Metal: Hellsinger beginner’s guide, 10 tips for slaying to the beat

Since Metal: Hellsinger is a rhythm game, staying on beat is paramount to your success. And if your audio and video are out of sync, you’re going to have a bad time. Take a few minutes at the start of your journey to calibrate these settings — you’ll simply need to tap a button when lights flash and you hear a specific sound. It doesn’t take long to calibrate, and it’ll have a significant impact on your experience. If you ever think things are out of sync, you can always dive back into the Options menu and recalibrate.

The action moves fast in Hell, and the best way to keep yourself safe is to know the position of all your enemies. Increasing your field of view (FOV) will help with this task, so dive into the Options menu and crank it up as high as you can. If you’re not used to playing with a high FOV, it might take a minute to get used to the new perspective, but you’ll be thankful for the added peripheral vision.

Various power-ups (such as health crystals and combo boosters) are scattered across every battlefield in Metal: Hellsinger. Locating all of them should be one of your main priorities when entering a new location — but don’t activate them until necessary. For example, only trigger a combo booster when you’re about to slip to a lower combo tier and there are plenty of enemies to help you rack up big points. Health crystals are best used during the later stages of combat, as the final wave of enemies is often the most challenging.

You’ve decimated everything in your immediate area, and you’re running to your next location. Unfortunately, your combo gauge will begin to drop until you start slaying demons again. However, there’s a loophole that solves this problem, and its name is Paz. Paz is the lovable skull you acquire at the beginning of Metal: Hellsinger. It won’t deal much damage in combat, but firing on-beat will sustain your current combo. That means as soon as you wrap up a battle and are trekking through an enemy-free zone, you’ll want to equip Paz and start firing to the rhythm. Do it properly, and you can carry a combo throughout an entire level.

Staying on beat and slaying demons make it hard to focus on anything else, but don’t forget that your main character is pretty agile. Not only can they double jump, but they can perform a series of mid-air dashes that make it easy to cover ground in a matter of seconds. Getting airborne and dodging also helps you evade some of the pesky projectiles. And if you find yourself on the verge of getting swamped by a horde of enemies, jumping and dodging is an easy way to reposition and find safety.

When it’s time to reload your weapon, pay attention to the beat of the music. You’ll typically see a prompt on the screen alerting you that a “Reload is Imminent,” and that’s your cue to watch the rhythm indicator and look for the golden beat marker. Press X (on Xbox Series X) when this hits your crosshairs, and you’ll perform a quick reload — letting you jump back into the action almost immediately.

Each weapon in your inventory can perform a deadly Ultimate attack. These slowly build up by slaying enemies, and it’s worth holding on to these skills until needed. Filling your Ultimate gauge can take a good chunk of time, and there’s nothing worse than wasting it on a few easy enemies. Instead, try to fill them all up and have them ready for the final boss or large wave of enemies.

Health crystals are an easy way to restore your health, but performing executions on enemies is arguably the best way to restore your health. When an enemy is staggered and close to death, you can perform an execution by aiming at them and pressing the Execute button (R3 on consoles). Not only will you eliminate the demon, but you’ll also replenish a good chunk of health. As an added bonus, Metal: Hellsinger lets you execute enemies that are located dozens of yards away from you — making executions an easy way to cross the battlefield or get out of a jam.

Some enemies are more of a nuisance than others. Some carry shields and will block your attacks, others fire projectiles that can obliterate your health bar. Your best bet for survival is focusing your attacks on the most powerful enemies first (such as Behemoths or other enemies that deal big damage), and only focus on other targets if they wander into your personal space. Be mindful of ranged attackers, too, although careful positioning usually makes it easy to avoid them.

If you find the world of Metal: Hellsinger has become a bit too challenging, don’t forget to head back to previous levels and attempt some Torments. These are smaller missions that reward you with Sigils upon completion. Sigils, in turn, grant you a variety of powerful benefits, such as increasing the number of hits you can take before your streak resets or speeding up the rate at which you accrue Ultimates. And despite the name, Torments are a fun diversion from your main quest.

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