Knights of Legend has a lot in common with a wooden chess board: both are slow tactical games (they both lack any battle animation, too). A game session of KL might take a few hours; a "short" game session should include at least one or two battles, so to earn enough gold to pay the save game.
In Brettle[edit]
Inns and abbey[edit]
First of all, know that you need 360 Gold Coins to save the game (60 G per character), and more gold to heal injured characters. Every time you start a game session, make sure you earn at least 360 G. This is usually accomplished by fighting about two random battles and selling the enemy equipment. It is highly recommended that you only save if you earned enough money.
The abbey is the main way to heal. There are no proper healing spells or items in Knights of Legend. At the abbey, you have to pay depending on how many body points the character should heal. Endurance and nutrition are restored, too. Occasionally, in the wild you may encounter female healers or chanting monks, who will fully heal your party for free.
There is a "free" inn in Brettle, where you "pay" with random equipment parts (stolen). Still, if you sell one equipment part, you usually get enough money to save two or three characters at the other inn: it is more convenient that staying at the Broken Keg inn. If you really are short on money, but you accomplished something important, you may spoil three characters and give all their weapons and armor to the remaining three. The "naked" characters can safely stay at the Broken Keg inn, since nothing can be stolen from them.
Armor shop[edit]
All the characters start the game with one weapon and one or two weapon skills, but no armor. First thing to do is: purchase armor for everybody. A full set of cloth armor will do; exception: a male elf pyar should stay naked (too tall, not enough endurance), the dwarves can afford leather armor and a shield (the limit right now is the money, not their endurance).
After every battle, you can come back to the armorer and sell all the enemy loot. It is the best way to raise money. Before selling, check the value of the weapons on the menu, and give the most valuable items to the less wealthy characters.
If you lose a battle: weapon shops[edit]
If the party loses a battle, enemies steal all the weapons. If the party flees, they drop some weapons (see #Flee without penalty, below), and knocked out characters are looted. When this occurs, you might choose not to save, and reload instead.
Otherwise, you can buy back any weapon in Brettle: there are two weaponers and one bowyer in town, and they will cover all your needs. The only exception is the elf bow: it can only be purchased in Htron, to the north, and it is the most expensive weapon in the game by far (750 G, almost twice as much as the second most expensive weapon).
If you lose a quest special weapon, do not save the game: there is no way to get it back. "With great power comes great responsibility!"
Other shops and residences[edit]
In the pub you can purchase emergency rations. Check each character's nutrition bar in the menu screen: it starts blue, and it progressively depeletes getting red; when the nutrition gets down to 2/3 (i.e. 1/3 red starvation), battle performance starts getting affected. In general, the party will encounter female healers or chanting monks often enough, so that nutrition is not a concern. If you want to be on the safe side, purchase breaded fish at Brettle pub (one portion per character): they are nutritious and cheap.
Three shops are covered in the section below: #Magic shops, #Stables, #Trainers. Any other residence can give you a quest or information about a "boss" location.
Early exploration[edit]
Flee without penalty[edit]
During combat, after all six characters chose their action, you have the choice of fleeing from battle. If you choose this option, the characters will drop the weapons in their hand. Look carefully at the icon: characters actually drop only melee weapons in their hands; bows are not dropped; shields are not dropped; sheathed weapons in the belt are not dropped.
Therefore, if you want to avoid unwanted battles, make sure that all your characters travel with their melee weapons in the sheaths.
Stables[edit]
In a middle ages setting, "knight" stands for "horse-mounted nobleman". Your six characters will become the Knights of Legend. A knight without a horse is literally a "horseless horseman", and that sounds weird enough. Purchase horses for your knights.
The stableman in Brettle refuse to sell horses to dwarves. Leave town, follow the road south and get to Shellernoon: the stables there will sell horses to dwarves, but not to a Dark Guard. If your party includes both dwarves and Dark Guards, you may buy some horses in Brettle and some in Shellernoon.
Horses allow to travel faster across the land. They also give a chance to avoid combat, but this is pointless if you follow the #Flee without penalty strategy and travel with sheathed weapons.
Magic shops[edit]
At the beginning of the game, every character can purchase any spell. Each character can learn up to 16 spells. Visit the six Magic Orders in six different towns, and let every character learn two spells per target race. Note that a character cannot target him/herself; for example, if you have only one dwarf in your team, he should not buy any spell that support dwarves.
The six magic orders are in the following towns:
- Brettle: White Pearl spells support elves and harm or support humans.
- Pearl of Avalon (south-west of Htron; north road): Blue Gem spells support dwarves and kelden.
- Shellernoon (south-west road): Black Onyx spells harm legendary monsters.
- Poitle Lock (west coast, far from any road): Secret Storm spells harm giants.
- Olanthen (south coast, far from any road): Dark Stone spells harm undead.
- Thimblewald (north-west road): Red Mist spells target elemental spirits.
There is a tower at the crossroads near Brettle; the dwarf there gives some directions about the destinations of the roads.
Trainers[edit]
Even the manual suggests to train two weapon skills only: one melee weapon and one bow.
In the first training, raise your weapon skill to a multiple of 5 (5, 10, 15, 20...); after that, always train by 5 units. In fact, every trainer has a maximum skill that is multiple of 5; if, for example, you reach a skill 3 units less than the maximum, the trainer will still refuse to train further (because training 5 units will get beyond his max), and the character will miss 3 skill points.
Bows have the tactical advantage of hitting an enemy from a distance. "Shoot and run" is a very effective strategy. Every character (except for dwarves, see below) should first of all train in the use of a bow. Some inhabitants of Brettle (Ryan and Thadius) give you directions to an elven weapons trainer.
Dwarves cannot run, and therefore they cannot keep the necessary distance to use a bow against an enemy. This is especially disadvantageous in the #Arena. Most dwarven classes start the game with a total weapon skill of 19: they can be trained only once before they are sent to the arena (every 20 weapon skill units). Let this training be 5 units in their starting weapon. Such weapons are: short spear and battle axe (trained in Brettle), war hammer (trained in Htron, to the north). After this first training, they should focus on more useful melee weapons.
No matter which melee weapon a character start with, he/she should train greatsword or halberd. A magic version of three of them will be found during the game, and they are the most powerful weapons available. The greatsword is trained in Htron (north road) up to a certain level, then in Olanthen (south coast); the halberd can be trained at the halfway house (north-west road) first, and then in Pearl of Avalon (south-west of Htron). Both weapon skills require a bit of hexadecimal editing, because expansion modules were never released. A fourth magic weapon is a great axe, obtained at the end of the game; it can be trained at the Brettle crossroads tower. Archers can train the scimitar skill, that can reach a very high level without any hexadecimal editing.
When all characters reached maximum skills in one melee weapon and one bow, stop training. You are not supposed to reach Knight-Baronet rank (lv. 25), because the four expansion modules were never released. If you try to, all you will get are overpowering arena duels and random encounters.
Arena[edit]
The rank (level) of a character is determined by the total sum of weapon skill values. Note that some characters start the game as "peasant", others as "peasant - serf". Sum their weapon skills: if the total value is 19 or less, the character is a lv.1 "peasant"; if it is 20 or more, he/she is a lv.2 "peasant - serf".
Every time the weapon skills sum of a character reaches a multiple of 20 (20, 40, 60...), all trainers will refuse to train him/her, and tell to go to the arena, north from Brettle. In the arena, the character has to fight a one-on-one duel. If he/she wins, the character gains a level: the attributes are slightly improved (except for size and weapon skills).
At the arena, the other party members can bet up to 99 G on their companion, for a total of 495 G. This is enough to heal and save the game, not to mention the defeated enemy's weapon. Of course, if your character loses the duel, you should better not save the game.
When a character gains a level, all the monster in the game receive a slight upgrade to their level and weapon skill, but not to the other attributes. Apparently, "bosses" receive no such bonus: at a certain point in the game, you might choose to avoid any random battle (see #Flee without penalty) and fight bosses only.