Mina the Hollower Guide: How To Max Out Your Health And Vials
Surviving Tenebrous Isle with your starting health pool is a fantastic way to guarantee a quick and painful death.
The enemies in this game hit incredibly hard. Relying on your base stats will only lead to massive frustration and a lot of backtracking. If you want to survive the late game, you have to track down Health Roses and Vial Pouches to beef up your character. I spent hours mapping out every boss drop and hidden upgrade path so you can build a loadout that actually takes a punch. If you are still struggling with the core combat loop itself, you should probably check out my Mina the Hollower beginner's guide before you worry about maximizing your specific stats.
The Plasma Problem
Before you start hunting for upgrades, you need to understand how healing actually functions. Your red bar is your actual health, and the yellow bar underneath is your Plasma.
When you drink a vial, it only restores health equal to the yellow Plasma you currently have banked. You build up Plasma by striking enemies. If you run out of things to hit during a brutal platforming challenge and need a heal, do not panic. You can smash pots, bushes, and other environmental objects to find yellow Plasma Roses. These pickups instantly refill your Plasma meter without requiring you to risk your life in combat. If you absolutely hate this mechanic, you can always tweak how damage works by checking out the Mina the Hollower difficulty modifiers guide.
Hoarding Vial Pouches
To carry more healing charges into a dungeon, you need to find Vial Pouches.
Your primary source for these is the Emporium in Ossex. Head to the eastern side of the city right next to the key shop and look for the building with a massive rose on the roof. If you loiter outside on the street, the provisioner's giant hand will actually shoot out and yank you inside.
You can buy Vial Pouches here using Bones, but the price scales up significantly with each purchase. I highly recommend saving your cash for these pouches rather than dumping all your early Bones into raw attack stats. You can also occasionally find a free Vial Pouch hidden in secret treasure chests out in the wild. Always look for discolored walls or cracks in the rocks that you can blow open. Before you go wandering across the entire map looking for cracked walls, make sure you unlocked the fast travel network to save yourself hours of backtracking.
Tracking Down Every Health Rose
While pouches let you heal more often, Health Roses permanently extend your maximum red health bar. They are arguably the most valuable items in the game. You can buy the first three outright, but you have to pry the rest from the cold hands of major bosses.
