Combat skill training

This page condenses a Steam Community guide by Redderik (September 2026) with credit; the original is linked under Credits. For a first dungeon setup, start with Dungeon farming for beginners.

The five combat skills (Strength, Knowledge, Dexterity, Technology, and Marksmanship) are the slowest skills to train. Unlike gathering or crafting skills they only gain experience from kills in dungeons, and a kill credits the skill of the weapon or ability that made it. That one rule shapes every method below: to train a skill, make sure its abilities are getting the kills, and keep anything else on manual cast so it cannot steal them.

Experience is highest at the top difficulty. Redderik reports roughly 24,000 to 25,000 experience per run of Lunar Plateau at Abyssal, which needs both survivability and raw damage. Shattered runs give less per run but the enemies are weaker and clears are faster, so Shattered is the better grind for most builds while they are still coming together.

Two relics for every method

Magnetism (passive relic). Pulls experience drops to you however large your area of effect becomes, and its top level adds a large experience bonus. Every method below takes it early, usually right after the one or two relics that make the build survivable.
Healing Pulse (ability). A small area heal that cuts potion use. It fits any build and, kept on manual cast, steals no kills. Fortify does the same job as a shield if you give it duration and cooldown reduction.

Strength

Equip a sword, greatsword, or hammer and kill with the weapon itself. Which weapon you choose decides whether this is easy or painful.

The hammer is the easiest by far: wide area damage, good damage, and survivability in one. Its key relics:

Frostbreaker (Redderik's pick): converts the weapon to cold damage and slows everything it hits, so with enough area you kill waves before they reach you. Phase II shatters the chill for bonus damage.
Bulwark: every third hit drops a blue circle that shields you while you stand in it. Strong early, but you have to stay inside the circle. Phase III adds damage and area.
Stormbreaker: lightning conversion with chain lightning on hits. Best boss damage of the three conversions, but enemies must be close, and most die before they get there.
Tremors: arguably the most important. Each attack adds a shockwave; Phase II widens it by half, Phase III adds a second shockwave and more threat. With enough cooldown reduction you effectively land three attacks at once.

Damage type follows the conversion you take, so match belts, armour, and elixirs to it (physical for Bulwark, cold for Frostbreaker, lightning for Stormbreaker).

Method: reroll until you hold Tremors I or Frostbreaker I, take Magnetism to its top level, then take whatever comes. Keep a high-damage ability such as Gleam Twins or Ice Cube on manual cast for bosses only; the hammer alone kills bosses slowly. Ice Cube in particular will steal Strength kills if left on automatic.

Knowledge

The easiest combat skill to train. Staff kills now count towards Knowledge, and the Knowledge abilities hit hard, fast, and wide.

Staff: take Phantom Barrage (more projectiles, no downside) and the relic that halves cooldown for half damage; at machine-gun cast rates the damage loss is negligible. Avoid the +100% damage / +100% cooldown relic, and the physical conversion.
Ice Cube: Eternal Winter III makes it a persistent area that knocks back and shreds anything standing in it, including bosses. Frozen Bastion adds a Fortify-style shield on cast and, at Phase III, fires three spheres per cast. Together they melt bosses in seconds.
Pyrosphere: hits hard and easily reaches the 0.3 second cooldown cap. Accelerant Core (half cooldown for 40% less damage, worth it), Gravity Well (void conversion plus a black hole on impact), and Scorched Earth (burning zones; Phase II spawns more zones around enemies that enter them). The Pyrosphere Ring doubles your casts.
Chain Lightning: very strong, but the build that makes it a primary needs a legendary Celestial Yoku Staff (Tier 6). Before that, treat it as a secondary and take chains, range, and cooldown.
Healing Pulse with Consecration also deals damage.

Methods:

Ice Cube: staff and Ice Cube only. Phantom Barrage I first, Magnetism to top level, then Eternal Winter III and Frozen Bastion III. After that you can stand still and farm.
Pyrosphere: Pyrosphere Ring on. Start with either Phantom Barrage or Accelerant Core II, then Magnetism.

Dexterity

Middling difficulty. No weapon credits Dexterity on kill, so the abilities must do all the killing, and any other damaging ability on automatic costs you experience.

Bomb: good area damage and utility. Engineer adds a stunning smoke cloud that also raises your dodge; Phase II heals inside it (usable between waves); Phase III grants +40% move speed for 4 seconds on every throw, the best speed buff in the game in Redderik's view. Fire Bomb leaves a burning zone. Redderik reports Proximity Mine as not working at the time of writing.
Chakram: the most fun, the most relic phases (Trap Master has five), and still the weakest damage of the three. Phantom and Curved Stalker add extra chakrams (up to seven in total), but Curved Stalker adds 50% to the cooldown.
Kusarigama: fast and deadly in both directions, since it pulls enemies onto you. Stack cooldown reduction: the lightning conversion (−20% cooldown), Momentum Reaper (another −20%), and Reaper's Edge for critical chance so kills are quick. Hard to run in a party because you are not guaranteed the kills.

Methods:

Bomb (safer): the Dark Yoku Hammer (Tier 4), Viridium Hammer (Tier 5), and Lunar Conduit Treads (Tier 6) each add a second explosion when a bomb hits five or more enemies. Take the +100% AoE radius relic, then Magnetism, then the rest. Chakram as secondary damage; Gleam Twins on manual for bosses. The bomb's own healing makes Healing Pulse optional.
Kusarigama (gear dependent): Reaper's Edge and cooldown first, since Magnetism is hard to prioritise early. The green passive support line gives a further 20% cooldown reduction at level 8. Gleam Twins on manual for bosses; Healing Pulse recommended.

Technology

Fun, but mostly support abilities, which makes it awkward to farm. Only two of the three deal damage; the third (Fortify) is meant to credit experience when a shielded ally takes damage, which Redderik had not tested in a party.

Blackhole Bomb: pulls enemies to its centre and ticks damage over time, so it lives on cooldown reduction and DoT Potency. The Catalyst Ring (faster tick interval) is essential; Implosion II (+100% damage over time) is essential for survival. Take the −90% fuse timer and the +200 ms stun. Wormhole Singularity can drop a second black hole on your own position, so keep a shield up.
Drone: hits hard and buffs you and allies with heavy hit chance; a cold conversion adds chill. Overclock Swarm adds drones and halves cooldown on critical strikes at Phase II; Heavy Payload III gives a large heavy hit chance boost. Extra drones come from Neotilus Trailseeker Boots (Tier 5), and the Drone Base Count Ring (+2). Up to nine drones are possible.
Fortify: shield for you and nearby allies. Frost Barrier chills enemies in range, freezes them at Phase II, and at Phase III gives +50% cold damage, which stacks with the cold conversions above and with Ice Cube. Fortify deals no damage, so it never steals a kill.

Method: run all three together. Implosion II first, then Magnetism, then more Blackhole Bomb or Drone relics if waves are a problem, then Heavy Payload III, Overclock Swarm III, the cold conversions, and Frost Barrier III. Slow to assemble, very fast once done. Cooldown reduction from Virelda Warcrest Greaves (Tier 5), Tritanium Hammer (Tier 4), or Celestial Hammer (Tier 6) helps every part of it. If you can wear only one ring, wear the Catalyst Ring.

Marksmanship

Fun and frustrating in equal measure. Gleam Twins is the whole build; the two guns are support.

Gleam Twins: huge damage in a short window, and there is no bad relic for it. Mirror Image fires a second copy behind you, so standing in the middle of a boss doubles the damage.
Machinegun: cone damage in a fixed direction. Always aim and cast it manually; on automatic it will target the one enemy behind you instead of the pack in front. Its duration relics are double-edged, because you may end up firing at nothing after repositioning. It falls off hard at high difficulty.
Minigun: a small turret orbiting you. Low damage per shot, but its duration and fire-rate relics are pure upside, Suppressive Fire lowers enemy physical resistance (pairs with a physical conversion on Gleam Twins), and knockback relics give you a safety net.

Method: farm Shattered rather than Abyssal; Abyssal enemies have too much health for Gleam Twins alone. Mirror Image II, then Overclock III, then Needle Rounds III, then Minigun fire rate, duration, and Suppressive Fire. Do not run other damaging abilities; they only take Marksmanship experience away. Gear that helps: Double Tap Ring (more shots per tick), Voltspore Striker's Chain (+50% gun duration, early game), Celestial Yoku Gunner's Pendant (gun duration and minigun fire rate), and Redderik's favourite, the Viridium Gunners Pendant, which recasts Gleam Twins four seconds after you use it for almost constant uptime. The Neotilus Trailseeker Visor (Tier 6) gives guns a 5% chance to spawn an extra minigun.

Credits

This page is a condensed adaptation of Redderik, Red's Combat Skills Guide. (Steam Community, 11 September 2026), with thanks to the author. The original carries phase-by-phase relic detail that this page leaves out.