Castlevania makes a grand entrance into V Rising with a DLC that brings us the Belmonts, Dracula, and some spectacular battles.
Some games maintain great popularity without us knowing. With a lower profile, they continue to maintain a loyal audience that never abandons them, showing themselves as a true success for their fans. That’s the case with V Rising. A game that may not make the same noise as when it was released in early access, next month will be two years, but it has remained in good health all this time.
That’s why it shouldn’t surprise us that yesterday at Triple-I, a new indie game event, a DLC for V Rising was announced. Specifically, a collaboration with the most famous vampire franchise in history: Castlevania.
Both a DLC and free content, this collaboration, named Legacy of Castlevania, will require us to face Simon Belmont, the vampire hunter. With new combat abilities and weapons, it promises to be a tough battle, with many nods to the original series. Even if most of them are behind a paywall, in the form of DLC.
Because along with the collaboration, for free, a DLC named Legacy of Castlevania Premium Pack will be released. For 19.99 euros, the pack will include costumes inspired by the franchise, two new versions of Simon’s Theme and Bloody Tears, as well as the possibility of designing your own castle in the classic gothic style of Castlevania. Something that will delight fans of the franchise, as they will be able to, for the first time, live the dream of being the rightful heir of Dracula. Or at least one who doesn’t have the sole purpose of killing him.
V Rising tips don’t end with “stay out of the sun” or “don’t carry silver“. The surprising indie hit has captured the attention of many people thanks to a successful Early Access and backing for Stunlock Studios from Tencent. While the game mayfeel familiar for fans of titles like Diablo and Valheim, we could all benefit from a road map sometimes.
Beyond following the quest guide and objectives, here are some V Rising tips for things you should always be doing. Or, at least, you may find yourself always doing it whether you like it or not.
Always be farming
Like any game with a resource system and base building, you’ll always need to be farming materials for building and crafting. The exchange rate can be especially brutal and take a long time. But, that just gives you more time to go out and farm more materials!
The biggest of V Rising tips here is to use the right tool for specific jobs. Swords are great for vegetation while axes are great for chopping wood. When harvesting stone, copper, or other hard materials, use the mace instead.
Loot all enemies and camps
As with games such as Assassin’s Creed, players can find materials and items as they attack bandit camps and other locations. Early on, this is especially necessary as you may not know all of the recipes needed to craft certain items such as new armor or building materials.
Just be careful that you don’t handle Silver too much; it sucks away your health as you carry it.
Track V Blood carriers
Not only are V Blood carriers integral to completing quests, but you also need the helpful abilities and recipes you get when you take them down. For instance, Keely the Frost Archer provides your first unique ability: Frost Bat. This is especially useful against brutes and warriors who charge you head-on as it slows them down.
Moreover, being able to craft more and more items will help you improve your castle. And that’s really the whole point of the game, isn’t it?
Hide from the sun
It goes without saying that, as a vampire, you should avoid the sun at all costs. Even with things like sun potions or additional sun resistance, you can quickly die from sun exposure.
When you need to travel in the daylight hours, utilize tree shade in wooded areas or hale bales in villages. If you are working on your base before you can craft roof tiles, utilize a mist brazier to block out the sun. It’s a life saver of an item in the early game.
Use cave passages to travel distances
Waygates require you not to have any resources in your inventory. That’s difficult in a game where resource gathering is a core mechanic. So, cave passages represent a useful shortcut that helps you get from one area to another — especially during daylight hours.
Try out new ability combos
Games like Diablo are all about creating unique builds and load-outs with armor and abilities. V Rising trades in this, as well, offering players many avenues to become a dominant nightstalker once again. So don’t be afraid to switch things up as often as you want to — especially early on.
In addition, certain abilities may be extremely effective against one V Blood carrier or boss, but useless against another. Keep that in mind as you traverse the world of Vardoran.
Keep an eye on your blood type
Feeding on different creatures or types of humans can alter your blood type. For instance, at the beginning of the game, you are set to “Frail” since you’ve only had rat blood so far. This quickly changes once you feed on a human or wolf. Different characters have different purity percentages, as well, which dictate the level of stat boosts you get.
In total, there are 6 blood types including:
Creature – think bears, wolves, or other animals. This type boosts your health regeneration and movement speed initially. At higher levels, it provides damage reduction and sun resistance.
Rogue – archers and thieves provide this blood type. You’ll get buffs to critical hits, crit chance, cooldown reduction, and movement speed from it as you level it up.
Brute – this type initially provides life steal when you drink from bandits. You’ll eventually get attack speed, movement, and health recovery boosts, as well.
Warrior-armored bandits and militia soldiers provide physical power boosts at level 1. At higher levels, you’ll get weapon skill cooldown increases, damage reduction, and chances to parry incoming attacks.
Worker – non-violent or weak NPCs qualify as the “Worker” blood type. This increases your resource gain, horseback speed, damage against resources, and more.
Scholar – scholars provide spell power, spell life leech, and spell cast cooldowns.
Bonus V Rising tips: different forms & DLC
The various forms you acquire by collecting V Blood carriers include the very first one: wolf form. This has many perks such as faster movement speed to help you traverse land more quickly. However, other animals like bears will not attack you while in wolf form. Don’t forget to use all the various forms to your benefit.
The optional DLCs are also a great way to support the developer further while picking up some unique cosmetic items along the way. The cheaper option provides Dracula’s regalia while a more expensive option includes unique cosmetic items and new forms including that cute, unassuming grandmother you see above.
