This guide will help you on your first playthrough if you are struggling with any bosses. It will also let you rush your character growth and make you a lot stronger in a short amount of time. In a day you can easily power your character beyond 3k health and kill enemies with 1 or 2 hits, and slay a whole group of bandits with a single button press.

Of course, i recommend to moderate the strength of your character otherwise it will become too unchallenging.

.....

The game starts in tutorial mode.

It will require you to follow the combo sequence to complete this part.

The first combo sequence is done by clicking your mouse 3 times, followed by pressing Q, E, R.

The second combo sequence is done by clicking your mouse 3 times, followed by pressing 2, then left-click 3 times, pressing 3, left-click 3 times, pressing 4, left-click 3 times.

TIP: When you start the game later, you will not have all the 4 swordplay styles. I recommend that you remember the sequence of which swordplay style is hotkeyed to number 1, 2, 3, and 4. Personally, i did not memorise this but followed the sequence of which i acquired the swordplays and the combos seems to work just as well.

After a short dialog, follow the man towards the inn, Ironback. Right at the start as your character is forced in a slow-walk, there is a open shed on the left with a herb which you can pick up.

Next, you will reach a few guys standing around. The melon merchant will sell you 3 melons that can increase your max hp and qi by +1. No biggie.

P.S. This melon is also a quest item needed to complete a treasure hunt in chapter 2, however the melon guy will restock with 2 more melons at that time. Just don't eat all 5 melons and you'll be safe.

As you go to the inn, you want to go into every room and pick the items up.

There will be side quests to complete later, but none for now except to go through the story, so after you interacted with all the items you want and picked up several coins and healing potions and used the coins you stole for melons, it's time for the next stage.

Now sit right down on the bench and press space to stand. Right click to look around at the second floor and press F to observe two dudes.

After that, head upstairs for a letter (if you do not head upstairs right now, the letter will disappear. I know... i tested)

Next, head outside to the backyard, walk to the end and beat the ♥♥♥♥ out of two dudes. Make sure you position your character well, so that as you lunge forward you do not leave your back open for the other dude. Otherwise, just smash buttons and heads.

Now that you're done, head back in to the inn and go upstairs. The letter has now disappeared. I toldya! If you didn't listen it's on you!

Pick up the piece of jewelry on the floor. You can interact with the cupboard and put anything you want inside (which will magically teleport to other cupboards).

now head back downstairs, sit a while and listen. A woman will run in with a foul mouth and a pretty face. Just my type of girl.

Now suddenly everyone in the inn will need your help because Side-quest is open.

There are two quests you can do right now. Talk to the little boy for his missing pinwheel. Head back to the backyard. pick up all the weeds and herbs you can find (If you did this early, you won't find anymore herbs). There is a open shed at the end of the backyard, at the right side. Look inside for a blue pinwheel on the ground (If you don't know what is pinwheel, uncle google is your best friend).

After you took that, go back to the kid for a healing powder (why is a kid being a drug dealer?). Remember to talk to his grandpa for some money (i think its 400 coins?),

After that talk to the male escort living next-door (i know it sounds wrong but it is actually his job title). He will ask you for his jade. It is dropped in the poopy room which is locked for now, so ignore him and head outside.

Opposite the male escort's room (yes i am going to repeat his title whenever i can), there is a young woman looking for a man (but she's poor so she can't ask for the male escort services... no jk ... i had to.). the young woman is looking for HER man. talk to her for some ♥♥♥♥ beating service.

You will appear in the desert. If you were wounded from the previous fight (hah you nub), go ahead and press C and heal up first.

Now just spam button, smash heads, and press C whenever u get hurt.

This quest will end like a breeze. Now you reach the beardy man at the end. Talk to him and choose between 1. go back ( Prizes: Swordplay part 2 + around 800 coins) 2. murder him for money (Prize: 1000 coins).

If you picked the wrong selection that you don't like, you can always reset the game and keep the money. So it doesn't matter what you choose unless this is your one and only playthrough.

If you picked number 2 (You monster!), go back and talk to the girl, you can tell her you didn't find her husband (The first choice), or you can say you found him already dead (The second choice).

I didn't stick around for the first choice but the girl continues waiting, and i think she might leave after a while.

If you pick the second choice, the girl wouldn't be yours either, so don't dream. She will run out of the inn sobbing (you can't chase after her because you're stuck in the inn). I didn't test this run through after that but i guess she will die in the desert.

TIP: If you did not kill the girl's husband, later on at chapter two when you just climbed out of the tunnel, you can speak to the husband for a hp buff item / talk to the wife for a headband that reduces odds of getting internal injuries. If you want to do repeated runs you can get both but the hp buff was quite low (i dont remember how much, but it was like 5 or 10 hp).

After this, all the side-quests you can do now is completed. You should continue with the story.

The key for your room is with the chef. Defeat him for 300 xp. Hide his bucket of fish, and you can get the loots easily.

I recommend to hide his loots for the first time. Then play until the end of chapter 2 and reset by choosing chapter, and pick chapter 1.

Because you will keep all your stats, your sword play, your inner qi technique, your exp, and your coins. Also you get to stock up on a lot of hp+50, qi+50 perm buff items and it strengthens you quickly.

Additional tip 1. At the end of chapter 2 you will receive a strength+15 buff item. It greatly increases your attack power. You can also buy a crit damage book for 3k coins, and it increases your dmg by 0.35 (i think they meant 35% crit dmg). Because i had two playthroughs, i got 0.70.
The same merchant sells the weapon manual which reduces dura loss on your sword. This will greatly help you if you reset. The manuals stack up on effect if you get more than one.

Additional tip 2. Remember to eat all your buffing items before you choose chapter, because the items will disappear while the stats remains. NOTE: The game need to save AFTER you ate the items, or else your items will be lost without giving you any bonus stats.

Additional tip 3. Later on during chapter 2 (after you returned from the tunnel), you will save the old man tin and tintin from a pack of wolves. He will offer you a ring which you can turn down. For your first playthrough, you should accept the ring for a powerful HP and Qi recovery accessory. Then after you can do your reset to replay with the choices you prefer. If you turn down his offer of the ring, you will unlock a new future side quest.

Additional tip 4. When the murderer disappeared into the horse shed, do not go down the tunnel immediately (that's what i did and i missed the remaining side quest).

Go and beat up hammer dude and be a matchmaker first. And, before you head into the tunnel, store all your items in the cupboard except for any healing you need (Yang pill - to counter yin internal injury which is VERY hard to heal from C) that med alone is good enough as you can craft any other healing with herbs)

Additional tip 5. After you finished up all the side missions, you can go around the backyard to pick up the herbs again as they have regrown.

Additional tip 6. After you became significantly stronger, your second and third playthrough will be really fast. If you unlocked the combos for Taibai Swordplay, you can round up all your bandits and press R to slice a whole bunch down. This way you can complete quests within a minute.

This is the end of the guide. This is only meant for those struggling when starting up. Because I had to reset (i missed a few side quest and i am a completionist), i was struggling between restarting and carrying on unfufiled. However, when i picked a chapter i realise all is not lost, instead I became a LOT more powerful and beat the ♥♥♥♥ out of the chef easily. Hope that this discovery may help some of you in the same situation as myself. Have a good one! Carry on gaming!