Stellar Blade – our 9 tips and tricks to get started

With a customisable difficulty, Stellar Blade shouldn’t be too hard for anyone to handle. With that said, there are a bunch of things that are super helpful to know when you get started in the game, and these Stellar Blade tips and tricks will help you find your footing and get ahead.

Enemies don’t react to noise

So long as you are directly behind them, almost every enemy will be oblivious to your presence. This means if you’re trying to get behind an enemy to ambush them, you can run at them full sprint and then press the button when prompted. If you sprint from the side, you will be seen, but most enemies tend to be blind if you are directly behind them. This is also true for getting into combat, if you are attacked by another enemy off to the side, the one you’re behind trying to backstab won’t enter combat.

Take your time to learn attack patterns

Despite how Stellar Blade looks, the game does not feature particularly fast movement. The combat in Stellar Blade is slow and deliberate for a reason and there is not an emphasis on speed. Due to this, you should take your time. If you have a big enemy coming towards you, it’s in your interest to learn the attack patterns. Most enemies don’t have a huge roster of attacks, so you can pick your time to exploit them. If you want to move around faster in combat, just don’t lock on to a target and you can sprint.

Remember to use your combat consumables

While this might sound obvious, you would be surprised at how overlooked these consumable items are. You have a selection as you progress through the game, getting more as you go. These consumables include proximity mines, grenades that push enemies back, bombs that reduce the Balance of an enemy, and so on. These are tied to the down d-pad button on your controller so make sure you utilise them well. Bombs are great at clearing several foes and the knockback effect helps create breathing room.

✓ Jack’s advice

Items are replenished when you rest.

So long as you have some in storage, your items will always be restocked whenever you sit down at a rest station. Sitting down will also respawn enemies, so make sure you plan when doing this.

The game gives you more resources than you need

As you explore the world, you will see that there are several aspects of EVE’s gear you can upgrade. Weapon Cores upgrade your weapon and your healing resource is improved by gathering Rechargeable Tumbler Expansions. Once you reach the max rank of your weapon and healing, you will still see you are finding these items around, which is a consideration for any you may have missed. This is also a way to ensure you always get your weapon to max rank and have plenty of healing.

Ambushing an enemy is always an insta-kill

The Ambush ability is fantastic for starting an encounter. You can use this if you are above enemies or directly behind them. There is a way to cheese plenty of tough foes with an Ambush since it will always kill the foe outright. If you can get slightly above the enemy in question and then use a double jump and dash to close the distance, you can perform an Ambush from the air and dispatch troubling foes with ease.

Some areas require you to visit them again later

You will run into several instances early in the game where you won’t be able to do a specific action or open a specific chest. While the game is bad at telling you, the reason for this is that areas can be revisited later on and there will be quests to complete tied to these places you couldn’t access before. It’s important to know that if you can’t do something, it is probably because you need to return later.

Spend your Gold liberally

Gold is one of many resources in Stellar Blade and it is one that is in great abundance. You can use Gold to buy items at the shop and refill ammo, but you can also spend Gold on various other materials, such as Polymer, which is what you use to unlock new outfits for EVE. Everything is cheaply priced and Gold is never an issue, you should also remember to buy extra healing items and grenades at the vendor.

Use skills to interrupt enemy attacks

Your Beta skills cost a certain amount of power to use. You gain this by hitting enemies, dodging, and parrying attacks. When you can use your Beta Skill, there will be a small notification saying as much. Skills are incredibly powerful in Stellar Blade and they can knock enemies back, topple them over, and stun them momentarily. So long as you have enough Beta, you can use a skill and they are fantastic at interrupting enemies without fail.

Story Mode has an assist function

This might not be immediately obvious, but if you turn the difficulty down to Story mode, you will see another option called Assist Mode. Turning this on will help you dodge enemy attacks and block better showing prompts and slowing things down for you, which is a great consideration for people who find it too challenging. You can toggle the difficulty at any time, and once you’ve used Assist Mode to practice, you can go back to a harder difficulty.

If you’re just getting started in Stellar Blade, familiarise yourself with the best skills to unlock as you get into the game.