Written Walkthrough
Mandragora Written Walkthrough
This walkthrough will be a written guide from a playthrough I am doing for this guide. I will be playing a Vanguard, sword/shield, so your difficulty may vary. I will be doing a thorough playthrough but it might not be 100% item-wise. It's been a few months since I last played through Mandragora but I'll do my best to remember everything!
This playthrough is being done on the latest version as of today (12/30/2025) 1.6.2.2489. If you are playing on a different version, difficulty may vary!
Before we get started, one thing I highly recommend is going into your Options menu and turning off Action Queuing. This is completely optional but I find that things flow better for me in combat as sometimes I have a habit of double tapping. This can make all the difference!
I hope this guide helps you in some way.
Character Creation
If you need a breakdown of skills for each class, check out Class Abilities for a comprehensive look at each class and ability, as well as their respective skill trees.
Off memory, Wyldwarden and Flameweaver were the easiest classes to play for me as they become super powerful fairly quickly. I would recommend these classes as a brand new player but play whatever class you feel like you would enjoy! They're all really good.
This walkthrough will be a non-magic run, using Vanguard sword/shield. Difficulty will be baseline (100% Enemy Health, Damage and Skill Stamina Cost)
Tutorial
After the initial cutscenes and discussion with Ket, you're able to start moving around. Take this time to familiarize yourself with your movement and jumps. Get a feel for the game and get used to everything. The game does a good job with coaxing you into how it plays with small tutorials in this area.
Eventually, you'll bump into a trio of inquisitors - Kezka, Olem and Maddick. You will enter a sparring session with Maddick. Use this as an opportunity to practice and get adjusted to the controls. Mandragora uses RT (controller scheme) and a direction input to dodge, which is a bit different than other games. Personally, I adjusted to the default settings but if you want - change your control scheme now. The sooner you're comfortable with the controls, the more enjoyable the game will be.
After the inquisitor dual, go forward and open the door using RB. Go through and explore the room. Left of the soldier is 4x Copper Bars and up the ladder to the right leads to a chest with some supplies. This is sort of a tutorial in showing how hidden things can be, so keep a sharp eye in your adventure!
Exit and go east, jump on the platforms and loop around for some coal. Grab the sage on the way out and continue east into the Feralwood. Activate the Witch Stone and think of them as bonfires. These are checkpoints and places to rest for now and, eventually, level up at. For now, activate and continue East. You'll find a bridge with a prompt to look up/down. Using down + jump, go under the bridge and go west to snag a little extra money.
Head back up and continue east. At the platforms, jump up to pick up the 3x Wood. At this spot, jump up yet again to find a hidden platform! Here, you will find your first lockpicks. These are very important early on.
Continue east and break the wall at the prompt. Continue through the cave, defeating rats and collecting the copper and plans for a copper sword. After, exit the cave and continue east. You will encounter Ulfar and question him on what's going on. Wolves came and scared his precious Vin!
Ulfar hints at sharpening your weapon and take this to heart. If this is your very first time playing, the biggest tip I can give you is to use consumables liberally. Make bandages, potions - everything you can (when you can) and you'll find your playthrough MUCH easier. Spellcasters struggling a little bit early on without mana potions but it's nothing terrible. Stamina management is the most important thing to keep in mind. Being able to dodge or block is more important than pulling off more damage in most scenarios.
After talking to Ulfar, continue east and get ready for your first boss fight. The game will give you a tutorial on Quick-Use items, make sure to read and understand this.
The hardest part about the first boss is still getting adjusted to the control scheme. I have a written beastiary on every enemy and also guides for each boss that I will link at each boss.
If you die to the first boss a few times, don't fret. The boss isn't too hard but again, you're starting out and getting used to everything so don't worry if you don't win on your first few tries! Mandragora is a game of patience.
The Warg teaches you about stamina management. In the beginning, take your time and watch your stamina more than anything. Try not to get flustered and definitely don't get greedy. Leave yourself enough stamina for 1-2 dodges. The max amount of swings I landed was 5 in a row when the Warg rammed the wall and was stunned. Roll through attacks when you can as you have invincibility frames. Use this fight as a way of learning how damage is dodged.
Once you finish with the Warg, head back to Ulfar. After a handful of cutscenes, congratulations! The tutorial is complete. The game ramps up in difficulty from here but it's nothing crazy. Things will be fairly simple for a bit.
Chapter 1
Once you're out of the cutscenes and can move forward, you find yourself at the Witch Tree. This is your central hub and you will come back and forth from here throughout your whole adventure. At the Witch Stone, you can now level up! You should have enough experience to level up to roughly 4 or 5 if you grinded a little. You will also be introduced to your respective skill tree. This walkthrough I'll discuss primarily what I'm doing as a Vanguard but feel free to take the advice and plug it into other classes as well.
Skill Ups 1
My goal is to make a build that's as tanky as possible. If you're a new player, I would recommend this as the longer you can stay in a fight - the more you can learn. I recommend this to ALL players in souls-like games. More health, ESPECIALLY in the beginnings! So, as a Vanguard, I'm going directly to the right (Defense, Constitution and Endurance). My goal is to hit the Veteran node asap to start building up that 10% bonus health. At every major skill up interval, I will explain every choice I make if you want to keep up. I will be doing a full physical build as well, with hardly any branching into other classes. As I said before, play whatever you like! This game has a ton of choices and they're all really fun!
Head west of the Witch Stone and speak with Ulfar. You can browse his shop and familiarize yourself with the upgrade system. Though we can't do a cart upgrade at the moment, these are important things to keep in mind. We need to be on the lookout for Linen Cloth, Light Leather, Wood and Copper Ore. Also, feel free to craft to your liking! You can save your materials or craft some copper pieces. I opted to just create copper leggings and upgrade to level 2 (not the cart but Ulfar himself - Go to Upgrade tab and hold Y). Now my goal is to finish the copper set. I wouldn't recommend buying anything as of right now.
Continue west and upwards on the shiny cliffs. You will enter a new zone and also reactivate a new Witch Stone. Hunter's Trail is our first grind spot in Mandragora. You can choose to not grind and just progress but for this playthrough, I'll be taking it slow and steady. Continue west and you'll eventually find a statue. Remember that Sage we picked up in the tutorial area? Use it here for a free skill point! If you're playing Vanguard and following my build, head back to the Witch Stone and snag the Veteran node now. Now we can begin scaling our health up to a bonus 10% with enemy kills! This also will teach you an important trick - Resting at a Witch Stone respawns all enemies. Important for farming!
Continue downward and westward, collecting the copper node. Careful of the ambush and just remember stamina management. Destroy any crates you see for drops as well. You will find bird eggs and also Calendula. Make a mental note of these materials as you come along them. You WILL need to backtrack at some point if you're doing cart upgrades (recommended!). All nodes respawn after a certain time. Nothing to really worry about but keep these things in mind.
Make your way over the wall and into old Wickham. If you're struggling against the ghouls that take your stamina/speed up, just take your time. They can be annoying! Once they're defeated, stay grounded and head west through a doorway. Drop down to find some linen and a locked door. Head back up and continue as far up as you can go. Destroy the crates at the top and make a jump to your right. Remember that lockpick we found earlier? Now you can use it and snag your first ring! The Ring of Energy, which gives you +20 stamina! BIG find early on! After this, head west to the Witch Stone and level up to 5 if you can.
Skill Ups 2
You have a choice to make here and for our playthrough, I'm going with the choice node to the right of Veteran. Choice nodes give you a.. well, choice! Depending on your tree, you can select 1 of 3 different stat bonuses. Mix/match these as you want but for this playthrough, I'm putting all of this node into constitution. I only have 1 point for now, so 1 point into constitution (more hp!) for now. Don't worry, our first grind spot is soon!
If you are struggling at all, take your time and grind out some levels. At any point in your playthrough, if you find yourself struggling - take a time out and grind! I will talk about notable grind spots when we reach them. We're getting close to the first big one!
Head west and defeat the 3 bandits. Duck for archer shots (or block or dodge) and, if you're playing a light leather wearing class, you can farm them for some drops! Drop down from where you defeated the archer, slay the ghoul and head west for a coalescence. These items are used as quick XP gains. You can use it now or save some up. I usually save them. Don't forget to destroy the crates for extra loot and head out/back up. Ignore the ladder and keep heading west to find more Calendula. Now go up the ladder to the top and knock the archer down. Backtrack down to grab any loot/gold. Snag the item to your left and defeat the 2 imps that jump you. Then head to the very top where you knocked the archer off and continue up. Careful of the big boy with a shield. Give yourself plenty of space and do NOT attack or attempt to dodge through this enemy when they plant their shield down. You'll bounce off and be counter attacked. Take your time, patience is key.
Once the shield enemy is defeated, head west and drop down to pick up some loot. Use your camera to pan downward and you can see a ledge you can drop to. Drop down, defeat the imp and then drop down to your left. There's a chest with some materials/mana potions in it. Grab these and head to your right and jump off. Now go back up the ladder again. Continue past where you dropped down and you'll defeat another imp and find a ladder. Grab the gold at the bottom and get ready for a bit of grinding!
I hope you understood how to defeat the shield guys because now you get to fight 2 of them! This spot is AMAZING for early game grinding and that's exactly what we're doing in this walkthrough. If you die a few times here, no worries. Take your time, learn how to defeat these 2 and keep resting at the Witch Stone to respawn/slay them. They net you 70 essence each and also a chance at copper and coal! If you're lucky, you might even get a greatshield, mace or head cowl! Also a decent amount of gold, roughly 30-40 a kill. I personally grind here for a bit, usually until level 8. Make liberal use of your potions since they refresh at every rest as well. Use this as another opportunity to get more used to the controls!
At level 7, I finish the choice node which also gives me a bonus +2 armor for finishing. Continue grinding to get 1 more skill point and a nice start on materials/gold. Once you hit level 8, you should have roughly 2000-2500 gold and maybe some extra items! I only got a mace and 2 cowls myself but that's ok. Let's fast travel back to camp for now! Open the Witch Stone and go to the Witch Tree camp (far east). If you're playing a Vanguard and you got the mace drop, I would recommend using it. It's an upgrade from your base sword! I smelted all of my copper down at Ulvar and created copper Armor/Gloves and a Kite Shield. If you didn't find an Outlaw Cowl, feel free to make the copper helmet as well. The Cowl gives +2 strength, which scales nicely with our Pernach (if you got that drop as well). Regardless, take the time needed to upgrade your gear here. If you need more cash, go farm up some more. It's also a good idea to buy some copper ore from Ulvar if needed!
After the grind, you have a choice - continue down the well or run through the first area again for some more materials. I'm choosing to run through 1 more round for extra materials. More wood, copper, eggs and Calendula is always welcome. Once you're back at the Witch Stone where we grinded, let's get ready to go down the well.
In Old Wickham Sewers, drop off the ladder and head west for some rats and loot. Head east afterwards. Ignore the ladder heading down to grab more loot. After you grabbed the loot east of the ladder, go down. Grab the map fragment, destroy the crates and the bandits in the location. Head east to get a notification about a "metal hook" and slay the 3 rats guarding the coalescence. Remember this location for later! Head west from where you found the map fragment and watch the spike floors!. Get ready for a miniboss fight.
Corrupted Vermin shouldn't be any match for us at level 8-9 but if it's giving you trouble, feel free to check the bestiary and watch the video guide!
Once the vermin is defeated, lower the ladder with the lever to the west. Climb the ladder and make the jump to the right. Once on this platform, drop down to your right again for a Focus Ring! Not the most useful for a Vanguard but handy for casters!
Now head completely up the ladder. Once outside in Merchant's Road, head east to destroy the roots blocking the path. It opens up to our old grind spot! You can rest now if you need potions. The next area is a group fight that's kind of annoying. If you're confident, you can rush in and do your thing but if you're new, I recommend taking your time here and baiting out the bandit and bandit mage. There's 4 enemies - An archer at the top of the tower, a bandit with a sword and a bandit rogue behind him. If you rush in, you'll notice a shield bandit after the mage and that can really mess you up. Take your time, bring them down 1 by 1. Once they're defeated, head west and watch for bear traps after the sword bandit. Hop over them and continue on. Remember the cardinal plant location here as you'll probably need to come back a few times and destroy all crates! You're almost to Wickham!
Drop down, grab the Witch Stone and continue west. Here, you'll meet Gerald! This's your map NPC. Accept his quest and "see what you can do" for him on getting him back into town. Head towards town, grabbing the wood right outside. Head inside the bar and meet Pepper! He's a little friendly. Speak to the barmaid Rosalie and remember the expensive book she has. It'll come in handy later. This also marks the first time you can buy food for buffs. If you feel like you need it, buy some. For my playthrough, I'm buying 5 rabbit broth. Outside, pet the cat to the left! There's an achievement for petting all cats. We'll pet all cats.
Head west and speak to Sam. He has some decent wares, especially the Barbaric Warhammer if you're going for a 2h weapon. The heretic shield isn't awful either. Here, you can also buy mana or health potions that you can use alongside your flasks. These do not recharge on rest so be careful, this can be a big gold sink!
Activate the Witch Stone and talk to Shirin. This is your Tailor NPC who will meet you back at the Witch Tree caravan! Keep heading west and listen to the best dad jokes. Continue until you can enter a building and meet up with Commander Clayborne. Once you accept the quest, head east and the door to the sewers should be open for you now. Time to clear some bandits!
Enter the sewers and grab the Coalescence to your right. You'll see a locked door, so now we head left and drop down. Grab the wood on the way down and use your camera to make sure you don't fall to your death. Head left at the bottom and climb upwards for some mana potions. Backtrack and head to your right. You'll see a gate that you can open but we're not done here yet so continue heading to your right, slaying bandits along the way. You'll find a railed gate key, along with bandit ears when you slay the bandits. Climb up the ladder and destroy the breakable wall to your right. Use a lockpick and grab yourself a diagram for a stoneskin potion, along with some materials.
Now head to your left and run past the spikes and rogue mage. Drop down to pick up more lockpicks. Now head up and drop down on the mage to dispatch of her. Make sure to jump back across at the top for a map fragment. Now you can open that locked door from the beginning. Do that, then head down to the gate below on the bottom floor.
Through the door, activate the Witch Stone and head to your left. You'll find a different type of bandit enemy. This one's a bit more rowdy. Just duck to dodge the poison daggers and dodge behind during attacks. Dispatch of this enemy, then head to your right, rest if you need to. Keep heading to your right and eventually you'll run into another Corrupted Vermin miniboss. Same as before except now you get Shadow Shards as an ability! Useless for us on Vanguard but helpful for Spellweavers!
There's a locked gate past the vermin miniboss so we'll worry about that later. Now head back to your left and up the wall with the shiny grab spots. If you head to your right, you'll find a treasure goblin but you can't kill it quite yet so just head to your left. Do some platforming and dodge the traps. Go down the ladder, slay the last 2 bandits and grab the lockpicks to your left. Pull the lever and head back to Clayborne to turn in your quest. You'll see a little dialogue about Pepper stuffing the wrong bird...
Make sure to tell Clayborne about our friend Gerald after turning in the bandit quest. Once outside, speak to Pepper and accept his quest to go back to Old Wickham. Head east and listen to more glorious Dad jokes. Head outside of town to the east and grab the wood spawn. Also speak to Gerald. Give him the good news and he'll go back to your caravan. Before heading to the caravan yourself, make sure to go up the cliff to your east and snag the Cardinal leaf spawn again. Also, you might get lucky and find a savage broadsword from the enemy close to it. Very good early game weapon for Wyldwardens!
Skill Up 3
At this point, you should be close to level 11. My skill choices for Vanguard has went up from the Endurance node that is left of the Vanguard node. I grabbed the constitution node above endurance and grabbed the other choice node, dumping everything into constitution again. My character is fairly tanky now with 737 health, Very nice for this stage of the game. My next goal is to reach Revenge to the right of these nodes.
Warp back to the caravan and head left and up the cliff and speak to Gerald. Give him the map fragments you have and check his wares. There's some skill books you can buy if you want and also some lockpicks, which I recommend buying all 7 of. I also bought all of the wood for later use. With the map fragments given to Gerald, you can now see resource nodes on your map! VERY handy! Also any missing treasure chests. If you need to backtrack for XP or resources, now's a good time. When you're ready, head to Old Wickham Witch Stone and let's go visit Pepper's old home.
Head left at the Witch Stone, kill off the bandits and enter The Abandoned House. Head down and then to your right, over some big crates. Drop down and break the wall down, proceed to your right. Pick up the diagram for the Illuminator. Now head back over the big crate wall and push the box to your left a few scoots. Jump up, pull the lever and head to the top of the crate wall. The door suddenly closes... so be stubborn and pull the lever again. This time the door stays. Climb up and head to your right. Collect the Briar set and try to leave. The door slams and then opens... Climb up on the left side. At the top, head to your right and drop down. Pick up the teddy bear for Pepper. We're not done here quite yet though, climb back up and head all the way left. You'll see a door having a fit. Open it and go through. You'll find 3 hanging bodies. Destroy them and fight the Wraith miniboss. The fight isn't too tough, just make sure you don't get greedy with your damage. Click the link for a full walkthrough of the fight.
Once the Wraith is defeated, you receive Prism! A VERY strong spell for Vindicator! A bit finnicky to use but it's really strong! With the Wraith defeated and teddy bear in hand - let's go turn this in to Pepper! Not exactly bursting at the seams with gold from the quest but lockpicks nonetheless!
Once the quest is turned in, it's time to progress the story.
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