Quick combat tutorial.
Takes about 2-3 hours of gameplay at the start depending on your speed. Goals: reach Summeredge and Xas.
Plan: git gold. This combat is literally pay to win.
First. Get the castle. There are three important things here: 1 perks, 2 the builder and 3 strategy room.
1. The important perks are gold after combat, more gold after combat and double gold.
2. At the builder, there are few important things. Farm, Brothel, inn, etc, that generates gold over time.
3. In the strategy room you can set your troops to generate gold after combat and you can talk to the statue to increase "valor" after combat. Increase it to 3-5 as a good start.
Focus on these as soon as you can.
Recommended progression is: Ornesse (quest pays good gold), Forest, Novos.
By the time you get to Summeredge, many of the above could be close to completion. Missing a building or a few perk points is ok. Finish them as you can. Buildings with passive income are naturally stronger if you get them early, but if you are about to unlock the shops, don't delay MC's gear.
New objectives: spend your hard earned cash.
1. Summeredge armor shop. You will need 4 rare artifacts for a full team, but 1-2 is enough at first.
2. Xas shop in the market place, you can buy legendary orbs. You need power and ATK. About 4-5 each per character, but setting up MC first is enough.
3. Castle, forge room. Fish for Mark of the Hero and Mark of the Sun.
This can be done before Act 2 without grinding and MC is ready to one-shot almost any fight with a single basic attack up to Act 3. Once you unlock the Cheese (literally) that gives you +ATK permanently in the strategy, room you are ready to forget about combat for the rest of the game.