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The First Berserker: Khazanis a stunning cell-shaded soulslike that will give any fan of the genre a run for their money, offering intense boss encounters and an exhilarating combat system that pulls from many entries in the genre, allowing you to focus on builds that compliment your playstyle.
Whether you’re a fan of the genre or a beginner, you will likely run into situations where you feel the current encounter is impossible. Fortunately, with a better understanding of the game’s combat and systems, you can overcome anything in this game, even if it takes several attempts!
Parrying Is Everything
If there is one thing you must get down in The First Berserker: Khazan, it’s theparrying systemthatrewards you for landing perfect parries.While easier said than done, landing aperfect parry will chip large chunks of the enemy’s Stamina Gauge awaywhile leaving yours alone, making it one of the most potent defensive options in the game.
Simply guardingyour enemy’s attackswill negate damage.Still, it willdrain your Stamina,which isn’t ideal, asblocking with a low Stamina Gauge can place you into a burnout state,meaning youcannot attack, evade, or guardfor some time, making you extremely vulnerable to incoming attacks.
Learning the enemy’s attacks and rhythmwill be pretty challenging at first, but once you get them down to a science, you will be consistently staggering them, leading to massive damage.It’s gratifying, but it willtake lots of time to masterand is ultimately the strongest tool you have at your disposal, no matter which weapon you choose!
Consumables Are Essential
In most soulslikes,Consumablesare helpful in specific situations, but you never really have to rely on them too much, especially during boss encounters. However, in The First Berserker: Khazan, weconstantly found ourselves relying on a handful of Consumables that would pull us over the finish linein intense boss fights.
Take theVitality Shard,for example, a Consumable thatincreases your Stamina Recovery.There are some instances wherea boss will enter a second phase,becomingsubstantially stronger and faster,which can be challenging to deal with, especially if you don’t have the parry windows down yet.
Popping a Vitality Shardallowed our Stamina to regenerate faster than they were attackingand stay on the offensive even after guarding a long-winded attackstring, ultimately allowing us to defeat them without relying on too many perfect parries or phenomenal defense. We could still attack and stay active without worrying about going into an exhausted state.
Other Useful Items
There are also a handful of other items we use on a consistent basis, with theWillpower Orbbeing one of them, allowing you tospend three Spirit Gauge Units to replenish 50 percent of your Max Health,making it anexcellent backup plan if your run out of Netherworld Energy,which will happen A LOT throughout your journey.
Most bosses and zones also inflict specific elemental ailments,so havingConsumables that help prevent their build-up or erase them completely is also valuableand will help take some stress off your mind, allowing you to focus solely on the encounter instead of having to deal with tick damage or losing a large chunk of your health!
Don’t Sleep On Phantom Abilities
As you progress further and further into The First Berserker: Khazan, you willunlock Phantomsthatgrant you additional bonuses that will help you out tremendouslyduring your playthrough. No matter your playstyle, there will likely be a Phantom for you that will elevate your gameplay to the next level.
Constantine the Devoted
Fills up the Phantom Form Gauge faster.
Depending on your weapon of choice and buildfocus, yourPhantom of choice will likely change.Since we useDual Wield,we stuck withKeshta the Unyieldingfor most of the game, asconstantly upgrading our Stamina Recovery allowed us to remain more aggressivein boss encounters.
Meanwhile,Wulfric the Resilientmay make more sense forGreatswordbuilds, as theextra Frontal Assault Damagecould see massive benefits.Spearuserscan roll with Keshta as well,but since they are combo fiends,Constantinemay make more sense, as you willfill your Phantom Form Gauge up extremely fast due to your high attack outputand use of Skills!
Managing Your Spirit
Spiritis acrucial resourcein The First Berserker: Khazan, as itallows you to use potent Skills in combatthat can lead tomassive damage output and lengthy combos.However,if you mismanage it, it could come back to bite you,especially if you put yourself in a burnout state when using it.
Every weapon type has its own Skill Tree,allowing you tospend Skill Points to unlock powerful abilities requiring Spirit to use.Afterspending Spirit to use an ability,youmust attack or use a Consumable to replenish your Spirit,making it a resource you cannot freely spam.
Furthermore,using Skills will drain your Stamina,so youmust ensure you have enough Stamina to not only perform the Skill but to have enough left afterwardto be able to evade if you need to or guard, as you don’t want to risk becoming exhausted during a boss encounter.
Westrongly recommend only using up to three Skills in a row at most,thenreverting back to your basic attacks until you build up more Spirit.Overdoing it can leave you in sticky situations that are hard to recover from, so keep that in mind if you’re getting a bit too spam-happy with your Skills!
Burst Attack Counters Are Powerful
Bosses and Elite Enemieswill often haveBurst Attacks,which areextremely strong and high-damaging attacksthatcannot be guarded or parried,forcing you toeither evade them entirely or try performing a unique Counter Attackby pressing L1+Circle/LB+B right before the attack lands.Think of the Mikiri Counter from Sekiroif you’ve played that.
Whilelanding a Counter can be risky, it’s almost always worth going for,as landing it willtemporarily stun the opponent, replenish your Stamina, and allow you to unleash a barrage of Skillson the enemy for massive damage. Along with the parry, we cannot recommend getting good at landing Counters enough.
Running away will almost always allow you to avoid taking damage,but you’releaving TONS of damage on the table.While it will be daunting and a tad frustrating at first, learning how to Counter a Burst Attack will lead to massive results that outweigh any of the negatives that come along with it!
Builds Can Elevate Your Playstyle
Buildsare another crucial aspect of The First Berserker: Khazan, as yourGear can substantially affect your overall performance.While youdon’t necessarily need a complete Gear Set,youshould have at least a few pieces of a Set equippedat a time to get their unique bonuses.
For example, theDeep Shadow Setmay bebeneficial for Greatsword users,as itprovides additional Frontal Assault Damage,which would alsopair nicely with the Wulfric the Resilient Phantom.If you’refocusing on specific aspectsof your weapon, thenthere is likely a Gear Set that will help highlight those attributes,making it that much more potent.
Again, youdon’t need to have a complete Gear Set to do wellin this game, but taking advantage of the bonuses they offer can make a substantial difference.Mixing Gear Sets also works wonders,as you can take theFrontal Assault bufffromtwo pieces of the Deep Shadow Setandcombine it with three piecesof theAshen Wolf Setto receivefaster Health Regeneration.Don’t be afraid to experiment and mix sets, as they can give you a massive buff during combat!
Stamina Will Make Or Break Many Encounters
Lastly, we know we touched upon this several times already, butStamina is quite significantin The Last Berkerker: Khazan andcan make or break your current attempt at slaying a boss.Unlike most soulslikes, it almost feels like you are obligated to focus on your Endurance to avoid frustration.
Not only ishaving lots of Stamina almost required,buthaving fast Stamina Recovery is just as useful,which can be achieved byincreasing your Willpower Stat.Every Stat seems crucial to some extent, but youcan’t really neglect Endurance or Willpowerlike you can in similar titles.
So, westrongly recommend using Consumables that grant you better Stamina Recovery and Gear Sets that provide more Stamina or better Recoveryas well, as they willallow you to not have to rely so heavily on landing perfect parries just to have some Stamina left over to attack.Do not sleep on these Skills!
