Whether you’re new to No Rest for the Wicked or a returning player who want to start fresh following the recent update, getting your hands on some essentials early on can be massive.
With these items in your inventory, you can expect a much smoother experience throughout the campaign. Not to mention, you can avoid some potential headaches down the road.
That said, which items are we talking about? Well, let’s take a look.
The Best Items to Get Early in No Rest for the Wicked

Prior to the Together update, your early gear mostly revolved around dealing as much raw damage as possible.
In the current version of the game, however, your gear will influence a lot of things. These include your stamina regen, focus gain, enchantment efficiency, and overall survivability.
At the same time, crafting items is now a lot easier with the introduction of the Scribe Table. Hence, you can obtain certain items early on that will make your progression a lot faster and easier.
Here are some that you should keep in mind:
Strong, Early Game Weapons

Early on, you want to use weapons that can provide you with enough reach and control apart from damage. This is where the Scythe fits in.
Apart from its high base damage, it’s also good for crowd control thanks to its long reach and wide swings. It also scales well with upgrades, allowing you to use it throughout the game without it becoming obsolete.
If you’re more into ranged combat, then you’d be glad to know that bows have received a major rework in the Together update. Now, they can be used as a viable main hand weapon as long as they’re paired with the right quiver and runes.
I would recommend the Twined Recurve Bow as your early game pick until you reach the point where you can get your hands on the Lacquered Bow.
Armor to Help with Survival

The way armor works has been revamped in the recent update as well. Now, it also provides focus gain and stamina regen apart from the usual defense.
Early on, you’d want to use light armor for faster stamina regen and better dodging. Alternatively, you can opt for medium armor for added survivability at the cost of a less efficient stamina regen.
Heavy armor can be punishing early on despite providing more protection. That’s because it has a massive stamina penalty, which can be brutal early on in the game.
Unless you’re fine with slow, methodical combat, avoid wearing Heavy armor early, as it will only make combat harder.
Some new armor sets were introduced during the update as well. These include the Hearthguard, Wayfinder, and Ragged sets. Try to mix and match armor pieces to suit your needs.
Utility Runes

A common mistake that a lot of new players make is to choose raw damage enchantments over the utility ones early on. However, utility runes can actually help with your overall survivability.
For example, runes like Heal Aura and Pulse of Health dramatically increase your survivability during combat. Stamina Wellspring makes it so you can perform more actions before your stamina drains.
These allow you to stay in fights longer without having to rely too much on consumables, which you only have a limited amount of early in the game.
Consumables and Materials

Consumables can help you a lot during your journey in the early game. There are Health and Stamina potions that can help you survive a zone enough for you to make significant progress.
Food buffs can also provide you with advantages that could prove useful during encounters.
You also want to grab your hands on repair powder whenever you can. Since gear durability drops quickly, having a repair powder at hand could prevent you from retreating just because your weapon broke.
As far as materials go, you want to get your hands on leather, pine wood, animal hides, and copper ore whenever possible. Since they’re used in various upgrade paths, grabbing them early on will allow you to save a lot of time later.
Once you have these items with you in the early game, progression will become a lot easier and far more rewarding.
That aside, you might want to check out our guide on how to find and use the Scribe table for researching recipes for later crafting.

6 articles
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