This app is available only on Mac with Apple silicon.

Lies of P may be rooted in the story of Pinocchio, but this masterful action-adventure game is no fairy-tale cakewalk. You’ll need all the help you can get to survive the masked assassins, giant clockwork puppets and countless other threats awaiting you in the vast city of Krat.

With these boss-beating tips, maybe – just maybe – you’ll have a fighting chance. Good luck!

It’s crucial to dodge attacks, but your first line of defence should be blocking. Timing blocks perfectly prevents damage and lets you execute strong counterattacks, so hone this skill early on.

Weapons deteriorate with use, and in the heat of battle it can be easy to overlook a rapidly dulling sword. Get in the habit of using the grinder to sharpen your gear before – and after – tough battles. During drawn-out boss fights, you may even want to briefly retreat for a quick tune-up.

Whenever you perish, you drop all accumulated Ergo (the currency used to level up and buy goods). After respawning, your priority should be to recover that Ergo without fighting enemies along the way, as every hit you take reduces your dropped Ergo stockpile.

(Note: Unlike regular Ergo, Ergo fragments – vessels that store the precious commodity – aren’t dropped when you die. Convert them to Ergo only when you need currency for a new weapon or when you’re ready to level up.)

Though it’s tempting to load up on weapons, the more gear you carry, the slower you’ll move and dodge. Store excess gear at Stargazer save points, whittling down your equipped arsenal to one or two mainstays. The Electric Coil Stick is a great early-game weapon; as you progress, keep an eye out for awesome armaments such as the Two Dragons Sword and the Holy Sword of the Ark.

You can hurl sawtooth wheels to damage enemies from afar, but they’re even more useful for coaxing foes towards you. When approaching a group of baddies, bait the nearest puppet with a wheel to beckon it closer to you so you can fight it one-on-one. Wheels are also great for luring petrification-infected humans toward puppets – they’ll end up clobbering one another while you sit back and watch!

This app is rated 17+, which means it may contain offensive language; cartoon, fantasy or realistic violence; and mature, horror or suggestive themes that may not be suitable for children under the age of 17.