Crimson Moon builds

Crimson Moon does not ship character classes. Official build trailers are explicit: every Nephilim is defined by the loadout they create. Gear, Weapon Arts, Boons, and an Angel combine, and you can rebuild between hunts. This hub is where those pieces live on the wiki. If you want the loop that feeds the closet, read loot and progression first. If you want button timing, stay on combat.

Use the child pages when you already know the slot:

• Weapons and Weapon Arts — 30 weapon types, one-hand versus two-hand, arts as your ranged kit.
• Armor sets — four armor slots, set synergies, First Look and Deluxe cosmetics versus real stats.
• Best early builds — starter identities you can actually purify in week one.

Angels are documented with the Nephilim page because the transformation is a character system, but you still pick one at the loadout station as part of the build.

The four-layer model

Gear. Nine pieces. Four armor, two trinkets, and either a one-handed weapon plus shield or a two-handed weapon. Dual wielding is not planned. Rarity on these pieces feeds Angel Mode. Empty slots are a self-own.

Weapon Arts. Bound to the weapon. Many are projectiles or radius attacks, which is how a melee game still answers “is there magic?” You do not respec a spellbook. You swap the tool.

Boons. Mid-hunt modifiers from Nexus Gates and from some equipment. Stack them toward the art, not toward a highlight reel of unrelated percentages.

Angel. Chosen before the hunt. Completes the identity and gives you a transformation with a gauge. A later form named Sunder exists as an unlock. Details sit on Nephilim and Angels.

Those four layers are the whole theorycraft surface until dataminers publish numbers after September 1. This wiki will not fake a numerical tier list from trailer frames.

How to think in identities, not letter grades

Until players can run hundreds of hunts, S-rank spreadsheets are fan fiction. What we can rank is clarity:

• Shield-and-art: hold space, poke with a projectile art, parry as your damage. Best for learning combat and for co-op partners who need a frontliner.
• Two-hand greed: big heavies, execution setups, less forgiveness. Take it when you understand stamina.
• Art battery: pick the weapon whose art you will actually press every room. Boons feed the art. Armor set supports the art.
• Angel closer: rarity-stack so the transformation lasts through a boss phase, then play mortal until the gauge is real.

Pick one identity per hunt. Hybridizing all four on a fresh account is how you get a closet full of legendaries that do not talk to each other.

What pre-launch sets are not

First Look armor (Moonlight Oath, Mahkten, Ram, Vampire, and whatever fourth premium set ships) is a cosmetic flex for people who completed community quests before launch. Deluxe’s Ceremonial Armor Set and Axe of the Gods are paid cosmetics plus a future expansion. Neither replaces purification. Wear them if you earned or bought them. Build around weapons you can upgrade at Gajov. See First Look and editions.

A build process that survives launch day

1. Name the job in one sentence: “I hold space and throw an art.”
2. Pick the weapon that is that sentence.
3. Pick armor that supports the sentence, not the prettiest screenshot.
4. Pick an Angel whose transformation covers the job’s weakness.
5. At Nexus Gates, refuse Boons that belong to a different sentence.
6. After the hunt, purify only what served the sentence.
7. Next hunt, either deepen the sentence or swap it on purpose.

When a true tier list is possible, this hub will say so. Until then, the pages below are the honest version: identities, constraints, and the systems that will still be true after the first patch.