At the start you pick from three different "classes". In reality it means two things: what your starter weapon will be and how your basic stats will be (permanently) laid out.

Cricket is your fast but fragile starter with Rapier.
Bastard is your balanced starter with Saber.
Sweeper is your heavy hitter starter with Greatsword.

I advise on picking Bastard since the stat distribution is what will ultimately allow you to experiment with build freely once you get the ability to respec. Also, Saber is a pretty good weapon.

What are the most important stats? The first three: Vitality, Vigor and Capacity.

Originally posted by Wise Reddit User:

Focus on endurance, the damage will get there.

Your health pool really ain't nothing to write home about. When you get stuck in a combo, you pretty much get eaten anyways. What really matter is GUARD REGAIN - that is the flimsy piece of health you lose while guarding but can get back by dishing out subsequent damage. The more Vitality you have, the bigger is the GUARD REGAIN payoff. Vitality also increases your basic resistances.

In early game you want to dump levels into Vitality up until around 15. In midgame I got away with having 20, but 25 is safer - that higher number got me well into endgame, however there I needed to respec to 35 Vitality and that was pretty much the dealbreaker in terms of my survivability.

For NG+ I am pushing 40 and certainly not less however... the returns are at 7hp rn and it's gonna get worse from there on so I will probs stay here and dump levels into Cap and dakka dakka.

Seems kinda useless, right? It raises basic resistances, but beside that it only helps with Stamina. Well you do not need much stamina in early game, but later on you will need to guard and dodge barrage of combos AND have enough to exploit an opening with your attacks since even basic attacks will deplete stamina and once you hit zero, you kinda stop attacking.

Early game: If you feel like it, you can round it up to 10, I went lightly on it until I got to P-organ augments (read below) that allow me to link dodges and guard more since that is pretty much the point you really start to draw from your Stamina.

Midgame: Have 15-20. I'd prioritize Vitality and Capacity and only put more whenever I'd feel I do not have enough stamina for both defense and offense.

Endgame: 30 was my safe number. You could probably get away with a little less, 25 perhaps. You can always respec.

During NG+ I still have 30 (returns are awful beyond that). If you are stamina hungry, try to spec in with Quartz. Use Patience amulet.

That one is actually crucial. As anything it helps with basic resists, but the main takeaway is Weight limit increase and Legion Arm capacity. If you are playing for Motivity heavy hitter, you need really big capacity (I'd say 30-40 for NG), because the best defensive equipment is simply burdening. For lighter builds - you will still opt for four amulet slots and some amulets are heavy af, legion arms carry weight too, so having 20-25 endgame Capacity is simply goat.

Rule of thumb: I wanna wear something, I will raise my capacity so that I can wear it without being weighed down.

During NG+ I noticed you will be getting upgraded versions of defensive items. They are HEAVIER. By a bit, but still. I have 45 capacity right now and I will push for 50.

Strength and Dexterity. One of them will be your basic offensive stat. They do the same - increase Physical ATK. Their effect really shows in conjecture with weapons (read below). For a first playthrough - pick one of them and stick to it, don't go hybrid.

Early game: you can start dumping once you secure base Vitality and Capacity.
Midgame: Have around 20.
Endgame: I have had 40 and it was good for nothing, I respec'd to 30 (and dumped free points into Vitality) and it was actually better since I was still hitting like a truck AND I got to survive for the next blow. So my idea is - for first playthrough to have 30 of any one offensive stat is excellent.

NG+ allows you to spec some beautiful combinations. I am currently at 20 Mot, 40 Tech and going for 20 Adv and I have a terrible damage going on. Hopefully I will go for 30/40/40.

That is your magic, of sorts. It helps with basic AND special resistances, it raises ATTACK abilities and Legion arm damage (where applicable). The idea is - Advance damage ain't much but it stacks, and every elemental damage counts - You can chug a couple of Thermite mines at the opponent, flamb them from afar while they are closing the distance and stab them with fire element laced blade. Resulting debuff stack is usually catastrophic but spectacular.

With that being said advancing your Advance stat is very tricky for the first playthrough and I do not advise playing for an Advance build since a) you will collect tools, arms and weapons needed later on, there is literally no early game build available b) being Thermite chugger means you got to grind for that Ergo to actually be able to buy stuff.

As for me, I have had zero investment in Advance up until midgame, then I respec'd to having 16 in stats + Advance ring for total of 20, that allowed me to melt and cheese few tricky adversaries. For late game I respec'd to 10 Advance as I needed more Vigor and Vitality. For NG+ I imagine you can just go to town and dump into Advance after you reach 40 on Technique, Motivity.

Each stat has its so-called soft cap meaning after a breakpoint you will start to get diminishing results by dumping more points into that certain stat. I have nicked off of a website a table here below, it is more or less accurate with my riveting insights.
Determining thresholds is tricky for the most part since Vitality for example diminishes every two levels right from the first level, so threshold rly is more or less point of "I gotta consider whether it is worth dumping more in here".

On special weapons, handles, legion arms and throwables you will see this enumeration of characters. They are related to Motivity and/or Technique and/or Advance.

What does it mean? From what I understand this is a souls-like staple stuff, but for us virgins it means: How much damage will that object do in relation to you Stat distribution. It's called SCALING.

Having for example no scale in Motivity means your, for example, weapon (such as Acidic Spear handle) will not benefit from your Motivity Stat in any way. However it has A scaling in Advance so it will benefit from your Advance Stat. Since, in our example, your Advance is 10, you won't get much benefit. The handle also offers C Technique scaling, which is not that good, but you have 30 Technique, so the bonus will still be substantial.

As you can see from the attached image - Acidic crystal spear handle offers A in Advance and C in Technique while I have 10 and 30 respectively in stats. From the bonus distribution it seems that 10/A Scaling vs 30/C Scaling offers the same bonus in equation.



Another example: I have a tyrant dagger handle with Motivity/D, Technique/B and Advance/- with respective stats of 10/30/10. When I equip a handle that has Mot/Tech/Adv as D/C/B bonus layout will change, but DPS will not, since having two tier better Advance and one tier worse Tech balances out.

Now this is getting weird: I have the same stats and tyrant handle of D/B/- and I will opt for C/B/- handle. My DPS will be upped for 1 whole point of bonus. Whoa! If I opt for C/C/- handle my DPS will drop 8 points.

This is just to show you how the math works on the background while I do not have exact conversion tables at hand. I have only this advice:

1. Choose the weapon/handle that feels good to you before min/maxing DPS output - you won't dish out any damage if you cannot wield it properly.
   
2. Advance works only when there is an element to be applied.
   
3. I generally go for D Motivity, A/B Tech and I add at least some Advance using a crank if it is not already present and I'd rather have higher Advance than Motivity. If you play for Motivity as a main offensive stat, you just switch this logic around.

So here's the thing: The heavier you are the slower you move and it takes you longer to perform anything. Correct, right?
Now ponder this: The weight of the weapon itself influences how fast and how hard you swing. So even tho you are under 60% encumbrance you can still get bogged down, because you are using a heavy weapon, even heavy-handed handle can weigh down your moveset.

Rule of thumb:
Adjust the weight of your weapon to your encumbrance. Why? Simple psychology, stalker: The lighter you move the faster and nimbler you expect yourself to be only to be thrown off by swinging too slow and getting bonked right back. If you move slower then you subconsciously respect that and act more stoic. (There are exclusions to this: weapon you really vibe with.)

Dodge is one of the ways you can get outta harm's way. Here's the thing tho: You can overuse it. The logical thing is to dodge, but sometimes it's better to soak with guard. If you are keen on dodging (like I am) Link Dodge Quartz perk is a must.

There are weapons that allow parrying, not... physical, but mechanical: It is their Fable art. Parry acts as a perfect guard (you gotta press it on time) with added benefit of fcking up opponent real good in return. If you really are into that I suggest you find yourself a (special) weapon whose Fable says something along the lines of parry/counterattack.

Guard is your block. You always get damaged in the process, but how much and how much of that is recoverable via GUARD REGAIN is up to:

• The size and weight of the weapon (Let's hear it for Living Puppet Axe!)
  
• How much you've dumped into Guard Regain Quartz perks
  
• How much you've dumped into Vitality (bigger vitality = bigger guard regain possible)
  
• If you manage to dish out that damage back before something hits you and takes away any possible regain

It's the "press on time during opponent's attack" to receive no damage. Get "PG causes stiffness" Quartz perk and learn to PG at least somewhat consistently. Some bosses require to be PG'd. Fury attacks too (and sometimes they can't be simply avoided). There are entire builds based on PG. Worth it.

Unfortunately there is discrepancy between game, game and wiki so you might get confused as to what strike is and where to find it, so remember:

Blunt weapons are STRIKE damage type. You're welcome, champ.

Slash are easy: Those are axes and swords and they are better at it, because their SLASH status looks like this: = (which says they deal FAIR damage of this type, otherwise they deal poor damage of this type)

Stab weapons are PIERCE weapons. Those are generally daggers and spears. Their damage type efficiency applies the same.

Show me how to live and show me how to kill. So what are we weak to? ANYTHING. This is default unfair. Anyone seems to have endless stamina and sometimes enemies dodge on registering your button press which is ten times faster than what you can come up with.

Luckily our enemies have weaknesses too. We just need to juicily exploit them.

Puppets are generally allergic to: Electricity and Blunt
Carcasses are generally allergic to: Fire and Slash
Hoomans are generally allergic to: Acid and Slash or Stab
Alchemists AKA altered hoomans succumb to Slash better than Stab
Corrupted Puppets AKA bubbly horrors are share carcass AND puppet weaknesses!
Unarmored Puppets succumb to blunt force.
Heavy mobs are RESISTANT to blunt force (I usually cut them apart with Katana or Glaive).
Armored Enemies should be weak to piercing damage AKA stabby stab.

Also be careful regarding boss vs mob weaknesses - they don't necessarily overlap (Archbishop is for some reason susceptible to stabby stabby stab even tho carcasses are generally not).

Viva la Resistance! Sry I don't rly speak French. I do however posses crippling hatred toward bosses that refuse to die by simple stabby stabby stab stab and require some savvy to deal with. That being said, tada (oh yea please consider, for sake of space, that there are only weaknesses so if Champ Vicky is weak to being melted you can reckon he doesn't mind the blitz and so on):

When you see this ** in a cell, that means: READ BELOW TABLE (cuz it requires explanation)


**Black Rabbit Brotherhood: I think their big Bro must be considered altered hooman now, so better to go with Slash against him.
**Door Guardian is only weak to its own gimmick, read boss advice!
**Fox/Cat: You decided to fight them? You monster... (Or you ran otta coins, you sucka, keke)
**Laxasia: Is resistant to every physical type in her first phase, but terribly weak to acid bath.

1. Always expect a trap or a hidden foe right behind a corner, wall of boxes or right above you. Game WILL pull a d*ck move on ya two or three times (like putting an enemy who specializes in pushing you backwards right behind the door and the door is next to a chasm).
   
2. You will always circle back to a certain stargazer. Look for inaccessible ladders nearby or closed gates so you know that is particular stargazer will be connected via shortcut. If the road ahead is particularly annoying you might consider trying rushing through to open that shortcut on the other end.
   
3. Exploration is very, very, very much rewarded and lack thereof is soft-punished.
   
4. Be on a lookout for illuminated windows. They are source of side quests (some of which cannot be completed when you defeat a boss etc.).

1. Venigni repair tool is sometimes better than grinding the blade yourself (usually in a boss setup where you have only few seconds of respite).
   
2. Elemental Damage will help a ton. Do not hesitate to use it even though you have only few or none points in Advance. Most elemental damage is either Grindstone or Throwables! Stock on whatever suits you.
   
3. Don't hesitate to use Specter and give it a sugarcube buff to help with damage or survivability. It is simply better.
   
4. Carry shotpuns when you can for important enemies. Shotpuns can make then staggered when the window is open, but you cannot cross the distance safely.
   
5. Sawtooth wheel is excellent reach tool: Does no damage, but is incredibly cheap. It can help to draw out an enemy or throw one off a rooftop.
   
6. Especially for boss fights you do not have to bring your full defensive equipment. You can drop cartridge and converter at times and thus save between 7-22 pounds so you can stay light on feet.

1. For the love of all that is holy to you: do not be like me selling rare ingredients or - gasp - police batons! Rare ingredients are hard or impossible to obtain otherwise and weapons can't be bought back (you have to wait for next playthrough), if you are short on Ergo, go hunting.
   
2. You're gonna be best friends with Chapter V merchant. They offer throwables and abrasives for best prices (like objectively best prices, I ain't a paid schill, trust me, wink wink).
   
3. Do not sell Hero Ergo. There is an extra guy for that. However the best item to sell in bulk is Ergo itself. Other items usually offer low margin. You can get a Quartz perk for better prices too.
   
4. Do not be afraid to choose: You will get both rare weapons and rare amulets, you just have to play NG+ for that. Only amulet rly worth getting immediately is Piercing Hatred for NG+ otherwise it depends on your chosen build.

My personal best spots (highly subjective):

Early game
Krat Central Plaza: A lot of goons around the square and close to a startgazer, easy Ergo grab.
Elysion Boulevard Entrance: A long corridor full of easy Ergo.
Venigni Works Control Room: There are tons of puppets around AND you might bet some Thermite or fire abrasive drops.

Midgame
Rosa Isabelle Street Entrance: A long corridor full of easy Ergo.
Inside of Grand Exhibition: Kinda obnoxious to deal with narrow paths, shield guys and bomb hurdlers, rewards are impressive tho.
EDIT: Removed Moonlight town. Too drab.

Mid/Late Game
Barren Swamps Entrance: There is easy Ergo around. Later on I like to venture there just for that Fire Shovel Puppet guy in vicinity, because it has a nice Ergo drop and usually quite generous item drops.
Collapsed street: Awesome loop. Just run up the building and down and up and down, goons here are easy to stragger/stab and bigger ones have quite a generous Ergo drop.

Late game
Arche Abbey Upper Part - Inside: Hands down the best are for me. Big bois here drop a whopping 2,5k Ergo (there is one near the stargazer and one quite a bit further), but the best part is - anyone defeated here has a chance to drop resplendent fragment or even crystal (and crystal makes for big fat cash of 7000 Ergo).

Ofc use the quickport pendant to get back to the nearest Stargazer, amulet for bigger Ergo drops and corresponding perks (read below). Get that farm hustle going.

1. Don't throw a throwable unless you really need to (either to get rid of a pesky hard to reach enemy or soften up a big bully). Anything costs Ergo and throwables/consumables are one-time purchase, you won't get that value back.
   
2. Use a controller. Again: USE A CONTROLLER, unless you are Pint and want the pain. Controller support is superb, do not hesitate to learn it. Xbox or PS.
   
3. Always consider the environment: you can sometimes push the enemy off the ledge and they can do the same to you. One particular enemy can be easy to dodge in open space, but when you can encounter them in a tight corridor, they are suddenly 3 times harder. Your big weapon swings can also get interrupted if they collide with a wall or another obstacle - always keep your distance.
   
4. It is entirely needless to have more weapons or arms equipped - Save the capacity for amulets and defensive stuff. There are only few sections which require a quick weapon change for effectiveness.
   
5. Generally I recommend staying under 60% encumbrance for unmitigated movement. Going for lighter build is really hard, going for only "slightly heavy" is a bit worse but doable.

1. Platforming is a chore. Walk slowly when you can. Learn proper jumping beforehand. There is one segment of the game, where you need to navigate planks and it's honestly worse than half of the bosses you have to fight.
   
2. Some animation windows are actually longer than they look and you input for next action will not be taken into account in a kinda 0.25 timeframe where you have apparenty finished action but nothing happens. It can happen.
   
3. Camera will sometimes join the enemy and screw you over.

At one point you will start acuiring more left arms to replace your starting one. Any arm will benefit from you Motivity/Technique, some will benefit from Advance as well and all benefit from Capacity (that is fuel capacity)

My personal Tier list is as follows:

Deus Ex Machina: Now, you might think I am crazy... correct you are, but! Deus Ex Machina is actually btsht insane arm, I've done some more testing and I am a believer. It might not be suited for NG, but if you lean into it, then following conditions are a must for the arm to work well: Charge Legion on Elimination Quartz perk (take it) - Condensed Arm badaboom Quartz perk (take it) - Be Motivity main or have at least 15+ in Mot - Adjust your pace and learn to anticipate - Upgrade arm to max.
Thing is: This arm produces mines that take some time to... arm themselves, but they will go off eventually once they run out of time. You gotta learn timing: drop the bombs and lure mob in. Proceed to fork melting remnants. Absolute lawnmower for heavy-duty mobs. Professional Trash-Cleaner. It can abuse all optional mini-bosses and it can add to the hurt of big ones. Hands down best arm once you get the hang of it.

Flamberge: I consider fully upgraded Flamberge to be awesome tool for turning the game into Gordon Ramsay's Krat Kitchen, today's special: Carcass Fillet. Basically anything can be melted and fully upgraded Flamberge not only ups its damage but will allow you to trigger an explosion that can stagger an enemy and pushes you out of harm's way. This arm is handy for mowing down hordes, melting heavy hitters and softening up certain bosses.
Why is it worse than Deus Ex Machina? DEM kinda works on its own once you drop the payload while Flamberge's payoff requires you to hold on long enough and that might actually be the reason why you soak too much, coz you stand there like a ditz.

Aegis: It is not necessary to fully upgrade it, I think even first tier will do (but at least that!). With high enough capacity you can you Aegis as a buckler to soak most of damage in almost any situation. It can soak even fury attacks (I think the little sun dial of the Aegis must be charged for that). Excellent and responsive tool in your arsenal. Just watch out for the animation window - sometimes it's quicker to put on Guard instead of Aegis.
EDIT: Moved down a tier. Once you learn to perfect guard a bit more consistently aegis looses its flair.

Falcon Eyes: It pierces armor, does a decent damage, can make the enemy loose balance and it can reach buggers hiding behind enemy lines. Even basic Falcon Eyes is good enough. Its only disadvantage seems to be that it is quite hungry for fuel and feels mostly situational.

Puppet String: This might be somewhat controversial pick. My reasoning is as such: Puppet string does what Falcon Eyes and Aegis both do, but worse. It cannot really reach as easily as Falcon Eyes and while Falcon Eyes is made to disrupt armored enemies the String will just scratch them. It cannot really protect you as consistently as Aegis can. Its only advantage is that a first tier upgrade allows you to close distance quickly.

Pandemonium: I really like it, but it still sucks. It has long animation, requires setup and half of the time, since it sprays acid on the floor, enemies will simply walk out of it. Fully upgraded Pandemonium is even more painful, for you, since it takes ages before it goes off and when it does, enemy is either already dead or elsewhere.

Left Arm of Steel: Is actually pretty good. Strong punch and very light on Capacity. It is just that it does nothing special and consumes quite a lot of fuel. But hey - it is a starter, we are not expecting it to be fancy.

Fulminis: Excuse me? I have to stand too close for my comfort while it charges? It has literally zero reach and even fully upgraded there is little payoff. Flamberge has much more reach and it outputs damage instantly. This is not even worth using against Electricity susceptible enemies. I'd put it into D tier... you know what? I did. Pandemonium is situational at best but it can at least get some damage going, this one will get some damage going too, but it's usually me who gets hurt.

Ok, I didn't play Motivity main build. I play Tech with added splash of chemical warfare. So let's hear it for our Tech choice weapons!

Two Dragons Katana: It has incredibly agile moveset that allows you to jump back, dance around and leap in and is very responsive for parrying AND you can swing in confined spaces! This is no joke, I died a hundred times to a wall BONK wielding a glaive where otk followed. Only disadvantage is that Guard block is quite small.

Azure Dragon Glaive: I love it. It has awesome Fable, cool moveset, one of beast reach options. What's there not to like? A bit less durability, a bit heavier, it is still a slashing weapon so mobs resistant so Katana will be resistant to this as well AND did I say it has reach? Yea... don't bring a glaive to a knife fight in a confined space.

Golden Lie: A blunt puppet beater with an aboslutely fine reach. Since puppets aren't fleshy object and therefore don't suffer heart failures when stabbed multiple times a bonker stick will suffice. It has incredibly fluid moveset and terribly powerful Fable that locks down heavies like this (smack!) and wielding feels rly cool. What's there to hate? Fable is costly (both options are three slot), it has reach and therefore suffers the same problem Glaive does in... not so gracious spaces. It is also a sort of mid to lategame weapon, but I recommend using it on NG+ for any pure puppet-based boss.

Puppet Ripper: I got some incredible cheese with this weapon thanks to its unique strong attack move set - it disjoints its blade for full circle attack with awesome reach. Problem is: charge attack is very slow, leaves you very open, can get stuck in anyfin that isn't open plaza AND there are actually safer cheese options. Guard is also weaker compared to Mot options or Living Puppet Axe, or even Glaive I think.

Etiquette: A sharp Umbrella. It has a hilarious charge and Fable, the Fable itself feels underwhelming. Guard is of course terrible. It is a fast stab weapon tho so any lightweight mob will get stuck in otk flurry and human enemies are prone to being stabbed ferociously so that's a bonus, but it gets outclassed by other alternatives.

I have to try (most likely will not) other options.

Noblesse Oblige and Frozen feast are pretty much universally appraised as Motivity leaning hitters. Sword of Ark too, but I did no actually consider it any better than what Two Dragons can do in terms of interesting moveset.

Nope. Move along citizen. Rly. Gotta use grindstone.

Now with normal weapons there is an excellent reason to be using them: They can be recombined. Well, that plus the fact that there are six normal weapons with innate elemental damage unlike spesuls since those always require grindstones to utilize that Advance stat.

You are encouraged to combine normal weapons. Some combinations are better than others, but it still usually boils down to whatever handle or blade you fancy yourself. Remember that putting a slashing blade on a spear stick might result in said blade going down a tier in physical damage numbers. That's because moveset is determined by handle itself, and spears are not made for slashing (unless it's the Glaive).

My faves are (drumroll):

Booster Glaive: Strong Attack allows to quickly close distance for a savage blow. It is not that heavy and allows for quite agile fighting style. Certainly goat. It possibly works well with anything, but certainly with slashed based weapons.

City Long Spear: Is very VERY long but light! It offers quite good maneuverability and its Fable Art is cheap but useful for increased damage output.

Salamander Dagger - Very short, very stabby. Works well when you need that stab stab attack with added Advance Scaling.

Puppet's Sabre - very conventional, but it is light and offers a fine moveset. Certainly good option at least till midgame.

Dancer's Curved Sword - Upgrade for Puppet's Sabre. Offer better Tech Scaling and Guard Parry Fable. Can carry you well into lategame.

Bramble Curved Sword - I actually fancy this one. Offers balanced Mot/Tech hybrid playstyle with ok moveset and is light enough to balance out heavier blades.

Acidic Crystal Spear - Is an excellent middle ground between City Long Spear handle and Salamander Dagger, meaning: long but fast stabbing. I have had used it to deliver quick elemental stabs from a safe distance.

Live Puppet's Axe: My babe! Offers excellent Guard cover and hits like a truck. Great Fable. Plus it looks super cool. Whenever a big mob starts laughing at my usual dancing number this lil' babe of a guillotine shows up for a real dance... a very violent and abrupt dance.

Puppet's Sabre: Very conventional, but it is light as offers a fine moveset. Certainly great starter and earlygame holder.

Dancer's Curved Sword: Upgrade for Puppet's Sabre. Its Fable move is a poor man's Two Dragon move. 'Nuf said.

Circular Electric Chainsaw: For Electric damage? This is the one. Put it on it short to medium long light stick and just turn it on. It won't be as effective considering physical damage, but it's abt that sparkling blunt force this lil' monster creates more than anyfin.

Salamander Dagger: Excellent choice for melting that cheese. Put it on on long spear and start poking.

Booster Glaive: Fable is fine, I have loved this one for most of the game, but it falls short when you encounter better special weapons and is overshadowed by Living Puppet's Axe.

Admittedly, even Salamader Dagger is A tier weapon at best and it's a bit better than Acidic Spear tip simply because most enemies are at least partially weak to grilling, while only humans/alchemists are weak to acid.

Each of the six element-based weapons trades physical damage (or Fable, or weight or all) for the innate ability to save you Ergo AND time to apply since every grindstone is a one-time bonus and even special grindstone, which recharges, takes away precious time that you coud otherwise use for stabbing.

As for me I am rather fond of my fave spesuls and I'd rather waste resources applying melter to my blade than using suboptimal stabber, but they have their uses and on few occasions they are simply better option.

Fable Art is the special attack of the blade and handle separately. You can thus combine fables moves. Fable meter charges upon certain actions and damage done. Some fables are better than other and all need to be executed at the right time since they offer a large animation window for your enemy to exploit (unless you are using defensive handle Fable which usually works outright).

At one point you will unlock your heart's potential (to love and do damage) which is called P-Organ augmentation and is done via Quartz crystals you can find around Krat (or buy).

There offer two benefit types: Perks you pick via Quartz and Perks you unlock via investing enough Quartz in a certain branch of your P-Organ, P-Organ perks.

I used to have a big big list of my fave perks below, but the thing is: their effectiveness is mostly build dependent AND some of them were, during the game's lifetime, patched out or patched in. There is no reason in comprehensive list, but let me put down a few tips:

General P-Organs Rules

1. Your Quartz perks are divided into four categories: Offensive, Defensive, Ability and Utility.
   
2. You cannot apply the same category twice to a chosen P-Organ.
   
3. P-Organs are ordered in tiers. NG+/++ open more tiers.
   
4. You gotta fully occupy two P-Os to unlock a new tier.
   
5. P-O perk activates only once you fully occupy that P-O
   
6. NG+ will allow you to open and occupy almost everything.
   
7. Resetting P-Os puts them into a base state. Recalibrating keeps them unlocked for you to reapply Quartzes however you need.

General P-Organs Rules

• Start dumping into that category you will utilize the most (to lay it out evenly).
  
• Perks are build dependent, search for builds or builder tool beforehand. (Some options are: Perfect Guard Duelist, Pulse Cell Chugga, Discharger, Fable masta, Thrower-Maniac etc.)
  
• Invest into "Farm more Ergo" perks and "More Gold Coins" and shorter fruit bearing. So you can have more resources and respec options.
  
• Very VERY recommended P-O perks for anyone: Guard Retain, PG causes Stiffness, Amulet Slots, More Cube Uses and Better stagger/staggerable windows.
  
• Recommended Quartz Perks: More Ergo, Stamina consumption and basically anyfin defensive.
  
• Look for Krat Supply boxes and Optional quests/treasure hunts. They are source of more Quartz.

Basically any amulet is worth using. I will try to categorize them into: Must Haves, Nice to Haves, Situational, Don't Touch.

Doesn't mean you have to have them all on your slots, but at least one of these should appear if you want to optimize your build.

Piercing Hatred: GOAT. It makes you immune to basic ailments. Can't beat that. Only viable for NG+ since you get it near the game's end. But rly for NG+ this makes certain bosses that rely on harassing you with ailments so so SO easy.
Patience: Quicker stamina recovery is almost always better.
Carcass/Murderer/Destroyer: Always have one on your body if you want an edge against certain opponent type.
Arm of God: Consecutive attack do more and more damage. Pretty nasty in fast builds. Any dagger or light saber (kekw) will benefit from it.
Conquering: I started using that one over Arm of God since I have gotten better at perfect guarding. Amulet allows to dish out more damage a brief time after executing perfect guard. Coupled with improved destruction (Quartz skill) especially human bosses seem to feel it (in a very painful way which makes me happy as I am not the only one in this game to suffer terribly).
Extreme Modification: The more Fable slots you have the more damage you deal. I'd say: If you aren't keen on perfect guarding (or a boss requires you to dodge more as opposed to guarding) this is the 1:1 replacement for Conquering Amulet.
Recharged: So here's the thing. I am currently using a sort of Discharged build that pays off via depleted pulse cells meaning constant life regen allows me to keep trips back to a Stargazer to a minimum. So is it a based pick? Yea it is. Forgive me for I have sinned.
Triumvirate's: Having an ability increase on ALL legion arms is actually insane. If you frequently switch between at least three arms this is simply good to have. I'd argue it falls off reaching NG+ and beyond since by that time you will have max upgrades on all your fave arms.

You will most likely end up filling your second slot with one of these as well.

Carrier's: Actually really useful since it takes like 15% percent of weight away. It is worth using only when you have fourth amulet slot. The bargain is as such: You trade off amulet slot for 5 extra levels that you don't have to dump into Capacity. I still use it.
Blue Guardian: Increases life, stamina and arm capacity slightly. OK amulet, but got replaced in the final build. It still does a lot of fine little things tho.
Dancing One's: You know I never used it, but it actually IS nice to be able to dodge anyway (meaning on low stamina). Ofc certain bosses can't be constantly evaded, but if you lean into it, yea this is super valid.
Iron Wall: Further decreases physical damage taken. Probably useful for anyone: Heavy hitters want every defense and lightweights might actually use it to supplement heavier defensive items.
Red Fox's: Increases both Mot and Tech by a bit (almost the same amount as a single stat raising amulet), it has actually high payoff and most weapons utilize a bit of both stats.
Transformation: See my reasoning is easy - on NG you will be dumping most levels into either Tech or Mot. Advance will be left behind and this amulet allows you to keep up a bit for those fights where elemental damage actually really matters.
Swordsmanship Master's: Decreases weapon consumption. Period. But I think it got revamped into Quartz perk since I cannot find it anymore and there is actually a perk for that now.

These amulets either fulfill a certain role or they supplement your personal weakness. Meaning they will fill your third slot (you do have a third slot, right? No? Get IT!)

Hunter's: For farming Ergo. It is S tier but has absolutely no use in boss fight. I usually have it on me full-time coz I forget I do, but it is certainly only useful during Ergo grinds.
Ghost Walk: Are you like me? The moment enemy initiates a fury attack you get an uncontrollable urge to get in a way and take it? Yea? Then take this amulet. It allows you to dodge fury attack (as those need to be evaded from very very far or perfect blocked otherwise).
Assassin's: If your build if fast and critty this is a good option.
Black Cat's: I totally forgot this amulet exists... there are like three sections in the game that require some nasty platforming and this could have saved a lot of trips back from Stargazer. Oh well...
Indomitable: When you are against foes that spam Disruption or Break since Disruption is instakill when it charges and Break is making you feeble as hell.
Impregnable Fortress: I am not a fan, but if you block a lot, it will save you a lot of durability which in turn will let you use more windows to deal damage instead of first aid kiting your stabby baby.
Veteran's: Who what huh? Increases max legion... that is sometimes useful, ok. If you lean into heavy legion use.

Useless drab. Oh my gawd what a waste of slots!

Nameless One's: Lets hear it for our winner. A) This already is situational since it relies on builds that hog pulse cells and B) There is no guarantee this will pop off like ever when you need it. The randomness in a soulslike is what will get you killed if you rely on it. For a special amulet this is certainly a letdown.
Awakened God's: Like yea... It allows you to do more Fable damage to Staggered enemies. Double condition. Nice... Don't waste your slot.
Leaping/Life: Added HP or Stamina... You know I can rly get behind added Capacity since it has a big payoff but these are just waste of space or a necessary evil before you get just abt anyfin else.
Strength/Technique: +4 on Mot or Tech, single stat raise. Well while Advance raise has a certain appeal these two simply won't make that much of a difference when you main combat stat is already high and therefore become a waste of slot. NG+ Gives you a better a version for each and you know what? They still didn't cut it.

I do not have much to tell about earlier bosses, but I will offer more insights on the latter ones. If there is no NG+ addendum, that means strategy doesn't change.

Train Guard. Dodge overarching attacks. Dude is basically a tutorial mission. Don't waste any throwables/consumables if you have them on your hands. I'd say traversing Krat at that point requires more resources than this poor fella.

NG+
CRUSH HIM!

Guard and backstab. He's actually really puny donkey. Just avoid his face. He kicks real hard up front.

NG+
Hm. He was harder. I feel like he wised up to me going around him. Try to lure him off the bridge so you have more space to maneuver.

Use Specter. Don't be afraid. Dodge charges or die terribly.
Don't forget to pick up the whistle and show it to the boy! You can fail this quest if you delay.

Dude is a duelist. Guard and parry him. He uses like one nasty combo that breaks your posture and that is it. He is mostly dangerous because of the confined space. Backstab is necessary to finish him quickly.

Kinda free boss kill. Use Acid if you have any and beware its wrecking ball and legs - moves are telegraphed, but they are devastating. Another boss that is a bit harder only because of the confined arena.

This upstanding fellow will charge at ya and tore down the arena in the process. Once you get him somewhere close to half HP he'll go pyromad and start flushing the arena in heated metal and that's just not nice. Stock up on fire resists and ampules to treat serious grilling.
There is a good window of opportunity while he charges tho and a bit after that. He has a three part combo ending on fury if I remember correctly.

NG+
Be a good boi and have heat resist amulet on you. Or be a bad boi and take the challenge. Take a big blunt to bash the walking furnace, or living puppet axe. Don't be greedy. Wait it out.

I have actually showed her the emote and got my stuff anyways. Best fight ever.

Lots of burn might do it for this sucker. Dude has two stages: One where he basically acts as a fat hungry spider. Second where his spider visage becomes his as* and he protrudes a much nimbler torso from back. So now he can fight from both sides, but he can take double beating as well. Just try to position yourself in unison with specter (as specter will probably charge its nimble body part).
Salamander dagger might be cool.

Big bro is your main target, others will join as his HP will dwindles to help him, but they have basically a normal... or a bit tougher mob HP pool. The trick is to not get stalled with them: Fights ends only when big bro goes down.

NG+
Katana your way through gentle mayhem. I basically kept dodging all the siblings while hacking at my prize.

She's nimble and will dodge most of throwables. Use a big scary axe or blunt. She is surprisingly prone to getting hammered down. She has like two main combos and she is quite easy to guard.

Destroyed monitor over than one. He is using hook attacks that return like boomerang. Best way to deal with him is to Perfect Guard since he is kinda susceptible to being staggered.
Run around him the first time and unlock Stargazer right behind. Then fight. You will save a lot of time and you can lure him to fight him on an equal ground there.

NG+
Damn, I didn't even break a sweat. And I was dreading the moment I'd face the bully again!

First stage: Big bulky bully who uses a sort of siphon AoE once you get him to half. Guard. Use blunt weapon laced with sparkly. He'll melt.
Second stage: Really, really fast sweeper with lunging attacks. He has one nasty flurry that can be only dodged. If you have access to friendship wishstones, use them now. Lobe a few sparkly 'nades.

Haha. Imbue your Specter with power of friendship and acid damage and watch Vicky melt. Dodging is better as Vicky has overarching wrestling style combos that are kinda hard to parry at the right moment and he hits like a truck.

NG+ is even easier. Champ is very VERY allergic to corrosive stuff. Deus Ex arm also helped.

Wait for him to get staggered and stab him to a melting point. One of the easiest optional bosses. He likes to throw blades. Dodge or stand behind a central column. Deus Ex totally abused him.

Is actually pretty easy when you come prepared. It will melt under fire damage, but will apply Decay as well - Bring some orange bubbly flasks to get rid of it, since Decay will melt your weapon. Other than that I have Flambasted the thing. Actually easy when you ain't scared to use chemical warfare. Oh, the thing will kinda ignore Specter and go mostly for ye: Imbue specter with destructive power. Friendship is useless

During NG+ Hatred is the way.

Train that perfect guard. Backstabs will do her fast, but you need to watch out for her attacks. She has fast but few patterns and can be easily interrupted while coming onto you. She likes to throw rocks too. Just step aside and ready heavy swing. Katana did it here for me.

She stepped on a minefield and never came back during NG+ so I can't rly tell.

Load up on bombs. Don't even bother playing fair. When she summons a double, she will start dealing less damage. Dodge and have her targeted for more juicy Thermite.
Stack on Throwables now, you will need to face another boss immediately.


This is the immediate boss. I have used Salamander blade on City Long Pole handle and melted that thing. Just keep your distance and chug remaining throwables.


Try to get rid of that buckethead among the first, he is actually quite troublesome. Try to leave the duelist or the girl alive since they both have smaller health pools. The point is that at a certain point when there is a last Rabbit standing, their big bro will trash his coffin and charge you. With the remaining member being a squishy one you can finish them off fast and remaining zombie bro is no more a problem.


Gimmick fight. Aim for the leg, dodge his rolling ball attacks, get ready and move aside when he is toppling over, get ready for fatal attack.


I was a good boi and skipped. You gotta feed 'em gold coin fruit whenever they beg for it. AND BEG THEY WILL.


You know what? I have no idea what I did correctly. I destroyed her shield, I have dished out Acid damage, I got better at guarding and then I chugged my remaining Acid bombs at her and she melted like a Swiss Cheese. I think I got lucky. Get ready for serious lightning in Phase 2, it can be parried or so I've heard.


FIRE! Seriously. I used fire stabba' and Thermite and dodged his serious attacks. His second phase combo is nasty but predictable.


The harder fight. The true end boss. And a real pain.
I have had to respec to more life and stamina, built myself Living Puppet's Axe with Booster Glaive Handle and learnt to parry like a Goddess - most of his phase one can be perfect parried, just wait to get back at him with strong attacks and don't get greedy). Second Phase I have had to dodge some nastier fury attacks. Aegis and Perfect Guard Grindstone helped a lot. Then Guarding and Guarding till he can be staggered, jump to attack and then lob a few 'nades. Tada.

Your ending depends on how human you get. And you get human by:

1. Lying through your teeth.
   
2. Lying to make ppl happier.
   
3. Lying to pi*s off Relic Hunter.
   
4. Listening to music records (they're rad anyways).
   
5. Doing optional quests.
   
6. Doing the humane things when it comes to hard choices.

If you do this right the cat in the hotel lobby will finally let you pet her... or him and you get to choose your final ending.

If you tried to do emotional stuff but failed to become a real boi don't worry. At least you have avoided death by Nameless Puppet and a death like that is an unending pain.

I won't sugacoat this: NG+ is your revenge ride. You already know the rules, you are trained and you have much more tools at your disposal.

That applies up to a certain point: For the first half of the game you benefit from having more tools and weapons that make enemies present in that first half much easier to deal with, and as you can see this philosophy offers more diminishing returns the further into the game you get and for last boss fight you will be basically as you were before: nothing to help you but your own skill and cunning.

I have adjusted my strategy during NG+:

I rely a lot on Piercing Hatred to nullify basic ailment debuffs.

I use a combination of Katana for fast duelling, Glaive for slash with reach, Golden lie for blunt force trauma and Living Puppets' Axe as a last line negotiator (hint: The Axe does not negotiate with puppeteers). I apply grindstone for elemental damage and only rarely I use elemental weapons. Other normal weapons fell off completely.

During your walkthrough you will find +1 version of most defensive, if not all, items and amulets from NG. They are heavier and therefore require much more Capacity.

I totally respec'd to a Discharged build of my own making:

Amulets
I cycle Recharger while traversing areas in a discharged state to full up with Ergo Hunter amulet. Then Patience, Iron Wall and Arm of God, Extreme Mod, Conquering and Piercing Hatred depending on what the area or boss require and I will do. (For Nameless Puppet for example I imagine myself using Patience, Iron Wall, Conquering for PG and Dancing One's to allow for desperate dodges).

Weapons
Katana and Golden Lie go hand in hand with Arm of God... well even Glaive does. Living Axe is slower and will benefit from Conquering or Extreme Mod better.

P-Organs
I completely SKIP: Additional pulse cells, extra legion arm or weapon slot and retain guard regain on pulse cell. I fill everthing else.

Quartz Perks
I first filled in whatever Discharged perk was AND more ergo farming. I then went for Legion charges on enemy elimination and all other "your resource recharges on trigger" be that stamina, durability, pulse cell or fable. Also autocharging is very handy.

Reason why I have chosen this as my best build is simple: Running around discharged increases my stamina, HP resists and damage, I don't have to rely on having cells on my body. That saves me trips back to nearest Stargazer and ultimately allows me to traverse much faster.

Another benefit is: I am adhd hamster, meaning I only start trying once a deadline is basically looming over me. In context of Lies of P that means "I am outta cells and I rly gotta start trying to actually dodge/guard those hits". So I spend a lot of time in boss fights being discharged therefore I benefit from my own weakness.

That is all, stalkers. Thank you. Hope you have found some useful information. Wish me luck so I don't go insane playing NG+. Cheers.
EDIT: I went insane. Don't hesitate to share your tier picks! Especially arms are highly subjective depending on what suits you.