Ok, so after the PC release, I remembered that I had gotten DD as a free download from PS Plus quite awhile back. So, I thought, what the heck, I'll load it up finally and see what it's about.

Enjoyed the opening tutorial, had no trouble wrapping my head around the mechanics and gameplay. Got past the point at the encampment where you get your pawns and defeat the hydra, and now I can't do anything without getting my ass whipped.

Tried doing Lost and Found, got my ass whipped by bandits. Got another pawn, tried again, ass whipped. Thought maybe I should do some notice board quests, first one is to defeat bandits that are whipping my ass.

Did as many sidequests in Cassardis as I could find, thinking maybe it would raise my level enough to proceed, tried to defeat bandits again, ass whipped.

Am I just not understanding the combat? Am I missing something about controlling my pawns? Should I proceed further in the main story before trying more side stuff? Does the PC version balance things out a little better?

Any help is appreciated, but if your reply is something akin to "git btr, nub," move on. That's not helpful.

Thanks in advance!

Bandits will fuck your shit up real bad in the early game. I kinda just had to play it real careful and almost treat it like a boss fight, but it was still rough. After I cleared out that area though (the one up the hill where they roll the boulder down to get you), I never really hit a wall like that again.

It's good to try and pull or even cheese some of the bandits with arrows if you can. It's either the shield guys or the two-handers who can basically kill you in about one hit (probably both, but the shield guys are tanky as all hell), so you really gotta get in there, get some hits, and then mad dash away. Keep good distance from your pawns and quickly rez em when they're down, and don't worry if you're basically constantly running around to help them up, as long as there are some alive pecking away you'll bring em down eventually. It's more a battle of attrition, that one.

Maybe there's an easier way to deal with them without just fighting them, but that's how I did it. For the love of god don't venture too deep into that area without clearing out enemies cause there are a whole bunch of bandit groups waiting to learn you some. The good thing about this fight is once you take em out you kinda know the basics for dealing with just about any other enemy.

mmmmm Make sure you have a full party of 4 that's balanced. I don't want to spoil things, this really isnt a spoiler but ill tag it anyway lost and found is a timed quest, but you have a lot of time to do it. It has to be finished before you do a quest in the main pawn hub in the main city but the other quests in the main city should be fine, look it up on the wiki if you want to be sure cause if fucked up and never finished that quest on this run
What class are you playing as? What class is your pawn? If worse comes to worse, add someone on the GB forum and use their higher level pawn to help you out, can break the game but can also help you move along! Game is hard and combat has a flow to it the most games don't have

Im replaying on pc now and not far but what i remember most is when it is night time the enemies are tougher and in greater number. Also remebember to use enemy weaknesses have a mage that can cast an element on your weapons, dony try to tank as a rougue and dont try to climb and keep distance as a warrior.

having 2 mages is what seemed to do the trick for me

When engaging large numbers of humanoid enemies like bandits, treat sword and shield / 2-handed sword users with extreme care, particularly in the early game. They generally have far more hp and do far more damage than their dagger / bow counterparts.

Groups of bandits are very rough early on in the game. And that particular area for Lost & Found is meant to be done later.

In the early game it's easy to stumble across a group of bandits or wolves that will tear you up, i remember the Strider class being near useless until i got the ensnare ability but on normal difficulty it was still no joke. I played about 10 hours on the 360 before giving up back when it came out, now on PC i'm playing on easy, it can still be tricky so if you like normal difficulty in other games i recommend easy mode.

Another tip for the very early game, especially if you are either a strider or mage, is to have two pawns be fighters. The Pawn fighter AI is probably going to be better and blocking attacks than you if you're just starting out. Additionally, they are far more likely to grab enemies, drastically lowering their defense and making it easy for you to hit them.

If you're a mage, make sure to get fire boon asap since it is a giant damage boost against pretty much everything early game. If you're a strider, remember that you have a bow, and take advantage of the knock down ability and range of its charged shot that comes with vocation level 4 or something.

Yeah. I also had a hard time with the bandits. Having 2 Mages or a Mage and Sorcerer in the group makes a world of difference. I also switched from a Fighter to Mystic Knight which makes a ton of difference. Do some easy side quests. Great way to get gold and exp.

@slyspider: Luckily I did Lost and Found before I did Everfall. Managed to just edge myself with the bandits. I still don't get the connection between them.

@mordukai: There is none really. Some quests just get phased out as the main plot moves along. Come to Court is at least explicit about it nullifying a lot of existing quests.

@oursin_360: Climbing as a warrior is actually a great tactic.

Generally treat enemies as an active danger and not as a part of the senery like you can do in skyrim. Respect guys with big swords and guys with bows. It might be a good idea to read the wiki to see if you correctly understand a mechanic or a skill description as some can be unclear as to what it does and does not effect. Especially the way bonusses are calculated. Getting better gear and upgrading it is a big part of the game but you're always gonna need to play well to stay alive. Don't be afraid to just buy stuff from the shops, it will usually take a while to become outdated.

Notice board quests can be deceptively hard or easy and some stay in your log for 20+ hours despite just being a 'find item X' type of quest. Don't underestimate Ogres, debilitations or enemy magic.

And anything can die from fall dmg. Except ghosts. Fuck ghosts.

Yeah, the bandits can be rough in the beginning, specifically the groups in the Nightfall Crevasse area near Witchwood. But my general strategy which should hopefully work with any combination of vocations is this:

Take out the ranged classes first. Though mages and archers deal less damage than the fighters and warriors, they generally have less HP. The less bandits you're fighting simultaneously, the better, especially when the bandits can no longer heal themselves or blind you with their mages and you can't be staggered or picked off at a distance by the archers.

Also, stay mobile and remember that you can jump cancel. If you're playing as a strider, use Biting Wind to quickly hone in on someone. If you think that you're gonna get hit, you can jump cancel out of it and most of if not all of the melee skills you have. I believe that Forward Roll acts as a cancel as well. Same methodology for the fighter: Blink Strike to hone in, then retreat. Yes, you can mitigate some damage by blocking, but it's not a crutch to rely on at lower levels. As a mage or sorcerer, you obviously won't be in the thick of it, but if someone is coming at you and a spell is taking too long to fire off, it's better to float out of the way and recast as opposed to risking taking a lot of damage by getting caught in a combo as sorcerers are the glass canons of the game.

Other than that: Practice on them during the daylight until you're comfortable fighting them, especially if you don't know where the Chimeras, Ogres and Cyclopes are. And as for parties: Though one healing mage is enough to support you, a tank and a ranged class, I guess going with two healing mages is best until you're ready to play more offensively.

@facelessvixen: @sunstalker_solaire: @mordukai: @cikame: @jeust: @turambar: @jblonsk: @oursin_360: @slyspider: @theht: Thanks everyone. I'm gonna try a few of these tips. You guys are awesome!

Two things:

1) You can and should make sure you have the best armor you can afford, and have health potions on hand.

2) Run away. Keep chipping away and a gaining as much experience as you can with other trash enemies. You have to grind a bit extra at the start. remember to bust open barrels, chests, and other stuff. Sell junk to buy better stuff. After a bit of early grinding you will be fine.

Which difficulty are you playing on? I remember my first short stint with the game was played on hard and I was basically forced into playing the game in a way that was not very fun and felt mechanical, just to scrape by. I did some research and it seems the Hard mode is designed pretty much to really pit all odds unfairly against the player. Normal mode is still very challenging And fun, and the game seems designed properly around that mode. So I guess my suggestion is to just stay away from Hard mode until you finish at least your first playthrough.

I have no idea why some bandit gangs are just about the toughest enemies you'll meet. There is another group much later on that ripped me to pieces, while chimeras easily went down. I don't think anybody mentioned this yet, so here's a hot tip: I don't believe you actually need to fight the super hard bandits at any point to beat quests. It's an open world. If you can run past them or avoid them, you win. In the case of the bandits that have ruined castles as bases, the groups inside of the castles aren't actually hostile regardless of how you treat their comrades on the roads. It's tough to remember now, but I think I braved the forest and sneaked around to the beach side entrance of the tome castle instead of dealing with the horde on the road.

its almost impossible to die until the post-game challenge content. if you're getting overwhelmed just run around in circles resurrecting your pawns with no real repercussions. the lack of balance in this sense is one of the major problems with the game, imo.

@gamehaver: I'd disagree with that wholeheartedly. Its very easy to wander into an area with very tough enemies early on in the game before you have very many skills or curatives and the like. There's a reason so many people avoid the bandits on the road to the Witchwood in the beginning, or stay away from the 3 ogres in the quarry. Especially with Warrior bandits who don't seem to stagger as easy, or Strider bandits that use Skull Splitter. Even on Normal its easy to get overrun. Spamming resurrect on your pawns doesn't help if they're dying immediately upon resurrection over and over again.

Have also been having a lot of trouble early on, particularly with bandits, so I'm glad to read that this is kind of par for the course in the early parts of the game. Other than dying a whole lot, I'm having a blast with this game.

Do the main quest. Don't wander until you're stronger.

Yeah there's bandits on the way to Lost and Found that are very powerful. Some of the enemies in this game aren't really balanced well so I would definitely recommend just running past all the bandits on your way to Lost and Found. You absolutely want to do Lost and Found pretty much right away though because it will fail after completing the quest lure of the abyss, which is the very first main quest you need to do in Gran Soren, which will lock you out of a bunch of other quests later since it is the first in a chain of quests.

I think my biggest advice for this game is bring a healing mage, but don't think that they will ever save you from death. Bring lots of healing stuff and just heal yourself whenever needed. Really you just want the mage for status heals, elemental buffs and out of combat healing.

Also if you aren't worried about spoilers I also recommend checking out http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Side_Quest_Progression. It shows you when side quests (non request board ones) open up and when they will auto fail.

@irishranger: Let me know how the game is going. Would love to hear an update.

@mordukai: Will do. I'll update here with a reply when I get back to it.

Life has distracted me the last couple of days, and the PC release of Rise of the Tomb Raider is this week, but I really want to get back into it.