Random Tips and Things I Wish I Knew From the Start

[ana is my mamari]

This is just a random list of tips I felt would be useful especially since there is almost no information on this game at the moment. None that's in English from what I could find at least. This is by no means meant to be a serious guide or a meta-decider, and please feel free to add your own tips if you have any.

Escaping Jade Starvation

You might notice around mid-game that promoting units is a serious drain on your jade stockpile especially if you're upgrading to high-tier units or spell casters.

Chests and locations on the map that contain jade can respawn, and if you can remember where the locations are when you visit them you can essentially farm them by coming back in a few in-game days.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1554262226561151435/C153741F23714971D7DD7DDE2966E1B4E72B571D/

You can also visit the numerous bandit camps scattered throughout the world, and while the bandits themselves don't respawn after you successfully besieged them, they can give you a small pile of jade that may be valuable to you early on. I found that the bandit camps that were most likely to give you a bunch of jade after winning the battle had chests of jade that you could see by mousing over them before running in and initiating dialogue.

You can also escape the jade drought by capturing towns that have jade quarries, but buildings can sometimes be destroyed when captured and rebuilding and upgrading jade quarries can be prohibitively expensive early on.

Activate/Deactivate aka Combine/Disband

If you gained a unit from a prison rescue, bought them from an animal merchant, or found them from a random event, you may find that you're unable to promote them.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1554262226561119719/1DA2AB44DD1CE01366B5C9BBBAEBE905C65D3CED/

At the bottom of the army window you'll see an "Activate" button, and this only shows up on partial units. Partial units may be unable to promote until they're a full unit. You can combine them with other partial units as long as they're the same type, and you cannot "activate" units together if one is a full unit and the other is a partial, wounded or otherwise. The levels of the partial units don't matter, only that they have the same exact name.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

While the animal merchants may rarely offer you an exotic creature, I find that their selection is too mundane and the chances too low.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1554262226561106436/7808C9B3E12AA0B48CCD4D93BA92363037E4DDEE/

Throughout the world you'll find locations on your map with this mark, and this signifies a potential location where you can recruit units.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1554262226561109694/A7A07B0C35CB06E2209B3C979EDE5BEE134C793A/

Locations that look like this however offer the opportunity to rescue rare and powerful creatures to join your army. They'll likely be partial units however which will hinder their ability to promote, but if you find more you can potentially unlock truly awesome units.

Random events are a thing however, so be sure to physically walk your army into interesting locations on the map to see what they offer, if anything.

Not Everyone is Created Equally

Some characters you journey with are, from what I've seen, way more powerful than others and what they all have in common are active skills.

When you hire characters take a look at their skills. A majority of characters likely have a skill lineup something like this.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1554262226561254581/4FE52128F582CD62366E45E36CEB11C5E5A8D803/

One or two active abilities and a butt-load of passives. This means their massive mana pool goes to waste while they auto-attack things to death after they use their only ability.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1554262226561265126/02D6E21B615920941EE9FF3E4D81EC5698B0FA8C/

Some characters have skill lineups that look more like this. This is Princess Bellen and her big, jiggly active abilities. With them she's able to fully utilize her massive mana pool in fights making her far more effective than a character that doesn't have any, and while you can teach characters more skills via skill books, this takes time and every skill book you give to them could've been a skill you gave to an already more powerful character. This is purely personal preference however and the best characters in the game are your favorites.

Characters that have multiple active abilities are:

• Alaf Jahim
  
• Ali Bantu
  
• Amzafa (*)
  
• Astrid (*)
  
• Badis (*)
  
• Bataru
  
• Batu (*)
  
• Blackmane (*)
  
• Fayiz
  
• Gizeh
  
• Ishtar
  
• Jibril
  
• Khaza
  
• Laik
  
• Lone Eagle (*)
  
• Lut Jahim
  
• Makan (*)
  
• Mhan Hassan
  
• Mousa (*)
  
• Princess Bellen
  
• Rabia (*)
  
• Sur
  
• Taharj
  
• Talat Hassan
  
• Threnody (only recruitable via legacy after completing her storyline)
  
• Tua
  
• Yakub
  
• Yaya
  
• Yousef (*)
  
• Yusuf (*)
  
• Zina (*)

Characters marked with an (*) use the stamina skill tree which grants them skills that don't deal damage, but makes them great tanks with good crowd control.

As you discover each character, check the bottom of the intel tab on the left, and you can parse through the entire cast of characters and their skills for a more complete list of their abilities. Every character in the game levels as you do and fills out their skill tree, so what you see in-game may not accurately reflect their final builds.

Make sure you travel around the world and discover side quests to unlock powerful characters for future runs.

Warmonger? I Hardly Knew Her!

I don't want to get too deep into army unit composition and potential, but the short end of it right now is that the initial clash of a fight will likely decide its outcome for a majority of battles. Your mileage will vary heavily, and even more so if the devs decide to do some balance changes in the future. This all comes from my own subjective experience.

Now with that said, Physical Attack and Magic Attack seem to have the biggest impact on whether a unit is dangerous or not. Right under that I'd check if the unit has any AoE abilities, and if they do, they've earned a spot in my army. Units that have crowd control and debuff cleanses are valuable as well simply because they make your real killers more effective.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1554262226561302975/6C3465D21EC3DD1DFE225F712E8FE29539F8EDDC/

Again this is purely subjective, but nothing turns the enemy lines more into ground beef than a Thur Warmonger. Silver Warriors and Dhib Swordsmen are also human blenders, and monsters like the Holy Naga are also incredibly powerful for the same reasons: High Attack and AoE.

I also generally shy away from super tanky units like Savage Giants and Nasir Guard Cavalry solely because of my own play style, but they're fantastic units in their own right. Battles mainly revolve around one violent, initial charge and subsequent cleanup of the enemy back line. Those of you that have played Mount and Blade and rolled with Swadian Knights know what I mean. There simply isn't enough time in most battles for tanky units to shine before the outcome is decided, apart from sieges, but you'll obviously have your own preference and play style. As such there are numerous units that I'd call amazing:

• Thur Warmonger
  
• Silver Warrior
  
• Dhib Swordsmen
  
• Nasir Mystic Elder
  
• Akhal Prophet
  
• Sandworm Queen
  
• Holy Naga

This is just a small list of units I'd consider extremely powerful, and other units such as the Nasir Cleric are also no-brainers for any army. Dakn Elders also get a special mention for their mind-control abilities that can potentially steal the enemy's powerful units, and Dakn Master Slayers for their insane chase abilities and move speed. I strongly suggest trying out all of the units and finding your favorites as there aren't any that I'd really consider useless.

Managing Your Faction

You can create your own faction by conquering a settlement while not employed by any other faction. Doing so will make every other faction extremely angry with you, but not any of their individual characters. This means they're going to declare war on you, but they might still like you and can be potentially recruited.

After you create your faction, you can issue new orders to characters that follow you such as appointing them ownership of a settlement, or telling them to follow you around with their army (if they have one). You can also create new armies by appointing your characters as commanders through their dialogue. You don't need to grant them any settlements to do so, just simply give them permission to command and send them away (don't banish them).

You can open the intel screen to execute orders to your vassals from long distance via the "Diplomacy & Strategy" button on the top right. Using this menu you're able to:

• Appoint Sultans
  
• Depose Sultans (revoke territories but they stay in your faction)
  
• Reassign personnel (this one is particularly useful for appointing homeless vassals)
  
• Muster up a squad (functions as a call-to-arms)
  
• Disband a squad
  
• Disband faction

Vassal-owned territories are useful to you because while you're no longer able to make adjustments to their garrisons or their buildings, the AI will function as it normally would on its own. This includes having its own recruitment pool to fill its garrison, and the AI's own magical way of filling its army slots when you're not looking, saving you time, money, and resources.

You still gain all of the taxes earned by caravans even if the territories are no longer managed by you.

Master and Commander

You can give your units orders by using hotkeys or utilizing the buttons on the right side of the screen in battle. While this may seem obvious at first, the power you have as the commander can completely destroy the enemy with nary a casualty.

This is especially powerful in sieges as deployment rules favor the smaller force with reinforcements being forced to trickle in through capture points. Combine this with the AI's obsession with defending, and you'll find that you're able to easily win sieges 5:1.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1554262226562479558/254C1E60629C20F77FD641FC49F7346913481904/

When commanding your units to attack, your units will (attempt to) capture the closest capture point allowing you to take on the enemy's army piecemeal. As long as your army stays cohesive through spamming the attack/follow commands, your units shouldn't get any creative ideas regarding pathing on certain maps. However units will likely "forget" commands often when they feel they've fulfilled them, so beware.

Extra Unrelated Tips

• Getting White Rose Potions to heal your wounded units early on can be a pain, but you can get the green "Potion Brewing" Talents in your tree to help alleviate the need. You can also raid certain dungeons for unlimited White Rose Potions. One example is the Arbor Palace; it's north by north east of "Fleur (Northwest Outpost)" in the Umber Cliffs. Toward the end of the main quest you will also gain access to a special area which will help lessen the burden of acquiring White Rose Potions.
  
  
• If a faction loses all of its settlements, its characters are no longer aligned with their faction including their leaders. This means you're able to recruit any of its characters, and possibly its leader (I haven't been able to get any of them to like me enough to test this).
  
  
• One of the small buttons on the bottom left of your screen shows you your character's legacy progression. Completing each of these achievements grants future characters more legacy points for future runs.
  
  
• You can find consumables that permanently increase any character's stats and skill points in dungeons and by exploring, so don't fret if you feel a character's build is incomplete after hitting max level.
  
  
• The love interest NPCs in towns such as Redstone Keep can sometimes give you hints for certain quests. This is especially useful right now as there isn't a ton of resources for this game, but this tip will hopefully be irrelevant in the near future as Salzaar gains popularity.
  
  
• Weapon durability is a pain but there is a mod out there right now that circumvents it. I didn't ask them for permission and I don't know if they care or not, so I'll just simply tell you to search "durability" in the Steam Workshop for this game and you'll know what I'm talking about. It's in Chinese right now but it still functions and the item stats are still readable.
  
  
• Try to save gifts when you find them because they're the easiest way to get characters to like you. Inventory space is at a premium but finding one of your favorite characters and being unable to win them over to your side without doing chores for them can be painful.
  
  
• You can have a maximum of 10 character slots 3 of which are legacy unlockable, and 40 unit slots 11(?) of which are legacy unlockable.
  
  
• You'll eventually have enough talent points to completely fill out the tree and then some. You can spend points into differential exclusive talents and activate/deactivate one or the other as much as you want.
  
  
• Love interests telepathically nag you. It's up to you if you like having an omniscient wife give you dialogue pop-ups as you travel, but their dialogue doesn't obstruct anything.
  
  
• You can hold Ctrl to speed up dialogue as well as travel speed on the map.
  
  
• Over time, characters may collect powerful items. This is announced to you when this happens, and if you know their location you can check their inventory in the Intel screen. Defeating them may allow you to steal the rare and powerful equipment from them.

That's pretty much it right now, please feel free to add your own tips you have any.

[SwiftBlade]

many thanks.
I'm just playing and getting stuck now.
I play as Knight Errand,first map, lv10, and I'm become war with all the Factions. Can only visit town at night by sneaking in (Just like M&B). I meet some NPC (free= into the wild). And they are 0 relation to me (Cold). So I cant recruit them, only gift or do their quest to increase relations right. Most of time they ask me to deliver things to some place or someone. When the town is raided, they even move away. And I cant find them, the Intel do not tell their current location (M&B does).
So now I"m still alone with a zoo of wolf and python, farmer... I have 2 wolf pack 2/2. Can I merge them into 4/4.

[ana is my mamari]

@SwiftBlade

You can merge your wolf packs provided they both are in the same place in their upgrade tree.

[Liberal 3x cat owner]

This is fantastic! Thank you very much for the write up!

[Petrosilius Zwackelmann]

hey awesome guide mate, one question where can you recruit Savage Giants?

[ana is my mamari]

@Petrosilius Zwackelmann They upgrade from Savage Warriors which upgrade from Savage Boors. They can sometimes be found when attempting to hire mercenaries from cities.

@digmouse Hey thanks for pinning the thread. I hope that this helps some folks who would otherwise shy away from early access games like this.

[Petrosilius Zwackelmann]

thx and where can i find threnody?

[Melodic]

Where are thur warmongers?

[Ghost Potato]

Apparently deactivate just gets rid of a unit... would have liked a tooltip about that ;

[Yoonic]

Nice guide, I finished the game already and still got some tips out of this.

Do you know where to find the female peasants that can upgrade to silver warriors? I recruited 1 batch of peasant on the Northeast of Tili-something valley, but have been unable to find more since.

[ana is my mamari]

@Petrosilius Zwackelmann I believe the start of her quest is immediately north of "Snowridge (West Outpost)".

@Melodic They're a part of the Thurian upgrade tree. You can recruit Thurians from any minor settlement in the Umbra Cliffs.

@Yoonic As far as I'm aware, units like peasants are just recruited randomly from events, rescues, and maybe as mercenaries. If there are more consistent ways to recruit units like that I wish I knew.

[ras1116]

I just find out that you can recruit savage boors at umbra cliff cities and towns, as there a way to recruit dragons?

[SwiftBlade]

Originally posted by ras1116:

I just find out that you can recruit savage boors at umbra cliff cities and towns, as there a way to recruit dragons?

Yes, You must disable Real mode option in Game Content Setting. Then you can recruit mythical units like Demon, dragons... If you find a dragon on map, defeat it and it will join you. I fought one dragon in UmbCliff (red I think), then 1 blue draon in Ice map (Zagros Mountain).
Here some boss location. We need a wikia asap.
https://gamesgds.com/sands-of-salzaar-boss-locations-monsters-dragons-and-more-on-map/

And location with Head icon (Dungeon that you get pet join you). I found one that have Demon. Top Left map of Umbra. It's random next time I try it give me Brown bear.

1 Demon in the first map (Red stone)

[ras1116]

No wonder the dragons did not join me! damn i wished there is a game tutorials for these
where did you find the blue dragon? been having a hard time looking for that one

[Mighty Pancake]

I defeated a dragon previously and I had the real mode turned off. And it didn't join me.

[SubjectThrone31]

same, I just cleared both the ones in Umber Cliff (Fire and Venom) and had spaces in my party but didn't join. I already had Ice dragon and Demon team maybe there's a limit to the op units?