South of Midnight’s multiple skill trees are fairly linear, but you’ll still need to make some decisions as to which you’ll want to invest in first. It’ll take a bit of time to accrue enough Floofs (upgrade points) to buy a new skill. And while you can eventually max out your skill trees if you find all of the Floofs throughout every level, these three skills are must-have upgrades worth grabbing as soon as possible to ensure that your combat encounters go more smoothly.
Stigma Bane causes you to deal more damage to any enemies affected by your Weave ability. Seeing as Weave stuns enemies and keeps them from attacking for a short while, you’ll definitely want to dish out as much damage to them in this state as possible. This skill is among the first you’re able to purchase, so it’s best if you grab it as soon as possible.
Cleansing Rend unleashes Strands in an AOE (Area of Effect) attack after holding the appropriate button for a short while. Though it has a long cooldown, this skill can make or break intense encounters featuring a lot of enemies who can gang up on you, letting you dish out the hurt to all of them at once.
Cleansing Rend becomes available relatively early in the adventure, but you’ll need to purchase a handful of other abilities from the General tree before you can access it. Luckily, all of those skills are also helpful, so you’ll be on the path to success by the time you reach this awesome move.
Crouton Surge causes enemies to deal more damage when controlled by Crouton. Throwing Crouton into foes to control them already grants you a temporary but powerful teammate, so giving him more damage is certainly not a bad thing. Crouton Surge can be an immensely useful upgrade to have when fighting large groups of enemies, as you’ll burn through enemy health and reduce how many occupy the battlefield.
You’ll gain access to Crouton Surge a little ways into the game (around Chapter 5), but you’ll need to buy a prerequisite skill called Crouton Detonation before you can pick it up. Crouton Detonation is also plenty useful, though, offering a small AOE blast when Crouton’s control ends. Sweet!
South of Midnight is available on April 8 onXbox Series S/X and Windows PCs.