Soulframe Best Pact Tier List (Updated Preludes 10)

Welcome to our Soulframe Pact Tier List.

Here we have ranked all seven Pacts (classes) in Soulframe, aiming to determine how they measure up against one another. This ranking can give you a good idea of which Pacts are strongest and weakest in the current version of Soulframe.

Any ranking like this inevitably has a subjective nature to it, though, and your experience may differ from mine based on your playstyle. Still, I will do my best to explain the reasoning behind each ranking.

The Pacts currently rank as follows:

Tier S+

Tier S+ is a special tier that is occupied only by the Ode Tempest Pact. More info below:

Ode Tempest

Ode Tempest Strengths

Ode Tempest Weaknesses

I made this special tier just for Ode Tempest, because it’s so hilariously overpowered that it practically defies comparisons to any of the other Pacts in the game.

Ode Tempest’s Atmos Sphere Arcanic makes you immune to almost all damage and most sources of stagger, and also reflects enemy attacks to their source. This rather overtuned effect has a long uptime, allowing you to have it active about half of the time, even without reducing the Cooldown with Smites or Mote effects. In practice, by the time your immortality expires, you’ve probably defeated all the enemies in the vicinity.

This works perfectly in combination with Astra Sphere, another Tempest Arcanic that gives you a big damage boost when attacking nearby enemies (this also seems to boost the damage you reflect with Atmos Sphere, allowing you to dispatch some weaker enemies without attacking them at all). While Astra Sphere isn’t as long-lasting as Atmos Sphere, it doesn’t need to be. You can activate both at the same time, and you have a window of around 15 seconds to spam fully-charged heavy attacks with crazy buffed-up damage, while being almost impossible to damage and immune to most staggering effects.

It is currently possible for Ode Tempest to easily solo any enemy in the game, including the Medicant King boss, by simply using these two Arcanics and then spamming heavy attacks. And you probably won’t take a single hit in the process, despite the fact that you didn’t parry or dodge any attacks.

I have to say that Tempest’s power level compared to the other Pacts is borderline ridiculous because it trivialises every single combat encounter in the game. If you want to experience this level of power and don’t mind the grind required to unlock Ode Tempest, you should do it soon. It seems inevitable that this will be hit with a round of nerfs as soon as Soulframe is developed enough for its developers to begin balancing things.

For the sake of balanced writing, I want to point out some weaknesses for each Pact in Soulframe, but I am grasping at straws in this case. It takes a lengthy Faction Standing Grind to unlock it, especially if you started the game pledged to Courage (this adds the extra layer of needing to switch faction to unlock Ode Tempest), but that’s not a weakness of the Pact itself. Ode Tempest lacks any innate healing, but this is easy to overcome by unlocking the Sympathy Pact Art, which heals you when you Smite an enemy. Since you are immortal in most combat encounters, the healing potions should be more than enough, anyway.

Tier S

Tier S is for Pacts that are mighty in all areas of the game, but not to the extent that they completely trivialise every single combat encounter, like Ode Tempest does. You actually need to be awake to play Pacts in this tier, but they are still very strong in all areas and quite easy to play as a result.

Mora’s Hand

Mora’s Hand Strengths

Mora’s Hand Weaknesses

Mora’s Hand is a powerful Pact that specialises in fire and AoE damage, but you need to be quite attentive and situationally aware to get the most out of it, unlike Ode Tempest, which almost plays the game for you.

This Pact’s main killing power comes from the Ignus Wroth Arcanic, which creates a large fire AoE on the ground, dealing rapid damage over time to any foes within. This scales well to higher-level enemies, as long as you build correctly by putting all of your Virtue points into Courage.

Like Ode Tempest, Mora’s Hand has an Arcanic that retaliates against attacking enemies. Mora’s Hand’s version of this effect is the Ember Arcanic, which damages and sets alight enemies who attack you. But you will still take damage from the attack, so you need to be careful with it.

 Inferno is the third and final Arcanic available to Mora’s Hand. It is supposed to be a heavy single-target projectile, but to be honest, it usually falls short and doesn’t do enough damage to justify the lengthy casting time.

I thought about ranking Mora’s Hand down due to its disappointing third Arcanic, but decided not to because it doesn’t really need it. Ignus Wroth alone makes you an AoE machine. Equip your favourite melee weapon type (make sure it is attuned to Courage) and use it to finish off enemies, most of whom will be low health if they survived the Ignus Wroth at all.

So what weaknesses does Mora’s Hand have? Not many. Like with Ode Tempest, it is hard to unlock and doesn’t have any innate healing, but the same solution of rushing to unlock the Sympathy Art solves this problem. Your single-target damage isn’t anything too special, but with a heavy-hitting weapon like a Polearm equipped, this isn’t a big deal, either.

Mora’s Hand excels in its role as an AoE damage dealer and can handle everything else quite easily, too, provided you build it sensibly.

Tier A

Tier A classes aren’t far behind Tier S, but typically have one comparative weakness that sets them back slightly or makes them harder to play, such as lower damage potential or lower defensive ability.

Oscelda

Oscelda Strengths

Oscelda Weaknesses

If a brand new player asks me which of the three starting Pacts to choose, I always tell them to go with Oscelda. This Pact gives you by far the most forgiving beginner experience by granting you immediate access to the Elderbloom Arcanic, a healing effect that makes the game so much easier.

Oscelda also has the Bestone Arcanic, an AoE that deals a little damage and turns a group of enemies to stone for an extended period of time, allowing you take them on one by one. This is so very useful for slowing down combat when you are outnumbered, and allows even a new player to stand a decent chance if they are underlevelled. These Arcanics obviously don’t stop being useful once you’re better at the game, either. They’re great for beginners and experienced players alike.

Phantom Flock is Oscelda’s third Arcanic. It calls a flock of ravenous birds to attack the targeted enemy. You can miss with this if you’re careless, which is always unfortunate because it has a lengthy cooldown. But other than that, it’s a great ability that effectively pins down most enemies and does heavy damage over time. It can act as a “kind of AoE” spell if enemies are tightly packed together, because the birds will crash into enemies who are close to the intended target, too. I usually use this against the most threatening enemy in a group, making the others a little easier to deal with.

Oscelda doesn’t have many weaknesses and I considered it for Tier S for that reason. The reason it is only in Tier A is that nothing about this Pact increases your damage potential. It is great for staying alive and makes for a great support build, healing allies and crowd-controlling enemies. But it is one of the slowest Pacts in the game at dishing out damage, probably finishing ahead of only Garren Rood (by far the worst Pact in Soulframe which we’ll get to later) in that category.

Sirin

Sirin Strengths

Sirin Weaknesses

I really hated Sirin when I first tried it. It is especially brutal if you’re a new player. You have a Longbow, no melee weapons, no defensive or healing abilities, and your only starting Arcanic is Glamour, which turns you invisible and guarantees you one backstab, something that does very little to help with these difficulties.

Putting this Pact (in its current condition) as one of the three starting options is a pretty ballsy move from the developers, and I think it might turn some players off Soulframe entirely. Not because Sirin is a bad Pact, but because it requires quite a bit of time and know-how to get it into a state where it is performing properly. A player who has already levelled up some Pacts, has a Sidearm ready to pair with the Longbow (or a melee weapon to replace the Longbow with, if they prefer), has a decent set of armour crafted, and knows how to heal their character from Smite with the Sympathy Art can get this Pact up and running much faster than a newbie who has no idea how any of this stuff works and is probably already in a state of confusion due to Soulframe’s enigmatic setting and almost total lack of tutorials.

Now that I’ve inverted my usual order and talked about the negatives before the positives, let’s look at what’s good with Sirin – after all, I have put it up in Tier A.

Once you have levelled up Sirin enough to unlock all three Arcanics, it becomes a master of trickery and deception. You can use Trick of the Light to attract enemies to an exploding decoy, dealing AoE damage. While this is happening, you should spam fully charged Longbow attacks at the clumped-up enemies, which takes the form of an AoE hail of arrows. You can use Picktrix Powder to stun the enemies while all of this is happening, giving you ample time to shoot several volleys, which is probably enough to kill most of the weaker enemies and heavily damage the stronger ones. You can then use Glamour to perform a backstab on one of the remaining foes, and kite any survivors around while finishing them off with arrows.

The rotation mentioned above is the bread and butter of Sirin if you stick with the Longbow, which is the best way to play the Pact in my opinion, primarily due to the Longbow’s synergy with Trick of the Light.

However, Sirin works just fine as a melee character if you want to go down that route.

In summary, Sirin is a very strong class that can be a big struggle at low levels. I encourage any new players struggling with it to persist, because it is great fun once it’s working properly. Sirin has no innate healing and is defensively weak once its Arcanics are on cooldown, so you should most definitely unlock the Sympathy Art as fast as possible and increase your Smite Chance as much as possible.

Tier B

Tier B Pacts are still quite strong, but they come with weaknesses or shortcomings that can’t be ignored.

Orengall

Orengall Strengths

Orengall Weaknesses

Orengall seems to be one of the most popular Pacts in Soulframe, thanks to its relative accessibility, being unlocked via a quest instead of a faction grind, and its ability to summon spectral wolves to help you (who doesn’t love a good doggo?).

And I like Orengall, too. It looks like I’m giving it a hard time because B is my second-lowest ranking, but please take this with the context that this game doesn’t have any bad Pacts (except for Garren Rood) and being down in B-Tier doesn’t mean that Orengall is weak.

Orengall channels a little bit of Sirin’s energy, in the sense that it feels quite bad at low levels. But the effect isn’t nearly as severe in this case. You just need to grab a few levels up to get the Packhunter arcanic, and you can begin summoning spectral wolves to help you in combat.

These spectral wolves cannot be killed by enemies, but enemies will still waste their time attacking them, giving you an easier time. You should maximise your Spirit virtue with Orengall to increase your Arcanic duration, and put both points into the Akin Art to minimise the cooldown of Packhunter. Once you’ve done this, you can have at least three wolves active at a time, and by the time you reach max level, they do pretty good damage all by themselves. Orengall’s Pact Arts allow you to boost your own melee damage by maintaining close proximity to your canine friends, further boosting this synergy.

Werewalker allows you to launch a sneak attack against an enemy by taking on a wolf form. This can currently one-shot Bannaret mini-bosses, effortlessly tossing them aside with a rather hilarious animation. I’m not sure if this is intended or not, but it’s great fun.

Finally, you have Howl, which boosts the Courage and Smite chance of nearby enemies. This is more of a group support ability that works especially well if you’re playing with two Courage-attuned friends. Howl honestly feels pretty underwhelming, especially when you are playing solo.

While Orengall is very fun to play and by far the most thematically developed Pact in Soulframe, it doesn’t excel at anything, and it doesn’t have any innate healing or crowd control abilities, making it defensively weak. This is what puts Orengall into Tier B in my view, although it is really on the borderline between B and A. “B Plus”, maybe?

Tethren

Tethren Strengths

Tethren Weaknesses

Tethren is another Pact that has a perhaps controversial placement into Tier B. And you’re right. On paper, this Pact should be higher. Except for one detail: its most important ability doesn’t work.

On paper, Tethren can build up a wild damage bonus by combining Fellust (accumulating damage bonus per consecutive hit) and Call of the Ancients (a flat offensive and defensive buff that also taunts enemies). But I spent quite a lot of time playing Tethren, and I couldn’t help but notice that Fellust isn’t giving any damage bonus on melee strikes. I’ll test this again when Preludes 11 rolls around, and hopefully then we can have Tethren in Tier A or maybe even S, where it should be. But I just can’t justify giving that ranking to a Pact that has such a glaring issue.

Despite this flaw, Tethren remains a competent melee fighter whose ability to taunt enemies makes it an asset in a group of players. It’s defensively strong, too, able to passively heal by a small amount each time you slay a foe, and utilise a defensive self-buff with the Clash Arcanic.

There is also a high-risk, high-reward playstyle that you can do with Tethren, where you unlock the Last Stand Art for an attack speed bonus that scales negatively with your remaining health (i.e. the less HP you have, the higher your attack speed becomes).

I’m confident that as soon as Fellust is fixed, Tethren will take its place as one of the best Pacts in Soulframe.

Bromius

Bromius Strengths

Bromius Weaknesses

Bromius is a very solid melee Pact that mainly focuses on AoE damage and crowd control, but also comes with the quirk of stealing armour from enemies and reflecting damage absorbed by your armour back at attackers.

 Rump Thump is the first Arcanic available to the Bromius Pact. It allows you to jump up into the air, and then crash down at the target location to deal heavy AoE damage and stagger nearby foes.

 Wevetroot stuns and immobilises foes in front of your character by trapping them in roots. This makes for a good combo with Rump Thump – use Wevetroots to lock some enemies in place and make them defenceless, then Rump Thump to damage all of them at once.

Bromius’ third Arcanic is the Song of Growth, a team buff spell that increases the armour rating of all nearby party members (including yourself).

Bromius’ main downside is its very clunky and slow animations. These feature on all three of its Arcanic powers and cannot be interrupted, so you have to be very careful to avoid taking hits from enemies while your character is stuck in these animations.

The worst offender is Rump Thump, which also leaves your character in an unbreakable crouching animation after slamming into the ground, leaving you vulnerable to attacks from any enemies who avoided or resisted the staggering effect.

These hiccups are a relatively minor blemish on what is otherwise a reasonably strong but decidedly unremarkable Pact.

Tier C

Tier C is the lowest tier on this list. Pacts that fall into this category typically have some problem that makes them unsuitable for competing with the other Pacts, such as abilities or Arts not working as intended. They can still be pretty strong if the player is aware of these limitations and adapts their build and playstyle accordingly.

Garren Rood

Garren Rood Strengths

Garren Rood Weaknesses

I want to preface this by saying that, while I’m going to dunk on Garren Rood quite a lot here, the Pact does have a couple of nice tools at its disposal, and it can still solo anything in Soulframe (all Pacts can do that). I am harsh on this Pact because I want the developers to fix it.

Poor old Garren Rood is like a second child who gets forgotten about by his or her parents, while the favourite (Orengall) gets all the treats and shiny new toys.

Starting with the positives, Garren Rood is excellent at crowd-controlling enemies. It’s excessively good at it. All three of Garren Rood’s Arcanics involve Crowd Control.

The Torment Arcanic leeches HP from an enemy and briefly stuns them. This HP can restore a lot of your health bar. When playing in a party, the health is shared with your allies. The targeting on this spell can be unreliable, but you can mostly avoid this problem if you are careful and aim at nearby enemies who are not moving quickly and not likely to dodge the spell.

 Behest is a very nice AoE stun that has a huge area of effect and lasts for a very long time (although the strongest bosses in the game seem to have a resistance to it). Its longevity allows you to pick apart large groups of enemies and fight them one at a time, which can trivialise Ode Camps that might otherwise overwhelm you with high numbers of heavy enemies.

So far, this Pact is very good and is shaping up to be A or even S Tier, which is why I am so salty about the rest of it being completely busted, ruining what ought to be an iconic class like Orengall.

 Stampede was clearly supposed to be Garren Rood’s signature ability, a powerful linear AoE that would trample all of the enemies in its path. It sounds cool. The ability in-game looks and sounds impressive, like it should be a force to be reckoned with. But it barely does anything. Most of the deer in the “stampede” completely miss all of the enemies, even when there are several of them in a small area. And those that do hit an enemy do a tiddly amount of damage, roughly equal to a single light attack with a sword, and a bit of knockback.

“Hmm”, I thought. “Surely this cannot be right. It’s a Grace Arcanic, right? So maybe if I respec all of my points into Grace, despite Garren Rood being mainly Spirit-focused, Stampede will actually do some damage?”. No, sir. It will not. I don’t know what happened here. Did somebody type the wrong number into the damage field when programming this ability? Why is it so weak?

Okay, Orengall’s third ability isn’t spectacular, either, but Orengall has spectral wolves that do your bidding, a wolf mode that can one-shot almost any foe in the game and doubles as a mount, and a wolf mother who materialises and one-shots an enemy when she feels like it. Garren Rood has a life steal and can give enemies a migraine.

But wait, there’s more. The problem with Garren Rood was apparent to me from the first time I opened its Pact Arts tree. The very first node, Herdheart, supposedly restores Idol Power when you heal an ally. Unfortunately, Idol Power isn’t in the game anymore. This thing badly needs an update and another look at its Arcanics and Arts.

I hope this gets fixed soon. It feels like it wasn’t completed to the same standard as the other Pacts in time for Preludes 10, so now it’s just been left in this half-baked state for months. Fix the Stampede and rework Herdheart, and Garren Rood will probably be an A-Tier Pact.

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