Hey everyone,

I'm 40 hours in, and since I am starting a new character for the new update, I figured I'd toss some thoughts out that I wish I'd known when starting.

1.Play the style you want, but I've found knights to be the strongest because of early chivalry, and early statue access to give extra levels. mercenary a close second because of life steal.

2. I like to start with the harder to get skills first because it's pretty easy to get most of them early just by doing things that spark the skill. I always start with warrapt because it's useful and difficult to get early. And reading as a second because I like to start studying early. If i had 2 other choices it would probably be athleticism or survival, both offer solid early game perks.

3. Your initial choices should be to get skills that give you XP upon use(shield bash for warrapt or knight's challenge for chivalry for example) because if not you have to waste level up points instead of just being able to level naturally.

4. My first level up point always goes to level 3 warrapt to get shield bash, and my second always goes to cooking to spam cooking early which gives you easy levels, better food, and a good way to get weight off in a dungeon(cooking multiple ingredients to take off weight). I like botany after cooking to get a lot more ingredients early.

5. For weapon choices I like daggers, axes or maces(in that order). Daggers are op, and stacking bleeds plus bonus to humans is great throughout the game. Axes put out a ton of damage and execute anyone who is low which is great for clearing rooms quickly, maces are just tons of fun to spam out cripples and stuns. 1 handed is better initially but 2 handed is better once you build it up(for any weapon)
Starting out, don't dive straight into dungeons… Work your way around the starting town completely by going to a tile, pressing E, fully exploring/killing, picking up plants and wood. I do 2 or 3 tiles, go back to town, craft, sell, store and repeat… Once I get all the tiles around the first city explored, then I go into the first dungeon quest. It makes life so much easier starting out. If you don't do that, you will run into a lot of save scumming which always feels bad.

6. Last, when you pick up quests, pay attention to time limits. I usually just pick up the bandit/gremlin quests first because they don't have a time limit. If you don’t know what something is, don't take the quest yet.. Once you figure out what things are, and where things are and know if you can complete the quest on time, then pick it up… Or else you are just stacking negative faction rep and shooting yourself in the foot.

This is by no means comprehensive, but it should get you started pretty well. But in the end have fun and play what you like. This game can be tough starting out so I thought I would toss out some early game tips.