Best build in Flintlock The Siege of Dawn

✓ At A Glance

• Weapons – Nor’s Axe, Judge’s Hammer, Skirmisher’s Pistol, Marksman’s Musket
• Armour – Warlock’s Helmet, Warlock’s Pauldron, Warlock’s Gauntlet
• Enki – Curse Storm, Imbued Curse Ruby
• Skills – Extra Shot, Poised Shot, Curse Shot, Chain of Misfortune, Curse Chain, Shadow Self, Unleashing, Shadow Strike, Rending Strike, Withering Cuts, Deflection

Though we’re using the term build a bit loosely here, Flintlock does offer a decent enough variety of weapons, abilities, and skills that you can fashion mini builds to suit your playstyle. They are nowhere as complex as say Elden Ring with its glut of options, but there’s enough there that you’ll want to spend a bit of time considering your options.

Below, we’ll walk you through our favourite build so far playing through the game. It relies heavily on Enki’s curses and Prime, along with parrying for an aggressive but relatively safe approach to combat. For a deeper dive into some of the best armaments you can get, check out the best weapons in Flintlock.

Weapons

• Melee weapons – Nor’s Axe and Judge’s Hammer
• Primary firearm – Skirmisher’s Pistol
• Secondary firearm – Marksman’s Musket

Nor’s Axe is your bread and butter weapon for close quarters combat. It has some of the highest base damage, swings fast, and has a combo damage multiplier. The axe’s charged attack also builds up Prime, which synergises well with Enki’s curses. The Judge’s Hammer comes into play against armoured and shield enemies thanks to armour penetration, so very much situational but still useful.

Over to guns and the Skirmisher’s Pistol is the best primary weapon in Flintlock for the simple reason that it can interrupt and parry all types of attacks, even airborne ones. Ideally, you’ll want to wait until a strike is about to hit then fire off the gun to stun an enemy to get in a meaty critical attack. Lastly, the Marksman’s Musket is a useful secondary weapon, if only to pick off enemies from afar as and when it’s required.

Armour

• Helmet – Warlock’s Helmet
• Pauldron – Warlock’s Pauldron
• Gauntlet – Warlock’s Gauntlet

Other than looking pretty damn cool, the Warlock armour set’s synergy bonus is well worth having. Whenever you defeat an enemy affected by Enki’s curse, that curse will carry over to another enemy with a 10 metre radius. Think of it as a status effect hot potato that pays off in spades against large groups. 

Looking at specific pieces, the Warlock’s Helmet creates an explosion that damages all enemies in a four metre radius whenever you apply four curses to an enemy within a 10 second time frame. The Pauldron creates passive damage to enemies every 2 seconds if they are inflicted with a curse. Lastly, the Warlock’s Gauntlet makes all curses last 50% longer, allowing you build up Prime for much longer with melee hits.

Enki

• Withering – Curse Storm
• Cursed Stone – Imbued Curse Ruby

Over to our feathered fox friend. For the Withering, the Curse Storm is the best in my opinion. Its magical storm boasts 200 damage to any enemy caught inside its near-10 metre radius, but also inflicts the Curse of Death as well. If an enemy doesn’t die, follow up with basic attacks to Prime them up and get a stun and critical attack.

As for the Cursed Stone, nothing beats the Imbued Cursed Ruby. It inflicts the Curse of Ruin, which dishes out +10 stun and reduces enemy armour value by 20%. This works a treat against armoured enemies and again speeds up the accumulation of Prime.

Skills

• Powder – Extra Shot, Poised Shot, Curse Shot
• Magic – Chain of Misfortune, Curse Chain, Shadow Self, Unleashing, Shadow Strike
• Steel – Rending Strike, Withering Cuts, Deflection

You’ll invariably have to spend Reputation on skills that you don’t necessarily want to get to the best ones. But, it’s worth it. In the Powder branch, you’ll want Extra Shot to increase your max Black Powder Charges. Alongside, aim to get Poised Shot as early as possible for the ability to interrupt attacks before they land. Finally, Curse Shot inflicts the Curse of Death with every shot.

Over to Magic and the goal here is to maximise Enki’s curses. Chain of Misfortune transfers all curses to surrounding enemies when you perform a critical attack. Curse Chain adds physical damage to all of Enki’s curse attacks. Shadow Self works as a safety net giving you an extra life. Unleashing increases the number of curse charges Enki has but also their regeneration speed. Lastly, Shadow Strike prompts Enki to curse an enemy whenever you pull off a perfect dodge.

Finally, over to the Steel Branch. Rending Strike allows Nor to remove armour when performing a critical strike plus deal damage. With Withering Cuts your melee attacks build up Enki’s Withering gauge so you can use Curse Storm more often. Deflection is a must-have utility skill that allows Nor to deflect enemy projectiles back at them when parried.

Combat tips

Going into a fight, pick off as many enemies from a safe distance using the Marksman’s Musket. Jump into the fight and fire off all of Enki’s curse charges as fast as possible to proc the Warlock’s Helmet buff. After that, it’s a case of thinning the heard by building up Prime with basic attacks but also using perfect parries with the Skirmisher’s Pistol to get critical strikes in wherever possible. Keep pumping out Enki’s curses when they’re up and you should defeat even the most determined groups in no time at all.

For bosses, the approach is roughly the same, focusing mainly on getting those curses out, parrying for critical strikes, but also using dodges to proc Shadow Strike. Use Curse Storm whenever it’s up. Otherwise, get in as many basic attacks to fill up the Prime gauge as fast as possible. Most bosses become a lot easier once you shed their armor, which happens in the attack window after their Prime gauge is filled up for the first time.