Soul Sacrifice – The Ultimate Guide

Mechanics

Offerings:

Unlike a lot of games in this genre, Soul Sacrifice is extremely straight forward in how you obtain items. You see, every mission has a listing called rewards, which tells you everything you can obtain from this mission. These rewards go down in order, so if you want the last item, you simply need to hit Divine Sorcerer rank.  You can also get a random item by sacrificing someone and every boss has a unique item for breaking their parts. Since this covers how to get items, lets look at what you do with offerings.

Boosting:

Once you figure out what items you like to use, you can further their usefulness by boosting them. To boost an item, you simply need two offerings that are exactly the same, which will fuse together to make a better version of said offering. In an effort to make this system simple for everyone, almost every item follows this exact same pattern. The first upgrade will add a star and gives you an additional cast, which can be repeated three times with the same cost / reward.  Once you obtain two three star offerings, you can combine these together to make an upgraded version of the offering. Unlike the previous upgrades, this one will not raise the casts, but will increase the power. You can then repeat this cycle to get the best version and finally max the item out by getting three stars. Not every item has three tiers (typically referred to as Small, Medium and Large), but they do all go through the same cycle. Also this goes without saying, but you will gradually get higher tier weapons as you play higher tier missions. However, you can’t obtain stared items outside of boosting.

Fusion:

Similar to boosting an item, you can also fuse two weapons together to get a new item. The main use for fusion is to add elements to your favorite offerings, though it can also be used to instantly bring items up a tier.  Not a whole lot else to say about fusing items, though keep in mind that a stared offering and a normal offering are viewed as the same, so don’t needlessly boost your items.

Sigils:

As you play through Soul Sacrifice, you’ll most likely unlock a number of items called sigils. These are typically unlocked by performing a random task, like sacrifice 1,000 people and have additional requirements if you want to use them. While unlocking some of these are annoying, getting what’s required can be a nightmare.

For starters, there are two types of essences, which you can obtain by either saving or sacrifice someone. The first group is soul essence and is your reward for sacrificing someone; where as the other group is life essence and is obviously for saving someone. There is also a third category for the blue essences you find on the map, though those are completely random. In addition to having the two types, they also come in one of three different tiers. These include _E, _E+ and _E++, though they’re rewarded somewhat randomly.

As you reach the higher tier missions, you’ll start to see the + and ++ rank more often, but they’re still pretty rare. However, you should get a + or ++ rank essence from a peon if one of the sides has a negative (like +10 dark -5 save). While bosses do the same thing, it has no impact on whither or not you’re going to get a + or ++ essence, so don’t automatically take a negative over the essence. Another thing to keep in mind is that + or ++ essences are pretty rare from bosses. To give you an idea, I currently have over 99 Hydra SE’s, but only 8 +’s and 5 ++’s.

Besides enemies offering you essence, there is also a unique group that is infinitely more annoying to farm… teammates. Every player, AI partner and human target has some sort of essence, which form all of the weird ones that don’t match up with enemies. Some of these are easy, like Magusar is the Legendary Sorcerer essence, where as my essence is “Black Widow” (according to a friend). The aforementioned friend is just a M. Cleric, so it might take some trial and error to even find someone suitable to farm for them. Thankfully you can go into games with an AI partner and let them die, but that can be very tedious and you can only collect their essence once per mission.

Black Rites:

I am not personally a fan of black rites, but they can help you out of a bind. Since there isn’t a lot to say and I already explained them above, I will just briefly go over them again.

• Infernus – Does a flame AOE that deals massive damage to every enemy.
• Excalibur (level 40 dark) – You give up your heart to use a magical sword. This is great for a dying boss, but you will constantly lose life once you use it. Do not use this skill unless you’re certain it’s required.
• Gleipnir (level 20 dark) – Binds an enemy in a set place.
• Gorgon (level 20 divine) – Summons eyes that fire lasers to petrify enemies. From what I understand this blinds you, but it’s fantastic for keeping a boss at bay.
• Vulcan (level 40 divine) – Basically Excalibur, but you give it to someone else.

All black rites have a cost, which must be paid to use it. Once activated, you will have to suffer whatever the cost is throughout that match, but it can be paid via lacrima after the level. Keep in mind that the cost always goes up, so it’s not something you can use as a crutch forever.

Redacted Missions:

If you’ve never heard of this term before, this is basically just the missions / stages covered by a black bar. While the vast majority of them will be unlocked by playing through the games story and killing Magusar, others are a little more complex. For missions with branching paths, you get a certain path for every choice you make. So if you save the monster on one run, it will open one path, where as killing him will offer a second path. You must rewrite the book to access these paths and it’s impossible to unlock them all at the same time. The other hidden missions are similar and require you to either bet a certain mission or clear a random mission a certain way. Unfortunately I don’t have a list of which missions need to be done a certain way, but you can always go both ways on every mission or find someone with the mission unlocked online. Finally, some missions are unlocked by simply clearing a certain mission (so save / sacrifice is unimportant like the previous set), which you should naturally obtain through normal play.