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.