Life as a vampire in a post-apocalyptic world is challenging as you’ll find out in the action RPG Code Vein. Between all the deaths and grinding your character will begin to grow in power until you become an unstoppable force.
But there are some things to keep in mind on your path to domination. There are aspects of this game that aren’t readily apparent the first time through and you’ll find out too late when you did something wrong or wasted the wrong resource. To avoid any regrets here are some things to keep in mind before you start playing.
10 Check Old Areas
After beating a boss and clearing an area you’ll think there's little reason to return back to that spot and with a few examples the game will lock some of those areas forever anyway. What many players fail to realize is that old areas are still relevant long into the game.
After beating a boss go back and take a quick look at the area and you’ll likely find a quest giver or two that can yield you valuable loot or even Depth Maps. It’s also a good idea if you haven’t been somewhere in some time to go back and take a peek, you might just be surprised.
9 Stash Valuables
Over the course of the game you’ll come across items known as Valuables that can be sold to merchants for some petty cash. Unfortunately, what you’ll come to realize too late is that these Valuables are actually better used for a much different purpose.
Each valuable has an associated NPC in the game who will accept the item as currency in exchange for unique weapons and other gear. These valuables can help you buy items that would be much more lucrative then the handful of change you get for hawking the valuables in the first place, so hang onto them and wait for the right item to trade for.
8 Be A Gift Giver
On a similar note there are NPCs, companions included, who will accept certain items as gifts. Over time as the relationship blossoms and camaraderie is established these same NPCs will return the favor by providing you with presents of their own.
These presents can often be powerful weapons that will get you through many difficult parts of the game or make the early levels much easier. So be generous and start dolling out gifts, because odds are something will come back to you that makes it worth it.
7 Go Cliff Jumping
Don’t interpret this advice to say jump off every cliff you come across as that’s a surefire way to die and die often. Instead, take a minute to look over the edge and see if you find anything interesting. Often times cliffs will have paths built into the side that you can jump down to and explore.
These secret areas can have interesting monsters to fight, valuable loot and even yield a few Vestiges. So anytime you come across a sheer drop off carefully get close to the edge and take a peak; you may find something worthwhile.
6 Haze Is For Levels
Haze is a valuable resource that can be used for one of two purposes; leveling up your character and unlocking Blood Codes earlier than usual. It may be tempting to use it on the latter, but this is honestly a waste. You’re going to do so much grinding in this game that you’ll have plenty of chances to unlock Blood Codes anyway.
This isn’t to say you should never use them on Blood Codes but getting more levels will make you stronger and able to farm Haze much quicker. So when in doubt, and if none of the Blood Codes are appealing, just spend it on your level.
5 Burn Through Ichor
Another resource to keep track of is your character's Ichor. Many players will be stingy when using it as it’s valuable for activating powerful gifts and performing ranged attacks. In reality, Ichor is not that hard to regenerate.
Any time you rest at a Mistle, hit enemies with a melee attack, parry, backstsab, defeat a boss, and block multiple attacks you’ll regenerate Ichor. There are also some consumables that will give you back a bit of your Ichor. Don’t be stingy, it’s better to use it and spare your character’s health pool then to die with a full stock of Ichor.
4 Foulblood Barrier Is Powerful
One of the more useful gifts in the game is Foulblood Barrier. It acts as a shield that mitigates 50% of incoming damage to both you and your ally. The Ichor cost is reasonable and the cooldown isn’t too bad at five seconds.
It’s a really easy way to survive powerful boss attacks or save a few health points when fighting groups of enemies. Maxing out Foulblood Barrier will also damage enemies. There’s really not a reason to ignore this gift and the benefits are really impressive at lower proficiencies so make sure it’s a part of your arsenal.
3 Upgrade Early And Often
Games have conditioned players lately to hoard upgrade materials and reserve them for later parts in the game to upgrade the more powerful items. This is the exact opposite of what you should be doing in Code Vein.
At a certain point in the story you gain access to merchants who will gladly sell you those upgrade materials for a reasonable sum. This eliminates the need to farm resources and allows you to go crazy upgrading, assuming you have the cash, so upgrade early to get to this point sooner. The one exception is Queen’s Tungsten as it’s hard to come by and no one sells it.
2 Listen To The Voices
As you wander the world you may start hearing some whisperings or voices calling out from the shadows. This isn’t meant to create a spooky atmosphere but is actually a game mechanic letting you know there is a Vestige nearby.
As you play make sure the volume is up or you have good headphones in and pay attention to any sounds you hear. Some Vestiges are hard to find visually and the voices are your only hope of discovering them.
1 Vestiges Are Critical To Story
Speaking of Vestiges it’s important you locate as many as possible. It turns out that the ending you receive in the game is largely impacted by how many and which Vestiges you found during your playthrough.
Obviously don’t spoil the three endings for yourself, but make sure you slow down now and then to find as many Vestiges as you can. Once you’ve beaten the game at least once then you can go back and follow a walkthrough to see what you might have missed.