V Rising is a lot of things; an MMO, a survival game, and an RPG all rolled into one. It’s an expansive experience, but like all games as big as this, it can be hard to know where to start. Getting dropped into the world with little more than the shirt on your back is going to leave you scrambling around for a while before you find your footing, feeling more like a survival horror game.
To help you on your way, we’ve put together these tips which will walk you through your first couple of hours in the world, pointing out all the important things you need to know. We’ll give you tips on where to place your first castle, how to stay safe during the day, and what the hell V Blood is.
Gather everything
Although there are bosses, weapons, and traditional 2022 RPG elements, the core of V Rising is survival/crafting, and that means a lot of resource gathering. To make life easier on yourself, when you’re exploring the world for the first time, pick up everything you find because it will come in useful eventually. Your inventory is huge, so you don’t need to worry about running out of space this early on.
Use the right tool for the job
At first, gathering resources is going to be a simple job of hitting everything with whatever tool you have to hand, but once you’re fully geared up you should start being more efficient. Your sword will cut down vegetation with ease, your axe chops down trees fastest, your mace smashes stone/ores, and your spear works best on creatures. You can do each job with other tools, but using the optimal tool makes things go a lot faster.
Stick to the shadows (literally)
The one thing everyone knows about vampires is that they burn in the sunlight, and V Rising is no different. Getting caught in the sunlight won’t result in some glittery Twilight crap, you’re going to burn to death in a matter of seconds. However, it’s very boring to just lie in your coffin all day waiting for sunset, so instead use the shade cast all around you to stay safe. Your base will provide some shade, but even when adventuring, stick behind trees or rocks and you’ll be fine.
The map is more useful than you think
Maps are great for knowing where you have to go. In most games, that’s pretty much all their useful for, with helpful icons marking important locations. However, V Rising’s map gives you a lot more information if you take the time to study it. When you uncover places, you might notice that areas are highlighted in yellow, indicating a place of interest, hover over this with your mouse and you’ll get a brief explanation of what it is and, most importantly, what resources you’ll find there. Whatever you’re looking for, always consult your map first.
Know your blood types
Your blood pool is arguably your most vital resource. With it, you regenerate health and slowly grow in strength. What you may not realise is that there are different types of blood that you get from feeding on different creatures/enemies. They all give different bonuses, and those bonuses get stronger the more of that blood type you drink. Here’s a full list of blood types:
Creature – from feeding on animals – improves movement speed and health regeneration.
Warrior – from feeding on armoured soldiers/bandits – improves physical power and skill cooldown.
Rogue – from feeding on archers or assassins – improves movement speed and critical hits.
Brute – from feeding on bandits – improves healing and attack speed.
Worker – from feeding on weak humans/NPCs – improves resource yield and damage reduction.
Place your first castle carefully
Your castle is going to be your base of operations for the whole game. You can move it later on if you want, but as far as the early game goes, you’ll be constantly coming back to this location. It’s important to make sure it is in an easily accessible, but easily defensible location. Higher ground is good, but be aware that this will limit how much space you have to build; as long as you can bottleneck any invading force, you should be safe. If you’re on a PvE server, this isn’t as much of a worry, but you need to be very careful in PvP.
Use Vampire Lockboxes
When you’re in a PvP environment, keeping your stuff safe should be a top priority. You should do all you can to stop people from getting into your castle, but someone’s going to break through eventually. When they do, all the stuff in your regular chests is going to be easily accessible to them, so make sure you craft a Vampire Lockbox as soon as you can for your most valuable loot. These can’t be opened by other players, meaning even if you lose everything else, your lockbox is safe.
Follow the questline
Doing whatever you want is half the fun of open-world survival/crafting games, but you shouldn’t ignore the questline entirely. When you first spawn into the world, you’ll have to follow it to get anywhere, but as your base expands, make sure you’re always working towards the goals it has set out for you. By completing these quests you unlock new gear, new crafting recipes, and new stuff for your base which is essential for progression.
Kill bosses for V Blood ASAP
The overall progression in this game is locked behind terrifying bosses that spawn throughout the world. When you kill a boss, you can absorb their V Blood which gives you new powers and slowly expands your arsenal of vampiric magic. Once you’ve crafted a Blood Altar, you’ll be able to see each boss’ gear level and a guide to their location. You should be hunting them down as soon as you are able, as the rewards are huge.
Log off in the right spot
When you’re done for the day, you can’t just log off in any old place. Your character stays standing in the world after you’ve logged off, which means they’re entirely vulnerable to the elements. This means that if you log off while standing out in the open, you’re going to come back to a corpse. The best practice is to always pop inside your coffin when you log off so enemies, creatures, and the sun can’t touch you.
Written by Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.
