Although I recommend this game, there are a few things you should know about it going in.

- The "A Woman's Lot" DLC completely breaks a certain main quest cutscene and will cause an infinite loading screen near the end of the main quest. DO NOT BUY this DLC until you are done the main quest. I learned this the hard way and had to start over after forty hours on one file. (if you run into this problem only solution is to uninstall the offending dlc and start a new save)

- Even on normal mode, coming from games like Elder Scrolls, the game can be quite unforgiving and overwhelming, especially since it gives you limited quick-saves that could be helpful to some players. To have a fighting chance as a beginner, I recommend taking as many tutorials as you can stand and watching some videos on gear locations and combat tips.

A couple other things about the combat:
- Just buy a mace and bonk your way through the game (swords are cool but at the beginning kinda bad). Even a cheap mace does pretty good.

- Once you get the riposte ability the entire combat system can be boiled down to the Q key.

- FOR THE LOVE OF GOD do the training with Captain Bernard as soon as you can.

- Don't worry about having to buy high level gear. You're guaranteed to be able to loot some in the main quest.

- Buy a bow and some arrows. If there's a tough boss or group of enemies shoot them in the face point blank. Does a šhitton of damage.

- The Rattay Tourney is a great way to practice combat and get some rewards (winning it 5 times will net you some pretty good armour, and 400 groschen every time you win). You are given armour and weapons (just for the tourney) so you don't have to worry about damaging your equipment or being underleveled. All of your wounds are also automatically healed once the tourney is over.

Some other miscellaneous tips:
- If you wanna make a lot of money, buy some lockpicks from Votava in Talmberg (millers sell them too). They're a bit expensive but it's a worthy investment. If you want you can grind lockpicking so you can open Very Hard chests quicker. Use lockpicks to steal from traders and whatnot then sell the goods to a fence (a miller), or you can take them across the map for a while to make people forget that you stole them and sell them to a regular merchant, for a much higher profit than a fence would give.

- It's usually not worth it to investigate random events while fast travelling unless you're looking for a fight. Usually a group of Cumans.

- Unless it's a big scripted battle, being outnumbered is usually a death sentence. Sometimes you'll come across a group of very low level enemies with šhitty armour, but juggling enemies is very difficult and your best option is to break out your bow and cheese the battle.

- If you need to take on an enemy camp, stealth is your best option. Go in at night (a Nighthawk potion is very helpful) and stealth kill the enemies in their sleep until someone notices you. If you are spotted, slap on your amour and break out the bow!


If you don't buy the "A Woman's Lot" DLC (or uninstall it before starting your playthrough), and are prepared for a learning curve, then you surely will have lots of fun with KC:D if you like this sort of game.