KCD2 Beginner's Guide: Best Build, Perks & Stats

It’s always exciting to start a fresh game without any knowledge, however Kingdom Come Deliverance: 2 can be confusing at the beginning. It’s not always easy to see what needs to be done at the start and it’s always annoying if you miss out on something and find yourself in a weaker spot after you have already started your journey.

While the game guides you in a way and provides you with tutorials of mechanics, the amount of Perks, Skills and Quests to look out for can be overwhelming.

We will guide you through the Must-Haves for new players as your choices play a defining role in your play style. We will be focussing on an overall-build for you which suits you best in most scenarios but also provide you with viable options for a vigilante playthrough.

Table of Content:

1. Strategy
2. Weapons and Armor
3. Stat Perks
4. Skill Perks
5. Combat Perks

Strategy

This Beginner-Build is designed to make you viable for all early-game challenges. It covers Combat, Stealth and Speech to help you survive while you figure out the game on your own.

Combat:

• A sword and shield is the best option early on. While longswords and heavy weapons allow for blocking and parrying, a shield provides extra defense and the ability to push back enemies with a perfect block.

Stealth:

• Wear low-noise, low-visibility clothing to move undetected.
• Master lockpicking, pickpocketing, and silent takedowns for effective thievery.

Speech:

• Talking your way out of trouble or gathering useful information requires high Speech.
• Good armor, nice clothes, perfume, and a solid reputation improve persuasion success.

Since this build balances multiple playstyles, it takes time to develop. If you've allocated points elsewhere and want to respec, use Lethean Water to reset and redistribute your perks.

For the best start, choose the Soldier playstyle in the first quest. While your stats will reset shortly after, this sets Henry’s preference for combat, helping him gain fighting experience faster.

Early Choices:

• During the Easy Riders quest, select Swords as your preferred weapon.
• Choose Knowledge for an extra point in Speech, improving persuasion.

Getting Started in the Open World:

Once you have access to the open world, where you can freely explore, take on quests, and engage in activities. Follow these key steps to secure early gear and perks for your beginner build:

Get your Starting Weapon.

Go to the starting location of the Mutt quest. Travel past Bozhena’s hut until you reach the quest area. There you will find a vagabond looting a bandit’s body. He will threaten you to surrender and hand over your items - refuse and draw your weapon. Once you defeat him in combat, you will be able to loot his body and claim a Military Sword. This will give you an early-game advantage and provides you with a good early weapon.

Practice your first combat skills.

With your Military Sword equipped, you can continue to the Nomad Camp to find Tomcat. Ask him to teach you some skills and he will show you two sword combos. Once you have completed the first combat training, the second one is going to begin. However you don’t need to finish that training yet, since you won’t be able to defeat Tomcat until you have proper armor.

Get your armor, shield and horse.

Once you have a weapon, the next priority is getting armor, a shield, and a horse. There are two main ways to do this:

1. The Blacksmith Route (Recommended)

• Follow the Blacksmith route during the "Wedding in Semine" quest.
• This path rewards you with armor, a shield, and a horse.
• Having a horse makes travel much easier, allowing you to explore more efficiently.

2. The Thievery Route (Alternative Method)

If you chose the thief route and missed out on armor and a shield, you can steal them in Troskowitz:

• Go to the left courtyard of the tavern, guards will be patrolling nearby.
• Find the small shack left of the tavern building.
• The door and chest inside are locked, requiring a lockpick or keys.
• To get the keys, head north past the small stable to find a guard standing beside a house.
• Pickpocket the guard and take the keys.
• Return to the shack when no one is watching, unlock the chest, and loot the armor and shield.

Important Note: DO NOT equip stolen armor or a shield inside Troskowitz. Guards will recognize it and stop you. Leave the town before equipping your gear.

Increase your Speech.

Now that you have your gear, shield, and horse, the next step is to improve your Speech skill, making persuasion much easier. One of the most effective ways to do this is by talking to NPCs frequently, as simply engaging in conversations will earn you valuable Speech experience.

Tip: Whenever possible, choose persuasion options in dialogues to practice and improve your skill. Additionally, haggling with merchants when buying or selling goods provides another great opportunity to gain extra Speech EXP.

Beyond just leveling up Speech, increasing your Charisma will further boost your chances of successfully persuading others. Maintaining a good reputation in different areas plays a crucial role in this, as NPCs are more likely to respond favorably to someone they trust and respect. The clothes you wear also have a significant impact! High-quality clothing enhances your Charisma, making it easier to influence people. Keeping yourself clean and well-groomed by visiting bathhouses or using perfumes will further increase your Charisma.

By continuously working on your Speech and Charisma, you’ll find it much easier to negotiate, intimidate, or persuade NPCs, ultimately making quests and interactions far smoother.

First steps of leveling up your Skills.

One of the final steps in this build is engaging in various activities to earn experience and unlock perks.

Major activities include Alchemy, Blacksmithing, dice games, thieving, and hunting.

To start, focus on Alchemy and Blacksmithing. Gathering herbs for beginner potions is easy, and brewing them repeatedly will quickly earn you two perk points. Once you’ve gained some experience in Alchemy, move on to Smithing. Forge common swords and armor, even if you don’t plan to use them. Selling these crafted items to a blacksmith will also provide a decent amount of Groschen.

Alternatively, if you choose a vigilante playstyle, turn your attention to lockpicking and pickpocketing, two essential thievery skills. While not mandatory, practicing these actions will help you earn crucial points needed to unlock the Stealth Kill perk. You can begin learning these skills early by following the Miller route during the wedding quest. This offers access to many easy chests and doors for lockpicking practice, as well as plenty of guards to hone your pickpocketing skills. Mastering these techniques will significantly improve your stealth capabilities and make certain quests much easier to complete.

Weapons and Armor

For beginners, the best weapon setup is a one-handed sword paired with a shield. This combination offers a solid balance between offense and defense, allowing you to strike or push away enemies when executing a perfect block. While heavy weapons can also block and perform perfect blocks, they lack the ability to push back opponents and consume significantly more stamina with each action, making prolonged fights much more exhausting.

As a secondary weapon, we recommend using a longbow. Engaging enemies from a distance provides a safer approach, especially when dealing with multiple foes. If you can take down one or two enemies before they reach you, managing the remaining opponents in close combat becomes much easier.

Alternatively, if you go the Vigilante-Route, Stealth plays a role in your build, which means equipping a dagger is important. When encountering a lone enemy on patrol, directly engaging them could alert others to your presence. Instead, sneaking up behind them and executing a stealth kill ensures you can eliminate threats silently.

In Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, there is a difference between Armor and Clothing. While Armor protects you in fights, Clothing helps you to gain Charisma and Persuasion. Here’s a list of the best early-game items you can equip.

Armor consists of 16 individual pieces, each contributing to your overall stats when equipped. These pieces cover different parts of your body, including the head, torso, arms, and legs, providing layered protection that can significantly impact your survivability in combat.

However, accessory pieces such as rings and necklaces do not contribute to your defensive stats. While they may provide other benefits, such as boosting Charisma or enhancing specific skills, they won’t help in absorbing damage. Choosing the right combination of armor is important, as it affects not only your defense but also factors like weight, stamina consumption, and noise, all of which play a role in your playstyle and how to pursue it. While you want to be as heavily armored as possible for combat, a stealthy player will need a low-noise type of armor.

You have the flexibility to mix and match different types of armor to suit your preferences. However, if you want to wear protective armor like chainmail, there’s a specific order in which you must equip the necessary padded armor first, before adding the protective pieces on top.

Clothing like coats and neck guards aren't mandatory to wear before donning the protective armor and can be worn alongside both padded and protective pieces for added benefits.

A key improvement over the previous installment is the ability to swap between up to three different outfits at a time, allowing you to adjust your gear based on your needs, such as for combat, stealth, or speech. You can even reuse the same piece of armor across multiple outfits.

Important note: Keep in mind that you cannot change outfits during combat, so be sure to prepare your gear ahead of time for battles.

Best Main Stats Perks for Beginner

Here's a summary of the perks and their effects across the main stats:

Strength

• Train Hard, Fight Easy I & II: Reduces the required Strength to use all weapons efficiently by 2 (I) and 5 (II).
• Pack Mule: Increases your carrying capacity by 12 pounds.
• Strong as a Bull: Further increases your carrying capacity by 20 pounds.
• Vanguard: Reduces shield block stamina cost by 30%.

Agility

• Deft Hands I & II: Reduces the required Agility to use all weapons efficiently by 2 (I) and 5 (II).
• Featherweight: Reduces fall damage by 30%.
• Nimble Stance: Reduces the stamina cost of dodges by 40%.
• Totentanz: Provides a 15% weapon attack bonus for 5 seconds after a perfect dodge.

Vitality

• Ascetic: Slows the rate at which your nourishment decreases by 30%, allowing you to go longer without food.
• Thick-Blooded: Slows down bleeding, letting you recover from wounds more slowly.
• Creative Soul: Your energy (sleepiness) recovers slowly while performing Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Sharpening, or playing Dice.
• Well-Dressed: Your clothes get dirty 30% slower. Additionally, washing in a tub will remove all dirt from your body.

Speech

• Polished Wares: Selling weapons, armor, or clothing in perfect or near-perfect condition will earn you 10% more money.
• Silver Tongue: Gives a +4 bonus to your Speech skill when haggling, ensuring you get better prices.
• Jack of All Trades: Provides a +2 bonus to all skill checks. Additionally, passing skill checks will grant double the experience.

Best Skill Perks for Beginner

Depending on the route you want to go, here are the best Skill Perks for Beginners:

Alchemy

• Enthusiast: Your energy will slowly replenish, and your nourishment will not decrease while brewing potions.
• Poison Specialist: You can poison more arrows from a single dose of poison, and it will last for more hits on your weapon.

Craftsmanship

• Well-Fitted: The armor and clothing you repair will make less noise.
• Razor-Sharp: Sharpening a weapon up to 98% will increase its damage by 10%, as long as its condition stays above 75%.

Horsemanship

• Knight Training: Melee attacks from horseback will cost 15% less stamina, allowing for more efficient combat while mounted.

Houndmaster

• Life Saver: Mutt, your trusty canine companion, will defend you in battle and attack enemies at your command.
• Hunt!: Mutt can hunt and track wild game, which can be useful for gathering resources.
• Charming Companion: Your Charisma will increase by +4 when Mutt is with you, making social interactions easier.

Scholarship

• Wonders of Man: You gain 20% more experience in Craftsmanship and Thievery skills, boosting your progression in these areas.
• Wonders of Nature: You gain 20% more experience in Survival and Alchemy skills, enhancing your ability to craft and survive in the wild.

Stealth

• Stealth Kill: While equipped with a dagger, you can perform a stealth kill by sneaking up behind an enemy, perfect for taking out enemies without alerting others.
• Ordinary Man: People will forget the crimes you’ve committed more quickly, reducing the chances of being hunted by the law.

Survival

• Flower Power: If you have 30+ fresh or dried herbs (not spoiled), your Charisma will be treated as +2 more, making you more persuasive in social situations.
• Master Cook: Smoking or cooking unspoiled food results in perfect (100%) condition, increasing the value and effectiveness of food.
• Leg Day: Gathering herbs will also earn you experience in the Strength stat, helping to improve your physical abilities.

Thievery

• Nimble Fingers: You gain 10% more time during the pickpocketing phase, allowing you to steal more efficiently.
• Silent Fiddler: You make 75% less noise while lockpicking, making it easier to break into places unnoticed.

Best Combat Perks for Beginners

As the Sword and Longbow are the most reliable combination for new players, we will focus on them in this build.

Sword Perks

• Opening Strike: This perk allows you to deal significantly more damage with the first attack in a combat encounter, helping you gain the upper hand right at the beginning of a fight.
• Tendon Slicer: This perk reduces your opponent's agility and strength during each sword combo, making it easier to outmaneuver and weaken your foes.
• Gladiator: You gain a bonus to your sword fighting skill when using a one-handed sword and leaving your other hand free for a torch, which can be useful in certain combat situations.
• Precise Strike: Your sword fighting skill increases by 3 when you perform a fully charged sword attack, allowing you to deal more damage during well-timed strikes.
• Showtime: This perk grants you some stamina back and allows you to attack again immediately after completing a sword combo, keeping the pressure on your enemies.

Longbow Perks (Marksmanship)

• Sagittarius: This perk reduces the stamina cost for aiming with a ranged weapon by half while on horseback, making it easier to fight from a mounted position.
• Salvo: Salvo lets you reload and aim faster after each shot, making you more efficient and deadly when using ranged weapons in combat.
• Hard Shot First: This perk adds 15% additional damage, allowing you to deal more harm to your enemies, helping you take them down quicker.
• Steady Aim: When you remain still for 2 seconds, your stamina depletes 20% slower, making your shots 15% more powerful and allowing you to deal more damage while aiming at your target.
• Crippling Shot: This perk makes the stamina recovery rate slower for your enemies when you hit them with a ranged weapon, allowing you to weaken them and make them less effective in battle.

By combining these sword and longbow perks, you’ll be able to balance close combat with ranged attacks.

By focusing on a balanced approach to Combat, Stealth and Speech, you'll be well-equipped to handle the challenges of the early game in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

Whether you’re engaging in sword fights, sneaking past enemies, or navigating tense conversations, this build ensures you can adapt to any situation.

While it may take time to perfect your skills and acquire the right gear, every step forward strengthens your character and opens up new opportunities. Remember, the journey is as much about growth and learning as it is about surviving. So while this beginner guide will be able to help you survive in the early game, you should find your own playstyle and experiment with different Perk/Skill combinations.