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Krondor seriesBetrayal in Antara: What you need to know.(17 posts)(17 posts)
(17 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted December 02, 2018
high rated
There appears to be some uncertainty concerning the state of this game, so I thought I'd try to answer some of those queries.

# CAN THE GOG VERSION BE COMPLETED? #

Yes, I've just successfully completed the game. It took approximately 57 hours, including probably the majority of side-quests.

# IS IT BUGGY? #

No, my play-through was remarkably bug-free and the only small issues I encountered were:
- One random crash to desk-top in the entire 57 hours.
- Getting trapped in one patch of swamp and being unable to get out.

As with all games with limited save slots, my advice is to save regularly as follows:
- Locate the save folder (in Windows 7 this was "User/AppData/Roaming/Sierra/Betrayal in Antara").
- When you have filled the 20 or so save slots, copy and paste the entire folder to another location.
- Repeat this process as you make more saves, that way you can always return to any point in the game if you need to by swapping the current save folder with an older version.

# WHAT ABOUT THE MISSING TEMPLE? #

The temple south of Ligano is part of one unimportant side-quest and I completed the game without ever visiting it. However, if you want to, you can successfully add it to your game by using the following workaround:

https://www.gog.com/forum/krondor_series/bia_error/post110

# WHAT ABOUT THE DAY/NIGHT CYCLE? #

The game includes a day/night cycle, which ran too fast when I first tried to play it years ago using a non-gog version. The day/night cycle runs correctly in the gog version of the game.

N.B. "F5" alters the level of darkness at night - if the scenery turns pink at nighttime, keep pressing F5 until the pink disappears.

# WILL IT WORK ON MY PC #

I can only provide evidence from playing the game on the following PCs:

(P.S. this is with GOG version "setup_betrayal_in_antara_2.1.0.19.exe")

- Windows XP laptop with ATI Radion Express integrated graphics: Game worked fine from start to finish and all chapter intros and conclusions ran without a problem.

- Windows 7 64-bit laptop with Intel HD3000 integrated graphics: Tested with various saves from different chapters, and ran several of the chapter intros and conclusions - everything appeared to work fine.

- Windows 7 64-bit PC with NVIDIA 650 GTX graphics card: Game crashed during the intro, despite trying several different compatibility modes and setting the CPU affinity to a single core (you can avoid this by skipping the intro by pressing "Esc" twice after clicking "NEW" in the main menu). Tested with various saves from different chapters, and ran several of the other chapter intros and conclusions - everything else appeared to work fine.

My advice if you buy the game is to try it as soon as you buy it. That way you can get a refund if gog support can't help you. (An even better idea is to not get a refund and keep the pack for Betrayal at Krondor, which is a great RPG.)

# USEFUL TIPS #

- IMPORTANT: In Chapter 8 make sure you buy, or already have, a supply of the following items: Rope, armorer's hammers, whetstones, torches and shovels. Because in chapter 9 you are restricted to an area where these can't be bought and are very hard (or even impossible) to find. You can't finish the game without some rope and lack of the other items makes the end game a harder and/or more frustrating experience.

Using inventory items can be a little confusing:
- To consume an item e.g. potion: Double click on the item in inventory.
- To repair or treat armour and weapons: Click and drag the relevant item over the item you wish to repair or treat on the character doll on the left (you will hear the appropriate sound and/or get a message confirming your action).
- To use an inventory item in the world e.g. lock-picks: Click on the item in inventory, then click on the hand symbol in the lower right-hand corner. You are now switched to a world-view and the item is attached to your cursor. Click on where you want to use the item e.g. click on a chest lock to use the lock-picks.
- To give or use an item on an NPC: In the box in the lower right-hand side of the inventory screen is a small representation of a character. Drag and drop the required item over that portrait. (Sometimes you need to enter the inventory and do this when a message box is on-screen, which I found confusing at first.)
- To sell items in stores: Drag and drop the item to the shop sign in the box in the lower right-hand side of the inventory screen.

- Keep a record of where shops are and what they sell. Shops buy and sell an annoyingly small variety of items. Keeping a record of this will save you an enormous amount of time and frustration if you need to buy or sell particular items.

- Rest whenever you need to keep the party healthy. You can be ambushed at anytime whilst traveling and except for a couple of minor side-quests there are no time limits in the game.

- During combat you can drink as many healing potions (Senwater) as you want in one go.

# USEFUL RESOURCES #

(Edit - just wanted to add that none of these resources were produced by me)

Walkthrough:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/196753-betrayal-in-antara/faqs/2206

Spell List:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/196753-betrayal-in-antara/faqs/11457

Prima produced a really good strategy guide (Betrayal in Antara: The Official Strategy Guide, ISBN 0761508759), which contains an excellent walkthrough, maps, details of all the items in the game and solutions to all the lever and bead puzzle chests.

Hope some of this helps and if anyone has any queries about the game I'll try and answer them if I can.

Completed play-through with all the chapter intro and end scenes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9n-2a7orzQ&list=PLD952906BF4DB8E62
Post edited December 02, 2018 by groundhog42
Posted December 08, 2018
Great post. I wish I could give you 50 Likes for it. This post certainly helps a lot of new players and old.
Posted December 08, 2018
Yep, agreed. Should be stickied too
Posted December 11, 2018
I actually did a complete play-through as well, just finished it 2 days ago.My notes that might be complementary to yours. Slight spoilers here though.

I did the STEAM version though, the bugs I encountered:
- Missing template (same solution as GoG version)
- End-of-chapter 'video' always crashes - Press ESC to skip and watch the ending/start on youtube
- Stuck in the Swamp and cannot get out - Stay away from the swamp (especially near Torlith, use quicksave and walk around the swamp if you can)
- Chapter 4: An area near Durst is invisibly blocked, not sure why but not really important. You can go there in Chapter 5.
- Travel Bugs (can be exploited, but be careful as you can get stuck): In Chapter 5 I was able to ride a coach from Durst to Isten, effectively getting outside the area assigned for the chapter. I was then able to get to Imazi through the forest east of Waterfork and all the way up to Keth/Ganath/Choth using a coach.
- Travel Bug: Chapter 6: I was able to go through the forest east of waterfork, and all the way up to right-west-of-Torlith.
- Game crashes on start either Logo/When Pressing continue etc. However, not many crashes while in game


Progression tips
End of every Chapter: Make sure you have adequate amounts of most common consumables; rations, senwater, whetstones, armourers hammer, beeswax, arrows (if they are for sale).
Chapter 6: You cannot enter the cave after exiting it.
End of Chapter 6/7: Make sure you have a fishing pole (not game breaking, but there is an item you cannot obtain if you do not have it)
End of Chapter 8: Also buy a substantial amount of rations, as the shop in Havesly do not provide them. The amount you loot of enemies will probably be enough, but you do not need the money anyways.
Chapter 9: You cannot exit the waste after entering.

Weapons - Bows:
- There is a very limited supply of bows and arrows before halfway into chapter 2. (only about 30 arrows and a single bow can be found in Pianda)
- Notice the formula when using a bow, the enemies defence stat reduces your chance to hit.
- Notice that the defend-stat drops as the HP of the enemy drop
- Notice that both arrows and bows have a chance-to-hit modifier
- The conclusion to the above is that if you use a Ridgewood Bow/Speed Bow with Fire Arrows in Chapter 9 on fully healed enemies, you will probably not hit anything.
- I found only 3 speed bows in the game (Chapter 5 chest, Chapter 8 enemy and Chapter 9 chest)

Weapons - Swords:
- Notice that every sword has a chance-to-hit-modifier and a damage modifier for each 'hit type' thrust/hack/swing - use accordingly (i.e. do not hack with a rapier)
- As with bows, the defend-stat of the enemy makes you less likely to hit.
- Januli Greatsword is not worth it compared to Everedge

Weapons - Shields:
- No, you cannot repair them
- The only modifier is "attrition", and you only need to apply it once to a shield.

Weapons - Staffs
- Consumable stafs are IMO not worth it. You will run out to fast, leaving you with a less-melee capable staff than the Quarter/Grrrlf staff

Rings
- Get Ring of the Ranger as soon as you can (increase scouting, which make you less likely to be ambushed without warning)

Combat
- If in trouble: Bring lots and lots of senwater (In chapter 6 I was carrying 75-100 per character)
- Block archers by hitting them - or placing other enemies between you

Learn new spells/magic abilities
- Get hit by spells, or stand right next to a friend/foe that gets hit with a spell

Skills
- Except for magic abilities, abilities only rise when you actually use them (there is no need to have lockpicking selected when you do not pick a lock)
- According to something I read somewhere, skills can only increase by 1pt/combat
- There is a limit to how far a skill can go per chapter, but training/quests/books do not abide by this limit
- The limit is the same in Chapter 1 and 2.
- I mostly have Melee, Defence, Archery/Magic selected. In addition make William and Kaelyin focus on scouting. When I have time I also focus on Stealth.
- Designate a single lockpicker, have only the lockpicking skill enabled before picking locks. Always save before picking locks.
- Designate a single repairer (until the skill is maxed for that chapter at least) and have only that skill selected when repairing. Items can be easily swapped between characters if you just drop the selected characters sword/armor on the character you want to swap with.

When in a new chapter/area
- My first priority is always covering my basics: Access to shops that sell Senwater and Rations, then whetstones, armourers hammers, beeswax etc. As well as shops where I can sell of loot.
Post edited December 11, 2018 by Zerqent
Posted December 15, 2018
avatar
Stig79: Great post. I wish I could give you 50 Likes for it. This post certainly helps a lot of new players and old.
avatar
Huff: Yep, agreed. Should be stickied too
Thanks for the feedback. Especially with the less popular game forums, it can be hard to determine the current state of a game. I just wanted to let people know that the game can be successfully completed.
avatar
Zerqent: I actually did a complete play-through as well...
Thanks for posting, you've included loads of useful information. I'll add a few points to yours:

Weapons - Bows:
The chances of hitting with a bow depends on three factors:
1. Attacker's archery skill
2. Bow accuracy modifier
3. Arrow accuracy modifier.

For a character with high archery skill, I found the Ridgewood Bow (high base damage but 0 accuracy modifier) and Grrrlf or Enchanted Arrows (high accuracy and damage modifiers) to be a successful combination.
- However as you state, using Flaming, Explosive or Corrosive arrows (0 or -5 accuracy modifier) with the Ridgewood Bow will lead to too many misses.
- If the character has a lower archery skill you need to use a bow and arrows with good accuracy modifiers e.g. Grrrlf Bow with Enchanted Arrows

Scouting and Stealth are important skills to aid you in combat:

Scouting is the ability to detect an ambush by enemies:
- If the ambush is successful the enemy gets to move and/or attack you first.
- The party's scouting skill is determined by the character with highest scouting skill. So give the Ring of the Ranger (improves scouting skill) to that character.

Stealth is the ability to sneak up on enemies:
- Successfully sneaking up on enemies means that your party gets to move and/or attack first (some characters may get two attacks before the enemy can attack).
- The party's stealth ability is determined by the character with the lowest stealth skill, so use training to increase their stealth skill.

General combat advice:
Lower health and stamina = Increased chance of being hit + Decreased chance of hitting the enemy, so:
- Rest regularly.
- Avoid taking damage as much as possible (armour, shields, blessings and enhancements).
- Hit first (by increasing your scouting and stealth skills, and using bows to attack before a melee attack is possible).
- Hit hard (best weapons, blessings and enhancements).
- Keep repairing weapons and armour to maximize your attack and defence.
Post edited December 15, 2018 by groundhog42
Posted December 04, 2019
Where is the derek chest in chapter 2? I cant find it in the forest to the east of Cardone...all the guides are very vauge on the location.

Edit : Found it, its in the forest SE of Melay, the guides are wrong.
Post edited December 04, 2019 by Question
Posted December 04, 2019
avatar
Question: Where is the derek chest in chapter 2? I cant find it in the forest to the east of Cardone...all the guides are very vauge on the location.

Edit : Found it, its in the forest SE of Melay, the guides are wrong.
This was one of the few quests I didn't complete, but according to the Official Strategy Guide the Derek chest is located near the road from Melay to Ravenne (this is west of Cardonne, not east).

The following page has a map showing the location of the chest (the brown line is the road from Melay to Ravenne):

https://betrayal.fandom.com/wiki/The_Wreck_of_the_Cyrilan

Edit: Just seen you've already found it - well done.
Post edited December 04, 2019 by groundhog42
Posted December 05, 2019
Actually, I was the one who uploaded the map showing where the chest is. The wiki used to say it was in the forest near Cardone.

Unfortunately there doesnt appear to be an electronic copy of the prima guide anywhere...and its near impossible to get hold of a print copy, especially with the shipping fees to Singapore...(most US retailers will charge at least $50 because they insist on shipping internationally with expensive options).
Posted December 07, 2019
I played this game about a year ago and the day/night cycle was still bugged. It makes the game unplayable because days pass extremely quickly. You have to spend way more money on food and resting than you ever would in the course of normal speed play, and that breaks the economy to the point that it's a real struggle to keep up.

I'll try playing it again, but as far as I know, the GoG version has not fixed this issue.

Update: Just checked with a fresh install on a Windows 10 64-bit machine. Still broken. By the time you walk the short distance to the first town from the start of the game, it's midnight. Walk around for less than a minute and it'll be noon again and your party is exhausted.

A while back I contacted GoG about this issue, and they said that "the game is up to date with the latest patches we have available" and there was nothing else to be done. It seems to me that if you want to play this game without a completely broken timescale, you'll have to do so on an older machine.
Post edited December 07, 2019 by Xaemoon
Posted December 07, 2019
avatar
Xaemoon: I played this game about a year ago and the day/night cycle was still bugged. It makes the game unplayable because days pass extremely quickly. You have to spend way more money on food and resting than you ever would in the course of normal speed play, and that breaks the economy to the point that it's a real struggle to keep up.

I'll try playing it again, but as far as I know, the GoG version has not fixed this issue.

Update: Just checked with a fresh install on a Windows 10 64-bit machine. Still broken. By the time you walk the short distance to the first town from the start of the game, it's midnight. Walk around for less than a minute and it'll be noon again and your party is exhausted.

A while back I contacted GoG about this issue, and they said that "the game is up to date with the latest patches we have available" and there was nothing else to be done. It seems to me that if you want to play this game without a completely broken timescale, you'll have to do so on an older machine.
Im playing this on a modern machine (win10 64 bit) and have tested with both the GOG version and the CD version (patched using squirt's 1.1 installer). Theres no problems with the day/night cycle. Im using an intel CPU...maybe its an issue with AMD cpus or something else? Try the CD version using squirt's 1.1 installer if nothing else works.
Posted December 08, 2019
avatar
groundhog42: There appears to be some uncertainty concerning the state of this game, so I thought I'd try to answer some of those queries.

# CAN THE GOG VERSION BE COMPLETED? #

Yes, I've just successfully completed the game. It took approximately 57 hours, including probably the majority of side-quests.

# IS IT BUGGY? #

No, my play-through was remarkably bug-free and the only small issues I encountered were:
- One random crash to desk-top in the entire 57 hours.
- Getting trapped in one patch of swamp and being unable to get out.

As with all games with limited save slots, my advice is to save regularly as follows:
- Locate the save folder (in Windows 7 this was "User/AppData/Roaming/Sierra/Betrayal in Antara").
- When you have filled the 20 or so save slots, copy and paste the entire folder to another location.
- Repeat this process as you make more saves, that way you can always return to any point in the game if you need to by swapping the current save folder with an older version.

# WHAT ABOUT THE MISSING TEMPLE? #

The temple south of Ligano is part of one unimportant side-quest and I completed the game without ever visiting it. However, if you want to, you can successfully add it to your game by using the following workaround:

https://www.gog.com/forum/krondor_series/bia_error/post110

# WHAT ABOUT THE DAY/NIGHT CYCLE? #

The game includes a day/night cycle, which ran too fast when I first tried to play it years ago using a non-gog version. The day/night cycle runs correctly in the gog version of the game.

N.B. "F5" alters the level of darkness at night - if the scenery turns pink at nighttime, keep pressing F5 until the pink disappears.

# WILL IT WORK ON MY PC #

I can only provide evidence from playing the game on the following PCs:

(P.S. this is with GOG version "setup_betrayal_in_antara_2.1.0.19.exe")

- Windows XP laptop with ATI Radion Express integrated graphics: Game worked fine from start to finish and all chapter intros and conclusions ran without a problem.

- Windows 7 64-bit laptop with Intel HD3000 integrated graphics: Tested with various saves from different chapters, and ran several of the chapter intros and conclusions - everything appeared to work fine.

- Windows 7 64-bit PC with NVIDIA 650 GTX graphics card: Game crashed during the intro, despite trying several different compatibility modes and setting the CPU affinity to a single core (you can avoid this by skipping the intro by pressing "Esc" twice after clicking "NEW" in the main menu). Tested with various saves from different chapters, and ran several of the other chapter intros and conclusions - everything else appeared to work fine.

My advice if you buy the game is to try it as soon as you buy it. That way you can get a refund if gog support can't help you. (An even better idea is to not get a refund and keep the pack for Betrayal at Krondor, which is a great RPG.)

# USEFUL TIPS #

- IMPORTANT: In Chapter 8 make sure you buy, or already have, a supply of the following items: Rope, armorer's hammers, whetstones, torches and shovels. Because in chapter 9 you are restricted to an area where these can't be bought and are very hard (or even impossible) to find. You can't finish the game without some rope and lack of the other items makes the end game a harder and/or more frustrating experience.

Using inventory items can be a little confusing:
- To consume an item e.g. potion: Double click on the item in inventory.
- To repair or treat armour and weapons: Click and drag the relevant item over the item you wish to repair or treat on the character doll on the left (you will hear the appropriate sound and/or get a message confirming your action).
- To use an inventory item in the world e.g. lock-picks: Click on the item in inventory, then click on the hand symbol in the lower right-hand corner. You are now switched to a world-view and the item is attached to your cursor. Click on where you want to use the item e.g. click on a chest lock to use the lock-picks.
- To give or use an item on an NPC: In the box in the lower right-hand side of the inventory screen is a small representation of a character. Drag and drop the required item over that portrait. (Sometimes you need to enter the inventory and do this when a message box is on-screen, which I found confusing at first.)
- To sell items in stores: Drag and drop the item to the shop sign in the box in the lower right-hand side of the inventory screen.

- Keep a record of where shops are and what they sell. Shops buy and sell an annoyingly small variety of items. Keeping a record of this will save you an enormous amount of time and frustration if you need to buy or sell particular items.

- Rest whenever you need to keep the party healthy. You can be ambushed at anytime whilst traveling and except for a couple of minor side-quests there are no time limits in the game.

- During combat you can drink as many healing potions (Senwater) as you want in one go.

# USEFUL RESOURCES #

(Edit - just wanted to add that none of these resources were produced by me)

Walkthrough:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/196753-betrayal-in-antara/faqs/2206

Spell List:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/196753-betrayal-in-antara/faqs/11457

Prima produced a really good strategy guide (Betrayal in Antara: The Official Strategy Guide, ISBN 0761508759), which contains an excellent walkthrough, maps, details of all the items in the game and solutions to all the lever and bead puzzle chests.

Hope some of this helps and if anyone has any queries about the game I'll try and answer them if I can.

Completed play-through with all the chapter intro and end scenes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9n-2a7orzQ&list=PLD952906BF4DB8E62
Where is the chapter 5 chest with the speed bow?
Posted January 03, 2020
Reiterating this: The Temple of Henna south of Ligano is missing and a dirt pile in the area next to it is also missing. To restore them, you'll need to rename or delete 8618.ETC and 8618.V56 in your BiA installation folder.

These are most likely bugged Sierra patch files; a script and a map for this one area in the game. Removing them doesn't actually hurt anything, it just forces the game to use the script found in the RESSCI files. Trust me, you won't need these. And you'll probably never return to the temple after Chapter 1 anyway.
Posted May 30, 2020
Still can't finish this game. Game repeatedly crashes in Choth.
Posted July 21, 2020
avatar
Question: Im playing this on a modern machine (win10 64 bit) and have tested with both the GOG version and the CD version (patched using squirt's 1.1 installer). Theres no problems with the day/night cycle. Im using an intel CPU...maybe its an issue with AMD cpus or something else? Try the CD version using squirt's 1.1 installer if nothing else works.
Both machines I've tested this on had AMD processors, so you might be on to something there. I actually do have the CD version of the game, which I bought a while back thinking I could do exactly what you've suggested here with the squirt's patch. It doesn't make any difference. Both the GoG version and the original CD version run too fast.

Unfortunately, I don't have a machine with an intel processor to test this, but if I ever get access to one, I'll be sure to post an update here. Maybe one of the laptops floating around the house? We'll see. Thanks for the reply!
Posted January 31, 2022
avatar
Question: Im playing this on a modern machine (win10 64 bit) and have tested with both the GOG version and the CD version (patched using squirt's 1.1 installer). Theres no problems with the day/night cycle. Im using an intel CPU...maybe its an issue with AMD cpus or something else? Try the CD version using squirt's 1.1 installer if nothing else works.
avatar
Xaemoon: Both machines I've tested this on had AMD processors, so you might be on to something there. I actually do have the CD version of the game, which I bought a while back thinking I could do exactly what you've suggested here with the squirt's patch. It doesn't make any difference. Both the GoG version and the original CD version run too fast.

Unfortunately, I don't have a machine with an intel processor to test this, but if I ever get access to one, I'll be sure to post an update here. Maybe one of the laptops floating around the house? We'll see. Thanks for the reply!
I've tried BIA on 3 systems with Intel CPUs - same problem with day night cycle going too fast. All are Intel i5 of various generations on Windows 10.
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Krondor seriesBetrayal in Antara: What you need to know.(17 posts)(17 posts)
(17 posts)