Frey Holland charges up a magical spell against a dark blue background in key art for the underrated action game Forspoken. Forspoken Tips.

You’ve probably never played anything like Forspoken, Square Enix’s particle effects showcase with a side of high fantasy RPG. You navigate a realm from another dimension where the laws of physics don’t hold true using “magic parkour.” You juggle practically dozens of spells at once; forget loadouts. The talking cuff you’re travelling with is called Cuff.

Forspoken, one of those quirky action RPGs that appears destined for cult classic status in five years, has unmistakable charm despite its oddness. Here are nine things you should be aware of before playing Forspoken, which is presently available for the PlayStation 5 and PC.

Here are some Forspoken Tips to start in the best conditions.

Forspoken Tips #1 Cuff will automatically block enemy attacks

It takes a while to adjust to bucking decades of game design traditions, and Cuff’s defensive prowess isn’t impenetrable: You’ll still periodically lose some health. However, Cuff will appear when you run out of stamina, which is represented by the diamond-shaped nodes above your health bar. You should then flee and hide for a short while.

Forspoken Tips #2 There’s sort of fall damage

Similar to how Cuff can shield you from some falls. If your stamina bar is full, falling from a tremendous height won’t harm your health but will drain your stamina. However, if your stamina is low, you will suffer damage when you land. To put it another way, use caution if you’re fighting on a bridge!

Frey Holland stands next to a pulpit inside a pilgrim's refuge in Forspoken, the underrated PS5 action game.

Forspoken Tips #3 Visit every pilgrim’s refuge you see

Forspoken’s way stations, or Pilgrim’s Refuges, are tiny chapels where you can quickly travel and find healing. There, you can also enhance pre-existing gear and create new items. Additionally, interacting with the pulpit (found in each refuge’s threshold) will disclose hidden locations in other parts of the map. Most importantly, however, is the spellcraft library, which you may access roughly a quarter of the way through the game and use to choose tasks that can help you advance your skills.

Forspoken Tips #4 Make sure you have three active spellcraft challenges at all times

Simple spellcraft challenges require you to use a particular spell to carry out a predetermined number of tasks (for example, “kill three flying foes”). Every time you finish a challenge, your magic stat will permanently rise, and the power of the linked spell will also increase. You can keep three things going at once, and because it only takes 1.68 seconds to fast travel to a refuge, there’s no excuse not to.

Frey Holland stands near a magical alligator on a sunny day in the underrated PS5 action game Forspoken.

Forspoken Tips #5 Disable the spellcraft menu (and other settings)

While you’re there, disable the spellcraft challenge display in the accessibility settings. Every time you make progress toward one of your active spellcraft challenges, Forspoken will display a pop-up showing your progress across all three challenges. This visual bafflement has no discernible advantage: You will receive a message if a spellcraft task is finished, and you can always check your progress on any open challenges in the magic menu.

In addition, Forspoken has a wide range of settings that let you change anything from the graphic mode to the difficulty level to even the frequency of Cuff’s annoying chatter. Here is a list of all the settings you should change right away.

Forspoken Tips #6 Go for support magic first

Mana is essentially Forspoken’s equivalent of skill points; it is earned as you play. While it may be tempting to upgrade your current fundamental combat spells with mana, you’re better off learning new support spells (on the left side of the skill tree). Early-game confrontations benefit greatly from the use of every support spell, including the disperse mini-turret and the health-snatching tendril. The quicker you do so, the simpler life will be.

In addition, cooldowns have a cap on support magic. If you learn all eight spells, you’ll almost always have at least one spell prepared for use.

Forspoken Tips #7 Some tricks for the map…

You may access a list of all the quick travel destinations you’ve unlocked by clicking in the left thumbstick. Additionally, you can mark other locations, which subsequently appear as waypoints in your screen. Simply hold the triangle to delete all of your markings at once. Unfortunately, the map’s default view does not allow for rotation. However, you can rotate the area you’re in if you zoom all the way in (using the right trigger).

Forspoken's map shows icons indicating points of interest on Athia, its open-world setting.

Forspoken Tips #8 You’ll quickly see that not everything is worth your time in Forspoken

Because Forspoken is post-apocalyptic, its open world largely lacks characters for convenience’s sake (i.e., anything actually interesting and worth interacting with). It’s not worthwhile to check off every box unless you’re a pure completionist to the bone because you won’t receive anything extra for 100%ing a specific location. However, the following main areas of interest need to be on your radar:

  • Monuments: These easily accessible buildings will provide you a constant boost to one stat.
  • Locked Labyrinths: You’ll receive a new necklace or cloak at the conclusion of these boss battle-filled dungeons. Even if you don’t intend to use it, it’s worthwhile to collect as much equipment as you can throughout Forspoken. Every cloak and necklace has a special bonus that, if earned, can be added at crafting stations to other cloaks or necklaces. Every piece of equipment has three perk slots, so you can eventually create some absurdly potent combinations.
  • Rosewood Founts: Each fount will grant you access to a new spell that you would not otherwise be able to learn through normal levelling up.
  • Certain caves, towns, and forts: Some are not worth looking into. The associated symbol on your map will let you know. Everything that has a plus sign will grant you experience, which is important if you frequently find yourself getting your ass kicked in the area. A stat boost is given via upward arrows; while useful, you might just as easily obtain the same bonus from a monument for less work. The cloak, necklace, or nail symbols are the most significant ones to watch out for. When you conquer one of those places, you’ll receive gear.

Frey Holland stands in front of some clouds in a field peppered by trees on an otherwise bluebird day in the underrated PS5 action game Forspoken.

Forspoken Tips #9 Watch out if you see clouds

You will come find cloudy areas as you go across Athia. You’ll have extremely poor visibility inside these zones since a blue miasma has covered everything. Enemies are much more powerful as well, and you can find them by spotting purple dots floating in the fog. But in return, you usually get a tonne of XP and exclusive items. Before entering, be sure to save!

Read our review to know more about the game.

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