Stellar Blade is finally out now, which means you’re probably just about ready to dive into Shift Up’s sci-fi action game. With decidedly old-school design sensibilities, Stellar Blade is a very focused experience that goes out of its way to not distract you with unnecessary systems or mechanics- and yet, given the mechanical depth of this game, there’s still plenty going on that you’ll need to get to grips with in your early hours. As such, here, we’ve prepared a few handy pointers to help you do just that.
DODGING
Stellar Blade’s combat is all about speed, but that doesn’t apply to all of your available moves. Dodging, for instance, is much more deliberate, with each dodge being a bit slow and requiring a handful of seconds of recovery time afterward. That means spamming dodge is a no-go in Stellar Blade. Look at enemies’ attacks carefully, and pick the right moments to dodge.
PARRYING
Just as crucial as dodging, if not more so, is parrying. Taking heavy inspiration from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in this area, Stellar Blade requires players to parry flurries of attacks from enemies in order to build up their stagger meters, which then opens them up to devastating attacks. As you can imagine, getting good as the parry becomes something of a necessity, so make sure you start practicing your timing as soon as you jump in.
UNLOCK PERFECT DODGE
Stellar Blade’s skill trees allow you to unlock plenty of useful moves, perfect dodges being one among them- yep, you gotta unlock those. Unlocked with 1 SP in the Survival tree, perfect dodges, which are dodges pulled off right before an attack lands, let you entirely evade an incoming attack, while also letting you follow up with your own heavy strike. Perfect dodges also charge up your Burst Energy, which is used to unleash powerful skills in combat.
DOUBLE DODGE
Double Dodge is another unlockable skill available in the Survival skill tree, and it does exactly what its name suggests- it allows you to dodge twice in quick succession, which, given the deliberate and slow nature of dodges in Stellar Blade, can be a huge bonus. It’s a relatively expensive unlock, though. You need to unlock two skills (including Perfect Dodge) before you can get to Double Dodge. Those two collectively cost 3 SP, while Double Dodge itself costs another two- so maybe it’s not something you can get right off the bat, but it’s definitely one you should be working towards.
UNLOCK BLINK
Another incredibly useful Survival skill that you can (and should) unlock as soon as you’re able is Blink. Oftentimes, enemies in Stellar Blade will try to attack you with special moves where they’ll grab you first. These moves can neither be parried nor blocked, but by using Blink (which costs just 1 SP), you’ll instantly transport behind the enemy’s back, not only avoiding their attack, but also letting you follow up with your own blows.
UNLOCK ASSAULT
Over in the Attack skill tree, one of the more useful skills (and one that you can unlock right off the bat, with just 1 SP at that), is Assault. Any time you find yourself in a position where you’re at a higher vantage point than an enemy that hasn’t noticed you yet (which will happen frequently), you’ll be able to use Assault to leap down at them and kill them in one blow.
UNLOCK AMBUSH
Once you’ve unlocked Assault, Ambush becomes available for 1 SP in the Attack skill tree, and it, too, is quite a useful move. It’s basically a stealth attack, and functions similarly to Assault. You can use it on enemies that haven’t spotted you yet to instantly eliminate them, and there’ll be quite a few situations were this will come in quite handy.
KEEP SCANNING
Pressing the touch pad sees Eve emitting a pulse that temporarily highlights nearby points of interest on the screen, from enemies to chests and more. Given how densely packed the environments in Stellar Blade often are, it’s usually a good idea to scan as soon as you enter a new room or area.
WATCH OUT FOR ENEMY AMBUSHES
This is something else that scans are quite useful for. Taking a leaf out of FromSoftware’s book, enemies in Stellar Blade will at times try and take you by surprise with ambushed of their own. Their preferred MO is usually hiding behind corners or in blind spots and attack you as soon as you pass by them. If you use your scan, however, you’ll be able to proceed forward knowing fully well whether or not there’s a foe waiting around that next corner, or behind that large boulder.
EXPLORE THOROUGHLY
Stellar Blade is largely a linear game, but it does offer plenty of room for exploration, not only within those linear areas themselves, but also in semi-open world sections with much more open-ended design. Though the game does admittedly falter with its side quests, exploration still manages to be rewarding through other means. From resources that can be used for upgrades to gold required for purchases at vendors, to hidden collectibles and logs revealing bits and pieces of the lore, there’s plenty of valuable stuff to be found in Stellar Blade for those who go looking.
KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR BODY CORES AND BETA CORES
Some of the most vital resources that exploration yields in Stellar Blade are body cores and beta cores. Collect three of the former, and you expand your health bar, while collecting three of the latter lets you increase your Beta Energy meter, which is used for the powerful Beta abilities in combat. Keep an eye out for both of these crucial resources- again, scanning comes in handy for this purpose.
TRAINING
You can train any skill you find in Stellar Blade’s skill tree in a special training simulation. This can only be done through kiosks found at campsites, but it’s worth checking out. Not only is it a great way to get comfortable with newly unlocked moves and skills, the game also lets you train skills that you haven’t unlocked yet, so you can make more informed decisions as you work your way through the game’s skill trees.
COMBAT CONSUMABLES
Healing consumables are obviously not something you’re going to forget about, especially given how challenging this game can often be, but it’s crucial that you also make use of your combat consumables. Used by pressing down on the d-pad and taking the form of a variety of grenades, though they won’t do a massive amount of damage to foes, they do definitely help out, especially in the particularly hectic encounters where you’re being mobbed by several enemies at once.
CRAFTING NANO SUITS
There’s an impressive variety of suits that can be unlocked in Stellar Blade, though doing so takes work (but, thankfully, no microtransactions). New suits become unlockable once you find their design patterns out in the world, following which you’ll need to scrounge up the required resources to be able to craft them. Do keep in mind, however, that nano suits are purely cosmetic in nature, which means none of them come with any gameplay advantages.
BULLETIN BOARD REQUESTS
Stellar Blade’s side quests are probably one of its weakest elements, though it’s probably best to not ignore them entirely. While not all of them are winners, a fair few of them (like the ones you pick up at the bulletin board) are slid ways of earning decent amounts of gold, especially since completing many of them is actually pretty quick.
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