As soon as I started playing Greedfall, I knew it was going to be a complicated game. The game does a pretty good job of explaining its major mechanics to you, but some things took me a while to figure out. In as simple as a guide as possible, I’ll give you beginner tips and tricks that will give you a better start to the game.
What class to choose
Greedfall has 3 different classes to choose from, which are Warrior, Technical, and Magic. People like me wonder if this is a game-changing decision, but ultimately it is not. The class you choose really only effects the first few hours of gameplay because having more skill points will give you more options.
You can choose to do hybrid classes if you wish. There aren’t any limitations to how you build your class, so put your skills points into whatever you’d like. I started out as mostly melee, but I decided it would be cool to branch out into other skills as well.
You can pick and choose your quests
I’ve found that some quests can get very boring. At the beginning of the game, you spend a lot of time walking around doing quests at the first city. I played these for a little bit, then got tired of them and went to the new island. I wasn’t disappointed when I left, and I don’t think I missed out on much. Unless you’re a completionist or you are enjoying the missions, some quests can be skipped without adding much to the story.
You’d probably have the best experience completing every quest the game has to offer, but some of us don’t have the time to play everything. Stick to the main quests if you wish, or do all of them. The choice is up to you.
Blocking is your best friend
All of us at Game Voyagers are huge fans of the Dark Souls series, in which you spend a lot of time dodging enemy attacks. Consequently, it was much harder for me to remember to block attacks in Greedfall because of that.
Besides the fact that blocking will protect you from damage, it also allows you to parry if you quickly attack following a block. While dodging puts you out of harm’s way, blocking and parrying is a very effective way of defeating your enemies.
Upgrade your gear
You probably won’t want to wear a single piece of armor for the whole game, and you definitely don’t want to use the same weapons forever either. I always love finding new gear that I can use, but it’s annoying when I find a cool looking weapon that has lower stats than my current one. Luckily, sometimes you can fix this by upgrading it! I say sometimes because you aren’t able to upgrade everything.
To upgrade, the first thing you need to do is upgrade to the Craftmanship talent. Once you have it, you need to equip whatever gear piece you would like to upgrade. Then, head to a crafting bench or a blacksmith and make sure you have the necessary materials to complete the upgrade. If you do, then upgrade away!
Use guns on the harder foes
The guns you carry have a limited amount of ammo, so choose your targets wisely. I typically try to find the strongest enemy in a group to shoot first, so that I won’t have to worry about him later. If the enemy is weak enough, save your bullets and just use a melee weapon or magic.
Take advantage of the tactical pause
Like in other similar RPGs, Greedfall allows you to pause while in combat. Take advantage of it every chance you get, because it could save your life. While pausing, you can view your moves and weapons, use potions and other items, and view enemy information.
Information from enemies includes health, amount of armor, and resistance types. This is an insanely useful feature that will constantly save your life. If you find yourself overwhelmed by enemies, simply pause and consider your next move. I seem to always forget to use it, but when I remember it keeps me alive for longer.
Learn to Negotiate
One time I accepted a quest to speak with a group of island natives who were attacking friendly supply caravans. After making a perilous journey through the beast filled woods, I finally made it to the perpetrator of the attacks.
I approached their leader, who initiated a conversation with me. After some dialog, I noticed there was a choice: I could either talk them out of directly attacking the fort, or I could kill them all then and there.
Without taking much time to think about it, I chose the violent option. My reasoning was that these islanders had attacked defenseless caravans, and never really made an attempt to negotiate before. I ended up destroying the small entourage and their leader, and I have yet to know if that was the best option for me.
The point of that story is to tell you that dialog options can have a huge impact on the game, and can benefit you greatly in the future. Afterward, I wondered how it would have played out had I negotiated the peaceful route. Who knows, if I had spared the islanders, they may have made peace with the soldiers. Learn to negotiate with people instead of stabbing your way through everything, and many times it’ll be the more rewarding option.
Don’t worry about lock picking
I’ve seen several people online saying you need to upgrade it ASAP, but frankly, it’s quite unnecessary. I have yet to find a quest that required a high-level lockpicking skill, and I haven’t benefitted at all from it.
Typically, I put many skill points into lockpicking in some of getting some awesome loot, but I’ve found it to be subpar so far. You don’t get skill points as often as other games, so I’d put them into something that will benefit you more.
Interact with companions
Every once in awhile, companions will have a new quest for you. Interacting with them can also increase your reputation with them, which will make them more trusting of you. I haven’t done them yet, but you’re able to trigger romances with characters as well.
If you find yourself traveling with a select few companions, head back to your residence to check on the other ones. They may have new quests for you, as well as new opportunities to chat and gain trust.
I personally think that Greedfall should have made the companions a bigger part of the game, as you could ignore them if you wanted to. They are enjoyable to talk to though, so you still should anyway.
Choose your companions wisely
Different characters react differently to the story quests. Siora tends to be a bit of a hothead and will yell at people whenever she gets a chance. There was one instance where I was having a friendly chat with the governor of a city when she started yelling at him for something she said. She also is terrible at stealth, so keep her out of any missions requiring sneaking around.
Some companions aren’t welcome by other factions, and you will be forced to change who accompanies you before proceeding. All of the companions are available at your residence or at the level loading camp, so quickly change them out if it’s beneficial to your mission.
Don’t waste your upgrade points
It can be tempting to get every upgrade that sounds cool. Unfortunately, this is a waste of points since you’re not able to put it into something more effective. The upgrades get better as you move up the skill tree, so try to stick to one area to upgrade.
The good thing about Greedfall is that you can play however you’d like. If you wish to stick purely with your chosen class’s upgrades than go for it. There isn’t anything wrong with doing hybrid classes though, just as long as you’re moving further up the skill tree.
Break enemy armor first
While tactical pausing, you’re able to view the amount of armor your enemies have. This can range from none at all to a huge amount, and those with armor will be more difficult to deal with.
Weapons like swords will barely dent the armor, but blunt weapons such as hammers will break armor very quickly. I usually keep a hammer as my secondary for breaking the armor and then switch to my sword when the armor is gone.
If you’re playing a magic class, then you will barely have to worry about armor. Magic damage is completely separate from armor, but it might be worth breaking the armor so your companions have an easier time.
Don’t mess with factions
In Greedfall there are 6 different factions you can deal with. Each of these factions has reputations levels to determine how well they’ll treat you. It’s not wise to head into other factions restricted areas unless you need to for a quest or something.
Along your journey, you’ll acquire faction disguises to help you easily blend in. If you must head into a restricted area, equip one of your disguises and effortlessly walk into their territory. When you’re not using disguises, put them into your chest to save inventory space.
Don’t fight in the arena until later
It was pretty exciting the first time I went into the arena. I was doing a quest where I had to fight in place of a wanted man, so I figured it would be easy. Guess what? The enemies absolutely wrecked me!
The beasts and human enemies shredded me to pieces like I didn’t even stand a chance. I tried again several more times to no avail, so I gave up. Unless you’re a master of the combat in this game, I recommend waiting until level 20 to even attempt to beat the arena. Save yourself a lot of frustration and come back when you’re better equipped.
Pick your battles wisely
It’s not the smartest move to go and fight every single enemy you see. Doing this will burn through your health potions and bullets faster than anything else, so only fight enemies when you need to or when you’re farming them. Large packs of enemies can also be very deadly, so just make sure you know what you’re getting into before drawing your weapon.
Use potions when you need them
There’s a bad habit I have in many games where I tend to ignore all potions except for healing potions. This is not the case for everyone, but many people forget they can get and use potions. When you’re having a difficult time with a fight or quest, check to see if there’s a potion that can help you.
Be sparing with your gold
It’s surprisingly difficult to get gold in Greedfall. One of my first missions required me to buy a disguise from a merchant, which cost several times the total amount of gold I had. Needless to say, I proceeded without the required items and was able to complete the quest without a problem.
Many quests require you to spend exorbitant amounts of money, but usually, you can avoid spending it. If your persuade skill is high enough, you can sometimes talk your way out of spending money, but it doesn’t always work. Only buy the things you need, because money is hard to come by.
Collect everything you find
In games like this, I’m an absolute hoarder. I grab everything I see even though I know I’ll probably never even look at it again. Upgrade materials don’t have any carry weight to them, so literally grab all of them that you can find.
I don’t recommend doing this with weapons though. It’s annoying having an inventory full of useless weapons unless your plan is to sell them later, which you can make some decent money doing. Be wary of your carry weight though since you don’t want to have too many items on you. Vigor is the stat that increases your carry weight, so if you must hoard items, put more points into vigor.
Store items in your chest
It’s inevitable that you’ll find lots of cool gear, but it’s impossible to carry it all around with you at one time. When you find items that you think you might use in the future, your best bet is to put it into your chest. Chests can be accessed from your residence or in between loading times in the open world.
Don’t be a hoarder like me. Store everything good in your chests, and sell the rest. I found that money is somewhat hard to come by, so selling unused weapons can bring you a decent profit.