Nine Sols: 7 Combat Tips (2024)

Nine Sols is an intensive 2D Metroidvania that plays similarly to FromSoftware's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. In the story, you play as Yi on a quest for revenge against the awakened rulers of New Kunlun, known as the Nine Sols. To combat them on even footing, you must cut your way through the Taopunk setting of New Kunlun.

Nine Sols presents a fairly distinct combat style compared to most Metroidvania games that have similar gameplay to the parry intensive Sekiro made by FromSoftware. Because the combat is focused on counters and deflections, a patient mindset reading attacks and keeping yourself on the move can help you push through and defeat the bosses of Nine Sols.

7 The Balance Between Direct Damage And Internal Damage

One key aspect in combat for Nine Sols is the two types of damage you receive and deliver in fights. They are direct damage, which is unrecoverable without healing items, and internal damage, which can heal over time unless you get hit. This health system is similar to video games like Monster Hunter and Bloodborne, where certain chunks of health can be recovered without using healing items. Both you and your enemies have health that's affected by both.

Parries, deflections, base attacks help build up internal damage, which becomes direct damage when you use your attached talisman or after some time with weaker enemies. There are Jades you can find that can mitigate the effects of the internal damage to yourself and others that ever help heal you after a perfect parry. When you improve your health and gain more pipe to heal with later on, you can experiment with all kinds of playstyles to mix internal damage with direct hits.

6 Don't Let Yourself Get Overwhelmed By Multiple Enemies

More often than not, you'll be faced with an onslaught of foes. Nine Sols gets most of its intense difficulty from games like Sekiro, and just like those games, fighting a crowd of more than three different enemies ups the already intense action. If you don't have the means or confidence to tackle a group of patrolling enemies, you can stealth around enemies and strike when they're isolated.

Once you unlock weapons like the Azure Bow and Jades that expand your attacks and abilities, this becomes less of a problem when you're out farming for EXP for later levels. For certain boss fights upcoming in the game, you will be caught in situations where the bosses are teaming up on you. By then, you will have many skills to take on groups of enemies.

5 Gaining Chi And Using Talismans

Whenever you successfully deflect or parry attacks, you will gain chi. Chi gives you the opportunity to use special talismans and add an explosion attack after the deflection of the enemies' attacks. This chi blast can turn all internal damage enemies suffer into direct damage, making it possible to defeat even bosses with a single chi blast as long as their internal damage is high enough.

Talismans can be attached to foes for their effects to occur. However, talisman explosions have an animation sequence that enemies can use against you, so be careful, especially in long-winded boss fights, when you use them.

4 Equip The Right Jade For Additional Effects

Jades are part of a customization system that changes the effects of your talisman. One example is the Stasis Jade, which can cause enemies the talisman is attached to to freeze for a moment. You can also obtain other Jades that give you alternative elements for other parts of your moveset. An example of one of these is the Immovable Jade, which can reduce the time you'd need to wait before using Charged attacks.

Using Jades requires having enough slots of computing units to add them to your loadout. You start the game with just two, and you'll need to obtain more, especially since some Jades may require three. Computing units can be rewards for defeating certain mini-bosses and purchased from merchants you encounter throughout your travels.

3 Use Skills Like Bullet Deflect And Shadow Strike

In addition to Jades and talismans, you'll be building up Yi's abilities with skill points you obtain from leveling up. These skills help increase the natural duration of most abilities, give a boost to your chi, and most importantly, add more effects that'll help you in combat. There are a number of great skills to obtain that can make your playthrough a relative breeze.

One of the most important skills to get is the Bullet Deflect, which is perfect for fighting enemies with ranged attacks. Another special skill is the Shadow Strike, which inflicts higher damage with charged attacks and talisman explosions to enemies from behind. Unlike Jades, every new skill you obtain here is a permanent boost.

2 Use The Piercing Azure Bow

The Azure Bow is a formidable long-ranged weapon that can keep you safe from enemies while taking them down with charged-up arrow attacks. After defeating Yingzhao and unlocking Kuafu's Sol Seal, you get this weapon after meeting up with Kuafu.

The Azure Bow's base attack can clear a line of basic enemies with ease once you line up the perfect shot. This makes the Azure Bow a great weapon for farming EXP for the later chapters. There are also several skills you can obtain that can increase the effectiveness of the bow.

1 Master Deflections And Parries

Deflection is the most important thing to get down perfectly in Nine Sols. Unlike other Metroidvanias that have parries as an optional ability that adds to your combat, like Hollow Knight and Blasphemous, Nine Sols makes parries a vital mechanic to get right to overcome the combat flow.

Combat in Nine Sols hinges on your adaptability to deflections and parries. With each successful deflection, you will receive internal damage as opposed to taking direct hits. Fortunately, you can do internal damage to enemies as well and, with a formidable chi explosion, you can cleave through health through the mastery of your parry. There are also Jades and skills that will make mastery even more rewarding, encouraging you to handle deflections.