mikeprichard

I ended up luring the battle gamma back to Sharon to have her successfully assist with the beatdown. It was epic and/or pathetic, lol.

I never used Mental Magic really, and skill points are scarce, but maybe 2 points (boosted to 3 eventually with a canister, if you're into that kind of thing; there are also items you can use for temporary spellcasting ability) through the course of the playthrough might not hurt. But yeah, I suggest you fool around with "retrain" if you're stuck on a particular battle and see what works for you.

I wouldn't bother putting any points into Intellect - the Energy boost is almost useless given how quickly Energy regenerates, and the raw spell power upgrade isn't important. Personally, I'd also completely skip Missile Weapons (and Evasion) to focus on Melee with a little in Quick Action. You are correct that a few enemies (glaahks somewhat early and later gazers come to mind) can potentially be extremely annoying to any solo player (Guardian or Agent) given their potential to stunlock/terrify while they or others acid/poison/burn your health down, but with some blessing and strategic positioning, it's all about prioritizing those enemies and killing them very quickly. Regenerate is also your friend. As to canisters, yep, using fewer is always going to make things relatively more difficult. I do have 3 total points each in Battle and Mental magic (from 1-2 invested skill points and canisters/charms/other boosts), but in the event I've barely used either spell tree. However, if you're having trouble, maybe Daze will help out in a pinch. Not sure how effective it is when it counts at low skill levels/generally, though. If you're too far in your playthrough to restart but still want to respec (and if you don't care about achievements, though I'm not 100% sure all cheat codes disable them), you can use the Shift-D code "retrain" and mess around the same encounters with different builds. GF2 Infestation - Cheat Codes (complete list) - Geneforge Series - Remasters - Spiderweb Software Forums (ipbhost.com)

You're welcome! And the Helix Ring only boosts the different magic schools by 1 point each and when fully upgraded also gives a couple points to creations' Quick Action, so it's not critical for a Shaper; just potentially helpful. More useful for an Agent IMO (though by the time you get it fully upgraded late in the game, probably not), and for a Guardian, you're gonna want that Frosted Annulet.

Guess you sold the residue or mandrake... I think there's just barely enough residue/mandrake throughout the entire game to get all upgrades, but since it looks like you're still fairly early, you should be able to at least collect enough to fully upgrade one of the three artifacts. As I see you're playing as a Shaper, only the Helix Ring is likely to be of use to you anyway IMO.

To charge and thus improve each artifact (Frosted Annulet (takes 1 charge), Feisty Slap Gloves (takes up to 3 or 4 charges), Helix Ring (takes up to 3 charges, with each charge available after you kill certain prominent NPCs with the ring in your inventory)), you need to have one sample each of mandrake and infernal residue when using an anvil.

Solo melee Guardian with healing and blessing magic (healing/curing/Regenerate from Healing Craft, and Speed with occasional War Blessing/Protection/Essence Shield/Mindshield from Blessing Magic). EDIT: Just now realized (as is in fact clear from the tooltip) that Mindshield doesn't affect the PC, but only creations - so scratch that. Not that I was using it much.

FWIW - and again with the caveat I'm only playing on Normal - there's not much anywhere in Taker lands that can last more than one round against my level 18 (just now 19) solo Guardian. Some of the earlier levels were a bit challenging, but toward the mid-/late-game, you should really see the power ramp up if you follow the general tips above.

A couple corrections for the Buck Creek zone valid for the final game (v1.0.1): "NW (28,11) door - lock (highly locked) - opened after Crystal for the Sholai quest completed" This shed in the CN area of the map is only unlocked by Zosima in conversation after you complete his first one or two "trust-building" quests and/or use Leadership to skip them (with the unlocking triggered by "Have I done enough to win your trust?", though you'll need to be careful to choose that option while you have the chance - otherwise, he won't unlock the shed, and you'll need to burn some living tools). "(46,12) door - lock (reward for Sholai Investigation)" Referring to the shed just west of Zosima, this one is opened by Drayk Grimwing for completing his quest.

Solo (98% of the time) guardians are how I've been rolling through both G1 Mutagen and G2 Infestation on Normal difficulty, and I've been having a blast. They're definitely more challenging to play than the vanilla "Shaper with OP minions" (pretty much anything else is, IMO), though I prefer their role-playing and lack of creation micromanagement. Through points and skill-boosting items, I've invested into Melee, some in Endurance and Essence Mastery (for survivability and plenty of healing/blessing spells, especially on boss fights), a couple points each in Strength and Quick Action, and a few points in Blessing Magic/Healing Craft/Leadership/Mechanics; my equipment focuses on boosting Strength/Endurance/Melee/Quick Action, as well as any other temporary gaps in the above few skills on an as-needed basis. Tip I've found extremely useful: once you get Chain Lightning in the Weapon Shaping tree, spam the heck out of it. It's basically my default attack for anything that would survive one melee hit. But yep, looking forward to G4 and G5 - I always played no-creation serviles in those two (as they feature my preferred combat > magic >>> shaping stat spread not available in G1-G3 with those earlier games' three classes), and adding Weapon Shaping to that mix is going to be fun.

Lol! Yep, that's about right.

I'll probably test the glove thing myself, but one more (!) question - who/what in Taker Lands will confirm the origin of the Shandoka spawner? Not Syros, it seems. EDIT: Umm, yeah, it's Syros. smh

Takers (especially the drayk/drakon "leadership") were already behaving like Shapers in G2, let alone G4/G5... too many examples to list.

Re: Tuldaric losing interest in the barrier, that's from Learned Varkan's dialogue. He was the initial driving force behind it, but we see he's now following his own path (as discussed above). I find it difficult to see Pinner as a bigger problem for the long-term goals of the Awakened, though, regardless of how (apparently) naive she may appear.

Agree with Mech's overall take here - Jeff's central theme is the potential for power to corrupt even the best intentions. Even Stanis (see his final dialogue when you best him in the duel) and Zakary (recognizing it's not a canister issue in his case - see his new Emily-related dialogue, Nora's vague mention of her reasons for loyalty to him, etc.) show human/sympathetic dimensions; not that anyone here is claiming this, but they aren't black-and-white evil, full stop. Now that the Taker/Barzite (and even Awakened - see Barrier of the Wind, which incidentally Tuldaric has apparently lost all interest in despite its planned importance to the survival of the Awakened) Shaping/canister doom loops have begun, the player's navigation of the factions (or not) and charting a final path essentially represent a range of bad-to-worse options IMO.