I've been really diggin this game and noticed a few questions in the forums. So I wanted to take a pass at documenting some of the details in the game to help newcomers understand it a bit better and help veterans get the most out of their playtime. Some of this will be basic, but in the places where I have details, I'll add them.

Thanks to the guys in the forums (Devrailis, Chewy / SporksAreGoodForYou, =AJSA= Big Mad Wolf, Phishfood) for adding details and Dreadbit for this sick game.

This game features an adaptive difficulty system. The current difficulty level is given by a number from 1 to 10. It is dictated mainly by motes. The more motes you collect, the higher the difficulty will rise. Each level of the game also has a minimum difficulty, moving from 1.00 to 5.50. Continuing from a "game over" will drop the difficulty down to the minimum for that level. Higher dificulty levels will cause enemies to have more health, perform different attacks, attack for more damage and spawn more powerful elites. Higher difficulties also bring rarer shards and more component drops.

"The white markers below the difficulty rating indicate how quickly the difficulty is climbing. If you take damage, you will lose half your markers." Difficulty will rise faster when more of the difficulty markers/pips are filled in. These are filled by collecting motes with out taking damage. In survival mode, the marks also indicate a score multiplier; 1.1x, 1.5x, 1.8x, 2.5x, 3.5x, 5x respectively.

Difficulty number is shown in the lower left with the markers/pips below it.

Terminessence
These blue packets of unholy energy are dropped from fallen enemies or found inside blue storgae lockers. They are used in transmutations.


Motes
Motes give XP and increase difficulty.
Regular motes give 100XP. They are found throughout the level, in chests and from killing daemons.

"Greater Motes" come from killing enemies and are worth 300 XP and will quickly decay into a regular mote over 1.5 seconds. This drives players to get in close to finish off enemies.


Daemonic Body Parts
These are dropped from enemies. The component dropped depends on the enemy defeated. Check the Codex for specifics. These are used in transmutations. Daemonic Matter and Tainted Blood can be dropped by any enemy will appear as blue orbs while the daemon specific parts will appear as purple orbs. Parts are more plentiful and more likely to drop at higher difficulties.


Health Orbs
These precious orbs will refill 50 health to Seraph. Can be found in yellow chests or can be dropped from enemies if an oath is used.


Shards
Much of this game revolves around collecting shards. Shards are used to activate and improve oaths as well as an ingredient in high level transmutation recipes. Also a large number are needed to rebirth. 3 of any type of shard can be combines to make one of the next higher rarity. You can collect shards between dying in the air and resurrecting on the ground.
The drop rate depends on enemy type:

• Normals - 2%
  
• Elite - 15%
  
• Lieutenants - 100%

The quality of the shard dropped is related to the difficulty.

• Shard fragments (3 of them make a common shard) are dropped in difficulty 1-3
  
• Common shards dropped in difficulties 3-6
  
• Uncommon shards drop in difficulties 3.5+
  
• Rare 6+
  
• Epic 7+
  
• Supreme 8+

Here is a breakdown of the shard types with thier "cost" listed in fragments:

They will appear in the game with an orange colored glow.


Crates
Yellow crates are found through the level can contain a health orb and a handful of motes.
The blue ones are a little more rate than it's yellow brethren, but contain ammo for your primary weapon, nearly 2 dozen Terminessence, and maybe some spare metal parts. Any extra ammo will be given to you as metal pieces. The appearance of crates changes with each set of levels, so keep an eye out.

Lockers
Standing a little bit taller than the crates, lockers will contain either a random weapon, or a random ward, based on the items you have unlocked via transmutation. If you have unlocked a higher tier item (ie. MkII or III weapon) the lower tier will not be available (MkI). Weapon locker have a bluish-green light and ward lockers have purple.

Lockout Rooms
On some levels, you may encounter a "lockout room." when you enter, all the doors will close, lights will tint red, and a timer will start. You will be locked inside this room for 60 seconds with several enemies spawning all the while. if you die, you can return to the room, but with all doors open and no more new spawns. If you do survive the full 60 seconds, the last enemy to spawn is guaranteed to drop a shard. A nice reward for one of the harder situations of the game.

These rooms must be opened from a button in the level and are only open for a short time. Once the room is reached, the door will then remain open. Inside the room, the following boosts may be found:

Checkpoints
Each room contains at least this, except when playing Survival. "May now restart from this level after 'Game Over' occurs."


Double Experience
"All XP earned from motes is doubled for a short time." (2 mins) Note that this only double exp, not the score gained by motes in survival. It does persist through death, but not past the current level.


Armoured Soul
"Seraph take half damage from all sources for a limited time" (2 mins). It does persist through death, but not past the current level.


Double Damage
"All of Seraph's weapon and Miracle attacks will cause double damage to enemies" (lasts for 2 mins). It does persist through death, but not past the current level.

Seraph can become much more powerful through the employment of Oaths and Transmutations. Also as she levels up over the course of a play through, she will gain blessings that further augment her power.

Oaths are buffs that Seraph can gain by applying a shard to it. The type of shard used dictates the level of buff gained. The buffs are listed below in order from Common to Supreme. There are three different categories of oaths.

Split Fire
Damage from dual wielding weapons is increased when attacking two separate enemies at once.
+5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25%

Critical Accuracy
Each Shot fired has a chance to be a Critical Strike, dealing 50% bonus damage.
+2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10%

Pistol Specialist
Damage from Pistol class weapons is increased.
+2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10%

SMG Specialist
Damage from SMG class weapons is increased.
+2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10%

Rifle Specialist
Damage from Assault Rifle class weapons is increased
+2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10%

Shotgun Specialist
Damage from Shotgun class weapons is increased
+2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10%

Devastating Accuracy
Increases the Physical and Holy Critical Strike damage bonus.
+5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25%

Scavenger
Pickups from lockers and chests contain more ammunition.
+3 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 15%

Blessed Ammunition
There is a chance that the next shot fired will consume no ammunition.
+2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10%

High Velocity
Increases the chance bullets will pass through a target and hit an enemy behind.
+2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10%

Strength
Seraph's starting Health is increased.
+10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 HP

Potency
Health gained from Health orbs is increased from 50 by an amount.
+3 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 15 HP

Destiny
Maximum Health increase on level up is increased.
+2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10 HP

Life Seeker
Enemies now have a chance to spawn Health orbs on death.
+1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5%

Resilience
Damage taken from Physical (orange attack indicator) sources is reduced.
+2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10%

Sanctuary
Damage taken from Unholy (purple attack indicator) sources is reduced.
+2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10%

Life and Death
Weapon and Ward lockers now have a chance of spawning a Health orb the first time they are opened.
+2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10%

Dashing
Recharge time on Blink is reduced.
+3 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 15%

Fleet
Seraph gains bonus movement speed.
+2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10%

Soul Stealer
Seraph heals by an amount of Health each time an enemy is slain
+1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5HP

Academia
Enemies have a change of dropping an additional Mote on death.
+5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25%

Deadly Movement
Blinking through an enemy will damage them.
+10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 dmg

Knowledge
Collecting Shards will now boost your maximum Health.
+1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5HP

Miracle Proficiency
The cooldown time of all Miracles is reduced.
+4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20%

Remnant Protection
Damage taken by Seraph is reduced for 1.5 seconds after activating a Miracle.
+2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10%

Spark
All Holy damage has a chance to be a Critical Strike.
+3 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 15%

Sentinel
Any Holy damage and healing from Miracles and Blessings is boosted.
+4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 20%

Replenish
Seraph has a chance to gain an instant Blink recharge whenever successfully Smiting a larger enemy.
+25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 50%

Enhanced Precision
Collecting Motes will increase the Chance of a Critical Strike for 2 seconds.
+1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5%

Origin's Touch
The initial attack on an enemy causes additional Holy damage equal to a percentage of its maximum health
+ 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6%

Transmutation allows seraph to upgrade her kit/loadout/tools. By using metal parts, terminessence, daemonic body parts, and occasionally crystals, she can increase her potency and survivability in battle. Note that shards used in transmutations are gone and cannot be recalled for rebirths.

Weapons
Each weapon can be upgraded via transmutation from MkI to MkIV (1 to 4). The weapon damage increases with each upgrade, but the rest of the stats stay the same.

An example of Pistol upgrades showing Mk I and each upgrade to Mk2, 3, & 4.
From some poorly done graphical analysis, it appears that the nominal value of the damage bar goes from 25 to 30 to 40 to 50.



Wards
Wards are trinkets that Seraph can find that help protect her. Wards can add physical damage protection, unholy damage protection, and hit points to Seraph's maximum health. Check the stats on the ward page to see which flavor affects which statistic. When upgraded, the trinket, starts as a coin, then a ring and brooch, gaining potency and durability with each upgrade. Durability dictates how long the ward will remain with Seraph before it goes away. The more damage that's done to Seraph, the more durability it will lose.

Miracles
Miracles are Seraph's "moves" that she can do to unleash her holy wrath upon the Daemons. 2 miracles, in addition to Smite, will be available to Seraph at any given time. Miracles can be upgraded from level 1 to level 3.

As Seraph collects XP (from motes) she will gain levels after clearing a floor. At each increase in Seraph's level, she can choose to unlock a blessing, or upgrade one she already has. Upon leveling up, 4 Blessings will be displayed, including any already unlocked, and you can choose to unlock a new blessing or upgrade one previously unlocked. New blessings are selected at random. These blessings only apply to this playthrough and the process will repeat for any new playthroughs. Blessings have 5 upgrade levels. It is possible to gain 2 levels after a floor, you choose how to spend your 2 points on the same set of blessings.

Daily and weekly challenges bring a lot of life to this game. By competing with other players world-wide, you can get your self some sweet loot and internet fame. Challenge levels are the same for all players, but everyone's individual upgrades (oaths,transmutes & rebirths) do apply.

These challenge levels come in a few flavors:

• Pressure - survive a long as you can while the difficulty ramps up each second
  
• Headhunter - destroy a number elite or non-elite daemons
  
• Treasure Hunt - Open chests as quickly as possible

Each event is scored using the time it took to complete, motes collected at the difficulty level, and a multiplier based on accuracy or health lost. As far as I can tell, each 1/6th of a second is worth 1500 points. Example of scoring:


Sweet loot is based off of placement, and the "component" reward changes each day


The weekly challenge is always "Survival." Simply play through the game and get the highest score you can without hitting "Game Over". Scoring is determined by the difficult level and difficulty mark multiplier when motes are collected. (ie Score for 1 mote = 100 x difficulty x difficulty multiplier) Note that the "Double Experience" bonus does not apply to scoreing.


Similar loot scheme with the "component" reward changing weekly:

At some point, Seraph will die. When this happens, she loses a "resurrection token" and will start back at the beginning of the current level with reduced heath. Each level is started with 2 "resurrection tokens" so, 3 deaths per level. below is the health breakdown.

• Base life = Seraph's health + buffs from oaths
  
• Health on first life = Base life x 100% + ward buffs
  
• Health on second life = Base life x 66% + ward buffs
  
• Health on third life = Base life x 33% + ward buffs

After 3 deaths in 1 level, it will be "Game Over". Your stats for this run will be displayed and you will return to the main menu. From there, you can opt to "continue" and start off on the last level that a green "checkpoint rune" was collected. All picks-ups and upgrades will stay as is. The only things lost in a "Game Over" is the level progression since your last checkpoint and any weapon/wards on hand. The difficulty will drop down to the "minimum for that level".
Example of the death screen:


When starting a new game, you will start back at the first level, as a level 1 character, with whatever upgrades you have set. New Blessings will be gained as Seraph levels up again in the new playthrough. Additionally you can choose the starting difficulty for the run

• Standard - 1
  
• Hard - 4
  
• Extreme - 7

There are also settings for speed running and an interactive twitch mode.

Rebirthing allows for player to gain permanent accounts buffs, but it comes at a high price.
Rebirthing can be done 5 times with the following bonus each time. Rebirth levels must be done in order.

Buffs

• +3% damage and Max health per rebirth
  
• +20% chance of shard drops per rebirth

A rebirthed player also receives a Halo and their rebirth level displayed on the leaderboard.

Cost
It costs several Arteos (supreme) shards (5/8/11/14/20) for each rebirth. Shards may be pulled from oaths as needed; there is even a count of how many Arteos shards you have on hand. A rebirth will wipe all miracle/ward/weapon transmutes, destroy all shards, and clear all collected components (terminessence, metal parts, daemonic body parts). It will be as if you just started playing the game except for the buffs described above. Also you will not have to unlock Daemonsight or Disintegration again.

How does one "git gud"? What's the best way to farm shards? How do I not die? Why is she barefoot? In this section I'll try to cover some of these questions and cover some tips I've found or heard of to help up your game.

Pistol Transmutations - MkIII and IV require high level shards to complete, and you don't get to use them towards rebirth, but these upgrades are definitely worth it since pistol damage accounts for a large majority of my output.

Pistol Specialist - Due to my paranoia of running out of primary ammo, I end up using my default pistols on nearly all the time, making this one a must.

Critical Accuracy - With so many bullets flying, crit chances will definitely be noticed, this one helps a bunch in the DPS department.

Life Seeker & Soul Stealer - these ones give bits of health or change of a orb after killing enemies. These have saved my butt quite a few times. Of course even better would be to not take damage in the first place...

Dashing - Running out of blink is a terrible feeling; pulling the left trigger only to remain in the tight spot you were wishing to escape from... Ugh. Losing mobility is this game usually gets you killed, so I'll take any help I can get there. Same could be said for Fleet but I usually don't find myself needing to run faster outside of the daily challenge.

Miracle Proficiency - In the same vein, having the orb on cooldown when all the enemies are lined up is just a killer. Love that this there to help.

Spark & Sentinel - across the board damage increase. Even better with the right blessings obviously, so more useful in some playthroughs than other, but great oaths all around.

Origin's Touch - A one time use of "giant killer". Reduces the time to kill for everyone.

You will eventually learn some of the patterns that enemies will follow, then find ways to avoid them. But the cool thing about blink is that it negates damage she would normally take between point A and point B. So instead of blinking away from the projectiles, feel free to blink through them. This also works on the targeted shot from the Maestro. Timing will make a big difference in using blink correctly. And sometimes, simply jumping will suffice. Practice on some enemies until you can kite easily, with minimal blinks. It'll save you from falling into the trap of blinking into attacks or running out of blinks.

They each have a set of moves and challenges, especially when it comes to different elite shades.

• The game does a pretty ok job of letting you know what attacks are available and some notice of when they are coming. Keep an eye on the attack icons around an enemy to give yourself an extra half second to respond.
  
• Voids are tricky, they will disrupt all of Seraph's miracles within a certain range. So either fight at a distance or switch to a primary weapon to handle them quickly. If bunched with other elites, you may find yourself unable to smite a fallen elite because they are too close. Target them first.
  
• Dark elites are completely resistant to holy damage, so it might behoove you to switch to a heavier weapon to take them on.
  
• Bloody will start spamming their moves and become quite a handful. Make sure you have room to move before engaging.

Difficulty goes up, never down. So on a playthrough, you'll start off where things are easy, then a sweet spot where it's kind of challenging, but can still move through quickly enough, and finally where the enemies are too tough or not worth your time to grind off each Elite. The efficient point for farming shards or other items is that sweet spot. This level will change depending on your skill, oaths and upgrades, but most people find themselves between difficulty 6 and 8. So to keep playing in this range, and not advance to the "too hard" difficulties, one can simply quit after clearing a floor, then "continue" the game from the main menu, which will reload the same level again at the same difficulty. But any items gained from the previous run are kept. Rinse repeat for some optimum farming.
In these farming (re)runs, the gameplay will change a little bit. Motes become less important because the EXP will not be taken to the next run, same with yellow crates. Blue crates give terminessence and weapon/ward lockers can be disassembled to net the metal parts. And certain levels lend themselves better to farming. Fountains and Lockdown rooms tend to provide a large amount of elites (15% drop rate). Plus the fountains appear to have a similar drop rate. And lockdown rooms will guarantee a shard if you survive it. After a few runs through the level, you can start anticipating enemies and memorizing layouts. It will also give you an appreciation for Dreadbit's randomly generated level engine :).
Thanks to Devrailis for this great tip.

• Watch out for split pistol situations, doing half damage (except for the split shot oath) can throw off the expected time to kill. This is especially true around fountains.
  
  
• On occasion, enemies will be "stuck" on the edge of the screen on caught on a ledge; I'll take free kills where I can get em.
  
• Use the Lightwell to set up traps. Either with a mob chasing you or dropping it down a well, can be a great way to get serfs gone. Also useful if you can kite daemons across the line multiple times.
  
• Accuracy is better if you shoot in bursts. Also check the weapon stats.

make a table for ward types/upgrades
Grab pics of weapon upgrades
Document damage spread and average for weapon levels?
Talk about leveling Seraph/blessings