Introduction

Unholy Prayer Equipment Recommendations

Unholy Prayers

Unholy Prayer Mechanics

Aquiring Unholy Items

Base Game

Magic

Ranged

Melee

This content is part of the Atlas of Discovery Expansion.

This guide is designed to describe how best to integrate unholy prayers into combat progression with the expansion.

Unholy prayers can give a massive boost to late base-game combat. They can increase kills per hour (kph) by a magnitude of 1.5x-4/5x in dark waters and beyond. This can dramatically shorten grinds such as the fragments from

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Dark Waters

and trivialize difficult bosses. While they can be acquired earlier than

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Into the Mist

, they are far less effective without the Combat Passive Slot. The main strength of Unholy Prayers is multiple forms of % max HP damage, which is most effective on the strong enemies such as in

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Dark Waters

,

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Unhallowed Wasteland

,

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Impending Darkness Event

, and in the Throne of the Herald expansion. Note: Unholy Prayers are not effective against the boss in

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Into the Mist

as she is immune to all debuffs.

Unholy prayers do not follow the same mechanics as normal prayers.

An Unholy Item (M) will either state "Unholy Item used for Unholy Prayers" or "+1 Unholy Mark stacks applied when hitting with an attack and allows Unholy Prayers to be used with one other item that allows for Unholy Prayers." These two effects are exactly the same.
For each Unholy Item equipped, 1 Unholy Mark is applied to the enemy per hit, up to a maximum of 5.
1 Unholy Mark is removed from the enemy when they complete an attack.
Unholy prayers consume Prayer Points per hit, not once per attack turn.
Each time prayer points are consumed while using an Unholy Prayer, 1 Unholy Mark is removed from the enemy. This happens independently for each prayer, so with 2 prayers, 2 stacks are removed. Preserving Prayer Points results in fewer marks being consumed by the player's attacks.
Unholy prayers scale in power based on unholy marks on the enemy.

It is also necessary to specifically talk about

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Reckoning

. The stated effect "+10% damage dealt per effect affected by" is extremely unclear. The way it works is:

For each active status effect on you (meaning, individual icon), you gain 10% damage per unholy mark on the enemy.
Multiple stacks of a status effect do not affect the power of
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Reckoning.
Similarly, a status effect with 0 stacks also counts, as long as the icon is visible. Applicable to Agile Gem, Accuracy Gem, and Leviathan Shield
So for example with 5 active status effects, and 5 Unholy Marks on the enemy,
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Reckoning increases your maximum hit by +250%.

Due to the mechanics listed above, there are some cases where only a single prayer provides more damage than 2.

With only the minimum 2 items equipped and little/no Prayer Point Preservation, using 2 Prayers results in little/no marks being applied meaning prayers have no effect.
Without multi-hitting weapons, a weapon with a long attack interval will struggle to stack sufficient marks on the enemy due to them being removed on enemy attacks.
Thus, it is recommended to use weapons with special attacks that hit multiple times with 3+ unholy items for the best results.

Several items state "grants the maximum effect of the X Unholy Prayer for the first 5 turns of combat." This means you gain the effects of the listed prayer as if the enemy had 5 unholy marks on them for your first 5 attack turns. These items may be a large DPS gain even when using standard prayers.

There are multiple pieces of unholy gear from crafting skills, archaeology, and combat. The most powerful ones are listed below.

Ring of Malice (m), Grudge Amulet (m), Consuming Shield (m) from the
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Unholy Forest dungeon.
Eradicating Gloves (m) from the Underwater City dungeon.

Other unholy item options include:

Unholy Gem (m) from Archeology as it does not compete as heavily within the gem slot. This item is often worse than Agile/Accuracy gem as those give you a buff for the reckoning prayer.
The Unholy Ring (m) or Cursed Ring (m) have acceptable stats relative to other pieces of gear from their slots.
The unholy items from Cult Grounds are weak, Helmet of Spite (m) is unreliable defense and Shield of Martyr (m) lowers your DR. There are some situations where the Shield of Martyr (m) is still better than the Consuming Shield (m), but the Helmet of Spite (m) is almost never better than other helmet options, whether it is a God helmet for defense or Chapeau Noir for fights where DR is not needed.
At 5% DR and bonuses to accuracy and damage across all styles, the Unholy Battle Boots (m) may be worth it for enemies that do not require as much DR, especially before God Armor.
All other pieces of combat or crafted gear which do not have an additional effect are not ideal as they compete with other pieces of gear, and the unholy marks they add are not a desirable tradeoff.

This section is heavily WIP due to the number of different factors that can go into using Unholy Prayers, as well as the possibility of nerfs.

Unholy prayers do not help against Barrier enemies as they do not affect summoning damage.

The gear listed below is the core REQUIRED to see good results with unholy prayers. Deviating or substituting this gear may result in massive damage losses, as the synergy between 3+ unholy items with multi-hitting weapons is what produces a majority of your damage. Using 2 unholy items with 2 unholy prayers results in 0 unholy marks on the enemy, and the prayers will not function.

As always, use the Combat Simulator to test these setups for YOU to ensure you are hitting the required slayer area negation and damage reduction to not die. If attempting to manually eat through a dungeon while relying on weapons with special attacks that hit multiple times, remember that eating interrupts your attack and guarantees that your next attack will be a normal attack.

The Eradicating Gloves (m) are a large upgrade to all styles, but require a larger investment into combat.

Slot
Neck	Grudge Amulet (m)
Passive	Consuming Shield (m)
Ring	Ring of Malice (m)
Gem	Agile Gem	Accuracy Gem
Weapon	Cloudburst Staff
Prayer 1	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Reckoning
Prayer 2	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Destruction

Using

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Water Strike

over higher level water spells can be a minimal kph loss with a massive reduction in runes used.

Ranged has bad options for multi-hit in the base game, so including additional unholy items such as Unholy Gem (m) or another unholy item in the passive slot may be a gain. Ring of barrage, and fast weapons such as throwing daggers may be a kph increase with increased levels of ammo/prayer points. Ghost Blunderbow and Engulfing Vortex Longbow are massive upgrades, but require a significantly larger investment into combat. Consuming Shield (m) or another unholy item may be moved to the passive slot if needed. Using only

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Reckoning

as your only prayer may be a gain without a multi-hit weapon.

Grudge Amulet (m)

Ring of Malice (m)

Unholy Gem (m)

Consuming Shield (m)

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Reckoning

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Destruction

Slot
Neck	Grudge Amulet (m)
Passive	Ring of Malice (m)
Ring	Ring of Blade Echoes
Gem	Agile Gem	Accuracy Gem
Weapon	Infernal Claw	Tidal Edge
Offhand	Consuming Shield (m)
Prayer 1	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Reckoning
Prayer 2	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Destruction

Blade echoes is particularly important as it grants a special attack with multiple hits to all melee weapons.