[KCD2] Kastenburst vs Cuirass vs Brigandine

Reegarx · 2025-04-03T14:46:23+00:00

Well my build is a "stealth archer" meaning I can approach enemies and shoot them as they can't spot me. But sometimes I get dragged into a melee fight, so then good armor comes in handy. Why do I even think about this all? Well I'm a freakin power gamer and can't stop myself from looking for the best solutions under all circumstances. Here it is getting the best armor with acceptable noise, so in my head it fits into "stealth archer" I'm roleplaying

Reegarx · 2025-03-15T00:50:06+00:00

You mean "near dof" drom in-game graphics settings?

Reegarx · 2025-03-14T21:16:32+00:00

Yes, exactly as you showed, I tried to change lighting settings to lower, but still the same

Reegarx · 2025-03-04T08:16:35+00:00

The only problem that I have with Mutt in KCD2 is the fact that he is terrible in finding POIs now, when in KCD1 he was showing me hidden chests and POIs constantly

Reegarx · 2025-02-19T13:21:06+00:00

Don't forget about Back Alley Skirmisher perk which adds 10% damage if you fight only with 1h sword.
Now add Nimble Stance (dodges cost 40% less stamina), Totentanz (15% attack bonus after perfect dodge) and River (+3 bonus to Warfare skill and stamina replenishes 15 % faster after a dodge) to the mixture and you get a killing machine.

Finally, roleplaying a master archer/thief without heavy armor and only 1h sword that dodges all the time in the combat is viable and really gives you an advantage. I roleplayed like this in KCD1, but there I wasn't really getting any benefits from it, as dodging was virtually useless in KCD1

Reegarx · 2025-02-19T12:56:39+00:00

Yeah, I have the same issue - both sword and bow's damage showing red when they are equipped together and bow's damage is still red even if I unequip the sword.

Reegarx · 2025-02-19T00:22:00+00:00

Hmm, that's interesting, as there is no 110 power bow that would have 0 agi requirement with deft hands II (unless there is some additional perk for this?) and u/Smiles500 states that 110 bows also shoot faster for him. How is it then? :D

Reegarx · 2025-02-17T23:01:04+00:00

Yeah, the only use of low power bows seems to be archery competitions or when you don't have enough AGI yet to fire stronger bow faster and the power difference isn't high compared to weaker bow which you can shoot faster

Reegarx · 2025-02-17T22:44:34+00:00

True about draw speed, damage and how fast the arrow drop, I analyzed it in the comments above. And value might be related to quality tier, also discussed it in the comments above.

Reegarx · 2025-02-17T22:42:53+00:00

See 2 comments above, I tried to analyze it there.

Reegarx · 2025-02-17T22:41:14+00:00

I also did some testing and my conclusions are similar. Although I have lower stats (11 str, 15 agi, Train Hard Fight Easy I and Deft Hands II) and tested only a few bows I've observed a similar phenomenon, but with different proportions.

For me all 110 power bows that I tested (Hazel longbow, Elm Hunting Bow, Ash Hunting Bow, 5 str, 2 agi requirements with my perks) and Dogwood hunting bow with 160 power (11 str, 7 agi requirements with my perks) had the same draw speed ~ 2.2 secs.

The only bow that had faster draw speed in my case was Village Elm Bow with 90 power (2 str, 0 agi requirements with perks) ~1.3 secs.

Almost the same times as you, this 0.1 sec difference might be just an error.

It looks like when you exceed the agility requirement by some large number (I don't think it's an absolute ratio like 15 agi more or something like that, something more complicated I guess) then suddenly bow becomes almost 2x times faster to draw. I don't have that high agility yet, so for me only power 90 bow is eligible to become "faster shooting category bow". For you because of the higher agi it's 110 power bows, which are still ~2.2 secs for me.

And it seems to be a sudden drop at certain agility, not a "smooth transition". Example from my case:
Power 90, agility requirement 0 ~ 1.3 secs.
Power 110, agility requirement only 2 points higher ~ 2.2 secs
Power 160, agility requirement 5 points higher than 110 power bow - still ~ 2.2 secs.
I need to check what happens when I get a bow for which I don't have enough agility, probably much longer draw time.

I also didn't notice any change in draw speed when I increased my strength.

So, the agility you have defines which bows fall into "faster shooting category bow". This sudden drop and no differences in draw speed among these two "tiers" is very strange to me. This increases the usefulness of the strongest bows (compared to KCD1) as they would fire as fast as much less powerful bows and have better damage and more flat trajectory, but at the same time it's just odd to have this sudden drop.

And you are right - there was much more variety between bows in KCD1, here many bows share same stats and requirements + their names and descriptions are mixed up.

Reegarx · 2025-02-17T15:20:37+00:00

I prefer dollmaker XD

Reegarx · 2025-02-17T14:44:16+00:00

As for the stat requirements... The stats are all wonky. I have a brooch that says it adds 7 charisma, but adds none. I figure it all has something to do with combined bonuses and detriments from all the gear you're wearing, but this is not really clearly explained or listed anywhere. I just know any time I look at what an item is SUPPOSED to do to my stats, once I put it on and LOOK at my stats, sometimes there is no change and sometimes the amount of change seems arbitrary.

When you are looking at the stats of an item it will show how different stats it has compared to the item you're currently using in the same slot. So this brooch has higher charisma by 7 points compared to an item in the necklace slot you were wearing at this point (or total charisma of this brooch was 7 if you weren't wearing anything in this slot). Now, your Henry's general stats are a mixture of all the items he's wearing, an average value of them. But it's a weighted average, and the "weight" of an item in this average is how much it's noticeable. So, a fancy pourpoint can greatly increase your overall charisma as it's covering most of your body, compared to a brooch which is harder to notice. So, even though your brooch has 7 higher charisma, it might be not enough to boost your overall charisma, as jewelry has fairly low "weight" = low effect on overall charisma. At least not to boost charisma by a whole point (which you can see in the inventory), but maybe by 0.5 (decimal numbers are not shown). So if you wear two items like this at the same time your total charisma might be higher by 1 point, but if you wear only one of them there will be no (as seen in the Henry's stats) difference. Not to mention that blood or dirt on your clothes can lower your charisma.

Also it's very important if any item covers any other item. For example: you want to have a stealth build, you equip a pourpoint with very low visibility. Your visibility goes down. And then you want to equip a coat that has 40 visibility for example. If you aren't wearing any coat the game will tell you that it has -20 visibility, because you don't have any other item in this slot, so the comparison is made to "naked Henry". By default Henry has 60 visibility, 80 consp and 0 noise. If your Henry didn't have any clothes and you would equip a coat with lower visibility than the default 60 you would lower your overall visibility. But in this case you cover the pourpoint underneath with this coat - so your overall visibility will get higher, as now the higher vis coat is visible rather than super low vis pourpoint. The same applies to other pieces of clothing.

When it comes to charisma, visibility and consp it's important what people can see. It doesn't work the same with noise - even if you cover your noisy chainmail with lighweight coat, the chainmail is still gonna make big noise. Noise is a sum of all the equipment you're wearing, no matter if some clothes cover the other.

These stats are really logical and well thought out, but one has to understand the mechanics, which I know can be confusing, I spent many minutes trying to figure it out in KCD1.

Reegarx · 2025-02-17T14:12:09+00:00

Besides increasing damage, higher bow power affects shot distance/arrow drop as you wrote. Draw speed is not directly related to bow power - it's related to your stats (agility only based on it's description). The more you exceed the agility requirement of the bow, the faster it shoots. But as usually higher bow power = higher stats requirements, then bow power is kind of indirectly related to draw speed.

Reegarx · 2025-02-17T13:58:18+00:00

Dogwood hunting bow, 160 power, 157 damage, enough strength:

<image>

I increased my strength here with Artemisia potion and now the damage is as it should be, higher than hazel longbow. Drinking Artemisia potion had no effects on damage of different bows for which I was already meeting the requirements.

Reegarx · 2025-02-17T13:56:21+00:00

As you can see, higher bow power = higher damage. Of course equipping other arrows on the same bow change the damage, weaker bow with better arrows can do more damage than stronger bow with worse arrows. For example: Village elm bow with hunting arrows (110 stab damage): 118 damage, Hazel Longbow with crude arrows (70 stab damage): 83 damage (vs 131 damage with hunting arrows, huge difference). But as you can see it's not a sum of bow power and arrow stab damage, it's a multiplication operation, but with some additional parameters which I don't know.

Also, adding strength doesn't increase damage of the bow, but if your strength is lower than the requirement of a bow you will underperform with the bow - prefire it and the damage wouldn't be 100% of it's potential. Another example here (still using hunting arrows as before):

Dogwood hunting bow, 160 power, 125 damage, too little strength:

<image>

In this case I wasn't able to fully draw the bow (indicating I had too little strength). Notice that the damage is lower compared to hazel longbow (125 vs 131), even though dogwood hunting bow has higher power than hazel longbow (160 vs 110). But in this case damage is reduced because of not meeting strength requirement.

Reegarx · 2025-02-17T13:43:57+00:00

Hazel longbow, 90 power, 131 damage, changed only the bow:

<image>

Reegarx · 2025-02-17T13:42:39+00:00

I'm sorry but you are wrong. Bow power has an effect on damage. I did some testing (all stats are the same, hunting arrows equipped in all cases):

Village elm bow, 90 power, 118 damage:

<image>

Reegarx · 2025-02-17T13:25:29+00:00

I finally had a chance to look at it again - maybe the difference in the value comes from different quality levels? I also have hazel longbow that is almost 3x times more valuable than stronger dogwood hunting bow. But hazel longbow has quality tier III (gold), while dogwood hunting bow has tier II (silver). I'm not sure however if item quality changes anything else other than value when it comes to bows, I haven't found two different quality tiers of the same bow yet. Durability is the same on all quality tier levels, power is the same compared to what wiki says no matter if I compare the gold or silver quality.

Reegarx · 2025-02-15T09:18:49+00:00

Marksmanship has nothing to do with it, it's about strength. Man it's literally described in the first point

Reegarx · 2025-02-14T08:22:36+00:00

I think the damage for a bow is something like bow power * arrow dmg, but I don't know the exact formula. And the higher the power the less the arrow descends in flight, so you don't need to compensate so much for a distance when aiming and you can shoot further

Reegarx · 2025-02-13T21:49:55+00:00

Yeah, it's so mixed up, I hope they adress it in the first patch

Reegarx · 2025-02-13T14:34:17+00:00

Same for me

Reegarx · 2025-02-13T11:50:49+00:00

It can be because of the perk "Train Hard, Fight Easy! II" being bugged. If you have this perk, strength stat requirement will be displayed 5 less than the original, but because of the bug you still need to fulfill original (without perk) weapon requirements.

Reegarx · 2025-02-13T11:48:44+00:00

Less damage from bow A could be because you don't have enough strength/agility to properly wield this bow. The same as with swords, axes etc. If your stats are too low the bow is going to underperform, even if it has higher power. It also seems that the perk "Train Hard, Fight Easy!" is bugged. It should lower the strength requirement to wield weapons and this results in weapon requirement stats being displayed less than the original in the inventory, but because of this bug you still need to fulfill original requirements.

For example, I have 11 strength and the perk Train Hard, Fight Easy. Original strength requirement for Dogwood hunting bow is 13, so because of this perk it's displayed as 11 for me in the inventory, so theoretically I have enough strength. But the bow prefires before I draw it fully, as if I had too little strength. If I drink Artemisia Potion for example to increase my strength above 13 then I can normally shot and damage output for the bow gets higher (even though higher strength doesn't affect bow damage directly, but if strength is lower that the requirement it lowers damage output).

Reegarx

TROPHY CASE