Missing Magic Dust?

[Zechnophobe]

Hi, so I did things in the early game out of order, and think I may have somehow not gotten the 6 magic dust you were supposed to. As far as I can tell, you need 1 from the north tower, 1 from the sorcerer's hideout, and 4 from the tower on the Island (Alkhard's tower or something). Problem is, even though I smashed the 4 orbs on the island tower, I don't have 4 more dust in my inventory. I did the smashing Before I got the quest from the guy in the north tower saying I needed to get 6 magic dust. Worried that without that quest active, smashing the orbs didn't result in me getting dust as intended. Without it, I can't seem to make any headway in the game.

[Chris Koźmik]

A general rule of thumb, the game will never penalize you for doing things in another order. So, you can't mess up things. Feel free to move around and explore as you wish without such worries.

Fairy orbs with Magic dust are scattered between many locations (usually magic towers), it will take to collect them (also you will need to explore most of the areas to find them all).

[Zechnophobe]

I appreciate the reply, so the tower of Alhazar's orbs should not have had fairy dust in them? And I have to find some beyond the desert? Seems to take forever to pass given how much higher level the enemies are than I am.

Oh, also, I can't get into the Ivory Tower (force field) and there is a plaque inside that I am also unable to read, which feels like a bug. I get bumped back to the entrance trying to move next to the plaque (which I assume has some tip on how to actually get in).

[Chris Koźmik]

Yes, explore further areas to find it. And yes, desert is hard, you probably need to level up more first.

Originally posted by Zechnophobe:

Oh, also, I can't get into the Ivory Tower (force field) and there is a plaque inside that I am also unable to read, which feels like a bug. I get bumped back to the entrance trying to move next to the plaque (which I assume has some tip on how to actually get in).

Everything is as intended :) Later you will discover what to do.

(I hate to be so vague with answer, but you know, I don't want you to spoil it for you :))

[Zechnophobe]

I had done literally everything I could find to do before the desert. It took a long slog, but eventually I completed it. Felt weird having a level 21 party fighting level 30 monsters. And then after I got through most things after it were substantially easier.

Also, I realize that long form games like this are *super* hard to balance, as is making sure all the quest links/triggers etc work after you change stuff, so I'm always worried there might be some minor bugs that were very difficult to discover during playtest.

[Chris Koźmik]

Originally posted by Zechnophobe:

I had done literally everything I could find to do before the desert. It took a long slog, but eventually I completed it. Felt weird having a level 21 party fighting level 30 monsters. And then after I got through most things after it were substantially easier.

That was intentional.

The Great Desert was made with "out of depth" level monsters so the player get the feel of the hard fight to traverse it. Then, after desert (at least in areas near desert) monsters are weaker, so the player can see the contrast and get this relaxed feeling after passing through the desert.