Playing a completely new game without any knowledge of it is both exciting and scary at the same time. Exciting because you can’t wait to see what will unfold, and scary because you realistically do not know what to do. You may be afraid that you’ll miss out on something important, and naturally, some of you do not want to waste time on trivial stuff, and your desire is to lunge yourselves toward the endgame content. However, Halls of Torment ain’t about speedrunning, the game is pretty grindy. If you think you’re making slow progress at the start, I’ll tell you some tips and tricks for beginners from the perspective of a gamer that wishes he knew some things before starting out.
Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Playing Halls of Torment
There are a lot of things I wish I knew before starting my first Halls of Torment run. And certainly, I will make use of them when I decide to do a fresh start and attempt a speed run.
Top 8 Tips for New Players in Halls of Torment
Let’s get the show on the road. If you played Vampire Survivors, most of these things are commonplace in the genre. I present to you the Top 8 Tips for Newcomers to Halls of Torment.
Related: Halls of Torment Ability Tier List: Best Abilities Listed
1. KEEP MOVING!!!
I still haven’t earned enough Gold to attempt to make a zero-movement build (Vampire Survivors players know about the meme secret Christmas tree character) that has no movement speed. In Halls of Torment, I’d say that enemies move in a way that’s more difficult to handle, and you will easily find yourself surrounded, even if you are constantly moving. I found myself forced to move away from certain bosses and items just so that I can get out of the crowd alive. You should just find an opening and make a break for it. You’ll reposition yourself once you get out.
2. Spend your Gold on Blessings
Blessings are permanent bonuses for your characters (no need to buy them for every character separately) that persist after death, so it’s useful to help yourself by buying them. They progressively cost more and more, so you need to allocate your Gold carefully. I still do not have a Tier List of the best order of purchasing Blessings, but as soon as I test the game long enough, I’ll offer my opinion on this.
So far, I 100% recommend buying Pickup Range and Revivals (once they become available). The Pickup Range is important if you want to level up efficiently without waiting for a random item that vacuums everything into you to drop. You want to pick up the bonuses and experience without being forced to take damage. Basically, the more Gold you earn, the faster your progress will be later down the line when you become more powerful (or overpowered). Also, health regeneration is severely underrated.
Related: Best Blessings in Halls of Torment, Ranked
3. Retrieve Good Items
Very early into the first level, you will stumble upon a cage, where a prisoner will give you a quest. The quest is rather simple, and after finishing it, you will get the prisoner as an assistant in the Camp. Each run, you can “Retrieve” one item from your Inventory by putting it in a well’s bucket, so that the Prisoner can lift it up and save it (if you die with an item that you haven’t Retrieved, it’s lost).
During a run, you will usually get a few items, so after picking up everything the cursors on the edges of the screen are pointing at, you should be close to the Well to deposit an important item before dying. Better safe than sorry! Then, the item can be bought from the Prisoner and you can carry it in every run. The Prisoner will be referred to as Wellkeeper onward.
4. Start Your Run By Chasing Scrolls of Mastery
It’s fairly simple, the longer the run is, the more the enemies will come for you (and they will be stronger), so get these scrolls and make your life less difficult. A hand is also on literally every map, but try to use it as late as possible, potentially in the last five minutes of the run, or when you’re in a true pickle and need that XP boost ASAP.
Related: How to Defeat Lord of Despair, the Forgotten Viaduct Final Boss in Halls of Torment
5. Check Your Quests and Do Them
East of the bonfire in the Camp, you will have a clickable object that shows you your quests. Surely, you can randomly discover them by completing their conditions, but for those that you are not aware of, you need to see the list of tasks/requirements/prerequisites. Completing quests leads to more content, so try to keep a tab on what is required of you during the game.
6. Kill all Elites, Bosses, Mini-Bosses… EVERYTHING with a health bar!
Rewards are plenty for downing the toughest of foes, trust me on that. Additional items, scrolls, gold, experience, everything’s coming your way as long as you can withstand the challenges. A lot of bosses have telegraphed and patterned attacks, so you will quickly learn what to do and not do against them.
Related: How to Defeat Lord of Regret, the Ember Grounds Final Boss in Halls of Torment
7. Watch Your Surroundings
Physical objects can serve as a pillar you can kite enemies around or, at the very least, stop them from attacking you from one angle. Boxes can be destroyed with two hits and give you cool stuff, and there are fire sources as well, which cause burn damage to enemies that cross the fire (but not to you), which you will find useful in your first runs when trying to kill a big monster. That’s what helped me. Also, some enemies have a charge ability, other ones have ranged attacks, and some must be killed repeatedly (shieldbearers, ooze to name a few).
8. Unlock New Characters
I personally found Swordmaster to be sufficient until I learned of Sorcerer’s existence. Now I am a Sorcerer main until I find something to be more broken. Every character has their own mechanics, and I made a guide on unlocking characters in Halls of Torment here:
Related: How to Unlock All Characters in Halls of Torment
That’s all for this lengthy guide. I hope you’ll make good use of it. Make sure to check out our features such as How Many Levels are in Halls of Torment? – Answered, as well as the rest of our coverage of Halls of Torment at the game tag below.
Published: Jul 11, 2023 11:06 am