After reading on the GOG forums how challenging this is for newbies, and playing it for a few hours myself, I thought I'd start a thread offering some advice that may not be obvious to the new player. As I see there is already a similar thread for the 2nd game that is stickied, that would be a nice thing if this one could be stickied as well. :)

Please feel free to add your own tips, but let's keep the grumblings to other threads please.


If you are a mouse/keyboard player, the first thing you should do is to change your setting to the Alternate keyboard layout. This will keep most of your left hand on the right side of the keyboard and will make things a bit easier.

Don't get discouraged! Yes, most things are done with a combination of 2 keys, but you can use the left mouse button to replace the [CTRL] key, and the same combination (LEFT MOUSE BUTTON + UP ARROW) is used for tons of things, including fighting, looting mobs, opening chests, picking up items, going to bed, talking to NPCs and opening doors! It *will* become second nature before long, just take your time practicing at the start of the game.

Explore everywhere at the start! There are many items on the ground including torches, berries and swords...everything you need to fight and heal...and level. Be careful not to go too far past the Old Camp at first though (it's the first large, walled community you'll come across; there are two guards outside its gates). Gothic has no "zones" to warn you that you're about to get into higher level areas...you'll just come across something that will kill you in one hit. XD

You need to level at least once before you start becoming an effective fighter. This may be obvious, but I think some people get so caught up in the dual-key commands that they forget that virtually no game allows you to be an uber-fighter from the get-go, and this one is no different. Be patient, you will be rewarded as your levels increase. Draw enemies out one at a time. If you are using the mouse/key combo, hold down your left mouse button, THEN press your up arrow when fighting; if you do it the other way, you will tend to lunge past the creature you're attacking and miss more often.

Don't forget to loot your kill. You can "open" that critter and get the raw meat. which you can then eat to heal yourself.

SAVE OFTEN. Especially before approaching a new NPC or mob. Preferably, alternate between 2 or 3 save slots, in case you need to go back. Which leads me to...

Check your menu option once more before you click that button! Gothic will NOT ask you if you're sure you want to overwrite a save game, or load an old one, or start a new game, or anything, for that matter. Make sure you're not hitting the wrong thing by mistake.

Question - which is initially more important, increasing your weapon skills or increasing your attributes?

For melee? Strenght for sure, not only for the flat damage increase, but because weapons have stats requirements. Weapon training affects critical hits chance, swing speed and unlocks new combo, but that can wait.
Get minimal training as soon as possible and then invest in strenght for a few levels.

Hey, I was wondering if you could help me out. I just started this gem again , and last time I joined the Old Camp, without even touching the other camps' quests. My question is: can you do all the starting quests for each camp, just before you join their ranks? Like, just before you get accepted as a Thief say in the New Camp, Shadow in Old Camp, or Templar (?) in the Sect?

I forget what the starting rank in the Old Camp is, and haven't played the New Camp, but the starting rank for the Sect is a Novice. Assuming that's the level you meant, then yes, you can do all of the "prequisite" quests that the camps assign in order for you to join before you make a decision.

Yes and it is advisable.

Excellent, thank you :) And yeah, I guess I meant Novice; I played Gothic a couple of years ago and went with the Old Camp storyline but now I thought it would make more sense to try out all the camps, from an RP point of view, before committing to one.

@Kodeen: Digger. Then it's Shadow and Guard I think.

Yeah, I think you're right. I wasn't sure since I felt a since of accomplishment when being 'upgraded' to Shadow, I thought.

Yikes, does this mean there is no option to change keybindings?

No, you can change the key-bindings. The alternate layout option merely changes all the default keys so you don't have to change them yourself one-by-one.

I see. So is the dual key thing necessary, or can keys be rebound so that single key presses do everything? Granted, I haven't started playing yet, but using two keys for everything sounds weird.

The dual key is required, but there may be mods that can fix that. It's not too bad, it's just when you need to interact with something you hold down the Action key to 'lock' onto the object and you press forward to interact with it.
Gothic II does away with this system, but keeps it for combat, so it's Action key + arrow key for different combat actions. Forward is a forward strike, left or right are different slashes and back is block. When you're not holding down the Action key in combat, the camera is somewhat locked onto your target so you can strafe around it, charge it, or dodge back.

Can "forward," "backward," etc. be rebound too, or does it have to be the arrow keys? I always find using the arrow keys awkward. I like EDSF for movement.

Yes, they can be rebound, and you can bind 2 keys per function.

Thanks! Looking forward to giving this a try!

I tried Gothic II a while back, but I found it to be very difficult and I stopped playing it. From what I read, the expansion did make it very hard, and the version on GOG includes the expansion. Hopefully the first game won't be as bad!