Gotham Knights is a massive open world RPG that’s dense with gameplay systems and content, so it’s natural to maybe feel a little overwhelmed as you attempt to get to grips with the game in its opening hours. Don’t worry though- here, we’ve compiled a few beginners tips and tricks that will help ease you in a little smoother as you dive into Gotham Knights’ offerings.
DON’T PLAY IT LIKE THE ARKHAM GAMES
It’s easy to understand why Gotham Knights is being compared to the Arkham games so heavily, but as developer WB Games Montreal stressed on a number of occasions, the game is very much doing its own thing. There are some superficial similarities in the combat, stealth, and traversal mechanics, but it’s best to keep in mind that Gotham Knights has a different flow in its moment-to-moment gameplay. It doesn’t emphasize stealth as heavily, combat makes consistent use of things such as special abilities, elemental attack,s and status effects, and progression and build optimization are central mechanics. Muscle memory might kick in initially if you’ve played the Arkham games before, but the faster you begin playing Gotham Knights the way it wants to be played, the faster you’ll begin really having fun.
KEEP SWITCHING CHARACTERS
Gotham Knights has four playable characters, and though the game allows you to play through the entire story from beginning to end as just one of them, we would suggest frequently switching between the group of superheroes. Batgirl, Robin, Red Hood, and Nightwing have different weapons, different ways of moving around, different abilities, different gear, and different skill trees, which means one character might suit a mission better than the others, depending on the circumstances. Each character also has exclusive storylines, so make sure you keep switching between them every once in a while to see if more quests in those questlines have become available. It helps, of course, that all characters level up together regardless of whether or not they’re being used, so you don’t have to worry about unnecessary grinding.
UNLOCK PERFECT DODGE FOR ALL CHARACTERS
Yes, Gotham Knights obviously has a perfect dodge mechanic, which is exactly what it sounds like- if you dodge an incoming attack at the last possible second, your follow-up attack does extra damage. Whichever of the four characters you’re playing as first unlocks that ability automatically as part of a tutorial on the progression system, but when you switch to the other three characters after that point, you’ll be able to decide how to spend those ability points. Even so, we’d suggest unlocking the perfect dodge mechanic for all characters before anything else. You’re going to be dodging incoming attacks a great deal in Gotham Knights, after all.
DON’T IGNORE CRIMES
Like any superhero open world game, Gotham Knights also gives players the option to play the part and patrol and protect the streets against criminals. You’ll come across plenty of crimes as you’re going through Gotham City, and while it might be tempting to begin ignoring them after a while (given how many there are), it’s better to maintain a balance, where you’re not burning yourself out on them, but still doing them every so often. Premediated crimes in particular – which are marked on your map and compass specially – tend to give out very useful rewards, so try and knock a few of them out every once in a while. That’s also a great way of simultaneously making progress on challenges.
MOMENTUM ABILITIES
We mentioned Momentum Abilities earlier- in many ways Momentum Abilities are a big part of why Gotham Knights’ combat works differently from the Arkham games. Fights will drag on (and maybe even end poorly) if you only use your equipped melee and ranged weapons, which is where Momentum Abilities come in. Performing well in combat fills up a bar that allows you to use these abilities, and especially when you’re up against larger crowds of enemies, firing off one of these abilities at just the right time can turn the tide in a fight.
DO THE ARENA TUTORIALS
The Belfry serves as your base of operations in Gotham Knights (adios, Batcave), and one of many facilities available there is an arena where you’ll find plenty of combat and stealth tutorials. Of course, skipping tutorials is coded into our DNA, but Gotham Knights actually rewards you for completing them with XP, while several are also tied to completing challenges. They don’t take awfully long either, so it’s best to knock them out quickly when you can.
FAST BAT
A few hours into Gotham Knights, you’ll gain access to the Fast Bat, a back-mounted plane of sorts that drops you into different districts of the city. Before you can do that though, you’ll have to scan drones in every district to make travel by the Fast Bat possible, and our advice would be to do that as soon as possible. Gotham Knights’ open world is a pretty large one, and traveling from place to place can get old very quickly, even if you’re using the Batcycle. Unlocking all the districts takes 20-30 minutes at most, so it’s not too time consuming either.
BATARANGS
As you’d expect from any open world game, Gotham Knights has plenty of collectibles that players can hunt down. No, there are no Riddler Trophies, but before drying, Batman did scatter around plenty of Batarangs throughout Gotham City. If you’re traveling across the rooftops and gliding high above the skyline, you’ll easily spot plenty of these giving off a blue glow, so make sure you keep an eye out for them. Some, of course, are better hidden than the others.
AR SCAN ENVIRONMENTS
Gotham Knights doesn’t have a Detective Vision mechanic, but its AR scanning serves roughly the same purpose. And even though it’s not as central to the gameplay as Detective Vision was in Arkham, it can still be very useful. Of course, at several points, you’ll need to use AR scanning to be able to make progress, but generally, it’s a good idea to hold down the down button on the d-pad to do a scan every once in a while anyway. From collectibles and chests to quests in the open world to other items that you can interact with, there’s plenty that you might end up discovering.
MINIBOSSES
Certain enemies in Gotham Knights are designated as minibosses, and sure enough, they’re easy to spot. They’re big, hulking brutes who have special attributes, from a massive body-sized shield to large gauntlets that deal elemental damage. While you might be tempted to take them down first in a fight, we’ve found that leaving them for last and focusing on the grunts first is a good strategy. The minibosses take longer to go down, which means focusing all your attacks on a single target while there ae multiple other foes present will leave you open to way too many incoming attacks. Crowd management tends to be key in Gotham Knights’ combat, so focus on reducing the enemies’ numbers first.