Risen Risen is difficult for me - I keep dying

I must have been playing online games for too long.

I forgot just how challenging these single player RPG games can be. I am not used to this level of difficulty. Even Oblivion and Fallout 3 were easier.

Minor Risen spoilers for first 3 hours follows....

Right now my main problem is that at level 3, I am struggling. I am trying to get things done around the Bandit Camp and it looks like I have gotten all the workers back to work. I have trained Strength a little bit as well. I am working on get pieces of the sword for the Don, and trying to get some gold. Gold looks like it is very hard to come by. I want to get 500 gold for a workers outfit. I only have 100 gold now

I have found combat to be...difficult. I have the difficulty on Easy and I still get worked if I run into three monsters at once. This is my first issue; the creatures are in packs and that makes things much more difficult. I know how to block and time things, but I still struggle. Does it get easier? Will all wolves and boars at some points be easy to kill?

Maybe it's a good thing, but right now I cringe when I see a beast blocking my path ahead. I get nervous because I know its gonna be tough.

I consider myself a cRPG vet going back to the early 80's with Ultima games. Is Risen considered harder than typical Oblivion like games? I figure yes because I remember Gothic 2 being tough. Risen to me seems like a cruel world. I guess if I feel that way then the developers are happy. Maybe I am too used to hand holding in World of Warcraft, etc, not sure.

Anyways I am curious to see some of your responses....and please....some tips!

Your post probably belongs to the spoilers subforum, but…

the game does get easier. I found combat difficult too in the beginning, until i learned proper timing. It's all about timing. You can defeat boars, wolves, black wolves, etc. at levels 1-3 already if you learn how and when they attack. Packs of them are tougher of course, and they can rarely be lured one by one. At level 10 you can easily slay packs of boars and wolves. Though they can still tan your hide if you don't learn to time your attacks properly. No matter what your level really is, any enemy can kill you if you stand still and furiously bash your attack button. Wolves especially seem to be fond of circling around you just when you think you managed to string together a nice combo of attack moves to finish one off...

Gold is tough to come by as well. If you stick to honest sources that is, learn lockpicking and go sneak around some chests. That'll line your pockets quickly enough.

The game can be tough at the beginning: you need to get money to get some decent clothes ;-) Collect as much crap as you can - open every chest, poke around in every cave and corner. Everything can be bartered - it's hard to get gold, but as long as the value of your bartered goods is enough you can still adfford what you need (check you inventory - you may be sitting on quite a lot of wealth ;-) Once you get skills like alchemy, forging etc you can sell those items for more. I suppose you could invest in bartering skills - I never did, so always got terrible deals.

With regards to animals: always try and move away form them when they approach you, especially wolves which will try to circle behind you. If you can lure one away, then so much the better, otherwise try to backtrack, and block. When blocking you can only back away slowly - so be careful. I must admit that at lower levesl I led quite a few monsters to camps … but it does get easier as you get better weapons, more strenth and better armour. HOWEVER, even at quite high levels, if you button mash you can wind up dead very easily. You have to attack, defend etc What sometimes works is to come closish to the animal and before it attacks launch a rapid flurry of blows which may stagger it. Timing can be a bugger though. But hang in then - does get better!

Save money in the beginning by healing yourself at the water barrel or by sleeping. Don't buy potions. Sell stuff you don't need, of course you'll only figure out what you might not need at a later point in the game once you've completed it. As far as I remember, wolfs can be lured away one at a time if there is some distance between them. The one you approach will chase after you once he got aware. then run away from the group at kill them one by one. Leading them to camps CAN work, but keep in mind that if another character kills the monster, you'll get no XP. Of course it is a good strategy if you've mastered it. It's very easy to kill a monster, even tough ones, if you fight it with a comrade. At some points in the game, you'll form a party with an NPC (or several of them). Then you'll get the XP even if the NPC kills the monsters. Use these sequences to lure every enemy in reach towards your ally (he'll normally stay on the route and wait for you to come back), then kill the monster by encircling it (watch your partner's health bar though).

donjn said:

I forgot just how challenging these single player RPG games can be. I am not used to this level of difficulty. Even Oblivion and Fallout 3 were easier.

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Not "even". "Of course" BEthesda's games are easier. They have level scaling.

Right now my main problem is that at level 3, I am struggling. I am trying to get things done around the Bandit Camp and it looks like I have gotten all the workers back to work. I have trained Strength a little bit as well. I am working on get pieces of the sword for the Don, and trying to get some gold. Gold looks like it is very hard to come by. I want to get 500 gold for a workers outfit. I only have 100 gold now

Click to expand...

You can get an armour for free on the first farm you'll visit. All you need is lockpicking and maybe sneaking.

I have found combat to be…difficult. I have the difficulty on Easy and I still get worked if I run into three monsters at once. This is my first issue; the creatures are in packs and that makes things much more difficult. I know how to block and time things, but I still struggle. Does it get easier? Will all wolves and boars at some points be easy to kill?

Maybe it's a good thing, but right now I cringe when I see a beast blocking my path ahead. I get nervous because I know its gonna be tough.

I consider myself a cRPG vet going back to the early 80's with Ultima games. Is Risen considered harder than typical Oblivion like games? I figure yes because I remember Gothic 2 being tough. Risen to me seems like a cruel world. I guess if I feel that way then the developers are happy. Maybe I am too used to hand holding in World of Warcraft, etc, not sure.

Anyways I am curious to see some of your responses….and please….some tips!

Click to expand...

Did you find the shield and all the weapons in the starting area? You're pretty much invulnerable as long as you are blocking with a shield and you are only attacked from the front.
Observe your opponents and learn their attacking rythm. Then it them with 1-2 blows when their attacking turn is over. It's a matter of timing, not a click fest. Observe, keep your defense up, counter. Pushing your enemy into a corner is also useful.
Don't fight boars yet, and humans only in the arena or for a quest.

I have the shield and a sword from the starter area.

How would you suggest getting lock picking and sneaking so early in the game? Is there a trainer I missed?

donjn said:

I have the shield and a sword from the starter area.

How would you suggest getting lock picking and sneaking so early in the game? Is there a trainer I missed?

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You can get these skills from Phil. Therefore Phil needs to take a break from his guard duty (at the farm, up the hill). You have to convince one of the other fighters to relieve him (it's a quest you get from Brogar I think). The other guy is at the campfire. You have to give him some money or fight him (tough fight). When Phil is relieved, he can teach you lockpicking. You can also steal the armor without sneaking (you don't have to learn sneaking because you'll find a sneaking-ring later). If you get caught, just run away and use the joke-spell.

donjn said:

I forgot just how challenging these single player RPG games can be. I am not used to this level of difficulty. Even Oblivion and Fallout 3 were easier.

Click to expand...

That's because Bethesda doesn't make games with any challenge in them whatsoever. Fallout 3 and Oblivion are definitely easier than Risen because Bethesda made them easy so they could pander to the console crowd, who is not used to challenge in games at all. VATS in FO3 is practically cheating, and the level scaling in both makes sure you'll never really meet enemies that are out of your league.

PB showed some serious guts making the combat in Risen tough. I applaud them for it and hope other devs see the sleeper success of Risen and stop dumbing their games down. I'm tired of breezy walks through apocalyptic countrysides, if stuff is supposed to be dangerous, I would prefer it was.

As for how to get better at combat in Risen, well, be patient and never let your guard down. Also, get used to dodging with side and backwards jumps.

PB makes what most would define as "hardcore RPGs". They're tough, no doubt about it, and they require a lot of reloads and patience. In return, however, the players get a much greater feeling of accomplishment when they get through the game, as many fights can be quite challenging.

Personally, I advice going the strength route for now. Spend 5 LPs to learn lockpicking and 5 LPs on pickpocketing (no need to get rank 2 or 3 for now, rank 1 will help you complete several quests). With pickpocketing rank 1, you can pickpocket your way through most quests without having to fight (just grab the item you need from someone).

Other than that, stick to swords and shields, and pump strength, then buy the Skullcrusher or whatever (best 1H weapon) from the smith in the bandit camp. At that point, fighting will become quite a bit easier.

Maylander said:

PB makes what most would define as "hardcore RPGs". They're tough, no doubt about it, and they require a lot of reloads and patience. In return, however, the players get a much greater feeling of accomplishment when they get through the game, as many fights can be quite challenging.

Click to expand...

No kidding, the first two Gothics. I nearly ripped my chest hair off trying to learn the controls so i could kill even a meatbug. My quickload button probably got its number worn off sooner than i got my first healing potion. And it was all so worth it.

Let's not make this thread a Bethesda / PB fight, guys. There are lots of other places to do it.



Little improvements make a huge difference early on. Your strongest opponents use weapons weapons in the 20-30 HP range. If you have an armour which swallows 5 HP per hit, they suddenly need 1/6th to 1/4th more hits to knock you out. 5 or 10 points more strength and a better weapon on the other hand make you twice as dangerous.

Since you don't have money you shouldn't get sneaking yet. Quicksave before you enter the farm through the rear door. You may have to try it a couple of times.

Just be sure to get the lockpicking from Phil early, he got killed during a quest and was no longer available!!