Early and Midgame Guide

From HoAWiki

Contents 1 Beyond Valmorgen 2 General Considerations 3 Exploring 4 Items Searching 4.1 Advanced Items 5 Entering the "Late Game"

[edit] Beyond Valmorgen

Now that you've gotten through the Valmorgen Sewers, you can finally take your adventures beyond the city to far away lands in Ardania. This guide will provide an overview of what's out there, but keep in mind the game is open-ended and there are no fixed goals, so there is no 'right' way to play it. Whatever you do is ultimately of your choice.

[edit] General Considerations

• Gaining Gold: Gold is an important resource needed to supply your character with items, healing aids, consumables, and stat training.
• Levels and HP: Levels alone do not have any effect on combat mechanics and are not a good indication of character strength. Levels do affect the character's primary attribute (which ranges from very important like Intelligence, to nearly useless like Artifice), and the amount of Hit Points a character has. Early in the game, it is important to consider that if your max HP is too low, you will not be able to utilize certain healing aids to the fullest extent. For example, about 150 HP is needed to make good use of Rejuvenation Tonics, and 300 HP for an Elixir of Health. When the character gains more HP, the Total Restoration Tincture can be utilized to heal even more health. Increasing your Vitality through items at the time of level-up increases the amount of HPs you gain when you level. Since HP growth during level-up is permanent, acquiring and using Vitality items as early as possible is a great boon to any hero.
• Items Searching: Improving your equipment, an important part of hero development and perhaps the most significant aspect of the game, is discussed later in more detail.
• Stat Training: Since there are so many items which enhance stats, training combat stats to high levels is an unnecessary focus for most classes. One exception might be magic resistance, but this area of training takes a significant amount of gold. Besides training combat stats, it will be necessary to train Craftmanship at some point in order to utilize schematics. Another area of training are the hero's "non-combat" stats, such as Artifice, which can be trained up to 12 in a Clan. See also: Hero Attributes, Training Tables
• Quests: Most quests do not offer any rewards that are useful in the long run and are there solely for your enjoyment. The three exceptions: Merlan's Quests, which when completed grants access to new schematics and potions, the "Enlist at the East Cheswick Outpost" quest, and the "Ascend the Wizard's Tower" quest.

[edit] Exploring

To get out of Valmorgen, you must purchase maps at the Rangers Guild. There are three main maps, opening up three major areas. A guide to those locations most relevant to the early/midgame is given below.

Keep in mind that different areas are optimal for different classes, particularly in the early stages of the game. If you are having trouble with particular encounters in an area, one possibility is to avoid such encounters, using Potions of Monster Detection , purchased from the Wizards Guild. In the event that you find an important encounter that is particularly difficult, a good strategy is to equip items such as the Wand of Lightning Storm and Anti-Magic Gems just for that encounter. These and many more helpful items can also be found at the Wizards Guild.

Overview of Places to Go

• Central Plains: The Central Plains have several important locations to be found within them, but the plains themselves have only one good encounter for loot, the Goblin Fortress. Clearing the Goblin Fortresses here is probably your earliest shot at finding items better than what can be found at the Blacksmith. The Bandits and Medusas who roam the plains carry a good amount of gold for the early game, but watch out for the Medusa's very high magic resistance if you're playing a spellcaster.

• Treldan Wood: This area has two important locations: Darkmoor Swamp and Lichfield Hollow which will need to be found by exploring the Woods. You'll eventually need to go to Lichfield Hollow to socket your items, and to complete several early quests. If you venture into the Swamp, be warned that you will need to find your way out again, unless you're a Ranger, and the monsters in there are quite powerful. It's probably best to leave off exploring here until later in your career, but bring plenty of healing aids along whatever you do.

• The Goblin Territory: Accessed from the Sovereign Road on the Central Plains, the Goblin Territory is a good easy-to-handle area with good rewards. Many classes might want to try this area to gain a bit of gold before wandering elsewhere. But beware, for you can exit this location only by finding the exit or an escort by chance, unless you're playing a Ranger. As with all locations like this, and there are several, bring along plenty of healing aids before you think about entering. Potions of Monster Detection will allow you to avoid battles while you search for a way out, making them handy for this sort of work also.

• Catacombs: Accessed from the Graveyard (discovered by exploring the Central Plains), the Catacombs are a lucrative early location for classes with high damage output, but are probably not the best choice for many other classes.Vampires can be quite difficult early on with their high magic resistance and Life Leach spell, and appear all too frequently in encounters here. This area is a great place for Priestesses to hunt, as they can use Control Undead to charm anything that dwells here, and can pick up as many as 3 Vampire followers which are much better than her animated Skeletons. The Buried Cathedral can be found inside the catacombs, which used to be the main destination for players looking for lots of gold. However, due to changes in monster INT stats, monster spellcasters are stronger than they used to be, and visiting the Cathedral is far less practical and profitable than it used to be, unless the user is equipped with Medusa Potions.

• Fertile Plains: Lots of good items can be found here, including gloves, boots, bracers, and beard rings. Unlike the Catacombs and Goblin Territory, items are to be found here which cannot be directly purchased from East Cheswick's Trading Post. The prized jewel of this is the "Escort Caravan" encounter, which is relatively difficult. This and the presence of Greater Gogrons make the area quite challenging. Although this area is rich in loot, heroes should take caution, either by being selective in choosing when to fight, or using items for specific encounters. Heroes relying on spell damage may have trouble against the Medusas here. After the new releases in January 2008, the Dark Forest and Fertile Plains became the center of attention, since many of the new items were placed here. Buy the map from Valmorgen's Rangers Guild for 1500 gold to access this region.

• East Cheswick: For those with less patience for item hunting, many can be purchased at the Trading Post, which offers a random selection of 6 different items every day. Many of the items found here are very useful, if not cheap. Heroes can also find more interesting Guard Duty assignments here. East Cheswick is located off the Fertile Plains.

• Dark Forest: To gain access to the Dark Forest you must visit the Tavern in East Cheswick and observe the Rumors - make sure you get all the important rumors, since without them you won't be able to access certain things inside the Dark Forest. Every hero should come to the Dark Forest at some point for its important items, an aura to be gained at the Paladin's Keep, and to complete Merlan's Quests needed to gain access to his shop. The Dark Forest contains some difficult monsters, such as Oculi, but the number of monsters you'll encounter also depends on your level, which means that this place can be easier for lower level heroes. If using Potions of Monster Detection , the randomly attacking Oculi can be avoided in most cases.

• Wild Gardens: The Wild Gardens can be found by exploring the Dark Forest and if you have the needed rumor in your journal. A number of important stat-enchancing items, such as the Black Stone, are found here. The monsters present are rather easy and the area is friendly to weaker hero classes, provided that the Bracer of Defilement is equipped against Invisible Trolls. To take advantage of this location early in the game, you might consider avoiding the more challenging monsters in the Dark Forest while arriving here.

• Hellfire Mountains: To access the mountains, you must either purchase a map from Lormidia's Farseer, or defeat the Barbarians guarding the bridge in the Dark Forest. The Hellfire Mountains contain the "mystic" items necessary for crafting many schematics. Other schematic ingredients are also found here, but the importance of exploring this area has declined after most ingredients became available at East Cheswick's Trading Post. There are four mountain regions: North, South, East, and West, each with its own distinct monster encounters. The South region is suitable for low to mid-strength heroes, while the West region is best suited for heroes with high armor and magic resistance.

• Traveller's Dell: Located in the center of the Hellfire Mountains, you'll need to visit here to buy maps to access the regions. Traveller's Dell can be reached by the Southern Pass out of Lormidia, after a map is purchased from the Farseer there. Classes wearing robe armor should visit here as soon as possible, to purchase an Ironcloth Robe, which can be enchanted at the Wizards Guild.

• Elven Valley: Also located inside the Hellfire Mountains, you can only reach here after completing the Elven Escort mission, found at random in any of the four regions of the Hellfire Mountains. There are important items available in the Elven Valley, although with luck any of them can now be found in East Cheswick's Trading Post.

• Leprechaun Valley: Some have used this location to gain a quick amount of gold, but the cost in turns needed to enter and exit can be undesirably high.

For a comprehensive list of locations, see the "Locations" section.

[edit] Items Searching

Items are the single biggest determinant of a character's power, much more important than base stats and level once these two measures have reached a certain point. For this reason, item hunting is a large part of hero development. As soon as you leave Valmorgen, you can begin the search for mid-level items, either by defeating certain monster encounters or visiting shops like East Cheswick's Trading Post, or the Elven Blacksmith in the Elven Valley.

• For classes who can wear Plate or Chain Mail, it is of great benefit to obtain this early, since these armors are much better than the Leather Scale Mail which is the best that can be purchased from the Blacksmith. Armor can be found at locations such as the Goblin Territory and Trading Post.
• Totemic Masks found lying around the Treldan Wood
• Cloaks, Gloves, Bracers, and Boots found on the Fertile Plains.
• Beard Rings found on the Fertile Plains and other locations.
• Stat-enchancing items found in the Wild Gardens, which is not a terribly difficult area to explore if you can get through the Dark Forest.
• Weapons crafted from schematics found in the Library within the Wild Gardens.
• You might also want to gather some Vitality-increasing items, to be used when leveling up to increase the amount of HPs gained.

[edit] Advanced Items

Later in the game, you'll be able to go for more advanced items, including:

• Your class-specific schematic items, which are often top-choice weapons for your class, although this may vary. (For a list of best-choice items, see the pages for schematics or pages for individual classes)
• Schematics Gloves and Boots: War Chargers and War Gauntlets or Silverhide Archer Gloves, and Wolfskin Greaves. You will need to complete Merlan's Quests to purchase these schematics. These items can be socketed with beard rings, when the Socketing Manual schematic is obtained in the Garden Library.
• Schematic Belt: Belt of Brawling (socketed with an item such as the Holster/Sheath of Might) or Belt of Ballistics (for ranged classes, and socketed with a quiver, such as the Elven Quiver of Slaying). Before these items are obtained, a good intermediate choice is the Belt of Rage, available at the Trading Post or HFM South. Spellcasting classes can simply stick with the Ancient Belt of the Godly Mind.
• Other powerful top-tier items: Gate Key, Ring Amulet, Circlet of Lycanthropy, Ring of Mighty Devastation, Rezzenthells Spellkiller, Apprentice Spellbook.

[edit] Entering the "Late Game"

Eventually, as you collect more and more items, and your stats (especially MGR) increase, the in-game encounters become easier and easier. After that, it should be smooth sailing, until you decide to start all over with a Gnome!