Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse is a Metroidvania x roguelike where you play as a Cursed Hat that’s possessing a fallen Witch. The game borrows tropes from the best of its genre, while adding some exciting new features of its own that blend beautifully to give you a unique experience.
But as with any roguelikes, the first few hours are usually the hardest. In this guide, we’ll give you some simple yet effective tips to help make the early game more manageable.
For more information about the game, check out their Steam page here.
Table of contents
Use the Portals & Explore ThoroughlyÂ
Once you get through a couple of failed runs, it gets tempting to run through the different rooms and sections without even fighting the monsters. However, that’s really not the best idea and can make your progression slower in the long run. Defeating enemies and breaking all the objects scattered around the room reward you with materials that you can use to craft new structures back in the village.
You’ll run across multiple Portals that let you quickly travel from one section to another. All of these Portals are placed in strategic locations to help you check every available path. At the end of each path, you’ll find another Portal to fast travel back to the main path.
So even if you find the exit, we suggest taking the time to check the unexplored areas for missed loot or even new blueprints. The minimap lets you quickly scan the paths you’ve not taken. Use it to comb through each region before moving on.
Focus on Upgrading Your Village
The Village is your main hub in Never Grave, and upgrading it should always be a priority. You visit the Village for the first time after returning to the Church from being beaten by the Crimson Warden. At that point, the Village will have only two NPCs who ask you to clean up the wreckage.Â
Once you do so, you can build a Research Station, which brings in the Inventor. This guy will later help you unlock new Facilities, Spells, and Tools. You’ll also unlock the Pillar of Combat to upgrade your combat abilities.
As you progress, you’ll unlock new Facilities by finding Blueprints or talking to NPCs on your journey. You’ll also unlock new upgrade options for your characters and features to give yourself an edge on your runs.
Take Control of Your Build
During your runs in Never Grave, you’ll come across Blessings statues and Grimoires. Interacting with them lets you pick one out of three temporary bonuses that remain active for the rest of your runs. You should always think carefully before choosing an upgrade, since it will affect your overall build for the rest of your run.Â
Some bonuses will boost your physical attack damage, some will allow you to inflict different status effects, some buff up your magic attack, and some even revive you when you die. When choosing your upgrades, think about what sort of playstyle you’re going for.
You can try going for a physical damage build, stacking up as much critical damage and physical attack damage as possible. For a magic-focused build, you’ll want to prioritize Magic Attack Critical, Status Effects, and MP Regeneration. In fact, you could even go for a retaliation build where the enemies take damage anytime they hit you and stack up as much HP and revival as possible.
There are a lot of options to try out here. Just make sure you’re not picking things at random and have a clear strategy behind the temporary upgrades you pick up.
Magic Attacks are Powerful
Magic Attacks are extremely powerful in this game. You can equip upto two Spells and use them whenever you want. Casting a Spell costs MP, which recovers as you strike enemies with your sword. You can also get upgrades that increase the MP Gain if you’re going for a Magic-focused build.
The fun part is that Magic Attacks can do critical hits, which, when combined with some Magic Damage boosting ugprades can quickly make you overpowered. If you find yourself constantly getting hit when you get close to the enemy, try running a Magic Attack-focused build and use your Spells to play from a distance. Get some MP Boosting upgrades to keep your MP topped off and see if that better fits your playstyle.
Take Advantage of Possession
In Never Grave, you’re not playing as the Witch, but rather the Hat that’s possessing the Witch. As you progress through the zone, you’ll come across some unique enemies that, once beaten allows you to possess them.
The unit that you possess might not seem that strong, but they have their own health bar, completely separate from your own. The possessed unit also has its own set of Spells and gains all the benefits from your unlocked Grimoires and Blessings.
Because of this, you can be a lot more aggressive with your playstyle when you’re possessing a unit. Since your own health bar isn’t getting affected, you can get up close to the enemies without worrying about dying. You can also switch back to the Witch’s Body anytime you want, so you’re not missing out on anything.
Conserve Health As Much As Possible
Always keep an eye on your Health Bar when you’re adventuring through the dungeons in Never Grave. With all the enemies that start crowding your screen, it can be easy to lose sight of your own HP. You don’t automatically regenerate your health when you find an exit to the next zone.
The only way to heal is to either use your Health Flask, which only has one charge at the start, or by picking Food Consumable Drops, which are extremely rare. When you make it to the next zone, you can refill your Flask by spending some Essence. Fortunately, you can refill your Health Flask as many times as you want if you’ve got enough Essence.
You’ll find Vital Rubies while exploring, which increase your total HP. Always keep an eye out for these drops.
Revisit Previous Zones
Never Grave isn’t just a roguelike; it also has a lot of Metroidvania features, and ability-gated progression is one of them. As you’re traveling through a zone, you’ll find blocked-off paths that you can’t go through just yet. Make sure to revisit these zones once you’ve unlocked the required ability for them. This will lead you to unique Spells, Tools, and Blueprints that you can use in your future runs.Â
The first ability you’ll unlock is the Celestial Plume, which lets you dash while jumping. You’ll find more options, such as double jump, as you progress through the game. Unlike Blessings and Grimoires, these abilities are permanent and will remain active once you unlock them.Â
This concludes our guide for Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse. For more interesting articles related to indie games, check out the links below:
- Into Indie Games Homepage
- Esoteric Ebb Complete Walkthrough Hub
- Resident Evil Requiem – Walkthrough Hub
- Tales Of Berseria Remastered – Walkthrough Hub
- Mewgenics Guides Hub
Muhit Rahman lives off two things: gaming marathons and endless cups of tea. He writes guides, reviews, and occasionally forgets that real life doesn’t come with checkpoints. His favorite genres are Soulslike and Metroidvania, with Dark Souls III, Hollow Knight, and Dota 2 forever holding top spots on his all-time list.
