Introduction

No Rest for the Wicked is a new take on the ARPG genre. It’s played from a top down perspective. You can collect a variety of weapons and armor in the game, fight your way through treacherous areas and tough bosses, and experiment with different weapon and weight class varieties. The combat is a souls-like experience, and can be very challenging. In this No Rest for the Wicked Beginner guide we’ll cover everything you need to know to get you started.

Progression

Progression in No Rest for the Wicked takes on a couple different forms. First, as you kill enemies you earn experience points. Once you reach a certain experience threshold you will level up. Upon leveling up you will be rewarded with 3 attribute points. These ability points can be placed into the following stats:

Attribute	Description
Health	Increases your resilience to damage, allowing you to withstand more hits before dying
Stamina	Increases the number of attacks, dodges, or blocks you can perform
Strength	Increases the strength of your character: Weapons that scale with strength receive an Attribute Bonus
Dexterity	Increases the Dexterity of your character: Weapons that scale with Dexterity receive an Attribute Bonus
Intellect	Increases the intellect of your character: Weapons that scale with Intelligence receive an Attribute Bonus
Faith	Increases the faith of your character: Weapons that scale with faith receive an Attribute Bonus
Focus	Increase this attribute to acquire additional focus bars. A new focus bar is granted for every 100 focus points. Focus bars are essential for unleashing powerful rune attacks
Equip Load	determines encumbrance levels and dodge type (MORE ON THIS BELOW)

Be aware that there is currently no way to respec in the game, so make sure you’re choosing your attribute points wisely. It’s recommended that you try a few different weapons before fully investing your points into a particular stat.

As your character levels up you will also be able to equip higher level gear. The other form of progression takes the form of upgrading your gear. You can do this by visiting one of the vendors in sacrament, Fillmore the blacksmith. Upgrading your gear will require certain materials, and you can upgrade further as you complete building projects that allow you to upgrade the town of Sacrament. You gear can be further enhanced through the use of Runes, Enchantments, and Fusion.

Gearing

You can acquire gear in a few different ways in No Rest for the Wicked. You can purchase it from vendors within Sacrament, loot it from chests, or loot it from enemies.

If you acquire the gear from a vendor you may want to enchant it to add some additional effects (more on that below). You can acquire gear in different eight classes, levels, and different rarities.

You can obtain gear, including armor, in different rarities. Each rarity offers various benefits.

• Common
  • Represented with a white background. Unlike many ARPG’s common items are not considered trash loot. This is because common items are the most customizable items in the game.
• Rare
  • Represented with a blue background. These items offer only positive enchantments.
• Cursed
  • Represented with a purple background. Cursed items offer very positive enchantments. However, they also come with a cursed enchantment, or a negative effect.
• Unique
  • Represented with a gold background. These unique items are specifically handcrafted by the designers to offer unique enchantments.

Unique gear can be obtained primarily from killing bosses, and from the end game activity, the Crucible.

Runes, Enchantments, Fuse

In order to further enhance your gear beyond upgrading it from Fillmore, you’ll need to visit Eleanor the Enchantress in Sacrament. She gives the option to enchant, infuse, and to add or extract a rune.

Enchanting Gear

The first option, Enchant allows you change a common item into a rare or cursed item. Doing this will cost some silver, and the result will be random. You can not choose which type of item you will will receive. The perks and rarity will be random. Therefore, it’s recommended that you enchant your gear prior to upgrading at Filmore.

With this system you can continue to enchant common items until you receive an item you are happy with.

Fusing Gear

Gear in No Rest for the Wicked often comes with a gem slot. If the gem slot is empty you can take that gear to Eleanor and fuse it. This will slot the gem into that gear and will give you additional effects. For example, you could slot a chipped ruby into some pants. This will then add additional heat resistance to that piece of gear. Each type of gem will give you a different passive on the gear. Also, each piece of gear changes the passive. For example. slotting that same chipped ruby into a helmet would give you increased healing effects versus additional heat resistance.

Runes

A rune slotted into your weapon in No Rest for the Wicked will essentially give you a special ability you can utilize with that weapon. You will need to build up your focus meter in order to use the ability. There are various types of runes in the game you can acquire. For example, you could get the Fire Slam rune. When you build your focus and activate the ability you’ll perform the fire slam ability.

You can place runes into different pieces of gear by visiting Eleanor and selecting the Rune option. You can also extract runes from gear to acquire the rune. However, doing this will destroy the piece of gear. You can the take that rune and apply it to a different weapon.

Equip Load

Your equipment load, or weight class, is determined by the armor pieces you have equipped. Furthermore, your weight class greatly affects your movement in combtat:

• Light Equip Load – Provides you with a quickstep. This dodge is very fast and doesn’t use a lot of stamina.
• Medium Equip Load – In medium armor you will perform a dodge roll. This is slower than the light armor quickstep, and utilizes more stamina.
• Heavy Equip Load – Heavy equip load will provide you with the greatest overall defense, but will result in the slowest dodge. However, this dodge can also be use offensively as a shoulder rush. Dodging in heavy also utilizes a good amount of stamina.

Exploration

No Rest for the Wicked has a very unique world that’s packed with a ton of creatures and areas to explore. One of the best ways to obtain gear and other valuable loot is to explore as much as possible. The world is handcrafted, which means the map never changes. Therefore, learning the map and exploring it in it’s entirety is very beneficial to you long term.

You can find a ton of shortcuts to other places, and find a lot of valuable loot simply by exploring the world.

Enemy Respawns

Enemies will not immediately respawn after their defeat. However, they will eventually come back. As you explore areas of the map you will remove the fog of war. Once the area of the map darkens again it will be repopulated with new enemies to kill. However, be aware that you will not encounter the same enemies in the same place if you have surpassed that level. The enemies will become tougher and drop loot according to your level.

Food

Food is your primary method of healing in No Rest for the Wicked. Make sure you always have food on hand. As you progress you’ll learn additional food recipes, and will be able to unlock Chef Gordon in Sacrament. As you upgrade the chef station through building projects you will be able to craft higher tier food.

Upgrading Sacrament

Sacrament serves as your hub or home base in No Rest for the Wicked. This is where you’ll buy and sell to vendors, repair your gear, own your home, and complete building projects to upgrade the town. Completing those projects will unluck new crafting stations. It will also expedite your path from one location to another, give you more options to choose from when purchasing from vendors, and more. You can learn all about building projects in our building projects guide.

Player Housing

Player housing in No Rest for the Wicked can be purchased in the town of Sacrament. Purchasing property is an expensive endeavor, but will give you a place to call home. You can decorate your house to your liking, and utilize it as a place to manage loot, craft items, and more. You must first compete the quest “Of Rats and Raiders” to unlock the housing feature.

To learn more about housing in No Rest for the Wicked, check our complete housing guide.

Bounties and Challenges

A great way to earn silver and other rewards is by completing bounties and challenges. To get started you will need to visit Captain Randolph in Sacrament. You can accept both daily and week bounties and challenges.

Bounties will send you out to kill a specific mob. Challenges will send you out to complete a specific task. For example, you may be tasked with collecting a certain amount of copper ore. Once you complete the task simply return to Captain Randolph to turn it in for your reward.

That does it for the No Rest for the Wicked Beginner Guide. For more No Rest for the Wicked guides check out our complete library of guides.