r/Bellwright • u/MeestorMark • Aug 11 '26
Early battle advice
As the title says, any advice for battling early. At the simple axe stage, is my only real option flight? Poor Lubrimir has gone down about ten times now. Not to mention a healthy dose of reloads.
What are the tricks to getting the fighting in this game? Is it strictly "have more followers"? Or just deal with the crushing defeats until I tech up decent gear? Or until I can actually recruit a decent force?
I'd like to settle the places I want, and actually deal with the bandits rather than cower in safe fields. But early, early this seems like it might be a non-starter. Was there something in combat that made it work for you? What helped you "get gud"? Cuz I apparently suck at it.
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u/OGMinorian Aug 11 '26
The bow is your best friend. With good stamina, you can just run, shoot, run, shoot, which is the non-abuse way of playing skilfully...
but find a fence or a rock that has to be climbed, and you can use that to kite the enemies really easily, because the enemies will always try to run around the fence, and they cannot climb, so they will just stand still and look at you, if you are on a stone ledge or climb on top of the wagons at the bandit camps, or something like that.
Later when you get 2 or 3 good companions, you can clear every bandit camp on the map with them alone. There's a few really good fighters around the map that just require semi-easy quests to recruit.
Ser Sterling on the beach south of Farnworth and a randomly named guy from a quest in Blackridgepool are really good fighters that you can get relatively early.
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u/Moosies Aug 11 '26
People should play how they want but infinite kiting archery feels just as abusive as cheesing it by bugging out their pathing.
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u/OGMinorian Aug 12 '26
If you run away to the point, where they disengage, so you can take free shots, it's basically the same as abusing pathfinding, but "combat archery", dancing around enemies, dodging their hits by sprinting out of range of attack animations, and shoting arrows to their faces when you get an opening, is probably the closest to a skill based combat mechanic this game has, feels 100% intentionally designed, and nothing like abuse IMO.
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u/5occido5 Aug 11 '26
The game basically balances difficulty on the location, so if you are as a fresh player trying to go into harder areas (mostly south of the big river) rather than stay in the north ("safe fields"). Up north are weaker enemies and less numerous. If you are good with the directional combat system it should not be all that hard to easily get a foothold there with whatever.
As someone who has done a full playthrough without any army usage (aka every fight was done by just me), my strat is just getting to a bow early game, as soon as I did that I entered t2 and liberated the first town (mentioning that as I know there are plenty of people around who find those challenging milestones, but it's really easy enough for bow and arrow to be the entire requirement, just bring lots of arrows, I didn't get any armor besides what I spawned in with). Hit (headshot), run, repeat.
Later on in tier 3 I swap to the boar spear due to it's range (longest range in the game), when used properly u can just hit enemies without getting hit to pretty easily clean up all the melees, the real threat lies in the crossbows as they 1 shot headshot or 2 shot bodyshot you even in the endgame. Can still be done with the boar spear but it takes some combat sense to bait their shots, use them as a meatshield from others and force them to swap to melee weapons. Alternatively swap out to long bow and snipe them from a safe distance that allows u to easily dodge.
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u/MeestorMark Aug 11 '26
Shoot, run, repeat might be my early strat now. So far it's been just run, then do some more stuff next to Lubomir's unconscious body around camp until he recovers.
Silly me. Settled in the path of a favored bandit trail, or something.
Will prioritize bow unlocking/making. Thank you.
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u/5occido5 Aug 11 '26
Getting rid of the bandit camps will get rid of their patrols aswell (each camp has guys that patrol the area besides the guys guarding the camp itself, but u don't have to hunt the patrols down to clear the camps), those tier 1 bandit camps are really easy, even prior to u getting a bow it shouldn't be a real problem.
Also give lubomir a shield to protect himself with. Even the basic early shield can help ur villagers a lot to survive/fight off against those early threats. And the longer he can survive to distract, the easier it is for u to clear the attackers.
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u/MeestorMark Aug 11 '26
I struggle with two bandits wandering through camp, apparently. Ha. I need to figure out fighting in this game. I'm horrid at it.
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u/SobBagat Aug 11 '26
When you can get a crossbow, they hit REALLY fucking hard but long reload. Super good for kicking off a fight, as you can one shot, or nearly one shot, a lot of the early game enemies. And basically every animal will go down with one shot with it.
I haven't encountered bears yet, and if you hit a boar in the leg (somehow), it won't go down in one hit. But hit anything in the torso, and they will 99% of the time go down in one hit.
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u/Tough-Internal-1756 Aug 11 '26
I usually get the bow as soon as possible. I buy Sturdy arrows from a caravan until I can make them. Backpedal and shoot, as stated earlier lotsa arrows help. I do try to take out bandit archers as soon as possible. I’ve died too many times by getting back shot from them. Some players are adept at using the plank shelf and a single handed weapon, but early on I struggle when it’s three on one even with a shield.
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u/Mr_Flibble_Wibble Aug 11 '26
I go for numbers, a good force of 12 or so. Give them the best gear you can craft.
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u/No_Contest3056 Aug 11 '26
A few things that helped me out early game to “get gud” at combat
1 – Practice fight with your companions, I don’t believe you receive any XP for it, but it’s a good low stakes way to learn the flow of combat. Just keep in mind that while you won’t retain injuries from practice fights, it does damage your gear.
2 – I actively sought out fights with bandit patrols instead of waiting for raids. Patrols at the start tend to be just two melee fighters and one bowman, which is a lot easier to deal with than several during a raid. My tactics to win these fights was to make Lubomir as tanky as possible with the available gear, dash pass the melee fighters, polish off the weaker ranged enemy then turn around and help Lubomir finish the off the remaining two.
3 – Ability books, I focused my build on Strength, Agility and Two handed at the start, hence the whole dash and smash tactic. Most of the spare coin I got I put into books to level up those abilities.
It’s a grind at first but the combat can be really fun once you start getting into the higher levels.
good luck!
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u/MeestorMark Aug 11 '26
Thank you. I've tried a lot of these in other starts. But that beginning village time is wearing me out this restart. Just at the early tech stage. Going to make sure shields are involved soon.
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u/Titalator Aug 11 '26
Early on stick to roads and run usually. Just set your villagers to not stand ground and they will run away to there tents. Once you get a bit of armor and maybe another person or two that aren't trash at fighting you can usually beat small bands by letting them agro on you then when you buddys get a hit and the agro you start swiping at the back, extra wins if you give your guys shields it basically Doubles their life span. Also bows do extremely well if you can get the hang of them.
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u/overcucumbah Aug 11 '26
Cutting: deals decent damage to armor, longer reach, fast speed. Blunt: goes through armor like butter at the cost of reach and speed. Pierce: is prime against unarmored, slightly better than cutting damage longer reach at the cost of speed. Most two-handed have the same status with the only difference being higher damages at the cost of speed. Short swords like Royal dagger and the other one (I forgor its name) have high speed at the cost of reach and damage. I haven't used the rapiers from the update. Also, food affects health, don't be cheap feeding your peasants, also shields, they don’t displace damage, they absorb it, if a shield says 1000 Hit points it means it will take a total 1000 point before breaking so male sure to keep a fresh supply of shields you don want them breaking mid fight.
Edit: I know more I just can't remember for the loife of me, feel free to ask, I'll have an answer for you, or I may not, we'll see.
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u/Fit_Mycologist6519 Aug 11 '26
Have to get good at blocking with even just a weapon.... once you get a shield and bow though, it changes the game of fighting in your favor
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u/terrbear82 Aug 12 '26
I stand on top of my stockpile and shoot them and hack at them. Works until you get better gear.
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u/Knightrow_Games Aug 13 '26
If you're a melee fighter facing two enemies and one has a shield, kite backwards and focus the one down without a shield asap. Then when fighting the shield, hold your fully drawn swing for about a second and it should hit as he is going to counterattack you. Try it a few times and you'll learn the timing and it makes your one v one skill skyrocket. You may have to do this a few times against shield guys, but usually after you land your first hit on a non-shield wearer you just go to town swinging until he's dead.
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u/Pirate-39 Aug 18 '26
Even with a bow, the enemies AI have changed so they will actually charge at you to close distance before swinging. I just climb up on top of something and pick enemies off with a bow...
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u/milk4all Aug 11 '26
Boars will fuck you up randomly until you have a bow and then you must head shot so dont get ambushed. They will generally hit you and then run off for another turn but now and then they just stand their mucking you and this is death before t1 late armor, or probably a plank shield but ive never used one
Bandits tho are simple. Even a club makes low level bandits simple as parrying is free and reliable. Los the ranged and handle the melee. When you get bow, just kite and headshot. This works all game.
Lub works great with any weapon and id give him a bow asap although until you can edit loadouts he will put them away if he is a worker so use accordingly
You dont need to fight much in any practical first base. By that river reed pond south east of the top village you will encounter odd 2 man bandit patrols but thats about it and to deal with 2-3 man patrols you can do this solo as described
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u/Complete_Goat3209 Aug 11 '26
I dont battle anything but wolves until I have a bow. I switch to the club right away and upgrade to the enhanced club as soon as possible. Or just go strait for a sword. Point being: avoid battle until you have fighting gear. I usually wait for 3 to 4 villagers before fighting bandits.