Characters, Skills, and Strategies - Devil May Cry 5: Vergil Walkthrough & Guide (2024)

Appendix

Characters, Skills, and Strategies

This section will have a lot more content but I've only had a few hours with the game. I want to make sure I've mastered the characters before talking about their strengths, weaknesses, and strategies.

The Camera Trick - All Characters

There's a huge trick for dealing with enemies in this game. On lower difficulties when you're trying to wrap your head around the game, it's not worth the additional distraction, but on higher difficulties, this is an absolute life-saver (and works in every core DMC game except maybe 2).

While most people would advise you to pull your camera out and swing it around to look at enemies, don't! Especially on higher difficulties after you've learned how to anticipate enemy location and know how to listen for their audio cues, turn the camera so it EXCLUDES them. All but maybe two non-boss enemies in the game will not initiate an attack if you can't see them.

Once more: Enemies off-screen WILL NOT INITIATE an attack. Use this to your advantage. And if it makes you feel a little dirty -- don't. This has been in the series since the very first game despite changing engines. The developers know this is in the game.

Nero

Nero grew up as a Knight in the Order of the Sword, a religious order in the holy city of Fortuna. He turned against the Order when it was revealed that they were trying to siphon demonic power to use to rule the world and elevate themselves as gods. Since then, he’s been roaming the world fighting demons in tandem with, if not alongside, Dante.

While more agile than he used to be, Nero is a bit of a brute. His base level moves don't provide him with too much mobility and his sword is almost used as a cudgel at times. Once he's learned some abilities, Nero gains some incredible movement options, though many of them are actually side effects of particularly powerful attacks with a revved-up Red Queen.

Positioning - Nero

Nero is great at manipulating enemy position, though he's a little less capable at controlling his own. Using Wire Snatch, he should draw enemies to himself OR use it to draw himself to larger enemies. This keeps a steady flow of damage moving. Using Streak can push enemies away pretty effectively and can carry him a fair distance as well. Unfortunately, it usually pushes enemies a little too far, so you'll likely want to follow it up with a Wire Snatch or focus on another enemy.

In the air, Roulette Spin can keep you in the air for quite a while Split can drop you back down in a hurry. Payline is one of his best abilities. It has the advantage of Streak, but it can be executed in the air. It allows Nero to cover even more distance (useful for when bosses jump away) and it comes with a little slide from Nero after the point of impact, allowing you to keep up with your enemies.

Damage Maximization - Nero

Far and away Nero's most powerful weapon is Blue Rose. Color Up is fairly useful in dealing decent damage early on, and it does a great job of stunning your opponent. Hit an enemy with all three shots before turning away to deal damage to another. However, after the end of the game, Nero unlocks Charge Shot. Use this and then follow-up with a couple of Color Up shots to do massive damage, even against bosses. The best part of that ability is that after a couple of seconds, it causes an explosion on the enemy which can damage enemies nearby and usually knocks the enemy over. This should be used as much as possible and you should always be charging these shots up while dealing other attacks.

Devil Breakers are also a nice way of adding some damage. There are some obvious ones such as Tomboy, but the best by far in my book is Punchline. Simply fire and forget it. You can use it to layer additional damage on top while you're already hitting enemies or you can use it to stun-lock them. Knock an enemy into the air and then use Punchline to keep them there, all the while they take damage. If you shoot it into a group of enemies, it will do damage to other enemies it hits while looping around to hit its main target. Imagine how much damage can be done when paired with Blue Rose!

In addition, situationally, the Buster Devil Breaker or (the same function using the Devil Bringer after you beat the game the first time, can do a fair amount of damage. Using it on Riots swings them around in a circle around you, doing damage to other enemies nearby. The best use is if you use it on bosses while stunned. If the boss is laying on the ground exhausted, make sure to use this before they recover (but usually not before getting a few regular hits in) to execute a special, devastating attack.

Finally, Exceed can add some additional damage. If you can get the timing down, you can charge Red Queen's Exceed mid-combo. With MAX-Act, you can fully charge it if you time your charging perfectly after an attack. Regular attacks with your sword will do extra damage and use one charge, and Skills such as Streak will use up all of your charges and perform progressively more extreme attacks depending on how much charge was available. Get the hang of this to add free extra damage to your swings.

Try These - Nero

Parrying Made Easy - Nero doesn't have a bunch of great options for parrying, but his Split attack is great. It moves quickly and hits hard. The swipe downward would cross most attack's path. It's nearly instantaneous so you don't have to worry about timing (which is the main probably with many of his normal sword attacks), and if you miss your timing, he drops so fast that you generally still have time to dodge or try again.

After you complete the game for the first time and acquire the Devil Bringer, if you get knocked over, you can still strike nearby enemies by pressing the button to activate it. In fact, you can press it repeatedly to keep swing at enemies. Not only that, but you can ALSO do this while using Devil Trigger and holding an enemy. Pull your enemies to you, and while executing a special Buster-type move, press the button for your Devil Bringer repeatedly to strike that enemy or the enemies nearby.

Any combo can end in a skill, including a launch. Start any combo, and before the last hit (which usually knocks the enemy back), launch them, follow them into the air, and perform a Roulette. After that, perform a basic aerial combo, which will knock the enemy down. Shoot them with a Color Up (or three), use Wire Snatch to pull them back in the air. Finish with another Roulette followed by a Split.

The previous combo doesn't end well with Antenora because they can't be Snatched after they rage. Instead, knock them down and shoot them. After that, change your target and perform a Payline to get away from the Antenora while targetting a different enemy.

If you knock an enemy away and the area around you is dangerous, rather than just dodging or pursuing with a Streak, use a Hard Way to launch yourself over to the enemy without bouncing them back.

After knocking an enemy up into the air and shoot them Color Up or Punch Line to keep them out of the battle while you tango with a different enemy.

V

The mysterious man named “V” is some kind of demonic animal tamer. He has a surprising depth of knowledge about the underworld and its inhabitants. V has many abilities similar to Dante and Nero, but almost all of them are executed through his three demonic companions, so playing as V requires a keen eye and tactical mind. If you lack either, you may find your team in unexpected danger or inadvertently canceling a charged attack to execute a dodge.

While that might seem like a detriment at first, it also provides interesting depth. For instance, if one of your companions is getting beat up or is about to take a big hit, performing a dodge move instantly brings them over to you so the move can be performed. The flexibility with which moves can be powered up or Devil Trigger energy can be saved for large attacks serves as an interesting challenge with rewarding possibilities.

Unfortunately, his companions aren't always the most cooperative, especially if there are obstacles on the battleground. Try to watch out for obstacles that would block their travel.

Positioning - V

V can use a couple of basic things to move around a little if needed. Aside from dodging our double jumping, you can also use Gambit to get away. Outside combat, it can keep you in the air while traveling a little more. In combat, if there's a distant enemy, this can be useful to put you in a safe gap between enemies. Otherwise, you'd want to use this only on a lone dying enemy. Conversely, Royal Fork is extremely useful for killing enemies that are in a dangerous location. Using Promotion is also an effective method of moving V around if you've got Nightmare in the fight.

It's also important to watch your companions. You don't have direct control of their movements, but if they are getting weak, using Dodge (for Shadow) or Double Jump (for Griffon). Not only will this get your companions out of trouble, but they'll regain health from their contact with you. Aside from this, Shadow can also be controlled to some degree based on his moves. They function much like comparable moves with Nero.

Damage Maximization - V

Maximizing damage is all about using your companions at the same time while reading as much as possible. Griffon's two main attacks are Double Check and Blockade. Charge up a Double Check (the inputs have to be made BEFORE charging) and release. That attack lasts for a bit, so during this time, charge a Blockade and use that. While this is happening, Shadow needs to be attacking. Skewer is great for a high powered attack, but the most important this just focusing enough to keep him active while charging Griffon and trying to read if possible.

Try These - V

Parrying Made Easy - Honestly, don't. I'm not even sure that it's possible (Shadow attacks with his body, after all). If you feel you need to for some reason, Shadow's launching or buzz saw attacks may work. With the delay before Shadow acts and then the further delay as he actually attacks (he's a little slow), timing alone would be a nightmare, especailly for a combatant that's so agile. Again, just don't bother.

In narrow spaces, put all of your enemies on one side of you and dodge to get your companions next to you. Have them attack and they'll form a bit of a barrier between you and your enemies. Shadow's Hedgehog is particularly effective here.

Pay attention to charging with Griffon. He doesn't generally move while charging which can be both advantageous or disadvantageous depending on your circ*mstances.

Dante

One of the twin sons of the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda. Dante has spent decades hunting and fighting the lowliest of demons on up to the lords of the Underworld.

The core concept of Dante has changed too much since his iteration in Devil May Cry 3. He still acquires several weapons that grant him entirely different move set and combo possibilities while also having a set of styles (Trickster, Swordsman, Royal Guard, and Gunslinger) that provide specialized abilities. It'll take a lot of Red Orbs to unlock all of his abilities, but once you've acquired and mastered all of his mechanics, Dante is devastatingly powerful and nuanced.

Positioning - Dante

Dante isn't great at moving himself when he's not in DT, and his skills aren't quite as good at moving enemies around. With that, both the Shotgun and Kalina Ann are effective for pushing enemies away. You can't pull enemies, but using Trickster allows you to get close to enemies while being largely invulnerable. Stinger is also decent for bouncing enemies away.

Dante's main method of crowd control, however, is dealing damage.

Maximizing Damage

What Dante lacks in the ability to manipulate enemy position, he makes up for with raw power. Most importantly, he's a parrying powerhouse. His Sword (Prop/Shredder), Balrog (Break Spiral, Jabs), and Cerberus (most of its frost attacks) are very reliable. The King Cerberus in particular is devestating for this. Use Ice Age to create a temporary 360 degree instant-parry shield. If an enemy is going to come at you straight on, Revolver is almost guaranteed to parry. Not only is Revolver great for stopping Antenora and Furies in their tracks, but it can also parry and instant-kill Death Scissors in a single attack.

Obviously, Dante's Devil Trigger is a great method of dealing huge damage. It's important to not forget to use this up. On top of that, your DT energy can be poured into your Sin Devil Trigger meter after Mission 12. Sometimes this is less effective than just using your Devil Trigger because if your enemies are particularly agile or the space is large, so this is most effective on stunned bosses, but in general it's a much more powerful use of your DT energy.

Dante has a lot of charging and meters that can be used to improve his already formidable damage output. The Coyote-A Shotgun and Dante's twin pistols can be charged if you pour some Red Orbs into them. For melee, the Balrog can be ignited and Devil Sword Dante can be charged by holding Triangle/Y, which will use DT in exchange for having four autonomous red blades hovering around you. Finally, using Swordmaster with Devil Sword Sparda will activate your Sword Formation (does not stack with the autonomous blades). You can use these with combos, but charging them up will turn them into autonomous boomerangs that operate much like four independent Punch Lines.

What you can do depends on the weapons you're using and the situation you are in, but if you can charge your Sword Formation and Coyote-A while dealing melee damage and pouring energy into your Sin Devil Trigger meter, you'll do massive damage. If you have that charged along with your DT gauge, the amount of damage that can be done by following one up with the other on a stunned boss is insane. It's possible to knock off 40%+ of a boss' health (on Devil Hunter) in just a few seconds.

Try These - Dante

Parrying made easy: use Prop for a sword, Break Spiral (Swordmaster) for Balrog, or Ice Age for Cerberus. Ice Age is ideal for dealing with the Fury. As soon as they disappear, use it and you're almost guaranteed that it will last long enough to parry their incoming attack. After that, switch to a sword to use Stinger or Trickster to dash closer to follow up. Use these as much as possible because parries open enemies up for great counter attacks.

King Cerberus is particularly great for parrying, and you want to get in the habit of it, but just as important, you'll want to put it next to your primary damage dealing weapon (the sword is a good choice) so you can swap and follow-up quickly for big damage.

Charged Sword Formation and Gunslinger with Kalina Ann is a great way to do ranged damage over time so you can maintain your style while closing the gap after being pushed away.

All of Dante's melee weapons with the exception of his swords have basic attacks that are great for dealing damage without knocking enemies back. You can even switch between them on the fly to keep a perpetual combo going.