Wolcen guide: tips and tricks for beginners

It's been several years in the making, but Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem is finally out. This action RPG boasts a lot of options to customise your character to be whatever you want it to be. Maybe you want to build a muscle-bound chap that can throw fireballs, or perhaps a poison inflicting mage that wields a pistol. Whatever floats your boat, there are some things you should keep in mind.

Wolcen guide

Wolcen is a game about killing everything you see as you go spelunking through dungeons, so this Wolcen guide will give you tips and tricks for this new action RPG. Enemies in Wolcen will flood the screen, but with the use of some rather impressive skills and abilities, they can be swept aside. The key difference between this and a game like Diablo is that you aren't locked to just one class. Instead, you have a surprising amount of customisation that can be initially daunting, but potentially devastating to your enemies.

If this sounds like it appeals to you, then we've gathered together some top tips to get you started, and have a whole guide on Wolcen builds to get you started with building your character. We've included some more tips on gear and gems.

When you begin Wolcen

• 1. When you begin the game, you'll be asked to choose your starting gear. Don't worry about this too much, as it just gives you a weapon, some appropriate armour, and a skill matching the description. These will quickly be replaced later in the game.
• 2. As you progress through the opening sections of the game, try to loot everything you can pick up. Pressing T will open the town portal, allowing you to sell off items when you run out of inventory space.
• 3. Items have different rarities, with rarer items having more perks, but also being worth more in the shop. The level of item also affects how good it is and how much it's worth.
• 4. Eventually, you'll have enough of the "Magic" rarity gear equipped that having common equipment isn't worth it. Sell it off at the shop, as you can use the funds raised to buy better gear or new skills.
• 5. As you explore, blow up everything that can be highlighted with your mouse. This includes barrels off to the side, as they can contain coins, or if you're really lucky you can find jewels.

Skill tree tips

• 6. To quickly access the "Gate of Fates" skill tree, press P on your keyboard.
• 7. With every level up, you'll be able to spend a point into the skill tree. Small nodes have small stat buffs, while the larger ones give major bonuses.
• 8. The skill tree is divided into three colours. Warrior-like classes have red orbs, ranged attackers use the green orbs, and magic users have the blue/purple orbs. Plan ahead and pick a path that you want to make.
• 9. You can rotate parts of the skill wheel to mix and match skill types. By clicking the wheel segments that are above the confirm button, you can rotate one of the three segments. You can find out more in our Wolcen skill tree (classes) guide.
• 10. You can rotate the skill tree at any time. This can be done at any time and you keep any unlocked orbs, so you can venture into classes that you otherwise would be unable to
• 11. There is a cap of 89 skill points that you can spend. You can earn an additional 2 points through the "Champion of Stormfall" game mode.

Spending attribute points

• 12. You can access the character sheet by pressing the C key on your keyboard.
• 13. There are four attributes in the character sheet: Ferocity affects critical hits, Toughness relates to health, Agility increases attack and spell casting speeds, and Wisdom affects chance to inflict status ailments.
• 14. You will always get 10 attribute points for every level up. Feel free to spend them in each of the attribute types, but keep in mind that Wolcen classifies each of them based on total points, then assigns bonus damage based on that order.

How to use the user interface in combat

• 15. Every stamina point unlocked gives you an extra dodge. This is mapped to the space bar and you'll roll in the direction you're facing. Dodges recharge after a short time.
• 16. Health is the red bar, but the white lines above it are the Force Shield. Force shield usually depletes faster than regular health, but it recharges at a much faster rate.
• 17. Magic users cast spells with Willpower, while Melee fighters use Rage. These are indicated on the same bar. As you cast spells, you'll spend Willpower but generate Rage. Melee fighters using techniques lose Rage but gain Willpower.
• 18. You have two potion slots. Potions have a set amount of charges that refill as you attack. Different potions have different healing rates, so do replace them with better ones. (Thanks to the user "SureValla" for confirming)
• 19. Some spells have a cooldown, while others can be cast repeatedly until your Willpower runs out. I'd recommend having spells without cooldowns to the right mouse button.

How Enneracts and the Archivist work

• 20. Enneracts are either found in the world or bought from Demetra in Stormfall. Her available selection refreshes after 15 minutes have passed since you last viewed her shop.
• 21. You can learn an Enneract by right clicking it in your inventory, or you can trade it to Demetra for Primordial Affinity.
• 22. Primordial Affinity can be used to speed up progression for your learned active skills. Find out more on this in our Wolcen skills.
• 23. After levelling up a skill, the skills get buffed.
• 24. Modifiers can be obtained by levelling up your skill to the level requirement shown on the modifier. You'll then get points to spend on modifiers. (Thanks to the user "Pirlouit" for pointing out that maximum modifier points are unlocked when a skill becomes level 59.)
• 25. The circular modifiers are upgrades that give minor buffs to skills. The slightly more elaborate ones affect how skills work a little, but the most elaborately designed ones change them dramatically.

Gear and gems

• 26. Buy the second chest storage upgrade as soon as possible. It costs 20,000 gold to unlock.
• 27.  Gems can be used to give your gear new properties. Lower numbers don't mean the gem slot is worse, just different. Make sure you check each type before fitting the gem into a slot.
• 28. If you are selling your looted gear, you should have plenty of gold to separate gems from your old gear to equip to better equipment by talking to the Jeweler.
• 29. The Jeweler also changes gem slot types on equipment and sells you gems at a price. The gems are always of the best type you can loot at that given time.
• 30. Gems and dyes can be stacked in the chest, as can Entropy Orbs and Ohm's Echoes, which reroll stats and gem slots on items. More details on this are in our Wolcen items guide.

And there you have it. These Wolcen tips should help you understand how the game works. We'll also have guides for how to defeat certain bosses:

Wolcen boss guides

• Wolcen Act 1 boss
• Wolcen Act 2 boss
• If you're here to try and fix the third act's boss, it's now fixed. Our Wolcen Act 3 boss guide should give you strategies to beat it.

We will be playing a lot more of this game in the coming days, mostly the post game if we're honest. We've started our coverage with our new Wolcen Champion Of Stormfall guide. But for now, jump in, get creative, and unleash hell on those monsters. They probably deserved it.