I figured the part about the walkthrough being outdated, but you didn't actually answer my question. For someone who doesn't have a ton of time to figure out the game mechanics is there a noob way to get through the first 10-20 turns without your slaves running off with your food and money? I didn't ask about beating the game, just getting through the start. Or to put it another way, this thread is 100 pages long, is there a post or a few posts that relate to the current build that you could point me to that would help? I'm not lazy just don't have a ton of time and don't know exactly what I'm looking for (like changes to the sex system means nothing to me), if I go through the thread myself, well to be honest at this point I will probably put it off for who knows how long which is fine, but i was hoping there were some 'no brainer' pointers for someone trying to figure out what they are doing wrong at the start. I don't mind the game being difficult, I just have no idea what I'm doing wrong right now which is frustrating as the help doesn't offer much in the way of pointers (again unless I'm missing something which is possible).
1) Don't fight anyone until you have 2 slaves, each with at least a dagger, and more likely a dagger + leather armor. This might take 2 days, might take a week. I'll give some tips to get there below.
2) First step: Go to Town -> Mage's guild and get your first quest - they won't talk to you until you get them a girl with 40 beauty and high obedience.
3) Go to Town -> Slave market. Look at the options. Check out the Mini-quests here first (middle button), take note of the requirements. Then see who they are selling. If they are selling someone you can turn in for the quest (ie: female, beauty 40+), buy her. If they are selling someone you can turn in for a mini-quest (these are randomized, but likely you'd only find someone who matches "easy quest" criteria), buy them also.
4) The one stat that these girls
won't have is obedience. Once you buy them they'll go to your house. Go back home, and start learning the interact button - you should be maxing out your interactions in the early game every turn. There are different approaches. Basically, if you make her happy, she'll develop loyalty and obedience. If you make her
scared (FEAR up), her loyalty will develop over time. If you make her stressed, she will NOT be happy and bad things happen.
Here are two approaches for first couple interactions with a girl:
- "Meet" the girl. Take her to the garden. Talk, hold hands, brush hair, etc. Maybe get in a few hugs and a kiss
- "Meet". Take to dungeon. Use a few of these options 1-2 times each. Then go to Garden and try to mitigate the stress with some nice talking/hugging.
5) Once you can turn in the main quest or mini-quests, do so. You'll get a whole bunch of gold. Use this to either rinse/repeat mini quests (you should be checking every day in early game), or to buy leather armor and a dagger for your girls. The other good early-game buy (imo) is a maid's uniform. Adds obedience every day - makes finishing the quests faster.
6) Your first girl is the one you start with. You should be doing all the interactions each day with her that I describe above. When you make her, give her a useful trait. Strong/Quick/Robust (+2 to strength, agility, or endurance) are 100% best for a beginner.
7) Your second girl can be the one you meet in town. Be nice to her, offer her a place, and she'll come work for you. Don't rape her or she'll leave and take your money. If you have an aphrodesiac potion before you get her that's best but that's not for a first playthrough. Just be nice to her.
8) Alternative second girl - if you see one in the market who has points in Str/Agi/End, go for it. If they're cheap it's because they're ugly, which doesn't matter at all for your fighters. A trait like "Strong" auto-adds 2 strength, which makes them way better to start with when it comes to fighting. Robust is even better for the first few weeks, then falls off.
9) Once you have two girls in armor (and armor for yourself) with a weapon (long sword is significantly better than dagger but requires 2 agility - if you have a girl with Quick, you should most assuredly save up 150g and buy a longsword), put them both in your fighting team (buttons in bottom right allow you to make your team and equip them).
10) Buy 2 or 3 ropes, buy 3 bandages
11) Go out into the world! Pay VERY close attention to who you're running into. 2 bandits, level 2, might beat you badly. Some of them wear good armor.
Best bets for early fights if you can avoid the tough ones:
- Go after 2 bandits, level 1, where there's "someone else involved". This means that even if the bandits run away there's still one person you can capture for your jail if they are any good
- Going after travellers looks like a good idea because it might be a solo level 1, but they will almost always run away
- Another good option - skip every fight and go to the woods. You should be able to kill a whole bunch of wolves with this team, picking up some bestial essences (good later on) and maybe get your team (or at least yourself) to level 2.
- Keep fighting bandits, level 1, especially when there's a victim around. When you kill them you can get drops (free armor and weapons), and you can capture them as well.
12) If you capture someone they go to your jail. Here you can use interaction menu to "abuse" them - your aim is to increase fear because this builds loyalty, and you eventually "break" them, meaning they are no longer prone to running away so easily.
13) Running away happens either because it says you recently captured them, or because loyalty is too low. Again, to raise loyalty make them happy or fear you.
14) Keep checking for mini-quests each day - completing these is a MASSIVE boon in terms of gold, but also gives you mansion upgrade points that you can use to buy more jail spots, more regular spots, etc.
15) I USED TO MISS THIS ALL THE TIME - don't forget to actually assign points when you go up a level. For you AND for the girls. The girls it's easy to click on and see how many are available, but check yourself out as well - bottom right button.
16) Suggestions for points for a beginner:
- 1 str and 1 end for the first two points
- Next will be up to you
- If you're dying and not using bandages or can't afford them, add 1 or 2 to end
- Otherwise Str makes you kill faster and do more damage
- By level 3 though (level 1 later in the game when you have better armor), your slaves should all have 2 agility - this allows them to use long sword instead of dagger which is a WAY better weapon, especially when enchanted.
17) By the time you have 2-3 slaves, one should be foraging or hunting each turn, one should be making you money, and one will either cook or clean depending on your needs.
I hope this helps. You get into a rhythm by the third week and start to figure it all out. It's like Free Cities that way. Holy crap that game took me a long time to figure out. Let me know if you have questions.
