HoYoverse’s co-op action game Nodusfall builds its combat around classes that each hold a clear job in a hunt, and the Stormguard is the one standing between the monster and everyone else. It is a heavy, shield-forward class that soaks frontal damage, trades parries for openings, and then hits back hard enough to matter in a boss fight.
Quick answer: The Stormguard is a defensive greatsword class that blocks attacks from the front, converts well-timed parries into counters, and closes hunts with a Divine Drain mounting finisher that awards a replaceable Divine Skill. Its skill tree stays locked until Player Level 15.
Stormguard combat role: Blocking, parries, and counters
The Stormguard specializes in guarding against attacks that come from the front. Damage taken head-on is absorbed rather than dodged, which makes the class the anchor of a group fight instead of a hit-and-run damage dealer. Dodging still exists and still works, but the payoff sits in the parry.
Red attack indicators flash before a swing lands, and the lock-on reticle keeps the target centered. Reading those cues and parrying on time opens the enemy up for a counter, and the class does not lose much damage output for its bulk. Against ordinary human enemies the loop is short — basic attacks, a parry, a counter. Against a large monster, the same loop stretches across multiple phases.
Gramher’s loadout and appearance customization
The Stormguard is played through Gramher, who carries the title Deathblade Gramher. He fights with an oversized greatsword and wears a tattered dark cloak with a large wooden shield strapped across his back. The character screen ties his class talent, his equipped weapon, and his cosmetics together in one place.
Customization covers hairstyles, outfits, face masks, accessories, and mounts. The pieces are named and colored separately, so a single look is assembled from several slots — the Outlander Warrior hairstyle in Ash Gray, the Dragonhunter Set in Rock Brown, the Golden Branch Hair Ornament, Mithara’s Blessing, and Luwu’s Golden Mask all sit in different slots. Mounts are swapped the same way, including the Knight’s Warhorse.
Stormguard talent tree and the Player Level 15 requirement
The Stormguard talent tree is where the class actually takes shape. It mixes active skills, passive traits, and flat stat upgrades on the same board, and nodes are paid for with materials such as Gold Threads. Because actives and passives share the tree, two Stormguard players can end up with noticeably different kits.
Names on the board include Sundering Thunder, My Body, My Shield, Thunderclash, and Fafnir’s Fall on the aggressive side, alongside defensive and support entries like Way of the Shield, Way of the Heavy Knight, Shieldbrother, Stay Frosty, Draconic Flow, Dragonblood Surge, Boar’s Burden, Agony of the Earth, and Libations and Offerings.
Note: At Stormguard Lv. 1 the screen lists an unlock condition rather than spendable points. The skills stay gated behind Player Level 15, though a View Skills option lets you read the tree before you can invest in it.
Adverse states: Ignite, Poisoned, Maliced, and Stun
Nodusfall runs a set of anomaly status effects that apply to fights in both directions. Maliced is the one to respect in co-op, since it does not stay on a single target.
| Adverse state | Effect |
|---|---|
| Ignite | Drains HP over time |
| Poisoned | Drains HP over time |
| Maliced | Lowers maximum HP, deals continuous damage, and spreads to allies |
| Stun | Removes control of the character |
Weapon forging at Welyth
Weapons are crafted and upgraded at the forge, handled by an NPC named Welyth. Materials come off defeated monsters, which is how hunting and gearing feed into each other — Dragonscale is one of the drops that goes back into the forge. Greatswords carry Attack, Crit Rate, and Crit Damage among their stats, so a Stormguard’s counter damage scales with what you bring off the anvil.
Weapon names seen on the Stormguard include the Earth-Splitting Maul, Renders Greatsword, Glimmervein Cleaver, and Mandate Greatsword II.
Contract Stele: Hunt types you can accept
Hunts are taken from the Contract Stele, a bounty board that lists target monsters by contract type. Each entry names the creature you are going after, so you can pick a fight that drops the material you need next.
| Contract type |
|---|
| Normal |
| Challenge |
| Deathwish |
| Severance |
Glimmerwolf hunt: Travel, regional events, and the fight phases
Once a contract is active, you ride out to the target. The Glimmerwolf hunt plays out across Xihuang Valley, with the objective tracked on screen as Glimmering Forest Dash and yellow markers pointing the way while you cover ground on a mount.
Regional events can fire while a hunt is in progress. Clearing one, such as the Chaotic Stone Maze, opens a chest and offers a random combat enhancement to pick from, so detours feed straight back into the fight you were already heading toward.
The Glimmerwolf itself can be found asleep. Closing in quietly with the navigate control held lets you open with a wake-up attack that lands for heavy damage before the boss has a turn.
From there the fight leans on parry timing, ultimate abilities, and the terrain around you. The Glimmerwolf breaks off and retreats to its nest, which starts the final phase, so the encounter ends somewhere other than where it began.
Divine Drain finishers and replaceable Divine Skills
When the boss is worn down, a prompt appears to mount it and perform a Divine Drain. That sequence kills the monster and completes the contract in one motion, and it is also how the reward is delivered.
Completing a contract this way grants a Divine Skill, and those skills are replaceable rather than permanent — a new one can take the old slot. Savage: Silver Flashfall and Aether: Adamant Stone are two examples, sitting alongside entries such as Shattered Mandate: Punitive Expedition and Shattered Mandate: Restore. You know the contract closed when the Divine Drain animation resolves and the new Divine Skill becomes available to equip.
Nodusfall release status and platforms
Nodusfall was revealed at gamescom Opening Night Live in August 2026 as a multi-mythology co-op action game built in Unreal Engine 5. Players take the role of Weavers, teaming up against oversized foes in a world where divine authority has collapsed.
No release date has been confirmed, and HoYoverse has not detailed how the game will be monetized. Test qualification and updates are handled through the official Nodusfall site, which is also where game registration lives.
For now the Stormguard reads as the clearest statement of intent in Nodusfall’s kit — a class whose whole value comes from standing still at the right moment, and whose rewards, from forged greatswords to swappable Divine Skills, all come off the monsters it out-waits.
