Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights — Beginner’s guide and combat tips

The basics of Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights

Let’s talk about the basic mechanics in Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights.

Leveling stats: HP, healing, and attack

In most games, leveling up usually provides you with a boost to stats across the board. That’s not the case in Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights. Here, leveling up doesn’t grant you extra HP. Instead, HP comes from Amulet Fragments, collectibles found in various areas. You may also gain additional HP by equipping relics such as the Soiled Prayer Beads (found very early in the game).

As for healing, you start out with three Prayer uses (i.e., think of these as potions), and you’ll likely just heal for roughly 70 HP. As you progress, you’ll discover Priestess’ Wishes that increase the amount healed. Likewise, there are relics that increase the number of prayer uses and healing amounts.

Lastly, the attack stat is the only boost you’ll directly gain as you level up. For odd-numbered levels (i.e., 3, 5, 7, and so on), Lily gains +1 attack. For even-numbered levels (i.e., 2, 4, 6, and so on), Lily gains +2 attack.

Souls-like combat: Dodging, parrying, and poise

Players who love Souls-like games will be familiar with frantic encounters against numerous mobs, oftentimes requiring you to deftly avoid hits. That’s true enough in Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights. I would even advise you to use a gamepad since a mouse and keyboard setup can be problematic when you’re fighting.

Anyway, Lily will be able to dodge early on by pressing the right trigger or RT button. But, this is also a little clunky (she’s just a child, after all). Later, though, you’ll obtain a couple of quirks:

• Fretia’s Ring (once you reach the Catacombs) – This relic doesn’t cost anything to wear, and it allows you to parry by pressing RT while stationary (more on this in a while).
• Guardian’s Wings (Catacombs boss) – This slightly speeds up your dodge, making you more nimble. You can also do this action while in mid-air or swimming.

We also have to talk about the two bars seen above enemies. The red one denotes their health and the orange one denotes poise. You can break an enemy’s poise by continuously attacking. This will deplete the meter, causing the enemy to enter a staggered/downed state. This lets you follow up with more swings for a couple of seconds.

As for parrying, executing a perfect parry just when an attack is about to hit Lily nullifies that full instance of damage. It also shows the enemy’s poise meter being fully depleted. However, as mentioned in our official review, there’s something off about this. Although the poise meter is depleted, the hostile mob will usually just get pushed back and it’ll immediately recover. Lily does have her own animation when she does a parry, which means you can’t do a riposte through conventional means.

Respites: Your relaxing hubs

Respites have several functions in the game. These are your “safe rooms” or “bonfires” where no mobs are around. You can save, rest, equip spirit skills or relics, upgrade skills, and fast travel to other respites you’ve discovered.

One important concept to note is that, unlike other Metroidvania games, Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights doesn’t have enemies respawning if you go back and forth rooms. Instead, enemies (excluding bosses and minibosses) only respawn if you rest at a respite. Doing so will also fully replenish your HP, prayer uses, and spirit skill usage. But, of course, you’ll need to go through a gauntlet of hostiles that you’ve taken out earlier.

Note: There are sections of the game where you’ll find flowers. White flowers restore prayers, and red flowers restore spirit skills that have limited use. These should, hopefully, let you traverse more rooms before you need to rest up.

Spirits and Last Rites

There are dozens of spirit skills that you can obtain in Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights. Each zone has a particular main boss, as well as a couple of minibosses that, when defeated, allow you to purify their souls. Doing this grants their abilities. For instance, Elder Warrior Gerrod swings a massive hammer that deals tremendous damage. Meanwhile, the Mad Knight Ulv does Wolverine-like slashes with his claws. Spirits are upgraded/enhanced by spending Furious Blights and Stagnant Blights that you’ve amassed. The former is used for “red” skills (i.e., those from bosses), and the latter is for “orange” skills (i.e., those from minibosses).

Anyway, you have two loadout sets that allow for three spirit skills each, and some have limited uses (i.e., projectile or AoE-based skills). Still, there are certain perks that also come from purifying Blighted bosses, such as the ability to swim, use grappling hooks, or ground smashes that can break pustulant walls.

Moreover, each type of spirit has a particular ultimate called the Last Rites. This is only granted after defeating the boss in the Catacombs. You’ll see a new special SP bar at the bottom-left corner of your HUD. Fill this up by attacking foes. Then, once full, press Up + the button that corresponds to a particular skill to unleash its Last Rites variant.

Relics and Chains of Sorcery

There are also lots of relics for you to discover. Some, as mentioned, boost your HP or prayer uses. Others can help decrease the damage you take (or increase your own damage). There are even those that allow you to earn more experience points, obtain a second SP bar for Last Rites, or increase the height of your jump.

Some of these relics don’t have any cost, but a majority do. That means you’re only limited to a select few until you can increase your capacity. You can do this by collecting more Chains of Sorcery found in various areas of the game.

Note: You can learn more about these mechanics in our spirit skills and relics guide.

Acrobatics: Skill combinations to reach rewards

Progression in Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights isn’t linear, but you are going to hit a brick wall at times especially if you lack certain perks. There are, however, some rewards that you can already grab early in the game. This involves a lot of trial-and-error and some acrobatics. You’ll use different skills to reach a spot on the map that Lily wouldn’t be able to get to until much later in the game.

You can see a particular example in the video below from YouTuber X2PR Villanueva (I wonder if he’s Filipino). The player was able to reach a nook that had the Bloodstained Ribbon, a relic that slightly increases the amount of experience points gained.

In what order should I visit each zone in the campaign?

Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights gives you enough freedom to explore certain zones. But, like any Metroidvania, you might need a power-up or two before you can reach all the areas.

In my case, I went with this order: White Parish -> Cliffside Hamlet -> Witch’s Thicket -> Catacombs -> Stockade -> Ruined Keep -> Twin Spires -> Verboten Domain -> The Deep.

By the time I completed a particular zone, I’d obtain a power-up/ability that allowed me to reach the next destination. Naturally, a bit of backtracking was involved to get extra loot. However, this did allow me to progress smoothly without feeling lost. The sequencing is also somewhat implied if you check how I listed down each destination in our guides hub.

Locked doors

There’s a good chance that you’ll stumble upon several locked doors during your travels. Don’t worry, these can be opened much later in the game. They’re actually related to a major secret which I won’t spoil in our beginner’s guide.

Oh, and the first locked door you’ll see is actually in the White Parish (seen in the image below). Let’s talk about this zone in the next section of our Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights beginner’s guide.