Ori and the Will of the Wisps: Ultimate Ability Purchase Guide

Introduction

Navigating Ori and the Will of the Wisps' ability system can make or break your playthrough. With limited Spirit Light and permanent purchase decisions, choosing the right skills at the right time is crucial. This guide breaks down the optimal purchase order, farming strategies, and common pitfalls to ensure you build Ori effectively for any playstyle.

Essential Early Game Purchases (Inkwater Marsh Phase)

So you're swimming in Spirit Light after exploring Inkwater Marsh, and Opher's ability shop in Wellspring Glades is looking mighty tempting. Here's the thing: you can't really go wrong with most purchases, but some will make your life way easier than others.

Spirit Smash: The Must-Buy First Skill

If you're only going to buy one thing early, Spirit Smash is it. This ability does everything: it cracks enemy shields, shatters those suspicious floor panels, and even reflects projectiles back at whoever threw them. Oh, and it doesn't cost a single drop of energy to use, so you can spam it all day long.

The best part? Opher normally sells it for 800 Spirit Light, but your very first purchase gets slashed in half to 400. That's an absolute steal for what you're getting.

Here's what makes it so good:

• Shield breaker: Makes armored enemies suddenly very vulnerable
• Environmental tool: Those breakable walls and floors? Not a problem anymore
• Free reflect: Send projectiles back without wasting energy
• Zero energy cost: Use it whenever you want, no strings attached

Spirit Star vs. Spike: Ranged Combat Choices

Once you've got Spirit Smash sorted, you'll want some ranged firepower. Opher offers two main options here, and the community's pretty split on which to grab first.

Spirit Star is this flashy boomerang that looks cool as hell and can hit levers or switches you can't reach otherwise. The catch is its range is kinda short, and you need to catch it on the return to maximize damage. It's got a specific sweet spot that takes practice.

Spirit Spike, on the other hand, is the reliable workhorse. It's a fast, straight-line spear that gives you brief hover frames when you throw it - think of it as a tiny safety net while you're in the air. It absolutely shreds floor hazards and just feels more consistent in combat. Most players on Reddit swear by grabbing Spike first for that hover utility alone, especially when you're still learning enemy patterns.

Both abilities are solid picks from Opher, so it really comes down to whether you want style points with the boomerang or safety nets with the spear.

Mid-Game Progression Skills (Kwolok's Hollow & Luma Pools)

Blaze: The Fire Spinner for Crowd Control

Blaze is your answer when the screen fills up with pests or you hit one of those annoying ice walls, and you can grab this ring of fire right after your first boss fight. That makes it one of the earliest power moves in your toolkit, so it's worth considering early.

Head over to Opher in Inkwater Marsh and he'll sell you the base version for 800 Spirit Light, but here's the thing: if you make Blaze your first purchase, he'll cut the price in half to 400. At that price, it's basically a must-buy.

Each cast costs one energy cell and what you get is a multi-hit burst that detonates flames around Ori. The initial blast is solid, but the real MVP is the fixed burn - 20 damage over 10 ticks, meaning 2 damage per tick. Unfortunately, damage buffs won't help here at all, so stacking Reckless or collecting ancestral pickups does nothing for those burn numbers.

Later on, if you've got energy to spare, grab the Charge Blaze upgrade for 2 energy per cast. You can hold the button and when you release, it ignites every enemy currently on screen. It's fantastic for one-shotting small pests in Naru's Grove or chipping away at early miniboss bars.

For energy management, slot the Efficiency shard if you find yourself running dry. It drops Charge Blaze's cost from 2 to 1.5, which means you can chain those screen-wide ignites way more comfortably.

Sentry: The Automated Turret Support

While Blaze is all about aggressive burst, Sentry is your 'set it and forget it' buddy that covers you while you reposition or heal. You can snag this ability from Opher for 800 Spirit Light, and it spawns up to three spirit orbs that hover near Ori, peppering enemies with rapid light shots for 0.7 base damage each.

Each cast costs exactly one energy cell, and while the damage isn't huge, the coverage is. The orbs also give you a tiny upward hop when they spawn, which speedrunners have turned into the 'Sentry Jump' technique. Cancel that hop with an up-slash and you've got yourself a vertical boost that can skip Double-Jump, Dash, or even Triple-Jump in places like the Glades, Wellspring, and Silent Woods. It's a godsend for completionists looking to sequence-break.

Upgrading to Sentry Speed costs 1600 Spirit Light and cranks up the attack speed and orb duration, which is worth it if you're leaning into this build.

For shard synergies, you have some killer options that turn Sentry from decent to devastating. Spirit Surge boosts Sentry damage directly, while Energy Efficient lowers the energy cost per cast. If you want faster deployment, Quick Cast shortens the cooldown between placements, and Light Harvest refunds energy on kills, keeping your turret uptime high even in prolonged fights.

One final note: upgrading Sentry is mandatory if you're chasing the 'Mad Skills' achievement, so make sure you budget for that 1600 Spirit Light upgrade cost.

Critical Utility Purchase: Water Breath

When to Buy Water Breath

Water Breath won't even appear in Opher's shop until you've hit two specific story beats. First, you need to finish The Wellspring dungeon - that entire chase and repair sequence. Then, you must speak with Kwolok a second time in Kwolok's Hollow to receive his next set of marching orders. Once you've done both, head back to Wellspring Glades and Opher will stock it.

So why's it essential? Luma Pools is basically one giant underwater maze, and without this upgrade, you're stuck with a suffocation timer the entire time. Water Breath removes that timer completely, which transforms those flooded chambers from stressful sprints into actual exploration zones. You can finally loot those underwater Spirit Light caches without panicking, and trust me, there are a lot of them.

Water Breath vs. Combat Skills Priority

The real question is whether you grab Water Breath first or funnel Spirit Light into combat skills instead. If you're playing like a completionist and want to see every corner of the map, Water Breath is almost always your safest bet. It opens the largest number of secrets, and you can refund its 500 Spirit Light cost within 15 minutes just by hitting the underwater caches you couldn't reach before - most drop 200-400 light each.

That said, if you're hitting a wall on a specific boss DPS check - like Mora's infinite spider swarm or the Sandworm chase sequence - then picking up a single combat upgrade first isn't crazy. Spike, Blaze, or Spirit Edge's triple swipe can shave 20-40% off those fight lengths, which might be the difference between survival and another death screen.

So it breaks down like this: exploration-focused players should absolutely prioritize Water Breath because it makes Luma Pools and even some earlier zones fully accessible, and the investment pays for itself almost immediately. Combat-focused players struggling with specific encounters might want to grab one damage upgrade first, but you'll want Water Breath right after.

Late-Game & Specialized Abilities (Baur's Reach & Windtorn Ruins)

Star: The Ricochet Shuriken

So here's where things get a bit confusing, but stick with me. The ability everyone calls Star is actually the Flash shard in the game files, but the nickname stuck because it looks like a glowing purple-white disk that ricochets like a shuriken. When you fire this thing, it bounces between enemies up to four times, stunning each target and dealing moderate damage, which makes it absolutely brutal for clearing dense groups or hitting that one annoying enemy hiding behind cover.

You can grab this for free at an Ancestral Tree in Baur's Reach, but you'll need to solve the ice puzzle first. Here's what you do: use Flap on a fire pot to light it up, then Bash the fireball into the frozen altar to melt the ice. Once that's done, the tree is yours.

Flash: The 360° Burst (Clarification)

Heads up: this is where a lot of guides straight-up lie to you. Flash is NOT sold by Opher, no matter what those old wikis say. You can't buy it with Spirit Light. Opher sells plenty of other combat toys like Blaze, Sentry, Spike, Spirit Smash, Spirit Star, and Water Breath, but Flash isn't one of them.

The real Flash ability is story-earned from an Ancestral Tree, and it's not the 360° burst attack you've probably read about. Instead, it creates an aura of light that damages enemies and prevents darkness in Mouldwood Depths. It'll still bounce between targets up to four times, but it's a stunning aura, not a radial explosion.

Optimal Purchase Order Strategies by Playstyle

How you spend your Spirit Light at Opher's shop completely depends on what kind of player you are. Whether you're hunting achievements, chasing world records, or just vibing through the forest, here's how to build Ori smart.

Completionist Route: All Skills for 100%

If you're gunning for the Mad Skills achievement, you need to know what you're actually buying. It's not everything - just the 12 active combat skills Opher sells, and you'll need exactly 20,000 Spirit Light to get them all.

Here's the nice part: your story-given movement abilities and passive Spirit Shards don't count, so you can ignore those. The less nice part? Your shopping list is still massive: Spirit Edge, Spirit Arc, Spirit Smash, Spirit Star, Spike, Blaze, Sentry, Water Breath, Flash, Light Burst, Reveal, and Regenerate.

Smart move: hoard roughly 20k Light, then hit Opher in Wellspring Glade and buy every ability in one sweep (13,200 Light). Immediately upgrade each one right after for the remaining 6,800. It's way cleaner than buying piecemeal and forgetting what you still need.

Speedrunner Route: Essential Mobility & Damage

Speedrunners don't have time for shopping sprees, so your goal is the absolute minimum needed to blast through the game, and that starts and ends with Spirit Smash - the hammer. It has the best DPS-per-Spirit-Light ratio, destroys projectiles, and stunlocks mini-bosses so hard you can basically hold forward through fights, which is why most runners skip Spirit Edge entirely.

The meta route goes: grab Spirit Smash in Inkwater Marsh first, then Spirit Arc after Mouldwood for specific skips. In Luma Pools, pick up Spike or Ultra Hammer depending on your route, and if you somehow have Light to burn, Overflow and Catalyst shards from Wastes help. But here's the real secret: mobility shards are non-negotiable - Triple Jump, Ultra Grapple, and Sticky stay equipped 90% of the run, while combat shards only come out for boss rooms.

Casual Explorer Route: Balanced Progression

This is the 'I'm here to have fun and see everything' build. You're not min-maxing, but you also don't want to get stuck or feel weak, so the trick is buying tools that unlock both combat and exploration.

Kick things off with Spirit Smash in Inkwater Marsh - it breaks floors and slaps enemies hard. In Kwolok's Hollow, grab Spike and Light Burst (Spike lets you burrow through gaps, Light Burst handles puzzles). Sentry from Wellspring Glades gives you auto-aim help, then Blaze in Luma Pools thaws ice blocks. Pick up Flash in Baur's Reach to dash through hazards, and finally snag the Ultra Bash or Spike upgrade from Mouldwood Depths.

This whole sequence costs under 16k Light, which leaves you with over 4,000 for post-game cleanup. Combat stays on easy mode if you run Sentry with Arcing and Reckless passives, so you won't need sweaty combos even on Hard difficulty. Plus, you'll naturally reveal about 95% of the map with almost no backtracking - more time enjoying the pretty stuff, less time running in circles.

Spirit Light Farming & Resource Management

Early Game Farming Locations

Right after you hit your first Spirit Well in Inkwater Marsh, you'll want to bookmark this spot. There's a pond just left of that well where three Water Sprites (they look like fish) respawn endlessly, and each drops about 15 Spirit Light. That's 45 Light per cycle, and the whole loop takes maybe 6-7 seconds if you're quick. Do the math and you're looking at roughly 27,000 Spirit Light per hour, which is nuts for how early this is.

The best part? You can stand on the vine or lower platform above the pond and they can't touch you. It's completely risk-free, and you only need your starting Spirit Edge attack to kill them. This is your earliest reliable farm before you get your hands on any fancy shards or abilities, so milk it while you can.

Mid to Late Game Farming Strategies

The Midnight Burrows Miner-Pit Method

Once you've got some mobility skills, the farming game changes completely. Head to the Midnight Burrows and find the miner-pit setup. Here's how it works: you Bash or Spike a Gorlek miner into an instant-death pit, and they respawn every 3-4 seconds. Each kill drops a Gorlek Ore, and you're getting about one every 90 seconds.

Convert that Ore at any vendor for 1,100 Spirit Light, and you're pulling in roughly 700 Spirit Light per minute. That's the fastest consistent farm in the game, especially when you need 42 Ores total to max out every shard slot on a fully kitted file.

Shard Setup for Maximum Efficiency

You're going to want a specific shard loadout to push these numbers even higher: Turmoil for instant respawns, Magnet to vacuum up orbs, Bounty for double drop chance, Light Harvest for a direct % boost, and Catalyst to keep your energy topped off for sustained farming.

Don't Forget the Mosquito Triangle

If you're not quite at Midnight Burrows yet, there's a solid intermediate spot back in Inkwater Marsh. Near the warp shrine, there's what the community calls the 'mosquito triangle' - three squishy flyers and one rolly-polly that all spawn on the same screen. One slash clears them out for about 250 Spirit Light per minute, or one Gorlek Ore every 4.5 minutes. It's not Burrows-tier, but it's way better than the early fish farm once you can one-shot them.

Common Mistakes & Pro Tips

The 50% Discount Trap

WARNING: One-Time Sale, Permanent Consequences
Here is how you trigger Opher's half-price combat skill sale: you need to buy every other non-combat shard he sells first. That means picking up Spirit Smash, Spirit Star, and Light Burst - the utility stuff you might normally skip.

Once you do that, every single combat skill in his shop drops from 800 Spirit Light to 400. You can clean out his entire combat inventory for just 3,200 Light total, which is a steal. But this is not a recurring event; after you buy your first discounted skill, the sale is locked in and you cannot trigger it again.

Bottom line: Do not buy your first combat skill at 400 Light until you can afford to buy all the ones you actually want. Otherwise, you will be stuck paying full price for the rest.

Skill Refund Mechanics

Bad news: Opher does not offer refunds. When you buy an ability, it is final - there is no sell-back option in the menu.

If you want to experiment with different builds, your only legit option is to reload a previous manual save from before you made the purchase. The game does not autosave frequently enough to rely on that, so you will want to manually save before every major purchase.

And do not bother with file manipulation exploits. Any tricks that try to keep the skill while rolling back your Spirit Light get nuked by save sync on every current platform - Xbox, Steam, Switch, GOG. They just do not survive.

Upgrade Priority vs New Skills

Should you save for that juicy Shock Smash upgrade or grab a brand-new ability? Here is the math:

Feature	Shock Smash (Upgrade)	New Skills (Sentry/Spike/Blaze)
Cost	1,200 Spirit Light	800 Spirit Light each
Requirement	Must own Spirit Smash	None
Damage	High AoE DPS	Lower single-target DPS
Utility	Stun + knockback	Situational (puzzle-solving)

The pro roadmap looks like this: Buy Spirit Smash first for its raw versatility, then immediately start saving for Shock Smash if you are struggling with crowd control. The shockwave stun and knockback will keep you alive in chaotic fights.

Pick up new skills like Sentry or Spike only if you are staring at a puzzle that obviously requires them - otherwise, they are expensive detours that do not hit as hard.

Conclusion

Mastering Ori's toolkit is about strategic investment, not just collecting every ability. Whether you're a completionist, speedrunner, or casual explorer, aligning your purchases with your goals ensures a smoother, more powerful journey through Nibel. Spend your Spirit Light wisely, avoid the discount trap, and let your chosen skills unlock the forest's secrets.