Tainted Grail Digital can be separated into two game modes. Campaign and Conquest, currently Berserker is only implemented in Conquest. This means by reading this guide you won't be spoiled of the Campaign

The Berserker focus on doing high damage by taking damage himself. This allows for a different play style compared to the Brawler and Guardian. Those two prefer to take as little damage as possible, or even mitigate it. The reason for this is the rune (special ability) of the Berserker. For every hit he takes the berserker gets a charge. And the more charges he has the higher the amount of life steal he does per attack. As can been seen in the image below:



For those who prefer text:

• 4+ Charges Consumed: Gain 25% Life steal.
  
• 8+ Charges Consumed: Gain 60% Life steal.
  
• 12+ Charges Consumed: Gain 100% Life steal.

And when HP is below 50%: +1 Energy Per Turn.

Currently, the game is still in Early Access, which means passives can change. The goal is to keep the guide as closely updated to the game. For now, the guide will focus on explaining the passives and the synergy between them. In a later update choice of items and cards will be added.
are two builds that have been considered fun by the community. These builds rely on the passives and aren't item or card dependent:

• Reflect (Thorns): The classic thorns build. You do damage when the mob damages you
  
• Low HP: The lower your HP the more benefits you get. Extra energy, extra damage

At level 10 and 20 you can also pick a passive for your rune. The guide will also highlight the choices given there and how they can interact with the builds.

This game uses acronyms on passives and cards. The following acronyms are currently known:

• UEoT = Until End of Turn (Effect lasts until player ends the player's turn)
  
• UEoC = Until End of Combat (Effect lasts until player leaves combat)

As outlined in the introduction there are currently two builds that most players favour. However, both builds benefit from passives explained here. Not all passives will be listed in this section, since the author has not used all of them yet. This doesn't mean they're not viable, but there are usually better options.The passives will be listed in order of viability the author thinks they are worth taking.

Some of the passives listed here are worth taking over your build passives. Fear and Wide Swings are good examples of this. No matter what you get offered, Fear and Wide Swings are just that good. Taste of Blood is a good contender over a build passive but not a must. The others canbe picked if you feel it's worth picking those over your build passives.

Passives in order of usefulness. 1 is Must Have, 2 is Must Have but 1 is a better choice, etc:

1. Fear
   
2. Wide Swings
   
3. Taste of Blood
   
4. The Mountain
   
5. Prey on the Weak
   
6. Last Call
   
7. Sacrifice

Description: Enemies in the first two rounds have -50% Armor.
-50% Armor for the first two turns is a massive game changer that allows you to get an opening combo that chains into Wide Swings and Taste of Blood. However, on it's own this passive is insanely strong and should always be picked up.

Description: Whenever you kill an enemy, deal 50% Damage to all remaining ones.
Wide Swings is quite powerful and works in any build. It is pretty much free damage anytime you kill an enemy and tends to get picked over any other passives. However, it's not a must, but will let you combo better.

Description: Whenever you kill an enemy Duplicate the next Attack card played.
Taste of Blood is a beauty on it's own. Every time you kill an enemy, the next card you play gets played twice. Now combine this with Wide Swings. Which means when you kill a monster both Taste of Blood and Wide Swings will proc. The combination of these two is always worth picking up.

Description: +50 Maximum HP.
While 50 HP does not sound as much to gain, it's clearly a live saver when you start with only 100 HP. Even late game this is a good passive, simply because HP is the one thing since you'll always be starving for it in this game. It's a good passive, but if there are better options you should go for those. This passive works great with the low HP build since it will give you more breathing space to work with. Those passives are based on a percentage of your HP and not absolute numbers.

Description: When you are fighting only one enemy, raise your Damage by 100%.
While this does sound like a good passive it's really limited in it's use. You rarely come across a single enemy. This means it lacks the ability to scale with multi-monster encounters. It's only worth taking if the other options are even worse choices.


Description: When you have 3 cards or less on hand, raise your Damage by 50%.
It's always good to do more damage, but the fact that it's only when you have 3 cards or less makes it's usage very limited. Berserker rarely gets extra energy, making it hard to get this passive rolling with the more expensive cards. It's worth picking up if you prefer playing the cheaper cards, but it should never be picked over other more valuable passives.


Description: Whenever you lose HP, draw 1 Card.
As the Berserker you will be taking damage quite often. However, since usually you get damage on the enemy's turn you will draw cards during their turn. Which means you will lose these cards since at the start of your own turn you draw your hand. If you pick cards where you sacrifice HP for extra energy this passive becomes useful. Otherwise it's not worth picking it up.

The reflect build focusses on taking damage and doing damage back to the enemy. Not only will this build lower your damage taken, but it will also increase the enemies damage take with the combination of passives. Keep in mind this build can and will make your HP look like a rollercoaster, but that's the whole idea behind it. You will use your rune often in this build for the pure survivability it gives you. The downside of this build is that if you block an attack you aren't taking damage so your passives won't proc. However, you do want to mitigate damage with blocks if the hits happen too often or become too big.

Passives in order of usefulness. 1 is Must Have, 2 is Must Have but 1 is a better choice, etc:

1. Burning Blood
   
2. Pendulum
   
3. Demoralize
   
4. Fortify
   
5. Unleash

Description: On Damage Received - Reflect 10 Damage
This passive is the bread and butter and the Magnum Opus for this build. Enemies can and will multi attack and this one procs on every attack they do. For example if a simple rat would attack you 4 times, that means you will reflect back 40 damage in total towards him. If this gets offered and you want to play the reflect build, you have to pick this one.

Description: On each hit received - +5% Damage until the end of combat
Extra damage on hit taken is as good as it's going to get for the berserker. Combining this with Demoralize means you technically get even more damage on every hit taken! However, there is also Fortify which means you'll get more durable with every hit taken. While Burning Blood is your Magnum Opus. Well Pendulum, Demoralize, and Fortify are your holy trinity. The order in which you pick these three is personal preference. They're all good but none is better than the other.

Description: On each hit received - Lower Enemy's Armor by 3
As mentioned with Pendulum, these three passives are interchangable and can be picked in order of preference. If you prefer the aggressive route then Pendulum and Demoralize should be picked first, but once again it doesn't really matter. All these three offer something that's part of your core when it comes to the reflect build

Description: On each hit received +2 Armor until the end of combat
Same thing as with Pendulum and Demoralize. It's a good passive and it doesn't really matter which one you pick first, just go for personal preference. Fortify favours the more defensive playstyle though.

Description: On all Damage received - Distribute 10% of Damage received to Enemies
While reflecting 10% damage feels low it comes into effect later on in the game. Where enemies will start to hit harder and you get to negate the hits easier.

The Low HP build is built around surviving with low HP, since the rune passive and other passives will boost your damage and possibilities immensely by doing so. It's riskier than the reflect build since if you forget to block or can't mitigate enough hits well it's game over. With the low HP build you want to forego anything that adds to your survival besides block. It's even worth lowering your armor to get more damage. This build syncs well with cards that make you sacrifice HP, since you can force yourself to be at a specific percentage without the risk of getting it. You also want to limit the amount of times you use your rune, since technically it will lower your damage output.

Passives in order of usefulness. 1 is Must Have, 2 is Must Have but 1 is a better choice, etc:

1. Last Resort
   
2. Frenzy
   
3. Rampage
   
4. Bulwark
   
5. Amok

Description: When below 25% HP - +50% Damage.
It's all in the name with Berserker and Frenzy. You took damage, you do more damage. It's the best passive when it comes to damage output. Combining this with items that give HP or the passive "The Mountain" you will have a lot more breathing space when it comes to being on low HP.

Description: Hit a random enemy for [100% Base Damage] at the start of combat. Ever 20% of your lost HP grants you an additional hit.
At this point you should be below 20% HP anyway so that's five hits you'll be getting from Rampage. Now combine this with the beautiful passive called "Fear" and you'll have a nice opening damage combo without even playing a card. It's a risky strategy but it works.

Description: When you have below 20% HP, gain 40 Armor.
The whole idea of the Low HP build is not getting hit, however if you get hit then you want to minimize the damage taken. The Bulwark helps for this, and should be taken up at one point. The Mountain and Bulwark will give you a bigger survivability window in the worst case scenario of getting hit.

Description: Berserker Rune Charges carry over from fight to fight.
Normally this passive would be quite useless, but since on this build you want a life saver around, even if it means losing damage. This ability is your life saver, since you'll always have some healing ready, even in a new fight. Otherwise this passive isn't that great, especially for the reflect build it feels useless. It has it's advantes in combination with the Born for Combat rune, but it's not a must have at all.

On both level 10 and 20 you'll be given an extra passive where you can chose to make your rune stronger. While these sound amazing, and in a way they are, none of these choices are mandatory for any build. They change your playstyle slightly and it comes down to personal preference.

The level 10 options are:

• Blood-oath
  
• Chant of Doom
  
• Born for Combat

Description: When you activate your rune with 8+ charges, gain +50% Damage UEOT.
The idea behind this passive is great, but usually your damage output is good enough to get away with not picking this one. It can allow for hilarious high damage numbers and give you amazing healing too. But the benefits are in the author's opinion not worth it.

Description: When you activate your rune with 8+ charges, gain 30 Armor UEOT.
As is the same with Blood-oath, there is a certain idea behind it. However, it has limitation since at one point your armor will naturally be high because of other passives/items. Once again the benefits of this passive aren't that great.

Description: Start every combat with extra 4 charges of your rune.
While 4 charges is only 25% life steal it can be great to have at the start of the combat. It also means you'll be able to get the 12 charges faster in a new encounter. For the Low HP build combining this with Amok should give a nice interaction.

The level 20 options are:

• Blood-drinker
  
• Trembling Crash
  
• Remorseless Assault

Note: At this point in Early Access, when you hit level 20 these rune-upgrades don't really matter that much anymore. They're nice to have, but as said before, the strength comes from your other passives. At this point it's personal preference

Description: When you activate your rune with 8+ charges, gain 2 Energy.
As class that's mainly energy capped this one is nice to pick up. It will allow for more damage and thus more healing. It's worth picking up. Blood-Drinker allows for the more defensive playstyle though. Which might work better the Low HP build.


Description: All hits while your rune is active also reduces targets Armor for 50% of the Damage dealt.
More minus armor equals more damage equals more healing. As you can see there is a theme going on here. While Blood-drinker gives you more energy to spend freely, Trembling Crash straight up applies it into the damage you'll be doing. Trembling Clash is great for the reflect build

Description: When you activate your rune with 8+ charges, Stun all enemies.
It stuns ALL enemies not immune to stuns. What is there not to love about this? However, it's situational and in the long term the other two options will outshine Remorseless Assault

For now, the focus has been on explaining the passives. In the future I hope to expand this guide with the best card options. However, I've noticed during all the runs I've done that the cards I tend to pick differ on which passive I've started with. So, for the next update I'll try to list those. For now, I prefer multiple attack cards, minus armor cards. Two specific cards are always picked and those are "Focus" and "All In".

All in all, the berserker is a fun class for anyone who prefers to play the high risk high reward gameplay no matter what build you pick. Reflect only works when you take damage, so block becomes useless. Low HP gives you a higher damage output, but not drawing enough blocks / stuns makes you fall behind too. And even some enemy combinations can be the bane of your existence. It's a gamble and that's what makes this class fun.

Feedback and suggestions on new builds are always welcome. I've written this guide based on my personal experiences and I am not that great at this game.

• 2020-06-18 - Initial Release. First writeup about passives