Geneforge 1 gamplay tips

[Chronie]

The first in the geneforge series is the most unbalanced of all of them and here a few tips on how to beat this game. This is from my collection of notes on the Geneforge games so feel free to add to it and this doesn't cover everything. Should more help be needed feel free to post it here.

General Character tips
Buy and wear the best armor you can on your character if this would encumber you stash some consumables like living tools in town. Don't be stingy with your cash when buying better equipment as there is enough gems to drain all the merchants coins alone. Spells trump consumables almost every time so only use them on a character with little to no magic skill. With creations it is usually better to have a group of 2 to 5 creations as any more are difficult to use effectively and only 1 is too weak to do much.

Cannister usage
Geneforge 1 has little to no penalties to using canisters is the game and are almost needed to complete the game. While possible to complete the game without any cannisters it isn't fun doing so and the only noticable change is still having enough of them left at the end of game for other people to potentially use. This means if you see a cannister use it and don't worry about the consequences like in other Geneforge games where you can go insane.


Character Creation
Play to your strengths when making your character Guardians use powerful weapons, Shapers use powerful creations and Agents focus on magic.

Shapers
Shapers have the most essence so they can make a powerful army easily and you will have 2 main options to become powerful
- focus on 1 creation type fire, battle or magic and intelligence
- or grab all creation abilitity improvements up to 5 as needed then invest into intelligence and magic
They will need very heavy armor to survive being hit and should try to avoid close combat although the problem with survival will likely disappear somewhere between halfway and near the end of the game.

Agents
Agents need to focus on magic but can grab a few combat skills as well especially quick action and anatomy. When starting an agent invest points into spellcraft up to 10 (this also increases maximum damage per dice) and battle magic to 5 in order to increase damage. Magic needs for the best resualts 10 in each spell area and 20 spellcraft by end game when playing an agent. This will allow you spells to do devestating damage and should you bless your character fight they can fight like the best guardian. Spells can 1 hit kill most normal enermies if it is focused in like this.

Guardians
These characters are the hardest to play by far. They have almost no spell power, not enough essence for a big army and fall far behind the other 2 character types. When you play them buy or steal the best gear you can, make 2 or 3 creations with at least half your attack damage and increase your endurance by at least 2. Should you like the idea of using magic use artila, vlish or drayks to compensate for your lack of skill. Consumables will also be needed in order to help you out in tough situations.


Mechanics and Leadership
These skills are not needed to complete the game although the make things substantially easier and can for a vast amount of coins be trained by some hidden serviles. Mechanics will allow you to disarm powerful traps which are usually lethal, help open locks and fiddle around with machinery (sometimes without blowing it up). Leadership is dialouge options and can be used to avoid fights or get better rewards. With both of these skills you will not need to raise them above 10 without the help of equipment to get the last few extremely hard situations


Factions
There are 3 factions in Geneforge 1 the Awakened, the Servants and the Takers. Should you wish to powergame your character I would advise you get a leadership skill of 10 which will allow you to join any faction you wish without potentially angering the others in a quest. With joining a faction you will gain access to valuable items earlier in game and a few stat ups for free.
Reputation is needed to join any of the factions and is determined by what you say. This is done on a hidden slider on how you see serviles should you say pro-servile things the takers and the Awakened will like you better. Servants on the other hand belive you are a superiour being like a god and should act like it but either way you need to say 5 more things on either veiw point to join a faction. There seems to be around 20 chances to express your opinion in the game and only 1 chance given by a Learned servile to join a faction while ignoring reputation.
The Awakened will train your combat skills increasing them substantially but are the hardest to join while avoiding their quest. The Obeyers will give you good gear and basic fire shaping skill which could allow you to create some Fyoras or Roamers quite easily. Takers will give you a token to stop many of the Sholai from attacking but anger a lot of important people limiting your available endings and the bonuses you can get while going through the game. Please note the token may make the game extremely easy to complete so it is still worth considering.


Creation Statistics and what they do
Strength - 5% to hit and +1 damage strength
Dexterity - 5% evasion and +1 initiative
Intelligence - 5%mental effect resistance and set amount of spell energy per level
Endurance - Health and small armor bonus (too small to accurately measure)

High level skills 10 and above
When your character exceeds over 10 points in a single area the damage or effect dice remain unchanged still giving you the same benefit. This effects health, spellpower, damage and essence your character or creations. With percentage calculations like hit chance or damage multipliers halfing benefits from 11-20 and giving only a third over 21-30 rounded to the nearest whole number.
Example for strength
6=+30% hitchance
8=+40% hitchance
10=+50% hitchance
12=+55% hitchance
14=+60% hitchance

Ability multipliers calculations
Well you might think a multiplier should effect the end resualt geneforge games seem to do this differently. The multiplier seems to be done on the maximum dice roll for the attack meaning you will only see the upgrade on certain levels of the skill multiplier.
Example (spellcraft multiplies all magic effects)
Firebolt *1d4 (random 1 to 4 damage)
Spellcraft (10% bonus per rank)
1 no change
2 1d5 (1d(4*120%)=1d4.8 rounded =1d5
3 1d5 (1d(4*130%)=1d5.2 rounded =1d5
4 1d6 (1d(4*140%)=1d5.6 rounded =1d6
5 1d6 (1d(4*150%)=1d6 rounded =1d6
6 1d6 (1d(4*160%)=1d6.4 rounded =1d6
7 1d7 (1d(4*170%)=1d6.8 rounded =1d7
8 1d7 (1d(4*180%)=1d7.2 rounded =1d7
9 1d8 (1d(4*190%)=1d7.6 rounded =1d8
*this is only an example exact firebolt damage varies between games.

Merchant prices
The prices for the merchants in the first 2 games will raise their prices as they run out of money. This is in theory reversable but the costs required are not worth it. While this is possible for item merchants the trainers prices can only be changed via quests or faction supported


Lucky Character
With Geneforge games luck doesn't state what exactly it does but here is a short list of the benefits you could expect. This can also be raised by 1 individual in the game to the skill limit of 30 easily. Please keep in mind initiative is only added every few levels exactly how often is unknown. I personally doubt this is everything and I believe it also can effect damage dealt and other effects as well but it is too difficult to verify.
-Initiative
-Hit chance
-dodge chance
-item drop checks (coin is bugged in some games and disappears)
-all non physical resisitances mental, acid, poison and stun also physical damage resistances in some geneforge games 1 to 3 it would appear
Note: it is not recomended that you have a base of more than 4 or 6 on your character


Creations Special attack damage
Fyora - Fire bolt ranged attack
Cryoa - Ice spray ranged attack (still counted as fire)
Artila - Searer (for all versions)
Roamer - Searer
Pyroroamer - Energy explosion
Clawbug - poison melee damage bonus
Vlish - Energy bolt no equilivent spell and poison melee attack
Terror vlish - Fear spell but low chance of workingand poison melee attack
Drayk - Fire bolt empowered
Cryodrayk - Ice spray empowered (still counted as fire)

Recomended Creations usage
Thald - can take a hit even on nightmare without dying for a lot of the game
Artila - Shoots searer for those to lazy to cast themself but easily killed
Artila Plated/Searing - like the normal one but higher level
Cryoa - Decent all rounder with icy spray ranged attack but a bit expensive
Vlish - Cheap all rounder with energy attack
Terror Vlish - For those that cannot let the outdated vlish go
Battle Alpha - Melee tank perfect bodyguard for cost good till endgame
Battle Beta - Stronger battle alpha but may be a bit expensive (has extra armor too)
Drayk - Good all rounder until near endgame can be lacking at the end
Cyrodrayk - Stronger Drayk expensive but more effective at ranged attacking
Glaahk - Super stun melee attack use 3 to paralyze a tough foe
Ur-Glaahk - Super stun tank can easily hold back the enermy and take a few good hits

Not Recomended Creations
Fyora - Weak attack and cannot take much of a hit but cheap
Thald shade - too slow at killing for essence/too expensive or weak to use much
Roamer - Vlish is better nuff said
Pyroroamer - only used as a suicide scout so you can leave safely and quickly
Clawbug - Thalds are better value for essence but this is still a viable creation
Plated Clawbug - lower hit chance for +2AP not worth the cost

[Cunin]

Thanks man. When I'll finally play this game, this will come in handy :)

[Lucky]

Thank you! With this spoiler-free guide, I think I'll be able to have a fun experience without wasting 80 hours (again). So now I can get this game over with, and go on to the much better sequels.

[GodslayerIV]

will keep some of this in mind when playing thanks maybey I will finaly finish the this game

[Glorfunk]

If you are a shaper stay at the entrance and let your minon do all the work
Few zones are dangerous so on those zones just make two minons
Almost always only have one minon, and make it as strong as possible
always put on the best gear available
Drop items in town when you run out of merchants
Dont bother healing your minon unless you are in battle and its needed
Thald and its upgrades are the most economical, powerful and useful monsters
Worm thing is also useful but to less of a degree
Everything else is weak unless you pump points into essense
Stealing will cause things to murder you
Buy and loot every living tool you come across
Living tools are the most valuable item in the game
You will travel to town - Alot
Use spore batons wisely
You can diffuse some of the spores using your body, but you will have to heal
The further east you are, the harder spores hurt
Having Leadership can help you avoid annoying battles
If theres no one around and theres something you can steal, its probably safe
Always save before stealing or preforming a tricky action
Dont Buy the canister at the first city
Food doesnt do much, dont bother carrying alot of it on you

[Gulthrax]

Thank you some of that was really helpful

[Quaint]

Great hints! Thanks!

[A E S T H E T I C S]

Awesome!

[Syncronis]

Thank you for posting this, the series is on sales so this helps with all the need to know details.

[Orange]

Nice. Thanks for this :D

[Tech]

Does anyone know what resolution it changes to when you start the game?

[Casaubon]

nice game, with an unusual story. I cleared the school and beat the boss there before realizing how to have more than 1 minion at the same time. would have been much easier to know that earlier :()

[Rafugil]

there's someway to raise up my AP ? since i playing as a guardian i can hit kill almost everything with a single blow but it's really boring run to the enemy and see him running away from me when i got 4 ap ...

[Chronie]

Haste (+50% of AP in this game later games can reduce the attack action cost) and a few items (look for quicksilver) apart from that no. There are items that give haste but there are good reasons I say Guardian is the hardest class. Should you have 10 or more AP left attacks don't end your turn (costs 5 per attack) and items will not end your turn unless all of the remaining AP is used up (costs 3 per non movement item action). The AP increasing items are rare in games, usually found late game and sometimes come with a penalty. This limitation is a good reason to have 2 or so creations to help even if they are weak. They can divert attention away from the main character, help kill weak enermies faster or get that bit of extra damage to finish off those very strong creatures that you may encounter.

[ccotunai]

So, basically, increasing any skill beyond 10 points is not worth it?

[Chronie]

Originally posted by ccotunai:

So, basically, increasing any skill beyond 10 points is not worth it?

That is about right as only spellcraft gives a massive bonus to most spells to about 16 skill (use items for later games to help get over 10). Spells are enhanced in more ways than just raw power and are not just offensive. There is no need to go above 10 in a skill as only in very few cases will it help you and even then the level up points are usually better spent some where else.

10 skill + 10 spellcraft + 2 spell knowledge (+100% roughly from spellcraft)
= 44 spell power
10 skill + 20 spellcraft +2 spell knowledge (+150% roughy from spellcraft)
= 80 spell power
Note: spellcraft effects the effect power or maximum damage dice amount and will give irregular jumps in power to spells but bonuses are rounded so keep in mind 1 point can mean a huge difference.

Weapon skills in later games when a multiplier was introduced for them could also be useful but the costs of increasing skills rises as well. This could mean you get a dangerously specialised character which cannot survive some situations especially on harder difficulties.