One of the first things you need to do when Silent Hope begins is pick your who your starting hero will be s. There are a lot, honestly. It doesn’t help that at the Character Selection screen in that very moment, it only offers a brief three or four sentences describing them and not really highlighting their abilities. Yes, when you encounter the rainbow, tear-shaped crystals on floors you can use that to swap characters or retreat to the surface, and you’ll get that opportunity to do so shortly during the tutorial run. It still can feel like a big commitment. I chose the Fighter, then regretted it almost right away. So if you are picking from the seven characters to determine your starting one in Silent Hope, I say go with the Caster or Farmer.

Why is the Caster one of the great starter characters in Silent Hope?

The Caster is one of only two ranged units in Silent Hope, and he’s the one with basically the best moveset. His standard attack is a nice ranged hit, which is useful when you’re first getting your bearings early on or later in the game when you are dealing with hordes or trying to set off traps. 

I also love his dash move. Rather than some characters who quickly run, he actually has a brief teleport. This means you can quickly dart away and not have to worry about taking damage as he’s escaping an enemy.

But really, the Caster is probably my top pick for best the best one of the starting characters because of his class advancement and skills. The initial Caster moveset is fantastic and focuses on range and crowd control. You use Black Hole to hold multiple enemies in place and guarantee they take more damage from attacks. The Mega Sphere only hits five times, but it slowly moves directly in front of you and tended to “push back” opponents it would hit. Meanwhile, his Explosion deals damage to a group around one enemy highlighted in red. So basically use Black Hole, perform Mega Sphere to push more enemies toward it or hit enemies captured, then use Explosion on the whole lot.

His Sage and Summoner classes and their skills are also great. Each one involve increased stats. The Sage is more about precautionary measures. If you feel like the Caster character is still getting hurt and put in danger, replace Mega Sphere with one of those skills. Magic Barrier makes him temporarily invincible. However, I prefer Impact. It is essentially Explosion, but the Caster character is the target and any enemy around him takes AOE damage.

It’ll be a while before you get Summoner, but I assure you those skills are good too.

So why is the Farmer another great starting character in Silent Hope?

A lot of the more close-combat melee characters are okay in Silent Hope! I just think the Farmer is the best starter one because of her attack speed, moveset, and growth potential. Her pitchform/lance has a good reach to it, which is handy for major attacks. Her dodge is also a standard dash, which is serviceable. 

It’s the initial three Farmer skills that can come in very helpful. Outta My Way is a straightforward dash attack that hits everyone in a straight line ahead of her. It might be difficult to pin down so you hit everyone guaranteed. But I like it as if her regular dash is on cooldown, you can also use that. Her Butterfly Buddy is also handy if you’re dealing with early hordes that could include some enemies with higher defenses or a large group. This is because it can confuse or poison the foes, making them turn on each other and whittling down health. Since it just floats straight out, it usually hits quite a few enemies when it does this. Finally her Snack Time skill makes her harvest and eat a random vegetable that offers a stat buff. So she might deal more damage, see defense increase, or move more swiftly. Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, I’d even see two buffs show up after she had a snack.

While her Geomancer class upgrade features a lot of area of effect and crowd control skills that are fantastic later on, the Ranger skills are all designed to give her more attacking abilities. My favorite of the three, and I honestly recommend using instead of Butterfly Buddy, is Birdie Buddies. When used, she summons three birds that hover around her. They will then act as homing missiles and attack enemies nearby. It’s great if you’re generally exploring or going into a group of foes. Get Lost is also a good one. It’s basically dealing damage to an area in front of the character in the same way as Outta the Way, but she remains stationary. 

The only downside to the Farmer, and the reason I’d say she’s not as strong of a starter character in Silent Hope compared to the Caster, is Away You Go. This is a Ranger ability you can pick up and it’s the only bad move in her arsenal. It involves her tossing her pitchfork/lance in a straight line at enemies. But the targeting system in here can be so frustrating that 70% of the time I’d miss opponents when I’d use it. 

Silent Hope is available on the Nintendo Switch and PC.

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