Tunic: Beginner's Guide Tunic guide, walkthrough
On this page of the Tunic guide, you will find starting tips to help you master the basic mechanics and rules of the game.
Last update: 20 April 2022
On this page of the Tunic guide, you will find several beginner's tips that will make it a little easier for you to understand the basics of Tunic. The information mainly covers various aspects of exploration but is not all of it.
- Find the sword and shield as soon as possible.
- Check every corner of the visited locations carefully.
- Play even more carefully after you die
- Collect every scrap of instruction
- Are you stuck? Go somewhere else
Find the sword and shield as soon as possible.
You will start your adventure with Tunic completely defenseless, so you have to find all the equipment during careful exploration. So, check all the crypts and open each chest to rearm your character as soon as possible.
However, throughout the game, the most important elements of your equipment will be a sword and a shield. These are hidden in the different starting points of the location, so your first goal is to get them. Without weapons, you won't be able to resist even the first-tier opponents, and the shield is essential to block the opponents' attack - especially those attacking from a distance.
Want to know how to get a sword, a shield, and the other items essential for combat and exploration? Please check out the FAQ section in our guide, where you will find out which paths to follow to find all the most important pieces of equipment.
Check every corner of the visited locations carefully.
Tunic is a game that cleverly plays with perspective. The entire game is isometric with multi-level locations, so you will have to pay extra attention to spot some hidden passages. That way, you will find not only some hidden treasure but sometimes a completely new area that you need to discover to complete the game. So what to do to discover such a place?
First of all, carefully explore the map and inspect every square centimeter and pixel. Check every place, and don't be fooled by perspective. There could be a ladder, a tunnel, or anything else around every corner. Stick to the walls and press the character against them - and you might find you can enter a hidden place. It sounds complicated, and it may seem unintuitive and inconvenient at first. But, after a while, you will surely get used to the perspective and be able to see through some perceptual traps.
Play even more carefully after you die
It's not hard to die in Tunic - it's a title with a high default difficulty level, especially when you have to fight. You can change it - more on that on the page: Difficulty level - can you change it? But whether you like it or not, sooner or later, you will have to know the bitter taste of defeat by dying in the middle of the fight. The problem is not to get irritated too quickly and to stay calm because rushing can lead to considerable losses.
During the game, you collect currency which crystals, for which you can develop your character and buy various items. However, when you die, you lose some of them. You have a chance to retrieve them if you return to the place of death and interact with your "soul". But if the opponents defeat you once again before you obtain the dropped crystals, you will lose them forever. So approach the fight with reason, or you may lose a lot.
Collect every scrap of instruction
The difficulty level in Tunics is caused not only by the demanding fights but also by the lack of basic information about the game - especially at the beginning of the game. There are only two ways to learn the mechanics of this title, in addition to reading our guide - you have to discover various solutions on your own or find the instruction manual, which individual pages can be found in most locations in the game.
The entire manual consists of 55 pages (not including the cover), and each scrap of it you can find consists of two such pages. It is impossible to miss them, although some of them are in places initially inaccessible. Collect all the pages you can find. Thanks to them, you will be able to learn not only about the mechanics and solutions to puzzles but also about the game world. However, reading the manual is not so easy because most of it was written in a fictional alphabet. So pay attention to the "normal" language parts and illustrations.
And if you have a problem with reading the individual pages of the manual, please visit the Hidden interactions and mechanics page, where you will learn about the non-obvious, but quite key elements of the game.
Are you stuck? Go somewhere else
As we already mentioned, exploring every nook and cranny is essential, but sometimes you just won't be able to get to a certain place - you may not currently have the required item or skill, or you have not moved a specific lever. Try not to be frustrated in such situations, but go somewhere else. There will certainly be several alternative paths at any given time of the game.
However, sometimes perceptiveness and inquisitiveness pay off. You can get to some places inaccessible at first glance using a different way. Sometimes it is enough to play with the perspective. As soon as you get used to it, you will start discovering many more secrets.