Lies of P tips and tricks and best advice to help you beat the game

Looking for some Lies of P tips and tricks? As a Souls-like, Neowiz Studios’ dark fantasy RPG is designed with difficulty in mind – and it certainly delivers. Lies of P delivers a consistently high challenge at every turn, backed up by a sometimes overwhelming number of different mechanics, side quests, shortcuts, and more.

Here then, we’re going to go through all of our best Lies of P tips and tricks, covering general advice, useful strategies, important information and more to help you find your feet as you navigate the city of Krat. If you’re looking for some more in depth breakdowns though, like how to beat the Scrapped Watchman, King’s Flame Fuoco, or Fallen Archbishop Andreus don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with additional guides.

Tips and advice for Lies of P

Since advice could cover a massive range of topics, we’re going to break down everything into select categories. Here are our top tips and tricks for each area of Lies of P that we’ll cover.

• Basic mechanics of Lies of P.
• Advanced mechanics you’ll unlock as you play.
• General boss management.
• Level navigation.
• Miscellaneous tips and tricks you might not have known.

By covering each of these, you should come away from this guide with a much more rounded and complete understanding of all the fundamentals in Lies of P, allowing you to better confront a variety of situations.

Lies of P basic mechanics

To start, let’s go over the most important mechanics you’ll need to have a good understanding of in order to complete the game. Understanding these mechanics is vital to progressing smoothly, with plenty of problems you’ll encounter throughout the early game finding their solutions from these gameplay features.

Basic attacks

In combat you’ll have a few main options for dealing damage with your main weapon. You can perform light attacks with the press of left click on mouse and keyboard or R1 (right bumper) on controller. Hitting right click on keyboard or R2 (right trigger) will perform a heavy attack, and holding then releasing will perform a charge attack. Finally the left ctrl key on keyboard or L2 (left trigger) on controller will utilise the powerful offensive abilities of your legion arm. On some arms you can again hold this input to perform a charged, more powerful attack.

Keep in mind that different weapons and weapon combinations will have different kinds of attacks, sometimes reflected by what stats they scale with. The Wintry Rapier for example scales with technique, your dexterity stat in the game. As such its attacks are mainly fast, piercing strikes. The Booster Glaive, conversely, scales better with motivity, your strength stat. As such it has wide, sweeping attacks that deal more damage, but move more slowly. Damage is tied directly to the blade, while scaling is tied to the handle.

Healing

Healing in Lies of P is primarily done by Pulse Cells, an item you’ll pick up shortly into the tutorial level of the game. You’ll begin with only three, but you can upgrade your total number through P-organ upgrades later in the game. Pressing R on keyboard or square/X on controller when Pulse Cells are selected on your hotbar will allow you replenish some lost HP.

You can also heal to full by resting at any Stargazer, as long as there are no enemies nearby to it. Lastly, you can heal using the guard regain mechanic, though this is only so effective.

Counters and defence

In combat, you’ve got two main defences against enemy attacks: dodging and parries/guards.

Dodging is reasonably straightforward. By using the B/circle button on controller or spacebar on keyboard and movement direction controls. During a dodge, you’ll have a brief number of I-frames – invincibility-frames during which you can’t be hit or damaged. Aside from these I-frames, a dodge will shrink your hitbox and allow for fast, tactical repositioning, helping you avoid many attacks.

Your alternative defence to dodges is the guard system, sometimes also called parrying. With the right timing, you can execute a perfect guard at the moment of an enemy strike connecting, which will block all incoming damage from the hit. It will also build up much more progress towards a stagger, and damage an enemy’s weapon durability, if they’re wielding one.

On standard guards, the hit will connect with the weapon, is less likely to knock players down, and will do significantly less damage. On standard guards, the hit will connect, but is less likely to knock players down, and will do significantly less damage. You can also then attack immediately following a standard guard to regain lost health on successful strikes – this is called guard regain, and is one of many more minor stats in Lies of P.

Levelling up

If you want a full breakdown of how to level up, we’ve already got you covered, but here’s an overview. By collecting a currency called Ergo throughout the game, you can level up your character at Hotel Krat. You can spend Ergo to increase the value of your main six stats, which in turn change different minor stats. Improving vitality for example will raise your maximum HP, defence against status effects, and guard regain. Each level you upgrade to will gradually cost more and more Ergo, scaling with the rewards you receive from defeating increasingly difficult bosses throughout the game.

Your hotbars

You actually have a few different hotbars in Lies of P, giving you more space and utility at the cost of complexity.

Most apparent are your upper and lower belt. You can switch between these using the up and down directions on your D-pad for controller, or the T and G keys for mouse and keyboard. To navigate a specific belt, press the same input again while selected on it to cycle the items you have equipped. You can only place three things on each belt. You can use an item with the square/X button on controller, or R on mouse and keyboard.

However, you also have access to a third hotbar. By holding the square/X button or R, you can bring up your Extra Bag, which can hold four additional items. To choose a specific item, keep holding down the initial input, then select a direction key.

These hotbars are vital for holding some important items. Throwables and consumables are both good to have on these, and things like Pulse Cells to heal with, or Gemini who can act as a light source are both must-haves in many cases.

Lies of P advanced mechanics

For this section of our Lies of P tips and tricks guide, we’re going to cover the more complex gameplay mechanics you’ll run into. Some of these will be things that you begin the game with, which grow more interesting or important during the game. Others will be entirely new mechanics that get introduced further down the line. Mastering these mechanics will greatly improve your capabilities as you play.

Legion arms

Pinnocchio’s metal arm, called a Legion Arm, is a useful and easily underrated weapon you have at your disposal. After completing the Venigni Works level, you’ll unlock the Venigni Craft Machine. From this machine, you can craft new Legion arms, and upgrade previous ones. There are a number of different arms, which we’ve covered in our full breakdown of the arms, but the basics are that each one can do something distinctly different, and many will perform particularly well in certain situations.

Your Legion Arms are tied to your Legion stat, effectively Lies of P’s version of mana. This means that as powerful as you are, you have limited uses of your arm’s abilities. You can upgrade your maximum Legion by levelling up certain stats, such as capacity.

Status effects

Status effects and elemental damage are nothing new to Souls-likes, and Lies of P is no exception. Throughout the game, but particularly from the Scrapped Watchman onward, you’ll encounter more and more elemental types of damage that can inflict different status effects. Here’s a list of them.

• Overheat – Caused by fire damage, this status will rapidly drain your health while inflicted with it. HP recovery will also be slowed and decreased.
• Electric Shock – Brought on by sustained damage from electricity, this status will leave you more vulnerable to physical and electric blitz damage, as well as drain your Fable Arts slots.
• Shock – A more direct form of damage, this is brought on by things like concussive blunt force, and will severely impede your stamina recovery.
• Break – This kind of damage will reduce the amount of healing you receive from Pulse Cells.
• Corruption- Triggered most commonly when traversing poison-swamp style areas, Corruption continuously drains your HP. It’s not quite as fast as Overheat, but it can last longer.
• Disruption – A rare but deadly status effect, full buildup of Disruption will instantly kill your character.
• Decay – Decay occurs from acid damage buildup. While inflicted, it’ll cause continuous damage to your health, and degrade your weapon durability.

Some of these status effects are quite common, and others fairly rare. You’ll find that almost all of St Frangelico’s Cathedral brings enemies with acid attacks and level areas with acid lakes, making it an easy place to catch the Decay status, for example. Other effects, like Shock, aren’t so common. Early in the game the only place you might run into this one is when fighting the Puppet Of The Future.

Levelling up the right stats and using different mechanical components can help you to boost resistances to certain status effects and their buildups.

Weapon management

Weapons are a surprisingly in-depth component of the game. There are a few aspects of managing your weapons – besides Legion Arms – that it’s important to be well informed about.

First is weapon assembly. Each weapon is made up of a blade and handle, and you can mix and match them for different effects and styles of weapon. This gives you a lot of flexibility to your approach with certain enemies and situations. We’ve got a more detailed breakdown the best weapon combos and how to assemble weapons if you’re looking to learn more about the specifics.

Second, consider how to upgrade weapons. This one is more common for Souls-like RPGs, but still complicated by separate upgrade systems for the blade and hilt of your chosen weaponry. Make sure to collect plenty of Hidden Moonstones, Crescent Moonstones and other rare materials, as this will allow you to begin working on improving the damage of your blades directly.

Thirdly, keep weapon repair in mind. It may seem like a straightforward system to begin with, but when you unlock special elemental grindstones later in the game, you’ll be able to use the grinder to put temporary status effects on your blades. We’ve got a full breakdown in our guide looking at how to repair weapons if you want to know more.

Fable Arts

Fable Arts are a special kind of attack you can access with any weapon. Every weapon has them, but what exactly they do will depend on the weapon and its build. As soon as you choose your Lies of P starting class, you can make use of Fable Arts to deal out some exceptional damage.

In short, by continuously attacking enemies, you’ll build up charge slots for your art – indicated by three blue bars under your health and stamina. In the opposite corner at the bottom right, you’ll have an indicator showing how many charges the hilt Art and the blade Art require to activate.

Hilt arts and Blade arts usually have slightly different activation controls and conditions. Some are simple button taps, while others may need to be timed, or may have a charge function. Boss weapons also possess some unique and especially powerful Fable Art weapon abilities, which we’ve broken down in our in-depth guide on the topic.

Cubes and Wishstones

Cubes are a standout oddity, appearing significantly later into the game than most of the other gameplay mechanics. Speak to Giangio once you take the elevator up to St Frangelico Cathedral before you cross the bridge. He’ll introduce you to Wishstones. These are rare little consumable stones, apparently said to carry the wishes of the people of Krat inside of them. Wishstones can be fitted inside the Cube, an arcane device shaped from a meteorite.

Upon use from your hotbar, you can then use the Cube to consume a Wishstone, granting certain special effects. For example, the first stone you’ll receive for free is a Recovery Wishstone. When consumed with the Cube, it will grant temporary restored hit points. You can only have one type of Wishstone equipped at a time, and can change which you have installed from any Stargazer via the new menu option which will appear. You’ll also unlock more Whishstones after defeating the Black Rabbit Brotherhood and gaining access to the Gold Coin Fruit tree.

Lies of P general boss management

Bosses are the real meat of Lies of P, so understanding some general tips you can apply widely is important to help you overcome these foes quickly and efficiently.

Choose your counters

Many bosses are designed to be approached more with one method of counter than another. While you can fight any boss how you like, you may find that favouring one strategy works better in some situations. Specifically this comes down to choosing guarding or dodging as your go-to counter. Where bosses tend to be more lumbering, dodges are a good strategy to control distance and pacing while maximising your windows for survival. More aggressive and fast bosses though may be easier to perfect parry.

As an example, the Scrapped Watchman is a highly aggressive boss. He favours melee attacks and sticks close to you. While some attacks have long wind ups and wide openings, others will be fast, furious flurries of damage. However, the windows for perfect guarding many of these strikes are generous, and very common. Thus it actually may be easier to just try and score those perfect parries, using dodging as a secondary option at opportune moments.

Mind your positioning

Like many Dark Souls bosses, Lies of P gives players some sneaky windows for opportunity in its boss fights. Many bosses will have blind spots in which only a few attacks can hit, or obvious openings and windows in between combos. It’s important to recognise and learn these, as they’re your best chances to deal damage.

Staying close to either a boss’ side or back are usually the safest places, but sometimes staying right up in front of a boss can position you well for avoiding a select few attacks. Be flexible and alert though – there are always still some moves that can catch you, and most bosses will work hard to reposition.

Learning the main moves of a boss gives you more confidence to position yourself just outside of their attack’s scope or range. Often, this then means you’re better prepared to close the distance and punish their failed gambits with a counter of your own.

Be patient and learn the tempo

Often, every boss fight will have its own ‘rhythm’ of sorts. Bosses will move and act in particular patterns, which may ultimately determine the speed and pacing of an engagement. It’s worth being patient when fighting a boss, learning the best opportunities within this rhythm to strike, and what moments in a fight you’re better remaining passive in. While this can drag a fight on for longer, it also greatly improves your survivability.

Lies of P level navigation

As important as bosses are, our advice isn’t worth much until you get to them. To do this you’ll need to navigate the large, often confusing levels in the game. For this Lies of P tips and tricks segment, we’re going to cover some of the most important advice for overcoming the levels themselves.

Stargazers

Stargazers are this game’s version of bonfires, and important rest points in the game. Whenever you find a Stargazer, it’ll be dismantled, and you’ll need to hit the interact key to assemble it. Doing so will then allow you to rest at the Stargazer with the same input.

Resting will restore your health, stamina, legion and recoverable consumables like Pulse Cells. From here you’ll have an ever-expanding menu which can allow you to do the following.

• Teleport. You can travel to any other Stargazer you’ve unlocked, including the one at Hotel Krat, your central hub.
• Assemble weapons. You can assemble new weapons from any blades and hilts you have in your inventory.
• Access storage. You can access your storage, where you can store or retrieve additional items, like consumables, weapons and more.
• Switch Legion Arm. You can swap out your current Legion Arm for a different one, as long as you have more than one unlocked.
• Switch Grindstone. You can swap whatever elemental grindstone is currently equipped to your grinder for a different one.
• Switch Cube’s Wishstone. You can swap the currently equipped Whishstone type from your cube to a different type.
• Check how much time is left until you unlock your next Gold Coin Fruit at the Gold Coin Fruit Tree.

Effectively, Stargazers act as your central bases away from Hotel Krat. Make sure to use ones when convenient prolifically to help with level exploration. Be aware too that while resting will respawn most enemies, particularly special or difficult ones tend not to reappear once defeated.

Shortcuts

Lies of P’s levels makes pretty good use of shortcuts throughout all its levels, something we praised the game for in our Lies of P review when we played it. It’s really worth utilising these shortcuts, as they can often save an enormous amount of backtracking time in levels once unlocked.

To go through every shortcut in the game would take another guide entirely, but there are a few things you can do to improve your chances of finding them.

First, know the types. Almost all shortcuts are one of three things. Some are locked doors, with strange central circular devices that’ll shock the player on an attempt to open from the wrong side. Some are ladders, raised up from the ground. The rest are usually elevators, which are rarer, but often provide the biggest and most convenient shortcuts of all.

Whenever you find one of these, try to make note of specific features about the surrounding local design of that part of the level. If the elevator is inside a house, expect to find the other end indoors, perhaps in a similarly decorated house. If a gate has a narrow street full of barrels beyond it, be on the lookout for narrow streets filled with barrels when continuing on through the level.

Lastly, just explore. Make sure to always check branching paths that don’t seem to progress the level, as these can often lead to shortcut discoveries. Shortcuts are always opened from a later point in the level to where you discover them, so be vigilant about checking rooms, corners and small alleyways.

Special enemies

Most levels will have at least a handful of enemies that don’t respawn when resting at a Stargazer once defeated. These special enemies, sometimes akin to minibosses, are usually far more powerful than the regular opponents you’ll run into, but often worth the effort.

If you run into enemies that are larger than usual, use powerful attacks or abilities, and critically, are the only one of their type in the immediate area, it’s worth making the effort to defeat them. This is because they often drop special items worth the effort. This can include:

• Quartz, used to upgrade P-organs for powerful permanent bonuses.
• Components, such as converters and cartilage, often with special designs that provide specific bonuses like resistance to fire or electricity.
• Amulets, which give additional unique bonuses and buffs while equipped.
• Other highly rare materials, like Legion parts for building and upgrading Legion Arms, or high-level upgrade materials.

Fighting these unique enemies also offers a great opportunity to gain some insight into what sort of things to expect from the upcoming boss of an area. They’ll usually share at least some basic ideas or attributes, like status effects and resistances.

Miscellaneous tips and tricks

Lastly, let’s touch on the odds and ends that didn’t quite fit anywhere else. These are general tips and tricks that apply to all sorts of parts of the game, still worth remembering.

Be mindful of scaling and class builds

When using a weapon, it’ll usually have a specific stat, motivity, technique, or advance, that it scales best with. Weapons always scale worse with whatever their opposite stat is – so technique weapons always scale poorly with motivity. Scaling works from D to S ranks, with S rank scaling being the best in the game. When fighting, try to ensure that whatever stat you’ve put the most energy into levelling, your weapon reflects it by scaling properly with that stat to provide some serious boosts to damage.

Side quest navigation

You’ll encounter a lot of random NPCs during level explorations who you’ll be able to interact with. Often, they might be looking for something specific, or in need of certain actions. Check out any unusual items you pick up, like dolls, toy whistles and more, as their descriptions will often offer clues on what quests they fit to based on the dialogue an NPC gave to you. Sometimes you’ll just need to hand an item over, other times you might need to interact with an item nearby to that NPC. You’ll also find the item image appearing on the Stargazer closest to that NPC’s position once you acquire it, giving a more direct indication that you have what you need for a quest in the area, and where you may need to go to complete it.

If you’re still stumped though, we have covered a few of these quests in depth, such as Toma’s quest, and whether or not you should lie to the Weeping Woman.

Cryptic vessels

Cryptic vessels are a rare type of item you can come across through exploration. Usually, these items contain information within that is crucial to completing mini-quests that unlock special new areas or uncover treasure. This is the case with 221b Boulevard, for example. When you find one, bring it to Venigni once he joins Hotel Krat, and he can decipher them for you.

Krat supply boxes

Occasionally, you might find an item called a Krat Supply box. This item is a great find, as it can be used to expand NPC vendor shops so that they can sell additional items of value. Bring supply boxes you find to Polendina, the Hotel Krat receptionist puppet, and his shop inventory will expand.

That covers all of our Lies of P tips and tricks that we believe are worth knowing to succeed in the game. If you’re on the lookout for some guidance on more of the game’s mysteries, we have you covered. Check out our guide to finding the Archbishop’s Holy Mark, or our advice on how to get more Pulse Cells if you want to know more.

Is Lies of P a hard game?

As a Souls-like, Lies of P is an extremely challenging game to complete.

Are there secret rooms in Lies of P?

There are lots of secret rooms in Lies of P, such as the rooms accessible only by Trinity Key.

How long is Lies of P?

Milage will vary for each player, but an average playthrough will typically take 30-40 hours for most.