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QW2 - Advice for Playing


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Changes and new features are in bold face type.

 

Differences from Other Games

 

You now can use the endgame code from Queen’’s Wish the Conqueror to start the game with a reputation based upon your earlier actions. Mostly it can change dialogue options with  information from the previous game. How Queen Sharyn and Sutter react and what you did with the hidden foes in the first game. Also your previous reputation as a serious fighter or a leisurely drone.

 

You can't farm experience by going back and killing respawned monsters. However you now get some experience for killing monsters the first time. There are still a few places where you don’t get experience for killing monsters and you don’t get extra when it splits into more monsters.. Experience ranges from 1 to 24  So now you can encourage you blood lust.

You  get experience from discovering new World Map location (5 XP)s, doing most quests although sometime you need to nag to get it, and a few other specific actions in certain locations.

You no longer have the four stats, but augments will give you the benefits that you used to get from those stats.

You can remove augmentations from items for a fraction of the value and move them to new items or sell them off for money.

Combat system is a bit different from other games with greater emphasis on using abilities to do more damage per attack.

Reclaiming forts and building shops for better equipmwnt.

It's usually better to buy items from fort shops than finding them as loot in exploring.

You usually can only get rings, necklaces, and charms from found loot except a Shielding Band and Shaman’s Fetish

Some containers and their contents will be gone if you haven't emptied them before doing the boss fight and leaving the zone.

You start with healing potions and can get an alchemist to change them into other types that will refill when you are at a fort with an alchemy shop.

No trainers for abilities.

Crafting now means getting an item, allowed to train in an ability, get a percentage increase to something, and improve your reputation with the Ro to get a better ending with less fighting.

 

Biggest difference and here's why you want to finish the game, your decisions allow you to start the next Queen's Wish game with  how the world exists from your actions instead of default choice.

 

 

Character Building

 

You can retrain any character in a fort after your meeting with General Miranda to recruit warriors. You can start with the three pre-generated characters or get generic Haven soldiers at Fort Meadow 4. As you reclaim forts in the other lands you can get generic soldiers from each land with different cultural abilities to replace existing recruits. These abilities are not available to Haven soldiers.

 

You will want to retrain characters during the game because in the endgame area certain abilities are nearly useless from monsters having high resistances to stun, mental attacks, and some curses. Also after trying out some abilities in combat, you will have a better idea of what works with your game playing style.

 

You get no skill points past level 20 so that means 22 skill points at level 20. The game effectively caps character levels at 22 when you run out of ways to get significant experience to make level 23.

 

To retrain a character, click on the ? icon next to the character in a fort. Or in a Haven fort when you see a green + indicating that you have available skill points. Then click on the ability to remove and click on the one to add. The green circle(s) next to an ability indicates the level in that ability and a red circle indicates no level with it. You may have to remove higher tier abilities if you want to change lower ones. You need two ability levels in the tier below before you can get one in the next tier.

 

There are many bulds that can be used, but some will be easier than others. There are monsters with high evasions to either physical or magical damage so you don’t want only one damage type in the party. Having two magical attackers works better.since you can increase their damage more than for physical damage.

 

When playing above normal difficulty it is useful to retrain the fighters to get Steelskin to reduce damage and curses.

 

After getting level 2, consider getting Steelskin for all characters. It gives a 20% resistance to most damages and lets characters use tier 1 combat items.

 

Magery for the +20% to afflictions and +2 to magical damage as well as extra energy.

 

After a few levels consider getting more abilities outside of your character's specialty. Support abilities give 5% evasion for the first three tiers so healing or Inspiring Cry (2 levels), Curing (2 levels), and Healing Wave or the passive ability Haste will give +10% to a character's evasion to attacks which helps avoid damage. Get Haste and a tier 4 ability to have +20% to speed. You also have more characters that can provide healing/curing/blessing during and after combat.

 

From Magic abilities get Call Bones (summoning skeleton) adds more targets for your enemies that can't be charmed. It is more useful doing this for a Support character to gain extra energy.

 

Arcane weapons that do magical damage require having Magic abilities to use. Some armors shields and helms need Combat abilities and better robes, orbs, and cowls need Magic abilities to use. The two bows that do magical damage and some items that increase magical damage like the Jeweled Shield and Infernal Plate require combat abilities to use.

 

Some of the more useful abilities:

Resolve of the Ro (dedicate 3 forts to Ro) gives a massive resistance to stun and mental attacks - +35% at level 1 and +50% at level 2

Mad Flurry (dedicate two forts to Industry) - decent physical damage area attack only against enemies In addition to normal single target attack in melee or missile.

Ensnaring Vines (Kranas character recruit) - largest area physical damage attack and immobilized the enemy only around the caster to 6 tile radius.

Battle Medic (support) - gives a chance of not using action points when casting healing, curing, and blessing abilities. Starts at 25% chance and items and runes can increase the ability.

 

 

Abilities

 

Some new abilities, some renamed but doing the sam thing,  and some moved to different locations. Some abilities can be trained without needing a lower tier ability but these require finding a book or using Crafting at the Tower of Erudico. After dedicating some forts

 

You need two levels of an ability or one level in each of two abilities before you can get an ability on the next tier higher.

 

The second level of an ability will give a bonus effect and is usually +10% unless noted.

 

You only get the tier bonus once.

 

Combat Abilities

 

Tier 1 - +2 Health and can use Tier 1 armor/weapons

 

Brutal Blow - causes extra damage and bleeding

-- level 1 +25% extra damage, level 2 +50% extra damage

Blinding Blow - causes extra damage and weakens you foes damage and does 24% more damage, level 2 weakens for 3 more turns

Steelskin - passive ability gives 20% resistance to bleeding, poison, stun and mental effects

 

Tier 2 - +2 Health and can use Tier 2 armor/weapons

 

Whirlwind Attack - does physical damage to all enemies near you (2 tile range) - level 2 does 20% more damage

Stunning Shot - extra damage, stuns for a round, and slows for several rounds

-- level 1 +25% extra damage, level 2 +50% extra damage

Evasion Charm - for 3 turns increases physical evasion by 50% up to the 80% cap, level 2 increases by 2 turns

 

Tier 3 - +2 Health and can use Tier 3 armor/weapons

 

Knockback - extra damage, knocks foe back, and ensnare

-- level 1 +10%, level 2 +20% and added turn for ensnare

Fast Feint  - increased speed and blessing for several rounds - level 2 is 30% longer

Hardiness - increases maximum health by 10%

 

 

Tier 4 - Melee damage +2 bonus

 

Bull Rush - jumps your character next to target, extra damage and stuns for 2 rounds, level 2 for 25% more damage

Bludgeon Senseless - slow, weaken, and confuse enemy

-- level 1 +25% extra damage, level 2 +50%extra damage

Terrifying Scream - fear attack on nearby enemies

 

 

Magic Abilities

 

Tier 1 - +1 Energy and can use Tier 1 Arcane items

 

Shock - inflicts strong magical damage on one foe, level 2 for 25% more damage

Fear - terrifies one foe, level 2 for one more turn

Magery - passive ability gives a 20% bonus to all afflictions you cause and +2 magical damage

 

Tier 2 - +1 Energy and can use Tier 2 Arcane items

 

Icy Wave - cone shaped magical damage, level 2 for 10% more damage

Weakness - weakens foe damage in a circular area, level 2 for 2 more turns

Call Bones - summons a skeleton to fight in a place you pick

 

Tier 3 - +1 Energy and can use Tier 3 Arcane items

 

Poison Rain - magical damage and poison for several rounds in a circular area, level 2 for 10% more damage and longer duration

Time Warp - slow foes in a circular area, level 2 for 5 more turns

Raw Power - increases your maximum energy by one per five character levels

 

Tier 4 - Magic damage +2 bonus

 

Fireball - magical damage in a circular area, level 2 for 10% more damage

Shockwave - damages and stuns foes in a cone shaped area, level 2 for 20% more damage

Build Construct - summons a construct to fight in a place you pick

 

 

Support Abilities

 

Tier 1 - +5% to evasion

 

Healing - heals a single ally, level 2 for 10% more healing

Inspiring Cry - gives blessing for increased damage to allies in 6 spaces for 4 turns

Field Medic - Gives heals, curing, and blessing a 25% chance per point not costing action points

 

Tier 2 - +5% to evasion

 

Curing - cures a single ally of poison, bleeding, and curses, level 2 cures 5 more rounds of hostile effects

Speed - provides 12 turns of haste to one ally, level 2 for 8 more turns

Teleport - teleports one character or foe to a nearby spot

 

Tier 3 - +5% to evasion

 

Healing wave - heals all allies near the caster (6 spaces), level 2 for 10% more healing

Spellshield - provide +50% magical evasion to an ally for 3 turns up to 80% cap , level 2 increases by 2 turns

Haste - passive ability to haste you by 10%

 

Tier 4 - +10% bonus to speed

 

Restoring Rain - heals and cures nearby allies (6 spaces), level 2 for 10% more healing and doubles curing

Battle Frenzy - hastes (+50%) and blesses all nearby allies for 5 turns

Silence - silences a foe preventing it from using abilities

 

 

Other Recruits - Cultural Abilities

 

Royal Havenite (personal character - PC)

 

Haven's Might - hastes and blesses allies within 6 spaces for 5 turns, level 2 adds 4 turns

Haven's Mercy - heals and cures allies within 6 spaces, level 2 increases both healing and cures

Haven's Command - passive - damage bonus to allies within 4 spaces, level 2 doubles damage bonus

 

Low Dhaga

 

Stone Spires - cone shape physical attack that causes bleeding, level 2 gives more turns of bleeding

Stone Vapors - came double poison attack to singe target and nearby neighbors

Ro Wears Down - gives a 10% chance per point to slow all foes within 2 spaces

 

Kranasa Woods

 

Ensnaring Vines does physical damage and ensnares nearby foes for a very large area (6 tile radius)

Life Drain - your next single target attack will heal you 30% of damage done

The Ro Protects - all heals and cures by this character and all allies within 2 spaces of this character are improved by 10% per point

 

High Litha

 

Mindsteal - charms a foe for 2 turns, level 2 adds 1 turn

Freemind - frees an ally from mental effects, level 2 removes 3 more turns

The Ro Endures  - passive - 15% chance of freeing an ally from mental effects and curses, level 2 increases chance by 15%

 

Abilities for all characters once you find book or craft:

 

Hide in Shadows (craft - knowledge) - reduces chance of being hit, at level 1 reduces attention by 35%

Shield Shatter (book) - extra damage, and makes foe vulnerable for extra damage for several rounds

Mad Flurry (craft - industry) - next single target attack does extra physical damage to all nearby foes to 3 spaces

- level 2 does 20% more damage

Flaming sphere (craft - industry)  - summons sphere that does magical damage to nearby foes, level 2 is more powerful

Spectral Armor (craft - industry ) - creates shield that absorbs damage up to its duration

Disruption (nook) - removes 6 turns of blessings ( haste, bless, spell shield, etc.) from the enemy target, 6 more at level 2

Bonds of the Fae (buy) - places target in stasis where can’t attack or take damage

Call Brute (craft - knowledge) - summons a brute and more powerful version at level 2

Resolve of the Ro (craft - Ro) - reduces mental attacks and stunning by increasing resistance by 30%, at level 2 by 50%

 

 

Augmenting Equipment

 

This is an easy way to boost damage, healing, evasion, resistance to damage, stun, and mental attacks. As your equipment improves you can remove augments to move them to new equipment or sell to buy better versions.

 

Runes go on melee weapons, helms, and cowls. Augments go on armor, robes, helms, cowls, shields, orbs, and necklaces.

 

Removing runes and augments costs a fraction of their price. This means it's cheaper to transfer them to new items.

 

When adding augments that help physical/magical armor place them in order of greatest chance of absorbing damage from necklaces, armor/robes, shields/orbs, and helms/cowls.

 

Jeff weaken some augments from the first game so read their descriptions. There are new runes and augments. Field Medicine rune gives a level to Field Medic that gives a chance of not using action points when blessing, healing , and curing. Healing Strike rune gives a chance of healing character when attacking. Tower augment increase evasion by 5%.

 

Evasion augments aren’t useful in the final area, Prova Krug, so consider replacing them.

 

 

Combat

 

This game is different from the others in how damage is blocked by armor. While it seems similar, the differences are important in how you want to fight.

 

Weapon and shield or orb is still better than two handed weapon just for damage prevention and with better equipment your having more augmentation slots. While a two handed melee weapon will have a chance of cleaving an adjacent foe, the extra damage isn't as helpful in the long run. Still on any difficulties you can still use a two handed weapon through out almost the entire game if you don't mind taking more damage.

 

An attack is done with the to hit chance and I've rarely an attack miss even on torment difficulty versus a boss monster. Then evasion versus the damage type of physical or magic. Then if the attack lands, the damage is then checked against being blocked. Each piece of armor (main torso, helmet, and shield) has a percentage chance of blocking and then up to a limit versus physical and/or magic type damage. Anything left over penetrates to the target. Poison (magic) and Bleeding (physical) are not blocked by armor, however you can resist them.

 

It pays to upgrade your weapon and use damage increases like Inspiring Cry, Haven's Command, and attack abilities to get more damage past being blocked. Also these buffs can stack to increase damage with multiple castings. For fights in the last part of the game consider having 3 to 5 Blessings. Each Blessing gives bonus damage of 2 plus one third of your level.

 

Speed kills! While Jeff capped speed at 65%, it still helps to have some before using battle frenzy to increase it more. Also slowing monsters helps you to attack more often than them. Being first in a fight to speed up the party helps.

 

There is a limit of 5 to blessing, bleeding, poison, haste, and slow. Haste and slow don't increase with multiple castings, but they do count when being removed by their opposite or disruption. Haste increases speed so you go earlier and have a 40% chance of an extra set of 5 action points. Slow can cause you to miss a turn.

 

Evasion is powerful to completely avoiding damage. I've seen a monster evade 5 attacks in a row so it pays to increase it using the  Tower Augment that gives Tower of Might, Support abilities, and evasion augments which can it over 50% . Also Spellshield and Evasion Charm or their potion versions can be helpful for the closest character to your foes since they give +50% for a few turns. Evasion for characters s capped at 80%, however monsters can get up to 90%. Jeff lowered the evasion augments so you can’t get it too high. *sigh*

 

Consider having your Support character use Inspiring Cry or later Battle Frenzy in the before combat or in the first round to increase everyone's damage. Indoor combat sometimes allows you to cast it to trigger combat or if far enough away not even triggering it.

 

Charming a foe with Mindsteal helps keep your party from being targeted. However it works against you so getting an High Litha recruit or very high mental effects resist is useful. There are some items that will remove mental effects or allow you to cast Free Mind to remove mental effects.

 

Overall, keep your party spread out to prevent cleaving attacks and area effect attacks like Poison Rain, Fireball, or Stone Spires which foes love to use. However you want them near each other to benefit from passive abilities that have a 4 tile range or within 6 tiles for healing and buff in of groups.

 

Range attacks still do less damage than melee attacks, however enough foes are melee attackers only to make this an effective early attack to wear them down and kill them. Consider taking out their range attackers first especially ones that can cast spells. Circular area attacks like Mad Flurry (really nice  area at a low cost to use even with lower damage), Poison Rain, and Fireball will give you slightly extra range over normal range attacks. Entangle Vines has a larger area effect even though you can only use it near the caster and it does less damage.

 

Melee attacks will do more damage and if not evaded will end the fight sooner. It depends upon what you face since their melee attacks will also do more damage. Also some boss monsters have special attacks that only happen if you are close. Killing the monsters at long range means some with melee only attacks will never damage you.

 

Bleeding and poison will do that little bit of extra damage if you don't kill them the initial round. This just might kill them. Later in the game having them stacked on a monster can give it significant damage every round.

 

Abilities can also help. Stun will keep them from attacking. Knockback may entangle so a melee attacker can't reach you. Bludgeon Senseless may cause other effects like confusion, silence, and weakness to reduce their damage.

 

Bonuses from melee weapons will work on range attacks.

 

Don't neglect getting potions that can be used in combat from healing, monster summons, and poison. Summoned monsters are all immune to charm and fear mental effects which makes them very useful to send against some foes. Poison potion is best used in a major fight with a character using area effects abilities since it has a chance against every target.

 

Summoned monsters from ability. potion, or scroll of calling can be very helpful in diverting attacks.  Especially if next to a foe so they waste attacks on it instead of you.

 

After combat you get back some energy starting at one every other c ombat for low levels and increasing every 5 character levels. After playing for a while to get used to the system, you can figure out where to use abilities so you don't use all your energy before the final fight.

 

The action point (AP) cost is usually 5 AP or remaining available from your 5.

Curing, Disruption, and Mindsteal use 1 AP.

Using an item uses 4 AP.

Moving use 1 AP unless you are next to an enemy where it is 4.

Swapping an item from your back pack to in use is now 5 AP.

Swapping items to the party members is no cost.

 

 

Rebuilding Forts

 

After doing the Spiretop Lighthouse mission you start rebuilding Fort Meadow 4 with getting a Smithy and Apothecary. After that consider a Carpentry to get better bows, shields, and wands. Every fort that you reclaim and replace shops will give better equipment, and better attack and defense bonuses.

 

The resources you now get from forts, mines, quarries, foundries, and some quest now provide what you need to build shops and also maintain them. If you lose resources to theft you might be short. Each resource that you are short for that 2 day period means 2% penalty to everything up to 20% maximum penalty. Making barracks and guard towers each give a 5% reduction to theft chance.

 

I don't know what the money cap is, but it exceeds 5200 coins and that only happens if you are waiting to build or buy items.

 

You need shops for three things:

 

1) Smithy (weapons, arcane weapons, armor, helmets), Apothecary (potions, runes, augments), Carpentry (bows, shields, wands, staves), and Weaving Room (robes, cowls, gloves, and increases slots in backpacks every other shop) provide better equipment than you will usually find or buy from merchants. Every other Apothecary provides a healing potion.

 

2) Upgrade Fort (makes them dedicated to an area to give bonus and decide what you can Craft), Barracks (attack bonus), and Guard Towers (damage reduction bonus) as well as reducing thefts from that land. Base theft chances increase with game difficulty level from 20% to 30% on torment. Reclaiming a second fort increases theft chances by 20%. Your choices when picking a faction in each vassal land will also increase theft rates so consider delaying that until you are done with all 7 forts.

 

Upgrade Fort dedicated them to Knowing, Industry, or the Ro. You can only dedicate up to 4 forts for a type. Knowing gives a 5% chance per fort dedicated to not using energy when you use an active ability and a 5% to all status effects and heals. Industry gives 5% to hit chance and +1 to physical damage for each decade fort. Ro give you a better opinion from the Ro (+3 to Ro faction) and a 2% discount in shops. It also give you different options  when using the Crafting Anvil in the Tower of Erudico.

 

Buying a new barracks gives bonuses to either melee or missile/magic, not both. (So the max bonus is 4/3, not 7/7)

 

3) The mills, distilleries, and bakers give discounts to buying from stores and can add up to over a 50% discount at the end.

Mills provide a 3% discount to shop prices per shop.

Bakeries provide a 2% discount,

Distilleries give a 4% discount on shop prices and a 3% chance of not using charge when drinking a potion.

 

Be careful about building distilleries early in the game since they need quicksilver. Bakeries aren’t as useful to build especially if you want a resource cushion against thefts.

 

After Fort Meadow 4, save resources so the first thing you do when reclaiming a fort is Fort Upgrade to get their bonus. Quicksilver is the shortest supply followed by iron. Visit the High Litha fort, Fort Hailstorm to get more quicksilver, Kranas fort. Fort Grove 2 for iron, and Low Dhaga fort, Fort Precipice for stone.

 

Every two days you will get a report of resources produced in that land.  Having a barracks, guard towers, and upgrade fort will reduce theft chances so you won’t be short on resources and penalized.

 

If you don't have enough resources to pay for upkeep from thefts, then you will be penalized by 2% to all things for each resource up to a 20% maximum penalty. It is very important that you reclaim mines, quarries, and places for resources if you don't want to be  unable to build shops and buy better equipment.

 

Some peop[e will offer resources as rewards for quests. They also offer them as gifts or bribes.

 

 

Where to go when exploring

 

Keep visiting General Miranda in Fort Meadow 4 for advice on where to go and Chief Cestus will be asked you occasionally to make judgements. On normal difficulty you can wander around and clear areas before getting quests to do it. You want to reclaim places that will provide resources for shop construction and upkeep.

 

Also some places give you choices on how to do the boss fight where you get the same experience either way. What changes is money and items that you get by doing the harder fight and your reputation. Having certain reputations in will determine getting into fights with locals and may let you get certain options.

 

Most areas will need to be done in several trips and some monsters will respawn when you return before killing the boss monster or crossing the zone. Save before entering and make different saves as you explore. If you kill the boss monster and leave the zone, then some containers will be gone when you return. So make sure you fully explore before doing the last fight or leaving the zone. On normal difficulty you can usually do the whole area in one trip if you are the right level and have good equipment.

 

Some zones force you to go through to the end to exit unless you die. All terrain cn change to block you or clear to advance.

 

Most zones have 4 to 6 fights in them with harder zones having more and/or monsters with more health and evasion to a damage type.

 

Some zones require you to go through them in one trip, but you can skip fights if you don't mind missing loot.

 

Locked doors are there for four reasons. To force you to go a certain way through the zone. You need to find a key in the zone. They unlock after you reach a place. You need to pay the inn keeper for a room to rest.

 

After Spiretop Lighthouse, the next place is Laskara for petition, permission, and quests, Then start doing quests like the contracts from a supply shed in Port Osborn. The other quests will gain you some resources or other rewards.

 

The choice of which lands to visit works best to reclaim mines for resources. So Kranas Woods for iron, Low Dhaga for stone, and High Litha for quicksilver. The best order to visit the forts is High Litha (Fort Hailstone), Krabas Woods (Fort Grove2), and Loiw Dhaga (Fort Precipice) before buying new shops or visit Low Dhaga and Kranas Woods to reclaim the forts for better equipment before doing the Tower of Erudic.. Also visit their towns: Jajayim, Ssylim, and Azam for quests, petitions, and meeting the governors. It helps to only do part of each land and save the hardest places for later on harder difficulties. Some quests are easy to get quick experience to go up a level. You may want to shift lands to gain resources on harder difficulties.

 

Note, you can explore in any order especially on normal difficulty, but it makes it harder to get the resources you need to build shops in the forts and have money to buy better equipment. The only limit on where to explore is how quickly you die.

 

The endgame appears after getting the last Raasa petition. This area is optional, but if you want a better ending then you need to do it. You don't need to go everywhere unless you want some different equipment and the final fight gives you options to live and take a worse ending To go all the way you will need to bring consumable scrolls and potionsto heal and buff.

 

 

Crafting

 

The Crafting Anvil in the Tower of Erudico lets you by spending money and crafting items new abilities, the possibility of certain potions from you alchemists, items, and better opinions from the Ro. Crafting items are Deep Metal, Flawless Crystal, Ancient Amber, Relevant Lore, and Clarity Brew. The left column in the number of Forts you need to dedicate to a type to get them.

 

Clarity Brews are the hardest to get and will limit what you can craft. They are mostly found in the High Litha. Ancient Amber is mostly in Kranas Woods, Deep Metal is Low Dhaga. Flawless Crystals are the Rokaj Underworld. You can buy some from merchants if you are in a hurry to raft something.

 

Knowledge

 

0 Hide in Shadows -  ability to evade notice

0 Aid in Infliction - 5% bonus to all status effects by character

1 Energy Potion - lets alchemists create energy potion

1 Aid in Healing - 4% bonus to all healing and curing spells

2 Brute Flask - lets alchemists Crete flask for brute creation

2 Burning Sphere - ability  to create sphere that burns nearby enemies

3 Call Brute - ability to summon brute

3 Aid to Magic - +2 Magical damage

4 Power potion - lets alchemists create power potion

 

Industry

 

0 Aid to Armor - +1 to armor

0 Aid to Evasion -2% to evade attacks

1 Forge Spear - Temptation

1 Aid to Speed - 5% to speed

2 Forge Shield - Dyne’s Palisade

2 Mad Flurry - ability -t hit nearby targets as well

3 Aid to Accuracy - +5% to hit chance

3 Spectral Armor - ability to improve armor

4 Aid to Brutality - +3 to Physical Damage

 

Ro

 

0 Charity to Ro - give some resources to Ro for better opinion - +4 to Ro faction

0 Aid to Thoughts - 2% to character mental resist

1 Forge Pearl - create a crystal pearl for teleport spell

2 Offering to Ro - donate more to get better opinion - need to dedicate Fort - +6 to Ro faction

2 Mighty Thoughts - 2% mental resist

3 Respect to Ro - opinion

3 Resolve to Ro - gives better mental and stunning resistance = each point goes 30% resistance

4 Aid to Peace - -!0% theft reduction to all Forts

 

 

 

Reputation

 

Like in Geneforge, you get reputations for your words and actions. The are three reputations in this game. Violence is from how you deal with situations by letting them go or killing them, but not all situations will count. Also Queen Sharyn will want you to stay in the middle with not going to an extreme. Queen faction is how much you follow the advice of Haven, Ro faction is how much you follow the customs and desires of the locals. The Ro faction is important in the endgame decision to avoid a fight.

 

These reputations when negative will cause you to get into more fights with wandering soldiers and block you from getting into some places. Or they are when positive help you to avoid fights and get better receptions when dealing with leaders. Some merchants won’t deal with you if you have a bad Ro faction reputation.

 

Having too negative a reputation with the Ro will mean increased theft of resources. This can get really bad and makes a big difference if you do the final fight. Also going against local customs will increase theft chances.

 

So you can be a harsher conqueror or a friendly ally while reclaiming the lands. Some choices are relatively neutral and won't produce a big shift in your reputation.

 

 

Helpful Hints

 

After doing the Spiretop Lighthouse quest, go south to the merchant house and buy the Ro Sideblade as the best one-handed melee weapon until you have built 4 smithies.

 

Go to different regions to gain resources so you can build more shops. The forts and towns can usually be reached without combat. Talk to all the named NPCs in towns and forts to get quests before exploring the regions.

 

Save scrolls for the harder dungeons. The ones you really need them for are: The Deep Towers, Upper isegate from the east, Wyrm’s Teeth below ground, the second part of the Lair of the Ice Wyrm, Infernal Passage, Solora’s Jaws, and Prova Krug. Carru a scroll of life to revive a party member without having to return to a fort or bed to rest.

 

Crafted potions : Energy Potion, Power Potion, and Brute Flask can be made from healing potions in Apothecaries. There is no limit on the number of these that you can convert.

 

Upgrade the Piratical Sword to Cutlass of Radiance for the best magical damage staff in the game. C

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Remember in The Graduate the advice 'Plastics'?  For QW2 ... 'Mad Flurry'.  It's great for thinning out crowds.  And if they do start getting close to you, Ensnaring Vines is great for freezing the horde ... and then the others whack them with Mad Flurry.

 

Distilleries tend to be a waste of Quicksilver.  Intriguing bonuses, but man is quicksilver scarce.

 

Combat/energy conservation is much like QW1.  In many places you will be swarmed with waves of bad guys/monsters.  If you kill a wave & no others are visible on the screen, end combat and hopefully you'll regenerate a point or two of energy.  Then when the next wave arrives you can use those points on Mad Flurry or some such.  Rinse lather repeat.  With many dungeons I was able to reach the boss with energy levels up around 75-80% or more using those tactics.

 

If you're near a fort, step inside there to recharge/heal rather than sleeping in a bed.  Usually far less time will pass.

 

When using fast movement, if the travel time says two hours, it's usually better for game time to just walk there.  Three hours or more it won't matter as far as the game clock is concerned.

 

In dungeons, when at a closed door, stack everyone right next to the door in a square (doors tend to be two spaces wide).  Enter combat and have one of the front guys kick the door open (one movement point).  Then if there are monsters visible, everyone gets generally one turn to shoot arrows or wand zaps at them before they notice that you're there.

 

You can use entering combat as a scouting ability.  Every monster is outlined with a red square one space out from them that is visible in combat mode.  If there's a monster juuust out of sight, if you enter combat you can see their outline and decide how you want to proceed.

 

Speed is great.  Speed augments on each different item that can take them adds up fairly quickly.

 

Getting everyone the ability to heal is a good way to spread energy usage around.  Also, going up the support tree is a good way to improve evasion & speed (10% speed at level three (ability choice) and level four (automatic))

 

VERY IMPORTANT - do your healing 'before' ending combat.  After combat ends is when energy is regenerated.  If player 'x' has full energy but player 'y' needs healed, if 'x' heals 'y' and then ends combat, there's a good chance that 'x' will get that point back.

 

Probably more later, those were just off the top of my head.

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11 minutes ago, TriRodent said:

Distilleries tend to be a waste of Quicksilver.  Intriguing bonuses, but man is quicksilver scarce.

Each distillery gives a 3% chance of a potion being recharged when used. Near the end of the game with 20 potions among the party, this can mean getting extra energy  healing, or summoning a pet.

 

You can get enough quicksilver to build 7 apothecaries and 7 distilleries.

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35 minutes ago, Randomizer said:

 

You can get enough quicksilver to build 7 apothecaries and 7 distilleries.

 

Hmmm, I must have missed one or two on my playthroughs then.  Between the apothecaries & fort upgrades I always seemed to be on the edge (wanting one or two as a buffer against theft).

 

Good to know, thanks.

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Doh, I forgot a big one.

 

In your forts you can create either building or stalls - things are easier to manage if you put all of those building types where you don't have to interact with them once they're built (barracks, bakers, distilleries, etc) into buildings.  Leave the open stalls for those that you do want to talk to (smithies, carpenter, weaver, etc).  Sure they may get wet standing out in the rain waiting for you to stroll by, but you're royalty, exploit it a bit.

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Right clicking on any monster will provide a plethora of useful information (HP, energy level, resistances, etc).  This isn't real time combat, take an extra moment to check them out & see if poisoning them will actually do anything at all.

 

Mad Flurry will deal damage to everyone around your initial targeting point ... but it will also do what would be the normal attack damage from that weapon type (say it does 10 hp to everyone around & including the target, then the target gets 50 hp damage from the arrow attack - so 10 for everyone around & 60 to the targeted monster).  If you have multiple people using Mad Flurry, it may be better to spread the targets around slightly than to pile it onto the guy in the center.

 

If you're fighting monsters that are two squares wide (some of the trees for instance), if you can funnel them into a chokepoint that's three squares wide, only one can attack you at a time (unless they spit poison or some other distance attack...)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm planning my eventual munchkin/min-max-lite playthrough, and am interested in others' thoughts/info on the rewards for dedicating forts in certain ways. My initial thinking for a good balance is 1 to Knowledge (for Energy Potions), 3 to Industry (for more speed, accuracy, improved Mad Flurry, and "Spectral Armor"), and 3 to Ro (for "Resolve to Ro", and secondarily for the "opinion" boost). A few specific questions, in addition to any general feedback others' may want to share on their preferences:

1) What exactly are the benefits of the "Spectral Armor" equipment upgrades, and do people think they're worth it?
2) What exactly are the benefits of the "Respect to Ro" "opinion" boost? Is it only the flat +8 modifier to Ro reputation mentioned in another topic, or does it also offer other unique benefits?
3) Re: "Aid to Peace", the top post here notes "-!0% theft reduction". I assume this is 10%, but either way, could Randomizer please edit the post to correct? Also, it notes "...to all Forts", but I thought theft rates/amounts were calculated on a region- and/or world-wide basis (see e.g. the description for barracks/guard towers/fort upgrades that indicate they reduce theft "in this region") rather than on the basis of each of the seven separate forts?

Thanks as always for any info and tips!

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1. I was under the impression Spectral Armor was the buff that gives you a buffer of hp, similar to Essence Shield in Geneforge Mutagen. Haven't tried it out myself, though.

 

2. It's just a bonus to your Ro reputation - the bonuses go from +2, +4, +6, +8. If you're trying to toe the line between getting high reputation with both the Queen and the Ro, the benefit here are very worthwhile.

 

3. Theft is per region, the wording in-game should probably say -10% theft per region. That being said, it's pretty easy to manage theft in this game. I don't really think dedicating 4 forts to the Ro is worth it for that buff.

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Thanks, folks - sounds like Spectral Armor isn't great if it's only a temporary HP buff, and now through the magic of word-searching I've found the clearer description ("creates shield that absorbs damage up to its duration"); the description "ability to improve armor" in part of the post above led me to think of more permanent crafting/equipment upgrades instead. Also, I'd already thought the theft reduction - assuming -10% worldwide, which Randomizer hasn't contradicted - wouldn't be worth it, given you're passing up other slick benefits from a different dedication. Still, I'm editing my post in the Resources topic to account for this potential benny.

This hasn't changed my personal plan to dedicate 3 to Ro (because Aid to Peace isn't worth it), 3 to Industry (because the Mad Flurry upgrade with 2 is apparently important, while the Knowledge benefits at 2 don't strike me as great), and 1 to Knowledge (because Energy Potions).

Edited by mikeprichard
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Spectral Armor can be applied before combat starts though, which makes it more valuable. It's not something I'd cast in the middle of a battle, but it can give you a lot more leeway going into a fight. Not essential, and not as crazy strong as Essence Shield was, but I think it could be pretty decent before a tough fight.

Edited by Mechalibur
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I'd like to mention that Bonds of the Fae is a niche but very good skill. Creating a skeleton and putting it into stasis right next to enemies draws a lot of fire, and being able to take an enemy out of the fight for a while is really nice. Heck, if you can put an enemy into stasis in front of larger monsters, that can jam the field for a good while. The only thing to keep in mind is that monsters in stasis can still be knocked back, so it's not as good against Ka-Boars and Drakes.

 

Also, is there any way to get those blue flaming spheres that cause slow, or is that just an enemy only skill? That would be worth an extra skill point if it works.

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25 minutes ago, Shaper_Mario said:

I'd like to mention that Bonds of the Fae is a niche but very good skill. Creating a skeleton and putting it into stasis right next to enemies draws a lot of fire, and being able to take an enemy out of the fight for a while is really nice. Heck, if you can put an enemy into stasis in front of larger monsters, that can jam the field for a good while. The only thing to keep in mind is that monsters in stasis can still be knocked back, so it's not as good against Ka-Boars and Drakes.

 

Also, is there any way to get those blue flaming spheres that cause slow, or is that just an enemy only skill? That would be worth an extra skill point if it works.

I warned Jeff about that exploit. I used it a few laces. Really great against eye beasts and Nisse.

 

The cold sphere is an enemy only. Your second level version only is stronger.

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I think if targets in stasis couldn't be knocked back it would be absurdly overpowered instead of regular overpowered. It can definitely trivialize some fights, or at least buy you enough time to kill some enemies. It's probably for the best that it's not that good against dragons and drakes.

 

Edit: You can put your party members in stasis too, but it checks stun resistance and isn't very useful if you've been building it up. Saving a party member is nice, but getting stunlocked is extremely annoying and I think that Teleport is a better way to get your enemies out of danger.

Edited by Shaper_Mario
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  • 1 month later...

I only have a few core tips as the game system overall is pretty flexible.

 

Here's what I'd suggest:

  •  Unlock your first four forts as soon as you can (immediately after leaving the Gentle Coast). 
  • Party building:
    • After you've unlocked all four forts, recruit three new party members, one from each district, and move your havenite recruit's gear over to them. 
      • You probably want, at first, one combat-focused "tank", one "support", and one "mage", while your PC puts his points into the Haven cultural skills (at first)
      • (late game I like to make my Prince a warrior mage with arcane weapon, but that's a personal preference and works best at level 15+). 
      • You can build for two-handed weapons if you want but apart from a few very specific unique items you're generally best off with a one handed weapon and a defensive offhand item.
      • Characters get 22 skill points maximum; reaching rank 4 in a tree gives benefits.  Most characters will want to spend 6+ points in the Cultural category though, so practically speaking each character can only max-rank two trees, not three.
      • Long term, I find it useful for every party member to have an AoE heal; this means everyone but my prince usually invests some in the Support tree (which also gives them generally-useful boosts to speed and evasion). 
  •  For your forts, put your initial resources into building blacksmith, carpenter, alchemist, weaver.
    •  After that, you can buy Mills and Bakeries to bring costs down, but don't invest in Distilleries at first, as you will need that Quicksilver to upgrade your forts and expand later
    • Once you have four of each shop, spend remaining quicksilver on upgrading forts. There are different strategies here and I'd suggest reading the forum further to get different opinions and figure out what will work for you. The big hidden decision here is that you upgrade will unlock different upgrades at the Tower of Erudico.
      • my suggestion would be making your first unlock into Knowledge to unlock Energy Potions. 
      • Other useful unlocks are the  "Mad Flurry" skill, which gives a good AoE ability and unlocks with two forts in Industry, and "Resolve of the Ro" which gives strong mental / stun resist and unlocks with three forts dedicated to the Ro.
  •  As to initial gear:
    • buy Ro Sideblades (wherever you can find them, often from Rokaj vendors) and the best bows you can; that will be enough to carry your team through most of the first part of the game.
    • You can also invest in Haste Augments (the 6% ones) and then move them to your better gear when you get it. You want most of your characters to have around 25% speed *before* Haste buff, so that you're always operating near the 65% speed cap. 
  • Move through and clear the first four zones.  (it's generally easiest to start with gentle coast, then Kranas Woods, the Low Dhaga, then High Litha).
  • As you clear those zones you'll bump into three fairly tough zone border challenges that unlock the second halves of the Kranas Woods, Dhaga, and Litha respectively.
    • Do those after clearing the rest of the zones and upgrading your gear.
    • Once your team has upgraded bows and can keep "inspiring cry" and "haven's might" up through most fights, you should be able to clear them.
  • Once you unlock the second half of each map, immediately go and upgrade the second fort in each zone. Same drill -- upgrade the four shops in each fort, then upgrade the fort, then once you can afford it, mills and bakeries. Once you've bought every other upgrade, do distilleries last. 
    • You are unlikely to have enough resources for every distillery etc. unless you have gathered everything, accepted every possible bribe, missed no resource rewards, have enough popularity to avoid all theft, and in short have essentially finished the game.
  • Money and shopping-
    • Money is *relatively* tight and while you'll probably be able to buy most everything you want by the end of the game, efficient shopping can make a *big* difference in what you can afford; buy only what you need, and buy mills and bakeries first where you can.
    • You will get an additional discount by buying your gear on the first day of each month. The "start" day for each run of the game is randomized, but each month seems to be about 30 to 40 days long, so it can be worthwhile to "save up" for a buying bonanza at the start of the month. 
  •  Faction choices:
    • generally speaking, supporting the Rokaj will make the game easier, while supporting the Queen gives you reputation that will apparently carry over to the third game.
    • The big advice here is say whatever you think will make the person you're talking to happiest, you're probably right.
    • Supporting the rights of women will generally piss off everyone, both the Queen and the locals.
    • Reputation isn't the only effect of your choices; often (and especially in the Kranas Woods) rare or unique gear will be gated behind various faction choices. 
    • Pissing the Rokaj off too much can make the game very difficult to complete -- if you can't maintain your shops, you can't maintain your gear, you'll start getting stacking penalties, and those will hurt your combat performance.
  • found loot:
    • Generally speaking you will find better gear in your built shops than out in the world, but found loot saves upgrade costs.
      • Rings, necklaces, and a few top-end augments cannot be purchased in your fort shops, only found as loot or  bought from Rokaj vendors.

 

  • Tactics:
    • You can, roughly, divide fights into two categories: trash and bosses.
      • The goal in any non-boss "trash" fight is to get through it with as little expenditure of resources (health, energy) as possible.
      • The goal in any boss fight is to get through it with enough gas left in the tank to finish out whatever few encounters might be left in the zone guarding extra loot.
    • Melee weapons do more damage per strike, generally speaking, than ranged weapons. However:
      • because engaging in melee limits your movement to one space per turn, it's much harder to focus fire with melee weapons, and
      • melee-only enemies cannot hit you when you are not in melee range. 
    • Net result, you will generally find that missile weapons are much more useful most of the time than melee weapons. You still need melee weapons for the rare instances where you either start in melee range or don't have room to retreat, but they shouldn't be an upgrade priority.
    • For most fights, even "trash" fights, the speed and damage bonus from Inspiring Cry or Haven's Might are worth the energy cost -- combined with ranged weapons focusing fire   and a bit of kiting, you should usually be able to cut most enemies down before they reach the party, and you'll end up spending less health and energy, net, if you buff at the start of the fight than you would healing up at the end.
    • You'll usually get a point or two of energy back on each character at the end of the fight, so it can be useful for any character at "max" in the last round to top off with a heal or buff. Conversely, though, you don't want to spend more than one or two energy, average, per character per fight, or you'll blow your budget and be out of gas by the time you hit the boss. 
    • For "Boss" fights, these are generally a damage race -- you want to take the boss down as fast as possible before their special abilities can trigger and wipe you out. This makes boss fights the time to start dumping all those special attack abilities.
      • Most bosses will be immune or resistant to some abilities but few are resistant to everything. Right-click them for information and see if they're vulnerable to anything in particular.
      • Stunning Strike is often a good first move as it applies both Stun and Slow and both of those buy you time in the damage race.
      • Brutal Blow is often a very good option -- five stacks of Bleed will rapidly add up the damage on most bosses.
      • Many bosses have a point-blank-range AoE or other powerful short range AoE attack. One strategy that is often effective is to summon a construct or skeleton immediately adjacent to the boss, but on a side away from the party, to distract it and direct those attacks away from the party, then stand at (you guessed it) maximum bow range and plink away. 
Edited by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy
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