It’s been a good first week for medieval multiplayer hack ‘em up Mordhau. The game has sold 500,000 copies since its launch April 29, making it a bona fide hit—which coincidentally is also the main activity in Mordhau. (I've unofficially been referring to it as Pointyhurty.)

The remarkably strong launch has taken developers Triternion a bit off guard.

“None of us would’ve expected this reception in our wildest dreams,” they write in a post to Mordhau’s official forums. “As of today, Mordhau has sold just shy of 500,000 copies and we have reached a peak of 60,000 concurrent players yesterday. These are just mindblowing numbers to us, and we still haven’t fully realized that Mordhau is currently among the top played games on Steam.”

The unexpectedly high number of players taking to Mordhau’s bloody battlefields has come with its own set of problems, however, and Triternion acknowledged the launch was a bit on the rocky side. The studio admits server performance was poor for the first few days, and that there have been problems with rewards.

However, Triternion says they’ve handled the majority of the big launch issues, and they’re hard at work on the rest. For players who have missed out on gold and experience, the studio says they'll be compensated in the next patch.

If you’re just getting started in Mordhau, we’ve put together some handy tips to help you keep your head attached to the rest of your body while wading through a melee.