Star Wars games often feel estranged from the franchise that spawned them. Video games have gotten very good at capturing the aesthetic of Star Wars–the cold metallic angles of Imperial architecture, the powerful hum of a lightsaber, the electric snap of a blaster bolt hitting home–but can struggle to get beneath the surface. It’s the rare Star Wars game that reaches beyond how Star Wars looks to explore what Star Wars is really about.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, the latest game in the canon, is one of the better offerings specifically because it tries to look beyond the trappings of Star Wars. It’s not just another Jedi power fantasy, although wielding the Force with skill and resolve will certainly make you feel powerful. Like the best Star Wars games, it’s one that adds to the ideas of the films and other material, exploring new corners of the galaxy while focusing on the core themes of the franchise: knowing yourself, fighting your own darkness, and braving adversity with the help of friends.

Friendship has always been one of the main drives of Star Wars, especially in the original film trilogy, and it’s the core of what makes Jedi: Fallen Order work in both story and gameplay. The primary relationship of the game is between Cal Kestis, a Jedi padawan in hiding in the aftermath of the Jedi Purge that took place in Revenge of the Sith, and BD-1, a droid entrusted with a secret mission by the Jedi Master that previously owned it. Once Cal and BD-1 meet, they become inseparable, working together as partners to solve puzzles in forgotten ruins, navigate alien environments, and beat back the Empire.

The pair work throughout the game to complete a scavenger hunt created by BD’s last companion, Master Cordova. Before he vanished, Cordova locked away a list of Force-sensitive children throughout the galaxy that could be used to resuscitate the destroyed Jedi Order and challenge the Empire. He left clues to how to retrieve that list hidden in BD, requiring Cal and the droid to travel to various worlds, following in Cordova’s footsteps to free up BD’s encrypted memories.

Functionally, BD is Cal’s constant companion as he rides around on the Jedi’s back, and Cal regularly talks with the droid as they explore Fallen Order’s planets. BD also serves several support functions in gameplay. Most importantly, BD provides Cal with “stims” that allow him to heal himself in the middle of Fallen Order’s often-oppressive combat. He can also function as a zipline, unlock doors, and hack certain droid enemies to turn the tides of battle. BD is just enough a part of any given fight or puzzle that you’re always aware of his presence and his help, but it’s Cal’s constant interactions with the little droid that really build out their relationship.

You definitely need BD’s help and the upgrades you find for him throughout your journey, because Fallen Order can be punishing. It lifts a number of gameplay ideas directly from the Soulsborne genre; enemies are often tough-as-nails and can deal big damage if you’re complacent, whether they’re Imperial stormtroopers taking potshots or two-foot rats leaping out of burrows to snap at Cal’s throat. Fighting isn’t just about wailing on everyone with your lightsaber, but rather relies heavily on blocking and carefully timed parries if you mean to stay alive against even the most run-of-the-mill foes. You and your enemies also have a stamina meter to manage, which dictates how many blows you can defend against before you stagger, and adds a strategic element to duels. To win a battle, you need to whittle down an enemy’s stamina while blocking, parrying, and dodging to manage your own. Since every blow you sustain can be devastating, combat becomes an exciting, cerebral exercise in pretty much every case. You’ll spend a lot of time not only honing your parrying skills, but also making quick battlefield decisions about how you can isolate dangerous enemies or use your Force powers to even up the odds.

You can only heal from a limited number of stims or by resting at periodic meditation points, similar to Dark Souls‘ bonfires, and using them respawns all the enemies in the area, which makes being a smart combatant even more critical. Killing enemies and finding collectibles nets you experience, which accumulates into Skill Points you can spend on new abilities for Cal. But dying costs all the experience you earned since your last Skill Point unless you can find and damage the enemy who bested you.

Though the elements of Fallen Order are Souls-like–it’s probably most closely comparable to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, in fact–on most difficulty settings, it’s far less brutal than From Software’s games. Fallen Order might be considered Soulsborne-lite, making use of the same elements but to a different effect. It’s tough, even occasionally frustrating, but not nearly so much as the games from which it draws its inspirations. That balance achieves something that feels essential to Fallen Order’s identity: It makes you a powerful Jedi Knight, without turning you into an unstoppable Force-wielding superhero. Ratcheting back on the Jedi powers (and forcing you to unlock them as you work through the story and deal with Cal’s past) helps Fallen Order’s take on the Star Wars universe feel grounded and believable–a place where people could actually live.

Your lack of overwhelming power also helps make the ever-looming Empire a frightening threat, even as individual soldiers comedically call out their own ineptitude in pretty much every battle. Cal spends the entire game hunted by the Inquisition, a subset of the Empire’s forces specifically tasked with exterminating Jedi. Because every fight is potentially deadly, running into the game’s specially trained Purge Troopers is always an event, and you’re forced not only test your lightsaber skills and timing, but to consider all the abilities at your disposal to make it out alive.

The rest of the game often has to do with clambering around the environment and solving puzzles, not unlike Tomb Raider, God of War, or Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Navigating the world is as much about using observation and problem-solving skills as your Force tools. Respawn’s Souls-inspired map design allows you to explore off the beaten path without ever really getting lost, and each planet is richly realized and fascinating to explore. The intricate pathways encourage you to wander off and visit each planet’s varied environments to see what you might uncover, and Fallen Order always make sure you’re rewarded with a bit of story, a cosmetic item, or even an optional miniboss fight.

When you’re between missions on planets, you’re spending time with Fallen Order’s two other major characters, Cere and Greez. They’re the pair who manage to save Cal in the early hours of the game when his Jedi nature is discovered by the Empire, and they put him on the quest to find the list of Force-sensitives before the Inquisitors can get their hands on it. Though the story is a little rough in the early going as Cal is thrown directly into the quest with little lead-up or explanation, Fallen Order’s story starts to excel around the halfway point as his relationships with BD, Cere, and Greez really start to develop. Once Fallen Order starts to invest in the interpersonal dynamics and deepening friendships of its cast, it really hits a stride–and its quest feels less like an elaborate series of tasks to fetch a MacGuffin, and more like an essential addition to the ongoing Star Wars saga.

It does take Fallen Order a while to get there, though. The first few planets are a bit on the dull side, rushing to get Cal on his quest through the galaxy without really establishing why you should really care. Until it starts to click later in the game as you unlock more Force powers, combat can be a hassle, especially at certain boss battles or chokepoints, when your last meditation point is some distance away and you have to navigate through the same chunks of the map over and over. And while parrying is an essential part of the game, at higher difficulties, the timing can feel finicky and unreliable.

The game also loves to throw handfuls of enemies at you all at once, which can be overwhelming, and combat against lower-tier enemies is built to lock you into finisher animations in a lot of cases. Instead of making you feel like a cool, well-trained warrior, these usually just leave you open to some Imperial dork wandering up with an electrobaton and clocking you in the head. It’s only after you get enough Force powers to effectively control the crowds that these moments become more exciting than irritating. But throughout the game, there are always times when an enemy you couldn’t see because of the game’s tight targeting lock system gets in a cheap hit, forcing you to replay a fair stretch of its large, interweaving maps.

But especially as it wears on, Fallen Order becomes perhaps the strongest conception of what playing as a Jedi Knight ought to really be like. It’s true that Fallen Order borrows liberally from other action games, but those elements work together with Respawn’s combat and environment design, and a story that finds humanity in the Force and in its characters, to hone in on what makes the world of Star Wars worthy of revisiting again and again. Even with some rough edges, Fallen Order represents one of the most compelling game additions to the Star Wars franchise in years.

Use Force Slow Often

Force Slow is the only Force power available to Cal at the start, though you quickly learn a few more in the campaign’s early hours. Of all Cal’s abilities, Force Slow might be his most useful one–especially for taking on miniboss-like enemies and bosses.

When taking on a miniboss-like enemy, such as a Purge Trooper, you’ll typically have to deal with a group of accompanying enemies as well. Use Force Slow on the Purge Trooper to keep them out of the fight, giving you an easier time to deal with the weaker fodder. Once you start taking on multiple Purge Troopers at once, Force Slow can help you manage that duel so you’re not overwhelmed.

All boss fights will be one-on-one, but Force Slow is still incredibly useful in these scenarios. Several bosses, like Second Sister, are significantly faster than you are. This can make it a bit tricky to keep track of what their combos actually are. Force Slow makes it easier to see a boss’ combo, which in turn makes it easier to parry and counter. Slowing down the enemy also just makes it easier for you to put some room between the two of you so that you can heal.

Electrobaton Purge Troopers

The fastest of the four, Electrobaton Purge Troopers specialize in dodging and parrying. Though they don’t counter attack as often as their electrostaff-wielding counterparts, Electrobaton Purge Troopers do have some pretty devastating combos that allow them to continue their attack even after you’ve countered the first few blows. If you want to take out an Electrobaton Purge Trooper, you must wear down their guard or use the Force.

If you’re lucky enough to encounter an Electrobaton Purge Trooper next to a cliff, then Force Push or Pull them off. They cannot counter these Force powers as frequently as Electrostaff Purge Troopers. However, they can block Lightsaber Throw as well as pretty much every lightsaber attack. So when encountered in enclosed spaces, you’ll have to be a little strategic. You’ll probably notice that the Electrobaton Purge Trooper has one long combo that deals out a flurry of strikes, followed by a brief pause and then an unblockable attack. That brief pause is the best time to make your move, though, like the Electrostaff Purge Trooper, the length of that pause will depend on which difficulty you’re playing on.

It’s worth noting that, unless you attack the trooper enough times to stun them, that unblockable attack still comes after the pause. So you need to dodge immediately after attacking, especially on Master or Grandmaster difficulties where the pause is very short. Instead of dodging to the side, trying jumping backwards. Jumping backwards causes Cal to do a backflip that is good for dodging horizontal attacks, like the Electrobaton Purge Trooper’s unblockable attack.

Ninth Sister — Darth Vader: Dark Lord Of The Sith 6 – The Chosen One, Part VI

Like Second Sister, Ninth Sister was first introduced into the Star Wars canon in the Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith comic. However, Ninth Sister showed up much earlier, in the sixth issue: The Chosen One, Part VI.

Like Second Sister, Ninth Sister was once a member of the Jedi Order. As a Jedi, she was known as Masana Tide, a powerful Force user who could read people’s emotions and deduce their thoughts. When she turned to the Dark Side, this ability was amplified to allow her to read minds. Though her massive size limited her combat ability in comparison to the other Inquisitors, Ninth Sister became one of Darth Vader’s most fearsome interrogators.

In the comics, Ninth Sister spends a lot more time with Darth Vader than Second Sister–accompanying him on many missions to hunt down Jedi fugitives. In Fallen Order, you may notice Ninth Sister has two peculiar injuries: she’s missing her left eye and right leg. All Inquisitors possess some form of physical disability as part of Darth Vader’s method of teaching them about loss; in Ninth Sister’s case, he carved out her eye.

The loss of her leg is a much longer story, though the gist of it boils down to betrayal. The Ninth Sister lost her leg when the Sixth Brother cut it off, hoping to slow her down long enough so he could escape a squad of leftover clone troopers who had been mind-tricked by an escaped Jedi to execute Order 66. Though the mind trick led the clones to kill the Jedi as well, it also turned the clones on Ninth Sister and Sixth Brother, both of whom were former Jedi. Ninth Sister managed to survive, however, vowing revenge on Sixth Brother. Given Sixth Brother’s death at the hands of Ahsoka Tano during the events of Star Wars: Ahsoka (a novel written by E. K. Johnston that predates the events of Fallen Order by a few years), Ninth Sister never got her vengeance–leaving her with a seething hatred that she would unleash upon an unsuspecting Cal Kestis.

Combat in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order can be challenging, especially once you get through the early areas and start encountering tougher enemies like Purge Troopers and Imperial Security Droids. To help out, we’ve highlighted the best skills to unlock in Fallen Order.

As you learn more Force powers and build new types of lightsabers, you’ll unlock new skills to put points into. At the start, skills only require one skill point but the ones you’ll unlock later will require two or three. With that in mind, it’s to your benefit to save some of your skill points after you’ve invested in the early-game skills that you like. It is in your best interest to hold onto your extra points instead of unlocking something just because you can–it will make unlocking the cooler-looking, and much more powerful late-game skills easier to do without grinding.

For more Star Wars Jedi: Fallen order guides, check out our beginner’s guide and our feature on all the easter eggs and references. You can also read our full Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order review. Otherwise, scroll down for our advice on the best skills to unlock.

Beginner Skills To Unlock In The First Few Hours

Early on in Fallen Order, you don’t have much in the way of attack or defense other than your lightsaber. It presents an excellent opportunity for you to practice parry timing–which you should, especially if you’ve played Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice as the timing between the two games is not the same. Eventually, to stand a chance in a fight, you’ll be encouraged to mix together lightsaber combat and Force powers, so it’s important to get used to parrying until it becomes second nature.

To that end, you’ll want to invest points into all the first tier skills. There are four, though you won’t unlock the final one until an hour or so into your first incursion on Zeffo. Survival Skills (increases Cal’s max health) is ideally the one you want to unlock first. You won’t have many BD-1 stim canisters at the start, so having higher max health will help until you can increase the number of times you can heal. To the same extent, Force Attunement (increases Cal’s maximum Force) is also a good choice.

With those two out of the way, consider unlocking Overhead Slash. This powerful move will dispatch most creatures and standard Stormtroopers in one hit. Though the move loses utility the further into the game you go–it’s a little slow and not ideal for when you’re surrounded by large groups–it’s an excellent attack to have early on.

Once you travel to Zeffo, Cal will remember how to use Force Push. This unlocks numerous skills in his Lightsaber and Force trees, including the final skill in the first tier: Mass Push. If you enjoyed Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, you’ll love Mass Push. It allows you to charge a Force Push and send enemies flying–ideal for Zeffo and Kashyyyk where enemy placement is almost begging for you to send Stormtroopers flying off ledges to their deaths.

Intermediate Skills To Unlock After The Opening Hours

Once you’ve made it past Zeffo, you’ll have to start choosing how to build Cal. Many of his skills start to branch off in the second and third tiers. Some are more advanced variations of Survival Skills and Force Attunement, allowing you to further increase your health and Force or how quickly they regenerate. However, you can hold off on upgrading many of these skills; instead, invest in intermediate combat skills with your lightsaber. They will be much more useful for the bosses you’ll be fighting regularly.

Your journey in Fallen Order will see you face off against other lightsaber and Force users. These combatants are very powerful, and able to carve out huge chunks of your health quickly. In these fights, Fallen Order plays a lot more like Shadows Die Twice, in that both you and your opponent have a guard/posture meter and you’re both trying to wear each other down to land hits. With many of these bosses resistant to certain Force powers and able to counter your standard lightsaber attacks, you should invest in intermediate lightsaber skills as soon as possible.

In the Lightsaber tree, unlock Dash Strike, Sprint Strike, Delay Thrust, and Lightsaber Throw. Certain bosses will use their speed to retreat and refill their guard meter. All four of these lightsaber moves allow you to counter that strategy. Dash Strike allows Cal to leap at his target, Sprint Strike lets him deliver an attack out of a sprint, Delay Thrust gives him some added range to his standard attack, and Lightsaber Throw is Cal’s only long-distance option in combat. Of all four, you’ll have to wait longest to unlock Lightsaber Throw as Cal cannot use it until he relearns Force Pull on Kashyyyk.

The only Force power that reliably works on all enemies–from the smallest spiders to the most dangerous of Inquisitors–is Force Slow. You possess Force Slow from the start and it’s effective right out of the gate, so it’s not a skill you need to improve right away. However, after the opening hours, unlocking Empowered Slow is wise. Though it takes longer to use, Empowered Slow allows Cal to slow enemies almost to a halt for several seconds. It’s ideal for boss battles (as slowing them down gives you time to heal), but it’s also good for the early game to slow down Scout Commanders, Stormtrooper Commanders, Security Droids, and Purge Troopers long enough for you to thin the group that usually accompanies them. All four of those enemies are significantly easier to fight one-on-one.

Early on in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, your droid pal BD-1 gets in a fight with a Bog Rat on Bogano. While Cal quickly attends to BD-1’s physical injuries, his handy Scomp Link tool is destroyed. At first, you might not understand how this impacts your journey, and after a while, you may even forget it happened. Though if you’re a Star Wars fan, you likely understand the implications of this technical difficulty. Still, once you encounter a locked door or chest that can only be opened with a Scomp Link, you’ll immediately want to know where you can find a replacement.

For the uninitiated, a Scomp Link is a droid accessory that allows you to plug into terminals to reveal hidden passageways, as well as open up locked chests. You eventually get a new one for BD-1 later on in the story, but you can get it earlier if want to access the game’s many locked doors and chests earlier.

Below we outline where to get a new Scomp Link for BD-1. For more Star Wars Jedi: Fallen order guides, check out our beginner’s guide and our feature on the best skills to unlock first. You can also read our full Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order review.

How To Get A New Scomp Link

You can’t get a new Scomp Link until a few hours into exploring the game’s second planet, Zeffo. So go ahead and progress the story until you get the Force Push ability from the underground temple. Once you’ve got that Jedi trick in your arsenal, head to the Weathered Monument area at the center of the map. Any new locations that can be accessed with your abilities are highlighted in green; in this area, you’ll find a cracked stone door you can now topple with Force Push.

Make short work of that door and jump down to what appears to be an Imperial station situated around a sizeable Zeffo statue. Proceed left down the path going around the center piston until you reach a wall you can climb up. Scale upwards, and you should find a workbench containing a brand new Scomp Link.

And voila! You now have the means to unlock all those locked doors and chests you so begrudgingly had to leave for later. And even better, you’re set to open all locked doors only accessible via the Scomp Link in the game’s subsequent areas. To think where you would’ve been if you hadn’t done this sooner. No more must you wallow away in suffering or lose countless hours of sleep at night. All secret pathways and locked chests are clear! At least, the ones the Scomp Link unlock, that is.

Similar to when you get a new Force ability, any areas that can only be accessed with the Scomp Link will be newly highlighted on the map as green. Unfortunately, any chests you’ve left unopened won’t show up, so it’s worth making a run through any areas you’ve been through again to see what you might’ve missed.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order‘s combat can be tough at first. With a single-bladed lightsaber, it’s possible to survive most enemy encounters as long as you maintain your composure and time your parries just right. But when a group of enemies surrounds you, things start to get overwhelming. Crowd management is a handful early on, as it takes some quick reflexes and smart use of your Force powers to overcome multiple enemies at once. But what if we told you there’s a weapon you can get that’ll make your life easier?

You probably intuited it from the text above, but you can unlock the dual-bladed lightsaber. It’s incredibly useful against crowds, and it’s something that you won’t get until later on–unless you follow the directions we’ve detailed below. While it’s viable to wait until you unlock it naturally in the story, we recommend getting it earlier through two specific scenarios.

For more Star Wars Jedi: Fallen order guides, check out our beginner’s guide and our feature on the best skills to unlock first. Otherwise, scroll on down to see how to unlock your true crowd-controlling Jedi potential.

How To Get The Dual-Bladed Lightsaber

Method 1: Dathomir

The first chance to get the dual-lightsaber is the fastest, but it’s also the most difficult. After finishing business in Bogano, you’re able to travel to two planets: Zeffo and Dathomir. The latter is an optional planet that you’re not required to visit to advance the story, but based on Jedi Master Eno Cordova’s findings, it’s a place worth investigating. Dathomir is a dangerous place filled with powerful enemies, but if you’re brave enough to overcome its myriad challenges, you can net yourself the dual-lightsaber earlier.

When you arrive at Dathomir, progress through its various twists and turns until you reach a cloaked elderly man in an area called Brother’s Bastion. You’re free to chat with the old guy if you’d like, but he’ll mostly spout cryptic nonsense. From where he’s standing, jump down to the area below and head left down a path leading you back where you came. But instead of returning topside, run into the cave ahead to find a workbench with the special part needed to unlock dual-bladed functionality for your lightsaber.

Method 2: Bagano

If the Dathomir method is too much trouble, you’re able to get the dual-lightsaber at its second location. Though if you haven’t found a new Scomp Link for BD-1, we recommend reading our guide on how to get one earlier first, as you’re going to need it.

After finishing up your objectives in Zeffo and getting the Force Push ability, return to the Mantis, and Cere will tell you that it might be worth going back to Bogano. You might be quick to dismiss this subtle wink and nod, but don’t! Return to this introductory planet and make your way back to the zipline going from the Abandoned Workshop to the Great Divide. Remember that broken bridge there that was bent upwards? You can straighten it out now with Force Push.

Once you’ve done so, proceed forward and make a right at the fork, which will lead you to the lower level of the Abandoned Workshop. Jump down to the rock platform surrounded by water and climb up the vine wall. Take the pathway leading up until you see a door to your right. Use BD-1’s Scomp Link to slice the panel and unlock the door. Enter the room to find a workbench holding the part required to give your lightsaber dual-bladed functionality.

Dual-Lightsaber Tips

As stated, the dual-lightsaber is your go-to weapon against groups of enemies. If surrounded, bust it out and start flailing. Okay, maybe don’t flail mindlessly, but the standard attack button initiates a quick attack that can make contact with enemies around Cal. It also helps to not lock onto enemies, so you can better aim and adjust your swinging to ensure you’re hitting enemies as effectively as possible.

The dual-lightsaber’s heavy attack is handy when you’re struggling against a group and need some extra power to dispatch the weaker enemies swarming around you. It’s also pretty quick, but has a slightly longer cooldown. New attacks for the dual-lightsaber that further your crowd-controlling potential are unlocked the moment you get it, too, so we recommend investing in them early to ensure you’re always prepared for a tense group fight.

Lastly, the dual-lightsaber is especially awful against one-on-one boss fights. Sure, it looks awesome when using it in a duel against an enemy inquisitor like you’re Darth Maul 2.0, but it’s nowhere near as effective and makes you less agile.

So you want to be a Jedi Knight, but in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order you’ll need to work to get there since the game can be quite challenging. That’s where we come in with a beginner’s guide to get you going in the right direction; in the video above, we outline 12 spoiler-free tips to get you started.

Our tips consist of using helpful mechanics, like consulting BD-1 for pointers in the adventure-style puzzles found throughout the game. We also suggest toying around with the different difficulties since these settings change how the game plays; higher difficulties shorten parry-timing windows and make enemies more aggressive, rather than affecting the damage they deal. There’s also a very special weapon that you can unlock before the main story hands it to you, but it’s going to be quite a challenge if you’re not prepared.

We also delve into how you should build out your skill tree with some upgrades and Force powers being more effective than others. And that’s important because survival is key as Fallen Order borrows mechanics from the Soulsborne games; we give you advice on how to navigate this style of game, especially if you’re new to them.

We have the game covered from all sorts of angles, so be sure to read our full Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order review, our guide on the best skills to unlock, and our tips on how to take down those intimidating Purge Troopers.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’s combat can be tough at first. Crowd management, in particular, is a handful, but what if we told you there’s a weapon that makes crowds easier that you can get even earlier than the story lets you? Yes, we’re talking about the double-bladed lightsaber.

There are two ways to get the double-bladed lightsaber early. In the video above, we detail the two major ways to acquire this essential weapon upgrade. For more Star Wars Jedi: Fallen order guides, check out our beginner’s guide and our feature on the best skills to unlock first. Otherwise, scroll on down to see how to unlock your true crowd-controlling Jedi potential.

You can also read our full review, where editor Phil Hornshaw gave the game an 8/10 and said, “But especially as it wears on, Fallen Order becomes perhaps the strongest conception of what playing as a Jedi Knight ought to really be like. It’s true that Fallen Order borrows liberally from other action games, but those elements work together with Respawn’s combat and environment design, and a story that finds humanity in the Force and in its characters, to hone in on what makes the world of Star Wars worthy of revisiting again and again. Even with some rough edges, Fallen Order represents one the most compelling game additions to the Star Wars franchise in years.”