Often ignored in favour of offensive choices, armour can make all the difference in Symphony of the Night. Taking on some late game enemies and bosses will soon highlight the difference that good equipment can make, and happily the game is more than willing to provide you with options, especially for those willing to dig a little deeper. Should you find yourself taking too much damage in the final third of the game then, make sure to grab yourself one of these powerful protectors…
Walk Armor
- +31 DEF (fully stacked), -5 INT
- DEF increases as map(s) are explored
- Found in the Catacombs, Normal Castle
At first it may seem quite unusual that one of the most powerful armour, but equipment that scales up isn’t necessarily out of the ordinary in an RPG of sorts, however the Walk Armour does leave the player in a rather strange situation. You see, having already explored a fair amount of the castle, you may find that the Walk Armour is already the best piece available to you, which is a title that it’ll retain all the way to the end. This isn’t inherently bad, after all who doesn’t want some powerful armour for Alucard, but it does kind of… Defeat variation and novelty. Happily there are some alternatives available to you below, but there’s a fairly reasonable argument for putting this on and simply forgetting about your body armour from then on.
Advertisement
Alucard Mail
- +20 DEF
- Resistant to Fire, Lightning and Ice
- Found in Death Wing’s Lair, Reverse Castle
Possibly the best alternative to a defensively focused protector is the Alucard Mail, which is actually the armour that the player owns at the start of the game, prior to the intervention of Death. Apart from the obvious benefit that it’s a return to the starting ‘set’, this particular piece of equipment doesn’t really compare to others when it comes to raw defence, rather it’s benefit is in reducing elemental damage by 50%. Technically speaking this will offer you more damage reduction against certain enemies and bosses, however in our experience the looming threat of physical damage is never far away, so whilst we include it here for the sake of completeness, opting for one of the stronger DEF rating versions in this list will likely stand you in better stead.
Mojo Mail
- +15 DEF, +1 INT
- Increases Magic & Familiar power by 50%
- Dropped by Tin Man in the Forbidden Library
At first glance the Mojo Mail doesn’t seem like it’s entirely worthwhile, after all spells are rarely relied upon to make the difference in battle. In fact, outside of health restoration via Soul Steal we rarely use them either, unless we’re planning a full magic run of sorts. All of this changes however, when it is discovered that this also increases familiar damage by 50%. Only having access to +15 defence is truly terrible compared to some end game options, however throwing this on when you have a high level familiar active will reveal some huge damage numbers coming from your little helper. As you might imagine, a fully levelled Sword Familiar will do tremendous amounts of damage with this equipped – with a critical strike, we’ve seen it do more than 500 with its swift, swiping attack.
Advertisement
God’s Garb
- +26 DEF, +2 CON
- Dropped by the Guardian enemy in the Black Marble Gallery
Our final choice for chest protectors is the God’s Garb, which on balance is probably the rarest drop that we’ve found in the entire game. It’s almost as if the developers knew that its owner, the Guardian enemy, is a prime location for experience grinding in the late game, and as such they adjusted the drop rate of this powerful item. Strangely enough, despite being very powerful, and indeed having it’s DEF boosted from +25 to +26 by its own +2 CON stat, the Walk Armour will technically outdo it in terms of damage reduction, exploration pending of course. Outside of this however, it cannot be beaten for defence, and it pays to get your hands on it as soon as possible. Once you reach the second castle, head to the library for some rare weapons, then head over to the Guardians to grab yourself one of these. You’ll likely need to slay a great deal of them to make one drop, but they offer the most EXP of any regular enemy in the game, so it’s a win-win.
More Castlevania – Symphony of the Night…
Sub Weapons Ranked By Usefulness | Castlevania – Symphony of the Night
Determining and indeed ranking the sub weapons in Symphony of the Night is a strange proposition. Aside from the Cross, all of these can be found dotted around the both castles, and they’re often positioned well enough to assist in upcoming encounters, like the Axe prior to the first main boss duo. If you’re anything…
The 8 Best Weapons Overall | Castlevania – Symphony of the Night
Determining the very best weapon in a Castlevania game is a bit of a lottery to be honest. Model changes, like between a 1H Sword and a Fist for example, will make the game feel significantly different, and the combination of this and player preference essentially makes it boil down to trial and error. That…
Three Alternative Alucard Builds | Castlevania – Symphony of the Night
It’s a testament to the creativity available in Symphony of the Night, that we can actually describe more than one powerful build for Alucard, the protagonist. In regular Castlevania games, hell in regular RPG games period, there’s often a single route towards power, like stacking attack power or strength. Here however, the breadth of equipment,…
Loading…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Categories: Castlevania - Symphony of the Night