Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo is one of the best indie games to come out in recent memory.
Developed by Brazilian studio Pocket Trap, this top-down “yoyovania” blends Zelda-style exploration with creative yoyo-based combat and traversal across a sprawling city with over 1,000 screens to explore.
If you’re just starting out, though, the game can feel pretty overwhelming.
You’ve got yoyo tricks to learn, badges to collect, upgrades to unlock, and four crime bosses standing between you and your auntie’s stolen soul.
This Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo beginner’s guide is packed with tips to help you hit the ground running in New Jolt City.
Master Your Yoyo Tricks Early
Your yoyo isn’t just a weapon. It’s your tool for everything in this game, from combat to puzzle-solving to getting around the map.
You’ll learn new yoyo tricks as you progress through the story, and each one completely changes how you interact with the world.
Walk the Dog lets you ride your yoyo across water.
Around the World sends your yoyo in a wide arc to hit multiple enemies at once.
Ricochet throws let you bounce your yoyo off walls and corners to hit enemies or switches from tricky angles. This move is essential for both combat and solving environmental puzzles.
The key is to practice chaining tricks together as soon as you learn them.
Try combining your quick melee attack with a throw that ricochets off a corner. Every new trick also opens up previously inaccessible areas, so keep mental notes on spots you couldn’t reach before.
Learn to Parry as Soon as Possible
You can unlock the Parry ability very early in the game. Head to the Police Station area in the South Plaza, grab the gold key, and free the prisoner to learn it.
Parrying is a game-changer during boss fights.
Many bosses throw projectiles at you, and deflecting those back deals massive damage. It’s often the most efficient way to take down the tougher encounters.
Here’s another tip many beginners overlook: jumping gives you invincibility frames, similar to rolling in a Souls game.
Time your jumps right and you can dodge through enemy attacks and even avoid cars in the streets.
You can also cancel your attack animation by jumping, which is incredibly useful when you see a projectile coming mid-swing.
Collect Petal Containers for Extra Health
You start with just 3 hearts, which means two hits and you’re done. That’s brutal, especially early on.
The fix is Petal Containers. There are 48 scattered throughout the game, and for every 8 you collect, you gain one extra heart. They’re usually hidden behind puzzles, combat encounters, or both.
Prioritize grabbing these early.
Having that extra health cushion before your first major dungeon will save you a ton of frustration. They show up as flashing icons on your map, so keep an eye out.
Unlock Fast Travel Points Whenever You Can
New Jolt City is massive. Without fast travel, getting around would be painful.
The game’s fast travel system uses phone booths scattered throughout the city. Interact with a phone and it calls a taxi that can take you to any other phone you’ve already activated.
Activate every phone you come across.
You’d be surprised how often the game asks you to revisit previous locations once you’ve unlocked new abilities.
A full network of fast travel points makes the whole experience way smoother.
Understand the Badge System
Badges are one of the two main progression systems, and they’re crucial for customizing your playstyle.
There are over 40 badges to collect, each granting a different passive bonus.
Some badges reduce money lost on death.
Others restore health when you pick up coins.
There are combat badges that add fire damage or extend invincibility frames, and utility badges that help with exploration.
The catch is limited badge points (BP). Each badge costs a certain number of points to equip, so you’ll need to make strategic choices.
Increase your BP capacity by finding BP Shards around the world, where every 2 shards add one point.
Badges can also be refined to alter their effects or reduce their slot cost. Don’t sleep on refinement once you have the cash for it.
Be Smart About Pepita’s Upgrade Contracts
The other major progression system involves Pepita, a loan shark at your hideout.
She offers over 20 passive upgrades with permanent benefits, but every upgrade puts you into debt.
While in debt, you suffer negative effects like reduced max health, weaker attacks, or enemies no longer dropping health pickups.
50% of all coins you earn automatically go toward paying it off, and you can only run one contract at a time.
The big tip here: pay off your debt before fighting a boss. Going into a tough encounter with reduced health or weakened attacks is a recipe for disaster.
If an upgrade isn’t working out, you can request a refund, though you’ll get back less than you put in.
Plan your upgrade path carefully and prioritize upgrades that match your playstyle.
Don’t Be Afraid to Explore (and Revisit Old Areas)
Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo rewards curiosity more than almost any other game in its genre.
The world is packed with hidden rooms, secret passages, side dungeons, and collectibles in every corner.
As you learn new yoyo tricks, go back to areas you’ve already visited.
That water you couldn’t cross? Walk the Dog handles it now.
That ledge that seemed unreachable? A new traversal trick might be the answer.
The game also has 13 diamonds hidden throughout the city. These sell for increasingly large amounts of cash, with the final ones netting you thousands of dollars. They’re one of the best ways to fund badge refinements and pay off debts.
Side content like mini-dungeons, the Trevosos arena, and NPC side quests all offer valuable rewards. The main story is fairly linear, but the real depth comes from everything happening around it.
Customize the Difficulty to Your Liking
One of the best things about Pipistrello is its fully modular difficulty settings.
This isn’t a typical easy/medium/hard selection. You get granular control over individual mechanics.
You can toggle fall damage, coin loss on death, bonus health, extra money drops, and additional badge points.
You can also crank things up if you want a tougher challenge.
If you’re new to this style of game, consider turning off fall damage since the platforming gets complex later on.
Reducing coin loss on death is another solid tweak, especially early when every dollar counts toward progression.
The developers themselves want players to have fun above all else. There’s no shame in tweaking settings to match your comfort level.
General Combat Tips for Staying Alive
Use ricochet throws in tight spaces. Bouncing your yoyo off walls hits enemies that are hard to reach directly and can trigger switches during combat encounters.
Clear mobs with wide-arc swings. When dealing with groups, area-of-effect tricks like Around the World are way more efficient than picking enemies off one by one.
If an area feels too hard, leave and come back later. A few more hearts, a better badge loadout, or a new trick can turn an impossible encounter into something manageable.
The Trevosos arena is great for practicing combat and farming coins.
Equip badges that increase coin drops and attract money toward you to maximize earnings.
Two early upgrades many players overlook: Retry Cookie gives an extra heart when you retry a room, and Emergency Funds reduces money lost on death. Both are lifesavers when resources are tight.
Take Your Time and Enjoy the Ride
Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo rewards patience and experimentation. Rushing the main story takes around 8 to 10 hours, but a thorough playthrough clocks in at 20 to 23 hours.
The real magic is in discovering how all your yoyo tricks, badges, and upgrades work together.
Every new ability makes you look at the city differently, and there’s always something hiding around the next corner.
Take your time, explore every district, and don’t stress if you get stuck.
With these beginner tips for Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo in your back pocket, you’re more than ready to take on whatever the crime bosses throw at you.
Now get out there and show them what a yoyo master can do!
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Images in this article are from the Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo page on Steam and used under Fair Use.