V Rising is another entry into the survival game genre and is getting a lot of praise for its unique take on this already saturated niche. The game has able been able to garner a huge following in the little time it has been out and the player number is on the rise. Though the game is in Early Access as of now the consensus suggests it’s in a very polished state, another rare occurrence in this space of gaming.
With so much interest from the community, the game is bound to attract a lot of new players, and though the game follows the traditional route of the survival genre the unique aspects of the game are necessary to be given attention to and the beginners to be educated about.
The following things are to be considered when you are starting your journey into this vampiric world:
- Progression
- V Blood Targets
- Feeding On Blood
- Horses
- Caves Passage
- Resource Gathering
- Chests & Loot
- Traders
- Loot On The Road
- Castle: Synergy
- Castle: Placement
Related: Is V Rising Cross-Platform / Cross-Play?
Progression
V-rising doesn’t have a normal progression system like other survival games. Mindless brutality is not the answer to vampiric ascension as you might think. In V rising your progression is tied exclusively to your gear and the V Blood enemies you kill.
Gear is your basic stats for things like health, physical power such as critical hit chance, damage, spell power, movement speed, and your resistances. While depending on the V Blood targets (minibosses) you kill you’ll have access to various other powers. Currently, there are many powers to get hold of and they are quite interesting when creating combinations and builds. These powers are divided into:
- Blood
- Unholy
- Illusion
- Chaos
- Frost
The game boasts unorthodox build customization where you change it up regularly depending on the task at hand. Even in PVP scenarios you are in a pretty even playing field as it comes down to what tools you are using and your skills at utilizing them. Farming XP is discouraged and to progress effectively you need to embrace the survival crafting aspect.
Related: How To Put Down A Summon Sign In Bloodborne?
V Blood Targets
The aforementioned V Blood targets are crucial to the experience here. These are essentially mini-bosses that you will encounter in the world and upon defeat, they reward you with unique powers and important craftable items like new stations which are heavily tied to your progression. There are 37 of these bosses, as of yet, scattered throughout the world.
Once you build the Blood Altar in your castle you can either track these targets to take them down or you can simply run across one in the world while free-roaming and if you are powerful enough you can even try to beat it. Tracking V Blood carriers is great when you want to kill a specific target but you will be randomly running into others and unlocking their powers if you defeat them.
Feeding On Blood
Vampires need blood to survive, duh! Here feeding on blood gives them different powers depending on what type of enemy. There are 6 types of blood in the game and each blood type gives you distinct benefits. The blood powers are more beneficial if you feed on targets with a higher percentage number. The different blood types and their general benefits are:
- Warrior: Increases your potency in combat increasing power and boosting your defenses.
- Brute: Increases your potency in combat and gives you helpful life leech components.
- Rogue: Boosts your potency in combat specifically around critical hits.
- Scholar: Boosts your spell potency and effectiveness.
- Worker: Boosts how many resources you get from all nodes as well as some additional benefits aimed at resource gathering.
- Creature: Boosts your movement speed and overall survival capabilities.
Once you have whittled down the enemy’s health by 80% you will be prompted to feed on it and get the buff in return. On the flip side if you don’t want the buff then triggering the feed and aborting it will instantly kill the enemy, a great way to quickly dispose of enemies and thin the herd.
Related: Are You Supposed To Die At The Beginning Of Bloodborne?
P.S. If your blood meter has run out you will start to lose health. This won’t completely deplete your HP and you will only die from direct damage either by enemies or sunlight. In these times look for sources of blood and don’t panic. Using vampiric powers like Blood Mend will restore your health as well while feeding.
Horses
A quick way to travel in this game is by finding a horse, these are randomly available throughout the game and you can ride it to your base to make your own. All horses have different stats viewable when you are on the horse and accessing the gear menu. There are three statistics max speed, acceleration, and rotation speed. These stats are very useful especially if you are in a PVP server and you are using the horse in combat or as a getaway vehicle to escape near-death encounters.
You also have to keep the horse alive by supplying it with water. There is a timer in the horse stat menu that will indicate its life. Use a bunch of skins of water to maximize the timer and you will be given a generous amount and not be bothered by this. If by chance the timer runs out the steed will die and you will have to look for another.
Caves Passage
Another way of quick traversal is the Cave system. These are fast travel points that are used to travel to predefined destinations. They differ from teleporters as these caves allow you to move between them even if you are lugging resources, which the teleporters won’t let you do at least on the PVP servers. These tunnels are marked with a white diamond icon on the map.
Not all of these passages are easily accessible by running towards them only as some might be high up on cliffs or require certain powers to get access to. This dynamic location will result in them being a one-way or two-way tunnel. Depending on your castle’s location and the resources you are carrying, these caves can be utilized to your advantage.
Related: How Does Dark Souls 3 Multiplayer Work?
Resource Gathering
Since this is a survival game the gathering of resources is very integral in creating important components for the various types of buildings and crafting items. Efficiency while collecting these resources will bore the most fruit later on. To get a better yield of resources it is recommended that you have the Worker Blood type buff active before going on a resource run, the better the blood quality will be (%) the better the return.
On top of that be sure to use the right tool for the right job. Certain weapons like the Sword and Slashers have bonus stats for harvesting vegetation, the Axe has the same boost when harvesting wood from trees, and for things like rocks and ore, you’ll want to use a Mace. Not every weapon increases your gathering yield but every weapon does have some sort of bonus for resources so do keep an eye on that.
Chests & Loot
As you are adventuring along in the hunt for the V Blood targets and building your castle you will inadvertently be clearing out human encampments and towns. While doing so keep your eyes open for treasure chests as they contain rarer loot, there is even a Golden Treasure Chest that spawns randomly with even better loot.
Besides these chests, the levels will be filled with breakable objects like barrels and chairs that you should consider breaking as they are a great source of gathering basic resources, and sometimes there is the occasional rare resource that drops from them.
In areas with houses to ransack you should check the bookshelves and dressers in them as they are the thematic chests here. Before you go and destroy everything, check whether these pieces of furniture hold any resources that have value to you. If you destroy them without looting then these resources will be wasted.
Related: How Do You Check Effects In Minecraft?
Traders
While moving through the world of V Rising you will soon run into Wandering Traders that are patrolling the roads near settlements. The problem is these traders will be hostile towards you and won’t let you shop so for that, you will have to first takedown the V Blood unit called Beatrice the Tailor and gain the ability to turn into Human Form.
This disguise will let you walk amongst the humans without any fear, though your movement speed will be restricted in this form. Using this form you can interact with the traders without hostility and buy their goods for Silver. Carrying silver will damage you once you cross the Silver resistance threshold, you can boost this resistance through gear and potions. Certain items the traders sell aren’t that expensive but their most valuable items cost a hefty sum of silver so start stockpiling now.
Loot On The Road
Speaking of wandering the roads, the entire world of Vardoran is interconnected with roads. The enemies will be patrolling these roads and in some instances will come across other patrols where they will start fighting amongst themselves. You can sit back and watch the battle or you can capitalize on this situation, they all might gang up on you.
If you come across random loot on the ground then there must be a fight that took place there. This is a good way of gathering valuable resources without much trouble. Sometimes these patrols will have normal mob and sometimes they might even have V Blood units. Let them fight each other and swoop in for the final kill when they are weak.
Related: Is Bloodborne or Dark Souls Harder? 9 Reasons
Castle: Synergy
The Castle building aspect of V Rising is very detailed and will become your sanctuary to keep coming back to. As you are building and expanding your empire one thing to keep in mind is that each workstation has bonuses that you can activate by fulfilling some key criteria. For example, when a furnace is in a confined castle room and has a matching floor the station gets a 25% boost in efficiency and a 25% reduction in costs. This is an important area of the game as building castles with no rhyme or reason will lead to inefficiencies.
Considering PVP servers we have to be thinking about the best ways to keep things progressing where we are constantly at risk of being outpaced and killed. This is also important in the PVE setting where players need to be looking into making the most out of the stations that they have access to. So do check the top bar of each station and rework your castle accordingly to gain access to those benefits.
Castle: Placement
Building your castle is a fun and rewarding experience but if you’re playing on a PVP server you also need to think strategically about where you build. Eventually, through the progression system players will be able to assault your castle, there is a specific window of time on each server that castle PVP is active, and when it’s active get ready for invasion and enemy players will try to take over your kingdom.
Related: Both Eternal Cities Locations In Elden Ring
An important thing to consider is your Castle placement. Each member of a clan can place one Castle Heart so in total you can have a maximum of four castles. If you are playing on a traditional PVP server use the world to your advantage, locate the Castle in places that only have one entrance, and avoid building out in the open you’ll become the perfect target for enemy attacks. Place it where you can easily access the world and resources but is hidden enough to not be spotted.
The game follows the typical beats of a survival game but where it differs is what makes it unique and praiseworthy. Knowledge of these elements will reward your efforts immensely thus we have tried to incorporate those in this beginner’s guide to V Rising.