20 Minutes Till Dawn: How to Match Summon Upgrades to a Build

Choose Trainer for summon damage or Frenzy for attack speed

Trainer and Frenzy focus on different summon statistics. Trainer’s upgrade tree focuses on summon damage, while Frenzy’s focuses on summon attack speed. Use the distinction when choosing the next upgrade for a summon-led build: increasing the damage of attacks and making those attacks happen faster are separate choices. The developer presents both trees for builds where summons deal most of the damage, without naming one as a universal replacement for the other. [1]

Steps

1. Choose Trainer when targeting summon damage, or Frenzy when targeting summon attack speed. [1]

Pair Magic Scythe with bullet damage and movement speed

The summon rework removes Magic Daggers and focuses that upgrade tree on Magic Scythe. Its damage scales with bullet damage and movement speed. If those are already the statistics you are improving, the Scythe supplies a summon that uses the same direction of investment. This is a specific scaling relationship, rather than a rule that every summon receives damage from movement speed. Do not assume an old Magic Daggers guide describes the revised tree unchanged. [1]

Steps

1. Use Magic Scythe when you want a summon whose damage benefits from bullet damage and movement speed. [1]

Use maximum HP to support Magic Spear damage

Magic Spears gain damage from maximum HP, and the developer presents them as a fit for tankier builds. Choose that scaling direction if maximum health is part of the build you intend to develop. The 1.0 release later sets Magic Spears’ base attack rate to 0.77 attacks per second, down from one. Keep that later base rate when comparing older summon-rework descriptions. The cited rules do not equate Soul Hearts with maximum HP, so this guide does not treat those as interchangeable. The later release changes the base rate. [1] [2]

Use Ghost Friend for the documented on-hit interaction

Ghost Friend’s attacks can trigger on-hit effects, and the developer calls out Burn, Freeze and Lightning builds as examples that benefit from the change. Choose it for that interaction when those effects are central to the run. Its later 1.0 base rate is 1.25 attacks per second, reduced from two, so the older description calling its attacks much faster should not be read as the current numerical rate. This explains an effect-delivery role, not a guarantee that every unrelated gun effect transfers to every summon. The full release supplies the newer base rate. [1] [2]