Best Pure Soul Bismuth Build in Shape of Dreams

Bismuth is arguably the easiest character to play in Shape of Dreams, and that's all thanks to the different builds she has. Unlike the rest of the cast, Bismuth uses a hands-off approach in combat — her book automatically fights for her by default, and she also has a build where the only thing players will only ever have to worry about is moving and dodging attacks.

The following Bismuth build for Shape of Dreams is all about spamming her abilities without ever pressing a single button outside your dodge and movement keys. Auto-casting may seem like a bad idea at first, but Bismuth is strong enough to make it work.

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By Marc Santos

Best Pure Soul Autocast Bismuth Build in Shape of Dreams

Shape of Dreams Bismuth Pure Soul attack

Before we get into the details, all you need to make this build work are the following:

Pure Soul (Traveler Memory)
100 Memory Haste (Cooldown Reduction)
High Ability Power
Self-Writing Story (Unique Bismuth Destruction Star)

Prioritize getting AP and Memory Haste from Chaos orbs. However, do try to get around 1000 HP by the time you reach the final boss.

Pure Soul is Bismuth's starting Memory, and it scales incredibly well with Ability Power. It has a 7-second cooldown by default, but you can get this down to virtually nothing with high Memory Haste and Essences that reduce cooldowns.

Self-Writing Story lets Bismuth autocast her abilities and gain a good chunk of Memory Haste. It removes your ability to manually cast most Memories while in combat, though this isn't really that bad of a drawback. You need to reach rank 30 with Bismuth to unlock this.

These are the core parts of the build. The rest are reasonably flexible, and you can pick whatever you prefer or use whatever RNG hands you during a run.

If you're a newer Shape of Dreams player, you can still use this build even without Self-Writing Story.

Constellation Setup

Shape of Dreams Bismuth Say Hello to my Little Friends

Self-Writing Story Bismuth Build
Destruction
Star	Effect
Hurricane	Increases Attack Speed.
Mature Mind	Gain Ability Power when you reach levels 5, 10, 15, and 20.
Night Time	Increases Ability Power.
Self-Writing Story	Increases Memory Haste. Most Memories are automatically cast during combat.
Mental Attunement	Every basic attack hit increases Bismuth's Attack Damage and Ability Power, up to 8 stacks. All stacks are lost upon taking damage.
Life
Star	Effect
Second Wind	When you take Fatal Damage, ignore that damage and become invulnerable for a short duration. This can only be triggered once per run.
Threat Detection	Reduce's Dodge cooldown.
Regenerative Skin	Increases the amount of healing and Barrier you receive.
Imagination
Star	Effect
Wealth Accumulation	Increases the amount of Gold you gain from defeating enemies.
Efficient Extraction	Increases the amount of Dream Dust you gain from dismantling Memories and Essences.
Primordial Chaos	You get a chance to gain an extra Chaos orb when you are rewarded with a Chaos orb.
Black Market	Gain Platinum Coins at the start of a run and whenever you start a new world. These coins are used to refresh merchant inventories.
Flexible
Star	Effect
Say Hello To My Little Friends!	Increase Pure Soul's cooldown by 1 second, but the number of soul missiles it fires increases based on your attack speed.

You also have a bunch of options to consider here:

Use Enlightenment to gain bonus attack speed when you dismantle Memories/Essences. This will reduce your Dream Dust gains, but it will make your book and Pure Soul hit significantly faster later in the run.
Equip Good Material (Imagination) to further increase Dream Dust gains when dismantling.
Use Beginner's Luck (Imagination) and buy Essence of Flow from the Deja Vu menu. This starts you with a 130% Quality Essence of Flow, essentially guaranteeing victory for that run.

Essences and Memories

All you really need to get this build going is Essence of Flow, which reduces the cooldown of the attached Memory by a percentage every time you deal Light damage with anything. Since Pure Soul deals Light damage multiple times per cast, you can basically remove its cooldown by upgrading Essence of Flow until you match your current Pure Soul missile count.

After that, you're pretty much good to go as far as damage skills are concerned. For the rest of your run, look for Memories and Essences that increase your survivability. Good examples include:

Memory/Essence	Effect
Mass Protection	Grant a Barrier that dissipates over 1.5 seconds over you and allies.
Purgatory	Damage enemies in an area and heal an ally with the lowest health percentage. Healing is tripled when Purgatory hits a boss.
Ice Shield	Generate a Barrier over a target. When the Barrier is destroyed, it damages nearby enemies and heals the ally for each enemy hit.
Any Light Damage Memory	Replace your second Pure Soul with another Light Damage Memory, if needed. Chain Lightning and Starfall are good alternatives.
Essence of Momentum	Every time you attack an enemy, reduce attached Memory's cooldown.
Essence of the Vortex	Periodically launch a fireball at a nearby enemy.
Essence of Metal	Kills reduce the attached Memory's cooldown.
Essence of Predation	Deal bonus damage to bosses. Every time you kill a boss or a Hunter, you gain a stack that grants a permanent increase to either AD or AP.
Essence of Shatter	Every 10 seconds, empower the next cast of the attached Memory to deal more damage. If the Memory deals Light damage, it is empowered further.
Essence of Clemency	Attached Memory gains Lifesteal.
Essence of Rigidity	When the attached Memory hits an enemy, gain Barrier for 2 seconds (untested on Pure Soul, though it should work since Rigidity triggers on each hit from Tales of Hellfire).

Essence of Flow also affects the cooldowns of other Essences. This makes Essences like Shatter, Celestial, Glacial Core, and Pure White extremely powerful.

If you want to take on Nightmare difficulty, you'll want to use at least one Essence that increases your damage for Pure Soul, and you should focus less on healing and more on Barrier. This is because Nightmare mode reduces the amount of healing you receive from all sources.

How to Play This Build

The build we made for Vesper involves a high APM (actions per minute) playstyle, but for this one, all you have to do is run around and watch the pretty lights. The early game will feel slow, but if you use Deja Vu to start a run with Essence of Flow, you'll cruise through the Rapids in no time. Just don't forget to avoid enemy attacks, because Bismuth is incredibly squishy.

If you're using the Say Hello To My Little Friends star, then consider leveling Bismuth's Prismatic Vision passive until it gives 100% bonus attack speed. Otherwise, use all your Dream Dust and Heroic Boss rewards to level up Pure Soul.