Combat Basics
Summary
You can go into combat to gain items and Reputation in the Dark Forests. Some tasks require you to visit the combat areas to seek out those unfortunate to have become lost.
Combat is only for adults, so it is only possible once you have completed the Prologue, by which time you would have grown up a bit. However, as soon as the Prologue is over, you will be able to visit Master Jogon in Rivermoor to learn the basics and unlock your first important skill.
To enter into combat, pass through the archways and you'll be taken to the loadout screen. Then straight into battle when you're ready
Difficulty
There are four combat zones called Dark Forests located on the map, with each one presenting a different set of monsters to challenge you. The name of each zone reveals its level of difficulty or challenge.
You can get 'killed' 5 times before Mr Fairweather takes a year life tax for reviving you, so don't be afraid to get stuck in. You can retreat with your loot at any time after clearing a room.
If you are struggling in combat, you can change the speed of the enemies by going to Accessibility in the Options menu and using the slider marked Combat Monster Speed.
Loadout
You can prepare for harder combat by...
- Levelling up your swords
- Using swords that are more effective against the enemies within
- Crafting Wards and Charms
- Taking a cooked meal with traits like Strength or Toughness
- Buying or crafting combat recipes at an Apothecary
- Taking pets with you
- Unlocking skills via Jogon and Moon
Many of these actions can be managed on the loadout menu.
Tutorials
For more information on combat you can seek out Jogon and Moon, who will give you in-game tutorials on how to fight with melee weapons and at range.
More details on their tutorial can be found here:
Combat Rooms
Each of the Dark Forests has a number of rooms to get through and have varying depths. You can gain better star-rated loot by going deeper, but the enemies are tougher. Each forest has some non-combat rooms. These are...
You can view the room you are in and the depth in the top corner of the UI.
There are also Rescue tasks that culminate in the last room of any depth in the forest the task is set to.
Combat HUD
1. The green bar is your health and the blue circles are your stamina.
2. The number of arrows you have remaining.
3. Effigy power-up bar. This rises when you have the Use Effigy Skill unlocked from Jogon. It will flash when ready to be used. The small thin bars beneath the Effigy meter are your weapon XP and a bar that displays progress for Jogon's Hammerfall Skill.
4. The squares show the number of rooms and your progress through them denoted by the green square. The depth is shown by the number of red skulls.
5. Shows which weapons you have and the active one. You can switch mid-fight at any time to take advantage of bonuses vs certain enemy types.
