Alexis Kestler
Hey friend! If you‘re new to the incredibly fun and addictive roguelike Noobs Want to Live, you likely know first-hand how brutal and unforgiving it can be. I‘ve sunk hundreds of hours into the game, so let me guide you on how to construct game-breaking character builds.
The key is synergizing – combining your skills and abilities to interact in overpowered ways. Individually, your spells and attacks are strong, but when complemented with other skills, they become exponentially more deadly. Builds with maxed out synergies will let you plow through levels and bosses with ease.
In this guide, I‘ll break down the optimal synergies and skill combos for each of the game‘s unique characters. Get ready to melt hordes of monsters like never before!
Welcome to the Wacky World of Noobs Want to Live
Before we get into character builds, let me quickly explain what this game is all about for the uninitiated. Noobs Want to Live is an action-packed roguelike centred around slicing your way through procedurally generated dungeon levels. The art style is colourful and goofy – everything is made up of beautifully animated cardboard cutouts.
Gameplay consists of choosing one of the six wacky characters like the sword-wielding knight Sir Swish or the maniacal jester Harlequin. You‘ll fight through hordes of enemies in cube-based levels, gain experience points, unlock new skills, and finally try to defeat the eccentric Napolean Dynamite-esque final boss, Pedro.
Where Noobs Want to Live shines is the creativity of its characters and the complexity of their skills. Unlocking new abilities and mixing them together is incredibly fun and rewarding. The game really opens up when you assemble synergistic builds and combine skills to lay waste to baddies like never before.
It scratches a similar itch to classics like Binding of Isaac or Enter the Gungeon but with its own charming flair. If you love testing wild character builds and power combos, you‘ll adore Noobs Want to Live. Now let‘s get into breaking down the best of them!
The Goofy and Powerful Cast of Heroes
Noobs Want to Live features a roster of six playable characters, each with access to a different set of skills catering to unique playstyles. Let‘s briefly go over the heroes:
Sir Swish – your balanced sword fighter. He mixes up powerful melee combos with skills like Whirlwind and Precision Strikes.
Harlequin – the creepy jester who confuses foes and unleashes chaos magic. She disables groups with tricks like Party Favors and Manic Laughter.
Pyronica – a psychotic pyromancer wielding deadly fire spells. Skills like Fireball and Immolation burn enemies to cinders.
Techno – a robotics expert who constructs turrets and armies of bots. His minions like Tesla Coils and Ninja Bots do his dirty work.
Necrosa – the mistress of death and summoner of undead servants. She utilizes necromancy via skills like Raise Skeleton and Reanimator.
Kunoichi – a stealthy assassin loaded with traps, grenades and vanish. Deals burst damage through abilities like Poison Bomb and Smoke Screen.
Each hero allows for completely different styles of play. But they all have one thing in common – synergizing skills for destruction. Let‘s break down the best builds.
Sir Swish – Spin to Win Critical Slashes
Sir Swish is the well-rounded warrior, capable of decimating groups once you build up his damage and critical hit synergies. Here are two ways to craft his best builds:
Whirlwind + Precision Strikes Build
- Whirlwind – spin your sword around you, hitting all nearby enemies for 150% damage per spin. Lasts 5 seconds.
- Precision Strikes (Passive) – gain a 15% critical hit chance.
By combining a spammable AoE attack like Whirlwind with a consistent crit buff, you can regularly wipe out packs of monsters in seconds. The boost turns Sir Swish into a human lawnmower!
I‘d also suggest picking up passive skills like Critical Damage, Bleed Chance, and Crimson Dance to amplify your crits into nukes. Items that add elemental damage to attacks work wonders too.
Cleave + Power Strike Build
- Cleave – hit 3 enemies in an arc in front of you for 200% damage.
- Power Strike – your next attack deals 50% bonus damage. 6 second cooldown.
Timing a Power Strike into Cleave absolutely obliterates groups. Cleaving packs after a Power Strike will one-shot most non-elites before they can even react!
To supplement, grab passives like Swashbuckler (increased sword damage), Brutality (bonus damage to weakened enemies), and CounterAttack (chance to double strike after being hit).
With these synergies, Sir Swish becomes a human blender, devastating all in his path. Timing your spins and power attacks is vital to utilizing him to the fullest potential.
Pyronica – Burn Baby Burn Disintegrator Builds
Where Sir Swish relies on brute force, Pyronica burns enemies to ashes through deadly fire proliferation. Here are two builds perfect for her sadistic playstyle:
Fireball + Conflagration
- Fireball – launch a projectile that explodes on impact, burning enemies for 225 fire damage.
- Conflagration (Passive) – killing burning enemies causes them to explode and ignite nearby foes for 110 fire damage.
Spamming Fireball into packs of enemies will cause a chain reaction of fiery explosions as Conflagration spreads your burns with glee. Entire rooms of monsters disintegrate almost instantly from the flame propagation.
I suggest picking up Fireborn (reduces Fireball‘s cooldown), Fan the Flames (increases your Fire skills‘ radius), and Burning Purpose (bonus fire damage against burning enemies) to further amplify your inner pyromaniac.
Immolation + Fan the Flames
- Immolation – engulf yourself in flames, burning nearby enemies for 150 fire damage per second. Lasts 8 seconds.
- Fan the Flames – increase the radius of all fire skills by 20%.
Turning yourself into a walking inferno with Immolation + extending its range with Fan the Flames lets you melt everything around you without even trying. I like to combo this with skills like Fireburst On Hit to burn crowds while spinning into them.
Between chaining explosions and fire aura builds, Pyronica becomes an unstoppable force of incineration. Just be careful not to fall victim to your own unrelenting flames!
Closing Thoughts on Skill Synergies
Well there you have it, my friend! As you can see, combining skills that complement each other is vital for getting the most out of each character. Every hero has their own unique synergies to dramatically boost their damage and playstyle if you build into them.
I hope these top synergies help you obliterate NOOBS in your next run. Let me know if you discover any other wacky and powerful combos in your gameplay! Half the fun is experimenting with skills and stumbling upon some wild interaction. That‘s how you break the game.
The most important tip is to lean hard into each character‘s signature mechanic like Sir Swish‘s crits or Pyronica‘s burns. Pair skills that amplify those strengths for insane results. You‘ll be 1-shotting bosses in no time.
So get out there, synergize like crazy, and remind those noobs who‘s boss! This is Top10SM signing off.
