In today's #vampiresurvivor run, we tackle Song of Mana's evolution... the easy way! Thanks to the Skull-o-maniac pickup in Mad Forest, this map is the easiest way to guarantee you'll be able to evolve Song of Mana without sacrificing a secondary slot simply to gain Curse.
It is a good idea to come into this map with one or two ticks of Curse (10-20%), as doing so will help you level faster in the early sections of this beginner-friendly map.
The Build
Character: Poppea
Default Weapon: Song of Mana
Bonus Stat: +1% Duration every level.
Weapon Picks
Default: Song of Mana
2: Santa Water
3: Eight the Sparrow
4: Magic Wand
5: Pentagram
6: Phiera Der Tuphello
7: [After Phieraggi evolution] Rune Tracer
Secondary Picks
1: Candelabrador
2: Attractorb
3: Crown
4: Empty Tome
5: Tiragisú
6: Armor
7: [Map Pickup] Skull-o-maniac
8: [Map Pickup] Hollow Heart
Evolved Weapons
Mannajja (Evolved SoM), LaBorra, Gorgeous Moon, Phieraggi, Holy Wand, NO FUTURE.
The Strategy
The goal today is simple: Evolve Song of Mana, in the easiest way possible.
Song of Mana uses Skull-o-maniac to evolve, which is (in my experience at least) fairly uncommon to surface while I'm playing. So, to make this less frustrating, we're going back to Mad Forest, where the Skull-o-maniac is simply a level pickup!
Knowing what maps contain which pick-up secondary's is super useful for situations like this where you have a specific build in mind and you want to guarantee success. We can also stack our Secondary Skills without worrying about reserving every slot for a future upgrade, which lets you add a skill here or there that might bring an "okay" build up to a great build.
As I mention above, having something in Curse is going to help you to start with, as this map is beginner focused so there's a pretty slow ramp-up to actual packs and even then the mob count is typically fairly low... so getting extra monsters to spawn is super useful for leveling. If you don't care about leveling quickly, you could ignore that advice and you'll still be able to evolve SoM here for sure so long as you last at least 25 minutes or so.
Which should be easy, if you've been following along, right? :P
Mannajja (our Evolved Song of Mana) is a fantastic evolved weapon, and one we'll be leaning on for some of the more ridiculous weapons challenges down the road. It boasts a stacking, permanent, reduction to enemy movement speed. Each hit reduces the enemy's Move Speed by 5% and it can stack up to 4 times, for a total reduction of 20% movement. This is great for maps like Dairy Planet where a lot of the monsters move pretty quickly in the last 10 minutes of the map.
It's also got an honestly ridiculously large Area of Effect. The cooldown isn't the greatest though, so having Empty Tome while running this build is super useful.
Additionally, this is one of a few weapons that pair very nicely with an Arcana we'll be unlocking a bit later in this series: Blood Astronomica.
If you're having trouble with a particular Secret or a challenging boss like the Red Reaper, it may be worth giving this weapon a try. Paired with Phieraggi or La Borra like we did in this run makes for a very large area of overlapping Area of Effect damage that will melt almost everything prior to the 25-minute marker. Adding Gorgeous Moon for it's insta-kill effect makes you an absolute wrecking-ball of a character. Nothing but bosses and Reapers can stand in your way!
It's definitely not the easiest build to achieve if you're looking to hit this exact mix of weapons, but thanks to the versatility of Mannajja, you don't have to run this exact build. Mannajja plus any other evolved weapon is going to make you a force to be reckoned with!
I'm a bit behind on writing these post-gameplay blogs, so if you want to see some of the more recent runs be sure to hit my YouTube channel (and, while you're there, help a fellow out and leave a like, subscribe, or comment)!
Until next time friends, Happy Gaming!
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