Overview
Updated 3/25/19. A guide for getting your footing and making progress in your first tries at fear and hunger. Spoilers are marked inside. This won’t include item or enemy descriptions, etc. the fear and blood wiki is pretty good for that. Will update as able, this guide is a WIP. If you are creating a guide, please feel free to steal anything from here to help create yours, just in case i end up abandoning this. Attribution cool, not required.
Basic beginner tips, spoiler free
Be ready for your first, or several first, characters to die.
Don’t skip the intro.
Explore, try things, do some death runs, and get the lay of the land.
The game is overall pretty good at letting you know when something may kill you.
Check barrels, crates, things on the floor, shelves, etc.
Your first save in the infamous save bed is free, so consider using it when feeling at a solid point or once you’ve acheieved something like adding to your party. There is a book that lets you save, but they are one use.
There are shortcuts in the map, dark souls style, that make traveling easier once unlocked.
To conserve food, eat something hearty when you are really hungry, keep an eye out for recipie books
Books and scrolls are really useful. The skills and recipies you can learn from them can be vital.
Save your worshiping for when you know what each god offers, this is shown through the hexen tables
Blood portal is a pretty handy skill to learn
Many enemy battles can be skipped all together by running past them or just put off for later.
Many enemy battles are pretty obvious in what parts to attack first, some take some trial and error to find out
The crow mauler is nobody’s friend, but you can often dodge or go around him to fight when you are ready.
Explosive vials are nessicary for opening up some areas of the map but not all destructible walls are worth it if you are low on them
In it to win it, getting your first save
So now you’ve died many, many times and you’re ready to get a solid save file going. It’s all much easier once you have a save to work from, but it’s still pretty hard and you’re gonna die a lot. As you may have seen, near the begining, there is a save room with a bed. The first save here is free.
First mission and gaining a dude
I found my bliss in adding to my party and gaining some key items before choosing to save.
I’ve played the knight and mercenary so far. Knight for starting gear and dash potential, mercenary for locking picking and dash potential. Key items i’m looking to have in hand before saving are explosive vials to open areas and throwing darts for major damage. If you go with the dark priest, you may already have some good spells to work from.
TLDR- Add a party member with little confrontation, save. From the start of the game, go through the entrance on the left, run past jelly-dude on the right side path. From here, you can only head up through the graveyard. Go past the save area, into the prison, and flip the switch. Head down the elevator in the blood pit to the caverns, enter mines, blow up left path, keep going up, and you’re on level 7-catacombs where you can obtain a party member, head up the catacomb stairs and unlock the shortcut back into the prison area. I make sure i have at least one explosive vial and one dart or restart. Why the throwing dart? So if you decide its time to murder some crow, you might want that sweet poison damage if you’re not rocking some harsh spells.
The long-
You can run on through the left-side dungeon entrance. Here, the top of the room poses some threats but you can rush past the jelly dudes. Don’t bother with the area with the pentagram-style floor. Go through the hallway towards the right instead. Head on up after the jelly dude hallway to find yourself going through a graveyard into basement area 2. You’ll then find your self in a larger room with two main sides, the left containing the save bed room.
Don’t forget to check out the other side of this area for an NPC encounter as well as armor shelves and a weapons table. *Edited* there are two weapons on the table.
From here make your way up and through the prison area. You can often walk past the cave gnomes. Here, you’re looking for a switch that will let you access lower areas. The exact pathways may change, and an enemy or two can change, but the overall contents are pretty solid no matter the playthrough. You will likey be forced into a guard encounter here to reach the switch.
After this, you’ll be looking for the ever-scenic blood pit. Great place for the family. There is an NPC encounter that can be had here if you trigger it, but you’re probably not anywhere near ready for that yet, so no searching the corpse piles yet. the switch dropped an elevator you can now take into the caverns.
In the caverns, there are two area-specific characters you may encounter. One has unique talk options that can have them join your party.
If you choose to encounter, ofter raw meat to have them join you.
The other is a boss-like battle that has two parts. Breaking eggs can trigger this battle.
If you look around a bit, you’ll encounter an area with some crates and a stationary NPC you can talk to.
Take the doorway into the mines. Here is here you want that explosive vial. One path is blocked by rubble and thats the path that’s gonna get ya to the catacombs. The right side path presents some interesting challenges that you might not want to face without more party members. Once you bust that rubble wall, you can just keep heading up, past the lizardman for now, until you hit the catacombs.
Head over to the right path and you’ll be looking for an open room. You’ll also find a book of enlightment in this area which lets you save one time. (For two freebies in the earlier game including the first bed save.) After you encounter the new potential party member, you can travel up the stairwell near where you entered the catacombs to unlock a shortcut back into the prison area.
This isn’t a bad time to rest in that bed for a game you can go back to or use the book- though the book is a mobile save point. With some exploration you may want to load yourself up a bit more before you use one of those saves. The journey between the first static save point, and the next, is a long one.
But i want to save when i want to
Well, how’s it feel to want?
Sleeping safely.
So now you’ve saved and you realized pretty quickly you can’t just do that anymore. Maybe like me you’ve put three times the hours into the game than show up on a save file. Maybe it’s time to settle down and make that room a home. Maybe you just want that sweet loot behind the door that unlocks with his key.
Well the crow mauler has some ideas about that and when he’s not following you through the dungeon he’s watching you sleep. You can take your chances with the coin flip, prepare to whoop some butt, or follow the spoiler-ish section below for an alternate way to save as you please.
Fight the Crow
There are several methods and skills i’ve seen available. There are other NPCs you can add to your party before you choose to confront him, or if a dark mage- you can raise your own! I had three characters in my party for this battle and relied on the throwing darts for massive damage while cowering like scared children. Targeting the head with the darts, was not effective. If you explore around a while, there are some good allies you can get to make this battle a bit easier. Some equipment may help his pecking. If blinded, im pretty sure you’re effed.
For my second character dance with the crow- im going in with a full party including dark magic users.
Rumor is the dark priest’s magic is great for this battle aiming for the head. I’ve also used explosive vials if i found myself flush with them.
In addition to feeling mighty and killing your stalker, he drops the key that opens the “let the blood flow” door you can find in the dungeon entrance where a unique weapon can be found.
Exploring your newfound freedom
There are a few things you may want to do now that you can save easier (or even before if you’re a glutton for punishment) In general, you can explore, aim to progress (opening the door in the catacombs with the cube-shaped hole), add to your party, and buff up your skills communing with the gods. Maybe you want to learn some skills by checking out bookcases or gaining favor with gods to use at hexen tables. There is still lots to do and so many ways to die!
***Lots of spoilers save route*****
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Like all kinds of spoilers******
Or ya know, you could just ignore the heck outta him and carry on with your business.
Really. Just keep leaving the room when he enters and make your way to the lost city tower for the second and safe save-bed. This assumes you have some map knowledge and you will WANT blood portal for travel. A quick way to get that is to sacrifice the dude in the inner hall (with the priests) to gain affinity to Allmer.
Make a mad dash for the cube through the mines (i grab the playable knight on the way here), head back to the catacombs, and run your way to the ancient city. Avoiding complications like battles-If you have dash, you can run past the zombie in the tomb area. You can take some chances with one of those lord of flies dudes if you want to save the NPC knight. I did. Continuing to avoid unnecessary battles and using dash- I found i was able to dodge the bug on the way to the tower. Run on up the tower, open a blood portal, save. BAM. Take that crow mauler. Take that, indeed.
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The upper entrance and courtyards
Now that you’ve been running around some, lets go back to the begining.
The Entrance has a few things of note if you did’t take this way to start with.
Within this area you will find-
Black goo
A pantry room of items
Breakable walls (one kinda worth it with a bookcase, crates, etc, this was on the left for me. The other one not so worth it on the right in my game.)
A ritual circle where you can create a blood portal
A prisoner that you will need lock picking or a key to obtain. (In my game, having a full part kicked the last party member out and she joined automatically.)
An NPC in a library area that you can make unique purchases from
The mock up book to open another area
Level 1 courtyard
Oh look, sunlight!
And corpses. Sunlight and corpses.
Here, you can find a shortcut through a well
A door you’ll need a purifying talisman to open that leads to a hexen table
Some barrels
And a bug you can talk to if you’re inclined that way.
Level 1 Inner Hall
Here is where it all loops around.
Here you will find a gentleman having a not so great time that you can interact with to gain favor with Allmer
Some new enemies that will not really agro you that you can choose to attack. They can drop a one-use battle item. You can choose to talk to them for info, but it doesn’t have any battle effect.
To the right, you’ll find a very odd NPC. You’re probably not gonna want to give it what it asks for.
A guard wandering the halls
An NPC either walking around the torture rooms or interacting with another NPC behind a closed door. If he approaches you, don’t go with him. If you find him, go ahead and interrupt. The NPC with him will then join the party near the save bed.
Towards the top of this area you may have a pressure plate to shoot darts at you, as well as stairs leading back down into the blood pit!
To the left, you’ll find a library area and the mage dude if you are not playing him. Here is where you will need the mock up book from earlier. Using it opens one of the top bookcases leading out to
Level 1 backyard
Oh look, more sunshine. And corpses. And that barbarian dude! You can talk to him here
Out here you will find,
A weird bug dude you can talk to
A statue you can try to gain a god’s affinity with
A bunny orgy that will heal you and increase your affinity with Sylvian (first time free, other tries can lead to death on a coin toss)
A weapon for the prisioner in the earlier area.
A breakable wall leading up to
A weird Tree
I mean The hidden backyard
To heck with this area. for reals.
Head down into the thicket. You’ll need to inspect walls here, so be ready for lots of button pressing on walls to move forward.
The mumblers are best fought by not attacking the head.
Falling through the floors here will take you down levels.
Down here you’ll find the cockroach king, but if you are not able to talk to the other bugs, you certainly wont be able to talk to him.
Keep tumbling down to reach another way into to catacombs.
The mines
The mines offer a few unique experiences and enemies and one task is required to get a specific NPC into your party later.
The right side path of the mines, the side you didn’t blow up, leads deeper into them.
You’ll have an NPC encounter,
After that, cautiously make your way up the path and hide in the side areas to avoid an enemy you can’t kill yet. A door can be found on the right here to lock pick or break down. Reaching for an item in this room will trigger a “boss” fight.
****Behind the door*****
Grab the item on the ground and you’ll enter a battle.
Attack the eye to throw the creature off balance. With the eye gone, this battle gets pretty easy
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Above this door is right side path leading to a ritual circle that a blood portal can be opened at.
You’re gonna notice the yellow mage dancing at you as your progress. He’s not bluffing.
Dive into him or run away, fast. This enemy has unique dialog options that result in giving you the eclipse talisman that is required to get an NPC later. Both yellow mages in this area have the option to get the item from. and you can get two of them.
***Correct Dialoge Choices***
Choose to ask which gods he serves
Go’goroth
Ask if he can teach you about him
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If you head down from here, you’re gonna see your ghost buddy from the hallway. If you have him chase after you and then turn around, you can run right past him to find a fairly obvious solution to your hallway ghost problem. Engage with the tomb to begin a battle. You’re gonna wanna get to all his parts quick, cause this battle is in on a timer that will bring in back up. You can run away and come back into it.
Once you’ve dispatched him, head on up to say hi to the NPC you saw in the hallway along with a Hexen table and some shelves to inspect. (Note, i did this once after using the eclipse talisman to gain a certain party member and the NPC was not here)
We have to go deeper
Heading up from the yellow mage corpse leads further into the mines. The left path will give you a chance to gain the playable knight, if playing as a different character. Note that getting involved in this situation will turn the locals hostile.
If you have not angered the locals, you’ll find a merchant here and several caves to explore. There is also a shortcut in the big bloody hole in the floor that drops you down in the wolf orgy area of the mines.
You may also encounter an NPC here that is also found in the mines.
Weave around the huts and paths and keep heading through the area until you can head up. Here, you will find the cube needed to continue on. Taking it will anger the locals if you haven’t already. Fight your way back out or take the shortcut back into the mines.
TBC