Summary
WhileRavenswatch, the latest punishing roguelike from developers behindCurse of the Dead Gods, is a ton of fun, there’s a lot to learn when jumping into it.
Across the 9 playable characters currently inRavenswatch, there is a multitude of different Talent options that can appear as they level up, each one greatly changing how certain playstyles or abilities work. With that in mind, which ones seem to be the strongest so far for each character?
Updated October 3rd, 2024 by Jacob Buchalter:With the release of 1.0 of Ravenswatch, a lot of changes have been made to the game. All of the heroes can now be leveled up to a maximum of 9 and most of them have new Traits to unlock as well. On top of all that, there’s also a new playable character, a new final boss, and a whole host of quality-of-life changes, so there’s never been a better time to get invested in this gruelingly difficult roguelike. For all those who have just started their Ravenswatch adventure, here are the best upgrades (in our opinion) for every playable character.
Disclaimer:Each Hero has 1 of 4 possible Starting Traits to choose from after a certain Rank, so we’ve included 2 Starting Talent selections for each Hero alongside 3 general Talent recommendations.
9Carmilla
Main Trait: Dhampir
Carmilla is the newest character added to Ravenswatch with the 1.0 release of the game along with the new final boss. The character itself, once unlocked, has a lot of elements of Little Red Riding Hood (Scarlet) mixed into her gameplay along with some elements of Aladdin. To be more specific, Carmilla is a glass cannon-type character by default that can choose to use her own Blood resource or HP to empower her abilities in exchange for struggling a bit with overall tankiness and survivability.
The key talents players will want to look for with Carmilla are either ones that give her a bit more survivability, or give their favorite ability of hers more damage. And thankfully, players really can build Carmilla around any of her abilities, even her Defense. However, these are the traits we felt stuck out the most:
Default
Carmilla’s most accessible and earliest way of healing, which is incredibly important for a character who can use her own Health to empower abilities. Just ensure to get the Quest portion of this Talent done as soon as possible.
Marked is one of the best status ailments to apply to enemies in the game, and with the way this works and with how important Carmilla’s Special is (especially with Life Essence), you’ll almost always have an enemy Marked.
Go for the Throat
Standard
Dostamced covered before unleashing Special increases its Crit Chance, up to +40 percent.
Incredibly useful for finishing off enemies and healing with Life Essence especially, as it isn’t difficult to space yourself out to get the maximum distance always.
Consuming Blood to fuel Power gradually increases its damage, up to +40 percent after 3.0 seconds of holding.
A high-risk high-reward Talent choice, but if you primarily use this when in Winged Form, you can almost always get this Talent to trigger without using your own Health, and the damage increase is massive.
Final
Increases the maximum number of Attacks with Blood Lash Ultimate by +6.
Blood Lash starts with 12 Attacks total, so this increases it by a whole 50 percent, which is a huge buff to the damage potential of this Ultimate.
8Scarlet
Main Trait: Lycanthrope
Little Red Riding Hood, better known in this game as Scarlet, is obviously the rogue-type character ofRavenswatch. Her abilities are all centered around quick slashes, critical hits, and stealth…at least until the sun goes down. The overall ‘vibe’ of this setting absolutely gives off someDark Soulsvibes, and the Day/Night cycle helps with this tone even more.
A ton of her potential upgrade options are based around letting her pump out even more absurd bursts of damage or improving upon her default playstyle, which is great. Though to be fair, this also means that many of her Upgrade options don’t exactly ‘change’ the way she’s played, which is either a pro or a con depending on the player.
Starting
Special now targets a farther location & deals +40 percent damage
The other Trait most players choose if they don’t go with Shapeshifter. With the right Talent choices after this, Distant Explosions puts Scarlet on the path to becoming an overpowered grenadier.
Rank 5
Trait becomes active and heals 20 percent of Maximum Health when used. But, Maximum Health is reduced by 30 percent overall
One of the biggest downsides of playing Scarlet is the fact that you can’t choose when to be human or werewolf. This talent unlocks that ability, and the Health Reduction really isn’t even noticeable with the right items/Talent choices.
Human: Special no longer affects Scarlet and bomb explodes as soon as it hits the ground. Additionally, Special recharges 20 percent faster in both forms.
An absurdly good Trait choice that eliminates all risk of self-damage using Scarlet’s Bomb. Opens the door for a lot of different builds.
Defense instantly fills all Combo Points and lasts +1 second.
Probably Scarlet’s best Talent overall, as it eliminates any need to build up your Combo Points manually, allowing for some truly absurd DPS if you manage to get multiple Defense Stacks with something like the Raven Effigy Magical Object.
Each time you spend Combo Points, each point spent:
A very high-level Talent unlock for Scarlet, but one most players will almost always use after unlocking. Survivability is key for the higher difficulties (or even tougher modifiers) in this game, and this Talent gives both Survivability for Human form and more DPS for Werewolf form.
7Pied Piper
Main Trait: Infestation
It feels odd to say that the man with the rats and flute is the ‘gunner’ of the group, but it really is true with the Pied Piper. He’s the only character inRavenswatchwhose attack feels like it’s pulled right out of a twin-stick shooter instead of a more typical roguelike.
Because of this, there are very few Upgrades that focus on improving his basic attack, most of them just add more functionality to his other abilities or make them even more fun to use.
Gain +1 Armor whenever Defense hits at least 2 enemies. Additionally (after the Quest is completed) Hitting 2 or more enemies with Defense grants 12 Shield to all nearby Heroes for 6 seconds.
One of the key Talents for making Pied Piper a pretty incredibly Support Hero, but this shield also applies to him, so it also helps with his own survivability.
Move Speed when using Attack or Power is increased by 30 percent. Additionally, gain +10 percent permanent Attack Speed.
One of the easiest ways to die as Pied Piper is getting too greedy to stop firing off Flute Notes for even a second, making dodging some attacks impossible. With this Talent, players can be greedy and still avoid deadly attacks.
Rats now spawn in groups of 3 instead of 2. Additionally, increases maximum controllable Rats from 20 to 26.
A huge part of Pied Piper’s potential damage comes from the burst damage from sending all of his rats in at once. With this Talent, players will get be able to utilize their rats more often and they’ll do more damage overall when sending the entire horde in.
Rank 4
Rats attacking within Special’s zone cannot die, and deal +20 percent more damage.
Requires some proper positioning and well-timed Trait activation, but exponentially increases the Pied Piper’s damage potential & utility.
Rank 7
Hitting at least one enemy with Defense spawns up to 4 rats, which immediately attack nearby enemies.
Most of the time players will always want to wait until max rat stacks before activating their Trait, and this Talent makes it easier to wait since they’ll still have little groups of rats attacking pretty often. Additionally, Pied Piper’s Defense is his best tool for accumulating Stagger, so players should already be using it near enemies all the time.
6Beowulf
Main Trait: Last Wyrm
Beowulf, while the most ‘simple’ character in the game to play, is also one of the better options and also a character that fits this game’s art style almost perfectly. The raw damage this character can put out when needed is staggering, and that’s not even including his Wyrm-enhanced versions.
Currently in the Early Access state of this game, Ignite stack damage scales of the attack stat, which makes almost all of his Ignite-based Upgrades a must-have. Just keep in mind that there are other great options and that Ignite’s scaling will very likely change over the course of the game’s development.
Rank 2
Blocking at least one attacking during Defense grants +1 Armor. Additionally (after completing its Quest) Wyrm Defense heals 50 percent more.
If utilized properly, Beowulf’s Defense can make him nearly impossible to kill, as the amount it heals even without this Talent is honestly pretty absurd. So, having a Talent that buffs this heal and gives Armor on top is a great choice.
Hitting 2 enemies with a single Wyrm ability grants +0.5 Damage. Additionally (after completing its Quest) Trait cooldown is -25 percent & Wyrm abilities deal +10 percent damage.
Beowulf is an incredible character, but he struggles to deal with outputting certain thresholds of damage in a short span of time (such as for Grimoire challenges). This Trait buffs his DPS enough to counteract that and allows players to utilize his Trait even more.
Wyrm breathes in a cone of fire during the finisher of Beowulf’s Attack string, dealing 200 percent damage and applying Ignite to enemies hit.
Ignite is a completely busted status effect when used properly, so giving Beowulf the ability to apply it with his basic attacks is a gigantic buff.
Activating Trait clears Power cooldown for all Heroes in the area and gives them 12 Shield for 6 seconds.
One of the only Support-oriented Talents Beowulf has, and one of the only Talents in the game that completely nullifies the cooldowns for allies. Absolutely incredible if used in a multiplayer session where players are communicating.
Rank 8
After hitting an enemy with Defense. Runes appear around Beowulf dealing 16 area damage per second for 5 seconds.
On any other Hero, this Talent would be situationally good at best. But because Beowulf is almost always in melee range with his opponents, this is actually an incredible Talent.
5The Snow Queen
Main Trait: Ice Crown
Calling the Snow Queen the ‘mage’ character ofRavenswatchmight seem appropriate at first glance, but it’s not entirely accurate. Almost all of her Icy abilities require her to get up close and personal with her enemies, and she’s much more centered around the Chilled Ailment than raw spell damage.
As a result of this, most of her best Upgrades are centered around making Chilled even better or acting on Chilled enemies even more punishing.
Using Snow Queen’s Trait will leave behind an Ice Clone that has 40 percent of her Max Health and attracts nearby enemies to it. The clone melts after 10 seconds or if enough damage has been done to it, when it is destroyed it deals 40 area damage and inflicts Chilled to any enemies hit.
Allows Ice Queen to utilize a lot of her stronger Talent combinations with longer startups or unsafe starting animations with her Ice Clone taunting all nearby enemies.
Frost generated by your abilities remains on the ground for 2 seconds. Chilled effects Slow enemies by an additional 20 percent.
On the higher difficulties, any amount of Slow is a massive benefit. And, the effect that keeps frost on the ground goes a long way in keeping enemies right where Frost Queen wants them.
Rank 3
Power can now be held to store up to 3 levels of charge before being released, with each charge increasing the damage health by 20 percent and the area of effect of Frost Blast by 10 percent.
When used alongside Ice Clone, it’s very rarely all that dangerous to charge up to the max charge level, meaning this just makes Snow Queen’s Power 60 percent more powerful and cover 30 percent more ground.
Trait grants 4 Shield for 6 seconds to all nearby Heroes for each enemy hit (up to 4 times)
The Snow Queen will be using her Trait constantly, so this just ends up being a fantastic Support option in Multiplayer that doesn’t really change how Snow Queen has to be played at all.
All abilities that deal extra damage to Chilled enemies deal an additional +20 percent extra damage.
The Snow Queen standard gameplay loop already revolves around trying to keep enemies constantly Chilled, so this ends up basically being a flat 20 percent damage buff.
4Aladdin
Main Trait: Jinniya of the Lamp
Let’s be frank here, Aladdin is pretty broken in terms of power with the current state ofRavenswatch. The sheer ability to instantly spawn multiple Magical Objects and tons of Dream Shards right as the game starts (especially if it’s a multiplayer lobby) is beyond overpowered.
So, any of the Upgrades that give him more Wishes or are related to them in any way are worth grabbing. Still, the rest of Aladdiin’s kit is also good, and the other Upgrade recommendations are mostly based on capitalizing on his maneuverability and the instant DPS of his Power ability.
Gaint +1 Trait Charge & Future Talents have a +15 percent chance of being Rare or higher.
Allows Aladdin to spawn 1 more item for his team right as the game starts & will also likely increase his build potential overall due to higher Rare Talent chances.
After they hit an enemy retrieving Special’s blades using Defense grants +1 Armor. Additionally (after completing the Quest) catching Special’s blades using Defense grants 12 Shield to all nearby Heroes for 6 seconds.
Aladdin has a lot of amazing Talents based around catching his Special’s blades, so players will already likely be doing this quite a bit. This way, performing an action they would already be performing often grants a support effect to nearby allies.
When retrieved, Special’s blades heal all nearby Heroes for each enemy hit with the blades for up to 7 Health.
Again, like with Aerial Catch, this just adds a great support effect to an action most Aladdin players would already be using often.
After regaining the blades from Aladdin’s Special, the next Attack used within two seconds will spin between 2 and 4 more times (depending on Enchantment), with each spin dealing 80 percent of the regular amount.
Increases the DPS of Aladdin’s basic attacks by quite a bit and is a Talent that will be triggered quite often.
Whenever you choose a Common, Rare, or Epic Magical Object, you have a 40/20/10 percent chance to get another copy of said Magical Object.
Getting even another Common Magical Object for free is a huge bonus in this game, let alone an extra Epic. Additionally, players will be getting quite a few Common Objects over the course of the run, giving this Talent plenty of chances to trigger.
3Melusine
Main Trait: Siren’s Call
Melusine is by far the most unique character in terms of play style, though there is an argument to be made that Geppetto is more unique. Regardless, her whole kit is built around this sort of ‘move, bunker down, deal damage, move again, repeat’ gameplay loop. So, a lot of her best Upgrades tend to utilize this play style in some way. Additionally, there are a few upgrades for Melusine that, when taken, make her by far the best Support option in Multiplayer, so those are a must-have as well when possible.
Melusine applies Weak to all enemies in the area of effect for three seconds when entering Sing Stance.
Playing Melusine in general requires going in and out of Sing Stance all the time, meaning this will be triggered almost constantly.
In Sing Stance, the ‘Interact’ input allows for quick teleportation to the Wisp’s location (with a 5-second cooldown). Doing this in combat will also heal 8 Health for all nearby Heroes
Takes a bit of getting used to, but once players do this Talent makes it even harder to catch Melusine while also buffing her Support potential.
After Defense is triggered, Melusine is surrounded by a bubble for 4 seconds, absorbing damage for one hit. The bubble then explodes and deals 60 area damage.
Taking even a stray hit in Darkness or Nightmare difficulty can literally one shot a player, so being able to tank a hit for free every 8 seconds is absurdly useful.
When in combat, passively heal 4 Health for all nearby Heroes every 5 seconds.
4 Health every 5 seconds doesn’t sound like a lot, but it stacks up pretty quickly. Also, this heal doesn’t require anything from the player, making it just an amazing passive effect.
When Melusine leaves Sing Stance, Wisp remains active and automatically attacks surrounding enemies up to 4 times before disappearing.
Again, Melusine will be going in and out of Sing Stance constantly, meaning this Talent (which has no cooldown by the way) will be triggering all the time. Plus, the time it takes for Melusine to reposition after exiting Sing Stance is almost always just as long or longer than the time it takes for Wisp to unleash these 4 attacks.
2Gepetto
Main Trait: Dummy
Both Geppetto and Sun Wukong were characters added toRavenswatchafter it originally came out in Early Access, with Gepetto coming out May 31st, 2023 and Sun Wukong coming out November 16th, 2023. Geppetto isa very unique Hero to unlock and play, as he is a ‘summon’ type character, but unlike most summon-type characters Geppetto is truly nothing without his summons (in this case, Dummies).
Gepetto’s core gameplay loop revolves around placing Dummies, using Power to launch them into the fray, letting the Dummies take aggro so Geppetto or his allies can get some safe hits in, and repeating that process. So with that in mind, Geppetto’s best Talent options usually revolve around making this gameplay loop even safer or adding more damage on top without much risk. Here are our personal picks for his strongest Talents overall:
Special creates a Dummy when it explodes and deals 155 percent damage. However, this has no effect if the maximum number of Dummies is already active.
On higher difficulties, Dummies are destroyed very quickly, so this ends up being triggered quite often.
5 seconds after their creation, Dummies become Unstable. If an Unstable Dummy is hit with Power, Dismantled, or Destroyed it explodes, dealing 80 area damage.
Basically just adds a bonus effect to Dummies being destroyed, so is generally seen as a big buff with no real downsides.
Dummies hit by Geppetto’s Attack immediately Attack at their current position, dealing 40 percent damage.
The general gameplay loop for Geppetto relies on constantly hitting Dummies to keep them alive so Geppetto can use Special to smash them into another enemy. This way, he’ll get extra benefit when keeping these Dummies alive.
Whenever a Dummy is destroyed, Geppetto and other Dummies gain Strength for 4 seconds.
Again, in higher difficulties, Dummies die very quickly, meaning this will be active during combat a lot of the time, basically meaning this Talent functions as 25 percent damage buff overall since the Strength buff gives +25 percent damage.
Holding Power allows Geppetto to pull in a Dummy in front of him, upon releasing Power, the Dummy that was pulled in deals +40 percent more damage across a 100 percent wider area.
This Talent takes some getting used to, but once players get the hang of it this increases the amount of damage Geppetto can deal from relative safety by an astronomical amount.
1Sun Wukong
Main Trait: Taiji
Sun Wukong inRavenswatchis the very definition of a high-risk, high-reward character. One of his two Stances, for example, causes him to take 100 percent more damage from enemies (in exchange for dealing 100 percent more damage as well). Thankfully, his other Stance is based around regaining any health lost, so he has a pretty well-tuned kit for keeping himself alive, provided he uses his Defense properly and knows when to go in and when to duck out.
In general, his best Talents are the ones that make his Stances even stronger, give him more survivability, or make it easier to clear the objectives on the map. To be more specific, these are the Talents we think are his strongest:
Swinging Stance increases the power of the new Stance for 7 seconds. For Yin Stance it gives +4 percent Life on Hit. For Yang Stance it gives +20 percent damage.
Sun Wukong players will need to switch Stances pretty often, and this incentivizes doing so more.
Obtaining a Magical Object with a Rare or higher quality grants Wukong +2 Damage. Additionally, Talent grants +100 Vitality (after completing its Quest) but nullifies all heals besides Hero heals and Magical Object Heals
The Healing Orb nullification is pretty rough but +100 Vitality is an absurd buff, plus the +2 Damage effect of picking up Rare or higher Magical Objects also stacks up quite a bit.
Bestows +10 percent permanent Move Speed. Additionally, Dash can now be held for up to 3 seconds to sprint at a high speed.
Ravenswatchgameplay is a race against time itself, so anything that allows players to traverse the map faster is a huge benefit. Sprint is maybe one of the strongest Talents in the game just due to how much it helps players get from A to B.
After Power hits at least 1 enemy, the next Attack can be held down to store power which is then released to unleash an energy beam dealing up to 220 percent Power damage to all enemies it passes through.
Gives Sun Wukong the Kamehameha, but more importantly gives him a ranged option that still deals a ton of damage, making this high-risk high-reward character a lot less high-risk.
At the start of each Day or Night reveal 2 points of interest on the map. Additionally, personal Dream Shard gains are buffed by 20 percent.
Just an absurdly useful Talent that makes Sun Wukong so much more impactful in a multiplayer session. Additionally, the Dream Shard bonus has a massive impact over the course of a single run.
