How to Build and Upgrade Briar and Lute in Soulstice

Briar and Lute are the main characters of Soulstice, the latest hack and slash AA game to release in 2022. Players will be hard at work keeping its sisters together until the very end, and that means keeping them out of harm’s way as they battle hordes of enemies and the most ruthless of opponents. They’ll certainly keep you on your toes, so before having to face the monstrous Arrowhead and what else has yet to come, here’s how to keep a nice amount of building of both Briar and Lute up into reaching their greatest potential as you play through the game.

Why You Should Upgrade Briar and Lute in Soulstice

But first, why should you care? Soulstice rates all fights and chapters in a Devil May Cry fashion. There is an overall scoring given out each and every time, starting from the lowest of Iron and going up to Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and the very best scoring possible of Diamond. How the game scores is by considering modifiers (eg. backstabbing, being airborne, and going on a killing spree all giving bonus points), time taken in a clearing, and damage being dealt out.

You want to get a sweet spot between clearing each encounter quickly whilst dealing enough damage and avoiding getting too many hits that take away bonus points. Also remember that while the game encourages exploring, do not take too long. This can and will lower your final chapter score depending on how long you take.

How to increase the Sisters’ Power in Soulstice

Collect Fragments and Other Collectibles

So the point of exploring is for coming across a variety of items that you can pick up by simply moving Briar across them to have her add them to her inventory for future usage. Some items will be your typical one-time usage type of consumable, such as an Emerald Tear Shard that restores a bit of Briar’s health or an Elixir of Clarity that temporarily freezes Entropy so that Lute does not overcharge when using her fields.

Since the game has most segments as fixed angles, being unable to move the camera around makes for plenty of hidden spots to move Briar to in order to discover the most tucked away parts of all the levels. The very best hidden spots can have either a Malformed Husk Fragment or a Feeble Ethereal Filament tucked away there. Both require three of each to make up one whole Sturdy Husk Chunk that increases Briar’s health pool, or an Iridescent Ethereal Weave which increases the threshold of Lute’s overcharge.

Other Ways to Find Malformed Husk Fragments and Feeble Ethereal Filaments

This makes it important to explore each and every level as much as possible for a free reward. That’s because the only other ways to find these two important items are by taking up more time in completing the void challenges that do not always reward either of these items in each one and by spending 10,000 points of Crimson Tear Residue on either a Sturdy Husk Chunk or an Iridescent Ethereal Weave in Layton’s shop.

How to Unlock More Moves for both Briar and Lute

But this is only one part of making Briar and Lute stronger. Across their journey, Briar will automatically unlock all the weapons that can be at her disposal by bumping into her Observer, Layton, depending on the chapter.

Mine Motherloads for Cobalt Tear Residue

While exploring you will run into many objects of interest that you can interact with. Motherloads are giant blue crystal clusters that reward Cobalt Tear Residue. These can be destroyed when using Lute’s Evocation field and attacking it quickly enough to obtain its best reward with a final slash of it to completely destroy it. The same goes for red clusters that are usually smaller and scattered about in very contained sections that requires the Banishment Field to be active to destroy and reap Crimson Tear Residue from them.

Destroy all Destructible Objects

Remember to attack everything that gives rewards across each and every level. This includes destructible objects and the non-aggressive Broken Corrupted that linger around who do not attack unless provoked. Obtain Crimson Tear Residue and Cobalt Tear Residue at any cost to accumulate plenty to use in spending whenever you come to Layton and his shop. This is where all those accumulated points matter the most.

How to Build and Upgrade Briar and Lute in Soulstice

Before chapters start and when you bump into Layton, you can select to spend Crimson Tear Residue and Cobalt Tear Residue in the shop as mentioned above and for unlocking more skills in the skills tab. The skills tab separates Briar and Lute. Spend Crimson Tear Residue on Briar’s move sets that lists each of her weapons and unlockable abilities. There will be two to five moves to spend these points on in unlocking more abilities of Briar’s. Each weapon also includes three levels of proficiency to increase with these points.

Skills to Upgrade for Lute and Briar

Lute’s skill tree is a lot more involved, requiring the spending of 26,000 Cobalt Tear Residue for a Cobalt Tear Crystal in Layton’s shop to unlock and expand it. In comparison, Briar’s is a straightforward list of unlockable moves her default tear crystal will unlock. With Lute’s section, it is divided up into four sectors – Offense, Defence, Fields and Rapture. Each move within all four sectors requires far less points spent compared to Briar’s unlockable skills since Lute’s are more effect-based and not actually move sets players are executing during combat. This makes for a nice balancing of building both characters at the same time so that they will be of equal footing no matter what the costs look like or result in.

If you are exploring often enough to destroy describable items, all enemies, and finding as many crystal clusters as possible to destroy, then you will have more than enough to maintain a healthy increase of both Briar and Lute’s skills. Lute’s skill tree will slow down in development due to having to acquire so many Cobalt Tear Residue pieces to unlock more of it in one go. Simply ensure to visit the skill page frequently to implement all the points you have gathered each and every time, no matter on what weapon or skill tree. You’ll be unlocking all of it in no time no matter how you go about sharing out all the points!

Related: How to defeat the Abomination boss fight in Soulstice