Critical Mode is the ultimate test of the player’s abilities in Kingdom Hearts 3. The enemies deal more damage, there are different types of enemies, and they’ve even become smarter. Even the weakest heartless are now game ending threats that need to be approached carefully and with strategy.

To help the player chart these dangerous waters here are a number of tips and strategies that can be utilized. They won’t change the fact that this is a brutal difficulty where death is only a hit or two away, but it does make things much more manageable.

10 Learn The New Critical Abilities

Critical Mode has access to three special abilities not found in lower difficulties, there’s a reason for this. Critical Counter lets the player do extra damage when they manage to parry an incoming attack. Critical Recharge fills the situation command faster whenever MP is refilling. Then Critical Converter causes a form change command to appear whenever the gauge is full.

These are tremendous tools to have and learning to master them will help the player stay alive in everything from basic fights to boss battles. The nice thing about them is they scale well with the game making them useful throughout.

9 Magic Is Key

Magic has an edge in combat on Critical Mode as it keeps the player out of harms way. When death is only a handful of hits away it’s important to negate the possibility of hits as much as possible. Because of this hanging back and using magic is the way to go.

Of course, there are situations where this isn’t always feasible and when MP runs out the player is going to have to get their Keyblade dirty until it refills. But generally speaking the player will want to use spells as much as possible and work on a primarily magic build.

8 HP Is Irrelevant

It’s a dramatic shift in mentality coming from easier difficulties where things like Vitality are king, but in Critical Mode your HP is irrelevant. Maxing it out is only going to give Sora the ability to take one maybe two hits more before dying.

Rather than waste the time and resources on improving something that won’t matter on the long run it’s better to focus on damage output, mobility, and MP. This applies to everything from choosing Wisdom and Mystic in the beginning of the game to which gear to wear. HP is meaningless, damage is everything.

7 Elemental Resistances Matter

While this didn’t matter in lower difficulties as the player can brute force their way with ineffective attacks or tank elementally effective spells from enemies, the same can’t be said for Critical Mode. The player must pay careful attention to the elements they’re using and the ones being used by the enemy in every encounter.

The good news is that this can make things a tad easier. Exploiting the enemy’s weakness and protecting against their strengths is an important edge in battle. Again, only a few hits will kill Sora, but having fire syphon for the one hit that gets through is better than nothing.

6 Party Members Are Fodder

Party members are similarly going to die in a few hits and as a result won’t last long in any battle. The best thing to do is to give them instructions to heal you and utterly ignore them. It doesn’t matter how much you invest in any of the characters they will all die very quickly.

At best they’ll be able to get a heal off shortly before falling, but even this can’t be relied upon. Critical

Mode is effectively a solo challenge. Teammates only serve to buy the player a few precious seconds of breathing room and a heal if they’re lucky.

5 Get Cooking

Some players may not like this mini game mechanic but, cooking meals is a great way to increase the player’s effectiveness in combat. An excellent full course can increase stats, immediate situations commands in battle, and other bonuses.

Cooking can be a little difficult so a guide is recommended and finding an indepth list of recipes and their effects will be needed to get the full effect. A great series of meals to cook is Ratatouille, Crab Bisque, Sea Bass en Papillote, Beef Bourguignon, and Crepes Suzette. Called the Grand Magic this increases the chance of a spell being enhanced as a situation command.

4 Gummi Ship Is Great For Farming

Fortunately the game’s increased difficulty has no effect when the player is behind the wheel of a Gummi Ship. What’s great about this is that the Gummi Ship is a great way to stock up on items that will be useful in combat.

For instance the player can shoot down asteroids which sometimes drop Fluorite. This Fluorite can then be used to upgrade Keyblades and synthesize helpful items. As a result it’s incredibly beneficial for the player to get a strong Gummi Ship and start farming for supplies and munny.

3 Amass Recovery Items

Something the player should focus on farming and keeping a healthy supply of are recovery items. Everything from AP recovery to HP heal is going to be important in each and every battles.

Keeping HP topped off after taking a hit is crucial to staying alive, MP is needed for spells, and AP is overwhelming important to perform abilities. The player is going to burn through these so it’s important to farm these throughout the game.

2 Stay Active And Alert

When a fight starts a general rule of thumb is the player should be something related to attacking or defending at all times. Many players get in a nasty habit of sitting around while waiting for MP to recover and end up accidentally taking a hit or two. This will get the player killed in Critical

Mode.

The best thing to do is keep moving and kite the enemy. A combination of dodging, air sliding, or even just guarding while MP is recovering will prevent those hits from getting through. Having a form on standby is very helpful to staying active.

1 Learn The Game

This should be obvious but bears mentioning. Critical Mode is a test of the player’s abilities having beaten the game in prior difficulties. This means those playthroughs were essential for preparing for Critical Mode.

If the player barely came out of Proud in one piece then Critical Mode is going to be a problem. Odds are the player wasn’t using enough spells, maintaining situational awareness, or got into the bad habit of button mashing. If Critical Mode is just too hard then the player should back up to one of the easier difficulties and practice whatever they were struggling with.

NEXT: Kingdom Hearts 3: 10 Pro Tips For Photo Missions