Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is out now, and it’s a corker of an RPG—hence the 90% score. It’s also extremely dense, and it’ll give you a lot to juggle once you’ve left the mostly linear introduction. To make your jaunt through Bohemia a bit easier, we’ve put together a list of eight tips that’ll help you put your best (heavily armoured) foot forward.
We’ve also created plenty of guides to help you through some of the more involved quests and treasure hunts. So if you get stuck on anything, we’ve got your back.
Start searching for your faithful hound ASAP
Mutt, Henry’s sausage-loving pooch, is an essential companion during your misadventures across Bohemia, but a spot of ill-fortune during the game’s opening hours means that once you’re free to start properly traipsing across the countryside, you find yourself sans dog. At this point, though, you’ll also receive a quest to search for him, and you should tackle it as soon as you can.
As well as just being good company, Mutt is incredibly useful. He fights alongside you, hunts animals and can search for items you’ll want to get your chainmail mitts on. As you level up your houndmaster skill, he’ll become even more helpful. His tracking skill will also be handy when it comes to certain quests. Naturally this means you’ll want him back in your life quickly, but the other reason you’ll want to embark on this quest straight away is that it ain’t short, and it’ll see you travelling all across the first region. Starting it promptly, then, means you’ll be able to conduct the search while completing lots of other early-game quests, making it less of a faff.
Get a job and a free horse
Once you’re able to start taking on quests and exploring, your first task should be to hit up either the blacksmith or miller to get a job. You’re directed towards these two prospective employers via the main quest, but the temptation to ignore the critical path will be strong, what with so much countryside and so many quests beckoning you. Engage your willpower, though, and you’ll have a much easier time of things.
Working for the shady miller or the diligent smith will net you a bed to sleep in, a stash for your extra loot, and some new ways to earn some cash. Once gainfully employed, you’ll be sent on a task in Semine that’ll end up making life a lot easier for you, netting you much better gear and, crucially, a horse. While there’s fast travel between settlements, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 expects you to cover a lot of ground on your own, so getting a horse quickly is essential.
Chivalry is overrated, do some murders
Even if you intend to spend most of the game decked head to toe in armour, you should still engage in a bit of murder and thievery. But don’t worry—I’m not suggesting you become an honourless bandit (though that’s certainly an option). Instead of robbing and murdering poor villagers, raid bandit camps under the cover of darkness.
See, KCD2’s duels are tough, especially since you’ll frequently be duking it out with multiple warriors at a time. Since you’ll start with no armour and only a knackered blade, you’ll want to avoid that sort of thing at first. But if you come across a bandit camp, you can wait until most of them are asleep, sneak in, knock them all out (or stab them) and then steal their loot and gear.
If you don’t want to wander around aimlessly, I recommend taking on the game keeper’s quest in the first region. It will lead you to a camp with several bandits and a treasure trove of loot. Far too much for you to carry. If you’ve already got a horse, though, you can split the load between you. As well as a cash reward, you’ll also be given a crossbow, so it’s well worth tackling early.
Go back to school
Henry takes a bit of a beating in the prologue, leaving him a bit frazzled and unsure of himself when it comes to fighting. To get back on the path to becoming a knight-slaying killing machine again, then, you’ll need to go back to school. You’ll receive a quest to brush up on your sword skills once you’re out of the prologue, after you’ve spoken to Bara (she’ll call you over, so she’s hard to miss) and I recommend making your way over there post haste.
Conveniently, it’s in the same direction as the quest to recover Mutt. You’ll meet a swordsman in a Romani camp, and he’ll teach you some combos for free. Wailing on him for a while will likely increase some of your skill levels, to boot.
If you care about your rep, become a pragmatist
KDC2 has a meaty reputation system where not only can you build up or ruin your reputation in every settlement, you have distinct reps for every class of people. Everything from criminal acts, heroic endeavours, trading and simple conversations can affect your standing, and you’re bound to piss some people off. And simply being a good guy isn’t enough. Indeed, that might harm your reputation.
Racial and class tension is rife in KDC2, and you won’t be able to avoid it. Frequently you’ll be forced to pick a side between different groups of people, and doing the ‘wrong’ thing might net you greater rewards. Similarly, you might find yourself needing to act like an arsehole, intimidating someone, all for the greater good. You can stick to your guns and be a man of principle, but you might find life easier by becoming a social chameleon.
Track down treasure for early gains
Speaking to local innkeepers about nearby happenings will often reveal location markers on the map, and if you seek these out, you’ll be surprised by valuable items, equipment, or a hefty sum of Groschen. You’re also likely to encounter treasure maps that you can solve early on for a nice little bump of currency or even some skill books to read. These are quite tricky to solve—especially as the maps are often roughly drawn and not to scale—but we likely have the solution in our treasure maps guide if you’re struggling.
Make yourself a walking apothecary
Alchemy in KCD2 is completely flummoxing, and I never actually managed to get ol’ Henry to congratulate me on a job well done whenever I brewed anything. Still, it’s a good idea to set aside a little time in Troskowicz to gather up a few heaving satchels of herbs. Specifically, there’s a spot in town—what looks like a cesspit surrounded by a broken fence—where an absurd number of nettles grow.
That’s handy for two reasons. The first: nettles are a vital part of Saviour Schnapps potions, the drinks that let you, uh, save the game. Even if you brew them badly, a weak Saviour Schnapps saves just as well as a strong one, so it’s worth setting aside some time at an alchemy bench to brew a few up. Second: there’s an unlockable perk that gives you an appreciable charisma boost if you’ve got over 30 herbs on your person. As someone who never had under 99 bags of dried nettles on me at any one time in all my hours playing, that’s pretty much just a permanent buff.
You can save-scum a little, as a treat
KCD2 is set up to deliberately discourage save-scumming, and for the most part I think that’s good. It’s a game where dealing with the consequences of your actions makes for good fun and great stories, and you can miss out on a lot if you reload after every gaffe.
But also, I really only figured the game out after I popped a Saviour Schnapps outside a bandit camp and reloaded over and over until I managed to stealth kill the lot of them and nick their loot, so I do recommend doing a little save-scumming to give yourself an early game boost. Plus, the save system isn’t actually as restrictive as it sounds. The game saves on exit, and that save isn’t deleted when you load back into the game. So if you really want to give yourself a safety net, just save and quit then load back in. It’s a little roundabout, but it works.
