Some notes to improve your experience

[StarTideRising]

Been taking a few notes while playing and thought I'd pass them on to help people starting out. Some minor spoilers below:

Shift click on an item in the trading screen to buy a stack
If you don't have a full stack (like Supplies especially) you can drag a stack from the market page to your cargo hold to top it off to a full stack. This is way easier than clicking 250 times or selling and rebuying a stack.

Making enough money to survive is really hard starting out. Make the Arken - Torag Shelter run repeatedly. Eventually you can expand to Lumen, but Lumen has fewer return quests so maybe not as reliable.

Lumen to Torag Shelter: buy the blue Crystals.
Torag to Lumen: buy Pottery
Torag to Arken: buy Pottery and Obsidian
Arken to Torag: buy marble

Sometimes you don't get the same starting companions and you need to go find them.
Harvek is in the bar in Lumen
Garrik can be found by going to the bathhouse in Torag Shelter and paying for his freedom from the Mob.
Crifta is NW of Velarius, follow the rumor of the bounty hunter in the area. You have to battle an Orc. The Orc is one of Harvek's targets so I think this helps his loyalty.
Filldarrth is on the road south of the spire (way to the north). You have to move fast on her storyline, so be ready to head straight for Kenark Waystation.
Gol'goro is in Torag Shelter in the arena contest. If you mess up, or don't help when you come back it just says he "went West". I haven't found out where to the west he ends up at.
Not sure where the dark elf is yet if you don't get him at the start.

Keeping Harvek and Garrik happy is fairly hard, even with giving them gifts. Garrick likes money and dwarven gadgets. Harvek likes bogweed and moondust. You can get bogweed by making the run between Kenark Waystation and Torag Shelter carrying illegal goods. Skim a bit off the top to feed him.
I lost Harvek once when he walked off but he just appeared again at the Lumen bar and I was able to re-hire him.


In Torag Shelter you can get a random even in the market where you can buy a wooden statue that seems alive. It gives vitality regen every round in combat. This is huge. I put it on Gol'goro since he is a pretty good fighter.
In Lumen at the crystalmancer vault, after you complete the White Crystal quest, the sorcerer will sell you a large crystal that regenerates POW. You need this for Filldarrth since when she runs out of juice she's useless in a battle.

Hope this helps other people!

[Sargon]

Adding to this.

Once you are large enough to make the run to the Crimson gate you can make a lot running dyes, herbs and grain over to lumen. Take all the missions first to rep farm, stopping off in either shelter or Arken, and then head to Lumen.

You can make a aweful lot doing this run repeatedly and that then helps you out running at a loss and just stocking up with supplies if you want to go and do missions that are further away.

[Lost Pilgrims]

Great summary. Sure it will be useful for many new players so we just pinned it. Thanks a lot!

[StarTideRising]

Some Additional Notes

Give you companions gifts whenever you have them available. It would be nice if some of these gifts increased their combat abilities. Crifta wants potent poison for example; it could increase her main attack.
So far Finndurarth sometimes enchants the gift you give her and creates a new wearable item
Gol'goro - Buy Oil, easy to come by
Crifta - Only wants equipable items, these are harder to find in the world and come from random events or questing
Finndurarth - Jewelry is easy to come by.
Garrick - Gift him money whenever you can.
Harvek - Bogweed. Lots of bogweed.


Creating a profitable loop is important for quests. Even when I have a 250+ Bross by the time you stock up on supplies and wander the wasteland for a few weeks you'll be
down under 50 (Looking at you, Carrahvon quest!)
So far this is my most profitable loop
6 Beasts of Burden
Start at Torag Shelter
Buy Pottery and Mushroom Beer.
Head to Drusian Quarry
Sell Beer, Buy Obsidian
Head to Lumen
Sell Pottery, Buy Celerus Crystals
Head to Arken
Sell Obsidian, Buy Marble
Head to Torag Shelter
Sell Marble.

Speaking of quests, you will want to make a manual save before you set out on these. I got stuck early on when I headed south to Kenark Waystation and didn't bring nearly enough supplies since I thought there would be more to buy there. I made the mistake of trying to make it to Twin Towers, forgetting they also had no supplies (There is a 1 time event that gives you some supplies to escape the dead-end). I ended up eating all of my mounts and
pack beasts to make it back to Torag Shelter. Morale of the story is bring way more supplies than you need.

[leysh26]

Cheers for the info - very useful! I'm just waiting for the companion level cap to be lifted up to lvl5 before I have another crack at the main campaign.

[NuggetSex]

Torzag to Crimson Gate is also really good money if you're doing faction runs. Also supplies are really cheap to pick up at the Gate.

[Malarky]

How do you give gifts to your companions? I have 11 hours in game and cannot figure this out.

[NuggetSex]

Originally posted by Malarky:

How do you give gifts to your companions? I have 11 hours in game and cannot figure this out.

You have to get gifts that they want. I think they're pretty specific. I haven't played in a while, but from what I remember they tell you what they want if you talk to them.

[kyberion]

Update for v0.5.30:
- trading is NEVER profitable when accounting for costs.
- doing errands is the ONLY way to reliably make enough money
- there are only two routes: from Torzak to Lumen and from Torzak to Arken.
- from Arken you can return with marble to offset the costs,
- from Lumen you usually return empty.
- hire a beast master from the Drusian Quarry
- buy better wheels from the mine next to Crimson Gates
- expand your caravan to 3 beasts of burden and run up to 6 errands to Lumen or Arken
- get the exploit perk to reroll errands
- repeat the trade routes until you have 1000 gold then go questing

[noosers]

Early on, stay on the Shelter - Arken route, then slowly expand to Crimson Gate, Mines of Plenty and the counterclockwise turn from TZS - Lume - Arken - TZS.
Switch mammals out for reptiles.
Get the Heat Shield Crystal from Deven.
Keep your company slim and never cease doing errands.
Avoid trade early on but to fill ou empty slots of loading up quantity low value goods.

[Loothar]

The Dark Elf is in Deven you have to get your Reputation with the Dark Elf Prince up to 6 I think.

[blackvoid]

Any idea which city triggers rumor about Crifta?

NWM. Got it though rep 5 with wraiths.

[Myoui]

anyone knows how to trigger gor'goro story? also garrik's story after the "digging" part?

[andersauj]

Originally posted by GodJihyo:

anyone knows how to trigger gor'goro story? also garrik's story after the "digging" part?

Can't speak for Garrik as I hate the guy, but Gor'goro story is triggered by talking about his past after getting his friendship up with you enough (by giving him oil and an exquisite weapon)

[Corin]

Originally posted by GodJihyo:

anyone knows how to trigger gor'goro story? also garrik's story after the "digging" part?

I found the next part in Avernum by exploring the city. It procs a meeting with a certain guy who tries to con you in other settlements--I don't know if you need to have already met him and saw through his cons in other places (I did), maybe he shows up regardless of whether you've met him.

It could also be in any city, that's just what I experienced.