Arms of God Pro Tips & Best Builds: Master the Game

I've cleared all 60 levels multiple times now with different characters and builds. Here's what separates a 35-minute comfortable clear from a 55-minute death spiral where you're fighting the game's systems instead of the enemies.

The Weapon Merge Priority System

Not all merges are equal. Here's the priority order I use every run, regardless of build:

First merge: AoE stat (pulse, spread, or explosion) onto your fastest-firing weapon. This gives you wave clear that scales with attack speed. Most important merge decision in any run. Do this by level 15 or your mid-game is going to struggle.

Second merge: elemental status (fire, poison, or lightning) onto the weapon you just created. Now your rapid-fire AoE weapon applies status effects to everything it hits. This is your workhorse weapon for Acts 2 and 3.

Third merge: utility. Knockback or slow onto any weapon in your loadout. One utility weapon solves positioning problems for the entire run. You don't need more than one.

Fourth through sixth merges: stack synergistic stats onto your themed weapons. More fire onto your fire AoE weapon. More projectile count onto your rapid-fire base. Don't pivot. Commit harder to your chosen theme.

The biggest mistake I see in other players' runs: merging randomly because the donor weapon has a higher damage number. Merging fire into lightning kills your synergy synergy for maybe 5 extra damage per hit. The stat transfer from merging is less valuable than maintaining a coherent theme across your entire loadout.

Blessing Tier List

Here's the brutal truth about blessings: most of them are filler. The top tier blessings change how your build functions. Everything else just pads numbers.

S-tier, take every time without exception: projectile count increase, piercing, chain or bounce, movespeed. These four blessings are better than everything else combined.

A-tier, take if S-tier isn't offered: AoE radius increase, status effect duration, attack speed, projectiles apply an additional status effect.

B-tier, situational at best: elemental damage increase (only if running that element), HP regeneration, damage per status effect on target (amazing for status builds, useless otherwise).

C-tier, skip unless you have no other choice: flat damage increase, flat HP increase, XP gain rate. These don't change how your build plays. They just make numbers slightly bigger.

I take a common projectile count blessing over a legendary flat damage blessing. Every time. The math supports this and so does every run I've tracked.

Cathedral Optimization Beyond the Basics

After maxing movespeed and HP in the Training Ground, here's the efficient unlock path:

Armory priority unlocks: weapons with natural piercing (about 3 in the game), weapons with natural AoE (about 5), weapons with high attack speed (about 4). Unlock 2 to 3 from each category. Not all of them. Keep your drop pool focused.

Alchemy Chamber: the hidden blessing upgrades that appear after purchasing 10 other upgrades are the real goal. One of them gives a percentage chance for blessing offerings to be one tier higher. This effectively doubles your blessing quality across all future runs. Worth grinding for.

Bell Tower: unlock characters for variety and to add their starting weapons to the drop pool. More weapons in the pool means more merge options. It also means more dilution, so be strategic. If you're pushing for clears, keep your character count and weapon pool focused.

Steam Deck vs PC: Honest Comparison

I've played roughly half my hours on each platform. Steam Deck is more comfortable for grinding , auto-aim feels designed for controller, the analog stick gives better diagonal movement, and the game runs at locked 60 frames per second.

PC with mouse gives more precise manual aim for boss fights. Focus-firing a boss weak point with Sacred Crux beam mode is noticeably easier with a mouse.

If you're farming Cathedral currency, Steam Deck on the couch is the way. If you're pushing a new Act for the first time, PC with mouse for manual aiming. Best of both worlds.

Combat Micro-Optimizations That Add Up

Circle-strafe bosses counterclockwise. For whatever reason, enemy hitbox interactions favor this direction. I don't know why. I just know it works.

Stop firing for half a second before a boss phase transition. It resets your mental rhythm and prevents you from walking into the new attack pattern while tunnel-visioned on DPS.

Divine Form at 80 percent HP when a dangerous wave spawns, not at 20 percent when you're about to die. The damage immunity time is completely wasted if you use it reactively.

And the most important one: watch the boss model, not your character. The telegraphs are on the boss. Your character's position should be peripheral vision only. I die every time I forget this.I should mention one more thing that doesn't fit neatly into any of the sections above. The Early Access build as of June 2026 is remarkably polished for a solo developer project. Dominik Sójka clearly put the time in before launching. I've encountered maybe two minor bugs across 50-plus hours. The frame rate on Steam Deck is locked at 60 even during the most chaotic Act 4 wave sections with every weapon firing and particle effects filling the screen.

The weapon balance isn't perfect , some weapons are clearly better merge bases than others , but that's part of the fun in a roguelite. Figuring out what's strong and what's a trap is half the game. The other half is execution. And the metal soundtrack.

If you're on the fence about buying this in Early Access, I'd say go for it if you like bullet heavens. The content is substantial for the price. Four full Acts, 10 bosses, 10 characters, 60-plus weapons, 100-plus blessings, a meta-progression system that makes every run feel meaningful even when you lose. And the full release with console ports is coming Q4 2026 or Q1 2027. Your Early Access purchase supports a solo developer who clearly cares about their game. That's worth something in my book.