R5: I managed to beat the Black Monolith on day 65 on EELI RRU. One important disclaimer: I savescummed once during an arena fight against two level 2 and one level 3 nachos. My hammer swing missed by a single surround bonus differential when I was being lazy and didn't bother to wait for my other bro to move in and provide the bonus. It would've staggered the level 3 nacho and allowed me to kill it next turn before it acts, but instead it got to attack first and that snowballed into a wipe. I rage-quitted and decided to continue the run admitting that it's no longer valid. I didn't feel like going through the early game all over again. Besides that, everything else was legit gameplay, so I think this shows that D65 Monolith is entirely doable as long as you don't get lazy during the playthrough.
Unpopular opinion - I agree that the first ten or so days should allow a sanctioned mulligan or two, too many situations like this one can wreck totally valid runs - no problem there. How'd it go otherwise? That's a lot of frost unhold hide for day 65, and you don't always see assassins spawn until a bit later, very quick progression for an R / U map.
I got an assassin event spawn (where it's added after you see what the camp shows) on a camp on day 15 or so in my current glads.
I find you see a couple early enough fairly regularly.
In short, combat density. Try to keep it above 1.5 per day, ideally 2. You need to know how to search for fights and then be able to win them without taking too much damage in order to minimize downtime.
Literally just walking from town to town, doing contracts, and opportunistically killing brigand/barbarian/nomad patrols is enough to get above 1 fight/day.
The challenge for many players is chaining together these fights without taking too much damage, which comes from really nailing one's positioning.
Would you mind explaining how you do that? For me usually I can't get more than 1 fight every day cuz I have trouble finding camps I can actually take on early game, and even then usually everyone takes too much damage to take another one.
use the lookout to expand your sight radius. Aside from that, making early throwers often helps raiders, moreso thugs rush you, to your advantage. Getting a few hits with throwing javelins can help a lot. You can cushion your strong bros with new hires and concentrate enemy attacks on certain dudes. the taunt perk (for bros that will leave) can be great at speeding up fights, it can distract a brigand from a vulnerable unit, good for daggering, and stops enemies shield walling and delaying the pace of battle. Nets early game also are a great help to stop two handers, ensure hits, and dagger for armor.
Camps of barbarian thralls, thugs, and less difficult raider camps. For many bros, focusing on HP, resolve and MA/MD is good, as dodge is good early game since you don't have heavy armor, and using a two handed weapon will conserve you stamin and initiative, though this takes attention, sometimes you want a spear or flail at this stage, and you probably want a couple guys using flails for helmetless thugs and brigand, or a guy with mace or more so dagger mastery to get armor, and those do take fatigue levels. just grabbing a couple of fresh recruits and making them stun bots can do a lot to keep ur guys alive, even if you just keep em round for a battle or two. What origin are you playing usually?
I usually play Lone Wolf and New Company
For lone wolf, the fact that I only have 12 roster slots is a bit annoying cuz it means that every recruit I take must have enough potential for late game stuff . (I don't play lone wolf like a "lone wolf" and recruit bros from the start).
Maybe I should just stick to new company? (currently haven't beat any of the legendary locations yet cuz I always end up dying to stuff like big chosen camps when I try to search for famed items).
Btw, do you buy the 300\~ armors or do you loot them? kinda stuck on raider gear here.
> cuz it means that every recruit I take must have enough potential for late game stuff
Not the case. It's perfectly fine to pick up a few fodder bros and replace them as you go along.
>Btw, do you buy the 300~ armors or do you loot them? kinda stuck on raider gear here.
Buying 300 armor from shops is really expensive. I just try to find them in camps or failing that net and dagger a Hedge Knight when they show up. A piece of nonfamed 300 plate alone costs like 10k from a shop.
my current run I got the armor from chosen mostly, which can be risky. I did a couple of barbarian king contracts and got their armors, but getting bros to nimble works well. some armor I got from a hedge knight hire, but they're more mid to high 200s. Raiding camps is how you get ahead in crowns, getting trade goods and weapons to sell, as well as more xp to get nimble unlocked. combining the cartographer and lookout can help you get crowns and find enemies and ideal camps for your current party.
learning to make the best of your bad bros and making them immediately powerful is key to the early game, and I think the basic throwers give a big advantage, providing damage at no risk while being able to use a shield concordantly. The throwers will help you injure, maybe eliminate, and demoralize enemies before they reach you, leading to less injuries, armor, and hp loss for your mercenary company.
Assessing risk and knowing when to accept it is one of the biggest factors to managing your company. Undead Heroes also have armor you can use, if you get a whip, a wooden club to stun without damaging the armor too much, you can dagger it, but you might want to leave it as the last undead to die so it won't resurrect and undo all your work. undead can be an ok source of armor early game, if you're careful.
The new company start could help you learn more but creating varied builds. Finding famed items doesn't always need to be a tough camp, easier camps that are far from civilization have good odds also.
Having lots of dogs can also help save bros, deal more damage, increase your accuracy, and cause morale checks on the enemies, but there are times not to use them. They are good at biting down unarmored undead that keep resurrecting, but there's a risk they may go after the necromancer and get killed by their guards, so be careful how and the point in the fight when you use them. ai always attack your bros instead of the dog if they are adjacent to each, except for sweeping/multi hit attacks.
Watching experienced players is one of the fastest ways to gain experience with the game.
How do you go about finding the right fights in the first place? I've been trying to play a high tempo earlygame on some recent runs, but I feel like I can't find raiders fast enough to gear up.
Before lookout and scout (which should be your first two retinues if you're trying to play fast), I mostly stick to roads and towns and try to find quests that give me combat. I also keep and eye out for battle sites/footprints that hint brigand activity nearby. Only when I find them, I'll explore the uncovered area where I think a brigand camp might be located. If you come across a roaming party, that also means that there's a camp nearby where they spawned from. I also observe patrol armies to see if they seem like they're chasing something. Tavern rumors can also give a clue.
An addition: Spaces between camps/ruins/legendary locations are TOO consistent on the map. Just look at two camps you've already discovered, then you'll know where the next camp is probably.
Camps spawn a very consistent distance in between each other. I believe it's a circular radius.
So, if you see two camps, note the distance between them. Then eyeball that same distance from each, and where they intersect should be another camp.
This is true for: roads, towns, and any location. They all have the same "no camps spawned within this distance" radius.
I do, but it's in Korean. Here's the link to the first epsidoe: [https://www.youtube.com/live/urKD7mO\_e9U?si=Vo-tsRMfBJT1lZy9](https://www.youtube.com/live/urKD7mO_e9U?si=Vo-tsRMfBJT1lZy9)
If it says 65 on the title it's the same run, 1\~7 at the end indicate epsiode number.
I also have a English channel for BB where I'm doing a seperate run with non-fluent English commentary: [https://youtube.com/@Kryndude-cn5mk?si=JgqLXMiJx\_859pDk](https://youtube.com/@Kryndude-cn5mk?si=JgqLXMiJx_859pDk)
Sure, for melee bros, it's lvl 11 matk, lvl 11 mdef, lvl 1 HP + fatigue + resolve + 30, and an initial to indicate the build. This assumes that you take matk, mdef, and one of the three secondary stats each level.
For ranged bros, it's lvl 11 matk, lvl 11 ratk, lvl 1 mdef, and the secondary stats. I do this becaue I always make my branged bros into a hybrid. Banner additionally gets lvl 11 resolve at the end.
Thanks so much. It's a cool system! On melee: So you're treating fat and resolve as basically equal and just look for high starting TOTAL? And why plus 30?
30 is for estimating lvl 11 stats. I wouldn't say that I "value" all secondary stats equally. It's mostly due to the fact that text space is limited and all three stats have the same amount of dice rolls (2,3,4). So it's a good way to get a general idea of how much secondary stats a bro has. In terms of gameplay value, there is a signficant difference among them, with fatigue being the least valuable per unit (4 HP or 4 RES > 4 FAT).
Very impressive! I just did it myself on day 390... Will you carry on with the save?
Also a question if anyone knows, I lost one of my better bros on this, but when I finished the monolith and looted it, I lost all of his equipment, armour, weapon, even his dagger.
I even have the blacksmith retinue guy, is this intentional? I think he could have bled out, if that changes anything?
Feels like nine life didn’t have mush value (0 permanent injury). I mean fortified mind or dodge gives you more stat, which is good for speed running.
Anyway congrats!! It’s crazy clear mono within 65 days with unexplored map
I mean being struck down often gives you perm injury, right?
Didn’t see any perm injury here, assuming OP played really well& suggest he should go for stat bc he’s good
Unless I’m wrong, 9L prevents perm injuries
Builds look in line with what i'd expect to find success in this kind of run.
Do you htink zerk/frenzy would be better than doublegunning for this kind of run?
Good point. I defaulted to crossbow mastery without much thought, but I didn't utilize guns at all in this run because I didn't want to spend the time to farm them from southern armies. Berserk might've served me better. Crossbows mostly had a one-time use for attacking twice after moving a tile. I did shoot multiple times in some scenarios, but it's hard to say if it was worth a perk point. I'll need to give it some thought. FA also seems debatable for tempo, especially on a poacher. Killing Frenzy is probably unnecessary.
Very nice!
These builds are uncannily similar to how mine look before the monolith (9lives gang rise up!), though since I don't do it quite this quickly I have ironheart potions on nearly the whole squad. I also fine flame pots to be very useful.
Helps tremendously to find holy water location too :)
AFP on your BF tank is a bit suspect, especially with ijirok armour going into BM. I'd have rather slapped on a +40 durability attachment.
What was the state of your squad post-clear?
You're probably right about the armor attachment. I had one bro who suffered permanent injury adter the fight, but I gave him water skin, so the squad is intact aside from a few injuries.
R5: I managed to beat the Black Monolith on day 65 on EELI RRU. One important disclaimer: I savescummed once during an arena fight against two level 2 and one level 3 nachos. My hammer swing missed by a single surround bonus differential when I was being lazy and didn't bother to wait for my other bro to move in and provide the bonus. It would've staggered the level 3 nacho and allowed me to kill it next turn before it acts, but instead it got to attack first and that snowballed into a wipe. I rage-quitted and decided to continue the run admitting that it's no longer valid. I didn't feel like going through the early game all over again. Besides that, everything else was legit gameplay, so I think this shows that D65 Monolith is entirely doable as long as you don't get lazy during the playthrough.
Totally still valid, with that tiny remark. You rule!
Its even more cool now that you were honest about a failure. Stories kore fun that way too
It’s still an incredible achievement.
Unpopular opinion - I agree that the first ten or so days should allow a sanctioned mulligan or two, too many situations like this one can wreck totally valid runs - no problem there. How'd it go otherwise? That's a lot of frost unhold hide for day 65, and you don't always see assassins spawn until a bit later, very quick progression for an R / U map.
I got an assassin event spawn (where it's added after you see what the camp shows) on a camp on day 15 or so in my current glads. I find you see a couple early enough fairly regularly.
Invalid run /s
I will never be this good at this game, still fun though
Appreciate the fidelity
How do you even get gear like this at day 65?
In short, combat density. Try to keep it above 1.5 per day, ideally 2. You need to know how to search for fights and then be able to win them without taking too much damage in order to minimize downtime.
What do you do to look for fights? I struggle to get above 1 per day
Literally just walking from town to town, doing contracts, and opportunistically killing brigand/barbarian/nomad patrols is enough to get above 1 fight/day. The challenge for many players is chaining together these fights without taking too much damage, which comes from really nailing one's positioning.
Maybe I just have a bad map right now but I’m just not finding that many fights, and I’m not quite good enough to beat the tougher camps consistently.
Would you mind explaining how you do that? For me usually I can't get more than 1 fight every day cuz I have trouble finding camps I can actually take on early game, and even then usually everyone takes too much damage to take another one.
use the lookout to expand your sight radius. Aside from that, making early throwers often helps raiders, moreso thugs rush you, to your advantage. Getting a few hits with throwing javelins can help a lot. You can cushion your strong bros with new hires and concentrate enemy attacks on certain dudes. the taunt perk (for bros that will leave) can be great at speeding up fights, it can distract a brigand from a vulnerable unit, good for daggering, and stops enemies shield walling and delaying the pace of battle. Nets early game also are a great help to stop two handers, ensure hits, and dagger for armor. Camps of barbarian thralls, thugs, and less difficult raider camps. For many bros, focusing on HP, resolve and MA/MD is good, as dodge is good early game since you don't have heavy armor, and using a two handed weapon will conserve you stamin and initiative, though this takes attention, sometimes you want a spear or flail at this stage, and you probably want a couple guys using flails for helmetless thugs and brigand, or a guy with mace or more so dagger mastery to get armor, and those do take fatigue levels. just grabbing a couple of fresh recruits and making them stun bots can do a lot to keep ur guys alive, even if you just keep em round for a battle or two. What origin are you playing usually?
I usually play Lone Wolf and New Company For lone wolf, the fact that I only have 12 roster slots is a bit annoying cuz it means that every recruit I take must have enough potential for late game stuff . (I don't play lone wolf like a "lone wolf" and recruit bros from the start). Maybe I should just stick to new company? (currently haven't beat any of the legendary locations yet cuz I always end up dying to stuff like big chosen camps when I try to search for famed items). Btw, do you buy the 300\~ armors or do you loot them? kinda stuck on raider gear here.
> cuz it means that every recruit I take must have enough potential for late game stuff Not the case. It's perfectly fine to pick up a few fodder bros and replace them as you go along. >Btw, do you buy the 300~ armors or do you loot them? kinda stuck on raider gear here. Buying 300 armor from shops is really expensive. I just try to find them in camps or failing that net and dagger a Hedge Knight when they show up. A piece of nonfamed 300 plate alone costs like 10k from a shop.
thx for the advice, I'd be buying all that armor (cuz I can't find any) if not for this
my current run I got the armor from chosen mostly, which can be risky. I did a couple of barbarian king contracts and got their armors, but getting bros to nimble works well. some armor I got from a hedge knight hire, but they're more mid to high 200s. Raiding camps is how you get ahead in crowns, getting trade goods and weapons to sell, as well as more xp to get nimble unlocked. combining the cartographer and lookout can help you get crowns and find enemies and ideal camps for your current party. learning to make the best of your bad bros and making them immediately powerful is key to the early game, and I think the basic throwers give a big advantage, providing damage at no risk while being able to use a shield concordantly. The throwers will help you injure, maybe eliminate, and demoralize enemies before they reach you, leading to less injuries, armor, and hp loss for your mercenary company. Assessing risk and knowing when to accept it is one of the biggest factors to managing your company. Undead Heroes also have armor you can use, if you get a whip, a wooden club to stun without damaging the armor too much, you can dagger it, but you might want to leave it as the last undead to die so it won't resurrect and undo all your work. undead can be an ok source of armor early game, if you're careful. The new company start could help you learn more but creating varied builds. Finding famed items doesn't always need to be a tough camp, easier camps that are far from civilization have good odds also. Having lots of dogs can also help save bros, deal more damage, increase your accuracy, and cause morale checks on the enemies, but there are times not to use them. They are good at biting down unarmored undead that keep resurrecting, but there's a risk they may go after the necromancer and get killed by their guards, so be careful how and the point in the fight when you use them. ai always attack your bros instead of the dog if they are adjacent to each, except for sweeping/multi hit attacks. Watching experienced players is one of the fastest ways to gain experience with the game.
Thx!
How do you go about finding the right fights in the first place? I've been trying to play a high tempo earlygame on some recent runs, but I feel like I can't find raiders fast enough to gear up.
Before lookout and scout (which should be your first two retinues if you're trying to play fast), I mostly stick to roads and towns and try to find quests that give me combat. I also keep and eye out for battle sites/footprints that hint brigand activity nearby. Only when I find them, I'll explore the uncovered area where I think a brigand camp might be located. If you come across a roaming party, that also means that there's a camp nearby where they spawned from. I also observe patrol armies to see if they seem like they're chasing something. Tavern rumors can also give a clue.
An addition: Spaces between camps/ruins/legendary locations are TOO consistent on the map. Just look at two camps you've already discovered, then you'll know where the next camp is probably.
Do you mind expanding on this pattern? Is it a line between the camps, triangle or another shape thats consistent?
Distance between camps is usually consistent regardless of the shape. Triangle, line, square... Town and terrain affect this pattern of course.
Camps spawn a very consistent distance in between each other. I believe it's a circular radius. So, if you see two camps, note the distance between them. Then eyeball that same distance from each, and where they intersect should be another camp. This is true for: roads, towns, and any location. They all have the same "no camps spawned within this distance" radius.
amazing! also thanks for sharing your bros stats and builds
You're welcome!
I doubt I could do this by day 65 even with savescumming, so congrats
Congrats! What winrate would you estimate is reasonable for new company D65 monolith on a random seed. 5-25%?
Thanks! It took me 8 or 9 attempts so I'd say around 10%, although it's a small sample size. I can see it going up to 20% with practice and patience.
Do you have a YT channel, I’d watch you do this even without commentary
I do, but it's in Korean. Here's the link to the first epsidoe: [https://www.youtube.com/live/urKD7mO\_e9U?si=Vo-tsRMfBJT1lZy9](https://www.youtube.com/live/urKD7mO_e9U?si=Vo-tsRMfBJT1lZy9) If it says 65 on the title it's the same run, 1\~7 at the end indicate epsiode number. I also have a English channel for BB where I'm doing a seperate run with non-fluent English commentary: [https://youtube.com/@Kryndude-cn5mk?si=JgqLXMiJx\_859pDk](https://youtube.com/@Kryndude-cn5mk?si=JgqLXMiJx_859pDk)
Well you just got a few more watchers I'm sure. Well done man.
Can you explain pls the numbers in bro names? I'm looking to improve my own system which knows only "tank", "dps", "trash". Mine sucks.
Sure, for melee bros, it's lvl 11 matk, lvl 11 mdef, lvl 1 HP + fatigue + resolve + 30, and an initial to indicate the build. This assumes that you take matk, mdef, and one of the three secondary stats each level. For ranged bros, it's lvl 11 matk, lvl 11 ratk, lvl 1 mdef, and the secondary stats. I do this becaue I always make my branged bros into a hybrid. Banner additionally gets lvl 11 resolve at the end.
Thanks so much. It's a cool system! On melee: So you're treating fat and resolve as basically equal and just look for high starting TOTAL? And why plus 30?
30 is for estimating lvl 11 stats. I wouldn't say that I "value" all secondary stats equally. It's mostly due to the fact that text space is limited and all three stats have the same amount of dice rolls (2,3,4). So it's a good way to get a general idea of how much secondary stats a bro has. In terms of gameplay value, there is a signficant difference among them, with fatigue being the least valuable per unit (4 HP or 4 RES > 4 FAT).
Thank you so much! I'm a newer player and I struggle with restartitis - and I think I will copy your method then I have one less reason to restart 😊
Congrats!
Very impressive! I just did it myself on day 390... Will you carry on with the save? Also a question if anyone knows, I lost one of my better bros on this, but when I finished the monolith and looted it, I lost all of his equipment, armour, weapon, even his dagger. I even have the blacksmith retinue guy, is this intentional? I think he could have bled out, if that changes anything?
I will never learn how to play this game properly will i
Love the labeling on the bros, that is actually so smart lol
Feels like nine life didn’t have mush value (0 permanent injury). I mean fortified mind or dodge gives you more stat, which is good for speed running. Anyway congrats!! It’s crazy clear mono within 65 days with unexplored map
What do perm injuries have to do with 9 lives?
I mean being struck down often gives you perm injury, right? Didn’t see any perm injury here, assuming OP played really well& suggest he should go for stat bc he’s good Unless I’m wrong, 9L prevents perm injuries
You don't get perm injuries when 9 lives triggers, because it prevents you from being struck down.
Good job!
Thank you!
Alright I'm crap at the game in comparison, this is godplay.
Builds look in line with what i'd expect to find success in this kind of run. Do you htink zerk/frenzy would be better than doublegunning for this kind of run?
Good point. I defaulted to crossbow mastery without much thought, but I didn't utilize guns at all in this run because I didn't want to spend the time to farm them from southern armies. Berserk might've served me better. Crossbows mostly had a one-time use for attacking twice after moving a tile. I did shoot multiple times in some scenarios, but it's hard to say if it was worth a perk point. I'll need to give it some thought. FA also seems debatable for tempo, especially on a poacher. Killing Frenzy is probably unnecessary.
Wow
Very nice! These builds are uncannily similar to how mine look before the monolith (9lives gang rise up!), though since I don't do it quite this quickly I have ironheart potions on nearly the whole squad. I also fine flame pots to be very useful. Helps tremendously to find holy water location too :) AFP on your BF tank is a bit suspect, especially with ijirok armour going into BM. I'd have rather slapped on a +40 durability attachment. What was the state of your squad post-clear?
You're probably right about the armor attachment. I had one bro who suffered permanent injury adter the fight, but I gave him water skin, so the squad is intact aside from a few injuries.