The First Berserker: Khazan Guide | Best Dual Wield Build

Here's how you can form a solid build for your Dual Wield playthrough

Game Guide by Ornstein on Apr 05, 2025

In this guide, you are shown how to play dual-wield and discover what works best for your dual-wield build. You learn that dual-wielding has the highest skill ceiling of all the weapons available in Kazan, potentially offering the highest skill floor.

While Dual Wield is a great build, you're encouraged to experiment with the recommended combinations, mix in different skills based on enemy states, and adjust your strategy as needed.

Before diving into the skills, you first need to understand the key stats and attributes that power your dual blades.

Stats and Agility for the Dual Wield Build

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The two primary stats dual blades scale with are willpower and strength. Willpower gives you three damage per point, plus other bonuses such as 10 extra health per point, 0.4% increased stamina recovery, and reduced guard stamina consumption when blocking attacks. These benefits make investing a good number of willpower points essential.

On the other hand, strength grants you two damage per point along with 10 extra health per point, reduces your weight by 0.5%, and decreases the stamina damage you receive from enemy hits.

The weight reduction is particularly beneficial, and you are encouraged to invest points in strength early on to ensure your agility remains in the B range rather than dropping to the C range.

You also learn that vitality is essential as it improves your damage slightly, boosts your maximum health, reduces weight, and grants resistance to status effects; therefore, you should consider allocating 20 to 30 points to vitality early on.

Endurance is equally valuable because it increases your maximum health and stamina, enhances your attack damage, and boosts stamina recovery, which is critical for blocking, dodging, and attacking effectively.

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A balanced early build includes 20 to 30 points in vitality, endurance, and willpower, with additional strength points to keep your agility in the optimal range.

Skills and Passives for the Dual Wield Build

You are introduced to the active skills that cost spirit to activate. The guide explains that you should keep your Phantom Sword Dance buff active during boss fights, as it grants you a 40-second buff for two spirits, causing a red phantom to attack after you use a howling blade or Whirlwind.

You learn about ruthless, a skill that allows you to attack faster and faster with repeated input until a devastating finishing blow is delivered.

Although Ruthless costs stamina, its upgrade turns the finishing blow into an arcing strike. It even recovers half of your stamina upon a successful hit, making it ideal for burst damage against enemies or bosses in a staggered or exhausted state.

You can choose between Wind Piercer and Breeze Dash for gap closing and instant damage, and you are encouraged to try both to decide which suits your play style best.

Another skill highlighted is Gust, which you are advised to max out for additional spirit damage, especially against exhausted enemies. In the passive skills section, you learn that Whirlwind is arguably the best dual-wield skill in the game.

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It allows you to combine swift attacks, dodge swift attacks, or blowback vengeance with a double-press input that vaults you into the air for a deadly spin attack.

The guide emphasizes that, with the phantom sword dance buff active, Whirlwind hits multiple times and effectively provides verticality to target enemy weak points.

You are also introduced to the powerful combo of deafness paired with nimble blitz, which enhances your dodge into a counterattack that can hit twice, adding a ranged component to your arsenal.

Light and heavy strikes are no longer needed because this combo gives you a flashier, faster option instead. Also, blowback vengeance is a key skill that lets you quickly switch from defense to offense by hitting right after a guard.

You can then follow up with Whirlwind to keep the pressure on. You are encouraged to experiment with gap-closing skills and mix in nimble blitz after Whirlwind for bonus damage, learning to vary your skills to dazzle and damage your opponents.

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Armor Sets for the Dual Wield Build

You should get more than one set of gear early on. The guide says to get the executioner set for more damage, but you must spend more on strength to keep your agility.

Alternatively, if you are comfortable farming, you may opt for the soul cleaver set from Blade Phantom, which provides solid stats and an excellent six-teeth bonus.

The Fallen Guardian set is highlighted as a fantastic early-game option, mainly because of its ruthless focus and fire stats bonus, adding an extra 33% damage for 10 seconds after guard, which can significantly boost your damage output.

This set also has extras, such as 35% damage resistance while casting Rueless and an overall damage buff for each hit. However, Rueless is so close that it can be hard to keep this buff up.

For even greater effectiveness, the beast slayer set focused on Whirlwind is praised for its 30% increase in stamina damage with Blowback Vengeance and its overall damage increase bonus, which can reach up to 20% permanently during extended boss fights.

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With Beast Slayer, you also gain a new whirlwind skill that renders you invulnerable and deals respectable damage for two spirits, though it works best against tall monsters or in low-ceiling areas.

In the end, if you buy the jar helmet from Danjen, you should use the endless tragedy necklace and ring to get a three-piece bonus that improves your damage and stamina recovery.

Phantoms

When it comes to phantoms, you are advised to use Kesha the Unyielding nearly all the time, as it is a staple for most builds. Kesha provides extra stamina recovery, allowing you to maintain your hyperaggressive combos.

Alternatively, if you are facing a non-mage boss that permits frequent guarding, you might consider Maximillian the Impenetrable; however, its inconsistent availability makes Kesha the better overall choice.

Also, if the armor sets you've picked already give you a lot of stamina regeneration, you should use Wolf Rick to do more damage because its awakening bonus can make your dual-wield build even better.

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