Banquet for Fools Beginner’s Guide | Gameplay Tips & Tricks

Exploring Exile Island is a challenge, but you can turn a hard fight into a total slaughter if you go in with a solid plan. This guide covers how to build your party, survive the haunts, and make enough emeralds to keep your gear sharp.

Building Your Guard

It is smart to start with premade archetypes while you learn the ropes. If you want to build your own squad from scratch, remember that great teams cover each other's weaknesses. Give every guard a weapon and use a Gold or Silver skill point to train them in it. 

You should also put Gold attribute points into stats that raise that weapon's damage and hit-chance. 

Don't ignore hit-chance, because if yours is much higher than a target's evasion, you deal extra damage called Severity. For defense, give your front-line fighters a Gold point in armor or shields in Banquet for Fools.

Shields and Crimscale armor work best with Agility for high evasion, while Pearl and Stonewood scale with Aura for better damage reduction. If a guard has no armor, they need high Dexterity, Aura, and Sensory to dodge, but this is usually best for ranged specialists.

If you have a Pagan caster, they are the weapon themselves. Focus their points on Aura and Pagan. Train them with a simple Scepter or Sling so they can fight when their Spirit is gone. 

Wearing Robes is also helpful because it makes their spells hit more often. A balanced team usually includes a two-handed weapon user to break armor, an archer for high damage, and a Pagan for utility.

Combat and Survival

At level 1, spend your Technique points on Rally, Dodge, and Kick or Charge. You want to knock enemies down as fast as possible. If you can't attack, use your mobility to stay away while your action bar fills up. 

Pushing enemies into each other with a Kick or Charge is a great way to control the crowd. When an enemy is on the ground, their evasion drops to zero, so hit them hard. To stay healthy, grab the red and green orbs that appear during a fight. 

You can also rest at a Barracks or Tavern to heal. If you are in the wild, have a strong guard carry blankets for camping. Mead and Berries provide small heals, while Amphoras of Food can fully heal a guard and give them a buff in Banquet for Fools.

Be careful in tombs. Ghosts carry a curse that lowers your max health, so don't let them touch you. Always keep two Incense Globes on your belt when exploring haunted places—one to get in and one to get out. 

Also, keep your gear fixed. You can use hammers or visit a Stonesmith for cheap repairs. If your gear breaks, you will deal less damage and take more hits. White Grevas only die in sunlight, and you should always unequip Lanterns or Incense before you sleep so they don't burn out.

Mastery of Magic and Music

There are three main types of magic. Fauna is good for area damage and has a bee summon. Vines offers great utility and crowd control. Spores has the best control spells but no summons. Be careful, as Vines and Spores spells can hit your friends too. 

You can buy better spells from Vol Trees by grinding gems into minerals with a Mortar and Pestle. Try to get a Vine Rug spell early so you can cross streams to reach hidden treasure. Music works like passive magic. 

Once a musician meets a specific trigger, like dodging a certain number of times or hitting enemies, they play a song automatically in Banquet for Fools.

They don't use up an action, so they can fight and play at the same time. Flute and Pipe players don't need huge investments to be good, but Horn players need high Sensory and Dexterity to beat enemy resistance.

Earning a Living

You can make a lot of money by capturing bandits instead of killing them. Check your stance and use the Capture stance to knock them out. They stay down for 24 hours, giving you time to report them to a guard for a paycheck. 

When talking to bandits, mentioning Exile Island will put you in the right stance automatically. Keep a master lockpicker with high Sensory to find hidden chests. If you can't pick a lock, you can break a chest open by attacking it with a high-strength guard. 

White borders on chests mean they're available, while red borders mean they've been stolen. To score the best deals when shopping, employ a guard with the Bartering skill and load up on Glamour jewelry.

Seek out green signs in settlements; these mark traders willing to purchase your surplus items. Acquiring a boat and the pack-animal Boro early on will significantly boost your speed and increase your carrying capacity. Finally, if you see a cat, make sure to pet it in Banquet for Fools.

Also, check our Banquet for Fools Review