The first step is giving your character an appropriate name. Something that will spice up all of the dialogue you won't be reading.

I usually go with *yawn*, or *sniff*. It's great for when you mouse over your character and for a moment wonder if they don't have the coof!

The next step is distributing all of your stats into: Strength 8, Dexterity 10, and Endurance 10.

Strength determines your overall damage.

Dexterity determines your ability points in combat.

CONSTITUTION is the most important stat in the game! It governs hit-points and DODGE chance!

There is also some fuzzy math when it comes to calculating DR (Damage Reduction) and high constitution where things get rounded down (no damage) or rounded up (damage gets through). Bottom line the higher your Constitution, the less damage you'll be taking.

"But Cusser", I hear you say, "then I'll be taking a minus 10 penalty to perception." When the whole world is your enemy it's impossible to miss your target!

"But what about the bonus skill points you will be missing out on if make intelligence a dump stat?"
Yeah what about 'em? Are you some filthy loremaster? Or are you here to see your enemies driven before you?

Now dump all of your skill points into DODGE! and save the excess 15 for later. We'll be dumping those into dodge as well once they've grown!

The first thing you'll need to do is talk to the inn-keep. He's the fellow behind the counter calling you over.

Tell him you need better gear and you'll be teleported over to a local merchant.

From his selection buy the Scimitar and nothing else.



Equip the Scimitar, and select it in your hot-bar. Don't forget! Also make sure that you have at least one dagger in your belt-slot! You can never have too many knives!

Leave the general area and you'll be teleported back to the inn for your first quest.

So you've spammed the 1 key and a couple of seconds of dialogue later you find your charge dead at you feet.

You might also have missed that, due to being blind as a proverbial bat, a thief had snuck in earlier and had made off with the contents of the merchant's chest without you noticing. And now he's dead. We're off to a great start.

Only an assassin now stands in the way of you becoming employee of the month. You could have talked your way out of it, but unfortunately for everyone else you only know 4 phrases in the common tongue:

1. Ferk erf!
2. Fight!
3. How much?
4. Yes.

These will be your only dialogue choices for the remainder of the play-through.

So you square off with the assassin.
Take careful note of your footing.

Combat walk-through:

In the first round of combat position yourself at the corner of the bed as indicated in the image above.
Try to position yourself diagonally from your opponent wherever possible. Stick to fast attacks and the assassin will soon fall. Your default armor's DR (Damage Reduction) is more than adequate for this first encounter.

Loot the bodies and open the door.

So, the inn-keep comes in and decides that given your track record as a bodyguard it would be a great idea if you could go ahead and guard another merchant in the middle of the night.

After spamming the 1 button a couple of times again you find yourself in combat with two roguishly handsome fellas.



Combat Guide:
Once again positioning is paramount. Step right next to the merchant, Vardanis, as indicated in the image above.

Focus on the hooded fellow given that your THC (To Hit Chance) is greater with him than with the other fellow.

Stick only to fast attacks as that maximizes your chance to land a hit.

You will miss. You will miss early and you will miss often. But the numbers are on your side.

Vardanis might not make it (he has a 50% chance of dying in this encounter). That's ok, you never really liked him anyway and looting his corpse gives you the same sense of satisfaction and achievement as receiving his thanks and reward.

So, you've polished off the brigands and you've gone back to the inn for a night's rest. Your hit points are restored and you head to Feng the loremaster.

You're there to inquire about a map, you don't really know you weren't really paying attention.

Feng will try to sell you other bits of junk. Don't buy anything from him. Let him look at the map and then say no thank you to the amulet and ring he has on offer.

Rings and amulets in this game do roughly the same as their real life equivalents- mostly they go around necks, or they go on fingers. Other than that sporting one of them does nothing.

There is a quest involving the ring he sells you but since we're not the most talkative of people we won't be able to complete that mission. Save your money.

Now with that out of the way make sure Feng gives you a quest to off a rival loremaster named Cassius.

Cassius can be found at the inn. Whip out your map and fast travel there.



Cassius is the first fellow to your left as you enter the door.
Whisper sweet nothings into his ear about this super nice abandoned house nearby.
Take him there, tell him about Feng and murder him.



I would add a combat guide for Cassius but he is of the bookish type, so he goes down easier than Brixton doxy on Josephine Avenue on a Friday night at the end of the month, *wink*wink*.

After looting his corpse go back to Feng and tell him the deed is done.

"But Cusser, why are we doing all this busy work? Why should we side with Feng rather than Cassius?" Well, you see we need to add a +1 to our word of honor reputation stat in order to unlock a very lucrative quest later on.

Cassius and his would-be master unfortunately fall on the other side of our conflicts, and so in due time, we kill them. Don't cry too much about it though, we lack the social niceties to complete their quests anyway.

Having informed Feng of our successful conflict resolution with Cassius we step outside and once again whip out our map. This time we'll be travelling to the Barracks.



We are let through the gates and a centurion informs the new would-be recruits that the first order of business is a "training exercise" that involves "raiding" a "merchant caravan" as it enters Teron.

You've been to several job interviews before and so you know exactly what to say when an interviewer asks you to do something morally reprehensible.



You say "yes", although that might just as well have been "ferk erf" but you felt "yes" was a more fitting phrase in this case. You really should try to pick up more of the common tongue. Perhaps master Cassius... Oh, oh dear, nevermind.

Combat Guide

This is your first true test as a combatant.

Start off by immediately initiating combat by pressing space bar.
Select the "hold" button in the hot-bar allowing your fellow recruits to position themselves.
Then join them as indicated below:



When the next round starts, hold again and wait for your troops to advance. There is a small chance that the enemy spearman will succeed in an interrupt attack on one of your men. The scenario will end up looking like this:



If this happens you might as well load the game right there because the battle will be nearly impossible to win due to the disruption to your formation. You can give it a go, but it will be frustrating as heck. The odds are roughly 5% of that happening though.

Now here's what should happen:



With the battlefield depositions as above you should proceed to the square highlighted by the cursor.

Once there Press "c" to open up your character sheet. Dump all unassigned points into the Sword skill now. Your skill point distribution should look like this:



Now that we've successful dumped everything into swords I want you to switch to your dagger. KEK!

Right click on your dagger and select the "feint" maneuver. Now square up with your dance partner like so:



And perform the Feint:



We're not quite done yet though. On your next turn run around your dance partner and perform another feint from the other side:



Then end result should look like this:



Now select your Scimitar and right click on it. Look at all those options! Well, now for Juven's First Principles of swordsmanship:

Rule #1 If he has no shield aim for his legs. If he has a shield see Rule #5.
Rule #2 If you have successfully hit his legs aim for his arms.
Rule #3 If you have successfully debuffed his dodge and his attack switch to fast attacks.
Rule #4 Refresh all debuffs and continue till he dies.
Rule #5 If he has a shield or high DR- Aim for the eyes Boo! (Aim for the Head!)
Rule #6 If his DR is greater than your damage output see Rule #5.

Once your dance partner is down run and assist your buddies. As per the rules above follow Rule 5 as the two guardsmen have both high DR and shields.

So what was the point of the little dance at the beginning? The enemy axe boi is proficient at taking out your two npcs. He does not fare that well against you 1 on 1 though. So you have to take him out of the fight asap.

Let's talk about your two lovely assistants. Axe Boi and McHammer. McHammer has 40% chance of surviving this encounter. Axe Boi has a 20% chance of surviving. Does their survival matter? Not really it's just more loot at the end of the battle. But you do need them to stay alive until you've dealt with both guardsmen, which should be simple once you've eliminated their Axe Boi.

That leaves only the merchant and their hammer wielding boi. The enemy hammer wielder has a 90% chance of dying before you can get to him due to both of your npcs targeting him first.

That leaves only the crossbow wielding merchant:



It probably goes without saying but Rules #1 through 3 apply.

Once he falls loot all the bodies. You wont be able to carry everything so dump shields when you run out of inventory capacity. When you're done looting and tea bagging leave the area.

So. you get back to the barracks and you assume that's it. But then a centurion emerges with a broken pool cue and a painted face shouting something about only one position being open and how they're having "try-outs":



You still haven't picked up any new words as you voice your one word reply "Fight!" It's not really your fault though, its hard to pick up a new language when you constantly have to murder your entire acquaintance.

Combat Guide:

This is a free-for-all. That means all you have to do is take a step back and watch the other two combatants go at it:



It is your task to simply step in from time to time to give one or the other combatant a not-so-helpful push in the wrong direction:



As can be seen above my money is usually on the Shield Hero, rather than the Axe Goblin.

Things are rather straight forward here, so all I can say is remember Juven's Principles of Swordplay, and try to remain on a diagonal tile with respect to your opponent.

For some reason one handed weapon wielders cannot reach opponents on tiles diagonally adjacent to them. They need to square up to you first.

When it's just the two of you don't forget to occasionally whip out your dagger and feint around with your opponent if you have some spare AP (Ability Points). Keeping up with your Lindy Hop is important to all swordsmen.

So, you've become a guardsman and you're rested and ready to go. They even gave you some new armor!

So here's what you do. Go over to Shorty in the dormatory across the hall and sell EVERYTHING!

Only hang on to your nets, your healing salve and the map. Everything else is non-essential so make sure to sell your weapons and armor.

The bronze age has ended for you! On to the glories of the Iron Age!

Time to buy the last suit of armor you'll ever wear:



Purchase the following items:
1. Imperial Armor
2. Scimitar (Iron).
3. Any dagger (preferably iron)
Equip both weapons and armor.
Select your Scimitar before moving on. You don't want to accidentally swipe with your dagger when you meant to use your sword.

"Why no helmets?"

Good question. The short answer is they are not worth it. The THC penalty makes them completely inviable. If you insist on wearing one- the hoods you took off your first 3 opponents might be worthwhile but in my experience the 1 DR to HIGHLY improbable head-shots don't justify the measly one pound carry weight.

So, you might have wondered what I meant when I said the Iron Imperial Armor is the last suit you'll ever wear.

Well allow me to demonstrate- let's take a walk on the more shady side of town:



See those hobos hanging around the well. Well, them's fighting hobos.

Keep walking toward them and when given the option choose to "Attack them from a distance".



I'll never tell you to do that again I promise it's just so you can position yourself more easily!

Combat Guide:

So once combat is initiated you need to back up towards the gap between those two buildings seen below:


This is where you make your stand. Some of the hobos will try to go around the building but by the time they get to the other side you'll have dispatched their buddies already.

Your opponents will now proceed to feed themselves into the woodchipper.

First there'll be Hammer Hobo, followed by Dung Tosser who will come at you with his dagger once he runs out of dung, which he does mercifully quickly. Next I'd like to introduce Cross-eyed Randy:



He's the one highlighted by the cursor. Now, Cross-eyed Randy can't hit the broadside of the barn your standing next to. I feel sorry for the guy cause he tries real hard, and I kinda think they only gave him the throwing axes as a cruel joke. Anyhow here's how the rest of this fight plays out:



There isn't much more I can say about this fight. They literally cannot hurt you. Your damage reduction is greater than their damage output.
Just remember Juven's Principles of Sworplay:

Rule #1 If he has no shield aim for his legs. If he has a shield see Rule #5.
Rule #2 If you have successfully hit his legs aim for his arms.
Rule #3 If you have successfully debuffed his dodge and his attack switch to fast attacks.
Rule #4 Refresh all debuffs and continue till he dies.
Rule #5 If he has a shield Aim for the eyes Boo! (Aim for the Head!)
Rule #6 If his DR is greater than your damage output see Rule #5.

Once you're done bagging and tagging whip out your map and fast travel to the blacksmith so you can sell their smelly old shoes for mega stonks.

Now that we have cool threads and have acquired currency it is time we sought out female companionship.

Head to the Teron's Red-light district:



It's by the other well near the Smithy.

This is where you meet the love of your life, Livia:



Woefully the language barrier rears its ugly head again. But you're not easily disuaded.

You follow Livia to her house, you know just to make sure she got there safe. You only had the most honorable intentions.



So it's a total surprise when you get inside and her old man and brother start shouting at you. You try to explain that you're simply there to court the young lady in the firm traditions of your fatherland when suddenly the topic of money is brought up. Incensed that anyone could consider putting a price on such beauty you draw your sword!



Combat Guide:

Don't get cocky just because the last fight was super easy that doesn't mean it'll be a free ride from here on out. In fact each successive fight will get harder from here-on-out.

I don't need to remind you of Juven's Principles of Swordplay now do I?



As can be seen above- close in with the old man. He is the greatest threat. Livia is of no consequence, even if she does score a hit with either her dagger or crossbow she can't do more than 1 point of damage at a time.

Her brother is pretty useless and can only damage you on a crit which has a mere 5% chance of proccing.

The old man is primarily a threat due to his iron sword's chance to cause bleeding. You can safely place yourself facing the old man and ignore Livia's brother at your back. This will maximize your opportunity for counter-attacks ending things quickly.

Once the old man has been dealt with, you should deal with the brother. And then finally Livia, because I doubt that she'll ever be able to love you again after all that's happened between you.

Loot the bodies and sell their worn threads to the blacksmith. Also initiate some repairs on your armor because it's no doubt taken some damage by now and you'll need it for what comes next.

So far you've done well for yourself. You've loved and lost, and you've earned a little money. It's time to start thinking bigger, it's time to expand operations- maybe bring in a partner to run the day-to-day side of the business while you're off adventuring or enjoying romantic conquests like...Livia. It's time to stop earning money and to start making money.

So let's whip out the map and fast travel to the Merchant's Plaza!



Now head North East to this building where you'll meet your business partner:



Miltiades will ask you to inspect some goods indoors.



Upon entering there is a misunderstanding with security and you are forced to exhaust your vocabulary once again. You still have a sneaking suspicion that "Ferk Erf" might have been a better response than "fight", but the memory of Livia is still too raw. That was "our" word.



Combat Guide:

So this is where we really start getting into the meta of combat mechanics, we've briefly dabbled with this strategy before when we fought the hobos but here is the first time where we wholly rely on bottle-necking!

As soon as you can position yourself here:



You won't get there on your first turn, but preserve all AP to get yourself into that position first!

Did you notice that the axe throwing redhead in the back looks at all familiar? That's right, that's Cross-eyed Randy's Cousin, One-Eyed Rey-Rey. Pay him no heed just yell encouragement as he tries and tries again to axe you a few questions.

Focus all of your attention on the Old man the pointy iron stick cause he can cause bleed damage and he's mighty riled up you killed his doppelganger.

It is now time for your next lesson in Juven's Principles of Swordplay:
Rule #7 Never approach an opponent unless he's using a ranged weapon. If he is using a ranged
weapon see Rule #9.

Rule #8 Wait for your opponent to enter striking distance. Put your actions on hold if you must.

Rule #9 If your opponent is using ranged weapons (spears, throwing weapons or bows) run after
him and hit him! Don't take no disrespect!

Once the old man is down follow Rule #7 and wait for Cousin Rey-Rey to approach you.



Once you've dealt with these two bozos loot their bodies and head for the door and wait of Miltiades.



Whatever you do don't kill him. He's far too valuable alive and probably your only friend!



Cut a new deal and wait for the next three "businessmen" to come and table their proposals.

Combat Guide
Second verse same as the first:



Take your spot next to the table and deal with them one by one following Juven's Principles of Swordplay.

Loot the bodies and sell their gubs to the first merchant you run into outside.

When you're done doing that go find Miltiades. He's hanging around the Blacksmith so whip out the map and fast travel there:



Once again take it easy on him, he is your only friend and business partner. Nobody's perfect after all. If you play your cards right we'll meet him again in Act 2 in the slums of Maadoran.

So now you have some money and you're probably feeling pretty philanthropic right?

So let's whip out that map and fast travel down to the Gates of Teron!



Here we're met with some overworked border patrol agents who are having a hard time keeping the great unwashed out.

Donate some money to help them build a wall!



Now with your good deed for the year out of the way let's whip out the map and fast travel over to the merchants' plaza again.



Once there you might notice a new stall owned by Aemolus:



He's a super nice guy no matter what you've heard about his kind. He gives you some crappy armor for free (which you should totally sell right back to him) and most importantly he tells you about his village where he wisely tossed all his coins down a well.



This is all we need from him right now. We'll get back to this quest later. Much later.

So it's time for some R&R.

Let's start out by going to the town healer for a check up. (If you're not distinctly effed in the B by now you soon will be) So, shell out some cash and have the healer trim your calloused soles.



Head to the Palace next to rub shoulders with the other 1%.



Now it's important that you try and talk your way in here. Don't try any of the other batshirt crazy ideas okay?



Now spam 1 like a quarter'll pop out every time you press it till the conversation is over and you have two new locations added to your map. Your World Map that is.

Let's have a look shall we?



Teron you know of course, that's your hood. There's Aemolas' village - Don't go there yet! And then finally there's the Mining Outpost and the Bandit camp.

So, the Bandit Camp will be our next destination. Before we leave though let's press "c" and distribute some Skill Points!



Dump everything you got into Dodge!

Now we embark on our first true challenge!

GENERAL INFORMATION
A little side note, if you're missing a skill point or two here or there remember that you can simply travel to each new overworld location and collect 5 SP just for visiting. Just make sure that you don't walk over the event triggers or you'll be screwed. If you do this right now you can get a total of 15 SP for the Bandit Camp, The mining Outpost and Aemolas' Village. You don't have to do it, but every little bit helps, especially at the beginning.

When you arrive at the Bandit Camp don't talk to anyone! Don't even make eye contact!



Instead Make your way over to this exact spot right here:



Now initiate Combat by pressing space bar.

Combat Guide
The moment you press spacebar you'll probably know why this spot is ideal. It's the mother of all bottlenecks.



Now in the image above you can see two archers, Blondie is highlighted by the cursor. These two ferkers are the predominant reason why you need iron armor for this fight. See, you have to wait for your enemies to funnel into the bottleneck. Theses two will take pot-shots at you until their arrows run out all the while.

You'll know they're out of arrows because they won't be shooting at you anymore, and they'll let out a cry "Run for your Lives!". They of course don't but I'm not one to judge.

These two will upon occasion hit you. They can do around 10 points of damage if they crit. They can also debuff your movement. That's not a problem at all as you won't be moving until they stop moving. They have less than 10% chance to crit, but if they do it will severely damage your odds for walking away from this one.

So, what about the rest? Well first let's talk about Net-Boy:



Now it is time For Juven's Final Rule on the Principles of Swordplay:
Rule #10 Dealing with Net-Boys. Make sure you have action points available after you get netted.

Retreat as much as possible and end your turn. Also pray the web away!

Now when Net-Boy gets within 4 squares of you make sure to wait, instead of ending your turn as usual. He'll net you. Retreat a single block if you can and end your turn. When the next turn starts you should have your full pool of action points available to you and the debuff to dodge should be gone along with the net.

Now Net-Boy only has 15 health so he's a two-hit kill. Problem is your armor only allows for one attack per round. Stick to fast attacks it'll make the medicine go down faster.



After Net-Boy you'll be facing Clubby. Clubby only has 15 health just like NetBoy. His shield makes him slightly more difficult to kill but on average he shouldn't last more than 3 rounds.

Now we get to the meat and potatoes.



Now, Oscar Velasco, pictured here above is a fullbodied 45 Hit point Hombre. Still he does not pose any threat as long as he does not crit and he has a less than 5% chance of doing that. Once he's down you get to fight Espeanus!



Espeanus is the only true threat here. Toting Bronze Imperial Armor and an iron sword, this 50 Hit Point Powerhouse loves asking you one question:



He also has a 10% crit chance! Aim For his Head while reciting the following holy incantation: "Ferk erf! Ferk erf! Ferk erf!"

Once he goes down you get to exact your revenge on the two archers who pelted you with arrows during the first rounds of combat.



With just these two left you can get fancy again, switch to your dagger, Feint in between them to maximize counter-attacks, and aim at specific body parts you find offensive.

When you're done looting go poke a stick up Tiberius' posterior. He's the mong hiding in the Cage. Talking to him teleports you back to to Teron.

GENERAL NOTE:
Full disclosure- every step of this guide so far has had a 99% chance of success. This battle is the first time that, that probability dips to roughly 80%. This means you have a 1 in 5 chance that you might have to load your game here for the first time. A large portion of this game runs on RNG. I have done tons of testing, which is why I actually have percentages to work with, and thus far this is as close to 100% as I can get it.

Inside the Palace you'll be forced to talk to his nibs. Try not to swear fealty to him, he'll be dead soon.

Just show him your map and your Native American Arrowhead collection and whatever else you need to get out of the stuffy palace as soon as possible.



Once free of the stench of Opulence run off and sell all your loot to any vendor of your choice. Have the blacksmith repair your armor and visit the healer. Then press "c" to distribute your new Skill Points:



Yup that's right, once again you dump everything into dodge. Don't worry this will be the last upgrade to dodge in ACT 1.

Open up your world map and travel to the Mining Camp.

When you approach the mining encampment you'll step on the even trigger:



Choose to approach rather than attack from range.



Choose either skill check 1 or 2, it doesn't really matter as you'll fail both and be forced to fight.



There's little I still have to teach you at combat at this point. The Crossbowman is your greatest threat in this encounter, but you'll only be able to deal with him in the end.
Follow Juven's Principles of Swordplay Rules #1-#10 and you can't lose here.



Once you've dealt with the lot of them loot their bodies.



Now head into the mine.



Advance up to the point indicated by the cursor. Do not move again until they are all dead.



No one in this mine poses any remote threat to you. Focus on the Aurelian Guards in the middle, the miners on the sides will kill themselves with your counter attacks.



Go to the Chest inside the mine and use the key you looted from the first guard's corpse outside to open it. Double click on the chest and ignore the lock pick icon since you already have the key.

You won't have enough capacity to carry everything, so if you have to leave things behind, dump miner tools and shields first.

Open your map once outside to teleport back to the palace.

Once you've received your reward for murdering everyone at he camp open up your Character sheet again and distribute your Skill Points:



All into swords this time!

Here comes the crazy part. You remember when I said that the Imperial Iron armor is the last suit of armor you'll ever wear?

Well I wasn't lying. Keep one of the miners outfits before you sell everything and wear it in place of your iron armor. The days of DR are behind us sadly. Your armor is simply a liability now. Sell it. Sell it all! just keep your scimitar and your dagger.

If by now you've grown tired of lugging the nets around with you go rent a room at the inn and dump non-essential in your stash upstairs.

Go to the healer and get fixed up. The last great challenge of the game lies ahead of us.

We are about to take on 8 Bandits in Money Down the Well Part II.

You remember a long time ago when I said we had to help out Feng instead of Cassius? Do you remember when we paid off the guards so Aemolas and his kin could get into Tenor? Well it's been a long time coming but it's all been in service of this moment.

We now get to go to Aemolas' old village and we're taking his 2000 gold for ourselves. There's just one teeny tiny obstacle- 8 dangerous bandits!



It's best to parley with them first. This saves you running around the village looking for places to hide your nuts when combat begins.



Tell them whatever they need to hear so we can get to murdering each other.

Move here:



Then here:



Can you see where we're going with this yet?



Back away as far as you can. This grants you immunity from the lone archer.

The spearmen piling in are essentially free kills as they both sport Krokspars which can only be used diagonally. Close in with them and hack them to bits risk free!. Just be careful not to be lured into the reach of enemies outside of your bottleneck.



Beware the raider with the Imperial Dique-cAnus (wolf) Helmet. He is the most skilled of his peers. I would suggest aiming mostly at the arms of your opponents.



Most of them wield 2 handed weapons. The archer is usually the last to go. When he falls go over to the well take out the money and keep it. You will gain 2000 Gold, and lose one "Word of Honor" reputation point. You don't need it, as far as I can tell the only other quest where there is a Word of Honor skill check is in the thieves guild, and we've clearly not chosen that path.



Now we're off to pursue our career as an imperial legionnaire!

GENERAL INFORMATION:
You have a 70% chance to complete this battle on the first try. You could improve your odds marginally by bringing in you nets and potentially give some of the enemies a debuff, I leave that up to you, but from a pure brute-force perspective you're odds are about 3 in four of succeeding.

Don't forget to loot all the bodies and then return to Tenor to sell it all and visit the healer.

So with all of your admin out of the way you make your way back to the barracks. You talk to your Centurion and he slaps you on the head and sends you off to attack the Daratan Guard Tower. Why? Because the thought such a phallic structure offends his repressed urges. He's thought about that tower. He's thought about it long and hard. Now he won't stand for it any longer.



The Imperial Guard Tower is much bigger than the measly Daratan Tower and so our captain has volunteered to throw fecal matter at it in protest!

The Daratans did not find this amusing and promptly shot him full of arrows. Well that's it isn't it? Now it is on like the Kong of Donkey!



When given the option, choose to handle the assault outside the tower. Getting shot at by two archers is no fun at all no matter what your Praefectus Castrorum told you back in basic.



Combat Guide

Position Yourself Next to your homie:



Remember Juven's Principles of Swordplay. Remember your dagger and that you can move your opponent any which way if you want to. Kill the two shield bearers with attacks aimed at their heads and then Chase down the archer with fast attacks. By the time he goes down your allies upstairs will no doubt have finished off everyone else. If not pop upstairs and show them the meaning of pain.

Return to your barracks and add Skill Points to your sword skill.



The final confrontation of Act I is about to begin.

Our Centurion is still not satisfied that the Daratans have received the message regarding our penile dimensions compared to theirs. You are thus tasked with going to the Daratan compound and biting thine thumb most vigorously at their liege lord.

Let the thumb biting commence.

Hmm, yeah you're just going to back up a bit, you get awful nervous when you're out in the open.



Combat Guide
Given all the DR in this room you should focus heavily on hits aimed at the head.



This is Dellar. He's the resident mofo. Once he goes down everyone else follows. He causes bleeding by looking at you askew and he crits when you blink. Don't close your eyes around him!



This is ya boi Carrot-Top. You have to keep him alive, he's your pet meatshield. You can stand shoulder to shoulder with him while you wail on Dellar, or ...



You can remember what Obi Wan has taught you...



Remove him entirely from the fray and deal with him one-on-one



Although that comes at a price if you look at how little health you have left after that little maneuver. Also your Axe Boi in the back is a BEAST!

As you can see as soon as Dellar falls so does everyone else.





Quickly deal with Lord fancy pants (he's a complete push over). And then help your buddies chase down the naughty spear bois!

Once the dust settles you return to your barracks.

Leaving the Barracks brings you face to face with your cat Carrinas.

He tells you to get back in yo monkey cage to go have some strawberry Pavlova in Maadoran.



You agree to this and as per Imperial regulation they chain you up to make sure you don't fall out of your cage.




As you get up to stretch your legs along the way you get into an argument with your travel companions over which pizza topping is best.



Things turn violent and you're suddenly grateful for all of that knife twirling you've been getting up to in your private time.

Combat Guide:



Use Arterial strikes to take down these two boobs. They are utterly useless and given your latent skills with daggers thanks to the skill's adjacency bonus from your sword skills I'd be surprised if it took you three combat turns to waste these fools.

Any decent red-blooded man woman or child knows you don't put ferking pineapple on gods-damned pizza! Loot their bodies and move on.

You can leave the area by talking to Erastus and NOT Slitting his throat! You need someone to witness what happens when you try and convince decent folk of vile ideas!

So you've made it to Maadoran and hopefully you've equipped that bronze sword you looted off that vile pizza enthusiast.

Go into the inn, first building on your left and spam 1 to get through the blabbing.

Leave immediately after. We only did this to open the door for later. Continue down the road and try to get to the Arena.

You'll trigger an event before you can get there.

Some kids stole a clown's firesale sign and are trying to beat him to death with it. You follow them and decide to intercede on his behalf.



Combat Guide:

Now this fight can be tricky, until you remember that we opened the door to the Inn when first got here. Lure them back there.


Bit by bit...

Down the Alleyway...

Up against the city wall and around the corner...

Wait for them inside that doorway...

Bottleneck 'em and wreck 'em.

Once you're done looting their bodies and assigning Skill Points go to the Arena.

Go to the Arena Master and agree to fight the thief.

Combat Guide

The thief is useless, but he does serve to emphasize Juven's Principles of Swordplay.



Wait for your opponent to approach you.



When he's unarmored and in striking distance strike the legs, then the arms. Follow up with fast attacks until he is dead. Loot the body and leave the arena.

So, the real reason we take on the thief is that it affords us a means of fast travel to the merchant's plaza.



It also unlocks all fast travel points there. We don't actually have enough money to pay the healer so we are simple teleported back to the arena.



From here we take a right down the road, heading east and enter the fort.



Inside we quickly speak with strawberry Pavlova.



He informs us that all our gubs are in a chest outside and that we need only speak to Vitus next to the chest to access it. This chest can hence forth be used as a free stash.



Now head to the merchant's quarter. Inside the commissariat you'll find the imperial trader.



Ask him about the special.



He'll sell you Dreamweaver, the last sword you'll ever need. Once you have Dreamweaver equipped there is no obstacle you can't overcome

The sword is not much to look at and the damage is not exactly sky high, but the THC is insane. Welcome to never missing again.

Sadly this is where the most detailed part of our walk-through ends from here on out I'll just list general guidelines as victory conditions have already been met. With this character, and with this sword equipped you can now finish the game. You don't really need anything else.

Possible Quests from this point on:
In order to maximize Skill Point acquisition quests should be done in the following order:

1. Fight in the Arena until you unlock Basil's quest.

2. Complete Basil's quest until it unlocks Kemnebi's Quest.

3. Complete Kemnebi's Quest and fight in the arena until you reach the Triarii.

4. Enter the slums and pay for the guided tour.

5. Defeat all the street toughs in the slum (Near the entrance to the Temple, and the abyss).

6. Complete Miltialdes' quest starting in the slum ending in the merchant's district.

7.Go to the Palace district and talk to Caius Amerius. Insist on payment and start his quest for the
power armor. Enter the house in the Merchant's plaza and tell Marcus Valla you just want the armor. When you exit tell Caius "I'm working on it".

8. Visit Abukar and show him the map.

9. Stand guard at the priest's door in the Arena district.

10. Deliver the package to Neros

11. Protect Strabos and defeat the Assassin Hamza

12. Take on the arena Champ

13. Go to the Monestary (Quest received from Madoraan healer when reputation is high enough)

14. At the Monestary kill everyone. Loot the corpses find the key and return to the Healer in Madoraan with the Elixer. Drink it immediately.

15. Visit Domitius Ulpius and then see Gaelius.

16. Go to Harran Pass.

17. Go to the Ordu Camp. Be nice to the Khan. Defeat the Ordu Champ.

18. Defend Harran Pass

19. Go to Ganezzar

20. Tell the Zealots to Ferk off and beat them up.

21. Save Elsias (up the ladder by the main gate)

22. Go talk Esdras twice (near the blacksmith). Kill the mercenaries. Bring the power armor back to Marcus Valla in the Madoraan Merchant's quarter and kill him. Tell Cauis the house is his again.

23. Visit lord Darganus in the Ganezzar Temple district (complete his quest). Look for two mercs standing outside his house.

24. Talk to Gaius Levinus at the Inn in Ganezzar.

25. Visit the Old facility- Kill the guards.

26.Visit Hellgate. Defeat the constructs and give the Divine Spear to Bentanagbal.

27. Visit The Library of Saross kill the prospector immediately and search everywhere (add 3 points to Lore to unlock the village of Inferiae.

28.Visit Inferiae kill everyone go down the hole, kill the demon, take the core.

29. Go to Zamedi. Enter using the demon core. Comply with the demon inside and then ultimately defeat him.

30.Visit the Arch (With or without the Eye from Madoraan Temple)

31. Go to Lord Meru in Ganezzar and complete his quest.

32.Fight in the Siege of Ganezzar and became an imperial Legate.

33. Go to the Dead River with a rope and defeat all the scorpions. Enter the temple, awaken Agathoth and return to him with Gaelius. Or fight him (not advised).

General Note:
This is not an exhaustive list of possible quests, these are just the major ones required to reach your maximum potential as a mercenary.

Skill Point Distribution:
Finish off Sword and Dodge alternating between the two.
All future Skill Points are to go into the Critical Skill. Don't forget to sprinkle two points into Lore so you can unlock Inferiae.
And that's it. Game over man. Thanks for reading.