Top Tips for Beginners - Definitive Edition

There are literally more guides for this game than you could throw a stone at, so I am not going to attempt to do a overly technical `Uber mega perfect party for face rolling` sort of guide as I don't want to retread old ground.

Although there are alot of technical elements to combat and character building I thought I would share some of the more devious ideas for dominating your enemies.

I hope this helps :)

More to come as I think of it. I need to finish the mission with the eggs. Man, I love that one, it cracks me up.


Monkeydude

A Handy idea..

Always think laterally

The most useful item in the game will come to you relatively early once you begin exploring Fort Joy. Although humble, they are literally priceless.

The Gloves of Teleportation have a relatively low defensive score, but will last you all game long.



Can you see a nice chest across a ravine?

Teleport it to you

Want to make a short cut?

Teleport everyone in your party across a river or ravine etc, go into your inventory, right click on the gloves and send them to whomever. Switch control to that character, equip the gloves and teleport the straggler to you.

Later on you will find some items that will allow you even more opportunities for getting round problems :)
Seen a pack of ne'er do wells? Want to start combat on your terms?

Firstly make sure you goto the Formation menu (Escape>Formation) and untick `use positions at the start of combat`

Unchain your party by dragging their portraits away from each other until they are four seperate portraits, not in one block. Press F1-F4 in turn to switch control, press C to put them in sneak and then you are ready to go.




Be aware of the enemies sight cones, which are shown in red. Get everyone up high if possible but if you can only get one party member make sure it is your ranged character. If they have points invested in Huntsman then they will get a bonus to attack for being on high ground.

When you are happy with your set up switch control to the character with the gloves. Pick the closest enemy and drop them right into the centre point of your ambush. They will suffer some fall damage from the landing and then the fun will ensue :)



That is just the start however. If like me you collect the various elemental barrels (oil, poison, fire etc) then why not drop one out of your inventory and then teleport it right onto your foes head?

Follow up with a fire arrow or grenade when you can for all sorts of explosive fun >:)

Getting a bit too up close and personal?

Having one of those `why wont this asshat die moments`? Teleport him/her/it it as far away as possible, preferably into a puddle of posion. If there aren't any nasty sufaces handy then pick a point with the cursor as near to another enemy as possible. He/she/it will suffer falling damage and the poor sap on the ground will suffer impact damage. Two birds, one stone (well.. sort of).

Heal up, refresh your buffs and make 'em work for it :)

Brave Sir Robin ran away..

Last, but by no means least. Did you get jumped by a sneaky Assassin? Got yourself in a bit of a pickle? If you have a character or characters in a bad situation then you can use the gloves to relocate them. A slight bump on the posterier is better than getting flanked or gently roasted in Necrofire any day.

(There are self escape options once you level up and access them, but never underestimate the gloves.)

Because I got High...

I was gonna clean my room
Until I got high
I was gonna get up and find the broom
But then I got high...

Someting that you may miss unless you pay attention is the use of the oh so handy Drudnae Pipe in Effies Emporium.


There are several recipes as follows:

Alertness Herbmix : Puffball + Drudanae, Wits +6

Enlightenment Herbmix : Calocera + Drudanae, Int +6

Ferocity Herbmix : Augmentor + Drudanae, Starting AP + 2, AP Recovery +2

Courage Herbmix : Farhangite + Drudanae, Constitution + 8


If you are willing to be a test subject then you may want to go talk to Grebb in the Driftwood Fishery.
As a reward you will get several recipes for potent Herbmixes. The normal recipes will last for 50 turns and the potent versions for 100 turns.





This is perfect if you have a difficult fight ahead or are retrying a failed one.
SImply drop a teleporter pyramid near the fight location, Waypoint travel to the emporium and have a quick smoke, then travel back :P

Combat 101

Just some tips to make things easier :)

Keep an eye out for red dots on your minimap as this will show hostiles in the vicinity. Send someone out scouting and look for a way to set an ambush on your terms. Much pleasure can be had by surprising a bandit from the rear. Ok, that sounded better in my head.

Don't be shy of popping some point in wits. This will affect your Initiative score, which determines where you will be placed in the queue at the top of the screen when combat starts.

You can put your Basic attack onto the quick bar. Just press X to expand the Actions button and drag it to the bar. This is useful if you want to precisely target an opponent. Rather than try to click them in the middle of a huge fight with smoke, poison clouds, flames etc just target the enemy on the combat queue. No more missed opportunites, or accidentally moving instead of attacking (cough, who me?)

This can also be done with any attack, spell etc and is very handy for ranged characters to determine who is in range and whether the shot is blocked. Also using party member portraits for buffs etc is much more precise.

If you are attempting to use a ranged AOE attack such as Impalement and you get the `Target is too far` or `path is interrputed` messages you may still be able to hit your enemies. Just use CTRL + the attack to force target on the ground and you may still be able to hit them if they are within the circle showing the area covered by the attack.




Run out of healing potions one party member? As long as you are close enough just open the inventory and you can eat, drink or consume any healing items, potions or food. Sharing is caring :)



Once you start getting elemental reactions going you may find it hard to see what is what through the fire, smoke, rain and poison. Pressing the `Tilde` key (found next to Number 1) will put outlines around all the characters on the battlefield so you can tell friend from foe and see just what the heck is going on :)





Lastly and most importantly. Find or steal a bedroll. Pop it onto your quickbar and use it whenever you have taken a beating or even some minor damage. Who needs to stay at a fancy, schmancy Inn?

Divide and Conquer

One very sneaky idea if you have failed a fight due to getting overwhelmed is to try the ol' `Teleport Kidnap` move.

In this picture you can see I have teleported an Eternal Guardian up onto the overlook and can now face him 6 vs 1 (I conjured the Eternal Champion, then the Bone Widow and then got Beast to drop the Guardian smack into the middle of my party).

This isn't 100% guaranteed to work as some enemies will either move back towards the other bad guys and then trigger them into combat. The same can happen if you accidentally set off an AOE spell within their detection radius. But with a little patcience an epic fail can turn into a cakewalk if you pick them off peicemeal.



This means you get the first hit in from the fall damage and it also leaves your enemy flanked which means they have -10% dodge for each allied character around them.

A brilliant source skill you can use is called `Vacuum Aura` which can silence and suffocate any enemies in radius. This makes them lose Magic Armour every round and leaves them unable to cast spells.

Hardly seems fair does it? Muahahhahahah....

It's my party...

I would recommend trying to have a wide range of skills spread across your party. Personally I feel you should have one who is an expert in theiving, one who is your `smooth talker` with maximum Persuasion and so on. Being able to talk your way past someone can save you alot of headaches or unnessecary fights and there will always be plenty of locks to pick.

The same goes for elemental skills and buffs. It is all very well to have a dedicated healer, but if they get knocked out of the fight then that can cause issues. One point in Huntsman or Hydrosphist can give everyone a healing skill (Either First Aid or Restoration). If everyone has both these skills you can deal with Posioned, Bleeding, Knocked Down, Blind, Silenced, Burning or Diseased pretty much as needed.

Also, dont underestimate Fortify (one point in Geomancer) that repairs physical armor, stops you being teleported and removes Posioned, Bleeding, Burning, Acid and Decaying. The last of those is the most deadly as it nullifies healing and makes you lose HP if you accidentally heal a party member under that status. (Who, me? nooooohh.. never done that, cough)

Talking of Healing don't forget to have some quality crafting time every now and then. With all the books you have been reading you should know plenty of recipes for food, drink and potions by now. never underestimate a good Dwarven Stew mid fight to give you the edge :) If you take the `Five Star Diner Perk` then eating and using potions will be twice as effective.

There are plenty of campfires and stoves spread across the land, so take five, make some Rivellon Fries, have a glass of wine and kick back for a while :)

Looting Rules.

Pick up everyting you can get your filthy paws on.

There, that is the rule.

You never know what might come in handy. If you can't sell it you can probably craft with it. Pick up and read EVERY book, pamphlet and note you can find, steal or otherwise aquire.

There might be solutions to quests, quests themselves or handy recipes to learn.

Look at all these possilities !



Pro Tip : try crafting two spellbooks from different magical schools together. You never know what you might make :P

Oh if I could talk to the Animals...

Pet Pal. Just do it

This talent is priceless. You can pick up quests, get tips about seemingly impossible situations and most importantly take part in some of the funniest and off the wall dialogue you will ever have the pleasure of reading in a RPG.

Minor spoiler alert. The following picture contains fowl language..



Anyway, moving swiftly on...

Ohhh, a little Respec...

Have you got the nasty feeling you may have messed up your build? Fear not Dear Adventurer.

Once you get aboard the Lady Vengeance you will find a Magic Mirror on the lower deck. Go ahead and change your Apperance, Attributes, Abilities and Talents as you see fit.

Now you can get a haircut, a Tan and MAKE YOUR ENEMIES TREMBLE AT YOUR SHADOW !! MUAHAHHAHAHAH.

Talent Show

There are literlly more talents than you could throw an over excited Badger at and everyone has their favourites. I am going to list the ones than personally have made a big difference in terms of survivability and ending fights quickly and cleanly.

Comeback Kid

Okay, you are going to die. Alot. Get over it. Comeback kid will allow your to resist a fatal blow once per combat and bounce back to 20% health.



Five Star Diner

Extend the usefulness of food and potions.Considering how fast all those bottles and yummy items can stack up in weight this talent is er worth its weight...





Opportunist

Attacks of opportunity can bring a foe to their knees and don't even cost you any AP. Win/WIn. Go on, I dare you to move past me, Bwahahahah >:)



Savage Sortelige

This gives your all your magical skills the ability to critically hit based on your critical hit score. Very handy as there are alot of magic skills in the game, so why waste the chance of doing more damage?



Torturer

One thing that is guaranteed to mess your day up is attacking a foe only for your attack to make a teeny weeny dent in their armor, or be resisted completely. This talent is perfect for stacking status effects while you laugh at their pathetic attempts to deny your glorious will !

[Eyezik <3 vio.io]

This is extremely helpful! Thank you!