The Lantern of the Laughless Saint Best Perks

There is no public list of perks for The Lantern of the Laughless Saint before Early Access, so no verified “best perks” ranking can exist yet. What the pre-release guidance does tell us is how to choose: find the bottleneck that is actually limiting your character — damage, survival, mobility, or social ability — and spend perk points there. Because Early Access balance keeps changing, any perk recommendation should record the tested game version and be rechecked after patches. This page explains that approach; specific perk names and rankings are TBC.

No Public Perk List Yet (TBC)

The complete list of perks, their names, their effects, and their prerequisites is not public before release. That makes any specific “best perk” claim unverifiable, and this page will not make one. Everything in that category is TBC after Early Access launch, to be filled in from live testing of the actual game.

What the material does confirm is the structure around perks. Perks exist as the second layer of a two-layer progression system, they form a tree, and the tree’s purpose is specialization. The perks page documents that structure, and the skills page covers the use-based layer that perks sit on top of.

The practical consequence is that the useful pre-release content is decision logic, not shopping lists. Knowing how to choose well is worth more than a list of names that may change on day one. When the perk list goes live, this page will grow into a real ranking with the tested version attached.

Spend Perks on Your Actual Bottleneck

The pre-release guidance is explicit about when to spend: after a real bottleneck appears. A bottleneck is a recurring limit on your progress — something that keeps stopping you in fights, travel, or conversations. The material names damage, survival, mobility, and social ability as the categories to check when diagnosing one.

The diagnosis should come before the spending, because the two are easy to confuse. If you keep dying, the fix is likely sustain or mobility, not damage; if you cannot reach places, it is mobility, not weapon power; if every conversation turns hostile, it is social capacity. Spending on the wrong category makes the character look better on paper and play the same in practice.

This is why the material warns against spending the moment a tree becomes available. Early points are information-poor: after one or two sessions you do not yet know what limits you. Waiting until the pattern is undeniable is not indecision — it is the intended use of the system.

Damage, Survival, Mobility, and Social

The four bottleneck categories come directly from the pre-release material: damage, survival, mobility, and social ability. A useful way to think about them is as a diagnostic order. Ask what actually stopped your progress in the last session, and the answer will usually be one of these four, not a general feeling of weakness.

Damage is the bottleneck when fights drag or enemies outlast you. Survival is the bottleneck when you die before progress, regardless of your output. Mobility is the bottleneck when geography — not enemies — is what keeps you from exploring. Social flexibility is the bottleneck when conversations and choices close doors you need open.

A character usually has one dominant bottleneck at a time, and solving that one is worth more than spreading points across all four. The same logic appears in the best skills page for the skill layer, where mobility, sustain, damage, exploration, and social flexibility are ranked for the first week. The best early skills page applies the same diagnostic to the first hours.

Why Not to Spend the Moment a Tree Unlocks

The material explicitly advises against spending perks immediately when a tree becomes available, and the reasoning is worth spelling out. A perk spent before you understand your bottleneck is a perk spent on an assumption. The tree may tempt you with obvious-looking options, but obvious is not the same as relevant to your character.

There is also a compounding cost. Perks support specialization, and specialization is most valuable when it reinforces what you already do. Spending early, before your routine is established, risks reinforcing a direction you abandon by hour ten. Waiting lets the perk land on a playstyle that has already proven itself.

None of this means hoarding forever. The point is sequencing: let the bottleneck reveal itself, then spend decisively. Once you know what limits you, the choice is usually clear, and that clarity is worth the wait. The builds page shows how this discipline shapes whole archetypes rather than single purchases.

Record Your Tested Game Version

The Steam Early Access notes state that existing mechanics and overall balance will continue to be refined during the EA period. Perks are part of that balance: their power relative to each other will shift as the game changes. A perk that is best in one build of the game can be average in the next.

The material’s advice for a best-perks page is therefore to record the tested version alongside any recommendation. If a guide tells you a perk is strong, it should also tell you which game build that was true in. Without the version, the claim cannot be re-verified after a patch, which makes it untrustworthy over time.

For your own play, the same habit applies. When you evaluate a perk recommendation, check the version it references, confirm the perk still works as described, and re-evaluate after every balance update you play through. That habit is the difference between following a guide and understanding a game.

Re-Evaluate After Every Patch

Because balance keeps changing during Early Access, the correct posture for best-perk content is periodic review, not permanence. The material warns against writing launch conclusions as permanent rankings, and this page follows that warning: nothing here is a final tier list, because no final tier list can exist during EA.

The review cycle is simple. When a patch lands, re-test the perks you rely on, because a change to one perk can shift the value of others around it. Patches can also change a perk’s value indirectly, through the skills and fights it interacts with. When you read a ranking, check whether it accounts for the current build. When the game reaches a stable state, this page will carry tested, versioned recommendations for each playstyle.

Until then, the stable guidance holds: no public list, so no verified ranking; spend on the real bottleneck; record the version; re-check after patches. That framework will not change as the game does, and it is the best answer available before Early Access.