Immortals Fenyx Rising Guide: Combat and Upgrades Explained

There is no more revered fighting force than the legendary Ancient Spartans. As infamous on the battleground for their overwhelming force (battle of Thermopylae) as they were for the baby/cliff rituals and their gay stuff. Individual heroes also stand head and shoulders above the rest, with the likes of Hercules, Achilles, Perseus, Odysseus and many, many more. To stand shoulder to shoulder with such legendary heroes and soldiers is no easy fit, and either is battling the many, many monsters you’ll come across as Fenyx.

But never fret, for this guide can teach you everything you need to know to transform yourself from humble shield-bearer to god-favored warrior. We’ll run down the basics of what to expect in Immortals Fenyx Rising’s combat, and how to get the edge on some of the tougher enemies. 

By the way, do also check our other Immortals Fenyx Rising guide about getting the most out of the Golden Isle!

Swords and Axes and Bows, Oh My!

As you make your way across the tutorial island, Fenyx will start to gear themselves up for the coming battle against Typhon and their legion of monsters. First, you’ll find a sword, then an axe, then a bow. These are three basic weapon types you’ll have to play within Fenyx Immortals Rising, each serving their own function in your arsenal.

The sword, somewhat unsurprisingly, is your typical light attack weapon of course. It cuts through the air quickly and can deliver out decent combos. It doesn’t do anything to a monster’s stun bar (explained below) but does remarkable damage to their health bars. For basic enemies or ones that have any resistance to being stunned, this should be your primary killing tool.

The axe is the opposite. Offer slow swings and big wind-ups and what you might expect from a hack and slash heavy attack. It has a greater range than the sword, capable of catching multiple enemies with each swing, but it doesn’t do a lot of damage. Surprisingly, it will do less damage than the sword initially. Instead, the axe is the best tool to build up an enemy’s stun. For larger, slower enemies with deep health pools, this is a good choice as stunning your enemy will be the best chance to do a lot of damage to it. It also works at breaking guards for any monster that has any defenses of its own.

The bow, obviously, has the greatest range of all the weapons available. Your ammo pool won’t be very high to start with but nevertheless, you can use it to pick off weaker enemies in a mob from afar or get a few early strikes on the larger or winged beasts. The bow also has a unique ability that lets you guide the arrow in flight, meaning you can line up the perfect shot, but this will cost you some stamina to achieve.

You’ll find a great variety of these weapons as you explore the realm, each offering different buffs for you to choose between. Make sure you check out what each one does and whether or not that will help of hinder your playstyle. And don’t worry if you don’t like the look of these new weapons, as you can always customise them to look like any weapon you have already found.

How to Upgrade and Improve Your Weapons, Abilities, and Stats

Weapons and armour can be upgraded, health and stamina improved, and new skills and abilities purchased once you’ve made it to the Hall of the Gods after the Immortals Fenyx Rising tutorial. There are a bunch of different currencies, but you’ll be collecting all of them fairly regularly as you explore the world. For weapons and armour, you’ll be needing the shards that you often find in the chests scattered around.

They come in four colours and you’ll normally need a combination of two to make an upgrade. Blue shards are your most basic, used when upgrading your weapons, armour, and helmets. Red shards are normally the second colour you’ll need to upgrade your weapons. Whereas it’s purple you are looking for if you want to upgrade your armour. Gold shards, on the other hand, are used to improve your bags, giving you a bigger quiver and potion pouch. 

When upgrading, don’t worry about what sword or axe you are wielding at the time. Each upgrade influences all of that type of weapon that you have equipped or will find afterward. That means you can begin upgrading as soon as possible without worrying about spending resources on early game weapons. Upgrading your sword is normally the best first purchase as no matter how much you like the axe, it’s the sword that normally delivers the most damage.

Improving your abilities can add new powers to your roster, as well as expend your combos for more damage and opportunities to stun. You’ll find these options at the River Styx Cistern in the Hall of the Gods, where the game gives you a handy explainer and video on each upgrade before you make any purchase. These upgrades cost Charon Coins which are awarded for completing myth challenges. When you first get there, it’s probably best to look to gain a Godly power that deals area of effect damage, and if you have any spare, consider expending your sword combo.

Improving your health and stamina is much simpler. You’ll need Zeus’ Lightning to increase your stamina at the Hall of Gods, which you can find at the end of Vaults of Tartaros. Meanwhile, health is improved by spending Ambrosia, which you can spot scattered around the game world.

How the Stun Bar Works

Locking onto an enemy in Immortals Fenyx Rising will reveal two bars. The red health bar and the yellow stun bar (check if it goes up or down). To defeat an enemy you simply have to deplete their health bar, which as already stated, can be done best with the sword and its sharp combos. Some enemies have a lot of health though, and won’t just stand still and let you slice them up. These enemies are prime candidates for stunning.

To stun an enemy, you’ll want to focus on your heavy axe attacks. They’ll chip away at the health bar a little, but more helpfully it will greatly affect the stun bar. Once the stun bar is maxed out the enemy will become stunning. In this state, they cannot attack or block and will stand still until the stun bar depletes again, so it is pretty simple to get in with your sword and swing like mad before they can get back up.

Every enemy has a stun bar, but it’s up to you to decide which one you should focus on. Smaller enemies are easy enough to kill without needing to stun them, although you might want to use the axe to break their shield guards if they have them. Larger enemies, faster-moving targets, or ones that can do high damage might be more suitable targets to stun, but remember that the axe swing is quite slow, so you have to time your attacks carefully.

Like most Ubisoft games, especially the recent ones, you’ll have the option to parry or dodge attacks, both of which offer different bonuses when handled correctly. Parrying can do a lot of stun damage to them, which is great if you’re struggling to get the bar up. Dodging at the right time will slow everything down for a few seconds, and is perhaps more useful when there are a lot of enemies to keep an eye on. Making use of both can greatly improve your chances and help get that all-important stun meter up as well. Because even if you dodge, those slowed seconds can let you get an axe combo in, from a safer position.

Aerial Combat

Early on in Immortals Fenyx Rising, you’ll start encountering enemies with wings. These blights on the sky can prove a problem as they stay mostly out of your melee range and often come with ranged attacks that make using the bow all the more perilous. You’ll have wings of your own by this point, but for a lot of players, it can be hard to shift flawlessly between the ground and aerial combat.

But for players struggling with the early harpies that can shoot and dive on you from above, there are a few tricks that can help level the playing field. The most effective way to deal with flying enemies is to remove the flying from the equation. As mentioned earlier, stunned enemies cannot move, and for flying enemies, that means that they have to land. And thankfully, most flying enemies have relatively low stun bars, so you can max them out with one three-hit combo from the axe. For this strategy, all you have to do is close the distance, get in their face and whack them until they eat dirt, then finish them down there. Obviously, this isn’t as easy as it sounds if there are multiple enemies, especially if they are ranged, but as an early game resolution, it’s probably the best method to try.

There is plenty of equipment that offers useful buffs too, such as the Tempest Axe. This weapon can be found in the Valley of Eternal Spring (not far from where you arrive from the tutorial region) and gives you a 20% chance to deal triple damage with an air axe combo to help cripple any winged enemies you might be struggling with. The Stormy Helm of the Vulture, another early game item, improves your damage in mid-air, which is useful if you’re struggling to feel effective in the air.

You’ll also get access to skills and upgrades once you reach the Hall of the Gods. Several of these are specifically devoted to your wings and aerial abilities that can make fighting in the sky much easier. Some specific ones to look out for are the air dodge that makes you a harder target in the sky, and the sword launcher that allows you to juggle your opponents.

Cyclops

One of the earliest challenges you’ll find in Immortals Fenyx Rising is the Cyclops. This giant one-eyed menace has a huge health pool and massive area of effect attacks make hurting him without consequence all the more difficult. If you find yourself struggling on this boss, or any of the regular cyclopean enemies you come across afterward, there are a few ways to keep yourself in the fight.

For one, you can try and stay off the ground. Most of his attacks are aimed at someone around his knees so a few jumps will get you out of the way. This is especially effective against his area of effect attacks that destroy the ground around him. Unfortunately, when you first fight the cyclops, you probably won’t have any effective aerial attacks yet, so it might be best saved for later encounters.

It might sound silly, but dodging between his legs is probably the safest and most effective way of staying out of the way of his attacks. The Cyclops has a wide stance, so there is plenty of room to dash through, and most of his attacks only affect the area in front of him, so it gets you out the way. From there you can get in several hits with the axe or sword and really chip away at his health.