QfG4 Wizard Final Room Erana's Staff Bug

[Zetawilk]

In Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness, in the Essence Ritual room, when summoning Erana's Staff after defeating Ad Avis, the game just tells you "You're too busy to cast a spell right now," preventing you from completing the puzzle.

For some inexplicable reason, setting Detail to minimum and Speed to maximum circumvented the issue.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

That's an interesting workaround, good to know!

That being said, another way to get past this is, after Ad Avis is defeated, simply recast the spell you've got currently loaded up (that is, click anywhere on the screen but yourself without changing icons). It'll give you some message about your spell doing nothing or getting absorbed and you'll be able to complete the puzzle after that without issue.

[Zetawilk]

Unfortunately, that method didn't work for me when I tried it.

[mistermiller]

Zachski is right. I ran into this issue for and did not beat the Wizard's run for YEARS before I discovered that solution. It seemed strange, too, because there weren't a lot of reports of this bug on Google. It's a bit more common now, probably because the game seems to be. (YAY). Your best option is to reload from the Automatic Save which puts you at the climbing animation and restart the finale. You're going to have Force Bolt loaded when you finally kill Ad Avis. But it's super important that you do not right click to change the icon after killing him. It's soft-locked if you do that.

Start from the auto-save, and it'll work.

[Zetawilk]

Could you please clarify what point he's right about? I just tested his method again to no avail. Thanks for your assistance.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

Okay, I'm not sure why it's not working for you. Let me go over it, step by step.

Step 1: Summon Staff
Step 2: Tell Ultimate Joke
Step 3: Target Ad Avis with Flame Dart (though any of the other damaging spells works too). Ad Avis gets absorbed by Avoozl.
Step 4: With the cross-hair still loaded up, without right-clicking or going into the menu at all, left click anywhere on the screen to cast another flame dart.
Step 5: Cast Summon Staff to win the game.

[Zetawilk]

Yeah, I'm not certain why it's not working for me, either. Probably some bug in the game, maybe.

[mistermiller]

The Wizard's final room has been bugged for decades now. When I say that it took me "years" to beat the Wizard's route it was entirely because of this exact problem. I'm not sure why you're not having success with Zackski's explanation. :/ Sorry friend. Keep trying different things once Ad Avis is dead... things that make no sense and have nothing to do with magic or the spells. In this game, the strangest glitches are fixed in weirdest workarounds.

[Zetawilk]

Thank goodness for the automatic save. I did manage it with "Detail" all the way down (what's "detail" supposed to do, anyhow?) and "Speed" all the way up, but I just don't feel right calling this a "fix". Definitely only a workaround.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

Detail affects background animations (so stuff like streams, lights that change, etc.)

[wally0127]

I tried turning detail down and speed up but that didn't help. I then tried the method of casting the same spell that I used on Ad Avis again. After that, I was able to finish the game. My thanks to Rithm Fluffderg for providing this workaround. BTW, I found that I had to tell the Ultimate Joke BEFORE summoning the staff. If I summoned the staff first, Ad Avis would immediately kill me before I could do anything else.

[darth.lemur]

I was able to use a modified version of the steps above to complete QFG4 as a wizard:

1) Create a save prior to the heart ritual where Detail is minimum and Speed is maximum (so these settings will be preserved in the Automatic Save when you ascend to the chamber above) - I had no luck changing the Detail and Speed settings after ascending into the upper chamber.
2) Use Levitate to ascend to the chamber above, and sit through the summoning and battle animations.
3) Summon staff.
4) Tell Ultimate Joke.
5) Target Ad Avis with Force Bolt (likely other damaging spells would work too). Ad Avis gets absorbed by Avoozl.
6) With the cross-hair still loaded up, without right-clicking or going into the menu at all, left click on the screen anywhere that is NOT yourself and NOT the crystal to cast another Force Bolt (or whatever) - the key seems to be getting the message that your spell vanishes in the distance without any effect. If I target the crystal with this spell, I only ever see "You are too busy to cast a spell" when I try to summon the staff.
7) Summon the staff and complete the game.