Tricks in the game

[Eigenvalue]

Some random things I have noticed while playing G4:

 

1. You can exit the area while in the combat mode, moreover this seems to cure all nagative effects (such as, say, poison).

 

2. I have not been playing singleton much, so possibly the following is quite well-known. While fighting, if in one turn you can

hide from all of the attackers and still have action points left, it is possible to quickly end the combat mode and cast 4-5 useful spells (such as healing, hasting, etc.) before the closest enemy appears.

 

And just a weird thing: at some point I was getting exactly 25 experience points for all kills. Also, it seems that killing a much weaker opponent, there are no experience points at all, am I right?

 

Anyone knows of any other useful tricks?

[Alorael at Large]

The experience you get depends on your level and your enemy's level. Since most foes in an area have the same level, you're likely to get the same amount of experience repeatedly. Yes, eventually you'll be high enough in level that the cannon fodder in earlier areas won't do any good.

 

—Alorael, who no longer knows when to kill what after all the changes from one beta to another.

[Randomizer]

By the time your level is in the mid 30s you get no experience from tier 2 and some tier 3 monsters like battle alphas.

 

One trick for easy experience is to attack certain creations that are not hostile. In the Boiling Mudpits with enough leadership you can make a thahd go neutral and then attack it. A better place is in Chapter 4 the Sentinel Woods after using high mechanics (somewhere between 12 and 14) and living tools to shut down the pylons you can kill the sentinel creations and they won't fight you.

[Synergy]

Hmm, here's an exploit not unlike the one I drew to Jeff's attention with the battle with the Titan where you could corner it and keep it from breathing fire in Drakon form. This time, not being able to figure out how to successfully kill the insanely hugely hit-pointed Matala Golem in her workshop below the Western Morass, I used two drayks and my servile to trap it in the corner of it's original starting pad. After dealing it a little damage, the golem wants to run to the room where the rotghroths are generated. But if trapped, it just keeps hasting itself and not hitting or using its aura of flames attack. It took a tediously long time for me to hammer at it until it died, but it never was able to leave or attack the whole time.

 

What I am wondering is how do you normally do this level? I sent my Servile through the whole lab and even had him destroy the three regenerating pylons, but it didn't seem to help anything. The Golem was still very tough and the rotghroths kept flying out of the vats faster than my Servile and a pet or two could cope with. How's this zone done properly?

 

Also, can you do anything with that Drakon down there?

 

-S-

[Student of Trinity]

I haven't had time to play since the game came out, but Matala with a servile was the last thing I did, on Torment. I went through first by the back way, killing off the pylons and turning off the crystal. But thereafter no clever tricks seemed to work; I just toughed it out. Especially the Rotghroths were very bad. I hoped charming them would be the key, but my chances of success were low, and Matala would nuke them before they did it much damage. In the end what worked was to mostly ignore them while healing and whacking Matala, until it ran away and stopped making them. Then it took me forever to cure away the accumulated acid.

 

The big drakon thing was bad, and I know of no way to avoid having Matala use it on you. It couldn't be charmed. I was able to lure it away from Matala and kill it alone.

 

So at that point Matala was at bay, with no more machines or summoning platforms, and about half its health left. But I was flat out of pods and essence, and could not be bothered to go all the way back to recharge, facing the possibility (unverified) that Matala might also recover fully while I was gone. So I'm afraid at this point I just dropped the difficulty to Easy and finished the golem off. It didn't do much damage or even hit very often on Easy, but I wasn't doing much damage either, so it took a long time, and I didn't succeed by much of a margin.

[Randomizer]

I used a lifecrafter with 5 creations. Essence shackles slow Matala's ability to fight and with enough damage the golem flees and only creates one rotgroth. It was a long fight and one time she didn't get to release the drakon. Melee attacks cause cursing so you need to continually heal and bless your creations.

[Synergy]

Hmm, so it's just a painfully long fight for survival against a foe with a gazillion hitpoints and a few friends coming to the party. It doesn't sound like I missed much, unless the Drakon gives a lot of XP or drops something tasty...which I doubt.

 

Has anyone verified what killing the pylons and disarming the one crystal do? Does it minimize summons from the vats or something?

 

-S-

[Randomizer]

According to the hint book destroying the pylons prevents restoration of the golem up to that point in fighting (use the TAB to see why) and the crystal is supposed to prevent slowing and damage from the pools. The drakon doesn't drop anything and the golem drops the key to the area with the blademaster charm.

 

It's a long dragged out fight and you really have to be stocked up to make it through. Since you can get the crystalline fibers without the fight it usually is only worth it for completeness since the experience is under 100.

[Synergy]

Oh yeah, the hint book I've never looked at yet, because I keep forgetting about it. All I missed was killing the drakon then. I cleaned out the workshop. So far, it's the one part of the game I really don't like.

 

I'm just getting into Chapter Five now, and my Servile is at level 40! I seem to never get more than 25 points to kill anything, and often I get no points for things. We'll see what level he makes it to when all is said and done.

 

-S-