couple of questions i couldn't figure out from the wiki/guides

[Bomjus]

1. how does the "lifesteal" component of accursed (vampiric drain aura IIRC) work? is it any damage? backstabs only? or what? on a related note, if you have hunger turned on does the accursed still suffer periodic damage? or is it only when hunger is disabled that the vampiric drain aura damages them?

2. if i'm playing co op as a vampire, do organic (blood) enemies killed by my friend (non vampire) still have a chance to drop blood? or do i have to do the backstabbing/bloodletting?

3. do you get stealth points just by walking near enemies while stealthing? or do you have to let them see you, then disengage via stealth to get xp? i realllllly enjoy how crazy good stealth is for clearing floors and want to level it up to at around 40 on my character before i move to lower levels. is it possible to cheese it up easily?

4. MP questions: is there scaling in multiplayer? is there anyway to increase the amount of people that can join a lobby?

5. for the race achievements that let you use the DLC class with any race, does that require me to beat the game with the specific combo? for example, accursed/vampire? or can i beat the game with any class available to me while playing as the vampire race with the racial abilities checked?

6. forgot this one, i read a youtube comment saying insectoid+accursed made hunger irrelevant. how does the insectoid race interact with accursed in this way? anyone care to explain the details for this combo?

[LazyTavi]

I think I can answer most of these questions for you. I'm sure others will be willing to chip in if I miss anything.

1. I know that assassinations will replenish health with lifesteal, but I don't think regular kills or non-fatal stealth attacks will work. Vampiric aura actually just hastens your hunger to about 2-3x the normal rate. If hunger is turned off it just damages you instead, same thing happens if you play accursed skeleton.

2. AFAIK as long as at least one player is playing as a vampire, blood vials have a chance to drop from bleedable enemies. The drop chances are significantly increased with bloodletting and assassinations though.

3. I think stealth has a chance to increase if you're standing within a small radius of an unaware hostile creature, but it's most easily leveled through stealth attacks.

4. Not sure if scaling is a thing tbh, but I do know that the amount of resources in a given level do not change, so larger lobbies are balanced by the scarcity of items. You can play with up to 16 players if you join the experimental 16 player beta branch.

5. Yes, I got Bucktooth Baron while playing as a healer. Playing the class/race combo will unlock two achievements at once, but you can just take them one at a time if you'd prefer.

6. Haven't tried it actually, and now I wanna see what it's like. Maybe I'll get back to you on this one.

[Bomjus]

thank you for the info. accursed seems pretty rough tbh. this is what the vampiric aura states on the wiki:

"An aid spell that turns all attacks into HP draining attacks, and boost HP & MP regain, slow casting time, used by Vampires, Ghouls, and Accursed players start with a special form of this spell afflicted upon them by default."

but i assume that is outdated, because from my experience (and what you said) you do not lifesteal from all attacks.

as for the insectoid+accursed combo, i think what that person was referring to is that insectoids can eat literally anything if i'm not mistaken. so managing your food as an accursed is far easier when playing as an insectoid. however, with such a limited/non regenerating magic pool it seems like a wasted combination.

[Bomjus]

i come back with more questions:

1. how does AC work? is it a linear threshold where if something deals 100 damage and i have 90 AC i take 10 damage? and once i surpass that damage amount i take 0 damage?

2. what is the rock paper scissors scheme for each weapon type? I know maces are good vs skeletons but what is a polearm good against? a sword?

3. do different weapons have different reaches? i swear my basic iron polearm has a farther reach than an iron axe, but not sure if it's my FOV or placebo.

5. can insectoids eat cursed food without issue?

[LazyTavi]

1. I assume so, yes, but AC only protects from non-piercing (random proc) physical damage. Magic damage is blocked by magic resistance, and I don't really know if it's possible to reach 100% magic resistance.

2. It's not exactly a rock paper scissors, it's just that a given enemy has a damage multiplier based on the enemy type and the damage source. I can't really list them all but my rule of thumb is fleshy creatures are weak to swords or axes, brittle or weakly armored ones are weak to maces and polearms, and heavily armored ones are weak to magic. You'll have to experiment with each creature to figure out their weakness, but I believe the info provided in the DLC races is identical to their monster counterparts.

3. The whip is the only melee weapon with an extended range, the spear has the same range as the axe.

4. I think so, yeah. Worth a try at least.

[Bomjus]

i'm pretty sure the whip is actually considered a ranged weapon? but i get what you're saying.

continuing this dialogue, i am about to finish up my 2nd playthrough focusing on ranged weapons. are all ranged weapons but the regular xbow bad? i even picked up the legendary bow (khasteros or something) in the first underworld level and it felt worse than my basic, decrepit, regular xbow i had gotten from some human in the previous floor. i can see some use cases for other bows where you deal higher damage per shot, therefore you are more ammo efficient with your quivers. but other bows really don't deal THAT much difference in damage cause all your ranged damage comes from dexterity. so you're far better off with a higher fire rate weapon because that arbalest might have 10 more base damage than my xbow, but he xbow shoots more than twice the rate of the arbalest. and once i get ranged to 100/100, durability loss from so many shots is irrelevant.

i have not tried the crystal compound bow tho, i know it shoots faster than the other bows. but the legendary bow, the long bow, and the arbalest feel soooooo bad compared to the regular xbow. and now i know why people like the arcanist start so much lol. oh you are also omega punished with slower fire rate bows if you miss.

and pls don't jump down my throat, i'm just curious if people feel the same way, is there something about other bows i'm not using correctly, etc. etc. everything else has felt pretty damn solid balance wise. basically with the other skills you work with what you got until you can grab your legendary weapon and call it a day lol.

[Pwn25]

The way the bows are balanced out are certainly different than the way the other weapons work in the game. Each bow Isn't necessarily a linear upgrade from the last one, they each have some differences between them that could warrant using any one of them in a given situation. while at first glance, a slower bow might seem like it has worse dps output, it has further range to compensate for this so you can pump out shots into an enemy from a greater distance. Each bow has a different distance in which they can shoot at, so experiment with each one and figure out how far each one shoots. The further away you are from an enemy when you start attacking them, the better.

The arbalest is definitely worth using because its damage makes a large difference compared to any other ranged weapon in the game. However using the arbelest in active combat will almost always end in your untimely demise. The way I use it is that I will use the arbelest on the first shot on an unsuspecting enemy, then immediately switch to another ranged weapon to finish them off.

As for the legendary bow Kryselakatos, It's power isn't exactly determined in the same way the other bows are, but instead by the legendary effect that the bow has. While the dps output of the legendary bow is remarkably average, the bow itself has a moderate chance that any arrows fired from it become enchanted arrows with some kind of effect. These enchanted arrows partially make up for any apparent lack of damage that the bow might have. I wouldn't exactly say that Kryselakatos is mandatory like the other legendary weapons, But is is quite a fun weapon to wield nonetheless.

Also the whip is indeed considered a ranged weapon and gets its damage increase from dexterity instead of strength.