Star Wars Jedi: Survivor may not have the best of narratives, but when it comes to gameplay, the game has a great charm to it. The new stance mechanism in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a great inclusion, with some amazing skills to complement it. While those familiar with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order might not face many difficulties but newcomers to Jedi: Survivor surely need some guidance. Having that in mind, I decided to list down some of the best abilities that you can get early during the game that will help you to have an easier gameplay experience. And also what you can do mid to late game with these new and old powers.

FOCUSED PARRY:

DUAL WIELD has the fastest of all stances with a quick way to get in and then get out by the first ability BACKSTEP SLASH. Right after this, you can unload the FOCUSED PARRY. I highly recommend unlocking this for a few reasons. First, its description says it performs a spinning strike on releasing the Triangle button, but actually, it does so much more than that. So if you hold down the Triangle and wait for a normal enemy attack to land, Cal will perfectly parry it and immediately follow up with a split blade spin attack.

This works even on the largest enemies, and if you ever struggle with perfect parries, this surely is the best option. There'sThere's also an upgrade called PRECISION RELEASE, using which, if you let go of the Triangle right after the enemy hits you, you will follow up with a shock wave that deals more damage and staggers all nearby enemies. There'sThere's, however, one limitation which is obviously the unblockable red attacks. It will not work against these, but you can still use the slow effect of the ability to better react and dodge away. You can do it without waiting for the parry and immediately let go of the Triangle. This is going to do the normal split blade attack.

Everything else in this stance is all about fast attacks. You can also go for the UNCOILED STRIKES if you want, but you will have to delay pressing the Square button for a split second to initiate this attack. So in this case, when there will be a lot of enemies later in the game, that will pretty much make this impossible unless you have an opening. This is somewhat better fitted against a single target. Later on, you can unlock TWIN VIPERS, which has an excellent throwing damage stat since you can throw both the blades, they rebound between targets, and they also deal a lot of damage.

FLYIN LUNGE

The BLASTER stance is the next one you can unlock, and you're going to like it a lot because of its uniqueness, and it's also great during one-on-one duels. FLYIN LUNGE is the first ability you unlock which is done by holding down the Square button. It's an excellent gap-closer ability with great range stamina damage, and it also tends to keep Cal far enough to avoid most incoming hits. While Cal's hits will almost always connect, and the damage is also great. They automatically come with a charged shot mechanic by holding down the Triangle. This is going to be something that you will want to use if you want to break enemies a bit easier. But if you want to use the regular Blaster attacks, you can tap Triangle.

POINT BLANK

POINT BLANK is another one of those skills that, if you press Triangle right before an enemy hits you, you can unleash a devasting blast that one-shot most normal targets and push them back flying. There's also a QUICK DRAW mechanic that targets multiple enemies at once and shoots the entire group. Now hits with the blades will regenerate some of the blasts, so you will always want to alternate between these two. However, normal hits are a bit slow when doing it.

So eventually, you want to go for the ENERGIZING FLURRY with the L1+Square, and this will be a series of stabs that can almost replenish all your charges as long as all of your hits connect. If they do not work, then at least try to get the last one since that one gives the most amount of charges. Everything else is all about maxing out the shots or regenerating them faster. So this is something that you can do a lot later.

CROSSGUARD

Many of you have probably ignored the single and twin blades because the new ones are really good great, particularly the CROSSGUARD, which is probably the most brutal of them all. CROSSGUARD requires a bit more getting used to as it's by far the slowest playstyle, but not significantly slower if you know what you're doing. The advantages are great if you can use it properly with much greater damage and guard breaks. You perform normal attacks with the Square button with a series of powerful swipes that are slower. Still, deal really great damage with a final hit in the chain and also break guards fairly easily.

Meanwhile, the Triangle button performs the uppercut slash, which is great for knocking enemies down. You will likely break enemy stamina, even shields, almost in one shot. With this one, though, you will need some force power to use it. To make this attack even better, you're going to get the GREATER CLEAVING SWING and the REACHING CLEAVE right away. These reduce the rather long attack and increase its range, letting you connect to enemies further away.

SUNDERING SWIPE

SUNDERING SWIPE isn't something I've used too much despite being quite a great option. The only reason is that it felt the slowest of all the attacks. But if you can pull this off, it can take enemies down quickly in a pretty nice close or mid-range. However, you're not stuck in melee range with a CROSSGUARD, which has some of the best ranged options in the game. One is done by IMPACT and the GREATER IMPACT upgrades, which let you press the tringle following a jump to unleash a powerful shockwave that deals damage to all enemies in its path. It does cost some force power, but it's great when trying to keep your distance while still trying to do some damage.

CROSSGUARD also comes with the best lightsaber throw damage using L1+Triangle by default which can be upgraded with the ROLLING THUNDER. It passes through multiple enemies, essentially one shot all of them. Even the REFLECTION skill with the stamina is considerably amplified, especially by the CHARGED REFLECTION, which sends back a charged ball that deals damage in a small area of effect. And speaking of reflecting bullets, however, try to have at least one of the stances with one of the split REFLECTION abilities unlocked. This is going to let you reflect back two shots instead of just one, so it's easier to take down the overwhelming number of stormtroopers or B1 Droids that tend to overwhelm you as you progress through the game.

GREATER CONFUSION

Respawn has made the force power great in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and CONFUSION is simply great among them. It's probably one of the best of the force powers. Firstly because it requires minimal points, and you can mind control enemies using R1+Circle, which will cause them to turn against each other for a few seconds. This is particularly useful on the largest beasts like the Gorocco or Vile Bilemaw, which have devasting attacks. Some small creatures are even better, such as the Rawka, which can almost one-shot you with their unblockable charged attack.

I suggest reaching the last two unlocks called SUPERIOR CONFUSION and CONFUSION MASTERY. Having both of these now lets you confuse literally all human enemies, from the Heavy Assault Trooper to all the way to the Purge Trooper Commander and even the Raider Veteran. Throughout the game, there are countless situations with uneven matchups where you're pitted against multiple mini-bosses, and this being able to mind-control a few of them makes things more favorable for you, or at least a little less challenging.

REDIRECTED STRENGTH

The most fun ability is the REDIRECTED STRENGTH which lets you grab human enemies and force them to fire at their allies. This may make you feel like a Sith Lord just mind-controlling away and using these Flame Troopers to set their foes on fire. It seems a bit too evil even for Cal, but I guess anything that works in the game for defeating enemies. Of course, you also use some of the others abilities, which are somewhat okay but not as needed. At the same time, in the end game, they can provide extended durations for all these effects by increasing damage and other useful advantages.

WRENCHING PULL

You may not focus much on the Telekinesis until you reach the mid-late game, as it requires a larger force investment. However, once you do reach the mid-late game, it's going to become a lot more useful and important too. There are two early ones that you can actually use right away if you want to. One of them is WRENCHING PULL which lets you easily group up enemies together so that you can use strong attacks against them. You can also go for the RADIAL PUSH, which is unlockable right after WRENCHING PULL and is somewhat better for making space and staggering enemies.

However, it's possible to go with another Telekinesis build with SOARING LIFT and POWER SLAM. This lets you suspend entire groups of enemies up in the air, leaving them defenseless for a really long duration. You can use this ability and combo with some of your best weapons or Blaster's quick draw to get some incredible damage. You can also follow up with a POWER SLAM right after this to smash everything into the ground, which keeps the enemies stuck on the ground and unable to react while also dealing quite a lot of damage. Later on, upgrades can make this work even on larger creatures like bosses or even Haxion Brood Bounty Hunter and Haxion Brood Brawler Bounty Droid, so it's totally worth using since they become fully defenseless.

SURVIVAL SKILLS

SURVIVAL SKILLS can boost your health and the healing you get from the Stim Canisters. I recommend only a few abilities early on, which focus on the IMPROVED STIM FORMULA and PERFECTED STIM FORMULA, which will increase the amount of health regeneration. You don't really want to have a massive health bar in the late game simply because you won't be able to even regenerate half of it because the Stims are not that great.

Even if you don't go for those, you can get the GREATER REFLEXES, making your block meter refill faster. It's going to be noticeable, especially against enemies that tend to overwhelm you. You can also go for some of the others, like THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP, which is going to be one of the best in the tree, as Stim canisters also refill the force meter. Even though the description says that it refills some, but is actually very high. It may not fill half of the bar but close enough to the point that you can just spam a number of attacks right after.

I hope this guide helps and do check my Star Wars Jedi: Survivor PlayStation 5 review and share your thoughts about the game.

Azfar Rayan (@AzfarRayan)
Editor, NoobFeed