how on earth do you beat the shield guy at the start of the fire chapter?

[Bitcoin Baron]

He comes straight at you and you can maybe get in one hit if you dodge his advance or block him. But this fight is really hard even on easy setting because theres another guy without a shield who comes in to mix things up. Then you get knocked down and one or the other finishes you off before the character gets up again. This is not my idea of fun!

[Lieste]

Kick with 'f' to stagger him and break his guard (but you need to make sure you have the time to do so before he shield bashes or uses his mace - dodge or block first until you learn the timing (it isn't *very* tight, but you can get clobbered if you cut it too fine)).

You can also build focus on the mirror (with hits, well timed dodges and well timed parries) and then use that to overwhelm him as you have already defeated Valravyn if he is there - if you haven't learnt that skill from Druth, then he won't be included in that part of the Surt quest, and you'll get the focus/mirror skill presumably from Druth later in the Surt path.

Kill the other northmen using parry when the voices warn you and heavy attacks to follow up, and then he is easy to deal with once alone.

Listen to what the voices are telling you (and ignore the defeatist one) and the fights are much easier...

[Bitcoin Baron]

Ohhh right so F is also an attack button, again not mentioned in the menu settings :@ Well i did eventually figure it out by mostly trying to dodge around him but it takes such a long time you can only get a single hit in. Would have been useful to have known you can do something other than swing a sword and run about!

[Lieste]

Worth looking at the control scheme in the options page with any game.
That won't necessarily teach you when or how to use the options, but it can guide experimentation.

You can also 'charge' into combat using 'shift' iirc, and will kick/shoulder barge if you make no other attack or use either a light or heavy attack if you attack while running in. Can be useful against some enemies, but can also risk getting hit on the way in... keep ready to parry if you see an attack develop.

Much later you will have a magic sword which can be activated by holding the attack button before releasing it to deliver the attack, which is a form of 'focus' and delivers higher damage as well.

[CrumbleCat]

Wow, here you are again saying something isn't in the controls menu when it clearly is. https://i.imgur.com/4zASkxc.jpg

Can you people stop blaming the game for your ignorance? You obviously didn't even look.

[Lowry]

yeah i failed the perception skill check for looking at controls too

[lizrdfishr]

Yeah, I tried all sorts of buttons. Had to use Google to find the option menu so I could find the 'run' button and beat the timed, fire puzzles.

I've not had a console since my Atari 2600.

It's my first time ever using a game controller... :)

Been a fun game to learn on!