A few questions

[SIMelissa]

I have a few basic questions for anyone who has the time to answer one or more of them.

1. Does the enemy need to be wiped off the map in order to progress?
I ask because killing gives me a bad reputation but stunning does not allow me to burn a settlement.

2. Interrogating the enemy usually gives me a lot of useless information. "I'll tell you where so and so is" -- usually a name that I'm not familiar with and don't care about. Will this information come into play later in the game?

3. Objectives. How do I get new ones? Are objectives and crafting the only way to gain SP?

Edited to add:
I don't play online. I'm strictly a single player gal so no SOCIAL.
Any and all beginner tips are appreciated.

[bkrrrrr]

It isn't a race to control the map. Play the long game and make your camps stronger and more secure in your core territory, while slowing enemy growth. Unless you want wall-to-wall gonzo combat you don't want to go over about 60% map control because the cavalry starts coming after that.

The stuff you get from interrogation is side-quests. Don't let it distract you from the main goal of making your camps and home gathering/crafting area secure.

You get skill points from success. Intimidation or kills, with some crafting on the side if you want a few extra SP.

[SIMelissa]

Thank you!
Great information, especially:

Originally posted by bkrrrrr:

It isn't a race to control the map.

Unfortunately, racing to control the map is exactly what I've been trying to do. No cavalry yet. Almost 100 hours into the game and I've not made it nearly that far. This game is HARD!

I'd have given up if I didn't figure out a work-around for going back to a previous save -- which is a real hassle, btw. I understand the developers wanting to make a difficult game for hardcore players but they should have an easy mode option for old ladies (like me) who play only single-player games.

[bkrrrrr]

There's a steep learning curve. There are hard ways to play, and easy ways to play, but you have to figure out what works and what doesn't and the consequences. I've been playing for many years, so I don't use the new survival stuff, don't actually have the railroad in any of my Resistances, and I use the Ancestor's Bow with Stun Arrows and stealth which are the Easy Mode way to go.

[EpikIce]

1. You need to kill them or I think it's called intimidate. When they are knocked out you put smoke or something on them and they get up dazed and run out of the camp. This doesn't raise the bad reputation and once they and all other members of the camp are gone, then you can burn it.

Note, when taking a camp, sometimes enemies leave the camp and go a long ways away. You have to wait and comeback or find them. Once burning their camps, you can set up your own in that region and that allows expansion, once you've take the whole map, it's game over so you don't need to race.

2. Interrogation can do 2 things that I know of, complete an objective because you are interrogating the correct person for the objective, or show you the treasure. The treasure will be a '?' on the map that you go dig up with a shovel, it is usually near the camp where you got the information.

3. Objectives come as you play the game. XP can be gained by fighting also. If I remember right you get more XP for knocking out then intimidating enemies than you do for killing them. So slow play stealth at night with a bow (stun arrows) in the beginning tends to work for getting XP faster in my opinion.

For tips, I don't know what you have for Warpaints, but they can really help. There are ones that give you -100% animal reaction chance which is nice for avoiding bears and wolves. There are others that raise damage, healing ect.

When you start the game, really take the time to find a name that has bonuses that work for you. I really like health and carry weight. I like to find ones that have +500 or more to health and at least +30 to carry weight. I like to play to not die at all so high health is important to me and the weight is because.... well.... I tend to pick stuff up. I watched many YouTube videos where people play with little carry weight and health as a challenge, and while I like watching that, I don't enjoy playing that way.

You can name your horse too. This can give them bonus carry weight/speed.
I haven't played in awhile so I can't think of more at the moment, but there are a bunch of good videos on YouTube.

[SIMelissa]

Originally posted by EpikIce:

1. You need to kill them or I think it's called intimidate. When they are knocked out you put smoke or something on them and they get up dazed and run out of the camp. This doesn't raise the bad reputation and once they and all other members of the camp are gone, then you can burn it.

I did not realize they left camp after being intimidated. That is good to know!

As far as Warpaint, I just have the basic stuff that came with the base game. I use the set that gives me 9 additional weight. I'm using a name that gave me +15 weight and 900+ SP. The highest health I've seen offered is in the 180 range. Never seen one as high as 500.

I've watched a few videos that have been helpful. A lot have information that doesn't apply to my game, probably because I don't use survival, SOCIAL or own the Founders Edition. For example, I saw one player drink from the river. Not an option in my game. Neither is the Ancestor's bow.

I spend a lot of time manually creating save files, which makes "dying" (knocked down) easier for me to deal with but it is time consuming and a hassle. Worth is, though. It's not nearly as bad as losing my stuff again and again and again only to have my enemies get stronger and stronger to the point where it is just not fun.

[bkrrrrr]

You can purchase war paints with skill points. They are very useful, and you don't want to go anywhere without one on.

Don't forget to level up your bonded horse. You have to keep checking when it's ready to level up since there isn't any kind of alert. Your horse gets skill when you fight from horseback - the easy way to do that is hunting animals from horseback.

Keep in mind the order you research skills will have a huge effect on your game, since the cost of skills increases as you have more of them researched. You want to think through which skills you chose to research first based on your preferred methods, and put effort into locking in a good basic set of skills before you really start engaging larger camps.

I can't see any reason why you wouldn't use the resources in SOCIAL. You don't need to buy/sell if you don't want to. At the very least you might as well collect the skill points and resources from passively completing the daily mission things, and the stash is always a useful place to store emergency items. Te server has been flaky recently but it's just bonus content.

Never let your warriors use bad guns, or short-range guns. Bows are OP.

And, learn the way of the Stun Arrow.

[SIMelissa]

Originally posted by bkrrrrr:

I can't see any reason why you wouldn't use the resources in SOCIAL. You don't need to buy/sell if you don't want to. At the very least you might as well collect the skill points and resources from passively completing the daily mission things, and the stash is always a useful place to store emergency items. Te server has been flaky recently but it's just bonus content.

I don't play multiplayer games with strangers. And since I'm a terrible player, my guess is that they wouldn't want to play with me either. LOL

Is it possible to access SOCIAL without multiplayer?

That brings up another question. I chose the offline game and I still get notifications of other players who have been "knocked down." Are they real players or faux players that the game uses as objectives?

Ah, I have to fight from my horse to get her to level up. I was wondering why she wasn't advancing in her skill. I usually get off the horse and attack on foot, even the prison wagon. It's easier for me to shoot when I'm off the horse. Good advice about hunting on my horse. That would be good practice.

And yes, Stun Arrow is my next objective to learn.

[bkrrrrr]

This is not a multiplayer game. The SOCIAL tab is just trading and chat.

The loot bags that show up from other players being knocked down are just a bit of spice to make it feel like there are other warriors out there in the world. It's just a loot bag.

When it says "(NPC character name) was sent by (player name)" it just means that people who purchased the Founders DLC got to provide names for NPCs in the game. I provided two NPC names to use in the game that were from my distant ancestors.

To level up your horse you need to look at the top of the saddlebag horse interaction window and see if the progress bar has reached the next level, then you can see what ingredient you need to put in there to activate the level.

[SIMelissa]

Originally posted by bkrrrrr:

This is not a multiplayer game. The SOCIAL tab is just trading and chat.

OK. Now I feel silly. I thought "online" play meant multiplayer.
I just now turned on the online mode and will check out SOCIAL.

Originally posted by bkrrrrr:

When it says "(NPC character name) was sent by (player name)" it just means that people who purchased the Founders DLC got to provide names for NPCs in the game. I provided two NPC names to use in the game that were from my distant ancestors.

Oooh, that is very cool!
Did you submit names of your cowboy or indian ancestors?
My Native American ancestors are Cherokee, and as far back as I'm able to trace, the majority had "European" names, though at least a couple (including had tradition native names as well.

I don't think I'll be buying the Founders DLC. I was gifted this game during a sale. No way I'm going to pay full price just to add a few bonus perks. I'm too cheap for that. :-)

As for my horse, she just leveled up for the first time. She deserved it.

[bkrrrrr]

Originally posted by SIMelissa:

Did you submit names of your cowboy or indian ancestors?

I picked a couple of first generation arrivals to north america, though not the oldest by any measure. I don't know of any ancestors that were actually on the "Frontier" after the "mayflower" ones, but of course a lot of the women on the ancestry tree are dead ends since they are often only recorded by first name as if they had hatched right out of the earth on their wedding day or something.

[SIMelissa]

No Mayflower families here. That's cool that you can trace your ancestors back that far!

I don't think any of mine were ever on the "frontier" either. I did have family on the Trail of Tears and a great-great (great?) Grandpa who served with Stand Watie (Cherokee general) during the Civil War.

And yeah, it is so difficult to follow the matriarchal genealogy line. Almost as bad, many of the women had the same first names.