Randomizer

It appears that the unsettled lands in the areas near Fort Emergence are controlled by the Empire, but inhabited by Avernites. The Empire never gives up control of anything they get. Empire traders come down to the caves for the same reasons all other businessmen do, cut out the middlemen to increase profits. Avernum 5 goes into it more, but basically there are certain items that are available in the caves that can be sold for a major profit in the Empire. By going directly to the source they can better control the supply and prevent rivals from being able to cut into their trade.

It's probably easier to use an older save. Killing people outdoors causes negative reprecussions and you miss most of the quests. There might be a cheat code, but I couldn't find a reference using search or the hint book.

Avernum 5 does give you two sides for a change. Support the old evil Empire (Darkside Loyalists) or the new more enlighten evil Empire (Empress Prazac). Either way you get to kick around worms in "self defense." Avernum 6 - your a peasant conscipted into the war, now pick a side.

I suggested smaller sections of the main map.

You can store the games in separate folders. If you have saved games, then the new version will use the existing saved games instead of creating a blank set of files.

The bonemaster along the Dark River is interesting. Don't waste attacks on him. Kill the dancing bones until they are all gone and he then attacks you. You can damage him then, but he does a lot of damage.

The porticullis are supposed to remain down so you can't repeat the test.

Consider it a timer so stay in fight mode as much as possible to speed things up.

There are two routes out of the Vahnatai Lands. First is fighting through the East Gate and making Thalants hostile (gain a knowledge brew). The second is going below Kherebass in the northwest corner past the golems and fighting your way through bats, spiders, a demon, and some shrubbery. This has lots of treasure and you can go back using pylons and/or secret passage to Thalants. I recommend both after you no longer need Thalants to maximize your return.

Having fought Hrickis with both sets of traits and a few others, I couldn't tell the difference with or without parry. Using the editor is more efficient. I thought parry was just against physical. If you make it to chapter 7, there are blessed breastplates that don't encumber for base 34% armor plus magery +2 or extra energy resistance. I'm almost done with chapter 1 having only the unstable mass, the altar demon, and the golem to finish. I'm finding that spray acid is more useful than I thought since in the past I just raised spellcraft to one shot monsters with bolt of fire, smite, or repel spirit. Using summoned creatures as delaying obstacles allows me to retreat while waiting for Marrowbones to weaken to terrorized state so I could finish him off without closing. Edit - I finished Chapter 1 with the following stats: values in parentheses are with items - bonding knife, numble sandals, girdle of intelligence, tribal charm Level 14 - 6 skill points Health (95), Spell Energy 131 (131) Strength 3 (2) Dexterity 2 (2) Intelligence 8 (8) Endurance 3 (7) Melee weapons 0 Pole weapons 0 Bows 5 Thrown weapons 7 Quick Action 0 Mage spells 6 Priest spells 4 Arcane Lore 0 Spellcraft 1 Hardiness 1 Defense 0 Tool use 7 Nature Lore 0 First Aid 0 Luck 2 Parry 3 Blademaster 7 Anatomy 1 (piercing gloves) Gymnastics 2 Magery 4 Sharpshooter 4 I went with some missle skills so I could have battle disciplines of well aimed blow and shield breaker to speed up combat. It also makes all those javelins useful earlier in the game where I can do real damage with them. I forgot to mention to Slarty, the weapons trainer in chapter 4 requires you to kill a monster that causes you to lose a round when it hits or at least severely drains AP. Have fun with that.

About two rounds after getting the curse, one of four basins (blue pools) fills and you can get it removed by drinking. The original version was everyone got death cursed at once. Which made for an interesting fight as well as winning but dying to the curse. Note other death curses require different means of removal.

It's okay as treasure depending how early in the game you do it. However once you do it, Shaydar is always hostile and cheat codes won't fix it. With that warning, first you need Anama rings either by joining or buying them from the Thieves' Guild. Then the treasury is on the upper floor of the Temple in Shaydar behind a secret door in the south east. Then a few traps, some monster guardians, and fight your way out of a hostile city.

Spoiler - At least one stand to the north has no orb Two orbs are sparkling on the diagonal No sparkles are the same color A sparkling orb on the north is not red At least one orb to the south doesn’t sparkle were what I got as messages I used - NW no orb NE green SW red SE no sparkle

Keep looking around the areas to the north of Melanchion's Keep. The Circle of Life cult have a place and Vyck mentions that they have the route that you want. "Too bad" you have to fight them for it. *snicker*

Quote: Originally written by Gniknus: And weren't the Sholai themselves weakened in G1, after the failed expedition? The Sholai sent an envoy in GF3 to find out what happened to their expedition. The aren't a major military force or that was the image that they were trying to project by pretending to be a trade mission. Let's see, a three ship trade fleet with many mages. Hmmm.

Quote: Originally written by Sleeping Dragon: [QBAlso, I left Dervish Tholmen alive after my first encounter with him, and it didn't seem to help me later. I just had to fight him again when entering Darkside loyalist lands (I was anti-loyalist). What would have been different if I had killed him?[/QB] If you are pro-Darkside loyalist, haven't attacked Ruth, and do Tholmen's quest to Free Belichick, then you can get training from him at Dorikas' Fortress extremely cheap and some of them are only available here. If you are anti-Darkside Loyalist, then you get to fight another Dervish named Kelehr and inside the fortress is Dervish Ximes.

Wait until you get to chapter 8 and the Circle of Life cult. Jeff placed inaccessible rooms (they appear on the map in the hint book) with plenty of useless buttons (levers). You go crazy thinking that maybe the access is from the lower level and keep going back and forth looking for it.

Synergy mentioned luring out a guard from the patrol to kill him. The archers on the wall are nastier doing about 50 damage on torment. I suppose it's possible to clear the area in self defense without hurting the game.

More likely is that Jeff decides to update the older games to a new engine like Avernum is a remake of Exile.

Kind of curious if the damage reduction from parry plus the occasional actual parry can allow a singleton to survive. I know in the later part of the game that parry is the only thing that helps versus AP draining monsters in long fights. In theory the damage reduction from parry is only slightly less than using better armor from natural mage. The extra levels of blademaster allow me to occasionally use a weapon without weapon skills. This is pretty much just an experiment until I get back to running a duo.

I beat it on torment, but I waited until I had done some of chapter 4 and had a few more levels. The wand of death that the shaman coughs up is really helpful in doing major damage especially when coupled with someone using shield breaker first and then mighty blow to multiply the damage. Key way to survive is to only send one person to pin the Horror down and send others only to remove the death curse. Stay back and send some summoned creatures in to help keep it back. It takes lots of reloads and is probably the hardest boss fight for the party's level when they first encounter it. I'm pretty sure Synergy's singleton defeated it in normal.

If you don't ring the gong and kill the monsters, then it doesn't count.

Synergy ran a singleton with just priest spells on normal through the first 3 chapters. I don't know if he continued into chapter 4. Slarty has made it into chapter 3 on torment. I'm starting a new one (nephil elite warrior divine touch) on torment.

One series of buttons leads to 2 skeletal warriors that drop a girdle of strenght. There is another button hidden behind a pillar that opens a pit where a goblin appears. You need to figure out what to do with the goblin in order to finish the trial. Hint - repeated killing it isn't the answer.

There is a pylon on the west side of Melanchion's Keep just south of the entrance. There is a one way passage from the Circle of Life cult back into the Azure Gallery. If you haven't gone past the rapids, there is an underground way back to the north of where you meet Ruth, but I never tried it from that direction since the scripted combats are designed for the other direction. There is a lever opening an secret door that leads to the lower level of Thalants in the room where you fight Torum, Lord of the Bats.