Ironman Crossbow Lore Assassin

All of the lore. All of the killing. None of the dying.

Latest Patch Note

This guide is not updated for the latest patch, which significantly changes the skill awards and costs. This guide is still a good rough path, but you may not be able to afford all of the skill choices when the guide recommends them. I will hopefully update this guide soon (once I'm convinced the developers won't change the skill points again...).

Introduction

The following build/route is by far the safest, most dominant max-lore hybrid build in the game.

This guide is not meant for a first playthrough. For new players who want some general guidance with fewer spoilers, I recommend you start with my Melee Hybrid Guide and explore on your own.

Through Teron, I make this build as Ironman safe as possible and do every single combat possible just to prove a point (except Flavius, because that would require missing lore). As a consequence, I miss out on some minor SP boosts such as Amelous' quest, tricking the noblewoman, and tricking the hobos in the tower. The same build that doesn't insist on killing everyone at the mines and the bandit camp can get those bonus SP easily while still sailing through Teron.

I died 0 times in the making of this guide and the route is very consistent, but it's still relatively easy to die in some fights if you get lazy, resist using item resources, or accidentally trigger a difficult fight before the guide takes you there.

The guide is mostly finished through the beginning of Ganezzar and Al-Akia. I will hopefully finish the guide soonish - but it already describes all the important skill/build/route decisions. All other end game content is very easily completed in multiple ways with the character the guide leaves you with.

Character Build - Assassin

Create an assassin with the following stats:

4 strength
10 dexterity
6 constitution
8 perception
8 intelligence
4 charisma

Initial Skills:

• Crossbow 4
  
• Dodge 3

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=863039206

Stat explanations chock full of spoilers:

Constitution You need 7 constitution to become a God, to blow up Maadoran without dying, to survive Balzaar's chair by pure stats, and to defeat Meru-Balzaar if siding with Agathoth. We start with only 6, but will raise it to 7 with the ancient healing machine.

Intelligence You can really get away with 7 intelligence. 7 intelligence is more or less necessary for all the stuff described in the constitution spoiler above as well as to explore the Abyss in the first place. 8 intelligence unlocks the minor quest A Grain for Truth, allows you to get the Kingmaker achievement, and allows you to blow up Infarie without the demon's help.

Perception 8 perception is a must to become a God, as without it the player cannot obtain the necessary surgical tools. It also has to be 8 (or 7 with Feng's training) to explore the Abyss.

First Quest and Looting Teron

Talk to alchemy guy for a free alchemy level. Brew some poison. Throw it on your hand crossbow. Put the loaded crossbow and the net into your beltbag.

Once at the Inn, take a shot with the equipped crossbow, then switch to your hand crossbow and just spam normal attack (use net if you're paranoid, but that shouldn't be necessary).

After you complete the mission, don't go to Feng right away as we can't currently afford him and a room at the Inn. Instead, go to the Inn, talk to the story teller, and ask all questions.

• Lockpick 4
  
• Sneak 3

Rent a room, loot all of the Inn (except chest on top floor where you detect a trap), don't worry if you get caught sneaking. After you loot top floor,

• Sneak 4

and loot the last room on the bottom floor (we do it in this order so that we spend civil points on sneak 4 instead of general skill points).

Climb on Feng's roof. Sneak into his room for lore and lockpick training (which will be converted into skill points).

Sneak into the blacksmith's shop through the back window and explore thoroughly (i.e., examine craft table, lockpick chest, find ingots in backroom).

Go to the graveyard by the barracks and search a corpse for climbing gear.

Now go back to Feng and exhaust his dialogue, then go back to the Inn and take Cassius to Antidas instead of killing him. Talk to Dellar, get his sidequests, then talk to him again and ask to see Cassius.

Exhaust all of Cassius' dialogue to receive training and the "A Grain of Truth" quest. NOTE: If you have the exact stats the guide recommends and Cassius won't give you the quest, you probably neglected to talk to the storyteller at the Inn. Go to the Inn now, talk to the storyteller, then return to Cassius and you should get the quest.

Crafting Your Arsenal

• Crafting 4

Go to the blacksmith, sell all your loot to him (including your heavy, useless ropes but excepting any items made from Iron), and buy 8 pieces of lumber and all of his standard and barbed missiles. Then buy the following schematics: Standard Crossbow, Missiles, Light Armor.

Craft 4 hand crossbows with masterwork and mechanical upgrade as well as an Iron Manica with upgrades. Note: We'll craft a helmet later once we have more money.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=863039229

2nd Assassin Quest

Go back to the guild, talk to Flavio outside the guild for +15 THC for ranged!!!

Agree to kill next targets. Make a poison vial, throw it on a crossbow. Load all crossbows with barbed arrows. If low on health, craft one or two healing salves as needed.

• Crossbow 5

Enter house, shoot everybody. If they get knocked to the floor, shoot their head. Otherwise, just normal shots. You can switch between your 4 bows for more initial shots, though it's not really necessary in this fight, it does help get an early lead in some tough fights.

Find the reports, leave the house, get level 3 critical strike as part of your reward.

Infiltrate the Palace

• Etiquette 3

Confirm your stats look like the below picture and that you have the climbing hook from the graveyard.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=863048773

Go towards the palace and look for an alternate way in.

Infiltrating the Palace:

• Climb the wall,
  
• Sneak into the guard house,
  
• Loot the stuff from the back of the guard house,
  
• Sneak outside to the right,
  
• Explore the tower, stab the sleeping guard, then go back down the stairs,
  
• Go to the east side of the compound,
  
• Climb to the roof,
  
• Stab the guard,
  
• Drop into the bedroom,
  
• Sneak from the guard into the room on the right,
  
• Explore the displays,
  
• Don't roll under the gate,
  
• Get the scroll.

Finally, give Antidas the map and use the etiquette check to survive his wrath.

Preparing for Antidas' Sidequests

There is an easy way to do both these quests. For the mine, sneak in, take power tube, and leave. For the bandit camp, go there to negotiate, return to Dellar, tell him there are too many to fight, then pass a perception check for them to go clear out the camp easily.

I recommend the easy way. But just to prove that it can be done, I will walk you through killing everyone in both places (the hard way).

First, sneak through the window of the house to the left on the way to the Palace for 1 extra SP.

That gave me exactly enough SP to do the following:

• Alchemy 6
  
• Crossbow 6

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=863048784

Craft some stronger poison with better alchemy, then wander around Teron collecting plants and killing whomever you like - except for the shady arms dealer; For maximum Ironman safety, I'd leave him alone until after Antidas Sidequests (but you can definitely win that fight now pretty safely if you try-hard).

Clearing the Mines

Talk to any merchant in the square and ask if they know who is supplying the mines. Go to the man they describe in shanty town, pay him (not body count check) to take poison wine, and then pass the alchemy check.

Craft a bunch of extra regular missles. I use regular missiles the vast majority the time and use AIM: Torso when necessary to get through tough armor. I use barbed missiles on light armor and headshots when I'm not too lazy to switch from normal missiles. I find piercing missiles to have little benefit.

At the mines, approach the first guard to critical strike him. Then shoot everyone til they die (remember to use and spread poison). Don't worry about repairing the mine, the rewards aren't worth losing the power module anyway.

Clearing the Bandit Camp

This is one of the most dangerous fights in the game for this run (and all hybrid runs - though it's easy enough with this build if you don't care about reloading). With the goal of never dying, we will over prepare. Go to the alchemy merchant and buy up all the blackpowder, quicksilver root, oil pots, kadura leaves, and emoryl root. Go to the other merchants and buy up all nets and bolas.

Brew an extended neurostimulant, 5 liquid fire vials, 4 bombs, and refresh the poison on a couple of crossbows. All of this is incredible overkill, as I can fairly consistently win the fight with just the extended neurostimulant. But all of these tools are useful for tough fights, so if you can't win or think I'm lying when I say this route is Ironman safe, realize that you have all these powerful tools at your disposal.

• Crossbow 7

Go to the bandit camp. I find the archers to be the biggest problem. So rather than level critical strike to 4 to assassinate the bandit leader, I prefer to position myself between the two archers and kill them first (press spacebar to initiate the fight).

After they're dead, harvest all the plants in the area then free the prisoner.

Miltiades

Our last remaining Teron sidequest is the famous Miltiades - the shady merchant who offers to sell you discount weapons.

This a very challenging fight if you wander into it early and the source of a lot of frustration for new players. But if you've been following this guide, the fight should be trivial at this point. Use the various potions, bombs, or nets discussed above if necessary, but you should be fine just shooting people in their face. You get better rewards if you scare off the nobleman in the 2nd fight, but just to prove I can murder everybody, I do so (his fight is actually a little tougher than the first fight; run into the doorway with the chest, and/or use a fire vial if necessary).

After the fights, go talk to Miltiades hanging out by Feng's house. Let him live for more shenanigans later.

End of Teron Choices

If you've followed my exact steps, your character should look like the following:


http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=850031566


With the final assassin quest, you can choose to either stay loyal to the assassins or betray them and join the Imperial Guard. Either way, you can then choose to become an Aurelian Praetor upon reaching Maadoran.

I recommend you make a hard save here so that you can come back to play the other paths if you so choose.

This guide will follow the assassin into praetor path in order to unlock the Tomb of Darius (for maximum lore), but it will first briefly discuss going IG.

Imperial Guard (guide does not follow this route)

Side with Carrinas. Assassinate the first 2 guys with the dialogue option, use an extended neurostimulant plus bomb(s) plus headshots with multiple crossbows on Lucius for maximum ironman safety.

After winning the fight, increase Persuasion to 4 if you want to become a Kingmaker in the subsequent dialogues.

Loyal Assassin

Spread poison around. Remember to use a combination of regular shots, Aim torso, and Aim head as necessary. You can use a fire vial if you get surrounded or want to make extra sure to save Coltan. For final fight, use net and/or bomb on the Centurion if you have trouble keeping Neleos alive (which really varies based upon RNG of Neleos and his opponent).

Maadoran First Steps - Assassin into Praetor Route

Welcome to the city. My character looked like this upon arrival:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=850041544

At this point the guide will stop telling you to kill everyone - this is a hybrid character afterall, so I want to occassionaly use some of those dialogue checks we'll be unlocking. But, this character is definitely able to kill everyone if that is your thing.

To begin your Maadoran adventure, go to the Inn and challenge the spear dude. Use a bomb on him, shoot him in head, take his awesome blue steel stuff. SIDENOTE: Make sure to periodically store extra metal/gear you might want save at the chest in the Inn. With such low strength, we don't have much carrying capacity.

Go to the Assassin's guild in the Trade district. Accept the first quest. Talk to Hamza and the dude next to him for some sweet free training. But do not begin the quest! If we actually do the quest now, we can't join with Gaelius.

Go talk with Abukar and get him to tell you where the Library of Soross is.

Go talk with Domitius, whose house is above the arena. This will lead you to Gaelius, pledge yourself to him. He will send you to Darius' tomb (but we're not going there yet).

• Persuasion 3
  
• Lore 7

The Well in the Slums

Go to the slums, do whatever you like with the mob, talk with the kid at the slums' entrance and agree to deliver his package.

In the slums, do not accept the bum's offer (unless you feel like it). Do not walk west unless you want some tough fights we're not really ready for yet (though they're winnable with effort/reloads).

Instead, head south towards a well and talk to the dude next to it. Explore the well. Don't grab the bag unless you want to die. Once back at the surface, pay the dude 100 gold to get +1 word of honor, then head twoards to the Abyss. Just pay the 200 to Mehrab for convenience, although you are fully capable of killing the gang if you back into a corner and/or use fire vials to keep them off you.

The Abyss

Explore the Abyss! Use the breathing apparatus when prompted, everything else is up to you.

• Lore 8

Explore the room. Power up two machines for some interesting reading, but then power down the last machine. Unless.. you want to blow up Maadoran, in which case leave for now- you need 7 constitution to survive powering it up (which we will get a bit later in the run), and it will permanently make Maadoran inaccessible. I only really ever do it for the Burn the World achievement.

We've now accomplished the most important Lore tasks in Maadoran (we still need to get the mechanical eye from the Temple district, but we'll be doing that later). Time to explore the world a bit.

LIbrary, Darius' Tomb, More Maadoran

Library of Soross

Kill the prospector. Explore all of the library. This will open up new map locations. We will have to come back later to repair the generator.

Darius Tomb

Explore the tomb. Ask the raiders to help you push the door open. When you find the coffin, tell the raiders the gold is the two "chests." Finish off the dregs - use a fire vial if things get sketchy. Before you leave, take all the bandits' loot from the back.

Return to Gaelius in the Palace district. Lie to him and keep the helmet (for more Lore later).

Before you leave the palace district, explore the bath house to get some free rock oil and SP.

Then talk with Caius Amerius, listen to his story, tell him that you're a busy man and will only help for a reward. Agree to help, tell the people in his house to be reasonable, agree to find the power armor, then tell Caius you're working on it.

Then walk a little to the left and enter the rug shop. Talk to the owner to get a quest.

Persuasion 5
Streetwise 5

Finally, go back to Abukar and talk to him about the generator.

We're all done in Maadoran again for a bit, but before we leave sell all your loot and store whatever heavy things you don't want to part with at the Inn. (But make sure to keep the rope with grappling hook).

Libary Again, Inferiae, Tower of Zamedi, Mountain Facility

Return the library, fix generator, find hidden room behind the elevator, get the surgical kit.

Inferiae

Talk to the old lady. Say whatever you want, but make sure you get thrown into the pit. Don't resist when they take you there. If you really want to murder them all in direct combat, come back later when you have more dodge and/or the power armor.

Once in the pit... go have a pleasant chat with the nice demon! Exhaust all of his dialogue to fry the villagers above and (more important) learn how to use the ancient computers!! You can now read a lot of extra neat lore from all the ancient computers you find!

Before going through the portal, go back to the entrance and repeatedly throw your grappling hook until you can climb out for some bonus SP. Loot the old lady for a couple of potions, then go back down the well.

• Crossbow 8

Now we're going to kill the nice demon and take his heart. Make sure you have at least 3 fire vials. Stand one square away from the demon, press space bar, throw a fire vial directly on him. He is now trapped until the fire wears off. Spam arrows into him, reapplying fire as necessary.

With the demon heart in your possession, head through the Portal. Once in the tower, take the large power module next to it, grab the ghost hand from the floor, read the message on the wall, and leave. (For ever so slightly more lore, get the Mechanical Eye before coming here. This requires going to the Temple area earlier, which I avoided for Ironman purposes and simplicity because of a somewhat tough Miltiades fight and an as-yet unfinished assassin quest which prevents us from going to the temple district).

Tower of Zamedi and Mountain Facility

Go in the tower, make nice with the Demon. Loot all the stuff to find the Nullifer and some nice alchemy stuff we're going to use shortly to kill the Demon. Once up top, explore the computer options to activate a warp to the Mountain Facility.

Go through the Warp, explore all the lore, make sure to get the medical cannister, then use the healing machine to get your constitution to 7. Return to the tower.

• Crossbow 9

Let's kill another demon! Mostly through alchemy. Make 5 or so fire vials and all the acid vials you can (sulfur + fool's gold).

Tell the demon you know what the ring does, ask him a bunch of questions for lore, then kill him anyway (or let him go if you want). To kill him, throw a fire vial at his feet (even though it hits you) which will push you away from him and trap him. Then hit him with acid vials. After a couple of turns, run far away from him before the fire wears off. Then when he walks towards you, trap him again and spam crossbow shots. (If you don't move, the next fire vial will miss him because of some weird hill physics stuff going on).

After he's dead, explore downstairs, and craft yourself the Bolter! The Bolter is generally superior to the hand crossbow because it gets more shots and does more damage. However, it has lower range and doesn't get any of the crafting bonuses the hand crossbow gets, so sometimes it's still useful to use the hand crossbow.

Clearing the Rest of Maadoran

If you've been following the guide, your character should more or less look this:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=850074648


I will quickly list the rest of Maadoran quests. You have all the stats to do whatever you want with them, so I won't be too detailed.

Go kill everyone in the arena. Do Basil's quest along the way.

• Crossbow 10
  
• Dodge 5

Do the remaining Assassin's Guild quest. Pay the hobo 500 if you feel like skipping a fight in robes, otherwise just shank him. You don't have enough critical strike to kill Levir's men before the fight, but I killed all three easily regardless. Use fire vial if necessary.

Go back to slums and head towards the Temple district (you must do the assassin's guild quest or everyone in the slums will be hostile). You'll find Miltiades along the way. Complete his quest.

Next to where Miltiades takes you is a rug store that will give you a quest to steal a gem (you may have already picked it up if you followed the guide). Go to the house in the palace district and use your body count to get the gem in conversation. Or upgrade your sneak or critical if you want to do it steathily.

After Miltiades, talk or fight your way through the slums. On the way, you can deliver the package to Neros. Talk or fight your way past his guards and finish the quest as you see fit.

Once in the Temple district, get the mechanical eye from a merchant and have the doctor in the Temple area install it for you.

Talk to the healer in the Market district 3 times while injured to get a quest to go to a mountain monastery (you can cheese this to get it in one visit if you go through the first dialogue but then don't have her heal you). I prefer to save this quest until after I have power armor for safety, but it's doable now.

I think that's all the Maadoran quests.

Helping the Ordu

Go to Harran's pass. Buy the artifact and the power modules from the soldier outside of the quartermaster's shop.

Sneak to the Ordu camp at night. Be nice to the leader, then help the Ordu however you want. You have all the stats necessary to be successful with any path you choose.

If you volunteer to go back to the camp to light the black powder, be advised that is one of the toughest fights in the game. But it is easily winnable on the first try if you take it seriously, use neurostimulant and fire vials, and kill the archer quickly.

Return to Gaelius. He'll ask you to clear Zamedi tower, which we've already done. Get your reward then head upstairs and talk with the Loremaster to hear more lore, finish the A Grain of Truth quest, and get some free training (if your reputation is high enough - killing all the guys in the mine from Teron may make your reptutation too low).

Ganezzar

First thing we'll do in Ganezzar is get the power armor.

• Streetwise 6
  
• Persuasion 6

Find your contact, a merchant in the Noble district near the stairs heading towards the palace. If you want to get it peacefully, use the impersonation option (which is why we got more streetwise and persuasion). If you want to kill them all, that is completely possible with a few fire vials.

Power up your armor! Activate the 4th mode with your lore if you want, but it's not that useful for us because Horus mode is preferable for our ranged build.

Go to the Inn, talk to Gaeius Levinus on the 2nd floor.

If desired, do sidequests by going up the ladder near the entrance of Gannezar and/or talking to the soldier standing outside the Fort.

Meru

• Impersonate 5
  
• Streetwise 7
  
• Lockpick 6

Go talk to Meru and convince him to convince you about the truth of the Gods. He will take you to his prophet. Call the prophet out and he will take you to a mysterious throne of secret knowledge.

Al-Akia

Take Meru to Al-Akia. Talk or fight your way in. Explore thoroughly. Perform the ceremony and then kill Meru.

[КиБоРг УбИйЦа]

You can kill everyone, you can talk almost everyone, you can find all the lore, and you don't even need to safescum every fight. One of the best hybrid builds.

[Kref]

Now you can't block enemy movement with one fire vial, only with two. That should be considered when fighting stone guardians.

[uanime5]

In Maadoran's merchant Plaza a merchant has some special schematics for crossbows that let you craft crossbows with a scope (extra range) and ones that can hold multiple arrows.

[Reaper]

2 years later, this quide is still working. I had no problem with the climbing str check in Teron, but I was unable to continue the AG quests when pledged to Gaelius. I was just not the member of the guild anymore. But with this guide I was able to check all lore I wanted. Great job, thank you!

[Mogri]

This is an excellent guide. Unfortunately, in the current patch, it fails to break into the palace at Teron -- you fail the Strength check to climb to the roof, and you need some ranks in Throwing to use the grappling hook. Strength is immutable at that point, but I suspect a few ranks in Throwing are sufficient. This might necessitate some rerouting to get a few combat SP earlier than usual.

[artofwar]

Hey man, I appreciate the positive feedback!

They just released a new patch (with some vague notes about SP reward changes), so this might be the excuse I need to finally update the guide. But I'm glad you found it useful even with it being outdated!

[Quenchiest]

aim head got changed to arterial strike for a few weapons in the latest patch.

[Quenchiest]

Great job on this guide. It still works for the current patch. In my opinion, this is the best build for a kill-all, do-all, know-all character, even though crossbows don't necessarily destroy groups as fast as whirlwind god of war, being able to poison the whole enemy group on round one is beastly. Thumbs up.

[leciopper]

sorry men but i no had anything attack option "aim head", whats'up ?

[Tazilon]

I did talk to him but perhaps in the wrong order. I've pretty much talked to or killed everyone in town.