Things I Wish I Knew Before Getting Far Into Gothic 1 (limited spoilers)

[RomulanPaladin]

Here are some things that are poorly advertised about Gothic and other details that I would have liked to know beforehand:

Controls

1) To interact with things (pick things up, open chests, attack, etc.) you have to hold down the CTRL key.

2) You can use the tilde (~) key to go into unarmed combat mode.

3) You can put away torches. To do so, you need at least one other torch in your inventory. If you open your inventory and use a torch (CTRL + UP) while holding one, you'll put the torch you're holding back into inventory.

4) You don't need to memorize which key you bound each spell to. If the last weapon you used was a spell, you can hold down the SPACE key and a rotating selection will appear with all of your key bound spells.

5) While trading / looting, if you use the strafe left/right keys instead of the turn left/right keys, you'll be able to move items in/out of your inventory 10 at a time.

6) If you use a scroll to transform into an animal (such as a meatbug), you can cancel the spell with the ENTER key. You're welcome.

Skills

7) Pickpocketing is a useless skill. Just about anyone who might have good stuff cannot be pickpocketed. I never found anything on anyone that would have justified the skill. I guess you could take it if you really like to horde a small number of apples.

8) I expect that, regardless of what camp you join and what path you take, by the end of the game you should have access (though perhaps not the skill points) to every weapon, magic, and thief skill.

9) There is a guy named Buster (I think) in the New Camp that can teach you acrobatics. Don't go on playing half the game before realizing that you could have had acrobatics the whole time.

10) I believe learning 5 circles of magic will cost about 100 skill points altogether. If you get to a point where you learned all the fighting skills you want but you don't have access to a magic guild yet, start saving.

11) Bows / crossbows are very useful before getting magic. Afterward, I kinda wished that I could get some of those training and dex points back. You'll need to have a missile weapon to solve some puzzles endgame but you don't need to be good (or heavily damaging) with them.

Items

12) If you want to roam around the world hoping to find a better weapon, here's a tip: you won't find any. There are some weapons about but by the time you are able to tackle the monsters guarding them you already have something better.

13) It's good to have a bludgeoning weapon stashed somewhere (mace or hammer). There are a few places where having one is useful: fighting stone golems. I don't remember having to fight any after meeting Xardas.

14) Choosing to join a particular camp will not limit what kind of spell runes you'll ultimately have access to.

15) A good way to get a good weapon early game is in the Old Mine when you have the gate to the minecrawler section opened. If you allow one of the templars to die, you can loot his sword.

16) Some events during early game lead you to believe that stocking up on every kind of supply will help you finish quests. Not so. There are only a few places where this happens and only during early game. The supplies you use for quests are meatbug meat and hell's mushrooms for one quest, beer for about three interactions, and optionally a healing potion once. After this, use your supplies as you please.

17) You can turn raw meat into grilled meat. Find a frying pan on a fire at one of the camps and interact with it.

Monsters

18) Monsters are expendable and can be hunted to (near) extinction. Usually, once a chapter, each group of monsters will grow in size by 1 (or become a group of 1 if you've killed them all off).

19) Since monsters are expendable, you may want to consider getting all the skills required to take all their parts before killing them. If you kill a monster without the appropriate skills, you will never get those parts from that monster. Here's an early game list:

• You can get full yield from molerats and scavengers without skills.
  
• Avoid killing wolves and orc dogs until you can salvage teeth and fur.
  
• Avoid killing lizards until you can salvage claws.
  
• Avoid killing snappers until you can salvage teeth and claws.
  
• Avoid killing lurkers until you can salvage claws and skin.
  
• Avoid killing bloodflies until you can salvage stings, a skill that you learn from a book sold by Wolf in the New Camp or Kor Calom in the Sect Camp.

20) There is a plot point where you can salvage additional parts from certain powerful creatures. At this point, any of these monsters that you hunted to extinction will respawn one monster in that spot. Thus, for full yield, you can freely hunt the solitary creatures beforehand shadowbeasts but leave the large groups until after you have the skills to harvest all the parts swampsharks, fire lizards.

There's more but I'm sick of typing.

[Metfrosch]

Very useful guide :)

Here two things in addition to point 1) and point 12):

1) You can set the "up"-key for action in your controls this allows you to attack really fast with sword, axe or hammer.

12) You can get a good weapon in the early game. You can rob Lares' Axe by attacking him and knocking him out or visit the cross-way near Xardas' tower to find a battle-axe. For the second alternative a speed-potion is very useful.


p.s.
sorry for my bad english, I am antilinguist :P

[blkmnky]

Want to put this here so people see it in a really useful post!

Since you guys don't receive a digital manual with this I thought I'd tell you that if you go to Options -> Keyboard -> and switch to Alternative Settings <-- this allows you to use WASD similar to every game you've probably ever played on pc! The Left Mouse button is used as the Action Key and Right Click to Jump. Seems like every time I visit this forum people are using the defaults which are terrible! Also I can't quite remember but there is a way to use Ctrl + the cursor keys to move items in increments.

You can download the manual here: http://upload.worldofplayers.de/files3/Gothic1-Manual.pdf
Recommended reading if you are planning to play this!

SAVE OFTEN! You WILL die... alot! Save if you feel like doing something interesting, it might work! Or you might encounter a bug or game crash, then it's a good idea to have some backups!

Pickpocketing is a useful skill, you get +exp for each person that you successfully steal from! It helps with the later stages plus you still get +exp for beating them up!

Don't take the Acrobatics skill from Buster because without it if you fall you can actually spam the jump key and if you do it right you can land on your feet without taking any damage!

Try to Learn the Animal Skinning Skills as soon as you can because all of the animals you kill will net you some gold for the skins, teeth, claws, and meat!

Try to do as many quests from each camp before joining one, you need that +exp!

The monsters can be hard to fight when you are puny! Try to lure them out from the pack one by one by moving in close enough that they notice you and then move in a little bit closer and after three vocal calls it will attack, that's when you backup or run! Seperated from the pack they don't stand a chance!

Collect these items and hold on to them, don't eat them! You will need it for a quest in the New Camp's Free Mine: 5 Apples, 2 Rice Schnapps, 5 beer, 3 bread, 2 Cheese & 2 Grapes
The Grapes are actually the hardest to find. Grab everything you find, your Inventory is Unlimited!

Hold on to the potions which will increase your skills, later on the LP price will double with the trainers!

At some point, I believe it's after you get the Minecrawler's Eggs in Chapter 2 you can go ahead and Kill Everyone In the Mine! Lot's of +exp! They will lock you out anyways. And at the end of the game, Chapter 6 you can visit the Old Camp and Murder everyone there too! Might as well visit the New Camp for some bloody good time too! Don't forget about the Free Mine folks!

Sorry about all the exclamations(!) I just freaking love this game. It will always have a special place in my heart!

[RomulanPaladin]

Początkowo opublikowane przez blkmnky:

About #14: I think that if you Join the Sect Loonies and become a Guru you can only learn the first 4 Circles of Magic! I guess all that swampweed dulled your potential! If you join the New Camp, Water Mages, you won't get to learn the 6th Circle from Xardas! If you want to be a Mage and learn all 6 Circles you must join the Fire Mages at the Old Camp!

Yeah, but isn't there that plot thing that happens? I joined the Old Camp, did NOT join any mages at all, and then when the old mine collapsed, they adoped me in the New Camp, made me a mercenary then a water mage. Xardas taught me the 6th circle as a water mage.

[blkmnky]

Yeah, I think you are right RomulanPaladin! At a certain plot point you get access no matter what you chose, don't know why I thought this, it's just been about ten years since I've played. Will edit accordingly!

But what about Sect Camp? If you join the Sect are you stuck with Circles 1-4 or does the New Camp accept you as Mage? Man it's been too long. Don't think I've got the time to play through this again lol.

[ciprianhanga]

Ok, my few points in addition to the above:

As said before, you can change to the Alternative Scheme and it gets really easy to use after a little. I played the game for the first time in 2007 with that scheme and I still have the muscular reflexes memorized, when I feel like playing. Still a bit odd, but not horrible.

* I'm gonna assume you'll be using that scheme too, so the shortcuts that I mention will apply to that

When running, (Caps Lock On), keep spamming the Right Click, the character will try to jump and it will 'skip' on the surface, resulting in a faster speed, even w/o any spells (after a while you'll not even realize you're doing it)

Don't bother with Acrobatics, there is a (useful) glitch in the game, so if you fall from a long hight, keep pressing A or D (assuming WASD is set), as if you want to take a step to the left/right. The character will not get any damage when reaching the ground. Works amazingly well in the Old Mine, instead of backtracking to reach the end of the pit, just jump into it. Save beforehand, just in case.

If you use the WASD scheme, keep the W key pressed with the middle finger when running while backtracking (in this game there's a lot of running over the map, unfortunately) and turn the character not with the mouse but with the Q and E (NOT A and D!), so you can maneuvre the avatar with the left hand while with the right hand you now can keep on emptying that beer ;)

There is also a glitch that I'm surprised nobody mentioned, use it only if you want, and don't, if you feel it's cheating. It is, a bit: forget about stealing anything to get money, or chests, or about any money problems: the smith in the Old Camp has an unlimited supply of steel bars for swords. Get your strength up so you can beat him, beat him with a blunt weapon (DON'T KILL HIM) and while unconscious loot everything from him, all the bars that he has. Let some game time pass, rinse and repeat.

In conjunction with the previous tip, don't bother 'selling' your stuff, unless you really want to tide up the inventory. Everything can be used as a coin, so when you need something from a merchant, just dump stuff to the same sum, press Enter twice, done. So if you only have bars from the previous tip, you don't need to ever bother about money again. Just keep beating that dude. *but again, don't kill him!

F9 (Quicksave) WILL be your best friend. Sometime the Steam version doesn't work with F10 (Quickload) so just go into the load menu, it will be the first save slot. But remember, from time to time, to save the game in the regular slots, just to mark some events in the game, so you can play the game from different stages, if need arises. For example, before deciding on what Camp to join, so if you don't like the chosen Camp, you'll not be ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Fortunately, monsters don't heal up, so for the tougher beasts you can just harass and lower their health, run away, come back later and continue. NPCs, on the other hand, heal themselves with food, potions and sleep. Slow, but they do.

Yeah, there's a point in the game when you're done with the Old Mine, after that you can just go in there and mass murder everyone for free XP.

With the Alternative scheme, picking up objects, fighting, is done keeping Left Click pressed onto the thing in game (to have it highlighted) and just press W. It's not the mouse click that's doing the action, it's the W key actually. A bit odd but you get used to it quickly.

As I said, Right Click jumps or, near a wall, looks up in preparation to climb, and W makes the char to climb.

When you're not sure you have baddies around, keep your weapon ready, it will highlight and show the health bar of any monster/NPC around. Move the mouse around to see if there are more. Also, zoom out with the scroll wheel, so you can have a wider view of the surroundings.

Be careful! In Gothic, almost at every corner is a little ambush.

One more tip I wish I knew before: Fire Ball spell actually builds up the longer you keep the W button pressed, so if you point it to a monster, wait to hear those build-ups (they have a specific sound), this way you'll deal tremendous damage. Works best for long range combat, but have a sword ready or just be ready to run your ass off if the monster is tough and it's after you (some are really fast and nasty, like Snappers, and it's almost instadeath with them.)

Alluring monsters into people areas is fun but be aware that some key NPCs could accidentally die, breaking some missions or even the main story. Also, you don't get the XP from monsters, which kinda sucks.

I will add some more if I remember.

[Hippyshake]

I don't care that I'm necro'ing: This guide is brilliant. Cheers

[RomulanPaladin]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Hippyshake:

I don't care that I'm necro'ing: This guide is brilliant. Cheers

What is this? The breath of the living? A heartbeat sounding over my grave...

Forgot that I had written this!

[Redguard]

just another necro-up
good topic!

[NUTATCO]

Came back to the game decade later, might share the easiest money maker method here. Easier than beating poor Stone guy.

Find frying pan somewhere, walk close enough to see PAN text to show up.
Open your inventory, find raw meat and highlight it.
Now press Action+Forward, open your inventory to find out that you have more raw meat now.
Repeat as much as you like.

[Mr Fantastic]

Almost 2020 and still very relevant. I didn't know the new gothic teaser was based on the first gothic, never had played it before, still kinda trying to get used to the weird controls even with wasd, picking items and moving items from containers to inventory is ******

[cc-vortex]

The frying pan meat trick does not work in version 1.08.

[Farthest Yuggyth]

Upboated for telling me how to detransform

[Mike]

Can this topic please be pinned? A lot of great and generally very useful info.

While on the subject, is there any way to grill/smith (e.g. on frying pans, smith's fires, grindstones, etc.) more than one piece of raw meat/blade etc. at one time? Collecting hundreds of raw meats then grilling them one... by one... by one... gets very tedious fast, even when clicking the pan then hitting the back key to stop after each one as quickly as possible. I know some of the later games made this possible, but don't know if it's doable with or without mods in Gothic 1.

[Nysvern]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Mike:

Can this topic please be pinned? A lot of great and generally very useful info.

While on the subject, is there any way to grill/smith (e.g. on frying pans, smith's fires, grindstones, etc.) more than one piece of raw meat/blade etc. at one time? Collecting hundreds of raw meats then grilling them one... by one... by one... gets very tedious fast, even when clicking the pan then hitting the back key to stop after each one as quickly as possible. I know some of the later games made this possible, but don't know if it's doable with or without mods in Gothic 1.

No, there is no way to cook multiple pieces of meat at the same time. Just do it every time in a while ;p

[Mike]

Początkowo opublikowane przez CD-RW:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Mike:

Can this topic please be pinned? A lot of great and generally very useful info.

While on the subject, is there any way to grill/smith (e.g. on frying pans, smith's fires, grindstones, etc.) more than one piece of raw meat/blade etc. at one time? Collecting hundreds of raw meats then grilling them one... by one... by one... gets very tedious fast, even when clicking the pan then hitting the back key to stop after each one as quickly as possible. I know some of the later games made this possible, but don't know if it's doable with or without mods in Gothic 1.

No, there is no way to cook multiple pieces of meat at the same time. Just do it every time in a while ;p

That's too bad, but that's what I expected - thanks a lot for the quick confirmation!