Bare-handed vs weapon

[astynax27]

Hi,

I started playing yesterday, and just re-rolled to create a Fort/Regen start for easy healing. I've been reading through forums (very nice, btw!) and I'm seeing a lot of high level analysis. For a total noob, is there a straight-up beginner's guide that I'm not seeing? If so, please post the link.

Also, I have a few basic questions:

1) Is bare-handed viable, or is it better to go sword/shield or dual-wield?

2) How do I cook meat? I kept finding it from snakes... but it came with a chance of food poisoning and I didn't want to be poisoned.

3) Does this game have magic and buffs that can be cast? If so, when does that come into play?

4) Are there any items, early on, for which I should save?

5) Last one, so as not to be a bother, am I right in feeling that the snake cave is the best place to grind early on?

Thanks in advance!
Astynax

[astynax27]

I decided to go sword and shield for now, but any other ideas on the other questions?

[Duke]

Hello and Welcome fellow adventurer!
#1 I think people feel that bare handed needs a buff to make it more viable....to me, there are way to many weapon options to not use the. I went Dual wield.
#2, you cannot cook meat, as of today, but you can buy cooked meat.
#3 There are potions and food items, no magic.
#4 Generally save everything...as you never know what is needed later on
#5 Yes, the snakes are a great thing to grind early on.....check/search the forum for other grinding advice.
Good luck!

[fiernaq]

1) Bare-handed used to be quite over-powered but then they updated combat and added a few new skills and now I think bare-handed isn't as useful as it once was. Considering this is still the beta and there is much to be done before the game is finalized, I'd say don't worry about it too much because it's likely to change again. If you like bare-handed but need a bit more power then you could try looking for the Quickstrike Dagger at least until bare-handed makes a comeback.

2) Can't cook meat... yet. It's definitely on the wishlist and there are several forum threads discussing possibilities but I don't think a final decision has yet been reached on how best to implement something of that nature.

3) No magic (again... yet) but in this case I'm not sure there ever will be. This is a fairly simple game and doesn't even allow for ranged combat so I'm not sure that magic is even in the cards (pardon the pun). That said, be on the lookout for information on actor conditions as these can sometimes be used with results being very similar to that of magic.

4) Ha ha, this is a tough one because most people gear up differently for different builds. The one item that I think really benefits early players (and that you have to save up considerably to obtain) is the Jewel of Fallhaven. Plenty of information on it can be found in these forums, on the Andor's Trail Directory, or just play it by ear and look for it in the village of Fallhaven . Another useful tidbit for very early players are rings that have +AD boosts on them because when you first start out you're kind of weak and going from 1 AD to 4 AD can be a huge boost until you can gain a few levels.

5) YES! The snake cave is awesome. I must have spent half a lifetime in there grinding out XP and meat (a lot of which I sold for gold). There are other places like the snake cave that are great at other stages in the game such as the Flagstaff Prison at around level 15-20, the Shadow Gargoyle Cave (25-30), and the Iquan Cave (30-50) among others. Feel free to explore and try the different places out. Some give better XP, others better gold or better items, some you just run for a while to take a break, and others you run to have a chance to collect legendary or extraordinary items.

[astynax27]

Thank you, both!

I just got IF, now I'm grinding to lvl 10 for Regen. Any thoughts on what I should go for next?

[Covenant]

It's worth adding that Sword and Shield are the best for new characters. Gives you AD, AC and BC. Things like Two Handed weapons and Duel wielding one handed weapons are very powerful, but not until later (after you've boosted the skills related to those styles to get greater benefits). The lack of a BC and DR in a young character is best compensated by holding onto a shield for now.

1) Bare Handed will come into its own later on in the game, so you may want to come back to it after doing a certain quest:

Completing this quest (I'll leave it unnamed for now) will give you access to an NPC from which you can buy a buff called "Unarmed Fighting" - the description of which is:
"When fighting without a weapon and shield, gain 20% attach chance, 2 damage potential and 5% block change per skill level"
And you and up it by 3 levels, on skill point each (you get a skill point every 4th level up).

Not many people take this path, as the benefits from other weapon-related buffs are better. But if this is your strong preference, then do weapon and shield for now and then drop them in favour of bare handed later.

[astynax27]

Thanks!

[rijackson741]

My 2 cents worth:

1) For now, go with sword and shield. Other fighting styles such as dual wield (my personal favorite) can be powerful much later on in the game, but you have a long way to go before you even need to worry about that. You should also bear in mind that there are plans to change how combat works, which is another reason to leave your future options open. AT is currently only in beta, and anything could change!

2) You can't. You can only sell it and buy cooked meat.

3) There are potions, and certain items such as armor and weapons have "magical" effects (a.k.a. actor effects), but that's all.

4) If an item is very rare you will get a warning if you try to sell it. My advice is to heed that warning! As a general rule, especially early on, don't sell anything that you can't get lots of easily. You never know what something might be used for later in the game (at this point, some things are not used for anything, but that could change) The best thing to sell for gold is meat, so if you want gold, farm meat. As already stated, get the Jewel of Falhaven. IMO, early on the Villain's Leather Armor is also very valuable (it lowers your move cost by 1AP, which can be a really big plus if you go for hit and flee tactics).

A related question that you didn't ask is what skills are a must have. Get Increased Fortitude whenever you can (even if it means not taking a skill as soon as it's available). Get one level of regeneration, because then you can heal without potions. Get both levels of combat speed. Other than those, it's up to you.

5) Yes. It's a good place to get XP, you can get a lot of meat to sell for gold, and if you get to the end of the cave there's something worth having

[astynax27]

Nice, thanks!

[Duke]

Great advice given by some really good players. Also, remember to save, so that if you need to go back for some reason, you have a previous save game file. i.e. you choose Regen and then 5-10 levels later, you wish you had chosen corpse eater instead...well, just go back to your previous save and make a different choice...you'll find that this is probably what a lot of people do.