11 Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 tips and tricks to survive Bohemia

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Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is a messy, complex, grueling odyssey with a learning curve that’s steep enough to turn many away in the starting hours. It’s intimidating stuff, especially if you haven’t sampled the original. It’s a game that leans on an almost oppressive dedication to realism and a pace that rewards patience and preparedness.

From boozy antics, cut-throat marauders, fractious lords, and sketchy millers to stacks of interlocked systems, you’ve got your work cut out in Henry’s second pass at revenge and a round-two lads tour Bohemia. If you’re struggling to find your footing, we’ve pulled together a list of 11 Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 tips and tricks to help you woo the locals and carve up medieval guts in no time. 

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 tricks and tips: Saviour Schnapps recipe.
Gather up Belladonna and Nettles early to brew Saviour Schnapps. Captured by VideoGamer

Brew up some Saviour Schnapps ASAP

Call it immersive or a design choice in the name of authenticity, saving in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is a right hassle. While there are auto saves after major quest beats, they are few and far between, so are hardly reliable. Nothing quite saps the fun out of playing that seeing hours of progress disappear into the digital ether because you were ambushed by bandits or fell foul of an unexpected crash and had to port back to an auto save. 

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To mitigate this, you’ll want to brew up as much Saviour Schnapps as you can at the alchemy bench in Troskowitz as soon as possible. Chugging this brew is KCD2 manual save mechanic. You’ll need Nettles and Belladonna to craft the potion, both of which are available in and around Troskowitz. If you’re short on herbs and there’s no bed or inn to sleep and save in for miles, then you can always save and exit the game via the pause menu.

As you get deeper into the game, you’ll gain access to more beds to sleep and save. Once you’ve picked up a few, make a mental note of where they are so that you’re not scrambling when you’re in need of a quick save before a major quest decision or before a tough fight. Bohemia is also littered with camps out in the wild. It’s rough sleeping but can save you in a pinch.


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Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 tricks and tips: Henry.
Choose Speech as your starting stat boost. Captured by VideoGamer

Prioritize the Speech stat

At the very start of Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 when talking to Captain Thomas, you’ll be given the option to choose from an early boost to one of several stats. You’ll want to go for Speech. This will make early life in Bohemia a whole bunch easier, giving you a fighting chance to succeed at skill checks. The other stats on offer, namely Strength, are far easier to level up: scrap with bandits and you’ll be gaining levels in no time. Speech on the other hand involves a whole lot of haggling and shooting the proverbial manure with villagers. 

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 tricks and tips: Horse.
Get a horse early on to make travelling easier. Captured by VideoGamer

Get a horse early on

The lands of Bohemia are vast and quests will take you far and wind into rocky hills, verdant fields adorned with wild flowers, and into the maze-like chambers of towering fortresses. While you can run around, nursing your stamina as Henry puffs and his vision goes bleary from overexertion, taking the time to find a trusty stead early on, makes exploration a whole lot easier, not to mention, faster. 

After arriving in the Trosky Region, completing a few quests, and getting to grips with your surroundings, you’ll want to make your way down to Semine in the south. There’s a horse trader, but more importantly you’ll find your horse pebbles in the meadow there. You can buy her, but better yet you can persuade the seller to give her to you for free.

Dried food is the best food

Food is fairly abundant throughout Bohemia, but it goes off quickly, often faster than you can consume it. Eating food that’s gone off will give you a food poisoning debuff, draining your health and hampering your stamina. You can check the status of food in your inventory by looking at the Condition stat – anything in orange or red, don’t eat it. To make sure you always have something to nibble on, you’ll want to dry food. 

Dried food lasts significantly longer and takes far more time to go off. Dried meats, in particular, are a boon as they last ages and fill up Henry’s nourishment far better than most other foods types. To dry food, you’ll need to visit a Drying Rack, such as the one in the tavern in Tachov to the northwest of Troskowitz.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 tricks and tips: inventory.
Always have a spade handy. Captured by VideoGamer

Keep a shovel handy

Though a shovel makes a dent in your carry capacity, especially in the early game, you should try to always have a spade on you. Bohemia is littered with graves begging to be dug up and there are numerous quests that require digging. Nothing quite stops you in your tracks than following a quest line for an hour only to have to travel back to a trader to buy a shovel to progress. You can buy a shovel from the trader in Troskowitz and then store it in your horse’s inventory, transferring it over to Henry’s as and when you need it.

A good night’s sleep

Despite his polygonal embodiment, Henry is only human and requires a solid eight-hours of kip every so often to keep him in top shape. Overlook sleep and you’ll be burdened with a tiredness debuff, reducing Henry’s stats. In the early game, you’ll likely be scrambling for a bed, mainly because of your raucous behavior at the tavern in Troskowitz. Venture north up the main road out of the village and you’ll come to a settlement called Tachov. Speak to the blacksmith Radovan there, who after a smithing test will give you a permanent bed and access to a chest where you can store any surplus gear. No need to pay a few like you would at a tavern.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 tricks and tips: Marigold.
Gather and sell herbs to make groschen early on. Captured by VideoGamer

Make money early on

As you arrive in Troskowitz, Henry is destitute, a shadow of his former almost-noble status, booted to the bottom of the social ladder. You’re going to need groschen to get ahead. While you can take on quests to earn some cash, it’s worth taking some time to scour the surrounding fields, ditches, and gardens for herbs. You can then sell this to the apothecary and the trader in the village, or better yet, brew up Saviour Schnapps and sell the potion instead.

Alternatively, turn to thievery to fill your coffers early on. Plenty of villages can be found standing still or sitting down, giving you the perfect opportunity to slink in and pickpocket their pouches for items and groschen. Their pouches also often contain keys to chests found in their homes, allowing you to by-pass the lockpicking mini-game, which can be tough early on Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.

Raise your Vitality stat early

Henry is pretty useless in the early game, especially when it comes to fighting so you’ll want to rely on your two legs to get out of sticky situations. The problem is that Henry’s stamina and health, which are dictated by the Vitality stats, are just as rubbish. It might sound silly, but you’ll want to run around and jump a bunch to raise your Vitality stat. Dart and bounce across wheat fields like a certain former British prime minister and watch the stat spike upwards. Alongside, you can also pick flowers and herbs to increase the stat (then sell these for groschen as we mentioned above).

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 tricks and tips: Nebakov fortress siege.
Avoid fighting outnumbered. Captured by VideoGamer

You’ll be terrible at combat at first

Questionable narrative reasoning aside, Henry’s lost all his fighting chops when you’re first unleashed into the Trosky Region after the prologue. You’ll likely have a tough old time surviving your first combat encounters. This is normal. It’s meant to feel clunky, unwieldy, and straight up lethal to reflect Henry’s current skills, and, by extension, your status as a novice KCD2 player. 

To mitigate this, patience and planning is key. Never take on more than one enemy at once in the early game unless you have a death wish. Wait for nightfall to score stealth kills and knockouts on sleeping enemies to thin the herd. And, above all else, get armor by any means necessary as early as possible, as poor or as damaged as it may be. As soon as you can, head over to the Nomad’s Camp in the southwest of the Trosky Region and complete the Combat Training I and II side quests with Tomcat. This will level up your fighting stats and teach a few sword-fighting techniques, including the master strike,, putting you in a better position to come out on top in future tussles.

Find Mutt

Speaking of combat, you trusty hound Mutt is no slouch when it comes to getting stuck into a scrap. You can command him to attack enemies, especially useful if you need to keep one distracted while you deal with his pal. He can also sniff out treasures, quest objectives, and people, making him a veritable boon as you discover and explore Bohemia. For these reasons, you’ll want to complete the Mutt quest and find your dog as early as possible. It’s also an efficient way to clear the fog of war in a good portion of the map as you’ll be going around the houses somewhat.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 tricks and tips: alchemy bench.
Practice all skills whenever you can. Captured by VideoGamer

Practice makes perfect

Reflecting the real world, to get Henry to be good at anything, whether that’s a carousing booze-guzzler at the local tavern, a skilled horseman, or a proficient blacksmith, you’ll need to practice. Other than upping your mechanical skills, it’s also how Henry improves his stats. 

Do, do, and do some more. It’s a bit of a slow burn, but engaging with all the systems – lockpicking, pickpocketing, alchemy, smithing, combat, horse riding, and more – will make Henry better equipped to handle the many trials and tribulations ahead. Similarly, take the time to read any books you come across to improve your skills and stats. For a few hours of lost time, you’ll get major stat increases.

About the Author

Tom Bardwell

Tom is guides editor here at VideoGamer.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

  • Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
  • Genre(s): Action RPG