Spiral Knights - Do you Use Weapon and Trinket Slots?

Do you Use Weapon and Trinket Slots?

3 replies [Last post]

Fri, 07/14/2017 - 14:50

Mayaura

When I’m about to play with other players, I like to check out their gear. I have often seen that some players are using only 2 weapon slots and no trinkets. I just assumed that they couldn’t afford the slots, but perhaps some people feel they are not worth it or don’t need them.

Now, while it’s true that I don’t always need them, I find the cost of 2 30-day trinket slots, 300 energy, and 2 30-day weapon slots, 500 energy, to be a very good value for my money when I consider the benefits they give me in terms of fun and strength. First of all, they make the game more fun because I can use a greater variety of weapons. Generally I have 2 swords and 2 guns, all of which I use, but for some levels such as Wolver’s Dens I like to bring along my Snarbolax bomb or a fire bomb in Aurora Isles levels or a freeze bomb for the Vanaduke fight. These are just personal preferences and not necessarily recommendations. Secondly, I mainly use heart trinkets because I enjoy having more health. I have survived countless battles with less than 10% health, and for me, not dying is certainly a more fun way to play the game. Occasionally I use Elite trinkets to make my weapons more effective.

While we certainly often don’t need weapon and trinket slots, I suppose there is an unspoken assumption that players will naturally want to makes themselves as strong as possible. They do this by finding the best combination of weapons and armor and supplementing these with trinkets and whatever unique variants they can find or afford. While we might intentionally limit ourselves for a fun challenge, a game that is too easy might get boring; however, I think there is plenty to challenge even the best players.

In summary, using 4 weapons and 2 trinkets makes me much stronger and also makes the game more fun, and I believe they are well worth the cost.

Fri, 07/14/2017 - 16:27

Bopp

sometimes three weapon slots

When I was playing this game at maximum intensity, I used three weapon slots. I was generating crowns quickly enough that I could easily afford one trinket slot upgrade per month, but I found that two upgrades was more than needed (diminishing returns).

More recently, I've used weapon slot upgrades "tactically". For example, if I know that I'm going to play a lot in a given month, including a couple of Shadow Lair runs, then I might activate one.

Disappointingly, my weapon diversity has declined with my use of weapon slot upgrades. When I equip only two weapons, I have less flexibility in practicing quirky, weak weapons.

My use of trinket slot upgrades has plummeted with my accumulation of UVs and Black Kat armor.

Fri, 07/14/2017 - 18:09

Fangel

depends

Since I'm all over the game, I like to choose whatever benefits me best. Since I do participate in Lockdown every so often, having two trinket slots for health trinkets is almost mandatory. On top of that I like to use them for my PvE runs, typically for a health boost + weapon boost since my sprite is eternally on swift steps.

For weapons slots, I used to like to run 4 weapon slots with the following functions/order: 1st slot sword, 2nd slot gun, 3rd slot filler, 4th slot bomb. It worked out pretty well for me, however since I use previous/next weapon instead of buttons for my weapons there were often times I'd be trying to pull out a specific weapon and I'd have the wrong one. For a while I just went slotless despite having the funds for slots and that actually trained me to play better since with less options I had to change up my previously defensive playstyle for a more offensive one, swapping out my divine veil + radiant silvermail for black kat cowl + whatever else I wanted for that level. That trained me for a lot of stuff, and I can still reliably complete some of the replayable harder content in the game slotless without any outstanding issues now.

Now-a-days, I like to have 3 weapon slots since that gives me weapon variety along with 2 trinket slots for buff variety.

Fri, 07/14/2017 - 22:36

Zenphyre

How to make use of ant hills properly for peanut production

Welp might as well give my perspective hehe. It normally depends on the situation and while you are right that weapon slots and trinket slots do add more variety to whatever gear you have and to give you more of an edge in battle, not a lot of people depend on them often because either they aren't used to the extra features or they just don't put in the time to get energy for them.

When I first started off my two given slots were either used for a sword and a gun since I'm a hybrid. I did pure swords/gunner as well when I didn't have slots and I didn't have trinket slots as well, yet this didn't affect much of my play style since I adapted to using two weapons for a variety of situations. Instead of trinket slots in the beginning I depended on my gear bonuses and defenses to help me in battle as well as my shielding/dodging skills to avoid enemies. Back then I was and still am strategic when it comes to facing enemies and what I need to do in each scenario, though before the enemies were a lot harder (retrodes, wolvers and zombies homing attacks) so it required more thinking to beat them than they are now.

When I first bought the weapon slots my 4 weapons were of this order: 1st wep slot - Elemental sword, 2nd wep slot - Piercing sword, 3rd wep slot - Shadow sword, 4th wep slot - Normal/specialized damage gun. I still use this type of set up as of now since it doesn't require me to change load outs often and I have a set order for all Clockwork levels no matter the enemy type; I only need to change the armors if needed. I also bomb as well but since I stick to a hybrid setup and am mostly offensive I rely on direct damage bombs (1st slot - Nitro, 2nd slot - DBB, 3rd slot - DR, 4th slot - Valiance); this setup works well for me when I bomb and Valiance is there for range and utility. For my first setup I can include a bomb in the 3rd slot such as Electron Vortex or Shivermist (my only crowd control bombs) but I don't usually use those often since I can clear the rooms way before someone or even I lay down those bombs (without setting up before party button though). My speed run formation usually has my WRH replace my flourish and I tend to have a crowd control/damage brandish for the first slot, and since Acheron is OP as heck I don't really need a piercing weapon; this formation also allows me to not use Electron Vortex often but meh lol. I still work with 2, 3 or 4 weapon slots since I have loadouts for each of the three choices in case my wep slots expire.

Now for trinket slots. With these I normally use either ASI, CTR or damage bonus trinkets since they benefit me a lot more. Heart pendants are nice too but I love the added challenge of not having extra health than others and occasionally I can outlive those that have pure heart pendants (not all the time xD) since I usually rely on vitapods for extra health and my evading/shielding (as well as dem hearts and health pill drops lol); I use heart pendants for LD however since as mentioned they are mandatory if you don't wanna get one-shotted hehe. For sprite perk its mainly swift steps as always for MSI and since at times I run full BK set I get VH on it and due to a couple of med-high UV's on my weps (I have 2 ASI VH's only lol, no CTR VH lawl), those trinkets I use allow me to get max on ASI, CTR and damage paired with SSB but I can still get the same thing if I switch to BTS or any other shield, only difference is that either my ASI or MSI decreases -2 if I switched armors and I usually run full vog, skolver, divine, SL armors for the lulz at times so yeah. I can run full BK on speed runs but I don't rely on it too much because otherwise I'll get really addicted to it and I love to have variety on my armor, plus it keeps me in touch with the ole days, so I mix BKC with whatever other armor there is at times.

For LD I usually run either 2 wep or 3 wep loadouts. For 2 wep slots it's flourish and any gun that isn't a pulsar lol; for 3 wep my first slot is flourish, second is sealed sword line/brandish line (whichever I use since I'm proficient with either), and third is gun. My trinket slots as mentioned are heart pendants and this is the only time when I use them. For the majority of people these are usually their preferred setups because it allows them to switch between weapons more efficiently than 4 weapon slots and with 4 weapons it becomes somewhat of a hassle at times, but there are people that prefer 4 weapon slots so it's all good. For 2 weapon slots it also allows them to switch between alchemers very effectively and doesn't give any room for error since there is no 3rd slot. For 3 wep slots it can also work but they have to be mindful of the 3rd slot in case it's not another alchemer or so, plus it's good for single switching as well (though striker and I believe recon can aid in this if 2 wep slots are used). Overall these are just my examples of what I use in the game and sometimes I may change my formations to test new weapon layouts outside my general use, so not everyone uses what I use.

Tl;dr (lol sorry my posts can be pretty long hehe): Every player has his/her own playstyle when it comes to weapon slots and/or trinket slots. Some may use the 3rd slot only or have all 4, and others may or may not rely on trinkets often. The only thing that they have to be aware is how to adapt to any situation that comes their way when it comes to the Arcade and/or LD and analyze the scenario in order to choose what type of gear to bring. I have been with players that use 2-3 weapon slots and sometimes no trinkets at all, yet they have a blast when it comes to running Clockworks; heck in LD some people don't use heart pendants and they still perform well and survive more often. The most important aspect to all of this is how to have fun with the setup you're given and usually they can stick with it or experiment with the extra slots and see if they like it. Those aspects in the game are optional so it's not mandatory for everyone to get them and like you said, they are affordable and can be bought easily with a couple of runs. But either way they still give one a better edge in battle and more variety/versatility which is excellent, but what comes to this is how you adapt with having all 4 slots open and 2 trinket slots open as well as those times when you don't have them open; heck some people may enjoy only having 2 weapon slots and no trinket slots. Welp that should be everything now xP.

Cheers!

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Do you Use Weapon and Trinket Slots?