Godfall takes fast-paced, hard-hitting melee action and layers on a looter system that will have all my fellow hoarders drooling!
The game is one of the few timed PS5 exclusives at launch – rumored to arrive on Xbox sometime next year – and was the first game I picked up. I’ve played an embarrassing amount of Dauntless and know a thing or two about fighting beasts with sharp objects.
This guide will cover all the basics of Godfall and make sure you’re set up well to defeat tons of baddies while chaining together some crazy combos. I’ll cover everything from weapons to skills in this article, so stay tuned for all the tips and tricks!
Check the Godfall Controller Scheme
Button mapping is very interesting in Godfall. Where some buttons are exactly what you’d expect from an action-adventure game (L3 for sprint), many of the buttons aren’t intuitive.
Here are the biggest changes that I had to get used to from the early goings of Godfall:
- You can’t jump! You can hop over gaps using the circle button, but won’t be able to jump otherwise
- The square button is used for healing
- To use your ultimate, you’ll need to click in both joysticks
When I think back to games like The Witcher 3, I always pressed the face buttons to attack. In Godfall, you swing your weapon with the R-buttons! This is a great use of the adaptive triggers, but definitely takes some getting used to.
Learn the buttons before you start getting attacked so you don’t end up wasting healing resources like I did!
Break All the Pots
You can’t spell looter slasher without looter, and there’s plenty of loot to be had in Godfall. There are plenty of pots, vases, and boxes to break in Godfall, and you should break every last one of ‘em!
Smashing everything will ensure that you have the necessary health items, crafting materials, and currency to improve your survivability and maximize your damage output. Just imagine that everything is a pinata and all the candy is yours for the taking!
If you see something that looks like it can be broken, swing your weapon at it and reap the benefits of the floor loot. One thing to note: the candies don’t burst out of the containers immediately. Make sure to wait a couple of seconds before moving on so that you don’t leave anything behind.
Use Phase Nodes to Cover More Ground
Scattered around the maps are teleportation devices called “phase nodes”. Players can phase jump to these floating beacons to cover some distance quickly.
Be on the lookout for these nodes, since Godfall often has some nice loot that is only accessible by phase jumping. If you spot one, head in that direction!
Target Your Enemies
Players will encounter plenty of hoardes while exploring, so you should take advantage of the game’s target locking mechanic. This lets you choose who your attention is on, which is especially important when trying to block attacks (more on this later).
Look for Enemy Indicators
While in the heat of battle, Godfall has a nice feature that shows you the direction of enemies.
You’ll see gray arrows pointing outward from your character in the direction of an opponent.
More importantly, the arrow will turn red to indicate a specific enemy is about to attack. Pay close attention to these arrows to better position yourself while fighting multiple enemies!
Use Takedowns for Huge Damage
Enemies who are stunned or knocked down are susceptible to devastating blows in Godfall. Get close to your victim, tap R3, and your player will deal a massive blow to the helpless foe!
This comes in handy when you’re in a multi-enemy battle since the game essentially goes into cutscene mode during takedowns, pausing time around you and giving you a break from the action. Use takedowns as often as possible to clear out opponents quickly.
Breach for Stuns
Another way to speed up your rate of kills is to fill up an enemy’s Breach Bar. Doing heavy attacks on bigger enemies will fill up this bar, although not every enemy has this option. When the bar is full, you can perform a special takedown on the stunned beast.
Restore Health Wisely in Godfall
Godfall gives you a few different ways of recovering health:
- Use a lifestone to regain some health
- Pick up small green Health Globes to regain some health
- Leveling up gets you to max health
- Certain equipables will grant you life steal for periods of time
Given you have multiple options to top off your health, you should be really careful about life stone usage! Your character can only carry three at a time, and you really want to save them for when you’re in dire need of an HP boost.
More often than not, the better route is to defeat some enemies and pick up the green orbs for quick healing. This method is best for when you have at least half of your health bar full.
Additionally, if you’re close enough to reach the next level progression, you can gain XP to restore healthy fully! You’ll be able to respawn in most cases (unless you’re on the last life of hard mode) so live on the edge a little when it comes to health.
Block Incoming Damage with Your Shield
While most enemies in Godfall hit you up close with melee weapons, there are many foes who fire projectiles from afar. Luckily, you’ve got a trusty shield to stop the annoying barrage of arrows!
The shield is also great for blocking any normal attacks that come your way. However, if the enemy is glowing red, the incoming attack can NOT be blocked so get out of the way!
Use Your Shield for Offense
Traditionally, the shield is for minimizing the amount of damage you take. In Godfall, it also serves as a weapon for numerous attacks!
You’ll unlock skills to throw, smash, and utterly destroy any monsters in your way with the shield as you progress. These abilities are on a cooldown, so you’ll want to choose the right moment to unleash these bonus attacks.
Upgrade Skills to Become More Deadly
There are 25 options in Godfall’s combat skill grid, each with 5 levels, leaving you with 125 potential upgrade spots. What’s nice about this skill tree is that you can reset your spending at any time if a build isn’t working out for you!
In the early parts of the game, I highly recommend picking up these skills:
- Finesse Level 1 to perform an evasive slide
- Rampage Level 1 for bonus damage (especially good for fast weapons like the dual blades)
- Shield Throw Level 1 for decent crowd control
- Weakpoints Level 1 for greater takedown potential
Beyond these four, it’s really a matter of your preferred playstyle! Take a look through the available options, test out some upgrades, and reset the whole thing if you’re not happy with any of them.
Chain Light and Heavy Attacks
While it may seem easy to just spam one button over and over, you’ll get the most value out of your weapon by hitting an enemy with light attacks, then dealing a massive blow with a heavy attack. Godfall lets you essentially deposit damage in a block of the enemy’s health bar, then unleash that added damage by using a heavy attack.
In this way, you can often take out smaller enemies with three light attacks followed by a heavy. You can see how much damage is stored by the white outline on an enemy health bar. Take advantage of this combo as much as possible!
Understand the Weapon Types in Godfall
At launch, Godfall has 5 types of weapons. Each can be found in one of 5 different rarities, with increasing rarity giving additional status effects.
Each weapon has pros and cons, so you should try to pair two weapon types that compliment each other in the heat of battle:
- Longsword: Average across the board. Good for people who are new to slashers.
- Polearm: Great range, decent speed, but the damage is the second weakest of the bunch. You can fight at range and even throw the polearm like a javelin!
- Warhammer: Insane damage coupled with slow speed and decent range. Warhammers have an added benefit of area of effect attacks that deal damage to multiple enemies.
- Greatsword: Great damage potential but slower than the Warhammer. This is good for slasher vets who have honed their timing and reactions.
- Dual Blade: Low damage and short-range are offset by incredible speed. Additionally, you can pull enemies towards you as though you were Scorpion!
My current favorite combo is a Warhammer with a Polearm, but I could also see a pairing of Dual Blade + Greatsword working out well.
Try all five weapons to see what you’re most comfortable with!
Learn to Parry, Or Else!
Enemies in Godfall do a decent amount of damage, even when we’re talking about the minions. While dodging will give you I-frames (think invincibility for a short period), blocking an attack with the parry button (L1 by default) is a better way to deal with incoming attacks.
A properly timed parry will leave the opponent in a stunned state, leaving them open to a slew of attacks and possibly even a takedown!
Most enemies will show clearly when they’re about to attack you. Press the parry button at the exact time that the incoming attack is about to hit and you’ll be good to go. The parry window is actually pretty forgiving, but try to practice pressing the button right as the attack is about to hit you.
Craft New Valorplates
Instead of the typical class system, Godfall grants players access to new skills through the Valorplate system. Think of this as a new suit which alters your archon fury attacks, passive trait, and augment constellation.
To craft a new core, you need to collect Valorplate cores. These are scattered around the map on the bodies of fallen soldiers, so keep an eye out for glowing bodies on the ground.
Godfall has 12 Valorplates in total, and you can craft them in any order you please. Additionally, you can build these suits with map-specific items like Infused Jasper. Different worlds will grant different crafting items, so just collect everything you can to be safe. You can check on your crafting materials in the ‘Resources’ tab of the menu.
You can choose a different Valorplate at the Sanctum, which is great for getting and elemental advantage against specific enemies!
Practice Your Attacks
Since each weapon functions differently, it’s best to at least check out the combos in the training room. Here, you can seed the speed, area coverage, and damage of your weapons before heading into a live battle.
All it takes is a few minutes of practice and you’ll be ready to take on any enemy in Godfall!
Get Bonus Loot
Secrets abound in Godfall. You’ll stumble on glowing chests which can only be opened by solving a puzzle or defeating enemies. Use your Spirit Vision to uncover the keys to opening these chests!
Don’t Follow the Beaten Path
Godfall shows you exactly where to go in each map, but don’t immediately walk towards the directional indicator. Instead, go the complete opposite direction to collect all the goodies I keep referring to.
In addition to finding extra loot, you’ll be able to fight more minions and get XP that you would have otherwise missed. My goal on each map is to cover as much ground as possible, explore every nook and cranny, then head to the objective when I’ve gathered enough.
Most missions don’t have a time limit, so take your time and smell the roses before progressing to the final destination.
Become the Ultimate Godfall Warrior
Godfall is a beautifully made looter slasher with intense combat and plenty of customization. This guide is primarily geared towards new players, but I’ll make an article with more advanced tactics if folks are interested!
Also, you can catch my day 1 Godfall stream here!
What other Godfall tips and tricks do you have? Anything you would add to the guide to help out newbies? Let me know in the comments section!
