Atlas Fallen: A Beginner’s Guide for Weapons, Combat, Vendor & Armor

Atlas Fallen is a sandbox action role-playing game with a lot of moving parts. While I found playing the to be a lot of fun for the most part, the game can be difficult for some players, especially those who had never attempted an RPG with a soulslike mechanism before, as I highlighted in my Atlas Fallen review.

While the gameplay principles are rather standard, there are still a few things to keep in mind as you progress through the game's story and try to take out its numerous enemies. I will share with you some of the most essential information regarding its combat momentum system and gear upgrades, which will help you better understand the game.

Grab The Scout's Armor Set

First of all, after you learn your second Air Dash, you get access to a set of armor that is both powerful and easy to obtain. The moment you make it across the gap caused by the collapsed bridge, you should head West. There's a side quest called History of the Shattered Keep, and once you have the side quest activated, the five Golden Book items you need to complete the quest will be highlighted on the map. Return those to the lady and trade them for the Scout's Armor Set.

Each of its base statistics is improved upon when compared to your starter armor, with an emphasis placed on the offensive stats. The unique armor attribute of this set can be unlocked after upgrading it for the third time, increasing its base stats, and reducing the cooldown of all equipped active abilities.

You only need to equip two Momentum Essence Stones to your bar to activate its additional stat boost. Two of the light blue ones equipped will grant access to the set's additional nine offenses, bringing the maximum possible number of attacks from this suit of armor to 51, and this is a significant boost to early-game damage output.

Eventually, you’ll unlock plenty of other Armor Sets, which will allow massive damage. But the Scout's Armor Set is the best early armor that you can get the earliest before you take on any of the big enemies.

Perks & Tokens

You'll get a token for an additional ability after upgrading each pair of armor. You should immediately get your hands on as many of these as possible. Get every set of armor you can, even if you don't think you need them, even more so because it's cheaper to upgrade sets with a lower starting rank. Make good use of that fact to quickly boost your point total in the system.

There are certain highly effective passive effects that can be acquired through perks; they include increases in resource acquisition and healing, as well as the ability to use specific buffs and Essence stones.

Traveling Vendor

When walking through the sand after you reach the first town, keep an eye out for this kite in the sky; it marks the location of a unique merchant along your route. You can sell your artifacts to this itinerant merchant, who offers Side Quests and often sells beneficial items. He's unlike the other vendors, who always have the same artifacts they want to buy at the same green price.

If you want to maximize your profit, you shouldn't sell your artifacts to just any vendor but rather wait for the traveling merchant to come through your area.

The Dune Cleaver

The first step is to learn how to fully utilize your Dune Cleaver. Its primary attack options are fairly close-range ax and hammer blows. The strikes slow down a bit with medium speed, but the Dune Cleaver enlarges, increasing its range. Each strike will smash the immobile sand because of the high speed, slower speed, and increasing size with each subsequent attack.

The Dune Cleaver is unique among weapons in that it can be used in two distinct ways: as an ax or hammer. The faster ax strikes are performed when you tap the attack button, while the hammer form is performed when you hold the button or execute your aerial slam assault.

The hammer's blows pack a powerful punch, sending enemies reeling and canceling their attack sequences in midair. You can't go wrong with the Dune Cleaver and the hammer blast Essence stone. When your momentum meter reaches its second bar, all of your Hammer attacks will explode in an area surrounding you, doing damage to nearby enemies without regenerating health.

Larger enemies have distinct, red-highlighted bodily portions that must be destroyed separately. All of the bodily parts, not just the one you're primarily focusing on will take damage from the hammer's frequent Blast as a result of this effect.

The Sand Whip

Sand Whip's standard repertoire includes sweeping whip attacks. With moderate speed, the whip resembles a sword, and powerful blows extend its reach even further. When fully charged, it functions identically to a large, ancient sword, hurling shards with each attack to create a destructive ring of delight around its target.

Although it has a soft impact, the sand whip is the most effective momentum builder. You can swiftly gain momentum and boost your more destructive skills by starting the fight with this weapon. It provides exceptional mobility and is highly effective in combat in the air.

If an opponent is within range, pressing the attack button can draw you over to them, allowing you to launch a faster dagger-like assault. A rapid succession of attacks is an excellent way to close the gap and gain momentum. Your primary momentum Builder is likely to be the Sand Whip.

Therefore, placing Essence stones that increase momentum, such as Momentum Alliance and Unstable Generation, in the far left socket of your momentum gauge makes sense. That way, you may start a fight on the right foot and maintain that momentum the whole time. In addition to speeding up the process of reaching the maximum level of your shatter attack, you can use your other active abilities sooner.

The Knuckle Dust

The Knuckle Dust is a weapon that allows you to carry less weight. The majority of its moves consist of fast, close-range punches. The strike gains a pair of extra arms and a little more reach when the momentum is medium. Each of your assaults gains extra limbs as your speed increases. While The Knuckle Dust is the quickest multi-hitting weapon, it lacks the momentum increase and range of other options.

However, as with the Sand Whips, its charged assault is an excellent means of drawing closer to a target. The homing capabilities of this attack may be used immediately without needing to charge it, and you can rapidly launch over for a nice little smack by holding down the attack button for just half a second.

Understanding Combat

After two or more hits with one weapon, you can switch to its special attack. Now, Sand Whip Dune Cleaver, swing that hammer down and smash something. This reverse Spin Attack consists of two attacks with different weapons, followed by the Sand Whip. You can make a downward punch with two alternating Knuckle Dust blows.

However, there are other methods to quickly access these special moves, such as a sequence of three charged Dune Cleaver assaults that result in a special move. Inputting a charge attack immediately after a charged Sand Whip attack will result in a spin attack. Note that you can actually go forward instead of backward when using the Sand Whip spin attack input by pressing the opposite direction. And with the sand in your fists, all you have to do is come at them from the side of a dodge.

Whichever weapon you equip to your main hand on the left affects gameplay in subtle but significant ways. First, your launch and slam attacks will follow a specific pattern depending on your main weapon. This attack button has two primary uses: launching you into the air to begin a combination and slamming downward to stun adversaries and force them out of cover. Stone and the shattered fields go well with this maneuver.

Every slam attack you make creates a region of damaging projectiles, which can offer some good extra DPS, but it has a 20-second cooldown. Your momentum-expending shatter assault is also limited by the slot in which your primary weapon resides. When the Dune Cleaver is selected as the primary weapon, its shatter attack at high momentum can be used to perform a massive double hammer hit. The sand whip shatter will launch into a series of lightning-fast spin assaults. And the knuckle dust shatter will turn this Pummel attack into a lengthy multi-hitting assault.
 

I hope these tips help you with the game. You can also check out my other, A Beginner's Guide for Atlas Fallen, on GamesCreed, where I talked about the bosses, crafting, and other activities in the game, which will help you get a quick and the best possible start. And don't forget to check my colleague's Atlas Fallen PC Review.