With Ubisoft Montpellier’s 2.5D Metroidvania Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown now in the wild for a week or so, we’ve finally had long enough to drum up a list of tips and tricks we think might be useful to you if you’re just starting out. The Lost Crown is a long, surprisingly challenging action-platforming game with a great many tough bosses to beat and intricate puzzles to solve.
So, to make your journey a bit easier, here are a handful of essential Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown tips to help you make the most of your time with Sargon.
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The Lost Crown follows the young Sargon, the newest member of a warrior clan who, optimistically, call themselves The Immortals. He’s tasked with tracking down the kidnapped Prince Ghassan, who’s been dragged off to the cursed city of Mount Qaf. As is the standard for Metroid-style adventure and exploration games, The Lost Crown is filled with paths to unblock, collectibles to find, and hot new gear to unlock. Due to the maze-like map design these types of games lean on, it can be easy to get lost or stuck — but don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
Upgrade Your Gear Regularly
This feels like it should be extremely obvious, but I kept getting pulled into exploration and forgetting to upgrade.
The fiery blacksmith—and absolute goddess—Kaheva opens up her forge to you not long after you reach the hub area of The Haven. But she’s not the only shopkeeper who can improve your equipment. While Kaheva can buff the damage of your bow and swords, The Mage, an elderly woman who operates an equipment shop in The Haven, can increase the number of health flasks you can hold and improve the potency of their healing. Further, both shopkeepers can power up the status effects of your Amulets, which are equippable gear that activates buffs like upping your melee damage at low health or reducing the damage of environmental hazards.
Though you may get sidetracked by exploration, it’s worth coming back to The Haven to upgrade your gear as often as possible. The bosses in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown don’t play around, so you’ll need all the help you can get. Trust me.
Don’t Forget The Swordmaster
Speaking of The Haven, another person you should visit regularly is the swordmaster Artaban. Artaban is Sargon’s trainer throughout the story, someone who can teach you useful methods of dispatching your foes in battle. Complete his combat challenges to accrue Time Crystals, which are one of the currencies used for buying wares and upgrading gear. The challenges themselves are fairly simple, and with enough practice and patience, will help you become more comfortable using all of Sargon’s abilities to kick serious ass.
Always, Always, Always Buy The Area Maps From Fariba
Thanks to her extensive knowledge of the cursed city, Fariba often has maps for sale. These maps reveal everything you could possibly need to know about that given area, including potential secrets and unexplored spots. Her location varies, and it can make her a pain to get to. She’s frequently hidden in some gated room, stashed behind a complex platforming section. But picking up the area map from her will save you a LOT of time in the long run. The best part? She’s cheap. Unlike some of the other shopkeepers whose wares can be a bit more expensive, Fariba sells her services for just 50 Time Crystals. Bargain.
Don’t Do Much Backtracking Till You Get The Last Power
Like many Metroidvanias, much of the design of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown revolves around revisiting previous areas with new powers and seeing what new paths open up to you. Because of this, it’s tempting to backtrack immediately the moment you acquire a new time-bending ability.
Do not give in to temptation. Just trust me on this: wait until you’ve gotten the very last power, the Fabric of Time, and then go on a giant backtracking jag. You don’t get this power until about three-quarters of the way through the main story, but putting that urge to explore on hold you get this magical grappling hook will save you time and frustration. Before this point, a majority of your backtracking will be blocked by floating hooks that require the Fabric of Time to reach. There’s no clever way to get around these sections without it, so you might as well wait.
On top of this, by the time you unlock it, you’ll be so OP that not even the game’s toughest bosses can stop you going where you want.
Don’t Be Afraid To Throw Your Chakram Around
About an hour or two into Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, you’ll unlock a new weapon: a bow. The neat thing about this bow is that you can throw it around to call down platforms and open gates. This double-edged weapon can also be chucked about in combat as a projectile, and it gets faster and stronger each time you parry it. The best part, of course, is that you can use the chakram to secure resource caches without having to pull off a complex platforming feat to reach them. Use the chakram often! It makes collecting stuff a little less frustrating.
The Lost Crown Lets You Take Images Of Memorable Spots
With The Eye of the Wanderer, a true innovation within the Metroidvania genre, you can take screenshots that are dropped on your map as icons. In games like this that require constant backtracking, a feature like this does nothing but make your life easier. Instead of trying to memorize where something is, or scribble a dirt map in a notebook you keep next to the couch, you can spend your Memory Shards to snap a quick photo as a reminder. And when you no longer need that snapshot, you can delete the screenshot to free up space for more photos and clear the icon off your map. Hold down on the D-pad and snap away. Your memory will thank you for it.
Clear Your Side Quests (And Thank Us Later)
As you explore Mount Qaf, you’ll run across any number of characters that need your help. It might be deciphering an ancient text or finding an old woman’s children. Regardless of the task at hand, these side quests drop good rewards, from currencies you can spend at the various shopkeepers to resources you can use to upgrade your gear. Depending on the complexity and length of the objective, you might even be rewarded with a Soma Petal, which increases your max health when you’ve collected four of them. Your impulse might be to eschew side quests and continue tracking down the Prince. Fight it. Do the side quests. It’ll be worth your while.
Prince Of Persia Is Happy For You To Use Guided Mode (And You Shouldn’t Feel Guilty About It)
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown presents you with two game modes when you start: Exploration and Guided. Exploration mode is the default setting, which keeps hints about the location of story quests and side errands to a minimum. Metroidvania diehards: this is definitely the mode you want. You’re good; feel free to move on to the next subhead.
For those who maybe don’t play lots of Metroidvanias: Guided mode is the opposite of Exploration mode, giving you a far greater amount of assistance, populating the mini-map with icons for mission objectives, doors and paths, and the upgrades you’ve unlocked as you move through the world. It takes a LOT of the guesswork out of the game. Don’t get me wrong — it’s not a GPS; you’re still going to get lost, so don’t worry about that. But what Guided mode will make it so you don’t stay lost. You can toggle this setting on or off at any time, which is great if you’re getting nowhere in Exploration mode and need a hint.
Prince of Persia Now Lets You Tweak The Difficulty To Your Preferred Playstyle
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a great example of video game accessibility. Among the many mechanics that can be tweaked in its extensive settings menu: easier parries, invulnerability extension while dodging, the ability to skip challenging platforming sections, markers for interactive in-world objects, and so much more. You can customize the experience to your liking, making the game easier or harder depending on your taste, and it all makes a meaningful difference. So: take advantage of it! There’s bound to be a setting here that will give you the kind of Metroidvania experience you’re looking for.
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And there you go! Nine simple tips to help you bend time and survive the sands in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Good luck on your quest to Mount Qaf. Prince Ghassan needs us both. Got more? Put ’em in the comments and help your fellow Immortals out.
Image: Ubisoft
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