Dawnbringer is a hack and slash RPG on iOS and Android developed by Kiloo. It a classic high fantasy tale and has drawn inspiration from the Infinity Blade series that popularized iPhone hack and slash RPGs. The general story is that you have been stranded on Mourngard by your evil brother and you will have to vanquish an army of demons to reach him.
The control scheme is fairly simple to learn and does not require a great deal of effort to use. The world is fairly large but luckily you can turn on running automatically by tapping your finger on the screen. The rest is nothing new if you have played RPGs before, there is levelling up, crafting, and a veritable host of colourful demons to slay. In order to vanquish your demon foes, you will need the skills of true warrior, so read on for the best tips to annihilate any demon that stands in your way!
1. Learn To Parry Effectively
Parrying is when you block an opponent’s attack with your sword so that you can riposte and strike him while he is defenceless. Most RPGs have different mechanics for avoiding damage e.g. block, dodge, and parry. However, Dawnbringer only has a parry mechanic, which means that if you do not know how to parry then you will not be able to avoid any damage as there is no block or dodge mechanic in the game.
This can be quite unforgiving at times because soon the demons will start outputting large amounts of damage, which you will not be able to handle without dying. Furthermore, the tutorial is quite vague about how to actually parry properly. If you do not know how to parry properly then you will probably quit the game in frustration as even lesser demons will cause you large headaches because you will not be able to block their attacks.
So how do you parry correctly? The general idea is that you have to guess the direction that your enemy’s attack is coming from, and attack him from the same direction to block any incoming damage. This sounds simple at first, but there is only a small window of opportunity for successfully parrying a demon’s attack. If you strike too early then you will do some damage to the demon (which is great) but he will attack you before your attack animation finishes and you can parry again. If you strike too late then the demon will already have hit you.
But how do you know when the best time to attack is? Truthfully, each enemy has its own attack patterns which you will have to learn. For example, the Skulk Fiend often likes to use a downward attack and then flip his weapon and unleash a side attack. But there is a general rule that all enemy attack patterns follow. If you get the hang of it then it won’t take long for you to anticipate your enemy’s next move before he makes it.
Each and every attack is divided into 3 stages: the telegraph, the windup, and the blow itself. The telegraph is the earliest stage of an attack and it is when the demon moves its body to signal that it is ready to attack you. This is usually when his weapon starts to move away from its default position. The next stage is the windup, where the demon will move his weapon up or back to prepare to bring it down and strike you. Finally, is the blow itself, which is where the demon’s weapon connects with your body and does damage.
Generally, if you strike during the telegraph you will not be able to parry since it is too early and the demon hasn’t started moving his weapon to strike you. The best time to parry an attack is during the period between the windup and the blow itself. Once the demon has lifted his weapon and has just started bringing it down is the best time to parry. If you attack during this window there is an extremely high chance of success.
If you follow this parrying rule, then with a bit of practice the demons will have trouble landing attacks on you and you will be able to survive a lot longer.
2. Don’t Forget About Timing
Like all free to play games that you find these days on iPhone, Dawnbringer involves some waiting. Thankfully, waiting is not a core element of the gameplay like in some other games, but it is fairly important if you want to stay on top of things.
The two main events that you will be waiting for in Dawnbringer is brewing health potions and upgrading your gear. First let’s look at upgrading your gear because it is quite straightforward. When you have enough resources you can level up your equipped items so they become better, but that will take some time. This process can be hurried by spending coins but in the early game this is not a good idea as the upgrade times are generally quite short. What is best is to save all your early game coins until you can afford the second health potion slot. This is because when enemies get tougher you won’t be able to successfully parry all of their attacks, and they will be so powerful that you will need to carry two health potions into battle if you want to survive.
As you progress through the game your encounters with demons will become more and more frequent so it will be imperative that you always have a health potion handy in case a fight gets hairy. Health potions will take about two minutes to brew, but sometimes can be sped up if you watch a video. The good news is that demons won’t actually engage you by themselves. You will have to walk into their attack circle if you want to fight them. So if you haven’t prepared a potion you can brew one while patiently waiting just outside of the demon’s range. But ideally you should always have one ready and if not then you should be in the process of brewing one.
3. Watch Bosses Carefully
One of the more challenging parts of playing Dawnbringer is fighting the bosses. Usually these demons are the baddest of the bunch, and they didn’t climb to the top of the demon hierarchy by being pushovers either. Generally, bosses will have extremely large health pools and will hit for loads of damage. But they aren’t invincible because each boss has an attack pattern that can be learned and each boss has weaknesses that can be exploited.
Don’t fret it you can’t beat a boss on your first try, it’s is very difficult to do so because you are unfamiliar with their attack patterns so it is tough to judge when they are winding up or telegraphing. Furthermore, when you fight them there is less room for error as they hit like a truck. So it is best to try and learn the attack patterns of the boss when you fight him for the first time, since you will probably die anyway it is best to do so productively.
The next step to beating boss battles is to exploit their weaknesses. Although boss attacks are quite strong they are often very slow, which means there is a larger window for you to land a successful parry. Bosses will often telegraph their attacks for longer and windup for longer than normal enemies, which you can use to your advantage. Since attacking is controlled by swiping your finger across the screen, if you are quick enough you can build a decent attack speed. This means that you can deal significant damage to the boss before he attacks, but also it means greater chance of landing a successful parry and staying in the fight for longer.
4. Do Not Fear Death
The final tip is not to worry about dying in Dawnbringer. Although dying is a big deal in most other video games here you don’t have to worry about it too much. There is no penalty for dying except you respawn a bit away from the location of your death and you don’t respawn with full health. But since potions are cheap and quick to brew this is barely more than a slap on the wrist.
Another thing is that if you watch a video then the game will actually respawn you with full health. So if you don’t mind sitting through a 20 second video then actually there is no real penalty for dying. Which means you will be able to learn the enemy and boss attack patterns until you master them, without losing anything in return.
If you master these tips then the demon hordes will tremble before you and you will be able to bring your cowardly brother to justice! If there are any other tips that we missed, feel free to let us know!