While I specialize in Sword and Shield, I've played enough to get plenty of experience with all of the styles, and its important to know about the styles, because even if you avoid all of the Luck of the Draw matches, knowing your opponent and their abilities helps let you know how to fight them best

So to begin with are the 1 Handed Weapons, usually these SHOULD be paired with a shield, as these weapons with the exception of most of the 1H swords are terrible for parrying.

1H Straight Sword: I'm going to split Swords into two categories, since they play pretty differently. For the Strait Swords, they tend to have an advantage in Reach, Speed, or Damage(usually two of the three, unless its a BIG advantage such as comparing a Hanian Sword to the Claws) compared to the Curved Swords. These are versatile weapons that can be relied upon to parry most weapons as well as be able to strike quickly. The downside is that they are predictable, and when you get into the late game you WILL face large Infantry Shields or Iron Hoplite shields that cover the majority of the body being wielded by most of your opponents. However on the flipside, against 2H weapon users or a Spear Wielder that lost their shield then these swords are devastating with their fast strike speed and good damage with plenty enough reach to be able to stay in the danger area that suits you best. Swords in this catagory are the Dakas(Iron, Bronze, and Rusty) Hanian Daka(Both in Normal and Reinforced varieties), the Tashaladakas/Katanas(In Bronze and Iron), the Khopeshes(In Bronze and Iron, I know these swords are Curved, but often in a way that will result in them hitting weapons and shields more often than a perfectly straight sword, hence why they're here), the Falchion, the Tradaka/Bastard Sword, and one of the two Godly 1H swords in Triumph. I suppose the Pukku also applies in Rusty, Regular, and Reinforced variants but its a dagger and gets its best damage when stabbing

1H Curved Swords: These swords have a curve that goes outward at some point on the blade, this lets them be able to hit Shoulders or Helmets past shields and guards. As a result these tend to scale better in my opinion later into the game since often Sword and Shield and especially Spear and Shield users are a much bigger threat than the 2H weapon users given my playstyle. These weapons require practice to get a gut feel about where the optimal range to curve around shields are but can give great results when mastered. However they have the downside of either having significantly less damage or MUCH less range until you hit the two of the three best in the Category. Also here are the Claws since their style is similar, its just that the optimal range is up in the enemy's face with the Violence getting Maximized. Weapons in this category are the Sickle, Hooked Pukku, Hooked Dakas(in Bronze and Iron), Claws(in three Tarantinian, one Iron, and the Godly Eagle's Claw), and at the peak is the One Handed Falx and the Tarentinian Cutter(or whatever the Masterwork longsword with what looks like a double-headed axe on the end)

1H Axe: While I prefer Swords a LOT more than Axes, axes are still much more reliable IMO than 1H Maces. All of the Axes have a relatively small hit area you want to Bonk the enemy with to deal great amounts of damage. The upside of these weapons is that they tend to have great damage for their tier and tend to come with bonus damage Vs. Shields, additionally with how most of the axes are shaped they can be used to get around shields fairly reliably. The downside? Range. The 1H axes have a terrible reach which limits your options and makes you more reliant upon your shield, since with their generally small size blocking is.... Unreliable. However it is good in the late game since there is several great 1H axes and you will be bashing through many shields

1H Mace: My least favorite category, The maces which is a catch-all for blunt weapons(and several that aren't_ have the same specific bashing area that you need to hit with the 1H axe, but combine that with mediocre damage and Slow Speeds and its generally miserable going IMO which is why they're generally replaced in the mid-game by Bladed Flails in your Opponent's hands. Sure the Maces keep their damage through armor, but in the early game you don't need AP you need to put scrubs down, and in the late game you don't get many opportunities that you won't exploit as good as the 1H axes, nor make with the 1H Swords. As for the Flails I've never gotten reliable use out of them, but be warned they are difficult to block at the best of times, and on Lionslayer they seem to be possessed in the AI's hands, and since Helio Flails are common, just remember that dodging is your friend(and one of the reasons I don't normally go for Axes)

1 Handed Spears: This includes both when you are using a 2H capable Spear but with a Shield and Tridents. The moveset is various forms of stabbing(I know, surprising), but to actually hit with them requires quite a lot of precision for fairly little reward. This is a weapon style that's too defensive and again your reward for your precision isn't that much with at most 30 or so damage on very slow stabs. The only major upside is that you don't move your shield that much so you can camp behind your shield very effectively. However Shield and Spear works MUCH better in the AI's hands than yours, as the AI will find ways to slip around your guard far better than you can, and for some reason the AI is able to attack extremely fast occasionally or normally slow hits that don't deal that much damage in your hands deal maximum damage in the AI's. IMO this is probably consistently the most annoying AI and tends to deal the most attrition to me in my runs

For the 2H weapons, you either get a lot of damage, or a lot of range. The good weapons are the ones with the good range are by far the better ones. Better Reach lets you sweep legs easier or lets you beat through shields at a safe range. The bigger size of these weapons makes parrying much easier compared to most 1H weapons, its still harder to block attacks than with shields, especially stabs, so remember your dashes to dodge.

2H Swords: Generally a good category, compared to the other categories the Swords tend to have great speed compared to the others, however unlike with the 1H Swords the only sword that's fairly good at getting around shields is the 2H Falx, however it isn't as much of a concern for 2H Swords since you can control where your sword at the longer ranges and have less chance of part of your weapon hitting theirs or their shield. This weapon class is fairly bad with very short ranges early on with the Bone Sword or the Bastard Sword being used with 2 Hands, but later on the weapons in this category are quite excellent

2H Axes: This category gets great damage, however along with the 2H Maces they tend to have the worst ranges for the 2H weapons which means using these can be very painful for your Aspirant, however like the 1H Axes these are good for bashing through shields and can have good results bypassing shields depending on the shape of the axehead. Of particular special note is the 2H Picks which are great for hitting through shield guards and has great overall damage

2H Maces: This category, though I prefer them the least its fairly close with some Spears when used with 2 hands, the 2H Maces are MUCH better than the 1H Maces with more reliable damage and faster speeds. Additionally a tool that I find annoying when used against me and is fairly reliable is that they are able to do Stabs, quite painful stabs at that too which is quite helpful

Polearms: This category gets the most range along with the Spears, in fact Spears if used with 2 Hands have the same moveset, but with Spears tending to have a bit more range in exchange for a smaller hit area. All in all the biggest issue with these compared to the other 2H weapons is that striking from the Left side is you doing a quick strike with the short end of your polearm, the upside is that it can disrupt attacks, the downside is that the damage is miserable(as in with the damage being maximized all that's been dealt to me in Lionslayer is 15 damage.....) and it halves the angles of attack for your actually striking surface that does actual damage, which means that you're going to have to bash through many shields once they start getting common and big. As for effectiveness, Polearms can be Great(your weapons like the Faerdakka/Naginata) or very bad(usually the ones that are blunt) but its a weapon category you should know how to use since you can pick up a fallen spear to bash through that exaulted shield instead of wearing down your preferred weapon

Remember that just as much as HP, Stamina is life. If your stamina is low then your swings will be extremely slow and do pittiful damage, unless you are SURE that the enemy is on death's doorstep to the point that 10 or so damage will kill then don't swing at low stamina and let it regenerate

Keep an eye on your weight, going into heavyweight will give significant stamina penalties, however if you go into heavyweight don't forget that you have better shoves and better chances of stunning your opponents. Play to your strengths!

Dashing is your first line of defense, dashing can let you quickly move into a position to where you can get a hit past your opponent's guard or get out of the way of your opponent's strike, and especially against Axes and Maces(because again, past the mid-game 1H maces are Helioflaggas which are extremely unreliable to block) you don't want your shield getting hit and taking large amounts of durability damage

Bigger isn't always better for shields, as the bigger shields are the fastest way weight builds up with minimal benefits, if you use 1 handed weapons find which shapes and sizes work best for you

You don't have to be actively blocking for your shield to be useful, know how and where your shield is pointed when your doing things like lining up a strike or when dashing, as it can save you some stamina and lets you be more open to exploit opportunities to get hits in against the opponent

Later Helmets tend to give excellent protection, however they also will break fairly fast after getting hit 3-4 times, so don't be discouraged when ringing the bell only deals 4 or so damage

Often in the mid game your opponents are very much unevenly armored, often this is with great chest armor and bad leg and/or arm armor, remember that sweeping the legs can and will do more damage if the legs have hide armor and the chest is heavy scalemail

Don't do Elite fights unless you are absolutely confident in yourself and your gear, often these fights will chunk some minions at you before a gigachad level enemy tries to cave your skull in, however if you don't kill the minions fast enough the rest or the elite will come in while they're still on the field, resulting in a Terrible One vs. Many scenario.

Be very cautious about doing Many vs. One scenarios, as the rewards tend to be terrible and it will increase the progression of the enemies, sure they're generally safe but that safety won't help you if you get out-scaled too hard by your opponents

I'd recommend against doing 1v1 "Luck of the Draw" Matches, because it just takes some bad luck before you are facing someone with a wooden Kromo while they have a long Spiked Maul, this can be easily seen in Unlucky runs where being unlucky with equipment spawns will result in proper weapons not being thrown in your side of the arena in any fight while there's proper weapons thrown in the enemy's side of the arena

Keep an eye out for Scorpions(the big crossbows) on the arena, because they chunk throwing Pila into the arena and potentially into YOU, doing up to 20 or so damage

Keep an eye out for throwing Pila on the arena floor, they are able to force a drop of a shield more often than not when thrown, so you can forcibly disarm an opponent and get some hits in or steal their shield with a decent throw

In the game, there's 10 kinds of Matches, and those are Drafts, Tournaments(and Grand Tournaments), 1v1, many vs. many, many vs. 1, 1 vs. many, Survival, Pit Fights, and Elite Fights.

To begin with: 1v1 fights should be your bread and butter, something you should be able to do reliably as a benchmark for being fairly good at the game. One of the goals of getting good at the game is the ability to go into 1v1s and have it be something reliable and relatively safe if you have an inkling of your preferred build done

From there, Many vs. 1 are EXTREMELY safe fights, since it pits you and some teammates against one poor opponent. Accordingly, the rewards from Many vs. 1 fights are terrible and it progresses the levels and gear your opponents are using. Once you get confident in yourself you should want to avoid these, though at times the 1 opponent tends to sometimes be overleveled so it can be good for Spoils to the Victor rounds, but you had best be lucky since Spoils will cause the already terrible rewards to become negligible

Many vs. Many fights are something that IMO should be even safer and more reliable than 1v1s, while giving you more opponents to whack to grind your weapons experience and to get more of the bets done, all while it should be safer since you can have your allies pull aggro once you win your fight against someone on their team to start bending the odds. All in all, great and safer especially since it comes with the same rewards as 1v1 while also being excellent audience fodder. That being said, try to avoid the largest matches since bad RNG can screw you over(there's just classes that the AI does better against other AIs with, and if you get particularly unlucky, that 8v8 can turn into a 1v4 REAL fast)

Pit Fights are chaotic and IMO something that should be avoided, they're fights between many teams and the sheer amount of opponents will start to wear on you and your weapons all in exchange for not too much for it, that being said if I had the choice between a vanilla pit fight and a spoils 1v1, I'll take the pit fight nearly any time since as long as you don't leeroy pit fights aren't that bad(though remember to use something like a Cape as your cosmetics to more readily identify what team you're on)

Survival Matches are the beginning of the "Challenge" fights, this will start the list of fights that'll give you amplified rewards compared to the prior match types. Survival pits you up against several sets of opponents, coming either in solo or in very small groups with the next group coming in once you kill all opponents on the field or enough time has gone by. Given my more aggressive style this basically means a series of 1v1 fights for big rewards and usually these matches have the Rabble trait which makes them surprisingly safe once you're confident in your loadout, MUCH safer and more reliable compared to 1 vs. many while getting the same rewards

1 vs. Many matches are the reason you don't pick the Shrouded matches. This pits you up against numerous opponents, sometimes its just 2 dudes, sometimes its eight. The issue with fighting multiple opponents is that the AI is surprisingly good at working with each other, and while sometimes the opponents will be a lower level than you at other times they won't. These can be done reliably given you know your odds, but the only career that can make a habit out of these matches is the Politician since you bring your bois regardless of match's traits to turn it into a many vs. many. Generally aside from some Elite Fights this is the most challenging match type in the game

Drafts are you getting your arse drafted into the army, what this effectively mean is that you're fighting a massive many vs. many fight with the Faction and Rabble Traits so you are given fairly high level gear using either a 2h sword, Spear and Shield, or Sword and Shield combination. These fights give you great amounts of Gold but no fame. All in all, I love these whenever they come up since you get to whack LOTS of opponents and you're given great armor and massive shields(both factions, but rabble makes them weak enough to get killed by a few hits that go around the shield) and are given excellent money rewards. so you get lots of the most important resource in the game and xp on your weapons skills while being quite safe. Though be advised that there will be a "Captain" on the opposing side with great armor and a different load-out from the rest while being a Elite in stats(meaning he's a Chonky, hard to kill boy)

Tournaments are my second favorite kind of Match, and my favorite way of getting Trait Points. These are a series of matches that start at Many vs. Many until it eventually becomes a 1v1 with Grand Tournaments doubling up the teams(so that there's 4 teams in total). All there is to really note is that the final round will always be against elite opponents, and that Grand Tournaments ALWAYS have high level opponents so don't go in if you aren't sure of your skills and gear, aside from that Tournaments give great rewards, are excellent for bets, give you rep points with ALL patrons, and can even be good for your health(you get healed for about 1/4-1/5th of your health between each round)

Elite Fights are the REAL test of how good you are in the game, and aren't something you stumble into lightly for the most part. You fight an elite opponent usually with Goons in a Survival style and if you win you get good rewards and you are free to pick up anything from the arena(meant for you to pick up the elite's unique weapons). The Goons for the most part are usually Rabble HP, but depending on what their loadout is that might not really matter, for instance IMO the hardest elite fight is against the Legate, where you are in the mid-game, getting your loadout set up and he has 2 groups of 2 guys with Spear and Shield, using one of the top 5 or so shields in the game and the Legate himself is using a full set of Top-Tier armor with a Greatsword of OUCH, in this fight unless you have some form of backup its just difficult to get past the shields to kill off the support fast enough, and if you don't get rid of them they'll poke you down while you do your best to dodge out of the way of the Legate because getting Chopped in half isn't a good plan. As for the Easiest fights, they ironically come at the earliest part of the game and at the latest, for the earliest the Pagan Prophet has a bunch of followers with Torches and Sickles while the Prophet himself has a sickle on a very long stick. With my playstyle a decently long sword(such as a Falchion or Iron Koromo) and any shield is enough to easily win this fight(since these enemies find it difficult to defend, so its just chopping though a bunch of HP). And the other is Baegar the Aspired(well Baegar against anyone NOT the Veteran Aspirant, since that adds in 2 very durable backups at standard HP with full Godly Gear) since its just a 1v1 against an elite opponent using some of the best gear in the game, however with good enough skill at the game it isn't that hard unless he's using the Iron Large Hopolon(I forget its exact name) since that shield has a TON of durability and is MASSIVE(for this case I recommend looking for throwing Pilum around the arena, since hitting a shield with those has a good chance of ripping it from their arms)

In addition to the Match Types, there's also Traits that spice up fights some and give variation, these are the following:

Rabble
All enemies have half HP, these are usually on 1 vs. Many, Survival, and Draft and it makes these fights MUCH easier

Luck of the Draw
All combatants come in with no weapons or shields equipped, I'd recommend usually avoiding these because its only a matter of time until you get unlucky and your opponent gets a Spiked Maul while you only get a wooden Koromo......

To the Victor, the Spoils
You get to keep whatever you bring out of the stadium, bear in mind that if you do something like drop your shield without it being broken, and you don't pick it back up its going to stay in the arena(unlike other kinds of matches where your shield would be returned to you), however in exchange the rewards of whatever match this trait is applied to will be reduced. All in all something I'd recommend to avoid since you'll need to be lucky to get something you actually want and the price of what you bring out tends to be less than how much the rewards get reduced. Though ironically enough I feel more confident going into these without weapons than Luck of the Draw, mainly because the enemy won't be scrambling for the actual weapons thrown into the arena

Shrouded
You don't get to see ANY details about the match beforehand, I'd say avoid it unless there's no other choices you can do, because these love to go onto 1 vs. Many, and its only a matter of time until you roll something like 1 vs 8 with Luck of the Draw for that extra dose of "Screw you"

Insurance
Makes it so that you don't loose equipment durability after a battle. And to reiterate it makes it so that you don't loose equipment durability, that means that fragile shields like the Okwahan shields and fragile weapons like the Tashaladakas don't break and it makes bashing through shields a much more doable task, all in all great to have since it doesn't reduce rewards and it saves you on blacksmith's fees

Factions
Makes it so that everyone goes in a themed gear set, none of your stuff will be used in the fight so feel free to take it off/replace it with your off-set and get your stuff fixed. Be careful though, since there's some factions that are just better than others in the AI's hands so the tides can turn against you(though MUCH better than Luck of the Draw IMO)

Prestigious
10% of the income from this battle gets invested. Don't pick fights just for this, but its nice to help build up some income for your next character(remember investments are divided by 10 and are given over the first 10 weeks)

Entourage
You get 2 extra buddies to go into the arena with you if you have the upgrade for the Schollo unlocked already, this can be excellent for 1 vs. many matches to make them more even while still giving excellent rewards and it makes 1v1s downright trivial to complete

Buffs:
Training Regime: Higher Base Stats
The Basics: You get the 2nd best Starting Gear of all the backgrounds
Magnetic: The audience likes what you do more
Scollo Backing: Training Gear is Cheaper


Downsides:

Dependent: the Scollo takes half the fame you earn


Victory Condition: Reach the Aspired Rank

Difficulty: Easiest

Victory Rewards: You get a match selection option unlocked for free

General Advise: Use this background to get your basics of combat downpath, whatever the kind of combat you want to specialize in, you start with decent gear and good stats with the only downside being that your fame is halved. Honestly the negative and positive traits don't matter since the victory condition is the easiest to achieve, since there's a whole 2 backstories that I managed to accomplish without getting to the Aspired Rank, and one of those is because I have a great fondness for large amounts of Violence. This should be the first or one of the first backstories you win with

Benefits:
Adrenaline Rush: Faster Stamina Regen when at low health
Free Man; Match Skips are 50% cheaper(I'm not sure this even works anymore, either way you don't want to skip matches, in reality the former is plenty good enough)


Downsides:
Subscription: You pay the Scollo a weekly service fee of 500 gold per week


Victory Condition: Kill 80 Aspirants

Difficulty: Easy(I really don't know why it's 4 skulls out of 5)

Victory Rewards: Higher Audience Favor Cap(175%)


General Advise: The only real downside is that you start with weak gear and seemingly a big 2 handed stick. Aside from that the 500 gold being taken away per week is annoying but if you aren't taking Many vs. One fights which you really shouldn't then you should greatly out-earn the fee, especially if you are able to get good bets done. I got this done before Revenge of the Gladiator, but the Survival matches especially if they have the rabble modifier on. Once you get your gear in order this is probably the backstory with the strongest possible gladiator, since Adrenaline Rush gives you the most help when you REALLY need it. As for traits to avoid, avoid the Pegleg modifier since dashing is going to be needed but generally a easy and flexible background. This generally should be one of the first victories you get, but having won with the Trained Aspirant makes it easier to find matches that are more optimal for this background

Benifits:
Deep Pockets: you start with an additional slot unlocked
High Roller: You bets pay off hilarious amounts of money
Dishonorable Schemer: Bribery Assessment is free
Calculated Cunning: You have a lower chance to critically fail bribing people


Downsides:
Disliked: The audience likes you slightly less
Lowly: Favor gain with Patrons are reduced(I don't think its actually halved from experience)


Victory Condition: Reach 80% favor with ALL patrons, oh and get 20K Fame but you will certainly already got this by the time you have the favor requirements

Difficulty: Easy but Long

Victory Rewards: You get 15% Favor with all patrons on every run start(fairly meh in my opinion, but nice to have)


General Advise: This background isn't hard, since with how much your bets can pay out, you can get an absurd amount of money fairly fast and get great gear and constantly be training, however getting 80% favor takes a long time, but make sure that your equipment is in proper order before you start pelting the patrons with your money. Additionally make ABSOLUTELY sure you don't do this background with one of the unlucky traits, since that'll result in your bribes having a baseline of 10 or 20% chance of crit failure, and then I had to do enough matches to where I became a Prime Aspired(the second highest rank you can get in the game) because I could only pay bribes in amounts of 10K. Additionally Tournaments are your friend since they give favor with all patrons, though be careful of grand tournaments since they have 4 teams as opposed to the regular tournaments' 2 teams

Benefits:
Past Experience: Start with some skills from your former profession(start with better starting skills from the kit that your character starts with)
Tools of the Trade: Start with some Starting Equipment from your Former Profession(you start with usually rusty weapons and some decent armor)
Max HP +20


Downsides:
Maximum Stamina -20
Stamina Regeneration -5%

Victory Condition: Save up 100K Gold

Difficulty: Medium

Victory Rewards: All Skills get up to 10 as a Boost in future runs


General Advise: This is another case where the game goes for a while, since 100K gold is a LOT of gold, and unless you like death then you need to spend a LOT of gold getting good gear. The extra HP is nice, but the Stamina reduction is PAINFUL. For traits to aspire for, the Giant trait is extremely good since it reduces your weight threshold and gives extra damage, and avoid Big Boned at all costs for this one, as you REALLY don't want to be on the heavy threshold as that will make your already painful stamina situation be even worse.

Benefits:
You start with a random subclass that gives a buff along with a set of gear


Downsides:
Seasoned Combatant: Your Career continues from Week 8, with some benifits but you also start on week 8 with the scale applied to combatants appropriately
Past your Peak: Match Type Levels increase by an additional level than usual upon a victory
Elevated Status: no Many vs. One, Pit Fights, or Draft Matches


Victory Condition: Defeat Baegar the Aspired

Difficulty: Medium

Victory Rewards: During Elite Fights and Tournaments gain +25% stamina regen when below 50% health


General Advise: You start with a subclass, and I'd advise that you stick to that subclass, for instance if you start with Terantian Training then odds are you have buffs for Claws so stick with Claws, and make sure the subclass fits with what you are good with. The downside of this background is that the game scales fast with this background so you need to kill Baegar soon after he becomes available to fight or else you will get outscaled. The fight itself is harder than Baegar normally is because instead of fighting a Gigachad combatant in exalted gear, he also has 2 backup fighters that have exalted armor and mastercraft weapons along with something alongside 150 or so HP. This is one of the times that Unlucky is one of the best bad traits for you to be stuck with, make darned sure you don't have big boned or peg legs since you WILL need to have good stamina and the ability to dodge when fighting Baegar since both him and his backup hit HARD and often

Benefits:
Personal Guard: You always have Entourage scolla upgrade unlocked and you have 2 goons come into the arena with you regardless of what the match's traits are(nerfed from pre Revenge of the Gladiator since the goons seem to be rabble with only half the HP of a normal Aspirant)
Influential Connections: You gain weekly fame based on your Favor


Downsides:
Scorned: The audience doesn't like you that much, though I didn't really realize it in my run
Meek: you start with no Combat Skills and Training Gear is more expensive. Oh, and its not mentioned but you only have 50 HP, you are the rabble


Victory Condition: get to 90% favor with at least 3 patrons

Difficulty: Frustrating

Victory Rewards: All Runs give 1K gold upon Rank Up


General Advise: This is the one background I emplore you that you do NOT run on Lionslayer, because for some unknown reason if you even get TOUCHED(I'm not talking about a proper swing, but barely getting touched at slow speed) by a Bardiche or a Bronze 2H sword you WILL suffer over 50 damage for some reason, so Lionslayer will result in you getting one-shot. As for proper advise, the game makes it seem that you don't want to be in combat, but violence is in fact the way, use your bois as meatshields to distract the enemy, but you NEED to get your combat skills and stamina up if you want to live long enough to get the needed favor. Avoid the Machismo trait since you NEED armor everywhere, avoid Frail Constitution since you are already pitiful enough as is, and try to get traits that give max HP and get traits that give max HP so that two mistakes don't end your run. That being said this background gives the best victory reward and is basically needed for a Slave Victory

Benefits:
Mender: The Smith is constantly doing the 5K gold Repairs
Deep Pockets: Start with an additional Inventory Slot
Maximum Bargains: the Shop is discounted much more frequently


Downsides:
Scavenger: All items you buy start at 10-20% durability
Indebted Smith: You cannot Sell Equipment, you give it to the Smith instead


Victory Condition: Give the Smith equipment worth 100K

Difficulty: Medium, also long

Victory Rewards: Discounts are more common


General Advise: This will take a WHILE because the value isn't based off of what the weapon's buying price is, but rather its selling price so you will have to dump a LOT of gold into getting the smith his equipment. Its also surprisingly difficult since you can't use the Gear that you buy that week, it needs to be repaired, and you can't sell your gear to help afford its replacement so Gold is even more important than it usually is. This took me the 2nd longest to win in a run behind my unlucky Criminal Scum. Looter is both a good and a bad thing in these runs since it'll give more matches with "Spoils to the Victor" but going into matches with no weapons is always risky, rather I'd say look for In your Prime or Giant for nice general buffs since you'll have to last a long while

Benefits:
Unlikely Champion: Every Victory increases all match fame rewards by 5%(you get 5% per win that scales until the game ends)
Maximum Stamina +15
Stamina Regen +10%


Downsides:
Tax Due: Your Scollo steals half of ALL GOLD YOU EARN
Limited Options: You start with 1 less Battle Option


Victory Condition: Get 100K Fame

Difficulty: HARD

Victory Rewards: All level ups give 1K Fame for future Runs


General Advise: Before you start a run, make sure you complete Trained Aspirant, Thrill Seeker, and Desperate Politician. Additionally its preferable that you are able to give a good heirloom weapon since you start with a stick or wooden weapon and clothes. Okwahan Hertiage is a good thing since it gives you a decent helmet that'll always be there on a Neutral Slot since getting armor is difficult since you don't get much Money. Don't bet unless the payout is over 2K since you'll always loose money. In this case try to get some weapons you are good with and then do survival since that gives LOTS of fame and gold and isn't that difficult compared to one vs. many. Again, the halved gold would make this the hardest start if not for the last option.

Benefits:
You Get None, at least this doesn't pop up outside of Lionslayer
You get to be Picky: Since investment and heirlooms don't apply to this character, you might as well re-roll until you get a character you like


Downsides:
Wretched Misfortune: you start with NOTHING
Godless: You start with only Neutral and Negative Traits
Advantian Disdain: Legacies don't apply for this character, you start with -15% patron favor with all patrons
Outcast: no Heirlooms or investments for you


Victory Condition: Survive 16 weeks

Difficulty: Very HARD

Victory Rewards: Bragging Rights


General Advise: Now you also have to do this on Lionslayer which means everyone is painful and is tough. I'd say go and get Looter as your Neutral Trait since at least you get to keep what scraps of gold you get, Looting will be your main source of income since the match payouts are pitiful on Lionslayer difficulty, additionally try to get Machismo or Unlovable to be your big negative trait since on the run I won I never was offered any chest armor anyways XD and money is going to be tight regardless, and you won't get that much favor anyways. Avoid Peg Leg and Armless at all costs since you WILL need to be able to use 2H or Shields and Dashing is life for this background. Additionally Unlucky and Cursed don't really do much for this background so they're also preferable options as well

This won't exactly be a list of all the traits, their exact effects, and all that stuff. It also won't be a A-F tierlist since you WILL have to have negative traits, and some affect you MUCH less than others while you WILL also have positive traits(unless you are the Condemned) which some will help you MUCH less than others of which I'll be rating from a list of:

Build-Defining
Very Helpful
Helpful
Neutral
Detrimental

These are the Traits that will affect your game so much that you will have to alter your build based off of it, these can be good(Giant) to Terrible(One-Armed/One-Legged) but either way it will drastically alter how you can play:

1 Armed/1 Legged:
Both of these removes a Limb, be it the Left Arm or the Right Leg. For One-Handed in exchange for basically locking you to using 1H Swords without shields, it at least gives you +20 to One-Handed weapons skills, meanwhile being Peg-Legged gives you a big movement malus on top of preventing you from dashing. These are here because they force you into styles of play, though on the bright side with one less limb to armor that gives you some free room to up-armor everything else and save some money

Giant/Big Boned/Vertically Challenged
All of these mess with your Weight Thresholds, Giant gives you a +10% damage buff and +15 to your threshold limits, Big Boned inflicts +15 weight on top of stamina debuffs, while Vertically Challenged gives you a 10% damage nerf and -15 to all of your threshold limits. Why I list these all together is that they all result in you going for heavier armor(Giant because you can stay with Medium with more armor-and you'll need it since you are bigger and shields cover less of you, while Being Fat and Small means you'll already cross into heavy with some basic armor, so might as well go all in if you're going to be in the heavy category anyways, though of the two being small is better since shields will work better), all in all being a Giant is one of the best big buffs while being small is one of the least impactful big nerfs of the trait list

Machismo
One of the worst big debuffs because it prevents you from equipping ANY chest armor so you'll be left with a big vulnerability for the entire game and so will force you into shields(if you weren't already planning on using those) and into big shields at that(though without chest armor they're much more wieldy and don't wreck your loadout weight)

Trained Acrobat
A big Buff trait that gives +50 Dash Skill and Halved dash cost, which makes lighter builds and focusing more on dashes unsurprisingly much better

Dolmorii/Myrodon/Terantian Training
Gives +10% damage for weapons from the faction and +3 movement skill per armor piece from the faction. These seem to only be from Veteran Aspirant, who get their own sub-classes that give further damage buffs for specific weapon types, for instance Terantian Training/Claw Expert for a total of +15% damage with Terantian claws which naturally would change up what kinds of weapons and what kinds of armor you are using(for instance, don't hold out hope for many Myrodon Swords.....)

Lucky and Unlucky(in Major and Minor)
So Luck affects a LOT of things, from random Bouts of Audience favor, to the chance and amount of money that gets produced when you destroy a prop, to the chance that you get ambushed

The most important things that luck influences is what gets thrown into the Arena, which means you'll have either more/better weapons thrown in on your side or worse/no proper weapons thrown in on your side of the Arena, the chance of disarming your opponent when you hit their weapon or shield, and for the Politician and Criminal the critical chance of bribing the patrons failing

Being Lucky is extremely helpful in that the chance to disarm being increased helps massively later on, on the flipside, being Unlucky just means you have to be quick on the reaction time on picking back up your shield or weapon if you get disarmed(and you don't get to bribe and SHOULDN'T do luck of the draw) which for a negative trait, especially a big negative doesn't affect your game that much(and heck, getting more ambushes is a good thing since the muggers have terrible equipment and skill so they act as training dummies while giving you some gold all while not advancing the level of opponents you have to fight)

Clairvoyance and Omniscience
This one is simple, you get a chance or are guaranteed to reveal all the match information, considering that revealing match info is probably the biggest Fame Sink that you experience, with either trait but especially Omniscience you'll end up saving a LOT of fame, these pair well with unlikable as it minimizes your net fame loss compared to normal runs

1H and 2H Experts
You get bonus extra damage based on your skill with a weapon, as simple as it is helpful

Old Injury
You start with a Malus to your movement skill, given that some level ups I've seen gives you enough movement skill to counteract the maluses of this trait, another Negative trait to take that negative slot with little downsides that shouldn't affect your run too much

Dulled Senses
This is a malus that funnily enough is only really negative if you're new, the more you're experienced in the game since if you know what an item does you don't need the tooltip, not having the Calendar isn't that impactful save for knowing how long until your next chance at Baegar is, and not seeing the fame scale is only impactful if you're going for fame bets. Again another good one to have for your negative trait slot(s) as opposed to some others

Better HP in Minor and Major
It lets you take more hits before you die, does it need to be explained?

Brute Strength
either +50% or +100% durability damage if you're medium or heavy weight class, this trait is immensely helpful for getting through shields and heavy helmets which makes this trait truely shine in the late game

Born Leader
Makes Enterourage cost less and makes it appear in more matches which is massively helpful for anyone not the Politician, additionally taunting apparently supercharges your allies, but I've never used that affect. Honestly this is probably the best trait for a Slave Run

Blacksmith's Friend
Makes Insurance appear much more often in your matches, considering that it doesn't cost you any of the rewards and makes it so you don't need to hire the blacksmith nearly as often and will save you massive amounts of money over time

Sharpener
This gives you a bonus +15% damage if your weapon is above 90% durability, generally nice but best with Blacksmith's apprentice and pairs excellently with Blacksmith's Friend

Warrior's Endurance
Gives you more Stamina, you always need more stamina, hence why this is here

Bloodlust
Gives you 50 fame per kill, but MUCH more importantly it gives you 50% stamina per kill which on top of being very useful can be a lifesaver on one vs many fights

Alloura's Boy
Gives you more favor gain for all patrons and reduced favor decay based on your favor with Alloura, practically required for Criminal and Politician runs

Valerius' Coupons
Gives you discounts for the shop based off of your Valerius favor, given how the Shop is the vast majority of your expenses it might as well be up to +25% gold

Haggler
gives a discount of 10% at the shop, and like the same as above it might as well be +10% gold which given how vital gold is in the game the trait being here is self-explainatory

1H/2H Prodigy
Gives you a chunk of proficiency in either all 1 Handed or 2 Handed weapons, less useful IMO compared to 1H/2H expert since you should be getting massive amounts of proficiency fairly fast given you should be whacking your enemies a LOT in normal gameplay

Born Warrior
Gain a bonus to all weapon proficiency, given that you should be focusing on a single kind of weapon its a bit meh and probably the worst of the top row positive traits except for Underdog

Sick
You take a small amount of damage every 30 seconds, but honestly the damage isn't that much to the point that I won with this trait with the Politician, for the bottom row traits this doesn't hurt much

Unlovable
You take a Fame Penalty, that's it. Unless you are playing as a Trained Aspirant this doesn't affect you much especially if you are more active with your gameplay

Owakhan Heritage
You have a perminant improved Owakhan mask equipped to your character that comes with extra dashing skill. Honestly its a decent helmet and you don't have to shop for helmets so its great for the early to mid game, its only a downside later on when you have enough money for better helmets and it results in your head being a weakspot, but given its a Neutral trait it might as well be a positive trait

Frenzied
+20% damage dealt and taken, another one that's practically a positive trait though it works best with shields given that you don't take extra damage if you aren't getting hit yourself, another Neutral that's often more a positive IMO

Underdog
You gain proficiency up to +50 for every extra enemy on the field with elites counting for double, being serious I've been helped out a bunch by this trait a couple of times since this is definitely one that's for the early game but its also really sad compared to the other top row Positive Traits

Heavy Hitter
Extra Stun chance in Medium and Heavy and extra Knockback intensity in heavy weight class, Stuns are great since they will give you openings to get more hits in, all in all nice to have

Jordius' Favorite
You gain proficiency in every weapon based off of how much favor you have with Jordius, given proficiency is a really meh reward for a trait, that the trait is dependent on a trainer liking you, and you have to pick this over other options when getting a trait during a playthrough honestly I see this as a waste of a trait slot

Mazda's Star
You gain a bit of a better fundraising fame-to-gold ratio depending on how much favor you have with Mazda, given that fundraising is a tertiary way of earning gold, and just like above you had to bypass other trait options and this is reliant on you sucking up to Mazda this honestly feels like another waste of a trait slot

Dodgy
You gain +30 Dashing Skill, given that some runs you can't dodge, and if you are in the heavy weight class dodging isn't really that good, and the fact that if you are planning on dodging you should be training the heck out of the skill, using a trait on this just feels really meh. At least the Prodigy skills seem to only be given on the start of a run but this is one you pick up later on. better than the above two but again feels really meh

Adept Footwork
+25 Movement Skill, for a trait that you have to pick up once the game is already going its again fairly meh, though better than Dodgy given that movement is universally useful regardless of what traits you have and what builds you are running

Hammer Time
A Neutral trait that gives extra damage to Blunt damage but reduced damage for all other types. This is strictly a positive trait if you're going for the Maces, but otherwise its a strictly negative trait, and given that I prefer the swords that consideration is the only reason why I'm putting it here

Looter
A Neutral Trait that makes the Spoils trait appear much more often in battles, practically needed for a Condemned Run, and very useful for a Blacksmith's Apprentice run, otherwise its generally a nerf to your gold income

Villain
You get extra damage based on the negative fame factor of your equipment, however its best at the start of the game where a bunch of shields nuke your fame multiplier, however its meh because you are well..... nerfing your own fame income and a bunch of the later equipment just always gives fame boosts, even the heaviest armor and biggest shields so it just eventually stops being in effect

Careless
3% weekly armor durability degradation, given that you should be cycling your armor to repair given that you are bound to get whacked it isn't too impactful, but unlike other negative traits I've listed its a penalty that's always being applied and always extracting a price and in some cases can be the reason why you loose an armor piece instead of it barely holding on through a battle

Fencer
You get 50 Stamina for every successful parry, given how Parries are unreliable compared to shields and dodging this one is more an incentive that'll get you whacked more if you try and take advantage of it, honestly shouldn't be in the 2nd row of buffs given how its the 3rd worst behind Jordius's and Mazda's traits

Slayer
All weapons gain the Multi-Hit trait and will always dismember, frankly this poitive trait is less helpful than about half of your neutral traits since Multi-Hit isn't reliable to take advantage of hitting multiple enemies and dismembering is only handy for bets(and even then a LOT of blades later on have Razer Sharp anyways so its a moot point). This is best for 2H weapons as it gives maces and the blunts the ability to dismember, and gives more chances for multi-hit to actually apply. But more importantly helps with a bug as with your 2H weapons I've occasionally gotten 2 hits on the same person, most reliably with a 2H sword you hold in front of you. However if the biggest upside of a trait is that it gives you access to a bug, then that trait is niche and isn't that good

Reduced Health in Major and Minor
This makes you die faster, does it need explaining?

Improvisor
Causes Luck of the Draw to appear much more often, which itself is probably my least favorite modifier for good reason, but Luck of the Draw becomes much rarer in the late game so the entire point of the trait goes away over time

Weapon Collector
Causes a Significantly higer chance of weapons showing up in the shop, given that you should only be looking for about 2-3 weapons to have on hand, and that you need to buy at least 6 pieces of armor unless you like getting hit by thicc 20-30 damage hits this will result in you finding the weapons you want at the expense of your ability to protect yourself, this might as well be a negative trait to be honest

Brawler
Bonus damage from Destructibles, causes more destructibles to be tossed into the arena, and bonus damage when a weapon is low on durability. Why is this here? Because it causes your weapons to suffer 50% more durability damage, which means your weapons will have a serious chance of breaking if you use them from start to finish on medium sized many vs. many and in tournaments if you don't have insurance as a trait that's being applied on top of causing a LOT of attrition to your wallet since you have to fix your weapons constantly. Frankly this might as well be a negative trait since it makes you less able to function once you have a build going