Death’s Gambit: Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Choose Your Starting Class According to Abilities

Death’s Gambit Beginner Tips

Similar to the Soulsborne games, starting classes in Death’s Gambit only affect your starting equipment, and in this case, your character abilities as well. However, just because you started the game as a Wizard doesn’t mean you can’t eventually create a character build that uses a greatsword to deal huge physical damage. Because of this, you’ll want to look at every ability for each starting class, as well as the stats they start out with.

The Sentinel gets to wield any weapon at half the required stats, while the Noble gets an additional merchant to purchase items from at the Sanctuary. Generally, you’ll want to pick the class with the ability that suits your play style best, or the one you think might give you an easier time through the game. At the same time, don’t neglect the starting stats either if you already have a specific build in mind, and want to min-max from the start of the game. For beginners, the Sentinel and Noble are decent choices because one gets a boost in Vitality while the other gets a small boost in Endurance. Acolyte of Death is another good choice, as this class comes with the ability to restore broken death’s idols, which gives you extra checkpoints to rest at.

Make a Note of Where the Chests Are

Death’s Gambit Beginner Tips

As you progress through the world in Death’s Gambit, you’ll occasionally come across golden and dark chests. These contain pretty valuable items that will help you on your journey, and they’re definitely worth getting. However, there’s a trick to actually opening them. The golden chest will only open if you reached it without using a healing item from your last checkpoint, while the dark chests will open if you can deal enough damage to it as it regenerates health.

These chests are usually tucked away in hard to reach places, and you might need to do a bit of light platforming to get to them, but the rewards are worth it.

Explore Beyond Your Comfort Zone

Death’s Gambit Beginner Tips

Death in Death’s Gambit works pretty differently from what you’d expect in a Souls-like game. Instead of losing all your experience points upon death, you’ll lose one healing item instead. You’ll be given plume feathers to recover health, and you’ll drop one feather at the place you died. You can return there to pick it up, or just spend some shards at a rest point to get them back. It’s impossible to lose all feathers permanently, as you’ll simply have to pick up multiple feathers where you died if you’ve dropped them all.

With that in mind, exploration shouldn’t be too daunting. Feathers can be picked up easily when you die, and even if you don’t feel like going back, you can spend shards. Do note, however, that the amount of shards required to reclaim them will go up as your level increases. Always explore as much of the area as you can, and try to take paths that go back the direction you came; chances are, you’ll probably find a shortcut that unlocks a new path back to the Sanctuary.

If you do happen to die with a ton of shards, you can always take this opportunity to level up before heading back out to retrieve your feathers.

Pump Endurance and Check the Talent Tree

Death’s Gambit Beginner Tips

Just like in any Souls-like game, endurance is the most important stat you need to invest in in Death’s Gambit. We recommend getting endurance up to 10 as soon as you can, and then start looking into your damage dealing stats and haste. Haste is an interesting stat that can make your build a bit more efficient. It’ll increase the speed of your stamina regeneration, and also reduce cooldown timers for your abilities. Once you get your endurance up to a comfortable level, consider leveling up haste to complement that.

In addition to that, you’ll also get talent points for each boss you beat, and you can spend them on the talent tree for passive abilities to help you out. Make sure to check the full talent tree before investing your points, and pick the ones that will serve you best.

Talk to All NPCs

Death’s Gambit Beginner Tips

This one should go without saying, but once you reach Sanctuary, make sure you talk to every single NPC and exhaust all their dialogue options. Check what they have for sale as well, as they’ll provide you with basic weapons you can experiment with, along with new abilities. Some of them will even give you important key items that will make your life easier.

Here’s a hint: talk to the female knight at the top of Sanctuary and check what she has for sale. She’ll give you a new plume feather for free, and you can also purchase an extra feather upgrade from her. This should make the first few boss fights way more manageable.

Get the Enchanter ASAP

Death’s Gambit Beginner Tips

Some light spoilers here if you want to go in completely fresh and don’t want to know how to upgrade your gear. But if you’re struggling, this might be good to know.

In Death’s Gambit, NPCs at the Sanctuary will sell you items but they won’t actually buy your junk. They won’t upgrade your weapons either; you need to find an enchanter for that. If you’re playing as the Noble class, there’s an NPC to the right of the Sanctuary’s death’s idol who will sell you a +5 halberd, no questions asked. But for the rest of us, the enchanter is your only hope.

To get to him, head to the upper left corner of the Sanctuary. Keep going up and left, where you’ll fight the Phoenix boss, then continue left into the Obsidian Vale. This area is filled with spike traps, so keep an eye on the ground and ceiling as those do a lot of damage. After meeting the two NPCs trapped in cages, make your way upwards and right until you reach a horn you can interact with, then go back to the beginning of the Obsidian Vale and climb the ladder that just dropped down. Follow the path, defeat the Tundra Lord boss, and go left to untie an NPC. This is your enchanter, and he’ll be at Sanctuary the next time you visit. He’ll disenchant your unwanted gear for soul stones, which can be used to gain more shards or help upgrade your other weapons.

Be sure to search for Twinfinite for more information on Death’s Gambit.