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A handful of tips that’ll help you hit the ground Force running as you go from Padawan to Jedi Master...
The Force is strong with the foes of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, particularly on higher difficulty levels, which is why it’s wise to heed these tips before you get to ’saber swinging. And because original Star Wars' creator once planned 12 Star Wars movies, here are 12 tips to ease your Jedi training as Padawan-on-the-run Cal Kestis in Fallen Order.
Use 1v1s as Training
Even basic baddies can sometimes surprise you with different hard-hitting attacks. When you have a chance against an isolated foe – or you’ve separated them from their friends – play around with your prey a bit to learn their attacks. Test a mix of up-close and at-range encounters to see what they really have to offer, then incorporate those learnings into future battles. Also, bonus tip, use target lock liberally or you’ll find yourself regularly exposed.
Group Fights are About Target Prioritisation
Taking the above 1v1 tip into account, group fights against different enemy types can be a handful. That said, if you prioritise enemies by their threat level, you’ll come out on top. For instance, ranged enemies aren’t necessarily tough, but if they hit you, they break your combat flow. Deflect bolts back at basic grunts, and make a beeline for rocket launcher-wielding stormtroopers. Or position yourself so ranged attackers don’t have an angle. Then keep moving so no goon gets behind you.
Darth Maul’s homeworld (aka Dathomir) – not that we know if he’s in Fallen Order...
Avoid Maul’s Homeworld Early on
Early on in the game, you’ll get a choice of travelling to Zeffo or Dathomir. Absolutely cut your teeth on Zeffo before hitting up Dathomir. Darth Maul’s homeworld (aka Dathomir) – not that we know if he’s in Fallen Order – is, like, the famed Sith Lord, one tough cookie. Visit it after you’ve unlocked some abilities and are confident enough to take on these tougher fights.
Hit and Run
If an enemy kills you, they take the experience you’ve earned towards your next upgrade point. You only have to hit them once to get it all back, though. It’s worth dashing for that particular enemy if you’re in a tricky area. There’s no shame in sprinting to them, slashing them once, then bolting away. That said, hitting these nemeses once also gifts full health and Force, so more confident ’saber wielders should absolutely factor that in when heading back to a tougher encounter to net their hard-earned XP.
Perfect Blocking and Dodging
Fallen Order offers the option of blocking or dodging, with dodging seemingly preferable because it’s easier for avoiding red (read: unblockable) attacks. You really should work hard to master both early on. If you get caught out trying to roll away, you’ll take a lot of damage. Similarly, a perfectly-timed block results in a parry. For blaster-wielding stormtroopers, this is an insta-kill care of a return-to-shooter bolt. They aim before firing, but time the block as the bolt’s about to hit you. For melee combatants, a parry opens up a deadly window to counter-attack and makes fights against higher-ranked foes a whole lot easier.
Exploratory Rewards
The more you get into a new planet, the more the map starts to fill up. While it’s easy enough to disregard the red-marked areas and chase the gold objectives, it’s well worth using these indicators to find new places to explore. The horizontal yellow lines indicate a new explorable area, and curious surveyors are often rewarded with more than just cosmetic unlocks. There are permanent upgrades to health stims, Force meter and your health to find, all of which are essential on higher difficulties.
Managing Percentages
The map is super-handy for discovering new areas to explore, but it also tracks the percentage of completion on a per-area basis. This is equally super-handy for completionists. Bring up the map and hover over an area to see how many chests are left and the overall percentage completion. Bear in mind that red objects indicate something you don’t yet have an ability or BD-1 upgrade for, so you can revisit the planet later and crack those once you have the corresponding unlock.
Rest to Farm
Fallen Order has a risk/reward system for replenishing health, Force and live-saving health stims. At a meditation circle (save point), you can choose the Rest option, but doing so respawns all enemies in an area. While this can be tricky, depending on the enemies in the area, it’s also an opportunity to farm experience. Pick a save point that has plenty of enemies nearby that you can confidently beat. Destroy them. Head back to the save point. Rest and repeat.
Heal Mid-Battle Tactically
Hitting D-pad down to score a health stim isn’t an automatic heal, nor does it give you full health. It can also be interrupted by enemy attacks or other controller inputs. Because of this, healing mid-fight is often risky, particularly against multiple or bigger foes. Use right bumper to activate Force Slow against aggressive enemies to buy precious seconds of healing time.
Difficulty Juggling
This may make you feel as dirty as a death-stick dealer, but you can change the difficulty whenever you’re not in a brawl. Dying respawns you at the nearest meditation circle, but because “nearest” can sometimes be a relative term in Fallen Order, consider dropping the difficulty if an Edge of Tomorrow-like combat encounter is fast becoming a grind. Conversely, if things are too easy, bump up the difficulty to get more of a challenge. Playing on Jedi Master, the second-highest difficulty, seems to be the sweet point.
Lightsaber Attacks Replenish Force
It may be a bit Sith of Cal, but he fills his Force meter by hitting enemies. The catch is that this only appears to work with lighter lightsaber attacks. Obviously, the core Force powers chew into your Force meter, but also using the heavy strike eats into your Force meter and, therefore, should be used sparingly. You also lose a chunk of the Force meter if you try to use a Force-powered ability and are interrupted or if you miss, so timing is essential.
Patience, Padawan
Fallen Order is tough at times. This means there’s a good chance you’ll die more than once to a particular enemy or group encounter and you’ll be tempted to rush through the familiar fights to score easy repeat XP. Resist this urge. It’s really easy for even one-on-one fights against the local fauna to go south quickly if you try to mash your way past them. In fact, there’s a relatively early unlock in the lightsaber part of the unlock tree that offers a handy extra-reach thrust, so long as you delay a second press of the attack button. You can mash through some fights in Fallen Order, but mastering the slower combo timing (with the right unlocks) will reward you in the tougher battles.
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