Last updated: 17.05.2024 (WIP, Early Access: Master of Machines)
Another day, another “Soulstone Survivors” guide. In an earlier version of this guide, I wrote that I have to pick up the pace a little bit otherwise the game introduces new features faster than I can write about them; and then, two days before I wanted to release this guide, they dropped the “Path of Ascension” update. This really killed my motivation to work on this guide since that basically meant going over the entire thing once more with all the updates. But it had to be done at some point so today I will take a look at my (previously) least played class: “The Hound Master”. This is a weird class in my opinion which is why I shunned it before writing this guide. Being a class that is clearly meant to use ranged attacks, it pales in comparison to “The Sentinel”, who not only has a number of really powerful Projectiles to work with but also happens to start with an extra dash, which translates into a massive boost in terms of survivability. “The Hound Master” comes with its own unique perk in form of their dogs, but those are really just meant to get you into the game as their damage numbers are rarely worth considering once you get the overview after a finished run. The class still fills an interesting niche and in the article down below I will give you my take on how to play successfully with “The Hound Master” on the highest curse level.
Disclaimer: This “guide” is not meant as the only way to play the character described below. “Soulstone Survivors” is a highly complex game, which makes experimentation a vital part of the game and adapting to given scenarios a likely possibility. I am only providing builds to play with that I found particularly successful and only made this guide to put some information on the internet that is not simply content farms copy-pasting the same five paragraphs. I invite anyone who reads this article to give their own input in form of build orders, strategies, or even just anecdotes from past runs, all of which can be used to improve this text to help newer players.
Character Overview:
Stat Changes:
“The Hound Master” starts the game with the following stat changes in place:
-20 maximum health
+15% damage modifier
-10% movement speed modifier
+10 extra health per crystal
+25% area modifier
“The Hound Master” pretty much functions like “The Pyromancer”: Crappy defense for big damage. -20 maximum health is already an upgrade to previous versions of the class since the health decrease used to be -40 maximum health. And it does not help that you start with lower movement speed either since you will be too slow to dodge in certain scenarios and be forced to take a hit, which means you should opt to pick health passives and definitely need to invest into more movement speed. However, the upside is more damage and more AOE, while the survivability on high curse levels is increased by the +10 extra health per health crystal. Shooting health crystal currently gives me 30 health on “The Hound Master”, which is a good chunk on top of the passive regen you might have. Overall, these stats work but we need to put some work into the movement speed part to help smooth things out.
Unique Skills:
“The Hound Master”, just like any other class in “Soulstone Survivors”, will gain prestige levels over time by being used and will unlock three unique skills that are then available for all classes. The skills are as follows:
“Weakening Grenade” is unlocked on prestige level 5 and is quite honestly probably the best unique skill “The Hound Master” has at their disposal. In its current state, the skill applies “Bleed”, which works well with the strategy you want to go with when picking the “Rusted Blaster” as your weapon, a massive 20% “Disoriented” which increases critical damage, and “Impactful” on top of it which further increases the damage of “Weakening Grenade” depending on how close the target was to the impact of the skill. All that on an AOE skill with medium cooldown, making it both a solid way to further support builds as well as a decent enough damage dealer for it to not completely fall off when compared to other skills.
“Bear Trap” is the second skill “The Hound Master” unlocks, this one becoming available on prestige level 20. The previous iteration of this skill spawned a bear trap every 8 seconds, which dealt damage and slowed enemies; and was therefore rather bad in my opinion. Now, I still do not like skills that leave something behind that much since I have to constantly move around at a certain difficulty level, but the developers sure made “Bear Trap” a lot more tempting. It now comes with only three seconds cooldown, while applying “Bleed” and, more importantly, “Weakness” which further increases the damage from status effects. The “Bleed” damage seems rather high, the 24% “Weakness” is a solid boost for any “Bleed”-based build, and the low cooldown means that you can easily trap an area which lots of these things to prepare for spawning Lords of the Void. I am not sure how necessary it was to introduce a maximum trap limit of 30, but I am willing to recommend this skill if you actually want to try it.
The last unique skill that “The Hound Master” can unlock is “Sharpnel Mine” on prestige level 50. This is another static skill, leaving a trap behind when the cooldown goes to zero, which I am not really a fan of as mentioned before. However, “Sharpnel Mine” actually offers a rather interesting set of effects when it gets triggered. It explodes into 20 projectiles, all of which apply “Bleed”. Granted, it deals no direct damage since the only damage on the skill comes from the “Bleed” it applies, but I could still see it working for “Bleed” builds that focus on using skill with “Lasting” or “Static” as skill types. If you only want to run one trap-based skill, I would go with “Bear Trap” though since the bigger AOE of “Shrapnel Mine” is outclassed by higher “Bleed” damage, “Weakness” application, and lower cooldown in my opinion. “The Houndmaster” is spoiled for choice when it comes to AOE clearing skills, which makes “Shrapnel Mine” not as necessary for most builds.
Skill Types:
“The Hound Master” has access to the following skill types:
- Nature
- Fire
- Projectile
- Bomb
- Blast
This is an interesting set of skills to work with. On the buff front, you do not have access to what was once the holy trinity in form of “Arcane Power”, “Bloodlust”, and “Might”; not that this matters as much in the current iteration of the game. “The Hound Master” had access to Chaos in earlier version, which not only means that they cannot use “Bloodlust” anymore but also takes the tanky “Chaos Golem” out of the pool of skills. It is easy to fix this with the help of Versatility runes if you need to; however, “The Hound Master” has gained much with the “New Beginnings” update. Projectile skills are great and the “Ammunition” perk that they come with can allow for impressive bursts of damage, while applying status ailments like “Bleed” or “Poison” has become much more powerful; options which “The Hound Master” can use since they have a weapon for each them. In fact, I would say that “The Hound Master” is definitely on the winners side of the “New Beginnings” update, with lots of powerful build options making the class a literal blast to play.
Weapons:
- Rusted Blaster: -5% damage modifier, +5% area modifier, “Mortar Shot” as starting skill, with “Bombardment” as secondary via “Weapon Expert” rune
(…)
-20 maximum health
+10% damage modifier
-10% movement speed modifier
+10 extra health per crystal
+30% area modifier
Surprisingly enough, the starting weapon of “The Hound Master” is actually quite passable as an option. “Mortar Shot” is an interesting attack being a Bomb skill which can hit a sizeable area right from the start and will stack damage and Bleed stacks quite well once you invested into multi-cast, but it comes with the drawback of shooting in an arc while targeting an area quite some space away from your character. You therefore need to position yourself in a way to actually hit the opponents else risking that the opponents just ignore your shots, wander up to you and smack you in the face. Thankfully, you do start with your hounds which do an excellent job of clearing enemies at the start of the run, making “Rusted Blaster” the one weapon on which you can actually rely on your pets to do some work early on. “Bombardment” is also available as a secondary skill but I personally am not a fan of waiting for a long time to see some random small zones of damage plop up, which is why I skip “Weapon Expert” when using “Rusted Blaster”.
| LEvel | Bonuses | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Rusted Blaster +0 | -5% damage modifier +5% area modifier | None. |
| Rusted Blaster +1 | +4% critical damage modifier -4% damage modifier +10% area modifier +2% multi cast chance | – 350 Tin – 4 Quartz |
| Rusted Blaster +2 | +8% critical damage modifier -3% damage modifier +15% area modifier +4% multi cast chance | – 33 Platinum – 385 Tin – 385 Copper |
| Rusted Blaster +3 | +12% critical damage modifier -2% damage modifier +20% area modifier +6% multi cast chance | – 490 Copper – 5 Quartz – 35 Meteorite – 5 Topaz |
| Rusted Blaster +4 | +16% critical damage modifier -1% damage modifier +25% area modifier +8% multi cast chance | – 47 Adamantite – 3 Eye of Pestilence – 57 Platinum – 665 Tin – 3 Horn of Chaos |
| Rusted Blaster +5 | +20% critical damage modifier +30% area modifier +10% multi cast chance | – 2 Amethyst – 78 Cobalt – 5 Eye of Pestilence – 10 Quartz – 10 Topaz |
| (…) | (…) | (…) |
- Riflemen’s Vengeance: +5% critical damage chance, -5 armor power, +5% cast frequency modifier, +5% movement speed modifier, “Buckshot” as starting skill, with “Power Blast” as secondary via “Weapon Expert” rune
I would say that “Riflemen’s Vengeance” is the worst weapon choice with “The Hound Master” but that oversimplifies things too much. There is a lot going on with this weapon as you can see with the stat change total when wielding the weapon:
+15% damage modifier
+5% critical damage chance
+5% cast frequency modifier,
+10 extra health per crystal
+25% area modifier
-20 maximum health
-5 armor power
-5% movement speed modifier
More damage, more cast frequency, bigger skill areas, and more critical hit chance make this an excellent glass cannon setup, because you will not be very tanky with both -40 maximum health and -15 armor. My problem with “Riflemen’s Vengeance” is with the skills: “Buckshot” might sound like a solid setup by applying Fragility (and will stack Bleed as soon as you have “Gangrene” as a passive), but the area works like that of a shotgun and is too short for a character that will probably die when they get looked at in a funny way. “Power Blast” on the other hand has lots of range, but is very slow to come out. As you will see down below, when I used “Riflemen’s Vengeance” I dropped the starting skills completely and instead focused on other skills; and while there are probably players out there that have come up with better builds using the weapon, I only managed to make a rather disappointing ranged build that pales in comparison to what other classes or even just builds of “The Hound Master” can do.
| Level | Bonuses | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Riflemen’s Vengeance +0 | +5% critical damage chance -5 armor power +5% cast frequency modifier +5% movement speed modifier | None. |
| Riflemen’s Vengeance +1 | +8% critical damage chance -4 armor power +8% cast frequency modifier +8% movement speed modifier | – 385 Copper – 385 Iron – 33 Cobalt |
| Riflemen’s Vengeance +2 | +11% critical damage chance -3 armor power +11% cast frequency modifier +11% movement speed modifier | – 42 Cobalt – 5 Emerald – 490 Iron – 35 Meteorite |
| Riflemen’s Vengeance +3 | +14% critical damage chance -2 armor power +14% cast frequency modifier +14% movement speed modifier | – 7 Emerald – 7 Topaz – 665 Iron – 57 Cobalt – 3 Fragment of Fire |
| Riflemen’s Vengeance +4 | ||
| Riflemen’s Vengeance +5 | ||
| (…) | (…) | (…) |
- Toxin Cannon: -10 maximum health, +20% critical damage modifier, +15% multi cast chance, “Pesticide Burst” as primary skill, with “Threshing Blast” as secondary via “Weapon Expert” rune
(…)
| Level | Bonuses | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Toxin Cannon +0 | -10 maximum health +20% critical damage modifier +15% multi cast chance | None. |
| Toxin Cannon +1 | ||
| Toxin Cannon +2 | ||
| Toxin Cannon +3 | ||
| Toxin Cannon +4 | ||
| Toxin Cannon +5 | ||
| (…) | (…) | (…) |
- Dragonfire Scattergun: +10% critical damage chance, -20% pushback modifier, +20% damage modifier, +10% cast frequency modifier, “Bolt Barrage” as starting skill, with “Cyclone Shot” as secondary via “Weapon Expert” rune
The fourth weapon at “The Hound Master’s” disposal sure does not change how the class is played, that much is for sure. With a weapon that looks like a dragon’s head there is a certain expectation regarding firepower; and I would say that it delivers in that regard:
+35% damage modifier
+10% cast frequency modifier
+10 extra health per crystal
+20% area modifier
+15% critical damage chance
-40 maximum health
-10% movement speed modifier
-10% pushback modifier
With more damage, critical damage, and cast frequency, your offensive sure gets amped up. And the drawback is not even that bad: -10% pushback modifier is completely irrelevant on most skills since they will not shove the opponents around anyway, and with the build that I have featured further down in the article it sure does not matter whether the opponent remains in place since they will be peppered with projectiles anyway.
| Level | Bonuses | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Dragonfire Scattergun +0 | +10% critical damage chance -20% pushback modifier +20% damage modifier +10% cast frequency modifier | None. |
| Dragonfire Scattergun +1 | ||
| Dragonfire Scattergun +2 | ||
| Dragonfire Scattergun +3 | ||
| Dragonfire Scattergun +4 | ||
| Dragonfire Scattergun +5 | ||
| (…) | (…) | (…) |
Class-specific Skills:
With the “Path of Ascension” update, the Hound Master got their own unique skill tree with all sorts of passives and runes to help their strategy work better and improving them overall. You unlock this section of the skill tree by bringing “The Hound Master” up to prestige level 20, after which you get one skill point per prestige level up to a maximum at level 170 to gain all 150 skill points necessary to gain all the bonuses. Every character comes with four important skill nodes first, which I will list and describe in detail, after which I have written down all the other bonuses that the class can unlock in the list down below.
15000 Minor Soulstones: Hound’s Feast
In previous iterations, the dogs that give “The Hound Master” their name were really nothing but early game clearing helpers. After a short while they ran around with an emptied health bar and really did not do anything damage-wise that would be worth mentioning. With “Hound’s Feast”, this changes drastically: Occasionally, enemies will drop various sizes of meat on a bone which when collected are given to your dogs to feed on which in turn fills improves their hunger level. At level 0, your companion dogs receive no bonuses, but collecting meat is rather easy and soon you will see the following stacking effects improving your pets:
Level 1: Hungry: Additional armor power
Level 2: Growling: Additional damage modifier
Level 3: Satisfied: Additional critical damage chance
Level 4: Nourished: Additional movement speed modifier
Level 5: Well fed: Additional cast frequency modifier
Also, each unit of meat that you collect will heal all your dogs by a small amount of health, meaning they get into the fray quicker and stay in battle longer by actively collecting food for them. As far as I am aware, the dogs are treated just like summoned minions are, which means that they get all those bonuses on top of whatever you choose for passives. Also, the character-specific skill tree for “The Hound Master” increases the number of dogs you have with you at any given moment, with five being the current maximum. You might be thinking that there are crazier passives in the game than “Hound’s Feast”, and while I would agree I also have to say that this passive turns the dogs from a minor gimmick into a seventh skill effectively since the damage is on par with what other actives can do over a run. The meat drops in abundance after a short while with lots of enemies dying, which means that the dogs can permanently keep all the bonuses, and the percentages they get as bonuses are not that bad either with +61% on all the mentioned stats above. Overall, “Hound’s Feast” is a really good tool that helps your dogs being a force in the early game when farming might be difficult while transitioning into a solid damage tool for the rest of the run.
30000 Minor Soulstones: “Pulse of Agony”
Unlocks the “Pulse of Agony” rune, which costs two Rune Points and potentially triggers whenever you apply Bleed or Hemorrhage, since there is a 10% chance to increase your cast frequency by 0.5% for 10 seconds, which can stack up to 20 times.
60000 Minor Soulstones: “Vulnerable Target”
Unlocks the “Vulnerable Target” rune, which costs two Rune Points and increases your critical damage chance by 25%.
10 Violet Soulstones: “Amplified Power”
Unlocks the “Amplified Power” rune, which costs three Rune Points and increases your damage by 0.1% for every 500 Minor Soulstones you currently have in your inventory, up to a maximum of 25%.
| Effect | Cost |
|---|---|
| Increases the amount of health food heals by 3%/6%/9%/12%/15%/18%. | – 2200 Minor Soulstones – 4400 Minor Soulstones – 8800 Minor Soulstones – 1 Violet Soulstone – 2 Blue Soulstones – 2 Green Soulstones |
| Increases the potency of the effect of being well-fed by 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%/6%. | – 2350 Minor Soulstones – 4700 Minor Soulstones – 9400 Minor Soulstones – 1 Blue Soulstone – 2 Red Soulstones – 2 Yellow Soulstones |
| Increases the movement speed modifier of your companions by an additional 2%/4%/6%/8%/10%/12%. | – 2400 Minor Soulstones – 4800 Minor Soulstones – 9600 Minor Soulstones – 1 Red Soulstone – 1 Yellow Soulstone – 2 Blue Soulstones |
| Increases your area modifier by an additional 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%. | – 1000 Minor Soulstones – 2000 Minor Soulstones – 4000 Minor Soulstones – 8000 Minor Soulstones – 1 Green Soulstone |
| All skills now have a 2%/4%/6%/8%/10% chance to apply Fragility on targets they hit (Increases all damage received by 6% for six seconds). | – 1200 Minor Soulstones – 2400 Minor Soulstones – 4800 Minor Soulstones – 9600 Minor Soulstones – 1 Violet Soulstone |
| Increases cast frequency modifier by an additional 2%/4%/6%/8%/10%. | – 1300 Minor Soulstones – 2600 Minor Soulstones – 5200 Minor Soulstones – 10400 Minor Soulstones – 2 Violet Soulstones |
| Increases your pick up range modifier by an additional 10%/20%/30%/40%/50%. | – 950 Minor Soulstones – 1900 Minor Soulstones – 3800 Minor Soulstones – 7600 Minor Soulstones – 3 Blue Soulstones |
| Increases your damage modifier by an additional 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%. | – 1100 Minor Soulstones – 2200 Minor Soulstones – 4400 Minor Soulstones – 8800 Minor Soulstones – 2 Green Soulstones |
| Increases the potency of the effects of being Well Fed by 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%/6%. | – 2000 Minor Soulstones – 4000 Minor Soulstones – 8000 Minor Soulstones – 2 Green Soulstones – 3 Yellow Soulstones – 3 Violet Soulstones |
| Increases the maximum health of your companions by 30/60/90/120/150/180. | – 1900 Minor Soulstones – 3800 Minor Soulstones – 7600 Minor Soulstones – 2 Yellow Soulstones – 3 Red Soulstones – 4 Green Soulstones |
| Increases the number of companions you have by 1. | – 15000 Minor Soulstones |
| Increases your area modifier by an additional 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%. | – 2100 Minor Soulstones – 4200 Minor Soulstones – 8400 Minor Soulstones – 2 Violet Soulstones – 3 Yellow Soulstones |
| Increases your movement speed modifier by an additional 2%/4%/6%/8%/10%. | – 2250 Minor Soulstones – 4500 Minor Soulstones – 9000 Minor Soulstones – 18000 Minor Soulstones – 4 Red Soulstones |
| Increases your armor by 3/6/9/12/15. | – 2100 Minor Soulstones – 4200 Minor Soulstones – 8400 Minor Soulstones – 16800 Minor Soulstones – 4 Green Soulstones |
| Increases the amount of health food heals by 3%/6%9%/12%/15%/18%. | – 2750 Minor Soulstones – 5500 Minor Soulstones – 11000 Minor Soulstones – 3 Yellow Soulstones – 4 Blue Soulstones – 5 Green Soulstones |
| INcreases the chance of finding food from enemies by 3%/6%/9%/12%/15%/18%. | – 2900 Minor Soulstones – 5800 Minor Soulstones – 11600 Minor Soulstones – 2 Violet Soulstones – 4 Red Soulstones – 5 Yellow Soulstones |
| Increases your experiemce modifier by an additional 3%/6%/9%/12%/15%. | – 1800 Minor Soulstones – 3600 Minor Soulstones – 7200 Minor Soulstones – 14400 Minor Soulstones – 4 Blue Soulstones |
| Increases your multi cast modifier by an additional 2%/4%/6%/8%/10%. | – 2300 Minor Soulstones – 4600 Minor Soulstones – 9200 Minor Soulstones – 18400 Minor Soulstones – 4 Yellow Soulstones |
| Increases the damage modifier of your companions by an additional 3%/6%/9%/12%/15%. | – 2200 Minor Soulstones – 4400 Minor Soulstones – 8800 Minor Soulstones – 3 Green Soulstones – 2 Violet Soulstones |
| Increases the damage modifier of all your skills of type Blast by 2%/4%/6%/8%/10%. (This effect is applied to all your characters.) | – 2800 Minor Soulstones – 5600 Minor Soulstones – 11200 Minor Soulstones – 3 Blue Soulstones – 4 Green Soulstones |
| Increases the damage modifier of your companions by an additional 2%/4%/6%/8%/10%/12%. | – 5500 Minor Soulstones – 11000 Minor Soulstones – 22000 Minor Soulstones – 4 Red Soulstones – 5 Yellow Soulstones – 5 Violet Soulstones |
| Increases your damage modifier by an additional 2%/4%/6%/8%/10%. | – 4000 Minor Soulstones – 8000 Minor Soulstones – 16000 Minor Soulstones – 32000 Minor Soulstones – 5 Blue Soulstones |
| Increases the potency of the effect of being Well Fed by 2%/4%/6%/8%/10%. | – 5700 Minor Soulstones – 11400 Minor Soulstones – 22800 Minor Soulstones – 4 Blue Soulstones – 5 Green Soulstones |
| Increases the area modifier by an additonal 2%/4%/6%/8%/10%. | – 4400 Minor Soulstones – 8800 Minor Soulstones – 17600 Minor Soulstones – 35200 Minor Soulstones – 5 Yellow Soulstones |
| Increases your critical damage modifier by an additional 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%/30%. | – 3900 Minor Soulstones – 7800 Minor Soulstones – 15600 Minor Soulstones – 31200 Minor Soulstones – 3 Red Soulstones – 5 Blue Soulstones |
| Increases your critical damage chance by an additional 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%. | – 4200 Minor Soulstones – 8400 Minor Soulstones – 16800 Minor Soulstones – 33600 Minor Soulstones – 4 Violet Soulstones |
| Increases the number of companions you have by 1. | – 20000 Minor Soulstones |
| Increases your maximum health by 2/4/6/8/10. | – 4500 Minor Soulstones – 9000 Minor Soulstones – 18000 Minor Soulstones – 36000 Minor Soulstones – 5 Green Soulstones |
| Increases your movement speed modifier by an additional 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%, (This effect is applied to all of your characters.) | – 6000 Minor Soulstones – 12000 Minor Soulstones – 24000 Minor Soulstones – 48000 Minor Soulstones – 5 Yellow Soulstones |
Example Builds:
The “Bleed” build:
The “Blast” build:
The “Poison” build:
Cubic Creativity 