The open, medieval world of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was built with even greater authenticity in mind than its historically-grounded predecessor was capable of. Whether you played the first one or not, there are plenty of potentially overlooked details you’ll want to pay attention to. Sometimes because it might help you succeed on your journey, and other times because it’s just a neat touch of realism. As part of this month’s IGN First, we’ll be taking a look at eight little things you won’t want to miss in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.
1. Find An Old Friend
Henry, the hero of the Kingdom Come: Deliverance saga, will get the chance to reunite with a number of old friends from the first game if you know where to find them. And one of them is a four-legged companion who’s been given a bit of a special buff for the sequel.
Your very first horse, Pebbles, has somehow managed to survive the turmoil of war brewing in Bohemia. And what’s more, he’s even learned some new tricks. In KCD1, his stats were… less than impressive, given you got him pretty early on. But in KCD2, he has a secret perk that will allow him to grow along with Henry. The more you ride him, the better his stats will get, so you don’t have to say goodbye forever in favor of a more impressive steed.
2. Check the Freshness Date
While in a game like Skyrim you may be able to pack your coat pockets with fresh fruit and set off into the wilderness for days without worry, KCD2 is a bit more unforgiving in how it simulates perishable foods. But it also provides you with historically-accurate ways to solve this problem.
The longer something like bread or a cabbage has been in your inventory, the more it will degrade. And some foods keep longer than others. If you want things to keep longer, well, you’re not exactly going to be able to haul an ice chest around on your back. But you can do what people in the actual middle ages did. Facilities are available around many settlements for smoking and drying foods, extending their shelf lives. This process also reduces their weight, so you can carry more food – or make room for an extra dagger.
This even works with the herbs you’ll use for alchemy. Freshly-picked herbs will always make the strongest potions, but dried ones keep for a long time and will do in a pinch.
3. Liquid Courage
Folks in medieval Bohemia loved their drink. After all, we didn’t know much about water safety at the time, so alcohol tended to be safer. And there weren’t any open-world RPGs around either, so options for entertainment were more limited. In KCD2, booze can be both a blessing and a curse.
“Basically any alcohol will give you some positives when you are only slightly drunk and there’s a lot of perks that will even improve this,” lead designer Prokop Jirsa explained. “But be very careful because if you overdo this and if you get really drunk, it’ll give you a lot of negative stats.”
There’s also a risk of addiction if you imbibe too often in KCD2, with increasing stages of severity. And, of course, you can drink so much you pass out. In most games, this wouldn’t be too much of an issue. But in KCD2, NPCs who don’t like you might take that opportunity to steal the clothes right off of your back.
“A situation can happen when you just fall unconscious because you’re drunk and when you wake up you see somebody wearing your shoes or your hat,” Jirsa said. “So yeah, be careful about it.”
4. Do Your Homework
One of Henry’s biggest character moments in the first KCD was learning how to read, which was so rare it was practically a superpower in the Middle Ages. And he can continue his erudite journey in KCD 2. But the Reading skill has been replaced with Scholarship, which is not so much about learning what the letters mean, but what they… well, mean, on a deeper level.
Bohemia is full of books, and collecting them will allow you to level up your Scholarship. There are even specific places that are better for reading due to their chill atmosphere. And gaining ranks in Scholarship will unlock things like new dialogue options and even the ability to gain more experience in other skills. After all, understanding the theory behind something like chopping someone’s head off with an axe helps you with the practice.
5. A Likely Story
And whether you’re an academic, a drunk, or both, your roleplaying possibilities will expand to fit your personality.
“There are perks in Drinking skill and in Scholarship that will unlock completely new dialogue options with guards,” Jirsa told us. “And you can use these new dialogue options to get away from crime. And they’re really funny, especially the one from drinking. Try those. It’s really funny, like drunkenly explaining why you didn’t kill the chicken is hilarious.”
6. Malicious Makeover
While Henry’s abilities and even attire can affect his chance of success in different social situations, like being well-dressed giving you more play with the nobles and being covered in blood letting you scare off bandits easier, these buffs and debuffs don’t only apply to you. What an NPC is wearing and how healthy they are affects their social stats in the same way. Do you see where I’m going with this?
If you need to win a charisma challenge against an NPC of high social status, and spiffing up your own wardrobe isn’t an option, you can always come at the problem from the other direction and sabotage theirs.
So the night before you can steal their fancy clothes,” Jirsa advised. “Or if you want to intimidate them, it might be easier if you poison them a little bit the day before.”
7. Dress to Impress
In the first game, it could be a bit of a pain to optimize your fit for every possible situation. After all, it takes quite a while, even on an inventory screen, to squeeze out of heavy plate armor and into something a bit snazzier or sneakier. But KCD2 has made this a breeze. You’ll be able to save three different outfits that you can switch between seamlessly. This lines up perfectly with having one set of nice-looking clothes for navigating social situations, a suit of full armor for intense combat, and some dark-colored clothing that doesn’t make much noise when you’re moving around for sneaky deeds.
8. When in Doubt, Yell
This far along on Henry’s journey, though, he’s not necessarily just dressing for the job he wants rather than the job he has. No, he’s a bit more of a force to be reckoned with, and it’s possible to flaunt this with certain enemies who really don’t have any business crossing swords with him.
KCD2 introduces battle cries and taunts, which can influence an NPC’s will to fight. In our Survival Tips list, we mentioned how certain enemies might think better of trying to tangle with you if you kill their commander or a bunch of their friends in very flashy ways. Letting out a fearsome battle cry probably won’t do much if you haven’t even drawn blood yet. But if things are going your way, it might serve as a signal for the remaining opponents to take stock of the situation and decide if this is really still worth it.
And, of course, there are unlockable perks that will make your bellowing even more terrifying.
There are tons more little things to discover in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 for the sharp-eyed explorers out there, so don’t hesitate to take it slow and try out new things. For more, stay tuned all December long as our exclusive IGN First coverage of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 continues.
