Ultimate Combat Guide for Brighter Shores

Brighter Shores has finally come out in early access, and for the uninitiated, it is basically a RuneScape-like created by one of the original creators of that beloved medieval clicky game. Knowing that, players who have played RuneScape in the past (or still do, like me) should not be surprised that this game is insanely similar.

Although there is not much to learn about the game’s simple combat system yet, there are a few things that might confuse newcomers. In this guide, we will be giving you some tips on how to navigate the game’s combat system!

Ultimate Combat Guide

Just like the game that inspired it, combat works in a sort of turn-based system in that you and your opponent will take turns smacking each other. It really is as simple as that, and it will remain that way until they expand on it more throughout the early access period.

There is potential for it to become more complex later on, with different damage types or attack styles like in RuneScape, but as of now, combat is mainly just point, click, and wait. Occasionally, you might also need to chug a potion for more HP.

NOTE: Your health will regenerate to full after each fight. As such, do not waste your healing supplies at the tail end of a fight if you are going to win anyway.

Scaling Difficulty – Fighting Weaker Mobs

One thing to keep in mind as you train is that mobs scale to your skill level. One of the earliest examples of this are the crows at Old Street East in Hopeport. At the start, these things are only level 2 and can very easily be farmed for some early gear and levels.

After a while, they will evolve into level 16 Deathcrows, presenting a bit more of a “challenge” so to speak. I am unsure if this affects their drops, but it definitely makes them way stronger than before.

What some people seem to miss is that you can roll back each mob to their previous iteration. All you need to do is right click and press “Past action” if the option is there. This will allow you to choose different versions of the mob in question. In this case, you can fight a level 2 Deathcrow instead of the 16 one.

How Mobs Spawns Work

In case you have not noticed this, resource nodes are individual, which means you can gather stuff even though other players have recently touched it. However, this logic does not apply to mobs.

You cannot help players who are currently in combat, which also means that you can’t share mobs with others. Since enemies take a few seconds to respawn after death, packed areas will often have people racing one another to hit them first.

There are many alternative areas to train combat, so if your current spot has heavy foot traffic, just move elsewhere to avoid the frustration with people tagging mobs using ranged weapons or randomly getting aggro as they walk past.

Escaping an Encounter

The game teaches you this, but it is incredibly easy to miss, as evidenced by how many people keep asking about it. Basically, you can escape a fight by using the Immunity spell during combat.

This is the red button just below the health bars at the top of the screen. Upon clicking it, your character will start channeling the spell. This takes several seconds to cast, so make sure not to use it too late, or else you might just die in the middle of it.

On that note, you can also cast Immunity out of combat through the spell menu. This will allow you to run through a zone with hostile mobs without getting randomly hit, which forces you into the combat state.

Different Damage Types & Resistances

One thing you might have noticed are the different icons that might pop up alongside your damage numbers. These represent varying damage types, and here is a list of all the ones currently in the game:

• Physical
• Necrotic
• Arborae
• Cryonae
• Tempestae
• Infernae

If you click on an enemy’s portrait, you will see the damage type that they will use. Typically, they will also be immune to the same type that they deal, and they are going to be vulnerable against one.

This is hardly going to be an issue early on, but pay close attention to these as you start to loot weapons that have a chance to deal elemental damage. The last thing you would want is to fight something and not be able to deal any damage!

Acquiring New Professions

As you progress through the chapters, you get to learn “new” combat styles, while the previous one will be locked unless you return to the region it is from. For example, you start off being a “Guard” in the first area, while the next one will have you training up “Scout” from zero.

Your previous “Guard” gear will be unusable as you are forced to find and use “Scout” items instead, but you can still use your old stuff in the previous region. This is important to keep in mind as you work towards the next chapter, as many are understandably caught off guard by this mechanic.

What you need to know is that you do not lose progress. To use another RuneScape comparison, think of it as having to level strength instead of attack, except you don’t gain larger damage numbers. It is a divisive mechanic, but that is just how it works in Brighter Shores.

This might be expanded later on, with stuff requiring levels in two or more professions as the game ties them together in later chapters. For now, though, you will have to juggle weapons and armor sets whenever you travel to the different regions of the game.

As of writing this, combat is essentially the same across the different “styles”. Keep an eye out for future update notes as they might eventually introduce special attacks for each, which are currently not implemented but already have slots for them.

That is pretty much everything you might need to know about combat in the current state of the game. It should be emphasized that Brighter Shores is still very much in early access, and with all of the feedback they have been getting, it is bound to get a lot of reworks or further polishing as time goes on.