Elderand guide - Turn this Metroidvania into a piece of cake
Coping with Metroidvanias like this one can break a lot of your nerves. To help you get better at the game and use some of the Elderan tips that we acquired first-hand.
The core of any Metroidvania game is exploration and backtracking. Some have claimed this is boring because it requires you to revisit a lot of the same places, but that comes down to the game. There are many such worlds where going back to a place you've been before can be exciting if there are things that stand out. You're wandering around, and then you see something that you can't reach or that you don't understand but completely transforms once you've reached a certain point. In Elderand, there are a lot of mysteries that you'll need to solve in order to gain wealth, power, and, ultimately, peace.
The game washes you ashore of a vast and dynamic land that many have ventured to, but none have been able to leave. The thing is, you're not interested in leaving because you've heard stories of untold riches lurking around. You're an ambitious warrior, but it becomes quite obvious that you're nowhere near prepared to take on all the beasts and demons that roam freely. All of them are looking forward to slashing through your body and ending your journey, but you're not going to let them do that. You can prevent this from happening by adhering to several solid steps.
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Tip #1 - Break everything!
The one thing that's true about any video game from any genre is that it's fun to break things. While classic titles made it so that breakable objects hide things like health and currency, this is no longer the trend. The good news is that Elderand was not affected by this and there are breakable objects all over the place. They take the form of various containers like pots and barrels and will break with a signal strike. This is the best way to gather money and valuable items like throwable weapons and potions. Since merchants aren't found frequently, this is your best way of refilling some of the most used and useful items. You also don't need to worry about traps or hidden monsters so break away.
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Tip #2 - Practice hit-and-run tactics
Elderand is a Metroidvania first, but a Soulslike second. That means every time you die, you get kicked back to the last campfire where you rested. You lose all your XP gains and anything you collected before you died so you'll need to get all the treasures, pull all the switches again, and anything else you did. You may be a tough warrior, but you need to go on long stretches filled with monsters that hit hard and come in groups. This is why you need to balance dodging and dashing in order to stay healthy for as long as you can. Get used to striking once or twice, jumping back, and then dashing to land the finishing blow. It may be slow, but it's safe and will let you go further in the long run.
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Tip #3 - Stock up on ranged attacks
After you arrive in this rich and monster-filled land, you'll start with a few basic weapons. You'll also be introduced to several forms of ranged attacks: Arrows, throwables, and magic. The last drains your mana while the others require a bow and ammo. These all provide reliable ways to hit enemies from afar and they become more and more valuable as you progress further through the game. If anything, they're useful for determining whether there are enemies looking offscreen in the distance as you'll be able to hear the sounds of impact. They're definitely the weakest types of attacks but are absolutely necessary for improving survivability. Archery and throwables rely on Dexterity and staffs rely on Wisdom for magic attacks.
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Tip #4 - Commit to Strength or Magic
This is an RPG affair in the sense that you'll kill enemies, level up through XP, find treasure, and equip yourself with better gear. However, it simplifies the mechanics by only giving you four stats to worry about which are Vigor for health, Strength for attack power, Dexterity for critical attacks and related gear, and Wisdom for mana. Even though they won't disperse your growth that much, you only get one Skill Point per level up. This means that every point you use counts significantly and you really should determine whether you want a melee, magic, or ranged fighter. Otherwise, you'll just end up being average at everything.
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Tip #5 - Grind, grind, GRIND!
Since this has Soulslike rules, enemies don't respawn only when you do, but whenever you rest at a campfire. In this sense, you can wipe out all the enemies in a given area, rest at the campfire, and then do it all over again. This may be a bit boring, but it's a very easy way to rack up tons of gold and XP while also giving you a chance to practice combat against the enemies of the current region. This is an effective and relatively safe way to strengthen your character since enemies don't scale to match your power. If you hit a hard boss or new area with tough enemies, go back and grind for a bit.
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Tip #6 - Fully explore before moving on
Metroidvania games expect you to retrace your steps and Elderand is no different. Don't feel discouraged if you end up going back and forth over the same area because that's how you find paths to new areas, new events, and treasures you may have missed. As a result, you may be tempted to move on the moment you find something different, but you're better off just marking it off for later. Explore as much as you can of the current area before going to the next one. The reason for this is that you may end up missing something that could've made the next area much easier to get through. If you come back and collect it later, the best you can hope for is that it has good resale value.
And that's our complete Elderand guide with all of the tips that we have in store for now. They won't turn you into a machine that will clear out the game in no time, but they will help you get perform better than you were!
