King's Bounty 2 Guide for Beginners

In this King's Bounty 2 Guide for Beginners, we'll tell you everything you need to know to play 1C Entertainment's newest turn-based strategy RPG on PC and consoles.

What Is King's Bounty 2?

King's Bounty 2 is the sequel to 1C Entertainment's 2008 release King's Bounty, a game that was itself a spiritual successor to the 1990 version of King's Bounty. Players will command units on a hex grid in turn-based battles in their quest to save the kingdom. As our December 2020 preview of the game shows, this sequel boasts some massive improvements.

King's Bounty 2 Guide For Beginners – Choosing Your Character

Before your journey can begin, you're going to have to pick from one of three available characters. Each of these characters has different starting abilities and more, so you'll have to consider your choice carefully. Here's who you can get:

• Aivar (Warrior) – Specializes in raw combat power for his units. Incapable of using magic.
• Katharine (Mage) – An expert at using magic on the battlefield.
• Elisa (Paladin) – Has mediocre magic abilities and low combat power, but can recruit the largest number of units in the shortest amount of time.

I'll be going with Aivar for this King's Bounty 2 Guide for Beginners, but feel free to make whichever choice you like. Bear in mind, though, that it will have different consequences on the story you experience and, in some cases, your ability to interact with the game world.

The King's Bounty 2 Ideals (and How They Affect You)

King's Bounty 2 is a turn-based RPG and it has some surprisingly complex underlying systems. To start, there are four "Ideals" in the game that you need to know about:

• Order vs. Anarchy
• Power vs. Finesse 

Your story choices and actions in the game will increase each of these ideals. Importantly, these ideals are placed in opposing pairs: Order is opposite to Anarchy and Power is opposite to Finesse.

Additionally, all units in the game innately follow one of these ideals. An army comprised of different types will not fight as well as an army unified under a single ideal, so you should try to keep your active group of units under the same Ideals if possible.

Getting Started On Your Journey – Leaving the Prison

Now that we've covered the game's underlying systems, the next step in our King's Bounty 2 Guide for Beginners is starting your adventure. Everything kicks off on a smaller map compared to the later game and it serves as a good sandbox for figuring things out.

You'll begin your day coming out of a prison cell with the happy news that you've been granted a royal reprieve. From here, you will go through some dialogue, retrieve your gear, and get booted out into the courtyard. You can then purchase a Crossbow, get some free soldiers to escort you, and get a Horse.

The Recruiter (who gives you the soldiers) gives you the option to buy some dogs. You're going to want to purchase them to supplement your existing units — more soldiers mean more options in battle.

Your final step before leaving the prison will be to get your horse. Take care to inspect the interior of the stables: there's a container full of items inside. You should always carefully look around for anything you can loot when you're not in battle — there's plenty of treasure to be discovered hidden around every corner.

Saddle up and head out of town. You'll get to travel a few short steps before you have to fight your very first battle of the game!

Your First Battle

The next step in this King's Bounty 2 Guide for Beginners is tackling your very first battle against a pack of wolves in New Tyrene. Fortunately, there's a robust tutorial that's happy to hold your hand through the process.

Make sure you make a manual save beforehand — you should get in the habit of always saving before a battle or story choice. You should also note that you won't automatically be pulled into battle — you have the choice of avoiding combat entirely

Battles in King's Bounty 2 work just like many classic turn-based RPGs. Every unit on the board has an initiative score that determines when it can attack. Attempting to move away from an enemy in an adjacent hex can result in a counter-attack (essentially a free hit on your units). As is common with these games, you also want to take care with formations, placing archers and magic casters behind some well-equipped melee units.

Don't Forget to Heal After Battle

Aside from saving the game, there's another important habit to establish: you should always heal your units after a battle is over. Damaged units will be weaker going into subsequent fights and you can restore their health simply by spending a small amount of gold. Don't forget to heal your soldiers if you can afford to do it!

Repair the Statue

There is also a prominent broken statue in the center of New Tyrene. Find its missing arms and replace them and you'll reveal a cache of items!

Side Quest 1 – Axes and Splinters

With the wolves defeated, you can happily move on down the road towards your ultimate goal to continue The Road to Marcella quest. However, there are some nice opportunities to do three side quests along the way and we'll be covering all three in the King's Bounty 2 Guide for Beginners.

The first of these three side quests is "Axes and Splinters" and it also happens to be pretty straightforward: human hunters and dwarven lumberjacks are in a dispute and it's up to you to pick a side. This quest can be found on the leftmost path further down the road after your first battle.

Before you begin, you should pick up some extra units from the nearby Recruiter to supplement your forces. Once that's done, you must pick a side — either dwarves or humans — and fight a battle. Each of the two sides will offer you the opportunity to acquire a new unit type from the same nearby Recruiter; refer to the image above for more information.

The Golem Roadblock

Your next task is to head further on down the road towards town. Inspect every nook and cranny of the town as there are quite a few loot containers spread throughout. Make sure you pick up your Axes and Splinters quest reward along the way, too!

You'll soon discover a group of Golems blocking the road. Head to the right and you'll discover a magical rune and a force field. Katharine will have the option to disable the force field and ask the mage to disable the golems; otherwise, you'll have to battle them.

Either way, you're going to want to explore further to the right of the mage. The building within has a "chandelier" on the wall that will reveal a secret room full of loot; you can also find some goodies on the second floor. Go past the golems and it's time for another side quest!

Side Quest 2 – Cold Bones

Once you've cleared the Golem roadblock, it's time to move on a bit further and finally meet up with a warrior named Ancel. Along the way, you'll encounter a rune that kicks off the "Cold Bones" quest. Once again, we're going on a short diversion.

Explore and loot the area. Eventually, you'll come across three torches and a tablet that gives you a puzzle to light them in a certain order.

King's Bounty 2 Bliss Tablet Solution

The Bliss Tablet solution is to light the torches in this order when facing the tablet: right, left, and center.

Once the torches are lit, a portal opens. Head through it and you'll meet a rather amiable Skeleton named Berengarius. He tells you that there are protective runes throughout Bliss that are losing their power; you must go into town and restore them. Once that's done, it's time to tackle the source of the corruption: a bunch of nasty undead in the cemetery.

You will now have the opportunity to fight another battle. You should take it — defeating these baddies opens up the opportunity to recruit undead units via Berengarius and there are still a few tough fights ahead.

Side Quest 3 – Witch Stone

Meet up with Ancel and start running down the road. As you do, you'll be ambushed by a Marauder who runs into a nearby building. Ancel tells you to chase him down, but don't run after him just yet — talk to the nearby Recruiter and get as many recruits as you can reasonably afford.

Speak with the Marauder and he'll tell you that he's under the spell of a witch in the tower. Progress through the interior of the building and you'll discover some crystals laying on the ground; each of these crystals has a dais nearby where you need to place them. Once all three are placed, a forcefield blocking a passageway will disappear. Take care to explore the nearby area before proceeding, though, as you can get some loot off to the side.

The final area here will show a witch standing atop a platform. You can find a single chest in one of the side rooms and then it's time to confront here. Once again, you'll have to fight a battle against a new type of enemy.

Win the battle and, as always, you'll get a bit of loot and some experience. It's finally time to move on to the climax of this opening chapter (and the conclusion of our King's Bounty 2 Guide for Beginners).

The Battle of the Batille Gates

You've finally reached the Batille gates and all seems well — a group of guards approaches and it looks like you're finally safe. Unfortunately, it is soon revealed that these are not guards but rather bandits in disguise — there's one more battle yet to be fought.

By now, you know the drill: position your units, fire off some spells, and beat the bad guys. Once they're done, even more enemies will pop up, ready and raring to ruin your day. Fortunately, a dash of deus ex machina arrives in the form of a dragon and a wizard. You'll then be treated to some cutscenes that tell you about how your adventure started in the first place.

The Adventure Continues

You'll soon find yourself in the capital (after the battle of the Batille and a couple of cutscenes). It is here that you will pick up some more quests and learn a little more about the story.

Take some time to explore the throne room. Once you're done, head outside and you'll see a woman in a purple dress named Gilda complaining to a guard. Talk to her and you'll get the first of many side quests in this new area.

After that, head straight ahead and you'll be able to sell all of that junk you've spent the last couple of hours looting. You can now visit merchants to buy new equipment, and items, and you can also hit up three different Recruiters to get some new soldiers for your army.

That's it for our King's Bounty 2 Guide for Beginners — the wider world awaits. There's still a ton more to do, so get out there and get to exploring!