Struggling to get a melee run off the ground? Look no further Intro We're starting with Arna because she has decent starting gear and skill trees available. Others would work too. I don't play with shields because I prefer high damage and AoE. This is one way to get a melee build running, not the only or most ultimate powerful way, just something that works consistently. First steps Get out of the tavern, go into the elder's house north of the market. On the first floor, talk to the guard at the desk and get a 2h weapon before going upstairs and getting the first quest from the elder. Get rid of the 1h sword and shield, buy a crowbar from the smith. Before we hit the road we want to get 2 active skills: one from warfare "seize the initiative" and an active skill from the 2h tree of your chosing. Active skills give you an edge in the beginning, passive ones don't do much yet. Any early combat is started with seize the initiative to buff your accuracy and debuff your enemy's. Follow up with your 2h active skill and the enemy should be close to death. We will go to that first dungeon, unless there's a point of interest on the way. If the mill is on the way, you can do the lost key quest easily by pressing alt to highlight stuff, and go around the edge of the fields until you find the shed key, then bring it to the guy at the mill: free food and a bed to save already. Get agrimony, spearmint and fleawort on the way for the healer, go back and hand in if you get them close from Osbrook. First dungeon You should be able to clear the first dungeon with your 2 initial skills. Enemies usually come in pairs, except the boss and his 2 henchmen. Try to position yourself so you fight only one enemy at a time. This got a bit harder with RtR update but still doable. You can try single pulling enemies with shout, it often works if you figure out the correct distance and enemies are not too stacked. Hit search ("1") in every room to avoid traps and disarm them with your crowbar for 20xp each. Don't try dragging enemies to them, humans will avoid them. If you get hurt too much, are injured without a splint or start getting negative effects from pain, go back to town, sell, repair, rest to save, get another splint, make sure you have food. You need to get 3 battle cleavers or homemade swords (3 total, doesn't matter which of these) for the smith, so pick those up along the way. Enemies will not follow you out of the dungeon, so if you see a fight you cannot take, get out. Interestingly, when you come back in the enemies are often going back where you found them, and that can help splitting them. Getting xp and gear after first dungeon Back in Osbrook, we don't want to sell right away. Turn in the healer's quest and the smith's, turn in first contract with the elder and you get benevolence with Osbrook. Ask the elder about what's next so he sends you to the brewery. Now you can sell and restock on supplies. You should have enough money to get one piece of equipement: gloves, helmet or boots, get something with decent protection. My recommendation is the splint vambraces, they will last you a while. With the first contract done, traps disarmed in the first dungeon and xp from exploration and bandits on the way, you should be level 2. We want to get level 3 fast without taking much risk, so we're going to the brewery. Once there, go forward a little until you see a guy coming to talk to you. Before he gets a chance, go back to the zoneline and wait until he is in range to initiate dialogue. Go hostile, wait for him at the map's edge, kill him. His mates will come but won't follow you when you get out of the brewery tilemap. Get a bit north or south in the neighboring tilemap, come back to the brewery, kill another guy, rinse and repeat until they are all dead. It is possible to resolve the brewery situation a different way, but this gives the best outcome for a beginner. Go back to Osbrook, talk to the elder, get another piece of equipement if you can afford it, resupply, rest to save. Now you can explore a bit more around Osbrook and fight bandits, or go talk to Verren west of the tavern and travel to Brynn. Do his quest, get exploration xp from each Brynn tilemap (200 easy xp), and go to the caravan camp. Finish early game and transition to mid-game If you followed the previous steps, you should be level 3 and have a bit of equipement with protection. Now you can go back to Osbrook and do the other 2 green skull contracts from the elder. Try to upgrade your weapon and make sure you have a crowbar with decent durability for the crypt contract. Then move on to Mannshire and do the 2 contracts there. Next talk to Verren and give him 1k gold so you discover the rotten willow tavern and do contracts there. The guy with a cart present in every settlement can give you a ride to travel quickly. The world is your oyster now. You can cycle through Osbrook / Mannshire / Rotten willow contracts to get money and keep upgrading your gear, go exploring (risky), do tasks for merchants, corrupt Brynn guild merchants and visit them at night to buy their goods, etc. 1 and 2 skulls contracts are easy and you can pretty much rush in, but you can still die from wildlife and 3 skulls contracts so be careful. For attributes, I like getting 15 STR first to destroy armor, then 15 AGI to counter more and fumble less. PER to 15 is also an option, and VIT 15 depends on your skill choices. With the 2H sword tree, I don't find VIT useful early on. I don't touch willpower unless I play a mage. For skills, I invest heavily in the 2h skill tree and grab stuff I like in others. Survival, athletics, warfare, armored combat all have interesting stuff. Would I do anything different for a ranged character? Yes, bow/crossbow builds and mages are very different, involve a lot of kiting and have different mechanics / things they need. They are also much safer early on so I take more risks and do things in different orders. I hope this helped!