Soulmask: 10 Useful Tips To Get Started Right | Beginner’s Guide

Soulmask is one of the most popular games on Steam right now – and like a lot of these indie survival horror games, it seemingly appeared out of nowhere. That isn’t the truth, the developers have been putting in the hours and slowly improving this game for a very long time. It’s only recently that the Early-Access game became available to the public and overnight dominated the sales charts. We had to know what was up with Soulmask, and what we found was a refreshingly fresh take on the survival genre.

The mask in the title is what sets this game apart. With the Soulmask you can swap bodies with collectible Tribesmen you’ll recruit as you explore the vast open-world map. You’ll be recruiting and losing these pawns as you progress, and that’s how it’s meant to be played. Even with friends, you’re meant to select new pawns if they die – death is permanent in Soulmask, but your main character is eternal. You’ll only lose useful gear if you’re playing as one of the pawns. And these pawns don’t even need your direct control. You can assign them to different jobs and cut down completely on the busywork that plague this type of game.

There’s a lot to understand even if you’ve gone through the Tutorial – which we highly recommend – but if you’re thinking of starting up Soulmask and want to avoid some of the biggest mistakes, here are our 10 tips we think everyone needs to know.

#1 You Are Your Tribesmen

Your tribe is everything in Soulmask – literally. Your starting character basically sucks. They’re stuck with a low level cap and no useful skills. Your main character is your last resort. What you really need to do is recruit those Tribesman NPCs. The starting NPCs are basically worthless and they’re only good for menial labor around your base. But later Tribesman will far out level your starting guy – so much so that you’ll want to swap souls and play as those Tribesmen.

Press [Q] while exploring and you can scan enemies for weaknesses – or you can scan Tribesmen to see their stats. You’ll want to check their skills and their level cap. The higher their level cap, the better that Tribesman is. Grab ones with the best skills and slowly amass an army of playable characters with useful skills.

Even when you’re not playing as the Tribesmen, you can put them to work. You can assign Tribesmen to crafting stations to build stuff all day while you’re exploring, or you can place custom waypoints on your map. You can also assign Tribesmen to these custom waypoints to gather resources – this is easily the best way to gather lots of resources early in the game. You’ll never be wanting for wood as long as you keep recruiting and assigning pawns to map markers.

#2 Learn Perfect Parry To Beat The Toughest Enemies

Enemies get tough quick in Soulmask, so we’re going to skip straight into more advanced techniques. Combat can be pretty straightforward, and early in the game, you’ll want to run with a spear and shield. The spear can attack even when you have the shield up, making this one of the safer ways to fight enemies. The spear also has good range, so you can poke and dodge and repeat.

But the shield is your true best weapon. When blocking you’ll see a white flash appear. If you time your guard to repel an attack and time it with the white flash, you’ll parry your enemy and leave them stunned. Perform a special power attack on stunned enemies for huge damage – if you’ve played something like Dark Souls you’ll be pretty familiar with this mechanic, even if it is simplified here. It all comes down to timing, and if you can learn the timing, you’ll find battles against enemies so much easier.

Annoying enemies like Plunderers are much easier to defeat once you understand this mechanic. Stun them, stab them, and loot their dungeons for amazing items early.

#3 Capture An Alpaca To Carry More Stuff

Carry weight is a constant problem in any survival game, but Soulmask gives you a cute alternative to the average pack mule. Alpaca are wild animals you can tame and ride on long journeys to store an extra 350 weight. Think of all the extra junk you can lug back home to base on a long journey with an Alpaca by your side. They aren’t very fast, they don’t fight, and they’ll spit on you when they’re angry. But they’re so dang useful.

They can be caught pretty early in the game. You’ll find Alpaca roaming on grass hills in the starting regions. Place bait in the trap – place thatch, potatoes or basically any fruit to lure them in. You’ll need to catch a Young Alpaca to tame it and ride it. And while there are better mounts, none of them can carry as much stuff. Sure you could speed around on a Jaguar, but Alpaca have 100 more carry weight.

And you’ll need all that carry weight for the next simple tips on our list.

#4 Level Up Faster By Farming Mines

Mines are one of the best ways to grind for XP early in Soulmask. After progressing to Bone equipment past the Bonfire Age, you’ll be able to start harvesting resource nodes in mines. While you won’t be able to use Copper or Tin, you can harvest it for XP. Use your favorite character that you want to level up, and target those resource nodes. There are dozens of mining resource nodes in each mine cavern, and you’ll get 350 XP for each node you mine. Bring multiple Bone Pickaxes because they’ll break and make sure to collect as much as you can – that’s why we picked up an Alpaca earlier. Stuff all the extra resources into your Alpaca to help you carry it home. We’ll need it later for even more easy XP grinding.

Clear out any mine you find. In our experience, we were able to earn 18,000 XP or more per mine cleared. At this stage of the game, that’ll unlock a lot of free levels and new technologies with basically no effort. You don’t have to worry about jaguars or anacondas or anything else ambushing you while you’re leveling up. Be sure you’re playing a character that hasn’t hit the level cap already and hit up every mine you find on the map. You’ll need to do this personally if you want to level up your main character – it’s tedious, but we’ll put all those resources to good use in the next entry.

#5 And Keep Grinding With The Smelter

After leveling up by grinding resource nodes in mines, you’ll eventually unlock Bronze tier crafting. The Furnace is an essential component for crafting Bronze equipment, and you should now have thousands of ore stockpiled after all that mining. Use Alpacas to move ore or place Bonfires near mines to create mini-bases where you can collect all those resources. You’ll want every chunk of ore you can get your hands on, because we can fully automate XP grinding.

Doing it is easy. Jump on a Furnace and start smelting ore. Set how many ingots you want to cook and let the game run. No further input required. Your Soulmask will soak up XP while you idle in your base. No need to watch. You can do whatever else you want to do while the smelter is doing its thing. Later you’ll be able to assign Tribesman with perks for faster ingot production, but right now we’re only doing this for the XP. Speed doesn’t really matter. It’s the convenience we’re all about here. Enjoy hundreds of thousands of XP if you leave the game running all night long.

#6 Use Your Tribesmen To Do Your Crafting For You

Like we said before, you can assign Tribesmen to work for you – and you can do more than just assign them to collect resources. After collecting a tribe full of pawns, press [Tab] to quickly check all the skills and level caps of your Tribesmen. You’ll be able to quickly tell which NPCs are best for working different jobs – and one of the best Tribesmen skills to get is Armor or Weapon Proficiency. Level up pawns with these skills to produce the best quality gear. These pawns can be put to work making armor and weapons that are much better than the average stuff you’re crafting, and that really makes a huge difference.

After checking your Tribesmen, use any crafting table and select a Tribesman from the dropdown menu in the corner. Assigning a Tribesman will put them to work, where you can choose what you want them to craft. Proficient Tribesmen just make better stuff, and you’ll want the best stuff you can get. These are the characters you’ll want to keep alive – don’t take them on adventures into the wild. Let them chill out and level up while crafting.

#7 Beat The First Boss To Revive Tribesmen

Your first major obstacle in Soulmask are the Temple Guardians – powerful boss creatures that protect major upgrades. The first boss is the Sabretooth Tiger and you’ll want to prepare before encountering it. Defeating it gives you a very useful ability to resurrect your pawns when they die. Normally, death is permanent for your Tribesmen but if you can take out the Sabretooth Tiger boss, you’ll be able to protect your favorite NPC body.

Before going to find the Sabretooth Tiger, progress to Level 20 and unlock Bronze crafting. We’ve talked about bronze earlier on this list, so if you’re grinding ingots and assigning proficient craftsmen to build weapons and armor, you’ll be prepared for the fight. Technically you can defeat the Sabretooth Tiger with lower tier Bone weapons. If you want to try it, go right ahead – but you’ll need to learn the patterns.

Strafe left during this fight and bring a shield. Dodge when the Sabretooth lunges at you then strike with a charged spear attack. Don’t get too greedy. If you land too many attacks, the Sabretooth will hit you. Take your time and bait out lunges, attacking the side after dodging, then continue strafing. The spear makes this fight easier, and if you’re using a shield, you can guard and attack at the same time. Take it slow and lock into the pattern to eventually defeat the Sabretooth and complete your first Temple Guardian. The power is so immensely useful, you’ll want to kill this thing sooner rather than later.

#8 Build Lots Of Campfires For Mobile Respawn Areas

Respawning is easy if you’re using your main character. While pawns die permanently, the main character has a no-penalty respawn. The only downside of death as your MC is you’ll respawn at the last campfire you used. To make life easier, bring plenty of campfires with you everywhere you go. Bring an extra and prepare to plop it down before entering a dungeon. The early game may be easy, but entering the Bronze Age solo can be surprisingly difficult. Challenges are balanced around playing with a team and if you’re not prepared for a fight your characters can get wiped fast.

That’s why you’re better off placing campfires before entering an area. You can place campfires in centralized locations – just remember to also bring a foundation, walls and a ceiling. If you don’t protect your campfire from rain, it can go out. A doused flame in a campfire can’t be used to revive and you’ll instead respawn at the last available campfire you’ve used. If there’s rain, the campfire can go out and you’ll lose your revival area. That makes building a small enclosure absolutely required. A campfire that isn’t protected is almost guaranteed to eventually go out.

#9 Place Bonfires To Protect Buildings & Stop Enemy Spawns

Bonfires are the heart of your camp – and they’re totally different from campfires. Bonfires are massive structures that keep the surrounding area clear of enemies. Think of bonfires like torches in Minecraft.

Placing a bonfire prevents enemies from spawning in the surrounding area. It doesn’t matter if there’s a base. If you keep building bonfires, you can clear entire forests for safe foraging. You can bring bonfires with you and plop down near your campfire or just drop one down beside a useful facility like a mineshaft. Bonfires also protect player structures from deteriorating in the wilderness – normally your structures will break down permanently if you don’t have bonfire protection. And you can place as many bonfires as you want. Don’t be afraid to break the game and fill your world with bonfires.

#10 Use Death To Fast Travel

Death is only annoying in Soulmask if your Tribesmen die in the field. Your main character always respawns with basically no penalty for death, but your Tribesmen will die permanently. Even if you’ve unlocked the ability to resurrect one of your pawns, you’ll still have so many Tribesmen you’ll need to control for different situations that you’ll be putting in danger whenever you leave camp. When those Tribesmen die, they’ll drop their valuable gear and you’ll respawn with your starting character.

Instead of walking all the way back, just kill yourself. Your starting character will respawn at the last campfire you used – and if you place them often they’ll work like checkpoints. Teleport to the last campfire you used and you can very quickly recover all your gear from the dead Tribesman. Think of campfires like checkpoints for your adventure. A simple safety net to help you return to areas even if your pawns go down. Use your main character’s immunity to death as a simple way to zip around the world.