Nordic Ashes: Beginner's Guide & Best Tips

Why this game almost made me throw my controller (and why I came back)

I've got about 400 hours in Nordic Ashes. And I spent the first 10 of those hours absolutely hating it. Not because it's a bad game — it's not. It's gorgeous. The pixel art is some of the best I've seen since Dead Cells. The combat feels tight when you figure it out. But the game sucks at teaching you how to play it.

I remember my third run. I'd just unlocked the Seer, thought I was hot shit because I stacked three poison relics. I walked into the second boss, the Jotunn Frost Giant, and got absolutely deleted in about 12 seconds. I sat there staring at the game over screen thinking, "What the fuck did I even do wrong?"

That's the thing about Nordic Ashes. It doesn't hold your hand. It doesn't even give you a map. It drops you in, says "good luck," and watches you die. And I'll be honest — that's why I love it now. Once you crack the code, it's one of the most satisfying Survivors-likes on the market. But getting to that point? That's what this guide is for.

If you're coming from games like Hades or Vampire Survivors, you'll recognize the genre, but Nordic Ashes has its own weird quirks that'll trip you up. Let me save you the 10 hours of frustration I went through.

The three things that'll get you killed in the first five minutes

I've watched three friends try this game and quit in the first hour. Every single time, it was the same three problems. If you're reading this because you're stuck, chances are you're dealing with one of these:

• You're treating it like a bullet hell when it's a positioning game. Big difference. In something like Enter the Gungeon, you dodge constantly. In Nordic Ashes, your stamina bar is tiny. You get maybe two rolls before you're winded. The real skill is not moving — baiting attacks and standing in the right spot so the enemy's swing misses by a pixel. Movement is a resource, not a reflex.
• The upgrade system makes zero sense at first glance. You've got the skill tree, rune slots, weapon forging, and some weird altar mechanic that the tutorial mentions once and never again. I spent my first three runs dumping points into the wrong stats because I thought "increase attack speed" was universally good. It's not. Some builds need slow weapons with big single hits.
• Enemy damage scaling is a fucking trap. On normal difficulty, early enemies hit for about 8-12 damage. That seems manageable. But by area three, basic grunts hit for 40+. If you haven't invested in Armor Rating by that point, you're dead in three hits. The game wants you to be aggressive and take damage, but it punishes you for not having defensive stats. It's a balance I didn't figure out until I died to the same wolf pack six times in a row.

Here's the thing that pissed me off the most: the game never tells you that dodging through attacks gives you a brief invincibility window, but dodging away from attacks often leaves you in the hitbox because the attack has forward momentum. I lost count of how many times I rolled "safely" backward and still got clipped. If you're taking damage while dodging, stop rolling away. Roll toward the swing. It feels wrong. It works.

What I wish someone told me before my first run

Alright, you're starting fresh. You've picked a character — probably the Berserker because he looks cool (I did the same, no shame). Here's what you need to do immediately that the game won't explain:

• Your first 500 gold goes to the blacksmith. Not the rune vendor, not the skill tree. The blacksmith. Upgrade your starting weapon to +2 immediately. The damage boost from +1 to +2 is about 35% on most weapons. That's the difference between killing a draugr in three hits versus four. Over a full run, that saves you dozens of hits of incoming damage because things die faster. I ignored the blacksmith for my first six runs. Don't be me.
• The skill tree is a trap for new players. The first node that looks good is "Fury" — increases attack speed by 3%. It's useless. The actual first node you want is "Vitality" — +10 max health. Then go straight for "Armor Forging" in the second row. More health and armor let you survive the learning curve. You can respec later when you know what you're doing. For now, be a tank.
• Relic synergy matters more than relic rarity. I picked up a Legendary Poison Blade on run four and thought I was set. Then I realized I had zero poison-support relics. The Legendary was doing 8 damage per tick. A Common Ember Scepter with the right fire-support relics was doing 45 DPS. Do not chase shiny numbers. Chase synergies. If you get a fire relic, build fire. Don't mix elements until you know what you're doing.
• The map is procedural but has landmarks. You'll learn to recognize specific room layouts. The "long bridge with two archers" room always has a breakable wall on the left side that hides a gold chest. Every run. The "spiral staircase" room has a secret platform above the exit that gives a free relic. Nobody tells you this. I figured it out by accidentally rolling off the stairs and landing on it.

Also, turn off screen shake in the options menu. I'm not kidding. The default shake is aggressive and will mess with your spatial awareness during boss fights. I turned it off at hour 30 and immediately started surviving fights I'd been losing for hours. It's a free difficulty reduction.

The actual good shit — mechanics the game never explains

Once you've got your basics down, it's time to stop surviving and start dominating. These are the systems I stumbled onto by accident that completely changed how I play:

• The "Overflow" mechanic is your best friend. When your health bar is full and you pick up a health orb, the excess goes to a hidden "Overflow Shield" that absorbs the next instance of damage. It stacks up to 50% of your max health. This means you should never, ever leave a health orb on the ground, even at full HP. I used to walk past them. Now I path through every orb I see. That free shield has saved me from oneshot mechanics more times than I can count.
• Parry timing is way more generous than you think. The parry window is 12 frames (0.2 seconds at 60fps). That's tight. But here's the secret: the parry starts immediately on button press and lasts the full 12 frames. Most games have a startup delay. Nordic Ashes doesn't. So if you see an attack coming, you can press parry at the last possible second and still catch it. I was parrying too early for my first 20 hours. Wait until the attack animation is almost on you. The blue flash tells you it worked.
• Weapon swapping mid-combo is broken good. If you start a combo with Weapon 1, then swap to Weapon 2 during the recovery animation, the second weapon's first hit benefits from any combo multipliers you built on the first weapon. So you can start with a fast weapon to build a 6-hit combo, then swap to a hammer for the finishing blow. The hammer hits for double damage because of the combo counter. I killed a boss in 7 seconds using this trick. It's not a bug — it's a mechanic the devs never documented.
• Rune placement matters for passive effects. The three rune slots (Attack, Defense, Utility) aren't just slots — they affect your character's passive aura. A Defense rune placed in the Attack slot loses its defensive effect and gains a minor attack boost instead. So don't just fill slots randomly. Each rune has a primary effect in its correct slot and a secondary effect in wrong slots. Read the rune description carefully. Some runes actually work better in "wrong" slots if you want the secondary effect.
• The boss enrage timers are fake. You know how the third boss starts glowing red and hitting harder after 90 seconds? That's not a hard enrage. It's a soft enrage that scales based on how many times you've failed a parry during the fight. If you parry every single attack, the enrage never triggers. I confirmed this by watching the game's code in a disassembly (I'm a nerd, I know). Stop failing parries, and the boss stays chill.

One more thing: the shop prices reset every three runs instead of every run. So if you see a good relic in the shop but can't afford it, note the run count. It'll still be there on run 2. I wasted so much gold panic-buying trash because I thought the shop reset daily. It doesn't.

The stupid mistakes I made for 20 hours so you don't have to

I'm not ashamed to admit I did dumb shit. Here's a list of mistakes I made repeatedly, because I'm hoping you're smarter than me:

• Ignoring the dodge cooldown reduction stat. I thought it was a waste. "Why reduce cooldown when I can just dodge better?" Because you can't dodge everything. The second boss's ice storm has a 3-second duration. With base stamina regeneration, you get two dodges in that time. With +30% dodge cooldown reduction, you get four dodges. That's the difference between taking 150 damage and taking 0. I now prioritize dodge cooldown over almost every other stat except health.
• Over-leveling the wrong weapon type. I fell in love with the spear early. Great reach, decent speed. I dumped all my upgrade materials into it. Then I fought a boss that was immune to piercing damage. I had no backup weapon. My spear did zero damage. I had to spend 20 minutes slowly killing the boss with my secondary, a +0 dagger. Always keep two weapons upgraded equally. One for general use, one for elemental coverage. Don't be a one-weapon pony.
• Selling relics for gold. I did this constantly. "Ooh, 80 gold for this Common relic I don't need." Then I hit a relic synergy that would've made my build god-tier, but I'd sold the Common relic that was the linchpin. Common relics often have the best synergy triggers. Keep everything until you absolutely know you don't need it. Gold is easier to get than relic drops.
• Not abusing the pause menu. In a single-player run, pausing the game gives you time to read enemy attack patterns without pressure. I'd get hit, panic, and die. Now I pause during boss fights, look at the attack animation, and plan my dodge. It feels cheesy. It is. Do it anyway. The game doesn't punish you for pausing.
• Letting the "Rage" debuff stack. Enemies with the red aura build a "Rage" meter when they hit you. At max stacks, they oneshot you. The game doesn't tell you this. But if you parry an enraged enemy, it resets their rage to zero and stuns them. So when you see red auras, stop dodging and start parrying. I died to the forest boss five times before I realized this. Five. Runs.

Oh, and one more thing that got me killed more than anything else: standing still to attack. The game lets you move while swinging, but your movement speed drops by 50% during the swing animation. I kept thinking I could kite enemies while attacking. You can't. You slow down and they catch you. Attack, then move. Don't try to do both at once.

Questions you're too embarrassed to ask

• What's the best starting character for a total newbie? Not the Berserker. I know he looks cool. Pick the Shieldmaiden. She starts with a 20% damage reduction passive and her special ability is a shield bash that stops projectiles. She's tanky, forgiving, and her learning curve is gentle. Once you've beaten the first boss with her, try the others.
• How do I unlock more weapon slots? You don't. You get two weapon slots permanently. The third slot (seen in some screenshots) is a late-game upgrade from the final skill tree branch. Don't stress about it. Two weapons are plenty for 90% of the content.
• Is there a way to refund skill points? Yes. There's a Mimir's Well in the hub area, behind the blacksmith. Interact with it and select "Respec." It costs 500 gold per refund. I didn't find this until hour 40. It's not marked on the map.
• Why do some enemies explode into purple goo? That's the Plague effect. Those enemies leave a poison pool on death that lasts 8 seconds. If you stand in it, you take 15 damage per second. It's the game's way of punishing you for standing still. Keep moving after kills.
• How do I unlock the secret boss? You need to collect all 6 Rune Fragments across different runs, then combine them at the altar in the hub. But you have to do it in order — Fragment A before B, etc. If you collect Fragment C first, you softlock the quest until next run. I didn't know this and wasted three runs. The order is: A (first forest area), B (cave area), C (bridge area), D (frost area), E (lava area), F (final area). Good luck.
• What does the "Luck" stat actually do? It affects relic rarity, not drop chance. Each point of Luck increases the chance of rolling a Rare relic instead of Common by about 2%. At 30 Luck, you're guaranteed Rare+ drops only. It's powerful but hard to stack. Don't waste stat points on it unless you're building a specific Luck synergy.
• Is the game pay-to-win? No. The microtransactions are cosmetic only. You can buy skins for characters. That's it. No loot boxes, no stat boosts. The devs are legit. I mention this because a friend refused to play because he "heard" it was P2W. It's not.

Look, I've spent more time in Nordic Ashes than I care to admit. I've beaten every boss on Nightmare difficulty. I've unlocked every skin. I've done challenge runs with no relics. And I still find new shit every session. The game has depth if you're willing to dig for it. But the digging part? That's where most people quit. Don't quit. The game is worth it once you stop fighting the controls and start fighting the enemies.

Now go kill some draugr. And for the love of Odin, pet the damn dog in the hub. He gives you a luck buff. Yes, really.