Risen: Tips to Conquer This Classic Action RPG

by Mike Alexander / Game Guides, Highlights, Tips & Tricks / 01 Feb 2023

Risen is an action RPG that was originally released waaay back in 2009 by Piranha Bytes, a developer who is also known for their Gothic series of games. Risen was appreciated in its time, but has developed a reputation for being a cult classic in the 14 years since its release.

Now, all these years later, THQ Nordic has re-released Risen for modern consoles. They didn’t make any changes, it’s essentially the classic game you remember, but now you can play it on the go with your Nintendo Switch!

If you’ve never played Risen, no one can blame you. The game is a decade and a half old, and many of the games from the Xbox 360 area are lost to the sands of time. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy this ancient classic, it just means you might need a little bit of help. Games from pre-2010 are way different than games we have now. So if you need a helping hand, join us as we go over a few tips to get the most out of Risen.

Choose Your Path

Once you get to a certain point in the game’s opening, you will be presented with three different paths to follow. Each one will result in a different class for your character, but the game doesn’t actually tell you this. Instead, it leaves you to your own devices, and allows you to find that out on your own.

That’s kind of a pain. Having an entire playthrough be determined by something you weren’t informed about isn’t any fun, so we’re going to outline what class you get from each path right here:

Bandit Camp – Melee or Ranged

Monastery – Mage

City – Monk

Decide which class suits you best and then follow that path!

Get Good at Dodging

The combat in Risen is… not very good. It might have been good in 2009, but it doesn’t really hold up to today’s standard. But, it’s an action RPG, so you have to push through if you want to get to the cool stuff in Risen.

You can get through most combat encounters unscathed if you get good at dodging. Being able to anticipate moves, hop out of the way, and retaliate with your own damage is kind of the cornerstone of Risen’s combat, so learn those dodge timings and you’ll be ok.

Keep Those Plants

Throughout the game, especially the first few hours, you’re going to come across a ton of different plants. Pick up every single one, and hold onto it. You’ll be glad you did later when you need all of those for stat-boosting potions down the road.

Level Up Your Masteries

If you spend a lot of time with certain weapons, whole new worlds will open up to you eventually. For instance, if you fight with swords and axes long enough that you max out their mastery tree, you’ll be able to hold two-handed weapons of both categories with a single hand. This will give you much more maneuverability and make your strikes incredibly strong.

No Respawns

None of the enemies in this game will come back in the same chapter after you kill them. Instead, it will populate new enemies in places you’ve been at the beginning of each chapter. This is fine for the most part unless you avoid combat.

If you go through the beginning of the game without clearing out enemies like wolves as you come across them, you can find yourself in a situation where you have double the amount of wolves to deal with, which very well might be impossible. Make sure you’re clearing out enemies as you find them so you don’t make a bad situation for your future self.

Gotta Go Fast

If you jump while moving forward, you will move faster than normal. It looks silly, but it works. This is always true unless you happen to be moving up or down a hill, then jumping is just a hindrance and slows you down.

Falling Down

If you like to speed up your travels by throwing yourself off of cliffs, but want to avoid taking the damage you normally would when you reach the bottom, go ahead and level up your acrobatics stat. This stat extends the distance you can fall before you take damage, and halves the damage you do take. It’s pretty helpful! If you don’t want to spend points on acrobatics, you can find a ring in the game that gives you the same effect.

Mike Alexander

Mike has been playing video games since he was able to hold a controller, having been fascinated by Sonic 2 on his mom’s Sega Genesis. That fascination and passion for the art form has grown exponentially nearly 30 years later, and he doesn’t see that fading away anytime soon.
View all posts