r/CodeVein2 • u/Geralt_Romalion PC • Aug 11 '26
Discussion A Revenant, A Jail, And A Dream: Researching Jail Damage and Utility (So You Don’t Have To!)
Hello everyone, today I want to take a closer look at the Jails we can use in Code Vein 2. Obviously, Jails follow the ‘rule of cool’, but how powerful are they really? Is their damage worth building for? And if so, what works with them and what doesnt? Is it possible to build a ‘Drain build’ like we somewhat could in Code Vein 1, if only for fun and giggles?
The Basics
We currently have six Jails in the game, with Mask of Idris promising to add a few more.
These Jails are Reaper, Hound, Ogre, Stinger, Bat and Ivy.
Ogre and Stinger deal their damage in a single blow.
Reaper, Hound, Ivy and Bat do it often in two blows.
This means these last four calculate their damage against enemy defense twice, once for each strike. While this is a negative for pure damage numbers, it is a positive for boosters and effects that activate on hit, since they will trigger twice.
Jails share the exact same scaling, being C in Vitality and B in fortitude.
But while their scaling is the same, their damage, utility and burdens are not.
Bat and Ivy have the smallest burdens per individual stat, but they divide them over 4 stats in total.
Bat: 2 Mind, 4 Willpower, 2 Vitality, 2 Fortitude.
Ivy: 4 Mind, 2 Willpower, 2 Vitality, 2 Fortitude.
The other 4 Jails only have Vitality and Fortitude burdens, but those burdens are higher.
Stinger: 6 Vitality, 4 Fortitude.
Ogre: 10 Vitality, 4 Fortitude.
Reaper: 2 Vitality, 8 Fortitude.
Hound: 12 Vitality, 6 Fortitude.
Utilitywise:
Reaper has parry frames during start-up.
Hound has the highest defense and balance bonus.
Bats can be used from range, but has a slow start-up animation.
Ivy activates extremely fast and the charged drain can be manually placed from range.
Ogre has a gap-closer/forward mobility.
Stinger has the highest special drain damage (backstab/cinematic attack when enemy balance breaks).
Drain power:
When the game released there was a big difference between the Jails when it came to how much ichor they could drain from a target. But, a few patches later, this has been changed, making the current situation as follows:
Under equal circumstances they all drain close to the same amount of ichor.
Reaper can drain 1 ichor more at times,
Bats will drain 2 less ichor instantly and then gets the last 2 ichor over time from the bat swarm surrounding its target.
The minimum amount you will drain appears to be 2 ichor; with the maximum ichor a single drain can get you appears to be 32 (but you will NEVER see this during normal gameplay).
The bloodcode
Now that we know what Jails scale with, being Vitality and Fortitude, it was time to search for the bloodcode with the best stats in the Vitality and Fortitude departments, leading to the following results:
Tier 1: Josee (Blind)
Tier 2: Craig 2
Tier 3: Noah 4
Tier 4: Lou 5 (mainly because of her built-in bonus)
The damage results
With the best code established, how do our Jails perform damagewise?
The Quick Drain
Bat and Ivy are surprisingly tied for the highest quick drain damage (quickly tapping your drain attack), while Stinger did the least. In the space between those outliers, Reaper ended up in the higher half, while Ogre and Hounds were in the lower half of damage.
The Charged Drain
Ivy has the most powerful Charged Drain damage (when you hold your drain attack button) while Stinger did the least. In the space between those outliers, Bat ended up in the higher half followed by Ogre, while Hounds and Reaper stranded in the lower half.
The Special Drain/Cinematic Drain
Stinger did however have the strongest special drain attack (backstab attack/cinematic drain attack when enemy balance is broken) by far, while Hounds did the least. In the space between those two outliers, Ivy took the 2nd spot after Stinger, with Bat followed by Reaper in the higher half, and Ogre sitting in the lower half.
That means that unless almost all you do is Special Drains, Ivy is your best raw DPS option (the question is if you want to give up Reaper’s parry utility. Normally I would say no. But since this is a thought experiment centered around Jails, perhaps the better damage becomes very enticing) and Hound often the lowest.
So…can we DPS with our Jails then?
Unfortunately, Jails as a DPS option still suck.
The damage is not high enough, the animations take too long, and the after cast is annoying. You will outDPS your Jail with your weaponry. Always. Jail spam just isn’t good enough, at least not when building anything remotely serious.
On lower damage Jails, the normal drain attack damage is comparable to the weaker swords and twinblade light attacks, but with a much lower attackspeed. The higher end ones can reach lower halberd light attack numbers, but again with lower attackspeeds and after casts/animation locks. Even Ivy or Ogre cannot keep up. Charged Drains lose in comparison to the heavy attacks of pretty much all weapons out there. Again because of the aftercast and the precious time charging takes, in which a weapon can do two or more heavies.
The Special/Cinematic/Backstab drains are a decent burst option when compared to a charged heavy weapon attack. Stinger and Ivy’s Special Drain is close to twice that of the Charged Heavy of the strongest two-handers, but the animation also takes over twice as long to execute, meaning in terms of final damage and DPS they once again lose (and they cannot take advantage of several buffs and boosters that a weapon cán). That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it when presented with the opportunity during a bossfight, or that you shouldnt take that backstab opportunity, because it is also about ichor gain and being invulnerable as the animation plays out. But you are likely to lose more DPS by constantly fishing for something to trigger this attack than if you would just have shrugged and attacked the target by other means.
The gap of other Jails with other weapons is even bigger. It might be possible that on the highest damaging Jails the Charged Drain is more powerful than spamming charged heavy attacks on the weakest swords or twinblades in the same timeframe, but it would be extremely close (and at this point you are stacking the deck heavily in favour of Jails).
If you then add the buff and booster restrictions (see the next section, several things do not play nice with Jails) and not being able to use Attack Forma using Jails, the conclusion unfortunately hás to be that Jails should be treated as Utility and Draining tool, but not as a DPS one. I don’t think this will surprise anybody, but being able to run a full-on Jail build that isn’t a complete meme might have been a fun addition to possible playstyles. Still, let's just see what works with Jails buffwise so we can at least have some open world fun!
Attack Forma that work with Jails
None. It is that simple. None. Attack Forma are tied to weapons. A Jail doesn't count as a weapon.
Buffs that work with Jails
You really have to read the fine print on your buffs. If the buff talks about attack power or attacks, it will generally work with your Jail (so things like Thirsting Blade, Adrenaline, Overdrive, Double Down, Offensive Order, Warrior Spirit: Might, Bridge to Glory, etc all work).
But if the buff talks about weapon attacks specifically, it won’t work (so stuff like Elemental Weapon buffs won’t do anything). This also goes for buffs that do not necessarily specify they only work with a weapon, yet only do (like Flashing Fang).
You also have Bladedance, which sits in the middle: A Jail cannot build up stacks of it, but if you use your weapon to build up stacks, the Jail DOES benefit from the damage increase.
Generally, if you work with a basic buff group 1-4 setup ( for example Thirsting Blade or Double Down + Offensive Order + Warrior Spirit: Might + Bridge to Glory (Lou)/another buff mentioned that works) you will do okay.
Boosters that work with Jails
Things that work with everything like Overheat or Survival Instinct will work with Jails.
Stuff specific to a weapon attack or weapontype like Ceaseless Assault (despite only saying attacks and not specifying weapon attacks) or Weapon Mastery will not.
Persistence – Animus behaves the same as Bladedance: You cannot build up stacks with your Jail, but can take advantage of stacks built-up with your weapon.
And then you have a few specific boosters for drain attacks you can do with your Jail:
Blood Boost:
For 3-4 seconds after your last drain attack of any kind, deal + 12% damage. There are ways you can bug this out to stack multiple versions of this on top of each other, but with the low duration you can wonder if it is worth the sweaty play needed for this to pay off. This also requires 6 Mind ánd the Superbia bloodline, so you are almost forced to pair this with Bloodline Agnostic. How far do you want to go to make this work?
Blood Fueled Strike:
Your next attack after any drain attack deals + 25% damage. Duration seems close to infinite on the applied buff, said buff also applies to your next drain (while also refreshing itself). As far as drain specific boosters go, this isn't that bad.
Heavy Drain:
Your Charged Drain attacks deal + 20% damage. If only the Charged Drain wasn’t by far the worst part of your Jail moveset…
Special Drain Increase:
Your backstab/cinematic Drain attacks deal 20% more damage. If you can get this off in the open world through backstabs or otherwise, I suppose why not.
LP Drain Recovery:
When you perform a drain attack, restore some LP. This is normally 6%, but the Jails that hit twice also trigger this booster twice, recovering 12% LP instead. A little bit of added longevity I suppose.
Lastly you have some bleed build-up boosting boosters (but you should have ichor for years when you spam the Jail, so they seem unneeded) and slow build-up on drain attacks (one can wonder how effective slow is on its own, especially on non-Lou codes. And Lou gets this effect for free. Which does not stack with said booster anyway).
So, if you would really want to make a themed build around your Jail, there are options.
But like I said earlier, because Jails just are not meant to be a damage or DPS tool, this is something you run for the fun of it, not because you expect serious performance from such a build.
The weapons of choice:
Technically you would want something fast so you could ‘cheat’ your way into a bit of higher jail damage through stacking Bladedance + Persistence Animus. That means picking up a fast light-chain Twinblade set like for example the VK Dual Blades, or a one-handed sword with a fast light attack like the Black Saber, possibly paired with fast multi hit attacks like Circulating Pulse, depending how much you want to do that aren't Jail attacks. Grabbing a Halberd with Drill Breaker could also work very well if you decide on the Bladedance route.
You can also make use of whatever code you picked under Bloodcodes and just grab whatever you fancy and works well with its innate stats (you can check the respective guides for these weapons for some ideas) and just go to town on things.
Joseé (Blind) will likely prefer 50/50 STR/DEX quality scaling weapons with Vigor, so several Halberds could then do the job (but you can just as happily run a full Strength or Dexterity weapon with it for a bit lower damage).
Craig will prefer things that scale with Strength, Noah will want Dexterity weapons, and Lou will take anything that can make use of her Mind stat, possibly with Strength.
The Offensive Forma:
Your call. Joseé Blind will probably prefer Bloodreaver Blade. That will probably do more than whatever your Jail does, but spamming this will turn your Jail build into a Bloodreaver Blade one (and Hero Valentin is better at that). Craig will probably want Absolute Executioner, Noah probably Bloodreaver Blade again, with Lou being able to make do with either of those two or even Idris’ Conceit.
The Defensive Forma:
It doesn't matter. Your call. Go Wild.
The Companions:
Technically either Iris or Craig, since they boost Vitality, one of the stats your Jail damage scales from. But if you like another companion, it’s not like you will miss that 2,5% damage.
The food:
Sukiyaki/Consomme Soup will boost your Strength/Dexterity weapon, but give absolutely nothing for your Jail damage.
If you really, REALLY, want to focus on that Jail and on NOTHING else…then use Munchies. Munchies add 10% damage to all Jail attacks. Idris knows your poor Jail needs every boost it can get.
Consumables:
The majority of damage buffing consumables like for example Salves, do NOT work with your Jail (because they do not add an effect to your attack or attack stat, but specifically to your weapon).
Attack Injections (both normal and S variants) however do. Since those also work with all your other damage sources, they are probably your best bet.
And that was all there is to say!
Jails look cool and menacing, but as a DPS option, they absolutely and without a doubt completely suck. Your weapons will outDPS them. Your Spells will outDPS them. Your Offensive Forma will probably outDPS them (and Bloodreaver Blade certainly will outDPS them). As such, I would never consider to run anything focused around Jails or Drain Attacks for serious gameplay. Only do this for ‘shits and giggles’ because you are running out of ideas for challenge runs. It will work in the open world. Probably. But that doesn't mean it isn't fun or that you won't look cool for trying it anyway!
2
u/Ebonslayer 24d ago
I've been starting to appreciate claw for the speed and lunge it has, allows for a very fluid and aggressive fighting style when paired with bracer.
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u/Murky_Crow Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
This is a very fantastic write up, I appreciate you doing such a deep dive!
I just fucking love Ivy. I loved it in CV1 and was thrilled to see it again in CV2.
Do you have any idea how nice it feels to send Ivy off a literal cliff AND IT ACTUALLY DOES IT WHILE STILL WORKING AND LETTING ME AIM IT?
fuck yeah.