*~ Darklands Starting Tips 'n Trickz ~*
Darklands Fan Site -
http://www.darklands.net/
I won't focus on metagamey stuff like making 80 year-old alchemists for their sweet potion stashes and then ditching them at the Gasthaus in the first 5 minutes. I'll just focus on a "good" party and normal game flow.
Party Composition
Your party should probably consist of people between 30 and 40 years old (maybe 35-45 if you want to push certain skills). This produces a good range of skills without suffering excessive END and STR degradation. You will likely want two folks who are heavier fighters, then someone with a high Virtue(!!!)/Heal(!!!)/Religion ("cleric") and someone else with a high Alchemy/Speak Latin/Speak Common. If you want to make a thiefy- or rangery-type character, you can stack up one of your front-line dudes on Woodwise, Streetwise, Artifice, and related skills, but it isn't vital.
Virtue and Heal are skills that are relatively hard to raise and very important. Heal, specifically, only increases benefit in coarsely granular chunks. If your dudes only regain 1 STR a day, your Heal sucks and the game will be very hard. Get your Heal high enough to heal 2 STR a day, if not 3 (though that may only be possible with a 45 year-old character).
Stats
STR and END are important for EVERYONE. They are obviously most important for front line fighters, but practically speaking, everyone winds up in melee, so don't skimp on the STR/END for a gimmick mystic of affective piety build. STR and END should also be fairly close to each other. With armor on, END will typically get chewed up much more quickly than STR, but if max STR is significantly lower than END, guys will die instead of being knocked out (this is bad).
Equipment
Use gear that your characters are best at using! Check your weapon skills and equip accordingly. Early on, javelins can be a good thing for (especially) alchemist characters to use. It will raise your Throwing skill, which will become important on that distant day when you have more than two potion bottles rattling around in your pouches. Darklands has a learn-by-doing system that slows naturally with skill gain, so even characters who are horribly incompetent quickly become "okay" with a weapon if they stick with it. Early on, everyone/things' armor is terrible, so you can practically use whatever weapon you're skilled with that does good damage. You will eventually want characters who are good with hammers or polearms to deal with heavily armored enemies (e.g. Raubritters, Templars, Gargoyles). Dress everyone in the heaviest armor you can afford. Forget traditional class roles. Alchemists in Nürnberg plate ASAP.
Doin' Thangs
What do you do in Darklands? Well, it's an open world, but extraordinarily punishing to the unwary. Here's the basics: First you get the thieves, then you get the Rep, then you get the missions. Stay in your opening town for a while. Every night, go to the "Gabled roofs of the crafts district". Keep going in and out of this area until you encounter thieves. Beat the hell out of them over and over and over again. As long as you don't do dumb things like try to break into businesses or skulk around the cathedrals, you shouldn't encounter the city watch (breaking curfew is bad). During the day, go back to the inn. Have your characters Regain Strength (this is why the Heal skill is very important) and have anyone who is not injured Earn Money. Every once in a while, sleep in the wooded area inside the city for a night or two to avoid having your rep drop by staying at the inn excessively long.
Sweet Medici Cash
When you have slaughtered enough thieves, your local Reputation will start creeping into the teens. This is good. Since you are unloading a shitload of gear from this endless army of thieves, you will be visiting merchants all the time. Whenever you go to the Markt, visit every merchant, even if you don't need to. Fuggers, Medici -- everyone. Eventually, when you leave a merchant's shop, you will get a business proposition. Accept it, whatever the hell it is. Remember to write things down. This game was made in 1992. These missions vary, but usually involve one of the following things: getting a Tarnhelm, getting an old book, or killing a Raubritter (robber knight). Sometimes, these missions will send you way, way, way across the Holy Roman Empire. Even if you can't do them immediately, keep them in a list to do later. Of the three, Raubritters are the most likely to be proximal to your current city. They are also, by far, the most immediately dangerous to undertake. When you get your first Raubritter mission, do not go on it immediately. You may try the others if the destination is not hundreds of miles away.
Raubritter Scams
So, when do you pursue your first Raubritter? Well, here's a good strategy. Once a city's merchants have told you to pursue a Raubritter, they will give you a location. Don't go there, but go to other cities near the Raubritter's castle. Do the same thief-killing, Rep-building activities in these cities that you did in your first city. Eventually, you will gain bounties on the same Raubritter from up to three cities. As these bounties can often be many Florins, this is extremely lucrative. By the time your characters are universally rolling with 25q+ gear, scale armor, two upgrades of weapons, and at least four Essence of Grace potions, you can probably safely pursue a Raubritter. I won't tell you how to defeat a Raubritter, as there are many ways, and it is enjoyable to figure them all out. When you defeat one, you will get some nice armor and weapons (usually), and can go back to all of your clients to collect sweet, sweet Florins.
Killing a Raubritter is a gateway to killing more Raubritter, which is also a gateway to exploring more of the world and completing those obnoxious early "get a Tarnhelm" quests that directed you from Ulm to Hamburg.
Where's the Story, Bru? - SPOILERS SECTION
When you decide that you want to follow "the story" in Darklands, there are a lot of places to begin. It all starts with visiting tiny villages. Do this until you find one that is full of Satanists . Defeat them and they will say something like, "We will have our revenge <direction> of <city_name> on <next_solstice_equinox_day>." Write this down this game was made in 1992. Did you already forget?! Go to that place at that time. There is no leeway, so don't think you can show up a day late and still check it out. If you do, you will have to repeat the earlier steps. When you get there at the right time, you will see a witches' sabbath . These own bones. "Deal with" them and you will be pointed toward the next steps (or receive a dream that does -- I can't remember . Just keep following the leads and you will go on a grand adventure.
Other Things to Remember
Your party leader always speaks for you, so set your high Speak Common or Speak Latin character as the party leader before chatting with people when that stuff matters (e.g. cathedrals, universities). Get as many saints as possible for your high Virtue character. These are super important, especially as the game goes on. If you have a second character with moderately high Virtue, there are plenty of low-Virtue saints you can call on. Just check the required Virtue before learning their mysteries. Virtue can be raised during the game, but very slowly compared to other skills. Write down where you find various alchemical ingredients or just use an online guide. Alchemy is really important in the long game. If you don't put effort into tracking down the ingredients, it's just a headache.
