Old Soldier (Character)

Difficulty: Hard

This is easiest character to start the game with primarily because of the attribute gains when leveling, with a large focus on Attack Power and Movement Speed. This allows you to deliver strong blows and run away to utilize hit & run tactics. With a high enough movement speed, you can even keep moving when your fatigue is high from attacking too often.

Starting Stats
These are the stats this character starts with. The Training column shows the range of the randomly determined value the stat increases with when it is chosen during leveling. The max. column shows the maximum value for this stat.

Starting Resistances
The starting resistances for this character. The Invis. column is for "Harder to turn invisible", which is the failure chance (in percentage) on going invisible. The heal column is for "Health growth inhibition", which is the percentage reduction of effect on any source of healing.

Advantages and Disadvantages
The old soldier has the following advantages and disadvantages:
 * + Used to life on the road, easier to gain XP
 * + self-control: can hit with every attack at the cost of XP
 * + Excellent battle training: increased movement and attack speed
 * + Has armor and a sabre with him. Don't forget to equip them!
 * - Disdain for agriculture, won't cut any roots
 * - Old wounds: Low health and health growth

Passive Bonuses and Penalties
The Old Soldier gets an unspecified percentage bonus to XP for each kill. Furthermore, he starts with higher movement and attack speed, and has a higher range as well as maximum when leveling these stats. On the downside, the Old Soldier starts with only 150 HP and cannot increase this when leveling. Fortunately, health can be increased in various other ways (e.g., obtaining 'Scroll of Health' or spending 1 silver with Shelling in the Subterranean Dwarves zone).

Cannot Cut Roots
Throughout the dungeon grow roots that, when fully grown, spawns a group of subterranean bugs. These bugs are a bit dangerous in the beginning, and become a mere annoyance later on. Other characters can cut these roots (for a bit of XP and to prevent the bugs from spawning).

Master Tactic
The Old Soldier can activate the "Tactic: Master" to never miss on an attack, but every attack then costs 10 XP. This is useful against strong (unique) monsters with high dodge, but not very good against common enemies as the XP cost is rather high.

Starting Equipment
Unlike other characters, the Old Soldier starts with a sword, a cuirass, and a shield. This is useful for complete beginners, but once you figure out the early game secrets you can quickly find better equipment at no danger to yourself.

Talents
Talents can be trained once every 5 levels.