Yes true but the world is stil fresh. I did like 20 hours exploring and honing skills before showing my face to Radzig.
Ok, I didn’t dare to do anything before getting decent equipment and some combat experience. How did you survive without all that?
For me personally to make it more interesting I just fight cumans and bandits without armor since now I can take 8 9 bandits together and get out unscathed. It gets really easier around the 10 level sword skill.
I survived because of luck,running and good saves.
Stealth killing bandits for loot to sell or gear to wear.
Before stealth kill is an option choke m and kill m is my motto.
Not necessarily. If you talk to the Bailiff but don’t go to meet Nightingale, Bernard will be available for full training and you’ll be able to get the quests where you destroy Bandit Camps.
Besides, you want to at least get through the first time Bernard trains you so that you will have all basic moves available to you.
4 Likes
Yes thats true. The nightingale point is a great one for exploring.
Thanks jewoldt94.
Right!
I just finished Ginger in a Pickle.
I gave Radzig an update on events with Ginger and that concluded that quest, and now the Mysterious Ways quest has started. But Sir Radzig says I have to hurry up and get to Neuhof and find the limping bandit before cutthroats do.
So again I’m being told to hurry up and follow the quest!
Are you sure now is a good time to go off exploring the countryside for a couple of weeks?? 
I went exploring before talking to Radzig, too. First a bit of thievery for Peshek. But then I had the 5 “Ancient Maps” available and that got me a good start on gear and money. But clothes don’t make the man, skill does, so I avoided as much combat as possible and was lucky that the only enemies I had to fight sucked worse than me.
I found treasures 1-4 without much fuss. For them as don’t know, these treasures contain a bit of groshen, 1 or 2 high-level regular weapons and/or armor parts, and 1 or 2 pieces of “Warhorse” armor. Find all the treasures, get a full set of “Warhorse” armor. The “Warhorse” stuff is usually just a tad lighter and stronger than the regular equivalent but has zero resale value and tends to be less durable. So mostly sold the regular stuff and stashed the “Warhorse” stuff for later when I’m skilled enough to be looking for a fight.
Anyway, as a result of all this wandering, I met a few interesting people, filled in about 1/2 the blank areas of the map, killed 4 bandits, learned to read, and made enough money to buy and pimp out a reasonably good starter horse named “Trojan”. One of the dead bandits had a bow I could use even as a noob so I was able to do a bit of hunting during my travels, although I shot stuff I ran into by accident, I didn’t spend time actively seeking game. But I found several marked “Dear Hunting Areas” on the map for future exploitation.
Before I got the horse, I ran as much as possible to build Stamina. I also picked a lot of flowers so Herbalism ended up buffing my strength, too. I got reasonably good at sneaking and my archery doesn’t totally suck now. And I quickly started repairing my own gear so I’m not too shabby at Maintenance, and my Horsemanship is coming right along. So all in all, a nice starting point to pursue the main quest. Certainly enough to whip Sir Hans in all competitions 
Spoilers…
The guy is already dead so I wouldn’t about it lol.
There really should be a chance to pause between The Prey quest and the automatic start of the next one, The Hunt Begins.
According to the cutscene I make something of an heroic effort to return my lord back to Rattay on foot, he has days to convalesce and get better. Then I am summoned and the next quest demands I immediately get to the castle yard where the quick speech usually starts before I get their (often overloaded so walking pace) and either do as told and not dally or fail the first part of the quest though it doesn’t fail the actual main quest just that stage. Still don’t like to fail these.
Point being I returned from The Prey having left a load of rabbit meat in the camp locker but overloaded anyhow with armour and stuff from the last part; with repairs required and caked in mud. Despite apparently having had days past since my return.
It would be great if there was at least a bit of leeway to get going while I can sell of stuff, dump into storage, repair, clean and then start.
p.s rather than write Spoilers immediately followed by the spoiler you can use the Options > Hide Detail option in the cogwheel icon in the editor window. Like:
Spoiler:
Summary
spoiler now hidden
You mean Ginger? well Spoiler: You can kill the bandits before they can find ginger.
did the talmberg thing then havent played the main quest in like 10 hrs
I guess it makes sense to do some exploring before Radzig but I didn’t even think of that cause I think it’s quite immersion breaking. For me it just wouldn’t work that a peasant boy starts walking around the world on his own killing bandits and do other stuff. I just thought I had to start slowly and once Henry becomes something like a “Knight-errant” that then it would be the time to travel the world. Although that would be the reasonable development I guess it doesn’t work that well in the game. But on the other hand I have no idea what awaits me so I’ll just surprise myself.
Btw I also beat Hans in all competitions although it was my first time. I was kinda proud. 
Amen. this bit my on my 1st playthrough, too. It’s the main reason I made sure to get a horse before starting the main quest on my 2nd playthrough. The 1st time, I’d left all my (crappy but better than nothing) armor and such at Peshek’s mill to be quieter when hunting and to carry more meat home. But as soon as I got back, it was off to war in the next quest and I had no choice but to go all the way back to the mill, get my stuff, dump my loot, and head for Neuhof. Bernard and all had already left and had been in Neuhof for some time when I finally showed up, and they were not at all happy with me.
But having a horse already will solve that problem. Carry the war-gear and the meat in the saddlebags so you don’t have to go home. Besides, I got to pick a decent horse (before they get killed) instead of being stuck with that old nag “Pebbles”.
Ha! I suppose it was impossible to respond to my question without a spoiler!
Thanks jewoldt94.
Although, is he unavoidably dead? Maybe if I get a hurry on I can find him before he’s dispatched?
(And this is not Ginger, prfella, this is the limping bandit I’m intructed to pursue after I’m finished with Ginger)
The main quests are not limited by time, but the side quests are. So take a break, even though you are pushed to do next main quest immediately.
So are you saying we should look for a better horse than Pebbles?
I agree about not reporting or joining nightingale on patrol immediately since it didn’t feel as urgent. Besides if you’re entering service to Rattay it would be nice if you had some skills and get decked out a bit.
1 Like
I kept pebbles all the way through…my daughter watches me play some times and was there when I was going to get a new horse…she reeeeeally didn’t want to get rid of pebbles 
Well, you can keep Pebbles if you want with no real harm done. But stat-wise, Pebbles is one of the worst horses in the game. This really doesn’t matter so much in the present state of the game where horses are almost entirely just so you can carry more loot. Pebbles can’t carry as much as other horses but I’ve yet to hear anybody complain about that, so it’s really not a problem. But later on, when horse combat becomes a regular thing, then the relative quality of horses will matter a lot, especially if you need to run away
But even knowing it really doesn’t matter right now, I wanted a better horse than Pebbles anyway. Pebbles looks old and worn-out, so I bought be a fine, heavily muscled black horse with better stats across the board. It really doesn’t do me much good right now, but it looks way cooler