Beast of Reincarnation combat guide

The combat system in Beast of Reincarnation looks incredibly complex at first glance, but once you've learned about the entanglement bar, florescence points, bloom arts, and blade arts, it'll start to make sense. Whatever you do, though, be sure to master parrying, as it's the key to literally every other combat ability.

From entanglement overdrive to elemental weaknesses, here's everything you should know about Beast of Reincarnation's combat.

Parrying, guarding, and dodging in Beast of Reincarnation

Parrying is the most important combat move in Beast of Reincarnation, as every successful parry has the following effects:

                                **Negates damage**from the parried attack.

                                **Grants florescence points (FP)**, which you'll need for Koo's bloom arts.

                                **Grants entanglement points**, which you'll need to guard against incoming attacks, use blade arts, use Nushi skills, and activate entanglement overdrive.

                                **Activate your weapon's effect**(Emma's blade).

To parry an incoming attack, press the parry button (Q on PC, LB/L1 on a controller) just before the attack lands. If you're too early, the parry attempt will count as a regular guard move instead. Guarding may still block the first bout of damage, but it depletes the entanglement gauge, which is the partly yellow, partly blue bar at the bottom of the screen. If this gauge is empty, you'll take full damage even if you hold the guard button. Guarding, in other words, is not a sustainable way to negate damage (and it won't get you any florescence points either).

Though it's a bit blurry, this picture shows the visual difference between parrying and guarding. On the left, thanks to a successful parry, Emma's sword emanates yellow sparkles. On the right side, due to guarding instead of parrying, the sword doesn't sparkle and the entanglement gauge is depleted.

Since a successful parry adds to the entanglement gauge, it's fine to accidentally guard instead of parry now and then, as long as it doesn't happen several times in a row. Following a successful parry, press the attack button to perform a riposte.

If an enemy flashes red when initiating an attack (see picture below), you can't stop it with a guard or parry. Instead, you must dodge away (Ctrl on PC, B on Xbox, Circle on PlayStation), right before the attack lands. If successful, press the attack button to perform a counterattack.

Koo's bloom arts

Once you've gathered some florescence points, open Koo's bloom arts menu (F on PC, Y on Xbox, or Triangle on PlayStation). Don't worry, the in-game time is automatically slowed down (though not fully paused) so that you can scroll through the list of attacks and pick the best one. This is the "turn-based" element in Beast of Reincarnation's combat system.

Bloom arts can, for example, shoot enemies or pull them toward you. Be sure to equip your bloom arts with mods to give them secondary effects, such as HP restoration or extra damage. Rest at a campsite or return to Bauera to use the "acquire skills" menu and unlock new mods.

Beware that every bloom art attack includes a quicktime event. Press the button while it's inside the yellow part of the circle on your screen, and Koo will deal maximum damage. If you miss, Koo will still use a weaker version of his attack. While you're free to use different bloom arts in quick succession, you can't use the same bloom art twice in a row.

A successful quicktime event will restore some of Emma's HP. If it's a double quicktime event (press two buttons instead of one), you'll gain some entanglement gauge for Emma. If the florescence points are full, Koo will receive the full bloom effect, granting him +100% damage and +50% stagger.

Bloom arts aside, you don't have to command Koo during battle as he'll use his regular abilities automatically. That said, you can command him to attack an enemy before the enemy has spotted you. To do so, press the right mouse button plus the middle mouse button on PC, or LT/L2 plus the right stick on a controller.

Emma's blade arts and Nushi skills

Emma has a wide arsenal of "blade art" and "Nushi skill" special attacks. Both types are unlocked by advancing Beast of Reincarnation's story, and both types are basically melee combos, though only the blade arts can be upgraded in Emma's skill tree (you can respec these skill points).

To view the combo patterns, open the equipment menu and click "view skills" at the bottom of Emma's page (see picture below, left side). As a new player, don't try to memorize several combos at once. You might want to start with the Shakuyaku and Climbing Higanbana attacks, which require only one or two buttons, respectively.

Take note of each combo's entanglement gauge cost; upon pressing the final button in the combo sequence, Emma will lose one "chunk" of the entanglement bar at the bottom of the screen (see picture above, right side). The entanglement gauge is not the same resource as the FP needed for Koo's bloom arts — though both are replenished by successful parrying!

Although Koo's FP remains empty if you don't parry successfully, Emma will recover one chunk of entanglement gauge automatically (only the first chunk).

Healing, status effects, and hunger in Beast of Reincarnation

To heal during combat, consume stimpacks. You can hold a maximum of three stimpacks by default, but it's possible to improve this number by finding dragon veil shrines. On top of that, you can heal and cure status effects simultaneously by opening Koo's bloom arts menu before pressing the healing button. This will consume emergency medicine — an additional HP recovery feature that's easily overlooked.

To recover HP, stimpacks, and emergency medicine, rest at a campfire (though beware that this will respawn all enemies). As long as their hunger meter isn't empty, Emma and Koo will slowly recover HP outside of combat, no campfire required. Press C on PC or the downward arrow on controller to open your backpack and check the current hunger status.

Elemental weaknesses in Beast of Reincarnation

Beast of Reincarnation contains four types of elemental effects, including poison, acid, flame, and lightning, which cause damage over time. On top of that, you can use destructive attacks to break enemy shields and bind attacks to control their movement.

An enemy's weakness is displayed next to their HP bar, but if you open Koo's bloom art menu, you will also see the word "weak" pasted over any attack that matches the target's weakness.

Emma's attacks, as well as her weapon, can also be imbued with an elemental effect. As it's easier to cause elemental buildup when Emma and Koo focus on the same elemental damage type, you might want to memorize specific blade art and Nushi skill combos that match Koo's bloom arts.

Don't forget to match the elemental damage with Koo's mod effects; for example, if you use the flame-imbued Higanbana bloom art, which inflicts burn, it's useful to equip the Rapid Cooling mod, which recovers an entanglement point when you hit a burned enemy.

Entanglement Overdrive

When the entanglement gauge is full (the bar at the bottom of the screen), Emma and Koo may use the entanglement overdrive ability by holding Shift and the middle mouse button on PC, or pressing the left and right sticks on a controller. Beware that entanglement overdrive only slows time for a few seconds — it does not unleash any kind of special attack!

As using entanglement overdrive depletes the entanglement bar, refrain from using it unless you're certain you have something to gain. If you're about to dodge a tricky attack or need a moment to heal yourself, for example, slowing time can be useful, but otherwise, it's best to save the entanglement points for guarding, blade arts, and Nushi skills.

Stagger and daze in Beast of Reincarnation

Below the enemy's red HP bar, you'll see a yellow stagger bar that fills with every successful hit or parry. If it's full, the enemy is stunned for a few seconds, and you may press the attack button to perform an execution, thereby killing the opponent with a single finishing move.

Beware that the most powerful opponents, including Nushi, can't be stunned. Instead, filling their stagger bar will daze them, which means you won't get an execution prompt, but the enemy is still incapacitated for a few seconds.

Stealth attacks in Beast of Reincarnation

Although Beast of Reincarnation is not a stealth game, there are plenty of opportunities to assassinate minor enemies before they spot you. There are two ways to sneak up on an enemy; you can approach them from above and perform a downward jump attack (use the "extend hair" ability to create a bridge), or use crouch and sneak up from behind.

Ranged attacks in Beast of Reincarnation

In addition to her blade, Emma can use a regular bow and a crossbow during combat. You can switch between these weapons anytime by pressing 1 and 2 on PC, or the left and right arrows on controller. The crossbow shoots bolts in quick succession, while the regular bow requires some windup time. The first is most useful in the heat of battle, while the latter is best reserved for sniping faraway foes.