New to Gragu? Start with ourGragu Shell Overview— location, abilities, playstyle & lore.
Gragu is an absolute monster — the tankiest shell in the game, carried by the Staggering Blow fist ability and endless Revered Heart sustain. He can use almost any weapon, and the fist is what carries him through everything.
Gragu is likely the third or fourth shell you'll get, depending on which direction you go. He's tied for the second-highest health pool with Eredrim, and you can make a strong argument he's the tankiest character in the game. Unlike some shells that focus on a single status effect, he can basically use any weapon in the game — even though he has a slight emphasis on Blood Curse, it's honestly not that important to the build.
This allows him to charge up a punch that lunges forward a decent distance, dealing more damage the longer you charge it. It's basically his bread-and-butter ability, and tons of passives make it stronger and stronger. This is one of the reasons he's so versatile — it's the ability that really carries him through the game.
A healing form that works differently from other characters. By default Gragu starts with zero heals, but as he defeats enemies he gains more and more. It sounds punishing at first, but the more you kill, the more heals you get back — so he's actually one of the easier characters once you've killed a few enemies, since you can go a little way, heal, then keep replenishing your Revered Heart and always have heals instead of running out and resting. On top of that, he has a lot of passive healing from his shell abilities.
| Ability | Points | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Escalation | 2 (priority #1) | Increases Staggering Blow damage up to +50% on the first upgrade, +15% on the second. The first point is priority number one; a third point for just 5% more isn't worth it. |
| Blood Thirst | Skip (early game only) | Kills replenish Revered Heart faster. Great when learning mechanics, but once you know the enemies you rarely need healing point-for-point. |
| Heart Work | Skip | Blood Curse mitigation/immunity and a 3% chance to fully replenish Revered Heart. Hard to trigger Blood Curse on most enemies and 3% is too low to build around. |
| Attunement | Max | Staggering Blow costs 50% less resolve at max — use it twice as much. Kill enemies with it to replenish the resolve cost and keep spamming it. |
| Harvest | Recommended | Heal more per Revered Heart and hold up to 8 heals instead of 3. Essential for boss fights, especially on New Game Plus. |
| Maniac | Optional (bosses) | Melee damage +40% against enemies you've never fought. Useless against most enemies, great for first-time boss fights. |
| Anger | Boss-fight pick | Staggering Blow applies weak, fragile and break stacks — useful in boss fights where you spam the ability. |
| Bloodlust | Skip (boss-fight only) | Next melee attack after a heal deals +100% damage, 50% chance to cure all debuffs, 15 Warp stacks. Better in boss fights; not worth points on the landscape. |
| Devour | Core | At max Revered Heart, defeating enemies grants extra gloom, 15 resolve and 20 health. Stay at max stacks while exploring to keep these buffs rolling and fuel Staggering Blow spam. |
| Heartless | Max (core) | Staggering Blow rips out the heart of small/medium humanoids, killing them instantly, healing you and exploding for AoE damage. Instantly kills regular enemies and keeps you topped up. |
| Hunger | Optional (boss clutch) | When you have zero Revered Hearts, critical chance is increased up to 60%. Hard to maintain (kills refill heals), but great in late boss fights to push over the edge. |
| Fortify | Skip (early tree only) | Resting at a Beacon replenishes up to 3 Revered Hearts. Once you get going you don't need it at all. |
Honestly, you can use whatever you like for both melee and ranged — there's no perfect weapon for this build. Gragu's Blood Curse effect is minimal and doesn't trigger easily, so you don't need to lean toward a Blood Curse-inflicting weapon like you might in other builds.
I use this for a couple of reasons. First, I love the stagger damage — it knocks enemies around so they can't hit me easily, creating openings to charge Staggering Blow. Second, you can infuse it with burn: when you hit a lot of the humanoid enemies they sit on fire and stop attacking you, which prevents you from taking damage, so you don't have to heal, and again opens up the chance to use Staggering Blow.
Use whatever you want. I don't use ranged attacks at all with this build — Gragu benefits predominantly from melee. I do have the Lost Clot Stone slotted on my weapon so I can throw it if I ever need a ranged option. A nice bonus: if you're knocked out of your shell, throwing the melee weapon counts toward getting back into it, unlike other ranged weapons.
Ranged weapon stones are up to you — since you never use ranged attacks, pick whatever makes sense.
Common Moonshine (passive) — extra damage reduction to stack even more mitigation. You can also use it in the active slot to grant Resolve if you want. Here I stack damage reduction so I can chew through enemies, and even when they hit me I heal back up to full easily.
Gragu has Staggering Blow (a charge-up punch that deals more damage the longer you charge) and Revered Heart (a unique heal — you gain heal charges as you defeat enemies, keeping you topped up on the move).
The Veteran's Battle Axe — great stagger damage that knocks enemies around and creates openings to charge Staggering Blow, and it can be infused with burn so many humanoid enemies sit on fire and stop attacking you.
Gragu gains Revered Heart heal charges by defeating enemies, and Heartless kills regular enemies instantly and heals you on top. At max Revered Heart you gain extra gloom, 15 resolve and 20 health per kill.