Soulmask: How to Make Followers Fight and Survive Better

In Soulmask, having strong followers can be a game-changer. They can help take down a group of strong enemies and evil bosses. However, the follower’s AI cannot navigate the fights and stay alive. Even though the developers have said they will update this in the future, here’s what you can do now to make followers good in Soulmask.

For this purpose, we found the video by @Firespark81 very helpful. Every detail explained in the video will make sure your followers survive the fights and support you properly in taking down tough enemies. Here it is for your reference:

How to Make Followers Good in Soulmask

Several strategies can help improve follower NPCs’ overall performance and survivability. One approach involves ensuring that the player and the follower have the best possible gear tailored to their respective stages in the game. Depending on their progress, players should aim to equip legendary gear for their followers, such as legendary bronze or legendary copper items. This can be done by finding a tribesman skilled in crafting or training them in the necessary proficiencies.

To make followers good in Soulmask, do the following things:

• Follower Class Skills: There are two recommended class skills for followers:
  • Taunt: Using Taunt will force enemies to focus and attack you, taking the heat off your follower.
  • Heal the Wounded: This allows your followers to heal themselves with simple bandages.
• Follower Talents:
  • Battle Tested: Reduces your follower’s damage (3 levels: 40%, 50%, 60% reduction).
  • Last Radiance: Heals your follower for 20% of their HP when below 30% health, with a 40-second cooldown.
• Crafting Expertise: Find a follower with high armor and weapon crafting proficiency. Level up their proficiency to ensure they can craft high-quality gear.
• Fight Appropriate Enemies: Only fight enemies around your and your follower’s level and gear tier.
• Follower Abilities: Set the required abilities for your follower’s weapon in the Mastery menu.
• Follower Weaponry: Use a weapon your follower is highly proficient in. Dual blades with bleed can be effective, but any weapon with high proficiency will work.
• Food and Healing Items: Make sure your follower has a good supply of food, bandages, and other healing items they can use.
• High-Quality Gear: Equip your follower with the best gear you can craft or find. The better the gear, the higher their survivability.
• Run Away When Needed: Don’t be afraid to run away from a fight if things get tough. Your follower will teleport to you once you create enough distance.
• Take Your Time: Don’t rush into big enemy areas or combat. Clear areas slowly and methodically.
• Unlock Revive System: Make sure you know how to revive followers.
• Your Skills: Focus on your class skills, which are more important than your character talents.

As pointed out in the video, the developers have acknowledged the concerns surrounding follower NPCs’ weakness and unhelpful nature. Recent updates have focused on increasing follower stats and enhancing AI capabilities. In “Assist Mode,” followers actively engage in combat alongside the player, helping them defeat targets. But even after the updates, players feel more work/time is needed to make followers more valuable to solo players.

Equip Followers with High-Quality Gear

To maximize the effectiveness of follower NPCs, players should consider the following steps:

1. Equip followers with top-tier gear and update it as the player progresses through the game.
2. Find or level up a tribesman with high armor and weapon crafting proficiency to create better equipment.
3. Continuously craft new items and upgrade follower gear to maintain their combat effectiveness.

Focus on Your Follower’s Skills and Talents

In addition to top-tier gear, selecting the right skills and talents for your Soulmask character can significantly impact the performance and survivability of your followers.

Class Skills: Every tamed tribesman has a class skill crucial to boosting their effectiveness. Two highly recommended class skills for your character are:

1. Taunt: This skill forces intelligent enemies within a 10-meter radius to target and attack you for a limited period. It is particularly effective against non-animal enemies and can help divert attention from your followers, especially during boss fights.
2. Heal the Wounded: Consuming one simple bandage, this skill heals allies by restoring 2% of their max HP plus 40 HP per second for 10 seconds. It also relieves bleeding status and various injuries. Although not as effective as Taunt, it is a valuable option if Taunt is unavailable.

Class skills can greatly impact your follower’s survivability. For instance, your follower may only heal when their health is significantly low. Utilizing the “Heal the Wounded” skill allows you to heal them with a single bandage when nearby, even if they have lost just a fraction of their health. Moreover, using this ability when they are down allows them to heal and regain considerable health to resume fighting, as long as you can kite away nearby threats.

A common challenge in Soulmask is dealing with enemies continuing to attack your downed followers, which can lead to their death. To counteract this issue, use the Taunt skill, which forces enemies to target and attack you instead of your followers, as we mentioned above.

Using Taunt can redirect the enemy’s aggression towards you, allowing your followers to recover safely. This tactic is especially useful during intense battles, as it allows your followers to regain their footing without the risk of being eliminated by continuous attacks.

Guarding Roar Skill and Follower Battle Styles

@acamercy6053 shared helpful insights regarding a specific class skill, Guarding Roar, and follower battle styles in Soulmask. Guarding Roar is a class skill that can be equipped on your main follower, providing a defensive boost for the follower and nearby allies. It increases Defense and Max Resilience by 10% for 60 seconds with a 40-second cooldown. The follower will automatically use this skill at the start of combat, enhancing the survivability of your party.

In addition to class skills, you can customize your follower’s battle style under the Behavior Settings. Options include setting them to a ranged or defensive style, which can be tailored to complement your play style and tactics. Adjusting the following distance, as @acamercy6053 mentioned, allows for better control and positioning during battles.

Maximizing Follower Survivability with Talents and Items

When optimizing your Soulmask follower’s survivability, their talents play an important role. Specifically, focus on acquiring the highest level of the Battle Tested talent you can find, as it significantly reduces the damage they receive. Additionally, the Last Radiance talent should be prioritized, which allows them to recover a substantial portion of their health when it falls below 30%.

To further enhance your follower’s survivability, ensure they are equipped with bandages, ample food, and other healing items that remove status effects or injuries. Followers will use these items autonomously when needed. Provide them with a diet of staples, meats, fruits, vegetables, etc, to benefit from various buffs.

Adjusting Follower Healing Thresholds

A valuable tip from @yspegel suggests adjusting the healing thresholds for your Soulmask follower to maximize their survivability. By default, followers may only start healing when their health drops below a certain percentage. However, you can modify this setting to trigger healing at 40%, 60%, or 80% health.

You can customize your Soulmask follower’s healing behavior by holding ‘E’ and selecting “Set Behavior.” Consider setting their healing threshold at 60% or even 80%. This ensures that they will heal more frequently and maintain a healthier level of HP throughout the fight. Adjusting this setting may require additional resources, such as bandages, so be prepared accordingly.

Strategies and Tactics

Before starting any dangerous quests or exploring dungeons, it is important to take precautions to keep your follower safe. Here are some strategies and tactics to use:

1. Take Your Time: Avoid rushing into unknown territories or big camps. Moving slowly allows you to evaluate possible threats and handle them more effectively.
2. Retreat When Necessary: Don’t hesitate to retreat if you or your followers suffer significant damage. Your follower will teleport to your location if set to follow you, even during combat.
3. Use Distance to Your Advantage: If you find yourself in a dangerous situation, put as much distance as possible between you, your follower, and the danger.
4. Equip Yourself Accordingly: Consider protecting your main character with a shield and spear. Equip your followers with weapons that suit their proficiencies and abilities.

@Scuttleftw provided a useful tip for Soulmask players who prefer using spears as their weapon of choice. By pressing the middle mouse button to lock onto a target, thrown spears will never miss unless the enemy manages to dodge. This “aimbot-like” precision can be incredibly powerful, especially in the game’s early stages.

However, as pointed out by @Tipperrr, enemies may begin to consistently dodge spear attacks later in the game, rendering this strategy less effective. So, while the spear’s initial accuracy may seem game-changing, later on, this may reduce as you progress and face more challenging enemies.

Auto Consumables Settings for Followers

To further simplify your Soulmask follower’s efficiency, @MrYdoineedthis emphasizes the importance of setting auto-consumables under the behavior settings. By holding ‘E’ on your follower, you can access these options, automatically allowing your follower to use bandages, eat, and drink as needed.

Enabling these auto-consumable settings ensures that your followers maintain their health, hunger, and thirst levels without requiring constant manual intervention. This feature saves time and effort and helps prevent situations where your followers become incapacitated due to low health or malnutrition.

To ensure your Soulmask follower remains an effective ally, here are some final tips to consider:

1. Customize Their Abilities: As your follower level up and unlock new proficiencies, customize their abilities according to your preferences and strengths. To do this, press ‘I’ on your keyboard and navigate to the Mastery screen.
2. Choose Suitable Weapons: While dual blades can be a solid choice for applying bleed effects, equip your followers with the weapon they have the highest proficiency in for optimal combat performance.
3. Match Your Difficulty Level: Engage in battles and explore areas suitable for your current gear and level. Avoid tackling significantly more challenging content, as it may lead to your characters’ and followers’ deaths.

By following these tips and applying the strategies mentioned throughout this guide, you can keep your followers alive and maximize their assistance in Soulmask.

That’s everything you need to know to make followers good in Soulmask. If you’d like to know more tips and tricks, like increasing your awareness strength, getting the worship container, water crops, filling water troughs, and getting cotton, check out our guides page for more.