Halls of Torment has 11 characters (classes) so far and each is unique in its own way giving you a new gameplay angle when you use him. We say that this is the number of characters so far because the developer team has added new characters since the game’s first beta release so we can’t be sure that this is the final number.
In our Halls of Torment all character’s guide, we’ll reflect on the main points that you should be aware of when playing all 11 classes. Some are more beginner-friendly while others represent a challenge but whomever you pick you’ll have plenty of fun, that’s for sure. In case you need more help with the game’s basics we’ve got you covered in our Halls of Torment Beginner’s Guide And Tips.
Overview
As you play and level up your characters in the dangerous halls of this game you’ll notice that you’ll be offered plenty of upgrades. Some of those will be specific to your character, some will be specific to abilities that you’ve picked up along the way and lastly, some upgrades will be universal and can appear for any character. Universal abilities that add pure percent-based damage and attack speed should be picked up for all characters as they benefit the whole gang. Other upgrades will be discussed separately.
Halls of Torment heroes do remind us of classic RPG classes so you’ll notice many similarities as you read about and play each one.
Swordsman
Swordsman is your basic starting character. To put it simply, he is like a barbarian — tanky melee hero with an AOE sword attack. He will benefit most from Area, Movespeed, and Pickup Range general stats. You need your sword to grab a big area so you can clear the incoming hordes more easily. Also, getting a bit of Movespeed will let you maneuver around big hordes and step out of range from various tricky attacks that champions and other elites have.
Pickup range is one of the basic stats every melee hero needs since you will often be pushed by the big army and XP crystals will be trapped inside or behind the horde. With a good enough Pickup range, you’ll get most of the XP points for all slain enemies. When it comes to abilities, Swordsman works best with Radiant Aura, Astronomer’s Orbs, and Transfixion. The first two give him a close-range ally that can protect him from anyone getting too close, while the latter works as a small ranged weapon that helps him clear enemies in front of him.
For equipment, try and give the Swordsman those items that will increase his Damage, HP, Defense, and Pickup Range. Critical Chance and Critical hit bonuses are other great ones as well. No matter how strong you are, you are after all a melee character that will get hit more than a few times and you need to be able to withstand that damage.
Archer
When it comes to Archer, it’s probably best described as a glass-canon hero. A fast-moving, ranged character that shoots multiple piercing arrows will remind you of many ranged classes in RPG or MOBA games. But, it being a weak hero doesn’t mean that you should invest too much in its HP or damage-blocking stats. Instead, you should double down on Movespeed and wave-clearing stats such as Multistrike.
Even though damage output should be your main focus, do grab an occasional HP boost and HP Regen boost. Ranged enemies and elites will chip away your HP so you need to be able to survive and heal back up. If so happens that you have items that give you a decent enough Regen (like Holy Relic), you don’t have to focus on getting it as the level-up upgrade.
Archer’s equipment should have items that increase Movespeed, Attack Speed, Projectiles, and Critical chance/Crit bonus. These go hand in hand with Phantom Needles, Transfixion, and Lightning Strikes abilities.
Shield Maiden
Shield Maiden is going to be the favorite hero for all tank lovers out there. Not only is she naturally a tanky hero, but part of her damage output scales directly with the Block Strength stat. Her first hit with a hammer deals physical damage, while the secondary one deals with a shield that deals damage based on your Block Strength stat and knocks back enemies (even elites!). Having said that, Block Strength is the stat to look out for.
When Block Strength stat isn’t available or you think you have enough of it make sure to grab a bit of Defense and HP stats. Picking up the Area trait can also work great because Shield Maiden deals damage in an area. HP regen should be picked up from time to time so you have a reliable way of refilling the mighty HP pool.
While playing Shield Maiden you’ll notice that you might not have the killer capacity of some other heroes but you will simply be impossible to kill. When you rack up enough defensive stats you can simply go through masses of enemies without getting scared. Most of the incoming damage will be blocked or reduced to such small levels that you won’t feel it. Radiant Aura and Frost Avalanche go great with this tank to constantly damage and slow down incoming enemies.
There are plenty of items that add Block Strength, HP, and Defense to the hero so chase those when playing Shield Maiden. Pickup Range and HP Regen are also some good bonuses you can carry with you through items.
Exterminator
Any fans of flamethrowers and mages out there? Well if you are one, Exterminator is your hero. He has a great starting Burn Damage and Burn Chance that allows you to clear hordes without too many problems. The first deals straight damage, while the second stat leaves a debuff on enemies letting the burn damage tick on them over time. Still, this isn’t so effective vs elites so that’s where you’ll need to be careful.
Increasing Range and Multistrike will bring you a much better killing potential while allowing you to sit back at a safe range from strong enemies, particularly bosses. Getting Affliction and Fragile effects can help you in killing elite enemies.
Choosing equipment for Exterminator will be pretty easy as there are plenty of items (such as Firewalker Boots, and Ring of Fire for example) that add extra fire damage or increase the burn chance that you dish out. When getting abilities, pay close attention to Dragon’s Breath, Flame Strike, and Meteor Strike. All these abilities have a chance of further increasing your fire damage and applying burn to more and more enemies.
Warlock
Warlock is the master of the Summons, and luckily there are plenty of Summons and Summons-based damage spells out there. He is a pretty vulnerable character whose main damage is coming from roaming ghosts that he sends out. The ghosts roam around piercing and damaging the enemies.
Each ghost lasts for 1.5 seconds. However, when you upgrade your Force you will increase their duration, thus allowing them to roam for longer and deal more damage. On top of that, Attack Speed, which we described as essential to all characters, is especially important for Warlock because the higher your attack speed, the more ghosts you will have flying around thinning out the horde.
Abilities are vital for Warlock since he is a weak hero and needs all the help he can get. Astronomer’s Orbs is a great pick because this ability counts as a Summon and gets all the summon perks. Radiant Aura and Spirit Warrior can help Warlock greatly as well.
When choosing the equipment you can go two ways. You can focus on getting rings that spawn summons/increase their numbers or go for some fixed magical damage to reduce the horde. Both can work.
Cleric
The Cleric is a little odd compared to other heroes in that he starts with a massive base damage of 1000 that can work great vs elites and bosses but it has a downside. It’s split among all enemies caught so you’ll need to maneuver those attacks really carefully to get the most out of them.
Before entering a hall with Cleric make sure you get great starting Movement Speed (items such as Running Shoes can do the job) that will put you in a position where you can manually dodge all incoming damage since the hero is quite squishy. After that, you should focus on getting items that can heal you decently such as Bloodstained Wrappings or Holy Relic, and a few stats for Defense and Block Strength. We would recommend the ladder mostly if you have uncommon items that not only give you base defensive stats but also improve them each time you level up.
Magic damage will be the name of the game with Cleric. Pick up any traits that increase it (and further boost them with potions if possible) and go for abilities Transfixion (scales well with crit bonus and crit chance and attack speed) and Arcane Rift (scales with Area and Damage). Spectral fists and Radiant Aura can also be powerful in Cleric’s hands.
Sorceress
The Sorceress is one of the most powerful characters in the game and is also beginner-friendly. She not only starts with a great Crit Chance (33%) but that chance is increased at every level up, giving you awesome horde-clearing capabilities. On top of that, she has a 50% chance to apply Spark on enemies who receive a Critical hit, giving you that extra DoT damage.
Since she is on the softer side, we recommend you take a combination of Movement Speed equipment that will help her outrun the attackers and equipment/stats that give her Block Strength since she gets +0.5% of that stat at each level up. She won’t be a tank but it will help her survive any incoming hits. However, the focus of the build should be building her Crit Chance (use Wooden Ring for example) and Attack Speed. Those enemies shouldn’t even get close to you in the first place.
When choosing abilities you can never go wrong with lightning-based ones like Kugelblitz and Lightning Strikes because they apply the Spark effect, naturally complementing your character’s abilities.
Norseman
The best way to approach the Norseman is to play on his main strength — Frost damage. Not to be mixed up with Ice damage, Frost is an effect that is applied to enemies and deals area damage. Upon hitting enemies 250 times, this northern warrior releases a big circular Frost Nova wave. This means only one thing — boost that Attack Speed!
As Attack Speed will increase the rate at which you’ll be releasing Frost Novas, you’ll also want to build up on your Range and Area. These traits also increase the number of enemies hit, thus giving you more Frost Novas. Your gear should also add to Frost damage as much as possible so if you can get your hands on items such as Ring of Frost or uncommon Frozen Bog Boots, you’ll be unstoppable. Elemental Resonator is another great addition if you can find it!
As you might expect, Frost Avalanche ability will be the ideal one for Norseman. We would say that it’s worth skipping other abilities and keep looking for Frost Avalanche upgrades that boost the Frost effect when picking up Scrolls of Mastery. One of the reasons this is a good choice is that getting other random abilities will fill up your level-up trait offer window with boosts that don’t work toward your Frost build.
Landsknecht
When creating this Halls of Torment all characters guide, Landsknect was one of the most difficult characters to describe because he is a one-of-a-kind character that can seem difficult at first sight. He uses two main abilities, the strong, single-shot piercing Arquebus and Grenades that deal area damage. The best way to play him is to build around Grenades since their damage is based on damage dealt by other projectiles.
Get projectile-boosting traits like Multistrike, Range, and Area. You can synergize it with abilities such as Phantom Needles because Grenades trigger when you deal projectile damage. Landsknecht favors equipment that increases Defense because he gets a natural boost to this stat through level-up so gear like Chain Mail will do him good.
Beast Huntress
Beast Huntress is a physical damage-oriented hero with a Summon hound next to her side from the beginning of your run. Her main weapon, the spear that she throws that can pierce enemies, is her main strength during early and mid-game. But, for the late game, you’ll need to rely on abilities more.
To get the most out of Beast Huntress’ main weapon, you should focus on improving your Crit Chance, Crit Bonus, and Force. The first two are great because her starting crit-related stats are strong (33% Crit Chance and 200% Crit Bonus) while improving Force will let you pierce more enemies. Items like Wooden Ring can help immensely.
As for the late game, you should think about Abilities that will let you clear mass numbers of enemies. Beast Huntress benefits a lot from Transfixion and Phantom Needles as those abilities can Crit quite heavily. Apart from those, you can grab Ring Blades and Radiant Aura.
Sage
Sage is a quite unique character in that he doesn’t have a main weapon. Instead, you get to choose any Ability (from the ones you have unlocked) and the first one you pick will be your main weapon. We’re not gonna lie, this character is quite difficult to get used to as he doesn’t deal a lot of damage early on. As you get more Abilities and upgrades it will be easier to breathe.
Phantom Needles as the first and main ability are the best way to start. Adding Phantom Fetters upgrade will slow down enemies, giving you more breathing room. Transfixion is a great follow-up later in the game, especially if you can get it upgraded so that you can attack both in front of you and behind you. With these abilities lined up, you’ll want to upgrade your Crit Bonus, Crit Chance, and Attack Speed as much as possible. Both through equipment such as Quickhand Gloves and through the level-up traits.
Conclusion
As you can see in our Halls of Torment all characters guide, it is full of unique and special heroes. The game’s creators undoubtedly wanted to provide diverse experience not only when playing different heroes, but also when playing various maps and difficulty levels.
Some are easier to play while others are harder to master and will require you to have some in-game experience to be able to handle them. That’s why we recommend you play those characters that you’re most comfortable with for the first dozen runs or more until you’ve unlocked certain permanent buffs the game offers.
For those big fans of roguelikes out there we have an Ultimate Brotato Builds & Strategy Guide where we break down everything you need to know about the popular spud fighting game Brotato. And if you want more games similar to Halls of Torment and Brotato you can find them in our piece 5 Roguelike Games Like Brotato.
Photo credits: Chasing Carrots.
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