Shape of Dreams Best Builds Guide – Aurena, Shell, Bismuth & Nachia

Below you'll find some powerful Nightmare builds for my favorite characters. Note that there are some universally great options like Predation or Wealth for essences or a Deja Vu Spectral Bullet that work on any build so I won't go too much into them. These Shape of Dreams Traveler builds focus more on other fun and powerful options.

Best Aurena Build in Shape of Dreams

Aurena Build	Notes	Notes
Passive	Dismantling Claw	Dismantling Claw is one of the most powerful passives in the game and the core of our build.
Memory & Essence	Golden Explosion Fill it with Clemency and Guidance and it'll deal amazing damage, heal both you and your allies and give you a shield from overheal.	Dangerous Theory Aurena's base kit is one of the strongest in the game so you'll be fine with her two base abilities and DT gives much needed mobility and sustain. Flexibility works great here so you don't get bursted as you heal and Momentum or Flow for cooldown.
Memory & Essence	A defensive memory like Ice Shield, Repulsive Shield or Shadow Walk are excellent options here. Fill them with something like Paranoia for cooldowns or Virtue to have multiple defensive charges when dashes run out.	I would honestly just take two defensive/mobility/sustain memories since Golden Explosion and Dangerous Theory deal enough damage for Nightmare.
Constellation	Strong Bond and Dismantle, Dissolve, Understanding for Golden Explosion will carry you. Unparalleled Genius for Dangerous Theory.	Important secondaries include Valiant Challenger, Threat Detection, Regenerative Skin and Beautiful Plumage are quite important for damage and defenses. Utility picks are Glittering Golden Antlers for economy and Beginner's Luck if you can proc it with Clemency or Guidance. Pick your favorites for the rest.

Best Shell Build in Shape of Dreams

Shell Build	Notes	Notes
Passive	One Step, One Kill	It's rough that we cannot stack attack speed but this combined with some cooldown essences will deal a lot of damage. I would recommend going for sustain in terms of essences and memories on Shell for reliable runs.
Memory & Essence	Laceration The key thing to look for with Laceration is Obsidian to empower attacks and reduce cooldown. Momentum and Predation are also really good. Getting Obsidian with Deja Vu will ensure much more reliable runs or you can always run the meta Deja Vu Spectral Bullet start.	Annihilation Stance Nothing special here just great DPS. Shell has a pretty strong base kit.
Memory & Essence	Swift Slash This is your bread and butter that works great with cooldown reduction like Essence of Fangs which you can also Deja Vu as a competitor to Obisidan. It gives you much needed mobility on a low cooldown.	You have two options here. For mobility and dodge safety you can go with Flaming Whip with Flow and Opportunity for constant Flaming Whip spam that resets your dodges. Alternatively, I would highly recommend a sustain tool like Chomp or Cutthroat.
Constellation	With Laceration taken care of with essences focus on buffing Annihiliation Stance with your Constellation so go for Controlled Madness and Chained Bloodlust. Don't use the Laceration modifiers like Rapid Draw since we need the invulnerability unless you're going for something like Precise Strike.	Go for Valiant Challenger, Stone Skin, Instinctive Movement & Threat Detection (If you're not going for Flame Whip). Beginner's Luck is really good since we have a lot of crucial essences here.

Best Bismuth Build in Shape of Dreams

Bismuth Build	Notes	Notes
Passive	Prismatic Vision	One of the best DPS passives in the game so we have to stack attack speed.
Memory & Essence	Pure Soul or Valiant Heart I like to base builds around these two for some crazy DPS. Pure Soul is for auto-cast braindeath and Valiant Heart has poentially more DPS but requires you to get close sometimes. Either way you want Predation on them as well as sustain like Guidance or Clemency and of course Momentum to spam it.	For the second slot you can either double up on Pure Soul if you're going with that or go for something like Frostbite or Shadow Overdrive for more DPS. If you're going double Pure Soul then put the DPS ones on the first one and the sustain ones on the second one with additional options like Snow and Rigidity for barriers. If you're going Frostbite for more DPS then just buff it up with Cold Damage essences like Frost and Freezing.
Memory & Essence	Whatever of the two options you picked above I highly recommend going for Mass Protection or Ice Shield here for much-needed defense.	Arrow Storm This is your core DPS tool that's a must-have on both the Valiant and Pure Soul builds in my opinion. It naturally scales with your attack speed. Stack it up with Insight or Momentum for cooldowns. Honestly you can just run Pure Soul and This and double Mass Protection and you'll be fine DPS-wise.
Constellation	If you're going for single or double Pure Soul then Diverse Topics, Say Hello to My Little Friends and Undervolting are key. For Valiant Heart go for Steadfast Heart, No Longer Afraid and Quick Decision.	Secondary options include Self-Writing Story for CD, Valiant Challenger for DPS, Light Footsteps for mobility and Stone Skin as some great options.

Best Nachia Build in Shape of Dreams

Nachia Build	Notes	Notes
Passive	Heart of the Pack	This will give us some much needed burst damage as we heal our wolf.
Memory & Essence	Moonlight Pact I prefer the wolf since he's easier to manage and keep alive with our massive shields. Put Paranoia on him for cooldown and Predation is always good. Secondaries include Guidance and Richochet so that it both stays alive longer and shares some heals with us or other allies.	Serpent's Blessing With Virtue this buff will ensure our wolf is dealing a lot of damage and remains tanky throughout Nightmare.
Memory & Essence	From here it's up to you but I like to stack double Mass Protection in teams to protect both the wolf and allies. One should have Momentum and then I recommend you stack damage-based essences to keep up your DPS.	/
Constellation	Your prime choices are Death Waltz and Pact of Destiny for the pupper and Immortal Protection for buffing pupper.	Stack those that give you memory haste and summon bonuses like Steadfast Bond.

That's it for my best builds in Shape of Dreams for now. Check out my Traveler and Memory tier list for more Shape of Dreams guides.