Beginning Strategy
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Author info: This article originally written by Veneficus
Contents |
[edit] Introduction
[edit] Hero Attributes
Before reading this section, make sure you've understood the hero basics as outlined on the Basics page, especially the Hero Attributes section. It is also important to understand that, when you first register your hero, his or her starting hero attributes are randomly selected based on the Starting Attributes ranges. Among the starting attributes, it is notable that if your hero is of a class with naturally low Vitality, such as a Wizard, it is highly desirable to achieve as high a Vitality attribute as possible, since those few points of Vitality can make a crucial difference in your hero's Hit Point increase per level at the beginning of the game. If you're hero does end up with very poor starting Attributes, it may be a good idea to abandon the hero and re-register. As long as the stats roll is average or higher, there is no need to be upset. Item bonuses will certainly be more of a deciding factor than your base stats - even in the case of Vitality.)
If your Hero is of naturally low Intelligence - with a range that dips below 11 Intelligence - it is to your advantage to strive for a hero with an Intelligence of at least 11. 11 Intelligence is the prerequisite for learning the Spellcasting ability. Spells are very useful in the early game, and of course, heroes who focus on spellcasting will in fact want as high an Intelligence as possible! Otherwise, you'll need to spend a large sum of gold training your Intelligence to the literally magic number, 11.
[edit] Goals in the Early Game
Once your hero has registered, you'll be introduced to the Town Crier. The Town Crier has some valuable information for new players. Now is a good time to review the building descriptions for locations in Valmorgen.
Most heroes should begin by going to the Valmorgen Blacksmith and buying a weapon and armor, costing 100 gold each. Now, go to the "Items" Sidebar (the second icon from the left) and click "View Items". Select and equip your two new items. If your hero is Wizard, Priestess, or Monk, do not purchase a weapon. If your hero is a Barbarian or other class that cannot wear any of the Blacksmith's armor, only purchase a weapon. With that done, here are the general goals in the "early game":
- Reach level 7 by adventuring in the Valmorgen Sewers (a higher level may be necessary for some heroes)
- Obtain Gold while leveling in order to buy the following items, in order:
- 1. Purchase a Ring of Protection (500 Gold) from the Marketplace
- 2. If your hero knows spellcasting naturally, purchase both spell scrolls available from the Valmorgen Library.
- 3. Purchase the best armor available from the Valmorgen Blacksmith.
- 4. Enchant armor to +1 (200 gold) at the Wizard's Guild
- 5. If your hero is not a natural spellcaster, but Intelligence is at least 11, learn spellcasting now (1000 gold at Wizard's Guild). Afterward, purchase both spell scrolls available from the Valmorgen Library.
- 6. Enchant armor to +2 (400 gold)
- 7. Purchase the best weapon available from the Valmorgen Blacksmith (unless you find a suitable weapon in the Sewer)
- 8. Enchant all equipment fully
- 9. Optional: purchase green charm and red charm from Lormidia
This list does not apply for all classes. Specific cases are discussed below.
For most classes, it should be emphasized that obtaining gold is a top priority. Without the gold to purchase equipment and spells your hero is at a great disadvantage. Armor is especially valuable (more so than weapons in the early game) because you're likely to be outnumbered, having to defend in combat more often than you can attack. Healing is also rather difficult in the early game, so every Hit Point saved is a tragedy avoided!
[edit] "Where to Go?" and how to earn gold
New heroes generally start off going to the sewers, progressing to the Lower Sewers, and eventually the Ratman Kingdom. Gold is earned by one of these methods:
- defeating enemies in combat, by attaining items and selling them at the blacksmith or gnome hovel,
- by doing guard duty work (at the city gates) (3 gold, 6 XP per turn)
- by doing construction work (Dwarves and Gnomes only, at the Valmorgen Palace). (10 gold, 15 XP per 3 turns)
- through the Royal Rat-Catcher who offers quests that the hero can complete to gain a fair amount of gold. (800 gold in total, +XP from killing the rats, not repeatable)
- some heroes with high luck can earn money at the Gambling Hall
- some heroes that begin with the stealing ability can steal from shops and selling them at the same shop for cash.
[edit] Healing and Followers
Early heroes can rely on resting at temples to heal battle damage. Eventually, at a certain point, once the hero makes enough gold to keep up with purchasing Healing Potions from the marketplace, it is preferable to use healing potions rather than resting, since resting takes away valuable turns.
Followers are an element in the game that can be useful to some classes. Followers cost money to hire and reduced the experience gained by heroes after combat (since the total experience is distributed also to followers), but can significantly aid the hero in gaining gold. Certain classes weaker in the beginning, such as healers and rangers, benefit from using followers, whereas others are better off avoiding them altogether.
[edit] Beginning Difficulty Ratings
This table reflects the relative ease of getting through the beginning stages of the game. These ratings are not based on the difficulty ratings assigned by the developers as seen on the character registration page.
Easy
- Priestess, Gnome, Cultist
Normal
- Adept, Monk, WoD, Solarus, Paladin, Healer, Elf
Slightly Harder
- Warrior, Dwarf, Wizard, Rogue
Hard
- Ranger, Barbarian
[edit] Comments and Approaches for Specific Hero Classes
[edit] Conventional Melee Classes
- Adept, Monk, Paladin, Solarus, Warrior of Discord (Relatively easy)
- Dwarf, Warrior (Somewhat harder)
The above classes of heroes follow the most conventional path in the early game. The first row of classes listed above all should breeze through the early game with relative ease due to their high defense capabilities or high attacking power (for the Warrior of Discord). The second row of classes are more challenging due to their lower defense values, but the idea should be approximately the same, only that these classes will take longer to develop early on. It should be noted that the Dwarf class is classified as "Beginner" primarily due to its impressive capabilities after the early game. Players should generally follow the guidelines listed earlier in this article. Adepts, Paladins and Solarii all naturally learn spellcasting at level 3 or 4, so make sure to capitalize on that advantage by buying the FlameShield Spell, which should make the game go fairly straightforward. Warriors of Discord will not be able to learn spellcasting at this stage of the game because their intelligence is too low. Fortunately, their attack multiple enemies ability easily compensates for this deficiency.
As suggested earlier, heal by resting in temples until you've gained enough equipment so that you can make enough money to keep a steady stream of healing potions. Once you can comfortably fight in the (upper) sewers, progress to the lower sewers. Remember that the most important goal is to gain enough gold to buy a full array of equipment.
Dwarves and Warriors will not be able to progress to the lower sewers and Ratman kingdom as quickly as the other heroes listed above. For that reason, the choices are either to stay back in the upper sewers for a longer time, or purchase followers. In addition, Dwarves may gain gold without fighting by being employed in construction work (at the Palace). Warriors (and other heroes) can similarly apply for guard duty at the gate, although for a lesser price. The payoff for the cost of lost turns is quite low and it may only be worth it at the very beginning.
Warriors have the advantage of using bucklers and shields, so make sure you equip those items when you find them in the sewers or after purchasing from the blacksmith. The Wooden Large Shield, for example, gives the wearer 3 armor points for a meager cost in gold. Therefore, these two items should be top priority, even before the ring of Protection.
The use of followers for Dwarves and Warriors is optional. If you decide to purchase followers, it's probably best to eventually use 3 or 4 fighters rather than having just an additional fighter or archer, since the more followers you have, the less you have to heal. With followers, the main goal here is not to gain levels, but to gain enough gold to buy equipment. Once you've gained enough gold to have the best armor in the blacksmith with +3 enchantment, you'll be able to survive in the Ratman Kingdom using healing potions and without followers. When that happens, dismiss your followers or do not revive them after they die.
[edit] Barbarians
For barbarians, begin by buying the 100 gold axe. Save the extra 100 gold for later, since the 1-point damage difference between 100 and 200 gold axe is not significant. The lack of both armor and intelligence means that a lot of the reference "goal list" must be revised. The primary issue is that after you've gained enough gold to purchase the ring of protection, it's not directly clear what to purchase. Moreover, another deficiency is that Barbarians are unable to enter either the temple to Agrela or krypta to revive their followers, so using followers is difficult. It is probably best not to use followers, for this reason, and also for the reason that barbarians become progressively stronger with their critical hit level so you want to gain levels as fast as possible without having followers hold you back. The goal of the barbarian is thus to gain levels while holding your own against enemy rats.
Once you've saved 500 gold to purchase your Ring of Protection (don't forget to equip it), you should be able to fight in the upper sewers and earn a net income of gold even by using healing potions and without resting at your temple. However, the upper sewers is probably not the most exciting place to adventure. One approach without using any followers is to save up 1600 gold to buy a map from the rangers guild to the central plains, and then travel to Lormidia to purchase the Green Charm at the bazaar. The green charm provides an extra 4 points to your armor value, which should be quite valuable. Make sure you complete the quests for the rat-catcher to gain extra gold to get the charm. Once you do have the charm (around level 5), you should be able to take on the lower sewers with a steady net revenue. The only encounter in the lower sewers that may be of problem are trolls. You can either just die and hope that your hardiness skill can save you, or use monster detection potions. When you can comfortably fight in the lower sewers, you'll be able to fight in the Ratman Kingdom (at approximately level 8). Since you have nothing else to purchase, go ahead and buy the best axe and enchant it at the wizards guild.
Again, the principle challenge of barbarians is that there is no early threshold point at which they become powerful enough to easily fight through the Ratman kingdom. Even rangers, for example, reach that point by attaining maximal armor and spellcasting. Barbarians have no armor and will have to fight a long way before they can cast spells. This and the reasons mentioned makes the barbarian arguably the most challenging in the beginning.
[edit] Wizards
Since wizards do not rely on melee combat, there is no need to buy weapons in the early game. (Wizards can ineffectively fight hand to hand and should use staffs with socketed beard rings later on, but for the early game, there is no need for weapons) Instead, use your gold to purchase the Ring of Protection and the library spells at first opportunity. As a wizard, your first priority is to get to level 7 to purchase the powerful Meteor Storm spell. Wizards in the early game are entirely offense-oriented. They can do a large amount of damage but can barely take any hits before "melting". Due to their lower endurance, the use of melee followers is pretty much mandatory. The only catch is that followers limit the amount of experience you get from combat, so having too many followers will be counterproductive to your goal of attaining level 7. In general, about 2 or 3 (elite) fighters is a good balance point between combat and experience gained. Once you have 2 or 3 followers, the game should play fairly straightforward. Once you have the meteor storm and all the other spells from the library, you can continue without followers.
[edit] Priestess
The advantage of this class is that they get free skeleton followers and that their drain life spell has healing effects. The free skeletons is a significant advantage, which makes the Priestess early game the simplest of any class, since automatically-replenishing skeletons are a powerful meatshield against enemies. When going into combat with skeleton followers, the most ideal situation occurs when all followers are "killed" while the character is relatively unscathed, since loss of followers in combat results in bonus XP given to the Priestess. (It's also helpful to turn on the auto-dismiss feature in the options panel so that fallen skeletons are automatically replaced). Priestesses can augment their defense with the ironcloth robe, enchanted +3, and the green charm.
[edit] Elf, Rogue, Cultist, Gnome
The Elf, Rogue, Cultist, and Gnome classes all have non-conventional methods of attaining gold by stealing (Elf, Rogue) or gambling (Cultist, Gnome). The stealing ability can be used to attain items such as weapons and armor without having to purchase them. Be warned though, that the more valuable the item, the more difficult it is to steal them from the shop. At times, it is more efficient to simply steal lesser items and sell them back to the shop rather than to steal higher-level items for use.
Cultists and Gnomes both have high luck attributes, which make them ideal for the gambling hall. Statistically, these two classes are more likely to win than lose money at the end of the day, so make sure you consider using this to your advantage. It is possible to gain enough gold to fully purchase all equipment, spells, and items purchased outside of Valmorgen without even setting foot in the sewers! Looks like luck does (literally) pay off.
After stealing and gambling, the rest of the strategy for these four classes is the same as the generic ones. Refer to the list of goals mentioned earlier and use healing and followers (Elf, Rogue, Cultist) whenever necessary. Do not forget to learn spellcasting and the crucial spells available at the library. Cultists, in particular, should strive to reach level 7 as quickly as possible to make use of the powerful shape shift spell which provides attribute bonuses as well as free healing. Cultists begin with spellcasting, which makes things go fairly smoothly.
[edit] Rangers
Without the craftiness of elves, rangers are more challenging to get through than their wine-loving archer counterparts. Furthermore, their sense of nature doesn't seem to come in too handy in the filthy dark sewers. For all practical purposes, though, rangers play roughly with the same objectives in mind as many other classes, such as focusing on increasing armor and hiring followers. It take them longer to get out of their weak early stage.
[edit] Healers
Healers tend to be one of the easier classes to play in the early game. Healers have very little combat ability at the beginning so followers are necessary. But once you get a follower, you'll find that it's nearly impossible to get the follower killed due to the heal spell. At the start of the game, the best move is to spend 34 of your 200 turns at guard duty to gain enough gold to hire a fighter. Once you get the fighter, you can start exploring the sewers. Once you've obtained 250 gold from the sewers, the first item to purchase is the powershock spell from the library. Powershock is the only practical combat method for healers and is excellent support for your fighter. From then on it should become quite simple.
[edit] Beyond the Early Stage
When you can roam around the sewers at will, you can start exploring new locations in Ardania and hone your list of equipment. For this stage of the game see: Early and Midgame Guide
