If you want to deck your main character out in the imposing armor of one of Divinity: Original Sin 2‘s most notorious villains, you‘ll have to contend with some drawbacks. Equipping any piece of Braccus Rex‘s gear curses the wearer with painful stat and skill penalties. However, this curse can be temporarily lifted by using the Bless skill, letting you utilize the armor‘s excellent bonuses.
Who is Braccus Rex?
Before jumping into curse removal, here‘s some backstory. Braccus Rex is an infamous tyrant and Source user who terrorized Rivellon centuries ago. His armor and weapons were sealed away to prevent them from causing further harm. By the time Divinity: Original Sin 2 rolls around, Braccus has long perished but left behind extremely powerful (and cursed) relics.
As the protagonist of DOS2, you‘ll inevitably cross paths with Braccus Rex‘s cursed artifacts – especially his armor, which offers alluring bonuses and Unique-tier stats despite its drawbacks.
The Allure and Curse of Braccus Rex‘s Armor
Braccus Rex‘s armor is made up of five pieces:
- Helm of the Tyrant
- Breastplate of the Tyrant
- Gauntlets of the Tyrant
- Greaves of the Tyrant
- Boots of the Tyrant
Each armor piece provides bonuses like +Critical Chance and +Critical Damage to complement Braccus Rex‘s skillset. The set is Divine-tier quality.
However, all pieces share the unique "Tyrant‘s Set" property which applies the following effects when worn:
- -2 Strength
- -2 Finesse
- -2 Intelligence
- -2 Constitution
- -1 All Warfare skills
- -1 All Huntsman skills
- -1 All Scoundrel skills
- …and more (all attributes/skills take a penalty)
As you can see, equipping Braccus‘ armor makes your character significantly weaker in most areas. But the set wouldn‘t still be infamous centuries later if it wasn‘t valuable despite its curse!
Removing Braccus‘ Curse with Bless
Thankfully, there is a way to temporarily lift the nasty curse on Braccus gear. The Bless skill will instantly purge curse effects and remove equipped cursed items from the target.
To remove Braccus Rex‘s armor curse:
- Ensure a party member has at least 1 point invested in Hydrosophist to enable Bless
- Equip the desired pieces of Rex‘s armor, cursing that character
- Cast Bless directly on the afflicted party member (must target them)
- Braccus‘s armor unequips automatically and the curse temporary lifts
However, the moment you manually re-equip any part of the set, your stats will once again plummet as the curse takes hold. The curse remains on the items permanently in Divinity: Original Sin 2.
Bless has a few downsides to consider too:
- 15 second cooldown between casts
- Costs 2 AP to cast each time
- Magical Armor blocks the application of Bless
- Temporary – curse recurs when pieces re-equipped
Is It Worth It? Weighing the Pros and Cons
At higher levels, Braccus Rex‘s armor can prove extremely powerful in the hands of a well-designed character. The innate bonuses complement aggressive, critical-focused builds very nicely. However, overcoming the curse takes effort.
Here‘s a comparison of the Helm of the Tyrant with and without the penalties of its curse active:
| Helm of the Tyrant | No Curse | With Curse |
|---|---|---|
| Physical Armor | 206 | 206 |
| Magic Armor | 187 | 187 |
| Strength | +2 | 0 |
| Finesse | +1 | -1 |
| Intelligence | +14 | +12 |
| Constitution | +4 | +2 |
| Critical Chance | +5% | +5% |
| Movement | 0% | 0% |
As you can see, Braccus‘s helm remains best-in-slot for Intelligence by a large margin. But with the curse decreasing Intelligence by 2 points, you lose 12 raw damage off your magic skills. Physical fighters suffer more severely from the STR/FIN reductions too.
In most cases, Rex‘s armor only outweighs equivalently leveled Divine pieces once investment into boosting attributes, Warfare, Huntsman, and Scoundrel negates some losses.
Supplementing Braccus‘s gear with equipment and buffs providing +Strength, +Finesse, +Intelligence, etc. is crucial. Talents expanding your gear slots are also extremely useful for squeezing in more attribute bonuses.
Here are two solid character templates I‘d recommend for wielding Rex‘s gear at higher levels:
Battlemage Enumerator
- Level 20
- Max Intelligence
- High Warfare + Scoundrel
- Talents: Lone Wolf / Glass Cannon
- Skills: Master spells in several schools + Chloroform
Ranger Assassin
- Level 18+
- High Finesse
- Max Warfare + Huntsman + Scoundrel
- Talents: Executioner / Picture of Health
- Skills: Range skills, high ground attacks, invisibility
These specialized builds can overcome Braccus‘ penalties through huge complementary stat investment and multiplier scaling on their abilities. In the right hands, Rex‘s gear brings best-in-slot bonuses few other Unique armors can match.
Just be prepared to cast Bless the moment you zone into combat, lest you start at a major disadvantage!
Repeatedly Purging the Curse
Here‘s an advanced tip for Braccus armor: the Bless strategy can become a core part of your playstyle rather than a temporary workaround.
By hotkeying Bless and having a character repeatedly cast it on themselves mid-combat, you purge the curse once it wears off gear pieces when re-equipped. This essentially gives you brief windows of turning Rex‘s armor bonuses on and off.
It requires meticulous micromanagement each fight, but allows squeezing extra value from the gear. You manually toggle the equipped state of the armor – taking full advantage during Bless‘ 15 second grace period where bonuses apply but penalties don‘t.
Admittedly this tries the patience and taxes action points, but remains viable for expert players determined to leverage Braccus gear long-term without being perpetually cursed.
In Summary
Braccus Rex‘s unique armor is a double-edged sword only advisable for seasoned parties who actively work to negate its painful curses. While the penalties can technically be removed with Bless to unlock the gear‘s power, I only recommend Rex‘s artifacts for tailored endgame builds sporting the resources and buffs needed to thrive despite the recurring curse effects.
For most players, I‘d say acquiring Rex‘s visually striking armor isn‘t worth the recurring hassle or steep attribute losses unless you plan to specialize a character around overcoming them. But unlocking the Bless buffing loop does at least offer a convenient stopgap for temporarily boosting underleveled parties struggling with tougher story encounters and bosses.
Hopefully this deep dive gives you the context needed to make an informed decision before seeking out Braccus Rex‘s infamous relics for yourself. I‘m happy to offer any other Divinity: Original Sin 2 insights or advice in the comments below! Let me know if you have a sweet Braccus armor build to share too – I‘m always theorycrafting new curse-countering concepts.
