Shape of Dreams Best Builds Guide – All Characters

Updated on September 22, 2025: Added Mist, Yubar and Lacerta.

Below you'll find some powerful Nightmare builds for all 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 Mist Build in Shape of Dreams

Mist Build	Notes	Notes
Passive	Astrid's Masterpiece - En Garde	This is a better passive than Priorite for this build because we want something that works on constant auto attacks due to Unbreakable Determination resets and Arrow Storm (Also Parry if you take it).
Memory & Essence	Fleche or Parry This is your only choice in this build since the other three Memory slots are must-haves. I like both options. Fleche is for mobility and DPS. Parry is so good for Nightmare since you can avoid all damage with it and three dodges plus you get another passive reset. For Fleche the best essence is Momentum for cooldowns while for Parry it's Frost+Glacial Core for defense and something like Wealth for Scaling.	Arrow Storm Just raw damage that scales with our attack speed build. Stack it with Predation and Void or any auto attack based essence.
Memory & Essence	Unbreakable Determination Further boosts our attack speed and resets passive for more damage on basic attacks plus you get a sustain tool from your passive to heal you. Normally I would run Shadow Overdrive on other characters but Mist's Unbreakable Determination is a better version of it in this case.	Umbral Edge The best damage boost for auto-attack based builds that you can run with Paranoia or Fang plus Twilight to heal yourself in addition to UD heals.
Constellation	If you're going Fleche then pick up Lightning Breath and I wouldn't modify Parry in anyway unless you're really good at the timing in which case go for The Best Offense is Defense. Other than that your core is to go for attack speed and attack damage with Strike the Weakness! being an exceptional choice due to your many dashes.	Go for as many Life constellations as you can since we are melee so Threat Detection, Second Wind, Steel Refinement and Regenerative Skin all work wonders.

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 powerful auto-cast braindeath and Valiant Heart has potentially 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 cooldown essences on it like Momentum as primaries. Secondaries include Guidance or Richochet so that it both stays alive longer and shares some heals with us or other allies. Predation is always a choice for DPS.	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.

Best Yubar Build in Shape of Dreams

Yubar Build	Notes	Notes
Passive	Converging Stars	This is by far a much better passive for AOE damage, especially because we're going to be running Arrow Storm.
Memory & Essence	Tranquility If you play Yubar, you're here for Tranquility which is by far the best part of his kit to reduce cooldowns for other memories. (His other base Memories aren't the best). You're slow with one dash so you need to be a nuker so stack up Yubar with the best damage dealing Memory options you can find. As for essences the one you should always Deja Vu is Momentum to reduce Tranquility cooldown.	I sometimes like to run Undo with Tranquility and then 2 DPS Memories if I don't have Momentum on Tranquility. It's only good if you can capitalize on just two DPS memories with the best essences. That said, Deja Vu-ing Momentum on Tranquility is also enough and then run three DPS Memories. I really like Frostbite if you're going without Undo because it's both damage and defense with the barrier. You can go full offensive with Essences but I recommend defensive ones like Giant or Protection. This is because Yubar isn't as mobile so you'll need more defense.
Memory & Essence	Arrow Storm This is core for our attack speed scaling with our passive. Stack it up with Predation or Wealth and then I recommend defensive options like Glacial Core or Frost.	You can pick your favorite DPS Memory that you find for your third DPS option but I highly recommend you stack it with healing/defensive essences like Clemency and Guidance. My recommendations are Hemorrhage, Umbral Edge, Chain Lightning or Lightning Dance. Alternatively, you can put these essences on Frostbite and go for a defensive Memory like Ice Shield or Burrow.
Constellation	Since we're not really going for Yubar's base kit apart from Tranquility just focus on attack speed and attack damage Constellations.	For Life be sure to bring Steel Refinement, Regenerative Skin and/or Second Wind. As for Tranquility Constellations I wouldn't tinker with them since we want that Invulnerability where it is.

Best Lacerta Build in Shape of Dreams

Lacerta Build	Notes	Notes
Passive	Double Tap	This was a hard choice since Salamander's Powder is good as well but DT just scales so well with Arrow Storm due to double attacks.
Memory & Essence	Incendiary Rounds This is Lacerta's best base Memory since it naturally scales with the passive and Arrow Storm. The best essence combo here is Momentum for cooldown and Celemency+Guidance for sustain.	Arrow Storm This is your bread and butter that's the source of your high DPS. Stack it with Predation, Wealth, Accurasy, Richochet, Shock, basically anything works here but I like the long-range ones since you want to kite enemies at long range with Lacerta.
Memory & Essence	Frostbite One of my favorite damage and sustain tools for Nightmare. It naturally scales with our auto-attack build and with essences like Freezing and Glacial Core it also gives us sustain so that in combination with Incendiary Rounds, we're unkillable.	Pick your favorites here but I like Shadow Overdrive and Umbral Edge to capitalize on our attack speed. I recommend you go for Umbral Edge with auto-attack scaling essences since our attack speed is so high so Fangs and Crimson work great as well as Starry Sky for additional attack speed.
Constellation	Cartridge Belt and Explosive Ammuniton are the core picks. Then go for as much attack speed, crit, range and ability power ones as you can.	Regenerative Skin and Steel Refinement will naturally go with our healing essences.

I've also been playing a Mist Fleche build that's similar to the Lacerta build with great success. 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.