Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing Anthology Beginner's Guide - Tips & Tricks

5-Minute Primer

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing Anthology bundles three massive action-RPGs (plus their DLCs) into one gothic package. Set in a twisted, steampunk version of 19th-century Borgovia, you play as the son of the famous vampire hunter, aided by your snarky, ghostly companion, Lady Katarina. At its core, this is a game about clicking on monsters until they explode into loot, but beneath that simple premise lies a surprisingly deep isometric RPG. You will manage a base of operations, juggle two intertwining skill trees, navigate a complex tower-defense mini-game, and make choices that permanently alter the world around you.

Think of it as a gothic, narrative-driven alternative to Diablo. The combat is fast, the loot is plentiful, and the writing is genuinely funny. Before you dive into the first game, understand three things: first, your companion Katarina is not just for flavor—she is vital to your survival. Second, the game expects you to respect its crowd control mechanics; rushing into a pack of werewolves will get you killed. Third, the "Hunter Mode" (an alternate perspective that slows time and highlights enemy weak points) is your best friend, not a gimmick to be ignored. Keep these concepts in mind, and you will survive the opening hours of Borgovia with ease.

First Hour Checklist

The opening sequences of the first Van Helsing game serve as a soft tutorial, but the game throws a lot of interface and lore at you very quickly. To ensure you don't miss anything crucial, follow this checklist during your first sixty minutes in Borgovia.

• Customize your UI and controls immediately: Open the settings menu before leaving the first area. Turn on advanced tooltips, increase the font size if needed, and rebind your dodge key to something comfortable (Spacebar or Shift are highly recommended over the default).
• Equip Katarina properly: Early on, the game gives you a few pieces of gear. Do not put everything on Van Helsing. Look at Katarina's stat bonuses. Because she scales differently, giving her a piece of armor that grants +Rage or +Mana regeneration can make your early leveling significantly smoother.
• Trigger Hunter Mode at least once: Force yourself to use the Hunter Mode key in your first combat encounter. Notice how it highlights enemy health bars and weak spots. Make it a muscle memory habit to tap this button before engaging any elite enemy.
• Talk to the townsfolk in Borgova: The city hub is your lifeline. Find the Enchantress, the Forge master, and the Trickster (who sells strange potions). Unlocking these waypoints and NPCs early saves you immense backtracking later.
• Clear the first Glaciarium (Tower Defense) map: You are introduced to the game's tower-defense mechanics very early. Do not rush through it. Place your towers carefully, test the wave, and understand how the "essence" resource works in this specific mode.
• Identify your loot before selling: Pick up the "Detective" perk or buy cheap Identify scrolls from the vendor. Selling un-identified rare items to vendors is a tragic waste of potential gold.

Key Systems Explained

Combat and Hunter Mode

Combat in Van Helsing revolves around positioning, resource management, and knowing when to disengage. You have two main resources: Mana (used for casting spells and skills) and Rage (generated by dealing and taking physical damage, used for powerful melee or gun-specific attacks). Managing the ebb and flow between these two resources is what separates good players from those who constantly die.

The defining combat feature is Hunter Mode. Activating this shifts the camera slightly, slows down time, and paints the world in a high-contrast filter. While active, your damage output increases, and you can see the exact vulnerabilities of enemies. However, Hunter Mode drains a specific meter, so you cannot keep it on permanently. Use it to line up devastating sniper shots, dodge telegraphed boss attacks, or calmly assess a chaotic battlefield when you are surrounded. It is a defensive tool just as much as an offensive one.

Furthermore, crowd control is heavily emphasized. Enemies will surround you, pin you down, and stun-lock you if you stand still. Every build should have at least one reliable knockback, freeze, or stun skill. Katarina can be ordered to temporarily take aggro, giving you the precious seconds needed to reposition.

The Economy and Enchanting

The economy in Borgovia can feel tight during the early game, primarily because you have two characters to equip and you will frequently need to pay for services. Gold is earned through killing monsters, completing bounties, and selling loot. However, the true economy revolves around Chaos, Glory, and Essence—the three magical currencies.

Enchanting is the most important economic sink in the game. At the Enchantress in Borgova, you can add permanent secondary stats to your gear. This is entirely RNG-based (Random Number Generation). You choose a stat category (like "Offensive" or "Defensive"), and the game rolls a random bonus. If you hate the roll, you can overwrite it, but the cost increases exponentially. Rule of thumb: Only enchant rare (blue) or epic (purple) items that you plan to keep for at least five to ten levels. Enchanting low-level grey or white items is a massive waste of gold.

The Glory System and Tower Defense (Glaciarium)

As you explore the world, you will find abandoned electrical towers. By activating these, you initiate a Tower Defense mini-game called the Glaciarium. You must defend a central core from waves of monsters using various tower placements and your own combat abilities.

Winning these maps earns you Glory, a currency used exclusively to unlock permanent passive bonuses in a massive web-like skill tree (separate from your combat skills). These bonuses range from increased drop rates to elemental resistances. The Glaciarium is entirely optional, but ignoring it means missing out on permanent power spikes. If a particular tower defense map is too difficult, don't worry; you can come back to it later when you have gained a few combat levels.

Build / Character Choices

While the anthology allows for massive customization, beginners should focus on understanding the three primary "pillars" of Van Helsing's combat before branching out into weird hybrid builds. Your choices in the first game will carry over conceptually as you move into the sequel, so establishing a solid foundation is key.

The "Full Metal" Melee Brawler

This build focuses on getting up close and personal, relying on high armor, life steal, and devastating Rage-based attacks. You will use swords, hammers, or gauntlets. The core strategy is to generate Rage through your basic attacks and spend it on area-of-effect clears and heavy single-target strikes.

• Pros: Extremely satisfying gameplay loop, high survivability in the early game, simpler resource management (you don't need Mana as much).
• Cons: You have to be in melee range, which is incredibly dangerous on higher difficulties or against boss AoE attacks.
• Starter Tip: Invest heavily in the "Bodyguard" skills that increase your armor and health. Pair this with Katarina set to her "Ranged" form so she can pick off enemies that you cannot reach.

The "Sniper" Ranged DPS

This build treats Van Helsing as a traditional glass cannon. You stand at the edge of the screen, using rifles and pistols to deal massive critical strike damage. You rely heavily on Mana for traps, shots, and evasion skills.

• Pros: Very safe playstyle. You can often kill enemies before they reach you. Excels in boss fights due to sustained damage output.
• Cons: Very fragile. If an enemy teleports next to you or a swarm surrounds you, you will drop fast. Requires constant kiting (shooting while running away).
• Starter Tip: Prioritize skills that increase your movement speed and offer escape mechanisms (like a tactical dodge or a freeze trap). Always keep your knockback skill off cooldown.

The "Arcane Mechanic" Hybrid

This build mixes physical weaponry with magical gadgets and spells. You might use a sword that shoots lightning, or drop mechanical turrets while casting curses. This is the most complex playstyle, as it requires managing both Mana and Rage simultaneously while keeping track of multiple cooldowns.

• Pros: Incredibly versatile. You can adapt to any enemy type. The sheer visual chaos of explosions and lightning is highly entertaining.
• Cons: Stat distribution is a nightmare for beginners. You need Strength for weapon damage, Dexterity for crits, and Willpower for spell damage, leaving your character a "jack of all trades, master of none" if not built carefully.
• Starter Tip: Do not play this as your very first character. Play a pure Melee or pure Ranged character first to learn the game's pacing. Return to the Arcane Mechanic on a second playthrough.

Katarina's Role

Regardless of your build, you must choose how Katarina functions. She has two forms: Ghostly Form (Ranged, uses a pistol, good for sustained DPS and pulling enemies) and Physical Form (Melee, uses a sword, acts as a tank). As a beginner, keep her in Ranged form 90% of the time. The AI pathing for melee companions in isometric RPGs is notoriously clumsy; she will often get stuck behind corners or stand in poison pools. In Ranged form, she stays near you and provides consistent damage without requiring micromanagement.

Pitfalls to Dodge

Borgovia is unforgiving to those who do not pay attention to its mechanics. Here are the most common rookie errors that lead to frustration and repeated deaths.

• Ignoring the "Resistance" stat: In the late game, elemental damage (Fire, Lightning, Poison, Frost) is far more dangerous than raw physical damage. Beginners often stack only Armor and Health. If you walk into a cave full of Poison spiders with zero Poison resistance, you will die in seconds regardless of your health pool. Always check the elemental breakdown of enemy damage and adjust your rings and amulets accordingly.
• Misunderstanding level scaling: The game features dynamic level scaling in certain areas and for side quests. If you rush the main story and ignore side content, you will hit a brick wall of difficulty because the game expects you to be a few levels higher. Conversely, if you grind side quests excessively, the main quest might become trivially easy. Try to keep your level roughly on par with the main story quests by clearing out each map fully before moving to the next zone.
• Overspecializing in the skill tree too early: The game allows you to respec (reset your skills) for a relatively low gold cost, but it is easy to accidentally paint yourself into a corner early on. For example, putting all your points into a specific spell that requires a high-level weapon to be effective. Keep your early skill points broad. Unlock the base abilities you need, but hold off on dumping 15 points into a single ultimate ability until you are absolutely sure it fits your endgame gear.
• Hoarding potions and consumables: This is a classic RPG mistake. You will accumulate dozens of damage boosters, resistance elixirs, and rage potions. Use them. They drop frequently, and holding onto them "for a rainy day" means you are intentionally playing at 80% efficiency. Pop a rage potion before a tough boss fight; that is exactly what they are designed for.
• Forgetting to upgrade Katarina's skills: The game does not prompt you when Katarina levels up or when she has skill points available. It is incredibly common for beginners to reach level 20 and realize Katarina is still using her level 1 abilities. Open her menu every time you level up and invest her points. A fully specced Katarina can literally solo minor boss encounters.
• Clicking blindly through dialogue: Van Helsing features a semi-hidden "Fate" system. Your dialogue choices with NPCs and even with Katarina actually matter. Certain choices can grant you permanent passive buffs, unlock secret vendors, or lock you out of lucrative questlines. If you are going to skip dialogue, at least read the highlighted options to ensure you aren't accidentally alienating a powerful ally.

Next Steps

Once you have established your build, understand the flow of combat, and have successfully defended your first few Glaciarium towers, you are ready to experience the full breadth of what the Anthology has to offer.

Your immediate next step is to finish the main storyline of the first game. Pay attention to the overarching plot and the political intrigue in Borgovia, as the sequel picks up immediately after the first game's cliffhanger ending. Do not worry about 100% completing the first game’s side quests if you are feeling burnt out; the anthology is massive, and pacing yourself is vital to avoid fatigue.

As you transition into The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II, you will be introduced to an expanded class system and the "Fragmentation" mechanic (which allows for even deeper gear customization). This is where the game truly opens up. By the time you reach the third game, you will be a seasoned monster hunter, capable of making your own complex hybrid builds without a second thought.

Finally, experiment with the game's difficulty settings. The default "Normal" mode is forgiving, but once you understand the flow of the game, bumping the difficulty up increases the quality and quantity of loot drops. The true joy of Van Helsing isn't just in finishing the story; it is in finding that perfectly rolled, enchanted rifle that freezes enemies solid with every pull of the trigger. Embrace the grind, keep Katarina well-fed with gear, and enjoy your reign over the dark streets of Borgovia.