New to the Game! Looking for any advice.

[Azyle]

Hi there,

 

New to the game and never really played a game like this before.

 

Heard it was REALLY good though.

 

Any tips? I have all the Dlc's and everything, but I heard the game is hard.. I do not even know where to begin.

 

Basically I'm just asking for suggestions or a starting point.

 

Thanks! 

[TheisEjsing]

Use the pause function (spacebar) alot. That should be the big one. More than that, you should adjust the difficulty to fit your gameplay preference. If you want the story, and beautiful backgrounds, but find the combat hard and tedious, play on lower difficulties. If you like the challenge, the tactical RTwP combat, play on harder difficulties. It may seem like logic, but finding the right game settings, is in my experience, the main problem new players run into. It's also a good idea to get to know the core mechanics of the game early on.

[demeisen]

New to the game and never really played a game like this before.

 

Heard it was REALLY good though.

 

Any tips? I have all the Dlc's and everything, but I heard the game is hard.. I do not even know where to begin.

 

Basically I'm just asking for suggestions or a starting point.

 

If you're brand new to the genre (and sometimes even if you're not), it can help to play through one or two of the early areas to get a feel for the game.  Then toss that away, and start over fresh, with a better idea of how party based RPGs play.  You can even experiment with a few of the classes that way, to see what you like.

 

One tip: talk to the important NPCs, and go through any conversation options they offer you (which will depend on your char's reputation, how you have treated others before, etc).  They'll often have things for you to do, or may offer to join your party.  Shoot for an eventual party size of 4-6 depending on your preferences.

 

As for "really good", if you like this genre (which you're about to find out ), then IMHO, PoE is one of the best.  It has some flaws, but generally it's great.  If you end up not liking the genre, well, nothing suits everyone's tastes, so it won't seem very good then.

 

Difficulty is subjective.  "Normal" is probably good to start with for a brand new player, and I think you'll quickly get the hang of the system and want to bump it up.  You can bump the level up during a playthrough to "Hard", but you can't (unless this has changed recently) bump it up to the highest level, called PoTD, so you have to start on that one if you want it.  Probably not for your first run, but honestly it's not that bad, just takes a little more understanding of the combat system.

 

Have fun, post with questions, people will help.  Engage your imagination!  This style of game is all about getting into the world the game is providing for you to explore.  The more you can do that, and let yourself go there in your mind, the more enjoyment there is to be had.

Edited July 28, 2016 by demeisen

[Fayer]

As TheisEjsing said earlier on, you will want to get acquainted with pause button as soon as possible, to make sure noone stands idly or do a stuff you don't want during fighting. You might also want to take a look at red/green lines connecting your characters to opponents during fights. These mean that both parties are currently engaged in a fight and if one breaks it(by simply refusing to fight and clicking move somewhere else), the offender gets a free, quite hard-hitting hit known as disengagement. The only solution to break engagement is to naturally either way kill your target or apply somekind of an ability that prevents retalations, like stuns, dazes and so on.

 

Normal difficulty is the best one to start the game with, it's difficult enough to prevent steamrolling through the game, but it's not that hard to encourage tedious save-and-load after each opponent.

 

Make sure to read carefully what ability does, instead of picking it because it has a cool name, that goes especially on weapon profiency talents, which might be a bit misleading by their titles or spellcasters where each spell does something different. It's a game in which you won't be leveling up every 5 minutes, which is why you wouldn't want to waste these scarce points on abilities you deem useless.

 

Because armaments and armors do not stack in a pile(which is understandable but kind of sad at the same time), you might want to sell "useless" loot to merchants, whom you won't be buying from too much, like innkeepers or trap merchants, to prevent problems with navigation on shops you might want to visit more time, like prestige armorer or so. You do not want to scroll through these 50 spears, trust me

 

NPC's with gold platters(although it does not strike as clear gold, it's slightly more "golden" that regular one) are mostly backer content and although some of their stories are interesting, they do not give away any vital information or even minor hints about hidden chests or stuff like that, therefore you can feel free to ignore them and still get a solid completionist playthrough. If gold isn't enough of a notice, you will know you have met backer NPC, if a dialogue option leads to "Reach out for soul" or "Leave", accompanied with a humming noise and screen going slightly purple.

Edited July 28, 2016 by Fayer

[Ohmega]

Here are some resources:

It's up to your playstyle mostly but basically each quest you complete has mildly different outcomes - you get different rewards in the form of experience, reputation, gold or items - depending on the choices you make for your character. So, if you're like me and want the "best" results (or a specific item) you can just search for whatever quest you're on using the Wiki: http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Pillars_of_Eternity_Wiki search and it'll give you an overview/walkthrough. Especially useful if you ever get stuck or lost.

For your race, class and stats etc. Here is a very good starter's guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=416939844 It's a bit outdated but if you follow it then at least you'll have solid characters to work with as you're learning the game. One of the great things in PoE is that you can reset ALL of your character stats and talents for ALL of his levels at just about any point in the game. Visit an inn and it'll cost you some gold but you can retrain your characters if you make a mistake or want to try out different talents instead.

NB. The same guy who wrote that guide does videos on Youtube. Just search Youtube for "Pillars of Eternity <class> build" and you want any video by Nerd Commando Game Studios. He really knows his stuff but some of it will be a bit old but it's still useful and once you learn the game you can judge for yourself a bit better and adjust your choices.

Specific questions are better with games like these. Some people can intuitively understand what's going on while others find it much more confusing (as with most games/people). So just post things you're struggling with and people will help you out.

Basics are:

Fighters in the front. Give them heavy armour, a shield and a sword/spear/axe/mace and they should do fine. Spellcasters are squishy, keep them out of melee. Protect your priest(s) (healers) as best you can.

Use logic like this and you should be fine.

Use TAB to highlight containers, corpses, items and doorways around you! Very useful for new players.
Use spacebar to pause mid-fight and plan your moves out. (as others have said ^^)

You're lucky you're starting with PoE... It keeps multiple save files for you automatically... and the user interface, pathing and party AI is highly intuitive. You have no idea of the hours and hours of struggle and pain and depression that you've missed out on.

[Harry Easter]

If this is your first game, start with a fighter and look if you can get a few boni on might or constitution. A fighter is easy to play: give him a good armour and a big sword and you should have no problems at first. Even if you are unsure with the mechanics at first, a good fighter can deal with your enemies for a while.

[VahnXIII]

Read everything. Build an understanding of what each stat/skill/attribute/etc. does. You'd be surprised. For example -- did you notice might is not only a good attribute for warriors, but for spell casters as well?

 

Read and think.