One Hand and Shield is an awesome skill line that’s perfect if you’re looking for strong single-target burst damage and a reliable dice recovery engine. There’s plenty of synergy between the dice, and chaining abilities together feels great. My personal favourite is Shield Charge because it never misses, so you always get guaranteed damage.

In this video, I go through each die from level one to four, talk about how to make the most of them individually, and how they combine into bigger, more effective combos. I’ll explain how the dice interact, how to manage their timing in your active slots, and why Shield Discipline is essential for getting the most out of this skill line. Whether you’re into dealing massive burst damage or prefer steady, dependable play, One Hand and Shield has you covered.

In this solo match, I’m playing Flower against Pynk on hard mode. It’s worth mentioning there’s a misprint on the Pynk hero card, making her significantly tougher as a CPU opponent, essentially putting her at boss-level difficulty. So, honestly, it wasn’t too surprising that the game spiralled out of control the way it did. Despite some decent attempts at countering her star abilities and controlling the flow, Pynk’s escalating pressure ultimately overwhelmed me. It’s a clear example of just how punishing Neon Reign can be, especially on hard mode against an unintentionally supercharged opponent.

Archer is a ranged damage dealer that offers consistent and steady passive damage through its innate ability, particularly effective against low-level or low-defence enemies. While the damage itself might seem modest at first, it’s incredibly useful for chipping away at enemies with troublesome skills like Stalwart, Dodge, or Divert. Among its class abilities, Hunter’s Discipline on the master side stands out as surprisingly helpful in solo play, especially with the bonus health it grants, which can significantly boost your survivability. But my absolute favourite tenacity spender is Lethal Arrow, as a reliable true damage that’s perfect for finishing off tough, high-defence opponents.

Overall, Archer is a very solid class that’s straightforward to play and beginner-friendly. It’s flexible enough to pair well with several races and skill lines, and it provides a clear path for progression as you become more comfortable with its mechanics. In this guide, I walk you through each Archer ability, discuss effective race pairings, recommended skill lines, and even provide a gameplay demonstration to show exactly how the build performs in action.

In this match, I played Fae against Reylen on hard mode. Fae has a cool passive that makes up joysticks a bit safer to play, and her star ability, Elusive Manoeuvre, gives you both damage and a block, which feels very rewarding to trigger. Reylen, on the other hand, hits hard with strike-based combos and can quickly chip away at your health if you’re not careful. This game was all about trying to manage tempo and find windows to stabilise before things got out of control.

There were a few moments where things looked promising, like getting decent combos early and blocking big attacks with a throw or combo breaker. But as the match went on, it became a lot harder to stay ahead. Reylen kept stacking stars and pressure, and there were turns where I had no defence left to play. I was constantly forced to make tough choices between going for damage or holding back to survive. It ended up being one of those tight matches that really shows how punishing hard mode can be when the CPU gets the upper hand.

Heavy Armor is easily one of the best skill lines in the game for consistent damage mitigation – arguably even a bit too powerful. It provides a simple yet incredibly effective defence by preventing damage from both adjacent and distant enemies. Watching opponents defeat themselves just by hitting you when you’ve got Immovable active is both hilarious and satisfying. Then there’s Unstoppable, which lets you effortlessly shove enemies out of your way, and Juggernaut, providing a fantastic source of extra tenacity. Even though it’s powerful, it never stops feeling great to use.

In this video, I explain exactly how each die in the Heavy Armor skill line works, including why the timing and placement of dice in your cooldown track is crucial. I also cover strategies for combining these dice with various builds, and why some effects, like Juggernaut, can completely transform how you manage resources during tough encounters. If you’re curious how to reliably shrug off enemy attacks while building extra tenacity or simply want to see enemies bounce off you as they defeat themselves, Heavy Armor is definitely worth mastering.

In this solo playthrough, I’m playing Blaquesmith against Tobo on hard mode. I’ve been really enjoying the variety in Neon Reign, and this time I wanted to try a more combo-heavy build that leans into chip placement and star abilities. Blaquesmith has a really interesting balance of support and direct pressure, while Tobo is one of the more unpredictable CPU opponents, which made this match-up feel anything but routine.

The fight turned out to be surprisingly tight. There were a few key rounds where I had to make some risky calls, and I definitely had to rely on timing my star abilities just right. It wasn’t a perfect run, but that made it more fun to play – and hopefully more fun to watch too. If you’re curious about how Blaquesmith handles solo against one of the tougher CPU decks, this one’s a good showcase.

Necromancer is one of the most unique classes in the game thanks to its second resource system, the Necrosis Stack. Managing when to gain Necrosis and when to spend it on your abilities turns into this really satisfying little mini-game that runs alongside the main loop. It adds an extra layer of decision-making that I genuinely enjoy. Boneyard is one of my favourites – it completely ignores enemy defence, which makes it way stronger than it might look at first glance. I feel like that one’s still kind of underrated.

But of course, the absolute highlight of this class is Spiritual Guardian. Once summoned, it can persist between battles, and that changes everything. It’s not just a summon you throw away for a single encounter – it sticks around, supports you, and honestly just makes the class feel alive in a really cool way. In the video, I go over every ability on both sides of the class sheet, walk through my solo build, and show how to set things up to keep your Guardian active as long as possible. There’s also a full gameplay demo so you can see how this all plays out in action.

Bow is one of the most consistent damage-dealing skill lines in the game. It gives you several solid options depending on how you want to build it. You can go for high burst damage by doubling up on Rapid Fire, or you can lean into a reroll-heavy build with Arrow Barrage, just like I did with the Bard. And then there’s Scatter Shot, which is easily one of the best dice in the entire line. It effectively doubles your damage output by letting you hit two targets at once, and more importantly, it gives you a way to bypass Shatter by not targeting the enemy directly. That interaction alone makes it incredibly useful.

In this video, I go through each of the Bow skill dice, from level one to level four, and explain how they work in practice. I share which dice I think are worth doubling up on, what to combine them with, and how to make the most of Bow’s strengths depending on your class. Whether you’re looking for reliable single-target damage or a bit of clever positioning to exploit area effects, Bow has a toolkit that’s both flexible and dependable.

Acrobat is one of the strongest and most flexible classes in the game. You get mobility that completely changes how you play — you can move through enemies, jump straight onto caches, and reposition yourself freely during battles and delves. But there’s more to it than just movement. The class gives you built-in recovery, some of the best damage mitigation tools in the game, and regular access to Fear, which completely shuts down enemy skills. Whether it’s Stalwart, Necromancy, or Shatter, Acrobat has answers. It’s a class that’s easy to underestimate until you actually play it.

In the video, I go through every Acrobat ability on both the novice and master side, explain what makes each one strong, and talk through the race options, stat layout, and skill lines I used for this solo build. There’s also a solo gameplay demo at the end where I put the build to the test, and honestly, it held up even better than I expected.

The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era was my first Chip Theory game. When I was deciding whether to get any of the deluxe upgrades, I tried to find some proper hands-on impressions. Maybe they were out there, but I couldn’t find anything that actually showed what the components were like in use or helped me make a decision either way. After more than 200 hours of playing, I figured I’d just make that kind of review myself to help other folks make a better decision.

In the video, I go through each deluxe upgrade, which includes the premium health chips, deluxe draw bags, the blacksmith pack, as well as the dice tray and the playmat. I share my honest thoughts on what feels worthwhile, what’s purely cosmetic, and what ended up improving the experience more than I expected. I show how each one looks and try to give a clear sense of whether they actually add value depending on how you play.