Randomizer

Emissary and Sholai quests are independent of all factions so anyone can do them. They are some what against 
Shaper traditions.

There are 3 Perfect Glaahk Scales and 2 each Purified Essence and Claws of the Infernal, but some are hard to obtain from their current user.

 

Shaper Robe giving +2 to each Shaping type is the best in the game.

Most are not faction related if you have the Mechanics and living tools to get through the locked door. 

 

Everfrost Mine./Canister Factory  Essence Mastery canister is only available with the Sholai quest and must be taken during the quest or the door closes for good.

 

Emissary quest rewards only open when you successfully report that you captured an Infernal.

Artifacts:

Feisty Glove - maximum 4 augmentations - unarmed damage increased with strength

Improve with mandrake and infernal residue

-1st augmentation increased melee damage without weapon

- 2nd augmentation - daze added

- 3rd augmentation  - stun effect

 

Helix Ring (+2% physical and magical armor) - maximum 3 augmentations

Need to kill certain named NPCs while in inventory to charge

- Spells

—1st Augmentation - Battle Magic +1

— 2nd Augmentation  - Mental Magic +1

— 3rd Augmentation - Blessing Magic +1, +2 Creation Quick Action

-Shaping

—1st Augmentation - +30% faster creation cool downs

— 2nd Augmentation - +10% to creation melee and magical damage

—3rd Augmentation - +10% to creation magical damage resistance

- Physical attacks

— 1st Augmentation - +1 Melee weapons

— 2nd Augmentation - +1 Missile weapons

— 3rd Augmentation - 8% melee damage

 

Frosted Amulet:

Improve once with mandrake and infernal residue

- ice power to ice spells - essence lances and airshock to added 20% damage

- ice creation attacks (20% damage bonus to cryoas and crydrayks)

- ice power to melee attacks (20% chance of equal cold damage)

 

Sharon’s Ring 

- need Shard of Pure Crystal, Purified Essence, and Tendon of Rogue Dryak

— Infiltrator’s Ring - (+3 Agility, +2 Leadership, +2 Mechanics, +2 Stealth)

 

Lindian

- A Mighty Shield  - Perfect Glaahk scale, Black Crystal Powder, Purified Essence

— All-Protector (+10% to evade attacks, +2 Evasion, +10% creations chance to evade)

 

Learned Darrian

- Darian’s Breastplate - Perfect Glaahk Scale. Claws of Infernal, cured Battle Gamma skin (Mutant Gamma Flesh) - Slayer’s Chestguard (+10% damage to self and creation damage)

 

Learned Shath

- Shath’s Girdle - Claws of the Infernal, Deep Focus Orb, Blood Poison - XP 100 @ lvl 15 and Creator’s Belt (+10% creation physical armor and hit chance, +25% creation Mind Effects res., +20% creation Stun res.)

 

 

There more than enough useless canisters in the game that you can absorb and won't stop you from being a canister addict.

You can learn to create drays from both the Servants and Awakened. Servants have fewer quests and zones needed to get it.

More likely outdated intelligence since in the Taker Lands you get information that some drayks have Shaped themselves into drakons. Akkat is upset about not being upgraded to some extent.

Avadon is centrally located in the game map so you start there in the first game and slightly east in another, but go there soon.

 

Queen's Wish has the same start, but the second game does follow the pattern of stating in the southeast area and finishing for the final fight in the northwest, before going home.

The quest is described as three drayks, but I'll adjust.

It said "Nothing happened." so Jeff may have used a graphic from another game that was supposed to trigger something in that game like opening a passage in a wall. There are two versions of the plant pot graphic and it's likely Jeff used the wronging since he had problems with the anvil in the smithy being the Enchantment Anvil by mistake.

The gem merchant of the original now only sells herbs, no more place to sell gems. Same person and same location within Fort Muck.

Those fights, at least the early ones were toned down. The last one is something to not even consider doing until level 18. The resistances to stun and mental attacks make it really hard. I've always found luck played a big part in being able to start the fight with picking off and killing one before dealing with the rest.

E/A 1-3 and GF1 are the only real open worlds that Jeff made. After that he went to closed worlds with barriers to restrict players. It made it easier to balance the game so they didn't fight too many things above their level on normal difficulty. No more explore where you want until you die. If you were good at his games you could get through the difficult places and become powerful really early.

Puresteel is only good for that and selling. I'm guessing that Jeff might have planned another use since they replace puresteel rings. Maybe he was considering them for artifact crafting or he just wanted enough so you could get them easily.

"High-end crafting materials had a value of 0, because I didn’t want you to be able to sell them. But this was getting them marked as junk items. They now have a high cash value." - Jeff in beta b20 notes

Jeff seemed to make it 1400 XP per level, but I was only able to check up to level 24 because I was just about 100 XP reaching level 25 as a Barzite.

 

The rwspawned creations in Gaza-Uss seem to give no experience after wiping out a certain number. There are a few other things you can still kill above level 20 that give 20 XP like the Sholai leaders, Yu=La, and Grimwing. Basically anything with over 400 health gives decent XP.

It's what Jeff said during beta testing since they were zero value before they became high priced items. Someone must have complained for him to mention it and make a change.

There was a time when zero value items were being removed with the sell all. I don't know if that got changed, but ir was useful in removing true junk that accidentally got picked up in some container.

The high value ingredients was a change Jeff made to prevent them from being accidentally sold if you forgot to remove them from the junk bag.

 

I had one complaint near the end when playing a Shaper, all the inventory slots taken by charms since almost all of them are for creations. You really need more slots for pods and spores, swappable mechanics and leadership items, and ammunition, but you fixed that problem. I could fill up all the slots with "needed" items and then need to place some on the ground in order to swap out items from the junk bag to store instead of sell all.

Drypeak is filled with plant research, so adding a book somewhere to mention it would have been easy.

The benefit of quicklash is that you get a guaranteed second action. While I've seen 4 spell attacks in a round repeatedly with Gloves of Spell Mastery, you can't count on it. Sam with all the other chance second attacks.

 

It's like quick action for a melee guardian. Sometimes you go with the guaranteed action instead of risking getting one when you really need it.

Agents even as Loyalist are great. It may be harder in places. The key is to take advantage of high damaging spells taking out lots of foes like airshhock and using quick lash to get an extra attack.

 

Jeff tweaked some things since I tried battle shaping, but it seemed effective even on torment difficulty. Using iron claw bug and rothghroths for their range AoE attacks made a big difference. It's harder to get them in melee in several places because of barriers. That tuff of grass in the swamp meant I couldn't leap to target.

I remember it being you could do both quests with Teriel and then having him disappear immediately after turning in his quest in later betas. Jeff kept tweaking that infernal to block how I was doing it. He especially hated using airshock from distance to wipe him out without taking damage.

 

Barrier of the Winds doors aren't that bad once you do the Clockwork Maze and get Infiltrator's Ring to get Mechanics over 12. Plus there is plenty of decent loot if you aren't an Awakened.

 

You only need skill points to get Mechanics to 6 and use items and the book for more.

Also if you do the Kill Tuldaric quest for Infernal Teriel, once you turn it in he leaves so you can never kill 4 infernal for the Emissary.

Wyx is hard to fight because at that level you rarely can hit and he resists most negative effects like slow and stun.

 

Agents can get through the game as a solo, so you shouldn't have that essence problem. As Slarti said, you have to play him differently with approaching slowly to pick off foes and not jump into battle. Take advantage of daze and later dominate to reduce your active foes in a fight. Use some crystals and wands to damage foes before hitting them with a spell. Also when you have essence you can buff yourself before engaging in a fight since it's easier for an agent to have it last longer.