Half Sword Progression Guide: From Starving Beggar to Armored Tank
The first time I loaded into a match, my character looked like a gust of wind would snap his spine, and that is exactly how the game mechanics work.
Progression in Half Sword isn't just about unlocking a shiny new badge next to your name. It is about physical mass. The game ties your rank directly to your body weight and muscle density, which in turn affects the physics engine. You aren't just losing fights because you are bad (though you probably are). You are losing because you are literally a 60kg bag of bones fighting steroid-infused knights. If you want to stop bouncing off enemies like a rubber ball, you need to understand how to bulk up, make money, and insure the gear you steal off dead bodies.
The Weight System and Ranking Up
Most games give you "Strength +5" when you level up, but Half Sword just gives you protein.
The Beggar Phase
You start at the Beggar Rank. Take a look at your character. You are skin and bones. Your attacks lack force because the physics engine calculates damage based on momentum and mass. Since you have no mass, your hits are pathetic. At this stage, you are the weakest you will ever be. You need to pick fights carefully. Do not try to trade blows with anyone bigger than you because you will lose every single time. Stick to weapons with range like rakes or pitchforks so you can poke people without getting snapped in half.
Bulking Up to Commoner
As you win fights and rank up to Peasant and eventually Commoner, your character physically changes. You gain weight. This is huge for gameplay. A Commoner character has significantly more limb strength. Your swings are easier to control, they hit harder, and you don't topple over every time someone sneezes on you. Once I hit Commoner, I noticed I could knock out Beggar-tier enemies with a single well-placed swing. It’s a snowball effect. Get swole, win more.
The Economy: Stealing and Insuring
Gold is nice, but the real currency in Half Sword is the gear you strip off a corpse while his friends watch.
How to Loot Effectively
The game doesn't tell you this, but you can steal absolutely everything. If you kill an enemy (or a mercenary you hired who "accidentally" died), stand over them. Hold Q (left hand) or E (right hand) to strip armor from that specific body part. You can take their helmet, their chest piece, and even their pants. If you see an enemy with better gear than you, that is not a threat. That is a shopping opportunity. Beat them to death and wear their clothes.
Insurance Is Not a Scam
You will die in this game. When you die, you usually lose everything. That is where Insurance comes in. Always insure your best items at the menu. If you insure a piece of armor or a weapon, it returns to your inventory even if you get decapitated in a ditch. This lets you build a permanent loadout rather than starting from scratch every time you fail a run. It costs gold, but it is cheaper than buying a new sword every ten minutes.
Surviving The Modes and The Abyss
You have a few ways to grind, but some are death traps.
Racks vs. Tournaments
When you are a Beggar, look for the Racks that offer the best Gold-to-Risk ratio. I prefer 1-round fights that pay well. Avoid the 5-round marathons early on because your character has the stamina of a heavy smoker. Knockdown objectives are also easier than Deathmatches since you just need to tip the guy over rather than brutally murder him.
Once you rank up, Tournaments unlock. These are gauntlets (1v1s, then 2v1s, then 3v1s). They pay well but are brutal. If you lose, you lose big.
The Abyss Cheese
The Abyss is the scary dark area filled with "Vengeful Spirits." These things are annoying. They drop their weapons and try to bite you like zombies. The trick is to smack them in the skull while they are trying to nibble on your ankles. They usually don't wear helmets, so they are soft targets.
If you are a coward (like me), there is an even better strategy. Look for the guy in the back of the room before you go down. You can talk to him and hire him to clear the Abyss for you. It costs coin, but it saves you the headache of fighting a horde of ghouls in the dark.
