Posted November 13, 2022
Are you frustrated by an enemy's impossible backward teleporting, blocking reflex that borders on the prophetic, and just plain too much HP/damage? Read on for for pro tips on defeating almost all humanoid enemies easily. The following tips do not work against enemies that break guard like ogres or bypass guard like ghouls.
Whenever you go up against a single humanoid enemy, push up to him with shield raised and circle him. If he cannot perform counter parries, do a lateral swing with your sword (level 3 in Sword Fighting) after his every attack against your shield. If he can perform counter parries, especially if he hits hard, do a lateral swing after he misses completely. You can follow up with a combo if the enemy is one that doesn't immediately turn around after getting hit in the back, precise timing for a quick combo not required. Named characters that you have to fight one-on-one for story reasons are the easiest, but any humanoid enemy you can pull by itself will fall victim. I am at the beginning of chapter 2 and have tested up to Elite Warriors and War Crickets (wait until it does a two hit combo that lurches it past your character). As long as I am patient and stick to the rules, my chances of winning are almost 100% and chances of getting hit are near 0%.
A lot of experienced Risen 1 players will tell you that bunching enemies up, then repeatedly grinding them down with power attack-dash back-repeat is the best way to fight. More hardcore players will tell you also to git gud with dodging. Since charged attack is not available to sword users unitl level 7 (assuming you sacrifice all other skills that might contribute to roleplay), I wasn't able to do that in Chapter 1, the hardest part of the game. Considering Risen 1 is best played on the PC, where dodging is done with double key presses, I probably will never be able to do that reliably. If you are like me, my tips will let you do without those muscle memories.
Finally, here are some tips on pulling. I found that creeping close to an enemy pulled fewer enemies from a group than attacking with a ranged weapon. Sometimes two enemies will be so close together that separating them by pulling will be hard. The frost crystal works great in this situation; even a level 3 frost crystal can freeze an Elite Warrior for a couple of seconds, spreading them out. If you are a melee fighter with no access to magic, you probably shouldn't rely on my techniques and instead try to git gud at melee combat. Not much point playing otherwise.
[After completing the game, I am happy to report that this technique works on most humanoid enemies until the end. It gets more and more useful as wildlife becomes easier and easier while harder enemies are all humanoid. My version never worked reliably on ogres and ash beasts, but since I was a mage, I could easily kill them without cheese by the time I needed to kill them in earnest. I beat the miniboss before the final boss getting hit only twice, which took away so little HP at that point to be almost unnoticeable. The final boss has its own exploits which are easy to figure out. So you can be confident you won't get stuck in the game.]
Whenever you go up against a single humanoid enemy, push up to him with shield raised and circle him. If he cannot perform counter parries, do a lateral swing with your sword (level 3 in Sword Fighting) after his every attack against your shield. If he can perform counter parries, especially if he hits hard, do a lateral swing after he misses completely. You can follow up with a combo if the enemy is one that doesn't immediately turn around after getting hit in the back, precise timing for a quick combo not required. Named characters that you have to fight one-on-one for story reasons are the easiest, but any humanoid enemy you can pull by itself will fall victim. I am at the beginning of chapter 2 and have tested up to Elite Warriors and War Crickets (wait until it does a two hit combo that lurches it past your character). As long as I am patient and stick to the rules, my chances of winning are almost 100% and chances of getting hit are near 0%.
A lot of experienced Risen 1 players will tell you that bunching enemies up, then repeatedly grinding them down with power attack-dash back-repeat is the best way to fight. More hardcore players will tell you also to git gud with dodging. Since charged attack is not available to sword users unitl level 7 (assuming you sacrifice all other skills that might contribute to roleplay), I wasn't able to do that in Chapter 1, the hardest part of the game. Considering Risen 1 is best played on the PC, where dodging is done with double key presses, I probably will never be able to do that reliably. If you are like me, my tips will let you do without those muscle memories.
Finally, here are some tips on pulling. I found that creeping close to an enemy pulled fewer enemies from a group than attacking with a ranged weapon. Sometimes two enemies will be so close together that separating them by pulling will be hard. The frost crystal works great in this situation; even a level 3 frost crystal can freeze an Elite Warrior for a couple of seconds, spreading them out. If you are a melee fighter with no access to magic, you probably shouldn't rely on my techniques and instead try to git gud at melee combat. Not much point playing otherwise.
[After completing the game, I am happy to report that this technique works on most humanoid enemies until the end. It gets more and more useful as wildlife becomes easier and easier while harder enemies are all humanoid. My version never worked reliably on ogres and ash beasts, but since I was a mage, I could easily kill them without cheese by the time I needed to kill them in earnest. I beat the miniboss before the final boss getting hit only twice, which took away so little HP at that point to be almost unnoticeable. The final boss has its own exploits which are easy to figure out. So you can be confident you won't get stuck in the game.]
Post edited November 21, 2022 by Unfallen_Satan