ok i've been basically playing the game and i've run into some things for clarification..

1) Exploring the map makes foes give more experience? Is this worthwhile or pretty useless later. After all its very easy to progress into further maps and fight harder foes to get more experience than cheap 1 exp foes. Taking soooo long to explore beginner areas just to boost experience? it that even useful at all.

2) Doing quests boost your chance for rewards for future quests. Again is there some formula for this that i've read about? Do you want to just do all the quests in all the areas, is that a huge boost to your chance for items for turning in future quests, or is it some silly number like "you'll have a 10% better chance at drops" after spending an eternity doing a thousand little useless quests.

3) Mm i read somewhere that dual welding and sword/haft skills don't stack, that sword/haft skills are only for those using 1 weapon/shield and doesn't work with dual welding.

Just some questions if anyone knows. Is exploring most of the world worth the "bonus", is doing all the quests you can worth the "bonus".

Generally the world leveling with you. If you get stronger the game world get stronger as well till a certain point depending on the difficulty you play. Practically it doesn't matter where you level and with what method, the progression going to be the same. This ensure the free gameplay without the need of farming.

The only bonus the game grants is based on the survivability. The longer you stay alive the more stronger enemies will spawn and they worth more experience and drop better items with higher chance, once again to a certain limit based on the difficulty you picked. This reset to zero the moment your character die.

About dual wielding, it is a bit more complex. Every weapon has a chance to hit the target buffed by its specific skill, and dual wield also has a hit chance from its own skill. Having the weapon specific skill help you hitting the opponent and increase damage as well however will not affect the dual wield specific moves (such as attacking with both weapons at the same time and the negative buff comming from having two too high level weapons, speed for the subsequent attack with the other weapon etc). Having only dual wild help you hitting the openent with at least one of the weapons and that is all. Both is required for effective dual wield fight especially when the enemies also start having high defense.

In the other hand it is possible to fight without weapon specific skill. Picking something that increase the overall damage for example makes a different gameplay. There is a lot of combinations and no matter what you pick there is always something that you can use to balance the disadvantage out.

Hi @eolsunder

I myself have only recently started playing the game. I'm currently partway through Act II, silver difficulty, with a level 40 wood elf (no dual wielding for her). Not tried any other character (beyond seeing where each starts). I keep playing a bit then going back, either to the beginning to start over - including when I went to silver, starting from scratch rather then importing the character I'd been building on bronze - or simply to a save game from a previous area because I'd enjoyed doing things one way but wanted to see if doing them in a different order would be "better".

I've also done a bit of looking around for info and tips.

My short answer, for what it is worth:

1) Outside the beginner area, at bronze difficulty it is not worth running around killing random mobs (except when one drops a combat art rune or some really good gear), at silver difficulty it is. Looking for remote dungeons (caves) and other places of interest is worthwhile, sometimes only for the satisfaction of finding one, sometimes for a new challenge too. Worthwhile too is looking for out-of-town quest givers.

(In the beginner area, try to save enough level 1 goblins for when you have the quest to collect goblins' hearts!)

2) Quest rewards are our best chance of getting combat art runes.

One thing the game doesn't explain early enough: DO NOT SELL OTHER CHARACTERS' RUNES IN A SHOP. (For just one gold apiece!) Wait until you meet a combat master, with whom you can trade them for runes you do want.

Another thing the game does not explain well, but that @Zuper man touched on: when gear increases attack speed or movement speed, that is an intrinsic bonus. But if gear comes with a % movement penalty or (if a weapon) %as penalty, that is because our character is slightly down-level, e.g. a level 6 character with a level 7 sword. (I used that example deliberately.) The penalty can be fixed by points in the relevant skill, or will disappear when the character reaches the higher level.

I don't know that. The survival bonus is there in both Sacred 1 and 2 but honestly I played 1 too long ago to remember those flags. The enemies respawn in most open areas that is sure.