Stellar Blade beginner’s guide: 6 tips and tricks for expert hacking and slashing

Stellar Blade has a hint of the soulslike formula in its veins, and its difficulty is not to be scoffed at. If you’re worried and want to stand the best chance of cutting through the competition, our best tips and tricks will help you.

You can go on your own in Stellar Blade, of course, but you may struggle, not because you don’t have skill, but because Stellar Blade offers a stellar test. 

Our best tips and tricks for Stellar Blade can make you a better and flashier fighter, however. So read on to find out how to become a hack n’ slash expert in Stellar Blade.

Best Stellar Blade tips to get you started

1) Just keep scanning

One of our Drone’s many features is the ability to launch a local scan of the area. Doing so reveals a bunch of information: Climbable ledges (which can lead to secret areas), tucked-away chests, dead humans for collectibles, and more.

My advice is to keep scanning as you go along so you don’t miss anything. Better yet, once you unlock the ability to upgrade your Drone, you can also make the scan function even stronger.

2) Look for collectibles

Tumbler Modules, Drone Upgrades, and cans are just some items you need to look out for regularly. Upgrading the Tumbler gives you more health recharges, improving the Drone gives you more powerful weaponry (and a better scanner), and collecting cans unlocks resources and even a suit.

Basically, as well as completing quests, you should explore every nook and cranny of Stellar Blade‘s dystopian world.

3) Take time with platforming

In our Stellar Blade review, one of the criticisms we underlined was how inconsistent and frustrating the platforming can be. Despite being an agile heroine, Eve’s movement when it comes to jumping ranges from sticky and rigid to downright floaty.

Whereas other titles feel streamlined and animations save you no matter where you jump, Stellar Blade feels unintentionally more punishing. Take your time with every jump, dive, and swing.

4) Change your equipment to suit the situation

This extends a bit beyond the game’s opening few hours, but as you accumulate Exospines and Gears—because you’re looking for collectibles—Eve’s arsenal becomes more dynamic and versatile.

One Exospine allows you to do more combo damage when upgraded, whereas others make your defense even more indomitable or Perfect Dodge and Perfect Parry much easier. If a boss gives you more grief than you’d like, try experimenting with your Exospines and Gears to see if different ones can give you an edge.

5) Parry

As a modern-day combat game, parrying and dodging are a huge part of Stellar Blade‘s DNA. I sound like a broken record as this seems to be a regular piece of advice with these action-game tips and tricks games, but you really need to learn to Parry and Dodge as much as possible.

It’s vital with Stellar Blade, not because it’s essential for victory, but because Stellar Blade makes Parrying and Dodging a lot more accessible compared to competitors in the genre. The Perfect Parry and Perfect Dodge abilities make the windows very generous, and landing parries gives you refills for your OP Beta attacks while lowering enemy Balance.

6) Invest in Beta skills

One of the strengths of Stellar Blade‘s action is Beta skills. Unlocked early on, Eve is blessed with strong Beta attacks that can damage enemy shields (and even break them,) deliver huge amounts of damage, and take fat chunks out of boss health bars such as Gigas or the Corrupter.

You should use many of your initial Skill Points to invest in Beta skills as soon as possible. As they recharge quite frequently, these attacks can one-shot many mob enemies, making your overall travel and ease of access much more comfortable and bosses much easier to defeat.