What's the best "Carry" You've ever built?

[Svalin]

Hey Everyone,

I was just curious about what people may be building as there sort of main demon, After messing around recently, In my current run I have a self-sustaining Headless who often deals with most of an encounter single-handedly, I've put a speed brand on him to bring him back over 100% speed(Not sure if I could perhaps replace this with something more useful)

In the past I've relied heavily on a Elemental Nuke Caster of some sort, However we all know how badly this goes when we run into something with the right resistances!

With my Current run the only thing I struggle with is straight tanks with lots of buffs, as I lack a consistent de-buffer. My Character itself is Heal-Buff Focused.

[Ferret]

I'm a big fan of what I call "Warlocks" myself: magic demons that combine life-draining abilities with other self-healing and/or Draw Wounds so they can spread the health they steal to other allies as well.

Before the Matter element was added, this was a bit rough at times since all life drains were Body and Dark based; a pair of resists that are often found together, but now that there are Matter drains too it can be a bit more flexible (though spectral undead can still be a problem, as they sometimes resist/immune all three elements involved.)

If you try building one yourself, don't forget Gluttony, it's a huge help! Flesheater can be very good on melee-oriented "warlocks" too. Offensive buffs and defensive debuffs can of pull double duty for these demons too: not only do they increase the damage dealt, they also increase the healing returned.

[Paul]

For the early game I find ogres can pretty much carry me till the Anomaly. There already friggen machines with no work and their at least semi useful about till the teens. I guess i like to put Reshape and Swiftness edit: Actually i think Pounce is more useful to them swift, gets them into combat and helps when recrutiing Coca or Vikhor, onto make them even faster and tankier. And Quelling cry, if Acteon spawns.

Though a ghoul with reshape is even more of an early game carry and super useul for recruiting demoons like Vikhor and Coca.

After that im not sure. I really like Aeras often fused to Holy Aeras (negates one of its big weakneses) and with a suite of darts for killing elec resist demons. Python with Swiftness and Ra Tatoo is also a real beast till it gets to level 19 and its level ups drastically slow down.

And I like Onis because their basically better, higher level ogres.

I've only been to tier 3 once, that being the run where I beat the game, but to the best of my knowledge ANY stupidly high level demon can be a carry. I got 5 floors urhter than normal when I was lucky enough to recruit Charun (level 27 when I was no where near that) and gave him Sainted because he'd only fear light attackers. My sole winning run is when I recruited 2 Jotuns (level 32 when I was in the 20s) at Ninkashi's sanctum and I had a brand that booster unmodified demons by 20% or so, so that covered me. All they fear is status effects, so Ninkasi and Unicorn (reruited so I could teach Ninkasi Paneca and as a back up status remover) covered that.

The run that might have been my 2nd winning run was turbo charged when I got a Kaw Kaw in the anomly, but lost my save due to a power outage.

Surface to say if you see a ridiculously high level demon spawn before it should, its frequently worth using an offering or two. Or in the case of Kaw Kaw, sacrificing near enough your entire team

[Saler]

I find than I generally end up using most of my team by the late-game, although some more than others.
Headless is one of my favorite demons because of how strong he is in the early game. I fuse him to a high-decent STR and AGI demon, when I get the chance. Chachapuma and Dipsas are nice candidates.
Ninkasi is another very good unique, this time in mid-game.
Angel is very good if you can get one early , mainly for it's support skills.
Incubuses have a very good ability set for Charm.
Any high CUN demon with a few AoE status effect moves is very useful, especially if those involve DEF down, OFF down, Guilt or synergy with other demons.
On the topic of status effects - Poison stacking + Flesh Rot + Blood Rot is very effective.
Someone with a reliable and SP efficient healing setup, on the less exiting side.

[Remora]

It's hard to remember much of past builds right now, but I remember favoring modified haietlik in my early Demon days, usually profane or holy, to make it through Anomaly. I usually think it's a good idea to have at least one fused demon by then, especially if it's a fusion you made. In haietlik's case it has good resistances for making it through Anomaly while gaining a type effective against many enemies there, making it versatile. It only really has to fear things like asrai or randomly-modified ice foes (which are kind of uncommon), as well as the different enemies that may spawn in the sanctums for Anomaly. Nowadays I like to go for ogres in the early game most of the time, especially if I can get an early ogre from the buruburu link. I especially favor this strat on D:2 when Tower 1 1/2 shows up. It doesn't always work as your offenses might be too mere, but it can make Tower 1 1/2 easier to have such a slightly overleveled ally on your side. If you get Arcadia, then it's not as much of a major boost, but it can give you a slight edge to have an ogre right away in there. If you're lucky enough, you can get two early ogres, who are strong enough to take on many things on the first few floors but once you reach Anomaly:1 it's a good idea to dispose of one of them to make your party more versatile. Maj. or stormsworn are pretty good fusions for ogres, naturally. That aside, it is rare for me to not get neros and ruhins thanks to their good healing and buffing/Calm, respectively. A similar strat to early ogre I sometimes do is early nero, which is diving into Vikhor's sanctum. This is especially notable in games with Arcadia, but it is usually risky due to higher leveled enemies like aeras, especially since the starting abilities got nerfed. It can be a bit of a boost, though; the Actaeon and asrai links in Arcadia become much easier, for example.

I think all the early uniques are pretty good at what they do. I usually favor Headless the most, given that he's the earliest spawning unique, is a good frontliner for several floors (used to be semi-viable to Tower:20 even), and has a good modifier to be granted to higher-leveled hitdudes. Other early uniques (Vikhor, Ccoa, Friar Rush) I also find useful, but I'm less likely to fuse them onto something. Ccoa is pretty good for transpose soul, though. Artemis is pretty good too for a while and is a good candidate for fusing onto mid-tower hitdudes.

For the mid-Tower floors (I consider them floors 9 to 16 now, counting their sanctums), I have favored alicanto, druj nasu, demas, onis, kuchi-sake onna, and shojos. Alicanto are excelent tanks that only seem to start losing viability by the last few floors of the current builds, druj nasu's mass poisoning can be great for taking out some mobs and is a good choice for converting into a healer, demas is my go-to healer conversion choice (for these past two it often depends on them showing up in Turdak's Sanctum or Anzu's Sanctum respectively (latter is guaranteed spawn with Anzu around) and if I still have a nero or other low level healer), onis are simply good hitdudes, kuchi-sake onna have good disruption, and shojos are good for their support and mass poisoning. Shojos can be picked up a few floors ahead of time in Ninkasi's sanctum, which makes them a solid ally to take to the final floor. I also like umdhlebi for similar reasons, and its mind immunity makes it good for putting Calm on.

For mid-tower uniques, I think most of them are good at what they do, but I usually only go for a few of them. I usually go for Ninkasi and Pele, at least. They're simply good; Ninkasi is a great supporter and Pele is a good blaster who could alternatively be used to get some nice abilities (e.g. Rain of Fire, Vigorous, and Alluring Veil from her abilities alone). Bigfoot is also great to get, being an awesome hitdude who can carry you to the end of the tower, provided you support him. That aside, I think I go for Medusa but generally just for fusing her into something else. Other uniques vary on two factors: if I can reliably get them and if their niche would be beneficial for me.

For the late tower (17+), I don't think I have any definite favorites right now. I usually have mid-tower allies follow me to the end unless if I lost them and had to recover with new allies, but I generally still recruit new allies up there. At most right now, I think I'm inclined towards recruiting cherufe, which can be pretty solid with a lot of modifiers on top of being strong fire attackers. There are other things I often link with and recruit (e.g. virtue, yuki-onna, polong, etc.), usually just to get them out of the way but they can fulfill whatever role for a while.

[ShinQuickMan]

Melingee's usually the star in the early game. I kit him out with Bloodlust, Bloodthirst, Pounce, and (when possible) Needle Spray. His high strength makes the AoE hurt, and when combined with Bloodthirst and Bloodlust, he can stay in a fight for some time. I later upgrade him to Cthonic Melingee after a trip to the anomoly, which really ups his defenses against physical attacks. His problem matches, of course, are against things with ice abilites; Tuo-Fei and Bmoma (?) are major menaces for him. He also has problems against counter-attacker/wall hybrids, Aspis in particular.

If, for whatever reason, Melingee isn't available, I settle for Artemis instead. Once she goes Cthonic, she's similarly tanky, and though not quite as strong, she does come with enough Cunning to leverage damage with her Poison ability. Furthermore, she starts with a ranged attack, letting her deal damage before enemies draw themselves in. She's generally more balanced, so she doesn't have too many problem matches. My only concern, really, is that she's a bit more costly than Melingee to upgrade and maintain.

Once (and if) Turdak is available, I try to switch out to Cthonic Turdak with a similar setup ASAP. This guy has a crap-ton of resistances and immunities, and despite his mediocre attack rating, a combination of both speed and the above abilities let him outlast most fights. He also has decent enough Cunning to combo into other status rider abilities, such as Bliinding and Heavyhanded. Furthermore, his immunity to Dark makes him a hard counter to Shikome packs, enemies that are a strategic nightmare in the later floors. But he does have several crippling flaws. His HP is below average, so enemies that can outpace whatever healing he gains from attacks will put him out of commission quickly. This includes many Heroes, as well as faster and hard-hitting monsters such as Oozes or (god forbid) Firekin Oozes. Light 'sniper' teams can also be fairly annoying, though it can be worked around with good kiting. Turdak's fire vulnerability, unfortunately, may always haunt him, and forces the player to pass over several other pretty good demons such as Zagh and Ninkasi to keep from having your team literall blown up in front of you.

Of course, the key to this strategy lies in capturing Python for his Cthonic fusion. Furthermore, there may be cases when one cannot find Bloodthirst early enough (ie no Floor 1 1/2 and/or no encounters with Jiang-Shi's) for this to work well.

[Paul]

So just beat the game again and have a few more thoughts.


i still think an ogre, especially 2 can easily carry you to Annomly, and I like to have one ogre loaded with Pounce, Reshape and or Diehard, Quelling Cry to be excellent. And maybe inspiration if you get headless. And said ogre with that loadout can even be useful through Anomaly, though I do feel Python can outclass it, and gi can be a better tank, and obviously Oni is blatantly better, but then you just pass the skills to Oni and do the same thing till you get demons in the 20s. And then you can replace the Onis with Powers, though be careful, recruiting them without an offering can be run ending dangerous

I think putting Pounce (get them into the thick of things) and Opressor on a Python makes me feel a lot safer, but its not essential.

I always make a Holy Aeras if i can, reversing its worse weakness and making its stats even better, put Ice Dart for coverage. This works well till the late teens though even when its a level or tw behind it can be useful.

Lots of high level demons can be carry demons, though I like that Dominion has a good magic load out, Gaduaim, and decent stats AND is pretty easy to recruit without using an offering. I often like to smack Frigid or Powerful (anzu's modifier) on there to make it more magic focused, and Powerful is likely to give it useful area moves to. Teaching Guadiam to other demons late game can also be useful vs trash mobs.

Impundulu is a good magic attacker but I really love Civatateos, they spawn at high levels, resist a ton of things (Ice, Body, Dark, Light? Probably the best 4 resistances for the late game) and i was relcutant to recruit the level 30+ demons because my Civatateos were doing so well. And yes I use plural, there excellent, their skills arent that great, but you can load them up with cool stuff, especially Rain of Fire. And give one Peri's Volcanic modiier if you get her, removes an annoying weakness early on, gives them more magic and gives them skills they'll likelly appreciate. I like Powerful to.. But yeah, when i raised a squad of Civatateos they helped me through Baba Yagas sanctum and after thatt he difficulty just plumeted. I replaced one with a Virtue, but it was unnecessary. Give them a bunch of elemental skills early on, and maybe reshape, though later on yu'll probably be fine with Rain of Fire or such on them. Though you could have them do different things.

Oh and Ninkasi herself isnt a power house, but i do find her an excellent support demon, espeically when you add Paneca from uniocrn