Like I mentioned, there’s certain complexity to this game. Despite popular belief, it’s not one of those easy hack-and-slash roguelikes. It’s completely different and there’s a clear progression curve for skill in combat as well as other progression systems included in the game. We’ll go over some beginner tips, but this is by no means a hardcore guide for veterans or for complex strategies.
Beginners’ Guide – Warm Snow | Controls
To get the more easy stuff out of the way first, let’s talk about controls and UI. The controls are fairly easy, since there are like a couple of keybinds that you should know:
- Melee Attack – Left-Click
- Flicker / Dash – Space
- Projectile Attack – Right-Click
- Projectile Recall – R
- Skill Ability – Q
- Herbal Gourd – F
- Use OR Pick-Up – E
NOTE: These keybinds can be assigned to other keys in settings.
Here’s a breakdown of the UI:
It’s a pretty simple UI all things considered. At the moment, we haven’t found a way to move it around or anything, but it’s seems like that’s not a feature.
Combat Basics
Combat is where things get interesting. Basically, most builds will have pretty weak melee attacks. Your attacks have to be combined with a projectile ability.
In most cases, the best strategy for combat is to mark your enemies using a projectile ability and then melee attack, and recall swords. This needs to be rinsed and repeated.
The other thing which you need to work on is your dashing. You’ll use it very often to dodge attacks. It’s mostly about 90% dodging and 10% attacking in this game. Basically, dodge an attack, do some damage, then dodge the enemies’ next attack.
Just get comfortable with dodging and moving around.
The smaller enemies will be harder to dodge, but they also have less health and do less damage. The bigger enemies are easier to dodge because their attacks are predictable, but they do a lot of damage. These are considered the Elite enemies in Warm Snow.
Other than that, it’s player-specific. Depending on your build and playstyle, change up your strategy.
Paths, Rewards, Artifacts & Sect Skills
In the top-right of the screen you’ll see two currencies in the menu. The top one is a blue flame while the second one is red. Basically, the blue flame is currency only available during the run, meaning, it’s not permanent and it can be used only during the run.
On the other hand, the red one is permanent currency. Currency which you’ll keep after the run. Here’s what I’m on about:
Now, the rewards for floors. At the end of each floor or level, you’ll see a couple of paths you can take. These paths will have an icon on the floor. This is just a way to pick the rewards for the next floor.
Example, a heart icon will give you bonus healing or health and the next level, a sword icon will give you a new sword, a book will give you a skill, etc.
The icons look like these:
Some good ones include: the sword rewards, the skillbook rewards, the treasure rewards.
At the end of a floor you might get a skill if you chose the skillbook from before. Stand on the book on the ground and press E for USE. You’ll need to choose from three skills and this will be all player-specific. Pick whichever makes the most sense for your current build or the build you’re going for.
These are passive skills called Sect Skills. The paper ones are common, the purples are uncommon, and the golds are rare.
Treasure chest rewards will grant you artifacts. There are four types of artifacts: Core, Power, Agility, and Skill. You can pick these up and equip them, but you can also equip it to other slots later on.
Bosses
There’s not much to say here except a simple beginner tip: Don’t get discouraged. Bosses are really strong in this game, like many rogue-likes, but it’s not expected with this game because the rest of the act is pretty easy, it’s just the bosses that are tough.
It will be more skill-dependent than stat or bonuses-dependent, so you’ll need to work on your dodging and attacks here.
It’s all about learning the specific attack that a boss has, it’s cooldown between attacks, and which attacks are harsher than others.
Learn when the proper time to attack is and avoid getting hit at all costs.
Talent Tree
At the end of a run, you’ll have the option to pick talents. These are permanent. You’ll have to use the red currency here, but you get one only if you’ve completed a successful run.
There’s no point to go over each talent here or say which are better than others because it depends on the player. Go for talents which go well with your overall playstyle.
