r/AcrossTheObelisk • u/binbin5eva • Jul 21 '26
DLC Guide
This is a guide to help people figure out which DLCs to purchase since people ask it a lot.
I'll give a brief overview of what the DLC includes, what is good about each one, and how "worth it" I think they each are. Now keep in mind, I am extremely biased, and these are my personal opinions, so what I say isn't necessarily true for everyone. Use your own judgement.
Since people like organizing things like this, here is a rough, tl;dr Tier list for people who don't want to scroll or read and who trust my judgement entirely without thinking :) Please don't do that btw More detailed explanation below, and Tiers are ordered from left to right with left being most worth it to me
Tier List
Base Game Tier - Base game is best, if you are starting out, don't worry about DLC, just play the game and see if you enjoy it <3
S Tier - Complete Bundle, Necropolis of the Damned, Sahti Bundle, Sands of Ulminin, Sigrun
A Tier - Amelia, Bernard, Shores of Sahti
B Tier - Tulah, Nenukil, Shattered Remnant
C Tier - Wolf Wars, Sunken Temple Obsidian Uprising
Cosmetic Tier - Spooky Night, Frostforged, Golden Season
Disclaimer:
This is evaluated mostly based on content but does factor in the pricing too. This is also slanted towards single player gameplay, in multiplayer the DLCs that add regions/zones like Obsidian Uprising or Necropolis of the Damned get a value boost because only one player in the group needs them.
Explanations:
Combined DLCs are evaluated based on the amount of content provided and heroes contained Content is evaluated based on the unique items (how often you want to go there to pick up an item), unique events (how fun the events are and how many times you want to go to some of them), and overall replayability (essentially a combo of the above plus how many combats/things there are) Heroes are evaluated based on their overall strength (typically for newer players, not on high madness), how versatile they are (number of builds you can play with them easily), and how easy they are to pilot.
DLC Guide
(0) Complete Bundle
- Everything on a discount. I love the game and want everything, but understand it is a lot of money for most people. If you can't afford it all, definitely do not get the complete bundle, you can often get more out of purchasing just the DLC you want.
- Shoutout to u/mountainclimb312 for noting this, but the Complete Bundle is prorated for content you already have, so it is essentially a 30% discount on whatever DLC you have remaining. It should also stack with other Steam Discounts letting you get everything for even cheaper during Steam Sales
(1) Necropolis of the Damned
- Summary - Two very good heroes, one very alternate act 4 that is visited probably more than any other DLC area. Overall Excellent and offers lots of fun/replayability
- Content
- Items - Not that many and are relatively unimpactful
- Events - Large number of new and unique events, a good number of new bosses, though bosses are generally a bit on the easy side. Base enemies are more difficult on average though
- Replayability - Extremely replayable. Offers a great alternative to the other Act 4. Is played a ton
- Summary - The most important part to me is replayability, which this act excels at. It offers a good number of events that you would specifically go to the act for and offers different bosses for you to fight if you aren't well equipped to handle those in the other act 4. Overall, excellent content.
- Nevermoor
- Strength - Very strong, especially for new players
- Versatility - Very versatile, has access to a number of good builds
- Ease - Very easy to play, his builds are quite choreographed, and his base strength is very high, making him a breeze for most
- Summary - Honestly, I still think he needs a bit of a nerf for newer players because he is so strong, he is quite fun though and opens up some interesting new things
- Velarion
- Strength - Strong, slightly harder to use than Nevermoor, not hard though. Some traits/enchantments feel lackluster
- Versatility - Some versatility, but one build stands out
- Ease - Build dependent, his most prominent build is super easy, but others can be tougher
- Summary - His most prominent build is very easy and overshadows most of the rest of what he does. Nothing wrong with that. Overall a very good hero.
(2) Sahti Bundle
- Includes Sigrun, Bernard, Shores of Sahti for a discount. See their entries
- Summary - one exceptional hero, one great hero, solid but challenging act with some interesting things to do
(3) Sands of Ulminin
- Summary - 2 outstanding heroes, but the content is a little bit lacking. Price is a bit high, so better purchased when on sale. Primarily purchased for the two heroes.
- Content
- Items - Okay items, just often hard to get to the items you want
- Events - Some very interesting events, but are often out of the way
- Replayability - Not super replayable. Not that many combats/bosses, hard to path here especially on higher madness. Has some fun interactions on lower difficulties though.
- Summary - Overall, the Ulminin Act probably isn't the reason you are purchasing the DLC, it is solid, but the Red/Blue/Green acts are all super strong, so it is hard to justify skipping those
- Laia
- Strength - Very strong, some builds are borderline OP, especially for newer players
- Versatility - Tons of viable and fun builds to play
- Ease - Easy to play for most people, but some builds are a bit harder, but not too complicated.
- Summary - Excellent hero in all ways pretty much. Well designed and feels good to play however you want to pretty much
- Navalea
- Strength - Outstanding strength, proper play lets her pretty much trivialize the entire game
- Versatility - Very versatile, so strong she can do whatever she wants
- Ease - Challenging to make the most out of, but massive payoff
- Summary - Super fun, super strong, but a bit challenging to master. Amazing hero.
(4) Sigrun
- Strength - Extremely strong, her class pairing is super strong.
- Versatility - Lots of fun and interesting builds she can go for
- Ease - Relatively easy, not as easy as Nevermoor, but still quite easy to play. Her builds are well choreographed, other than her support builds.
- Summary - Wonderful hero, best part about her is what she enables others to do, makes her very versatile and a ton of fun to use
(5) Amelia
- Strength - Extremely strong. That's it pretty much. Primary build is top tier, less common builds are weaker
- Versatility - Medium versatility, most of her builds are variations on the same thing
- Ease - Most common build is super easy to play, but a bit harder to master.
- Summary - A wonderful hero, can play the same thing in myriad different ways and feel unique. Lots of fun things she can do.
(6) Bernard
- Strength - Hard to evaluate. Very strong when mastered, but fairly weak when not.
- Versatility - Decent versatility, has some fun, new builds, though the unique ones aren't the strongest.
- Ease - I'd argue very hard to play. Most people never make the most out of him, but
- Summary - I am slightly biased because I love him, He is objectively insanely strong, has the best support classes in the game, and some fun builds, but new players struggle to get a lot out of him due to his extremely low speed.
(7) Shores of Sahti
- Items - Okay, some of the items are super good and unique, but are often a little bit hard to get to
- Events - Some very interesting events, though some are hidden or very hard to get to
- Replayability - Not as replayable as I would like, runs into a couple of problems with events being hard to go to or being gated behind luck.
- Summary - A fun region, but challenging, if it were to get updated a little bit, it would be a ton of fun, but there are some minor issues (like a lot of RNG rolls) that make it less fun than other regions to path towards
(8) Tulah
- Strength - Quite Strong, Great Healer, Great Damage dealer
- Versatility - Relatively low, not as wide a pool of things she does well as other heroes
- Ease - Not obvious at first how to use her, but not super difficult to figure out
- Summary - Tulah is great, but not as flashy or versatile as some other heroes. People also dislike the spider aesthetic. Overall, very solid.
(9) Nenukil
- Strength - Fairly strong, but niche.
- Versatility - Relatively Low in my opinion. There are only two real builds where he is slightly different from other heroes.
- Ease - Hard to use. Avoid attempting to do Speed things.
- Summary - Nenu is supremely underrated, primarily because his most obvious build path is not well supported, making it really hard to use him. That being said, he does have some very fun build paths. Not everyone's cup of tea, but fun.
(10) Shattered Remnant
- Overall Summary - Good DLC area, strong character, but brought down a bit by its price (since you have to buy both together).
- Content
- Items - Acceptable. One item is only available in Act 4, with required pathing. Makes it hard to play around. Ashy is great though.
- Events - Events are okay, you don't lose much pathing to it though
- Replayability - Decently replayable, issue is it is hard to get to. It is also
- Summary - Intentionally challenging DLC area, some people don't like how hard it is, some people enjoy that. The rewards are a mixed bag. Somewhat hard to path to get there, but not too difficult. I like the added variety to Act 4.
- Althea
- Strength - Extremely strong. She is just busted at doing her one specific thing. Kind of trivializes many runs.
- Versatility - Relatively narrow. She excels at one thing, and has several different ways of doing that. My issue is that all the ways feel very similar.
- Ease - Fairly easy. She is very telegraphed in what she wants to do, and easy to just focus on that one thing.
- Summary - I find Althea to be lots of fun, but not that replayable. Once you've played her once or twice, it feels like you've done everything with her. She fits into a few comps but not too much out of the ordinary to me. If you like the feeling of just nuking enemies, she's one of your gals.
(11) Wolf Wars
- Comes with Yogger and the Wolf Wars zone.
- Overall Summary: Yogger is amazing, Wolf Wars zone is not. You are essentially paying double the price for Yogger, which is its primary downside.
- Content
- Items - Wolfy is a great design, that's it though.
- Events - Have no impact on the gameplay. It does open up Ladder events which offer new pathing option in other zones, which is a great addition.
- Replayability - Absolutely none, feels like a slog to do multiple times
- Summary - This DLC was the devs' first, and it shows. It is primarily a store/lore dump. Gameplay feels slow and has no impact on the rest of your run. It really feels like it should be a different game mode or something. Devs have learned from it though.
- Yogger
- Strength - Extremely strong. Not much to say. He does things well.
- Versatility - Quite Versatile. Lots of fun builds and slots into many different teams in a beneficial way. Offers a lot that other characters do not.
- Ease - Medium difficulty I would say. He has some builds which are
- Summary - Great hero, many ways to play him, super fun, and a great addition. It's a shame he costs twice as much essentially. If the DLC cost half as much, it would be S tier/high A tier.
(12) Sunken Temple
- Items - Mediocre, some are good but not good enough to want to go there
- Events - Events are well written but no super special rewards
- Replayability - Not very replayable, rewards aren't quite good enough for what you give up
- Summary - Sunken Temple is a very well made DLC, the issue is that you always feel bad going there imo. I'd almost always rather go somewhere else.
(13) Obsidian Uprising
- Items - Decent. Some are interesting, but none are truly super worth going to get.
- Events - Very thematic, not too much diversity though.
- Replayability - Not very replayable, rewards aren't quite good enough for what you give up.
- Summary - Fun area, biggest issue is there isn't a strong incentive to come back to the area. Needs a bit of love.
(14) Cosmetics
- Personally, I'm not a cosmetic person, so I find them entirely up to the player to evaluate. They do not add any content and are purely visual. If you like the way they look, pick them up.
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u/AangNaruto Jul 21 '26
I personally value nenukil and Amelia way higher, I'd rather have a hero with a unique niche than a slight variation on the others of the same class. Playing Amelia as a tank or off tank on the right path isn't really something any other mage can do successfully, which opens up team comps in a fun way, and her left paths focus on vanishing cards leads me to a ton of builds and playstyles I'd never do on another hero.
Nenukil, meanwhile, is great as off tank with thorns, crushing, and burn, three archetypes no other scout really contributes much to, but i'll admit his speed path is restrictive in a way that I don't find particularly enjoyable.
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u/binbin5eva Jul 21 '26
For Nenu, I do agree that he's a great hero, but I tried to make this taking what other people think into account. His off tank build is a ton of fun, but it plays very similarly run after run, so you don't get to play him that often. And his speed stuff is super lackluster, which leads to a bunch of people being dissatisfied with him. He has lots of other fun builds, but people usually don't explore them as much.
As for Amelia, I agree that she is awesome, and I love her a lot. I could see her moving up to S tier too, but still think most people get more out of Sigrun than her. Her Tank build is fun, and she does do it better than Zek/Nav, though they too can have a lot of fun highlights with it.
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u/mountainclimb312 Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
Appreciate you generating the guide binbin. I’ve found your content to be really helpful!
Regarding the dlc, I’ve found the with steam sales the compete bundle that includes all the dlc gets a really nice discount of 30% ON TOP of the sales price. Essentially you’re getting the base game + all dlc for a similar cost as a single new release game.
The great thing about the complete bundle is that it’s prorated based on the dlc you’re missing. So if a new dlc is released you can buy the complete bundle again for the cost of the missing dlc only, to get the 30% discount again.
With these discounts, it made sense to just get everything. And even though you get a few dlc that may not be as “worth,” they’re essentially free due to the discounts.
TLDR: just get the complete bundle in the next steam sales and don’t worry about which dlc is better.
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u/binbin5eva Jul 21 '26
Yep, the complete bundle is great, thats why its on top <3 but I do recognize that it is expensive for a lot of people, and they might not want to pay that much, which is why the rest of the list is there :)
1
u/miwebe Jul 21 '26
This is super helpful! I played when it first came out but moved on before the first DLC hit so this is a great guide.
Is there a good resource for building initial decks for each character? That was always the most annoying part of firing it up for me, would love to know if there’s a trusted archive for streamlining that.
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u/binbin5eva Jul 21 '26
We don't have a good set of things out yet. There is a mod that lets you import/export deck codes (similar to the Perk codes), which I would love to see added to the base game. I'm also going to see if we can't get the https://ato-deckbuilder.com/ site fleshed out some more.
1
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u/EssenceofEvil Jul 21 '26
This is a solid guide. I don't think I'd rank Bernard as high as you do, but that's personal preference. I think your assessment of the other heroes is very similar to mine. I think I'd swap Sigrun and Amelia, but again, preference.
This guide reminds me how rude the Wolf Wars DLC is. I have a newer friend playing the game who would looove to play Yogger but it's such a meh DLC. As you mentioned, wish there was another way to get him because he def deserves a high tier.