Amalur tips: win a house, get rich and rank up fast

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is rarely a grind, thanks to its reflex-driven combat and generosity with gear, but if you're picking EA's new RPG up today, there are definitely a few things you should bear in mind. Here are seven starting tips to garnish our review.

1. Starting skill choices

There's a lot to discover off the beaten track here, but you won't experience much of it unless you buff the right skills. Prioritise Alchemy and Detect Hidden when you begin. Without a couple of points on the former, alchemical reagents - including the heal potion ingredients Black Kohosh and Embereyes - will crumble to nothing in your hands. Without a few points on the latter, you'll miss out on treasures tucked away in logs or rock piles and later, hidden doors. Given investment, Detect Hidden also flags up enemies, chests and lore-stones on your mini-map.

It's not quite as essential, but you might also plug a point or two into Dispel Ward. Failing to defuse a Ward (they're tricky customers) results in a nasty curse, and curses can only be lifted by healers or with the aid of certain, more elusive potions.

2. Respec to win

I might occasionally start fights with PC elitists, but I'm basically, when you get down to it, all things considered, a nice person - not the kind of person who wantonly abuses role-playing subsystems to get ahead. Matt isn't a nice person. He once enslaved children to mine coal in Runescape. The first thing he did on picking up Amalur? Sink his fangs into the levelling system I'd been placidly nuzzling for dozens of hours and worry it to pieces.

He achieved this by employing the services of the Fateweavers - mystics who can reset your skills and abilities for a large but (given the amount of loot in Amalur) manageable fee. Were you a not-nice person, you could take advantage of this by, say, dumping all your points on Sagecraft, becoming a master gem crafter. Cloud magic shards and other elemental shards combine to make stones that are worth a thousand gold or over. You could also dump all your points on blacksmithing and run a high-level armour business for an hour or two. Or you could do both. You wicked, wicked individual.

3. Earn your first house

Every serial plunderer of mouldy crypts needs a place to dump his ill-gottens. If your head's bouncing against the inventory ceiling, make a beeline for the town of Canneroc in Webwood. Help them out with their eight-legged problems, and you'll be handed the keys to Gossamer End. There's a stash inside you can access from all the residences you own. Alternatively, complete the downloadable House of Valor questline for a fancier homestead.

4. Don't worry about lock-picking

Amalur's lock-picking system works the same way as Skyrim's - you rotate one stick to angle the pick, then turn the bolt with the other - but there's a difference: it's insultingly easy. Don't worry about levelling the skill till you're a fair way in. Save your points for Dispel Ward instead.

5. Do Reckoning right

When you're rocking Amalur's slow-mo super mode, don't peak too early. Every enemy you slaughter enters a dormant state till either your super bar runs down or you trigger an execution. On triggering said execution (and providing you mash buttons to increase the multiplier) you'll get bonus experience for both the enemy you're butchering and all suspended enemies. Queue up enough scalps, and a single boss fight may bounce you one whole level.