------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =============== Intro/Info: =============== Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance for GC +General Combat/Boss Strategy for Hard/Extreme Mode+ Author: Brendan Doyle (L0rd_Verminaard) Version: 1.0 2/17/2009 =============== Disclaimer/Copyright: =============== The information in this file is the author's own work and opinions. At no time should any information in this document be considered %100 factual, as individual experiences may vary. At no time should this FAQ be copied/distributed without my approval. It is for personal use only. If you would like to use this FAQ on your site, email me at: Lord_Verminaard@yahoo.com All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. =============== Credits: =============== Firstly, to all of the developers and publishers for this game: Interplay, Black Isle Studios, Snowblind, etc... for making it in the first place. Second, to all of the other FAQ writers out there who have provided information and play tips for this game. Your work is appreciated! =============== About this guide: =============== There is a multitude of information available on completing the game, as well as detailed character builds, already out there. Part of the fun of this game is playing it through multiple times with different characters and character builds and seeing how powerful they can be. Playing the game on Extreme mode is the ultimate challenge of your character's strength. This guide assumes that you know the ins and outs of the game pretty well, you know the level layouts and know what to expect. The aim of this guide is to help increase your overall effectiveness in killing the various types of bad guys you come across in your travels and notes for each character type will be provided. I won't tell you how to build your character- that is for you to decide and part of the fun of the game. I will do my best to provide tips and strategies for each character type and hopefully you will be able to incorporate them in your individual character build. =============== About the difficulty levels: =============== Again, we will assume you are playing on hard or extreme mode. There are two major differences between the two modes: -Hard mode, if you start from scratch, will place you at the Elfsong Tavern at level 1, ready to face the world. The enemies in Hard mode have more HP, and deal more damage to you, as well as having higher Armor Class (AC) which makes them harder to hit. The treasure drops, including gold, are the same as they are on easy and normal modes, so equipment upgrades are slow. -Extreme mode makes you import a character file from another save- so if you have completed the game on easy, normal, or hard, you start with the skills and experience you had at your last save point. For most characters, it is around level 17, give or take. The enemies are ramped up significantly in HP, damage, and AC to compensate. In your favor, the treasure drops and gold are also increased greatly, so in just a short time, you will have a lot of gold and equipment to choose from. (and you will need it!!!) In my experience, playing the game through on Extreme with an imported character is a bit easier than Hard mode, due to two factors: Your starting feats, this especially helps the Sorceress, and the equipment drops. While the opponents do more damage in Extreme, it does not seem to scale up as much as their overall HP does. I think the Extreme mode of play really is a good challenge and the idea of importing a character to continue their growth is a nice addition to the game. Unfortunately, it also brings out some of the limitations of the game. One limitation that works in your favor is Spell Damage. See the Sorceress below, but the same rules apply for enemies too. The first time around, some casters could really do a lot of damage, now, their spell damage is the same and you happen to be much higher level so the spells are not much to worry about anymore. I will discuss other limitations in more detail as I come to them. =============== Some General Notes about the Characters and Their Abilities: =============== I will assume that most people reading this have at least played a little with each character so they are somewhat familiar with their abilities. I will not discuss Drizzt in this guide, while he is interesting to play around with, he is pretty much useless in Extreme mode due to his inability to equip any other weapons besides his two Scimitars, Icing-ghey and Sprinkle. (or whatever they are called) --==The Human Archer==-- Overall, I feel the Archer is the easiest character to complete the game with. What makes him so useful is the flexibility of how you can play him. Like the Warrior, he has no limitations on what types of weapons he can use, and most of their combat-type passive feats are the same, the Archer only lacking Sword and Fist and Improved block. By the time you start Extreme mode, you should have a lot of his better abilities trained, like Hail of Arrows and one of the Elemental arrow attacks. Also, of all of the characters in the game, how you build your Archer will really change the way you play him significantly- if you are a warrior-type with a good ranged attack, you will be up-close and in melee combat more often. If you focus more on his arrow attacks, obviously you will be keeping mobile and shooting from a distance. Your build type will also effect what sorts of amulets and rings you will look for later in the game. If you are the Arcane Arrow type player, you will soon notice a limitation in the damage of the Arcane attacks- they do not scale with level or with a stat increase. So that max damage on shock arrow might look really nice early on, later in the game the damage it does really is not good enough for what you spent on it. Make sure to think about this for "endgame" content. More on Spell Damage later. --==The Dwarf Warrior==-- Ah the Warrior class. The first one that I usually pick in any sort of RPG. He is well represented here in Dark Alliance. There is good news and bad news with him- Good news first? Ok. His passive feats are quite good- and at the end of the game, he will be able to do more damage in melee combat than anyone else. Bad news? His active feats totally suck. Both Clengeddin's Fist and Whirlwind attack require specific weapon types to be used, although Whirlwind attack does damage based on weapon type, where Clengeddin's Fist is a set amount, and is completely useless later in the game. Think of it this way: The max possible damage of Clengeddin's Fist is 40- which isn't even enough to kill a medium-sized rat in the sewer level. Bull Rush, on the other hand, is useful, not as a way to deal damage, but as a "dash" type move to either get yourself out of trouble, or close in on an annoying thrower/caster. Don't get anymore than the first rank of this skill- the damage simply isn't worth it. --==The Elf Sorceress==-- The poor useless Elf. Other than being nice to look at, she pretty much sucks in Extreme mode. Here's why: Spell damage. Spell damage, like mentioned above with the Archer, is a set amount- it's always the same and does not scale with level or damage. If it did, she would be much more useful, but sadly, she sucks. The only spell that is worth anything is Ball Lightning- the damage it does is insane at max level and only costs 15 energy to cast. This is really the only spell you should spend points on- seriously. With Ball Lightning maxed out, you will breeze through the game on Extreme pretty quickly, that is until you come to a boss fight. Yep, nearly every boss, except for 3 that I can think of, is either immune to lightning, or takes half-damage from it. Since the damage from all of her other spells sucks, you are reduced to fighting most of the bosses hand-to-hand, which she can't do since she has no feats that support hand-to hand fighting. At later parts of the game, this REALLY sucks since the bosses start having stupid amounts of HP and the only way the Sorceress can damage them is with weapon attacks. That forces you to carry a lot of potions, which have weight, and her strength is low, so you will be making frequent trips back to shops to sell/junk stuff. Also, due to her low strength, her hit rating is low and you will miss..... a lot. Very annoying. She also has the lowest HP in the game, and later on, many enemies and especially bosses will be able to kill her with one hit- making potions useless anyway. That being said, I have finished the Extreme mode in the quickest amount of (game play) time with the Sorceress- just for the fact that with Ball Lightning, she can clear a room of minor enemies in just a few shots. Now, I spent probably twice as much time with bosses as I have with other characters- Some of them very annoying, like Karne, who can cheap-shot really easily and you're dead in one hit. The actual time I spent playing the game- i.e. dying and trying again, probably added up to the same or even more time than I did with the Warrior or Archer. If you like a challenge, use the Sorceress on Extreme. :) =============== General Fighting Techniques: =============== With the characters out of the way and their differences discussed, time to pass on some general fighting techniques that will apply to ANY character, and once mastered, will carry you very far in the game. With Extreme mode, every enemy has to be treated individually as a battle to overcome- unlike Easy mode where you can plow into a room, hack/shoot/zap anything that moves and generally be reckless and not worry about self-preservation too much. Try that in Extreme and you are dead- quickly. Here is a better approach: *I'm sure that many players now have noticed a "glitch" in the A.I. of most of the enemies in the game- they cannot turn circles very well and often times, when you duck behind a wall, corner, or piece of junk in the floor (desk, table, unbreakable boxes, etc..) they will turn around and run the other way in a wide arc to get around the object and to you. This is when you strike. Also, most enemies will not attack you unless you are directly in front of them- even if you are at an angle where their attack will still hit you. (some are more lenient with this than others) Using this information, along with the circle trick, you can take down just about anything in the game this way. Here's how it should work: -Let the enemy run toward you. Back up to a room that is slightly open so you can run around some if you need to, although with practice, you will be able to pull this off even in cramped hallways. -When they are within about two-to three "body lengths" away, run in a 90-degree angle to their approach- essentially in a perpendicular line to their line of approach. -Run a couple of steps this way, the enemy should steer toward your general area. When they do, change your course and turn about 45-degrees toward the enemy- you should be pretty close to them now but they will not attack since they will still be facing where you were before. Sometimes I like to jump at this point, you will cover more ground that way- useful if you are fighting an enemy that is faster than usual. -At this point, steer hard toward the enemy, sort of like you are trying to run into their "wake" if you can imagine that. At this point, you should be aiming for their backside and they will still be trying to turn in your direction- which won't work since you are already nearly behind them. Instead of stopping and turning, they keep running. -You should be able to follow what is happening now. You have started the "circle", so from this point out, you can more or less follow them around and around forever- they will just keep running and you will keep at their backside. You can stop and attack once, then keep running- if need be, jump or cut the "arc" of your circle sharply, close to the enemy to adjust position or close the distance if they get away from you. It's hard to imagine, but easy once you try it out. Basically, you get the enemy to follow you around in a circle, where in reality, you end up following them- attacking once every few steps until they die. Pretty neat, huh? You will soon find out that this technique can work for just about every type of monster in the game- and you can even do it with groups of 3 or more if you are careful and have a lot of space. Sometimes they will run into each other and turn around and run the other direction- sometimes you can have two enemies running in opposite circles with you in the middle, hacking away at each one. This works well in tight hallways. I feel this works much better than the "turtle" method- backing up to a wall and putting up your shield/blocking. It's ok for one or sometimes two enemies, but when there are more than that, plus one or two throwing something at you, it becomes dangerous. Also, there are a handful of enemies that you cannot block their attacks- or their attacks are at just the right angle close up, where blocking will not work. The big stone-throwing Ogres come into mind here. Other enemies attacks are just too quick for you to be able to get your own attack in-between theirs. Sometimes turtling is the only way out of a jam or it is the safest way to down an enemy, so don't abandon the technique. With this newfound circle technique, every enemy type reacts to it a little differently. Also, some weapons are just better at it than others. I find that the two-handed axes and warhammers are not the best for this, as their range is not good and the swing-speed is slow, even with Combat Reflexes trained. One-handed weapons seem to really work well for this technique. Experiment with your character build and see what works best for you. For example, the Archer can really cause some pain with Hail Of Arrows at close range. The Dwarf can Whirlwind if there are two or three enemies circling him and hit each one two or sometimes three times. With the Sorceress, you are out of luck as the time it takes to cast most of her spells can cause the enemies to get too close. This technique should only be used with her when your spells won't do it- Lightning Ball works best when they are far away from you. The exception is fire shield, the damage is abysmal, but the damage happens so fast that the enemy will be more or less in a constant state of stun, allowing you to posistion yourself behind them or get in a few more hits. Be careful, even if they are taking damage, they can still attack you. There is also a casting delay for fire shield, leaving you open for attack and often times getting you in more trouble than you started out in. =============== The Areas: =============== Ok, on to the areas and a brief rundown of the enemy types. We will assume you are playing on Extreme, or at least Hard mode. On the lesser modes, many of these details really do not apply. =============== Act I =============== <> -Rats: Easy. Just hack at them. Really no need to circle. They can do damage if they swarm you, but it really should not be a problem. -Kobolds: Also pretty easy. Basically the same as rats. The ones that throw will run away if you get close to them, but they cannot melee attack. The throwing ones really don't do a whole lot of damage anyway so don't ignore a group of other enemies to chase one of them around.* -Spiders: I think these appear in every level... Anyway, be careful, they can hurt, their attacks are fast- try to take on only one or two at a time. The circle technique works REALLY well on them. Here's another tip- sometimes, while circling and attacking, you will "stun-hit" them, where they will get knocked back a bit and stop moving for a moment. Since you are circling them, you should be pretty close to perpendicular when this happens, so move in while they are stunned and swing three or four more times at their side- it will take them a few moments to turn toward you, so you are in very little danger of being hit. This works on other critters besides Spiders. -Bugbears: These big, club-swinging guys look formidable, but they are not that bad. Trying to fight more than one at a time is not a smart thing to do though. They run pretty quickly, but the circle technique works well on them too. They have two swinging attacks, one hits much quicker than the other and there is no real indication as to which attack they will do, so turtling is dangerous, as one critical hit swing at this early in the game can kill you. Draw them into the screen with ranged attacks and then circle. Make sure you have enough room! -Green Blobs: Very annoying, but mostly harmless. One thing I have noticed is that their "projectile" attacks do not do much if any more damage than they did in regular mode. At level 2 or 3, it was devastating- at level 17, not so much. Their close-range "melee" attack will do more damage though so be careful. The Sorceress should just nuke them with Ball Lightning, the Archer should shoot, and the Dwarf should have enough HP to ignore their attacks all together and smash them into pulp. -Blue Cubes: These guys also hurt a lot the first time through, but now they are pretty wimpy. Be careful of their close-range attack, as it will still do a lot of damage but their projectiles can pretty much be ignored. They are immune to lightning attacks, sorry Elf. They have what seems to be an endless supply of HP, so you could spend a lot of arrows on them. =Boss: Bugbear Chieftain= He's no different than the other Bugbears, just more HP and he has a pack of Kobolds around him. Easy enough for the Sorceress, he takes damage from Ball Lightning so let them have it. You can apply the circle technique for the entire group if you want, make a VERY wide circle around the whole room, stopping to pick off a Kobold or two, then close in and take out the Chieftain. Easy peasy. *For the section with the "wall 'o Kobolds"- take your time, stay behind the crates, pop out (or jump) to make them all throw at the same time, wait for the spears to pass, walk out and fire back with your own arrows, (or spell) duck behind the crates and repeat. Once there are 5 or 6 of them left, you generally are safe enough to charge in and hack them to bits. <> One of the hardest areas of the game. Some general notes about the undead: Blunt weapons hurt the skeletons much more than bladed weapons do- that includes Arrows. (but not Elemental ones!) Now is the time to use that weapon of disruption that you've been hoarding. Disruption weapons will instantly kill the undead monster upon a critical hit. Sucks for the Sorceress though, as she has no feats that improve her crit rating. On the other hand, she has Ball Lightning. :) -Zombies: Slow, but they hurt a LOT when they hit and they have a ton of HP in Extreme mode. If you want, you can switch to a bladed weapon if it has a higher damage output than the blunt weapon you were using on the skeletons. Circle works well although they are slow enough that most of the time you can just run to the side of them and hit before they turn toward you. If a Zombie dies with all of it's limbs intact, there is a good chance the top-half of the body will detach and crawl after you. Not a big deal, and actually kinda nice since you will get more treasure and more experience. Generally speaking, spells and arrows will damage a Zombie without removing body parts. -Skeletons: Really, really freaking annoying. They come in two flavors- melee and ranged. The melee run fairly quickly and can do a lot of damage in a hurry. Use your blunt/disruption weapon and circle. The Ranged versions fire arrows and can also do a decent amount of damage- duck behind a door and wait until they walk through, then jump out and beat them to dust. The ranged versions cannot attack with a melee type attack so get close to them. =Boss: Orb of the Undead= Yay, the Sorceress isn't useless here! The orb takes full damage from Ball Lightning, so unless her melee weapon is REALLY powerful, let the orb have it. When the Skeletons come, do a wide circle and fire off Ball Lightning as often as possible. For the other characters, you will get a lot of crowd-control experience here. Do wide circles, get some of the skeletons to run into the pillars and turn around, which will narrow down the groups to three or four at a time. Hit, circle, hit, circle- do NOT let them swarm you. This means certain death in Extreme mode. Sorry Archer, even Hail of Arrows does not do much to the Skeletons. Shock arrow is your best bet, from very, very far away. I actually discovered how useful the Dwarf's Bull Rush is here. Get them grouped together as close as possible in a corner, then Bull Rush to the opposite corner, that should break up the group enough and give you some time to pick off the skeletons individually. <> -Thief: They are all basically the same, some throw daggers, others do not- but they can all attack you in melee range with their daggers as well. Fight them in a very similar way to the Skeletons, they move fast and hit hard but have low HP. -Floating, exploding, eye-things: Strange enemies that aren't much of a threat. They did more damage the first time around. If you hit them hard enough quickly enough, they die without exploding. Just don't get caught in a big group of them, if they all explode at the same time, you are toast. -Giant Spider: Yikes! These things really suck if you don't have room to fight them. For some reason, they can also turn at a tighter radius than the smaller counterparts. They attack fast, have a long range, and they can poison you- even through your shield! Duck back into a hallway where the spider can't go and hit it with every ranged attack you have. Or, lacking ranged attacks, wait until it turns around, step out and hit it a few times before it can turn around. -Spiders, Kobolds, Bugbears, Green Blobs, Blue Cubes, and Rats: All the same from the first time, just more HP. =Boss: Karne= This guy's a jerk. The first time through, he's not so hard, but on Extreme, he is much harder. His daggers will pretty much kill the Sorceress instantly and severely wound the other characters. His close-range attacks are fast, and if you block them he will occasionally appear behind you and cheap-shot you, which, as you guessed, will most likely kill you. Also, on Extreme, sometimes you cannot block his melee attacks, even more of a reason to keep moving. You can circle him, but it's hard to get him started, and even harder to get close enough where he will actually chase you. For some odd reason, if you circle him long enough, your attacks will not do any damage to him and you must break the circle and either let him teleport away or throw some daggers. Once you "break the circle" you can start it again and keep the rear attacks up. Also, beware after you kill him, he will sometimes throw one last dagger that has been known to kill instantly. Oh yeah, he takes half-damage from lightning. Bummer. =Boss: Xantam= Compared to Karne, Xantam can be put away easily. Thanks to magic being useless at higher levels, his spells will not do much damage to you. But, he takes half-damage from lightning, and also has about a bazillion HP in Extreme, so melee tactics are the way to go. (unless you have Hail of Arrows trained up with a good bow with the Archer) Unlike before, his bite at close range will actually do a lot of damage, so be careful. The turtle method is actually the best way to dispatch him, his bites are slow. He will tend to move around some and try to back up into spell range, so keep on him. For the Sorceress, it will be a long fight but keep up that shield, and ding away the damage and eventually he will go down. =============== Act II =============== <> *A general note about the area: There are a LOT of enemies here, it would be good to take your time and kill them all. You could gain up to 4 levels here in Extreme mode, and also end up with a lot of loot. The weapons at the store are great, so as soon as possible you should upgrade. Also, the last two times I played through on Extreme, the shopkeeper had rings of strength +14. I highly, HIGHLY suggest buying two of these right away, I don't care what your class is. This will significantly increase your chances of hitting opponents and make killing things much easier, especially the poor Sorceress. You can choose whatever you want for the Amulet slot. For any character, Constitution is a good choice, the Archer would also greatly benefit from Dexterity. It's useless for intelligence for the Sorceress, as the only spell you are using at this point is Ball Lightning which only costs 15 energy. At this point, she needs HP so I would strongly look into Con. Either way, it's your choice. -Gnolls: These guys tend to have low HP but they move quickly and often attack you in packs. Their attacks are fairly slow so Turtling works well when you are in a tight mountain path and cannot circle. -Yeti-Things: They can hit you at close range and also throw stuff at you. The later ice-Yetis throw ice at you which can freeze you, very annoying. Usually one or two Yetis is designated a thrower and a couple more are melee. Once they are all in range, they will all attempt to melee you. The Circle technique works great on them. A handy way to dodge their rocks is to move as soon as you hear them "grunt" when they throw, then quickly move back to where you were. When they taunt you by pounding their chests or roaring at you, unleash hell. -Big-Ogre Things: More or less, bigger stronger versions of Yetis with a lot of HP. They will stand back and throw stuff until you are right up on them. Fortunately, their rocks, unlike the Yetis, can hit and injure other enemies, so put a line of Gnolls between you and the Ogres and watch the Ogre's rocks smash the Gnolls' heads. :) You can circle them at close range, which is a good idea because their close range attacks really hurt. Fighting them one-on one is not so bad, but dealing with one while you are dealing with a pack of 5 gnolls is a real burden. -Wolves: More commonly known as the cheapest enemies in the game, or "one-hit kill wonders". I have had more trouble with these than any other enemy in the game. They run quickly but don't follow the same basic circle pattern that most of the other enemies follow. Their attacks actually hit you very early in the animation, so it is hard to block and/or know where the attack came from, and on Extreme mode, they will very often kill you in one hit. On top of that, they seem to swarm and get behind you easier than any other monster in the game. Take them out as quickly as possible. Circling works, but it is very hard to do if you are fighting more than two of them, as they break the circle frequently. The bigger, ice-wolves are similar, but they actually have a built-in vulnerability in that they stop to breathe a cone of ice at you, which is simple enough to dodge and then pelt them from the side while they are breathing. -Ice-Giant: Besides being HUGE and making funny noises when they throw, they mostly stand still and throw rocks which can kill you instantly. Again, dodge when you hear them grunt and fire back. Ball Lightning works great on them since they are so big. Get close and they can stomp, which hurts a lot and is unblockable. Careful, as circling does not work and the Dwarf will have a hard time if he does not have a good bow and lots of arrows. You will need to be just outside his melee range, and when he prepares to throw, run in and hit him a few times, which will effectively dodge the boulder, then back up and repeat. -Displacer Beast: The invisible-panther things. Actually much easier than they seem. Just because they are invisible does not mean you can't hit them. Ball Lightning or Shock Arrow will still work, and the electricity that surrounds them when they get hit will reveal where they are. Warrior, just stand and turtle, they will pop up and attack you, just block the attack and unleash hell. After they attack they tend to run away in a wide circle, vanish, and come back and repeat the process. They have low HP and do not hit very hard, so they should be easy enough to dispatch. -Lightning Balls: Guess what, lightning does not hurt them. :P Arrows work pretty well, but since the Spell Damage is low, it's easiest to get close to them, run away when they discharge their lightning, then run back in close (quickly, they retreat when the discharge) and hit them multiple times. Their lightning discharge will not do a lot of damage if you only get a small amount of it. If two or more gang up on you and discharge at the same time, you will be in a lot of pain. Fight them one at a time, and don't overzealously chase one into a pack of two or three more. -Spiders, Kobolds, and Giant Spider: Same as before, no difference- just hit harder and have more HP. <> The Drow come in 3 flavors, details below: -Warriors: Basically the same as the Thieves, only they don't throw anything. Low HP, they really don't even hit that hard. Circle works well if you have the room to do it. -Archers: These jerks are a pain. They cannot melee, but they shoot rapidly, a lot like the Skeletons. Here's the fun part though, their shots hurt, but they can also poison you and even if you are blocking, the poison effect can still occur. Really cheap. -Casters: They shoot fire, ice, and acid spells at you, but since Spell Damage is low at this level, it will not hurt much, unlike the first time you met them. They will melee at close range, similar to the Warriors but at a much lower effectiveness. They also have low HP. Be careful, as their spells can ignite barrels and end your day very quickly. The spells can also hit other enemies but the damage is next to nothing. -Mounted Drow: Not really the same as the other 3, they are riding a big lizard thing. Pretty easy to kill, the turtle method works well since space is limited in the mines. Their attack looks like they are taking two swings at you, but only the first swing (which is actually the lizard thing biting you) can hit, so you have literally a day to counterattack after blocking. They have fairly high HP but are easy to take out. -Umber-Hulk: These have an insane Armor Class, even with two +14 str. rings, you will miss quite often, which is annoying since they also have a lot of HP. Their attacks are easy enough to block, so the turtle method should be implied here. Be patient, and don't try to attack more than once after you block. Ball Lightning works well but it takes three or four shots at full power. -Rats, Spiders: Again, the same as before. =Boss: Ilivarra= Another annoying boss, it will take some time to beat her but it should not be too problematic. Sucks for the Sorceress, as lightning only makes half damage to her, and if she puts up her magic shield, it will deal zero damage. Her shield will rotate elements, so sometimes it will be fire, other times ice. It's still a good strategy for the Sorceress to fire Ball Lightning whenever you have the chance, usually by the time you get close enough for a melee attack she teleports away. She can also fire magic missile, fireball, and Ball Lightning, but like with any sort of spell now, the damage is next to nothing. She will summon skeletons, both warrior type and archer type to fight for her. She can melee surprisingly well, but your best bet at dealing damage is to melee her back. The fight will take some time chasing her around but keep at her and don't worry too much about avoiding her magic attacks or blocking. =Boss: Ciraxis= Yay, another boss the Sorceress can kill easily! Don't get used to it, this is the last one. :P The dragon takes full damage from Ball Lightning so let it fly. With the Archer, dodge the boulders, and get close enough (which isn't too close actually) to hit it with a full Hail of Arrows. Or use Lightning arrow if it's at max power. Dwarf should be able to do enough damage in melee to cut it down rather quickly. When it knocks you back, use Bull Rush to get close again. Compared to a lot of other bosses, Ciraxis should not pose much of a threat. =============== Act III =============== <> Oh boy, more undead! I hope you saved a good blunt weapon from Act II. :) The undead in the sunken temple are basically the same as they were in the crypt, only more HP and they hit even harder. <> Here, the undead have changed a bit. Now, some of the Zombies can rip off chunks of flesh and throw it at you. Not sure why it would do so much damage, but it will take down at least half of your life or more. Thankfully, they are not as accurate as a lot of the other throwers are. The throwers cannot melee at close range either, and like a lot of other throwers in the game, they have lower HP. All of the undead will give off a poison gas after they are killed, which makes treasure collection take a little bit more time while you wait for the gas to clear. Remember, the Zombies that detach their upper halves will also emit gas from the upper half when you kill it. -Lizardmen: I think these get my vote for being the most annoying enemies in the game. More annoying than the wolves just because there are so many of them. It also seems that you do not get a lot of EXP for killing them, which is frustrating. I'll break down the types below: -Melee fighters: Very similar to the Gnolls. (they actually may be a pallate-swap with the Gnolls) They fight the same way, only they seem to be a bit quicker. They have a lot of HP too. Their melee attacks are not overly powerful, but they can swarm you quickly since they don't go down as fast as the Gnolls did. Circle technique works well, but getting three or four of them to cooperate is sometimes challenging. -Spear Throwers: Also very cheap. They have an uncanny ability to hit you no matter what you are doing from off-screen a mile away sometimes. Unlike the Kobolds, the spears HURT a lot, sometimes killing you in one hit. Some of them throw two spears at the same time, these will surely kill you instantly. Another annoying fact- if you are really close to them, you cannot block the spears. Thankfully, they usually stay put once they start throwing at you, and they cannot melee, so if you close in and circle them at very close range, they cannot hit you and then you can put them down quickly. -Fire-throwers: Oh great, another thrower. These guys are also very annoying and can bulls-eye you from MILES away. The fire darts, or whatever they are, hurt about as much as the thieves' daggers, then you take additional fire damage. The darts burn on the ground for a few moments so it's usually enough to break up a circle attempt or generally mess up your timing, or even worse, make you drop your shield/block while you are turtling and allow you to take an axe to the head. You can block the fire darts, but you will still take fire damage after they burn. Thankfully they cannot melee as well, and when you get close and run circles around them, they cannot hit you with their fire darts. -Shaman: As if there weren't enough lizardmen, they have to have casters too. They are similar to the Drow casters, only they can also cast a poison gas spell, similar to when the zombies are killed, only the gas cloud just appears over you without warning. It's not a lot of damage, but the stun effect can cause you to drop your block or break up your circle running. They can cast it on you from off-screen, so many times you will get hit by it and not know it was coming. The only warning you have is the sound they make as they cast- sort of sounds like a cat coughing up a hairball- but you only have a split second to get out of the way. The rest of their spells can be ignored, but they are also frustrating to fight since they run away when you get close to them. Thankfully, their HP is also low. -Kobold Shaman: Wow, the Kobolds have evolved. You can identify them by the feathers on their heads. They cast poison gas like the Lizardmen Shaman can do, and they also make the same noise. They are like any other Kobold though, low HP and they also run away when you get close to them. An annoyance but not much of a threat. <> They throw just about everything at you in here. Lizardmen, Kobolds, and even Umber-Hulks. They are all the same as they have been before, just make your way through the Keep. =Boss: Sess'sth= If you are playing as a Sorceress, you will curse your decision to play her when fighting the Lizard King. He takes half-damage from lightning, and he literally, has millions and millions of HP. Oh, he moves really fast, attacks fast, and you cannot block his attack on Extreme. His attack is enough to kill the Sorceress instantly and severely wound the other characters. Your only hope is to get him in a tight Circle, and only attack when you are right on his backside. If you whiff, DO NOT attack again, he will catch up to you and lay you flat with his club. Keep up the circle and stay really close to him, jumping if needed to make up space. It's a long, annoying fight, especially for the Sorceress. Ice weapons will occasionally freeze him upon a critical hit, giving you time to land three or four attacks in a row, but other than that, you have to whittle him down little by little. <> More undead, same as usual. -Big, burrowing dinosaur creatures: These things are strange. You can tell where they will pop up by looking for a strange shadow on the ground. Only fight one at a time. You cannot circle them- they have a "charge/trample" attack that will hit you multiple times even if you are beside them. Best bet is to turtle, block their attack and counter quickly, then immediately put your shield back up. If they are far enough away from you, they will initiate their trample attack which will probably hit you once before you can put your shield back up. It's not a lot of damage but it can add up, especially for the Sorceress. If you turtle long enough, they will dig back into the ground and wait for a minute, then come back up. While they are doing this, you can literally pelt the crap out of them, as their dig animation takes a little time and they are completely defenseless. If it's enough damage to kill them, they will come back up out of the ground and fall over dead. :) Lightning Ball works well, and you can really do a lot of damage to them when they are coming up out of the ground- but it will take 4-5 shots at full power to kill them. Take your time and weave your way back and fourth through this area and kill each one- they are worth good experience which is much appreciated after killing zillions of lizardmen that are worth basically nothing. -Pseudo-boss, Giant Dinosaur: This thing will pop up out of the ground right before you get to the Sinking Temple. I think it's literally the biggest enemy in the game, taking up almost half the screen. Thankfully, it is easier than the smaller ones, as it's AC is lower so you will hit it more often. It will do a lot more damage to you and it has much higher HP than the smaller ones, but it should go down quick enough if you stick to the Turtle Technique. <> One of the easiest areas in the game. Only one enemy type to worry about and no boss: -Minotaurs: These guys are actually much easier than they look. They have a terrible turning radius, so circling them is easy. They can melee for decent damage, but it's only worth worrying about if you are cornered by several of them. Also, they can charge you, similar to the Dwarf's Bull Rush, which you cannot block but does little damage and knocks you backward. They will only do this if you are directly in front of them, but you can use this to your advantage if you are in a tight space and you cannot circle. With practice, you will be able to know what distance they will attempt to charge, so you can sidestep the charge as soon as they do it, they will blow right past you (just like a bullfighter, lol!) and you can literally land 4 or even 5 attacks by the time they recover, and 4 or 5 attacks is usually enough to kill them. <> -Gargoyles: May as well start off with the most annoying enemy in the tower. These are actually similar to the wolves, they move fast, are smart enough to get behind you, and their attacks hit very early in the animation, which makes avoiding them difficult. Try your best to only fight one or two at a time- they are very hard to circle, especially in the narrow hallways of the Tower. Lightning Ball works best to clear them out of hallways, but at this point it takes three or four shots, and your melee attacks should be strong enough at this point to kill them in just a few hits. Turtle if all else fails, but make sure none of them go behind you, they are good at that. These make up the majority of enemies in the tower, and will probably cause the most amount of cursing. -Bronze Golem: Easy enough but slightly annoying and a little scary in a tight hallway. They can breathe a cone of poison gas which is hard to avoid if you are anywhere near the front of them. Thankfully, this leaves them open to attack from the sides or behind. Their melee attacks hurt, but are easily blocked. Circling works best if you have the room. They have a lot of HP, so non-ranged players should backtrack to a more open area and fight them. -Silver Golem: These fearsome Golems can really do a lot of damage quickly. They have three basic attacks- they will sometimes start spinning one of their swords around like a shield in front of them. It covers a wide area and makes circling them hard. The can also go in a mad swinging frenzy with both swords, which is VERY hard to get around and will make approaching them in a hallway suicide, and finally they will just approach and melee you normally. Sorceress should fry them with Ball Lightning until they stop moving, otherwise they will end her life quickly. Otherwise, attack them from a distance with ranged attacks, especially if they are doing their sword spin or frenzy. Sometimes damaging them will break them out of these attacks so you can close in and circle or turtle. Like with the Bronze golems, backtracking to a bigger, open room is often your best bet. -Black Golem: Another HUGE enemy. They can hit you with their trident from halfway across the screen, and do massive damage while they are at it. They can also breathe fire in a cone, similar to the Bronze Golem's poison. This leaves them open to attack from the sides and behind as well. Circling works, but often it is not practical due to the large size of them, so Turtle until they are close, if you see them rear back to breathe fire, move out of the way and drill them from the side. Turtle and block their close-range melee attack, which is slow, and counter. They will go down soon enough. -Floating fire elemental: They cast fireball at a rapid rate and have very good aim. Thankfully it does little damage. Circling them is best, although most of the time it is easier to take them out at a distance since dodging their fireballs while getting close is usually more time-consuming. They have low HP. -Spiders, Minotaurs: Same as before. -Pseudo-boss: Onyx Golem: Another HUGE enemy. Thankfully, you fight him alone in a big empty room. His attack is slow but has a long range and will pretty much kill you instantly. He moves slow, so circle works best here. He has a lot of HP though so it will take some time. Lightning Ball does full damage, but even then it will take several shots, it's almost easier to do it with melee attacks, as the weapons you have at this point are much stronger than any magic attack. =Final Boss: Eldritch= Sorceress, good luck. Eldritch is a tough bitch, indeed. It took me many tries on Hard difficulty to beat her with the Sorceress. Spells are pretty much useless on her on Extreme, as they do so little damage (lightning does zero!) and she has so much HP. Her sword boomerang attack will kill the Sorceress instantly. If Eldritch is facing away from you, the boomerang will sometimes come around and hit you from behind, if you are blocking the wrong way, buh-bye. Her close-range melee attacks are unblockable most of the time, and will also do significant damage. You can circle her, and that really is the best strategy for all players, as that will keep her from doing her sword boomerang attack which really is the most dangerous since it is fast and somewhat unpredictable depending on where she is standing. If she is doing her melee attack, you cannot damage her with your own melee, you must wait until she is walking. Approach her very much like you would be fighting the Lizard King, you must circle very close to her, directly behind her, and only attack once. A high Strength is critical, if your hit rate is low, it will be a long and frustrating fight with a lot of misses. For the Sorceress, I even switched out my Amulet of Con +15 for a +15 Str Amulet- Even with the added Con, Eldritch still killed me in 1 hit, so the added HP were useless. What did help was the added +hit and +dam. When Eldritch grows the first time, she actually becomes a bit easier, even though her range has increased, her attacks get slower and it is easier to circle her. Also, she adds a new attack, a lightning-bolt-breath type attack that leaves her open to attack from the back or side. Make sure you jump on this opportunity if she does this attack. When she grows the final time, it is imperative that you stay close to her, she replaces her boomerang attack with a "Sword-rain-lightning-storm" thing, where swords and lightning come down at odd angles. You can block this attack, but if the angle is just right, it is unblockable and will most surely kill you instantly. Better to avoid having her do it in the first place. She will still do her lightning breath attack so use this chance to deal out more damage. Keep up the circle and attack strategy, and she will eventually go down. Congrats on beating her on Extreme, it is not an easy task! Hopefully, this FAQ will inspire long-time fans of this game to pick it back up and play through it a couple more times. I find that I learn things just about each time I play it, little moves or different approaches to some enemies that makes dispatching them easier. Most of all, have fun! Copyright (c) 2009, Brendan Doyle