Soulstice guide: 5 best skills to unlock first for Lute

A brand new hack & slash is in town with the launch of Soulstice from Reply Game Studios. The game borrows elements from some of the most popular entries in the genre while being its own thing entirely.

Players have to control two characters simultaneously. Alongside the main player character Briar, there's Lute, her sister who has been turned into a Shade (a spirit).

Despite being bound to Briar, Lute is not useless as her abilities form the basic foundation of all kinds of actions in Soulstice, from combat to traversal. Additionally, with a branching skill tree to enhance the Shade's powers, it can be hard to pick what to prioritize in Soulstice's early hours.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the opinions of the writer

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Timeless, Bulwark, and 3 other good early skills for Lute in Soulstice

Players will start with basic forms of the key maneuvers in Soulstice, and these can be enhanced further. Lute's skills can be categorized as follows:

• Offense: Focuses on her attacking moves, like projectiles.
• Fields: Modify and enhance field effectiveness. There are only a handful of skills here, eight in total.
• Defense: Improve Lute's defensive and support capabilities, such as countering and deflecting attacks. This one is, by far, the biggest category of the three, with 58 skills in all.

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1) Sisterly Bond

Sisterly Bond allows Lute to react to an incoming enemy attack even if the Counter fails. This bonus defensive action can only occur every few seconds. It grants players a bit of leeway during hectic battles when multiple enemies are trying to attack at once.

Sisterly Bond is available in the Defense tree and is an enhancement to the base Protection skill. Players can buy it for 840 blue shards.

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2) Timeless

With Timeless, the Slow Counter effect lasts longer. The skill increases the amount of time an enemy remains in stasis, giving players more time to evade their attacks than with the base Slow skill.

Timeless is also available in the Defense tree and costs 1200 blue shards.

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3) Spiritual Expansion

Spiritual Expansion essentially increases the range of both the evocation field and the banishment field when in combat. The fields allow color-coded enemies within their reach to be vulnerable to Briar's attacks. This skill increases their radius the higher the Unity meter is.

Unity determines how well-coordinated Lute and Briar are, and this means players must learn to synergize each character with one another.

Spiritual Expansion is handy when going up against peskier, fast-moving enemies like Wraiths. It can be found in the Fields skill tree. It branches out from the basic Fields skill and can be bought for 840 blue shards.

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4) Bulwark

Another Defense skill, Bulwark allows Lute's Barrier to parry attacks from Medium and High Class enemies. It expands upon the basic Barrier skill that parries close-range attacks from only normal enemies.

Given how early bigger enemies will be introduced, this skill is definitely worth having. Players can get it from the Defense skill tree for 1200 blue shards.

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5) Otherworldly Confidence

With Otherworldly Confidence, Lute will be able to perform an offensive attack called Blast while battling foes. She can aid Briar in further depleting enemy health on top of standard attacks from weapons. This minor skill lets players fill the Unity meter quicker.

Players will also be able to perform Synergy Attacks, which rely on High Unity. Since the one for the base Ashen Vindicator sword is unlocked from the get-go, it's worth investing into this skill.

Otherworldly Confidence is available in the Offense skill tree for 840 blue shards.

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One great thing about the skill trees in Soulstice is that players can refund the shards used to buy a skill. They can even pick another if they don't like the one they originally got.

The skill tree can only be invested in while on the chapter start screen and when interacting with Layton, one of the key NPCs in the game.

Soulstice is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.