It has been far too long since I walked the earth. Untold centuries since I last carried the scent of prey in my nose and felt that first perfect rush of blood down my throat. I have hidden away long enough. I have pretended to be legend almost to the point I believed it myself. No longer. Tonight, I return, and the night shall grow darker for it.
Having finally left Early Access, V Rising offers players the full experience of being a vampire lord reclaiming their territory in a world which has long forgotten the threat they once posed. Of course, since it’s been a while, there’s going to be a lot of items on the “to-do” list to stage your return and reconquest of the lands of Vardoran. So this guide is here to help with ten useful hints to make those first few nights a little easier.
1. Follow The Early Quests
Your first night is mostly going to be taken up with establishing the basics, unlocking your first Bone-based weapons and early armor. Don’t shilly-shally around. The first night is all ABC: Always Be Collecting. Move fast, attack enemies to get resources like Bone and Rugged Hides, fall back just long enough to craft new gear and get it equipped before diving back into the fray. The sun will be coming up eventually, so the more you can accomplish before that first sunrise, the better off you’ll be.
2. Do Your Blood Work
When you start off, you’ve got a “Blood Pool” (that big globe in the center bottom of your screen), but it’s not great. Casting spells, fighting, harvesting resources, and even just standing still causes the Blood Pool to deplete. You’re on the clock, so make the best use of your time. By the same token, however, you can’t just drain Rats dry or snack on local wildlife or bandits willy-nilly simply to keep your tank topped up. Each creature has an inherent quality to them (which you can read under their name when you highlight them) along with a “quality” level. Every time you Feed on an enemy, it fills your Blood Pool and you gain bonuses based off the type and quality of the blood. Be selective! Find the best prey for your efforts, then spend that blood wisely. Try to avoid going for lower-quality blood unless your Blood Pool is right on the edge of complete depletion.
3. Stay In The Shade
Sunlight is not your friend. While you’ll be able to mitigate it with Cloaks and Sun Resistance Brews later on, your first morning after waking up is probably going to be either a hazardous journey towards the site of your future castle or a lot of boredom as you stand around waiting for sunset. When you first enter Farbane Woods, you’ll come out close to a Teleporter Pad. While you’ll want to make an effort to find these as a general rule, they’re vitally important to you because they’re permanently shaded. You can go about harvesting resources nearby, hunting local wildlife, and otherwise filling your bags, then chill at the Teleport Pad till the sun goes down. Take this time to look at the map, find a site that looks promising, and put a pin in it to follow for later.
If you absolutely positively have to run to your first building site while the sun’s up, you can go about things a little differently and run between the sunny spots. Look for shaded areas. As long as you dip into them, the “Sunbeam of Death” that indicates your imminent demise by solar radiation will disappear and the count will restart. This particular stratagem is complicated by the fact that the roads are not always empty, so you could run into threats which could very easily kill you, from basic bandits to Tristan The Vampire Slayer.
4. A Place To Call Home
All right, so you’ve found a spot on the map that looks nice and roomy. It’s your second night, so you’re going to be in building mode for the next several virtual hours. The early quest chain will be prompting you to build a Castle Heart to serve as the focus of your new home. You’ll need to clear some land (no Rocks, Trees, or Plant Fibers) and make sure you’re not standing in the space. Try to put it down as close to the center of the building area as possible. Once that’s done, you’ve probably got the tools to lay down some Basic Flooring around the Heart.
After the flooring, the next thing you absolutely positively need to build is a Wooden Coffin, even if your quest log says otherwise. Why? Should the sun start coming up, and you don’t have all your preparations complete, you can jump into the coffin and safely (albeit slowly) wait out the day. Even if wild creatures happen to wander into the area, you’re safe until you come out.
5. The Right Tool For The Job
Your weapons do double duty as resource harvesting tools. While it is theoretically possible to obtain resources like Wood with a Sword-type weapon, or even a Maul-type weapon, it’s not the best tool for the job. Pay attention to the “extra” damage certain weapons do to certain targets, and use appropriately. Bear in mind that you may run across specific tools which are not craftable, and not repairable, but which do even better at the resource gathering aspects despite being of a lower level than most of your crafted weapons.
6. Pump Up Those (Gear) Numbers
Your character level is the total of your armor quality for chest, hands, pants, boots, and jewelry piece combined with your currently equipped weapon. Swap to a lower quality weapon or throw on a more basic armor piece, and your character level goes down. This is not helpful to you. Higher level enemies will wreck your face badly, even if you’re on the “Relaxed” game mode. Always be looking to improve your gear. Also, mind any quest prompts you might get, such as the one to upgrade your Castle Heart. You won’t be able to put down any stone walls until it’s at Level 2.
7. Happiness Is A Cold Corpse
Once you have a secure base to operate out of, take some time to explore the surrounding areas and get the lay of the land. Chances are you’ll be prompted to do early “V Blood” hunts to unlock new abilities like the Wolf Form from Alpha. And that’s fine. But once those hunts are over, see what you can do about stockpiling resources, building up Blood Essence to keep the Castle Heart fed, and learning how best to handle certain enemies. The best teacher is actual experience, so the more “random” fights you get into with wild animals and roving patrols of bandits, the better. There’s no actual time limit (save for the slowly depleting Blood Pool level), so figure out the best routines for farming materials and get ready for big bursts of gear upgrades as a consequence.
8. Well Oiled Machines (and How To Make Them)
Building your castle is going to take a lot of work and materials. The materials you’re going to be burning up the most will be Planks (made from Wood Logs at the Sawmill) and Stone Bricks (made from Stone at the Grinder). The good news: as long as you’re not laying down flooring over a certain patch of ground, new resources will randomly appear. The bad news: it’s going to take a lot of resources to turn your modest little hovel into a sufficiently grandiose fortress for one of your stature. You’ll notice that refiners and workbenches have a tag on them, such as “Forge” on the Furnace or “Alchemy” on the Blood Press. By putting these constructs into discrete rooms (and later on adding the appropriate floor options), you’ll save yourself some time and (later) resources when you start turning raw materials into refined materials. A 3×3 grid for a room should easily fit your early workspaces.
9. Always Have Travel Plans (And Alternate Routes)
When you go out to hunt at night, whether it’s a V Blood hunt or just random roaming, it’s a good idea to not only have your destination in mind, but also knowing how to get there and back before sunrise. Certain sections of the map are divided by mountains and bottomless chasms. Most times, there are bridges to cross, but, when there isn’t, the knowledge of how to get around these obstacles is something one should develop as soon as possible. Additionally, knowing when and where to get off the road to avoid overwhelming threats is vitally important. Running into Tristan The Vampire Slayer will generally lead to a gory demise if you’re not suitably prepared. Plus, there’s some ponce named Simon Belmont who also has taken to the roads of late. Best to avoid him for now.
10. Loot Adrift Is A Gift (Usually)
The corpses of your enemies will leave all sorts of interesting loot behind. All of it will be useful in one capacity or another, whether it’s raw materials like Stone or Wood, items like varieties of Fish, or other crafting components like Coarse Thread. However, the most valuable will be Copper Coins, Paper, and Silver Coins. Copper Coins can be used to buy materials of all sorts from the Shady Merchants camp, from various books containing different blueprints for armor and weapons to different herbs or gems. Paper, once you have a Research Desk, will allow you to unlock new blueprints yourself up to a certain point, as well as let you craft Scrolls for the Study later on.
Silver Coins, however, present a problem. They’re needed as materials for crafting higher quality inventory-expanding bags later on. Additionally, vendors in the Dunley Farmlands only take Silver Coins as payment. The problem: carrying Silver Coins inflicts a persistent debuff on you, causing you to take damage over time. The more Silver Coins you’re carrying, the more health you lose. If you’re close to your castle, and you’re willing to gut it out, you can transport the coins and dump them in a storage chest for later. If you’ve unlocked the Silver Resistance Brew, you can carry a number of Silver Coins safely without the debuff being applied. Go over that threshold, though, and you start losing health again. Or, if you’re patient and have a lot of Vermin Salves or Blood Rose Brews on hand, you can carry the coins part of the way, drop them in a shady spot, then take your medicine to regain health before picking the coins back up and continuing on your merry way. However you do it, handle Silver Coins with care, because they will be important later.
With these tips in hand, your first nights in V Rising will likely go a lot smoother than you might think. There’s still going to be challenges, but your first steps to reclaiming Vardoran will be solid. Make sure to check out GameLuster’s other V Rising guides for more tips to help you claim your vampiric domain.
