This guide will show you the best graphics settings for Kena: Bridge of Spirits for medium-low end gaming PCs. You will have a smoother experience in-game, and it might also help you eliminate various performance issues, if you are having any, of course.
Best Graphics Settings for Kena
After getting delayed three time since 2020, Kena: Bridge of Spirits has finally been released. I am not sure if this game was one of the most anticipated games of 2021, or not. But, it definitely was, for me. Kena got announced in early 2020, and I wanted to get my hands on this game since then. The game looked extremely impressive back then, it looks extremely impressive now. In fact, I can safely say that Kena: Bridge of Spirits is one of the prettiest games I have seen till date.
I played Biomutant a lot, and I loved it. Kena brings a similar art style, but more refined. The animations are smooth, and the gameplay mechanics are smooth. The game is built on the Unreal Engine 4, so there is nothing to complain in the graphics department. Normally, third-person action-adventure titles like these don’t get released for PC that much. Kena is surely a breath of fresh air in this world full of FPS titles.
Overall, the game performs really well on the PC platform. I have tested the game on three different systems, and I didn’t experience any sort of unnecessary crashing or freezing. But, as we all know, not everyone is sitting with a high-end gaming rig. And this is where PC gaming shines. You don’t always need overpriced hardware to play games, as you can tweak the in-game graphics settings of the game you want to play and then get the best performance out of it, even if you don’t have a high-end gaming rig. Let’s check out the graphics settings guide for Kena now:
Graphics Settings
- Window Mode: Fullscreen (Running Full Screen is always recommended, because you don’t lose performance)
- Resolution: 1920×1080 (These settings would get you good performance on 1440p too. But the experience won’t be as smooth)
- Graphics API: DirectX 12 (I checked DX11 and DX12 thoroughly, but didn’t see any difference. Switch to DirectX 11 if the game is crashing for you, though)
- VSync: Off (Locks the game at 30 fps after a cutscene, for some reason)
- Quality: Custom
- Visible Rot: Medium (Very demanding setting. Set it to low if you’re using a GPU similar to the GTX 1050 ti)
- Screen Percentage: 100% (Do not fiddle with this. Lowering this might make the game look blurry)
- FPS Limit: 60 (This would reduce stuttering and unstable framerate issues by a huge margin)
- Depth of Field: Limited (Has minimal effect on performance. This is more of a personal preference)
- Motion Blur: Off (I don’t like it, so I don’t use it. Personal preference)
- Volumetric Fog: Medium (A demanding setting. You will find a lot of VF in Kena. Set it to low if you’re using a GPU similar to the GTX 1050 ti)
- Ambient Occlusion: Medium (Low, makes the game look really bland)
- Post Processing Quality: High (Saw no difference in performance between High and Low)
- Textures: Medium (Maintains a good balance between visuals and performance)
- Foliage: Medium (Medium is good. High and Ultra makes the game look a bit too sharp)
- Shadows: Medium (Shadows are demanding in Kena, because almost everything in the game has its shadow. But lowering this further will make the game look bad)
Specifications of Test system
- GPU: Zotac GTX 1650
- CPU: Ryzen 5 5600x
- RAM: 16 GB DDR4 3200mhz
- HDD: 2 TB 7200 rpm
- SSD: WD Blue 1TB
- Monitor Resolution: 1920×1080
- Graphics Driver: Nvidia Game Ready Driver v472.12
Kena: Bridge of Spirits Performance Analysis
| Minimum FPS (1% Low) |
Average FPS | Maximum FPS |
| 35 FPS | 51 FPS | 60 FPS (Locked) |
First, let’s take a look at how the game looks with the settings given above:
I tested Kena on three systems of mine, and the game ran without any errors on all three of them. The GTX 1650, the RTX 2060, and the RTX 3070 was used for my testing. I don’t think there is any point mentioning the performance of RTX 2060 and 3070 here, because the game runs flawlessly at Maxed out settings on these GPUs. The GTX 1650 also, didn’t disappoint.
Yeah, I did experience some stuttering at times. But that is very common with games made on the UE4. Whenever you enter a completely new area, the game would stutter for a fraction of a second. The FPS drops become more prominent right after you destroy a Deadzone Heart, or there are multiple enemies on your screen. But that is totally understandable, as a series of effects take place at the same time.
Overall, I would say that Kena: Bridge of Spirits is fairly optimized, and you should not have any problem playing this game on low end GPUs like the GTX 1050 ti.
If you want, you can actually check out my performance video of Kena: Bridge of Spirits. The game is running on a RTX 2060 paired with a Ryzen 5 5600x:
If you think that this guide has helped you, then let us know in the comment section below. Also, try checking out our other guides on Kena. Who knows, you might end up finding a something you have been looking for.
That’s all folks!
Last Updated on September 21, 2021
Shoaib, 30, is a simple guy who loves to play video games, and enjoys new cuisines sporadically. He has been gaming since he was 7 years old, and with an experience of 22 years, under his belt, there is not a single AAA game in this world, that he hasn’t played. Despite being a MBA Graduate he decided to follow his passion. And because of his love for gaming, Frondtech came into existence.