How to play Ravenbound

**How to play Ravenbound** serves as a guide to the game Ravenbound.

## Character creation

In **Ravenbound** there is not the usual character creation as in similar titles. A vessel is often temporarily due to Permadeath, and must be selected for every run. The chosen folk and gender however can vary, the vessel can be a Human man, woman or after being unlocked, played as Simlar or Ulvar. Each come with different Folk traits.

### Character progression

* Player Stats are **Crit Chance, Crit Damage, Luck, Health, Guard Health**, which can be influenced by the Traits and changed further with the obtainable equipment and relics.

* In the version from March 30, 2023 differed from how cards could be obtained, some only could be unlocked in the various Challenges.

* Patch 1.1 introduced the Skill Tree. Players can level up now with Legacy and earn Skill Points.

## Controls

* WASD to move around (although controller is recommended)
* Ctrl – to sprint
* LMB – primary attack
* RMB – tap secondary attack
* SPACE – Jump
* SPACE + RMB – Knockback Attack
* Lock- on – use Q to lock on an enemy. Press to switch target, hold to stop targeting.
* Guard Break Attack – Hold RMB = Secondary Attack
* Shift – Tap to dodge, hold to slide
* [C] – Guard – knock down enemies, become invulnerable for a short period.
* [Z] – Surge. Build up full Focus – then surge.
* [F] – Climb / Use Raven's Talon
* [E] - Forceful Attack
* [R] – Empowering Fragments – One needs three Fragments to begin. Allows the players to draw three cards from their deck. (Obsolete since Patch 1.2)

* Players can perform a Perfect Dodge if they dodge before an Enemy attack.
* Focus is build from actions in combat. See blue bar at the lower left corner. High focus means the player deals more damage.
* **Surge** drains Focus, but one receives a damage increase for a short period of time.
* **Posture** was introduced in Patch 1.2. This affects the player as well as enemies. If fighters loses all posture, they will become stunned. There is a posture bar at the bottom center of the screen. The posture bar is reset by surge.

* [I] – Open the inventory/close screen

### Raven form

* SWAD and LMB to manoeuvre Raven and to look around. CTRL – decrease speed. SPACE – Increase speed.
* Since Patch 1.2 the player can use **[X]** at any time in the exterior world to transform into the raven.

## Playthrough

After the introduction and tutorial, the players will start into the game. This first run probably will quickly end with the death of the vessel, most possibly in the first tomb. However, the players then complete the Challenge Unavoidable and gain a reward.

The following run then gives the players the opportunity to choose a new vessel from the available options and the choice of region where they want to begin. Each region is dominated by a special Element, that also corresponds to the gods and certain Enemies, that drop items "imbued" with these special elemental powers. Some items must be gained by completing challenges.

Before a run, the players can also view the available Cards, and the cards they can unlock with specific actions. To find out which cards could be worth to gain, they should check their Challenges menu.

After they left the gate from the tree, the players will receive the main quest to find the Tear of Hatred to cleanse it. There also will be a marker for a side quest, that typically can be found in the village of the region. It is up to the player which quest they want to follow first. They just should keep in mind, that the new vessel has only standard equipment and no relics, so it can be toilsome to use this equipment against stronger opponents. One key aspect here is now to gather enough mana, coins and the right cards to play.

The Tear of Hatred is usually guarded by a few opponents, and once they have been defeated, the players can pick up the mana from the column and move on now to the cleansed chest locations to pick up the items from chests and the various opponents to improve their vessel.

The objective of the quest now will ask the players to empower fragments. From there, equipment and relics can be picked, while the chests contain bounty cards or mana. Equipment and Relics will cost mana to play. The player can also buy some equipment parts with coins from a Blacksmith or other Vendors.

With the empowerment of Fragments, the Hatred slowly will fill the hatred bar, and opening hatred chests always will reveal one of the Hatred cards. Effects from them can be more or less crippling: they rise prices or mana costs, reduce armor or weapon damage and add hatred. At some point, the hatred bar will be fully filled, and empowerment will be impossible and the player should be prepared to encounter the Warden of the Tomb.

After being successful in the fight, the player will receive access to the god who is captured in the Tomb. With the blessing of the god, the hatred bar will be reset and the next part of the run will begin. The player will get now the objective to get two more blessings, before they can finally face The Betrayer.