In this guide you will learn the basics of farming The Forbidden Sanctum as well as how to maximize your rewards and profitability.
The Forbidden Sanctum is GGGs take on the Roguelite genre, you travel through 4 Floors of 8 rooms each ending with a Boss encounter, gaining powerful Boons and Afflictions as you go. There are many different rooms types, requiring you to complete alternate objectives, receiving a specific reward from each.
Resolve and Inspiration
The Forbidden Sanctum does away with your reliance on HP and defense, instead emphasizing your ability to dodge mechanics and traps in order to not lose your Resolve and Inspiration. The amount of Resolve and Inspiration you lose is mitigated by your Armour, Evasion and Energy Shield.
- Resolve - At a baseline you start every Sanctum run with 300 Resolve and this is reduced every time you are hit during. If this value reaches 0 the run ends and the Sanctum is lost.
- Inspiration - This serves as a shield to your resolve, you can never take Resolve damage whilst you have inspiration.
- Armour - Provides Resolve mitigation from enemy hits.
- Energy Shield - Provides you with Resolve Aegis, which is a mechanic that behaves similarly to how Energy Shield behaves for Life.
- Evasion - Grants a chance to avoid Resolve loss from enemy hits.
TIP: Remember, despite these defences, the best defence in Sanctum is DON'T GET HIT!
The premiere strategy is to build as much inspiration as possible, this is done in 2 way key ways;
- Relics - Relics offer powerful repeat inspiration gains.
- Gain Inspiration at the start of the Sanctum,
- Gain Inspiration when you receive an Affliction
- Gain Inspiration at the start of each floor.
- Pacts - Many Pacts offer you the chance to sacrifice Maximum Resolve to receive additional boons. Since boons are very desirable it's important to have inspiration to make up for the reduction in Resolve.
Aureus Coins
Aureus Coins are currency specific to the Sanctum, they drop from Bosses, Guards and Chests and are automatically looted when your character moves within range. Spend these coins on;
- Benevolent Fountains
- Radiant Fountains
- Merchants (Boons and Relics)
These coins are lost when you either complete or fail the Sanctum so make sure to spend them when you get the opportunity!
Boons & Afflictions
Boons
Here are the best boons to look out for whilst running the Sanctum;
Major
- All-Seeing Eye - The Sanctum Map is fully revealed.
- Crystal Shard - The next Affliction you gain is converted into a random Minor Boon.
- Sacred Mirror - Duplicate up to 3 random Offer Rewards.
- Holy Water - Gain a random Minor Boon when you use a Fountain.
- Crystal Chalice - You cannot receive any more Minor Afflictions.
- Holy Descry - Upon reaching 0 Resolve, recover to full Resolve, lose 50% of your current Maximum Resolve, and remove a random Boon.
- Priests Descry - Upon reaching 0 Resolve, recover to 75% Maximum Resolve once.
Minor
- Mirror of Fortune - Duplicate a random Offer Reward
- Prayer Beads - Resolve cannot be lost in your next room.
- Silver Tongue - 50% reduced Merchant prices.
- Rusted Chimes - Gain +250 Inspiration at the start of each floor
- Gilded Lyre - Gain +100 Inspiration when you gain an Affliction
Afflictions
Some Affliction can completely destroy a Sanctum run. Here are the worst Afflictions you should try to avoid whilst running the Sanctum;
Major
- Cutpurse - You cannot get Aureus Coins
- Deadly Snare - "Traps impact infinite resolve". While not technically an affliction that completely ends your run, you will not be able to make a single mistake in multiple room types.
- Veiled Sight - "Rooms are unknown on the Sanctum Map". This completely removes your ability to hunt rewards and avoid nasty rooms. Very deadly.
Minor
- Golden Smoke - Rewards are unknown on the Sanctum Map.
- Deceptive Mirror - You are not always taken to the room you select.
- Liquid Cowardice - Lose 10 Resolve when you use a Flask.
- Accursed Prism - When you gain an Affliction, gain an additional random Minor Affliction.
TIP: Most other Minor Afflictions are very manageable, however some have a much more potent effect if you receive them on an early floor.
The Sanctum
Forbidden Sanctum Floor Map
By default you can see 2 rooms ahead of you, since you can see the connections between all rooms but not the reward type; make sure you're looking ahead and selecting rooms with either, great rewards or a large number of connections. This gives you the best chance to travel safely through the floor.
The "Type" of room is also important; each room's name will correspond to a certain objective you have to complete within that floor to move onto the next.
- Kill Guards - Requires you to slay all the guards hidden around the room.
- Find Exit - Requires you to travel through the room and... Find the exit.
- Exit + Traps - Similar to the previous entry however, there will be traps along the path, these can be delayed explosions, boulders and many other things.
- Battle Arena - A small arena that spawns waves of guards. Defeat the guards whilst dodging the fire beam from the trap in the center of the room.
- Mini boss - Each floor has a specific mini boss, defeat the boss and collect a large pile of Aureus Coins.
Forbidden Sanctum Reward Types
There are 8 potential rewards that can be present on a floor of the Sanctum;
- Merchant
- Here you can use Aureus Coins to purchase Relics and Boons. Save up coins if you can see a merchant towards the end of a floor!
- Fountains
- Fountain; -5 Aureus Coins, Restore 25% of Maximum Resolve
- Afflicted Fountain; -5 Aureus Coins, Restore 50% of Maximum Resolve, Gain a random Affliction. You DO NOT have to click the fountain if you have this reward on your room. Ignoring it is often times better to avoid the Affliction.
- Benevolent Fountain; -150 Aureus Coins, Gain a Random Boon
- Radiant Fountain; -5 Aureus Coins, Gain a Random Boon, Remove a Random Affliction, Gain 200 Inspiration.
- Treasure
- Minor Treasure Room; 2 Large Chests of Aureus Coins
- Major Treasure Room; 5 Large Chests of Aureus Coins
- Offering
- This room allows you to choose between 3 currency options. You will be able to choose whether to;
- Gain a reward now.
- Gain a reward at the end of the Floor.
- Gain a Reward at the end of the Sanctum
- Some Currency rewards, such as Divine Orbs can only appear on Floor 3 and above. These are fairly common and makes up the majority of your profits.
- This room allows you to choose between 3 currency options. You will be able to choose whether to;
- Accursed Pact
- Accursed Pacts provide a choice between 3 of the following (Once clicked you MUST choose one to continue);
Accursed Pacts
Relics
Before initiating a Sanctum run you'll be able to place Relics in to the Relic Altar. These provide bonuses to your character whilst you are inside the Forbidden Sanctum and only drop from Guards and Bosses. They can also be purchased from Merchants you find during the run.
Magic Relics
The best relic modifiers are the following:
- Plentiful - The Merchant has 1 additional choice.
- Cornucopic - The Merchant has 2 additional choices.
- Illumination - An additional room is revealed on the Sanctum Map.
- Clairvoyance - 2 additional Rooms are revealed on the Sanctum Map.
Unique Relics
Lycia, Herald of the Scourge boss has a 100% chance to drop a Unique Relic after being defeated. The Relics alter the Sanctum, making in much more difficult. Place them inside the Relic Altar prior to the Forbidden Sanctum to activate the challenge run, it is destroyed after that run whether your are successful or not.
- List of unique Relics coming soon!
Loot
Currency
Making a large amount of currency from Sanctum heavily relies on you executing successful runs, Divine Orbs appear much more frequently in areas level 81+. You also receive a large amount of:
- Stacked Deck
- Awakened Sextant
- Chaos Orb
- Orb of Fusing
- Orb of Scouring
- Veiled Chaos Orb
The option to deffer rewards until the end of the Sanctum is not always the best, always check for higher tier currencies and take them as soon as possible.
Unique Items
There are a number of powerful Unique Items that can drop from Lycia, Herald of the Scourge:
- The Winds of Fate
- Sandstorm Visage
- The Balance of Terror
- Eternal Damnation
- Original Sin (Requires a Unique Relic - No hit run)
Credits
Written by Milkybk_
Reviewed by Facefoot, Tenkiei