The Savage Warrior - Minmaxed RNG-Proof Helot Combat Build

If you're looking to brutalize your enemies-and then use your combat skills to beat them on the field, then this is the guide for you. Tested and optimized over months, it achieves a flawless and spectacular victory against the Karagond Army.

Introduction

This build pushes the game to the limit and features a Helot warrior brutalizing Phalangite hordes with staff and small-group tactics, while keeping all his lieutenants alive. It is fully optimized for export to the next game when it comes.

Onto the Build Overview:

• 2 Combat / 1 Intellect Helot
  
• Ruthless / Skeptical / Homelander
  
• Uprising Start
  
• High Anarchy
  
• Enemy of Aristocrats
  
• Enemy of Merchants

A High Anarchy build is more difficult than a Low Anarchy one, because the extra raids (to get that Anarchy) make the enemy send more hordes after you in Ch4. And the Ruthless/Skeptical/Homelander attribute combination is the weakest in the game (Ruthless pisses off the enemy more, Skeptical lacks the ability to the control the band or generate armed rebels like Devout builds do, and minmaxed Homelander build requires more finesse than does a Cosmopolitan one).

I've said before that Combat builds (those that take 2 points in Combat) are weaker than Intellect and Charisma builds. After giving it more thought...I think that's half true. Combat builds have a higher skill ceiling than the others, requiring you to successfully handle a smaller rebellion and control the influence of your main recruiter (Breden). They also won't end up with as many arms or rebels as Intellect and especially Charisma builds.

But Combat builds are the only ones that can win with a weak attribute combo against a maximally pissed off Hegemony. And they're fun to play. So let's get to it!

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This guide assumes you have a basic knowledge of how to play the game (eg if I say "steal mules from merchants," I won't always spell out exactly how to do so, that would take a lot of space). If this is your first time playing the game, you should not even be using a guide, you will rob yourself of a good experience. Do a few runs, have some fun, and then come back here. My first...50 runs in Choice of Rebels were utter dumpster fires.

If a choice is skipped in this guide, that means it is irrelevant.

Chapter 1

Select

• The Hegemony's suppression of the folkways of other nations, including my own.
  
• I was one of the only helots who regularly managed to sneak inside to listen.
  
• I tugged at his arm and asked if he could sing Samena's Song in memory of my mother.
  
• …still vaguely disappointed. You'd rather have heard the songs of home.
  
• I had no interest in the heathen Halassurqs or their tales.
  
• And I told my father so.
  
• I kept singing.
  
• …boy?"

I decided to be a boy, you can be a girl if you want. There's no gameplay difference.

• "Aunt Joana, of course." The old woman is very dear to me, if not to my father.
  
• …how attractive she was. It wasn't just her lean, strong frame, but her confident stance and voice.

I decided to have Breden be a girl (this determines your character's primary sexual orientation). But there's no gameplay difference if you want her to be a boy,

• I immediately stepped to her side.
  
• …but behind it my hatred blazed up, fresh-fueled.
  
• "Only way to forget a bad death is to have a good wake."

In which you will get introduced to the horrific fate of the Stonehewer family.

Now you get to select your name, I picked Starn Thresher because it sounded the coolest.

• I spoke up, not wanting Breden to think I was afraid.
  
• I had no desire to stay friends with a noble's plaything.
  
• The superstitious nonsense the Ecclesiasts teach to justify the evils of Hegemony.
  
• The subjugation of Shayard, my homeland, and its forced assimilation into a foreign empire..
  
• That was when I kissed her.

In which you lay out the reasons for your rebellion, and start romancing Breden. If you're dead set against it, you don't have to romance her/him.

Note that our goal is to get every stat to 75 or above so we can get additional soldiers for the final battle.

• "I've known how to avoid the overseers since I was six." I took a seat.
  
• Excited at the adventure of protecting a fugitive.
  
• I helped build her a shelter in the woods.
  
• Sarcifer, the renegade archmage.
  
• Fighting and leading others in a fight.
  
• Charm and persuasion.
  
• I took her into my arms and waited for her to kiss me.
  
• "I fell in love with you almost as soon as I saw you."
  
• So I waited another day for an afternoon experiment in the woods.

In which you help Alless the poor runaway, but more importantly decide your traits. We are playing a mage build, which involves 2 Intellect. We will have 1 Charisma, mainly for flavor (it doesn't help much, but the second stat matters little).


And now we go to the Harrowing itself!

• I need to stop this Harrowing at any cost.
  
• Lunge for the Alastor standing nearest to me.
  
• We need to make a brutal example of the authorities. Every servant of the Thaumatarch who hears about this day should fear us.
  
• "Stop! The nobles and merchants of Shayard are your own flesh and blood. Save your vengeance for the foreign occupiers!"

Your build, being a 0-CHA one, will fail to stop the looting. But choosing this option gets you some extra (necessary!) Homelander points.

• "We'll fight them as long as we've got breath in our bodies."
  
• "Radmar!" I exclaim gladly. "We'd feared the worst."
  
• I just stare at her, the doubts obvious in my eyes.
  
• "No, Breden. You're one of the few I would trust."
  
• "…to tear the Hegemony down to rubble."

Be nice to Radmar and keep Breden around, they will both have roles to play in the chapters to come.

Frequently Asked Questions

1) Is this the only way to succeed with a 2COM/1INT "Red Bars" Build?

No. Ledd (who I consider the best XoR player) has a structurally different Winter strategy from me, including doing the Owlscap Protection Racket. But our builds get similar results.

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2) So why don't you do the Owlscap Protection Racket?

I feel that it straightjackets Winter runs, and you learn less about rations/recruiting/raiding management if you do the Protection Racket every time. And it cannot be done on a 2COM/1CHA build anyways.

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3) Wait, you said I can do this with 2COM/1CHA?

Sort of. If you go 2COM/1CHA, your build will actually succeed at stopping the post-Harrowing looting. This will require you to run a different Winter strategy, though the same principles apply. Also you use Elery to help you plan the Architelone raid. Also remember that 2COM/1CHA can fight the Theurges in Ch4 without losing Kalt!

I tested this and it actually gets better results than the 2COM/1INT version: with the extra men you start with, your recruiting engine takes off faster. And with Kalt's help, your final battle is a bit easier. Just make sure to do a few more mule raids late in the winter.

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4) Can I do a 2INT build with a structurally similar Winter?

No, at least not in a way that's RNG proof. I have tried. As I said before, Intellect builds are more brittle than Combat ones. Please see my "Savage Goete" guide, also on Steam, for a successful minmaxed Intellect build, though it cannot kill Horion and show off his body.

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5) Do I need to set the traps?

No but you should, because otherwise you'd have to find arms for your extra rebels. Or they may get spooked in Chapter 4, and persuaded to run to the camps by Breden.

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6) Will you update this build for Book 2 when it's out?

I certainly will, but I would add that Book 2 does not have anything as math and planning intensive as the Winter in Book 1. In the beta at least, it's a much more narratively driven book, so there's much less need for a guide.

So you should focus more on having fun there. The goal of this guide is to maximize your options for a fun Book 2 experience.