Some ideas about Maxwell's skill tree

[Strong Wendy]

1. Nightmare Throne Binding

When Maxwell rides a Beefalo equipped with a Nightmare Saddle, taking knockback damage triggers a Shadow binding effect that prevents dismounting. This effect has a 30-second cooldown, mirroring his lore of being chained to the Nightmare Throne.

2. Nightmare King's Staves

2.1 Ancient Cane

Near an Ancient Pseudoscience Station, Maxwell can craft the Ancient Cane using 1 Walking Cane, 2 Thulecite, and 3 Nightmare Fuel. It grants Shadow Duelists a +4 damage bonus, functioning as an enhanced Walking Cane.

2.2 Despair Lazy Wand

Near a Shadowcraft Plinth, combine the Ancient Cane with 1 Despair Stone, 2 Pure Fear, and 1 Amber Gem to create the Despair Lazy Wand. It grants Shadow Duelists a +8 damage bonus (equivalent to a buffed Lazy Forager).

 

• Mechanic: When equipped by a sane entity (outside the Enlightenment Zone) with <100% durability, the wand slowly repairs itself while draining 20 Sanity per minute.
• Synergy: Wearing both Despair Stone Helmet and Despair Stone Chestplate increases durability regeneration and reduces Sanity drain.
• Resistance: Maxwell and Wanda take reduced Sanity damage from this effect.

3. Shadow Gear Synergies

• Magician's Top Hat: While worn, Shadow Servants deposit collected items into the Shadow Dimension Storage if space is available.
• Pick/Axe: When held, Shadow Servants use "power mining" on minerals, increasing resource yield.
• Fire Staff: Shadow Duelists’ dash ignite targets when Maxwell wields the Fire Staff (equivalent to a direct Fire Staff use).
• Ice Staff: Shadow Duelists’ dash freeze targets when Maxwell wields the Ice Staff (equivalent to a direct Ice Staff use).
• Ancient Cane/Despair Lazy Wand: Holding either increases Shadow Puppets (Duelists and Servants) movement speed.
• Shadow Incense Burner: When held, Shadow Duelists summon Small Shadows on dash, dealing 42.5 damage (similar to the shadow-themed Enlightened Crown).

4. Summon Woven Shadows

Maxwell spends 30 Sanity to summon Woven Shadows (1 HP) in a targeted area. Upon spawning, they crawl to Maxwell, players with shadow items, or Beefalo with Nightmare Saddles, restoring 75 HP per shadow when absorbed.

• Boss Mechanic: During battles with the Ancient Weave, summoned Woven Shadows betray Maxwell to heal the enemy (mirroring how Wickerbottom’s Grumble Bees aid the Bee Queen).
• Death Trigger: All active Woven Shadows despawn when the summoner dies.

5. Teleportato

Maxwell can build a Wooden Thing Base and assemble Box Thing, Crank Thing, Ring Thing, and Metal Potato Thing into a Teleportato.

 

• Function: Interacting with the Teleportato allows map-based teleportation (like Wortox) or cancellation via re-interaction.
• Limits: 1 Teleportato per world; 4 item slots (excluding unique items like Chester’s Eyebone); all carried items drop near the device upon activation.

6. Shadow Dimension Storage Upgrade

Place at least 1 Pure Fear in each slot of the Shadow Dimension Storage. During a New Moon, if this condition is met, the storage upgrades from 12 to 18 slots—but item spoilage speed increases from 1.5x to 3x.

7. Codex Umbra Commands

Maxwell can issue commands via the Codex Umbra:

• "Disperse": Dismiss all Shadow Puppets (Duelists and Servants) instantly.
• "Banish": Clear all active Shadow Sneaks and Shadow Prisons.
• "Rally": Force all Shadow Puppets to stop actions and converge on Maxwell. 

[Wawchik]

Review time!

1. Maxwell doesn't need any direct buffs like this and this would be very niche since 1. It's post rift 2. It only works with a single item

2. 

2.1 lazy explorer already does that it's considered tier 1 magic (+ 4 damage) 

2.2 this shouldn't be Maxwell exclusive 

3 all these things are cool but 

3.1. Should be toggle able 

3.2. Not needed really, workers are already good enough 

3.3. Overpowered 

3.4. Also overpowered

3.5. Duelists almost never need additional speed

3.6. Insanely overpowered 

4. In combat it's better to heal the traditional way than this, but in day-to-day survival this makes Maxwell stronger since you can just heal anytime like Wortox

5. Eh, the worst method of teleportation, 4 items is not enough, you will only have 2 free slots since you have to take codex and nightmare fuel so you kind of just drop everything you have when teleporting since you also need the items you've equipped. 

6. Overpowered. I think adding pure horror shouldn't give the hat a straight upgrade, but rather a side grade, something that isn't just better than the original hat, but maybe a gimmick that will make some people consider using it over the normal hat

7. Nobody will pick these unless they're all one skill tbh 

The issue with Maxwell is that if you give him any buffs he will become even more overpowered than he currently is.

Edited May 18, 2025 by Wawchik

[Uedo]

I think having a side that is focused around Clockworks would actually give a use to the recruitment mechanic from the broken ones - i'd love Max to be able to make broken clockworks.

[Cuernito.]

I think some skills that make maxwell a high risk high reward mage could be a lot better, something like:

Maxwell cursed shadow armor: Maxwell can create a shadow armor around himself using his book and this armor its the same protection than the normal shadow armor and you dont need to drop your backpack to apply this armor (the armor work more like an effect) but if you want to summon the shadows to protect you maxwell is gonna need to give health (10 points of total health) and this armor can only withstand 5 hits and after that its gonna break like a crystal made of shadows.

Maxwell cursed shadow weapons: Maxwell can curse any shadow weapon using an upgrade to codex umbra. This curse make any shadow weapon make 25 extra damage points and it makes the weapon being infinite but with a cost, all the new shadow cursed weapons can break if maxwell is hit while holding the weapons (after 4 hits, the weapons lost 25% durability per hit) and maxwell need to give 5 total health points per shadow weapon on his inventory, and finally all shadow cursed weapons are attached to maxwell till he dies or the weapon breaks, so the weapons can't be dropped to the ground (like acursed trinkets).

• The new shadow cursed sword its the only weapon that gets a new special attack: every 4 hits of maxwell using this weapon to make the damage the sword gets charged, and during this maxwell can use the sword to release a powerfull shadow flame ranged attack (like walter special attacks slingshot) thats deals 160 damage.

Maxwell cursed staves and amulets. Maxwell can curse with shadows some amulets and staves. You are gonna need to have the upgrade codex umbra with the correct gem in order to do this. All cursed staves are infinite but if maxwell is holding them they break after one hit (only red, blue, orange, yellow and purple staves can be cursed), and like all other cursed items, they need to take maxwell total health points, 2 health points per staff and they can't leave maxwell main inventory. The amulets are the same but only some of them can be cursed (red, yellow, blue, purple, orange). 

All the cursed items but the cursed armor need the codex umbra to upgrade using gems for staves/amulets and a stack of nightmare fuel for the upgrade to cursed weapons).

Then some skills for team play like: 

Maxwell shadow parasite: you summon this and put one shadow parasite on any player, this tiny shadow thing can give maxwell the locations of others players in the map and maxwell can use the book to show his location to others players with the parasite.

Maxwell shadow lights: Maxwell can summon shadow hands holding a shadow torch to light some area of the map. This last for 1.5 days.

Maxwell secret shadow alliance: Maxwell and all the survivors around him can't be harassed by shadows like wavey jones or the night hands. The crawling horror and the terror beak make less damage to maxwell and all the survivors around. Terrorbeaks are less likely to spawn to maxwell and his friends.

Then some strong affinity skills:

Maxwell shadow rabbit: if maxwell is hit while using full shadow armor he can drop a little shadow rabbit and after a while the little fella explodes healing 20 points to maxwell.

Maxwell shadow infamous protection(skills 1,2,3): if maxwell is using any shadow weapons sometime he can deny the hit and a shadow shield of shadows appears breaking during the animation. The chances are 5%, 10% and 25%.

Night fairy: Maxwell can use an upgraded version of the codex umbra(with dreastone and pure horror) to spawn a fairy that follow maxwell till he dies, this fairy has the shape of charlie. And she can perform some strong buffs to maxwell. She gives maxwell extra 15% speed and during any fight she can destroy and absorb any crawling horror or terrorbeak to make maxwell duelists bigger and more robust so they last more in battle.(200 more health for any duelist). She takes 5% max sanity and 15 points of max total health, and you can only spawn one fairy at a time.

And finally some averange skills for servants, cages and sneak.

For the glory of the master: shadow servants can now mine hard materials (not sure if they can now) and they are slighly faster. They help with rowing too.

Shadow prisions: the cages take less sanity to be used.

Shadow bait: The shadow sneaks now take the aggro of any mobs but bosses.

I think with this maxwell could be more fun to use, i would like to see some high risk high reward skills for the mage of this game ngl.

Edited May 19, 2025 by NekoSoulx

[Cuernito.]

2 hours ago, Wawchik said:

Review time!

1. Maxwell doesn't need any direct buffs like this and this would be very niche since 1. It's post rift 2. It only works with a single item

2. 

2.1 lazy explorer already does that it's considered tier 1 magic (+ 4 damage) 

2.2 this shouldn't be Maxwell exclusive 

3 all these things are cool but 

3.1. Should be toggle able 

3.2. Not needed really, workers are already good enough 

3.3. Overpowered 

3.4. Also overpowered

3.5. Duelists almost never need additional speed

3.6. Insanely overpowered 

4. In combat it's better to heal the traditional way than this, but in day-to-day survival this makes Maxwell stronger since you can just heal anytime like Wortox

5. Eh, the worst method of teleportation, 4 items is not enough, you will only have 2 free slots since you have to take codex and nightmare fuel so you kind of just drop everything you have when teleporting since you also need the items you've equipped. 

6. Overpowered. I think adding pure horror shouldn't give the hat a straight upgrade, but rather a side grade, something that isn't just better than the original hat, but maybe a gimmick that will make some people consider using it over the normal hat

7. Nobody will pick these unless they're all one skill tbh 

The issue with Maxwell is that if you give him any buffs he will become even more overpowered than he currently is.

I think you need to check the others survivors skill trees to see what is the real overpower in this game, i think some buffs to maxy should be ok, he is not that strong anymore, and more importantly i think the usage of beefalo on maxwell shouldnt be encouraged, i think (just an opinion) he needs more stuff to players that dont like beefalo interaction. In my opinion the only character that should be encouraged to use a beefalo is wes. All the other survivors need a fun and strong gameplay around their power.

[NPCMaxwell]

THE TELEPOTATOE PLEASE!!!! INCLUDING THE MAXWELL LAUGH SOUND EFFECT!!!!

[BB Marioni]

All skill trees would have planar damage functions. I'm really hoping they won't just slap planar damage into his duelists and instead give him an entirely separate shadow creature to summon that can deal planar damage, also cannot be summoned together with duelists/ servants.

- disagree with the saddle. Maxwell should not have any beefalo affinities as it is not his theme. I know a lot of people use him on a beefalo, but I personally don't like taming beefalos and it does not suit him. A throne would be nice though, but as a base construct, similar to the sisturn/ magic box

- woven shadows is a need idea, but not as healing source as its not difficult to heal maxwell given his low hp.

- teleportation structures should only be a winona thing. 

Made my own suggestions here: 

 

Edited May 19, 2025 by BB Marioni
added my own thread

[Strong Wendy]

14 hours ago, Wawchik said:

Review time!

1. Maxwell doesn't need any direct buffs like this and this would be very niche since 1. It's post rift 2. It only works with a single item

2. 

2.1 lazy explorer already does that it's considered tier 1 magic (+ 4 damage) 

2.2 this shouldn't be Maxwell exclusive 

3 all these things are cool but 

3.1. Should be toggle able 

3.2. Not needed really, workers are already good enough 

3.3. Overpowered 

3.4. Also overpowered

3.5. Duelists almost never need additional speed

3.6. Insanely overpowered 

4. In combat it's better to heal the traditional way than this, but in day-to-day survival this makes Maxwell stronger since you can just heal anytime like Wortox

5. Eh, the worst method of teleportation, 4 items is not enough, you will only have 2 free slots since you have to take codex and nightmare fuel so you kind of just drop everything you have when teleporting since you also need the items you've equipped. 

6. Overpowered. I think adding pure horror shouldn't give the hat a straight upgrade, but rather a side grade, something that isn't just better than the original hat, but maybe a gimmick that will make some people consider using it over the normal hat

7. Nobody will pick these unless they're all one skill tbh 

The issue with Maxwell is that if you give him any buffs he will become even more overpowered than he currently is.

The four-slot item limit for the Teleportato is designed to complement the Shadow Dimension Storage mechanism. All characters must store their items in the Shadow Dimension Storage before teleportation. Maxwell can teleport while carrying the Magician's Top Hat and retrieve items from the Shadow Dimension upon arrival. Other characters can only access their stored items by teleporting to the location where the Magician's Chest is placed. 

[Keller Max]

There should be a skill where Maxwell can use his Magician's Top Hat to teleport to a Magician's Chest. It can cost either Sanity or Hat durability or just have a big cooldown.

[SilverSpoon]

What I expect from Maxwell's skill tree is that some powerful skills have a downside of "become unable to read Wickerbottom's book". The image is "Surviver vs King" like Woltox's "Nice vs Naughty". By doing so, character balance will be achieved even if the skills are more powerful.

[Keller Max]

29 minutes ago, SilverSpoon said:

What I expect from Maxwell's skill tree is that some powerful skills have a downside of "become unable to read Wickerbottom's book". The image is "Surviver vs King" like Woltox's "Nice vs Naughty". By doing so, character balance will be achieved even if the skills are more powerful.

Good idea actually! Except I wish he couldn't read Wicker books by default. Maybe they will make it once Maxwell's skilltree gets released.

[Edible Coal]

33 minutes ago, Keller Max said:

Good idea actually! Except I wish he couldn't read Wicker books by default. Maybe they will make it once Maxwell's skilltree gets released.

i dont think whatever he can read wicker bottom book would be relevant after wicker have her skill tree, it should be good enough that wicker can stand on her own even maxwell exsist

[SilverSpoon]

6 hours ago, Keller Max said:

Good idea actually! Except I wish he couldn't read Wicker books by default. Maybe they will make it once Maxwell's skilltree gets released.

Thank you. 

However I couldn't be a big fan of not being able to read Wicker books by default tbh. I don't like the update that make not to able something we could do before, and I think we're already so used to Maxwell being able to read Wicker books.

If more balancing is needed, I'd prefer buff Wickerbottom.

Edited May 19, 2025 by SilverSpoon

[Echsrick]

On 5/18/2025 at 4:25 PM, Strong Wendy said:

Function: Interacting with the Teleportato allows map-based teleportation (like Wortox) or cancellation via re-interaction.

sign....another way to replace wortox.....

[NPCMaxwell]

7 hours ago, SilverSpoon said:

What I expect from Maxwell's skill tree is that some powerful skills have a downside of "become unable to read Wickerbottom's book". The image is "Surviver vs King" like Woltox's "Nice vs Naughty". By doing so, character balance will be achieved even if the skills are more powerful.

DEFINITELY What would be a reason for me to LOVE a potential skilltree actually, since the torn between the survivors group and old kingdom is one of my favourite szenarios (though I mostly swing towards "betrayal" which would probably not be part of a skilltree. But the split concept like for Wortox is feeling almost mandatory )

[PonyOfApocalips]

On 5/18/2025 at 4:25 PM, Strong Wendy said:

1. Nightmare Throne Binding

When Maxwell rides a Beefalo equipped with a Nightmare Saddle, taking knockback damage triggers a Shadow binding effect that prevents dismounting. This effect has a 30-second cooldown, mirroring his lore of being chained to the Nightmare Throne.

Bro you are monster. Why you want activete Maxwell's PTSD. 

Edited May 19, 2025 by PonyOfApocalips

[Hollow soul 3]

7 hours ago, Echsrick said:

sign....another way to replace wortox.....

They could give him a way to heal the team too, like with butterflies or something

[Strong Wendy]

17 hours ago, Echsrick said:

sign....another way to replace wortox.....

Wortox's Spirit Teleportation, when supplied with sufficient Souls, enables instantaneous, map - based relocation to any point globally. As only one Teleportato is allowed to exist in a world , Maxwell's Teleportato exhibits spatial binding; post - teleportation, reactivation necessitates physical return to the device's location. For example, after teleporting to the Lunar Island, Maxwell must navigate back to the mainland before re-engaging the Teleportato ,Wortox can teleport to the next destination simply by opening the map.

[Arepantera]

In my opinion maxwell is the "You know why I'm here, I know why I'm here. Let's skip the boring part of the game and go straight to the action" type of character, so I'm fine with any kind of skill tree upgrades as long as his servants get the ability to skip other mundane things, like tilling farm plots, or maybe fishing in small ponds,

[Strong Wendy]

On 5/19/2025 at 10:07 PM, SilverSpoon said:

What I expect from Maxwell's skill tree is that some powerful skills have a downside of "become unable to read Wickerbottom's book". The image is "Surviver vs King" like Woltox's "Nice vs Naughty". By doing so, character balance will be achieved even if the skills are more powerful.

I have a god damn plan: Maxwell's skill tree interface could adopt a chessboard-style layout. The king piece would progressively darken with increased allocation of monarch-themed skill nodes, whereas prioritizing survivor-oriented abilities would gradually lighten its coloration to white.