As a Remnant 2 enthusiast with over 200 hours played, I‘ve extensively researched, tested and optimized traits for pushing the absolute limits. In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll be elucidating the intricate trait system to help you assemble truly god-tier builds.
Anatomy of Traits – Categories and Character Enhancements
Before selecting traits, it‘s vital to understand their different classifications and combat improvements afforded:
Core Traits: Available to all classes, these make up the backbone for basic survival and efficiency. Core traits increase health, stamina, mod power generation etc.
Archetype Traits: Specialize based on your chosen class (archetype), enhancing specific combat capabilities. For example, Engineers get a trait to boost armor while Hunters improves weapon range.
Unlockable Traits: These require fulfilling certain conditions like defeating bosses or completing events. Unlockable traits provide unique effects not found in the core or archetype pools.
Now let‘s explore some of the most game-changing traits across all categories for pushing your prowess to the absolute bleeding edge!
Vigor – The True Juggernaut
Vigor reinforces your health pool, gaining +3 HP per level up to a whopping +30 bonus at max. This fortifies your ability to survive devastating enemy attacks and environmental hazards.
During my Nightmare difficulty playthroughs, I witnessed Vigor‘s life-saving potential first-hand. The colossal HP increase allowed recovering from blows that would have otherwise instantly gibbed my characters.
On certain demanding boss encounters with rapid flurries of attacks, Vigor enabled enduring the onslaughts long enough to regen health with lifesteal. This turned the tide and secured wins that would have been impossible otherwise.
I strongly recommend immediately maximizing Vigor – it complements any playstyle and is non-negotiable for conquering the most brutal challenges.
Vigor Build Synergy Examples
The Behemoth:
Vigor + Fortify + Endurance
This combo transforms you into a walking tank, meant to directly absorb every bit of punishment enemies can dish out. It enables a fearless point-blank playstyle wading through multitudes while shrugging off their desperate attacks.
The Paladin:
Vigor + Spirit + Burden of the Gambler
By accelerating mod generation, Spirit combos extremely well with defensive mods like Veil of the Black Tear. Burden of the Gambler pushes this further for faster uptime, enabling near invincibility.
The Predator:
Vigor + Endurance + Barkskin
Here maximum HP stacks with mobility and damage resistance, awarding aggression. You swiftly maneuver into the fray, able to endure incoming attacks as you claim your prey.
Fortify – Impenetrable Defender
The Engineer archetype trait Fortify bolsters armor bonus by 10 per level up to 50% at max. This directly builds on the class‘s defensive theme, transforming you into an impenetrable shield against even the most violent enemy barrages.
During my initial playthroughs, I struggled with Engineers feeling too fragile when confronting high-damage foes without adequate Vigor investment. However, upon unlocking Fortify and pouring points in, the entire experience changed.
My armor‘s damage negation skyrocketed through the roof, enabling laughing off deadly chains of attacks. This complete inversion of vulnerability into near-invincibility exemplifies Fortify‘s incredible potential.
I highly recommend Engineers prioritize this game-changing trait earlier on. It vastly multiplies their signature resilience and enables a hard-hitting, relentless playstyle.
Armor Interactions
Let‘s analyze how exactly Fortify impacts your armor‘s protection:
Damage Calculation:
Incoming Damage – (Armor Rating x (1 + Fortify Bonus))
For example at +50% Fortify with 300 Armor:
100 Damage – (300 x (1 + 0.5)) = 100 Damage – 450 Reduced = 0
This demonstrates how Fortify scales current armor into sheer impregnability. Dumping points here is every Engineer‘s path to glory!
Endurance – The True Demon
This Core trait elevates maximum stamina by +3 per level up to +30. The resultant boost enables extensive sprinting, dodging, melee combos and skill usage without draining your gas tank so quickly.
During my Nightmare run centerpiece boss battles boasting relentless aggression, Endurance allowed relentless parkouring around the arenas while shredding with close-quarters weapons. Without exhausting stamina pools, I effortlessly baited out and evaded attacks before closing back in.
This kind of non-stop assault creates immense pressure on enemies, showcasing Endurance‘s offensive prowess. Adding mobility buffs like Evade Extender or Swiftness can push this even further for untouchable devastation machines!
I consider Endurance universally useful for almost any conceivable playstyle. The fluidity enabled by virtually endless stamina opens up possibilities for both defensive evasion and reckless offense.
Endurance Build Synergy Examples
The Sanguine Slayer:
Endurance + Blood Font + Savagery
Here the goal is enabling a braindead aggro dump up close while sustaining with constant health siphons. Never stopping to catch your breath amidst the crimson whirlwind!
The Untouchable:
Endurance + Mobility + Evade Extender
This combination achieves complete evasion dominance, allowing outrageous repositioning and reactions. No ranged or melee threat can touch you with such freedom of movement!
The Black Tornado:
Endurance + Black Tear Mod + Cleaving Whirlwind
Demon Mode + Cleaving Whirlwind drains chunks of stamina. However, with surplus pools, you temporarily become the very human embodiment of a violent vortex!
Burden of the Gambler – Risk vs Reward
Burden accelerates mod generation but disables sprint/dodge until you discharge mods w/ power attacks. This engineers a very aggressive, high-risk playstyle banking on quickly unleashing your newly-gained abilities for survival.
Despite the apparent downside, I discovered tremendous potential with Burden by learning to weaponize the enforced aggression it cultivates. The key lies in adapting a quickswap playstyle coupled with defensive mods that minimize incoming damage.
For example, I fused Burden with the Black Tear armor mod on my Gunslinger. This constantly refilled shields upon discharging shotgun blasts, neutralizing vulnerability windows in-between. During intense boss battles, Burden enabled near-constant uptime of Black Tear‘s protective barrier as I furiously blasted away.
Make no mistake – Burden necessitates adequate mastery for survival by banking vulnerabilities into offensive incentives. But its unmatched snowball potential makes this a worthy gamble indeed!
Suggested Burden Builds
Black Tear Tank:
Burden + Black Tear + Spirit
Constant shield restoration while aggressively discharging mods refunds durability expended. Allows extremely risky maneuvers.
Icicle Storm:
Burden + Ice Spear + Spirit
Rapid icicle discharge impales enemies in succession while buffing defenses. Sustains a ruthless frozen siege!
Flamethrower:
Burden + Firestorm + Endurance
Unleashing incinerating weapon mods builds vulnerability stacks on crowds of enemies. High stamina preserves mobility while channeling flames!
Exploiter – Punishing Weakpoints
Exploiter intensifies weakspot damage by a monumental 50% at max rank. This enables assassinating virtually any enemy by targeting thinly-armored vulnerabilities.
I relied heavily on Exploiter for my Hunter builds to clinically eliminate threats from extreme distances. The colossal weakpoint damage buff allowed one-shot obliterating unaware enemies before they could react.
Against imposing Elite enemies and bosses, Exploiter enabled systematically deconstructing them by repeatedly blowing their armor chunks off. Within moments, they degraded into half-naked, utterly defenseless punching bags ripe for execution!
Surgically exploiting vulnerabilities with boosted precision damage can hard-carry almost any build to success. I consider Exploiter a must-have for those favoring stealthy, cunning, or ranged playstyles.
Suggested Exploiter Builds
Hawkeye Assassin:
Exploiter + Equilibrium + Hunter‘s Bow
Maximizes bow weakpoint damage for long distance surgical kills. With precise aim, no target survives!
Anti-Material Expert:
Exploiter + Max Rifling + Particle Accelerator
Obliterates foes with crit-stacked antimaterial rifle rounds penetrating straight into vital organs. Visceral devastation!
Soulft Leech:
Exploiter + Soul Anchor + Song of Swords
Restores health rapidly with parried weakpoint hits while buffing damage. Quickly assassinate and recover!
honing Cooldown Reduction Above All
While less flashier than directly offensive or defensive traits, cooldown reduction reigns supreme when mastered. Halving ability reuse times enables near-constant uptime of empowering skills that indirectly multiply all your damage and durability.
This powerful trait frequently gets underestimated, but distinguishing veterans leverage cooldown acceleration to push their capabilities into game-breaking territories. Let‘s discuss why:
Always-On Buffs:
Offensive skill buffs like Concussion Blast and Ignite last around 15 seconds with a 20 second cooldown. Reducing this gap to just 5 seconds ensures buffing nearly 100% of the time!
Healing Reliability:
Many healing skills share 20 second cooldowns. Accelerating reuse to 10 seconds allows easy restoration between enemy attacks.
Crowd Control Chains:
Stacking cooldown acceleration allows chaining important debuffs like Time Bubble and Weakpoint. Enemies remain helpless!
Based on extensive testing, I recommend the following sources of cooldown reduction:
Expertise: 2% reduction per level up to 20% max
Gift of Apollo: Flat 15% reduction
Charm of Inception: Stacks with other sources up to 50% reduction
Combining these can enable outright breaking certain builds as you exponentially exploit your enhancers‘ strengthened permanency!
But remember – you must counterbalance lowered cooldowns with adequate defense and recovery. For example combining Glass Cannon + Twister + max cooldown reduction results in disaster against bosses!
Respec for Flexibility
Constructing truly reactionary God builds requires experimenting with many traits to discover inhuman alchemy. Luckily, Remnant 2 offers unlimited full trait resets through an end-game item called the Orb of Undoing!
The Orb complete erases all trait point assignment, refunding for redistribution. This invaluable ability to respec opens up endless combinations for trailblazing glorious purpose-built trait synergies.
Through grinding and collecting enough Glowing Shards + Lumenite Crystals, you can purchase multiple Orbs from Ace. This facilitates respeccing freely when desiring radical adaptation or inversion of your tactical strengths and weaknesses on the fly!
I used over a dozen Orbs concocting my final bleeding-edge builds by repeatedly stress testing experimental layouts at end-game. This procedural refinement elevated my combat fluidity to unprecedented levels on conquering the toughest Archways.
If a particular weapon or armor combination ever feels limiting due to trait allocation, don‘t hesitate guessing again with the Orb for unlimited perfection via process of elimination. Master this, master Remnant 2!
Transcendence Awaits With Mastery
Despite overwhelming intricacy at first, Remnant 2‘s flexible trait system allows trailblazing masters to shape their champions exceeding human limits. Internalize the various trait categories, effects and synergies detailed here for optimization enlightenment.
Codex-like intelligence guiding your setup precipitates combos unlocking sheer invincibility, exponential damage cascades or unlimited ability churning. In time, Remnant 2 bends to your focused will and vision!
I hope this guide illuminates the endless possibilities awaiting discovery. Now steel your mind, and set forth conquering the most punishing challenges Nightmare difficulty dares throw at you, brave warrior! The crest of mastery awaits…
