[SPOILERS obviously] Guide for Master difficulty

[R1no]

Having just completed the original campaign on Master difficulty I would like to share a few tips with similar minded people. Although this guide is geared towards players who have had at least some experience with the game, I am sure new players can learn a few things here as well.

Tip #1
Maximize your damage.
I cannot stress how important this is. The more damage you do, the faster you dispatch your enemies, and the less they can smash you back. Which means one of three things:

-You don't waste time running back and forth from town to use the inn, or
-You don't waste a tinder pouch, which are rare and expensive
-You don't waste a Godsbeard, which are less rare but still expensive

While the last two points are obvious from the economic side of things, the first point is especially important as on Master the chaos ticks come every 4 rounds and you really don't have the luxury of backtracking away from your objectives.

On your very first turn before you even move, look at the Oarton market and see if there are any weapons there that do 9+ damage. Buy and equip them straight away. They are cheap and a SIGNIFICANT upgrade over the garbage 6 damage weapons most classes start with. Always look at town and night markets for weapon upgrades. Which brings me to:

Tip #2
Weapon Choice.

Later in the game, armor pierce is a key mechanic. Most enemies at that point will stack at least some amount of armor and/or resistance, which slows down your DPS which means more hits taken, which is BAD. Some can even buff their armor/resistance to a level well over what any weapon would be capable of doing, and if you are unable to pierce it you are basically skipping your turn and giving the enemy free attacks on your party. The best example will of course be Vexor who can randomly do a 78 armor or resistance buff.

Look for armor piercing weapons that can pierce armor with a low number of rolls. A shining example is the Sturdy Dagger, which does an AP attack with only 1 vitality check (I think it is hands-down the best weapon in the game). The Mage's tome series (with Surge: ignore resistance with perfect 3x INT rolls) are also a solid choice at any point in the game.

While it is definitely satisfying to blow all your focus into a strong 2H attack and watch an enemy get one-shot by it, keep in mind this kind of practice is generally not sustainable and after you do it you are left with a pretty average damage weapon due to the fact that it is difficult to make 5 perfect rolls even with a standard attack, and enemies are prone to dodging non-perfect attacks which will further hamper your DPS, AND any damage that does go through will be reduced by armor/resistance.

I finished Master difficulty with a Tome of Wonder monk, Sturdy Dagger blacksmith, and Silver Bow hunter. All are able to pierce armor/resistance with 3 or less rolls.

I don't like musical instruments as they tend to be more expensive if bought from shops and do less damage (BAD) than their mage tome counterparts.

Elemental weapons have their uses but I won't go out of my way to get them, since there are just too many enemies that have immunities to burn/shock/freeze.

Tip #3
Prioritize armor/resistance

It is inevitable that you will take hits, even in a 3v1 fight. Prioritize wearing gear that provides more protection over ones that boost your main stat. Hit chances can always be improved by judiciously spending focus, but there is nothing you can do about enemies outspeeding your un-armored mage with physical attacks and killing him before you can even react. In this game most enemies will have a higher speed stat than your characters.

However I do not recommend routinely buying armor pieces from towns as they are significantly more expensive than weapons.

Don't fall for the trap of stacking either armor or resistance and neglecting the other. It is tempting to, for example, wear full mage gear which will give about 25 resistance and 5 armor + a hefty amount of INT in the lategame. In most cases you should try to keep a balance of both, even if it means neglecting some stat bonuses. This ensures two important things:

-Your character does not get easily bursted down from an initial uncontrolled wave of attacks from the other type of damage, before your tank is able to taunt
-Damage is spread more evenly across your party, increasing the effectiveness of party heal

Tip #4
Tanking

I am not sure if it is possible to win the game without a tank. Taunting is vital to keeping many fights under control, particularly the chaos reduction side quests. The reason being there is always that axe/shield wielding guy in the middle who will typically cut through 50-75% of a non-tank's hp on a max roll/crit.

Any class can tank by blowing 2 focus on taunting but the blacksmith is the clear winner with a base 80 vitality and the steadfast ability.

For newer players, the devs conveniently neglected to put in the Taunt skill tooltip that it also increases your armor and resistance in a manner proportional to your current armor/resistance.

It is not always wise or efficient to taunt on your tank. Is your tank low but the rest of your party on full HP? In this case it is usually better to go for a normal attack and hope that the enemy hits your other guys and then top everyone off with party heal. Are your enemies mainly AoE attackers? (Witches, bone mages, Feral mages) Taunting will do nothing against AoE attacks besides reduce damage on your tank.

Tip #5
Rush down chaos

Always take chaos reduction side quests. No exceptions.

Every move should bring you closer to either a chaos side quest or your main objective, at least in the early game. You don't have the luxury of time on Master difficulty. Provided that your team has good weapons, chaos encampments can be taken on 1 level below, so don't be scared of taking the level 1 encampments when your party is still level 0. They also drop pretty good loot. Just make sure noone has a 6 damage weapon and you should be fine. Blow all your focus early because they all have focus draining moves.

The penalty is 20% more enemy HP for each level of chaos which is massive on top of the 20% that master difficulty already puts on. I'd probably just quit and restart if I even had 1 level of chaos that I couldn't deal with immediately.

Tip #6
Get a boat early

A boat gets your party around faster so you can fight more things, earn more xp, gold and loot before the next chaos pip hits. Sea caves are great for time-efficient loot/xp grinding, and most will come with a goblin merchant who will keep you topped up with supplies. It also allows you to get out of the Golden Plains which is usually swarming with nasty heavy physical hitters like Bisontaurs, Triclops and Hobgoblins which you may not be able to ambush. Just make sure you activate the anti kraken torches early on. Caustic ink is a waste of money.

Fighting the kraken is feasible, even beneficial after level 7. It drops good loot and a precious pearl. Make sure your boat has at least 50% hp at all times if you are going to leave yourself vulnerable to an attack. The kraken doesn't hit very hard if your party is geared to take physical damage, but the fight can drag on and your boat may get destroyed if you didn't have a lot of boat HP to begin with.

TIp #7
Upgrade your party healer's pipe early

If your party heal is not healing at least 75% of everyone's HP it is not upgraded enough. Usually when someone is down to 25% HP they are in danger of being killed by the next attack, which is the best time to be blowing a party heal.

Alright I think at this point I am satisfied with my wall of text. Please let me know if you have any tips that you'd like to include, or if I have said something completely wrong. I love this game and talking about it!

[Santadriver]

Sounds good. What‘s your take on scourges? Do you take every scourge down as soon as you find it?

Also, I recently play alot of one-character master difficulty. Namely because it’s just less forgiving and greater of a challenge. Do have any experience with that?

[Santadriver]

Two crucial tips that i rarely see players focus on (no pun intended) is using focus effectively also as a movement boost at the right time and check towns without actually walking there.
Before tributing to a Sanctum or a Stone Hero you should always convert all your Focus to movement (9 is max though). Also before tributing put on gear with +focus for again, more movement!

Checking towns without spending time walking there is an easy and handy feature many don‘t know. Press shift+ left click to access towns from afar. (Only works on already visited ones) this allows you to make out exactly the stuff you‘re looking for. (I most often do that on night markets).

Those two will save you time you‘d otherwise unnecessarily spend and help you keep chaos at bay.

[R1no]

I take scourges if they are nearby but only if I'm 1 level or less below theirs. Some I prioritize more than others (Fergus and Royal Droll are particularly nasty). Royal Droll I'm often nervous to take even on par levels without immunities just simply because confuse is such an obscene mechanic. Personally I don't think fleeing should be something that can happen while confused, it should be nerfed to skip turn only, although ironically the AoE shock that the boss does helps prevent this from happening. Also, executioner guy drops a nice hat with +10 VIT which makes tanking a breeze.

I hate hot-swapping gear, I feel it is kinda gamey, but hey, it is a difficult game and we do everything we can to get an edge.

I've never even considered solo-ing the game. How do you make it work?

[Dusters]

What was your party order? Monk left, blacksmith middle, hunter right?

How did you manage healing? DId you wait to use party heal always or sometimes ran to town?

Grats on Master. I have bene playing this for 2 months now and you are second person on internet I have heard doing Master in this game.

The 1st person used volcano tome/ gladius/ golden lute for reset mechanic. Did you your reset on last boss as well?

[Santadriver]

@R1no yeah, similar to me.. the Royal Droll is so tricky. can't be shocked, stunned.. the group confusion... aaah. nasty bugger. Deimos' Skull (?) needs to be tweaked though.. +4 Armor, +15hp AND those immunities. huge boost early on. Whereas I'd like to see the speed buff return to Lucky's Hat.

[Santadriver]

@R1no hot-swapping as you call it is annoying yes.. agreed.. and kind of also takes away from the fun of the game. but i wouldn't manage solo-master without it i think.
I tried a run with the monk eventually bled out in the king's maze due to acid... sucks.. really hard. he's very versitile. his high int and str allow you to pick very specific fights against armored or high resistance mobs due to the possobility of swapping from mage to tank. Going solo is completely different... you can't die.. ever.. and recovering from a bad fight sets you back a lot. My current run in with a Hunter. I started off going for the 10attack bow and clearing some of the map. obviously doing all -chaos thing i could get my greedy fingers on. it really picked up when i fought the old bugger gaining a +10 speed boost and a goblin knife, piercing armor with a 95% chance on every hit. it allowed my to focus on good armor and resistance whilst still being able to have a 95 stat. you usually trade off some things... so I got further and further with ease. I now bought waldhar's wrath (more dmg output + healing on every strike, downside: no armor pierce..). My plans for the adventure going forward will be finding a silver bow, boosting my evasion and boosting my awareness stat if possible. I rely on being agile both on the map and in fights. Though the King's Maze will be an obstacle for sure... after that it should be smooth sailing. So I'll prepare loads till then..

[genTauro]

Originally posted by R1no:

I've never even considered solo-ing the game. How do you make it work?

Like this (find an exploit)

https://steamcommunity.com/app/527230/discussions/0/1694920442946132628/

I'm trying to do a MASTER run with 3 STR heroes (Monk, Blacksmith and Woodcutter) but I have failed miserable every single time (I have done it with 3 x HUNTERS though).

I think the issue is that I always take DMG and I spend to much GOLD healing in towns. Also made a few disastrous fails (buying a boat in a lake instead the ocean so bye bye run, fishing and getting unlucky and meeting the kraken at LVL 2, ...) It's like the game is telling me: "You shouldn't make a run with 3 x STR, so therefore I'm going to f**k you up every time).

But yes, the thing with the weapons is crucial (already from the first town). Armour becomes problematic with LVL 4 / 6 camps. No good gear = run is over.

[genTauro]

Only thing missing from your guide is the usage of RESET. In the following post I made a run in MASTER with 3 x Hunters inspired by OnlyRex:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/527230/discussions/0/1694919808743445185/?ctp=2#c1694920442942004590

I have noticed that a lot of gear actually have the RESET, like Scholar staffs (some even have party RESET) and swords.

The hole point of RESET is that you can ensure that the enemy never gets blow in (almost trivial with 3 x Hunters as they always go first).

Even though I have got early access to a Hooked Sword:

- https://fortheking.gamepedia.com/Hooked_Sword

because STR heroes are so slow, all three enemies get to deal DMG which always makes me use some kind of healing :(

[orionmnt]

Reset thingy is the most broken skill in the game, probably shoulda be nerfed a bit (put some resistance on enemies like the others debuffs).
Chaos is not a must to choose @quests, finished the master with 2-3 item/gold quests and never seen a chaos proc.
Tank is not required to win also.
Everything else seems legit, I'm currently making an excel with monster stats/loot/immunities... I hope soon to be able to help @wiki :)
That solo try looks interesting, wanna try it also, probably with hunter or trapper (ambushing everything is godly) :)

[Santadriver]

Trapper seems interesting, yes. I usually go for Hubter due to faster and higher awareness...
I think they should be a bit rebalanced, the two of them. One quicker, the other more aware.

[R1no]

Reset is powerful, and yes probably a bit broken against major bosses, especially since single target resets are only 2 rolls typically. Still most bosses are fast enough to not be completely locked down by reset spamming, and I think rather than a full turn skip they are only moved down 70 percent of the timeline

@Si I put blacksmith in the middle because the middle person will always take the most damage from splash attacks, others dont really matter. Healing, it depends on how close my party is from town and whether all are kind of injured (party heal) or if one is severely injured (town, as they might not survive an initial wave of attacks before party heal can be popped). Usually I wont try to backtrack to town if I cant make it there in one turn of movement, id rather pop a tinder pouch and then pull some more big fights to get the most use out of it.

[orionmnt]

Just tried 2p with herb/woodcutter, until Vexor it was ok, but even after they missed 1st turn, it wasn't even close. Herb cant keep up with resets, woodcutter cant kill doggos fast enough. Expected to fight against 1 Chaos Hound only because at the previous levels the fight was against the mini-boss and 1 add, but 2 looks impossible. I had a pretty bad wep, ~30 dmg, maybe with something else you could kill hounds fast?
Mayyyyybe Hunter for faster resets (I've seen some decent reset bows).
That being said, 1p/solo shouldnt be possible :/

[Santadriver]

Playing solo you have to develop other strategies besides reset...

[orionmnt]

For solo is a no brainer, but I expected to be doable for 2p. Maybe Im missing thingies from the other 2 modes @lore store that could help here. Maybe the team was wrong and you need like a faster reseter+big dps / double big dps / double fast something....

[Dusters]

For 2p you might try Hobo since he is rather fast and can use anything