Shaper_Mario

I got mirror conversations at 25 and 50 days telling me to finish up and come home. There could very well be conversations at 75 and 100 days, but I can't confirm or deny that.

I wanted to let everyone know that if they pick Yvette to stay governor and talk with her again, she gives you a pretty hefty bribe of resources. I didn't save the amount of resources that she gives you, unfortunately, but it helped me keep a buffer of resources in the endgame.

I have some questions about the endgame. I approved of Yvette and Aato, but I had a fairly strong Ro Reputation overall and I found the ending pretty satisfying. I think I would do things differently with the governors on another playthrough to see what changes the ending.

I think if targets in stasis couldn't be knocked back it would be absurdly overpowered instead of regular overpowered. It can definitely trivialize some fights, or at least buy you enough time to kill some enemies. It's probably for the best that it's not that good against dragons and drakes. Edit: You can put your party members in stasis too, but it checks stun resistance and isn't very useful if you've been building it up. Saving a party member is nice, but getting stunlocked is extremely annoying and I think that Teleport is a better way to get your enemies out of danger.

I'd like to mention that Bonds of the Fae is a niche but very good skill. Creating a skeleton and putting it into stasis right next to enemies draws a lot of fire, and being able to take an enemy out of the fight for a while is really nice. Heck, if you can put an enemy into stasis in front of larger monsters, that can jam the field for a good while. The only thing to keep in mind is that monsters in stasis can still be knocked back, so it's not as good against Ka-Boars and Drakes. Also, is there any way to get those blue flaming spheres that cause slow, or is that just an enemy only skill? That would be worth an extra skill point if it works.

The thing I was hurting for most by the end was money. I belt plenty of mills and bakeries, but crafting and upgrading my gear definitely took a toll on my finances. Did anyone else feel a bit pinched on cash while playing? I guess one thing I should have done was sell more charms as they stopped being useful, and there are a few monsters that I could have killed for their hoards.

I was able to finish the game on normal in 65 days. I rushed to the ending after answering every petition, so I think it would probably take 10 or 15 more days to complete fully.

You have to make your way to the south until you can fight and kill a boss shade. This is a pretty tough quest to fulfill because of the infinite illusions and the boss's massive physical evasion. Some ways to make it easier is having a character with teleport or being able to distract the illusionary shades with skeletons and other summons. All of the illusions disappear a bit after killing the boss.

This is great work. Thanks for this guide, Davies.

Ah, but those are Edit: Thanks for the info, Mechalibur. That stuff is really helpful, and I'm curious how well or poorly my decisions are going to affect my ending.

For the Low Dhaga, have you been That's an issue that can really impact your theft levels. If you've been dedicating forts to the Ro, there are some things you can craft that reduce your theft rate a bit. I'd be interested in a Geneforge style reputation guide when we know more about how the game works. I know a few things about it, but it would be nice to know what affects gameplay or your endings.

Hey, all. This is a simple question, but I was wondering if, in future games, it would be worthwhile for me to put multiple points in Summon Brute. Brute Flasks were a disappointment for me since they have 50% resistance to Mental effects and can be poisoned. A lot of why I use Skeletons and Sapphire Skeletons is because they're immune to both statuses and can buy a lot of time against Monstrosities and Nagas. That said, Summon Brute doesn't require any investment in the magic tree and and can be upgraded twice. Are level 2 Brutes worthwhile for a character who doesn't have much magic training? I'm wondering if devoting forts to knowledge is worth it for future runs.

Curses are things like Slow, Weakness and Vulnerability. It's not always apparent what is and isn't a curse - stunning and mental effects have their own resistances to overcome, as do bleed and poison.

It's really interesting to hear how everyone is playing the game. How much of a region does everyone explore before moving on? For example, I usually explore Ukat until I get to Gannelspan and move on from The Vol after getting passage through the Thablen Gates. I always like to make it to Medici in the Ahriel woods before I move on so that I can take on the Watcher's quest and finish it as soon as possible, and I can't imagine doing that before exploring the other two regions a bit.

You can find the wagon with the papers in

Ukat/Vol/Ahriel is probably the best order. I'm weirdly interested in trying the Ahriel first and going to Ukat sometime even though it's not anywhere near optimal. It really depends on what potions, runes and augments you unlock at 4 apothecaries to see if it can be worthwhile.

It feels like there's a small bug in the Volcanic Beast fight. Often when it's the Beast's turn, I hear the sound that most knockback attacks make after even when it doesn't attack at all. It's hard to explain what's happening - it can buff itself and pass the turn, for example, and that sound effect still plays. Nothing major, but I wanted to bring it to your attention.

It feels like the first region that you choose to visit is one of the most important choices in the game for mechanical reasons. Since each gives you a different resource and type of PC, building your first fort in Ukat makes for a very different early-to-mid game compared to building in the Vol or the Ahriel Woods. I was wondering which areas everyone built their first fort at from a strategy perspective. In my playthroughs I alternated between Ukat and Vol as my first regions. Ukat gives you Iron, the rarest resource, but Ukat PC abilities aren't as generically useful as Tower of Might for Vol and you need a lot of Stone for construction and making money with Mills, Bakeries and Distilleries. Plus, Vicious Strikes is a complete dud in areas with nothing but Undead or bleeding immune enemies. I haven't built my first fort in the Ahriel ever, so I don't know what it would be like other than the start being harder than the other two regions. Being able to build an apothecary in each of the first regional forts sounds like a great way to rush useful potions, though, and Mindsteal is a great crowd control ability against most humanoid enemies. Does anyone have thoughts on this topic?

I wonder if the royal wouldn't be best if they're trained as a Combat/Magic type spellblade. Raw Power gives you a lot of Energy to cast the Haven skills, and going through the magic tree gives you skills like Time Warp, Call Bones and Terror for more crowd control. Surgeon and Duration Augments could be helpful if you go this support route to up the healing and make Haven's Might last for long, grindy boss fights.

The last fight was frustrated me a lot on Veteran, because once the enemies came close enough with 2 or more Battle Frenzy levels my party members started dropping faster than I could revive them. I eventually dropped the difficulty of my last run to Normal so I could beat it without compromising my ending. Of course, I admit that I probably wasn't playing optimally and that I would probably have given my party different skills and potions knowing what I do now about how it plays out. Serves me right not to keep a save file outside the final dungeon. I enjoyed both of my playthroughs a lot, and I'd love to do another one to make other choices and get a full Veteran win. I'll just have to plan for the difficulty spike.

That's a great change. I like the idea of Silence, but a lot of the enemies I want to silence are too mentally resistant or have innate abilities that Silence won't block. It's nice to have options besides Stunning Shot and assorted curses for enemies with nasty AOEs.

I kind of understand why Havenites have no Cultural skills. The story emphasizes that Haven can't conquer a place without local aid, and from a gameplay perspective it adds some decisions about where place your first fort. Still, I hope that there are non-royal cultural skills for Havenites in the next game so that we have more real choices in party building.

I think that Bludgeon Senseless deserves a mention. Weakness and Slow are both good statuses against bosses and large enemies, and Confusion is a nice cherry on top of the status sundae. If you get even one use of Vulnerability out of the confusion then you've more than gotten your energy's worth, and I've had extremely welcome Stuns and Fear activations on top of that. All of the Confusion stuff is bias from the times it worked out, but anything that slows enemies is worth a shot if they have high stun resistance.

Great, thank you very much. I got my Room 2 dream in the Refuge of the Fens, so I'll see what the other ones have for me when I get the time. I really want to see what's in Room 3...

I've been resting in the various Nisse Refuges and I got my first Room 2 dream. I'm interested in getting more dreams, since the one I got lowers my theft percentage and I would like to get the achievement for dreaming. That said, I don't know what mechanics control how often you can rest at a Refuge and I don't know if the special dreams are unique or not. Does anyone know the system behind these?