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Glory Ages: Samurais Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Defeat Your Enemies

You have a sword. Those guys have swords too, and you must’ve done something to dishonor them, their Daimyo, or their family, because they want your head on a pike. Why stop with dishonoring them at this point, so it’s time to make them taste folded steel. Welcome to our Glory Ages: Samurais beginner’s guide!

Glory Ages: Samurais is a slow-paced yet tense swordfighting game akin to Ronin: The Last Samurai, but in all honesty, much simplified and more agressive. While in Ronin you have to think about your build much harder and pray for good luck to get good starting modifiers every level, in Glory Ages: Samurai, it’s down to the bare essentials: Patiently waiting for a good opening, then attacking with frosty ruthlessness and timing once the opportunity presents itself, rinse and repeat. An emphasis on timing and waiting for the right moment to strike and strike hard, slow but methodical movement, and patience reigns in this game.

glory ages samurais guide

All levels involve defeating a set number of samurai, who will appear in fixed groups depending on the level. Or in Endless mode, waves of enemies that appear endlessly, essentially a normal level except randomized and it only ends when you’re dead. The major threat in the game isn’t the stronger boss enemies, at least if they appear alone: The main problem is getting cornered, either by the map edges or by a gang of swordsmen surrounding you completely.

Everything you will do typically revolves around not letting that happen, whether it be aggressively picking off enemies or dancing around the screen with dodge rolls and your admittedly slow walking feet. If they corner you, they can easily put you in a blender of multiple people pulling combos, basically stunlocking you until you’re a gross red slushie. Or if you remember to block, make you stuck there until you think of a plan. And we’re here to help you do the same to them instead!

glory ages samurais fight

Keep in mind though that none of these tips are hard rules: They’ll help in general, but you may sometimes find them worth breaking during really weird situations. Like say, if a boss constantly splits off from his protective mooks: Normally you want to kill a squad boss last, though if he’s making himself vulnerable, you might as well feed him your sword!

So without further ado, let’s get started with our Glory Ages: Samurais beginner’s guide, as we share with you some tips, tricks and strategies to defeat your enemies!

ON THE ATTACK

Cautious aggression is important in this game. Even if the enemy is guarding, it may be in your best interest to hammer them with your sword, as hitting the enemy, even if they block, expends their stamina and makes them more vulnerable to getting hit. You must also seek any opening available to drop your sword onto the enemy’s skull.

That being said, being carelessly violent is a great way to get cornered and shredded by multiple enemies at once. Here are some thoughts on applying measured murder onto the enemy’s faces.

One At A Time

glory ages samurais lineup

When fighting groups, it’s a good idea to focus on one opponent at a time, if possible. 4 nearly dead enemies are still a greater threat to you than 3 enemies at full health, because of the risk of being cornered.

Targeting prioritizes enemies closest to you, so it’s usually a good idea to move in such  a way that enemies might line up against you. Not only will allowing too many enemies to surround you make you prone to being stunlocked by all of them, it also makes it more difficult to target a single enemy.

Exploit Openings

glory ages samurais opening

Sometimes, you may see enemies split off from the main group, enemies that go in after you even as their buddies hang back in a  tight formation to keep themselves protected, the enemy formation loosening as if they’re trying to surround you too early, or even some absolute moron taunting you.

That’s an open invitation for you to strike, as such enemies make very good targets. If the enemy splits off from the main group, then their buddies can’t come to their aid once you jam your katana into their eye socket. Trying to attack a tightly knit group on the other hand is asking for trouble, as they’ll easily gang up on you.

Kill The Weaklings First

glory ages samurais mooks first

Between 3 mooks and a boss popping out at the same time, kill the mooks first if you don’t have a Fury charge ready.  Bosses are big, tempting targets and that’s exactly what they’re counting on: Think of them less as a leader and more a squad tank, since they’re much bulkier than the mooks. Focusing the boss down first will usually lead to you being flanked by his flunkies, which is the worst thing that can happen in this game.

On the other hand, once all a boss’ mooks are dead, then it’s simply down to fighting the boss carefully and watching your stamina bar, since they’re the only ones strong enough that can outlive your stamina bar during your attack. If he’s alone, it’s easier to back off from him than if his mooks are alive. On the other hand, if you have a Fury charge ready, go nuts!

Commit To The Attack

glory ages samurais violence

Once you’ve spotted said opening in the enemy team, apply hard pressure to the enemy. Do not button mash, but beat the enemy down coldly and mercilessly using measured, repeated attacks, timing your tablet taps with the attack animations your character is doing.

While being overly cautious may be tempting so you can protect yourself, you might give the enemy time to regroup and protect their weakened ally if you’re not aggressive enough in your strike. Don’t do that. Always remember that the main threat is being surrounded, and the fewer enemies there are, the harder it is for them to surround and corner you. In the end, the best defense is a particularly violent offense.

Only detach from the attack if things get too hot, such as the enemy’s friends getting an opening on you and attacking, their group successfully moving into a tighter formation with your target, or if you’re low on stamina and your target is either not alone or still has too much stamina or HP himself. Then you reposition and patiently wait for another opportunity.

Power of Fear

glory ages samurais whoa dude chill

Another thing the tutorial doesn’t tell you but you will eventually notice, especially if you get one of the longer kill animations: Enemies have a tendency to flinch in horror when you kill someone a bit too close to them. This means the opening of a fight is the hardest part, but you can quickly snowball until the enemy team is dead. After you kill your first target in a group, strike aggressively while the enemy wets their hakamas.

You can get a solid hit or two in while they flinch, and even if you don’t get the time to do it, their flinching usually makes them back away, ruining whatever tight formation grouping they had to protect themselves with. Thus making it harder for them to gang up on you. And no, enemies marked as bosses are not immune to this! Note in the image that the player is out of stamina though, which leads to…

Button Mashing: Tired Thumbs, Tired Samurai

glory ages samurais whoops

You can get away with button mashing in the first couple of fights, but later on you’ll notice that doing this will get you killed. You should always keep an eye on your stamina meter, since even though you can swing your blade even as your stamina runs low, you can’t dodge unless you have enough of it.

Also, low stamina attacks are typically slower and less effective, though sometimes using one to finish off the last enemy is better than letting said enemy catch their breath. Being unable to dodge is a death sentence if the enemy starts crowding you, and even if they aren’t, it’s still incredibly annoying to deal with.

Tapping the attack button calmly and in time with your character’s attack animations is generally safer than hammering the button, and makes it easier to keep track of your stamina and dodge at the right time.

Holding A Grudge

glory ages samurais fury

So you can watch an ad at the start of every battle to immediately fill your Fury meter. You’ve been watching the ad every fight just in case you’re gonna need to pop a Fury boost to get yourself out of trouble.

If so, you’ve been wasting time, since the Fury bar persists across battles, even through Endless mode. If you didn’t use your full Fury bar this level, or even for several levels in a row, then you won’t need to watch an ad the next level to refill it. Of course, if you used it the level before, go watch the ad.

ON GUARD

glory ages samurais overwhelmed

In battle, as important as aggression is, you will need to keep a quick wit about you and protect yourself. You’ll need to keep a constant eye on your stamina meter, as dodging is your main form of defense, with blocking being something you do to buy time and think of a plan when things get bad.

Running out of stamina is a hazard, and being cornered while this happens is near-guaranteed death. Here are some thoughts on defending yourself and keeping your innards sword-free.

Blocking And When To Do It

glory ages samurais block

The best time to use blocking is when you’ve been cornered, or are too low on stamina to dodge. While you block, enemies cannot damage you, but you can’t hit them back and you move very slowly. That being said, you ARE able to move, and you can inch your way into a better position.

And most importantly, your stamina will refill even while blocking attacks. Most of the time it is preferable to dodge so you can take advantage of an enemy’s opening, but if you’ve been cornered or heavily surrounded, the enemy has a wonderful habit of stunlocking you to death, with one enemy picking up the other’s slack once their combo ends.

Once you notice this happening, hold down the block button and move your butt out of there, whether by walking, kicking an enemy or dodge-rolling out of the crowd until you can fight back. Preferably dodge-rolling, since it is very difficult to move while being hammered during a block.

Dodge Button: You Can Also Kick With It!

glory ages samurais kick

The Dodge Button is normally used to dodge. However, if you’re heavily cornered or moving the digital joystick toward your current target while you tap the dodge button, your character will kick the enemy out of the way instead.

While this is very useful for wrecking an enemy’s formation and allowing you to escape, just remember that this might happen if you were trying to dodge instead. You don’t want to kick while you’re trying to dodge, and vice versa. Again, this costs stamina, so keep an eye on your stamina bar while you do this.

Slowmo Dodging

glory ages samurais battle

When an enemy counterattacks you, you’ll notice time slow down. The tutorial would tell you this is a good time to dodge. What it doesn’t tell you is that this is also the perfect time to counter-counterattack! Their counterattack combos tend to leave them wide open after the fact, allowing you to cut them even more open than they already are, after you’ve avoided it with your dodge.

Of course, the enemy combo being long means if you fail to dodge, there goes a chunk of your HP. Sometimes, you can even attack successfully instead of dodging while the slowmo is on, though this is fairly risky, and best done if your opponent is out of stamina.

Map Edges Are Death

glory ages samurais a giant problem

Don’t ever let yourself get cornered by the enemy. If you find yourself almost up against the level’s edge, run away if you have to. And try not to get yourself in a fight while the enemy is tightly formed around you.

Always wait for their formation to break so you can more easily take them one one by one. It’s not like your enemies fight honorably anyway, since they’re ganging up on you in groups of five even early on: It’s all fair game.

Furious Charge

glory ages samurais wasteful

Seeing as a full Fury bar is only good for a single fight and not even a whole level, save it for when you’re in real trouble. Never use it for anything less that 4 opponents at once unless it’s the last fight, as the main threat in this game is the prospect of getting cornered.

Don’t even use it against lone bosses since no matter how strong a boss is, it’s not like they can corner you. Fury against two bosses would be fine, but always prioritize enemy count over the strength of individual foes.

Lying Number Counter

glory ages samurais miscount

Never trust the enemy number counter. Rarely, the game will tell you that there are fewer enemies left than there actually are, leading to you getting ambushed by 5 foes at the end of a level even when the enemy counter says there’s only 2 enemies left.

Though, any extras will appear at the final battle rather than having new encounters appear once you’ve reached zero or negative enemies left. This is why if you’ve got a full Fury bar, you either use it against a group of 4 or bigger, or on the final fight, even if it looks like the final battle might only have 1 or 2 guys based on the counter.

Damage Consistency

glory ages samurais suddenly dead

The HP and Stamina bar of the enemy go hand in hand with each other and both are reduced with your sword hitting the enemy. Keep in mind that while HP damage can be a bit inconsistent (Sometimes, you’ll take 3 hits to kill a mook down to their HP, sometimes you might kill them in a single blow), stamina damage is often quite consistent and barring an enemy forgetting to block or parry, you can be certain how much damage you’ll do to their stamina bar. Keep this in mind so you can at least control your combos and not overextend them during a group fight.

THE STATS

glory ages samurais stats

There are three stats in the game: Attack, Stamina, and Health. Understanding which stats to prioritize is important, as most games play a certain way which sometimes favor one stat over the others. For this game in particular, the order of priority is Attack, Stamina, then Heath. Attack allows fights to end quickly and thus lessen your likelihood of being cornered. Stamina is needed for dodging, again needed to prevent cornering and to avoid attacks.

Health is there mostly so a mistake isn’t completely crippling, though it winds up last because no matter how much HP you have, being cornered is likely to kill you, so avoiding getting cornered in the first place is a higher priority. Here are the stats, and a tip about unlocking characters.

Attack: A Sharp Blade Is A Happy Blade

glory ages samurais swords

The existence of the Fury bar and how it works makes attack power a high priority stat to focus on, with stamina second and health dead last. Fury lasts long enough to get you through a single fight in a level, and basically makes you invincible for the duration. Raising your damage power so you make absolutely sure the encounter dies is a good idea.

There is also that slight chance of flinching enemies when you get a kill, so having high attack power will let you more easily start a kill chain. Attack also increases how much Stamina you blow out of the enemy every time they block one of your attacks, making it easier to crack them and their HP bar open. You can either raise this by buying a new Sword, or by adding a stat point to Attack. As for Stamina and Health…

Stamina: The True Defensive Stat

glory ages samurais energy

Stamina is the second most important stat, since you use that to protect yourself. Dodging attacks and swinging your sword costs stamina, and getting caught without it will usually get you killed if you aren’t careful. Having a high stamina stat allows you to be highly aggressive and still protect yourself, and allows you to win out in stamina-draining beatdowns against blocking opponents. You’ll usually know it’s time to attack once your stamina bar is full, if you’ve been blocking and forced to back off for a bit.

While you can swing your blade at low stamina, it’s generally not advised as your attacks will be a bit slower and more limp doing so, and you will be left open since you’re unable to dodge or kick enemies out of your way. You can raise (or decrease depending on your choice) Stamina by buying a character, or adding a point to your Stamina stat.

Health: Mostly For Forgiving Mistakes

glory ages samurais balance

Health is the least important of the stats, because the game already gives you quite a few strong defensive options from the Stamina stat, and the main threat in the game is something HP won’t really help you with. No amount of HP will save you if you get stunlocked, and blocking negates damage for no cost at all while still letting you move, so you really have no reason to let such a disaster touch your HP bar anyway.

HP is mostly there to forgive you for making smaller mistakes, like mistimed sword attacks leaving you open for an enemy’s blade, and the unlockable characters typically have enough HP for that purpose anyway. That being said, don’t neglect it completely: The next point you put in HP might just save you from getting oneshotted by a boss. Getting health is the same as getting stamina, as it is tied to the character you pick, and you can add points to it too.

Skipping Stones

glory ages samurais endgame

Eventually, you’ll earn enough gold coins to get a new character. While sadly, the strongest characters are behind a paywall of real money, the characters you can get for gold are typically good enough. This writer’s suggestion is to skip the first set of characters and immediately go for the first female samurai, since she and her higher tier versions have balanced stats, with enough health to not need upgrades for a long time, and enough stamina that regular upgrades will keep you using her for quite a while.

After that, you’ll mostly spend your money on better swords, then try to get the geisha girl who has overall higher stats across her multiple tiers. Or if you’re confident in your dodging ability and aren’t patient enough to grind, you can get the old man, who trades HP for loads of stamina. You can also skip a couple of swords every upgrade too, since gold rewards for missions get bigger the further you are in the game.

And this ends our beginner’s guide for Glory Ages: Samurais. We hope this helps you on your quest to stab everyone who seeks to dishonor you and your name. If you have your own tips or tricks to add, feel free to leave them in the comments below!