Xenon Valkyrie+: How to Survive Your First Runs – Beginner Guide

Most early runs in Xenon Valkyrie+ fall apart for the same reason: you treat a cramped room like a brawl. This is a rogue-lite, and it punishes impatience harder than it punishes bad gear. You win by spacing, route discipline, and knowing when not to commit. The good news is that the habits that keep you alive are concrete and easy to learn.

One quick clarification, because the name gets confused in search results: Xenon Valkyrie+ is not the idle RPG Ten Valkyrie. There is no Auto-Battle, no Soul Stones, no Rebirth, and no passive EXP loop here. Your progression is direct — cleaner platforming, smarter gold usage, and better judgment about which fights and routes are worth the risk.

The short version

• Start as Eloen. Her unlimited bombs and bonus key make her the most forgiving character for a first run.
• Pour early points into Strength. Shorter fights mean fewer chances to eat contact damage.
• Pay the beggar between levels. Hand over 200 credits in one go and you get a permanent +1 Defence.
• Hoard keys, delay chests. Save them for the 3-key chest at Blackstorm Lab to pull the Hollow Blade.
• Fight bosses as pattern checks. Dodge first, punish in short windows, reset spacing.
• Leave secret routes for later. The AI MotherShip path needs Nue, not a first-timer.

Start with Eloen

Character choice matters more than it first looks, and the name trips people up — it is Eloen, not “Eleon.” She is the easiest character to learn the game with for one concrete reason: her bombs are unlimited, and she starts each run with a bonus key. Unlimited bombs give you a true mechanical advantage no other starter gets — a way to apply pressure and clear awkward approaches without face-checking enemies. Her special move is a timed bomb, which is space denial: you place it, back off, and let the enemy walk into the blast instead of trading hits in melee.

Guns exist, but they are not a free win in this game. For a beginner, melee spacing and platform control are far more reliable than trying to brute-force rooms with ranged spam, and Eloen’s kit reinforces that safer style. The one exception is secret content. If your immediate goal is the AI MotherShip, that route requires Nue — but that is an endgame detour, not a first-run pick. To simply survive early and learn the loop, Eloen is the better classroom.

Treat every room like a positioning puzzle

This is the biggest mental shift for beginners. You do not need to win every exchange on reaction; you need to stop taking bad exchanges in the first place. The game rewards cautious play — avoiding unnecessary fights and learning how enemies move before you swing. If a room gives you one safe ledge and two bad angles, stay on the safe ledge until the enemies make an opening.

A clean room plan usually looks like this:

• Stop at the entrance and watch enemy movement for a beat.
• Take the high ground if there is any platform advantage.
• Make enemies travel toward you rather than jumping into them.
• Finish stable openings with melee instead of spraying ranged attacks in panic.
• If the room is ugly, back off and reset spacing rather than forcing a trade.

This holds on both keyboard and controller. Messy inputs happen most often when you jump into a fight before the screen is under control. Slowing down fixes more mistakes than any gear upgrade does.

Put early stats into Strength

Early stat allocation has a clear priority: damage first, survivability second. Push Strength early, because shorter fights are safer fights. Every extra enemy cycle you allow is another chance to eat contact damage, get knocked off position, or make a bad jump under pressure. In a rogue-lite like this, Strength is not just an offensive stat — it is a risk-reduction stat.

That said, do not tunnel so hard on damage that one mistake deletes the run. The right rhythm is to lead with Strength, then add enough HP or Defence to survive a real error. Strength helps you avoid taking hits; HP and Defence help you recover when avoidance fails. Spread points evenly from the start and you get the worst of both worlds — slower kills without enough toughness to justify the lost damage.

When a run keeps dying in the same place, diagnose it. If rooms drag on and enemies keep clipping you during long fights, add Strength. If bosses leave you one mistake from death every time, patch in HP or Defence. That beats blind “balanced” leveling every time.

Pay the beggar every time

There is a small long-term optimization to start using immediately: give money to the beggar between levels. Pay him 200 credits in one go and you earn a permanent +1 Defence. It does not feel dramatic when you first hear it, which is exactly why new players skip it. But in a game built around repeated runs, one extra point of Defence is not trivial — it smooths out chip damage, gives you more room to survive bad landings, and makes the early game less punishing over time.

This is the kind of habit that separates stable runs from chaotic ones. Beginners spend gold emotionally, on whatever looks exciting right now. Xenon Valkyrie+ rewards routine instead. If the beggar shows up, pay. Make it automatic — you are buying future consistency, not immediate fireworks.

Hoard keys, delay chests, and target Blackstorm Lab

Chest timing changes how a later challenge plays out. Collect keys from mini-bosses but delay opening chests until you reach Blackstorm Lab. Save up three keys and open the 3-key chest there to claim the Hollow Blade — the pickup you want. The chest can also give the Diabolical Sabre, but the Hollow Blade is the stronger of the two, so the keys are worth hoarding.

Read this as route optimization, not mandatory law. If you are specifically preparing for Blackstorm Lab, hoarding keys and delaying chests makes sense. If you are still trying to stabilize normal runs and learn enemy patterns, an earlier chest may be the better call — immediate power now can matter more than a stronger weapon later.

Blackstorm Lab itself is the game’s hardest optional area, and the reputation is earned: it is four layers plus a boss that punishes reckless movement and underbuilt characters. Do not force it just because you unlocked a path. Enter with real HP, real resources, and gear you trust.

Fight bosses as pattern checks, and save secret routes for later

Boss fights are where impatient play gets exposed. The rhythm is simple but easy to break under pressure: watch for the large telegraphed attacks, dodge first, and punish only during short vulnerability windows. The loop is avoid the big move, land one or two clean hits, reset spacing. When the boss has a predictable recovery or shielded state, that is your cue to act — not before. Most early boss deaths come from squeezing in one extra hit, so resist it.

Players who are comfortable in room combat still get clipped on bosses because they carry over the wrong habit: constant aggression. Bosses are built to punish that. Your job is to recognize the repeatable part of the pattern and only commit when the answer is clear.

The same restraint applies to secret progression. The route to the AI MotherShip requires you to play as Nue: pay the access-granting NPC, clear Ivory Tundra, then find a climbable ledge in the next rest area. Even if that is where you want to end up, it is not a beginner priority. Secret routes are progression-gated and punish weak runs harder than the normal path does. Learn the core loop first, then go hunting with intention.

Common mistakes

• Starting as the “cooler” character. Eloen’s unlimited bombs and bonus key make her the cleanest first run — pick her before chasing Nue’s secret route.
• Leveling stats evenly. Lead with Strength, then top up HP or Defence; balanced points give you slow kills and a fragile run.
• Skipping the beggar. 200 credits in one go for a permanent +1 Defence is one of the cheapest power spikes in the game.
• Opening chests on autopilot. If you are heading for Blackstorm Lab, every key spent early is a worse weapon later.
• Forcing Blackstorm Lab unprepared. Four layers and a boss will end an underbuilt run fast.

Practical takeaway

One rule carries the whole game: reduce chaos before you deal damage. Start as Eloen, lead with Strength, pay the beggar for that +1 Defence, hoard keys for the Hollow Blade at Blackstorm Lab, and treat secret routes like Nue’s AI MotherShip path as endgame, not warm-up. Play for position and consistency instead of panic damage, and Xenon Valkyrie+ gets far more manageable.