Best Combat Style in Lies of P Ranked

Lies of P is an awesome soulslike title inspired by Pinocchio. Toward the start of Lies of P, you’ll have to face your first major decision: which combat style to pick up. It’s an important decision, so let’s dive into the best combat style in Lies of P.

Lies of P Combat Styles, Ranked

3. Path of the Bastard: Dexterity

• Favors a blocking and parrying playstyle.
• Starts with the lightest, fastest attacking weapon.
• Excellent at dealing with smaller, quick enemies.
• More difficult way to play, not recommended as a starting combat style.

Although this style can work pretty well, it’s the third one on this list as it’s the most technical one. 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 counterparts, 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 sidestep. 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 claim it to be the best starting combat style in Lies of P. However, it could be a fun way to switch things up for a second playthrough.

2. Path of the Cricket: Balance

• Provides versatility and adaptability.
• Offers a good balance of survivability, stamina, and damage.
• Has the highest starting Advance stat
• A great starting point for many builds

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!

1. The Best Lies of P Combat Style: Path of the Sweeper

• Excellent at blocking and punishing enemies after a parry.
• Great to deal with weaker enemies
• Uses far less stamina in the game than other styles
• It’s easy to make use of its strengths

This style is by far the most effective in the game. It’s easy to make it work, uses less stamina than others, and lets you consistently stagger weaker enemies while dealing a lot of damage. 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.

Related: How to Find All Legion Caliber Locations in Lies of P

This combat style also 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. This combat style is the best at blocking and excellent at punishing enemies after a parry in Lies of P. 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.

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!

Lies of P is available on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. 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.

The above article was updated on 4/9/2024 by Davi Braid to add information about the best combat style in Lies of P.