All Schools Core Formation Realm guide[Puppet Comparisons are outdated]

[rain marlin]

Work in Progress 6/12
Core Formation is the 4th Realm in the Game. With this Realm we get a new expansive area - the Northern Wasteland containing a lot of important things for progression

Basic Builds (do not rely on School Specific gear)

You can use them before you obtain School Specific gear from Wasteland Workshop, although the true way to reach the pinnacle of power is there
🌸 Blossom (hard+19), (brutal+3) with Enchantments #1409081814823342170 message
🩸 Blood (hard+20), (hard+20) with Enchantments #1409081814823342170 message
⭐ Celestial (hard+17), (hard+20) with Enchantments #1409081814823342170 message
☁️ Cloud (hard+13), (hard+17) with Enchantments #1409081814823342170 message
🗡️ Weapon (hard+12), (hard+16) with Enchantments #1409081814823342170 message
👊 Fist (hard+10), (hard+16) with Enchantments #1409081814823342170 message
The results are for 510 Affinity

💪 ** New ways to obtain power:**
🗡️ Wasteland Workshop #1409081814823342170 message
🎎 Attuned Puppets #1409081814823342170 message
❗ 4th Row of Masteries #1409081814823342170 message
**
General Information:**
❓ Compression Altars #1409081814823342170 message
🕑 How to Skip in-game time #1407024204565581864 message

+ 1. Wasteland Workshop ⚙️

🤠 Wasteland Workshop is located to the left from the Research Camp. It is a very important location as it provides you with a lot of recipies for various gear and pills. There are a total of 33 researchable recipies for CF realm:
6 Artefacts
10 Clothings
10 Talismans
4 Pills
2 Cauldrons
1 Formation

✅ To research a Crafting Recipy you need to bring corresponding material and spend 1 month of time, you will get a random recipy from the recipies unlocked by that material

💡 Link to all the recipies for CF: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17YZ3nhY0l_-v0IXvuvsjpPpm2cbtVS_Rwv9ddG1a6wc/edit?usp=sharing

[rain marlin]

+2. How to get Attuned Puppets 🎎

Attuned Puppets are amazing Artefacts for each school, indispensable for creating strong builds
To unlock them you need to go to a location in Northern Wasteland called Clockwork Forge Ruin, located to the right from Research Camp
There you need to beat up some Puppets first, and then you will be presented with a puzzle with 3 levers
The possible solution to the puzzle is (6, 9, 3)
So you need to turn each lever the specified number of times
After completing the Puzzle and disabling the giant you can now craft Attuned Puppets for a fixed price

[rain marlin]

+3. Compression Altars

To breakthrough to the next realm you need to compress you core 9 times on Compression Altars
There are 9 Compression Altars on the Map:
Nine Mountain Sect
Fourth Mountain
Burning Core (located deep in the Feifeng Lake)
The Gate of Slaughter (near Chen Henda City)
Mechanized Ruins, Buzzing Ruins, Collapsed Ruin, Beast-Filled Ruin (all in the Northern Wasteland)
Shen Tian Court (need to have the Heavenly Court access token)

✅ You don't have to defeat all 9 cores to get to the next realm, as they recharge every 10 years. Some of them are gimmick fights, so no stress if you can defeat them. Theoretically, you can even defeat the same core all 9 times 😉

• see the trick to skip in-game time #1407024204565581864 message

[rain marlin]

+4. 4th row of Masteries

‼️ In the CF Realm we unlock a new Row of Technique Masteries. They are really game changing! Don't miss out on them!
They change the Techniques in a fundamental way, reducing the Technique Cost, extending the duration of buffs, providing more Stacks and so on. That opens up a lot of new exciting build opportunities 😀

[rain marlin]

Basic Builds Equipment

All Basic Builds use the equipment easily obtainable from the Sect and Artefact Trader
❗ You should improve your crafting though and use recipies from Wasteland Workshop to truly unlock the power of CF Realm builds (see advanced builds below)

[rain marlin]

1. Blossom (hard+18)

(brutal+2) with Enchantments
😉 It will be (hard+19), (brutal+3) if you use Mastery Stacking properly #1407382366716166164 message

🌸 Blossom School is very strong
It has very strong sustain and damage scaling capabilities
This build relies on row 4 masteries to do the unthinkable, to stack both Iron and Razor Blossoms, so we for the first time have not only good sustain, but also great damage

Absolutely Crucial Masteries (build will not work without them):

1. Sustained Plantation - Fragnant Blossom+1 stack (gives you +18 Fragnant Blossoms per round)
2. Fragnant Multiplication - Increase Maximum Gain by 4 (gives +14 Fragnant Blossoms per round)
3. Infuse Flora - Increase Fatal Flora Stacks by 1 (allows to gain 12 stacks per round, so Iron and Razor Blossoms never halve)

Other good masteries:

• Iron Blossoms on Flowering Surge, Twisted Barricade and Bloom Burst for more sustain
• 1 stack on Restoring Fragnance to maintain healing effect

1. We use first stance to gather as much Blossoms as we can and survive the first hit
2. We set up our Fungal Heart, that will constantly generate Iron and Razor Blossoms for us
3. This build consumes a lot of Fragnant Blossoms (30 per round) 🤯 , so we spend 3rd round gathering more Fragnant Blossoms
4. We use Infuse Flora 3 times on each round to gather 12 Fatal Flora, which is just enough to prevent Iron and Razor Blossoms from halving ever, you need 6 Fatal Flora for each per Round

[rain marlin]

2. Cloud (hard+13)

(hard+17) with Enchantments

❗ After v 0.6.7 Gale Blast now applies debuff Oncoming Gale(-30% enemy power). So you need to remove Swelling Squall from the Starter Stance and place Gale Blast on position 3
And in Stack Power Stance replace 1 Storm Surge with gale Blast

☁️ Cloud School performs rather well, but suffers from a lack of healing technique, so healing masteries are recommended

This Build is an improved version of Static Discharge build from QC Realm. It uses row 4 Masteries to stack all of the buffs and Scale Power better than before as well as an Improved Shield Technique - Howling Wall

Required row 4 Masteries (the build is much worse without them):

1. Suppressing Gale - increase maximum inflicted by 2
2. Piercing Gust - increase maximum gain by 1
3. Ball Lightning - increase maximum gain by 2
4. Gale Blast - increase Stacks gained by 2

Other good masteries:
Cloud Gain on Gather Clouds, Flash Storm, Seed Storm
Forking Discharge - increase stacks by 1

1. We use first 3 stances to gather 40 Clouds while defending with barrier Techniques. Note: you might need 4 stances if you don't have Cloud increasing Masteries. We switch to using Howling Wall instead of Wind Wall as soon as we have 20 Clouds, as it starts to provide more barrier.
2. We set up Static Discharge, our main damaging spell
3. We use static discharge and Buff/Debuff stance to have 100% uptime on Ball Lightning, Suppressing Gale and Piercing Gust at the same time for maximum buff potential
4. If we have the required Masteries, we can buff ourselves even stronger with Storm Surge, hence we use the Stack Power Stance when possible

[livid tinsel]

All Schools Core Formation Realm guide

[rain marlin]

3. Fist (hard+10)

(hard+16) with Enchantments

👊 Fist performs decently, this build benefits greatly from enchantments that provide base power
😉 This build is not very demanding on Masteries, but you need to ensure you have enough Flow Stacks, for that additional Flow on Crane Stance is necessary, additional Flow on Flashing Footwork might also help

This Build is an improved version of Ripple Force build from QC Realm. It benefits greatly from new Techniques, scales faster and hits stronger 🤠
It benefits greatly from row 4 mastery on Visualise Success, that gives +2 Ripple Force Stacks, allowing you to scale twice as fast
It uses new Technique called Turtle Infusion along with Backstep for defence

Required Masteries:

1. Crane Stance - +2 Flow Stacks
2. Bonus Stacks on Disrupt Dantian and Seal Meridian
3. Visualise Success - increase Ripple Force stacks gained by 2

Other good masteries:
Turtle Infusion - increase defence buff by 30%
Backstep - increase base power by 20% (for more barrier)

1. We start with 2 opening Stances to gain a good amount of Flow and Deadly Force stacks
2. We start gaining Ripple Force Stacks, 8 per Rotation
3. We use Strong Debuffing Stance against our opponent along with buffing ourselves with Transend Focus
4. When we have enough Ripple Force, switch to Damage

[rain marlin]

4. Weapon (hard+12)

(hard+16) with Enchantments

🗡️ Weapon in CF has a lot of new exciting opportunities, strong buff and barrier Techniques, the only drawback is not having Heals
This build is an improved version of Fatecleaver Build from QC realm, which uses new Unstable Guardian to gain more armor as well as new buff Reinforce Weaponry to get stronger than before
😉 the Build is not very demanding on masteries, you just need to ensure you have enough Metal Shards for initial setup

Required Masteries:

1. Bonus Metal Shards on Repurpose Armour and Replicate Materials
2. Armour Up - increase defence buff by 10% (to stack armour faster)

Other good masteries:
Dancing Fatecleaver - increase base power by 25%
Forge Unstable Automaton - increase the metal fragments gained by 1

1. We use first stance to gather Metal Shards
2. We forge our Unstable Guardian to start gaining additional Barrier for each Technique (survivability)
3. Gather Armour Stacks
4. Forge our Fatecleaver to start dealing damage
5. Use Buff and Debuff Stances one after the other to scale our damage

[rain marlin]

5. Celestial (hard+17)

(hard+20) with Enchantments

⭐ Celestial School is very strong in CF Realm, although managing Sunlight and Moonlight seems daunting, here is a simple build that works really well

Celestial School has ton of interesting opportunities to explore in CF Realm...maybe even too much 🤯
🌙 This build completely abandons any attempts to manage Solar and Lunar Stacks at the same time and opts out for the reliable alternative. Do we have a barrier? It is Moonveil, it requires Lunar Stacks, so we do not care about Solar Stacks at all focusing only on Lunar Stacks 😉

Required Masteries:
Actually, there are none, but NIghtfall +2 Moonlight Stacks is the most useful
And for the best performance you should ensure you have mastery stacking active most of the time

Useful Masteries:
Moonveil + 20% technique Base Power (for more barrier)
Chilling Radiance, Midday Rejuvenation + 1 stack gained for longer buff

🌕 We ensure that every stance starts and ends with Moonlight

1. We use first stance to gather Lunar Attunement and apply Lunar Shift (our strongest buff technique, which is very easy to use)
2. The idea of Gather Moonlight and Main Stances is to stack as much Moonlight as possible while having enough sustain (we get 8 stacks of Moonlight per stance) 🌛
3. We use Ecliptic Blast for damage as its damage scales with Lunar and Solar Stacks, so it is perfect for our strategy
4. Use Emergency heal in case running low on health
5. Use Buff Stance when necessary, the Chilling Radiance and Dawning Rage Techniques are very strong

[rain marlin]

6. Blood (hard+20)

(hard+20) with Enchantments

🩸 Blood Shcool is incredibly Strong in CF Realm, it has very high sustain and healing, the only drawback being not having enough damage scaling capabilities

😉 This build can work without Masteries if you replace some Clotted Barrier Techniques with ones, that produce less Blood Corruption, like Purify Blood and Versatile Blood

Required Masteries:
Pure Origin - increase Pure Blood stacks gained by 4
Enhance Purity - increase maximum gain by 4

Other good Masteries:
Corrosive Empowerement, Corrosive Hardening - increase Stacks gained
Clotted Barrier, Purify Blood - base power

This build is an improved version of Pure Blood Build from QC Realm, it uses new buffs to get stronger and row 4 masteries to stack Pure Blood faster

1. We use first stance to gain buffs, max Pure Blood, + 3 Lifeforce Corruption, + Hardened Blood, + Empowered Blood (yeah, all in one stance) 🩸
2. Main Stance provides good sustain and deals moderate Damage
3. When the buffs run out, we use Buff Stance to refresh Hardened Blood and Empowered Blood
4. Heal i case we run low on health

[lucid gorge]

idk why but the fragrant blossom keeps running out

[hallow jacinth]

so you either need the blossom puppet to help with initial blossom gen, or you need to make more masteries with the gens a stack of fragrant blossom to make it work

[rain marlin]

Absolutely Crucial Masteries (build will not work without them):
Sustained Plantation - Fragnant Blossom+1 stack (gives you +18 Fragnant Blossoms per round)
Fragnant Multiplication - Increase Maximum Gain by 4 (gives +14 Fragnant Blossoms per round)
Infuse Flora - Increase Fatal Flora Stacks by 1 (allows to gain 12 stacks per round, so Iron and Razor Blossoms never halve)

[lucid gorge]

in the heal stance it only gives me 1 restoring fragrance so it loops back and even if i enchant it it only gets 2

[lucid gorge]

@rain marlin ?

[mortal slate]

I think they forgot one crucial mastery. There's a mastery to increase restoring fragrance stacks.

[autumn tapir]

I can't get fist to work correctly, I have it set up as per the picture and I have the required masteries, when I auto battle with this set up if does the first and second phase then skips straight to strong buff/debuff stance and never changes stance again? what am I doing wrong? after initial strong buff/debuff I only have 1 transcend focus so it keeps cycling the same move.

[rain marlin]

you son't have enough deadly focus to get more than 1 transcendent focus likely, check the deadly focus masteries 😉

i probably missed that detail, you need to have at least 10 stacks of deadly focus, that's me being lazy, sorry 😅

[autumn tapir]

thank you, yea I fixed it by adding + deadly focus stacks +3 masteries on visulise victory and the build works now, thanks for geetting back to me

[deep saffron]

Btw. is there a reason why the third and the fourth stance are identical? Due to the first 2 Stances "Restoring Fragrance" is guaranteed to be 2 or higher, so the third stance should be unnecessary, you could directly go into the single cycle stance.

[rain marlin]

where was a reason, i don't remember why exactly though 😅
the build might work just fine without the 3rd stance, u can test it 🙂
i'm not sure 🍻

[deep saffron]

I did, I just remembered that I wanted to ask about back when I did but forgot ^^
And yeah, I just did leave out the third stance and everything was working fine (though I didn't do any comparison, so it's not like I know if it would be better with both of them ^^ )

[shell surge]

artefact blank

[rain marlin]

where?

[real surge]

is the blood build still good? Despite the good sustain enemies keep building up in power to 1 shot me so im wondering if my build needs better gear to suit this
(I'm mostly getting by with items, after I learned I can't brute force most of the content in core formation with this build alone, dissolving concoctions my beloved)

[rain marlin]

yeah, since the game introduced more and more scaling enemies (with shorter fights in mind), some of the builds fell off due to being too slow 😅
i might rework the guide in the future, but for now u probably should ask around in cf chat, for a good blood build, sorry 🤗

to be honest, i think 25% of the guide is already obsolete 🍻

[real surge]

Hey thanks for clarifying and no worries, the blood build seemed to work all the way up to around qi condensation for most content at that level and after that for most content around middle stage and struggled against the core formations late stage content

[fallen bear]

Hello, can you tell me what is the second skill in the set up and fungal heart? i have all seven skills from tier I to IV but i cant find it on my skills list, sorry to bother.

[deep saffron]

Ah that one is a little old and that tech doesn't exist anymore.
there was a major rework of blossom that changed a lot of techniques and how blossom works and removed some of them and the one you're looking at is one of those techniques that don't exist anymore.

[fallen bear]

did anyone post an updated blossom build?

[deep saffron]

The only current blossom build I can find is here: https://discord.com/channels/1208332427618160660/1439750287551103026

[hollow burrow]

Hey so on this one I added an extra stance at the end that has helped a lot in some of the fights where I otherwise would get stalled out on damage - but a final stance that uses Tailwind and Pressurized burst that goes off when clouds are over 200 and Tailwind is under 1 works great - some fights build up this long I find against the more defensive scaling enemies sometimes and with my move masteries all adding clouds it doesn't take too long to hit the 200 required clouds and it is pretty good at ending it. I just wanted to mention this in case anyone also ran into the issue of some enemies becoming too tanky in scaling

[deft wedge]

nvm

[deft wedge]

okay I figured out the issue I was having. It goes Opener 1 -> Opener 2 -> Strong Buff at this point you have less than 10 stacks of deadly focus, so it keeps looping and not doing cycle 1 to gain deadly focus. Easy fix is to duplicate cycle 1 and change it to opener 3 as well.
To break it down again:
Opener 1 You get 0 Stacks of Deadly Focus
Opener 2 You get 10 stacks Total, but you lose 1 by next stance so when you trascend focus it only applies 1. Then it'll loop because you never gain additional stacks of deadly focus.

[deft wedge]

Maybe I was doing something wrong, but I think you need this rule as well in "Strong buff/Debuff"

[rain marlin]

you son't have enough deadly focus to get more than 1 transcendent focus likely, check the deadly focus masteries 😉
i probably missed that detail, you need to have at least 10 stacks of deadly focus, that's me being lazy, sorry 😅

[low python]

any new guide for cloud in cf?

[dry meadow]

Any update for blood? I’m super stuck in core late I don’t hit hard enough.

[orchid moth]

Is it possible to do a build where you mix all schools? Or at least two of them? I have a piece of armor that uses fist and metal and I want to try mixing the two styles but I'm confused on how.

[dry meadow]

You can always mix any techniques you want from any schools

You won't be able to use the talismans that buff a single school (as those don't allow other school techniques)

[orchid moth]

I can't seem to make a viable build that utilizes metal, fist and blossoms. I kinda got 2 down but 3 is just not working.

[forest tree]

Second iteration of my CF blossom-cloud build, with Floral Tempest Orb S

Idea is, getting 50 Gale for the artefact to max out fragrant blossoms every tick, then jumpstart Iron blossom in 1 stance, after that, keeping iron-razor-fragrant at 85+ stacks minimum.

(fungal blight is still stronger due to infinite scale, but cleared ancient relic key IV with this setup without consumables, and farms V late mine with ease at CF late)

[brisk scaffold]

How do you use multiple Howling Walls in one stance? I can only use one since it's a finisher.

[rain marlin]

well, sorry, cloud school was reworked, the build is outdated 😅 🥲 🍻

i havent updated the guide yet

[brisk scaffold]

No problem

[keen zealot]

Can you do it for pillar creation plss

[supple tundra]

what`s that technique you have at the end of your third stance?

also, what are your conditions?

[mortal slate]

All Schools Core Formation Realm guide[Puppet Comparisons are outdated]

[indigo haven]

Can you upgrade the Forge to PC?

[mortal slate]

Yes.

[indigo haven]

How does one go about doing that?

[mortal slate]

You get a quest to do so once you are PC.

[indigo haven]

Does it just pop up or do I have to go somewhere to start this quest?

[mortal slate]

I think it happens when you go to the factory?

Might be part of an interaction with an npc, though

Yeah, go to the factory and interact with the ruins.

Just confirmed it

[indigo haven]

i dont have any other options

[mortal slate]

Are you PC?

[indigo haven]

Yeah

[mortal slate]

Do you have the quest Legacy of the Azurite Emperor?