Scorn is a surprisingly difficult game. With almost no ammo and very few healing charges, you’ll have to take on powerful creatures that blast you with acid and accurate projectiles. You’ll be taking damage during every battle, and eventually you’ll get worn down to almost nothing — there are long stretches where you’ll have to fight monsters with almost no health and very little ammo. The challenge is real, and you can very easily lock yourself into an unwinnable scenario.

If you don’t want to have to restart from the beginning of an act, you’ll want to use this simple strategy. You can cause enemies to despawn. By clearing an encounter of enemies, you’ll be able to sprint past and continue your story — there are certain sections of the game I literally wouldn’t be able to survive without using this trick. It is 100% a game mechanic, so let’s talk about how to use it in the full guide below.

More Scorn guides:

Act 1 Walkthrough | Act 2 Walkthrough | Act 3 Walkthrough | Act 4 Walkthrough | Act 5 Walkthrough | Moving Faster, Healing & Gun

How To Skip Enemies | Unwinnable Fights Guide

Sometimes you’ll reach combat sections that are seemingly impossible to complete — if you’ve taken too much damage or don’t have any ammo left, certain encounters are game-breaking. If you’re absolutely stuck at a combat section, there’s a simple trick you can use to overcome the odds. This works for all enemy encounters, and even works on the giant bull enemies you’ll encounter frequently in Act 4.

• To make combat easier or skip it entirely, you can make enemies despawn. Enemies will despawn whenever you leave a combat area. Especially if you leave via a path enemies can’t follow. Lifts, doors, or going through tight barriers will often make enemies despawn. This works anywhere enemies spawn in through vents or meat growths.

This can be a life-saving technique in later levels. If you’re down to one health, sometimes you won’t find another healing station for a very long time. This game has no difficulty options, and combat can be grueling — there’s usually no way to easily avoid damage.

So leave! When enemies spawn in, run the opposite direction. Sometimes enemies must be defeated — but in large encounters, they’ll eventually leave. These enemies will respawn, but it takes them a moment and they won’t immediately return if you walk and don’t alert them.

Seriously, you can skip many combat encounters. And we’re not talking about using stealth. The enemies will literally leave the map for a little while. This is basically the only way to complete certain encounters. During Act 4, I was completely out of ammo, stuck one a single section of health, and expected to fight an ambush of four enemies. This would be impossible, even for the best player. Skipping the enemies was my only choice — and you should do it early and often. Even if you have health and ammo extra, you can still skip right past enemies.