Noob question.

[molokow]

Literally just started, but what does soul link do?
Is it a save point or something?
THanks.

[Groen90]

Yes it is... normally you can't use the same one to save multiple times at the beginning, but you can learn an ability that lets you do that, so that you don't waste energy to create another one, if you need to save on the same spot.

[Alcator]

Soul Link is a save point.
Later, if you upgrade the innermost line of upgrades a bit, you'll start getting additional bonus:
+ You will be healed partially whenever you save
+ + It will cost half blue sphere to create a Soul Link.

Soul Links are critically important, because if you die, the game will RESET to the state it was in when you last saved. Meaning you will have to repeat all map exploration, collectibles gathering, monster fights etc. etc. since then. That can be very tedious. Save often.

Of course, to discourage extreme saving, there are also Energy gates which require you to have either 2 or 4 spare energy spheres to open; while later in the game, this is no problem, at the first 1/3 of the game, this is a significant challenge (since at that point, your maximum is approx. 5 energy spheres total).

[molokow]

OK, so I can use these soul links at any time, so really, I should be strategical about their use. Does this mean I only get one life per soul link? Or, it is purely a save point.

[Groen90]

Well... yes you can use them to heal if you really need to, if you look at the skill tree you'll see that you'll be able to heal more than 1 life orb per soul link when you get the right skill.

[ditt_25]

As long as you have a full sphere, you can make a Soul Link. Energy can be restored by picking up the blue fragments left behind by destroying blue crystals or occasionally from enemies. Both the crystals and enemies can respawn if you go far enough away, so no need to worry about permantly using up all your typewriter ink or whatever.

You get infinite respawns per Soul Link. But each respawn will only restore you to the life and energy you had at the time made the Soul Link. So save with one life orb left and die? You respawn, with just 1 life orb left. Later skill tree options let you recover 1-2 life orbs when you create a Soul Link.

[molokow]

Is the shield ability worth it? i am working my way through that tree. I think it is great to save whenever I want, and to have an extra health point when I use a soul link.

[Schlepian]

Yeah saving whereever you want is definitely one of the best noob friendly devices in this game.
You can also use the energy as an explosion to help kill hard monsters and its needed to blow up some terrain but mostly feel free to use the energy nodes to save the game everywhere.

ALso you can restop by any soul link and use ability points to level up,which automatically saves teh game for you as well.

[molokow]

Is there a quick way to get back to use a map piece with the map thingy?
Should I try and collect all pieces and then go back to put the piece in.
And how does it unlock the map? In which way?

[Spirit]

its uncover black areas for you and you can see them without visiting them blind
every mapstone uncover a region (except some areas like misty woods) and can be usefull to plan your steps

[Alcator]

Originally posted by molokow:

Is there a quick way to get back to use a map piece with the map thingy?
Should I try and collect all pieces and then go back to put the piece in.
And how does it unlock the map? In which way?

please play the game on your own. This is getting annoying. You ask questions that playing the game would reveal in few minutes.

[molokow]

Alcator, please do not put negative comments. Thanks.
I did something and it revealed the whole map to me, yet I picked up a map piece.
Also, is there way to kill yourself, so you can restart from your save point without committing suicide?

[Groen90]

Originally posted by molokow:

Alcator, please do not put negative comments. Thanks.
I did something and it revealed the whole map to me, yet I picked up a map piece.
Also, is there way to kill yourself, so you can restart from your save point without committing suicide?

He's totally right. Just play the damn game.

[GeminiSaint]

Originally posted by molokow:

Also, is there way to kill yourself, so you can restart from your save point without committing suicide?

This is an odd question, in the sense that it pretty much translates to: "Can you kill yourself without killing yourself?"
The only way to reload a save point without dying is... exiting back to the title screen and reloading the save file, which takes a lot longer. If you're worried about your death count, don't be. It does nothing.
Map is filled in as you go, but using map pieces reveal an entire area on the map screen at once (the parts you haven't explored yet appear darkened). There's a map & map piece pair for each area of the game.

[molokow]

Yeh, that is a ahame... takes a while to get back to the title screen then load again, especially if you are repeating at a difficult spot.
But, I mean, I actually have to take the map pieces back to the map place to use them, which in my case is half a map back.

[GeminiSaint]

Originally posted by molokow:

But, I mean, I actually have to take the map pieces back to the map place to use them, which in my case is half a map back.

You can only use one map piece for each map stone. There as as many map pieces as there are map stones in the game (one for each main zone).