The Lost Crown has a decently in-depth combat system. Between swords, the Bow, and Chakram moves, you’ll notice each combo has a specific use in battle. Here are some of my best combat tips for Prince of Persia The Lost Crown, teaching you various combos and how to use them.
Essential Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Combat Tips to Increase Your Survivability
Sargon has a few different combo moves that The Lost Crown doesn’t explain until later on. Combine this with the Chakram Bow you get after defeating the boar mini-boss in the Forest area, and your repertoire of moves keeps increasing.
The neat part about the combat system in The Lost Crown is that each combo has a purpose, whether to launch enemies into the air or break their shields. And they all help your survivability.
How to Use Launching and Air Combos to Disable Enemies
I highly recommend getting used to launching enemies into the air. It’s a key feature of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown’s combat system. Attacking enemies while airborne doesn’t allow them to retaliate. It’s perfect for taking out smaller, faster enemies that would otherwise just block or dodge your attacks. It won’t work on bigger enemies, though. Instead, it will knock them back.
Basic Air Combo: Attack twice, then hold up on the third attack. This lets you follow your target into the air and perform an air combo by attacking three times. You can also hold up and attack for a quick launcher or hold up after a dash attack kick.
Advanced Air Combo: The Bow slightly elevates our air combo game by adding extra attacks. After launching an enemy airborne and following them by holding up, the default combo is three hits. Then it knocks them back. With the Bow, you can attack twice in the air, then shoot them once, keeping them in the air. You can then attack three times to finish off. This adds two more attacks to our air combo.
Expert Air Combo: The Simurgh Dash you get after defeating the Manticore further boosts our air combo capabilities. You can now follow enemies after finishing your air combo. Perform a basic launcher into three air combo hits, then immediately use Air Dash to follow them and perform another three hits. I like to combine this with the Bow to get extra hits while midair. This combo annihilates most smaller enemies.
Crash Down Air Combo: Holding down and attacking simultaneously while in mid-air can perform a ground pound attack. This is a strong finisher to your air combo that you can use either after:
- Two hits midair.
- Two hits, then Bow, then two hits.
- Three hits, then air dash, then two hits, then crash down.
Between basic air combos, the Bow, and the air dash, you can keep your foes in the air for a long time, never allowing them to counterattack.
How to Charge Attacks and Break Shields
You’ve probably played around with charge attacks and figured that holding down the attack button sends a projectile forward. I’ve used it for zoning enemies before getting the Chakram Bow. However, the more important use of charge attacks is breaking enemy shields.
By pressing attack twice, then holding down the attack button, Sargon spins his swords into a charged combo attack. This attack breaks enemy defenses instantly for the early shield enemies and severely weakens later ones. It’s a great alternative to dashing behind enemy shields when you’re in a pinch.
How to Use Chakram Parry for Ranged AoE Damage
Once you get your Bow and reach Menolias, he’ll teach you that the Bow is also a throwable Chakram. It’s a decent boomerang-like projectile weapon that requires no ammo and pierces enemies.
That said, I would highly suggest parrying it once it comes back. As the Chakram returns, parrying it makes it bounce faster and one more time through all enemies. The best part is that you can keep parrying it. It’s much faster than having it return and throwing it again.
A great zoning strategy for a group of smaller enemies is throwing the Chakram, moving back, parrying it, and then alternating between moving back and parrying. I found it excellent, even in boss battles like the Manticore fight. Throw it at the boss, then just kite him around while parrying the Chakram. It’s a safe skill-based ranged attack strategy that pierces all enemies in a line and requires no arrows.
Use the Best Combat Amulets to Win More Battles
These are some great combat amulets in The Lost Crown early game that will drastically increase your ability to win encounters and make it through the game’s Metroidvania stages more quickly. These are the ones I like best.
- Blade Dancer: Given to you by Vahram shortly after beating the Manticore. It provides a fourth hit to your melee combo and more with upgrades. I used this one for the entire game.
- Four Royal Stars: Boosts your air combo damage, which you’ll be using a lot. I found it by going up the elevator just before the Haven and navigating to the upper left.
- Will of Rostam: Simply boosts your sword damage.
- Shield of Mithra: Speak to Kaheva for the first time after unlocking the Bow, and she’ll send you on an errand quest to fetch some ancient ore. Completing this mini-quest unlocks the Shield of Mithra, which is excellent for parrying attacks because it slows down time. These four go hand in hand with the main combat mechanics and are useful throughout the game.
- Dragon King: Gives you an extra life in combat that regenerates when you visit a Wak-Wak Tree. I found it in the Sacred Archives after talking to the Moon Gatherer and then interacting with some books nearby.
Don’t forget to upgrade your Amulets at Kaheva’s Forge using Time Crystals to make them even stronger.
Miscellaneous Combat Tips You Shouldn’t Overlook
Here are a few miscellaneous combat tips that you should always keep in mind:
- Use Athra Surges Defensively: While flashy and rad as hell, Athra Surges are best used for the invulnerability frames that negate enemy attacks. I recommend carrying around Level 1 Surges instead of more expensive ones early and using them during a combo when an enemy is about to hit you, and you can’t dodge or parry effectively.
- Bow Interrupts: A Bow shot can interrupt enemy attacks, acting as a mini Bloodborne gun parry.
- Crouch Combo: Holding down and spamming attacks performs a series of slashes and kicks that can keep enemies suspended in the air for a while.
- Cancel Into Parry: You can cancel your attack combo into a Parry during the first two hits but not during the third and final one.
- Cancel Into Dodge: You can cancel into a jump or dodge after the first two hits but not during the third one. A neat combo is to attack once or twice, then dash through an enemy and immediately press back and attack to hit them from behind. Alternatively, you can press back and jump after a hit or two to reposition backward and dodge attacks.
That’s it for my guide on essential combat tips for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Check out more of our PoP TLC guides, like my explanation on how fast travel works.
