Lords of the Fallen: Best tips & tricks for early game progression

Lords of the Fallen is the latest souls-like game to arrive in 2023, which means it’s bound to be difficult for many players. As there is no difficulty slider provided in the title, players can have a tough time getting through the mechanics. Here are some tips and tricks to help you in Lords of the Fallen.

Lords of the Fallen is yet another addition to this year’s souls-like catalog, as the game dives into its fantasy world of Mournstead and its two realms of Axiom and Umbral. With its challenging combat and exploration, fans of Elden Ring and FromSoftware will likely be interested in this title.

As confirmed by the developers, the game will present a fairly challenging experience to most players, with no difficulty slider to top it off. This might raise some problematic situations for many players who are fairly new to the souls-like genre.

Here are some tips and tricks to help you ace the early game in Lords of the Fallen.

Best tips & tricks for Lords of the Fallen

The basic tip to survive in Lords of the Fallen is to always keep an eye on your health bar and not be greedy with your attacks. Keep in mind that this is a fairly difficult game, and many players might find it challenging during the start of their playthrough.

You will notice that most of the enemies have delayed wind-ups in their attacks that you must either block, parry, or dodge. If you attack without respecting openings, you will be wasting lives for no reason in the game.

Here are our tips & tricks to conquer the early game in Lords of the Fallen.

Use the lamp outside of combat effectively

You can miss a lot of hidden paths, loot, and rewards if you only travel around Axiom, the realm of the living in Lords of the Fallen. Of course, there will be times when you need to use the lamp to open paths for progression. Aside from that, constantly be on the lookout for hidden paths or loot along the way by holding your lamp up and checking inside Umbral, the realm of the dead.

Learn how to parry

Learning to parry can be a difficult mechanic to master, but there is no better time to do it than in the early game. As a souls-like game, you can obviously dodge away from almost all attacks. However, parrying does harm to the enemies’ posture bar, which is essential for breaking stances and dealing hefty amounts of damage.

Use your magic & items wisely

Some enemies in Lords of the Fallen are weaker to a specific element of magic and enchantments than others. Paying attention to that detail will take you a long way as you can deal significantly more damage using those elements than using none.

Wither damage & Soulflay

Whenever you block or parry an attack from an enemy, you will take a small amount of damage that will appear in grey in your HP bar. This is known as Wither damage in Lords of the Fallen, and you can get it back by attacking your enemy right after you block their attack. You will lose it all if the enemy gets you first.

However, with Soulflay, the latest mechanic where you rip an enemy’s soul out of their body with the lamp, you can instead inflict Wither damage upon them. Once you attack them after they regain their soul, you can remove that entire grey bar from their HP, damaging them severely.

Make sure to use Soulflay on a dead boss

Unlike other souls-like titles, Lords of the Fallen does not reward you with an item right after defeating a boss. You will have to use Soulflay on the boss’ dead body to gain the item that is necessary for the boss weapon or spell trade-off.

Those were all the best early game tips and tricks for Lords of the Fallen we have for now. For more on the game, check out our other guides:

Lords of the Fallen PC requirements: File size, minimum & recommended specs | Lords of the Fallen multiplayer: Co-op & PvP explained | Does Lords of the Fallen have crossplay? | Is Lords of the Fallen on Xbox Game Pass? | How to unlock the Dark Crusader class in Lords of the Fallen | Lords of the Fallen pre-order bonuses