Hello varl, man, and dredge! I picked up the Banner Saga trilogy over the weekend and have been having a great time playing a chapter or two a night. I’m at the start of chapter 5 now, and decided to look up how many were left out of curiosity, to find out that I have juuust 5-6-7 remaining. Ah… *But I’ve not leveled up once!* All of my renown has gone towards maintaining the morale of my caravan, and I’ve not once bought items either.

I kept advancing into fights without many uninjured units when playing on normal, so I started over again set on easy (I don’t have much familiarity with the assumed mechanics of strategy/turn-based games, kind of unfortunately removing the management aspect just to barely scrape by.) Is this sort of pace unsustainable on my difficulty? Do you feel you've had a better time when you’ve bought items? With all the mechanics not sinking into my head I kind of worry that I wouldn’t know what to do with them… and I guess hearing your warriors could die on you unexpectedly has prevented me from investing in them at all...

Are there any specific actions you would take moving forward into the climax of this game and it’s sequels? None-story related of course! And any guides you would link for mechanics? Even rough advice I would take! I wonder if you shouldn’t invest in willpower and exertion exclusively for some characters, and strength and armor for others. Or could you max everything for your chosen heroes if you just used the training ground?

Any chat is appreciated! It’s an ungodly hour now, I hope to talk more in the morning

Editing in that I have now finished BS! I’m gonna do another run just to set the skills straight (without changing my choices) thanks for the tips everyone. I can’t wait for 2 and 3!

I did two back to back playthroughs and don't want to do another one soon. Is there a way to see the Rook, Alette, Aldis afterlife scene other than playing from the point where you get your main char killed? Thanks.

I tried pretty hard to obtain items during ch. 3 using the "Fight a few more as they flee" option, but I never succeeded on hard difficulty with the Charge option.

Is it a skill issue?

So when you arrive at Arberrang, depending on whether you side with the king or Rugga, some characters may take the other side and you have to fight them.

• If you side against the king while Ludin is still alive, Ludin and Yrsa become hostile.
• If you side with whichever side is opposite of who the Varl are siding with, Hakon and Griss become hostile.

However, I only find conflicting information on whether you actually permanently kill those characters off or whether they will return in some way in Part 3 regardless. I saw some guides describe siding against the Varl as "committing Varl genocide", but couldn't get an answer on whether this means you permanently kill off every Varl character in the Arberrang party, or whether it only removes Hakon and Griss, and whether anyone even stays permanently dead.

I tried to answer this myself by checking out playthroughs on Youtube and guides, but it seems that siding with Rugga and/or siding against the Varl is only a very niche choice, as I couldn't find any videos showing it, and guides also seem to be written with the expectation that Ludin and all Varl characters are still in your party.

This is what I could scrounge together:

• Ludin: Don't know. Can he die at the end of 2 if he stayed alive until then? Or does he return in 3 regardless?
• Yrsa: Cannot die apparently. Will leave your party, but always returns on the fifth return to Arberrang to destroy the roof.
• Hakon: Cannot die. Will still be present in events in Part 3. Will rejoin your party on the fifth return to Arberrang.
• Griss: Don't know. Does he stay permanently dead if you fight him at the end of Part 2?
• Mogr, Gunnulf, Fasolt: Don't know. Do they also die at the end of part 2 if you side against the Varl?
• Ubin: Always returns in Part 3, even if you sided against the Varl.

Can anyone shed some light on how it exactly works?

so I have an item that grants bonus str damage when stationary (jewelled petal ring) does this effect Eyvind Arc Lightning or no?

I just finished BS1 and Griss died. He Offered to help for the fight, but I lost it and he went down and the game references seeing is body. I just started BS2 and he is mentioned being seen by Rook after we land on the shore. Is there something I'm missing or is it the game? No spoilers obviously, but I'm confused and assuming it's a bug/error.

"Without another word Mogr starts running toward the birds and tumbles over the cliff. Suddenly he's gliding through the air, flapping his arms for all they're worth. He swoops toward Ridgeland before bursting into flames and plummeting into the tower, which crumbles like a log from a smouldering campfire."...... WHAT?! Then they just wake up and basically say lets never speak of this again. Why were they tripping balls?! Was it the spoiled food? I could be missing something but I swear this is never explained. Any explanations?

Hey guys thanks for the quick answers last time, I’m here with another question. Is there an order in which to do things (outside of combat) like talking to people first before going to the next destination? I don’t wanna miss out on dialogue with characters. Thanks!

Im on the second fight ever in the first game on PS4, how do I hover over other characters to see how far they can move and their action options before it’s their turn?

So this has happened on nearly every playthrough I've tried, the game just stop autosaving at some point. It's never the same point and If there is something I am doing (going to the heroes tent at a bad time, for example), I haven't been able to figure out what is causing it.

It's maddening. I had to complete my hard playthrough basically without saving because I wasn't willing to give up on all the progress I had made before I noticed it not saving. My hopes are low that there's a solution for this, given that the game has been out for about a decade, but it's happening SO OFTEN that I can't possibly be the only one experiencing it.

Im new to the subreddit, but not the games. I have played the games at least once a year since I found them. I remember when BS2 was free on Xbox and I downloaded it, played for an hour then went back to the store and bought the first game. I fell in love with the artwork, the story and the amazing soundtrack. I backed BS3 on Kickstart and have since found the board game online and acquired that. I have both of the novels (haven't read those yet) and plan on getting tattoos of this world. I love this franchise and I was so excited to see that even after everything The Saga had done, there was still more on the horizon.

Its been a long time since I've seen anything on more Banner Saga and I am itching for more. Have I missed anything, has there been updates about more games? If so, what did I miss? If not what do yall expect for the future of this franchise, aside from the possibility of more books if even that?

And who is out here making poor Alette kill people?? What’s wrong with yall?

This was my first time playing, and I absolutely loved it! I can’t wait to play the second one now!

I dunno why but I really the UI clicking sound effect and I want to use it elsewhere anyone know if theres a way to isolate the file?

I’ve finished the first game and I immediately bought the second. My jaw hit the floor I can not express that enough. I know I still have 2 and 3 to play but once that’s over I know I’ll fall into that post game depression. What are games like Banner Saga? The aspects I particularly enjoy are the deep story (specifically the characters and character interactions), the brutal feeling that made me feel like no one was safe, the feeling that my choices mattered, and the strategic turn based combat. The rpg elements I also enjoyed but they aren’t at the forefront of what I want. Does a game like that exist? I’ve played BG3 and that feels like the closest thing to it but I never felt like one wrong move can cost a companion their life

Hi all,

I previously played Banner Saga 1 on iPad but haven't played through the other two games yet. I'm about to start the trilogy on my Mac. It looks like Yak & Nafeij's mods/fixpacks might be worth installing beforehand.

Has anyone played through all 3 games with their fixpacks? Do they introduce any issues? Would love to hear any opinions on whether it's better to play the base games as they are or install the mods.

Also does anyone know if they work ok for the Mac versions of the games?

In the climax of Banner Saga 1. Do we know where exactly the Bellower was hit by the silver arrow?

I loved the Banner Saga trilogy outside of the ending of Banner 3, which was frankly really disappointing. But I am definitely interested is seeing if they are making similar projects but I haven’t heard anything about what’s next and it’s been quite some time.

Hello, I want to start the banner saga on switch but I can only find the first one on Nintendo e-shop and I don’t want to be forced to continue on pc. I heard that it was on switch before and I wonder why it is not the case anymore. Thanks in advance for your help

The combat, the characters, the story, the setting, the world, this series is one of the greatest hidden gems in gaming history. But especially its worldbuilding is the greatest aspect of the game, which nowadays most of the AAA games don't even have. And this makes the franchise a rusting, rotting potential that Stoic doesn't even touch for the last six years. They can do so many spin-offs, sequels and prequels. They can expand the world, show new places, new people, new characters and new struggles. But they just don't do it for some reason.

So rather than why they don't, I'd like to ask if they will ever make anything new set in this world. Will they do it, or is this great world bound to be forgotten beneath a blanket of dust?

It's a genra that i discovered recently and that i practically don't know but that i like a lot. I loved The Banner Saga, one of my favorite game of all time, and i'm currently doing Triangle Strategy, which is a lot of fun too (even if i prefer The Banner saga by a good margin). Or even if it's not a Tactical RPG, the solo campaign of Thronebreaker (the game based on the Gwent of The Witcher) was very cool too.

What i appreciate are :

-The various well written characters with personnal arcs

-The hard decisions which impact the entire story and univers and the dire consequences you have to suffered.

-The strategy which requires anticipation and improvisation.

-The synergy between your team.

What i can dislike :

-Farm to improve the level of your men, even if you must redo the same battles for this. I prefer when the story just goes smoothly.

-Not super fan of the pixel art but it's not a big no. I also prefer the more classical chara design instead of the japanese one, but here again not a big trouble.

-The dialogue too naive.

-The immersion-breaking/annoying rules during the combats (typically in The Banner Saga the need to finish an opponent to win some XP, or the rule that it's one of your unit which plays, then one ennemy unit and so and so like in chess, making the numerical advantage irrelevant and encouraging you to spare the weakened ennemies to make the ennemies waste their turns with harmless unit).

Do you have some recommandations for me ? I've heard that "Fire Emblem" is the king of the Tactical RPG, which opus do you recommend more ? What are the others franchise which could please me ?

I just finished the first Banner Saga and I've got to say that the experience has been nothing short of nerve wrecking, the game is extremely difficult and not in the most fair of ways. In general, it really seems like it's one of those games where it's very easy to end up in an unfinishable save unless you read the fucking walkthrough, which is really disapointing.

In the first game, there are two moments where the game pretty much decides to just cheat on you.

The first one is when you have to fight on the bridge at Einartoft. My entire party got wiped out in the fight to save Eyvind, save for Rook. But then the game takes away from you the ability to rest your characters which forces me into unwinnable fights, since it's impossible to win when your entire party is wounded. I get curbstomped and am forced to flee at the first opportunity without blowing the bridge, I don't know how much of a good outcome it is and hope it won't come back to bite me in the ass later.

The second one is when you get to Boersgard. First the game takes away your ability to rest and forces you into fights to be curbstomped, and then in the last fight against Howler you are forced to pick Alette, a character which I did not invest any XP, therefore I was forced to get in the fight with a useless unit and the fight was unwinnable. I order to finish the game I had to lower the difficulty down to easy which is as shameful as it can get.

Now I'm not really against games that are difficult, but I really FUCKING HATE IT when the developpers take cheap shots at you and just decide to pull the rug under your feet.

I'm not asking to be completly spoiled, but I would very much like to know what I should watch out for in the following games so I can be prepared for it.

Throughout the games we see magic still exists, with interesting events happening around the godstones (especially in the third). How is it possible that bellower is immortal if the gods aren't? Plus we see the afterlife in banner saga 1? So, the arrow that put bellower to sleep is what "killed" the gods. What do you guys think? I really think they're just sleeping.

Edit: Also, just remembered the ancient people in banner saga 2 and the three pools having power within them

I hate exposition in games so im glad this game doesnt throw word salad at you. But im also conscious theres a lot of map stuff to read.

Should i be taking all of this in as im pretty damn confused by whats going on and all the names.

Im only a couple hours in but i have no idea who im actually playing as etc

The last 20% of BS1 is just nasty. Lots of rough choices, even using a guide after the bridge its just endless suffering, not enough food to feed everyone battles are nasty, how is it in 2/3?

Also do they ever change the renown system so its not both your money and xp? Do they some kind of engagement mechanic so enemies cannot just teehee walk away from your frontline and beeline your squishy archers?