Nobody Saves The World: Best Forms, Abilities, And Combos

Nobody Saves the World is an action RPG dungeon crawler, with a twist. The latest from Drinkbox lets you change at will between 15 different forms, from fantasy mainstays like Knight and Rogue to stranger selections like Turtle or Zombie. Each form has its own suite of abilities, and as you progress you'll unlock the option to mix and match abilities to your liking.

How Abilities Work

In Nobody Saves the World, each form has one signature active ability, and one signature passive ability. These are locked to the character and can't be swapped out for anything else, and no other class can use them. Most forms (aside from Nobody and Egg) also progressively gain two additional moves, which can be swapped freely with other abilities, and likewise can slot into other forms.

So, you'll have four Active abilities at any given time, one for each face button. Those will consist of your signature ability and three additional abilities, including the option of continuing to use your two other form abilities. That always leaves at least one slot open for importing abilities from other forms, but you can always change all three of the swappable spots as well.

Similarly, you have four Passive ability slots, one of which is taken up by your signature passive ability. Nobody (as in, the default character) has no signature passive ability, so all four slots are open. Both active and passive abilities are also upgradable with upgrade tokens, which are given out randomly in combat and as rewards in treasure chests, usually upon completing a dungeon. Upgrading your abilities will increase their damage or defense stats, ability duration, cooldowns, and more.

Most abilities also have one of four attack types that are used to break enemy Wards: physical (Sharp, Blunt) and magical (Light, Dark). An ability can only have one of these four types. Abilities can also confer special debuffs like Poison, Slow, or Stun.

Forms and Abilities

("X" attributes change as you upgrade abilities.)

Nobody

• A sad little slappy-pooh. Restores +X Mana on hit

Mouse

• Scavenge (Passive) – Health items also restore X Mana
• Gnaw (Dark) – Restores X Mana and builds +X Poison on hit
• Detonate Poison (Dark) – Explode all Poisoned baddies on screen
• Consume (Dark) – 30% of Consume damage is leeched as Health

Knight

• Bravado (Passive, Sharp) – 20% of attack damage is dealt as an extra Sharp attack while below X% Max Health
• Sword Slash (Sharp) – Restores +X Mana
• Shield Bash (Blunt) – Hold: Block damage at the cost of Mana. Cost reduced -X%. Release: Deflect X% of all blocked damage. Move speed -X%
• Stomp (Blunt) – Knock opponents away. Costs X Mana

Egg

• Hardened Shell (Passive) – Never lose more than X of your Max Health from a single hit
• Egg Roll (Blunt) – Charge and roll into baddies. Restores +X Mana
• Incubate (Light) – Recover X Health/sec. Deals Light damage to nearby baddies

Ranger

• Poison Tipped (Passive, Dark) – All your attacks build +X Poison
• Charge Arrow (Sharp) – Restores +X Mana on hit
• Dodge (Sharp) – Cooldown X sec.
• Arrow Flurry (Sharp) – Costs X Mana/sec.

Horse

• Horsepower (Passive) – Signature Moves restore +X extra Mana when used to break objects
• Kick Back (Blunt) – Applies the Impact effect. Restores +X Mana. Knock dist +X%
• Gallop (Blunt) – Hold to zoom forward. Move speed +X%. Knock dist +X%. Costs 30 Mana/sec.

Magician

• Stun Powder (Passive) – All of your attacks build +X Stun
• Pick a Card (Light) – Higher cards do more damage. Restores +X Mana on hit
• Hat Trick (Sharp) – Pull an animal Familiar out of a hat. Costs X Mana
• Confetti Bomb (Light) – A sparkly bomb with a wide range. Sometimes creates a real bomb. Costs X Mana

Slug

• Slug's Secret (Passive) – Crits do +X% extra damage vs Status-afflicted baddies
• Tear Burst (Light) – Charge up a barrage of tears. Charge time X sec. Restores X Mana
• Slime Slide (Dark) – Charge to slide quickly on a trail of slick snail snot. Trail applies SLow. Move speed +X%. Costs 25 Mana/sec.
• Blob Lob (Light) – Lob of blob of slime that damages and Slows baddies. Costs X Mana

Bodybuilder

• Strongman (Passive, Blunt) – Attacks that knock Baddies away gain the Impact effect. Impact damage +X%
• Bench Press (Blunt) – A slow, big hit. Restores +X Mana
• Flex (Blunt) – Create a flurry of fists. Costs 20 Mana + X Mana/sec. Cooldown X sec
• Pump Up (Blunt) – Hits nearby baddies with X Blunt Damage. Giants Attack UP Buff

Turtle

• Quick Charge (Passive) – Charge time for abilities is reduced -X%
• Hell Shell (Blunt) – Charge speed and damage. Fullyc-harged attacks can't be interrupted. Restores +X Mana
• Water Spray (Light) – Spray a cone of water at baddies to push them away. Costs X Mana/sec.
• Slow and Steady (Blunt) – Hunker down and gain Defense Up Buffs. Hits nearby baddies with X Blunt damage. Costs 30 Mana

Monk

• Smite (Passive, Light) – X% chance to strike baddies with a lighting bolt when damaged or healed. Builds +25 Stun
• Palm Pummel (Blunt) – Tap to hit baddies with your palms. Hold to charge a blast that restores extra Mana. Restores +X Mana and builds +15 Stun
• Holy Light (Light) – Bathe baddies in a damaging Holy Light for X seconds. Costs 80 Mana
• Bless Me – Heal yourself and Familiars for X% Max Health. Cooldown 45 sec. Costs 50 Mana.

Zombie

• Zomnomnom (Passive) – X% of the damage you deal is restored as Health
• Clawmbie (Dark) – Tap to swing a claw. Hold to charge a lunge that does more damage. Restores +X Mana. +X% Lunge dist
• Zombite (Dark) – Bite your enemies to Infect them. Costs 40 Mana. When they die, they join you as a Zombie. Cooldown X sec.

Mermaid

• Mermaid's Resolve (Passive) – X% of the damage you take is restored as Mana
• Water Burst (Light) – A water projectile that does splash damage to nearby baddies. Hold to charge larger splash attacks. Restores +X Mana.
• Tail Swipe (Blunt) – Swing your tail at baddies and push yourself towards them. Does X base damage. Costs 25 Mana
• Aqua Barrier (Light) – Block 1 attack with a water barrier. Deflect X% of blocked damage. Cooldown X sec. Costs 20 Mana

Rogue

• Money Motivated (Passive) – Picking up money reduces all cooldowns by X sec
• Fan of Knives (Sharp) – Perform a knife throwing combo. Hold to add range and pierce to the next knives thrown. Restores +X Mana
• Cloak & Dagger (Sharp) – Hold to become invisible. Release to perform a stab that crits when hitting from behind. Move speed +X%. Costs X Mana/sec
• Caltrops (Sharp) – Throw a wall of spikes on the ground. Builds 100 Stun. Cooldown X sec.

Ghost

• Spooky (Passive) – All your attacks build +X Fear
• Boo (Dark) – An aura that hits over time. Restores +X Mana and lowers Boo's cooldown +X sec per hit. Initial blast builds +100 Fear
• Ethereal (Dark) – Pass through baddies and their attacks. Reduced move speed -X%. Costs X Mana/sec

Robot

• Steel Plated (Passive, Sharp) – Reduce damage taken by 0.75% of your Max Health and deal X base Sharp damage to surrounding baddies
• Lightning Drill (Light) – Tap to punch with the drill. Hold to continuously spin the drill. Restores +X Mana
• Ravager Rocket (Blunt) – Fires a rocket that transformers after 0.5 secs. Transformed rocket has a 100% Crit chance. Costs X Mana
• Tempest Barrage (Dark) – Hold to fire a barrage of homing missiles at nearby baddies

Necromancer

• Blood Pact (Passive) – Familiars are healed for X% of all damage you do
• Necrotic Lightning (Dark) – Hold to shoot necrotic lightning. Restores +X Mana
• Summon Demon (Dark) – Cast an unholy circle that deals Dark damage. Summons Demon Familiars from corpses. Costs X Mana
• Blood Sacrifice (Dark) – Sacrifice the lowest-Health Familiar for X Attack UP Buffs. Creates a Dark explosion. Cooldown: 12 sec.

Dragon

• Dragon's Dread (Passive) – +X% Crit chance vs baddies that have negative status effects applied
• Clawmbo (Sharp) – Tap to swing those giant claws. Restores +X Mana. Hold to charge up a dash that leaves Burning lava in your wake. Lava deals Light damage
• Fire Ball (Light) – Tap to blast a fiery fire ball. Hold: Fire ball explodes, leaving a lava pool that builds Burn. Costs X Mana
• Fire Breath (Light) – Hold to breathe fire. Power and range start to dwindle after X sec. Builds +35 Burn. Reduced Move Speed -X%

The vendor sells additional passive abilities, for a price. Those abilities include:

• Money Magnet – Money gets sucked right into your pockets. Money's value increases +X%. Magnet range +X%
• Poison Dampener – Poison builds X% more slowly
• Fleet Footed – You cannot move slower than X Move speed
• Status Extender – Negative status effects last X percent longer on baddies
• Unstoppable Underlings – Familiars cannot be knocked or interrupted. Familiar Speed +X%
• Status Splosion – Inflict a negative status on a baddy to cause a Sharp explosion around them. Explosion size +X%
• Crit King – Crit chance +X%
• Crit Cleric – Recover X% of Critical Hit damage as health
• Sure Footed – Knockback and interrupt immunity while health is at or below X% max health
• Ranged Resistance – Incoming ranged-attack damage reduced by X%
• Melee Mitigation – Incoming melee-attack damage reduced by X%
• Magic Life – After Mana is depleted, health is spent as Mana. X Health is spent instead of 1 Mana
• Mana Shield – Damage received is dealt to your Mana before your Health. X% less damage received as Mana
• Explosive Familiars – Familiars explode at 10% Health. Deals X Light damage. Explosion size +X%
• Quick Cooldown – Cooldowns are reduced by X sec. This won't reduce cooldown below 1 sec.

Recommended Ability Combos

Most of the time when simply playing through dungeons to progress the story, you'll want to focus on being versatile. Since you can swap out abilities, you'll be able to progress through any dungeon as any form, but some will be much easier if you stick with their core strengths. Swapping abilities can help you fend off dungeon-specific Wards while still putting progress toward the form quests you want to be working on. There are a few all-purpose Passive combos that are essentially always good to have at the ready for general progression, depending on your playstyle:

• Scavenge + Horsepower – If you find yourself short on Mana to perform special abilities, consider this combo to take care of the problem. You'll collect a lot more Mana, more quickly, especially from crashing stage items.
• Zomnomnomnom + Mermaid's Resolve – If you're playing a class that ends up in the middle of the scrum, this combo is a lifesaver. It converts damage done to health and damage received to Mana, so you'll be able to trigger your special abilities more frequently and then have that convert into health.
• Steel Plated + Smite + Bravado – You could mix and match with any two of these for a heavy defense build, or choose all three for maximum armor plating. Steel Plated boosts your defense and hurts enemies for hurting you, Smite has a chance of making damage backfire on your enemies, and Bravado helps in a pinch if you happen to get very low on health.
• Money Motivated + Money Magnet – Money is plentiful in NSTW, so this combo uses that to your advantage. Money Magnet draws money towards you and boosts its value, while Money Motivated reduces your ability cooldowns whenever you pick up some cash. Put together, you're constantly getting money, getting the value of that money boosted, and getting an extra combat perk out of it to boot.
• Slug's Secret + Dragon's Dread – If you love inflicting status effects like Burn or Slow on your enemies, consider this deadly combo. Dragon's Dread significantly increases the chances of a critical hit against status effects, while Slug's Secret increases the damage of crits against status-effected enemies.

You can also use abilities to make up for some general weaknesses in a particular class. If you're playing a slower form like Turtle, you may want to equip Gallop, Slime Slide, or Fleet Footed to make up for their poor speed. If you're playing a form with low defense like Rogue, you could equip high defense abilities to make yourself more hearty. Consider how you can use abilities to compensate for a class weakness.

Once you've approached the late game and unlocked all the forms, you can start really experimenting with different builds. Here are a few of our favorites:

Power Dragon

The Dragon is the final form you'll gain, and it has among the highest base stats of any class. The Dragon is great for building up Burn damage with all three of its core abilities, so complementing its innate Dragon's Dread with Slug's Secret is an easy way to maximize your damage. It can also make good use of the Mermaid's Resolve + Zomnomnom combo to keep healthy and well-stocked with Mana. For its fourth ability slot, assuming you don't need to match to a particular type of Ward, consider the Bodybuilder's Pump Up for zone control and to give yourself an attack boost, or Robot's Tempest Barrage to do a great deal of damage all around you when enemies are swarming close to you.

Familiar Necromancer

There are three ways to gain Familiars in NSTW. The Magician summons animals, the Zombie can bite and infect enemies to turn them into Zombies after they die, and the Necromancer can summon demons from corpses. They're all good in their own ways, but Necromancer has the highest base stats and a Passive signature ability made for Familiars, so it serves as the best base for a Familiar build. The base abilities Summon Demon and Blood Sacrifice work perfectly together, and you can fill the fourth slot with another type of Familiar summoning.

We recommend Hat Trick since it lets you summon Familiars at will, and because Zombite is yet another Dark ability that works similarly to Summon Demon. Your demons are heartier than animals or zombies, but having an animal around is a good quick way to trigger your Blood Sacrifice for an attack boost. You can round out the build with the passives Unstoppable Underlings and Explosive Familiars, which will make your Familiars both faster and more deadly.

Ranged Monk

The Monk has the highest base physical damage stat, offset by only middling physical and magical defense. Since that makes it a little more vulnerable, you can keep your distance and take advantage of the high base damage by making a ranged build. The Monk's Holy Light ability acts like a ranged attack since it can hit anywhere in the room, and you can fill out the other two spots with moves like Arrow Flurryand Ravager Rocket. That will burn through Mana quickly, so consider equipping passives like Scavenge,Horsepower, and Mermaid's Resolve to keep enough fuel in the tank for your abilities.

For more on Nobody Saves The World, check out some beginner's tips to get you started, as well as how progression works.