Lords of the Fallen guide: How to upgrade the Sanguinarix

Lords of the Fallen can be one of the more challenging Soulslikes, so you’ll want to make ready use of the Sanguinarix. While it’s not your only option at staying alive in the game, it’s certainly going to be one of the most useful to newcomers to the genre. For example, players have grey health that comes from certain sources - that’s the Wither mechanic. You can heal this back by harming enemies, but that health disappears if you take any unblocked damage.

If you want more reliable healing in Lords of the Fallen, you will want to use the Sanguinarix. It can also be upgraded to be more useful throughout the course of the game, and we’ll go over what it is and how you can do that here.

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What is the Sanguinarix in Lords of the Fallen?

If you see one of these halos, that means they have Saintly Quintessence (Image via CI Games)

If you’ve ever played a Soulslike game before, you’re going to be familiar with the Sanguinarix. It’s this game’s version of an Estus Flask from other Souls titles. A brief animation happens when you use it, and your character heals, regardless of the class you've picked.

However, it doesn’t cure you of any negative status ailments in Lords of the Fallen. This piece of equipment exists solely to heal your health bar, and that’s it. It fills when you rest, which is handy, but there’s something that newcomers to this game should certainly know.

When you die, you’re given a second shot at things in the Umbral. However, this doesn’t refill the charges that you have left, so you have to be careful of this when you’re on your second chance at life.

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How to upgrade the Sanguinarix in Lords of the Fallen

After you best Pieta, you can start upgrading (Image via CI Games)

It’s easy to upgrade your Sanguinarix in Lords of the Fallen. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock a resource known as Saintly Quintessence. You’ll often find this in the Umbral, typically from the various souls lurking here. To get these, you’ll want to Soulflay using your Umbral Lamp, so you can grab the Quintessence and move on.

You’ll first see one of these in the tutorial, though it will take some time for you to put it to use. After you’ve bested Pieta, She of Blessed Renewal, she’ll join your side after being reborn. If you want to upgrade the Sanguinarix, go to her on Skyrest Bridge, near the Vestige of Ethryg.

When you use Saintly Quintessence to upgrade this item in Lords of the Fallen, it will upgrade facets of this healing item. The first time around you gain both more health restored and another charge. After that, it will alternate. It’s worth exploring the game to find the Quintessence for this.

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There are quite a few Saintly Quintessence in the game. But as the title is still new, it’s not known exactly how many there are. We’ve found at least 16, but there could be more hiding throughout the game. If you want to know more about the game and its weapons, here are five great starting classes to play.