10 tips to get the most out of Portal Knights
Portal Knights is a cutesy RPG sandbox game very much in the vein of Minecraft, but with an overarching goal and more direction. There is plenty to do in the world with lots of islands to explore, resources to gather and enemies to fight. You also have three broad character classes to play around with, each with their own armour sets and weapons to craft and collect.
There are hours and hours of gameplay to enjoy with a simple yet effective build mechanic as well as a huge variety of blocks with which to build with, as well as NPC characters that give you quests to follow, so things can get overwhelming. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of Portal Knights.
Complete the Tutorial
The tutorial is an essential part of Portal Knights, especially for new players. It teaches you the basics of fighting, as well as explaining the importance of resource gathering and activating the portals in each world. It is easy to miss the whole tutorial by entering the first portal once you opened it, but it is well worth sticking around on your first island for a bit to ensure you have seen everything that it has to teach you.
Explore, explore, explore
Each island that you visit in Portal Knights is randomly generated with their own unique enemies, flora and resources. As you get further in the game you will be begin to need specific resources to build with and upgrade your gear and equipment. As well as the stuff you can see overground there are often dungeons underground to explore that contain chests of goodies as well as enemies to fight which will give you experience points to spend on making yourself stronger and more agile. Plus, if you explore you may find the perfect spot to build something magnificent!
Upgrade!
As you explore you will find new materials which can be used to upgrade your armour and equipment, but in order to do that you will also need to upgrade your crafting benches! By doing this you will access new recipes for gear as well as new blocks that you can use in your building. Use your map to help you locate the islands that have the items that you need to upgrade and travel to them, but remember the resources are not infinite – if you need palm leaves for items, make sure to replant to ensure you will always have a stock of them.
Use your traits and skill lines
Each class in Portal Knights has their own traits and skill lines, so as well as putting points in to strength, agility, dexterity etc. you can also specify certain areas where your character is stronger. For example, as a Mage you can choose to specialise in wands, staffs or scythes. Each time you level up you will be asked to distribute 3 new skill points, but trait paths are only required after every five levels. Once you choose a trait though you aren’t restricted to it for the rest of the game, you can change it whenever you wish depending on how you are playing at that point.
Build your home
Portal Knights is a crafting and building game at heart so make sure you spend some time creating a space on one of the islands to call home. As you explore you will find new and exciting blocks to really make your structures stand out. By building your home you will also have a place to store all your excess items as your inventory space will quickly get filled up, so take some time to carve out your own little area in the world. You can even craft a totem to keep enemies from spawning anywhere near your base as well for risk free building.
Use your sharpening stones
There are a lot of enemies to fight in Portal Knights as well as resources to mine. Over time your gear will wear out and become less effective, so make sure you use sharpening stones, which are easily crafted, to restore your gear to full effectiveness. As you get further into the world, you will discover new materials that will improve the effectiveness of your tools. Also be sure to check out the recipes available in your menu.
Look out for ores
Ores are a finite resource on the worlds that you visit so make sure you are exploring thoroughly to ensure you get everything! You will need ores to upgrade your workstations as well as your tools and weapons.
Use storage
There is a lot of stuff to collect on the islands you will visit and most of it is useful in some way or another, so rather than trashing it, build some storage at your base. You can build things like chests to keep items in, but also once you have the recipes you can build bookcases, drawers and other items of furniture to keep your stuff in, so get creative. Also, it is worth nothing that you can visit your world with any other character you create so storing resources in a central area for all your characters to access is very useful.
Use scrolls and recipes
As you explore the various islands that make up your world you will start to find scrolls in chests and as drops from killing certain enemies. By using these scrolls you can access new recipes for things like furniture for your house, new spells, or even a fancy new outfit.
Build portals
Building portals is the key goal in Portal Knights; by killing enemies and mining resources you will occasionally receive shards with which you can craft portal stones. Most islands contain at least one portal with some having as many as three to find. Each portal requires six portal stones to activate it, and by doing so you open up a new island to explore. One of the portals on the island may even lead to a boss which upon killing will allow you access to a new set of islands with more exciting resources and enemies to collect and kill. Only by restoring the portals will you achieve the goal of defeating the fracture that has torn the world in to the islands that you explore.
