Ultimate guide to everything (updating for Equipment III)

General guide, tips and tricks on everything you need to know to be able to beat Stoneshard. The majority of the general tips/dungeons and combat are still applicable for Equipment III.

Overview

Hey everyone, newbie94p1 here! You guys might know me from my coin troll kill, or you don’t. Some of you from discord might know me as Heistsenbee Al’qud Baker. Either way, this is my guide with tips and tricks that I think will be helpful for Stoneshard players. At the time of when this guide was first written, Stoneshard was still in beta patch 0.6.1.10. I will update the guide as time goes by and if I see or think of anything. Feel free to contact me on discord (newbie94p1#9439) or on reddit (newbie94p1) if you have any questions or any corrections/additions to what I’ve written here. (any tips you think are helpful are greatly appreciated)

The guide will cover most of the basics, tips and tricks that I think are useful for every stoneshard player new or old. The guide assumes you play the game the normal way, with no savescumming for either enchants/loots involved. The tips and tricks here can be applied to any builds/class/skill trees.

Check out my coin troll kill and my channel below. I sometimes post interesting boss kills or stoneshard related stuff.

Big shout out to my friends on Discord: Poisoneye, SamBoha, Cake, SimplyJeef, Moomer and god knows how many more people. Your contributions bring this guide to life. Love ya'll.

As of patch 0.7.0.22, the game just got harder by quite a bit. The tips listed here still apply but you would need to be a lot more careful while dungeoning.

You can view the Docs version here.[docs.google.com]

Update logs

15/08/2022

- Some updates to Combat related tips section. Combat related tips have been separated into part 1 and 2 due to character limit of each section.
- Some minor formatting changes.

06/08/2022

Most of the general tips for combat and dungeon crawling should still work for Forgotten Lore update. However I will try to update with more tips once I'm more familiar with the new mechanics.

- New tips added to the QoL section and Dungeon Tips Section
- Ancient Troll section is now renamed to Optional Boss section since we have another mini boss in the game now. I will update with the tips for it soon.

04/06/2022

Useful NPCs/Mini Quest/Trainer list updated. Somehow I forgot about these. Sorry team.

04/02/2022

POI section updated. Sorry this took so long. I wasnt feeling so good. I will try to add build sections for each weapon types in the future.

I have also added a section to act as a collection of builds/guides that i found which I think can be fun or worth archiving.

28/12/2021

Steam has flagged my docs link as potentially malicious for some reason. If this isn't fixed soon then I will move everything in the docs here but it will take a bit.

Don't think I can wait for steam to fix this situation. I will start moving things over here. You guys can still check the link if you want.

29/12/2021

Most of my guide is now here down below. F*** scammers and phishers tho :(

16/12/2021

- Rip ''Bee way'' Most likely no longer viable.

08/12/2021

- Added a new section: ''How to build your character''. This section includes the basics on how to build a character with any weapon/skills/spell choice in mind. This includes stat distribution, gears, skill choice.

04/12/2021

- Added more tips + video examples to deal with Necromancers in ''Combat related tips'' section.

28/11/2021:

- Added staff troll kill guide video from poisoneye to ''Ancient Troll tips'' section.
- Added videos/tips on how to deal with necromancer at early levels in ''Combat related tips'' section.

27/11/2021:

- Added another easy way to kill the troll

22/11/2021: Sections updated for City of Gold Patch.

- General tips and QoL stuff.
- Combat related tips.
- Dungeon related tips.
- Drugs/traps usage tips
- Ancient Troll tips.

18/11/2021:

The guide is outdated for City of Gold Patch. I will update it as soon as the bugs are ironed out more and I get a few playthroughs in.

General and QoL tips - 1

- Your enjoyment comes first. Put the game down if you aren't enjoying yourself. Stoneshard can be a very frustrating game to play. You WILL DIE ALOT. Sometimes due to elements outside of your control. Put the game down if you feel like you are running into a corner. A frustrated mind leads to bad decisions which can only leads to more death and more frustrations.

- Familiarize yourself with the controls: Before you do anything, check the control options to see what you can do and what key bindings there are. Change them to whatever fits you the most. The game allows you to interact with the environment and move with your mouse. However the situations might come where you want to move but accidentally click on and pick up loot on the ground instead. This CAN and WILL KILL YOU!! So if you want to move around during combat, I highly suggest using the keyboard for precise movement.

- What build should I go for? The easiest skill path to pick up when you are new to the game is Pyromancy. It has decent range, good damage and will teach you how to kite enemies. Hardest will be geomancy since it has a slow ramp up and requires a decent amount of understanding of the game’s mechanics in order to pilot effectively. The weapon trees are relatively balanced and easy to grasp.

- Always make sure your character is not in rest mode when you have to AFK: Stoneshard is a turn based game. However, during rest mode the game will automatically skip turns and move time forward till you either die of hunger/thirst or some enemy walks into your vicinity. If you happen to need to afk at some point, MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT IN REST MODE. You don’t want a stupid death while starving in fetal position.

- Rest often, but find a safe space to do it. In stoneshard you are always in a combat state. When you rest, your vision will become narrowed to only 2-3 tiles around you. Make sure you aren’t followed by anything and rest to recover your injuries. In dungeons, this can be a room that you’ve already cleared. Lock the doors and hug your knees. Resting often will help save you supplies in the long run.

- Pay attention to where you are going. Stoneshard will path the nearest way for your character to go to the point you click. This will not avoid potential dangers on the way. So don’t take your mind away when you are walking.

- Swimming in deep water takes energy. If you run out, you WILL LOSE HP EVERY TURN AND WILL DROWN.

- You can refill your water-skin at a well or river. You can pour water from your water-skin over yourself when you are on fire to put it out.

- You can now fill most type of containers (bottles, buckets, cups) with water. You can then use them like you use a waterskin.

- Save often. You can do this at the inn or at beds in bandit camps POIs.

- Right click on NPCs and select swap if you find yourself stuck between/behind them.

- Prioritize your survival at all costs. This ‘’tip’’ might sound redundant but honestly can’t be stressed enough. As long as you are alive and well you can grind back the exp/gold that you have missed. If you run out of medical supplies, it is generally wise to back off to town instead of exploring the dungeon. If you don’t think you can take on 3 or 4 dudes then running might be the wiser option. One unlucky dice roll or maybe an injury untreated because you don't have a splint for it can ruin your day very fast.

- Always plan for a way out. Stoneshard is a turn-based game. This means you have time to look at the situation at hand and plan your moves. If you are out in the open and ambushed, look for the best direction to run and fight towards that. If you are in a dungeon, pull the fight near the dungeon entrance if possible.

- Zone swap is your friend. If you found yourself being chased by bandits or animals, consider swapping to a new zone to rest up + run or move to a new position to engage. THIS WILL ONLY WORK IF YOU ARE AT LEAST 6 TILES AWAY FROM YOUR NEAREST AGGRESSOR. If they are within that range of you then THEY WILL FOLLOW YOU TO THE NEXT ZONE.

- Don’t make noise unless you want to fight something. Game has a noise mechanic which can pull enemies from the nearby area (this can mean around the zone if you are in the open, or the next room if you are in a dungeon). Noise you can make includes: fighting or shouting. DO NOT do those in a dungeon/where you meet hostiles UNLESS you want to fight and are sure you can deal with whatever is coming.

- Points of interest are great to do but not necessary. These question marks points on the maps often contain bandit camps or some other interesting stuff. These can give you exp and sometimes okay loots if you are lucky. I will talk more about them in a section down below.

- Don’t just click to move your character across the zones. Move a few tiles at a time. Take a look around you and listen to audio cues. This is a mistake I often see players make. They will just walk across the zones without a care in the world and often walk into bears/wolves, etc. Walk slowly and pay attention to your surroundings. Aggressive animals have a range which they won’t pursue you as long as you stay out of it. Wolves/boars’ are about 7 - 10 tiles. Bears/bisons’ are a bit shorter at about 5 - 6.

- Always keep at least 1 splint and 1 or 2 bandages on you. Nuff said. Sometimes injuries will be so severe that hugging your knees alone just won’t do. Sometimes the bleeding just won’t stop. Sometimes you will step on a trap.

- Press Alt when near rivers to see leeches. If you have energy you can swim out and grab them. This is a basically free method to get medicine. Leeches can heal your body parts after a period of time.

- Traps are great. With the introduction of the trapper and drugs into the game, you can now buy them for a price. The trapper will move between Mannshire and Osbrook every few days. He will always sit in front of the inn and sell traps/nets/caltrops/drugs etc. I personally would recommend you take a claw trap if you can afford it before you venture into any dungeon. They deal massive damage, can cause injuries and immobilization. This can help you to either pump enemies full of arrows or run if you choose to. I will have a section below on how to use these.
You can now buy them at Osbrook blacksmith (as of patch 0.7.0.23)

- Fleaworts and berries are plenty. Use them. Not much to say about this one. Berries are everywhere. They replenish both thirst and hunger. They can definitely help you save on food money. Fleaworts can heal your injuries and boost your health restoration.

- For now items left on the ground will not despawn so you can just throw items around if you run out of storage space.

-If you find yourself out of food in the wilds and have no skinning, hunt small birds by throwing objects at them. Most birds will go down from one hit from objects like iron ingots, daggers, bottles, etc. These birds can then be plucked without any skills needed and will often leave meat morsels or tender meat. You can make a campfire by gathering 4 sticks and use the campfire skill unlocked by default for every character.

General and QoL tips - 2

- Keep your morale and sanity high. High morale and sanity increases your chances of getting positive mental effects like prudence or second wind. These effects, especially the latter, can save you from life or death situations. Check the Stoneshard wiki for a full list of what can increase your sanity. Morale most of the time can be increased through just sleeping or drinking ale/wine/eating some food. More methods of increasing morale and sanity include praying and eating Mindwort plants.

- Treat your body parts. It’s always better to have your body part condition at 100% before taking any more fights. This means you will always be at maximum HP possible at the start of fights. You don’t want to be injured mid battle because one of your body parts was damaged but not to the point of getting an injury before. Healing salves and leeches are the best method to do this. They are sold at the herbalist who lives in a hut south of the Osbrook marke, the priest in the big church in Mannshire and the merchant in Mint Square at Brynn.

- Treat your pain. Pain will increase the damage you take. Ideally if you can keep your pain under 10% would be the best. The first pain threshold starts at 25% at which you will take 10% more damage. Just because you aren’t at this threshold yet doesn’t mean you shouldn’t treat your pain. If you are at between 10% and 20% pain, you can easily reach the first threshold with just 1 or 2 bad hits. You wouldn’t want to waste a turn or two treating pain in the middle of a brawl. Common effective pain killers are alcohol or herbal extract. For pain of 50% or more I would recommend just using ether inhaler or soporific sponge. The latter needs a safe space for you to sleep but works really well without much of a downside. The sponge/herbal extract can be bought at herbalists and the inhaler at the priest in Mannshire. If you are in the middle of the forest, then Fly Agaric is an easy to find solution to pain. Just look on the ground for a bit and you will find a bunch of them.

- Spending turns next to a campfire will take away your wet status. Each turn spent next to a campfire will take away 4 turns of wetness duration. You can make a campfire by gathering 4 sticks and use the make campfire skill in Survival tree. This skill is unlocked by default for every character.

-The survival tree is pretty good. Use it. It has many passives that massively increase your survivability against the elements. Points in this tree can help you hunt/save money on medicines/bedrolls. Overall a really good tree to drop one or two points in. Would recommend.

- Keep track of your equipment's durability. If you do repairs after every dungeon it will save you a lot of money in the long run since repairing heavily damaged items can cost a ton later in the game. Make a habit of repairing everything every time you go sell your items after a dungeon completion.

- Bring 2 or so water-skin on you at all times. Fighting/using skills and spells now (as of patch 0.7.0.22) makes you thirstier. Also a backup water-skin to douse yourself with in the event you stepped on a fire trap.

- Use trees/rocks and objects to your advantage. Due to the fact that in Stoneshard people can’t move diagonally around corners, you should use this to your advantage when being chased. Run into the woods, zig zags around trees, rocks, etc. This can create distance between you and enemy AI giving you time to run.

- Have a crowbar on you. This can be used to unlock doors/chests with 100% success rates. They can be repaired at blacksmith for a cheap price. They can be equipped in your 2nd loadout and used to smash things without having to worry about durability lost.

- Keep the potions but don’t drink them unless you have to. Sometimes you will find bottles on shelves with unknown effects. These are potions which can be harmful or awesome depending on your luck. You can identify them with identification scrolls bought at general merchants or the mannshire priest.

- You can throw harmful potions at enemies

- Throw oils on harpies will make them unable to fly. Oils/alcohol on enemies will make them take more fire damage.

- Avoid roads if you don't want to fight ambushes. On the other hand, stay on roads if you want exp. The chances of you meeting ambushes by bandits increases when you walk on roads. These ambushes will scale to your player level. They can be a good source of exp or a deathtrap if you don’t know what you are doing.

- Don’t stick to common fantasy RPG tropes when gearing up. Stoneshard armors and gears don't require stats to equip. You can pretty much equip whatever you like on whatever character you like. Just because you are an archer doesn’t mean you cannot wear heavy gear. The difference between gears are just appearances and stat bonuses/penalties. Look at the gears and equip accordingly to what you need. Do be careful since heavy armors can have nasty energy penalties so level up your VIT or enchant them with energy accordingly.

- Merchants have certain likes and dislikes when it comes to buying goods from players. Talking to them or just using general common sense will work. Metal stuff sells for more at blacksmiths, wooden stuff at carpenters, jewelry to pawnbrokers, etc. Unidentified items cannot be sold to normal vendors

- Talk to NPCs to get rumors about Points of Interests (POIs) on the map.

Combat related tips - 1

- Read what your skills do. REMEMBER THEM. Skills in stoneshard sometimes will apply additional effects or have additional effects depending on the condition. Some skill combinations are meant to be used in certain order (e.g. Nail down => Impaling Lunge, etc. .). Some skills will be better used when in certain positions relative to terrain. (e.g. skills with knock-back will have better effects if your targets have their backs against walls/objects). Remember what your skills do, figure out what the ideal skill rotation is will increase your combat efficiency by a lot.

- Don’t try to fight 1 v many. Encounters in Stoneshard ARE deadly. Since the game is turn based, having many enemies hitting you will mean you take tons of damage per turn and can only hit back once. Find terrains to fight so that there’s only at most 2 guys hitting you at a time, 1 is ideal. A 1v1 fight will always be easiest. If you don’t think you can create this situation, RUN till you can. Or test your luck :P I can’t force you.

-The above tip might not be correct 100% of the time. Sometimes some build requires you to be in the middle of multiple enemies for maximum benefit. EXPERIMENT AND USE YOUR JUDGMENT. If you aren't exactly sure then you can just follow the above tip.

- Never fight enemies where you find them. This means let them chase you to a better area further than the point of contact. If you do this properly you will very rarely run into a situation where you pull multiple mob groups at once which can easily mean your doom.

- INSPECT ENEMIES ALWAYS. You can right click enemies and select inspect to see its statuses. This will show you the enemies’ HP, Energy and armor values as well as their resistances + their skills. Information is king.

- DO NOT FIGHT WHERE YOU HAVE WALLS/OBJECTS ON YOUR BACK. In Stoneshard if you are knocked back into a wall/object you will be dazed and take massive damage. The same thing also applies to your enemies so if you have knockback in your skill set then lure enemies to where you can knock them into objects and walls to enjoy your free daze and damage.

- If you are playing melee, consider getting a crossbow and Take Aim skill. A hunting crossbow should be affordable after the first dungeon or a few POIs. Take aim is in the Ranged Weapon tree. The trapper help you unlock tier 1 of this tree for 250 gold. The crossbow has range and with take aim you would have decent accuracy to hit at least one or two shots before they reach you in melee. Do consider putting points into PRC till you have 15 for 1 extra vision, accuracy and shooting range.

-If you are playing mages, you can pick up Seal of Finesse then start DW mace to melee people till you unlock tier 2 spells. Max stacks Seal of Finesse can reduce your fumble by 20%, will be fully stacked by the time you reach melee range of enemies and will negate a lot fumble penalties of DW. Peasant flails is a common drop, is cheap to maintain and a DW hit will out damage all tier 1 spells. Shoot spells until people are in melee then just fight them in melee. Most enemies before level 5 won't be a threat and the faster you kill people the better.

- If you see dogs with mancatchers, MOVE, don’t fight them there. The dog bark can pull stuff from all around the cell towards your position. This can become a tide of enemies really quickly. If you see the dog bark, pull the fight away from that position, preferably to the nearest zone exit.

- The utility trees are great. Use them. The utility trees Athletics and Combat Mastery are great to compliment melee combat. Do consider taking points in them if you find yourself having extra skill points but haven’t unlocked higher tier weapon skills yet.

- If you are netted, just skip your turn. This will reduce the duration of the net. The higher your STR is, the more turns you can shave off being netted by skipping turns.

- Throw bottles of oils or alcohol at dangerous enemies. If you hit they can get covered in oil/alcohol status which makes them fumble a lot more. An enemy fumbling more can mean the difference between life or death. A fumbled melee skill means half damage and no status effect dealt. This means whatever bleed/stun, etc they can inflict on you turns into nothing. A tough boss battle can become a cakewalk if the bosses just fumbles every attack.

- Tips on hunting wolves early on: Approach the wolf pack one tile at a time, ideally so that only 1 of them is in your line of sight. Keep moving closer until the wolf has yellow question marks above its head. This means it is suspicious of you entering its territory. Stand still and skip turns until he turns hostile and starts chasing you. You can now pull him away from the pack and kill him quietly one on one. Rest afterwards and repeat the process till everything dies. This can probably work on bison packs as well though I haven’t really tested it yet.

Another way to do this is to throw berries, pine cones, or any small objects at the wolf. This can also pull the wolf away from the pack.

- Tips on killing bears early on: Don’t try it unless you meet a bear right next to a village/town. This is a cheese tactic. Pull him into a town, the NPCs there will fight him, you can then pelt him with arrows on the side. Do remember to use take aim cause if you miss and hit a NPC you will immediately become a criminal.

- Tips against caster AI: Most caster AI (necromancers is the biggest example) will have one or two debuff spells with either one or two damage spells. Debuff spells often have double the range of damage spells. Stay at debuff range to waste their cds and energy. Inspect them to see their range and cd. They won’t move in unless they can’t see you or they are oom. If you see a necromancer in a room with a few more melee enemies, back off ASAP to pull them out of the room. The minions will follow you but the necro will only follow you to a certain range to cast debuffs/buffs. If you stay at max range you should be safe to deal with the minions. Cutting line of sight with necro can make him either walk up to melee range or even drop his aggro completely. If you are in the dungeons, using a position listed in ‘’Dungeon tips ‘’ section to fight is also recommended as an alternative.

Examples:

- Ranged fight with level 2 Dirwin. Dirwin has Take Aim, Constant practice and Distracting Shot.

- Same fight with the same Dirwin but just melee auto attacks with no melee skills:

If you are playing any melee character you would have an easier time since you actually have melee skills to play with. Skills from utility trees that can help are: Seize the Initiative, Mighty Kick or War Cry(not recommended since war cry can pull other stuff from the dungeons).

Combat related tips - 2

- Tips against enemies with charge attacks. This includes Bosses/ringleaders who have: Heroic Charge, On Rush, Mutilating Lunge, Dash, Skull Crusher. They will always rush at you with these attacks/skills once they are in range. Use this against them by standing behind traps that you either brought with you or found inside the dungeon. Lure these enemies there and they will yolo into you and thus step on those traps without care. Inspect them to see their dash range. If no traps are present, standing at a corridor corner can help. Sometimes the line of sight of AI means they can’t see you to charge at you.

- Tips against enemies with high bleed chance. This includes dagger bandits/Proselyte bosses with Gaping Wound and other dagger skills. Increase your permanent bleed resistance through the use of armors or increase them temporarily before the fight with herbs. Find Nettles/Fleaworts/Horsetails (these are plenty in fields/roadside) and consume one or two of them before the fight. As long as you can pass the bleed check by Gaping wound, you should be in a good position to kill them. Inspect their skills to see their bleed chance in order to chomp down the adequate amount.

- Tips against spear enemies. If you have gap-closers like Dash, Mutilating Lunge, etc. then use it on them before they get into their range to do Nail Down/Impaling Lunge combo. High move resistance through boots/enchants/skills will also help. If you can fully block Nail Down then you won’t be immobilized for Impaling Lunge resets. Consider using Raise Shield/block chance increase skills before tanking those hits.

How to build your character

I will have dedicated build recommendations for each weapons tree in the future if people want it. Right now this section is a baseline of my thought process when I build any character which I think will be helpful for everyone. I believe if you follow this you can build any character you want regardless of weapon/skill/spell choice.
I personally believe that the weapons in Stoneshard are relatively balanced. Nothing is weak or not viable, you as a player just need to figure out how.
Anyway, below is how to build a character Heisenbee style.

Before we get into this, we need to understand what happens when you hit somebody in Stoneshard. Here’s a flowchart of how things work (credits to the devs):



As we can see from the flowchart, the hit roll comes first then comes the fumble roll, then the target’s dodge roll then finally comes the critical hit roll. AOE spells can’t be dodged (as far as I know). This means for melee combat the most important stats to up your damage would be accuracy, fumble chance, crit chance and weapon damage.

This brings us to stat distribution for a melee character. Now with the added trainers and removal of treatise books from some merchant's stocks, you can now level up higher tier skills with stat distribution. Most melee skills will require a combination of STR, AGI or PER to level up. Get enough stat points in these and you will unlock the ability to learn these skills. For me personally I find a baseline of 15 STR, 15 AGI, 15 PER is good for any melee character regardless of weapon choice. But this isn’t set in stone for every build. Your priorities change depending on your weapon/skill tree of choice.

- Fumble hits will deal half damage, and have their chance of applying bleeds/daze/stagger, etc reduce to 0. If the enemy dodges a fumbled hit, he will take no damage. So get your fumble down as low as you can. I find if your fumble chance is around 10% when wielding a weapon then this is an acceptable value. Ideally you would want 0% fumble of course.

- For 1 hand weapons users, a character with 15 STR 15 AGI will have the same weapon damage as a character with 20 STR if they both use a weapon with around 30 base damage . This is due to how hand efficiency works for 1h weapons. If you have more than 100% hand efficiency for 1 hand this will also increase your weapon damage for that hand. 15 AGI will give you 2.5% hand efficiency which will be rounded up to 3% by the game. For weapons with a base damage of around 30, this means 3% hand efficiency will equal to 5% weapon damage due to rounding of numbers. For weapons with less than this number (closer to 20) or higher (closer to 40) base damage, the difference between 3% and 5% weapon damage is around 1 damage. (My Arna below has 36 damage main hand with a 33 damage axe)


So what does this mean exactly? Character A with 20 STR 10 AGI will deal the same amount of damage (crits not included) as Character B with 15 STR 15 AGI. Character A will crit with a bit more damage than character B (due to 7.5% more crit efficiency). Character B however, will fumble a lot less/counter more/dodge more and thus will be more effective in combat. Char B can also use weapons with high crit chance/crit efficiency with more effectiveness since those weapons also tend to have a lot of fumble chance. This is my personal preference of course, you can obviously reduce your fumble chance through skills and gear. I just think that this distribution is good for the stat it gives while not being hampered too much.

- When distributing stat, prioritize what you need for your build. This will often mean putting points in stat to unlock skills. The priority for me when putting stat is: skill unlock -> accuracy -> reduce fumble -> weapon damage.

- Understand your stats. This means knowing what each give for each point, what the thresholds will give you.

- Understand your weapon. This means read the skills, the whole tree, what they do, what the crit effect of the weapon does. Think about how they interact with each other, imagine what your rotation of skills will be like in combat. This will help a lot in allocating stat points and skill points.

- Be flexible when you stat, think about what you want and stat accordingly. Does your character block a lot (shield + swords/2h sword/spears)? Then STR can be your friend. Does your character dodge/counter a lot (daggers/dagger + buckler)? Then agi it is. If you find yourself running oom then VIT it is. The beauty of Stoneshard is the flexibility of character building. Almost everything works (as long as you can unlock skills with correct stats ofc :D)

- If you go with the baseline I use, afterwards just put points in whatever you think your character does best. The baseline of stat I said above is just a guideline after all. It gets you the first threshold of those stat while not compromising nor hampering your character in any way.

- Perception is underrated stat. More vision is always good. Most mobs/bandits you will meet in the fields only have 10 vision, so even if you have 1 more vision than them will mean you spot them 1 turn sooner giving you a chance to shoot or run or pull them towards a more advantageous position. In dungeons, more PER will mean you can hear people from further behind doors and plan accordingly. And now since PER thresholds give you crit chance, there’s not really a downside to getting to 15 PER.

- For ranged characters, just pump PER. For mages, I recommend pump PER till 15 then pump WIL. This is pretty brainless, PER thresholds gives you more vision and more range to your shooting and spells. For mages 1 more range to your spells is pretty powerful so I always recommend getting at least 15 PER. Your spells can also crit so the extra crit chance actually isn't a waste. This isn’t mandatory. Pumping WIL for mages will always be the best choice but there are a few in the trees that can also be unlocked with PER. BE MINDFUL when doing this because it can push your unlock of higher tier spells by a few levels. If you find the utility of range worth it then feel free to do so.

- Prioritize the weapon skill of your weapon of choice, then to the utility trees.

- Gear up for every part of your body. For the content of City of Gold, you don’t need more than 12 - 15 PROT per body part armor. City of Gold patch reintroduces the armor concept which only protects that body part instead of them stacking to protect your whole body. This means your helmet will only tank hits to your head, your boots protect your legs only, etc. When somebody hits you, they will try to prio whichever part is least protected, unless otherwise stated by the skills they use. You can go heavier than 15 PROT per part. The options are there. But keep in mind that this will be costly to both acquire and maintain. I personally don’t find it necessary for the content of City of Gold.

Dungeon related tips.

- SPAM EXAMINE SURROUNDINGS: This should be done at least once or twice every time you walk into a dungeon room to spot hidden traps. Spam this skill near walls for a higher chance to spot secret rooms.

- You can stand next to a door and use shout to lure enemies out of the room. If they haven't spotted you then you can get a free critical hit which can swing the tide of battle. Do be careful as Shout makes a lot more noise now (as of patch 0.8.0.12) so you can pull some unintended enemies.

- Be prepared to bring an abundance of meds. This will include: at least 1 or 2 splints, 3 or so healing salves, at least 1 bandage roll and a few leeches. As you get stronger, you will get hurt less but for early game when things are hard, always come to a dungeon with at least the amount above or more. If you want to do first contract at level 1, more meds than the listed above are necessary. I would recommend using most of your starting money on it if possible.

-Have a checklist of what you need to do before a dungeon. Check your equipment, your meds, your food. You don’t want to be caught lacking one of these in the middle of the dungeon. The walk back can be a pain in the ass or even dangerous.

- If you find yourself having problems with fatigue when clearing a dungeon, consider taking a point in Make a Halt in Survival tree



The passive of this tree will give you Vigor buff while you are spending your turns next to a campfire (which can be easily be built with the campfire skill you have by default). Vigor buff will give your more max energy, energy restore and most importantly 75% fatigue resistance.

- If you don't want to spend a skill point, sleep as long as you can before going to a dungeon. Each hour of sleep will take away 7% of fatigue and give your 120 turns of Vigor buff (numbers may change in future patches). 900+ turns of Vigor should give you plenty of time to clear a dungeon without suffering much from fatigue.

- Never fight where you found someone. This is due to the noise mechanic. If you fight somebody in a room, chances are the dudes in the next room already heard about it and will rush you. If you see someone, get his attention, then pull him away from that spot to a more advantageous position to fight. This will ensure you will never have to fight a big mob more than you can handle. This tip doesn’t really apply to geomancers since the moment you raise a boulder, everything in the dungeon will hear it.

- Best position to fight in is to the side of a corridor opening. Example below:



This position ensures you will only have to fight one enemy at a time while the ranged enemies in the next room won’t have line of sight to shoot you. There’s nothing behind your back and a wall behind your enemies. If you have skills with knockback like mighty kick/onslaught/hail of blows, etc, this position will give you a good chance to knock the enemy back into walls which can cause daze and massive damage. This position or anywhere with a similar setup will be the best to fight in melee combat for 90% of the time.

- If you find a spike trap, it is best to leave it there. Lure enemies there and force them to fight on the trap if possible. This tip might not work all the time especially if the enemy has decent PER and has spotted the trap. But if they don’t then they will charge you into the trap and take damage every turn as long as the trap isn’t disarmed.

- Remember the trap positions when you find them. Stoneshard will NOT auto path you to dodge the traps you’ve already spotted so pay attention. Trap positions can also be used to lure enemies into.

- Use claw traps. This item is really powerful since its introduction to the game. Has 3 uses, deals 30 damage each use and has a 100% chance to immobilize someone who steps on it. Best thing is it can be repaired at a blacksmith for more use. Can be bought at the trapper who will sit in front of either Osbrook or Mannshire inn or at Osbrook's blacksmith.If you don't see him just wait a few in game days. You can also find claw traps in the forest if you spam examine surroundings and get lucky. Throw something heavy (a weapon) on it to trigger it then you can pick it up and use it as you see fit.

- Use smoke bombs to counter high range casters or archers. They cannot shoot or target what they cannot see. Use this on them or on yourself to give you time to gap close. I personally don’t find this necessary but it is an option you can use. Smoke bombs can be bought at the trapper.



- Cut line of sight to counter casters and archers. Since you are in a dungeon there will be plenty of close doors/corners to cut your line of sight to the archer/caster. Due to enemy AI, they will try to seek you out to shoot you with stuff which most of the time means they will walk into your melee range.

- Caster AIs can sometimes not engage you in melee combat. Use this to drain their energy. Sometimes enemy casters without melee abilities will just stand and cast their debuffs on you from afar until no other options left. Inspect their skills to see their range so that you can stay at barely reachable distance. They will cast their debuffs off cooldown and can oom themselves. After the debuffs ran out, they are just a melee creep with no real threats.

- Shoot the door. If you are playing a bow character, you can soften up doors with crowbars before last hitting the door at a safe distance. This will ensure you will have a view inside the room while maintaining a safe enough distance. I personally don’t find this necessary but do keep in mind that this is something you can do.

- Bandit dungeons have more food, Skeletons have more valuables and Vampire dungeons have more medicine. If you go to bandit dungeons, most of the time you will end up with more food than you can eat for a few days.

- Be careful when opening sarcophaguses. This is due to the chance of wraith spawning out of them. Make sure you are healthy, with no enemies nearby since a wraith fight can be a real pain.

Tips on traps/drugs usage.

- There are 6 types of drugs in stoneshard at the moment. Most of them can be bought at either the general merchant/alchemist at Rotten Willow Tavern or the merchants of Brynn. The rarest of them all is stardust which I haven’t seen sold by the above vendors yet but only through dungeon loot. See here[stoneshard.com] for the lists of what they are and their effects.

- The drugs themselves will give you nasty aftermath effect after their duration has run out. Some of these can kill you. This can be halved through the use of an antitoxin or the skill Adaptability in Survival.



- If you use 2 drugs at the same time or use one drug then drink alcohol it will lead into a bad trip which can be nasty. (and yes, that is how your screen will look like in game) Bad trips duration can only be reduced by eating mindwort. Keep this in mind if you do not have an antitoxin in hand when you use drugs since self inducing a bad trip then eating mindwort can have a chance to save your life.



- The drug use itself is pretty self explanatory. See what you need for your character then drug accordingly. I personally feel that Al’qud is the best all round drug for most of the build since you can never go wrong with more energy regen. Hornet Honey is probably a must for any dodge character or if you just want more crit chance in general.

- Nikkaf can be used in some archer/ranger fights to be able to see and shoot from a great distance.

- Throwing nets can be used to stop people from running away or at you. The netted person will also receive debuffs on their defensive and offensive capabilities.

- Claw traps have wonderful synergies with ranged weapons and spears. Immobilized targets can’t move and have reduced dodge chance. I have found that if I duck away from enemies’ line of sight and set them they might have a lower chance of seeing the trap. (not 100% sure on this, can just be a coincidence). Set traps in front of doors and corridors, shout then wait for ppl to come out the room and walk into them can have amazing results.

Optional Bosses

Ancient Troll

The ancient troll is the ‘’final but optional boss’’ for the Stoneshard content right now. You will receive a quest to kill him from the governor after you have arrived at Mannshire + be at least level 10. He resides in the Signal Tower. This location on the maps will be one of the points of interest before you discover it.


The troll might seem overwhelming at first, but just like all bosses in video games he has a pattern that you can use to your advantage.

General tips and/or the normal way/how to do the ''Troll dance'':

Each weapon tree will have its own rotation of skills/movement patterns to deal with the troll. But generally, they can all use the following tips to plan the fight accordingly.

- The troll has no attack of opportunity. This means it is safe to run away from him if you are in melee range. He will, most of the time, just follow you.

- Always INSPECT troll if you are not sure what he’s going to do next. Troll moves are always based on his cooldowns and energy/health level. So inspect him always to decide your next best move.

- Troll will never throw rock as long as you stay within 2 tile range of him. If you don’t want to deal with the ROCK, then you can stay within this range. This way you won’t have to invest in unnecessary stuff like Dash.



- Positions to never be in relative to the troll. In these positions you will never be able to dodge the shockwave unless you have a dash that is longer than 2 tiles. You can still be screwed over if you get stunned/dazed by the troll roar so it’s best to avoid these positions. If you somehow ended up in these positions then MOVE. It is always better to reposition yourself than to hope that you can pass that stun/daze RNG check to be able to dash out.





- Swap your loadouts or have 2 loadouts in case of troll roar. Troll roar has a 25% chance of disarming you. This chance cannot be reduced by any means. So inspect him and swap your loadouts before he roars. Or have a 2nd loadout in case you drop one. He will only roar if you are 1 tile away from him at least.

- Have enough space in your inventory to pick up your weapons instantly when you drop them. Equipping stuff and taking them from the ground both count as a turn. If you don’t have inventory space when you pick up your weapons then you are forced to equip it that same turn and thus will not be able to move.

- Troll will always use shockwave if you are in its range and he has that cooldown up/has energy for it. This is probably the most important point you need to remember. If the troll has energy for shockwave, he will use it off cooldown. Niche cases where he will swipe you instead only happen super rarely or his energy level drops down to about 15% - 20% range or lower. The turn before he raises his arms to do the shockwave will be your free turn to either hit him/use spells or patch yourself up.

- If you are in melee range and he just used shockwave, move away from him. This guarantees that you don’t have to tank his swipe if you don’t want to. Troll will follow you if no other cd is up. Inspect him always to see if the shockwave is off cd.

- Save your gap closer attacks to interrupt troll regeneration. Troll will always try to regenerate once he has hit a certain threshold of about 75% max HP or he has a negative effect on him. This can only be interrupted by a melee attack and the troll will only start his regen when you are at least 1 tile away from him. Special melee abilities which have 2 tile reach are: the spear’s Impaling lunge/nail down/seize the initiative/sudden lunge and the 2h axe’s make space/hooking chop. Other charge attacks include: Heroic charge, Mutilating Lunge, On rush, Skull crusher, Step Aside. After the regeneration is interrupted, the troll will take extra damage for a few turns. If you have any buffs to your damage/high damage or high crit chance abilities, this will be a decent time to use them.

- You can bring smoke bomb to prevent the troll from throwing his first rock. At the start of the fight, throw a smoke bomb right in front of the troll. This will block his vision and thus he won’t be able to throw the rock. He will instead move forward towards you.

- Important supplies to bring: Healing salves (4 - 6), bandages (3 - 4), splints (2 - 3), ether inhaler (1 is probably enough),vivifying essence (1 is probably enough) potions/drugs if you have any, antitoxins for intox or drug aftermath. Potions like sturdiness, deadly, pain killing/anesthesia or energy drain are very good. Also water and food. If you are having energy problems during the fight, consider taking Al’qud or drinking a lot of Elven Mud beforehand.

This setup is enough for when you are sure you won't mess up your movements during the fight. If you are new to the troll fight, definitely bring more than what is listed above (1,5 to 2 times more).

- Important resistances to get before the fight:

*Control resistances. Number one priority. You don’t want to get stunned/dazed. Period. Get this as high as you can. Easy way to get this is to get helmets. Enchantments on gear will also help.

* Bleed resistances. Troll swipe has rending damage and will most likely bleed you. Get this resistance if you plan to face tank the swipe. Ignore this if you think you can kite troll with the steps I’ve shown you above.

* Rending or physical resistances. Nuff said.

The video guide below on how to kill the troll with staff from poisoneye. Check out his channel for even more stoneshard related stuff.

https://youtu.be/Z3LXvsIrzJM


There used to be 2 more strats that you can use to fight the troll but are no longer feasible due to nerf bat from the devs. Check my docs out if you want more details. I will leave one of the vid about it down below.
https://youtu.be/RuXbYz-VG2w

Points of Interest (some spoilers included)

I will only put POIs that I find the most useful/ have something of value in them. A lot of POIs not mentioned either have nothing much or are story related so it’s better for people to find out on their own. Exploring is fun :D

You can get rumours about POIs by talking to NPCs.

Most of the time POIs will be camps with 2 to 3 enemies in it. You can find and kill them early on for exp and some loot in their chests if you are lucky.


- There are now hunting grounds for most animals. These are zones with increased spawn rate of said animals. You can find them either by exploring or talking to NPCs in towns.


- Leprosarium: There’s nothing much here aside from a few pieces of medicine. A cool looking Plague doctor mask and a bed.


- Witch hut: There’s a witch here LOL. Inside the place there should be a witch staff, a witch hat and a decent amulet. Speak to her and she will give you a potion. If you need water, there’s a well outside the hut. Take her stuff for a fun surprise!!


- Hermit’s hut. Inside the hut you will find a healer staff and a backpack. This is now a location for a quest.


- Ruined Manor: The POI with the most loot at the moment. Once you get to the building you will see a campfire. To the upper left of it you will see some destructible crate. Destroy them to reveal a hatch to the basement. Down in the basement you will see a chest, a weapon rack and a bookshelf as well as a boar head on the wall. The closed door cannot be open through normal means. Once you exit the basement, an encounter will trigger with enemies relatively close to your level. Defeat the ringleader and he will drop a key to unlock the door. The boar head you can take back to Osbrook’s Inn for a nice bonus to rent price and free beer everyday. Inside the door there’s a bed and a bookshelf.


- Signal tower. -

This is where the ancient troll is. The ‘’final but optional boss’’ for the content right now. The required level for the quest to kill the troll is now 10. After you get level 10, if you talk to the elder in Mannshire, he will say the governor has a job for you. Go see the governor for details of the quest.


- Rotten Willow Tavern. Den of thieves. It will always be North East of Mannshire. If you follow one of the branch roads from Mannshire you will read there. Here you have a bed to save. The Innkeeper will buy all your stolen goods no questions asked. An NPC named Stone sells drugs. Another NPC called L’Owcrey will buy your cursed items and occult related items like grimoire/occult cloak/necromancer staff. Selling him occult items will increase your reputation with the place.

- Ransacked Homestead. Can have unique items.

Useful NPCs/Mini quest/Trainers

Useful NPCs:

• Herbalist.
  
  
  
  In Osbrook he will be your main source of medicinal supplies. Healing salves, leeches, herbal extracts, etc can be bought from him. He has an easy to do mini quest, which is to gather herbs for him, one tuft of each listed below.
  
  
  The zone around Osbrook is a mill. If you are lucky, you can find spearmint and thyme in the same zone just by walking down and around the wheat field. Otherwise you would have to find a field near Osbrook to find them. There should be fields 1 or 2 zones away from Osbrook.
  
  The reward for this mini quest is 2 random medicine items from a pool of healing salves, herbal extract, leeches or splint. You will also get a bump in your reputation with Osbrook.
  
  Most people will probably disregard this quest but I find it quite easy to do right at the start of the game and the reward is quite useful at the start when you don’t have much money.
  
  
• Trapper.
  
  
  
  He will always sit at a table in front of the Inn in either Osbrook or Mannshire. He will move back and forth between both towns every few days. If you start a new character and don't see him in Osbrook just restart the char until he shows up.
  
  He sells mostly hunting trophies like pelts or bear fat but sometimes will have useful items like claw traps/caltrops/nets or deathstinger jars/smoke bombs.
  
  
• Ram, the Drunkard.
  
  
  
  Has a mini quest to find him a brandy bottle. This can either be found as loot from bandit dungeons or just buy it from the innkeeper. The reward is an enchanted Fang Amulet which is an okay amulet for crit users. If you are lucky you might get good enchants on it.
  
  
• Unar, the Scribe.
  
  
  
  Can be found in the first floor of Mannshire castle.
  He sells Dual Wielding/Athletics/Pyro/Geo/Survival books.

List of trainers:

Right now you can talk to these NPCs and pay some money to unlock tier 1 of most skill trees.

Osbrook

• 1h axes - Carpenter
  
• 1h maces - Blacksmith
  
• Spears - Guard sitting alone at barracks
  
• Shields - Drunkard in front of Osbrook inn

Mannshire

• Swords - Guard outside entrance for Mannshire castle
  
• Daggers - General Merchant
  
• 2h swords/ Combat Mastery - Governor
  
• 2h axes - Carpenter
  
• 2h maces - Blacksmith
  
• Staff - Priest

Other

• Ranged / Athletics - Trapper

Fun or good build ideas from other people that I think worth looking at.

Skirmisher Dirwin by u/RepresentativeBee545
Full link in case Steam decides to block it: https://www.reddit.com/r/stoneshard/comments/si4q52/skirmisher_build_how_to_fully_utilize_dirwin/

[Radulf]

Omg, this is amazing!!!

[Siz]

Could use an update now after the Rags to Riches update.

[Gamb]

Cool stuff man :) need only more builds :)

[Skits223]

ty most useful; information I've found so far

[Heisenbee, Al'qud Baker]

From what I've seen of the patch notes, there isn't much changed in terms of gameplay. The majority of this guide should still be applicable as there aren't any skill recommendations.

Can't really promise when I will update the optional boss section for the manticore tho. Haven't been feeling it lately.

[andre.toda24]

ty

[KtrlAltDel]

Great work. I learned a few things!

[Heisenbee, Al'qud Baker]

DW guide is up guys. Do check it out :D

[Heisenbee, Al'qud Baker]

Guide updated with POI section and some adjustments to formatting. Hopefully folks can view the videos now. I'm thinking about adding sections on each weapon tree/playstyle in the future, with Dual Wielding being the thing I've been wanting to add the most. No ETA on when they will arrive though. Hopefully soon.

[Heisenbee, Al'qud Baker]

@Dendi: Putting the amulet in a container should make the timer tick down I think.