I finished the executioner’s quest, Money for Old Rope, last night. That was entertaining, especially sneaking into the camp at night to find and sabotage all the items. I had to knock out the same sleeping henchman twice, once to get the sword, and again to put it back. In the morning that poor guy is going to be like “I slept terrible last night, kept having dreams I was suffocating!”.
The reward was garbage, but most of them are at this point in the game for me, so the fun is in carrying out the quests, many of which are cleverly written and have interesting characters to interact with or history/books to discover/read. I also killed off a camp full of bandits for Captain Robard. When I turned in 5 trophies at once I felt quite pleased when he showed pride in me by saying I was a regular avenging angel or something like that. I’ve grown fond of several of the characters in the game; Sir Hans, Sir Radzig, Sir Divish, Captain Robard, Fritz and Matthew, even the named guards and refugees who get excited when I show up, “Hey, Henry’s come to see us!”. It’s a tribute to the design and writing behind the NPCs that I’ve become that attached to them even though they aren’t part of my “party” like in most RPGs.
I’ve spent the last couple of sessions, and probably the next couple as well, going around collecting treasure maps and finding the treasure stashes, It’s fun, and it is pouring money into my coffers for Pribyslavitz. Last night I built the Butcher’s shop and gave him a smokehouse upgrade, then built the Tavern as well.
On my treasure hunts I will talk to Adam in Rattay to see if he will become the innkeeper for Pribyslavitz, and there was a girl somewhere too that I talked to and had an option to hire as the tavern maid as well. As of now my village is in the black by around 1000 groschen per day, so with that and the money I am sinking into it, I should be able to do the expensive Church and Rathaus repairs soon.
Working on some side quests before diving into the end-game series of the main quest line. Last night I started Masquerade, which is necessary if I want to eventually recruit Adam from Skalitz to be my innkeeper in Pribyslavitz. Andrew, the shady innkeeper at the Inn of the Glade, wants me to get three Cuman helmets (with face coverings) and 3 Cuman hauberks to use to disguise our identities while on a raid.
A day later, after murdering 7 Cumans in two separate camps, I have collected what I need. It strikes me that if I can slaughter entire camps of roving Cumans (though granted, it wasn’t easy) single-handed, why the hell wouldn’t I just enlist Fritz and Matthew to assist me with doing so, and we’d make far more money than whatever plan it is we are currently hatching that requires all this subterfuge? Plus, murdering Cumans is not only financially rewarding, but gives Henry (and presumably Fritz and Matthew) a nice sense of vengeance for what happened at Skalitz while also performing a service for the realm at the same time. Everyone wins! Well, except the Cumans obviously…
I’ve come to appreciate my canine companion greatly over time. There is no way I could take on Cuman camps or Bandit groups without Mutt by my side. I don’t know if he’s part of a DLC or if he was always in the main game, but he is invaluable. He has saved my bacon so many times by grabbing onto the arm of a second Cuman or Bandit and keeping them from attacking me while I finished off the first enemy. I now always have at least a couple of bacon on me to reward my very good boy. He is also very entertaining at the most inappropriate times. Loudly barking and lapping up puddles while I am trying to sneak about, zooming around scaring the wildlife, and of course peeing on everything in sight. I built the bridge in Pribyslavitz, and as the cutscene showing the completion of the project finished and put me back into the game the first thing I see is Mutt peeing on the side of the brand new bridge! “That’s my boy!”
Depends of what you mean by n00b. The rails that you follow at the start can be pretty long. Following summary below, “spoiler free”.
The introduction segment in the initial village can take as long as you like. A lot of people that replay use the quiet time to max skills. It can be done within two hours though.
Then, you have the second intro where you get to grips with your new life post “village” scenario. That can take another three to four hours to follow the basics, plot setup and routine and essential training.
You are talking at least six hours before you get to a point where you are “free” and “competent” equipment and knowledge wise to break out and explore. You will probably get your ass handed to you a few times, but you have an element of freedom.
The toughest thing to get used to is that you have to learn the combat. You just can’t attack someone and spam the R1 button and expect to win. But the game has methods for you to get better. There are ways to make money to buy gear or ways to get gear from others without fighting. This is one game where running away to live to fight another day is the rule, especially in the first 25% of the game.
There is a difficult scripted event early on that requires patience and you need to pay attention to the tutorial on how to do what you are doing. Yea, I am being vague. It may take several times for you to advance past that point. But don’t give up.
The game is very rewarding in that when you do improve you feel like you have earned it. And the world and other characters are great. Few games show NPC’s develop like this one.
Steam says I have 114 hours played. There are still times, mostly during combat and when asked to pickpocket or stealth, that I feel like I am still in “the difficult n00b portions” of the game.
As @Wo1verine and @Scuzz mention above though, it will take several hours before you are skilled enough and well equipped enough to venture out on your own with any real success. Thankfully those hours are filled with interesting storylines, quests and NPCs that will keep you busy and entertained. My recommendation is to take short breaks between each segment of the initial main quests and work on things like your combat skills and core stats, which can be increased by training in both Talmberg and Rattay. I also spent extra time in Skalitz, during the tutorial part of the game, to work up skills and stats a bit. No need to go overboard (some YouTube videos recommend spending hours knocking people out, dragging them to the river and punching their floating unconscious bodies over and over to build up Strength and Unarmerd…that is insane), just give yourself an edge in the early game by utilizing every opportunity to skill up.
I saw videos that recommended building up your lockpick stat by going into town at night and picking all the locks, over and over again. I found for lockpicking I had to use KB/M instead of my x-box controller. Once I did that it worked easily. I did do the picking flowers and herbs thing over and over again. You could sell them and you gained strength points if you had previously chosen that perk.
I think I put over 100 hours into the game as well. A great world to explore.
I’ve been playing this, and had to take a break. I have two quests that are pushing on me and both very frustrating: gather Cuman equipment for the disguise, and sneak into the camp and survey/sabotage. My stealth is around 11-12 I think, and my gear is ranked as “Quiet: 0” (although I don’t have much defense in that) but I can’t sneak around camp without being spotted. I’ve taken out several camps of Cumans, but we’re getting to the point now that the ones I’m up against have one or two VERY WELL ARMORED guys, a dog (I don’t have the DLC, so I don’t have my own dog yet, but damn they’re annoying when on the other side) and generally 4 or 5 total guys who don’t seem to sleep. They’re both very frustrating, as I’m getting my ass handed to me in combat, and can’t sneak through the camp, and I have fewer and fewer side quests to occupy me and help me level up.
I still struggle with combat in this game. I’m like level 12, I’m pretty well equipped, and have decent (level 10-11, I think?) skill with a sword, but these Cuman camps are still frustrating as hell.
Overall I’ve really enjoyed the game, I love the world and I love the characters and the general mechanics of the game, but I’ve reached a frustration level where I opted to take a break and play something else and come back in a few weeks.
IIRC there is cuman gear in a chest next to the camp in a shack on the right side of the camp (from the small bridge PoV). If you have decent speech level that disguise can help out. Or black clothes. If you are talking about the quest where you can sabotage the arrows and stuff.
I remember the way I did it was to go from lower part of the camp, poisoning the cauldrons and making my way up, and when poisoning the last one up there they saw me, so I started running away and when running I set fire to their arrows on the way. So I did all the sub-objectives of that quest but I had to run for my life (and did manage to escape).
I was not able to find the gear or the arrows to poison, but by merely checking out the camp, and finding a good spot for a sneak attack (the game actually tells you when you find it) I was able to lead the good guys back and win the battle.
I think at that point in the game my sneak level was 3-4. Not good enough to pull the full sneak off.
I did that Cuman/Bandit camp quest earlier than it sounds like you are, but I did the Cuman disguise one a lot later. I wish I had known about the disguise one earlier though, because everything you need is right there in the camp, and you don’t even have to kill anyone to get it (well, one person, see below). You can finish both quests without needing to sneak much or even get involved in combat until the end. Minor spoiler follows…
Approach the camp from the north, at dusk is best, and you can sneak if you like as it will provide extra cover from patrols. Along the northern edge of the ruined buildings surrounding the camp is a barn-type building which has an entrance from the outside. Sneak into there, and find a bottle of poison on a barrel and a Very Easy locked chest. Pick the lock, and loot the Cuman gear inside of it. Put on the armor and helmet, and now you can walk around in both the Cuman and Bandit halves of the camps. On the Bandit side, nobody will challenge you (they’ll just make snide comments), but if you get too close to other Cumans on their side, you will be challenged. You can choose options to fool them into thinking you’re Cuman a couple of times before they catch on. You have a good sneak skill, so you can probably work your way through the Cuman side poisoning their food pots if it’s nighttime and you’re careful. I recommend doing pots first (you may have to knock out some Cumans) in both camps, then arrows, because the second you light the first barrel of arrows on fire everyone comes after you.
To be honest though, you don’t need to poison a single pot or burn any arrows. All you need to do is scout the camp effectively, then report back. The battle that ensues will be tougher on Sir Radzig’s men if you didn’t sabotage anything, but they will still win in the end. When the battle begins, you can snipe from the edges or try stabbing a few isolated Cumans and Bandits, but if you try to stand in the front line with the soldiers, you’re likely to get slaughtered. The only required combat in the sequence is the fight with Runt at the end. Once the battle has ended, there is a chest in the Cuman tent near that barn from before, close to the food pot, which contains a crapton of Cuman gear. You can get the three chest armor pieces and three closed helmets you need for the Cuman Disguise quest from that single chest, no need to raid camps or anything.
I’ve spent the last few hours in this game just going around knocking out minor side quests like the Charlatan, Hare Hunt, etc. and hunting down treasure maps and looting their locations. I am at the point in the main quest where once I take the next step, the endgame quest sequence starts, and I don’t really want to end the game yet. I know you can keep playing afterwards, but I just don’t want the story to end, so I’m delaying it by doing lots of other little stuff while rebuilding Pribyslavitz and beefing up skills.
I’m pretty sure that’s exactly where I was trying to sneak in, but haven’t been able to do more than poison one pot without getting caught. I haven’t tried the disguise option yet though – sounds like that’ll free me up quite a bit. I DO want to do at least some of the sabotaging, just because…that’s how I am, lol. I’ll try nabbing that disguise and see if that gets me over this hump. Thanks!
I’m getting near the end I think, or at least I am on track towards it. I just finished the Monastery quest (for the amount everyone was complaining about it I found it pretty underwhelming). I knocked out all of my available sidequests, and decided to do the Teresa part of A Woman’s Lot before proceeding to the endgame. I think I’d like to wrap it up this weekend as I’ve been playing it for months and I’ve probably got 200 hours in it.
How I beat the Monastery Quest: I hid some lockpicks in a drawer before starting. I mentioned that I was looking for the thief… to the thief, who poisoned me at the first meal and revealed himself. Then I unlocked a door to the outside, ran back, choked him out, carried him outside, killed him, and threw the body under the bridge. QUEST SOLVED! Unfortunately, I was seen, so now I am banned from Sasau and one other town - it’s got the prison bar icon on the map. So that will be a problem. I am not sure how to fix that without going to prison.
Hmmm…that may be a situation you’ll need to resolve as the next series of main quest tasks are heavily Sasau-based. Sasau is also the best place to sell loot (two blacksmiths, an armorsmith and a swordsmith all in one place, all with deep pockets). If you have enough cash on hand you may be able to buy your way out of the problem.
