Soulstone Survivors is another great entry to the reverse bullet-hell genre suddenly made popular by Vampire Survivors. If you’re looking for more intense action, you’re in the right place to learn some tips and tricks going in. And if you’re coming from Vampire Survivors, get ready for a vastly different experience as Soulstone Survivors heavily stands out.
Even if you’re someone more familiar with the games that inspired this genre like Magic Survival, you’re still in for a surprise. Soulstone Survivors forces you to constantly move to dodge deadly AoEs beneath your feet. This can make for a more challenging experience as you try to deal damage while simultaneously avoiding it.
Tip 1 – How to Create Strong Builds Easily
Picking the right character for your build can help make it even better. But even still with the Assassin’s -15% to area, you can hit the entire screen.
Unlike similar games in the genre, you don’t have to worry about what items combine to create evolutions. Instead, you’ll want to focus on getting similar skill types and then passive skills that buff them. So while it isn’t the same by any means, there is still some similarity in creating builds for Soulstone Survivors.
For example, every active skill has a few skill types such as: Swing, Frontal, Physical, Shadow, etc. If you keep your active skills similar in type, you’ll end up with passives that benefit all of them simultaneously. There’s nothing better than getting a legendary passive that gives you a ton of extra damage, cast frequency, or multicast potential.
Tip 2 – Remove In-game Skill Tooltip Descriptions
Aside from removing in-game tooltips, you can also tweak how your crosshair looks, the color of it, and more. I also like having Damage Number Colors on to get some extra information.
While it is possible some of you may prefer this setting, I recommend turning it off. Since your crosshair/cursor matters in Soulstone Survivors, you may occasionally move it over skills by mistake. This reveals a large tooltip so you can read more about your skills. However, it can easily throw off your game if it accidentally happens mid-run.
Instead, you can turn off tooltips in-game by going to the General settings when paused. This makes it so you can only check skill tooltips while Soulstone Survivors is paused. Also, the developer has a few other useful settings under both General and Graphics worth checking. You may need to lower your Special Effects Visibility since it can quickly become blinding.
Tip 3 – How to Heal in Soulstone Survivors
The Paladin character is one unique case where they also get a +20% healing modifier.
Learning how to heal is especially important if you get hit a lot. Even if you have a good chunk of Armor Power, you’re bound to get hit on occasion. And when you get deep into a run, those hits can be deadly. Unfortunately, there aren’t many ways to heal and they don’t give a lot of health either.
The main method is destroying green Life Crystals around the map. If you’re not sure how to find them, just look for an icon on the side of your screen pointing to where one is. They don’t constantly spawn, so you may not have one available. With that said, they do give a small chunk of health. You can increase this via meta-progression upgrades as well.
Otherwise, you can also unlock another upgrade that provides health on leveling up. Once you’ve maxed this upgrade, you’ll get 10 health per level up. While this may not sound like a lot, it can quickly add up. And lastly, certain characters have spells that can heal.
Tip 4 – Understanding How Every Stat Works
Understanding how the many stats and attributes work is important so you can create a strong build. Especially if you’re looking for the best skills to pick.
One of the worst things in any game with a lot to learn is when there isn’t enough information. While Soulstone Survivors isn’t perfect, there is a way to learn what every stat does even though it’s easy to miss. Especially when you have stats like Armor Power and Block Power without really knowing how they work.
Fortunately, you don’t have to do too much but you will have to start a run first. Once you have a run going, simply pause and hover over a Character Attribute on the right side of your screen. Each one has a tooltip describing what it does and how it currently affects your character.
Tip 5 – Keep Moving to Stay Alive
Getting movement speed upgrades can help stay out of dangerous AoEs if you don’t want to rely on your dashes. Plus, certain skills get stronger based on your movement speed.
This tip is completely in the subheader above! You’ll almost always want to move in Soulstone Survivors because the enemies love to put AoEs below you. For those unfamiliar with the AoE acronym, this stands for Area of Effect such as an area that an effect will hit. If you’ve ever played an MMORPG, chances are you know AoEs all too well.
I recommend moving in large circles so you can stay near enemies without running too far away. This makes it easier to keep dealing damage so you’re not wasting time. Unless of course, you’re in a bad spot and need to make some room. Just be careful to not get stuck on a wall or tree and end your run prematurely.
Tip 6 – Dashes Provide an Invincible Window
Certain characters like the Assassin benefit from an extra dash. So if you need that extra movement, they may be worth trying.
If you’ve only just started playing Soulstone Survivors, you’ll have access to one dash. This is a great ability to get out of danger that doesn’t have a long cooldown either. So make sure you take full advantage of your dash ability since it also makes you invincible briefly. While I wouldn’t rely on it for blocking attacks, I would use it to get out of the way.
It’s also worth mentioning that enemies have collision so you can’t simply walk through them. Instead, you can use your dash ability to get past them more easily. This is why it’s worth getting an extra dash when the skill pops up or the one-time meta-progression upgrade. Personally, I like having at least three dashes, even though four is great later too.
Tip 7 – Learn Where Enemies Spawn
Even though you can fight enemies anywhere along the boundary, it helps to take advantage of corners especially.
Certain Soulstone Survivors achievements rely on completing fast runs so it helps to know where enemies spawn. Unlike Vampire Survivors where many maps are endless, each map has a boundary. While this may not seem to matter at first, it does because enemies spawn at the border of every map.
Therefore, you can take out even more enemies if you run to a corner where they’re coming from. By defeating more enemies, you’ll gain experience quicker and also reach the boss faster. This overall helps with farming crystals for upgrades, characters, blacksmithing, and whatever else you may need.
Tip 8 – Every Character is Unique in Soulstone Survivors
The Necromancer is one of the more unique characters, especially with their skills revolving around summons. Such as the Skeletal Warriors or the Skeletal Mage.
When I first started playing I wasn’t sure how I wanted to spend my currency. It’s easy to want to spend it carefully on the best upgrades or the best character. But, you’ll eventually end up with more than you need so try not to worry too much. Instead, be willing to unlock a new character here and there since they’re completely unique.
At first, I thought a new character just meant a few different passives, but I was completely wrong. Each one has a different set of skill types so you can have a completely different experience. This keeps Soulstone Survivors lively when you’re learning new skills and builds along the way. My favorite character so far is definitely the Assassin.
Tip 9 – Take Advantage of the Meta-Progression
If you’re struggling to get enough crystals, you can try red portals for extra bosses per wave. This requires finishing a round in under 13 minutes to appear.
Throughout this tips and tricks list, I’ve mentioned a few upgrades worth getting. However, it’s important to address how meta-progression works as a whole. Even though you will get a better grasp of the game over time, it is loosely a roguelite in the sense that there are permanent upgrades. This includes new weapons via the Blacksmith, Runes, and the Skill Tree.
You’ll benefit most from the Skill Tree when you’re first starting out since it uses the crystal currencies. This is where you can get upgrades like an extra dash, extra experience, or even a chance to reroll skills. With that said, some characters have craftable weapons via the Blacksmith tab. While the Rune tab can be even more powerful but it’ll take some time before you can use it.
This is because you’ll need Runic Power via the Skill Tree and certain achievements before you can equip Runes. Also, you’ll need to unlock each Rune before you can use it. This may require reaching a certain character level or finishing a run quickly. But, they can be powerful giving passives like extra critical damage, reduced incoming damage, an extra starting skill, and more.
Tip 10 – Use Curses For Extra Bonuses
While some curse modifiers simply increase enemy health or damage, others can be more unique. Such as spawning more elites or dropping dangerous meteors.
Once you have a handle on how Soulstone Survivors works, you should start experimenting with Curses. These are a way to increase the difficulty while also increasing your potential rewards. This includes more character experience, extra soulstones, minerals for crafting, and even more bosses.
By successfully completing higher Curse tiers, you’ll also unlock achievements for new skills and characters. So while this isn’t a major tip, it is worth mentioning if you can handle the extra challenge.
That’s all there is to this in-depth guide on the many Soulstone Survivors tips and tricks we have. If you have some tips of your own, be sure to share them in the comments below. And get ready to reach those high Curse tiers!
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.