The Lantern of the Laughless Saint Combat Skills Guide

Build around the actions you actually want to repeat, because skills improve through use. The safest Early Access plan is to choose one main damage route, carry one fallback, and delay any “best build” claim until its numbers are captured from the current patch.

This is a field guide, not a solved meta. The official Steam description confirms a use-based skill system, perks, spell crafting, alchemy, many equippable items, and more than 60 listed enemies. The detailed combat advice below is attributed to launch-window footage and can change.

Post-patch note (UPDATE 11, Aug 26)

The XP curve was reworked in UPDATE 11: skill XP is now linear instead of exponential, making levels to 100 “many hundreds of times easier,” with training costs doubled to compensate. Any earlier advice treating level 100 as a long grind is outdated. Archery now also grants +1 HP, +2 Stamina and arrow speed per level. See the Launch Patch Tracker.

Post-patch note (UPDATE 13, Sep 1)

UPDATE 13 overhauled the skill and perk menu UI and fixed the character creator back-out bug, so early-build footage of those screens now looks different. The equipment panel now displays up-to-date bonuses from your gear, making it easier to compare loadouts without manual math. Enemy fallback animations were also added, so a missing attack animation no longer leaves an enemy frozen. See the Launch Patch Tracker.

What progression appears to do

The official Steam page says repeatedly using a skill improves that skill. The supplied launch footage adds two observations:

• the character screen shows skill increases contributing toward experience and level progress;
• a level-up allows further skill-point assignment and may present a perk choice.

The clearest timestamped demonstrations are the skills and perks sequence at 13:06 and the experienced-player explanation at 3:46:05. Neither source reveals a permanent numerical formula, so this guide stays qualitative.

Three defensible starting directions

Ranged explorer

Choose this direction if you value distance, scouting, and a way to pressure enemies that move unpredictably. One concise launch review calls ranged attacks especially helpful in the early game because close combat felt weightless and fast enemies were hard to catch. Another first look tests a bow and reports that archery felt useful in that particular session.

Practical rule: open at range, watch the enemy response, and keep a melee weapon ready. Do not assume every enemy, patch, or dungeon favors the bow.

Melee with a ranged fallback

Choose one-handed weapons or spears if you prefer direct combat, but avoid grinding every weapon family at once. A launch stream shows one-handed skill increasing while the player fights, then alternates between sword and bow as individual encounters demand.

Practical rule: make one weapon family your repetition engine and use the backup to solve spacing problems. Compare displayed weapon information in your own build instead of copying a launch-day damage number.

Magic learner

Magic is a longer experiment rather than a guaranteed first-minute power spike. One playthrough identifies sorcery, channeling, and psionics as separate magic skills in its tested build; historical playtest footage shows spell learning and a spell-crafting interface. Those videos establish that there is real depth to investigate, not which school is permanently strongest.

Practical rule: gain access, test one effect, record its cost and conditions, then build around what the current patch displays. Use the spell crafting and alchemy guide for the evidence checklist.

A five-minute weapon test

Use the same low-risk area and record only what the game displays:

1. Save in a separate slot.
2. Equip one weapon and note its visible damage, speed, requirements, and condition.
3. Fight a familiar enemy without changing armor, perk, potion, or spell.
4. Repeat with the fallback weapon.
5. Record whether the result came from spacing, accuracy, resource cost, or raw displayed stats.

This will not create laboratory-perfect balance data, but it prevents the common mistake of changing equipment, perks, consumables, and tactics simultaneously.

How to treat perks

Footage shows perks with meaningful trade-offs rather than a simple vertical power ladder. That makes the perk text itself more important than a creator’s reaction to it.

Before choosing:

• read both the benefit and the drawback;
• ask whether the condition matches the way you already play;
• save before a choice if the current build allows it;
• do not choose around an exploit or bug report that may be patched;
• record the game version before publishing a build recommendation.

Combat field footage

What this guide still will not claim

There is not enough stable evidence here for a weapon tier list, perk tier list, exact experience table, permanent enemy weakness chart, or “best” spell school. Those need current-build captures and repeatable tests—not one launch stream or a comparison with Morrowind.

For the full first-session structure, continue with the beginner guide. If you are playing with friends, read the co-op preparation and recovery guide before committing the group’s quest state.

UPDATE 17 (Sep 17): controls, accuracy and resting

• Weapon/spell toggle: press R (or gamepad B) to swap between your equipped weapon and a spell. Number keys 1-8 are hotkeys on PC, and the radial wheel now selects your favorited weapons rather than the currently equipped one — set favourites before a fight, not during it.
• Enemies are much more accurate. The same patch tuned enemies slightly to compensate, but cover and strafing no longer let you ignore ranged attacks the way earlier builds did.
• Resting is now a risk decision. Sleeping restores health only when enemies are not around; in hostile areas sleep can be interrupted, and the chance depends on the area. Rest in cleared, non-hostile ground when you actually need the recovery.
• Armor damage reduction is capped at 85%, and the armor skill’s contribution was rebalanced, so early-game armor no longer scales like late-game armor.
• The roll ability was removed for now, and HP is no longer granted simply for levelling up.
• Autorun (default Q) was added, and the game now warns you when you try to sprint while overencumbered or cast while silenced.