Ultrakill: Beginner's Guide & Best Tips

Why I'm Writing This And Why You Should Care

Alright, so you bought ULTRAKILL because the trailer made it look like the second coming of Quake meets John Wick and now you're stuck on the second layer wondering if your reflexes are just broken. I get it. I spent my first three hours dying to a single Gabriel phase because I thought I could tank hits like Doomguy. You can't. This game will piss you off, make you question your hand-eye coordination, and then give you the biggest dopamine hit of your life when you finally style on a boss without taking damage.

I've got about 300 hours in this game. I've P-ranked everything on Brutal. I've broken my mouse button on Minos Prime. I'm not saying this to flex — I'm saying this so you trust me when I tell you that the game is fair, but it does a terrible job of explaining itself. The tutorial teaches you to punch, shoot, and slide. That's like teaching someone to press the gas pedal and calling them a race car driver. There's layers here, and most of them are buried under "figure it out yourself or die."

This guide is for the player who's stuck on V2 or keeps dying to random Stalkers in the sewers. I'm going to show you the stuff the game doesn't say out loud. If you're here for the lore about Hell being a computer or whatever, go watch a YouTube video. I'm here to make you stop dying.

Why This Game Makes You Want To Throw Your Keyboard

Let's be honest about the bullshit you're dealing with. ULTRAKILL has a difficulty curve that looks like a cliff. The first level is a breeze. The second level is fine. Then you hit the Cerberus fight and suddenly the game decides you need to learn air movement, projectile management, and aggressive parrying all at once. That's not a skill check — that's a hazing ritual.

The biggest pain point for new players is the style meter. This thing is supposed to be your friend, but it feels like the game is grading your performance while you're fighting for your life. The problem is that the game's health system is tied to style. If you aren't switching weapons, using dashes offensively, and incorporating ground slams, your health stays low and you die faster. It's a feedback loop that punishes playing safe — which is what every new player naturally does.

Second major pain point: resource management. You have health, stamina, style, and three weapon slots that all do different things. Trying to figure out which gun to pull out when a Maurice is charging its laser and a Filth is rushing you is overwhelming. There's no pause button mid-combo. You either have the muscle memory or you eat shit.

Third: the coin mechanic. Everyone tells you to use the Marksman revolver's coin shot. Nobody tells you that the timing is tighter than a drum and that half the time the coin spawns in a wall or a ceiling and you just waste a shot. I spent a whole playthrough thinking the coin was useless because I couldn't land it. Turns out, you have to aim slightly above the coin's spawn point to catch it. The game doesn't tell you that.

And finally, bosses that heal. Gabriel, Minos, Sisyphus — these guys will regenerate health if you don't stay aggressive. That design punishes the "hide behind a pillar and shoot" strategy that works in every other shooter. You have to stay in their face, which means you have to learn the movement system before you learn the combat system.

I'm telling you all this so you know you're not bad at video games. The game is just mean. It expects you to understand its systems without ever explaining them. That's where I come in.

Day One: What The Tutorial Doesn't Tell You

You finish the tutorial. You shoot some Filth. You feel good. Now here's what you actually need to do before you touch Prelude again.

First: rebind your keys. The default controls are fine for a casual playthrough but they're terrible for high-level movement. Bind your jump to a mouse thumb button if you have one. Bind dash to something you can hit without moving your fingers off WASD. I use Shift for dash and Space for jump, but I've seen pros use Right Click for slide. Do what works, but don't keep the defaults. You will need to slide-jump-dash-chain in a split second and you can't do that if your hands are doing origami on the keyboard.

Second: learn the slide-jump combo before anything else. It's stupid simple but game-changing. Slide (hold crouch while moving) + jump gives you a speed boost that carries momentum. This is how you dodge boss attacks, cross gaps, and style on enemies. Do this for five minutes in the tutorial room before you fight anything. I cannot stress enough how much of the game is built around this one input.

Third: your starting weapons are better than you think. The Piercer Revolver does 30 damage per shot and hitscan. That's your bread and butter. But the real power is the alt-fire charge shot — hold right click, release, and you get an explosion that does 80 damage in a small AoE. This kills groups of Filth instantly and staggers bigger enemies. Most new players never use it because they think charge shots are for sniping. No, charge shot is your panic button when three Stalkers pop out of the ground.

Fourth: the shotgun is a movement tool, not a weapon. I know it says "shotgun" and you want to blast things. Fine, do that. But the pump shot (knuckleblaster variant) sends you flying backward. You can use this to create distance, dodge attacks, or even reach platforms you can't jump to. The core eject gives you a timed explosive you can shoot mid-air for extra height. If you're only using the shotgun for damage, you're using 10% of its potential. This is similar to the rocket jump tech in Team Fortress 2 — check out our Team Fortress 2 guide if you want to see how explosive movement translates to other games.

Fifth: health management is a separate skill. You heal by dealing damage in stylish ways. Parrying (punching a projectile back at the enemy) gives you a big chunk of health. Finishing an enemy with a melee attack gives you health. But the most reliable way to heal is getting close to enemies and shooting them. The closer you are, the more style you get, the more health you recover. This is why camping at range kills you — you do less damage and get less healing. The game literally forces you to be aggressive.

The Good Shit: Stuff That Takes You From Dead Meat To Machine

Alright, you've got the basics. Now let's talk about the stuff that separates players who beat the game from players who style on it.

1. Weapon swapping is your primary weapon. You have three weapon slots. Each weapon has its own cooldowns and ammo pools. If you shoot the Piercer five times, it overheats. Switch to the Shotgun, shoot twice, switch to the Marksman, throw a coin, swap back. The game rewards constant rotation. A common beginner mistake is sticking to one weapon until it runs out. Instead, fire two shots from everything and rotate. You'll never reload, never overheat, and your style meter will skyrocket.

2. The railcannon is not optional. There are two variants: the Electric Railcannon (does 100 damage, chains to nearby enemies) and the Maurice's Eye Railcannon (does 200 damage, hits one target). Most players ignore the railcannon because the charge time seems too long for a fast game. Here's the trick: you can charge it while sliding or jumping. Start charging the railcannon as you slide toward a group of enemies, release it at the last second. Instant room clear. The railcannon also interrupts boss attacks. If you see Gabriel winding up his sword slam, hit him with the railcannon and he cancels. Free damage window.

3. Parrying is not just for projectiles. You can parry melee attacks from almost every enemy. The timing is tight — hit the punch button just before the attack connects. The reward is huge: you stun the enemy, deal 50 damage, and heal for 30 health. Against Minos Prime, parrying is basically mandatory. His kick attack is parryable and leaves him open for 3 seconds. Without parries, that fight is a 10-minute endurance test. With parries, it's a 3-minute execution.

4. Use the environment. Every level has explosive barrels, breakable pillars, and environmental hazards. The Flesh Prison fight has these glowing cores you can shoot to stagger the boss. The Gabriel arena has pillars you can slide around to break his line of sight. Don't just stare at the boss — look at the room. This is something people who play a lot of Dark Souls already know — check out our Dark Souls guide for more on environmental awareness in boss fights. The same principle applies here.

5. The "whiplash" (arm grapple) is a get-out-of-jail-free card. You get this after the first few levels. It pulls you toward enemies or enemies toward you. Most people use it to close distance. The pro move is to use it to dodge. If a Maurice shoots a laser, grapple to a Filth that's off to the side. You'll zip out of the laser's path without using your dash. This saves your dash for the follow-up attack. The whiplash also interrupts enemy actions. Grappling a Sentry cancels its charge-up. Use this constantly.

6. Aerial mobility is king. The ground is a kill box. Try to be airborne as much as possible. Double jump + dash + slide cancel gives you a three-dodge combo that covers half the arena. Practice staying off the ground for 10 seconds without touching the floor. If you can do that, you can dodge anything. This is especially useful against V2 and Gabriel, whose ground attacks are devastating but whose aerial tracking is weak.

7. Don't sleep on the feedbacker. Your left hand (punch) is the Feedbacker. It parries, it interrupts, and it does 30 damage per hit. But the real secret is that punching your own shotgun blast creates a timed explosive. Fire the shotgun at your feet, punch the pellets as they come out, and you get a delayed detonation that hits enemies behind cover. This is advanced tech, but it's how you destroy a room full of Stalkers without getting hit once.

Dumb Ways To Die: What Got Me Killed 400 Times

I died on 0-1 ten times because I didn't understand the controls. Don't be me. Here's the mistakes that will kill you over and over until you fix them.

• Standing still to aim. This game punishes you for stopping. You should be sliding, jumping, or dashing at all times. Your aim will suck at first, but you'll get used to it. Standing still to line up a shot gets you killed by a stray Filth projectile or a Sentry beam. Practice flicking while in motion.
• Using the Marksman coin as your primary damage. The coin shot does 50 damage. That's decent. But the recovery time after a missed coin is brutal — you can't shoot or move for half a second. Don't coin unless you're at mid-range with a clear shot. Doing it point-blank against V2 is suicide because he'll hit you during the recovery.
• Ignoring the background enemies. In later levels, enemies spawn in waves. New players tunnel vision on the big guy and get shredded by the Schism that's been shooting them from behind for the last 10 seconds. Check your surroundings every 3 seconds. Use audio cues — you'll hear a Stalker clank before it attacks.
• Forgetting to heal. You have no health regeneration outside of combat. If you're at 30 HP, you can't just hide and wait. You have to go find an enemy and style on them. I've seen people die to Gabriel because they ran away to find health, but there is no health on the map. The health is in the fight. Stay aggressive.
• Using the shotgun as a crutch. The shotgun does 40 damage per pellet (5 pellets). That's 200 damage at point-blank. That's great. But the reload is slow and the spread is wide. If you miss a shotgun blast at medium range, you're stuck in a 1-second recoil animation. Use it at close range or not at all. The Piercer is better at mid-range anyway.
• Dying to fall damage. This sounds stupid, but it happens constantly. You slide off a ledge and don't recover. You can slide-cancel before you hit the ground to negate fall damage. If you see a big drop, slide and jump right before you land. You'll take zero damage.
• Not using the style meter to know when you're in danger. The style meter shows letters: D, C, B, A, S, P. If you're at D or C, you're not dealing enough damage and your healing is nerfed. If you're at A or S, you're golden and healing like crazy. If you see the meter stuck at D, don't keep doing what you're doing — switch weapons, get closer, do something flashy. The meter is your health bar's silent partner.

My personal dumbest death: I was fighting Minos Prime with full health and S-rank style. I got greedy and tried to parry his wind-up punch. I missed the timing by a frame. He one-shot me from 100 HP. I sat there staring at the loading screen for a full minute. Don't parry unless you're sure. If you're not confident, dodge. Parrying is for when you know the timing, not when you hope for it.

Questions You're Too Proud To Ask

Q: How do I get the Marksman's coin to actually hit something?
A: Fire the coin above the target's head. The coin spawns in front of you at a fixed distance. If you aim at the enemy's feet, the coin will be behind them. Aim at the sky above their head, shoot the coin, then immediately shoot the coin. Practice on the stationary Filth in level 0-1. You'll get the timing after 20 tries.

Q: What difficulty should I play on for my first run?
A: Harmless is too easy and teaches bad habits. Standard is where the game feels balanced. Violent is for masochists who've already beaten the game. Start on Standard. Don't listen to people who say "start on Violent or you're a casual." They're gatekeeping. The game on Standard is still hard enough that you'll die 50 times.

Q: Why do I keep randomly dying to Gabriel's light beams?
A: Those beams are from Maurice enemies that are off-screen. You didn't clear the arena before triggering the boss. In 4-4 and 7-4, kill every enemy in the main arena before you move to the boss trigger. If you rush, you'll have five Maurice shooting lasers at you while you fight Gabriel. Take your time.

Q: Is the Rocket Launcher any good?
A: It's situational. The rocket does 100 damage with a big blast radius, but the travel time is slow and enemies can dodge it. It's good for clearing groups of Filth and Stalkers but terrible against bosses. Don't buy it as your first weapon. Get the Shotgun variants first. The Rocket Launcher is a luxury item.

Q: How do I P-rank a level?
A: You need three things: S-rank or higher on time, style, and kills. You must also not die and not use any checkpoints. That means you have to beat the level in one life. The best way to P-rank 0-1 is to go fast. Ignore secrets, kill everything in your path, don't stop moving. Practice the route until you can do it without thinking. Then do it faster.

Q: Can I play this game with a controller?
A: You can. I don't recommend it. The movement precision required for slide-cancelling and aerial dodging is easier on keyboard. Controller is fine for casual play but you'll hit a wall on Brutal difficulty. If you're serious about the game, learn M+KB. It's worth the adjustment.

Q: What's up with the Secret Bosses?
A: There are secret bosses hidden in certain levels. 0-E and 4-E have challenging fights that reward you with unique costumes. These are harder than the main bosses. Don't attempt them until you've beaten the game on Standard. They expect you to know the movement system inside out. If you're struggling with Gabriel, you're not ready for Minos Prime.

Q: Why does my game keep crashing on 7-3?
A: That level is known for performance issues. Turn down your shadow quality and texture resolution. Also, V-Sync can cause stuttering. Turn it off and cap your framerate at 144 FPS or 60 FPS. If it still crashes, verify game files through Steam. There's a known memory leak issue that the devs are patching.