Mina The Hollower Survival Guide
Thinking of picking up Mina The Hollower? Great! You’re about to make an extremely wise decision, this game rules. It also gets pretty tough at times. If you’re concerned about getting rocked too badly too early, this brief guide should leave you better prepared. Here are a few tips on surviving Mina the Hollower.
Spend Your Bones Wisely
By ‘wisely,’ I of course mean constantly. Bones are this game’s Souls/Blood Echoes/EXP. You lose them when you die, and you can lose them for good if you die before retrieving them. So you can’t let those bones burn a hole in your pocket. Buy out the shop whenever you encounter one, level up when you’ve got enough, and don’t let them vanish down some monster’s gullet. Boost your HP, expand your Plasma Vials, buy a ton of Kears, and upgrade your Trinket pouch whenever possible. Levelling up is great, to be sure, but there’s kind of no fast travel in this game. So you’ve got to make the most of every shopping trip you go on. I rarely saved up Bones for any appreciable length of time, and doing so was always stressful. It’s almost always better to make those Bones work for you through upgrades, items, and levels.
There’s Always Grinding
If you’re truly stuck, or just terribly low on Bones, you can always farm for Bones for a while. If you run into a squad of valuable enemies next to a save point, it might be worth it to run a mindless loop of murder until you’ve got the Bones you need. Some of those upgrades are expensive, and every one of them gets more expensive as you buy more of them. Of course, since this is a Soulslike in many ways, you can earn just as many levels by taking chances and pushing to the next save point. I only really recommend grinding for materials if you’ve got shopping to do in town. Travelling back to Ossex can be a real ordeal, so it’s worth the effort to find a grinding spot relatively close by.
So Many Settings to Tweak
On the other hand, if you’re struggling, you can always adjust the difficulty in the menu. In fact, there are heaps of tiny adjustments you can make. One of them turns on a warp within the menu that takes you right back to Ossex. You can also change shop prices, enemy damage levels, how much damage you take, how long you can burrow, and a lot more. To be clear, messing with these modifiers permanently disables Feats for the profile in question. So if you’re one of these players looking to do it all, messing with the settings is not an option. But if you’re totally stuck, and considering giving up on the game altogether? You’ve always got the nuclear option at your disposal. Plus, you can always make two profiles, and keep one of them pristine.
Take a Sober Second Look
Mina the Hollower is a massive game. On top of that, you’ve got some freedom in where you choose to go first. Because of this, there’s a good chance you’ll miss a lot of critical details in most areas. So it’s pretty important to revisit old sections once in a while. After all, what if some new ability opens up new doors? Or, more likely, what if you just got better at certain tasks? Now, previously impassable obstacles are a simple matter to navigate. I revisited a spot I’d passed through several times, only to discover an entire stage I should have explored first. Careful exploration also yields a treasure trove of shortcuts, which are always helpful when running to retrieve lost Bones and/or Sparks. It’s to your benefit to really pick apart every level, to get all the meat off that bone, so to speak.
Not All Weapons are Created Equal
Mina is shown holding a weapon called the Nightstar in all the promotional materials. I highly recommend avoiding this weapon at all costs. Instead, consider the Battery Buster. You can unlock it pretty early on, and it’s a massive improvement in almost every way. You’ve got both melee and ranged attacks, and you can smash that ranged strike crazy fast in a pinch. The Guardian Casket is another excellent contender. It can block, bash, and parry. You’ll need a lot of practice to master that parry mechanic, but once you do? Why, you’re in business! But don’t take my word for it. There’s a shop in Ossex that sells most of these weapons, and it’s worth your time and effort to unlock every one as soon as possible. Who knows? Maybe those tiny twin daggers will be your absolute favorite.
Plasma Vial Pointers
Lastly, take care when using your Plasma Vials to restore your health. As you take damage, you might notice a yellow bar forming where the red once was. This happens when you deal damage after getting hurt. The bigger that yellow bar, the more effective your Plasma Vial is going to be. If you carelessly chug those Vials after getting hit, they could end up being shockingly useless. And then you’re dead, which no one wants. If you’re quick and clever with it, a single Plasma Vial can go a long way indeed.
If you follow all this advice, your time spent with Mina the Hollower will be a lot less frustrating. In fact, you might find this game isn’t so tough after all. Especially if you mess with the modifiers, which must be done with the utmost caution. You can’t undo that one! But either way, hopefully this guide helps you get that much farther along in Mina’s journey.
***A Steam Key was provided by the publisher***