How To Master The Combat In The First Berserker: Khazan

The First Berserker: Khazan is a stunning cell-shaded soulslike that will give any fan of the genre a run for their money, offering intense boss encounters and an exhilarating combat system that pulls from many entries in the genre, allowing you to focus on builds that compliment your playstyle.

Whether you’re a fan of the genre or a beginner, you will likely run into situations where you feel the current encounter is impossible. Fortunately, with a better understanding of the game’s combat and systems, you can overcome anything in this game, even if it takes several attempts!

Parrying Is Everything

If there is one thing you must get down in The First Berserker: Khazan, it’s the parrying system that rewards you for landing perfect parries. While easier said than done, landing a perfect parry will chip large chunks of the enemy’s Stamina Gauge away while leaving yours alone, making it one of the most potent defensive options in the game.

Simply guarding your enemy’s attacks will negate damage. Still, it will drain your Stamina, which isn’t ideal, as blocking with a low Stamina Gauge can place you into a burnout state, meaning you cannot attack, evade, or guard for some time, making you extremely vulnerable to incoming attacks.

Learning the enemy’s attacks and rhythm will be pretty challenging at first, but once you get them down to a science, you will be consistently staggering them, leading to massive damage. It’s gratifying, but it will take lots of time to master and is ultimately the strongest tool you have at your disposal, no matter which weapon you choose!

Consumables Are Essential

In most soulslikes, Consumables are helpful in specific situations, but you never really have to rely on them too much, especially during boss encounters. However, in The First Berserker: Khazan, we constantly found ourselves relying on a handful of Consumables that would pull us over the finish line in intense boss fights.

Take the Vitality Shard, for example, a Consumable that increases your Stamina Recovery. There are some instances where a boss will enter a second phase, becoming substantially stronger and faster, which can be challenging to deal with, especially if you don’t have the parry windows down yet.

Popping a Vitality Shard allowed our Stamina to regenerate faster than they were attacking and stay on the offensive even after guarding a long-winded attack string, ultimately allowing us to defeat them without relying on too many perfect parries or phenomenal defense. We could still attack and stay active without worrying about going into an exhausted state.

Other Useful Items

There are also a handful of other items we use on a consistent basis, with the Willpower Orb being one of them, allowing you to spend three Spirit Gauge Units to replenish 50 percent of your Max Health, making it an excellent backup plan if your run out of Netherworld Energy, which will happen A LOT throughout your journey.

Most bosses and zones also inflict specific elemental ailments, so having Consumables that help prevent their build-up or erase them completely is also valuable and will help take some stress off your mind, allowing you to focus solely on the encounter instead of having to deal with tick damage or losing a large chunk of your health!

Don’t Sleep On Phantom Abilities

As you progress further and further into The First Berserker: Khazan, you will unlock Phantoms that grant you additional bonuses that will help you out tremendously during your playthrough. No matter your playstyle, there will likely be a Phantom for you that will elevate your gameplay to the next level.

All Phantom Abilities

Depending on your weapon of choice and build focus, your Phantom of choice will likely change. Since we use Dual Wield, we stuck with Keshta the Unyielding for most of the game, as constantly upgrading our Stamina Recovery allowed us to remain more aggressive in boss encounters.

Meanwhile, Wulfric the Resilient may make more sense for Greatsword builds, as the extra Frontal Assault Damage could see massive benefits. Spear users can roll with Keshta as well, but since they are combo fiends, Constantine may make more sense, as you will fill your Phantom Form Gauge up extremely fast due to your high attack output and use of Skills!

Managing Your Spirit

Spirit is a crucial resource in The First Berserker: Khazan, as it allows you to use potent Skills in combat that can lead to massive damage output and lengthy combos. However, if you mismanage it, it could come back to bite you, especially if you put yourself in a burnout state when using it.

Every weapon type has its own Skill Tree, allowing you to spend Skill Points to unlock powerful abilities requiring Spirit to use. After spending Spirit to use an ability, you must attack or use a Consumable to replenish your Spirit, making it a resource you cannot freely spam.

Furthermore, using Skills will drain your Stamina, so you must ensure you have enough Stamina to not only perform the Skill but to have enough left afterward to be able to evade if you need to or guard, as you don’t want to risk becoming exhausted during a boss encounter.

We strongly recommend only using up to three Skills in a row at most, then reverting back to your basic attacks until you build up more Spirit. Overdoing it can leave you in sticky situations that are hard to recover from, so keep that in mind if you’re getting a bit too spam-happy with your Skills!

Burst Attack Counters Are Powerful

Bosses and Elite Enemies will often have Burst Attacks, which are extremely strong and high-damaging attacks that cannot be guarded or parried, forcing you to either evade them entirely or try performing a unique Counter Attack by pressing L1+Circle/LB+B right before the attack lands. Think of the Mikiri Counter from Sekiro if you’ve played that.

While landing a Counter can be risky, it’s almost always worth going for, as landing it will temporarily stun the opponent, replenish your Stamina, and allow you to unleash a barrage of Skills on the enemy for massive damage. Along with the parry, we cannot recommend getting good at landing Counters enough.

Running away will almost always allow you to avoid taking damage, but you’re leaving TONS of damage on the table. While it will be daunting and a tad frustrating at first, learning how to Counter a Burst Attack will lead to massive results that outweigh any of the negatives that come along with it!

Builds Can Elevate Your Playstyle

Builds are another crucial aspect of The First Berserker: Khazan, as your Gear can substantially affect your overall performance. While you don’t necessarily need a complete Gear Set, you should have at least a few pieces of a Set equipped at a time to get their unique bonuses.

For example, the Deep Shadow Set may be beneficial for Greatsword users, as it provides additional Frontal Assault Damage, which would also pair nicely with the Wulfric the Resilient Phantom. If you’re focusing on specific aspects of your weapon, then there is likely a Gear Set that will help highlight those attributes, making it that much more potent.

Again, you don’t need to have a complete Gear Set to do well in this game, but taking advantage of the bonuses they offer can make a substantial difference. Mixing Gear Sets also works wonders, as you can take the Frontal Assault buff from two pieces of the Deep Shadow Set and combine it with three pieces of the Ashen Wolf Set to receive faster Health Regeneration. Don’t be afraid to experiment and mix sets, as they can give you a massive buff during combat!

Stamina Will Make Or Break Many Encounters

Lastly, we know we touched upon this several times already, but Stamina is quite significant in The Last Berkerker: Khazan and can make or break your current attempt at slaying a boss. Unlike most soulslikes, it almost feels like you are obligated to focus on your Endurance to avoid frustration.

Not only is having lots of Stamina almost required, but having fast Stamina Recovery is just as useful, which can be achieved by increasing your Willpower Stat. Every Stat seems crucial to some extent, but you can’t really neglect Endurance or Willpower like you can in similar titles.

So, we strongly recommend using Consumables that grant you better Stamina Recovery and Gear Sets that provide more Stamina or better Recovery as well, as they will allow you to not have to rely so heavily on landing perfect parries just to have some Stamina left over to attack. Do not sleep on these Skills!