2/11/18 Arena Melee guide 1-7 basic instructions beginner tips at the end.

Simple guide to a simple run writing this because im bored but whatever the tips at the end are more for beginners/ people who dont know the game that well. 

1. Choose veteran warrior, craftsmen apprentice, squire, and personal revenge for strength.

2. Put all attribute points into strength then put your skill points as 2 ironflesh, 5 powerstrike, and 2 athletics to give 
you better damage and resistance as well as speed.

3. Put all your weapon proficiency points into two handed.

4. Choose the sarranids and click continue twice and once you gain control start time.

5. Kill the first bandit you will either get the Archer, Shield and mace, or just Falchion guy for both the Archer and Falchion user just take careful aim for their head as it will one shot them but for the Shield guy aim for his waist and even if you miss switch to your sword and fight him as usual.

6. Talk to the merchant and go to his house spam the bottom options as it does have as many text screens and doesnt give you the first quest pop up.

7. Go to shariz you will get a pop up telling you about the world map and will have to close it next once on the city screen go to the arena and start spamming F or whatever your talk key is to immediately speak to the tournament/arena master spam the top option as it also has the least amount of dialogue. 

(Tips) So you are now fighting in the arena this is where most of the RNG comes into place as you can spawn with 4 different things Heavy practice sword, practice sword and shield, wooden staff, and training bow. You are going for the Heavy practice sword as it deals the most damage so if you spawn with it you are all set but if you spawn with the sword and shield or staff you are going to want to kill all the NPC's that spawned with you and loot a heavy practice sword as fast as possible if you spawn with the bow you can try to get heavy practice sword but it is going to be difficult. 

Also if not obvious the NPC's also spawn with these weapons so what I recommend (you dont have to do this) is when fighting anyone with the Heavy practice sword or staff is to hit them from as far away as you can because they can do the most damage it is very situational though so it depends on whats happening but generally if things are going as planned you should be fighting one at a time but you can turtle (play defensive) if you must.

 If fighting a shield use you can either wait for the opponent to block then feint a side swing by holding attack then clicking block and then attacking again or you can just swing as soon as they are about to strike as once they get close then tend to telegraph it quite often. 

So now if you are fighting the archer as he is drawing move diagonally and once he fires move straight at him once close enough swing pretty easy but they dont tend to move towards you so you have to run across the arena so the less archers the better.

Finally the arena ground is not going to be perfectly flat and at some parts will make you walk because of the incline so its best to try and stay towards the flat sections as best as possible because it can throw you off when you suddenly slow down but if moving across map I wouldnt recommend because any time saved by avoiding it is lost by the distance having to be traveled.

Note: all of these things can be done however this run is not set in stone as the game is very RNG heavy so you can do whatever as long as you follow the rules setup on the page.

Tournment%

Before you start:

You’ll want to make the game settings ideal for the completion of this category by making fighting as easy as possible for you. You want both damage modifiers reduced to easiest. Combat and campaign AI set to poor and combat speed set to fastest.

Character Creation:(ideal selections in bold if you’re not interested in the reasoning behind choices)

Character creation is the most important part of many M&B speedruns as they give your starting stats and items and most categories will be over before you reach level 2 so the starting stats are extremely important.

First step is gender selection. While in most games this is a cosmetic choice in Mount & Blade: Warband each gender gives different stats. You will be selecting **Male** as this will give you +1 to strength and charisma. Female gives +1 Agility and +1 Int, while also removing the Squire option later on, which is what this run uses… So pick male.

The first selection (Your father was…) you will want to make after this is a choice between **Hunter** and Warrior, though Nomad and Thief also add some desirable stats but not enough to counter the good spreads from both Hunter and Warrior. The important stats that Hunter gives are +1 to Strength and +2 to Agility along with +1 to Athletics and +15 to two handed proficiency. While Warrior gives 1 Strength, 1 Agility and 1 Charisma along with +1 ironflesh, +1 power strike and +1 weapon master with +2 one handed proficiency and +23 two handed proficiency. The choice of Hunter will help you to move quicker and close the gaps in the larger arenas quicker while also giving you decent damage. While warrior is for just helping you gain points in ironflesh and power strike which let you take more damage and deal more melee damage.

The second selection (Early life) will be a choice between Page and **Urchin** none of the others give worthwhile proficiencies. Page will add +1 to Strength and +1 Charisma along with +1 power strike and +8 one handed. While Urchin will give +1 Agility and +1 intelligence.along with +8 One Handed.

The third selection(Adulthood) in normal plays will generally determine the items you have with you at the start, but those are largely irrelevant in this run. **Squire** is the best choice in these options giving proficiencies in everything with +23 One Handed and +38 Two handed being the most important. Along with +1 Strength +1 Agility which are the two stats you want to improve giving hp and speed. Also giving +1 power strike further increasing melee damage and +1 weapons master allowing your proficiency to go higher. Smith is probably the second best option, it gives +1 strength, +1 intelligence +1 weapons master and +11 One Handed which is all inferior or equal to Squire.

Fourth selection screen(reason for adventuring) is a relatively easy choice with **Revenge** being the option you choose. Revenge gives +2 Strength and +1 power strike. Other options here that give useful stats are Loss with +1 ironflesh, Wanderlust +2 Agility, Forced out +1 Strength, +1 weapons master and Money +1 Agility. Forced Out is the only real contender but, by this stage selecting optimal choices your weapons master skill should be high enough.

As an example the world record as of writing selects **Hunter, Street Urchin, Squire, Revenge.**
I personally go with Warrior, Page, Squire, Revenge.

Now you’ve made your selections it’s time to put your skill and stat points to use. What you’ll want for attributes is a mix of strength and agility for damage and movement speed ideally 12 strength and 9-10 athletics. You then want to max out power strike and athletics again for the damage and speed, extra skill points can be put into weapon master if it’s below 2 or ironflesh for more health. Put all proficiency points into one handed weapons.

Do whatever you want when setting your appearance, I generally just press randomise.

When selecting your starting location you want to select **Sargoth** as the tournament held by Nords will never have you worrying about horses or bows making it much quicker and more predictable as any remaining enemies will run towards you instead of keeping their distance. Another potential option would be Reyvadin because you start closer to the bandit and merchant which can cut time down there… But the tournament is a lot more random. So choose Sargoth.

The run:
Your character is created, you’ve started your timer after hitting continue the second time and now you’re facing down the bandit. Kill him as quick as you can, potentially you can get a headshot with your crossbow killing him instantly and spawning the merchant. But generally you just want to run up and kill him with your sword.

Talk to the merchant he’ll take you back to his house, talk to him again and then select the second option. Press tab to leave the city and then return to Sargoth(or Reyvadin) and then join the tournament.(If there isn’t one being held you’ll need to reset and recreate the character and try again.)

Now you need to fight through 6 rounds of the tournament, in the early rounds when the teams are much larger rely/hope your teammates do a good job and try to take out groups further away from your teammates to speed things up. Later rounds try to avoid getting stuck hitting their shield and deal as much damage as possible. The tournament itself is really just RNG on team set ups and how the AI runs around in the arena. Finish your timer on the screen announcing that you won the tournament.

This concludes my guide on tournament% if you have any questions or potential edits, just let know.
Good luck!
~Muzgrob

Vassal%

I recommend starting out by picking these:

Father was: Impoverished Noble (i believe it makes u more like towards becoming a vassal)
You were: A Steppe Child
You became: University student (for Int)
You had to leave because: Forced out of home (For int)

Get 12 int then 4 persuasion. Get 2 ironflesh, 2 power strike, 4 path finding and 2 spotting.

Begin at Sargoth (idk if it helps, just a preference). Go straight to the king and ask for a quest. Keep trying until you get the "Hunt down (name)." Go to the town and kill them. Come back and talk to the king. tell him u did, don't accept the money. Then take another quest that gives relations. If you get it, talk to him and he will allow u to become a vassal.

Victory.

(the probably needs to be revised, ill get to that later)

Vassal% Updated

Disclaimer: This run is essentially RNG%, but it's incredibly short, so be prepared to do many many short (sub 1 minute) runs.

Father was: Impoverished Noble
You were: A Steppe Child
You became: University student (for Int)
You had to leave because: Forced out of home (For int)

Get 12 int then 4 persuasion. Get 2 Atheletics, 2 power strike, 4 path finding and 2 spotting.

Begin at Jelkala, as it has the shortest distance between the starting city and the nearby castle.

In the beginning fight, there are a few potential options:
	-Enemy with Bow: Average difficulty. He usually runs at you for a moment, moves to the side and stops to aim. When he stops to move, headshot him.
	-Enemy with Shield: Hard difficulty. He runs towards you and you want to try to shoot him in the legs. This staggers him (usually) for a brief second while you switch to melee. Then you have to fight him normally. 
	-Enemy with neither: Easiest. He runs at you, but usually moves to the side before going all the way. Aim at the head but don't shoot till he dodges. Over the course of multiple runs you'll get the timing to know if he is gonna move or not.

After the fight, talk to the merchant, then go to his house and talk to him again. Choose the bottom option for the least dialogue. Once you leave his house, run to Ibdeles Castle nearby. Request a meeting with the lord in the castle. Depending on the lord you get, the top option could be to duel him. YOU MUST GET A DUEL TO COMPLETE THE RUN. The lord must have a quality named "sadistic" which is in the AI personality. I believe there are 2-3 lords, but I only know that Count Tarchias is for sure one of them. 

Once you win this duel, run back to Jelkala. Sometimes King Graveth leaves Jelkala, but with the 2 spotting you should be able to see him if he leaves. Otherwise, go into the Jelkala castle and talk to Graveth. Ask him for a task. You must get a task that gives you at least +1 relation with him (the Hunt Down and Execute quest does this for example). If you don't get +1 relation with him from the quest acceptance, you lose usually ~20-25 seconds minimum, which with a one minute run is essentially dead.

Once you get the +1 relation, talk to Graveth again and ask to become his vassal. Spam click through the top dialogue option and your run ends once you get the faction update! Congrats!

Nome	Autore
2/11/18 Arena Melee guide 1-7 basic instructions beginner tips at the end.	WhiskeyMov 7 years ago
Tournment%	Muzgrob 8 years ago
Vassal%	Epii 7 years ago
Vassal% Updated	Anamarii 7 years ago