Rating all of Crown Prince's Ascensions, along with miscellaneous gameplay tips. This guide is focused on Reincarnation+7 difficulty and Solo Play. Occult scrolls are not factored, as this is a general guide and you cannot rely on getting specific scrolls. Impact of Talent 2.0 and Reincarnation changes *Added new sections to the guide, and updated the ascension ratings and descriptions. -Crown Prince now has a near infinite amount of smoke grenades with the new talent tree (spending weapon ammo generates secondary ammo at a specific rate). You can basically throw them at every enemy without concern for ammo. -Every character has 3 unique Spiritual Blessings available from a special vendor in reincarnation mode. Crown Prince's set is great, all 3 are very powerful. -Reincarnation mode heavily favours elemental fusions, especially Miasma because it scales up with the increased enemy HP due to being percentage damage. Crown Prince having the easiest access to it guarantees his damage output will always be sufficient regardless of bad rng. -Gemini Inscriptions are now relatively accessible in Area 2 thanks to 'etching'. (see the 'etching' section in the guide for details). Overall Crown Prince benefited very heavily from these changes and is a top choice for playing Reincarnation+7. Why to play Crown Prince (or why not to play) +Best secondary grenade of all characters with 100% elemental effect chance. +Easiest access to damaging elemental fusions (explosion and miasma). +Good amount of base shields and regeneration. +Extremely strong set of Spiritual Blessings -Terrible base movement speed causes him to get hit more often while strafing around enemies. -'Energy Orb' skill is not great without ascensions that improve it. Elements 101 If you are new and unfamiliar with elements, all elements have a unique status effect they can apply as well as an 'hp type' they do 50% additional damage to. However they have a 25% damage penalty to the other two 'hp types'. The chance to apply an elemental effect is the 'elemental effect chance' and varies depending on the weapon. -Fire element deals bonus damage to 'red hp' (enemies without shields or armor) and applies 'burning', a small damage over time effect based on your weapon's damage (deals 20% of the triggering shot's damage once per second, wears off after 5 ticks if not refreshed). -Corrosive element deals bonus damage to 'yellow hp' (armor) and applies 'decay', halving the movement speed of the target, -Lightning element deals bonus damage to 'blue hp' (shields) and applies 'shock', dealing 50% of the damage from the hit to nearby enemies, and causes the primary target to take an additional 10% damage for a short duration. When an elemental effect is applied to an enemy with a different elemental effect on them already, it triggers powerful 'elemental fusions' depending on which effects are on the target. These are covered in the next section, they are very important to Crown Prince's playstyle. Elemental fusions, which to use? Crown Prince should generally be using either a Fire or Lightning elemental weapon as his primary weapon (and the other as his secondary weapon). This is because Smoke Grenades can easily apply decay regardless of which weapon you have out, so to take full advantage of elemental fusions your weapon should be applying one of the other elements. Ideally you will be able to activate all 3 fusion effects at once. Fire + Corrosive elements cause Explosion, which causes a small area damage burst based off the damage of the attack that triggered it (specifically, it does double the damage of the hit that triggered it). This works best with weapons with already good damage output; grenades triggering explosion fusions will not result in very good damage without a lot of investment in grenade damage ascensions, so usually you will want to apply decay from the grenade before applying burning from your weapon. Fire weapons are the most plentiful elemental weapons so it's relatively easy to find a good one. Fire is also the most effective damage type against bosses (not necessarily elites though) because all bosses have plenty of 'red hp', which fire deals extra damage to. Lightning + Corrosive elements cause Miasma, which causes a stackable 'damage over time' effect that deals bonus damage to enemies without shield or armor. The damage from this has no relation to damage of the hit that applied it, only the rate of application matters. Multiple stacks of this effect absolutely obliterate standard enemies. If an enemy has been shocked already, following up with a single smoke grenade can apply enough miasma to kill them. This is a very powerful fusion for clearing rooms using grenades along with a good lightning weapon. Especially keep an eye out for the weapon affix that spreads elemental effects to nearby enemies, that benefits this fusion heavily. However, strong lightning weapons tend to be less common than fire weapons. Fire + Lightning elements cause Manipulation, which causes the enemy to immediately stop attacking you and target other enemies instead. This is a very strong defensive effect though, it has the side-effect of making it difficult to target enemy weak point sometimes, as their movement can be pretty erratic when they aren't targeting you. Also has no effect on elites/bosses for obvious reasons. Spiritual Blessings (new) (These buffs are available from a vendor unique to reincarnation mode. They cost 150 soul essence each and are not permanent, so players without a maxed talent tree may want to pass on taking them.) Elemental Maestro "Every 10s, gain a buff lasting 4s that increases Elemental DMG by +100% and sets Elemental Effect chance to 100%." Extremely useful, this would still be worthwhile if it only had the guaranteed elemental effect chance but it has a significant +100% DMG bonus on top of that. The uptime of this buff is 40% so it's quite easy to manage, attacking while the buff is active will provide massive damage output with miasma or explosive fusions. Smogbound Zone "Smoke Grenade radius increases by 40%, duration increases by 5s, and allies standing within the radius gain -20% damage reduction." All around excellent utility bonuses. Every Crown Prince build greatly appreciates the radius and duration increases, the damage reduction is just icing on top. This has very strong interactions with 'Hex Smoke' (as well as grenade DMG ascensions), the key defensive ascension. I would personally take this over the previous blessing if given the choice, but they are both very strong options. Splinter Orb "When you cast Energy Orb, 2 adjacent orbs are casted at the same time to the left and right side of the main orb." While probably the weakest of the 3 blessings, it's still a strong effect that makes it a lot easier to disable groups of enemies. It has good synergy with 'Energy Echo' and 'Blinding Sphere' ascensions, allowing it to easily apply elemental effects across a wide area. It also has the side-benefit of restoring more shields, since Energy Orb restores 5% of your total shield for every hit done. Gemini Etching (new) This is the new core strategy for basically every character at higher reincarnation levels. It let's you setup endgame gemini weapons as early as area 2, before enemy HP starts to scale to a silly degree. Gemini inscriptions can be etched onto any weapon for a fee at the craftsman if either one of two conditions is fulfilled: 1. The weapon already has 4 inscriptions before etching (every naturally dropped weapon starting in Area 2 qualifies for this). 2. The weapon is enhanced to +5 (This lets you bring a weapon from the first area, but is more expensive as you have to spend money to upgrade it first. Usually used for bringing a secondary weapon, though if sometimes you may have a good primary you want to bring instead). As Crown Prince, the Gemini to aim for is the 'share damage type' Gemini. You will have one Fire/Lightning weapon you use as a primary weapon. This is the weapon that inscriptions matter on (elemental effect spread is extremely useful) and it should have a fast hit rate (an automatic or an elemental shotgun). The secondary weapon (the 'gemini fodder') should have the element your primary does not have, and will rarely be used in combat, the only stat that matters on it is 'elemental effect chance'. This stat is directly applied to the first weapon on top of its existing elemental effect chance. As such Melee weapons are very good candidates for fodder as they have very high elemental effect chances. (ex. Lightning Blast gemini'd with Fire Tower results in Lightning Blast having a 20% chance to inflict shock AND a 50% chance to inflict burning with every bullet). Most of your money should be reserved for etching and reforging the gemini's until they match. Do not waste money upgrading weapons you don't intend to use for gemini etching as the process can be expensive and the sooner you get it done the better off you will be. Ascension Tier List This list covers Ascensions in a vacuum. Specific ratings will shift as your build progresses in a run. Use your own judgement. (ex. defensive Ascensions may have more value if you have only found offensive occult scrolls) Some Ascensions are also rated differently depending on how many points you have in them already. (ex. lv3 rating assumes you already have 2 points invested). The Tiers are divided as follows: S: Excellent Ascension. Almost always pick if it doesn't conflict with your build, A: Great Ascension. Can't usually go wrong with these. B: Good Ascension. Good to have, just not as high priority. C: Mediocre Ascension. Not necessarily 'bad' but you probably shouldn't pick these over other ones.

元素

野火：对受元素效果影响的敌人造成击杀后，获得40%、50%、60%的射速加成，持续6秒。等级3时，只需命中敌人即可触发该效果，无需击杀。 投入1点即可获得相当不错的射速加成，但由于需要击杀目标，在对抗精英或 boss 时（未解锁等级3的情况下）可能无法一直保持该效果。射速提升会增加弹药消耗和 reload 时间，不过如果武器能够应对这些问题，那么该效果会非常强大。射速加成与【瘴气融合】有很好的联动，因为更快地施加瘴气是提升其伤害输出的唯一途径。此外，等级2的提升基本没有实质增强，所以如果之后没有机会获得等级3，投入到等级2会有些浪费。

能量回响【能量球拥有与当前持有的武器相同的元素类型，且其元素效果触发几率为100%】。 对于闪电武器而言，100%触发自选元素效果非常强大；对一群敌人释放此技能并投掷手榴弹，大多数受影响的普通敌人都会死于瘴气伤害。如果你已经在手榴弹伤害的升华节点上投入了点数，那么这对火焰武器也很有用；但如果没有投入，爆炸效果不会造成显著伤害，这种情况下该技能就不会特别有用。

【雷电支配】：+40%…+80%…+120%闪电伤害。对处于电击效果中的敌人，幸运一击几率+50%。 这是标准的闪电伤害强化技能。其伤害提升效果显著，3级时的效果能带来稳定的整体伤害加成（尤其对精英/ boss敌人，因为瘴气对它们的击杀速度不如普通敌人快）。缺点是必须使用闪电武器才能生效。如果早期选择了这个技能，后期却获得更好的火焰主武器而不得不切换时，可能会陷入尴尬境地。如果你已投入点数到这个升华技能，建议避免选择【火焰支配】，因为两者无法同时生效。请注意，武器只有在其初始元素为雷电时才能从中获益，通过伤害共享双星赋予雷电元素的情况不算在内。

元素狂怒：“对处于任意元素效果下的敌人，造成+30%…+60%…+120%伤害。” 这是王子唯一的通用增伤天赋，需要目标身上有元素效果，但对王子来说这个条件很容易满足。该天赋没有特殊的3级效果，伤害提升幅度比“支配”系列天赋稍慢，但与“支配”系列不同，早期选择它不会影响你之后切换武器元素。此外，如果你的build需要烟雾弹伤害，它还有额外的烟雾弹增伤加成。

火焰支配：+40%…+80%…+120%火焰伤害。等级3时，使燃烧和爆炸（融合效果）伤害翻倍。 这是标准的火焰伤害强化技能。其伤害提升效果显著，等级3的效果能带来稳定的整体伤害增强（它使爆炸融合造成的伤害从触发攻击伤害的2倍提升至4倍）。缺点是必须使用火焰武器才能生效。如果过早选择此技能，之后又获得更好的闪电系主武器而切换时，可能会陷入尴尬境地。如果已经投入点数到该升华技能，应尽量避免选择“闪电支配”升华技能，因为两者无法同时生效。请注意，武器只有在其初始元素为火元素时才能从中获益，通过伤害共享双星赋予火元素的情况不算在内。

酸性支配：+40%…+80%…+120%腐蚀伤害。等级3时，对敌人造成的首次暴击会在其脚下生成一枚活性烟雾 grenade。 皇子不应使用腐蚀武器，因为它们无法与烟雾 grenade 协同触发融合效果。因此，这基本上只是一个 grenade 伤害加成。烟雾 grenade 由此获得的伤害加成并非基础伤害，因此其效果不如专门的 grenade 伤害天赋，也不如同时提升武器伤害的“元素狂暴”。等级3的效果虽好，但皇子已有大量 grenade，且升级到等级3存在风险，这使得该天赋在大多数情况下并不值得选择。 烟雾

背包扩容【烟雾弹容量+4、+8、+12。等级3时，每投掷2枚手榴弹可恢复1枚】。随着新天赋2.0的改动，太子拥有大量烟雾弹，在任何实际情况下都不会耗尽。因此，这个升华技能相当无用。

元素护盾：使用烟雾弹后，最大护盾值提升30/60/90点，持续6秒/6秒/20秒。等级3时，持续期间还将免疫元素效果。 这是对最大护盾值的小幅提升。护盾提升量会维持你缺失护盾的百分比，因此如果你在没有护盾的情况下使用此技能，之后护盾仍会保持为0。每级提升的护盾值不算多，而且你需要使用大量手榴弹才能维持这个效果（不过王子本来就会频繁使用手榴弹），但如果你已有足够的 offensive ability，这会是一个防御选择。由于完全依靠瘴气伤害也能完成 runs，任何形式的防御即使效果不显著也可能有所帮助。不过它仍然远不如【Hex Smoke】强力。

酸性爆炸【被烟雾弹影响的敌人死亡后会发生爆炸。】 该爆炸造成腐蚀元素伤害，伤害值基于烟雾弹每一跳的总伤害（基础伤害为600）。此技能具有相当高的潜在伤害，尤其是当该升华技能的爆炸命中燃烧状态的敌人时，会触发爆炸融合效果以造成额外伤害。但需要注意的是，其爆炸半径不大，因此敌人需要靠得很近才能命中，并且需要大量升华和灵魂天赋的支持才能真正发挥价值。与生成可破坏投射物的敌人（尤其是河童和鱼龙 boss）之间还有一个有趣的互动：烟雾弹摧毁的每个投射物都会触发此效果，从而造成大量爆发伤害。

【烟雾弹】被烟雾弹命中的敌人造成的伤害降低50%..60%..70%，受到的伤害增加20%..30%..40%，持续6..6..20秒。 这是王子的主要防御选择。需要注意的是，此效果是伤害倍率，而非附加伤害加成，因此现有伤害加成越高，该效果提供的实际伤害提升就越高。在较高难度下，至少点1级这个升华能让你承受伤害时更有余地，而且它还提供不错的 offensive bonus，几乎没有理由不点。虽然对 boss 和精英敌人效果很好，但无法对房间内的每个威胁都施加此效果。远程敌人通常能毫无阻碍地向你射击，所以你需要留意那些在你的手榴弹射程之外的敌人。

毒性烟雾【烟雾弹基础伤害提升300%、400%、500%。等级3时，烟雾弹在爆炸后每秒额外获得100%基础伤害】 这个强化直接提升烟雾弹的基础伤害，因此如果你想利用“酸性爆炸”强化或借助爆炸融合来提升手榴弹伤害，必须点1级这个强化。不过在点完1级后，“烟雾天才”强化对烟雾弹伤害的提升效果会更好，之后应优先选择它。如果你没有选择手榴弹相关的灵魂天赋，在更高难度下，手榴弹伤害的提升将不足以产生显著效果，此时可以忽略这个强化。

烟雾专家：烟雾弹持续时间延长1…2…3秒，伤害间隔减少20%…30%…50%。 该强化通过提升【触发频率】和延长持续时间，间接增加了烟雾弹的基础伤害。此效果对闪电武器最为有利，因为提升瘴气伤害的唯一途径就是加快其施加速度；它增强了【电击接手榴弹】连招的潜力，使其能更稳定地击杀目标。当然，它也是手榴弹伤害流派的核心。如果你已拥有1级【毒性烟雾】升华，那么该强化对烟雾弹基础伤害的提升效果将超过【毒性烟雾】的后续等级。再次强调，如果你不选择【手雷之魂】天赋，手雷流派的伤害在更高难度下将无法稳定提升，但延长的持续时间和更快的触发频率对任何流派来说仍然相当实用。 【法球】

强化效果“能量球额外冻结敌人2…4…6秒。等级3时，能量球冷却时间减少30%” 这极大提升了能量球的实用性。默认情况下，能量球冻结敌人2秒，但由于施法动画存在延迟，实际冻结敌人后你只有约1秒时间进行射击。仅1级此强化就能让你有足够时间安全击杀大多数敌人（精英怪/ Boss除外）。更高等级时，你有足够时间大幅削减精英怪/ Boss的生命值，且冻结持续时间足以对同一目标有效释放第二次（尽管对同一目标多次使用会有持续时间惩罚）。只需确保你有足够的伤害输出以充分利用这一强化。3级效果也很不错，虽然意思相当明显。

能量源【能量球额外获得1、2、5层充能】 额外的能量球充能层数虽好，但前提是你已投入其他升华来强化它（未升级的能量球其实没什么用）。具体来说，如果你拥有【能量回响】或【强化持续】这两个升华中的任意一个，这个能量源才会变得有用。不过，投入超过1级的此能量源往往属于过度强化，而且它对精英怪/ Boss的影响不大，因为能量球多次命中同一目标时持续时间会缩短。

能量之刃：“施放能量球后，下一次攻击的武器伤害提升300%..400%..500%，并对目标相邻的敌人造成50%..75%..100%的伤害。” 这是一个有趣的升华技能，但遗憾的是与太子的其他游戏策略完全相悖。太子最受益于能良好施加元素效果的元素武器，但这类武器通常射速高、单次伤害低，不适合只能强化单次攻击的“能量之刃”。最强的单次伤害武器是发射器和狙击枪（以及新的火塔剑）。高伤害的发射器本身并非元素武器，很难找到合适的（即便有，其元素效果触发几率也很低）。虽然元素狙击手往往拥有更高的元素效果触发几率，但它们存在另一个严重问题。该【升华】的范围伤害无法造成暴击。这意味着，如果你将该升华升至3级（对相邻目标造成100%伤害），并打出一记10,000伤害的暴击（暴击倍率为4.0），那么对相邻目标的伤害将采用1.0的暴击倍率，因此只能造成2,500伤害，即原射击伤害的四分之一。这个升华的问题实在太多，难以让人觉得它始终值得投入。

炫目之球【能量球的爆炸范围增加2米、4米、6米。伤害和控制效果可穿透屏障。等级3时，能量球每击中一个目标，伤害增加50%。】 该强化的第二个效果描述较为特殊，意味着能量球的爆炸现在可以穿透墙壁等物理物体。这个强化其实相当不错，能够让能量球一次性击中一群敌人。如果你拥有【能量回响】强化，搭配雷电武器使用效果最佳。你可以冻结一群敌人并同时对他们施加电击效果，然后一颗烟雾弹就能触发足够的瘴气将他们全部消灭。你也可以搭配【强化持续】强化获得一些收益，以便一次性冻结更大范围的敌人。这个升华的3级效果毫无价值，因为能量球本身几乎造成不了什么伤害。

能量冲击：“能量球造成+200%、+400%、+600%伤害。30%几率爆炸两次。等级2时额外获得10%、20%几率爆炸三次，等级3时获得10%几率爆炸四次。” 能量球基础伤害仅为糟糕的600点，因此这个升华技能相当差劲。多重施法的几率也极不稳定。唯一能让它发挥作用的方式是同时拥有“能量回响”，将能量球转换为火焰元素并触发爆炸融合。这并非最糟糕的想法，但为了所获得的效果需要过多投入，而基本上其他任何技能都是更优先的投资选择。

高级护盾：释放能量球后，获得30%..60%..90%的护盾充能速度加成，持续6秒..6秒..20秒。等级3时，护盾充能一旦开始便无法被中断。 一个无法帮助你抵御爆发伤害的防御型升华技能并不是很好，它是三个防御型升华选项中最差的。由于天赋2.0中，当玩家重新充满护盾时都会获得爆发伤害保护，所以护盾充能现在更有用了。但该技能的主要问题在于生效时间太短，你必须在受到伤害后主动使用能量球，否则它可能派不上什么用场。3级的额外奖励实际上明显更好；它将该技能的持续时间从6秒修正为基本常驻，并且不受打断的充能效果让你能在战斗中真正从中获得收益。不过你不太可能将其升到3级。 通用技巧 关于烟雾弹 -不要吝啬使用你的手榴弹。皇太子应该经常使用它们，记住你可以通过消耗武器弹药以及打破罐子/桶来获得更多手榴弹。 -每次击败 Boss 后，在存档点的井处可以免费补充手榴弹。你也可以在 Boss 战前从商人那里完全补充手榴弹，或者在关卡中随机获得。补充手榴弹相当便宜，所以如果需要的话，不必为花钱购买而感到不舍。关于你的武器 -主武器应选择火焰或闪电属性，最好能良好施加元素效果以配合烟雾弹。 -副武器应选择与主武器不同的元素（例如主武器为火焰属性时，副武器选择闪电属性）。这能提升你的灵活性，并通过双子铭刻开启【伤害类型共享】。 -通过双子铭刻共享元素时，副武器唯一重要的属性是【元素效果触发几率】。高元素效果武器（如近战武器）即便你在战斗中从未实际使用，也是非常适合进行伤害共享的目标。 -在游戏初期，不必勉强选择一把属性不佳的元素武器，而放弃一把性能优秀的无属性武器。关于敌人 -部分敌人的攻击会使其对能量球的冰冻效果免疫（例如冲锋状态的黑脸土匪或漂浮的河童），如果发现敌人即将进入该状态，尽量避免浪费能量球。 -太子由于机动性较差，通常不能过于激进。进入房间后，花点时间确认当前敌人分布，规划安全的战斗方式。 -能量球和烟雾弹会阻碍敌人移动，对于闪避能力强的敌人，能更容易打出暴击。其他指南目前正在为夏季补丁进行更新。道士指南将在之后推出。 感谢维基贡献者提供技能图标。 如果您对本指南中的某些内容有不同看法，欢迎留言。