OK, excuse the silly title...

One of the reasons I never got into this game way back when I bought it at release was that the equipment was so utterly BORING compared to Diablo's equipment. The little graphic changes for the equipment but it's still just called a "Sword" or a "Club." Yeah, I know a name is just a name, but it feels more special when you pick up something in Diablo and it's the "Dagger of Putrescence" or something like that.

That said, the game is obviously built around the idea of replaying it over and over again. Is the equipment just boring on the lowest difficulty? Or is it boring no matter what you're playing it on?

Also, are there different monster types on higher difficulties, or just the same old same old?

different equipment, different monsters. or rather, the same equipment more or less, but in the higher levels, as far as i can tell, you're more likely to come across weapons with enchantments (flame thrower comes to mind). the monsters also escalate -- i'm on my second playthrough with exported characters because i didn't feel i was anywhere near defeating Draak, and everything is cranked up a notch as you would expect. (unfortunately, i'm getting a sinking feeling this isn't working out -- my characters are aging, i can't afford exlixirs of youth, and i suspect i'm slowly running into a wall.)

Beating Draak is kind of a mandate, more or less. You collect his huge hoard or gold and that let's you buy some of the things you need to stay young and boost your stats.

so in order to play the next level, you must beat Draak first time round?

thanks for the response, i had a not-so-funny feeling i was wasting my time (on the plus side, i now know a trick or two).

(later): uh, went to start a new game at novice level and discovered i could use my leveled-up characters in an un-leveled-up world. yes, they're aging, but they have a long way to go before they can't use their weapons. Tallima, will this work?

Yes, you can always start a new game with an old character at any time, and you don't have to up the difficulty either. IIRC, the next difficulty level automatically comes available at Level 35; it tells you inside the game.

Aging... its my one bone to pick with this game! It happens way too fast!! Elixirs of Youth are the only way to combat this game flaw, so hoard them, use them, buy them when you can!

thanks again for your response -- the only "drawback" so far is that the monsters are far too easy for my characters, the rewards for killing them are disproportionally small, and there's no suitable equipment in the shops (and of course the aging flaw). otherwise my characters continue to gain skills and experience and i hope my battle with Draak goes a little better this time. cheers.

Yeah, that can work. It just gets to be tedious with the easy creatures and terrible loot drops. You'll keep aging, but you'll probably fly through the levels much faster. And you'll get a little extra income.

It's definitely possible to beat Draak the first time through, and that'd be my recommendation. But if you can't, don't sweat it. Run it again and kill him.

If you're hurting on money by a lot on your next run, there's a cheating way to make some cash (there's also character trainers). To cheat to get some cash if you absolutely need it to avoid ruining you characters (I don't like to cheat, but i'll do it if it means throwing the game away), you can start a new game. 1 with a character you play, 1 with a new monk. Give the monk's equipment to the character you like, then save. Keep repeating that until your inventory is full, then sell everything. Each round is worth about 16k gold. So you can buy some anti-aging potions with a good 5-10 minutes of cheating.

Again, I'd avoid it if you can to make the experience more challenging and more enjoyable. But sometimes you just got to do what you got to do.

thanks for the tips -- to be honest, i think i'll just start all over with what i now know about the game and beat Draak first time round -- this whole approach seems pretty lame. i must confess it's kind of fun to go waltzing through the dungeons, but yeah, pretty boring and my characters are gonna be using walkers by the time i get to Draak)

Am i the only one who thinks draak is a total cake walk? I mean seriously, he's pathetic. The wizards offer more challange

We'll see soon enough but thanks for calming me down. I just entered the last dungeon and after all I've read about this "incredibly hard boss battle" I actually got rather nervous. :P

Yeah, i mean if you go in charging with no battle plan your going to die. That's a fact. So here's what i recommend- As soon as draak summons his wyverns RUN. Draak will still keep up with you but will leave the wyverns behind. And since he doesn't summon more until the others die. You can focus on draak. After that wait until his health is about halfway down to activate the time orb. And then watch the incredibly epic death scene.

Also i never found aging to be a problem. I always tend to have 2-3 youth potions on hand and my characters stay within the 20-25 year range. Don't understand why people have problems.(then again i have been playing this game for over 10 years now.)