Beginner Tips

Get a grip on Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel with essential beginner tips. Learn about controls, skills, and strategies to dominate the hordes and defeat the bosses.

Welcome to Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel! This guide is here to help you get started and make sure you're not overwhelmed when you first jump into the action. We'll cover the basics of gameplay, how to control your hero, and some key tips to help you survive the onslaught.

Basic Gameplay

In Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel, you'll take on the role of a hero embarking on raids. Your main goal is to complete objectives, like surviving the harsh winter or taking down powerful lords and champions, all within a time limit. Once the objectives are met, you'll summon and face off against the main boss. The game plays from an overhead perspective, with waves of enemies constantly pushing towards you. You start with a basic attack and a weapon skill. As you defeat enemies, they'll drop XP crystals. Collecting these will level up your hero, and at each level, you'll get to choose a new skill, either from a specific god or from your hero's own potential abilities. By default, your skills and attacks will activate automatically at regular intervals. Your primary job is to control your hero's movement, use their weapon skill, and manage their dashes effectively.

Controls

Getting the hang of the controls is crucial. Here’s a breakdown of the default keybinds for both keyboard/mouse and Xbox gamepad:

* The attack mode is set to Smart by default. You'll only need to press the attack button if you switch to Manual attack mode.

† Aiming is also set to automatic by default. You'll only use the aiming controls if you're in manual aiming mode.

Tips and Tricks

• During your raids, you'll earn gold and soulstones. These are super important for buying new weapons for your heroes and activating powerful virtues from the main menu. Virtues offer all sorts of bonuses and helpful effects. Keep in mind that virtues offered by the gods apply to all your heroes, while hero-specific virtues only benefit that particular hero.
• When a raid wraps up, whether you win or lose, you'll see an info screen showing the DPS of your attacks and autocast skills. It’s a really good idea to try and snag three skills that have the highest DPS. For example, Thunderstorm and Sentinel, both gifts from Thor, are fantastic for high DPS because they automatically target multiple enemies. They’ll deal their full damage every time they trigger, as long as there are enough enemies around to hit.
• Don't get tunnel vision on just high DPS skills, though! Skills that help clear out enemies right around you, or that can briefly stop enemies from advancing, are also super valuable. Freya's Divine Wave is a prime example. Its circular waves emanate from your hero, and the slight knockback effect can give you a crucial moment of breathing room by momentarily stopping most enemies in their tracks.