Av3: how to get all NPC's by day 8

[EvilEye]

I wrote this today after finally finding the trigger event for recruiting Miranda.

 

The purpose of this guide is to:

 

Get Miranda at the beginning of the game.

Get all 4 npc's within 8 game days.

All on Torment difficulty.

 

Basically I was looking for a way to get Miranda at the very beginning of the game. She's one of the best NPC's, and it would be awesome if you could start the game with her and the 3 other NPC's.

 

There is actually only 1 requirement to getting Miranda to join you. Bring down the giant / troglo barrier. That's it. You don't need to be able to enter the footracer province, and you don't need a high reputation. Also once the barrier is down you can go into Gale and get Carol ( requires 50 reputation ). Then with Carol and Miranda the slime quest is easily finished, which will allow Falko to join.

 

So the question now is, how do we bring down the giant / troglo barrier after just starting the game? There are tons of hard enemies in our way, including a doom guard!

 

The answer is... Hsska with invulnerability potions and heroic brews.

 

Yes it's all possible. Without cheating, and on Torment difficulty.

 

I get the money for the potions by going after the easily available high value items and selling them, but you could, of course, do the courier quest at Libras. I didn't do that because it's kind of cheesy.

 

 

THE METHOD

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First thing we gotta do is get Hsska. Hsska is a much stronger fighter then we will have for a long time. He is also a great Priest. We will need him to get our 3 other NPC's.

 

To get Hsska we must fight some fairly tough chitrachs in Upper Avernum. Not to worry, we can make new characters that can handle those beasts with ease. So let's get started.

 

Start a new game. Make 2 slith pole fighters with 4 strength, 5 dexterity, 5 pole weapons, 6 defense and 2 hardiness. Give them each the divinely touched and elite warrior traits.

 

Next make 2 nephil mages with 5 intelligence, 7 mage spells and 1 priest spells. Give them divinely touched and natural mage.

 

I play on Torment and this guide assumes you are playing on Torment difficulty. It will of course be much easier if you play on a lower difficulty.

 

Now start the game. Skip the into ( or watch it if you want ).

 

You're in Fort Emergence. Loot the room and walk out into the courtyard. Now go out the gate and over the bridge to the surface of avernum. Walk outside until you get the 3 dialog boxes. Now go back into Fort Emergence.

 

Go into Anaximander's room. A bunch of dialog boxes will pop up. Now head to levy and get your weekly allowance of 25 gold.

 

Head into the main storeroom. There are 3 boxes toward the door on the right. One box holds some chain mail, and another one holds some fine leather. Push those two boxes into a room with noone around, close the door and steal the contents.

 

Now go into the side storeroom and take all the items.

 

Head towards the bottom gate. Go to the left of the gate and take the unidentified rock which is on the ground. Have Habecker identify it for you. It's a rough diamond. Cha-Ching!

 

Head out the lower gate into upper avernum.

 

Approach the guards outside and tell them about the surface for +1 reputation.

 

Reputation = 21

 

*NOTE* I should mention at this time, if you get in a battle, do NOT use any special skills like berserk or divine aid. You will be needing these shortly and I will tell you when to use them.

 

Head to New Cotra. Head south-west and take out the ice slime in the corner.

 

Enter New Cotra.

 

Talk to the mayor in the tavern and tell him you defeated the ice slime. He will give you 300 gold.

 

gold = 455

reputation = 22

 

Talk to Nance and tell her about the surface, she will tell you about a mind crystal in her room. This part is optional, but I always get the mind crystal so might as well do it now.

 

Now talk to Elspeth the blacksmith and sell all the stuff you picked up so far, except the mind crystal if you got it.

 

gold = 950

 

Go to the alchemist and buy 1 invulnerability potion and 2 haste potions. Do NOT use these potions until I tell you to. You don't need them for a long while.

 

Now go buy the boat from Gointz.

 

Get on the boat and head up to New Formello and exit the boat.

 

Don't bother going into New Formello, instead head south-west to a cavern where there are chitrachs guarding a body ( and the amber shield ).

 

Kill them all. There are 6 battles total. The last 2 are the hardest. The first 4 should be easy, and you shouldn't need to use any special abilities. Save the special abilities for the last 2 waves. The last 2 waves will have null bugs, these are pretty tough for your level. I suggest having one warrior use berserk and divine aid for each of the two final battles. Have your mages cast haste, heal and ice lances. With berserk, divine aid and haste you should tear up the null bugs even on Torment difficulty. You may have to reload a few times on the last 2 battles, sometimes the bugs get a lucky hit or two.

 

Once you win all 6 battles take the amber shield and head to New Formello.

 

Talk to Ahsoth in the building and get the quest to help out the sliths.

 

Now talk to Commander Ace and tell him you destroyed the chitrachs.

 

Go back to Ahsoth and get your reward.

 

reputation = 25

 

Now delete a character to make room for Hsska. I prefer to recruit Hsska in the last row to give him natural mage, but put him wherever you like. Recruit Hsska.

 

Give Hsska the amber shield and the invulnerability and haste potions. Also give him any decent equipment you picked up. Strip everyone else of their equipment and sell it.

 

gold = 201

 

You should now have Hsska with the amber shield, and his starting equipment. He should also have 2 haste potions and 1 invulnerability potion. He might also have the mind crystal if you picked it up in New Cotra. Everything else should be sold and the other characters should be naked.

 

Hsska is now your main fighter. We will keep the others around for just a wee-bit longer.

 

Go out of New Formello and hop on your boat.

 

Head to the east and north up the stream untill you come to a waterfall. There should be a tunnel to the west with lots of poison patches. Go west into the tunnel and take the polearm at the end. This will spawn a shambler in back of you. Go into battle with the shambler, and have your naked characters charge it. Use their special abilities and cast haste on Hsska with a mage if you still have one. Have Hsska cast bless on himself. While the shambler beats on your naked characters, have Hsska attack it. We don't care if it kills the naked characters, because we are going to delete them anyway. The shambler should fall after 4 hits from Hsska.

 

Once the shambler is dead delete all your characters except Hsska. We don't need them and battles will be simpler with just one character.

 

Head back to your boat and go south just above New Cotra.

 

Go on shore and head to the west and slightly north. There should be a cavern with a fake wall at the north. Head through the fake wall and you will come upon a nephil village. ATTACK!

 

Cast bless on Hsska and kill the nephil magic users first with your ice lances spell. If Hsska gets low on health have him cast healing. You should be in no serious danger in this fight providing you heal every so often and keep yourself blessed.

 

Once you kill all the nephil, gather up the most expensive stuff and make sure you leave room for 1 item in your inventory. Usually they drop a few unid rings, make sure you pick those up.

 

Exit combat and search the village and take the bracelet.

 

Now go back in your boat and head east.

 

Leave the boat near Ghirkra and head back to the south.

 

You may run into some bandits, if you do slay them.

 

Head to the fork in the road with a sign. Now head west along the wall, there is a secret passage leading to a body. You will probably fight some giant lizards but they are a pushover. Search the body for some papers and head back to Fort Emergence.

 

Talk to Thereza who is wandering around in the middle area. Tell her about the papers you just found.

 

reputation = 27

 

Now talk to Habecker and have him identify your stuff. Equip the strength bracelet and the radiant slith spear.

 

Now head outside to avernum. You will probably run into some slimes. Kill them they should be easy.

 

Head to Krizan.

 

Go to the blacksmith Jinx and sell all the excess stuff you looted from the nephil village.

 

gold = 967

 

Now head out the west gate and search along the north wall. There should be a secret passage with a ring and a few iron bars. Take them and head to Fellows in the south east building. Get the quest to find his ring and give his ring to him. He gives you a lucky charm. Equip it.

 

Now go sell those iron bars.

 

gold = 995.

 

Head outside Krizan and to the east and loot the cache ( wand of bolts ) just east of Silvar. Head over the bridge and go into the Colchis Ruins. Head to the south west and talk to the spirit in the hidden passage in the building. Now go to the pillar and get the necklace.

 

Head out of Colchis and keep going east and slightly north. You should pass 2 rocks on a dirt clearing. Go slightly north-east from there and you should see a mountain range with small pools scattered around it. Head to the top of the range and do not attack the drakes that hang around there. There should be a secret passage with a drake lord somewhere around there. Do NOT attack him and agree to help him out. Sometimes this battle does not start immediately. If it doesn't you can wait or reload until it triggers.

 

Once you go into battle just have Hsska move to the back and defend. The drake lord does NOT need your help at all. He will easily win by himself. Once he kills all the enemies exit combat and he will give you an unidentified chain mail which is the icy chain mail worth 7000 gold. CHA-CHING!

 

Head northeast to Golddale. Get your items identified by Ivanova.

 

Equip the icy chain male and sell the basic charm, poor leather armor and wand of bolts to the weaponsmith.

 

gold = 1608.

 

Exit Golddale to the south.

 

Walk along the south mountains untill you find the secret passage to the Fiery Pit.

 

Go inside. Yes, were clearing this out and it's easier then you might think.

 

Hsska should take very little damage from the lava. The key to beating the drakes in here is to get close and wipe them out quickly.

 

First head west until you are just outside the room with the 2 drakes in it. Now go into combat mode and cast bless on yourself and drink 1 haste potion. Now move around the corner and plant yourself right in between the two drakes. They will probably cast fireblast on you, but with your insane fire resistance you just laugh it off. Ignore any summoned monsters and focus on the drakes first.

 

Once they are dead do not leave combat because there is another drake headed your way. He should be just around the corner. Kill him off quickly before your haste wears off. If you're lucky and you time it right you should have killed 3 drakes using only one haste potion ( and bless and healing ).

 

Now exit combat and loot the area for a spellshard and a rough diamond. Don't forget the rough diamond shows up as an unidentified rock.

 

Head south from here.

 

You should reach a spot with 2 more drakes and a bunch of fire lizards. Stand just outside their lair and cast bless on yourself and drink the second haste potion.

 

Rush toward the two drakes ignoring the fire lizards completely.

 

Attack the two drakes. You may have to heal a lot here, if your lucky they will just cast fireblast which will do no damage. But sometimes they hit you with something harder. If you die reload and try again. This battle is very winnable. And do not give into the urge to use the invulnerability potion, we need that for later.

 

Once the drakes are dead, finish off the fire lizards and loot the area.

 

Be sure to pick up the haste potion from one of the nests. There's also drake-skinned boots and another spellshard.

 

Now head east to the room across the lava. Take the rough diamond, the gold ore and the unidentified assassins ring.

 

Head north, and take the west passage. There are some more rough diamonds scattered on the floor here.

 

Take everything of value and head outside and back to Golddale.

 

Talk to Ivanova again and get everything identified.

 

Un-equip the icy chain mail.

 

Sell the following:

 

icy chain mail

all the rough diamonds

assassin's band

both spellshards

gold ore

any bolts / scrolls / minor weapons you picked up

 

Make sure you keep the haste potion and the invulnerability potion, and everything you have equipped.

 

gold = 6766

 

Leave Golddale and north to Gidrik.

 

Find the potion seller and buy 1 heroic brew, 1 haste elixir, and 2 haste potions.

 

Leave Gidrik.

 

Go west and follow the road untill you reach Farport.

 

Take a boat from Farport to Port Townsend.

 

Head west out of Port Townsend and curve around south to the Southpoint Lighthouse. On the way you will be attacked by ogres and ursags. The ursags can kill you on torment, so you should just run to the west and exit the battle.

 

Enter the lighthouse and go to the crystal shop. Buy a recall crystal.

 

Exit the lighthouse and go to Shayder.

 

Find Bohman and buy 2 haste potions and 1 invulnerability potion from him.

 

Exit Shayder. Go back to Port Townsend and take the boat back to Farport. Exit Farport.

 

Go west along the coast and you should see an island with stones leading to it. Go to the north east of that island and loot the shipwreck. You should get some silver and iron bars. Drop 4 of the iron bars and keep following the coast west.

 

Soon you will find an island with a stonehenge-like structure. Search it to get a knife. Keep going west.

 

Once you hit the western coast search the body there for a bronze great sword.

 

Now there should be a passage in the mountains to the south. Follow it and fight some fire lizards, then follow it more to a cave and take the necklace. You will fight a drake and lizards. You should be able to win with just bless and heal. Be sure and go for the drake first.

 

Now head back to Krizsan. Take the shortcut though the mountains guarded by unicorns.

 

Have Fellows identify your gear.

 

Un-equip the radiant slith spear and the strength bracelet and equip the serendipity knife.

 

Now head to Jinx and sell the radiant slith spear, the iron and silver bars, the fireorb charm, the greatsword, and maybe the health charm if you want, though I chose to keep it for later.

 

gold = 7003

 

Head out of Krizsan and into Fort Emergence.

 

Create 3 new characters and give them each the great renown trait. The great renown trait adds +8 to your reputation.

 

Head out the south gate into upper avernum and get in your boat which you should have left near Ghikra.

 

Go to the island surrounded by rocks and knock on the door. You should have enough reputation to buy potions here. Buy 2 heroic brews and 3 protection brews.

 

Exit the boat near Ghikra and head back to Fort Emergence. Delete the 3 characters you made and head out the north gate.

 

Head through the mountain pass and west to Earnest's house. Pay 250 to use the teleporter and teleport to Lorelei. You cannot go into Lorelei yet so exit to the north. Be sure to avoid the guards if you have scribbane.

 

Head into Bengaro.

 

Talk to Alonzo and buy some potions. Buy 1 invulnerability elixir and 1 haste potion. I also picked up a graymold salve here for another quest.

 

Okay here's the stuff you should have right now:

 

2 invulnerability potions

6 haste potions

3 heroic brews

1 haste elixer

3 protection brews

1 invulnerability elixer

1 recall crystal

 

serendipity knife ( equipped )

strength bracelet ( equipped )

lucky charm ( equipped )

amber shield ( equipped )

 

If you do not have these items you screwed up somewhere. If you are missing one of the potions it is very likely you cannot make it through the giant caverns.

 

But I am assuming you followed my directions and you have all the neccessary equipment, so here we go...

 

Head out of Bengaro and south along the mountains.

 

Eventually you should see a wall with a gate. Pass that and keep heading south. You should see another wall with a gate facing east. This is the one you want to attack. Attack the guards.

 

You should survive the first round. If Hsska dies, reload. Once you survive the first round drink an invulnerability potion and a haste potion. Now just run past the giants and exit the battle. No problem, we are now past the guards.

 

Enter the cavern of giants. If you don't know this map very well it could be difficult.

 

Go into combat mode and drink a haste potion ( make sure you heal yourself first ). Now sneak to the left and over the lava. A few of the giants will shoot at you but not enough to kill you. Just heal with your last action point.

 

Make your way north. You should come across a pillar that says BLACK AMBER. There will be some stairs down right next to it. Take the stairs.

 

Your in the middle of some more giants. Go into combat mode and drink another haste potion then drink a heroic brew. On your next turn drink the invulnerability elixir.

 

Now head down and to the west tunnel. Avoid the giants, even though you could kill some you won't kill them all and your potions will run out. So just run. Make sure you do this in combat mode.

 

When you reach a fork keep going west. The tunnel will curve north. Keep going and go west at the next fork. The tunnel will snake around and go south then east then south. You will pass another pillar and then there will be a room to the west. Go in it. It will spawn nagas and giants.

 

Go past them, what you want is behind the west-most platform. Find the chest and take the key.

 

By this time your potions will wear off. Drink another heroic brew and an invulnerability potion.

 

Hope to god those stupid nagas have not blocked off your exit. They did that to me and I had to kill a few of them to get out. You might want to reload if that happens. I managed to get out fine with the heroic brew still in effect.

 

Retrace your steps back to the stairs. If haste wears off drink another haste potion. Don't drink another heroic brew, you need that later and should be able to get out fine. You can probably drink one protection brew if you want, but it's better to save it.

 

Once you are at the stairs go south. You should come across two giants and a fork in the road. Go east and go in the building with the two pillars at the door.

 

Once inside, step in front of the control panel. Hit the buttons Owa, Legov, Taful and Mung, in that order. This will open the gate to the right. head toward the gate. You will have to go out of combat mode to go through the traps. Chug a protection brew and another haste potion. Exit combat and walk through the 2 traps.

 

In this next room there is a demon and around 4 black shades. This room can get really crowded if your unlucky. Save the game and reload if it gets too full.

 

Once you are past the traps go back into combat mode and head toward the top left chest. Exit combat, take the map from the chest and re-enter combat mode. Now its a race for the stairs. Chug another protection brew if you have to and make it back up the stairs.

 

When I got back up the stairs I still had 2 haste potions, 1 haste elixir and 1 protection brew. This is about optimum, since you will need 1 protection / invulnerability brew for the last part.

 

Go back up the stairs, enter combat mode and exit the Cavern of Giants.

 

If you made it this far give yourself a big pat on the back. That was the hardest part.

 

Go east and north around the mountains. You may run into a group of bandits. Pay them off and keep going untill you reach the other side of the mountains, then go south.

 

Hug the mountains to the west and keep going south. Avoid the bats they are too strong for you on Torment.

 

Eventually you will pass a tower and there will be a tunnel in the mountains. This is the concealed tunnel. It only appears when you have the map we got from the Giant Caverns.

 

Walk past the laser beams and grab the mirror that appears to be facing you. Push it down and to the west. There is a room with a teleporter. Push the mirror above the damaged crystal and into the laser beam. The beam should redirect to the damaged crystal, activating the teleporter.

 

Go into the teleporter. You now have 2 mirrors to cut off the beams blocking your path. This part is simple. Just push the bottom mirror forward untill it blocks the bottom beam. Then push it down one square. Now push the other mirror forward untill it blocks the final beam.

 

You should now be able to walk down the passage into the barrier cavern.

 

There is a doomguard in here, so don't go to far toward the center just yet. Instead head down and grab the crystals in the chest.

 

Now sneak close to the center and go into combat mode. Drink a haste potion and your last protection brew and smash the crystal ( avoid the doomguard completely ). This will bring a bunch of troglodytes and giants in the room.

 

Once the crystal is smashed walk near enough to pick up a few shards, and then head out to the north where the giants are. Take the passage back into the Giant Cavern. Run north and snake back around to the exit. You've already been here and there shouldn't be any heavy resistance on your way out. Your protection brew will wear off, but bless, heal and haste potions should get you through. As I reached the stairs my last haste potion ran out and I was completely out of potions, but I did make it Even if you get hit you will probably survive because of your high luck.

 

Exit the Cavern of Giants again.

 

Congrats you made it. Now lets go pick up Miranda.

 

Head to Lorelei.

 

You still cannot go in, but I used this opportunity to make another temp character so I could move Hsska down one slot. That way when I recruited Miranda she would be in the first slot, giving her the Elite Warrior trait.

 

From Lorelei, head west. Far, far west to Calloc. Recruit Miranda. Yep, she joins you now

 

Head out of Calloc and use your recall crystal. Now your at Fort Avernum.

 

We need Carol, but there is a problem. She requires 50 reputation, and we don't have 50 reputation.

We have ( or should have ) 27 reputation right now.

 

So head into Fort Emergence and talk to Anaximander and get the jewel of return. Now make a new character with the great renown trait. Give this character the jewel of return.

 

Now put both Miranda and Hsska into the character holding room in Fort Emergence. If you don't know where it is, it's right below the room you started in.

 

Now you should have just one character, the character you just made with the great renown trait.

 

Head through the north gate and through the maintain pass to Ernest's house. Pay 250 to use his teleporter and go to Gale.

 

Talk to Pasi and he should let you go through the trap door.

 

Now you need to make 2 more characters with the great renown trait. This should give you over 50 reputation.

 

Go find Carol and recruit her. Give Carol the jewel of return and delete the three temp characters. Leave Gale and use the jewel of return.

 

Head into Fort Emergence and add Hsska and Miranda to your party.

 

That's 3 NPC's and for me it was only day 7. Not bad aye?

 

Falko will join you once you do the slime quest, and that should be easy with Miranda, Carol and Hsska...

 

Make sure you recruit Falko with level 1 temp characters so he joins at his minimum level. You don't want him joining at level 30, that would be a huge waste of skill points!

 

And that's how to get 4 NPC's at about day 8 or so, with most of the storyline still waiting to be finished.

 

Now, you could do this a slightly different way, which might be easier, by using Hsska to do the slime quest and then recruiting Falko right after. Then you could use Falko to take down the Troglo / Giant barrier, which would probably be much easier because of Falko's huge dexterity and defense. Maybe I'll give that a try sometime.

[Jerakeen]

Wow. Just wow.

 

But I think you mean the surface here:

 

Quote:

Now head outside to avernum. You will probably run into some slimes. Kill them they should be easy.

 

I've never used any of the NPCs. Are you levelling up during all this, and if so, how are you allocating the skill points?

[Toby-Linn]

Wow, great guide!

 

I've never used any of the NPC's before, as I get too attached to my characters... lol.

 

But the next time I play A3 I will definitely try it out, it looks fun!

[goblindolf]

I think I might too. For some reason I never finished avernum 3 when I played it years ago.

 

I am wondering though,

 

1) what levels are the npcs when you recruit them with a level 1 character?

 

Edit: found this from a guide.

 

Hsska the Slith Priest - minimum level 9

Falko the Archer - minimum level 13

Carol the Mage - minimum level 22

Miranda the Warrior - minimum level 30

 

2) do they have more skillpoints than a custom made character at the same level?

 

Edit: As for Hsska at level 9 he can have the stats a level 43 custom character could have.. Although you could argue some of the skills he has are useless on a priest and that instead he has the important stats of a level 23 character.

 

Will having a level 30 in your group stop your level 9 from leveling? i can't remember how exp works in avernum 3.

 

I wonder if the npcs in the other avernums are as accessible.

 

Given how overpowered the npcs are in terms of stats, it does kind of feel like cheating though.

[EvilEye]

Originally Posted By: The Turtle Moves

I've never used any of the NPCs. Are you levelling up during all this, and if so, how are you allocating the skill points?

I think Hsska reached level 14 or something. I didn't allocate any points though, he did this with his base stats.

Originally Posted By: goblindolf

2) do they have more skillpoints than a custom made character at the same level?

Yes, many, many more skill points then a custom character. This is one of the main reasons to use them.

Based on my calculations here are the total amount of skill points for each NPC at level 30:

Miranda - 668
Carol - 719
Falko - 647
Hsska - 584

That's taking the skill point cost of their allocated statistics and adding the skill points they would gain by level 30. Also they each start with 8 free skill points.

By contrast a custom character gets a total of 65 + 232 = 297 skill points by level 30.

This doesn't count things like wasted points ( Carol has points in throwing weapons for instance ) or traits like divinely touched, or the special skills like magery that some NPC's start with.

Quote:

Will having a level 30 in your group stop your level 9 from leveling? i can't remember how exp works in avernum 3.

No, the level 9 will gain levels faster and eventually catch up to the level 30.

Quote:

I wonder if the npcs in the other avernums are as accessible.

From what I remember, they are just as overpowered and about as easy to get.