Desolator Guide

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Introduction

This Desolator guide was originally written by Dirich for patch 0.81. Currently up to date with version 1.61. For questions about the current version ask @buttercorn1 (Quirce) on discord.

About the guide

This class is much simpler than it may initially seem. To maximize profits it needs to:

1. Stack 6 spells.
2. Maximize pet level (just once).
3. Maximize current Liquid Shadow and Liquid Shadow spent.
4. Collect Autoclicks.

It relies on all Attributes, but in Patience the only useful things are some perks.

When out of Idle Mode, it receives the Offline Bonus, which is significantly higher than the Idle Bonus. Because of that, the burst is performed outside of Idle Mode.

Each phase will have a few subtitles - Goals, Important Note(s), How to Perform, Relevant Stats/Scalings, and Reasoning. Goals will tell you what the phase is trying to accomplish. Important Notes are fairly self-explanatory - please read them, as they do tend to be important. How to Perform is often very simple, but just tells you how to do the phase. Relevant Stats/Scalings tells you what stats are important for that phase, which can help you make your own gear sets as a newer player without legendary gear or help you understand why the gear is what it is. Reasoning is completely unnecessary most of the time, but will explain parts of the phase or why we do things - only read it if you're interested, otherwise feel free to ignore it. These are here to help break down each phase, so it's a little easier to parse, ideally. The last two (Relevant Stats/Scalings and Reasoning) are in collapsible sections - look to the right of the page next to them to find the [Expand] button.

Low Mysteries Warning

At low mysteries (near e300), Desolator is not viable at a reasonable profit given the time spent.

To have a successful run, you must be able to cast Burn All That Burns a level 210 spell, with Ley Keeper.

• At level 100 with Ley Keeper, it will provide a level reduction of 45.
• At e300, Burn All That Burns will have a level requirement of 158, and you will be able to reach about character level 150-152 after spell stacking and short bursts.

Without Burn All That Burns, you can still make profit with Shadows Of The Void instead, so you can crawl through Desolator runs at low profit if you still want to play it this early.

You should also check to make sure you have completed challenges such as the Unstable Curse series, Unstable Time, the Children of the Night series, Reality Decompression, Absorption that increase character experience, and challenges such as the Exam series that reduce level requirements by 1. Some of these challenges are painful and you've probably procrastinated on completing them, but every little buff counts here, and at this point, you can complete every challenge in the game.

There is a warning about this further in the guide when generating Liquid Shadow, but this is a big guide and you may want to know about this sooner rather than later.

Attribute Points Distribution

In general, remember that no matter how strong an attribute is, an additional (useful) perk and 25 points in a less optimal attribute is usually better than 25 points in a more optimal attribute.

'Attribute X' means you need to put points in the attribute until you reach a total of X, for the perk. If you have items that increase that attribute in the relevant phase (such as Bite Sleeves or Voidstrike Seal in burst), or effects like the Innate Aptitude heritage, then you should have X in the attribute AFTER those effect(s), until the final steps of the list.

In between multiples of 25 attributes where you can get to these perks, it doesn't matter that much. Generally, you just want to dump into whatever perk you're aiming for the next perk in, so that you can get the perk mid-exile if you get enough by the end of the exile. Technically, you can follow the dump attribute priority, and respec your attributes after exile, but that's rather annoying to do and is worth very little profit. The exceptions to this are Patience and Wisdom, which are worth 0 profit per point.

The dump attribute priority is: Mastery > Empathy > Spellcraft > Dominance > Intelligence > Versatility. This means you dump in Intelligence only if you have completely maxed Dominance, similarly for Versatility.

Full List

1. Intelligence 150 (for Resonator Ring)
2. Empathy 175 (for Hollow Eye Pendant and Falconer's Warm Cape)
3. Mastery 250
4. Spellcraft 200
5. Intelligence 200
6. Spellcraft 250
7. Dominance 250
8. Empathy 250
9. Intelligence 250
10. Insight 50 (for Chronoboost Ring)
11. Get 250 invested attributes in all of the perks besides Insight, Wisdom, and Patience. Follow the dump attribute priority for this.
12. Dump into Versatility until you have enough points to get one of the subsequent mentioned perks all at once:
    1. Insight 150, 200, 250
    2. Wisdom 150, 200, 250
    3. Patience 150, 250
    4. DO NOT invest any more than the absolute minimum to get these perks. If you have level 10 Innate Aptitude, you only need 240 invested in each of these, and you should not go to 250, unlike the other attributes, as it is worth less than Versatility per point.
13. Versatility forever!

Note: There are micro adjustment that can be done to optimize at each step of the way, but I'll have to leave them to you or the instructions will become unreadable.

It may be worth it for you to get Patience 150 earlier than this recommends for the simple reason that you'd like to use Artificer's Shoulderpads, which require 100. They're not required for any sets, but they should be equipped whenever upgrading items or doing experiments. Either get PAT150 earlier than this list recommends to just let you do this whenever, or make sure to only upgrade items after respeccing to PAT100 for a bit to use them in between exiles.

Run Overview

This section describes in which order to perform the different phases to guarantee the best profits. The sections after will describe in detail each phase. Treat this like a TL;DR, and make sure to see the sections below if something is unclear.

Run Setup

1. IF YOU HAVE INSIGHT 150: As Apprentice, run the Void Entity Gathering phase. Once you are satisfied with the amount of Void Entities you've collected, move on to the next step. [This phase is for bumping up Character xp and for the Insight 150 perk.]
2. Switch to Desolator.
3. Potentially run a small Spell Stacking phase, maybe 3-5min. Optional.
4. Perform a fast Liquid Shadow Generation phase, only 3-5min, then spend 30% of it.
5. Execute a Burst phase.

These steps allow you to gather the majority of the upgrades you can get. You usually won't be able to grab all of the ones you had at the end of your previous run, so we need to do a mid run burst to get them, before running the Pet Level Maximization phase and our final LS gen phase.

The Rest of the Run

1. Run the Spell Stacking phase.
   1. This lasts for 2/3rds of the run, so either plan out how long you want your run to be and do this phase for 2/3rds of that time, or run this phase until you're satisfied and then run LS Gen for half as long.
2. Run the Liquid Shadow Generation phase.
   1. Optional: After a few minutes in LS Gen, spend all of your LS and start this phase again.
   2. Also optional: Before starting your "final" LS Gen phase, do another Burst to squeeze out extra Character EXP.
3. Run the Liquid Shadow Spending phase.
4. Run the Pet Level Maximization phase.
5. Run the Burst phase.

Repeat until profits slow significantly.

For me, in a run of 1 day, keeping the burst going for 1 hour usually results in an extra e1 myst gain compared to a 5 minute burst (which means eternal burst is only to be used in very long runs).

Here's the run!

Pet Leveling

This isn't quite a full phase in its own right, but more of a reference. This is put here because it applies at many different points in the run. Use this spell and gear set to level a new pet whenever you enter a new phase. Each phase will also say to do so, and will link back to this section. It is the same spell and gear sets for any pet (besides Pet Level Maximization, which is slightly different).

Pet leveling for any given pet should never last more than a minute or two. For Archivist in the VE gathering phase, it shouldn't be more than 10-20 seconds, whereas on longer exiles you could consider spending 2-3 minutes on Ley Keeper leveling for spell stacking, but it shouldn't ever be longer than that. Make sure to switch to Summoning Elixir.

Relevant Stats/Scalings:

Pet EXP effects outright, obviously.
log10(Summon) to Pet EXP, through Conjure Primal Elemental.
${\text{(AC amount)}}^{0.5}$, through Paukan, The Spider.

#3#pet leveling@26,2;25,2;83,2;84,2;21,2;10,2	Summoning
Pet Leveling #3#pet leveling@106;115;9;27;13;31;43;66;57;87;70;1010;203;308;406;414;96;2009;3007 The items that don't matter much at all in this set are the weapon, research, and trophies - they only contribute to Summon Eff, which is logged. The head and feet also are marginal - they only matter if you get an extra level for the phylactery.

Void Entity Gathering Phase

Goals:

• Generate Void Entities with Synthetic Entity to get extra Character EXP and for INS150

Important Note(s):

• This phase only applies if you have INS150. If you don't, because you're at lower mysts, then skip this phase entirely.
• You are on Apprentice!
• It will likely be pretty slow with low enchants on Temporal Scabbard/Eerie, but it's still likely better than VA. Use only extra enchanting dust on these items, though, as this is not a super important phase overall.
• A good ballpark is 1e4-1e5 VEs, especially early on with low (i.e. <~20+5) enchants. Spending longer than 5-10minutes usually isn't worth it, because VEs are logged to profit.

How to Perform: Start by leveling Archivist, and then let SE do its thing. Make sure to be on Apprentice.

Relevant Stats/Scalings:

Charge Speed ^1 (sourced from Temporal Scabbard/Eerie's enchants) to VEs.
log10(Evo) to VEs through Synthetic Entity.

Reasoning:

In this phase, we need to be on Apprentice still. We used to do this phase on Alchemist, but ever since Conjure Greater Elemental gained its secondary effect of boosting Charge Speed, it's far more effective to do it on Apprentice, as Alchemist doesn't get this spell. We'll also stack Ritual Of Power and Conjure Primal Elemental here, as we don't have anything else to do with our spells. You can also choose to stack Conjure Lesser Elemental in place of either CPE or RoP here - more information in Pet Level Maximization.

Archivist

#4#deso VE phase@21,2;25,2;60,2;71,2;0,2;104,2

VE Generation #4#deso VE@101;113;6;24;12;35;41;60;57;83;77;1023;209;304;405;415;90;2003;3007 These items don't matter much. We maximize Evocation/PAP whenever possible (they're equivalent to each other with Archivist), but it's logged on Synth Entity so it doesn't affect it that much overall. There's a significant difference between common and legendary, but this set shouldn't be enchanted and is low priority.

Now, we can switch to Desolator!

Spell Stacking Phase

Goals:

• Stack our accumulated spells: in descending order of how good they are, Void Fission, Onyx Hound, Condensed Energy, Eclipse, Denaturation (optional), and Ritual Of Power.
• Generate autoclicks.

Important Note(s):

• Denaturation is quite weak at base, and without enough casts (~5e5, depending) it will not beat Empower, meaning on shorter exiles you shouldn't bother stacking it at all. Cast ratios in each section will have ratios with and without Denaturation.
• Renown V changes how this phase works pretty significantly, because you no longer need Transmute or Dark Draught Of Midas. Look at the appropriate section for you. However, you may also want to see Approximating Renown V below.

How to Perform: Start by leveling the pet you're going to use (see below), and then switch to these sets and let the spells cast a lot! This should last for 2/3rds of your exile, while the remaining 1/3rd should be spent on LS generation. The elixir you're on really doesn't matter, so don't worry about it.

Relevant Stats/Scalings:

The only stats that are directly relevant to spell stacking are spell duration reductions. It's hard to gauge in a general sense how it translates to profits, as it depends heavily on how much duration reduction you have total and the max cast rate of the spell (and with scry, framerate can make a difference too), but they do make a difference.

Reasoning:

Here, we need to stack all of our accumulated spells, but we have a bit of a problem - we have way too many spells to stack. Not all of these spells are created equal, either, so we need to prioritize. Our two best spells are Void Fission and Onyx Hound, and they should always be on the bar. After that, it depends a lot, partially due to Renown V allowing us to not use Transmute or Dark Draught Of Midas, while people without Renown V have to use those spells which takes up room on the bar. I won't get into the math on how we calculate ratios here, but the ratios are shown below in each section. Elixir also matters almost 0 here - it only matters when you need extra shards from File:Spell Crystallize.pngCrystallize. I always just leave it on whatever elixir I was on before (usually Summoning), and don't even bother switching.

Sets (open the one that applies to you):

Renown V Sets

Ley Keeper Pixie #0#Stack(Renown)@77,2;112,2;19,2;37,2;74,2;76,2 Evocation Spell Stacking #0#Spell Stacking@101;115;4;24;12;31;40;64;57;86;77;1023;209;304;414;415;96;2003;3008 * If you don't have Beholding Eye and Charged Fin-Wing use Heart of the Storm and Pheromone Gland, although they don't matter much. The important items to upgrade are the ones that reduce incantation or summon duration. Everything else is incredibly marginal (usually character EXP to boost the phylactery). If you don't have 100 Patience for Artificer's Shoulderpads, don't worry about it. That slot does basically nothing anyways, and is almost definitely a profit loss to invest that much patience. If stacking Denaturation, you should have Void Fission, Condensed Energy, and Onyx Hound on all the time, then have Denaturation 30.75% of the time, Eclipse 46.15% of the time, and Ritual Of Power 23.1% of the time. If not stacking Denaturation, you should have Void Fission, Condensed Energy, and Onyx Hound on all the time, and then Eclipse 66.6% of the time, and Ritual Of Power 33.3% of the time. I've left the 2nd spell/item set slot empty, if you're following this guide by importing the sets, so feel free to use that slot for the spells that you don't have on the first bar, to make it easier to remember. You can also put the ratios in the names of the sets!

Non-Renown V Sets

Due to Renown V having to fit these spells in fewer slots, we can actually mitigate the issue by separating where we stack certain things. We can do a non-source-cost spell stacking phase, and a source-costing spell stacking phase. This is one method of separating and ratio'ing spells, and if you want to do a more traditional spell ratio then go to the bottom of this section. It looks like this: Source-costing Stacking: Ley Keeper Pixie #0#Source-cost Stack@112,2;77,2;19,2;113,2;74,2;76,2 Evocation Spell Stacking #0#Spell Stacking@101;115;4;24;12;31;40;64;57;86;77;1023;209;304;414;415;96;2003;3008 * If you don't have Beholding Eye and Charged Fin-Wing use Heart of the Storm and Pheromone Gland, although they don't matter much. The important items to upgrade are the ones that reduce incantation or summon duration. Everything else is incredibly marginal (usually character EXP to boost the phylactery). If you don't have 100 Patience for Artificer's Shoulderpads, don't worry about it. That slot does basically nothing anyways, and is almost definitely a profit loss to invest that much patience. Non-source-costing Stacking: Ley Keeper Arcanaworg #1#Non-source-cost Stack@112,2;60,2;19,2;37,2;47,2;79,2 Pet Spell Stacking #1#Stack@101;115;4;24;12;31;40;64;57;86;77;1023;209;304;414;415;96;2003;3008 * If you don't have Beholding Eye and Charged Fin-Wing use Heart of the Storm and Pheromone Gland, although they don't matter much. The important items to upgrade are the ones that reduce incantation or summon duration. Everything else is incredibly marginal (usually character EXP to boost the phylactery). If you don't have 100 Patience for Artificer's Shoulderpads, don't worry about it. That slot does basically nothing anyways, and is almost definitely a profit loss to invest that much patience. This is a relatively new way of doing things, so I haven't mathed out the ratios between these two phases (or how much you should use Denaturation vs. Condensed Energy in the source-costing phase), but I would think it's somewhere around 33% source-costing and 66% non-source-costing. This means you spend about 1/3 of the time for your spell stacking source-costing, and the other 2/3rds of the spell stacking on non-source-costing - keeping in mind that spell stacking in general should take up roughly 2/3rds of your overall exile. Also, due to not having Crystallization on the bar, you may not have enough shards to keep up this phase. If you don't, then try to add shard items in slots that don't matter, or enchant them. As a last resort, use Arcanaworg as your pet, but try to avoid that if possible. If you don't want to use this method, then just use the source-costing setup and the following ratios for the spells like the Renown V section: Template:CollapseTT

Other Notes for Buildup

Early on, you won't have access to Void Fission, as it's unlocked at e750 mana. Simply replace it with another spell you need to stack. If you're that early on, then ratios likely won't matter much, so I won't include ratios here for that.

Also, you may have noticed that there are two pets included. Which pet is better depends on multiple factors. Follow this priority list:

1. If you have File:Item Hectic Lime Phylactery.pngHectic Lime Phylactery legendary and unlocked, use Ley Keeper to boost Onyx Hound casts.
2. If you do not have Renown V and are not approximating it in another way, and have T3 pets unlocked, use Greater Chimaera to approximate Renown V. Ideally, though, you approximate Renown V another way. For the place where Arcanaworg is mentioned in non-Renown V non-source-cost stacking, you can use that to get enough shards.
3. Use Pixie for extra autoclicks.

Approximating Renown V

There are multiple ways to "approximate" having Renown V without actually having it, which is useful to increase the efficiency of our stacking. Keep in mind that doing these things are small bonuses to efficiency, so don't worry too much about it. Only do this if you really want to.

• Using an autoclicker on Shadow Coals (Mana Gems) and replacing Day Into Night in the Renown V set with Transmute. This only works if you can keep your mouse on it, of course, so it's useful if you're going to be away from your computer, but otherwise is not plausible.
• Use the Renown V set, and then save and close the game. Spell cast rates snapshot, but they won't actually consume sources offline so you can stack indefinitely without worrying about it. Just make sure to reopen the game every once in a while to pick up dust/corruptions/bats/void echoes.
• Use Greater Chimaera to automatically get the sources back while using the Renown V set. This may require using Collar Of Obedience, and would thus reduce the efficiency of your stacking. I don't know if it does require that; I haven't tried it personally, but if it does it may be doubtful how worthwhile it actually is. This is the worst option of approximation by far, as it also doesn't let you use another pet that helps with stacking otherwise.

Liquid Shadow Generation Phase

Goals:

• Generate as much LS as possible.
• Get some extra autoclicks with extra spell slots.

Important Note(s):

• Shadow Elixir has a boost to its effect based on ${\text{(current LS)}}^{0.05}$, which means you don't want to spend any until you're done generating it entirely.

How to Perform: You should already have LK leveled from the previous phase, so just switch to the spell and gear sets for this set and Shadow Elixir and let it go. This should be 1/3rd of the exile.

Relevant Stats/Scalings:

${\text{CAP}}^{0.25}$ to LS gained through Shadow Elixir.
${\text{Incant}}^{0.25}$ to LS gained through Condensed Energy.
log10(Evo) and log10(Summon) to LS gained through DiN and Onyx Hound, respectively.

Reasoning:

And now, we want to generate as much Liquid Shadow as possible. It may seem like staying on this phase for a long time isn't worth it, because it doesn't look like you're gaining much LS after a little while, but I assure you it is. The Shadow Elixir boosts your LS generation rate based on current LS^.05, so you're actually gaining time^1.05 LS rather than just linear time^1 like you might assume at first. Plus, LS is incredibly profitable - around ^2.5 - so it is very worth doing the full 1/3rd of the exile on LS generation.

Ley Keeper	#4#LS gen@47,2;77,2;83,2;19,2;25,2;26,2	Shadow
Enchant 0+0 Enchant 1+5 Enchant 29+5 #4#LS Gen@113;108;4;26;18;31;46;66;54;83;73;1010;201;308;414;409;98;2006;3002 #4#LS Gen@113;108;4;26;18;31;46;66;59;83;73;1010;201;308;414;409;98;2006;3002 #4#LS Gen@113;108;4;26;18;31;46;66;59;84;73;1010;201;308;414;409;98;2006;3002 * When upgrading items as a newer player, aim for 1+5 enchant set and ignore the 0-enchant set. Enchant levels are presented in this format: "Enchant 3+5". The first number is the enchant level it should be at before any other bonuses. The second number adds bonuses from Resonator Ring and the Legion challenge. This assumes that all items are at the same enchant level, which makes it easier to know when to change items.

Start this phase by leveling Ley Keeper with the "Pet Leveling" set in the previous phase.

Remember to buy back (manually, via autoclicker or Renown 5) the sources used. They'll drain slowly, but they will drain and eventually run out if you don't pay any attention to it over a few hours.

Low mysteries variant

Early on you will be unable to sustain Day Into Night with the aforementioned setup, and due to lack of source cost upgrades your sources will drain way too fast for this setup to be practical, so you will have to settle for this spellbar instead.

Ley Keeper	#1#@76,2;19,2;77,2;47,2;113,2;74,2	Shadow
Items

This will result in a significant loss of autoclicks, so you should be running a pixie during the source-costing stacking part of the Spell Stacking phase, especially on shorter exiles.

Liquid Shadow Spending

Note: Ley Keeper can be used to satisfy the level requirement, if needed.

This phase is the simple cast of a spell at the end of the LS gen phase. Pet, equipment and all other spells beside Burn All That Burns are irrelevant, so don't change them.

Add Burn All That Burns to the spellbar and cast it until you spend 30% of your total Liquid Shadow. We still want to have most of our LS instead of spending it, because of various effects that scale on current LS, not just total or spent LS.

If you still can't reach BatB even with Ley Keeper... well. Probably don't play Deso, to be honest. You might be able to make some profits anyways, but it'll be incredibly bad. Come back with some more mysts to get more EXP, or spend longer on the VE phase.

Pet Level Maximization Phase

Goals:

• Achieve a very high pet level, to increase the effect of the Pet Elixir in Burst.

Important Note(s):

• The gear set here is identical to the regular leveling set, besides the back item slot (Concealing Shroud).
• Spellhound used to be better at this, until 1.57 when Devourer's EXP gain method was changed slightly. I will be leaving the Spellhound section in the guide (although collapsed), as Devourer may be bugged currently, but ignore it, as of 1.57.
• It may be worth it to slot in Conjure Lesser Elemental to spell stacking for a very short amount of time, to get extra pet EXP for Devourer. Very minute; probably don't worry about it. See Reasoning for more details.
• This phase can be done at any point after Spell Stacking. I put it here so you have continuous LK usage between Spell Stacking and LS generation, but it may make more sense for you to do it in between if you are using different pets; it doesn't really matter.

How to Perform: Just like a normal pet level phase, but with Devourer. Make sure to have charged all of your spells before switching to Devourer, because otherwise it will eat all your shards and you won't be able to charge them. Don't spend too long in this phase.

Relevant Stats/Scalings:

Identical to Pet Leveling, plus Shard Pool Capacity ^1 to Pet EXP. I think.

Reasoning:

Here, we try to get the highest pet level possible, on whatever pet we can, as the Pet Elixir uses the highest pet level achieved in this exile. We have two options for this: Spellhound and Devourer. A T1 pet is best, as they take less EXP per level. Spellhound levels based on spell shards spent, which used to make it the best, but after some recent changes to make Devourer consume shards from the pool instead of spells, it can consume far more and now gains a lot more EXP than Spellhound.
A note on how Devourer's leveling works as of 1.57: I'm still a bit unclear on how it works, but I believe it drains 30% of your current spell shard generation rate from the pool every second per spell on your bar, although it seems to actually drain portions of that much more frequently. However, it still goes through the pool, so if your shard generation rate is significantly higher than your pool capacity, it will drain your pool entirely very frequently and leave you entirely unable to charge spells. Adding shard pool capacity seems to increase the EXP it gains, so it probably does gain EXP based on the actual shards it drains from the pool. Thus, Concealing Shroud.
It may also be worth stacking Conjure Lesser Elemental briefly to get a bit more shard pool capacity, but it has terrible cast scaling, so it's definitely not worth doing for very long - I would say 5 minutes max in any length of exile. For QoL purposes, you can consider swapping out RoP or CPE for part or all of the VE generation phase, so it's guaranteed to be a shorter phase and you won't forget and leave it on for way too long.

Devourer	#3#pet level@26,2;25,2;83,2;84,2;21,2;10,2	Summoning
Devourer Leveling #3#Devo leveling@106;115;9;27;13;31;43;66;57;86;70;1010;203;308;406;414;96;2009;3007 * Concealing Shroud is useful here because Devourer is limited by your shard pool capacity. However, it's not that huge of a difference over Falconer's, which is what you use for other pets.

Spellhound

Spellhound #2#dog level@77,2;25,2;47,2;76,2;116,2;79,2 #2#dog level@77,2;25,2;47,2;76,2;113,2;74,2 Summoning Spellhound Leveling #2#dog level@106;115;9;27;13;31;43;66;57;87;70;1023;203;308;414;406;96;2009;3007 * Zenith, The Champion's Steed may work better, especially at lower character levels or if you haven't upgraded Paukan/Eerie. For Spellhound, the costs of the spells are what matter. Pre-spell memes, in the non-Renown V set, use Anima Synteta instead of Day Into Night. Once you unlock spell memes you'll be upgrading DiN anyways, which will make Spellhound level far more quickly. It will almost certainly still lose to Devourer, since Devourer gets pool upgrades from spell memes too, but there is theoretically a point where Spellhound wins again - although it doesn't seem like anyone has hit that point yet, or ever will.

Burst Phase

Goals:

• Stack as much profit as possible at once!

Important Note(s):

• Make sure to not be in idle mode while bursting.
• If using Black Blade, make sure to activate it.
• Swap Denaturation for Empower if you didn't stack the former up to at least 5e5 casts.
• If you have not unlocked Void Fission, replace that with Magical Weapon. (More info on how to be efficient with this further down in the guide.)

How to Perform: Level Nix-Instability or Ebonsand Behemoth, click the orb to get out of idle mode, activate Black Blade if you're using it, switch to Pet Elixir, and go! Deso can burst forever without losing profits, although it's not worth doing in shorter exiles; see Eternal Burst for details. Keep buying all upgrades that become available (with the 'b' key) and keep the burst running until you see little additional profit. At this point you can either exile or go back to the Liquid Shadow Generation phase and then burst again if the run was long.

Relevant Stats/Scalings:

${\text{(Evo,Autoclick,Offline)}}^1$
${\text{(Incant)}}^{4.54}$ (slightly approximated)
${\text{(CAP)}}^{1.475}$
${\text{(PAP)}}^{1.5}$
${\text{(VpE/VProfit)}}^{0.71}$

Nix-Instability Ebonsand Behemoth	#6#Denat Burst@77,2;112,2;37,2;60,2;78,2;48,2 #6#Empower Burst@48,2;112,2;77,2;37,2;50,2;60,2	Pet
Enchant 0+0 Enchant 1+5 Enchant 5+5 #6#Burst@113;114;6;26;11;34;46;60;53;83;76;1009;201;307;417;401;92;2006;3005 #6#Burst@113;114;6;24;17;31;46;66;53;83;76;1009;201;307;415;403;98;2006;3003 #6#Burst@113;114;6;24;17;38;46;66;53;81;76;1009;201;307;415;414;98;2006;3003 * When upgrading items, aim for 11+5 enchant set. Use The Rubedo Engine (or Warp Basilisk, as a last resort) if you do not have access to Nulldragon, The Anomaly. Use Fossil Seeds instead of Beholding Eye, and Pheromone Gland instead of Charged Fin-Wing if you don't have them. Enchant 11+5 Enchant 17+5 Enchant 19+5 #6#Burst@113;114;6;26;17;31;46;66;53;81;76;1009;201;307;415;414;98;2006;3003 #6#Burst@113;114;6;26;17;31;46;66;57;81;76;1009;201;307;415;414;98;2006;3003 #6#Burst@113;104;6;26;17;31;46;66;57;81;76;1009;201;307;415;414;98;2006;3003 * Based on your amount of catalysts Miniaturized Accelerator and Architectural Databelt might be better options, but you need to test yourself. Miniaturized Accelerator should win by the time you're in this range of enchants (only needs ~2e6 total catalysts to win over Shadow Tendril), but it's possible it doesn't so here are the other options. Databelt likely won't ever win on base Deso, so don't worry about it - but it is technically a possibility. Enchant 35+5 Enchant 43+5 #6#Burst@113;104;4;26;14;31;46;66;59;81;76;1009;201;303;415;414;98;2006;3003 #6#Burst@113;104;4;26;14;31;41;66;59;81;76;1009;201;303;415;414;98;2006;3003

Run Tips/Notes:

To distribute the time between your phases you should do around 64% Stacking and 36% Liquid Shadow generation (LS gen for short), without taking into account pet leveling and burst, which should be pretty short.

It is generally good to start the run with a very short LS gen and burst, this will get you upgrades that increase the efficiency of the time spent on buildup.

You may also redo LS gen after the burst, as it benefits from upgrades affecting Character Ability Power (CAP for short) and Incantation efficiency.

Eternal Burst

If you have high enough Wisdom, you'll be able to eternally sustain your burst without the need to use Crystallization to recharge your spells (until spell memetics at e950 mysteries, where shard costs can quickly rise to unsustainable levels without the occasional shard pool fill from Crystallization). You can now burst eternally!

You can use this to get an additional e1 profits, usually. This is not worth it if your run is very short, but there's too much variance so you need to test for yourself. When runs are long enough (which is really only relevant past unlocking Ascensions anyways), burst essentially turns into another stacking phase with time scaling ^1. If you don't know what that means, ignore it.

No Void Fission?

The spell Void Fission is unlocked via an upgrade at a cost of 1e750 mana, when bought it replaces Shadows Of The Void. You should start getting access to this level of mana around e370 mysteries with the right attributes and gear.

The main differences between the two spells are that Void Fission is an accumulated spell and is fueled by Liquid Shadows while Shadows Of The Void is not accumulated and uses Spell Shards.

If you have not yet reached the necessary mana production to unlock Void Fission, every time this spell is mentioned in this guide you should replace it with something else (accumulated spells, Autoclick spells, whatever is appropriate for the phase you are in), but not with Shadows Of The Void. Because every time you cast Void Fission outside of Burst phase it's just because of stacking, and you can't stack casts with Shadows Of The Void.

Shadows Of The Void can potentially win as a burst spell over Magical Weapon, but it's unlikely, as in that range you don't have many attributes, which is the primary source of VPE/VP for it.

Reaching Void Fission results in a massive increase in power for Desolator.

Autoclicks

Autoclicks increase character level, but their main purpose is to allow us to buy Autoclick related upgrades and to stack clicks for Dominance Attribute perk bonuses, since Seethe In Shadows scales with Autoclick profit (the highest prerequisite is currently 6e4 autoclicks. Quite easy to reach). This is why we use summoning spells as fillers.

Elixirs

Switching elixirs can be a bit of a pain if you don't do anything to help out. My preferred method of doing elixirs is to use a preset of spells that are ordered such that I can hit 12345 and it'll put the right ingredients into the cauldron. This saves on having to learn each "code", but it does take up spell set slots for each elixir you use. The other method is to use the hotkeys for ingredient inputs - you don't have to cast spells, but instead you can click (or use a hotkey for) the pips to the right of the elixir icon. 8 for evocation, 9 for incantation, 0 for summoning. Either works, but it's much easier than manually turning off autocast for spells and trying to add spells to the bar manually each time you want to change elixirs (which is quite frequently).

Memory Distribution

Profit wise your best options are Recalling Power, Veterancy and Planned Progress, which you should level equally (because of the increased memory cost per point).

Deja Vu provides profits but is weaker than the previous 3 options.

Recalling Power provides about half the profits from the top memories but the cost scaling is way higher, you should try to keep it low.

Forlorn Nobility is the weakest option, but being multiplicative, the more levels you put into the others the better it becomes.

For a more in-depth analysis of memory distribution, you can use the following spreadsheet (originally created by Rus, updated by Nomisabeu (aka NomiSaltium)), though you will need to make a copy of it to use it: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Gb2_IK6F2liBacDTHhNmFy6C6YDIVAot_7jEKK7UgOM/edit?usp=sharing

Pantheon

Important and non-class specific facts to remember about the Pantheon:

• Time Warps (from the market) affect your gods. They are the only fast way to level them, otherwise it's just a waiting game.
• Selecting gods only determines which ones get experience (over time or from Time Warps). You get the bonus from all the gods all the time.
• While some gods are better than others, the increase in experience (i.e. time) needed to level up when a god is at higher levels, means that it might be more profitable to switch to levelling less powerful gods once your preferred ones are high enough in levels.

I will use the following code to describe the god power ranking:

1. A = B if god A and B are pretty much the same. This means you should keep the two gods at the same level (because of the increased experience need to level up an higher level god).
2. A > B if god A is better than god B. This means you should prioritize levelling god A over god B. God B should be something like 10% of god A's level lower (200 > 180).
3. A >= B if god A is marginally better than god B. The difference is minimal so you should treat them the same way.
4. A >> B if god A is extremely better than god B. This means you shouldn't level god B until god A is a lot higher in level than god B.

For specific god leveling, you can use the following spreadsheet (originally created by Rus, updated by Nomisabeu (aka NomiSaltium)), though you will need to make a copy of it to use it: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Gb2_IK6F2liBacDTHhNmFy6C6YDIVAot_7jEKK7UgOM/edit?usp=sharing

God Ranking (by primary ability only)

This is the ranking that matters if you don't plan to go beyond e700.

Procreogenus >> Ardourum = Veritallios >= Altermutus.

Animatealia and Tempoaeverum are completely useless. Their main ability scales to 0.

God Ranking (by both abilities)

This is the ranking that matters if your realm will go well past e700.

Procreogenus > Ardourium > Veritallios >= Altermutus > Chaos >> Tempoaeverum >= Animatealia.

Source memetics

The Dread and Tempest Ascensions have differing layouts for Source Memetics, but you can freely reset them upon exile now, so don't worry about it. Character XP may lose you profit compared to not using it at all, pick whatever you prefer on that one.

Spell Memetics

This table is for use with Merp's spell meme spreadsheet. Efficiency is the profit increase from a single level. If "Other" says "Autoclick", then check the "Autoclick profit?" box for that spell. Similarly, if it says "Cast rate", then check the "Cast rate matters?" box for that spell. If it says nothing, then check neither. If the Efficiency number has an "L" after it, that simply means that it's based on a logarithm, and thus will become less effective as it gets more efficiency. This means that after a decent number of levels (probably 10+), it's probably worth slightly under-investing in that spell from what the sheet says, by a level or two. You should not input the L into the sheet.

Spell	Efficiency	Casts scaling	Autoclick amt scaling	Special Scaling
Condensed Energy	1.52	1.035	0	Cast amt
Seethe In Shadows	1.5	1	0	Cast rate
Eclipse	1.2	0.9	0	Cast amt
Denaturation (if using)	1.2	0.6	0	Cast amt
Ritual Of Power	1.2	0.45	0	Cast amt
Onyx Hound	1.082	0	0.15
Void Fission	1.013	2.15	0	Cast amt
Day Into Night	1.008	2.8	0	Cast rate
Artificial Muse	1.005	0	0.15
Conjure Primal Elemental	1.00037	0	0.15
Conjure Manabeast	1	0	0.15
Conjure Greater Elemental	1	0	0
Automatise	1	0	0
Conjure Lesser Elemental	1	0	0

Clear out the summons table in the top right, put in the "Class Pet XP Scaling" as 0.07, and put in this summon information (for the box in the top right of the sheet):

Any columns not mentioned should be left blank/unchecked.

Spell	Base clicks	% of buildup	Used w/ Paukan?
Artificial Muse	10	33%	Y
Conjure Primal Elemental	15	33%	Y
Conjure Manabeast	16	33%	Y
Onyx Hound	4	100%
Conjure Greater Elemental	10	0%	Y
Automatise	10	0%	Y
Conjure Lesser Elemental	5	0%	Y

You probably don't need to bother putting the paukan-only ones in there. They're not likely to get any levels until you're already at ascensions.