The Banner Saga 2 created by Stoic.
Images used for educational purposes only.

Main Walkthrough


- DECISION. Back to the original caravan. You may have lost some people to the Ravens - quite a number - so feel free to set up camp and reorganize your troops. If you have Ludin in your party you can chat to him about his father, the king of Arberrang. Ludin appears to be less of a jerk than before. You can also speak to Eyvind, and if you're playing as Alette he'll give you the opportunity to become a Mender. (Though not right away.)

DECISION. A little cut scene follows a short ways along, hinting at Wars to come. If you agree to train more men on the spot 80 Clansmen will be changed into 80 Fighters, so if you want to make the decision later, don't agree right now.

RANDOM ENCOUNTERS - FAIR-WEATHER PLAINS ONLY

- DECISION. You come across a band of dirty, hungry peasants, and a little girl asks for food. You can:
  • Hand over some food. Lose 15 Supplies but gain Morale.
  • Ask why they're out here. Still have to make one of the other choices, though.
  • Invite them to join your group. Gain 24 Clansmen.
  • Ignore them and keep moving. You'll lose 3 Supplies if you asked why they were out here first.

DECISION. If you decided to take on the peasants from the event above, the little girl will be caught stealing later in your journey. You can:
  • Ask why she was stealing. You'll lose 24 Clansmen.
  • Kick the girl and her family out.
  • Send the girl back to her family for punishment. Nothing happens.

- DECISION. Your hunters spot a game trail. You can:
  • Let the hunters hunt. Nothing happens.
  • Make a wager on who will bring back the biggest kill. Your character goes hunting themselves, and if you go right (the last option) you'll get 5 Renown and 25 Supplies, along with a Morale boost.
  • Continue moving. Nothing happens.

- An old woman will greet you on the road and offer you merchanting services. Say what you want, but she's an actual merchant, and has a few things to sell. Worth it if you've got Renown to spare, though her rate on Supplies ain't great.


- DECISION. Several actors, including Aleo, decide to put on a play - of the Battle of Boersgard. You can:
  • Keep watching. Watch to the end and Morale improves, and you'll gain 10 Renown.
  • Make Aleo stop. Morale improves and gain 2 Renown if you decide to leave.

DECISION. You find some guards standing watch over a witch, tied to a tree. She's to be kept there for five days. You can:
  • Ask how they know she's a witch. She gives compelling reasons herself.
  • Let the witch join the caravan. This leads to an event in a later chapter.
  • Tell the guards to let her go, but don't let her join the caravan. Later in this chapter she'll come back, and you'll lose 25 Supplies. 
  • Walk away. Morale declines.
  • If she's with your party, ask Yrsa what she thinks. She says to set fire to the witch, though that's not an option. 

DECISION. Your scouts believe someone is following the caravan. You can:
  • Tell them to alert you when they see something. Nothing happens.
  • Look for yourself. Nothing happens.


After some trekking you'll hit a patch of rain, as well as some rougher terrain. The random events end for a little while, to an extent.

- DECISION. Ludin will comment on the countryside, if he's around, and you'll find the territory difficult to travel. A scout finds some stone markers leading to paths. You can:
  • Follow the scout to the paths. Morale declines, because... graves.
  • Ask about the paths first. You still need to decide, however.
  • Ignore the markers. Morale declines.
- DECISION. If you used the paths you'll get into an encounter with some irate Kragsmen. Your options:
  • Form a perimeter. Battle time.
  • Try to talk them down. It doesn't work, but your Morale improves.
  • Send Tryggvi out to parley. They will murder him. Ow.
Next up is a War. If you have Eirik in your party he'll suggest catching one of the battle bears the Kragsmen are using. Agree or not, it's up to you, though if you do Eirik will get forced into your party for the next fight. The coming fight will have two Bears in it, and you're told to leave one alive. Once you've wiped out the other units - which isn't very difficult - you can use Eirik's new Capture Bear ability to recruit the Bear, summonable into battle by Eirik.

His name is Spinegrinder. Score!

(Note that you'll still get into a battle if you don't take the easier path, but it won't be a War, and Eirik won't offer to capture a Bear.)

- DECISION. A man has lost his son while walking through the bog. You can:
  • Go looking for the boy with Iver. You'll find him, and he's trying to save his goat. Iver can save the boy, increasing Morale.
  • Give the man gear to help him look.
- IMPORTANT DECISION. The next time you set up camp, assuming the guy's still alive and in your party, you'll find Hogun moodily chopping wood. He admits that he's not sure if he should keep fighting by your side. You have three choices:
  • Encourage Hogun to remain in your party. He does.
  • Tell Hogun to stop fighting. This relieves him, and he departs your party. You'll gain 1 Clansmen.
  • Tell Hogun to think it over for himself. He'll decide to stick around in the active party a while longer.

- You'll soon come to a godstone, and the varl in your party will take off for the duration. You can:
  • Ask Aleo about the god it represents. After he tells you the legend you have a chance to step into the shadow; doing this lowers Morale. If you choose to look around for danger instead you'll get into a battle, which happens regardless.
  • You can search for items. There's nothing here, and you'll leave... though there's no battle if you do this.
  • If you choose to rest you'll get into a battle.
The difficulty of this battle depends on how much you value your varl, and if you've neglected your humans up to this point you might be in trouble. You start off right in the middle, so choose a side, bunch all your characters up against it, quickly slaughter whichever enemy units are nearby, and make your stand from there. Your opponents are the same Kragsmen from the last battle, and aside from their Bear aren't especially tough. 

You'll find a Fallows Rebirth after the battle.


Grundar

- Horseborn!

- After a cut scene you can explore the small community of Grundar, though this amounts largely to visiting the Market and speaking to Scathach, the horseborn male. Doing so will recruit Scathach and his two allies, Ro'Ech and Derdriu, into your caravan. Not much to be done about it.

- Cut scene with Ubin as you leave. Lame!

Not long after this you'll be forced to camp. Juno will discuss a few things of potential future importance, and they will change a decent bit depending on your main character.

Lundar

IMPORTANT DECISION. You arrive outside town and find it under siege by horseborn. There are also dredge nearby. This raises the problem of deciding what you're going to do to help. You have a few possible decisions to make:
  • Stop the horseborn now, and leave the dredge for later. See below.
  • Defend the town from the dredge. See below.
  • Ask Scathach why his two buddies took off. You won't get much of an explanation.
  • Split up and meet back in town. See below.
(I've heard reports in the comments that you may not get to choose what you save later in this scenario if you decide to go after the dredge or the horseborn, rather than pursuing both sides. I'll keep testing the Lundar scenario going forward to see if this is a bug or intentional.)

STOP THE HORSEBORN

In this scenario you'll pursue Oddleif and the two horseborn into a War on one front. You're given an option right off:
  • Save Oddleif and the others.
  • Form a shield wall. Oddleif, Ro'Ech, and Derdriu will not be in your party for the next fight, though they will survive, albeit injured. Your losses will be less significant.
Either way you wind up fighting a squad of horseborn units on an open plain, which provides an advantage to them thanks to their high mobility. That said, they're not terribly difficult units, and the only really unique tactic they bring to the table is the ability to move once, attack, and then move again before the end of their turn. Annoying, but not that big a deal.

Once the horseborn are forced back you'll enter the town and find it overrun by dredge. You'll need to fight them in the town's Great Hall. This fight has a fire pit running right down its middle, and you can use the coals to damage the dredge by forcing them to cross, either by positioning your units strategically or using moves that kick enemies around. Either way, not too difficult. You'll gain 10 Clansmen and 33 Fighters.


STOP THE DREDGE

In this scenario you go after the dredge. Another option waits, courtesy of Rugga:
  • Send Dagr - and Ludin, if he's there - to take out the dredge from behind. Dagr will show up and help you during the battle... but if you send Ludin along he dies before he can reach you. If Ludin isn't in your party Aleo will go instead, and he'll survive to join the fight.
  • Keep your forces together. No backup, no losses.
Regardless of your choice, this is a standard dredge battle - it's just long, as reinforcements keep appearing. Keep your group nice and tight, use ranged fighters to limit your close-range damage, and kill the Skulkers that can potentially spawn before they can vanish.

In the aftermath of this choice you'll get Oddleif and the horseborn back, injured but alive. Then you'll wind up in town, which has been ravaged by the enemy horseborn. You have a few options from here on in:
  • Keep everyone together. This will give you the option to save the houses, the market, or the great hall. If you choose this you'll have to fight a single battle.
  • Split your team up. This will give you the option to save combinations of the house, the market, and the great hall. You'll have to fight two battles, using different characters for each. I don't recommend this unless you're coming in with a large team full of fighters from the first Banner Saga, and if you do take this route, heed Hakon's advice and mix your experienced with your inexperienced fighters. A team of all level-three warriors will have a hard time winning.
SPLIT UP

This scenario begins in the same way as going after the horseborn first, though all of the varl except for Iver will be removed from your active party for the first battle. Beyond that it plays out the same as the other two scenarios when you enter the town, and you need to choose which elements of the town to save.

Regardless of which path you take, the end of the battle is the end of the chapter. If you saved the houses you'll immediately gain 181 Clansmen, 120 Supplies, 5 Renown, and... an item. (I didn't see it in time. I'll edit this once I get back to Rook / Alette's group.) If you didn't save the houses you'll get rewards of a sort in chapter twelve.