Magenta

p.s, Lord Backael has put together a pretty good guide here - should it be linked in Strategy Central?

I avoided the rogue area, and only cleared enough mines to get to the incineration chamber. I don't remember if I ran into the two mines that don't disable, but in my previous run I just took the hit and healed. That was on Normal though, not torment. There is a door west of the incineration chamber that leads to the door east of oroboros. If you go in that way, you can go out the same way.

When you can cast it, Dominate is fun with clawbugs. Charm some of them and watch them duke it out with each other. Brings a smile to my face every time. Friendly fire is less of an issue when facing fyora or vlish, who like to keep their distance, so it's easier to avoid hitting your own party. It's when you get a bunch of leaping lunatic thahds that all want to get up in your face that make it harder to get in the right spot for an aoe attack. otoh, when they aren't swarming, it's darn accommodating of the thahds to leap right up to the melee guardian so he can dispatch them without needing to chase them down. I suppose that will change when they start doing knockbacks. Don't let my learning curve discourage you. I could kick myself for forgetting about friendly fire. Randomizer gave me some good advice (Thanks!) and I think I'm getting the hang of it. I also learned that even though the guardian is weak at magic, he can still cast Daze. This helps to slow down the swarm, if you cast it before they get to you. I'm up to level 6 now, and my fyora is a lot less likely to go berserk. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks! I'll keep my li'l buddy and work on better placement. And maybe visit the shops for more spores to keep him healthier and still have AP for combat.

Yowtch! Sometimes knowing something and experiencing it are two different things. I'm playing Veteran difficulty for the first time. I usually play Normal, but well, there's these medals.... And it's always good to expand your horizons from time to time anyway. I have a Guardian at level 4, with one Fyora at level 6. I got swarmed in Ruined School, so without even thinking, I had the Fyora launch its cone attack. Bad idea. I forgot about friendly fire at higher difficulty levels. At that point, of course, the guardian was in the thick of things and got hit as well. At least I think that's what happened. It was all so fast. Lesson learned. "THINK before launching that aoe attack." To make matters worse, the little guy then went rogue and started attacking my guardian and it was all over. It's clear I have a lot to learn about veteran combat. My thought in having a creation with an aoe attack was to supplement the guardian's lack of it. But this is not helpful if there are very limited circumstances where you can use it. And it seems the risk of it going rogue is higher than I expected. (The fyora was not badly damaged at the time). So based on risk vs reward, I'm thinking I might want to ditch the fyora until the guardian is high enough level to better control. But that leaves me very few options when I am seriously outnumbered, and with leap ability, the thahds are always going to be in your face. Or maybe I should keep the fyora, but with lower endurance so it is lower level and thus easier to control? I had bumped the endurance because I was spending a lot of action points healing instead of fighting. Seems getting the right balance is going to take a little more finesse at this level. Am I thinking on the right track here? Or is there something else I haven't thought of? I'll go ahead and try some things, but I'll also welcome any tips or advice.

Or to put it another way, I think it's to give you more of a 3-D appearance. Think about trying to draw a cube. If you draw it straight with the world, it just looks like a square because you only see one side. If you draw it rotated a little, where you can see more sides, it looks a whole lot more like a cube. But the minimap is always square with the world, so I look there If I want to know what direction something really is.

Aha. So that's what Clakkit is talking about when you ask him about crimes. It's more than just stealing. Thanks!

Forgive my ignorance. I see this several places in the list. I know what opinion is, but what does action +3 mean?

Got it. So I bump both melee and missile until I get enough for the spectral dirk, and then emphasize strength and maybe some more missile. I'll let you know how it goes. I've only barely gotten started on my guardian run, and it looks like I might be a little short on time the next week or so, but I'm on my way. I take a lot of notes, too. I don't know how much that adds to the play time, but it's not insignificant.

It took me about two weeks. I know, that's not what you wanted to know. To put it in perspective, my shaper run before that took about 3 weeks. It's hard to translate that to hours, because some days I play a few hours, some days I play all day, and some days I don't get a chance to play at all. And I get distracted a lot. But based on comments I've seen on this forum, I think it takes me a lot longer to play than a lot of people. I take my time and enjoy the experience. I have never finished a game in 20 or 40 hours, and I don't think I will ever try. I finished at level 13, which is roughly 2/3 of a normal combat finish at level 20, so that is consistent with the play time. With the FSG, did you still need to bump melee, or just strength?

Yep. they show up pretty quickly. After learning that the hard way, I moved away from the control panel toward the exit while she was taking the hits from the incinerator. Then I stayed in combat mode so her pets could only move 8 spaces at a time, and hightailed it out of there. Didn't even stop to pick up the robe she dropped, though I might have had time.

Oh, I've seen that thread. It might be just what I need after a round of not being able to smack down anything. I think I'll give it a try. As for that final cockatrice fight, it's hard to imagine doing that as a solo anything. Not that I won't try some time. Of course I will.

I intentionally held off on reading this topic until I tried a pacifist run myself. I really like your write-up. It was concise enough to not take forever to read, but clear enough to be very helpful. I missed some things you mentioned, but I also found a few things in addition to what you covered. A couple have already been mentioned here, but I thought I would pass on one more that, if I recall correctly, should net some pretty good chunks of XP. I usually play on normal, so this might not work on to a torment run. You can clear Ascended Labs. To do this, first sneak past the "greeting committee" at the entrance, to talk to the serviles there and get the quest to kill the cockatrice. Enter the door to the back area, and sneak past the beta/clawbug/artila guards. There's a building you can cut through to make this a little easier. Go west past the cockatrice and find the battle alphas. Assuming you have enough leadership, you will wake them and they will attack the bird. Support them with some heal and cure, and collect the gleaming feather when the deed is done. The feather gives you access to Barrens Research. Here you will find Yu-La, who is the quest target of one of the shapers in the Eastern docks. You can also get a quest from Alonzo to kill Oroboros in the Barrens Bunker, which you can do with 11 leadership (find the incineration chamber and lead her there). You can also do part of Mind Swanwick's requests, but not the last one. I don't remember how much XP you get in total from all these quests, but it's probably enough that this path is well worth following. I'd be curious to know if this works on torment as well.

I have to say being a pacifist was not my favorite way to play the game. In fact, it was a bit painful. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy using leadership/mechanics/stealth approaches during a normal playthrough. I just found it frustrating at times to be in a position where it would be so much easier to just thin out the mob a little. Or to take care of the beasties yourself rather than sheepishly lead them to someone else to handle. But the medal was not given for doing it the easy way. I learned a lot from the experience, especially about using stealth. And I finished more quests and cleared more areas than I thought would be possible without fighting. I'm a pretty mediocre player, so for me, this was really a big accomplishment. So I'm glad I did it. Now I have this uncontrollable urge to load up a guardian build and go out and kick some butt....

Whenever I am going through an area, and come across an exit, I usually step out the exit and then come back. Even if you don't actually go there, it causes the next area to show up on your map. Makes it easier to spot places you haven't been yet.

I don't think you get the "too high level" message every time. Maybe only the first time you fail to get XP for that type or level or area?

Does anyone besides me think it strange that big round balls are called box mines? Did they look different in the original release? Just curious.

Good point. And another newby tip I thought of - 'a' (action) will open a dialog with list of actions you can take, such as using spells, wands, or crystals. 'g' (get) will open the inventory box so you can pick up or drop items. And 'f' will start or end combat. There are other keyboard shortcuts that I can never remember, but I use tab, g, a, and f a lot.

Hang in there - things will start to fall in place. One suggestion - if you have not done so already, check your settings and be sure you are on the easiest difficulty level, at least until you get the hang of things. There is no shame in playing a casual game, and you can change it back and forth any time without starting over. Food is worthless in this game. I don't even pick it up. Only certain towns will recharge your health and essence. Vakkiri is the first one you encounter. Ellrah's Keep is another. There are more, but that should get you started. Some more newby tips, in case you haven't discovered them yet: Press the tab key and look around. Objects you can interact with are highlighted. A label will show on all nearby characters - friendly ones have a green label, neutral is blue and hostile is red. Press the 't' key to bring up a text box with a log of certain interactions and the like. Right click on any character to learn a little about that character. Don't pick up anything marked NY. It is Not Yours, and the locals don't take kindly to stealing. Later you will learn when and how you can get by with stealing, but for now, you don't want to tick off the only friendly town you can get to. Be sure to talk to everyone who is friendly. This is how you learn about what is going on, get quests to do, and experience the story. It might help to go through the tutorial again, in case you missed something the first time. You can save the game where you are now, start a new game, and do the first two levels again. Then you can continue on from there, or reload the previous game from the save file. I hope this helps. Once you get past the initial learning curve, you will probably love the game. Soon you will find yourself thinking more about the story, and less about the mechanics of how to play. Last but not least, don't be afraid or embarrassed to ask questions.

Right. I do spread the piles out a little, so when I'm looking at pods & spores, I'm not distracted by wands or thorns. I've even been known to pick up trash and drop it somewhere else, just to get it out of the way. In the original game I liked to use Abandoned Vale because there was lots of room to spread out the piles, and it never went hostile. But you can't pull things out of the junk bag there, so...

If you have ever spent multiple trips schlepping loot from the area you just cleared, walking to a merchant's shop, clicking on each individual item you want to sell, and then going back for more, you really appreciate the concept of the junk bag. When you finish clearing an area, you probably want to go to a friendly town to recharge anyway, so pick the one where you are dropping your keepers. If you sell your junk regularly, it just takes a moment to pick out the treasures before heading to a merchant to get rid of the rest (without needing to click each item individually, btw). If you let the junk pile up before selling, then it takes a little longer to go through it, but still not much time. I don't worry about finding a container for the keepers. I just leave it in piles near the entrance. Nobody bothers it. One suggestion though, is to pick the home base that corresponds to the sect that you want to join, as it will not go hostile. That said, I still struggle with what items to carry in my 25 inventory slots. I'm just happy I don't have to keep slots open for loot. Almost everything I pick up goes into the junk bag until I get back "home" to sort it out. Beyond that, I just remind myself that every game has its limits, and part of the game is figuring out how to make the best of the limits. If you just throw everything in your pack because you don't know what might be useful, then you may need to learn more about what is the most useful for your character and his/her abilities. At least that's what I keep telling myself. And remember, if you go into an area and realize you needed that green spore baton you left at home, you can always go back for it.

Thanks a million. I think I'm ready to give it whirl...

Thanks, Randomizer. One more question - Is there any reason at all to have creations for a pacifist run, since there will be no combat? Sounds like I should go for the solo medal at the same time?

I did this as a shaper, and I'm pretty sure I did not attack any pylons. I did have some stealth, but probably not a lot. I don't remember the exact details, but it went something like this: First of all, I went in solo, because creations would just get in harm's way. Since we are encouraged to make and remake creations for different situations, I figure it is also ok for a shaper to go without them for certain situations. In combat mode, sneak or run past the first few pylons. If you get hit, make the best use of your AP by moving seven spaces and then heal. When you get to the big room, there is a place you can hide and reach a control panel. Here you open three doors, which releases some rogues. While the pylons attack the rogues, hightail it to the NW, hiding behind obstacles when you can. Find the power spiral and use it to disable the pylons. Then you can bring back your creations and explore the building safely. I hope I remembered this right. Good luck!

Hi there, Long time lurker, first time poster. The OG Geneforge series is one of my all-time favorites, so I was excited when the first remake was released. I just finished my first playthrough and really like the changes in this version. For my next run, I'm eager to try to play as a Pacifist. (Gotta earn those medals, right?) I have some questions in my mind about what constitutes a hostile act, and what does not. I assume that just entering combat mode is not a problem. Can you use spells like Daze since they do no actual damage? (I'm guessing no) What about creating a volatile thahd and dispatching it to explode some mines? Or some enemies? Can you do things that indirectly cause harm to an enemy if you are not attacking them directly? Example: causing a power spiral to explode and a nearby enemy takes damage? Or getting help from NPCs as long as you do not fire a shot yourself? I'm sure there must be areas that you just can’t turn green because they require combat. How much of a problem is this for navigation? Can you still turn enough green to go from place to place as needed? It would be painful repeatedly thread your way through a combat-required area. Do you gain fewer levels since you take out fewer enemies? This would make it harder to get those precious skill points, but maybe you don’t need as many if you do no combat? Any other tips that would be helpful? I know there is another thread that describes very specifically how to do this, but I intentionally did not read it (yet). I like to try to solve things myself first before checking the spoilers to see how I could have done it better. So tell me it's ok to do X as a pacifist, but don't tell me that X will get you through zone Y under what circumstances. Many thanks!