Band of bastards dlc. How to save them all?(Spoiler alert)

[SmudgyRotter]

You all probably got this a lot. I searched internet but there is no solid solution. Also, extra question: what did you all here do to Jakey in the end? (It disappointed me that Jakey did betray the band, I really thought he was set by Kuno to be double agent lol).

[SmudgyRotter]

Originally posted by Zuao:

Try untill you make it.
You can save the game (and use potions) right before you clash.

First time I did it must have taken like 20 tries.
I just completed this quest yesterday for the second time, on Hardcore, also while keeping everyone alive. Maybe I just got lucky, but what did the trick in the 7th or 8th attempt yesterday was poisoning a longsword with Dollmaker potion and poking everyone I could to spread the poison. In the end I personally killed just two guys and the band did the rest, including dispatching Hagen Zoul.
I even followed the band back to camp and no one bled out.

What makes Dollmaker better than Bane is that it reduces enemy skills, while making them slower and with 50% less stamina, so they can't defend or attack properly while reaching the damage threshold faster. This in theory, haven't experimented much with it.

And with Jakey, I sent him to prison the first time. I was after the achievements, so I left him tied then reloaded and cut him loose. I was intending to reload again and take him to prison after getting the achievement, but if you let him go he tells you Hagen intends to bribe Kuno, which you will tell him later and opens another dialog option when dealing with Hagen, so I went with the let go option this time around.
Also, you can either tell Kuno you let him go, which he chews your ear out for, or that you "got rid of him", which he interprets as you killing the boy.
If you let Jakey go, he promises to repay the kindness, but I sincerely doubt the boy will ever ammend his ways (or appear in the sequel), so Prison is the best option.

Thanks, finally I made it, your dollmaker potion worked like charm with my mace. I tried to poke each of them couple hits, they got aggro on me so saving the bands much work.

[wjpower2003]

I forgot about potions because I rarely ever use them and I literally never use them in combat but if helps you get where you need to get, go for it.

[Zuao]

Glad it worked out. I have a save just before the battle to experiment a bit with the quest, but work and college got me doing stuff all day long.

Didn't expect it to work with a mace. Thought only slash and stab damage does poisoning.
But for the poison to work, you just have to do Health damage

[Fly_Squirrell]

I believe they do need to die though, what I would do is mount a horse and kill all your enemies though, Lord Zoul has DOPE armour

[Swenthorian]

As a different kind of answer to the OP: I'm increasingly convinced that it's simply not possible to save them all, even if you have max skills and equipment and follow all of the advice in this thread. The only "good" option is to let Kuno and his band flee the field, and fight Hagen 1:1.

[DargonBlak]

Originally posted by Swenthorian:

As a different kind of answer to the OP: I'm increasingly convinced that it's simply not possible to save them all, even if you have max skills and equipment and follow all of the advice in this thread. The only "good" option is to let Kuno and his band flee the field, and fight Hagen 1:1.

Completely untrue - it took me about 4-5 tries before i managed to save them all.

It is completely doable, and i know others have as well.

It just takes a certain strategy that you need to figure out.

[Zuao]

Well, ressurecting a year and a half post,but wth.

It is absolutelly possible to save them all in the last battle. I've personally done it in two playthroughs, on a pc that can barely run the game and both times on Hardcore.

To reiterate the tip I gave, use Dollmaker potion, try to poison as many enemies as you can and it will make the battle far, far easier to sir Kuno's men. I used a mace IIRC. Poisons should only apply if you draw blood, as in with a bladed weapon. Maybe there has been an update that corrected this as it was maybe a bug or a rebalance to poisons? If so, try using a fast firing bow with piercing arrows. Nail sir Zoul first because he's the hardest tin to open and most likely to do damage to your dudes.

The most common way somebody will keel over is by blood loss, the surprise killer. You might have won the battle, only to travel to the Camp and someone dies along the way. There's nothing you can do but wait and see, reload and try again.

I don't remember exactly what I did the first time I've done it. But this last time it took me like 7 or 8 attempts before I decided to poison a mace with Dollmaker and still use the same tactic of running around trying to get the poison into every enemy as fast as I could. Was the only attempt I did with this poison, because it worked first try. I gave the same tip to someone else on this forum and they also said it worked for them first try.

Also I don't know how early it was my attempt, but it tends to be pretty early in the game to get that sweet Zoul plate.

[wjpower2003]

Originally posted by Swenthorian:

As a different kind of answer to the OP: I'm increasingly convinced that it's simply not possible to save them all, even if you have max skills and equipment and follow all of the advice in this thread. The only "good" option is to let Kuno and his band flee the field, and fight Hagen 1:1.

I've saved them all before. It is most definitely possible. You can use poisons and potions to fortify yourself but I've saved everybody before without using any.

Edit: I tend to only use bow with better piercing arrows and a mace with shield although in this battle, because of the time spent changing weapon and the possibility of wasting time by any arrows missing the target, I tend to just go with melee combat.

Because Zoul's men outnumber Henry and the band, I find it best to run in around the side of the enemy to come up behind them and help anybody who is fighting 1v2. Flank whoever is blindsiding your guy with mace shots to the head which put the aggressor off balance and possibly head-shot kills them, then help by killing the other aggressor who was ganging up on your guy which will free up both him and you.

Once the odds are evened or even flipped, it becomes much easier to win. After your guys who are being ganged up on, it's also a good idea to then prioritise any guy who is being knocked of balance by the opponent and clearly losing.

[noxteryn]

Personally, I let them go and fight Zoul alone. Seems like the most reasonable solution. Kuno was working for free, after all.

[MF]

Originally posted by SmudgyRotter:

You all probably got this a lot. I searched internet but there is no solid solution. Also, extra question: what did you all here do to Jakey in the end? (It disappointed me that Jakey did betray the band, I really thought he was set by Kuno to be double agent lol).

I seem to recall just challenging Zoul to a one-on-one duel and winning that.

[⎛⎞﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽ ﷽]

It is really impossible for me to save them all

[wjpower2003]

Originally posted by ⎛⎞﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽ ﷽:

It is really impossible for me to save them all

Try harder, it's possible: I've done it and did so without cheats or benefits granted by mods.

[Aged Swine]

I "saved" them all on second attempt (not counting the first few bugged ones where they all attacked me after the battle). No special "tactics" except focusing the leader first - I guess I just got lucky? Thing is - this doesn't seem to make any difference except for a few lines of dialogue...

[Bad Timing]

I tried the bow strategy just now and somebody literally died before I fired my first shot. I don't think I have a good save to load to go back and get dollmaker, so I'll just have to try to throw myself into the fray over and over till I get lucky. Not sure how many more times I'm willing to try it before I just tell Kuno to f*ck off and do the 1v1

edit: for anyone who was struggling as much as I was trying to tank the entire enemy group and still having someone die, I took a new approach that finally worked: Bivoj's Rage + Artemisia potions, run around one-shotting enemies until you actually have a fair fight.

2nd edit: nvm one of the bled to death I hate everything

3rd edit: it finally worked lol

[Scarlet Rot]

I managed to save them all on the 4th try, what I did is I made sure that Zoul is dead, I think the aggro of his men will change to you, then I simply ran to get a horse, ride it and circle around the battle field while Kuno and his men chase around the Zoul forces. Afterwards nothing special happened, Kuno and his men just left the battle field without dialogs.