Recommendations are evidence-led but partly evaluative. The developer does not publish an official universal character or skill tier list, and older community guides may describe pre-release balance. The build labels below describe practical archetypes rather than guaranteed fastest clears.
Fast answer
The answer before the background
For most players, start with Barbarian for a reliable melee build, Hound Master or another ranged summon-focused hunter for safe progression, and a high-area caster or debuff build for farming. Titan Hunt favors focused single-target damage plus enough movement and defense to survive boss patterns. In every mode, build around two or three compatible skill types, then spend upgrades on multicast, cast frequency, area, and the damage stat that your chosen skills actually use. Treat tier lists as starting points, not guarantees.
Quick comparison
Best picks by mode, stage, and player goal
The strongest choice depends on what the run is asking you to do. Farming rewards screen coverage and quick experience collection; high Curse stages reward consistency and defensive margin; Titan Hunt rewards boss damage, mobility, and a plan for elite waves. The table uses build roles instead of pretending that one character dominates every activity.
| Goal | Recommended archetype | What to prioritize | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fast farming | Wide-area caster or summon build | Area, multicast, cast frequency, movement, experience collection | Weak single-target damage if every slot is pure crowd control |
| First clears | Barbarian melee bruiser or durable ranged build | Health, armor, movement, one reliable damage package, one defensive option | Overcommitting to close range before defenses are ready |
| High Curse stages | Debuff-heavy ranged or summon build | Consistent application, multicast, cast frequency, movement, damage reduction | RNG can delay the key debuff or summon |
| Titan Hunt | Focused boss-damage build | Direct damage, critical chance, critical damage, cooldown reduction, mobility | Poor wave clear or insufficient defense between boss phases |
| Endless or long runs | Scaling summon, status, or area build | Experience, area, duration, multicast, sustain, and scaling powers | A build can look strong early but stop scaling against late enemies |
The developer describes hundreds of skills, weapons, synergies, and several game modes, but does not publish a definitive tier list. These categories are practical recommendations based on the current systems and documented balance changes.
Starter choice
Is the Barbarian the best class?
The Barbarian is one of the safest early recommendations because the default hunter has a health bonus, critical-damage bonus, cast-frequency bonus, and movement-speed bonus. Its melee skill pool also makes it easy to build around Swing, Thrust, Slam, Earth, or Electric types. That combination gives new players room to learn enemy patterns without needing a delicate setup.
- For a simple Barbarian build, take one dependable wide melee attack, one boss or elite answer, one defensive or movement skill, and then fill remaining slots with skills that reinforce the same damage plan.
- Prioritize area and multicast when clearing dense waves. Add cast frequency when the key attack has a long cooldown. Take health or armor when contact damage is becoming the reason runs fail.
- Do not force melee on every map. If a stage or Curse modifier punishes close positioning, a ranged hunter with summons or projectiles can be the better practical pick.
The Barbarian is an excellent beginner and progression option, not a verified universal number-one class. Weapon unlocks, prestige progression, runes, and player comfort can matter more than the character label.
Build construction
How to assemble a strong run
Start with a clear damage plan instead of collecting six unrelated high-rarity skills. Two or more skills sharing a type can unlock type-specific powers, while repeated skill types can support rune synergies. A compact build usually scales more reliably than a visually impressive collection of unrelated attacks.
- Choose a core: area damage for farming, status or summons for safe scaling, or direct and critical damage for bosses.
- Add coverage: include at least one skill that handles enemies outside your main attack’s range or timing window.
- Add survival: movement speed, an extra dash, armor, health, damage reduction, or a defensive summon can be worth more than a small damage upgrade.
- During level-ups, take multicast and cast frequency when they improve the whole package. Take area for attacks that need to cover lanes or screens. Take skill-specific upgrades when one attack is clearly carrying the run.
- Use the current rune text. Update 1.5d changed Generalist to require 20 unique skill types for its bonus, reworked Elemental Flow, reduced Multicast Mastery’s improvement, and changed several other scaling thresholds.
- Reroll or pivot when the required skill is not appearing. Community build guides correctly emphasize that run RNG matters, so a flexible substitute is usually better than delaying every other upgrade.
The upgrade priorities are recommendations. The documented rune reworks and the existence of skill-type powers are verified game information; the exact order in which you should take them depends on your character, weapon, map, and current level-up choices.
Practical tier list
Skill priorities without a rigid tier list
A universal skill tier list is unreliable because a skill’s value changes with its type, traits, weapon, rune package, and mode. A large-area attack can be superb for farming but inefficient against a Titan. Conversely, a slow single-target attack can look weak in a wave clear test and still be excellent for a boss phase.
- Top priority for most builds: multicast, cast frequency, and area when the chosen skills benefit from them.
- High priority for farming: movement speed, experience collection, persistent area effects, summons, and attacks that cover several approach angles.
- High priority for bosses: direct damage, critical chance, critical damage, cooldown reduction, and debuffs that amplify later hits.
- Situational priority: duration for persistent zones or summons, quantity for unit-based skills, and defensive stats when a Curse or Titan pattern is causing deaths.
- Avoid judging a skill only by its displayed damage. Application rate, coverage, status effects, duration, and scaling with a character’s weapon can be more important.
Older guides may predate the full release, Titan Hunt, later weapons, and Update 1.5d. Use them for ideas, then verify the current in-game description and test the skill in the mode you actually play.
Run plans
Three reliable templates to test
These are starting templates rather than locked loadouts. Replace individual skills with current equivalents that preserve the same role and damage plan.
- Farming template: a fast hunter with broad area attacks, one persistent zone or summon, multicast, cast frequency, movement speed, and experience collection. Keep one emergency defensive option so a crowded late wave does not end the run.
- Progression template: the Barbarian or another comfortable hunter with one wide attack, one reliable elite or boss attack, one movement or defensive skill, and a small number of compatible damage types. This is the safest answer for unlocking weapons and learning maps.
- Titan template: a focused damage core with critical or direct-damage scaling, a debuff that improves follow-up hits, enough area to clear the approach waves, and movement or dash protection for boss patterns. Do not sacrifice all defenses for a damage screenshot.
- Status or summon template: choose a hunter whose weapon and skill pool naturally support summons or repeated status application, then invest in duration, quantity, multicast, and the relevant damage or potency upgrades. This often gives safer long runs, but it can be slower to assemble.
Run the same map and Curse level three times before changing your verdict. Record deaths, boss time, elite control, and whether the build reaches its key upgrades. One lucky or unlucky run is not enough evidence.
FAQ
Common questions
What is the best farming build?
Use a wide-area build with strong experience collection, movement speed, multicast, and cast frequency. Persistent zones, summons, and attacks with broad coverage are usually more valuable than narrow boss skills. Keep one defensive option for late waves.
What is the best class for beginners?
The Barbarian is the easiest recommendation because its starting bonuses support health, critical damage, cast frequency, and movement speed. A ranged or summon-focused hunter may become more comfortable once you reach harder Curses or Titan Hunt.
Should I follow a skill tier list?
Use a tier list to identify candidates, not to lock every run. Skill value changes with the character, weapon, traits, rune setup, map, Curse, and whether the goal is farming or boss damage.
Why did my copied build perform worse?
The likely causes are different weapon unlocks, missing skill-tree or rune progression, a changed patch, poor level-up RNG, or taking upgrades that do not scale the build’s main damage source. Compare the role of each slot rather than copying names alone.
Did Update 1.5d change the best builds?
It changed several runes and powers, including Generalist, Elemental Flow, Multicast Mastery, Purity, Adaptive Empowerment, Synchrony, and others. That makes older build rankings useful as references, but not definitive for the current patch.
Sources
What we checked
Official listings establish current availability and product facts. Community pages are used for mechanics and build history, then labeled separately.
- OfficialOfficial Steam announcement: Update 1.5d, Gift of the Veil
- OfficialOfficial Steam store page
- OfficialOfficial Steam announcement archive and Titan Hunt details
- CommunityCommunity reference: character and weapon information
- CommunityCommunity reference: powers and skill-scaling information
- ReferenceReference guide: historical build examples and RNG caveat