Staying as Your Main Character Is Always the Better Choice in Soulmask

One of the main defining features of Soulmask is the unique mask, thus the title of the game in the first place. This mask gives special abilities and allows you to recruit Tribesmen or even take control of them completely. This is very useful for progressing, but does it make your main character obsolete?

Controlling Tribesmen vs. Main Character in Soulmask — Which is Better?

At the start of the game, you witness a person almost become a human sacrifice but then acquire the mask and escape. After this happens, character creation begins, allowing you to customize the character exactly how you want, from body shape to facial structure. Along with your character, you’ll be able to briefly customize the mask, deciding which masks to pick as your starter and switching up its colors.

As you progress from the character creation, you’ll quickly learn that you can use the mask to Deter different barbarian enemies in the world. This makes them prone and then allows you to eventually recruit them as Tribesmen when their recognition is high enough. When you’ve unlocked the mask repair node to Control, you’ll then be capable of taking control of your Tribesmen. Taking control lets you play that character as if they were the main character. There are plenty of benefits and reasons to doing this, but does it warrant giving up your main character? My answer will always be no, and here’s why:

Skills & Proficiencies

Tribesmen are very helpful in harvesting resources and crafting items. Just like the main characters, they are proficient in different fields. For example, one Tribesman might be skillful at logging, so you’ll want to assign them to collect wood for camp. Meanwhile, another tribesman is better at hunting, so you’ll want them to collect food and harvest animal materials. The main difference between the Tribesman and the main character is that the Tribesman has a proficiency cap of 100, but the main character has a cap of 50.

Having a proficiency cap of 50 is one feature that has a lot of players confused about. The question is, if there is a level cap on the main character, why would you want to stay as them, especially when you can take control of a more skilled Tribesman? In my experience playing the game, the answer is simple. The Tribesmen are better for carrying out their own individual tasks and supporting you rather than taking the lead. If your main character is lacking in a particular skill, then you’ll want to use a Tribesman (if you have one with that particular skill) to take your place for the time being. If you have a Tribesman who is really good at hunting, then you can control them and use them to get all the hunting materials you need. But ultimately, you’ll return to your character after the task is complete.

Perma-Death

You may be wondering, ‘Why not stay as the Tribesman if he has a stronger skill than the main character?’ Well, then, we come to another dilemma. Tribesmen have perma-death. In fact, it happens quite a bit. Tribesmen can be captured unexpectedly. They can also be killed while you’re raiding an enemy base or while they’re out in the wilderness collecting materials for camp. For this very reason, I believe they are meant to be disposable.

Soulmask is in a time period of the Aztecs, when sacrifices were huge. Right at the start, we see a sacrifice almost taking place. Heck, even when Tribesmen are captives to enemy tribes, they eventually become sacrifices. What clarifys this even more for me is an achievement I collected the other day. When three of my Tribesmen died, it gave me an achievement called “Sacrifice.” This confirms that the developers are pushing you to take control of other Tribesmen, not as a replacement for the main character but as a spawn. If you want to explore an unknown area but don’t want to risk your main character dying, send in a Tribesman. You can continuously recruit new people to your tribes, so losing one isn’t that much of a loss.

What makes your main character any different? Well, they can respawn as many times as you need. When you die, you can always spawn back in at the nearest campfire or bonfire. If you choose to respawn as a Tribesman, you can still revive them by using the bonfire to “Remodel Initial Character,” bringing them right back again and allowing you to switch back to them.

Appearance

My last reason for sticking with the main character is appearances. While not everyone may care what their character looks like, others very much do. You can’t control what Tribesmen look like besides their hairstyle and tattoos. While they may have some very powerful skills, they may be the ugliest soul you’ve ever laid eyes on. We are given the opportunity to make a character exactly how we want, so of course, I’m going to prefer playing that character over a random design I don’t particularly like.

Some may argue that the real main character here is the mask, which is why we’re given more opportunities to customize the mask on each character. However, even if that’s true, I’m not sure I want to play as a scrawny little guy with skeleton paint (unless that’s your jam), even if the mask is covering his face. Why would we get the chance to create our very own character if the character isn’t even important at all?

Am I saying you should never switch to control a Tribesmen? Absolutely not. You should definitely utilize your Tribesmen to help you progress, discover, and collect new items and abilities. However, at the same time, you should use them more as support for your main character rather than completely replacing your main with them. After all, it’s your main character, thanks to the mask, that’s doing the controlling in the first place.

Want some tips and tricks for gameplay? Check out GameSkinny’s Soulmask guides hub!