The Sacred 2 Remaster breathes new life into one of the most beloved open-world action RPGs of the late 2000s. Despite its age, the game’s systems are deep — and a bit confusing at first. Whether you’re jumping in for nostalgia or exploring Ancaria for the first time,
This Sacred 2 Remaster Beginner Guide will walk you through all the essential mechanics you need to know: from planning your build and managing combat arts, to traversing the massive map efficiently.
1. Plan Your Build from the Start
Sacred 2 does not currently feature a reliable respec option — meaning once you spend your skill or attribute points, you’re locked in.
That makes early build planning absolutely critical.
Each level gives you two attribute points to distribute among stats like:
- Strength – Boosts close-range damage (except for daggers and magic staves).
- Dexterity – Offers a smaller attack boost but adds defence value and improves ranged and close-combat damage.
- Vitality – Increases health and resilience.
- Intelligence / Willpower – Improve magical effectiveness and resistance.
Your attribute allocation should always complement your chosen build. For example:
- Melee-focused builds benefit more from Strength + Vitality.
- Ranged or hybrid builds do better with Dexterity + Intelligence.
2. Choose Skills with a Plan
Skills define your playstyle. You’ll unlock them as you level up — but many are tiered, meaning you can’t grab advanced ones right away.
For example, Dual Wielding is classified as an Offensive Skill, and you can’t select it until certain prerequisites are met.
If you want a dual-wield setup later, you’ll need to:
- Start by taking Sword Weapons (or another weapon-related skill).
- Level it up a bit.
- Then unlock Dual Wielding once the option appears.
Recommended Skill Strategy:
- Focus on one main skill that defines your build (e.g., Dual Wielding).
- Support it with two strong secondary skills (e.g., Combat Reflexes for evasion, Toughness for defense).
- Use any leftover points to fill out situational bonuses like Armor Lore or Concentration.
Don’t scatter your points too thin — concentrated investment into 2–3 core abilities is what creates a powerful late-game character.
3. Get a Horse Early
Ancaria is enormous, and walking everywhere is painfully slow — especially before you’ve unlocked many portals.
Buy a horse as soon as possible.
Why it matters:
- You’ll save hours of travel time while questing.
- You can cover more ground between towns and side quests.
- It’s safer to travel on horseback early on.
However, note that your horse can die, so avoid tanking mobs with it directly. It’s meant for mobility, not combat.
4. Understand and Activate Portals
Fast travel is a lifesaver, but portals must be activated manually.
There are two types of portals:
- Active Portals – Blue and white glow in the arch; usable immediately.
- Inactive Portals – Dull and dark; must be clicked to activate.
Whenever you pass by an inactive one, take a second to activate it. It only takes a moment and saves endless backtracking later.
Once activated, you can fast travel to it from any other portal instantly.
5. Use Combat Art Runes Wisely
While exploring, you’ll find glowing runes or orbs tied to each class — these are called Combat Art Runes.
They’re color-coded and grant bonuses to your character’s active skills.
For example, as a Seraphim, you can use runes that boost:
- Warding Energy – Improves shield regeneration.
- Battle Stance – Enhances attack power and defense.
To use them:
- Open your inventory and right-click the rune.
- It permanently unlocks or upgrades the corresponding combat art.
- You’ll see the skill level (e.g., Battle Stance +1 → +2) increase.
Runes for other classes will be marked with a red background — save those in your shared stash for other characters.
6. Shared Inventory – Use It for Multi-Class Playthroughs
Each town chest has two sections:
- Player Chest – For your current character.
- Shared Belongings – Accessible by all your characters.
This is extremely useful if you’re running multiple playthroughs:
- Found a rare staff on your Seraphim? Store it in Shared Belongings for your Dragon Mage later.
- Perfect for transferring runes, relics, or class-specific gear.
Think of it as your personal cross-character vault.
7. Master the Loot System
Sacred 2’s loot is stat-based, not just level-based. Higher level gear isn’t automatically better.
Always check:
- Base armor or damage values
- Bonus attributes (e.g., +Alchemy, +Dual Wield, +Run Speed)
- Regeneration penalties
For instance:
- A Level 19 boot with 13 armor and +Run Speed may outperform a Level 23 boot with 3 armor and no bonuses.
- A weapon with +Chance for Double Hit might be more valuable than one with slightly higher base damage.
Compare, experiment, and remember: context beats item level.
8. Check Your Enemy-Specific Damage Bonuses
Your character’s damage varies depending on the enemy type.
Check the Statistics tab in your character sheet to see breakdowns like:
- +60% vs Humanoids
- +37% vs Wild Animals
- +8% vs Monsters
- +4% vs Insects
This means a weapon that wrecks goblins might underperform against undead or beasts.
If you notice low performance in certain zones, look for gear that improves damage against that enemy type.
9. Learn to Use Relics Effectively
Relics are colored gems that boost elemental resistances:
- Red – Fire
- Blue – Frost
- Green – Poison
- Purple – Arcane
You can equip three relics per set, and switch between two sets mid-adventure.
Each relic type has different shapes (triangle, hexagon, oval) that determine its strength tier.
Use relics to plug weaknesses — for instance, swap to a frost-heavy set before entering snowy regions or facing ice-based enemies.
10. Blacksmithing and Weapon Upgrades
Throughout Ancaria, you’ll encounter blacksmiths who can forge enhancements directly into your gear.
Example:
- You find a Chunk of Lava (adds Fire damage conversion).
- Insert it into your weapon’s empty socket for ~10,000 gold.
- Your weapon now glows red and deals fire damage.
Other forgeable materials can add elemental bonuses, resistances, or stat modifiers.
Experimenting with these is key to customizing your build’s strengths.
11. Final Beginner Tips
- Activate every portal you find to build a reliable fast-travel network.
- Keep multiple relic sets for different regions and bosses.
- Avoid overinvesting in too many skills — focus on synergy.
- Don’t ignore runes — they can dramatically improve your early survivability.
- Loot smartly — sometimes a lower-level item with good bonuses is far superior.
Sacred 2 Remaster offers incredible depth once you understand its systems.
By planning your build early, mastering the skill tree, and optimizing loot and runes, you’ll avoid the usual new-player frustration and instead enjoy the massive world of Ancaria the way it was meant to be played.