[TudoracheMG]

I've always been fond of clearing everything that I encounter at the lowest level possible .For instance,if I'm level 4 and encounter a dragon snapper,I kill it,no matter what.

[sokras2008]

I've always been fond of clearing everything that I encounter at the lowest level possible .For instance,if I'm level 4 and encounter a dragon snapper,I kill it,no matter what.

LOL how is that even possible!!!:P

I want to thank all of you guys for your suggestions about the lizards and especially thundersword who went through the trouble and make me a strategic plan:P
Thanks a lot man.
I think I'll go buy a few fireballs and as Der_jonn said I will also buy the torturer's axe to get the master sword
Thank you all guys:P

P.S. It's like we had some kind of important conference:P

[Bobstew]

Part 14 - Into the Valley of Mines

By the time I get to the Valley of Mines, it's dark. Right.. I had forgotten that it takes some time to travel between areas. I walk back into Khorinis and then enter the VoM again, but it's still dark. Oh well, I'm guessing it'll be light again soon. I kill the two field raiders up there on the plateau and grab the teleportation rune, then head down the path to the river. Everything seems just normal so far. I take a little detour to the right at the bottom of the path in order to kill some snappers and also to hopefully waste some time so it'll be day again sooner, but I stop at the edge of the patch of forest. Dragon snappers on either side, dark and messy. Definitely not entering.

I turn and follow the strip of land in the middle of the split river and cross it when the two rivers gather again. I'm feeling surprisingly confident here, I'm at a higher level than I can remember ever being for a first entry into the VoM, and the difficult enemies are very easy to avoid. I'm given a lot of space here. As soon as I start fighting the group of scavengers by the riverside, morning dawns and everything becomes easier to see. Relief! I follow the woods for a bit, eat some snapperweed and charge to the castle. Easy. With some patience, I kill the two orc warriors that followed me from the safety of the ramp.

I talk to the king, get the map to find the mines and look around a bit in the castle to refresh my memory. The store room manager can sell me heavy militia armor! Great, but what happened to medium? Oh well, I'm not complaining. I lure some more orcs to the ramp and hunt a bunch of snappers to slowly build up money for the armor and get some exp at the same time.

The blacksmith in this camp can teach me to forge a "good sword".. And it's only 4 LP. I wonder what's up with that. The next weapon Harad can teach me costs 7 LP, I think, and I already learned "fine sword" for 4 LP. I'm curious, so I learn it anyways. It turns out what I learned was "ore longsword". I make one. Meh, why on earth is it called an "ore longsword" when it does less damage than a longsword (in fact, the same as a fine sword" and just has a really low strength requirement? It gives a +10 bonus to OH combat, though, so I switch to it. I also train with Keroloth for +5 to my one-handed skill, giving me 40 with the "ore longsword".

At this point, I have 12 LP left, so I spend 5 of it on two-handed before dumping 6 in OH again. I open up my character screen to check. 43% OH, 15% TH. Damn! I thought training OH would increase TH as well. It must've been too long. Oh well, I only lost 3 LP. I'll focus on getting TH up to Fighter level before increasing OH again. I'm not as concerned about strength right now as I am with weapon skill. I assume skill has a lot to do with how often I crit, and they really make the whole difference. But I'll put that to the test when I get there. I forge some swords from my little hoard of raw steel to be able to afford the armor, buy and equip it. Finally some better protection!

I hunt some more, partially by luring things over to the ramp, level up and train two handed combat for 10 LP. Wargs give 300 exp?? That's new. I did wonder if the wargs in G2 were really this buff. I guess they've been strengthened for NotR. And they definitely seem tougher than the orc warriors. Also, a lone orc warrior alone in a tiny dark room with a sheep. What.


Level: 15
Exp: 60k/68k
Best weapon: Ore longsword (OH, 60 dmg)
Best armor: Heavy militia armor (70 weap, 70 arr, 10 fir, 10 mag)
Unused learning points: 1
OH skill: +8 (33)
TH skill: +15 (25)
Skill learned: Forge (Ore longsword)
Danger level (0<10): 1
The orcs did surprisingly little damage the few times they got a lucky hit in on me, and I feel quite safe. I also know where everything is, for the most part.

[Alwin]

Not a spoiler, Bobstew, you can read it.

I walk back into Khorinis and then enter the VoM again, but it's still dark.

This is a (IMO) faulty design - the first time you enter, it will be set to midnight, then every time after that no time will pass at all. Though it might be a function just to set a spooky night atmosphere for the first time, when you're not familiar with the land, since you probably wouldn't think of running back to Onar's farm to sleep.

[Bobstew]

Not a spoiler, Bobstew, you can read it.



This is a (IMO) faulty design - the first time you enter, it will be set to midnight, then every time after that no time will pass at all. Though it might be a function just to set a spooky night atmosphere for the first time, when you're not familiar with the land, since you probably wouldn't think of running back to Onar's farm to sleep.

Ohh, interesting. I just assumed I had spent enough time getting to the pass that the trip barely made it into the night, and that the next back-and-forth trip didn't quite last until dawn.

[Der_Jonn]

I died
I had just cleared out the skeletons in the first room and in the adjacent room with the three switches that have to be turned in the right order. As additional safety, I had summoned an army of darkness, which I knew would be confusing with all those hostile skeletons running around in the temple, but I felt confident that I could handle it. However, a group of hostile skeletons followed me for an unreasonably long distance, so that I believed that any skeletons still following me most be my own. However, one skeleton attacked me, so I ran forward, only to be blocked by two more skeletons which turned out to be hostile as well and they both got a hit off on me, bringing me to very low life. Thus, I tried to turn around, but there wasn't enough space to manoeuvre so I ran against a wall and was killed by one final hit.
RIP Nameless Hero without equipment #2

Game: Gothic 1
Name: Nameless Hero without equipment #2
Challenge: not wearing any armour, rings, amulets and weapons
Level: 23
Chapter: 5 (had just cleared the first room in the temple)
Guild: Water Mage
Game time: 8:21 h
Cause of Death: skeletons that turned out not to be summoned by myself

[sokras2008]

OK guys.. now I have a real problem..
I just got out of VoM and entered Chapter 3 but at the gate of the pass there is a seeker..How the hell am I supposed to kill him??
I have:
Weapons: Elm Bow ( 50 dmg 50 DEX)
Sword ( 40 dmg 20 DEX) but I can also wear the wolf's tooth pr the ring of water quarterstaff
Armor: Heavy Militia armor
Mana: 9 :P
Health: 200 ( I am not sure but I am 15 level)
DEX: 59
OH skill: Fighter
Available spells: 2 fireballs
1 ice arrow
4 fire arrows
1 small firestorms (I am not sure about that)
Potions: 8 essence of healing
2 extract of healing
5 elixirs of healing
I don't have any speed potions

Strategies tried: Hit and evade with the elm bow ( almost got killed)
Hit and evade with some spell scrolls ( almost got killed again)
Hit with the sword as fast as I can ( almost got killed once more)

HEEEEELPPPPP :P

Questions:
1.My DEX now is 59.If it goes to 60 will it need 15 LP to increase 5 or 10 LP?

P.S. The lizards were avtually no problem at all. I can also kill snappers 2 tpgether:P but not lurkers yet.
I took Diego and Bilgot with to help me clear VoM from the monsters except for the orcs around the castle

[Blubbler]

There is none selling scrolls in VoM, is there?
If there is one get all the scrolls that seem to be useful.

You could also try going over the mountains so you don't have to face him at all. But only if you know what you are doing.


Emergency tactic: Run towards him and constantly do running strikes and his magic will not hit you. But it's easy to fail that too.

[Bobstew]

Game: Gothic 1
Name: Nameless Hero without equipment #2
Challenge: not wearing any armour, rings, amulets and weapons
Level: 23
Chapter: 5 (had just cleared the first room in the temple)
Guild: Water Mage
Game time: 8:21 h
Cause of Death: skeletons that turned out not to be summoned by myself

Condolences, and big kudos on getting to the fifth chapter without equipment! O.o




Part 15 - Reports from the mines

I continue hunting in the valley, making longer trips to lure orcs to the ramp and killing random critters. After a bit, I'm getting impatient with all the running, especially because of the shamen's incomplete AI which often sends them running endlessly in various directions while chasing me, or freezing in place. I let the orcs be for now and head for the first mine, the one that is surrounded by snappers. I kill all of them, the leader included, get the information I need and escort Bilgot to the pass. By now, I've leveled again, and I head back to the castle.

I put 5 more LP in two-handed and switch to one-handed training only to find out that it doesn't fucking matter. One of the changes in NotR, I suppose. Glorious. I put 4 LP in one-handed to land at 35%. I guess I'll just pick either of the weapon classes and go from here, then, considering the skills are pretty even right now. 20 or 30 LP lost, depending. Since OH and TH have been separated from each other so that one may put a whole lot of LP in either branch without spending any in the other, I suppose that means they've been adjusted to be more equal than in G2. TH was definitely best there. The difference should be that TH has slightly better reach and possibly more damage, while OH is quicker. The range is really what matters the most to me. If it's that straightforward, though, I'm probably going with TH. I'll be using the strength necklace and the staff mace for a while to see how that works out.

I head down towards the second mine, but change my mind and go meet Diego. He wants to follow me out of the valley, neat! We go down to the two nearby wargs, and he kills them pretty quickly. Too bad he's taking damage so fast himself. I turn around when I see a bunch of orcs and walk towards east to round the castle along the east side and go back the way I first came in. He stops me and tells me he'd rather go the western way (Why? It's a decent distance from the castle, nobody will see anyone), so we head back to the orcs, and I feed him a couple of potions before we fight. Luckily, he survives, and we continue on. (I eat a few more mushrooms. Woot! 5 more mana!)

After a little while, I see the lake in front of the snowy area to the left and am tempted to look around a little with Diego. It should be safer than going alone, anyways. We swim over there and approach a bandit cave. It looks like they're wearing pretty poor armor and clubs and such, so I'd almost consider taking it on alone. After his first kill, though, Diego stops and loots the guy while two bowmen are pounding him from the entrance of the cave and I'm too far away from them to stop them. Within not too long, Diego is dead and I'm fuming. I'll just hope there weren't any good quests connected to him later on.. Well, that Greg fellow was looking for him. Shit. I don't have time to loot much before the two bowmen approach with melee weapons. I warily back off while swiping at them, but fail to do anything other than minimum damage, and the couple hits they eventually get on me hit pretty hard, so I have to run.

..Well, that was embarrassing. What to do now?

I walk around the area a bit until I arrive at the mine where everyone's dead by minecrawlers. It's pretty dark, so I use a light scroll and hurry through the tunnels, killing and picking up everything. I still haven't learned to take minecrawler plates, but if I need those later, there are a few minecrawlers left in Khorinis. There's a very nice sword here, the fine longsword! I instantly ditch the staff mace for it, as it does more damage and I've got better training in one handed anyways. Sweet! I think I'm understanding the melee system fairly well now, by the way, and I think I should be going for strength very soon. I thought there was some other factor in how often you get a critical hit other than the percentage by your weapon skill, but I guess there's not.. The criticals are just not going much higher than minimum damage for the orcs because of their high defense. Anyways, I finish off the caves, including the minecrawler warrior which -is it just me?- oddly enough seems easier than I remember those being..?

After teleporting to the castle, I report to Garond and kill a few more orcs (I get quite low on HP, but drink a couple of potions, not wanting to take the risk), then I set out to the last mine. On my way, I meet the hunter who wants cheese in exchange for gutting knowledge. Coincidentally, I just sold that cheese because I got bored of carrying a little bit of everything. Oh well, I'll be back. I eventually get to Marcus' mine, leveling along the way. Continue down after Marcus by Grimes' directions. After a lot of hack-and-slash, I get his report and teleport to the castle again. I also free Gorn and buy a "hunk of cheese" for that lurker hunter.

When the last report is delivered to Garond, I buy the strength belt, the firewalker belt and the fire ring off Sengrath in anticipation of the Seekers of Chapter 3. I guess I should clear out the belt of orcs around the castle before I leave the valley, though.. It would be irresponsible not to take advantage of that exp.

Time consuming, but valuable grinding is next! Well, for me. It won't take much space in the journal.


Level: 18
Exp: 90.6k/95k
Best weapon: Fine longsword (OH, 80 dmg)
Best armor: Heavy militia armor (70 weap, 70 arr, 10 fir, 10 mag)
Unused learning points: 22
OH skill: +2 (35)
TH skill: +5 (30)
Mana +5 (28)
Danger level (0<10): 5
Fighting a lot of orcs at a time the bottom of the ramp occasionally made for a dangerous moment. Also, the bandit fight with Diego was moderately dangerous, although I never got very low on health there.

[Blubbler]

Ok, I'm giving Gothic 1 a new try. As I almost (>.<) finished the no LP spending and no permanent bonus using challenge I think it is ok to increase it a bit: no armor or armor increasing rings/amulets shall be worn.

After speaking to Diego I killed all the young animals on the way to the Old Camp, got all the quests and went with Mordrag to the New Camp. Then I entered the mine, did the two quests involving the guards and their chests and got the list from Ian.
At the New Camp I sold some drugs for magic scrolls and used Charme on Roscoe. I give the ring and the list to Lares and ask for more quests and help that novice on that island in the middle of the sea. Because I cannot wear armor I pay 100 ore to enter.
I head back to the Old Camp to report to Thorus and Sly then go to the Sect with Baal Parvez. There I speak to Melvin and Baal Tondral and do all the quests besides the one, which involves bloodfly hunting as I think they may deal too much damage.
I hunt a bit to reach level 5 and return to the Old Camp and ask Diego whether I'm ok to go to Gomez but realize I forgot the recipe for Dexter and can go all the way back to the Sect again - at least I can take Dusty with me.
Now I have to choose my guild, but it is pretty pointless anyway. Neither the armor nor the teachers matter so I join the Old Camp, because there I can be sure that I do not automatically wear an armor after joining the camp. So I go back to the Old Camp and then to the Sect again and start chapter 2. I did not really have a plan to beat Nyras, but there is a (cheap) way to play it safe.
Go towards him with your weapon drawn or attack him from a distance and he will not talk to you and as long as he didn't speak to you he isn't hostile. So even if he beats you down and you have lured him far enough away he will steal your ore and return to his original place. But it didn't come to this in this game. I just shot him with the Short Bow, ran away, returned, shot him and took his focus.
I brought it to Y'Berion, who sent me to Cor Kalom, who sent me to the Old Mine. I went to Baal Cadar to buy equipment but he doesn't seem to have anything useful sort of speed potions. Now I'm at the exit of the Swamp Camp ready to leave.
I guess I'll go see what Torrez and Cronos have, because I think the minecrawlers will give me trouble. I'll probably just lure them to the templers one by one...

Game: Gothic
Challenge: No armor or protection increasing amulets and rings worn
No LP and no permanent bonus used
Progress: Chapter 2 - The Old Mine
Guild: Shadow
Level: 5

[Alwin]

OK guys.. now I have a real problem..

I'm pretty sure Sengroth in the castle stocks an ice block scroll.

I guess I should clear out the belt of orcs around the castle before I leave the valley, though.. It would be irresponsible not to take advantage of that exp.

Actually, I would find it much more irresponsible if you got killed by 4 consecutive strikes of an orc elite while doing that, and that happens frequently. It's easy to screw up there.

[TudoracheMG]

Why are you having such a great trouble fighting the seeker ? Just attack him with your bow first,and then run towards him,using quick left and right swings.This should prevent him from attacking you.

[RageGT]

I'm still on my first playthrough in Gothic 1 after many runs in G2, G3 and Risen. Thanks Softwrap for resending me the activation code which I lost in the old computer, where I had to quit the run I was trying, very early, for some reason.

I'll definitely be trying this HC in near future. Heck, I was #1 ladder Diablo II HardCore in USEast servers for a long while back in 2002. I love HC!

A question though, while I save the guide for after I finish the current run which is more of a learning experience since yeah, I do have to reload a lot sometimes, having noticed how, in a pack of snappers, there is always one much harder than the others. (I can't damage it even after killing the whole pack, even when it seems a clear hit. It evades somehow while it can kill me pretty fast too - well, at the low level I am of course... hehe)

Now, it probably says in the guide but, when fighting humans and lost, it is not a death, right? I mean, we don't need to reload anyway, just to kiss part of our ore bye bye, right?

Also, since I could not find this even in a German thread translated wuith google tools... Is there a way to prevent my Screensaver from running while Gothic I is ON and like, I had a bathroom break? (game crashes on return) - After all the trouble to make it run perfectly on Windows 7 64-bit? But I do need the screen saver enabled. It's just that when G1 is running the system should not see it as "idle"!

[TudoracheMG]

If you're knocked down to the ground,then no,the hardcore challenge is not over.

[Zeri0n]

If you're knocked down to the ground,then no,the hardcore challenge is not over.

nope, hardcorechalenge is over only if you die....

[Der_Jonn]

Why are you having such a great trouble fighting the seeker ? Just attack him with your bow first,and then run towards him,using quick left and right swings.This should prevent him from attacking you.

Sorry, but that's terrible advice. One should never fight a Seeker in melee combat unless it's absolutely unavoidable, because they can cast Rain of Fire. Granted, the chance for them doing that is very low, but in HC you do not want to take this risk.

I'm not sure if you can cast Sleep on Seekers, but if that's possible then it's the best course of action (and Sengrath sells Sleep scrolls). Otherwise buy the Ice Block and use that, ideally with a summoned wolf for some extra damage, because the Ice Block duration will probably not be enough when you're only dealing minimum damage.

[ZombieNL]

Now, it probably says in the guide but, when fighting humans and lost, it is not a death, right? I mean, we don't need to reload anyway, just to kiss part of our ore bye bye, right?

you can drop your ore on the ground or put in a chest before fighting humans. if you lose, your enemy can't steal your ore. and you simply pick it up after the fight.

[TudoracheMG]

Sorry, but that's terrible advice. One should never fight a Seeker in melee combat unless it's absolutely unavoidable, because they can cast Rain of Fire. Granted, the chance for them doing that is very low, but in HC you do not want to take this risk.

I'm not sure if you can cast Sleep on Seekers, but if that's possible then it's the best course of action (and Sengrath sells Sleep scrolls). Otherwise buy the Ice Block and use that, ideally with a summoned wolf for some extra damage, because the Ice Block duration will probably not be enough when you're only dealing minimum damage.

This is why I was advising him to use left and right swings,so as to interrupt the seeker's casting.At his level,he should be able to kill one in like 7-9 swings.
Besides,I've always fought seekers with swords.Well,I triggered their agresiveness with a bow first,and then ran towards them with my sword.I particularly enjoyed doing this on my mage playthroughs.

[Blubbler]

After leaving the Swamp Camp I went to the New Camp to get the necessary equipment to get the golem hearts: a mana +10 ring, lightning bolt scrolls and transform bloodfly scrolls. As a bloodfly I flew to the Fire Golem over the mountain from the fire lizards because I did not intend to kill the Stone Golem yet as he is rather risky to kill. I stepped on the platform next to the Fire Golem and killed him with Lightning Bolts from above. Using his heart I killed the Ice Golem and collected his heart as well. As a bloodlfy I flew to the Old Mine and went inside. I was concerned how much damage the minecrawlers would do so when I got the item for Ian I shot the minecrawlers from above which was a rather lengthy process. When I opened the gate I let Asghan and the templers do the job and lured most minecrawlers to them, but I killed the last few and the queen with fireballs. I was never hit so I don't really know how dangerous that was.
On the way back to the Swamp Camp I got the almanach. Black goblins only needed four hits to kill me so I prefered to lure them over the edge attacking them from the other side of the brdige, but I think I got the exp for most of them.
After giving the eggs and the almanch to Cor Kalom and the ritual I went to the orcgraveyard. The Biters were easy - one fully charged fireball. For the orcs I needed ice blocks but they were no problem either. After killing Baal Lukor I went into the Swamp and collected the herbs and also did the bloodfly killing quest. Y'Berion died and Cor Angar sent me to the New Camp, where I started the focus collecting quest.
Diego's Misery: I used transform bloodfly to go past the snappers and then just let Diego do the work. Because a few goblin warriors were still alive when Diego took on the troll I killed them with fire balls. I could have killed the troll with fire balls too but that would have taken a lot of time and mana potions and I did not use the shrink scroll because I wanted to save it for the Stone Golem so I just used a telekinesis scroll and got the focus off the platform and flew away. Sorry Diego...
Gorn's Misery: After meeting Gorn I went into that small "canyon" and let him kill the snappers. However at the second group of snapppers he suddenly lost his weapon while drawing it. He used his fists to kill the snappers while "Gorn's Revenge" was lieing on the ground. This is the first time this bug ever happened to me and so I had to deal with a weaker Gorn. While attacking the snappers on the other side of the pit with fire balls some of them got over the tree and chased me. So I ran away and said to myself: "Why not go into the water. They cannot hurt you there." Really great idea. So I have 5 snappers directly behind my back ready to kill me the instant their feet touch ground. So I decided to dive away, which turned out to be a really great idea as the water isn't exactly deep enough to dive under the snappers, who stay directly above me. They are also blocking me so I cannot reach the surface anymore! Slowly the yellow bar goes down and then the red bar goes down. I mash buttons hoping for anything. My character is spinning and the camera is shaking because I'm blocked from below by the ground and from above by the snappers. At around 40% health I somehow happen to walk on ground, but there are still snappers behind me. Luckily they are not aggressive anymore and I can run away. The rest works rather smoothly until Gorn goes into a kickboxing match with the shadowbeast, which he cannot hurt. I decide just to get the focus and teleport away. Sorry Gorn...
Milten's Misery: Again as a bloodfly I fly towards the stone henge. Milten gives me destroy undead scroll and attacks the skeletons. While all the skeletons are busy getting roasted by Milten I kill the keeper and wait for Milten to finish. As he kills the last skeleton I teleport away taking the valuable amulet with me. Muahaha!
Lester's Misery: You may be able to guess that I transformed into a bloodfly to go to Lester and let him deal with the harpies. However I made a small mistake by clearing the right room first so that Lester goes up the ladder and I'd have to deal with the harpies myself to get the key necessary to open the chest, which contains the document Lester wants. So I just go up the ladder and use my own telekinesis scroll and teleport away. Sorry Lester...
I give all the focuses to Saturas and start chapter 4. After meeting Diego and Milten (oops, now he claims the amulet) I transform into a bloodfly, shrink the golem and exchange the hearts for a teleportation rune. I buy all the scrolls from Xardas and (as a bloodfly) go to Ur-Shak and let him fend off the orcs by himself. He is very thankful and tells me about Tarrok.
The Free Mine: This is the part I always worry about the most and since I have 0 resistance against bolts I worry about it a bit more. At the beginning Gorn is kinda pointless because he just runs towards the guard at the very right and falls down so I have to kill the first few guards myself. After some attempt of going in and out of the mine I notice that if I go the right of the entrance. The right crossbow guard cannot hit me due to the wall and I seem to be too far away from the left guard to hit me effectively. So I use an ice block scroll on the heavily armored melee guard in the middle and kill him with fire ball scrolls. Then I exchange my mana and life increasing rings and amulets for the strength increasing ones, equip my best weapon, drink a speed potion and run towards the guard on the left, freeze him and kill him with a few strikes and do the same to the next 3 guards. While Gorn seems to be somewhere down the ladders. I had to decide a) whether to take Gorn with me or not and b) whether to take the top path fighting the guards or to take the bottom path fighting the minecrawlers and doing risky jumps. I decide to leave Gorn wherever he is as his AI is so bad he may suddenly just kill me without a warning. And i decide to take the top path because I have bad memories of the minecrawler warriors from my last game. I think both decisions were wrong! I climb down the first ladder and then the second ladder and get shot during the climb by a guard and fall down - leaving me at less than half health. I see how stupid that was but also that I cannot climb back up without being shot at. Below me I see 3 guards. 2 with a crossbow and 1 with a sword. The one who shot at me cannot reach me when I stand in the right place and the other one seems to be constantly running against the wall and low on health points for some reason. So I cast a lightning bolt at the weakened one only to see midway that my mana is almost empty! How stupid! I do not kill him and he now shoots at me... While I try to drink potions to even out the damage the bolts knock me off the platform and panicking I simply run away through all the guards. With very little HP (less than 2% for sure) I somehow do manage to escape without having to go into the mincrawler territory. I'm so relieved that I heal up and don't care much about the guard falling down next to me thinking he must be dead. HE WASN'T!! Too late I try to run away but see there is no escape for me so I cast an ice block but he is too close. Three strikes and I go down and he pushes his sword into my body.

I survived the most dangerous part of the game with insane luck only to be killed one minute later by some minor carelessness. I give up on the challenges. They were an exciting way to make the game more interesting, but there have been to many failures. I have been close many times but never actually finished the game with an extra challenge. So from now on if I do another hardcore game it will not be with any extra challenge!

[Bobstew]

Part 16 - Finishing up Chapter 2

I continue around the castle for a little while, luring the elites and warriors to the ramp and fighting the shamen normally. The shamen are a pain to lure far away, it's not too hard to keep them from hitting me and they don't hit that hard anyways. The elites can kill me in three hits, but leading them to the ramp isn't so hard, and once I'm there without a too large group of orcs, it goes fairly easy with some caution. I level up once before I'm done. I also discover that the wargs are much weaker than orc warriors now that my strength is high enough to crit them fairly decently. I can actually fight them now, as long as I can get them alone and have some space to move in, so I clear out the few nearby wargs as well, then I head for the hunter who wants cheese. I learn both shadowbeast horn removal (Planning on fighting them once I get the paladin armor, which I *think* I'll get in chapter 3.. Not sure though) and heart removal. I don't plan on fighting anything with a heart for a while, but it costs so few LP and I'd rather not have to bother walking here again when I actually need it.

I scout around for a little bit more (eat an apple and get the +1 strength bonus!), sell my stuff to Sengrath and teleport to the pass. I decide to fight the first seeker before ending the chapter in the journal.

Before I confront the Seeker, I equip my +10 fire belt and both +5 fire rings. I remember from G2 that they curse me if I don't set off combat with a ranged weapon, so I shoot it with my crossbow, run in zig zag (Woah! Full on fireballs.. They hurt) while changing to my sword and hit it repeatedly. It looks like I've stunlocked the Seeker at first, but then it starts throwing fireballs at me. Just as I turn around and retreat, he changes to a different fire spell. He doesn't manage to hit me with it, but I guess from the sound and look of the spell that it's the next damaging spell after fireball (lesser fire storm?). I'll really have to watch the Seekers closely while I fight them, and run away if they change to that spell. I get away, heal up and attack it again. This time, I kill it and grab the stuff off both it and the dead guards. The seekers have definitely been buffed up. I remember them being pretty weak in G2.. Now they're more than twice as powerful both defensively and offensively, it seems. I don't think I'll be fighting any more Seekers before I get to town, if I can help it.


Level: 19
Exp: 102k/105k
Best weapon: Fine longsword (OH, 80 dmg)
Best armor: Heavy militia armor (70 weap, 70 arr, 10 fir, 10 mag)
Unused learning points: 26
Skill learned: Take trophy (shadowbeast horn, heart)
Strength: +1 (61)
Danger level (0<10): 6
Even though the enemies here were relatively powerful, I was quite cautious, healed up fully before every battle and was ready to run away in a planned direction whenever I passed half HP, or if I weren't clearly winning. I actually did run away to heal up at a couple occasions.



Chapter 2: Returning to the colony

Danger in chapter 2

[Bild: Ch2dangerchart.png]

Close calls in Chapter 2

Part 10 - Attacking a summoned skeleton = bad


End stats in Chapter 2 (My equipment gives +6 OH skill, +20 fire resistance and +10 strength)

[Bild: Ch2stats.jpg]

Playing time - 20 hours (28 total)



Hm.. Part 17 covers 6 hours of gameplay. I don't know why it got so long, it just did.


Part 17 - Seekers!

I head directly to town, avoiding all seekers for now, and go talk to Lord Hagen right away. I get redirected to the monastery, but before I leave town again, I check out the market to find out what's new. Zuris has a permanent mana potion, but I can't afford it, so I go to Harad first, learn to forge the fine longsword and the ruby sword and make and sell a few of the latter. (Oooh, 100 damage for 90 str!) Unfortunately I can't wield the ruby sword yet, though. I train my strength to 66, buy the mana potion, drink it and head out of town towards the monastery.

The High council redirects me to chase after Pedro and purify the shrines. I hesitate a little because I know I'm having some trouble with the Seekers, and decide to run around to check with all merchants whether they have something that can help me first. To make sure I'm actually buying protection for the right thing, I test the difference between getting hit by a fireball with and without my fire protection equipment, and there's none! So I should be using magic protection.. Erol doesn't have anything new and useful, but I buy a magic protection belt in the city.

Lutero has a ring that gives +4 to strength! With a level up (killing skeletons and critters) and some training, I'm suddenly at 66 strength, and the ring brings me to 70. Much preferring the ruby sword to any magic protection, I use both my strength belt and amulet and wield the ruby sword. Sweet! I go outside town and try it on a Seeker. It helps a lot, but I still don't want to be hunting them yet.

I spend a lot of time just running around the map, killing some wargs and easier beasts that I oversaw earlier and slowly getting the shrines purified. I also deliver the Sun Aloe to Sagitta and learn to make an Essence of healing. I run past the Seekers at the stone circle the first time I get there, but clear out the nearby cave with the skeletons and shadow warriors to get the Dragon slicer and a bunch of booty. I go down to the water mages and learn the first part of the language, then read my Life energy tablets. Nice! I actually get +5 HP for EACH. Good thing I never sold any of them. I also read the ones that give me mana. Hmm.. I can read the ones marked "I" now, but not "II". Makes sense. So I guess I can read tablets of all TYPES, just as long as they're the first level. I thought I'd have to learn the language of the warriors to read fighting skill tablets, for example, but it doesn't seem like it.

I visit Xardas, Onar's farm, and even the Valley of Mines to look around a bit and see if anything respawned. It didn't, but I pull some orcs from further away to the ramp at the castle for some extra exp. Eventually, I go back to Khorinis, buy some spell scrolls and run back up to the stone circle with the Seekers. I pick off the three who are standing alone around the circle and then summon two skeletons close to the three in the middle. The skeletons die pretty fast, but I get some good hits in on one of the Seekers before I'm forced to run to the nearby steps. When I get back to where the three Seekers were, two of them are just gone for some reason, and I can't see them anywhere. Perhaps one hit the other with a fireball as I fled, and the third killed the one who was left after one of them was killed in the fight. I don't know, just a guess. I couldn't see any bodies, although I hadn't gone further than the top of the steps.

Anyways, I kill the last one, grab the Eye, teleport to Pyrokar and then to Vatras. Vatras says he'll need another water mage to take over his role in the city before he can deal with it. I go and talk to the water mages at the ruins, but there's no conversation option about that with any of them. Confused, I talk to Xardas and Pyrokar, then Vatras again, but there's no conversation option about it. Also, the "weapons dealer" conversation option and possibly also the "missing people" one don't seem to be working correctly. I figure I'm supposed to rescue Bennet first, though, so I go talk to him in prison, then Lord Hagen, then Cornelius (2000 gold.. shark. I thought it was possible to just threaten him. Maybe it's NotR specific) and back to Lord Hagen. At the same time, I get enrolled into knighthood by Lord Hagen. Yes! I didn't even remember that there was a "knight" stage before paladin, but it only makes sense. Having what may be the last armor of the game already in chapter 3 would be ridiculous. I sort of thought I'd have it before I fight the dragons, though.. Maybe I will, I don't know.

100 weap resistance, yeeeah! I teleport to the tavern, go towards the pass, kill a Seeker comfortably, heal up and take a couple swings at a dragon snapper before I'm forced to run away screaming. The bugger is too fast for me, and catches up easily. AGAIN with not drinking a speed potion before I try something like that.. It hits me pretty fast and hard even as I'm running away from it, and only desperate wiggling keeps it from killing me. When it finally stops, I have so little HP that one more bite would have killed me. Total moodkiller. I go sleep in the tavern and end the part here.


Level: 22
Exp: 134k/138k
Best weapon: Ruby blade (OH, 100 dmg)
Best armor: Knight's armor (100 weap, 100 arr, 50 fir, 25 mag)
Unused learning points: 0
Skill learned: Forge (Fine longsword, Ruby blade)
Skill learned: Language of the peasants
Strength: +12 (73)
Mana: +9 (37)
Skill learned: Alchemy (Essence of healing)
Danger level (0<10): 10
Because:
Underestimated a dragon snapper