Are you new to Lords of the Fallen? Do you want to get started with this game quickly?
Here are our top 10 tips for newcomers to Lords of the Fallen.
1. Your Magic Lamp Solves Most Problems
At the beginning of your adventure, you’ll inherit a magical lamp that serves as the source of your power, and it’s just about the most handy tool imaginable.
Not only does it allow you to travel back and forth between the real world Axiom and the upside down from stranger things, but you can use it to pass through otherwise impassible barriers, see fragments of the past to collect lore in the form of Umbral Stigmas, and alter the geometry of areas to reveal secrets and open new traversal options.
If you ever find yourself unsure where to go next, try pulling out your lamp and using it to get a glimpse at the Umbral Realm. Odds are you’ll find a ladder that only appears in the Umbral Realm or watch a wall dematerialize in the presence of your lamp’s light.
You’ll also notice some levels have giant eyeballs blocking your way called Umbral Entities. These metalsome barriers can only be removed by using your lamp to enter Umbral to seek and destroy the tentacles that branch out from the eyeballs creepy gray body.
Just look for gross humanoids sticking out of the tentacles and use the lamp’s Soul Flay ability to destroy them all to get rid of the Entity and continue on your way.
2. Use That Soul Flay
Speaking of Soul Flay, this handy ability is absolutely essential not just during exploration where you can use it to transform the level’s geometry and yank loot out of the environment, but also during combat, when it can be used to pull the soul out of almost any living enemy, allowing a brief moment to deal as much damage as possible while they’re undefended.
In the beginning, you’ll only have one Soul Flay use for combat purposes, but you’ll be able to use your Lords of the Fallen Vigor to upgrade your lamp later on for additional uses. That said, even with one use, don’t be afraid to use it. There’s no benefit to hanging on to it since additional uses are easy to come by an Umbral where you can shine the light on blisters on the wall to gain additional charges.
Plus, anytime you rest at a checkpoint or die, you’ll have your charges restored. So, don’t be afraid to use Soul Flay liberally.
A pro tip for using Soul Flay is that you can choose which direction to pull the enemy’s soul out of its body, which means you can actually use this ability to pull enemies off of a cliff and have them fall to their death. This comes in great handy when you encounter an elite enemy in a precarious environment as you can avoid the fight altogether by tossing that dummy right off the map.
One caveat to using Soul Flay is that the ability won’t work on Umbral creatures, meaning any enemy that only exists in that plane will be immune. Also, some enemies can block it with their shield or if they’re a boss, be immune to it altogether.
These edge cases aren’t too common though, so feel free to experiment and remember to deal as much damage as possible while they’re vulnerable.
3. Don’t Get Pulled Into Umbral
Though sometimes you’ll need to travel to Umbral voluntarily, staying in it for too long will summon more and more powerful enemies until you’re eventually hunted down by Uber powerful horrors and killed.
Plus, if you die in that realm, you’ll be fully killed and immediately go all the way back to your last checkpoint. So, there are no second chances like there are when you’re still in the real world.
For this reason, you want to limit your visits to this dangerous plane. And that means being aware that if you’re hit by an Umbral enemy while still in the real world, you’ll immediately be transported to Umbral.
For example, if you’re still in Axiom and you take out your lantern to peer into Umbral enemies, walking around that plane will be able to see and interact with you as well, meaning you can actually get attacked by enemies on the other side.
If you let that happen, you’ll find yourself within that world, which can leave you in a much more dangerous situation than you intended. In other words, be careful when you’re walking around with your lamp outstretched.
While seeing into the other side and using it to get through barriers is great, overusing it will inevitably lead you to getting attacked. So, we recommend using it sparingly and in shorter bursts before stowing it again.
4. Kill Umbral Parasites With Prejudice
Some enemies come with invisible buffs called Umbral Parasites.
These little floating goblins can only be seen in Umbral and tether themselves to the enemies they’re protecting or empowering, making them easy to track down.
Anytime you see an enemy with a blue orb near their health bar, they’re being assisted by an Umbral Parasite and you should immediately destroy it. This is especially important since many parasites make the enemies they buff almost completely invulnerable to death.
To kill Umbral Parasites, take out your lamp and shine its blue light on the floating eyeballs tethered to nearby enemies. This will kill it and remove any buffs those enemies are enjoying. Then, you can kill them and be on your way.
5. Don’t Hoard Vestige Seeds
Vestige Seeds are a very cool mechanic that lets you pick your own safe points throughout your journey.
Each area has at least a few patches of white flowers that cause your lamp to pulse when you draw near. This signifies that you have the option of using a Vestige Seed to plant a checkpoint there, saving your progress.
Though you might be hesitant at first to make use of this precious resource, keep in mind that you can farm these infinitely by helping others defeat bosses or by killing Umbral enemies who drop them fairly regularly.
Plus, some vendors will sell them, too. Therefore, you’d better buy Lords of the Fallen Vigor in advance. In other words, there’s no reason to push your luck and try getting to the next static safe point when you can play it safe and plant a Vestige Seed.
Use these whenever you feel that having a safe point would help you progress or give you a chance to spend all those valuable resources before you die and lose them.
6. Find Gerlinde The Blacksmith Early
If you want to upgrade your weapons, you’ll need to find an NPC named Gerlinde, who is a Blacksmith and release her from her prison cell.
But doing so is a completely missable event. Not being able to upgrade your weapons as areas increase in their difficulty is very much not advised. So, in order to unlock her, be on the lookout in the game’s earliest areas.
You can find Gerlinde’s cell near the Bellroom, which is right in front of the Vestige of Blind Agatha, in a hallway.
Feet away is an elevator that’s accessible once you’ve explored the area a little more. And by taking that lift down, you’ll find yourself standing just above Gerlinde’s cell.
Use the ladder to climb down. Clear out all the enemies in the area and you’ll be able to speak with and free the Blacksmith who will then join you back at the base and offer her weapon improving services.
Even better, you can unlock an additional equipment improving mechanic called Runes by finding four tablets throughout the world and bringing them to her.
However, this takes a fair bit longer to unlock, so don’t expect to find them all right at the outset.
7. Watch Out For Mimics
Like many souls likes, Lords of the Fallen is home to mimics that lure greedy players in and murder their faces.
Unlike other games, though, mimics don’t disguise themselves as treasure chests but as dots of yellow light that look nearly identical to actual loot drops found throughout the world.
However, there’s an easy way to tell them apart. Before you dash forward and snatch up loot, observe the way the orb of light’s tail moves. If it tamely wafts from side to side, you’re in the clear. But if it whips from left to right erratically, that’s a mimic trying to tempt you with its golden shine.
When you find a mimic, you’re able to kill it by casting your lantern’s nifty light on it and can claim its loot or simply avoid it. In either case, think twice before you run up and pick up Lords of the Fallen Items because mimics can be absolutely devastating, often taking you out in a single attack when you fall for their trap.
8. Keep An Eye On Wither Damage
One idea Lords of the Fallen borrows from the likes of Bloodborne and Lies Of P is temporary damage represented by a gray chunk of your health bar, which can be regenerated by dealing damage to enemies or lost immediately by taking damage from any source.
In Lords of the Fallen, this is called Wither Damage and is dealt to you when you block with a shield without perfectly parrying or when attacked by certain Umbral enemies, who give you a chance to earn some of your health back rather than killing you outright.
You also automatically take a ton of Wither Damage whenever you fully enter Umbral, even if you take yourself there voluntarily. So, remember to play it safe and deal damage to enemies after you enter the dark realm, or else you can find yourself low on health after a single hit.
In short, remember to keep an eye on that health bar and play aggressively when you see lots of gray. Attacking is the only way to ensure you don’t lose that health for good.
9. Get Help From Friends When Stuck
Did you know that Lords of the Fallen has multiplayer? It’s true.
You and one other friend can team up to take on anything this unforgiving soulslike throws at you, simply go to any checkpoint, select the multiplayer option, then choose Beckon Friend to send an invitation to any of your friends to have them join you on your adventure.
Playing with a buddy immediately makes Lords of the Fallen much easier since they can be revived an unlimited amount of times and you’ve got double the amount of opportunities to Soul Flay your enemies.
If you don’t want to bother with real life humans in your game, you also have the option of summoning NPCs for certain boss fights. Just look for moths forming a silhouette in front of most boss gates and you’ll be able to fight alongside one of the story’s principal characters.
Just keep in mind that summonable character will only appear if you’ve completed the respective side quests or story lines up until that part of the adventure.
So, if you want options, make sure to stay on the lookout for NPCs as you go through each area. And if someone asks you to fetch a item for them or something, you should try to complete those requests as early as possible if you want them to fight alongside you.
10. Read Your Quest Items
After you’ve completed the first couple of major mandatory boss fights, you may wonder where to go next and the answer to that question lies in notes and quest items you’ll find back at your home base.
Without going into spoilers, once you’ve made enough progress, you’ll start to gain LotF Vigor for sale that give you access to new areas accompanied by notes for where you can find the doors you’ll need to open.
Read the descriptions carefully and it should become pretty obvious where these areas can be found. You can also make use of the journal for pretty helpful drawings of maps, which might remind you of certain landmarks that will help you find where you need to go.
