Wolfenstein: Youngblood beginner’s guide

Wolfenstein: Youngblood is a lot of game for a budget-priced spinoff. There are multiple parts of Neu-Paris to explore, several weapons to shoot Nazis with, plus lots of upgrades and abilities to unlock.

It can be overwhelming to keep track of your options. In this guide, we’ve assembled our best tips to help get you started in Wolfenstein: Youngblood.

Match weapons to enemy barriers (shields)

Some enemies have barriers. These are like armor (or shields, really) on top of their health bars — you have to destroy the barrier before you can damage their health.

There are two types of barrier: hard and soft. Enemies with barriers have either narrow or wide (hollow, square-shaped) white blocks to the right of their health bar. Matching your weapon to your enemy’s barrier will significantly increase the damage you cause to their shields.

Arkane Studios, MachineGames/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon

You can see barrier icons in three places:

• To the right of enemy health bars
• To the right of each weapon’s ammo count in the weapon wheel
• To the right of your ammo count in the lower right corner of the screen (when you have a weapon equipped)

The icons tell you which type of barrier the weapon is good at destroying. The icons on your weapons look like the barriers next to enemy health bars, so your task is match the icon to the enemy.

When you’re in a big fight — or just navigating a street with lots of enemies — equip one hard barrier weapon, and then equip a soft barrier weapon. This will let you quick swap between the two with a single button press.

Upgrade your weapons early and often

Don’t hesitate to upgrade your weapons early in the game, wondering if you should hold out for something better. You’ll earn plenty of money in Wolfenstein: Youngblood, and you should pour that money into your weapons.

There are five upgrades to each weapon — receiver, sight, magazine, barrel, and grip. These upgrades come from three brands, each of which is associated with one of your weapon stats — Nadel (accuracy), Tempo (speed), and Stier (power).

Arkane Studios, MachineGames/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon

You’ll get weapon bonuses as you kill enemies with each weapon and as you level up, but you’ll also get bonuses from having three upgrades from a single brand — a Brand Bonus.

More importantly, though, the upgrades you choose add Modifiers to your weapons. Modifiers can do simple things like adding a flashlight to the barrel, or change something much larger like the type of ammo the weapon fires — or even determine if the weapon is semi- or fully automatic.

Choose Crush to save time

At the beginning of Wolfenstein: Youngblood, as you’re choosing your sister’s (mostly cosmetic) loadout, you’ll get to choose between Cloak or Crush. Cloak lets you turn invisible briefly, and it’s great if you want to play the game stealthily. Crush turns your body into a weapon.

Unless you insist on playing this like a stealth game, choose Crush. You can always buy Cloak later. And you totally should. But Crush is more broadly useful.

Crush lets you smash open wooden crates (our favorite use), break through special doors, and damage enemies (with a ground pound or by straight up running into them). Upgrade it in your Character menu, and it’ll deal more and more damage (up to 4x).

If you didn’t choose Crush at the beginning, just buy it early. It’s expensive, but it’s worth it. And you won’t ever have to hit a wooden box 16 times in a row for two coins again.

Melee is always a good option

With so many weapons to choose from (and so many weapon upgrades on top of that), it’s easy to forget about attacking up close, but you shouldn’t. Don’t treat melee as a last resort — it’s powerful (and funny) on its own.

Arkane Studios, MachineGames/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon

Any time an enemy is unaware of you, your melee attack becomes a silent takedown (and for low level enemies, it’s an instant kill). The Supersoldat Hunter ability (Character > Muscle) makes this even stronger.

When you’re face-to-face with a Nazi, your melee attack is a viable option, too. And the damage you cause will only increase as your player level goes up and you perform more melee kills.

Tough enemies have weak spots

For particularly tough enemies — usually, these are (literally) big enemies like panzerhunds — you have to go a little farther than just matching the weapon type to their barriers. These enemies have visual clues like armor that pops off as you shoot it or exposed gas tanks. Watch for these as you’re shooting, and use them to your advantage. For example, a panzerhund has weak points along its sides that knock out a huge chunk of its barriers and health.

Arkane Studios, MachineGames/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon

Tough enemies also tend to be vulnerable to some of the more advanced weapons in the game — like the Laserkraftwork, Dieselkraftwork, and Electrokraftwork that we’ll talk about in the next section. Panzerhunds go down quickly with just a few shots from a Laserkraftwork, for example.

You’ll earn new weapons as part of main story missions

Early in the game, you’ll start noticing doors and crates that you can’t open unless you have new weapons with very long German names. These weapons — Laserkraftwork, Dieselkraftwork, and Electrokraftwork — are tied to the three Brother missions (Raid Missions: Brother 1, 2, and 3, respectively). These are longer and more difficult missions, but the new weapons are great rewards.

Revisit areas as you get new weapons and abilities

Arkane Studios, MachineGames/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon

The weapons you earn during main story missions (see above) will let you open new doors and pick up new items in just about every area of Wolfenstein: Youngblood. Every time you pick up something new, remember to head back to areas you’ve already explored and find new things.

Remember to use your Pep Powers and abilities

You have a Pep Signal that will grant a boon to you and your sister whenever you use it. It’s on a cooldown timer, but you can use it pretty frequently. Don’t forget to use it. It’s a single button press away, and you’ll get free health, armor, or a damage buff.

Arkane Studios, MachineGames/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon

As you earn silver coins, remember to check for new Pep Signals in your Character menu. There are nine Pep Signals to choose from, so don’t worry about being locked into one (if you can afford to buy other options).