Offer some advice and assistance regarding the achievement of goals and the process involved. All credit to user JingShing, I pulled from their guide written in Chinese. I’ve added some of my own notes from playing with this build that I think help in a large way.
Acquiring Bismuth
The unlock method involves stacking character movement speed to 900. This can be achieved through certain essences and memories.
To view attribute values, open the skill editing interface where they will display in the bottom-left corner. The attribute panel features a small lock icon in the top-right corner that can be pinned for easier monitoring of movement speed.
- Immolate (Health loss + 20% movement speed + Fire damage)
- Arrow Rain (+10% movement speed + Extra projectiles on attacks)
- Essence of Panic (Movement speed increases by 20% when damaged)
- Essence of Virtue (Extra ability charges per 150% quality, starting at +1)
I may have the name wrong, but the ability remains the same
In my view, this character is bloody difficult: frail build, pitiful health pool, prone to sudden death, low margin for error with movement skills, no survival abilities or ultimate. Yet I wholeheartedly recommend her, as she’s currently the only character I can comfortably play for several hours straight.
The advantages are clear once runes are set up off-field:
- No manual skill activation required
- No need for in-field builds or rogue tactics
- Only the initial skill is essential—everything else can be dismantled yet still playable
- In multiplayer, selecting this as either carry or support is highly comfortable—once cooldowns reset, it’s fully automated wheelchair mode
- Requires only dodging and evading attacks
Why Use Bismuth?
which requires clearing the game using only one skill.
After careful consideration, I researched and discovered that Bismuth’s constellation is exceptionally well-suited.
Furthermore, Bismuth can equip two instances of her primary skill, fulfilling two achievements:
- “Omega Points” – Enter the Pure White Dream having used only one memory.
- “Wow! Sparkle Sparkle” – Enter the Pure White Dream with four light-attribute skills. Bismuth innately starts with two.
Also, Bismuth’s abilities are easy to grasp, quite fun to use, and she attacks automatically thanks to a spell book that fused with her for lore reasons. The player only needs to focus on dodging attacks and working her skills.
The Wheelchair Build
Strongly recommend equipping both slots with the first skill, Pure Soul. It’s convenient and effective.
Pure Soul offers the most flexible operation, and the variant runes it provides are straightforward and practical.
You’re going to want all three runes to change the function of Pure Soul, with come clauses I’ll include for lower levels.
- Epic Essence – Forbearance: Gains health regeneration based on damage dealt (life steal), boosting survivability. Highly recommended!
- Epic Essence – Predator: Increases damage against bosses and hunters. Grants additional skill damage upon defeating bosses or hunters. Highly recommended!
- Legendary Essence – Sacred Faith: Killing monsters accumulates health and damage. Highly recommended.
- Unique Essence – Soul Cage: Ignores fatal damage and grants invulnerability upon resurrection. Having a Death Defiance is always nice, however you shouldn’t rely on it.
The red section forms the core of the Bismuth build.
Equip Bismuth’s “Exclusive Rune 5 – Self Writing Story.”
This rune automatically casts and accelerates the active skill. Essentially, equipping this allows for mindless gameplay. It automatically activates whenever cooldown and range are sufficient, offering significant convenience.
Next is Bismuth’s “Exclusive Rune 3 – Insight“, which decomposes memories and essences to boost attack speed.
Q: This might be confusing, as attack speed benefits auto-attacks but not active abilities. Why pair them?
A: Combined with Bismuth’s exclusive Flexibility rune, it allows her to utilise attack speed for extra projectiles on Pure Soul.
The remaining red slots can be filled with either attack speed or ability power – either works equally well.
This section depends on personal playstyle. My recommendation is to opt for movement speed or cooldown reduction if you’re not comfortable with positioning. Alternatively, consider boosting defence or health.
Recommend equipping all starting memory runes and Bismuth-exclusive runes. For others, prioritize starting memory runes and other adjustment slots.
Bismuth-exclusive runes offer the following functions:
- Unlock 4 map tiles (useful for co-op play or gathering intel, especially helpful during later special events).
- 20% price reduction (simple and effective).
- Killing bosses grants 1-4 Books of Knowledge (25% Chaos attribute bonus). This is absolutely crucial—must-have! Bismuth is a growth-type character, and this skill provides significant margin for error and assistance.
- Gain “Our Story” Essence. Killing 75 enemies grants 50% quality. Maxing out at 500% enhances movement skills by 50% and skill bonuses by 30%. IT IS WORTH MENTIONING THAT YOU CAN BOTH UPGRADE THIS AT A WELL & USE AN ALTAR OF CLEANSING ONCE IT IS COMPLETE. YOU WILL RETAIN THE BUFFS.
- Obtain the “Beautiful Metal” essence. Dismantle for 200 Dream Dust or sell for 400 gold. Recommended to dismantle at the start. You will lose some max health for doing so, but this is easily regained through books
- Dismantling gives +35% Dream Dust.
Equip all three Flex Runes for Bismuth’s first ability (Pure Soul):
- Each projectile gains a random element.
- Projectile count reduced by 2, cooldown reduced by 50%.
- Projectile count scales with attack speed.
I recommend not using the second one until you have the third to compensate.
How to Play Bismuth
At the start, dismantle Beautiful Metal (gain attack speed and 200 Dream Dust, then immediately upgrade Pure Soul). Equip “Our Story” (an Imagination Rune—it doesn’t need to be in an active memory slot; it works as long as it’s equipped) and the Déjà Vu Essence listed above.
Later, rely on elite monsters and bosses for extra experience books to boost stats, and dismantle items relentlessly to increase attack speed. By the way, if you need more attack speed late-game, upgrading your Passive Skill directly grants +10% attack speed—great value for the effort.
- To unlock the “Use Only One Skill” achievement, dismantle one of two Pure Soul Memories you start with.(I recommend keeping M2 on M+K, and RT/R2 on controller) Then dismantle every skill you acquire afterward. If you’re worried about accidental de-equipping, just start de-equipping everything once you’ve collected the desired essence combinations.
- For the achievement requiring a clear with four Light damage skills: Keep both Pure Soul skills equipped, then find two additional Light damage skills to complete it.