I’m playing an apex predator in V Rising, and I’m mere steps away from my fortified abode as the sun comes up. Just before I manage to open the gate door, a carnivorous plant shoots a mouthful of gunk at me, depleting my last sliver of health. You’re probably wondering how I got into this situation.

In V Rising, you begin as a fragile new vampire in a world where anything from deadly plants to the mere act of the sun moving through the sky and eliminating that patch of shade you’re standing in can kill you. You’re weak, you have no resources, and you’re potentially bewildered by the world that now stretches before you. V Rising is a wonderfully systematic game that allows you to be playful about how you choose to grow your powers and influence. However, it comes with one major caveat: the game is very light on teaching you how the game works, preferring to teach you through repeated failure. If dying a dozen times within the first hour doesn’t sound appealing to you, then read on for some of the most valuable lessons I learned as a fledgling vampire.

We will try to do it without spoilers and trying to keep the surprise as intact as possible, but there are few ways to explain according to what advice, so go in knowing that you can screw something up.

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You asked us in discord several times about the possibility of playing solo and, yes, you can. In fact, you have three options to choose from depending on what suits your style of play:

PvP: to play solo or co-op (up to 4 players) on servers where other players can attack you and steal your loot.

PvE: to play solo or cooperatively (up to 4 players) on servers where other players cannot attack you and steal your loot.

Private server: to play solo or cooperative (up to 10 players) on a server with a password.

In the near future, the possibility of playing offline will also be offered, but for now the option is not available.

In addition to having some very entertaining combat, in solo mode it is relatively easy to advance without problems and defeat bosses on your own, so give it a try if you do not have anyone nearby who is encouraged to play.

Missions serve as a guide
The tutorial is in charge of offering you new buildings and showing you the bases of what is to come. Don’t ignore quests. Try to complete them in order to advance and get new options and abilities. If any of them choke you, go to the menu section where the bosses and their rewards appear to see if it is the path you are looking for (it very often is).

I have something to tell you about V Rising teleportation
In V Rising teleportation is limited and you will not be able to travel with resources in your inventory. Anything above the toolbar will need to be discarded, so it’s best to travel light and without any items you’ve grown fond of.


Pick the right place to build your fortress
One of your first quests after beating the tutorial is to find a site for your castle. Take the opportunity to place it next to a nearby teleportation portal, but don’t spend too much time on it.

The map of V Rising it’s huge and, at least for the first few hours, you’ll be glad you picked a more central spot in the first area of the map. When you find a place that is comfortable and easy to navigate, then start building the final castle.

Use the right tools for the right resources
Your sword is ideal for harvesting plants, your axe is the most efficient at chopping wood, and your mace is most suited for mining stone. But you can’t collect a higher-tier material if your weapon isn’t at the right level. If you want to mine copper, then you have to upgrade to reinforced bone weapons. If you want to mine jewels, then your weapon has to be copper or better. By keeping all of these weapons up to date, you can save yourself from having to double back to your base whenever you find a rare material node.

Build mist braziers as soon as you’re able
In V Rising, sun exposure can kill you in seconds. Once you’ve built a fort, you can craft mist braziers that provide artificial shadow from the sunlight. Best of all, they use bones as fuel, which is one of the easiest materials to get in this game. It takes a few seconds for the shadow they generate to expand, so you’ll still want to have something to hide behind while the brazier activates its effect. Don’t forget to pause them when the sun goes down, or you’ll have wasted a lot of bones.

Use the daytime for crafting and the nighttime for hunting
There’s nothing worse than having to wait around for the sun to set while you’re trying to hunt down a major boss. Try to time your ventures for when the night has just begun. During the day, it’s a more efficient use of your time to turn on the mist braziers and convert all your hard-won resources into gear, structures, and better crafting reagents.

Avoid the treants and the golems at all costs
Don’t be like me. I built my first base next to both of these creatures, and now I have to dodge certain death every time I try to sneak back into my own castle. The golems are pretty easy to ignore, but the treants look a lot like actual trees. Here’s a tip. If you see a short, light-coloured tree in a clearing, then it’s probably a treat. Avoid it as much as possible, because it kept one-shotting me when I got within its attack range.

These minibosses usually stand motionlessly in place, but they can be aggro’d by passing wildlife or bandits. So be extra careful if they’re not where you expect them to be.

You can’t fast travel if you’re carrying resources
Don’t be like me and spend a ton of time collecting far-off loot, only to find that you can’t immediately transport your plunder back to base. The only way to get around this is by throwing away everything that you’ve collected or storing it in a treasure box.

Use the wolf form to run around the map faster
The Alpha Wolf is the first V blood carrier that you’re expected to fight in the game. Tracking it down can be a pain, but the payoff is worth it. If you defeat it and extract its blood, then you can transform into a wolf by going into the ability wheel. The wolf form has the added advantage of ensuring that wild wolves won’t attack you while you’re traversing the wilds, though you’re still fair game for the roaming bandits.

Consider ambushing a boss instead of going to their lair
Some bosses like to hole up in their lair, but there are several that like to go on midnight strolls. In fact, you’re probably better off trying to fight the Alpha Wolf while exploring the wilds, since it doesn’t stay in any one place for long enough to have a “lair.” I was able to kill Lidia the Chaos Archer despite being underleveled because she accidentally got into a scuffle with Goreswine the Ravager. Take advantage of chaos where you can, but don’t be overconfident. Else you might end up fighting two bosses at once.

I actually recommend sniping Goreswine while he’s going out for a stroll, rather than trying to fight him at the graveyard. The graveyard is filled with necromancers that can summon countless hostile skeletons. Take it from an expert: it’s much harder to kill Goreswine when 20 undead warriors are chasing you at once.

You can throw plant fiber away
I’m one of those people who holds on to everything in case it’s useful later. Go ahead and throw away your plant fibers. You’ll end up accumulating a lot of them while harvesting other materials, and you won’t use them very often except for occasionally repairing some gear.

Blood quality matters
Each enemy has a percentage that represents the potency of their blood. Elite enemies generally have a higher number. You get better combat bonuses if you’ve sucked up better blood, and drinking from a new victim overrides your previous blood quality. Different blood doesn’t stack, so you need to cancel out your bloodsucking if you realize that your prey’s quality is too low (left click while extracting blood to kill your victim instantly). This also means that you should be careful not to use your blood to restore health if you’re carrying high-quality blood. You want those bonuses to last as long as possible.

Plan ahead if you’re trying to turn someone into your minion
Later on in the game, you get the ability to turn hostile enemies into your loyal servants. There’s just a few catches: You have to build a coffin for them to sleep in, and you can’t turn into a wolf while you’re controlling their minds. Which means that the both of you are vulnerable to being ambushed by enemies. If they die, then you’ll have to try again with someone new. Try to figure out the easiest route home ahead of time.

Every big game has a fishing rod
Fishing is not only a good way to get new materials, it’s also the perfect opportunity to loot rare weapons and tools that someone must have thrown into the river. Pollution in the vampire world is fatal, but from time to time some little gift.

This is one of the better survival games, and I have not felt this invested in a new title since Mass Effect 3 was released. The graphics are beautiful, the environment is atmospheric, and the gameplay is smooth and balanced (after a few patches). I would personally say this is better than Ark (if I was to make a comparison), but I understand why this wouldn't be for most hardcore base-building survival nuts (7 days to die). I’m also pleased with the urgency that the Dev teams respond to bugs and the overall community.,

In short, I love this game but be warned it does have a little end game (at the time of writing) and gets a bit repetitive, but if that's your thing (it is mine), then you're in safe hands. Great graphics, blueprints, skills and actions will keep you wanting to drop back down to Icarus to level up and take on the hungry and unforgiving wildlife and weather.

Look out for our review coming soon![www.madbadnews.com]