[Blubbler]

Here's the world chamption at gothic 1 speed run(or something, but he's pretty good) click.

Thanks for calling me the world champion at gothic 1 speed runs, but TheWonderer beat my run by quite a bit

[Dino]

I'm really feeling bad now for not having completed any HC challenges yet. I wanna try G1. I know it pretty well (not as good as G2 though) and finished it twice. Battlemage both times (2h mastery + Uriziel + necro and lotsa runes).

I must do it.

Yeah you should really try it. But I tell ya, it can get really, really, REALLY frustrating. Like there was this one time I was about to go kill the sleeper, and I had killed everything in the coloney except for one lousy piece of crap fire lizard that 1-shoted me. Forgot to wear Ur-Shak's amulet and that costed me everything
But I finally beat the game in the end! I showed it who's boss And I also beated NotR with HoP mod.Now it's time for g2 vanila, which btw, is handsomly progressing - slow but sure.

[edit]
I just thought I give a few more hints:

1. It is really important for you to plan your moves up ahead, AT LEAST 2 or more. Don't jerk arround doing a single quest at a time... take on as many as you can, find the link in them, complete them one after the other, and "return" them all together. Especially in the beginning of the game, when you're at your weakest and need a boost ASAP.

2. Really, save often. g1 and g2 tend to crash... and you wouldn't want to waste all that time you spent getting to a certain point all over again cos your game crashed.

3. I know this has been said a lot, but I'm gonna repeat it - Don't bite off more than you can chew. And this is about everything, not just fights. In g2 acrobatics or not, don't pretend you're some sort of a Jedi from the Jedi Academy, cos you might be @ chapter 5 but you can easily fall and die! Just don't try and pull off crazy insane stunt-jumps, no matter how sure you are you're gonna do 'em. Unless it's a really last resort(being chased by something, you're on low HP and the only escape is for you to jump from a big height into a river or something like that.) cos you might end up being defeated by gravity. Which is... not exactly conforting. Trust me, I know all about that. Died like that in g1, thinking I could take a shortcut in the old mine... yeah it was a shortcut. To the f*king graveyard!

4. In g2 when I face a dragon, I usually use all of my best stuff like a rain of fire spell scroll, golem summon, demon summon, etc. You don't wanna fuck arround too much with a dragon. So I advice you do the same, don't save anything, dragon's aren't an easy oponent.

5. If you use the same tactics for boosting yourself in the beginning as I do, and that would be kill every NPC that has served it's purpose for the storyline, or teaching you, don't get caught doing so. EVER! Especially in g1, if you want to sneak up in houses at night and kill people, make sure it's a clean kill cos the NPCs from g1 run when they're on low HP. And if you get caught murdering someone... well, it might as well be your death sentance. Try and kill your targets one by one, and make sure you do it right first time. You might end up like me, thinking you're strong enough to take on the entire sect camp when they gather for the invocation, or killing the mercs and scrapers of the free mine while they're still alive(really good experience there). I pulled that off in my last hardcore game, but it was really really stupid. It is not to be repeated again.

6. Don't waste any LP for things you don't need such as skinning and gutting animals(g1). If you're however playing g2, you might want to learn a few animal gutting skills. And seriosly, you don't need sneak. It sux a lot.

7. Always take the shortest way arround. You don't wanna be walking all over the place. And when you're fighting something challenging, make sure you've got an escape plan which you can fall back to fast, and save your ass.

8. Almost forgot about this one, and it is really important. Don't EVER spend any money for a weapon!!! In gothic 1 and Gothic 2(with or without NotR, doesn't matter) the BEST weapons you can get for FREE. Sure, there's a high chance you die trying to do that but it's worth the risk. Take the Dragon Slicer for example. Once you're strong enough to fight the normal skeletons, you can go for it. Buy a wave of ice spell scroll(I am not sure if Fear would work on the Shadow Lords), kill the skeletons and then when you're in the Sword's Chamber, cast wave of ice. Grab the sword and run like hell! Forget about the treasures, you can have them later. Really, just run. Those Shadow Lords aren't cute little kitties you know.

[Onisuzume]

In gothic 1 and Gothic 2(with or without NotR, doesn't matter) the BEST weapons you can get for FREE.

"Best" is a relative, biased thing and depends on circumstance.
The Large Ore Dragon Slayer, for example, is the "best" Uriziel look-alike in NotR, no denying that. It also has greater reach and a skill bonus compared to said dragon slicer.

2. Really, save often. g1 and g2 tend to crash... and you wouldn't want to waste all that time you spent getting to a certain point all over again cos your game crashed.

I'd also like to note that you should save before doing anything that is known to possibly cause game-breaking bugs (world transition, winches, etc.).

4. In g2 when I face a dragon, I usually use all of my best stuff like a rain of fire spell scroll, golem summon, demon summon, etc. You don't wanna fuck arround too much with a dragon. So I advice you do the same, don't save anything, dragon's aren't an easy oponent.

And don't forget to munch down a single black ore per dragon (NotR only).
Using a black ore makes fighting dragons a *lot* easier.

And seriosly, you don't need sneak. It sux a lot.

Unless you want to do some thieves' guild quests...

[Dino]

Unless you want to do some thieves' guild quests...

No. You can jump all over the place, while in the house. When you jump, the NPCs don't wake up for some reason. Try it if you don't believe me. But you can't jerk arround do much, if you move they wake up.
For me there is no point in wasting LPs for sneaking, since jumping does the same trick.

Oh yeah, forgot about the black ore...

[Hellbilly]

No. You can jump all over the place, while in the house. When you jump, the NPCs don't wake up for some reason. Try it if you don't believe me.

That's what I'd call an exploit. So understandably a lot of people won't want to use that in a Hardcore game. But if you're a mage (or otherwise too), Fear is your friend. IMO Fear is a great rune for mages because it's relatively cheap in mana cost but effectively disables hordes of foes long enough for you to get by them... and then, later on when you are strong enough, you can return to collect the XP from them.

[Dino]

Damn...
I need some help and guides on how to kill fire golems without getting touched. For some reason, I think the last fire golem will make me fly to my death again in my next hardcore attempt.

[Der_Jonn]

By far the best way of fighting Fire Golems is not at all. Just don't go near any Fire Golems unless you absolutely have to.
The one on the way to the Fire Dragon is the most dangerous one, so don't even try to kill it. Just use a transformation scroll (for example Snapper) to go past it and don't worry about the few measly XP you are leaving behind, they're not worth your life. The same goes for Ice Golems, they even more dangerous than Fire Golems, so instead of fighting them, just run past them as a Snapper or a Lizard or some other creature.

[Dino]

By far the best way of fighting Fire Golems is not at all. Just don't go near any Fire Golems unless you absolutely have to.
The one on the way to the Fire Dragon is the most dangerous one, so don't even try to kill it. Just use a transformation scroll (for example Snapper) to go past it and don't worry about the few measly XP you are leaving behind, they're not worth your life. The same goes for Ice Golems, they even more dangerous than Fire Golems, so instead of fighting them, just run past them as a Snapper or a Lizard or some other creature.

Omg I'm such an idiot. Why didn't I think of that? Thans a lot man.

[ZombieNL]

Nice Guide.
I have a question about G1. You wrote this:

Once you have Uriziel, you can leave the temple and go back to Xardas.
After picking up the Ore Armour, it's time for some last preparations
(on your shopping tour, make sure to purchase all the golem summoning scrolls that Xardas has to offer)
before you load up Uriziel and head back to the Orc Temple.
Go back to the Orc Town again and go to the same chest where the teleport scroll was earlier.
There should be another teleport scroll, so use that to get back into the temple.

there is another way to get back in the temple:
after using the teleport the first time, turn arround facing the gate and use telekinese on the statue.
If you stand inside the temple-hall, on the other side from the gate as the shamans,
the distance is big enough and they won't even notice you when you use magic.
The statue drops right in front of you and you can pick it up through the gate.
You can either do this directly after teleporting,
(before you enter the temple the first time) or just after you get Uriziel, (before teleporting to Xardas).

So the second time just walk into town with the ulu-mulu, when you are followed by orcs, just talk to them and they leave.
And use the statue on the gate to open it.

[Onisuzume]

I think that by the time you have Uriziel you should be more than capable of killing all the orcs in that town. Heck, I could do that when I had to enter the temple for the first time. All because, unlike some of the groups out of town, all the orks inside the town are solitary, so you can easily lure them one by one without the others even as much as looking at you.

[Omid-]

I could do that as a lvl 11 shadow. Those orcs are gay as hell in G1. In Gothic 2 they make you cry at orcs.

[Der_Jonn]

Nice Guide.
I have a question about G1. You wrote this:


there is another way to get back in the temple:
after using the teleport the first time, turn arround facing the gate and use telekinese on the statue.
If you stand inside the temple-hall, on the other side from the gate as the shamans,
the distance is big enough and they won't even notice you when you use magic.
The statue drops right in front of you and you can pick it up through the gate.
You can either do this directly after teleporting,
(before you enter the temple the first time) or just after you get Uriziel, (before teleporting to Xardas).

So the second time just walk into town with the ulu-mulu, when you are followed by orcs, just talk to them and they leave.
And use the statue on the gate to open it.

I know you can do that, but the way described in the guide is quicker.
As far as I can tell, the only way to actually save time with the statue is to grab it from right under the noses of the shamans and use it to enter the temple for the first time and then use the teleport to return there once you are in chapter 6. However, that's way to risky to do in hardcore.

I think that by the time you have Uriziel you should be more than capable of killing all the orcs in that town. Heck, I could do that when I had to enter the temple for the first time. All because, unlike some of the groups out of town, all the orks inside the town are solitary, so you can easily lure them one by one without the others even as much as looking at you

Of course you can do that, but since you have to take the orcs out one by one if you want to be safe, it'll take a lot of time and so there are much better areas to gain XP. If you still need XP that is, because at that point in the game you usually don't really need any more LPs.




Edit: I've made another update to the guide.

[Onisuzume]

Of course you can do that, but since you have to take the orcs out one by one if you want to be safe, it'll take a lot of time and so there are much better areas to gain XP. If you still need XP that is, because at that point in the game you usually don't really need any more LPs.

By the time I've reached the ork village there are *no* better areas left.
Except, possibly, the old camp, ne camp, samp camp and old mine.

[Der_Jonn]

Well, then you should already be high enough in level to not need any more LPs.

Of course it's not wrong to kill the orcs, but I just think it's unnecessary.
There are many ways of playing Gothic, the one described in this guide is merely the one I think is most efficient (in terms of safety vs time required). If you think another way of playing is more fun for you then feel free to disregard the advice in this guide.

[Dino]

If you think another way of playing is more fun for you then feel free to disregard the advice in this guide.

Actually, my way of playing Gothic hardcore is to have super-stats at the end(as you can see in all of my 3 succesfull attempts - I am highest level and best stats, or at least in the first few places) because I find it really awesome to be immortal, with imba stats in the last two chapters.

In my gothic 2 classic attempt, nothing could have killed me. Except gravity but it had hard time too, since I know how to fall without dieing.
In my gothic 1 attempt I had so much mana I didn't need to recharge. Well, at least not so often as I usually do.
In my NotR attempt, with Heights of Power, I had so much HP(1 800~) I could take alone 1/4 of the VoM orcs at once. This is with HoP of course, normal notr isn't that high. However, I think beating notr once is more than enough since it take so damn long.

[Dino]

Double post! Yeah

Alright, I think I might need some help on this one.

I plan on starting gothic 1 hardcore season(probably next week) and this time I will take on series of challenges. My first one will be: beat the game on lowest possible level, and as fast as I can. That means I'm gonna rush for the end ASAP.
My usuall g1 hardcore builds were 1h + magic, and I really took my time on maxing stuff earlier in the game. This time arround I won't have the luxury to do so.

Any suggestions for builds? I don't really care about the 1st 3 chapters, since they're easy. I'm more concerned about the Sleeper's temple and the free mine.
I think melee build would work - 1st, learn one-handed combat to "fighter" level and then raise my str to the maximum. After than work on my 2h skill.

I really don't want to screw this up, since I'm gonna attemp each challange only once, and I feel like surviving half of them...

[Blubbler]

Double post! Yeah

Alright, I think I might need some help on this one.

I plan on starting gothic 1 hardcore season(probably next week) and this time I will take on series of challenges. My first one will be: beat the game on lowest possible level, and as fast as I can. That means I'm gonna rush for the end ASAP.
My usuall g1 hardcore builds were 1h + magic, and I really took my time on maxing stuff earlier in the game. This time arround I won't have the luxury to do so.

Any suggestions for builds? I don't really care about the 1st 3 chapters, since they're easy. I'm more concerned about the Sleeper's temple and the free mine.
I think melee build would work - 1st, learn one-handed combat to "fighter" level and then raise my str to the maximum. After than work on my 2h skill.

I really don't want to screw this up, since I'm gonna attemp each challange only once, and I feel like surviving half of them...

Dude, lowest level? I hope you mean that and not lowest experience, because there'd be some problems with that:

1. The orcs in the orc graveyard
They are attacking Baal Lukor and won't let go of him unless you kill them (which gives you exp and there is noone to kill them instead of you) or you send him to sleep so the entire bunch of orcs is attacking you and if you go too far away from him they attack him again and you have the same problem again. So even if you'd manage to talk to him before the orcs attack him, it'd be a pain in the ass to have these orcs following you.
2. The guards before the Free Mine
You get exp when Gorn kills them and it's a real pain to pull them because of their crossbows.
3. 3 of the 5 orc priests
You have to make their own skeletons go against them. Very hard and because of your low level you don't have much health.


The lowest level is 14 or 15 depending on wether you think skipping Uriziel is glitch abuse or not (if you allowe glitch abuse, min. level/exp is 0). If you mean just lowest level there's some tolerance and you can kill some things, but it's still very hard and you want to do it as fast as possible...

[Dino]

What I meant is just go straight with the story, no jerking arround. I will not kill anything that is not standing in my way, nor take any of the few side quests.

I won't try a speedrun. I'm not as good. Thought I want to try some challanges, otherwise the game is easy.

[byspanky]

to start G1 without a hassle go straight to lock chest and get bow in the room behind the gate guard thn save atleast 200 ore or item then head to blacksmith make your own sword crude sword 1 crude=50 ore so you wont need any more money if you made lots of crude why i did this so that every chapter i would buy the best weapon available specially if your melee type 1st best weapon would be something like a hammer you can buy it in the swamp btw the you dont need to lvl up your bow its just for hunting if you really need LP in the start but remembeer to exchange your crude to ore for leveling skills handling the best weapon in every chapter and wearing the best armor available in every chapter make your g1 character invinsible and dont forget to buy every ring that has def in every chapter and 1 amulet with def in the castle room... you dont need to much magic def except for fire lizard... its more fun playing if you start in the old camp then become a rouge in new camp become mercenary then become water mage atleast you have now high magic def armor affter entering in the orc town the game is much easier after that......

if your choice is in swamp same thing but you cant join the new anymore atleast you have lvl 4 magic same thing as the paladin in G2 fist skill is my favorate but sometime you get get any exp from its a very good skill just dont long press it just click and click like the healing bug unlimited healing and also take anvantage of jumping on a high cliff you die just use sidestep that way you made your own shortcuts and dont ddie from falling

[Der_Jonn]

What I meant is just go straight with the story, no jerking arround. I will not kill anything that is not standing in my way, nor take any of the few side quests.

I won't try a speedrun. I'm not as good. Thought I want to try some challanges, otherwise the game is easy.

Well, then it's not really a challenge at all since that's pretty much the easiest way of playing G1 hardcore. With the huge amount of experience you get for the main quests and all the opponents you face while doing them, you'll actually get a pretty decent level.
And since there are hardly any main quests in G1, you're not really missing out on anything substantial.
Actually this guide was written with just such a playstyle in mind, so the skill build in the guide is definitely suitable for your purposes.

to start G1 without a hassle go straight to lock chest and get bow in the room behind the gate guard thn save atleast 200 ore or item then head to blacksmith make your own sword crude sword 1 crude=50 ore so you wont need any more money if you made lots of crude why i did this so that every chapter i would buy the best weapon available specially if your melee type 1st best weapon would be something like a hammer you can buy it in the swamp btw the you dont need to lvl up your bow its just for hunting if you really need LP in the start but remembeer to exchange your crude to ore for leveling skills handling the best weapon in every chapter and wearing the best armor available in every chapter make your g1 character invinsible and dont forget to buy every ring that has def in every chapter and 1 amulet with def in the castle room... you dont need to much magic def except for fire lizard... its more fun playing if you start in the old camp then become a rouge in new camp become mercenary then become water mage atleast you have now high magic def armor affter entering in the orc town the game is much easier after that......

if your choice is in swamp same thing but you cant join the new anymore atleast you have lvl 4 magic same thing as the paladin in G2 fist skill is my favorate but sometime you get get any exp from its a very good skill just dont long press it just click and click like the healing bug unlimited healing and also take anvantage of jumping on a high cliff you die just use sidestep that way you made your own shortcuts and dont ddie from falling

Thanks for your enthusiasm, but I don't think this will help anyone in the target audience of this guide.
Getting ore is really easy in G1, and there are much more time efficient methods than forging swords. Also if you really want to forge swords for selling them, you don't need any seed money. You can simply pick the chest in Huno's forge (no one will mind even if you do it broad daylight) and you'll have plenty of steel to get you started. There's even more steel to be found in the chest in the Swamp Camp's forge.
And please note that bug abuse (which sidestepping to avoid falling damage clearly is) is against the spirit of the hardcore challenge.