Soulstone Survivors review: the build follows you home

Your feet still have a job

Attacks largely run themselves; positioning does not. Red danger zones and overlapping boss attacks keep movement relevant while your skills cycle. Collecting experience means judging whether a patch of ground is worth visiting.

A dash gives movement a sharper punctuation mark. Use it to escape a bad angle or cross a threatened space. The tension is delightfully direct: can you keep this increasingly ridiculous machine alive long enough to work?

Read the tags before admiring the explosion

Your usual six active-skill slots force a conversation between immediate damage and future synergy. Skills carry overlapping types, and upgrades can affect a shared category. Choosing another compatible attack can therefore strengthen several parts of a build, where an impressive stranger might demand entirely different support.

The selection screen makes the trade visible. Earthquake offers a lingering area effect and Colossal; Seismic Shock combines a directional hit with Prowess and Resilience. These are different answers to crowd control, positioning and buffs. Bigger damage text is useful information, but it is not the whole decision.

Prestige gives a character a second life

Prestige is persistent character progression, separate from the levels gained inside a run. It feeds character-specific skill-tree development, while the wider upgrade structure gives your account more to pursue. Returning to a familiar hunter therefore develops something lasting, even when the particular run disappears.

Ascensions are the more interesting prize: character-specific mechanics that change what you do during combat. The Hound Master feeds dogs that grow stronger and hungrier; the Paladin collects divine inspiration. These systems turn movement into an additional build responsibility rather than just a way to avoid red circles.

That distinction matters. Permanent damage boosts can make yesterday’s challenge easier; an Ascension can make the same arena ask a different question. The tradeoff is repetition before a character feels fully developed. Sampling the roster and committing to one favourite are both tempting, and they pull in different directions.

Runes write the small print

Runes alter the terms of your next experiment. Their costs prevent unrestricted shopping, while saved configurations preserve promising setups. You choose the constraints before the arena starts offering solutions.

The current Elemental Flow rune gives damage-over-time builds an immediate payoff when their effects are applied. Generalist instead rewards reaching a broad collection of skill types. One invites commitment to damaging effects; the other asks you to count how much variety the skill bar actually contains.

This is also why old build guides deserve a date check. June 2026’s 1.5d update changed several runes and stopped chained skills from multicasting. The underlying pleasure survives: work out which rule your build exploits. Copying yesterday’s numbers without reading today’s tooltip is a less reliable strategy.

The blacksmith supplies more than numbers

Weapons establish starting skills and bonuses, so crafting another one can change a character’s opening plan. Later upgrades add another reason to return to the workshop. Artifact powers expand that character’s toolkit, making equipment progression more consequential than replacing a small number with a slightly larger one.

The Noxious Longbow screen puts weapon statistics, a starting skill, a special skill and an artifact power together. The materials bill sits opposite. You are choosing an opening direction and a longer-term project simultaneously.

Legendary weapons are no longer merely a roadmap promise. March 2026’s Last Arsenal update delivered the remaining set, including weapons for the Necromancer, Death Knight and Samurai. That gives collectors a substantial target, but chasing every unlock can turn a cheerful laboratory into a very busy filing cabinet.

Titan Hunt gives the machinery a destination

The Void Fields supply the core arena loop, while Endless and Overlord extend the pressure in different directions. Titan Hunt offers a more explicit journey: travel through unstable portals, complete challenges, gather Void Fragments and break a Titan’s seal before confronting the creature behind it.

Titan rewards add distinctive powers to the build conversation, and the mode leads into the game’s larger Void King storyline. There is a useful sense of purpose here beyond seeing another timer climb. Your elaborate setup gets a target substantial enough to justify the preparation.

Leave enough screen for the enemy

The same abundance that makes builds exciting can make the battlefield difficult to parse. Effects, damage numbers and warning areas compete for attention. A spectacular attack is less helpful when it conceals the safe route. Fortunately, the game includes a special-effect visibility slider worth finding early.

Menu depth is the other cost. Skill tags, status effects and rune conditions accumulate into a vocabulary lesson. Learn one interaction at a time. You do not need a postgraduate qualification in purple explosions before your first run.

Buy the workshop you can use now

This review covers the Steam PC base game on Windows, macOS and Linux. It left Early Access in June 2025, and the US listing checked for this review was $14.99 before tax. The optional Supporter Pack adds cosmetics; the soundtrack is another separate purchase.

It is a single-player recommendation. Buy it for repeatable build experimentation, character development and escalating challenges, rather than a shared co-op campaign. The free Steam demo is the practical first stop if you are unsure whether this much menu work improves your monster-mulching evening.