Minecraft Dungeons II Talismans Tier List

Talismans are the new equipment row in Minecraft Dungeons II. Official copy on Minecraft.net (August 31, 2026) calls them a category of passive bonuses that specialise a playstyle. You get three slots. They do not use the traditional rarity and power ladder the way a sword does. Hands-on coverage says a talisman levels up the longer you use it. Pets that used to eat an artifact button in the 2020 game live here now, so you can keep a dog and three active skills. This page ranks the verbs already shown. The game is unreleased until September 29, 2026. There is no full talisman codex yet.

If you still think in six slots, read inventory and gear first. If you want a finished six-to-twelve tile sentence, use starter builds after this list.

What a talisman is, and what it is not

• Not an artifact. Artifacts are the three active buttons with short cooldowns. Talismans are always on.
• Not an Enchant Book. Books are a library you stamp at the Enchantsmith. A talisman occupies its own tile and grows with use.
• Not a cape. Capes and Deluxe’s Blub are cosmetics until a launch tooltip says otherwise. Official copy is already blunt: Blub cannot fight.
• Not a class pick. Three passives still leave you free to mix a hammer and a bow. They just bias the mix.

Xbox Wire’s June Showcase hands-on is the best public pet example: a bone talisman (coverage also calls it the Tasty Bone or Bone of Tastiness) summoned a dog that attacked, tanked, died, and respawned on a timer. That single item is why this list exists before launch. One confirmed playstyle is enough to rank a slot.

Minecraft Dungeons II gameplay changes: artifacts, talismans, Twisted Warden

S-tier: the passives demos actually leaned on

Pet bone / Tasty Bone. Summons a companion that fights and soaks hits. The Showcase dog drew aggro in a cave, fell through a collapsed floor, and came back. That is a Twisted Warden tool: a second body for sonic-style area attacks. It is also a Copper-road tool if you are kiting lightning and want something else for the cubes to chase. The respawn timer is the tax. Do not treat the pet as immortal. Recast your brain, not a button — it is a passive. If it is down, play like you lost a tank for a few seconds.

Souls-gain (Twisted Tooth). A gamescom inventory still labels Twisted Tooth with “Increases souls gained by 40%.” That is a real tooltip from a public screenshot, not a wiki invention. Soul Corrupted enemies feed the Enchantsmith. A 40% bump on that currency is how a library becomes a stamped build instead of a pile of unusable books. If you plan to live at the Enchantsmith, this tile is the funding plan.

Regen-on-kill style passives. The June hands-on paired the dog with a weapon enchant that spawned regen spots on kills. If a talisman (or a mixed armor effect) does the same job, it belongs next to the pet. Pets die. Regen is how you stop dying with them. Rank the verb, not the slot it happens to sit in.

A-tier: specialised without being a gimmick

Defensive passives that flatten burst. The Copper Monstrosity shaves huge sections of a health bar if you greed a punch. A talisman that adds a shield, damage reduction, or potion efficiency is the unfashionable A. Wear it on a first clear. Fashion later.

Ranged or cooldown passives that feed the dodge-arrow loop on the enchantments list. If a talisman shortens artifact cooldown or adds a small on-dodge bonus, it supports the gamescom ranger without eating an artifact tile. That is the entire point of the new row.

Exploration passives if launch tooltips include move speed, jump height, or loot sense. Jump is new. A talisman that makes parkour less embarrassing is an A for The Sift and a B on flat Rainy Plains. Rank it for the pin you are actually taking tonight.

B-tier: fine numbers, no new sentence

Small stat sprinkles — a little melee damage, a little ranged damage, a little armor — belong here unless they enable a combo you can name in one breath. Official copy literally calls talismans a sprinkle of extra numbers. Sprinkles are B until they become a pet or a souls engine. Keep them if the tile is empty. Replace them the moment an S drops.

C-tier: cosmetics pretending to be loadout

Twisted Chicken (pre-order) and Blub (Deluxe) follow your hero in promotional art. Official Deluxe copy says Blub cannot fight. Until a launch UI puts either companion on a talisman tile with a combat tooltip, they are wardrobe. Do not evict Twisted Tooth or a dog for a chicken. The shopping page for those items is pre-order, not this list.

Unnamed “mystery” talismans from blurry trailer frames also sit in C. We will promote them when a still shows a tooltip. We will not invent a “Sculk Heart of Dominance +12%.”

How to slot three tiles without a class screen

A useful default for launch week:

1. Pet if you have one. The Warden cave and the copper road both like a second body.
2. Souls-gain if you are still filling a library. Stop wearing it once the Enchantsmith is no longer the bottleneck.
3. Survival or dodge support depending on the next pin. Regen for Warden. Reduction for Copper. Move speed for Sift parkour.

That sentence is also the pet-and-regen starter on the builds page. If you refuse pets, run souls-gain plus two defensive tiles and accept that booms will hit you, not a dog.

Talismans level with use. Do not swap an almost-grown pet bone for a slightly prettier unused one unless the new verb is clearly better. Growth is part of the rank. The loadout planner has three checkboxes for this row. Tick them in town, not during a dash.

After launch

The day coefficients exist, this list will stop saying “a 40% souls tooltip on one screenshot.” Until then, every rank is a verb rank from official stills and two hands-on reports. Pair it with armor because four armor tiles and three talismans are how a hero actually looks, and with How to Play because a passive does not replace the habit of drinking before a punch.