Best Deathloop trinkets: what every trinket does and which are best for your loadout
How to collect and equip Weapon Trinkets and Character Trinkets in Deathloop, and how to plan your loadout.
What are the best trinkets in Deathloop? Trinkets might sound frivolous, but they are in fact Deathloop's answer to mods: applying them provides potentially very powerful combat buffs, and therefore they're actually very important. Deathloop's Trinkets come in two varieties: Character Trinkets (personal mods applied to your player character) and Weapon Trinkets (mods which can be applied individually to every gun in your possession).
On this page:
- How to identify and collect trinkets in Deathloop
- How to equip trinkets and plan your loadout
- Best Character Trinkets
- Best Weapon Trinkets
How to identify and collect trinkets in Deathloop
There are a total of 44 Trinkets in Deathloop: 14 Weapon Trinkets and 30 Character Trinkets. Both types come in three rarities which determine the relative strength of the buff it provides:
- Crude (grey background, normal)
- Sleek (blue background, good)
- Exemplar (purple background, epic)
The number of Weapon Trinkets you can apply to each weapon ranges from zero to three, and is determined by the rarity of the weapon in hand rather than the trinkets themselves. There's no upper limit on the Weapon Trinkets in your loadout, other than the combined total of trinket slots available on all your weapons. On the other hand, you're always given space for up to four Character Trinkets per loadout, regardless of any other factors.
Once you've completed the tutorial, Cole will have access to a Shock Absorber Weapon Trinket and a Spring Heeled Character Trinket as part of his default loadout options, which is nice as they're both pretty good; but of course you'll want to be on the look out for better and more varied options.
As a general rule, trinkets of all types can be found in abundance on Blackreef, and you can pick up multiple copies of each trinket (even if they're the same rarity). Downed enemies will frequently drop trinkets as loot, and you'll find some lying around the place like any other ordinary gear from time to time. Locked rooms and safes are also a good source of random trinkets.
Golden Harvest, Remote Overload, and Steel Lungs — all of which are Character Trinkets — are the exceptions, as they can only be picked up in specific locations at a plot-appropriate moment. Luckily, this makes them quite easy to find.
How to equip trinkets and plan your loadout
You have the option to apply a trinket as soon as you collect it if you have a slot available, or you can go to the loadout screen to equip and swap out the trinkets you have picked up during a mission.
When planning your loadout between districts at the beginning of every new mission, you will be prompted to apply Character Trinkets to your character, as well as any Weapon Trinkets you have slots available for. Like every other piece of gear in Deathloop you can carry trinkets between districts within the same loop, but you need to have infused a trinket with Residuum before you can carry it over into another loop.
When infusing trinkets to carry them over into future loops, you'll want to treat Weapon Trinkets and Character Trinkets slightly differently. Since you can only apply a single version of each Character Trinket at a time, just infuse the best version you have of each one you want to keep, and sacrifice the rest for a boost of Residuum. However, it's worth keeping up to three copies of a Weapon Trinket you really like, as you can have three guns in your loadout, and it's entirely possible to equip multiple versions of the same trinket to each one if you want to.
Best Character Trinkets
With so many Character Trinkets to choose from and only a limited number of slots available, it's clear that not every trinket was created equally, and there are bound to be a few you prefer. However, your play style and the problems you can expect to find in your upcoming mission should help inform your choice. Also, don't feel like you have to stick with one Character Trinket loadout as your default: switching things up regularly is a good idea. After all, you don't want to become too reliant on a specific trinket's power, only to have to swap it out and mess up the combat rhythms you've become used to.
As a general rule, equipping a trinket that will increase your character's resilience is a good choice: basic health increases like Never Say Die or Swift Stitch, power boosts Juiced Up or Renewable, or Turtle Shell for increased damage protection are all solid staples.
Creeping Death or Spring-Heeled are also particularly useful if you're focusing on stealth and exploration, while Pistolero and Deep Pockets do the same for more combat-focused players. Finally, it's well worth considering putting Golden Harvest in place if you need a lot of Residuum to carry over all your good swag to the next loop.
There are no bad Character Trinkets in my opinion (except maybe Stone Wall, but even that has its uses). That said, there are a lot of hacking trinkets, which you probably don't need when there's so much gunplay and science magic to focus on. Don't dismiss these trinkets out of hand, but unless you absolutely love the Hackamajig, maybe pick one or two favourites to infuse for when you need them and let the rest go. Otherwise you'll waste a lot of Residuum securing the full set, most of which you won't use.
List of Character Trinkets
| Trinket | Effect |
|---|---|
| Bloodthirsty Brawler | Recover health when dealing melee damage. |
| Cat Fall | Reduced fall damage. |
| Comeback Kid | Increased health regeneration. |
| Creeping Death | Reduced movement noise. |
| Deep Pockets | Increased ammo capacity in inventory. |
| Double Trouble | Reduced shot spread when dual wielding. |
| Extended Signal | Increased hacking range. |
| Fast Hands | Increased reload speed when dual wielding. |
| Golden Harvest | Increased Residuum yield from all sources. |
| Hard Headed | Reduced damage when taking headshots. |
| Juiced Up | Increased maximum power. |
| Last Stand | Increased damage output when low on health. |
| Master Hacker | Increased hacking speed. |
| Mechanical Affinity | Buff hacked machines. |
| Mine Own | Allows you to hack mines and/or remotely detonate them. |
| Never Say Die | Increased maximum health. |
| Party Time | Reduced damage taken when there are NPCs in the vicinity. |
| Pistolero | Increased damage when dual wielding. |
| Remote Overload | Remote detonate hacked devices. |
| Renewable | Increased power regeneration. |
| Scavenger's Luck | Increased ammo yield from pick-ups. |
| Slick Slide | Increased sliding distance. |
| Slow Fuse | Increased detonation time on enemy explosives. |
| Spring Heeled | Double-jump. |
| Sprinter | Increased movement speed. |
| Steel Lungs | Gas exposure heals instead of damaging. |
| Stone Wall | Reduces all damage to minimum, both taken and inflicted. |
| Swift Shadow | Increased movement speed when in stealth/crouching. |
| Swift Stitch | Increased health regeneration speed. |
| Turtle Shell | Reduced damage taken. |
Best Weapon Trinkets
Naturally, different weapons work best with different trinkets, but there are a few general rules to follow when choosing which trinkets to equip. The basic weapons you'll be using early on in the game benefit most from trinkets that compensate for their shortcomings and improve overall performance, such as Shock Absorber, Sure Shot, and Lightning Strike.
Once you've acquired a better collection of guns (including some gold weapons) you'll find you're less in need of basic adjustments like better aim or reduced recoil. However, many high-tier weapons chew through ammo at an alarming rate, thanks to their firing speed and reduced likelihood to jam. Big Box is a useful trinket for those guns, as it will keep you from needing to reload as often.
There's one Weapon Trinket that's pretty good across the board, though: Speed Loader. Almost all of the shotguns and rifles in Deathloop are in sore need of improved reload speed to bring them up to scratch. But you'll never be worse off with the ability to reload faster even if a weapon's base reload speed is already good, so Speed Loader is a real contender for Weapon Trinket MVP.
Finally, bear in mind that some Character Trinkets — such as Pistolero and Double Trouble — also influence how your weapons perform, particularly if you're dual wielding. While this does eat up a precious Character Trinket slot, it does apply the benefits to every weapon in your loadout, so take it into account when planning your next trip through the loop.
List of Weapon Trinkets
| Trinket | Effect |
|---|---|
| Big Box | Increased magazine size. |
| Crack Shot | Reduced aiming time. |
| Hailfire | Increased rate of fire. |
| Hipster | Minimises spread when shooting from the hip. |
| Lightning Strike | Increases maximum damage range. |
| Mind Leach | Enemies lose both health and power when taking damage. |
| Mobile Marksman | Increased movement speed while aiming. |
| Perforator | Stronger bullets. |
| Quick Draw | Increased speed when equipping or switching weapons. |
| Shock Absorber | Reduced recoil. |
| Speed Loader | Increased reload speed. |
| Stopping Power | After damaging an enemy, slows the start of their health regeneration. |
| Straight Shooter | Increased aiming accuracy. |
| Sure Shot | Increased accuracy range. |
Now that you know all about trinkets, consider taking a look at our Deathloop slabs and abilities guide, a comprehensive overview of all the supernatural powers you'll be using to cause choas on Blackreef. You can also check out our Deathloop PC performance guide for advice on the best settings to use when running the game on PC.