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Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Treepresents some challenges even for veterans of the metroidvania genre. Enemy positioning and tactics are more reminiscent of a dark souls game than anything faced by Alucard and the Belmonts. You’ll want to plan appropriately and take advantage of the various systems that can give you a leg up on the enemies.
Making full use of the level-up mechanics, equippable abilities and assorted crafting skills will allow you to fight through the forces of darkness with more ease than charging recklessly with a sword.
Check The Accessibility Settings
Two things you’ll want to change from the default configuration right away are thequest tracking and quick buy features. This will save you many repetitive inputs when shopping and make it easier to manage side quests without becoming sidetracked by new quests you pick up along the way.
you may expect to use the shops frequently if you aren’t in the habit ofrevisiting low-level areas for materials,and many quests will be given to the player before they have the mobility tools needed to access them.
Some players have raised concerns about intrusive data collection by the game. If this worries you, you’re able to take extra timegoing through the privacy settings and opting out whenever possible.
Recruit Gerald And Alannah As Soon As Possible
One of the earlier side quests you’re able to encounter is torecruit the mapmaker Gerald to your camp entourage. Once you’ve got him on side you’ll have a much easier time navigating and backtracking since you won’t need to mark out all the details yourself.
Some details you’ll still want to mark on the map yourself such asone-way passages and routes that require a special movement ability.
Another good recruit to find early is the alchemist Alannah, foundwest of Wickham after the Fanghunt Executioner. She’s off from the main trail, making her easier to miss, but the sooner you recruit her, the sooner you can start duplicating ingredients using her garden.
Pre-Buff Before Bossfights
You’ll have a comfortable supply of consumables for most of the game. It’s always worthusing weapon and armour consumables before entering a new area, especially a boss arena.
The durations of most consumables are long enough to last through an entire combat or more.
If your supplies are more limited, it can be worth fighting without buffs the first couple of times you encounter a boss to either conquer them without the extra expense or so you can make a proper attempt later once you know their patterns.
If you got into a boss fight you aren’t ready for, you canreturn to your last Witch Stone by exiting to the main menu. This works even while fast travel is disabled and is a good way to avoid losing your essence.
The Majority Of Deaths Are From Falling
Entering your camp wagon at the Witch Tree will let you browse game statistics such as your most common cause of death. For many, this will be falling or traps, especially if you get careless while dashing back after a previous death. Taking just an extra couple of seconds to practise proper ladder safety or to go around a pit of spikes will save you from some embarrassing blunders.
It’s also worth keeping track of which traps cause instant death and which only deal damage.
If you’re everunsure whether a fall contains instant death or an unexplored area, check your map in the pause menu. If there areledgeholds to dangle fromthat is also a good sign.
Don’t Limit Yourself To Your Starting Class
Your starting class gives you a decent headstart instats, gear and spells. Don’t think of this as an exclusive commitment to the playstyle, even outside of the generous respec options.
Eachtalent tree is adjacent to two othersand can cross over into them. This makes it easier tomix and match complementary skillsets,and many classes have skills to take advantage of their direct neighbours. Most talent trees are composed of stat bonuses and passives useful to any player.
You can’t cast spells in a second tree until level 25, but even before then, you can benefit from building towards them and planning what skills you want to take from outside your class.Most multiclass builds don’t want to cast spells across several typesdue to limited equipment slots for spell foci.
This is especially true when comparing the martial-focused and spell-focused classes. Even the mostmagic-focused characters will still need to get into meleeand learn some sword skills, and the martial classes can benefit from some of thepassive abilities locked behind magic classes.
You’llneed a focus that matches the class to cast its spells, but can still benefit from any passive bonuses on the talent tree.
Jumping Can Be A Cheaper Dodge Roll
There’s no stamina cost to a basic jump, and against some attacks,it can be just as effective as a traditional dodge.It is also easier to combine with attacks if you can spare the stamina.Attacks that can be jumped over are often telegraphed differentlyfrom attacks that warrant a traditional dodge or block. Enemies that crouch low will likely swing wide at your feet.
Be aware that jumping gives youvery little horizontal distance and no invincibility frames.Against attacks with a large vertical area, you’re better off rolling.
Once you know the attack patterns of enemies, it becomes easy to avoid damage without needing to block or roll.
Some Enemies Will Fight Tactically
Some enemies have a set of tactics they’ll use to disrupt your normal approach to combat.
Health And Stamina Always Pay Off
Not dying is a valuable commodity in most games and Mandragora does not buck the trend. Martial classes start with more hit points, but these arealways worth getting more of on any build.
Stamina pays off even if you don’t rely on it much for attacking since its used for dodging andstamina doesn’t recharge while channeling magic. Make sure you have enoughtime and energy to run away after casting a big spell.
Equipment load similarly pays off on any character.Keep an eye open for vigor slots on the talent tree, or flexible slots that can be turned into vigor.Strength builds get carry weight from their main attack stat,so they can afford to use heavier gear.
Look forabilities in the talent tree that scale off your maximum hit points. Several features resurrect you or negate damage according to your max health.
Don’t Grind In The Same Spot Every Time
Grinding is a way to get extra strength by gathering up extra money, essence and crafting materials. Frequently, the best way to do it is tonot use the same spot consistently, so you can collect resource nodesor bounty quests at the same time.
This also ensures you get a healthy spread of different materials rather than only the drops found in one area.Metal ores and simple fabrics are among the easier materials to run out off, since they’re used for both crafting and upgrading merchants.
At several points you’ll have an assortment of options to pursue beyond the main quest, andsome will require a higher level than you have when first discovering them.If you’re trying to recruit Alannah early, you’ll have to fight through encounters tougher than in other areas available without mobility upgrades.
