The First Berserker: Khazan is Neople's souls-like, released on 27 March 2025 and set in the same Arad universe as Dungeon Fighter Online. Khazan is a decorated general of the Pell Los Empire who is framed for treason, crippled, and left to die in the snow until a spirit called the Blade Phantom keeps him alive. The campaign runs 16 main missions across four regions, from the Charnak Mountain Range through the Pell Los Plateau and the Heart of Pell Los to Vitalon, capital of the empire, with 24 bonus missions hanging off the same mission map. There are no character classes. You choose between Greatsword, Dual Wield and Spear, and you can respec every skill point at a Blade Nexus for free, as many times as you like.
This guide covers everything you need: core mechanics, the best characters, weapons worth investing in, location progression, and the tips that actually make a difference.
Core Mechanics
Brink Guard and Reflect
Holding guard blocks at a heavy stamina cost. Tapping it on the exact frame the attack lands triggers a Brink Guard instead: the hit is negated, your stamina barely moves, and the enemy's stamina bar takes the damage. Reflect is the upgraded version that interrupts an ongoing combo and breaks the attacker's stance outright. Every main boss is built around this one input, so a player who never learns it will run out of healing long before the boss runs out of health.
Stamina and stance breaking
Khazan and every enemy carry a stamina bar alongside health. Your attacks, dodges and guards spend yours, while Brink Guards and Brink Dodges drain theirs. Empty an enemy's bar and their stance breaks, opening a critical finisher that does more damage than a dozen normal swings. Against the 16 main bosses, stance damage is the real health bar you are working on.
Spirit gauge skills
Skills do not cost stamina. They spend charges from a separate spirit gauge that fills as you deal damage, take damage, Brink Guard or Brink Dodge. Nodes in the skill trees raise how fast the gauge builds, which means an aggressive player gets noticeably more skill casts per fight than a cautious one, and defensive play still pays because a clean Brink Guard also feeds the gauge.
Lacrima and the Blade Nexus
Lacrima drops from enemies and behaves like souls in FromSoftware games. You spend it at a Blade Nexus checkpoint on five stats: Vitality, Endurance, Strength, Willpower and Proficiency. Resting at a Nexus restores health, refills consumables and respawns every ordinary enemy in the area. The hub Nexus at the Crevice is where recruited NPCs set up, including the blacksmith Qazumaka.
Three weapon skill trees
The skill menu holds four tabs: Greatsword, Dual Wield, Spear and Common. Skill points are earned by landing hits with a weapon rather than by levelling, and respec costs nothing, so switching weapons mid-campaign only costs you the time to relearn its timings. Scaling is fixed: Greatsword leans on Strength, Dual Wield on Willpower, Spear on Proficiency.
For a deeper dive into how these systems interact, see our The First Berserker: Khazan combat guide.
Characters Overview
| Role | Tier | Playstyle | Key Stats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greatsword | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Dual Wield | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Spear | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Brink Guard counter build | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Spirit skill build | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
For full build breakdowns with gear and stat priorities, see our The First Berserker: Khazan builds guide. For rankings, check the tier list.
Weapons Guide
| Weapon | Why It Matters | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Greatsword | Slowest swing speed, highest stamina damage per hit, and the only weapon whose charged heavy reliably staggers ordinary enemies. | Players who want boss fights to end in fewer, bigger punishes and do not mind committing to long animations |
| Dual Wield blades | The fastest of the three, with attack strings that keep the spirit gauge topped up. | Aggressive players who already trust their Brink Dodge timing |
| Spear | Longest reach and the lowest risk per exchange, scaling off Proficiency with Willpower secondary. | First runs through unfamiliar missions, and bosses with wide sweeping combos |
| Spirit gauge skills | Skills spend gauge charges rather than stamina, so they are free damage in the middle of a stamina-starved exchange. | Finishing a stance-broken boss, and escaping a combo you guessed wrong on |
| Qazumaka crafted gear sets | The blacksmith Qazumaka builds full armour sets once you bring him the matching Scroll, which drops from elite enemies and bosses or sits in mission side rooms. | Locking in a defensive identity before the Heart of Pell Los missions |
Greatsword: Slowest swing speed, highest stamina damage per hit, and the only weapon whose charged heavy reliably staggers ordinary enemies. It scales off Strength with Proficiency as the secondary influence.
Dual Wield blades: The fastest of the three, with attack strings that keep the spirit gauge topped up. It scales off Willpower with Strength secondary, and it wants you standing inside the boss rather than reacting from outside.
Spear: Longest reach and the lowest risk per exchange, scaling off Proficiency with Willpower secondary. Thrust attacks let you fight from a step further out than the animations suggest.
Spirit gauge skills: Skills spend gauge charges rather than stamina, so they are free damage in the middle of a stamina-starved exchange. Skill tree nodes raise both charge capacity and refill rate, and every weapon tab has its own set.
Qazumaka crafted gear sets: The blacksmith Qazumaka builds full armour sets once you bring him the matching Scroll, which drops from elite enemies and bosses or sits in mission side rooms. Sets cover helms, body, gloves, pants and boots, and wearing several pieces of one set is what turns armour into a build rather than a stat stick.
Full breakdowns in our The First Berserker: Khazan weapons guide.
Location Progression
| Location | Level Range | Key Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Charnak Mountain Range | Main missions 1 to 5 of 16 | First weapon choice, the earliest Qazumaka scrolls, and the Blade Phantom fight |
| Pell Los Plateau | Main missions 6 to 9 of 16 | Mid-game armour sets, several Crevice NPC recruits, Rangkus |
| Heart of Pell Los | Main missions 10 to 13 of 16 | Late skill tree nodes, high-tier scrolls, large Lacrima payouts |
| Vitalon, Capital of the Empire | Main missions 14 to 16 of 16 | Endgame gear, the final boss, and the completion of all 16 main missions |
| Palemion Citadel | Reached during main mission 6, Traitor Revealed | Rangkus set materials, Soulstones hidden along the citadel route |
Charnak Mountain Range: The opening region, covering Banished Hero, Trials of the Frozen Mountain, Forgotten Temple, First Act of Revenge and Strange Stench. Yetuga is the first wall most players hit, and the region is where the game decides whether you have understood Brink Guard.
Pell Los Plateau: The second region, running Traitor Revealed, Veiled Knives, Devoured Village and Inconceivable Truth. Traitor Revealed takes Khazan into the city of Palemion for the first act of his revenge, and the enemy mix shifts from beasts to trained soldiers who punish sloppy guard timing.
Heart of Pell Los: Witch's Castle, Hermit Mountains, Corruptors' Fortress and Strange Melody sit here. Crowd encounters get much larger, which is where heavy armour builds pull ahead and where under-levelled players should go back and clear bonus missions.
Vitalon, Capital of the Empire: The final region: Fall of the Empire, Bloodied Sanctuary and Master of Chaos, ending at Ozma. Enemy stamina pools are large enough that stance breaking is no longer optional, and mistimed guards cost most of a health bar.
Palemion Citadel: The citadel section of the Pell Los Plateau where Rangkus, the sixth boss, waits at the end. Rangkus has a twin, Bringkus, which is the game's first hint that beating a boss once does not mean you are done with that moveset.
See our maps & locations guide for detailed area breakdowns and our walkthrough for the optimal progression path.
Tips That Actually Matter
- Bonus missions are not optional content. There are 24 of them across the four regions and they are the intended source of Lacrima and blacksmith Scrolls, so a player who runs only the 16 main missions arrives at the Heart of Pell Los badly under-geared.
- Brink Guard is timed to the moment of impact, not the wind-up. Watch the weapon rather than the character, and count the rhythm of a combo on your first attempt instead of trying to react to every hit.
- Skill points come from landing hits, not from levelling. If a tree feels empty, go clear a bonus mission with that weapon equipped rather than grinding levels at a Blade Nexus.
- Respec is free and unlimited. Test all three weapons in the Charnak Mountain Range before you commit, because the difference between Greatsword and Dual Wield is far bigger than the difference between two weapons in most souls-likes.
- Some heavy attacks cannot be blocked at all. Guarding them drains the entire stamina bar and leaves you open, so learn which moves in a boss set demand a dodge and treat guard as the wrong answer to them.
- Wear one full Qazumaka set rather than the five highest defence pieces you own. Set bonuses are worth more than the raw defence difference through most of the campaign.
- The spirit gauge fills on damage taken as well as damage dealt, so a fight you are losing still generates skill charges. Spending them to reset spacing is usually better than saving them for a stance break you may never reach.
- Vitality and Endurance carry you further than any scaling stat for the first twenty or so levels. Damage stats only start paying once you survive long enough to use the openings.
- Resting at a Blade Nexus respawns every ordinary enemy in the area, so clear a route to a boss, then decide whether the healing refill is worth walking the route again.
- Recruit every NPC you find and send them to the Crevice. The hub vendors, including Qazumaka, unlock through recruitment rather than through story progress, and missing one costs you a whole crafting line.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Treating guard as a hold-to-block button. Holding drains stamina fast, and the punish window opens the moment the bar empties.
- Levelling Strength on a Spear or Dual Wield build because it sounds like the damage stat. Spear scales off Proficiency and Dual Wield off Willpower.
- Skipping all 24 bonus missions and then blaming the difficulty curve when Vitalon enemies take three times as long to kill.
- Dodging everything. Brink Dodge does far less stamina damage than a Brink Guard, so a pure dodge run leaves bosses at full stance and fights running twice as long.
- Hoarding Lacrima into a boss arena. Death drops it on the floor, and boss runbacks are exactly where players lose the largest piles.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many bosses are in The First Berserker: Khazan?
There are 16 main bosses tied to the 16 main missions, plus roughly 20 side bosses encountered mostly through the 24 bonus missions. Once a main boss has been beaten, it can be refought from the mission map.
Which weapon should I start with?
Spear for a first run, because its reach forgives bad reads. Greatsword ends bosses fastest through stance damage and Dual Wield rewards the most aggressive play. Since respec is free and skill points come from hitting things, you can hold all three trees before the game is over.
Do I need to have played Dungeon Fighter Online?
No. Khazan shares the Arad setting and a few names with Neople's long-running action game, but the story of Khazan's betrayal by the Pell Los Empire is self-contained and explained in the opening mission.
What does Lacrima do?
Lacrima is the experience and currency drop from enemies. You spend it at a Blade Nexus on Vitality, Endurance, Strength, Willpower or Proficiency, and you lose your carried pile on death until you retrieve it.
Is Brink Guard required, or can I dodge everything?
You can dodge, but fights get much longer. Brink Guard does the heavy stamina damage that leads to a stance break and a critical finisher, and stance breaks are where most of your damage on a boss actually comes from.
More The First Berserker: Khazan Guides
- The First Berserker: Khazan Best Builds
- The First Berserker: Khazan Tier List
- The First Berserker: Khazan Walkthrough
- The First Berserker: Khazan Beginner's Guide
- The First Berserker: Khazan Tips & Tricks
- The First Berserker: Khazan Weapons Guide
- The First Berserker: Khazan Combat Guide
- The First Berserker: Khazan Boss Guide
- The First Berserker: Khazan Maps & Locations
- The First Berserker: Khazan Crafting Guide
- The First Berserker: Khazan Classes & Characters
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