There are many tutorials in Wander Stars; however, they are introduced as you progress through the game. Typically, this is a great thing as it allows you to get into the gameplay right away. The only problem is, some of this information would be nice to know right away so that you'll maximize your experience with the game as you dominate your enemies (peacefully, ✌ï¸) earlier, allowing for maximum rewards.
So, here are 6 Beginner Tips I have for Wander Stars!
BLOCK POINTS are important!
Always leave yourself an Action Slot during your turn instead of using it all for offence, or use some SP to open up a Word Slot.
While offence is a great defence (especially since you get bonuses for finishing fights sooner), you also don't start the game with the best resources, and no way to truly heal yourself unless you find items on the map to heal.
Blocking will negate an amount of damage, meaning you will take no damage until your block points are gone. You can keep stacking it every turn if necessary.
• You can block elements by adding elemental words
MOD and ELE words will work with the Block Action. You'll soon find that getting hit by elements yourself will hurt a lot, especially since Ringo also has weaknesses. You'll need to save some of those ELE words to protect yourself from elements. Using Fire ELE will block you from all fire-type attacks, and it only costs 1 slot, instead of wasting Flame (which costs 2 slots).
Don't forget, you can use MODs on top of Block as well, so using Big, which is +3 points to any action, will turn Block's 5 BP to 8. Of course, any upgraded version of Block will work as well.
• Enemies can't steal against you
Later, you'll encounter enemies that can steal. As long as you have any BP active, enemies will be unable to steal from you.
Aim to break your opponents, not defeat.
There is a huge benefit to aiming for a peaceful resolution. Enemies have HP and Health Breaking Point. Aiming to break and end the battle through "Peace Out" instead of K.O. has three main benefits:
• Faster end to the fight
As long as they are within their break point, they will yield and won't perform any action. So as soon as you get the enemy to that point, focus your attention on the other enemies to Peace Out as soon as you can.
Be warned, as enemies can be taken OUT of their break point. For example, if they have a 4-10HP break point, they won't perform any actions within that range, but if you accidentally get them to 3 HP, they'll attack you again.
• Bonus Honor Points for Peace Out
• Gain Pep Ups
Other huge benefits to Peace Out are the obvious chance for new Pep Ups and the Bonus Honor Points.
These will Pep you right Up!
• Gain Pep Ups through Peace Out
Pep Ups are little boosts you get from any enemies you fight honourably. This means ending the fight through Peace Out. Once you do, they then become your potential buds, providing you a benefit if you so choose, or even fight alongside you if you decide to choose the Bonus Word they provide!
• Don't forget to equip or switch them out! Especially the free ones!
Pep Ups are similar to words in that you are limited in how many you can equip at a time. The only exception to this rule is the Pep Ups that don't cost anything! You do still need to equip them, though, so don't forget that!
• Some Pep Ups I recommend to always equip whenever you get them.
Not all Pep Ups are good, but some are definitely GREAT, and I recommend you use them whenever you get them.
âï¸ Pep Ups that increase the Break limit of enemies. This means you have a much bigger range of when the enemy will yield to you, inherently making all fights that much easier
âï¸ Any that reveals weaknesses or resistances for all enemies at the beginning of battle. Knowing your enemy’s weakness right away is always a plus, potentially not needing to spend unnecessary word slots or turns to experimentÂ
âï¸ Pep Ups that make you immune to an element, especially if you already know the enemy you're about to fight predominantly uses one (ie, the final boss in Episode 1 loves to use Fire 😉)
There are many great Pep Ups that allow you to play around with based on what you need, so feel free to mix and match!
Trust your INSTINCT
Instinct is an ability that you receive from Wolfe starting in Episode 2. What it does is it reveals 4 undiscovered attributes for 1 target. As you'll notice, every time you start a battle, you can place your cursor on the enemy and you'll see their attributes, which are most likely all in question marks, unless you have a Pep Up that reveals them automatically at the beginning of a fight.
In Wander Stars, exploiting your enemy's weak points is crucial, as not only do you do more damage, but it also rewards you with SP, giving you extra word slots.
• Enemy attributes are all different, with some similarities between them
Whether you like it or not, the enemies in Wander Stars all have randomized attributes, even within the same enemy in the same episode. Luckily, they do have their inherent weaknesses (ie, Cactlyn will always be weak against Fire, Grey Joe will be weak against Fire, King Joe will be weak against Water and immune to Punch, and Archeologist will always be resistant to Whip). So it is almost always important to use Instinct at every battle.
• Mods like "Huge" that allow the Act to work on three targets also work with Instinct
• Discovering enemy weakness also rewards extra Honor
Don't forget to Switch your Words around
• Switch out any words on cooldown if you have a duplicate
Most Words have cooldowns, especially the more powerful ones. Unfortunately, they do carry over to the next encounter. Keep this in mind, as you can potentially switch out any words on cooldown you may have a duplicate of to one that is fresh, allowing you to use it right away. Moving to black spots on the map will also lower all cooldowns on your Words by one turn each time.
• Equip the right words at the right time
As you encounter more enemies and get familiar with them, you'll know their inherent weaknesses and resistances. Since the number of words we can use is so limited, don't take Electricity with you when you know you're about to fight Starnaut Y. Alternatively, Grey Joe uses water attacks often, so make sure you equip Water ELE and use it with Block at the start of battle.
Which Exit to Take (Icon explanation)
Since you'll often have more than one way to progress through the map in Wander Stars, planning which way to go will be important, especially since you have limited resources, and avoiding a fight or speaking to an NPC may break or save you.
Here's a quick explanation of what each Icon means on the map (at least for the 1st 3 Episodes).
Regular Map Icons
These Icons are what you may see on the map, instead of the typical circles. Please note that the actual content of the event will be random. So, for example, the treasure you receive will be random, or the event you witness at a particular location will not always be the same (though there are a fixed number of NPC events per episode).
Exit Icons
Each Episode is typically broken up into a few Acts. And each Act is broken up into several maps. These maps between Acts often have several exits, all while leading to the exact place; the exits you choose determine the reward you receive.
Choose the Power Up that best suits your current situation and needs.
That is our Beginner's Guide for Wander Stars. We're really enjoying our time so far with the game, as we work on each episode! Paper Castle Games truly made a game with great characteristics and gameplay ideas that we're looking forward to sharing our overall thoughts on in our future review!
We hope this helped with getting you through the roguelite elements. Let us know which of these you didn't know before, which helped you out the most, or any tips you might have with the game!
