YMMV / Deepwoken

• Abridged Arena Array: Lower Erisia, Etrean Wilds, and The Monkey's Paw are considered to be popular PvP hotspots due to the lack of enemies, with Lower Erisia being the first area that new players are likely to experience, Etrean Wilds for similar reasons, and The Monkey's Paw being a vast empty space whenever someone isn't fighting Primadon.
• Accidental Aesop: Often more than not, going full vegan is harmful to your health, while having an all-meat diet is fine. Carnivore is considered by many to be one of the best Talent Cards in the game due to basically trivializing food management, and is mutually exclusive with Herbivore, which gives you a small boost when consuming plant-based foods and the only downside is that eating plant-based foods will cause you to vomit, which is a minor loss since the only food that gives out a healing boost buff, Fruit Salad is plant-based, and it's possible to live without it. Carnivore is especially useful in the First Layer where there is no plant-based ingredients, but only meat-based ingredients such as Scallops and Urchins. The Second Layer turns it into an accidental Hard Truth Aesop by stating that cannibalism isn't a bad thing, since the only way to restore your stomach and water bar aside from bringing in food from outside is to use Carnivore's ability to restore them through gripping enemies and slaying monsters.
• Accidental Innuendo:
  • The Talent One Handed Training and the now removed Talent Capra's Throat. They certainly sound like something... else. Expect them to come up often in "Describe your relationships/sex life with a Deepwoken Talent name."
  • The mystic quote for the Bruiser category of Talent Hands is... interesting.
  "I am a master with my hands."
• Anti-Climax Boss: For an monster that supposedly sank the Petra's Dawn, the Dread Serpent is a lot easier than you would expect. In spite of possessing dangerous moves such as the Dread Breath, it is very easy to cheese, such as literally attacking behind him without any repercussions. Even without cheesing him, at long as you avoid his Dread Breath and parry, he is very easy to defeat compared to other bosses. In fact, the only major threat is your hunger and thirst, since the battle is very likely going to take place in the Voidsea and drains your stomach and water bar faster.
• Best Boss Ever: Maestro Evengarde Rest. No gimmicks, no puzzles, no bullshit, just straight hands. A training match in preparation for taking down one of the most prominent villainous forces in the game has you duel the mysterious Maestro of the Vigils himself to prove yourself and obtain a powerful weapon. A love letter to the game that inspired Deepwoken, with many of his attacks taking inspiration from there, and a resistance to most NPC cheese tactics in the game, his is overall considered the only enemy truly worthy of the moniker Boss.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Infamous Baz was created solely to invoke this trope.
  baz: "The lore is a straight line and Infamous Baz is a bump."
• Bizarro Episode: Mudskipper Day, in which every NPC and player was temporarily changed to a Mudskipper for a single day. What puts it here, however, is the fact that this is actually considered canon to the lore.
• Cheese Strategy: Expect to do this for these bosses if you want the Chain of Perfection echo talent, which requires you to defeat a boss without taking any damage by yourself:
  • For the Dread Serpent, guiding it to a cliff just high enough to still damage it with melee hits or Mantras, since its attack radius is limited to just the height of its claws.
  • For Primadon, guiding it above a cliff where you can drop bombs on it or by luring it into the water where you can take it down with ranged Mantras such as Fire Gun. While Primadon does have elemental damage resistance, certain talents such as Ether Overdrive can pierce Primadon's resistance.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • When farming for Echoes, Adret and Autodiadact is the go-to for many players. This is because when farming the Trial of One, this allows them to get a good amount of experience enough to have enough Power to gain some decent echoes, and they can potentially gain some bonuses by simply doing ordinary things such as fishing and cooking.
  • In Chime of Conflict, light weapons, such as daggers tend to have decently high win rates due to their fast speed and good damage output, especially with Knife's Journey. Other weapons coming close are Legendary Weapons such as Hero Blades, Gran Sukaruska, Curved Blade of Winds, and Crypt Blade.
• Common Knowledge:
  • Rising Thunder is a neat reference to Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba right? Yeah... it's based on a Naruto fighting game.
  • Curse of the No Life King is not a reference to Alucard from Hellsing but to Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash.
  • Yun'Shul isn't actually the reason why the First Layer causes insanity, rather it simply being an Eldritch Location is sufficient to drive people to madness. The Second Layer being more grounded in reality is what prevents it generating insanity.
  • It's commonly believed that the Celestial in the Ancient Rotlands is an infant due to it growing in a cocoon. In reality, it is in adult Celestial.
  • While people often state that there are infinite layers to the Depths, there are only nine.
  • Due to Resonances being magical instruments and the power system being called the Song, there is a misconception that instruments are powerful weapons of mass destruction, and no matter how many times its debunked, the idea still persists. Even the inclusion of actual instruments in the game has done little to alleviate it.
• Complete Monster: The Lord Regent, at first glance, seems to have the best interests in mind for the Kingdom of Etrea after their king was assassinated, but in truth he is a horrific monster known as Zi'eer, the 4th Prophet of the Ministry, and is the most prevalent of the Prophets. Closing down Etrea's history office to prevent anyone from knowing his true intentions, Zi'eer brutally murders anyone daring to trespass on his ground or for knowing too much about him. Reforming the Contractors, Zi'eer would task them to "extinguish the souls of those who have given their oaths to others" by slaying them in Scyphozia. Zi'eer's ultimate goal is to sink Etrea to the Depths through a Great Drowning caused by the war against the Central Authority, for the Ministry's twisted goal of achieving godhood.
• Demonic Spiders: As a rule, any Corrupted Monster that's a Goddamned Bat gets upgraded to this due to their inflated HP pool and massive damage output, but some still stand out regardless if they're corrupted or not:
  • The Nautilodaunt is described by the developers as the most dangerous monster of the Depths, and they are not joking regarding it — imagine an experienced Chime of Conflict player, turn it into a monster, and you get the Nautilodaunt. It can easily combo players into oblivion, and has a move that not only deals knockback, but also insta-grips as well. Even max Power players have trouble fighting it. Even worse, there also exists a Fury variant that knows Thundercall, meaning that every hit stuns. Oh, and a later update made have a chance to spawn from chests in the Eastern Luminant, and has a chance of spawning in the Depths Trial if a player has enough drowns. Oh, and a later update made the Fury Nautilodaunts even more worse: Not only were they given a shadow buff that increased their HP, turning them into Lightning Bruisers (no pun intended), but the update that added the Void Spire makes it so that not only that the Fury Nautilodaunt can spawn in the Trial, they can spawn corrupted as well. Expect to hunt them down if you want that Odd Tentacle for your Master Outfits or Stormseye for your Thundercall builds.
  • The Kyrsgarde Lancers and Snipers are by far the most dangerous of them all, as their lances when thrown deal knockback and ragdoll, but the Lancers have an inflated HP pool to help them fight up close as well. Having Brick Wall helps against them, but not by much.
  • The Mudskipper Broodlords is what happens if you combine the Nautilodaunt's speed and skill with the tankiness of a Bone Keeper. While the Mudskipper Brutes are annoying enough, their low health pool does compensate for it. Broodlords on the other hand are significantly much harder to kill compared to the Brutes, but also apply Anti-Heal on hit, meaning that you can't healthpack off of them. A single Broodlord is dangerous enough, but if fought alongside another monster, this can make them downright almost impossible to kill. Most dammingly, in the overworld, you can't even use cannons against them, as they are completely immune to the effects and will not even aggro if hit by them, making it very difficult to separate one-by-one whenever an island containing them appears.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Despite the heavy fascist symbolism and their initial presentation as a Card-Carrying Villain organization during Verse 1, the Central Authority are often viewed as an Anti-Hero or even an Ideal Hero by a large portion of the Fandom. They will also handwave the racism the Authority doesn't exactly try to hide, such as including it in one of their marching tunes, by pointing out that they just happen to treat Canor very slightly better than they do the other Races, even if its still worse than the treatment Adret receive, which even then isn't always painted as luxury, or the fact that they employ members of other Races, even though they are often stuck in worse jobs than their blue-skinned peers, used as cannon fodder for suicide missions, or the fact that there is a historical precedent for racist factions still employing groups they despise out of pragmatism or to use them for jobs they would rather not risk those they favour performing. Even people who recognize the Authority as evil will sometimes state they are not racist, despite this blatantly not being the case. There favorable perception is mostly due to them being painted as A Lighter Shade of Black due to them fighting the Ministry, which has lead to a lot of praise from the Fandom, ignoring the fact that if the Omnicidal Maniac cult succeeded, the Authority would die too, and thus are chiefly acting out of self preservation. Some have also stated that the war with Etrea is actually an effort to save them from the Ministry's control, despite there being a book that proves that the Authority had no such intentions, and only stumbled upon Ministry involvement purely by accident. Them being Dressed to Oppress has also helped garner some fans.
  • The Ignition Union are the main source of help in the Second Layer, so naturally they were going to be popular with the Fandom. Still, they have a tendency to paint the Ignition Union as entirely flawless and the most moral faction in the game, despite them being hypocrites who criticize and are willing to murder the Divers for working for the Authority, despite them too being on their payroll, as well as having murdered countless Summer Company employees simply because, ironically, they believed themselves morally superior.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: Karliah's "good" ending to her quest has her return to the Kingdom of Etrea after being convinced on how dangerous Diver work is, with her noting how friendly the people of Etrea are to her. Shame that most of them are under the mental veil of the Lord Regent, though...
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Most of fans don't like Arcane Odyssey because they think the game is a free ripoff version of their game.
  • Due to disillusionment with the game, many fans would often point to upcoming games and refer to them as "Deepwoken killers" leading to said game's often being overhyped, thus suffering from Hype Backlash and animosity between those still loyal to the game and the fanbases of its competitors. Arcane Odyssey was the first of these, followed by Voxlblade and then Pilgrammed. This often lead to the games touted as such eventually losing large amount of players due to unreasonable expectations, furthering the friction between the two groups.
  • With Type:SOUL, both for the reasons above and its attempt to to adopt similar mechanics, like Deepwoken's combat system and the permadeath concept that Monad's Studio's games often use, which often leads to other titles attempting to emulate it, for an anime game. K1LLUAA, a new developer for Deepwoken whose work is often criticized for not working very well in the game, having vfx that don't fit the game's theme and tone and reusing some of his old content from other games for Deepwoken content, regardless if they fit well or not, also worked on both games, with him joining Type:SOUL being seen as when the game fell to community drama and lacking updates, resulting in both parties blaming the other for bringing him to their respective games. The rivalry reignited when Type:Soul got an massive update that saw the playercounts returning to release days, which when combined with certain parts being rushed out such as Ysley's Pyre Keeper originally meant to coincide with the release of the Conquest gamemode has led to suspicion that pressure from Type:Soul resulted in the updates being released earlier than expected, causing both fandoms to go back at each other's throats.
• Fandom VIP: Deepwoken has a few:
  • Agamatsu is practically the face of the brand, thanks to his popularity in the previous game, Rogue Lineage. Known for his mad rambles about the game that have established him as a lovable Talkative Loon, it's not uncommon to see videos of him attached to transcripts of his words with far too many emojis interspersed throughout them. The most famous of these is his suggestion to add unique Resonances that can only be obtained in the Second Layer, more commonly known as The New Layer 2 Bell.
  • TheRealPunchee is known for his quality content, skill with 3D models and editing, often shedding light on poorly explained mechanics or recently added content. His involvement eventually resulted in him being made a moderator for the game, granting him access to even more information and niche topics he could shed light on. He also created the official trailer for the Destroyman III plushie.
• Fan Nickname:
  • The Exploiter Oath for Dawnwalker, due to how hard and tedious it is to obtain and fully progress. However, there were many Dawnwalker just days after Verse 2 released, thus leading to the assumption the only people who would have be able to obtain it were hackers.
  • Several Monsters in the game are often referred to as these, either because their names are difficult to type out or pronounce:
    • Megalodaunt: Sharko
    • Mudskipper: Shriekers due to being similar to the enemies from Monad Studios' previous game Rogue Lineage, Zombies, Mudkips, Dripskippers (regarding the Necroskippers, Mineskippers, and Meteorskippers/Mudskipper Knights), Abominations
    • Terrapods: Headcrabs, due to resembling a much larger version of it.
    • Deep Owls: Wan Shi Tong, due to also being an Animalistic Abomination taking a form of an giant dark owl. Except in reality, very few people initially called them this. In reality, someone added it to the wiki, making new players assume that people did indeed call them that, effectively gaslighting an entire community◊.
    • Nautilodaunt: Squibbo, Squidward, and Squid Hoss, due to being an expert fistfighter like Big Hoss from Rogue Lineage.
    • Dread Serpent: Due to the modeler largely repurposing the design with minimal changes, Kaido, much to the chagrin of developer Arch_Mage, who has since vowed to get the Monster entirely reworked if it's the last thing he does.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Fire Gun, surprisingly enough, become this after it was reworked. Prior to the rework, Fire Gun was regarded as mediocre, and was only useful for setting bodies on fire, which any other Flamecharm mantra could do. After the rework which made it fire automatically as long as the player is holding on the assigned key for it and made it compatible with other Mantra Modifiers alongside some talents, it's agreed to be one the best Flamecharm mantras out there for different reasons: Adding modifiers to increase the projectile speed such as Rush Shards and a Round Spark to increase the projectiles sent turns it into a automatic Fire Shotgun, pretty much putting pressure on anyone close-to-mid range. Talents make it even more insane: Hungry Flames allow you to fire it endlessly without Ether at the expense of hunger which can be mitigated with a lot of food and Carnivore, Azure Flames for more damage, and Lava Serpent for area denial. It even breaks various structures such as wooden planks, meaning that if your opponent thinks they're safe, they're not. It also benefited very greatly from the buff that improved Mantra PVE damage, as with enough Flamecharm, one can easily take down the Bone Keeper within a few seconds. And in spite of all this, it's not even a 3-star Mantra: It's a 0-star Mantra, meaning you can get it as soon as you hit Power 2, giving you a powerful Mantra right at the start! It was later nerfed so that it wouldn't deal too much damage at a distance, though the insane synergy with The Floor is Lava remains. The only thing it can't do well is insta-guard breaking enemies such as the Nautilodaunt. It was finally gutted when ranged mantras received ranged scaling that reduced their damage after a certain distance, though later it also received a Blast Spark variant which after landing enough hits from Fire Gun, it causes them to explode, dealing true damage in the process (and its initial addition was even more bonkers: combining it with the Round Spark variant allowed it to override the damage debuff the Blast Spark had alongside being able to autogrip- this was patched out after a couple of weeks). It was later nerfed again where, in addition to making Tempo only increase at close range, also removed Elemental Rebound due to it being integrated into the Tempo mechanic.
  • Ironsing as a whole is infamous for being absolutely bonkers when it was first released due an combination to the Metal Rods mechanic allowing them to either pull enemies, deal massive burst damage, or have them being stuck in place temporarily, the Phantom Edge talent which extends your weapon's M1 range, various talents that punish enemy players for both having armor durability and having no armor durability. Most of them have since been nerfed due to community outcry, but some still remain:
    • Firing Line, Caltrops, and Metal Gatling hit multiple times, allowing Ironsingers to apply multiple Metal Rods, which is essential for an Ironsing build. Even more game-breaking, the Nautilodaunt will not vent Firing Line and Metal Gatling for some reason, making it very good against them aside from Metal Kick. This was later fixed afterwards when they nerfed the firing rate of Firing Line.
    • Metal Armament adds an extra hit to your weapon's M1. Prior to being nerfed, it also procced enchants, bleed, and had 6 hits compared to 3, and parrying the weapon doesn't stop Metal Armament.
    • While Rocket Lance doesn't inflict many Iron Rods, on the other hand it inflicts massive knockback as a way to compensate for it. How game-breaking? It can sometimes send players flying if they're up against a wall, straight into the Voidsea, guaranteeing that they will get sent to the Depths. Just make sure to not put an Wayward Gem when doing this...
    • Similarly, Metal Fakeout instantly teleports their user to the nearest enemy to attack them from behind, and it works anywhere as long as they are in the Ironsinger's radius. Combined with it being near-impossible to react, and you have a very reliable way of catching runners, especially if they happen to be on the sea.
  • For some reason, Arcwarder's Arc Beam's unique scaling mechanic due to coming from an Oath allows it to deal massive damage. While difficult to perform in PvP due to the windup needed, the PVE scaling gained from it allows players invested well into Flamecharm or Thundercall (or heaven forbid, BOTH) allows them to one-shot a lot of monsters, such as a Megalodaunt. Maxing out Songchant and having certain talents like Ether Overdrive and Approaching Singularity allows for even more shenanigans like dealing massive damage to those who normally resist it. The fact that the airborne variant autogrips is a nice bonus. This was later confirmed to be bugged and was fixed, but to compensate, the base damage of it was increased and Arc Wave now has proper PvE scaling.
  • Permafrost Prison was easily one of the most busted Mantras in the game on release, enough that the developers scrambled to nerf it six times on the same day. It hit hard, came out in quick succession to stun-lock multiple players at once, and the base-size spikes were large enough to be hard to avoid on top of no endlag. A deadly combination that can be done with minimal effort on the attacker's end so long as they're decent at dodging. This video perfectly demonstrates just how broken it was. Even after multiple nerfs, it's still considered to be one of the most powerful Mantras, with the developers having to tread carefully in regards of balancing this Mantra. Later, it was given a Magnet Spark variant, which allows it to follow the user, turning them into an "Instant Death" Radius under the right conditions.
  • Ysley's Pyre Keeper, much like Permafrost Prison, had to be quickly nerfed on the same day for good reason. Yayafino, the main designer of the weapon, completely hid the weapon from testers, meaning that they weren't able to judge how broken it was until it was too late. The result was that of a weapon that was a dev spec made available to the public, and it shows: It has a Blazing Enchant that always procs on hit unlike the current Blazing Enchant, and every hit slows your opponent down, making it good against runners. Most notably, it has a wide variety of crits, which deal above-average damage compared to other criticals, allowing the user to mix and match them up for combos. While it was nerfed to be slightly slower and less damaging, to compensate, its absurd requirements of 65 Heavy Weapons, 50 Flamecharm and 15 Light Weapons were later adjusted to 25 Heavy Weapon, 75 Flamecharm and 10 Light Weapons, meaning in practice it was actually a buff, since it essentially meant that it was made more widely available for Flamecharm players who don't want to invest too much into Heavy Weapons and Light Weapons.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • King Gigameds are basically bloated versions of Gigameds, but they can also send other Gigameds as suicide bombers, not to mention an AOE burst that knocks back and erratic movement as well, making it tedious to fight them. Even when corrupted, they're merely a nuisance at worst and essentially a massive stat-check as none of their moves are parryable. Hope you have the posture and the health pool if you plan on fighting them.
  • Deep Owls. They are somewhat hard to find, being encountered only at night, but they also have very annoying moves as well. The former is somewhat mitigated by a set Deep Owl spawn being added to the Lordsgrove sometime in February 2023.
  • The King Threshers' main difficulty comes from the fact that their sheer size can throw off some players, not to mention they also have unique moves, meaning that players who got used to the moveset of ordinary Threshers are in for a surprise.
  • Mindless Servants. Give them the ability to punch players non-stop like Mudskippers and being unable to flourish them, and also add the ability to have them block, parry and dodge attacks very well, and you've got quite the nuisance.
  • Stone Knights. They are much more durable versions of Rock Golems, and to make matter worse, they also have damage resistance against slash weapons, which is the majority of the weapons in game so far. While Heavy and Light weapon users do have their fists and Greathammers to deal with them, Medium weapon users only have two weapons to deal with it: the Mace (which is a weapon that will be discarded in the late-game due to lacking damage) and the Sacred Hammer (which is a souped-up version of the Mace, but rarer). There are also rifles, but they require some experience to be used properly both inside and outside of PvP. The update that added the Maestro Evengarde Rest boss fight also added the Purple Cloud weapon, which does do blunt damage and has higher DPS than the Mace and Sacred Hammer... but only on its M1s and being locked at 85 MED, meaning that players who aren't invested well into the Medium Weapon stat will have to rely either on their mantras or the other weapons to defeat them. Even worse is that there's a boss version called the Blizzard Knights, which spawn in groups of six, and worse, it's possible to aggro more than two at a time, though this is made up by the fact that they also attack everyone except the Golem Constructs on sight. Expect to hunt them down at least once if you want those Hero Blades.
  • Really, just any Light Weapon user in general. While the Vigil Instructor can guide new players on how to deal with Medium and Heavy Weapon users, they unfortunately cannot train them on how to deal with Light Weapon users. This means that even if a player is somewhat experienced with the game, they still have to deal with enemies that can swing their weapon absurdly fast compared to their weapon if they haven't even used a Light Weapon at all. The Ministry enemies, Songseekers, Cloaked Assassins and Summer Guards are especially notorious for this, since in addition to the above, they are capable of using Mantras and enchants to complement their style, making them really annoying to deal with.
• Goddamned Boss:
  • Primadon. While it has some dangerous moves, in practice, it's mostly a massive parry check due to being an oversized Megalodaunt. Furthermore, they get even more annoying when it Turns Red, having its' attacks move faster, which includes it's infamous kick. On top of that, you have 15 minutes to defeat it, otherwise it returns to the sea without any rewards. While it does admittedly give good Resonance progress, the rewards it offers can be easily obtained by simply grinding in the First Layer. So underwhelming are the rewards that they were heavily improved - its loot was actually buffed to guarantee a Deep Gem drop, alongside almost all loot being 1-star, the cooldown on summoning it is significantly reduced, and it is guaranteed to give you 2 Knowledge the first time you kill it, 1 Knowledge every time you deal significant damage to it, making it more rewarding as a result.
  • Duke Erisia offers slightly worse Resonance progression in exchange for being available much faster than Primadon, but many agree his first phase is the most annoying part of the battle, as you cannot dispel it until you attack him multiple times. Much like Primadon, his first phase is a parry check, but sometimes he can some Galebreathe mantras, which can potentially throw off some players. Thankfully, his second phase is pretty much a standard fight against an humanoid NPC, but watch out when he summons his Mindless Servants, as they can potentially cause trouble if you don't have anything that can ignite them or don't have the Mercy Kill talent.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • Normally, Sunset Ricochet, the Outfit Talent of Summer Dragoon, doesn't allow enchants to proc for bullets that ricochet. This appears to be bugged for some reason, as it somehow allows enchants to proc anyway even when the bullet happens to ricochet.
  • If you have positive relations with The Ministry, then whenever you enter their hostile radius in Minityrsa, they'll suddenly spring to hunt you... only to suddenly sheathe upon realizing who you are. Since no other faction does this, it can be quite the funny sight to look at.
  • The Blacksteel Pirates being added to the Etrean Luminant sea events coincided with the return of the Aratel Sea-exclusive events over there. However, for some mysterious reason, this also resulted in Artifacts of the Forge of Sin being unintentionally spawning at a increased rate, with some even spawning out at sea, resulting in a flood of Artifacts. This also indirectly buffed the spawn rate of the Knives of Eylis vs Etrea events, making it much easier to shake the Knives of Eylis' enmity towards non-Voidwalkers.
  • Ordinarily, the vision in the Eternal Gale is limited in the Ethironal Shrine, and can only be reduced by gaining the talent Ethiron's Gaze, which reduces it to just enough to tolerable levels... Unless by for some godforsaken reason, you use a Void Spire, which somehow removes all the obscuring vision, allowing a clearer view of the whole area. Granted, there exists virtually no reason to use it in the area since it's redundant, but it's an interesting note nevertheless.
  • On Kyrsmas 2023, in a rare example of mercy, everyone's Drowned Favor was reset.^note Meaning if you bought a Drowned Favor for a character before Kyrsmas 2023, this means you can purchase another one if you wipe. However, thanks to an coding error, this meant for a brief while, if you had enough Robux, you can potentially charge into the Depths willy-nilly with no regards for your own life and purchase a Drowned Favor if you screw up. Unsurprisingly, this was patched out a few hours after it was reported.
  • Run it Back has a particular quirk: After using it, you have a brief duration of invulnerability before it teleports you back to where you used Run it Back, with the duration decreasing every time you're hit. This includes anyone who is in the middle of a grab animation, with this being achieved by multiple sources, most notably Flame Grab. A particularly devious method is to find or make a platform that can disappear above a killbrick, use Run it Back, then grab someone just as it expires, and watch as they fall down to their doom. This quirk is so insane that players involved in Chaser speedruns often use this to achieve very fast records.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The Voice of Sequestration has voicelines that people often comment makes it come off as a groomer or predator. Its voice actress, iltria, was infamous for being in an abusive relationship with a minor.
• High-Tier Scrappy: Some Oaths have gained notoriety for being too good at their niches. Keeping in mind, this only applies to PvP:
  • While most Oaths sometimes require players to grip other players, they are mostly respected due to their low requirement and at the very least, require some coordination in the case for Linkstrider. Contractor, on the other hand, while notable for basically making 1v1s almost a total joke, on top of a convoluted sidequest, requires the player to grip Oath players in the Depths. Considering how getting gripped in the Depths wipes your character, this didn't take long to spawn an uproar among the community, even the moderators disliked it.^note You cannot gank Oath users in groups, as this will not count towards the progression, and Oath users successfully gripped by a Contractor (who is progressing) merely get sent to the Second Layer. The latter doesn't count if the Contractor has already finished getting all of their moves. The requirements were later nerfed to merely gripping three Oath users, and to prevent easy grips, Diver Journeymen were later added to Castle Light.^note There used to be Black Divers, but as this went against the established rule that there are few Black Divers in Scyphozia, not to mention their performance was lower than advertised, they were replaced by the Journeymen.
  • Silentheart. Some have complained that Attunement-less is only viable for PvE and struggles in PvP, especially in Chime of Conflict. The devs responded by adding Silentheart, which was specifically made to counter Attunement users... and ooh boy, did it work. Some have complained that it awards them for doing basic skills such as parrying, landing crits and flourishing, resulting in them getting free resistances to Mantras, which when combined with Return to the Dark Ages means that they get a free Mantra resistance card without drawbacks, as they cannot use Mantras in the first place. The result is that even Dawnwalker, the Bragging Rights Reward Oath meant to be the top-tier Oath for clearing New Kyrsa without an Oath, can be beaten by simply parrying it. Not helping matters is that for a while, a bug existed involving the Poser's Ring dealing way more damage than it intended to, resulting in Shattered Katana users flooding Chime of Conflict with Silentheart before it was fixed, but later buffed Silentheart with a 15% DMG boost for M1s, that Silentheart is a terror in PvP.
• Low-Tier Letdown: While certain attunements and builds can be viable with enough skill, the same cannot be said about certain talents, Mantras and enchants, and players are expected to burn them on sight or trade them to Laplace if possible:
  • Flame Blind supposedly blinds your opponent. The catch is, the blinding effect only lasts a few seconds, which may be enough for a single hit, but the blind effect is so weak that they can easily retaliate. And to make matters worse, for some reason, it's a Combat Mantra, meaning that all it does is waste valuable space for other useful 0-Star Flamecharm Combat Mantras and a Burn as well.
  • Flame Repulsion causes your character to briefly rise before delivering an AOE attack around them. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, if you somehow get past the massive wind-up, it does pitiful damage even at 100 Flamecharm, plus it doesn't even do much posture damage. If you're seriously looking for AOE damage, Ash Slam, while having a lesser radius, makes up for it by dealing better damage and having a chance to guard breaks. It did receive a buff in which casting it also reduces your damage taken while the mantra is winding up and also reflects some of the damage while it does, but still, even as a poor man's Prediction, it does a pretty awful job at it, since Prediction can nullify all damage and has some good talents associated with it while also instantly reflecting the damage.
  • Most Monster Mantras are appropriately considered very powerful, so having the Abyssal Ridge that's based off one of the Nautilodaunt's stomp attacks being weak is a pretty appalling sight to many. It doesn't instantly block-break like the Nautilodaunt's stomp, and bizarrely enough, it can be actually parried unlike the Nautildaunt's stomp attacks. To make matters worse, it's impossible to modify or upgrade it, meaning that it's going to be very weak. Finally, in spite of having all the characteristics of a Combat Mantra, for some reason it's a Mobility Mantra, meaning all it does is waste valuable space for Mobility Mantras. This was considered to be so mediocre that on the next weekly update, this was corrected immediately: it's now properly considered a Combat Mantra, and Mantra Modifiers can be placed on it and extended the length of the Mantra, though to compensate it doesn't knock enemies up in the air as much as it used to (which to some, is considered to be a buff since some of them can use it as an opportunity to escape).
  • These two Attunement-less mantras are considered to be incredibly bad even by the standards of Attunement-less:
    • Rally supposedly decreases the posture of your allies in exchange for receiving all of them. In practice, even if you do participate in ganks, you're rarely going even need to absorb the posture of your allies, and even then, Exhaustion Strike is able to quickly empty one's posture bar due to its fast windup and combo potential.
    • Summon Cauldron does Exactly What It Says on the Tin. That being said, if you're in a guild that has a cauldron installed, it's essentially redundant. Not to mention that unless specific scenarios are in play, potion making is rarely going to be of use.
  • Curse of the No-Life King fell off hard. This curse was once the absolute terror to everyone who fought against an NLK user, given that those experienced enough could be literally immortal, since the HP regen stacking with Viscosity and pre-rework Fishman/Conditioned Runner could mean that it became a must-have for PvP. Because of that, it was gradually gutted to oblivion: First, they made so that all its benefits were disabled in the Chime of Conflict, meaning that bringing it over there just simply makes you more susceptible to blood loss, and also disabled Conditioned Runner when using it. Already bad enough as it is, but the final blow to it was the complete reworking of Fishman so that in exchange for the ability to regenerate HP more in water, it instead gave them the ability to grip humanoid enemies at water, and the flaw became more apparent, since the insanity per attack was very little to matter because they're already have their HP reduced to 0 for less the amount of attacks that would have killed someone through insanity, and if you really wanted to do so, you could go for an INT build and brew potions that have massive sanity depletion, making them incredibly useful in Scyphozia and Voidzones, due to the passive sanity damage the environment has over there. Speaking of Scyphozia, trying to even equip an NLK-enchanted weapon over there instantly drains your sanity, and unless if you have a lot of willpower, you instantly die. Finally, due to most HP regen options being nerfed, you're better off wanting instant HP options, like the Vampirism enchant since it heals for 15% of the weapon's damage. It did get a shot in the heart on the Light's Final Toll initial release since LFT could be enchanted for a while, and the synergy of NLK' insanity damage combined with LFT's insanity on flourish made it an dangerous combo, but once all LFT enchants were removed in favor of an unique crit system, it was back to the dustbin it went. A common saying is that players who rely on NLK's benefits are very likely to wipe due to the insanity potions being thrown around like no tomorrow.
  • Curse of the Unbidden. In theory, changing your weapon's critical to a counter that stuns your opponent for a free hit and drains their ether if they try to attack you seems good, but in practice, the stun is rarely noticeable at best, and not to mention, the basic criticals for all weapons are decent punishers against guarding enemies, and draining ether is better done by Shadowcast and the Solar enchant, which reduces both ether regeneration and tempo respectively. Not to mention, whiffing it causes your critical to go on a longer cooldown for 8 seconds, almost the same as for certain weapons like the Railblade.
  • The Entanglement enchant effect upon being procced is that it increases your damage resistance by 10% for the next 5 attacks, at the expense of being slowed. Sounds good, but in practice the slow effects are too crippling to be effective since the visual effects when it procs are very obvious to the point where the opponent can simply opt to run away until the effects expire or apply 5 attacks at range. Not to mention, Ferocity also offers damage reduction, but instead gives a speed boost, and both are based on your Tempo, encouraging an aggressive playstyle, which when combined with Viscosity, can effectively heavily reduce incoming damage, Drowned offers more stats, which is important for anyone mix-maxxing builds, and Displacement is similar in regards to Ferocity, exchanging defense in favor of hyperarmor.
• Memetic Badass:
  • Brutus, for his ability to deliver a brutal beatdown on anyone who dares come into his cell, even those capable of slaying the creations of gods. This has since lead to a joke in the community that the only reason he remains in his cell in Fort Merit, which has no bars on it due to developer oversight, is that he does so by choice. Become a somewhat Discredited Meme given the addition of bars to his cell after two years.
  • In an update that expanded their roster, Chili, the seaborne merchant, was granted a slew of new items, including those exclusive to the Eternal Gale or dropped from the likes of Dread Serpents or the Ferryman, making people thus conclude that he is some sort of unstoppable warrior who raids the most dangerous places and battles the most dangerous foes known to mankind so he can sell items off at exorbitant prices.
  • A rule of the Deepwoken universe is that the strong sink deeper, so the fact that Kennith, a random Etrean Guard who dies off unceremoniously in a random questline was sent to New Kyrsa on death resulted in people joking that he's actually really powerful, not appearing on any of the official powerscaling tierlists because he would cause them to combust.
  • Cap'n Orlandeau manages to fight his way through the Depths to Castle Light, somehow getting in despite being dead, leading fans to believe he must have charmed his way in, and is then forcibly reallocated to That One Level New Kyrsa, thus the community praising his ability to survive the world's greatest concentration of Demonic Spiders.
  • While initially just a random NPC who gives an item, during the Etris: Siege event, players were shocked to see Polis actually fighting the Authority's legions to protect a land that isn't even his home, further helping his image was that this was the first time an NPC was made capable of fighting.
• Memetic Loser:
  • Chaser is the third greatest graduate of the Markor Citadel and The Dragon of the Second Prophet of the Ministry. Despite this, he's completely ridiculed by the Fandom. His status as a Puzzle Boss meant he could originally be defeated by freshies if they managed to get a good grasp of his mechanics. The rework didn't do much to fix his reputation, as it involved him taking a brief lie down as he experiences a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, repeating this several times, before he slaps himself to death with his own power. Not helping his case is that his main power source isn't his own, leading to people calling him boosted.^ExplanationA term for players who get stronger through being gifted high tier items or being protected by their friends, or both. Even the developers are in on it, stating he would be in a mental ward if he existed in real life and that the nightmare blunt rotation of the Deepwoken universe would just be four copies of him.
  • Chef Odiolavoro's name translating to "I hate work" and his general poor cooking advice has lead the fanbase to the belief he doesn't actually know how to cook, hence why he only manages the orders and makes the players cook for him instead.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "This one's sanity must've already crumbled." ^ExplanationSaid by an Ignition Union member before they disobey Akira's warnings and get their head blown up for their troubles. This line is often used by players upon seeing very squicky things and seeing other Deepwoken YouTubers make nonsensical videos or clickbait.
  • Nothing happened on 3/13/2022 ^ExplanationOn that day, a very Good Bad Bug resulted in players having the ability to place down multiple Megalodaunt bait at once, resulting in a massive amount of Megalodaunts spawning, most notably near the Etrean Docks, and sending multiple players to the Depths alongside massive performance issues. Because of this, people often joke about nothing happening on that day, well-known as the Sharko Rumbling.
  • PACIFIC RIM! ^{MOM IT'S PACIFIC RIM! PACIFIC RIM MOM! MOM LOOK!}When You Tuber Tank Fish made his first video on Deepwoken, he would point to any events of Monsters fighting each other and refer to it as Pacific Rim, with his excitement increasing with each instance.
  • "If I'm getting eaten by the parasites, it should be like: Cheh tahh sehh kee gah... I should be rising in the sky: Pess kahh tahh... and then BOOM, I get the bell, the new Layer 2 bell, the new Layer 2 bell." ^ExplanationFrom a stream by content creator Agamatsu, suggesting unique Resonances to be obtained in the Eternal Gale.
  • DOMAIN EXPANSION, TRUE ICE HELL ^ExplanationA build created by Agamatsu featuring as many moves to hamper the opponents ability to move and run, such as Round Spark Ice Eruption and the Gravity Field Resonance. When using it, he would loudly yell "DOMAIN EXPANSION [Name of the move]."
  • "What is a seal? Nobody has explained." ^ExplanationFrom a video featuring Duke Erisia, voiced by his official voice actor, Laurence "Naktigonis" Anthony, reacting to a video of seals being released, confused due to the fact seals have gone extinct in the world of Deepwoken.
  • "Buff gale, nerf flame, add a new Shadow Mantra." ^ExplanationA joke regarding the general trends in balance updates. Originally started out as just "buff gale, nerf flame" but the third clause was added after a series of updates that added rather overtuned Shadow Mantras. Became an Ascended Meme as it was repeatedly referenced by the Deepwoken Twitter during anniversaries, holidays and events.
  • "[X] got it's theme before Chaser" ^ExplanationIt took about 14 months for Chaser to get his theme, and while it was incredibly good, the fact that a bunch of content that came out way before him got their theme nearly instantly lead to a ton of memes regarding how Chaser was left on hold for so long. What made it even funnier is that it's rather in character for Chaser and his Memetic Loser status too.
  • "K1 COOKED!" ^ExplanationA series of gifs ironically praising the work of K1LLUAA due to his work on Ironsing, which needs no explanation. Following this, the moves Iron Hug and Rocket Lance were released, the former of which looked very much like a move from one his previous projects and the latter being a buggy mess that could fling those on the receiving end so hard the game would ban them, thinking they were exploiting. This lead to the gif template being used whenever a new Mantra resembled something from a game he had worked on or was extremely buggy. Its usage ceased with the revelation that most of those Mantras were actually being made by yayafino to purposefully entice their creation, and the meme evolved into "FINO COOKED!"
    • "K1 cooked, fr this time" ^ExplanationWith the revelation that K1 was actually innocent in regards to what had been perceived as "slop content," his reputation steadily improved. The creation of the Maestro Evengarde Rest boss fight, considered one of the best in the game, fully redeemed him in the eyes of the playerbase, and thus the "K1 COOKED" meme took on a more positive meaning.
  • Look what dropped from Ethiron. ^ExplanationA set of chain messages where if one person posts loot they found, it will immediately be followed by several people reposting the image and changing where it was found, even going so far as to describe content that hasn't released yet or even areas in real life.
  • "videogame." ^ExplanationAn image of developer Arch_Mage saying "videogame" as a response to someone asking about the lore implications of what was rather obviously a bug. Used to remind people that Gameplay Story Segregation will always exist.
  • "He's making up his own headcanon and making himself mad." ^ExplanationA statement by K1LLUAA during a discussion where a user was insistent that Purple Cloud was based on Enma from One Piece and thus should behave like it. Due to the vague nature of the lore, statements often get mixed in with headcanons, and thus a lot of widely believed information is actually just headcanon, with criticism born of it being invalid, due to perceived contradictions never having actually existed in the first place.
  • "I take a walk through my mind palace and find the structure designated Deepwoken. I walk down its stairs and my fingertips find the label to a filing cabinet reading “Mudskipper Brute”. I chuckle, leaving it unopened. I move on to the Visual Tweaks aisle and pick out a suggestion no one actually asked for and flick through it, amused." ^ExplanationA statement by Arch_Mage when asked if he had seen a suggestion about a hypothetical Mudskipper Brute suggestion. Used to joke about how the developers will seemingly ignore extremely popular community suggestions in favor of extremely controversial visual tweaks that very few people requested.
  • The bullet that killed Deepwoken. ^ExplanationIn typical Roblox fashion, an update that nobody was told about proceeded to absolutely destroy every facet of the game. What made this different was WHAT was broken. The hitbox of a SINGLE bullet in a shop was effectively enlarged, meaning anyone who walked into its really large invisible body would seemingly phase in and out of reality at an extremely fast rate, causing the game to be temporarily shutdown. In the same vein as the Sharko Rumbling incident, a memorial was added, with yellow tape covering the bullets present in the game and a guard being assigned to them.
  • The Lightborn Curse ^ExplanationAn joke that whenever a Deepwoken content creator gets a Lightborn character slot, they are bound to end up in a controversy one way or another. Cases include Nanoprodigy, Valekis, Raum and Supaa.
  • [Time elapsed], [X] views, user fell off ^ExplanationA trend where users will post on various Deepwoken videos noting the amount of time elapsed since the video's release and noting how many views they had before declaring that the video creator fell off, either seriously or jokingly.
  • A reminder that all songs must come to an end. ^ExplanationThe description of the Light's Final Toll weapon, which originally scaled off pure Willpower, and was a favorite among various Blindseer users, particularly Nogo who at one point became #1 on the Chime of Conflict leaderboard. When it was nerfed in the March 22, 2024 update by adding an LHT requirement, this was mourned by many of its users, sometimes quoting the weapon description in regards to it.
• Nintendo Hard: While easier compared to Rogue Lineage, make no mistake- it still retains the brutal difficulty curve, and wiping is still a present threat throughout the game.
• Paranoia Fuel: Sometimes, chests in the East Luminant are rigged to unleash monsters from the Depths. While the effects are subtle enough to be noticed, there's sometimes a random chance that it may also contain a Nautilodaunt. Suddenly, chests are the next thing you should look out for while being hounded by other players and enemies...
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Jus Karita was considered by many to be the worst of the "Fist" styles, due to the fact that it could not equip any weapon whatsoever, meaning that every single late-game cestus could outdo it by simply having an enchant and stars. Come the December 1st, 2023 update, however, and this issues was finally addressed by adding the Anklets of Alsin weapon, which even thought it only increases the chip damage dealt by the weapon, is well-received regardless, due to the fact that Jus Karita users can not only finally equip a weapon, but also enchant it and have equipment stars as well. While it's unlikely to be meta, the amount of Jus Karita users being an potential threat has been increased. By extension, this also indirectly salvaged the Justicar armor, which was usually regarded as one of the worst Master Armors due to it benefiting only Jus Karita users and having mediocre stats even by Master Armor standards, and since the weapon's introduction, many have begun to actually farm for the armor, especially since the ways of obtaining it have been made more available.
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • The Hive are painted as a weird blend of Ecocidal Antagonist and Eco-Terrorist, creating many a Polluted Wasteland to fuel their Greathives. While they are often criticized for this, many ignore the fact that their victimized regions were completely uninhabited, with the fauna generally being rather monstrous, as well as the fact that the islands were going to be swallowed by the Depths anyway. If the Hive didn't drain the life from Aratel, it would have been destroyed by the Tides regardless.
  • Likely due to the enemy Ignition Union being viewed more favorably, the Summer Company often suffer from this. They're painted as far more immoral in their conflict with the Ignition Union, despite the fact the Union were the instigators of the conflict and the Summer Company are just defending themselves. Furthermore, they're heavily criticized for sabotaging their Mechalodaunts in a heavily populated area, even though the Union themselves admit the Company just turned the creatures on by accident, and it was the Union who stored such deadly creatures in their own town. They're also seen as colonizers claiming the land of the Navaen Nomads, despite the Nomads having never settled there and were only passing through the land at the time.
  • Yun'Shul is often painted as a malevolent force who craves only death and destruction, partly due to a false belief that he causes Insanity in the First Layer, and the Ministry drowning Celtor in his name. In reality, he seems more annoyed by that turn of events than anything, and is affable towards the people of Lumen, offering deals to them with little to no drawbacks, as well as showing pity towards the weak Deepbound.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • To players farming in the Depths, the antiquarian is only available to those who have the Deepbound origin, regardless of how good your relationship is with the Divers. This makes it incredibly tedious, especially when you have to ascend to the surface either through undertaking the Depths Trial, which has a risk of wiping you (and god forbid your game crashes or disconnect during that time) or going through a deal with Yun'Shul (which is a waste of a wish if you don't have your desired Resonance yet). And Deepbound is considered by many to be the hardest of the origins, making it so that unless you escape from the Depths through going through the Enforcer (or even worse, a Nautilodaunt), meaning that unless you manage to be incredibly skilled enough to kill an Enforcer at Power 1, you run a great risk of wiping as a Deepbound.
  • Prior to its removal, if you obtained 15 drowns at Power 20, instead of being sent to Scyphozia, you're sent to The Eternal Gale. This is considered to be extremely tedious, since most of the area is geared towards PvE players and not PvP, meaning that unless you are retroactively prepared for the area beforehand by gaining the Union Hook and Ethiron's Gaze Talents, expect to be stuck here for a while.
  • For some reason, it's possible to set your log location at Ferryman's boss arena. This can prove troublesome in two ways: If you don't log immediately after spawning in, you'll likely get combat tagged either by the person fighting the Ferryman or by the Ferryman himself, forcing you into a 3-minute combat tag and having to defeat the Ferryman in order to remove the barriers surrounding his arena or die, and players grinding Ferryman are at risk of being targeted by other players. This is especially noteworthy because a mechanic that prevents players from being ambushed exist at the elevator to the Depths Trial by simply moving their log location to the gate where the elevator to the Depths Trial is at, yet for some reason, a similar mechanic wasn't implemented as it. Not to mention that Voidwalkers can set their Voideye over there, and the moment they see a bounty at Boatman's Watch, expect them to suddenly ambush you there if they're feeling devious enough. This was later changed so that the Ferryman's boss fight is now instanced, meaning that players can no longer join in mid-fight, and the only way to have multiple players fight the Ferryman is to have them stand in the summoning circle as it begins to teleport them. Not that it's entirely recommended as the Ferryman has significantly high health scaling per player.
  • For those concerned about their character's fashion, the only way to get Dye Packets is to either turn in a Kyrsan Medallion to Klaris or find it as a rare item in Merchant Ships. Considering how extremely tedious it is for both methods, this can be incredibly annoying, especially if your character is incredibly disadvantageous in PvE.
  • The update which added Oath progression skip is a bit flawed for some reason: First, you need to have already maxed out your Oath from a previous slot, which isn't much of a big deal unless progressing Contractor or Dawnwalker, and second, there is no way to skip Blindseer progression. This means going into a whirlpool to enter the Depths at least three times assuming one Pathfinder is being escorted to the Depths Trial, making it very tedious. Finally, it requires 10 Knowledge if you want to skip progression.
• Scrappy Weapon: Some weapons aren't viewed fondly in both PvE and PvP:
  • Even by starter gear standards, the Stiletto stands out for being the worst of them all, as supposedly it has better damage potential compared to the Sword due to its swing speed, but in practice it has less damage than the fists. While meant to help Light Weapon users, in practice you could just simply deliver a Navaen hostage to a chief, which allows you to get Way of Navae for not just your run, but also future characters as well. On top of that, if you're lucky enough, you can potentially get an Iron Cestus which amps up the fist users' damage potential, making the Stiletto even worse in comparison. It gets even worse as most of the talents associated with Daggers have requirements that by the time you would have them, the Stiletto would be discarded in favor of superior Daggers, and if you really wanted a Light Weapon that isn't fists, the Quickfang, with some Echoes, is downright superior compared to it, as not only it has better range and damage overall, it also unlocks some useful talents associated with its weapon class, Rapiers.
  • The Night Axe. It has an absurd 60% chip damage, meaning it should be useful against players with shields, right? Unfortunately, the game also has a maximum cap for chip damage, being 50%. Once you get past its gimmick, it has terrible swing speed, with the same speed as the Enforcer's Axe, which has a decent Spin Attack for its Critical, and the other weapons with the lowest swing speed, the Evanspear Hand Axe and the Hivelord's Hubris, have their redeeming features such as the Evanspear's innate bleed makes it the go-to weapon for PvE, and the Hivelord's Hubris can be used to confuse players since no one expects a Hivelord's Hubris to be used and when combined with the Wind-Up bell which multiplies damage depending how much it's charged, makes it incredibly dangerous, especially since it has no endlag compared to other Greathammers. And if you reallywanted to have chip damage, you could just simply put the Obfuscation enchant on a weapon other than the Night Axe, and while it does deal reduced posture damage, it does give its user a speed boost when they hit someone with it, making it especially deadly with Vigil Swordsman. Even in PvE, on the monsters that actually do block, such as the Nautilodaunt and the Enforcer, you could just simply break their posture instead of using chip damage, and the only time chip damage is really useful is if you're wielding a weapon that pretty much doesn't have a critical that instantly guard breaks such as guns. By contrast, the True Seraph's Spear, while also has chip damage, is at least respected for having the fastest swing speed of all Spears, only tied with the Kyrsglaive.
  • Of all Fist Styles, Jus Karita is by far the least popular of them. For one, it cannot equip any weapons, especially Flamekeeper Cestus and for some bizarre reason, Light's Final Toll, which means it cannot benefit from any enchants such as Elastic or Blazing. This is already bad enough as it is, but what makes it even worse is that it lacks both Way of Navae's amazing block-breaking crit or the damage potential of the Legion Kata, and the one Master Armor associated with it, Justicar, is essentially a Legion Centurion but for Jus Karita styles, and it's also dropped from the Nautilodaunt to boot. The only saving grace is the talents allow you to crit two times in a row provided your hits land, combined with the unusual animations and surprisingly fast attack speed combined with no one usually expecting a Jus Karita user to fight can throw them off, but they're considered junk cards and anyone experienced with fighting a Jus Karita user can easily demolish them. It did receive a band-aid in the form of Justicar having their talent buffed to further increase the damage buff it gives to Jus Karita users to 20% compared to previously 20%, which thankfully makes it slightly better in terms of DPS compared to Flamekeeper Cestus, but the fact that it still cannot equip Enchants nor benefit from weapon stars is still a major point of contention. This was finally fixed with the release of the Anklets of Alsin weapon which is a weapon meant for Jus Karita users.
  • Of all the Hallowtide weapons, the Hallowscleave is considered by many to be the worst of them all. This is because in spite of its appearance, its stats are completely middle of the road, boasting mediocre damage and swing speed. Other endgame swords boasts much better results, with the Shattered Katana having higher damage and penetration to compensate for a slightly slower swing speed, which when combined with the Cloak of Winds can pretty much deal a good amount of DPS at the expense of not providing the defenses of the Master Outfits (and to make matters worse, it would receive a Master Armor associated with Cloak of Winds' talent, not to mention it got buffed with a new critical, rendering the negatives somewhat moot), the Kyrsblade is a great all-rounder with emphasis on Scratch Damage, and the Falchion, especially when alloyed, has swing speed on par with light weapons. The only reason why someone would even use it is because of the incredibly funny Taco Bell sound effect when gripping a player with it.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: The Enforcer is meant to deter Deepbound players from getting out of the Depths early on, since it's guaranteed to appear regardless of their Power. This has not stopped some players from trying anyway, which probably is helped since the Enforcer's moveset can be studied well enough for a player to analyze their moveset, allowing Power 1 players to defeat it with enough patience. Bonus points if they defeat it while also having Deep Champion, which enables them to spawn Corrupted.
• That One Achievement:
  • Trial of One, which requires you to fully complete the named level. Aside from being a Brutal Bonus Level, reaching it as hard as it sounds- You have to evade Ministry Scouts and Necromancers alongside Songseeker Frostdrawers, who can easily kill you in a few hits, since the Trial of One is located at Outpost Antumbra, which is filled with Ministry Scouts. Oh, and make one mistake in any of the challenges after the parry check and you're screwed, though thankfully the Trial does give you an origin to start at it after defeating the Thresher there, but dying over there with that origin sends you to the Depths (not that matters unless you somehow screwed up a attribute and got unlucky with your hands of Talent Cards). Thankfully, fully clearing the Trial of One gives a total of 85 free investment points (133 investment points with Adret and Autodidact).
  • W Rank, which requires you to meet the requirements for an S-Rank, except that you must have all Echo modifiers enabled except Vow of Thorns. Considering that two of the echo modifiers are considered by many to be the most harmful in the game and that you are effectively at the mercy of the RNG for this one...
• That One Attack:
  • Just about anything that inflicts knockback and ragdolls, as if they hit, you're left helpless for a while, and good luck if it happens to be near a huge height. The Primadon's Kick is the most notorious example, since it's capable of punting a player to the atmosphere if it hits somebody with it.
  • Grand Javelin is just as deadly in the Legion Sniper's hands as well as experienced player is. The Ferryman's version of it is even worse, as it's a Grand Volley instead, having him continuously throw Grand Javelins at you, which can combo a player to death if not dealt with. These instantly grip you if you're low enough, by the way.
  • The Golem Constructs have an attack at not only deals massive damage on par with max Shadowcast Shadow Kick, but also instantly grip as well, making it very dangerous to come up close to them.
  • Deep Owls have a grab attack that they perform that is only telegraphed by looking up, which can be hard to do if you're in the heat of combat, and if it connects, it will deal massive fall damage unless you get to another platform in time.
  • Evengarde's Maestro's Flourish comes out extremely quickly, making it a nightmare to fight on high ping.
  • The King Threshers' body slam attack can surprisingly punch through parry attempts, and the hitbox can even catch players who somehow managed to perfectly roll through it, resulting in them being ragdolled and knocked back. For extra pain, it can often follow up with it breathing flames right at you, which is completely unblockable and can only be dodged, which by that point, means you probably wasted a roll trying to dodge the body slam. Ironically, the body slam, despite it being the full weight of what is clearly an extremely heavy creature coming down on you, can be avoided by simply blocking it.
• That One Component: The Dread Serpent Tooth is required to obtained the Dread Breath Mantra. For obvious reasons, it's only dropped by the Dread Serpent, who has a chance of not dropping it and instead drop either Petra's Anchor, which is a decent consolation award, or something Better Off Sold. Oh, and like all the items needed to get Monster Mantras, it can't be dropped (which thankfully prevents you from losing it in the event you die).
• That One Disadvantage: Of all the echo modifiers, these two are the most painful:
  • Dissonant. It essentially prevents you from gaining a Resonance, in exchange for a small multiplier to echoes obtained, but successfully gaining access to a Resonance gives out a massive amount of echoes, and provides access to Yun'Shul's shrine which gives out some echoes as well for making a deal with it. Even with all the modifiers enabled, it's still lesser compared to what you have by having all modifiers except Dissonant enabled. Pretty much the only reason to enable this is if you're using a specific character slot to farm echoes, but once that's dealt with, you never have worry about it again. A later update slightly mitigated this by allowing you to still get the Resonance but not activate it, thankfully allowing players to still get the Resonance obtained Echo.
  • One Bit gives your player character Super Drowning Skills. Considering that most of the overworld consists of a massive ocean and that attacks that deal knockback exist, this one is much more dangerous than it sounds, especially if you had the unfortunate luck to encounter a Voidwalker who has at least one Mantra that deals knockback. It also turns the Dread Serpent from a fairly easy boss fight into one of the hardest bosses in the game surpassing only Scion of Ethiron in terms of difficulty, since it's mostly fought in the Voidsea.
• That One Level:
  • To some, Starswept Valley. While it could have been like any ordinary area, there is one major annoying gimmick- There's an occasional sandstorm that will reduce your field of vision, making it incredibly annoying to progress through the area for every player involved, even the bounty hunters as they have a harder time finding their targets. To make matters worse, you're expected to go through this if you want to get the Thresher Scales talent and gain access to Greathive Aratel by washing your face at Lightkeeper Temple, since it's located over there.
  • Some of the Voidzones stand out in terms of difficulty:
    • The Ancient Rotlands have brains that cause your sanity to drop if they pulse while you're at looking at it. And since this is a Voidzone, having your head explode here means you get sent straight to the Depths. Oh, and it also guards the fastest way to get to The Monkey's Paw/Primadon's Hunting Grounds.
    • Planning to progress your Starkindred Oath or get Stardust for teleporting around as a Linkstrider? Hope you're ready to enter Starfield Grove, which features up to three Stone Knights in the same area, meaning that separating them is a must. While Starkindred players can bypass it by climbing around the edges, if you want to safely get the Stardust, you have to deal with the Stone Knights first.
  • The reworked Depths Trial after a significant amount of Drowns has been obtained by the player at Power 20 is notorious for being extremely difficult, surpassing Scion of Ethiron and The Enforcer. For one, instead of a singular enemy, you instead fight a series of monsters, which includes a King Thresher, Bone Keeper, and the Fury Nautilodaunt. Those two monsters should serve as a massive warning sign as to how difficult this is. While the Fury Nautilodaunt can thankfully only spawn corrupted if the player has Deep Champion enabled, the King Thresher and the Bone Keeper can spawn corrupted without Deep Champion, meaning not only you have to deal with one of the hardest monsters to fight in the game, but one of them has the chance to spawn with the same health as The Ferryman. The only saving grace that due to being a Depths Trial, you can bargain with Yun'Shul to simply get out of the area provided you have a Wish, but considering that wishes-post Power 20 are only obtained by dealing with Misérables, meaning that you need at least 15 Knowledge to escape from the Depths each time, this is much harder than it sounds.
• That One Sidequest:
  • While some of the attribute unbound quests have some difficulty, there are two that earned some notable attention:
    • The Charisma Unbound quest can be annoying if the player doesn't anticipate what's coming up next. First, after talking to Karliah, they must then rescue her from a Mudskipper fast. Then, they must have enough charisma to pick the third option (which they would thankfully have by then). If the player fails to meet either of these conditions, the quest is rendered completely unwinnable, and you have to wipe to start it again or forget about levelling Charisma. Fortunately, successfully picking the third option results in one of the most heartwarming moments in the game and Charisma being unbound.
    • The Attunement Unbound quest requires you to successfully grip Duke Erisia while having an max Attunement of an element. While his boss fight is not hard (albeit very annoying), chances are, the player likely only has their attunement maxed out and not their weapon proficiency, making his boss fight harder than expected. The other alternatives are defeating the Ferryman, which while somewhat difficult, can be easy if you know his moveset, and defeating Chaser, which means either defeating him within the Light Hook time limit or risking a wipe. To make matters worse, this is the only attribute unbound quest that does not automatically unbound the element for future slots after achieving it once, making it a slog to unbound one's element.
  • The Contractor Oath is by far the hardest Oath to get in the game, likely because it requires you to grip Oath players in the Depths. Even without that aside, getting good relations with the Ministry is harder than you expect, since you either have to do "party tricks" to get them or assist them against the Children of Navae in Summer Isle, which could take a while. After that, you have to fight Duke Erisia and ask what's he doing with the Forge of Sin to get special dialogue regarding the Lord Regent, and failing this means you need to seek another Oath or wipe to do it again. Afterwards, they have to make a deal with the Deep Shrines of Temptation, Blasphemy, Mastery, and Chance, and then get their Resonance to access Yun'Shul's temple to gain special dialogue regarding what happened to Celtor (which thankfully doesn't consume a wish). Then, after escaping from the Depths, they have to pledge their loyalty to Zi'eer to finally obtain the Contractor oath, which requires the aforementioned gripping to gain its associated Mantras. So notorious was this quest that pressure from both the playerbase and their moderators resulted it Contractor now only requiring 3 grips, and any Oath player gripped by them and nothing else results in them sent to the Second Layer instead. The progression was made slightly easier since the part of the requirement is now making a deal with at least four Deep Shrines. An later update made so that players can skip the whole process at the cost of 10 Knowledge... But only if they already have maxed out Contractor at least once.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Blacksteel Pirates are a faction of mysterious knights, clad in all black. They emerge from the bottom of the sea, attacking anyone who passes by with Shadowcast and die lamenting the great things they could have done in life. This lead many in the community to believe they were warriors corrupted by the Depths, or at least had some connection to it. In reality, their entire story is just that they're people who steal stuff, something they aren't even shown doing, the tower emerging from the ocean was just so it would look better, and them using Shadowcast was just due to it being hard for the developers to make new Mantras, as well as adding some difficulty. Suffice it to say, this rather bland reality was rather unpopular.
• Underused Game Mechanic: The Termite talent is the only talent available in game that can only be unlocked for future characters by wiping with a certain set of talents. However, since its addition, no other talents like it have been introduced.