Originally this guide was started over a year ago, but due to my course I did not have all the time I wanted to be able to finish it. It took me many hours to get this guide where it is now, and I tried to verify claims I make within the guide. If something has eluded me or you simply wish to discuss a claim, post a comment about it!

Most of my play experience so far is Strength based so I don't consider the guide properly finished yet.

Personally, I find that the gameplay as a whole of Darksiders II has some similiarities to other games, such as Legend of Zelda and Prince of Persia, although Darksiders I had a much bigger feel of Legend of Zelda than this one does, perhaps because this one is more loot/stats-driven.

Unlike the first game too, your character has levels - which grant skill points to spend in two skill trees - and leveled loot.

• Health & Wrath:
  I don't need to explain Health, reach 0 and you die... Wrath is your resource bar, which you use to perform skills. You get more Wrath as you hit enemies and you can also get Wrath-related bonuses from gear.
  Wrath can also be generated reliably and at a decent rate using Redemption.
  
  
• Enemies:
  Enemies are the main point of the game, as you engage in combat with them. Some enemies are more powerful than others, usually noticeable by their size. Be wary of some more vicious smaller enemies though. When enemies die, they release souls and possibly drop items. Souls can be of 3 colors:
  
  1. Green - Health souls
     
  2. Blue - Wrath souls
     
  3. Purple - Reaper Energy souls
  One feature related to enemies is Execute. There is a chance on an attack that you'll be able to finish off an enemy with an execution-style move, killing them without regard for however much health they had left.
  
  
• Target Locking:
  Very similar to Zelda's target locking system, it basically keeps an enemy in focus with the camera, and you'll move around it as if it was a pivot center, so to say. Combat can be done without locking, but in most situations it's best to use it.
  In some situations you won't be able to lock onto smaller enemies properly, which can also be annoying.
  
  
• Dodging:
  This is a key feature of the game, and honestly I suck at this one. You'll often need to dodge your enemies' attacks to prevent getting hit, but to be honest, it can be a bit awkward when you lock onto an enemy, mostly because of how directions will work while locked; it often makes me dodge in directions I didn't expect/want to dodge towards. It is definitely important when fighting the bigger baddies.
  If a dodge is properly timed and avoids an enemy attack, Death's avatar will retaliate as you dodge. Note that this move can be a bit difficult to perform as the timing will depend on each enemy.
  
  
• Scytheblades:
  These are your Primary weapons, they will always behave the same way throughout the game and you use them with the left mouse click.
  There are a few weapon combos you can initially perform with your scytheblades and later on you can get a few more.
  
  
• Reaper Form:
  Gained at level 6, this powerful form will let you perform wide and heavy attacks with the left click, and more narrow but even heavier attacks with the right-click.
  To activate the form you must first gain Reaper Energy from combat to fill up the bar. Once the bar is full and you activate the form, you'll transform and start draining the previously acquired energy until it runs out or until you deactivate the form manually.
  
  
• Secondary Weapons:
  These are weapons you can use with your right mouse click and they might be good to define your playstyle, as several of them behave in different ways, which I cover further down on it's own section.
  
  
  Other Gear:
  
  
• Redemption (Ranged Weapon):
  This is your brother Strife's pistol, which you use with middle mouse click. It has a clip of 10 bullets, which regenerates at a decent rate if you don't use the whole clip, but if you use the whole clip, you'll wait a while longer and have all 10 bullets restored instantly. Honestly I feel like the lore for this one was a bit too forced.
  
  
• Death Grip:
  This piece of extra gear works mostly like the Hookshot does in the Zelda series, it will grapple onto certain targets and pull you towards them, but in some cases for smaller objects or enemies, like corruption growth bombs, it'll grab them and pull them back to you.
  
  There are other story-related pieces of gear, but I don't think they need being covered, since they're more "walkthrough" related.
  
  
  Environments and Zones:
  
  
• Pits and the like:
  Falling into pits and lava and such will not make you "game over" or anything, but you'll be brought back to the last solid ground you were in, also taking a really small amount of health from you in doing so, which is unlikely to ever kill you to be honest.
  
  
• Crucible Arena: An arena that unlocks once you've defeated the boss that leads to the Tree of Life. The arena has 100 waves of enemies, and bosses will appear as enemies. Each wave has a fixed set of enemies; it's not random.
  For more info on the enemies for each wave check:
  IGN Wiki: 1-25
  IGN Wiki: 26-50
  IGN Wiki: 51-75
  IGN Wiki: 76-100
  At intervals of 5 waves, you can choose to continue or to receive loot, which will be a regular-looking chest with a good amount of Gilt and an item or two of Rare or Elite quality. If you choose the loot, you'll be able to restart the arena from the begining. Please check 4.C for more info.
  Every 25 waves are considered a "stage", and you can't progress further than a stage until you unlock the next stage. Stages are unlocked as part of the story progression.
  
  
• Soul Arbiter's Maze: This is a sort of arena where you fight mobs until a level is cleared, and once that's done you must know the directions to take to proceed further, there's another guide that covers this.
  Some people say this arena gives XP, it doesn't. I did up to the 8th level and I didn't receive a single point of XP.
  This arena has a total of 10 levels, each also having a route to a secret besides the main route of progression.

Tips:

• Some enemies seem to have a 100% drop chance of an item, for example the Stalkers in "The Fjord" area.

This section is not finished yet.

You can gain experience in two ways, from completing quests and from kills.

Experience from kills is only granted to you if the enemy is up to 2 levels below you. Stronger enemies give more XP, including higher level ones, but they'll of course pose more of a challenge.

For example:

• You are level 5 and kill a level 2 enemy - you WILL NOT get XP.
  
• You are level 5 and kill a level 3 enemy - you WILL get XP, but a smaller amount than normal.
  
• Inversely, if you are level 5 and kill a level 8 enemy you will get much more XP.
  I've killed level 17 enemy at level 12 and earned a lot of XP for it, but they were dealing a lot of damage to me too.

There are 3 types of chests:


Regular - Always has Gilt, sometimes has potions or Common or Enchanted quality items (check next section to learn about item qualities). Note that some intervals on the Crucible Arena make a chest of these appear, and it gives very good loot usually.*


Special - Always has Gilt and has better loot than Regular chests.


Dungeon - Contains an item relevant to the area you are in.

All chests that give loot will give you loot appropriate to your current level! Implying loot for the chests is generated WHEN you open them. *Crucible Arena chests are an exception to this rule, they'll give loot 4 or 5 levels lower than the enemies you fought on the last interval. I'm not sure about the exact numbers.

This means you might want to save chests with loot for later - as they won't respawn - if you have some decent gear already the first time you spot them, but it's up to your gameplay style really.

Also, check my other guide for the Boxes you can acquire from Vulgrim.

Loot has 6 quality types, sort of:

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• 
  
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• Common items are basic items, which you'll find often, usually you'll use these to feed Possessed weapons or sell for Gilt.
  
  
• Enchanted items aren't very rare, and they will have an affix attached to their name, which determines the special bonuses of the item, atleast in the case of weapons, not sure about armors.
  
  
• Rare items are moderately more powerful than Enchanted ones and will also have an affix as far as I know, having more special bonuses than Enchanted items.
  
  
• Elite items are quite rarer than Rare items, so you won't really find many except on merchants as far as I can tell. Elite items have more random bonuses than Rare items do.
  
  
• Legendary items are Unique and are very good in general. So far as I know they're acquired from mini-bosses/bosses and quests (although some DLC gives you some free Legendary items), and have a fixed level and pre-determined bonuses, some even have very specific and special abilities.
  They have a bit of lore on their description.
  
  
• Possessed items can only be weapons, some might already come with bonuses, and some might not. But they're special weapons though, and they can be either Scythes or Secondary weapons. You can select an option called "Upgrade" for these items, explained further down.

Well, an item's level determines it's stats, and the quality type of the item is a sort of a multiplier.

Honestly, just the amount of secondary bonuses. The damage is the same for equal weapon types of different qualities of the same level.

Not that I can tell... At first it did seem like it, but the more items ive seen and compared, I'm not so sure all affixes are really relevant about the stat type, although there seems to be arcane-oriented affixes and strength-oriented affixes.

Elite items? Not always, no, sometimes an item 1 or 2 levels above of Enchanted or Rare quality can be better in terms of raw power.
Legendary items however sometimes have very special bonuses that can make them have a longer usefulness overall, but even so, their raw damage can be surpassed by a Rare 2 or 3 levels higher, it really depends on the rest of the bonuses of both items.

Possessed weapons can be upgraded by selecting their "Upgrade" option, after which a window will appear with the rest of your inventory items there.

You can select these items to feed them to your Possessed weapon, giving it XP that depends on the quality of the item sacrificed, on the sacrificed item's level, and if it's a primary or secondary weapon that is being sacrificed to feed it. Primary weapons give significantly more XP as far as I can tell. You cannot feed them Legendary items, they won't show up.

When your weapon levels up, you'll see how much the upgrade is compared to before, and you'll also be to choose from some new bonuses for it to have, up to 4 bonuses total, including any that might already come with the weapon. These bonuses are kind of random, so when leveling a Possessed weapon you potentially end up with a more balanced weapon or with a weapon greatly focused on a few certain aspects.
You can level each Possessed weapon up to 5 times.

A list of each weapon type and a quick overview of basic charged attacks:

Primary Weapon:
• Scythes - Only type of primary weapon, also worth more base Gilt than other items.

Secondary Weapons:
• Heavy Weapons - All Heavy weapons act the same way, with a 3-step combo - the difference between them lies in their special attack:
  
  Axes: Holding down and releasing the secondary attack releases a two-hit combo, starting with a horizontal sweep counter-clockwise and finishing with an overhead smash. If done in the air, you'll perform a whirlwind attack.
  Maces: Holding down and releasing the secondary attack causes you to do a horizontal swing a lá baseball bat. If done in the air, it's a very similar attack.
  Hammers: Holding down and releasing the secondary attack causes you to do a front flip smash attack. If done in the air, the attack can hit one more time or so.
  Glaives: Holding down and releasing causes you to do a short thrusting dash. If done in the air, you'll do a downwards thrust attack.
  
  
• Fist Weapons or Light Weapons - Very fast weapons, good for hitting a few times and dodging without much risk of getting hit. Each "type" has a determined special attack:
  
  Bucklers - The secondary attack button can act as a defensive stance which reduces damage taken when held down, and when you are attacked while in this stance you can riposte by releasing the button right after you're hit, dealing heavy damage. If done in the air, you'll release a blast to both sides.
  Armblades - The secondary button can be held down to charge and release an attack that sends out some blades, having a moderate range. If done in the air, you'll release the blades downwards.
  Claws - The secondary button can be held down to charge a dash attack that when released and when you make contact with the enemy, you'll unleash a fast flurry of attacks. If done in the air you'll perform a similar but descending dash attack.
  Gauntlets - The secondary button can be held down to release an uppercut attack of sorts. If done in the air, you'll smash your fist at the ground.

Health: Increases your maximum Health by X amount.
Health on Crit: You gain X amount of Health whenever you deal critical damage, in the form of Green Souls.
Health per Kill: You gain X Health on any killing blow to an enemy.
Health on Execute: Whenever you perform an Execute move, you'll gain extra X amount of Health.
Health Steal: You steal X% of your damage as Health. If this bonus is on a weapon rather than an armor or amulet, only that weapon will receive the bonus. Example: If you deal 100 damage and have 10% steal, you'll get 10 of that damage as Health.
Health Regen: Gives a passive regeneration bonus to your Health. The more regen you have, the faster it ticks and the more you'll get per tick. I can't figure out the math for the regens, if someone knows it, please comment.

Wrath: Increases your maximum Wrath by X amount.
Wrath on Crit: You gain X amount of Wrath whenever you deal critical damage, in the form of Blue Souls.
Wrath Steal: You steal X% of your damage as Wrath. If this bonus is on a weapon rather than an armor or amulet, only that weapon will receive the bonus. Example: If you deal 100 damage and have 10% steal, you'll get 10 of that damage as Wrath.
Wrath Regen: Gives a passive regeneration bonus to your Wrath. The more regen you have, the faster it ticks and the more you'll get per tick. I can't figure out the math for the regens, if someone knows it, please comment.

Execute Chance: Increases the chance the Execute effect will be able to happen by a flat X%.

Reaper Energy: Through my testing I estimate that the player always has a maximum of 250 to 300 Reaper Energy. This figure is difficult to estimate due to the shape of the actual bar. One thing to note is that in general you only get RE from Primary weapon hits, but there are special cases like an item called "Grim Talisman" which enables RE gain from any weapon hit, even Redemption bullets.
Reaper Energy on Execute: Whenever you perform an Execute move, you'll gain X amount of Reaper Energy in the form of Purple Souls when the mob dies.

Experience: Increases XP gained from kills by X%. Don't know if it affects quests.
Gilt Found: Increases the amount of money gained when collecting it by X%.

Amor: Increases your armor by a flat value. Armor decreases damage takeb from physical attacks. I haven't tested yet how armor works exactly.
Resistance: Increases your resistance by a flat value. I haven't tested yet how resistance works exactly.

Strength*: Increases the physical damage done by your weapons, and increases damage from Harbinger tree skills. For more information on how it behaves, check the link at the end.

Strength Bonus: This is a deceptive bonus, it won't increase your Strength by the specified X%, what it does is make the contribution from strength increase on the weapon with the bonus. A weapon with 100% Strength Bonus will act as if it received the double of your strength.

Critical Chance: You have a base crit chance of 3%. Increases your critical chance by a flat X%. Note: weapons with critical chance will ONLY contribute to themselves, while talismans will give you crit chance to BOTH weapons.
Critical Damage: You have a base crit damage of 100%. Increases the potency of your critical strikes by a flat X%. The note above applies to this too.


Arcane*: Increases the elemental damage done by your weapons, and increases damage from Necromancer tree skills. For more information on how it behaves, check the link at the end.

Arcane Critical Chance: You have a base arcane crit chance of 3%. Increases your critical chance by a flat X%. I'm not certain how arcane crit works because I haven't investigated it much!
Arcane Critical Damage: You have a base arcane crit damage of 100%. Increases the potency of your arcane critical strikes by a flat X%. The note above applies to this too.

• Normal: The regular damage numbers are this type of damage. It's also the type of damage most enemy attacks deal.
  
• Piercing: This seems to help you deal more damage against armored enemies such as when the Stalkers enrage.
  
  
• Fire: Your attacks deal bonus elemental damage as Fire, this bonus damage is a fixed and separate value for any of the weapon's swing, being able to crit independently. Your attacks have a chance to set your enemies on fire, making them take some damage over time.
  
• Inferno: I am uncertain of the difference between this and Fire.
  
  
• Frost: Your attacks deal bonus elemental damage as Frost, this bonus damage is a fixed and separate value for any of the weapon's swing, being able to crit independently. Your attacks have a chance to chill your enemies, making them move slower.
  
• Ice: All of the above but your attacks have a chance to Freeze an enemy solid.
  
  
• Shock: Your attacks deal bonus elemental damage as Shock, this bonus damage is a fixed and separate value for any of the weapon's swing, being able to crit independently. Your attacks have a chance to make electricity course through your enemies, making them take some damage over time and suffer mini-stuns when taking damage from the electricity. This is a sub-par effect compared to Ice vs tougher mobs in my opinion.
  
• Lightning: I am uncertain of the difference between this and Shock.

Note that elemental damage types aren't "great" on Heavy weapons in my opinion, because you'll make less hits (even if they hit harder) and as such your enemies won't be affected very often by the negative status effects the elements can inflict. Not only that, but because the damage is fixed, it ends up being proportionally better for a Fist weapon, which is quite fast-hitting. That said, Heavy weapons with elemental damage are still pretty good against several types of enemies.

Also note that taking elemental damage from enemies can cause the same side-effects to you!


*Click here for a guide which explains how Strength and Arcane function exactly.

I hope that some part of my guide has been useful to you, the reader. Remember to leave comments if you think something needs improving.

Thanks to Zaimad for assistance with keeping the guide consistent on terminologies and spellings.

Thanks to the developers for the game!