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Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is going to be one of the biggest games of 2025, and the year has barely started. This massive open-world RPG has you settling into the swing of 15th-century life as you attempt to reclaim your status as a man in service of a noble. Only, that’s always easier said than done.
KCD2 is a massive game with a bunch of complex interlocking systems and quests that don’t always spell out exactly what you have to do. How do you equip things to your horse? How do you wash yourself? How does the lockpicking minigame actually work? These are all questions you’ll ask yourself while playing KCD2, and in this guide we’re breaking down some of the big tips we wish we knew before playing.
Always Haggle
Deep Silver
You can Haggle the price of almost anything – both goods and services – and the higher the cost of what you’re haggling, the more benefit you’ll get out of it. But even if you can only get a bit of a bargain, you’ll still upgrade your Speech skills. In terms of Groschen and skills, you should always Haggle.
Head to Semine for a Horse
Deep Silver
Semine is an early settlement you can visit to the Southwest, and you should make sure to visit, because your missing horse is here. Being able to summon and ride a horse makes exploring the world much, much easier, as running will only get you so far before running out of breath. If your Speech is good, you can even get your horse back for free. Once you get Pebbles, you will be able to equip gear to your horse in KCD2.
Sit and Read
Deep Silver
Reading a skill book can take time, and you’ll benefit from extra EXP if you read while sitting down. Simply sit on a chair or bed, and then get the book out from your inventory and start reading. If you do this with every book you read, the EXP will really add up over time.
Make Sure To Wash Off
Deep Silver
You can wash yourself at a pond or a trough. You can find troughs in almost every civilized area, too. NPCs will treat you better and take you more seriously if you’re clean, and some innkeepers won’t even let you rent a room if you’re filthy. Ensuring your clothes are washed semi-regularly will give you benefits when talking to people, so don’t walk around stinking.
Looking the Part
Deep Silver
If filth means people treat you worse, then fancy clothes mean people in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 treat you better. There are several dialogue options you can undertake in most conversations, and your clothing will give a buff to each option. If you’re wearing heavy armor and weaponry, for example, you will be able to threaten and intimidate people more easily. If you’re dressed in fine attire and wear jewelry, you will be more convincing instead. If you’re coming up against a big dialogue option, make sure you wear clothes that compliment your Charisma stat.
Dogs Eat Anything
Deep Silver
An early quest will end with you finding Mutt, your loyal canine companion. Mutt will be incredibly helpful in both combat, and while completing a variety of quests, as he can smell items to track down their owners. Some quests are borderline impossible to complete without Mutt by your side, so you should find him as soon as possible, and then regularly feed him to make him more loyal. Dogs will eat anything, so rancid Wolf meat is fine.
Dry and Cook Your Ingredients
Deep Silver
Your food and herbs will slowly degrade, and eventually become unusable. Many settlements have drying racks in gardens and inside kitchens, and these racks can be used to dry your food and herbs to make them last longer. You can also approach any camp in the wilderness and interact with the frying pan to cook food, which you should obviously do with any meat you collect from beasts you slay in the countryside.
Get a Dagger
Deep Silver
There’s a separate slot in your character inventory for a dagger, and equipping one will give you access to stealth kills, so you should make sure to get one as early as possible. Many weapons vendors sell daggers at cheap prices, but if you continue down the path behind Bozhena’s hut and past her herb garden, you can find a bandit camp and there’s a dagger in a sack. You can visit the camp while gathering herbs for Hans in the early section of the game at night and sneak away without being spotted.
Manage Your Inventory
Deep Silver
Like many RPGs, you will become overburdened when you carry too many items. When you get your horse you will be able to send a large amount of items over to your horse’s inventory, which is a massive help, but if you have heavy armor equipped you will often be close to being too heavy. You can place all extra items in chests near beds you own – these chests share an inventory and can never be stolen from – but you should make sure to sell old and useless gear to blacksmiths, tailors, cobblers, and other merchants.
Save Often
Deep Silver
Saving in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is a bit difficult. There is an auto-save function that will activate after most quest milestones, but if you’re exploring the wilderness and haven’t saved for a while, you’re at risk of losing it all. You can make the game save by quitting the game entirely – there is always a single exit save that is replaced when you manually quit the game – sleeping in an owned bed, or using a Saviour Schnapps potion. The best way to ensure your game is saved is by sleeping at an owned bed. You only need to sleep for an hour to save, and when it’s an owned bed, there are basically no downsides. You can even use this sleep save tactic to farm money from Dice players.
