Too Human Guide --------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents --------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction [Intro] Camera [Cam01] Controls - Melee [Cont01] Controls – Ballistic [Cont02] 2-in-1 Moves [Cont2n1] Basic Combat Tactics: [BCbt01] Classes [Class01] Alignments [Align01] Skill Tips [Skill01] Enemies [Grim01] Goblins [Gob01] Trolls [Troll01] Dark Elves [Elf01] Undead [Horde01] Polarity Enemies [Poles01] Bosses [Boss01] GRENDL-1 [Gren01] Hod [Hod01] Ev. Hate [ELH01] Garm [Pup01] Hel [Hel01] Items/Runes/Charms [Loot01] Rarity Guide [Rare01] Weapons [Wpn01] Runes [Rune01] Charm Guide [Charm01] Epic Sets & Errata [EpSt01] Armor Grinding [Grind01] Charm-to-Rune Translation [Ch2Rn] Wells & Secret Locations & Achievement Errata [WellSct01] Definitions [Term01] MMO Terms [Term02] Enjoying the Story [Story01] Thanks & Contact Information --------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction: [Intro] --------------------------------------------------------------------- If you’re reading this, then you’ve ignored the negative reviews long enough to be curious. I will say that most of the reviewers who didn’t like this game (including Yahtzee) were pwned by its novel control&camera scheme at first, and then the strategy required to manage the extra dangers of exploding, damage-over-time status effect inflicting hordes that the game throws at you as you approach the level cap. Also, as a loot-intensive game, many of a characters weaknesses and the slower character animations can be rectified through skills or item bonuses; something that a lazy or busy reviewer doing a single run through campaign mode would not be able to comment on. The goal of this guide is to give a primer on controls, enemies, and general strategies surrounding Too Human, and will only briefly touch on class-builds because they are too varied for anyone to be able to cover the nuances. www.toohuman.net has several excellent forums dedicated to the classes. This guide is intended as a resource for the uninitiated, though it is my opinion that lvl’s 1-49 are really training-wheels for lvl 50. There are two in-game guides that are available that not many people know about. The first is the “Advanced Combat Tab” in the menu. The second are stations in both Tyr’s Workshop and Idun’s cyber- laboratory that are not marked but give you an “A” button prompt in the upper left-hand corner of the screen; just run along the outside walls of the rooms and look for the prompt to locate the information terminals. (An additional note that doesn’t fit anywhere else, both the Weapon and Armor shop have terminals where you can “Ready up” in multi-player or go do non-campaign missions in single player. Lastly, I do apologize for the “walls of text” in certain places. I have attempted to break up the information as much as possible, and format for readability as much as a .txt file will allow. Also, some of the advice is repeated multiple times. This is because I’ve added sections where it is relevant again; and have decided to keep that advice in its original location as well so that someone who’s only reading a specific section will still receive the information. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Camera: [Cam01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- The camera controls are: To zoom out to an overhead camera angle: Down on the D-pad. To zoom into a closer to an over-the-shoulder camera angle: Up on the D-pad. To center the camera behind Baldur/change focus from a priority target: Press the left-shoulder button. To turn on the Damage Meter: left on the D-pad. This measures damage dealt and damage taken, but omits healing or DoT dealt to monsters. Too Human’s camera has gotten much hate because it is a novel attempt to be both be non-fixed and outside of the player’s control. The biggest problem that an initial player has is that the only control the player has over the camera is zoom-level (from “close” to “Isometric” or Diablo style) and the ability to center the camera behind them. The camera moves, seemly at random & cannot be nudged so that every enemy is directly in front of you when you attack it. Hence the reason many people think of it as broken after a short play-through. Ignoring the game’s tendency to show off “pretty” environment pieces outside of combat, the camera does have logic behind its motions in combat. The “I must center every enemy in front of me & if I can’t the game’s broken” is an incorrect response caused by habits created in TP- shooters. The Too Human control scheme is designed to be played like Geometry Wars (or Smash TV, or Robo-tron), where you attack inside of a relatively fixed view by pointing your right-stick at the enemy, vice lining your opponent in your sights like you would a TPS. Secondly, the camera has a tendency to focus and lock onto the closest “large threat”; on the assumption that you’d like to keep an eye on the very large Troll instead of the very small goblin. To break this lock because you’re running for a door, container for health, or missile-goblin, press the left-shoulder button to instantly put the camera behind Baldur. The game will still try and have you aim at the Troll if you’re firing in its general direction, but you can dash into melee with the camera at your back. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Controls Melee: [Cont01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Melee Attack: hold the right-stick towards an adjacent enemy; if there are multiple enemies; wiggle the stick to strike at multiple opponents. Slide***: Press the right-stick towards an distant enemy that has a target lock circle under their feet, and Baldur will zip towards the enemy about 5 times faster than he could walk there and execute a single melee strike when he collides with the enemy. Juggle: double tap the right stick towards an enemy to knock an opponent into the air. Jump: press “A” to jump. Air-sliding: during your jump arc, press towards an enemy in the air and Baldur will actually ‘fly’ you up to enemies that have been juggled into the air, and you can air-slide to multiple targets if you have air-melee strikes left. This actually does require some precision, and you can correct with a mini-slide in mid-air if you don’t find yourself aligned for attack when you finish your slide. (My record is 5 air-slides to different opponents, but I was taking advantage of a slow status effect…) Fierce-Attacks: press both sticks in the same direction at the same time when an opponent is at range for a blast from your melee weapon. This blast continues through enemies, unlike ballistics which are usually stopped on contact. Finisher-Attacks: press both sticks towards an enemy in melee. This executes a backflip-overhead smash that does triple damage to energy- shields and destroys armor layers. Air-Finishers: air slide, then press both sticks to execute an air- finisher Ruiner: press the right-shoulder button to execute an Explosive AoE attack. Spider: press “Y” to activate a spider. For spiders which lay mines, pressing “Y” will deploy more mines, after the spider scuttles into position, so long as the spider has energy. Pressing “Y” with a turret spider will have it scuttle the spider into a new firing position as well. Shield spiders seem to have infinite range though I suppose you could move them if you really felt like it. Dodge-roll: press “B” to do a roll that has frames of invincibility in the middle of the animation; which prevents damage from attacks, missiles, troll stomps&hammers, and even status effects such as poison and burning (Stop, drop, & roll kiddies). However, Polarity- Trolls will still land their status effects from their stomps&Hammer AoE attacks during your dodge. Ironically, even with a short “cool- down” time between rolls, it is still faster than Baldur’s default jogging speed. Standing up: while not, technically, a move, as you never want to be put on your ass, it is mentioned because you also have frames of invulnerability while standing; a trait which is unfortunately shared by Baldur’s enemies. Activate Feneris / Sentient Weapon (a.k.a Unleashing the beast): press down/click both sticks, and watch a copy of your weapon attack on its own with intensity and purpose, granting you a full combo- level per kill. Note that this ability has a 20 minute cool-down time, so manage it carefully & as a general strategy, it can be deployed at the outset of a stage for instant combat effectiveness. *** Note: as someone with 150 plus hours as an air-specialist that the slide is actually more precise than I think is possible for the player to differentiate in the hectic combat that is Too Human. For example, if there are ten enemies on your right flank, the player could not judge the angle he should press the right stick for any one specific enemy and will just have to trust that the game will attack the one they intended – it makes the combat feel looser/less precise than an average Ninja Gaiden/God of War action game, but also makes the combat more of a flow because you’ll usually hit something even if you’re a little off in direction when initiating a slide as opposed to totally whiffing like you would in a typical action game. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Controls - Ballistic [Cont02] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Use Firearms: Press the right stick to target while pressing the right trigger to fire. Note that the game will not change targets automatically when your enemy dies, so constantly switch targets with the right-stick as you kill targets. Secondary Fire: Press the right stick to target and the left trigger; secondary-fire consists of either a second weapon with independent targeting for pistols, a grenade for rifles, and the different cannon alternate fires. For precision grenades&missiles hold the left trigger to target and release when the appropriate target is selected. Note that grenades can be launched at targets that are out of range for primary fire. Use of secondary fire depletes ammunition very quickly. Reload: press down/click the right stick for a manual reload. This is much faster than not doing so because Baldur has a short pause after the “magazine empty” beep (with a confused look, I imagine) if he runs out of ammunition while firing. Also, with rifles, if you attempt to fire a grenade when you have too little ammunition, it will initiate a manual reload as well. Note that if your weapon’s ammunition will slowly recharge if you switch to melee without a reload. Target Air-borne Missiles: you can aim at missiles by double tapping the right-stick while shooting. This grants combo, and if you have a laser weapon equipped, can almost instantly remove a missile salvo in-flight. Ballistic Juggling: ballistic juggling can be done by initiating a juggle then pressing on the right-trigger without moving the stick as the game auto-targets the enemy you just juggled. It is very useful for building up a high hit-count on your combo-meter. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 2-in-1 Moves: [Cont2n1] -------------------------------------------------------------------- The core mechanic of TH is that all of the moves can be initialized during a slide, so that you execute them immediately when you land at your enemy. An example would be: tap the right stick, double tap the right stick, listen for Baldur making a melee hit, press “A”, tap the right stick, tap both sticks in the same direction. This would be slide_juggle_air-slide_air-finisher on an opponent. The most basic 2-in-1 is the double slide, where you tap to slide to one enemy, and then immediately tap in another direction slide to another enemy. This is useful for hordes that you can OHK, or just preventing a horde of enemies from dog-piling Baldur, and can be done if you launched multiple enemies into the air or have a partner serving bad-guys up to you. The next most basic is the 2-in-1 slide-Juggle. This is like doing moris-code with your right stick, basically a “dash-dot-dot” with the right stick (no pun intended). The nice thing is that the time it takes to slide gives you time to move your thumb to the jump button, making the timing for the air-slide relatively forgiving. 2-in-1 finisher: this can be executed on the ground or in the air. Generally the problem with this attack on the ground is that the finisher takes so long to execute that the enemies who are worthy of them can knock you down while you attempt to execute it. 2-in-1 slide-ruiner: ruiners executed with a 2-in-1 slide cost 50% less combo to execute, effectively nearly doubling the amount of ruiners you can use you in a given combat. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Basic Combat Tactics: [BCbt01] -------------------------------------------------------------------- All classes can benefit from the following tactics. One thing to remember is that before you hit the cap at Lvl 50, you will probably be leveling up several times in a mission, particularly in multi-player. The problem is that after you gain 4-5 levels, you start to be under-geared for the stage making the combat both more dangerous and more tedious due to your enemies being able to absorb and inflict greater damage. While you can attempt to mitigate this by having higher level gear in reserve, you will generally just be replacing it so quickly that it’s better to endure the irritation until lvl 50, then put together some lvl 50 Orange Armor with purple runes while you hunt for or build your end-game Armor. Containers should be left alone until one is leaving an area or in dire need of health, as they are the only source of health for most classes besides health drops from fallen enemies. Building combo-level is generally based on the toughness of the enemy you’ve killed, so goblins grant a minor boost while dark elves can quickly fill your combo-meter. Air kills grant bonus combo, as do shooting missiles out of the air and using specific attacks on polarity enemies as discussed below. Building & Maintaining your Hit-Counter: To quickly build hit counter, ballistic juggling is the fastest way to go because it is relatively quick and most classes mediocre ranged damage will allow even a goblin to provide about ten hits worth. The next most effective for building a hit counter is air combat as a death-blow landed on an air-born enemy grants one extra hit to the counter as well as the bonus to one’s combo meter. Combined with the fact that air-finishers give all classes the potential for multiple hits in the air and it is a slower but steady method of gaining hit- count. Melee will also build hit counter relatively well for most classes. Ballistics is the worst method because only the initial bullet on a non-airborne enemy counts as a new “hit”. Maintaining a hit count becomes an issue in a few different situations: (1) running to a distant spawn of a new horde; (2) when you’ve been frozen or knocked down and don’t know if you can beat the count-down clock for a melee strike; (3) when a horde of enemies has piled up beneath your feet and the game is taking it’s sweet time knocking them down. The basic way to maintain a hit counter in all of these situations is to switch to ballistics, as it will reset the count-down timer, even if it doesn’t build hits. This is an argument for the rifle as a default for most classes, as the extra range insures you can reach that distant horde of bad-guys. Air Combat: The main advantage to Air Combat is that is allows you to separate a single enemy from the crowd for focused damage without the worry that you’ll be beat down from all sides while doing so. The main difficulty with Air Combat is that it’s not an attack option on all units, namely Bosses and Dark Elf Leaders, and, if doing speed-runs, that it is a slower method of killing than just staying on the ground. The only units that are a major cause for concern if you’re attempting prolonged air-combat are missile-goblins and dark elf leaders as these are the two units that can knock you out of the air with their ranged attacks. Non-leader Dark elves and the undead can take pot-shots at you as well, but they’ll only manage to inflict minor damage. If you’re playing a class with multiple strikes in the air, it is best to let yourself drop to the ground if you see a distant Dark Elf Leader or missile-goblin fire on you when you’ve been in the air for a bit. There are certain moves that really do need to be mastered to take full advantage of the air combat system in TH. The first is the 2- in-1 slide-juggle, as the animation for a juggle is slightly slower than a melee strike, which can be a problem if you’re surrounded by ten enemies. Air-Finishers are much safer than ground finishers because the aerial isolation makes up for the length of the finisher animation--particularly if you’re a low DPS build attempting to battle Dark Elves, Undead Wolf Troopers, or Trolls. Once you’ve finished with an aerial beat-down, you will likely have a pile of enemies underneath your feet. The game will usually knock them on their ass and let you land in the space that opened up, but if it’s too crowded then it does take some time to land. The best thing to do upon landing is an immediate dodge-roll in an open direction. This gives you time to let enemies finish their “stand up” animation in which they are as invulnerable as you are in the similar animation. If you want to continue juggling, then 2-in-1 slide-juggle back into the fray to start the air combat up again. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Classes: [Class01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- On the class selection screen, each class has a specific strength that is measured on a scale of 1-5. Anything below a 3 takes a penalty that appears in the “Status Screen” on the menu to the affected trait. Bezerker Bio-Eng Champion Commando Defender Health 2 4 3 2 4 Melee 5 2 3 1 2 Ballistic 1 2 3 5 2 Armor 3 3 3 3 4 # of Air Attacks 4 4 8 1 1 In addition, each class has a passive benefit that they grant to themselves and their partner in co-op, and the human alignment has a Spiritual Ruiner determined by their class. The Bezerker: -Group Benefit: enhanced combo growth/Extra Level -Ruiner Spirit: The Bear -Weapon Proficiency: Dual-wield swords and staves The ‘zerker is the master of close combat, but at the expense of health and durability. Play a ‘zerker if you want to wade through hordes like a knife through butter (remember to leave enough enemies standing so your partner has combo-meter & feels like they’re helping), but remember that polarity DoT is far more deadly to you than the more durable classes. People comment that playing a ‘zerker is like playing TH on “fast-forward”. The Bio-Enginer: -Group Benefit: passive regeneration -Ruiner Spirit: The Valkyrie- damage converted into health (Glitched) The Bio-Enginer is the most durable of the classes because of their ability to regenerate health as well as perform large heals / clear DoT at will through the use of battle-cries or their spider. A great support class for co-op or for those seeking the “Unstoppable” achievements in single player. The Champion. -Group Benefit: increased critical strike chance -Ruiner Spirit: The Raven – knocks enemies into the air The Champion is the air-combat master as well as being the jack-of- all trades, master of none as combat inclinations go. This class requires the most twitch because of the air-combat focus, but is great as a starter class for those mastering the mechanics or something for someone who wants to be particularly flashy. The Commando -Group Benefit: increased explosive damage/radius -Ruiner Spirit: The Wolf – stuns enemies, preventing movement -Enhanced Spider: duration(?) and recharge time The Commando is the ranged combat specialist and can achieve ridiculous DPS at the end of the game, cutting through Bosses in under two-minutes and even most ballistic resistant enemies only a minor headache. The price of this is atrocious melee combat skills, with a penalty to both damage and speed, as well as ‘glass cannon’ status in that 5 ticks of DoT is enough to kill even a well protected Commando if he lets the enemy close. Like the ‘zerker, a Commando needs to remember to let their co-op partner have some kills so they can feel useful and have combo-levels. I’ve found that the Commando is the best class for end game loot- farming as you rarely have to stop walking through a level due to the speed at which a Commando cuts down enemies, but this is balanced by the most repetitive combat style because of the 100% reliance on ballistics. The Defender -Group Benefit: Damage Reduction -Ruiner Spirit: The Valiant – stuns enemies -Weapon Prof: Hammer&Shield (grants both dual-wield & armor bonus) -Immune to Knock-down The Defender is the classic tank, capable of absorbing tremendous punishment and will never be knocked off of his feet—even during extended attack animations or out of the air by arrows or missile fire. However, for this durability, he loses some of the damage capability of other classes and has the hang-time of a brick. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Alignments: Human & Cybernetic [Align01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- The choice of Alignments after the Hall of Heroes mission has several far-reaching effects on your character. The first and most important is the selection of a secondary skill tree, the second is the availability of certain types of equipment, and the last thing is that there is a separate Epic Armor set for each Class/Alignment combination. Each alignment tree starts with a skill that is based on your combo- counter, followed by branching off into an eclectic-melee or ballistic specialist field, terminating with access to a single skill. Human Characters gain access to their spiritual ruiners, increased attack speed, ruiner damage, and at the terminus skill-faster combo growth and an extra level similar to the Berzerker. Their combo- counter based skill is efficiency, lowering the cost of ruiners and battle-cries based on the combo-count. The largest detriment to being human is that the spiritual ruiner opens up an additional skill slot on the class screen without providing any additional skill points; and their ruiner remains completely anemic without this investment. As an additional bonus, humans equipment tends to be more customizable, with a greater likelihood of having “Empty Rune Slots” for enhanced customization. Cybernetic Characters gain several melee damage enhancements such as extra slide damage, the ability to increase the chance of proc’ing effects on attacks, and finish with the terminus of extra armor. Their combo-count skill increases melee damage as the counter grows. Cybernetic characters gain access to ruiners with different status effects through their weapons, and have access to two different ruiners at all times so long as they have cybernetic-aligned weapons equipped. Lastly, only Cybernetic characters have access to cannons; though over all, their equipment is less customizable. Each alignment has a different spider-skill in its melee path. Humans gain increased recharge rate for greater deployment frequency (great for mine based spiders) and cybernetic characters gain duration (great for shield/turret based spiders). The ballistic path for each alignment could be seen as a 6-of-1, half-dozen of the other. Humans seem to be the more twitch intensive, high DPS ranged build by having reload speed and increased rate of fire. Cyborgs have greater suppressive fire with increased ammunition and range. The last ability in the ballistic path are ricochet for humans & piercing for Cyborgs which both add the potential for more damage from a single bullet in different ways. Note that both of these are available as Charms, though the ricochet found on the Human tree is a Tier-3 charm that also provides a skill bonus. I have a preference for human based characters, as I find that faster combo-growth (enabling more ruiners and battle-crys) and attack speed more than offsets the damage and armor benefits found on the Cybernetic path—though there are certain builds where the cybernetic path is either more helpful or required. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Skill Tips [Skill01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To say that Too Human has a skill tree is a bit of a misconception. In actuality the game has a skill path system that forces the player to use a particular set of skills, while allowing some minor dabbling in the other skill paths. The Alignment tree then allows you to enhance either the ballistic or melee combat potential of your class build. At Lvl 50, you have 95 skill points. Every skill tree starts with the passive group-skill bonus mentioned in the class section. It then branches two one of three paths, with the first node providing a passive bonus, the next node down setting your spider ability, the following node setting your battle-cry, a final second passive bonus, before terminating at the sentient weapon ability. Most nodes require an investment of a certain number of skill points (usually 6) before the next node unlocks. The first thing to note is that the sentient weapon only allows for additional deployment time, which while useful, is probably not the best investment of points as you can only deploy the sentient weapon every twenty minutes. Passive bonuses which are constantly helping you or an enhanced spider&battle-cry which are more readily available are more likely to pay dividends play-wise. The second thing to consider is that your end-game equipment will add bonuses to your skills. While most skills can have up to 14 levels, there are some, namely the Human-Ruiner radius skill, that do not provide bonuses for being over the maximum allotment—effectively wasting the bonus points. Another skill related activity is the re-spec’ing process, of reallocating all the points in a particular tree. This can be done at any time, but costs 1,000 bounty and then doubles until the price caps out at 1,000,000 – which is about one full run worth of loot in one of the longer stages when you’re Lvl 50. Note that you only respec’ one tree at a time and that the price increase happens regardless of which tree you choose to re-arrange. One last thing to mention is that a gentleman Imran Merchant created a Java application that is designed to assist with planning builds, called the “Too Human Character Plotter” that has the class & alignment trees and lets you spend points like you would in the game. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enemies:[Grim01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Too Human has three basic enemy types for its different mechanical species, Goblins and Dark Elves: *Melee: these units primarily attempt to close and hit Baldur. *Assault: these units have ranged attacks that are spammed on the battlefield. *Leaders: These units are either shielded or provided with a ruiner, and provide an enhancement to or all of the units adjacent to them. The basic undead tend to be segregated based on toughness, as they all can be effective at melee or ballistic combat. Then there are the odd-ball units that defy classification. One general combat tip for all enemies is to look at groups of “delicate” enemies as well as the breakable containers as 1st Aid Kits. If you are low on health and getting swarmed, use a ruiner to thin the ranks and hopefully get a health drop. Alternatively, save containers until you’re low on health, particularly in the Ice Forest where you do a fair amount of back-tracking. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Goblins: [Gob01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Goblins are the typical “horde” enemy of TH. The regulars are usually bronze in colors, with the assault unit looking like a beetle, and the leaders being silver. Goblins deal slashing damage. Melee Goblins. This is the weakest enemy in the game and is the standard filler-mob in the multiplayer maps. They should, at most, take two melee hits to kill, but usually spawn in groups of 15-30. The have two attacks: (1) a light claw swipe (2) a pounce out of a crouch that can knock Baldur down. Assault Goblins (a.k.a. Missile-gob’s): This beetle-like goblin has been modified to fire a missile salvo and has no melee capability. Ironically one of the most dangerous units in the end-game, particularly if it is an Elite, because the missile salvo consists of eight missiles which can kill many characters outright. In addition, the missiles knock down most classes & completely block the screen with smoke effects making them highly disruptive. Polarity missiles also proc’ status effects. Goblin Leaders: These are shielded opponents who are usually paired with missile- gob’s that will shine a non-damaging laser on Baldur that causes two rapid-fire, increased missile salvo’s. There is a distinct count- down sound as the lock is taking effect, and it can be broken by putting a wall between Baldur and the Goblin Leader. Leaders with missile-gob’s will generally stay stationary until the missile-gob’s are killed, and will then charge into melee with Baldur. Their attacks also knock Baldur down. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Trolls: [Troll01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Trolls are dusty-brown in color and stand shoulders above the rest of the units on the battle-field, and are one of the few units that can be the target of an air-slide while standing on the ground. Trolls deal blunt damage. Melee Troll: (a.k.a. the hammer-troll) Melee trolls have several different forms of attack: (1) using its large hammer, it can make very large AoE ground- pounding attacks that also damage other enemy units – the damage area is slightly larger than the graphic at end-game so be careful. (2) Similar to the hammer-strike, the Troll has a stomp that has a much smaller AoE, but can catch you in the air if you’ve just started a jump. (3) Instead of stomping, a troll sometimes takes an over handed-arm swipe at Baldur. Trolls are armored, and have their total health&armor spread across their arms, legs and torso. Note that a finisher attack will destroy all of a troll’s armor in one hit. There are two ways to kill trolls. The first is to strip their armor and destroy their body parts, arms, legs and torso, individually either with ballistics or melee. As Melee can’t be easily aimed, ballistics is the best option for this route. Destroying the hammer is rendered somewhat difficult at times because the troll leads slightly with its opposite shoulder blocking fire at its Hammer from certain angles. The second is to strip their torso armor, and the get behind them and jump on their back when the “A” prompt appears. The troll will lean either right or left and you press the stick in the opposite direction to maintain balance-basically surfing on the troll, pressing down on the right stick to crack the troll’s fusion core for a OHK when you’re level on its back. There are two things to note about troll surfing: (1) the troll always leans two directions, and it doesn’t matter which way you press the stick on the first lean, but the second needs to be the opposite direction the troll is leaning. (2) if the troll is next to a wall or curb and bumps into it while you’re riding, you’re automatically knocked off and should try and reposition or switch to ballistics for the kill. A general strategy for a single troll is to run at the troll, waiting for him to rear-back for a hammer strike. When the troll does, jump & air-slide to the troll, executing an air finisher as he’s striking the ground then taunt him into performing another hammer strike so that you can dodge roll behind him to jump on his back for the mount- kill. A strategy for multiple trolls is to air-finish both of them and then use a ruiner, as this will destroy their hammers, leaving you to pick them off at your leisure. At level 50, the trolls are able to turn as fast as Baldur can run around them and have a tendency to stomp. Baldur should run towards the claw hand and hope for a swipe, and run clockwise underneath their arm during the swipe animation for the mount-kill. Destroying (both?) the troll’s legs with melee will slow them down somewhat, though it is difficult to tell when the leg health is gone without switching to ballistic targeting. Assault Troll: (a.k.a. trashcan-troll) This troll has a large gun where the hammer usually is, and a large ammo-container (trashcan) strapped to their back. These trolls fight at range by firing a large series explosive grenades that have a delayed detonation and large blast radius, but there are a few (three or less) ice-polarity trolls that fire a freezing-shotgun blast. The best way to deal with these trolls is to use a distance weapon to disarm them; as their weapon is relatively delicate. The Assault Troll is also a more proficient melee fighter, and have several different attack animations: (1) the standard melee troll over hand swipe (2) a back-handed swipe that will get you in the back of the head if you try and run under the right arm and has a fair chance of striking you in the air; so unlike the hammer troll, you run counter clockwise towards their shot-gun arm and hope for a swipe with the opposite arm. (3) a double fisted, overhead smash which will strike you in the air. These trolls can be mount killed, but you also need to remove their trashcan which is difficult because it’s durable as hell, and blocked by the shoulder armor if you’re using ballistics from the front. Similarly attempts to melee it off the back are impeded because it is not destroyed during the initial air finisher. The troll will try and face you if there’s no distraction, making it difficult to attack the trash-can specifically with melee. I’ve found that multiple air finishers will do the job though the overhead smash does make this dangerous. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dark Elves: [Elf01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dark Elves are much more durable and damaging than goblins are usually colored with forest green & black stripes. The leaders usually have green and purple stripes. Dark Elves deal piercing damage. Dark Elf Regulars: These guys are a larger, greener, and more durable goblin with a ranged attack. While they come in smaller hordes, their durability allows them to dog-pile more modest DPS builds. Dark Elves have two attacks: (1) Their primary attack is a combo-swipe consisting of an initial swing, followed by a double-fisted overhead, Wolverine-style slash that will knock Baldur down. (2) If there is a large group of them, a few will stay back and take pot-shots at Baldur, but their inaccuracy, very low rate of fire, and relatively slow projectile speed makes this a minimal threat. If you are a moderate DPS build, then you should keep these guys in the air and do air-finishers when you are able. Their combo-slash is very painful as it is effectively a double damage strike, but does have one weakness--you do have time, at least with certain builds, to interrupt the attack with a juggle between the 1st and 2nd attack animations. Assault Elves: Unlike the regulars, these elves have a cannon on their back that has an extremely high rate of fire, fires a faster projectile, and a group of three can fill the air with projectiles. They are not terribly more accurate, but the RoF requires that you strafe or zig- zag to close with them. These Elves are melee capable, but less proficient than Dark Elf regulars. In general, the best advice is to close for melee or circle strafe with ballistic weapons if you are not being harried by other units. Dark Elf Snipers: These are the pure-ranged Dark Elf unit, and they fire a highly accurate beam that hits Baldur for minor damage multiple times; which very quickly drains Baldur’s life. They are very delicate and can be easily dispatched if Baldur can close into attack distance. Dark Elf Leaders: Dark Elf leaders are spider/drider looking units which are shielded and use a bow to harry Baldur while the very durable hordes of dark elves attempt to dog pile Baldur so that the slow moving but highly damaging arrows can land. They tend to stay at range until Baldur starts to damage them, in which case they close and perform a devastating over-head smash with their front legs that knocks Baldur down. This attack, like the Troll’s stomp, is actually dome shaped in its damage radius and will take you out of the air even at the apex of your jump arc. The only grace is that the recovery time for the smash is quite long, as they appear to get their legs stuck in the floor for a short time. As they are too large to juggle and too short to air-slide to, the only option is ground melee. Fortunately a dodge-roll does negate their damage, even if you roll directly against their torso during their melee attack. A lone Dark Elf Leader is easily dispatched if you stand directly in front of it and alternate between straight-up beating it down & dodge-rolling. Finishers can be used, but it really is a race to see if you can finish before they recover and smash again. The only difficulty is that if you’re behind them, they are deceptively fast at spinning and dropping a smash, so roll when you see them turn to face you. If the Dark Elf Leader is not alone, then a ruiner is your best option. If there are melee units surrounding a Dark Elf Leader, they share in its protective shield and are effectively immune to damage while the Dark Elf Leader retains its shield. Since it usually has multiple units that can knock Baldur down he will barely be able to attack any one unit, much less effectively handle engage multiple targets. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Undead: [Horde01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- The undead appear to be shambling zombie hordes, but there is actually a bit more unit variety. Undead deal blunt and ballistic damage. Undead Regulars: These units are the backbone of the shambling zombie hordes, and are slightly tougher than a goblin. They usually spawn in hordes and walk in a straight line at Baldur until they either shamble-sprint the last few steps to close for melee or begin to take ballistic pot- shots at Baldur, which can quickly whittle away health when a horde is firing away at Baldur. Since the size of the horde is the main threat, fierce attacks cut through them like butter and grenades do a decent job of softening the ranks as well. Undead Wolf Troopers: These undead are basically supped-up regulars. They are purplish and are very durable and high damaging. If you are dealing with a large group then softening them up as they approach and then switching to air-combat is recommended. Ghouls: Ghouls are the kamikazes of the undead. They have a trashcan strapped to their back and even the non-polarity versions explode after taking a slight amount of damage, injuring and knocking Baldur down. They are best dealt with at range. Wraiths: Wraiths appear to be blue tinged floating half corpses that do a life leach DoT when Baldur gets in range, and are always somewhat “polarized”. They explode upon death which doesn’t injure but does knock Baldur down, though a roll right after the death-blow can prevent this; the blast radius for the death-blast grows when they are shot. Necromancers: (a.k.a. Undead leaders) Necromancers appear as fat-blobs in a floating skiff. They spawn with a horde of undead wolf-troopers and resurrect any non-leader units that are killed in the general vicinity with a lazily fired shot of mist; units within the reach of this ability have a haze/fog over their heads & can be lured out of the resurrection radius. In addition to this, Necromancers occasionally drop a ruiner-like attack that does a fair amount of damage after a tell-tale glow that indicates the attack is charging. According to other sources, this is also an AoE resurrection blast. Much like the dark elf leaders, Necromancers are best dealt with by runnier because of their ability to resurrect their fallen minions. They can also be attacked on the ground, despite the fact that they float, although their minions make air combat a better option. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Polarity Enemies & Elites: [Poles01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- While there are specific skills which negate polarity problems; the following will work for all the classes. Light Polarities: -Fierce attacks, since the attack goes through enemies, it can get to the back of the mob. The game awards extra combo for this kill. -Ballistics will generally kill them quickly, though one should make sure they’re out of the blast range, which can be quite large. -The Juggle-‘n’-roll: Enemies take falling damage, which means you can launch and enemy and then quickly roll away and let the polarity- enemy explode on landing. Elite enemies or low-DPS builds make take more than one launch. Dark Polarities: The basic thrust is to not to shoot them, ergo: -Melee. -Finishers: you are awarded extra combo when performed on Dark Polarties. Polarity Types-Colors: Explosive/Buring-Orange Ice-White Lightnening-Purple (Dark Elves) Slow Movement-Purple (Troll) Slow Balistics-Purple (Goblin) Soften (Armor Reduction)-Yellow (Troll) Life/Combo Drain-Maroon Lime Green-Poison Knockdown/Explosive-Yellow Leader Exclusive polarities: There are leaders who are the default color, but either illuminated or subdued like a polarity enemy. The light-polarity version will knock you down if you strike them, and the dark-polarity versions, in addition to being charged to explode on death, will charge any other dark-polarity unit they are paired with Elite: This refers to an enemy that is 10 levels above your current level. These enemies are usually gold/silver colored and larger than their non-elite brethren. They have significantly more health and deal much more damage. According to the in-game guides have a 5% increase to damage delt as well as a 5% damage decrease to damage taken. They do tend to drop better loot, with the Dark Elf Leaders being a possible exception (almost always bounty). --------------------------------------------------------------------- Bosses: [Boss01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- All bosses are not damaged by ruiners, but are instead stunned for approximately 3 seconds. An environmental factor in boss battles, with the exception of Hel, is that all of the bosses have arenas lined with containers for health. Hel spawns enough enemies that you can kill for health as well. --------------------------------------------------------------------- GRENDL-1 [Gren01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- GRENDL is vaguely apart of the troll family, though he cannot decide if he’s a dog or gorilla. Grendel has two distinct phases with different attack patterns. The first is running around on all fours attacking melee smashes on occasion. After taking a set amount of damage, he will run to the edge of the arena and release a horde of flying buzz-saw drones from his butt that will harry you across the arena. These drones attach themselves to you and deal DoT until you roll or perform a runnier to knock them off. The second is, again after a set amount of damage, GRENDL will stand and pound his chest and walk towards Baldur. In this phase, he will perform melee smashes, and can grab Baldur and grate him against his grinding face/chest for minor damage. GRENDL also releases drones from his butt while walking upright if there are no drones in the air at the time. The basic strategy for GRENDL is melee while he is on all fours, and use a ranged weapon when he stands & is vulnerable to ballistic fire in his chest and face. A plasma weapon is recommended because the splash damage will destroy multiple drones in one shot, and will prevent any of them from surviving release when he stands. He has a fair amount of health, but should fall relatively quickly if you use finishers in melee and a decent ranged weapon. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Hod [Hod01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Hod is an Aesir who favors dual pistols with a grenade attachment, acrobatic dodges, and the occasional one-two melee attack or ruiner. The environment factors into this battle as well, as the first half of the battle is a tedious round of environmental destruction. This battle is divided into two parts after your initial elevator ride up to the top of a spire. The first involves you working down four floors where Hod has five sniping platforms set up. Your task is to shoot, as melee is impossible, the platforms out from underneath him; preferably when he attempts to jump from one to another, causing him to fall to the platforms on a lower floor. If you don’t have the fortunate timing to blow up the one he was trying to land on, then you just have to destroy all of them. Fierce attacks and rifle grenades work reasonably well against the platforms. Hod’s attack pattern while on the platforms is: two bullets, pause, two bullets, pause, two grenades, jump to another platform. With proper timing you can dodge roll out of the way of all of Hod’s projectiles. Using a rifle for extra range helps because you’ll be able to see the bullets coming before they land, making the timing more forgiving. While there are large tanks on the platform which provide cover, these usually only survive a few of Hod’s Bullets at most, making them a temporary refuge. As an amusing note, if Hod is on the last set of platforms and you’ve been killed, you can target them from the ground floor when you re-spawn. After each platform is destroyed there will be a small spawn of dark elves from the elevator. Once the platform portion is completed, then you face Hod and a Dark Elf contingent on the ground floor. If you stay at a distance, he will attempt to fire at you, and will start performing backflips if you attempt ballistics that make him very difficult to hit most of the time, though there are certain animations (certain melee attacks/reloads) where he will stand there while you pump him full of lead/laser. If you close to melee, Hod will attempt to lazily pistol-whip you, which can be avoided with a dodge-roll. If you stand and beat on him, he will drop to a knee and perform your basic ruiner; however the blast radius on this attack is huge and totally out of proportion with the animation on the screen so it’s best not to trigger Hod’s ruiner. It can be dodge-rolled as well, though the timing is very tricky. The best strategy is to close with ballistics so Hod does not fire on you, then slide in for 1-2 quick melee hits, then dodge-roll away when he beings his pistol-whip, and immediately slide back in. This does consistent damage without having him spam his ruiner. Feneris also chews him up reasonably well, and should be used if possible. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The EverLasting Hate: (a.k.a. “The Hate”) [ELH01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Hate is referred to as a half-giant or troll variant. He is very fast, can sprint very quickly in a straight line, and has several attacks with a very wide attack arc. In addition, Goblins are constantly spawning in the arena and will knock you down for a beating, usually then being killed by The Hate as he attacks you. The Hate is a troll who’s arms are triple-layered with armor that must be destroyed individually. He cannot be mount-killed and is able to attack directly to his rear with little warning. His main weakness is that he corners about as well as a tank, so you can avoid him by circle-strafing and dodge-rolling. The Hate has the following attacks: (1) a single arm sweep that has a very wide arc, particularly when performed with the right arm. (2) a highly damaging jackhammer punch with both arms which actually has a safe spot if you are standing directly in-front, touching him. (3) the “I’m a little tea-pot” dance which acts like a double stomp from a troll – usually performed if you stand directly in-front, touching him. (4) a swing and pound directly behind him. There are two options for dealing with the Hate, circle strafing with ballistics and air combat. I have found that I can take a minimal of damage removing his armor if I just repeatedly perform air-finishers, though they only take off one layer of armor from one body part at a time, vice stripping him like a regular troll, and must consequently be aimed at the particular arm that you’re working on. Once he is stripped, ballistic combat is recommended to make targeting attacks easier. The goblins are a very dangerous nuisance in this battle, though they can be used for a quick escape from The Hate if they are running towards Baldur at an angle that allows for a slide attack away from The Hate. In addition to the containers, the goblins will drop health that is a life-saver in this battle. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Garm: (a.k.a. Bad Doggie, Hel Sub-boss) [Pup01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Garm is a large cybernetic dog who’s main attack is firing a massive amount of quills at Baldur, in addition he has a long-ranged pounce with a ground-pounding effect and will take claw swipes if you get too close, even if directly behind him. Garm has multiple armored body parts which much be destroyed. For non-ranged builds, this is a very tedious battle of avoidance and attrition. Important notes: (1) Garm, by most accounts, is immune to melee unless he is whimpering because of armor destruction. (2) damage from Garm’s quills can be avoided with a dodge-roll, however you will still see the impact animation if struck mid-roll. The best strategy for Garm is to circle-strafe counter clock wise while hammering him with ballistics, as it gives you more time to dodge the initial attack in his pattern. His quills are fired in two salvos, the first starts to his right and sweeps counter clockwise in a in a solid line of quills. This can be avoided by jumping at the right time, as Garm will track you in the air, and you should land just as the projectile is flying over your head. The second salvo is Garm “shaking like a wet dog” which does a staggered burst of quills. It’s best to back-peddle and let the quills spread out to make them eAesir to dodge, and jumping can be helpful here as well. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Hel [Hel01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Hel’s main attack is zap similar to a dark elf sniper, a dragon missile, and a flip-kick that knocks Baldur down if he closes for melee. Additionally, she spawns undead regulars and wolf troopers in groups of 4-5 and slide-teleports around the room. The best strategy for dealing with hell is to keep constant damage applied to her that prevents her from attacking you. A high combo- level is helpful for greater slide distance, as is a rifle to insure she’s in ballistic range while you’re closing to slide range. Her flip-kick is telegraphed and should be dodge-rolled to avoid the knock down. This fight occurs in three different rooms, and other than an undead mob spawning on the way to the final arena, there are no environmental factors except for the generators in each room that don’t have any distinct effect and are blown up with almost no effort what so ever. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Items, Runes, and Charms: [Loot01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Rarity Guide [Rare01] Items and Runes come in 6 different rarity levels: White Green – items have one Rune Slot Blue – items have two Rune Slots Purple – items have three Rune slots. Orange – items have four Rune slots. Red – items have four Rune Slots and always contain orange Runes. Charms come in 3 different Rarity levels: White – Tier 1 Charms Purple – Tier 2 Charms Red – Tier 3 Epic Charms Items, i.e. weapons and armor, of Purple rarity and above are dropped in blueprint form, and choir music plays in the background. You are required to use bounty to craft these items. Note that as an item’s level and/or rarity increases, its basic attack or defensive value will be superior to items of the same level or rarity. On the downside, as an item’s rarity level and number of runes increases, so does its repair cost. Items provided bonuses to various stats, or have the “Empty Rune Slot” in which case a loose Rune can be placed into the piece of equipment to provides the Rune’s bonus, this effectively destroys the rune and permanently fills the rune slot. Some items have charm-type proc’ abilities which are detailed in the Charm-to-Rune section of the guide. When looking at a piece of equipment or filling an empty rune slot, the bonuses provided by the equipment will be displayed. Any bonus which exceeds the maximum allowed bonus, considering your other equipment, will have “(Capped)” by the bonus; which means that the additional bonus is wasted with your current gear. Note that you have a total of 8 item slots equipped at any one time. 6 armor, one melee, and one ranged weapon giving a potential 32 rune slots. Also, armor bonuses on weapons are still effective, as are melee bonuses on ranged weapons and vice-versa though abilities that proc’ only activate if the weapon that is equipped is used, or the armor takes damage. Note that Color Runes do not use item slots, allowing you to change your armor color at will. This also means that mixing of certain weapon bonuses on armor is a waste of space, for example, sword and hammer bonuses on the same piece of armor. Incompatible mixed bonuses pieces should be salvaged unless they are otherwise too good to pass up. The last note about armor is that there are sets that are cosmetically paired that don’t offer any bonuses other than looking pretty. It’s only mentioned in case you want a honking large chest- piece to go with your Jotun-kin Shoulders, or a Myomer Ninja suit. The general strategy for inventory management is to switch Auto- Salvage Type from “Smart” to “Blue” around level 30, and then to “Purple” around lvl 45. The reason for this is that the rarer item drops will increase to the point that there is no reason to use anything less than that rarity other than pure laziness or rarely, charm questing. Even though your blue-print inventory fills relatively quickly with orange blueprints at Lvl 50, Auto-salvaging an Aesir Armor piece would be a minor tragedy. If you want to give yourself a boost of cash/bounty without compromising combat effectiveness, then create item(s) that have “Salvage Bonus” on them and equip them while you clear out your inventory between missions: at Lvl 50 when you’re salvaging 100k weapons, an extra 36% gives you more wiggle room particularly if you want to give a few million to a friend that you’re power-leveling. I prefer a melee weapon or really ugly helmet for this because it’s easy to see when you’ve left it equipped by accident. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Weapon Properties [Wpn01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Swords: Slash damage, highest attack speed, narrow damage arc, straight fierce attack. Staves: Piercing damage, lowest attack speed, wide damage arc, straight fierce attack. Hammers: Blunt damage, middle attack speed, a radius juggle that knocks multiple opponents into the air, a boomerang fierce attack that misses enemies at a certain distance. One-handed melee weapons have a higher critical chance. Two-handed melee weapons have a higher chance to proc status effects. Dual-wield melee weapons have a wider damage arc, and greater attack speed and damage. This includes the shield on the hammer and shield combination. Slug Ballistic Ammo: higher rate-of-fire (RoF), medium damage. Plasma (a.k.a Hybrid) Ballistic Ammo: Area-of-Effect (AoE) splash damage, lower damage. Laser Ballistic Ammo: damage builds over time to high RoF & damage combination; hit-stuns smaller enemies and penetrates troll armor more easily. Note that each Ammo type dictates a specific Rune Bonus: Slug Ammo can have it’s RoF increased, Plasma can have its blast radius increased, and laser can have its penetration rate increased. While it would be nice to get a Higher RoF on plasma weapons with runes, it is not possible. Pistols: ability to aim at multiple targets, faster RoF and reload. Rifles: grenade secondary, which can be launched to targets outside of the range of your primary fire. Laser grenades set enemies on fire. Cannons: higher damage and ammunition capacity, slow reload, secondary attack based on weapon type: Slug cannons fire a missile. Plasma cannons fire a large radius grenade. Laser cannons fire a quad-damage concentrated beam. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Runes: [Rune01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Runes have two uses in the game. The first is to be inserted into weapons and armor to provide the listed bonuses for while equipped. The second is to be slotted into Charms as 1/2 the completion of the Charm’s quest. It should be noted that Purple Runes *can* provide the same level of bonus as an orange rune, though they are difficult to find. The Armor shop sells random runes which can be very helpful for completing charm quests. Orange Runes can usually max out a particular bonus with 3 runes, where as a Red rune can either completely max a stat with a single or at most two Runes, though occasionally you’ll get a Red rune that is nerfed for some unknown reason (ex: one Red Rune, “Destiny”, can either max your loot-drop chance at 15%, or provide half, rounded down at 7%. The next best Orange Rune grants a 5% loot-drop chance). --------------------------------------------------------------------- Charm Guide: [Charm01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Charms are found throughout the game, dropping most often in cyberspace. They are equivalent to trinkets or jewelry in most other RPG style games. On your character you have to slots marked "Active" in your charm page, along with 20 inventory slots for other charms, for a total of 22 you are able to carry at any given time. When a charm is placed in the Active slot, any quest completion requirements will be added as they are achieved. Once a charm is completed if you keep it in the active slot you will gain the bonus listed on the charm. If a charm is listed as an "Armor" charm the effect listed has a chance of occurring when you are struck by an enemy. If the charm has a "Weapon" effect it has a chance of the effect when you strike an enemy. Level 3 charms can have both Weapon and Armor designation at the same time. Strategic considerations for weapon vs. armor charms: (1) if you’re a high DPS build, then weapon proc’s might not be that useful because the enemy will be dead before most DPS effects would be useful; conversely a low DPS build will gain added power verses more durable enemies (2) armor charms are an effective way to potentially punish snipers that you’re having difficulty reaching. The two most popular charms are the Graviton Pulse and Necrotic charms. Graviton Pulse activates a small black-hole that will absorb and OHK enemies. The Necrotic aura will create acid pools that grow as they absorb enemies and also have fumes that can dissolve missiles in mid air; though you need a large acid pool for this to provide meaningful protection. Completing Charm Quests: 1 - Put your desired charm in an active slot on your character. 2 - Complete the “quest” requirement in the top half of the charm (i.e. Activate 3 Wells) 3 - Insert the required runes or charms into the active charm. This can be done at any time, before, during, or after the quest is done. When numbers 2 and 3 are done you can either keep it in your active slot for the bonus or work on another one. Charm Info -LVL 1 Charms have shorter quests compared to the higher level charms, lesser effects, and take runes from your inventory to complete. -LVL 2 Charms have moderate quest requirements, moderate effects, and take level 1 charms to complete. -LVL 3 Epic Charms have steep quest requirements, powerful effects, require LVL 2 charms to complete, and also grant +1 to All Skills while active. When you insert a rune or a charm into an active charm the inserted item is destroyed and gives no further bonus in the charm you are trying to complete. It only brings it one step closer to completion. Using weaker runes and charms or ones that are not useful for your chosen class is highly recommended. Charm Quest completion tips: -Single vs. Multi-player: In single player, you can pause the game in mid-combat to switch out Charms; it is tedious, but can be very effective if you are attempting to complete 4-5 charms in a single Hall of Heroes run. In multiplayer, you get credit for any of your partner’s actions that meet your quest requirements. -Multiple Tier-1 charm quests can usually be totally grinded by a trip to the Hall of Heroes. -"Find Secret areas" charms should be equipped just before entering arenas and side areas, you get credit upon entering. -"Activate wells" charms, like secret area charms, should be equiped before entering wells in the game. -"Kill X enemies with ruiner" charms are best done with non-story Hall of Heroes run by clearing rooms and arenas of goblins to build your numbers quickly. -"Collect blueprints" charms are best equipped before opening obelisks, entering cyberspace, or killing leaders/bosses. -"Kill leaders" and "Kill trolls" should be switched to as necessary if playing solo because this can be done mid-fight and you will still get the kill credit. -"Kill X enemy" and "kills with X combo/hit-counter": keep these equipped as much as possible during regular level progression. If playing campaign there are goblins in HoH and the first half of IF, Dark elves in IF second half and the WS along with Trolls, undead in Hel. In multiplayer, goblins are found on all the maps, the Greatest concentration of Trolls is found in the Ice Forest, Dark elves in the World Serpent, and undead in Hel. -“Kills with X combo/hit counter” can be enhanced by extra ballistics juggling to initially set your combo-counter. -"20 Hit combos 0/20" charm watch your combo counter, when you hit 20 take a second and roll around to let it reset to 0 so you can build it up again since each time you reach 20 you get credit again. Again, ballistics juggling is helpful. For some of the truly large combo requirements (e.g. 200 Hit Combos) several people recommend using the weakest pair of pistols that you can find for juggling. If you can get a juggle-able, ballistic resistant enemy by themselves then you may be able to get this combo fairly easily. - "Kill X trolls" or "Kill X trolls by mounting" co-op is definitely your fastest bet, Ice forest runs being a close second. -“Collect section tokens”: (1) Put on collect token charms before finishing off bosses. (2) The section tokens in the Hall of Heroes are collected when you pass through a doorway to the out-door bridges. Equip the Charm before you walk through and check to make sure it registered afterwards. -Containers: the Arena around GRENDL at the end of the Hall of Heroes has about 15-20 containers. -Air Kills: the enemy has to die in the air, even if Baldur is on the ground. A death from falling damage after being juggled counts as an air kill, which any melee proficient character should be able to do to goblins. The Champion Battle-Cry ability which turns every hit into a Melee Juggle, Valiant’s Might, does allow for this quest to be completed much more quickly than otherwise possible. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Epic Sets & Errata: [EpSt01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- (Thanks to diseptikon at toohuman.net for the Aesir Armor Information) There are two-types of epic sets in at the end-game of TH. (End game is Lvl 50, this guide ignores the mini-Epic Armor sets which drop from Lvl’s 30-34). The first Epic Set type is a melee/ballistic weapon pair that usually adds +1 to your alignment tree. The second are the seven-piece Epic Armor sets which grant bonuses to specific nodes on a skill path for the Class (not necessarily the one you’re using), that culminate with a +1 to all class skills. Note that you still receive the partial set bonuses, and that the bonus you get for 2 pieces of a set activates on 2, 4, and 6 pieces. Epic Set pieces can be identified in the inventory screen by looking to see if there are multiple pages of information on a piece of equipment. If there are multiple pages, the 2nd page lists the set name as well as the individual pieces, and the last page lists the bonuses for acquiring partial and full sets. There are two popular “orange armor” alternatives to the Epic sets due to their customizability with Red Runes: (1) Aesir Armor – this is a series of lvl 50 orange armor with a red rune of a single type in all six pieces of an individual named set, as you only need two pieces of any one armor to max out a stat’ it is best to mix and match the sets for different bonuses, these are the different sets: (1.1) Annihilation – Cyber – 2 Handed Damage 15% of 30% (1.2) Master and Slave – Cyber – Sent. Weap. Duration 15% of 30% (1.3) The Killing Word – Cyber – Battle Cry Dmg. 10% of 25% (1.4) Unstoppable Spear – Human – Strength 50% of 50% (1.5) The One – Human – Improved Dodge 20% of 50% (1.6) Vanquishing Clash – Battle Cry Efficiency 25% of 50% (2) Altruist Armor – this lvl 44 orange armor has 4 empty rune slots allowing for maximized customizability. It is found in cyberspace in the Nidhogg loot-spires. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Grinding for Epic Loot: [Grind01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Finding your class’s 7-piece Epic Armor set is the requirement for the “Relics of a Forgotten Past Achievement” and some people will want to maximize their effectiveness with custom Aesir Armor. There are several different strategies for grinding for Epic-loot. Here are the Epic-loot drop chances for a single Item drop for a Lvl 50 Character: Leaders Elites Boss(w/Tkn) LgSpr* C3MdSpr* C3LgSpr TyrSp IdunSp Weapon .001 -N/A- .003 .002 -N/A- -N/A- .001 - N/A- Armor .001 -N/A- .008 .002 -N/A- -N/A- -N/A- - N/A- Rune .005 .0001 .002 .001 -N/A- .001 .0001 .001 Charms -N/A- -N/A- -N/A- -N/A- .01 .02 -N/A- - N/A- * ”Spr” Loot Spire; “C3” Cyber Space; TyrSp/IdunSp-Weapon Shop/Armor Shop. The first is to do a level from start to finish. The reason for this is that all of the levels have “Tokens” that serve two functions. The first seems to be to track which loot-spires and secret areas have been activated. The second is to serve as a continue point if you need to quit the level for any reason. Note that Bosses will not drop epic equipment without section tokens. The second is a “3-4 Run” on the World Serpent. This involves loading the level 3-4, and playing through to the end of the Conveyor Belt level. This could be both in the single player mission select, or the multi-player map. The multiplayer map has 3 extra goblin- leaders, but has extra spawns that can be irritating. If you’re going to do 3-4 runs, then it is advisable to uses the highest DPS build your character is capable of so that you can get to a time of 6-7 minutes from start to finish. The reason for only doing a section is the concentration of leaders combined with the fact that Leaders’ Drop chances are not effected by having tokens.) Here are the odds, calculated by Wynn over at toohuman.net for an epic Armor drop: Hall of Heroes – GRENDL Run: 6.47% 3-4 Single Player: 2.27% 3-4 Multi Player: 3.39% This includes all leaders and Bosses. These odds do not include spires, judging the difference between large & medium is difficult & there are random C3 spires on the multi-player maps. The last is “farming the spider” exploit. This is done with a partner in multi-player or by a proficient ranged character in single-player. This technique can also be used to power level another person, but the value of your loot is penalized for this. Multi-Player Spider Farming: This is done by having one person kill the last Dark Elf Leader in the beginning of the conveyor belt room from the doorway, while another player stays in the previous room with the well. To spawn the Leader, there is an untextured green rectangle in the door way, if you step on this without crossing over onto the tiles that look like they are vented/grated then you will spawn the room without drawing fire from either the Dark Elf Leader or the two Assault Dark Elves that spawn in the room; though most classes will need extra ballistic range for this to be possible. Once the leader is killed, one person runs into the room to activate the loot collection while the person in the previous room runs back towards the well until he “zones” his partner, resetting the spider. The multi-player method has the advantage of allowing for more loot collection since the player in the room will cause it to be collected, vice having to wait for the loot to “fly” to you. Single-Player Spider Farming If solo’ing, then don’t go through the door way into the conveyor belt room; instead kill the spider with a ranged weapon from the doorway. If you see something you want to keep, then wait about 30- 45 seconds for the loot to fly to you before resetting the by running to the ledge leading to the well. Best “Farming” build: Commando is the best class for farming at the end game because they are able to kill quickly at range. The highest DPS build involves the Plasma Path, though a Human Commando can actually use this path best with a slug based weapon if it is spec’d to use both and the bonus to rate of fire on both the Commando Skill tree (slug weapons) & Human Alignment tree; it is truly sick to activate the build’s battle cry and see 2,500 points per bullet when you empty your ammunition meter in 3-4 seconds. Farming the Armor&Weapon Shops: At lvl 50 Epic Weapons and Aesir Armor are available in their respective shops. The shops spawn a new set of items when you load up a game and when you complete a stage, though I’ve noticed that the shop selection usually goes down after several reloads, to the point where there is only a handful of Runes in the armor shop. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Well & Secret Locations: [WellSct01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- (Thanks go to sillyboynick & FantasyMeister from toohuman.net for this list) Here is the list of wells and areas that will unlock the “NORN’s Favor Achievement” and “Two Gods Enter, One God Leaves” achievements. Many people have had the “NORNS Favor” achievement glitch as it must be obtained through a single campaign play-through, and some people have 22 wells without the achievement. To those who have not played through the campaign yet, there are four “abilities” that you gain in cyberspace, one in each of the four levels: (1) Push; (2) Lift; (3) Water Walking; (4) the ability to burn away the purple fog; Niddhog. Several loot-spires in the wells, particularly in Aesir, will be unavailable until you have all four abilities. Hall of Heroes (4 wells total, 5 Secret Areas) -Well#1: Compulsory -Well#2 & Secrets #1-3: Opens the 3 doors to the secret Areas (two arenas and the loot-spire) Secret Area #4: Activated by a button on the top of left stairway, unlocking a door on top of the right stairway. -Well#3 & Secret #5: Below the balcony 2 rooms further in from well #2; it opens the door to Secret Area #5. -Well#4: Compulsory Ice Forest (4 wells total, 2 Secret Areas) -Well#5: Immediately after first jump-platform, break the brightly lit metal plate on the wall to your right. (Notice what the door to the well looks like, as they’re also used on the secret arenas.) -Secret Arena #1: after your second jump, you will either land directly in front of the door way (in Story mode) or have to run to your right to locate it. In the single-player story Campaign, this door-way is just after the jump with the cut-scene introducing the Dark Elf Leader by way of it sniping a Wolf-Trooper. -Well#6: Compulsory -Secret Arena #2: This arena is just before the large tunnel (technically it does have a roof even if it’s not very visible during combat) leading to the first of several generators that you break to lower the well. -Well#7: Compulsory -Well#8: After speaking to Hod, turn around and go back the way you came, it's behind you. World Serpent (4 wells total, 3 secret arenas, 2 Hidden Loot-Spires) -Well#9: Compulsory Secret Arena #1: In the Barracks room, there will be a door control panel that you can destroy. Step onto the elevator to be taken to a small arena. -Well#10 & Secret Arena #2: Compulsory well. After defeating the Trolls that activate when you exit the well, go down the stairs and around, you will activate a lift down to a Troll Arena. -*Secret Loot-Spire #1: In the first open engine room, there are two open doorways in the rear of the room where Dark Elves spawn. You must air-slide to an enemy in the doorway to access the Obelisk. -Secret Arena #3: in the second open engine room, a ramp will descend from the doorway that was like the one to the hidden obelisk. It leads a teleport circle to an arena. -Well#11: In section 3-4, it's in the first room after the indoor bridge, down a ramp at the far end on the left. Secret Arena (Inactive): on the first turn of the conveyor belt, there is a platform that can be jumped to by a small ledge on the wall. -Well#12: Compulsory -*Secret Loot-Spire #2: After defeating the final boss “The Hate” and riding the platform elevator up to the exit, step off the platform a few steps, then step back on. It will carry you across the room to a doorway that opened with a breakable control panel with a large loot spire. Helheim (5 wells total, 1 Secret Arena) -Well#13: After the APCs blow the front doors off, enter and keep left, it's at the far end. -Well#14: Keep following the long walkways to the next open area, it's down a tunnel to your right at the far end, or you can reach it earlier by taking the first turning on your right which leads to the same tunnel. -Well#15: Next open area has two walkways turning left at the far end. Cross them, turn left towards the next set of doors, then keep to the right, there's a craftily hidden very short ramp going down to the well on the right hand side. -Secret Area #1: just after Defeating Garm & entering Hel’s citadel, there is a breakable wall just before the first statute of Hel. -Well#16: After beating Garm and riding the lift up from the 1st Floor of Hel’s citadel, blast open the wall in an alcove on the right side of the room, the well is in the room revealed. -Well#17: Compulsory. Aesir (1 well containing 4 additional wells) Well#18: Leads to Cyberspace in the Hall of the World Tree. Note that there are 4 Gates that unlock, one after each stage completed, that contain multiple loot-spires. Also note that you’ll need all 4 cyberspace abilities to access all of the loot-spires behind each gate so it is best saved for after one as completed Hel in single player or as host. If you need charms, then this is the best place to find them though be prepared for a series of long, scenic walks. One last tip about the Aesir well, if you go to a non-campaign mission and then come back to Aesir, you are still in the mission. If you want to save yourself the walk out of the well, then enter the well while in Mission-Aesir and exit to Campaign-Aesir after collecting as much loot as you desire. Unstoppable Achievement: Never attempt to do this as the non-host player, as you are unable to get the achievement if the host dies of if the host spawns a horde without you. Glitched Wells: There are two wells with loot-spires that tend to not reset with new treasure, even after campaign completion. 1. The loot-spire in Well#11. 2. A loot-spire in one of the Aesir Well Areas. It has a “use special ability circle in front of it because the well is initially covered with Niddhog. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Rune—to-Charm Translation Guide: [Cm2Rn] (Thanks: Sethgz at Gamefaqs) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Several of the Charm effects are also found slotted as “Runes” in weapons and armor. While the Charm screen adequately explains their capabilities, some of the abilities change names in equipment and are not explained at all hence a translation guide for item properties that replicate Charm functions. There are one or two additional Rune terms that were not adequately explained. Ablative Shield: Chance of absorbing a percentage of incoming damage. Annulment: chance of putting a target to sleep. Blight: chance of emitting a damaging radiation cluster that is capable of spreading to other targets. Defenseless: Chance of nullifying the targets resistances. Efficiency: reduces the combo cost of Battle-cries or ruiners. Enfeebled: Enemies do half damage. Enthalpy: chance of freezing target. Exposed: chance of rendering a target vulnerable to ballistic damage. Gravitation Pulse: chance of creating a temporary gravity field which pulls targets into it, killing them instantly. Impact: chance of knocking a target down. Hybrid: plasma. Leech: reduces enemy health over time giving the health taken to you. Lighting Induction: chance of covering target in a lightning field causing damage over time. Metalstorm: Chance of a shot ricocheting off of a target to nearby enemies. Lasers penetrate instead of ricocheting. Mobility Disruption: Chance of rooting target in place. Necrotized: chance of creating a toxin pool which damages enemies that touch it. Pierce: grants a chance of penetrating to all ballistics. Pulse Munitions: chance of triggering an EMP, disrupting electronic systems, stunning an enemy for an extended period of time. Rot: chance of poisoning target. Rupture: chance of causing a small explosion which does light damage. Slowed: chance of decreasing targets ballistic rate of fire. Snared: chance of slowing targets movements. Softened: critical strikes do 2x damage. Target Acquisition Scrambler: chance of causing the target to attack your enemies. Thermal Induction Pulse: chance of setting the target on fire. --------------------------------------------------------------------- “Too Human” Terms: [Term01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- *Alignment: either human or cybernetic. Weapons and armor are usually aligned and cannot be worn by those of opposite alignment. *Aesir: the term for the cybernetically enhanced humans. Also refers to the “city hub” that can be accessed through the main menue. *Ballistics: any ‘gun’ type weapon, including the secondary fire. The ballistic weapon types are pistol, rifle, cannon and the ammunition types are slug, plasma, and laser. *Battle-cry: a temporary buff/ability that is usually applied to your partner as well. A ring of white runes will appear around Baldur while it is active. If you are playing co-op, tell your team mate when you activate your battle cry so that they can take advantage of it as well. *Blueprint: all of the upper-tier arms&armor drop as blue prints, effectively requiring you to purchase the weapons you find; fortunately, this can be done at any time. *Bounty: the currency in Too Human, use to craft blueprints, make purchases from the shops, and repair your items. *Combo: this is the “magic meter / mana” of TH which is earned by killing foes. There are many ways to boost combo growth and lessen the combo-cost of abilities. Combo is use to fuel both battle-cries and ruiners. *Combo-counter / Hit Counter: this refers to the number beside your combo-meter that tracks your current number of consecutive hits. Note that ballistic hits are only counted when you fire at a new target or are ballistic juggling. This counter is used to determine bonus efficiency/damage for the base skills on the alignment tree with bonuses being awarded at 25, 50, 75, 100, and 150. *Combo-Level: the number of full combo-bars that a player is currently carrying. The Default is 3, but there are skills which increase the number of available combo-levels. In addition to being stored combo, melee attack speed, ballistics rate-of-fire, battle-cry duration, and slide distance all increase at higher combo-levels. Resetting of combo-levels to zero is actually the largest death penalty in the game as you’re severely offensively- handicapped without at least 1 full combo-level. *Container: a breakable environment piece that contains either health bounty, or rarely, vendor trash. *Cyberspace: also known as “C3”, accessed through wells these idyllic set pieces that usually are used to open doors or un-block Baldur’s path, and also contain loot-spires which drop charms. *Charm: a special type of rune that requires regular runes to be inserted and a quest to be completed, usually provides a passive benefit that proc’s either on attack, being struck by and opponent, or both. *Feneirs: your sentient weapon, which has the ability to duplicate itself and attack without you. It grants you one combo-level for every kill, allowing you to repeatedly drop ruiners or maintain a war-cry. The downside is a 20 minute cool down, allowing for limited uses per level. *Fierce Attack: This is a melee ranged attack. It is a powerful projectile that shoots from your sword/Staff or a boomerang-hammer that does a small looping arc in front of Baldur. The projectile goes through enemies, knocking them down if not killing them outright. *Finisher: This is a melee attack animation that gets up to 4 hits before performing a massively damaging back-flip, overhead smash. Note that you can be knocked out of a finisher by attacks that knock you down. *Loot Spire: a pillar/obelisk that when active, has a light coming from the top. Contains randomized treasure. *Polarity: this is an enemy that is capable of inflicting some sort of status effect if they damage Baldur. These enemies are usually a non-standard color and are either glowing brightly (light-polarity) or are more subdued (dark-polarity) then other enemies. **Polarity (dark): the enemy is ballistic resistant and if shot will begin to effectively become & glow like a light polarity; they will fade back to their normal dark polarity after a short time. **Polarity (light): this enemy explodes on death, usually inflicting a status effect. *Elite: This refers to an enemy that is 10 levels above your current level. These enemies are usually gold/silver colored and larger than their non-elite brethren. They have significantly more health and deal much more damage. *Epic: the highest item rarity, who’s name is dark red in color on the item inventory screen, dark pink when dropped as a blue-print. There is a Wagnerian choir that sings when epic blue-prints and runes are found. *Melee: any hand held weapon type. The melee weapon types are swords, staves, and hammers which are divided into one-handed, two-handed, and dual-wield. *Niddhog: the “purple fog” that prevents access to certain loot- spires in cyberspace until Baldur learns how to set it on fire. *Re-spec: erasing the current skill point allotment on a tree and re-allocating. *Ruiner: a highly damaging area-of-effect blast attack that uses combo. *Rune: a symbol that in TH is place into either item-slots, granting the wear the bonus when the item is equipped or charms as a part of a charm quest. *Section Token: each level has certain points which save once you complete them, and the player is given a token. If the player acquires all of the tokens for a level, the boss will drop much better loot, and it is the only way to get the bosses to drop Epic items. *Slide: Sliding is the core melee mechanic of TH, and is activated by pressing the right stick towards an enemy that has a targeting circle underneath its feet. Sliding can also be done in the air, either to another target in the air or to a target on the ground. *Spider: a mechanical device that grants the use of an ability that is not dependent on Combo-meter. The spider is deployed with an energy bar that drains fairly quickly, when the bar is completely drained the spider self-destructs and the energy bar recharges; while the spider is recharging, you will not see it on your back. *“TH”: Too Human. *Well: an entry point into cyberspace. Several doors cannot be unlocked without entering cyberspace. --------------------------------------------------------------------- MMO Terms: [Term02] --------------------------------------------------------------------- *AoE: area-of-effect. *Cool Down: a time period ranging from seconds to minutes in which an ability cannot be used again. *DoT: “damage-over-time”; a status effect that does relatively minor damage for an extended period. *Drop: to give treasure. *Mob: a group of enemies. *OHK: one-hit-kill. *Proc: a MMORG term for effects that only have a chance of occurring on hit. *RoF: rate-of-fire *Spawn: to cause enemies to appear on the map. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Enjoying the Story [Story01] --------------------------------------------------------------------- The story in Too Human can be enhanced by a bit of extra trekking around to the various locations in the Aesir in an attempt to trigger conversations during each of the missions, though a few will just allow you to cycle through the dialogue available by taking 5 steps away. Sometimes new dialogue is available after the mandatory cut scenes triggered by trekking around. 1st Floor: -Tyr’s Workshop: Tyr, Thor, Gossiping Wolf Troopers. -Idun’s Cyber Lab: Idun -Main Info Terminal: Frey but only after the Hall of Heroes. 2nd Floor: -Main Foyer: Tour Groups – though the camera can move so far away that you lose the dialogue. Hermod but only after Hall of Heroes & Himendal cut-scene. -The World Tree: Freya. Mimir – though he is usually dismissive and never has anything of import to say. After the briefing about the World Serpent, it is possible that you trigger an dialogue between Mimir and Heimdal which you can eves-drop on. -Heimndal’s Office: He usually has something to say even when you are not required to visit his office for story advancement. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks & Contact Information: --------------------------------------------------------------------- TooHuman.net sources and contributors: Maawdawg: Thank you for the charm guide. Wynn: Thank you for the Epic Armor odds for the different runs. Sillyboynick: Thank you for the Well/Achievement guide. Diseptikon: Thank you for the Aesir Armor For forum feed-back: blood crescent, Mikey Flies, MattsDMan, Demonic Chronic, EasyLay, Amoeba GameFaqs.com sources and contributors: Sethgz: Thank you for your Rune-to-Charm guide. Others: Hannar for running TooHuman.net for all of these years. Those that contributed to toohuman.wikia.com. To the gentleman who put the item drop .wav’s and various Loot Drop & Rune tables at the following URL: http://www.saunalahti.fi/jpeltol/toohuman/ Imran Merchant for the Character Plotter program, available at: http://pyreflies.nu/hench/TooHuman/TooHumanCalc.jar The co-author and complier of this guide can be contacted at john_h_rand@hotmail.com; please include “Too Human Guide” in the subject line.