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1348 Ex Voto Combat Tips ⚔️

Posting this here since I have repeated it several times over the past weeks and I think it might help someone struggling (sorry for the lazy editing, the text was copy-pasted from private messages and discord).

Attacking

hitting a perfect attack is essential. That means you tap the attack button every time her sword hits the enemy. It will give yellow sparks instead of red

it helps to be aggressive and don’t wait for the enemy to attack you again. You should of course always watch them and react to what they’re doing. Always block, dodge, or (after chapter 4) parry as necessary, but if they are not attacking then you should be on the offensive!

Abilities

use paper to unlock abilities. Early game prioritize unlocking the initiative ability (50 paper) as well as extra light attacks (15 paper).

initiative is a free perfect attack and the extra attacks increase the number of times aeta swings before the enemy can start hitting back. Extra attacks make it easier to make perfect attacks because it’s easier to find the rhythm she attacks with and tap along in sync with her

other useful stats to upgrade are food and health. I personally don’t put too much into guard until later in the game

in chapter 4 you can unlock perfect parry (for 50 paper). Parrying is very powerful! It’s my favourite ability. I even made a meme about it!

Apparently there are 55 ish paper to find per chapter (except for chapter 1) so no matter what you can always find enough to unlock a 50 paper ability if you save up.

Trinkets and Sword Parts

finding the trinkets and sword parts to upgrade is helpful. Mid to late game the trinkets become powerful so always explore as much as you can.

I posted some helpful guides for finding things at the end of this post

First Boss Strategy

strat for the first boss is to smack him with as many perfect attacks as you can then dodge out of the way while he swings his axe.

Extra tip: this one is kiiiind of cheating but it hasn’t been patched out as of 04/04/26, sooo…. if you can steer him into the side of the arena he’ll get stuck and be much easier to dodge

Resource Management

The encounters are usually a series of smaller fights that get more intense as the game goes on. You’ve gotta manage your health and food so you don’t waste everything on the first enemy.

Getting good at killing enemies quickly, using trinkets and abilities effectively, and watching your position so you can’t get surrounded are all important skills for surviving the end game content.

Helpful Guides

Jeena Ragnos’ Guide to Finding All Paper (url: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3696295346)

Jeena Ragnos’ Guide to Finding All Trinkets, Sword Parts, and Medallions (url: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3684262355)

These guides were made by Jeena and are really useful! She put a lot of work into making these resources for our little Ex Voto community so please give her some Winner and Firey steam awards if you find them helpful :)

#1348 ex voto

One of my favourite Aeta moments. It’s a blink-and-you-miss-it expression that she makes. She’s so tired, frustrated, and confused that she’s on the verge of tears, but it only last a second. She just as quickly pulls herself together because there’s more work to be done.

It’s rare to see this kind of raw, human vulnerability in a video game. It looks dramatic as a still image but it’s actually quite subtle in-game. The characters don’t acknowledge it and her face is in shadow when it happens. It’s a small, deliberate detail that reveals so much about what Aeta is feeling under the surface. It makes Aeta seem so real to me.

(She’s just a cinnamon roll with a sword and I love her, your honour)

#1348 ex voto #would a stereotypical girlboss do THIS?

1348 Ex Voto Fan Discord!

Hello moots and Ex Voto enjoyers! If you liked the game and want to chat with other 1348 Ex Voto fans, (or if you like it but you want help with combat) I am an admin for a fan-made discord server!

DM me for a link if you would like to join :)

This is not affiliated with the official discord for the game. The official discord is great for sending feedback directly to the devs and I recommend joining that too!

#1348 ex voto

#1348 ex voto #people are saying the combat feels a lot better now

Another 1348 Ex Voto Defense

I wrote this for someone on discord who wanted to know if the game was “slop.” Copy pasted here with extra formatting.

It’s no secret that I am a super fan. But I won’t lie to anyone about what this game is or what it is not.

First, you have to set your expectations. This game isn’t complicated. It’s short, made by a small team, and doesn’t have the depth we expect from AA or AAA games. This is a single A game made by a team with only two programmers (i think, based on the credits).

Combat isn’t difficult to learn or understand but it IS challenging to get good at. Part of that is because the game doesn’t hold your hand at all. You have to pay close attention to the instructions and the types of items/upgrades you are finding for hints about what strategy to use. Or just ask for help on here.

Only 50% of players make it past the first boss and only 17% make it past the second boss. Only 12% actually finish the game. I think that’s because people get stuck on the fights and quit. For some that means it is a bad game, for others that means it is simply a challenging game. Most people I have spoken to who stuck it out felt a sense of accomplishment when they mastered the combat and have even played the game multiple times. To me, that is a sign of a good game. Make your own decision based on your own play style.

Re: story. The story isn’t complicated. Anyone familiar with stories generally will find the tropes familiar. I think it works in this case. The main character loves chivalric literature and the classic stories about knights. The game feels like one of those stories. There is subtext about how she is naive and some light hints about class consciousness that you can analyze if you enjoy analyzing things.

There’s a sense of unreality to all of it. The main character is living in a fantasy world and we can spot the inconsistencies but she doesn’t. She is an unreliable narrator.

Re: performance. The game ran fine for me on ps5. Most bugs amused me. Bugs and issues are continuously being patched. There is only ONE programmer (as far as i know) working on all the patches so I have a lot of patience. I have a high tolerance for jank and especially in indie games anyway. If you hate games with rough edges, that’s valid! This game has rough spots. It is not “unplayable” for most people, although I do acknowledge that mileage on PC may vary.

Re: design. Some people hate the way the main character looks. Personally I love it and it was the original selling point for me. This is subjective. I can’t make anyone else like what I like.

No spoilers but the hair is plot relevant. Some things wouldn’t make sense if you could customize too much. Like, I guess that doesn’t matter tooo much since the plot is simple, but the way she looks is sort of the point.

Customization is fun in many games. I love that too! Not every game has it or needs it, though. If you only like games with customization that’s totally valid but I don’t think it’s really a fair criticism for this game in particular since it just wouldn’t make sense

Sort of like asking for a pizza at a noodle restaurant. Some larger kitchens might accommodate you but if the restaurant decides to stick with noodles because that’s their thing, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad restaurant nor does it really say anything about whether the noodles are good. Does that analogy make sense?

This comes back to controlling your expectations when it comes to an indie game. I think customization is simply out of scope for this game. If they had a larger development team I’m sure there would have been ways to incorporate customization in a way that made sense, and that would have been dope, but I don’t think that’s something they had time or resources to do. Nor do I think it was necessary.

Ultimately I do not agree that this game is “slop”. To me slop means generic mass produced games from huge studios aimed at the widest possible audience. This game has a niche appeal that filters out a lot of potential players with its design and difficulty. You will either like it or you won’t. I encourage anyone to give the game a fair shot. If I, of all people, can master the combat, so can you! 🖤 whether you have fun is based on your own tastes. Personally, I am having a great time.

#1348 ex voto

1348 Ex Voto

The silliest thing about all the discourse around this game is that the gay representation is all subtext. Yes, Aeta looks a certain way, but the game is ultimately just a pretty series of sword fights and it’s sad that people are so hung up on her design.

It’s too bad that the game released with so many bugs but I think calling it “unplayable” is an exaggeration. To be fair, Ps5 experience seems a lot better than pc so far. All I can say is that I’ve been enjoying the game a lot (and there’s a patch coming soon)!

I really like the combat. It has been a fun challenge and I’ve enjoyed talking to my new friends about our struggles and victories with the harder encounters. I enjoy hearing about how some people are planning out how to speedrun it. There are a lot of ways you could challenge yourself with this game since every upgrade is optional/missable.

I hope more people try it after the patch (happening soon!), but I’m grateful for the small community of ex voto enjoyers that is forming already.

It’s a short, uncomplicated game that I personally find very visually appealing. I really like Aeta. I think she’s a great character with a lot of potential for future development. I don’t mind that so much is left to the imagination because it lets me interpret the story however I want.

All this to say, I’m having a good time in my little ex voto bubble. I’m gonna draw more fan art soon but I want to play the game some more first.

#1348 ex voto

allmylovejes

my full review of 1348 ex voto

things i enjoyed:

this game felt challenging to learn the controls but as soon as it clicked for me, i succeeded fairly well after. (i 100% recommend unlocking the parry skill as soon as possible with the papers you find.)

i really enjoyed the storyline. the main hero is very interesting and enjoyable to journey through the game with. the ending has quite a twist that i can see some people might love and some might not (depending on what factor you were most excited to play this game for).

the visuals are pretty cool, and i loved the character designs. my favorite part was the siege and castle walkthrough near the end, the fighting style gets really cool too as you unlock more skills.

upgrading your sword and its look, is a fun side piece of the game. i do wish you could change looks/armor though (but im a customization fiend when it comes to gaming).

jennifer english. need i say more?

things that were iffy for me:

i wish the game was longer. i finished it fairly quick despite some of the fights that took me longer as i was learning how to master the controls. the story is pretty good, but it could of done with some more side characters and development with our main hero.

there were few bugs needing fixing for me but overall not too shabby considering it was just released.

my only other issue is the enemy toggling, i wish there was an option to turn it off as your fighting - it got a bit annoying for me in a few fights.

overall i give this game a 4/5 ⭐️ and do recommend it as a shorter adventure game, especially if you love women knights with queer tones and badass traits.