KCD2 makes it fun to play as all kinds of different classes, thanks to the powerful perk you earn. One of our favorite builds is one we call the Long-Ranged Survivalist. Think of this class as Bear Grylls meets Robin Hood. You’re going to be an excellent archer who can rely on your outdoorsman skills to get through any tricky situation. If you want to pick off foes from afar and become one with the forest, this is the build for you. Here’s how we built our Long-Ranged Survivalist in KCD2.

Player Skills

As you level up your Long-Ranged Survivalist version of Henry, there are several important skills to pick up to make this build sing. Below, we’ll focus on those skills, but keep in mind that you’ll also earn skill points in some of the other trees by playing normally. If it’s not listed below, your skill choices don’t matter for the build, so you’re free to pick whatever you want. With that in mind, here are the skills you’ll want to target for the Long-Ranged Survivalist build.

Main Level Skills

• Martin’s Heritage or Radzig’s Heritage - Unfortunately for this build, you’ll have to choose between these two skills. Radzig’s Heritage gives your shooting skills an experience boost, while Martin’s Heritage does the same for survival. We went with Radzig’s version of the skill to become a better archer quicker, but feel free to go the other direction.
• Night Crawler - This skill isn’t a huge boost, but it does give your agility and stealth a bump at night.
• Warmonger - You’ll want to grab this +2 combat boost. It procs after any fight, so it’ll almost always be up.

Strength

• Train Hard, Fight Easy! 1 & 2 - It might seem weird to focus on these strength skills, but remember that higher strength means you can draw your bow quicker and hold it drawn longer.

Agility

• Deft Hands 1 & 2 - These skills lower the agility level for weapons, making it easier to use the bows you’ll need with this build.
• Nimble Stance - Ideally, you’ll never get into a melee fight, but if you do, you’ll be able to dodge attacks much easier with this skill.
• Creeping Phantom 1 & 2 - While this build isn’t focused on stealth, you’ll still want to attack from the shadows as much as possible to one-shot enemies without risking a fight.
• Totentanz - Another skill that boosts your dodging. Again, we don’t want to fight up close, but if you have to, this will help.

Vitality

• Ascetic - With this, you won’t need to eat nearly as much, making those long journeys into the wild even easier.
• Thick-Blooded - If you happen to take damage, you won’t bleed out nearly as quickly, giving you time to craft a bandage after a fight.
• Balanced Diet - As a survivalist, you probably won’t be overeating much. With that in mind, you can recover your stamina faster with this skill.
• Hermes’ Haste and Marathon Runner - You’re an archer. You want to move between waypoints quickly and be able to run away if things get spicy. These skills make both of those things much easier.
• Revenant 1 & 2 - These skills heal you passively when out of combat. That means less need for food and rest in the wild.
• Diehard - Attacks that would kill you will instead heal you for 25% of your health. This ability has a cooldown, but it’s a literal lifesaver.

Speech

• Adept of the Mystic Arts - You can sell any herbs you gather in the wild for 10% higher prices.

Alchemy

• Poison Specialist 1 & 2 - We’d recommend using alchemy to create poisons that you can tip your arrows with. That’ll make it even easier to eliminate your opponents quickly and quietly.

Craftmanship

• Thorough Maintenance 1 & 2 - These skills make your gear degrade 10% slowly, meaning you won’t need to head into town to get it repaired as often.
• Well-Fitted - Gear you repair makes less noise. You’ll want that when attacking from the shadows.
• Bowyer - If you repair your own bows, it will be 10% more powerful. A win-win.

Houndmaster

• Hunt! - Sometimes you’ll have trouble finding wild game to eat. Thankfully, Mutt can use this skill to help you out and keep you well-fed.
• Body Heat - This helps you sleep better out in the wilderness, which you’ll likely do a lot of with this build.

Stealth

• Natural Camouflage - Since you’ll be spending a lot of time in the forest, you’re going to be dirty. This skill makes it harder to be spotted when you’re covered in muck.
• Weasel Boy - This skill makes you much quieter when sneaking outside.
• Bushman - You’ll make less noise in the bushes, making it easier to sneak up on enemies in the wild.

Survival

• On the Poacher’s Trail - With this, you can sell herbs, game, hides, and trophies for double the price.
• Master Cook - This extends the life of the meat you acquire, helping you not have to hunt as often
• Bounty of the Wild - Killed game gives you even more parts to eat and sell.
• Leg Day - Collecting herbs gives you some strength experience, which will make drawing your bow easier.
• Leshy 1 & 2 and Wild Man - These three skills will make your stamina recover faster and boost your strength, vitality, agility, and stealth when you’re outside a settlement.
• Heartseeker 1 & 2 - This skill gives shots to the chest a big damage boost, making it even easier to quietly kill your enemies.
• Master Fletcher - Your arrows will generally be as lethal as possible with this.

Combat Skills

For the most part, you’ll be killing enemies from range with your bow. You can still spec into a melee weapon if you want. This will make it easier to get out of trouble if you mess up a ranged attack, but it isn’t necessary for this build. Here are the combat skills we’d most recommend:

Marksmanship

• Crippling Shot 1 & 2 - Successful bow attacks will cut your enemy’s stamina recovery and combat skills, making them easier to deal with.
• Hal Shot First 1 & 2 - Your first shot deals 30% damage, leading to many more one-shot kills.
• Steady Aim 1 & 2 - If you hold your shot for a few seconds before firing, you’ll deal more damage and your stamina will drain more slowly.
• Salvo - After a shot, you get a short buff to reload and aim faster. This will help out when dealing with several enemies at once.
• Sagittarius - Attacks from atop a horse take less stamina, turning you into a mobile turret.
• Skirmisher - This has a similar effect from the ground. That said, you can easily get both, giving you more combat options.
• One Shot at Glory - After a ranged kill, your next shot deals 50% more damage.
• Eagle Eye - When you’re aiming, time slows down, helping you line up your shots more easily.

Gear

Because you’re attacking from afar, you can pretty much wear whatever you want. With our build, we’ve focused on aesthetics. We’re looking for a hunter who blends in with his surroundings while mixing in a little flair.

Armor

• Head - Master Huntsman’s Hat, Hemmed Hood, Padded Collar
• Body - Hunter’s Belt, Embroidered shirt
• Arms - Hunting Gloves
• Legs - Simple Hose, High Boots
• Jewellery - None

Weapon

• Bow - Ash Hunting Bow

If you need help tracking down the Ash Hunting Bow, you can buy one from Gamekeeper Vostatek’s son in the Trosky region. See the map above to see exactly where to find him.

As mentioned above, you’ll want to use stealth and poison to augment your bow. You can deal a ton of damage without them, but those two aspects of KCD2 will make ranged combat even easier.

For melee combat, we’d recommend running or speccing into one-handed swords. You’re not going to do much of it, so don’t spend too much time leveling it up. We’d go with one-handed swords because the Hunting sword suits the roleplaying side of this build.

That wraps up our Long-Ranged Survivalist. With this build, you’ll take out your enemies from afar, make a bunch of money hunting animals, and be able to survive nearly anything the wilderness throws at you in KCD2.