Please, introduce me to PvE combat.

[Adri]

Hey there! I've been reading the wiki and old topics for a while, but I could still use some help. I have a day old character in a small community and I would like to learn how to fight smaller animals, like foxes. Which abilities and attributes should I focus on? How can I unlock weapon crafting? (We are currently making leathers.) I only raised exploration and survival so far, both to around 15. Any help would be appreciated and sorry for the lack of new lines--mobile editing seems to be broken.

[Halbertz]

Hey there! I've been reading the wiki and old topics for a while, but I could still use some help. I have a day old character in a small community and I would like to learn how to fight smaller animals, like foxes. Which abilities and attributes should I focus on? How can I unlock weapon crafting? (We are currently making leathers.) I only raised exploration and survival so far, both to around 15. Any help would be appreciated and sorry for the lack of new lines--mobile editing seems to be broken.

You can kill foxes and bats using cave enterence. Just puch them till you have 30-35 opening, then click to cave to go in/out. Use your time to reduce opening on you. Repeat. To do this, you need like 10 points in UA. After you get skilled with combat mechanics and get 30 UA you can kill fox without that jumps.

How combat works:
You have 4 barriers green, blue, yellow and red (striking, backhanded, sweeping, oppressive). If someone hit you with green move, it will damage your green barrier (numbers in combat show barrier damage - 100 fully destroyed). As soon as you start loosing barrier you will start recive damage. Bat and Fox usually use move to hit your green, so use Quick Dodge to regenеrate your barrier, and punch to shatter animal green barrier.

About weapon - you can use bow, but it is much easier to hunt melee. Just craft spear (bronze sword will work too, but stone axe will not), and your melee (not UA) moves will have better range that all animals (few of them have range attacks). So animals cant swim, but you have boat to do it. It is not difficult to guess how it can be used.

[Adri]

You can kill foxes and bats using cave enterence. Just puch them till you have 30-35 opening, then click to cave to go in/out. Use your time to reduce opening on you. Repeat. To do this, you need like 10 points in UA. After you get skilled with combat mechanics and get 30 UA you can kill fox without that jumps.

I am not in a hurry about fox hides, would you still recommend learning unarmed combat? We are around metal level soon, so I assume I could use a metal axe and skip UA for now?

How combat works:
You have 4 barriers green, blue, yellow and red (striking, backhanded, sweeping, oppressive). If someone hit you with green move, it will damage your green barrier (numbers in combat show barrier damage - 100 fully destroyed). As soon as you start loosing barrier you will start recive damage. Bat and Fox usually use move to hit your green, so use Quick Dodge to regenеrate your barrier, and punch to shatter animal green barrier.

Thank you for the explanation!! This helps a lot.

About weapon - you can use bow, but it is much easier to hunt melee. Just craft spear (bronze sword will work too, but stone axe will not), and your melee (not UA) moves will have better range that all animals (few of them have range attacks). So animals cant swim, but you have boat to do it. It is not difficult to guess how it can be used.

Thank you, I will ask for the others to craft a spear then.

[Halbertz]

I am not in a hurry about fox hides, would you still recommend learning unarmed combat? We are around metal level soon, so I assume I could use a metal axe and skip UA for now?

The thing is, that from default you don't have any melee moves. There two ways to get them - ask someone (who has moves) to make you Combat Intruction, put it in study report and start kill animals or just kill animals without instruction. I guess you will pick second option, so just level at least 10 ua and start punching bats until you get sideswipe (for edged weapon) or full circle (works with any weapon). This moves will use your melee weapon to deal damage, but their "barrier breaking" abilities are bad, so you will not kill bear or moose straigth after you get sideswipe (or you will, but it will take tons of time and bleeding damage). Nevertheless, with one of this two moves, boat, weapon and patience you can kill anything less armored.

[nivelheim]

Just craft spear (bronze sword will work too, but stone axe will not), and your melee (not UA) moves will have better range that all animals (few of them have range attacks). So animals cant swim, but you have boat to do it. It is not difficult to guess how it can be used.

I managed to outrange a fox with sideswipe and a bronze sword but I couldn't do it to a boar. Do boars have more range or was I doing it wrong?

[Flameturtle]

Just craft spear (bronze sword will work too, but stone axe will not), and your melee (not UA) moves will have better range that all animals (few of them have range attacks). So animals cant swim, but you have boat to do it. It is not difficult to guess how it can be used.

I managed to outrange a fox with sideswipe and a bronze sword but I couldn't do it to a boar. Do boars have more range or was I doing it wrong?

Bronze Sword has a very tiny sliver of area that you can stay out of range, only a couple of pixels. Boar Spear has a lot more margin for error.

[nivelheim]

Bronze spear works like charm! This is a game changer

[nivelheim]

This legit feels like cheating. What animal would just stand there and take a spear to the eyeball. They seriously need to rework hunting.

[Adri]

Bronze spear does work great. I only hunted with a bow and a boat so far, but I am stacking up on those combat moves—melee will be next.

As for others, who are too scared to do combat (as I was), a few tips from a fellow newbie.

• Don't stack up on wounds, they will quickly deteriorate. Bites and stings, when various types are stacked, quickly turn into allergic reactions. Blunt traumas and such turn into broken bones. Those things heal very, very, very slowly. Don't save up medicine for "later", use those yarrows and ant pastes. I advise against Toad Butter as it leaves nasty scars, and getting Ancient Root is nigh impossible for us, casual scrubs.
• If you are healthy and you still lack armour/weapons, just go and attack an ant. Punch it twice, run away, spam your skills that decrease your green/blue openings (green/blue boxes on the top of your UI). Higher opening = higher damage. Run around, spam skills until your openings are below 20. Go back to the ant, punch twice (it can only hit you once in the meantime), run away again, decrease openings, repeat. If you defeat animals, you gain combat moves that you can use later. They only inflict ant bites, they won't break your stuff.
• If you get attacked by any lethal animal (like a boar or a badger) run to the nearest river. Drink while you are running, so you get enough stamina (put your cup/waterskin on your hotkey bar, preferably to number 5-9 or to F1-F9, so you can use hotkeys in combat), then cross the river. Even if you manage to get some asphyxiation, it is still better than dying!
• You can outrun a boar, you cannot outrun others, like uhh... foxes. Don't aggro them, unless you can defeat them.
• Snakes cannot get into shallow water, you can.
• Avoid anything that can swim, unless you have a rowboat. And even if you have a rowboat, just go around. Honestly, just don't mess with anything that can swim.
• Kindly ask for medicine if you have in-game acquaintances. Chances are, they are happy to help, even if you don't have the materials. I am happy to help, but it is easier to heal knicks and knacks and blunt traumas than broken bones and black eyes (and way faster, too!!). One of our in-game friends only came to us when he had a broken bone, a black eye, a deep cut, an infected sore, severe mauling and a cruel incision. How he was still alive is a mystery to me. We are still an early, small village, so we do have medicine, but most of these wounds could have been some yarrows and ant pastes instead of splints and gauzes.

Honestly, just go attack ants, it is a gamechanger. I was effin' terrified of anything that could hit me. Lethal animals are still effin' terrifying, but at least I am not piss scared of ants and bats anymore. And go ask for help, if you don't have teammates, idiots like me are excited to help out new players (as we are one of them as well!).

[Halbertz]

Bronze spear does work great. I only hunted with a bow and a boat so far, but I am stacking up on those combat moves—melee will be next.

As for others, who are too scared to do combat (as I was), a few tips from a fellow newbie.

• Don't stack up on wounds, they will quickly deteriorate. Bites and stings, when various types are stacked, quickly turn into allergic reactions. Blunt traumas and such turn into broken bones. Those things heal very, very, very slowly. Don't save up medicine for "later", use those yarrows and ant pastes. I advise against Toad Butter as it leaves nasty scars, and getting Ancient Root is nigh impossible for us, casual scrubs.
• If you are healthy and you still lack armour/weapons, just go and attack an ant. Punch it twice, run away, spam your skills that decrease your green/blue openings (green/blue boxes on the top of your UI). Higher opening = higher damage. Run around, spam skills until your openings are below 20. Go back to the ant, punch twice (it can only hit you once in the meantime), run away again, decrease openings, repeat. If you defeat animals, you gain combat moves that you can use later. They only inflict ant bites, they won't break your stuff.
• If you get attacked by any lethal animal (like a boar or a badger) run to the nearest river. Drink while you are running, so you get enough stamina (put your cup/waterskin on your hotkey bar, preferably to number 5-9 or to F1-F9, so you can use hotkeys in combat), then cross the river. Even if you manage to get some asphyxiation, it is still better than dying!
• You can outrun a boar, you cannot outrun others, like uhh... foxes. Don't aggro them, unless you can defeat them.
• Snakes cannot get into shallow water, you can.
• Avoid anything that can swim, unless you have a rowboat. And even if you have a rowboat, just go around. Honestly, just don't mess with anything that can swim.
• Kindly ask for medicine if you have in-game acquaintances. Chances are, they are happy to help, even if you don't have the materials. I am happy to help, but it is easier to heal knicks and knacks and blunt traumas than broken bones and black eyes (and way faster, too!!). One of our in-game friends only came to us when he had a broken bone, a black eye, a deep cut, an infected sore, severe mauling and a cruel incision. How he was still alive is a mystery to me. We are still an early, small village, so we do have medicine, but most of these wounds could have been some yarrows and ant pastes instead of splints and gauzes.

Honestly, just go attack ants, it is a gamechanger. I was effin' terrified of anything that could hit me. Lethal animals are still effin' terrifying, but at least I am not piss scared of ants and bats anymore. And go ask for help, if you don't have teammates, idiots like me are excited to help out new players (as we are one of them as well!).

Good to know that you are doing fine. One more advice:
If you have friend (with leveled surv) you can hunt together. Combat mechanics making quantity above quality. Example: fight with moose on 100 stats will be tough, but 2 people with 70 stats will annihilate it without chances for poor elk.