Don't skip the intro.

To begin, put 5 points into Strength and 5 points into Attack (i.e., start the game with six points in those two statistics and one point in everything else).

TIPS:

* You will die at least a few times. Possibly QUITE a few times. RNG in this game is bonkers. If you follow this entire guide to the letter and it's still taking you more than 90 minutes to beat S&S I, you are cursed.

* Regarding armor: Improving gear frequently is crucial. Strive to only upgrade a piece or two of armor at a time. I've playtested this guide numerous times with different armor configurations and can still beat S&S I consistently within an hour. So if you want to splurge and buy a good breastplate early on, you don't have to follow my purchases to the letter.

* Regarding weapons: there's only one weapon I recommend spending money on, and it's right after our first victory. I'll mention it below. When you defeat an Arena Champion, ALWAYS take their weapon.

* Early on, Strength and Attack are the most important stats to invest in. Later in the game, we'll also want a few points in Vitality and Charisma. Again, this could probably be more optimized, and I welcome comments.

* While in battle, avoid using Charge on distant foes... it will deplete lots of Energy and make us miss a turn.

Fight in the Arena. Move/walk toward the foe and use quick attacks to defeat him. Put all points into Strength (for a total of 9).

Buy the Shortsword from the Weaponsmith. (As I stated earlier, this is the only time you'll need to visit him!)

Fight in the Arena. Move in close and use quick attacks to defeat the foe. Put all points into Strength (for a total of 12).

Buy armor. (I went with Noob Helmet and Noob Gauntlet.)

Fight the Arena Champion (Wolfgang of Shackleford) and beat him by moving in close and using quick attacks once he's in range. Put all points into Strength.

Keep fighting in the arena (and putting points into Strength) until you fight and defeat the second Arena Champion, Bo'sun Smythe. If you have trouble with this fight, try using Taunt repeatedly to lure him in close, and give him the occasional Shove if he gets too close and you need some rest. Take his weapon and put all points into Strength. (Going forward, we'll increase our Attack.)

Keep fighting in the Arena. We have been focusing on Strength, but at this point we should aim to have 8-10 points in Attack before we fight the next Arena Champion (Slave Driver). With a little luck, he won't be so tough. Taunt him from afar and use Power Attack when he's up close. (We have high Strength so--if we connect with a Power Attack--we'll do massive damage AND hurl him across the map.) Give him a Shove if he gets too close. If you die, just try again. This isn't a speedrun. :) Win, and take his weapon!

Once you've defeated Slave Driver, try to have 23 points in Strength and 10 points in Attack.

Buy armor. (I bought Brigand Shinguards and the Rogue Shield.)

Continue fighting in the Arena. Put three points into Vitality (for a total of 4).

Upgrade armor. (I bought Rogue Shoulderguards.)

Your stats should now look close to this:

Strength: 23
Attack: 10
Vitality: 4
Everything Else: 1

For the next Arena Champion (Nine Cat Jack), use Taunt repeatedly to wear down his health and lure him in. Use Power Attacks to take off a big chunk of health and use quick attacks to finish him off. Take his weapon and put two points into Attack (for a total of 12) and one point into Charisma (for a total of 2).

Buy armor upgrades. (I bought the Rogue Gauntlet, Militia Shinguard, and Cutpurse Helmet.)

Defeat the next fighter in the Arena and put three points into Vitality.

Do your stats look like this right now?

Strength: 23
Attack: 12
Vitality: 7
Charisma: 2

They should, if you've been following this guide!

Stylonius of Southport is the next Arena Champion. (He was the most difficult boss while playtesting this guide, so don't be discouraged.) Taunt him repeatedly and attack when he's in range. This fight takes me between 4-8 attempts, so pray for good RNG. I hope you learned some things from previous battles! Put one point into Vitality (for a total of 8) and another two points into Attack (for a total of 14) and upgrade your armor... I went with Brigand Greaves and a Cutpurse Breastplate.

Go kill another guy in the arena and put additional points into Attack. Your stats should be looking like this now:

Strength: 23
Attack: 17
Vitality: 8
Charisma: 2

Buy the Hoplite Boots.

Lord Talah'udin is the next Arena Champion. Taunt him and use Power attacks. I had good RNG and Power Attacked him into the spiked pit on my third attempt for an instakill. Take his weapon and boost Attack:

Strength: 23
Attack 20
Vitality: 8
Charisma: 2

Kill the next guy. Put points into Attack:

Strength: 23
Attack 23
Vitality: 8
Charisma: 2

Buy the Militia Helm. Go kill the last Arena Champion (HeChaos the Scourge) using everything we've learned.

CONGRATULATIONS, we beat the first game!

* * * * *

IMPORTANT S&S II UPDATE AS OF AUGUST 2024: A recent patch by the developer (and me testing this guide over again) leads me to suggest that we invest points into not just the Charisma skill, but also Stamina.

Long story short: Our primary attack for this build, Taunt, used to boost our Energy... but now it depletes it.

Increasing our Stamina will prevent passing out (and will make the times we do pass out more productive because we'll gain more Energy). Unfortunately, the more we boost Charisma, the more Energy our Taunt uses.

This is the new strategy I'm tentatively endorsing for S&S II:

Step 1. Put one skill point into Stamina every level up, and put the remaining three skill points into Charisma.
Step 2. Try to Taunt twice in a row without passing out during your next few fights... If you can't, boost Stamina exclusively during your next 1-2 level ups until you are able to Taunt twice without falling asleep
Step 3. Switch back to boosting mostly Charisma. (I.e., return to Step 1.)

Also (regarding the new patch to S&S II): I could be wrong about this, but I think the sweet spot might be as follows: whatever your total Charisma skill is, try to keep your Stamina around 20-30% of that value. This seems to be a good way to get two Taunts in a row without having to rest in between.

Continue reading the original guide below, but don't forget about the 2024 patch.

* * * * *

We will be prioritizing Charisma above (almost) everything else! Begin the game with 10 points in Charisma and only a single point in the other skills.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you encounter a random event between fights that requires you to make a choice, ALWAYS choose to find a bed in a tavern, and ignore/avoid/nope out of ANYTHING ELSE. A lot of events lead to outcomes where you receive permanently reduced stats.

ALSO NOTE: Don't bother buying any weapons. With that said, definitely visit the Magic Shop to abuse the following bug: Enchanting our (nonexistant) weapon with the strongest poison enchantment available. As we don't have a weapon, the game charges us nothing, yet we somehow become the proud owner of a rusty knife with a poison enchantment that will trigger damage even though we're never going to swing it, and we're only going to yell people to death, Skyrim style.

This is a Charisma build, so the mechanics are quite simple: Taunt every foe repeatedly until they die. With a successful Taunt, sometimes your opponent will be thrown back, and sometimes they'll take a big chunk of damage. Just keep Taunting, over and over. If you run into an annoying enemy who pulls you into melee range, don't attack! Just retreat from them until you have the opportunity to Taunt again. Rinse and repeat.

Duel as much as you can until you unlock a Tournament. Check to see if you can upgrade some armor before you begin a Tournament... and then upgrade more armor after you've earned your Tournament winnings. Always be upgrading.

Once you beat the first Tournament, you should have enough money to buy some decent gear. Early on, if you are having trouble buying gear, try to use Win The Crowd during fights (once your opponent has been shouted across the battlefield) to earn bonus money when the fight is complete. However, I don't think you should have too much trouble affording armor... after all, we won't be spending any money on spells OR weapons! Later on--once you've gained Paladin armor--I don't think gold should ever be an issue for you if you're following this guide correctly.

Every few gladiator levels (or before a tournament, where it's easier to lose progress), go ahead and save your progress at the Church... it's super cheap and halfway through the game we're likely to have more gold than we know what to do with, so just save every so often just in case we encounter some bad RNG.

Continue dumping points into Charisma, upgrading your armor, and Taunting your way through the game.

Are you getting bored? Once you have 110-150 points in Charisma and 4-8 points in Stamina (or your gladiator is around level 27-36), and you want another technique or two aside from Taunt, you might consider a few options:

Option 1: Get to 4 skill points in Magicka and buy a couple slots of Teleport to get out of close quarters. Then, keep putting points into Magicka every so often and buy a few slots of Fireball (later, Dire Fireball) to end duels a LOT faster by blasting through all your opponent's armor and drawing blood within just a few turns. ... (9/9/2024: Upon testing, an early-game emphasis on Charisma build into a late-game emphasis on Magicka might be more efficient than a primarily Charisma build. The only thing that gives me pause about that strategy is the lack of spell slots. If anyone tests this thoroughly, please post about it in the comments.)

Option 3: If you want to have a better Shove, you can dump a few points into Strength which will give you an option to escape close quarters combat more easily.

Option 4: If you want to be able to walk farther away from enemies, you can dump a few points into Agility to give you a different escape option.

We don't technically need to do any of these things, however, since we're TAUNTY AF.

If you've been EXCLUSIVELY dumping points into Charisma, you should be Taunting opponents for over 500 damage by around level 29-31, and for over 600 damage by around Level 35-37.

While testing this guide, I lost for the first time during a duel at level 34, and once again during a duel at level 37. With that said, dying doesn't matter at this point... keep going!

CONGRATULATIONS, we beat the second game!

Put all points into Strength. Keep fighting in the Arena and upgrading equipment. Go after the Arena Champion every so often.

For our Talents, focus on unlocking Whirlwind as quickly as we can, taking the following Talents in roughly this order:

SCHOOL OF WARFARE: Sword Mastery --> Dual Wielding --> Critical Mastery --> Whirlwind
SCHOOL OF SURVIVAL: Dodge Mastery --> Elemental Resistance

Once we get Whirlwind, we essentially get a % chance at an instakill with every Power Attack we perform, so unlock it ASAP and pump as many of those points into it as possible and go after Arena Champions more frequently. Once Whirlwind is maxed out, pump points into the Dodge and Elemental Resistance talents to improve our chances of surviving long enough to instakill opponents with Power Attacks.

CONGRATULATIONS, we beat the third game!

Note: I completed S&S III at level 46, but I think you can do it a lot earlier than I did with skill and good RNG.

S&S... the board game! I was NOT into this game initially... but after playing it for awhile, it really grew on me.

(Before you start playing the game in earnest, click on "Hall of Minigames" and you will earn an achievement.)

The combat in S&S IV seems to be a simplified form of S&S III. As in that game, we'll boost our Strength as often as possible (but feel free to throw the occasional point into Vitality every now and then if you think it will make things easier for you). Otherwise, we're picking Strength as often as we can. Use lots of Power Attacks during fights.

NOTE: Once you have unlocked it, ALWAYS use the seventh Quest Card, "Fate's Smile" for every run. The card description reads, "While you carry this card, random events will always fare well for you when you land on a RANDOM EVENT tile." Since landing on a random event tile during a game can occasionally lead to permanently reduced stats (i.e., decreases in Strength, Vitality, etc.), it is essential to ALWAYS use this card to avoid accidentally wrecking your build.

ALSO NOTE: While navigating the game board, I'd suggest avoiding mini-games most of the time. A few of them are relatively easy, but many of them are extremely difficult to play proficiently. Your mileage may vary.

My favorite Swords & Sandals game. If you want 100% achievements, finish both CAMPAIGN and SURVIVAL modes.

*** CAMPAIGN MODE ***

Combat in this game is fun, but I suggest avoiding battles (or selecting "auto battle" if you have very good odds). I'll tell you when to fight. After you've boosted skills and know what you're doing, select "take the field" and micromanage your army to victory.

Upgrade Archery as often as possible. If you can't boost Archery, I like to boost Airstrike, Weaponsmith, Armourer, Mercantile, Colossus Mastery, Siege, Defensive Tactics, Offensive Tactics, and Raise Dead in roughly that order, but your mileage may vary.

C1E1: Avoid combat. Move around the map. When you move to a new zone, you capture it and will earn money from that zone next turn. You can also sell your troops, lol.

Put +3 in Archery.

C1E2: 20 light infantry, 5 archers, and 5 heavy infantry are needed. Always recruit archers, they are cheap and effective. Move around the map to capture zones to raise money, while trying to buy the units you need each turn. Sometimes this mission will glitch and you'll win after a single purchase.

Put +1 each in Airstrike, Armourer, and Weaponsmith.

C1E3: Ignore your foe's castle, we just need to defeat their army. Move around the map to capture zones, and recruit as many archers as you can. When you are ready to try engaging your foe, select "take the field" and begin the battle by casting Airstrike. Send in heavy infantry to attack. Unless you have bad RNG, it should take you 3-4 rounds to win.

(Or, if your odds are looking good, just auto battle the fight!)

A NOTE ABOUT ARCHERS: Never send your archers forward during a battle. If you do, they will be slaughtered viciously. Their most important job is firing at the foe between combat rounds.

Put +2 in Armourer and +1 in Weaponsmith.

C1E4: Avoiding fights, move to the Ak'Kash Steppes (at the bottom of the map, west of the city), and Dig.

Put +1 in Weaponsmith and +2 in Mercantile.

C1E5: Buy a Catapult (and Archers if you want) as you make your way to the bottom of the map. Attack Taj Brandhir. This will start a Siege minigame where you launch missiles at a castle wall. The catapult will begin moving up and down. Click when the catapult is (roughly) in the middle of the screen. Once you have taken aim, click again when the missile is around half power (or just slightly higher than half power). Keep trying and eventually you'll take down the wall. This diagram might help:


Airstrike and attack with your Colossus. Win!

Put +1 each in Mercantile, Colossus Mastery, and Siege.

C2E1: Easy. Start with the center zones, grab the southwestern zone, and then the northern.

+1 each in Archery, Mercantile, and Airstrike.

C2E2: Rush your foe's army. Use Airstrike when you can. Send big units out.

+1 each in Armourer, Weaponsmith, and Siege.

C2E3: Buy troops and siege your foe's castle.

+2 in Colossus Mastery and +1 in Siege.

C2E4: Dig one space to the west of your starting zone, lol.

+1 each in Siege, Colossus Mastery, and Defensive Tactics.

C2E5: Rush Prime Ape and win. It might be RNG or it might be the terrain, but I beat him on both Dankheart (swamp) and Handoth (mountain).

+2 in Defensive Tactics and +1 in Offensive Tactics.

C3E1: Easy.

+1 each in Archery, Airstrike, and Weaponsmith

C3E2: Rush your foe. Use Airstrikes when you can.

+1 each in Armourer, Mercantile, and Siege.

C3E3: Easy.

+2 into Offensive Tactics and +1 into Colossus Mastery.

C3E4: Let the AIs garrison their troops across different zones and/or wear each other down in combat and then rush Arglaxx, all in under 10 turns. This could take a few tries if you get bad RNG.

+2 in Defensive Tactics, +1 in Offensive Tactics

C3E5: Buy as many Archers as possible (up to 40), and rush your foe. Airstrike when possible. Just for fun, I SOLD all of my Cavalry and still beat this mission by attacking defensively.

Put +1 into Offensive Tactics and +2 into a new skill of your choice! Raise Dead is a good option, since it's half the cost of Airstrike.

NOTE: I won't tell you what to invest points into from here on out. Just max out what you have and pick whatever sounds good.

C4E1: Easy.

C4E2: Move to Skulden (southeastern coast) and Dig.

C4E3: Capture zones and Dig. Avoid fights. Sell off unnecessary troops. Buy a Colossus and end your turn to win.

C4E4: Avoid terrain that gives your foes an advantage. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look at the morale modifiers on the screen before the fight (i.e., where you choose "auto battle" or "take the field"). Only fight if (A) your opponent has bad morale or (B) there is no morale modifier. I won with Ferocious Attacks.

C4E5: Buy archers and capture Braxxis ASAP. Use Airstrike and Ferocious Attacks from your Colossus. Then, build your army back up if needed and capture Drakondier.

C5E1: Avoid everyone and buy troops. Easy.

C5E2: Move to Vale of Shadows (swamp in the southeast) and Dig.

C5E3: Buy Archers and capture the zones. Easy.

C5E4: Buy a Catapult ASAP (and Archers). Rush Braxis.

C5E5: Raise money and buy Archers. Beat your first foe, hopefully with your Colossus alive. Then, either rush your second foe... OR wait for him to garrison his troops across the map and then swoop in and finish off his army.

C6E1: Move to Feargalheart (forest zone, top right of center) and Dig.

C6E2: See strategy from C4E4 above.

C6E3: Rush your foe and win.

C6E4: Easy-ish... You need to be the FIRST to control nine zones. Buy Archers, keep expanding, and opportunistically fight opposing armies to lower their number of controlled zones.

C6E5: Buy Archers and rush Emperor Antares (bottom right), then HeChaos.

C7E1: Dig immediately.

C7E2: Buy Archers, rush Braxis.

C7E3: See C4E4.

C7E4: Easy. We have a time limit, but it is generous (30 turns). Buy troops, take your time, and avoid fights (although most will be easy by now). With good RNG, we can win in 0-2 battles.

C7E5: Recruit a unit or two, rush Drakondier, and then grab territory and buy more units on the way to Helmgard. Win!

C8E1: Make your way to Messeth (left center) and Dig.

C8E2: See C4E4.

C8E3: Buy units when you can and rush Taj Brandhir. Keep your Colossus alive. Rush Eddengarth.

C8M4: Rush both castles while buying troops.

C8M5: See above, but it's 3 castles!

C9: Buy Archers first, and other units when you can.

KEEP IT UP! TRIUMPH! EXCELSIOR!

*** SURVIVAL MODE ***

Select Emperor Antares (The guy in the hood with glowing red eyes.)

Select "I'm just a little kid" difficulty.

Fight 1: My first foe was Baron Wolfgang. Yours may be different, but it should not influence the outcome.

Cast Raise Dead. It won't do much, but your archers will then fire. Cast Raise Dead again. Surprise! Your archers will fire again. This should wipe them out entirely. If not, finish them off with your Colossus.

Put +2 in Archery.

Fight 2: Cast Raise Dead and cast it again whenever you can.

Finish your foe off with your Colossus. (Try Cautious Attacks, to preserve his HP.)

Boost Archery again.

At this point in the game, continue casting Raise Dead as often as possible, but we must also send out our units while waiting to regain enough command points to cast Raise Dead again.

Are you fighting a foe with a Colossus? Send your beefy Arena Champions out to perform a Ferocious Attack (this does wonders against big beefers like Prime Ape).

Follow the strategy: Cast Raise Dead as often as you can, send your Colossus out to (cautiously) mop up their units. Max out Archery ASAP, followed by Raise Dead.

Colossus died? No problem. My colossus died during a recent playthrough against Lord Celen in Fight 5, but I still beat Survival mode without any fuss.

If you stick to this plan, you will fight Shi-Tzu Rantula. Beat it to earn a Steam achievement!

I have no idea what this franchise is, lol.

I picked the fat guy (Plugger) as my main and primarily dumped points into Fartmaster (i.e., this game's version of Charisma). I boosted some other stats every so often, but Fartmaster alone might be sufficient.

If you read nothing else about this game, just read this: Treat this game like S&S II, but instead of boosting Charisma and taunting our opponents to death, we will simply be boosting our Fartmaster skill and farting like crazy.

For full disclosure: While this is the build I beat the game with...

Strength: 30
Speed: 5
Attack: 20
Defence: 10
Vitality: 15
Fartmaster: 85
Fitness: 7
Devices: 6

... I would NOT recommend putting any points into Devices (this game's version of spellcasting). I truly regret not putting those five additional points into Fartmaster.

To win this game: Find some opponents, begin the fight, and just fart them to death. Put points into Fartmaster. Upgrade your armor (i.e., "Threads") when you can. I did put a few points into Strength to unlock weapon (i.e., "Gadget") upgrades, and I occasionally smacked people in the face with my 30 Strength power attack, but farting alone should be enough for you to win the day. Don't forget to save your game at Mom's house every so often. (Honestly, I feel sorry for the poor woman.)

I'd love to give you a more detailed guide, but you don't need it. Basically just keep pumping out beefier and beefier farts and you'll do great. Once you beat this, if you beat the other games in this series (and completed both Campaign and Survival modes in S&S Crusader) you should have earned 100% of your Steam achievements!