With seven heroes in Silent Hope, an isometric RPG that sees your large team trying to solve the mystery of a long-silenced kingdom, you’ve got quite a lot to keep track of. There’s gear to make and upgrade, seven characters to learn to use, and so much more.
A game as involved as Silent Hope is may seem intimidating at the top when you have dozens of new mechanics and terms to learn, but it doesn’t have to be with our collection of beginner’s tips and tricks. Here are a few things we wish we knew before we started playing.
Level Every Hero, And Extend Explorations By Tagging Out
It’s easy when you first begin playing Silent Hope to choose a favorite hero – we’ve all got our preferred methods of fighting in games like this. But do yourself a favor and spend some time leveling every hero instead of leaning too hard on a favorite or two.
It’s helpful to have a strong hero to take on challenges and boss fights, but with so much diversity between the characters and their skills, it not only gives you access to more damage types to level every hero, but this is also how you can spend longer in the Abyss – by swapping out your heroes for uninjured ones periodically throughout explorations.
Not only do heroes that swap out grant additional combat bonuses to the hero they were swapped out for, but by having a strong team to rely on when it’s time to switch, you’ll be able to stay down in the Abyss that much longer.
Experiment with different heroes early on in the game and begin to develop a feel for how each one plays. By the time the heroes are leveled enough for later worlds, you can spend quite a lot of time in the Abyss resource hunting and grinding for EXP when every hero is able to hold their own on the current level.
You may find that certain heroes are better for certain worlds – like using ranged fighters in the Volcano layer to prevent contact-based burn damage, for instance.
If such a thing should occur, this also prevents your usable heroes from being under-leveled when the time comes for them to shine.
Unlock Skills Early And Upgrade Them Often
Sure, your heroes are able to throw their usual gamut of regular attacks, but hero skills allow you to equip each fighter with three stronger, additional skills for use during battle.
Each hero has three skills by default, and more unlock as you change classes with story progression. In all, across all three of their classes, you can use nine individual skills per hero.
Naturally, these skills mostly have to do with their attack style and job at base camp, with nods toward certain characters’ jobs back on the surface present in their attacks (like the Farmer’s crop-growing ability that gives her a random power-up, for example).
These skills will either be offensive, defensive, or will boost certain stats for a short period of time. Each skill has a necessary cooldown before it’s available for use again, and they do different types of damage in varying degrees of seriousness.
Experiment with what works best for your build on each hero! You never know which skills may be the most handy.
Just don’t forget to actually equip the skills and map them to a button, so your hero can use them! We did this a few times in guiding the game, and it’s never a pleasant surprise to realize you’re incredibly under-prepared.
Switch Classes As Soon As You Can
As soon as each of your seven heroes reaches Level 15 in their skill progression, you’re able to speak to the Princess at Base Camp to change that hero’s class.
Higher classes tend to have higher stats and better skills, and you’ll only have access to a skill after unlocking that division of the heroes’ abilities. You typically see more HP and better attack/defense stats, but check each hero’s info carefully to see what’s changed.
The new classes are a logical variant of their default job, like the Rogue who’s able to become a Ninja, for example. New classes come with a new outfit for your hero as well, which cannot be changed without changing class.
And with new skills and improved stats on the line after the switch, it’s best to change classes as early as possible to begin taking advantage of your new abilities as you work further down in the Abyss.
With three classes total per hero, you unlock their second class at Level 15, before ultimately unlocking the third class by beating the final boss of Silent Hope.
Rebuild Your Heroes After Unlocking New Sets Of Skills
After you’ve spoken to the Princess and have reoutfitted your hero with some new threads, be sure to explore the new Hero Skills that unlock along with the hero’s change in class.
While you’ve previously been limited to only the first three skills, offering no room for variation past what you’re offered, each new class comes with three new skills per class.
They work exactly like the original three skills, but with access to more skills, you’ll need to swap out an old skill for one from the new class if you’re intending to change.
However, all skills cost skill points, which are earned when you level up. If you’re rearranging your hero’s skills after a class change, it’s helpful to completely reset your hero’s skills and rebuild them from scratch.
Just because you’re no longer using a skill doesn’t mean you didn’t pay for it – unmaking and remaking your hero’s skill list is the only way to reallocate skill points. Doing so allows you to reset your hero and invest your skill points into the skills you are using instead of letting skill points go to waste on abilities you’re not.
Speak With The Princess For Challenges (And Rewards)
We know she has a lot to say while you’re at Base Camp, but check in with the Princess in her teardrop crystal while you’re back on the surface.
Not only can the Princess decode the purple, question mark memories you collect as reward for particularly tough challenges within the Abyss, but she can also give you challenge missions that add an extra layer to your exploration of the Abyss.
Her catalog is split into two categories – base camp challenges that have to do with cooking or making certain ingredients, or Abyss challenges that feature more on combat and story progression.
She’ll almost always reward you with runes for completing a task, and the majority of tasks have a rune reward by default, but this is also a great way to receive dishes you may not have access to just yet.
Finally, the Princess is able to change your hero’s class from her menu, too. After unlocking a new class for a hero, speak with the Princess and have her switch your hero’s class from her menu.
Magistones Can Be A Literal Game Changer
You begin to find them in the Abyss fairly early into Silent Hope, and Magistones may take some getting used to at the beginning of the game. However, they’re invaluable for adding elemental damage, resistance, or extra stat boosts to gear you were already using.
Any item that can be equipped with a Magistone will display a blank Magistone icon on the creation screen when you stop by the Forge to have it made. You can fit this item with any Magistone in your possession.
You tend to find Magistones that match the current layer’s element – fire-based Magistones are quite common in the Volcano layer, but pretty rare anywhere else.
Like gear, Magistones have different ranks and rarities that grant additional abilities in different quantities depending on the rarity. You can always check what a stone offers before equipping it, as unused Magistones sell for a decent number of runes if you ever find yourself short on them.
However, the properties of the Magistones are different depending on if you use them in a weapon or an accessory.
When placed into a weapon, the Magistone will also give your hero access to using that element offensively as they fight their way through the Abyss. In these cases, it’s helpful to choose Magistones that do more damage to the element prevalent in each layer, which is displayed on the information screen before you dive in, just above your active dishes.
On the flip side, when placing a Magistone into a ring or pair of earrings, the Magistone is used offensively, offering a decreased susceptibility to attacks of that type, rendering enemy damage less effective.
For example, in the Volcano World, it’s helpful to use Icestones in your weapons to increase damage output to the fiery enemies ahead, and put a Flamestone into your accessories to dampen damage taken from fire-based attacks.
Pay Attention To Accessories
While creating the strongest weapons to deal an optimized amount of damage is definitely still the way to go in a game like Silent Hope, you’ll do well to pay attention to your rings and earrings as you go.
Though your weapons are how to deal damage, accessories determine your defensive stats. Not only do accessories scale in power as you delve deeper into the Abyss, but they also occasionally have Magistone slots to grant even more stat boosts than just the accessory itself.
Like weapons, accessories have four rarities to them – Common, Rare, Super Rare, and Legendary.
But higher rarity doesn’t always mean a better accessory. Legendary-rank gear usually has the highest stats and three stats boosted, but a Super Rare version of the same item may have a Magistone slot or a better skill boost. Don’t write off lower-rarity items just because of their rarity!
Always double-check which skill boosts you’re receiving at present before swapping an accessory out. It’s easy to get used to a resistance that’s suddenly no longer there because of a gear of Magistone switch.