Stoneshard is a tough open-world turn-based RPG. Travel around the war-torn nation, execute contracts, battle, cure your wounds, and grow your character without limits. Have the freedom to do everything that you want in this amazing medieval world!
In this guide, we will be your helping hand for the beginning of the game. Let’s get started.
Complete Beginner’s Guide – Stoneshard
Prologue and Tutorial
First of all, as for any other game, go ahead and play the Prologue first. This is the Tutorial for the game. It has a surprisingly very good explanation and it will guide to through some of the encounters and things you will be seeing in this beautiful and harsh world of Stoneshard. Now after you have finished the Prologue we can begin with the actual game.
Pick a Character
The game will start you off as a hooded figure in a Tavern and grandpa Varren explaining that he had some bad experiences recently. This is where you will choose your character. You will have a choice of a few ones:
- Velmir – he is a Revenger
- Jorgrim – he is a Reaver
- Dirwin – he is a Woodward
- Jonna – she is a Sorceress
- Arna – she is a Maiden Knight
You can check out their backstories as well as their stats and skills on the right-hand side of them. There is no actual best character that will be better than all the rest. It is a very important choice because it will change your playstyle, and with that your actual whole game. They are all created equally and can find any role so just pick whatever seems the best for you.
Welcome to the Game
After you have chosen your character you will be in the game. Welcome to the amazing and very brutal world of Stoneshard. You are now able to do as you will. Literally. You can do whatever you want and that’s the beauty of this game.
Stoneshard is well known for its brutality but also connected to the freedom of choices you will have. You will notice small villages as you go, big towns, forests, bandits, monsters and etc. You can interact with them, decide to slay even some innocent NPCs, or maybe become a hero and help some. You are free to do as you wish.
Skills
Right after entering the game, you will open your Skill Tab. Here you will notice that you have 2 skills to spend. These starting skills are crucial because depending on what you choose at the start will define your character and build as a whole.
A very good recommendation for starters is going for the Aim perk. This is especially good if you’re playing as a ranged character. But at the start of the game, you will notice that the enemies will be dealing a whole lot of damage to you. So keeping your distance and picking them off one by one with a crossbow or bow is something that you might want to start off with.
If you want to go for the melee skills, make sure to first focus on the Combat Mastery or Athletics. This will unlock lots of Tactics, it will Buff up your character, and plus Debuff your enemies, this Combat Mastery also works with almost every build that you want to go for. On the other hand, the cons are that it doesn’t scale, and the early tiers don’t have damage dealers. It is also not as specialized as weapon skills.
Still, it is all up to you and your playstyle. If you wish just dump those 2 skill points into Two-Handed Weapon and go full berzerker style!
Weapons, Magic, Kicks
Every weapon, magic, and kick have different sets to them. Be sure to read their specs to find out your best one. Some may be better for range, some for damage, some for damage over time as bleeding, slowing down enemies and etc. Just the most important thing is that by pressing W you can change your weapons and skills. This is something that you should make usage of a lot.
A good tip for starters is to go to the Mayor’s house and he will grant you one free weapon.
Don’t Take A Contract At Level 1
Instead, go to the beautiful world outside your village. You should be grinding and farming some of the random Bandits you’ll be seeing around. Taking that first contract is a beginner’s trap because of how hard it can be. Also, it will lead to your death. Multiple times.
Grind out random NPCs that are your level outside the village and get some extra gear as well as money. Take the weapon from the Mayor and go on a hunting mission.
For starters, you will want to get enough cash to repair your special and unique gear set. You will start with them in your inventory but they will all be messed up and destroyed. Gather some coins from grinding and then find a blacksmith to fix it up. This will boost your early game by a bunch.
Gather Herbs and Hunt Bears
Pick up all the Herbs that you’ll see literally everywhere around the village. Unlike other games, where no one will want to buy the herbs, in Stoneshard you can sell them to more vendors, and depending on their rarity you will make quite a bit of money early on. Very good tip indeed!
When traveling looking for herbs, press ALT as it will highlight everything that is interactable in the world. Then just find Frid the Herbalist and sell all of them to him.
You will find Bran the hunter right next to where you start the game. Talk to him and maybe you’ll get lucky and he will have Caltrops in his vending store.
This will save you from a lot of tricky situations at the begging of the game. Just set it up behind you and run away!
Sleep In The Tavern
Go to the Tavern in the middle of the village and then pay the Innkeeper to be able to sleep for an hour. This will save you the game and you are able to start off your adventure. Always be sure to find some sleeping locations to save your game because dying is pretty common in Stoneshard.
That should be enough to start you off at the beginning of the game. We wish you the best of luck and if you ever need anything again, we will be here to help you out with our guides!
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