Rogue Legacy is a super unique roguelite game that encourages replayability and creative thinking, all while ensuring you die over and over again, as your legacy continues. Rogue Legacy thrives off of its fantasy medieval setting and lineage, where you get to play as an heir to the previous character you played, and likely died as.Eschewing a lighter approach to platforming and combat in favor of a punishing, stressful, but endlessly rewarding gameplay experience, Rogue Legacy throws you right into the thick of things from the get-go. Mechanically this isn't a tough game to get to grips with, however, there are still some good things to know before hopping into the game. Here are some of the best beginner tips to keep in mind as you play as the next heir.
8 Choosing Your Heir
Easily the most unique part of Rogue Legacy is the ability to choose your heir. Choosing your heir is essentially the game's way of having you pick your next playable character once your previous character was defeated by a skeleton, a trap, a ghost, or one of the many other devious things that can kill you in this game.
Choosing your heir isn't quite as simple as just picking a new look for your character, however. The next heir is made up of a class, a special ability, an attack-type, and often a quirky personality trait that could affect gameplay. Don't forget that you can move between different classes within a specific heir to better cater to your playstyle.
7 Using Gold For Permanent Upgrades
Gold is your friend, at least in the case of Rogue Legacy. While many roguelikes and roguelites prioritize some sort of currency to upgrade your character, it's arguably even more important here in this game. Simply put, use your gold at the start of a new run for permanent upgrades to your lineage.
Upon choosing an heir, you are taken to a castle progression tree that lets you upgrade things like health, defense, and attack power. These upgrades can be quite costly but will make each new run just a tad bit easier overall.
6 You Lose Your Gold Upon Starting A New Run
Depending on how you view roguelikes or roguelites, losing your precious gold or items each time you die is either the bane of your existence or a new way to look at evening the odds. In the case of Rogue Legacy, you lose all accrued gold when you start a new run.
This can often be a very frustrating thing since you might have progressed quite far in the game, meaning your coffers are filled to the brim. To mitigate this loss, simply use all available gold in the hub area. This hub area has NPCs that can give you better weapons, enhancements, and upgrades for that given run.
5 Refer To Your Map Often
Rogue Legacy has a pretty extensive and explorable game map. While this isn't an open world game or even a Metroidvania, there are still multiple paths for your chosen heir to venture through with some offering riches and others offering a swift death. Choosing your next path is of the utmost importance.
Fortunately, Rogue Legacy has a fantastic in-game map that you can refer to anytime you need. This map shows you which rooms have entrances and exits, and basically just gives you a lay of the land. If you find yourself stuck for some reason, simply open up your map to see where to adventure next.
4 Use Your Heir's Special Abilities Often
Rogue Legacy is a downright brutal game, full stop. You are going to want to use even advantage that you can in order to help even the odds during a given run with your chosen heir. One of the best ways to do this, at least at the start, is to utilize your special ability as often as possible.
Each new heir has their own special ability with some prioritizing offensive capabilities and others prioritizing defensive capabilities. There are multiple ways to bend the rules of the game when fighting enemies. For example, one heir has a "slow time" ability that gives you a few much-needed seconds to plan your attack or your escape.
3 Break And Destroy Everything
If The Legend of Zelda games have taught us anything, it's that breaking things such as pots and vases usually leads to gold. This destructive lesson has remained true in the majority of platforming adventure games and really in any games that let you run loose, breaking random objects in the environment.
As mentioned previously, gold is an incredibly important thing to amass in Rogue Legacy. Any extra gold means you can buy that coveted upgrade or weapon. To fill your coffers even more, simply break anything and everything. Items such as chairs, jars, and statues offer up gold when destroyed. Don't worry, they all come back again in subsequent runs given the randomly generated nature of the game.
2 Open Specific Platforms With Your Weapon
During your adventures throughout the castle area in Rogue Legacy you will come across green glowing orbs with a platform right in the middle. These objects might just look like set dressing, however, upon closer inspection, it's obvious they are actually hidden platforms that can be opened up to reach new areas.
It's not quite obvious how these platforms should be opened, however. In order to temporarily open them up, simply jump into the air and perform a downward thrust with your weapon. Doing so will open up that platform for a short time. Many sections in the castle require you to do this over and over again in order to reach the toughest places.
1 When You Die, You Start The Cycle Over Again
As you might already guess, death in Rogue Legacy means you are starting completely over. The nature of roguelites is that you lose pretty much everything and need to start anew and this is very true in the case of Rogue Legacy. While this might be frustrating, the more you get used to exploring the depths of the castles, forests, and other medieval areas, the better you will do each time.
If possible, try not to get frustrated when you die since that is all part of the gameplay loop here. From gold to permanent upgrades to new weapons to new heirs, the game does give you some freedom to play a new way after each death. As they say, practice makes perfect and that is very true in the case of Rogue Legacy.