Passtech Games and Nacon released Ravenswatch on 26 September 2024 after roughly eighteen months in Early Access. Nine heroes taken from folklore, among them Little Red Riding Hood as Scarlet and the fallen monkey king Sun Wukong, fight the Nightmare across three procedurally arranged chapters. Each chapter gives you three days and three nights to grow stronger before its Master Nightmare arrives.
Starting Ravenswatch can feel overwhelming. This guide tells you exactly what to focus on during your first hours so you don't waste time on things that don't matter yet. For the full progression path, see our walkthrough.
What Kind of Game Is This?
Ravenswatch is a roguelike game built around Three days and three nights per chapter and Talent picks on every level up. The core loop involves mastering these systems to progress through increasingly challenging content.
What to expect: Time investment in learning mechanics, experimentation, and gradual mastery. The game rewards patience and knowledge.
Choosing Your First Build
| Build | Beginner Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Scarlet | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Beowulf | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Aladdin | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Melusine | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Sun Wukong | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
Our recommendation: Start with Beowulf. It offers the most forgiving experience while teaching core mechanics.
Avoid Sun Wukong as your first pick. It requires deep knowledge of game systems to use effectively. Once you're ready, check our classes guide for all options.
First Session Step-by-Step
Step 1: Learn Three days and three nights per chapter
A visible clock runs through three full day and night cycles, and everything you do in that window decides how strong you enter the boss fight. Time spent travelling is time not spent levelling, so route planning matters more than raw combat skill.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how Three days and three nights per chapter works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to The Dark Hills
Chapter 1, a corrupted countryside of swamps, fields, graveyards, ruins and caves. Mini bosses here include Brigit the White Lady, Mother Ghoul and The Ogre, all of them beatable at low level if you clear activities in the right order.
Clear the main content here before moving on. Everything teaches fundamentals you'll need later. See our maps guide for all locations.
Step 3: Get Your First Upgrade
Look for Raging Chain: it's the most accessible early upgrade. Beowulf's ultimate, matching his sword and shield frontline role. It pairs naturally with his fire breathing Wyrm, which covers the ranged gap a tank usually leaves open.
Step 4: Understand Talent picks on every level up
Over 200 talents exist and you choose one each time you level, shaping a hero's four abilities into a specific build. Two runs on the same hero can end up playing completely differently depending on which upgrades appeared.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to Hogsden
The ruined village inside the Dark Hills that the chapter is built around. It concentrates several activities in a small area, which makes it efficient early while the clock still has room in it.
Essential Mechanics Explained
Three days and three nights per chapter
A visible clock runs through three full day and night cycles, and everything you do in that window decides how strong you enter the boss fight. Time spent travelling is time not spent levelling, so route planning matters more than raw combat skill.
Talent picks on every level up
Over 200 talents exist and you choose one each time you level, shaping a hero's four abilities into a specific build. Two runs on the same hero can end up playing completely differently depending on which upgrades appeared.
Day and night hero forms
Several heroes change entirely when night falls. Scarlet fights as an agile dagger user by day and becomes a heavy area damage werewolf at night, while Melusine swaps between a human form and a mermaid form.
Magical items from wells and shrines
Around 50 magical items are scattered across the maps, held by wells, health shrines, sacrifice shrines and locked chests that need keys. Almost every health or sacrifice shrine can also spawn a teleporter, which is how you cover ground before the clock runs out.
Four player online co-op
Up to four players share one map and one clock, with matchmaking available. Ability combinations across heroes matter, since one player's crowd control turns another player's slow ultimate into a guaranteed hit.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Fighting red activities on day one
They are marked as the hardest content in a chapter and are meant to be saved until your talents have stacked up.
2. Spreading talents across all four abilities
Concentrated upgrades win runs, diluted ones produce a hero who cannot kill anything before the clock ends.
3. Ignoring the day and night change
Heroes like Scarlet and Melusine swap forms entirely, and playing the night form the way you played the day form throws away their strongest window.
4. Skipping teleporters to squeeze in one more fight
Travel time is the scarcest thing in a chapter, and a missed teleporter costs more experience than the fight gave.
5. Treating co-op as four solo runs
Ravenswatch is built on ability combinations across heroes, and four players fighting separately lose to encounters that a coordinated group handles easily.
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand Three days and three nights per chapter and Talent picks on every level up
- Choose Beowulf as starting build
- Clear The Dark Hills main content
- Acquire Raging Chain or equivalent upgrade
- Reach Hogsden
- Read the map colours before you move. Green activities are the accessible ones meant for early in a chapter and red ones are the hardest, so saving red for day three converts your accumulated talents into free progress.
- Treat the three day clock as your real resource. Combat power is easy to find, but a hero who wandered the map inefficiently arrives at the Master Nightmare several levels short no matter how well they fight.
Tips for New Players
- Read the map colours before you move. Green activities are the accessible ones meant for early in a chapter and red ones are the hardest, so saving red for day three converts your accumulated talents into free progress.
- Treat the three day clock as your real resource. Combat power is easy to find, but a hero who wandered the map inefficiently arrives at the Master Nightmare several levels short no matter how well they fight.
- Take a teleporter whenever you find one. Almost every health shrine and sacrifice shrine can spawn one, and cutting travel time is worth more than the small reward you skipped to reach it.
- Build talents around one ability rather than spreading them. With more than 200 talents available, a run that concentrates upgrades on a single ability produces far more damage than one that touches all four evenly.
- Learn which heroes change at night before committing. Scarlet becomes a heavy area damage werewolf after dark and plays nothing like her daytime dagger form, so a fight you would avoid at noon can be the right fight at midnight.
- In four player runs, coordinate crowd control with slow ultimates. Wisp Ballet and Plague of Rats both want enemies held in place, and a teammate who groups the pack first roughly doubles what those abilities land.
- Pick up keys as you pass them rather than backtracking. Locked chests hold magical items, and the walk back across a chapter costs more clock than the chest is worth once night has fallen.
- Use sacrifice shrines when your build already works. They trade something away for power, which is a good deal on a run that is ahead of schedule and a run ending mistake on one that is behind.
- Unlock the Epilog by clearing Chapter 3 on the higher difficulties. It only opens on Twilight, Darkness and Nightmare after the Chapter 3 Master Nightmare falls, and it is where the real difficulty of the game lives.
- Try Aladdin if runs keep ending early. He deals melee damage with a scimitar, heals, and flies on the Magic Carpet, which covers survivability, group support and travel speed in one hero.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many heroes are there?
Nine at the 1.0 release on 26 September 2024, growing to twelve after the Merlin update in January 2026. The roster includes Scarlet, Beowulf, Aladdin, Melusine, the Pied Piper, Sun Wukong, the Snow Queen, Carmilla, Geppetto, Romeo, Juliet and Merlin.
How long is a run?
Three chapters, each giving you three days and three nights before its Master Nightmare fight. The clock is the pacing mechanism, so a run is bounded by in game time rather than by how many rooms you clear.
Can I play solo?
Yes. Ravenswatch supports single player as well as online co-op for up to four, with matchmaking. Solo runs are harder in the encounters built around grouping enemies, which is why heroes like Aladdin and Sun Wukong rate highly alone.
Which hero should a new player choose?
Aladdin. He is the most complete all rounder, dealing melee damage with a scimitar, healing allies and travelling fast on the Magic Carpet, so a mistake in one area is covered by another.
What is the Epilog?
A fourth location added for 1.0, reachable on the Twilight, Darkness and Nightmare difficulties after you defeat the Chapter 3 Master Nightmare. It is the endgame content beyond the standard three chapter run.
More Ravenswatch Guides
- Ravenswatch Ravenswatch Overview
- Ravenswatch Best Builds
- Ravenswatch Tier List
- Ravenswatch Walkthrough
- Ravenswatch Tips & Tricks
- Ravenswatch Weapons Guide
- Ravenswatch Combat Guide
- Ravenswatch Boss Guide
- Ravenswatch Maps & Locations
- Ravenswatch Crafting Guide
- Ravenswatch Classes & Characters
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- Hades Beginner's Guide: roguelike game with similar mechanics
- Darkest Dungeon Beginner's Guide: roguelike game with similar mechanics
