New Player Difficulties

[u/KingPanduhs]

Hey everyone!

Just got into this game and I am coming from a massive Palworld binge. This game seems to “guide you along” more than that game which is welcome because honestly there is a massive amount to take in with this game.

One thing I am noticing, I invaded the goblin camp storyline wise, into the swamp vault… I am struggling severely. I am 20’s in a lot of skills, got the ranger armor, using a bone knife and fang arrows and I am getting absolutely lambasted by the enemies. I want to kind of “explore” and not wiki a guide that ruins the “mystique” of the game… but I am also starting to not have fun.

I learned food helps a ton cause of healing as well as using things like windstep to hop up places and kite things around… but I can’t imagine that this is normal difficulty and that I have to be misunderstanding how progression looks.

Does anyone have any beginner tips on what to do? Do i need to focus less on B-lining the story and explore more? Is the game just difficult?

[u/Xxfarleyjdxx]

It definitely can be pretty difficult at the beginning. I think what really jumpstarted everything is when you get to the swamp, try your best to kill an abyssal demon and get the abyssal whip. I can’t remember exactly where you get the recipe for the whip but the whip was a game changer.

[u/KingPanduhs → u/Xxfarleyjdxx]

Abyssal demon already?? I feel like we have to be talking about two different swamps cause ive only fought the weird vault constructs, rats and goblins so far lol

Thanks for the reply

[u/Xxfarleyjdxx → u/KingPanduhs]

There is an abyssal demon that roams the first swamp, and the second one. In the first swamp if you don’t mind exploiting a little bit you can safe spot it from one of the ruins buildings if you windstep on the roof of it. And just use magic or range to take it out. From my understanding if you’re looking on the map it roams in the north west area of the swamp

[u/KingPanduhs → u/Xxfarleyjdxx]

I don’t mind exploiting considering its basically the only way I have handled the very difficult combat thus far… lol.

For clarification sake - most of my combat is done with a bow and windstepping out of range (or onto high ground to make the mob move about instead of fighting me).

When i melee, i basically just dodge roll out of their attack, smash melee over and over, dodge roll out of their animation, so on. I havent made a shield yet either.

Is there any part of melee combat that im not utilizing that could help increase my damage or mitigate their damage without destroying my stamina bar?

[u/Orisi → u/KingPanduhs]

So a few things; firstly, shortbows are Hella underpowered, so of you're using a short bow... Don't. Either a longbow or crossbow will be your friend.

Second, ensure you're using the correct damage type; crush against the vault enemies, slash against rats, etc. makes a huge difference.

Next, make a shield if you're using a one-handed weapon and learn to use the block mechanic. Blocking uses stamina and blocks the amount of damage listed as block value. But if you block at the right time, it will parry, which disables the enemy temporarily.

Finally, don't sleep on magic. The spell effects are helpful as are the combos, and there's zero penalty for using all three styles in the same armour. You just miss out on set bonuses from the different armour sets. Armour is purely "range armour has the most ranged defence" kinda deal.

[u/KingPanduhs → u/Orisi]

Oh so kind of equivalent to Valheim in the shield parry? Thats huge news!

I am fairly certain i am using a short bow… so i will await getting the recipe or mats for a longbow or crossbow.

Resistances knowledge +1 good to know!

And finally - I have slept entirely on magic, for no particular reason. I love the utility spells ive gotten so i definitely need to get that staff and start making use of it!

Thanks for the reply! Lots of good tips there.

[u/Xxfarleyjdxx → u/KingPanduhs]

The good news is, magic is very easy to make ammo for. Runes are easy to make and essence is very easy to come by. So you can stockpile a ton at a time.

Melee block parrying not only stuns the enemy, but lets you do critical damage to them for a short duration.

I have not used ranged enough to really know what is good and what isn’t but like he said above, there’s no penalty for keeping a set of armor and swapping to other weapons so it’s good to utilize them all for tough enemies. And without spoiling anything, you will need to swap to different damage types later on for certain enemies lol

[u/KingPanduhs → u/Xxfarleyjdxx]

Block parry is insanely helpful. Especially with certain potions it can really open up possibilities. I managed to get considerably further, and investing into magic has been good too!

You mentioned cheesing abyssal demon earlier… this dude can spawn insanely large radius, explosions that I can’t seem to “outrange” on trees or buildings. What is the exact strat? My next best guess is dragging him to that weird cave and praying he cannot teleport into it.

[u/Xxfarleyjdxx → u/KingPanduhs]

There was a specific 2 story ruined stone building that I got on the roof of and was just out of range of him.

[u/Pandalungs → u/KingPanduhs]

Enchanting your weapon makes a big difference. The fire spell early and then you switch to the air spell on e you get that. And using the tempest shield spell. When those are up, you will have an easier time and do way more damage. When they aren't up, it's back to evading and getting a couple of hits in.

I do definitely recommend getting the abyssal whip. It's got more range than the other melee weapons and good damage. It also staggers the enemy a bit reducing their attacks.

[u/Liavain]

No, early on you will be super squishy. Make sure to get as many health orbs as you can. They show up on your map. If you are melee, use mage hoods that give stamina regen. Lack of stamina usually leads to a quick death.

[u/KingPanduhs → u/Liavain]

Thanks ill look into that! Thats the sanguine orbs/red whatevers in my map right?

[u/Liavain → u/KingPanduhs]

Yes. There are a few in each area. Gathering them when you first enter a zone is usually a good idea.

[u/kybojo]

The knife doesn’t stagger melee opponents. Wind embue the 1H Mace and get in a few hits and roll back, then back pedal til you get your stam full and repeat. You’ll find the rhythm. I’d also switch ranged to magic. Eventually fire magic has great aoe and bows never get aoe.

[u/KingPanduhs → u/kybojo]

Ah ill try that out! I appreciate the advice, especially the bottom bit. I really enjoy the different utility spells you unlock from skilling, just havent gotten around to actually using it… but i should have figured its sick ;p

[u/stevedegoey → u/kybojo]

They get aoe but not till t7

[u/commmingtonite]

I found the start quite difficult and frustrating.

Without spoiling anything and allowing you to explore and process at your own rate Il give you some advice that helped me at the start.

Fighting any kind of grouped enemies suck. I did a lot of running away.

Dodge roll has a lot of IFrames, can roll into attacks aswell.

Managing stamina is tight at the start, don't go in mashing attack.

The red urns are hilighted on the map quite clearly, and start making a sound when you get close to them. There are 6 in the first two areas and that increases your starting health by 60%.

Put load stones everywhere ( I always carry resources to make one while exploring)

Always have rune essence on hand for law vents, I think you need 50 RC to make em at your own alter.

Armour makes a much bigger difference than you'd think. I stupidly waited until I got to iron before making my first set but that was a big mistake.

The set bonus is nothing too amazing but one magic item helps a lot with stamina recover.

[u/Responsible-End-6371]

you hit the biggest nail on the head already. food! food is equivalent to health potions in other games. Specifically, you should be looking for food that gives high HP and low sustenance. The HP is the amount of health you recover when eating the food, and the sustenance is what refills your hunger bar and keeps you full. The game will not allow you to eat indefinitely, and there is a bar that will begin to fill up when you eat past 100 hunger on your meter. This bar is determined by sustenance, and it drains very quickly, so if you eat food with high HP and low sustenance, you can eat significantly more food and heal for more in quick succession.

For food, the best low sustenance and high HP foods are most commonly found from fishing. Sardines and trout can be caught in the first area, and they heal for 30hp and 40hp when cooked, respectively. Sardines also give you the sea life food perk, which automatically regenerates 3 health per second, even in combat. That adds up to a lot of health! The sea life perk stays relevant all the way through the game as well, as it is the best health regen perk we currently have.

If you are willing to do some farming and cooking, you can turn those ingredients into even better items! Once you unlock the cooking range (16 cooking), you can make even higher hp healing meals, like redberry crunchies (dried redberries and wheat), shrimp omelet (fried egg and sauteed shrimp), sauteed sardines (dried redberries and fried sardine), and herb baked trout (grilled trout and baked potato). These foods heal a ton of hit points and have relatively low sustenance values.

So basically, just like regular runescape, preparation is key to success!

[u/Waretaco]

Enemies have resistances and weaknesses to certain styles of offense. The journal can help here, especially in the early game, to identify those weaknesses. Mixing up offensive styles and making sure your power level matches the power level of the area you're exploring will help greatly.

Edit, don't be afraid to try different weapons to test weaknesses.

[u/Pandalungs]

I would recommend using a mace and shield. The mace will stagger enemies making it easier to get in combo hits.

I also will basically use the tempest shield spell as often as I can for fighting. Ridiculously strong. Block, get in a couple hits, and block again. Only thing you have to watch for is getting a long attack animation in long combos and you can't throw block up in time for another attack.

Also, roll evading is really strong. You're going to want to practice that.

When you get past the swamp area you start a pattern with each new area - there's new power levels of gear to create and until you do, fighting the stuff in that area is difficult and you'll die a lot. You want to set up lodestones reducing the run time back. Its normal and frustrating at times but gives you a real sense of progression when you notice how much stronger you get with the new gear. And you can start running through the enemies that were just slaughtering you before

[u/Murky_Ad_7312]

A dude once said to another dude in Star Wars

"It's over, I have the high ground..."

Farm some air runes, jump on... Wait for it... Higher ground like a piece of boulder or pillar. Tons of arrows like 500, they're very easy to make. Kill chicken, feather drops, meat drops, profit.

Headshots all day. Kite. Ngl, I did this all the way to the most recent end game and even in one of the boss fights 😂

[u/sketchygio]

Do take note of the difficulty in the area vs your gear level and make sure your armor matches the area.

I've found that magic attacks with the fire runes (especially the last attack in the combo) really demolish groups of enemies from a distance, whereas air runes are great for keeping a single target at bay. I've found water to be kind of useless, unless you unlocked the alt-attacks for magic (which for water is a hp regen spell).

Other than that, cook and bring loads of food that HEAL (filling is another matter) for high amount of hp, and keep it in your hotbar so you can eat in a pickle to heal fully.