Questing advice for noob (spoliers)

[BumpkinPie]

Alright so I'm a level 10 caster who just got done talking to the Crux Club and they told me the asswipe who killed my pal is hanging out in the sewers where he belongs. I have lvl 4 Dark Nimbus but ran into a lvl 9 locked door and I only have a 1% chance to pick it.

Should I just abandon all hope of picking it for a while and try to find Broken Blade to talk to Sparrow? I don't even know how to get to Broken Blade and I really wanna kill this assassin but I get the feeling I'm biting off more than I can chew here. Thanks...

[Turtle]

Nah, you can take him.

There's more than one way past a locked door. If it's the one before the chest puzzle, there's a key. Look around--someone carelessly got himself killed down there while carrying it.

If it's the one after the chest puzzle, well, you're a mage. I'm pretty sure you can pick up Lock Melt in Port Kuudad. If it's not in the magic shop, wait 7 days and then keep reloading until it is. If you can't cast it at a high enough level, then I suggest powderkegs. There's always a way.

Advice for the Thieves' Arcadia: Dense Nimbus is your friend; so is Compress Atmosphere. And remember that you don't have to do the whole thing at once. You can leave and return, or even rest in the dungeon--though not for very long, unless you want to farm assassins for XP.

[tungprc]

unless you want to farm assassins for XP.

Ok, this got my attention. Do Assassins respawn frequently? I'm always looking for a few good men....to kill

[SpottedShroom]

No enemies respawn in Eschalon at all, but you're occasionally interrupted while resting.

On the other hand, I camped out in Thieves' Arcadia for hours at a time undisturbed. I'd really expect a higher chance for resting encounters on that map, but then I did just kill a dozen assassins and you wonder how many spares they have lying around.

[BumpkinPie]

I got another question but don't wanna flood this board with retarded noob topics.

Right, so my map goes from Port Kuudad to Broken Blade with an Unknown in between I'm sure I missed somewhere important, maybe even a place with real merchants.

So before I go trying to jack the dwarfs, I wanna sell my unique axe I got for killing The Beatles (even George, who I am particularly fond of) and buy a cool new offensive spell because my little flame darts aren't hurting anyone any more. I was thinking Ice Lance, or will that not be good since I'm going to a frozen land?

Gimme some help here so I can keep plugging along, I'm enjoying myself!

[tungprc]

Ice Lance, Fireball, Compress Atmosphere, Abyssal Freeze, Supernova. All of these are good Elemental attack spells.

Divine has less choices-Mass Boil and Mystic Hammer are nice.

Overall, I end up using Compress Atmosphere the most. It seems to give the most bang for your mana, but only if you're attacking multiple targets. Just use the Freeze spell for single units. It replaces Fire Dart quite nicely.

As far as shopping, you have Eastwillow, Everdale, Port Kuudad, Durnore, and then Picaroon Isle. You'll also find a guy that sells miscellaneous junk at the docks heading to Picaroon.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

I got another question but don't wanna flood this board with retarded noob topics.

Right, so my map goes from Port Kuudad to Broken Blade with an Unknown in between I'm sure I missed somewhere important, maybe even a place with real merchants.

So before I go trying to jack the dwarfs, I wanna sell my unique axe I got for killing The Beatles (even George, who I am particularly fond of) and buy a cool new offensive spell because my little flame darts aren't hurting anyone any more. I was thinking Ice Lance, or will that not be good since I'm going to a frozen land?

Gimme some help here so I can keep plugging along, I'm enjoying myself!

Depending on your mercantile skill, you can usually sell Hexedge to the fancy weapons dealer in Port K (if your skill is too high, he won't have enough money unless you buy from him first) when he's refreshed. He and the weapons dealer in Durnore both start with 2500 gold, if I recall (don't feel like starting the game to check). Your best offensive spell for the dwarves, I think, is Compress Atmosphere. It does physical rather than magical or elemental damage, and it affects your target plus any targets adjacent. You can't use it directly on an object--only on a creature--but it will damage objects next to your target, so be careful using it if there are explosives too close. I'm not sure which "unknown" map you're talking about. Maybe the one with Lorewitch (the tower with the Sentinel Stalks outside)?

[xolotl]

Ice Lance, Fireball, Compress Atmosphere, Abyssal Freeze, Supernova. All of these are good Elemental attack spells.

Compress Atmosphere is especially nice because it bypasses elemental resistance, which is very handy for a few of the creatures you'll encounter. That it also affects multiple targets is a handy bonus. Abyssal Freeze is a nice upgrade to Fire Dart, though by the time my char was capable of effectively casting Ice Lance (which was towards the end of the game), I had moved over to mostly using that one.

Personally I don't like Supernova very much, and only ended up using it once or twice during the whole game... IMO it uses up too much mana for not enough actual damage-per-entity to be effective if you're in imminent threat of melee attacks. (Not that I'm advocating that the spell get changed, mind.) Can be quite useful in a few circumstances, though.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

Ice Lance, Fireball, Compress Atmosphere, Abyssal Freeze, Supernova. All of these are good Elemental attack spells.

Compress Atmosphere is especially nice because it bypasses elemental resistance, which is very handy for a few of the creatures you'll encounter. That it also affects multiple targets is a handy bonus. Abyssal Freeze is a nice upgrade to Fire Dart, though by the time my char was capable of effectively casting Ice Lance (which was towards the end of the game), I had moved over to mostly using that one.

Personally I don't like Supernova very much, and only ended up using it once or twice during the whole game... IMO it uses up too much mana for not enough actual damage-per-entity to be effective if you're in imminent threat of melee attacks. (Not that I'm advocating that the spell get changed, mind.) Can be quite useful in a few circumstances, though.

I found two good uses for Supernova. There are a number of places in the mines where it can be helpful in eliminating rooms-full of creatures. And cast at level 1, it makes most hidden things smoke, which makes it helpful in knowing where to look for gems in the Farrock Caverns. It also does make short work of that path-blocking pile of barrels on the way to Edon. Once you're into the grazelands and Talushorn, Ice Lance is a superior spell for primary use. I generally mixed and matched depending on how much health my opponent had remaining, so as to maximize my usable mana.

[BumpkinPie]

Thanks - Compress Atmosphere it is!

Its killing me that I have a missing fast-travel option between Port K and Broken Blade. Did I miss a handful of quests too? Crap...

[Kreador Freeaxe]

Thanks - Compress Atmosphere it is!

Its killing me that I have a missing fast-travel option between Port K and Broken Blade. Did I miss a handful of quests too? Crap...

Ah, that one. Did you go north from Wendy's Brother's house?

[tungprc]

Hey, if you visit Wendy's again, be sure to ask her if you can have a Frostee. She makes a great frostee

[BumpkinPie]

Confession time! I have two quests lingering on my To Do List -- which is actually much more efficient than my real life! One of them is to fetch some lazy broad an ore, the other is to alert some happy-go-lucky dunce that his sister is about to show up and bother him. "Why bring gloom?", says I. So I didn't bother.

Shit.

I don't like to curse but I find myself on the back-end of some merry dwarf who charges me $50 a pop to get back to civilization despite the fact I'm his only customer. I knew I should've cranked my Merc stat.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll find something else to ask/whine/fart about in a bit -- I'm drunk and happily making my way through the game. I have every intention of making a melee character after my first play-through, I've run across some gear that would just look completely out of place on a wimp like me

Any damn ways, I forgot what I was talking about. You got $5 I could borrow or what?

[Kreador Freeaxe]

Confession time! I have two quests lingering on my To Do List -- which is actually much more efficient than my real life! One of them is to fetch some lazy broad an ore, the other is to alert some happy-go-lucky dunce that his sister is about to show up and bother him. "Why bring gloom?", says I. So I didn't bother.

Shit.

I don't like to curse but I find myself on the back-end of some merry dwarf who charges me $50 a pop to get back to civilization despite the fact I'm his only customer. I knew I should've cranked my Merc stat.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll find something else to ask/whine/fart about in a bit -- I'm drunk and happily making my way through the game. I have every intention of making a melee character after my first play-through, I've run across some gear that would just look completely out of place on a wimp like me

Any damn ways, I forgot what I was talking about. You got $5 I could borrow or what?

If you click the quick travel markers at Raven's Gate and Durnore, you can save all but the first 50 gold. (You can save that if you just walk to Durnore the first time, but that can be risky if a storm blows in on your way.)

[Turtle]

unless you want to farm assassins for XP.

Ok, this got my attention. Do Assassins respawn frequently? I'm always looking for a few good men....to kill

When I was resting to Forage, about 8 hours at a time, I found they'd appear about one time in three or four. Four at a time, very nice XP. However, after I killed Darus' assassin, I didn't get them anymore. Not sure if that's coded in or just a statistical anomaly.