Quick way to get xp without insane grinding?

[Castyles]

I'm currently 8 hours into the game. Athens. Level 15. Running a hunter/nature build and missed like two side quests (the old spartan and the "blessed" blacksmith, both nowhere to be found) + one portal from God knows where (between the second city and Delphi, I guess).

Getting 3 skill points, per level up, is ♥♥♥♥ when you have to waste like 100+ skill points to master a skill tree and that's, perhaps, the main reason why the game takes like 40 hours to beat. The pacing is slow (even on the fast option) and the loot/stores are garbage.

For example, have 200k gold and can't spend it on anything apart from potions. Everything is either low leveled trash or high leveled items not made for my current build. Wack.

Other ARPG's with the same formula, such as the ones made by Black Isle and Raven Software, takes half the time to beat and there's always good loot around.

Anyway. I did manage to master two skills with a ridiculous amount of points (such as the wolf companions from the nature skill tree) but still. Any tips?

[MedeaFleecestealer]

Not really, grinding is the name of the game and missing quests which give you the most XP will make it even slower. Clear all areas and then you won't miss stuff.

[Necanthrope]

Grinding isn't worth the time. Your level vs enemy level adjusts XP gain. So if you stay in one place grinding you'll get less xp each time you level.

On the other hand if you play on Very Fast with good gear you can blow through the content at speed. Levelling then feels quite fast in Normal. So progressing quickly and doing quests is the optimal way to get XP.

You can also use items that grant % XP increases and XP potions if you have got any from Atlantis. There's also the old trick of not handing in side quests until you find an XP shrine. But you'll still be eventually slowed down if you get ahead of the enemies level.

Regards skill points you get plenty. Assuming you clear the game on all difficulties you'll have both mastery's maxed and have all the core skills you need for most builds before the end. I've certainly had builds that where complete around level 65 and you now finish the game around 78.

[Tsel13]

Originally posted by Castyles:

I'm currently 8 hours into the game. Athens. Level 15. Running a hunter/nature build and missed like two side quests (the old spartan and the "blessed" blacksmith, both nowhere to be found) + one portal from God knows where (between the second city and Delphi, I guess).

The old Spartan is on that same map area where you got the quest.
It is always good to explore every single inch of the map.
But, I'm sure you know this from playing the old Black Isle Studios games.
The Blacksmith is way further. Again, make sure to explore every inch of the map. 😊

[NavFamG]

For quest questions the GameBanshee walkthrough is still the best.

No reason to grind unless it's a boss and you're looking for a certain weapon drop. The game was designed in 2006 and it's meant to be played by clearing every mob and quest on the map and then moving onto the next map and doing the same. If you do that you'll level up appropriately and be at the right level for the next map.

I don't think I've ever bought any weapons or armor from the vendors, the landscape drops have always been better so pretty much the only thing TO BUY is potions. That's probably why most of us beat the game and have millions of gold in our inventory.

As to the 40 hrs to complete, games back then actually game you play time for your money. Not like newer games where they cost $40 and up and you complete them in 15 hours or less.

[Castyles]

So I just press on non-stop? What if I'm getting wrecked by some boss, then? I have to grind at a point. Such games, like the developer wrote, are built with that sort of mentality. I just don't want to waste countless hours doing the same thing, that's all.

Plus I want to have access to all the cool skills and, from the look of things, they're only going to become available at end-game. Which sucks.

For example, a major grip of mine is wasting skill points on the class bar just to unlock the other skills. I don't really need the bonuses of the class. I can get them by leveling up and by finding items. But I need the skills. But I can't have a new skill if I don't spend points on the class.

I get the system. It's logical. But given the fact that you don't even get many skill points to spend anyway it's just annoying. The level up just seems wasted and underwhelming when you just spend points on the class.

Originally posted by Tsel13:

The old Spartan is on that same map area where you got the quest.
It is always good to explore every single inch of the map.
But, I'm sure you know this from playing the old Black Isle Studios games.
The Blacksmith is way further. Again, make sure to explore every inch of the map. 😊

I backtracked and managed to find him just some minutes after creating the thread. But thanks anyway.

Originally posted by Necanthrope:

Regards skill points you get plenty. Assuming you clear the game on all difficulties you'll have both mastery's maxed and have all the core skills you need for most builds before the end. I've certainly had builds that where complete around level 65 and you now finish the game around 78.

But what if I'm not planning to play the other difficulties? I'm going to finish the game at what? Level 38-43?

Originally posted by NavFamG:

As to the 40 hrs to complete, games back then actually game you play time for your money. Not like newer games where they cost $40 and up and you complete them in 15 hours or less.

I didn't meant it like that. Other games of the genre seemed pretty straight-forward, that's all. They didn't really added unecessary stuff that could hinder your journey just by the sake of hindrance.

To understand better what I'm aiming at: I don't even know how the portal works, for example. Take Diablo. When you open a portal and teleport to a city you could go back to the previous location. That doesn't seem to be the case in TQ. You just go back to the city and that's it. Do I really have to walk to the previous location on foot or just die? Get out.

With that said, I like TQ (random user who thought I was just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ without basis - thanks for the free points btw) but I don't want to be trapped due to questionable mechanics i.e. the useless loot and the unecessary bits, that's all.

And yeah. My loot is set the right way, in the options. But if it's not cash it's trash. I'm getting a few blues and greens but it's all useless. I think the only thing that REALLY helped me was a unique amulet that I got after getting rid of the boss in Athens' Catacombs.

Plus the map is a pain to navigate. It's easy to say explore everything but you don't even know where you are. Every area is connected and the maps just shows all of them, without even giving you a name of the place. I don't mean showing the active markers but if there was a way to separate/view the map by region then it'd be great.

[slayor3000]

Just 3 things I hope may help in a way.

1. 200k gold l0l, sorry but if going to play through Epic and Legendary it just cost 56 million in Legendary for a Helm. Have at least 4 million for Epic if ever going to buy anything decent from a merchant.
Of course the further you go into the game, the more items can sell for but I do end up money farming sometimes.
2. I see you said about "maxing out a skill tree early. Be careful as not going up your mastery tree can leave you short of hp, att points and the higher level skills.
3. If you want to level quicker, force your way forward and get to higher acts. Higher levelled creatures give more xp. Dangerous unless you know what you are doing or have a real strong build.

[MedeaFleecestealer]

Originally posted by Castyles:

To understand better what I'm aiming at: I don't even know how the portal works, for example. Take Diablo. When you open a portal and teleport to a city you could go back to the previous location. That doesn't seem to be the case in TQ. You just go back to the city and that's it. Do I really have to walk to the previous location on foot or just die? Get out.

Plus the map is a pain to navigate. It's easy to say explore everything but you don't even know where you are. Every area is connected and the maps just shows all of them, without even giving you a name of the place. I don't mean showing the active markers but if there was a way to separate/view the map by region then it'd be great.

No, you simply teleport back to where you came from. It's shown on the portal map, just click on it and back you go.

It says in the top righthand corner of the screen where you are in the game and the immediate area is also shown/named on the big map.

[Dishonakt]

1. Get legendary (epic) xp potion. It drops from legendary (epic) spheres at the start of Atlantis. Get 1 & reduplicate it all you wish for every character with the TQ Vault help. Drastically increases xp you get on any difficulty.

2. Get the new Speed Potion from Eternal Embers. It allows the speed overcap and makes your character real fast. Reduplicate to x100. Before that I used Divine Scroll of Frenzy.

3. Also install any LootPlus mod. Increases the loot quality drastically. Must have for anyone playing TQ really. I should probably need to mention that it's a "bounce" mod. After subscribing to the mod in the Workshop go to custom mods and press "lootplus" & start the game -> it will bounce you to your main game characters menu -> press start the game. Game is modified with LootPlus now.

4. Install Itemus. It has all the items in the base game includding all addons. Say "♥♥♥♥ your drops" and choose something cool for your character yourself once in a while. Be the hero you always ment to be. Then after you've got some items TQ Vault won't see them because you need to turn on the "allow custom maps" and choose "Itemus". Reload it and drop all the items from your custom character to the vault. Then switch the custom maps option again and reload again. Now you can drop these to your main char.

4. Play through the Normal & Epic as fast as you can. Real fun starts at Legendary: all the best legendary Items, additional bosses, Immortal Throne & Ragnarok (& a new one) secret passages, getting the character all the items you wanted, resists maxing challenge, remove all the unnecessary skills, make your character perfect just like you always desired.

5. Nature is just a really skill demanding tree. That's It. It gives survivability, control and a bit of poison damage from abilities. I personally like elemental resistances skill. Either choose carefully what skills to max or consider another mastery as your choice. I like Rogue (It doesn't require you to have some specific weapon like Dual Blades, Spear, Bow, Club, just something sharp will do with Blade Honing). You can reset your masteries with TQ Vault as well. For that press "Configure"- there "Allow the character editing features" -> Click "Edit" in the Equipment Tab -> Click "Enable Leveling" & Change the Difficulty to the highest opened -> Click "Reset Masteries". You can also reset attributes there. Just make sure to change the difficulty each time or you may lose your progress. So do a character backup before all that.

6. You can also learn how to hex edit (with program HxD64), switch the part of Game.dll code that will allow you to put relics in the legendary items. Now that's how the game should be played. Here's the guide - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1306092652
You can put it into translator and get the rough text. Or just:

1) Open Game.dll located in ..\Steam\steamapps\common\Titan Quest Anniversary Edition\Game.dll

2) Press "Search", switch the tab to the Hex Values and find:
83 F8 04 74 14 83 F8 03 74 0F

3) Highlight these values and put these instead:
83 F8 04 90 90 83 F8 03 90 90

7. Also you can create your own items from the prefixes, suffixes and base items that you've got. Put two other items in the prefix & suffix parts of another. It's really easy to do when you learn the basics and allows to create the items that you want. Tune the underpowered ones. Create something really strong. Put the miscellanous Artefacts with cool skills into your weapons or armor. It's up to your imagination to do some unique combinations. That's the real magic. In order to learn the dark art of items creation you'll need to follow my little guide:

1) Clear your Inventory (main tab). And put there 3 items that you want to merge together. You are going to put 2 items' unique IDs into the third item's prefix/suffix.

2) Open HxD -> Open file Player.chr located in C:\Users\*Username*\Documents\My Games\Titan Quest - Immortal Throne\SaveData\Main\*Your character's name*

3) Back this file (or just character) up in case you do something wrong. Better safe than sorry.

4) Press Ctrl + F . Search the word "basename".

The item's structure will look like this:

baseName3 . . . records\xpack2\item\relics\03_act5_eponashorses.dbr . . . . prefixName . . . . . . . . suffixName . . . . . . . .

5) The part that you'll need to copy starts right after that word, get the symbol that goes right after basename and highlight all the text including the 4 dots after .dbr part:

"3 . . . records\xpack2\item\relics\03_act5_eponashorses.dbr . . . . "

6) Put the copied part into Another Item's prefix/suffix part.

Highlight all 8 dots that go after prefix/suffixName and press Ctrl + V so you'll overwrite it with the part you copied previously. It should look something like this:

"prefixName3 . . . records\xpack2\item\relics\03_act5_eponashorses.dbr . . . . suffixName . . . . . . . . "

7) You can do that with every item in the game. Have fun!

[Castyles]

Originally posted by MedeaFleecestealer:

No, you simply teleport back to where you came from. It's shown on the portal map, just click on it and back you go.

I did not know that. It was an oversight on my part. That makes things way better. Thank you.

It says in the top righthand corner of the screen where you are in the game and the immediate area is also shown/named on the big map.

Yes, I know. it says on the mini-map and on the pause menu map. Still. I think it's just a "me" issue. Perhaps I'll get used to it, with time.

Originally posted by slayor3000:

Just 3 things I hope may help in a way.

1. 200k gold l0l, sorry but if going to play through Epic and Legendary it just cost 56 million in Legendary for a Helm. Have at least 4 million for Epic if ever going to buy anything decent from a merchant.
Of course the further you go into the game, the more items can sell for but I do end up money farming sometimes.
2. I see you said about "maxing out a skill tree early. Be careful as not going up your mastery tree can leave you short of hp, att points and the higher level skills.
3. If you want to level quicker, force your way forward and get to higher acts. Higher levelled creatures give more xp. Dangerous unless you know what you are doing or have a real strong build.

The amount of money doesn't matter. What matters is that I'm "swimming" in gold and I can't really spend it on anything interesting save for potions, dyes and enchanting.

Originally posted by Cyberspace Surfer #9029501247666:

1. Get legendary (epic) xp potion. It drops from legendary (epic) spheres at the start of Atlantis. Get 1 & reduplicate it all you wish for every character with the TQ Vault help. Drastically increases xp you get on any difficulty.

2. Get the new Speed Potion from Eternal Embers. It allows the speed overcap and makes your character real fast. Reduplicate to x100. Before that I used Divine Scroll of Frenzy.

3. Also install any LootPlus mod. Increases the loot quality drastically. Must have for anyone playing TQ really. I should probably need to mention that it's a "bounce" mod. After subscribing to the mod in the Workshop go to custom mods and press "lootplus" & start the game -> it will bounce you to your main game characters menu -> press start the game. Game is modified with LootPlus now.

4. Install Itemus. It has all the items in the base game includding all addons. Say "♥♥♥♥ your drops" and choose something cool for your character yourself once in a while. Be the hero you always ment to be. Then after you've got some items TQ Vault won't see them because you need to turn on the "allow custom maps" and choose "Itemus". Reload it and drop all the items from your custom character to the vault. Then switch the custom maps option again and reload again. Now you can drop these to your main char.

4. Play through the Normal & Epic as fast as you can. Real fun starts at Legendary: all the best legendary Items, additional bosses, Immortal Throne & Ragnarok (& a new one) secret passages, getting the character all the items you wanted, resists maxing challenge, remove all the unnecessary skills, make your character perfect just like you always desired.

5. Nature is just a really skill demanding tree. That's It. It gives survivability, control and a bit of poison damage from abilities. I personally like elemental resistances skill. Either choose carefully what skills to max or consider another mastery as your choice. I like Rogue (It doesn't require you to have some specific weapon like Dual Blades, Spear, Bow, Club, just something sharp will do with Blade Honing). You can reset your masteries with TQ Vault as well. For that press "Configure"- there "Allow the character editing features" -> Click "Edit" in the Equipment Tab -> Click "Enable Leveling" & Change the Difficulty to the highest opened -> Click "Reset Masteries". You can also reset attributes there. Just make sure to change the difficulty each time or you may lose your progress. So do a character backup before all that.

6. You can also learn how to hex edit (with program HxD64), switch the part of Game.dll code that will allow you to put relics in the legendary items. Now that's how the game should be played. Here's the guide - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1306092652
You can put it into translator and get the rough text. Or just:

1) Open Game.dll located in ..\Steam\steamapps\common\Titan Quest Anniversary Edition\Game.dll

2) Press "Search", switch the tab to the Hex Values and find:
83 F8 04 74 14 83 F8 03 74 0F

3) Highlight these values and put these instead:
83 F8 04 90 90 83 F8 03 90 90

7. Also you can create your own items from the prefixes, suffixes and base items that you've got. Put two other items in the prefix & suffix parts of another. It's really easy to do when you learn the basics and allows to create the items that you want. Tune the underpowered ones. Create something really strong. Put the miscellanous Artefacts with cool skills into your weapons or armor. It's up to your imagination to do some unique combinations. That's the real magic. In order to learn the dark art of items creation you'll need to follow my little guide:

1) Clear your Inventory (main tab). And put there 3 items that you want to merge together. You are going to put 2 items' unique IDs into the third item's prefix/suffix.

2) Open HxD -> Open file Player.chr located in C:\Users\*Username*\Documents\My Games\Titan Quest - Immortal Throne\SaveData\Main\*Your character's name*

3) Back this file (or just character) up in case you do something wrong. Better safe than sorry.

4) Press Ctrl + F . Search the word "basename".

The item's structure will look like this:

baseName3 . . . records\xpack2\item\relics\03_act5_eponashorses.dbr . . . . prefixName . . . . . . . . suffixName . . . . . . . .

5) The part that you'll need to copy starts right after that word, get the symbol that goes right after basename and highlight all the text including the 4 dots after .dbr part:

"3 . . . records\xpack2\item\relics\03_act5_eponashorses.dbr . . . . "

6) Put the copied part into Another Item's prefix/suffix part.

Highlight all 8 dots that go after prefix/suffixName and press Ctrl + V so you'll overwrite it with the part you copied previously. It should look something like this:

"prefixName3 . . . records\xpack2\item\relics\03_act5_eponashorses.dbr . . . . suffixName . . . . . . . . "

7) You can do that with every item in the game. Have fun! :Wreath:

That's insane. I knew the game had mod support, because I glanced it's Nexus entry, the other day, but apart from the "more loot" mod (which the author says it's best to use with the "complete" edition) I haven't found anything THAT interesting.

So, thanks to you and your post, I found out that Titan Quest has Steam Workshop support, which is great. I got myself a mod that gives the player more skill points and it works like a charm.

Nothing broken that will suck out the fun of the game but at least I have something more "fair" now and the level up doesn't feel like it has diminishing returns anymore. Thanks!

---

As a side note, I just arrived at Egypt. Now I don't know if it's intended by the developers or if the xp mod changed something else but I'm getting WAY better loot now than the previous garbage I was getting before. Awesome!

As for walkthroughs, I tend to avoid them because I like to discover stuff on my own and then ask away, if having any trouble.

One walkthrough and some discussions already spoiled the final boss for me, for example, which I believe is Hades. That's why I tend to avoid them.

Thanks for the answers, everyone. Wish I had points to give you some awards (currently sitting at 66) but ah, whatever. It's the thought that counts.

And, to close it off: Not trying to polish some apples or anything but it's nice to see non-indie developers so close to the community. You're doing God's work. Cheers.

[Psixi]

Which mod are you using? Because if it's Loot Plus + Exp mod then yes, you will get better loot. Also mods pretty much solve most of the issues you described

[Castyles]

Originally posted by Psixi:

Which mod are you using? Because if it's Loot Plus + Exp mod then yes, you will get better loot. Also mods pretty much solve most of the issues you described

More Skill Points + Enchanting Unlimited. Got lots of greens and a tiny amount of blues.

Anyway, I finished the game today. Gonna write a review for it, in due time.

A level 53 Hades was no match for a level 40 Ranger (Hunter/Nature), apparently. How is the dream skill tree? Thinking about picking it up for a next character. Cheers.

[Psixi]

Originally posted by Castyles:

Originally posted by Psixi:

Which mod are you using? Because if it's Loot Plus + Exp mod then yes, you will get better loot. Also mods pretty much solve most of the issues you described

More Skill Points + Enchanting Unlimited. Got lots of greens and a tiny amount of blues.

Anyway, I finished the game today. Gonna write a review for it, in due time.

A level 53 Hades was no match for a level 40 Ranger (Hunter/Nature), apparently. How is the dream skill tree? Thinking about picking it up for a next character. Cheers.

That mod does not increase experience gains, it just gives you 5 extra SP per level so that might be a contributing reason why lvl 53 hades was no challenge for a lvl 40 ranger, since you probably had 80 extra skill points. The Enchanting Unlimited mod lets you put relics restricted to certain types (like weapons), to any item slot, which also breaks the games balance. All that together on Normal difficulty would make sense to what you experienced.

Each to their own though, if it made an unplayable experience playable for you then that's all that matters. Dream is a great tree, supportive or main, it just depends on how you want to play. It can be used in pet builds, mage builds, melee builds.

[Castyles]

I still had lots of issues with normal mobs, though, and got wrecked by Typhoon about 7 times before actually beating him (he was level 42 and I was level 30 something-ish, at the time). I think Hades was just a pushover.

So Dream is just well-rounded, then? Great. Thanks.

[Castyles]

By the way, my character has over 9M gold and still nothing interesting being sold at the stores. I saw a couple of weak af greens, here and there, but it's mostly grey and yellow. NEVER a blue.

What the ♥♥♥♥, devs? Is that intended for a normal playthrough and does it get better, at higher difficulties, or what? I still get better loot by killing mobs and looting chests.

I could always download a mod, true, but I'm actually curious.

[slayor3000]

Originally posted by Castyles:

By the way, my character has over 9M gold and still nothing interesting being sold at the stores. I saw a couple of weak af greens, here and there, but it's mostly grey and yellow. NEVER a blue.

What the ♥♥♥♥, devs? Is that intended for a normal playthrough and does it get better, at higher difficulties, or what?

I still get better loot by killing mobs and looting chests.

I tried to make this point before but you must have misunderstood it.
9M gold is nothing if you think a Hallowed Helm in Epic will be 4M and in Legendary more like 40M and that is just a head item. Everything starts being highly pricey.
Merchants never sell Epics or Legendary items.
If you have Atlantis you can gamble with an Orb seller for items, much like the gambling in D2..