Solasta 2 Beginner Guide – 10 Things To Know BEFORE Playing!

I spent over 30 hours playing Solasta 2 before the Early Access release, and in this guide, we give you 10 things you MUST know before playing.

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Solasta 2 is officially entering Early Access as of March 12th, and while it stays true to the tactical roots of the original, the jump to the 2024 D&D Ruleset and Unreal Engine 5 brings massive changes. Whether you’re a veteran of the first game or a Baldur’s Gate 3 fan looking for your next challenge, here is what you need to know.

Solasta 2 Beginner Guide TLDR

Design Your Full Party
New 2024 D&D Ruleset
Starting Classes
Ancestries & Backgrounds
Subclasses
Level Caps
Weapon Masteries
Graphics & Voice Acting
The Free Roam Map
Campaign Length

1. Design Your Full Party for Synergy

Unlike many CRPGs where you pick a protagonist and recruit NPCs, Solasta 2 continues the tradition of the Player Party System. You design all four members from scratch. Your party is a group of Colwall siblings, adopted into a family who lives at an orphanage and are raised together.

I won’t go into all the story spoilers, but it’s important to know a few things about how this system works in terms of dialogue and interactions. First, your entire group speaks and interacts with skills dynamically (skill checks/dice rolls). Anyone from your group can jump in and talk, and you can select different family members to speak on your behalf. It feels more like an organic conversation with a group vs. one person talking repeatedly like BG3.

Another important consideration I didn’t catch at first is personalities, which are picked by your background choice. You have Outlaw, Sage, Caregiver, Ruler, and others. What’s not apparent at first is what these actually do, until you’ve played the intro.

Just like real families, individual children will have “roles.” Like the golden child, the kid who always does great at school, and me, the trouble maker. Once you select these during character creation, and after the intro, when you make an ability check, the most suitable character for that situation is selected.

What this means for you before you play is two things. First, the system feels a lot more realistic, you are in a group, that all has a say and interacts based on their personalities. Two, you should select a diverse group of builds, backgrounds, skills, and personalities to optimally interact with the environment. Having three outlaws and one ruler isn’t going to make speech checks easy to pass. Just like other RPGs, Fallout 4, BG3, there are a lot of dialogue and speech checks that lead to extra discoveries or bypassing quest.

Bonus tip here so we don’t screw up the total number, another factor in your party is languages. These also don’t feel important Initially. Until you find a goblin note in a crate and cannot read it because no one in you party speaks goblin. There are spells that can help with this later on, but think a diverse group of orphans leads to the best stories and interactions while you’re playing.

2. The New 2024 D&D Ruleset

Solasta 2 is one of the first games to fully implement the 2024 D&D Revision. The TLDR here is this, it’s not BG3 and won’t feel like it. At first, I hated the change in rules, but after spending hours playing and reaching max level, I realized the game is much more balanced than 2014 ruleset. I’ll try to summarize some important ones without spending five hours on this section:

In Baldur’s Gate 3, you could have 8 Strength and still wear Heavy Armor with no real downside. Not in Solasta 2. Most Heavy Armor requires 13 Strength. If you don’t meet it, your movement speed is penalized significantly. Stats are also required for multiclassing, so that same Cleric needs 13 Strength to multiclass into a Fighter. This prevents the same cheesy builds that everyone uses multiclassing to Rogue, Fighter for Fast Hands or Action Surge.

Divine Smite now uses a bonus action and a spell. While the spell hits extremely hard, especially at lower levels, it changes how the Paladin feels especially when spell slots are so low at the start of the game.

For spellcasting, prepare for “somatic components.” This means you must have a free hand or a specific feat that eliminates this requirement. Thus, you cannot use quarterstaff and shield on a Sorcerer to get huge Armor Class (AC) bonus and still cast spells. In the pre-alpha version of the game, I was able to “bar swap” to a one hand and shield after casting a spell and get the AC bonus, but this will likely be patched.

Moreover, you will run into spells like Chromatic Orb that require physical materials in order to cast. I took this at level 1 on my Sorcerer only to never use it because I needed a gem of 50g or higher to even cast it once! Again, read the spells before selecting, because they are different than BG3 and might require more than a spell slot to use.

Lastly, don’t expect surprise to function the same. While you always want to attack from stealth, the surprise benefit has been reworked and no longer allows for an entire turn of free DPS. Rather, it creates an initiative disadvantage. Your more likely to go sooner in combat, and it’s still wise to ambush targets, just don’t expect to sneak and Gloom Stalker Ranger kill everything before their turn.

Will unpack some other important changes in their own section since they are so massive like weapon masteries, backgrounds, and subclasses.

3. Starting Classes (Early Access)

At the launch of Early Access, you will have access to 6 Core Classes:

Fighter
Paladin
Rogue
Cleric
Wizard
Sorcerer

The developers Tactical Adventures have confirmed more classes will be added throughout the EA period. I’ve played through the campaign multiple times, and have over 1,000 hours in Baldur’s Gate 3. Let me give you a TLDR idea of what each class plays and feels like in Solasta 2.

See our best classes full guide here.

Fighter

The Fighter remains the easiest to play and the most powerful at the start of Solasta 2. The Fighter is a strength based martial weapon users and usually fulfills the role of DPS or Tank. Every level with the Fighter feels impactful in Solasta 2, and at the start, you gain all weapon proficiencies, and Second Wind a self-heal. Plus you get a Fighting Style giving you a bonus if you want to play one hand and shield, ranged, or my favorite two-handed Greatsword.

At level 2 you get Action Surge, level 3 your subclass, and level 4 your feat. The Fighter is the by far the best class to pick if you’re new to the game and want something super simple at the front-lines of combat which won’t die easy.

Paladin

The Paladin class is a charisma based hybrid melee or spellcaster. The Paladin feels strong and similar to the Fighter but with spellcasting initially. The main draw for Paladin players is some healing options but mainly Divine Smite. While it was nerfed, now requiring a bonus action, the class still shreds enemies especially at lower levels.

The two major drawbacks are limited spellslots and slower movement per turn. Plus, the Paladin can be complex to play as you need but Strength if playing melee, and Charisma if you’re casting spells. Still a strong choice, but if you’re coming from BG3 and expect passive Divine Smite burst on every multiclass, you’ll be disappointed.

Rogue

The Rogue class is a dexterity based sneaky thief type archetype from other RPGs. The Rogue is near mandatory on every party because of its high Dexterity and Thieves Tools mastery. Sneaking, ambushing enemies, unlocking chest, disarming traps, no class does it better than the Rogue. Plus, without the Ranger to compete for this position in the party, it’s a no brainer to select the Rogue.

Your biggest issue with the Rogue is they feel squishy, especially in melee range. You also have the sneak attack mechanic which can be confusing for new players. This is a free extra bit of damage when you have advantage on the target. While the Rogue class power fades in later levels, 1-4 they remain super strong and easy to use, making them a must have in every party.

Cleric

Another must have class in my opinion is the Cleric. They are your Wisdom based spellcasters who typically play support. The Cleric starts off super strong and now can wear heavy armor at level one with Divine Order feat. The major upside of the Cleric is their spellbook which is extremely strong early on. Healing Word uses a bonus action to heal, Guiding Bolt is the best ranged damage spell early, and Bless helps offensive and defensively.

Like the Paladin, the Cleric has lower mobility and limited spellslots. However, their channeled divinity class resource doesn’t require a spellslot giving you a heal whenever you need it. Consider Clerics another must have class which can help survival and damage especially early on.

Wizard

When it comes to spellcasters you have two choices, the Sorcerer Charisma based class or the Wizard which is Intelligence based. The benefit of the Wizard is their large spellbook, and the ability to learn spells from scrolls. If you want a wide array of spells, or to change spells in and out at will, Wizard is for you.

Another benefit of the Wizard is high Intelligence, leading to strong skill checks that other characters might lack. The downsides are squishier than other classes, a little more complex, and no Metamagic. Oftentimes Wizard have no way to use their bonus action or when they run out of spellslots resort to weak cantrips for damage.

You can’t go wrong picking a Wizard to fill out that spellcaster role, but I prefer a different option.

Sorcerer

My favorite class in Pre-Alpha is the Sorcerer, primarily because of Metamagic. The TLDR here is, you get a resource called Sorcery points that allows you manipulate magic. Quickened spell allows you to use a bonus action to cast a spell or a cantrip. Thus, in one turn you can cast a spell like Scorching Ray and follow it up with a Fire Bolt cantrip! This gives much better action economy than a Wizard who doesn’t have this option.

Furthermore, the Mana Painter subclass allows you to hit targets in melee and regenerate Sorcery points! If that weren’t enough (yes I love this class), you can cast a cantrip called True Strike which hits a target in melee using your spellcasting modifier. The Sorcerer is effective as a ranged spellcaster and a hybrid Battlemage while retaining great survivability.

Well, what’s the downside then? The Sorcerer remains complex, and very difficult to figure out for beginners who haven’t experimented with DnD rules. If you just want to cast cool spells, use the Wizard, if you want the most raw power, the Sorcerer is your class.

Simple beginner party would be this:

Fighter – tank and melee DPS
Rogue – utility and range DPS
Cleric – support spellcaster
Wizard – ranged AOE spellcaster

4. Ancestries vs. Backgrounds

The biggest change in character creation is now Backgrounds vs. Races or now called Ancestries. Background specifically provides the +2 and +1 bonuses, and determine a massive amount of how your character will preform. Moreover, you now get “Origin Feat” which is a feat at the start of the game, rather than at level 4. The Humans have a unique ability to get two at level 1, making them super strong in comparison to 2014 rules.

We have a variety of builds that walk you through all the important decisions to make at character creation. Assuming you’re going to skip that, keep in mind three ability scores can be given a +2 or +1. If we take a look at the Acolyte, you can increase CON, INT, WIS only. This would be a good background for a Wizard or a Cleric since the two main stats and one off stat are allowed to increase.

Now take a look at the Lowlife background which is targeting Rogue players. This allows you to increase STR, DEX, and CHA. 95% of Rogue builds rely on DEX, while STR is your dump stat (set to 8). Plus, Charisma, not CON or something else, isn’t exactly combat optimal for a Rogue build.

Therefore, you need to be aware, Backgrounds influence your ability score, origin feat, personality, and even starting equipment. We have a separate written guide on backgrounds here breaking down the best choices.

5. Subclasses Unlock at Level 3

Another important change to Solasta 2 is your subclass unlocks at level 3 for all classes. If you’re not familiar with DnD or BG3, the subclass grants extra features that helps focus your build and playstyles. For instance, the Fighter can pick the Aether Warden subclass and gain spellcasting or Commander for melee group support.

At launch of Early Access, there are 13 subclasses to pick from, 3 for Cleric, and 2 for every other class. We’ve played them all and ranked them here. Keep in mind, we haven’t seen or used a reroll or respec system like Withers in BG3 so these choices maybe permanent. If you want a quick TLDR of what I’d take in why, here’s my suggestion:

Cleric: Life Cleric because they get extra healing and support spells. Plus, you can still do great damage in Early Access with Guiding Bolt when you have no one to heal.
Fighter: Aether Warden because you gain spellcasting that uses your Constitution, not Intelligence as your spellcasting modifier. You retain all the advantages of Fighter, but the utility of Wizard spells and Cantrips.
Paladin: Oath of Liberation because you gain range crowd control and party support. Plus, you can still blast enemies with Divine Smite in melee range.
Rogue: Shadowcaster because you gain spellcasting which is super helpful in Early Access. If you don’t to babysit more spellcasters and spellslots, take the Scavenger Rogue for extra burst damage.
Sorcerer: Mana Painter because you get a melee Sorcery Point sustain tool and a shield when you cast a spell.
Wizard: School of Ruin because you gain more offensive minded spells and fulfill the glass cannon spellcaster. Take Court Mage if you are worried about constantly dying with your Wizard.

6. Level Caps: EA vs. Full Release

At the start of early access, the level cap will be 4, which you can reach fairly quickly. The game will eventually max out at 10 after the development cycle continues. This is relevant because it affects builds, races, subclasses, and class selections which gain the most power at level 5 with Extra Attack, or Level 3 spells. Here’s what you can expect when leveling with the new ruleset:

Level 1: class selection, background, etc.
Level 2: class feature here like Cunning Dash for Rogue or Action Surge for Fighter. Spellcasters get more spellslots.
Level 3: your subclass choice which is critical to your overall gameplay and build focus. Plan again and realize this is an important decision.
Level 4: you select a feat, which are wildly different than BG3. Under the new ruleset, most feats that give a bonus, offer a +1 to a stat. Meaning, in character creation, you should plan accordingly and leave your main stat with an odd number (typically 17). If you want to keep it simple, go with 16 and do an ability score improvement on your main stat like Wisdom, Charisma, Dexterity, Strength, etc.

Melee characters like the Fighter and Paladin won’t see extra attack sadly. Nor will spellcasters see Fireball! Even the racial/ancestry choices are affected because the High Elf gains a free Misty Step at level 5.

Similar to BG3’s early access at the start, you will feel powerful, but need to select classes and builds that scale well early, like Fighter and Rogue. Complex spellcasters and Paladins are amazing at later levels with more spellslots but can suffer early unless you want to long rest 400 times during your campaign.

7. Weapon Masteries

Weapon Masteries are passive “on-hit” effects. They don’t cost a resource (like Superiority Dice) and don’t require an action, they just happen when you hit an enemy with a weapon you have “mastered.” Only martial classes (Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue) get Weapon Masteries, and they are selected in character creation. Here are some examples:

Property	Effect	Best For
Sap	Enemy has Disadvantage on its next attack.	Use a Longsword or Mace to keep bosses from hitting your squishy mages.
Vex	You get Advantage on your next attack against that target.	Great for Rapiers or Shortbows to ensure your second attack (or Sneak Attack) lands.
Topple	Target must make a Con Save or fall Prone.	Once an enemy is Prone, all your other melee allies get Advantage on them.
Nick	You can make an extra off-hand attack as part of your Main Action (instead of using your Bonus Action).	Frees up your Bonus Action for things like Cunning Action or Hex.
Slow	Reduces enemy Speed by 10ft.	Use a Longbow or Whip to keep enemies from ever reaching your party.
Push	Knocks the enemy 10ft away.	Perfect for Solasta’s vertical maps to shove enemies off ledges.
Graze	Even if you miss, you still deal damage equal to your Ability Modifier (e.g., +4 damage on a miss).	Best for Greatswords when fighting high-AC bosses.

What this means for your builds is, don’t just look at the damage and bonuses. Look at the properties. Also, don’t panic if you selected weird weapons at the beginning of the game, you can change weapon masteries as you level. Longsword, Dagger, Shortswords, Shortbow, and Longbow are safe bets at the first few levels. You will start finding Greatswords, Quarterstaffs and vendors will equipment pretty early.

8. Graphics & Voice Acting

For some non-combat related things to know, the graphics and voice acting are top notch. I was shocked playing to realize this was created by such a small studio. I think they have around 30-40 working on this project, while Larian Studios, the makers of BG3, had 400 at max capacity.

Solasta 2 has moved to Unreal Engine 5 which is stunning graphics. I encountered a few bugs on quest, but only crashed once, and didn’t have 4 hours of waiting for “Rending Shaders.” It looks and feels pretty close to a triple AAA visual production and the gameplay matches.

For voice action fans, Solasta 2 features top-tier talent, including:

Ben Starr (Final Fantasy XVI, Expedition 33)
Amelia Tyler (Narrator from Baldur’s Gate 3)
Devora Wilde (Lae’zel from Baldur’s Gate 3)

I cannot stress enough how much I loved the interaction of the family unit talking as one rather than your main protagonist. While the game doesn’t have the massive branching dialogue of BG3 just yet, I found myself not skipping any dialogue scenes because of the spontaneous interactions of the family, all voice acted.

9. The Free Roam Map

The world map is now a Free Roam system featuring random encounters and survival mechanics. Your character moves from tile to tile using a meter at the bottom for resources. You can force march when you run out of movement or rest. Rest uses food rations, which go pretty quickly as you explore. Force March imposes a penalty on your party, and if you get caught in combat, it will difficult to win.

This makes the game not feel open world, but have some element of exploration and fun. You can find these events on the map that are permanent and timed. They often times lead to fights or gear and is the best way to find uncommon and better gear.

There’s also no fast travel, so expect to travel back in a time consuming manner. Taking the road makes this easier, but it feels truly DnD inspired rather than point and click and instantly teleport. I found if you start a random encounter in stealth, you can sneak to the exit if you’re tired of fighting and just want to leave.

Tip here is to make sure you buy Food Rations (a lot) before setting out. Everytime you get low, Long Rest and don’t Force March unless you have to. Spend time exploring events to get better gear and do some fun fights.

10. Campaign Length

With Early Access release, the developers report about 10-15 hours of story content. My first playthrough was about 20 hours, reaching the final boss. However, I spent tons of time in menus, looting every barrel, and not skipping any dialogue. Plus, I did a lot of random encounters to get familiar with the combat differences.

The developers estimate that at full launch, players can expect a 40-50 hour experience for a single playthrough. This seems like great value for an Early Access game, especially since you’ll constantly get drip fed new content over potentially years. Just like Enshrouded or BG3, something is changed, added, or removed, I just back in and start playing all over again.

I was one of those original players in BG3 Early Access in 2020. While it’s one of my favorite games of all time, the game was terrible initially. The combat was slow, almost every attack was 10% chance to land, and I avoided fights at all cost. However, you could see the potential in the game, if they just sped up combat and long rest mechanics.

Fast forward to Solasta 2, while it uses a different ruleset I found myself enjoying the game much more with tons of dialogue, story, and combat. I immediately started a second campaign because I made so many terrible decisions on my first playthrough. The game feels in a much better spot that BG3 did initially. Will it be the same juggernaut that ha sconsumbed 1,000 hours of my life? I don’t know, but I’m definitely going to keep playing to find out.

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