Arena... how?

[DoubleDHZ]

I have no idea how to win a match in there.
My character usually dies, because I have no idea, how to heal between matches.
Then I stumbled over pugilism matches and found out, that I couldn't die there. But those are even harder as I get knocked out even sooner. Have yet to win a match there as well.

In the "Current Matches" menu:
What's the difference between Tier and Rank? Both columns can have the same value.
What are the difference between the match types? (Pugilism = Fists, everything else = weapons; that much I found out by myself)
Where do I see, how much money I have? It seems I have enough, because I can start any match, regardless how high the entry fee is.

 

[Homiccus]

You win by... practicing, I'm afraid. The combat is all about timing and coordination. Early tactics I've employed in pugilism is to step back when the opponent starts their attack and immediately afterwards lunge forward whilst keeping the basic attack button pressed. This will help you work out how targeting works as well.
Same early tactics work with weapons. Step back, lunge forward, attack.
Later you'll want to add variation to your footwork and attacks - like sidestepping and thrusts - but master the basics first.
There are some pretty wizard YouTube videos made by more senior members of the community. Have a look at the appropriate thread on the forum.
Correlation between tier and rank is that one determines how good the skills of your opponents are and the other - what tier of equipment can be used. Ie. Pugilism match will have Master and Inept listed, which means your opponent will have skill but you're both restricted to basic tier gear. Novice duel with Aspirant tier will require Novice skill level but restricted to Aspirant gear. You level your fighters' skills by fighting.
Setup your fighter's gear for every tier in management screen accessible from the message board on the left.
Pugilism is fist fighting. Fray is six fighters free for all where you can wait for the rest of them to knock each other out and just tackle the last survivor. Elimination is the hardest as you fight several consecutive duels with no rest between them - your red health bar and equipment scavenged off the field carry between these fights. Duel is simple one on one. Challenger is the same as duel but with no gear restrictions. Doubles and Skirmish is team fight 2v2 and 3v3 respectively. You'll need to hire some AI controlled fighters to participate there and they cost upkeep. Beast is a fight against... a beast. You'll see when you get there.
Money is displayed in your fight roster and on merchant's screen in the bottom left corner. Gold, silver and copper pieces, I believe there's 10 silver to 1 gold and 10 coppers to 1 silver. If you can't see any money on your screen this means you're skint. The game will only allow you to play basic matches until you can afford more.
Last word of advice - as soon as you can, recruit - not hire- another fighter from the roster and use him or her to fight. Don't use your main character - the first on the list - for anything apart from pugilism. If you let your manager die, you'll lose entire save.
Hope it helps.

 

[DoubleDHZ]

Thanks both of you.

Yeah, practicing is what i've been doing. But after loosing for 1 hour or more with no real progress my motivation went down a bit.

I like the videos (there's a little bit of overdrive on the mic, but it's not that bad). You seem to survive a lot longer than I do

 

[Cilcain]

Recruit more team members, anyone "on the bench" will heal during fights. Choose Pugilism if your people need more time to heal, since you tend not to get red damage in those matches.

Use the Arena practice mode, it's probably less frustrating than trying to earn and learn at the same time.

I believe Tier/Rank is about the tier of equipment allowed, vs the character rank needed in order to enter.

The best way to find out about the match types is to play I use a cheap hireling, rather than someone I've put effort in to developing.

See your cash on the Competition board or in the shop. When starting, I noticed I was able to enter matches I couldn't afford, maybe it's to stop you getting totally stuck?

 

[DoubleDHZ]

Ok, I identfied my main issue with this game: the camera.
Basically I would be ok with it. But the thing is, as I found out, to be able to put the full body weight into a swing, you have to pull back a little bit into the opposite direction of the swing and then move the cursor into the direction you want to punch/swing/stab/whatever. While this is cool by itself, I have to move the mouse in different directions depending on how the camera is positioned relative to me and my opponent. And that sucks.
I discovered that there is a "Cursor Look". I bound its hotkey to one of the thumb buttons of my mouse. That helps a lot, but I have to press it quite often.
Is there any way to keep the camera in place, so it keeps looking over my shoulders. Third person like. That would improve the situation dramatically.

Another question: I was playing for about two hours and I managed to win three or four matches. How do I gain rank? I'm still Inept with 1 of 5 points.

Third one: The inventory is extremely confusing.
So I have a inventory. Then something called "other items", which seems to contain equipped items plus some other items I don't know from where they are coming from. (I.e. they contained two pairs of cloth trousers, I only had one of them equipped. At some point I had three quarterstaffs in there. I had no clue from where they were coming, because neither did I loot some nor buy them. The only good thing about them was, that I was abel to sell them, which was nice.)
And theres an Arsenal. If I buy something, the item seems to go there. Wierd. I would have expected to have it in the actual inventory. Also is the arsenal shared across all characters?

See your cash on the Competition board or in the shop. When starting, I noticed I was able to enter matches I couldn't afford, maybe it's to stop you getting totally stuck?

The shop is the best bet. It displays at least the caption "Owned:". The "Current Matches" board is tricky, because there is no label. If you have no money, you see nothing. The could at least display a 0 (zero) or "None". @Madoc maybe something can be improved here.
I expected to have the entry fee or the missing amount deducted from the win money, if you start a match without cash or with less than the fee. But you get the full win money. Looks like the entry fee is just another incentive to not loose (in addition to death of the character and an frustration for the person behind the keyboard )

Yeah, I know my mic sucks.. Really sorry about that! It's a cheapo, busted headset and I have to wear it around my neck, lol. I plan to buy a better one at some point in the near future when I can afford it. I'm trying to save for a Switch and the new Zelda game right now. xD

It's really not that bad. Just a minor nuisance. And also just in that one first video you posted. The overdrive is gone in the second vid you posted.

 

[Shalen Smith]

Ok, I identfied my main issue with this game: the camera.
Basically I would be ok with it. But the thing is, as I found out, to be able to put the full body weight into a swing, you have to pull back a little bit into the opposite direction of the swing and then move the cursor into the direction you want to punch/swing/stab/whatever. While this is cool by itself, I have to move the mouse in different directions depending on how the camera is positioned relative to me and my opponent. And that sucks.
I discovered that there is a "Cursor Look". I bound its hotkey to one of the thumb buttons of my mouse. That helps a lot, but I have to press it quite often.
Is there any way to keep the camera in place, so it keeps looking over my shoulders. Third person like. That would improve the situation dramatically.

Another question: I was playing for about two hours and I managed to win three or four matches. How do I gain rank? I'm still Inept with 1 of 5 points.

Third one: The inventory is extremely confusing.
So I have a inventory. Then something called "other items", which seems to contain equipped items plus some other items I don't know from where they are coming from. (I.e. they contained two pairs of cloth trousers, I only had one of them equipped. At some point I had three quarterstaffs in there. I had no clue from where they were coming, because neither did I loot some nor buy them. The only good thing about them was, that I was abel to sell them, which was nice.)
And theres an Arsenal. If I buy something, the item seems to go there. Wierd. I would have expected to have it in the actual inventory. Also is the arsenal shared across all characters?


The shop is the best bet. It displays at least the caption "Owned:". The "Current Matches" board is tricky, because there is no label. If you have no money, you see nothing. The could at least display a 0 (zero) or "None". @Madoc maybe something can be improved here.
I expected to have the entry fee or the missing amount deducted from the win money, if you start a match without cash or with less than the fee. But you get the full win money. Looks like the entry fee is just another incentive to not loose (in addition to death of the character and an frustration for the person behind the keyboard )



It's really not that bad. Just a minor nuisance. And also just in that one first video you posted. The overdrive is gone in the second vid you posted.

Thanks, I'm trying to figure it out still! My sound quality is definitely a whole lot better in some videos than others, due to a variety of factors.. I'm working on it.