If you’re finding that your thumbs are going to sleep during all those cutscenes in The Order: 1886, you’ll want to check out our Survival Tips to make life that little bit easier for Galahad in his fight against rebel scum, lycans and whatever else those filthy (but oh so pretty) streets of London throw at him.

Be smart with cover

The Order’s cover system is pretty damn good. Pressing Circle snaps you in and you don’t have to go through multiple button presses to get away. Better yet, back away with the analogue stick and quickly make your way over to another cover point and Galahad will get into cover without the need for a further prompt and keep his head down on the way.

Don’t forget though, your cover position can become very vulnerable with degrading wooden walls, enemies firing thermite clouds at you, or those pesky grenades that you can spot via the red icon or the X prompt to roll away.

Prioritise shotgunners

Shotgunners in particular are very smart at flanking and taking you by surprise. Bolder attackers will also just come straight at you and if they connect with a blast, you’ll stagger backwards, leaving you open to fire from everyone. Two blasts from one of these guys are enough to kill you outright. If you do get lucky and blasted into ‘crawling’ state, try to get into cover before attempting to use the Blackwater to heal yourself. More often than not though, the gunner will bear down on you to finish the job.

Fire from the hip

Firing from the hip without aiming with L2 allows you to move across areas faster. Shotguns are the best weapon for this as the blast spread is huge. Automatic rifles are better than you’d think too, after a few rounds are fired, your target reticule should appear, even when blind-firing from cover, making it very useful for taking out nearby rebels without sticking your head out.

Be a stone cold stunner

The stun shot assigned to R1 on the Knight’s Falchion assault rifle recharges much quicker than you’d expect, so feel free to use it to suppress the enemy or stagger their silly faces. It’s very effective on nearby targets like pouncing halfbreeds or groups coming through the doorway you’re using for cover. It also works briefly on those annoying armoured foes.

Stealth skills

There are a couple of mandatory stealth sections in The Order: 1886 and they can be immensely frustrating. When sneaking behind an enemy, wait for the Triangle button prompt to turn white before hitting the button or Galahad will balls it up and be killed. Look out for the telltale torch lights indicating enemies coming around corners before moving out and also beware of relying on corner takedowns, the option to do one is massively inconsistent, so don’t let enemies come round corners to your position, because they’ll generally shoot you in the face and cause another aggravating restart.

For the stage where you have a crossbow, be aware that you don’t have enough shots for everyone, so only use them on guards that are difficult to get the drop on. Don’t worry about them finding dead bodies either as their routes don’t cross. You can make the second section of the crossbow stage a bit easier by looking behind you for an ammo crate when you get into the second area’s archway before going through another gate.

Ammo crates match ANY weapon

The rebel weapons are rubbish compared to the Knight’s arsenal, so it can be tough when you run out of ammo for the likes of the arc blaster, thermite rifle or the Falchion. Fear not, because the ammo boxes (about the size of a three-high stack of pizza boxes) give you primary and secondary ammo for whatever you’re carrying.

Don’t forget to use Blacksight

Pressing L1 activates your slow-motion Blacksight ability letting you get a few free shots in with your sidearm. You could opt for power over speed with one of the revolvers, or maybe use the auto pistol for lots of shots. When the targeting icon goes red it indicates a kill shot, so move onto a new target with the right stick rather than continue pumping bullets into the still-standing corpse. Once you’ve run out of targets, press L1 again to leave Blacksight mode so you don’t have to wait as long to recharge it. And don’t bother trying to aim for specific body parts, the shot locations are locked in (boo!). John Marston is shaking his head in shame somewhere.