When you arrive in the colony in Gothic, you’ll immediately find yourself ushered towards the Old Camp and recruited as a digger to earn your keep. However, you don’t need to stick around and will have the freedom to join the New Camp as well as the Swamp Camp, where a new religion has take root.
Of course, you’ll need to earn your place in whichever camp you choose to join, and you can even play one camp off against another, but you’ll eventually need to commit to a single camp and play through the story from that perspective. The good news is, no matter which camp you join, you’ll be free to move around all three and complete quests from various NPCs.
Which camp should you choose?
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter which camp you choose to ally with, as no matter which one you choose, the ending will play out the same way. But it does direct your journey and the quests you receive. So, choose your camp based on what suits you the most, and what works for your chosen playthrough/build.
The Old Camp
You’ll arrive here early in the game, and it pays to spend some time here before you go to another camp. Get to know the NPCs and complete a few quests (for example, you can swindle an NPC out of an ornate sword or 100 nuggets if you’re not sticking around).
The Old Camp is the biggest and most well-established, but while Diego will encourage you to join his unit and become a Shadow, the rest of the camp will view you as nothing but a digger, that is, until you make a name for yourself. The camp has a useful infrastructure that you can take advantage of, but it takes some time before you’re seen as a person of value.
You can also befriend Torrez and start the path of the wizard, or you can follow Diego’s advice to become a Shadow for a more cushty existence.
The New Camp
The New Camp has a very different vibe, and you won’t immediately be treated like a leper if you join. Most members of the New Camp are seen as equals; however, there’s a lawless vibe, and there won’t be anyone watching your back if things go south. The New Camp is the wild west, but if you’re looking to play as a rogue/thief build, this is the camp to join.
This is also where the Water Mages hang out, arguably the only faction committed to escaping from the colony, so this is a worthy cause to join and will become increasingly important as the story plays out.
The Swamp Camp
The Swamp Camp is a religious community of drug-addled cultists who worship a deity known as the Sleeper. It has many of the same benefits that the other camps have, and it’s the camp to join if you like the idea of being a battlemage-type build.
However, it requires you to commit to their cult and toe the line. If you do, it’s not a bad place to hang out, and the story with the Sleeper will become much more important as you progress through the game.
Multiple quest givers at the other camps will encourage you to pretend to join the Swamp Camp while secretly working for them, which is something you can do. But also, you can freely come and go from the Swamp Camp by just being friendly with the cultists.
Many of the cultists do business with the Old Camp, and if you want to join without trekking there yourself, seek out Baal Parvez at the campfire. He’ll escort you to the Swamp Camp, killing any monsters on the way, which is a useful way to get there and teaches you the route.
Final thoughts
By committing to a camp, you’ll be committing to the path of a Warder/Fire Mage, a Mercenary/Water Mage, or a Templar and eventually unlock the armor that’s associated with these roles.
So, the camp you choose should come down to the build you choose, and the place you like the look of the most – but ultimately, it won’t matter once you reach a certain part of the story.
