A Clash of Kings Starting Guide: the Best Bandits to Level Quick

This is a simple guide comparing the best bandits to kill for loot and experience, so that your character in the ACOK mod can level quickly and efficiently and be ready in just a few days for the wars to come.

Getting Started and Looters

In this lengthy guide I will discuss how to start the mod effectively, rake in the experience and good loot while cautioning you on what to avoid until your character is strong and capable (and of a certain build, naked with a heavy axe is not going to fair well against horse archers). We will discuss the different bandit types and how to get to them, what they give and whether they are worth your time (some really are).

I propose that to familiarise yourself with the game, enemies and the map you target the numerous bandits of Westeros (and if you like, Essos), to improve your level and equipment. There are many horrible killers and raiders out there, and they are an extremely quick means to level and improve if you are smart and know a few things about them. They also have some great drops. So it is time to take steel to the bandits and forge a name for your character.


Whatever your background, your character starts in the Stormlands at the same place. Around here are looters and perhaps some deserters. This is not a good place to hang around for long for the following reasons.

1) Looters don't give great equipment, or great experience.
2) Looters can be in larger numbers than you can take at this time.
3) Looters are mixed bow and melee which can be tough if you aren't prepared for it.
4) If you flee north, you can run into the even harder forest bandits, or worse outlaw cavalry, and they will ruin your day.
5) You have to be ready and equipped to take deserters, they can be top-tier elite bowmen, which will kill your poorly armed level 1 so fast.
6) There isn't that many enemies, so if you do kill a few bands, it can be a waste of time to stick around. The war will eventually move down here centre-stage, but not for a long long time.

These reasons are why some have trouble starting the mod. It isn't a great starting position, and you can get slapped down very quickly. Experienced players will know what to do, and have their own strategies, but I am going to give a number of options of bandit targets for those that find themselves frustrated in the beginning.

Having derided looters, if you get some mauls in dropped equipment these can sold for a bit of cash, but kill a max of 3 groups of looters and move on, exterminating them if they get in your way. If you can afford some decent mercs, or grind in the arena to do so, they will cut through looters like butter.

To Dorne, where the outlaws are soft

Your starting area is close to a very profitable region you may not have considered as a early grinding area. Dorne, the dusty land to the south is close to where you start. Take a short sea journey and you are in the Dornish cities, head west and south and you will find many bands of outlaws. These are not like the outlaws in the rest of Westeros, they are mounted skirmishers and mounted swordsmen.



These outlaws don't hit very hard, but you will want to avoid their thrown javelins. Their body armour is terrible and easily punctured or sliced. They give excellent experience, and you will quickly level if you can kill them. Their drops are immensely profitable: thrown weapons, arming swords, curved swords, horses. They are all mounted so it won't take you long to get more horses and horses sell for a lot in this game.

This is my favourite early bandit killing area. If you have some armour and a shield or horse, you can quickly kill them. If you bring mercenaries with polearms or great armour they will rend right through these outlaws. Then all their spoils will be yours. You just have to be able to take light cavalry, and you can level so fast.

Out on the dunes, their bandit lairs are also easy to find. I hit two of these in generally short order and my character is rich. You also have two cities close by and there are a lot of these desert outlaws, so you can sell for days.

On Dorne and the bandits here, Dorne also is a good place to buy some starting equipment. Balanced curved blades like this one can be immensely good starting equipment.



While they won't cut through knights very well until you get to power attack 7, these are perfect to put right through a mounted weakly-armoured outlaw. I also like the Dornish armour here, like the scale, and it does the job.

I found after about 10 bands of desert outlaws, the region quietened down, but I also took out two bandit lairs, which lowers their spawn rate.

To the forest, for the long axe and coif

Another early alternative is to head north into the huge forest and hunt the bandits there.



You will need help, an armour piercing weapon or two handed slashing weapon, armour and your shield won't work very well. That is because the forest bandits pack quite a punch. These are serious about waylaying travellers, they have long axes, polearms, fast heavy cut one handed axes and bows with good skill with them. Their axe attacks are medium speed, good range and demolish shields.

They are also rocking decent medium body armour and chain coifs, which function like a serious helm. This means that hits to the body are best, and initially your attacks to the head may bounce right off if your character isn't strong or using a nice weapon.

I do not recommend you initially try to take them. If you check the forums plenty of players have been defeated and captured by them early on. You need some good equipment or allies to take them, but if you do manage to kill them, you've got access to mid-tier equipment and very damaging heavy axes that aren't slow. These weapons are great for demolishing cavalry or reaching out and killing people in a siege.

You will also look really cool in their kit, but there is another group of bandits that drop even cooler armour.

To the Vale, and fight the clansmen

Head north, keep away from the forest, head to King's Landing and then up and towards the mountains and through the gate and you are in the Vale. It takes a while to arrive here, but the bandits are interesting as they are Scottish-themed mountain warriors.



These clansmen are in light or heavy armour, of rare types you can only get here off them, and they bring to bear wickedly curved great axes, maces and bows. The bows aren't the problem, and they don't have many archers, but the axes do great damage and the maces ignore a lot of armour.

This makes them dangerous, but if you are a skirmisher or mounted you shouldn't find them too hard to deal with. Kill them and you get access to all manner of strange equipment, including a goat helmet, a spiked small shield and their unique armour.

On their armour they are quite different to the forest raiders. They had coifs and great head protection, well the clansmen have terrilble head armour, so a mounted cut to the head is very effective. Beware of the leaders swinging their axes at you, because they do some of the best damage in the game, and the large bearded axe isn't actually slow. One of my main characters uses it as his main weapon because of its damage, speed, and superior reach to the common arming sword.

Their equipment also sells for a fairly good price and if you get warmaces you can sell those on for a lot of gold. If you farm them well, you can also buy the Ironborn type armour from the Three Sisters islands just north of the Vale, so please keep that in mind if you want a Viking-Scottish warrior.

To get to the vale presents a problem, you may encounter arguably the most dangerous bandits in the game. This leads us to discuss what is also the most common bandit type in Westeros, the outlaw horsemen.

Outlaw Horsemen, a danger almost everywhere

The Outlaw Horsemen, they are spread out across Westeros in quite large bands. They are a real challenge for an early player for many reasons, and even a player with many levels and no back up, which we will cover here.



They are mostly a mounted warband, but not entirely. They have "knights" within them in the case of the leaders, which wear black heavy chain. These leaders can be high in number (more than 1 per band) and they can have war maces (knock you down), spiked maces (go through armour), arming swords (fast cuts with good damage). They are also joined by the outlaw horsemen, which are the weaker cousins of the leader, but can still stagger and cut you badly, especailly if your helm is weak or lacking.

These can be very frustating, and they are armoured and fast on the map. Even though, they aren't actually all horsemen and indeed may come with many... longbowmen.

Longbowmen are very powerful in ACOK. They are accurate and their damage is deadly. It is their habit to often go for head shots, and they certainly can get them even at medium range. The longbowmen that accompany the outlaw horsemen have decent body armour, nice helms and terrible leg armour, but they bear the deadly longbow but amusingly, usually just a dagger for melee. Get in, and you are okay, but they are confident archers and can snipe you while you are fighting the outlaws.

If you beat the outlaws the dropped equipment really is random. Sometimes you get very little, but other times you can get chainmail with a black tabard, nice helmets and good weapons. This of course sells for a great deal of coin—when you are lucky enough to get it.

To the marsh and fight the Crannogmen

Confined to a very specific area, the marsh that joins the North to the Riverlands are the Crannogmen. These are an archer type of bandits, and not a heavy challenge individually.



What you are facing are lightly armed skirmishers. They aren't mounted so they won't ride in, slice and run, but they do have a trick up their sleeves. Their archery is decent but engage them in melee and they will pull out war maces and battle forks. If you are soloing them, beware of taking too much damage before you close, because they can knock you about and do damage through armour.

Unfortunately it takes a long time to get to them and they aren't really worth it.

To the Wildlings of the north, for profit

Past the Crannogmen and the lower north and you find yourself in the lands of the roaming wildlings. A very mixed warband with cavalry, archers and melee.



The cavalry have poor armour and slow horses, but their axes can do damage. The archers are nothing special, and the melee have axes and shields and spiked sticks. Yes, they bring sticks to war.

What is surprising about the wildlings is their rare drops, which include expensive light armour. Yes, you can sell all this for quite a lot of coin and it isn't great armour so it doesn't stop your attacks.

There are often a lot of wildlings, so be careful of being overwhelmed. Otherwise a great source of coin and a good source of experience. Alas it is a long journey to get to them.

To the seas & Pentos, to kill pirates

A path not always taken immediately is to bail from Westeros and go hunt pirates.

You will find them on the seas or in Essos, but in 2.0 they don't seem capable of making it to Westeros. They are in medium to large groups and while their drops aren't the best, fighting them on the sea can be an interesting challenge, especially if you are controlling a new character.



The pirates are a curious bunch. Their armour looks good but doesn't work very well, and they are in three groups of infantry, captains, swordsmen and archers. The archers are decent, but not the best in Essos, and the swordsmen and captains are quite similar using falchions and shields. The shields aren't too bad and falchions can be unnerving to face if you don't have much armour.

Falchions are very fast but low damage. If you have heavy armour you have nothing to worry about, but they can also do many many quick hits on you if you get surrounded. While your shield will work it will eventually break with so many assaults.

I like hunting the pirates for the decent experience, but also in case they drop balanced falchions, which I particularly like as backup weapons. Good for those low armour foes in A Clash of Kings.

A final caution though. If you fight them on the water they will board you and get up in your face very quickly. Their falchions are good up close, but many weapons struggle, so beware the pirates don't defeat and take you to be a galley slave.

To Essos, Rhoynar, Mountain Bandits and Slavers

Leaving Westeros and hitting the land, Cozur has populated Essos with many bandit types.

First we have the Rhoynar. They are deep into Essos, and are archers with funny hats, leather armour and pointy sticks. I don't mind their armour actually, but they don't give good xp. Cut their heads open and move on.



Mountain bandits are likewise a waste of time. Xp is poor, armour is mostly good light armour. Light armour won't stand up to the many high damage attacks in ACOK.




The mounted slavers are the Essos equivalent of the Dornish desert outlaws. They are very similar and thus give a lot of xp and great loot to sell.



The issue I have is that they are in Myr, Pentos and elsewhere, but you could get to the Dornish bandits quicker. So when I am on Essos I hunt them, but won't go out of my way at the start since Dorne is closer.



Something to be mindful of are the prisoners bandits are carrying around. Here a small group of slavers are holding excellent quality mercenary halberdiers. As the game goes on you will see this more and more, and while outlaw horsemen on Westeros may have hedge knights and soldiers, slavers will often have pikemen and halberdiers, which are perfect for taking anything tht isn't a longbowman or crossbowman and are superb at killing Dothraki, which we will cover next.

To Norvos and the Great Dothraki Hunt

Behold, the Dothraki, the terrible horsemen of the East.



Dothraki give a lot of xp, and drop the expensive Arakhs, heavy Arakhs, horses and armour. If you are out this way, look for them.

I do like a good Dothraki hunt, but you have to be ready. Dothraki hit hard, especailly with their two-handed Arakhs, and shoot very accurately while on the move. Their recurve bow is like the Khergit bows of Native and can kill you.

Most Dothraki are melee focused, but the horse archers are mixed in there. This means the Dothraki will charge and try to overwhelm and the horse archers will assist as the second wave. To take the charge you want heavily armoured troops, or troops with heavy and long weapons, like halberdiers. Take them off their horses and they aren't nearly as good.

If you don't have backup you will probably be bumped and chopped to death.

There are small groups but they often merge together into groups of 50, so you had best bring some friends to help. As mounted warbands Dothraki also move very quickly, and can escape if your warband is too large and slow. So a small elite force is best for killing Dothraki. Knight do great against them as well.

For their drops you get unique items, and one which I almost always sell is the Dothraki horse. A curious horse, this is fast but the turning is terrible and you ride it bare-back. They are worth a lot, especially a champion Dothraki horse, which you may get after a few battles.

What works against Bandits, Outlaws and their Ilk?

Bandits come in many varieties, so you should always customise your army to what you are facing. There is also the matter of bandit cowardice and if you are too large and scary they will run, and if you are gigantic in number you may not catch them. So a small elite group is recommended.

Like this group here:



Here I have a lot of Westerland heavy infantry. Billmen, Lannisport Spearmen. Add some halberdiers and this is perfect for a lot of bandits, and you can keep the cost under 1000 a week, and you will make more than a 1000 a week in a high bandit area.

Another good idea are hedge knights or heavy cav. Yes it is expensive but if you keep the numbers low the bandits will come to you. If it is something like a hedge knight band, a lot of outlaws won't be able to do damage, the knights can best even outlaw leaders or lance them straight up, and then mop up the rest.

Facing clansmen, be careful of losing elites to the large axes. With pirates you want good damage and good armour to take the falchion cuts. If you are facing archers you want shields.

Lastly be careful of the elite deserters out there. I have had my halberdiers devastated by a small army of elite mercenary archers from Essos. With their excellent bows, scale armour and warhammers they are very capable.

I wish you well in your bandit hunts and hope you are victorious and that this guide helps you get into A Clash of Kings and level ultra-fast. Good luck!




By Tea, also known as Kherg_Scum on Australian Warband servers.

[Ghost_Face_121]

yeh it did, thanks swag one famalam m8

[𝔗𝔢𝔞 ❀]

That is most certainly odd. You may have a glitch because in multiple playthroughs across many versions of the game the bandits are there. If you fight the outlaw band you will see they are different in Dorne to the Outlaw or Raider band in the Riverlands.

In Dorne there is a lot of space but I find they are pretty numerous, and they set up bandit lairs before too long (probably because of being so spread out and weakly protected) and then they multiply. Hope that helps.

[Ghost_Face_121]

Im having difficulty finding the Dornish bandits, by this i mean throughout the 200+ hours ive played on this mod ive never seen anything bandit-wise in Dorne apart from the rare outlaw band, any help?

[𝔗𝔢𝔞 ❀]

Well I had best get cracking or I won't conquer Westeros for Stannis the Mannis in time.

[ThatGuyInYourBathroom]

He hasn't posted one yet. I'd say before december, with high hopes.

[𝔗𝔢𝔞 ❀]

That is great news. Yeah I am looking forward to it, but don't see it up anywhere yet. Do you know the release schedule?

[ThatGuyInYourBathroom]

2.1 is done, hopefully the bugtesting is going to finish up soon as well, can't wait to play it. Thanks for the guide.

[𝔗𝔢𝔞 ❀]

Hammer, it is 2.0. Really eager to play 2.1 when it finally comes out.

[JOBBERNAUT]

which version of ACOK is this? @Tea

[Spuds]

You cant go rolling in there with levies though. 15-25 decent guys is plenty. And the pathfinding to follow through.