Overview
Kingdom Come is one of the best RPG games that have released in the last years, but it is nothing but hardcore in the old school way. Just like in Fallout 1 you are thrown into a world you know nothing about and are bad at everything. You will suffer nothing but deaths and hours lost of progress. This guide is to help beginners have a easier time to get into the game as well as solving the issue with saving the game on demand as that is tied to an expensive ingame item. In this guide the aim is not to make you overpowered or to give you a massive amount of end game gear. It will also not focus on any specific playstyle outside of being pretty good at Alchemy and Herbalism so you can play the game you want.
Guide goals
This guide have the following goals:
- Help beginners getting started.
- Giving beginners an easy and early way to get as many on demand saves as they want.
- Not to make beginners super overpowered by just showing locations of the best end game gear you can get.
In this game saving on demand is not allowed like in other games, and the death ratio is high. You can easily lose two hours of progress because you because you ran into a single bandit in full plate armor on your way to the town so you can save. This is a reason why this guide is being made. It is just a poor game mechanic in my opinion and should be a hardcore option you opt into and not the rule everyone have to play with.
Step 1: Complete the prolog
The prolog is pretty long in this game. I should say this prolog will make Kingdom Hearts 2 proud in just how long it is. So lets get started.
- When you go around collecting things for your father you want to start to picking flower. The type of “flower” you want is Nettles, a lot of them. They are very easy to find as they are literally everywhere. Get around 150-200 Nettles, if you have more then 300 you will never have the need to pick them up again. You can also pick other flowers as they can be used for money with some traders.
- WARNING!!!! When you finish this quest ALL of your money will be gone as you lose it all. You only get to keep the items you have. Don’t forget to buy the skill book from Bianca. If you lack money just steal everything that isn’t nailed down in your parents house. They will not need it anyway. WARNING!!!!
- When you have fled your hometown Skalitz and are trying to find a way to get out of Talmberge I recommend that you steal the Talmberger Armor and impersonate as a guard. It gives you a free armor and a weapon early on. What you also might want to do is to steal the bow and some arrows that can be found on the top floor of the armory. This allow you to learn how to hunt and use a bow and arrow before you get to learn it in the main quest.
Step 2: Preperations
When you completed the prolog you will not be in the mill owned by Peshek that is Theresa’s father. What you want to do now is to not follow the main quest but instead you want to go flower picking like some kind of medieval hippie. You want to head to the location in the screenshot below that is marked with the red circle. However before you do that you want to stop in the yellow circle and pick as many Marigold plants as you can find. You can also pick Poppy flowers to level up your Herbalism faster and make it easier to pick the Marigold plants. You will need at least 120 Marigold plants.
WARNING!!!!! WARNING!!!! On the way to the red circle there is a random encounter spawn location that often contain Bandits. At this point of the game you will get slaughtered in a fight as you lack Armor, Weapons and Training. Stay away from fights if you want to live. You shouldn’t find any enemies in the yellow circle but save the game before you continue to the red circle. If you see that there is enemies waiting for you sneak around them in the forest. WARNING!!!! WARNING!!!!
When you have arrived in the red circle it is time to collect a very very useful herb, that Herb is Belladonna. In the game it will look like in the screenshot below. As you can see it is very easy to miss. Within the red circle the place is filled with the plants, it is also very easy to spot the plants due to that the area lacks a lot of other bushes. Just go around and look at everything you can see. You can walk away with +70 Belladonna plants. Try to get as many as you can without getting killed.
While you are collecting Belladonna plants you can train on your hunting and archery skills by hunting rabbits in the area. They are easy to hunt as they die in a single hit and they do not move much. This will help you also in increasing your Strength and Agility. Just remember that archery in the game is pretty bad so yeah, you can just hit the top of the rabbits ear and still not hit as there is no target assistance in the game and the lack of cross hairs make it infuriating. You will also find a old ruin that contains a war hammer (that you can’t use yet as it require 10 Strength) and a pretty decent armor piece. You have to lockpick a easy locked chest however. If you have trouble with learning how to lockpick ask the miller Peshek for help after you gotten halfway through his first mission.
While you are picking flowers watch out of the Bandit camp nearby. They are easy to avoid but they will most likely kill you if they find you. That is why that save earlier is important.
Before you leave the area make a save again. That encounter spawn can spawn a new group of enemies when you leave. I learnt that the hard way myself. You can’t run away at this point.
(Optional) Step 2.5: Preparations Bane Poison
Before you leave the red circle where you can find the Belladonna plants you can walk over to the other side of the road and find quite a good place to find the mushroom Fly Agaric. It is a red mushroom that is deadly to eat. You can use this in a potion named Bane that is the strongest poison in the game. If you want a easier way to deal more damage you can make this poison and coat your blade in it to give you some extra damage on your weapon attacks. You only need 5 mushrooms at this point since I haven’t found a good place to find the other parts of the potion yet.
Step 3: Alchemy
When you are done flower picking you should be a pretty decent Herbalist at this point. If you haven’t given yourself some perks like Leg Day and Flower Power you should do that. What you now want to do is to become an Alchemist. Your father did say he wanted you to learn a trade, but I guessed he picked the wrong profession for you. You need to head to the market square and go to the Apothecary. See screenshot below.
Here you can buy potions and herbs for all your alchemy needs. Just ignore the recipes for now, you are illiterate anyway so you can’t read them which makes it a waste of money. What you want to do here is to ask him if he can teach you some basic alchemy. It will cost you around 50-60 groschen depending on how much you can haggle down the price. If you do not have that much money yet sell some Poppy plants you collected and get what you need. (Optional) If you want to make the Bane poison buy 5 Woodworm plants as well.
Now when your character have learnt how to actually do alchemy I think it is time to go over the plan. I found this plan while I was doing my own research by watching a Youtube video from a user that goes by the name of SuperbadRPGer. I will link his video in the sources and special thanks.
What you will do now is to make a potion called Marigold Decoction. It is a healing potion that will heal your wounds and restore your health. It is very effective to use after a fight to recover. We will use this Decoction as it is easy and fast to make as well as you have a use for it early in the game. This is where powerleveling and grinding comes in. In the image below you can see the perks within Alchemy.
The perks we want is Routine I and Routine II. Perks I think you should avoid is Trail and Error and Bundle Alchemist, they are not needed with Routine I and II. Routine I will allow you to auto-brew any potion you know the recipe of. Since you are illiterate what is written in the alchemy book is nothing but Latin for you, but that doesn’t mean you don’t know the recipe or can learn recipes on your own. With Routine II you will create 3 potions instead of just 1 potion. This is the key to get as many save on demands as you want. The issue is that both of those skills require a high amount of Alchemy skill, but once you get Routine I alchemy becomes much much easier. It is time you get to an alchemy table to start grinding your skills. The Alchemy Table can be found behind the Apothecary. See the image below.
When you gotten to the table it is time to go over what to do. As you currently know nothing you have to do things manually. This grind will take about 45 real life minutes, but it is worth it. You can stop at any point if you want. Alchemy works by starting with a base, then adding ingredients while cooking the Decoction in a special way. You are allowed a few mistakes without failing the Decoction. To end a Decoction you need to take a phil and either pour the Decoction into the phil directly or distil it first. What you want is to make is Marigold Decoctions. Here is the recipe:
- Alchemy Base: Water
- Ingredients: 1 Nettle and 2 Marigold
- 1. Drop the nettle in the water and boil for one turn.
- 2. Leave to cool.
- 3. Drop in the marigold, but don’t boil it any more.
What you will do is to simply skip the boiling part of step 1 and step 2 completely, the Decoction will work without it. So simply drop the nettle in and then the Marigold, then finish. When you finished you will have added the Marigold Decoction into your alchemy book. If you read the book you will find you have the recipe for Saviour Schanpps (the save on demand item) already, but on another page you now have the Marigold Decoction. Use the Alchemy book to prepare the ingredients faster. Now create Marigold Decoctions until you reached level 10 and pick the Routine I perk. Now you can use the skill book to auto-brew Marigold Decoctions, so continue brewing them until you get to level 13 and get Routine II. Now you are finished in the grind of this guide, you can start to play the game again. But before you run off it is time to use all of those Belladonna you picked up. It is time to cook Saviour Schanpps. Here is the recipe if you can’t automatically brew it:
- Alchemy Base: Wine
- Ingredients: 1 Nettle and 2 Belladonna
- 1. Drop the nettle in the wine and boil for two turn.
- 2. Grind the Belladonna and drop it in the cauldron.
- 3. Boil for one more turn.
- 4. Pour the Decoction into a phil from the cauldron.
You should now have +100 Marigold decoctions and something like +50 Saviour Schanpps which is more then what you need until you are swimming in cash. You are most likely overencumbered at this point so if it is still day go to the Apothecary and sell most of your Marigold Decoctions, you will not need that many. If you get more money then what he has just buy some skill books and recipes as they will be basically free as most other traders will not buy the Decoctions.
(Optional) Step 3.5: Alchemy Bane poison
When you gotten the Wormwood and the Fly Agaric you need to make sure you save some Belladonna for this one. You need 10 Belladonna plants. The recipe is the following
- Alchemy Base: Wine
- Ingredients: 1 Wormwood, 2 Belladona, 1 Fly Agaric
- 1. Boil the wormwood for two turns.
- 2. Leave the wormwood to cool.
- 3. Grind the belladonna.
- 4. Drop the belladonna in the cauldron, but do not boil!
- 5. Add the fly agaric
- 6. Distil
When you are done and have Routine II you should have quite a lot of Bane. Don’t drink it as it deal 110 in damage.
Step 4: Follow Main Quest
Now when you got plenty of stuff to save with and maybe even some poison you should continue on with the main quest. Doing so will start the mission Train Hard, Fight Easy. In this guest you will learn how to actually parry enemy attacks as well as other useful things. You also learn how to shoot with a bow and arrow (if you haven’t practiced doing so before) and get a armor piece. When you have spoken with the Bailiff and started the quest Keeping the Peace you should head back to the training arena and speak with Bernard. You should ask him if he can learn you combos. Doing this will teach you the combo False Edge, it is one of the earliest combos you can get without any training. Using combos will help you against enemies that do nothing but blocking your attacks. Combos will save your life so learn to love them.
If you don’t know how the combat work just train with Bernard until the sun goes down. Doing so will increase your Warfare, Preferred Weapon skill and Defense skills as well as your personal skill.
I find the mission Keeping the Peace to be an excellent mission to stop continue the main quest on if you want to free roam and explore the world. Everything important have now been unlocked so you will not be slaughtered in every single fight you get into. What you need now is a horse, the horse will give you a huge advantage in combat, but it is as good as the mounted combat in The Witcher 3 which means it is garbage. I mostly use the horse as a pack mule and a way to get from point A and B. You will get a horse in the main quest for free, but you can get one in other ways as well. How to get a horse will be explored in the next step.
Step 5: Horse
To get a horse before the Main Quest give you one for free will cost you some money. But as you should at this point have some money from looting treasure or selling Decoctions you should be able to buy yourself a cheap horse. You need at least 600 Groschen to buy Boxer, 990 to buy the better horse Tojan. Use your head here to get some money here.
When you got some money head North East out of Rattay and follow the main road towards the town Neuhof. In Neuhof you will find a big stone building. Inside there you will find a horse trader that you can buy a horse from. I recommend being cheap and buying Boxer, if you got any money left try to buy a saddle and a bridle. If you can afford a saddle with saddle bags try to buy that as it will increase the equipment load for your horse which is a main reason for you to have a horse in the first place.
Sources and Special Thanks
So now you are ready to play the game anyway you want. There is more to learn but this should give you a good start. I thank you for reading this guide and if you liked it or found it useful pleasee up vote guide so others can find it useful as well.
I want to thank SuperbadRPGer for giving me the insperation for creating this guide. You can see his video in the link below.
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy image have been taken from the following link.
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