Soul Strike

> "*Pull out a hair and blow it to the enemy. When it lands on the enemy, summon a clone that performs [Cudgel] hits up to 4 times to enemies within 10m. Every [Cudgel] hit deals Weapon DMG instead of Skill DMG, based on the held weapon. Soul Strike has additional effects based on the Weapon Type. Each enemy can be struck by [Cudgel] once in a single Soul Strike.*"
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 **Soul Strike** is  Xing Zhe's Primary Skill. Using it throws out a yellow projectile towards where you were aiming. When the projectile nears an enemy it will home in on them and create a clone of yourself, striking them with a cudgel hit before moving on to other enemies within 10 meters of where the projectile landed.

By default, each enemy within range can only be struck once, and up to 4 cudgel hits can be dealt. This means you require at least 4 enemies within a 10 meter radius for maximum potential.

The skill deals damage based on your currently held weapon, including levels, projectile count, element, CritX, Lucky Shot Chance, various other bonuses from inscriptions, and  Essence Chain which can boost the weapon's level even higher. However it is **not** boosted by skill damage.

Different weapon types will grant additional bonuses:

* Pistols cause each cudgel hit to also trigger a hit from Essence Chain, dealing 200% of Essence Chain's usual damage. The Essence Chain hit will not boost your weapon, slow enemies or trigger certain other effects.
* Shotguns will add +25% projectiles to the projectile count of cudgel hits, slightly increasing damage ( Wild Hunt with 12x projectiles becomes 15x). Additionally, all projectiles hit regardless of accuracy.
* Snipers grant a 40% chance for the cudgel to inflict a critical hit, and any crits from cudgel hits receive +60% total damage.
* Launchers grant a 100% chance for the cudgel to become explosive damage, hitting all enemies within 6 meters and dealing +30% damage.
* Melee Weapons give the first cudgel hit +80% Lucky Shot Chance.
* Rifles,  Submachine Guns and  Injectors will have the base damage of the cudgel hit increased by +500, greatly boosting the otherwise low damage. However the bonus is added **after** weapon levels, resulting in it getting worse the higher level your weapons is, compared to other choices.

## Frequent Use

The base cooldown is 16s.

* Efficient Casting decreases the cooldown by up to -25%, down to 12 seconds.
* Raging Waves level 3 reduces the cooldown by -5% for every cudgel hit that wasn't used, up to -50% reduction.
* Reversed reduces the cooldown by up to 6s. Level 3 also grants +1 capacity.
* Wombo Combo will trigger up to 3 cudgel hits after  Essence Chain hits a certain number of times.
* Terminal Lucidity resets the cooldown after taking 20%  Health? +  Shield?/ Armor? damage in one hit.
* Magic Watch grants a 33% chance to reset the cooldown immediately on use.
* Terrific Crossfire reduces the cooldown by -1s upon using  Essence Chain.
* Ancient Timer reduces the cooldown by -50%.
* Flowing Time reduces the cooldown by -1s (once every 2s) upon hitting an enemy.
* Energy Storage grants +1 capacity, at the cost of +30% cooldown.
* Field Proficiency decreases its cooldown by -6% for every elite enemy and boss killed, up to -60%.
* Copycat decreases its cooldown by -50% for 60 seconds after killing an Aggressive Enhanced enemy.
* Overconsumption decreases its cooldown by up to -50%.
* Dimensional Strike grants +2 capacity.
* Flexible Strike decreases the cooldown by -3s.
* Chrono Magazine decreases the cooldown by -3s every time you reload.
* Extra Shot resets the cooldown every second time it is used.
* Vibrative Timer grants a 20% chance to reset the cooldown when killing an enemy.
* Rapid Cast decreases the cooldown by -80%.

## Offensive Use

Soul Strike's damage output and other effects varies wildly based on the current weapon held. Without upgrades, it can hit up to 4 different enemies.

* Some enhancements to weapons, including weapon damage, element, Lucky Shot Chance and CritX also enhance Soul Strike.
* Proficient Trick increases Soul Strike damage by +50%.
* Steady Stance triggers a cudgel hit which deals 200% damage on an enemy that dealt lethal damage to you.
* Raging Waves increases Soul Strike's range by up to +3 meters, and the cudgel hits by up to +6, for a total of up to 13 meters and 10 hits.
* Turn into Reality increases Soul Strike's damage by up to +280%.
* Unstoppable Phantom increases the maximum times a single enemy can be hit by up to +3, for a total of 4.
* Critical Cudgel grants a chance for a cudgel hit to inflict a critical hit, up to 35% chance. Level 3 further increases the chance by 1% for every level on the currently held weapon.
* Smash into Dust increases the damage of the first cudgel hit to 200%. If a cudgel kills the enemy it hits, the next one will also deal 200% damage.
* Brutal Gloves increases damage dealt by +35% if the hit isn't a critical hit.
* Wait For Good guarantees critical hits for every cudgel hit.
* Vindictive Nature increases damage by +40% for some time after taking damage.
* Dual-edge increases damage by +1% for every enemy killed.
* Deadly Counter guarantees critical hits for every cudgel hit while active.
* Deadly Curse increases damage by +75%.
* Overconsumption increases damage dealt by up to +300%.
* Dimensional Strike increases weapon damage by +30% for every cudgel hit, up to 10 stacks. This resets when an enemy hits you.
* Weapon Mastery triples the effectiveness of  Assaulter,  Generalist and  Breacher, with some bonuses also applying to Soul Strike.
* Skill Training increases cudgel hits by +1.
* Trick shot grants +75% Lucky shot chance and +50% crit chance to the first hit of cudgel only, after swapping weapons or reloading.
* Firearm Specialist increases total weapon damage by +100%.
* Cudgel Freak increases cudgel hits by +6. Additionally, Soul Strike can bounce if it hits a solid object.

## Defensive Use

Soul Strike has no defensive functionality by default.

* Steady Stance triggers a cudgel hit on an enemy that dealt lethal damage to you, recovering 100%  Shields? if the cudgel killed the enemy.
* Gold Medal restores  15%? or  15%? on use.
* Exorcism Formation causes damage taken to only decrease Dimensional Strike's stacks by 1, instead of losing all of them.
* Cardiac Pacing instantly revives all downed teammates within 25 meters upon primary skill use. (Cooldown: 15s)

## Notes

* Soul Strike will only inflict up to 10 hits per attack. Any excess hits will instead have their damage be split among the initial 10. Example: 15 hits of 100 damage each will instead deal 10 hits of 150 damage each.
* Damage dealt is affected by your held weapon's effective range and how far away the enemy is. Weapon with low effective range will do less damage to distant targets.
* When using a weapon with many projectiles and ✦ *Spores*(full text), Soul Strike will add spores from the offhand weapon multiple times per cudgel based on number of hits, instead of only once per shot. This can make spore usage far stronger than normal, at the potential cost of weaker spore application without Soul Strike, as you won't be using a high RoF weapon.

## Update History

* 06/30/2023 update: Changed Shotgun effect from +3 projectiles to +25% projectiles.
* 08/29/2022 update: Added to the game.