The best tips we wish we had known before founding Noita

Key findings

• Always keep water on hand to remove harmful stains like fire and poison to help you stay alive longer in Noita’s challenging world.
• Unshuffled wands are better for control and mana management. Always be on the lookout for upgrades to improve the order of your spells.
• Money is crucial in Noita to buy spells and wands, defeat enemies, and collect gold. And remember to explore and experiment for success.

Noita is an extremely unique game in the world of indie roguelikes, and one of the best around. It’s a bit of a sandbox experience, with every single pixel in the game being simulated. This means that every pixel of every object, item, and enemy can interact with each other physically and chemically. This is part of what makes the game notoriously challenging, as a single pixel of ember can instantly set you on fire.

Luckily, as difficult as the game may be at first, there are ways to make it much easier to handle. Other than the basic controls, Noita doesn’t really teach you anything. If you find the game too challenging and obscure, here are the top 10 tips to instantly transform yourself from a bad Noita player to a slightly less bad one.

10 Always have water on hand

As with any roguelike, your starting loadout in Noita is random. You start with a primary projectile rod, a secondary explosive rod, and a flask of a random liquid. If that liquid isn’t water, you’ll have to try to find some right away.

Water helps remove bad stains that can harm you, especially fire or poison. If you pour water on yourself, the stains will disappear and you’ll be back to normal. If you get on fire and don’t have water on you, expect to lose a lot of health. Take advantage of this PC exclusive game by assigning a hotkey to your favorite bottle slot so you always have quick access to water.

Large fire enemies have elemental weaknesses. Try pouring or throwing water at them to gain an advantage in battle.

9 Non-shuffle wands are better than shuffle wands

There are only two types of wands in Noita: shuffle and non-shuffle wands. This is one of the most important game mechanics as it determines the order of spells. A non-shuffle wand fires the spells in the order they were placed from left to right. A shuffle wand activates the spells in a completely random order.

Non-mixed wands are always better because you can control the order of your spells. This can have huge implications for mana management, damage multipliers, and spell modifiers. There’s nothing wrong with settling for mixed wands if that’s all the game gives you, but always be on the lookout for a non-mixed upgrade.

8 Be patient and explore as much as possible

Noita rewards patience, exploration, and experimentation. Don’t rush to the exit, but take your time looking for resources. Sometimes the game will throw you a bone, offering you a heart container, a treasure chest, a secret shop, or an exceptionally powerful spell or wand.

Rushing ahead is usually not a good idea, as each new biome gets more difficult, so finding better spells and wands before moving on is pretty much essential to victory. Of course, if you’re unlucky and lose a lot of health for some reason, it’s always better to make it to the exit alive a little too early than to die.

7 Money, money, money

Money is by far one of the most important resources in the game. Without gold, you can’t buy spells or wands from the shop in the Sacred Mountain, which is at the end of each biome. You also need money to reroll the bonus selection, as sometimes the game gives you not so good bonuses.

The main method of getting gold is by defeating enemies, so it’s generally a good idea to defeat every enemy you come across as long as they’re not too strong. If you’re short on cash, feel free to dig or blow up cash from walls as well. You should aim to leave the first biome with around 400-600 gold.

6 Add spells to the codex by using them

Noita has a huge codex and it’s certainly satisfying to fill out, but many new players are often confused as to why the Spell category is so difficult to fill out. This isn’t just because it’s the largest of the three, but because you have to use a spell in a wand with enough slots or mana for it to count.

That’s right, if you simply pick up or buy a spell, it won’t automatically be added to the codex, even if it is added to your inventory. That’s a good incentive to try every single spell you find. Even if you use it once and don’t like it, at least it’s been added to your codex so you can read its description later.

5 Immunity benefits are top notch

New players are always encouraged to experiment with perks as they can drastically change the way the game is played, but if you’re feeling particularly hard pressed and outgunned, the immunity perks are by far some of the best in the game and will make many areas significantly easier.

There are five immunity perks in the game: blast immunity, fire immunity, melee immunity, poison immunity, and electrical immunity. Each one of these is excellent as it makes you invulnerable to the corresponding damage. Collecting all five in a single playthrough will make you invulnerable to most of what the game has to offer.

Poison immunity only provides immunity to materials classified as “poisonous,” such as toxic rock and toxic ooze. It does not provide immunity to acid, which is a far more dangerous form of toxic ooze. Likewise, fire immunity does not provide protection from lava or molten liquids.

If you spawn with a secondary wand that fires rockets or dynamite instead of bombs, you can use it to shoot and create platforms on the mountain directly above your spawn point. Once at the top, you can head straight to a large snowy peak. Just above the snowy peak is a heart container that can be released by firing rockets or dynamite.

It takes a little practice, but the maneuvers are quite easy to pull off. This extra boost to maximum HP will be useful in the early game.

3 Consuming worm blood improves eyesight

One of the special substances in the game is Wormblood. It is dropped when you attack the blue, one-eyed worms that the game randomly spawns. Wormblood is a greenish substance that looks almost like vomit, but drinking it gives you special properties.

Wormblood greatly improves your eyesight. It creates a night vision effect that allows you to see in dark places. This is handy if you want to be extra careful when traversing more difficult areas of the game.

2 More difficult regions are often located in the west

There are seven main biomes in Noita, and most of them have additional levels that can be discovered to the left and right. To the left or west, a more difficult version of the main area is usually revealed.

Depending on your skill and confidence, you may want to avoid these western areas as they are always full of tougher enemies. However, these areas also have a higher chance of finding stronger wands, heart containers and a few secrets, so it’s worth a visit if you think you’ve got what it takes.

1 Learn how to interpret wand statistics

Part of what makes Noita one of the most difficult roguelikes for new players is the wands’ stats. The game doesn’t explain what they mean, but highlights these stats in green or red when comparing a new wand to an old one. Green means better and red means worse.

When it comes to spell lag and reload time, these numbers should be as small as possible, as this means your wand will fire and reload faster. Your spread and spells/spells should also be as small as possible. Everything else should be as large as possible, including slots, mana maximum, and mana reload speed.