Phantom Abyss – Blessings Tier List

List of Blessings Tiers

All credit goes to Marquis!

Introduction

These are the Blessings that I prioritize on a run, and my reasoning behind each. This tier list is based on my experience with the game. Specifically, the blessings I have had the most successful Inferno completions with and may differ from yours.

No ability in this game has any kind of detrimental effect on your run, and just because I consider an ability to be lower tier does not mean that I wouldn’t ever pick it up. However, I personally tend to prioritize my blessings based on the following ranks:

S Tier

Wings

Freedom of movement is critical in this game, and the Wings blessing grants you ridiculous amounts of horizontal distance while also negating fall damage due to its slow-falling effect. Clever use of Wings can be used to circumvent entire rooms of obstacles.

Long Whip

It may not sound particularly overpowered at first, but Long Whip grants you excellent horizontal and vertical movement, and can allow you to blitz safely through entire rooms of hazards, especially when used in conjunction with Wings. Should you mis-time a jump, Long Whip can save you in a pinch by grappling those platforms that would otherwise be just barely out-of-reach.

A Tier

Double Jump

Mid-air course correction plus additional vertical and horizontal movement is a very powerful ability to have in a game where quick and precise platforming is rewarded. You may prefer this option over Wings, as both have very similar utilities in correcting mistakes and circumventing obstacles, and I encourage you to choose which feels more comfortable to you if it comes down to one or the other. I personally prefer Wings due to the additional horizontal mobility and being able to slow down enough to analyze my surroundings.

B Tier

Big Heal

Healing three hearts (full default health) is insanely good, and can save a poor run, especially near the end. This is a somewhat situational blessing, and can be less useful or even useless on a good run.

Heart Container

Heal but better, as it also increases your health cap by one heart. If you have to choose between this and Heal, always choose the Heart Container.

C Tier

Quick Whip

As far as I’ve been able to tell, this blessing decreases the time it takes for your whip to crack or connect with a platform, and does NOT reduce the cooldown of your grapple. In a pinch, it can help you if you would otherwise have been just a split-second too late for your whip to connect, and can literally pull you out of a sticky situation faster.

Calm

This is a blessing that is more useful the later you are in a run. Guardians on their own aren’t particularly challenging to deal with, but when you have to dodge both them and the temple’s hazards, they can be a nuisance. Calm gives you a brief reprieve by banishing the guardian on a single floor, allowing you to focus solely on room hazards. I only recommend picking this up late in your run, especially if you plan to visit the Inferno.

Heal

Restores one heart. Very situational. Take it if you need it.

Lucky

The Lucky blessing can save you in a pinch, but the random activation makes it less consistent than receiving a straight health upgrade, or a good movement upgrade that would help you avoid taking damage in the first place.

D Tier

Crouch Jump

A high-jump sounds good on paper, but in most situations, your whip (especially with Long Whip or Double Jump) will get you as high as you need to be. You get virtually NO horizontal movement out of it (as you are either standing still or crouch-walking before you perform it), which severely limits its usefulness. It can help you blitz through some vertical challenges and open rooms with high ceilings, but those rooms are few and far-between compared to the more “horizontal” challenges, and all of these rooms can still be easily navigated with your whip and any of the movement blessings above.

Hover Slide

While the ability gives you some decent mid-air horizontal movement, it is outclassed by most other movement options. Not a useless ability, but by far the one with the least utility.

Lucky Landing

Yes, this is probably S Tier if you have the Deluxe Whip, but chances are you won’t be running with that whip 24/7 (and I personally find it to be a cheap and boring strategy). You’ll be spending most of your game trying to avoid fall damage, and if you’re a particularly skilled player who knows how to roll, grapple, or use the Wings and Double Jump blessings to halt your fall, you should never see this blessing come into effect. This is essentially Lucky, but worse as it only blocks one specific type of damage.

Volodymyr Azimoff
About Volodymyr Azimoff 13954 Articles
I love games and I live games. Video games are my passion, my hobby and my job. My experience with games started back in 1994 with the Metal Mutant game on ZX Spectrum computer. And since then, I’ve been playing on anything from consoles, to mobile devices. My first official job in the game industry started back in 2005, and I'm still doing what I love to do.

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