Tips on fighting at low level??

[I'm too old for this]

So game is great so far, and I enjoy the realism of combat. Problem is my guy is a scrub barely able to fight off a corpse robber with an axe.

To be fair, I wasn’t very reserved my first fight with corpse robbers and didn’t block much. Once I started blocking it got much better, although it seems hard to do enough damage at times.

I picked up the stronghold perk which reduces block stamina loss by 30 percent which helps a lot. I’m just getting to the start where you finally wake up with Theresa’s uncle helping you out, so I recognize as I level up and get training, things will improve.

But any hints for low level fighting?? Weapons to avoid, ones to use, and any general advice? I’m not dying Constantly or anything, but I’d like to get better sooner, relying on skill instead of perks and levelling up only.

[Suomipoika11]

It's more to pick one favorite melee weapon style and stick to it, unless you like to grind...I mean train with Bernard . Unless you want to battle at Tournaments, then you'd better be master at all, or at least know the master defence.

But before you even plan to explore the wide world , you'd better get to spot where you're told to Find Lubosh at main plot . Battles untill then are quite manageable at that point, 1-2 enemies that you do get a drop on, then train your favorite style with Bernard.

[Artruis]

you fight Captain Bernard until you are no longer a peasant who don't know how to handle a sword.

also just kite them on horseback with bow and arrow if you can't be bothered with training.

[YOGI]

go fistfight a few times..this alone helps you get more strength and is part of the training, as HITS are a Strength thing with weapons too.

[MrMuse]

Collect enough weeds to level up herbalism then take the perk that levels up strength along with herbalism. Fight with mace as it will help you crush armored enemies in the late game but also sword. You don't really need axe imo. Train with bow at archery in Rattay..select beginner and stick with it until you know its a source of infinite income grind...continue with advanced (archery is the best way to level agility but it's pretty slow) . Do ALL the training with Bernard apart from the first two which are sparring for later and can seriously damage both you and your gear if you are too weak and inexperienced. In all early fistfights it's best to use mainly fast attack which also interrupts the enemy slower attack and will provide you with faster per hit advancement.

Keep in mind that if you decide to specialise in sword that short and longswords are completely different. Shortswords are mainly based on agility or agility with a smaller strength requirement. They are better than longsword for sword and shield. Longswords are purely based on strength - if you take this route buy Herod's sword at rattay swordsmith as soon as you can afford it and weild it without penalty. Don't worry too much about durability early on. With durability discounted (because you can pay for repairs and or pick up repair kits to advance maintenance skill) the sword 'Assassin' is your best option for cheap early high damage and make sure you get a blacksmith kit to keep it repaired.

Whilst not necessary i highly recommend doing your own repairs using such kits as maintenance also provides some excellent perks that make everything more effective. Aside from the blacksmith kit for weapons you will need armor kit, tailor kit, and cobbler's kit for non plate footware.

Increase vitality by running and jumping as much as possible.

Make sure you do the miller questlines to advance your thieving skills as these will become an important source of income and without money you can't gear up well enough to be much use in a fight. Store all stolen goods on your horse once you have one to avoid being thrown in jail and losing stolen items if you are caught. It's generally not a good idea to carry stolen goods on your person unless you have no other option.

Ignore "noise" when buying armor because it's a simple matter to just remove all your plate when you want to sneak and you will want the best you can get when getting into multiple opponent melee. If caught sneaking into enemy camp remember to put your plate back on quickly before the enemy engage.

Do NOT use the cheesy save mod. Get the recipe for Saviour Shnaps and use it to level alchemy. Then you will have as many saves as you need without cheating thus making death by combat largely irrelevent.

But if a fight is going badly try to run away..this can spread out the enemy and cause some to give up on their attack allowing you to pick them off in smaller groups. Kill sleeping enemies with a dagger or bow. Poisoning enemy camp food or drink will not kill them but it will give you a definite advantage as long as you leave enough time for them to eat/drink it.

[unknown]

Originally posted by MrMuse:

Collect enough weeds to level up herbalism then take the perk that levels up strength along with herbalism. Fight with mace as it will help you crush armored enemies in the late game but also sword. You don't really need axe imo. Train with bow at archery in Rattay..select beginner and stick with it until you know its a source of infinite income grind...continue with advanced (archery is the best way to level agility but it's pretty slow) . Do ALL the training with Bernard apart from the first two which are sparring for later and can seriously damage both you and your gear if you are too weak and inexperienced. In all early fistfights it's best to use mainly fast attack which also interrupts the enemy slower attack and will provide you with faster per hit advancement.

Keep in mind that if you decide to specialise in sword that short and longswords are completely different. Shortswords are mainly based on agility or agility with a smaller strength requirement. They are better than longsword for sword and shield. Longswords are purely based on strength - if you take this route buy Herod's sword at rattay swordsmith as soon as you can afford it and weild it without penalty. Don't worry too much about durability early on. With durability discounted (because you can pay for repairs and or pick up repair kits to advance maintenance skill) the sword 'Assassin' is your best option for cheap early high damage and make sure you get a blacksmith kit to keep it repaired.

Whilst not necessary i highly recommend doing your own repairs using such kits as maintenance also provides some excellent perks that make everything more effective. Aside from the blacksmith kit for weapons you will need armor kit, tailor kit, and cobbler's kit for non plate footware.

Increase vitality by running and jumping as much as possible.

Make sure you do the miller questlines to advance your thieving skills as these will become an important source of income and without money you can't gear up well enough to be much use in a fight. Store all stolen goods on your horse once you have one to avoid being thrown in jail and losing stolen items if you are caught. It's generally not a good idea to carry stolen goods on your person unless you have no other option.

Ignore "noise" when buying armor because it's a simple matter to just remove all your plate when you want to sneak and you will want the best you can get when getting into multiple opponent melee. If caught sneaking into enemy camp remember to put your plate back on quickly before the enemy engage.

Do NOT use the cheesy save mod. Get the recipe for Saviour Shnaps and use it to level alchemy. Then you will have as many saves as you need without cheating thus making death by combat largely irrelevent.

But if a fight is going badly try to run away..this can spread out the enemy and cause some to give up on their attack allowing you to pick them off in smaller groups. Kill sleeping enemies with a dagger or bow. Poisoning enemy camp food or drink will not kill them but it will give you a definite advantage as long as you leave enough time for them to eat/drink it.

a few things you missed. repair your swords and axes on the grinding weel then immediatly dull them and shapen them to level up maintenence as this doesnt' cost anything and since you will sharpen yoru plade anyways you cannot do damage that you cannot repair back to 100%

As far as poisoning goes if you poison their drinks and drinking pot and wait until after a meel they will die as i have killed entire encampments through this method, however you want to use the bane potion as it will kill as the regular poison will simply weeken them

longswords also are best with high agility, however strength also helps and is a wapon that relys on a balance of the two vs the mace and ax that require strait strength and the short sword that is strait agility. however level up you mace as this will be your mid game go to weapon (late game you can one hit people with a longsword in plate armor so long as you target their weekest part) longswords also do an avrage of double the damage of shortswords and can kill faster and be used semi affective against plate armor, however only if you are good.

The best longsword in the game is st georges sword and it is found relatively early in the game its in the trunk with sir capons stuff in the bath house and their is no penalty for stealing it and i find that i actually stop using this sword in favor of the worst sword in the game called thumper as all of the other swords do 100-130 damage both slashing and stabbing and i prefer my enemies to not die in one shot.

your skill at the combat system also gets better to the point where early game isn't super hard, however you find that the biggest disadvantage your character faces is agility and the higher your agility the easier it is to block and the quicker you attack which is why at the beginning none of your attacks land so some most of the "this combat is terrible" is due to the penalty the game places on you before you level up as you cannot do combos, win a clinch, or even strike an opponent without them hitting your or master striking you with low agility

[MistrBill]

A tip from one newbie to another that I haven't seen here- pay attention to your enemy's equipment. This is mentioned in places, but I'd forgotten it. I got killed several times in an encounter with two bandits. One of them seemed bloody well invincible to me, until I remembered that part, and put some arrows in his unarmored legs. He went down in two or three shots. I assume it works the same in hand to hand, but I didn't want to give him yet another chance to cave my head in.

[unknown]

Originally posted by MistrBill:

A tip from one newbie to another that I haven't seen here- pay attention to your enemy's equipment. This is mentioned in places, but I'd forgotten it. I got killed several times in an encounter with two bandits. One of them seemed bloody well invincible to me, until I remembered that part, and put some arrows in his unarmored legs. He went down in two or three shots. I assume it works the same in hand to hand, but I didn't want to give him yet another chance to cave my head in.

this is very important. If their arms dont have protection attack the high left and right attacks and stabb left and right if its their legs do the low veriation. Remeber you can choose to attack center or all of the 5 directions with a stab and hit those enemies right in the face which does a ton of damage. also interrupt your opponents attacks by forcing a chinch or master striking...this usually means a free hit and if you have a mace that will often knock them out

[MrMuse]

Yeah easiest way to kill Runt is 2 arrows to the face (as he has no head armor and cant block an arrow)...bit cheesy though

[Teralitha]

Use a bow. Even with no skill you can still win a fight with a tough enemy.

[unknown]

Originally posted by MrMuse:

Yeah easiest way to kill Runt is 2 arrows to the face (as he has no head armor and cant block an arrow)...bit cheesy though

in hardcore mode he has a helmet

[Uldra]

Combat:

Perfect block:
A perfect block is performed if you press q right when the opponent gets ready to swing at you. You have to look at your enemy, there are no Indicators at hardcore. Train with Captain Bernart for 1 hour minimum after the tutorial.

Stamina in combat:
Think of stamina as your Shield, if you get hit or block you loose stamina. Once you have no Stamina you loose health.
Meaning if you keep attacking someone & your out of stamina, he hits you with 1 combo and your dead.
Same counts the other way around, if someone hits you and you perfect block (costs 0 stamina) you can tire him out and then chain strike him to death.


Utilities you have in combat:
- Feint (act like you slash from above but then turn the sword to the side in the last moment)
- dodge with A,S,D depending where you want to go
- Shift - W,A,S,D to break combat / switch target, get away to find a better position.
- several combos
- Chain strike

Bonus tips:
1) If you see your opponent struggle blocking your blows it means he is out of stamina, even if you are at 0 stamina, keep hitting him, don't let him recover.
2) You hit where ever he does not hold sword. For example if he holds his sword down left, feint above, hit right.

Combat takes a lot of praktice, not only for Henry but also for the player. Henry gets stronger over time and combat is more forgiving. If you have some combos memorized and can work them into your rotation ( find the right moment to use it) combat becomes a fluent motion.