Mechalibur

Curing pods remove null field. I also would recommend having 2 creations on agent by that level (you can invest in essence mastery if you're constantly low). But there's no reason to fight that drayk at that level, it's a difficult encounter. Remember you can right click to see enemy levels to determine if maybe you should save a fight for later.

The first Awakened quest is to sabotage the Barzites I believe, but you get all the main benefits from the Awakened just by joining them (Pinner's key and Tuldaric's training). You can also leave the Servants by joining another faction or typing "sdf 100 2 3" into cheats

The dialogue doesn't change based on your servile rep. Shanti is the one who tells you that, even she made her own choice, many paths are open to you, and it's your decision which to follow. This was true in the original as well.

It was changed from a different spell in development. Jeff is aware and will correct it next patch.

Actually the Servants are the exception, you can leave all the factions by talking to their leader, except Zakary for some odd reason. The Takers, naturally, all turn hostile if you try to do so, though.

I also did mixed shaping on torment (as a shaper and as a guardian) since I wanted to test balance for as many creations as possible. It's absolutely doable, and there are some advantages to having more creation types available even if it's not as good as sticking to one. I tend not to optimize my character very much - the game just gives you a lot of tools to get past difficult encounters.

Magic skill upgrades their ranged attack since that does magic damage.

Look, she's only grudgingly following you due to an ornk-racing incident, she's not gonna follow you all the way outside Drypeak territory 😛

It's in gf2auxdialogue.txt (Rhakkus can show up in 2 different parts in Benerii-Uss, so it's not in the normal location files).

Yeah, control is based on the number of creations you have, so the increase of party size isn't being accounted for.

It makes you start seeing ghosts.

They're set levels, I'm pretty sure. They aren't really meant to replace creations. Random aside - does anyone else think her character art is AI-generated? One of her legs is at a weird angle, there's a bizarre texture where she has a jumble of belts that intersect, and her sword doesn't appear to have a hilt - she's just holding the blade.

Takers require you to kill one leader to join them. It can be Zakary, but Pinner and Barzahl also work. It's basically just a loyalty test that you aren't event expected to succeed at. Pretty sure it was the same in the original.

No, there's no way to sabotage the mines. There isn't really even much reason to - the people actually doing the mining are the commons (you can see the miners by the mine entrance early in the game), so it's not really a pro-servile move to disrupt them. Drypeak also isn't an economic powerhouse that threatens the Awakened and even the Takers are fine with you completely ignoring Drypeak since they're basically a non-issue. Only Barzahl really wants you to take out Zakary and the loyalists.

Loaded a file where I just joined the Barzites. Looks like it's 3 times.

Yeah, Agents still want to have points in shaping, ideally (and focused in a single shaping school due to the point cost). You just wouldn't want to put every point in shaping.

Did you kill the named NPCs mentioned earlier? If you did, you should have gotten a line of text after killing them mentioning your helix ring absorbed the energy. There's still a second step you need to take however - you need to take it to an enchanted anvil (like the one in Drypeak Warrens), and combine it with Mandrake Tincture and Infernal Essence.

For what it's worth, there's a pretty big gulf between viable and optimal. Stuff like cryoas tend to come up short in comparison to other options you can have at your disposal (in the cryoa's case you're generally better off making more fyoras), but they're still perfectly adequate for beating the game, even on torment. And if you're not playing on torment, I'd say just go for what looks fun. As long as you don't do anything ridiculous like exclusively invest in melee/missile skills on a shaper, you should be able to clear the game just fine.

Your servile/shaper reputation. High means you agree with shaper ideals, low means you don't (and generally think serviles should be free). Affects your ability to join factions and some other stuff.

For what's it worth, you don't really need to hold on to them. He directs you to locations that have 10+ potted plants, and most of the tall potted plants aren't even accessible until you reach the second part of his quest (it adds a new dialogue option that opens them up)

Oh that's actually pretty significant since the gloves of spell mastery are excellent. Then again, joining the Takers before you reach Fort Muck seems pretty unlikely.

Murdering Pinner is never required, although that's one of the ways to complete the Taker's "Kill a Leader" entry quest.

I don't think you can rejoin any factions.

A lot of that guide doesn't really work for Infestation any more. Sabotaging a facility will now turn that faction's main city hostile. A lot of the rewards are different now too (letting the Eye sap your stats I think gives a pretty mediocre cloak)

If you have a barzite badge, you can bypass the fight even with canister usage, I believe.