If you’re playing No Rest for the Wicked in 2025 and want no rest for the wicked tips that actually help you survive, level up faster, and master core gameplay mechanics, this guide breaks down the most important strategies. These tips are essential for new players in this unforgiving action RPG and will set you up for success from your first fight to late early game progression.
Turn on the Enemy Poise Bar
One of the first and most impactful no rest for the wicked tips is to enable the enemy poise bar in settings. By default, poise is hidden, but showing it helps you see how much enemy poise remains, letting you know when foes will stagger. This makes timing attacks and planning counters far more reliable, especially early on.
Gather Every Resource You Can Find
As you explore, make sure to gather everything you find: wood, mushrooms, horseshoe crabs, and other resources. These materials are crucial for crafting food (your primary healing items) and for upgrading gear and facilities at Sacrament. If you lack gathering tools (shovel, axe, fishing rod, etc.), buy them from the Blacksmith early.
Start Sacrament Construction Projects Immediately
After defeating your first boss and reaching Sacrament, start construction projects right away with Maker Danos. Prioritize:
- Rookery staircase (reduces travel time),
- Smithy (enables earlier weapon upgrades),
- Alchemist (lets you craft potions and bombs sooner).
These projects significantly improve progression speed and survival.
Complete Bounties and Challenges for XP and Gear
While it’s tempting to push the main story, heading into higher-level areas too early can be fatal. Instead, complete daily bounties and challenges to earn experience, loot, food materials, and coins. This helps you level up and upgrade gear before facing tougher enemies.
Be Wary of Enchanting
Enchanting gear at Eleanor’s shop can add powerful bonuses, but it’s also risky. Blue-rarity enchantments give positive affixes with no curses, while purple-rarity enchantments always include at least one curse that can negatively impact your play (like health drain or irreparable gear). If you’re still building your core gear, sticking with blue enchantments is often safer.
Understand Spells and Runes
Magic and spellcasting in No Rest for the Wicked are tied to runes in weapons. Only magical weapons like staves and wands cast spells by default. For other weapons, you must extract runes (destroying the original weapon) and insert them into others. Note that not all runes fit every weapon type, so plan your spell and weapon setup carefully.
Use the Healing Aura Spell to Conserve Food
Combat can be resource-heavy, and food heals are limited. Purchasing the Healing Aura spell lets you restore HP using Focus Points instead of food, making it a valuable tool for conserving healing items during tougher runs.
Repair Gear Without Spending Coins
Gear durability drops each time you die, and repairs at the Blacksmith cost coins. You can buy a Repair Spell rune from Eleanor to fix equipment without spending money, though it costs Focus Points to use, so plan your Focus investment accordingly.
Balance Stats When Leveling Up
As you level up, avoid dumping points into one stat. You can respec later, but this costs rare resources. Balance points across Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and especially Focus, Health, and Stamina to enhance survivability and spellcasting. A good rule is reaching about 21 points in your main weapon scaling stat by level 11 to unlock better weapons.
Choose Plague Ichor Upgrades Wisely
Plague Ichor unlocks extra inventory slots and equipment slots, but it’s rare. While choices aren’t permanently wrong, expanding resource inventory first is often the most useful early investment so you can carry more crafting materials and reduce trips to Sacrament.
Buy a House as Soon as Possible
After completing the “Of Rats and Raiders” questline, you can purchase a house in Sacrament. This unlocks extra storage and lets you place multiple crafting stations together, saving you time and making resource management easier.
Visit the Crucible for Loot and Practice
The Crucible arena doesn’t grant XP, but reaching level 5 in a run rewards useful loot and lets you experiment with combat buffs. It’s a great place to hone your skills and test builds under pressure.
Create New Realms to Farm Experience and Gear
You can create new realms where you bring existing characters. This lets you repeatedly fight early bosses to farm experience and specific loot drops using a favorite character.
Test New Weapons Before Combat
Weapons in No Rest for the Wicked each have unique movesets and timings, even within the same weapon class. Before taking a new weapon into battle, practice its attacks so that you’re not caught off guard.
Wrapping Up the Top No Rest for the Wicked Tips
These no rest for the wicked tips will help you build a strong foundation in the game, survive longer, and progress more efficiently. Perfect for new players, these strategies focus on combat readiness, resource management, stat balance, and smart upgrading.
More like this: Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles Tips for a Perfect Start
