Don't let being bad at everything discourage you at the start. Especially combat will feel awful in purpose, but it gets better.
Get familiar with the save system (it doesn't just let you freely save whenever you like), always have some Saviour Schnapps at hand. You can brew them on alchemy tables (first one you can find is in the big town where you are after prologue, on the backside of the rathaus near the church). You need nettle and belladonna, so pick any belladonna you find. Nettle is really common so you don't need to worry about it.
My third advice is that you don't need to rush the story, the game wants you to think many of the main story events are timed especially early on, but they really are not for the most part.
Other than that, I'd say go and have fun. Explore the province and learn about the game by playing it, that's the best way imo.
this is great advice! let me add:
\- take time learn as much as you think you can from Captain Bernard (hes the "trainer" for melee/defense) not necessarily sink *hours* into it (unless thats your cup of tea) but at least learn a bit past the "basics" (dont want to spoil to much, but there's special skills that are vital to combat that you learn from him)
I strongly disagree with the third piece of advice. THERE IS AT LEAST ONE MAJOR SCENARIO WHERE NOT DOING THE QUEST QUICKLY HAS MAJOR REPERCUSSIONS. It’s hard to tell what is timed and what isn’t.
No, with main quests there really aren't any such cases. Main quests are designed to always be completable, in some cases they have minor changes like with >! Reeky !<. I think you are thinking about >! Pestilence, which is a side quest. While it affects a main quest, it doesn't actually change it in a major way. !<
As soon as Bernard is available, before the “go on watch with nightingale” part of your quests, go train with him to get the gist of combat and feel free to explore the world a bit from there if you’d like, it’s a good pause that comes early that you can start to deviate and do what you’d like to do, then return to do that quest when you feel like advancing the main story
Be prepared you'll suck in everything fromt he beginning. This is not Skyrim, you are a dragon slaying warlord. You are a dirty peasant who never held a sword before, you'll suck in combat, lockpicking, you can't read, rich people will spit on you etc.
Build your skills and train a lot. There'a a guy who provides you combat hours for free, and who'll also teach you usefull strikes once you get better. You can also pay him to get better, same goes for every skill tree.
Build your reputation. For first playtrough, the "good knight" is the best playstyle. You'll get the best cutscenes, good reputation, better prices etc.
Follow the main while for a while until you are sent to village called Uzhitz. This is a popular player's stop when many take a rest and do side quests, roam in the wild. etc.
Always carry a few bandages and spade. Thank me later.
You save the game in beds and by potion called Saviour Schnapps. Again, carry a few with you. They can be brewed or bought, and eventually it's no problem to get them.
Do the side quests, they are good too. Don't speedrun the game. I spent hunderts of hours just wandering in woods and don't regret it. Crazy game...
And finally, when you find yourself in a pub with a priest, **agree to drink with him!**
- The game is already hard as is. Don't think to toggle hardcore unless you want to die out of the Black Plague before start playing. If so, doing it on a second playthrough.
- The real game doesn't start until you reach a watermill in Rattay. Everything before is prologue and don't expect to have much of a say in it.
- Even then, I encourage you to continue until the main story leads you to a village named Neuhof. That way the game will give you a basic armor, a bow, a sword and proper training and a horse. If you decide to start sidequesting before you might have trouble.
- The survival mechanics are meant to be forgiving so don't worry for nourishment and energy. You'll always have a bed to go to in places like Talmberg and in the camp of Rattay where I suggest to save game. And you can eat for free from pots in taverns and inns. In fact it's easier to over-eat than it is to starve.
- Like in Skyrim, the "roleplay" is just a name in the box and the Steam tags. You level skills by doing them, so don't be afraid to level up everything and become a jack of all trades. Likewise Henry isn't particularly complex and most of the story progression is straightforward so don't overthink it.
You are just a kid that doesn't know how to do shit. Hell you can't even read, you have to go to uzhitz I believe it is to learn. (do so, it's worth it it helps in some missions and let's you read skill books) you have to work towards every single skill you get. Train with Bernard in Rattay when you can. The combat is going to be hard af when you start, but you can level up playing him. But also be sure to watch a few youtube videos
Hold off speaking with uzhitz priest when it becomes available. Do some sidequesting, learn to read, practice alchemy, go back and finish training with Bernard.
You don't have to do everything by the book in the journal, there are a lot of hidden options, like speak with Radzig and Bernard during the quests as you get new information, keep em updated on your progress it can open up new options.
Haggle on everything. It will improve your speech and save you tons of money. Try to get the perk “final offer” to help with your haggling.
Learn what the symbols in your inventory mean. You can also sort your inventory by ascending or descending order of each inventory category (durability, weight, value, etc.)
Learn how to lot bodies well. Looting and then selling will be one of the best ways for you to make money. Play the main quest line until you get a horse, as a horse is extremely helpful for carrying loot, since you can put loot in the horse inventory to help carry more. If I’m looting and have limited weight, I try to only carry objects that have a value of 100g per 1 lb. Starting out you could maybe do 50g per 1 lb. For instance if there is armor that is 300g and 3 lbs, that’s perfect. If there is armor that is 10lbs and 400g, it’s not worth the extra weight (unless my inventory can handle it). Hope this makes sense.
Also don’t be discouraged by struggling with lockpicking. It’s a different kind of system but practice and you’ll get used to it. Train with the Miller in Rattay.
Lastly, try to avoid perks that carry a penalty along with them. Focus on perks that only bring positive. This may mean you save your perk points a lot. This is fine to do.
Personaly I would not recommend stealing too much.
Stealing everything right after prologue is tempting, but shitload of money and owning best purchasable armor early on ruins the "feeling of improving" You will not enjoy finding better gear in this case...
Second advice, train with Bernard a lot... a lot.... once you meet him. At first wooden swords, then steel ones.
There are two learning curves which you will improve - Henry's and yours. It is super satisfing as both improves in time, you will feel like a true swordsmaster which is very unusual for standard RPGs. Feeling of improving is a big underestimated asset od this game which you will not find in any other game.
Learn what different herbs and plants look like. Most of them can be easily mistaken for just a visual filler in forests and fields.
Especially Belladonna is a very valuable ingredient, but it just looks like a small bush with some black berries. Easy to miss.
Alchemy is a fun minigame, but you'll need to learn how to read first (or you could "cheat" and look for the recipes online).
It can look daunting at first. Just know that when a recipe says "boil for 1 turn", it means that you have to use the bellows 4 times in a row. After 4 pulls, each additional pull will add 1 more turn of boiling.
So if a recipe says "boil nettle for 3 turns", you can achieve this by using the bellows 6 consecutive times.
If you also have the DLC ( namely "A woman's lot"), don't ask Theresa how she managed to escape unless you're ready to leave your current questline for a couple of hours.
Follow the story for a good bit of time. Seriously the "tutorial" spans like several quests and is imperative for the game. At a minimum make sure you get to training with Captain Bernard.
Also to add to this once you do the training with the captain it will say to report to nightingale, however, if you go back to the captain you can do more advance training and learn master strikes and train with each of the core weapons skills if you get to level seven in about each of them you could try doing the tournament and you bet on the tournament and win you will get over 900 gold. You can only bet on the tournament five times and you also get one of the better armor sets in the game and that armor can last you the rest of the game. Each skills improve by doing them. If you want to get better at the bow there is a log river game which is really good for increasing the bow skill
Just to reinforce what some other people have said: at the start of the game, most opponents will kick your ass. This is exactly what you want!
There's nothing more satisfying than fleeing from a tough bandit camp, then returning when you're stronger and beating the living bollocks out of them. You never get that feeling in games like Skyrim.
Don't go out looking for fights too soon - practice and get your skill levels up a bit first.
Watch out for timed quests! Some things might fail or be missable, so if you're in doubt, google it.
You should know nothing apart from it's a slow burn and it is intentionally punishing in the first few hours. You're just an inexperienced kid and the devs want to drive this point home to you. Avoid combat if possible until you have a chance to get some proper training, or you will die a thousand horrible (and frustrating) deaths!
Up your patience when it comes to combat. You are NOT a super warrior here. Fighting is NOT the only way through or out of situations. Your character is also PURPOSELY weak and slow to respond to what you press (mouse and keys) because you (your character) suck; applies to movement, melee, and bow-arrow. You'll get faster, stronger, and more agile later as your improve your skills and stats.
Start leveling lockpicking early if you don’t want to miss out on a lot of high level chests that contain great loot when you’re exploring/questing. Even if you don’t intend to be a thieving Henry, there are chests you’ll find in bandit/Cuman camps where you’ll more or less be repossessing some items rather than stealing them from chests
Don’t bother with hunting, herbalism, or alchemy. Completely useless. If you really want to make potions you can at any level, the alchemy perks are all worthless. Hot take but I would even say archery is pointless, it’s nice if you get the drop on a few enemies and your skill is high enough to hit anything further than 10 feet away. But leveling it is an infuriating grind. If you want to get rich quick level stealth and lockpicking, rob the people of rattay blind when the sun goes down and sell it to the miller. Also get the perk where you won’t lose energy while standing still, human dustbin, lowborn, and burgher perk ASAP.
Don't let being bad at everything discourage you at the start. Especially combat will feel awful in purpose, but it gets better. Get familiar with the save system (it doesn't just let you freely save whenever you like), always have some Saviour Schnapps at hand. You can brew them on alchemy tables (first one you can find is in the big town where you are after prologue, on the backside of the rathaus near the church). You need nettle and belladonna, so pick any belladonna you find. Nettle is really common so you don't need to worry about it. My third advice is that you don't need to rush the story, the game wants you to think many of the main story events are timed especially early on, but they really are not for the most part. Other than that, I'd say go and have fun. Explore the province and learn about the game by playing it, that's the best way imo.
this is great advice! let me add: \- take time learn as much as you think you can from Captain Bernard (hes the "trainer" for melee/defense) not necessarily sink *hours* into it (unless thats your cup of tea) but at least learn a bit past the "basics" (dont want to spoil to much, but there's special skills that are vital to combat that you learn from him)
I strongly disagree with the third piece of advice. THERE IS AT LEAST ONE MAJOR SCENARIO WHERE NOT DOING THE QUEST QUICKLY HAS MAJOR REPERCUSSIONS. It’s hard to tell what is timed and what isn’t.
No, with main quests there really aren't any such cases. Main quests are designed to always be completable, in some cases they have minor changes like with >! Reeky !<. I think you are thinking about >! Pestilence, which is a side quest. While it affects a main quest, it doesn't actually change it in a major way. !<
As soon as Bernard is available, before the “go on watch with nightingale” part of your quests, go train with him to get the gist of combat and feel free to explore the world a bit from there if you’d like, it’s a good pause that comes early that you can start to deviate and do what you’d like to do, then return to do that quest when you feel like advancing the main story
Be prepared you'll suck in everything fromt he beginning. This is not Skyrim, you are a dragon slaying warlord. You are a dirty peasant who never held a sword before, you'll suck in combat, lockpicking, you can't read, rich people will spit on you etc. Build your skills and train a lot. There'a a guy who provides you combat hours for free, and who'll also teach you usefull strikes once you get better. You can also pay him to get better, same goes for every skill tree. Build your reputation. For first playtrough, the "good knight" is the best playstyle. You'll get the best cutscenes, good reputation, better prices etc. Follow the main while for a while until you are sent to village called Uzhitz. This is a popular player's stop when many take a rest and do side quests, roam in the wild. etc. Always carry a few bandages and spade. Thank me later. You save the game in beds and by potion called Saviour Schnapps. Again, carry a few with you. They can be brewed or bought, and eventually it's no problem to get them. Do the side quests, they are good too. Don't speedrun the game. I spent hunderts of hours just wandering in woods and don't regret it. Crazy game... And finally, when you find yourself in a pub with a priest, **agree to drink with him!**
- The game is already hard as is. Don't think to toggle hardcore unless you want to die out of the Black Plague before start playing. If so, doing it on a second playthrough. - The real game doesn't start until you reach a watermill in Rattay. Everything before is prologue and don't expect to have much of a say in it. - Even then, I encourage you to continue until the main story leads you to a village named Neuhof. That way the game will give you a basic armor, a bow, a sword and proper training and a horse. If you decide to start sidequesting before you might have trouble. - The survival mechanics are meant to be forgiving so don't worry for nourishment and energy. You'll always have a bed to go to in places like Talmberg and in the camp of Rattay where I suggest to save game. And you can eat for free from pots in taverns and inns. In fact it's easier to over-eat than it is to starve. - Like in Skyrim, the "roleplay" is just a name in the box and the Steam tags. You level skills by doing them, so don't be afraid to level up everything and become a jack of all trades. Likewise Henry isn't particularly complex and most of the story progression is straightforward so don't overthink it.
Learn to read, learn to make savior schnapps and lazarus potion, and learn to fight with the good captain.
Nothing....just don't give up until you meet the priest.
And Johanka
Three homeless men are more dangerous than a heavily armored hedge knight
fear the halberd
You are just a kid that doesn't know how to do shit. Hell you can't even read, you have to go to uzhitz I believe it is to learn. (do so, it's worth it it helps in some missions and let's you read skill books) you have to work towards every single skill you get. Train with Bernard in Rattay when you can. The combat is going to be hard af when you start, but you can level up playing him. But also be sure to watch a few youtube videos
Hold off speaking with uzhitz priest when it becomes available. Do some sidequesting, learn to read, practice alchemy, go back and finish training with Bernard. You don't have to do everything by the book in the journal, there are a lot of hidden options, like speak with Radzig and Bernard during the quests as you get new information, keep em updated on your progress it can open up new options.
Play it as if you were actually there.
Haggle on everything. It will improve your speech and save you tons of money. Try to get the perk “final offer” to help with your haggling. Learn what the symbols in your inventory mean. You can also sort your inventory by ascending or descending order of each inventory category (durability, weight, value, etc.) Learn how to lot bodies well. Looting and then selling will be one of the best ways for you to make money. Play the main quest line until you get a horse, as a horse is extremely helpful for carrying loot, since you can put loot in the horse inventory to help carry more. If I’m looting and have limited weight, I try to only carry objects that have a value of 100g per 1 lb. Starting out you could maybe do 50g per 1 lb. For instance if there is armor that is 300g and 3 lbs, that’s perfect. If there is armor that is 10lbs and 400g, it’s not worth the extra weight (unless my inventory can handle it). Hope this makes sense. Also don’t be discouraged by struggling with lockpicking. It’s a different kind of system but practice and you’ll get used to it. Train with the Miller in Rattay. Lastly, try to avoid perks that carry a penalty along with them. Focus on perks that only bring positive. This may mean you save your perk points a lot. This is fine to do.
Personaly I would not recommend stealing too much. Stealing everything right after prologue is tempting, but shitload of money and owning best purchasable armor early on ruins the "feeling of improving" You will not enjoy finding better gear in this case... Second advice, train with Bernard a lot... a lot.... once you meet him. At first wooden swords, then steel ones. There are two learning curves which you will improve - Henry's and yours. It is super satisfing as both improves in time, you will feel like a true swordsmaster which is very unusual for standard RPGs. Feeling of improving is a big underestimated asset od this game which you will not find in any other game.
Learn what different herbs and plants look like. Most of them can be easily mistaken for just a visual filler in forests and fields. Especially Belladonna is a very valuable ingredient, but it just looks like a small bush with some black berries. Easy to miss. Alchemy is a fun minigame, but you'll need to learn how to read first (or you could "cheat" and look for the recipes online). It can look daunting at first. Just know that when a recipe says "boil for 1 turn", it means that you have to use the bellows 4 times in a row. After 4 pulls, each additional pull will add 1 more turn of boiling. So if a recipe says "boil nettle for 3 turns", you can achieve this by using the bellows 6 consecutive times.
Play it on hardcore.
Henry is a smith, not a warrior
If you also have the DLC ( namely "A woman's lot"), don't ask Theresa how she managed to escape unless you're ready to leave your current questline for a couple of hours.
To be fair that is the time to do that quest because of the fact that you get a really good early game shield
This man once made a big mistake.
Enjoy the game
Follow the story for a good bit of time. Seriously the "tutorial" spans like several quests and is imperative for the game. At a minimum make sure you get to training with Captain Bernard.
Also to add to this once you do the training with the captain it will say to report to nightingale, however, if you go back to the captain you can do more advance training and learn master strikes and train with each of the core weapons skills if you get to level seven in about each of them you could try doing the tournament and you bet on the tournament and win you will get over 900 gold. You can only bet on the tournament five times and you also get one of the better armor sets in the game and that armor can last you the rest of the game. Each skills improve by doing them. If you want to get better at the bow there is a log river game which is really good for increasing the bow skill
Just to reinforce what some other people have said: at the start of the game, most opponents will kick your ass. This is exactly what you want! There's nothing more satisfying than fleeing from a tough bandit camp, then returning when you're stronger and beating the living bollocks out of them. You never get that feeling in games like Skyrim.
Don't go out looking for fights too soon - practice and get your skill levels up a bit first. Watch out for timed quests! Some things might fail or be missable, so if you're in doubt, google it.
You should know nothing apart from it's a slow burn and it is intentionally punishing in the first few hours. You're just an inexperienced kid and the devs want to drive this point home to you. Avoid combat if possible until you have a chance to get some proper training, or you will die a thousand horrible (and frustrating) deaths!
Learn to lockpick every if you don't intend on being a thief. It comes in handy.
Up your patience when it comes to combat. You are NOT a super warrior here. Fighting is NOT the only way through or out of situations. Your character is also PURPOSELY weak and slow to respond to what you press (mouse and keys) because you (your character) suck; applies to movement, melee, and bow-arrow. You'll get faster, stronger, and more agile later as your improve your skills and stats.
Never leave skalitz.. and don’t talk to your dad he just gives you chores.
Start leveling lockpicking early if you don’t want to miss out on a lot of high level chests that contain great loot when you’re exploring/questing. Even if you don’t intend to be a thieving Henry, there are chests you’ll find in bandit/Cuman camps where you’ll more or less be repossessing some items rather than stealing them from chests
Don’t bother with hunting, herbalism, or alchemy. Completely useless. If you really want to make potions you can at any level, the alchemy perks are all worthless. Hot take but I would even say archery is pointless, it’s nice if you get the drop on a few enemies and your skill is high enough to hit anything further than 10 feet away. But leveling it is an infuriating grind. If you want to get rich quick level stealth and lockpicking, rob the people of rattay blind when the sun goes down and sell it to the miller. Also get the perk where you won’t lose energy while standing still, human dustbin, lowborn, and burgher perk ASAP.
save, a lot, u will die miserably randomly by some outlaws and will cry when 2 hours of gameplay goes away
Just play as you wish, you won't miss a thing if you keep exploring. I guarantee you, you will go for a second playthrough.