How To Get Rid Of Bounty In Of Ash and Steel (And Stop Guards One-Shotting You)

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Getting insta-killed the second a guard looks at you? No idea how big your bounty is or what you even did? You’re not alone.

Right now, Of Ash and Steel has a very harsh and not-well-explained crime system. Players are walking into the first “real” city after hours of happily looting everything, only to be told they’re criminals and then executed on the spot, with no bounty number shown and no jail option.

This guide breaks down:

  • How the bounty system actually works (as far as early testing and guides show)
  • What real options you have to clear or “reset” your bounty
  • Why guards keep killing you instantly
  • How to steal safely (or at least less suicidally) going forward

Quick Answer: Can You Reset Bounty In Of Ash and Steel?

Short version:

  • The only proper in-game way to clear bounty right now is to pay the fine when a guard confronts you.
  • If your fine is higher than your current gold, the only dialog option is basically “I don’t have that much”, which equals refusal and the guard executes you.
  • There is no jail option, no visible bounty number, and no menu screen where you can see or clear your bounty.
  • If guards attack you on sight and you can’t pay: you are effectively soft-locked unless you:
    • Reload an older save from before your crime spree, or
    • Use mods or external tools and accept the risk, or
    • Start a new character

Now let’s go deep.

How Crime And Bounty Work Right Now

1. What actually counts as a crime?

So far, community testing and early coverage show that at least these actions are considered crimes:

  • Stealing items that aren’t yours (taking things in houses, shops, or containers that belong to NPCs)
  • Assaulting NPCs inside settlements
  • Possibly other hostile actions in front of witnesses

When you commit a crime in view of a guard or, in some cases, a witness in town:

  • A guard will approach you and confront you about your crime.
  • You’ll get a dialog where they demand a fine — for example, one guide notes a 500 gold fine for stealing, and refusing to pay leads directly to your execution.

Players also report that guards can somehow know about crimes that happened elsewhere, even when normal NPCs didn’t react at the time. One long-time player describes the crime system as punishing — guards detect theft even when hidden, fines can be absurdly high.

So don’t assume “no one reacted, so I’m safe”. The game is tracking you.

2. Why you can’t see your bounty

At launch:

  • The game does not show your bounty total anywhere (no character sheet, no region screen, nothing).
  • Guards don’t tell you the exact number they’re demanding, just that you owe money and must pay a fine.

Players are understandably frustrated:

  • One player walked into the first big village, immediately got stopped by a guard, and was told to pay a bounty that was higher than their 1500 gold, with no info on what they did or how much the total is.
  • Another player mentions paying a fine that turned out to be 3000 gold for a theft they hadn’t even realized was recorded.

So right now, you have to treat bounty as an invisible value the game is secretly tracking.

How To Get Rid Of Bounty In Of Ash and Steel

Option 1 – Pay the fine (the only “clean” reset)

When a guard confronts you, one of two things happens:

  1. You have enough gold
    • You see a dialog option like “Pay the fine”.
    • Based on guides and player reports, paying the fine:
      • Removes the current bounty the guard is charging you for.
      • Stops that guard from attacking you.
    • After paying, you can usually continue to move around the settlement without immediate execution.
  2. You don’t have enough gold
    • The only response available is something like: “I don’t have that much money.”
    • Selecting that is treated as refusing to pay.
    • The guard immediately attacks, and if you’re still early game, they can easily kill you in a few hits.

Because there’s no jail, no partial payment, and no work-off-your-crime mechanic right now, paying the full fine is the only built-in way to clear your bounty.

Practical tips to afford the fine

If you haven’t yet triggered guards or you’re starting over, do this early:

  • Clear wilderness loot first
    • Focus on bandits, animals, and ruins away from big towns.
    • Sell their gear and loot to vendors to build up a money cushion.
  • Avoid stealing inside the first major settlement until you have:
    • A decent stack of gold
    • A better handle on stealth and guard routes
  • Keep an emergency “bounty fund”
    • If you want to test the crime system, don’t let your gold drop to zero.
    • Try to always keep a few hundred or more set aside in case the guards bust you.

Option 2 – Reload to a clean save (realistically, the most common fix)

For many players, by the time they realize the bounty system is brutal, they’ve already:

  • Spent 5–10 hours picking up every loose item in early areas
  • Wandered into the first proper city
  • Then had a guard stop them with a huge invisible bounty they can’t afford, and no way to view it

If guards now kill you on sight and you cannot pay the fine, you basically have two choices:

  1. Reload a save from before you started mass stealing
  2. Accept that the save is functionally dead and start a new game

The most reliable bounty reset right now is simply loading a save from before the crimes were committed. That’s it.

Save-game best practices

With how punishing and buggy the game currently is, you should:

  • Use multiple rotating save slots
    • Don’t rely only on quicksave.
    • Keep at least 3–5 normal saves at different points in time.
  • Always save before “testing” a crime
    • Want to see how sensitive guards are to theft?
    • Save → steal → if it goes badly, reload and pretend it never happened.

There are also reports of items disappearing when loading near them, including quest items, so having several backup saves isn’t just about crime — it’s about protecting yourself from bugs in general.

Option 3 – Mods, trainers, and console tools (advanced, risky)

Of Ash and Steel runs on Unreal Engine 4, and players have already figured out ways to unlock the debug console and use commands (for example, to fix ultrawide FOV).

However:

  • There is no widely documented, game-specific command like clearbounty or setbounty 0 for Of Ash and Steel as of now.
  • Mod loaders and trainers exist for tweaking other aspects of the game, but using them:
    • Can break your save
    • May disable achievements
    • And is obviously unsupported by the developers

So technically, an experienced user might be able to poke at game values (gold, reputation, etc.) and indirectly “fix” a broken bounty situation, but:

  • It’s not a simple plug-and-play solution
  • It’s not guaranteed
  • It’s overkill for most players

If you go this route, back up your saves manually before doing anything.

Option 4 – Start a new character (last resort)

If:

  • Every guard in a key region kills you on sight
  • You have no older saves
  • You don’t want to mess with mods

…then the only clean fix left is to start again with a new run.

It sucks, but this is an extremely systems-heavy, old-school-inspired RPG that the developers admit launched with bugs and rough edges they plan to patch over time.

Treat your first character as a learning run and apply all the lessons below to your next one.

Why Guards Kill You Instantly

If you’re thinking:

“The guard just sees me and I instantly die, what am I supposed to do?”

Here’s what’s happening under the hood, based on guides and player reports:

  1. You’ve built up a huge invisible bounty through repeated theft or other crimes.
  2. The first time a guard confronts you about it, the fine is way more than your current gold.
  3. The dialog only offers something like: “I don’t have that much money.”
  4. In the game’s logic, that counts as refusing to pay.
  5. Refusing fines equals execution, according to early tips articles that explicitly say refusing the fine results in immediate death.

So what feels like “insta-aggro” is technically:

  • Guard: “Pay your massive fine.”
  • You: “I can’t.”
  • Game: “Okay, then die.”

If you’ve already had this conversation once and survived by running away, the guard and possibly others may just skip straight to hostility when they see you again.

How To Avoid Huge Bounties In The Future

If you’re willing to steal but don’t want to break your run, play with these rules in mind.

1. Treat the crime system as more strict than it looks

Players have complained that guards catch theft even when they thought they were hidden.

So:

  • Don’t assume crouching behind an NPC equals invisible.
  • Don’t assume closing a door makes you magically safe.
  • Don’t assume remote thefts will never be noticed later.

If there’s anyone in the room or a guard even vaguely nearby, consider that theft high risk.

2. Don’t loot everything in story hubs

This is the main trap almost everyone falls into:

  • “No one reacted to me taking everything from the tutorial camp or first hub, so it must be fine!”
  • Hours later, you walk into a serious town and get smashed with a giant invisible bounty.

Players report bagging every single item they saw, with zero feedback at the time, only to discover guards now want thousands of gold they don’t have.

Safer mindset:

  • In quest hubs and cities, only steal what you really need and only when you are sure it’s safe.
  • Use quicksaves to test how sensitive the system is in that area.

3. Plan a “crime build” instead of casual kleptomania

If you want to be a thief-style character:

  • Invest in stats and perks that boost stealth and utility
  • Get comfortable with NPC patterns, guard patrols, and safe houses
  • Treat every theft like a mini-mission, not random spam-looting

4. Always rotate saves

Given:

  • The crime system is harsh
  • Major bugs like disappearing items on reload exist
  • And the game is designed to be unforgiving

…you really should:

  • Keep 3–5 rolling manual saves
  • Save before entering a new major settlement
  • Save before doing anything obviously illegal

If anything goes wrong — crime, bug, or crash — you have a clean checkpoint.

Is There A Way To See Your Bounty?

As of now:

  • There is no separate bounty screen
  • No number on the character sheet
  • No region reputation breakdown

The only feedback is:

  • A guard confronting you and demanding a fine
  • Vague dialog about you being a criminal
  • And whether you’re allowed to pay or not

Given how many players complain about this exact thing, it’s likely the developers will tune or clarify the bounty system in future patches, but this is not confirmed.

Step-By-Step: What To Do If You’re Already Hardlocked

If every guard you meet wants you dead, run through this checklist:

  1. Try to trigger the dialog properly
    • Approach a guard while you’re not in combat.
    • See if you can get the “pay fine” option at least once.
  2. Check if you can scrape together enough gold
    • Sell spare weapons, armor, and loot to vendors outside the main city if they’re still accessible.
    • Do a few safe quests to earn money.
    • Then come back and see if the guard’s demand can be satisfied.
  3. If you still can’t pay the fine:
    • Look through your manual saves for one before your big loot spree.
    • If you have one, load it and proceed more carefully with crime.
  4. If you have no suitable saves and don’t want mods:
    • Accept that the character is probably done.
    • Start a fresh run using the safety habits in this guide.
  5. If you’re comfortable with modding and tinkering:
    • Look into Unreal Engine 4 console-related tools and trainers for Of Ash and Steel.
    • Back up saves before experimenting.
    • Understand there’s still no simple “reset bounty” button known publicly.

FAQ – Bounty And Guards In Of Ash and Steel

Do bounties go away over time?

There’s currently no evidence that bounty naturally decays over time in the world. Once you rack up a large bounty, it seems to stick until you:

  • Pay the fine
  • Reload or restart

Community reports definitely don’t indicate any automatic forgiveness.

Can I go to jail instead of paying?

Not in the release version people are playing right now:

  • When confronted, the choice is basically pay or die.
  • Early tips articles note that refusing fines means immediate execution, not prison.

So there is no jail system at launch.

Do all regions share the same bounty?

This isn’t fully documented yet, but from reports:

  • Your crimes can follow you — people have been busted in the first big village for things they did earlier, elsewhere.

Until fully tested, you should assume your crimes travel with you.

Is the crime system bugged or just harsh?

Honestly, a bit of both:

  • Players and reviewers call the crime system overly punishing with poor feedback, and guards catching theft even when hidden.
  • The developers acknowledge the game shipped with bugs and they’re watching reports to fix issues post-launch.

So expect changes, but plan your run around how it works right now, not how it might work later.

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