10 beginner tips you need to know before starting Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
A crown is not the only thing that is lost Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. The design often leaves you wondering what to do, where to go, and how to get there – in other words, lost.
Yes, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a faithful Metroidvania, with all the backtracking and neatly spaced upgrades that the genre brings. That’s on top of a nuanced and often difficult combat system. Here are 10 beginner tips Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.
Play in guided mode
Image: Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft via Polygon
When you start Prince of Persia: The Lost Crownyou get the choice between two game modes:
- Exploration mode is exactly what it sounds like, giving you minimal clues as to where to go for story missions and side missions.
- Guided mode offers a bit more structure and highlights the objectives on your map. Guided mode also indicates whether or not you can access certain passages depending on the upgrades you’ve unlocked.
If you’re up for a bigger challenge and don’t mind getting lost every now and then, opt for exploration mode. But for our money, Guided mode is the way to go. The icons are unobtrusive for the most part (they only appear when you open the map). Knowing immediately that you cannot follow a certain route will save you wasted time looking for a solution that isn’t there. Plus, don’t worry: you’ll probably still get lost every now and then.
And if you ever want to take the training wheels off, you can always change the mode in the game settings.
Fariba will give you hints
If you’re ever stuck, head to the Haven – your hub area, located in the Lower City – and talk to Fariba (who is next to the Mage shop). For 30 time crystals she will give you a vague hint as to where to go. The hints are never as explicit as “Go here and do this.” But she can tell you that a winged statue can help you ascend to a new area, meaning you should look for a statue that fits that description. Her advice is especially useful if you’re playing in exploration mode.
Don’t miss the bonus tutorials
There even is more tutorial that goes beyond the first tutorial stage, and it’s all really useful: you learn new tricks and earn free money.
In the Harbor, talk to Artaban (in the northeast corner). He offers a series of lessons that build on moves you learned in the first tutorial, and teach knowledge you might otherwise have missed, like being able to deflect projectiles or create combos with your bow. You’ll also earn 50 Time Crystals (the standard in-game currency of The lost crown) for each tutorial you complete.
New tutorials become available regularly as you unlock more and more skills The lost crown. Come back regularly to use it.
Don’t try to counter everything
Image: Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft via Polygon
If you skip the optional tutorials, at least take the time to master your parries – easily the most valuable move at your disposal. To know when to parry or not, look at your enemy’s attack and see if it gives off a sparkle of a certain color:
- White attacks can be parried.
- Yellow attacks can be parried. Successfully deflecting a yellow attack will instantly kill the cannon fodder enemies and deal a ton of extra damage to the bosses.
- Red attacks cannot be parried. Practice your dodge!
Follow the golden leaves
Wak-Wak trees are essentially the control points of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Interacting with it restores your health and arrows, and gives you the chance to change your equipped amulets (accessories that grant perks) or Athra blasts (special moves). If you die, you will respawn at the Wak-Wak tree you last touched, indicated by a blue circle on your map, like so:
Image: Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft via Polygon
As you search for the nearest Wak-Wak tree, look for the golden leaves floating in the wind:
Image: Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft via Polygon
If you follow the direction of the wind you will come to a Wak-Wak tree. However, keep in mind that interacting with a tree will cause all enemies to respawn.
Check for hidden walls
Image: Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft via Polygon
In The lost crown, most walls are just walls, but some are hidden doors. It looks like a normal wall. Your card gives no indication that there is anything on the other side. But when you hit the wall, it starts to glow; a few more hits will cause it to collapse, revealing a new passageway or a room with treasure.
Basically, if you ever reach a dead end, hit all the walls in the room to make sure you don’t miss a hidden door.
Don’t worry about dying
Dying inside Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown isn’t as big of an issue as it is with other genre mainstays – a good thing considering how tough the combat is. Each time you die you lose a few time crystals, but you don’t have to trek all the way back to where you died to regain the rest. Hollow Knightthis is not.
During big boss fights, respawning is even more forgiving. You aren’t even sent back to a Wak-Wak tree and even have the option to simply start over from the beginning of the battle. (However, if you want to replace your amulets and Athra waves, you must return to the nearest Wak-Wak tree.)
Memory Shards can help you return
Image: Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft via Polygon
It’s the golden rule of the genre: if you can’t do X, come back when you’ve got Y. You might come across an unbreakable, cracked wall that emits golden light, or a hole that you clearly can’t jump over. In Prince of Persia: The Lost Crownyou don’t have to memorize these obstacles.
Pressing the D-pad uses a resource called a ‘memory shard’ which marks the location on your map And takes a screenshot of it. You can view those screenshots from your map at any time, so you can check out the room before you go all the way back and realize: no, you don’t actually have the necessary upgrade yet.
However, keep in mind that memory shards are a limited resource and you won’t get them back after you delete them from your card.
First upgrade your potion capacity
At merchants in the Haven you can improve the strength of your swords and bow, as well as increase the number of potions you can carry and how strong those potions are. Buy an extra drink before investing in anything else. Early on, when you’re low on health, you’ll want to be able to heal yourself more than once – especially as you navigate long stretches between checkpoints and take on early game bosses.
Every time you reach a Wak-Wak tree your potions will be replenished.
Get the Shield of Mithra Amulet as soon as possible
Amulets are crucial accessories in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Get the Shield of Mithra Amulet as soon as you can. When you wear this, it causes your parries to generate a small bubble, within which all enemies move in slow motion. (You can upgrade the amulet to make the bell bigger.)
Shortly after your first visit to the Hyrcanian Forest, you will head to the Haven. Talk to Kaheva, who operates a forge behind the glowing door that opens when you return. She gives you the side quest ‘Ancient Powered Unearthed’. It’s a fairly simple platforming challenge: you’ll find yourself straight into a corner of the Lower City region, where you’re tasked with finding a chunk of ore, and you’ll need to jump over some spiky logs to get it. If you do, return the ore to Kaheva to complete ‘Ancient Power Unearthed’ and earn the Shield of Mithra Amulet.
If you’re looking for more amulets, check out our guide to each amulet in The lost crown (that we have found so far).
For more Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown guides, consult our list of amulet locations, learn where to unlock fast travel spots, see how to solve the Waterwheel puzzle in the Lower City, and get tips on how to beat the Jahandar boss fight.