The First Berserker: Khazan Guide | Best Spear Build and Ways To Play

The Spear is one of the most powerful weapons in the game, and this guide will show you how to use it properly.

Game Guide by Ornstein on Mar 28, 2025

In this guide, you will jump into more advanced techniques as the First Berserker, focusing on a new weapon that you believe is probably the most broken currently in the game – the Spear.

Overview: Pros and Cons

You will notice that the Spear deals a lot of damage, and its Moonlight combos are insane. They are easy to pull off and damage enemies, knocking off enemy stamina better than all other weapons. It also features the best defensive spirit skill currently in the game.

The First Berserker: Khazan, PC, Gameplay, Best Spear Build and Ways To Play, Screenshot, NoobFeed

On the downside, however, the Spear is very stamina-hungry, and you probably won't be wearing the heaviest armor because you are unlikely to invest in strength. Some other weapons might also have slightly better offensive spirit skills.

The First Tree: Swift Attack and Moonlight Stance

You will look at a swift attack over to its first tree. If you pick up the first node, it will help you change your third swing into an arc that hits multiple enemies, which is worth picking up. However, the primary bread and butter is your Moonlight stance, which is ridiculous because it allows you to get extra damage whenever you hit your enemies with swift attacks.

A few swift attacks into a changeful moon attack can do massive endurance damage and significant damage on its own. You often find that a triple light attack into a held heavy attack takes out many foes, and even if it does not wipe them out completely, you remain in your Moonlight stance for around 14 seconds, allowing you to deal more damage and take advantage of the stamina you have just removed from them.

A few more swings might get them into a stamina break, letting you go into a brutal strike to do significant damage or take them out entirely. You also have two other nodes: one increases your stamina recovery while in your Moonlight stance, and the other enables you to perform a double dash to evade enemies.

The Potent Strike Tree

In the potent strike tree, if you want to do additional damage with your heavy attacks, you should pick up shadow cleaves, which help take out multiple enemies simultaneously, because your third heavy strike will now do extra damage.

The First Berserker: Khazan, PC, Gameplay, Best Spear Build and Ways To Play, Screenshot, NoobFeed

You will want to look at zero point and its upgrade, which gives additional damage. It is highly effective on single targets and allows you to pull off an assault or a shadow reversal in the final stages of the combo.

This combo is nice, easy, and quick to pull off; if you do not want to go into the hassle of performing the shadow reversal or other big moves, you can finish with an additional strike. However, if you face a stricter foe or someone blocking, you can choose whichever move gives you the advantage to take them out more quickly.

Spirit Skills

One of the best spirit skills you can use with the Spear is Spirit Thrust, which does a decent amount of damage. You like to use it whenever there is a little distance between you and your enemies, as it does not do lousy stamina damage, but still deals nice damage overall. Make sure to upgrade it to get the swirl for additional damage.

Later, when you unlock it, you should go all the way down to the bottom to improve it even more. The great thing about this skill is that it links straight over to the trance spirit skill, which allows you to hold down the button on thrust, wait for it to charge fully, do all the damage, and then go into your trance skill.

However, this takes a free spirit to execute, and you will have to decide whether to invest in this or choose another skill that you think is broken.

Chain, Shrew, and Guard Trees

You should invest a bit in your chain tree, which links to earlier moves. Chaser is suitable for this weapon because it exhausts enemies quickly and saves you a whole bunch of stamina when you attack them. Whether you choose shadow reversal or shadow reversal impact depends on you.

The First Berserker: Khazan, PC, Gameplay, Best Spear Build and Ways To Play, Screenshot, NoobFeed

Shadow reversal and its upgrade impact break the stance of enemies and increase the shock that shadow reversal deals, which you find ideal for taking out enemies due to increased damage from behind.

Alternatively, assault and assault glide, with their upgrades, offer a tactical approach by keeping you at a distance. They allow you to kill off enemies and decide whether to follow up with a spirit attack or another move.

When you move over to the shrew tree, you should pick up a quick slash, which provides another way of getting a knife frame and helps bridge the distance to enemies nicely. Vital Strike might also be a good choice as an opener. However, in your opinion, the absolute star of the show is the guard tree for Spear.

You will want to pick Breakdown, as it offers another method of dishing out stamina damage every time you perform a brink guard.

After that, investing in Rod Smite allows you to perform a swift counterattack after a Brink Guard. The absolute crème de la crème is the spirit skill in the guard tree: phantom heatwave. This skill is completely broken, giving you a long invincibility whenever you use it while guarding against attacks.

A lot of damage is also reflected back at your enemies; the faster they hit you, the more damage they take. Better yet, it makes your Moonlight stance stronger, so you can do more damage when you're in that stance.

Boss Battles, Weapon Stats, and Upgrades

You can see how these moves work in real-time by looking at old boss fights. It's amazing how much damage and revenge energy you have when you hit back at enemies who have attacked you. When you pull off big moves like your Moonlight light and heavy attacks, they do incredible damage by themselves.

You deliver extraordinary damage as soon as you execute your unique spirit move and your full moon heavy-charged attack. When you manage to pull off your heatwave, not only does it do damage back to your foes, but it also gives you a nice red buff that further boosts any of your attacks while in Moonlight Stance.

The First Berserker: Khazan, PC, Gameplay, Best Spear Build and Ways To Play, Screenshot, NoobFeed

This combo can do just under 54,000 damage and is very easy to pull off. As you progress to the second stage, you use your heatwave, and even with that, it can do crazy amounts of damage for its simplicity.

Remember that willpower is a key attribute when scanning your weapon because it boosts your stamina regeneration. However, your primary focus should be proficiency, which allows you to take down enemy stamina bars ridiculously fast while also providing the most overall damage for your weapons.

If you upgrade your stats, you should scale as much as possible into proficiency. This will simplify your battles with bosses by increasing your damage output and causing enemies to fatigue rapidly, enabling you to land those devastating strikes more frequently. Strength, stamina, and energy are also areas where it pays well to put some effort. But strength, it's possible, could not require much of an investment.

Beginner Build

For a beginner build, pick up the first node of Swift Attack for your Moonlight stance. You will want to invest as much as possible into the node below it, which is your Moonlight stance – this is incredible and should be maxed out whenever possible. Then, you should invest in a full moon because it does too much damage not to take up.

After that, pick up the passives on the left-hand side, which include Moonlight stance vitality and Moonlight step. Heading over to the right-hand tree, you should pick up your potent blow; the first one you should pick up is Shadow Cleaver if you have the points available, followed by Thrust, which will allow you to specialize further later on.

The First Berserker: Khazan, PC, Gameplay, Best Spear Build and Ways To Play, Screenshot, NoobFeed

Make sure you pick up chasers in the chain tree because it is very effective in all combat situations. Also, invest in shadow reversal to maximize your spirit strike potential from behind enemy lines, and consider trance as it links with your spirit strikes, along with chase devour if you have the points.

Over in the shrew tree, pick up quick slash, and finally, in the guard tree, pick up breakdown if possible to help you achieve those stamina breaks once more, along with phantom heatwave, which is the icing on the cake, performing amazingly in all situations, whether you are taking out small targets or more enormous bosses.

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