Despite its lukewarm reception, Dolmen is tough as nails. Here are essential Dolmen tips to help you survive Planet Revian Prime, courtesy of Lord Gaming Addict of ILP.
The Multiple Uses of the Energy Bar
One of the most fundamental Dolmen tips to keep in mind is knowing how the energy bar works. For example, batteries refill the energy bar. Learning early on in the game how to use the energy bar is extremely important. In addition, there are a few things that will use that bar.
Gun Slinger
One is gun shooting. The normal shot will drain the energy bar but it will refill after a short amount of time. Sometimes, it’s worth shooting an enemy or boss with a full clip from your weapon and letting it recharge. Be aware that you can still use drained energy bars to heal. Though it seemed to use up more of the bar than its normal use. Always try to let the energy bar refill before doing it if possible.
Shooting off a heavy gun attack will use up more of the energy bar as well of course. So, your best bet is to rely on shooting the normal attack most of the time. Unless you get put in a bad spot that requires you to use your gun’s heavy attack. Though these instances are rare.
Healing
Dolmen does have a healing feature that uses up a massive amount of your energy bar. Knowing when to heal is important in the game because it gives you the ability to not waste heals. It is ill-advised to heal if you’re just going to take some damage right after you use a lot of the energy bar. So think before you heal.
Energy Bar – Special Ability
The last way to use the energy bar is to use your suit’s special ability, the energy mode which generates a certain type of elements such as acid, ice, or fire. This can be extremely useful but comes at a serious cost. The powerful mode will drain your energy mode but not use it. However, it will drain extremely fast and it takes a while to come back.
Energy Bar Round-Up
Knowing how the energy bar is used, the best advice is to only use guns if you need them for something and only use the energy mode if you have a huge advantage to attacking someone with their element weakness. Early game you really want to mainly use the energy bar for healing and only use the rest as a last resort measure.
Dolmen Tips – Fighting the Enemy
Another one of the most important Dolmen tips to keep is understanding how combat works. The game’s fighting mechanics are centered around slow-based combat. That means it’s important to take everything slow and examine each enemy and find their basic moveset.
Some creatures will be hard early on. If you’re having too many issues while fighting it’s fine to run past everyone. Be sure to look for the next beacon that takes you back to your ship and go back little by little. Using the beacon as a resting point near tough enemies ensures you either level up enough to brute force your way around them. Or, it will help find out the best way methods for you to fight enemies.
Element System & Traversing the Map
Dolmen has three elements: fire, acid, and ice. Enemies will have a weakness and resistance to one of them. Depending on what build you start with at the start of the game, you might have access to some firearms that have these elements.
Fighting through the map it’s important to balance your healing and guns and we can’t forget about energy mode. Avoid enemies that you are unsure if you can beat and try not to get trapped running if you do decide to run. You’re also going to want to keep a mental map of where you are going in case you die. This is in order to know where your timeline is in case you need to recover your nanites.
Stats and Equipment
In this Souls-like game, the best thing to do is make sure you know what type of build for your character you want to use. You also want to make sure you use a few different types of weapons so you know their playstyle in case you want to use them.
Every equipment has stats requirements and what build works best for them. Be sure to pay attention to these stats and make sure you invest into that area when you level up. DO NOT forget to invest into stats like energy and your constitution. It’s smart to balance fighting with health and energy.
The best thing to do is make sure you know how you want to fight. So you don’t waste any level-up points on weapons that you won’t use. Also, make sure you fight the bosses enough times to make their unique weapons so you don’t do it late game and not have the stats to use it effectively.
Dolmen Tips – Boss Fight Guide
Boss fights in Dolmen are extremely difficult at times and I recommend using our boss guide. These bosses are hard and we have found good fight tactics to take on each boss to make it as simple as possible. Also keep in mind you are able to respond to bosses and fight them again for their special resource. That allows you to craft powerful unique weapon to take on the next bosses. Keep in mind you do not have to beat them right at that moment. If you’re dying too much, just farm experience and come back a few levels higher.
While you’re here, check out ILP’s video review of Dolmen.
