BEGINNER'S GUIDE

1. What the Game Does Not Tell You

Eight things the sources single out because they run against what an open-world RPG usually does.

• There is no traditional level. Your stats come only from gear refinement and from Abyss Artifacts spent on Health, Stamina and Spirit. Artifacts come from a gauge beside the minimap that the game does not explain — a curved gold meter around its left edge — that fills as you kill enemies and pays out one Artifact each time it completes, without limit.
• Nothing weighs anything. There is no equipment weight, so heavy plate moves like cloth (see the FAQ). Inventory is counted in slots, and bags add slots (FAQ).
• Health, Stamina and Spirit are shared by Kliff, Damiane and Oongka; skills are not, though since patch 2.00.00 the Abyss Artifacts one character spends on skills give the other two the same number of Abyss Links for their own (section 3).
• Merchants restock at midnight, in-game time. The shortcut for skipping to it is to rest at the cooking pot to the right of Hernand's butcher.
• Resistances only count in steps of five. Ice Resistance of 4 still lets cold places drain your Stamina; 5, 10, 15 or 20 is what registers, and food or one more piece of armour can get you over the line.
• Pop-ups you missed are kept. The Notifications tab, under the Others menu, holds past notifications.
• There is storage. There is a Private Storage at your temporary lodgings in Hernand and at the Howling Hill camp once it is unlocked (behind Carl), at the end of Chapter 3.
• Cutscenes fast-forward rather than skip — the FAQ has the inputs.

2. What to Do First

The first things to do, in the order the sources give them:

• 1

  Ring the bells and switch on fast travel

  Bell towers, marked with a bell icon in towns and cities, clear large patches of the fog of war; the large white question marks on the map are where fast-travel points hide, and Abyss Cressets and Abyss Nexuses are worth unlocking first because you will keep coming back to them. At full scale the job is all eight hidden bells and the fast-travel points of every region, and the town-centre point in Hernand should be the first one you activate. The FAQ has the verified mechanics for both kinds of point and the bells.

• 2

  Do the Greymane quests early

  They unlock the camp's features, and once you can send comrades on missions, send them — missions take time, so they should be running while you do something else. The Companions page has the questlines and what each camp stage adds.

• 3

  Take bounties and Hernand Commissions as they appear

  This is the best way to unlock more inventory slots and to earn coins early. Side quests and bounties also pay contribution points, which buy armour and accessories from vendors; and because getting jailed costs contribution points and silver — a bounty you cannot pay goes negative — the advice for the first hours is not to commit crimes, with the two exceptions in section 8.

• 4

  Visit four places with named loot

  The Sanctum of Temperance (Odeck's Protector Plate Boots), the Sanctum of Penitence (Blackwing Leather Gloves), the Sanctum of Benediction (Leather Helm of the Fallen Kingdom) and the Icemoor Castle Ruins (Leather Cloak of the Fallen Kingdom). The Witches' sanctums can be explored without enemy encounters before their questlines activate. The weapon pick for the same stage is the Hwando, for its damage and its Abyss Gear.

• 5

  Estate in Dismay, as soon as Chapter 2

  It pays Hernand contribution points and the Mining Knuckledrill. Be warned that the Karin Quarry mission inside it is hard this early, so bring food and some Abyss Artifacts.

• 6

  Unlimited arrows in Pororin Village

  Lumiel, the Research Director, hands out the Sustained Supply Arrow, which never runs out.

• 7

  If you care about trophies, collect Sealed Abyss Artifacts before anything else

  Challenges are unlocked by these collectibles, and a challenge only counts what you do after its artifact is in your hands. The Trophy Guide explains why that shapes the whole game.

3. Stats, Artifacts and Skills

Health and Stamina first. Get both to 4 or 5 as soon as possible: Health to take more hits, Stamina for more swings and dodges and for gliding, swimming and climbing. Both carry to all three characters. The caps — Stamina 14, Health 18, and Spirit 12 by Game8's count or 14 by Fextralife's — and an order for raising them are on the Builds page.

Spend Artifacts in the right order. Buy the skills that cost one Artifact before those costing two or three unless you really need one, and keep some back, because equipment upgrades past +4 need Artifacts too. Some skills need not be bought at all — the guards at Hernand Castle teach Proficiency, the guards at Lioncrest Manor Counter and an archer Charged Shot when you watch them; the observable-skills section lists the rest.

Which skills. A ten-skill starting list is on the Builds page; another first pick is Nature's Echo, which duplicates heavy attacks and needs all three Forward Slash and all three Keen Senses skills first.

Kliff gets the points. Concentrate skill points and upgrades on Kliff, since the other two are unavailable for most of the story and several chapters force you to play Kliff alone. Since patch 2.00.00 that no longer leaves Damiane and Oongka behind: every Abyss Artifact spent on a skill grants the other playable characters the same number of Abyss Links, which each of them spends on their own skills, and skills can now be reset one character at a time, refunding that character's Links (Builds has the details). The update reset everyone's skills once and refunded the Artifacts. Summoning allies is not even available in some of Kliff's story quests.

4. Combat Habits

Reading an enemy

• A blue splash means super armour. That attack cannot be interrupted the normal way: either use an attack that breaks super armour (a fully upgraded Stab, for example) or dodge and block it.
• Blinding Flash stuns a crowd for a moment, which makes it the tool for when you are surrounded.
• Stab's bleed is strong early on, and worth leaning on until you have settled on a build.
• Ranged enemies first, because arrows are hard to dodge and their damage adds up; keep repositioning, because enemies try to get behind you; and watch exploding barrels and other destructible objects, which damage and stagger you too.

Allies and hidden moves

Summon allies for quests with a lot of fighting; they draw attention away from you. Watch their health, because at zero they retreat and are unavailable until a long cooldown runs out; between fights, Force Palm's healing variant restores them and saves food, at the cost of stunning them briefly. There are also moves the game never explains: a Scoop Slam (Lariat while holding the opposite direction), a German Suplex (Lariat with the target's back to you), an Elbow Drop (Lariat on a downed enemy), a Punt Kick (hold the unarmed attack briefly and release on a downed enemy), a Clothesline Slam (from a full sprint) and a Shield Bash Combo (hold block and strong attack together for a charge followed by three heavy strikes).

Bosses, stealth and the odd ones

Boss attacks come in three kinds — blockable attacks to parry, shields to break with heavy attacks, unblockable attacks to dodge — and heavy attacks cost stamina while light attacks do not; the Bestiary has that method in full, with five questions to answer before charging a new boss. Two more notes: the game has a stealth mechanic it never announces (thick bushes, treetops, anything that blocks line of sight; the screen edges darken when you are hidden), and some enemies cannot be beaten by ordinary means — look for something in the environment or use an ability that is not meant for combat, such as Axiom Force. For hunting, use poison arrows: the puddle they leave kills small creatures outright and works on the big ones too, and it does not affect the quality of the meat.

5. Food Is the Healing

The one rule that matters most: eating is the only way to heal during a fight, so stock up before a fort liberation or a boss, from Hernand's food vendors. Food is unlimited, can be eaten roughly every two seconds while attacking or dodging, and cooked food always restores more than raw; cooking costs nothing. The cheap option is Tough Meat from Hernand's butcher, grilled, for 140 health apiece, a hundred or more of them for a hard boss; the butcher restocks at midnight, and a group of deer yields three or four meat each. Keep Grilled Meat for ordinary fights and cook specialised dishes for bosses; food restores Health, Stamina or Spirit depending on the dish (as the Bestiary records), and the Stamina kind is worth eating mid-climb or mid-glide when the bar runs out.

Three habits: cook anywhere by dropping meat on the ground with Discard and reflecting Blinding Flash onto it; do not cook dishes that heal more than your maximum health, because the surplus is wasted; and free up inventory slots before a cooking session, since the dishes need somewhere to go. Palmar Pills are the other consumable: a self-revive at 30% of maximum health, with the recipe lying on a table in a witch's cave near the first bridge into Hernand; keep them for the final phase of a multi-phase boss. Recipes and the Kuku Pot are on the Crafting page.

6. Gear and Materials

Refine often. Copper and iron ore are everywhere, so upgrade early and make it a habit, and start with the default weapons, which cannot be sold and stay with you. The Blacksmith is in Hernand's town centre, plate armour has the best defence and there is no weight to pay for it, so buy plate from the merchant next door and refine it. What refinement is, what reinforcement is and why they are different things is settled on the Equipment page and in the FAQ; one addition is that the Grindstone and Anvil boost is worth about two or three upgrade levels while it lasts, and there are a grindstone and an anvil in the bandit camp of Chapter 2's Trial after Trial.

Materials. The Provisioner's Shop in Hernand sells a pickaxe and a logging axe; without them, Force Palm breaks ore and Turning Slash fells trees. Force Palm can also fell a tree, and a second one splits it into three. Ore high on a wall takes a Charged Shot, or a climb and a Force Palm — and when you use Force Palm while hanging on a wall, hold Resist (L2 / LT / Q) or it knocks you off. Loot the boring things too, animals and plants included, because crafting needs them.

What to wear. The boss weapons are worth keeping: the Sword of the Lord from Kailok for quick attacks and the Tauria Curved Sword from Crowcaller for heavy attacks and crowds. Common gear that drops often is easier to upgrade than rare pieces, and Abyss Gear can be moved from one item to another; prefer equipment with several slots and a built-in passive (Equipment, section 4). Buy starter armour and accessories with contribution points. Check vendors again after story progress, because they stock new items. The lantern and Blinding Flash both highlight items worth picking up, and since patch 1.02.00 the helmet can be hidden — Always Show, Show in Combat, Hide in Cutscenes, Always Hide (appearance is covered on Equipment, section 7).

7. Getting Around

• Bells and fast travel are the verified answers in the FAQ. One consequence: ring all eight bells and the whole map unfogs.
• Skydive from the sky islands. Press R3 (mouse wheel on PC) on the map for the sky map, then dive from the nearest sky fast-travel point towards places that have no ground point yet. Another way is to enter the Abyss and jump or fly to where you are going; the more Abyss travel points you have, the more of the map it covers.
• Climb with Force Palm. Three Force Palms in a row in mid-air catapult you upwards, further still with the double jump, and the combination costs no Stamina. Aerial Maneuver is a skill worth taking early for ledges you cannot otherwise reach.
• Horses. Taming is in the FAQ. Your horse can be healed by turning Force Palm into Healing Palm — hold R3 (mouse wheel), then L3 (Tab) — and its health shows in the inventory when it is nearby. You cannot fast travel while mounted (FAQ).
• Waterfalls and braziers. A small stacked rock tower in front of a waterfall marks a cave behind it, usually with a chest holding a unique piece of equipment or rare ore; a Stab (R1+△ / RB+Y / Shift + right click) straight at the water parts it. Lighting the braziers near a locked chamber opens it or reveals a treasure nearby.
• Find things from high up. Blinding Flash fired from mountaintops and tall buildings reveals the points of interest around them; the lantern does the same job at ground level.

8. Inventory, Storage and Silver

Slots, not weight. The FAQ has the bags. Prioritise the faction quests that reward a Medium Bag, and preview rewards in the Faction Quest menu before you accept; small bags are sold by vendors, and side quests also give Medium Bags. Sort the inventory by type, and sell books, documents, posters, recipes and letters once read, since what they teach stays in your journal (look for the "Knowledge acquired" line).

Storage. The Private Storage is at your lodgings in Hernand and, later, at the camp, where the chest is in the black tent and unlocks at the end of Chapter 3. Loot from large battles goes into storage automatically, and the camp's Supply Chest holds anything you left uncollected, so you can fight without stopping to pick things up.

Silver. The early-money method is the one the FAQ already gives: pick flowers by the hundred and mine the expensive ores, and around 100 silver coins ends the money problem for a long time. Two thefts are worth the crime: the Hernand Bank, for over 40 Silver, and the Gold Bar in Lioncrest Manor, worth 500 silver at the bank. The same manor also has the Brass Wardens Plate and the Rhonid Large Shield. Later routes are on the Maps page.

If you do get wanted. The FAQ has the nine Confessionals (MapMaster pins eight: three in Hernand, four in Demeniss, one in Pailune). What you buy there is the Writ of Absolution, sold at every church for exactly the bounty. The reason to avoid it early: jail cuts your contribution points and silver, and a bounty you cannot cover leaves you in the negative.

Trust pays. An NPC at 100 Trust gives a gift tied to their profession, the Greymanes hand over tribe resources once a day, and most people accept cooked food or a coin bag for +5 Trust each.

9. Camp, Comrades and Pets

Comrades. Once the camp is running, Ross sends Greymanes out on jobs; afterwards you find them where you sent them, not at a marked spot, and that is where their personal requests get done. Dispatched missions take time, so keep them running (Mission Dispatch). In a fight, summon Damiane early and often, with the caveat that she becomes unavailable later for story reasons; the note on allies retreating at zero health is in section 4.

Pets loot for you. An animal that reaches 100 affection follows you and picks up what enemies drop. Petting a town dog or cat gives 25 a day; dogs take Small Bones, three drops for 75, and cats Grilled Fish or Grilled Meat, 20 a drop, also three times. It can be done within two in-game days, better meat gives more affection, and you can register up to 30 pets at first—since patch 1.11.00 new challenges raise that to 100, of which up to 50 can be summoned at camp; thirty different pets are needed for one of the Life challenges.

10. What Can Be Missed

The list of missables and one-time events is short. It has one missable item: the Focused Force Palm skill, if in Chapter 4 you fast-travel to Scholastone Institute instead of going through the sealed cave — our Chapter 4 page walks the cave — and even then Game8 says it becomes available again in Chapter 9, while TheGamer says you can go back to the spot at any time and learn it, and Vandal that a player who finished Chapter 4 without it can still learn it by observing the memory at a blocked cave entrance in south-west Scholastone. Everything else on the list is a one-time event rather than a loss: quests and cutscenes play once, puzzles cannot be reset, and bosses could not be fought again until version 1.05.00 added rematches through the lantern (the Bestiary covers the system).

The real missables are trophies. Five of them hinge on challenges that can run out of opportunities, and three rules for them are worth knowing from the start even if you never chase the Platinum: collect Sealed Abyss Artifacts first, do not liberate enemy camps until your challenges are done, and never sell, discard or break the ten Special Weapons. The Trophy Guide names the five and why.