Most combat encounters end with me being defeated and fucked rather frequently. I have some questions to ask about the combat systems themselves.
1. What skills are good for combat?
2. Which armor/weapons should I invest in?
3. Are there any skills that trip over opponents? If so, do they need to be low on stamina to be pushed/knocked over?
1. Most skills do nothing. You use only some basic ones. Spring Attack/Tempo Attack, Low Attack, Guard, Careful Attack. Your strategy is to guard when your opponent attacks, and hit them wheh your opponents is shifting to defense.
Advanced tip: it's useful to look at defense of youe skill. Each skill absorbs some damage. If it is Block defense, it will consume shield durability. If it's Parry, it will just use a weapon.
2. For weapon you need something one handed probably to also use a shield in other hand. Like Broadsword. Though some people just go for Zweihander because it hits hardest. Damage is in the description.
For armor tankiest would be Full-Plate or Diamond+Battleskirt. But they are heavy. Heavy debuffs stamina. You'll feel it if you don't have pretty high Endurance. So maybe just use some cheaper lighter body armor and battleskirt.
And you must buy stat raising armor from second town. On your head, feet, + the Gauntlet of Strength can be found as loot if you travel far up and left on the map.
Money: https://androgyny.miraheze.org/wiki/Status/Gold
3. There's an Overrun (or Slide). To trip your opponent you need to bring their stability to 0. But actually you don't want to trip them. Because they'll get up. You want to just keep them on low stability, because they will be forced to stop attacking, while you can capitalize.
4. Huge impact on combat have your stats. Strength to hit harder, Endurance to not lose stamina, Agility to parry more often and not lose balance, Perception to see next opponent stance in combat to predict their moves. And you can get stats with perk points. And bonus points: https://androgyny.miraheze.org/wiki/Starting_Bonuses
5. I heard Mage class is easy to play. I never tried it. I know you must invest everything you can in Magic to be a good Mage. And I heard Oil+Flames work good for damage.
Thank you for the detailed response! I had two more things to ask if that is okay.
1. Are there any useful perks worth grabbing besides sunderer?
2. Are there additional maps past the mossy expanse? The Dark Knight always game over’s me at that point. I want to defeat her so I can see new scenario’s
3. When should I venture into the mossy expanse so I’m not underpowered?
1. The most important perk: awakened. This allows you to get a soul crystal every time you level up. Make sure this is the first perk you get! The first level of focused is very useful in my opinion, it prevents you from losing track of your opponent's moves as easily. You'll want to invest as much points as possible in strength, endurance and agility, with your base perception at 5-6 (you'll get perception boost from the helmet in second town too). If you have leftover perk points after all of that, Versatile is nice to have. Don't be afraid to save up perk points to get the extra strength/endurance/agility boost!
2. Yes, there are two additional maps. I won't say anything about them, you can figure it out yourself :).
3. You should have at least 1 perk point in strength and endurance, perception 8 if you can, agility as high as possible. Get the heels and helm and upgrade them with soul crystals to get even more stat bonus. Get the gauntlets of strength from the giant and use crystals on that too. Make sure you use the gem at the witch's cottage to defeat the quetzal goddess and try to return to town with the altar afterwards. If you eavesdrop again you will receive 300 gold, which you can use to buy food and optionally the full plate (otherwise you need an insanely high agility stat to steal it). If possible, buy the town scroll, just to have a way back if you run out of food or anything.
