Favorite builds/ Tips for good starts in the first chapters?

[One Old Soldier]

I have watched a number of friends play this game and I always saw them favor 2-handed axes or axes with shields but i'm curious now that i'm playing it myself:

What kind of weapons;trinkets etc. do you like? how to you build your character at lower levels to get a good head-start in HWR difficulty? I've noticed Axe builds are scarily powerful when I spectating but the combat systems still kind've screwy now that I'm playing. Any advice other players could give is welcome.

[Darial]

See my guide in the Guides section:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3055680861

It's a work in progress but I should have the combat section finished tonight.

[aristeros]

Darial's guide is good and he's right, you should read that.

To answer what you asked:
You should be playing in HWR difficulty and getting as far as you can. As you develop your profile in HWR difficulty, inventory space is important to do easy crafting for money, so I work with the blacksmith 3 times and buy the small chest from him.

I have around 3k character generation points or so and it's enough to make a fairly beastly character. My current build is shield and axe. Shields do a lot for your defense, and axes are great for hacking through others' shields. The nice thing about two-handers is, unlike shields, they don't break, which will save you hundreds of florins over the course of a playthrough, but I wouldn't worry about this for the first several games.

A good pouch is important for inventory management even with the small chest, and I often run with the trinkets Marauder's Dream (moar inventory space), Well-Tuned Lute (for fatigue management in the first chapters), and the Torture Mask (for free vitality).

I'd also add that during the first three chapters, I'm trying to build my gear--custom armor sets, a stash of Potent Medicine, as well as picking up items that I know will allow for quest completion later on ("oh, a crossbow string, I will need that later this chapter")