-
Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.
"This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.
Let's Read Let's play Might and Magic 2 - Gates to Another World (1988) - Dos version!
- Thread starter azimovhaas8 (Moth)
- Start date
azimovhaas8 (Moth)
Learned
Maybe will go into castle for items designed for robber and cleric (they both must in single castle, as far as i'm aware), if i currently can pull this off 
And from memory dungeon beneath Sandsobar been helpful for my party (or at least for robber).
Anyway, i got more free time (Friday evening in my timezone), so will at least start playing and writing one more part in half-hour.
And from memory dungeon beneath Sandsobar been helpful for my party (or at least for robber).
Anyway, i got more free time (Friday evening in my timezone), so will at least start playing and writing one more part in half-hour.
so, Santiago is not happy with the speedy sword wife? :D
Dorateen
Arcane
"This maze-like dungeon holds treasures that augment the abilities of both Robbers and Clerics. Lord Hoardall keeps these items to insure that he has the upper hand on the people most likely to take money from him."
azimovhaas8 (Moth)
Learned
~Part 7: Adventure continues with more
secrets been uncovered from dirty city undeground...
In this part, going to visit new dungeons in search for clues, loot (now much more interested in experience and gems) and menacing enemies to slay. This part is primarily going to be related for dungeon crawling. Do not know how much time this part of Let's Play will take me to finish - this one probably going to be more in terms of content, but hope it going to be enjoyable.
Let's enter more places of interest!~
First thing to do for me is to explore and plunder is communal dungeon beneath Sandsobar. Just as Sandsobar have particular theme (City of Poor & Desperate living near desertMexican theme, basically), dungeon beneath city have strong "bandit hideout" feeling, judging by previous walkthrought.
Along with Sandsobar dungeon i will explore some dishes that can be bought in local tavern.
Second thing that i will do for sure is freeing Yellow Bishop of Battle from imprisonment in Castle Pinehurst.
Third place of interest going to be Castle Woodshaven and i will try to retrieve items of interest for a cause.
Forth thing (and actually last thing in this part) i like to do - is to visit communal dungeon beneath Vulcania. Vulcania is second most rich city in the whole CRON, but also plagued by constant vulcan eruptions and lava in underground caverns, so Levitate is our best friend here.
^^^ Old part of city (The Slums) now infested by all kinds of vermin and only desperate beggars live here. I will explore this part of city, before entering dungeon nearby.
^^^ Right after entering Slums noticed this wall with scribed gibberish on it (but will look into it later, maybe some clues hidden here). Constant message "sewage and muck ooze under foot" accompanies my *pleasant* travel into this part of city.
^^^ Hehe, for tossing a gold coin to a smelly crowd got this message containing some clues. Hmm, this clue can be related to one of the high-level spells, but i'm not really sure now. In other dead end killed bunch of Muggers (harmless enemy with only real "danger" coming from their ability to steal my gold) and this is it for Old City.
^^^ "Guardians" of undergroud. And yes, sure - i will help [here usually is no real benefit for rejecting such offers].
^^^ Extremly good loot for killing bunch of Sewer Rats and Gnome Elders (!). Pravin Lal will actually use this Great Bow + 2 from now on.
Cavern itself seems to be not very menacing for my current power level of party (venomous snakes are kinda tough, throught) and most encounters only scratch HP's from my front line.
But here we go...
^^^ Ninja's real danger comes from potential ability to assassinate my characters, so dealing with them (and Hatchet Man enemy type later on) can be frustrating. But we see about this...
^^^ Defeated every single one of them and got 102-nd victory along with some gems. [One of the reasons why i do not talk a lot about monsters and some combat related mechanics in last couple of Let's Play parts is mostly related to most enemies being "enhanced" version of weaker monsters (for example, hermit, trickster and greedy snitch are all share single sprite and have abilities related to stealing some crap from party) and game introduces new mechanics and abilities slowly. If i will notice anything interesting will scribe it here, for sure].
^^^ After mentioned ninja's and one more small encounter with muggers got my hands on Master Thief and he can teach CEO Morgan in even finer points of disarming traps (sadly, you cannot steal items from wendors, even if you want hard for some reason, heh).
Of course i will agree for training.
Other parts of dungeon been slightly boring and contain only low-level threats and very small rewards, so i will move on...
~...In local tavern named as Red Lantern Tavern. Going to give some small amount of gold to bartender (maybe game give me some niche information that can help me at some point in future) and going to taste one of "specialties" (that i'm unfamiliar from last run, so not sure about potential effects) that people love to eat in Sandsobar~
^^^ Interesting kind of clue i got by using Tip The Brtender option. Will note this for future.
^^^ Two of this dishes have known effect for me (tasting Roast Peasant spawns horde of angry relatives with shaman in lead in the cell just outside Sandsobar - and Phantom Pudding have effect in one of later dungeons, so i will leave both "epicurean rations" for now), so i will taste Wyrm Chop Suey - maybe it will have no effect or even will poison me. We will see...
^^^ Half of bar seems to very angry at me for tasting this dish, heh (never had this encounter before, so i blame *tasty* suey instead). And man - angry mob of 40+ enemies in single go.
^^^ Some enemies (like Kobold Captains) can call for "reinforcements", so you can occasionally fight +10 additional opponents, which can be dangerous. In almost every big battle i can recommend to use clerical spells for buffing fighters up (SP are finite, but fighter can depend on his or her sword for sure) - Heroism, Holy Bonus and Bless are all going to work pretty well in prolonged fight.
^^^ After my team defeated bandits some weird woman named Lucindra provides a interesting hint about hints from tiping a barkeeper, heh.
^^^ Interesting... Let me guess. Is he potential robber for a hire?
^^^ Pretty close, but still good enough: ninja for hire. His ability to assassinate enemies (much better compated to robber's backstab ability) can come in handy, and he very well can be my hireling.
This is enough for Sandsobar, but i have one more thing to do (well, two things in total)...
As usual, to free Bishop from imprisonment i need to but 3 tickets (yellow tickets in my case) and i must win 3 battles at 3 different arena's.
1) First combat been against group consisting of... nasty witches. Mediocre spell casters and easy prey to Feeble Mind (+ 2 000 gold as reward)
2) Second combat been against group consisting of... cavaliers. Tough, even if slightly weak monster for my power level, but still respectable creatures (+ 3 000 gold as reward)
3) Third combat been against group consisting of... canine creeps. Bland, relatively hard hitting opponents - Santiago been kicked out of her mind... once (+ 5 000 gold as reward)
Time to visit key master in Sandsobar for yellow key to unlock door leading to second priosner of power.
^^^ HERE WE GO, MY MAN. 1 000 gold for around 50 000 experience is pretty good deal, if you gonna ask me...
^^^ By going from Middlegate outskirts (with multiple hints leading me to castle) to distnat land (because i forgot exact region of castle) i ended up in Castle Pinehurts, leaded by Lord Peabody!
~Btw, register of region with castle in it is A-2 as i can see now~
This castle have pretty damn difficult dungeon to traverse and not so much to offer, but here also located TIME MACHINE that is key for main quest completion.
^^^ Path to bishop is blocked by bunch of beggars and merchants (again, all encounters are randomly generated in this game). Afterwards is some good reward for SMAC team.
Atlantium "gym" and new experience after dungeon and freed Yellow Bishop allow my party to gain 1 more level. Nothing new, except for HP~ boost for everybody.
^^^ Amount of experience needed for new levels going to be progressively getting more and more demanding. From this point and onwards experience going to be literally most precious thing in the game, trust me.
But at some point in-game economy going to be broken completely, sadly.
Proud city of Atlantium have some *darkish* secrets - one of them is City Jail zone. Let's enter it, out of interest.
^^^ This is combat encounter where Druids actually made a difference due to very quick Silence. Been forced to retreat due to well, inability to cast spells - and front-line been heavily wounded.
~Second try been more successful (Kobold Captains + Troubadoors, even if Troubadoors in general do ~50 damage per attack) and i can simply rest after this encounter~
^^^ What can possibly go wrong after entering this door?... [Also, LOL, this door locked and we need sure hands of Morgan for this task].
^^^ Good choice of guards for city jail, actualy. Or not... Damn, each of them been hitting by 60+ damage each round (even if ogres missed couple of times as well), so cleric work is never done as usual : >
^^^ As usual, reward for entering almost any "forbidden" place in any city or any region is usually worth it or at least interesting in Might & Magic 2. Two new mercenaries (cleric - HELL YEAH and archer - HELL MAYBE).
^^^ Probably will take cleric with me in next or in next to next part of my Let's Play. Archer is also not a bad pick, but i do not think having two archers in party is worth it, but this is just my small imo.
~~Next target of our SMAC kill-team (and pretty successful one as it seems) is Castle Woodshaven untold riches of Lord Hoardall. Our targets are fabled itme that can help our cleric and robber - and we also want to explore this territory more~~
^^^ Wrong door been leading into well-trained castle guards (enemy type unique for castles combat encounters), but i will explore this place by a bit anyway.
^^^ Going into castles specifically to fill characters with food rations usually is not worth it, but still nice to replenish my packs for free and with "lavish meals" as well : >
^^^ Ah, yes - no elves are supposedly allowed here (this makes Pravin Lal and Zakharov sad) and one or two encounters boosting party capabilities will not work, because FUCK ELVES.
^^^ Feck, i supposed to go for item destined for Cleric without cleric in party, hmm. Actually, Miriam can replace Yang in some aspects (healing mostly), so will go for this.
~Been trying to recruit ninja in Sandsobar, but all hirelings start at level 1, so nah. Instead, i will dispose both robber and cleric from a party and enter Hoardall's dungeon as it is. And by the way, later in the game some tasks much be completed with only 1 or 2 characters at maximum ("promotion" quests) so i better to get taste of party containing less then 6 characters now anyway~
^^^ Special item for cleric! Only thing why i survived with 4 party members and combat with explodng enemies is Miriam's Power Cure.
[Also first time where i been bashing door - and it even worked at second time. First time fail to open door met me with fireball]
^^^ Special item for Robber as well! Feck, first two times died in here - got very difficult encounters with Winged Steeds (fireballs) and Minor Devils (also some fire themed attacking spell). Third time everything went much better and i actually got item.
~Time for... Surface spell~
Regarding items and what they going to provide: Onyx Effigy (only for Clerics) - simply boosts personality stat by +15 and can be selled for a ton of gold. Kinda OK. Sapphire Pin (only for Robbers) - also boosts luck by + 15 and aagin can selled for a good profits. Slightly better (Luck is more important for Robber, compared to personality giving only more SP for Cleric, but again - hard to tell if both items actually worth it.
~At last... Let's visit Vulcania. But at first i will sell some jank from previous dungeons and combat encounters in Atlantium - while buying Teleport Orb (substitute for "teleport" spell) for a cause, because Zakharov still cannot cast it [but will be able pretty soon]~
^^^ Unlike most other dungeons - i extensively mapped Vulcanian dungeon before, because had some problems at first (due to weird door placement, and been not knowing about lava pits at first).
And hehe - sometimes you must endure CRINGE to become more BASED, sadly or thankfully.
...Most characters gain nothing from this, but Mr. Yang actually have 26 endurance right now. Weird, but fine.
^^^ Judging by my old mapped sector notes alone - two more mercenaries must be somethere out there. Feck, wasted one charge of teleport orb for nothing - but second try succeded and now i rescued both guys.
^^^ While wandering in caverns more found this interesting message. [A-1 Todilor is one of 4 details for TIME MACHINE, as far as i can remember]. In next 4 cells been ambushed by horde of monsters (around 5 types on top of this) + Snapping Spores with ability to "explode". Only thing that saved me is Time Distortion (sometimes this spell can fail to fucntion, but this is fine).
~[Some cells on game maps have nasty pre-placed feature named as "anti-magical zone". If party enters this type of cells - every spell will fail immideately, so it best to bypass such cells (teleport, jump) or prepare beforehand (all sorts of resistances always with party, once applied and before rest)]~
^^^ Two new hirelings in Middlegate Inn (second ninja and second archer, ehh).
I got no new spells in this part of Let's Play (because i got only one new level and my progression is sligtly slowed at the moment) and while whole lot of different events and stuff hapened with my SMAC lads - not a lot happened in terms of progression and ALL enemies i encountered at current point in game either are too EZ for me, or will rape me on sight. This is all fine and i had fun exploring game map and trying out new dungeons.
Anyway...
Hope to do following in next part: ~
~...hope to gain new level for everyone in party (spellcasters are priority by now)
~...hope to rescue one more Bishop of Battle [if i can do all 3 red challanges in arena's]
~...will focus on gaining morein terms of progression
~...hope to complete Hoardall side-quest
P.S. Hope you guys have fun so far!
Cheers 0/
secrets been uncovered from dirty city undeground...
In this part, going to visit new dungeons in search for clues, loot (now much more interested in experience and gems) and menacing enemies to slay. This part is primarily going to be related for dungeon crawling. Do not know how much time this part of Let's Play will take me to finish - this one probably going to be more in terms of content, but hope it going to be enjoyable.
Let's enter more places of interest!~
First thing to do for me is to explore and plunder is communal dungeon beneath Sandsobar. Just as Sandsobar have particular theme (City of Poor & Desperate living near desert
Along with Sandsobar dungeon i will explore some dishes that can be bought in local tavern.
Second thing that i will do for sure is freeing Yellow Bishop of Battle from imprisonment in Castle Pinehurst.
Third place of interest going to be Castle Woodshaven and i will try to retrieve items of interest for a cause.
Forth thing (and actually last thing in this part) i like to do - is to visit communal dungeon beneath Vulcania. Vulcania is second most rich city in the whole CRON, but also plagued by constant vulcan eruptions and lava in underground caverns, so Levitate is our best friend here.
^^^ Old part of city (The Slums) now infested by all kinds of vermin and only desperate beggars live here. I will explore this part of city, before entering dungeon nearby.
^^^ Right after entering Slums noticed this wall with scribed gibberish on it (but will look into it later, maybe some clues hidden here). Constant message "sewage and muck ooze under foot" accompanies my *pleasant* travel into this part of city.
^^^ Hehe, for tossing a gold coin to a smelly crowd got this message containing some clues. Hmm, this clue can be related to one of the high-level spells, but i'm not really sure now. In other dead end killed bunch of Muggers (harmless enemy with only real "danger" coming from their ability to steal my gold) and this is it for Old City.
^^^ "Guardians" of undergroud. And yes, sure - i will help [here usually is no real benefit for rejecting such offers].
^^^ Extremly good loot for killing bunch of Sewer Rats and Gnome Elders (!). Pravin Lal will actually use this Great Bow + 2 from now on.
Cavern itself seems to be not very menacing for my current power level of party (venomous snakes are kinda tough, throught) and most encounters only scratch HP's from my front line.
But here we go...
^^^ Ninja's real danger comes from potential ability to assassinate my characters, so dealing with them (and Hatchet Man enemy type later on) can be frustrating. But we see about this...
^^^ Defeated every single one of them and got 102-nd victory along with some gems. [One of the reasons why i do not talk a lot about monsters and some combat related mechanics in last couple of Let's Play parts is mostly related to most enemies being "enhanced" version of weaker monsters (for example, hermit, trickster and greedy snitch are all share single sprite and have abilities related to stealing some crap from party) and game introduces new mechanics and abilities slowly. If i will notice anything interesting will scribe it here, for sure].
^^^ After mentioned ninja's and one more small encounter with muggers got my hands on Master Thief and he can teach CEO Morgan in even finer points of disarming traps (sadly, you cannot steal items from wendors, even if you want hard for some reason, heh).
Of course i will agree for training.
Other parts of dungeon been slightly boring and contain only low-level threats and very small rewards, so i will move on...
~...In local tavern named as Red Lantern Tavern. Going to give some small amount of gold to bartender (maybe game give me some niche information that can help me at some point in future) and going to taste one of "specialties" (that i'm unfamiliar from last run, so not sure about potential effects) that people love to eat in Sandsobar~
^^^ Interesting kind of clue i got by using Tip The Brtender option. Will note this for future.
^^^ Two of this dishes have known effect for me (tasting Roast Peasant spawns horde of angry relatives with shaman in lead in the cell just outside Sandsobar - and Phantom Pudding have effect in one of later dungeons, so i will leave both "epicurean rations" for now), so i will taste Wyrm Chop Suey - maybe it will have no effect or even will poison me. We will see...
^^^ Half of bar seems to very angry at me for tasting this dish, heh (never had this encounter before, so i blame *tasty* suey instead). And man - angry mob of 40+ enemies in single go.
^^^ Some enemies (like Kobold Captains) can call for "reinforcements", so you can occasionally fight +10 additional opponents, which can be dangerous. In almost every big battle i can recommend to use clerical spells for buffing fighters up (SP are finite, but fighter can depend on his or her sword for sure) - Heroism, Holy Bonus and Bless are all going to work pretty well in prolonged fight.
^^^ After my team defeated bandits some weird woman named Lucindra provides a interesting hint about hints from tiping a barkeeper, heh.
^^^ Interesting... Let me guess. Is he potential robber for a hire?
^^^ Pretty close, but still good enough: ninja for hire. His ability to assassinate enemies (much better compated to robber's backstab ability) can come in handy, and he very well can be my hireling.
This is enough for Sandsobar, but i have one more thing to do (well, two things in total)...
As usual, to free Bishop from imprisonment i need to but 3 tickets (yellow tickets in my case) and i must win 3 battles at 3 different arena's.
1) First combat been against group consisting of... nasty witches. Mediocre spell casters and easy prey to Feeble Mind (+ 2 000 gold as reward)
2) Second combat been against group consisting of... cavaliers. Tough, even if slightly weak monster for my power level, but still respectable creatures (+ 3 000 gold as reward)
3) Third combat been against group consisting of... canine creeps. Bland, relatively hard hitting opponents - Santiago been kicked out of her mind... once (+ 5 000 gold as reward)
Time to visit key master in Sandsobar for yellow key to unlock door leading to second priosner of power.
^^^ HERE WE GO, MY MAN. 1 000 gold for around 50 000 experience is pretty good deal, if you gonna ask me...
^^^ By going from Middlegate outskirts (with multiple hints leading me to castle) to distnat land (because i forgot exact region of castle) i ended up in Castle Pinehurts, leaded by Lord Peabody!
~Btw, register of region with castle in it is A-2 as i can see now~
This castle have pretty damn difficult dungeon to traverse and not so much to offer, but here also located TIME MACHINE that is key for main quest completion.
^^^ Path to bishop is blocked by bunch of beggars and merchants (again, all encounters are randomly generated in this game). Afterwards is some good reward for SMAC team.
Atlantium "gym" and new experience after dungeon and freed Yellow Bishop allow my party to gain 1 more level. Nothing new, except for HP~ boost for everybody.
^^^ Amount of experience needed for new levels going to be progressively getting more and more demanding. From this point and onwards experience going to be literally most precious thing in the game, trust me.
But at some point in-game economy going to be broken completely, sadly.
Proud city of Atlantium have some *darkish* secrets - one of them is City Jail zone. Let's enter it, out of interest.
^^^ This is combat encounter where Druids actually made a difference due to very quick Silence. Been forced to retreat due to well, inability to cast spells - and front-line been heavily wounded.
~Second try been more successful (Kobold Captains + Troubadoors, even if Troubadoors in general do ~50 damage per attack) and i can simply rest after this encounter~
^^^ What can possibly go wrong after entering this door?... [Also, LOL, this door locked and we need sure hands of Morgan for this task].
^^^ Good choice of guards for city jail, actualy. Or not... Damn, each of them been hitting by 60+ damage each round (even if ogres missed couple of times as well), so cleric work is never done as usual : >
^^^ As usual, reward for entering almost any "forbidden" place in any city or any region is usually worth it or at least interesting in Might & Magic 2. Two new mercenaries (cleric - HELL YEAH and archer - HELL MAYBE).
^^^ Probably will take cleric with me in next or in next to next part of my Let's Play. Archer is also not a bad pick, but i do not think having two archers in party is worth it, but this is just my small imo.
~~Next target of our SMAC kill-team (and pretty successful one as it seems) is Castle Woodshaven untold riches of Lord Hoardall. Our targets are fabled itme that can help our cleric and robber - and we also want to explore this territory more~~
^^^ Wrong door been leading into well-trained castle guards (enemy type unique for castles combat encounters), but i will explore this place by a bit anyway.
^^^ Going into castles specifically to fill characters with food rations usually is not worth it, but still nice to replenish my packs for free and with "lavish meals" as well : >
^^^ Ah, yes - no elves are supposedly allowed here (this makes Pravin Lal and Zakharov sad) and one or two encounters boosting party capabilities will not work, because FUCK ELVES.
^^^ Feck, i supposed to go for item destined for Cleric without cleric in party, hmm. Actually, Miriam can replace Yang in some aspects (healing mostly), so will go for this.
~Been trying to recruit ninja in Sandsobar, but all hirelings start at level 1, so nah. Instead, i will dispose both robber and cleric from a party and enter Hoardall's dungeon as it is. And by the way, later in the game some tasks much be completed with only 1 or 2 characters at maximum ("promotion" quests) so i better to get taste of party containing less then 6 characters now anyway~
^^^ Special item for cleric! Only thing why i survived with 4 party members and combat with explodng enemies is Miriam's Power Cure.
[Also first time where i been bashing door - and it even worked at second time. First time fail to open door met me with fireball]
^^^ Special item for Robber as well! Feck, first two times died in here - got very difficult encounters with Winged Steeds (fireballs) and Minor Devils (also some fire themed attacking spell). Third time everything went much better and i actually got item.
~Time for... Surface spell~
Regarding items and what they going to provide: Onyx Effigy (only for Clerics) - simply boosts personality stat by +15 and can be selled for a ton of gold. Kinda OK. Sapphire Pin (only for Robbers) - also boosts luck by + 15 and aagin can selled for a good profits. Slightly better (Luck is more important for Robber, compared to personality giving only more SP for Cleric, but again - hard to tell if both items actually worth it.
~At last... Let's visit Vulcania. But at first i will sell some jank from previous dungeons and combat encounters in Atlantium - while buying Teleport Orb (substitute for "teleport" spell) for a cause, because Zakharov still cannot cast it [but will be able pretty soon]~
^^^ Unlike most other dungeons - i extensively mapped Vulcanian dungeon before, because had some problems at first (due to weird door placement, and been not knowing about lava pits at first).
And hehe - sometimes you must endure CRINGE to become more BASED, sadly or thankfully.
...Most characters gain nothing from this, but Mr. Yang actually have 26 endurance right now. Weird, but fine.
^^^ Judging by my old mapped sector notes alone - two more mercenaries must be somethere out there. Feck, wasted one charge of teleport orb for nothing - but second try succeded and now i rescued both guys.
^^^ While wandering in caverns more found this interesting message. [A-1 Todilor is one of 4 details for TIME MACHINE, as far as i can remember]. In next 4 cells been ambushed by horde of monsters (around 5 types on top of this) + Snapping Spores with ability to "explode". Only thing that saved me is Time Distortion (sometimes this spell can fail to fucntion, but this is fine).
~[Some cells on game maps have nasty pre-placed feature named as "anti-magical zone". If party enters this type of cells - every spell will fail immideately, so it best to bypass such cells (teleport, jump) or prepare beforehand (all sorts of resistances always with party, once applied and before rest)]~
^^^ Two new hirelings in Middlegate Inn (second ninja and second archer, ehh).
I got no new spells in this part of Let's Play (because i got only one new level and my progression is sligtly slowed at the moment) and while whole lot of different events and stuff hapened with my SMAC lads - not a lot happened in terms of progression and ALL enemies i encountered at current point in game either are too EZ for me, or will rape me on sight. This is all fine and i had fun exploring game map and trying out new dungeons.
Anyway...
Hope to do following in next part: ~
~...hope to gain new level for everyone in party (spellcasters are priority by now)
~...hope to rescue one more Bishop of Battle [if i can do all 3 red challanges in arena's]
~...will focus on gaining morein terms of progression
~...hope to complete Hoardall side-quest
P.S. Hope you guys have fun so far!
Cheers 0/
Last edited:
azimovhaas8 (Moth)
Learned
You may be surprised, but it is Pravin Lal who wields this speedy sword right now
This is mostly because of bug related to archer damage formula that i seem to get with archer who uses ranged weapon without melee weapon equipped, as weird as it may sound.
Second bug i noticed is related to Level 2 clerical spell named "Nature's Gate". Literally been unable to get it by any means, because quest related NPC does not respond.
Hehe, now these tresures in possession of Morgan and Yang
azimovhaas8 (Moth)
Learned
~Part 8: Adventure continues with SMAC kill-team
grabbing everything that seems of any respectable value
~With saturday day time also comes one more part of Let's Read - or at least i will start typing during day time, and probably will finish writing much later (as usual)~
I slightly neglected my party priority for grabbing as much experience as i can, so for most current part going to do tasks that will net a lot of experience such as:
1) Defeating triple red tickets challenge for next Bishop of Battle (probably going to be enough for new level - and new circle of magic for both cleric and sorcerer)
2) If it is not going to be enough will "grind" for a bit in castle Pinehurst or in castle Woodshaven.
3) With help of new spells and even more beefy fighters will defeat numerous encounters with barbarians (hoping for good items to replace my junk) and afterwards - will slay dragons and wyverns.
4) Going to retrieve special items for Knight and Paladin from Lord's Peabody dungeon and will generally exlpore world a bit more.
With these goals in mind let's begin exploration yet again!
^^^ Bishop of Red Battle can be slightly tough at this point in the game, so decided to buy "lava grenades" for Pravin Lal and CEO Morgan (item replacer for Fireball spell). Smithy in Vulcania also sells Cureall Wand (simply is counter to Silence and Paralyze inducing enemies), but it costs around 15K(!) gold, so i will pass on it for now.
~Here we go. Time to endure three battles and spill more blood..~
^^^ Battle # 1: Amazon's Little Sisters
Most notorious feature of this enemy type is their ability to ignore melee attacks of every male member in party. And their pretty high stats on top of this...
Outcome: pretty easy, due to relatively low damage they deal (around ~25) and Yang invoked Holy Bonus and Heroism spells.
^^^ Battle # 2: Childrens of Hellhole
It very well can be a very hard battle (they can decrease stats and petrify my party members) or i can got lucky, but we'll see...
Outcome: i think constant Protection from Magic casted before and Feeble Mind saved my ass. Pretty OK battle - not easy and not hard at the same time.
~People (and not people at all - and even scum like gnomes too) gather at Colosseum in Atlantium knowing that sooner or later my party will enter giant halls to combat last threat on the way to fabled Bishop of Red Battle. Keeper of arena have something special for me...~
^^^ Battle # 3: Night of the Uber-Zombies
Man, it is enemy type with excesssive amount of HP (around 130) and ability to paralyze everyone in party. I can only prey at magic resistance and use best spell possible...
Outcome: defeat, this zombies been dealing tons of damage and bringing all of them is titanic task. I will try one more time (saved in local Hotel, beforehand*)
^^^ Power of donating to temples better to not be underestimated, by the way*
^^^ Battle # 4: Pimped (AS FUCK) Greedy Snitches
They can steal all my gems (arrggghhh), otherwise should be plausable. As hard as greedy snitches on their own power level (nasty special ability, otherwise not a big problem at all).
Outcome: harder compared to Horned Fiends, but not by much. Got unlucky with their special attacks (everyone lost gems, except for Robber, Cleric and Sorcerer).
~Man, what a show! Got a ton of money for all efforts (10 000 gold at worst, and 30 000 for heads of tricksters) and after paying visit to local temple (do not want to lose all buffs after resting) headed into Vulcania~
^^^ Totally worth it! [Price scaling is slightly off in Might & Magic 2, and except for some rare events - such JESTER who can teach me every spell in game for every character for 3 million of gold(!) - money going to pile up endlessely].
~Next stop on my journey is Castle Hillstone, ruled by Lord Slayer - notorious hunter and warrior in his own right, who builded his fortress close to deadly marshes~
^^^ Not overly interesting place for me - monsters that he interested in right now will probably kill me, so i pass on. And both class unique items are irrelevant (one is for Ninja, other is for Barbarian). But Bishop must be rescued!
^^^ Castle Guardians dropped something that i need for a long time. Splint Mail +5 is especially good.
Cudgel + 5 and Short Sword + 6 are been dropped from next wave of guards.
^^^ Finally! Pretty good reward as well (100 000 experience points actually matter for me). [All bishop rescue side-quests better be done as soon player can do this, otherwise gains are too little for bishops efforts].
~After leveling up every character in my party (except for Santiago and Morgan) learned new spell circle and i got new priority: getting spells that i currently miss on my list. Otherwise, getting more and more power i my hands~
^^^ OHH, wrong door, lol. They teach 6-th circle and even more high-level spells so too early for me to join them : >
^^^ Yeah, this is my man! Both spells that guild in Tundara can offer cost 3K gold each, which is not an issue right now.
~After shopping and while checking spell books my main casters noticed lack of 4 spells in total (+ 1 one spell - Nature's Gate - that i better to forget about): two of them can be gained without a battle and located close to Air Elementals Plane (in A-1 region), while two others must be obtained by battling two nasty enemy types.
I will obtain all 4 spells and will talk more about new spells in detail~
At first, i need Fingers of Death. And here is more interesting part of game: you can combat enemies (that will await player in specific cell) only by eating specific food (Devil's Food Brownie in local tavern in Atlantium) to actualy learn spell. Otherwise, nothing hapens.
^^^ How many customers they even have with such prices? But this is not my concern (characters in my party are rich).
^^^ To get Fingers of Death spell we must defeat someone who can use powers to kill at will. Grim Reaper is nasty enemy type, not very tough (around ~70 HP), but extremly resistant to magic and have auto-kill abilities.
...And here we go! Now i can cast this spell at will myself.
Second, i need Frenzy spell (or do not need actually for using, mostly for collecting purposes) so...
Everything in vein of tribes housing crazy natives, amazons and large mass of untamed CRONian wildnerness with sweet waters healing many diseases all take place in region B-4.
^^^ Fine. Hopefully we can successully kill them. Amazons seems to have solid stats for their level of power, but no protections against magic and elements at all - even against sleep (!).
^^^ Well, interesting. I been planning on obtaining spell from local tribe, but this also suffice, hehe. [Rescuing Sherman is actual task from Lord Peabody, as far as i remember]
^^^ Crazed Natives is memorable enemy type due to high amount of HP and "frenzy" ability. They usually will everybody in first round.
Got pretty lucky (some "suicidal attacks" been dealing 2 damage, hehe) and first 10 crazed natives scratched my party members.
^^^ Yang loves this kind of shit, so he can induce state of RAGE into some of party members. But each use of this spell use comes at cost, but this is for later~
At last, we need to visit ice mountains neat Tundara for two spells a piece. Mountaineer skill pays large role here - just as Pathfinder helped me aquiring Frenzy spell and bypassing some fixed encounters earlier.
^^^ Less needed "combat" spell with limited amount of uses - also located close to edge of the world, but why not?...
^^^ Plot relevant spell that is real reason why i'm here at all. [You going to need cleric with all 4 Elemental Transmutations to even think about finishing game]
~So let's talk a bit about current spell roster (5-th circle of magic have only 5 spells in total)~
^^^ Happy wizard = deadly wizard...
1) Sorcerer:~
Disrupt (5-1) deals energy 100 damage to single enemy not engaged hand-to-hand (+5 gems). Kind of meh, but sometimes worth it's cost - usually i been not using this spell. Fingers of Death (5-2) have medium chance to instantly kill up to 3 enemies (+ 5 gems). Actually pretty good spell until higher levels - considering that this spell can kill ANY enemy without very high magic resistance i can recommend to use this from time to time. Sand Storm (5-3) deals D8 damage per level of caster to 10 monsters, but works only at surface (+5 gems). Good spell for it's price and level. Shelter (5-4) allows party to rest without any potential encounter with monsters. This is great support spell; in more higher end dungeons i always been casting this before even thinking about resting. Teleport (5-5) teleports party to 1-9 cells in direction of party current standing. One of the best spells in the game with ton of possible uses and related combinations... But this spell more often do work in some locations.
2) Cleric:~
Air Encasement (5-1) both paralyzes monster and applies 10 damage each round of combat, but immideately will end it's effect once enemy is attacked (+5 gems). Pathetic spell, just as most "encasement" spells for cleric. Deadly Swarm (5-2) deals 4-40 physical damage to 10 enemies. Great way to deal with weak-to medium tier enemies. Frenzy (5-3) automatically makes selected character unconcsious (HP goes to 0) with Endurance going down by 1 (!), but 10 enemies will feel pain; damage depends on level of "sacrificial" character (+ 5 gems). Rare case of truly weird spell: while penalty of -1 Endurance is pretty big, damage applied to enemies can instantly win combat. Matter of taste... Paralyze (5-4) tries to paralyze up to 10 enemies(!) (+ 5 gems). Very good spell, mostly due to amount of targets for single use - but later on cleric will have better way to spend combat turn. Remove Condition (5-5) removes any condition, except for "stoned", dead or eradicated. Situational, but can save player's ass reliably well (unless cleric is disabled himself).
[Some of the most iconic and powerfull spells that players WANT to use (and satisfactory on top of this) are from this circle, subjectively]
~Time for looting special items helping Knight and Paladin classes in their hard work and augmented their abilities. Hope effects worth it...
[Dungeon in Castle Pinehurst is painful to traverse - teleport will not work here, for example, along with later "movement" spells. Conversly, jump work pretty good and reliably, amusingly.
^^^ Been veturing into this place without Knight to actually aquire a shit for Santiago. First item is in my hands! [This dungeon houses one more item for Knights, but this item is painful to get close by]
Giant scorpions, wind mares and cavaliers failed to stop me in my quest for plundering this castle halls. Time to move even deeper...
^^^ Got very greedy here and some killing crap ambushed me. Barely survived until end of dungeon. Witch Broom is literal life-saver with KO'd sorcerer.
^^^ Time for Fingers of Death... Or nah, druids been first to silence me.
Easy battle in itself, but later got encounter with shamans (they love to paralyze everybody and sometimes this ability can work even through high magic resistance.
~RIP, in short~
^^^ What a fucking ride. Finally, a whole GRAIL for Miriam herself! Aquiring this item is 2x harder compared to taking same item for knight.
[Going to for deeper level of same dungeon after at leastaquiring Etherealize spell].
~Ok, some words about items my team retrieved from Lord Peabody's Inner Halls. Ivory Cameo (for Knights only) gives + 15 to Might stat. Very good, almost best from similar items. Agate Grail (for Paladins only) gives + 15 to Personality.... Meh at best.
Considering that taking Knight specific item been much easier - got good candidate for selling at Flea market...~
^^^ Current place of interest. + Nuclear blast radioactive area in form of Dead Zone (!)
^^^ ....Been not even lying about radiation.
~At last in this part of Let's Play, will slay couple of Wyverns to test my capabilities:
^^^ HELL YEAH, COME AT ME! One of the first enemy types with respectable ability to breathe fire, around 140 HP and some resistances to boot.
^^^ Not extremly hard fight (due to low amount of wyrms), and as reward now i can farm this crap.
Got Ray Gun + 5 from other fight, Great Shield + 4 and some other interesting items with ton of gold. [After player can more or less reliably farm this creatures, actually getting 3 000 000 Gold is not as hard as it may seems at first. Dragon Dominion is basically gold deposit and best palce to farm gold in whole game bar none].
~Basically going to focus on this region in next part of Let's Play~
Couple of words about current state of Let's Play: going closer and closer for aquiring best armor and best weapon in the whole game (Photon Sword with some additional + and Golden Plate Mail) just as getting closer for being able to defeat crap such as Orc God.
But still not here... Still, now farming for experience going to be priority for a long part of run.
Anyway...
~Hope to achieve in next part:
~...going to get one or even two levels for everyone in party
~...going to explore mysterious Dragon's Dominion
~...hope to aquire class specific items for Archer and Sorcerer
~...going to finally complete quest for Lord Hoardall mighty collection of items
--perfectly open at suggestions at this point--
P.S. Hope my Let's Read provides fun and interesting view on my run
Cheers 0/
grabbing everything that seems of any respectable value
~With saturday day time also comes one more part of Let's Read - or at least i will start typing during day time, and probably will finish writing much later (as usual)~
I slightly neglected my party priority for grabbing as much experience as i can, so for most current part going to do tasks that will net a lot of experience such as:
1) Defeating triple red tickets challenge for next Bishop of Battle (probably going to be enough for new level - and new circle of magic for both cleric and sorcerer)
2) If it is not going to be enough will "grind" for a bit in castle Pinehurst or in castle Woodshaven.
3) With help of new spells and even more beefy fighters will defeat numerous encounters with barbarians (hoping for good items to replace my junk) and afterwards - will slay dragons and wyverns.
4) Going to retrieve special items for Knight and Paladin from Lord's Peabody dungeon and will generally exlpore world a bit more.
With these goals in mind let's begin exploration yet again!
^^^ Bishop of Red Battle can be slightly tough at this point in the game, so decided to buy "lava grenades" for Pravin Lal and CEO Morgan (item replacer for Fireball spell). Smithy in Vulcania also sells Cureall Wand (simply is counter to Silence and Paralyze inducing enemies), but it costs around 15K(!) gold, so i will pass on it for now.
~Here we go. Time to endure three battles and spill more blood..~
^^^ Battle # 1: Amazon's Little Sisters
Most notorious feature of this enemy type is their ability to ignore melee attacks of every male member in party. And their pretty high stats on top of this...
Outcome: pretty easy, due to relatively low damage they deal (around ~25) and Yang invoked Holy Bonus and Heroism spells.
^^^ Battle # 2: Childrens of Hellhole
It very well can be a very hard battle (they can decrease stats and petrify my party members) or i can got lucky, but we'll see...
Outcome: i think constant Protection from Magic casted before and Feeble Mind saved my ass. Pretty OK battle - not easy and not hard at the same time.
~People (and not people at all - and even scum like gnomes too) gather at Colosseum in Atlantium knowing that sooner or later my party will enter giant halls to combat last threat on the way to fabled Bishop of Red Battle. Keeper of arena have something special for me...~
^^^ Battle # 3: Night of the Uber-Zombies
Man, it is enemy type with excesssive amount of HP (around 130) and ability to paralyze everyone in party. I can only prey at magic resistance and use best spell possible...
Outcome: defeat, this zombies been dealing tons of damage and bringing all of them is titanic task. I will try one more time (saved in local Hotel, beforehand*)
^^^ Power of donating to temples better to not be underestimated, by the way*
^^^ Battle # 4: Pimped (AS FUCK) Greedy Snitches
They can steal all my gems (arrggghhh), otherwise should be plausable. As hard as greedy snitches on their own power level (nasty special ability, otherwise not a big problem at all).
Outcome: harder compared to Horned Fiends, but not by much. Got unlucky with their special attacks (everyone lost gems, except for Robber, Cleric and Sorcerer).
~Man, what a show! Got a ton of money for all efforts (10 000 gold at worst, and 30 000 for heads of tricksters) and after paying visit to local temple (do not want to lose all buffs after resting) headed into Vulcania~
^^^ Totally worth it! [Price scaling is slightly off in Might & Magic 2, and except for some rare events - such JESTER who can teach me every spell in game for every character for 3 million of gold(!) - money going to pile up endlessely].
~Next stop on my journey is Castle Hillstone, ruled by Lord Slayer - notorious hunter and warrior in his own right, who builded his fortress close to deadly marshes~
^^^ Not overly interesting place for me - monsters that he interested in right now will probably kill me, so i pass on. And both class unique items are irrelevant (one is for Ninja, other is for Barbarian). But Bishop must be rescued!
^^^ Castle Guardians dropped something that i need for a long time. Splint Mail +5 is especially good.
Cudgel + 5 and Short Sword + 6 are been dropped from next wave of guards.
^^^ Finally! Pretty good reward as well (100 000 experience points actually matter for me). [All bishop rescue side-quests better be done as soon player can do this, otherwise gains are too little for bishops efforts].
~After leveling up every character in my party (except for Santiago and Morgan) learned new spell circle and i got new priority: getting spells that i currently miss on my list. Otherwise, getting more and more power i my hands~
^^^ OHH, wrong door, lol. They teach 6-th circle and even more high-level spells so too early for me to join them : >
^^^ Yeah, this is my man! Both spells that guild in Tundara can offer cost 3K gold each, which is not an issue right now.
~After shopping and while checking spell books my main casters noticed lack of 4 spells in total (+ 1 one spell - Nature's Gate - that i better to forget about): two of them can be gained without a battle and located close to Air Elementals Plane (in A-1 region), while two others must be obtained by battling two nasty enemy types.
I will obtain all 4 spells and will talk more about new spells in detail~
At first, i need Fingers of Death. And here is more interesting part of game: you can combat enemies (that will await player in specific cell) only by eating specific food (Devil's Food Brownie in local tavern in Atlantium) to actualy learn spell. Otherwise, nothing hapens.
^^^ How many customers they even have with such prices? But this is not my concern (characters in my party are rich).
^^^ To get Fingers of Death spell we must defeat someone who can use powers to kill at will. Grim Reaper is nasty enemy type, not very tough (around ~70 HP), but extremly resistant to magic and have auto-kill abilities.
...And here we go! Now i can cast this spell at will myself.
Second, i need Frenzy spell (or do not need actually for using, mostly for collecting purposes) so...
Everything in vein of tribes housing crazy natives, amazons and large mass of untamed CRONian wildnerness with sweet waters healing many diseases all take place in region B-4.
^^^ Fine. Hopefully we can successully kill them. Amazons seems to have solid stats for their level of power, but no protections against magic and elements at all - even against sleep (!).
^^^ Well, interesting. I been planning on obtaining spell from local tribe, but this also suffice, hehe. [Rescuing Sherman is actual task from Lord Peabody, as far as i remember]
^^^ Crazed Natives is memorable enemy type due to high amount of HP and "frenzy" ability. They usually will everybody in first round.
Got pretty lucky (some "suicidal attacks" been dealing 2 damage, hehe) and first 10 crazed natives scratched my party members.
^^^ Yang loves this kind of shit, so he can induce state of RAGE into some of party members. But each use of this spell use comes at cost, but this is for later~
At last, we need to visit ice mountains neat Tundara for two spells a piece. Mountaineer skill pays large role here - just as Pathfinder helped me aquiring Frenzy spell and bypassing some fixed encounters earlier.
^^^ Less needed "combat" spell with limited amount of uses - also located close to edge of the world, but why not?...
^^^ Plot relevant spell that is real reason why i'm here at all. [You going to need cleric with all 4 Elemental Transmutations to even think about finishing game]
~So let's talk a bit about current spell roster (5-th circle of magic have only 5 spells in total)~
^^^ Happy wizard = deadly wizard...
1) Sorcerer:~
Disrupt (5-1) deals energy 100 damage to single enemy not engaged hand-to-hand (+5 gems). Kind of meh, but sometimes worth it's cost - usually i been not using this spell. Fingers of Death (5-2) have medium chance to instantly kill up to 3 enemies (+ 5 gems). Actually pretty good spell until higher levels - considering that this spell can kill ANY enemy without very high magic resistance i can recommend to use this from time to time. Sand Storm (5-3) deals D8 damage per level of caster to 10 monsters, but works only at surface (+5 gems). Good spell for it's price and level. Shelter (5-4) allows party to rest without any potential encounter with monsters. This is great support spell; in more higher end dungeons i always been casting this before even thinking about resting. Teleport (5-5) teleports party to 1-9 cells in direction of party current standing. One of the best spells in the game with ton of possible uses and related combinations... But this spell more often do work in some locations.
2) Cleric:~
Air Encasement (5-1) both paralyzes monster and applies 10 damage each round of combat, but immideately will end it's effect once enemy is attacked (+5 gems). Pathetic spell, just as most "encasement" spells for cleric. Deadly Swarm (5-2) deals 4-40 physical damage to 10 enemies. Great way to deal with weak-to medium tier enemies. Frenzy (5-3) automatically makes selected character unconcsious (HP goes to 0) with Endurance going down by 1 (!), but 10 enemies will feel pain; damage depends on level of "sacrificial" character (+ 5 gems). Rare case of truly weird spell: while penalty of -1 Endurance is pretty big, damage applied to enemies can instantly win combat. Matter of taste... Paralyze (5-4) tries to paralyze up to 10 enemies(!) (+ 5 gems). Very good spell, mostly due to amount of targets for single use - but later on cleric will have better way to spend combat turn. Remove Condition (5-5) removes any condition, except for "stoned", dead or eradicated. Situational, but can save player's ass reliably well (unless cleric is disabled himself).
[Some of the most iconic and powerfull spells that players WANT to use (and satisfactory on top of this) are from this circle, subjectively]
~Time for looting special items helping Knight and Paladin classes in their hard work and augmented their abilities. Hope effects worth it...
[Dungeon in Castle Pinehurst is painful to traverse - teleport will not work here, for example, along with later "movement" spells. Conversly, jump work pretty good and reliably, amusingly.
^^^ Been veturing into this place without Knight to actually aquire a shit for Santiago. First item is in my hands! [This dungeon houses one more item for Knights, but this item is painful to get close by]
Giant scorpions, wind mares and cavaliers failed to stop me in my quest for plundering this castle halls. Time to move even deeper...
^^^ Got very greedy here and some killing crap ambushed me. Barely survived until end of dungeon. Witch Broom is literal life-saver with KO'd sorcerer.
^^^ Time for Fingers of Death... Or nah, druids been first to silence me.
Easy battle in itself, but later got encounter with shamans (they love to paralyze everybody and sometimes this ability can work even through high magic resistance.
~RIP, in short~
^^^ What a fucking ride. Finally, a whole GRAIL for Miriam herself! Aquiring this item is 2x harder compared to taking same item for knight.
[Going to for deeper level of same dungeon after at leastaquiring Etherealize spell].
~Ok, some words about items my team retrieved from Lord Peabody's Inner Halls. Ivory Cameo (for Knights only) gives + 15 to Might stat. Very good, almost best from similar items. Agate Grail (for Paladins only) gives + 15 to Personality.... Meh at best.
Considering that taking Knight specific item been much easier - got good candidate for selling at Flea market...~
^^^ Current place of interest. + Nuclear blast radioactive area in form of Dead Zone (!)
^^^ ....Been not even lying about radiation.
~At last in this part of Let's Play, will slay couple of Wyverns to test my capabilities:
^^^ HELL YEAH, COME AT ME! One of the first enemy types with respectable ability to breathe fire, around 140 HP and some resistances to boot.
^^^ Not extremly hard fight (due to low amount of wyrms), and as reward now i can farm this crap.
Got Ray Gun + 5 from other fight, Great Shield + 4 and some other interesting items with ton of gold. [After player can more or less reliably farm this creatures, actually getting 3 000 000 Gold is not as hard as it may seems at first. Dragon Dominion is basically gold deposit and best palce to farm gold in whole game bar none].
~Basically going to focus on this region in next part of Let's Play~
Couple of words about current state of Let's Play: going closer and closer for aquiring best armor and best weapon in the whole game (Photon Sword with some additional + and Golden Plate Mail) just as getting closer for being able to defeat crap such as Orc God.
But still not here... Still, now farming for experience going to be priority for a long part of run.
Anyway...
~Hope to achieve in next part:
~...going to get one or even two levels for everyone in party
~...going to explore mysterious Dragon's Dominion
~...hope to aquire class specific items for Archer and Sorcerer
~...going to finally complete quest for Lord Hoardall mighty collection of items
--perfectly open at suggestions at this point--
P.S. Hope my Let's Read provides fun and interesting view on my run
Cheers 0/
Dorateen
Arcane
I don't think the game caps your party size for promotion quests. In addition to hirelings, you can create your own characters. The only requirement is that they must be of the relevant class to go on the quest. Also, Robbers can accompany the party on all promotion quests, as they do not have a specific one of their own. So through this combination (hirelings, created characters and robbers) you can still have a full party.
azimovhaas8 (Moth)
Learned
My bad, because you're completely right! Game indeed have no hard caps on amount of members in party, in technical sense (well, 8 characters still).
It is mostly some relevant factors and personal preferences why i completed "promotion" quests solo or with two characters at max:
1) I had no robber in party during my first run ("rogue" slot been taken by ninja) and creating some additional characters (even if i need mostly 1 or 2 robbers at maximum since they accompany everybody), and leveling them up afterwards is not idea i personally love.
2) Items that provide utility (Teleport Orb, Witch Broom) and strongest support item in whole game (MaxHP Potion, subjectively, along with more rare Power Oil) along with some fountain effects allow for 1-2 characters to do task for promotion pretty well.
Last edited:
azimovhaas8 (Moth)
Learned
~Part 9: Adventure continues with SMAC team
getting their own half of "loyalty check" completed at last!
This part of Let's Read going to be more focused on aquiring experience and talking by a bit on items and item system in Might & Magic 2 at the start (been actually neglecting a lot details about this very important in-game system) and on aquiring more gold, gems and experience (with experience taking priority at this point in the game).
+ This is a werd part in the game between late part where Main Quest actually going to start being... well active priority and medium part of the game with exploration and taking notes. Also, second point focused on grind (after starting point with un-imported party) BUT game provides more ways to aquirie much needed EXP at this point [going to provide some clues that i personally been using at the end of text].
~~ Quick notes about weapons, armor pieces and assorted items ~~
Every weapon and every piece of armor have following stats: class requirments (classes suitable for using best armor and weapons are knights, barbarians and paladins - clerics get pretty good armor, but not weapons - and archers get best ranged weapons, so here some diversity), alignment requirment if any (i have less clues here, but a lot of highly enchanted items usually require specific alignment more often - some rare items can be demanding as well), additional properties if any (usually some interesting resistances - sleep, paralyze, etc or additional boost to stats), special ability if any (varied list of effects - from spell substitutes to stuff like temporary boost to levels or even more boost for stats) with amount of charges remaining (they can be replenished with help of high-level spell).
[Special abilities of items can be used without need for equipping them, so lava grenade or cinder pipe in backpack are going to work]
^^^ This is current Armor Class of Yang. Clerics are very tough in this game, and AC 22 is on par with "warrior" classes usual armor rating.
Armor pieces have Armor Class - AC for short (more IS better for character safety), and weapons have Damage Dice (from lousy D4 to D40 in some relic level crap). Weapons damage dice then is modified by Might and other bonuses (such as Holy Bonus) and multiplied by number of attacks (Knight have the most attacks out of any class), as far as i know. Armor pieces are not limited by only armor: character can equip helms and shields (shields only with one-handed weapons).
^^^ Total amount of slots for equipment is 6 and this is not a whole lot. Good way to use one or two slots (pretty relevant for sorcerer) is to equip Ring of Defense + X (boosts AC rating by corresponding X).
And... amount of different (sometimes pretty weird) miscellaneous items to use is huge! Some of them are marginally useful even during early game (Lantern, Super Flare, Rope), some of this items are pretty good in case of "emergency" (Witch Broom, Teleport Orb), some are just very good and allow for cheeze at any point in the game (MaxHP Potion, Energizer).
~~Anyway, it is time to focus on game so let's venture into CRON once more...
First of many things to do - let's grab special items for Archer and Sorcerer located in Luxus Palace Royale with Queen Lamanda herself. This castle contains dungeon with some interesting encounters (JESTER increasing maximum HP permanently for 3 millions of gold and fountain changing everybody into woman), but they're irrelevant for me right now.
^^^ Region (with register D-2 - this one close to deserts) containing Royal Castle is full of special encounters mostly setting couple of stats to some insane values. This one temporary sets Speed to 200 (!).
^^^ Both trees located close to each other, so it is not hard to get this result. Sadly, after single combat everything going to return to original state. [Player can sustain most buffs by healing in temples and replenishing SP in moon fountain]
Before i entered mountain cells royal horsemen assaulted me (probably for stealing precious fruits). Decided to run away, because i want to preserve my power.
^^^ Throne of Her Majesty located here, along with last Bishop of Battle. Let's enter her sanctuary...
Almost at the entrance party been able to replenish our packs with fresh food without even fighting anybody. And while door to dungeon is hidden behind invisible wall without light - i remember this place from previous run.
^^^ First floor of Lamanda Inner Halls is devoid of combat encounters for most part, so i been able to grab Topaz Shard without anybody opposing me.
Actually... While i still buffed as hell it is good idea to descend into second level. As long as i remember everything correctly most "movement" spells work here.
^^^ LOL. Just after teleporting by 9 cells warrior boars detachment met me. 200 Might and 200 Speed really been helping me here: Knight dealing 90 damage per attack is pretty good.
Been wandering by a little bit - considering how something like Inner Halls of Queen must be protected got very lucky with no other combat encounters.
^^^ Second item for the Archer, yay! Time to Surface and regroup in Middlegate with adding Pravin Lal to the team and temporarily desposing Zakharov (this city is our base of "operations" for a long time already)...
^^^ This item located in "evidence" room, heh. Also doors for both items been locked after my team entered room, so - again - thievery ability of Morgan is a necessity.
^^^ B-Bribe option did not worked quite well with Illusionists... Ahh, it is a very simple SP draining creatures, so actually it is waste of resources to bribe them. [Player can bribe creatures with food, gems or gold - how well group of monsters will react to bribery is entirely depending on type of enemy. Couple of time even food worked - but mostly against animals. Some monsters cannot be bribed at all].
^^^ Second item for sorcerer. Time to for me to "panic button" again to bypass every danger in this place. Surface allow even low level parties to easily grab items and get out of dungeon in single click. Potential options to bribe monsters, use teleport spell (or from substitute item) and jump allow to grab some artifact level items without even touching enemies.
~Dungeon crawling for this two items been not as hard as hunting for Knight / Palading relics in second castle. Actually, let's look at abilities of relics in manual real quick...
Topaz Shard (only for Archers) boosts Accuracy by 15. Not bad at all; practically this means almost all shots from bow of Archer will hit the target. Sun Crown (only for Archers) boosts Intellect by 15. Meh, because archers are still more close to Knight, and amount of mana of them is even less important compared to Paladins, who need SP for Power Cure. Amber Skull (only for Sorcerers) boosts Intellect by 15. Pretty good, because sorcerer is almost entirely depends on his or her spells and more SP is always good. Quartz Skull (only for Sorcerers) boosts Intelelct by 15. Same as for previous item.
^^^ Zakharov probably can invent parts of TIME MACHINE by himself at this point...
For most part worth it, most items are pretty cool, even if later on will sell some of them in favor of other OP items~
^^^ Time to complete side-quest to collect 3 swords of chivalry. Let's start with Sword of Nobility.
^^^ High-level monsters actually, despite such simple name for strong casters inducing paralyze. Considering my 60 % resistance to magic i will try to defeat them.
Actually at some point everyone, except for Yang and Morgan been paralyzed. Yange been casting Remove Condition spell pretty often.
^^^ Let me visit temple in Middlegate and replenish SP in Moon Fountain (do not want to waste all buffs after rest) : ]
^^^ Not sure about "men" part of sentence, but yes - going to massacre them all.
EZ battle - and one of the few battles where every target of Finger of Death been eradicated.
^^^ One more sword to grab after this one and i can please Lord of Realm with good news at last.
^^^ Pretty tough monstrosities - they can Breathe Gas and have 140+ HP. Still, 200 Might + 200 Speed going to net me a victory, i hope.
Feeble Mind kept half of Guardians in check, while high magic resistance kept damage from other half killing me. Gas attack failed, hehe.
^^^ At last! Special "Chivalry Themed Sword Collection" (that probably going to be thrown in deep part of Hoardall dungeon) is assembled and going to be presented by Pravin Lal (he is Crusader after all).
^^^ Pretty good reward for not overly hard task. [Game scales pretty crazy: from 250 epxerience points for killing rats to 1 000 000 and more for killing titans and time lords]
^^^ FUCK IT MAN, I WILL GO FOR LAST BISHOP NOW. With amount of buffs, temporary stat boosts and current power level of SMAC kill team... Why not?
^^^ Battle # 1: Disciples of SUPER SHOCK...
Not very tough enemy type, not very hard hitting, but Super Shock monster spell can kill some characters in one go. I must proceed with caution...
Outcome: 333 damage in single go is *something* and it targeted Yang for fuck sake, but Miriam also can heal. Some spells been resisted so victory is mine (+ 22 000 gold)
^^^ Battle # 2: Walking Plantation
One of the least favorable battles for me: they're immune to melee damage, they're immune to every spell prior to level 4 and they have 200+ (!!) HP. I had problems with them last run too, lol.
Outcome: Bullshit battle, honestly - half of team cannot do shit, other half been doing not very much and Plant Golems been attacking for 60 damage pretty reliably. RIP.
^^^ Battle # 3: Annihilatrix Host
Man, same shit as with Court Mages: not very tough, not big on physical damage, but they can cast Dancing Sword spell and drain SP. We'll see...
Outcome: Victory, but Miriam been dead at the end of battle and others been with 40 - 50 HP at best. + 30 000 experience points is good, throught (+ 30 000 gold as well)
~I'm not sure about Colosseum best fighters - but i wll buff myself as good as i can before fight with MaxHP potions~
--Even some rich folks from Vulcania and Murray Resort been gathering at Colosseum to see great show! Only today: band of insane lads against horrors of Colosseum. LET'S BEGIN A BLOOD BATH--
^^^ Battle # 4: Veterans of Long War
Yes, this enemy type is pretty simple - no special abilities, only some resistances - but 300 HP (!), 8 attacks in total can be a big trouble. Let's see.
Outcome: With each of them dealing up to 250 or 300 damage per swing, even successful Fingers of Death kills does not mean much in the end. RIP x 2.
~Let's try one more time~
^^^ Now with this HP to face horrors of Atlantium...
^^^ Battle # 5: Giant Emperor Cobras from CRON
Similar to Endless Knights in some ways, but much weaker, possessing less attacks (but each attack deals more damage), but this enemy type can apply poison [not going to happen, as i predict, heh]. Let's see...
Outcome: crazy battle in itself - with Frenzy being casted by Yang targeting Morgan (he dealt 60 damage to each snake and been out of rest of battle) and 2 Fingers of Death casts killed EVERY Dagger Jaw. 70 000 experience for this crap as well. (+ 50 000 gold)
^^^ Greedy key master selling precious thing for 50K gold. But fine, i just got 6x times as much in last battle for Black Key : >
Last Bishop is hold as hostage in Queen's Palace, so i will simply fly into D-2 and free him. As far as i remember nobody guarding him (no fixed encounters before his prison cell).
^^^ It's totally worth it! + I completed one of two Main Quest requirments for Queen's favor and farther progression, as i actually notice now.
~After some really HEROIC deeds my party been resting and leveling in usual "gym" in Atlantium. Everybody now either at level 13 (knight / rogue / cleric) or at level 12 ("hybrids" / sorcerer)! During this part of Let's Play i gained probably half of experienced that i gained in every previous part combined, hehe.
Still, i need to collect missing spells - on this spell levels here is not much troubles for sorcerer (party can buy everything missing in Vulcania), but cleric need to collect every missing spell by visiting distant lands close to Earth and Water Elemental Planes.~
^^^ First spell - and this one is plot relevant for sure. Located in Sandsobar wilderness region (E-4).
^^^ Second plot relevant spell on this level. Located in Atlantium Sea Region (A-4) along with other *less useful* Water themed spell.
^^^ Decided to fight on Arena once more for some more EXP and gold. (16 000 experience, hehe)
~Quick rundown on all new spells for both caster types with some preferences and general subjective ranking:
1) Sorcerer~
Disintegration (6-1) deals 50 energy damage to 3 monsters with large chance (depending on enemy HP, mostly) to insta-kill monster (+6 gems). One of the best spells from time you will get it and up to later levels, as well; better compared to already good Fingers of Death in every aspect (except in cost). Entrapment (6-2) after casting monsters cannot run from battle (+ 6 gems). Literal garbage without much even hidden uses - usually monsters that run from combat are too weak to even waste high-level spell on them. Fantasic Freeze (6-3) deals 10 cold daamge *per level of caster* to 5 monsters (+6 gems). One of the best options against medium level threats, best in conjunction with Heroism. Recharge Item (6-4) adds d6 charges to single item, as long as item in not -useless- state already (+6 gems). Great spell! Have some interesting combinations and costs not that much. Super Shock (6-5) deals 20 damage *per level of caster* to single monster (+ 6 gems). Enemies without relevant resistances going to suffer hard - and aagin - better with Heroism.
2) Cleric~
Earth Transmutation (6-1) allow to visit Elemental Plane of Earth (+ 6 gems). Plot relevant spell. Rejuvenate (6-2) reduces age of target character by d10 - or in case of failure, increases age of target character by d10. Meh, usually it is better to use special location in CRON itself. Stone to Flesh (6-3) remove "stoned" condition from affected character (+ 6 gems). Good utility spell, nothing more to add. Water Encasement (6-4) same as Air Encasement, but deals double amount of damage each round. Not convinced! Water Transmutation (6-2) allow to visit Elemental Plane of Water (+6 gems). Plot relevant spell.
...If sorcerer got some awesome attack spells without much utility (well, Recharge Item is good utility, but that's all) - Cleric got utility spells and more spells for completing game later on~
---A lot happened in this part of Let's Play and i pretty much skyrocketed for couple of levels and close to grabbing some insane items and spells!
Anyway...---
~Hope to complete in next part of Let's Play:
~...going to venture in Dragon's Dominion for best armor pieces and best weapons in the game
~...going to level up even more
~...hope to gain new spell circle for both cleric and sorcerer
~...hope to venture into high-level vulcanic dungeon
Cheers and best of luck 0/
getting their own half of "loyalty check" completed at last!
This part of Let's Read going to be more focused on aquiring experience and talking by a bit on items and item system in Might & Magic 2 at the start (been actually neglecting a lot details about this very important in-game system) and on aquiring more gold, gems and experience (with experience taking priority at this point in the game).
+ This is a werd part in the game between late part where Main Quest actually going to start being... well active priority and medium part of the game with exploration and taking notes. Also, second point focused on grind (after starting point with un-imported party) BUT game provides more ways to aquirie much needed EXP at this point [going to provide some clues that i personally been using at the end of text].
~~ Quick notes about weapons, armor pieces and assorted items ~~
Every weapon and every piece of armor have following stats: class requirments (classes suitable for using best armor and weapons are knights, barbarians and paladins - clerics get pretty good armor, but not weapons - and archers get best ranged weapons, so here some diversity), alignment requirment if any (i have less clues here, but a lot of highly enchanted items usually require specific alignment more often - some rare items can be demanding as well), additional properties if any (usually some interesting resistances - sleep, paralyze, etc or additional boost to stats), special ability if any (varied list of effects - from spell substitutes to stuff like temporary boost to levels or even more boost for stats) with amount of charges remaining (they can be replenished with help of high-level spell).
[Special abilities of items can be used without need for equipping them, so lava grenade or cinder pipe in backpack are going to work]
^^^ This is current Armor Class of Yang. Clerics are very tough in this game, and AC 22 is on par with "warrior" classes usual armor rating.
Armor pieces have Armor Class - AC for short (more IS better for character safety), and weapons have Damage Dice (from lousy D4 to D40 in some relic level crap). Weapons damage dice then is modified by Might and other bonuses (such as Holy Bonus) and multiplied by number of attacks (Knight have the most attacks out of any class), as far as i know. Armor pieces are not limited by only armor: character can equip helms and shields (shields only with one-handed weapons).
^^^ Total amount of slots for equipment is 6 and this is not a whole lot. Good way to use one or two slots (pretty relevant for sorcerer) is to equip Ring of Defense + X (boosts AC rating by corresponding X).
And... amount of different (sometimes pretty weird) miscellaneous items to use is huge! Some of them are marginally useful even during early game (Lantern, Super Flare, Rope), some of this items are pretty good in case of "emergency" (Witch Broom, Teleport Orb), some are just very good and allow for cheeze at any point in the game (MaxHP Potion, Energizer).
~~Anyway, it is time to focus on game so let's venture into CRON once more...
First of many things to do - let's grab special items for Archer and Sorcerer located in Luxus Palace Royale with Queen Lamanda herself. This castle contains dungeon with some interesting encounters (JESTER increasing maximum HP permanently for 3 millions of gold and fountain changing everybody into woman), but they're irrelevant for me right now.
^^^ Region (with register D-2 - this one close to deserts) containing Royal Castle is full of special encounters mostly setting couple of stats to some insane values. This one temporary sets Speed to 200 (!).
^^^ Both trees located close to each other, so it is not hard to get this result. Sadly, after single combat everything going to return to original state. [Player can sustain most buffs by healing in temples and replenishing SP in moon fountain]
Before i entered mountain cells royal horsemen assaulted me (probably for stealing precious fruits). Decided to run away, because i want to preserve my power.
^^^ Throne of Her Majesty located here, along with last Bishop of Battle. Let's enter her sanctuary...
Almost at the entrance party been able to replenish our packs with fresh food without even fighting anybody. And while door to dungeon is hidden behind invisible wall without light - i remember this place from previous run.
^^^ First floor of Lamanda Inner Halls is devoid of combat encounters for most part, so i been able to grab Topaz Shard without anybody opposing me.
Actually... While i still buffed as hell it is good idea to descend into second level. As long as i remember everything correctly most "movement" spells work here.
^^^ LOL. Just after teleporting by 9 cells warrior boars detachment met me. 200 Might and 200 Speed really been helping me here: Knight dealing 90 damage per attack is pretty good.
Been wandering by a little bit - considering how something like Inner Halls of Queen must be protected got very lucky with no other combat encounters.
^^^ Second item for the Archer, yay! Time to Surface and regroup in Middlegate with adding Pravin Lal to the team and temporarily desposing Zakharov (this city is our base of "operations" for a long time already)...
^^^ This item located in "evidence" room, heh. Also doors for both items been locked after my team entered room, so - again - thievery ability of Morgan is a necessity.
^^^ B-Bribe option did not worked quite well with Illusionists... Ahh, it is a very simple SP draining creatures, so actually it is waste of resources to bribe them. [Player can bribe creatures with food, gems or gold - how well group of monsters will react to bribery is entirely depending on type of enemy. Couple of time even food worked - but mostly against animals. Some monsters cannot be bribed at all].
^^^ Second item for sorcerer. Time to for me to "panic button" again to bypass every danger in this place. Surface allow even low level parties to easily grab items and get out of dungeon in single click. Potential options to bribe monsters, use teleport spell (or from substitute item) and jump allow to grab some artifact level items without even touching enemies.
~Dungeon crawling for this two items been not as hard as hunting for Knight / Palading relics in second castle. Actually, let's look at abilities of relics in manual real quick...
Topaz Shard (only for Archers) boosts Accuracy by 15. Not bad at all; practically this means almost all shots from bow of Archer will hit the target. Sun Crown (only for Archers) boosts Intellect by 15. Meh, because archers are still more close to Knight, and amount of mana of them is even less important compared to Paladins, who need SP for Power Cure. Amber Skull (only for Sorcerers) boosts Intellect by 15. Pretty good, because sorcerer is almost entirely depends on his or her spells and more SP is always good. Quartz Skull (only for Sorcerers) boosts Intelelct by 15. Same as for previous item.
^^^ Zakharov probably can invent parts of TIME MACHINE by himself at this point...
For most part worth it, most items are pretty cool, even if later on will sell some of them in favor of other OP items~
^^^ Time to complete side-quest to collect 3 swords of chivalry. Let's start with Sword of Nobility.
^^^ High-level monsters actually, despite such simple name for strong casters inducing paralyze. Considering my 60 % resistance to magic i will try to defeat them.
Actually at some point everyone, except for Yang and Morgan been paralyzed. Yange been casting Remove Condition spell pretty often.
^^^ Let me visit temple in Middlegate and replenish SP in Moon Fountain (do not want to waste all buffs after rest) : ]
^^^ Not sure about "men" part of sentence, but yes - going to massacre them all.
EZ battle - and one of the few battles where every target of Finger of Death been eradicated.
^^^ One more sword to grab after this one and i can please Lord of Realm with good news at last.
^^^ Pretty tough monstrosities - they can Breathe Gas and have 140+ HP. Still, 200 Might + 200 Speed going to net me a victory, i hope.
Feeble Mind kept half of Guardians in check, while high magic resistance kept damage from other half killing me. Gas attack failed, hehe.
^^^ At last! Special "Chivalry Themed Sword Collection" (that probably going to be thrown in deep part of Hoardall dungeon) is assembled and going to be presented by Pravin Lal (he is Crusader after all).
^^^ Pretty good reward for not overly hard task. [Game scales pretty crazy: from 250 epxerience points for killing rats to 1 000 000 and more for killing titans and time lords]
^^^ FUCK IT MAN, I WILL GO FOR LAST BISHOP NOW. With amount of buffs, temporary stat boosts and current power level of SMAC kill team... Why not?
^^^ Battle # 1: Disciples of SUPER SHOCK...
Not very tough enemy type, not very hard hitting, but Super Shock monster spell can kill some characters in one go. I must proceed with caution...
Outcome: 333 damage in single go is *something* and it targeted Yang for fuck sake, but Miriam also can heal. Some spells been resisted so victory is mine (+ 22 000 gold)
^^^ Battle # 2: Walking Plantation
One of the least favorable battles for me: they're immune to melee damage, they're immune to every spell prior to level 4 and they have 200+ (!!) HP. I had problems with them last run too, lol.
Outcome: Bullshit battle, honestly - half of team cannot do shit, other half been doing not very much and Plant Golems been attacking for 60 damage pretty reliably. RIP.
^^^ Battle # 3: Annihilatrix Host
Man, same shit as with Court Mages: not very tough, not big on physical damage, but they can cast Dancing Sword spell and drain SP. We'll see...
Outcome: Victory, but Miriam been dead at the end of battle and others been with 40 - 50 HP at best. + 30 000 experience points is good, throught (+ 30 000 gold as well)
~I'm not sure about Colosseum best fighters - but i wll buff myself as good as i can before fight with MaxHP potions~
--Even some rich folks from Vulcania and Murray Resort been gathering at Colosseum to see great show! Only today: band of insane lads against horrors of Colosseum. LET'S BEGIN A BLOOD BATH--
^^^ Battle # 4: Veterans of Long War
Yes, this enemy type is pretty simple - no special abilities, only some resistances - but 300 HP (!), 8 attacks in total can be a big trouble. Let's see.
Outcome: With each of them dealing up to 250 or 300 damage per swing, even successful Fingers of Death kills does not mean much in the end. RIP x 2.
~Let's try one more time~
^^^ Now with this HP to face horrors of Atlantium...
^^^ Battle # 5: Giant Emperor Cobras from CRON
Similar to Endless Knights in some ways, but much weaker, possessing less attacks (but each attack deals more damage), but this enemy type can apply poison [not going to happen, as i predict, heh]. Let's see...
Outcome: crazy battle in itself - with Frenzy being casted by Yang targeting Morgan (he dealt 60 damage to each snake and been out of rest of battle) and 2 Fingers of Death casts killed EVERY Dagger Jaw. 70 000 experience for this crap as well. (+ 50 000 gold)
^^^ Greedy key master selling precious thing for 50K gold. But fine, i just got 6x times as much in last battle for Black Key : >
Last Bishop is hold as hostage in Queen's Palace, so i will simply fly into D-2 and free him. As far as i remember nobody guarding him (no fixed encounters before his prison cell).
^^^ It's totally worth it! + I completed one of two Main Quest requirments for Queen's favor and farther progression, as i actually notice now.
~After some really HEROIC deeds my party been resting and leveling in usual "gym" in Atlantium. Everybody now either at level 13 (knight / rogue / cleric) or at level 12 ("hybrids" / sorcerer)! During this part of Let's Play i gained probably half of experienced that i gained in every previous part combined, hehe.
Still, i need to collect missing spells - on this spell levels here is not much troubles for sorcerer (party can buy everything missing in Vulcania), but cleric need to collect every missing spell by visiting distant lands close to Earth and Water Elemental Planes.~
^^^ First spell - and this one is plot relevant for sure. Located in Sandsobar wilderness region (E-4).
^^^ Second plot relevant spell on this level. Located in Atlantium Sea Region (A-4) along with other *less useful* Water themed spell.
^^^ Decided to fight on Arena once more for some more EXP and gold. (16 000 experience, hehe)
~Quick rundown on all new spells for both caster types with some preferences and general subjective ranking:
1) Sorcerer~
Disintegration (6-1) deals 50 energy damage to 3 monsters with large chance (depending on enemy HP, mostly) to insta-kill monster (+6 gems). One of the best spells from time you will get it and up to later levels, as well; better compared to already good Fingers of Death in every aspect (except in cost). Entrapment (6-2) after casting monsters cannot run from battle (+ 6 gems). Literal garbage without much even hidden uses - usually monsters that run from combat are too weak to even waste high-level spell on them. Fantasic Freeze (6-3) deals 10 cold daamge *per level of caster* to 5 monsters (+6 gems). One of the best options against medium level threats, best in conjunction with Heroism. Recharge Item (6-4) adds d6 charges to single item, as long as item in not -useless- state already (+6 gems). Great spell! Have some interesting combinations and costs not that much. Super Shock (6-5) deals 20 damage *per level of caster* to single monster (+ 6 gems). Enemies without relevant resistances going to suffer hard - and aagin - better with Heroism.
2) Cleric~
Earth Transmutation (6-1) allow to visit Elemental Plane of Earth (+ 6 gems). Plot relevant spell. Rejuvenate (6-2) reduces age of target character by d10 - or in case of failure, increases age of target character by d10. Meh, usually it is better to use special location in CRON itself. Stone to Flesh (6-3) remove "stoned" condition from affected character (+ 6 gems). Good utility spell, nothing more to add. Water Encasement (6-4) same as Air Encasement, but deals double amount of damage each round. Not convinced! Water Transmutation (6-2) allow to visit Elemental Plane of Water (+6 gems). Plot relevant spell.
...If sorcerer got some awesome attack spells without much utility (well, Recharge Item is good utility, but that's all) - Cleric got utility spells and more spells for completing game later on~
---A lot happened in this part of Let's Play and i pretty much skyrocketed for couple of levels and close to grabbing some insane items and spells!
Anyway...---
~Hope to complete in next part of Let's Play:
~...going to venture in Dragon's Dominion for best armor pieces and best weapons in the game
~...going to level up even more
~...hope to gain new spell circle for both cleric and sorcerer
~...hope to venture into high-level vulcanic dungeon
Cheers and best of luck 0/
Last edited:
azimovhaas8 (Moth)
Learned
By high-level vulcanic dungeon i mean Gemmaker Vulcano. Hmm, by searching my "notepad" with some old hints i can remember fire themed weapons and fire-themed shield, not sure about other items.
+ Large amount of gems, even if i have no real problem with them at the moment.
Fowyr
Arcane
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2009
- Messages
- 7,671
Yes, these weapons. They were pretty useful even for the middle-level party. You always need gems. Some high-level spells, I think, use 50 gems per cast. I remember how I suddenly found that spent all my gems on 7-1 and 7-3 (Dancing Blades spell?) right in the middle of the dungeon.
azimovhaas8 (Moth)
Learned
Cappen, hehe - even if most sprites for "girls" are heavily reused (actually game have only two such sprites from my experience) they still look pretty nice 
azimovhaas8 (Moth)
Learned
~Part 10: Adventure continues with Miriam
and Santiago getting tools for RIP & TEAR
Same as in previous part - more experience, more gold and even more gems for a heroic cause. Only difference is main focus of this part on two notorious dungeons: Dragon's Dominion (dragon / wyrm themed high level dungeon housing some really awesome crap) and Gemmaker Vulcano (suprisingly peaceful lava filled dungeon also housing some cool items). My additional priority is getting better equipment for my 6 lads badass crew (some of my equipment is low-end junk at this point in the game).
After i will complete two dungeons as far as i want (and second dungeon going to be difficult as hell) - probably going to level up couple of times and if needed will spill blood on Arena / Dust Bowl / Colosseum and will aquire more of everything.
With this tasks in my mind - let's begin!
~First of all, let's start with vulcanic dungeon located very close to Vulcania in same region (E-1) and let explore it...
^^^ Hehe, player can actually go in this location much earlier - as far as player possess any way to reliably use Levitate spell.
^^^ Here it is! Of course i will enter. [This location have relatively high level random monsters, but at the same time dungeon itself have no fixed encounters - probably only dungeon in the game with this design].
^^^ Pretty relevant hint for actual visit in Elementla Plane of Air. And... I finished dungeon in around 5 minutes, but gained a pile of useful items (pile = 4, in this case) and mountain of gems. Here also is Gemmaker himself, but i cannot get to him, until slightly later.
^^^ One place in dungeon (enclosed by lava) have big deposit of gems - it is good way to get 500+ points of precious magical fuel in one go. Around many cells also placed small piles of gems - everyone will gain 5 gems.
^^^ Mentioned 4 items right here. Best of them is Flaming Sword + 10 (fire resistance + good enchant) and second best is Fire Shield + 4 (honestly, best shield so far i been able to find). Other items will be selled.
Also got encounter with Minor Devils, Jugglers and Giant Lizards... So this place still requires some caution on player's part. And here my descend into Vulcano will end for now.
~~Second of all, i decided to train for one more level - and best option so far is to attend Black Ticket battles in Arena or Dust Bowl (Colosseum is still too hard for me, honestly). Let's begin slaughter~~
^^^ Hehe, what do we see? Relatively hard enemy with ability to assassinate characters. Seems like i need to gamble here - or just visit Arena in Middlegate.
^^^ Kek. First round and 5 dead SMAC'ers with lonely Zakharov who think about running away.
^^^ Seems like Dust Bowl drows monsters for combat from pool of 11-tier of monsters. [Game have 14 tiers of monsters - from Cripples who have 1 HP to demi-gods with 2 000 HP and much more]
Enchantress are much easier, but they give only 25 000 experience points. Fine.
^^^ They can apply "stoned" condition and for some weird reason cast fireball (?). Not impressed by this guys, but got + 30 000 experience and 30 000 gold as well.
^^^ Simple (no special abilities), but very resistant creature type. One of the most interesting and close battles from Dust Bowl so far: party traded blows with eagles and in the end only Zakharov remained and one eagle. RIP, but it is at least "fun" death : >
Second time i met this creatures i actually been victorious (been spamming Super Shock after warriors softened eagles up).
^^^ Uber-cats - fast, have multiple attacks that can go for 200+ damage, but resistant to sleep and paralyze, so hehe... HELLO INSTA-KILL.
Hell yeah - 2 stalkers died to Fingers of Death. Refreshingly easy battle.
^^^ Hard enemy to combat at my level - and it also massacres my characters with breathe fire, but i still will try...
They deal respectable 150 damage to everybody - so nah. [Actually, whole Dust Bowl for me now is pure Russian Roulette - i can reliably kill something like stalkers or wa eagles - but fire dragons or hatchet men will rape me. So i decided to train in Arena]
~Died more then i wanted (4+ times due to some really nasty monsters even in Arena for my *not so high* power level - all mass damage abilities are fucking painful), but actually got around 100 000+ experience as result and new level for everybody~
Encountered among creatures i defeated: Warlocks (EZ enemy type due to my high magical resistance buff - and they mostly spam disintegrate), Holy Men (more dangerous and slightly more healthy with Invoke Power ability dealing random damage), Dino Spiders (tough and deadly piss of crap with mass attack; defeated them only due to lucky Fingers of Death) and Thug Leaders (bland monsters with high damage and meh health).
[What is more important - cleric got new level of spells! And with this level he got at least one extremly powerful spell]
^^^ After buying one spell in Vulcanian Temple been going into deep desert abyss in E-4 again for one more "encasement" type of spells.
Actually, why not providing quick overview of clerical spell?
^^^ Missing 2-2 (Nature's Gate), but got 9-2 (Holy Word) already.
Earth Encasement (7-1) same as previous "encasement" spells, but deals 40 damage each turn (+ 7 gems). Better compared to previous variants, but still not convinced. And while 40 damage is good change in quantity - it is not change in quality of spell. Fiery Flail (7-2) deals fire 100 - 400 damage to single enemy (+ 7 gems). Fine at the exact level where i got this spell, later is really meh one. Moon Ray (7-3) deals 10 - 100 damage to up to 10 enemies and heals (!) 10 - 100 damage to everyone in party, but works only in outdoor areas (+ 7 gems). Almost OP, makes almost all battles much more easy in some regions, more due to healing. Raise Dead (7-4) removes "dead" condition - basically, makes character living once again (+ increases age of both caster and target by 1 + 7 gems). Pretty good as well!
~~Two best spells on this level - pretty obviously - are Moon Ray and Raise Dead~~
^^^ While slaughtering wyverns and earth wyrms for gold and *potentially* good items got this S Plate Mail + 4 (provides energy resistance).
~~My current priority of sorts is to use one of special encounters for very large amount of gold to boost health of party (located at second level of Queen's Castle "Dungeon"). Looking at my old "hints" - this JESTER can increse HP for only 1 million gold. [For lack of my natural endurance i will temprarily boost my endurance to 100 and will see how it's goes]~~
^^^ Yes, why not? Even if game have other ways to boost maximum HP of party - i will go for "lazy" variant, personally : >
...Weird as hell. While i had small gains (around + 40 HP for everybody) which is meh, at the same time JESTER decided to not take any money from me which is awesome. I will take this deal! [Maybe game just checks if characters have relevant amount of gold, but never takes it for some reason].
^^^ Pretty good item as well. Will goes into Morgan backpack, considering general combat "strenght" of robbers.
^^^ Breathe Fire + ability to apply "stoned" condition.... Yeah, RIP been unable to even damage this crap.
~Most important thing right now is Dragon's Dominion - second hardest dungeon in game, so i must be extremly cautious and pay attention to surroundings. Still, items i really want are here for me to grab~
^^^ Yep, looks like place where dragons make their living. Let's enter and place Lloyd's Beacon somewhere after first entrance, if this spell can function here at all. [Around half of game dungeons have changed rulings in regard to that spells party can use for movement - and what is prohibited].
^^^ Uhh ohh, stinky! [This have no effect on party, thankfully]. After venturing for a bit and trying to placing Lloyd's Beacon (failed to do so) found some pretty cool loot.
^^^ This kind of rewards in gold are ordinary at this point in game. Actually, decided to return into Middlegate, even if briefly to not lose all of this gold to dragon patrol.
~~[One of the Castles contains *mysterious* fountain that can give experience in exchange for gold (1:1 ratio), which is pretty good way to spend gold later on - actually even after hour or so will do this]~~
^^^ Extremly hard battle icnoming... I really fear it even with all my current buffs.
^^^ Every damn creature is dangerous on it's own and every creature has mass damage spells. Magic Serpent is CHAD dragon: breather gas for 800 HP at worst for us + 800 HP (!) on creature's own.
^^^ You may be surprised, but i used Raise Dead during this battle around 3 times (!). Been able to power thru battle only because of high magic resistance, Super Shock + Heroism combo and general luck.
^^^ Got full set of extremly good Gold Armor (shield + helm + plate mail all at + 7); they better compared to analogues by AC value alone + passively boost Luck stat by 15 each.
Basically, Santiago now at 44 AC rating and with 75 Luck stat as well : >
^^^ More enemies, but their total difficulty is more passable now (wyverns and earth wyverm are a joke at this point).
^^^ Refreshingly easy battle. But i got 2X less experience for this as well. [Basically, this dungeon contains 4 sets of relics: armor set and weapon set of high quality near entrance - and armor set and weapon set of EXTREMLY high quality near end of dungeon, guarded by non-bypassable, non-bribable dragon giards].
^^^ MAN, THIS LOOT IS MINE NOW! Probably 3 most powerful weapons in CRON now in my possession.
~~Let's talk about each of this weapons - and what exactly they can provide for me. Titan's Pike + 7 hit dice is d40 (!!) - this is maxium possible base attack dice in game + this weapon passively boost Might by 15. Considering + 7 enchantment as well a special ability to boost Might by another 15 - only "drawback" of this awesome relic is two-hads occupation, so no shields for character using it. [Miriam will wield Titan's Pike]. Ancient Bow + 7 is great ranged weapon with d35 as attack dice and passive boost to Accuracy by 15. With enchantment (+7) and special ability to temprary make character even more accurate - pretty great weapon as well. [Pravin Lal will use Ancient Bow]. Photon Blade + 7 seems like *slightly* worse compared to two other relic weapons, but this is not true. It is the best weapon in game, actually! Basic attack dice of d25 is lower to other two variants, yes - BUT photon blade passively boosts Might by 15, one-handed weapon by design (!), so using shield with blade is possible and on top of this wielder can cast OP spell Implosion (that can be cheaply recharged by sorcerer). Only real drawback is class restriction: only Knight can use this weapon of destruction. [So Colonel Santiago will use Photon Blade].
Great additions to my inventory so far - and probably will use this weapons untill end of the game~~
--Been able to level up sorcerer, archer and paladin - so here is need for me to learn two missing spells for sorcerer. One of them can be learned in Vulcania for 25K gold - but other require party to defeat Mist Warrior who can cast spell i need - Dancing Sword - himself--
^^^ Considering that i have 60 % magic resistance - meh. Still, otherwise i will be in trouble due to most characters being kicked out of their senses after single cast.
^^^ Got what i needed, so time to move on and talk about new sorcerer spell's~
Dancing Sword (7-1) deals D12 damage *per level of caster* to 10 monsters (+ 7 gems). Marvellous attack spell against numerous threats and with Heroism can kill medium threats immideately. Duplication (7-2) creates exact copy of item in casters backpack; you cannot copy quest related items (+ 100 gems !!). Great spell for some combos - best use is obviously if party have 2 Knights so player can duplicate Photon Blade for both to use. Etherealize (7-3) teleports party 1 cell forward, bypassing all walls and work much more often compared to Teleportation (except in handfull of dungeons). Great spell to have! Only way to get Enchant Item spell as well. Prismatic Light (7-4) have high chance to apply one of 10 (!) debuffs on 10 monsters (from shit like sleep or fear - to kill or water encasement). Hmm, one more weird spell, but considering that here is 10 monsters and they probably will suffer - why not to use sometimes?
~Before i will end this part let's actually slay some more monsters and convert gold into more experience~
^^^ Like this monster type in Dust Bowl. They can steal all gold of character they attack, but this not happened so far also killed group of War Eagles and Guardian Hounds. [Gold that player aquires in arena's not redestributed - it all given to first character in party - but after combat with non-Arena placed monsters ends and party aquires loot, gold is actually redestributed between everybody, as far as i understand this].
^^^ Pretty good way to spend all gold! Actually best way at my point in the game. [Slayer's Dungeon have two gold converting fountains, but fountain on second level of dungeon is better].
^^^ Result of gold "transmutation" right here. Need to aquire slightly more gold now while battling wyverns and earth wyrms.
~~~Will level up and talk more about spells and my current situation more in next part of Let's Play (pretty sure that after this "conversion" my SMAC lads are eligible for at least two new levels). Right now... Situation looks much better and i really glad that i traveled in Dragons Dominion that far and grabbed best items i can grab at this point! New items and new spells open some really interesting possibilities in regard to game progression now~~~
Anyway...
~Hope to achieve in next part of Let's Play:
~...will slay Cuisinarts
- because why not? But probably will limit myself with reasons related to how much experience they can give to my party in one go
~...will aquire new spell and provide quick view on them
~...hope to start promotion quests, even if i going to do only one or two promotion quests, in total
Cheers 0/
and Santiago getting tools for RIP & TEAR
Same as in previous part - more experience, more gold and even more gems for a heroic cause. Only difference is main focus of this part on two notorious dungeons: Dragon's Dominion (dragon / wyrm themed high level dungeon housing some really awesome crap) and Gemmaker Vulcano (suprisingly peaceful lava filled dungeon also housing some cool items). My additional priority is getting better equipment for my 6 lads badass crew (some of my equipment is low-end junk at this point in the game).
After i will complete two dungeons as far as i want (and second dungeon going to be difficult as hell) - probably going to level up couple of times and if needed will spill blood on Arena / Dust Bowl / Colosseum and will aquire more of everything.
With this tasks in my mind - let's begin!
~First of all, let's start with vulcanic dungeon located very close to Vulcania in same region (E-1) and let explore it...
^^^ Hehe, player can actually go in this location much earlier - as far as player possess any way to reliably use Levitate spell.
^^^ Here it is! Of course i will enter. [This location have relatively high level random monsters, but at the same time dungeon itself have no fixed encounters - probably only dungeon in the game with this design].
^^^ Pretty relevant hint for actual visit in Elementla Plane of Air. And... I finished dungeon in around 5 minutes, but gained a pile of useful items (pile = 4, in this case) and mountain of gems. Here also is Gemmaker himself, but i cannot get to him, until slightly later.
^^^ One place in dungeon (enclosed by lava) have big deposit of gems - it is good way to get 500+ points of precious magical fuel in one go. Around many cells also placed small piles of gems - everyone will gain 5 gems.
^^^ Mentioned 4 items right here. Best of them is Flaming Sword + 10 (fire resistance + good enchant) and second best is Fire Shield + 4 (honestly, best shield so far i been able to find). Other items will be selled.
Also got encounter with Minor Devils, Jugglers and Giant Lizards... So this place still requires some caution on player's part. And here my descend into Vulcano will end for now.
~~Second of all, i decided to train for one more level - and best option so far is to attend Black Ticket battles in Arena or Dust Bowl (Colosseum is still too hard for me, honestly). Let's begin slaughter~~
^^^ Hehe, what do we see? Relatively hard enemy with ability to assassinate characters. Seems like i need to gamble here - or just visit Arena in Middlegate.
^^^ Kek. First round and 5 dead SMAC'ers with lonely Zakharov who think about running away.
^^^ Seems like Dust Bowl drows monsters for combat from pool of 11-tier of monsters. [Game have 14 tiers of monsters - from Cripples who have 1 HP to demi-gods with 2 000 HP and much more]
Enchantress are much easier, but they give only 25 000 experience points. Fine.
^^^ They can apply "stoned" condition and for some weird reason cast fireball (?). Not impressed by this guys, but got + 30 000 experience and 30 000 gold as well.
^^^ Simple (no special abilities), but very resistant creature type. One of the most interesting and close battles from Dust Bowl so far: party traded blows with eagles and in the end only Zakharov remained and one eagle. RIP, but it is at least "fun" death : >
Second time i met this creatures i actually been victorious (been spamming Super Shock after warriors softened eagles up).
^^^ Uber-cats - fast, have multiple attacks that can go for 200+ damage, but resistant to sleep and paralyze, so hehe... HELLO INSTA-KILL.
Hell yeah - 2 stalkers died to Fingers of Death. Refreshingly easy battle.
^^^ Hard enemy to combat at my level - and it also massacres my characters with breathe fire, but i still will try...
They deal respectable 150 damage to everybody - so nah. [Actually, whole Dust Bowl for me now is pure Russian Roulette - i can reliably kill something like stalkers or wa eagles - but fire dragons or hatchet men will rape me. So i decided to train in Arena]
~Died more then i wanted (4+ times due to some really nasty monsters even in Arena for my *not so high* power level - all mass damage abilities are fucking painful), but actually got around 100 000+ experience as result and new level for everybody~
Encountered among creatures i defeated: Warlocks (EZ enemy type due to my high magical resistance buff - and they mostly spam disintegrate), Holy Men (more dangerous and slightly more healthy with Invoke Power ability dealing random damage), Dino Spiders (tough and deadly piss of crap with mass attack; defeated them only due to lucky Fingers of Death) and Thug Leaders (bland monsters with high damage and meh health).
[What is more important - cleric got new level of spells! And with this level he got at least one extremly powerful spell]
^^^ After buying one spell in Vulcanian Temple been going into deep desert abyss in E-4 again for one more "encasement" type of spells.
Actually, why not providing quick overview of clerical spell?
^^^ Missing 2-2 (Nature's Gate), but got 9-2 (Holy Word) already.
Earth Encasement (7-1) same as previous "encasement" spells, but deals 40 damage each turn (+ 7 gems). Better compared to previous variants, but still not convinced. And while 40 damage is good change in quantity - it is not change in quality of spell. Fiery Flail (7-2) deals fire 100 - 400 damage to single enemy (+ 7 gems). Fine at the exact level where i got this spell, later is really meh one. Moon Ray (7-3) deals 10 - 100 damage to up to 10 enemies and heals (!) 10 - 100 damage to everyone in party, but works only in outdoor areas (+ 7 gems). Almost OP, makes almost all battles much more easy in some regions, more due to healing. Raise Dead (7-4) removes "dead" condition - basically, makes character living once again (+ increases age of both caster and target by 1 + 7 gems). Pretty good as well!
~~Two best spells on this level - pretty obviously - are Moon Ray and Raise Dead~~
^^^ While slaughtering wyverns and earth wyrms for gold and *potentially* good items got this S Plate Mail + 4 (provides energy resistance).
~~My current priority of sorts is to use one of special encounters for very large amount of gold to boost health of party (located at second level of Queen's Castle "Dungeon"). Looking at my old "hints" - this JESTER can increse HP for only 1 million gold. [For lack of my natural endurance i will temprarily boost my endurance to 100 and will see how it's goes]~~
^^^ Yes, why not? Even if game have other ways to boost maximum HP of party - i will go for "lazy" variant, personally : >
...Weird as hell. While i had small gains (around + 40 HP for everybody) which is meh, at the same time JESTER decided to not take any money from me which is awesome. I will take this deal! [Maybe game just checks if characters have relevant amount of gold, but never takes it for some reason].
^^^ Pretty good item as well. Will goes into Morgan backpack, considering general combat "strenght" of robbers.
^^^ Breathe Fire + ability to apply "stoned" condition.... Yeah, RIP been unable to even damage this crap.
~Most important thing right now is Dragon's Dominion - second hardest dungeon in game, so i must be extremly cautious and pay attention to surroundings. Still, items i really want are here for me to grab~
^^^ Yep, looks like place where dragons make their living. Let's enter and place Lloyd's Beacon somewhere after first entrance, if this spell can function here at all. [Around half of game dungeons have changed rulings in regard to that spells party can use for movement - and what is prohibited].
^^^ Uhh ohh, stinky! [This have no effect on party, thankfully]. After venturing for a bit and trying to placing Lloyd's Beacon (failed to do so) found some pretty cool loot.
^^^ This kind of rewards in gold are ordinary at this point in game. Actually, decided to return into Middlegate, even if briefly to not lose all of this gold to dragon patrol.
~~[One of the Castles contains *mysterious* fountain that can give experience in exchange for gold (1:1 ratio), which is pretty good way to spend gold later on - actually even after hour or so will do this]~~
^^^ Extremly hard battle icnoming... I really fear it even with all my current buffs.
^^^ Every damn creature is dangerous on it's own and every creature has mass damage spells. Magic Serpent is CHAD dragon: breather gas for 800 HP at worst for us + 800 HP (!) on creature's own.
^^^ You may be surprised, but i used Raise Dead during this battle around 3 times (!). Been able to power thru battle only because of high magic resistance, Super Shock + Heroism combo and general luck.
^^^ Got full set of extremly good Gold Armor (shield + helm + plate mail all at + 7); they better compared to analogues by AC value alone + passively boost Luck stat by 15 each.
Basically, Santiago now at 44 AC rating and with 75 Luck stat as well : >
^^^ More enemies, but their total difficulty is more passable now (wyverns and earth wyverm are a joke at this point).
^^^ Refreshingly easy battle. But i got 2X less experience for this as well. [Basically, this dungeon contains 4 sets of relics: armor set and weapon set of high quality near entrance - and armor set and weapon set of EXTREMLY high quality near end of dungeon, guarded by non-bypassable, non-bribable dragon giards].
^^^ MAN, THIS LOOT IS MINE NOW! Probably 3 most powerful weapons in CRON now in my possession.
~~Let's talk about each of this weapons - and what exactly they can provide for me. Titan's Pike + 7 hit dice is d40 (!!) - this is maxium possible base attack dice in game + this weapon passively boost Might by 15. Considering + 7 enchantment as well a special ability to boost Might by another 15 - only "drawback" of this awesome relic is two-hads occupation, so no shields for character using it. [Miriam will wield Titan's Pike]. Ancient Bow + 7 is great ranged weapon with d35 as attack dice and passive boost to Accuracy by 15. With enchantment (+7) and special ability to temprary make character even more accurate - pretty great weapon as well. [Pravin Lal will use Ancient Bow]. Photon Blade + 7 seems like *slightly* worse compared to two other relic weapons, but this is not true. It is the best weapon in game, actually! Basic attack dice of d25 is lower to other two variants, yes - BUT photon blade passively boosts Might by 15, one-handed weapon by design (!), so using shield with blade is possible and on top of this wielder can cast OP spell Implosion (that can be cheaply recharged by sorcerer). Only real drawback is class restriction: only Knight can use this weapon of destruction. [So Colonel Santiago will use Photon Blade].
Great additions to my inventory so far - and probably will use this weapons untill end of the game~~
--Been able to level up sorcerer, archer and paladin - so here is need for me to learn two missing spells for sorcerer. One of them can be learned in Vulcania for 25K gold - but other require party to defeat Mist Warrior who can cast spell i need - Dancing Sword - himself--
^^^ Considering that i have 60 % magic resistance - meh. Still, otherwise i will be in trouble due to most characters being kicked out of their senses after single cast.
^^^ Got what i needed, so time to move on and talk about new sorcerer spell's~
Dancing Sword (7-1) deals D12 damage *per level of caster* to 10 monsters (+ 7 gems). Marvellous attack spell against numerous threats and with Heroism can kill medium threats immideately. Duplication (7-2) creates exact copy of item in casters backpack; you cannot copy quest related items (+ 100 gems !!). Great spell for some combos - best use is obviously if party have 2 Knights so player can duplicate Photon Blade for both to use. Etherealize (7-3) teleports party 1 cell forward, bypassing all walls and work much more often compared to Teleportation (except in handfull of dungeons). Great spell to have! Only way to get Enchant Item spell as well. Prismatic Light (7-4) have high chance to apply one of 10 (!) debuffs on 10 monsters (from shit like sleep or fear - to kill or water encasement). Hmm, one more weird spell, but considering that here is 10 monsters and they probably will suffer - why not to use sometimes?
~Before i will end this part let's actually slay some more monsters and convert gold into more experience~
^^^ Like this monster type in Dust Bowl. They can steal all gold of character they attack, but this not happened so far also killed group of War Eagles and Guardian Hounds. [Gold that player aquires in arena's not redestributed - it all given to first character in party - but after combat with non-Arena placed monsters ends and party aquires loot, gold is actually redestributed between everybody, as far as i understand this].
^^^ Pretty good way to spend all gold! Actually best way at my point in the game. [Slayer's Dungeon have two gold converting fountains, but fountain on second level of dungeon is better].
^^^ Result of gold "transmutation" right here. Need to aquire slightly more gold now while battling wyverns and earth wyrms.
~~~Will level up and talk more about spells and my current situation more in next part of Let's Play (pretty sure that after this "conversion" my SMAC lads are eligible for at least two new levels). Right now... Situation looks much better and i really glad that i traveled in Dragons Dominion that far and grabbed best items i can grab at this point! New items and new spells open some really interesting possibilities in regard to game progression now~~~
Anyway...
~Hope to achieve in next part of Let's Play:
~...will slay Cuisinarts
- because why not? But probably will limit myself with reasons related to how much experience they can give to my party in one go~...will aquire new spell and provide quick view on them
~...hope to start promotion quests, even if i going to do only one or two promotion quests, in total
Cheers 0/
Last edited:
The first germ of the accursed Eagle Eye skill of HoMM 3?
azimovhaas8 (Moth)
Learned
Considering that Might & Magic 1 spells are learned with level up's by default - i think a lot of crap in Might & Magic 2 (Frenzy spell also is *carefully* observed by clerics) gave JVC ideas about skills in HoMM series.
As far as i remember, HoMM 1 does not had skills in classical sense. Basically, Hero stats + intristic bonuses, like Knight's morale bonus or sorcerer's navigator with more water moves. HoMM 2 probably is first game with Eagle's Eye crap...
this should've been on page 1, but hey:
Now it is the tenth century and chaos reigns. Swords and sorcery have replaced law and order as the way of life. Monsters roam the lands of CRON freely and do as they please. Isolated areas hold out against barbarism, but are doomed to fall. All that remains of CRON's glorious past are old wives' tales of mighty warriors and wizards doing battle against evil hordes and of a tragic lord, King Kalohn the Vanquished.
Now it is the tenth century and chaos reigns. Swords and sorcery have replaced law and order as the way of life. Monsters roam the lands of CRON freely and do as they please. Isolated areas hold out against barbarism, but are doomed to fall. All that remains of CRON's glorious past are old wives' tales of mighty warriors and wizards doing battle against evil hordes and of a tragic lord, King Kalohn the Vanquished.
azimovhaas8 (Moth)
Learned
~Part 11: Adventure continues with Cuisinarts
directly helping my party getting STRONGER and BETTER...
With some requirments relevant for getting into end-game being fulfilled - still - i need better equipment for most party members and even more experience points (much-much more), because i either must wait until later point in the year for Circus cheeze [can easily and permanently increases all stats to 100] or i better to level up for last spell circle and even more.
And... Time to promote my party as well, because not a whole lot now stands between me and Main Quest of Might & Magic 2.
[Most dungeons that can increase party stats by some amount - usually +10 - can be visited multiple times (and i been forgetting about this for most game lenght), so i will do more visits to boost Speed and Thievery to good numbers].
~~Let's begin our adventure with travelling to E-3 (distant desert region with very high level monsters spawning here - all the way up to Titans; also crap like earthquakes will decrease health of party) to enter Nomadic Rift Cavern place:
^^^ Nomadic dungeon with precious Speed boosting encounter in the deep end of rift. Considering that i need to win against couple of encounters (maybe more) and enter same place for 5~ times - will just show boosting encounter and provide someclues on dungeon.
^^^ Admin 8 Pass is item required for one promotional side-quest. Really weird to get it in random encounter, lol.
^^^ This is exactly why i'm here. + Tricksters who been guardina this place evaporized all my gold, but this is not a big deal. [Setting destination of Lloyd's Beacon near this or other similar encounter is pretty good idea for needed cell being somewhere deep in dungeon].
^^^... After some more times with Speed training got everyone to 50+ Speed. It been pretty fast trip due to Lloyd's Beacon.
~Time to pay more attention to Morgan and his signature skill:
^^^ As best as it can get, ehh. Time to move on more powerful targets...
^^^ Currently Colosseum in Atlantium more in my power range and each victory is around 80K of experience per each battle (!).
^^^ Somebody got poisoned, first time in game, lol.
^^^ Very tough and resistant monsters, but without special bullshit to make my life harder (whew). + 70 000 experience.
[Key for easy battles with uber-monsters of Level 11-12 of difficulty is Moon Ray spell both dealing some damage and dealing everyone in party].
^^^ 500+ HP is pretty respectable for such giant slob of meat, but with *not extremly hard* damaging main attack. + 70 000 experience as well.
^^^ Well, well, what do we see? Extremly resistant to magic monsters, can "juggle" my party, gain some buffs, but.... Only 100 HP? LOL, curious how much experience i will get for them.
^^^ Interesting... Probably JVC over-estimated this "clown" type enemies, but not for me to judge developers: in conjunction with other monsters they can very well ruin party's day. If they get lucky and such.
~~After more intense training everyone in party at level 16 already and 8-th circle is open for me to learn and use. Will get some missing spells really quick:
^^^ E-1 region houses entrance to Elemental Plane of Fire and two highest level "elemental" spells: Fire Transmutation and Fire Encasement. Cleric list of spells is done for Level 8.
...Sorcerer list of spells also done - both missing spells are in Cabalist Mage Guild and both been sold for 50K a piece. Good~~
As usual, quick rundown on all new spells and estimated power level / preferences:
^^^ Luminary of Lethal Arts...
1) Sorcerer~
Incinerate (8-1) deals 20-40 fire damage *per level of caster* to single suspect (+ 8 gems). Incredibly powerful attack, but most high-level monsters are resistant to fire. Mega Volts (8-2) deals 4-16 energy damage *per level of caster* to 10 suspects (+ 8 gems). Best attack in massive battles, works on both surface and underground. Meteor Shower (8-3) deals 5-50 fire damage to everybody in battle (!), but fail to work in meatgrinders with 200+ enemies and costs a ton of SP (+ 8 gems). Pretty good, allows to completely ignore weak and annoying crap : ] Power Shield (8-4) reduces all incoming damage in half (+ 8 gems). Tool for victory in hardest battles, my favorite in this level, hands down.
2) Cleric~
Fire Encasement (8-1) same as previous "encasement", but deals 2x damage (80) with same properties (+ 8 gems). Garbage. Fire Transmutation (8-2) allows party to visit Elemental Plane of Fire (+ 8 gems). Plot relevant spell. Mass Distortion (8-3) reduces amount of HP from 2 monsters by half - sometimes can reduce amount of HP only by quarter (+ 8 gems). Other extremly useful spell, pretty good way to spend a turn. Town Portal (8-4) moves party in any city in CRON, by player's choice. Hmm, why not use Surface + Fly instead? Never used this one.
~~Before i can even think about slaying Cuisinarts i need one level 9 clerical spell, so i will "grind" for gold (which is not a extremly hard task) and convert gold into experience once again~~
[This is actual point in the game where economy IS broken in many ways. Player can enjoy millions of gold, if player knows right places - or player can simply harass wyverns. They usually give 10K to everybody for each combat].
--OK. This trick with Gold Converting Pit and farming in D-1 on wyverns and earth wyrms worked out. Everybody got a new level, but every spell on this circle of True Power is missing by default, so here some work for me.
Two missing spells in sorcerer's book located in Atlantium mage guild - both cost 100K gold a piece. One spell been avaliable somewhere on game map, but i cannot find where and how i can obtain it in my "hints"; will see later about this particular spell. Last one is located in Gemmaker Vulcano.
^^^ This spell will come in handy slightly later. [Cost of this spell is +10 years for everybody in party, which is OK].
Two missing spells for Cleric are located in two high-level temples (Vulcania and Atlantium). One spell i already have from forest in C-1. Last one i will need to take by force, yet again.
^^^ Actual password for druidic dungeon. Pretty easy to stamble upon stones with letters for "password" in same location, as well.
^^^ Assassination side quest in same "dungeon" with task to kill corrupted Horvath. [This dungeon have fucked structure with ambushes and encounters slowing party down considerably, but Teleport solves all problems].
^^^ 400 HP + Petrification Gaze, but he is alone. Hmm, not very hard enemy after all - but when he decided to attack for 200 damage Santiago almost been kicked out of her senses.
^^^ Most powerful spell of Cleric spell book! Now it is tiem to regroup and decide on next targets... I must defeat Cuisinarts : ]
^^^ 5 000 gold for short trip to Murray's Resort. Mostly to make my characters slightly younger (-5 years), which is important for cleric.
~~Cuisinarts are... pretty insane creatures and are on top of power level, generally speaking - Titans and Orc Gods are their bros. 1 000 HP, 16 (!) attacks each dealing 120~ damage, 165 speed (!) and ability to Frenzy; Frenzy both is strenght and is weakness of Cuisinarts. Only way to defeat them is to drink MaxHP potions 2-3 times and use Divine Intervention with Power Shield.
If player can survive one round (Frenzied Cuisinarts will kill themselves in process) - here is A FUCKING WINNER~~
[Actually, some Cuisinarts may decide to simply attack player characters without using Frenzy]
^^^ Three behemoths await death... And they will try to bring me down as well.
....Victory, suprisingly. Everybody got a ton of experience points in result.
^^^ JUST LOOK AT THIS AMOUNT. I'm not interested in cheezing game too hard, so this is probably single time where i defeated Cuisinarts at all.
~~Time to complete promotion quests for everybody in party, real quick - because said everybody is level 25 (!), out of sudden~~
^^^ Rules of promotion missions are pretty simple: only characters of selected class may complete certain promotion (Knight must slay Dread Knight, for example) with Robber being able to accompany anybody on promotional quest [Robbers do not have promotional quest on their own] and player must return in D-2 to report back for '+' symbol as sign of recognition. Some promotions are easy - some require more preparation from player's side.
ALL promotions require some notes and preparation beforehand (especially relevant for Cleric - item wise and Sorcerer - clues wise).
[It is advisable to equip non-magical classes with Teleport Orb and Witch Broom].
Promotion # 1: Dread Knight Assassination [Knight]
Witch Broom + Middlegate temple blesses (for Water Walk) are helping hand for lonely Knight being able to decimate this enemy in B-3. Enemy himself is pretty hardy and hit as truck (for 100+ damage), but still not enough to stop walking tank.
^^^ Here we go for first time.
Promotion # 2: Baron Wilfrey Assassination [Archer + Robber]
Only Teleportation Orb is necessity here, due to dense vegetation in B-2. Combined attacks of both robber and archer easily put end to usurper.
^^^ Here we go once again...
Promotion # 3: Frost Dragon Liquidation [Paladin]
Usual set of items bough by Miriam as well for comfort travel in distant location in C-3 [been forced to use Teleport Orb due to dense vegetation, once again]. Lost only 2 HP (!) due to exceptional magical defense and difference in levels between me and my prey.
^^^ It's been pretty easy so far. But Cleric and Sorcerer have more "diverse" missions.
Promotion # 4: Uniting Corak's Body and Spirit [Cleric + Robber]
Hardest promotion from every one possible and longest to achieve, in my opinion. First, you need Corak's Skull located in C-1 near edge of the map. This can be done with everyone in team. Second, you need Admit 8 Pass; this item can be found in dungeon beneath Sandsobar. Third, you need to enter Corak's Tomb with Holy Word (otherwise hordes of unded trumple cleric no matter what) and deactivate barrier.
Also, i need Morgan for single door leading to crypt.
^^^ This been slightly stressful, and H-Hide option suprisingly worked once in whole game! Even if doing this promotion mission is far easier this run, for some reason.
^^^ This is something. One promotion left in total before Queen Lamanda's audience and TIME MACHINE crap.
Last Promotion # 5: Freeing Two Mages From Their Captivity [Sorcerer]
Also pretty *demanding* promotion that requires multitude of clues from Druid's Dungeon, and i'm thankful to my "notepad" for Dark Keep / Tower of Mercy hints, otherwise it is pretty tedious and hard task.
Basically, both places are mirror copies of each other! They have also one thing in common: each way to captured wizard lies throught multiple line of doors - and if player will select wrong door... monster will ambush sorcerer.
^^^ Interesting name for first set of room, but maybe even appropriate for evil wizard with hard-to-pronounce name : >
^^^ More futuristic kind of enemis wielding powerful attack spells. From my perspective, Mega Volts are best way to deal with "robots", so player does not have to worry about potential disintegration.
^^^ After entering two codes [one of this codes is basically numerical 2x version of other] i got this message with Ybmug rising from his slumbering place telling me to help his counterpart.
^^^ "Light" themed set of death traps from good wizard.
^^^ Yeah, it is done! [This set of dungeons very hard to sorcerer to leave without fighting twice or even three times in a row. Best way to get as close to exit into region is use R-Run option while in combat with monsters].
^^^ HOLY COW, WE DID IT!
~~Probably better to stop writing this part of Let's Play right here due to amount of things i already done and to preserve some secrets until next part. Might & Magic 2 goes faster and faster, and actually i will probably go for game completion at this point with some minor travelling and preparations for plot-important events~~
Anyway...
Going to do in next part of Let's Play:
~...going to progress towards game completion at this point, because my party is already powerfull enough for this.
Cheers 0/
directly helping my party getting STRONGER and BETTER...
With some requirments relevant for getting into end-game being fulfilled - still - i need better equipment for most party members and even more experience points (much-much more), because i either must wait until later point in the year for Circus cheeze [can easily and permanently increases all stats to 100] or i better to level up for last spell circle and even more.
And... Time to promote my party as well, because not a whole lot now stands between me and Main Quest of Might & Magic 2.
[Most dungeons that can increase party stats by some amount - usually +10 - can be visited multiple times (and i been forgetting about this for most game lenght), so i will do more visits to boost Speed and Thievery to good numbers].
~~Let's begin our adventure with travelling to E-3 (distant desert region with very high level monsters spawning here - all the way up to Titans; also crap like earthquakes will decrease health of party) to enter Nomadic Rift Cavern place:
^^^ Nomadic dungeon with precious Speed boosting encounter in the deep end of rift. Considering that i need to win against couple of encounters (maybe more) and enter same place for 5~ times - will just show boosting encounter and provide someclues on dungeon.
^^^ Admin 8 Pass is item required for one promotional side-quest. Really weird to get it in random encounter, lol.
^^^ This is exactly why i'm here. + Tricksters who been guardina this place evaporized all my gold, but this is not a big deal. [Setting destination of Lloyd's Beacon near this or other similar encounter is pretty good idea for needed cell being somewhere deep in dungeon].
^^^... After some more times with Speed training got everyone to 50+ Speed. It been pretty fast trip due to Lloyd's Beacon.
~Time to pay more attention to Morgan and his signature skill:
^^^ As best as it can get, ehh. Time to move on more powerful targets...
^^^ Currently Colosseum in Atlantium more in my power range and each victory is around 80K of experience per each battle (!).
^^^ Somebody got poisoned, first time in game, lol.
^^^ Very tough and resistant monsters, but without special bullshit to make my life harder (whew). + 70 000 experience.
[Key for easy battles with uber-monsters of Level 11-12 of difficulty is Moon Ray spell both dealing some damage and dealing everyone in party].
^^^ 500+ HP is pretty respectable for such giant slob of meat, but with *not extremly hard* damaging main attack. + 70 000 experience as well.
^^^ Well, well, what do we see? Extremly resistant to magic monsters, can "juggle" my party, gain some buffs, but.... Only 100 HP? LOL, curious how much experience i will get for them.
^^^ Interesting... Probably JVC over-estimated this "clown" type enemies, but not for me to judge developers: in conjunction with other monsters they can very well ruin party's day. If they get lucky and such.
~~After more intense training everyone in party at level 16 already and 8-th circle is open for me to learn and use. Will get some missing spells really quick:
^^^ E-1 region houses entrance to Elemental Plane of Fire and two highest level "elemental" spells: Fire Transmutation and Fire Encasement. Cleric list of spells is done for Level 8.
...Sorcerer list of spells also done - both missing spells are in Cabalist Mage Guild and both been sold for 50K a piece. Good~~
As usual, quick rundown on all new spells and estimated power level / preferences:
^^^ Luminary of Lethal Arts...
1) Sorcerer~
Incinerate (8-1) deals 20-40 fire damage *per level of caster* to single suspect (+ 8 gems). Incredibly powerful attack, but most high-level monsters are resistant to fire. Mega Volts (8-2) deals 4-16 energy damage *per level of caster* to 10 suspects (+ 8 gems). Best attack in massive battles, works on both surface and underground. Meteor Shower (8-3) deals 5-50 fire damage to everybody in battle (!), but fail to work in meatgrinders with 200+ enemies and costs a ton of SP (+ 8 gems). Pretty good, allows to completely ignore weak and annoying crap : ] Power Shield (8-4) reduces all incoming damage in half (+ 8 gems). Tool for victory in hardest battles, my favorite in this level, hands down.
2) Cleric~
Fire Encasement (8-1) same as previous "encasement", but deals 2x damage (80) with same properties (+ 8 gems). Garbage. Fire Transmutation (8-2) allows party to visit Elemental Plane of Fire (+ 8 gems). Plot relevant spell. Mass Distortion (8-3) reduces amount of HP from 2 monsters by half - sometimes can reduce amount of HP only by quarter (+ 8 gems). Other extremly useful spell, pretty good way to spend a turn. Town Portal (8-4) moves party in any city in CRON, by player's choice. Hmm, why not use Surface + Fly instead? Never used this one.
~~Before i can even think about slaying Cuisinarts i need one level 9 clerical spell, so i will "grind" for gold (which is not a extremly hard task) and convert gold into experience once again~~
[This is actual point in the game where economy IS broken in many ways. Player can enjoy millions of gold, if player knows right places - or player can simply harass wyverns. They usually give 10K to everybody for each combat].
--OK. This trick with Gold Converting Pit and farming in D-1 on wyverns and earth wyrms worked out. Everybody got a new level, but every spell on this circle of True Power is missing by default, so here some work for me.
Two missing spells in sorcerer's book located in Atlantium mage guild - both cost 100K gold a piece. One spell been avaliable somewhere on game map, but i cannot find where and how i can obtain it in my "hints"; will see later about this particular spell. Last one is located in Gemmaker Vulcano.
^^^ This spell will come in handy slightly later. [Cost of this spell is +10 years for everybody in party, which is OK].
Two missing spells for Cleric are located in two high-level temples (Vulcania and Atlantium). One spell i already have from forest in C-1. Last one i will need to take by force, yet again.
^^^ Actual password for druidic dungeon. Pretty easy to stamble upon stones with letters for "password" in same location, as well.
^^^ Assassination side quest in same "dungeon" with task to kill corrupted Horvath. [This dungeon have fucked structure with ambushes and encounters slowing party down considerably, but Teleport solves all problems].
^^^ 400 HP + Petrification Gaze, but he is alone. Hmm, not very hard enemy after all - but when he decided to attack for 200 damage Santiago almost been kicked out of her senses.
^^^ Most powerful spell of Cleric spell book! Now it is tiem to regroup and decide on next targets... I must defeat Cuisinarts : ]
^^^ 5 000 gold for short trip to Murray's Resort. Mostly to make my characters slightly younger (-5 years), which is important for cleric.
~~Cuisinarts are... pretty insane creatures and are on top of power level, generally speaking - Titans and Orc Gods are their bros. 1 000 HP, 16 (!) attacks each dealing 120~ damage, 165 speed (!) and ability to Frenzy; Frenzy both is strenght and is weakness of Cuisinarts. Only way to defeat them is to drink MaxHP potions 2-3 times and use Divine Intervention with Power Shield.
If player can survive one round (Frenzied Cuisinarts will kill themselves in process) - here is A FUCKING WINNER~~
[Actually, some Cuisinarts may decide to simply attack player characters without using Frenzy]
^^^ Three behemoths await death... And they will try to bring me down as well.
....Victory, suprisingly. Everybody got a ton of experience points in result.
^^^ JUST LOOK AT THIS AMOUNT. I'm not interested in cheezing game too hard, so this is probably single time where i defeated Cuisinarts at all.
~~Time to complete promotion quests for everybody in party, real quick - because said everybody is level 25 (!), out of sudden~~
^^^ Rules of promotion missions are pretty simple: only characters of selected class may complete certain promotion (Knight must slay Dread Knight, for example) with Robber being able to accompany anybody on promotional quest [Robbers do not have promotional quest on their own] and player must return in D-2 to report back for '+' symbol as sign of recognition. Some promotions are easy - some require more preparation from player's side.
ALL promotions require some notes and preparation beforehand (especially relevant for Cleric - item wise and Sorcerer - clues wise).
[It is advisable to equip non-magical classes with Teleport Orb and Witch Broom].
Promotion # 1: Dread Knight Assassination [Knight]
Witch Broom + Middlegate temple blesses (for Water Walk) are helping hand for lonely Knight being able to decimate this enemy in B-3. Enemy himself is pretty hardy and hit as truck (for 100+ damage), but still not enough to stop walking tank.
^^^ Here we go for first time.
Promotion # 2: Baron Wilfrey Assassination [Archer + Robber]
Only Teleportation Orb is necessity here, due to dense vegetation in B-2. Combined attacks of both robber and archer easily put end to usurper.
^^^ Here we go once again...
Promotion # 3: Frost Dragon Liquidation [Paladin]
Usual set of items bough by Miriam as well for comfort travel in distant location in C-3 [been forced to use Teleport Orb due to dense vegetation, once again]. Lost only 2 HP (!) due to exceptional magical defense and difference in levels between me and my prey.
^^^ It's been pretty easy so far. But Cleric and Sorcerer have more "diverse" missions.
Promotion # 4: Uniting Corak's Body and Spirit [Cleric + Robber]
Hardest promotion from every one possible and longest to achieve, in my opinion. First, you need Corak's Skull located in C-1 near edge of the map. This can be done with everyone in team. Second, you need Admit 8 Pass; this item can be found in dungeon beneath Sandsobar. Third, you need to enter Corak's Tomb with Holy Word (otherwise hordes of unded trumple cleric no matter what) and deactivate barrier.
Also, i need Morgan for single door leading to crypt.
^^^ This been slightly stressful, and H-Hide option suprisingly worked once in whole game! Even if doing this promotion mission is far easier this run, for some reason.
^^^ This is something. One promotion left in total before Queen Lamanda's audience and TIME MACHINE crap.
Last Promotion # 5: Freeing Two Mages From Their Captivity [Sorcerer]
Also pretty *demanding* promotion that requires multitude of clues from Druid's Dungeon, and i'm thankful to my "notepad" for Dark Keep / Tower of Mercy hints, otherwise it is pretty tedious and hard task.
Basically, both places are mirror copies of each other! They have also one thing in common: each way to captured wizard lies throught multiple line of doors - and if player will select wrong door... monster will ambush sorcerer.
^^^ Interesting name for first set of room, but maybe even appropriate for evil wizard with hard-to-pronounce name : >
^^^ More futuristic kind of enemis wielding powerful attack spells. From my perspective, Mega Volts are best way to deal with "robots", so player does not have to worry about potential disintegration.
^^^ After entering two codes [one of this codes is basically numerical 2x version of other] i got this message with Ybmug rising from his slumbering place telling me to help his counterpart.
^^^ "Light" themed set of death traps from good wizard.
^^^ Yeah, it is done! [This set of dungeons very hard to sorcerer to leave without fighting twice or even three times in a row. Best way to get as close to exit into region is use R-Run option while in combat with monsters].
^^^ HOLY COW, WE DID IT!
~~Probably better to stop writing this part of Let's Play right here due to amount of things i already done and to preserve some secrets until next part. Might & Magic 2 goes faster and faster, and actually i will probably go for game completion at this point with some minor travelling and preparations for plot-important events~~
Anyway...
Going to do in next part of Let's Play:
~...going to progress towards game completion at this point, because my party is already powerfull enough for this.
Cheers 0/
Pokey and Gumby eh?
azimovhaas8 (Moth)
Learned
~Part 12: Adventure becomes more focused
towards TIME MACHINE and centuries of past...
Time to progress more towards completion of Might & Magic 2 and while game still have some interesting content for me to digest (like Murray's Resort quest and Dawn assassination), said additional content less and less relevant for me after 9-th Level spells being avaliable. Extremly powerful equipment being in my possession ensues that most rewards are irrelevant at this point as well.
[Also, my party is at level 25 already - progression for even more levels makes game broken for real and i do not want this, lol]
~One more thing, before SMAC lads will repair some *ancient* piece of equipment: forgot about new spells for both cleric and sorcerer. Going to cover up them briefly right now~
1) Sorcerer~
Implosion (9-1) deals 500 energy damage to single suspect and have small chance to deal 1 000 damage instead (+ 10 gems). Best against some impossibly strong targets (like Megadragon, Elemental Lords) and most hardest "ordinary" monsters like Time Lords. Inferno (9-2) deals d20 fire damage *per level of caster* to 10 monsters (+ 10 gems). Usually Mega Volts are better (partially due to many creatures being resistant to fire), but from time to time i will use this spell as well. Star Burst (9-3) deals 20-200 energy damage to every monsters in combat encounter - but more creatures = more mana being spend, but works only in open field (+ 20 gems). Pretty good spell, trivializing most combat in outdoor maps, but i not being able to get it, which is fine. Enchant Item (9-4) gives any item + 1 level of enchantment, but requires + 50 SP for each + of enchant [ordinary cost is 50 SP for plain item] and burns thru 50 gems each time. Only big problem is SP requirment of this spell to even function with already good items (like photon blade, for example).
2)Cleric~
Divine Intervention (9-1) removes all negative conditions from party (excluding eradication), restores all HP to everybody and makes caster older by 5 years (+ 30 gems). Great tool of victory that can turn tides of combat encounter in player's favor if cleric is still alive. Holy Word (9-2) destroys EVERY undead creature in combat and robs caster of 1 year of life (+ 10 gems). Completely replaces Turn Undead spell at this point in the game. Resurrection (9-3) removes "eradicated" condition, robs resurrected character out of 5 years of life and removes Endurance by 1; cleric also becomes older by 1 year ( + 10 years). Meh and useful only one or two times in game, where walking to temples is too risky (Elemental Planes and centuries of past). Uncurse Item (9-4) removes "cursed" condition from item and sets amount of special ability charges to 1 (+ 50 gems). Useful because of "set charges amount to 1" part of spell. Cursed items can be created only in result of failed enchantment, as far as i know.
Time to actually continue Let's Play!
^^^ On my path to Queen been blocked by annoying jester telling one more "joke of the day". + I refilled food amount to 40 points, which is always nice.
^^^ As party able to complete both tasks from Queen (rescuing Black Bishop of Battle and promoting everybody in my party) now i need to visit Lord Peabody. But i already got small task from him as well. Basically, i must bring his son (Sherman) with my party to Lord.
^^^ He is Atlantium, in local Hotel. We will need him slightly later with us for one important mission (afterwards he is free until END OF GAME screen). + Sherman has 130 gems (!) with him so let me redistribute loot real quick, heh : >
^^^ Ohh, here we actually go in regards to saving King Kalohn in the distant past.
~~Before i will proceed with Time Travel stuff, i better to grab 4 items used to actually activate Sphere of Elements from 4 Castles. Why i want to do this at first? Well, i still have nice "hints" about exact or close to exact locations of all 4 items~~
^^^ "Future-tech" located in Castle Woodshaven. Player can just use Teleport couple of times and grab this one as quick as possible. [Castle Guards been actually running away from me this time, hehe]
~~Other items of interest been more or less easy to grab (every Castle entrance allow to use Teleport spell without any restrictions), but been reminded of Time Distortion spell existence by monsters dealing 5 000 damage to half of my part in single go (!)~~
^^^ 4 items from even more "elegant" age, probably made before even creation of CRON, heh.
~~~I will briefly talk about time travelling possibilities in Might & Magic 2 so some things can be more or less clear (i hope for this, at least). Time Machine calibrated to move party in one of 8 possible time lines: 1) Water Plane Time; 2) Air Plane Time; 3) Fire Plane Time; 4) Earth Plane Time; 5) weird time with nothing plot relevant or important, but probably some weird and secret palces hidden here; 6) party can meet one historic character i do not remember; 7) party can meet one more historic character (Spaz Twit); 8) Castle Xabran and Battle with Megadragon.
After bringing Sherman back to Lord Peabody party can actually use TIME MACHINE immideately, but this is useful for traveling in 5-7 time lines, because other time-lines are far more dangerous for medium level party, and game provides not many reasons for this [still can give nice vibes and great experience].
Time Lines 1-4 contain entrances to relevant Elemental Planes and most locations are simply unavaliable (cities / castles) with roads being guarded by hordes of elementals. Each Elemental Plane have distinct look (from water abyss and cold, windy wasteland - to flaming hellhole and green endless plains), requires a lot of resistances agains Forces (around 50~ % is enough) to even going in any of such realms. Player can also slay every single Elemental Lord (high-level unique enemy who still uses same sprites as other elementals) and get some neat rewards, but this is completely optional. Real reason why player actually here is Talon of Element~~~
At first, decided to enter Dawn's Mist Caverns in search of Element Orb itself. [Slaying Dawn is hardest assassination mission out of many, specifically for Ninja promotion].
^^^ Only Orb Guardians slightly scare me out of all critters in this location, lol.
^^^ I will pay horde of bastards 9 999 gold for said bstards to fuck off. And generally paying monsters actually not as bad as it sounds - allow to save time and bypass some very hard battle completely (it works even in final dungeon).
^^^ Real danger with Orb Guardians is location of this encounter. Party must fight them in anti-magical zone, so if player not comfortable MaxHP Potions + Power Cure work wonders..
^^^ Hmm, this is time for Sherman to rise and shine. Basically, party must give Orb of Elements to hireling, fire hireling away and then recruit him back with orb in his pockets (!). Weird, does not make overly much sense, but this is fine with me : >
Now with item of paramount importance to King Kalohn from past in my backpack i need to decide for next target...
^^^ Decided to move back in time to Year 800. Middlegate Wilderness contains long destroyed in future Castle Xabran full of many omnious secrets and clues and player can find information about most spells in the game right here, just as interesting historical information about Heroes of CRON.
^^^ Castle itself is third hardest dungeon in the game, so i advise player to memorize safe spots and use Teleport along with Etherealize as much as possible, to avoid death. [After resting 2 and more times - game decides this at random rate, as far as i'm aware - party going to be ejected in present day, in Year 900, so again - i must do everything as fast as possible].
^^^ Air Disc located in far north-east open chamber. + Almost got caught by couple of Magic Serpents, but Time Distortion saved my ass again.
^^^ After two Teleport uses steal this elemental disc in opposite corner in south-east open chamber.
^^^ Earth Disc located in very dark chamber in south-west. Time to rest couple of times and leave Xabran in our own time-line. [Basically, completed whole dungeon without fighting for real even once].
^^^ Actually... If King Kalohn will survive battle with Megadragon - is he going to save Castle Xabran from destruction or not? Will check it later on : >
^^^ Now SMAC Kill-squad is *almost* with everything we need to alter history in past for better future... Except for elemental talons located in actual Elemental Planes.
~Time to pay visit in Times of CRON Creation!~
^^^ Travel # 1: Water Abyss of Lord Acwalandar
Each elemental plane have couple of things in common: Element Hydra's being omniprisent in all encounters here (600 HP monstrosity with mass attacks) and all elementals usually cupped at 250+ HP with ability to breathe *something* (water elementals breathe cold, for example).
To actually steal relevant Elemental Talon player need to fight at least one combat encounter (all movement spells are not working here).
^^^ Here we go. Pretty nice... Two battles so far (one is random encounter with elementals, other is mandatory combat for Water Talon).
^^^ Travel # 2: Windy Wasteland of Lord Shalwend
Kinda the same thing as with previous Elemental Plane: survive one or two encounters with elementals and take Elemental Talon with party. Rest couple of times and enter Year 900 yet again. [Also it is pretty advisable to refill packs after each travel, because Create Food spell is... tedious].
^^^ One more for a team. And one battle in total. Pretty fine with 60+ magical / elemental resistances and Force Shield.
^^^ Travel # 3: Fiery Hellhole leading by Lord Pyrannaste
Not much new to say, but you will need Levitate effect (either by spell or by spending some $ in temples)
^^^ Fire Elemental Plane is more well defended... 120 000 experience as reward, but this does not mean that much now.
^^^ Almost done in this inhospitable realms. Only one more place of interest awaits me.
^^^ Travel # 4: Muddy Plains of Lord Gralkor
My time in this Elemental Plane been the hardest, but this is probably due to how fixed encounters palced here and couple of random encounters almost killing me. Hope now everything going to be better...
^^^ Last one. Far more easier now, compared to previous run.
^^^ Extremly important event in history going to happen pretty soon in CRONian Year 800.
^^^ 3.9/4 of game is completed by now, hehe. Last task going to be revealed shortly afterwards by King himself in Royal Palace. [Party can engage Megadragon on their own terms, but this is stronges creature in the game with 64K of Hp (!!) and some other insane stats, so nah].
~~After resting for once everyone in party noticed much more well-kept city of Middlegate, still destroyed Castle Xabran (sad!) and now much more older King Kalohn residing in Royal Palace~~
^^^ WAFE is password i will need pretty soon, so will scribe again in "notepad". And last task to actually save CRON from villain with weird name.... SHELTEM.
~~Going to end my Let's Play by pretty aparent reasons (only one pretty hardcore dungeon is left for SMAC kill-team) - and going to finish Might & Magic 2 in next part with my small general review on game~~
Cheers 0/
towards TIME MACHINE and centuries of past...
Time to progress more towards completion of Might & Magic 2 and while game still have some interesting content for me to digest (like Murray's Resort quest and Dawn assassination), said additional content less and less relevant for me after 9-th Level spells being avaliable. Extremly powerful equipment being in my possession ensues that most rewards are irrelevant at this point as well.
[Also, my party is at level 25 already - progression for even more levels makes game broken for real and i do not want this, lol]
~One more thing, before SMAC lads will repair some *ancient* piece of equipment: forgot about new spells for both cleric and sorcerer. Going to cover up them briefly right now~
1) Sorcerer~
Implosion (9-1) deals 500 energy damage to single suspect and have small chance to deal 1 000 damage instead (+ 10 gems). Best against some impossibly strong targets (like Megadragon, Elemental Lords) and most hardest "ordinary" monsters like Time Lords. Inferno (9-2) deals d20 fire damage *per level of caster* to 10 monsters (+ 10 gems). Usually Mega Volts are better (partially due to many creatures being resistant to fire), but from time to time i will use this spell as well. Star Burst (9-3) deals 20-200 energy damage to every monsters in combat encounter - but more creatures = more mana being spend, but works only in open field (+ 20 gems). Pretty good spell, trivializing most combat in outdoor maps, but i not being able to get it, which is fine. Enchant Item (9-4) gives any item + 1 level of enchantment, but requires + 50 SP for each + of enchant [ordinary cost is 50 SP for plain item] and burns thru 50 gems each time. Only big problem is SP requirment of this spell to even function with already good items (like photon blade, for example).
2)Cleric~
Divine Intervention (9-1) removes all negative conditions from party (excluding eradication), restores all HP to everybody and makes caster older by 5 years (+ 30 gems). Great tool of victory that can turn tides of combat encounter in player's favor if cleric is still alive. Holy Word (9-2) destroys EVERY undead creature in combat and robs caster of 1 year of life (+ 10 gems). Completely replaces Turn Undead spell at this point in the game. Resurrection (9-3) removes "eradicated" condition, robs resurrected character out of 5 years of life and removes Endurance by 1; cleric also becomes older by 1 year ( + 10 years). Meh and useful only one or two times in game, where walking to temples is too risky (Elemental Planes and centuries of past). Uncurse Item (9-4) removes "cursed" condition from item and sets amount of special ability charges to 1 (+ 50 gems). Useful because of "set charges amount to 1" part of spell. Cursed items can be created only in result of failed enchantment, as far as i know.
Time to actually continue Let's Play!
^^^ On my path to Queen been blocked by annoying jester telling one more "joke of the day". + I refilled food amount to 40 points, which is always nice.
^^^ As party able to complete both tasks from Queen (rescuing Black Bishop of Battle and promoting everybody in my party) now i need to visit Lord Peabody. But i already got small task from him as well. Basically, i must bring his son (Sherman) with my party to Lord.
^^^ He is Atlantium, in local Hotel. We will need him slightly later with us for one important mission (afterwards he is free until END OF GAME screen). + Sherman has 130 gems (!) with him so let me redistribute loot real quick, heh : >
^^^ Ohh, here we actually go in regards to saving King Kalohn in the distant past.
~~Before i will proceed with Time Travel stuff, i better to grab 4 items used to actually activate Sphere of Elements from 4 Castles. Why i want to do this at first? Well, i still have nice "hints" about exact or close to exact locations of all 4 items~~
^^^ "Future-tech" located in Castle Woodshaven. Player can just use Teleport couple of times and grab this one as quick as possible. [Castle Guards been actually running away from me this time, hehe]
~~Other items of interest been more or less easy to grab (every Castle entrance allow to use Teleport spell without any restrictions), but been reminded of Time Distortion spell existence by monsters dealing 5 000 damage to half of my part in single go (!)~~
^^^ 4 items from even more "elegant" age, probably made before even creation of CRON, heh.
~~~I will briefly talk about time travelling possibilities in Might & Magic 2 so some things can be more or less clear (i hope for this, at least). Time Machine calibrated to move party in one of 8 possible time lines: 1) Water Plane Time; 2) Air Plane Time; 3) Fire Plane Time; 4) Earth Plane Time; 5) weird time with nothing plot relevant or important, but probably some weird and secret palces hidden here; 6) party can meet one historic character i do not remember; 7) party can meet one more historic character (Spaz Twit); 8) Castle Xabran and Battle with Megadragon.
After bringing Sherman back to Lord Peabody party can actually use TIME MACHINE immideately, but this is useful for traveling in 5-7 time lines, because other time-lines are far more dangerous for medium level party, and game provides not many reasons for this [still can give nice vibes and great experience].
Time Lines 1-4 contain entrances to relevant Elemental Planes and most locations are simply unavaliable (cities / castles) with roads being guarded by hordes of elementals. Each Elemental Plane have distinct look (from water abyss and cold, windy wasteland - to flaming hellhole and green endless plains), requires a lot of resistances agains Forces (around 50~ % is enough) to even going in any of such realms. Player can also slay every single Elemental Lord (high-level unique enemy who still uses same sprites as other elementals) and get some neat rewards, but this is completely optional. Real reason why player actually here is Talon of Element~~~
At first, decided to enter Dawn's Mist Caverns in search of Element Orb itself. [Slaying Dawn is hardest assassination mission out of many, specifically for Ninja promotion].
^^^ Only Orb Guardians slightly scare me out of all critters in this location, lol.
^^^ I will pay horde of bastards 9 999 gold for said bstards to fuck off. And generally paying monsters actually not as bad as it sounds - allow to save time and bypass some very hard battle completely (it works even in final dungeon).
^^^ Real danger with Orb Guardians is location of this encounter. Party must fight them in anti-magical zone, so if player not comfortable MaxHP Potions + Power Cure work wonders..
^^^ Hmm, this is time for Sherman to rise and shine. Basically, party must give Orb of Elements to hireling, fire hireling away and then recruit him back with orb in his pockets (!). Weird, does not make overly much sense, but this is fine with me : >
Now with item of paramount importance to King Kalohn from past in my backpack i need to decide for next target...
^^^ Decided to move back in time to Year 800. Middlegate Wilderness contains long destroyed in future Castle Xabran full of many omnious secrets and clues and player can find information about most spells in the game right here, just as interesting historical information about Heroes of CRON.
^^^ Castle itself is third hardest dungeon in the game, so i advise player to memorize safe spots and use Teleport along with Etherealize as much as possible, to avoid death. [After resting 2 and more times - game decides this at random rate, as far as i'm aware - party going to be ejected in present day, in Year 900, so again - i must do everything as fast as possible].
^^^ Air Disc located in far north-east open chamber. + Almost got caught by couple of Magic Serpents, but Time Distortion saved my ass again.
^^^ After two Teleport uses steal this elemental disc in opposite corner in south-east open chamber.
^^^ Earth Disc located in very dark chamber in south-west. Time to rest couple of times and leave Xabran in our own time-line. [Basically, completed whole dungeon without fighting for real even once].
^^^ Actually... If King Kalohn will survive battle with Megadragon - is he going to save Castle Xabran from destruction or not? Will check it later on : >
^^^ Now SMAC Kill-squad is *almost* with everything we need to alter history in past for better future... Except for elemental talons located in actual Elemental Planes.
~Time to pay visit in Times of CRON Creation!~
^^^ Travel # 1: Water Abyss of Lord Acwalandar
Each elemental plane have couple of things in common: Element Hydra's being omniprisent in all encounters here (600 HP monstrosity with mass attacks) and all elementals usually cupped at 250+ HP with ability to breathe *something* (water elementals breathe cold, for example).
To actually steal relevant Elemental Talon player need to fight at least one combat encounter (all movement spells are not working here).
^^^ Here we go. Pretty nice... Two battles so far (one is random encounter with elementals, other is mandatory combat for Water Talon).
^^^ Travel # 2: Windy Wasteland of Lord Shalwend
Kinda the same thing as with previous Elemental Plane: survive one or two encounters with elementals and take Elemental Talon with party. Rest couple of times and enter Year 900 yet again. [Also it is pretty advisable to refill packs after each travel, because Create Food spell is... tedious].
^^^ One more for a team. And one battle in total. Pretty fine with 60+ magical / elemental resistances and Force Shield.
^^^ Travel # 3: Fiery Hellhole leading by Lord Pyrannaste
Not much new to say, but you will need Levitate effect (either by spell or by spending some $ in temples)
^^^ Fire Elemental Plane is more well defended... 120 000 experience as reward, but this does not mean that much now.
^^^ Almost done in this inhospitable realms. Only one more place of interest awaits me.
^^^ Travel # 4: Muddy Plains of Lord Gralkor
My time in this Elemental Plane been the hardest, but this is probably due to how fixed encounters palced here and couple of random encounters almost killing me. Hope now everything going to be better...
^^^ Last one. Far more easier now, compared to previous run.
^^^ Extremly important event in history going to happen pretty soon in CRONian Year 800.
^^^ 3.9/4 of game is completed by now, hehe. Last task going to be revealed shortly afterwards by King himself in Royal Palace. [Party can engage Megadragon on their own terms, but this is stronges creature in the game with 64K of Hp (!!) and some other insane stats, so nah].
~~After resting for once everyone in party noticed much more well-kept city of Middlegate, still destroyed Castle Xabran (sad!) and now much more older King Kalohn residing in Royal Palace~~
^^^ WAFE is password i will need pretty soon, so will scribe again in "notepad". And last task to actually save CRON from villain with weird name.... SHELTEM.
~~Going to end my Let's Play by pretty aparent reasons (only one pretty hardcore dungeon is left for SMAC kill-team) - and going to finish Might & Magic 2 in next part with my small general review on game~~
Cheers 0/
Last edited:
azimovhaas8 (Moth)
Learned
Pokey and Gumby eh?
Hehe, while one wizard is "evil" and other is "good", i think developers made this to reinforce mirrored theme (both dungeons are mirrored copies of each other).
Yekop and Ybmug (or Pokey and Gumby) is interesting reference. I noticed some of them in Might & Magic 2 (like, Sherman rescue quest is reference to old 50-s cartoon), but other is hard for me to get, because i'm not from USA : ]
As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.