These Neon White beginner tips will get you off to a speedy start

These Neon White beginner tips should soon have you speeding through Heaven and proving your demon-slaying prowess. This speedrunning, platforming, first-person shooter (with cards) might sound like an odd mash-up of genres but it works surprisingly well.

For the most part, you'll be rushing your way through the various levels, trying to take out as many demons as you can, in an attempt to top the leaderboards. It might sound simple enough but there are a few things that are useful to know from the get-go. This Neon White tips guide will soon have you slaying in style.

Unlock the main hub 

It might be tempting to replay the early levels to beat your best time before moving on to the next one. The ten stages that make up the first mission are essentially part of the tutorial, and completing it allows you to unlock the main hub. This is where you can interact with and get to know the other characters to learn more about Neon White's backstory. This is also where you'll need to come to hand over the gifts you find later on. 

Medals mean insight 

Unlocking the different medals for each stage does more than give you a metaphorical pat on the back. Each time you unlock a medal, you gain insight, which in turn is needed to unlock more levels and missions. Basically, you need to do more than simply complete levels to move on, and this is where you might want to go back and tighten up your performance on earlier levels.

As well as Insight, medals will unlock hints for faster routes or shortcuts, and the ability to collect gifts for the characters back at the main hub. Collecting the Silver medal for a level unlocks your "ghost" too, making it easier to tell if you're beating your best time.

Learn the levels…  

Neon White is all about pushing yourself to be faster and you can only do that with practice. Don't worry about how fast you're clearing the stages at first—just learn the general layout and the route you need to take to make it to the end. When you mess up, which you will, take the opportunity to have a look around without the added pressure of trying to beat your best time. It's possible you might be missing a shortcut that's hard to notice if you're eyes are firmly set on your current path.

…But don't be afraid to reset

With that said, if you know the level inside out and you're literally trying to shave milliseconds off your time, it's a good idea to reset and start over if you mess up early on. It's easy to keep track of this once you've unlocked the ghost for your best run. 

Take advantage of water  

You move much faster on water, so it's worth paying attention and using it where you can. Even if it looks like the longer way around, the additional speed you get from sliding on the surface may shave off the milliseconds you need to beat your best time. It's worth experimenting with your route and incorporating water whenever possible to see if you get better results. 

Don't save your cards 

Your cards won't carry over to other stages so use them as liberally as you need. Having said that, it is possible to use them too soon and get stuck—meaning you have to restart the stage—but once you know your route and what cards are needed to traverse each section, you can use the rest however you want. It's also worth remembering that Discard Abilities are generally a much faster way of getting around, and they're better at taking out clusters of enemies, rather than picking them off one by one.  

Take a break and collect gifts 

If you're tired of rushing everywhere and want to slow down, you can take some of the pressure off by trying to find the gifts hidden throughout the levels. These are often difficult to reach so you'll need to be a bit creative with your cards to get your hands on them. Not only does this open up possibilities for getting through a level faster that you might not have considered, but you can take the gifts back to the respective characters at the main hub to unlock additional dialogue and sidequests.