In the magical world of The Chant, you and Jess — well, you as Jess — will explore an island. It is overrun with cultists, monsters from beyond the veil, and new age-types. Naturally, that would be a daunting task for anyone — and this is what made us create this The Chant hints and beginner’s guide.
Jess isn’t Lara Croft, so you don’t have to worry much about rock climbing and jumping. In fact, there’s really nothing particularly hard about going places and stealing things. If Jess can cross some obstacle, then you’ll just press the “use” key to cross it.
The Chant — Hints and beginner’s guide
Navigating the world of The Chant
Two particular things you may want to be on the lookout for: open windows and cracks in the rocks/walls/between two stacks of crates. Jess can vault through the former and shimmy through the latter, but they can be easy to miss sometimes. I have it on good authority that Andrew got lost once by missing a climbable window.
If you look close, there’s a gap between hose crates. Screenshot by PC Invasion
Jess can also crouch or go prone to go under some obstacles, though these can sometimes be tricky as some holes are just meant for enemies to enter the area through.
In general, don’t be afraid to wander around and explore. You can’t reach a zone that’s too dangerous to you or entirely off the beaten path. The Chant just doesn’t let you do that. If you’re going somewhere, the game probably wants you to go there.
The Chant will also warn you about navigating dark areas as they sap Jess’ Mind pool and can lead to panic attacks. You don’t have to worry too much about that, as Jess will soon get a flashlight which helps prevent them.
The yellow gloom is draining your Mind. Screenshot by PC Invasion
Gloom areas are the only real zones that really threaten your Mind pool, so keep an eye on the gauge as you wander around. Destroying Gloom areas can sometimes unlock additional exploration options.
Exploration is obviously good. Moving around the world allows you to discover more resources, Prismic Crystals for upgrading your skills, and more lore entries about the world and the posters that fill out your Bestiary, telling you which enemies are vulnerable to what.
Bestiary posters look like this. Screenshot by PC Invasion
There is a form of quick-travel available in Gloom, but the portals are rare, and most of its use if from letting you easily return to home base area.
Weapons and inventory
The Chant doesn’t have conventional weapons, so we can’t really make separate guide for them outside of these beginner’s hints and tips. Instead, you can craft tools of spiritual warfare that mostly act like melee weapons and grenades.
The melee weapon selection. Screenshot by PC Invasion
Melee weapons: You have Sage Sticks, Witch Sticks, and Fire Lashes. Sage Sticks are good against swarms, which is a very rare enemy type, so it’s not that useful. Witch Sticks replenish your Soul pool with every hit and are thus very good. Fire Brushes work best outside of Gloom. There’s not much finesse in using any of these: three light attacks in a row are a combo, charging an attack just deals more damage.
The thrown weapon selection. Screenshot by PC Invasion
Thrown weapons: Essential oils can slow enemies down (as well as cause damage), Salt interrupts charge attacks (and damages — it’s also the one uncraftable weapon), and Fire Oils are just a rebranding of Molotov cocktails — they work best outside of Gloom.
Technically, you can lay down thrown weapons as traps on the ground. Practically, you don’t need to.
Weapons outside of Salt can be crafted. Sage bundles are the lowest priority, then any thrown weapons, then fire sticks, then the Witch Stick.
You can’t carry much in the ways of materials, so if you find something new, make sure to craft up on the good stuff so you could pick it up.
This is the kind of Spencer Manor door that requires a key split into a few parts. Screenshot by PC Invasion
The rest of the inventory management deals with quest items, which you shouldn’t worry too much about. This is 2022, so you can’t lose quest items in The Chant. Unfortunately, the item preview rotation/flipping feature gets barely any use, but keep it in mind nonetheless.
This is also where you can combine items (usually key parts) to create new items (usually keys). There’s only one part of the game where you can mess up a little with this, so don’t worry.
Combat in The Chant
The Chant is a survival horror game, which means you’re not there to fight and beat everyone. Heed conventional survival horror wisdom: if it’s not worth the fight, leg it! It works well outside of boss fights, too. And it works especially well for Gloom areas since most enemies can’t exit them. Just run past them.
A glowing Mandacore means it’s time to dodge. Screenshot by PC Invasion
If you’re determined to fight in a Gloom zone, check if there’s a Mandacore nearby. Mandacores are immobile wall jellyfish. Killing the Mandacore will remove the Gloom zone and kill any nearby enemies. It’s not always an option, but when it is, take it. Mandacores are vulnerable to being hit by oil and then fire.
When fighting anything in The Chant, be mindful of their charge attacks. Those are always telegraphed by the enemy — or at least parts of it — starting to glow. This is the best time to break out the Desperate Dodge to, well, dodge out of the way. The invincibility frames are fairly generous, so you shouldn’t have trouble running away.
The Chant also allows you to shove enemies, but it isn’t useful outside of the first boss fight or your getaway schemes.
You need to open bestiary entries in your Research log as merely reading them in the wild will not list the enemy vulnerabilities. Screenshot by PC Invasion
Plus, one thing to keep in mind: enemies don’t drop resources or anything else useful, so running away is always an option.
The Chant — Hints and beginner’s guide: spirit powers and health
Spirit powers in The Chant
As Jess progresses through the island, she accumulates prismic powers that can be used in combat as long as you have spirit and the cooldown over. Most cost either 1 or 2 Spirit:
Blue – the Stasis power slows down enemies, useful for running away or dodging.
Orange – the Shout is basically Force Push, great for interrupting charge attacks and damaging groups of enemies. It was basically the only power I used.
Yellow – the first 2 spirit power, it makes spikes erupt around Jesse. Andrew said he used this and Stasis; I almost never did.
Green – launches a bunch of mandaphores to inconvenience an enemy.
Red – summons some zombie hands to grab at an enemy and hold them in place. It costs 2 spirit, but it’s not that useful.
Indigo – invisibility for 1 spirit. Good for running away.
Of course, talking about abilities is kind of pointless if we don’t talk about the…
Mind, Body and Spirit in The Chant
The Chant gives Jess three health tracks: mind, body, and spirit.
Mind tracks how well Jess is holding up. Running out of Mind triggers a panic attack which disables your attacks. To get back to stable, run away from the darkness/Gloom/offending enemy.
Body is your actual health track. Run out and die.
Spirit is the juice powering your spirit abilities. It can also be traded for mind by meditation.
None of these regenerate, and to refill them, you need to find consumables in the environment. Of course, you can only carry a limited number of those and they don’t refill 100% of the gauge.
Jess, seen here abusing the endless supply of Spirit to regenerate health. Screenshot by PC Invasion
A notable exception are the rare spirit crystals. They will endlessly fill up your Spirit gauge, but just enough to use a single power. However, they do so endlessly, so until the devs patch it out, the best way to treat Jess’ Mind is to meditate near the crystal until the gauge is full.
The Witch Stick is an outstanding weapon here as well for it’s Spirit-draining effects, which lets you keep casting powers even when you don’t have consumables.
The three health pools are tied to the health system, which allows you to upgrade Jess’ resiliency, resistance to damage, consumable carrying capacity, and so on. To unlock new levels of skill of skill, you have to gain experience.
I upgraded Mind capacity fully because I’m random like that. Screenshot by PC Invasion
The Chant — Hints and beginner’s guide: gaining experience points
Mind experience is gained through reading lore.
Body experience is gained by fighting cultists and similar enemies.
Spirit experience comes from fighting Gloom enemies.
Afterward, you can gain these upgrades by spending the Prismatic Crystals found while exploring. Of all the upgrades, increasing the Mind pool is probably the least necessary as the effects of Panic Attacks are so low. Increasing consumable carrying capacity is always a great choice, and I’d also recommend damage resistance as well as power Spirit use efficiency.
Note: The Chant has different endings depending on which experience you accrue the most. So if you don’t want to hit the Mind ending, keep away from any letters and sheets papers.
