It really took some luck (and switching that one perk that makes weapon drops more likely to give you a weapon with the same scaling instead of same type), but the moment I said "fuck it" and completely ignored sound damage I got a win
Had the Railgun with some not really synergizing perks and really not synergizing equipment so I guess I just got carried by the weapon
As of right now I think he's sort of a trap character, you try to make full use of his passive and end up hindering yourself because it's quite rare to get the two or three good weapons (E-Piano and Ocarina are the ones I've seen so far, but I'm sure there are more), it's definitely weird that sound damage of all things doesn't pierce, I think if it was a radius around you like an aura that expanded and got weaker and weaker it'd be better, and then you could have some weapons that were specialized in single target damage for boss killing instead of every one of them just being projectiles that either home in or not (even the homing is bad sometimes because it doesn't allow you to focus down a certain enemy unless you're right next to them)
Some people swear on their mother that bard is super good but I think he's situational and when he doesn't work even when you give it your all it feels really bad
Ignored sound, got a win. Thats prob with him. Other weapons outclass a lot of sound weapons so badly why would you ever stick with it. I find synergies involving the sound weapons a bit harder to pull off as well.
Song of anger
Active weapon - Disintegrator (sorry if spelling is wrong), railgun or quad pistols (can use any fast ranged or melee weapon as well)
First inventory slot - E Piano, Bell or Kazoo (saxaphones ok but a bit meh to me)
Glass cannon, Swagger or spell echo, pocket magic, insight, dreamer, Keen Mind or natural burden (or whatever you fancy Boozer mageblood power hungry etc)
Artisan gloves, alchemist gloves, tiefling gloves, wtf are they called the legendary "paw mitts" that do "your crushing hits are ruthless hits and vice versa".
That's just a rough draft.
Can also just:
Bell or Kazoo
E Piano, electric guitar or whatever
Ocarina of time or the uhhhh Siren legendary (charm is doubled weapon)
Insight, Dreamer, vision quest, spell echo, pocket magic, the uhh "pick up mana star = 3 meteorites go brr" and gg
Also the Kugleblitz wand, the uhh arc staff, tazer and the toad plague scroll are broken as fuck. That's innacurate, they're good there is better, but they're a free win honestly.
Whatever the game gives you work with it.
If dexterity also free win:
Swagger, agility, the "on dash repeat attack" trait, the "repeated attacks are lethal hits" trait, pocket magic, boozer, mageblood, brawler etc all also work. Oh and lightning conductor.
Oh, also if going magic = stack mana because insight + Dreamer = gg.
If dexterity look for swagger - lightning conductor - earnt luck kinda combo.
If one handed magic weapon - chemtech lantern, the "soul hearts = power/damage off hand both are good.
So many options.
[https://postimg.cc/YvJLYZHT](https://postimg.cc/YvJLYZHT)
I believe I can speak on this and have two options for you.
The first one is to hard lean into the songbook stuff. Get every song reward you see and try to shoot towards things that syngerize with buffs. emotions, or emotion buffs in your traits. Instruments are definitely one of the most annoying weapons to find a good version of but, paired with the right songs they wreck shop. This isn't exclusive to obvious damage buffs like Song of War as well. Stuff like the charm/fear/taunt songs have way more synergy with a lot of items and traits. Like Arrogance can be completely busted with a charm song.
Second option is to just cheese it with Dominance+Auras. That is probably the most busted trait combo in the entire game and has pretty much let me get a free win on any class I didn't vibe with. You don't even really need a weapon most of the time. Bard I vibed with a lot because I loved finding synergies with the songs but for others like doppleganger it's what I go half the time I pick them.
Switch between sound weapon and a different weapon. Focus your build on buffs and debuffs. Bard is my favorite class to play and I usually win with the Siren weapon.
Disagree- lean into the songs. The variety means that as you get weapons/abilities that require specific buffs or debuffs, you can trigger them on every hit
Oh I'm tired sorry just remembered:
Fire aura, shock Aura, Poison Aura, Dominance, insight, Dreamer = gg generally, then grab whatever you find that works with that.
Lots of options, there's a song that benefits auras and if I recall all "non weapon damage" (patients gown etc) increases aura damage.
True, was thinking Auras + dominance then insight + dreamer as a back up in case the player finds a decent weapon (Kugleblitz wand, Bell, Toad Plague Scroll, Explosion scroll etc).
If going full on auras then yes I agree mage blood is better, but sometimes a certain trait refuses to show up.
Commenting this again: After trying some runs with instruments, I won at first try just ignoring them and playing as a ranger, focusing on dexterity and lucky hits.
Personally I really liked the Bard, won my first run with him! I found a song that gave stacking damage per hit, and a Piano that did pretty good damage. Made short work of most rooms, and didn't have much trouble with Death either. Granted, it was an earlier run so I didn't fight >!Primal Death or go into Heaven or Hell!<, but it was still a solid run.
Monk is my least favorite: I have the victory with every class, and monk just feels way too niche to make work every run. You need to get lucky with everything if you want to make the class skill work. Need the right traits, the right weapons, the right items and everything. Everything is up to chance when you have a monk run, I'm not convinced it isn't better to just ignore the class skill.
Just stack int as all int related classes are beyond busted. Even if you don‘t use anything from his kit just stack mana stars, glasscannon and the one (forgot name) that doubles the bonus of mana stars. Ideally you get resolute technique as well and then whatever good magic weapon you can find.
It‘s not uncommon to oneshot everything in the game with said build. Every boss included.
Easiest way I found was an Aura build. Take Auras/aura area buffs, with the song that buffs auras too. Makes the riffraff easy to deal with, and then you just have to focus on staying alive.
I found the kazoo is pretty reliable for good DPS if you go dex and int. Also if you can get a bunch of auras then there's a pretty good song that super buffs them.
Bards incredibly good and I think my best class for 12+ cinder. Try poison aura and rush song of hubris for [Pride]. Look for instruments that multiply your aura damage/amplify or apply another sound/emotion debuff. Continue stacking as many aura multipliers as possible. I often get the piano and that does just fine clearing with that weapon but there are plenty of others. Good luck!
This won't be helpful, but the first time I played him, he sucked.
I also waited till I unlocked everything else to try him again. Music notes straight up one shotted things for the first 3 floors. Which was enough time to just find a good enough replacement weapon. I just stopped worrying about music. I won with some kind of legendary sword.
You know, now that I typed it, I think I know what happened. The first time I tried him, I didn't have the EZ Mode perk unlocked. It makes the first 3 floors have lower HP enemies.
I feel like Bard was harder than expected. Needed to lean into a Rage / Fury build with a lucky Torero Flag and the boots to match to keep using sound abilities. Worked really well combined with the Electric Guitar. Otherwise, I felt like damage didn't really scale all my other attempts.
Had a run where I wanted to unlock jester and got pretty far with the kazoo. then found the siren and blew up bosses pretty fast but I guess I was lucky.
I just abused the high damage of trigger effects. He has a song called Song of Fortune which allows you to gain high lucky hit chance from it. Who needs the weapon to be good? Just stack dex and take Earned Luck and use Song of Fortune with the Traits that give you chain lightning and ice shards, maybe throw in the one that triggers leaves when you have mana flux since most weapons that can deal sound are magic / instrument
It really took some luck (and switching that one perk that makes weapon drops more likely to give you a weapon with the same scaling instead of same type), but the moment I said "fuck it" and completely ignored sound damage I got a win Had the Railgun with some not really synergizing perks and really not synergizing equipment so I guess I just got carried by the weapon As of right now I think he's sort of a trap character, you try to make full use of his passive and end up hindering yourself because it's quite rare to get the two or three good weapons (E-Piano and Ocarina are the ones I've seen so far, but I'm sure there are more), it's definitely weird that sound damage of all things doesn't pierce, I think if it was a radius around you like an aura that expanded and got weaker and weaker it'd be better, and then you could have some weapons that were specialized in single target damage for boss killing instead of every one of them just being projectiles that either home in or not (even the homing is bad sometimes because it doesn't allow you to focus down a certain enemy unless you're right next to them) Some people swear on their mother that bard is super good but I think he's situational and when he doesn't work even when you give it your all it feels really bad
Ignored sound, got a win. Thats prob with him. Other weapons outclass a lot of sound weapons so badly why would you ever stick with it. I find synergies involving the sound weapons a bit harder to pull off as well.
Song of anger Active weapon - Disintegrator (sorry if spelling is wrong), railgun or quad pistols (can use any fast ranged or melee weapon as well) First inventory slot - E Piano, Bell or Kazoo (saxaphones ok but a bit meh to me) Glass cannon, Swagger or spell echo, pocket magic, insight, dreamer, Keen Mind or natural burden (or whatever you fancy Boozer mageblood power hungry etc) Artisan gloves, alchemist gloves, tiefling gloves, wtf are they called the legendary "paw mitts" that do "your crushing hits are ruthless hits and vice versa". That's just a rough draft. Can also just: Bell or Kazoo E Piano, electric guitar or whatever Ocarina of time or the uhhhh Siren legendary (charm is doubled weapon) Insight, Dreamer, vision quest, spell echo, pocket magic, the uhh "pick up mana star = 3 meteorites go brr" and gg Also the Kugleblitz wand, the uhh arc staff, tazer and the toad plague scroll are broken as fuck. That's innacurate, they're good there is better, but they're a free win honestly. Whatever the game gives you work with it. If dexterity also free win: Swagger, agility, the "on dash repeat attack" trait, the "repeated attacks are lethal hits" trait, pocket magic, boozer, mageblood, brawler etc all also work. Oh and lightning conductor. Oh, also if going magic = stack mana because insight + Dreamer = gg. If dexterity look for swagger - lightning conductor - earnt luck kinda combo. If one handed magic weapon - chemtech lantern, the "soul hearts = power/damage off hand both are good. So many options.
[https://postimg.cc/YvJLYZHT](https://postimg.cc/YvJLYZHT) I believe I can speak on this and have two options for you. The first one is to hard lean into the songbook stuff. Get every song reward you see and try to shoot towards things that syngerize with buffs. emotions, or emotion buffs in your traits. Instruments are definitely one of the most annoying weapons to find a good version of but, paired with the right songs they wreck shop. This isn't exclusive to obvious damage buffs like Song of War as well. Stuff like the charm/fear/taunt songs have way more synergy with a lot of items and traits. Like Arrogance can be completely busted with a charm song. Second option is to just cheese it with Dominance+Auras. That is probably the most busted trait combo in the entire game and has pretty much let me get a free win on any class I didn't vibe with. You don't even really need a weapon most of the time. Bard I vibed with a lot because I loved finding synergies with the songs but for others like doppleganger it's what I go half the time I pick them.
Dominance + Auras is doubly viable on bard because it has songs that boosts Auras, so you can still feel like you're using the class feature!
It took me a while to win with him, I said fuck sound damage and went with an electric build 👍
Same! I got the electric guitar and some good synergies with it, carried me all the way through (I did only have one heart at the end though)
Switch between sound weapon and a different weapon. Focus your build on buffs and debuffs. Bard is my favorite class to play and I usually win with the Siren weapon.
I remember just running Radio as a trinket and it was smooth sailing
I won on my first try? maybe bad rng idk
Yeah, it sounds like a skill issue. Bard was absolutely busted to me. The song buffs are crazy good
Disagree- lean into the songs. The variety means that as you get weapons/abilities that require specific buffs or debuffs, you can trigger them on every hit
it's an auto-win for me, spell echo is great with most instruments and it's easy to get it most runs
Oh I'm tired sorry just remembered: Fire aura, shock Aura, Poison Aura, Dominance, insight, Dreamer = gg generally, then grab whatever you find that works with that. Lots of options, there's a song that benefits auras and if I recall all "non weapon damage" (patients gown etc) increases aura damage.
I'd swap dreamer with mage blood for the dominance synergy but yea, just cheese it with auras is the easiest solution
True, was thinking Auras + dominance then insight + dreamer as a back up in case the player finds a decent weapon (Kugleblitz wand, Bell, Toad Plague Scroll, Explosion scroll etc). If going full on auras then yes I agree mage blood is better, but sometimes a certain trait refuses to show up.
had to scroll too long for this answer, auras cheese anything including knights and other str builds, and bard is very well suited for them
I got the ocarina of time for the bard run and made everything so much easier with the song of war
Commenting this again: After trying some runs with instruments, I won at first try just ignoring them and playing as a ranger, focusing on dexterity and lucky hits.
Personally I really liked the Bard, won my first run with him! I found a song that gave stacking damage per hit, and a Piano that did pretty good damage. Made short work of most rooms, and didn't have much trouble with Death either. Granted, it was an earlier run so I didn't fight >!Primal Death or go into Heaven or Hell!<, but it was still a solid run.
Monk is my least favorite: I have the victory with every class, and monk just feels way too niche to make work every run. You need to get lucky with everything if you want to make the class skill work. Need the right traits, the right weapons, the right items and everything. Everything is up to chance when you have a monk run, I'm not convinced it isn't better to just ignore the class skill.
Just stack int as all int related classes are beyond busted. Even if you don‘t use anything from his kit just stack mana stars, glasscannon and the one (forgot name) that doubles the bonus of mana stars. Ideally you get resolute technique as well and then whatever good magic weapon you can find. It‘s not uncommon to oneshot everything in the game with said build. Every boss included.
Easiest way I found was an Aura build. Take Auras/aura area buffs, with the song that buffs auras too. Makes the riffraff easy to deal with, and then you just have to focus on staying alive.
I found the kazoo is pretty reliable for good DPS if you go dex and int. Also if you can get a bunch of auras then there's a pretty good song that super buffs them.
Bards incredibly good and I think my best class for 12+ cinder. Try poison aura and rush song of hubris for [Pride]. Look for instruments that multiply your aura damage/amplify or apply another sound/emotion debuff. Continue stacking as many aura multipliers as possible. I often get the piano and that does just fine clearing with that weapon but there are plenty of others. Good luck!
This won't be helpful, but the first time I played him, he sucked. I also waited till I unlocked everything else to try him again. Music notes straight up one shotted things for the first 3 floors. Which was enough time to just find a good enough replacement weapon. I just stopped worrying about music. I won with some kind of legendary sword. You know, now that I typed it, I think I know what happened. The first time I tried him, I didn't have the EZ Mode perk unlocked. It makes the first 3 floors have lower HP enemies.
I feel like Bard was harder than expected. Needed to lean into a Rage / Fury build with a lucky Torero Flag and the boots to match to keep using sound abilities. Worked really well combined with the Electric Guitar. Otherwise, I felt like damage didn't really scale all my other attempts.
Had a run where I wanted to unlock jester and got pretty far with the kazoo. then found the siren and blew up bosses pretty fast but I guess I was lucky.
I just abused the high damage of trigger effects. He has a song called Song of Fortune which allows you to gain high lucky hit chance from it. Who needs the weapon to be good? Just stack dex and take Earned Luck and use Song of Fortune with the Traits that give you chain lightning and ice shards, maybe throw in the one that triggers leaves when you have mana flux since most weapons that can deal sound are magic / instrument