Blasphemous 2: The 10 Best Altar Image Combinations

Blasphemous 2 is a game filled with dark corners and hidden secrets, but one of its most cryptic features is the enigmatic resonance system. By equipping two specific altar images side by side, you can activate a special passive ability that can potentially alter the gameplay.

It is likely that you have already come across the basic resonances during your gameplay, which are activated by combining two altar images of the same category. However, for optimal results, you need to experiment with pairs from different categories. This can be a laborious process of trial and error, so we have done the work for you and narrowed down the most effective resonances in the game.

10 Burning Faith (The Thurifer + The Selfless Father)

All three core weapons in Blasphemous 2 have an "enhanced state" that you can activate to increase their damage and add additional elemental effects. In the case of the Veredicto Morningstar, this effect involves setting the weapon ablaze, significantly boosting your damage but continuously depleting your fervor in return.

Burning Faith completely eliminates this drawback and allows you to keep your Veredicto ablaze at all times. This is ideal for both exploration and boss battles, making the already formidable Veredicto one of the consistently most powerful weapons in the game.

9 Deflagration (The Anointed One + The Purified One)

If you're heavily focused on a fire damage build with your Veredicto, Deflagration is an obvious resonance that you can benefit from. It adds a random burst of fire effect to some of your strikes, effectively increasing your average damage significantly.

The two components of this resonance, The Purified and The Anointed, each increase your fire damage and Veredicto damage. Add this bonus effect, and you will be confronted with damage numbers that literally melt any enemy or boss that dares to cross your path. Combine this resonance with Burning Faith to unleash your full radiant potential.

8 Stormrage (The Veteran One + The Tempest)

The Sarmiento and Centella weapon revolves around swift attacks. You strike a few times and then swiftly dodge out of the attack range to keep your Verdadera-Destreza marks intact. Storm Fury harmonizes incredibly well with this playstyle by sending random lightning strikes to nearby enemies when you land a hit on an opponent.

This resonance is useless in most boss battles, but it can significantly expedite things during regular exploration sections. It allows you to deal damage to enemies in the rear while focusing on those in the front line. It is particularly effective in rooms with awkwardly positioned ranged enemies, such as in the Sunken Cathedral.

7 Second Wind (The Pilgrim + Nacimiento)

Verdadera Destreza is an incredibly potent ability that allows you to amplify each strike with your swift-hitting swords, provided you can avoid taking damage. However, the latter part is easier said than done, especially as you delve deeper into the twisted world of the game and find yourself in regions infested with swift ranged adversaries.

The Second Wind helps to address this issue. Not only does it feature the Pilgrim altar image, which means you only lose one Verdadera Destreza marker per hit instead of all of them, but it also allows you to fully restore all three markers with a sip from your bile vial. Since you typically heal anyway after taking damage, this resonance will immediately bring you back to full strength.

6 Endless Wrath (The Partisan + The Demented One)

The Blood Pact ability of Ruego Al Alba is one of the best weapon skills in the game. It not only provides increased damage but also offers healing later in the skill tree. The trade-off for this power lies not only in the initial health cost but also in the short duration of the pact, typically allowing only a few seconds of bloody carnage before you plummet to the ground again.

Endless Fury significantly enhances the potential of the pact by completely refilling the Blood Pact gauge every time you kill an enemy with it. Later, when you can't take a few steps without encountering an unholy abomination that hungers for your flesh, this resonance more than lives up to its name by allowing you to sustain the Blood Pact nearly indefinitely.

5 Rosary Of Torment (The Punished One + The Guide)

In most cases, you want to maintain your Blood Pact gauge for as long as possible through regular attacks. However, you can also invest a portion of that accumulated energy into the "Reaper Rosary." This is a fast, powerful attack that is capable of instantly dispatching weaker enemies or dealing significant damage to bosses. And the resonance "Rosary of Torment" makes it even better.

This resonance adds an additional wave of mystical damage to the attack, allowing you to hit multiple enemies with a single use. It's a great way to extract even more value from the "Reaper Rosary" and particularly useful in the claustrophobic battles in enclosed spaces that Blasphemous 2 often employs.

4 Briar And Thorn (The Pillager + The Alchemist)

For those who prefer to dodge enemy attacks rather than block them—which is likely the majority of you reading this— "Briar and Thorn" is an essential addition to your arsenal. It creates a rotating ring of thorns around you during the dodge movement, damaging any unfortunate enemy that stumbles into it.

Since you will often dodge directly through enemies, whether to evade their attacks or to free yourself from a corner, these thorns will inflict additional damage during normal gameplay. They are equally effective in boss battles, making this resonance an indispensable component that you'll want to unlock as soon as possible.

3 Alchemical Time (The Ecstatic Novice + Nacimiento)

Most of your deaths in Blasphemous 2 will occur in situations where you are quickly overwhelmed, desperately drink a bile vial to recover, only to be hit again and die shortly after. Alchemical Time completely changes the dynamics of such situations and literally gives you more time to react when you are on the defensive.

Every time you drink a bile vial with this resonance, you freeze time for a few seconds. This allows you to reposition yourself from the enemies that have been bothering you, evade their incoming attacks, or even land a few sneaky hits yourself. You'll be using bile vials throughout the game anyway, and this is a great way to get even more benefit from them.

2 Orison Apocrypha (The Woman Of The Stolen Face + The Flagellant)

Orison Apocrypha is one of the more unique resonances in Blasphemous 2, with a vague description that isn't particularly helpful when evaluating its power level. Essentially, it transforms some of your prayers into "dark" versions with new appearances and stronger effects.

If you're playing a prayer-focused build, which is a more than viable option since many altars support it, then Orison Apocrypha is a must-have. It effectively serves as a general damage increase for the prayers it affects, which is why including it is a clear decision when you know which prayers it works with.

1 Thorned Retort (Trifon + The Alchemist)

If you play Blasphemous 2 optimally, you won't take any damage at all. However, achieving this situation is nearly unattainable, especially for new players, which is why Thorned Retort is a valid option. With this resonance, whenever you take damage, you will counterattack with a barrier of harmful thorns that inflict miasma damage.

This is particularly effective in close combat, as the thorns are often capable of defeating an enemy who managed to hit you before you finished them off. It also works excellently against bosses. Once you master blocking or dodging, you can replace Thorned Retort with something else, but until then, it is a very solid choice for any build.