Guides

New World Beginner Tips Continued

2 Comments

Please see here for the first part of our beginner tips for New World.

1. Resource size affects respawn timer and EXP efficiency

Larger resource nodes (i.e. large mountain of iron vs. small pile) take longer to respawn after you have gathered it. Most obvious example of this is for oil when you try to make an efficient run gathering all you can. The large oil nodes take a few minutes longer to respawn even though you mine the small node first. Keep this in mind when you are planning your gathering route in the area.

Gathering larger nodes will give you more of the resource per second, but the smaller nodes are better for leveling up the Trade skill in the first place. An example of this is when you are chopping wood – try logging the skinny trees and keep track of your EXP gain in a minute vs. logging large trees. You will notice that you end up gaining EXP faster, but will gain less wood. Keep this in mind in the early stages of the game when it is more important to level the skill up than it is to gather tons of wood for crafting.

2. Craft the highest tier possible for the most efficient EXP per material

It is pretty obvious that crafting higher tier products will give you more EXP. However, if you are not a big fan of gathering or spending gold on the basic resources, crafting ONLY highest tier products will give you the most EXP for the resources that you have. Gone are the days of spamming iron daggers in Skyrim. If you have the materials for it, always go for the higher tier item.

That being said, higher tiers require more specific resources that tend to be in short supply. For example, rugged leather requires tannins that you can really only farm from level 45 mobs and above. Otherwise you have to run around opening chests just to gather a few here and there. At least on my server in Everfall, tannins are almost always out of stock. Same thing goes for Oil at the moment due to the limited supply.

One way to get around this resource shortage is to simply ask to trade with someone in your Company that has a different Trade skill focus than you. Do keep in mind though that tannins and oil tend to be some of the most sought-after materials due to how they are needed in weaponcrafting.

3. Pick up town quests whenever you are grinding Trade skills

When you are grinding any of the gathering related Trade skills, picking up a few of the town quests will net you some EXP, standing, and gold. Most important of these is town standing since the bonuses that will provide will be much more useful. Other than benefits like reduced cost, faster gathering, more tokens for faction quests, and increased EXP gain, you will also need to be at level 15 standing in order to purchase a house.

Doing random town quests while you are out gathering does not take up that much extra time. Most of the ones that I have picked up are ones like “Hunt ____ Elk/Rabbit/Wolves” and I just complete them idly as I walk past. Specifically for wolves, they tend to walk around areas that you are gathering in and you usually have to fight them regardless. Town quests are a small bonus you get for doing what you usually do anyways.

4. Craft armour sets that give bonuses to Trade skills

The bonuses from a full set of any of these traits can be huge for Trade skill efficiency. An example of this is that even just having 3 items with the “increase woodworking” trait improved my “extra resource” chance up to around 20%. When you refine 100 wood, you now get 20 extra. If you are focused on crafting in any way, getting a full set of these traits is an absolute must.

To actually obtain the items that you use to craft armour with these perks, you can either go to the auction house or you can gather more from related resources. For example, I have found a ton of the woodworking perk item just from logging constantly. These items can be applied to any type of armour when you craft – it is not limited to just leather or just cloth.

5. Save up vegetables and create food that boost Trade skills

Vegetables are fairly hard to farm in New World. Most of the ones I have seen come from the provision boxes that you see around the world. Some vegetables do exist in the wild and can be gathered consistently, but things like Broccoli mostly come from boxes. Whenever you encounter one, make sure to save what you find. The reason behind this is that the food items you can make can boost any of the Trade skills.

If you are not a big fan of cooking, you don’t necessarily have to go out of your way for them. However, even crafting the first tier food items can be helpful in things like resource gathering. It can speed up the process for you and help reduce the grind that is needed to level up refining or crafting trade skills.

6. Approach “open X boxes” quests systematically

These quests can get annoying once you have opened 4-5 of the boxes and can’t find the rest. One way to combat this is to approach the area systematically. Look on your map once you arrive and make a mental note of all of the buldings in the area. Comb through each one step by step so that you don’t end up missing any by the time you get to the end.

I am personally not a big fan of these types of quests and I really do hope the devs change up how it is done. However, until they change it this is one of the methods to reduce your frustration when questing.

Another alternative is to actually use this map that some people have developed that marks down all of the chests in the area. Whenever I have used it, it has always been enough for me to complete my quest. However, some people may not like having to alt-tab back and forth and the systematic approach might be better suited for them.

7. Join a group and do PVP faction quests

This is one of the best ways to level when you are in the level 25-30 range. Most of the quests are best completed with a group since they commonly consist of killing a certain number of things or opening a number of boxes. Having a group also helps prevent you from being jumped by enemies since you will have forced active PVP status.

The extra EXP from killing mobs is also a great bonus to the quests when you are in a group since all you need is one hit to get the reward. Opening chests is also a good way to gather useful resources that are needed to craft higher tier products. There are other ways to gain EXP effectively, but this is the most well-rounded method I can find. Some people like to spam corrupted breaches, but that can be difficult for you depending on your gear situation and on the level of breaches that are available.

8. Bring a Lifestaff for easier travelling

Travelling around in New World can be a huge pain at the moment. You usually end up toggling running using “=” and then just watch Netflix for a few minutes until you get to your destination. With a Lifestaff, the charge ability allows you to teleport forward and gives you a much needed boost to travel time.

No other method exists as far as I know to increase your movement speed this fast. The hatchet does have a increase speed function embedded in the beserk ability, but it still isn’t as fast as the Lifestaff charge.

It can take a bit of time to fully level up the transport ability, but it is worth every second. You can just tap an enemy with the staff and immediately switch to your main weapon and it will still get experience.

9. Armour weight determines dodge distance

Wearing all heavy armour will turn your dodge into a tiny hop that barely travels any distance. Similarly, wearing all light armour gives you that long distance dodge that can get you away from your enemy more efficiently. You can monitor this by going into your inventory and highlighting the bar right next to your equipped armour and seeing which category you currently fit into. You can mix and match different types of armour and it is the final weight that matters the most.

Equipment sometimes have the perk that lowers the weight of the armour. This can be very valuable if you allocated very few points into constitution since it will give you a better escape mechanism. This is especially true for ranged weapons since being able to back away even for an instant is important to getting your shot off. Avoiding enemy interruptions of your attack is crucial and having lighter armour will allow you to dodge away to do so.

10. Pay attention to defence type

Many beginners fall into the trap of just choosing the gear that has the highest gear score. Unfortunately, this is how you end up dead when fighting against the wrong enemies. It is a good idea to mix and match armour types to make sure you have both physical and elemental defence.

This tip isn’t meant to tell you to avoid high gearscore items, but rather to pay attention to your overall blend of equipment. High score is better, but not if you end up one-dimensional with no elemental defence.

As long as you are mindful of this pitfall, don’t be too concerned about min-maxing anything. Most people end up with a mix of armour due to randomness of drops anyways, but do keep this in mind from time to time when you equip new items.

11. Re-speccing is free until Level 20

Use the early game to mess around with your stats and explore what type of character you want to build. It is completely free for your to try different things and different weapons.

It is also free to reset your weapon skills as well! There are two trees for every weapon and each have 3 unique skills you can try out. This allows you to customize your playstyle since you can use skills from both trees at once.

This is a great opportunity for you to try out crazy builds like going all Focus as an archer to spam triple shot or to adapt your build to your current situation. I’ve personally used this method to change all my points into constitution when I partied up with higher level friends just so that I can survive in the areas that they were grinding in. Take advantage of this and use it to improve your gameplay.

12. Use the player-made maps to track resources

There are a few different maps floating around that can be used to track almost all of the resources. The one I use is here and is great for finding resource nodes like oil and iron. This is also the same map mentioned in tip #6 since it has the function to find chests.

This can also be used to map out your gathering route to maximize your time efficiency. Instead of manually running around certain zones, this will allow you to directly go from node to node. I personally used this method when gathering Oil early on since it was very important at that point to avoid the mobs (specifically the alligator).

Bonus Tip: Alligator attacks can reach you even when running away – use Lifestaff charge or climbing on obstacles to avoid them

For whatever reason, alligator attacks can catch up to you even when you are sprinting away. Very few early game mobs can do that, and the alligator is the most common one I have seen. If you have the misfortune of pissing one off, either use your Lifestaff charge to get away or climb up onto obstacles. If you don’t have an unreachable obstacle nearby, climb over anything you can and force the alligator to take the long path around. If you try to sprint in a straight line, it will likely kill you if you don’t have enough physical armour.

The most problematic area I have seen this in is in the Marshes when gathering Oil. One wrong move and you end up slowly moving through water and the alligator eats you. Fortunately, there are these boulders here and there that you can climb up on. From that point, you can actually use your ranged weapons to kill the alligator and continue gathering your oil.

Conclusion

Thank you all for reading our continued New World Beginner Tips guide! As always, please comment below if you have any other tips that would be useful for other beginners or if you have any feedback.

Read first part of the beginner tips guide here and our beginner War guide here.

Follow us on Twitter here to stay up to date with all of our guides and reviews!

Guides

New World Beginner War Guide

2 Comments

New World is a MMORPG developed by Amazon that is currently holding a Preview session until September 4th. The topic of the guide today is the basics of fighting in a War. For those who have not yet gotten to that point in the game, a War is essentially a 50 versus 50 battle between two Companies over control of a province. Other players can sign up to join on either side, but the two main Companies have the power to kick and replace players. For new players just starting out, it can be extremely intimidating to join your first War especially when you are around level 25-30 and there are level 50 monsters running at you with hatchets. Go through each tip in this guide and it will improve your success in these fights!

1. Stick with a group

New World is a team game through and through. Going alone is just asking to get CC’ed to death. As a beginner, your gear will almost always be worse than someone on the opposing team. Going alone means even the slightest amount of CC will lock you down long enough for the enemy team to take you out. Staying with your own team members means that they will have your back in a fight and you will have a much greater chance of surviving the initial damage.

That being said, if you are are a mainly ranged or staff player, there is a little bit more leeway with how much you should stick with teammates. If you do decide to go on your own, just be constantly scanning your environment for enemies. Even a single hatchet can lock you down with the current meta and you don’t want to be stuck in that situation.

Sticking with your team also means that you should always have their back in a fight. When they get CC’d, you have to jump into it and stagger the enemy back to allow your ally to retreat. Make sure to also time your abilities to maximize the amount of CC time your squad can inflict. If you see your buddy shield bashing the enemy, wait a second before initiating your own CC. This enables you to lock down the enemy for a much longer amount of time compared to stacking everything together at once.

2. Get organized with your company

This tip only applies to those of you who are joining the battle with your company. Always get organized prior to the battle in terms of general strategies, weapons everyone is bringing, ensuring all participants have potions/food, setting up communication channels, etc. This can go a long way especially for new players who have not joined a War before. The leaders generally have more experience either through playing in the Alpha, or just participating in Wars as soon as the Preview started. You don’t necessarily have to talk in the Discord (or whatever service you use), but definitely listen to what they have to say.

Having everyone in your company organized and ready means that you are maximizing the number of good fighting combatants of the 50 that you can bring. If you don’t have all 50 Company members ready to join in the battle, there will inevitably be a few randoms that may or may not contribute as much to the War.

3. Communicate constantly with your team

During the battle there are 3 points that your team will either defend or attack prior to fighting for the fortress. Communication is absolutely key in letting your team know what the enemy movements are like. For example, on defense you should always let your team know if they are pushing a point in large numbers. If it is just you and 1-2 other players on point C and you see a zerg rush of 20 hatchets rushing the point, immediately call out in the voice chat that you see 20 strong pushing C and that you need reinforcements right away. Ideally you will be in the call with your company, but you can also spam the chat if need be.

Knowing where to reinforce is a huge advantage due to how stagger and damage works in New World. Greater numbers allow you to constantly lock down opponents and this advantage pays off even more when you can successfully send their members to respawn. Keep in mind though that you should be careful of AoE attacks when in large groups since even a few fire mages can deal a ton of damage to your whole team if left unchecked. More people also means more body blocking and potentially being trapped in the AoE damage.

4. Always have someone on siege equipment

The siege equipment in this game is crazy good at the moment. The guns can shred a player in just a few seconds and the cannons deal massive AoE damage. Always, always have someone using the equipment regardless of whether you’re on offence or defense. Typically this role is allocated to lower level players who can’t contribute as much due to their limited stats and equipment, but if nobody else is on it then YOU have to jump into it.

Efficient usage of siege equipment not only allows you to kill opponents, but forces the enemy to give up strategic positions. Instead of just bunkering down on the point, the threat of siege equipment (and other AoE for that matter) gives them a choice of either receiving tons of damage or backing off.

However, be mindful that muskets and bows can snipe you from a distance. A level 50 with a legendary bow and 90% stat allocation going to Dexterity will likely be able to take you out if you are caught unaware. If you are receiving tons of damage, feel free to back off since you are no good to the team dead anyways.

5. Snipe enemy siege equipment users (or destroy them using kegs)

Like mentioned above, siege equipment in New World is crazy good at the moment. You want to use yours to full effect and deny enemy usage of theirs. Best way to do this is to simply snipe whichever player is operating the equipment. They are going to be exposed in a position right beside the equipment when they are actively using it. As long as it is not pointed at you, you should be constantly firing at them if you are playing a ranged weapon.

Attacking these players takes priority over anything else other than players actually on the point. Another advantage to doing this is that they are also one of the only stationary targets on the battlefield. Pretty much every other user will be moving around unless they are in the middle of casting a spell. Aiming at the head of these players will do surprising amounts of damage, and abilities will also consistently land.

Kegs can be bought at the armory with points you obtain when you eliminate enemies. They are used to destroy enemy siege equipment and you should usually bring at least one with you just in case the opportunity comes up. The reason I don’t really recommend a beginner to do this is that the enemy is likely protecting their equipment and you will be fairly squishy. However, there is no one better to set a keg than a beginner if your team is coordinated. Communicate with your team that you are lighting the keg and hopefully the higher levels will protect you while you do your job. This is even more effective considering that body blocking is a thing in New World. Also, don’t forget to actually light the keg once it is set.

6. Crouch to avoid enemy ranged players

This tip applies mainly to when you need to heal or you see someone actively firing in your direction. Crouching in New World is a fairly powerful function since projectile weapons have to have a direct impact on your hitbox to deal damage. Crouching behind an obstacle minimizes your exposure and essentially keeps you safe while you replenish your health and mana.

Crouching even applies when all you have is grass to protect you. If you have ever used a musket or bow, you will realize that the FOV is reduced when they are aiming down their sights. It is difficult as a ranged user to see beyond even a small hill and you can use this to your advantage by making things even more difficult for your opponent. The small head/shoulder that your opponent sees will be even smaller once you crouch. To reach you, they will have to move up closer and be put at risk of getting ganked by your teammates that are using melee weapons.

7. Stock up on potions hours before the War

There seems to always be a scramble for potions in the 1-1.5 hours prior to a war in the settlement. Purchase Tier 2 and above potions for the War at least 3-4 hours in advance, or even the night before. This ensures that you will have a decent stock to use while fighting.

Ideally you should have at least 2-3 full stacks of 10 potions for the battle. Melee players will likely use this amount at the very least and ranged players are hit or miss depending on how aggressive they are. It also doesn’t hurt to have more potions on hand even after the War since you will always use them later on.

For those of you who aren’t interested in Wars but want to make profit, selling potions at towns prior to a War can net you some sweet income. Don’t try to sell it at a crazy price like 100 gold/potion and you should have no problems making some quick cash.

8. Eat some high quality food

Food lasts quite a while and typically you don’t need to eat too many throughout the War. If you die you do lose your bonus, but it is worth it for the bonuses you get. Most food items not only give you passive health per second, but also increases your Constitution as well. Buying food off of the Market or people in your Company is one of the cheapest ways to boost your survivability.

If you don’t have the money to afford high quality food, you can simply make your own by hunting a few turkeys/rabbits and elk/wolves. The materials provided by these animals should be enough for you to make Tier 2 food which is adequate for beginner War participants.

9. Coordinate Fire AoE spells on point when the enemy pushes

Many Fire Mages use their abilities to hit the most amount of people possible. This is the best way to kill enemies for pretty much every situation except for when enemies are pushing the point. When they are rushing the point, have every single nearby Fire Mage concentrate their abilities on that one single location. The stacked damage from this tactic either forces the enemies off the point, or weakens them enough for reinforcements to mop them up.

This coordinated attack method is also used to buy time for reinforcements from other points to get to you. Every second you are able to delay contributes to your team winning the War. It isn’t possible to single-handedly stop them from being on the point, but you do have the power to delay them as much as you can.

10. Use Inferno Mines on points and gates

When triggered, these mines cover an area in fire and deal damage to enemies standing around it. It is most effectively used as an area denial device and most teams place these at chokepoints or on the points themselves. If everyone on the team uses these, it can effectively slow down enemy pushes onto points and buy your team time to bring reinforcements. It will also soften up the enemy players for your team to fight due to the damage it deals.

Whenever you have to respawn or retreat for any reason, definitely pick up a few of these and plant them in common areas that enemies attack. Some players also like to sneak behind enemy lines and place these in the grass areas that enemies use to move between points. However, I don’t really recommend it since it seems that the reward is fairly low for the risk involved.

11. Bring a Lifestaff

Currently the Lifestaff has the best charge ability that can be used as both a transport and an escape mechanism. With just 5-6 skill leves, it can be used to easily take you out of the danger zone or to bring you to another point in record time. If you are Level 30, there is no reason to not bring the Lifestaff since you have 3 slots available. If you are under 30, I would still heavily recommend it since it will greatly improve your chances at surviving and being useful.

If you have spent a decent amount of time in this weapon, the spell that blocks ranged abilities is also invaluable in certain situations. Blocking ranged damage allows your team to stay longer in exposed positions and can also be used to protect your siege equipment operators. This ability is also a great choice for when the opponent is ranged-heavy since it effectively nullifies much of their damage potential. At the same time, the range isn’t great for this ability and is vulnerable to melee rushes since you are in the thick of the fighting.

12. Use Fire Resistance Potions

Fire mages and their AoE spells can deal a ton of damage to you as a beginner. Even just one spell can be enough to take out up to half of your health unless you brought elemental resistance armour. To combat this, prepare some fire resistance potions prior to battle and use them to reduce damage. It is a cheap and effective way to improve your battle sustainability. If you are not able to create any yourself or you don’t have the supplies to do so, ask your Company to lend or sell you some.

Conclusion

There are a lot of variables that go into determining who wins the War such as level, equipment, fighting ability, and team organization. When it comes to level, equipment and ability, as a beginner you pretty much have to work with what you have. Unless your Company is kind enough to drop you some level-appropriate loot, there really is nothing else you can do to develop your character in such a short amount of time.

With that in mind, focusing on teamwork and utilizing all of the tips in this guide will give you the best possible chance at helping your team win. There are mixed feelings about large-scale PvP currently, but many players I have spoken to have had a blast regardless of whether they win or lose. Keep in mind that things will likely change by the time the full release comes around. For the time being, please try to enjoy as many aspects of this format as you can!

Thank you all for reading this guide and please let me know if you have any additional suggestions or feedback! Follow me on Twitter here for updates on future guides.

For any players new to the game, check out our list of beginner tips and our second list of tips that will improve your experience of New World Preview 🙂

Guides

New World Preview Beginner Tips

Leave a comment

New World is hosting a Preview session until September 4th that allows players to experience what the game looks like currently. Starting the game is relatively straightforward with the tutorial teaching you all of the basics of fighting, crafting, and gathering. However, there are several crucial tips that can make your life much, much easier.

See our continued beginner tips guide here.

1. Craft the Coarse Leather Satchel

The tutorial will provide you with a basic satchel that can improve your encumberance by a small amount. However, the first craftable leather satchel can increase your encumberance by 1000 – roughly translating to carrying 100 more item weight.

This will greatly improve how long you can harvest/gather raw materials for before having to go back to a settlement. With how long it takes to actually move around in this game, this will alleviate the headaches that you will end up facing. One other benefit is that using this satchel will ensure that you don’t run out of space from gathering random things on your way between settlements. You won’t have to throw out any materials just to make room for the iron deposit you just found.

2. Level “Harvesting” to 30

Regardless of which skill you want to dedicate time to in the future, levelling up Gathering to 30 allows you to collect from plants that provide Motes (and higher level versions of Motes). This plays a role in crafting gunpowder, lifestaff, firestaff, and many more. Keeping a healthy stockpile of motes is infinitely easier if you can just collect whichever ones you end up seeing when travelling between points. Gathering can be rapidly increased by gathering herbs and hemp.

3. Use wells in towns for Water

You don’t have to run all the way outside to the nearest stream for freshwater. All towns (as far as I know) have a well either inside it or just outside. This saves you a ton of valuable time if you are mass-crafting potions and need a reasonably close source. Using the town well will also remove the need for storage space dedicated to water.

4. Items placed into storage can still be used for crafting

Feel free to dump all of your gathered resources into the storage at your main settlement. Occasionally it will glitch and say that you don’t have a certain resource, but it is easily fixed by picking it up and putting it back again. It is a great quality of life measure that helps with improving item organization. Keep in mind that once you craft new items, the new items are now in your inventory. You will have to get into a habit of dumping everything as soon as you get back and making another trip to the storage before you leave again.

It is important to know that each settlement has its own unique storage. If you decide to move to a different city, you will have to bring all of your resources with you. One way to overcome this is to always set your “Inn” at the same city that you have all of your resources. Choose your city very carefully as well – usually one of the ones in the middle of the map are the most popular.

5. Craft Iron tools

Tier 2 tools are very easily accessible early game. These improved tools will speed up the gathering process much more than basic tools and there really is no reason not to craft them. Once you get to the first settlement, you can easily create a set of these tools just from resources you pick up on the way.

6. Push to level 30 before grinding Tradeskills

By the time you hit Level 30, you will have experienced enough of the game to know more about what you want to dedicate your time to. I initially really liked the magic in this game and spent half the day grinding out gathering and arcana only to realize that I enjoyed the sword/shield and smithing aspect much more. One other benefit is that Level 30 is when you unlock a second satchel spot. This increases your max weight to 400 (without other bonuses) and can help a ton with actually grinding.

At the same time, definitely explore as much as you can about the different available skills. Try out everything before you commit, but don’t feel the need to actually grind things out until later on in the game.

7. Join a Company

New World is definitely a group-based MMO that has amazing benefits for those who decide to party up. EXP is not currently split between team members, and having a group of people to play with helps you all progress extremely fast. Instead of killing mobs one-by-one, a group of you can take down multiple mobs at the same time. As long as you get at least one hit in, you will receive EXP. Many of the missions are also “Kill X amount of monsters” type quests, and landing a single hit on the mob will give you credit. Joining a Company is the easiest method for you to find a group of players to explore the game with.

8. Specialize Refining within the Company

Once you join a Company that you like, talk amongst yourselves and dedicate yourselves to specific refining roles. This tip is NOT meant to be restrictive – it just helps a ton with crafting and avoids frustrations. For context, the Auction House in game at the moment is not very well-populated with resources. To craft a Tier 3 Steel Sword, you need Tier 2 Leather, Tier 2 Wood and Tier 2 Ingots (Steel). If your company gets organized and splits up the trades, everyone will be able to craft whichever item they wish.

One added benefit is if you have a funneling agreement with a small group of Company members, you can each level up your respective refining skills much, much quicker.

9. Keep equipment that has bonuses to Trade Skills

In your journey you will find equipment that has certain bonuses like “increase chance of obtaining rare resource when logging by 2.5%”. Even if you do not think you need it now, having a full set of these bonuses in any Trade Skill will be very useful. Specifically for mining, it enables you to gather Gems that you can later refine and place into sockets. Without it, it is much more difficult to find these resources.

Another reason to keep them is that it is difficult to craft the ones you specifically want. Crafting an item with a specific perk requires you to add on an ingredient that has that trait. These items are obtained by gathering the related resources. It can take a long time to grind for the specific one you are looking for and it is much easier just to hang onto them as soon as you see them.

10. Scrap everything you don’t need

For beginners, the drops you get in the early game aren’t worth very much. You very likely won’t be able to sell them to other players and there currently is no way to sell them to an NPC. If you don’t need it (and it doesn’t have a Trade Skill boost as mentioned in Tip #9) then you should scrap it for materials. You will always need the extra resources it provides and will actually be of use to you rather than being thrown out.

11. Resources spawn in the same location

Once you find a useful resource, make a mental note of it or make a note of it on a PDF of the map. Alternatively, you can refer to this map here since it appears to have most of the resources annotated already. Crafting in New World requires using the previous tier as materials. For example, crafting a Steel ingot requires Iron ingots. This means that all of the basic resources like Iron and Oil will be in demand no matter where you are in the game. Making a note of where to find resources will be important to reducing wasted time.

12. Always have Food and Potions

It is incredibly easy to have food up 24/7 since you have the ability to set a camp virtually anywhere and there are turkeys all over the place. The basic boost to constitution and the constant heal from food is valuable to reducing downtime.

Having a supply of potions is likewise very simple once you collect a few herbs and some water. Potions can be used to quickly regain some health, but it does take some time to actually use. Unfortunately, if you are playing alone then it may be difficult to find a time in the middle of combat to chug a potion. However, if you are playing with a group then this minimizes your down time and enables your entire group to continue grinding.

13. Take it slow and enjoy the game

Try to take a step back and just enjoy the game for what it currently is. I personally really like the Trade Skills aspect of New World – I definitely spent more time crafting and gathering than I did actually doing quests. Every player will enjoy a slightly different aspect of the game, but do explore as much as you can before committing to a certain playstyle.

Conclusion

I hope that this guide has helped some of the new players transition into the game a little better. The game is currently not perfect by any means, but still has a ton to offer to the average player. If you have any feedback, definitely let me know in the comments below!

For more beginner tips, see our continued guide here. Any players interested in joining Wars are encouraged to see our Beginner War Guide here.

Please follow me on Twitter here for updates on guides and other beginner tips/tricks 🙂

Reviews

Conqueror’s Blade Review 2020

4 Comments

Conqueror’s Blade is a team-based MMORPG where you play as a Hero leading your own squad of troops in field battles and sieges against other players. You can freely switch between any of the 11 weapon classes and level up unique skills that are adapted to your own personal playstyle. A key component to this game is commanding a vast variety of units to charge into battle alongside your Hero. This combination of weapon and unit choice allows the player to have true freedom for how they want to pursue the game. Please refer to this link here for the direct Conqueror’s Blade website and this link here for the Steam page.

Currently, Conqueror’s Blade has entered into its 4th Season and has already made many sweeping changes to how the game is played. Many classes have had their abilities changed over time, some have received hefty nerfs, and the introduction of the new Maul class has also affected how other classes are perceived. Each season has also introduced new units specific to the cultural theme of the season. They are unlocked by completing specific quests and require a bit of a grind to obtain – not all players are a big fan of this method.

Key Features

Integrated Strategy and Action Gameplay

Conqueror’s Blade combines strategic unit controlling mechanisms with action combat using your hero. A large part of the game is obtaining new units and levelling up skills for your weapons so that you can better defeat your opponents later on. New players will start off with weak “peasant” units and slowly move their way up to elite armoured infantry or cavalry. However, the game also evens the playing field by attaching a “Leadership” cost to each unit and capping every player at around 700 Leadership (unless they have bonuses from crafted armour). This forces a player to think strategically about their unit selection and help reduce the noob pubstomping that would have occurred. Every unit also can be levelled up through playing with them. As they level, you can allocate points into perks that can boost their current abilities or cover their weaknesses.

Incredible variety in playstyles

There are 11 weapons in the game that each have unique abilities that dictate the playstyle of the weapon. There are vast differences between how each class can be played and these differences are further accentuated by which units you bring into battle with you. Some players like to combine a ranged weapon with a shieldwall unit to engage in frontline harassing gameplay, others like to bring in a unit-killing machine alongside sword and shield units to charge into the enemy flank. The game permits very creative uses of heros and units – it is entirely up to you how you want to play the game. Conqueror’s Blade adds a whole new level of depth to the gameplay once you begin to learn how to work with your teammates and combine advantages from your heroes/units with theirs. Some hero abilities can knock-down shield walls, while others can lock opponent heroes into hard CC – using an effective combination of hero abilities and unit movements significantly improve your chances at success. This turns the game into more than just a Dynasty Warriors clone and players that enjoy using their brain while gaming will definitely want to try this out.

Player Controlled World Map

Groups of players in this game can form guilds called “Houses” that fight one another in weekly Territory Wars to gain control of fiefs on the map. This control grants them the ability to change tax rates, determine who can actually harvest resources on their territory, and generate additional funds for their own members. Up to 3 Houses can come together to form Alliances that help each other in Territory Wars in both attacking and defending their fiefs. Alliances can also engage in diplomacy with other Houses or Alliances to advance their own agendas – promises can be made, but they can also be broken. It is a very realistic display of how politics can be used to build and destroy your fiefs.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Fantastic strategic depth
  • Large variety of playstyles and weapons to choose from
  • Unique unit-controlling mechanics
  • Houses tend to be kind to new players and offer support in starting the game
  • Territory Wars are a great guild-based PVP feature that has tangible results
  • Overall satisfying gameplay

Cons

  • Long grind to fully level up units and unlock the final tier
  • Servers have numerous lag-related problems
  • Balance of certain classes and units is a constant issue
  • Territory Wars don’t always work and can have bad lagging issues
  • Bad player experiences with the support team

Overall Gameplay

Gameplay-wise, this review will give it a solid 9/10. I grew up playing Mount and Blade, and this is the best multiplayer version of that game I have ever played. Unit control plus strategy plus unique weapon classes with individual skills is an ideal mixture for me. Every part of the combat seemed to fit together very well to provide a satisfying gameplay.

Server Issues

However, issues like bad servers definitely ruin some enjoyment. Having played on the Frontier version of the game, it made me realize how many of my issues with the game are purely due to lag and lack of responsiveness from the server. The game itself is fantastic, but the surrounding issues diminish it. Although it only occurs in around 10-20% of my matches, it is noticeable enough to cause a good amount of frustration.

Classes

Despite what other players might say about specific classes, I personally feel like a casual player can definitely enjoy any of the classes as long as they try them all out beforehand. Different classes are good at different things – if you force a certain playstyle then certain classes will still do very poorly in your hands. Find one that works with how you want to play and you will still have a great time.

At the same time, there is one specific class that I think needs to be changed given how much it is able to do. Maul is the newest class that has been added and it just seems to be able to do so much compared to all of the other classes. It can kill units, kill heroes, knock down shieldwalls, has a charging ability, and can also use heavy armour. Some players might argue that the main drawback is it requires great stamina management, but even with bad awareness of stamina it is still able to do a ton of damage. It will be interesting to see what changes will be made, but I definitely do think something should be done about this class.

Units

There is a great variety of units that can be viably selected. Some units are more meta than others, but there are multiple types of units that you can use to fit into your own personal playstyle. If you have no particular preference, check out our unit guide for starters to have an accelerated path towards end-game units.

The only unit that I truly find a problem with at the moment is the Falconetti Gunners. If you decide to play this game longer, you can easily recognize these guys as the ones that drop a rain of cannons on you and your units. Some players argue that these are easily countered by melee since they can’t attack units within a certain radius, but they still do absolutely ridiculous amounts of damage and CC at a rapid rate. Very little has been done so far to take away that crazy power, and so keep in mind that these types of units do exist in this game.

Territory War and Houses

Although I am not too personally invested in Territory Wars, it is a part of the gameplay that can be an amazing experience. Of all of the houses I have been in, all of them have been supportive of new players. Veterans would take the time to show them the ropes and teach them the basics of how to use their units most effectively. When you get into the War you genuinely feel like you are fighting a battle against other players and things can get very competitive. There will be a gap between a newcomer and veteran player in terms of ability and in unit quality, but working together as a team with your House is a fantastic PVP experience.

The Grind

One of the biggest issues I have with the game is the amount of grind necessary to level up units and obtain previous seasonal units. A friend of mine who started this past summer has dedicated around 250 hours to the game and has only levelled up 2 of his units – neither of which are Purple units. It will take a casual player a few months to actually be fully fleshed out in units and equipment. This in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing – there still has to be a progression that motivates players to keep on playing.

However, the method for obtaining previous seasonal units is absolute garbage. Instead of doing 6/8 quests or 8/10 quests, new players now have to complete 8/8 and 10/10 quests. Keep in mind that some of the quests are things like “Defeat 5 heroes in a single battle 9 times” and “Have 240 unit kills in X battles in your group”. If you don’t hit that number, you just have to keep on playing game after game. For me personally, it took a lot of the fun out of the game when I tried grinding for them. Another problem area is that some quests require Deathmatches or Free Battles. If you happen to have work at that time, you are out of luck. There are no substitutions and you will end up having to pay real money to finish the challenges.

Place in the MMORPG Landscape

Conqueror’s Blade is a one of a kind type of game at the moment. No other MMORPG has the same gameplay mechanics, although games like Kingdom Under Fire 2 does come close. It has a unique blend of strategic use of units and straight action in using your hero to demolish opponents. If you have ever wanted to play as a captain leading your squad into battle – this game does exactly that. Teamwork is also an essential component to actually winning battles – working together and using cohesive strategies is an immensely powerful tool to succeeding.

Outside of battles, the player can also engage in open-world resource gathering, trading on the marketplace, completing fief quests, crafting weapons and armour, creating unit kits to replace fallen soldiers, and even engaging in duels with other players. These other areas of gameplay do take some time to get used to, but add a great amount of depth to the game. While other MMORPGs tend to have their own version of these features, Conqueror’s Blade is unique in that much of these features are tied to the player-controlled fief system.

Other than the starting main city and two connected villages, virtually every other fief can be taken over by player guilds through Territory Wars. When a group of players come together as a guild (otherwise known as a “House”), they have the ability to fight with other Houses during set times in the week to take over fiefs. The owners of the fiefs can then set “Tax Rates” on the resources the fief controls – thereby providing another source of funding to their own players. There are numerous other features like the ability to craft advanced unit kits and guaranteeing a weekly payout to House members that make fiefs a very coveted late game goal. No other MMORPG currently has this style of player-controlled territory management that is this integrated within the gameplay.

With these features in mind, Conqueror’s Blade definitely still has a place in the current MMORPG community. However, there are definitely issues that have to be considered when a player is thinking about committing to playing this game for any reasonable length of time.

Is this game worth playing?

Any player interested in strategy-action games should definitely try Conqueror’s Blade out. It is a free to play game and the current season rewards help speed up progression in the early stages as well. My recommendation would be for you to play till at least level 60-70 to truly have a good idea of what the game is really about. Joining a House will also provide a better idea of whether or not this game is for you. Refer to our beginner tips here and our unit guide here to reduce any regrets early on.

My review is geared around the gameplay and whether or not it is actually worth playing, but there are more considerations than that when it comes to determing the amount of time worht investing. Definitely take a read through Reddit here for a good idea of why quite a few players are upset at the lack of support, questionable servers, and seemingly unbalanced classes. Keep in mind that Reddit is not a great representation of the entire gameplay community, but it can still be a good way to see why you SHOULDN’T play the game.

One thing I will say though, is you should definitely not spend any money on the game until you are at Level 70 at the very least. The game provides with enough bonuses early on and the money you spend really will not make a huge difference. The reason why I say Level 70 is that at Level 60 you will begin to be placed against higher level opponents who could make the game much more difficult for you – for some players the difference is enough to put them off of spending more time on the game. Another reason is that at this point, you likely will have joined a House and experienced a few Territory Wars. If this is not your thing, then the end-game won’t really be for you. Worst thing you can do is end up spending money on a game that you later on find out is not really what you want it to be.

Kijin Verdict

Come for the gameplay, leave because of all the other issues you end up having to put up with. This game will draw you in with its unique, amazing gameplay that engages you for weeks and weeks. Unfortunately, you will realize after a certain point in your progression that things have slowed down quite substantially. You will begin to see the server issues, unit/class issues, and how much of a grind the game will truly end up being. New players at this point will either be burnt out or will slow down their pace and allow themselves the enjoy the game for what it is.

My advice for new players is to treat this game like a marathon, not a sprint. Definitely enjoy the early game progress and fully immerse yourself as much as you can, but once you hit the wall like all other players have, take a break and come back.

Beginner Guides

For any newcomers that are interested in starting the game, here is our list of beginner guides to help with the early game:

Conqueror’s Blade Top 12 Beginner Tips

Conqueror’s Blade Best Starter Units 2020

Conqueror’s Blade Top 10 Strategy Tips for Beginners

Conqueror’s Blade Beginner Bronze Guide

Conqueror’s Blade Beginner Nodachi Guide

Guides

Conqueror’s Blade Beginner Bronze Tips

Leave a comment

Conqueror’s Blade is a PVP-focused MMORPG where you control a Hero with a small army and work together with your team to defeat the opposing enemy. More information can be found on their website here and through our review here.

New players starting out in Conqueror’s Blade usually experience difficulty with maintaining a healthy supply of bronze that will allow them to play the units they want. Often times the beginners are forced to not play their purple tier units since they can’t afford the unit kit cost.

I am personally not a big fan of min-maxing this aspect of the game since it takes away a lot of the fun. This guide will go over the basic tips that I used to maximize bronze gains while avoiding unnecessary grind.

1. Do daily and weekly quests

Easiest way to gain a good amount of bronze is to just finish the quests you get every day from NPCs. The three battle, five battle, and victory missions are the easiest since you can finish these without really thinking about it. Many players skip out on the other ones like the gathering one and the eliminate rebel one since it can be a bit of a hassle to go out of fief just for that. However, it is a decent amount of bronze for a very quick mission.

For a beginner, the easiest way to clear the rebel unit on the map is to bring a unit of archers and circle rebels on your horse. This can easily clear the easy rebels without any unit loss early on. Once you get decent cavalry, they can usually steamroll these units as well – unfortunately early cav can still take unit damage and is not advised.

2. Join a house

Most houses have a weekly stipend amount for covering the bronze cost for unit kits. It can range anywhere between 10k up to as high as 70k (as far as I have seen). For a beginner, this means joining a good beginner friendly house will massively alleviate stress from getting too low on bronze. It is never a good idea to just join the one that has the highest stipend of course, but it is one of many reasons to join a house earlier on in the game.

When you are in a house, there are also weekly challenges you can complete with your housemates that will give you bonus bronze. This adds several thousand just for playing the game since the missions are usually very straightforward and do not require much extra grind.

3. Heal units on supply points

Rule #1 for healing units is don’t sacrifice a strategic point just to preserve your unit kit cost. Locking down a point and sacrificing units is part of the game, it is perfectly fine to not heal your units.

With that said, take advantage of every opportunity you can to retreat your units back to a safe supply point and re-heal them. I do this most commonly with sword and shield units after a charge or two since this allows them to repeat their charges with minimal unit loss. The same applies for shield units after sustaining quite a bit of damage while on the frontlines. Be careful not to move your units back if you see your teammates doing the same thing.

Healing your units reduces unit loss and less unit loss means less bronze required to repair kits.

4. Cycle out your unit once you lose 3/4 of them

This is a very general rule of thumb that helps minimize unit loss while still retaining fighting efficiency. Once you only have around 1/4 of your unit left, your fighting power is greatly decreased anyways so it is best to move onto your next unit. Preventing a unit wipe reduces chances of taking kit damage and should be a priority when being conscious of bronze cost. Get into a good habit of knowing when to cycle out your units and it will dramatically reduce how much bronze you have to spend on your units.

5. Log in every day even when not playing

Even if you are not playing, do a quick login and collect the signin rewards for a few thousand bronze (obviously does not apply if you are busy with real life). Starting from today, there is a new 21-day login event that applies on top of the usual login awards – definitely persist with it if you can for the sweet rewards near the end. Doing this consistently will help build up your bronze stores to the point where you don’t really have to mind unit cost.

6. Craft your own unit kits (only if desperate)

Many of the materials required for crafting green and blue unit kits are very easily accessible via the market. If you are really hurting for bronze and don’t have anything urgent you need to spend silver on, consider making your own unit kits. Keep in mind that silver can be very useful once you get a lot of it, so consider doing this only when you really have to.

7. Play Siege primarily

At the moment sieges provide the most bronze per match of up to 4-5k/match if you get S rank. Expeditions, rebel camps, and field battles all provide lower amounts and field battles have essentially the same risk of unit damage. You should theoretically be able to do expeditions and rebel camps with no unit loss as long as you bring Spear Sergeants, but the amount you end up receiving makes it too much of a grind.

8. Bring only grey, green and blue units a few times

Purple units are harder to break even in bronze cost for and can be difficult to sustain upkeep. At the same time, you still need decent units to perform well for higher ranks (higher rank = higher bronze reward). Bringing only grey and green units can ensure you build up your bronze stores, but it really takes away a lot of the fun from the game since your units will likely be much weaker than your opponents.

Refer to our best starter unit guide here for more information about the best units to use early on. These units are the strongest for the leadership cost and will serve you best in grinding out more bronze.

9. Better rank = better bronze

This is almost a given – nobody plays the game to do bad. But keep in mind that higher ranks pay out a lot better than lower ranks. This means that you have to adapt your playstyle to not just aim for unit kills, but to also bring shields to get “damage taken” and to capture points. Another way to get on the scoreboard is to eliminate enemy artillery and back capture supply points.

10. Use Season 4 Units more

This might not be the most fun way to do things since it will end up limiting some of your unit choices, but Season 4 units currently require only 50% cost to replenish unit kits. Once you get used to their playstyles the units can be very effective – but occasionally will be underwhelming. Feel free to just use one of them in your warband just so that you have a little less cost to worry about.

Refer to our best starter units guide here and there is a section on the discussion of Season 4 units.

Conclusion

Earning bronze as a new player can be a daunting task, but it definitely does get better. Past around level 100-150 or so, you start to accrue a relatively large stack of bronze that allows you to play your heart out. You might not have enough at that point to bring T5 units to every single battle, but you can definitely be rich enough for a warband composed mainly of purple and blue units.

I hope this guide was of some help to those of you who have struggled recently! I’m sure there are much more specific guides out there on how to min-max bronze gain, but these tips are ones that I followed personally to still be able to enjoy the game.

If you are a beginner interested in learning about the other aspects of the game, please visit the following guides:

Conqueror’s Blade Top 12 Beginner Tips

Conqueror’s Blade Best Starter Units 2020

Conqueror’s Blade Top 10 Strategy Tips for Beginners

Conqueror’s Blade Beginner Nodachi Guide

Guides

Conqueror’s Blade Top 10 Strategy Tips for Beginners

1 Comment

Conqueror’s Blade is a PVP-focused MMORPG where you control a Hero with a small army and work together with your team to defeat the opposing enemy. More information can be found on their website here and through our review here.

Conqueror’s Blade is a team-based game that requires you to work with your squad to succeed. Personal skill is important to winning fights, but using strategies and supporting one another will win the game. This guide will go over the basics of the strategic components to the game and provide tips on how to incorpoate them into your own gameplay.

1. Push from multiple directions

Teams that group up all together are much easier to defend against. It is infinitely easier to just stack pikes and shields on only one entrance and watch your opponent struggle to advance. As the attacker, you will end up having a much harder time breaking through and getting to the point.

Attacking from multiple directions forces the enemy to divert forces away and give up certain defensive angles. Creating the threat of flanks adds pressure for the defender to move units to less strong positions. If no flanking movements are being done, the enemy ranged units are also free focus entirely on harassing any advances your team makes. This point is especially true on certain siege maps where there are positions for ranged units that cannot be reached from outside the wall.

Keep in mind that this is just a general guideline for when the defence already has units in position. There are certain situations where it will be better for everyone to just rush inside regardless of direction.

2. Watch the top of buildings and battlements for ranged units

Keep your eyes peeled for ranged units placed on top of any type of building. These units generally will have a much more open angle to attack your troops. If left unchecked, they can end up focus firing and eliminating high value exposed targets such as pikes or your own ranged units. On the defender’s side, this can often be enough to stall a push or weaken them enough for your melee teammates to clean up. On the attacker’s side, the high vantage point can be enough to take down defensive ranged units that are placed in position to watch the entrances. This will help your push especially if they bring Pavisse or Janissaries that can stun troop advances.

The priority in these instances is to use your own ranged units or artillery to either clear them out or force them to relocate to another location. Constantly scanning for these threats will enable you to deal with them before any major damage is done to your own team.

3. Protect your shieldwalls from CC

This tip does not apply to all classes, since it will not always be possible for you to stop your opponents from breaking the block on your shields. But whenever possible, do not leave your shieldwall alone. Many classes have ults that throw down units and your unit is essentially dead the moment a large opening is made. Having a knockdown or concussing ability handy allows you to interrupt your opponent’s abilities.

Even if you do not have an interrupt-style ability, staying around the unit helps reduce the total damage that can be done to them. Having your hero in the fight prevents enemy units from taking advantage of the opening and helps improve your unit’s chances of recovering.

4. Use Focus Fire on exposed units

Most ranged units have some sort of Focus Fire ability that can target specific areas or directions. If you are using a ranged unit, be aware of potential opportunities to pick off enemy ranged units or exposed pikes/swords. Most shield units will take minimal damage from you, but focus firing specific areas will work wonders in eliminating your opponent’s damage capacity.

For muskets, the volley function can be used to pick up quick hero kills since it forces your unit to sync up attacks – leading to burst that can be enough to take down a hero. These units have no problem against shields, but should still be used to eliminate higher armour troops such as Imperial Pike Guards.

Also be mindful that many bow units can end up hitting buildings if they are in the way. The units will continuously fire regardless and end up wasting ammo. Whenever you use Focus Fire, just stick around for another second or two just to make sure they are actually able to hit the enemy.

5. Never Charge braced pikes head-on

Sword and shield units will melt against braced pikes due to their lack of range. Do not underestimate the damage that it will do and do not assume your sword and shield units will even get close enough to deal damage.

This tip really sounds like a given, but I have seen enough players do this to warrant its place in this guide. Whenever possible, try to either go around and flank or use your hero to create an opening that the charge can be forced through. Head on attacks without any CC or throwdown will result in a waste of units. You are better off saving them until the right opportunity arrives.

6. Use trebuchets to stop reinforcements

Once your team has pushed onto a point or objective, a well-placed trebuchet can stop any reinforcements from coming from a certain chokepoint. They do not always have to just be used on exposed units.

One way to use it would be to pre-emptively trebuchet a doorway that leads to the enemy supply point when you see their units coming on the mini-map. If you sync up the time delay just right, the enemy movement will result in either several unit kills or a forced retreat by the enemy hero.

7. Capture enemy supply points to open angles of attack

This relates back to point #1 about attacking from more than one angle. If you are able to capture an enemy supply point inside of their city, you can use it to change troops to a “charge” unit and flank against the enemy shieldwall or ranged units. When this is done alongside several teammates, it can be enough to force the enemy to back off of their defensive positions – allowing the main force to push onto point.

The goal behind this tip is to disrupt the existing formations your enemies have in place. The end result should be that your other teammates won’t have to deal with multiple Fortebraccios and shieldwalls right on the entrance.

8. Coordinate pushes with your teammates

Whenever I use the term “push”, it almost always means as a group. Entering in with all of your units at the same time (from multiple directions) overwhelms the defense. They will have a much harder time eliminating units and will give your team a chance to set up a defensive position on the point.

It can be extremely frustrating to not have your teammates push with you, but absolutely avoid pushing by yourself onto a defended point. You will likely end up wasting your unit and accomplish nothing. As bad as it sounds, you are better off communicating with your teammates and confirming when everyone should be pushing – it can be as simple as a “push at 3 minutes” message.

One other thing to keep in mind is that there needs to be a good composition of units that are pushing. There needs to at least be one unit of shields for the push to be successful. No shields will make it extremely difficult to hold the point due to the lack of protection from ranged units.

9. Push before the last minute

If you are pushing in the last minute, chances are you have already lost. It takes around 15-20 seconds to capture a point uninterrupted, and the enemy heroes will almost always suicide on the point to delay your team.

General rule of thumb is to coordinate a push at the last 3 minutes mark to account for the time it takes for the fight and to set up a perimeter that prevents enemy hero access. This is definitely not a rule that should be blindly followed, but just keep the time urgency in mind once the game reaches this point.

10. Learn to effectively trade Leadership

Total kill count does not mean as much as total leadership eliminated – killing a unit of Fortebraccios is much more useful than killing 3 units of serfs. Depleting your opponent’s leadership while retaining your own will slowly tip the balance of the game in your favour.

Everyone only has around 700 leadership to bring to battles (some people have more due to bonuses from armour). In general, higher leadership means a unit is more useful to use. Eliminating a higher leadership unit with your own low leadership unit would usually be a net gain for your team. For example, if your Ironcap Swordsmen was able to flank a Condo unit and eliminate 3/4 of them, you would have effectively put your team ahead.

This does not mean you should suicide your units just to gain net leadership – team composition is still extremely important. This is just another decision-making tool that you can use to make better strategic choices.

Conclusion

Thank you all for reading and I hope that this guide has helped some of the beginners become more accustomed to the strategic aspect of the game.

If you are new to the game, check out our Top 12 Beginner Tips here and our Best Starter Units guide here! 🙂

Guides

Conqueror’s Blade Best Starter Units 2020

6 Comments

Conqueror’s Blade has a unique unit unlocking system that utilizes a currency called “Honour”. Beyond the green and blue units, it can take quite a bit of time for the casual player to unlock the next set of troops. Unfortunately, many new players end up wasting a ton of time unlocking units that are not very useful. This guide will go over the best units that a beginner player should dedicate time to unlocking.

Read our review here for more information on Conqueror’s Blade.

Skip down to the last section of the guide for the best path to unlocking these beginner units.

1. Pike Militia (Honour)

Pike militia should be the first unit you spend Honour to unlock. This unit earns its place as one of the best starters by being one of the most useful units at every stage of the game. When you are just starting out, it provides good damage against soft targets and is a deadly combo when braced behind a shieldwall. Later on, once you have maxed it down the middle veterancy line, it is able to stun and has high enough armour penetration to kill mid-late game units. Pike militia are also a very cost-effective unit that many players end up using to fill their warband whenever they have some extra space.

Pike Militia Veterancy: The veterancy for this unit should be the middle line without question. It provides increased damage/penetration, block formation for certain situations, stun when braced, and the final perk that enables hitting 1 additional unit per attack.

The downside to Pike Militia is that it is very vulnerable to archers and other ranged units. Always stack it right behind a shieldwall so that the wall protects the unit. Also keep in mind that it is still a green unit and will not have nearly the same amount of health/armour as the late game pike units.

2. Spear Sergeant (Honour)

Spear Sergeant is the purple shield unit in the Chivalry tree. It is one of the easiest purple units to obtain and has an amazing mix of damage and tankiness. A beginner player should unlock this unit early on because it enables you to complete any PvE activity in the game. Expedition 3 is easily completed using the Spear Sergeant and even Hard Rebel Camps can be done using only this unit. In PvP it is also a respectable unit that will stay relevant in the late game.

Spear Sergeant Veterancy: The most common Spear Sergeant veterancy line is bottom until you get the stun on brace and then putting the remaining points into the top line. The reason behind this is that the Spear Sergeant still crumbles against late game cavalry charges, and the damage reduction/increased damage is not as beneficial since they will die very quickly anyways.

There really is no downside to the Spear Sergeant. The only thing to keep in mind is that later on it will not be as tanky as the Imperial Shield Guard and so some players end up using that unit instead for tanking purposes. However, it has great mobility and damage especially when used in “Cover Commander” formation and can be used to quickly rotate to different locations. It ends up becoming a matter of preference for each individual’s playstyle.

3. Namkhan Archers (Season 2)

Namkhan Archers are the Season 2 archer unit. To unlock them, you will have to hit F5, go to Unit Challenges, and switch to Season 2. There is a bit of a grind since you will have to complete every challenge, but this unit is definitely worth it. They have good damage and a bleed that builds up considerably when stacked. In Conqueror’s Blade, a bleed effect will stop the hero from manually healing, which means that once you get enough stacks on a hero or unit they are effectively dead. This is one of the best starter units that racks up kills and makes grinding for experience much easier. The damage from the arrows is good enough to kill light-medium armour units, and the bleed allows it to take out the higher armour units.

Namkhan Archers Veterancy: The veterancy line for this unit is the top line all the way until the end. This picks up all of the relevant perks that increase bleed stacks and total bleed damage. The end result is a unit that is able to take out high value targets and force heroes to back out before accumulating too many bleed stacks.

Namkhan archers are also slightly squishy and have shorter range compared to other end game archers. 1-2 volleys from prefecture archers and the unit can effectively be wiped out. Get into a good habit of moving these units around and ensuring that other archers do not have a clear line of sight towards them. Also keep in mind that you can position this unit further back behind a house and manually select an are for them to fire at. Unfortunately, sometimes the arrows end up all hitting the house, but with practice you will learn the proper angles.

4. Condotierri Guards (Season 3)

Condo guards are a Season 3 sword unit that has excellent charge damage, ability to knock back units, and decent tankiness. Like with Namkhan Archers, you will have to switch to Season 3 to unlock this unit. This is the best sword and shield unit that a beginner player should unlock. It has many uses such as flanking enemy shield walls or directly pushing the site. The Shock Attack ability gives Condo an additional shield bash-like attack that does a small knockback on the opponent which allows it to further damage enemy units.

Condotierri Guards Veterancy: Either one of the veterancy lines would be good depending on your personal preference and playstyle. Reducing cooldowns in general will be suitable for whether you like to charge more or brawl more. Also be aware that there may or may not be changes to this unit in the future since they are currently extremely powerful and might end up getting nerfed by the time you read this guide.

The downside to this unit is that it bashes its shield so damn loud that your opponent will hear your sneaky flank a mile away. Jokes aside, there really isn’t much of a downside to this unit. It does exactly what you would want a sword and shield unit to do and the stats are all very good.

5. Imperial Spear Guard (Free Unlock Token)

Once you finish all of the Season 4 “Wages of War” challenges in the top right section, the game will give you an item called “Wealth of Anadolou” that allows you to recruit one of the purple units. I heavily recommend you spending that on unlocking Imperial Spear Guards as a beginner. The reason behind this is that the units leading up to the Imperial Spear Guard are fairly weak and there really is no reason to level those units up. It is also unlikely that a new player will be spending any honour on the extra upgrade nodes and so not unlocking previous units will have no impact.

Imperial Spear Guard Veterancy: The bottome veterancy line is much better than the top line if you use the shield wall (which you should be). On top of increasing damage and increasing defence (final perk increases all defence by 20%), the bottom line also prevents stunning from ordinary attacks, gives the units shield bash (with possible knock down), and a heal. The top line is more geared towards players that like to move with the unit, but you definitely should not be doing that with Imp Spears.

Imperial Spear Guards are one of the most important late game units. They are an extremely tanky shield unit that is very commonly used in Territory Wars and any sort of siege setting. The large shields and thick armour protect it from ranged fire, and the block on the unit can sustain quite a bit of melee damage before breaking. When this unit is used in conjunction with a pike unit, it can very effectively hold down any point.

The downside to this unit is that it is extremely slow moving. Rotating to a different site can take a very long time and they will be vulnerable to enemy ranged or cavalry attack.

6. Imperial Pike Guards (Honour)

Imperial Pike Guards are a heavily armoured pike unit that can deal a lot of damage to any unit (shielded or otherwise). This unit is particularly known for its “Advance” ability where it essentially turns into a walking braced pike unit. It is very effective at eliminating any unit in front of it – including shield walls. It is for this reason that it is also commonly used as a set of pikes behind a shield wall to prevent enemy advance. They are one of the best starter units to aim for because of its usefulness in both Sieges and Territory Wars.

Imperial Pike Guards Veterancy: The veterancy line for this unit should be the the top line so that it cannot be CC’d while advancing and has increased damage reduction/damage while advancing. The goal is to improve this unit’s ability to eliminate any units in its path and prevent it from being interrupted while doing so. It is particularly useful at clearing out enemy units on the point or the entrance (both on offence and defence) since it covers quite a large area.

The downside to this unit is that despite the armour, it is still very vulnerable to attack from the sides or from ranged units. It should always be used alongside ally units, otherwise it will die fairly quickly. Typically you would use the “Advance” ability and then brace once you are right in front of the enemy.

7. Fortebraccio Pikemen (Season 3)

For new players, getting the fort pikes can be a long grind and so definitely feel free to finish up the other units on this list first. But once you do that, I would definitely recommend coming back for these units. Conqueror’s Blade is a team game that requires a mix of units that each fulfill a role in the team. Without a doubt, the Fortebraccio Pikes are the absolute best unit to hold down an entrance. The damage it does is ridiculous and it is capable of deleting enemy heroes if they even move slightly into its way. You would typically place it adjacent to the opening so that only the end of the pikes stick out into the doorway – this prevents ranged units from hitting your units while still preventing easy entry.

Fortebraccio Pikemen Veterancy: Top veterancy line is much better for braced pikes. Other than increased damage/penetration, the most important perk is the final one that increases number of enemies hit with one attack by 1. For a braced unit that is protecting the point or entrance, increasing the number of units it can hit at once will substantially improve how well it can hold the point.

The downside to this unit is that it is slow moving, is fairly weak when unbraced, and is extremely vulnerable to flanking/ranged. It is important to place it behind a shield wall whenever possible and to avoid placing it in the open where it can easily be flanked. When using them properly, you can hit “X – hold ground” slightly in front of the enemy and brace the unit. This allows the long pikes to hit the enemy and mow their entire unit down. Just be careful regarding your timing so that the enemy units don’t end up already at your pikes.

8. Janissaries (Season 4)

Janissaries have excellent piercing penetration, piercing damage, range, and rate of fire once you level them up. The “Patient Snipers” buff of up to 15% increased damage is also nice. However, there are some strange issues with aiming vertically and so they can really only be used against enemies at the same elevation. The “Slug Shot” is also very useful in stopping charges since every bullet has a chance to be a mini-stun. The fact that it is a Season 4 unit is also great since you can do the “Wages of War” challenges at the same time.

Janissaries Veterancy: It is a bit of a tossup due to the ambiguity of what “Increases chances of inflicting Dazed by 10%” actually means. I personally went top line since every single one of the upgrades would be relevant and I don’t particularly care for 3 points going towards movement speed in the bottom line. Adding 2 additional soldiers to an 18 person unit is also a really nice upgrade as well.

Like mentioned above, the biggest issue with this unit is that it sometimes won’t hit units at other elevations. There is also a matter of efficiency since it takes some time for the unit to set up the stand in order to shoot, and same thing for when it has to pack up and move. This might affect you if you have problems with positioning, but if it is left in place it does some really great damage.

Special Mention: Serfs (5x Level 7 for Gathering)

Serfs are not very useful for anything other than gathering. However, they provide the best gathering ability out of all of the units in the game. Once you have progressed to a point where you would like to gather materials instead of buying off the market, having a full set of Serfs will be very useful. Unfortunately, you can only level them up one at a time in each battle and so it is best to start this process very early on in the game. If you do not care about crafting at all, then feel free to ignore this part of the guide.

Serfs Veterancy: The veterancy for this unit will be the bottom line until you hit the 20% increase in gathering. Once you have that, start leveling up the next Serf. Once you have all 5 Serfs levelled up, your gathering in the open world will be much, much more profitable. Although I tell you to level up 5 Serf units, I would recommend bringing one actual unit to protect your warband.

Season 4 Units Discussion

Although the Azaps sounds really good on paper, in practice it is much harder to use to its full potential. It is currently outclassed by the Condotierri Guards and can maybe go even with them if the abilities are activated appropriately. Once you take into account the fact that Condo Guards are 170 leadership and Azaps are 230, the extra 60 leadership could be much better used elsewhere. It can still be useful at specific parts of the game, but definitely would not recommend a beginner picking these units up until later on.

Silahdars have not yet been released on the NA version of Conqueror’s Blade and so we don’t know how useful they are yet. However, the feedback from the Frontier version of the game seems to suggest that they are in need of a buff. We will have to wait and see where it fits into the game once it comes to our servers.

Path for Unlocking Beginner Units

Start off by unlocking Pike Militia right away and switching to Season 2 so that you are working on the Namkhan Archer Challenges.

Unlock the Spear Sergeants as soon as you have enough Honour to do so.

Once you are done Namkhan Archers, switch to Season 3 and unlock the Condotierri Guards. Move on to Season 4 before unlocking Fortebraccio since it will take quite a bit more time.

Season 4 unit priority will be Janissaries and completing as much of the “Wages of War” challenges as you can. The honour that you have saved up during this time should be spent on working towards Imperial Pike Guards. Keep working at Season 4 units until you fully finish “Wages of War” and use the final token on Imperial Spear Guards.

Finally, move back to Season 3 and unlock Fortebraccio Pikemen.

If you are interested in gathering/crafting later on in the game, start leveling up Serfs right at the very beginning. Even if you don’t end up using them, having them in the warband will still give them some EXP.

Conclusion

Many of the other units can definitely be very useful in the game, but these are the ones that form the current meta. Following this guide will help optimize your path to successfully playing against veterans and avoid wasting honour on useless units.

For more beginner guides, see our list of Conqueror’s Blade Top 12 Beginner Tips.

Guides

Conqueror’s Blade Top 12 Beginner Tips

3 Comments

Conqueror’s Blade is a PVP-focused MMORPG where you control a Hero with a small army and work together with your team to defeat the opposing enemy. More information can be found on their website here and on our review here. This is a list of the top tips that every beginner should know.

If you are interested in starting Conqueror’s Blade, now is a pretty good time since they are running a 50% Exp boost event from now until August 18th as well as a Twitch Drops event until August 12th. For new players, the early game tutorial covers the basics of how to actually play the game and manage your units. Early on you will also be playing against bots which will make killing enemy units a breeze. Unfortunately, once you hit a certain level then you start getting matched against real players. This also gets progressively more difficult as you level up your hero since you will start to be placed against the veteran players with years of experience and end game units.

Tip #1: Spend time trying all of the classes

Conqueror’s Blade currently has a total of 11 weapon classes for you to try. Each one has its own unique playstyle, strengths, and weaknesses. Unfortunately with how the game is set up, you don’t really feel the ins and outs of a class until you unlock the higher tier skills. For example, the Poleaxe is an absolute CC machine once you unlock all of the skills – but some of the effects like knocking opponents down don’t appear until you fully max it out. Without the knockdown, you might feel like it is a slow and clunky class that can’t even lock someone down. But the moment you get that first combo going, it is going to feel much much more satisfying to play.

With that in mind, all new players should be open to exploring multiple classes throughout their entire gameplay. It is also important to consider that when you begin playing against higher tier troops, their armour tends to also get tougher. Some classes that excel in the early game might not have the same god-like ability later on. Just keep that in mind and be flexible for long term gameplay!

One caveat is that if you are interested in the Maul class it can be a bit of a pain since you have to switch your seasonal progress to Season 3 in order to unlock it. There is also a fairly long grind involved with completing a ton of missions to fully unlock all of the skills – which in itself isn’t too bad except for a few specific missions that don’t add to gameplay. The more important downside is that while you are unlocking progress on the Maul, you cannot contribute to unlocking this season’s units.

If you are interested in learning to play Nodachi specifically, see the guide listed here.

Tip #2: Join a House

Joining a good house is a great way to find people to play with, learn how to play the game, and it also provides some monetary benefits to help with unit kit cost. A House in Conqueror’s Blade is essentially what you refer to as a guild from other MMORPGs. It is a community that joins together during Territory Wars to fight other Houses and take over settlements. During day-to-day gameplay, most houses tend to also group together for siege/field battles and other events. It really is the best way to get to know others who enjoy this game as well.

If you go on Reddit, you’ll notice that sometimes there is a lot of beef that goes on between some of the houses. For the most part, this is a loud minority and the vast majority of other houses are much more chill and filled with great people. Also do not be afraid to join a more competitive house since they are usually kind to new players as long as you are active and participate in their Territory Wars.

Participating in a House’s Territory War and training for the war is also the absolute best way to develop your strategic skills and map awareness. When you are in the discord chat, there is usually someone who does shot calling for the battles. Listen very closely to their instructions and thought process and try to follow along in your head with your own analysis. Many times they will call out things like “Cav flank north – need one unit of pikes from east to move north” or “exposed ranged at ping, need a cav flank” and you will be expected to follow their instructions. With time, you will begin to learn the flow of combat and be able to prepare your units accordingly.

Tip #3: Max out Pike Militia and Spear Sergeant ASAP (and maybe Woodcutter)

Pike militia is one of the early units you can unlock that will stay relevant in the endgame. When fully maxed out (veterancy middle line), it can deal some serious damage even to some of the more heavily armoured units. It will eventually get replaced with other late game pike units, but it still has a place as a budget filler option. No other low tier unit has the same longevity as this one, so keeping it as part of your warband early on has its benefits.

In terms of how to use them, ideally you would place them slightly behind a shield wall and brace them. This allows your units to be protected from enemy ranged fire while having the pikes poking out in front of the shields to deal damage. They can also sometimes be used semi-offensively by advancing them forward using “X – hold position” and hitting the brace button right when they are within range of enemy troops. Be warned, this can often times get your unit wiped if you mistime it even by a little bit. Definitely prioritize using them in tandem with shieldwalls and not offensively on its own. Furthermore, ranged fire will kill your pike militia very fast and so either place them behind cover or a shield wall.

Spear Sergeant is one of the easiest end game units that you can obtain fairly early on. It is extremely useful in both PvE and PvP situations. The stats are relevant throughout the entire game and can allow you to do very well in Expeditions. It provides both good offence and defence – allowing you to use them as both a shieldwall and a “cover commander” unit. It is also one of the easiest units that you can use for Rebel Camps since it has enough defence to stay alive in Hard camps and can still delete rebel troops.

The woodcutter is my go-to expendable unit for pushing siege towers/battering rams. It is a bit of a meme to be honest, but they do have some uses as suicide infantry after their initial job is done. When fully maxed out, they have the ability to form a column and charge. Their armour penetration is honestly not bad for a unit that is only worth 40 leadership and can potentially take down enemy units worth much more. You don’t necessarily have to aim to max it, but it is definitely a useful unit for when you don’t have leadership room for anything else.

See our list of best starter units and veterancy lines here.

Tip #4: Buy another horse

If you just have the horse you started out with, it is worth investing in at least one more horse. During battles having a horse can literally be the difference between life and death. Having another horse for when your first one dies provides you with additional offensive and defensive opportunities.

On top of the mobility advantage, having a horse also allows you to escape from dangerous situations by allowing you to use them to jump from dangerous heights. They are also a great way for you to sneak up and flank behind enemy ranged units to get rid of them. In some situations, they can also be used to stall for time on the point itself to interrupt enemy capture since it is much more difficult to catch – allowing you to buy your team some valuable time.

Unfortunately, the higher level horse (which is the one you should be getting) can be quite expensive for a new player. I wouldn’t recommend getting more than one additional horse due to this since you are likely to be tight for Bronze early game.

Tip #5: Artillery is your friend – use them

For both siege and field battles, artillery can have a huge influence on winning and losing. Differnt artillery types are good for different things, but generally having a culverin is a good option for general usage. Artillery is generally used to eliminate units, force heroes to back up and heal (ballista head shots can 1 hit kill), and pressure the team to give up advantageous positions.

When attacking, placing artillery with a clear vantage point of the openings and the point itself can apply pressure for your opponent to either push out and eliminate the artillery, give up placing units on the point, or to sacrifice their units to your artillery shots. Regardless of which one you choose, the damage you can do at this stage in the fight will help whittle down their useful units and soften them for advance. If you imagine this like a realistic medieval siege battle, it serves the exact same function to disorient and weaken enemy forces ahead of an infantry push.

When on defence, placing the artillery has a bit more flexibility. Some people like to be more aggressive and place them directly in the open facing the enemy forces to force them back. The risk here is that enemy archers or artillery will have a clear shot at you, but it gives you a chance to retake artillery advantage and control of the point if you can kill their artillery first. In other cases, some people place it adjacent and slightly further away to the chokepoints so that the moment their infantry enter they get an artillery shot to the face. This also slows down their push and enables your own infantry to bring them down easier.

For starters, you should have some artillery from quests that you should be using. When you run out of those, do NOT get them from the artillery NPC – either craft them yourself or buy them from the market. It is much much cheaper this way.

Tip #6: Communicate with your team

When you see suspicious movement or large groups of enemies grouping up and you’re the only one around, use your pings on the map or directly type it out in chat. Not everyone is watching the mini-map as attentively as they should, and giving these reminders helps the team work together. Of course, don’t overdo it and annoy your team – be respectful at all times. It is also helpful to ask your team (very nicely) to bring certain units like more ranged, pike, or shields if you notice a skewed unit composition.

Please also use the chat to coordinate pushes and mention objectives that need to be done. For example, asking your team to push with you onto a flanking supply point helps secure an additional attack direction that can be used to help coordinate the next push. Helping each other and working together is one of the biggest differences between winning and losing teams. Almost all of the winning battles I have been in have involved a cohesive push with everyone working together.

It is extremely important to not be bossy or rude to your teammates – guaranteed they will not listen to you if you are. Just remember, nobody likes the one guy that is 0/4/0 with 12 unit kills calling everybody trash for not pushing with him.

Tip #7: Use your trebuchet very carefully

Rule #1, 2, 3, 4, 5 – never, ever, ever trebuchet your own teammates. Always, always be absolutely sure you are trebucheting the enemy units when you are clicking that button. When you are lining up the shot, know that the lines have to be green for the shots to actually have a chance at landing on the intended location. However, just because it is green doesn’t mean it will land. I don’t know why but occasionally they will still hit buildings as they come down.

One other thing to keep in mind is that if the lines themselves are close to you or your teammates, chances are they will hit them instead of hitting the enemy. This is especially dangerous on the siege towers where new players have a tendency to try to line up a shot in front of the siege tower on the wall. 9 times out of 10 one of the trebuchet shots will land directly on the siege tower itself and wipe out a ton of your units.

That being said, trebuchets are an extremely useful tool for a variety of purposes. They can be used to clear the point, eliminate ranged troops, or even to deny enemy units from reinforcing the point. For beginners, just focus on learning how to line up the shot and try to clear out large groups of enemies if possible. Once you are comfortable with the lining up, knowing the timing of the shots can also help you hit moving groups of enemies. This is most commonly used on chokepoints when you have already started pushing on point and want to prevent enemy units from coming in.

Tip #8: Learn to dodge and know when to run

In Conqueror’s Blade, you dodge by double tapping one of the directional keys. Dodging is always very situational, but in general you should always be attempting to dodge out of enemy CC and spamming dodge when you are already CC’d.

When trying to avoid CC, it takes quite a bit of practice and understanding of other classes and what they can do to you. In general, if a Poleaxe or Maul walks up to you, try to dodge away if you can’t CC them first. If you’re caught by a Poleaxe, most builds tend to run at least 2 CC abilities that can lock you down for a long period of time. By the end of it, their units or other heroes will likely have killed you. The Maul has this insane ability to just grab you and run – basically a death sentence if they have any units or heroes around. Other classes will also have some form of CC ability, but these two are the ones to especially watch out for when you are new.

If already CC’d, some beginners tend to not roll out as soon as they are able to because they think they are still locked down. Spamming the dodge function gives you a better idea of when abilities tend to wear off and gets you into the rhythmn of avoiding damage.

Finally, know that CC is king in this game and running is nothing to be ashamed of. As a new player, you likely will not have the 1v2, 1v3 ability that some veteran players have. Unfortunately, the moment your units begin to die out and you find yourself outnumbered, just run. While you are still learning how to dodge and avoid CC, any sort of number disadvantage opens you up to being CC’d to death. If you try to fight for a bit and spend stamina, you will inevitably run out and not be able to sprint out of danger later on. It is safest at the start of your gaming career to avoid this situation in the first place.

Tip #9: Craft your own equipment

Crafting your own armour and weapons is often times much cheaper and can get you better results than what you see on the auction house. The quest lines should be providing you with a few blue schematics, and the seasonal quests will provide a few more. Crafting your own equipment gives you a chance to proc for bonuses that you would have to pay much more for on the market.

When starting out you might not have enough resources to create your full set. You can either break down horse armour or run expeditions for chests that contain supplies. For dust, you can use your seasonal tokens in the seasonal store for them or try to get lucky with breaking down NPC armour.

For armour specifically, make sure you try to get the full set since the bonuses are pretty good. For weapons it matters a little less if you use ones that you get randomly from playing as long as their stats are not terrible. Later on in the game you can spend more time crafting and reconditioning to get the stats you want.

On a side note, the most valuable armour pieces are the ones with extra Leadership. With extra Leadership you can bring more valuable units to battles and it is a HUGE advantage compared to having a bit of extra damage or armour. Hang onto those pieces even if the rest of the stats are not spectacular.

Tip #10: Complete Specific Seasonal Unit Challenges

Namkhan Archers (Season 2)

Namkhan archers are a Season 2 ranged unit that has very good bleed damage that can significant stack up. They are relevant in every stage of the game and should be your first pick for seasonal unit. The bleed procs in Conqueror’s Blade prevent heroes from healing themselves and also ignores armour. This allows you to rack up quite a few hero and unit kills since most heroes have no built-in lifesteal. It is an overall solid unit that is worth picking up in the early stages of your gameplay.

Condottieri Guards (Season 3)

Condos are one of the best sword and shield units in the game at the moment. They have a good charge and the shield bash abilty helps increase their fighting ability even more. When used appropriately, it can take out some high value units and come out with minimal losses. It is also useful for completing other unit challenges and missions that require a certain number of charge kills or sword infantry kills due to its high damage potential.

Fortebraccio Pikeman (Season 3)

Forts are the units you see in game that have a super tight formation and long pikes. When braced in chokepoints, these units can often immediately delete any hero or unit that walks right in front of them. It can take quite a while to fully unlock these units since they are the purple unit from Season 3, but it is one of the most useful units you can currently use.

A key thing to remember for forts is that you don’t generally need to place them right in the chokepoint. Most players like to place the unit immediately adjacent to it so that the only part that is visible from the enemy’s POV is the extended pikes. This minimizes ranged damage to the unit while still blocking off the doorway.

Janissaries (Season 4)

The janissary unit is a powerful musket unit that was introduced recently in Conqueror’s Blade Season 4. They bring a good combination of damage, fire rate, and accuracy when levelled up. Not only that, but they also have an innate ability to proc a dazed effect which can help slow down advancing enemies. Altogether it is a powerful unit for a newer player to have on the roster and is worth aiming towards as one of the early goals.

That being said, I don’t currently recommend aiming for the Azaps since they are underperforming right now. It also takes quite a while to fully unlock them and the leadership cost is not worth it when compared to other units like Condos. Complete the Janissary Challenges and you should be in a good place.

For more information on the best beginner units and their veterancy lines, see our guide here.

Tip #11: Buy EXP boosts and Schematics in the seasonal store

As you play, the season pass will provide you with free currency that you can spend in the seasonal store. There are quite a few good items that you can get, but for beginners the Hero EXP and the Unit EXP multiplier boost are great ways to accelerate through the early game. Note that there is a separate Unit EXP item that provides straight EXP – might be useful, but the Unit EXP multiplier for battles is more worth the cost.

Having the extra Hero EXP will bring you to Level 60 slightly faster so that the attributes you have will be on par with every other hero. Unit EXP boost will help you max useful early units (Pike Militia) and enable you to focus on levelling higher tier units. Also keep in mind that once a unit is fully levelled, it will no longer take EXP. The recommended option is to max Pike Militia and bring it to every battle as a powerful unit that rakes in kills for other units to benefit from.

After getting EXP boosts, prioritize getting as many blue schematics as you can. This is extremely important for crafting equipment and re-conditioning them later on in the game. Unfortunately, schematics are in very short supply once you use up the ones given in quests. The ones in the market are also very expensive – especially if you are a new player with little extra silver. Even if you do not need them right now, you will definitely need them later in the game. Get as large a stockpile right now while you can and your future self will thank you.

Tip #12: This game is a marathon, not a sprint

Even if you ignore or disagree with everything else I say in this list of tips, just remember that Conqueror’s Blade is about playing long-term. Unless you hardcore grind the game, it will take you at least a month or more to get to endgame heroic units – and much more time to actually max all of your units. Don’t let this game stress you out or burn you out in the first week. Take it slow and do not be afraid to reach out for help from your House or even from Twitch streamers.

It is perfectly normal to not completely finish your weekly or daily quests. If you don’t feel like running out of the fief to do rebels or gather materials then don’t! You can still make perfectly good progress just playing the parts of the game you actually like playing. At the end of the day, Conqueror’s Blade is still a game and one that you should be able to enjoy in your own way.

Conclusion

I hope that this list of tips helps smooth your transition into the game! For any veteran players reading this, please let me know if there are any important tips I missed and I will add them as soon as I can.

If you are a new player, check out our guide for Best Starter Units and our Top 10 Strategy Tips for Beginners! 🙂

Guides

Conqueror’s Blade Nodachi Guide 2020

1 Comment

Conqueror’s Blade is a PVP-focused MMORPG where you control a Hero with a small army and work together with your team to defeat the opposing team. More information can be found on their website here and in our review here. This is a guide for beginners hoping to learn how to play Nodachi.

Check out our Nexus Game Store for discounts on games and DLCs. Every purchase you make using our link supports this website!

Pros and Cons of Nodachi

Nodachi is essentially referred to as the “Meat Grinder” class where it specializes in taking down a massive number of troops. Due to its innate lifesteal ability, it grants you the opportunity to stick to a fight and continuously mow down enemy troops. Appropriate dodging and playing smart will keep you in a position to deal damage far longer than any other class – making you the perfect class for whittling down enemy forces.

The downside to Nodachi is in its 1v1 potential. Its reliance on enemy units for sustain and the lack of decent CC make it much weaker when fighting only against enemy heroes. It forces you to either run from the enemy, or engage in a battle of attrition. Experienced Nodachi players will be able to effectively take down opponents by outsustaining them, but it requires a more in-depth knowledge of when and how to avoid enemy CC.

ProsCons
Great unit-killing potential
Great sustain
Ultimate destroys shieldwalls
Can solo ranged units		Little CC other than Bloodthirsty
Squishy if caught in CC
Vulnerable to bleed stacks
Need to learn timing to be efficient

Nodachi Stat Build

I strongly recommend going a full Agility build. The reason being that if you play smart and learn when to attack/dodge then you should have minimal reasons for dying. You are not the facetaking monster LS/SS are, and you also do not have the benefit of having heavy armour. Going full Agility gives you the chance to maximize your damage against late game heavy armour troops and improving the amount of health you gain back through lifesteal.

HOWEVER if you are a beginner and have not yet had a lot of practice with dodging and reading your opponent’s attack patterns, consider going full armour or 50/50 for the time being. This isn’t something that you can suddenly learn in a day or two, but once you a practiced the most efficient build would definitely be full agility.

Nodachi Skill Selection

These are the skills I would recommend based off of my own idea of optimal playstyle for the Nodachi:

Tiger’s Claw:

Two large slashes in front of you – absolutely decimates low-armour units. This is the bread and butter of the unit decimation class. Each slash deals 129% base slashing damage + 1885 slash damage and using the skill heals you for 1200 health at max level.

Bloodthirsty:

Quick stab in front of you that knocks down the enemy troops and heroes. Also another critical skill in this build since this is essentially your only form of CC. Deals 86% piercing damage + 1258 piercing damage. Fully levelled will also knock down enemies, remove “Dazed” effect, and landing a hit gives you two points of Bloodlust (3% life drain effect).

Monstrous Blade:

Gives you increased lifesteal from all of your attacks. At max level, it transfers 40% damage taken by the enemy into your health and lasts for 14 seconds. Also consumes Bloodbath effect to restore 1500 health per second for 4 seconds. Some people like to substitute this skill out for one of the other damaging skills. Really up to personal preference, but I like the extra sustain this provides for me to continue to deal basic attack damage. The basic attack has a decent damage and hella wide range to deal damage to begin with, so to me the extra lifesteal to keep me in the battle is much more worth it.

Dragon’s Leap:

This is the best ultimate skill once you take into account the amount of damage you are already doing with other abilities/basic attacks. The main reason to choose this skill is that it absolutely wrecks shield walls and masses of units. If you time it correctly, this skill will open up the enemy defences at the exact moment your units charge in. Charges for 2 seconds then leaps forward to deal 370% of base slashing damage + 4869 slashing damage. Throws enemy troops and heroes and reduces damage taken while charging by 30%.

The other ultimate does deal more damage, but once you get to a certain level of opponents ain’t nobody gonna wait for you to kick their ass like that – you would immediately get CC’ed out of your mind.

Bloodlust/Bloodbath Mechanism:

This is the new unique mechanism that came in the recent patch. Bloodthirsty, Samurai’s March and Fearless & Steadfast all generate points of Bloodlust. Each point of Bloodlust adds a 3% Life Drain effect which is essentially your lifesteal. Once you get 5 points, Bloodlust is converted into Bloodbath where you get a 25% Life Drain and 15% improvement to piercing armour penetration. With all that is going on in the battle, I personally only really keep track of it just to know when to time my Monstrous Blade since the extra 1500hp/second for 4 seconds can really be helpful. The piercing armour penetration is nice, but really isn’t all that relevant since very few of your abilities here actually benefit from it.

Runnerup: Blood Oath

Some people like to run Blood Oath instead of Monstrous Blade now since it also refreshes the Bloodbath effect. Using this skill instead will allow you to be hyper-aggressive due to refreshing cooldowns. Instead of just doing your damage combo with CC and backing out, you can use Blood Oath to continue the CC on the enemy and continuing with another damage combo.

Biggest reason I go with Monstrous Blade instead is in larger battles with multiple heroes it is harder to go into multiple combos anyways. I end up rolling out of the way even partway through my initial combo since Bloodthirsty doesn’t always knock down everyone. You definitely do NOT want to get caught and using Blood Oath might trick you into sticking in the fight longer than you should.

Nodachi Optimal Playstyle

One way to think of the overall playstyle is a never-ending stream of hit and runs. Imagine yourself as a constant threat of unit annihilation where you can repeatedly take out entire shield walls, but only if you can avoid CC. Typically the damage done to you won’t make a huge difference due to the insane lifesteal with this build, but you are in danger the moment you lose lifesteal due to CC. This class and playstyle will allow you to continuously attack without having to go back and heal as long as you know how to avoid getting locked down.

Main Combo

Assuming that you are against 1-2 other heroes and their units, the main combo is going to be Bloodthirsty into Tiger’s Claw into 2-3 basic attacks and then rolling out. The Bloodthirsty should always be aimed towards the enemy heroes so that they dont have a chance to interrupt the rest of your skill rotation while you decimate their troops. There is usually enough time to land a couple of basic attacks at the end of it, but Tiger’s claw is the main damage dealer.

Basic Attack x 2-3

If you happen to miss the Bloodthirsty CC, you have to read the situation and decide your next move based on the opponent’s CC ability:

No Cooldown on CC ability or CC heavy class: Usually once you attempt and miss your Bloodthirsty, the skill would have brought you really close to the enemy and 9 times out of 10 they would try to hit you with an ability. In this situation, immediately roll out of the way then try to land a Tiger’s Claw before backing off completely. Worst scenario that can happen here is they immediately CC you and you get killed by their units while locked down.

As for determining cooldown ability on CC, it is purely up to experience and practice. Pretty much any class in this game can have a decent knockdown/interrupt, and so you have to just keep a general timeframe in mind based on when they most recently used their CC abilities. For classes like Poleaxe, I just constantly assume that they have SOME form of CC ability up due to how many skills they have.

CC Ability on Cooldown or little CC available: If they do not have the CC to either knock you down or interrupt you, continue with the usual damaging combo. The reason behind this is that your damage on their units will likely heal you enough to keep you alive and it ends up being free unit kills before you roll out of the way.

Large Group Battle

This situation usually comes up when the enemy is grouped and getting ready for a strong push (either attacking or defending). What typically happens is the enemy has a line of shields with pikes supporting it and ranged units slightly further back. Keep in mind that Conqueror’s Blade is a team game with a heavy focus on strategy. You not only have to keep in mind your opponent’s class, but also their units as well.

The combo generally is to activate Monstrous Blade, hit the shieldwall with Dragon’s Leap, hit Tiger’s Claw into the exposed units, land Bloodthirsty on the closest heroes and IMMEDIATELY get out.

Never ever try to attempt this combo without units covering you or the enemy is already engaged in fighting. Any decent player will immediately recognize the Dragon’s Leap and back away or CC you to death. Hiding behind your shield wall makes it hard for them to see what you are doing and if they are already fighting then chances are they might not be paying attention to you or have already used their abilities.

The reason for activating Monstrous Blade even before attacking is the ranged units (especially Namkhan Archers) can still kill you in the short time frame you are exposed. With the extra lifesteal, the skill damage is usually enough to keep you at around 60-70% health after the full combo.

You want to immediately Tiger’s Claw since the units are either on the ground from Dragon’s Leap, or there is a big gaping hole in the shieldwall that leaves the units beside it exposed. A properly timed and distanced Dragon’s Leap will bring you just behind these other units and hitting a Tiger’s Claw will help clear the remaining part of the wall.

Bloodthirsty here isn’t exactly necessary depending on situation, but I usually like to land an extra one on the closest enemy with potential for CC just to give myself some breathing room. Without it, the Tiger’s Claw takes up enough time for them to get up and CC me before I can roll out.

One other note with this combo is that it is particularly devastating when you charge in sword and shield units at the same time. Many heroes will be on the ground and the shield wall is exposed – leading to extremely high damage on everyone and everything if your units get in. If they do, then you can actually stick with combo and land a few basic attacks before getting out.

Likewise, if your teammates actually decide to back you up and rush at the same time, you can actually stay in the fight and go for kills. In this case, definitely try to land your Bloodthirsty on the closest enemy with the HIGHEST health. The reason being that typically lower health heroes are already dead with your teammates around, and forcing higher health enemies to stay increases your chances of racking up more kills + forcing enemy units to retreat.

Problems with this Playstyle and How to Overcome Them

Weak 1v1 PVP

This playstyle is geared towards squad based combat, and is much weaker when it is 1v1 with the enemy hero. Conqueror’s Blade battles can also be won by solely killing the enemy heroes and forcing their units to retreat. This is why you should almost always have your units nearby since your 1v1 potential is fairly low if your opponent is any good.

The lifestyle from abilities and basic attacks are not nearly enough when all you have to lifesteal off of is the enemy hero. This is especially important when you take into account that a hero has a ton more armour and the lifesteal is based off of damage the enemy takes. More armour = less damage = less healing. This combined with the fact that you really only have one CC ability that can be hard to land means you are very unlikely to be able to burst them down before they CC you to death. However, if you ever manage to get a Dragon’s Leap off (once in a blue moon though), you can go into Tiger’s Claw then Bloodthirsty then a few basic attacks.

If you do find yourself in a 1v1 situation and you absolutely cannot get out, your fighting style will be based off of attrition. No other class AFAIK will have the same level of healing as you, even if it is much weaker against heroes. Best way to handle the situation is to try to land Bloodthirsty, but if you miss then roll out until it resets. Without landing some form of CC, the enemy will just CC you back and then you’ll just end up dying.

Bleed Damage

One other issue with this playstyle is against Namkhan Archers and other units that stack bleed damage. If they are focus firing on you and you try to take them out alone, you are very likely to lose a lot of health from the bleed stacks. A fully maxed out unit can stack a crazy amount of bleed onto you and you won’t be able to lifesteal once the unit is all dead. No lifesteal + crazy bleed damage + mediocre health means you’ll either be dead or in a position for the enemy hero to clean you up. However, if they are already firing on another unit then feel free to eliminate them.

Conclusion

The Nodachi can be an extremely satisfying class to play if you enjoy absolutely decimating enemy units. It specializes in squad based combat and utilizes lifesteal to continuously stay on the attack. Utilizing this build and playstyle will optimize its ability to consistently take down enemy units, while avoiding capture. I hope that this Nodachi guide has been of some help for new and old Nodachi players. Please feel free to let me know if you have any thoughts or concerns about the best way to play Nodachi!

For new Conqueror’s Blade players check out our Top 12 Tips for Beginners here.

Check out our Nexus Game Store for discounts on games and DLCs. Every purchase you make using our link supports this website!

Exit mobile version