10 Blades of Fire Tips & Tricks to Defeat the Queen

Blades of Fire has finally been released on Steam after a one-year sentence at the Epic Games prison, releasing it to the wider audience. As a title I was highly anticipating (that I skipped because of the exclusivity period) and one that was reviewed very highly on our website, it was a no-brainer to follow MercurySteam and 505 Games for the 2.0 launch on Steam.

Despite missing the soulslike tag, make no mistake: Blades of Fire is a tough-as-nails experience that'll demand lots from the player. Having gone through the experience in the Steel difficulty, here are some tips and tricks to help you, regardless of the difficulty you select.

Let's start from the very beginning:

Play on Iron At First

Yes, even before starting up your game, there's already a point of contention you'll want to avoid. Don't get me wrong, Blades of Fire is a well-balanced experience throughout its various difficulties, even if the new Titanium one isn't recommended for new players at all.

That said, I would suggest even avoiding the Steel difficulty at the start. While it's entirely doable to experience everything on the then-hardest setting, I would recommend against it due to an early-game area that makes the experience just grating to get through.

While you can change the difficulty midway through the experience, and it's certainly an option, I'd just recommend coming to grips with the Blades of Fire gameplay before jumping into it. Every weapon type has a unique fighting style, every foe a weapon style that it demands, and every style a gameplay that you'll want to take advantage of. Learn that, learn forging, learn combat, and I promise that you won't dread the experience at the Crimson Fort.

Exploration is Very Important

Blades of Fire's level design can be confusing due to how intricate and intertwined it is, offering the player various options to traverse any level. It's fun, as it means that no two runs feel the same, since different players will take various roads, and it makes the gameplay feel very bespoke.

This twisting and turning also hides within various nooks and crannies that include several upgrades that you'll direly need, such as HP and stamina buffs. Moreover, some enemies can be tucked away, which can help you find a farming spot to unlock a weapon type earlier than you might if you don't find them, meaning you can find a new fighting style earlier than anticipated.

Try Every Weapon At Least Once

There are various types of armaments for players to enjoy, and this includes several combos, damage styles, and strengths and weaknesses for each. It's quite extensive, as once all of the weapon types have been unlocked, you'll have a large arsenal of seven categories of weapons to choose from.

For that matter, it just makes sense to try every armament at least once. You might not favour fast-paced daggers (much like me), but having tried them gives some insight into what you can learn to fight against them, and whether you'll want to use them at a hyper-specific encounter you wouldn't have thought of if you hadn't tried the weapon.

Pay Attention to Weapon Strengths and Weaknesses

It's worth familiarising yourself with weapon niches and what role they play in combat. Each armament can have a maximum of two out of three damage styles to take advantage of, and they all have different ranges, speeds, and favourable encounters to learn.

It's never spelt out to the player, so trial and error is going to be a big factor in Blades of Fire — trying, failing, and learning is just a part of the experience. But every weapon has a favourable encounter that makes things easier to deal with: spears are great for distance and clearing hordes of foes, hammers are great for finishing battles early, swords are overpowered and are pretty much all-around... just your usual. The best way to learn is to try them all.

Keep Your Loadout Flexible for Combat Encounters

 

Connecting to the point above, every weapon has a strength and weakness that should be taken into account, and so, your loadout should best reflect this to give you a great chance to handle any encounter. Aran de Lira can carry up to four instruments of war available in his pocket at any given point, meaning that you can change your loadout to best fit whatever you think you'll encounter.

Now, while you could fill his (surprisingly deep) pockets with four polearm variations and call it a day, it just doesn't make sense, even if you're covering all of the necessary damage styles. Sure, you may have piercing, slashing, and blunt-force styles in your loadout, but you need to account for speed, range, and even defensive capabilities.

Play around with your loadout and find something that feels the most comfortable for you. For me, that was a spear, a sword, a polearm, and whatever else I wanted to have, but yours might look vastly different.

Revisit Areas

Once you've already begun making headway into the Crimson Fort, it'll start becoming time to consider revisiting some locations. As a whole, it's a good rule of thumb to try to revisit each area after you've completed your latest, as you'll have new knowledge and weapons to explore with.

This is most important at the start of the game, as you won't have all of the weapon types necessary to unlock parts at the statues. Once you've unlocked one of each type, feel free to disregard this tip and move on instead to...

Keep One of Every Weapon in the Inventory

Forging may cost a bit of resources that you'll want to use at a later time, but it's important that you have as many of the weapon types as you need available to you in your inventory at all times. Scattered throughout the world are statues that unlock parts, and if you don't have the specific weapon type it requires, you'll want to come back at a later time.

To ease the burden, it's better to just have one of every weapon type available at all times in your inventory. You can switch out freely by going into the menu and changing one of your currently-equipped ones to unlock the statue's part immediately. This also works great in tandem with trying every type, and coincidentally, should let you swap to the iron version in case you ever need it for the hyper-specific niche I mentioned.

Break the Environment — Especially the Chests

Scattered throughout the world are various props that you can break, each of which can drop a variety of resources. For those who are constantly forging, or want to keep upgrading their loadout, it's important to keep a lot of iron, coal, and more in your inventory so you can actually craft without having to farm, even though transmutation was introduced in Version 2.0.

This is even more true for small chests, as they aren't the type you open for a massive upgrade, but instead, house a variety of area-specific resources. It's a great way to fill your inventory, especially with brand-new irons or items that you won't have a lot of at the time.

Train with Every Weapon Type, Every Damage Type, then Adapt

It's not necessary, especially if you've already opted to play on the second-highest difficulty rather than submitting yourself to Steel. But it's worth mentioning, anyway — you're going to want to get good with every weapon, at least if you want to get the most out of Blades of Fire.

The game's combat system is unique — something unlikely to ever be replicated for years to come — and it's beautiful in that regard. There is no reason not to engage with it to the fullest and learn how to swap and adapt to combat encounters, becoming a master of all arms and knowing just when you might want to swap out to a different loadout.

Sticking to one specific one isn't going to cut it — you could get through the experience with just a spear, just a polearm, just a sword, but you'll be hindering your progress in doing so. Learn when range is necessary, when you can sneak in heavy attacks with hammers, when you want to use piercing instead of slashing, or blunt instead of piercing.

Get familiarised with all of this, and you'll be all the better for it and be able to engage with the single best element of Blades of Fire throughout the lengthy 40-hour narrative. There's nothing like the euphoria of catching an enemy weakness and exploiting it with a weapon that they can't respond well to.

Have Fun!

After all, Blades of Fire is just a game. If you want to knock the difficulty down to Bronze and cull through waves of foes, then that's your prerogative, and you should do so because it was your hard-earned money you put into this experience.

Try out different weapons, try loadouts that don't synergise well with each other, create a full kit of four different types of swords and pass the story like that because they're overpowered and overtuned like in real life. If something doesn't click with you — even a tip among these — then just ignore it and play your way, because many forget that videogames are meant to be played for fun.

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Thanks for reading our tips & tricks, and if there's something I missed, please feel free to comment it below! Blades of Fire Version 2.0 is available as a free update for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via the Epic Games Store, and the experience is out now on Steam for £34.99.