Evil West Beginners Tips & Tricks [Top 13]

Jumping directly into the vampire-infested world of Evil West as Jesse Rentier can be quite fun. But if you want to ensure that you have the best possible experience and get the most out of your playthrough, then you’re at the right place. Our Evil West beginner’s guide has some of the best tips and tricks to help you get started.

Although on the surface, the game might seem quite simple with its combat mechanics and linear paths, you’ll soon discover that things can get quite challenging with all sorts of puzzles and huge areas where you have to take down several dozen enemies.

Follow The Chains

It’s hard to lose your path in Evil West because the game is fairly linear. However, there are times when there are multiple paths or areas which require you to solve certain puzzles by reaching all sorts of platforms. In those cases:

• Try looking for areas with glowing chains near them; it usually means that there’s some sort of path nearby.
• The chains might indicate an immediate path in front of you, but at times, they might indicate some sort of interaction object nearby, such as a shootable object, grappling point, or breakable section.
• Following the chains will keep you on the right path and help you find secret items much easier.

Leave No Stone Unturned

Evil West focuses on the use of many weapons and skills cleverly to clear out enemies and advance to further levels. But to ensure you’re ready for each encounter, you need to upgrade your gear, for which exploration is vital. That is why:

• Don’t rush to the next area, especially after you’ve finished a big fight.
• Look around for sheds, cliffs, stairs, cave entrances, or climbable areas, as they’ll often take you to another path.
• Be on the lookout for hung items as well; some of them can be shot down and looted for cash.
• Exploring the various other paths in the game will allow you to get cash, which you can use for upgrades, and even find chests with skins and hidden perks that you can’t get by any other means.
• You can also find extra health or energy packs to help you with an incoming boss fight or a large arena of enemies.

Be Vary Of Missable Areas

Linear games are different from traditional open-world games in the sense that they often block off certain areas of the level so that you can progress further in the game.

• Certain story-related paths in Evil West don’t allow you to return to the area you came from, making you miss out on all sorts of collectibles.
• You can identify such areas by either looking out for your NPC partners in the mission or objective markers or if the chains are leading to high or extremely low areas.
• Another way to avoid missing out on areas with secret loot is just to explore all the areas partially, and you’ll get a pretty good idea of which path might lead to the story and which might have some secret area.

Utilize Mission Replay

It’s usually extremely frustrating when you miss out on a certain item in a linear game, as you might have to either wait for NG+ or another playthrough. Fortunately, Evil West has a solution for that.

• If you ever miss out on something on a certain level, you can go back to replay it from the menu in the lore section.
• Replaying missions won’t affect your main story progress and will allow you to collect any missed-out cash or hidden chest.

Don’t Forget Cooldown Weapons

Certain weapons in Evil West tend to have a cooldown before you can use them again. Knowing how to utilize them is crucial for your survival in battle.

• Considering that your cooldown weapons, especially the shotgun, can deal much damage, forgetting to use them or “holding them out for the ideal moment” and then, in the end, not using them at all will put you at a huge disadvantage.
• Using them at the right time, especially to start off encounters, will let you use them at least a couple of times within a single fight.

Reset Your Perks For Different Builds

In Evil West, different perk trees grant you all sorts of skills and also upgrades for your weapons which can give you an edge in battle.

• In early to mid-game, you’ll have more skills and upgrades than actual cash or perk points to unlock everything.
• Therefore, you can utilize Virgil’s workshop to reset your perks and upgrades to try out different skills and builds to suit your playstyle.
• You’ll usually visit Virgil’s workshop in between each mission; therefore, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to reset.

Zapper Pull And Zapper Dash For Movement

Combat areas in the game can be quite big, and moving around them without getting hit can be quite difficult. Here’s a bit of guidance and tips and tricks for beginners of Evil West on how they can move around the arenas with ease:

• Instead of sprinting over to enemies or dodging your way through projectiles, use your Zapper Pull and Zapper Dash ability.
• The ability gets unlocked after an hour of gameplay and lets you either pull enemies from a certain distance close to you or lets you immediately dash toward them.
• While you’re dashing away, enemy attacks can’t hit you, which is a huge advantage.
• After pulling or dashing towards an enemy, they will be stunned, allowing you to pull off a combo and even eliminate the lower-level enemies.
• The tactic is great for taking out enemies that might be perched at a higher location or those that throw projectiles at you from a far distance.

Use The Environment

Many combat games tend to have environments that you can use to damage enemies, but perhaps Evil West includes them quite well, making them worth the use.

• Rather than just punching away at enemies or using your combos, use the environment around you to deal significantly more damage.
• You can either shoot TNT blocks to cause damage to multiple enemies nearby, or you can target a single enemy and air punch them into spikes around you.
• Enemies can be air punched into the bigger enemies with big shields as well, which damages both and can also help break the shield.
• Spikes are unbreakable, so you can keep punching enemies into them.

Use Vital Points Efficiently

Another part of combat in Evil West is Vital points which you can shoot almost immediately to kill any enemy or at least deal a lot of damage.

• It is worth noting when you should hit the Vital points and when you shouldn’t.
• Human enemies, especially the gunslingers, can be knocked out immediately with a vital shot, and it’s always better to do so instead of punching them to death.
• However, certain enemies use the Vital points to trap you into getting a sneaky hit on you. For example, the big vampire enemies have a projectile that they shout out. The vital point sign appears right before the projectile, but the attack window is so small that you’ll almost always get caught in the projectile attack instead.
• Some enemies shoot projectiles from a distance and constantly have a vital point active; you can and should shoot it to temporarily stop them from shooting at you.

Do Not Disturb Upgrade

There are many upgrades in Evil West that you can get in exchange for some cash. Because there is a limited amount of cash, and you’ll only be able to get one or two at a time, it’s vital to choose some good ones.  

• Do Not Disturb is a great upgrade that you can get early on in the game under the Agent Tools section.
• The upgrades let you remain invincible for five seconds after using your heal.
• It is great for situations where you’re extremely low on health and are surrounded by enemies, as you’ll be able to pass through oncoming attacks and get to a safe distance.

Prioritize Certain Enemy Types

Evil West is a game with many types of enemies that you can encounter throughout the game. Some are more challenging than others, so you should choose whom you target first.

• Ideally, you should take out the enemies that throw projectiles at you first, as they can eventually creep up on you and can eventually drain your health.
• Next, it’s best to take out whichever mini-boss lurks in the area; usually, it’s a shielded enemy or a big vampire.
• The melee enemies are usually not that hard to deal with, so defeating them in the end or in between is the way to go.

Regenerating Health During Battle

Another thing that can be quite tricky during fights is maintaining your health. There is actually a really good way to do so in Evil West.

• There are many different ways to get health drops in the middle of a fight.
• The most useful and ideal way is to take down the lower-level enemies, as they’ll usually drop health which can regenerate your health bar at least halfway.
• Another great way to get health from enemies is to target their vitals, as some enemies drop health after being hit on their vitals multiple times.
• An ensured method of getting a heal is when you see an enemy glowing yellow. Jesse will perform a takedown which will end up granting you health regen.

Use Combos

Combat is a huge part of Evil West, which is why it is important that you’re making the most of it.

• Don’t rely on just button mashing the attack button, as it’ll soon become ineffective, especially in areas with many enemies.
• Focus on developing combos that you’re comfortable with by incorporating heavy uppercuts, guns, and hero punches.
• A great combo is to start off with a hero punch to a close distance, uppercut an enemy and then bounce them around with your gun before finishing them off with a few punches.

With that, you know all of the tips and tricks from our Beginner’s guide of Evil West. The has a lot to offer, and if you follow everything that we’ve discussed, you’ll be able to get the most out of everything in the game.