While playing through Babylon’s Fall, settling on a proper spectral weapon loadout may be more difficult than your standard weapons. The way the game is designed, the light and heavy weapon slots act as the basis for your playstyle, with the spectral weapons meant to supplement this or cover a potential weakness.
With six major weapon types and two spectral weapon slots, what areas should you focus on? Everyone is bound to settle into a preferred playstyle, but our guide will detail spectral loadouts that should cover the widest bases.
Shield and hammer
The shield and hammer combo is great for beginners. The shield offers protection without hampering your mobility or moveset. You’re able to still run around and attack with an active spectral shield. This is ideal for players that don’t have a handle on dodging, since each dodge drains spirit. It is also useful if you’re a beginner playing solo and find yourself surrounded by enemies. The protection offers extra leeway to be aggressive.
The hammer helps supplement this with its damage and impact. Throughout the game, you’ll come across shielded enemies that repel all frontal attacks. Getting behind them in the heat of battle is sometimes difficult, but the hammer solves this. A charged spectral hammer stuns shielded foes, leaving them vulnerable. Blast rods to also help, but they’re better reserved for more specific builds due to the heavy knockback, forcing you to chase after enemies.
Dual hammers
If you’re feeling especially aggressive, you can’t go wrong with a dual hammer setup. As mentioned, the hammer’s impact stat works incredibly well for shielded enemies. However, it also works on most enemy types except bosses and infamous enemies, which you won’t get access to until late in the game.
The charged spectral hammer stuns enemies, allowing you to wail away without having to slow down your assault. This works well against aggressive adversaries, large foes, and creatures with less obvious signposting of attacks. It’s also helpful in a co-op setting, whereby so many effects are playing out at once that it becomes difficult to parse what an enemy is about to do. If one charged hammer strike doesn’t stun, following up with the other will almost certainly do the trick.
Bow and hammer
This setup offers both close-range and long-range utility. You can use the hammer to stun enemies and deal damage up close, meanwhile the bow helps when you’re not feeling quite so confident. Whether there’s a particularly pesky airborne foe or a tough enemy that’s been beating you down, the bow offers the safety net of reliable long-range damage.
There are multiple bow types, but their spectral attacks don’t differ to the same extent as the nova and blast rods, which either deal magic damage or employ player buffs depending on which one you’re using. All spectral bows shoot arrows, but one might pierce through multiple enemies whereas another deals heavy damage on a single creature.
While any of these bows work fine, the power bow is our top pick. Its fully charged spectral attack deals tons of damage and can be a lifesaver during boss fights. Most bosses occasionally enter into a frenzied or charged state, during which a new meter shows up. If you don’t eliminate this bar quickly enough, the boss unleashes a devastating attack. In our experience, fully charged spectral power bows make quick work of these frenzied states.
The bow also has close-range utility for those that want it. Timing close-range sword combos with spectral bow attacks can aid combo finishers, potentially wiping enemies out as they’re knocked back.
