Customize your approach to combat with Atlas Fallen’s versatile Essence Stones

Atlas is a sand-covered world full of secrets, dangers, and terrifying creatures. Luckily, you’re armed with a mystical gauntlet brimming with magical abilities, giving you the power to shape the sand, craft weapons out of it, and ride through dunes at amazing speeds to survive in this hostile environment. At the heart of all of this is our unique Essence Stone system Atlas fallen.

Essence Stones aim to turn combat into a massive playground for you where you are in control and can experiment with individual stones, ultimately shaping them into your own bespoke character by modifying traits such as damage, tricks, momentum, survivability and healing. These stones can be obtained primarily through the game’s fusion system by collecting Formula, Materials, and Essence Cores by defeating enemy spirits, purchasing them from the mysterious traveling merchant, discovering them in forgotten chests around the world, and sometimes using them as quest rewards.

The essence stones are also linked to the momentum system, which is generated in battle when attacking spirits and is represented by a meter that fills up as the value increases. The more momentum you accumulate, the more powerful you become. Although Momentum and the Essence Stones can make you very powerful, there’s a catch. Momentum also increases the damage you take, making you more vulnerable. So remember that hoarding momentum is also a riskier approach to combat!

Let’s say you are fighting a group of weaker monsters and one big monster. You can use the smaller monsters to build momentum and do the final attack against the larger monster. But since you’re in a group fight, keep in mind that you may get hit and the more momentum you have, the more critical hits you can take.

As far as combos go, there’s a lot to try, and it can be interesting to vary the build you use to adapt your playstyle to a situation. Luckily, the Build Presets let you save up to three different Essence Stones builds, so you can switch whenever you want as long as you’re not in combat. This allows you to save your favorite build while still using your other two presets to experiment or adjust approaches.

One of my favorite builds involves an active stone called the Endmost Wrath, which also happens to be a special Tainted Essence Stone. Corrupted stones are stronger, but also cause negative effects. In this case, Endmost Wrath massively increases my damage output, but drops my HP to 1 and prevents me from healing while using it. I counter the negative effects with three passive stones, all of which grant a buff below a certain HP level, e.g. B. by automatically generating momentum, reducing the cooldown of active stones and increasing the damage even more. The final part of this build is a passive stone called Saving Grace, which prevents damage from a fatal blow and then goes on a cooldown. Given the very high risks of this build, Saving Grace complements it beautifully.

Another build combines multiple Essence Stones from the Tricks category. Allow a stone to slow ghosts, such as Clock Master – an active stone that creates a large bubble that slows all ghosts and their projectiles. Combine this with Contemporary Crystallization, a passive stone that offers a small chance to stun slowed ghosts. When the stun effect works, three more Passive Stones add additional stun-based effects, such as: B. increasing the duration the enemy remains stunned, granting health when the stunned enemy is dealt damage, and increasing the damage dealt to them.

I hope you look forward to trying out the Essence Stones system for yourself and developing your own unique builds and play styles Atlas fallen will be released on August 10, 2023 for Xbox Series X|S. Pre-order today on the Xbox Store to receive the bonus DLC Ruin Rising Pack, which includes exclusive Essence Stones, among other things!