VRising is a big game, and if you’d rather keep your sun-dodging lifestyle to yourself, how the devil do you survive in this vast open world?
These V Rising tips are aimed more at the anti-social people who don’t want to join forces or go head-to-head. You’ll now know that this game from Stunlock Studios has been a massive success. Perhaps you want to get in on the action?
The following tips are based on my experience thus far. It’s in no way definitive and certainly won’t be enough for the later levels. Instead, it’ll point you in the direction of gaining enough tools to proceed.
V Rising Quick Tips
Exploration/Resources
- Your vampire’s stats relate to the gear you equip, so learn how to upgrade as a priority.
- Keep an eye on your blood (bottom centre of the HUD) as spells use it up. You’ll need to feed often.
- Pay attention to the blood percentages of your enemy – the higher they are, the better the stats you receive.
- Keep everything, including old gear. You’ll unlock a chest called The Devourer, and if you place equipment in it, it will salvage ingredients. Salvageable gear is stated on the equipment screen.
- As soon as possible, hunt and absorb the v blood from the Alpha Wolf. This is essential for travelling back and forth.
- Always stock unsullied hearts.
- Silver will stop you from being able to use abilities, and the more you carry, the more health it’ll sap.
- Keep a stash of resources to hand as your gear will break and drop your rank.
- The sun can hurt you, but dashing through the shadows can keep you alive. Never stand still or go make a coffee as the shadows will move according to where the sun is.
Building
- Build two castle hearts far from one another so that you have a place to stash gear when your inventory is full.
- Don’t focus too much on your castle when you only have wooden fortifications. When you unlock stone walls, ‘closing’ a room will build a roof to protect you from the sun.
- Keep plenty of blood essence stored in your Castle Heart, or everything will power off.
- Build plenty of storage, and perhaps consider sorting goods into their types, i.e. leather and bones in one chest, gems and silver in another. There are a lot of items in the game, and you never know when you’ll need them.
- Refinement buildings double up as storage space. Ensure you’re constantly processing items to ensure they’re available on command, but leave them in the storage until needed – i.e. planks and sawdust (the latter needn’t be carried).
Miscellaneous
- Don’t fret about your vampire’s appearance, as you’ll eventually be able to make a mirror in your castle and change it if needs be.
- Once you have the Alpha Wolf skill, use the Wolf Form and explore the map as much as possible. This will reveal fast travel points for later on.
- Each time you collect paper, store it away. When you accumulate 50, you can submit this to your research desk and unlock a new item. Sometimes it might be decorations for your castle; other times, it’s part of the Merciless armour set.
How To Get Whetstone
This sucks. You can find whetstone in human camps (the smaller ones) and leather, but the chances of finding some are minuscule. I’d write this off until you’re around level 25-30, absorb a few more skills, and then target the bosses who unlock new stuff.
Go to your Blood Altar and track Grayson the Armourer when you’re ready to fight him. Once you beat him, you’ll unlock the whetstone recipe (surprisingly, by this point, you don’t need it as much as you thought you did!)
Where To Get Unsullied Hearts
This was an early wall as unsullied hearts only drop from bosses. At first. In this case, you will have to grind/farm the lower levels, and they don’t always drop a heart.
The Alpha Wolf is the easiest boss, but depending on your level, you could pick up a good amount on the way back from a battle with Clive the Firestarter. I managed to get an Unsullied Heart from him, a rogue, the Alpha Wolf on the way back to my castle, plus a chance encounter with Lidia the Chaos Archer, using her Chaos Volley against her for the win. That was four hearts in less than 15 minutes.
Whatever you do: don’t eat the hearts, as once you’ve used your first Greater Blood Essence, you’ll need more to upgrade your accessories.
Note that some units over level 30 drop Unsullied Hearts.
Attack Playstyle
Melee weapons can be used against any enemy, but the spear is best for creatures. However, beat Rufus the Foreman, and you’ll unlock the ranged weapon, the Hunter’s Crossbow. There are no specific tips for beating him, but if you beat Keely the Frost Archer first, you can use her Frost Bat spell to slow him down. Remember to assign the spell before the battle!
My biggest tip is to stick with the Shadowbolt and Veil of Blood up to level 40. Once you beat Lidia, the Chaos Volley is the best spell for some time (remember to upgrade your accessories to boost your spell power).
Specific early bosses
A heads up: these ‘strategies’ are effectively known as cheesing. If you want to apply skill, skip these bits, but I found that these tactics helped me win when underpowered.
Keely the Frost Archer
In the centre of the camp is a well. Before you take on this boss, make sure to kill everything nearby. If there are any interruptions mid-fight, it’ll undo everything.
Circle around the well each time they fire their arrows, move in for a sneaky hit or spell, and repeat. In the second phase, avoid the circles when they cast their spell. Easy. She’ll drop the traveller’s wrap – it gives a boost to your sun protection.
Grayson the Armourer
This boss sucks. To get past the caltrops, you need to collect the armour in each corner of the screen, run through them to remove them and repeat. Unfortunately, the armour doesn’t respawn mid-battle, and other enemies (archers) are summoned, making this a pain in the arse.
Here’s my cheese recipe: fight him once, then die. Return to the battle area, but instead of going into the arena, hang around in the doorway. Equip the Chaos Volley spell you unlocked from Lidia the Chaos Archer, and use that on him each time he attacks. He’ll attempt to pull you into the arena but keep returning to the entrance, and you’ll take minimal damage and avoid all the traps.
BE WARNED: if you leave the area/he walks back to the centre of the arena, his health will fully restore.
Building Tips
Build two castle hearts, but make sure at least one of them is protected by palisades. Keep one castle for a drop off point for stats and resource making, then pick someone on higher ground to build your make castle (preferably near a teleportation area or somewhere you can farm resources).
Before building a roof, ensure you have built mist braziers to protect you from the sun. Stash bones here and toggle off during the night to save said bones. When you get a roof, reclaim the resources from the braziers.
You can only build where you have placed borders, and there’s a restriction on how many you can own. These cost blood essence and stone, so make sure you place these before expanding. Also, remember to clear the area of trees, rocks and plants. Unless you place down the floor, resources such as fibre and wood will regrow within your grounds.
Secure all areas of your castle with connecting walls and a doorway. Make sure to close it every time you enter and leave to prevent unwanted enemies from entering. Stairs allow you to ascend/descend some terrain, but be wary that anything can access this. Build a door at the top to prevent access.
The Blood Altar
The blood altar is one of the early structures, and you’ll need this to track the bosses. This doesn’t need to be easily accessed, so place it in a corner out of the way. However, be mindful that while you can view your journal and see the available bosses, you can only choose to track them directly from the altar. In other words, don’t get rid of it.
Vermin Nest
Maybe this one is based on preference, but I’d recommend making the vermin nest asap. These will help you breed rats, which can produce the vermin salve. While you can use your skills to heal during a boss fight, it’s not feasible. Vermin Salve will about keep you alive to succeed.
Servant Coffin
You can unlock a spell called Dominating Presence to lure humans to follow you. When you do this, note that you’ll keep the class they start with, i.e. a rogue will remain a rogue etc. Remember that they are vulnerable to attack, so try not to stray too far from your castle as you need to walk them back unharmed.
Conversion into a vampire takes an hour or so in real-time, but once they’re fresh out of the oven, you can assign them to protect your castle or source new gear – as long as you have the Castle Throne. They have the same vulnerabilities as vampires, but you can give them new equipment to level them up.
Do servants keep exposing your castle to enemy threats? Use a unique door that prevents them from opening it, but remember that if you send them on a task, they won’t be able to travel without you manually opening the door.
Install The Correct Floor
To maximise production, pay attention to the structure you’re building and its class. If you build and close off a room and place the appropriate floor, i.e. the sawmill is in a room with four walls, and all floor panels are the workshop floor pattern, you’ll get a +25% increase in speed to produce items and it’ll cost -25% less to make them.
V Blood Bosses (up to level 30)
It’s probably a good idea to attempt the bosses in the order they are presented. The bosses in V Rising will certainly hand your arse back to you if you aren’t careful, and even if you’re a few levels above, their habits of summoning support can thwart your progress.
In short, target the Alpha Wolf the moment you have the Blood Altar. It might not be easy at first, but it’s the easiest boss, and if you farm correctly, you can get some Unsullied Hearts early (ish) on.
Go for Keely the Frost Archer next – purely because she’s easier than Rufus the Foreman, and she’ll unlock the leather recipe. This can be used to bolster your gear and level higher.
Rufus the Foreman should be next as they’ll award the hunter’s crossbow (you have to make it first). This is the first ranged weapon other than spells and a godsend.
Who you take on next is up to you and your level, but I would say seek out Lidia the Chaos Archer, as her Chaos Volley is one of the best early spells. I met her by accident in the woods and had zero interference – it was just her to beat. She’s weak but fast, and her chaos arsenal is hard-hitting. If possible, equip your Frost Bat spell to slow her down and use a special on her (pressing Q) or your Shadowbolt (R).
After you’ve beaten her, go for Grayson the Armourer. He’s tough, but with a little cheese recipe, as seen above, much easier than Goreswine the Ravager, which was the most brutal battle (purely because it was lengthy and kept getting hijacked by a high-level NPC in the area).
My final recommendation would be to get Clive the Firestarter. Equip the crossbow, use spells on him, and keep a distance as he’ll have a wide area of attack if you get in close. He was the second easiest boss, in my opinion.
He’ll give the recipe for explosives, which might not be an incentive, but these can blow up large resources in one go. For me, it was getting rid of some rocks on my grounds.
Since writing this, I’m further ahead and exhausted my castle’s build capacity now. I’m no way near half the bosses at this stage, and if you think the enemies in your area are formidable, head North West. It’ll put things in perspective.
If anyone finds these V Rising tips helpful, I may add to them as I progress, or if anybody would like to share their own tips (you get the credit), let me know.
Enjoy, and don’t forget your sun protection.
