Lies of P has so many gameplay systems, currencies, and upgrades to keep track of that it can be overwhelming to figure out what you should unlock first. Ultimately, it’s hard to make a wrong choice as the game is tailored around all types of playstyles. That said, there are some upgrades in Lies of P that we would recommend unlocking or investing in first to give you an edge in combat.
Whether these upgrades suit your playstyle or not, it is still worth looking into these as these early game upgrades in Lies of P have a wide range of applications, and anyone can stand to benefit from investing resources into these.
8. Upgrade Puppet String Legion Arm
You unlock this Legion arm quite early in the game when you first talk to Eugenie in Hotel Krat. A trend with most Legion Arms is that their default ability can seem a little underwhelming or limited at first.
That said, the Puppet String is a strange outlier in that its utility for the first three levels is more environmentally oriented rather than combat. Pulling ranged enemies off of ledges, closing the distance immediately when out of range but the opponent is wide open, etc.
The final upgrade, on the other hand, flips everything on its head, greatly boosting the Puppet String’s offensive capability by allowing you to perform a link attack, pulling you towards the opponent and jumping in the air before crashing down with a devastating downward slam.
This attack deals a lot of Stagger and HP damage, making the Puppet String a solid Legion Arm for the early game and one of the strongest in the late game.
7. Invest Ergo in Capacity to increase weight limit
While increasing equipment load feels far less alluring than investing in other stats, the fact is, you can’t compromise on this stat as much as the others. Equipment load or weight capacity dictates your mobility, and while it may seem like an afterthought in the early game, as you progress and depend on your build, you’ll need the extra points to keep yourself mobile.
Not only that, but Capacity also increases the size of your Legion Bar, which determines how many times you can use your Legion Arm before it needs to recharge, whether manually or via a skill you unlock late game. Legion Arms become quite powerful as you progress, so upgrading Capacity through Ergo can pay off in many ways that may not immediately be apparent.
6. Unlock Aegis Legion Arm
Most Legion Arms come down to preference and the type of situations you find yourself in. However, some Legion Arms are rather useful even at base level and can be used in any encounter without sacrificing effectiveness, at least not to the same extent as some of the others.
The Aegis Legion arm is one of these, and its starting skill to negate damage from an enemy attack while exploding in a burst of HP and stagger damage makes it quite useful to keep on hand even with just that. Each Aegis upgrade in Lies of P is just the cherry on top, such as the ability to perform a perfect guard or attacking while blocking with Aegis.
The final upgrade, which lets you perform an explosive shield bash after triggering the initial explosion, is great for Stagger and HP damage. All in all, it is a solid and satisfying tool to invest in early in Lies of P that will reward you greatly the more you put into it.
5. Increase Pulse Cells & Enhanced Pulse Cell recovery
Healing in Lies of P is contingent on Pulse Cells. As you progress through the game, enemies will start to hit much harder. While you may feel daring enough to keep this upgrade on the down low, ultimately, the principle behind the Pulse Cell is allowing you to stay longer in the fight. This is not only to scrap a potential win but also to get a better chance to learn an enemy’s moveset.
Apart from bosses, there are many elite mobs in Lies of P who can arguably be just as, if not even more, dangerous to deal with. They tend to have a certain gimmick to them, which can be annoying to overcome and deal a lot of damage.
Having extra Pulse Cells under your belt can help you bounce back from honest mistakes and pick up on these patterns quicker instead of potentially dying and having to run back to where the said enemy killed you.
Enhanced Pulse Cell Recovery is a complementary upgrade in Lies of P that serves you well. As you pump more points into the Vitality stat to boost your health so you can take more damage, you’ll notice your pulse cell consumption to fill out the missing health increases as well.
When you reach the point where an enemy takes out 70% of your health in one hit, and it takes you about three pulse cells to make up for that damage, that’s where you need to invest in the quality of your pulse cells.
Investing in this P-Organ upgrade early in Lies of P strengthens your Pulse Cell healing, allowing one Pulse Cell to do what about 3 Base Level Pulse Cells can, greatly bolstering survivability.
4. Improve Vitality stat to increase health
Just as Capacity is a stat you’ll want to invest into at some point in Lies of P, Vitality is another one which, regardless of the build you currently go for, will benefit you greatly to make your progression of the game more fun and manageable (Unless you’re already on that ‘No Vitality’ playthrough grindset in which case, good luck!)
This stat not only boosts your Health Pool, giving you a greater chance to take more hits and survive tough encounters and unexpected ambushes, but it also boosts your guard regain, i.e., the stat that determines how much of your translucent health (which occurs when you regularly block instead of perfect guarding) you can get back per hit. Both aspects become more coveted as the game progresses beyond the second half, and the difficulty ramps up.
3. Invest in Vigor to increase stamina
Vigor is the stat that governs the size of your stamina bar. Stamina is essential for many actions, ranging from attacking, blocking, certain Legion Arms, dodging, etc. A larger Stamina bar allows you to take more actions and creative liberties during a fight without the risk of being caught lacking.
One crucial aspect that hinges on investing in Vigor in Lies of P is the perfect guard mechanic. Doing so nullifies damage completely and drains the opponent’s stagger gauge. However, perfect guarding also consumes a bit of Stamina.
While it may seem relatively low starting off, some of the enemies in later parts of the game tend to chain together very long attack strings. If you haven’t invested sufficiently in Vigor, then worst case, you may fail to perfect parry the whole string, or even if you do, you’ll usually be at too much of a Stamina Deficit to go for a counterattack in many cases.
2. Unlock the Rising Dodge skill
Coming from traditional Souls-games and other Soulslikes, players may find it a bit odd that they cannot roll away once they have been knocked down. This can be quite a turn-off for many, especially in the beginning, having to slowly watch your character get up while the enemy is already in the middle of winding up a new attack chain.
Debates on locking such a tool behind an upgrade system aside, the Rising Dodge is a useful skill to unlock early in Lies of P.
This way, you can quickly find your bearings after an attack knocks you down, putting some distance between you and the enemy, maybe getting a quick heal or applying a grindstone or whatever before the enemy refocuses their sight on you. It’s also a Phase 2 upgrade, so you can acquire it early on to fix this little gripe with the flow of combat.
1. Unlock Link Dodge
Another aspect of the dodging system that can be a bit daunting at first is the relatively smaller evasion window in Lies of P. For those worried if the dodge feels the same throughout the game, worry not since the Link Dodge is a Phase 1 P-Organ skill that can potentially be the first one you unlock in Lies of P.
While the dodge frames of your initial dodge are active, press again to consume additional stamina for a secondary dodge roll. This extends your invincibility frames while allowing you to change dodge directions as well.
This is quite useful, especially for certain boss moves that chain together multiple hits, which catch sloppy dodgers. The additional dodge can help you dodge what would otherwise be a painful knowledge check.
