Unlike Lies of P and Elden Ring, exploration in Lords of the Fallen doles out through two realms called Axiom and Umbral, and players will have the freedom to decide how they dip between them. Each side has its benefits. As the land of the living, Axiom mechanically acts as a safety net where players will roam in Lords of the Fallen. Umbral, on the other hand, is decked out with ghoulish landscapes and the dead, yet you could spot new environmental secrets by braving its dangers.
You’d ordinarily explore both when forced to progress into new zones, but when both realms are available, should you explore Axiom or Umbral? I’ll breakdown the pros and cons for both and explain what I believe to be the best option after playing hours of the game.
Is It Better to Explore Axiom or Umbral in Lords of the Fallen?
Since you can personally enter the Umbral realm whenever you want, some players might feel the need to stay in the deadly world while exploring new or old zones. Doing this allows you to blaze across Umbral-related bridges or paths you’d ordinarily need to unveil with the Umbral Lamp without stopping to hold the item up, saving you some time. That, plus the secret items or equipment you can find, are the main appeals of staying in Umbral over Axiom most of the time.
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However, what becomes apparent quickly in Lords of the Fallen is that Umbral is not the best place to stay for too long. Prolonged periods inside Umbral will accumulate Dread and make your presence known to its inhabitants, spawning more and more of the unending horde of zombie creatures from this world. The longer you stay in Umbral, the more dangerous enemies will spawn. Ignoring Dread isn’t a good decision because, eventually, you can trigger a Grim Reaper of sorts. It has devastating attacks and will stalk you endlessly unless you exit Umbral.
In Axiom, you won’t have to deal with a Dread feature, but you miss out on finding Umbral-related interactables. A major plus to Axiom is that dying in this realm doesn’t mean death entirely. You will resurrect in Umbral and can return to Axiom via an Emergence Effigy found around the game world or from a Vestige checkpoint. Unfortunately, dying in Umbral will be game over, so you’d have to walk back to your death spot to recover lost Vigor.
With all this in mind, Axiom is definitely the better realm to explore. Of course, there are sections where Umbral is necessary, but when possible, staying in Axiom is a safer bet, especially when venturing into the unknown.
