Eager to start a discussion going for Bethesda Softworks older bygone title Battlespire. Released in 1997 to middling reviews and little attention the game has largely gone under the radar for most gamers. So, have you played it? Did you play it on launch? Have you finished it?

For those who have a copy of the game and want to give it a go here is my guide for playing Battlespire:

First off let me start by saying this game is brutal if you don't make a proper build and even going with one of the pre-made classes could mean every fight in the later levels will involve a lot of saving and reloading. Only consider playing this game if your a hardcore fan of the series, otherwise pass up on it.

A few things for those playing it for the first time:
*Designed to be finished between 20-40 hours, probably a fraction of the time if you use a guide. If you want to go in without a guide then I hope your good at riddles....you know what...peeks into the guidebook are ok every now and then.....
*Seven levels. None of them can be called 'sprawling' but they are definitely large and require a fair bit of W key pressing. The second level is split into two parts called '2a' and '2b'.
*No gold or vendors/merchants. There is no point in hoarding magic items you'll never use, as a matter fact they'll slow you down and if your carrying enough useless gear around you'll automatically sink whenever you jump into a body of water.
*No XP/leveling system. End of the level you receive a small HP boost and some build points to spend on your attributes and skills but that's it. However you do level your skills by using them so it's not recommended to ignore and run past enemies.
*No repairing. This game has a durability mechanic but no way to fix items except for the rare and limited coffers of restoration. There are only 12 of these in the entire game!! and they show up as follows: level 1-none!,level 2a-none,level 2b-two,level 3-two,level 4-two,level 5-two,level 6-two,level 7-one. Can also be used to recharge magic items (gem of hero on level 3 is worth getting and saving throughout the game). They look like regular coffers but have a slightly different texture make sure to check their name. You can also pick them up and put them in your inventory.
*Floating purple gems. You will find these tiny purple gems. They usually come in pairs, one can heal you and the other can restore a great portion of your mana. They take one minute to respawn and can be "camped" on if you so desire.
*MAKE SURE TO make backup saves. At the very least when you start a new level make sure to make a backup save as doors can get glitched, mobs with sigil keys can be killed and toss backed into an unreachable spot or sometime switches and other things plain don't work. There is also a game breaking bug on level 5, but don't worry about that now come back to it later.

Now before you start the first level, a few things you should know:
*Sigils can be found on the corpses of enemies they come in two varieties: 'sigils' and 'sigils of entry'. The first is rather useless, all it does is turn you etheral which means you can't attack or cast spells but neither can you be harmed by physical attacks or spells, the only purpose it serves is to allow you to close in on an enemy spellcaster. oh and there is a small chance it may level your thaumaturgy skill by a wee bit. now the second is very important as it is required to enter certain parts of the dungeon which without it are locked off and prevent you from progressing the game. these locked off areas will damage you if you try to go through them. both of them look the same in the inventory which is confusing. you can only tell the difference by the 'of entry' at the end and that they cannot be used. if you find more than one entry sigil just drop it you'll only ever need one at a time.
*The big blue beam is just for show. There is no way to get into it as it is locked with mehrune dagon's personal sigil and you can't go in so don't bother. Once again don't try.
*No secret doors (except for one in the first level). If your a chronic secret wall/door checker like me you'll be glad to know that you won't need to be hug the walls and spamming the use key.

Other quirks:
*No shields in the game. So don't stick with a 1H weapon unless out of necessity make sure to always go with 2H weapons like claymores.
*This game is really unfinished.
*Long blades are the ONLY worth well melee skill the others suck and have a lower damage ceiling (see below for a detailed explanation). Also spears count as long blades for some strange reason.
*Your going to get A LOT of items, most of which will have an enhancement attached them. it is worth checking out the list by googling 'uesp enhancements'. Some of them despite sounding good do absolutely nothing (nice one todd another bug infested game which you will gleefully wait for the fans to patch up... todd wasnt actually involved in the development of the game but stuff him anyway!), some of them harm you, some of them are really good at level 6 I found a tunic and it buffed all my attributes by 20, gave me spell absorption and would heal me when I took damage from spells and when I checked the uesp it said (name: effects unknown)(?). point is experiment but make sure to hold onto the items which heal you and restore your mana and the ones which give you resistance to magic and shield.
*On my first playthrough I lucked out and found a shirt with frost immunity and boots with fire immunity. Frost and fire daedric wouldn't cast spells and would just wait for me to get close to them until they started walloping on me. This made the game a breeze for me.
*If your a pervert and dont want your secret getting out well then don't click on the female option when your around other people. I was playing this game at a library and woman in with her child walked by me as I was picking the hairdo for my nord warrioress.

Character creation tips:
*When picking out spells. click spells-->add-->(choose your spells)-->click 'exit' and not 'cancel' otherwise the spells you picked will be lost. it's odd I know.
*Endurance is a dump stat. You can safely lower it down. Only downside is your lung capacity when swimming will be low but it doesn't matter since there is only 1 time in the entire game where you will need to dive down to flip a switch and even then you can drink a potion of water breathing which lasts a long time. The health you received from leveling up I assume is 10% of your current wounds so start with 100-200 wounds is advised.
*I have no clue what the racial bonuses. The skill bonuses are displayed but the racial bonuses are only
eluded to in the text. Here is what I think:
Breton-the text for them is the same as daggerfall. meaning they could potentially have a 30% magic resistance bonus which could be huge. considering at later levels enemies out run you and spam spells at you from all angles. I picked this race for my playthrough and with 100 willpower had few spells actually affect me.
High Elf-the +10 longsword bonus is the best. however the paralyzation bonus is bogus since no enemies in the game can actually paralyze you (once again a rushed a game with made by a small staff).
Wood elf-meh unless you like the missile combat in this game.
Dark Elf-useless.
Nord-axe and blunt weapon skill is useless. frost resistance matters little.
Redguard-useless.
All the races except Breton suck (that's if their spell resistance actually works which I am 50/50 certain it does) and it's because at higher levels you will get bombarded with spells now you could pick any race and go with the spell absorption special advantage and use spell shielding spells but EH. you know? well its really because leveling magic is such a bore and I'd rather go melee and slide my mouse aronund as if its a pet hamster im desperately trying to shake to death.
*Judging from the manual it seems starting off with a high agility (max 75 at character creation) and high long blade (max 60) is the way to go. worth picking high elf for this reason if breton isn't fantastical enough and gets in the way of your escapism. Why? well in the guide book called the 'athenaeum' (jeez are these guys nerds or what!) it has a super complicated formula which basically says that if you have a low chance to hit then your more likely going to 1) damage your weapon, 2) drop your weapon, 3) do the annoying thing where you can't attack for a few seconds and your vision sways for a bit 4) have your attacks dodged. where as if you have a high weapon skill you will drastically reduce the above from happening and you'll get way more telling blows and stuns. both of these can (judging from experience and the manual/guidebook) mean the opponent will lose attacks and just stand there waiting to be cut down. your primary attack movement should be the top to down movement with the mouse that way you'll deal double damage but have a slightly lower chance to hit. Ive killed many of the higher mobs with one hit using this so give it a try. For this reason it is good to stack items with the 'hewing' enhancement, some items don't stack with others meaning make sure to double check the character screen skills section and see what works and doesn't.
*Make restoration at least one of your major skills and don't lower your personality below 30. With 50 int you should be able to have two uses. Make sure to save scum if you get low results (aim for the high 10s and 20). If you want to have a personality of 10 and get the no magicka regen disadvantage well then I hope you like alt-tabbing and scrolling through social media until your health goes back up.
*Mage builds are hard to pull off but you need to have high agility to hit things, high willpower to cast spells successfully and high int for a large mana pool.

Tags
battlespire, battlespire guide, battlespire tips, battlespire google, battlespire builds

I played and finished it for the first time last year. Went with a Breton, forgot the exact build. The Dark Seducers probably gave me the most trouble, but every fight felt tense. I did use a guide whenever I hit a wall and didn't know what to do next. Controls weren't that bad, I'm used to games from that era. But coming off of Arena and Daggerfall, the game felt too tangential to the rest of the series. Still, I enjoyed my time with it and I'm glad I finished it.

This really belongs in the Elder Scrolls series subforum. The "small" bonus is actually exponential. The more HP (or, rather, Wounds) you start with, the more you gain each level, so starting with high Wounds will make things easier. (Note, however, that healing only scales linearly.) I disagree. They're actually very useful, as they can allow you to survive the barrages of spells that enemies throw at you, and once they run out they can't throw any more spells. Also, you can run right through enemies while ethereal. Note that these sigils won't carry over to the next level, so use them or lose them. (Sigils (both types) are the only items that disappear like that.) Not every level has them. In particular, there are none in level 3, so you may want to try and conserve healing resources until you reach that point.

There are none in 2b, either, from what I remember. I disagree. Unarmed combat (forgot what the skill is called) is better once you raise the skill. Note that you can start with it low and raise it against scamps in the very first level, as scamps are weak enough to allow that, and your initially weak attacks will not kill the enemy before you get a bunch of skill increases. 1, 2, and 3 can only happen if you have a weapon equipped. So, unequip your weapon and fight barehanded and you won't have to worry about all that.

(Your attacks can still miss, but you still get skill XP when that happens IIRC.)

It's possible, with some trickery, to start with 60 Restoration (or more, if you can get a racial bonus) but only 10 Personality. I don't like doing this because it means I don't get skill increases, but it may be the optimal solution.