Agent Guide #1 - Weapons and Affixes!

Choosing a Weapon and Growing Its Affixes: Four Tips from Tia

Welcome back to the Black Dog Bar, Agents! Tia here, your bartender. The bar has been full of talk about favorite weapons and outrageous builds. I've gathered four tips to help you find a playstyle you love (and keep making it stronger)! A new weapon drops, and that golden glow is hard to ignore. But what really makes a weapon shine is how its mechanics work with your resources and the rest of your build. Pull up a chair!

1. Start with the way you want to fight

Up close or at a distance? Direct attacks or summoned support? A screen full of projectiles or concentrated damage on one target? Those choices change your rhythm in combat and how much room you have to dodge. Voltedge: dash in and keep the slashes coming. Voltedge unleashes a series of lightning dash slashes, with invulnerability during the dash. Line up your approach, cut through, then choose your next direction. The whole room becomes your route. Voltedge: lightning dash slashes and an affix that scales with your coins. Tempest: put the thundercloud to work. Tempest's thundercloud attacks nearby enemies. Send it toward the fight while you concentrate on staying clear of the bullet storm. Your firepower can be on the front line while you find a safer position. Tempest: thundercloud support lets you focus on positioning. Clink: keep the tokens—and the damage—coming. Clink has a chance to generate tokens when it hits enemies, and picking them up strengthens its attacks. Add a projectile-count affix and you can turn the room into your own pinball table. If you enjoy fighting and collecting in the same loop, build around it! Clink: collect the tokens it generates to strengthen your attacks. Think about your attack pattern too. Do you want to cover a crowd or pour damage into one enemy? Pick a mechanic you enjoy, then support it with resources and affixes. A Popcorn reminder: explosive ranged attacks can become dangerous when projectiles fill the screen. Without Tin Daddy, be careful about turning your own barrage into your exit cue. Tin Daddy protects you from explosions you create, not every explosion in the room.

2. Match affixes to your resources

Once you've found your playstyle, turn what's in your pockets into firepower. Voltedge's coin-scaling charge affix: +1 charge for every 20 coins, up to +10. That means 60 coins give you 3 additional charges, while 200 reach the +10 cap. A Wisp-scaling projectile affix: +1 projectile for each Wisp, up to +4. One Wisp gives +1; four reach the cap. This can fit a Wisp build well, though its value still depends on your weapon's mechanics—it won't necessarily suit a melee weapon. Match an affix to the resources your current build can actually maintain. A useful Rare affix can sometimes serve your build better than a Legendary one you can't support. Ask both “Is this strong now?” and “Can I keep growing it?” That brings us to the Artisan Temple!

3. Use the Artisan Temple to shape your weapon

With the Artisan faith, collecting Soul Shards builds faith progress toward opening the temple. On entering, you receive a weapon and can work on your affixes:

1. Trade an affix downgrade for crafting material. The device randomly lowers one eligible affix by one rarity tier and gives you one blank crafting material. You can't choose which affix it downgrades, so consider using an unwanted weapon to fund your main one.
2. Spend one material to forge. Choose one of four affixes; the other choices disappear. Look for the one that fits your weapon and resources.
3. Keep forging while you have materials. Each round costs one material. Once the downgrade device runs out of uses, sacrificing health can restore them.

Choosing an affix you already have upgrades it; choosing a new one adds it. A duplicate might be exactly what your build needs. Artisan Temple: prepare materials, then choose the affix that supports your build.

4. Let items and Agents help you find and grow weapons

Street Glory: make Challenge Rooms count. With Street Glory, winning a Challenge Room gives you two weapons. That's another chance to find a new favorite. If neither fits, dismantle them for Soul Shards and keep growing the weapon you already love. Street Glory adds another weapon reward when you win a Challenge Room.

James: spare weapons help your main weapon grow. James gets extra Soul Shards from dismantling weapons. Pair that with Street Glory for more weapons to break down and more fuel for your main weapon. James gains extra Soul Shards from dismantling unwanted weapons. Weapons, affixes, items, Agents, and faiths all feed into one another. Find a style you enjoy and see how far you can take it! Show us your favourite weapon and build. Screenshots and clips are welcome! Tell us how you put it together and what made it click. —Tia, your bartender at the Black Dog Bar