Sundered

• Monsters spawn in waves, unlike other metroidvanias. It's sometimes better to run than to fight. When you die, the maps individual rooms shuffle around, but landmarks and the overall layout of the map does not change.

• The upgrade tree costs more the deeper you go. Pick out some powers to aim for, before you buy random things. But, beeline for the parry missiles power, it will save you a lot of pain.

• You unlock new powers through shrines, you find shrines by exploring. Shards are your primary means of upgrading or transforming those powers. Mini-bosses drop a shard fragment (it takes 3 fragments to make a shard), while main bosses drop a full shard. With your shards, you can either "resist" or "embrace," i.e. burn them in the furnace found in the first area, or sacrifice them at shrines. Resisting gives your power a significant boost. Embracing transforms the power into something different, but better.

• You can mix and match embracing and resisting for one ending of the game, or go all in one one path for two other endings.