Any tips for a successful combat victory?

[Trowa Barton]

I've been playing for only a little while so I have a lot to learn but so far Prestige or Spirit Stones really seems the way to go. I've been trying to get my first combat victory and it just leads to epic failure every time. Once I got lightning striked, then even though I cleared the King's Guards more spawned and I can only survive so many attacks. The fact that you lose all your AP when you enter the palace just really stymies me. I get why that mechanic is in place, but getting a combat victory really just seems to be ridiculously difficult. Any advice?

I've been trying to buff up via quests but since my quests keep spawning on opposite sides of the map (a serious annoyance) by the time the King is running low on health I often can't clear all my quests. And I've found you have to start going after the king when he's at like 3 health or so because of all the darn time it takes to travel to him, break the peril, deal with the guards, and deal with losing all your AP upon entering the castle. This is even dealing with the fact that the King is ridiculously tough and even if you kill him, chances are he'll kill you back and that makes everything pointless. This has happened to me more than once. Overall, it's just really turning me off the game, I play to have fun, not be frustrated.

Playing on PS4 for what it's worth but this seems like the most active community to discuss the game. Also, been playing Thane and River, would another character be better for a combat victory approach?

EDIT: So, after posting this turns out I cheated my way to a combat victory. Had quit a game mid-turn because it was clear I was going to lose. When I came back after posting this the save was back at the beginning of my turn, so the rolls were in my favor 2nd time around, I didn't get pushed out of the palace, and was able to kill the king. I'll take it, I don't even care at this point. Probably will never go for a combat win ever again.

[Cperpetuo]

People usually think "i have to kill the king, so i'm gonna build lots of sword status". But the secret here is: you don't need a lot of firepower to kill him in the last turns, but you need to survive so the victory doesn't go to the prestige dude. Try to focus on defense with your items and stuff.. should work. I think a five in sword is enough.

[funkylegend]

Uhm...lol. First, you are right, getting a combat victory is much tougher than spirit stone (which I consider the easiest) and prestige victory. Rot is still more difficult.

There are several things you have to consider, if you want to get this victory:
First thing: which characters are good for a combat victory?

Number one here clearly is River. She can snipe a 1 HP king without even having to fight (still counts as combat victory). Next really good one is Thane, although it is way more difficult. Thanes abiltiy allows him to burn card with sword symbol to get a piercing attack. Third one - and this seems a little bit surprising- is Sana. During lategame the king gets corrupted, which allows Sana to fight using her sprit stat-which starts as high as Thane's attack stat. Also this allows you to afford spells like teleport or bansish or the extra AP spell, meaning you can do your quests more efficiently. There are also cards like feral and mirror image helping you during the fight. Brun can do similar stuff like sana, and his extra fight for each spell are ehlping him more when fightg the king, but the downside compared to sana is that his spirit stat is not that high and he cannot afford that many and that good spells as sana.

Barnaby and Zosha are also okay for this task but not that great.

Amber and Mercurio do not have any effects or stat distribution which favours them for a kill victory.

Second: Which Rings are good for the kill victory?
For the Wolf Clan the last ring is my preferred one. It gives higher mobility on mountains allowing you te get to your quests faster.

For the Bear Clan the first ring is my preferred one but also the last is worth a thought. The first ring gives +3 magic when in a forest during dawn, which means you can cast more spells and more expensive spells. The last ring considers the burn of sun and moon cards as a hit. This helps in the final battle where missing dices are extra dices for the king.

For the rabbit clan, probaly the second ring gives a slight advantage, providing more gold to get good stuff equipped.

For the rat clan the fourth ring is so much better than the other ones during the game, that I would not wnat to use another, just to get an advante for fighting the king. The only ring, really providing anthing in the battle against the king, is the third one, letting one sword explade.


Third: What equipment should I have for killing the king?
When fighting the king, you should have at least 3 shields (unless being River, but even she has to fight the gurds). Thus the best things you can wear are:
Heavy Plate Armour (+3 shields -1AP)
Lionheart Armour (+2 Shields)
Battle Armour (+2 Shields -1dice)
Helm of Heroes (+1 Shield +1 Wit)
Relieable Shield (+1 Shield)

Avoid stuff giving you rot.

It depends a little on your charcter, what stuff you have to use.
If you are Thane, best Choice is complete defense and simply burning one sword card.
If you are Sana/Brun/Barnabay/Zosha: Consider a Longbow or a high attack item (like heavy falil). You have to do damage to kill the king-and at lest the first 3 Characters start with 5 Body, which is quite durable. Also at leat sana can usually boost herself with magic.

Forth and last: Stat distribution.
I recommend at least 5 wits (better 6), unless you are sana. Sana is fine with 4 wits (5 recommended).
Wits are good for the burning of cards, to get the right symbols. This reduces the king's chance to get extra dice for your misses. Sana who will cast spells before fighting and has a good inital body can do it with 1 less. Also wits help you pass the perils.
Your character should have at least that much health that health+shields>7. The king can do a lot of damage.
For Sana spirit is good way to increase her combat potenital.
The other characters should go with a fight and body increase after they reached the above goals (I usually prefer body and use piercing abilities).
I recommend to get your wits to 5 as soon as possible. Having more cards helps during every figth and every peril, gives you more chances to get equipment or good spells. The wits amulet -in my opinion- is generally the best stat bonus choice at the beginning (unless you are Mercurio).
For Sana you have to get a mix of spirit and body, maybe one wit, while the other should get another wit and a body (or vice versa), then continuing with a mix of fight or body. If you see, you are running out of time (king has 3 health), you should try to get to a palace peril you can open, even if this means you have to abandon the last 2 or 3 quests (last quest does not give stat boost anyway). For wits palce perils you need wyld-sword-shield-rot and for spirit palace perils you need wyld-sun-moon-rot, so try to get and keep these symbols on hand.

[Vawerapi]

TLDR:
7-8 Fight, 4-5 Body usually works. I grab a lot of shield equipment. I'll try to pick up on River Thane or Zosha, as they have both a nice stat distribution but also worthy abilities.

[narf03]

Piercing is the best option against the king, you just need to attack him once or twice, with piercing, its confirmed hit, ignoring all his defence, all you need is to make sure you dont die, so you will need alot of shield.

[Alpro]

Armors.

[SleipnirS]

Get the best armors you can (try to equip the heavy one before fighting the king, you won't need that AP anyway) and use a piercing weapon or keep enough sword cards for the fight if you're playing Thane. Also, try to get combat boosts such has bark skin, ferocious or a beer. Don't equip too much stuff that makes you lose dices unless you can pierce the king's defences cause losing one dice for 2 shield dices may look like a good deal but this one dice could proc multiple wyld/rot dices ... (already saw a guy playing Sana that had only 3 dices to use and ended doing 7 dmgs to the attacker xD) depending on your level of rot. Best armors IMO are the heavy one (but don't equip it too early in the game cause -1 AP is a huge handicap for questing as a meleer) and the lion's heart one. If you need attack, the pistols or the weapon that gives you 2 swords when you attack (this one can't help you when someone attack you but if you engage first, you get 2 extra swords and you don't lose any dice for using it).

I never had a rot victory yet (was very close everytime but you know ... other players xD) and I thought about a "tank" strategy. Having good armors, the doll and alot of shield cards in your hand. You just have to engage the king when he has at least 2 HP and tank the battle. If you survive, your doll will kill him and tadaaa, all hail the new king :)

The worst isn't the fight itself, it's the players that can use spells on you to break your assault. Someone could just lower your rot level so you have no chance to beat the king cause you have like 8 rots and he has 9 :d

[Mister Burkes]

Once the king has 1-3 hp left, it's quite easy to kill. What you need is a decent hand full of playable combat dice, this ensures misses don't get re-rolled by the king. If you can fight him with at least 4 HP behind you and 4-5 shields, you should be good.

My most recent game, I killed the king when he had 2 hp left, and all I had was 1 heavy plate armor, 1 trusted shield, 1 shining sword. I was behind the entire game and unlocked Diplomat while the other 3 players played Prestige Farming Simulator :P