Rift of the Necrodancer is a Guitar Hero-esque game, whisking Cadence into a new world she’s never seen before. For fans of the previous two games in the franchise, you’ll recognize Cadence, as well as a few familiar faces in the city.
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Rift of the Necrodancer combines visual novel-style storytelling with frantic rhythm-based action to solid effect.
Are you brand new to Rift of the Necrodancer, or the franchise in general? We’ve got you covered. In this guide, we are going to take a look at some beginner tips to help you get started in Rift of the Necrodancer. These are meant to help you find your footing before venturing into the rhythmic world alone.
Play The Tutorials
Even if you think you know rhythm games, it’s important to play the tutorial. Rift of the Necrodancer isn’t just about hitting the beats. Each beat comes in the form of a monster, with each one having a different movement pattern or method of attack.
Rather than diving right into a song, we strongly recommend playing through the tutorial chapters at the beginning of the story mode. These walk you through every single enemy type so you know exactly how to deal with them.
You can also play a song in Practice Mode in order to fully get the hang of it.
Lower The Difficulty
Rift of the Necrodancer can be hard. After completing the tutorial, you may feel confident to take on medium or hard levels, only to be met with failure. Some songs are more difficult than others, which can be jarring if you aren’t prepared.
If you can keep up with the difficulty, that’s great! If not, don’t hesitate to lower the difficulty. Here at TheGamer, we played a lot of songs on easy when starting out; this helped us get the hang of enemies without being too overwhelmed.
After a while, you may feel confident to take on harder difficulties, but this doesn’t have to be the case. For example, it’s totally fine if you want to play the entire story on easy.
You can pause a song and change the difficulty from the menu that pops up; this will start the song over on the new difficulty. Use this if you ever bite off more than you can chew and want to quickly change the difficulty.
Don’t Hit Stray Notes
In Rift of the Necrodancer, every attack matters; including attacks on beats with no monsters. Some rhythm games let you tap around when no notes are coming, with no consequence for doing so. This is not the case in Rift of the Necrodancer.
If you have a combo going and then hit a stray beat with no monsters, then you will lose it. As such, be sure to only hit beats when you need to.
This tip applies to pretty much every rhythm game. Long-time rhythm gamers may know this, but if you are new to the genre, keeping time can be difficult at first. While Cadence and the monsters bounce to the beat, it can be easy to get overwhelmed when dealing with any off-beat notes.
If you’re struggling to find the rhythm, try tapping your foot to keep in time. It may sound simple, but it can be quite helpful.
Play Through Story Mode
When you start Rift of the Necrodancer for the first time, the top menu option will be ‘Play’. This lets you pick from a variety of songs to play through on several different difficulty levels. While this may be all you need to have a good time, we suggest playing through the story.
The story follows Cadence as she navigates around the strange new world. As you progress through the story, you’ll naturally unlock songs, boss battles, and mini-games. This is a great way to avoid spending any unnecessary diamonds.
Quick Restart When You Mess Up
Not every playthrough goes according to plan. If you need to start over mid-song, you can quickly restart. On PC, this simply involves pressing ‘R’ on your keyboard. From the pause menu, you’ll be able to see the exact key/button that you need to press in order to quickly restart.
Brush Up On Enemy Patterns
There are a lot of enemies, so it’s only natural that you forget some patterns. Rather than suffering, head to the Bestiary in the Extras menu. Here, you can see all the monsters in the game and select one to practice against.
For example, if you really don’t remember how to deal with Red Armadillos, you can scroll to their entry in the Bestiary and practice. The entry for each monster that is just their name takes you through a simple tutorial, while the ‘Patterns’ option adds a bit more difficulty to the monster in question.
Replay Songs
Lastly, don’t forget to replay songs! Chances are, you won’t complete it perfectly the first time. When you replay songs, you’ll get a little better; you may even earn some more diamonds. Replaying songs can also help you get the hang of certain enemy patterns that you are unfamiliar with.
Of course, if you just really like a song, this can be a great reason to replay it. While you won’t earn any more diamonds (if you have them all), you can try to earn a spot on the global leaderboard. Or, simply sit back and jam out to your favorite song a few times!
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If you’re looking to test your timing and get grooving on your PC, look no further!