Beginner's Guide

The following is a **beginner's guide** to getting started with **Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls**.

## Preemptive Notes

* Even 3\* equipment can be used in the late game. The power difference between 3, 4 and 5\* equipment is usually negligible.
* Equipment traits can synergize to produce a higher overall power score. If your power is lower when you use a better item, you probably gave up a synergy that gave more defense or attack overall

## Tutorial

The tutorial is straightforward and introduces all the controls for special attacks and movement.

* Press, hold and drag the left side of the screen to move
* Tap the button at the farthest bottom right to jump
* Tap the right side of the screen to attack
* Press, hold and drag up to use sub-weapons
* Press, hold and drag left, right or down to use primary and support weapon abilities when they are equipped
* Quickly drag down on the left side to duck or fall through thin platforms.
* Tap the circle at the bottom right of the screen to slide
* Tap the button at the middle right of screen to use a character ability

## Full control

After facing Death in 1-4 you will have full access to the grimoires as well as the summon, shop, roster and upgrade stations. You may also upgrade your items through the roster by selecting them and tapping "upgrade". Additionally you will be able to use the buttons at the bottom right of the screen. You should have rewards available for your efforts so collect them now.

At this point your damage will be too low to continue far so it is recommended you use your starting gems (gained from your mission tab at the bottom right) and use the summoning station to collect some weapons. If you are unsatisfied with your weapon rolls then now would be an ideal time to reroll your account. If you are pleased with the outcome then head to the upgrade or roster stations to begin enhancing your weapons

**Note:** *You can receive weapons for characters you have not unlocked yet. If this is the case and you received high quality weapons for such a character then you should still upgrade your existing characters' weapons at least enough to pass the first boss and the first mission of your second grimoire.*

You should try to focus on the character you summoned the best weapons for. Even if the element does not match the stage you will still outperform a mediocre weapon of the correct element.

## Battle

Combat is straight forward in non-boss stages and allows for plenty of mistakes. There are small optimizations to improve combat performance against regular enemies that are not covered in the tutorial however.

* Slide all the time. Not only is it faster but it dodges projectiles that would hit during a dash/dodge as well as destroys most projectiles that can receive damage
* Don't hoard your abilities and mp for the end of a stage. Your abilities are great for dealing with clumps of high health enemies and subweapons do excellent damage and are great for attacking enemies that are too dangerous to approach.
* Don't forget the candles. If you are liberal with your subweapon and special skill usage, hearts will be your way of staying in the fight.
* Always use mobility skills. Currently the mobility skills are far more useful than any damaging skills. Simon's uppercut, whip swing, Alucard's bat form, Maria's Suzaku jump, and Shanoa's Velox will get you where you need to be faster so you can use your regular attacks and subweapons to deal damage. Shanoa also gets magnes and Charlotte gets Flight to help her movement.

## Story

If your weapon rolls give you gear for your current characters then you are free to do the story at your leisure. If you got equipment for a character you don't have (specifically Shanoa) or just want to have an easier time clearing missions then proceed to do 2-1, 3-1 and the boss battle to unlock support characters. Your supporter will likely have higher attack and defense than you making the boss and subsequent Chapter 2/1-1 much easier.

After you have your character with your best weapons. You should summon some armor and subweapons as your gems allow. x10 rolls are recommended for the guaranteed 4\* item.

After progressing in the story for a time you will likely hit a wall with your power (usually lacking in attack).

## Trials

Trials will give you the means to increase your power and character levels ouside of the story. You should have the Enhance trial available after fully clearing Chapter 1. If you complete these trials with an "S" rank you can skip them on subsequent attempts and collect rewards immediately. These rewards are always the same regardless of whether you skip or receive a rank lower than "S".

* The Enhance trial requires you kill enemies without falling behind the elevator. Falling below the elevator will reduce your score, deal damage and teleport you back up to it. Killing enemies, Killing all enemies in the trial, and completing the trial with time to spare will increase your score.
* The Training trial requires you kill enemies without receiving damage. Taking damage will reduce your score and apply a Negative Multiplier to any further hits you receive for a short time. Killing enemies will increase your score and killing many enemies in a brief window of time will apply a score multiplier to allow for a higher score.
* The Treasure trial requires you collect coins, kill golden enemies, and break treasure chests along the path to increase the score. Falling into a pit will decrease your score and teleport you **forward** causing you to miss opportunities for increasing your score. Collecting coins, killing golden enemies, breaking chests and completing the trial with time to spare will increase your score. During this trial you will be chased by the Behemoth which will alternate in speeds depending how far ahead of it you are. Touching the Behemoth will incur severe damage, possibly killing your character outright.

## Bounty Hunt

Bounty Hunt is a competitive-pve minigame that revolves around hunting enemies to increase your score. You will be up against 3 other players under a 10-minute time limit, so being able to navigate the map is important. Upon clearing the map, Bounty Coins are awarded based on rank, which in turn is determined by how many points were earned in the match. The coins can be exchanged in the shop.