For those who wonder how Risen 3 is related to previous games (Risen 1, 2 and Gothic series), here is the answer.

Risen 1 was really close to the original Gothic feel becouse it was older engine and more "raw" in execution. But it was missing some Gothic features. Risen 3 is like a real Gothic 4 should be but with more Risen "ish" stuff. We have three factions, leveling armor system, we can see some monsters that we could find in Gothic games, as well as easter eggs that clearly refer to Gothic games.

From all Risen games - Risen 3 is the best one, not oly for me but for most of people that played all games. So just play it and enjoy!

This is the main choice you have to made in Risen 3. Picking a faction is a second choice right after you decide how do you want to fight your way in game.

There are three main styles of fighting in Risen 3.

1. Melee fighting
Traditional slashing way. You can hit normally, use power hits, combos of 3 or 4 attacks, parry enemy attacks and ripose counterattacks. Your attacks can also be blocked by some enemies. Slashes has some AOE effects so you can hit multiple enemies in front of you.

Melee weapons has generally more damage in later stages of a game than magic spells but you have to consider that enemies will try to block your hits.

2. Melee Magic
Its basically a magical weapon that let you cast magic attacks in melee range. That attacks cannot be parried, but you cant parry any attacks too. You have access to a aiming mode that let you cast your projectiles a little bit further than normally. Melee magic aoe is way bigger than normal melee weapons so its easier to attack multiple enemies in front of you.

Melee Magic in strongest in early stages of a game and is being a little bit weaker when compared to lategame classic weapons. However its very consistent and you dont have to worry about your attacks being blocked anyhow.

3. Ranged fighting.
Its the most complicated but also very rewarding. Ranged fight has the biggest possible damage output in a game but there also some disadvantages. You can use Muskets with long range to shoot enemies from distant locations. While fighting in close combat you will have to switch into shotguns becouse your attacks will be disrupted. That fight style needs positioning, switching weapons and basically being careful into not walking into groups of enemies.

Besides that three main styles there also two supporive ways of fighting that aid you in combat.

1. Dirty Tricks known from previous Risen are all kind of small aids in combat. That include pistols, crossbows and throwning daggers.

2. Spells. Every factions has their own but it include buffs, debuffs, healing, summoning, damage, AOE damage and crowd control.

While in a single combat you mostly use one main style, you can mix it with both of supportive styles. For example you can fight with swords, summon a minion, buff yourself and use pistol from time to time.

Every faction has some special skills that help with particular fighting styles. If you already know your preffered fighting style - move on to picking a faction.

There are three main factions in a game and you will have to join to one to finish a game. You can pick Demon Hunters, Guardians and Natives.

In terms of role play, all of them have different reasons to exist that may suit you or not. On the other hand every faction give you access to different spells and abilities that may not be available for other ones. Here is further explanation.

1. Demon Hunters

Theme:
Leader is your old friend Eldric. He sense the danger of the shadows and decide to light up the green lights to call all Demon Hunters in the world to unite and start a fight against the dark forces. Preety much the most epic theme that you can find in Risen 3.

Demon Hunters are fighters - period. From all 3 factions they have the best "fighter" harsh look, together with spells and animations - it make them look preety sick. Basic dodge animation is changed into blink. Most of their spells are buffs, that helps you in meele fight.


2. Guardians

Theme:
Leader is Zachariach - grand mage. Do not confuse mages with Gothic series. They are not a priest of any kind of god. This time mages are like old time sientists that tries to solve world problems by sience of magic. They are trying to build bigass reactor made of crystals, that will help them fight the Titans.

Guarians are making use of magic and meele magic crystals so it is obvious that they are strongest when it comes to casting.


3. Natives

Theme:
Leader is Chani known from the previous game. They basically doesnt have a big reason to fight for. They are busy living their lives, however there is some problem with connection with their ancestors.

By joining the natives you may become a Vodoo Pirate. Its a mix of two previous factions with some different aproach. Vodoo Pirate make use of Voodoo magic. Most of its use its an utility and crowd control. If you played first Risen game, you should remember how much use had the spells: Levitate and Telekinesis. In Risen 3 - Voodoo Pirates are the only class that has access to those spells without limitations (every other class will need a voodoo doll or scroll).

How to choose?

There are no limitations in any way when it comes to combat style. You can play a Demon Hunter that use magic, and you can be guardian that uses rifles instead of magic. It is totally up to you. In "1-10" scale every class can become 9 in every aspect. However 10 is limited only for some factions. Lets make a tier list.

Melee fighting:
1. Demon Hunters - becouse they have three buff spells that make you hit harder and faster while having more armor.
2. Voodoo Pirates - In terms of damage it is equal to guardians but crowd control spells and your final voodoo spell: Curse Weakness, make huge difference in fighting. Curse spell is like strongest debuff in a game that make literally strongest normal enemies die in one or two hits.
3. Guardians. Their damage is fine but it cannot be buffed anyhow so you rely only on weapon damage and cannot make it any better thank to your faction.

Melee Magic:
1. Guardians - Only they can learn the way to use melee magic faster than others that has direct impact to the damage. Their crystals are a little bit stronger than other melee magic spells.
2. Voodoo Pirates - Their crystals are strong normally and with use of all crowd control supportive spells it is easier to fight big enemies as well as groups of enemies.
3. Demon Hunters - None of their spells help in melee magic so they are just using base values of runes. Good but nothing more.

Ranged fighting:
1. Voodoo Pirates - Since none of factions has any spells limited for their members that increase your ranged potential, pirates are best choice here simply becouse their crowd control potential and debuff ability.
2. Guardians and Demon Hunters. None of their spells helps in ranged fight so they are limited only to base weapon values.

Summing up:
You already know every class realtions in terms of fighting. There are mine pros and cons about them.

Demon Hunters
+ Cool look anf feel when it comes to fight.
+ Best leader and nice epic plot theme
+ Absolutely best meele fighters
- May get boring after a while

Guardians:
+ Best mages out there so if you like magic casting - go for it.
+ If you like heavy armors - go for it
+ Rust spell is just good - no worrying about lockpicking anymore.
- Also may get boring after a while

Voodoo Pirates
+ Absolutely best in exploring, treasure hunting, speeding up the progress of a game, questing and that kind of stuff.
+ Unique to the most of RPG games.
+ Not bad in preety much any kind of fighting style.
- Voodoo could have a little more impact into the game.


Now you know most stuff about differences. Pick your faction!

During the game you will recruit a different crew members that help you along the game.

Selecting a friend to explore world with is basically your personal choice. There is just one thing that you should consider.

If you have problem in fightig in any stage of game - Pick melee fighting ally like Patty or Edward so they can tank monsters and let you hit them from behind. Ranged allies will also do that but they will need some time to catch up and switch a weapon.

Besides that is totally up to you.

Allies have different personalities so they will comment current game state in some situations.

I picked Jaffar instantly and literally had him on my back through the whole game. I just love that little buddy and his comments made my laught as hell. Im recommending Jaffar for everybody. It makes the game way more fun to play!

If you are achivement hunter here are some hints for you.

1. Some achivements are limited to the faction so its not possible to do it in a single run or without saving and loading. There is one achivement for joining each faction. Way to get it is saving before joining one, then reloading a game. There is also one achivement for demon hunters that is available to acomplish in chapter 3. That makes demon hunters best for achivement hunting in shortest possible way.

2. There is Angel/Demon achivement that is based on your karma score. Easiest way to acomplish it is to start a game, make save after a turorial then basically finish the whole game in Good (Angel way). Then after finishing it, reloading the save and going directly to the main quests and reducing your karma to 10 which can be done in 2 hours.

3. Some achivements may be completed by saving and loading a game (for example: Gather 300.000 gold)

4. Achivement: Kill 2000 monsters is possible to do if you either reload a game and in 100 monsters again or literally kill every monster and natural animals in a game.

5. It is possible to get all stats on level 100 without cheating in a single run without any particular problems.

This section contain spoilers!

1. Right after finishing tutorial look for the closest "Rust" scroll (if you dont already have it) and head to Antigua. In the night, go to the fist floor of a tavern and look for a chest that needs 110 lockpicking. Use a Rust scroll and to get yourself one of the best swords in game.

2. As First try to improove your Dexterity into level 50 spell and Lockpicking, also try to find some jewelery with lockpicking bonuses. Increase your locpicking skill twice with a trainer. In that moment you can open most of chests in game and use Thief Potion or Rust Scroll on hardest ones.
Second useful skill is Trained Monkey that lets you get access to some items that arent really possible to get any other way. As third, invest in getting Smithing skill so you can upgrade your weapon to be even better.

3. You can really kill any monster in game at any stage. Get a strong melee crew member and let him tank a monster. Hit it twice and repeat once again.

4. If you are going for any other option than mage, always buy every "Parrot Flight" doll that you can. This spell is very very usefull.

5. Melee fighting is the easiest way to finish a game since you can get very strong weapons very early, and train your character no matter in what stage of a game you are.

6. If you have access to Fog Island DLC, get one parrot flight spell and go there instantly and try to get a legendary item that give you 10% bonus to earned glory.

7. It is possible to max every single stat to level 100 (105 with all legendaries). This is how you can do it. As you may notice the higher stat level - the more glory point it needs. Try to get a stats only to level 65 and then get to the the 100 level only with permanent potions. There are plenty of permanent plants in the game. Im not sure about all of them but there is more of some kind that another. Im almost sure that there are 10 or even 11 for Melee, Ranked and Magic. That means that you can get 50 of that statistic and get the rest with potions. From my experience with a game there are only 6 or 7 plants for Spirit stat so this one will need 65 of basic stats. You can get more than 100 other than legendary items.