Learning magic early in Gothic Remake saved me from constantly getting mauled by wolves

The Gothic Remake is a classic RPG, sure, but mostly it's really a game about getting your ass kicked in a hundred different ways. When I waltzed up to the gate of the Old Camp and tried to crack a joke with the guard like I was some cocky protagonist in any other fantasy adventure, he beat me up and took all my stuff.

It was a memorable lesson, though not enough to prevent the exact same thing happening at the next gate I came to. I like sassing guards, what can I say? Over the proceeding hours I found myself using every trick in the book to get by, killing "meat" bugs for food, filching whatever wasn't nailed down, but frequently getting murdered by wolves, scavengers, and even molerats.

Combat in Gothic is so hard because there's so little room for error. Enemies deal a ton of damage, so any mistake is fatal until you find some armor. Since this gear is so valuable in the Valley of the Mines, you're not just going to wander into some cave Elder Scrolls-style and find a full suit in a random chest—it's mainly tied to quests and faction progress.

The same goes for weaponry—if you want a really good weapon you'll most likely have to take it from someone else, something I realised when I drew a bunch of Minecrawlers to attack and down a Paladin in the Old Mine so I could nick his extremely good sword.

Instead of suffering through the early death treadmill for marginally better gear, you can get a much faster leg up in combat by learning magic in The Price of Magic quest.

This one is really easy to complete as soon as you arrive in the Old Camp—you just need to head to the southern cloth-covered market area and find the mage Torrez. Finishing it will let you choose either a healing or a fire bolt rune (I'd suggest taking the fire). Runes are permanent spells you can use, and unlike single-use scrolls, or bows which require arrows, the fire bolt rune gives you a high-damage DoT you can spam on enemies at range as long as you have a way to get mana back.

Once you complete The Price of Magic you can learn Rune Magic and get the fire bolt rune from Torrez (Image credit: Alkimia Interactive)

Proper mana potions are expensive, but drugs are much cheaper. You can get three Northern Dark to smoke for free from Fortuno at his store in the Swamp Camp every day, even if you join another faction. If you want an easy way to get here, try taking on The Cult's Recipe quest and speaking to Baal Parvez in the market. You can also buy cheap drugs like Green Novice from Dexter, the same person who gives the above quest.

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Most of my challenging early fights I basically spent kiting enemies, blasting them with fire balls, and then blazing one when I ran out of mana. These drugs do temporarily reduce dexterity, but they let you do so much damage (and add a DoT to enemies) that they often just die while trying to chase you. It'll prove a little less effective later, but if you're struggling with a specific encounter or just want a bit more firepower, definitely grab magic as soon as you can.