Tao

Mobile: Purchased as DLC.

> "*Tao, who is a master in the art of sword control, is keen to manipulate her royal flying sword to strike all foes. Meanwhile, she can condense her energy into petals, dealing hidden injuries against enemies with her [Fatal Bloom].*"
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Tao is the fifth playable Hero in the game, being unlocked when purchased with 400  Soul Essence?.

Tao's playstyle mainly focuses on high ammo consumption, high number of hits and destroying enemies while boosting her capabilities with barrages of flying swords.

Many of her Ascensions focus on improving the number of flying swords created, either by  Swords Out or other means. This in turn can boost the power of other ascensions relying on hits or summoned flying swords.

Alternatively, certain ascensions focus on achieving as many hits as possible, improving the potency of  Fatal Bloom's additional damage triggers.

Weapons with high rate of fire are excellent for her to use, along with weapons that can hit enemies an extremely high amount of times, depending on what's being focused on. For either strategy, many ascensions synergize together very effectively, greatly boosting her power late game, provided effective combinations are chosen.

Tao's biggest downside is being almost incapable of using her skills to their fullest potential without high ammo consumption or hits, resulting in many slower weapons being ineffective. Additionally due to the synergistic nature of her ascensions, she can often start off fairly weak until she improves her capabilities. Her  Shield? recovery is below average and her  Health? is low, leaving her somewhat fragile.

## Talents

List of Tao Talents Edit
 Galloping Speed
 Long-lasting Bloom
 Superior Magazine
 Resilient Shield

## Unique Spiritual Blessings

Spiritual Blessings only appear in Reincarnation difficulty.

 Ice Blade | Flying Swords deal an additional 10% of an enemy's current HP as True DMG. (For elites/bosses, up to (5000 \* the number of players in your squad) True DMG at most per hit). | 150 | Normal enemies will always take 10% of their current Health per flying sword, making it extremely powerful against those with no  Shields?/ Armor?.

## 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

* Most  Rifles,  Submachine Guns and  Injectors can be used for this purpose, though  Illusion will also work.
	+ Due to the massive RoF bonus,  Rainbow or  Radioactive Gauntlet with ✦ *Spores*(full text) and a  Shotgun offhand weapon ends up being an extremely powerful and easy to use choice with this build.
* As expected,  Warlike Blade should be highest priority, for increased RoF, accuracy and reduced chance to consume ammo.  Swordsman and  Ammo Extractor are always helpful.
	+ Empathy with Sword should only be taken if you plan on also getting  Sword Enthusiast and/or  Sword Guard.
* Besides Warlike Blade and Ammo Extractor,  Genesis,  Against the Flow,  Deft Hands and  Advanced Depot can also help sustain the magazine, allowing it to never run out with enough effects.
* Because you're firing significantly faster than normal, more ammo is being consumed and more hits are being made, improving the effects of  Arms Dealer and  Merciless Combo.
* On Reincarnation,  Sword Mastery will help, though there are likely better options.
* While in combat, weapons should not stop firing for more than 3 seconds, otherwise Warlike Blade's effect will reset, dropping the build's effectiveness back down.

* Weapons chosen should have a high hit count per second.  Illusion or  Thunderclap Gloves are often the best choice, but  Angelic Aura,  Scalpel ( Double Shot ?),  Porcupine,  Laser Gloves and  Rainbow are effective as well.
	+ Weapons with increases to RoF or Projectiles are even more effective.
* Glowing Bloom and  Flower Chain should be highest priority.  Cursed Mark,  No Escape,  Mark Chaser,  Warlike Blade and  Swordsman are always helpful.
	+ Blade of Bloom should only be taken if you plan on also getting  Sword Enthusiast and/or  Sword Guard.
* Double Exhilaration,  Extra Surprise,  Energy Sandals,  Skill Booster,  Capacity Overdraft,  Surprise Bonus and most skill damage scrolls are helpful.  Untold Effort occasionally deals double damage on extra Fatal Bloom hits, even if the enemy marked wasn't marked by casting Fatal Bloom.
* Fish or Bear Paw will double the hits for most weapons, causing extra Fatal Bloom hits to occur twice as often.
* On Reincarnation,  Blossom Enthusiast or  Thorny Bloom should always be taken, depending on what you favor most.  Skill Freak and  Endless Assault and the other starting blessing you didn't take are also helpful if found later.
	+ If Thorny Bloom is taken, Blade of Bloom becomes significantly higher priority, for increased Fatal Bloom damage from flying swords.  Luminous Heart can also be taken once you have Blade of Bloom.
	+ If both starting blessings end up being taken later in the run, their combined power can become incredibly devastating damage-wise.
* As soon as an enemy has been marked, firing upon them with a suitable weapon will quickly hit them with more Fatal Bloom damage. With rapid enough hits, it will become significantly faster than casting Fatal Bloom itself.

* Weapons chosen should have a high ammo consumption per second.  Angelic Aura and  Scalpel ( Double Shot ?) are often the best choice.  Concealed Ammo (Not the  Weapon Skill?),  Demonlore,  Star Devourer,  Laser Gloves,  Rainbow and  Thunderclap Gloves are effective as well.
	+ Weapons with increases to RoF or that have ◈ Projectiles +1, Consumption +100% are even more effective.
* A variety of  Sword Shadow,  Epic Swordcraft and  Furious Wave is high priority, with  Amplified Sword and  Luminous Heart being slightly less priority. This is due to how all of these ascensions work multiplicatively with each other, making each of them stronger when used together.  Sword Enthusiast,  Sword Guard and  Sword Defense are always helpful.
	+ Warlike Blade and  Empathy with Sword can also help with speeding up Blade Heart stacking and cause additional flying swords, but are less of a priority.
* Energy Sandals,  Skill Booster,  Magic Watch,  Terrific Crossfire,  Surprise Bonus,  Ancient Timer,  Flowing Time and most skill damage scrolls are helpful.  Energy Storage is especially effective due to allowing Blade Heart to be stacked if at least 1 Swords Out use remains, even if another use is still on cooldown.
* On Reincarnation,  Sword Mastery or  Ice Blade should be taken, depending on what you favor most.  Field Proficiency and  Overconsumption and the other starting blessing you didn't take are also helpful if found later.

* At least 1 level of  Blade of Bloom should always be taken, with other levels being high priority.  Epic Swordcraft is also high priority.  Cursed Mark,  No Escape,  Mark Chaser,  Sword Enthusiast,  Sword Guard,  Amplified Sword,  Furious Wave and  Luminous Heart are all helpful.
	+ Swordsman can also be taken, but becomes less useful upon reaching Blade of Bloom 3, where  Swords Out can be used without weakening Blade of Bloom.
* Double Exhilaration,  Extra Surprise and  Capacity Overdraft will increase the number of times Fatal Bloom can be cast.  Surprise Bonus and most skill damage scrolls are always helpful.
* On Reincarnation,  Endless Assault or  Ice Blade can be taken. Endless Assault greatly increases the number of times Fatal Bloom can be cast, while Ice Blade can greatly increase the damage of each flying sword.

### Reincarnation Only

* Field Proficiency or  Overconsumption should always be taken, depending on if you prefer a strong bonus that gets weaker, or a weak bonus that gets stronger. Overconsumption does however grant a wide variety of other useful bonuses that can help even further.
* Sword Shadow and  Luminous Heart should be highest priority, as they both greatly increase sword count together.  Sword Enthusiast and  Epic Swordcraft are high priority.  Sword Enthusiast,  Sword Guard,  Amplified Sword,  Sword Defense and anything that increases skill damage are always helpful.
* Most things that reduces Swords Out's cooldown further should always be taken, such as  Enhanced Evil-Devouring Sword,  Enhanced Good and Evil,  Magic Watch,  Terrific Crossfire,  Ancient Timer and  Flowing Time.
	+ Terminal Lucidity can be taken, but is unreliable.
* When enough cooldown reductions and sword increasing ascensions have been taken, the build scales exponentially in power. Dozens of swords thrown out between rapid casts will massively increase damage with Sword Enthusiast and Amplified Sword, and make you extremely hard to kill with Sword Guard and Sword Defense.

* Ice Blade should always be taken.  Blade of Bloom,  Sword Shadow and  Luminous Heart should be highest priority.
	+ If focusing on  Swords Out, most things that reduces Swords Out's cooldown further should always be taken, such as  Enhanced Evil-Devouring Sword,  Enhanced Good and Evil,  Magic Watch,  Terrific Crossfire,  Ancient Timer,  Flowing Time,  Field Proficiency,  Overconsumption and  Sword Mastery.
		- Energy Storage can also be taken if Sword Mastery hasn't already, to allow Blade Heart to begin stacking as long as 1 use remains.
		- Sword Defense can be taken to reduce damage you take.
	+ If focusing on Blade of Bloom with  Fatal Bloom,  Cursed Mark can be taken to reduce damage you take, while  Double Exhilaration,  Extra Surprise,  Capacity Overdraft and  Endless Assault will increase uses.
* Increasing the damage of flying swords or increasing skill damage is less important than normal, unless fighting elite enemies or bosses due to the damage cap.

## Trivia

* The Chinese character for Tao on her hero profile is 桃 (pinyin: táo), which means "peach."
* According to the developers, Tao's name means "peach blossom." In Chinese, 桃花 (pinyin: táohuā) – literally the words "peach" (桃) and "blossom"/"flower" (花) – is the term for "peach blossom."
* Although Tao in her background art is holding  Poisonous Ghost, she has very little synergy with the weapon due to its average swing speed and low ammo consumption, since her skills need high hit count or ammo consumption to work best.

## References

1. ↑ Discord #gunfire-faq, aniu0620:
**Q: What does the new hero's name "Tao" mean?**
*A*: Peach Blossom