Is minmaxing with sarcophagus on veteran guardian adequate && viable? (Spoilers)

[Stragbou]

Hello there!

Few years ago I've played Geneforge 1. It was fulfilling experience with shaper class.

Week ago I've discovered that there is a brand new Mutagen version! With a new graphics and gameplay changes. Didn't sleep very much, tried several builds on difficulties normal to torment. Torment is too painful for me, normal is boring because enemies do not have abilities and veteran is just OK for me.

So I decided to play Guardian because I want beefy warrior with a big sword having support from a few strong creatures.
Shaper is too frail for me and he needs to micromanage the creatures. It is irritating a bit.
Agent would be nice if there were more spells and less enemies at once, I do not know how to play it.

I've affinity for powergaming and minmaxing. I like to have strongest characters possible in each game I play.

So I read a wiki and saw that if you have 0 in skill, sarcophagus books will raise skill by one.
Problem is, sacrophaguses (S from here) are in mid to high-level areas and I dunno how I should play to reach them. The Tombs, Inner Crypt, South Bridge and Sealed labs all require strong character.

Also for guardian I have zeros in skills:
Magic Shaping,
All Magic Skills,
Leadership, Mechanics, Stealth

I can forgive magic shaping S and mental && blessing magic -- they are in the Tombs and spellcarft -- it is in Southbridge, but everything else seems very late game for me.

Also I like mechanics and leadership in this game to much. Why they were placed in super late game? Should I strongly invest in my fighting skills and stats only while not speaking with anyone and loosing mechanics gimmicks for 3/4 game? Or there is a way to reach all of those S without too much trouble?

Please help me built my level clearing strategy and show your opinion about idea on minmaxing with S.

Thank you in advance.

[Randomizer]

Minmaxing  isn't needed that much in this game. It' more important to pick the right order to go through zones to avoid getting trapped with creations higher than you can fight causing time wasted and reloads.

 

Mechanics and leadership re very useful early in the game for quick and easy experience ti go up ahead of more damgerous zones. Also some extra loot for better equipment asa guardian.

 

Good luck.

 

Welcome ti Spiderweb Software. Please leave your sanity at the door, It; totally useless.

[Mechalibur]

Tombs and South Bridge aren't too hard to reach. I'd recommend keeping the Magic Craft/Blessing Magic/Mental Magic/Spellcraft at 0 until you find them.

 

For Leadership and Mechanics, I absolutely do NOT advise waiting for the sarcophagi. It's pretty far into the game and leadership and mechanics are very useful right out of the gate. You'd also only be saving 1 skill point each which is absolutely not worth the irritation of having 0 leadership/mechanics for most of the game.

[Stragbou]

I've done as you said. It was fairly easy to get S from Tombs and South Bridge (only those dreaded thunder-handed Thahds were bit tricky; although my Thanhds and my steel sword cleaved them all).
Then I started to farm mid-game levels for leadership and mechanics. It was so relieving to get these and start to finish quests from the beginning of the game;

[Stragbou]

Anyway. I tried to reach fast the Ancient Crypt on Guardian using Volatile Thahds Drone Strategy on Casual while having 0 in leadership, mech and stealth. It was not easy.
As the door to crypt requires entry baton which easier to find in Western Workshop than the mines, I proceeded there. I didn't have those 70 and then even more batons to proceed into the chamber another way.
It was a cringe when I found out that this filthy servant mind requires leadership to proceed. Why...
Then I looked into the walkthrough and found out that it's 3 leadership.
Pain.
How did the pals out there found out that some tombs gives you skills? Is it from game code reverse engineering or they were more hungry to find this out?

[Mechalibur]

From the game code. Each skill has its own code and each location has its own scripts that can be examined. It's also how I found out about the Strength bonus for interacting with this one pool 9 times.