Warning - there are no spoilers in my question, but there will probably be gameplay mechanics spoilers in any answers (hopefully).
I’m downloading Lies of P now to give it a shot. I’m not a big fan of RPG elements in these types of games (blasphemy I know), I prefer a focused experience; for example I liked Bloodbourne but never finished it because of all of the options, but I absolutely loved every minute of Sekiro. Basically I can’t be bothered with experimenting with builds and crunching numbers, it’s not for me.
I know any actual advice will depend on what I want the gameplay to feel like, so I guess all I can say is take Sekiro as an example - I’d probably be focusing on anything that will help speed and parrying (if any stats affect that?) and decent dodging.
So, do you have any advice on things I should focus on, things I should avoid or wait to upgrade, weapons to aim for etc? I don’t mind spoilers.
If BB had too many RPG elements for you then you might want to skip LoP. To answer your question though, just pick Bastard at the beginning and never look at another weapon other than the rapier you start with. Don’t change your Legion Arm, just use the starter one for damage and poise breaking. Only put levels into Vigor, Vitality, and Technique when leveling for stamina, HP, and damage respectively. Eventually you will be able to buy an item called a “Technique Crank” from a guy whose name rhymes with panini. Put that on your rapier when you get it. That’s it.
Parrying is geared towards Strength builds (Strength is called Motivity in LoP). If you want to do strength pick Sweeper instead of Bastard and level Motivity instead of Technique. Put a Motivity Crank on your weapon instead of Technique.
You should start a wiki that contains ‘How to play the game’ posts like these, something a bit like BeforeIPlay
This is exactly what I was after, thank you! I will probably parry too much coming from Sekiro so the Strength route sounds good - is the Sweeper as viable as the Bastard all the way through (with motivity levelling)?
I think if I’d asked a similar question for BB I would have loved it, but I was stubborn and tried to learn all of it by myself. Instead I learned that I just want to be mastering a few mechanics rather than having open ended options to dozens
No worries, happy to help. Yeah strength is totally viable. Just be aware that in LoP, parrying is just blocking. When you block, you take less damage and you get “rally” like in BB and get that HP back by hitting things. You can do a “perfect block” with good timing and take no damage. There is no Dark Souls or Sekiro-style parry mechanic.
Oh damn. I thought from some gameplay I’ve seen that perfect blocks also worked towards staggering an enemy? Which made me think of Sekiro, just not as pronounced / focused on
I believe perfect blocks do count towards staggering the enemy. I’ve put several larger enemies into the stagger state from perfect blocks. I’m running the Motivity build described above and it works great. I will say that dodging and blocking are both very important. Some enemies are better to dodge and some are better to block.
Thanks again for your advice!
I’ve just beaten the scrapped watchman and I’m really enjoying it, and having the decisions streamlined by you is helping for sure. The only thing I’ve done differently is change the handle to the baton handle, as it’s a bit faster to deliver the charged hit (which is crucial when I’m going for stagger as often as I can).
i’ve only played the demo of it when it came out, but it felt like a blend of bloodborne/sekiro where you’ll mix up the dodge or parry tactic depending on the enemy you come across.
i will say that it’d be best to upgrade your dodge ability as soon as possible (i think you can after the second or third boss), since the default dodge is basically useless
