Sir hans capon duel

[Khergit]

Well I sword fighted with him and it seems like he has no health drain, fought for like 10 minutes and he still didn't lose. Is it possible to defeat him?

[Noeat]

yes, its possible, but its not easy

[Jwsto]

If it's too hard for you, go do side quests instead to get stronger

[Siegfried]

When NPC health doesn't decrease when you land hits on them it means they're protected by armour, which will take the damage to stamina instead of health.

To damage their health, you either have to drain their stamina fast or hits unprotected parts (open face helmet, guys who wears no helmets, simple leather pants, etc).

Or you can go in and repeatedly grapple them. If you keep winning grapple their stamina will be drained really quick.

[Walledhouse]

I beat Hans myself by a hair’s width. Nothing super dramatic happens, he just has to eat his words a little and hands over the bow.

I mean, it’s REALLY satisfying as a player though.

My tips are to be a master thief and steal the best armour for yourself. You can get some extra practice chopping up bandits. I personally didn’t seek out any extra training before the fight, but I can see how even a little extra protection could help. My shirt was chopped to ribbons.

You can fight all the bums in hand-to-hand in Rattay; which will give you some Strength and Warfare; and general experience dueling.

I found against Hans: Wait for perfect blocks against him and then punish with a swing. Do the thing where you aim in different directions quickly to feint. If he does one of those slow-down blocks; walk backward and try to block his follow up. If you land a hit; spam until you are out of energy and then walk backwards to recover; because opponents in this game tend to respond favourably to being overwhelmed. Once you have enough of a health advantage; you can probably just spam attacks and he’ll continue to be overwhelmed with his smaller stamina capacity.

[Kamamura]

I had much harder time outshooting him with the bow than defeating him with a blade. I defeated him every time with the sword, but I had to repeat the shooting part several times.

[Teratus]

Man that guy was annoying.

I thrash him in the Archery easy enough, can consistently get over 20 points.
But the Sword part really sucked, had a lot of trouble with that one.

After several failed attempts I ended up loading an older save and had do all the training again to beat him.
Basically equipped the best sword and armour I'd stole.. purchased completely legally.. yes that one.
And then took him down first time upon the retry.

Bow ain't even as good as some of the others i've stole.. purchased completely legally "cough" hmm yes. :)

[BIGDOJO]

i beat him the same way i beat kunesh, back up a bit and then suddenly move forward with a thrust attack, rinse and repeat. aim for his head.

[Blax]

people struggled with fighting hans? he has like no swords skill and is incredibly easy to beat if you have like 20 mins of training with a sword

[Teratus]

Originally posted by Blax:

people struggled with fighting hans? he has like no swords skill and is incredibly easy to beat if you have like 20 mins of training with a sword

I also had no sword skill XD
Plus NPC's don't have to worry about stamina like we do, one of the reasons the early game can be so difficult.. almost everyone is vastly better than you till you level them skills up.

[Sonrangeri]

I had no issues in beating him, but then again, I played this game a lot and long time, so knowing combat mechanics is extremely helpful.

[2GenL]

He has no armour on his head... So, only do headshots for a quicker end to the fight

[Jeff Kaos]

I beat him so it's possible. What I did was I created a save right before talking to Sir Bernhard and noted what the save number was (since you can't name saves). Then I went through the whole thing and got my butt kicked so I reloaded. Then I just did the combat tutorial up until we go to the archery range and then I would reload it over and over. The idea was to keep doing the first combat tutorial until I had a prefect grasp of how combat works in the game. I think I ran through it about 3 or 4 times before I was comfortable.

The key to the fight is to use the timed block and feint. The timed block is easy enough since all you need to do is press the block button as soon the green shield appears in the center of the reticle. Feints are a little trickier which is why I ran through the tutorial a few times. But one you understand how they work Hans can be beaten pretty easily as he seems to be a sucker for it.

For the archery competition I had a real struggle because up to that point I think I had one or two in the archer skill. The only thing I can think of that's useful is make the Bowman's Brew:

 Spirits
 Eyebright 2x (you can buy this from the Apothecary)
 St. John’s Wort 1x (You can find this all over the field near the Bath House and Gallows Hill)

Drop the Eyebright in the cauldron and boil for three turns. Allow the mixture to cool. Grind the St. John’s wort, then add it to the cauldron. Do not boil again. Distill in phial.

If you aim at the rope holding the stakes of the target together the arrow will drop on the bullseye.

[Sir. Foxford]

Never had any issues defeating him in less than a minute with a sword, and I usually score 18+ in the archery. And I play on hardcore. Most of my playthrus I don't even take a single hit from him. He's super easy.

Edit: I know this thread is 4 years old, but still. I've had the game since release.

[Gospodin Popara]

If i block and immediately slash/thrust after, he just blocks it and follows up with 3 unblockable attacks which don't even prompt the block timing. They also go straight through the holding block. And I had a shield too. I don't get this mechanic where some attacks are unblockable no matter what you do, and some are easy to block. I also don't get the mechanic where enemies can always grapple and kick you during a sword fight, but you can never do it to them. Also F (kick) does nothing during the Hans Capon fight. Just made me Alt + F4 the game after he did the unblockable flurry 3 times in a row every single time after i Block + Slash.

[Nibbla]

it was easy for me, because he fought unarmed, while I had a sword :D