10 Things We Wish We Knew Before Starting Noita

Summary

• Always have water on hand to remove harmful stains like fire and poison, keeping you alive longer in Noita's challenging world.
• Non-shuffle wands are better for control and mana management, always be on the lookout for upgrades to improve your spell order.
• Money is crucial in Noita for buying spells and wands, defeat enemies and collect gold, and remember to explore and experiment for success.

Noita is an extremely unique game in the world of indie roguelikes, as well as one of the best ones out there. It's a bit of a sandbox experience where every single pixel in the game is simulated. That means that every pixel of every object, item, and enemy can have physical and chemical interactions with each other. This is part of what makes the game notoriously challenging, as a single pixel of embers can immediately set you aflame.

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Luckily, as hard as the game is at the outset, there are ways to make the game feel much more manageable. Noita doesn't really teach you anything besides the basic controls. If you find the game to be too challenging and obscure, here are the 10 best tips to instantly turn yourself from a bad Noita player to a slightly less bad one.

10 Always Have Water On Hand

Like any roguelike, your starting equipment in Noita is randomized. You will begin with a primary projectile wand, a secondary explosive wand and a flask of a random liquid. If this liquid is not water, you need to try and find some immediately.

Water will help remove any bad stains that will cause damage to you, especially fire or poison. Pouring water on yourself will remove the stain, bringing you back to normal. If you get set on fire and don't have any water on you, prepare to lose a lot of health. Take advantage of this PC-exclusive game by hotkey your favorite flask slot, so water is always quickly accessible.

Large enemies made out of fire have elemental weaknesses. Try pouring or throwing water at them to have an extra edge in combat.

9 Non-shuffle Wands are Better than Shuffle wands

There are only two kinds of wands in Noita: shuffle and non-shuffle wands. This is one of the most important mechanics in the game, as it determines spell order. A non-shuffle wand will shoot out the spells in the order they are placed from left to right. A shuffle wand will activate the spells in a completely random order.

Non-shuffle wands are always better as you can control the order of your spells. This can have huge implications regarding mana management, damage multipliers, and spell modifiers. There's nothing wrong with settling for shuffle wands if that's all the game will give you, but always be on the lookout for a non-shuffle upgrade.

8 Be Patient and Explore as Much as Possible

Noita rewards patience, exploration, and experimentation. Don't rush to the exit, but instead take time to look for resources. Sometimes the game will throw you a bone and offer up a heart container, a treasure chest, a secret shop or an exceptionally powerful spell or wand.

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Rushing ahead is usually a bad idea as each successive biome becomes more difficult, so finding better spells and wands before moving on is pretty much mandatory for a victory. Of course, if you get unlucky and lose a lot of health for whatever reason, getting to the exit alive a little too early is always better than dying.

7 Money, money, money

Money is by far one of the most important resources in the game. Without gold, you can't buy spells or wands from the shop inside the Holy Mountain, located at the end of every biome. You also need money to reroll the perk selection, since sometimes the game gives you perks that are not that good.

The main way to collect gold is to defeat enemies, so it's generally a good idea to defeat every enemy you come across, as long as they are not too powerful. Feel free to dig or blow out cash from the walls as well if you are feeling strapped for cash. You should try to leave the first biome with about 400-600 gold.

6 Add Spells to the Codex by Using Them

Noita has a massive codex, and filling it out is surely satisfying, but many new players are often confused about why the Spell category is so hard to fill out. It's not just because it's the largest out of the three, but it's because you have to use a spell in a wand with enough slots or mana for it to count.

That's right, simply picking up or buying a spell does not add it to the codex, even if it is added to your inventory. This is a good incentive to test-drive every single spell you find. Even if you use it once and don't like it, at least it's been added to your codex so you can read its description later.

5 Immunity Perks are Top Tier

New players are always encouraged to experiment with perks as they can drastically alter the way the game is played. But, if you are feeling especially pressured and outmatched, the immunity perks are by far some of the best in the game and will make many areas significantly easier.

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There are five immunity perks in the game: explosion immunity, fire immunity, melee immunity, toxic immunity, and electric immunity. Every single one of them is excellent as they make you invulnerable to their corresponding damage. Should you collect all five of them in a single run, you will be invincible to most of what the game has to offer.

Toxic immunity only provides immunity to materials classified as "toxic", such as toxic rock and toxic sludge. It does not provide immunity to acid, which is a far more dangerous version of toxic sludge. Similarly, fire immunity does not provide protection from lava or molten liquids.

4 You Can Get Early Extra Health With The Right Load Out

If you spawn with a secondary wand that fires missiles or dynamite instead of bombs, you can use them to shoot and create platforms on the mountain right above where you spawn. Once on top, you can head right to a large snowy peak. There is a heart container right above the snowy peak that can be released by shooting missiles or dynamite at it.

It will take a bit of practice, but the maneuvers are quite easy to pull off. This extra boost to max HP will come in handy in the early game.

3 Consuming Worm Blood Improves Vision

One of the most special substances in the game is worm blood. It is dropped by attacking the blue, one-eyed worms that the game will randomly spawn. Worm blood is a greenish substance that almost resembles vomit, but drinking it will give you special properties.

Worm blood will improve your vision considerably. It provides a night-vision effect, allowing you to see in dark places. This will come in handy when you want to be extra careful in traversing harder regions of the game.

2 Harder Regions are Often Located West

There are seven main biomes in Noita and most of them have additional layers that can be discovered to the left and the right. The left-hand side, or heading west, will usually reveal a harder version of the main area.

Depending on your skill level and confidence, you may want to avoid these western areas as they are always filled with tougher enemies. However, these areas tend to also have a higher chance of dropping stronger wands, heart containers, and a few secrets, so they are worth visiting if you think you have what it takes.

1 Learn How to Interpret Wand Stats

Part of what makes Noita one of the hardest roguelikes out there for new players is the stats on wands. The game doesn't explain what they mean, but it does highlight these stats in green or red when comparing a new wand to an old one. Green equals better, and red equals worse.

When it comes to casting delay and recharge time, you want these numbers to be as small as possible, as this means your wand will fire and reload faster. Your spread and your spells/cast should also be as low as possible. Everything else should be as big as possible, including slots, mana max, and mana charge speed.

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