Summary
Developed and published by Klei Entertainment,Rotwoodis a roguelite beat ‘em up that officially entered early access in April 2024. The game offers a variety of ways to get through the challenging levels and even morechallenging boss fightsby allowing players to customize their experience by equipping armor sets with different effects. However, the armor system is fundamentally flawed as different armor sets would have different base stats, meaning that armor sets that can only be obtained later in the game would almost always be better.
Although, consideringRotwoodis a roguelite, armor upgrades and the optionto try out different buildswould always be welcomed as the difficulty level rises quite quickly. Of the three different armor types (helmet, body, legs), the helmet pieces offer a variety of buffs that can alter how players approach levels. Choosing the right helmet piece to suit one’s playstyle or to combat environmental obstacles in a level will greatly benefit the player.
10Gustree Helm
Swift Winds
Due to this piece’s weight class being heavy, it gives players the option to run a heavy build which causes them to have a slower dodge. The purpose of a heavy build is to deal more damage and take less damage while sacrificing mobility, so on the off chance players need to dodge, they can also deal a good amount of damage.
This piece is also found in the level where running a heavy build is recommended due to certain obstacles present in said level which bumps it up a few tiers.
9Ribbat Wings
Teffra Collector
Not an outstanding piece on paper but the effect is deceptively valuable. Teffra is the in-game currency that players can collect during a run and can only be used during that run. Players can buy a variety of things with it, such as powerups, powerup upgrades,health potion refills, etc.
This piece essentially allows the player to become more powerful during a run by buying power-ups, resulting in higher crit chance, healing by damaging opponents, gaining the ability to fire projectiles, higher running speed, etc. All of these powerups will prove to be helpful for the boss at the end of the level.
8Yammo’s Noggin-Padder
Heavy Hitter
A fantastic early game piece that can compete with other pieces in the late game, at the cost of less defense. Heavy attacks naturally do more damage than light attacks, but focus attacks are the bread and butter of combat as they deal the most damage. Having a damage bonus on focus hits could easily shave a chunk off a boss’ health bar.
The only reason this isn’t ranked higher is due to the low defense, but it could still be a decent piece past the early game assuming a skilled player is at the helm. This piece could benefit players using the cannon or the spear, causing higher burst damage or increasing the damage ofrapid-fire combosrespectively.
7Bulbug Eyes
Shield Breaker
Shields aren’t too common inRotwood,but the effect of this piece is still useful nonetheless. Having a 700% damage bonus could very well mean one-shotting an enemy which is extremely useful in the late game when there are tons of enemies players need to deal with at once. Immediately killing a few enemies could be the difference between a successful run and a death.
In one of the later levels, there is an enemy that can apply shields to the surrounding enemies. Using an attack with a bigger area of effect such as thecannon’s heavy attackwould be a great way to make use of this piece’s effect.
6Iriss Shroud
Deliberate Debuffer
Being an armor piece with a lightweight class gives players the option to run a light build which offers a faster dodge. Skilled players will be able to fully utilize this piece and debuff almost every single enemy.
Due to it being a debuff, it is unlike some of the other pieces that deal damage upon dodging. This means that this piece is much more valuable as the 30% damage increase scales off the player’s weapon. It shines when players are using a powerful, fully upgraded weapon.
5Groak’s Best
Stunned By Power
Rotwoodis different fromsome other rogueliteslikeHadeswhere enemies can be hitstunned by any attack. In fact, even heavy attacks don’t guarantee a hitstun on an enemy. This makes this piece all the more useful as scoring a hitstun on an enemy allows players to make the most out of the hitstun to possibly kill the enemy before they recover.
While enemies have a chance of being hitstunned by light attacks, it’s generally a good idea to combo heavy attacks in as well to maximize damage, naturally utilizing this piece’s effect.
4Gloop Laurels
Poisoned Escapist
While it doesn’t sound like an amazing piece, it is only available in the later levels of the game where players will need to be cautious of the poison all over the floor. It is also the second-best lightweight class piece in terms of defense. The defense stats and the ability to quickly get away from danger in the endgame levels are what give this piece a high ranking.
Though it is good practice to avoid poison, skilled players will be able to use poison to their advantage, especially when using the other poison-based armor pieces.
3Snortoise Helmet
Death Will Have To Wait
In the later levels, enemies hit hard, and it’s very easy to get overwhelmed by the number of things to keep track of. Players will find themselves at low health and getting knocked into a pool of poison occasionally, making this piece quite useful in those situations.
While it doesn’t have much use outside of the later levels, the boss of that level covers the arena in poison. This piece is one to look out for when facing difficulties in that fight.
2Wollusk Helmet
Poison All But Tickles Me
Similar to the Snortoise Helmet, this piece provides comfort in the later levels.Less skilled playerscan make better use of the Snortoise Helmet to prevent death, while more skilled players could get better use out of the Wollusk Helmet as they wouldn’t find themselves being knocked into poison at low health often.
When fully upgraded, negating 70% of the poison’s effects makes this a strong piece to push through the later levels, considering the amount of poison players need to look out for.
1Floracrane Garland
Crit Goblin
Far and away the best helmet (and armor set) in the game. With a bunch of powerups available that increase crit chance to essentially guarantee crits with the right weapons, this is definitely the set players should be using to push endgame content.
Having a 50% bonus to the crit damage multiplier on top of having a high defense stat despite being a lightweight class makes it obvious why this is the best helmet in the game.
