New Run Early Game Guide - Of Beasts and Sages - Stoneshard

Introduction

Understanding Osbrook

Osbrook with its Tier 1 dungeons, are the tutorial area of the game. By adequately preparing yourself before your first trip to Brynn, you can hit some major gear and skill powerspikes that may not only empower your current build, but open up the possibilities to new builds and their entirely new variants. 

Not every character starts with the right skill trees for a given build. Fortunately, any character can unlock any skill tree within a couple hours of starting a new run via the tutors and beginner skill books. For such creative builds, making the most out of the early game is that much more important.

Gold Acquisition

Loot - What to take?

The developers of Stoneshard have put in place extensive measures to prevent hoarding behaviour in players. Being limited by the size of your inventory is an integral part of the gameplay. There are options to expand your inventory, but they are few and far between, and often come with downsides. As such, it is important to make the most out of what we have.

Items to Avoid

• Broken weapons you will not use yourself.
• Damaged armor you will not use yourself, weaker than your current tier.
• "Junk' items, not used for caravan upgrades (mugs, plates, candlesticks, candle ends, combs, etc.)
• Caravan upgrade items in excess of what is needed to fully upgrade the caravan.

Low Priority

• Intact weapons and armor you will not use yourself
• Damaged armor you will not use yourself of your current tier or better.
• Enchanted items, the base version of which you are not interested in.
• Bandages (if you carry an excess. Always carry at least 4 charges)
• Food & Vegetables.
• Unidentified Potions
• Folios

High priority

• Gear that can serve as an upgrade to what you have currently.
• Skins & pelts
• Trade Goods
• Gemstones
• Precious metals
• "Valueable" item class
• Viviying essense & Gwynnel's elixir
• Non-perishable meats
• Old coins
• Skill books
• Animal trophies
• Casket & exquisite casket.

Loot - Where to sell?

Trade Goods Sale Locations

Thievery

The most effective way to make a profit off a valuable item is by not paying for it in the first place. Though the game supports a crime system which will see your character jailed for many days if caught, there are also many opportunities for a knowing player to steal goods without being caught or noticed. 

Stolen items are marked with a small red hand icon, which decays over a period of time proportional to the item's value. Gold can be safely stolen by merging into your coin pouch. Most merchants apply a negative modifier to the prices of stolen items. While the player has stolen items in their inventory, guards that are actively walking on patrol can randomly stop and interrogate you. This occurs only while the player is within ~6 tiles or closer to the guard.

Safe loot stashes

The following places can be used to safely store items indefinitely, as they are treated as a player's personal stash. Items stored here will gradually lose their stolen tag. Items stored elsewhere will be lost the next time the tile is reset (usually at midday) while the player is elsewhere.

• Barrels within the sleeping spot in the Mill shed
• Any Tavern sleeping room chest (safe even without paying for a room)
• Both barrels on the exterior of the Lone Farmstead ~ credit to okmall on twitch.tv and Youtube 
• Caravan storage

Osbrook Tavern

You can safely rifle through the barrels on the top floor while no one is in the room with you, or while the innkeeper is sleeping. You can check the barrels on the second floor while the magister is asleep in his room and no one is in the stairwell.

The Drunken Woodsman Inn

The deer antlers lying on a bench outside can be taken at night, while approaching from the right side, such that the shed blocks you from the guard's view. With a crowbar, during afternoon hours when the Brynn representative is away, you can break into the back door on the right side of the house and pilfer pelts and antlers, as well as a claw trap.

Osbrook Watchtower

During the day, you can go upstairs and steal some caltrops. During the night, you can steal a tier 2 wooden round shield on the ground floor, which can be useful, or sold at the carpenter for ~40 gold. - credit JesusDust on twitch.tv

Odar the Elder's house

Odar's quarters can be pilfered while he is out drinking in the tavern in the evening or is asleep.

Guard House

The weapon rack furthest away from the guards can be checked and stolen from safely. The others require a smoke bomb to be safe.

Oaken Barrel Brewery

Gameplay

There are many ways to leverage the various systems of the game to your benefit when starting out. What might be perceived as inconsequential decisions can add up to save you time, money, and personal frustration. By implementing these strategies into your gameplay, you are practicing good fundamentals and will be more likely to succeed in your permadeath runs.

Exploration and Survival

Harvesting and Cooking

Keep a lookout for leeks, which can be used as vegetables in cooking, or lentils, which can be harvested as a non-perishable food source. Together, they can be used to cook Lentil soup.. Additionally, look out for berries and edible mushrooms, and useful herbs like hemp, fleawort, and agrimony.

Approaching POIs

It is important to approach every POI carefully, as many can be too hard for you to deal with despite being close to the tutorial area of the game. Know what you are dealing with before you engage.

Examining Surroundings

Examine surroundings is a basic skills that every character starts knowing. It is most commonly used to detect traps in dungeons, but can also be used to spot secret rooms (1/20 dungeons have one), or detect snakes hiding in the grass or the detritus of the forest.

Global Map Pathing

Time is money, and good pathing means time well spent. Whenever you are not completing a contract, consider what quests, points of interest, and self-assigned objectives might be available, so you can connect them into a single path that starts and ends at your base of operations. Keep in mind the fullness of your inventory, and adjust your path accordingly.

An example is the carpenter's quest to retrieve his plane. This quest takes you a full day's travel southwest from Osbrook, away from any other quests. Other things that you could consider doing include:

• Discovering nearby points of interest
• Collecting food such as eggs, berries and mushrooms
• Robbing the Drunken Woodsman storage room
• Harvesting fleawort to use as healing, or crafting fodder for your caravan.

Starting Equipment

Besides the unique trait and available skill trees, every character starts with a unique set of starting gear, which can bring ups and downsides. If your starting weapons do not match your desired playstyle, you can request a different tier 1 weapon from the guards on the first floor of the elder's house.

Choosing Your Free Starter Weapon

Every character can benefit from receiving a tier 1 weapon from the guardhouse, even if it means selling it immediately for easy coin. However, certain builds may consider delaying investing in a weaponry branch and using one of these weapons with utility skills instead.

Some of the more notable weapons are:

Item	Class	Stats	Reason
	Crossbow		Free damage at the opportunity cost of your secondary weapon loadout. This weapon grants you 2-3 chances to inflict noticeable damage on an approaching enemy before the fight ever starts, giving you the upper hand. It also sells for the most gold of any starter weapon.
	2H Sword		Likely the strongest early game melee weapon. It offers the highest base damage among the available weapons, and the bonuses to block chance and accuracy are very useful.
	2H Axe		Similar to the War Scythe, the Doloire is a very strong offensive weapon choice. It trades bonus body part damage and bleed chance for +1% fumble chance. It is marginally better than the war scythe on characters that start with 11 agility.

Shoring Up Weaknesses

Every character starts with a couple of items that are above tier 1 equipment in quality. However, each character typically also has weaknesses within their equipment, so it can be worthwhile to shore up using your starting gold before you start getting into trouble. The most important things include:

• Something with protection in each armor slot (Head, Torso, Arms and Feet)
• A way to open locks and pry open crypts (crowbar strongly recommended)
• Enough food to last a day (~25 total hunger replenishment)
• At least 2 healing salves (ideally 3-4), 1 splint, and 2 bandages

If your character starts with broken equipment (such as Arna's metal chestplate), it is generally worth it to spend the money to repair and maintain it, as it will serve you for your entire time in Osbrook, and maybe even beyond.

Items to Look Out For

• Drinking horn - better waterskin due to inventory shape (also stylish!)
• Casket - extra inventory space for gems, gold and jewelry
• Goedendag - Very strong tier 2 spear which can drop from tier 1 brigands. Best weapon in Osbrook.
• All books - always read new ones for free exp.

Noteworthy Skills

These are powerful skills that could help you be strong early on, listed in no particular order. No good build will ever take all of these; however, if your desired build includes any of these, or you plan on using the relevant weapon class, consider taking at least one of these at level 1.

Combat Strategies

Practicing good combat fundamentals is most important in the early game, where an extra attack inflicted or an attack avoided can make all the difference. Taking less damage means spending less on medical supplies and requiring less effort to restore morale and sanity after sustained injuries. Here are some basic tactics that you may want to employ.

Letting the Enemy Approach

The player's turn is processed first, meaning that landing the first strike is very important, as it could mean scoring an injury before the enemy can attack. Passing your turn by waiting is a core mechanic of the game.

Using Corners to Negate Range

By hiding behind corners and sight-blocking objects, you can counter not only archers, but also enemies with Charges, and 2 tile range attacks, as enemies need to see you to target you with skills.

Shouting to Lure Enemies

Early on, fighting more than 2 of even the weakest enemies can be dangerous. By opening the states menu, or right-clicking on your character, you can shout to attract enemies to your last known location. The range of this taunt depends on the enemy, but at the start of the game with less than 15 perception, it typically reaches 2 tiles outside your vision. By playing around this range, you can single out enemies, splitting dangerous groups.

Wasting Archer Ammo

Archer AI can be abused, as ducking in and out of cover can force them to fire without taking aim, wasting ammo. Once they are out of ammo, they will always switch to melee. Make sure to hide as soon as you see them use Take Aim. 

Quest Sequencing

Osbrook presents an open toolbox of quests and contracts that you can mix and match to best suit your needs. The 2 most common scenarios that most builds face are whether or not they need to go to Mannshire, or Brynn, to acquire their main skill branch. Depending on your situation, you may want to leave Osbrook sooner rather than later.

Reading the Map

The first thing you should do when starting a new run, is read the map of the local area given to you by Verren. What you see on it can sometimes change how you want to begin your adventure. The main things you want to look out for are:

• Lebron's Manor
• Leprosarium
• Watermill
• Osbrook dungeons

You can accept a dungeon contract at any of the same places where you could hand it in. Accepting the contract along the way to the relevant dungeon saves you time. The other 3 locations are existing unique structures that can be generated within proximity of Osbrook. Each one offers exp for discovering it, as well as easily accessible loot, without necessarily having to fight. If you see them on the starting map, go there first.

Before First Contract

Between the experience received for entering Osbrook when leaving the tavern, discovering the Mill, the Drunken Woodsman Inn and reaching the first bandit contract site, you only need 50 more exp to reach level 2. To gather the needed exp, and earn some gold and resources, I recommend completing the quests "Frid the Herbalist's request" and "Lost Key" over at the mill, before journeying southeast and finding the carpenter's plane.

Frid the Herbalist's Request

This mission requires you to find 3 herbs: Fleawort, which grows along roads, Spearmint and Agrimony, both of which grow on the open grassland around the village. This is a low-risk mission which rewards the player with 2 sets of healing salves. It is possible to complete by simply walking to the mill on your way to complete "Lost Key", while keeping your eyes open for the relevant herbs.

Lost Key

Completing this quest unlocks your first place of permanent storage - the barrels in the shed at the mill. To complete the quest, simply walk around the wheat fields with the ground item names displayed, checking the outer edges, until you find the shed key and talk to the owner. Within the barrels, you will find a sleeping bag. It's best to sell it to the seamster. 

Carpenter's Plane

The last thing I like to do before embarking on the first contract is to collect the Caprenter's plane. It always spawns southeast of the Drunken Woodsman Inn, within a destroyed and raided caravan lying on the side of the road. It is always guarded by 4 bandits, so be ready for combat. They do not pose a threat if you can lure 1 or 2 away by shouting before engaging with the rest.

It is best to spend the night at the mill and begin this trip the next morning. That way, you can rob the Drunken Woodsman Inn by prying open the back door with the crowbar, to steal 3 pelts and a claw trap. This can only be done during the day.

Jebar the Smith's Request

Jebar wants you to bring him 3 homemade swords or battle cleavers, which are sometimes carried by the weakest type of bandit found roaming the map. While bandits are fairly common, there is no reliable way to complete this quest before the first contract. Keep this mission in the back of your mind when doing the first contract.

Fate of the Brewery

I prefer doing this quest immediately and siding with the brewery (using the intel received from the carpenter in exchange for the plane). This is because doing so allows you to unlock more places of permanent storage at the Lone Farmstead, as well as letting you steal the grain sooner, meaning that it will sooner lose its stolen modifier.

Osbrook First

If your build is not in great need of skill books or Mannshire tutors, it is best to complete all of Osbrook contracts and hand them in to the Brynn bailiff to start increasing your Brynn reputation immediately. This will usually get you just shy of level 5, and earn you between 2 and 2.5 thousand gold. 

Caravan First

If your build is in desperate need of skill books to avoid taking suboptimal skills while in Osbrook, you may decide to leave the Osbrook contracts for later. If you do so, I recommend you leave behind all the grain you stole for its stolen timer to expire, and instead purchase 2 barrels of beer from Kromm (You can sell the one he gives you for free at the Osbrook tavern, before confronting Odar).

Final Preparations

Before heading off to Brynn, there is a short checklist of things I like to have done beforehand:

• 2 trade goods in my inventory. 2 barrels of beer bought from Kromm, or if you finished all the contracts, the grain (which hopefully no longer counts as stolen).
• A surplus of healing salves. They are more expensive in Brynn & Mannshire.
• 1200, or 3000 crowns, depending on when you leave Osbrook, including the sale value of the trade goods and jewelry as well as the converted value of ancient coins. 

Brynn

Try not to spend too much time in Brynn. No more than 2 days. Food prices are sky high, meaning waiting for prices to change for the better before selling trade goods is usually not worth it. Selling your inventory to the right vendor is enough. 

Brynn Vendors

The top-left quarter houses the printing press (skill books), Elven Goods store, general merchant, Golden Grain Inn and the Bank. Bottom-left houses the guild quarter and the Jeweller. Top-right is home to the Brynn Baker, city guard quartermeister, who has a limited inventory, and the auction house, which is by the east gate. In the bottom right quarter, beyond the wall, is the port, where 4 merchants cycle daily, selling foreign goods. Each quarter houses a different Tavern.

Progressing the Story 

To progress the story and unlock the caravan, meet Verren after dusk by the portside tavern, in the bottom right quarter of the city. He stands by the entrance to the tavern. Read his dialogue, and follow him where he leads you.