The Beginner's Guide to Divinity: Original Sin 2

This guide is designed to be read by beginners and veterans of the game alike. It will go into details about character creation, the map, the UI, combat, leveling your character, different builds and presets as well as various tips and tricks. Everyone can learn a thing or two from this guide.

Introduction

Author's Note: This guide is severely out of date and contains information that may have changed or removed altogether

There's a lot of things to take into Divinity: Original Sin 2 that players new to the game or new to the genre may or may not know. This guide is made to assist new players to the game or help regular players learn a thing or two about the game they didn't know about.

Note: There won't be spoilers.

What is Divinity: Original Sin 2?

Ultimately, D:OS2 is a turn-based strategy RPG. What this means is that combat is taken in turns on a map rendered in the environment you are in. This means that combat takes place on boats, forests, towns, dungeons, towers, etc. The player controls 1-4 characters as they go through the main story. The game is done in a top down view rather than first person or third person.

Outside of combat, everything is dealt with in real time. You are free to talk to NPCs, steal items, venture off the beaten path, kill animals, or burn down everything in your path that gives you the stink eye. If you do something that would initiate combat, enemies that are engaged are then in a turn-based environment until combat is resolved. Those not engaged are free to move around and do as they like.

A character gains experience through various events like discovering new locations, defeating enemies in combat, completing quests, successfully persuading an enemy to a peaceful resolution, etc. Enough experience allows a character to level up and increase their stats in various ways.

Character Creation - Origin

This is the first menu a player sees when they start up the game. There are 5 races in total - Human, Elf, Dwarf, Lizard, and Undead. There are 3 types of characters the player can make. An ORIGIN character is one with a rich backstory and lore created by Larian studios. They have their own racial skills and interactions with the world. CUSTOM is a character that the player creates. They don't have any custom lore; rather the player decides their backstory and the path they take through character interactions. CUSTOM UNDEAD is like custom but with undead characteristics. We'll go over what the differences are below.

Each character gets 2 skills and talents pre-assigned. You can mouse over each of them to see what they do. Origin characters tend to have skills that are unavailable elsewhere in the game. You'll notice that each one has a skill that has a blue diamond icon. This means that the skill requires a special resource to be used called Source. We'll go over what Source is and how to get it in Combat. The green circle means how many ACTION POINTS it requires to use in a turn. Again, Combat will explain what that is but really quickly - a character starts combat with a finite number of action points. Each action, such as movement, using spells, or attacking uses action points, denoted by how many green circles. A turn ends when you have 0 AP left or you end your turn prematurely. Lastly, in the bottom right of the skill window will be a number with a circle around it. This is the cooldown of the skill. For example, Ifan ben-Mezd the Origin character can use Summon Ifan's Soul Wolf once. He then must wait 6 turns to use it again.

At the bottom of the window is your preset, essentially the character archetype you want. Is your person a shifty rogue, sticking to the shadows and attacking swiftly in the backs of his enemies? Or a crafty wizard raining fire from afar? The presets help guide the character creation process but they don't define your character. For the purposes of this guide, we'll be making Ifan ben-Mezd as a Wizard preset.

Near the top of the page you'll see 6 different tabs. Tab over to Appearence where you can customize Ifan's appearence. Note that Origin character cannot have their voices changed since they have voice over acting for many NPC interactions.

Character Creation - Preset (Attributes)

You can change the preset chosen originally on this tab by using the arrows below Build Preset. You'll notice that it changes all the other values too. A wizard has high intelligence while a warrior has high strength. The presets won't make a wizard with high strength on its own. This is where you come in.

We're going to keep Ifan as a Wizard and then click Edit under ATTRIBUTES. There's 6 different attributes in D:OS2:

• Strength Makes all physical attacks and skills hit harder for every point invested. 1 point of strength = 5% damage increase. You can also carry more weight and move heavier objects with higher strength.
  
• Finesse Makes all damage with finesse based weapon and skills do more damage. 1 point of finesse = 5% increased damage. Ranged weapons like bows and crossbows use finesse as the main stat as well as daggers.
  
• [Intelligence[/b] Makes all damage with intelligence based weapon and skills do more damage. 1 point of intelligence = 5% increased damage. Wands and staffs typically scale off intelligence.
  
• Constitution is the stat that determines your character's health (called Vitality). The more Constitution you have, the more Vitality your characters have. Shields will require a high constitution to use.
  
• Memory is how many skill slots you have unlocked for your character. By default with 10 memory, you have 3 skill slots. Adding 1 point into memory adds 1 extra slot. You earn new skills from reading skill tomes earned from killing enemies, quest rewards, or bought from merchants.
  
• Wits Affects your character's Critical Hit Chance, Initiative (a high initiative means they'll typically be the first to attack), and the abilitiy to find and detect treasure and traps. 1 point in wits means +1% crit chance and +1 initiative.

At the start you only get 3 points to distribute so ensure you have your character build in mind when choosing. If you make a mistake it will be a while before you have a chance to correct it in game. For our guide, we're going to be putting 2 points into intelligence and 1 point into wits.

Character Creation - Preset (Abilities)

Abilities in D:OS2 are the driving force behind your character. They are what defines a character toolkit in and out of combat. There are 2 types of Abilities: COMBAT and CIVIL.

Civil Abilities are strictly non-combat skills that enhance parts of your character's interaction with the world. Telekinesis allows a character to pick up items from further away. Loremaster allows you to see enemies stats, resistances, weaknesses and identify magical items. Sneaking reduces the NPC's vision of detection, allowing you to slip by NPCs easier with more points invested. Thievery allows you to lockpick items and pickpocket NPCs. Bartering makes it so when you sell items, your items sell for more and the items you buy are cheaper. Persuasion helps you convince NPCs to do your bidding in dialogue and increase a character's attitude towards you. Lucky Charm allows you to randomly find extra loot in mundane containers like barrels or crates.

Of the 7, Loremaster, Sneaking, Thievery, Bartering, and Persuasion are the ones that are the most beneficial (in the author's own opinion). As Ifen is a Wizard, we want to see enemy weaknesses and resistances so we will point our 1 point into Loremaster. The other point is automatically assigned by a character's race.

Combat Abilities are further sub categorized into 3 different types: Skills, Weapons, and Defense. In total there are 17 combat abilities, 10 of which have skills associated with them. With 2 points at character creation and 1 point per level in game, you have a finite number of points to invest in your time playing your character. The game chose 2 default combat abilities based on your preset. Since we chose the Wizard preset, we were assigned Pyrokinetic and Geomancer. You are free to remove the point invested and put it elsewhere but you need to know what each skill does and how it affects your character.

Combat Abilities and Skills

There are 10 schools of skills in the game. They are WARFARE, HUNTSMAN, SCOUNDREL, PYROKINETIC, HYDROSOPHIST, AEROTHEURGE, GEOMANCER, NECROMANCER, SUMMONING, and POLYMORPH. Each skill adds different utility to a character. Below we'll go over what each of them does.

On top of that, you have abilities that do not have any skills associated with them. Instead, they offer various combat bonuses. These are SINGLE-HANDED, TWO-HANDED, RANGED, DUAL-WIELDING, RETRIBUTION, LEADERSHIP, and PERSERVERANCE.

• Warfare is the way of the physical damage character or more clearly, a character that uses non-magical damage to hurt his enemies. Warfare skills are focused on being up close and personal to the enemy using melee weapons like a sword and shield or a spear. They are meant to hinder enemy attacks and be the first line of defense against enemy attacks and magic. Example of Warfare skilsl are: Battering Ram, which rushes your character to a specific enemy, knocking down other enemies along the way and Shield Throw which allows the player to throw their shield at enemies and ricchochet to other nearby enemies. Each point in Warfare increases the damage done by physical attacks by 5%. Archetype builds would be the massive tank in platemail armor with a sword and shield or the raging barbarian with a 2 handed axe rushing to the first enemy he sees.
  
  
• Huntsman is all about ranged attacks of all types. A good huntsman will always keep their enemies at range, using various skills to evade enemies. A great huntsman will find the high ground to have a combat advantage over his prey and deal massive amounts of damage while his enemies remain helpless. A typical huntsman will wield a bow or crossbow and rain death from the furthest possible vantage points. Example skills are Elemental Arrows, which allows you to imbue your basic attacks with an element within melee range of your character and Ricochet, which allows your arrows to bounce off enemies to nearby enemies. Each point in Huntsman adds a 5% damage boost when attacking from higher ground. The more points in Huntsman, the bigger the boost to the damage. This also applies to ranged magic attacks from magic skills.
  
  
• Scoundrel is the delicate and fine art of combat. Rather than the brute force approach of the Warfare grunt or the cowardly ranged attacks of the Huntsman, a Scoundrel will dart in and out of the shadows to slit the throats of his prey. Wielding 2 daggers and always aiming for the back, a scoundrel will always be the last thing you see before you see the infinite void of death. Example of Scoundrel skills are Backlash, which allows the Scoundrel to teleport behind the enemy and backstab them with both daggers and Adrenaline, which gives you 2 extra Action Points this turn for -2 Action Points to start the next turn. Each point in Scoundrel increases your Critical Hit Multiplier (how hard you hit with your critical attacks and backstabs) as well as allows you to move further each turn. A typical Scoundrel will also employ magical skills to enhance his abilities or delve into other forms of physical skills to enhance his abilities.
  
  
• Pyrokinetic is about setting as many things in the world on fire at once. You have a burning desire to set the world aflame, both friend and foe. When your not busy being the ultimate tool of destruction, you also use your burning intelligence to enhance yourself and allies through various means, such as making their weapons deal fire damage. A typical Pyro will wield a staff or 2 wands to enhance his personal arsonal of fire based attacks. A few examples of Pyro skills are Searing Daggers, which allows you to send 3 projectiles at varying (or the same) enemies and potentially lighting them on fire and Haste which makes the character move faster and gives additional Action Points per turn. Each point in Pyrokinetic increases fire damage by 5%. A typical pyro will stand fairly close to the battlefield, preferably from a high vantage point for bonus attack damag and will target as many enemies as possible with their area of effect attacks.
  
  
• Hydrosophist are calm, cool, and collected magic users who use the power of water to heal, shield, and aid their allies. They can also turn the tides on enemies, unleashing the devastating power of water to hinder, hit, and even freeze enemies in their tracks. A typical Hydro will wield a staff or a wand and shield for extra protection. A few examples of Hydro skills are Regeneration which heals a target's Vitality every turn for the duration of the skill and Hail Strike, which drops icicles from the sky in a triangle pattern to deal water damage to enemies and potentially chill or freeze them. Each point in Hydro increases water damage dealt, the amount of vitality healed, and the amount of magical armour regenerated by 5%. A typical Hydro tends to be in the middle of his allies, aiding when needed but providing much needed damage assistance and hinderance to his enemies.
  
  
• Aerotheurge commands the element of air and lightning at her fingertips. The clouds converge to unleash devastation to their enemies in commanding lightning attacks or they can use their own body chemistry to unleash electrivity from their fingertips. Such is the power of the Aerotheurge that enemies hit by their attacks become shocked or stunned. A typical Aero will wield a staff or 2 wands to enhance the devastation of her skills. A few examples of Aero skills are Electric Discharge, which shoots a bolt of electricity from your hand to an enemy, shocking them and Blinding Radiance, an aura of intense air and light that blinds enemies and deals damage around your character. Each point in Aero increases damage of Aero skills by 5%. A typical Aero requires enemies to be clumped together since many of their attacks will hit multiple enemies multiple times or be close to their enemies for the various auras around them.
  
  
• Geomancer are masters of the earth, using the power of soil and poison to stop enemies in their tracks and hinder them while their health steadily declines. With the power to manipulate mountains, you can change the terrain to benefit your allies and hinder your enemies or use that power to form protective armor around yourself or allies. An enemy that can barely move while poisoned is an enemy that will die before they ever reach you. A typical Geo will use a staff or a wand and shield to bolster their already formidable defenses. A few examples of Geo skills are Fossil Strike which launches a giant ball of oil to damage your enemies and create a puddle of oil which slows them and Poison Dart which launches a magical poison dart at an enemy. When it lands it creates a puddle of poison at their feet. Each point spend in Geo increases damage dealt by Geo skills by 5% and 5% more physical armor regenerated from skills and potions. A typical Geo will stand close to a Pyro, setting them up with oil puddles and enemies covered in oil to set them aflame.

Combat Abilities and Skills (Part 2)

• Summoning is the lost art of created allies out of thin air to temporarily add to your ranks in combat. A summoner can then bolster these allies with various types of magic and use that magic to aid their comrades or damage their enemies. The art of summoning is not about raw damage; its about overpowering your enemy with sheer numbers alone. A typical summoner will use a staff or 2 wands to bolster quasi-weak attack skills from summoning. A few examples of Summoning skills are: Conjure Incarnate which summons an impish figure in battle. Summoning them in various elements infuses them with that element. Summoning him in fire makes him a Fire Incarnate, giving him fire resistance and fire abilities. Another example is Elemental Totem, which can also be summoned in elements like the Incarnate. They cannot move and you cannot control them. They will attack varying enemies within their line of sight; however, you can summon one each turn, allowing you to start over powering your enemies with more numbers if they don't focus their attention on your summons. Each point spent in Summoning gives a 5% boost to your summons Vitality, Damage, and Armor stats. A typical summoner will be in the forward ranks behind the first line of defense so that their conjured allies can be a formidable second line of defense should you need it while also contributing to a great forward attack.
  
  
• Necromancer's use the power of the dead to empower the living, giving them formidable power in combat and magical skills. A necromancer will use and abuse corpses of your enemies and turn them against their former allies or they can use them to enhance the necromancer and his party. A typical Necromancer will use a staff or 2 wands to abuse the power of necromancy. A few example of Necromancer skills are Raise Bloated Corpse, which uses a fallen corpse on the battlefield and turns it into a bloated zombie, ready to detonate at any time at your command or Decaying Touch which deals damage and starts decaying your enemies so that when their allies try to heal them they take damage instead. Each point in Necromancer heals the Necromancer 10% of all direct damage dealt to enemies on all attacks. A typical necromancer will either be on the frontline with the first line of defense or in the middle using the power of death and decay to hamper and hinder enemies.
  
  
• Polymorph's have the inate ability to alter their forms into that of various animals and other forms. They then use these forms to directly benefit their already formidable combat abilities. A Polymorph is unlike other spellcasters in that they tend to focus on the raw power of strength rather than intelligence to focus their spells. As such, they make great first line of defense allies to throw at enemies. A typical Polymorph will use a physical damage weapon, preferably a melee weapon which uses strength properties like a sword or a mace. A few examples of Polymorph skills are Chicken Claw, which damage an enemy and temporarily turns them into a chicken and Tentacle Lash which turns your arm into a tentable to slap the opponent and disarm them of their weapon. Each point invested into Polymorph grants an additional attribute point to spend. A typical Polymorph will be in the thich of battle, using his formidable powers of transformation to enhance himself.

The remaining 7 give unique combat bonuses but do not have any skills associated with them.

• Single Handed increase damage and accuracy by 5% when only using a one handed weapon with or without a shield.
  
  
• Two-Handed increases damage and critical hit multipliyer by 5% when using a weapon that needs to be wielded by 2 hands.
  
  
• Ramged increased damage and critical hit change by 5% when using a ranged weapon like a bow or crossbow.
  
  
• Dual Wielding increases damage and dodge chance by 5% when using a 1 handed weapon in both hands.
  
  
• Retribution reflects 5% of all direct damage taken back to the attacker.
  
  
• Leadership adds 2% dodge and 3% resistance of all elemental types to all allies (except you).
  
  
• Perserverance gives 5% physica armour restored when recovering from being knocked down or petrified and 5% magical armor restored when recovering from being frozen or stunned.

There's a lot of Combat abilities to take in. We'll cover builds in a section below. For now, we'll keep Ifan in the 2 Combat abilities pre-assigned to our wizard preset, that of Geomancer and Pyrokinetic.

Character Creation - Skills

Skills in D:OS2 have 2 major factors in using them, asides how much damage they do and the elemental type. These 2 factors are Action Point Cost and Cooldown Time.

To see both, hover your mouse over the skill you want to learn more. A tooltip will appear with the anme of the skill, a short description of that skill, the elemental effects of the skill (if any), and the damage or effect of the skill when used. These are all very important to know when choosing the 3 skills to start off with. You don't want your wizard to only have support skills and have nothing left to offer damage to his foes. its important to read the tooltips of all the skills you learn to ensure you use it properly and in the most optimal environent.

An important lesson about skills is that they each have various Action Point (AP) cost, which are denoted by the Green Circle in the tooltips. A skill with 1 green circle means it costs 1 AP. You can then use your remaining AP to use more skills, attack with your weapon, move around, or a combination thereof. A skill with 4 AP will most likely result in the end of your turn as it uses all of the AP that are restored per round.

Some skills have a special Blue Diamond beside the AP cost. This blue diamond is called a Souce Point and is unlocked as you progress through the game. Before the end of Act 1 all your characters will be able to acquire source points and use source skills.

Ifan our wizard will use the following 3 skills in our character creation. Fossil Strike for creating oil puddles and area of affect damage, Searing Daggers to set multiple enemies aflame and detonate the oil puddles, and Ignition for the very low AP cost and cooldown time.

Character Creation - Talents, Tags, and Instruments

A talent in D:OS2 gives you a direct benefit to combat and non-combat abilities and skills. They can range from making your ranged attacks and spells have more range, such as the talent Far Out Man or the ability to talk to pets and animals with the talent Pet Pal.

Some talents are mutual exclusive to one another. For example, the talent Demon, which provides Fire Resistance at the cost of being weaker to water based attacks is incompatible with Ice King, which does the opposite. By selecting one, you are unable to select another at a future time.

There's a few major talents that need addressing. Glass Cannon makes your character start every turn with Maximum AP, meaning they can unleash a devastating amount of attacks every turn. However, there is a downside; their magical and physical armour will not protect the character from status effects that are normally negated by that armor. An example of this is being Knocked Down by Battle Stomp, a Warfare skill. Normally, being Knocked Down is resisted by having physical armor. As long as you have armor after the attack is finished, you have resisted being knocked down. A glass cannon character will ALWAYS be knocked down no matter their armor.

The other major talent of note is Lone Wolf, which gives major bonuses to your character, such as +2 max AP, +2 AP at the start of every round, +30 Vitality, +30 physical armour, +30 magic armour, x2 for every attribute and abilitiy point invested (except Polymorph and Civil Abilities). The downside is that you can only travel solo or at maximum with another companion. If there is more than one companion, you lose all bonuses.

The tags portion of Character Creation is intended for how NPCs will address your character. Are they barbaric, wanting to smash and kill everything that moves? Or perhaps descending from a noble family? The tags will determine this. Origin characters cannot have their tags changed.

The instruments will determine what instrument will play a dramatic flair in combat. It has literally no bearing on anything other than sound. If you play with your sound off or listen to music, it is meaningless. (I personally like the Oud).

Our character Ifen will chose the Far Out Man talent, which allows him to cast his spells from greater range and safety.

Playing The Game - The Map Elements and UI

So you've created your character and are in control after the opening cutscenes. You control your character around the map by left clicking on the map. This directs your character to that location. You cannot use WASD or the arrow keys to control your character. Since the game uses a top down perspective, it can become hard to see some corners of the map. By holding the middle mouse button you can rotate the camera to how you see fit.

You can use WASD to forcibly move the camera elsewhere to try and spy ahead of your current location. Some NPCs and items will not be visible until your character actually visits that location. To snap your camera back to your character, hit the HOME button on your keyboard. It will bring the camera focused back on your character and aligned northward on the compass.

There are a lot of items scattered around the map. You can highlight them by pressing the ALT button on your keyboard to make them visible. It will show the names of the items. You can then move your cursor over the name to see a short description, the weight, and the value of the items. You can also see if the item is owned by an NPC or is free to take. Free items have WHITE names while owned items have RED name. If you take an owned item NPCs will react negatively and can sometimes attack you.

To circumvent this, a character can sneak past NPCs to steal owned items. You can intiate sneak by pressing C on your keyboard. You'll turn into a map element (Barrel, Bush, Rock, etc) and sneak by NPCs. While sneaking you can see the NPC sightlines in shades of red. The DARK RED is what is visible to an NPC. If you attempt to sneak in the DARK RED you will be spotted. The LIGHT RED is the peripheral vision of the NPC. You can sneak in the LIGHT RED without being spotted. Almost every NPC in the game has sightlines. If you're not sneaking and want to see them, you can hold SHIFT. To pickpocket an NPC, get close to them without being in the DARK RED while sneaking and then left click. There will be a menu that pops up with 2 bars. The bars indicate the maximum weight of the sum of items stolen allowed to pickpocket and the maximum value of the sum of all items allowed to be pick pocketed. More points into Thievery means more weight and more value able to be stolen. If you get caught with your hands in someone's pockets, NPCs will react negatively towards you. If you successfully steal from someone's pockets, they'll soon realize that they are missing something and investigate the nearby area for about 10 seconds before giving up. If they find you, they'll question you and want you to prove you did not rob them. You can try and persuade them you are innocent, give up your stolen items, or attack them. The ultimate goal is to just not get caught.

To forcibly attack an NPC without being in combat or to break open a closed door or locked chest, you can hold CTRL. An attack indicator will change on screen. Clicking with CTRL held will attack at the location specified. NPCs generally don't take very kindly to being attacked and will fight back.

Pressing I (i) will bring up your inventory and character status. Items you pick up will appear in your inventory. Equippable items can be right clicked and then select Equip or simply dragged into the respective slot for the item in the Character Sheet. You will find ALOT of items. The autosort function is a way to keep things organized. You can sort it by Last Picked Up, Value, Weight, Durability, and Type. I personally prefer type since its easier to maintain.

Pressing K will bring up the skills window. You'll see all the skills you currently have learned on the left and all the skills you have currently memorized on the right. To use a skill, you have to have it memorized. The more points in memory you have, the more skills you can memorize, the more skills you can use in combat.

Pressing G will bring up the crafting window. Here you can combine random pieces to try and discover a new recipe or read crafting books found throughout the land to learn new recipes. Experiement and see what you can find.

Pressing M brings up the region map. You can zoom in and out with the middle mouse wheel. You'll eventually see there's different types of flags. A red flag is a quest location thats important, a yellow flag is a location that the game finds is important for you to know and a swirling saw blade thing is a waypoint shrine, which allows you to fast travel. You can also set your own flags by holding shift and left clicking on the map.

Pressing L brings up the journal. Unlike other games, D:OS2 won't hold your hand and tell you where to go with a direct path on the map to your location. The game rewards exploration and finding new secret things. The journal reflects this, being left vague enough to keep you guessing but providing you a general direction of where to go.

Your hotbar is at the bottom of the screen. You can assign skills and items to your hotbar. To change them around, click the lock icon thats at the bottom of the screen. If you don't want specific items on your hotbar, click and drag it out. They'll then disappear. Your item will still be in your inventory and the skill will still be memorized but they'll be taken off the hotbar. Note that any items that can be used will ALWAYS be added to your hotbar. There are mods that address this on steam.

To use a skill on your hotbar, press the actual skill with your mouse or the keyboard shortcut. Pressing a skill has your character primed to use it. A couple of things will happen. The game will become gray where you are unable to use the skill and have its natural colors where you have range. Another way to see if you are within range is moving the mouse around. If you move to the grey area, it will say "Target is too far". Some skills require direct line of sight, such as Searing Daggers. If you don't have direct line of sight to the enemy, the skill will be obstructed and fail to hit your target. You can determine if you have line of sight by seeing if the white line from your character to your mouse has a white continuous line. If its obstructed, it will say "Path is Interrupted" and you will fail to hit your target.

On the minimap itself, there's a blue anchor icon. This is the way you can fast travel. When you discover shrines you can instantly fast travel to them outside of combat. If you choose to flee in combat, you will fast travel to the closest shrine you have discovered.

When playing with others, you can get a players attention by something called Pinging. Press the yellow icon on the minimap or the \ key on your keyboard. You will then ping the in game map and the minimap for all other players.

Above the hotbar is your vitality (Health). Directly above that is your Magic Armor and Physical Armor. When you equip armor you will gain the two types of armor. We'll go over them in the combat section.

Some items cannot be found by holding the ALT button. Things like chests, barrels, containers, books, etc are lootable but won't be highlighte.d You can discover whats lootable by moving your cursor over things. If you can loot it, a GOLD CHEST icon will appear. Clicking on it will move your character to that item and loot it. Once its looted a SILVER CHEST will appear when you hover over that item, indicating its already been looted by you or another player. You can also move items by holding down left click and dragging it. Some secrets and puzzles can only be solved by moving map items around.

To talk to an NPC, hover your mouse over them. If you have a speech bubble icon it means you can speak to the NPC. If you have a sword or a bow icon, it means you will initiate hostile actions against them if you click on them.

Playing The Game - Looting & Weapons and Armour

Combat plays an important part of the game. Its a great way to test your skills against the NPC (or other players) in a turn based fiesta. Before you start launching your arrows and casting your spells, you need to understand how damage, weapons, and armour function.

There are 3 types of damage. Physical Damage, Magical Damage and Piercing Damage.

Physical Damage is resisted by Physical Armor. Magical Damage is resisted by Magical Armor. Piercing ignores armor and directly affects Vitality.

Typically, physical weapons like a sword and a bow will deal physical damage. Magical skills like Searing Daggers and Hail of Frost will deal magical damage. This is not always the case. Make sure you read the tooltips. If it has an elemental damage type, it will do magical damage. If it has physical damage in the tooltip, it will do physical damage.

There are 3 types of armor in the game. There's Strength Armor, Finesse Armor, and Intelligence Armor. Strength armor comes frontloaded with Physical Armor and a small amount of magical armor. They are made to absorb as much physical pain as possible but are vulnerable to magic with low magical armor. Intelligence Armor is the exact opposite, frontloaded magic armor, low physical armor. Finesse armor stirkes a happy medium between the two. To use those armor types you need to meet the attribute requirements. At the begining anyone can use them with an attribute restriction of 10 however as you progress you'll notice that armor types have more demanding attributes to use.

A few exceptions to the rule are shields, belts, and jewelry. Shields need a high constitution to use and will offer massive defense bonuses of both types. Belts will always offer physical defense while jewelry will always offer magical defense.

There's 5 different quality of items. From weakest to strongest, there's Common (white), Uncommon (green), Rare, (blue), Epic (purple), Legendary (deeper purple color). The better the quality, the more expensive it is to buy the item (and sell). There's also an additional item class called Unique which is better than any other items. They usually have a ton of bonuses and are stronger than legendaries of the same level.

A few ways to find new gear is to look for them in random loot sources and containers on the map, killing enemies (or non-hostile NPCs) for gear and gold, quest rewards, and trading for it with merchants. The most common method is dealing with merchants. They'll refresh their inventory every time you level or every hour. So if you jsut leveled up, go visit your merchants to see if you get any upgraded stuff if you have the coin.

Your armor does play an important role in the game. There's many status effects that are resisted by the fact that you have armor after the attack is resolved. Having little to no armor means you'll be getting hit by varying nasty statuses that can spell the end for your character. Weapons for physical damage characters are also equally important since their skills revolve around the amount of damage they deal with a basic attack. Weapons for spellcasters play less of an important role since their spells' damage are based on their character level and the amount of ability points invested in the skill.

On top of Physical and Magical armor is elemental resistances. There's 5 elements in the game: Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Poison. The more resistance you have, the less damage you take. 100% resistance means you take no damage from that element. Anything above 100% means you are healed by that element. Undead characters, for example, have 200% poison resistance.

Lastly, grenades are a simple and yet extremely effective way to control your enemies or the environent (or both). They can easily be found in the wildness, bought, or crafted.

Playing The Game - Combat

Combat can be considered the meat and potatoes of this game. Its my personal favorite aspect of it. Each time you initiate combat through whatever means, there's a few things that happen before anything is done.

The game will determine the turn order by evaluating everyone's initiative. Remember, initiative is determined by a character's Wit and gear. A high initiative means you will probably be one of the first ones to act while a lower iniative means you will be one of the last ones to act. At the same time, the game will determine if all allies are within combat or if there's any out of range. For example, if Ifan our Wizard is engaging an enemy but his ally Lohse was sneaking and not seen, she is not considered part of combat. She is free to do as she pleases as long as she isn't seen by any of the DARK OR LIGHT RED sight lines of the enemies. Even if Ifan and the enemies are in the throws of combat, she can sneak up behind someone and use a skill for free on any enemy or ally. Once she does, she'll enter combat and be placed last for this turn order. At the start of the next round, the iniative is re-evaluated to find her place in the turn order.

Using sneak is very advantageous for character that rely on height advantage such as rangers or even some spellcasters. Have your melee character engage enemies while your more fragile ones find better vantage points.

Ifan our Wizard has a high initiative and is the first to go in combat. At the top of the screen, you will see the turn order. Ifan will be the furthest on the left meaning its his turn to act. The portait of all the combatants will be displayed to the right of him, friend and foe alike. Its important to know when your allies are going next to strategize how you want to place your characters. You don't want your mage to get stuck in the front line facing trolls and dragons.

In the same display at the top of the screen, you'll know a round ends when you see the SILVER RECTANGULAR OBJECT in the turn order. This means its been the end of 1 turn for everyone. Turn 2 then starts.

To put it in a simple way:

Combat Start - Turn 1 > Evaluate Combatants > Evaluate Initiative > Combatants Act > End of Turn 1 > Evaluate Combatants (check for new actors) > Evaluate Initiative > Combatants Act

This goes on until you are successful or defeated (or run away).

During Ifan's turn he can move, cast a spell, attack with his weapon, or run away. Everything but running away costs AP. An attack with a weapon will (almost) always cost 2 AP. Movement will always cost 1 AP but the amount of movement available per AP is dependent on the environment and your abilities. The further away you move from your current position, the more AP it costs. Skills have varying AP costs denoted in their tooltips.

Its Ifan's first turn in combat and he has 4 AP. If Ifan casts Searing Daggers, it costs 2 AP. He can only move 2 AP's worth of space or casts a spell that's 2 AP or less or attack with his weapon (unarmed at this time). Alternatively, he can bank his remaining 2 AP to use the next turn.

Ifan our wizard only has access to 3 spells. He currently has no weapons so he can only deal magical damage with his spells or attack with his fists which would deal physical damage. If he encounters an enemy that has a lot of magical armor, his spells would have to burn through all the magical armor before affected the character's vitality. At the same time, spells with special effects like Searing Daggers that cause burning are resisted by magical armor. Always try to target your enemies' weaknesses. If there are multiple enemies and Ifan is with Lohse the Barbarian fighter, Ifan should target those with weak or low magical armor while Lohse targets those with weak or no physical armor. Always play to your characters strengths and enemies' weaknesses.

If you have spells of multiple elemental types, you can view the enemy's resistance with a high enough Loremaster Civil Abilility. On your turn, you can right click and then examine the enemy. You can view their resistances and determine the type of attack you want to use. You wouldn't want to use a poison ability on an undead, for example, since that will simply heal them.

A proper elementalist will always look at his enemy's magical armor, his enemy's weakness and determine the best course of action. A proper physical damage dealer will try and incapacitate the enemies with the lowest physical armor or outright kill them.

On top of everything listed spells will hit friendly allies UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. That means that your pyro will set his allies on fire if he's not careful. The last thing you want to do is kill someone due to friendly fire. Always be careful of your casting. If its an area of effect spell, the people that will be effected will always be highlighted.

Playing The Game - Advanced Combat

So you've got a grasp of the combat mechanics. Lets move on to some more advanced methods of dealing death.

Most encounters will have high ground and low ground. Always try to preposition yourself so that your ranged characters, especially your rangers or bow wielders don't start combat. When combat is started they can position themselves properly in sneak and then initiate a free attack from sneak to enter combat from the high ground. This becomes more and more important as the game progresses and the enemies have access to more powerful skills and weapons.

Ground surfaces play a big role in D:OS2. They include but are not limited to: Oil, Fire, Water, Blood, Poison, Electric Water, Electric Blood, Smoke Cloud, and many many more. Each has a unique effect and can be directly manipulated in some way to your benefit or detriment. In game you can view the direct effect a ground element has by putting your cursor over it. For example, putting your cursor over blood on the ground will show "Can be Electrified or Frozen". Electrified Blood can then shock or stun enemies. Frozen blood can cause enemies to slip and fall, becoming knocked down and missing their turn. This directly bypasses armor resistance.

Other elements, like burning or poison elements on the ground do not bypass armor resistance. Huntsman can use ground elements to enhance their attacks by using the skill Elemental Arrows. It is very powerful, especially from the high ground. Elementalist mages can manipulate the elements to turn a battlefield full of oil into a flaming inferno. Then can make it rain from the sky, getting every enemy damp and then electrocuting them for enhanced damage.

There's a large number of different elemental ground combos you can do. The best way to educate yourself is to hover over the ground to examine what it does and examining enemies' status effects to learn the resistances.

Each and every character should have at least one "Escape" skill. There's 3 direct escape skills in the game. Tactical Retreat (Huntsman 2), Pheonix Dive (Warfare 2), and Cloak & Dagger (Scoundrel 2). It is very important to have an escape since you don't want to be trapped without an alternative. Contrary to the old saying, a trapped and flanked character is not at their most dangerous.

Speaking of flanked, when there's 2 or more characters attacking the same enemy from various sides they get a reduced change to dodge by 10% automatically. This also applies to enemies flanking your characters. An escape is always handy. Learn to love them. Of particular note is the Tactical Retreat for the Huntsman, which also applies Haste to your character.

On the same topic of escapes, a forced movement skill is always handy. Whether its about moving someone away from your squishy mages or trying to group as many enemies as possible for massive AoE damage, spells like Teleport (Aero 2) are invaluable help.

Leveling Up

Leveling up is a relatively simple thing. Its not a new thing for RPGs to feature level systems, especially the type of RPG that uses this kind of system that Divinity: Original Sin 2 uses. Killing enemies grants your character experience points. After so many points, your character has earned enough experience to grow and become stronger.

Every time your character gains a level, they gain a guaranteed 2 attribute points to spend as well as a combat ability point to use however you see fit. Know that the highest level spells will require a minimum of 5 points in that combat skill to use.

You gain your first civil point at level 1, during character creation. Afterwards, you gain an extra civil point at the following levels: 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, 30, 34. You can simply say that after level 2, you gain a civil point every 4 levels.

You gain your first talent point at level 1, during character creation. Afterwards, you gain an extra talent point at the following levels: 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 28, 33. You can simply say that after level 3, you gain a talent point every 5 levels.

Knowing this, its wise to spend your points in a way that will directly benefit your character and max out certain civil abilities. One person can max out thievery and sneaking while another loremaster and bartering, etc.

Mods

Mods are addons that are user-created that modify the game in specific ways. Some mods have very specific goals in mind when created, directly altering only one specific aspect of the game. Other mods are very broad in scope, trying to affect a large portion of the game in minimal ways.

Using mods in Divinity: Original Sin 2 is not against the terms of use for the game. Its actively promoted on the menu screen that there are mods enabled. You can also use mods in multiplayer games. Some of them only the host of the game needs while others need every player to have them downloaded and enabled. The details should be listed on the mods page. Know that if you do choose to play the game with mods that your achievements will be disabled.

There are 2 prime areas to download mods for the game. The Steam Workshop is the easiest of the two if you are using the steam version of the game. The Nexus page (https://www.nexusmods.com/divinityoriginalsin2/?) is used as an alternate way to upload mods. Its also the only way for those using non-steam versions of the game to acquire them.

If you are using the steam workshop, its pretty easy to download them. Head on over to the workshop area for the game and browse the selection of mods that they have. There are multiple ways to get there but my favorite method is going to your library and clicking on the workshop link from there. Once you do so, you'll be able to view all the different addons created for the game itself.

At the time of writing, there are 300+ mods created for the game, all of which (to the author's knowledge) are community created by other players. Browse and explore the selection of mods listed there.

If you want to browse the nexus, you'll need to manually install your mods. The mods listed on the nexus will detail 1 of 2 possible installation scenarios.

The first and simplest installation is to simply unzip the mod into the following location: Documents\Larian Studios\Divinity Original Sin 2\Mods (if its not already created, simply launch the game for the first time and it will be automatically created).

The second method of installation requires you to unzip the mod into the installation folder of your game (steamapps\common\Divinity Original Sin 2\Public)

Once you have the selection of mods you want installed you need to enable them in game. On the main menu go over to the Mods page. You'll need to manually check off the mods you want enabled for your game.

Note that since mods are community created and alter gameplay, bugs can and will happen. Check out the discussion and comments pages on the steam workshop and the nexus to see the bugs reported by other players.

In Conclusion

There's a lot going on with this game. When I first played it on release there was a lot of questions I had, especially regarding spells and magic armor as well as different environment effects. I have about 100 hours into since then and I'm still learning new things. Finding new secrets I didn't know.

The most fun I've had is doing a lone wolf build with a friend. A ranger and an elementalist mage. Setting the world on fire and sniping the survivors.

Its a fun game to play, even more fun and chaotic in multiplayer. I've had a lot of interesting moments in testing out new builds and playing around with skills. Things I thought were useless like Arrow Spray have an amazing use when used properly. Things I thought were originally OP like Pyrokinetic have been replaced with bigger and better Magic Abilities like Hydro and Aero.

I'm 100 hours in and don't plan on stopping. Gonna keep it going on tactician and test out some mods like 2x enemy spawns.

(thoughtles plug) If you're looking for a long-term multiplayer partner hit me up. I clearly like this game to write this guide and the playtime I have and want to keep playing it. Would love to play it with a bunch of friends both current and new.

I'm 100% there's some mistakes in here. I'm not perfect. Feel free to correct them in the comments and I'll fix it.

Things to add: leveling your character, some character builds that I've personally tested.

Guide Version: Added Leveling Up & Mods Section, added missed item class and grenades, general formatting changes.
Previous Version: 1.0 (creation)

[Gideon]

Great guide

[gotico gordo]

how does quests works? i am confused, they never leave the map with the flag pins and i never know if a quest is finished or not, the journal is really annoying to understand

[ChrisTiaN_mGo]

Great guide!
It would be perfect if you could add some screenshots to make it even easier to understand

[certified circumscribed]

this guide rocks, appreciate the time and thought you've put into it, thinking about reinstalling and you've convinced me, thank you !

[MajorDeath87]

Awesome Guide!!!! i wouldnt mind playing with you. im completely new and havent played this game before and am looking for some people to play with..

[JcbRap]

Thanks! great guide

[j0tesy]

Great guide :)

[Happyteddybear]

great guide

[abaoabao2010]

I'd like to point out that warfare spells are less about physical damage and more about knockdown, compared to necromancy and huntsman spells.

[Naked Razor]

It helped me understanding many things. Thnks Dude