The First Berserker: Khazan is finally here, bringing us 2025’s first soulslike with a gorgeous art style, exhilarating combat, and immensely challenging and engaging encounters. If you’re looking for a worthwhile entry in this beloved genre while waiting for FromSoft’s next masterpiece, this will fill that void nicely.
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That being said, there are a surprising amount of systems and mechanics at play in this game, which can be a bit too much to take in at times. While this is solid news for build and gameplay variety, the sheer amount of things you must pay attention to at a given time can put your mental stack into overdrive. Luckily, once you have a firm grasp of everything, you will feel like an absolute badass. It will just take some time!
Stamina Is Crucial
If you’re familiar with the soulslike genre, you might be thinking, ‘Of course Stamina is crucial,’ but we cannot express how much more crucial it is in The Last Berserker: Khazan, as it dictates pretty much everything you do during combat. In something like Dark Souls, you can largely neglect Endurance after a while and focus on Vitality, Dexterity, or Strength, but that’s just not feasible here.
Unless you’re a parry master, there will be many times where you block an attack string, only to be able to get one attack out afterward, as your Stamina Recovery isn’t up to snuff, putting you in a very vulnerable situation where blocking the next attack can place you in an exhausted state.
Not only that, but many Skills require Stamina to use, and not being able to use them to their full potential after blocking leaves lots of damage on the table. Landing a perfect parry won’t drain your Stamina, but that’s easier said than done, so we strongly recommend not neglecting the Endurance or Willpower Stats during your playthrough!
Exploration Is Key To Success
Like most soulslikes, there are many areas for you to explore in The First Berserker: Khazan, filled with formidable foes and goodies, rewarding you for going off the beaten path. We strongly urge you to thoroughly check every nook and cranny, as you can get some excellent gear relatively early on that will help you tremendously.
Since Gear is a crucial aspect of this game, you will often get a substantial boost by just poking around, opening Chests, and defeating Elite Enemies. So, instead of gunning straight to the boss of each Mission, stay awhile and explore. You will likely be much stronger and capable of handling the area’s boss.
Furthermore, you can only find more Netherworld Energy by exploring, which serves as your primary Healing Item. You will only have three at the start and will need any extra you can get, especially during the later encounters!
Give Each Weapon Type A Fair Shake
There are three weapon types in The First Berserker: Khazan, the Dual Wield, Greatsword, and Spear, all containing unique Skills for you to unlock, allowing you to become more and more proficient with the weapon over time. This also allows you to fine-tune a build to your playstyle:
- Dual Wield: Ultra-aggressive and elusive, but you must get up close and personal.
- Greatsword: Massive damage and counterattack potential at the cost of speed.
- Spear: Long-reaching weapon with a wide range and tremendous combo potential.
No matter what your preferred playstyle is, we strongly recommend giving each weapon a fair shake, as some of the Skills available can drastically change the general feel and flow of the weapon, which could end up making the Spear your favorite weapon even if you prefer the more fast-paced action of the Dual Wield!
Don’t Be Afraid To Respec Skills Often
Skills are the bread and butter of any build, as they allow you to utilize your preferred weapon to its fullest potential, giving you access to many potent abilities that can help you turn the tide of battle in your favor. There will likely be moments where you spend your hard-earned Skill Points on a Skill and may not like it or rarely use it.
Fortunately, you can Forget a Skill at any point at no cost and can even Reset All Skill Points if you don’t like your current build at all. So, if you put all your eggs in the Greatsword basket but don’t like how the weapon feels, you can easily get all your Skill Points back and try out the Spear or Dual Wield weapons instead!
You can also reset your Stats, which requires a specific item that only resets one Stat at a time. Using a Primeval Regression Orb will return all the Lacrima you spent on a Stat back to you, allowing you to redistribute it as you see fit. It can be beneficial if you feel you over-leveled a specific Stat!
Spend Your Vengeance Points
What are Vengeance Points, you may be asking yourself? Well, they are a crucial yet deceivingly hidden currency that can give you a pretty substantial boost in combat. See, after you defeat the Blade Phantom and reach the Crevice for the first time, you can access Khazan’s Memories via the Blade Nexus (Red/Purple Swords).
Viewing Khazan’s Memories will bring you to a map with all the locations you’ve been to, showcasing each Mission you have active or completed. While the game doesn’t directly tell you this anywhere, you will earn Vengeance Points for each Mission you complete, which can then be spent within this menu.
Pressing Square/X within the Khazan’s Memories tab will bring up three separate Stats you can increase via Vengeance Points. You can either increase Stamina Damage dealt to enemies, your overall Damage Output, or your Damage Multiplier. All are incredibly useful, so ensure you upgrade these each time you finish a Mission!
Bosses Can Be Revisited
Unlike most games in the genre, you will be able to revisit any boss in the game by simply reloading a Mission, picking the nearest Blade Nexus to their arena, and entering it. While this may seem a bit odd at first, it serves a crucial aspect of the game and is also a tremendous way to farm Lacrima if you feel like you need to level a few Stats.
Aside from that, you will eventually gain access to a Blacksmith later in your adventures who can Craft Gear Sets for you, some requiring specific resources that only drop from certain bosses. So, similar to something of a Monster Hunter, you can farm these materials by fighting the same boss repeatedly to get the Gear Set you want!
Gear Sets Can Make A Substantial Difference
Speaking of Gear Sets, they are a solid way to squeeze more power and potential from your weapons and build. Gear Sets will offer unique perks depending on how many pieces of the Set you have equipped, with some even offering unique Skills you can use during combat.
Some will offer more overall damage when using specific Skills, while others will raise certain Stats, allowing you to increase your Stamina Recovery or Max Health by equipping a set number of Gear from the Set. For example, the Nomad Gear Set has the following bonuses:
- 2/5 Nomad Pieces: +250 Plague Resistance
- 3/5 Nomad Pieces: Received Damage Decreased By 50 Percent
- 4/5 Nomad Pieces: +500 Max Health
- 5/5 Full Nomad Gear Set: Increases Damage Output By 30 Percent.
While you shouldn’t stress over not having a complete Gear Set equipped at all times, it’s definitely worth keeping an eye out for, as some of the bonuses make them worth equipping over other pieces of equipment that may seem better at a glance. You can also mix Gear Sets for multiple bonuses from different Sets, which can be useful for specific encounters or situations!
Not As Punishing As You May Expect
Despite being a soulslike, The First Berserker: Khazan isn’t as punishing as you may expect. This isn’t to say it isn’t challenging, as it certainly has its fair share of immensely tough and seemingly insurmountable boss encounters, which makes it a godsend that you earn Lacrima for simply fighting a boss.
Yup, you read that right. You earn the currency used to level up your Stats by fighting the boss. Whether you prevail or fall short, you will always get Lacrima, no matter the outcome. Furthermore, your dropped Lacrima will also always be placed just outside of the boss gate, allowing you to reclaim them without having to use an item or fight the boss.
These two simple additions make things substantially more manageable, as you don’t have to worry about losing a large sum of Lacrima and can level up a crucial Stat if things aren’t going your way at all. Additionally, there are also A TON of Accessibility Options available in the Settings, as well as an Easy Difficulty that can be very useful to you if you find things to be too overbearing!
Changing the Difficulty from Normal to Easy will permanently lock you into that Difficulty for the remainder of your playthrough. So, only switch to it if you feel things are a bit overtuned for your tastes!
Spirit Of Advocacy
Another way you can make things a bit more manageable if you find yourself struggling is by using the Spirit of Advocacies. While there is no co-op or online play in The First Berserker: Khazan, you can still summon NPCs that will fight alongside you during boss encounters.
Additionally, you can also make these summons substantially stronger with a couple of methods. The first is by using the Phantom Veronika the Advocate, as she will allow the summoned Spirit of Advocacy to deal more damage. You can also speak with Daphrona in The Crevice to upgrade Spirits of Advocacy with Lacrima of Circulation.
Here, you can upgrade the summoned Spirit’s Max Health, Damage, and Stamina, making them a worthy ally for when you’re struggling to take down a formidable foe. While not for everyone, having this option available, along with everything else outlined above, makes things far less punishing for newcomers or players having a difficult time!
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