This guide will explain how to level up in Thymesia, what each of the attributes and stats does, how they affect Plague Weapons, and how to respec in Thymesia!
How to level up in Thymesia
Thymesia doesn’t deviate from the Souls-like formula when it comes to leveling up. You gain XP called Memory Shards from defeating enemies which you can spend in increasing amounts to level up a specific attribute while resting at a beacon / chair. The first 24 level-ups will also each give you a Talent Point which you can spend in the Talent Tree.
If you are defeated, you will drop all of your unspent Memory Shards on the ground and have to go pick them up. If you are defeated again before you manage to pick them up, they’re lost forever.
Unlike other Souls-likes, there is nothing else to spend Memory Shards on. Vendors don’t exist and upgrading your Plague Weapons and unlocking or changing talents only costs the specific Skill Shard or Talent Point respectively.
Attributes and Stats in Thymesia explained
Your character in Thymesia has 3 upgradable attributes:
- Strength
- Vitality
- Plague
Each affects a unique component of your capabilities. The attributes themselves are relatively simple and only govern 1-2 stats, though they can give your Plague Weapons a bonus effect.
Strength
Strength governs your Attack Damage and Amount of Wounds Generated. In essence, this stat focuses on the damage dealt by your saber and scales the damage dealt by each Plague Weapon. The higher your Strength, the faster you’ll take down enemies.
Each point you spend towards this attribute increases your Attack Damage by 0-1 and Wounds Generated by 1-2. This is the only attribute where the amount of stat given varies per point that you spend.
Wounds Generated refers to when you hit white HP and green HP appears underneath. Remember, the white health will regenerate up to the green health bar, so the higher your Wounds Generated is, the more white health will disappear with each saber attack. Also, that white diamond represents the number of health bars the boss has left, including the current one, so this boss has no health bars left.
Having 10 or 20 Strength grants additional effects to the following Plague Weapons:
- Handaxe (additional effect at 10 Strength)
- Knife (additional effect at 10 and another at 20 Strength)
- Halberd (10, 20)
- Bow (10)
- Hammer (10)
- Fist (10)
- Twin Swords (10)
- Giant Sword (20)
- Javelin Sword (20)
Vitality
Vitality governs your maximum Health. Each point you spend towards this attribute always increases your max HP by 14. The higher your HP, the more damage it will take to defeat you and subsequently, the more mistakes you can make before needing to heal.
If you need some advice, take a look at my Thymesia Healing Guide. It explains everything from Health Potions to Talent Tree and Weapon healing.
Having 10 or 20 Vitality grants additional effects to the following Plague Weapons:
- Handaxe (additional effect at 10 Vitality)
- Shield (additional effect at 10 and another at 20 Vitality)
- Fist (10)
- Greatsword (10, 20)
- Miasma (20)
- Fool’s Punch (20)
- Blood Storm (20)
- Vile Blood Shield (20)
- Giant Sword (20)
- Mutated Tentacles (20)
- Javelin Sword (20)
Plague
Plague governs your Claw Damage and maximum Energy (your green bar). In essence, Plague affects how quickly you can take away enemy green health and how often you can use your own Plague Weapons. Outside of a few exceptions, Plague does not directly affect the damage dealt by Plage Weapons.
Each point you spend towards this attribute always increases your Claw Damage and max Energy by 12.
Having 10 or 20 Plague grants additional effects to the following Plague Weapons:
- Bow (additional effect at 10 Plague)
- Scythe (additional effect at 10 and another at 20 Plague)
- Hammer (10)
- Flying Daggers (10, 20)
- Katar (10, 20)
- Whip (10, 20)
- Twin Swords (10)
- Blood Blade (10, 20)
- Miasma (20)
- Fool’s Punch (20)
- Blood Storm (20)
- Vile Blood Shield (20)
- Mutated Tentacles (20)
I will be presenting the list of Plague Weapons in a different way in my dedicated guide on Plague Weapons.
Which attribute to pick while leveling in Thymesia
Even though there are only 3 attributes in Thymesia, there’s still a fair bit to consider when trying to decide on how to spend your Memory Shards when you level up.
Since you risk losing them permanently if you get defeated and don’t retrieve them, it’s best to level up as soon as you have enough Memory Shards to do so. There is no reason to ever hold onto more than a single level’s worth of Memory Stones.
When to increase Strength
As you go to harder areas, all enemies will have more HP, so you need to increase your Strength to keep up. Focus on making sure it takes a consistent amount of swings to take down the easy enemies and as soon as you see it take an additional swing, allocate more points into Strength.
For example, you should be able to make the weak enemies run out of white health with 3 swings of your saber (or maybe 4 depending on other factors). When you go into a new region or sub-quest, enemies might start taking 4 swings and then the area after that might take 5. You don’t want to be spending that long just to take out the weakest enemies, so upgrade your Strength until you’re back to 3.
Keep in mind that not every point allocated to Strength gives the same amount. Pay closer attention to Attack Power and don’t level it up again if you don’t get any increase from the next level unless you need more Attack Power.
When to increase Vitality
If your Strength is where it needs to be, you should consider upgrading Vitality next by asking yourself if you feel your current HP is sufficient. Are you surviving long enough to use a healing potion? If the answer is no, you should increase your Vitality.
If the answer is yes and you don’t need more Strength, you should assess if you need more Plague.
If you don’t need more Plague and you don’t need more HP, it’s time to consider the bonus effects on your Plague Weapons. If you’re using a Plague Weapon that gets a bonus effect from having 10 or 20 Vitality, you should lean towards Vitality over Plague.
When to increase Plague
Leveling up Plague is more dependent on how often you want to use Plague Weapons and Claw Attacks. If you mostly stick to your saber and don’t use Plague Weapons that frequently, you might not need quite as much Plague, but if you feel you’re having to spend too much time lawing away at enemies or spending talent points to increase your Energy regeneration, you should consider leveling up Plague.
Plague is also linked to the most bonus effects on Plague Weapons, so you might also want more Plague to get access to that bonus effect, though this depends on which specific Plague Weapon(s) you have equipped.
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How to respec in Thymesia
If you’re unhappy with your current build, you can change it. Nothing is set in stone and Thymesia is fairly generous with respeccing. You can tweak your Talent Point allotment (skill tree) at any beacon / chair while all the Plague Weapons feature independent upgrade materials, so you can swap those out as needed too.
The only thing that’s slightly more restricted is how often you can alter your attribute point allocation. To reallocate those points, you’ll need to use a Forgotten Feather at a beacon / chair. Doing so will reset you back to level 1 and give back all the Memory Shards it cost to reach your current level. You can immediately spend those Memory Shards to level back up with a different attribute allocation.
If you just want to reallocate your Talent Points, you do not need to spend a Forgotten Feather. All you have to do is go into the talent tree and there are buttons that let you reset everything or just a specific point and its dependencies.
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