Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn guide – 8 tips to get you started

What difficulty should you play Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn on?

When you first start playing Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn you’ll have an important choice to make: which difficulty to play the game on. Perhaps the most important thing to consider here is that if you play on the easy ‘Story’ difficulty, you can’t earn achievements or trophies. If you care about such things, then, we recommend that you start on normal difficulty and see how you go. In any case, your choice mainly affects how much damage you take.

On Flintlock’s normal difficulty, even standard enemies can deplete half of your health bar or more if you get caught by a combo, so we recommend you leave the harder Possessed difficulty for a second playthrough unless you’re after a real challenge. It’s worth noting, however, that you can change the difficulty level as you play by going into the options menu. But if you even once put the difficulty down to Story, you won’t be able to earn achievements or trophies until you start a new game again.

How do you save your game?

Like most games these days, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn has an autosave system that means your progress is periodically saved for you. If you want to quit the game and make sure you don’t lose any progress, however, we recommend that you visit and interact with a Lodestone before selecting the ‘Quit to Main Menu’ option on the pause screen.

If you don’t have time to get to a Lodestone, just select the ‘Quit to Main Menu’ option on the pause screen, and while it might not always remember your exact position when you return, it does for the most part.

What happens when you die in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn?

Being a Soulslike, there are potentially serious repercussions for dying in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. Upon death, you’ll always find yourself taken back to the last Lodestone you visited, which can be pretty inconvenient at times as they’re not always close by. Even worse, all the unspent Reputation you’ve acquired from defeating enemies and completing quests will be dropped at your place of death.

If you can make it back, you can recover it — but if you die again before picking it up, it’s lost for good. Be careful entering new territory with a lot of Reputation in your possession, then, because should you encounter a powerful enemy, you might lose it for good

How to upgrade your weapons in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn

As you make your through Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, you’ll acquire a small arsenal of melee and ranged weapons. Each have their strengths and weaknesses, and you can further develop these by upgrading your weapons over time. To upgrade your weapons in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, you generally need materials: wood, iron and sulfur. All of these can be found in the world if you take the time to explore; look out for objects sparkling in the environment – the tell-tale sign of something you can pick up.

Once you have the required amount of wood, iron or sulfur, you can upgrade your weapons by visiting or fast travelling to a camp and talking to Baz. Each upgrade will require varying amounts of resources and often even an amount of Reputation, too. It’s worth upgrading though, as it can give you that all important edge in combat.

As you progress further into Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, you’ll be able to upgrade other pieces of equipment too, such as helmets. Simply talk to respective blacksmith at your camp to see what you can upgrade, as well as the materials and/or Reputation required to do so.

How to increase your maximum health in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn

When you first start Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn you don’t have a great amount of health. And so, playing on Normal difficulty, even standard foes can make short work of you. Needless to say, you might be left wondering how you can increase your maximum health so that you can withstand more hits.

Unlike in other Soulslikes, you can’t increase your maximum health by levelling up in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. Instead, you need to find Inaya Shrines spread across the world. To find these, look out for red pillars of light in the distance as you explore, and then try to find a way to them. Once you’ve found an Inaya Shrine, you can then interact with it to not only replenish your current health, but more importantly permanently raise your maximum health. It’s also worth checking your map, as sometimes you might not spot an Inaya Shrine but its location might be marked on there.

How to parry and interrupt attacks

While attacking is important in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, it’s important to do so at the right time, otherwise you leave yourself open. In fact, when coming up against enemies equipped with shield, it’s imperative to go on the defensive, as parrying one of their attacks is the best way to butter them up.

In order to perform a parry in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, you need to press the block button just before an enemy attack lands. That will then put them off-balance, allowing you to counter, and possibly remove the shield from their hands if they have one. With the right skill purchased, you can even parry incoming ranged attacks, rendering them useless.

Just be aware that not all attacks can be parried. If you see a red orb appear on it enemy as it readies up an attack, your only options are to either dodge it, or interrupt the enemy with a pistol attack. The latter is better, as it reduces their health and leaves them off-balance. While you have limited ammo for your pistol, it can be replenished by hitting enemies with melee attacks.

How to heal in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn

Like in other Soulslikes, you have a healing flask which is replenished when you rest at a Lodestone in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. To use it, select it by pressing the up or down buttons on your d-pad, then press the square button if you’re using a PlayStation controller, or the X button if you’re using an Xbox controller. It takes a little time, however, so be careful.

While you start with small number of flask uses available, you unlock more as you play by visiting new Hamlets and freeing them from enemy control. After doing so, visit the coffee shop in the Hamlet and talk to the Host there – your number of available flask uses will then be increased, allowing you to heal more times between visiting Lodestones.

How to fast travel

While exploring the world of Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is pretty enjoyable thanks to Nor’s traversal skills, you don’t need to go everywhere on foot. In fact, making use of the game’s fast travel system can very much improve your time with the game.

To fast travel in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, simply open up the game’s map, then place your cursor over any Lodestone, camp or Hamlet that you’ve previously visited. You can then press and hold the X button if you’re playing with a PlayStation controller or the A button if you’re playing with an Xbox controller to fast travel to it. It’s as easy as that.

Perhaps make use of the fast travel system if you’re stuck on a boss and need to find more materials to upgrade your weapons. Or maybe there are some side-quests you want to clear up before completing the game. Either way, it’s there, so don’t forget about it.