When my father asked me why I was so excited to play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, I told him it was the new Skyrim. After watching me spend hour upon hour in that game, he understood. Well, he understood as well as any non-gamer parent can. And my comparison of the two games was fairly accurate. Both contain huge, open worlds based (loosely) on European mythology. Both contain a multitude of quests, dangerous creatures, magic, and so on. You get it. But it doesn’t take a lot of time in the world of The Witcher 3 to realise that it differs from Skyrim in one very clear aspect – its difficulty. Skyrim was a walk in the dragon-infested park compared to The Witcher 3.

Of course, that difficulty is also one of the best things about The Witcher 3 – and the entire Witcher series. But if you’re going to play this game (and you really should) you’ll need to know how to survive. Here are some tips on not dying.

1. Learn how to fight

This might seem obvious, but if you’re new to The Witcher, you might struggle to pick up the combat system right away. So practice fighting whenever you can. After the tutorial, the first thing you’ll have to do is fight some ghouls and then follow your buddy Vesemir on horseback. From here on out, take every opportunity to fight anything you come across (except innocent peasants, of course). Don’t worry too much about following Vessemir. If you stop to take care of some Drowners, he’ll patiently wait for you. Remember, practicing fighting is the whole reason for White Orchid’s existence. It’s full of lower-level monsters for you to use to get the hang of combat.

2. Use the bestiary

Every time you kill a new monster, it will get an entry in Geralt’s bestiary. It will show you the monster’s weaknesses. Now, you might be wondering how that’s any use to you if you’ve already killed one. It’s actually useful in two ways. First, you’ll likely have to face more of those monsters in the near future, so knowing the best way to kill them will obviously help with that, and second, it can help you infer the weaknesses of other, similar monsters. For instance, you might be able to work out from the fact that Drowners are weak to the Igni sign that you should also use that sign on water hags.

3. Loot everything

And I mean everything. If you can get it without it counting as stealing, take it. Take it all. Trust me, you’re going to need it.

Above all, be sure to have food in your bag at all times. Snacking on a ham sandwich in the middle of combat may be what saves your life.

4. Quen. Always Quen.

Quen is a magical shield. Cast it before every battle. It will absorb damage whenever you’re hit. How much it can absorb depends on how you’ve upgraded it. This sign is useful against pretty much every opponent because it will always take at least one hit for you. Enemies can’t get to your health bar until they break it, so you can see why it’d be useful. But don’t rely on it too heavily. Its effectiveness depends on how quickly you can keep on recasting it, and that might be difficult against an enemy that can break it with one hit.

5. Don’t let your guard down

Even if things are starting to feel a little easy, don’t let your guard down. The minute you start to feel like you can relax and that Geralt can just have a pleasant stroll through the meadows is the minute The Witcher 3 will turn around and bite you in the backside. Treat every fight like you’re on the verge of dying, because you probably are.

6. Don’t get hit

That might be easier said than done, so it won’t hurt to get yourself accustomed to Geralt’s dodges. He can dart quickly out of the way, or he can roll away like a ninja. Both are good, but rolling will use up some of your stamina, which may make casting signs difficult. Don’t get into the habit of button mashing your way to victory, because it won’t last. Blocking is good in some cases, but remember that the best way to avoid being stabbed, bitten, or clawed is to simply not be there. It’s tempting to run Geralt into combat swinging his sword like a madman, but that’s probably only going to get you killed. As I mentioned before, always stay on your toes. If you see your enemy about to attack, get out of their way.

When you’re playing as Ciri, it’s a little harder because you won’t have access to items or signs. Ciri’s main advantage is that she’ll heal after each battle automatically and, my favourite, her magic teleport thing. Where Geralt rolls out of the way, Ciri does this quick dash-teleport thing. It’s ridiculously fast and will get you out of a lot of tight situations. I wish Geralt could do it.