First things first: try to be rested as and when you need to be. Fatigue can make a massive difference to your ability to fight offensively (lowered accuracy, eliminating everything we worked so hard for in the character creation screen), and defensively (lowered endurance means we have to take less damage before being knocked out).

So let’s have a breather, and actually level up. We get to make choices in 3 areas:

• Skills

• Class Unlocks

• Talents

There are 5 skills in PoE, as shown to the side. These all grant bonuses to various parts of gameplay, and if you want the full breakdown, have a look here:

https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Skills?so=search#In_Pillars_of_Eternity

For our purposes we’re going to completely ignore Lore and Athletics, which give scroll usage and endurance recovery, because we want to remain ignorant and in the shadows.

The other 3 skills have useful benefits for us though:

Stealth increases our ability to sneak, especially close to enemies. More sneak = get closer while in stealth = more ambush attacks = more damage.

Mechanics lets us disarm traps and open locks, and trust me, we’re going to be doing a poop-tonne of both.

Survival is the best all-round skill, giving a wide variety of bonuses from increased damage in certain scenarios, to movement speed, and even healing received.

For now, we’re going to boost Stealth and Survival by 1 point, and Mechanics by 2.

Class Unlocks are… they… I dunno, I didn’t get any this level so I can’t tell you yet. Shrug.

Talents can come from 4 different lists. Class is only available to your class, no shit. Offensive, Defensive and Utility are non-class-specific, but rather are more like general feats from D&D. We go for our only available class unlock, backstab, which is the actual skill that grants bonus damage from attacks out of stealth. Sooner or later we will have to make a choice about if we want to dual-wield or not going forwards, but for now, we will continue to do so.

We move into the Valewood, hoping to get along to Gilded Vale. Areas of interest have been marked for your convenience!

A bit of the way in, we find a bunch of bandits (1). 3 enemies right now is probably too many to handle since we’re only level 2, its probably a much better idea to come back here with some companions.

HAH PSYCH of course we un-alived them all.

This actually was a bit of a tough fight, we had to use a character cooldown, an item cooldown, and a potion, all of which restored varying amounts of Endurance, but in the end, we got through just fine. Our spoils? Little bit of dosh and a chat with a fella called Tenfrith, who will reward us with riches beyond our wildest dreams if we seek him out at the Black Hound Inn, once we eventually get to Gilded Vale.

A bit further south (2) there is a wall that can be scaled, but we don’t have the right tools or skills yet; trying anyway results in a fail, though with no consequences. Even in segments like this, your skills and inventory can come into play, as with dialogue options.

Back up north is a Xaurip camp (3), which surely is not for the faint of heart, or the faint of butt...

Luckily, we have a good strong heart, and a tightly clenched anus, and we kill one of the little melts in a single swing, helping even out the odds.

The other 2 were simply a case of blinding one and focusing him down, then taking out the straggler. Loot? Sod all, these guys were barely worth the effort to kill. Even the dead body already in the camp was poor. I took what I wanted to sell and left the rest to rot.

Around the corner, there is a cave with a bear in it (4).

This absolutely is a dangerous enemy that needs a proper party, so of course I went right in to try and kill it.

Cock. This bear will take half my endurance with a single hit, and massive HP damage on top of that...

This fight is unwinnable in my current state, I have a few ways to get endurance back, but taking hits of 40+ when I’m only capable of putting out ~18 even with sneak attack bonuses (so more like ~12 on a good roll when it’s not blinded) is a recipe for disaster. Next time, bear, next time.

There’s little else of interest here, just a chap called Nonton whose friend is in the bear cave. Onwards, to the Gilded Vale!

Oh, in case anyone is curious about the ghostly pig following me around, it's a Giant Miniature Space Piglet, a non-combat pet, which I think was a reward from being a Kickstarter backer of the game.