Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night – How To Upgrade Shards

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is finally here, and it is a lot of fun. As you make your way through the game, you’ll encounter shards, which are dropped from enemies and bosses. These imbue your character with either passive or active abilities, which can be upgraded.

Before getting too far in the game, it’s probably worth knowing a bit about the system. So, here is a little guide on how to upgrade shards in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. 

How To Upgrade Shards In Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Shards are the magical abilities you find as you slaughter your way through the hordes of demons in the game. They can take the form of various skills in a few different categories, but the thing that binds them all together, other than your body, is how they are upgraded. 

There are two factors to the strength of a shard: the Grade and the Rank. 

Grade

The Grade is the simplest aspect to upgrade, and it is the one that governs the strength of the shard. This increases every time you gain another one of the same shard.

So, if you really want to improve your Fire Cannon, then you need to keep killing Cannon Morte until you have more. This goes for every shard you find. There is an upper limit to this, so you just can’t keep going, but you can always sell the excess shards for sweet money. 

Rank

The second part of the upgrade system is the Rank. This can be upgraded by chatting to Johannes in the safe house and choosing Enhance Shard.

Here, you use materials you find in the world to improve the behavior of the shards, whether that be by simply making a shard have a larger area of effect, or adding projectiles, for example.

You can find these materials out in the world or buy them from a shop; just don’t forget to use them if you like a specific shard. 

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That’s all there is to know about how to upgrade shards in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. There will be lots of other guides going up on this rather wonderful little indie game though. Be sure to check out our other Bloodstained guides for more tips and tricks.