[Mik1984]

So, you liberated Ardea, and now what? You are weak, even the flimsiest creatures kill you. You need to develop your character obviously without getting into fights, collect exp, buy a light armor. How to get started? Any ideas?

[TudoracheMG]

Get yourself a bastard sword (long reach,great damage,can be self-forged for bonus damage,easy to get),participate in all duels (they are quite easy once you understand how to fight your opponent),farm for heavy and old chests,learn how to use shields (they are very useful).Note that getting reputation for the orcs can be harder than getting reputation for rebels,so you should side with the latter if you want good armor early on
Also,never underestimate packs of enemies,no matter how high of a level you are,especially if you are using Alternative AI

[Mik1984]

Well that are some nice early mid game ideas, however knowing the mechanics of Gothic, I believe it ain't so hard to get around once you get started and every person can find his way depending how he wants to develop. However I would like to concentrate on the very early game tips. How to get through the phase where:

- you can't kill a deer with a singe arrow>> they run away after one hit and reload their health.
- you can't use shield or heavy weapon
- you don't have the capability to use magic effectively
- a bloodsucker, cadavreeater, a wolf and a boar can kill you in an instant.

[Mik1984]

PS I tried and the liberation of Adrea on Hard is really hard, how did you do it? Whenever I try to fight an ork 1-1 I hardly can win, and usually a second one appears and ruins everything. I can kill some of them through backstabbing, but you can't kill all orks this way.

PS I did it finally, but it was very hard...

[Kraszu]

PS I tried and the liberation of Adrea on Hard is really hard, how did you do it? Whenever I try to fight an ork 1-1 I hardly can win, and usually a second one appears and ruins everything. I can kill some of them through backstabbing, but you can't kill all orks this way.

PS I did it finally, but it was very hard...

You die, and you learn . I didn't had problem in Ardea tbh, but trying to liberate Nemora was ridiculously hard with melee get a bit stronger before liberating. To kill singe Orc it is best to wait until he does strong attack, then you can easily counter that, and blocking generally is much worse then moving in G3 (usually it is best to strafe, and go back). Observe the enemies, and you will find your windows of opportunity.

You are weak, even the flimsiest creatures kill you.

I wouldn't go this far, scavengers should be easy to kill. I would advice to bump HP at start a bit, 2h weapons are good, you get this halabarth like thing that many guards use at the start of the game, and while it doesn't have the greatest dmg it has long reach, and it is decently fast weapon as well, and the 2h weapons spinning attack is good.

[Kraszu]

Oh wow I must had played the Ardea part on normal before, it was rough I had to run away to Reddock, they had almost killed quest related NPC, but nobody had died at the end, all the slaves in Ardea obviously dead.

[Alwin]

- you can't kill a deer with a singe arrow>> they run away after one hit and reload their health.

Sneak up on them and hit them twice. You'll need a bit of aiming skill to do that naturally. Still, you'll want to concentrate on getting your hunting up so that you can take trophies, and there are better bows in heavy chests.

- a bloodsucker, cadavreeater, a wolf and a boar can kill you in an instant.

From these, the wolf is the most difficult opponent because it's the fastest and least predictable one. The boar, scavenger and bloodfly can be killed just by using normal swings as they are about to attack (a bit of practice helps with this) while pressing the down arrow so that your character retreats as quickly as possible. There is a rhythm to killing all of these creatures. As for the wolf, I think the only thing that helps is more HP and a weapon with a better reach. The spin attack on the two-hander is quite effective, and you can get spears, scythes and such early on which don't need the two-hander skill to use, meaning you can use a two-hander even if you don't want to buy the skill.

PS I tried and the liberation of Adrea on Hard is really hard, how did you do it? Whenever I try to fight an ork 1-1 I hardly can win, and usually a second one appears and ruins everything. I can kill some of them through backstabbing, but you can't kill all orks this way.

The best way to do this is to simply begin by attacking the orcs that are fighting your friends. Bring them down fast with power strikes, starting with the scouts. Once you get overwhelmed (that is, more orcs start appearing than your allies can take), just run in and out of town, singling out orcs for duels or attacking those which are preoccupied. However, if you get really good it may never get to this stage, there aren't that many orcs in Ardea.

[Kraszu]

The best way to do this is to simply begin by attacking the orcs that are fighting your friends. Bring them down fast with power strikes, starting with the scouts. Once you get overwhelmed (that is, more orcs start appearing than your allies can take), just run in and out of town, singling out orcs for duels or attacking those which are preoccupied. However, if you get really good it may never get to this stage, there aren't that many orcs in Ardea.

I had replayed it again, and the best way is to actually help the slaves as they aren't immortal, and the longer they can fight with Orcs the more time you have time before you will have multiple of them running after you. I didn't manage to have even one surviving at the end, but it was close.