The Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord War Sails expansion introduced a new sneaking mechanic specific to hideouts. If you’re not sure how to sneak and need some help understanding it, don’t worry, I’m here to help you. Since it didn’t release with a tutorial, it’s easy to not know how to crouch, how to drag bodies, or even do sneak attacks.
How to Sneak in Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord
Before you can sneak, you’ll need to find a hideout to sneak into. Unlike before this update, you can’t charge in with a small party to clear the hideout. Instead, you’ll have a few different choices:
- Sneak in now (during the day)
- Wait until nightfall to sneak in
- Send troops to clear
I wouldn’t recommend sneaking during the day. This will make it a heck of a lot tougher and more likely that you’ll fail. Therefore, I recommend waiting until nightfall if you want to sneak in. Then, you’ll have a window to pick which troops will assault the hideout if you succeed in alerting them to come. Once you actually enter the hideout, you can press Z on PC to sneak. If you’re on console, we’re not positive what the key is, but it’s the same as crouching.
Tips For Sneaking Successfully in Bannerlord
Now that you know how to crouch to hide yourself, there are tricks worth learning. A good chunk of this new mechanic revolves around line of sight. This essentially means that you need to prevent patrolling enemies from spotting you. Fortunately, there are bushes that you can completely hide yourself inside.
When inside a bush that hides you from enemies, you’ll see a little icon to the left of your health bar of a white hood. In our experience, it doesn’t seem to matter much whether you’re standing or crouching when this icon is visible. Taking advantage of these hiding spots will help you catch patrolling guards at the right moment.
While you will need to watch for all nearby enemies, you can hold the Alt button on PC to reveal sentry guards. Each one will have a red arrow above their head that follows them. You’ll need to prioritize taking them out to reach a specific campfire. This campfire has a glowing beam above it and a large white circle around it as well.
How to Sneak Attack to Deal More Damage
The trick to taking out enemy sentries is to use melee for sneak attacks. A sneak attack is exactly what it sounds like, but it does significant damage. When sneaking up behind an enemy and hitting them before they detect you, you’ll deal a sneak attack. This is essentially a critical hit that can be deadly with the right weapon. If you’re having trouble sneaking quietly, you may need to upgrade your Stealth Outfit to increase your Sneak Bonus.
Since you’ll need to avoid being seen, here’s more to know about how sneaking works. When a guard starts to detect you, a bar above their head will start to fill with white. Once this bar is full, it’ll switch to filling up with orange. At this time, the guard will leave their patrol path and investigate where they saw you. If the bar depletes, they’ll return to their path. Otherwise, it will fill and become red, starting a fight.
You’ll need to quickly slay them to avoid alerting other sentries and/or nearby enemies. If they defeat you, you’ll return to the overworld, and the hideout will go on cooldown for several days. This will prevent you from interacting with it until that cooldown is up. Also, if you take too long to take out an alerted guard, you’ll fail from that as well.
How to Drag Bodies in Bannerlord
One other major tip to know about sneaking in a hideout is dragging bodies. For those on PC, you can use the F button when near a body to start dragging it. The importance of this is that guards can quickly become alerted if they see a dead body. You may not need to hide bodies, but in rare cases where sentries are close together, it’s worth doing. Remember to take advantage of the Alt key we previously mentioned to see if enemies are nearby.
After you’ve taken out all of the sentries, you’ll likely have made it to the campfire. When you’re near the fire and looking at it, you’ll get a prompt to hold F to “Call Troops”. This will summon the ones you picked before entering the hideout to assault the remaining enemies.
Once those enemies are dealt with, you’ll get a familiar moment if you played before the patch that changed how hideouts work. The leader will approach you in a conversation, asking to duel one-on-one. If you trust yourself, you can duel them or have your troops fight with you instead.
What Are the Rewards For Clearing Hideouts
Some of the criticisms I’ve seen in this update are that it nerfed the rewards you get from hideouts. While you may not get a lot of loot, you can still get a couple of thousand Denars/Gold. It’s easy to miss the notification that pops up after clearing a hideout. I don’t recall how much I got from clearing it via sneaking as opposed to sending my troops. However, sending my troops gave me just under 2,000, and all I had to do was wait 6 hours for them to succeed.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.