While Kena: Bridge of Spirits has a lovely and cheerful aesthetic, it masks a fun combat system. Kena can use her staff for melee attacks and her bow-and-arrow for ranged combat.

The game can initially be easy, but later boss fights can be a tad challenging. Here are some tips on what skills to get first once you acquire your cache of spirit shards. Controls and inputs are following Xbox/PC controller inputs.

Get The Rot Hammer Skill ASAP

Your early spirit shards should be invested in this powerful attack. To perform it, hold your Heavy Attack button, then press X while letting go of the attack. You’ll do a cool slow-motion heavy AoE hammer attack that deals a lot of damage. You’ll need this to deal with all boss (or boss-type enemies) later on, when they have an opening. And they usually will have an opening after a frenzied attack or anything similar.

Your Melee Staff Has A Decent Sweep Arc

Your Light Attack has a pretty decent range and arc, making it easy to knock back weaker enemies and interrupt their attacks. Abuse this when clearing weaker mobs so that you can put your focus on the big bads and Sprout Commanders.

Even At The Weakest Charge, Your Heavy Attack Still Delivers

We charged our Heavy Attack for barely a second, and yet somehow it can break enemy shields and deal a decent amount of damage. Keep that in mind if you’re dealing with shielded enemies.

Your Arrow Shot Hitboxes Are Pretty Generous

Due to Kena’s more forgiving combat mechanics and the fact that it feels like a “baby version” of Dark Souls combat in most parts, your spirit arrow’s hitboxes are very generous. Shots that would normally miss in other difficult games will land and hit in Kena: Bridge of Spirits. And it’s not like you’ll be running out of arrows if you’re a really terrible shot. So fire away!

Your Parry Window Is Not As Generous

You need to be precise with your parries in Kena: Bridge of Spirits. One wrong move and you’ll either eat a hit which will cost you a lot of health, or have your shield drained exponentially. It’s usually worth it to die a few times in a boss fight before getting their parry windows right; Kena’s checkpoint system is pretty forgiving.

Jumping + Left Trigger = Slow Motion

By pressing the aim button while in the air, you slow down time until you land. This means you can aim with your bow properly while this is happening. It’s very useful and incredibly abuseable.

Get These Other Skills First

• Shield Health+: You might be defending a lot or messing up your parry. This extra shield powerup can help add more chances to your mistake.
• Rot Infused Arrow: A super spirit arrow that pierces through enemies. Very handy during combat when you need to let go of your charge ASAP.
• Air Slam: This melee attack and all previous melee skills leading to it can help keep weaker enemies away.
• Arrows +: Get the abilities that let you fire up to 5 (or 6) arrows instead of the default 4. This extra ammunition is handy not just for fights, but for archery challenges you’ll find in Kena: Bridge of Spirits.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits Boss Fights Walkthrough (Video)