Bow % Builds / playstyle

This guide is mainly here as a general blueprint of how I run my speedruns for Bow %, now unfortunately in the game's current state, Bow only suffers due to a few bugs within the Enhancement table, which limits the strongest combos for Bow and makes those Enhancements banned in a speedrun setting

#Reset!

The moment you zone into the run, open the map (you do this by pressing back/tab and navigating to it, do not worry the timer is paused during this) what you're looking for is the Spirits and how many skips you have present on the map, if you do not have the preferred spirits, simply end the run and go again, this will save you many attempts of pain and gets you efficient practice!


#Divine Spirits to look for

As it currently stands, Bow can utilise any Spirit, but only a few are great for DPS as a main candidate as your "primary" spirit

in order of impact as your primary spirit it goes as followed

Solesh > Navolik > KKelumin > Mishved > Sharbora > Yamphas 
Again, because they're low on priority, doesn't mean they're useless, they all will offer passive blessings that we can utilise within a run!

Solesh
As a primary spirit, Solesh has our highest DPS ceiling, providing us with burn (which bow can stack very fast thanks to its combos) and giving us access to Combustion and other very strong passives like Tabula Rasa, a large multiplier, Smelting Smith, a scaling multiplier based on how many unique debuffs (meaning separate instances, not multiple stacks of the same)

Navolik 
As a primary spirit, Navolik can be good but is heavily reliant on you finding Overcharge as fast as possible, without Overcharge, Navolik will not function as a good primary DPS source, but still can bring you Electrified which increases your Movement and Attack speed, this is incredible for increasing frame speeds, recovery times, and reducing end lag on combos

Kelumin
As a primary spirit, Kelumin is a little weaker than the above, but can ramp up to be potent once you get passives to pair with the attack/launcher, things like Deep Rend and Open Wounds, will give you a lot of room clearing speed, and very good scaling boss damage, as well as many helpful blessings that you want in every build really, such as Blood Moon to reduce max health of bosses, Lunar Terminator to increase your damage by a % the closer the enemy gets to 50% hp.

Mishved
As a primary spirit, Mishved falls a little short, although Mishved does have the highest base %'s of all the spirits on the Attacks and Launcher, it just doesn't bring you very good passives to synergy with them for boss speed, the main gimmick of freeze is to slow enemies and give you more time to react as well as increase wall splat damage from Avalanche, but unfortunately, just doesn't help with boss kill times

Sharbora
As a primary spirit, much like Mishved, Sharbora just doesn't bring you good debuffs for DPS, Sharbora does have some good passives though which I will touch on when I get to the blessing-specific section below, but as a primary focus of your build, Sharbora is best saved for easy clears, not fast clears

Yamphas
As a primary spirit, Yamphas is unfortunately, very weak, some of Yamphas' passives are nice, but even then are not as strong as any of the other spirits, there are really only two blessings Yamphas can offer you that you will take for Bow, and I will mention those below as well


#Combinations and setups to look for

Now that we've touched on the impact of each Spirit as a primary focus, let's talk about Blessings each will offer that you will want to find, and I will list them in order of importance starting with the Spirit with the most impact.

Solesh Build: 
Scorching Attack - Scorching Launcher - Scorching Dash( Or Navolik Dash)

Key Passives: Combustion > Tabula Rasa > Flare Up > Smelting Strength > Wings of Flame

Bolt Blessings: Howling Bolt (Kelumin) > Chain-Lightning Bolt (Navolik)

Kelumin Passives: Blood Moon(Kelumin) > Open Wounds > Deep Rend > Lunar Terminator > Sharp Claws

Navolik Passives: Accelerated Force > Static Electricity > Overcharge > Celerity

Mishved Passives: Polar Fissure > Cooled Down > Aurora Borealis

Yamphas Passives: Tides of Conflict =/= Uncharted Waters > Jaws > Ebb and Flow.

Sharbora Passives: Camping > Ravaging Growth

Assists (in order of impact): Icicle Rain(Mishved) > Twister(Sharbora) > Bubble Shield (Yamphas)

The Concept of this build is Simple, you will be trying to proc combustion as fast as possible, doing this by utilising your Attack or Launcher (depending on your Enhancements within the run), every passive included here, either directly increases your damage, or increases the speed in which you will proc combustion.


Navolik Build: 
Voltic Attack - Voltic Launcher - Voltic-Blink Dash

Key Passives: Overcharge > Accelerated Force > Static Electricity > Thunderclap > Adrenaline Rush

Bolt Blessings: Howling Bolt > Scorching Bolt 

Kelumin Passives: Blood Moon(Kelumin) > Open Wounds > Deep Rend > Lunar Terminator > Sharp Claws

Solesh Passives: Incandescence > Smelting Strength > Wings of Flame > Tabula Rasa (requires you to take Solesh bolt to have Tabula available in this build)

Mishved Passives: Polar Fissure > Cooled Down > Aurora Borealis

Yamphas Passives: Tides of Conflict =/= Uncharted Waters > Jaws > Ebb and Flow.

Sharbora Passives: Camping > Ravaging Growth

Assists (in order of impact): Icicle Rain(Mishved) > Twister(Sharbora) > Bubble Shield (Yamphas)

The build concept here is similar to the Solesh build, but now we're trying to trigger Overcharge instead, this is a much faster-paced build (in terms of how fast you're actually moving and attacking) but due to the internal Cooldown of Overcharge, does fall a little shorter for Bow (all passives here are to directly improve your damage via multipliers, or lower cooldowns for overcharge/dash)


#Enhancements

I will mention again, unfortunately, the BEST Enhancement for Bow is bugged, and shouldn't be used in speedruns, but that being said, i will still include it below

Your Enhancements are going to be crucial in your Act 2 and Act 3 Boss kill times, the difference in your damage with or without them, is insanely large i will list them in order of most impact and then note the combination that is highest DPS

Quickdraw > Bouncing Arrow  > Trick Shot > Might/Ferocity(dependant on if attack/launcher based) > Courage > Split-Shot> Steadfast Shot > Perma-Perfect

when deciding on what Enhancement you wish to take from the priority mentioned above, you should consider what you already have, for example, if you do not have very good Launcher based Blessings or Enhancement, then the Split shot becomes less attractive!

The Biggest damaging combo you can get is Quick Draw + Trick Shot + Bouncing Arrow, This allows you to overlap your own character model with the enemies and shoot out very powerful Launchers in two directions, but since you're overlapping hitboxes, the arrows will deal the damage immediately for EACH arrow fired, if they then bounce off the wall and come back, they will deal damage again, this allows for very fast and power combustion/overcharge procs and huge spikes in damage!

No matter what Enhancements you choose to go for though, the basic damage types of "Elite damage" and "Boss Damage" are very potent and should be picked up if you have the spare essence available, The specific damage modifiers of Launcher damage from these is also powerful, i'd suggest this as followed if you're deciding what to pick up

Quick Draw > Trick Shot > Steadfast Shot, after picking up any of these, if you have 1 essence left, then prioritise Launcher damage > Boss Damage > Elite Damage.


#Combos
Your best combo, is going to be just firing your Launcher, Launchers in Spiritfall have the highest damage compared to the rest of the Combos of Attacks, now this can change depending on room/enemy variance, so ill try my best to explain situational combos below

The very first room of your run you will 9/10 have 1, 2 or 3, Vermin in a line, this means your best way to get rid of them fast is to run off the stairs, while mid air fire your bolt, then dash to cancel the end frame, once you land, charge perfect launchers, two of these and then fire your bolt again

Now if you get that 1/10, where you have a fly, proceed to do the same thing to remove the vermin, but if you hit the fly with the bolt it will actually drop low enough for you to do perfect launcher the same way as before, if you don't hit the fly though, then you'll want to either, Launcher it, or start using Up Air Lights, this will grab it and allow you to burst it fast, either way, having the fly at the start is always a time loss

depending on RNG with blessings, you might get offered a strong attack but no launchers, in these cases you can opt to do this in rooms instead

<--> Light Attack 2x, Dash and repeat, this will cancel the 3rd shot of the side combos, although it does do more damage than the previous 2 shots, it also has a long frame and causes you to have air time, this is in efficient in terms of overall DPS, its much better to juggle enemies via repeating the 2 sides and dashing straight back into 2 more sides,

the optimal combo though and way to proceed in rooms, is to only launcher (unless flying enemies, then you can do what I mentioned about the fly above)

You want to get to the part of the room that has the most surface area and begin firing launchers at enemies, enemies in Spiritfall have a aggro system, they will try to attack the player once the player has engaged them, this means they will try to get to the same level of elevation as you to be able to attack you, meaning enemies will line up nicely for you (check speedrun vods for reference of this)

once you have your Enhancements, you will hopefully be spamming out your perfect launchers in both directions with them bouncing everywhere and just annihilating rooms for you! 


#Conclusion
By no means am I claiming to be the "best" in creating this guide, I will be updating this as new information is found, strategies are developed and changes are made within the game itself, If you still need a visual representation of all the things I've noted within this, please watch some of the runs present on the Bow% leaderboards, you will see how it all plays out and comes together.

#Mod comment
Fluff is one of the best, if not the best runner in the community as of writing this guide. If there is anyone you should trust with this info, it is them.
Cheers,
Scrub

Speedrunning Basics and Tips

The first and most important thing to save yourself from a lot of disappointment and frustration while you're learning is, please please please, do not compare your time to others for a form of validation or use that as a metric of if your run is good or bad, only ever compare the timers to your own previous timers, self-improvement is the most important thing to strive for, it's a good idea to watch others runs to see how they do things, but it should never be about the comparison of your time vs there's!


#Overview  

First of all the game is constantly changing since Spiritfall is still in early access - Weapons, Blessings and possibly Enhancements are still yet to be released/changed
If you're looking to do your own research and be a bit proactive you can always look at any of the most recent runs posted in the category you're trying to run - Generally, if there are quite a few times posted already you can have an idea of what strategies are being used. Sometimes it's quite difficult to put into words the strategies used or the newer runner prefers to learn by watching instead of reading.
If there are no runs or very few runs in a category there is always the #Speedrun channel in Discord, to ask any questions or some sort of specific strategy you don't quite understand.
Once you've got an idea of how the run should go your best bet is to just jump right in and attempt it yourself - Execution in terms of runs has a very low ceiling, to begin with so getting a reasonable time isn't as hard as you might think.

#Recording / Submitting a run

Recording your run is very simple, you can use your favourite recording software (OBS is a common favourite amongst most runners) and then simply record yourself doing your runs, Rules for each category will ask you to have certain things present however

as most categories within Spiritfall will ask you to have a timer present, you should Enable the in-game time via the game settings, as well as have a programme like LiveSplit to have an overlay for verification that there are no attempts at splicing or manipulating in game times.

Once you've got the footage and a Run you're proud of and wish to submit, head over to the category appropriate to the format you're running, and simply click submit run!

#Strategies

Try to formulate a plan ahead of time, what I mean by this is, before you even attempt to start a run, have an idea in mind of the different things you MUST see within that run, an example of this would be my personal favourite category of Bow, if I do not have Solesh in my first act Blessings, I simply reset the run and go again. This helps you minimize inefficient practices and gets you in the habit of fishing for good lineups!

Once you get used to this, then it's simply a matter of practice and refining your own strategy the more you play, watching yourself play and others play, is a great tool and often overlooked as to how potent it can be to improving one's gameplay.


#Tier-Lists of your weapons Enhancements / Blessings

This is not something that currently exists publicly but is something you can still do mentally. Keep in mind what is strongest for your build, and what holds more Value in your mind over other aspects, this cuts down time spent making decisions ahead of time and can shave valuable time off and keep your momentum going!

#Room Variants

Something that is probably not known by many, but each act only has so many room variants, and each of those rooms can only spawn a particular variety of enemies, the more you play and look out for this, you can start to know where things are going to spawn before they even spawn, this helps you head in the direction of enemies and min-max your micro-movements within the rooms!


#Free Rooms

These are rooms that require you to do 0 fighting or Hidden Rifts, these are paramount to your timer, the less time you HAVE to fight something, the faster your run will be, plan your map route based around these nodes!
These are currently, Shrines, Shops, Hidden Rifts! (in hidden rifts, simply enter and run off the platform behind you! this will skip the encounter and save you roughly 20 seconds per rift)

#Boss Strategies

Each boss comes with its own difficult set of mechanics to overcome, but threat not, you can overcome these with mostly practice, but also positioning, some bosses will prefer to do particular attacks based on your distance from them, a prime example of this is the first boss you will encounter, she will prefer to swipe her sword multiple times the closer you are, this means it can be a good idea to every now and then between frames, create a tiny bit of distance to get her to try and use one of her ranged abilities, and allow you to punish the extra long frames!

#Taking your time to think

The more you run, the less time you will take to make decisions as it will become muscle memory, but at moments of tough choices, it can be a good idea to tap open your index or pause the game, both of these will pause the timer and allow you a few moments to think without having to worry about the time, other places the time pauses naturally are 

Interacting with blessings, Interacting with a Shrine, While Purchasing Enhancements.

#Conclusion

Of course, I can not cover absolutely every little detail about what makes a good run possible within a written guide, but hopefully, the information disclosed within this will be a good starting point for those wanting to get into the speedrun scene of the game!

The most important thing of all and that will impact your runs the most, is just to have fun with it, most of the best strategies people use were found cause they found them fun and worked on improving upon them! if you have any questions please feel free to ask in the Speedrun section of the discord, I'm almost always present and if I'm not, there are many runners in there :) Thanks for your time and good luck Omenforged!

Name	Author
Bow % Builds / playstyle	Fluffehjuju 2 years ago
Speedrunning Basics and Tips	Fluffehjuju 2 years ago