If you are new to the Mount & Blade series and just got Bannerlord, you might be feeling somewhat overwhelmed and confused about what to do. Don’t be discouraged because Mount & Blade is generally hard for newbies to start out in and has a steep learning curve. So with that in mind, here are some helpful starting tips for Mount & Blade II Bannerlord.
Number One: Save Often
Players should remember to save often while playing the game because you never know what will happen in this game. You might make mistakes cause an important story quest to fail, or lose a battle and get imprisoned and lose all your followers and some valuable items. Situations like this are where multiple save games come handy.
Number Two: Use Sword and Shield
One of the best aspects of Mount & Blade’s core game-play is how challenging and in-depth the combat is. When fighting in this game, making one wrong move can often prove fatal, due to how difficult the blocking system’s learning curve is. Because of this, we suggest players, when they are able too, to buy a shield and pair it with a one-hand weapon like a sword or axe. Using a One-handed weapon and shield will allow for players to have an easier time blocking in combat, while they get more comfortable with the combat system.
Number Three: Hunt Bandits
In Bannerlord hunting bandit parties can be an excellent way for players to farm both money, and XP, for their character and troops. For new players, we recommend going after looters due to these bandits being easy to beat while providing decent loot for beginners. Before hunting looters, the player should avoid recruiting too many troops at first, because with the more units you have, the slower your moment speed on the map will be.
It will also be fairly difficult to catch up to looters because they will be able to outrun you. So we recommend only recruiting ten soldiers to hunt looters, so you are strong enough to beat them while being able to catch them on the campaign map. Once the player has gained a few levels and some better gear, we suggest recruiting five more units so they can take on tougher foes while still being able to catch them. Eventually, the player can lower the campaign movement speed penalties by buying horses and leaving them in their inventory.
Number Four: Use The Encyclopedia
One of the most helpful features the game doesn’t outright tell you about in the beginning is if you press N, it will pull up the games encyclopedia. Within the encyclopedia contains information about various things in the game like game concepts, troops, heroes, kingdoms, and clans. We recommend players to use this to help learn about the game and all the various mechanics at work. In addition, players can also use it to help with completing quests, for example, if a player clicks the kingdom tab then clicks on a lord name, on the right, it will show where the lord was last. This will prove especially useful for quests like Neretzes’s Folly that require the player to travel all over the map in search of lords.
Number Five: Trade Rumors
A great way to make money in Bannerlord is by using the trade rumor mechanic because it shows the player where items can be bought and sell items for the best prices. To use this mechanic hold the mouse cursor over trade goods in your inventory or in a store, then a small tab will pop up showing various information regarding the item like price and weight, at the bottom is where trade rumors will be. We recommend using Trade Rumors to maximize your gold making capacity.
Number Six: Stay in one area
We recommend players to stay in one area and do quests repeatedly in the same villages and towns. If players do this, they will build up after a while a sizable amount of influence or relations with important figures in these towns and villages. This, in turn, will then allow for players to buy high-level units like Imperial Equities or Battanian Clan Warriors depending on the level of relations ( The types of units depend on the villages and towns faction). We highly advise players doing this due to it being a great way to avoid having to grind endlessly to level your units.
Number Seven: Use ALT
When the player holds the alt key, it will show various indicators depending on the player’s current location. While in towns and village locations, distance icons and name tags will show up above all of the influential people while also indicating if they have quests available. Similar icons will also show up for that town’s various locations such as dungeons, taverns, and workshops, etc.
For the campaign map, the names of faction or bandit parties that are near the player will be shown above them. For Battles, it will display information regarding the number of enemies and where they are currently (this also applies to your units).
Number Eight: Dedicate Quests to Companions
Dedicating quests to companions is an excellent way to maximize the amount of both gold and quests you can do at one time. For this reason, we highly recommend as soon as you can, get a companion from one of the taverns in towns, also make sure the companion has a high amount of levels, in Scouting, Charm, Roguery, and Tactics as they will require those skills to be sent off on quests. Dedicating quests will also be a great way to avoid difficult quests like Bandit Hideouts, while still reaping the rewards.
Number Nine: Tournaments And Arenas
Tournaments in Bannerlord can be very profitable to do but are quite challenging to accomplish. But if the player wins a tournament, they will sometimes win special weapons, armor, and horses as well as large sums of gold. It can also serve as an excellent opportunity to practice and get better at the combat system.
In order to join tournaments, players need to head to a town and go to the arena, then talk to the arena master or join directly from the town menu. However, if no tournaments are being held in that town, the player can always ask the master what towns are holding tournaments. He will then provide the player with the names of the closest towns to the player holding tournaments.
Number Ten: Practice at the Training Field
Another way for players to improve and master the combat system’s learning curve is to visit the training field. The training field is the same area players first saw in the tutorial of the game and can be revisited to master all the various aspects of the games combat. We suggest players visit the field and to get a better grasp of armed combat.
That’s all the starting tips we have for Mount & Blade II Bannerlord. Hopefully, armed with this information, you will now be able to carve out a slice of Calradia for yourself. Be sure to follow and subscribe to TheNerdStash’s various social media accounts for notifications of future upcoming Mount & Blade II Bannerlord content. See you later folks! And remember It’s Harvesting season!!