Sacred FAQ/Walkthrough Version 1. By Matt P Email elementalizard@aol.com Please email me for permission to post this FAQ on other websites and definitely email me if you have insight into skills and characters. Sacred is copyright Ascaron entertainment. It's a decent priced dungeon hack similar to Diablo 2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Overview The purpose of this FAQ is to provide some general hints into developing your character and enhancing your character's power. There is also a walkthrough at the end that lists quests to do on a point by point basis. This is a general guide that will speak in generalities and try to avoid references to specific characters. Contents: 0) Characters 1) Difficulties 2) Ability management 3) Skill management 4) Rune/Combo management 5) Experience building 6) Item finding 7) Item management 8) Walkthrough/Town Checklist ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 0. Characters. Battle Mage: The master of magic, the battle mage is the easiest character to play, though he starts out somewhat tough. Several of his spells can do 1000s of damage with modest investment. His main stat should be mental regeneration. The best spells include fireball, ice shards, fire spiral, ring of ice, meteor swarm, ghost meadow, and lightning. Useful subclasses are the ice mage and fire mage. His sets are Dagowit's (miscellaneous low level skills), Mammon's (trading skills), Byleth's (fire and earth spells), Blackstaff (ice and wind spells), and Paternus (fighting skils). Dark Elf: A trapper and monk character. His traps are very potent. He can also do more poison damage than most other characters. Increase physical regeneration, charisma, and maybe dexterity. Useful subclasses are a poison- trapper elf. Gladiator: The main warrior of the crowd. His skills like in killing with pointy things. Raise strength and physical regeneration. Seraphim: A jill-of-all-trades, the seraphim is good at both physical and magical attacks, but excels at neither. She is one of the most fun characters to play. Rotating blades of light, celestial light, attack, and combat jump are all very useful. Physical and mental regeneration are the way to go with her. Useful subclasses are the fighter, caster, and hybrid seraphim. Her sets include the Dream netting of the gods (magic set), sereish thunder (rotating blades of light set), sereish lightning, uriels set, and others. Vampiress: A fierce woman knight who can turn into an even more potent vampiress. Strength and physical regeneration are excellent abilities to raise. I like her bats, blood kiss, and other skills. Her vampiress mode is able to kill things much better than most characters, but is hurt by daylight. If you fight a lot with the vampiress (in that mode) then she gains "bloodlust" which makes her attacks all the more powerful. Useful subclasses are the perma-knight, and perma-vamp. Note that the Vampiress gets very few set items but many rare items. Wood Elf: An archer who is a blend of mage and fighter. Dexterity, physical regeneration, and mental regeneration are excellent abilities to raise. Underworld: I've not played these two characters yet. Daemon Dwarf ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Difficulty Difficulty levels are based on the metallic level you start your character in. There are five difficulty levels- Bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and niobium (Sacred Plus). There are significant benefits to playing each level. New levels are opened up by beating the previous level in single player. Bronze and silver are both available at the start of play, so to open gold, you must (almost) beat the game on silver. To play platinum, you must beat gold, and to play niobium, you must beat platinum. Note that any set item found in a specific level will be better if found at a higher level. For instance, Dagowit's bonds (level 45) found in bronze are weaker than Dagowit's bonds (level 45) found in silver. This is mainly due to the increased bonuses from the set item. **Bronze** When you first start Sacred, your best bet is to enter bronze. There's no real benefit to beating the game on bronze, so don't feel like you are required to finish everything on bronze prior to exporting your character and entering silver. Benefits: Very easy enemies, bronze allows you to experiment with your character and try out special abilities to see what gives you the best return. All characters should initially start in bronze and stay in bronze until they reach level 20 or so. After this, you can either export and start over in silver, or continue through and beat the game. Detriments: Enemies in bronze will soon be too low level for you to gain decent experience from killing them. This is especially true if you like to explore. The item drops in bronze are pretty poor as well. Strategy: You have two good options when it comes to bronze: 1) play through until level 20-30 and upgrade to silver, or 2) play through bronze completely, but go fast. When I first played the game, I explored nearly every part of Sacred in bronze. The Second time I played bronze with a different character, I did not explore to nearly the same extent, though I still completed most sidequests. At the end of both plays, one character was at level 50 (completely explored), and the other was level 49 (main and side quests only). The level 49 character reached level 50 in less than 5 minutes of play in silver. It is NOT worth exploring the game in bronze. ** WHEN IN BRONZE, HIT ALL OF THE TELEPORTERS YOU SEE TO MAKE YOUR LIFE MUCH EASIER AT HIGHER DIFFICULTIES ** You can use bronze to build up your rune collection, if you don't spend/eat many. **Silver** Silver is when things start to get interesting. Enemies are more difficult, but the rewards are much better. Additionally, if you've reached level 20-50 in bronze, the enemies in silver will always be around your level or 1-3+ above. This results in a good experience point gain per monster slain, which will help you level up much faster. Benefits: Enemies provide much more experience per kill in silver than bronze, mainly because the enemies will usually be 1-3 levels higher than you. This has the added result of making the area much more interesting to explore. Completion of silver opens gold. The item drops in silver are much better, with many more set item drops and more powerful drops as well. Detriments: If you don't have a strong character with some idea of strategy, silver will hurt. It is best to get acquainted with your character first, before trying silver difficulty. Strategy: Jump right into silver after finishing bronze in whatever capacity you choose. Stay for a longer time here than you did in bronze- you'll find better items and richer enemies. **Gold** Gold is a nice increase from silver. The enemies aren't that much more difficult, and the rewards are very nice. Set items fall about as frequently as rare items in this difficulty. Benefits: Lots of goodies, plenty of experience, and slow leveling make this an ideal difficulty to explore the map in. Try entering around level 60-80 for maximum benefit. Detriments: Since you must beat the game once to get this difficulty, some people will never make it this far. Nonetheless, there's not much wrong with this difficulty. Strategy: After beating silver, enter this difficulty ASAP. **Platinum** This difficulty is another smooth transition from gold. This one is designed for you to beat after gold. The items and enemies are better, as before. As such, not too much can be said about this difficulty. **Niobium** There's a big increase in difficulty between Platinum and Niobium. However, there's an equivalent increase in nice drops. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. Ability Management Abilities are the basic stats of your character. They include strength, dexterity, endurance, physical and mental regeneration, and charisma. A character will automatically gain a bonus of 10% of his/her starting value in an ability per level up. That is, the Battle mage has a starting value of 30 in mental regeneration. Every level up increases his mental regeneration by 3. Additionally, you can add one point to any skill of your choice per level. This doesn't have a huge effect on the overall game, but can make a difference. Below I summarize the skills and the effects they have on your character (taken in part from my Battle Mage FAQ): Strength: Increases your health by a few HP, your attack rating, your defense rating, and your physical damage. Endurance: Increases resistances and perhaps some damage. Dexterity: Increases your attack rating, your defense rating, and some damage. Physical Regeneration: Increases your health by a few HP, increases the rate at which you regain health, decreases combo recovery time, increases some resistances. Mental Regeneration: Increases spell damage and decreases spell recovery time. Charisma: Decreases item prices and increases poison damage. What you should improve broadly depends on what you are playing. Two abilities stand out above the rest, and you can't go wrong with improving one of them each level. These two skills are physical and mental regeneration. If you use character combat arts a lot (like melee fighters- gladiator, vampiress, dark elf, dwarf), then increase physical regeneration. If you use spells a lot (battle mage), then increase mental regeneration. If you are playing a seraphim, demon (underworld only), or wood elf, then it will depend on whether you like casting spells or hitting things more. Strength and dexterity also provide some very nice bonuses to the correct character. These two skills make you a better melee fighter and increase a few other damage types. I wouldn't recommend placing every point you earn into these abilities, but a point every now and then for melee fighters doesn't hurt. Charisma is most useful for poison-using characters, in other words, the dark elf. Most other classes won't find putting points in this skill at all advantageous, especially if they take trading. Endurance doesn't provide enough of a bonus to ever warrant putting points in, no matter what class. Skip it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Skill Management Skills are selected by the character when they gain level 3, 6, 12, 20, 30, and 50. They give bonuses to specific abilities and are grouped below: **Damage-enhancing abilities** Weapon Lore Magic Lore These skills enhance the damage of weapons and magic, respectively. The bonuses gained from these skills are pretty large, and you should consider increasing these skills often. **Character art/magic regeneration enhancing abilities** Meditation Concentration Trap Lore Vampirism (also decreases damage from sunlight) Dwarven Lore These skills broadly increase the regeneration rate of abilities, allowing you to use the ability more often. The rate of increase is fairly constant, and you always benefit from putting points in these skills, at least up to level ~100 or so. **Magic/ability casting speed and regeneration enhancements** Ballistics Fire Magic Air Magic Water Magic Earth Magic Heavenly Magic Moon Magic Bloodlust Hellpower Weapon Technology These skills increase the regeneration rate of abilities, and also increases their attack animation speed (i.e., your battle mage casts fireball faster). The bonus starts out large, but quickly levels off to the point where adding points beyond level 50 gets very little return. **Weapon attack/speed enhancing abilities** Blade Combat Sword Lore Axe Lore Long-Handled Weapons Ranged Combat These skills enhance the attack % of your character, and also increase the attack speed. In early version, combat arts never missed, but later versions (1.8.26) combat arts can miss. In general, the bonus from this skill is decent but not excellent. Weapon lore is usually better. The bonus to attack always helps, though. **Other weapon skills** Dual wield Unarmed combat As before, these skills enhance the attack % and attack speed of your character. One point in dual wield will also let you equip two weapons together, and will override the bonus from the above skill set. In other words, DON'T TAKE BOTH DUAL WIELD AND SWORD/AXE/LONG WEAPON LORE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING! Dual wield overrides the bonus from these skills, so unless you want to use both 2 weapons and a weapon/shield as your main attacks, they don't help. Some weapons are a bit confusing as to which skill they use, especially for the Sacred Plus Dark Elf, so be careful in your equipment set up. **Other combat/defense skills** Agility Increases the attack and defense of your character. Take this skill if you're more melee-focused, and/or if you are using two weapons or a two-handed weapon. Parry Increases the defense of your character, especially when using a shield. The bonus provided to defense is much larger than the bonus from agility. Take this skill if you think you'll be using a shield or are mainly a magic user. Disarming Gives you a chance to disarm opponents when hitting them. There is no benefit to getting above level 99 in this skill (a fact taken from Sacred_summit). This skill will cause enemies to drop their weapon, and do much less damage to you. However, it's slightly buggy, so beware. You're probably best off avoiding this skill. Armor Provides a bonus to resistance (especially physical resistance), and a small speed bonus. Quite nice for the characters that get it, this reduces the damage you take from attacks. The speed bonus is pretty small, but doesn't hurt. **Other skills** Constitution Increases the regeneration rate of HP, and provides a HP bonus. Pretty much all character will want this skill, since after a modest investment, your HP are doubled. Not too shabby! Forge Lore Dwarf (underworld) only. Gives you the ability to improve items. I'm not sure how this one works as I've never tried the dwarf. Trading Increases selling prices, decreases buying prices, and increases merchant inventory. The first two aren't that important, as you'll soon max out the money you get from selling items and will eventually have way too much money to spend anyway (my level 102 battle mage has over 50 million), but the last one is nice. If you are playing single player, then trading is pretty useful, as you'll be able to supplement your equipment with some potent items. However, in order to do so, you'll need to invest a good number of skill points in trading. Purchasing the skill will increase the number of magic (blue) items available in a merchant's inventory. Investing a number of skill points equal to your current level will get you a few rare (light yellow) items. If you don't mind have the most potent equipment available or enjoy "dragon-shopping", then you can skip this skill. **Trading is great at Braverock Castle. After one quick quest for a merchant, you'll have two merchants right next to each other. This is advantageous for one major reason. Merchants only reset their inventory when you are gone from them for 10 minutes or more, when you reload save and reload your game, or when you talk to another merchant. With two merchants right next to each other you'll be able to quickly check out each one's inventory and then check the other's inventory. With a bit of practice you'll get a bunch of great items in no time, including rare rings. You won't have nearly as much luck without trading.** **Note that all characters can socket the two battle mage set items, Mammon's usury and Mammon's safeguard. Doing so will get you a bonus of +10 to your trading skill. This counts toward the trading=level requirement for the best items.** Riding Allows you to ride nice horses. Without this skill you're stuck with light nags, which are useless beyond bronze. Horses give a somewhat faster attack rate for some characters and a fast movement rate, but horses also prevent some combat arts and spells from being cast, or really decrease their attack speed. Horses give the best benefits to the seraphim, and little benefit to some of the other characters. In general this skill is best avoided as you can increase your speed substantially with items, voiding that benefit of a horse, and the other benefit (increase attack rate) is usually outweighed by a lack of ability to use several special abilities. However, there is one horse that may make it worthwhile- the horse in Ferry's crossing. In order to ride this horse, you have to have 72 points in riding (yikes), but getting the horse will net you a powerful steed indeed. The horse is nearby the guy who gives the "find my niece" quest, and who ultimately tries to kill you. His horse also turns into a monster, so you can't complete this quest if you want the horse. +Note that in Underworld, horses have been improved and may actually be useful beyond bronze/silver. I haven't tested this, though. To summarize skills, your best bet is to improve skills that increase damage and regeneration times (lores and magics, meditation/concentration), to take constitution and at least one defensive skill (parry/agility/armor). Trading is nice, but you can survive without it, and riding is a bit less necessary, though it does add an interesting facet to the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Rune/Combo Management This info is partially taken from my battle mage guide. Character combat arts make up the meat and potatoes of the game. These arts make you much more powerful than your average warrior by casting spells, performing feats of weaponry, and summoning help. There are two things to consider when using abilities- damage and regeneration time. What good is a combat art if you can't use it? Of course, on the other hand, what good is being able to use an art a whole bunch of times if it's too weak to affect your enemies. These two factors must be considered and care must be taken not to allow a favorite art to become too weak and not to allow the same art to take too long to regenerate. -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Regeneration time- Two abilities influence the regeneration time of your combat arts- physical and mental regeneration. Broadly, the regeneration time of a combat art can be determined by: Time = Base-time * regeneration Base-time is equal to: (Base-time of rune level used + 1/2 Base-time of rune level of equipment) **So increasing levels of combat arts from equipment is always much better than increasing levels from using runes.** Regeneration is equal to: 1/(1+regen ability/100) * 1/(1+regen skill/100 + item regen/100) *1/(1 + special regen skill/100) "Regen ability" is mental regeneration for spells (Battle Mage, Wood elf, and seraphim only), and physical regeneration for combat arts (all but battle mage). Note that the vampiress uses physical regeneration for her magic spells as well. "Regen skill" is one of the following: meditation, concentration, trap lore, vampirism, and dwarf lore. The number used is the number provided as a percentage, not the skill level. "Item regen" is the regeneration bonus provided by items. This is either a bonus to regeneration of combat arts or to spells. The bonus is similar to the "regen ability" set- that is, the vampiress's spells benefit from bonuses to combat art regeneration, and not to spell regeneration time bonuses. "Special Regen Skill" is one of the following: fire/air/water/earth/heavenly/moon magic, bloodlust, hellpower, ballistics, and weapon technology. As before, the important number is not the skill level, but the bonus as a percentage. Note that a few extra skills may be of interest, including ghost meadow. This adds a small bonus described as a percentage that acts similar to the "regen skill bonuses." Early on, your best bet is to raise meditation and elemental magic skill. Both provide substantial early bonuses compared to spell regeneration. However, later when the return per point (~50 for special regen skills, ~100 for regen skills) becomes lower, bonuses to spell regeneration are better. The largest bonus you get from items typically affects the "item regen" bonus. Items with large values for this bonus are generally superior to items with bonus to ability, or the regen skills in terms of bonuses to casting more frequently. Bonuses to your regeneration ability (physical or mental) will eventually outweigh all others, but not until you get to a much higher level. This is broadly due to the fact that these abilities affect other talents, including your magic spell strength and your health points. -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ "Damage" output- the damage a combat art will do to an enemy, or the length of time it will be activate, or the health it will restore are dependent on a few factors- the art's level, item modifiers, your weapon, your skills, and your abilities. The level of combat art has the biggest influence on the damage an art will do. This is the reason it is often tempting to use ("eat") every rune you find- your arts will be very strong. However, this is counteracted by the fact that they also increase in time it takes for regeneration. As before, bonuses to combat arts from items are the best way of improving the strength of an item. Item modifiers include elemental damage bonuses and abilities like "+ 30% physical regeneration to physical damage" which can make a huge difference in the damage a skill will do. However, you have much less control over this facet of combat art strength than you do the level of a combat art. Your weapon typically influences combat arts which provide bonuses like "+30% damage". The better your weapon, the better these combat arts become. Skills that increase damage strength include magic lore and weapon lore. These two skills are a must for most characters, and should be increased frequently. Strength, mental regeneration, dexterity, and charisma are all able to influence the power of your combat arts slightly, depending on the combat art. The effect is not that large, so don't depend on these bonuses. These abilities also increase other facets, which is why they can provide nice bonuses later in the game. -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ SUMMARY: Generally, abilities that you use often (attack spells and arts) should be kept at a regeneration time of less than 3 seconds, and ideally less than 1 second. Buffing abilities should be kept at a regeneration time that is less than their duration (if ghost meadow lasts for 40 seconds, make sure it will regenerate in less than 40 seconds). This is where combos can help immensely. A single buffing ability can be stored in a combo attack, where it will frequently regenerate faster than the ability will on its own. This isn't always true, but is definitely true for some characters. Some abilities are good when stored in a combo together, for instance ghost meadow and reiki. Others are excellent for specific actions- a perma-vamp will have as her main ability "Turn into vampire" as a combo. It will regenerate faster as a combo than as a stored skill for the knight. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. Experience Building So you want to gain a level, eh? Every enemy will give you some experience, but when the amount of points needed to gain a level is about 2,500,000, it's just not practical to take on 30 EXP goblins. What creatures give the best EXP? A quick overview of my experiences suggests that enemies can be ranked as follows in terms of experience dolled out per kill: Humans (archers/fighters)- include brigands, mercenaries, ronin, and other scum. Mainly found in the baronies. Animals (wolves, flying lizards, boars, bears). Mainly found in forests. Goblins (warriors and shamen)- Mainly found in areas with orcs, or frost regions. Orcs- Mainly found in desert regions, though some are in the forests. Small Spiders- mainly found in the swamps, these come in three flavors- black tarantulas, yellow tarantula, and itty-bitty poison spitters. Mages/Priests- include various mages found throughout the game, and the Sakkara priest(esse)s found later on in the game. Solid Undead (include skeletons, zombies, liches, mummies, ghouls)- Mostly found in the desert, though a lot are found in the baronies in the later game. Ephemeral Undead (ghosts)- various locations, though there are many nearby Mystdale. Demons- Found in the fire plains and a few set locations. Miscellaneous Monsters (Cave Fish, Gargoyles, harpies)- mostly found in the swamps, forests, and the late-game regions. Elves- come in two varieties: the ice elves North of Tyr-Fassul, and the Dark elves of Zhurag-Nar (with a few in the forest regions). Trolls- come in two varieties: the fire trolls of the fire plains where the fire element is locate, and the swamp trolls in east Ancaria. Big Spiders- these are big and nasty, and can be found in the swamps and the late parts of the game. Dragons- there are nine to attack, found in some very specific locations (see appendix). There are also two unique enemies that give roughly the same amount of experience as a dragon, and they too are included in the appendix. A more useful list follows, where I re-rank them here in terms of frustration per EXP. Solid Undead (especially skeletons): it's really not worth fighting skeletons for experience. Why not? Because you may have to kill them up to 4 times in order to kill them permanently. Sure, you can drink a potion of destroy undead, but it's not really a good option if you're trying to gain levels. You don't want to have to drink potions constantly just to get a few experience points. Miscellaneous Monsters (especially Cave Fish): Cave fish are a decent source of EXP, but are a lot of trouble. Why? Because they charge you, and their charge is faster than you will ever be, and is really difficult to break. They're not that annoying if you're a battle mage, since you can attack even when stunned, but melee focused characters will find them to be extremely annoying. Other monsters can fly, which is also a pain. Dragons: Dragons are a lot of fun, and give you a lot of EXP all at once, however, they aren't that great for experience building. This is because once you kill them, they don't respawn, and they take a lot of time to kill. Dragon's breath is also pretty nasty and can kill a well-equipped character with some ease if you're not careful. Still, you should always drink a mentor potion before killing one. Mages/Priests: These aren't too difficult if you're a mage yourself, but they are very annoying for melee based characters. This is because of their ability to web you. Webbing freezes you in place for a while, making it hard to retaliate if the mage is not nearby you. Combat jump is a good way of getting out of a web if you're really bothered by it. Big Spiders: Big spiders give a lot of experience but are also very tough and fairly rare. It's not too unusual to find two sitting next to each other, which is a great excuse to use a mentor potion. Demons: Demons rarely appear as the solo monster, but can be really annoying since they fly around a lot. Animals: Bears are very strong but not good sources of EXP. Some obnoxious animals fly as well. Small Spiders: Small spiders give decent experience, but don't have that good of drops, and will frequently poison you. Humans: Humans are pretty easy but give crummy EXP. * Goblins: Goblins are as easy as humans but give better EXP (and drops) * Orcs: Orcs are tougher than goblins/humans, but give much better EXP, and drop as well as goblins. * Ephemeral undead: Ghosts are a bit tough, but can be good sources of EXP. * Elves: Elves of all sorts give a lot of EXP and tend to travel in groups. They are good sources of EXP. * Trolls: trolls aren't that common, but are great, easy enemies for the amount of EXP they give. Fire plain trolls are especially easy, and swamp trolls tend to appear with elves, resulting in a good overall location for gaining experience. To summarize, the best areas to gain levels tend to be those places with few annoying enemies. Annoying enemies include flying enemies, skeletons, Webbers, and cave fish. Good enemies to level up on are denoted by an *. Good areas to gain levels are the orc cave SE of Khorad-Nar, the dark elf territory where the water and earth elements are located, and the plains around Porto Vallum and environs east. Some items will help you in your level-building adventure. Battle mage runes give you 5% bonus to EXP per kill if you have them socketed. Some set items give much more, and you can find rings with about an equal bonus. However, the best way to increase the EXP per kill is to drink a mentor potion. Mentor potions increase the EXP you gain by about 40-50%. This makes a huge difference especially when taking down a large enemy, like a dragon. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. Item finding Items can make or break your character. There are five classes of items, grouped below in order of increasing rarity: Normal (white)- These are items that anything and everything will drop. Very few are at all decent, though some have a good collection of sockets. Magic (blue)- These are a bit more rare, but often have some very nice bonuses. Surprisingly, heavily socketed magic items are much rarer than normal socketed items. Rare (yellow)- When you see one of these drop, smile. They're nice improvements that often give a good bonus to your character. Set (green)- You'll probably find your first set item between the 10-20 level. These items usually have pretty good bonuses, and lots of sockets. Additionally, they provide additional bonuses when worn with items of the same set. About half of these drops are specifically for your character class. Unique (gold)- Very rare drops that are typically very powerful. I've got maybe 20 from 50,000 kills, so don't expect them. Sadly these items seem to be very randomly distributed and more often than not you'll find a unique item that belongs to a class other than your own. Note that Rare, Set, and Unique items are broadly grouped into the "uncommon" category from here on out. Your best bet for collecting items is to kill champion and unique monsters. Unique and champion monsters are surrounded by red rings around their base. This is the biggest hint I can give for item collecting. Go where there are several champion and unique monsters, and you'll soon find an uncommon item. I am uncertain of the exact drop %, but it's probably around 1 in 40 or so for unique/champion monsters. So to find uncommon items, go where the enemies are unique and champions- this includes quest bosses (who frequently drop uncommon items), places with abundant leaders (like goblin shamen, orc champions, sakkara priests, dark elf priestesses), or try dragon shopping. Four areas typically give good uncommon item drops, mainly due to the abundance of leaders. These are detailed below. The Silver Creek- Porto Vallum (Chapter 1) area gives a lot of good drops due to the presence of a lot of goblin shamen. This is also a good area to build XP in levels other than bronze. This will probably be the location where you find your first few uncommon items. The Orc Cave Southeast of Khorad-Nar (Chapter 2) is not the most obvious place to travel, but it's well worth it. The leaders here are orc champions. The level is large, and I usually get 1-2 uncommon items each time I clear out the cave on gold and platinum. Enter near Khorad-Nar, and head to the east. Turn around and take the north path on the way back. Several of the enemies will have respawned. Exit the cave from the west, and save your game outside the cave. Saving the game causes the enemies in the cave to respawn, allowing you to go back in again and pillage once more. The Dark elf region around the water and earth elements (Chapter 3) is the northeast-most area you travel to. Stay in the outdoors and kill the elves with their priestess leaders. This region isn't quite as good as the others, but is better for EXP. Tristram (Chapter 3). It's a kind-of secret area north and east of Mystdale and Moorbrook. The town seems innocuous enough, though everyone tells you to go to the center of the village for a feast. When you do so, they all turn into champion zombies. Woot. There's 10-20 zombies, and they all drop good items, and you're bound to find 2-3 uncommon things. The enemies don't respawn, so you'd have to export your character and try again to get more goods. Four things seem to affect the quality and number of drops your character recovers: Level/type of enemies fought- This has a large effect on the items you find. Basically, you shouldn't bother with enemies that are a significantly lower level than you. Once they are 1-2 levels lower, the drops are pretty much useless. Try to keep moving enough that the enemies around you are 1-2 levels above yours. In other words, skip out of bronze early. Also, if you want to get good items, kill good enemies. Champions and uniques are the way to go, as described above. Survival bonus- This has a large effect on the quality/quantity of drops your character accumulates. What it means for you is that you shouldn't expect too many good items until it's around about the 40%, which occurs at about chapter 2 in Bronze. Also, it means that you should SAVE often. When you die, your character loses his survival bonus. It will take well over 10,000 enemies to go from a survival bonus of 95% to 96%, which is way too much time for most people. Of course, it's easy to go from 0 to 50%, but bonuses beyond that take much longer. Character type- Some characters seem to win nice items more frequently than others. For instance, the vampiress has a very poor set item drop rates, but excellent rare item drop rates. The seraphim is somewhat similar. The battle mage seems to have great set item drop rates. Item finding bonus- This seems to have a minor effect. Some items provide a bonus to your item finding percent. One that always has a bonus is the enchanted iron, a nice weapon found in every game. I've not noticed a huge benefit from using items with high item bonuses, but I imagine that one does exist. Additional facets of item hunting: Ephemeral undead are the best way to accumulate magic rings. Find some ghosts and kill them. Some will drop magic rings, and you'll eventually get some decent bonuses. This is especially useful for characters without the trading skill. Statistics. Here I present my experiences with item drops from characters in bronze, silver, gold, and platinum from both normal play and dragon slaying. The Silver and platinum experiences are incomplete, but should provide a good idea of what's going on. Bronze (Seraphim, level 1. When bronze was finished she was level 49 and had a survival bonus of 80%). A rare item drop rate of 7 drops every 1,000 enemies. A set item drop rate of 2 drops every 1,000 enemies. A unique item drop rate of 2 drops every 10,000 enemies. A dragon rare drop rate of 107 drops every 100 dragons. A dragon set drop rate of 4.5 drops every 100 dragons. A dragon unique drop rate of 3.4 drops every 100 dragons. Silver (Seraphim, level 49. She starts with a survival bonus of 80%). Incomplete statistics. NO dragons fought yet. Gold (Battle mage level 76. He started with a survival bonus of 89%). A rare item drop rate of 9 drops every 1,000 enemies. A set item drop rate of 7 drops every 1,000 enemies. A unique item drop rate of 6 drops every 10,000 enemies. A dragon rare drop rate of 82 drops every 100 dragons. A dragon set drop rate of 15 drops every 100 dragons. A dragon unique drop rate of 2.0 drops every 100 dragons. Platinum (Battle mage level 97. He started with a survival bonus of 91%). A rare item drop rate of 7 drops every 1,000 enemies. A set item drop rate of 8 drops every 1,000 enemies. A unique item drop rate of 11 drops every 10,000 enemies. A dragon rare drop rate of 81 drops every 100 dragons. A dragon set drop rate of 8.6 drops every 100 dragons. A dragon unique drop rate of 5.2 drops every 100 dragons. From this, you can see that with increasing level, your set item drop rate increases significantly, as does the unique item drop rates. Rare items seem to drop with a fairly constant rate. Dragons have a good drop rate for rare items, but a lousy drop rate for set and unique items (they're still your best bet overall, though). Dragon locations are detailed in the walkthrough and appendix. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. Item Management. Item Modifiers- Some items have good modifiers, some don't. The strongest modifiers are denoted by gold. I provide my opinion beside each "Bad" modifiers: Damage received reduces gold, saving health +%: This skill gives a chance to drain gold instead of health when attacked by an enemy. Although this doesn't sound that bad, it's really not that good. Potions cost a few hundred gold and will return 1/3 to full health when drunk depending on your difficulty. Contrast health potions to this modifier. This modifier will save your health for you, but at the cost of several million gold if you're caught off guard. Let's see- a 500 gold potion or 15,000,000 gold for a third of your health. Hmmm. Each hit drains own life energy +%- It sounds bad, and it kind of is. The thing this modifier doesn't tell you is that it augments your damage by a similar percentage. However, unless you have a lot of life leech, it's not worth it. "Neutral" modifiers Split +%- gives monsters a chance to split in half when hit. Unique / champion monsters never split (so no double dragons), but most all the rest can. This modifier doesn't sound too good, but the split monsters also have only half health, and can really get your exp up with a bit of effort. Not too horrible, but not that useful either. Far sight +X- Increases the distance that you can see enemies on your minimap. Somewhat useful for planning attacks, but not by all that much. For attack and defense +X- An excellent bonus early in the game, this bonus usually peters out quickly. Later you will want percentage bonuses to your attack/defense instead. Light radius +%- increases the brightness of the light around you. Purely cosmetic. Extended day/night +%- The map is easier to reveal during the day, and the vampiress functions best at night. Useful, but not excellent to any character other than the vampiress. Enemies below level __ die on sight- Useful on bronze, but not anywhere else. Still, it can be fun. Chance to trap flying opponents +%- Flying enemies are rare, though this modifier will effectively paralyze them at random moments. Chance to gain gold by hitting an opponent +%- getting more gold is good, but this modifier doesn't give you too much. You're better off just selling the items they drop instead. "Good" modifiers Wounds increase damage dealt +%- This one doesn't appear all that great at first, but if you get enough of this modifier, you'll really hurt your enemies. The battle mage has several set pieces that increase this modifier, allowing you to do double, triple, or even quadruple your damage at half health. Really only useful at high difficulties. Each hit draws life from opponent +%- Returns some health with each successful hit. Very nice for all characters, and makes you think twice about getting rid of vampiress runes. To all resistances +%- a nice bonus that gives a bonus to all resistances. Better than most modifiers. Critical hit chance +%- gives you a nice chance to do 2X, 3X, or even 4X normal damage per hit. Excellent. To all combat arts/skills/spells +X- The bonus to skills is good except at high levels. The bonus to combat arts/spells is almost always good (except that combat arts don't benefit the mage, and spells don't benefit fighters), as it acts as a socketed bonus. Experience gained from monsters +%- increases the exp gained per kill. Nice, especially if you switch to it right before killing something big (like a giant spider or dragon). Chance of finding special items +%- A rare bonus that increases the chance of finding set and unique items, and maybe rare items. Sockets Generally speaking, the more sockets an item has, the better. An inferior item with a lot of sockets is often better than a superior item with none. This is because you can get huge bonuses from the items you socket. You can socket the following items: Runes- if you socket a rune for your character, you gain the bonus to the skill provided by the rune, in addition to the lower bonus from a rune. Runes are great things to socket, especially early in the game. Skulls- Skeletons drop these, and they typically increase damage. Skip them except at low levels. Rings- usually provide a bonus to damage, and should also provide one or more bonuses to other abilities/skills/modifiers. Save good rings for potent items. Amulets- usually provide bonuses to armor/defense/resistances. May also provide bonuses to other skills, but not usually as often as rings. Keep these in mind. Blacksmith runes- provide bonuses to attack/defense/damage. Good, but never socket an item only with these runes. The bonus increases with changing difficulty. Scales/orbs- two unique items can also be socketed. Both are rewards from quests, and neither is really worth socketing unless you have a specific plan in mind. What should you socket? I typically will socket one nice item/rune, and then fill the rest of the sockets with runes for other characters or less useful rings. For warriors, socketing blacksmith runes may also be a good idea. Why only one good socketed item per piece of equipment? You can extract socketed items from a socket by visiting a blacksmith. However, you can only extract one socketed item. Keeping only one good item in each piece of equipment will allow you to upgrade and change your items all that much more easily. Note that blacksmith runes can not be unsocketed, so you will always have blacksmith runes if you only socket with blacksmith runes. Note also that socketable items that are specific to a given character class (Like vampiress-only amulets) can be socketed and used by any character. However, all requirements carry over from the item to the piece of equipment you're placing the socketed item into. In other words, if you socket a ring that has a requirement of 10 concentration (or minimum level 100), then the equipment you're socketing will also have a requirement of 10 concentration or minimum level 100. This is a double edged sword. On one hand, you can screw up and make an item unusable. On the other hand, you can use this to override requirements from the equipment. For instance, if a sword requires sword lore 10 to use, you can socket a ring which requires 11 concentration instead and override the requirement. Very nice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. Walkthrough/Town checklist Generally speaking, most towns have three quests for you to complete. Once you complete a majority of the quests in a town, you are able to do minor quests for small rewards. Minor quests are given by light blue people. Major quests or subquests are given by people denoted by a white dot. Note that I do not list quests given by light blue people. Bellevue: This is your starting location. Your main quest is to go see Commander Romata at the fort, after completing whatever else you have to do first (kill the gladiator slavemaster, kill the troll, kill the brigands, kill the slavers, kill the dark elf hunters, etc.). There are several things to do in Bellevue, which you may want to do before seeing the commander (especially if you're being escorted by a decent character, like the battle mage, gladiator, wood elf and dark elf). These are described below: O Wolf's Eyes quest- Kill the wolf for the farmer- reward is a ring and some runes. The ring will probably be your first. O Where is the blacksmith- from a quest nearby Romata. Do this quest for your first unique item, the sword Hack. This also opens up the blacksmith shop for you. O Arogarn the Forest Ranger- SW from the blacksmith quest. Give a message to the ranger Arogarn. This is followed up in a later quest. O Abducted- Free the novice from the slavers. She will tell you about a kidnapped seraphim. O Free the seraphim- to the east of the fort, a seraphim is held captive by some slavers. Completing the quest gets you a rune, and if your character is a seraphim, will enable you to get a strange weapon much later in the game. O Worried Mother- NW from the ranger quest. A mother has lost her son. Travel south to fight a witch, then enter the nearby cave. Kill the wolves, and free the boy. Return to the mother for some potions. O Messenger- NE of the fort. Talk with a noble woman to deliver a message to Silverbell (note that this quest is buggy for me, and I can't complete it every time). Head west to Silverbell. The man you must deliver you package to is in the bar. Silverbell: You need to have spoken with Romata to enter this town. Note that there is a hidden island you can get to if you're playing a battle mage (by phase shifting). Nothing much is there though. O Minotaur- I'm uncertain of the trigger for this quest, but it is immediately to the north of the town. Several guards will be fighting a minotaur, and if you help them kill it, they'll be grateful. O Shining Light- A drunk in the bar gives you a treasure map. Get the treasure and talk with him to give him 500 gold for some experience. O The Book of Wisdom- The magician needs his book back. Kill the orc who stole it for a rune and the ability to use the combo master. O Adelina- find the rich nobleman's daughter and return her to him for a reward. Adelina is to the SW of Silverbell. O Escort- A rich nobleman needs to be taken to Porto Vallum. His bodyguard will help you. Try not to let the bodyguard die for a better reward. O Enlightened iron- an excellent unique sword can be found along the way to the town of Porto Vallum. There is a grave about halfway from Silverbell to Porto Vallum that you can click on to fight a lich. Kill it for the sword and for a rune. The sword gives you a bonus to find magic items. While here, kill lots of goblin shamen for good items and xp. O This area is a good source of XP and rare items. Porto Vallum: Nearby you will need to free Wilbur, a companion who will stick with you through the end of the chapter. There is a portal very close, be sure to hit it. When you're ready to rescue Wilbur, head south and kill the orc shaman. O Orc Slayer- Go kill the nasty orc. While here, be sure to complete... O Hidden Merchant- Nearby the orc you had to slay for the above quest is a cave. Enter it and free the merchant. Take him to the market, and he'll trade with you. This is the first time that two merchants are close to each other, so you can search both of their inventories at will, resetting them each time. O Orcs!- Head to the SW and save a family from a nasty pack of Orcs. O Cattle Rustlers- Help a woman to the north save some cows from some brigands. Urkenburgh: Not much to do here other than show Prince Valor that you've rescued Wilbur. You'll get your first rune/portal set this way. Head North. Florentina: An interlude town with three quests. Normally you'd head directly to Ferry's Crossing after this, but I recommend going west to Mascarell first. O Whisper in the Wind- A witch wants you to retrieve some herbs. Doing so summons a bunch of champion undead, so be sure to drink a potion of undead death during this battle. You can get some nice items from the undead. O Hunters of the Night- A ranger wants you to kill some wolves for a slight reward. O Ravenous Beasts- Save a farmer's cows from some wolves for a small reward. Mascarell: This town is much more interesting than other nearby locales, and I strongly recommend heading here before taking on the main quest. There is a portal to the SW. Two quests are immediately available, and a third is won after chapter 2. O Groom on the run- fight a man in the marketplace till he surrenders, then take him to his bride-to-be. O The Painting- threaten a merchant to get back a painting. This makes his four champion guards hostile, which will probably drop you some nice items. O Boris Richfield- Also, to the north of Mascarell is a small pathway which leads to a minor quest- to beat up a knight who is preventing farmers from crossing a bridge. Do so for a minor reward. O Thain's Axe of Flames- Across the NW side of the creek from the Boris Richfield peasants is a hidden area with a powerful unique axe. You must have axe lore in order to use it, though. O Pony Express- Once you've finished act 2, come back to town and race some goods to Ahil-Tor (eventually- first to Port Draco, then to a bunch of other stops). Porto Draco: A town with a few more quests than before, and also precedes a nice battle with a dragon that you should definitely attempt by the time you're level 20 or so. O Love Token- take a message from a soldier to his beloved. This opens up a later quest. O Nucquam Astralis- Guido wants you to kill some ghosts. Do so, and talk to the last remaining ghost. She wants you to kill Guido (who is the nasty guy). Do so for some xp. O The confused Marten- a lunatic on a bridge won't let you pass. Don't kill him for 500 xp. O The robber's camp- the mayor wants you to kill the Robbers in a cave to the West. Do so for a small reward. O Lorinor of Tyr-Faul- A dragon. Kill it and take the cursed treasure behind it (there's no curse with it, fortunately). Ferry's Crossing: A small town with three quests. O Poisoned Wells- Head north and kill the brigands to get an antidote for poisoned water. O Family Ties- A nobleman wants you to retrieve his daughter. Doing so will cause him to turn into an evil mage and attack you. **His horse here can be acquired if you have a riding skill of 72. This is the most powerful horse in the normal campaign. I believe you can only get the horse by taking the quest but not completing it.** O Ronin- go across the bridge to kill the aggressive DeMordrey Ronin. O Pacman Cave- a hidden area to the SW of the "Family Ties" quest- play pacman with your character and eat experience globs (about 10 xp each). Timberton: The next major town, this area has a portal. To the north of the town is a region with a lot of strong orcs, a good area to gain some experience and items. O Traces of the Forest Ranger- recover an amulet from a dead ranger then escort another ranger home after giving him an herb. O Blood Money- Kill four monsters and report back. O The Tree of Life- Escort the barbarian woodcutter Vim to the tree of Life. This can be difficult as Vim is pretty weak, so save often. Crow's Rock Castle: Here is where you must go to talk with the baron DeMordrey. You can also fight another dragon here. O Gypsy Camp- Outside of the castle to the west is a gypsy who needs your help protecting her home. Kill the DeMordrey blood hunters to get a rune. O Captain Pigface- a peasant wants you to kill captain Pigface and will give you a reward. O Inquisition Plans- A moderately complex quest. Head north to where she directs you, and use the bells, then head immediately south. Go east and claim the plans for a small reward. O Draconis Mortis- right before the entrance to DeMordrey's room is a long narrow pathway that leads to a dungeon. Explore the NE corner of the dungeon to find a portal. The portal takes you to an island with the dragon Draconis Mortis. Take it on at level 20-25 or higher. Wolfsdale: Head south and east from the castle to reach this location. O Tax Collectors- an involved quest, the mayor wants you to kill some soldiers, take the collectings to a contact to the SE, and escort the contact to a cave. Along the way you are attacked by some nasty enemies. I usually get at least 1 set item during this quest. O Elven Art Stealer- an elf wants you to retrieve a painting for her. Leave a swath of bodies in your wake. Again, take the cursed treasure- there is no penalty. O Wolf's blood- a farmer wants you to kill a wolf. The wolf wants you to kill the farmer. Side with the wolf for a lot of good items. Slater's Grave: Take the cave in the NW of Wolfsdale to get here. O Outlaws of Slater's Grave- a soldier wants you to kill some outlaws. The outlaw doesn't want to die, and will give you the unique sword Albion for your troubles. Side with the outlaw. O Merchant of Slater's Grave- a woman wants you to free her sisters and kill a nasty merchant. Do so for a small reward. O Abduction of the Women of Slater's Grave- Free the women taken hostage in 2-3 days to complete this quest. Head north to the Shakura Camp, and you'll be attacked. Kill the Shakura guards, talk with Wilbur, then take the portal to Mascarell. Head south to the fields of Urkuk, killing the DeMordrey soldiers along the way. It's a pretty straightforward path to where you need to be- you'll find a soldier who needs some water, go south and get him some. Note that leaving this area is best accomplished through the portal, but the portal is very difficult to find. I show its location on the map below: +------------------+ | | ^ are mountains shown on the map, |^^^^^^^^ | ++ is a small inlet also seen on the map | * | || |---+ | s is the soldier you find | | ++ s | w is his water bottle. | | || w | +------------------+ Head back to Mascarell and free the baroness. Head north into Tyr-Fasul. There are more quests here. When ready, take the portal to the Oasis. O Unknown Warrior- a bit before you reach a ranger, there is a small path off to the west. Head west and you'll find a big man surrounded by bears. Help him kill them then talk to him. He needs your help. Unfortunately this quest is fairly buggy, though the eventual reward is great. You must take the unknown warrior to the fortress with the baroness, at which point he leaves your party. Take the baroness to see prince Valor, but don't enter the portal they open up. Then go back and talk with the warrior. At this point, you can take him to the edge of the forest to the south and he will leave you. Your reward for this is an excellent quest later in Braverock Castle. You don't have to take him to the edge right away, as the warrior is actually pretty powerful and also doesn't die easily (he's kind of like Wilbur and only gets knocked out most of the time). He is definitely a help for the next set of quests. O The Plains of Tyr-Fasul- a long, tough quest. Talk with the ranger near the fortress, and he sends you to talk with some elves. The elves want you to escort them to Tyr-Hadar, the elven fortress. Do so, and the leader of the elves charges you with a mission to kill three ice elf priestesses. One is located to the south, another to the east, and the final one to the north (the most difficult to get to by far, for reasons described below). Your reward is a fair bit of exp and a rune. Additionally, the ice elves in this area are very rich and will drop nice items. You can level up quickly in this area. O Frosted Death and Winter's Rigor- Two dragons guard the final entrance way to the third priestess. They're tough and nasty, like all dragons. They also drop excellent items. O Elven Lady from Tyr-Hadar- Once you kill the dragons and final priestess, head NW from the dragon/priestess and talk with an elf. This elf wants you to take her back to Tyr-Hadar. Do so for some exp. The Oasis of Ahil-Tar: you pop out at this location after taking the portal. There are a few quests for you to do here. O Lonely soldier- if you did the quest for him at Porto Draco, you can give him the lock of hair for some exp. O Scout Post- the leader of the fort wants you to go talk with some scouts that were sent out earlier. This quest has you spanning the desert for three scouts. Between completing the first and second scout are two things of note: O Lightsaber- if you are playing a seraphim and saved the seraphim from the slavers in Bellevue, head SE from the first scout to a burned out building. A seraphim is fighting with some monsters. Kill the monsters then talk with the seraphim. She gives you a bizarre book and a lightsaber (glowing sword that's not all that powerful). O Sunglasses- immediately east then south from the second scout is a small path that follows a nearby cliff. Take the path and you'll end up at a small dock. Take the boat at the dock to go to a new island. Talk with the orc and he wants you to get rid of some orc champions. Go and run across their towels, they'll get angry. Kill the orcs (they can drop some really nice things if you're lucky) and you'll get a pair of sunglasses. Sunglasses give a nice bonus to charisma at the expense of making things a bit more dark for you. Pretty neat, all in all. I wouldn't necessarily wear them, but they're a nice Easter egg. O Settlers of the Desert- go save a settler. O The Lost Settlers- go save his family O Evacuation- protect the settlers from the undead that want to kill them. Khorad-Nur: To enter you must either kill a dragon or kill an orc. Choose to take out the dragon for much better rewards. There's a portal here. O The Camp of the Undead- A dragon, D'cay, is to the south of the town. She is by far the easiest dragon in the game. Her drops are the same as always. O The Scroll of Mhic'Dar-Mon- an orc shaman gives you this quest. O The Cowardly Dog- retrieve an orc's husband. O The Slaves of the Orcs- kill some goblins and track down their leader. Bravesbury: Use the portal to go to Porto Vallum and then to here. O Hunt for Poachers- an elf north of the town wants you help killing some poachers. O Bah, Spiders!- a farmer to the NW wants you to talk with his witch fiancee to remove spiders from his property. O Terrible Crime- accompany a boy back in to town. O The Plans of the Brotherhood- head west from "bah spiders" on the road, and kill the priests and mage that are bothering a woman, then accompany her back to town. Kill the priests near her house for a small reward. Shire's Pen: North of Bravesbury, west of Braverock. O Rascals- hunt down a thief for the town commander. O Blackrobes- save a man's daughter from some Sakkara priests. O Compromising situation- Return a necklace to a woman so that her husband doesn't suspect she is cheating on him. Braverock Castle: The largest town in the game, Braverock has a lot of quests, and a fair bit of intrigue. When you're ready to continue the main plot, talk with a woman on the east side of town, then head to the Ascaron inn. Make your way to the bottom and talk with Valor and his witch to go to the Monastery of the Seraphim. O Demon Food- Find the source of demons that have been eating peasants. O The Rescue of a Noble Lady- kill a kidnapped woman's husband and take her to her lover. O Law and Justice- Kill a corrupt judge and a guard. O Escort to the Thieves' District- take a merchant (Sarevokk) to the thieves' district. During this quest you will be attacked by champion robbers, who can drop some very nice items. O Goods Messenger- Take some goods from a merchant in the square to a contact outside of town. This quest opens up the double merchants, allowing for some excellent trading opportunities. O The Tournament- Found inside the arena, defeat three enemies for a reward. O Jacquaire's Battle Uniform- Note that if Jacquaire is not present (same inn as the "law and justice" quest) and if you've done the quest as I described above, head back to Mascarell and go back to the edge of the forest where he last left you. This should cause him to disappear and reappear at the Inn. Jacquaire has one of the best quests in the game for gladiators, mainly because you can get two unique items. Talk with Jacquaire and he tells you that he got mugged of his battle outfit. Head east into the thieves' district and beat up the thief there to get info on where the outfit is located. He gives you a unique axe for your troubles (with two slots and some nice bonuses). Go to the merchants square and talk with the "trader." He sells you Jacquaire's armor and shield. The armor is also unique, but only usable by gladiators. It's also a very high level. Next head to the arena, and talk with the trader of stolen goods. Kill him for the last few items. Now you have to decide if you want to be evil and keep the items or if you want to be good and return them to Jacquaire. If the items are better than what you have, definitely go the evil route. Otherwise, return them and you'll get a weak ring and a rune. 2 unique items and several ordinary items for a ring and a rune? Well, if you don't need the items, it's definitely the route to go. O Moca the Minotaur- The arena master wants you to retrieve his minotaur slave. Moca wants you to set him free. Set Moca free for a better option, which also kills the arena master. O Magical Thistle- a witch wants some thistle to save her sick husband. The hustband will trade with you after doing so. O An Officer and a Gentlemen- kill the soldier for a woman to keep him off of her. O Ancarian Snow- a merchant wants you to take a thief to the thieves' quarter. On your way you are stopped by a soldier. You can either kill the thief or the soldier. Killing the thief may be a bit better. O Arm of the Black Priest- Some Sakkaran priests have kidnapped some townsfolk. Free them for discounted goods at stores. Hedgenton: I'd head here next, since if you head after you've got the fire element, the enemies will be skeletons and undead, which are less fun than the humans. O Forbidden Love- a merchant wants you to kill his daughter's love. Instead, free his daughter from the merchant. O The Gallow of Hedgenton- a fletcher has been convicted of murder. Prove he didn't do it. O Robber Baron- Kill the leader of the robbers. O Blockade Breaker of the Trade Embargo- gets some steel across the bridge. You'll be attacked by two champion soldiers. O Art Robbers- Retrieve some art from some thieves. O Assassins in the Family Crypt- Free a woman's husband. O Arogarn's Sword- if you did Arogarn's quest at the beginning of the game, there is a continuation you can do nearby Hedgenton. From the southern part of Hedgenton head east till you reach a cave. Go through the cave and you'll enter a small cove. Arogarn is waiting, and he wants you to get his sword from some ghosts. Do so for a small reward. O Thorwyn's Club- a unique item is located close to Arogarn. Touch the gravestone nearby and you'll get a unique club. Head North to Icecreek Dale. Follow the path to the Monastery of the Seraphim, and then go to the hologram. Nearby is a portal. Head back out and go get the air element. O Sisslith, Guardian of Frostgard- An ice dragon blocks your way. Take him out. Alkazaba Noc Draco: This is the next place you head to. There are a lot of quests here to do. Also, there are fire trolls, which will probably give more experience than normal for your character. O Dragon Slayer- kill the dragon slayers to the east of the town. O Egg Thief- kill the egg thief to the east of the town. O Dragon Scale- Retrieve a dragon scale for a unique socketable dragon scale item. It's not really that good. O Runaway Virgin- Take a virgin out of the plains so that she isn't sacrificed. O Sirithcam, the Fire Dragon- Kill the dragon, similar to before. Take the portal and you'll end up in between Porto Vallum, Bravesbury, and Silver Creek. Head east from Braverock creek. Bravewall: this fort has a few quests. O Kalim-Khor- the captain of the fort was poisoned. Head east across the river then NW up the river to get the antidote. O Ilim Zhurag-Thalir- There are some dark elves hiding in a far to the east, along with a giant spider. Kill them for a small reward. O Dreamer of Winters- between Bravewall and Highmarsh is a dark elf priestess just south of the creek. She has a quest to kill a bunch of champion Sakkara priests for a small reward. Highmarsh: east of Bravewall, there is a portal to the NW of town. O The Lost Daughter- A woman wants you to find her daughter (but is a demon in disguise). O Mother's Powder Cup- Retrieve an heirloom from a group of monsters hiding in a cave. O A Dish Eaten Cold- Kill the dark elf assassin who killed a woman's husband. Zhorad-Nar: When ready, head to this location. There are many dark elves around, as well as swamp trolls. As such, this is a great place to get exp and special items. Grab the element of Earth after killing the Medusa Guard. One quest is here. O Buried Slaves- In the east part of the caves you will find a warrior slave. Kill the guards nearby him and get the key to free him. Then head to the armory, and afterwards head to the kitchen. At this point you have two options. I always take the first (accept)- take a woman to the entrance of the cave. Gnarlstadt: The dark elf mines lead to a cavern where you pull a switch and empty a pond. Once you've pulled the switch, grab the element of water. This area also has a dragon: O Relerissith the Swamp Dragon- near the NE of the map. Gloomoor: Head south from Highmarsh to reach this area. O The Lich Lord- Kill the wizard who is making undead cows. He will always be in the last tomb area you search, I think. O The Eye of Hell- interrupt some people who are trying to summon demons, and kill them. Then enter the portal and make your way to the end. O Panem et Cirensis- Fight in the arena 10 times. Doing so lets you do: O Tombraiders Treasure Hunters Inc- Pay 100,000 crowns to become a member. You should have plenty of money by now. You probably won't make that money back, but you'll be able to do the longest and most interesting quest in the game. Head west and talk with the tombraiders. You'll be able to use their combo master as well as a smith and merchant. When ready, talk with the leader. You then proceed north. Usually most of your crew gets killed off fighting poisonous trolls, but that's OK. You have to do most of your fighting alone, anyway. However, I have kept a few characters alive with a bit of care, and they will accompany you forever if you watch over them (give them potions when their health is low, or cast healing spells on them). Go talk with the goblin, then talk with the other goblin, then go grab the items you're directed to grab. Talk to the first goblin again, then go get another item, then head to the NW, fighting snake things and undead goblins. The goblin will tell you to use the items on the altar. Doing so causes you to fight the Swamp god, who is about as tough as a dragon, though he doesn't spit fire. His drops are about equal to your average dragon drops. Once dead, use a nearby stone to be warped back into the goblin village. Don't attack them and they'll tell you the location of a good chest. Head to the chest and you'll get some nice items. O Sssiliths, the Swamp Dragon- Right before the Tombraiders is a swamp dragon, the last one in the game to fight if you've been following this walkthrough. He drops a portal rune that will take you instantly to Mystdale on a nearby pad. Drakenden: From the Tombraider's area, head south to a small town. The first time I played, I completely missed the main quest giver in the town, who happens to be a large dragon, Loromir, to the north. O Female Dragonslayer- Go retrieve a female dragonslayer for Loromir. You have to fight her comrades in order to convince her to come. When you bring her to Loromir, she likes him, but her dragonslayer comrades followed you and must be taken out. O Toothpick for a Dragon- Go get a diamond from a cave then go see a blacksmith to get a toothpick. O Brothers of the Dragon- Go find four men. Fight each one, beat him, and have him accompany you to the dragon. Get the four men prior to going back to the dragon for a nice, socketable jewel. O Jason's Items- head west through a secret pathway through the main town to find this secret. This secret may not be retrievable in later versions of the game. These two items are among the best for gladiators. Moorbrook: Head east from Drakenden, past the stream and to a town that is famous for its whiskey (your character will say something to that effect). O The Narcotic Witch- Really, this was probably mistranslated and should read "Narcissistic". Oh well. You'll find a nobleman all up in a huff on the eastern side of town. It turns out his fiancee was kidnapped by a witch. Go find the witch and kill her and bring back the girl to her husband-to-be. If you really want, you side with the witch for two runes, though people won't like you as much. O Whiskey Supplier- The whiskey salesman of the town wants you to take some whiskey to an innkeeper in Drakenden. You get some money for this. O Whiskey Supplier 2- Talk to the whiskey salesman of the town after doing his first quest to get a free cask of whiskey. Take the kegs to miscellaneous innkeepers/barkeeps around the world for a tidy profit. You get about 10,000 gold for taking it to Mascarell, not too shabby. O Pure Water- A captain wants you to stop some smugglers. Head east and kill most of them, but the leader wants you to let him live. He poisons you if you accept (the antidote is on his body and you may have already picked it up- drink it if so). Go back to the captain once he is dead for a cask of whiskey. O The Spider Monster of Moorbrook- A wizard to the south wants you to kill a spider to the North. It turns out that the spider is actually a sorceress. Kill her as she demands and take her brain back south. Kill the wizard and then go down the ladder and find her body to restore her. O Tristram- One of the best places in the game to get items, Tristram is to the north of Moorbrook. When you get close your character will say something like "Haven't I been here before?", a reference to this game's debt to the classic dungeon hack, Diablo. If you get near the center of the town, you'll be attacked by 10-20 champion zombies. Kill them all and take their stuff. You'll be pleased with the results. Mystdale: The castle of wizards, south of Drakenden, and SW of Moorbrook. There is a portal here. Be sure to activate it. O Dragon's egg- Talk to the merchant to the far north of town, and he'll offer to sell you a dragon's egg for 1000 gold. Buy it. Then either give it to the mage to the south, or to Loromir. Loromir is the "good" option. O The Lost Experimental Beings- Do this quest prior to the next one, as you'll get the chance to finish the next one along the way. Speak with a wizard near some snow and go kill four creatures. Some are in caves. Near the last creature you kill is the Regentium Silver Blossom, a quest below. O The Regentium Silver Blossom- Find a flower and return it. O Rabbits!- The innkeeper is being troubled by a swarm of rabbits. Kill them all for no reward, but a bit of humor. Talk to Shareefa again, and she sends you to find the last element. Go to the east and take the portal. Follow the long windy route to the Castle of Shaddar. Be sure to activate the nearby portal. One sidequest awaits you: O Glubba-Jar- An ogre wants you to clean the tower of monsters. You have to do this anyway, so it doesn't matter much. Do so. If you want, Glubba-Jar wants you to take him home on the way back. If you take this quest, you have to take him to the bridge to Tristram. When ready, take the elements back to Shareefa in the Ascaron inn in Braverock Castle. The prince, the baroness, and Shareefa accompany you to assault the castle and DeMordrey. When you reach the castle, be sure to touch the upper part of the door to make it open. It's not always obvious that you have to do this. Go and kill DeMordrey, then go down and accompany Shareefa to the basement of the castle. Use the elements to make the heart to free the demon. Kill the demon and leave. The demon has drops similar to dragons, although I had a bug that prevented me from finishing the game when I reloaded after killing the demon to get better items. Just kill it once. You're in for a surprise, and a short act 4 where you have to take out the guy behind all the problems plaguing the land. You're also told to export your character, as a new difficulty level is unlocked. Underworld: Coming soon! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Appendix: Dragons (this is taken from my battle mage guide): There are 10 dragons, 9 of which will attack you. A useful and cheap way to get potent items is to save before you fight/kill a dragon, and reload if you don't like what it dropped. A dragon will almost always drop at least one rare item, including rings. Dragons drop unique items more frequently than any other type of opponent. The nine dragons are found all around the world. You will fight about 4 during normal gameplay, but the others you will have to hunt down. Locations: Mascarell (3 dragons): From Mascarell go south then west to Porto Draco. Head to the NW and take the narrow path to the end where you'll find a dragon and his hoard. Kill him and take his stuff. After rescuing the baroness, head north to the prince's camp, and continue north to the elven camp. If you attempt the elves' quest, you'll find a pair(!) of dragons to the north. Khorad-Nur (1): The orc guarding the entry to Khorad-Nur wants you to kill D'cay, a dead dragon to the south. She is the easiest dragon to kill, I find. Crow's Rock Castle (1): After talking to the Baron DeMordrey, head a bit north of his room to a cave. Enter the cave, and make your way NE to a teleporter. Enter the portal and you'll be taken to a small island with a dragon. The close quarters make this fight harder than some other dragon fights. Seraphim monastery (1): after claiming the element located here, head to the NW and you'll have to fight another dragon. When this one dies, it drops a rune for a nearby portal allowing easier transport. Alkazaba Noc Draco (1): You fight this dragon prior to claiming the fire element. It also drops a rune for a nearby portal. Zhurag Nar (1): This one is easy to miss. Thoroughly search the area where you open the dams. One dragon is lurking here. Drakenden (1 and 1 non-hostile): North of Drakenden is a swamp dragon. Kill it for a rune that will take you to Mystdale castle. The other dragon is Loromir, and he will give you several quests. I add two more enemies to this list, because they could be considered "Dragon Caliber" in their item drops and difficulty. Swamp God. This is a nasty beast that is found by completion of the "Heroes guild" quest. It has the same drop stats as a dragon. Sakkara Demon. You'll kill this enemy as the big bad before the second big bad in the game. It too has the same drop stats as a dragon. However, I found that if your reload a bunch when fighting it, you may not be able to finish the game as a bug makes it impossible to grab the heart of Ancaria a second time. I wouldn't try to save/reload here if you're playing on anything but bronze. It's ok if you can't finish bronze since you can always export into silver. Followers: Several people will accompany you on a quest, and a few will stay with you for some very long quests. You can give a character a new weapon if you desire, especially if it helps them fight. If they like the weapon you gave them they will tell you as much. Four followers are semi-immortal, that is, they don't die permanently when they lose all health. These four fighters are Wilbur, the Baroness, the unknown warrior, and Dreamer of Winters. There may be more, but these are the most important ones. Note that some of these followers can die, so be sure to save frequently. Most followers will die if there health gets to 0 HP. Heal followers by opening your inventory and grabbing a health potion and dropping it on the follower's portrait.