Get ready for Absolum

Absolum is a great Roguelite/beat-em-up combo, and mixes the gameplay of something like Streets of Rage 4 with the strategy of Dead Cells or Hades (2). It’s also gorgeous, and already has an animated series on the way. 

But like all Roguelites, Absolum has a bit of a learning curve – a learning curve that we can help you master with some tips before you get started. Here is the Rogue beginner guide to one of the coolest Roguelites this year: Absolum.

Master Deflect, Clash, and Dodge early

Aside from your offensive moves — namely, hit and hit harder — you’ve also got a set of defensive moves to help you out in the beat-em-up chaos of Absolum. Figuring out how they work is going to make your time with the game much easier.

Dodging covers basically everything you do by hitting the dash button and moving out of the way of an attack. You can, however, also sidestep up and down. Doing this just before an attack hits you opens the enemy up to a follow-up attack.

Deflect is kind of like Dodge, only toward an enemy. For a Deflect, you have to dash into an enemy as they’re attacking you. This works a bit like a parry and there’s even a pretty decent window to pull it off.

Clash is like deflect, only this time you’re not-parrying with a heavy attack. This one is the hardest to pull off by far, but rewards you with a huge window to punish your foes – Clash is especially useful against bosses, once you learn their patterns.

If you ever forget any of these terms, or run into new ones, just hit the button that expands the info when you’re picking Rituals. 

Do quests every run (if you have them)

As you explore the world of Absolum, you’ll find a variety of quests. Some of these will open up new routes for you to explore or even NPC characters to help you. They’re also conveniently marked on the map once you pick them up, making them much easier to keep track of.

As you’re plotting your route each run, it’s important to keep these quests in mind. The rewards you get for them aren’t always mindblowing, but progressing them will ultimately give you bigger and better tools to empower your characters and help you complete your run.

With this tip in mind, we really recommend you try out as many different routes as possible when you’re first getting started, and talk to everyone with a speech bubble over their head!

Reach the second island quickly so you can spend your Fruits

Once you defeat the undead king boss at the end of the first island, you’ll hop on a ship and, eventually, be offered a choice. But first you’ll want to go to the living lands, which is the southern island covered in swamp and jungle. You’ll meet a very important vendor on this route (as well as the fourth and final playable character), so it’s important to try and get here as early as you can and get several screens into the area.

If you’ve been accumulating Fruits from your runs back at your camp and wondering what the hell they’re for … you’ll find out once you meet this character on that second island!

Stick to one character – at least at first

You’ll unlock all four playable characters in Absolum relatively early into your time with the game, and you absolutely should take some runs to try everyone out. But once you settle on a hero you like, you should try sticking with them while you battle your way to the “final” boss. 

That’s because one of the rewards for leveling up is currency that allows you to buy more Aracana and passive upgrades for a specific character. So if you’re a big fan of Karl, you’re actually better off maxing his tree out and giving him a ton of options first, rather than investing in multiple characters.

Pick the glowing Arcana for an XP bonus

Absolum doesn’t have a system where it encourages you to switch characters regularly for bonus XP, which is great for consistency. But you can get bonus XP by changing out your Arcana (your Super attack that uses mana) between runs with the same character.

Before each run, when you select your Arcana, one will glow. We recommend you pick that one every time, as it’ll really help speed up your progression. Plus you’ll actually unlock a second Arcana to use for the rest of the run once you complete the first island, so you don’t have to deal with one you dislike for too long. 

Save your gems at (almost) all costs

Gems allow you to upgrade the tree back at camp, and these passive upgrades are (mostly) extremely powerful. Bonus tip: don’t forget to upgrade the tree at camp.

These upgrades include things like increased health and damage for basic moves, self-revives, increased chance for rare passive items, etc. They really change how likely you are to succeed each run. But because of how they work – you have to invest a certain amount before you can invest in later upgrades – you really want to focus on getting as many gems as possible as early as possible.

Unfortunately, gems are also the re-roll currency for Rituals and trinkets (once you unlock that upgrade). We really recommend against spending gems for re-rolls until your tree is effectively maxed out. The one exception here is if you’re in the final area and feel like you have a good chance at beating the final boss if you had a better Ritual offered to you. Then it’s probably worth the gems to roll those dice.

Don’t underestimate the power of an ally

At each tavern or rest area, you’ll be able to drop some gold on an ally who will accompany you until they run out of health – or you do. They don’t do much damage, so it might sound like a pretty poor investment when compared to another trinket item.

But these allies are amazing for eating up enemy attention. This will save you a ton of health over the course of their life, as you’ll be able to attack from the back of enemies and generally avoid some of their gaze. Just know that these allies aren’t exactly smart, and will often stand right in the way of a big boss attack.

Those weird little cats mean there’s something more to see

This is a tip the game will give you once you beat it at least once, but we’re going to spoil it for you now so … prepare yourself.

While you’re exploring the world, you’ll commonly come across these weird, black cats with one eye. When you do, it means there is a secret area hidden in the screen you’re already on. Usually this is just a chest behind a breakable door, or an area that expands out further if you walk into a nook that looks like a wall.

The end isn’t really the end …

Defeating the “final” boss of Absolum will actually just open up a whole new kind of quest and unlock a slightly different difficulty mode. That’s pretty vague, in order to avoid spoilers, but just so you’re prepared, this isn’t really a Roguelite where you’ll beat it once and then get some optional story every time you beat it again. It’s quite a bit more complex than that, so mentally prepare yourself for that inevitability!