As with most Soulslike titles, The First Berserker: Khazan offers a tough and lengthy campaign that will push your skills to the limit. Whether you’re facing tense exploration through dangerous environments or facing off against massive bosses with equally massive health bars, you have a lot to deal with here.
As the opening hours of The First Berserker: Khazan unfold, you’ll learn a lot about how the game functions via in-game tutorials and a handy encyclopedia. But we’ve compiled a few additional tips to get you started with the game so you can be as prepared as possible for what’s ahead. Let’s take a look at our tips for The First Berserker: Khazan.
Take your time and grind when needed
The First Berserker: Khazan can be a brutally difficult game at times, especially on its Normal difficulty (more on that below). As such, grinding up even moderately better gear and increasing your levels just a bit can make a bigger impact than you’d expect. Don’t be afraid to find good grinding spots to help you get better prepared for bosses or tough areas.
Foes that yield a lot of Lacrima aren’t an uncommon thing to find near the end of a level. For instance, there’s a great grinding spot in the opening level right before you fight the game’s first main boss Yetuga. After dropping the cart down to the Blade Nexus here, you can head back up the cart and head right to find a large yeti creature. By using your charged heavy attack a few times, you can easily beat this guy down quickly. Rinse and repeat for a whopping 480 Lacrima per run (which is quite a lot early on). And if he runs off to fight the human foes below, you can go ahead and whoop their asses for even more Lacrima.
There’s no shame in playing on Easy
As stated before, The First Berserker: Khazan is an exceptionally challenging experience that is certain to test the mettle of even seasoned Soulslike veterans. With that in mind, the game will provide you an opportunity to bump the difficulty down early in your adventure. There’s no shame in opting to go this route, as the goal of any game is to have fun playing it.
That being said, some trophies/achievements are disabled when playing on Easy. Keep this in mind if you’re going for 100% completion. But you can always consider this route as preparation for a harder future run. Ya know, just ease yourself into it!
Also, if you didn’t swap to Easy when prompted by the game, you can find the difficulty settings under the Accessibility tab in your Settings menu. Here, you can also bump things back up to Normal at any point.
Experiment as much as you’d like
The First Berserker: Khazan has multiple weapon types and a lot of different skills you can invest in for each of them. Part of the fun of this brutal Soulslike experience is figuring out which of these weapon and skill setups work best for you. Since you can respec your skill points for free at any time, you should experiment with all the weapon types and as many of their skills as possible to see if you can find a build that feels just right.
Blocking tends to work better than dodging
Your build and playstyle will determine what works best for you between dodging and blocking in The First Berserker: Khazan, but in our experience, blocking seems to be the safest choice in a lot of situations. You can absorb quite a few hits while blocking even at the beginning of your journey, and investing in the appropriate stats to bolster this even further can make you quite a tank as you continue through the game. Because you generally won’t take any damage at all when blocking, you can use this method to patiently wait out difficult enemies or bosses, waiting for just the right time to get in a hit or two.
Of course, if a defensive playstyle isn’t your cup of tea, you can also weave in plenty of parries to save your stamina and whittle away your opponent’s. And it goes without saying that dodging remains a viable strategy against certain types of attacks (especially grabs), so don’t discount it entirely!
Complete Bonus Training for extra rewards
The First Berserker: Khazan is a very loot-driven game, so you’ll find a smorgasbord of weapons, armor, consumables, and more as you defeat enemies and explore the environments of each level. However, there’s a relatively well-hidden additional way you can score some useful items, and it also offers a nice dopamine hit in the process: Bonus Training challenges.
Bonus Training challenges are found within Daphrona’s Codex, which is accessed in your menu. You’ll notice a treasure icon beside the names of some enemies. If you look at their codex entry, you’ll see challenge that can be completed to earn a listed item. These usually ask you to defeat an enemy type in a specific manner or without taking damage. Whatever the challenges ask of you, make sure you return to the Codex entry after completing it to claim your prize!
