Crown Prince

> "*A mysterious visitor from the Spirit Realm who is proficient in alchemy and the elemental arts. With his expertise in alchemy, the Crown Prince is able to trap and freeze the movement of his enemies with his Energy Orb. His hidden talents and background make him even more closely in tune with the elements, allowing him to combine them skillfully to create extraordinary effects.*"
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Crown Prince is the first playable Hero in the game. He is unlocked by default.

Crown Prince's playstyle mainly focuses on elements, fusion effects and being able to control enemy movement using  Decay? and Freeze effects, using  Smoke Grenade and  Energy Orb respectively.

His  Shields? are heavily boosted by his Hero Talents, so anything that boosts them further will work well.

Most elemental weapons will be of great use to him, thanks to his inherent ability to inflict Decay at a very high chance, allowing easy fusion effects on many enemies at once.

Crown Prince's biggest downside is his slow base  Movement Speed compared to other Heroes making it harder to avoid enemy attacks. However this is partially compensated by his ability to reduce the movement of his opponents as well.

## Talents

List of Crown Prince Talents Edit
 Mystic Guard
 Large Area Smoke
 Energy Charge
 Contingency Plan

## Unique Spiritual Blessings

Spiritual Blessings only appear in Reincarnation difficulty.

 Elemental Orb | Dealing Weapon DMG will create an Elemental Orb (CD: 3s). The type of elemental orb changes when reloading. -0.1s CD for Elemental Orb and +5% Elemental DMG for 10s when defeating a normal enemy affected by an Elemental Effect, or inflicting an Elemental Effect on an Elite/Boss monster. (up to 25 stacks). | 150 | Causes elemental balls similar to ◈ *Elemental orb on crit*(full text) to appear on hit. Reloading will switch what element appears, from  Fire?,  Corrosion?,  Lightning? and repeat.Elemental orbs can inflict Elemental Effects, granting easy access to fusion effects. Enemy kills after the first grant 2 stacks. Stacking bonus grants up to +125% elemental damage and -2.5s elemental orb cooldown.

## Build Strategies

These are a list of general strategies that can be built towards as you progress through a run. Almost no build is mutually exclusive, and often results in partially building into others due to the randomness of the game. Most however do not synergize well when attempting 2 vastly different builds at once, especially on high difficulties.

### All Difficulties

* Weapons used should be ones that have powerful shots, to make the most of the bonus when compared to weaker shots.
	+ It is worth noting that the bonus does not expire until you hit an enemy with a weapon shot that is buffed. Because of this, all shots from  Icy Spear and  Justice after casting Energy Orb and before an enemy is hit will receive the bonus, allowing many shots to be boosted.
* Energy Blade should be picked as often as possible, to maximize the bonus. After that, anything that increases weapon damage or allows you to cast  Energy Orb more often should be chosen.
	+ Elemental Rage,  Pyrodominance,  Electrodominance,  Acidominance and  Hex Smoke will all work, either with  Smoke Grenade usage or an elemental weapon.
	+ Power Source,  Terrific Crossfire,  Ancient Timer,  Field Proficiency,  Overconsumption and  Splinter Orb will all work for reducing the cooldown or granting more uses.  Chained Duration can also work if level 3.

	+ If using weapons, a Fire weapon should always be used as your main weapon. With ✦ *Element share*(full text), any element for the offhand weapon can be used, but  Corrosion? is preferable so throwing a  Smoke Grenade isn't necessary.
	+ If using  Energy Orb, you need  Energy Echo and a Fire weapon to change Energy Orb's element to Fire.
* Pyrodominance should be picked as often as possible, in order to reach the level 3 bonus which doubles Combustion damage.  Ultimate Gambler can help achieve this.
* Throw a Smoke Grenade at enemies to immediately inflict  Decay? on them, allowing Fire damage to trigger Combustion whenever it inflicts  Burning?, for much higher damage.
* Elemental Rage,  Hex Smoke and  Elemental Maestro will always be useful for dealing more damage. Elemental Maestro is more effective on weapons however, as they do not have a guaranteed chance to inflict elemental effects.
	+ Wildfire and  Energy Blade can be picked if using weapons, though Energy Blade needs a slow, powerful weapon to be effective.
	+ Blinding Sphere,  Power Source,  Energy Bolt and  Splinter Orb can be picked if using Energy Orb.

* Due to Smoke Grenades having 100% chance to inflict  Decay?, it is highly recommended to also use a  Fire? weapon with a high elemental effect chance per second (and maybe  Energy Orb with  Energy Echo as well) so Smoke Grenade can inflict  Combustion?.
	+ Alternatively, using a  Lightning? weapon can rapidly inflict  Miasma? instead, to easily melt most enemies regardless of damage.
* Toxic Smoke should be highest priority for increasing damage.  Elemental Rage,  Acidominance,  Hex Smoke,  Smoke Genius and  Skill Freak will all increase damage as well, to a lesser degree.  Smogbound Zone also increases effective AoE and duration.
	+ Acidic Explosion can be picked, and if used properly it makes Smoke Genius and Smogbound Zone more important to take, as additional duration results in more damage instantly.
	+ While normally a bad idea (since the base damage is low and its utility is more valuable most of the time),  Untold Effort can be picked to increase damage, at the equivalent cost to consumption.
* To help sustain constant Smoke Grenade use,  Double Exhilaration,  Extra Surprise and  Capacity Overdraft should be taken.  Backpack Expansion and  Endless Assault can be taken too, but they may be less effective than other choices.
	+ Acidominance 3 can work well to sustain constant Smoke Grenade use, since critical hits with weapons will also trigger Smoke Grenade explosions.

* Hex Smoke should be highest priority, as it's a massive decrease to enemy damage.  Smoke Genius,  Chained Duration,  Blinding Sphere  Splinter Orb and  Smogbound Zone can also help in improving the support of either  Smoke Grenade or  Energy Orb.
	+ Most other ascensions, scrolls and blessings that increase primary/secondary skill capacity, reduce cooldown/consumption or increases use gain should also be taken, with the exception of  Energy Storage, due to  Power Source existing.
* A  Fire? and  Lightning? weapon should be picked, especially ones with high elemental effect chance.  Shock? and  Manipulation? will support alongside Smoke Grenade's  Decay?, and  Miasma? can still let you deal a bit of damage without high investment.
* Picking  Craftsman's Inheritor or  Supreme Craftsman can also help teammates, as the effects can benefit their weapons if they give their weapons to you temporarily.

### Reincarnation Only

	+ Note: Certain enemies have attacks that make them immune to freeze during it, or are enhanced with Resistive which greatly reduces its duration for all nearby enemies, so keep this in mind.
* Splinter Orb and  Chained Duration should always be picked. Splinter Orb for allowing more targets to be hit and granting cooldown reduction, and Chained Duration for increased freeze duration, with cooldown reduction at level 3.
	+ Energy Bolt,  Blinding Sphere and  Power Source should be picked as well. Energy Bolt increases damage and hit count, for more cooldown reduction ( Energy Echo should also be taken if intending to use them for damage), Blinding Sphere helps hitting more targets, for even more cooldown reduction, and Power Source gives extra uses in case the cooldown isn't reset completely.
	+ Magic Watch,  Terrific Crossfire,  Ancient Timer,  Flowing Time,  Field Proficiency and  Overconsumption can help reduce the cooldown even further.
* As long as enough enemies are repeatedly hit or other bonuses are in effect, everything in sight can be hit by an Energy Orb and frozen making them easy targets, especially for other players. Elites and bosses need to be constantly hit due to freeze resistance, but will be unable to act all the same.

* Painkiller should always be picked, since it lets inflicting any elemental effect on enemies trigger all 3 effects at once.
* Smoke Grenades have 100% chance to inflict  Decay?, hit multiple times in an AoE and linger for several seconds, making it extremely powerful for inflicting elemental effects. Every enemy within a Smoke Grenade's aura will be rendered unable to attack you due to  Manipulation? and take constant damage based on their  Health? due to  Miasma?.
	+ Note: Elite enemies and bosses are immune to Manipulation and take reduced damage from Miasma, making it less effective against them. Enemies enhanced with Resistive lose Manipulation significantly faster, and enemies enhanced with Armored take almost no Miasma damage. A weapon may be a good idea to use as a backup in these cases.
* Smoke Genius should be highest priority for increasing the duration and number of hits of grenades.  Smogbound Zone is also high priority after Painkiller for increased AoE and duration.  Elemental Shield and  Advanced Shield are always helpful, since there are not many ascensions which truly benefit using Painkiller.
	+ Acidominance should be taken if you intend on reaching level 3, since critical hits with weapons will also trigger Smoke Grenade explosions.
	+ If Smoke Grenade damage is desired for when Miasma is ineffective,  Elemental Rage,  Hex Smoke,  Toxic Smoke and  Skill Freak can be taken. Otherwise it may be better to focus on ascensions and other effects that benefit your weapon.
* To help sustain constant Smoke Grenade use,  Double Exhilaration,  Extra Surprise and  Capacity Overdraft should be taken.  Backpack Expansion and  Endless Assault can be taken too.

## Trivia

* The Chinese characters for Crown Prince on their hero profile are 太子 (pinyin: tàizǐ), the title of the crown prince of Imperial China.
* Although Crown Prince in his background art is holding  Dragonchaser, he has very little synergy with the weapon due to it being non-elemental by default.

## Update History

* 12/30/2021 update: Decreased maximum Health from 80 to 65. Increased maximum Shields from 50 to 65. Reduced Shield Recharge Delay from 3.5s to 3s.