Lies of P is an awesome soulslike title inspired by the classic tale of Pinocchio. It very much follows the classic formula set out by games like Dark Souls. However, it also takes inspiration from titles like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, where timing and parrying attacks is the key to success. Towards the start of Lies of P you’ll have to face your first major decision: which combat style to pick up. This dictates your starting weapon, as well as your initial stat distribution. This is an important choice, so let’s go over which combat style in Lies of P is best for you.
Which Combat Style to Choose in Lies of P
1 – Path of the Sweeper: Strength
The Path of the Sweeper combat style uses big heavy weapons that scale well with the Motivity stat, which is your physical strength in Lies of P. You’ll have some big sweeping strikes and powerful stab moves. This combat style absolutely annihilates weaker enemies. They will be staggered by pretty much every attack. Strength based builds are strong in games like Dark Souls as well, but they’re even more potent in Lies of P, the reason being that you use far less stamina in the game. This makes chaining attacks together and then dodging or blocking right after easy to pull off for high damage output. Blocking and in particular parrying are also incredibly powerful in Lies of P. This combat style is the best at blocking and excellent at punishing enemies after a parry. I’ve found the Path of the Sweeper to be the strongest combat style thus far and would recommend every Lies of P player give it a try.
2 – Path of the Cricket: Balance
The Path of the Cricket combat style is a close second to the Path of the Sweeper for me. It has a very even stat distribution, making it the most versatile starting combat style. You’ll have a lighter weapon for faster attacks but with less damage output. You get a good balance of survivability, stamina, and damage, though, and can really build off this base well to fit how you enjoy playing. It also has the highest starting Advance stat, which is the Intelligence/Wisdom stat equivalent. This is important, as it makes it one of the best paths if you want to focus on scaling the elemental damage of your abilities.
Overall, the Path of the Cricket is a very well rounded combat style and a great starting point that I’m sure many builds will make use of, especially those that want to scale Advance!
Related: How to Find All Legion Caliber Locations in Lies of P
3 – Path of the Bastard: Dexterity
The Path of the Bastard path is very similar to what you’d expect for a Dexterity scaling build in a Souls game. I found it to be not quite as powerful as its Souls counter parts, though. While the dodging and rolling in Lies of P is decent, there are too many attacks that can easily catch you on a roll or side step. It felt to me like the game favored a blocking and parrying playstyle more. This combat style has low Vitality, so it can’t take hits or block particularly well. You’ll have to either perfect parry or try to rely on dodging.
Path of the Bastard also starts with the lightest, fastest attacking weapon. This does mean that it’s excellent at dealing with smaller quick enemies, like the dogs. It does have quite low damage which can be an issue though. You’ll have to play a hit-and-run play style around tougher enemies and will need to get in several strikes each time to deal decent damage. I found this the more difficult way to play and wouldn’t recommend it as starting combat style. However, it could be a fun way to switch things up for a second playthrough!
Those are the three combat styles you can choose from ranked in order for Lies of P. This is, of course, subjective and certain play styles will suit some players better than others. At the end of the day all three combat styles are perfectly viable. You can pick the starting style that generally works best for your play style in Souls games. I’d certainly say that I found the first two combat styles to be the easiest to get the hang of. Having the extra damage over the quickness really helped me take down bosses!
If you’re looking for more on the game, check out our guide to where to get all the Records in Lies of P, which can help you achieve the true ending.
