Tips for Those Who Are New to Nehrim (possible mild spoilers)

[grodenb]

Caveat: These tips are based on the original Nehrim; I don't know if SureAI has made any changes to the game for its release on Steam.

1. Save often, including normal saves, don't rely only on quick saves.

2. In the starting mine, take your time and collect everything, especially fungi, and especially the red-orange ones. If you do, you'll be able to sell everything for more than 1000 gold at the first merchant (including all those scrolls and potions that you will probably never use).

3. Before selling at a merchant, use persuasion (click face icon) to make them like you better, then you can "haggle" to improve buying & selling prices, but I'd suggest trying to move the bar about 1/4 to 1/3 at the start. If you go too far, when you offer to sell something, your offer will be rejected so go and move the bar back a bit. The first merchant has a gold limit (200 I think) but you can sell up to that amount, over and over again.

3. On your way to Tirin Abbey, there are several mines. Explore them, you can find your first summon/conjure spell to summon a kobold, which is a useful distraction when fighting enemies.

4. If you plan on playing as a mage, put those plans on hold for a while, you won't get useful spells until you reach the Sanctum. Best to plan on melee or archery to begin; I recommend archery.

5. In Tirin Abbey you will met a fellow (Duras) who wants you to find the source of noises, but when you leave the Abbey, an archer (Erik) will ask you to go with him instead. Do so, as completing his simple quest will result in him training up your archery a bit.

6. In Tirin Abbey you will find a book. If you read 100 books you will get an ability increase, and you can read the same book 100 times to do this (if you have the patience).

7. Think carefully before training, as you may regret you didn't save some points for something else.

8. Don't be in too much of a rush to head to the Sanctum, you can explore carefully, especially to the south a bit & collect some armor.

9. If you want to do damage with bows, it helps to have good arrows. With a blacksmithing/crafting skill of 50, you can craft 30 "dark arrows" for only 1 iron ingot & 8 coals, and they are pretty good arrows.

10. SPIDERS are everywhere, and be careful, especially in limited visibility, as they can paralyze you. Hoard FINE SILK, which you get from the larger spiders (black widows, northern, southern, large moss). The light armor shop merchant in Erothin (across from the water wheel) will take your 1st 5 fine silks and make you some armor. BUT, thereafter, you can sell her fine silk 5 at a time and get 1800 experience points, each time. Great to hunt spiders to grind a bit to level up.

11. Mandrake root, don't sell it, it cures poison just as well as expensive potions.

12. The Mark and Recall spells are very useful. You can buy them from the White Witch, whose hut is in the mountains NNE of the Sanctum. Head there very carefully as there are some dangerous enemies on the way to her hut.

[Nerevar]

or : ignore most of that past the inital mine section and swim to erothin (follow the river and avoid combat as much as you can as enemies will be too strong for awhile. and then eastward along the coast (no enemies in deep water but dont swim TOO FAR out or seamonster script will come after you (you cannot win againist it legitly. dont even try)). swim all the way to the tower of fog island and grab the completly unguarded and free staff of the magic winds on the backside of the island which does a whooping 70 fire dmg with like enarly 300 charges and instant use. this pretty much destroys ANYTHING early game with no effort or skills required. magic staffs are extremely strong in nehrim only better fire stuff is sunstaff which requires access to the nexushalls in treomar (its on the first enemy in there tough)

dont read the 100 books till you got 100 int. this way you can raise int to 105 permanently. if you do this before 100 youll cap at 100 due to the way the bonus is added to your character. this isnt needed but its a better bonus in the end this way given how stupid easy int is to push to 100 via just spamming alchemy by gathering the fields outside erothin when they respawn every week.

note : the same staff can also be found a grotto on the coast right to the east of erothin. but this grotto contains alot of lvl 15+ enemies and its pretty much impossible to run past em due to the design of the grotto (tight tunnel) so this staff is much harder to obtain imo than swimming 10 minutes with no combat needed.

oh btw some unique jewerly sadly can only be gotten trough random chance in nehrim. and some of it is the best in the whole game. this requires cheeseing by reloading before entering a dungeon with a big jewelry loot table sadly. only other method is console use. same system as enderal but in enderal self enchanted gear is far far far stronger. but in nehrim you cannot enchant you own gear (aside from fixed gems which grant fixed bonuses which are literally always worse than found unique stuff sadly (large fire ruby excluded but that is well. final story reward so pretty much pointless argument)

important note : nehrim does not END when you beat the story unlike enderal which has a point of no return. you can keep playing infinitely.

[grodenb]

My tips are for those who want to play the game as intended and who do not want to spend 2 hours swimming around half of Nehrim to get a staff that will let them overpower the weaker enemies. I would suggest that new players play through the game once, as intended, to experience it as designed. Then they can replay using any exploits such as you describe, if they so choose. (I'm not against exploits per se; in fact, I found 2 ways to enter the South Realm, one at around level 7, without having to wait for the main quest to open it up.)

My chest has 2 magic winds staffs, each of which does 70 damage; I have a truckload of Arcane Brotherhood staffs from their camp in the crater, those each do 100 damage.

Another thing I do early on (around level 7) is head to just outside Treomar and slaughter a couple of those giant dinos (meatbusters or something, I forget the name). They drop "Dinosaur Crystal Flakes" which give constant 30 health + 30 magic, so enchanting 2 common rings gives my stats quite a boost early on.

I haven't played Nehrim in some time so I don't recall what "large fire ruby" you refer to. When I sneak into South Realm, I eventually head to the Forgotten Mine in the crater and grind those golems (or whatever they are called), as well as the ones nearby. Eventually I will get a good collection of Fire Rubies, Ice Sapphires, and Sparkling Arcane Emeralds, each of which can enchant a weapon to add damage 6 points x 3 seconds = 18 damage, pretty good early on. I also get a few levels-up as each of those golems is something like 300 xp!

[Punda Bar]

when it comes to playing a game the first time, the only tips I'd want would be for things you could miss forever, making you want to start over, partway though your first game, or mechanics that are hard to figure out how to work. Granted, that's just me, and I'm sure different people have different levels of how much help they want starting out.

[Jouchebag]

There's also no guarantee half these suggestions aren't relevant to the Steam release. They could have made all kinds of changes to item placement, enemy placement, leveled lists, skills, etc.

[DerEider]

I noted that there are a LOT of pickable "bones" lying around the mine.
Are they worth collecting for later use ?

They have Zero {0} value and considerable weight.
Should they be stored in one of the crates for later retrieval ?

[Nerevar]

Oprindeligt skrevet af grodenb:

My tips are for those who want to play the game as intended and who do not want to spend 2 hours swimming around half of Nehrim to get a staff that will let them overpower the weaker enemies. I would suggest that new players play through the game once, as intended, to experience it as designed. Then they can replay using any exploits such as you describe, if they so choose. (I'm not against exploits per se; in fact, I found 2 ways to enter the South Realm, one at around level 7, without having to wait for the main quest to open it up.)

My chest has 2 magic winds staffs, each of which does 70 damage; I have a truckload of Arcane Brotherhood staffs from their camp in the crater, those each do 100 damage.

Another thing I do early on (around level 7) is head to just outside Treomar and slaughter a couple of those giant dinos (meatbusters or something, I forget the name). They drop "Dinosaur Crystal Flakes" which give constant 30 health + 30 magic, so enchanting 2 common rings gives my stats quite a boost early on.

I haven't played Nehrim in some time so I don't recall what "large fire ruby" you refer to. When I sneak into South Realm, I eventually head to the Forgotten Mine in the crater and grind those golems (or whatever they are called), as well as the ones nearby. Eventually I will get a good collection of Fire Rubies, Ice Sapphires, and Sparkling Arcane Emeralds, each of which can enchant a weapon to add damage 6 points x 3 seconds = 18 damage, pretty good early on. I also get a few levels-up as each of those golems is something like 300 xp!

there is no INTENDED way to play an open world game dude. you are free to go where you want WHEN you want. thats what open world IS in essence. so there is no "intended" beyond leaveing the mineing area at start. youre free to go where you want and when after that point. "intended" doesnt exist here unless you blindly follow the mainquest only.

getting that staff is no EXPLOIT either. please learn what an exploit is before useing the term wrongly.

now getting into the south realm ahead of mainquest IS an exploit for certain. as that barrier isnt there for no reason and there is only 2 ways to bypass it without cheating. which both are probaly not intended. they just never fixed them. the one with treomar tower wasnt found until after the final patch even.

these dinosaur monsters do not respawn. so careful what you waste these very few dinosaur crystals on. you cannot get more.

the golems you like to claim to farm alot are also found in the north realm freely accessable without exploits and they drop the same crystals aswell.

imo north spiders are a far better target for farming as you get silk at the same time while still getting 300+ exp per kill. that ramps up rather quickly. plus they dont para you like most spiders do normally. the fire and ice golems near the volcano are in huge amount and also farmable without exploits as that area isnt mainquest gated and doesnt require exploits to access early. plus can teleport right next to it via the sarnor porter.

Oprindeligt skrevet af AggroBuLLeT:

@Nerevar
lol who plays like that? tell me, do you know ANY person who plays like that? especially new players who just started this game. " oh yeah, im gonna swin for a couple hours, try to min max and become OP as quickly as possible and ruin the whole game and first time experience for me. sounds like an amazing idea"

cmon lol

any person who is curious and wants to see certain parts of the map. not everyone just blindly follows thier nose and runs right into the nearest dungeon they see on the radar. alot of people played morrowind this way as there was no handholding there showing you the location of every single dungeon. so people looked at the giant map and tought : "huh i wonder what i could find over there. lets try to get there" and that same principle still works in nehrim and enderal.

if you want to become OP you dont get that staff btw. you abuse alchemy. becomeing OP requires stat grinding to gain + 5 every level. not collecting a free to loot staff. plus youre not swimming for HOURS. it takes literally 12 minutes to get there from erothin. so claim nonsense please.

[Nerevar]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Jouchebag:

There's also no guarantee half these suggestions aren't relevant to the Steam release. They could have made all kinds of changes to item placement, enemy placement, leveled lists, skills, etc.

there is nealy zero changes to item placement. the construction set confirms this true. so your "could" is simply proven wrong already. and that was expected. sureai themselfs said its merely ported over to steam. this isnt like enderal which got a huge content update with its steam release. its just a port.

[Nerevar]

Oprindeligt skrevet af DerEider:

I noted that there are a LOT of pickable "bones" lying around the mine.
Are they worth collecting for later use ?

They have Zero {0} value and considerable weight.
Should they be stored in one of the crates for later retrieval ?

you can safely ignore all the bones. you can revisit any part of the shadowsong mine after you drop into the "hole". anything before that hole becomes off limits forever. but there is nothing important you can miss before that point so dont worry too much about it. money is a non issue later on.

[Jouchebag]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nerevar:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Jouchebag:

There's also no guarantee half these suggestions aren't relevant to the Steam release. They could have made all kinds of changes to item placement, enemy placement, leveled lists, skills, etc.

there is nealy zero changes to item placement. the construction set confirms this true. so your "could" is simply proven wrong already. and that was expected. sureai themselfs said its merely ported over to steam. this isnt like enderal which got a huge content update with its steam release. its just a port.

Guess I was just hoping for something more like Enderal which came with all kinds of content updates over the mod.

[grodenb]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nerevar:

you are free to go where you want WHEN you want.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nerevar:

now getting into the south realm ahead of mainquest IS an exploit for certain. as that barrier isnt there for no reason and there is only 2 ways to bypass it without cheating.

You are inconsistent. You say you can go where you want when you want, but that going into the south realm before the main quest takes you there is an exploit. If it is an exploit to go there before the main quest opens it up, then clearly you cannot go where you want when you want.

I doubt many people playing the game for the first time would make their way to Erothin, then decide to jump into the ocean and swim (for even 12 minutes) to some island, rather than doing quests in the area and exploring all the sites that are visible to them or on their compass. You say that is not an exploit, yet it is certainly not normal behavior for someone just barely into the game. On the other hand, climbing mountains is quite common, and often rewarding, in the Elder Scrolls games as well as in Enderal, so I hardly see where climbing a mountain to get to the other side is an exploit.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nerevar:

there is no INTENDED way to play an open world game dude.

Of course there is. Nehrim is divided into zones such as level 1-7, level 8-14, etc. This is clearly indicated in pop-up messages when one enters a new zone. It is also reflected in both the strength of the enemies and the levels of the rewards. So clearly the developers INTEND for players to do quests and exploring in a zone appropriate to their level. The player may enter other zones even if they are at a lower level, but they most likely won't accomplish much, especially when they are new players without previous knowledge of the map, enemies, loot, etc.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nerevar:

there is only 2 ways to bypass it without cheating. which both are probaly not intended.

Probably not intended by whom, the developers? You've already said there aren't intended ways to play, so which is it?

Of course, those players who would like to be overpowered early in the game and cut a swath through low level enemies without raising a sweat can certainly search the wikis and internet for suggestions such as yours how to do so. Each player can decide if doing so constitutes an "exploit".

[Miles Imperialis]

Oprindeligt skrevet af grodenb:

Of course there is. Nehrim is divided into zones such as level 1-7, level 8-14, etc. This is clearly indicated in pop-up messages when one enters a new zone. It is also reflected in both the strength of the enemies and the levels of the rewards. So clearly the developers INTEND for players to do quests and exploring in a zone appropriate to their level. The player may enter other zones even if they are at a lower level, but they most likely won't accomplish much, especially when they are new players without previous knowledge of the map, enemies, loot, etc.

Well, that's not necessarily true. If you've got the right spells, equipment, and enough potions, you can take on a location that's slightly higher than you by a few levels. When I did my playthrough of Nehrim, I fully explored every location in the game (that wasn't locked for story purposes with the old "You need a key" tactic) before having to permanently leave the Sanctum. If you want to do this, you just explore all of the Middlerealm, Then the Westernrealm, then the Southenrealm and Magical Crater, although I did the Magical Crater first then the Southenrealm.

I also wanted to point out that playing with magic at the start is fully possible, so you can indeed play as a Mage or battlemage, or what have you at the start, but it'll be difficult. As you explore locations, you'll find runes. By using these runes in your inventory, you can learn the spell they have on them, but you have to have access to that particular magical spell rank to be able to learn the spell. At some point though, you will want to go to the Sanctum just to have easy access to magical skill trainers, and trainers in general.

[grodenb]

sithfreeman, I agree with what you say that those things can be done. But your key word is "If." A player who has never played Nehrim before and is not using any walkthrough or similar aid would find it quite difficult to do as you say. Yes, you might find level 2 or level 3 spell runes, but not only must you be at a higher level than 2 or 3 to use them, you also must have the corresponding migical skill level (such as destruction) high enough to use them.

[Nerevar]

Oprindeligt skrevet af sithfreeman:

Oprindeligt skrevet af grodenb:

Of course there is. Nehrim is divided into zones such as level 1-7, level 8-14, etc. This is clearly indicated in pop-up messages when one enters a new zone. It is also reflected in both the strength of the enemies and the levels of the rewards. So clearly the developers INTEND for players to do quests and exploring in a zone appropriate to their level. The player may enter other zones even if they are at a lower level, but they most likely won't accomplish much, especially when they are new players without previous knowledge of the map, enemies, loot, etc.

Well, that's not necessarily true. If you've got the right spells, equipment, and enough potions, you can take on a location that's slightly higher than you by a few levels. When I did my playthrough of Nehrim, I fully explored every location in the game (that wasn't locked for story purposes with the old "You need a key" tactic) before having to permanently leave the Sanctum. If you want to do this, you just explore all of the Middlerealm, Then the Westernrealm, then the Southenrealm and Magical Crater, although I did the Magical Crater first then the Southenrealm.

I also wanted to point out that playing with magic at the start is fully possible, so you can indeed play as a Mage or battlemage, or what have you at the start, but it'll be difficult. As you explore locations, you'll find runes. By using these runes in your inventory, you can learn the spell they have on them, but you have to have access to that particular magical spell rank to be able to learn the spell. At some point though, you will want to go to the Sanctum just to have easy access to magical skill trainers, and trainers in general.

you can find trainers even for spells outside of the sanctum. same for all other trainers. its not needed to go there at all outside the mainquest imo.

i mean his argument about the level for the zones beeing "intended" is already proven wrong by a statement made by the makers themselfs years ago where they said : "its just a rough guesstimate to get the player an idea what kind of enemies he might face. youre free to go where you want in the end"
as your level isnt equivalent of your character power in this game afterall (aside ranks of magic maybe) but for melee gear matters much more than levels imo.

plus the fact there is zones which have literally ??? instead of a level average shown.

youre free to go where you want. except the southrealm. not hard to understand. you can also not enter every dungeon without haveing certain special keys first like the one with the tower defense stuff. now getting to the southrealm early requires precise knowledge where the 2 exploits are. that is definitly not something any normal player will find out themselfs without looking it up. fact. while running into an area your level is too low for is something anyone can freely do at anytime without looking anything up.

enemies in this game arent leveled. so you can always run into a foe youre not prepared for yet. thats the beauty of sureai tcs and what makes them far superior to thier tes games they are based on. no stupid leveled ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and actual handplaced loot that is meaningful. this is something enderal and nehrim do like morrowind did it back in the day. then bethetic became too lazy to do it with oblivion and it got worse with skyrim.

this killed a huge aspect of what made tes unique amoung the open world rpgs for alot of people and is a huge reason why morrowind is still viewed as the best tes till this day. exploration is REWARDED in these games. hugely. except in oblivion you got punished for it (leveled unique ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you couldnt ever get again unless you cheated or started over) or skyrim where exploring was flat out meaningless largely due to stupid crafting system and the worst artifacts in tes history.

[Erenussocrates]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nerevar:

or : ignore most of that past the inital mine section and swim to erothin (follow the river and avoid combat as much as you can as enemies will be too strong for awhile. and then eastward along the coast (no enemies in deep water but dont swim TOO FAR out or seamonster script will come after you (you cannot win againist it legitly. dont even try)).

Today I experimented swimming out from the Cape Aman. I encountered no sea monsters and the game told me to turn back.