Mechalibur

I don't mind casual being easier, but I don't think the other difficulties should be touched. I haven't tried torment yet, but the final battle on veteran felt perfectly-tuned (well, maybe the frontliners had a bit too much hp, but it certainly made the fight exciting).

I'm still on part 1... it's been a while since I played the game, is there an alternate route there later?

Tried looking online for a solution, but I only found an unanswered Steam thread. I'm trying to take the boat to Solberg's tower, but both of the paths leading there have wandering monsters blocking the way. If I try to get off the boat, I get the message that I need a clear space in order to leave the boat. No matter how much I wait, the enemies never move or despawn. If anything, more of them keep spawning - there are currently 3 monster spawns blocking each tunnel. I'm completely at a loss here for how to proceed... any ideas?

Yeah, when I went to get the achievement for getting the last dream, I just teleported from one refuge to another. There doesn't appear to be an interval of time that needs to pass - the only restriction seems to be that you can't sleep in the same place twice.

Okay, I think I get it. Fool's Shot does more damage because it has higher weapon dice (d4 vs d2), but its weapon level is the same for the purposes of Whirlwind Attack (and Steel Darts, I guess).

In-game, the version you're on is displayed in the bottom-left corner of the title screen.

Oh, that's interesting, what is an item's level? Is it the same as its tier?

It's just a gameplay decision. I think it's to encourage buildings forts as soon as you can. Although it is a bit strange, story-wise, since Haven soldiers are supposed to be incredibly skilled and disciplined.

On a related note, does the Understanding Mother dream do anything noteworthy? At the end of the game, there was a single line mention of you understanding her a bit better, but I'm not sure if that actually affects the ending or not?

Some of my thoughts... Haven's Command - I think it gives a much smaller bonus than you're listing. At level 9, it should only be 2/4 bonus damage, based on your rank. Still a good ability, of course. Curing - I'm not sure why you're saying it's better to let the DoTs tick down. Late game, there are some enemies that can inflict 8 turns of bleed with a single attack, which is 12 damage per tick at level 20, for a total of 96 damage. That is absolutely worth spending an energy to cure. There are also loads of enemies that stack poison - once you have at least 2 stacks, getting rid of them is a must. Even better, it only costs 4 AP, leaving you an additional action if you didn't have to move. This spell is amazing. Whirlwind - You didn't rate this, so I want to mention this ability is fantastic! It only targets enemies, so on Veteran/Torment, it's the most reliable AoE for avoiding friendly fire. It scales off your bow damage, so if you have Fool's Shot equipped, you're doing some serious damage with this attack. The upgrade increases the damage by 20%, which is great. Healing - If you invest reasonably in healing, it can be pretty good (like healing about half a warrior's hp in a single case). It's not as crazy as Avernum, where lesser heal could heal pretty much anyone to full with enough investment, but saying it sucks seems kind of harsh. Speed - This only costs 4AP, so you can still use another action if you haven't moved. Even with Battle Frenzy at your disposal, it's still pretty good in fights where enemies can inflict slow on various party members. Disruption - This is another 4AP ability. It's great to have on at least one character, especially for a lot of bosses that haste themselves. Not always useful, but amazing when it is. Stunning Shot - This hits a reliable amount of the time, and can inflict slow even if the stun doesn't go through. It can be used with ranged weapons, so it is a great tool against enemy mages and archers in the backline. Shield Shatter - From my experience, bosses don't actually have a great chance of resisting vulnerable. It also stacks multiplicatively, which allows for huge spikes in damage. Shockwave - A chance to stun multiple enemies is crazy, especially since unlike Avernum, you actually have a reasonable chance of inflicting stun. Absolutely worth 2 energy. Haven's Might - The tooltip seems to be wrong, it provides more turns of haste and blessing than Battle Frenzy. Still probably not worth it, since Battle Frenzy is usually more than enough. Haven's Mercy - It's healing values are surprisingly high, and it removes a huge number of status effects, which is great against poison stacking enemies. Basically Restoring Rain on steroids. Best saved for difficult fights due its high energy cost, though. Mindsteal - You never mentioned this one, but it's such a game changer, it deserves to be mentioned. Due to the fact that enemies can actually fail against mental effects in this game, this ability is probably one of the absolute best in the game. Enemies often prioritize the closest target, so if you hit someone in the middle of the enemy combat line, you suddenly avoid a bunch of potential attacks against you, and the charmed enemy contributes some damage. And only 1 energy, too! The only thing stopping me from calling this the strongest ability ever is that it won't work against undead and it's more or less useless against singular enemies.

All the achievements in this game are hidden, so I figured it would be useful to have a list of them, in somewhat arbitrary categories. There are some minor spoilers, but anything major I'm putting in spoiler tags. This isn't meant to be a guide to any of the achievements, merely a list with their descriptions. Story Achievements Everything in this list should automatically be received over the course of the story Very Funny: Suvive Sutter's prank at the beginning of the game. Haven Returns: Clear out the bandits in Grandport. Into the Swamp: Enter the Ukat lands. Into the Desert: Enter the Vol lands. Into the Forest: Enter the Ahriel lands. Into the Underworld: Decision Achievements All the achievement pairs in this list are mutually exclusive. You can get both only be reloading an earlier save. Promising Upstarts/Picking the Easy Job: Side with the Brokk clan/Side with the Borgen clan. The Established Order/Sentimentality: Side with the Mascha/Side with the Owen. Either one seems doable regardless of your reputation, so you can reload after helping one to help the other if you want. A Vote for Sanity/Getting the Job Done Fast: Side with Istara/Side with the Watchers. As a small note, the Watchers will say they need you to give them favored status, but that's actually a bluff. They'll still agree to be your vassals if you deny them that. Base Principles/None Can Escape Justice: Eventually when you visit Miranda at Fort Haven, she'll ask you to judge a man named Maximilian. Declare him innocent for once achievement, and guilty for the other. Fort Achievements Every achievement in this list involves the fort management system in some way. Master of Empire: Rebuild every fort. Infrastructure Matters: Build 30 buildings total. Aesthetics Matter: Build 20 different decorations. Game Completion Achievements These achievements are all about how you complete the game. The Colony Survives: "Win Haven a permanent place on Sacramentum." Based on the wording, I believe you can get this achievement by Total Victory: Beat the game and utterly defeat your enemies. Specifically, Sharyn Prizes Efficiency: Totally defeat your enemies, as above, but within 100 days on normal difficulty or higher. Hardened Veteran: Totally defeat your enemies on Veteran or higher. Legendary Warrior: Totally defeat your enemies on Torment. I believe for all achievements relating to difficulty, you cannot set the difficulty below the threshold at any point in the story. You can't just increase the difficulty at the end of the game, in other words. Miscellaneous Achievements Whoops: Die. Delia's Good Influence: Read 15 different books. The Strange Folk: Visit all 3 Nisse Refuges. Voyager of the Night: Dream 7 times in the Nisse Refuges. As Long as I Don't Learn the Details: Buy a share of Cappia-Mascha's operation in Vitasa. Puzzle Master: Complete 7 Nisse coin puzzles. For the second puzzle in each refuge, you only need to open the exit for it to count as complete. You don't need to open every door. Big Game Hunter: Collect 3 trophies on Veteran difficulty or higher. In Your Face, Sutter: Collect 6 trophies on Veteran difficulty or higher. nlambert's index has a list of all coin puzzle solutions as well as trophy locations

Here's the solution in a spoiler tag:

So Lifedrain is just extra damage then?

2 more corrections: The Nisse Quietbringer is a necklace, not a ring. The Madness Symbol is a ring, not a necklace. It also gives a bonus to Mindsteal, not "Mindshield"

There are a few pieces of equipment that grant skills which can't otherwise be obtained by characters. They don't seem to have any descriptions explaining what they do, so it can be difficult to evaluate whether or not using them is worth it. Here's a list of them: Bloodletting - This skill seems to be Vicious Strikes, except it only affects the character. It stacks, so if you have Vicious Strikes and Bloodletting, there's a small chance for you to inflict 2 stacks of bleed on an attack. I'm uncertain on what, exactly, the chance to inflict bleed is. It seems to be higher than Vicious Strikes, but I haven't done any testing. Shield Ally - Appears to give 5% physical evasion per rank to adjacent allies. Also applies to the character, which is kinda weird, but helpful. Confusion Aura - I think this gives nearby enemies a chance to become confused, but I haven't used the item much that provides this skill. No idea what the chance or range is. Life Drain - This one is another mystery to me. Whenever attacking an enemy with a regular attack, it seems to add "Lifedrain X" over their head, where X is usually a pretty small number (1-5 or so). As for what Lifedrain does? No idea. It doesn't appear to heal the attacker, which would have been my first guess. Edit: At the time I was writing this, it appears Life Drain was bugged and only did a little extra damage. It should restore hp as of v 1.0.2 Does anyone have any more details on these?

Hm, what if it's rolling a 15% chance 4 separate times? In other words, the bug is that the rolls for other characters are affecting the character with Radiance instead? That would give 48%/76%/91%/97% which is reasonably close to the observed results.

On the other hand, if you tell Sutter you plan on ruling Haven when you return, he gets very angry and says that he's next in line. The intro also says "Your older brother will become King someday." That might just be some weirdness with the Shade itself.

Okay good to hear, I thought I was going crazy for a second

For some reason, after making the Owen vassals (and always picking dialogue options in favor of them), the Owen north of Smoky Pass start attacking me if I enter an adjacent tile.There's no dialogue or anything, it just cuts straight to a battle.

Did you go back to Miranda yet after she asked you to make those 2 buildings?

1. You can see how many you have in the bottom left when opening a character's skill page. 2. The other characters aren't on the map, but you should still be able to open and move around their inventory/gear. 3. Click on an item in your inventory (it will start moving up and down) then click on a party member's portrait on the left. It should move the item to that character's inventory, provided they have the space for it. 4. It should fill up automatically whenever you enter the fort in the first place.

Is there enough Iron in the game to maintain all the upgrades? From this guide it looks like your iron income can get as high as 23, but you'd need 28 to maintain 7 blacksmiths, barracks, and watchtowers.

I'm using Fool's Shot as well, that's actually why I started thinking it's a bug. My Ahriel character has 4 ranks in Radiance, so it should be a 60% chance of triggering for any afflicted party member, right? Yet it hasn't triggered a single time despite almost always being within 4 spaces. Maybe it's working correctly for all party members, but only triggers if the Ahriel character themselves has a mental condition? Or maybe it starts working weird at 4 ranks? Gameplay-wise (going to spoiler since it's a bit off topic)

Actually, that seems super relevant. I've had plenty of fights where my characters have 16+ turns of status effects. This is especially common against scorpions, spiders, and snakes.