Vedrfell | Chapter 1 The Banner Saga Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
After getting to Vedrfell village listen to the conversation with Peasant - you do not have any influence on its course. Soon you'll gain control over prince Ludin starting a new battle, which first part is a new stage of the tutorial. At the beginning familiarize yourself with a mechanism of setting waypoints on the march route of controlled character. In this particular battle it is kind of useless but later on in the game you'll encounter various obstacles and you'll be able to avoid them in this way.
One more important part of the tutorial refers to the usage of the spear and prince Ludin is equipped with such weapon. The novelty is that you do not have to stand next to the enemy but instead you can attack him diagonally. At the end try to attack the Dredge Brute and you'll learn that in case of good armored enemies (high amount of Armor points) direct attacks on strength bar (fist icon) will fail or deal very little damage (more on coping with this problem can be found later).
After prince Ludin gets attacked by Dredge Brute, he will lose consciousness and the main battle will begin, where you control Hakon, Mogr and Gunnulf. There is one more big monster to be defeated - Dredge Brute, as well as two smaller enemies - Dredge Grunts.
In the beginning stage of the battle focus only on Dredge Brute, trying to surround him. According to the hint obtained earlier, you have to change your tactics and try initially to deprive as many his Armor points as possible. Remember to select a blue armor icon on the list, as well as to strengthen your attacks with Willpower points. Attack Dredge Brute in such way at least twice, so he will be left with few armor points only. Only then switch to attacks aimed at his health bar (red fist icon).
After defeating the first monster, the game will present you a new combat mechanism - Horn displaying at the top of the screen (shown on the attached screen). Once you kill the enemy, a star is activated on the horn and you can use this item at any time you want in order to get the Willpower point back. You can try to use it now, because you giants are probably a bit exhausted after killing Dredge Brute.
Now focus on two smaller enemy creatures - Dredge Grunts. In their case you also should weaken enemy armors before activating attack aimed at Strength. Also watch out for Gunnulf because he is the weakest one of the three giants and he could get attacked by monsters and defeated by them. It doesn't mean the end of the battle of course but I suggest finishing it with best possible result. You can help Gunnulf by attacking the monster who takes out his strength points. Listen to the conversation of Ubin, Hakon and prince Ludin, which ends this chapter.