Forspoken Beginner’s Guide: 9 Things to Know Before Getting Started on PS5 or PC

The prophesied, Square Enix’s particle effects presentation loaded with a side of high-fantasy RPGs is probably unlike any game you’ve ever played. They use “Magic Parkour” to dash through an alternate-dimensional realm where the rules of physics don’t apply. Forget about loadouts – you’re literally juggling dozens of spells at once. Also, your companion is a talking cuff called, uh, cuff.

But despite its strangeness, The prophesied has undeniable charm – one of those weird action-RPGs that seems to be gaining cult-classic status in five years. If you get on the train early (The prophesied is currently available for PlayStation 5 and PC), here are nine things you should know before you start.

Cuff automatically blocks enemy attacks

Bucking yourself against decades-old game design trends takes a while to get used to, and Cuff’s defensive prowess isn’t impenetrable: you’ll still lose some health occasionally. That means when you’re out of stamina (indicated by the diamond-shaped nodes above your health bar), Cuff. Then you should run and hide for a few seconds.

Yes, there is fall damage – sort of

Similarly, cuff can protect you from certain falls. If you have a full stamina bar, falling from a great height will drain your stamina without affecting your health. However, if you run out of stamina, you will take damage if you hit the ground. In other words, be careful when fighting on a bridge!

Image: Luminous Productions/Square Enix via Polygon

Visit every single pilgrim hut

pilgrim hostels are The prophesied‘s Way Stations, small chapels that serve as locations to fast travel to and heal. There you can also craft items and upgrade existing equipment. And as you interact with the pulpit (on the threshold of each refuge), you’ll reveal undiscovered locations in other parts of the map. But most importantly, you’ll be able to access them about a quarter of the way through the game sorcery Library that allows you to choose challenges that can improve your skills.

Make sure you always have three active wizard challenges

Charms challenges are relatively easy and require you to perform a specific number of actions (e.g. “kill three flying enemies”) with a specific spell. Each time you complete a challenge, you will receive a permanent increase in your magic stat, as well as an increase in the power of the associated spell. You can juggle three at any time, and since it only takes 1.68 seconds to quickly get to a refuge, there’s no reason not to have three at all times.

Image: Luminous Productions/Square Enix via Polygon

Disable the Spellcraft menu (and other settings)

While you’re at it, go to accessibility settings and turn it off Charms challenge meter. If you have active Wizard Challenges, each time you make progress towards one, The prophesied shows you a pop-up detailing your progress on all three challenges. There’s no tangible benefit to this visual clutter: you’ll still get a notification once you’ve completed a Charms challenge, and you can always check your progress on current challenges in the magic menu.

Furthermore, The prophesied features an impressive array of settings, allowing you to customize everything from the visual mode to the challenge factor and the frequency of Cuff’s grating dialogue. Here’s a list of all the settings we recommend you tweak from the start.

Unlock the support magic first

As you play, you earn manaessentially The prophesiedaccept skill points. It’s tempting to spend mana to upgrade your existing basic combat spells, but you’re better off unlocking new support spells (on the left side of the skill tree). All support spells – from health steal tendril to the scatter Mini Tower – are extremely useful for early game fights. The sooner you unlock them, the easier life will be.

Also, support magic is limited by cooldowns. Unlocking all eight spells means you’ll pretty much always have at least one ready to use at all times.

A few tricks for the map…

By clicking on the left thumbstick you can bring up a list of all fast travel locations you have unlocked. You can also mark various points, which will then appear as waypoints in your view. If you want to remove all your marks at once, just press and hold the triangle. Frustratingly, you can’t rotate the map in its default view. But if you zoom all the way in (with the right trigger), you can rotate the region you’re in.

Image: Luminous Productions/Square Enix via Polygon

Not everything in the open world is worth your time

The prophesied is post-apocalyptic, meaning its open world is for the most part conveniently devoid of characters (i.e. anything that’s really interesting and worth interacting with). You also don’t get anything special for 100% equipping a specific region. So unless you’re a true enforcer to the bone, it’s not worth checking every box. Still, you should have some general points of interest on your radar:

• Monuments: These structures give you a permanent boost for a single stat and are generally easy to get to.
• Locked Labyrinths: At the end of these dungeons, which culminate in a boss fight, you will receive a new necklace or cloak. through The prophesied, it pays to acquire as much gear as possible, even if you don’t plan to use it. Each cloak and necklace has a unique perk; Once unlocked, you can then apply this perk to other cloaks or necklaces at crafting stations. Finally, since each piece of gear has three perk slots, you can create some ridiculously powerful combos.
• Rosewood Sources: Each source gives you a new spell that you couldn’t otherwise unlock through standard level-ups.
• Specific caves, cities and forts: Some are worth visiting, some are not. You can recognize this by the corresponding symbol on your map. Anything with a plus sign gives you experience, key when you find yourself getting your ass kicked in the current region. Up Arrows reward a stat boost – similarly helpful, although you could get the same bonus from a Monument for half the effort. The main symbols to look out for are cloak, necklace or nail symbols. Each time you clear one of these areas, you’ll get gear.

Image: Luminous Productions/Square Enix via Polygon

If you see clouds, tread carefully

As you explore Athia, you will come across overcast regions. Within these zones you have severely limited vision as everything is clouded by a blue miasma. Enemies, which you can locate by locating purple dots floating in the fog, are also significantly more powerful. In return, however, you will generally get a lot of XP, as well as rare gear. Remember to save before going in!