Soulrend Combat, Gear and Upgrades Guide

Epic Fight: the basis of combat

In Soulrend, melee combat is built on Epic Fight: each weapon type has its own animated combo, and Dodge, Guard and Parry spend a resource. The full key list is on the key card on the getting-started page; the four skill books from the Prologue's Epic Combat quest and the skill book rules are on the Prologue page. This section covers the fighting itself.

Stamina, dodging and parrying

Stamina (the resource that dodging and guarding spend) drops with each dodge and guard and refills when you stop. The values in the pack's files:

• A Roll (an evasive roll) costs 4 stamina, a Step (a short evasive step) 3.
• The parry window is 0.4 seconds (8 ticks).

According to the wiki (not found in the files):

• Max stamina is 15; a Soul-like Dodge costs 3 stamina.
• Parrying also works against projectiles.
• An enemy whose posture breaks is stunned for about 3 seconds and open to an execution.
• Seven Soulslike Weaponry bosses break shields.

Some of these numbers can change with the weapon and your skills; if your game shows something different, trust the game.

What the pack's settings fix for certain:

• Execution and assassination are enabled (Combat Evolution). You can land a finishing blow on an enemy whose posture is broken or who has not noticed you.
• Maximum posture grows with armor (a Posture Integration setting); this applies to every armored entity, not only mobs. Breaking a heavily armored enemy's balance takes longer.
• Skill books do not drop from mobs, and the skills you have learned stay when you die.

Passive Skill Tree: four trees and the locked nodes

The skill tree opens with [O], and every level gives 1 skill point; how levels fill and the point caps are on the Prologue page. The pack's 985 nodes are split into four trees: Warrior, Rogue and Ranger have 164 nodes each, Mage has 493. According to the wiki, points come from one pool and the trees are not tied to your class.

Selection limits

The tree files put a limit on some groups of nodes: you can open at most this many from the group.

• Warrior, Rogue, Ranger: up to 3 of the tree's 5 keystones; only 1 of the two subclass nodes (Berserker or Templar for Warrior, Assassin or Skirmisher for Rogue, Sharpshooter or Hexshot for Ranger); up to 2 of each subclass's 3 keystones.
• Mage: up to 2 of the 12 school class nodes; up to 2 of the 6 Mind nodes; 1 of each school's 3 keystones.

The remaining nodes (151 in Warrior, Rogue and Ranger, 439 in Mage) have no limit; you open as many as your points allow.

Locked nodes

Two items lock the limited groups' keystones and the Mage's Mind nodes. The requirement is to have picked the item up once:

• Nether Crystal → 21 nodes: the 5 keystones of each of the three fighter trees and Mage's 6 Mind nodes. You collect the crystal in Act II for the Nether seal; where it comes from is on the Nether seal page.
• Knight Sword → 54 nodes: the subclass keystones of the three fighter trees (3 + 3 each) and Mage's 36 school keystones. The sword is loot from the Underworld Knight boss in the Nether, in Act III.

The subclass node itself is not locked; you can pick Berserker early and open its keystones after the Knight Sword.

Healing: Estus and the Huge Estus Flask

Your main healing tool is the flask. Drinking an Estus Flask restores 25% of your maximum health; a Huge Estus Flask (Crimson Flask in the mod files) restores 75%. Two Huge Estus come from 2 Estus Flasks + 2 uncommon-rarity materials + 1 Blood Vial. Where to collect them and when the upgrade is worth it are on the Nether seal page.

Because lifesteal affixes are disabled, the flask is also your main way to regain health mid-fight (below).

The 11 weapon paths: Pursuit of Mastery

The quest book's Pursuit of Mastery group has 12 chapters: 11 are upgrade chains for a weapon type, and one is the magic tree (Magic Academy, on the magic page). Each chapter is a sequence, almost entirely item quests, that runs from a wooden or basic weapon to a legendary one. Every weapon chapter except Archery Armory has its roots open from the start of the book (Bulwark and Brawl's glove branch needs the Prologue's Epic Combat quest).

The path recipes are upgrade recipes: when you craft the next weapon, the affixes, gems and enchantments on the one in your hand carry over (upgrades). So picking one path and staying on it beats finding every weapon from scratch.

• Bladesworn Battallion

  One-handed swords and longswords.

  Quests: 50 · Recipes: 58
  Starts with: wooden sword
  Endpoints include: Caelestis, Herrscher, Sword of Pioneer
  Class link: The wooden sword in the Tank, Paladin and Spellblade kits is this path's first item.

• Kings of the Battlefield

  Spears, glaives and halberds.

  Quests: 52 · Recipes: 55
  Starts with: wooden spear or the Alex's Caves limestone spear
  Endpoints include: Astrape, Extinction Spear
  Class link: The Lancer kit starts with the wooden spear.

• Path of the Samurai

  Katanas and tachis.

  Quests: 43 · Recipes: 59
  Starts with: bokken
  Endpoints include: a single endpoint: Final Fractal
  Class link: The Samurai kit gives a bokken. The chapter's Zweiender quest depends on Act V's final reward.

• Heavy Load

  Axes, hammers and maces.

  Quests: 58 · Recipes: 60
  Starts with: iron axe, Rotten Hammer, wooden mace or bat
  Endpoints include: Void Forge, Ceraunus, Mjolnir
  Class link: The iron axe in the Berserker kit starts this path.

• Blood Bath

  Two-handed greatswords.

  Quests: 62 · Recipes: 71
  Starts with: wooden greatsword
  Endpoints include: The Incinerator, Solar
  Class link: The Warrior kit gives a wooden greatsword.

• Way of the Dancing Blades

  Staves, battlestaffs and twinblades.

  Quests: 37 · Recipes: 38
  Starts with: the WoM wooden staff or a wooden battlestaff
  Endpoints include: Moonless, Napoleon
  Class link: The Blade Dancer's wooden staff and the Beast Master's iron battlestaff both appear in this chapter.

• Bulwark and Brawl

  Shields and fist weapons.

  Quests: 27 · Recipes: 33
  Starts with: wooden shield or the Frozen Fist
  Endpoints include: Bulwark of the Flame, Gesetz
  Class link: Tank and Paladin start with the wooden shield; the Brawler's glove is in this chapter too.

• Assassin's Armoury

  Daggers, sai and shortswords.

  Quests: 50 · Recipes: 55
  Starts with: flint knife
  Endpoints include: Darknight Pursuiters
  Class link: The Rogue kit gives two flint knives.

• Archery Armory

  Bows and archer trinkets.

  Quests: 43 · Recipes: 34
  Starts with: Too Many Bows bows; 10 lose the mod's recipe: 6 are made with pack recipes, 4 only come as loot
  Endpoints include: the tree's craftable bows and trinkets
  Class link: The Hunter kit starts with a bow. The chapter opens from The Ranger's Path in Act I.

• Hopping the Fence

  Rapiers and foils.

  Quests: 19 · Recipes: 19
  Starts with: Sword on a Stick
  Endpoints include: Amethyst Rapier
  Class link: No class kit starts on this path.

• Demonic Implements

  Sickles and scythes.

  Quests: 28 · Recipes: 28
  Starts with: ice sickle
  Endpoints include: Crimson Moon, Darkin Scythe
  Class link: The Reaper kit gives an ice sickle.

"Recipes" on each card is the number of recipes in that weapon tree's folder in the pack. Which item each class kit gives was read from the files; class bonuses are on the races and classes page.

Rise of the Champion: the armor paths

Armor progression lives in the Rise of the Champion chapter, which opens from the Forging Your Path quest in Act I. Despite its title, the chapter's "The Three Paths" quest lists four paths and writes them with color codes. The pack's armor files use the same three colors as folder names and split the sets into tiers (t1, t2…); those files only set durability.

Some tier quests ask for a boss; the quest subtitle says so: Infernal Dragon for Titanium, Kamath for Kamath's Remains, Sandworm for Centinel, Sunleia for Blessed Gold, Frostmaw for Bounty Hunter. In Act II the quest book marks Dragon Bone as "T4 Armor (red path)", Armor Plate as "T3 Armor (red path)" and Sandworm Scale as "T3 Armor (green path)"; all three labels match the tiers above. The quest text ends the paths with a "CHOOSE" call, but no setting in the files locks a choice; the promises describe which stats each path leans toward.

Apotheosis: affixes, gems and rarity

Random affixes (extra properties) and gem sockets on weapons and armor come from Apotheosis. Every affixed item has a rarity. The pack's nine rarities, lowest to highest by the order number in the files, are these (the first six are Apotheosis's, the last three come from Apotheotic Additions):

1. 1. common
2. 2. uncommon
3. 3. rare
4. 4. epic
5. 5. mythic
6. 6. ancient
7. 7. artifact
8. 8. heirloom
9. 9. esoteric

Which rarity in which dimension

The pack ties the rarity of some loot to the dimension: loot that Apotheosis converts into an affixed item, and the gear of Apotheosis's empowered mobs (minibosses). Items that spawn affixed in chests have their own table; this limit does not cover all loot.

The config defines each line as "dimension, lowest, highest" and the pack wrote three values on some lines, but the game reads only the first two values of each line and ignores the third. Actual ranges: Overworld common–uncommon, Nether uncommon–rare, End rare–epic (gems rare–mythic). The Past line has a single value, so the game logs an error and skips it; the Past has no rarity limit.

Other facts that are certain:

• The quest book's gem reward tables match the Apotheosis rarities: Cracked = common, Chipped = uncommon, Flawed = rare, Perfect = ancient.
• Apotheosis's own bosses spawn only in the Nether (2.5% chance) and on the End's outer islands (1.8%); they do not spawn in the Overworld.
• An affixed item you do not want can be turned into rarity material and gem dust with Create's crushing.

Upgrade recipes: 757 items, 857 recipes

The pack deleted the mod recipes for 757 items and put 857 equipment recipes of its own in their place. The new upgrade recipes take the tier below as an input: as the Prologue's Upgrading Gear quest says, gems, enchantments, affixes and the name are not deleted but carry onto the crafted item. The recipe you see in JEI is the one that works.

Some recipes are removed entirely:

• 10 Too Many Bows bows lose the mod's own recipe. Of these, the Torchbearer, Ironclad Bow, Radiance and Crimson Nexus cannot be crafted and only come as loot. The Ancient Sage Bow, Frostbite, Sentinel's Wrath, Shulker's Blast, Twin Shadows and Verdant Vigor get a pack upgrade recipe instead; these six do not drop from chests or mobs and are only crafted.
• Create's Andesite Alloy cannot be crafted; you get it from the pack's scrapping recipes or find it in Create villages.

With Mending and Unbreaking disabled, you progress by upgrading gear more than by repairing it. The pack's armor files also raise durability as the tier goes up.

Reforging tables, sigils and removing gems

To reroll affixes or raise rarity there is the Reforging chapter, which opens from the A Stone Imbued with Magic quest in Act I. The tables get stronger in order:

1. Simple Reforging Table Up to rare. According to the quest text, one slot takes the rarity material, one the item and one the Sigil of Rebirth, and you pick one of three options.
2. Reforging Table Up to mythic.
3. Ancient Reforging Table Up to ancient; its material is the Manifestation of Infinity.
4. Esoteric Reforging Table Crafted with the pack's own recipe; its quest depends on the Galactic Core quest in Act V (Acts IV–V).

The chapter also teaches the sigils that fuel the tables and change items (per the quest texts): the Sigil of Socketing adds sockets (with a cap tied to the affix level), the Sigil of Rebirth fuels reforging, the Sigil of Enhancement fuels the Augment Table, the Sigil of Transmutation moves affixes to another weapon and the old weapon is lost, and the Sigil of Severance removes sockets.

Removing gems

In practice, moving a valuable gem to another item is a coin flip. Upgrade the item instead of moving the gem: an upgrade recipe carries the gem to the new item with no loss.

Boss damage budgets and Boss Ultimatum

The pack caps how much health 33 bosses can lose in one second: the eight Cataclysm bosses lose at most 5% of their maximum health per second, the other 25 at most 20%. Anything beyond that is blocked. So a Cataclysm fight lasts roughly at least 20 seconds and the others at least 5 seconds, however strong you are.

According to the config's own comment:

• The cap works over a rolling one-second window, and damage from every player, pet, projectile and spell comes out of the same budget. A large group cannot break it.
• The cap applies to final damage, after armor and resistances.
• Listed Cataclysm bosses lose their own per-hit damage cap; this budget replaces it.
• The /kill command is never limited.

Bosses without a budget

Bosses not on the list have no per-second cap; with enough damage they fall fast. Notable examples: Infernal Dragon, Yeti, Underworld Knight, Corrupted Champion (Lich). Ernos, the Ice and Fire bosses and the Battle Tower golems are not on the list either.

The two Act V bosses in the Past are not on the budget list, but their own mod's settings cap a single hit: Arterius, The Last Watcher loses at most 8% of its maximum health per hit, Ó Brolacháin, The Scarlet Hunter at most 4%. Details are on the Acts IV–V page.

Boss Ultimatum: your death sets the boss to half health

A mod called Boss Ultimatum (a mod that changes a boss's health when it kills you) adds a rule tied to your death to Soulslike Weaponry and Cataclysm bosses. Its config makes the rule read differently from how it works:

"Directly" means the boss itself or its projectile; dying near the boss from something else does not count. In practice, once the boss is below half, staying alive matters more than dealing damage: a single death wipes that progress. The rule runs for any player who dies, so it applies in a group too (inferred from the game files).

Disabled enchantments and lifesteal

The pack disables 29 enchantments entirely. The most important are Mending, Unbreaking and Apotheosis's Life Mending; even though Apotheosis's own setting gives Unbreaking a higher cap, the disable overrides it (inferred from the game files). The other 26 come from Soulslike Weaponry, Alex's Caves, Endless Biomes and Supplementaries.

The weapons in the class kits carry Unbreaking V in the files. Since the enchantment is disabled, whether it has any effect in game has not been tested Unverified; do not count on your kit weapon never breaking.

Lifesteal

The pack disables lifesteal from weapon affixes: Apotheosis's vampiric affix and the two soulflare affixes from Fallen Gems. No source in the files grants the attribute that the pack's own lifesteal script reads, so lifesteal affixes will not show up on your weapon.

Lifesteal is not gone from the game entirely. The same script's comment says lifesteal from gems is unaffected. The files have other sources too: the Keres race's Soul Devourer power grants 5% lifesteal, and a blood node in the Mage tree and the Royalty gem also carry lifesteal. Still, do not build around lifesteal; put the flask at the center of your healing plan.

What comes next

If something looks different in your game, report it on the contact page; this guide was prepared from the pack's files and is updated as the version changes.

Frequently asked questions

Is there Mending in Soulrend?

No. Mending, Unbreaking, Life Mending and 26 other enchantments are disabled in the pack. Rather than repairing gear, you mostly improve it with upgrade recipes, which carry affixes, gems and enchantments onto the new item.

Do I lose gems when I remove them?

You may. The Sigil of Withdrawal keeps the item, but each gem has its own 50% chance to be destroyed; the rest return to your inventory. To keep a gem, upgrade the item instead: an upgrade recipe carries the gem with no loss.

Why does a boss's health go down so slowly?

33 bosses have a damage budget: the eight Cataclysm bosses lose at most 5% of their maximum health per second, the others 20%. Extra damage is blocked and the budget is shared by all players, so a Cataclysm fight lasts at least 20 seconds.

Does dying to a boss make it stronger?

It does not grow stronger, but it can heal. If a Cataclysm or Soulslike Weaponry boss kills you directly, its health is set to half its maximum; difficulty and death count do not matter. Below half, that is a heal. The config's "+10% per death" and "50% after 3 deaths" fields are not used by the code.

Why won't the skill tree keystones open?

They are locked. The trees' main keystones and Mage's Mind nodes (21 nodes) require you to pick up a Nether Crystal once; the subclass and school keystones (54 nodes) require you to pick up the Underworld Knight's Knight Sword.

Which weapon path should I pick?

The path your kit weapon starts. Warrior starts Blood Bath with the wooden greatsword, Rogue starts Assassin's Armoury with the flint knife, Samurai starts Path of the Samurai with the bokken. Every weapon chapter except Archery Armory is open from the start of the book (Bulwark and Brawl's glove branch needs the Prologue's Epic Combat), and since upgrades carry affixes and gems, staying on one path pays off.

Is there lifesteal in Soulrend?

Not as a weapon affix: Apotheosis's vampiric affix and the soulflare affixes from Fallen Gems are disabled. Lifesteal is not removed entirely; for example, a Keres race power grants it. Your main way to heal is the Estus Flask.

This guide is unofficial and is not affiliated with the makers of the Soulrend v8.5.2 pack. The content was prepared by inspecting the files of the installed pack (Minecraft 1.20.1 · Forge). Minecraft © Mojang Studios; this page is not approved by or associated with Mojang Studios or Microsoft. The Soulrend pack belongs to Apotheotic_Studios; the mods and images in it belong to their respective authors; names are trademarks of their respective owners. Credits: credits.json. Textures used on this page: dungeons and combat (Tohirogosu, MCreator), Bosses'Rises (Blockfactory, Unusual Squad), Nether Remastered (Jmods), soulsweapons, wom, irons_spellbooks, Simply Swords (Sweenus), Mowzie's Mobs (BobMowzie, Wadoo, Vakypanda, Noonyez, pau101), cataclysm. If you are a rights holder and want an image removed, tell us through the contact page and it will be taken down.