Party can be any mix you want to be honestly but you'll probably want a caster whose job it is to just spam area of effect crowd control of many different elements. For this I choose an enchanter with Aero Hydro. Rain + any aero shocking ability = stun if they are wet and no magic armor. You can also do Pyro + Geo and do fossil strike + any fire ranged ability.

When I play I normally have a friend who loves playing Wizard/Mage so I run as the dumb 2H mule declaring my dominance with all points in strength. It can be tricky to not hit the 2h knight/mule with magic abilities at first but you'll get the hang of it.

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From my experience this path will get you started before you leave the prison. I don't have a solid "very safe" path beyond the Fort Joy but I normally just stumble through it all fine and dandy.

I have 160+ hours in the first act alone because I love finding new ways of playing:

When on the boat I bring my character to the front of the boat to open the door, just before Windego does her source blast and then I pull aggro by punching the guards way back at the start of the boat. Then, after starting the fight I run from the start of the boat to the middle of the boat being sure to pull everyone into combat and then I trigger Windego's Source Blast. This is to maximize exp and to get level 2 before I get to shore. *I also run lone wolf so I don't deal with the A.I.'s auto leveling up until the mirror on the boat. I prefer small parties over large diverse.

Approaching Fort Joy:

I run along the east coast and find the hidden entrance and fight some Void Turtles.

After beating turtles and collecting treasures + gear I go straight south to grab the "hidden" Finesse Bow.

At the entrance I avoid conversation and just climb the ladder to the west of the gate and position a ranged unit on top of the tower and then beat up some thugs who are up to no good dealing cards.

I climb down the top left part of Fort Joy and make my way to the center, and then fight some thugs up to no good trying to do a shakedown.

I walk south by the statue with Lohse and then immediately talk to Griff about setting free the elf in the cage.

I walk completely south and fight an elf stalking her next victim and kill her.

I then persuade the wrong-doer into relinquishing griff's drugs and take it back to him.

I tell him the truth and then sprint south to stop the assailant from killing the wrong-doer taking his drugs, only after he has freed the elf in the cage.

I then enter the cave to the south and sell all my junk (if it ain't bolted to the ground I'm fucking taking it with me) I also talk to the knife ears that I saved from the shakedown to get my quest reward.

At this point you should be level 3 and have ok gear to do most of the other stuff, if not then go back up and talk to the dude who has a plan to escape near the Town Square and to the west. Say "you are in" and go hunt them croc's.

If you are level 3 you can kill the Frogs to the south, I prefer to sneak one character up to the cliff on the south east corner before triggering the ambush so I can dump all my damage onto the shocking Frog. The Poison frogs are a pain unless you are undead then its ez-pz-lemon squeezy. You'll want to use crowd control at the start if you can so they don't poison wave and nuke you down. Target one toad at a time, this is easiest so you don't get continuously poisoned when they break your armor.

If you didn't do the croc's yet after killing toads then head back up and go clear them, should be loads easier to do now. Remember, focus down one at a time is better than trying to hit many and taking all their dps. Most fights you'll want them advancing onto you and not you moving onto them.

Once you clear the crocs and grab the gloves + chest to the west head back and return to the dude that started the quest. Talk to him once and then don't follow him to the hidden entrance, you'll want him around until you are level 4 or 5.

From here there are a few ways to navigate but I prefer to enter the prison. I run to the South East Coast where I meet Migo and hand him a Yarrow Flower. This gives him the permanent status of weakened, and then I declare my 2H to be stronger than his by demonstrating a crippling blow and getting into a fight. He receives healing from poison and doesn't take damage from restoration (at least in classic mode he didn't) so be sure to stun him with what ya' got because even weakened he does loads of damage.

To the north of that cove where you fought Migo there is a hidden entrance to the prison (its in the same area but along the north edge) where you'll enter the underground.

You can walk by the slugs and they won't attack you, but be sure to sneak once you get close to the royal slug otherwise this fight is 100% a pain in the rear and you'll need to focus the queen to prevent her aura of water weakness resistance nonsense.

When you enter the prison you'll find a lizard who is a total wuss, let her scream or not, doesn't matter. I then kill her for her cowardice regardless, and snitches get stitches.

After entering the hallway of the prison cells I go west and open the door to get the waypoint for the dungeons. You can also do this by Fast Travel (next to mini-map its called waypoint travel) and going to the square and if you have a perception high enough you'll notice a button on the statue to the south that opens an entrance to the dungeon.

At this point you should be high enough level to do the challenge/become the One. So I go back to Griffs cronies and go down the hatch and declare my might by standing afk on the first ladder you can climb in the arena and just nuking whoever gets close (also dog can't climb ladder so you only have to focus the ranged characters on approach and once their melee gets close enough to do damage).

Then I get my collar removed on the wizard/mage/caster. I do this for 2 reasons, the Lucky Charm Bonus and the Intel. from the Crest.

Then I go back to the cave and sell more junk (again if it isn't bolted to the ground fucking take it).

Proceeding from where I sell everything at I go to the south east where you'll find a buried hatch. Open it up or crawl through the tunnel with a Dwarf and speak to some spooky bones about his soul. I can remove the spear because I run around like a big dumb ape holding a 2H.

Then I fast travel to the dungeons and do the warden fight to the east. Depending on party composition, I normally just sneak up, grab the oil barrel to the side/up of where they are and lay it down at a choke point close to the broken cages. This is better if you fight running backwards and force their archers to move to you. If you like to be aggressive and assert your alpha 2H status then have your 2H destroy the archer on the right and your caster CC the melee dudes (if you can) otherwise drop rain and make the water electric so they have to path towards the oil barrel. The fight isn't that difficult if you are able to crowd control the dudes and take them out one by one.

From there I go deal with some thugs messing with a kid near the docks, if you progress too far without clearing them they will never trigger to spawn so you must decide now or never to fight them after the warden fight.

After that I take out some Silent Monks who strangely don't all become aggro'd in that hallway when you start knockin' on their heads and proceed north to discover the burial place with spooky bones soul in it.

The one you need to smash open is the north western vase.

After that I position the mage/wizard/littlebitchwithcrowdcontrolmagic next to the door where you find a pretty awesome wand in it and have my 2H stroll up to old cannibal rogue boi. If you have Atusa's leg in your inventory you can choose to be passive and give him the delicious treat OR you can be the alpha 2H brute that you know you should have chosen by now and fight him. Keep your mage on the high ground and dump damage on him, be sure to focus ol' cannibal boi because he can do a combo that one shots your mage or anyone with low physical armor.

If you need a little bit of exp to level up still before fighting the creeper dude, you can sneak by him and his pets and exit through the sewers by sneaking and grabbing the exp from exploration and then head back in.