11 beginner’s tips to know before starting Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

A crown isn’t the only thing that’s lost in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. By design, you’ll often find yourself wondering what to do, where to go, and how to get there — lost, in other words.

Yes, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a true-to-form Metroidvania, with all the backtracking and neatly parceled-out upgrades the genre entails. That’s on top of a nuanced and often difficult combat system. Here are 11 beginner’s tips for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

Play on Guided Mode

Image: Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft via Polygon

When you start Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, you’re given the choice between two game modes:

• Exploration Mode is exactly what it sounds like, giving you minimal direction as to where you need to go for story missions and side quests.
• Guided Mode offers a bit more structure, highlighting objectives on your map. Guided Mode also indicates whether or not you can or cannot access certain passageways based on which upgrades you’ve unlocked.

If you’re up for more of a challenge and don’t mind getting periodically lost, opt for Exploration Mode. But for our money, Guided Mode is the way to go. The icons are for the most part unobtrusive (they only show up when you open the map). Having immediate knowledge that you can’t take a certain route saves you wasting time trying to hammer out a solution where there is none. Plus, don’t worry — you’ll still likely get lost from time to time.

And if you ever want to take the training wheels off, you can always change modes in the game’s settings.

Fariba will give you hints

If you’re ever stuck, head to the Haven — your hub area, located in the Lower City — and talk to Fariba (sitting next to the Mage shop). For 30 time crystals (the standard in-game currency of The Lost Crown), she’ll give you a vague hint as to where to go next. The hints are never so explicit as “Go here and do this.” But she may tell you that a winged statue can help you ascend to a new area, which implies that you should seek out a statue fitting that description. Her advice is especially helpful when playing on Exploration Mode.

Additionally, Fariba doesn’t just stay in the Haven. While you’re exploring, you may also run into her — and for 50 time crystals, she’ll fill in your map with an outline of the region you’re in.

Don’t miss the bonus tutorials

There’s even more tutorial beyond the initial tutorial stage, and it’s all genuinely helpful — in that you learn new tricks and earn free money.

In the Haven, talk to Artaban (in the northeast corner). He’ll offer a series of lessons that expand on moves you learned in the initial tutorial, imparting knowledge you may have otherwise missed, like the fact that you can parry projectiles or string combos together with your bow. You’ll also earn 50 time crystals for every tutorial you complete.

New tutorials become periodically available as you unlock more skills throughout The Lost Crown. Check back often to avail yourself of them.

Don’t try to parry everything

Image: Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft via Polygon

If you skip the optional tutorials, at least take the time to master your parry — easily the most valuable move at your disposal. To know when to parry or not, watch your enemy’s attack, and see if it emits a glint of a certain color:

• White attacks can be parried.
• Yellow attacks can be parried. Successfully parrying a yellow attack instantly kills cannon fodder enemies, and deals a ton of extra damage to bosses.
• Red attacks can’t be parried. Practice your dodge!

Follow the golden leaves

Wak-Wak trees are essentially the checkpoints of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Interacting with them restores your health and arrows, and gives you a chance to change your equipped amulets (perk-granting accessories) or Athra surges (special moves). When you die, you’ll respawn at whichever Wak-Wak tree you touched most recently, indicated by a blue circle on your map, like so:

Image: Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft via Polygon

If you’re looking for the nearest Wak-Wak tree, keep an eye out for golden leaves floating through the wind:

Image: Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft via Polygon

Following the direction of the wind will lead you to a Wak-Wak tree. Be ware, however, that interacting with a tree causes all enemies to respawn.

Check for hidden walls

Image: Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft via Polygon

In The Lost Crown, most walls are simply walls, but some are hidden doors. It’ll look like a normal wall. Your map won’t give any indication there’s anything on the other side. But if you hit the wall, it’ll start to glow; a few more hits will cause it to collapse, revealing either a new passageway or a chamber containing some treasure.

Basically, if you ever find yourself at a dead end, smack all of the walls in the room to make sure you’re not missing a hidden door.

Don’t worry about dying

Dying in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown isn’t as big a deal as it is in other genre mainstays — a good thing, seeing as how tough the combat is. You’ll lose a few time crystals every time you die, but you won’t have to trek all the back to the spot you died to reclaim the rest. Hollow Knight, this is not.

During major boss fights, respawning is even more forgiving. You won’t even get sent back to a Wak-Wak tree, and will even have the option to simply restart from the beginning of the fight. (If you want to change your amulets and Athra surges, however, you’ll have to return to the nearest Wak-Wak tree.)

There’s no fall damage

Mount Qaf is littered with handholds and platforms, all meticulously positioned to help you climb to various heights. When descending, you don’t have to worry about navigating any of that stuff — just jump! There’s no fall damage in The Lost Crown. Unless you land on some spikes.

Memory shards can help you backtrack

Image: Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft via Polygon

It’s the golden rule of the genre: If you can’t do X, come back when you have Y. Maybe you stumble upon an unbreakable cracked wall emanating golden light, or a gap that you clearly can’t jump across. In Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, you needn’t memorize these obstacles.

Pressing down on the D-pad expends a resource called a “memory shard,” which marks the location on your map and snaps a screenshot of it. You can view those screenshots from your map at any time, allowing you to check out the room before hoofing it all the way back there and realizing, nope, you don’t actually have the necessary upgrade yet after all.

Bear in mind, though, that memory shards are a limited resource, and you don’t get them back after clearing them from your map.

Upgrade your potion capacity first

At merchants in the Haven, you can upgrade the strength of your swords and bow, in addition to increasing how many potions you can carry, and how strong those potions are. Before investing in anything else, buy an additional potion. Early on, when you’re low on health, you’ll want to be able to heal yourself more than once — especially when navigating long stretches between checkpoints and going up against early game bosses.

Your potions restock every time you reach a Wak-Wak tree.

Get the Shield of Mithra amulet ASAP

Amulets are crucial accessories in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Get the Shield of Mithra amulet as soon as you’re able to. When equipped, it causes your parries to generate a small bubble, inside which all enemies move in slow motion. (You can upgrade the amulet to increase the size of this bubble.)

Shortly after your first visit to the Hyrcanian Forest, make your way to the Haven. Talk to Kaheva, who operates a forge behind the glowing door that opens upon your return. She’ll give you the “Ancient Powered Unearthed” side quest. It’s a fairly straightforward platforming challenge: You’re direct to a corner of the Lower City region, tasked with finding a piece of ore, and have to leap over some spiky logs to get it. When you do, bring the ore back to Kaheva to complete “Ancient Power Unearthed” and earn the Shield of Mithra amulet.

If you’re looking for more amulets, consult our guide for every amulet in The Lost Crown (that we’ve found so far).

For more Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown guides, consult our list of amulet locations, learn where to unlock fast travel spots, see how to solve the water wheel puzzle in the Lower City, and get tips on how to beat the Jahandar boss fight.