Critstab/Melee Guide

[hard sand]

A gallery demonstrating a variety of critstabs is in the messages directly below.

The bulk of the Critstab/Melee Guide is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTAS0egTG_Ln0jp-qVNrvgEqMKjrD_GZo1bkdTBBI1eQlM6UG8a-jpL6j-qDuqRCiVgLv_3x8g4zU6t/pub

Raw numbers for knife and sword critstabs/crits are here (Outdated): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQXYWCC0vVKHp45tA53X40I7wxdvAEpLVSWL0cLwNYsK4gK0GCO7s7cDsFBxxWBJYIyPY8GdAh1kZ93/pubhtml

Critstab Gallery:

Many times a critstab is a combination of determination and luck. Many of the critstabs in the rest of this gallery look clean, but this is a result of survivorship bias on my part to capture nice critstabs and the desire to cleanly show how they are done. To remind you to not be hard on yourself for missing any, here are some that were sloppy or just plain luck:

Other non boss enemies:

More non boss enemies:

Azaezel:

Bound Sentinel:

Elder Eoten:

Jabberwock:

Jana:

Magwytch:

Sheliak:

Sun Giant:

Sun Giant (credit to Aceship):

Utopia Apogean Card Magwytch and Jabberwock:

[void sedge]

It is apparent this was a shed load of work so I just wanted to chime in to thank you for pulling it all together!

[hard sand]

Thank you so much! I hope to continue improving it

[elfin wadi]

What is the T2 magick augment? As far as I know there's only T1 and T3

[regal basalt]

It's the danu's cauldron, you can't craft it, but you can find it in his house at hollowed moor

[elfin wadi]

Any way to steal it? I assume not

[regal basalt]

no unfortunately, you have to craft near his cauldron

[hard sand]

Ah, I forgot to include regular Carnutes. A Carnute's weakpoint, similar to Sheliak, is not only location specific, but animation specific, and is located on the neck roughly above its armored chest plates. A weakpoint hit or critstab can only occur during it's howl to summon wisps.

[dusty torrent]

Hi mate, thank you for the guide!

Would you mind explaining how to read the table with the materials for the equipment?

Maybe i'm being dumb but im having a hard time understanding where to use animal 1 and animal 2

Should i use sheliak meat or hide? same for beelzeboar

Thank you!

[hard sand]

The table lists the total amount of material stat boosts from each particular material. Another way to put it is the amount of times you use a particular material.
For example, the Sentinel's Coat calls for 3 Leather, 3 Cloth, 2 Metal Plate, and 1 Buckle. The 3 Leather (we would use Reinforced Leather) would require hide, and the 3 Cloth (we would use Durable Cloth) would require meat.
In particular, the Leather would require 1 animal component and 1 metal component, and the Durable Cloth would require 3 animal components (Durable cloth is composed of cloth [1 animal component] and lining [which itself is composed of cloth (1 animal component) and thread (1 animal component)] for a total of 3 animal components). How you split up these components is up to you and is a matter of your resources and desired fashion.

The guide says 3 Sheliak and 1 Beelzeboar for the Sentinel's Coat (I realize now I should specify T5 Sheliak and T4 Beelzeboar. My apologies if you are still early game, this is an endgame build for higher tier versions of these materials). You could turn Sheliak Chitin into Sheliak Hide through the Chitinous Hide recipe in the Tanning Station to then turn into Leather to turn into Reinforced Leather. Since the first material slot in the Sentinel's Coat is the leather slot, this controls the primary color of the garment, and a Sentinel's Coat made of Reinforced Leather this way would primarily be a rough brown leather as per the colors in this guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3175640437. Accordingly, glamouring this coat into any other gear slot would result in the overall color being that rough brown leather.

This would leave 2 Sheliak and 1 Beelzeboar to account for in the Durable Cloth. If you wanted the cloth accents on the Sentinel's Coat to be beelzeboar green, you would make Cloth(Beelzeboar) and combine it with Lining(Sheliak-Sheliak) into a Durable Cloth(Beelzeboar) as again the slot on the far left controls color.

[dusty torrent]

Understood, thank you for taking the time to explain it! 🙂

I just got to endgame but I'm still at the early endgame so I'm only starting to really dive into crafting now

Your guide is being very helpful in knowing how to manage the crafting

[hard sand]

I'm happy that it's helpful! Please continue to ask any questions you may have

[untold thunder]

@hard sand Thank you for all the work putting this together!

[hard sand]

I just hope it's put together in a sensible way

[copper glacier]

It's wild how many of these critstabs require you to look away from the mob while positioning yourself correctly and knowing where its weakspot is in relation to you

[hard sand]

https://tenor.com/view/boom-hawkeye-gif-14036155

[dusty torrent]

Hi bud! I'm back again haha
I'm a lot stronger now, even with T3 Sheliak and Beelz and T4 pellucidic
I have a quick question tho: what bonuses does the executioner infusion give? Crit? Melee damage? Can't find that info anywhere and i would like to emulate it with T3 infusions while i have no access to executioner

Thanks once again!

Also, calcularian and explorer backpack use the same crafting materials, any reason you chose the calcularian apart from looks?

[hard sand]

T5 Sheliak, T5 Bound Sentinel, and the executioner infusions are all exclusively from the Boss Rush realm which you can pick up at the Watch.

T3 and T5 Sheliak and T4 and T5 Bound Sentinel are unlike other materials in the game that share a name but not tier. T5 sheliak gives the most critical damage for a single material in the game, whereas T3 has none. T5 Bound Sentinel also gives crit damage whereas T3 does not. Because of this, using the lower tier Sheliak and Bound Sentinel does not result in a best-in-slot build for pre-boss rush materials. If you can't access boss rush materials I'd recommend crafting the same set of items (sentinel coat, dauntless umbrella, etc.) out of a Fabled Humbaba and bronze mix. (note: at the time of writing this comment, Fabled Humbaba is not available in Swamp Vaults. This will be corrected soon)

The executioner infusions give 6% melee and 6% crit for the T5 version, and 8% melee and 8% crit for the T6 version, as per the Great Nightingale Material's Catalog https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1perbCD5Bqu_SirUgmIIk1L5PS2fDW2T9W-rlbvIkAn0/edit?gid=1224602954#gid=1224602954. Pre-boss rush you would want to use T3 Death infusions for 6% crit.

[hard sand]

The explorer backpack asks for a leather, while the calcularian backpack asks for a textile. While leather can accept either Leather or Reinforced Leather, textile can accept Leather, Reinforced Leather, Cloth, or Durable Cloth. The Durable Cloth is the key here, as you get 3 animal material boosts to Reinforced Leather's 1 animal, 1 metal. Trading a metal material boost for 2 animal material boosts has so far in this game always been the superior choice.

[dusty torrent]

Alright, thank you for the very helpful insight, as always 🙂
Since the swamp vault does not spawn fabled humbaba, am I out of luck until then or would regular humbaba be enough?

[hard sand]

Unfortunately the difference between the regular humbaba and the fabled humbaba is the 10% melee damage that makes it so attractive. You can still find Fabled Humbaba in Boss Rush, but thats a moot point if you can do boss rush anyway. The fix for Humbaba meat not showing up in vaults should drop with the next update on 12/17, this upcoming Tuesday, or you could substitute T4 Beelzeboar instead, but you'll have much less health

[dusty torrent]

What a bummer, I'll try to run some boss rushes, thank you again bud! 🙂

[hard sand]

Critstab max and Critmax builds have been updated to include Winter Child's Garb replacing Sentinel's Coat. Note: The stone powder used to make the cut gem for the embelished headwrap in the Critmax build is now marble, not granite!

[maiden lily]

One question, im crafting the umbrella and in the cristab guide "Damage optimized build table" it shows 2 sheliak and 2 beelzeboar for the dauntless umbrella, but im only able to put 3 different parts, since theres only 1 cloth item in the craft

Maybe im missing something thats why im asking

[hard sand]

You didn't miss anything, oversight on my end. Should be 2 Sheliak, 1 Beelzeboar

[maiden lily]

Okay okay

Im enjoying a lot this build, im still learning all the spells combos and all the other stuff but is funny to play with the parrys

[hard sand]

Thank you so much for the feedback! It's nice to hear that parts of the guide beyond the crafting have been helpful. So much of this playstyle is just my opinion right now. I've only seen a handful of realmwalkers try this playstyle, so I'm certain there are improvements to be made as multiple perspectives show up.

[copper glacier]

Winter childs has more fibre slots?

[hard sand]

With Durable Cloth, it has a whopping 8 fiber slots and 1 metal slot, for a total of 9 materials

[copper glacier]

I expected 8 since that was hunter pants advantage, 9 is crazy town. I guess its christmas every day in faelands

[trail anvil]

I'm Critstab, but I use Yex Meat instead of Boar or any other meat to make a Hybrid-ish Build. Then I made a Fire Resistance Umbrella using Hoe Flies, Fabled Sun Giant. because the build was very weak to Fire.

[hard sand]

Stacking T3 and T2 Magick augments on each piece of clothing is enough to net you 100% fire/poison/maleficium resistance once upgraded.
In my case I only went with the T3 magick augment because I wanted another Explorer augment for speed and threw on Bismaltus and humbaba to compensate

[void sedge]

I’m happy/relieved to read this. I cobbled together something similar before Boss Rush came along. I’ve slowly gathered materials with some of you in BR but not as many T6 infusions. I was just waiting to see what the winter gear offered so I am likely to build up something similar now.

[trail anvil]

This crafting system is very nuanced. At this point rather than upgrading enire sets I make new pieces over time as I learn the fine points. I made the Winter Child's garb last night and got about 20% more crit, without losing any other stats, and picked up some resists as well. Still love my Umbrella though.

[maiden lily]

Yeah, i remember first weeks of the game when my friends and I were making like sets after sets cause we found new ways to do the exact same thing but with more stats, i love the crafting in this game

[magic valve]

I might have missed something, but is there a reason for the specific armor pieces in the OP? for example the Hermetic's breeches over the Hunter's? It seems it's according to number of unique components which makes sense, but for that example we can pick textiles for Hunter's breeches - is this relevant? And how do the overall stats compare, such as in #1329482915809202206 message

[hard sand]

For the Hermetic's breeches vs the Hunter's breeches, they have the same total number of unique components (assuming you use Durable Cloth for the textile), but for the Hunter's breeches this is all fiber while the Hermetic's breeches gets 3 metal material slots. Since Fabled Bound Sentinel is such a powerful material, these metal material slots are more valued than 3 fiber slots if you are looking to maximize crit/melee.

Hermetic's breeches max crit/melee mix pre infusion and pre upgrade nets 48% crit and 50% melee (3 Fabled Bound Sentinel, 3 Fabled Sheliak, 1 Beelzeboar), vs Hunter's Breeches closest analogue reaching pre infusion and pre upgrade stats of 48% crit and 44% melee (4 Fabled Sheliak, 3 Beelzeboar).

You could trade off the Durable Cloth for Reinforced Leather in the Hunter's Breeches, but this trades 2 fiber slots for a single metal slot. Metal material slots are generally more powerful than fiber slots, but never enough to justify a 2:1 fiber:metal trade. Doing this would result in a less powerful Hunter's Breeches (1 Fabled Bound Sentinel, 4 Fabled Sheliak, 1 Beelzeboar [assuming focused critstab]) for a pre infusion and pre upgrade 52% crit 30% melee mix.

[magic valve]

Thanks for the breakdown! I figured it had something to do with how valuable the material was

[magic valve]

On the same note I guess - I take it it's a similar reason why we use hearty stew and not nectar which has 30% crit built in?

[hard sand]

Correct! The amount of Fabled Sheliak you can stack into a hearty stew grants crit that significantly outweighs the natural crit of nectar. On top of this, the nectar recipe only yields 1 nectar and costs multiple Dulcet Lapis if you want to push it just that little bit further, while the hearty stew recipe yields multiple stews and only requires a single Dulcet Lapis for that extra oomph. It's far more material efficient to use Dulcet Lapis in the hearty stew recipe.

[magic valve]

Very good info, thank you!

[trail anvil]

I am trying making Hearty Stew from Fabled Beelzeboar as it's quite easy to farm up. Also I have some of the Dulcet Lapis and Carnute Ichor.

[hard sand]

Builds have been updated to reflect the new Wrangler set!

The Wrangler Pants and Shirt don't have different materials, just a higher tier, so the damage output for these ones doesn't change (you get a slight boost to health though). The boots and especially backpack are required for higher damage. However, the Embellished Headwrap for the Critmax build needed to be adjusted for optimal stat distribution.

As the number of total materials we can stack onto both builds increases, and the total amount of crit we can squeeze into a single piece of gear due to the soft cap remains the same, the critmax and critstab max builds have started to converge. At present, there is less than a percent difference on regular crit hits with both builds, and less than a 5% difference between most critstab scenarios. For now, I can really only recommend the critstab max build to use, but both builds will remain pending further developments of the game that may once again differentiate them.

[hard sand]

Minor update to the guide to point out that sword ripostes aren't just their own category of critical hit, but count as a weakpoint hit and the implications thereof. Recategorized stunned/knocked down as not a critical hit since the only trait it shares with other forms of critical hits is the gold font.

[hard sand]

Minor update to the beginning of the guide to reflect the fact it is now 100% confirmed by the devs that critstab is an intended feature

[maiden lily]

I made a new knife, dont know if its the best one posible

Melee = 134%
Crit = 54%

Raw knife

[maiden lily]

Maxed knife with t6 executioner

[regal basalt]

you can use diamond with stone powder made from hybrid marble stone, which gives 10% melee and 8% crit, compared with 8% and 8% for queen automaton. And I have my doubts about the value of hollow metal here

[maiden lily]

Yeah surelly there is a better combination, i used the best i had and trying to not reach the softcap for crit, even if its not he best, its a lot better than my previous knife

[regal basalt]

Yes, that's one of the subtleties of this update, being able to put in as many stats as possible while exceeding the crit soft cap as little as possible

[hard sand]

I haven't gotten to that point yet in the live version, but I have a recipe for the knife that should net you even better results if you care to try them out. You were pretty darn close to what I have though.

This recipe should work for either masterwork knives or swords.

Use a repurposed artisanal axe made purely from Fabled Bound Sentinel to embed the focal shards in.
Both sets of focal shards should be diamond polished with 2 grades of granite and etched with ink made from Bismaltus pigment placed in Star Ruby vials with more powdered diamond added.
The handle should be Yew or Advanced Yew, gilded and set with Fabled Bound Sentinel and embedded with uncut diamonds.
The guard/hilt should also be made from Fabled Bound Sentinel.
The blade should be assembled near a Grendel's cauldron, under the sign of the combatant, surrounded by artifacts of magick and treachery.
The prime essence of an executioner should be embedded within, and the resulting blade oiled and polished to bring out its best qualities.
Sprinkle with your chosen enchantments to taste.

[maiden lily]

Gonna try that, currently crafting the umbrella

[hard sand]

Let me know how it goes, my PTR knife had around 800 melee damage and was perfectly softcapped for crit

[maiden lily]

My umbrella eated like 30% of the crit when crafting, bug?

[hard sand]

Can you show me the inspect menu while hovering over crit damage?

[maiden lily]

Oh yeah, true, thats a thing, let me check

[maiden lily]

Nothing, works fine

Even if i read about that like 20 times i forgot is a thing xd

[hard sand]

No bug then? Working as intended?

[maiden lily]

Yes

You cant see any of the focal shard materials in there so i guess thats why, too many materials xd

[hard sand]

Yeah, asking the devs to make sure all the material boosts fit into, and are reflected in, each menu is getting more important (cat hit the enter key)

New knife, who dis?

[maiden lily]

I need to redo the knife yet with the materials you said me earlier, i just finished the umbrella

[regal basalt]

@hard sand https://playnightingale.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RRBUG-I-1962

[copper glacier]

I really appreciate how arcana-sounding these instructions are now ❤️

[hard sand]

Truely, I've wanted to write instructions like that for ages. I could be telling people to add an Eye of Newt to a cauldron, and people would be asking me where to find the new materials and crafting bench. The witchy recipe vibe just fits so well with the aesthetics and logic of this game

[copper glacier]

Absolutely, I love how the crafting has got arcane enough to sound... arcane

[hard sand]

I just love it. If you know the game, that whole set of instructions makes perfect sense!

[maiden lily]

Just wanted to add that the new boss has weakspots on ||the attack with all the arms attached together, and in the hand itself, not the arm, when she throws you 1 or more separated arms||

[hard sand]

Thanks for putting the spoiler warning on it! I wanted to give other players some time with the new boss before spilling all the secrets! 😉

Interestingly enough assassin's sight doesn't work on it. This leaves open the minute chance that Yex might still have some kind of weakpoint condition the player base hasn't discovered yet

[maiden lily]

I was on wave 50 with randoms and the boss had eminent hunter, we needed some time to figure out where we can hit xd

[maiden lily]

Maybe when hes down?

I think that only happens if you dont use dispell and kill all the creatures, so dont know

[hard sand]

Not quite enough I'm afraid, or at least not where other carnutes have their weakpoints. That condition was one of the fist I tried to test

[maiden lily]

Oh okay

[trail anvil]

where is the best place to find Marble?

[hard sand]

Sorry to get back to you so late. Try any herbarium realm

[tepid glen]

Pretty sure mine is showing incorrectly, it had 60% crit on the workbench

[maiden lily]

Check your total stats

[tepid glen]

Ahh, it shows correctly there, I misunderstood where to inspect

[maiden lily]

The problem is that the items cant handle all the materials we can put in them so they dont show stats from missing names

[tepid glen]

So totals when equipped work, it's when inspecting the item it shows incorrectly

[maiden lily]

But total stats should be fine

[tepid glen]

I hadn't equipped it because it wasn't upgraded and charmed yet 😄

[regal basalt]

sometimes it may not even be displayed in the character stats https://playnightingale.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RRBUG-I-1962

[maiden lily]

One question, combatant now affects at the knife and sword?

[maiden lily]

Okay, after checking all the stats + augments i guess that we use combatant now instead of forge casue we already can get the softcap with the materials+ dummy augment, but before wasnt like that so we used forge to get some more crit instead of melee

[hard sand]

Yep, forge was always the go to for that sweet crit bonus, but we're soft capping without it anyway

[trail anvil]

I found a bunch of Marble (like 500) in Desert Herbarium, on top of the Plateaus only, not down below.

[tepid glen]

If I did something like this, am I right that I would use an infusion other than executioner? Or should I use more beezleboar (or humbaba for poison resist)?

[regal basalt]

if you want to add comfort stats yes you can, if you want to maximize your damage:
I don't know how important magick is for the build or if you've already reached the cap for spells like assassin sight but
remove a dreamscale for a beezleboar, you'll lose 4% of effective stats (16% effective stats vs. 12%) but gain 8/16% if you use the executioner infusion

[tepid glen]

Perfect, thanks!

[regal basalt]

I'm posting this here too as people here will be of interested too
The masterwork longbow recipe is not as it should be, as confirmed by Jayden C, it use a masterwork handle instead of a bow arm, and this introduce a exploit/error, that you can use a masterwork bow arm as a pole and craft masterwork handle with a masterwork bow arm instead of a pole

[broken atlas]

I was looking at your sun giant videos and the last couple, I have to ask what wave was that. I saw one hit do 28million damage and his health bar only went down like 3-5 %

[hard sand]

At this point I've far forgotten what wave any of those vids are from

[hard sand]

Ok, psuedo-poll time. I think I've gotten the recipes for optimal gear for critstab (and maybe a potential full hybrid) build figured out.

Since the crafting is getting significantly more complex, I'm thinking of moving away from "put X amount of Y on R piece of gear" and creating more specific recipes. The current format I have in the google doc would also get incredibly cluttered (I'm poor at organization, I'm sorry). I also had a lot of fun writing up the recipe for the knife/sword here: #1316110051508879421 message

I'd like to know y'alls opinions on:

1. keeping the information in the linked google doc, or creating some kind of pinned message in this channel
2. If I should keep the recipes as material slot totals, or actually write up a "recipe" ala what I did for the knife/sword. If you'd like a write up, just how much deciphering would you like to do for vibes?

[void sedge]

I personally love the alchemy type description but it does require some innate familiarity with the complexities of the systems (and the recipes themselves). Maybe primarily the more poetic and literary version (if you prefer that) but complemented by an actual “best practice” step by step recipe (by someone else since you did the original heavy lift)?

[stuck spoke]

Which charms are recommended on the sword/knife?

[hard sand]

That depends on what charms you are already running on your gear. If you don't have it, charm of called shots

[stuck spoke]

Is cleaving useful at all, or is the hit range too small for that?

[hard sand]

Both knives and swords already appear to be able to hit multiple enemies in a single swing. I believe cleaving is more for the two handed weapons

[stuck spoke]

Ah, alright

[unborn swallow]

Was just in a run where I got to see you use this firsthand. Thanks for the carry! XD

[hard sand]

It was fun thanks! I haven't finished the city with my SO in live yet, so thank you for helping me get some sovereigns!

[unborn swallow]

You were the one doing the helping. XD

Definitely went and spent some of those sovereigns to get the knife blueprint, though! XD

Going to make an optimized knife, and see how it works with my "Decent at everything" Dreamscale outfit I was using there~

[hard sand]

Yeah, hybrids eat well this patch. I just got done making my full hybrid set, just wanted to get in some boss rush before upgrading and infusing it

[hard sand]

So it is possible. Just, really hard to get

[hard sand]

Turns out that the Fabled Charm of the Sword works with the knife. If you parry, you get autocrits for a few seconds. I was interested/concerned that this would allow critstabbing without striking weakpoints. I've tested it on Yex, with and without Hunter Eminent. You do not get critstabs by backstabbing Yex during the charm's buff duration, but you do get the ability to damage Yex with basic criticals with a knife with Hunter Eminent in play

[hard sand]

Critstab on ||the Queen is at least possible sometimes on buried hands||

[regal basalt]

you've scratched the floor, that's not very nice

[hard sand]

I'm very sorry. I'll make sure to add that to the work order for the repair crew along with the giant holes and scorch marks

[unborn swallow]

I will say, if you have a good set of crit armor built for your knife, don't sleep on the throwing knives with their pitcher and fan-of-knives charms; they can get some work done~

[half sun]

@hard sand can I ask something in your build from Google doc new one you say boots from new world which one is that?

[tepid glen]

That sections appears to be out of date, there is a table with the gear and components a bit below that

[half sun]

Just now @hard sand update Google doc

[tepid glen]

Oh, I see, in that case I'll shut up because I'm not sure (I'd assume wrangler boots, with New World = America)

[half sun]

Yes, me think that too maybe

[hard sand]

Sorry, the guides not fully updated yet.

For the umbrella, it's combatants workshop, 3 Dandy and assasin augments, and y'all know what infusion we use here.

[deep silo]

@hard sand (Amber Fairfax) You still have a couple of those botched weapons you dont want? I think you mentioned a bolt rifle or 2 that didnt apply the augment?

[hard sand]

Perhaps you're thinking of someone else? I main melee, and don't have any rejected ranged weapons at this time

[deep silo]

Must be. ive been zombie'n through all the build ones for days in a row haha. was looking for hand me downs to get some friends into it

Must have been @regal basalt ..Ive read and reread so much that you guys have shared

[mild dragon]

i just got to the watch, is there a T4 version of this build i can follow prior to T5, or would you recommend farming T5 with the random items i have on from progressing the story

[hard sand]

You don't have to be optimized to obliterate things. The general trends are to have a strong source of crit, a strong source of melee damage, and to avoid the crit softcap. The bottleneck is that crit is very important, and there aren't very good nor easy to acquire crit sources outside of Boss Rush or NC. The easiest route would probably be to gain access to NC and fish for dreamscale. If you want to fish faster, make a suit out of the shadowfin you get. Dreamscale based clothes is ~80% of the build right now

[mild dragon]

Thanks that’s very helpful! Step one for me is getting more tier 3 and some tier 4 essence to get the recipes then head through this. Thank you again!

[copper glacier]

Minor quibble on the crit sources, star ruby is easy early and stronk. Bronze/star ruby would carry you quite a way no?

[hard sand]

Right on all counts. I was trying to keep it simple and omitted some important info in the process

[tepid glen]

For cloth slots, we could use Shadowfin perch rather than beelzeboar for the extra stamina (plus fishing rating in case you want to use the rod)

[tepid glen]

For what it's worth, while the recipe is very cute and enjoyable to read, the table is preferable by far for actual use:

• Interpreting the recipe requires a high degree of game knowledge
• Interpretation leaves room for uncertainty
• It's much harder to read for people who don't have English as their primary language, or those with learning difficulties, dyslexia and other handicaps
• The current clothing description omits which pack we should use, it only lists the parts

[mild dragon]

I am a fan of detailed guides given how complex the game is for newer players like me

[hard sand]

-I kind of like that it requires game knowledge to interpret
-100% correct on that one
-Oof, didn't think about that
-That's just an error on my end

Why not have both in the guide?

[tepid glen]

Both is absolutely fine! The reason for the last bullet point was just highlighting that it makes it easier for oversights to happen.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy your recipe version, but does make it less accessible.

[mild dragon]

For a build with dreamscape fish, would the other mats work per the guide or are there other considerations that should be accounted for to max out

[hard sand]

I'm not quite sure what you are asking, but I'll try to give some details.

At least for the primary build in the guide, it's designed to be dreamscale along with the other materials mentioned in that same build. The materials are chosen together to get the maximum combination for both crit and melee damage. Since critstab scales with crit^2, if the option to increase crit or melee by 1 presents itself you (almost)always want crit. However, the crit softcap at 60% is increadibly harsh, nerfing increases after 60% to the extent that additional points in crit are effectively wasted. If you swap out a Beelzeboar for a Dreamscale, for example, you get an extra 8% crit, but lose 4% melee damage. Most of the time this is a good tradeoff. However, If the item you were going to build was already going to be softcapped for crit, that 8% extra crit is effectively wasted. In that case, swapping Beelzeboar for Dreamscale is a near complete waste.

Each item in both builds are are carefully designed to maximize what you get out of those materials. The Max Crit build (the one with the material table currently) was a maximized build using the materials from the last patch, and dropping some of the materials from it into the Unsubtle Knife build would give less than optimal results.

I want to stress again that optimal isn't as important as it seems for this build. If you built the knife and umbrella from the guide, and then made a suit from Dreamscale with every other non-cloth material being effectively crude (no +melee, no +crit), you would still be more than 3 times more powerful than the build I used to complete wave 101 solo.

While I do my best to make the builds themselves optimized for the sake of it, I'd encourage using them as a starting point to designing something entirely your own.

In summary: If you swap out materials from the 2 builds in the guide, the result will be suboptimal, but you really don't need to be optimal

As a corollary point to this, I suspect if you make the build from Sirium's guide in https://discord.com/channels/854679517997695016/1286634505582678026, you could use the knife from this build and appropriate charms (you don't even need food buffs) and probably still be more powerful than I was when completing my solo 101 wave boss rush. With dreamscale and a good knife, we are all critstabbers now.

[empty wasp]

Which augments to use for a knife? The crit stab Guide says assassin and t1/2/3 magick. That sound right to do since I know the guide was made before recent update.

[hard sand]

There haven't been any new augments in this update, so assassin and t1/2/3 magick remain the best choices

[empty wasp]

What food should be used? Looking at recipes this is what I could come up with:
Surf and Turf - 4x Dreamscale
Nectar - Star Ruby + Dreamscale + Dulcet Lapis
Hearty Stew - Dulcet Lapis + 3x Dreamscale + Fabled Beelzeboar

[hard sand]

Use 3 of the hearty stews with a different combination of spices, and all 3 will stack

[hard sand]

Guide has been updated with the materials table and "when crafted" stats for the Unsubtle Knife build along with new damage calculations. These damage calculations themselves include the new best in slot food buff. My apologies for taking so long

[mild dragon]

thank you! this is amazing!

[mild dragon]

quick question on the umbrella - im following the build but only getting to 44% crit before the craft with T1 assassin and no minor card. I am able to meet the melee damage goal. Is there something I might not be considering

[left copper]

Should be getting 16% from Bound Sentinel, 24% from Dreamscale Perch, 2 from assassin, and 10% from fabled eoten wood. Not fabled elder eoten wood, which is a common mistake and has ranged damage bonus. Tier 4 Fabled Eoten wood is obtained from Holt Eotens as a rare drop and can be found in Ascended Antiquarian, Ascended Astrolabe, and Ascended Herbarium and adds 10% crit

[mild dragon]

Thats where i went wrong - the wood. Thank you!! Total oversight on my part and went straight to elder.

[hard sand]

Yeah, I still get confused by that myself sometimes. I've added a little "(crit)" with the Fabled Eoten on the table

[trail anvil]

Isn't the unfabled version the drops from Holt Eotens also 10% Crit.

[copper glacier]

@hard sand is it possible to pin the current guide? Newbies get lost when they get directed here because the thread is full of newbies asking questions 😄 Just need a fast link to the basic "build your knife/sword like this" bit that gets asked for most often.

[hard sand]

I don't think I have the authority to pin any messages. I can, however, ask a mod to pin the first message of the guide. In the meantime, when linking to the guide, we as promoters of the guide can:
Link directly to the first message of the guide: #1316110051508879421 message
Or link directly to the google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTAS0egTG_Ln0jp-qVNrvgEqMKjrD_GZo1bkdTBBI1eQlM6UG8a-jpL6j-qDuqRCiVgLv_3x8g4zU6t/pub

I can also do my best to periodically leave a link to the first message of the guide here in the thread, similar to what @topaz helm does for mobile users of the Things Explained guide.

[copper glacier]

Magic, thank you both 🙂 ❤️

[hard sand]

Yep, you're absolutely right. Removed "Fabled" from the description in the table. Also added Advanced Yew and Ribbon wood as an alternative to Yew

Minor updates to the guide, including updating some wording to reflect the current state of the game, the fact I never really got around to creating a list of tips to make your own builds, and recoloring the "please really read all of these bits" to be dark red to not clash/be confused with bolded text in headings

[gray stratus]

It's Knifey McKniferton.

[hard sand]

Guide update: Reworked the Wrangler Backpack as per Sirium's superior observation. This results in a net ~0.5% damage increase

[icy stag]

hp/stamina dagger tank who dis?

[minor dirge]

Tried a few times, but can't achieve those stats.. the best for now 🥹
Can I ask you about your recipy?

[lilac violet]

@hard sand
Hi! my English is bad. I am writing with a translator. Google Translate was able to translate the guide quite clearly, except for this sentence.

Both sets of focal shards should be diamond polished with 2 grades of granite and etched with ink made from the pigment of the square metal and placed in red gem tree vials with more powdered diamond added.
What kind of material do you mean by square metal? I didn't find this in the game.
And red gem tree means star ruby or what?

[tepid glen]

Square metal = Noble Bismaltus
Red gem tree = Star Ruby

[lilac violet]

Please help me with something else. I can't figure out what kind of axe or gladiatorial war is in this sentence.

Use a repurposed artisanal axe made from the spoils of gladiatorial war to embed the focal shards in.

[tepid glen]

An artisanal axe head of all Fabled Bound Sentinel parts

FYI, there's a table a bit further down, just under the Umbrella section

[lilac violet]

So gladiatorial war is a part of bossrush with bound mobs?

[tepid glen]

Yes, the place where you fight them is like a gladiator arena

[lilac violet]

Thank you very much

[lilac violet]

I can't use artisanal axe to craft sword. It needs a gilded blade. How can I repurpose an axe into a blade? Do I need a special workbench or a recipe?

[tepid glen]

You make a masterwork toolhead at the masonry bench

The masterwork sword does not use a gilded blade (you could use a gilded blade to make a masterwork toolhead, but it is only 2 metal components, while an artisanal axe head is 3)

[icy stag]

after crafting end game assassin gear your average damage on weak points without mercy charm kicking in should be about this much to push to boss rush wave 500

only two bosses you will not hit this high is Yex and the sun giant due to being a melee player and yex has no weak spots so change to swords and (must have sword fable charm) perfect parry all yex attacks make sure if you have a ranged player for them to apply ice bullets.

[hard sand]

You can absolutely hit that high on sun giant. In fact, sun giant is weak to piercing, so you get the same 50% damage boost on them as you get on Humbaba and Magwytch

[icy stag]

without weak spot?

if you're talking about a more advance fighting style then yes

just covering the basics

[icy stag]

remember most players aren't that advance yet

[icy stag]

cool show me a screen shot

[mild dragon]

Wait how are you hitting that high. I’ve only maxed out around 80MM with top tier dreamscale gear

[icy stag]

ask Onisshoku

[hard sand]

1. Yes, with weak spot
2. You're right, most players aren't that advanced, but I feel it's important to recognize it's possible

Ah, wait, that one's not solo, so we can't rule out group bonuses such as ice bullets there. Let me see if I have a solo one

[hard sand]

The guide currently lists 51 million damage with the guide's build, 3 hearty stews, and assassin's sight (I think darkness is more optimal though). However, this doesn't include the effects of any charms.
The charm of called shots does 1.25x damage on weakpoints, and also activates on a backstab. Hitting a critstab with it activates it twice for (1.25)^2=1.5625x damage.
Ice bullets at 200 magick power and above double the damage enemies take.
Rage gives you a 1.75x damage bonus when you have somewhere around 10% or less health.
Spellsword grants a 1.5x damage bonus after casting a spell (additive with other melee group buffs).
Duelist grants a 3x damage boost.

All of modifiers above are multiplicative with each other, and can compound along with other bonuses to result in massive damage, as seen in an example such as here:

[icy stag]

thats not the sun giant

also thats prob a low wave with mercy charm in place

[icy stag]

like i said for weak spots yeah remember some players aren't as advance.

if we really wanted to we can go into the advance Dagger god builds.

[icy stag]

https://youtu.be/6RmDOMyu1zs?si=L5up_6Ycc206Y79s No Fear Dagger God

[minor dirge]

this time I think can correct my recepi ))

[icy stag]

dont forget charm of mercy too

[craggy solar]

Ok so i have been through ALL of this and have like 20 different things to even try to make sense of and none of it is clicking. I am admitting defeat and need it broken down Barney style. I appreciate the hell out of all the information and the time it took to write it. I guess i was expecting a list what mats to use for what piece for the max amount of damage. I don't want to chime in with any preference on crit vs melee or any of that. I just need a summary of what i need to make and with what. Maybe i missed that somewhere in this channel and i know things are likely to change but can someone help me out with this?

[barren wharf]

Did you already look into this ? #1316110051508879421 message

its the google doc to what gear he uses and what mats are used

[barren wharf]

granted.. it's written a little complicated I guess

[hard sand]

I haven't received much direct feedback on the structure of the guide beyond variations of "It's long" so I've been wondering how to improve it. Is there anything in particular that you think is unnecessarily complex?

[craggy solar]

I am sorry if i offended. I am a simple creature and appreciate simple instructions. I don't think the guide is long, for me sometimes i need a step-by-step guide but after looking at the document again, i think i will give it another go. I think i was just in a really lazy mood.

[tepid glen]

If the recipe riddles are confusing, scroll down a bit and there is a table of which materials to use just under the umbrella part

There's a bit of leeway in the exact method (e.g. it doesn't matter if you make your ink glass from diamond or star ruby as long as you add the other one when making vibrant ink), as long as you use the correct number of overall parts you should get the same result.

[craggy solar]

I am using the table along with the riddle to try to get the configuration right

[craggy solar]

I think i am hung up on which augments i should have active

[hard sand]

I typically use:
The Crystal Ball, Danu's Cauldron, the Sewing Kit, and the Globe for the clothing (T3 magick, T2 magick, T3 tailor, T3 explorer)
The Training Dummy, Ink Making Set, Poet's Writing Desk, and Jaunty Bicycle for the umbrella (T1 assassin, T1 T2 T3 explorer)
The Training Dummy, Macabre Rack, Danu's Cauldron, and Crystal Ball for the knife (T1 assassin, T1 T2 T3 magick)

[mild dragon]

pair the table with this site - https://nightingale.rayleon.net/ . it will help you check to confirm you are hitting your crit benchmarks without wasting materials

[barren wharf]

Hmm I am trying out a pugilist build, wonder how well this will work with it...

granted it is kinda hard to score crithits with your fists

[craggy solar]

wish i had this sooner. created like 8 different daggers and 3 swords so far trying to get it right

[craggy solar]

ty so much for this. Simple Jack likes this break down

[barren wharf]

why the T3 and T2 magick tho ? if this is a melee build ?

[regal basalt]

magick augments provide elemental resistance on clothing, and magick bonus on tools ( it's the dandy augments that provide magick bonus on clothing), and with t3+t2 augments on each piece of clothing you wear, you can exceed 100% in ice, poison, fire and maleficium resistances

[barren wharf]

so he makes all his clothing in Danu's Hut ?

[tepid glen]

Yes

[craggy solar]

i just figured that out too and now currently setting up a workbench and all augments in danus hut

[mild dragon]

Will say it’s not 100% necessary to craft there. It’s just a minor min max aspect

[barren wharf]

so I am looking at the masterwork umbrella....

was this guide made when the recipe for the umbrella was different ?

[hard sand]

It should be for the current version. Do you see something odd about it?

[barren wharf]

I am wondering where I should use the pellucidic for

is it for the mastercraft Handle ?

is it for the gilded lumber ?

[hard sand]

It's for the Masterwork Ornament, specifically the liquid metal, as that has a restriction to be a precious metal

[barren wharf]

so for the handle we have gilded eoten (Crit) with fabled bound sentinel

crafted into a pole

using more fabled for the fasteners

[hard sand]

Yep

[barren wharf]

and the cut gem is a double focus shard using the bismaltus for pigment, diamond for glass and gem

[hard sand]

Right again

[barren wharf]

okay I feel I can figure it out now

[hard sand]

Cool, let me know if you have any further questions!

[barren wharf]

it seems I made a small mistake somewhere

albeit only 2% on both the melee and crit

[hard sand]

Assassin augment

[barren wharf]

yeh I just realized its the augments

I cant seem to find the poets writing desk

I know I have to build it for Poe at some point

or does it only unlock with his questline ?

[hard sand]

The latter, unlocks with his questline I think

[barren wharf]

hmm...

[barren wharf]

hmm even with the correct augments melee damage is still 2% off..

[hard sand]

What minor card are you using?

[barren wharf]

pfff one of the dragon hoard ones

[hard sand]

Try Combatant

[barren wharf]

now its even 2% more xD

so thats even better 😛

[hard sand]

Still have 52% crit?

[barren wharf]

yes

[hard sand]

You're good to go then

[hard sand]

I'll need to figure out where that extra 2% melee came from eventually though

[barren wharf]

I just followed your instructions xD

[hard sand]

Yeah, I probably forgot to include something minor on my spreadsheet or something

[barren wharf]

I am fairly sure I used more mats then your spreadsheets shows tho

[hard sand]

More total mats in terms of quantity, or more types of unique sets of mats that go into crafting slots?

[barren wharf]

in terms of quantity

I used two bismaltus for pigment because you need 12 ink

and I used more diamonds then the 4 in your spreadsheet

[hard sand]

Yeah, the table lists the amount in unique crafting slots. I can't exactly say "Use X number of dreamscale" if each person uses different augments for different yield bonuses.

[valid copper]

Hello! I've been lurking around and decided to try building this today. Does this look right? For the masterwork umbrella, it looks like my melee dmg (124%) is off and I'm not sure whats wrong.

[mild dragon]

Pretty sure you want normal eoten wood, not fabled.

[valid copper]

hmm i thought it was the same, other than the +2.5 stam regen on fabled

[regal basalt]

for crit:
for gems, star ruby is better than eoten heart and there is no fabled version but yes for wood , if you want to use eoten wood, the fabled version is just better than the normal one

[mild dragon]

I built it out for you in the builder - just import this and you can see the benchmarks hit and how its built

[valid copper]

thank you!

[valid copper]

it looks identical to the one i filled in but ur numbers look right 😢
Maybe its a setting? Did you check "always use epic upgrades" ?

[mild dragon]

Oh it might be your cloth/gem settings? To use durable cloth and focal shards?

I have the upgrade set to common since those are the stats that should be hit before infusions or upgrading

[valid copper]

i think thats it! Looks like my original one had less total diamonds used somewhere and zero granite lol, even though i plugged in it. Thank u!

[mild dragon]

You got it! Happy crafting!

[hard sand]

New max damage

[hard sand]

Nevermind, however much this is. I dunno, the game stops letting me know

[regal basalt]

Does that mean you've gone over 2 147 483 647?

[hard sand]

Not necessarily. I've noticed ever since Realms Rebuilt that if you overkill something, by maybe about twice it's max health or so, it just doesn't display the damage. As a result, you can get this effect on say, low level boss rush, even if you are hitting in the tens of millions.

I have setups that should hit way past 2 billion, but since nothing in the game has that much health, even in high level boss rush, we start entering into either math class or "trust me bro" in order to celebrate a new record. Technically, I got my best hit during a wave 34 Magwytch earlier today, but I'd need to calculate and justify the damage

[hard sand]

Ok, this one is debatable whether it was actually a critstab. Assuming it is, here's the damage breakdown as I calculate it:
The melee damage and crit stats as of the moment of this fight, including the 3 stews, resulted in
12190.237 melee damage
78 crit exactly
A basic critstab here would be:
12190.237 * 78^2 = 74,165,401.91

I made a macro to do some animation canceling (I think that's what it's called) and managed to cast darkness, throw a grenade, switch to my revolver and fire, then switch to my umbrella and knife in about 1 second. This allowed me to shove as many charm bonuses with short durations as possible onto the main hit.

Duelist grants x3 damage, ice bullet grants x2 damage, darkness grants x1.2 damage, and Magwytch is weak to piercing giving x1.5. This results in a pre-charm damage of:
74,165,401.91 * 3 * 2 * 1.2 * 1.5 = 800,986,340.7

I had the following charms:
Charm of Morale
Charm of the Spellsword
Charm of the Arsenal
Charm of 100 Blows
Charm of the Juggler
Charm of Riposte
Charm of Resurrection
Charm of Called Shots
Charm of Rage
Charm of Venom
Charm of Fatigue

Morale, Riposte, and Venom weren't active at the time of the strike. Spellsword, 100 blows, juggler, and fatigue are all additive with each other. Arsenal doesn't appear as a buff, but it lasts for about 5 seconds, the countdown for it would begin on the last hammer strike, and 100 blows decays at a rate of 4/3 stacks per second. Considering that after the strike I was at 17 stacks, then this indicates that the 16th stack had not finished decaying before the strike, and no more than 3.75 seconds had passed between when Arsenal was primed, and the strike, so I would argue it was active.

Arsenal grants x1.5, called shots on a critstab grants x1.5625, and rage grants 1.75 at very low health. Spellsword grants 0.5, 100 blows grants 0.05 per stack, juggler 0.25, and fatigue 0.15.
800986340.7 * 1.5 * 1.5625 * 1.75 * (1+.5+16 * 0.05+.25+.15) = 8,870,297,953 damage

................Allegedly

All of the info necessary to build your own charm stack of doom and more is available on the guide! Check the pinned message!

[icy stag]

https://youtu.be/vEIZipI5uRg?si=a0zwxsdZ9mtDm8cY

[dusty torrent]

Hey mate! @hard sand I recently got back to the game and I'm trying to upgrade my gear, however I'm not managing to reach the values on your guide... For the embelished headwrap I either end up with 84% melee + 52% crit or 92% melee + 48% crit and I can't seem to understand what I'm missing...

If i swap the lining for a Sheliak one i end up with 84% melee and 52% crit

[regal basalt]

what's your focal shard stats? It should be something like 42% melee and 8 % crit

[dusty torrent]

42% melee, and 4% crit... hmmm I wonder what i've missed

[regal basalt]

you need to use hybrid stone to make stone powder

[dusty torrent]

for the cut diamond?

aight, just tried it, i think that was it, need hybrid of marble + marble for the 8%

thank you bud!

[tropic hound]

Any particular reason for using beelzeboar lining instead of shadowfin for the winter garb? Both materials have zero crit and 12% Melee, but with shadowfin you get an extra 60 stamina with no downside that I can think of (and 60 fishing rating, which is a useless stat for the build)... besides, anyone using dreamscale for the cloth will have excess shadowfin just lying around.

[tepid glen]

For cloth, you can absolutely sub in shadowfin

[onyx tusk]

what charms are u guys putting on the knife?

[regal basalt]

something like hundred blows, called shot, flanking, riposte+fabled charm of the sword (and knife), rage
for defensive charms : gastric defiance, resurection, unstoppable
there's a detailed section in the guide

[onyx tusk]

so on the actual knife i put both fabled sword/knife?

[regal basalt]

it's up to you where you put the charms, as long as their are on a gear or a item that you hold/wear

[hard sand]

Here is a .json for the Unsubtle Knife build on the guide that can be imported into Rayleon's Gear Builder, which can be found here: https://nightingale.rayleon.net/

Note that this is just for the "as first built" stats without upgrades, infusions, charms, or enchantments, this is just one way of organizing the materials, material totals are assuming no yield bonuses~~, and that the masterwork umbrella's stats are a little off as it seems the builder incorrectly applies the full assassin augment's bonus to it~~

[mild dragon]

This is awesome, thank you for uploading! any reason why you use Ribbon Wood over Yew on the Knife? Is it for the injury resist?

[hard sand]

Yep, the build already has 100% maleficium resist once you upgrade, but more resist to start absorbing maleficium attacks isn't really needed, especially if you're relying on resurrection and rage. However, broken legs from falls and getting flung around from attacks are still annoying so it adds just the tiniest bit of margin there

[neon frost]

Ive almost never done a melee build, but using the rayleon builder site, swapping 1 of the diamond materials with another star ruby material ends up with a slightly larger crit strike damage, roughly 125 more damage on a crit just on the weapons alone

maybe there is some math the website isnt taking into account or I am not, to be fair

[hard sand]

The items Rayleon's build site are set up "as crafted", meaning that you can use the in-game preview of the item's stats before you craft it and compare against the same item's stats on the gear builder site. If the stats on the item match, you know that you haven't messed up in setting up the craft. However, as a result of setting up the items in the gear builder this way, the items on the site don't include the T6 executioner infusion that you place on each item later. This bumps up the crit damage from 52% to 60%, which is the crit damage soft cap.

Go ahead and put a T6 executioner infusion in the gear builder site on the item you swapped a diamond for a star ruby with, then swap back to diamond to see the difference.

[neon frost]

ah i didnt even take into account infusions, thats a good point

yup, you were right

[hard sand]

As of the patch on 2/19/2026, critstabs no longer get crit multiplier squared damage and now just do crit multiplier X 2 damage. As a result, all builds on this guide are obsolete.

[mild dragon]

will you be making a new melee build? excited to try out the new changes though

[meager meteor]

I created this build. It is still very good after the update. Thanks to the author for the convenience, the json settings file helped a lot. Hopefully there will be a new build and a new file for it.

[hard sand]

I'm not sure if I'll make a new build. Critstab was my passion for the longest time here. If I do though, I'll consider making a brand new guide instead of altering this one. The technique is still valid, even if heavily nerfed, and even if the exact materials and builds are valid, the concepts are still powerful for pre-RR builds. If I make a new guide, I'll consider splitting it between pure builds and something like a mechanics explained/charms guide

[knotty arch]

whatever I do yall, sentinel's breeches stuck at %30ish critical, how can I made it to %50ish crits?

[regal basalt]

every sources of crit has been nerfed by 25% with the last update

[knotty arch]

ooh alright, but its still a good build right?

[hard sand]

It's still a pretty good crit focused melee build, though nowhere near optimized

[knotty arch]

also where can I get sheilak hide? I think you use it for leather right?

oh mb, sheilak isnt used for leather..