Powergaming questions (spoilers)[G5]

[Lauren CW]

Now, with adequate reputation juggling and leadership, you can gain access to control core b and secret access route without joining any factions.

Taygen's vault, on the other hand, needs you to join Taygen, therefor he is the ONLY one you actually NEED to join in order to powergame. Is this right?

Also, what are the consequences to leaving peoples' factions? I am also trying to complete as many quests as possible while still ending as a Trakovite. I'm curious about the order of operations here. My current plan is to finish up all of Taygen's quests before the purity agent, and dump him like he's hot. THen release the shredbugs, then talk to Astoria (I'm hoping I can fulfill the Trakovite quest doing this.) Then I can swear to Astoria and do her quests as far as I can, then leave her. After releasing the shredbugs I don't think working for Alwan is an option, but I'm not too concerned with that. However, I want to successfully complete his control core b quest, and then go back and kill them also fulfilling litalia's quest. I will end up working for Litalia at this point, sabotage the purity agent, and go to endgame. So Alwan, Rawal, and Ghaldring I'll leave mostly alone, since I don't want to go on a rampage killing the council.

 

Does this look about right?

 

Edit: I suppose I can kill Platano as well, so working for Rawal isn't out of the question...

[Barzhal]

I think most of what you want to do is possible. I always used to join alwan's faction first for the shaping skills.

 

You need to join Taygen's faction to get into the Dera vault portion with the healing skill canister, yes. Also you'll need to join Astoria or Ghaldring for the "break the line" quest. Control core B can be accessed without joining Alwan, but the quest will be exactly opposite that of Litalia's (you can do both though).

 

You can still talk to Alwan and Astoria after leaving their factions if you want to get the Trakovite ending.

 

I'm pretty sure ending with Ghaldring's faction is safe no matter what you do (besides attacking him).

 

Don't forget to loot the foundry section for each faction you join.

 

Don't ever answer a reputation question until you absolutely know you need to. You can save these up and use them to switch factions at will.

 

If you plan to join Tagen, you can still kill Platano after you do the "aid Platano" quest and join his faction after you do so.

 

If you have any other pointers, let me know. Good luck.

 

PS - craft 5 or so charms - ghlaak eye + lightning gem + demon bile + rotghroth fang

[Øther]

You don't actually have to join Ghaldring to get the quest, just (I think) say that you want to join him.

 

Also, there are quite a few times where there are unavoidable conversations, and people ask you for your opinion, but there is a way to bypass every single one of them. For some, you actually may want to give an opinion and then balance it out later, because of the rewards. (i.e. When you first talk to Rawal in his spire. A little shaper rep. for a point in intelligence and endurence). Also, there is one where you don't have to give an opinion, but it means a pretty tough battle to proceed through the game. (Alwan's mission. If you don't want to complete it right then and want to proceed, you will have to kill a whole lot of people gaurding the only way through)

[Lauren CW]

Ah! That's incredibly helpful, thankyou! I read somewhere that you couldn't talk to Astoria after leaving her faction, so I went and joined Litalias already. I got the break the line quest from Ghaldring with enough leadership and proper reputation though, so I only missed whatever was in her back room. I realized much later that I should have held off on the reputation questions, so I had to seriously run around trying to get enough to join taygen's. But so far, I completed Taygens quests up through the spire, helped defend against the guardians, then turned around and backstabbed the Agent running the place. In retrospect, I may have been able to collect the reward from taygen before backstabbing her, but I wasn't certain. Then I went and released the shredbugs, killed platano, collected rawal's reward, and joined litalia. Removed the control tool, and went off to the disposal vaults/what-his-face's isle, and just have control core b to deal with before endgame.

 

I'll be running through a loyalist agent next, ending with Taygen. So I can probably get Ghaldring's quests before The Four Shapers, then go do Litalias prior to the shredbugs, work for astoria then Alwan then end up for Taygen. I think I can get all the way to sabatoge the purity agent for both astoria and alwan, before completing it for taygen.

[Lauren CW]

Originally Posted By: Barzhal

PS - craft 5 or so charms - ghlaak eye + lightning gem + demon bile + rotghroth fang

Hmm. I haven't seen this recipe anywhere else. Maybe it should be in the crafting section for strategies.

[The Ratt]

This was a crafting recipe in G4 that was supposedly removed from G5, if you can verify if it still works or not, that'd be great.

[Lauren CW]

Confirmed. On version 1.0.2 on windows, it creates you a mental focus charm of +1 to spellcraft, +8 to MER and +8 to CMER