The wait is over: this week, Lego Batman finally returns in Legacy of the Dark Knight, and according to our review (which I wrote!), it’s a worthy addition to the Caped Crusader’s gaming history. If you’re jumping in blind, however, you might miss some simple mechanics that let you get ahead in the game, so we’ve compiled this list of tips to help you put your best Lego foot forward.
The Difficulty
When starting the game, players will have the option between three different difficulty levels: Classic, Caped Crusader, and Dark Knight. If you have experience with action games, we recommend starting with Dark Knight. In our experience, even this level of challenge is easier than every Batman: Arkham game’s standard difficulty, and it arguably gets easier as you unlock skills and upgrades to boost health and damage.
That said, you can change the difficulty at any time, and there’s no achievement for completing the game on the higher difficulty levels, so feel free to adjust as you see fit. The accessibility tab in the menu also has tools to cater your experience even more precisely, with options to decrease game speed, retain studs when you die, autocomplete QTEs, and more.
Waynetech Chips
Waynetech chips are Legacy of the Dark Knight’s upgrade currency used to improve gadgets. You spend them at Gadget Work Benches that become unlocked during the Spelunking mission, which follows the Iceberg Lounge sequence in Chapter One.
While you’ll get Waynetech Chips from caches in each level and around Gotham City, the game makes it less obvious that you also get them as rewards for some other side content. For example, finding lost zoo animals, unlocking fast travel points, completing quests for The Case of Waylon Jones, and many other activities can each reward two Waynetech Chips each, though sometimes you’d unlock cosmetics instead.
Click the image to enlarge. You can also find Waynetech Chips in the Batcave.
Gadget Work Benches
You can only upgrade your gadgets at Gadget Work Benches, which are available between missions in the open world. Some are marked on the map, and there are some in the Batcave, but if you don’t want to travel quite that far, there are also workbenches available in all of Bat-Mite’s stores. Since every store has an identical layout, you just need to enter and turn to the left – it leans against the same wall as the door.
Replaying Missions
If you don’t find all the collectibles on your first go, don’t worry; you can replay missions from the batcomputer at any time. Checkpoints conveniently break them up, too, so you likely won’t have to replay the entire level just to get one last Waynetech Cache.
Moving Quickly In The Open World
While it’s fun to use the Batmobile and other land vehicles in the open world, a lack of a minimap or GPS function makes them a little difficult to rely on, especially since many quests and collectibles are on top of buildings. The city’s road structure also means it’s typically faster to travel as the crow (or bat) flies by grappling into the air and gliding between rooftops.
The two biggest tips here are grapple launching and fast gliding. You can grapple launch by holding the jump button (that’s X on PlayStation or A on Xbox) as the grappling hook pulls you towards a ledge. You’ll know it’s worked if you hear an extra whirring sound as you move through the air, and if you pull it off, your character will launch straight into the sky past the ledge, preserving your momentum.
Once you’re in the air, you can click the sprint button to glide even faster. The game’s gliding is very generous, and gravity affects you relatively slowly, so you can even speed-glide between Gotham’s huge islands without worrying about hitting the water.
Of course, keep in mind that this only applies once you unlock both gliding and the grappling hook. You’ll have both at the end of the Waynetech R&D mission near the end of Chapter One.
Skill Bricks
Golden skill bricks are unlocked at the end of each main level and allow you to unlock skills from the skill menu. While gadget upgrades are character-specific, the main skill unlocks apply to everyone, so it’s a good idea to spend the bricks as soon as you get them. It’s worth noting that this is not organized as a skill tree, so you’re free to skip upgrades you’re not interested in and save your bricks for the best ones.
Crucially, some open-world events also reward you with skill bricks, typically when you complete a certain task. There are plenty of skill bricks only unlocked this way, so try to prioritize open-world activities if you’re nearing the end of Chapter Five and want to unlock more skills before completing the game.
Locked Open World Activities
Plenty of open-world activities will spawn in before you’re able to complete them, typically because you haven’t unlocked certain characters yet. The easiest way to tell is by checking the map. If there’s a padlock next to the icon, it’s unavailable to you at that moment. You’ll also be able to tell if you click the right stick to use the Detect ability and notice a question mark over an element in the environment. Typically, this image is the portrait of the character needed to solve that puzzle, so if it’s a question mark, you haven’t unlocked them yet.
Click the image to enlarge. The circled icons can’t be completed until I unlock more characters.
Activity Towers
Once you unlock Batgirl in Chapter Four, you can use her hacking batarangs to hack into red and white radio towers across the map. There’s one in each district (so potentially multiple on one island, depending on the island), and after activating it, you’ll reveal every map icon for that district. If you want to find individual encounters yourself, you don’t have to activate them, but it makes a completionist playthrough much easier.
Quickfiring Gadgets
Every gadget can be quickly activated in combat by tapping the right trigger. While it seems like an obvious move with something like a Batarang or Catwoman’s whip, even Batgirl’s drone or Robin’s cable launcher are great combat tools to fire off on a whim. It’s typically an easy way to deal with crowds of enemies if you’re being overwhelmed, especially if one or more of them have weapons. Additionally, your gadgets will usually interrupt an enemy winding up for a big attack, so a quick gadget can stun foes with guns or swords before making big attacks.
The Best Skills To Get
You’ll unlock different skills in the skill menu, though many will be locked until you reach certain points in the story. Here are the ones you should prioritize:
Hyper Combo – Increase the maximum stud combo multiplier
This is available multiple times in the Exploration side of the upgrade window, and it’s wise to unlock as early as possible if you’re interested in cosmetics. Studs are used to unlock new suits and vehicles for every character, and the earlier your multiplier is increased, the more studs you’ll amass as the game goes on.
At this point in the game, I have the top three tiers unlocked, but the bottom abilities (which includes some of the skills listed below) won’t be available until later.
Full Power – Collect Hearts while at full health to deal extra damage for a few seconds
This skill is one of the last available, but it allows you to deal more damage and generate more focus when you pick up hearts. This is especially useful because using a focus takedown is guaranteed to drop a heart, so you can create a powerful loop by using takedowns to generate hearts, then using those hearts to build focus to quickly perform another takedown.
Extra Focus – Add an extra bar of focus
This option is available several times, and it’s always worth it. If your focus bar is full, any damage you do won’t gain any more focus, so it’s nice to be able to store up more while waiting for the right opportunity to do a takedown.
Combat Focus – Increased rate of Focus generated by basic attacks.
This upgrade is in the second tier of combat upgrades. Focus powers most of your strongest moves, so it’s always good to generate as much of it as possible.
