Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon has finally left early access, offering a wide, sprawling role-playing adventure with just the right amount of macabre and dark fantasy. While the bones will be familiar to fans of The Elder Scrolls, there are several other notable mechanics to learn and master if you want to survive. Let’s go over 14 tips here to improve those odds.
Armor Weight, Its Effects and How to Reduce It
Much like your average Souls-like, armor weight can affect movement and stamina regeneration, but it goes even further, affecting mana regen and the speed of attacks, dashes, and casting on top of the number of dash counters. Light armor provides a 20 percent boost to these and three dashes; Medium armor grants no bonuses and only two dashes; and Heavy armor reduces all of the above by 10 percent while granting only one dash.
You can mitigate the weight of armor by investing in the Strength stat or going to the crafting table and selecting the Armor Weight Reduction option. The latter requires Gold and some crafting materials, so think carefully about which gear pieces’ weight to reduce.
How to Get a Horse
Though Avalon isn’t the largest open world ever, it’s still good to have a faster means of getting around (especially with how fast travel works). The good news is that you can obtain a horse pretty early on. First, you must go West, past the East Gate fast travel point, and then directly north.
You’ll eventually happen upon the King’s Road Bridge, but it’s teeming with enemies. Head off to the side, travel under the bridge, and you’ll find a horse. Quickly run up and interact with the saddle to ride away before anyone is the wiser, and voila. You can summon the horse by selecting the “Call Mount” function from your radial menu.
How to Fast Travel
As for fast travel, it’s important to remember that you can’t just fast travel from anywhere in the wild (at least, not by bringing up the map and selecting a location). You can only fast-travel between specific discovered points or from your bonfire, though the latter requires burning Ethereal Cobwebs, so make sure you have enough on hand, especially given their other functions.
Accessing Your Stash
Since you’ll likely be weighed down by collecting anything and everything out there, it’s a good idea to visit your stash regularly. You can find one in the first town in the Horns of the South. If you discover rare or higher-tier weapons or have excess materials, dump them in the stash for later.
Where to Get Gathering Tools
If you travel west instead of north from your starting point, you eventually discover the first proper town. Chat with the merchant and purchase a pickaxe, axe, and fishing rod since you need them to mine ore, chop trees to gather wood, and, well, fish. You can also pick up the spyglass, which is good for scoping out locations from a safe distance. If you haven’t found one yet, grab the shovel also because of…
Hidden Chests
You can discover all kinds of secrets throughout Avalon including hidden chests. Well, partially hidden – some aren’t fully buried in the ground, but a shovel is still required to dig them out. Some have glowing particles faintly emanating from them, but they can be easy to miss if you’re barreling from one location to the next. Regardless, keep an eye out since you can earn coins, equipment, mana potions, and much more from them.
How to Respec Stats and Skills
Of course, if you’re not too keen on your current playstyle at any point, there’s always the Origin Potion to reset your stats and skills. You can find one in the starting asylum – look for Cassian’s body, and there should be a cell door to lockpick. Succeed, and the potion will be on the table. Of course, if you travel to the first town in Horns of the South, an Origin Potion will be waiting in your stash.
Find a Useful Summon Early
After you escape the asylum and experience the main call to adventure, you’ll arrive at a beach in the Horns of the South. Before pressing on, check your map and go to the inconspicuous island to the northeast. Slay the Grindlow and look around until you find a body with something called “Summon Keeper,” which allows you to summon an AI Keeper to fight alongside you. It requires investing a point in Spirituality and is pretty good for backup, especially when playing a spell-focused or ranged build.
Crafting and How to Get Higher-Quality Consumables
Crafting consumable items like potions will help in the long run, but Tainted Grail takes a very interesting approach. Each consumable can offer a worse or better outcome alongside the expected result. If you add more materials, then the quality of the consumable rises, but the outcome odds will change. Invest some more materials and adjust the odds in your favor. While fewer consumables are obtained by spending more on materials, the potency has its advantages.
How the Bonfire Works
The bonfire is accessible from your radial menu and offers numerous functions like cooking, leveling up, and resting. However, if you toss in some Ethereal Cobwebs, you can unlock the ability to fast travel and identify items. The latter is especially useful for obtaining materials, weapons, and armor, though you need to spend additional Cobwebs to do so.
Experiment With Spells
Whether you’re a full-fledged spell-caster or multi-classing, spells have a variety of uses. Like light and heavy attacks, you have light and heavy casts, like Hailstone, which shoots a small Chilling projectile by default, but when holding the button down, it unleashes a large Chilling ice chunk for more damage. Even if the light cast isn’t for you, experiment with heavy casts to find the right spell.
The Importance of Skill Variety
Skill trees form the crux of your build in Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, and you’ll want to think carefully about where to invest skill points. While melee fighters may favor Strength and Endurance, it’s not a bad idea to look at other skill trees, like Practicality, which can increase your armor percentage. Don’t get railroaded into a specific tree, as tempting as it can be to have more damage – the others may provide numerous other benefits to your survival.
Nightfall and The Wyrdness
Once night falls, the Wyrdness sets in, strengthening enemies. Some of them may have different names, indicating their possession by the Wyrdness. This is where the bonfire’s “Rest” function comes into play. If you’re not down with the Wyrdness, rest until morning.
How to Get Ethereal Cobwebs
Of course, it’s never as cut and dry in Avalon, especially when obtaining Ethereal Cobwebs. Since it’s essential for fast-traveling from your bonfire and identifying items, you’ll want a lot. How do you get it? By slaying enemies and creatures infected with the Wyrdness. Ethereal Deposits also provide Cobwebs, but they’re not as common, so stick to fighting the Wyrdness at night whenever the opportunity allows.
