

The raft screen is scripted, so you will only fight normal goblins here. The waterfall screen has a guaranteed free food where you can hit the fish jumping out of the water. There are also plenty of cliff edges for you to throw enemies to their death.

DRACORAPTOR MOUNTAINS (hard + softlock chance)

- no easy events

The screen where you jump down to lower platforms 3 times has a chance of soft-locking your run, since enemies that can't jump down can spawn on upper platforms.

MISTY GROOVE (easy)

- chance of Crimson Order fight

- chance of Boss fight

A room has a chance to only spawn in a few exiles, which is pretty easy. The dark self fight can be pretty tough depending on which character you are playing (Cider being the toughest) and will replace ritual reward with inspiration. You do get ritual merchant at the end though (assuming you hit the signs correctly), so this is a chance to acquire loads of rituals.

CITADEL (moderate)

- chance of Crimson Order fight

A room has a chance to only spawn a few exiles. There are a few narrow rooms that can get you killed though, so do beware.

OLD MINES (moderate)

- chance of Crimson Order fight

Crimson order fight only has a few exiles and Crimson spearmen (easier dealt with by using throws).

DEEP MINES (easy)

- GUARANTEED scripted fight

- chance of Crimson Ordee fight

The 3rd screen will always be scripted where you deal with a bunch of Slashing Horrors, while the first half of the 2nd screen has a chance of Crimson Order fight (Exiled and Crimson Spearmen). The elevator screen can get pretty hectic though...

Are there times where you can't progress through the screen even after defeating all enemies? While there are other causes (like enemies stuck out of bound in Legion ordeal), it might also be the INVISIBLE DECAYING PLANT BUG. Turns out you didn't beat all enemies; there is a plant left alive in hiding, so try to walk around to find it (you will be stuck against a seemingly invisble wall). If you have companions or summons with you, they will also walk toward the plant, so use em to sniff it out.

There are 2 phases of this bug

INVISIBLE: happens when you hit the plant right when they are spawned in via portals (which is why it only happens in corrupted zones), the game thinks the plant is dead and triggers its death animation as it fades away. But the plant is still there and can still be hit.,

INVINCIBLE: happens when you overpressure the invisible plant (probably happens during a crazy screen filling build or a chrono lock build). the plant is stuck in invulnerable recovery state and can't be hit, which is why an ult still works on them (Unless you are Brome).

If you don't have an ult, it's unfortunately a soft lock. You would have to exit to menu and reload the screen, while making sure you let the plant spawn in fully before attacking it. (in online co-op, you are pretty much boned...since you would have to leave the online session and there is no way to reconnect mid-run)

Happened to me frequently enough that I think it is worth making a pose. This bug only happens when a player tries to speed up screen transitions (entering new screen, boss phases, events, etc.). The other player will lose control of their character completely and just run in a single direction non-stop (similar to when a screen transition happens, where characters will automatically move into designated spots).

They can also, weirdly enough, speed up the game during this bug, producing similar effect as to when skipping cutscenes. So, if you ever want a turbo mode...now you have one.

Joke aside, please avoid mashing skip during screen transitions to avoid this bug. Dialogues? fine...skip em all you want, but do you really need to speed up a 2-3 second animation?

Missing imbued fruits even after completing most of the game progression is a common bug for folks who play local co-op. I found a solution...kinda. It requires having another player who is willing to help you and some online co-op exploit.

CAUSE OF BUG
Usually happen when player tries to earn imbued fruits from cashing out achievements at Wisshelm (ghost dude) but will get crystals instead. And since there is a fixed number of fruits you can gain on a save file, you will be permanently missing some and can't unlock all of your rituals.

SOLUTION
Have another person starts a new save file and play a run until they reach and rescue Vikhana at Jaroba. After rescuing her and moving to the next screen, abandon the run to go back to your base. Vikhana will now appear there and call out to you. Her dialogue teaches you about the fruits and gives you 1 imbued fruit for free. THIS IS YOUR FRIEND'S TICKET TO SALVATION! so don't use it and exit to menu to preserve this dialogue.

Now, match up with them online and go talk to Vikhana. The player who is missing the fruit can pick it up and use it to unlock a ritual. Then, simply disconnect and you should retain the unlocked ritual while the player with the new save file will be reloaded back to before they talk to Vikhana. So, if you are missing multiple fruits, just repeat this process until you unlock everything.

DON'T HAVE A FRIEND WHO PLAY ABSOLUM?
I have a new save file ready for giving out fruits, so feel free to contact me here or on the official Dotemu discord server (preferably in the matchmaking channel) and I'm willing to help you out. We don't even have to do a run, so it will be pretty quick.

Probably rarely picked since it requires using Cursed Finisher or Cursed Skill (aka the forgotten middle child of Chaos ritual), but there is a trick to get hilarious amount of money from it...yes, even more than Gambler's Dice.
Normally, Treasure Hex gives 3/6/9 coins per each hit done by a Cursed move, which would net you around 25-100 coins in a fight depending on if you have a multi-hitting finisher/skill or not (for example, Galandra's Blade Spin would give you tons of coins at the cost of cursing your hp to hell). But actually, the game doesn't give you coins by hit-per-hit basis and operates more like opening an instance of "you-get-coins-per-hit" period on your character when they perform a cursed move, then closing it once that move is completed. This meant that if you animation-cancel out of a cursed move with something like an arcana, the game counts all the hits done by arcana and gives coins on those as well. So, if you have an arcana that hits load of times, you can make it rain.

...yes, this footage looks more like a thunder ritual showcase, but there is a good reason for that.

A ritual element that may seem underwhelming at first, wind is best described as the "support" ritual...making the characters and other rituals become stronger with passive abilities while gluing other elements together through twin rituals. That said, its own effects are still very decent at interrupting enemies or keeping them in the air for easier combo.

Pros:
+ Top-tier passive buffs (Fatal flow, Mana flow, Strike high)
+ Top-tier synergy: works well with all characters and elements
+ Top-tier twin rituals: often the core ingredient for broken builds
+ Good interrupter and juggler

Cons:
- Rely heavily on fast rapid-hitting attacks to truly shine
- Best rituals are locked behind Vikhana (all twin rituals, fatal flow, tornado jump)
- Its "support" usefulness can be pretty "win-more" (favor and better at boosting already powerful builds/elements)

Element synergy: All (especially great with thunder, bramble, fire, and chaos)
Character synergy: All (especially great with Cider and Brome)

1. TORNADO
   A rapid hitting effect that launches the enemy upward. This effect is triggered mainly through TORNADO STRIKE and TORNADO SKILL by hitting a single enemy multiple times, building up and bursting "WIND GALE" into a tornado. This makes tornado seems rather meh and slow compared to other Strike/Skill rituals whose effects are either instant or build up on your own character rather than the enemy (therefore is able to be built up quickly when hitting multiple enemies). Hence, the effectiveness of TORNADO STRIKE and TORNADO SKILL relies heavily on character move sets, as fast and rapid-hitting attacks will proc tornado way faster. This makes these 2 rituals be very strong in the hand of Cider, but not so much for Galandra at the start. This can be mitigated by acquiring specific inspirations (Galandra's BLADE SPIN or SPIRIT CLAW, BROME's INFUSED STAFF or DRILL RUSH). Where tornado truly shines, however, is in twin rituals. CHAIN TORNADOES and BUBBLE LIFT will instantly create tornadoes from Thunder's static discharge and Water's bubble burst respectively, while FIERY TORNADOES and WIND SPIKES will create Fire's ring of flame and Bramble's rose darts respectively from tornadoes. This meant that tornado is the glue that stick other elements together, chaining multiple effects from different families in a single trigger (Static Discharge > Tornado > Rose Dart...or...Bubble > Tornado > Ring of Flame, for example). FLOATING WING ritual will make enemies with WIND GALE float in midair for certain amount of time, allowing for easy juggle combo. TORNADO JUMP is its own beast. While it does less damage and is not affected by upgrading other tornado rituals, Tornado Jump is one of the best utility-based rituals in the game, allowing player to cancel out of attacks into multiple jumps. It will also create rose darts if you have WIND SPIKE twin ritual for the safest damage source in the game.

2. SONIC BOOM
   Auto-targeting projectiles that constantly shoots from the player until depleted. Created mainly by SONIC ARCANA, SONIC CLASH, and SONIC DEFLECT, sonic booms are as simple as one can get for a ritual effect. A "set-and-forget" effect that is helpful at interrupting incoming enemies or juggling a launched enemy. Its starting damage can be quite underwhelming, but it can be buffed through multiple rituals (POWER BOOM = bigger projectiles and higher damage, SONIC BARRAGE = faster fire rate and more projectiles). SONIC FORCE creates wind gale from each sonic boom hit, eventually creating a tornado (though similar to other non-twin tornado rituals...it is pretty slow at proc-ing tornado). While not as impressive as Tornado's, twin rituals with Sonic boom are still very powerful. SONIC ECHOES and SKELETON DUST will fill the whole screen with projectiles that automatically track and kill every enemy very quickly, while OTHERWORLDLY BOOMS will guarantee that sonic booms are never depleted with enough LUCK.

3. FATAL FLOW and MANA FLOW
   The "win-more" passive abilities that increase your damage and mana gain as your combo counter goes higher. These effects synergize incredibly well with moves or rituals that quickly do multiple hits, spiking your damage and mana gain quickly...which also meant you will kill incoming enemies even quicker and constantly refill your mana for arcana spam as long as you can keep the combo counter going. This will let you snowball any prolonged fights (often one-shotting the large enemy at the end of the waves), while also turning already broken screen-filling victory-guaranteed builds into an absolute overkill for those who want to break the radiance score board. That said, it is still plenty useful in regular builds and benefits all kinds of playstyles.

EXTRA
- STRIKE HIGH: a damage buff that gets higher the further you are from the ground. While not at all flashy, it allows for constant high damage, especially when paired with TORNADO JUMP or Cider. Note that throwables and projectiles will not be affected by this buff.
- WIND PRESSURE: reduce pressure build-up to prolong a combo while also powering up the overpressure hit. Pretty handy for cool combos or intentional repetitive moves into an overpressure powerful singular hit, but isn't as much as a priority compared to other wind's passive rituals
- Sonic booms will persist through exiting a screen but will disappear upon triggering cutscenes or entering certain screen...so this effect is not particularly useful and will rarely ever come into play.
- While the combo counter will immediately end upon clearing out a screen and popping a root reward, you can still juggle enemies' lifeless bodies to build up FATAL FLOW and MANA FLOW afterward, allowing you to enter the next screen with already massive damage/mana gain boost if you have high enough movement speed. Cosmic ordeals that disable rewards like IRON ORDEAL or SCAVENGER ORDEAL won't end your combo counter in certain screens, letting you keep the boost.
- Tornado, for some reason, is not counted as "ritual damage" and will do reduced damage in RITUALIST ORDEAL
- MANA FLOW can feel pretty redundant, since the boosted damage from FATAL FLOW will also give you more mana on hit...so do prioritize FATAL FLOW over MANA FLOW.
- Brome's BATTLE RAGE is functionally identical to MANA FLOW, and both effects can stack.

Quick video of a crystal hacker and how to spot them. Literally happened today, I already caught a glimpse of what they had before recording when we dropped down into the museum but decided to play along for a bit to serve them as a bad example.

Notice how they ABSOLUTELY will not walk over a trinket and just hide in the corners wherever I ran to? Yup! They do that to conceal their inventory. If you see this behavior, they definitely have an unholy number of trinkets on them. Just leave instantly...or start and immediately abandon a run to waste their time a bit and have their shame be recorded on the result screen.

And before anyone say "hey, maybe they just save up the crystals to do a fun crazy run. That's a bit cruel". I would like to point out that the last trinket they bought cost 20,971,520 crystals (20 x (2^20)). Even a custom ordeal run aimed to maximize crystal farm would net you around 10-15k per run. Anything beyond 10 trinkets is almost guaranteed to be a crystal hack or a malicious use of mod.

Ever played a co-op and notice that your partner is moving way faster (to horde everything cuz of course they do), deal more damage, and take less damage right off the bat? Check their inventory...they might be one of these.

Already made this in the museum trinket tips, but it seems to happen way more often (1 out of 4 players in my experience), so I feel like it is worth making a PSA of its own.

Normally, both players go to the museum, then pick and choose what trinkets they wanna buy for the run (especially in harder ordeal). That said, a player can buy as many as they wanted even before matching up with another player, and immediately rush to the starting point so that the other player is none the wiser.

TYPES

1. HACKERS/SAVE FILE EXPLOIT

These are pretty easy to spot tbh, cuz they usually have a metric tons of trinkets with them with crystal cost going into millions. These are the ones I won't cencored the names on the screenshot...so that folks can AVOID ON SIGHT. They will usually also spend thousands on rerolls even on the 1st screen to always get that one build. If you see that, keep a keen eye on their inventory.

2. "I-WANNA-SOLO" TRYHARDS

These folks actually know how to play the game instead of buying 10 shields and 4 moxes, but I would argue they are more malicious. They will only buy 1-4 strong trinkets that make them overpowered right off the gate, or speed-boosting trinkets like boots and Jaroba oils to ensure that they get 1st dip on all loots. They will then more than likely to just choose every path and hog every items at merchant while skipping your own camp/heal to ensure that they are the only one playing the game (WHY ARE U IN ONLINE MODE). Especially very damaging for new players' experience...which they obviously don't care. It's a co-op mode, folks...not competitive. Bonus point if they also leaving the online session right at the final boss or if you are doing too good, in which case they are also highscore maniac (just do custom ordeals, dum dum).

3. "I-DUNNO-WHAT-IM-DOING"

Pretty much the victim of the first 2 types, these are newer players who came across these trinket maniacs and incorrectly assume "oh, that's how you get strong in this game". Problem is they don't know what trinkets are good/broken, or more likely have not even unlock them yet, so they waste their crystals on multiple moxes or shields. See 3rd pic as example, that Brome ragequitted on the 3rd screen after they lost a mother's grace. These are the people I want to see this the most tbh, cuz they are the one whose experiences are being ruined by malicious players (this game is amazing, pls don't drop it).

HOW TO SPOT EM

1. GO TO THE MUSEUM

Even if you don't wanna buy anything, go there to check what's the other player has. Their inventory will show up when they hover through a trinket, like in the 1st 3 screenshots. From there, it's up to you if you still wanna play with them or not (sometimes I don't mind, until they are proven to also be douches during the actual run). If they try to hide in the corner so that they don't hover over a trinket to show their inventory, just disconnect immediately. If they are so adamant on not going to the museum with u (like immediately running to and mashing interact on the starting point), 99.99% of the time they already bought tons beforehand.

2. DURING TRINKET REWARD/MERCHANT/HEARTROOT CRAFT

Their inventory shows up during that as well, so keep an eye during these if you noticed something is off.

NOTE

- I want to be extra clear here cuz I probably ruffled some feathers, this is NOT TO INSULT FOLKS WHO BUY MANY TRINKETS AT MUSEUM. Plenty of those aren't actively malicious and just like getting an edge against the game, or aiming for a specific build. Just DON'T BUY EM BEFORE MATCHING UP, the other player should know what you are loading up and should get to decide if they wanna play with you or not (Cider with 5 playing cards...no thanks), especially newer players who probably haven't even found the museum yet. Go down there together like a proper co-op players. If you match up with a new player who haven't unlock the trinkets you want yet, YOU DON'T NEED THOSE TRINKETS playing with a newbie.

A ritual element all about bouncing and pushing enemies around. Water is very potent at keeping enemies at bay (heh), but there are clear downsides and gaps in its potency. Here are some info and tips for Water rituals.

Pros:
+ becomes more powerful as more enemies appear on screen
+ high burst damage potential and screen control
+ good passive buffs (Impact Bounce, Mana Bounce, Repelling Power)
+ Only has 2 effects (Bubble, and Tidal waves), allowing for easy build

Cons:
- relies on launching and pushing the enemies around, making them ineffective against certain large enemies or bosses
- requires the player to adjust their combos as enemies are flung all over the place at a touch
- bad synergy with lots of arcana and other elements, either pushing the enemies out of an attack or getting said push cancelled out by rapid-hitting attacks

Element synergy: Thunder and Bramble
Character synergy: Karl (especially in throw-focused builds) and Brome

1. BUBBLE
   Applied through skill or finisher, the bubble will pop when the enemy comes into impact with the ground, wall, or other enemies, dealing splash damage and launching them further for potentially more impact damage. This effect really shines against a group of enemies, stacking multiple splash damage and sending them flying as they bounce against each other. The bubble bounce will alter the trajectory of a launched enemy, so player will have to adjust their combo plan accordingly. Against larger enemies or bosses that can't be launched, the bubble will burst on its own after a while, dealing unimpressive splash damage. Bubble Wave ritual will create Tidal wave upon the impact, significantly increases its damage potential. Bouncing Bubbles will have the bubble bounces for additional time(s) before bursting, keeping enemies in lengthy hitstun and allowing player to focus on other enemies. This effect is pretty powerful on its own but can be especially broken in the bubble-tornado-dart twin ritual build.

2. TIDAL WAVE
   A large, grounded wave that appears both in front and behind the player. A perfect "get-out-of-my-face" effect that pushes the enemies away or outright launch them to the wall with enough upgrade, setting up for more impact damage. The downside is that it can push enemies out of your arcana range and that it is subpar against big enemies or bosses as a clash ritual compared to other ones (explosion, spark, etc.). Similar to Bubble, it really shines as a crowd control option with Bigger Waves ritual even allowing for fullscreen coverage. Wave Dash and Wave Landing create smaller waves that are great at interrupting nearby enemies. Wave Dash is also especially great as a combo tool as it can hit off the ground, allowing player to extend their combo at a push of a button (very useful for Cider, who has very few off-the-ground attacks). The below average damage can be mitigated by acquiring Harsh Waves and/or Cursed Well.

EXTRA
- Rupture is one of the few rituals that can damage the enemy even after overpressure where they would normally be invulnerable. Paired with Power Staff or Crown of harmony water build for obscene amount of chip damage.
- Crown of Harmony boosts both the damage and pushback effect of water rituals, often sending enemies flying for very lengthy amount of time in a single touch (great for hilarity and Rupture...not so great for your combo meter)
- Magnetized Waves will create Tidal waves multiple times if the player also has Spark Storm ritual (ie. Proximity Spark hitting 4 times will create 4 Tidal waves), dealing absurd damage and often killing a wave of enemies on its own.

Probably the element that caught new players' attention the most. Bramble is as straightforward as it gets, while being pretty powerful and easy to use/build. Here are some info and tips for Bramble rituals.

Pro:
+ Absurd burst damage
+ Absurd range and screen coverage
+ Less rituals than all other elements, making it easier to build
+ Only has 2 effects (Thorn Daggers, and Rose Darts/Turrets) with most twin rituals affecting both...allowing for even easier build
Con:
- Prone to being clashed back (very fatal in a few cases)
- Game crashing at its strongest (thanks, Cider!)

Element Synergy: wind, water, thunder, fire
Character Synergy: Cider, Galandra, Karl

1. THORN DAGGERS
   Acquired mainly through strike finisher, dodge, and deflect. A throwable that flies straight forward on the ground and diagonally downward in the air. Very easy to use both in combo and just pure full-screen spamming, with 2 exceptions against Lizard King and Azra (who can clash them back at the player, often dealing tons of damage or outright killing them). While it starts out being weaker than other throwables, it can really shine with upgrades...especially with Piercing Thorn and Thorn Spread. Paired with Thorn Echo and Multiple Echoes for even more absurd screen-filling burst damage. Like other throwables, it can be stockpiled up to 20, useful for saving up for elite enemies or bosses. Galandra's Spirit Claw and Karl's Hammer Swing inspirations allow them to spawn in tons of Thorn daggers very quickly and spam them in every fight. Apart from those two, it can be a bit slow to get many daggers and can feel underwhelming compared to other instant effect rituals. Especially bad with Brome, who has no air finisher and only one ground finisher.

2. ROSE DARTS/TURRETS
   Turrets are mainly summoned through Arcana and dodge, while Darts can be applied through Mowing Dash. Rose Turrets are great at crowd control and general defense, as they shoot out rose darts fast and frequent and can interrupt unarmored enemies. The tracking aim is not perfect though, so it can miss a lot against fast enemies or even from the player pushing the enemies around. It is also prone to being clashed back, and while less fatal compared to Thorn Daggers, it can happen way more frequently. Mowing Dash is its own beast, transforming any throwables into multiple darts when you dash over them. While it can be a bit meh in most scenarios, as most screens do not have many throwables or any at all...making the ritual mainly rely on the character creating throwables themselves, it has the highest damage potential in the game in the right hands. The mentioned Galandra's Spirit Claw and Karl's Hammer Swing inspirations will create so many Thorn daggers that you have more than enough extra daggers to be dashed through. Cider's Critical Toolbox with Turbo Rotor and high crit rate is the most damaging build in the game by far with Mowing Dash (so much so that it will usually crash the game). Other than those cases, Rose darts weirdly are more commonly used through Twin Ritual, namely Wind Spike...creating many darts from a wind tornado (including tornado jump).

EXTRA
- In co-op, Thorn Dagger's damage and properties DEPENDS ON THE THROWER'S RITUALS AND BUILD! Meaning that a player with no Bramble build picking them up and spamming them will do minimal damage and is usually a waste. So, you should probably leave them for the player who spawning them out and stop hording everything on the floor instead of fighting... (You know who you are XD)
- Rose darts have much larger hitbox than how they look, which is great for most cases...but is nightmare on Bonded Fate Ordeal as the dart will friendly fire if the player is anywhere near the enemy the dart is hitting.
- Twin rituals: Burning Plants, Tidal Plants, Zapping Plants, and Detox Plants apply to both Thorn daggers and Rose darts...making them quite strong if you are in Bramble Build. Detox Plant is especially useful for curing curse in boss fights.
- Bramble is the only element with no skill ritual, probably because spawning Thorn daggers from skill would be way too powerful (especially with Drill Rush or Blade Spin)
- Cider's Throwable Replicator inspiration will throw 3 thorn daggers straight forward in a quick burst instead of the usual spread pattern, allowing it to be stacked with Thorn Spread.

Your starting element and considered underwhelming by many players, here are some info and tips for fire rituals.

Pro:
+ many unblockable damage sources
+ good defensive option with Ring of fire and burn/flame trail lame-out
+ good synergy with almost all other elements and strong twin rituals
+ baseline element...work well with all characters
Con:
- has 4 types of effects (ring of fire, burn, flame trail, and explosion) instead of the usual 2-3, resulting in lower damage compared to other elements for single element build
- best build relies on finding one ritual: Explosive Death

1. BURN
   Apply mainly via skill and strike, burn can feel pretty weak compared to other skill/strike rituals as it cannot stack and will be snuffed out on overpressure. Its ability to bypass block/shield and having no impact on combo pressure build-up mean burn is great for a "set-and-forget" DoT damage but also mean it will not help at interrupting or stunning the enemies at all. Only pop-off when used with Explosive Death. Note that enemies defeated with burn does not count as "your" kill, meaning that it has bad synergy with Curse and Galandra's Blood Harvest.

2. RING OF FIRE
   Apply mainly via Arcana and dodge. Arguably this element best effect, Ring of fire is great at both offense and defense. Its ability to juggle the enemies near you while not adding to combo pressure allows for very easy combo extension. It can interrupt non-armored enemies, while also triggering punish state, resulting in a S-tier defensive tool for close-range combat (especially in ordeals with fast enemy movement and high aggression). Fiery Explosion will trigger early if ring of fire's duration is renewed, allowing for an on-command explosion. Also has excellent twin rituals with Fiery tornado and Fiery skeleton, both of which are great at stun-locking the whole screen. Its only weakness is bad synergy with impact/throw builds.

3. FLAME TRAIL
   Apply mainly via dash. A prolonged AoE attack that ignores block/shield while adding to combo counter but not combo pressure. This is your main ticket to having Explosive Death really shine. Otherwise, function very similarly to burn.

4. EXPLOSION
   Fire's coup de grace and what all other effects want to culminate in. Normally only apply from clash but can be triggered from other fire effects with Explosive Death and Fiery Explosion. This is fire's only burst damage source and therefore is crucial for broken builds. While having less range compared to Tidal wave, it deals more damage and has less pushback, making it more combo friendly. Note that Explosive Death via flame trail will also trigger on summon and companion death, allowing for a funny and somewhat impractical living bomb build.

OTHER
- Flash Fire increases the damage of all fire effects, somewhat make up for its weakness of split damage sources.
- Explosive Death can also be triggered by co-op partner's kills (very bad in Bonded Fate ordeal...great everywhere else)
- Crown of Harmony will increase both the damage and duration of fire rituals, making it especially effective for this element

Have you ever tried to reroll for an inspiration or ritual you wanted in co-op, only to never find it no matter how many crystals you spent? ...It might have been bad luck, but more likely it's caused by the co-op partner having it and players sharing "pools" of rituals or inspirations.

1. Ritual Pool

When one player already picked a ritual, let's say Echoing Arcana, that ritual is now "taken" and is removed from the pool of rituals you can find. This means that the other player will NEVER EVER find Echoing Arcana for the rest of the run. There are 2 EXCEPTIONS.

FIRST is selecting the same ritual at one ritual reward. Since it is only removed after a player picked it up, both players can get Echoing Arcana if they pick it up at the same time (Note that once a player accepts their ritual reward, the other player won't be able to find it from rerolls even on that screen).

SECOND is finding an upgraded ritual at the snail merchant. Sometimes, the merchant can sell rituals you already owned as an upgrade (250 for lvl 2 and 300 for lvl 3), and the other player can buy it instead. This meant that if the player with the ritual already upgraded it to lvl 3, this won't happen.

So, if you want to be nice, keep an eye out on what rituals the other player is picking up and try to avoid going for rituals with the same element as them. Not only does fighting over the same element mess with both player's build, it will also be less effective than one player having many rituals from the same elements as they power-up each other (for example, burn strike will also increase burn damage and duration of burn skill, and vice versa, if one player has both).

2. Inspiration Pool

This only happens when you pick the same character, but the result is much more aggravating. With each character only having 11 inspirations and players who defeated enough ordeals can buy up to 3 inspirations before starting the run, you would have very limited options to pick from...or worse...the game RUNS OUT OF INSPIRATIONS to reward you after a boss fight.

Look at the attached image for example. Here, one Galandra bought 3 inspirations before the run (oof on the other player having 0% chance of getting Arcana Mastery), then both players picked different inspirations from each boss reward...resulting in Blade Spin being the only option left.

This one is way worse than the ritual pool, so I recommend avoiding using the same character on a run, especially in online co-op where one player could have 3 inspirations head start (imagine playing Karl...and not being able to get Reload cuz the other Karl picked it up before the run even begun XD). If you really want to play the same character, then try picking up the same inspiration on the same screen to avoid reducing the pool too quickly.

Hope this was helpful!

Bonded Fate ordeal is a pretty common pick for folks who start tackling ordeals in online match-making, since it's one of the ordeals that are available right at the start and it requires co-op. So, here are some tips to survive or more importantly...not kill your co-op partner. Look at the screenshots above...DON'T BE LIKE THEM...we won those runs by sheer miracle.

1. BASICS: Friendly fire...physical vs ritual
   The core struggle of this ordeal, as you will realize pretty quickly into the run, is that you can accidentally hit each other. That said, physical attacks actually have way smaller hitbox on friendly fire than against enemies, and the damage you take from these hits are pretty minimal. Rituals, on the other hand, are the main culprit and usually are the things that doom the run. 90% OF THE RITUALS ARE HAZARDOUS and can easily hit your friend, and while the dev nerfed the damage taken from rituals...lots of them have large area of effect and can add up pretty quickly.
   Ritual recommendations for safety are Astral armor (pure defense), Sonic booms (auto-target enemies and hit pretty quickly), static discharge (will hurt both players a lot if you trigger it on a friendly hit, but is pretty rare if careful), and all rituals that give passive buff (Fatal flow, Mana flow, Mana bounce, etc.).
   Rituals that are death sentence to the run are most water rituals (splash bubble and tidal waves both cover large chunk of the screen), most fire ritual (burn turns a slight hit into 50% health lost, ring of fire lingers for very long, and explosion is...self-explanatory), Wind tornado (cannot team up against enemies or bosses ever again, and twin rituals turn it into pure nightmare), Rose turret and Rose dart (have weirdly large hitbox that can hit and interrupt your partner even if they just standing near the enemy that the dart hit), all past echoes (obvious), and cosmic accident (very obvious). Avoid them at all costs by rerolling or DOING THREE THUMB-DOWN EMOTE in quick succession to refuse any ritual rewards. This also means CORRUPTED REGION SHOULD ALWAYS BE AVOIDED, since it is difficult and will just add more ways for you to kill each other.

2. SOCIAL DISTANCING: Pick a side and stick to it
   Even if friendly fire deals less damage than you would expect, it is still a good idea to stay out of each other's way, since a hit will also interrupt your friend's combo and open them up to enemy's attacks. Your wind tornado might only do 5% of total HP, but now your friend is helplessly launched into the air while an elite enemy winds up their strongest attack. Pick which side of the screen you are responsible for and stick to it until your friend needs help finishing up strong enemies. Safest way to win this ordeal is playing it like IRON ORDEAL LITE with social distancing.

3. ONE FALLS, BOTH FALL: You cannot power through with screen nuking build
   You may think that you can just do your usual screen annihilating build (We see you...Karl and Cider players) and just solo the run even if your co-op partner is getting torn to shred...which 1. means you are wildly missing the "co-op" part of this co-op ordeal and 2. won't work since "ONE FALLS, BOTH FALL" means THE RUN IMMEDIATELY FAILS IF ONE PLAYER RUN OUT OF LIVES AND DIES! Yes, this also means that both players need to have AT LEAST ONE SPARE LIFE when they defeat Azra, or the run is doom. So, keeping your friend alive by helping them out, and not being the one kill them yourself is a crucial part of this ordeal. On the other hand, if you are low on health, consider backing off and letting your co-op partner deal with the enemy/boss. Losing just one single life is already really bad for this ordeal, losing two basically kills the run unless you have enough money to buy extra life at Asterio.

4. THROWS AND MOUNTS: Your best friends in this ordeal
   You cannot pick up and throw your friend when you walk at them, so throwing is THE SAFEST WAY to deal damage to an enemy. You can also direct which way you are throwing the enemy to for most of the cast, so a good way to help your friend is walking toward an enemy behind them or to their side and throw them far away from your friend to safely combo them without risk of friendly fire. Also...MOUNTS CANNOT FRIENDLT FIRE...at all, so always pick them up at rest sites. You can also have one player dismount and fight normally until the other player's mount run out of stamina to prolong this safety strategy. (Bonus tip: Mounts are honestly a cheat in almost all ordeals, since they are unaffected by damage modifiers like Guardian ordeals or Ritualist ordeals).

Hope this was helpful!

I have played lots of co-op with randoms and seen all kinds of crazy trinket load-out...lots of them are very costly and ineffective, so here are some tips!

1. BASIC: Museum and how it works
   At the hub, there is a museum hidden below the training ground, which can be accessed by breaking a barrel and walking through to drop down (the characters will have a dialogue indicating this when you walk near said barrel). Down there, you can find the trinkets you have found during the runs, and you can buy them for THE NEXT RUN (this is not a permanent equipment). If you are new to the game, I would not recommend buying them until you are more familiar and already bought most of the permanent upgrades at the soul tree.

2. PRICE: Quality over Quantity
   You use crystals to buy these. For the 1st trinket for the run, common trinket costs 20, Rare costs 40, and Epic costs 60. However, this price will DOUBLE FOR EACH SUBSEQUENT trinket bought for that run. For example, if you buy 5 trinkets with the fifth one being an epic trinket, that trinket would cost 60 x (2^4) = 960 crystals. This means the price goes crazy pretty fast if you buy multiple of them. My suggestion is to only buy a few impactful trinkets. Just buying Gambler's Dice and a Crown will do much more than stacking 4 chainmail and 4 shields (yes, I have seen those in co-op) at a much lower crystal cost. If you really want to buy multiple (like luck clovers), do buy trinkets with higher rarity 1st to minimize cost.

3. MOXES: "Why don't I get the element I wanted?"
   This one seems to confuse lots of people, since I have seen multiple players buy more than 1 mox from the museum, sometimes in different elements (see 2nd image). Had a Brome who bought 4 thunder moxes, but barely getting any thunder rituals throughout the run (see 3rd image) ...so let me clear things up...
   First, the "Next Ritual offer will also include a -blank- option" effect DOES NOT STACK and DOES NOT PERSIST AFTER REROLLS. If you buy a thunder mox then a wind mox, the next ritual offer will only guarantee a wind ritual. If you really want to have a build of specific element, buy 1 mox and just pick whatever the 1st one is offered (yes...even if it's a deflect) to put the element in the "pool", so that the subsequent ritual rewards have high chance to offer that element.
   Second, while the 10% effect increase does stack when buying multiple moxes, the cost is higher than just buying a crown of harmony while being less effective.

4. RANDO CO-OP: Look out for the crazy spenders!
   You can buy trinkets before matching up in random online co-op, which can lead to...some nasty stuffs. So, even if you don't plan to buy anything, make a habit of always going down to the museum when playing co-op to check what the other player has (their inventory will show up when they walk near a trinket). Most egregious and obvious one is a crystal hacker (see last image), buying 10 or more trinkets and spending millions in crystals. Just leave the online session as soon as you see these. For less culpable cases, there are tons of trinket combinations that let a player be very overpowered or allow for crazy builds right at the start. Three crowns of harmony and some rituals rerolling will pretty much guarantee a game-breaking build with any elements. Cider with 5 Trickster's card will jump up and spam rocks until the end of the run, killing enemies before they even enter the screen if they also have "Throwable Replicator" inspiration. While you could argue that these aren't inherently wrong, you should still check and decide whether you want to play with them...since in most cases, it will be a pretty boring run where you don't get to do much if anything. With this in mind, if you want to buy some trinkets in co-op, be a good sport and match up first before buying them together.

Hope this was helpful!

Got so many desyncs playing with Xbox folks, that I now know how to get around it without leaving the online session. Good to keep in mind until the dev fixes it.

IMPORTANT: the game only progresses when PLAYER 1 exits the screen. If player 2 exits the screen during desync, they will just have a blank black screen until player 1 exits. Health, rewards, and loot will also be based on what happens in PLAYER 1's screen. The clip I'm showing was where Cider (Player 2) already exited on their end, so they are standing still at the edge of the screen.

Also, YOUR INPUTS ARE STILL BEING REGISTERED ON THE OTHER PLAYER'S SCREEN. You can see Cider trying to "skip" the black screen on their end, and Cider on my screen (Player 1) jumps. This is how you can progress if you know what you are doing.

PROCEDURE:

1. NOTICE if you are in desync: if the other player starts standing around doing nothing or hitting air, you are probably in desync. Check under your ping on the right below P2 icon.

2. WHERE are you?

2.1 SCENARIO 1 End-of-region Bosses: if you are at the end of region bosses (Underking, Morta Mima, etc.), simply proceed to exit the screen as normal as player 1 and the game will progress (player 2 will just be yanked to the next screen even if they were still fighting on their end). For player 2, your fate is pretty much in player 1's hand to finish the fight quickly without you losing too much HP on their end. If you already finish the fight as player 2, try moving around and mashing attacks to help beating the boss on player 1's screen.

2.2 SCENARIO 2 Normal fights & Mid-region bosses: Most screens require both players to get their rewards (rituals, coins, crystal, inspirations) before either can exit the screen. This is where desync will make players be stuck and can't progress. For this scenario, PLAYER 2 has to either;

A. run around and mash interact button everywhere, so that you would accept the reward on Player 1's screen, allowing Player 1 to exit the screen and progress.

B. do THREE "THUMB DOWN" EMOTES quickly in a row to refuse the reward. This will also apply on Player 1's screen, again...allowing them to exit.

Either way, player 2 does have to accept that they were going to get random rituals, trinkets or inspiration if those are the rewards in that screen, or get nothing. This is where method B might be preferred to avoid things that would ruin your build.

I'm sharing this since the solution requires both players to know what's going on, cuz most of the times the other person just leave the session or abandon run.