Sargon dies more in the first hour of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown than most players expect from a Ubisoft game — and that’s the point. This is a 2D Metroidvania built around a parry window measured in frames, a difficulty menu with nine individually adjustable sliders, and 36 amulets that quietly rewrite how combat feels[4][9]. If you enjoy the genre, our Metroidvania recommendations cover more of what’s worth playing next. Most beginner guides list tips in isolation — pick Guided Mode, buy maps from Fariba, upgrade your gear — without explaining which of the six official difficulty presets actually matches your skill, which amulets are worth equipping before your first boss, or the one progression mistake that turns a 12-hour Metroidvania into an 18-hour backtracking slog. This guide covers all three, plus a player-type table that gives new, casual, hardcore, and completionist players genuinely different advice.
Verified against Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown’s current build across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC (Epic Games Store/Ubisoft Store)[1]. Difficulty sliders, amulet effects, and mode names are checked against official Ubisoft documentation and cross-referenced community trackers — specific values may shift with future patches.
Quick Start: What To Do First
Set your difficulty preset and navigation mode before you touch the tutorial — both can be changed later, but starting on the wrong combination wastes your first hour relearning controls. Then follow this order:
- Choose a difficulty preset (see the next section) and pick Guided Mode for map markers or Exploration Mode to navigate without them[5][10].
- Finish Artaban’s opening tutorial, then stay at Haven for his bonus lessons — they cover parrying projectiles and bow string-combos the main tutorial skips[6].
- Buy your first area map from Fariba for 50 Time Crystals as soon as you meet her — it reveals secrets you’d otherwise miss on a blind first pass[5].
- Once you find your first combat amulet, equip it at a Wak-Wak Tree instead of leaving the slot empty — see the comparison table below for what to prioritise as more drop[8].
- Fight every enemy you pass in the first two biomes. Enemies respawn, and early Time Crystals are the bottleneck for your first weapon upgrade at Kaheva’s forge[5][6].
- Turn on Platforming Assist in Settings if precision platforming isn’t your priority — it adds optional skip portals without disabling achievements[6].
The Lost Crown separates “how hard is combat” from “how much does the game guide you” — they’re two independent settings, and conflating them is why some players end up frustrated on Guided Mode’s easiest difficulty. Combat difficulty has six presets: Rookie, Fighter, Warrior, Hero, Immortal, and Custom, the last exposing nine individual sliders — Enemy Damage, Environmental Damage, Enemy Health, Boss Health, Parry Difficulty, Dodge Window, Athra Depletion Rate, Athra Gain, and Athra Loss Rate From Damage[4]. Navigation is separate: Guided Mode adds two map markers (your next quest location, and areas blocked by the main quest); Exploration Mode removes both and expects you to find things yourself, though you can still pay Fariba crystals for hints[10]. Both settings change instantly from the pause menu (System > Options > Difficulty) and apply on your next Wak-Wak Tree respawn or save-reload[4]. The Blood of Dawnwalker takes a different approach to difficulty settings, worth a look if you want to compare how another 2026 action game handles the same tradeoff.
| If you are… | Combat difficulty | Navigation mode |
|---|---|---|
| New to Metroidvanias | Rookie or Fighter | Guided Mode |
| Experienced with 2D action games | Warrior | Guided Mode at first, switch to Exploration once you know the layout |
| Chasing a challenge run | Hero, Immortal, or Custom with Parry Difficulty maxed | Exploration Mode |
| Aiming for 100% completion | Whatever preset you enjoy — difficulty doesn’t affect collectible tracking | Guided Mode, so its markers help confirm nothing’s missed |
The takeaway: difficulty and navigation don’t have to match in “toughness” — a completionist can run Immortal combat with Guided Mode’s markers on, and a challenge-runner can keep Exploration Mode without also fighting bullet-sponge enemies.
Combat and Time Powers, Explained
Parrying is the mechanic worth mastering first: attacks that flash with a yellow aura can be parried on a timed window, while red-glowing attacks cannot be parried at all and punish you for trying — dodge instead, or steal the projectile with the Dimensional Claw[3][7]. Every successful parry and clean hit fills your Athra gauge; taking damage or touching environmental hazards drains it[3][7]. Fill the gauge and you unlock Athra Surges — level-one abilities like Super Massive Wave for burst damage, level-two abilities like Bahman’s Breath, which detonates and gradually heals Sargon[3]. Athra also powers Sargon’s time abilities: a double jump, a Dimensional Claw pull to distant anchor points, a midair dash, a reality-switch that makes certain platforms appear or vanish, and a pocket-dimension pull that yanks enemies or objects out of the fight to be thrown later[3]. If precise parry timing is what hooks you, Onimusha: Way of the Sword’s Issen deflect system rewards a similarly tight input window in a different game.
To launch grounded enemies into an extended air combo, slide into them and hit Attack, or use Up+Attack; a Down+Attack sweep works as a ranged version of the same knockup[6]. Combine either with a parry-triggered Athra Surge and you can clear a room of trash enemies without taking a hit — the actual skill ceiling most guides skip past in favor of “press these buttons.” The chakram, your ranged throwing weapon, does triple duty outside combat too: it triggers distant levers and platforms and knocks loose item caches you can’t reach on foot[5].
Which Amulets To Equip First
Sargon has 36 trackable amulet locations, plus one Deluxe Edition bonus (Prosperity Bird) that doesn’t count toward the “Tools of a Prophet” completion trophy[9]. You can’t hold all of them equipped early on, so prioritise by what your playstyle is missing rather than grabbing whatever drops first.
| Amulet | Effect | Best for | Avoid if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shield of Mithra | A successful parry creates a small time-slow bubble around Sargon | Defensive, parry-first players; anyone on Hero or Immortal | You’re still learning parry timing — it rewards a skill you don’t have yet |
| Blade Dancer | Adds a fourth hit to the standard combo, extending stun-lock | Aggressive players chasing longer combo windows | You’re fighting enemies with unparryable red attacks mid-combo |
| Dragon King | One-time save from a killing blow, restores a small amount of HP | A safety net for bosses and new players on any difficulty | You already run Blessing and prefer raw max-HP over a one-time save |
| Ecbatana Seal | Pulls Time Crystals in from a distance automatically | Completionists and anyone farming upgrade currency | You’re focused purely on combat power, not collection speed |
| Blessing | Increases maximum HP (restored only at Wak-Wak Trees) | Casual players who want fewer trips back to heal | You already run Dragon King and don’t need more raw HP |
The practical read: Dragon King is close to a free pick for any first playthrough, since a one-time death save costs nothing while you’re still learning enemy patterns, while Shield of Mithra and Blade Dancer are genuine playstyle choices that pull in opposite directions — defense-first versus combo-length[8].
Currencies, Upgrades, and the NPCs Who Matter
Time Crystals are your main currency, earned from combat, side quests, and repeat enemy kills — enemies respawn, so there’s no farming penalty[5]. Xerxes Coins come from side quests specifically and unlock separate purchases[7]. Four NPCs matter more than the rest: Kaheva at the forge upgrades your bow and sword damage; the Mage increases your health-flask count and amulet potency; Artaban, the swordmaster, trains combat techniques and hands out Time Crystal challenges; and Fariba sells area maps for 50 Time Crystals each, revealing hidden rooms and item locations across that biome[5][6]. Side quests are worth finishing on the way past rather than saving for later — rewards include both currencies and Soma Petals, which raise your max HP in sets of four[5].
Exploration Tools — and the Backtracking Trap
The Lost Crown gives you two tools to make backtracking manageable: Memory Shards let you mark a specific spot on the mini-map with the Eye of the Wanderer so you can return once you’ve got the ability to reach it[5][7]. Secret rooms are usually behind a fake wall — if a wall looks slightly off, strike it once or twice before moving on[5].
The fail-safe most guides bury in a single line: don’t commit to heavy backtracking until you’ve unlocked the Fabric of Time power. Several late-game paths use floating hooks that specifically require it, so exploring a fully-opened map before you have it just means re-walking the same corridors twice[5]. If you’ve already over-explored and hit a wall of hooks you can’t use yet, stop, mark the spot with a Memory Shard, keep pushing the main path, and clear the backlog in one pass once Fabric of Time unlocks rather than chipping away at it piecemeal. For a similar first-hours breakdown in a different 2026 action game, see our Onimusha: Way of the Sword beginner’s guide.
If You’re New, Casual, Hardcore, or Chasing 100%
The tips above apply differently depending on what you’re optimising for. Use this table to skip straight to what matters for your playthrough:
| Player type | Priority |
|---|---|
| New player | Rookie or Fighter difficulty, Guided Mode, and Dragon King equipped before your first boss — the goal is learning parry timing without punishing mistakes[4][8]. |
| Casual player | Warrior difficulty, buy every Fariba map on sight, and don’t chase full amulet completion — Blessing plus whatever combat amulet you find first is enough[8]. |
| Hardcore / optimiser | Custom difficulty with Parry Difficulty and Dodge Window both tightened, Shield of Mithra for punish windows, and chain slide-attacks into Athra Surges for room clears[3][4]. |
| Completionist | Ecbatana Seal early for passive crystal collection, hold off on backtracking until Fabric of Time, then sweep with Memory Shard markers for all 36 tracked amulets[5][9]. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I use Guided Mode or Exploration Mode in The Lost Crown?
Guided Mode if this is your first Metroidvania — its two map markers (next objective, blocked areas) stop the “is this even reachable” guesswork that turns exploration into frustration. Exploration Mode suits players who already know how to read level layouts, since Guided Mode’s markers can make backtracking feel like a checklist instead of a discovery[10]. There’s no permanent cost either way — you can toggle it anytime from System > Options, and Fariba still sells hints for crystals if Exploration Mode leaves you stuck[10].
Which difficulty preset should beginners pick?
Fighter over Rookie, unless you specifically want near-zero-punishment combat. Rookie sets enemy damage, environmental damage, and Athra depletion all extremely low, which makes the game’s actual skill test — parry timing — nearly irrelevant. Fighter keeps that timing meaningful while still forgiving mistakes, which better prepares you if you plan to raise the difficulty later[4].
How many amulets are in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown?
36 tracked locations count toward the “Tools of a Prophet” achievement, plus one bonus amulet, Prosperity Bird, exclusive to the Deluxe Edition that doesn’t count toward that total[9]. Treat a flat “37” figure with caution unless the source makes that distinction — it’s easy to conflate an edition-exclusive bonus item with the base completion count.
What’s the biggest beginner mistake in The Lost Crown?
Over-exploring before unlocking the Fabric of Time power. It’s tempting to chase every visible chest and Memory Shard-worthy area the moment you see it, but several regions have floating-hook paths that are functionally locked until you have that ability — so early over-exploration just means re-walking the same rooms later instead of saving time[5].
Sources
- Ubisoft. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Release Date Revealed. Ubisoft News
- Ubisoft. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown — Official Game Page. Ubisoft
- Ubisoft Montpellier. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Will Put Your Combat, Platforming, and Puzzle-Solving Skills to the Test. Ubisoft News
- Ubisoft. Changing Difficulty Settings in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Ubisoft Help Center
- Kotaku. 9 Tips To Bend Time And Survive Death In Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown
- GameRant. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown – Beginner Tips and Tricks
- ScreenRant. 8 Beginner Tips You Need To Know For Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
- PCGamesN. The Best Prince of Persia The Lost Crown Amulets
- PowerPyx. Prince of Persia The Lost Crown All Amulet Locations
- TheGamer. What’s The Difference Between Exploration And Guided Mode In Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown?
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.