Just at act 2. General advice on how to proceed.

[solaris32]

No story spoilers please. I've read people talk about going to certain places and triggering events that alter places they hadn't been to yet.

So I'm asking for general advice on how to explore the land without triggering story events that change things, so I can see and talk to as many people as possible first. Like do I go to the inn first or Moonrise towers first? Is it ok to explore the land before going to either place, you know explore as I go along?

[Mike]

Originally posted by BeautifulFlowerField:

Originally posted by Mike:

I am at the choice of big boss or shar portal any advice?

Shar Portal is the end of act 2, do absolutely EVERYTHING you can before that. That's the major cutoff point, nothing else in act 2 is.

ty

[BeautifulFlowerField]

Originally posted by Mike:

Originally posted by BeautifulFlowerField:

Shar Portal is the end of act 2, do absolutely EVERYTHING you can before that. That's the major cutoff point, nothing else in act 2 is.

ty

if by big boss you mean ketheric though you're definitely not supposed to fight him before doing the shar portal, that's what enables you to defeat him, but everything else will be cut off so you should have reunited oliver and thaniel, cleared the morgue and the house of healing, cleared the waning moon, freed the prisoners, fully completed the monastery and creche, the raven man, etc.

[Andi]

you want to do moonrise towers before heading to shadowfell else you can't save the prisoners. that's the main thing iirc. shadowfell as in the mausoleum (shar's gauntlet)

[Mike]

Originally posted by BeautifulFlowerField:

Originally posted by Mike:

ty

if by big boss you mean ketheric though you're definitely not supposed to fight him before doing the shar portal, that's what enables you to defeat him, but everything else will be cut off so you should have reunited oliver and thaniel, cleared the morgue and the house of healing, cleared the waning moon, freed the prisoners, fully completed the monastery and creche, the raven man, etc.

I do mean ketheric, I found a door in the oubliette basement that sounded like the final fight against ketheric. I had to shadowstep through a blood wall to get there.

Now I got one answer saying ketheric portal first and one saying shar portal first.

[BeautifulFlowerField]

Originally posted by Mike:

Originally posted by BeautifulFlowerField:

if by big boss you mean ketheric though you're definitely not supposed to fight him before doing the shar portal, that's what enables you to defeat him, but everything else will be cut off so you should have reunited oliver and thaniel, cleared the morgue and the house of healing, cleared the waning moon, freed the prisoners, fully completed the monastery and creche, the raven man, etc.

I do mean ketheric, I found a door in the oubliette basement that sounded like the final fight against ketheric. I had to shadowstep through a blood wall to get there.

Now I got one answer saying ketheric portal first and one saying shar portal first.

That might be a bug, you're not supposed to be able to go anywhere in the oubliette except for back up into the moonrise prisons. That sounds like how speedrunners sequence break the game before they figured out how to kick shadowhearts corpse all the way into the final ketheric phase, they would clip/warp themselves through the wall in the oubliette which puts you in a part of the mind flayer colony you're not supposed to be in - tricking the game into assuming you already finished the shar portal. i think you just did an unintentional sequence break and confused yourself.

[Gilmund]

In a few words, everything is ok except :
- doing Isobel when you start Last Light Inn, keep that for last
- Doing Nightsong before you do Moonrise Tower, keep that for last

All the other things may be done in pretty much every order.

Isobel is in my opinion a mistake by design.
Not the fact she lives or dies. But the fact the game don't really let you know it'll impact all your quests bearers in Last Light Inn.

[Mike]

Originally posted by BeautifulFlowerField:

Originally posted by Mike:

I do mean ketheric, I found a door in the oubliette basement that sounded like the final fight against ketheric. I had to shadowstep through a blood wall to get there.

Now I got one answer saying ketheric portal first and one saying shar portal first.

That might be a bug, you're not supposed to be able to go anywhere in the oubliette except for back up into the moonrise prisons. That sounds like how speedrunners sequence break the game before they figured out how to kick shadowhearts corpse all the way into the final ketheric phase, they would clip/warp themselves through the wall in the oubliette which puts you in a part of the mind flayer colony you're not supposed to be in - tricking the game into assuming you already finished the shar portal. i think you just did an unintentional sequence break and confused yourself.

Yeah, the shadowstep through wall ended up feeling very unintended and I had trouble getting back out, had to leave oubliette with my other characters and then teleport to camp.

[Doomvora]

Find Moonrise or Last Light then do whatever you want from there.

[BeautifulFlowerField]

Originally posted by Mike:

Originally posted by BeautifulFlowerField:

That might be a bug, you're not supposed to be able to go anywhere in the oubliette except for back up into the moonrise prisons. That sounds like how speedrunners sequence break the game before they figured out how to kick shadowhearts corpse all the way into the final ketheric phase, they would clip/warp themselves through the wall in the oubliette which puts you in a part of the mind flayer colony you're not supposed to be in - tricking the game into assuming you already finished the shar portal. i think you just did an unintentional sequence break and confused yourself.

Yeah, the shadowstep through wall ended up feeling very unintended and I had trouble getting back out, had to leave oubliette with my other characters and then teleport to camp.

yeah you just accidentally did a speedrun tactic that's not supposed to happen lol

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by solaris32:

So I'm asking for general advice on how to explore the land without triggering story events that change things, so I can see and talk to as many people as possible first. Like do I go to the inn first or Moonrise towers first? Is it ok to explore the land before going to either place, you know explore as I go along?

There's just one big thing you need to avoid that screws everything up and confuses the hell out of you. If you explore the map systematically you may meet a certain gentleman who will urge you to enter a certain cave in pursuit of a certain devil he wants offed. This is sort of on the way to Moonrise Towers which is why it's easy to hit this situation before you get there.

Talking to him and getting the quest is fine, but the best advice is to head for Moonrise Towers first instead of heading into this cave for now. The narrative is set up on the expectation that you do Moonrise Towers before you delve into this cave, that's why you want to go to Moonrise first.

But before you do anything find Last Light Inn, that's your home and main quest hub for this act plus merchants etc and it is from there that you get sorted with what you need to get to Moonrise Towers.

So long as you know this it's perfectly fine to explore the rest of the act 2 map as you like, there's plenty to find, and it's just this one gotcha you've got to avoid.