I’ve spent over 25 hours in Gothic Remake—here are my top 20 quick tips to survive The Colony

When you first arrive in The Colony you can grab a bow in the Goods Exchange to your left. Sneak into the shack, grab the key from the chest, then use it to unlock the cage in the lower area and steal the bow. Spend your arrows wisely.

Gothic will kick your ass often, but it does at least have a decent save system. Save often and quicksave with F5 for when you unexpectedly get mauled by wolves while out exploring.

Ore nuggets are your currency in Gothic, but it’s worth grabbing mushrooms, herbs, tools, and even cups and plates early on—basically anything you can sell to earn ore. Especially as your inventory is effectively limitless.

Getting into fights with multiple enemies will murder you, especially early on when you have no armor. Aggro them one at a time or run away until only one is following you. You can also lock on to enemies with Tab.

While you can block with Ctrl or dodge with Alt, you’ll still take damage while blocking. Your best bet is to hit enemies with a stab as they charge you or slam (with Q or E). Wolves, snappers, and adult scavengers will jump at you, so you might want to dodge their initial attack first.

Grub is your best bet for cheap healing early on. Gather meat from molerats and scavengers, cook it up in a pan, and equip it to your hotbar. If you complete Snaf’s Recipe in the Old Camp, he’ll give you three Meatbug Ragout daily to chow down on.

There’s actually a free house in the Old Camp where you can rest up and pass time—it’s the shack with the red awning just by the upper end of the arena. Also check the chest inside to start The Forgotten Recipe quest.

You can buy a map of the Old Camp, but getting one of the overall Colony region is your priority. You can buy one on the cheap from Dexter in the cloth-covered marketplace behind the castle. Open your map with M and make sure to place markers for points of interest.

Whether using other characters to fight monsters or escort you, or inciting someone to violence so you can mug them—use NPCs as tools. I got my incredibly OP sword by getting minecrawlers to down a paladin so I could steal his stuff. You’re a criminal, right?

If you tried to joke with the gate guard at the Old Camp, you’ve likely learned this lesson already. Don’t choose snarky dialogue options with people or they will beat you up and rob you, or sometimes kill you.

Magic is really powerful early on, especially if you’re struggling in combat. If you complete The Price of Magic quest in the Old Camp, you can get a fire bolt rune which lets you launch fiery projectiles. Just remember that smoking drugs is the cheapest way to regen your mana.

You can get three Northern Dark drugs for free every day from Fortuno at his store in the Swamp Camp, or buy cheap Green Novice from Dexter in the Old Camp marketplace. As with Snaf’s food, each camp gives away free daily items, so make sure to collect them.

Grab a skill that helps you earn ore, such as one-handed smithing from Huno in the Old Camp, lockpicking from Fingers in the Casting Shadows quest, or a hunting skill from Shax, who you meet on your way to the Old Camp. You’ll need ore and learning points, which you get ten of every time you level up.

In the Old Mine in the northwest corner of The Colony, you can mine ore nuggets from glowing blue nodes if you grab a pickaxe. This isn’t the most lucrative, but it’ll get you enough to unlock a skill. Make sure to grab the ore nuggets on the ground around the other miners, too.

Make sure not to stray too far from the path when you’re first exploring. Enemy density is rather high since it’s a small-ish map (remember tip #4). You can always jump in water to break enemy pursuit, but also consider unlocking the Scavenger mount to move quicker.

There are three camps in Gothic and you can only join one of them. Diego will help you get into the Old Camp, Baal Parvez in the cloth-covered marketplace will escort you to the Swamp Camp, and Mordrag in the same area can take you to the New Camp during the Out of Sight quest for Thorus.

One of the advantages of joining a camp is that you’ll get a suit of armor. It’s a bit basic at first, but you can upgrade it at certain blacksmiths by paying ore. I upgraded my Old Camp armor with Fisk in the marketplace.

When you arrive in the Old Camp, speak to Thorus at the gate, and then Diego to start the Casting Shadows quest, you can ask him to train you, converting learning points into strength or dex to use new weapons.

Similarly, you can convert learning points into mana with Cronos, the Water Mage, in the New Camp. Just look for the big lake on the map in the west and find the Water Mage hideout at the back of the settlement cave.

If ever in doubt about how something works, open your menu, select the glossary tab, and select the bottom “tutorials” option. There’s tons of useful advice here if you’re struggling to get to grips with a mechanic or system.