SULFUR Beginner Guide: Tips and Mechanics to Survive

This SULFUR beginner guide starts with the answer: charge your recall amulet before you commit to any run. The amulet teleports you back to the church hub, and in most areas it is your only reliable way out alive. You can charge it for free at a shrine during a run, or pay the pipe smoker who stands next to your grave 1,000 soul coins for a charge before you leave the hub.

SULFUR 1.0 released on October 28, 2026 on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PlayStation 4/5 and Xbox One/Series X|S, so the mechanics below reflect the full release. The game is a roguelite with extraction-shooter elements set in the afterlife.

You delve into procedurally generated areas, and the gear you carry in can be lost forever if you die. Dying is normal — players report not making it out of the first area, the Caves, for several runs — so treat early deaths as learning, not failure.

Before you leave the church hub

The church is your safe hub, and a little preparation here saves entire runs.

• Charge your amulet at a shrine, or pay the pipe smoker 1,000 soul coins to charge it before heading out.
• Deposit spare ammo, soul coins and backup weapons into your church storage chest. Ammo and soul coins share one balance across all your storage boxes and the pink drop box, and your storage holds an infinite amount of both.
• Repair weapons and armor at Queen Ralphie, or save repair kits for use during a run.
• Check the vendors' inventories before every run. Ralphie sells weapon attachments like scopes and silencers, Stiff Leg sells arms, Kevin sells oils. Vendors restock after roughly 10 minutes in an area, so take your time between runs instead of speedrunning the Caves.
• Keep some soul coin deposited, not just carried. If you die, you lose what you are holding, though part of your money comes back through the church congregation/mailbox.

Understanding the core loop

Each run follows the same rhythm: prepare at the church, explore a procedurally generated area, loot chests and enemies, spend or bank your gains, and extract. Extraction is the point — the amulet recall or completing an area secures what you found.

On death you lose your carried items and weapons, which is why banking duplicates matters. Meta progression works differently from most roguelites: there are no permanent character stat upgrades, and your power lives in your guns.

Weapons rank up through kills, and enchantments — one scroll plus up to four oils per gun, five oils if there is no scroll — turn any firearm into a build. One warning the loading screens give you: once an oil or scroll is applied to a weapon, it cannot be removed. Weapon attachments, by contrast, can be swapped at the workbench next to Queen Ralphie.

A first route through the Caves

Your opening runs should stay in the Caves, the starter area. It is the safest place to rank up weak guns, and enemies there are the least dangerous in the game.

1. Enter with a charged amulet and banked spare coin

   Leave the church only after the pre-run checklist above. Bring a gun you are willing to lose.

2. Fight goblins to practice dodging

   Baby goblins are quick and leap at you when close. Sprint-strafe sideways as they leap; the timing you learn here carries over to faster enemies like dogs later.

3. Aim for the head

   Body parts take different damage and there are no damage numbers to confirm it. Headshots are the fastest way to drop enemies and to rank up a gun.

4. Loot deliberately

   Listen for the item-drop sound effect when enemies die — drops have a short delay, so linger a moment before moving on. Open everything: black chests hold weapons, red chests hold armor, and brown chests can hold anything, including oils, scrolls and ingredients. Break boxes and barrels too.

5. Learn one or two recipes and cook

   Cooking is not just food — Scrap Metal plus a Rock makes dynamite. Early on, mushrooms are your training ground: combine them on the table and press the lit button to log recipes into your recipe book. Broth plus Cheese makes 2 Fondue, a strong healing item found in the Caves.

6. Extract before you overreach

   When your inventory is heavy or your health is low, recall with the amulet rather than pushing one room deeper. Completing the Caves unlocks a shortcut back for future farming runs.

Combat habits that keep you alive

• Kite instead of trading damage. Sprint backward while enemies chase you and shoot as they follow. This is essential in later areas like the Dungeon, where you will not out-damage a group head-on while undergeared.
• Stop moving to shoot. Moving scatters your bullets heavily, similar to Counter-Strike; attachments and oils can reduce the penalty, but standing still to fire is the reliable baseline.
• Bait ranged enemies. Peek out, let them start their shot, then hide behind a wall or corner. Enemies always finish a shot once started, so you can attack during their recovery, or melee them when they advance.
• Watch the screamers. If a screamer in the Caves gets hit, it flees and returns with reinforcements. Kill or avoid them before they reach other enemies.
• Use shrine rooms defensively. Players report that enemies following you into an amulet-charging shrine room die when you come out of the charge — inconsistent, but a lifesaver when swarmed.
• Keep speed in mind. Holding any throwable grenade lets you sprint at the same speed as your melee weapon. Press Q to swap to your last used item so you do not accidentally throw grenades while cycling weapons.

Money, storage and losing gear

Scrolls and oils are your best per-slot sellers, rare guns and treasure like the golden ticket sell for thousands of soul coins, and monster parts fetch a modest amount. Armor is usually not worth the inventory space.

If a vendor buys something and you buy it back, it costs double what they paid you — drop items on the ground and ferry them instead. Death is survivable economically: banked coin and gear stay safe, and the mailbox returns part of your lost money.

FAQ

Is dying permanent in SULFUR?

No. Death is part of the roguelite loop. You lose the items and weapons you carried, but anything banked in church storage survives, and part of your soul coin is returned via the church's congregation/mailbox.

How do I get back to the church safely mid-run?

Use a charged amulet. It teleports you to the church at any time, but there is a small vulnerability window while you pull it out and vanish. Only the Caves and the final level return you to the hub on completion; the other early areas only have shortcuts after completion, and the last two areas have no shortcut at all.

What should a beginner buy or upgrade first?

Keep the amulet charged, stock ammo (every vendor sells it), and buy weapon attachments from Queen Ralphie. Most players, in their own reports, rank up guns in the Caves before investing in oils and scrolls, since enchantments are permanent.

Where do I find food recipes early?

Experiment with mushrooms in the Caves and combine items on the cooking table; discovered recipes are logged automatically in your recipe book. Basic wins include Fried Mushroom (8 purple or red mushrooms) and Mushroom Skewer (3 mushrooms plus a stick).

Check note: Mechanical facts about the 1.0 release, platforms, price and patch state come from the official SULFUR Steam page, checked 2026-11-06. Combat and survival tips come from first-hand player material: the Slyther Games tips article (2024-10-28) and two player video guides ("So You're Brand New To SULFUR" and "SULFUR Doesn't Want You to Know These Secrets to Success" on YouTube). Tips marked as player reports — the shrine-room enemy kill, mailbox refund percentage, and vendor restock timing — are community observations and not developer-confirmed.