Prince of Persia The Lost Crown: Beginner's Guide & Best Tips

I've been playing this game since launch, and I still die to ladder placement.

Let's be real for a second. When Ubisoft announced a new Prince of Persia game, I rolled my eyes so hard I almost pulled a muscle. Another franchise corpse getting dug up and paraded around? Then I actually played Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and I ate every single one of those words. This is the best Metroidvania I've played since Hollow Knight, and I'm including the ones that came out this year. Yes, even that one.

But here's the thing nobody tells you in the trailers: this game is hard. Not in a "oh no, I died" way. In a "I spent forty minutes trying to reach a chest that's literally three screens away" way. The movement system gives you so much freedom that you'll constantly outrun your own brain. I lost count of how many times I dashed straight into a pit because I forgot I wasn't playing the older games.

This guide isn't gonna hold your hand. I'm gonna tell you what works, what's overrated, and what'll make you uninstall in frustration. I've got about 200 hours across two save files, a platinum trophy, and a permanent callus on my thumb from the dash button. Let's get into it.

Why this game makes you want to punch your monitor (and why that's actually okay)

The Lost Crown does something insidious: it gives you a parry button immediately. You'll nail the tutorial, feel like a god, and then the first real enemy encounter happens. You try to parry a charging brute. You miss. You get stunlocked. You die. You're back at the last Wak-Wak tree, and you're thinking "this is bullshit."

It's not bullshit, but the game is deliberately fucking with your instincts. Here are the three biggest pain points I see new players hit, and yes, I hit all of them:

• The parry window is tighter than you think. It's about 8 frames at 60fps. That's not a lot. If you're mashing the button as soon as you see an enemy wind up, you're gonna eat the hit every single time. You need to wait until the attack is actually coming at you, not when the animation starts.
• The map is a liar. The game shows you where collectibles are, but it doesn't tell you that some paths require an ability you won't get for another 6-8 hours. I spent an hour trying to break a wall that needed the Gravity Wings when I hadn't even unlocked the second area yet. Don't obsess over map markers early on.
• Climbing feels janky until you unlock something specific. The wall run is fantastic. The actual vertical climbing? It's slow, the grabbing hitboxes are weirdly small, and you will miss a ledge and fall to your death because you pressed up-right instead of up-left. I lost a no-death run to a suspiciously slippery rock face. I'm not over it.

The game expects you to die. It wants you to learn the level layouts by memorizing where the spikes are. That's fine once you're in the flow, but the first time you lose 400+ time crystals because you died trying to retrieve them? That's when the rage sets in. The trick is accepting that you will lose currency. Stop hoarding it. Spend it at the Haven merchant the moment you have enough for an upgrade. A bird in the hand, etc.

Your first two hours: do this, ignore that

Alright, boot up the game. You're in the opening area. You have a sword, a bow, and a dream. Here's what you need to do to set yourself up for a good time instead of a frustrating time.

First priority: find every Wak-Wak tree. These are your checkpoints and fast travel points. Every time you enter a new biome, take ten minutes to just map the perimeter. You don't need to fight everything. You need to find the trees. I cannot stress this enough. The game's save system is generous but only if you've actually found the trees. If you're deep in a dungeon and you haven't seen one in fifteen minutes, you're probably about to get wrecked by a mini-boss. Turn around.

Second priority: upgrade your quiver once. The default arrow capacity is 3. That's a joke. The first upgrade brings it to 5. That's still not a lot, but it means you can actually use the bow for puzzle solving instead of conserving ammo like it's the last bottle of water in a desert. You don't need to upgrade damage early. You need options.

Third priority: buy the "Chakram Shield" amulet. This amulet lets you block projectiles from the front while running. It's available at the first shop after you reach the main hub. Cost? 450 crystals. That's about ten minutes of farming in the first area. It completely trivializes the archers in the second biome. Without it, you'll be dodging arrows while trying to platform, and you'll fall into pits. With it, you can just run at them and smack them in the face.

What to ignore completely in the first five hours:

• The "Money is Power" amulet. It increases damage by a percentage of your stored crystals. It sounds good. It's a trap. You'll be afraid to spend money, you'll die with a fat stack, and you'll ragequit. Ignore it until you're rich enough that the loss doesn't matter.
• Side quests from the old man in the Haven. They're just fetch quests for lore. You can do them anytime. They pay poorly. Don't let them distract you from the critical path.
• Trying to 100% the first area. As I said, you don't have the movement tools yet. The game expects you to return later. Go forward. The story progression unlocks the fun movement stuff.

One more thing about combat: The sword is faster than the bow for close range. I know the bow feels safer, but the damage difference is significant. At base level, the sword does 12 damage per hit and the bow does 8 damage per arrow. Plus you can chain sword hits into the "Sword Dance" finisher after a parry. That finisher does 35 damage and stuns everything around you. Learn the parry timing early. It's worth the deaths.

The shit that actually makes you good at this game

Okay, you've got the basics. You know how to not die constantly. Now let's talk about how to dominate. These are the tips I wish someone had told me before I wasted twenty hours being mediocre.

1. The "Air Dash Cancel" is your best friend. You unlock the air dash around the four-hour mark. Immediately, you can do this: jump, air dash forward, then immediately press jump again before the dash ends. This cancels the dash recovery frames and lets you chain another dash if you have a charge. It's not taught anywhere in the game. I found it by accident trying to dodge a boss's combo. It lets you cross gaps that are two dashes wide with only one dash charge. Practice it for five minutes. It'll save your life.

2. Boss fights are rhythm games, not fights. Every boss has a tell. For the Vahram fight (the first major boss), he has a three-hit combo. The third hit has a 1.5 second wind-up. That's your window. Parry the first hit, dodge the second, and then you get a free 2-second punish window on the third. I beat him on my fourth try once I stopped panicking and started counting. One, two, PAUSE, punish.

3. The "Shadow of the Simurgh" ability is the most broken thing in the game. You get this around mid-game. It places a time stamp that you can rewind to. You can use it to cheese every single spike pit in the game. See a jump that looks impossible? Place the stamp at the starting ledge. Miss the jump and die? Rewind. You're back at the ledge with full health. The game doesn't limit how often you can use it. I replayed the entire "Tower of Silence" sequence using this trick. It took longer, but I never died once. Use it. Abuse it.

4. Upgrade the "Titan Sword" to +5 before touching the second major side area. The Titan Sword is the slow, heavy weapon you find in the Lower City. It does 24 base damage and has a charge attack that does 55 damage and breaks enemy guards. To get it to +5, you need Iron Ore (common, found everywhere) and Frozen Steel (from the ice enemies in the Mountains). The second major side area, the "Catacombs," has enemies with 150 HP. If you don't have a +5 Titan Sword, you'll be hitting them for 12 damage and they'll regenerate. It's a slog. I spent two hours in there undergeared and I'm still mad about it.

5. The bow's "Piercing Arrow" upgrade is better than it sounds. It lets your arrows pass through enemies and hit stuff behind them. In the late-game areas where enemies stack up (looking at you, Frozen Citadel corridor), a single charged arrow can hit 3 enemies for 15 damage each. That's 45 damage for one arrow. You have 5 arrows with the quiver upgrade. That's a full room clear without ever entering melee range. Learn the charge timing. It's worth it.

Mistakes I made so you don't have to (you're welcome)

I kept track of my deaths on my first playthrough. I hit 437 total deaths before I killed the final boss. At least 100 of those were from dumb mistakes that I could have avoided if I'd just slowed down. Here's the stuff that killed me:

1. I ignored the "consumable" items until the final boss. The game gives you potions that heal 25% of your HP instantly. You can carry up to 3 if you get the pouch upgrade. I beat the first three bosses without using a single potion because I thought I'd "need them later." Dude, use them. They're cheap to buy and respawn at Wak-Wak trees. I beat the final boss on my first try because I finally chugged potions like a normal person. The game literally gives you a hotkey for them. Press R1 (or RB on Xbox) during combat. Do it.

2. I tried to parry every single attack. I mentioned the parry window is tight. Some attacks literally cannot be parried. The giant "Golem" enemies that swing their fists in a massive arc? That's a stagger attack. You can't parry it. You need to dodge sideways. I died 8 times to the first Golem because I kept trying to parry the unparriable attack. The game shows a red flash on unparriable attacks. If you see red, stop trying to be fancy. Just dodge.

3. I hoarded time crystals like a dragon. The game has a "time crystal" economy for buying upgrades and items. I had 12,000 crystals saved up when I died in a spike pit. The retrieve mechanic spawns a glowing orb where you died. But if you die again before picking it up, you lose everything. I died three times in a row trying to get my crystals back from a particularly nasty platforming section. By the end, I'd lost over 20,000 crystals. I quit for the night. The next day, I spent every crystal I had on amulets and upgrades before entering any dangerous area. I never lost a major stack again.

4. I didn't use the "Map Marker" notes feature. The game lets you place custom notes on the map. There are about 7 colors you can use. I thought it was a waste of time. Then I spent forty minutes backtracking through a whole biome because I forgot which door led to the boss arena. Now I use red markers for "need to return with better gear," blue markers for "health upgrade here," and yellow markers for "boss arena entrance." It sounds tryhard, but it saves so much time. Do it from the start.

5. I rushed the "Wind" path in the skill tree. The skill tree has three branches: Wind (speed), Earth (defense), and Fire (attack). Wind gives you faster dashes and better air control. It's tempting. It's also useless if you can't survive a single hit. I went full Wind and had 80 HP when I met the second boss. He could two-shot me. I had to restart the entire area. Put your first three skill points into Earth. Get the "Iron Skin" passive that gives +40 HP. Then you can afford to be fast. Dead speedsters do no damage.

Quick answers to shit I hear new players asking

Is this game connected to the older Prince of Persia games?
Kinda? It's a standalone story with a new protagonist (Sargon). The lore references some stuff from the original trilogy, but you don't need to have played them. The tone is much closer to the 2008 game than the Sands of Time trilogy. It's a bit more anime, a bit more power-fantasy. I like it.

How long is the game?
First playthrough, just the main story: about 20-25 hours. If you try to 100% everything (which is worth it), you're looking at 35-40 hours. The game has a lot of optional bosses and hidden areas that are genuinely challenging.

What difficulty should I play on?
Start on Normal. The game is balanced around it. Hard mode just makes enemies hit harder and have more HP, it doesn't change their AI. It's not more fun. Easy mode makes you take half damage, which is fine if you're new to action games, but the boss fights lose some of their rhythm. Normal is the sweet spot.

Can I respec my skill tree?
Yes. There's an NPC in the Haven (the old woman near the fountain) who will reset your skill points for 500 crystals. It's cheap. Don't be afraid to experiment. I respec'd twice: once to go full Earth after getting destroyed, and once to balance Fire/Earth after I got comfortable.

Are there any missable items?
Technically, no. You can return to every area after the story ends. But some items are locked behind specific story progression. If you see a chest you can't reach, just mark it on the map and come back. Nothing is permanently missable, which is a relief compared to some other games in this genre. If you enjoyed the exploration in Hollow Knight, you'll love how they handled backtracking here.

Why is the parry window so inconsistent for me?
It might be your TV's input lag. This game has a 8-frame parry window. If your display has 40ms of input lag (common on budget TVs), you're losing 2-3 frames just from display delay. Switch to "Game Mode" on your TV settings. I did this and went from missing every parry to hitting about 70% of them. It's a night and day difference.

I'm stuck on the "Sacred Archives" jumping puzzle. Help?
This is the section with the moving platforms and the spikes everywhere. Use the "Shadow of the Simurgh" time stamp at the very first platform. Then just try the jump sequence. When you die, rewind, and you're back at the start with full health. You can brute-force the puzzle this way. It takes patience but it works. I did it on my fourth attempt after failing about twenty times normal.

Best amulet setup for general use?
My "go anywhere" setup: Chakram Shield (block while running), Soman's Amulet (damage reduction at low HP), Damage Booster (+15% damage, found in the Forest area), and Quick Recovery (faster get-up after being knocked down). This covers defense, offense, and recovery. Swap Damage Booster for Elemental Resistance (from the volcanic area) if you're fighting fire enemies.

Is the bow worth using in boss fights?
For most bosses, no. The bow does less damage than the sword and bosses move too fast to line up charge shots. But there's one boss in the Water Caverns that spends half the fight flying out of melee range. For that fight, the bow is mandatory. Otherwise, keep it for puzzles and trash mobs.

Why you should stick with it after the credits roll

I almost stopped playing after the first area. The slow start made me think this was just another "pretty but shallow" action game. I'm glad I pushed through. The mid-game is where The Lost Crown finds its legs. The movement tools stack on each other in a way that makes you feel like a parkour god by hour fifteen. You'll chain wall runs, air dashes, time stamps, and plunging attacks into combos that look like choreographed fight scenes.

The game also respects your time. Once you're in the flow, the fast travel system is generous, the checkpointing is frequent enough to not be punishing, and the boss fights are mostly fair once you learn their patterns. It's not perfect — the final area drags a bit and one of the late-game bosses (the Queen of the Depths) has a hitbox that's absolute bullshit. But the highs are high.

So stick with it. Learn the parry. Mark your map. Spend your crystals. And for the love of god, don't try to parry the red attacks. Go get 'em, Sargon.