Painkiller Guide | Ancient Souls and Gold: The Definitive Farming and Upgrade

A guide to Ancient Souls and Gold in Painkiller.

Understanding Your Resources

You will earn Gold and Ancient Souls by defeating enemies and completing objectives. Gold is the more common currency you will acquire. You will use Gold to unlock the base-level nodes in your Weapon Trees, such as passive bonuses to reload speed or magazine size.

Ancient Souls are a much rarer resource. You must use these to unlock the most powerful upgrades, including new alternate fire paths for your weapons and entirely new Tarot Cards.

Farming Strategy 1: Rogue Angel Mode

The most efficient method for farming both Gold and Ancient Souls is by playing Rogue Angel mode. This mode is designed for replayability and offers the highest potential payouts.

You should select the highest difficulty setting you can consistently survive, such as Insomnia or Nightmare.

These higher difficulties will spawn more enemies, including Elite Demons, which in turn provides a greater payout of both currencies. You need to complete the run to claim your full reward.

Farming Strategy 2: Campaign Raids and Secrets

You can also earn resources by replaying the main campaign Raids. When you play these missions, you should take the time to explore.

You can often find hidden Ancient Soul Caches tucked away in secret areas, such as the one found in The Voice of the Creator raid.

While this is a steady way to earn resources, Rogue Angel mode will generally provide more currency for your time.

How to Spend Your Resources

You can spend your earned currency in the main hub to acquire permanent upgrades that carry over into all game modes, including future Rogue Angel runs.

The Weapon Tree

You can access a unique Weapon Tree for each weapon in your arsenal. You will use Gold to unlock the smaller, incremental stat upgrades on this tree.

You need to spend your Ancient Souls to unlock the major perks and new alternate fire modes, such as the Stake Gun's Maelstrom or the Revolver's Volt Weaver.

Unlocking these here makes them available to be found during your Rogue Angel runs.

Unlocking Tarot Cards

Ancient Souls are also the only currency used to unlock new Tarot Cards. You can permanently add new cards to your collection, allowing you to equip them in your Co-op loadouts or find them during Rogue Angel runs.

Upgrade Priority

When you're starting out, focus your resources on upgrades that make your farming runs more consistent. You should first spend Ancient Souls on a powerful survivability Tarot Card, such as Second Wind.

After that, you should focus on unlocking a core alternate fire for a versatile weapon, like the Stake Gun or Revolver, to help you manage hordes and Elite Demons more effectively.

 

Painkiller Review and our other guides listed below:

 

• Painkiller Beginner's Guide | Gameplay Tips & Tricks
• Painkiller Guide | Mastering Advanced Movement & Combat Tactics
• Painkiller Guide | Best Card Builds for Co-op and Rogue Angel Mode
• Painkiller Guide | How to Not Get Shredded: Boss Fight Strategies for Every Nephilim
• Painkiller Guide | The Voice of the Creator: Full Campaign Raid Walkthrough and Secrets
• Painkiller Guide | Rogue Angel Mode: 10 Essential Tips to Survive
• Painkiller Guide | Best Perks and Loadouts for Ink, Void, Sol, and Roch
• Painkiller Guide | Elemental Mayhem: Alt-Fires for Max Crowd Control and Damage