Dungeon farming for beginners
This page is a beginner's starting point, not an optimised build guide. It is adapted, with credit, from Steam Community guides by Mocking and soullessglassak (September 2026); the originals are linked under Credits.
Dungeon farming is running dungeons repeatedly for gear, relics, and combat skill experience. This page gives a new player one setup that works: a staff, three abilities that suit it, the stats to look for, and the relics to take when they appear. Once it is comfortable, change it. There are many workable builds, including tank and support roles, and the only rule is that your weapon, gear, abilities, and stats should pull in the same direction rather than against each other.
Before you start
Difficulty
Dungeons come in five difficulty rungs, from Stable up to Fractured, Collapsing, Shattered, and Abyssal. Higher rungs mean stronger enemies and better rewards. Party size matters too: the more players enter, the larger and tougher the waves become, so a full party is not automatically easier than going alone.
Get your abilities from quests
Abilities are only obtained by completing quests and side quests, so finish those before you settle into farming. More abilities means more combinations to try. Upgrade every ability you actually use: upgrades improve damage, shorten cooldowns, and unlock further relic pools. Ability tiers run Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary, and higher tiers hit harder with shorter cooldowns.
The Vacan-Sealer
The Vacan-Sealer is a key item from a quest in Lunar City. With it, the relics you are offered inside a dungeon are drawn from the pools of the abilities you had equipped when you entered. Without it your relic offers are far less predictable. Both guide authors recommend getting it before farming seriously.
Relic Upgrade Rerolls
A Relic Upgrade Reroll lets you re-draw a relic offer inside a dungeon. They are crafted from materials gathered through Hacking. Carry some on every run; the more abilities you equip, the more relic pools you are drawing from, and the more rerolls you will need to land the ones you want. Fewer abilities means a smaller pool and fewer rerolls.
A starter staff build
Why a staff
Melee weapons (sword, greatsword, hammer) are strong but need you close to the enemy. A staff fires projectiles that explode on impact, so you can stay in the middle of a room, kite, and keep killing without taking hits. For a new player the single stat that makes a staff work is Cooldown Reduction: enough of it keeps enemies away and does most of the damage on its own.
Abilities
Both authors converge on the same core: staff + Pyrosphere + Ice Cube, with the third slot to taste.
- Starting set (Mocking): staff, Pyrosphere, Healing Pulse, Blackhole Bomb. Healing Pulse is there purely to cut potion use while you learn.
- Once you can sustain (Mocking): staff, Pyrosphere, Ice Cube, Gleam Twins.
- If you keep dying (soullessglassak): swap the third slot for Fortify and take its Lifeward relic, which places a heal mark on you that restores health when you take damage.
- If you are not dying: use the third slot for an ability from a combat skill you want to level. Its kills are free experience.
Pyrosphere scales off the staff's cooldown reduction, so every point of it speeds up both. The Pyrosphere Ring adds a second projectile to each cast. If a room is swarming you, firing Pyrosphere at your own feet clears the space around you.
Stats
Primary stats: Will and Focus. Secondary stats to prioritise, in this order:
- Cooldown Reduction
- DoT Potency
- Duration
- AoE Radius
- Void damage
Void damage comes chiefly from the Nihil Cinch, a belt that drops from Collapsing dungeons.
Gear
Use whatever decent gear you already have. The set both authors work towards is the Lunar Conduit set (Lunar Conduit Crown, Lunar Conduit Robe, Lunar Conduit Treads), which drops from the Lunar Plateau dungeon at Shattered and Abyssal difficulty. Along the way, soullessglassak's list for cooldown reduction is:
- Legs: Virelda Warcrest Greaves, from Eastern Reach at Shattered difficulty.
- Back: Gecko Backpack.
- Belt: Emberline Belt.
- Rings: the Pyrosphere Ring, and a region signet with heavy hit or critical strike stats.
- Weapon: any staff you like until a legendary with a Pyrosphere effect drops.
Relic priorities
Take these when they are offered, in roughly this order. The list applies to every ability combination above; you do not need a different plan per combination. Fill the remaining slots with whatever your run needs.
| Ability | Take first | Then |
|---|---|---|
| Staff | Magnetism as high as it goes (soullessglassak takes it to its top level first on every solo run; the top level also boosts experience gained), then Phantom Barrage (extra projectiles with no downside) | Rapid Fire · Long Range · cooldown reduction relics · projectile speed and critical strike chance · cast range and AoE radius · +20% damage |
| Pyrosphere | Accelerant Core · Gravity Well | Scorched Earth |
| Ice Cube | Eternal Winter · Frozen Bastion | — |
| Blackhole Bomb | Implosion | fuse timer reduction |
| Gleam Twins | Mirror Image · Needle Rounds · Overclock | — |
| Healing Pulse | None needed; its relic pools can be ignored. | — |
| Fortify | Lifeward | duration and cooldown reduction |
Tips
- Configure weapon and abilities before you enter, not in the first room.
- Clearing the last combat room is not finishing the dungeon. Reach the extraction room or you lose the run. See Dungeon.
- Do not chase a perfect build on day one. Get abilities, upgrade them, and experiment.
See also
- Dungeon · Relic · Ability · Stats
- Combat skill training for levelling each combat skill in dungeons.
- Leveling and Progression
- New Player Guide
Credits
This page is adapted from two Steam Community guides, with thanks to their authors:
- Mocking, Dungeon Guide & Recommended Builds for Beginners (11 September 2026).
- soullessglassak, A Quick Guide To Be Staff Overlord (11 September 2026).