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Just when you thought you couldn’t get more powerful in V Rising, along came the Soul Shard items. Soul Shards, also called artifacts, are the most powerful amulets in the game. Each of them represents a spell element or magic type and they can even change your Ultimate Spell into something more powerful. The cost of getting them is high, of course. So I’m here to guide you on how to get the Soul Shards in V Rising and how they work.
Where to Get Soul Shards in V Rising
You need to build a specific structure called the Eye of Twilight to mark Soul Shards on the map. It’s a Decoration that you can unlock through the later stages of the main quest. You’ll eventually get its recipe if you progress the main quest long enough, so focus on Castle Heart upgrades, building, crafting, and boss-hunting.
I don’t recommend rushing to that stage as you will want to be at least level 86 before you start collecting the Soul Shards (I’ll explain why later). Once you’ve unlocked the Eye of Twilight recipe, you can find it in the build menu, under the Production and Dominance tabs.
After you’ve built the Eye of Twilight, four colorful icons will appear on the map:
These are the Soul Shard locations in V Rising. However, you can’t just waltz in and claim them. Each Soul Shard is carried by one of the four of the toughest bosses in V Rising.
Slay the Bosses to Get the Soul Shards
One of these four Soul Shard carrier bosses is also the game’s final boss and a part of the main quest (as the final objective). That would be Dracula and he represents the red Soul Shard icon on the map right at the edge of Ruins of Mortium.
In summary, these are the bosses holding the Soul Shards:
- Magenta Soul Shard (Chaos Magic) – Talzur Winged Horror (Level 86)
- Green Soul Shard (Unholy Magic) – Solarus the Immaculate (Level 86)
- Yellow Soul Shard (Storm Magic) – Adam the Firstborn (Level 88)
- Red Soul Shard (Blood Magic) – Dracula the Immortal King (Level 90)
Hence, you’ll have to defeat each boss to get their Soul Shard (and each only drops one shard by default no matter how many times you kill them). You’ll want to have at least tier 3 upgraded (Level 26) Ancestral Weapons if you want a good chance of defeating each of these bosses. A Level 30 Ancestral Weapon is also highly recommended if you can push for it.
Talzur the Winged Horror and Solarus the Immaculate are the easiest to slay. Meanwhile, Adam, the Firstborn, and Dracula are both shockingly difficult on default settings.
Soul Shard Mechanics
Thus, to shorten your search and make it easy for you to pick Soul Shards, here are their stats and bonuses:
| Soul Shard | Effect |
| Soul Shard of the Winged Horror (Chaos) | +XX Spell Power (depends on difficulty) +15% Critical Strike Chance +15% Damage to Vampires 20% chance to trigger Chaos Explosion on primary hit Replaces Ultimate Ability with Voidquake Vortex |
| Soul Shard of Solarus (Unholy) | +XX Spell Power (depends on difficulty) +15% Spell Cooldown Recovery Rate +15% Damage to Vampires 10% chance to spawn Death Knight on primary hit Replaces Ultimate Ability with Fallen Angel |
| Soul Shard of the Monster (Storm) | +XX Spell Power (depends on difficulty) +15% Weapon Attack Speed +15% Damage to Vampires 10% chance to trigger Chain Lightning on primary hit Replaces Ultimate Ability with Eye of the Storm |
| Soul Shard of the Dracula (Blood) | +XX Spell Power (depends on difficulty) +25% Blood Type Efficiency +25% Damage to Vampires 20% chance to trigger Vampiric Curse on primary hit Replaces Ultimate Ability with Blood Storm |
By default, each of these Soul Shards is unique and you can only have one of each in a particular gameplay server or session. However, you can change this in the Advanced Game Settings so that you can get more than one of each Soul Shard, provided you can defeat the Soul Shard bosses again and again.
Related:
V Rising: How to Unlock Bat FormAdditionally, you have to remember these tips and pointers for carrying Soul Shards:
- Soul Shards occupy the Amulet slot and you can only equip one at a time.
- Soul Shards also prevent you from using Bat Form regardless of game or difficulty settings.
- You need a special Pedestal for Soul Shards (Production, Storage tab) if you want to leave them without dropping them so you can assume Bat Form.
- Other players can loot your Soul Shards if player looting is enabled in a PvP server.
The tradeoff is worth it as each of these Soul Shards can enhance your build, especially if you’re constantly fighting other players in PvP or even just the Rift Incursion endgame.
V Rising is available on the PC and PlayStation platforms.
