Let's start from the very beginning of your journey as a preyer: the Prologue.
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During the Prologue, the game asks you to choose from one of a set of Starting Classes[witchfire.wiki.gg]. Whichever one you choose, it won't matter in the long run, so rest easy.
Every class will eventually unlock all available equipment, and you can always respec using one of the numerous Chronoclasts[witchfire.wiki.gg].

If you want to have an easier time during the early game, you should pick the Saint class. The Saint class is the only one that has early access to a Demonic Weapon and a Heavy Spell, both of which will help out tremendously against tougher enemies. Even if their starting weapon isn't to your liking, you can research another one soon after anyway.

If you're confident that you don't need access to the nuclear options in the early game, you should pick the class with a weapon that suits you. Slayer if you prefer up-close and personal; Shadow if you like to pick off enemies from a distance.

You start off at the Outskirts with a short tutorial. Here you can familiarize yourself with the basic controls in a somewhat safe environment. The jump and the dash are the most important to get a feel for, as they are your primary tools for dodging most enemy attacks. Especially the dash.

All damage is preventable, but you can't avoid taking damage if you can't dodge. Some attacks can only be dodged by jumping or dashing, and you can't do either if you're out of stamina.

Stamina is your most important resource and one lifeline. Taking damage also reduces your stamina, so a momentary lapse in judgement can be your doom. Learn to conserve it and position yourself so you don't need to dash for your life. Don't hard scope for long and keep an eye on your surroundings: an impatient preyer is a dead preyer.

Pro Tip: Getting crowded by enemies? Punch! Your charged melee staggers enemies and regenerates your stamina on hit. Be careful though, since it does have a cooldown.

Depending on your starting weapon, you may have noticed that it becomes a pea shooter when shooting at a distance. The damage fall off is intentionally dramatic, because every weapon has a specific optimal range that they're designed around.

You need to get a feel for it, and consider switching to a longer-range weapon if you prefer to play more cautious. Or the opposite: some weapons like the Ricochet[witchfire.wiki.gg], that require you to scope in for accuracy can be challenging at close range. Maybe try a shotgun or a submachine gun if you prefer the hugging distance? (you can unlock a shotgun very soon after the prologue)

The heads of most humanoid enemies are considered weak spots, and aiming for them deals increased damage. Enemies also take more damage when Stunned or when under certain Elemental Ailments[witchfire.wiki.gg]. Don't worry about the latter two for now.

If you're having trouble with the Holy Sister[witchfire.wiki.gg] near the end of the Outskirts, you can go around her and come back at any time. If you made it to the cliff and are missing your climbing gear: pull up your map. Its location should be marked there, and you can place a waypoint marker on it to navigate there using the minimap.

Once you descend, you should arrive at the Shrouded Hermitorium[witchfire.wiki.gg]—your private (for now) base of operations. Now do your homework and read the handbook preyer! (accessible from the pause menu)

There's not much you can do at the Hermitorium before unlocking the Sanctuary, so it's time to go on your first expedition.
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Every expedition starts at the portal in the Hermitorium, and it ends in the same place when you either arrive back safely or meet your demise in the witch's territory and resurrect. Leyline travel is perilous and there's no guarantee that the place you're teleported to is safe, so be prepared.

There are five ways to escape an expedition with your spoils:

• Your Entry Portal remains open for some minutes, so you can bow out if things aren't going your way from the start
  
• The Itinerant Portal is marked in yellow on your map, and is your primary way of exiting expeditions, but it's also likely to be guarded by enemies
  
• Entry Portals that aren't unlocked yet appear in green on your map, and allow you to escape the first time you use them
  
• Defeating a Familiar or a Calamity will spawn a temporary portal, but that's likely not relevant to you yet
  
• If you're on truly dire straits, you can use the consumable item called Portal Flame[witchfire.wiki.gg]. You actually get one for free once you unlock the Sanctuary, so make use of it when you must

During an expedition, you have two limited resources you must manage: your health and your ammo. Sources of healing are few, so you need to be mindful of when to start looking for the exit if your Healing Elixirs[witchfire.wiki.gg] run out.

Ammo is significantly less limited: ammo chests are marked on your map with a "+" icon, and they can sometimes drop Standard Ammo Packs[witchfire.wiki.gg] which you can use at any time from your inventory to refill ammo. The chests also contain a small amount of demonic ammo, which is incredibly useful if you have access to a Demonic Weapon or chose the Saint as your Starting Class.

Enemy encounters, aside from the hunt that occasionally comes from the Itinerant Portal, are marked on your map with skulls. There are three tiers of difficulty: the regular skull has a single wave of enemies, the horned one spawns two, and the one with big ram horns spawns three.

When a new wave of enemies spawns, you need to be mindful of your positioning so you're not caught off-guard. You can tell that a new wave is spawning by the shaking of the screen and an audio cue. I always take a quick glance at the red dots on the minimap when a new wave is spawning to reposition myself effectively.

The enemies that come out of the Itinerant Portal are marked with a yellow portal icon over their heads. These enemies can get the jump on you since their location is unpredictable, but they also drop standard- and sometimes even demonic ammo.

So, to plan an expedition: make a mental note of the location of the Itinerant Portal (or closest green portal if you haven't unlocked all entries yet) on your map, as well as the location of the ammo chests. Then see which enemy encounters and traps are positioned between you and the portal.

Start working your way through, and keep an eye on the entry portal timer if you're not confident you can make it. Once you have your exit secured, you can start thinking about completing other objectives, like defeating the map's Familiar, Witch Vault or other objectives. Don't place too much hope on the word "secured"—the Itinerant Portal can still spawn enemies to make your day. Eventually you won't have to think this hard about expeditions, but it can pay off before you get into the groove of things.

Remember that the layout of enemies and traps stays the same until you either ascend or use a Placebo Pill[witchfire.wiki.gg]. Use this to your advantage: if you're struggling with a particular layout, you can reshuffle it by ascending at the Ascension Shrine in the Hermitorium. If the layout is fine but you're still figuring things out, hold off on ascending for a bit and use your newly gained foresight to navigate the map.

For your very first expedition on the Island of the Damned, you should pick up the Sanctuary Key right in front of the Entry Portal when you spawn, and attempt to make it to the green portal marked on your map.

If you're feeling extra confident, you can try to pick up the Scepter on the opposite side of the island, which will eventually lead you to unlocking the Navigation Chart to the next map. This is your trial by fire, so don't worry if you don't make it. You'll have a chance to recover your lost goods on the next expedition, and the Sanctuary Key will still be with you when you respawn.

With the Sanctuary Key, you now have access to many functions of the game that allow you to scale in power.
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Firstly, the Rosary[witchfire.wiki.gg]. You should currently have two or more Rosary Beads, of which you can currently equip one. The +10% health Healing Bead I you slot now is only a taste of things to come. When you're thinking about which stats to invest in during ascensions, you should foremost be thinking of which Rosary Beads you want to equip. You can find more by exploring, so go explore!

The Gunroom allows you to edit your loadout. Not much you can do here until you acquire more equipment.

The Mysteria Forge allows you to unlock your equipment's Mysteria—three levels of upgrades that reveal their special powers. Unlocking them requires that you use your equipment and for the second and third level you must find Incantations[witchfire.wiki.gg] dropped by major enemies or events.

Pro Tip: You can hover over points of interest on the map during an expedition to inspect potential spoils including incantations.

The difference between a base weapon vs one with a single Mysteria unlocked is huge. Unlock all three and some weapons become simply overpowered. Mysteria often come with activation conditions, so pay attention and adapt your playstyle to take advantage.

The Workshop Mirror will be unlocked once you go back and defeat the Holy Sister at the Outskirts, and find the third mirror fragment hidden on the Island of the Damned. Here, you can research new weapons[witchfire.wiki.gg], spells[witchfire.wiki.gg], rings, relics and fetishes[witchfire.wiki.gg]; all of which are a huge help. Be aware that some research is locked behind Gnosis levels, so you won't have access to everything from the start. Queued research advances when you kill enemies, so it's a good time to farm Witchfire or unlock the Mysteria of your other equipment.

The Ascension Shrine completes the quadrinity of persistent upgrade paths. Here you can spend accumulated Witchfire on Stats[witchfire.wiki.gg].

As I said before, Rosary Beads are a good guide for what stats to invest in, but really none of the stats are useless. Also remember that you can always respec using a Chronoclast.

My personal favorite stat is Blood, because I find that lack of stamina is what gets me in trouble the most. I also make sure to invest some points into Witchery so my spells recharge faster. You'll soon come across Rosary Beads that allow you to enter expeditions with more Healing Elixirs, and those require your Mind stat to be up to snuff, so give that some consideration.

Persistent upgrades are satisfying, but that's not all you've access to.
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You've likely taken a whiff of the Alchemy Table already, but in case you haven't, now's your chance to do so. During your expeditions, you'll pick up herbs and various drops from enemies. Using these, you can burn Incense[witchfire.wiki.gg] which lasts for the duration of your next expedition.

Some Incense are so cheap that you can burn them on essentially every expedition. The Wellspring Incense, whose recipe you can find on the Scarlet Coast, makes expeditions a lot more forgiving by increasing your maximum health every time you clear an encounter, and costs pretty much nothing.

There are also a wide variety of consumables[witchfire.wiki.gg] you can use during your expeditions. Use Standard Ammo Packs[witchfire.wiki.gg] and you will never run out of ammo; use Demonic Ammo Packs[witchfire.wiki.gg] (only available at later Gnosis levels) and you can melt any enemy at a fraudulent rate; for a cost.

During expeditions you often come across Supply Chest Keys[witchfire.wiki.gg], which you can use to unlock Supply Chests. These chests can contain many useful things, but chief among them are White Raven Feathers[witchfire.wiki.gg].

Arcana[witchfire.wiki.gg] (unlocked by absorbing Manifestation Crystals after clearing an enemy encounter) can be incredibly powerful. Feathers not only allow you to reveal additional Arcana options, but you can also use three feathers to awaken more of them. On a long-running expedition you can end up unlocking entire rows of powerful Arcana.

Pro Tip: Don't try hoarding feathers or supply chest keys. Feathers disappear once you exit an expedition, and supply chest keys have a limit to how many you can hold. Use them!

After empowering yourself, you're ready to run the gauntlet.
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You can find the Gnosis Tome beyond the stairs to the left in the Hermitorium's Sanctuary. Gnosis[witchfire.wiki.gg] is the game's way to scale difficulty and keep you on your toes. You can increase it whenever you like so long as you meet the requirements to.

If you're struggling with enemies on your current Gnosis level, it might be easier to hold off a bit and get comfortable. Eventually, you'll have to increase it, but you can take as long as you like. The requirements make sure that you're at least minimally prepared, so don't stress out too much. The Island of the Damned will also remain relatively easy, so you can't exactly soft lock yourself.

Pro Tip: When you increase your Gnosis for the first time, you'll unlock the Soul Sigil[witchfire.wiki.gg] system. Dashing while having your crosshairs on an enemy (no need to ADS) and being in Focus[witchfire.wiki.gg] (indicated by a yellow stamina bar) allows you to see black orbs around the enemy. Shoot the orbs, and the enemy gets stunned, which makes them take tons of extra damage when you follow up. It's my favorite combat system in the entire game. Note that some weapons fire too slowly to make effective use of Soul Sigils. (more information about both Focus and Soul Sigils can be found in the Handbook)

Once you've had your fun exploring the Island of the Damned, you should find yourself in possession of a Navigation Chart[witchfire.wiki.gg] to the next map—the Scarlet Coast[witchfire.wiki.gg].

The difficulty jump here can feel jarring for newer players, so be prepared. The Scarlet Coast is a map that demands some respect even from the most veteran preyers. It's also my personal favorite aesthetics and story-wise. Take a deep breath and enjoy the beauty of nature while you can.

You should take some time to explore the Scarlet Coast at Gnosis level 0. Find Rosary Beads, Incense Recipes and Mask Shards; and get used to the basic enemies and map layout. You can do all this at Gnosis 1 as well, but with a little less leisure. You can also technically fight the First Familiar[witchfire.wiki.gg], but it won't be an easy fight with your limited arsenal.

The traps that spawn on Gnosis 0 are basic. Dash when you hear the audio cue and you'll be fine. No need to keep your eyes glued to the ground. Listening is helpful in general—in addition to visually telegraphing their attacks, most enemies also have a sound tell.

If you're getting hit a lot by either enemies or traps, you might start to see eyes on the top left of your screen. That's the Calamity Counter, and once it's full, you'll have to contend with a Calamity Event[witchfire.wiki.gg]. They're scary, chaotic, and most importantly: they're very fun. They also come with great rewards, so they're well worth clearing. You're not supposed to fear the witch—the witch is supposed to fear you!

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Your early nemesis' will likely be the following:

• The Holy Sister[witchfire.wiki.gg] on the Outskirts
  
• Bonsaire, The Illuminated[witchfire.wiki.gg] on the Island of the Damned (look for the pentagram icon on your map)
  
• The Drowned Captain[witchfire.wiki.gg] on the Scarlet Coast (has a chance to spawn from the itinerant portal; is an optional requirement for Gnosis 1)
  
• The First Familiar, The Galley Slave[witchfire.wiki.gg], also on the Scarlet Coast

The first three are made short work of by the Saint class. Your heavy spell, the Ice Sphere[witchfire.wiki.gg], acts as a shield from virtually all enemy attacks when you're inside of it. It also freezes enemies if you bait them into it or cast it on top of them, which gives you ample time to melt them using your Demonic Weapon. Other classes get to have a little more fun dodging.

When you've restored the Workshop Mirror, you'll be able to research a shotgun called Echo[witchfire.wiki.gg]. It's first Mysterium will melt any early enemy with ease, and it can make quick work of the First Familiar as well. Watch out though: shotguns are considered "unwieldy", which means they consume stamina when shot. Don't get caught with your papacy-sponsored pants down!

Using the Wellspring Incense (recipe found on the Scarlet Coast) will make it so by the time you've cleared all enemy encounters, you'll have a massively increased health pool. This is especially useful for clearing Witch Vaults and challenging Familiars.

Consoling Tip: The First Familiar doesn't gate your progression much, so you can ignore them for some time. Unlike the other Familiars, this one is a test of endurance. You have to clear the enemy encounters with health to spare, while also having a weapon that can melt the Familiar reasonably quickly. You can dodge their attacks, but some are difficult to avoid if you don't have excess stamina for consecutive dashes.

Experiment with your loadout in the training room to find a combination of equipment and spells that can bring the hurt. And don't forget that revealing Mysteria can turn an otherwise unassuming weapon into a witch-killing machine.

Never forget to use your spells! Elemental Ailments[witchfire.wiki.gg] have effects and interactions that can massively boost your damage output. Fire and Lightning is my favorite element combo. You can acquire Kirfane[witchfire.wiki.gg], a powerful lightning relic, as early as Gnosis 1 in the Witch Vault[witchfire.wiki.gg] on the Island of the Damned.

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Witchfire is hard as hell, no two ways about it. You have to take some punishment to figure out how the enemies tick and to dance around them effectively. Thankfully, the enemies are remarkably consistent and even seemingly random mechanics can be controlled or adapted to.

The difficulty also has a tendency to snowball: make one mistake too many and your best bet is to limp your way to a portal and try again. Making a dash for the nearest portal during a calamity with zero elixirs and a whittled-down stamina bar is a core part of the experience.

But much like how fish grew tired of water and found their legs, every preyer eventually finds the witch's minions too vile to tolerate and grows a pair.

Happy hunting preyer!

If you need help with anything specific, you can join the game's official discord server[discord.gg] and ask on the #wf-new-players-help channel. Me and close to twenty thousand other members will be there to answer your questions.
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