Developed by Spiders studio,Steelrisingallows players to explore the French-inspired steampunk revolution under the tyrannical rule of King Louis XVI whose madness has spurred him to fill the dark and dank cobbled streets with legions of deadly automatons. It is an action RPG with a dark and gritty spin on the French Revolution with a few mechanical machinations sprinkled through.
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Going against the mechanical soldiers, players will take on the role of Aegis (the Queen’s bodyguard),a robot built with poiseand vicious elegance to take down the robots that roam the streets. As players venture throughSteelrising’scampaign and encounter more dangerous and versatile foes, they will gain access to aplethora of inventive weaponsand the ability to upgrade Aegis’s stats. The more powerful Aegis becomes the more damage she can mete out against her foes, however, what upgrades a player chooses to take can depend on their build. Striking fast, weaving out of danger, or scrapping foes with successive and preemptive heavy hits? At brass tacks, there are some upgrades that outperform others in regard to their effectiveness. This article is a beginner’s blueprint for all the nuts and bolts of upgrades.
5Elemental Alchemy
This is a stat that is unique toSteelrisingand operates similarly to amagic attack and resistance stat in other games. It relates to how much damage players would be able to inflict with first, flame, and culmination weapons if they have those weapons equipped. Plus, it also helps Aegis to resist the same elements and effects from enemy weapons too.
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This stat is the least important to upgrade at first as the early game isn’t packed with weapons that carry an alchemical element. However, players might want to slowly invest in this column over time asin the late game alchemic weapons become far more accessibleand can be veryuseful against late-stage bossesand enemy mobs.
4Vigor
Vigor is the wordSteelrisingcalls their stamina bar and as usual, it depletes on attack and evasive actions. This stat is all to do withresource managementand ensuring that enough vigor is left for players to attack and dodge out of the danger zone, asdepleting this gauge will leave the player open to be punished by incoming damage.
Vigor also helps to increase Aegis’sCritical Hit Multiplieras the more vigor a player has the more likely they will trigger a critical hit in combat. Players may want to pump a few points into vigor, however, the game can be pretty forgiving with stamina and players will find they areable to get a few hits in a and dodge with how much stamina they have at the start.
3Engineering
Engineering is a valuable skill to invest in as itaugments how much negative status Aegis can inflict and how fast it builds upwith every subsequent strike. This is useful for any build, but especially the ones that focus on agility with each successive hit dealing more debuff on every hit (until the enemy suffers from a critical mass and is severely affected.)
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There are numerous negative statuses withinSteelrisingeach causing different negative afflictions. These debuffs include:
Engineering also correlates to the player’sluck when looting. The skillLoot Multiplieris affected by Aegis’s engineering stat and the higher it is,the better likelihood of improved enemy drops and rewards.
2Durability
This stat determines the protagonist’s health pool. Like allSoulsbornegames, this can be very important when fighting enemies with higher damage potential or a perilous combo if Aegis’s health pool is not large enough to survive through it. Plus, the more time a player can stay in the fight the less running back they have to do when respawning at a Vestal (thinkDark Soulsbonfire orElden Ring’ssite of grace.)
Durability is also largely important for Aegis’s constitution and resilience to effects.Also known as the balance meter in the game, durability dictates Aegis’s fortitude against staggering. This allows for easier charge-ups of attacks and makes the player more stalwart.
1Power & Agility
Aegis’s basic stats directly correspond to how much damage she deals against enemies. Generally, most people will want to focus on agility and the ability to get in decisive strikes before backing out of harm’s way.Agility lends itself nicely to speed and launching a consecutive attack against enemies.Plus, if a player wants to apply as many status effects as possible to enemies then agility is the way to go, as they are able to carry out a higher flurry of attacks in a shorter time span.
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Power is slower, albeit packs a wallop if timed just right.In terms ofsingle-hit damage, base power far outranks agility and is often associated withheavy bludgeoning weaponslike hammers, flails, and polearms (halberds and the like). These weapons tend to be more straightforward and in the earlier game, they tend to go for damage output rather than inflicting debilitating effects on foes. Players will have to watch out for timing when wielding these sluggish weapons, however, landing a direct concussive hit is worth the slower swing start (if players prefer that play style).
Steelrisingis out now on PS5, Xbox Series S/X, and PC.
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