Scarlet Tower – How to Beat Corruption 9 in Plaguelands

I think many will suffer trying to 100% this game but I can assure you, it is quite easy once you know what steps to take. I will try to detail every single facet of the run and explain why this route might be optimal.

Note: You will still need to learn how to evade/dodge enemies and circle kite bosses. Also be exceptionally liberal with the dash as it will be used quite often.

Guide to Beat Corruption 9 in Plaguelands

Please note: all credit goes to Euro on Ice!

Characters

There are a few characters that are god mode, others that are pure trash. Here is a list.

  • Allure: Absolutely the best character of the game. Dual Katana by itself has the possibility of carrying you through the entire game. Being a human makes him regenerate health very quickly and he is able to kill very efficiently and fast.
  • Veromus: 2nd best character in the game. Always pick purgatory. Being a demon makes him deal more damage to enemies under 50% and can wipe the entire screen with purgatory, including bosses. You can go pure tank and he will still effectively kill.
  • Vylat: A hard character to to judge. Weak early but becomes strong late game. Scarlet Sword is incredibly strong. Never pick bat aspect. Being a vampire allows him to drain life at night so attack speed is necessary and his killing potential is moderate to very high, making him resilient late game especially at night.
  • Rhys: Probably the worst character in the game but consecration saves him. Unfortunately, his playstyle means you have to sit in consecration most of the time and that is the opposite of what you want to do in this game. Very slow and average damage from Hammer of Justice, makes his passives shine very bright. Always pick Consecration as it does loads of damage and adds 40% more damage to you and your allies. Being a human allows him regenerate health very quickly and become a tank of sorts, even though he is very squishy like the other characters.
  • Ninn: My favourite character yet she bloody sucks. Her Cosmic Orb is lacklustre and her passives do not seem to do much. Never pick her water elemental as her frost nova is a lot more worth it. Being an elf makes her deal more damage by day and move faster by night, making it the worst racial in the game.
  • Lyah: I would say she is the worst character of the game but there is one more character after this. She is just too squishy, not enough synergy with her passives to kill stragglers and create distance. Moonlight Staff is awful and very slow. Lunar eclipse is a very strong and cool passive to pick, ultimately rendered useless for what you are trying to achieve which is survive. Always pick Starfall yet beware, it is very inconsistent. Being an elf makes her deal more damage by day and move faster by night, making it the worst racial in the game.
  • Lance: This is the worst character in the game. Why? This character has so many arrows shooting out and animations all at once, with enemies flying around your screen being frozen or burned. Your computer will go down to 20 frames per second and slows the entire game. Other than that, Celestial Bow is fantastic with decent damage and AoE. His passives are… who knows. Celestial Bow will just carry you. Probably go with static seal. Being a human makes him regenerate health very quickly and he is able to kill very efficiently and fast.

Take into account you will need to farm some gold and purple crystals to maximise each characters passives and glyphs. it takes a few runs but it is necessary.

Talents

Basically, you will be either playing with freezing or burn. I suggest burn because there are more synergies that allows us to regain health.

On the first talent tree, we have offensive. The very first row will determine your entire playstyle.

  • 1st row, I have to say the only best way to play is with Pyromancy. You might go Cryomancy for crowd control or Necromancy to synergies with Dark Link to boost your damage. Reality is we do not really care for more damage, we care for survival which means regenerating health. Pyromancy synergies with the talent Cauterize in the defensive branch. It is not much healing early, but it is at least some hit points being regained at a time and, with Outburst you can burn a lot of enemies, healing you for incredible amounts plus dealing damage at the same time. The percentages a very low and inconsistent so, you may pick either and still do well.
  • 2nd row, we will pick Alacrity. Flat attack speed is way better than flat damage boost because we want many attacks to trigger our PROCS from passives or talents on our enemies. The more attacks we do, higher chance we get to freeze or burn our enemies.
  • 3rd row, we will pick Executioner. It is by far the best overall as the other two require specific conditions.
  • 4th row, we will pick Outburst. Never pick glass cannon. I know you want to pick it but trust me, 25% less health is deadly in corruption 9. Berserker is pretty good since we will be low health most of the game but when you are not, it is practically useless. Outburst is necessary to spread freeze or burn across our enemies, allowing us the opportunity to drain their health. I admit 7% proc rate is quite low but when it happens, your FPS feel it and you can comfortably regain quite a lot of health as our damage scales later on in the game.
  • 5th row, we will pick Battle Cry. Our dash will grant us 25% attack speed and movement speed for 5 seconds. The two most essential stats that we need to improve to be able to survive. Massacre is pretty good but again, we do not need more damage.

On the second talent tree, we have defensive. Now we just synergies with what is left with our current offensive talents.

  • 1st row, we will pick Life Stealer. Life Heart is very good but we prefer to be able to regain health than to have a flat 25% health bonus. Shockwave is absolutely useless.
  • 2nd row, we will pick Cauterize. This is our heal from burn. Ironclad sucks because 20 seconds in game for a shield is too long of a wait. Dark Pact sounds terrible but I have not played around with it.
  • 3rd row, we will pick Take a Breather. This talent is insanely good. Late game you will not be able to dodge everything thrown at you so anything that makes you invulnerable for a second is incredibly valuable. The other two are nice to have but not as game changing.
  • 4th row, we will pick Guidance Tome. We do not care for experience except at the beginning and anything that makes leveling faster at the start will make the snowball early. Soul Gather is good and you might want to consider this talent.
  • 5th row, we can pick between Battle Scars and Rebirth. I prefer healing from getting damaged than a single use prevent death talent.

Power Up

  • Racial Traits
    • All you have to do here is farm purple crystals and upgrade the racials. Ignore the glyphs because it seems like they do not work.
  • Stats
    • Now the stats are important to max out. Do not try to do corruption 9 without every single stat bought.

Familiars

  • Jinn

Without a doubt, Jinn is the best familiar of the game. Not only does Earth Protection gives you health, Blessing of the Sands gives you a shield every 30 seconds. This is free damage you can receive. You may play more aggresively or take it as a breather from damage. Earthquake is very strong as well.

  • Undine

If you do not want health, then get attack speed. Water Flux and Sea Blessing will grant a lot of attack speed which allows several proc to happen. Tidal Wave also does insane amounts of damage but very inconsistent where it lands.

  • Salamander and Hoot

I think these two are quite weak. One gives you more 120% critical damage and 20% critical chance 5 seconds every 30 seconds which is terrible, the other gives you 25 movement speed and 30% movement speed for 5 seconds every 30 seconds which is too much movement speed to handle. Salamander is probably better but really forces you to get Cunning Ring and hunt for critical chance flasks at the secret shops, a playstyle that is not productive for corruption 9.

Runes

It will take some time to hunt for these runes but are very much worth it. These are the runes you must take. You do not need to upgrade the runes except for the first rune on the list.

  • Bargain Rune

Absolutely broken. You can reduce the prices of stores by 48.46% meaning buying flasks for less than 2000 hunter points and items for less than 4000. Absolutely disgusting which means our playstyle is about killing our enemies and stacking flasks for the entire game.

  • Time Rune

I do not know if this is very necessary but it does increase your damage by a lot. Maximum reduction is 14.62% and that is quite a lot. Also it is making your weapons cast faster which usually means harder for stragglers to reach you.

  • Power Rune

Fantastic rune, pure power. Anything that increases damage is great,

  • Wind Rune

Extra movement speed is worth it even if it is little. Upgrading it will make a huge difference.

  • Hell Rune

Excellent rune as your burn deals 20% more damage. You may not want to take this if you do not like the inconsistency of burns. This rune will make your heals through burns much larger.

  • Alacrity Rune

Attack speed. Nothing much to say except one of the best stats in the game.

  • Treasure Rune

I have this equipped because I like farming extra gold for every X amount of experience crystals collected. This rune is great for farming.

  • Defense Rune

Many will not use this rune but it is probably the best rune out of all of these. Preventing mega hits late game is very important for your survivability.

Game Play

Now that we have our stats and talents set, we focus on the strategy.

Avoid Damage

You will have to learn how to dodge from bosses. It is quite easy and you can kite them in a circle, smaller the circle the better. There is not much dodging or avoiding damage from normal enemies because they are just so fast and many. The best way to avoid damage is probably zig zag if you are bee lining towards a secret shop or running in a big circle to be able to grab experience crystals. Remember to use your map to find secrets shops, destructibles and the “bushes”. Destructibles may have food and “bushes” can give you breathing room by either destroying your enemies or pushing them away.

Once we have a lot of health from flasks, we can ease up and not worry so much in avoiding damage.

Itemisation

Here is a list of items you need to get:

  • Corruption Orb and Slime Staff to make Necrotic Orb
    • Incredibly high damage. Highest of the game. Shoots orbs all around you can travels outwards.
  • Ectoplasm Wand and Explosive Gift to make Ectoplasm Gift
    • This is a lacklustre weapon and very inconsistent but, the game has a mechanic of producing walls around you which usually means a lot of damage to you as you cannot escape. This may kill everything in an area, keeping you safe. Very high damage but inconsistent.
  • Frost Scythe and Flame Scythe to make Obsidian Scythe
    • Very strong weapon and destroys everything in it’s path. 2nd best dps in the game but quite hard to get as Flame Scythe can only be obtained at the secret shop and costs quite a bit of hunter points. If you can get it, it will be very worth it. Very high damage and consistent as scythes are thrown in every directions outwards.
  • Celestial Sword and Ivy Staff to make Horizon Sword
    • Not the best but very consistent damage. It will bounce around enemies for quite a bit of damage, even outside of your screen. This means it will kill outside of your screen but this should be seen as a good thing because it takes the pressure off by a little bit. Decent damage and very consistent.
  • Frost Staff and Fire Staff to make Water Staff
    • This is a low quality Horizon Sword but again, very consistent and will bounce around enemies. Can kill outside of your screen and will be helping with the pressure.
  • Silver Gun and Snow Gun to NOT MAKE Snow Canon
    • Believe it or not, it is better not to evolve this because it is very slow and it will usually overkill an enemy meaning very inefficient. Silver Gun or Snow Gun have faster cooldown and lower damage but highest of non-evolved weapons. This means very good at killing stragglers and high dps. Best to take one or the other for your last weapon because you can only evolve 4 weapons in total. You will end up with your main weapon, 4 evolves and one last evolve-less weapon.

Every other weapon basically sucks or is very inconsistent. If you pigeon-hole any of these items plus Necrotic Orb, you will be very strong.

Relics

These are Relics you need to get

  • Iron Armor
    • You have to get this. Lowering the damage enemies in the late game is essential for survival.
  • Power Gauntlet
    • Pure damage. Essential for bosses and quickly killing enemies.
  • Haste Scarf
    • Once again, Attack speed is one of the best stats in the game. Must take it.
  • Growth Shield
    • This will grow your health points and will interact with the flasks. So the 50% will increase after flask bonus is added, making flasks way for efficient.
  • Essence Hourglass
    • Must have. Quicker weapons which means higher dps.
  • Fancy Feet, Lucky Charm and Avarice Touch
    • I recommend any of these. More movement speed is nice. More chests appearing is also pretty nice. I think Increased gathering range is way better for higher experience yields.
  • Cunning Ring
    • If you want more damage, sacrifice above. I would say you should get some utility from above but your choice.

Flasks

With the rune that reduces prices, flasks will be very accessible. This means you can run around picking up flasks making you stronger. ALWAYS take either 350 health points, 200 health points, armor, 2 health regen or cooldown reduction. DO NOT take damage increases because you will probably not be able to achieve optimal killing so that enemies cannot reach you. It is very hard and you will still be vulnerable. It is better to stack armor and massive amounts of health points so that hits by enemies and bosses are trivial.

When do you want to start hunting for flasks? Usually when you reach level 40 to 50. At this level you should have all the weapons you want even if they are not evolved and relics. Make sure all your weapon spaces are full if you start hunting for secret shops so that the shops only give you flask options. If you have an empty weapon slot, it will try to sell you weapons. Since the secret shop are randomly placed and sell random 3 items, you might have to travel quite a bit to find the items you need. Keep in mind that bee lining towards secret shops means we will not getting experience but we do not care for this. We can beat corruption 9 at level 60. What is important is that we have good evolutions and many flasks.

Usually with the talents and maybe 2 flasks of health points, you should be comfortably at 2000 health points. With your armour from relics and flask (if you get any), you will be able to withstand any foe at that point.

Conclusion

If you follow somewhat the guide, you will probably be able to beat corruption 9. I have completed it with every single character so I can attest that it works. Some characters are just worse than others but with a few attempts and RNG on your side, you will overcome.

TL:DR

Basically get the rune to lower secret shop prices, upgrade it to max and chug flasks until you are 2000 health points, have around 6 – 8 health regeneration, or a lot of armor.

Egor Opleuha
About Egor Opleuha 8080 Articles
Egor Opleuha, also known as Juzzzie, is the Editor-in-Chief of Gameplay Tips. He is a writer with more than 12 years of experience in writing and editing online content. His favorite game was and still is the third part of the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic saga. He prefers to spend all his free time playing retro games and new indie games.

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