FATE – Gameplay Guide

Somewhat in depth tips and tricks to help you through the hardships thrown at you by FATE.

General Playthrough Tips

No matter what sort of character build you’re going for; fishing is a great way to make Gold both early and late into the game. Mainly because it can net you some “Artifact” weapons, either for use or to be identified and sold, seeing as Artifacts are a low chance to be caught and you can’t guarantee which one you catch, fishing shouldn’t be considered as a viable way to completely gear up your character, though, if you’re fishing for money and catch one that works for you then that’s great.

If you’re struggling to afford healing charms to progress further into the dungeon, fishing is a great way to earn a large amount of Gold relatively quickly as some Artifacts can sell for hundreds of thousands or even up to millions of Gold, generally, better Artifacts can be fished up the deeper in the dungeon you fish, however, fishing in Town seems to catch fairly good Artifacts regardless; personally, I’ve had items worth upwards of a million Gold from fishing in Town.

Some Artifacts have a minimum Dungeon level to be caught, however, so for some of the better and most pricey artifacts you’ll have to venture into the dungeon. You can also get Elite and Legendary versions of Artifacts, which are basically just the same item but with better stats, and therefore, a higher price. Some Artifacts have a maximum Dungeon level as well, meaning you can’t catch a crappy Handaxe Artifact at floor 50.

If the shops in Town (or in a dungeon floor) aren’t selling items to your liking you can save and exit then log back in, the items the merchant is selling will be different. This is useful if one of your pieces of gear is extremely outdated for your level and you need to replace it, or if you’re looking for specific gems that fit your build from “Jin the Seer” by the fountain in Town. It’s an incredibly useful thing to know about.

If you do have gems that are very useful to you but they’re stuck in an old item or you put the wrong gems in an item then remember that the two goblins in town “Samwen” and “Gann Gar” can help you out. Samwen will destroy gems and give you your item back; Gann Gar will destroy an item and give you your gems back. If you aren’t bothered by the loss of gold that you could have had from selling your item, this is a nice thing to remember. Though, using the save and exit trick above, it’s easy to get gems back anyway.

If playing on Legend, clear entire dungeon floors of enemies. The enemies will be almost double your level, they grant a lot of experience, clearing a floor rewards far more experience than just rushing the quest completions. You will need levels in Legend as enemies on Floor 40 will be Level 80+ and if you’ve rushed quests you’ll be level 25-30. From clearing floors, I often find that by Floor 50 my character is at least Level 50. Clearing floors gives your character a fighting chance.

Useful Townsfolk

Merchants

Getts the Traveller
Location: Near the Dungeon Door / Randomly found in the Dungeon
Found both in and out of the dungeon; Getts sells a random assortment of items. Some armor and weapons (sometimes with low quality enchants on them), a few spells, a few healing items, scrolls and a fishing pole. Always worth checking when you see him, can have some really nice items that you can enchant yourself.

Bartleby
Location: Near the Dungeon Door, North of Getts the Traveller’s location.
Bartleby sells Healing items primarily, also sells Town Portal Books and Identification Books as well as a Fishing Pole. Only ever worth checking if you run out of consumables.

Jin the Seer
Location: Next to the Fountain
Jin sells items for Magic mainly. Staves, some jewellery, gems and a lot of spells. She’s good to check if you’re a Magic build and looking for a new Staff or some spells you don’t have. She’s also worth checking for good gems for your build.

Dell Arness
Location: South of the Fountain
Dell sells various armors and weapons, some enchanted. Always worth checking for better Armor when you’re in town. 

Zim
Location: Southwest of the Fountain
Zim is a Gambler, he sells items at incredibly high prices but they have a good chance to have very good and very many enchants upon them, though, they can also be bad or even have negative effects. Zim is the place to spend your money if you have a lot of excess, if not, the other merchants are the way to go.

Pikko the Fisherman
Location: The Dungeon
Pikko is randomly found in the dungeon, he sells fish. He’s worth checking every time you find him as he can sell Flawless fish which can permanently change your pet’s form to something stronger. Don’t bother buying the fish below Flawless as once the duration of the transformation expires your pet will revert back to it’s default form. It’s not worth spending money on as your pet flees fairly quickly during combat, and your character tends to do significantly more damage than your pet anyway.

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Misc Townsfolk

Samwen
Location: Next to Dell Arness
Samwen will destroy the gems in your gear and return the gear to you; useful if you put the wrong gems in your gear and want them removed to put better ones in.

Gann Gar
Location: Next to Getts the Traveller
Gann Gar will destroy your gear and return the Gems to you; useful if you have very good or rare gems in your gear and want to remove them to put into a better piece of gear. The only downside is that you miss out on a lot of gold you could have gained from selling said item.

Rikko the Enchanter
Location: The Graveyard
Rikko will enchant your gear. He will either:
1. Give you one good effect,
2. Give you many good effects (once per item),
3. Give you bad effects,
4. Put Sockets in your gear,
5. Remove all of your item’s enchantments,
6. Do Nothing.
—– It seems that the single good effect is the most common, then sockets, then many good effects, then the bad effect and removing all enchantments are on a similar rarity. Nothing happening is also very common.
You’re more likely to benefit from Rikko’s services than not I believe.

Rollo the Minstrel
Location: West of the Fountain
Rollo will increase your Fame for a price. The price scales on your current Fame level, I.E. the higher your Fame level the higher the cost to level it up is.

Dreya the Healer
Location: Next to Rollo the Minstrel
Dreya will heal you. That’s it really.

Dungeon Events

Fate Statue
The Fate Statue can either drop 2 random gems or it can summon a Boss enemy that will attack you. I don’t believe that the gem you get is relevant to Dungeon Floor, though, it might me in some way.
It’s always beneficial to use the Fate Statue upon finding it, either you get two gems (which can also be Artifact quality) or you get to kill a boss and get XP as well as Fame. The Fate Statue has no potential downside and it’s probably best to always use it unless you’re low on consumables upon finding it.

Magic Anvil
Consider the Magic anvil as a free use of Rikko the Enchanter.
1. The item can either;
2. Gain a positive enchantment,
3. Gain many positive enchantments,
4. Gain a negative enchantment,
5. Gain socket(s),
6. Be Disenchanted,
Nothing happens.
—– I feel like the odds of negative effects or nothing happening are greater on the Magic Anvil than they are on Rikko the Enchanter.

Shrine of Learning
The Shrine of Learning will either:
1. Increase a main stat by a small amount.
2. Decrease a main stat by a small amount.
3. Nothing happens.

Mimics and Cursed Swords
Opening a Small Chest can summon a Cursed Sword, they have significantly high resistances making it hard for Magic based characters to kill them, Melee characters clap them though.
Opening a Large Chest can cause said chest to become a Mimic and attack the player; killing the Mimic just drops similar loot to what the Large Chest normally would have dropped.

Traps
Breaking Barrels, Urns and other breakables can lead to being hit by a Fire Trap or a Poison Trap. The Fire Trap deals minimal damage but the Poison Trap can be a pain. After a certain point, breaking all the Barrels and Urns you see isn’t really worth the risk of being Poisoned.

Dangerous Enemies

There are many dangerous enemies found within the dungeon, but there are various reasons why they can be dangerous.

Hard Hitters
Ogre (And Variants)
Orc (And Variants)
Giant (And Variants)
Shrike (And Variants)
Yeti (And Variants
Green Dragon
Frost Dragon
Thunder Dragon
Venom Dragon
Zombies

Lots of enemies can end up hitting really hard depending on the weapon they’re holding. Bugbears, Dark Taurus, Wereboars, Jackal Fiends and even the likes of Devilkin can deal some hefty damage depending on the weapons they have. So watch out!

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Poisoners
Diseased Centipede
Venomous Wyvern
Spindly Creeper
Noxious Gel
Vile Tarantula
Chittering Horror
Venom Dragon
Widow Queen
Widowling

Various other enemies such as Wraiths, Ghosts and other casters can poison with a poison cloud spell, this spell is usually can’t be dodged so it’s worth focusing casters in a big fight. Poison Cloud only seems to be used in deeper levels of the dungeon, I can’t pinpoint the level it starts being used, but it becomes increasingly common. Many bosses will have a Poison Cloud spell too.

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Casters
Lich
Wraith
Ghost
Spectre
Dark Phantom
Vampire
Tomb Wizard
Goblin Shaman
Bugbear Captain
Zombie King
Nosferatu
Jackal Fiend Captain
Jackal Fiend Backstabber
Swamp Sorceress
Archfiend and Demon
Various types of Zombie/Shambler

These enemies can cast spells such as summons, debuffs, dispells and general damaging spells.
Many boss enemies, regardless of which monster they were originally, can also cast these spells.

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Reflectors
Wraith
Ghost
Spectre
Dark Phantom
Goblin Shaman

Reflectors are a pain for Melee characters, Reflect is a spell that just reflects a good portion of the damage you deal to a target. It’s obvious as the enemy has a big Hex shield around them, however, on deeper floors of the dungeon it’s inefficient to wait for the Reflect to expire. Just watch your health when hitting these guys.

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Resistors
Cursed Sword
Elementals
Elemental Beetles
Element Based monsters (such as Frost Dragon)

Resistors are resistant to elemental attacks, making them troublesome for Attack Magic users. The Cursed Sword is a huge problem as it’s fairly resistant to all elements, the Magic Elemental is the same. Enemies resistant to one element shouldn’t be an issue as an Attack Magic Caster should have spells of varying elements.

Regular Gems

Before we get in to Builds, I’m going to list Gems and their effects here so I don’t have to explain every single one featured in every single build.

Ruby
Cracked: +8% Fire Resistance to Armor / +2 Fire Damage to Weapon
Standard: +24% Fire Resistance to Armor / +6 Fire Damage to Weapon
Superior: +40% Fire Resistance to Armor / +10 Fire Damage to Weapon

Turquoise
Cracked: +8% Electrical Resistance to Armor / +2 Electrical Damage to Weapon
Standard: +24% Electrical Resistance to Armor / +6 Electrical Damage to Weapon
Superior: +40% Electrical Resistance to Armor / +10 Electrical Damage to Weapon

Opal
Cracked: +8% Ice Resistance to Armor / +2 Ice Damage to Weapon
Standard: +24% Ice Resistance to Armor / +6 Ice Damage to Weapon
Superior: +40% Ice Resistance to Armor / +10 Ice Damage to Weapon

Sunstone
Cracked: +8% Fire Resistance to Armor / +2 Damage to Undead on Weapon
Standard: +24% Fire Resistance to Armor / +6 Damage to Undead on Weapon
Superior: +40% Fire Resistance to Armor / +10 Damage to Undead on Weapon

Tanzanite
Cracked: +2 Stamina
Standard: +6 Stamina
Superior: +10 Stamina

Sapphire
Cracked: +2 Mana Recovery
Standard: +6 Mana Recovery
Superior: +10 Mana Recovery

Amethyst
Cracked: +2 HP Recovery
Standard: +6 HP Recovery
Superior: +10 HP Recovery

Bloodstone
Cracked: +2 Damage Dealt Bonus
Standard: +6 Damage Dealt Bonus
Superior: +10 Damage Dealt Bonus

Topaz
Cracked: +2% Hit Chance 
Standard: +6% Hit Chance
Superior: +10% Hit Chance

Lapis
Cracked: +3% Faster Casting Speed
Standard: +7% Faster Casting Speed
Superior: +10% Faster Casting Speed

Jade
Cracked: +5% Attack Speed Bonus
Standard: +10% Attack Speed Bonus
Superior: +15% Attack Speed Bonus

Tourmaline
Cracked: +2% Damage Reflected to Enemy
Standard: +6% Damage Reflected to Enemy
Superior: +10% Damage Reflected to Enemy

Zircon
Cracked: +5% Change of Finding Magical Items
Standard: +10% Change of Finding Magical Items
Superior: +15% Change of Finding Magical Items

Peridot
Cracked: +1% Life Stolen on Hit
Standard: +3% Life Stolen on Hit
Superior: +6% Life Stolen on Hit

Obsidian
Cracked: +1 Knockback
Standard: +2 Knockback
Superior: +4 Knockback

Artifact Gems

All Artifact Gems are hard to come by. They can be caught from fishing and pried from FATE Statues.
I believe they can be found in chests too, possibly found on the floor randomly or dropped.
Artifact Gems only have one quality, therefore they’ll have the same stats every time you find them.

Adamantine Bauble
Adds 12% Crushing Resistance
Increases Damage Taken by 7%

Andrew Swift’s Turquoise Eye
Adds 10% Movement Speed to Character
Adds 20% Electrical Resistance to Armor

Avaricious Pearl
20% More Gold Dropped by Enemies
40% Greater Chance of Finding Magical Items

Angel Heart
Adds 12% Life to HP
Grants +4HP Recovery
10% Attack Damage Penalty

Beastheart
12% Attack Damage Bonus
Grants +2HP Recovery
Critical Strike Skill increased by 5

The Covetous Heart
12% Greater Chance of Finding Magical Items
Item’s equip requirements reduced by 5%

The Daystar
Adds 48% Fire Resistance to Armor / Adds +12 Damage to Undead to Weapon
3 Mana drained per second
Adds 3 Knockback

Demonocchio
Adds 7% Life Stolen on Hit
+7 to Magic Attack Skill

Dwarf’s Delight
25% More Gold Dropped by Enemies
+6 to Hammer Skill

Empire Stone
+5% Strength
+5% Dexterity
+5% Vitality

Eye of the Serpent
12% Mana Stolen on Hit
+10 Mana Recovery per second
Reduces Movement Speed by 5%

Fist of Samson
Damage Dealt increased by 7%
+10 Strength
-10 Magic

Gem of Ages
+30% Fire Resistance to Armor
+30% Ice Resistance to Armor

Hadrian’s Crystal
+20 Attack Damage Bonus
Polearm Skill increased by 5
Damage Taken reduced by 5

Philosopher’s Stone
+5 Magic
Mana increased by 5%
Stamina reduced by 5%

Salt of the Earth
+30% Electrical Resistance to Armor
+5 Vitality

Secret of the Master
Dual-Wielding Skill increased by 5
Attack Damage increased by 7%
Defense reduced by 3%

Star Sapphire of Ages
+9 Mana recovered per second
Defence Magic Skill increased by 5

Watcher of the Stars
Block Chance increased by 7%
Defence Magic Skill increased by 5

Trickster’s Bauble
Attack Speed increased by 9%
9% of Damage taken reflected to Enemy

Wicked Edge
Axe Skill increased by 7
Damage Dealt increased by 10%
Life reduced by 10%

Winter’s Moon
Mana increased by 9%
Charm Magic Skill increased by 5

Melee Builds and Defense Magic

Defense Magic
No matter the melee build, I always recommend Defense Magic. Despite being called Defense Magic, it can be seen as Offense Magic for Melee builds; 
“Dervish” Increases your Attack Speed by 80% for 10 seconds, the duration of which is increased by 2 seconds for every skill point you put into Defense Magic.
“Battle Fog” Increases your Attack Rating by 100% (doubles your hit chance) for 10 seconds while reducing your Defense Rating by 25% for 10 seconds, the duration of both is increased by 2 seconds for every point in Defense Magic.
Reflection Reflects 20% of damage taken to the enemy for 10 seconds, the duration is increased by 2 seconds for every point in Defense Magic.
Ringing Blast knocks back enemies from the caster, meaning if you are surrounded you can escape easily. It deals a small amount of damage, however, the damage is practically negligible and not worth listing.
Fear causes a target to flee from you, with 0 points in Defense Magic, you can make a level 5 target flee, the level of the target you can Fear is increased by 1 for every Defense Magic skill point. This spell is borderline useless at higher game difficulties as enemies will be double your level or more and would require you to have an obscene amount of skill points in Defense Magic.
Greater Heal is a nice spell if you don’t have much Life Stolen on Hit on your equipment, a 40HP heal (+3HP for every Defense Magic Skill Point) Of course, Minor Heal is viable too, however, it becomes useless upon unlocking Greater Heal.
Spectral Armor is situational as it reduces your damage taken but reduces your damage dealt, this isn’t exactly ideal for a Dual-Wield build as you can’t really afford to tank for too long.

All of these spells are incredibly useful offensively, depending on your build, you can just tank the damage and mow down your enemies in no time.

Spells I would personally avoid are;
Resist Lightning
Resist Fire
Resist Ice

These spells increase respective resistances to 75% for 10 seconds (duration increased by 2 seconds for every Defense Magic Point), if you’re having trouble with damage taken from elemental spells, just go for resistance gems over resistance spells.
Group Heal Spells are borderline useless unless you’re going for a melee + charm magic build, however, I truly believe Defense Magic combos with Melee far better than Charm Magic as all Defense Magic does is provide a significant DPS boost whereas Charm Magic provides Summons which get in the way of the player more often than not. The summons you get from Charm Magic aren’t very good anyway as you’d have to invest a significant amount of points into Magic rather than Strength, Dexterity or Vitality.
As well as this, healing your pet is rarely worth doing as it just gets focused and starts to flee again rather quickly, taking Group Heal to heal your pet is likely an even worse idea than using your consumables on your pet.

Melee Builds and “Flinching”

Flinching
Flinching is where you move in to attack and move out as quick as possible, depending on the enemy’s attack speed, you can avoid being hit all together. It’s useful against enemies that pack a punch and make you run through consumables like they’re nothing. 

Flinching is also useful to take out large packs of enemies at a slower pace as you can take out one at a time while reducing hits taken, the likelihood of flinching a large pack flawlessly is fairly low, though, you’ll go through far less consumables than you would have.

Some enemies are significantly harder to flinch than others, examples being Ogres and Beetles. They have fairly high attack speed and therefore can get attacks in if you aren’t quick and precise with your Flinching.
Increased Knockback can help with flinching, however, I tend to avoid Knockback enchants and gems where I can. Movement Speed increase also helps.

Melee – Dual Wield

Dual-Wielding
Dual-Wielding as a melee character has the highest DPS of all melee builds, though, it doesn’t have the benefit of blocking like a One-Hand + Shield combo would. Your right hand deals 75% of normal damage and your left hand deals 50% of normal damage, however, putting your skill points into Dual-Wielding increases the damage rating of both significantly (around +2% at first, decreasing exponentially).
Investing in Critical Strike is also a good idea, however, don’t have it take priority over Dual-Wielding Skill, Critical Strikes deal double the damage as the hit would have if it was not a critical hit, having some points in Critical Strike can decrease the time it takes to take out dangerous enemies.

With Dual-Wielding; I’d invest points in Magic up to the point where you acquire “Battle Fog” and “Dervish” (see the Defense Magic section above to see the spell’s effects). Attack Speed is a significant DPS boost for Melee characters; and flat increased Attack Hit Chance obviously increases DPS anyway. On your way to getting these spells, you may as well get Ringing Blast well as Fear, Fear being far more situational as you have to take time out of dealing damage to Fear a foe (plus it isn’t usable on higher difficulties realistically. Ringing Blast will save you many times.

Seeing as you don’t have the block skill that you’d gain from a Shield; the flinching tactic is good to include in your gameplay. If you come across a group that hits too hard then flinching is a viable technique to avoid getting instantly killed, for example, a group of 6 Ogres could likely oneshot you, so flinching them down over time would have you avoid being hit as often. Being swarmed while using a Dual-Wield build can be the end of you.

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Skills to Distribute Points into:
Strength +++
Dexterity ++
Vitality ++
Magic +
Weapon of Choice Skill +++
Dual-Wield ++
Critical Strike +
Defense Magic +

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Gems to Prioritise:
Jade
Peridot
Demonocchio (Artifact)
Secret of the Master (Artifact)
Wicked Edge (Artifact) (if dual-wielding axes)
Hadrian’s Crystal (Artifact) (if dual-wielding polearms)

Situational Gems:
Ruby, Turquoise, Opal, Sunstone – For their respective resistances if you’re having trouble with incoming elemental damage.
Topaz – A flat DPS increase, not as good as Jade for DPS, but a good alternative.
Trickster’s Bauble (Artifact) – A combination of Jade and Tourmaline, basically a worse Jade as you don’t really need damage reflection.
Empire Stone (Artifact) – A Flat DPS increase, but wouldn’t take over Jade or Peridot
Watcher of the Stars (Artifact) – Defense magic duration boost and block chance increase, useful if you do happen to take Defense magic.
Star Sapphire of Ages (Artifact) Defense magic duration boost, other effect makes it a worse Watcher of the Stars really.
Andrew Swift’s Turquoise Eye (Artifact) – Useful if you want movement speed, personally wouldn’t take it.
Fist of Samson (Artifact) – Decreases Magic but increases Strength and Damage Dealt. A great gem if you don’t plan on using Magic.

Gems to Avoid
Obsidian – Knockback practically halves your DPS.
Bloodstone – Damage Dealt is a worse stat than Jade, it’s alright, but there’s so many better gems.
Tourmaline – You’re not tanky so don’t take damage reflection.
Amethyst – Peridot heals you so Amethyst is useless.
Lapis – Cast speed increase, don’t need it as you’re not a magic build.
The Daystar (Artifact) – Basically a Sunstone but it adds knockback, don’t bother.

All the other Gems and Artifact Gems just aren’t relevant to the build and therefore I haven’t included them.

Melee – 1H + Shield

Shield Battle
When wearing a shield and having points invested in the Shield Battle Skill; you have a chance to block attacks. Getting your block rate to >20% will reduce a significant amount of damage taken from large groups.

With reflect damage taken on your gear and the Reflect spell in the Defense Magic tree, you can also do a significant amount of reflect damage when fighting larger groups. Melee builds can only focus one enemy at once, so waning the rest down in the mean time with Reflect is useful. Reflect is viable on Shield builds as you’re far tankier than your Dual-Wield or Two-Handed counterparts.

Critical Strike is also viable in a 1H-Shield build, however, prioritise DPS and survivability with this build over Critical Strike. “Dervish”, “Battle Fog” and “Ringing Blast” are also viable and ideal in this build as the first two are straight DPS boosters and Ringing Blast is a life saver.

I recommend a 1H-Shield build for Legend Difficulty as most other Melee builds will have a harder time. You can tank far more with this build than others, plus, your damage is still very good. The only issue is hit rate on the higher level enemies, but any melee build will have this issue. You also still have “Flinching” in your arsenal if you need to use it.

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Skills to Distribute Points into:
Strength +++
Dexterity ++
Vitality ++
Magic +
Weapon of Choice Skill +++
Shield Battle Skill ++
Critical Strike +
Defense Magic +

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Gems to Prioritise:
Trickster’s Bauble (Artifact)
Jade
Demonocchio (Artifact)
Peridot
Topaz
Watcher of the Stars

Situational Gems:
Ruby, Turquoise, Opal and Sunstone – for their respective resistances.
Gem of Ages (Artifact)
Andrew Swift’s Turquoise Eye (Artifact)
Tourmaline – if you find reflect damage to be viable
Beastheart (Artifact)

Gems to Avoid
Obsidian – knockback is still terrible, dps decrease
Dwarf’s Delight – sounds good for hammer users on paper, but isn’t really
Fist of Samson – you’ll really want defensive magic on this build, not worth the magic penalty

Melee – Polearm

Polearm Combat
Polearms have two attacks, the lunge and the swing. The lunge generally happens when you’re not close enough to swing, you hit monsters at a longer range than the swing, though, your character seems to be unable to cancel the attack and therefore cant move while doing so. The lunge takes longer to hit. The swing is basically a regular, close range melee attack.

Polearms have the longest range of the melee weapons, due to their attack patterns; polearms are great to flinch with. The only melee build I feel Knockback is useful on is polearms as you can deal high, consistent damage with singular lunges and stay out of most monster’s melee range, this means that with a decent amount of attack speed you can consistently keep a small group of monsters at bay.

Personally, I like a small amount of Knockback on my gear, whether that be through enchantments or an Obsidian gem.

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Skills to Distribute Points into:
Strength +++
Dexterity +++
Vitality ++
Polearm Skill +++
Critical Strike +

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Gems to Prioritise:
Jade – Attack speed is always great on melee builds.
Peridot – Reduces the amount of healing consumables needed, life stolen on hit.
Obsidian – Knockback seems more useful on polearm builds.
Demonocchio (Artifact) – A better Peridot.
Beastheart (Artifact) – Increases attack damage and gives you critical strike, good dps increase.
Empire Stone (Artifact) – Increases both Strength and Dexterity as well as Vitality by 5%
Fist of Samson (Artifact) – Magic penalty isn’t bad with this build.
Hadrian’s Crystal (Artifact) – Reduces damage taken, increases polearm skill and increases attack damage, flat dps increase.

Situational Gems:
The Daystar – Knockback, mana drain isnt an issue on this build.

Gems to Avoid
Ruby, Turquoise, Opal, Sunstone – Shouldn’t really need resistances so much here.

Other gems aren’t worth mentioning.

Magic – Attack Magic

Attack Magic
Attack Magic is extremely powerful in FATE, your power increasing exponentially throughout the course of a playthrough. It allows high damage single target and AoE attacks as well as some debuffs. Though, not many of your debuffs are that useful unless you’re planning on incorporating some sort of melee into your build. Spells such as Web and Slow are nice, it allows you to cast far more often while kiting, plus, the duration of the Web and Slow are increased as you level your Attack Magic Skill. Each point in Attack Magic also increases the damage of your spells considerably.

I recommend investing in spells that deal a variety of damage, as there are enemies with partial and complete resistance to certain elements; so if you’re primarily using Meteor Strike (Fire) you’re going to want Lightning Storm (Lightning) as a counterpart unless there’s an enemy you can’t kill.
I also recommend investing partially into Stave Skill in case you come across enemies which are resistant to all of your spells as your staff melee attacks will actually deal noticeable damage, having Stave skill is borderline necessary against enemies such as Elementals.

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Skills to Distribute Points into:
Magic +++
Vitality +
Attack Magic Skill +++
Critical Strike ++
Stave Skill +

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Gems to Prioritise:
Lapis – This is basically the Jade of melee builds, you can get your spells off far faster, thus, being a flat DPS increase.
Topaz – Increases your hit chance. Basically, you’ll hit more often. A nice gem all around.
Beastheart (Artifact) – A flat damage boost, also increases Critical Strike chance.
Demonocchio (Artifact) – Increases Attack Magic by 7 points.
Philosopher’s Stone (Artifact) – Increases Magic by 5 points, also increases max mana by 5%.

Situational Gems:
Ruby, Turquoise, Opal, Sunstone – You may have trouble with other casters and could use resistances.
Winter’s Moon (Artifact) – Increases mana by 9%, nice if you have mana issues.

Gems to Avoid
Sapphire – Mana recovers fairly quickly already, so I don’t think Sapphires are too useful.
Star Sapphire of Ages (Artifact) – Basically a Sapphire that increases Defense Magic too.
Fist of Samson (Artifact) – Reduces Magic by 10, the 7% damage increase might be tempting, but it’s not worth it. You’ll likely end up dealing less damage.

Magic – Charm Magic / Charm-Attack Hybrid

Charm Magic
Charm Magic builds are probably the easiest build to complete the game with. You basically summon things and let them do the work for you. The only thing you need to be worried about is enemies that can dispell you. You can summon creatures then out range dispell by running away, I believe dispell has to be cast on the summoner so your creatures should be able to get damage in.

Charm Magic also goes hand in hand with Attack Magic. You can invest in Charm Magic to the point where your summons take a good while to die then invest into Attack Magic (or do both simultaneously of course) and then enemies will die faster. The only downside is that casters can still quiet you (drain your mana) meaning you can’t attack anyway. Out ranging casters is very possible and should be done. 
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Skills to Distribute Points into:
Magic +++
Vitality +
Charm Magic +++
Attack Magic ++ (if hybrid)
Critical Strike + (if hybrid)

I don’t think Summons can crit. Correct me if I’m wrong

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Pure Charm
Gems to Prioritise:
Lapis – Casting speed increase, can get summons out faster.
Philosopher’s Stone (Artifact) – Magic and Mana increase.
Winter’s Moon (Artifact) – Increases Mana and Charm Magic Skill.

Situational Gems:
Ruby, Turquoise, Opal, Sunstone – Resistances if you need them.
Eye of the Serpent (Artifact) – Adds mana per second, allows you to steal 12% of your mana when you hit something but reduces your speed by 5%. Not really that useful, but is nice in a small number of situations.

Gems to Avoid
Peridot – Summons can’t lifesteal for you.
Sapphire – Mana Recovery isn’t good, you recover it fairly quickly anyway.
Fist of Samson (Artifact) – Reduces Magic by 10 while adding no real benefits.
Beastheart (Artifact) – I don’t believe the attack damage bonus applies to summons.

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Hybrid
Gems to Prioritise:
Lapis – Casting Speed increase
Topaz – Increased chance to hit for your attack magic spells.
Demonocchio (Artifact) – Increases Attack Magic Skill by 7.
Philosopher’s Stone (Artifact) – Magic and Mana Capacity increased.
Winter’s Moon (Artifact) – Increases Mana Capacity and Charm Magic Skill.

Situational Gems:
Ruby, Turquoise, Opal, Sunstone – Resistances if you need them.
Eye of the Serpent (Artifact) – Might be more useful than a Pure Charm build here as you are casting far more spells and may run out of mana in an extended fight.

Gems to Avoid
Sapphire
Star Sapphire of Ages (Artifact)
Fist of Samson (Artifact) – Reduces Magic by 10.

Magic/Melee – Charm Magic / Melee Hybrid

Basically a Spellsword but actually good
The idea of this build is that you don’t sit back and let your summons do everything. Your summons function as your tank and your main source of damage is your melee attacks. Seeing as you’re relying on your summons tanking for you, you should probably use a polearm or dual-wield. A polearm would mean the chance of aggro switching is reduced as you’re at a slightly longer range than your summons, dual-wielding would mean your dps is higher.

Ideally, you’ll invest into Charm Magic to the point where your summons are tanky enough to survive long, then the rest of your points go into the melee based skills. So you’re prioritising Strength over Magic, I’d invest in Magic to the point where you get Shrikes as they’re very tanky, then go all in on Strength and a bit of Dexterity/Vitality. Keep investing in Charm Magic so your Shrikes continue to grow stronger while also investing into your melee skills.

Basically, prioritise your Melee skill progression over your Magic progression.

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Skills to Distribute Points into:
Strength +++
Magic ++
Dexterity +
Vitality +
Weapon of Choice Skill +++
Charm Magic ++
Dual-Wield ++ (if not polearm)
Critical Strike +

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Gems to Prioritise:
Jade – Attack Speed
Lapis – Casting Speed
Topaz – Hit Chance as you’re less invested into Dexterity than a regular Melee build.
Secret of the Master (Artifact) – Dual Wield and Attack Damage Increased.
Winter’s Moon (Artifact) – Charm Magic and Mana Increase.
Artifact Gems that increase respective Weapon Skills.

Situational Gems:
Ruby, Turquoise, Opal, Sunstone – For respective Resistances.
Peridot – Lifesteal
Fist of Samson (Artifact) – +10 Strength -10 Magic 7% Damage Increase. Technically, it balances out the point distribution, but I still wouldn’t go for it.
Philosopher’s Stone – Magic Increase, but may not be worth taking up a slot.

Gems to Avoid
Obsidian – Knockback bad!
Empire Stone (Artifact) – I wouldn’t say it’s worth taking up a slot for it’s bonuses.
Demonocchio (Artifact) – Don’t need life steal as much in this build.

Retiring, Descendants and Heirlooms

Upon defeating the main boss of the game, return to Bremen, the Wizard outside of the gate. You’ll get the rewards for defeating the main boss and unlock the option to retire your character and make a Descendant.

Creating a Descendant WILL MAKE YOUR CURRENT CHARACTER UNPLAYABLE
I’m not sure whether retiring means you aren’t able to carry over your character to the next FATE game, as I tend not to retire characters that I want to carry over.

The benefit of retiring a character is that you can pass an item (Heirloom) down to your next character, it’s enchantments will be drastically increased and sometimes some will be added. 
I recommend using a necklace or ring as your heirloom as you can equip it on any build, it’s not really worth passing down a powerful weapon when they won’t be able to use it for the majority of the game or even at all depending on your next character’s build.

I’m also not sure whether negative effects on an item are removed, reduced or even amplified upon making it into an heirloom as I’ve never actually passed down an item with negative effects. If you know, let me know!

Missing Builds and Closure

There are many builds that I haven’t included because they’re just straight up not viable. Some may work, but are just extremely inefficient.

I haven’t included Attack Magic + Melee Hybrids as the build basically halves one of your attack styles. You can’t cast spells and swing your weapon at the same time, basically resulting in halved DPS. This wouldn’t be too big of a problem on lower difficulties, but you’ll get shafted or take far longer to complete the game on Legend than with a normal build.

Ranged / Pure Dexterity builds are pretty terrible too, bows and crossbows are painfully underpowered, nothing really combos with them well bar Charm Magic, but you’d be better off with Melee or Attack Magic to go along with Charm Magic.

There’s also a bunch of joke builds which I could have included, but I’d rather keep the theme of the guide somewhat serious. So if you want joke builds I can make another guide on them at some point.

If there’s anything else you’d like me to include in the guide or need some sort of help, let me know.
At the end of the day, FATE really isn’t that hard with a decent build.

Helena Stamatina
About Helena Stamatina 1520 Articles
I love two things in life, games and sports. Although sports were my earliest interest, it was video games that got me completely addicted (in a good way). My first game was Crash Bandicoot (PS1) from the legendary studio Naughty Dog back in 1996. I turned my passion for gaming into a job back in 2019 when I transformed my geek blog (Re-actor) into the gaming website it is today.

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