Rivellon rewards curiosity-and punishes carelessness. Before you roll your first die in Divinity: Original Sin 2, learn how to avoid beginner pitfalls, build a balanced party, and turn early mistakes into clever victories.
If you are a true beginner, don’t underestimate the Explorer difficulty
Explorer mode may sound too easy at first glance, but it’s a great way to learn the game’s mechanics without constant frustration. Combat in Divinity: Original Sin 2 can be punishing, especially for those unfamiliar with tactics like positioning, armor types, and environmental effects. Explorer difficulty offers a fair learning curve, giving you room to experiment with builds and strategies while still feeling challenged. It lets you focus on the story and decision-making before tackling the tougher modes later.
The Divinity: Original Sin 2 experience involves a great deal of narrative, but also a lot of combat. While following the main story is a matter of exploring and completing quests, the many battles you face in this game can be quite brutal depending on the difficulty mode you pick. If you’re ready for a challenge, you can start in Classic mode. However, Explorer mode might be a better choice if you want to ensure your experience won’t be ruined by frustrating combat situations. In this difficulty, you face the same fights as you would in the other modes, but they won’t be as punishing, while still being more challenging than the Story mode.
Memory is as important an attribute as any other
Memory determines how many skills your character can use at once, so ignoring it limits your tactical options. Each point you invest lets you equip more abilities, mixing offensive, defensive, and support skills to handle diverse encounters. Many new players focus on raw damage or armor, but a modest boost to Memory often makes the difference between survival and defeat, especially in longer fights where flexibility matters most.
Whether Divinity: Original Sin 2 is your first RPG or you are coming from another game where leveling up characters and raising their attributes is a thing, it’s common to focus on more common attributes such as Strength when allocating attribute points. However, in DOS2 you should reserve a point every so often to raise a character’s Memory. This attribute determines the number of memory slots you have and you need those to equip skills and spells you unlock. Some of these may require anywhere from one to three, so constantly raising a character’s memory level ensures a stronger list of skills and spells at your disposal.
Understand the defenses to master the attacks
Understanding how enemies defend themselves helps you plan more successful attacks. Pay attention to physical and magical armor, since they block different types of damage and status effects. A warrior’s strikes won’t break through magical barriers, just as spells won’t pierce heavy armor. Learn which enemies rely on which defenses and use skills that target their weak points. Breaking the right armor first can turn a battle from a slog into a clean victory.
In Divinity: Original Sin 2, every character in the game, friend or foe, can have two types of shields: physical or magical. You can only deal direct damage to an enemy after depleting their shield. This is where the types of shields matter. Physical shields only take damage from physical-type attacks, while magical shields deplete if hit by magic. Following this logic, the best strategy in combat is to position and manage your party based on the types of damage they cause. Some players prefer to adopt a more direct strategy and have all four party members causing the same type of damage. Both ideas work, you just need to pick the one that suits you best.
Moving is expensive so thrust forward
Movement costs valuable Action Points, so plan your turns carefully and think ahead before rushing toward enemies. Try to position your party smartly before combat starts-use high ground, corners, and obstacles to save AP during fights. Abilities like Haste or teleportation can help you move without wasting too many points, leaving more chances for attacks, spells, or defensive maneuvers.
Combat in Divinity: Original Sin 2 is governed by Action Points, a simple but extremely important resource. Every action you perform costs AP, from attacking with your basic weapon to using a potion or a magical scroll. However, the most frustrating part of combat is that walking also requires AP, so there will be situations where you could kill an enemy, if you had two extra AP… but you don’t, because you have to walk to them. That’s where gap-closing skills – like “Backstabbing” or “Bull Rush” – shine. With one of these skills, you can move and attack while spending fewer AP.
Don’t forget to collect the most important item right at the beginning
The first thing you should grab in Divinity: Original Sin 2 is the Source Collar removal item found early in Fort Joy. Without it, your character’s abilities remain limited, making fights tougher and character progression slower. Search carefully during your escape, as obtaining it early gives you access to stronger skills and a far smoother experience through the game’s early areas.
The magical land of Sourcerers, Voidwokens, immortals, and gods is filled with wonders and powerful weapons to find, but no magical sword or enchanted armor is better than a bed roll – I’m serious! I mean, you can’t fight with a bed roll, but you can heal all party members for free outside of battle by using it. Unlike potions, a bed roll is not consumable, so when you get one, it just stays with you – forever. So you can always pop it after battle to make everyone healthy for the next encounter. And the good news is that you can get more than one bed roll right at the beginning, while you are still inside the ship. So don’t lose this opportunity and make sure you will have the mighty bed roll to start your journey.
Trade – with everyone
Trade with everyone, but pay attention to individual factions, their needs, and how your barter choices affect quests and alliances.
You begin the game as a prisoner without anything of value with you, but once you arrive at Fort Joy, you can start building your empire by trading items for gold or other goods. Although trading is an important system in the game, it’s never fully explained, so it may take some time for you to learn that you can sell or buy items from most of the characters you interact with. When you talk to another character, in the top-left corner of the dialogue box, a purse icon will appear if that character can trade with you. Some characters may invite you to check their goods as part of their dialogue options, but this isn’t necessary. Just talk to them and open the trade menu.
When playing an elf, eating someone’s arm or leg might be a good idea
Playing as an elf in Divinity: Original Sin 2 means embracing their unique skill-consuming body parts to gain memories and abilities. Eating an arm or leg found on a corpse isn’t just morbid flavor; it can reveal hidden story details or provide useful bonuses. This racial trait often uncovers secrets that other races might miss, giving elven characters an edge in both lore and gameplay decisions.
Elves are magical beings with one or two quirks that make them special. If living hundreds of years was not enough, the elves in Divinity: Original Sin 2 have another feature. They can revisit someone’s memory by eating their flesh. It doesn’t sound very appetizing, I know, but it’s extremely useful. You can either obtain key information to progress in a quest or even learn a skill by eating a body part – but this only works if the character is an elf. That is why recruiting Sebille is a good idea, ensuring that you have at least one elf in your party.
Take Gawin’s quest while in Fort Joy
Gawin’s quest is easy to miss, but it’s one of the first ways to leave Fort Joy. You’ll find him near the main courtyard, offering a teleportation scroll if you help him escape. Completing it teaches you the value of the Teleportation Gloves and introduces an early choice with lasting consequences. Whether you aid him or not, obtaining the gloves opens up new exploration options around the island, making this quest worth doing early.
There’s no problem if you want to focus on the main quest and get out of Fort Joy, but you should at least consider completing Gawin’s side quest. He is a Sorcerer who will approach you downstairs on the west side of the Square entrance. He will tell you about a teleporter, an item that can help you escape, but there’s a problem – you must defeat a few monsters to retrieve it. Facing these creatures while undergeared and underleveled is tough, but if you prepare your party, it’s possible to defeat them. Once you have the teleporter, you can actually use it to move your character during battle or exploration, reaching places they couldn’t by regular means.
Which origin character is easiest for beginners to play
Ifen is the easiest origin character for beginners in Divinity: Original Sin 2 due to his straightforward melee-focused abilities and helpful questline that provides early guidance. His skills like Battering Ram and Battle Stomp offer crowd control without complex spell management, making combat forgiving. Play him as a tanky fighter to learn positioning basics before experimenting.
Why Ifen
Ifen’s story integrates well with Fort Joy’s early acts, unlocking bonuses like free source training that ease progression. His human race gives balanced stats, and default Battlemage preset avoids over-reliance on magic damage types. Respeccing later lets you adapt once comfortable.
Combat Strengths
Start with physical damage builds to break armor quickly-pair Battering Ram for launches with Blitz Attack for repositioning. Use his high initiative to act first, drawing aggro while companions support. Avoid magic-heavy enemies until you split party damage types.
Playstyle Tips
Teleport Ifen to high ground for bonus accuracy, and equip him with gloves/armor from beach scavenging. Recruit companions like Sebille or Beast for ranged/magic balance, dismissing extras post-Fort Joy. Prioritize Warfare skills over utility early on.
Which Origin offers the simplest combat role for new players
Ifan ben-Mezd offers the simplest combat role for new players in Divinity: Original Sin 2. His default fighter preset emphasizes straightforward melee attacks, crowd control like Battering Ram, and tanking without needing intricate spell combos or positioning tricks.
Why Ifan Excels
Ifan’s human versatility provides balanced stats for physical damage, letting beginners focus on armor stripping and basic combos rather than magic synergies. His early questline grants source skills and gear naturally, reducing grind.
Combat Simplicity
Use Battle Stomp to knock down groups and Blitz to close gaps-skills that work reliably on flat terrain. High vitality absorbs mistakes while you learn turn delays and environmental interactions.
Party Fit
Pair him with a lone wolf companion like a ranged archer for support; respec others later. This setup teaches core mechanics without overwhelming party management.
