When you’re first getting to grips with Gotham Knights, it can be a counterintuitive mix of familiar mechanics grafted onto a confusing hodgepodge of systems from other games. There’s Arkham-inspired melee combat, a Destiny-style progression system, and RPG elements that might lure you into the false sense that you’re playing a Diablo-like. Here are some tips for cutting through the clutter and bringing order to the chaos in a city without Batman.
Most Character Progression Carries Over, So Switch Heroes As Often As You Like
At Gotham Knights’ start, you’re given the option to begin the game with one of the four Bat Family members. You might think this choice would lock you from the other three vigilantes, but that’s totally not the case. Even the game makes it clear that you can freely switch out your character whenever you want by simply returning to the gang’s base of operations, The Belfry, though it is very quickly glossed over and only mentioned again in the game’s database From there, behind the investigations bulletin board and to the right of the training equipment, are the four suits lined up in open display cases. Interacting with them swaps your character. And don’t worry, each member levels up at the same time, so you won’t lose any progression.
You Should Seriously Explore The Open World
Gotham City isn’t as big of an open world as, say, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s 11th-century England, but that doesn’t mean you should neglect any of its many dynamic side activities. Bank robberies, gang hideouts, homicide investigations, stolen vehicles—just about everything you do (except for beating up cops) grants you some experience points and/or crafting materials. There’s also plenty of loot to discover, collectibles to uncover, and goons to cover (in dirt). Plus, you’ll need to grind the open world to progress some of the game’s main missions, as well as unlock the various superhero suits and available colorways to safeguard in style. So, you might as well get accustomed to your regularly scheduled night patrol of Gotham early on.
Practice, Practice, Practice Those Perfect Attacks And Dodges
Gotham Knights is totally fine with you button-mashing your way through combat. Find some goons doing crimes in Gotham’s streets and bash their skulls in with repeated presses of the attack button. Cool, no problem. But if you wanna deal more damage while rapidly filling your momentum meter (a bar that lets you perform unlockable character-specific combat abilities), then you’ll need to get good at perfect attacks. But you can only become adept at perfect attacks by practicing perfect dodges, which are done by evading at the last possible second before an enemy’s strike connects to your dome. Do that and you’ll get this satisfying semi-slow-motion dodge that leaves your opponent open to a perfect, high-damage attack counter. Now you can pummel baddies in style.
Complete Those Knighthood Challenge Missions ASAP
Since Gotham is in constant peril, the game will throw copious challenges and missions at you to regularly complete. One of the earliest ones available revolves around Knighthoodship, the prospect of becoming the vigilante Gotham needs and gaining the trust of the city’s denizens. That’s nice, stepping up to be Gotham’s protector following Batman’s death, but you’ll wanna complete the Knighthood challenges sooner for a totally different reason: unlocking the unique transportation ability for each Bat Family member. It’s a bit tedious, though. You have to finish the Timed Strikes training mission, stop 10 Premeditated Crimes, and defeat three minibosses. You also have to do these challenges with each character to complete their Knighthoodship, meaning this is the one instance where level progression doesn’t carry over between family.
But finishing them and gaining Knighthoodship unlocks that character’s quick-travel method, like Batgirl’s Batman-like Cape Glide or Nightwing’s technological equivalent, the Mechanical Glider. Now you’ll have more ways than just the grappling hook or Batcycle to get around Gotham City.
Make The Numbers Go Up
You can only craft gear back at The Belfry, so make sure you update your equipment before heading out on patrol. Usually, it’s just a matter of crafting the blueprint with the highest total power level. But there are other wrinkles to keep an eye on as well, like health packs. Different armor comes with different numbers of heals, so if you are bad at not getting shot at, make sure your loadout has room for more than a few.
Prioritize Gear With Elemental Effects
Don’t just pay attention to how big the numbers are when comparing different melee and ranged weapons. Some also drop with elemental effects that build up damage over time. Even if these don’t line up perfectly with an enemy’s weakness, they’ll still lead to a lot more bonus damage that will make shorter work of tougher foes.
Don’t Forget To Dismantle Your Crummy Gear
Junk old stuff early and often. You’ll get some resources back for doing so and it will keep your inventory more manageable.
Unlock Fast Travel Early
Gotham has a lot of ground to cover, and unless you want to feel like an Uber driver spending all night heading North and South across the city’s many bridges, you’ll need to unlock fast travel points. After the Blackgate Penitentiary incident with Harley Quinn, you’ll get a message from Lucius Fox about new gadgets, including one that will shuttle you from district to district in the blink of an eye.
To unlock each district’s fast travel point, however, you’ll need to chase down police drones and disable them. Doing this for each district early on will cut down on time wasted in later patrols. It’ll also be easier if you already have Nightwing’s glider unlocked, or one of the other heroes’ special traversal abilities.
Don’t Miss The Loot Chests
Crime doesn’t pay, but shutting it down does. If you beat up a bunch of goons on patrol, odds are there might be a chest with bonus rewards nearby. A smoking flare near where the enemies were is a surefire sign, so use your scanner and briefly check around for some extra crafting resources.
Save Rare Caches For Later
Gotham is full of Talon caches and other rare finds, but because gear scales with your level, unlocking them early will yield loot that quickly becomes obsolete. Instead, you’ll want to wait until later in the game to grab stuff so you’re guaranteed legendary and epic drops.
Play Online To Divide And Conquer
Gotham Knights’ boss battles and city patrols can be fun solo but are much more easily tackled with a partner. Plus, combat is just a lot more fun with someone else around. Warner Bros. Montreal did a lot of work to make the game’s online multiplayer untethered but stable, and if you don’t play co-op you’re not really getting the “full” Gotham Knights experience. Plus, you can tackle objectives spread out across the map a lot quicker with an extra vigilante on the prowl. Best of all, instead of restarting when you die, your partner can revive you to keep things moving along.