Source-checked framework: skill unlock levels, point totals, drop gates and UI labels come from the game code. Route ordering and stat priorities are recommendations, not measured clear rates.

Guitarist — Prismatic Encore Starter (Level 1 → 70)

Ranged critical-strike play built on lightning. You draw enemies together with Heaven's Circuit, channel Sustain Beam for damage and mitigation, and use Legato Rush and Stage Ghost to stay out of melee. Perfect Pitch converts the whole build into critical damage.

The core idea

One branch does almost all the work. Perfect Pitch turns your high attack cadence into critical damage, Heaven's Circuit gathers and Shocks packs, and Legato Rush supplies mobile lightning and a barrier. Max Perfect Pitch, then Heaven's Circuit, then Legato Rush, and take exactly one point in everything else. The Guitarist is squishier than the Drummer early on, so the routing below deliberately buys Heaven's Circuit before extra damage.

Perfect Pitch

Passive

Heaven's Circuit

Active

Legato Rush

Triggered

Stage Ghost

Active

Prismatic Cadenza

Active

Where the 69 points end up

Branch	Allocation	Points
Fusion	Perfect Pitch 20; Heaven's Circuit 20; Legato Rush 17; Harmonic Convergence 1; Prismatic Cadenza 1	59
Metal	Heavy Gauge 1; Faultline Riff 1; Downstroke Barrage 1; Dissonant Collapse 1; Wall of Death 1	5
Punk	Hotwired 1; Feedback Split 1; Stage Ghost 1; Feedback Loop 1; Anarchy Broadcast 1	5

You earn one class point per level (points = level − 1), so level 70 gives exactly 69 points and this plan spends all 69. Non-ultimate nodes cap at 20 hard ranks; ultimates cap at 1. This is the same 69-point layout the endgame Prismatic Encore Guitarist uses, so the climb doubles as build assembly — and a branch reset or full reset refunds points if you want to test something else.

Levelling path, 1 → 70

Each row shows your cumulative point total at the end of that block, so you can check yourself at any level. Spend points as you earn them — nothing here rewards banking.

Level 1 → 4

3 points spent

Perfect Pitch 2 · Heaven's Circuit 1 (level 4)

Perfect Pitch is raw critical chance and critical damage from rank 1 and it scales every source of damage you will ever use. Heaven's Circuit is your first real button — take one rank the instant it unlocks.

Level 5 → 8

7 points spent

Perfect Pitch to 3 · Heaven's Circuit to 2 · Legato Rush 1 (level 8) · Hotwired 1

Legato Rush is melee-triggered mobility with arc lightning and a barrier — it is how a ranged character escapes a room that closed on them. Hotwired 1 adds movement, attack speed and Sustain recovery for a single point.

Level 9 → 13

12 points spent

Perfect Pitch to 6 · Heaven's Circuit to 4

Heaven's Circuit ranks widen the pull and the Shock application. Gathering the pack is what makes a fragile ranged character safe, so it is worth as much as the damage passive here.

Level 14 → 18

17 points spent

Harmonic Convergence 1 (level 13) · Perfect Pitch to 9 · Prismatic Cadenza 1 (level 18)

Harmonic Convergence is a one-point prerequisite that also turns your crits on Shocked enemies into Harmony. Prismatic Cadenza unlocks at 18 and is the one ultimate you take.

Level 19 → 35

34 points spent

Perfect Pitch to 20 · Heaven's Circuit to 10

Finish Perfect Pitch first. Twenty ranks of critical chance and critical damage is the largest single scaling available to you before level 70, and it applies to beam ticks, Legato arcs and Cadenza alike.

Level 36 → 55

54 points spent

Heaven's Circuit to 20 · Legato Rush to 11

A maxed Heaven's Circuit holds an entire Midnight Rave pack in one field. Legato ranks then give you more passes, more arc lightning and a stronger barrier, which is this class's main answer to being surrounded.

Level 56 → 70

69 points spent

Legato Rush to 17 · Feedback Split 1 · Stage Ghost 1 · Feedback Loop 1 · Heavy Gauge 1 · Faultline Riff 1 · Downstroke Barrage 1 · Dissonant Collapse 1 · (after Skull Collector) Wall of Death 1 · Anarchy Broadcast 1

The final single points are cheap utility: Stage Ghost is a hard escape, Feedback Loop restores Sustain, and the Metal chain is your prerequisite path. Hold the last two points for Wall of Death and Anarchy Broadcast until you own Death Metal Skull Collector.

The one-ultimate rule

All three Guitarist ultimates (Wall of Death, Prismatic Cadenza, Anarchy Broadcast) unlock at level 18, but you may only learn one of them unless Death Metal Skull Collector is equipped. Learn Prismatic Cadenza only. It is the ultimate this build is named for and the only one that converts its own damage into a shield — the others are weaker as a solo pick while you are still fragile.

Skill bindings

While levelling

Heaven's Circuit and Prismatic Cadenza. Keep Pick Rake, Power Chord and Sustain Beam on their normal combat bindings — Sustain Beam is your sustained damage and your mitigation, not a filler.

At level 70

Heaven's Circuit, Downstroke Barrage and Stage Ghost on your non-ultimate binds, Prismatic Cadenza as your ultimate. You have six skill slots with no level gating, so the spare slots are already waiting for the second and third ultimate once Skull Collector arrives.

Venue run order

Venue order is fixed by Sir Don's briefings, not by your level. Clearing a venue is only half of an unlock — you must report back to Sir Don to actually receive the next one.

The Guitarist front-loads damage but not defence. Expect City Streets and Midnight Rave to punish standing still. If a venue feels lethal, drop Amp rather than grinding levels — Amp 1 through 11 scales enemy Soul and damage, and there is no reason to fight an inflated enemy before your build exists.

Venue	Unlocks	How to run it
The Rusty Nail	Report to Sir Don → Backyard Party	Your opening venue. Clear it once on Amp 1 and move on. There is nothing here worth a second run.
Backyard Party	Report to Sir Don → City Streets, the Workbench and your crew (follower) selection	The most important report in the game — it hands you the Workbench and your follower in one step. Clear it once, report immediately, then come back later. Backyard Party has three bosses, which makes it the best venue boss loop in the game, but most of that value is locked behind level 70.
City Streets	Report to Sir Don → Midnight Rave, poker and pinball	A 3×3 grid of rooms. This is usually where a Guitarist starts dying; drop Amp rather than out-levelling it. Report as soon as it is cleared to open both minigames.
Midnight Rave	Post-clear briefing → the Woodshed	Its boss guarantees two distinct rare material types and drops guaranteed rare-or-better gear, so this is the one venue genuinely worth repeating before 70 — for materials, not for sets.
The Woodshed	Endless waves; the endgame farm	Open it, look at it, and leave. The Woodshed is not a levelling venue for an unfinished build — it is where you go after 70 with working defences.

Should you repeat a venue before moving on?

Do not repeat venues for set items or Albums before level 70.

Set-item rolls and the Platinum Album are both hard-gated: the drop chance returns 0% until your level (or your Fame-equivalent level) reaches 70. Non-boss set drops are gated the same way. Grinding a boss loop at level 40 for a set piece is time spent on a drop that cannot happen.

Ordinary relics. Boss relic rolls are not level-gated — venue bosses can hand you Death Metal Skull Collector, Royal Albert's Hall or Marching Harness at any level. If you are short on the relics listed in your class guide, boss loops are legitimate.
Rare materials. The Midnight Rave boss guarantees two distinct rare material types; the final Backyard Party boss yields one to two. This is how you fund follower gear and early crafting.
Fame, only when you are genuinely under-levelled for the next venue. If you can clear the next venue, clear the next venue — new content pays better than repeated content.

Amp runs from 1 to 11 and scales enemy Soul, damage, aggression and drop fortune. Non-boss special-drop chance starts at 0.20% on Amp 1 and rises by 0.05 points per Amp to a 0.50% cap at Amp 7 — above Amp 7 it does not improve at all. Before level 70 that cap is close to irrelevant, so run the highest Amp where your kills per minute stay high, and never an Amp that makes you stop to recover between packs.

Early chase relics

Boss relic rolls are not level-gated, so every one of these can drop while you level. Do not wait for a perfect item — equip the best real thing you own and keep moving.

Death Metal Skull Collector

Removes the one-ultimate restriction and unlocks the final two points of the 69-point layout. The highest-value early chase item for this plan.

The Last Working Tube

Adds lightning basic hits while you channel Sustain Beam. It converts your safest action into real damage, which is precisely what a fragile levelling Guitarist needs.

Dead Channel Switch

Activated by Pick Rake; it doubles your beam-protection charge rate. This is the difference between channelling being safe and channelling being suicide.

E-Bow of Endless Sustain

The offhand this build eventually wants, and useful immediately for beam uptime. Note it slows channel movement by 25% on top of the normal channel penalty.

Pendant of Royal Albert's Hall

Phantom clones plus a large Drop Fortune bonus. The Fortune line compounds over the whole climb, so wear it as soon as it drops.

Saint Elmo's Glass Slide

Lightning rails that fit the Fusion damage profile without asking you to change how you fight.

Widowmaker Cabinet

The instrument the endgame build uses, with a large Power Chord bonus. Worth equipping long before the rest of the loadout exists.

Marching Harness of the Endless Parade

Defense plus move speed. A ranged character's survival budget is mostly movement, and this is the cleanest early source of it.

Which follower to pick, and how to equip it cheaply

Pick: Manager

You get a free choice of Bouncer, Roadie or Manager when the crew unlocks after Backyard Party. Manager is the default: the Free Promotion aura adds Ability Damage, Record Deal applies Elemental Vulnerability that your lightning damage cares about, and the Fame and Fortune bonuses compound across the whole climb to 70.

Craft ordinary Manager gear at the Workbench first. Each slot recipe costs roughly 30–36 Parts plus 8–18 of two other basic materials, which is well within what breaking down a single venue run yields.
Fill all six slots (Press Pass, Executive Shades, Trenchcoat, Limo Key, Tablet, Laser Pointer) with ordinary items before chasing quality. The fixed per-slot bonuses are what drive the aura, and an empty slot contributes nothing.
Ordinary follower crafting has only a ~3% relic chance — do not chase it. Break down every relic you will not use for a Vial of Adoration, then spend 2 Vials + 40 Parts on the Vial of Adoration Relic Forge for a guaranteed relic.
Each follower relic rolls one native ability from an eight-ability pool and you cannot choose it. Re-craft to reroll the ability; Acclivity Remix will refuse follower gear outright.
Prioritize the Trenchcoat (Stagewear) slot early for follower Soul and Defense. A follower that dies in the first ten seconds of a pack gave you no aura for the fight that mattered.

Bouncer is a reasonable temporary swap if you are dying during charged casts or long channels before 70 — its threat and shove buy you the channel window. Return to Manager for farming once your defences hold.

When to play the side activities

Poker and pinball both unlock from the same City Streets briefing. Neither is a substitute for combat levelling — Fame comes from kills — but both convert spare materials into things combat does not drop.

Workbench (unlocked after Backyard Party)

Immediately, and then every time your Parts pile gets large.

The highest-value side activity before 70, because it is where your follower kit comes from. Craft the six ordinary follower slot items first, then use the Vial of Adoration Relic Forge (2 Vials + 40 Parts) whenever you have banked two Vials.

Poker (unlocked after City Streets)

Play your full daily payout allowance, then stop.

A run is 10 rounds with an 8-card hand, 3 plays and 2 discards per round. The daily full-payout limit is three runs on Encore or two on One-Take; later runs pay 60% or 50%. Entry is 260 Parts + 60 Fabric + 50 Wood per chip, affordable from breakdown income alone. Acclivity Shards are max(1, floor(tickets / 45)).

Pinball (unlocked after City Streets)

When you have Amp Components to spare, and whenever you want branch stones.

A token costs 200 Parts + 50 Metal + 10 Amp Components and buys three balls. Tickets are floor(score / 1,000), bounded 1–25, with bank/jackpot/sweep bonuses up to a 35-ticket base cap. Shards are max(1, floor(tickets / 20)) — a better shard conversion at the same ticket count than poker, though run length and entry costs differ.

Gear Raffle (at the Workbench)

Only to fix a specifically weak slot.

Standard is 10 tickets; premium is 25 tickets plus 2 Pure Rhythm Essence for a 5% normal-pool relic roll. Premium cannot roll the Album and has zero set weighting, so it is not a route to either. Do not treat it as a jackpot.

Neither minigame gives Fame, and Amp has no direct Fame multiplier. If your goal this session is level 70, the minigames are a detour — play them when you are materials-rich and Vial-poor, or when your daily payout window is about to reset.

Clearing your stash and banking materials

Press U to open the advanced inventory panel. The point of the workflow below is that you should never salvage items one at a time — you tag the handful you care about, then break down everything else in one click.

1 — Know your four view tabs

The inventory has four view tabs: Items, Materials, Song Stones and Followers. Break Down All only operates on the tab you are looking at, and only Items and Followers have a Break Down All button at all.

2 — Tag keepers into the two Preferred tabs

Only the first two manual tabs are Preferred tabs, and only items sitting in those two tabs are protected from Break Down All. Assign with the 1 / 2 keys, with F1 / F2 (or View + A/B on a controller), or by dragging the item onto the tab. Items in any other manual tab are not protected.

3 — Decide what a keeper actually is

Preferred tab 1: your current and next-tier gear, plus every relic from your class guide's chase list. Preferred tab 2: upgrade candidates you have not compared yet. Anything else is material. Equipped gear, locked items and quest items are already excluded from Break Down All, so you do not need to tag those.

4 — Use Sort to keep the Preferred tabs readable

While you are on a Preferred tab a Sort button appears next to Break Down All. Toggling it (Sort / Unsort) applies an automatic ordering to that tab so both stay scannable as they fill. It is per-tab, so you can sort tab 1 and leave tab 2 in manual order.

5 — Break Down All

On the Items tab press Break Down All (bottom-right); it has a multi-step confirmation so a misclick cannot empty your stash. On the Followers tab the same button reads “Breakdown all Follower gear”. Run this at the end of every venue clear.

6 — Use the search filter before you break down

Press / to toggle the search bar. Search for a relic or set name before a mass breakdown if you are unsure you tagged everything — the grid filters live, so a two-second check costs far less than losing a relic.

Breakdown yields are driven by item slot, rarity and tier, so you can aim your breakdowns at whichever material you are short of:

Break down	Yields	Spend it on
Any relic	1 Vial of Adoration (and nothing else)	Follower relic forging: 2 Vials + 40 Parts.
Everything non-relic	Parts (1 + rarity bonus + tier bonus)	The universal currency — follower crafts, poker chips and pinball tokens all run on Parts.
Instruments	Wood Scrap	Poker chip entry cost.
Head / Body / Legs / Gloves / Belt / Boots	Fabric	Poker chip entry cost and general crafting.
Accessories and necklaces	Metal Scrap (scales with rarity, not tier)	Pinball token entry cost. Break down rare accessories rather than rare armour when you need Metal.
CDs	Signal Wire	General crafting.
Class-flavoured items	Drum Heads, Strings, Amp Tubes, Mic Capsules or Synth Chips	Class-specific recipes — keep breaking down off-class drops, they are not useless.

The rarity bonus rises from Magic (+1) to Epic (+5) and the tier bonus from Studio (+1) to Arena (+3), so a high-rarity Arena item you will never wear is worth far more as materials than as stash clutter. The habit to build before 70 is simple: clear a venue, tag the two or three genuine keepers into Preferred tab 1, and Break Down All the rest before you leave the hub.

What happens at level 70

At level 70 the Legacy tree opens (Legacy points = level − 70) and set items and the Platinum Album become eligible drops for the first time. Your 69 class points are already in their final endgame arrangement, so continue with the Level 2000 Woodshed guide: open Legacy in Aura and Resonance, prioritize Thick Skin, and start looping Backyard Party bosses for sets and your first Album.

Continue with the Level 2000 Woodshed guide, or review the full class page and equipment sets.