Deathbound: Anna Lepus' Best Talents

Deathbound, another Soulslike to add to the ever-expanding list of games heavily inspired by From Software's most well-known titles, is an interesting addition to the subgenre. This game is a bit stiff and awkward in terms of its gameplay, but when it comes to the concept, story, and new gameplay mechanics, Deathbound is very inventive.

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By Andy Chapman

One of the most prominent things this game is ambitious with is the Essences system. In Deathbound, you'll switch between four characters with four separate health bars, all tied to the same body. A lot of these characters fit into the standard class categorizations we've all come to know and love such as the warrior, the mage, and even the assassin. Anna Lepus fills this thief and/or assassin role, and she especially excels in her role if you get the right Talents for her, so without further ado, let's go over her best options.

Talent System & Memory Points

How to Get Points & How Talents Work

Talents in Deathbound are where a lot of the actual power progression of your character comes from, even though it might not seem like it at first. The skill tree in the leveling menu has a huge impact on your strength and abilities throughout the course of Deathbound, that's for sure, but the increases are incremental and pretty small individually. However, with a single Talent unlock, an Essence character can suddenly feel twice as strong if not more so, as long as you pick the right Talent.

To get Talents, first, you'll need Memory Points, and Memory Points are found throughout the game in the form of these small ethereal interactables that are only visible to the Essence the Memory is about. When you're first introduced to the Memory Point system and the aforementioned interactable, listen to the sound it makes when you stand near it, and keep an eye out for this sound as you progress through the game.

Whenever you hear it, look around to try and find it, and once you do switch between Essences until the interactable becomes less transparent and more ethereal. Interact with it, and you'll either get to see a memory going over the events of one of your playable characters, or you'll pick up a Key Item related to one of your Essences. After that, you'll see that character in particular now has a Memory Point to use when you reach the next Phylactery.

Anna Lepus' Talents

Our Recommendations For Her Overall Strongest Talents

Name	Effect
Toxicology	Melee attacks inflict poison.
Twist the Blade	Can Morph during backstab to increase damage using Sync.
No Witnesses	Backstabbing increases the damage of bound Essences by 20 percent for 6 seconds.
Tactical Retreat	Increases Movement Speed by 30 percent when at low Health.
Coup De Grace	Grants a 10 percent damage increase when killing poisoned enemies. Max 5 stacks.
Tricks of the Trade	Anna's Morph Strikes reload her crossbow with Corrupted Essence Bolts.
Staggering Shot	When in Conflict, ranged attacks stagger unaware enemies.

To be frank, out of all the Essences in Deathbound, Anna might be among one of the strongest characters, and a lot of this is due to her Talents. While most playable characters in this game have fantastic Talents to choose from, there are actually a lot more mediocre Talents than you might first expect. However, the majority of Anna's Talents are pretty amazing . In particular, we found the Toxicology, Coup De Grace, and Tricks of the Trade Talents to be the most impactful, and here's our reasoning.

Toxicology: There are a couple of Essences you'll collect in Deathbound that have ways to apply elements to different attacks. Some items can do it, and some characters can cast a 'team-wide' buff that does it, but Anna is the only one that really has it by default, once Toxicology is obtained. And, with how fast Anna attacks, you actually poison most if not all enemies that you fight with her.
Coup De Grace: With all the ways you can apply Poison in Deathbound (Anna's Toxicology being one of the most prominent), this Talent is activated pretty often. And, at max stacks, that's a 50 percent damage increase, which can make the game an absolute cakewalk in the right situation.
Tricks of the Trade: Anna's Crossbow is by far one of her strongest tools, and the game is actually pretty generous in giving you more bolts as you kill enemies. However, reloading this weapon takes quite a lot of time without proper Level investment and typically leaves Anna incredibly vulnerable. But, with Tricks of the Trade, you can use Anna's Morph Strikes to avoid this reloading animation altogether as well as get the extra benefit of having the next 3 shots fire Corrupted Bolts.

However, Anna's other Talents are also worth grabbing, with the order we'd recommend grabbing them (from least to most recommended) being; Tactical Retreat, Staggering Shot, Twist the Blade, and No Witnesses. In general, Anna's Talents match the intended playstyle of this character, being agile, sneaky, and deadly if she manages to catch you off guard. However, backstabbing in Deathbound is only available against humanoid enemies, and if the enemy is humanoid but just a bit too tall, it also won't work. So, while it might seem at first that this character is entirely based around backstabbing, it's actually one of her least important aspects.

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