I feel so weak!

[Tybreaker]

I'm having real problems being successful in most battles so figure I must be missing something. Are you not supposed to fight wherever possible? Or are you supposed to stock up on lots of potions/wands etc before attempting battle with anyone?

I'm only on the first island and couldn't even survive my first arena fight. Those dudes seem to be very powerfl with multiple attacks. My weapons are very basic but can't see how to get better ones. I'm the origin dwarf FWIW on level 3. Even creatures I come across eg fire slugs undeground seem much more powerful than my party of four and on those I've even hit them with water and hail spells which worked well but just not enough to be victorious.

[Tybreaker]

How about that? Looks like you can level up your party too. Noob here!

[Nibbie]

It is also worth noting that due to the low level cap, each and every level matters a lot. Fighting enemies even one level above you can be pretty challenging, so make sure you are finding enemies your level.

[Chaoslink]

Early game is the hardest. You need to get gear in every slot you can as close to your level as possible. If you fought Griff, it is even harder as one of his lackeys is one of the only gear vendors in the fort.

[Tybreaker]

OK, think I'm stuck again. I don't appear to have any remaining missions I can actually accomplish. Still can't defeat the arena dudes. Can't defeat the fire slugs underground. Can't defeat the dudes in the dungeon. In fact they're all similar groups of 4 or so baddies all very powerful. How do I get more money to buy better gear, or level up? Someone said you can get up to level 8 on this island but I appear to be stuck on level 3 - and run out of quests. One thing I haven't tried is stealing stuff - the game said I'd get in trouble so I've avoided it but is this the key?

[.//slayer]

Have you gotten the teleporter glove yet?

[Chaoslink]

Exploring some areas and using the teleport gloves to get into 'hidden' areas can earn XP. Thievery is fantastic for money, just have one character talk to the target to hold them still and have the thief steal. If you didn't recruit the other companions, you can do so and set them as shadowblades so they get thievery too. Since each character can only steal once, this allows you more chances to hit the same person. Just get as much as you can with the others then go back to normal party.

[Cebertus]

Im sorry for my bad englisch

Stealing can be worth alot, but if you do it wrong it can be bad for you, and i dont like to steal since i dont play any criminal characters.

I noticed that its hard to help new players for me since i already played alot of DOS1 and think about stuff as "common knowledge" even if its a big thing for someone new, but let me try:

- maybe you play on a difficulty which is to high for you? At which difficulty are you playing, maybe you could lower it until you get used to the combat.

- what is your party composition, how do you skill your party? a rough guidline would be:

Warrior: Strengh and Warfare(always level warfare until cap before you start level 2Handed Weapons because the way dmg gets calculated favors warfare compared to 2Handed Weapons)

Bow/Crossbow: Finesse/wits Ranged/Huntsman (would start leveling ranged because it adds crit and getting high ground can take some learningtime) having atleast one partymember with wits will help you with hidden treasures/buttons/stuff

Rogue/thiev: Finesse(no wits because you always crit from behind) Scoundrel/Warfare(warfare is always good for physical chars and it adds some useful abilities for melee)

Mage/wizard: In general wizard might be the most difficult for a new player since you have to get alot of skills because its common for enemies to have elemental resistance. I like to build my wizards with skills spread into all magic schools and TONS of intelligence to boost dmg because im not focusing into one school. You also need memory to use all your skills. What happens very often is: one wizard in a group of 3 physical chars, it can let you think that the wizard is useless because when he manages to get rid of enemies magic armor the other 3 chars already killed it

A very beginnerfriendly class: Summoner: Summoning until cap. Since your summons only scale with summoning skill and your level you can mix it with other classes, like for example a hydrosoph healer. Its also very versatile since your summon has the element of the ground where you summon it. If you want to use a physical summon then try to summon it on blood because it gets a strong skill that way.

There are TONS of possibilities and this is just a very rough overview. There are alot of utility skills, your rogue can use magic skills because they give him movement abilities or necromancy because it gives ALOT of life steal. Necromancy can be very strong on a 2hand-weapon user. I must admit that you might be in a possition where you cant change alot about your party.

- did you take every fight possible? some of the more noticible fights you could do in your level range in somehow chronological order: 3 Turtles before you enter fort joy behind the spot where you meet fane at the alcove -> 3 crocodiles(an npc, i think he is called gawin, in fort joy will give you a quest to get a teleportation glove from one of the crocodiles -> 3 frogs in the cave where the elves hide -> Depending on how your story went you could fight griff

After that you should be able to fight the arena battle, but you can wait. You need good positioning for the fight

- Take care of your positions. The teleportation gloves are one of the strongest things you can have at the beginning. You can teleport your partymember to better possitions like for example your melee fighter into meleerange (always teleport him on top of an enemy so the enemy gets damage from the fall dmg), your ranged onto high ground so he does more dmg and has a bigger range, enemies to your party(they get dmg) or enemies AWAY from your party if they cause to much trouble. Its also possible to get some treasures with the teleportation gloves, always keep your eyes open. You can get into places with the gloves where you couldnt get before.

-About the fire slug fight, it depends on how you get to them, but its possible to sneak into melee range of their leader and nearly kill him before the fight even starts. After that pick the slugs one by one, maybe teleport unneeded slugs away

As a general guideline try to pick the right enemies to kill first in each fight, like for example use your melee fighter for enemies with low physical armor, and the moment you reduce their armor to zero use cc skills like Knockdowns. CC is very strong in this game. You dont have to get the armor zo zero before you use your cc skill, if the enemy has 12 armor left and your skill does 13 dmg you will knock him down.


Hopefully you manage to get used to the combat, its alot of fun, if you keep struggling you could maybe get someone expierenced into joining your game, so you can get some combat coaching

[✪ Wuhan Warrior 🍉🍉]

Originally posted by Tybreaker:

I'm having real problems being successful in most battles so figure I must be missing something. Are you not supposed to fight wherever possible? Or are you supposed to stock up on lots of potions/wands etc before attempting battle with anyone?

I'm only on the first island and couldn't even survive my first arena fight. Those dudes seem to be very powerfl with multiple attacks. My weapons are very basic but can't see how to get better ones. I'm the origin dwarf FWIW on level 3. Even creatures I come across eg fire slugs undeground seem much more powerful than my party of four and on those I've even hit them with water and hail spells which worked well but just not enough to be victorious.

I only tackled the arena AFTER reaching level 5 or above (before escaping the fort, that is).

Early game is a real challenge, yes. So avoid fights whenever possible especially higher level mobs, your focus should be on gaining xperience and levelling up by doing quests.

Only take on fights which are your level or below. Also like someone have said, the teleporter gloves is a MUST to get.

[Martial.Lore]

Yeah, I have found the arena quite early, too, and kept getting utterly slaughtered. Made Dark Souls 3 seem easy. But I figured out how to fight and defeat the crocodiles, so I guess it's time to turtle. And level up as best I can. But I also do find RPGs like this very opaque, especially because it's a completely new genre for me to try and play.

After 14 hours I still have no idea how or even if I'm supposed to be able to get these collars off my party while we are still at Fort Joy, or who or if I should fight in order to "progress" (particular people? everyone eventually? who knows?). Slow going. Sometimes frustrating but mostly fun. After all, my party have bloody useless everything from weapons to gear, so I guess it's to be expected that the early game is difficult. On top of my incompetence....

[Cebertus]

Originally posted by Martial.Lore:

After 14 hours I still have no idea how or even if I'm supposed to be able to get these collars off my party while we are still at Fort Joy, or who or if I should fight in order to "progress" (particular people? everyone eventually? who knows?). Slow going. Sometimes frustrating but mostly fun. After all, my party have bloody useless everything from weapons to gear, so I guess it's to be expected that the early game is difficult. On top of my incompetence....

About the collar thing and similar stuff, for alot of people(me included) the first playthrough is the best one because you dont know what to expect. You WILL miss alot of stuff, but thats not bad its great replayability. When i first started playing DOS1 i used to find something new at the beginning of the game with each new playthrough that was glorious. Getting the informations about collars or other things can spoil alot.

And in general the first few levels/hours are considered the most difficult because you are very limited in your possibilities. Later on when every party member will have great movement abilities and you will be able to choose the right tool for every situation stuff gets alot easier. At the moment its very possible that you dont have what you need to make fights very easy.

[Tybreaker]

Thank you all so much for your tips and advice! I do have the teleport glove but after reading the note that came with it I haven't returned it to the guy who asked me to get it for him because the note spoke of treasure so I figured there must be a side mission to complete first about that treasure. It never clicked to me that I could use this at any time for any treasure! I guess I'm too used to story-driven RPGs where specific items are needed for specific missions.

So thanks again, I have a number of places I'm going to revisit now because many times I thought to myself - how do I reach that chest etc? Gosh, I feel dumb now lol!