Wartales Beginners Guide

A (hopefully) simple and fun guide for people new to the game, explaining basic game mechanics and showing some tips & tricks to make mercenary life more easy.

I just started playing Wartales and will update this guide while i progress in the game, feedback or other helpful tips are appreciated!

Introduction

This guide will hopefully provide some useful tips and basic game mechanics and when i started writing it, i thought it would be more fun and interesting to actually write on a story-like way so it also be just fun to read and see how i manage progressing the game.

While i play the game, i'll continue updating this guide to a point i covered all the basics. The last chapter will consist of a summary of all basic tips so you don't have to read through all the details.

Happy reading! Let me know if you have feedback or some things to add :)

1) Starting a new Company [Startup]

When starting a new game, you first have to decide what kind of starting troop you have, each with it's up and down sides:


Since money usually makes life more easy, I've picked the Merchant escorts who 'lost' their employer. I think the medicine was supposed to save the employer but apparently it didn't so we'll take his crowns since he has no more use for it anyway :-)

With this troop we don't have any Ranged companion(s) but i really don't mind since puny bows only do puny damage and i will probably keep hitting my own Companions in the back all the time due to horrible roll-chance based accuracy.

Next we have to decide what positive trait the company has:

Usually with this kind of games, fatigue is quite an important stat since it can make your Companions quite puny because they are too tired to fight and will have quite a negative drop on their main stats so that's why i decide to take the 10% decrease in fatigue.

Each upside has it's downside so we have to decide what our negative trait is:


This one actually reminds me of myself since i'm more of a night owl and definitely not a morning person and since our company consist of big bad melee bruisers, we're not afraid of a little extra danger at night!

Finally we have to decide where to start and on what difficulty we would like to play:


Let's stick to normal difficulty for now and see if we can actually survive the coming days...

2) Hello World! [First view in the game]

As you enter the world with your new found company you see that it's a open world in a real time setting, you're free to move around, loot stuff, attack people and lot's of more fun stuff:


I marked each point of interest / HUD button and explained it below:

1. Companion menu: here you can check out all your employed companions skills, gear, stats etc. it's showing 5 since we actually start with a pack horse! more stuff we inherited from our former now dead employer :-)
   
2. Knowledge: We're not all blood and muscle, we also have an actual brain! and during the game you can increase knowledge by simply exploring new areas and once you get knowledge points, you can invest them in either new skills or recipes for crafting.
   
3. Scenario progress bar: Each region has it's own scenario and it's dedicated region quests. By doing such quests, you will have to make choices which will determine how the region will develop based on your decisions, Such power!
   
4. Suspicion bar: If you act against the region owning faction by either stealing, killing peasants or just naughty stuff basically, this bar will fill and by doing so, the local guards will start looking for you and tear you to pieces unless you are happy to pay your crime fees and continue living in this beautiful world.
   
5. Fatigue bar: Ahhh.. Fatigue, we've talked about this before and this bar shows how tired your companions are. Walking around, fighting and doing other 'physical' stuff will cause your men to tire down and be puny weaklings. If the bar turns red, your men are fatigued and will drop their main attack stat (Strength or Dexterity) by a percentage based on how fatigued they are
   
6. Happiness level: Being unhappy in an company will make you want to quit and just as in Wartales, unhappy company members will cause them to leave your company so it is important to shove a few beers into their mouths once in a while to keep them satisfied. Of course there are more ways to keep them happy but what brawler doesn't get happy by drinking beer paid by his employer!?
   
7. Influence: Back in the day, we didn't have Instagram to show off how bad ass our company is with our bathroom selfie brawlers but instead our influence rises by actually doing stuff! In Wartales it actually a type of currency you need in order to recruit new members to your company or do use it for other purposes which can act in your favor.
   
8. Valour points: These points are used for your Kamehameha-like skills AKA your most powerful skills. You can refresh them during by resting in the camp or, when your companions level up, they can get skills which will regenerate these points.
   
9. Food: Simple, if you don't have any food, you die. The End.
   
10. Krowns: MOOONNNEEEYYY!! Always keep an eye on your money, every 3 days you will have to pay your companions their salary, otherwise you will end up like their former employer (by total accident of course).
    
11. Camp: Here you can hang out with your companions and do camping stuff like crafting, eating and sleeping and rest so you can recover your fatigue bar. Note that when you camp, the real time world is paused so it's a nice time to check your bro's, quests and whatever needs a look at.
    
12. Inventory: all stuff you hoarded so far! Note that your hoarding has a limit in weight so take care not to rob a town to its foundation or you'll have a hard time walking.
    
13. Compendium: All your recipes and acquired skills through knowledge found here!
    
14. World Map: The map of the world (it's huge).
    
15. Paths: It's up to you on how to develop your company and win the game. This can either be by just killing everyone you come across and loot every town or actually be a bit less violent and help out the poor poor souls in this chaos infested world :-)
    
16. Loot: You can see a small blinking light which is loot! A lot of stuff is lying around and luckily you have this magic gift in this world that you are the only one who has to power to actually pick up these up!
    
17. Peoples!: This is one of many dudes you will encounter and the small symbol represents what kind of faction those dudes are and in this case it are some puny bandits who are eager to die by your company.

3) Getting to know your bro's [Character information]

Time to meet your employees and see if they actually have what it takes to be a cashcow killing machine for your company:


Above we have Eager young swordsman Theod, who just graduated from mercenary school by killing a man! But wait, wasn't our former employee killed by a similar looking sword as Theod is carrying!? oh well, back to explaining stuff..

1. Roster: Here you can check out all your dudes and girls! and ponies ofcourse.
   
2. Level up: When you've killed enough other dudes, you gain experience and level up! If you have accumulated enough (see point 8), your dude can progress to the next level and gain extra attributes and skills.
   
3. Your dude's name, you can actually add a cool nickname like 'former employee inheritor!'
   
4. Your dude's class: There are in total of 6 starting classes, each which can be promoted into 3 specialized classes, i'll cover the 6 default starting classes for now:
   
   • Swordsman
     
   • Brute
     
   • Ranger
     
   • Archer
     
   • Spearman
     
   • Warrior
5. Profession: Besides hacking % slashing stuff, you can also have your bro's learn professions! What more fun to make your own weapons of destruction to try out on puny bandits? Even better; every profession give's attribute bonuses like extra strengths as a blacksmith or extra crit chance by being a tinkerer so be sure to give your dudes a profession to profit from these extra bonuses. So far i have found these Professions:
   
   • Tinkerer
     
   • Blacksmith
     
   • Angler
     
   • Cook
     
   • Alchemist
     
   • Miner
     
   • Scholar
     
   • Thief
6. Defence: Ofcourse, your dudes can die, here you can see their total armor durability (grey bar), Health (red bar) and Guard (wooden shield with percentage). If you're out of durability, prepare to feel your hitpoints getting trimmed and losing them all will cause you to die :-). By wearing shields or certain skills, you get Guard which actually reduces damage by the amount displayed in percentage. Note that being back stabbed the guard bonus is reduced by half!
   
7. Injuries and Status: If a companion almost died during battle, they will probably leave with some injuries or mental issues and in this section the 'bonuses' are displayed with effects on your character performance.
   
8. Experience progress bar: Keep killing people to get experience since there is no other way to get experience :-)
   
9. Equipment: All the cool stuff you're wearing, be sure not walk around naked or you will have a very short journey when meeting some wolves or something.
   
10. Attributes: The cool stats! the ones in green are actually buffed by equipment. So by wearing a sword you actually get stronger!
    
11. Skills: Basic skills, the first one is based upon which weapon you carry so by wearing a sword you can slash people! The second skill however, i character and classed based and differs per unit. When looking out for new recruits, be sure to inspect this skill and see if it fits with the role you have in mind for him/her.
    
12. Traits: Another charcater based mechanic, these are randomly generated and could grant certain bonuses or negative effects. Again, check the traits of your bros and see if it affects their role

4) Our first battle! [Combat]

Oh noes!! we just got attacked by a Hoodlum and Poacher, having high hopes to be able so seize 4 battle hardened bruisers... Time for crushing :)


Combat is turn based in Wartales and so far i haven't noticed any mechanic which determines whoever acts first in a round. Below is a screenshot of the initial round of combat:


Again i marked every notable objects with numbers and explained each:

1. Move order: At the start of each new round, you can choose any character who didn't move yet to make a move. As seen in the screenshot, two of our bro's can make a move before a enemy unit can make a move.
   
2. Valour points reserve: above the portrait of our beautiful boy Theod, we can see how many valour points we can spend. We can replenish them by either resting in the camp or by some special skills.
   
3. End turn: When you spent all your moves (moving, attacking and/or using valour skill), you can press this button to finish your turn with the currently selected character.
   
4. Move: You can move up to a few meters, depending on your characters move attribute. It doesn't deplete if you move few meters so you can keep walking until you run out of meters.
   
5. Attack move: This is the default attack move of your weapon and is different per weapon. Some default weapon skills have some nice extra's such as knockback or poison on hit.
   
6. KAME-HAME-HAAAAAA!!! I mean Valour skill: This are your strongest skills, only use so when really needed since they cost valour points and best used when you're in a tight spot.
   
7. Retreat: As a famous old wizard once said: "Fly, you Fools!" when things get bad, like half your party getting whacked, it's time to run and come back to fight another day. After all you're running a business so you can replace fallen bro's if you yourself are alive ofcourse.
   
8. Free spot: At the initial turn of the first round, you can move your bro's around, positioning them like what you think whats best and these spots are possible starting positions for your bro's.
   
9. Our boy Theod!: friendly units are marked with a blue health bar.
   
10. The enemy: The bad boys marked with red health bars. See that little red warning sign next to their health/armor bars? It means he is the first next enemy to make a move.
    
11. Your bro's/allies currently alive: This shouldn't reach zero... EVER.
    
12. Morale meter: Killing bad boys and girls raises morale (yay!) and killing a lot of them causes your guys to go in a whooping killing frenzy and could fetch them a +50%(!!!) damage bonus after passing the first slide. If you manage to pass the second slide, you get the enemy to run (Ha! puny cowards) and it's all free game to shoot to kill for sports and loot. :-)
    
13. Enemy units alive: This counter should definitely always reach zero :-) it shows how many sheep are left for the slaughter by your killing machines.

Let's make a move with our tanky boy Theod! Since he has a shield and quite some armor and health, it's a good idea to engage him to the enemy in range of walking distance:


After we're eyeballing with the bandit, we can engage and attack him. This will 'lock' both characters in engaged combat and if either of them want to move away, they risk an attack of opportunity by the other combatant and risk getting hurt and not moving at all:


You can see that both Theod and the puny bandit has a cross sword icon above their heads, this means that they are engaged in combat and are forced to only attack each other. Such a lovely bond. Note that when two guys are engaged with each other, they are more vulnerable and their chance to be critically hit is increased by 10%.

Now that we've engaged this bandit in melee combat, we can move in other bro's to attack him from the sides or even better, from the back! If you have a rogue like bro with daggers, he can get bonus critical chance from attacking from behind on top of neglecting guard protection bonus. We don't have any puny dagger-like weapons in our roster so we just crush them with heavy weapons which shouldn't take long.

After a short battle, resizing some punny bandits to the lows of the land with an axe and emerging victorious, we gained some loot (yes, body's are also loot! :-D):


As you can see, we are rewarded with not just loot but also experience, influence and some of our boys armor got smashed which needs repair. You can have them directly repaired by using tools found in our inventory or by visiting a local blacksmith and have your gear repaired by him. Since tools cost 5 crowns each and a smith is actually cheaper, i would suggest to use your tools only if you are far away from town.

If during battle, for some reason you managed to get one of your boys actually getting wounded (a red sign under his or hers portrait) enough to have an injury, you can use medicine potions to cure all of your injuries. So a broken leg can be easily cured by simply drinking a potion (such innovations in that era!).

After looting everything, we move on and hope to find a nearby village to look for some work and refreshing up.

5) Camping life [Resting & Camping]

From time to time, you will have to make camp in order for your troops to eat, sleep and get paid. While camping, you can see all of your dudes hanging around along with your pony:


Your dudes all are hanging around next to the campfire and you can use the campfire to feed them, pay them and have them sleep so that they can rest out and fill up the fatigue bar.

Note that you can move around people and stuff and if you 'assign' your dudes next to a structure (just place them next to it) they can get a bonus when they rest. Having someone next to the campfire will give +1 happiness when you rest so keep a close look for building which gives such bonuses.

Another default structure in your camp is the workshop! Here you can assign a tinkerer who can build new stuff to use in your camp.


By default, you can build a Cooking Pot or Tent for your camp and later on, you can craft more camping gear. A tent gives quite some nice bonuses for Valour Points and a Cooking pot allows you to make better meals for your troops which we will cover later.

For know we dont have any materials yet to craft anything but we will soon enough.

6) Moving up north [Location interactions]

After killing the bandits, we moved up north and we came across a stable! note that we actually acquired some wisdom points by doing so so yay exploring!

You can enter locations like this and take a peek inside and either talk to the inhabitants or see if there is any loot to 'borrow without asking':


If we want, we could buy extra horses here and after talking to the stablemaster, he'll give us free horseshoes if we buy a horse right now! (or just rob him blind and kill him if he get's mad or whatever)


For now we don't need any extra pack-horses so we just leave and wish them a pleasant non-bandit visiting day.

7) The Prison [Bounty hunting]

To the North East of your starting position is the Tiltren Prison. Here, you can find the Jailer and some prisoners who you can bail out by spending crowns.

You can talk to the Jailer and she sells Chains, which you can use to capture outlaws and turn them in to her for suspicion reduction and a nice bounty, nice way of making some money and get the guard off your butt.

In order to turn in a outlaw, you first have to find one. Usually bandits suits the bill for being one and you can actually knock them out in combat in order to chain them and bring them in for a bounty. Should you manage to capture a bandit, he actually joins your party as a prisoner and you can decide to use him as a meatshield in combat or turn him in at the prison for a nice cash bonus.

Outlaws are marked in the character screen underneath their class and level bar and in order to capture him if he joined your party voluntary, you can do so by clickingthe gears in the lower part and select capture:

8.0) Visiting Stromkapp [Village interactions]

We found our first village and by doing so, we should check out each building for discovering new stuff which we can make use of:

1. The Blacksmith: Your boy for repairing your broken gear and dealer in tools. You can also use his forge to make your own gear.
   
2. The Townhall: The boss of the village, you can check out with him or her and get to know what's going on in the local country to get some clues about how to progress the region development.
   
3. The market: Various merchants can be found here and a good place to stock up some food or other crafting supplies.
   
4. The Inn: The best place to hang out! You can find contracts here to make coin, find new recruits or just drink beer to keep your company happy.
   
5. The herbalist: Your local dealer for any kind of medicine. You will probarly come here often if you get your bro's injured many times.
   
6. Local Town info: Name of the town, it's population and what kind of special goods they produce. You can make a living by doing contacts but also by trading high quality goods or why not just both?

8.1) Visiting Stromkapp [The Blacksmith & Forging]

Visiting the blacksmith:


At the blacksmith you can have your broken gear repaired or forge new gear yourself! You can also trade with the blacksmith, he usually have some crafting materials for sale which you can use if you're gonna make stuff by yourself. (again, you can rob him blind but for now, lets stick to the good side since we are no match for the armed town guards i guess :-))


As you can see, the tools are highlighted green, this means they have a temporarily price reduction! best time to buy some since they are actually discounted by a whopping 20%! (it still just 1 Krown per tool but being a Dutch guy, every discount make me go wauw).

There is also a forge we can use so lets do so and after selecting it, we discovered a new profession: Blacksmith! (who knew?):


Since being a blacksmith gives a +1 strength bonus, lets make our trusty old boy Theod a blacksmith. Actually since all of our boys and girls are melee strength based oriented, we can make them all a blacksmith for now since you can always swap out professions. Note that when choosing a new profession since you already have one, you will lose all progress with your initial profession.


At the crafting menu, you can see all types of gear you can craft if you have all materials needed. Crafting has a lot of benefits, depending on what you're gonna craft, you can either learn new recipes for that profession you're working on or gain wisdom! For example below, crafting rags will reveal a new recipe and a Throwing axe will earn us some wisdom points:

Let's see if we can manage to craft some Rags. Forging is actually a mini-game and depending on your performance, you can craft better or crappy gear. You can see 4 pieces of Iron, laying on the Anvil and when you start forging, one of them will glow up and you should try to hit it when the iron flashes:


Hitting all 4 pieces of Iron will net you the best quality of the item, on my first try i forged this:

Not the most perfect but still managed to craft some good quality Rags! Note the star which means it's a better then average quality with extra bonus armor. Since we made Rags for the first time, we unlocked a new recipe to be learned in the Compendium by spending wisdom points.

For now its a joke what we can craft but practice makes perfect and eventually you can make legendary gear to demolish any joker who made fun of the simple rags you made during your first days as a smith.

8.2) Visiting Stromkapp [The Townhall]

Let's check out the biggest building in the village, the Townhall![/previewico0n]

Not much going on here, you can talk to the governess to gain a bit of info on what's going on in the region and how you can do anything about it... or not. We will probably have to get back here sometime, time will tell!

8.3) Visiting Stromkapp [The Market]

The market is exactly as you expect it to be, quite some different merchants hanging around, selling food, crafting materials and trade goods but also some beggars hanging around, hoping some good chap would toss a coin it's way.



It's the perfect place to stock up some food since our company marches on it's stomach and without it, we'll be eating dust without ever getting up again.

Also, we found this poor beggar Renard and for a little fee he will polish our armor! I felt generous so decided to toss a few coins to him, poor sod could use some to get some cloths he can polish for his own.


Bastard robbed us! Should we ever find him, he's gonna be in a world of hurt.

8.4) Visiting Stromkapp [The Inn]

Best place to be in town, the Inn!


Here you can buy special food like pies and stuff which gives nice bonuses such as reduced fatique build up until the next time you rest! And speaking of resting, you can also rent some beds here for a proper night's sleep but this will cost you of course but it also replenishes more valour points so it might be worth it sometimes. An inn wouldn't be a Inn without selling beer so you should buy some since you can use it during camp to improve the happiness of your boys!

Besides the inkeeper, there a lot of other interesting individuals and the one sitting close to the inkeeper on the table is the informant.


This guy can sell you pieces of information which lead to unique quest in the region which are actually the ones which will progress the region story. You'll have to spend influence to do so but it's not mandatory to buy them since you can also just find them on your own.

On the other side of the room, next to the bounty board, there is an Emissary hanging around looking for mercenaries to do some good old fashioned bounty hunting.


Here you can check out some bounties for you to take on and earn some money by doing 'honest' work. Note that each bounty states a difficulty and also shows a small compass showing where you would have to go so try to get multiple who are in the same direction and are not too difficult, unless you are over-confident you can take on the more difficult ones.


The bounties are randomly generated so you can keep on doing them for a while since every day, new ones are added. For now we pick the easiest one. Apperently some guy named Borric formed up a squad and messed with the wrong guy so they will meet their demise in chapter 7.

All other individuals are actually swords for hire, meaning they are potential new recruits for your company! Not sure yet what the maximum amount of companions is but should you loose some, you can go over here and recruit some new fodder recruits.

Note that you will also have to spent influence in order to recruit new soldiers and the higher level they are, the more they will cost and their wages will be. Be sure to check out their class and see if they have nice traits which could actually boost their potential. We don't want to spend our money and influence on people who actually should be giving us money for their puniness!

8.5) Visiting Stromkapp [The Apothecary Clinic]

Next and final stop in Stromkapp is the Apothecary Clinic!


Here is your place to be for all your potions and alchemy stuff. Similar like the Blacksmith, you can also heal any injuries of your companions if you don't have any medicine potions left or just buy some new ones. Besides the potions you can also buy new recipes to use in Alchemy!

Speaking of alchemy, there is also an alchemy table here on which one of your bro's can learn the alchemy profession and craft potions themselves! Note that Alchemy gives Dexterity bonuses so it's best to make a Dexterity based bro your alchemist.


Crafting potions require vials and herbs and the later can be found everywhere in the world, waiting for you to be harvested!

9.0) Borric's Squad [chasing our first contract]

Now that we've geared up and supplied our troop, it's time to continue our journey and earn some money by hopefully completing the bounty we took on earlier about some guy name Borric. During this chapter we will probably come across some other interesting events so i'll make a sub chapter for each.

9.1) Borric's Squad [Fishing!]

While we headed out of town, we spotted some loot in the water and it's your duty as a free roamer to loot everything that this world has to offer. After all, you're the only one who can actually loot stuff!


It's actually a fishing spot and to be able to fish, you need one of your mercs to have the Angler profession which you can learn right away after finding your first fishing spot. Besides having an Angler, you also need Hooks which you can craft at the workbench in the camp by a tinkerer, loot them from unlucky individuals who met your axe or buy them in town. Also, being an Angles gives you a Willpower bonus.


Fishing is quite simple (for now). You can see how many fish you are able to catch (in this case there are 3 fishes waiting to be hooked up (get it?)) and also how many hooks you currently have to use.

To fish, you need to click anywhere in the water and when a fish bites, you have to try to keep the moving slider in the middle of the bar long enough so you can reel in your fish! During this time, if you keep holding your left mouse button, the fish slider will move to the right but be carefull not to hold it too long otherwise the fish will escape as well. Save before you start fishing for the first time so you can get the feeling and you'll be reeling in whales in no time!

Note that if you let a fish escape, you'll loose your hook as well but when reeling fish in, there is a chance that you can re-use your hook. I was able to fish up 2 eels and a carp, which will be nice dinner!

9.2) Borric's Squad [Our first scenario encounter]

While roaming the woods, killing some bandits, we came across a Guard Outpost quite close to a mine which could be quite interesting!


Visiting the Guard Outpost, there is this dude with a purple glow around his skin meaning he is a Scenario character, offering a quest which is related to the region.


Apparently the region is in some trouble with a lot of refugee's who are wreaking havoc across the country and Captain Rovand was able to find and trap some in the nearby mine. This dude, Berthram and his fellows are being trapped for days and since you are new to the region, Rovand want you to go in and 'talk' to Berhram and dispose of him so Rovand can move on. Should we do so, we can get quite some money and influence out of it so lets hop over to the other side and see what happens.


Hopping over to the cave, we meet Berthram and his gang inside and we are able to talk to him. He notices that you were sent by Rovand and explains that he has not choice but to 'bully' the farmers in order to survive. So killing simple farmers is just bullying? good one.

He offers us a choice, instead of killing him, he want us to kill Captain Rovand and his guards. His argument? If Captain Revand is dead, he doesn't have to use force anymore to get resources from the farmers.


Now you have to make a decision which will affect the outcome of the region scenario. Will you help the local inhabitants fend off the refugee's? Or do you think the refugees are actually fighting the good cause here? I'm gonna stick with the local peeps so it's time to have Berthram meet my axe!

He put on a good fight, bastard almost killed two of my bro's with just his puny dagger! In the end the biggest weapon always win (most of the time). After killing him, Rovand meets us (ofcourse AFTER the battle...) and hands over the promised coin and influence and also, progressing 20% in the scenario story!

Take a good look around in the cave, if you look closely you can see a locked chest.
t's key is on a corpse in the same cave, inside the chest are some jewels and iron ore, nice find!

9.3) Hunting Borric's Squad [Cooking!]

After a few battles and looting some stuff, we managed to scrounge enough Iron ore and Wood to make a Cooking pot! With a cooking pot (you guess) we can cook epic food, giving nice bonuses atop of feeding our Mercs. Ofcourse you will need a cook and since cooking gives a +2 Constitution bonus, best to have your tank be the company's cook!


For now, we can only cook simple bread which we need Wheat and Salt for, which we sadly don't have at the moment. Didn't The dude from the cave (forgot his name already) mention we could 'bully' farmers to acquire resources...? Might be a useful way of getting mats after all!

9.4) Hunting Borric's Squad [Wisdom and going the wrong way]

I totally forgot about Wisdom points and we actually acquired one point which we can spent on a new skill or recipe:


Since time is money, the faster we move, the faster we earn money and since we have to run around A LOT so I think Endurance is a nice fit as initial generic skill.

Speaking of wisdom, i don't know why but we headed north-east when we left Strommkap. Probarbly was attracted by loot but totally forgot about our contract in hunting Borric and his boys so back we go to town, see if we can get some better gear and contract head south-easter-ish to go kill Borric & Co!

9.5) Hunting Borric's Squad [Hunting wild animals]

While on the journey going back to Strommkop, we came across some wild boars and were into a 'bullying' mood :-) The boars were quite easy to kill but beter yet they dropped quite the loot!


As you can see, they dropped a lot of crafting materials and food. Hunting wild animals can be a great source of income so keep an eye out at forest area's where they usually hide.

9.6) Hunting Borric's Squad [Advanced combat]

While closing in on Borric, we came across some other enemies as well and in the meantime, most of our kill squad got leveled up, having more fun skills to use for the war machine.

When your Mercs level up to level 2, they can choose a Valour spending or generating skill depending on their class. For example, I gave our girl Murna, Valorous Support which is a passive skill that generates Valour points:


Since Murna is a spearWOMAN, she ussualy sticks behind a tanky bro and pokes opponents with her pitchfork (yay, peasant revolt!). Because of this, she is usually next or behind a friendly bro and also out of combat meaning a free valour point per round! Note however, that these valour points generated by such skills, can only be used during that battle and will be lost when the battle is over.

Tacticial placement DOES matter. you can get bonuses or negative effects depending on how your Mercs are positioned. Our boy Theod is engaged in combat with a bandit and during the round in brought in 2 other bro's to help out and they are standing next to Theod (their position boxes connect with Theod's position box).


Because Theod is backed up by two of our bro's, het gets a defence bonus of a whopping 20%! Very nice to keep in mind, should you ever have to fight a tough boss. (Don't mind Corntos since he's still getting the basics of combat, facing towards your opponent instead of mooning him.)

Note that you can also surround and overwhelm your opponents in a similar way, having 1 bro engaging the enemy while 2 other bro's are next to the poor sod, he will receive 20% more damage. Similar debuff applies to your own guys should they be surrounded.

9.7) Hunting Borric's Squad [Finally found Borric!]

At long last we managed to track down Borric, the bastard was hiding up in the snowy forest hills and by the time we got to him, he was actually getting attacked by hungy Wolves! This is gonna be a fun battle and a very unlucky day for poor old Borric.


Since there already is a battle going on, we get to choose who to attack! Ofcourse we have a paycheck to collect, we need Borric's head first so this choice is quite easy but look what happened when we started the attack! some wolves actually joined our side to help kill Borric! Borric sure does have a very bad day.


Since Borric is a leader type of guy, he actually is a sort of mini-boss and also get quite some powerfull bonuses. Just be being a leader, he get +30% more Strength, Dexterity and Constitution! Besides that, he has an Aura called 'Leaders Protection' which will give himself and all surounding teammates a 30% damage reduction bonus IF he is not engaged in combat.

Be sure to engage him as fast as possible to get rid of his aura buff for him and his allies. Each boss or mini-boss will have special skills so be sure to inspect them on the battlefield and think about good counter measures to deal with them.

Borric lies dead after 2 rounds already. Sadly one of our friendly wolves died but waste not want not, we'll make sure it's carcass will be used for the greater good :) Time to head back to Strummkop and claim our paycheck!

Back in Strummkop, we got our money as promised and we completed our first contract!

You also get an Steam achievement for completing your first contract :)

Tips & Tricks [General]

Here is a list of usefull tips & tricks to hopefully make your journey last a little bit longer:

• When starting a new game, be sure to check out all of your companions and see if they have good starting skills and traits. These are randomly generated so everytime you start a new game, you have new dudes with different skills and traits. For instance, if you have a Swordsman who you want to be a tank, make sure he has the taunt skill so he can actually act like a tank.
  
• Don't forget about profession bonuses. Initially you start with only the tinkerer profession which every dude in your company can learn and earn a +2% crit chance. Later you will find more professions, each with their own bonus and you can always swap out professions but do mind that when unlearning an profession, you will lose all it's progress.
  
• Only spend valour points on difficult battles so for instance, when fighting a boss or big group of enemies. You can gain valour points by resting or when a Merc is level 2, you can choose a Valour-generating skill.
  
• When entering a local area, like a house or cave, press Alt to highlight any cases of interest like chests of people to talk with.
  
• Keep you folks happy and well fed. Always have some beer and food in your inventory so you won't have angry people in your company who could actually leave if they are unhappy for too long.
  
• Use your workbench in your camp! You can craft all kinds of stuff with it which can improve camping life or craft lockpicks which you can use to rob this whole world blind.
  
• Valour point may be gain in temporary fashion with early perk for each class. Keeping in mind which character got which valour gain may give you TONS of disposable points to diminish armor loss. Plus the captain may give a single low-to-high valour gain once per battle. Free of charge. These are to be used as much as possible. [Credit: RahKiel]
  
• Smithing is key or really strong at worst. Loot is scarce, and not often very balanced (never looted a good dagger so far). It'll need knowledge point, but as long as you success the minigame, you can craft good quality gears. [Credit: RahKiel]
  
• A good tip is, when going to big towns always buy the trade goods from the market and sell them at the first wandering merchant you can so you can make a quick buck, I haven"t tested whether you get more for selling in different provinces though. [Credit: Chiken]
  
• Be sure to learn knowledge skill 'Run' as soon as possible. This is quite a life saver and allows you to move faster from place to place.
  
• Check your camp occasionally, you can assign party members to various structures for extra bonuses like when assigning a cook to a cooking pot, you will consume less food each time you rest.
  
• Don't forget to make use of Pitons. They can come in very handy and you could use them to make huge shortcuts! You can craft them yourself (tinkerer) by using some iron and ropes (which you can buy from the local jailer):
  

Tips & Tricks [Classes]

In Wartales, there are 6 different starting classes, each with their own specialization and role. Note that every character starts with a random class skill (3 different ones in total) which can be different per recruit. Later in the game you can find someone who sells skill books which teach these starting skills, spoiler: Once you clear out the thick bandit camp (hard contract) southwest of Strommkop, you will meet an Agent of the Black market there who sells them.


Once your companion reaches level 2 or 3 (depending on class), they can specialize into a more dedicated role and also allows a dedicated armor to be worn (Light, Medium or Heavy).

1. Swordsman
   Main Damage stat: Strength
   Potential initial class skill: Wrath, Taunt or First Aid.
   Load-out: 1H Sword, 1H Sword & Shield or 2H Sword.
   Potential Role: Damage dealer or Tank.
   Specializations:
   • Protector: Tank | 1H Sword & Shield | Heavy armor.
     
   • Fighter: Damage dealer / Trickster | 1H Sword, 1H Sword & Shield or 2H Sword | Heavy armor.
     
   • Swordmaster: Damage dealer / AOE Damage | 2H Sword | Medium Armor.
   
   
2. Warrior
   Main Damage stat: Strength
   Potential initial class skill: Wrath, Taunt or First Aid.
   Load-out: 1H Axe, 1H Axe & Shield or 2H Axe.
   Role: Damage dealer or Tank.
   Specializations:
   
   • Berserker: Damage dealer | 1H Axe, 1H Axe & Shield or 2H Axe | Medium Armor
     
   • Executioner: Damage dealer | 2H Axe | Medium Armor
     
   • Sentinel: Tank / Support | 1H Axe, 1H Axe & Shield | Heavy Armor
   
   
3. Spearman
   Main Damage stat: Strength
   Potential initial class skill: Run, Wrath or First Aid.
   Load-out: Polearm.
   Role: Support.
   Specializations:
   
   • Harpooner: Damage dealer / Support | Polearm | Medium Armor.
     
   • Herald: Damage dealer / Support | Polearm | Medium Armor.
     
   • Pikeman: Crowd Control / Support | Polearm | Medium Armor.
   
   
4. Brute
   Main Damage stat: Strength
   Potential initial class skill: Wrath, Taunt or First Aid.
   Load-out: 1H Sword, 1H Sword & Shield or 2H Sword.
   Role: Damage dealer or Tank.
   Specializations:
   
   • Vanguard: Damage dealer / Crowd Control | 1H Mace, 1H Mace & Shield | Medium Armor.
     
   • Smasher: Damage dealer / AOE Damage | 2H Mace | Medium Armor.
     
   • Destroyer: Tank | 1H Mace & Shield | Heavy Armor.
   
   
5. Ranger
   Main Damage stat: Dexterity
   Potential initial class skill: Run, Wrath or First Aid.
   Load-out: Dagger | Light Armor.
   Role: Damage dealer.
   Specializations:
   
   • Cutthroat: Damage dealer / Back-stabber | Dagger | Light Armor.
     
   • Strategist: Damage dealer / Support | Dagger | Light Armor.
     
   • Poisoner: Damage dealer / AOE Damage | Dagger | Light Armor.
   
   
6. Archer
   Main Damage stat: Dexterity
   Potential initial class skill: Aim, Sprint or First Aid.
   Load-out: Bows
   Role: Ranged damage dealer.
   Specializations:
   
   • Hunter: Damage dealer / Trickster | Bows| Light Armor.
     
   • Beastmaster: Damage dealer / Support | Bows| Light Armor.
     
   • Infantryman: Damage dealer / AOE Damage | Bows| Light Armor.
   [/olist

Tips & Tricks [Professions]

There are 9 professions you can learn and each gives a attribute bonus for the companion who learned it. For each, you start as a novice and by using your profession you can progress to higher levels, making it more easy and increase the chance to make better quality items.

• Tinkerer
  Bonus:
  
  • Novice: +2% Critical chance.
    
  • Apprentice: +3% Critical chance.
    
  • Journeyman: +5% Critical chance.
  Use: Allows you to craft various items to use for other interactions in the world like lockpicks, Pitons etc. You can also craft more camping gear to improve camping bonuses or craft items which you need for other professions.
  Minigame?: No.
  
  
• Angler
  Bonus:
  
  • Novice: +2% Critical chance.
    
  • Apprentice: +1 Willpower, +2% Critical chance.
    
  • Journeyman:
  Use: Allows you to fish. Look for shining baubles in water area's of the world. You can use fish for food or use it to cook more delicate dishes, using your cook.
  Minigame?: Yes, throw in your hook and when a fish hooks, try to maintain the fish slider in the middle of the bar until the timer runs out (next to your fishing pole). Click and hold the left mouse button to move the slider to the right.
  
  
• Blacksmithing
  Bonus:
  
  • Novice: +1 Strength.
    
  • Apprentice: +2 Strength.
    
  • Journeyman: +3 Strength.
  Use: Allows you to craft various weapons, armor and shields which you can use for your bro's.
  Minigame?: Yes, you have to hit 4 iron pieces in order to craft an item. Hit it when it flashes and doing it for each nets you the best quality craft.
  
  
• Alchemy
  Bonus:
  
  • Novice: +1 Dexterity.
    
  • Apprentice: +2 Dexterity.
    
  • Journeyman: +3 Dexterity.
  Use: Allows you to craft all kinds of potions like medicine or other potions which give bonuses.
  Minigame?: No.
  
  
• Cooking
  Bonus:
  
  • Novice: +2 Constitution.
    
  • Apprentice: +4 Constitution.
    
  • Journeyman: +6 Constitution.
  Use: Allows you to cook delicate meals which on top of being food, also grant various bonuses for a few days duration.
  Minigame?: No.
  
  
• Thieving
  Bonus:
  
  • Novice: +1 Dexterity.
    
  • Apprentice: +1 Dexterity, +2% Critical chance.
    
  • Journeyman: +2 Dexterity, +3% Critical chance.
  Use: Allows you to steal items and pick locks using lock picks. Note that when you are stealing, your suspicion level will increase and if it's too high, the guards of the local region will come after you.
  Minigame?: Yes, Lockpicking: You have to find the sweet spot in the lock in order to get the gear moving. The more you can tilt the lockpick, the closer you are to the sweet spot and opening the lock.

• Scholar
  Bonus:
  
  • Novice: +1 Willpower.
    
  • Apprentice:
    
  • Journeyman:
  Use: ?
  Minigame?: ?

• Miner
  Bonus:
  
  • Novice: +2 Constitution.
    
  • Apprentice: +1 Strength,+2 Constitution.
    
  • Journeyman: +1 Strength,+4 Constitution.
  Use: Allows mining of ore veins found in mines and caves.
  Minigame?: Yes, when starting to mine, you will see a static grey circle and a outer circle which gets smaller over time.hit your left mouse button at the right time when the moving circle is in the grey circle to get a ore.

Tips & Tricks [Making Money - Contracts]

Contracts!: As a mercenary group, your core business is doing wet work for people who don't have the muscle to get things done. Check out the bounty board in the inn of the town and see if you're up for the task.

If you reach level 2 in the Trade and Wealth path, you are able to negotiate better prices for bounty's at the cost of influence points. Spending more influence points increases the chance for a successful haggle:


You can net the highest possible reward if you make 3 successful haggles. Should you fail any 3 of them, you cannot attempt any more and the price will be fixed.

Tips & Tricks [Making Money - Prisoners]

A very good way to make some money quickly is taking prisoners. First you will need some shackles in order to actually take a prisoner. You can buy them from your local jailer:

Second, you need to hunt down some outlaws. This can be a group of bandits or deserters, as long as their didn't play their rightful part in terms of the law. When in combat, soften a bandit up until they have less then 50% of their health and he is engaged with one of your bro's. Now when you have another bro who didn't use their default attack skill yet, move him up against the engaged bandit and you can use 'knock out' in order to stun and shackle him:


When successful he/she will be captured and join the troop after the battle. Having prisoners can also come in handy. You can use them as a pack mule or meatshield and some companion traits benefit from having prisoners as well. Note that you will have to feed and pay him/her, otherwise he or she will be a shackled corpse in no-time:

Should you decide to turn them in, bring them to the local jail to net some coins, for level 1 prisoners you get 100 bucks and the higher the level of your prisoner, you more gold you will get:


Besides getting some money, you will also lose suspension! It's also a nice way to get rid of the local guards. Note that the prison only has space for 3 prisoners per day so don't start collecting prisoners like pokémon since the upkeep can give you some troubles.

Tips & Tricks [Making Money - Trading]

Every town with a market area has a 'special' merchant who sells trade goods. For instance Strommkap sells Woollen cloth and Pottery:

The trick is, to buy these trade goods and sell them in another town to make a profit! You can also sell them to any wandering merchant but the farther away you sell those goods from its origin, the more profit you will make.

Also note that you have a Trade Goods Ledger! Here you can see all the trade goods you bought and sold and see what profit you made:

Tips & Tricks [Making Money - Being Naughty]

Another way of becoming rich is simply by stealing stuff what isn't yours! This way your suspicion level will rise and if too high, you'll get the guards chasing after you in no time. Most items aren't worth the trouble but what actually is worth the trouble is facing the guards since they have fancy pancy weapons and armor! If you're confident and strong enough, take on the guards and they usually loot quite some nice items including quite some gold!

[F.U.D.F.]

"Oh well, back to explaining stuff" is great lmfao

[Lumbatti]

An old guide but I just started the game today in the holiday season and feel thankful. I love how the battle mechanics are similar to a favourite strategy game of mine which is Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes. The setting is just more dark and athmospheric which I like a lot!

[Rudolf Fischer]

What triggers a situational attack?

[Zenkarda]

Can you change a character class?

[Regentwill]

Help my horse got sent to jail he won't survive there he's been spoiled his whole life

[the_kraut]

Figured it out, you have to be on the camp screen. There you can take people prisoner by clicking the cog on their character sheet.

[the_kraut]

how do you capture hakert after he joined? I don't find the gear icon.

[Oddible]

Kinda a pointless guide, it literally just is a walkthrough and a copy paste of everything in the UI, very little actual "guidance" in this guide.

[Saint Scylla]

This guide seems to refer to a lot of pictures which aren't displayed (at least in the mobile app).

[Thorn-Exile]

Cant enlarge the pictures.... wrong URL the say !