A Plague Tale: Requiem is the next saga in Amicia’s and Hugo’s life, which up to this point, has been quite an adventurous one. In A Plague Tale Innocence, it finishes with Amicia and Hugo hitting the road with their recovering mother and Lucas. In Requiem, you pick up with them in a little village picking up supplies, and the mother has made a full recovery.
Just like the previous game, Requiem is mainly driven by stealth. Where you are sneaking through rat infestations and the patrolling guards are hunting you, you will need to use your cunning and sometimes brute force to help you survive and look after Hugo. If you want to get into the game but need some tips, read below.
8/8 Choose The Right Difficulty Setting
There are multiple settings to choose from when it comes to Requiem. You have Narrative, which will give you an easy combat experience and allow you to just enjoy the storytelling within the game. Normal will give you the best of both, a challenge in combat while still able to enjoy the overall beauty and story of the game. Then, for the hardcore A Plague Tale players, you have the Hard setting, which gives you very challenging enemies and missions and is for those that prefer the challenge of a game as opposed to the story. With the change in difficulty, you also will get a change in supplies, so you will find it harder to find resources when in the harder modes as opposed to Narrative.
When it comes to picking your difficulty, you need to think about what you want out of the game. Do you want a relaxed story, or are you looking to bang your head against a wall trying to complete each mission over and over again? When it comes to gaming, most will just go for the Normal setting, and do not worry if you have, you can change it anytime, but there is nothing wrong with starting in easy mode. If you find it boring and too easy, change it! You will also have the option to test your skills more in New Game+, so should you want to try a harder mode, you can do so once you have enjoyed the story of the game.
7/8 Make Sure To Use Stealth
This game is very stealth driven, so it goes without saying that you should be looking to use stealth where you can. However, unlike the last game, you have more options when it comes to dispatching guards. While sneaking around in the tall grass, if you have a knife you can sneak up behind a guard and stab them, this is something you could not do previously. The sneak attack, where you can go up behind guards and attack them, is another new addition. If they are weaker enemies, you can actually stealth kill them; if they are stronger guards, then you will require another strike to kill them off, but this will alert nearby enemies.
When using stealth, you need to stick to any long grass or flowers around, you can also use solid cover to stay out of the enemies’ sight. If you need to slip by a guard then distract them with pots or a well-placed stone to make sure they are looking a different way. Make sure to choose the hand on the weapon wheel to throw the stone; otherwise, the sling will be heard, and you will be seen.
6/8 Don’t Worry If You Get Caught
Although stealth is very important, unlike the first game, you do not have to worry if caught as much. In the first game, if you were caught, you would have to act quickly and hope they missed you, or you were inevitably killed. Now with Requiem, you can actually recover your stealth easier and get away, so when an enemy spots and charges you, should you not be able to kill them, you can strike them first to act as a stun and run away. Should you have a knife, you will actually be able to kill them and get away.
If spotted behind the cover, you’ll, be given the option to distract the guard straight away. This is only possible should you have a pot in your inventory, as you will throw a pot and distract them to then move locations. Another addition to the gameplay is that if you are attacked, you are first knocked down instead of it being instant death. This gives you a chance to react and fight back and then get away. There are also items around the map, like bags of powder, that you can shoot to stun enemies for long enough to attack or move back into stealth.
5/8 Learn To Craft
In Requiem, you have the option to craft projectiles. You can craft them the same as in Innocence by using the weapon wheel or at a crafting bench. However, in Requiem, you have two other options – You can do a quick craft directly on the normal screen by choosing the option in the bottom right corner. The problem with this option is everything is in real-time, unlike when in the weapon wheel. Also, you are only crafting whatever projectile you have selected. This means you cannot see what resources you have to spread them out across all projectiles.
So, if you are looking to just craft one thing real quick, the new quick craft is a good option. However, if you need a few more things, then the Weapon wheel is best. The another new option is the crafting menu, where you can access crafting and see a video of how to use the projectile you are crafting. This is also a great option should you want to craft more than one kind of ammunition.
4/8 Be Sparing With Pots And Knives
When traversing the different areas of the game, one thing you are bound to notice is that Knives and Pots are pretty scarce. There are better uses for knives and pots instead of how they are introduced into the game. Knives are great on enemies. However, they are just a one-use item; you cannot retrieve the knife once used. The reason you will want to collect knives is that they are used to opening extra crafting tables. Scattered around the map, you will find cupboards you can pry open; within these are a crafting table with plenty of supplies like Pieces, Tools, and then alchemy ingredients.
The pots work a little different from how they were used in Innocence. Yes, you can still throw them to distract, but you can also fill them with ammunition like Ignifer or Exstinguis. This will then turn the pots into projectiles you can throw to distract Rats and Guards, and they have a bigger area of effect, so they can affect guards that are standing in close proximity. Because of the scarceness of pots, you are best off saving them up and finding other ways to distract guards if you can. However, if you get into a boss fight, there will usually be pots that respawn, giving you an opportunity to stock up and not worry about using your pots.
3/8 Look Out For Supplies
Like in Innocence, you can find supplies, like tools, alchemy ingredients, and pieces scattered around the areas you are in. These are used for crafting and upgrading at workbenches. However, more supplies are readily available in chests you can loot. Most chests are relatively easy to spot as you run around trying to complete an objective, but some chests are tucked away, so it can pay off to explore a bit more of the areas in this game.
Chests will have a shimmer to show they are bootable, so this is a good way to notice a chest in the area. And they are usually around when you find rats more so than guards, as you need more ammo for fighting the rats. Bear in mind, though, that if you are on the Hard difficulty, you will not see as many chests.
2/8 Keep An Eye On Amicia’s Skills
In Requiem, Amicia has skills that you can level up, depending on how you play the game. There are three different skill categories – Prudence, Aggressive, and Opportunism. These skills will level up to unlock more passives for Amicia as you play the game. So, to level up Prudence, you would be more stealthy. The more chapters and quests you complete in stealth, the more you unlock this skill set. By unlocking the Prudence skills, you will move faster while crouching and more silently when sneaking around.
You unlock the Aggressive Skills by killing guards and being less stealthy during quests. By unlocking these passive skills, you will be able to push guards into fires, choke guards out quietly, and recover from getting knocked down easily. So, these skills help you to be more powerful when it comes to killing and attacking. For Opportunism, you will upgrade this skill set if you craft a lot of ammunition like Ignifer and Tar. Unlocking this skill set will get you faster crafting and more of the alchemy reserves, but with no change in the number of resources.
1/8 Upgrade Your Weapons And Gear
When you find crafting tables or the locked-up crafting cupboards, you are able to upgrade your gear here, as well as craft; unless you have unlocked Traveling Tools, which lets you upgrade anywhere. To upgrade the gear, you will need to have the right amount of tools and pieces for that upgrade level. Each piece of gear or weapon will have three upgrade options for you, you can upgrade your Sling, Crossbow, Gear, Alchemy, and Instruments.
If you upgrade your weapons, they will become stronger, like the sling, which will be quiet when used. This is great when you need to break stealth for just one guard but do not want to alert the others. You can also upgrade her alchemy pouch to carry more resources to craft ammo, while her gear pouches will let you carry more ammunition. Depending on how you want to go about the game will determine what sort of upgrades to go for. If you want to do more killing and be more aggressive, the weapon upgrades are best. If you are more cunning and stealthy, the gear upgrades will be better to allow you carry more pots, which are scarce to find, so that is a great option. When you find supplies that you can’t carry, they are broken down into pieces, which you need to upgrade.
