Soulframe Virtues Explained: Courage, Spirit and Grace

"I put a ton of points in, but my weapon doesn't feel any stronger. Am I doing something wrong?" That question comes up in Soulframe chat all the time, because the game barely explains its own stats. The answer is almost always the same: the Soulframe Virtues and your weapon's Attunement.

This guide explains both step by step, as of Preludes 16 "Of Hook and Hound" with Hotfix 6.

⚔️ The three Virtues: Courage, Spirit and Grace

Soulframe has exactly three Virtues: Courage, Spirit and Grace. They were introduced with Preludes 13 "A Triquetra of Virtues". You find them in the menu under the Paragon, shown as a triangle. Your total Life sits in the middle, and the button to reassign your points is at the bottom.

Each Virtue has a fixed color and a fixed symbol. That's the key to the whole system, because weapons show their scaling only through these symbols:

The core functions in this table (Courage as the main Virtue for Life scaling, Spirit for magic damage, Grace for Stability and critical hits) come straight from Digital Extremes' Preludes 13 announcement. The colors, symbols and weapon types come from the in-game display and community catalogs, so check your own tooltip if in doubt.

According to the community wiki, you start with 16 Virtue points and get one more per Envoy rank. You can reassign them in the Arsenal at any time, and each loadout saves its own split, so experimenting costs you nothing. Since Preludes 16 Hotfix 4, your pup's auras add Virtue points too: Guts adds Courage, Endurance adds Grace and Heart adds Spirit. How that works is in our wolfpup training guide.

The link to the three Arcanic slots shows up again with Smite: when you pull a soul with a Smite, it charges exactly the Arcanic slot that belongs to that Virtue. More on Pacts and their Arcanics is in our Soulframe pacts guide.

🎯 The Virtue requirement: no minimum, no bonus

Every weapon asks for a minimum value in one Virtue. The tooltip shows it as a fraction, for example 15/14: your current value on the left, the required value on the right. The symbol of the Virtue in question sits in front of it.

If you're below the requirement, you get no bonus. Not a reduced bonus, zero. The game makes this visible in two places:

• Your number turns red. A red 7 at 7/14 means you're missing seven points in that Virtue.
• The Attunement symbols turn gray. Once the requirement is met, they show up in their Virtue color.

That's the reason behind the question at the top: if you put points into the wrong Virtue, your weapon stays gray and you feel nothing from the investment. An example from actual play: the longblade Grinn needs 14 Grace. At 7 points the number was red and all four Attunement symbols were gray. After reassigning to 15 Grace, the number was white and the symbols lit up in blue and red.

Some simple weapons have no Virtue requirement at all. The line is then missing from the tooltip, and the weapon scales without a threshold.

✨ Attunement: what the symbols on your weapon tell you

Below the Virtue requirement you'll see Attunement. It's a row of symbols showing which Virtues the weapon also scales with, and how strongly. More symbols of one color mean stronger scaling with that Virtue.

Take Grinn again: two blue stars and two red flame stars. The weapon benefits from Grace and Courage equally. A staff with three green crescents, on the other hand, is a pure Spirit weapon.

Since the symbols differ in both color and shape, you can sort a weapon at a glance in your inventory without reading the tooltip. Just watch whether they're colored or gray. Gray always means the bonus isn't active right now.

🩸 What each Virtue actually does

• Courage is, per the official announcement, the main Virtue for Life scaling and the base for heavy melee weapons. According to the community wiki, each point of Courage gives 12 Life, a point of Spirit 3 and a point of Grace 6.
• Spirit controls magic damage and, according to the community wiki, cuts the cooldown of your Arcanics by 1.5% per point, with diminishing returns from about 34 points (50%). It's the Virtue for magic builds with staves. Attuned on armor, it also raises defense values.
• Grace affects Stability and critical hits, lowers your detection range while sneaking, and raises damage from headshots and attacks from behind. That's why bow and stealth builds almost always go Grace.

🔗 Joineries change Attunement, not the requirement

With Joineries, the colored materials from chests and dungeons, the smith Tuvalkane reworks your weapon and adjusts its Attunement.

What matters here: the Virtue requirement of a weapon doesn't change when you rework it. Joineries shift how strongly a weapon also scales with each Virtue, but the minimum value is still set by the weapon itself. Reforging with a Twice or Thrice Blessed Joinery used to reset a weapon to rank 0; according to the community wiki, that stopped with Preludes 14 Hotfix 5.

🧭 Which Virtue fits your playstyle?

• Magic focus: most points into Spirit, plus a staff with a green requirement. Gives you short Arcanic cooldowns.
• Melee focus: most points into Courage, plus longblades, a heavy weapon, a polearm or a shield. Also gives more Life.
• Ranged or stealth: most points into Grace, plus a bow, Flyblades or short blades. Pays off most for headshot and ambush playstyles.

In practice, most builds mix two Virtues, because many weapons have split scaling. Grinn with blue and red is exactly that kind of weapon. Check the tooltip before you commit your points.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions about Soulframe Virtues

What are the three Virtues in Soulframe?

Courage, Spirit and Grace. Courage drives Life and melee, Spirit drives magic damage and cooldowns, Grace drives Stability, crits and ranged or stealth play.

How do I get more Virtue points?

You get one more per Envoy rank. Since Preludes 16 Hotfix 4, your pup's Guts, Endurance and Heart auras add Courage, Grace and Spirit as well.

What does a red number at the Virtue requirement mean?

That you don't reach the required minimum. The Attunement symbols are then gray, and the weapon gets no Virtue bonus at all.

Why are the symbols on my weapon gray?

Because the Virtue requirement isn't met. Put enough points into the required Virtue and they turn colored.

Which color stands for which Virtue?

Red with a flame star for Courage, green with a crescent for Spirit, blue with an eight-pointed star for Grace.

Does the Virtue requirement change when I rework a weapon with Joineries?

No. Joineries adjust the Attunement, not the minimum value the weapon asks for.

🏁 Bottom line

Together with Attunement, the Soulframe Virtues Courage, Spirit and Grace decide how much damage you deal, but only if you meet your weapon's Virtue requirement. The quickest check needs no math at all: gray symbols mean something's off, colored symbols mean your build fits the weapon. Before you reassign anything, open the weapon you actually use and read its requirement first.

New to the game? Start with the Soulframe beginner guide. All guides are on the Soulframe overview.

As of October 2026: Preludes 16 with Hotfix 6. The names Courage, Spirit and Grace and their core functions come from the official Preludes 13 "A Triquetra of Virtues" announcement on soulframe.com. Starting points, Life per point, the cooldown value, per-loadout saving and the end of the rank reset come from the community wiki on wiki.avakot.org ("Virtues" and "Joineries" pages). The pup aura Virtue bonuses come from the official Preludes 16 Hotfix 4 notes. Colors, symbols and weapon assignments come from the in-game display and community catalogs. There is no official Soulframe wiki. Soulframe is still in pre-alpha, so values can change with any update.