The best skills to keep Col sneaking and stabbing
Guide by Josh Broadwell Contributor
Published on
The best Sword of Convallaria Col build layers on the right stats to help this formidable assassin dish out heavy damage every turn. Col is your standard rogue-slash-assassin Sword of Convallaria character whose skills almost all involve stacking damage and critical hits, but her unique passive trait means she benefits from working alone. It only activates when allies are at least three tiles away from her, which means you’ll want to mix some self-sustaining abilities in with her offense-focused skills.
Our Sword of Convallaria Col build breaks down Col’s best skills at each rank and lists Col’s best Trinkets and Tarot Whispers.
If you're after more build help, check out our Maitha build guide and Gloria build guide.
Sword of Convallaria Col build
section class="table-of-contents">
- Col skills
- Col weapons
- Col Trinkets
- Col Tarot Whispers
Sword of Convallaria Col skills
Col has a strong set of skills that turn her into one of the game’s most powerful units. Even though it’s hard to make a “wrong” choice, it’s worth unlocking certain skills first before coming back to drop an extra Castalia or two into her rank-up abilities.
Col’s passive skill encourages you to play her as a sneaky assassin – fitting, given her character. She gets the Jump ability, which triples her jump range, and if no allies are within two tiles of Col, she gets a 10 percent attack and crit rate buff. When Col attacks an enemy from the side or behind and defeats them, she can immediately act again.
Col Rank 1 skill: Ambush
- Shadow Gait is fine, but for the early game, you’ll benefit so much more from the Ambush skill. Ambush has Col deal 20 percent more damage when she attacks unharmed enemies, and if she attacks from behind, she inflicts No Passive Skills on the target for one turn.
Col Rank 3 skill: Assault
- This rank is a bit tricky. Col benefits from both skills, but Mask is more situational. If your Col stays out of danger, then its healing and debuff cleanse isn’t that useful, even if the fifth-tier crit buff is. Assault, however, is always helpful and lets you trigger her passive more easily. It gives Col a first-tier crit rate and crit damage buff and a second-tier movement increase for a turn, making it easy to close in on a foe and deal heavy damage.
Col Rank 5 skill: Eerie Footwork
- Eerie Footwork is a must-have for Col. When she’s healthy and gets hit with a single-target attack, she teleports behind the attacker and delivers a counter strike equal to 70 percent of her attack. She also gets dodge for a turn, which lets her evade one, single-target attack. If Col is injured, she just gains the dodge effect.
Col Rank 7 skill: Omen of Death
- Omen of Death is our choice, with a big asterisk. Get Perfect Assassin and Omen of Death if you use other Alacrity characters. Omen of Death is the best choice if Col is in a mixed party, since it gives her a helpful passive called Feverish Beast every time a character is defeated. Feverish Beast increases life steal and crit rate by 15 percent for three turns and stacks up to five times, and Col restores two NRG when she defeats an enemy.
- Perfect Assassin is a leader aura that gives Alacrity characters big buffs – 10 percent attack, 20 percent defense, and 15 percent for crit rate and crit damage. That’s big, but also not really helpful if you don’t use other Alacrity characters.
Col Rank 9 skill: Critical Strike
- Critical strike, a basic attack replacement, gives Col a 15 percent crit rate buff before she attacks and then has her deliver two instances of physical damage equal to 50 percent of her attack, each. Hidden Thorn is strong, but situational, since you get no benefit unless a nearby character has an assist reaction.
Col Rank 11 skill: Wipe Out
- Col deals three instances of 60 percent physical damage to a single target, and if Col has no allies within two spaces, she gains the ignore assist effect. She also gains dodge if she defeats her target. Traceless Shadow is essentially just a slightly beefed up Eerie Footwork, so you might as well get the skill that deals more damage.
Sword of Convallaria Col weapons
Col is a bit limited in her weapon choice, but one that suits her quite well is the free Newborn Blade.
- Newborn Blade:This sword increases the equipping character’s HP by three five percent and then gives them an attack buff equal to three percent of their total HP. It’s not fancy, but both buffs work well with Col.
- Void Stab: Void Stab is, as of Sword of Convallaria’s launch version, Col’s best-in-slot weapon. It increases her crit rate by three percent and gives her the Void effect after she uses a skill. Void buffs her crit damage by five percent and can stack six times, though it only lasts one turn.
Sword of Convallaria Col Trinkets
Col can make good use of several trinkets, from standard staples to one that’s unique to her battle pass, though for that one, you need to carefully manage her positioning to keep the buff active. Maverick’s Cloak is our top pick. When there are no allies within four tiles of Col’s location, her attack and defense increase by four percent, and her crit rate increases by 10 percent.
Spring Pill smoothes over potential healing issues if you don’t opt for Mask at rank three, as its skill heals the character for 20 percent of their max HP and removes a debuff. You can only use it twice per battle, though. Then, there’s Flying Blade Armguard: Flying Blade Armguard is a solid choice for anyone who needs to deal more damage, and since Col benefits from defeating enemies, she certainly fits the bill. It gives the character an instant attack that deals piercing damage equal to 12 percent of the target’s HP, and since it’s an instant attack, Col can still use her standard attacks like normal.
Sword of Convallaria Col Tarot Whispers
Verdict of Justice is Col’s best Tarot Whisper, thanks to its hefty crit rate buff, and better yet, it offers that buff outright. You don’t have to meet any special criteria to activate it. It’s just always there. Assuming you can get Col to defeat enemies regularly, though, you may want to consider Temptation of The Devil. The equipping character gets a stack of devil when they defeat an opponent, and each stack increases attack and defense by 3 percent, to a total of 30 percent.
