Posted May 16, 2024
In Geneforge 1: Mutagen, the final bit of research for cockatrice involves a battle with 16 of them. Playing as a Guardian on Veteran (my first game) I found the battle *extremely* difficult, and it took me several tries even with my best tactic. I want to share it to save you the frustration.
My Guardian was relatively Shaping heavy, with 6 Essence Mastery and all top creations available except Battle Beta (which is boring and not useful for a *melee* guardian anyway).
I summoned 2 maxed out Ur-Glaahks. Glaahks are the masters of crowd control and nothing else comes close. I buff my party before entering the crystal area, with Protection and War Blessing. Speed pods are not so helpful because I believe they make buffs run out faster?
Once Swanwick starts talking to me, I immediately go to the northern cave and start smacking cockatrices in melee. Whenever I have more than 6 movement points while next to a cockatrice, I typically use Curing Spores to remove acid, daze, wrack etc. For this reason I keep my creations close so I can save them from bad enchantments.
Once the first cockatrice is killed, I place my guardian closer to the middle so that glaahks are not the main target all the time. I use Domination from ur-glaahks to cause infighting among cockatrices in the middle, and the ur-glaahks should be a little spread out so a single chaotic rainbow is not likely to hit all of my characters. The stunning cone attack is useful if cockatrices come too close, but I don't go out of my way to shoot it. The priority is keeping ur-glaahks safe.
Each time a new stage happens, I attack (spawn camp) the cockatrice at the top immediately then follow with Dominations.
I couldn't spot the differences between most cockatrice variants. Some have very low health, but the important thing is at stage 4: all those Unstable Cockatrices with orange particles explode on death and it only seems to harm my enemies!
The end of the battle tends to see cockatrices clumped up in the middle, and I use Airshock Crystals to stun them, creep towards them, and give glaahks time to reload cooldowns. I should probably bring blast crystals so the second crystal in round is a blast crystal and not airshock, but I forgot.
Notes:
- my first winning attempt FAILED because I chased the last cockatrice to the south, and the servant mind declared an end of the test because I was too far from the test chamber. Grr!!!
- cockatrices may use Regrow ability to cancel your Charm spell. You can't do much about it. Domination/Charm still seems to be the most effective way. If I could enable cockatrices earlier, they would be very useful to deal with enemies that cast Charm.
- get a ton of resistances, especially stun and energy, but all really. Put high priority on "hostile effect resistance" because it seems to boost resistance to all elements - poison, acid, energy are relevant.
- I was at level 18 when I beat the battle
- ordinary Glaahks with Terror instead of Dominate are cheaper and also quite effective. It may be possible to beat the fight with them, but eventually those cockatrices pile up. So I guess then I should start slinging Airshock- and Blast-crystals.
- you can save essence on shocking skin. Glaahks hardly ever benefit from it in this fight.
- don't forget Guardian *can* use Firebolt, and maybe Searer if you found one of Battle Magic boosters. Firebolt is interesting because it costs 0 essence - only energy, but the higher tier offensive spells are also very cheap in terms of essence. Sometimes it's very useful to finish off a wounded cockatrice from a distance, or hit another one from afar when Quick Action kicks in as you kill a cockatrice in melee.
- Cure Affliction spell, Speed Pod, Airshock Crystal and possibly a few other tricks cost 6 action points and not 9 so you can do something extra in a turn. Tooltips are not always helpful with this. Pay attention and learn.
My Guardian was relatively Shaping heavy, with 6 Essence Mastery and all top creations available except Battle Beta (which is boring and not useful for a *melee* guardian anyway).
I summoned 2 maxed out Ur-Glaahks. Glaahks are the masters of crowd control and nothing else comes close. I buff my party before entering the crystal area, with Protection and War Blessing. Speed pods are not so helpful because I believe they make buffs run out faster?
Once Swanwick starts talking to me, I immediately go to the northern cave and start smacking cockatrices in melee. Whenever I have more than 6 movement points while next to a cockatrice, I typically use Curing Spores to remove acid, daze, wrack etc. For this reason I keep my creations close so I can save them from bad enchantments.
Once the first cockatrice is killed, I place my guardian closer to the middle so that glaahks are not the main target all the time. I use Domination from ur-glaahks to cause infighting among cockatrices in the middle, and the ur-glaahks should be a little spread out so a single chaotic rainbow is not likely to hit all of my characters. The stunning cone attack is useful if cockatrices come too close, but I don't go out of my way to shoot it. The priority is keeping ur-glaahks safe.
Each time a new stage happens, I attack (spawn camp) the cockatrice at the top immediately then follow with Dominations.
I couldn't spot the differences between most cockatrice variants. Some have very low health, but the important thing is at stage 4: all those Unstable Cockatrices with orange particles explode on death and it only seems to harm my enemies!
The end of the battle tends to see cockatrices clumped up in the middle, and I use Airshock Crystals to stun them, creep towards them, and give glaahks time to reload cooldowns. I should probably bring blast crystals so the second crystal in round is a blast crystal and not airshock, but I forgot.
Notes:
- my first winning attempt FAILED because I chased the last cockatrice to the south, and the servant mind declared an end of the test because I was too far from the test chamber. Grr!!!
- cockatrices may use Regrow ability to cancel your Charm spell. You can't do much about it. Domination/Charm still seems to be the most effective way. If I could enable cockatrices earlier, they would be very useful to deal with enemies that cast Charm.
- get a ton of resistances, especially stun and energy, but all really. Put high priority on "hostile effect resistance" because it seems to boost resistance to all elements - poison, acid, energy are relevant.
- I was at level 18 when I beat the battle
- ordinary Glaahks with Terror instead of Dominate are cheaper and also quite effective. It may be possible to beat the fight with them, but eventually those cockatrices pile up. So I guess then I should start slinging Airshock- and Blast-crystals.
- you can save essence on shocking skin. Glaahks hardly ever benefit from it in this fight.
- don't forget Guardian *can* use Firebolt, and maybe Searer if you found one of Battle Magic boosters. Firebolt is interesting because it costs 0 essence - only energy, but the higher tier offensive spells are also very cheap in terms of essence. Sometimes it's very useful to finish off a wounded cockatrice from a distance, or hit another one from afar when Quick Action kicks in as you kill a cockatrice in melee.
- Cure Affliction spell, Speed Pod, Airshock Crystal and possibly a few other tricks cost 6 action points and not 9 so you can do something extra in a turn. Tooltips are not always helpful with this. Pay attention and learn.