Summary
Quintessences in theaction-heavy fantasy roguelikethat isSkul: The Hero Slayerare items that give Skul anotherattack option on top of his two ‘skull’ slots. When a player’s Skills are down on their current skull and the timer to switch between the two skulls hasn’t refreshed, Quintessences can really help in clearing a room or keeping the DPS going during a boss battle.
Not only that, but a lot of Quintessences have passive bonuses and other uses outside of just flat damage. So, with that in mind, let’s go over some of the best Quintessences players should keep an eye out for inSkul: The Hero Slayer, and what types of build each one works best for.
Updated May 25th, 2024 by Jacob Buchalter:Skul: The Hero Slayer is quite a unique game. It’s a pretty popular roguelike and those in the roguelike community have typically at least heard of it, but it’s not ‘incredibly’ popular. Posterchild roguelikes such as Hades, Slay the Spire, Binding of Isaac, and more still far outshine Skul: The Hero Slayer in terms of popularity, and that’s a shame because this game is one of the more content-heavy, more creative, and most adrenaline-pumping action roguelikes out there. A part of what can make the combat and the individual attempts so unique in Skul: The Hero Slayer are the Quintessences, which are usable items that players can pick up and activate during combat to trigger all sorts of effects. These aren’t just passive buffs or small animations either, most of the Quintessences have these elaborate and bombastic animations, some of which can take up the entire screen. So, let’s take a look through all of the Quintessences players can find in Skul: The Hero Slayer and see which ones reign supreme.
Disclaimer:There’s a split on sources saying that certain Quintessences given passive effects that aren’t listed in the description such as +20 Max HP etc. However, we couldn’t find anything like that in our testing, so just take the numbers/effects of these items listed below with a grain of salt.
36 Seconds
Wind Storm
Right out of the gate is a Quintessence inclusion that long-time fans of Skul: The Hero Slayer likely didn’t expect to be on here, the Gryphon Quintessence. But, in general, the Gryphon Quintessence is one of the best early-game options for raw CC AKA Crowd Control. While the damage it deals isn’t stellar compared to just about every other Quintessence on here and it doesn’t have the biggest area of effect, it’s great at basically nullifying one area of the screen for a bit or even hiding inside of the storm to create a temporary ‘safe zone’.
Plus, it only has a 36-second cooldown, which is pretty short, meaning you may typically use this Quintessence once per room if not twice depending on the size of the room. There are obviously plenty of better physical damage Quintessence options out there in this game, but not many of them are offered this early this often. Remember, the Gryphon Quintessence is a simple Rare Quintessence, meaning it has a much higher chance of being offered (and subsequently used) in earlier parts of a run than say, the Balrog Quintessence. In any case, the Gryphon Quintessence just barely crawls its way onto these rankings, but that doesn’t mean that the Gryphon Quintessence is ‘bad’ by any means, it’s just that everything else above this point is better.
25 Seconds
Roar of the Battlefield
Next up is a Quintessence that has a truly spectacular effect, in fact, it might be one of the strongest Quintessence effects on here, but it also has just as harsh of a penalty. Essentially, the Orc Quintessence, when activated, doubles all outgoing physical damage from Skul from any source for about 7 seconds. The only downside is, for those same 7 seconds, Skul also takes double damage as well, and that includes both physical and magic damage.
If you use this Quintessence in a busy room and take a couple of stray hits, you’re able to literally end your run right there, the damage is that staggering (especially on higher Dark Mirror levels), but if you’re confident in your skill, this Quintessence is one of the best to grab. That said, even the best Skul: The Hero Slayer players know that some of the more ‘chaotic’ moments in this game are almost impossible to avoid all damage during, so that’s also worth keeping in mind if you see this Quintessence offered in a chest or in the shop. For the most part, there are a lot of other options that provide just as much of a damage benefit if not more than the Orc Quintessence, which is why it’s so low on these rankings. But, in the right hands, the Orc Quintessence can absolutely make a run a total cakewalk to clear.
15 seconds
Slime Bubble
Moving on to one of the most commonly used Quintessences in the game, especially after the Dark Mirror update. Funnily enough, as opposed to most other Quintessences that have some big bombastic effect, the Slime Quintessence just does one thing. To put it as simply as possible, when used, this item turns Skul into a Slime for 3 seconds, in which he is completely immune to all damage.
When the duration is over, Skul turns back and deals Magic Damage to any enemy nearby. The reason this is so commonly used (outside of no-hit achievement runs, of course) is that there are a lot of attacks in the last couple of boss fights ofSkulthat are incredibly difficult to avoid, so having a reliable method of avoiding damage goes a long way in making some areas of the gamea little less frustrating.
30 seconds
Pulse
Next up is one of the only Quintessences on here with a passive and active effect, Lyweasel. Thankfully, this doesn’t make things overly complicated, as one might expect fromsuch a content-heavy indie game. In reality, this is just absolutely the Quintessence to get forSkulplayers who constantly forget to use their Quintessence.
Passively, this Quintessence makes dashing so much faster, safer, and more fun. Actively, the lightning from this Quintessence helps add more damage on top when Skul is trying to clear a group of enemies. The dashing aspect of this Quintessence is by far the more common reason it’s used, and for players using a Power Skull build in particular, it can be a lifesaver. In general,for anyone familiar withHades,this Quintessence has a lot of overlap with the Zeus Boon playstyle in that game.
82 seconds
Unleashed Powers
Hopping right from a Rare Quintessence to a Legendary One, Suonisio is a fantastic damage-type Quintessence plain and simple. When activated, this Quintessence summons a ‘Demon King’ named Suonisio who summons a powerful explosion from his hand that deals an absurd amount of damage to anything in its range.
The best part of this Quintessence outside of its damage, however, is the fact that said damage prioritizes whichever ‘type’ that Skul has a higher amount of. So, it’s a Quintessence that works on any build, Physical or Magical, as the damage is adaptive.
7 seconds
Mine
And then jumping right back down from a Legendary to a Common Quintessence, Kobold is one of the best early-game options players have for farming a whole boatload of Gold. When used to hit an enemy, the Kobold will ‘mine’ 10 Gold from the hit. However, if the hit kills the enemy, this is where the real money comes from, as it then has a 33 percent chance to spawn a Gold Vein. For every Gold Vein destroyed, players get 100 Gold. So even if it’s a bit slow, if players take their time killing each enemy in the first few maps with the Kobold, they’ll be way ahead of the curve and can spend their Gold haphazardly.
60 seconds
55 seconds
Solo Performance
The next two Quintessences here are grouped together simply because they both serve the same purpose, but one is Physical Damage while the other is Magic Damage. First up is the Flame Dragon, which might be the Quintessence with the most overall ‘flair’ when used, as it summons a gigantic dragon head that breaths down a torrent of flame covering a good portion of the screen.
Then there’s Banshee, which is a much calmer Quintessence visually, as it summons a well-known yokai, AKA a Banshee, to play some solemn music for Skul’s enemies. Both of these Quintessences are fantastic at clearing a screen full of enemies, with Flame Dragon specializing a bit more in raw damage and Banshee having a bit more Crowd Control due to the ‘charm’ effect of her song.
72 seconds
Legion of the Storm
Not to include all too many Legendary Rarity Quintessences on here, but Raven Lord is another one that is honestly overpowered. When held, this Quintessence causes Raven Soldier allies to spawn every now and again which will automatically attack nearby enemies with Magic Damage. And then, when the Quintessence is activated, the soldiers ‘return to the afterlife’ which results in this large vortex being created that pulls enemies in and deals another huge chunk of Magic Damage. The passive effect of this Quintessence is already strong enough, but the active effect is so incredibly useful for clearing rooms that it’s almost impossible to switch off this Quintessence once players find it.
90 seconds
Metamorphosis
Funnily enough, this next Quintessence actually has a lot in common with the Slime Quintessence, as both are in the ‘Transformation’ category in which using them transforms Skul for a time. When Balrog is used, Skul becomes this half-skeletal half-balrog creature who has unique Basic Attacks, Skills, and Dashes.
While it’s easy to take a lot of unnecessary damage in this Transformation ifplayers don’t have the ‘fastest’ reflexes, the sheer control players have over how this Quintessence is used easily makes it one of the top picks.
40 seconds
Ferociousness
As probably one of the most ‘boring’ options on here, at least visually, Troll is also one of the best. When used, it has a very simple effect, it makes all of Skul’s attacks Critical Hits for the next 5 seconds.
That alone might not seem like enough to justify including this Quintessence here,but remember that Inscriptions and Speed Skulls exist. With the right Crit-focused build and some absurdly fast Speed Skulls, players can melt through a boss almost instantly when using this Quintessence.
