Posted April 22, 2019
I dusted this game off, restarted on hideous, and figured I'd try a solo run as the game is still pretty easy on hideous with a full group.
Difficulty: Hideous
Cheats: None
Ability Adjustments: I maxed stats during character creation. I didn't want to spend an hour rolling a character to get max str/con/dex, and TBH, I'm pretty sure the initial stat changes will wind up trivial by the point I either get stuck or the game ends.
HP: Max at creation
Character: Half-giant gladiator with metabolic psionics. It's Russel-freaking-Crow with double the HP!
I tried a fighter/psionicist to start, but the initial arena fights are -extremely- difficult if you don't have some extra HP to work with.
Here's a quick recap of the play-through so far and some general ideas/hints if you give solo/abandoned a try:
1. For the first fight, if you could use a second weapon, check the body just east of the initial holding area for a club. Dual-wield is pretty much mandatory as killing things faster stops the flow of incoming damage. There might be fights where a shield is useful, but I haven't seen that yet.
2. Pre-buff with psionics. Feel free to do this whenever you know a big fight is coming.
3. First fight should be pretty easy, but don't be afraid to start the fight where a single creature needs to walk around the gated area to attack you. You don't want a giant mob hitting you all at once.
4. Complete as much as you can in the pens once you finish the first fight. Ensure you get to the hidden room for loot, and ensure you have Dinos heal Gailal (sp) and fill a water pitcher before you head out for your second fight.
5. Be aware of XP early on. It may be worthwhile to start a fight in the pens to get some much-needed XP for a level-up prior to your next arena battle.
6. Try to position your character where a single opponent can get to them within the round and simply guard. The idea behind guarding is ensuring you get to hit first and hopefully take them out before they hit you. If you run up, you can get hit first if that opponent hasn't used their attack yet.
7. Do not give water to the arena prisoner until you have significant trouble with a battle. The idea here is to give water and release the prisoner right before battle so you have someone to tank a few hits during the fight. For me, it was the fight with the Thri-kreen.
8. For the Thri-kreen fight, try to kill the green-eyed mob first. As far as I can tell, that's the one that can stun with its last hit. If you get stunned, it's pretty much game over.
9. Once you beat the Thri-kreen and rest, it's likely time to try to escape. I escaped the pens by bashing open the south door and making my way to the templar with the +1 sword. After that, it was a matter of juking the mountain stalker in the NW monster pen (I ran into the pen and hit the button to open the secret door at the back of the pen). Whichever route you take, it's very helpful to have the templar's magic sword later.
10. Once in the sewers, follow the standard walkthrough to rescue the chieftain's daughter. Ensure you save before the fight with the worshipers as you don't want a blind character post-battle (there could be a way to cure it at some point, but I'm sure it doesn't help in the meantime). A quick note on the Chameleon Gloves - if you're battling something that can't be harmed by normal weapons (think shadows in Dagolar's area), feel free to toss on the gloves in place of a normal weapon as you can then punch for damage.
11. Ensure the chieftain's daughter lives when the temple is attacked. Funny thing - the chieftain can die and still give you the helm of contemplation if his daughter lives.
12. The rest of the sewers are pretty straightforward, but beating Dagolar's Lair is -extremely- helpful as you get a Living Cloak and a +3 dagger. The main thing here is ensuring you go to the statue room to talk to the trapped souls. This is required so that playing the organ during the Dagolar fight will be an instant win. On that note (I'm hilarious, I know), save prior to the Dagolar fight as it may take a couple of tries. You want his zombie-bro with you to put out the flames and to ensure Dagolar does some soap-boxing prior to the battle. The key here is to click through the speech and keep clicking as the fight starts. Your character will take a couple of steps into the room rather than camp out just inside the room. These extra steps matter; If done correctly, it will take only 1 turn to walk in front of the organ to play it. The reason for the save is you sometimes get webbed early on and can't move at all. If this happens, you've probably lost the fight. Assuming all goes well, play the organ and watch the souls make mincemeat of Dagolar. Collect the booty and toss on the cloak as it's a huge boon later vs. anything that shoots you with normal arrows, city guards for instance. It's also nice to be able to sell his wand of missiles later.
13. Head out of the hidden sewer exit. This is to get Old One Eye to help you in the fields as he won't help you if you left via the normal exit. He'll distract the guards, they'll shoot you using ineffective bow and arrows, and you're then able to head north, rest, and you can decide what to do next. My next step was clearing the copper mines and oasis to the west so I could then dig at the dragon's eye. You've got a ton of options at this point.
14. For the record, I plan to head to Gedron next so I can get El's Drinker. I feel like this is mandatory to be able to solo some of the harder fights. I also want to defeat Arant one region north of Gedron as Arant drops +2 AC arm and leg armor.
I plan to post updates as I get further, but please do reply if interested in my progress. I'm not sure if higher-level psionics such as mass domination are mandatory to beat the game solo, but we'll see.
Solo walkthrough aside, I have questions others can maybe answer:
1. How do you get to the magic axe area in the NW sewers without a thief?
2. How do you get XP or anything from helping the single serf escape the fields? I cleared the guarded areas north and east and then picked up the quest, but he just leaves either route you go.
3. You can wear Aposs's heart. Is it just a creepy thing to do, or does that do something? My understanding is you can free Aposs the first time he brings it up in conversation, but after that, his conversation loops and you're SOL. He gives a scroll of summon shadow if you free him the first time but not if you kill him.
4. When you give the mastyrial trainer a bag of salt, what's the use? You get the mastyrial for a little bit, but it runs back later, and then he leaves the area.
5. When you free the slave in the arena and he walks into the gated area, does something else happen at any point? For me, he just sits there.
More to come...
Difficulty: Hideous
Cheats: None
Ability Adjustments: I maxed stats during character creation. I didn't want to spend an hour rolling a character to get max str/con/dex, and TBH, I'm pretty sure the initial stat changes will wind up trivial by the point I either get stuck or the game ends.
HP: Max at creation
Character: Half-giant gladiator with metabolic psionics. It's Russel-freaking-Crow with double the HP!
I tried a fighter/psionicist to start, but the initial arena fights are -extremely- difficult if you don't have some extra HP to work with.
Here's a quick recap of the play-through so far and some general ideas/hints if you give solo/abandoned a try:
1. For the first fight, if you could use a second weapon, check the body just east of the initial holding area for a club. Dual-wield is pretty much mandatory as killing things faster stops the flow of incoming damage. There might be fights where a shield is useful, but I haven't seen that yet.
2. Pre-buff with psionics. Feel free to do this whenever you know a big fight is coming.
3. First fight should be pretty easy, but don't be afraid to start the fight where a single creature needs to walk around the gated area to attack you. You don't want a giant mob hitting you all at once.
4. Complete as much as you can in the pens once you finish the first fight. Ensure you get to the hidden room for loot, and ensure you have Dinos heal Gailal (sp) and fill a water pitcher before you head out for your second fight.
5. Be aware of XP early on. It may be worthwhile to start a fight in the pens to get some much-needed XP for a level-up prior to your next arena battle.
6. Try to position your character where a single opponent can get to them within the round and simply guard. The idea behind guarding is ensuring you get to hit first and hopefully take them out before they hit you. If you run up, you can get hit first if that opponent hasn't used their attack yet.
7. Do not give water to the arena prisoner until you have significant trouble with a battle. The idea here is to give water and release the prisoner right before battle so you have someone to tank a few hits during the fight. For me, it was the fight with the Thri-kreen.
8. For the Thri-kreen fight, try to kill the green-eyed mob first. As far as I can tell, that's the one that can stun with its last hit. If you get stunned, it's pretty much game over.
9. Once you beat the Thri-kreen and rest, it's likely time to try to escape. I escaped the pens by bashing open the south door and making my way to the templar with the +1 sword. After that, it was a matter of juking the mountain stalker in the NW monster pen (I ran into the pen and hit the button to open the secret door at the back of the pen). Whichever route you take, it's very helpful to have the templar's magic sword later.
10. Once in the sewers, follow the standard walkthrough to rescue the chieftain's daughter. Ensure you save before the fight with the worshipers as you don't want a blind character post-battle (there could be a way to cure it at some point, but I'm sure it doesn't help in the meantime). A quick note on the Chameleon Gloves - if you're battling something that can't be harmed by normal weapons (think shadows in Dagolar's area), feel free to toss on the gloves in place of a normal weapon as you can then punch for damage.
11. Ensure the chieftain's daughter lives when the temple is attacked. Funny thing - the chieftain can die and still give you the helm of contemplation if his daughter lives.
12. The rest of the sewers are pretty straightforward, but beating Dagolar's Lair is -extremely- helpful as you get a Living Cloak and a +3 dagger. The main thing here is ensuring you go to the statue room to talk to the trapped souls. This is required so that playing the organ during the Dagolar fight will be an instant win. On that note (I'm hilarious, I know), save prior to the Dagolar fight as it may take a couple of tries. You want his zombie-bro with you to put out the flames and to ensure Dagolar does some soap-boxing prior to the battle. The key here is to click through the speech and keep clicking as the fight starts. Your character will take a couple of steps into the room rather than camp out just inside the room. These extra steps matter; If done correctly, it will take only 1 turn to walk in front of the organ to play it. The reason for the save is you sometimes get webbed early on and can't move at all. If this happens, you've probably lost the fight. Assuming all goes well, play the organ and watch the souls make mincemeat of Dagolar. Collect the booty and toss on the cloak as it's a huge boon later vs. anything that shoots you with normal arrows, city guards for instance. It's also nice to be able to sell his wand of missiles later.
13. Head out of the hidden sewer exit. This is to get Old One Eye to help you in the fields as he won't help you if you left via the normal exit. He'll distract the guards, they'll shoot you using ineffective bow and arrows, and you're then able to head north, rest, and you can decide what to do next. My next step was clearing the copper mines and oasis to the west so I could then dig at the dragon's eye. You've got a ton of options at this point.
14. For the record, I plan to head to Gedron next so I can get El's Drinker. I feel like this is mandatory to be able to solo some of the harder fights. I also want to defeat Arant one region north of Gedron as Arant drops +2 AC arm and leg armor.
I plan to post updates as I get further, but please do reply if interested in my progress. I'm not sure if higher-level psionics such as mass domination are mandatory to beat the game solo, but we'll see.
Solo walkthrough aside, I have questions others can maybe answer:
1. How do you get to the magic axe area in the NW sewers without a thief?
2. How do you get XP or anything from helping the single serf escape the fields? I cleared the guarded areas north and east and then picked up the quest, but he just leaves either route you go.
3. You can wear Aposs's heart. Is it just a creepy thing to do, or does that do something? My understanding is you can free Aposs the first time he brings it up in conversation, but after that, his conversation loops and you're SOL. He gives a scroll of summon shadow if you free him the first time but not if you kill him.
4. When you give the mastyrial trainer a bag of salt, what's the use? You get the mastyrial for a little bit, but it runs back later, and then he leaves the area.
5. When you free the slave in the arena and he walks into the gated area, does something else happen at any point? For me, he just sits there.
More to come...
Post edited April 22, 2019 by Edict3
