Incline Age of Decadence - Tips, Tricks and Spoilers

[Elhoim]

I did the commercium questline, you can do everything up until convincing Mercato to join House Daratan.

MG allows you to stay around Teron after the questline is over. Praetor as well.

 

[Nikolaj]

MG allows you to stay around Teron after the questline is over. Praetor as well.

By the way, I was unable to properly resolve the merchant questline in Teron, when persuading Antidas to eliminate the remnants of IG. The quest stays in the journal, and when trying to leave for Maadoran I get the message you get when leaving early. It works fine when convincing the IG to join Antidas, though.

 

[Cyberarmy]

By the way, I was unable to properly resolve the merchant questline in Teron, when persuading Antidas to eliminate the remnants of IG.

Instead of Antidas you can get help from the MG in Teron. (or that gambler Centrioun)

 

[Shadenuat]

I don't really understand why I should care for searching some Ftaghn temple and such. I want more quests and politics with murderbros instead.
The game tells you all the time to be careful and watch for you life, but now I should play Indiana Jones into a nuclear roman wasteland or something like that because they'd like, pay me. There's nothing to spend money on in the late and even midgame so why should I like all that more than guild quest lines?

Basically I know where final location is because of a vignette (that prematurely ended my murderbros quest so I had to go all back from Dead River and radscorpions... because I thought that Cthulhu temple is more like a huge side quest or just a part of dual quests to end game), not because I followed the plot lol.

Arrrh shit not fucking Lore checks again(
At least make Lore checks low if you have right artifact and high if you have to come up with some different solution

Funny how ancient death machines in Hellgate are weaker than radscorpions

- "I'm the only guy alive standing here to help you find macguffin and just murdered ancient cuisinart death robot"
- "No I dun trust you 5 pts of Streetwise is low for endgame"

Lol lost 1/4 of max hp just for exploring, now understand why Roxor hated the place

 

[Kalin]

Spoiler

He stalemates with Crassus indefinitely in his best non-goddish ending while the IG stands aside to let them fight. You get it by sabotaging Serenas in the Maandoran chapter and reporting back to Teron after meeting with Meru (he asks you to blow up the entrance to Al-Akia - you don't even have to go into it - then it's back to the standard find-the-temple). There's no way I know to destroy Crassus totally by getting Ganezzar invaded by IG or something, the Daratan guy just isn't interested in grand backstabbing shit like that. It would be cool if he were kind of horrified to learn how you took down Gaelian and Serenas in such non-King Arthurish ways.

It'd be really cool if a Daratan praetor could bring the airship to Teron. Antidas specifically wants you to bring him ancient weapons of war, plus, he has the mantra in his display room so he must have some interest in it.

The airship could also be used to stage an invasion of Ganezzar. Docking at the skyport and having a bunch of Daratan sellswords spill out would be all kinds of awesome (pretty sure such drop troop landings was one of its uses from the logs inside).

In fact, this would work for more than one faction. HA/Strabos loyalists could use it to win the siege without the guards, etc. Would give it more purpose than to merely earn some SPs and prestige.

 

[Shadenuat]

Really don't like the ending and it's options. All the politics, choices player makes whom to side with and whom don't, whom to give more strength or support, and just like that, with a wave of a magical wand, you can create new empires or make weak rulers brilliant kings.
And what's up with "your Lord"? Lord my ass, I'm just a mercenary I have no Lords

Wtf game.

Compared to (at least somewhat but still true for most of them) nuanced playthroughs of Teron and Maadoran in the "guilds", roman Glows and Cthulhus is boring shovelware stuff; and third city is also underdeveloped.

Couldn't even try the final boss cause game didn't allow me to go back to cities and resupply for my new crafting skills. Meh.

Going to replay as crazy magi lore artifacts hoarding skillpoints meta-hoarding completionist fagget
Maybe try a Praetor too... with LORE SKILL grrr

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Awesome build, I'll have to try it in a future playthrough, for my first one I rolled with sword & shield so the damage output is pretty low and blocking doesn't really do that much against him.

Yeah blocking has always been vulnerable to power hitters (bosses, 2H weapon and/or axe wielders) but he's not immune to bleeding so theoretically you could stack enough on him via Khopesh or something, that said I don't know his per round regeneration rate.

Regarding the build I used, if you really want to have an easy time just subtract 2 points from either STR or CON (or one from each) and put them in intelligence. It's gonna pay off big time as you can race to crafting 4 in Teron right away in order to craft iron Shadavar and use sharpening stones to great effect (smith sells 3, just use it for 3 toughest fights you run into) and overall you'll be more effective because of more SPs (you can get to crafting blue steel sooner for example).

How'd you get to such a big body count? I've only got up to about 100 despite trying to do as many quests as possible.

Not much to it, just solve every possible situation through violence (preferably against as many enemies as possible) and take actions you know are gonna lead to fighting groups of people. That said, my end kill count is nothing special, there are players out there with something like 350 end body count and 100 in Teron alone (when max I can get is around 50).

 

[Agesilaus]

I think blocking is the way to go, personally. Fights involving bowmen are just too hard, otherwise. It takes a lot of effort for me to overcome fights like the Monastery battle without a shield. I guess I could pump dodge higher (I am always making hybrid-ish characters, so my dodge hovers around 6 for much of the game at best), but with block the xbow and archers are a non-issue. Block also lets you wear the extra heavy armour, because chances are your dex isn't that great anyway. The heaviest thing my dodgers wear is the muscle-armour, but blockers get power armour (massive stat boost) or a god-like set of imperial armour. On the other hand, alchemy is so much easier to use with a dodger because you have both hands free.

As for Thor-Agathoth, here's my strategy for destroying him; this strategy takes about 2 rounds and works without giving him the anesthetic or having mind shield. You need high alchemy and a high DR suit of armour. Go buy all the oil jugs and sulphur in the world and make about 8 strong fire bottles (there's probably about 30 jugs in the gameworld, and maybe 20 sulphur, so it's not that big of a task).

First round, get hit by his mental attack (10-15 damage) and then get slapped but not flung across the room (or poke him back with a spear). Now it's your turn: drink a neurostim (I had 2x +6 AP eagle eye and 12+ extended neurostim) and maybe a +DR hemostasis potion; unfortunately, potions don't stack, otherwise I could have gotten 60+ AP and killed him in a half a round. Then, drop fire like no tomorrow; I had 10 Alch, so my strong fire was doing 11-17 damage. In placing the fire, your goal is to make him get trapped next to you; drop a potion to his left and he'll walk back one tile, drop another to make him walk to your left, then bring him down next to you and trap him in there with another to his right.

Second round, He slaps you a lot. He can't knock you back because there is fire behind you. As long as he doesn't crit you, the damage won't be too bad; you are wearing a massive suit of armour, right? I used sky metal ordu lamellar, and one can always drink a hemostasis, too. On your turn, stand up and start dropping more fire. He can't resist fire, so you'll be doing maximum damage. If you drop another four or five bottles, he is either dead or teetering on the brink.

If you have to go another round, so be it; he'll slap you but as long as he doesn't crit the damage isn't too bad. Each round you're doing around 60 damage to him, so within 2-3 rounds he's toast. He resists bombs, so even with a strong frag bomb you'll only do around 7 damage.



Strategy for the scorpions in Dead River: Get a 2-handed spear or a ranged weapon. Use a strong poison, 9 or 11 per round is good. Bring some fire so you can get them away from you if they close. They have strong poison resistance, but they can't survive the higher-level poisons. Use antidote if you get poisoned, it only takes 1 AP to drink a potion.

There's some nice gear, too, on the bodies. Extra power tubes, blue steel hamdar, lots of antidotes, and a gas mask. Unfortunately, the game doesn't let you put on the gas mask after you find it, so you continue to take 2 damage a turn; bug?

Also, Hellgate sentinels carry 1 pound of sky metal. The chest in the room with the spear has... 1 pound of sky metal. Sure that shouldn't be 10 or more pounds of sky metal in that final room? If you have crafting 10, then you can beat the hell out of the sentinels, in which case the quantity in the chest is meaningless. Hell, the quantity in the chest is meaningless if you just give up the power armour for 20 pounds of the stuff.

 

[Mozg]

Are they using AoE attacks to kill their own allies in the IG questline or something? That is the final word in Body Count sperging I can see and a sperg too far for myself

 

[Cholo]

Hey Vault Dweller - seeing as Fallout was such a big influence for this game, did the team ever consider putting Luck in as a stat? It seems like every other stat corresponds to something from SPECIAL but there's nothing analogous for luck.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Never. Don't know why, I don't have anything against Luck as stat.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

As for Thor-Agathoth, here's my strategy for destroying him; this strategy takes about 2 rounds and works without giving him the anesthetic or having mind shield. You need high alchemy and a high DR suit of armour. Go buy all the oil jugs and sulphur in the world and make about 8 strong fire bottles (there's probably about 30 jugs in the gameworld, and maybe 20 sulphur, so it's not that big of a task).
.

Exactly what I did. What's fun is that you don't even need any combat stats apart from Con. Just get Mind Shield, pop AP potion and throw bombs at him

 

[Agesilaus]

Never. Don't know why, I don't have anything against Luck as stat.

Charisma is kind of a luck stat/buff for speech checks.

 

[Vault Dweller]

We wanted to include him but couldn't make it work. We'll definitely try again.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

I think blocking is the way to go, personally. Fights involving bowmen are just too hard, otherwise. It takes a lot of effort for me to overcome fights like the Monastery battle without a shield. I guess I could pump dodge higher (I am always making hybrid-ish characters, so my dodge hovers around 6 for much of the game at best), but with block the xbow and archers are a non-issue. Block also lets you wear the extra heavy armour, because chances are your dex isn't that great anyway. The heaviest thing my dodgers wear is the muscle-armour, but blockers get power armour (massive stat boost) or a god-like set of imperial armour. On the other hand, alchemy is so much easier to use with a dodger because you have both hands free.

Dodge does require higher invest to be truly effective (helps if you can also increase defense in some other ways, like IG training) than Block (which is already great at 5-6) but at the highest levels it really pays off as you avoid nearly all damage and get counter-attacks galore. Of course, blockers are walking tanks nearly impervious to harm majority of the time (whereas dodgers can get fucked by RNG), it's just those select few times they're in trouble (against enemies that hit really hard like bosses and 2H weapon users, especially axe wielding ones).

Regarding PA, I don't know where you got this idea that it is exclusive for blockers. On the contrary, It's probably the best armor for dodge characters (depends on how much you like to use 2H weapons though) whereas blockers might want something with more DR.

As for Thor-Agathoth, here's my strategy for destroying him; this strategy takes about 2 rounds and works without giving him the anesthetic or having mind shield. You need high alchemy and a high DR suit of armour. Go buy all the oil jugs and sulphur in the world and make about 8 strong fire bottles (there's probably about 30 jugs in the gameworld, and maybe 20 sulphur, so it's not that big of a task).

First round, get hit by his mental attack (10-15 damage) and then get slapped but not flung across the room (or poke him back with a spear). Now it's your turn: drink a neurostim (I had 2x +6 AP eagle eye and 12+ extended neurostim) and maybe a +DR hemostasis potion; unfortunately, potions don't stack, otherwise I could have gotten 60+ AP and killed him in a half a round. Then, drop fire like no tomorrow; I had 10 Alch, so my strong fire was doing 11-17 damage. In placing the fire, your goal is to make him get trapped next to you; drop a potion to his left and he'll walk back one tile, drop another to make him walk to your left, then bring him down next to you and trap him in there with another to his right.

Second round, He slaps you a lot. He can't knock you back because there is fire behind you. As long as he doesn't crit you, the damage won't be too bad; you are wearing a massive suit of armour, right? I used sky metal ordu lamellar, and one can always drink a hemostasis, too. On your turn, stand up and start dropping more fire. He can't resist fire, so you'll be doing maximum damage. If you drop another four or five bottles, he is either dead or teetering on the brink.

If you have to go another round, so be it; he'll slap you but as long as he doesn't crit the damage isn't too bad. Each round you're doing around 60 damage to him, so within 2-3 rounds he's toast. He resists bombs, so even with a strong frag bomb you'll only do around 7 damage.

That's all fine and dandy but he's the end boss, I wanna hack him to pieces not lob grenades at him until he croaks. If I'm gonna do the latter I might as well blow up the whole Temple (Fallout style) and be done with it.

Also, Hellgate sentinels carry 1 pound of sky metal. The chest in the room with the spear has... 1 pound of sky metal. Sure that shouldn't be 10 or more pounds of sky metal in that final room? If you have crafting 10, then you can beat the hell out of the sentinels, in which case the quantity in the chest is meaningless. Hell, the quantity in the chest is meaningless if you just give up the power armour for 20 pounds of the stuff.

2 lbs of sky metal (and 4 from constructs if you kill them), plus two power tubes (and some other goodies, like a sharpening stone and some blue metal). All in all, could be more stuff in there but it's decent.

 

[Agesilaus]

Dodge does require higher invest to be truly effective (helps if you can also increase defense in some other ways, like IG training) than Block (which is already great at 5-6) but at the highest levels it really pays off as you avoid nearly all damage and get counter-attacks galore. Of course, blockers are walking tanks nearly impervious to harm majority of the time (whereas dodgers can get fucked by RNG), it's just those select few times they're in trouble (against enemies that hit really hard like bosses and 2H weapon users, especially axe wielding ones).

Regarding PA, I don't know where you got this idea that it is exclusive for blockers. On the contrary, It's probably the best armor for dodge characters (depends on how much you like to use 2H weapons though) whereas blockers might want something with more DR.

It comes with a shield auto-equipped, no? I guess they changed it, because if memory serves it takes a slot and automatically activates a little blue shield. I didn't test it this play through, I just took it right away to Maadoran and cashed it in for 20 pounds of the good stuff (skymetal). I have 2 Lore, so I don't think I can activate the best mode anyway?

 

[ZagorTeNej]

It comes with a shield auto-equipped, no? I guess they changed it, because if memory serves it takes a slot and automatically activates a little blue shield. I didn't test it this play through, I just took it right away to Maadoran and cashed it in for 20 pounds of the good stuff (skymetal). I have 2 Lore, so I don't think I can activate the best mode anyway?

Yeah, it does come with a shield (or a power gauntlet whatever it is called) which prevents you from using 2H weapons but you can dodge just fine (I think it just checks whether Dodge or Block is higher). DR 8, 10 defense penalty and no AP restriction makes it a pretty great piece for dodgers (not to mention stat boosts).

You need 8 lore and 3 power tubes to unlock it's full potential.

 

[Agesilaus]

Yeah, it does come with a shield (or a power gauntlet whatever it is called) which prevents you from using 2H weapons but you can dodge just fine (I think it just checks whether Dodge or Block is higher). DR 8, 10 defense penalty and no AP restriction makes it a pretty great piece for dodgers (not to mention stat boosts).

You need 8 lore and 3 power tubes to unlock it's full potential.

Ah, okay, I thought it required blocking. I remember it being okay with just one or two powertubes, but ultimately it has less DR than blue steel or sky metal armours.

 

[Shadenuat]

Can someone guide me through Lady Lorenza's trader's starting quest in Maadoran dialogue to pass the check? Is 7 Persuasion 5 Trade enough? Savescummed like 15 times already. Also passed Etiquette in the first lines.

 

[Unbeliever]

I finished loremaster game. Beside fighting quest, like that armor thing, I didn't find:

Spoiler

What happened with the Esbenus men?

Spoiler

And how to become God?

 

[t]

Can someone guide me through Lady Lorenza's trader's starting quest in Maadoran dialogue to pass the check? Is 7 Persuasion 5 Trade enough? Savescummed like 15 times already. Also passed Etiquette in the first lines.

I believe I passed it only after raising it to 8/6. Both INT and CHA at 10 if it matters. This was a hell of a check.

 

[Shadenuat]

SEVEN SEVEN WHERE DO I GET SO MANY SP THIS IS INSANITY

I miss Arcanum persuasion elixir...

...will sell combat SP for food.

 

[Mozg]

Is there a more difficult single fight in the game besides having to personally kill the entire Imperial Guard force at Harren's Pass an an Aurelian Praetor? I.e. when you can't even pass a streetwise 3 or whatever that one is at the very beginning of the Ordu mission.

 

[Jaedar]

Can someone guide me through Lady Lorenza's trader's starting quest in Maadoran dialogue to pass the check? Is 7 Persuasion 5 Trade enough? Savescummed like 15 times already. Also passed Etiquette in the first lines.

If you pass me a quote of something in the conversation (preferably the specific check you are having issues with) I can check it.

BTW: Here is a guide for easy checking of all checks in AoD that happen in dialogue. You'll need notepad++ (or similar) and an unzipping program. Find the root AoD folder (same as the .exe) and unzip the scripts.aod folder. Then in \scripts\data\text\dialogues\english are all the xml files that define the skill checks with the accompanying text. Using notepad++ you can search in files for some specific line and see the check associated with it. You can also search for all uses of a skill or stat (or reputation).

 

[Shadenuat]

Ah notepad ++, my Friend teached me how to use that arcane instrument of the grogrammers
Gonna check why I flawlessly passed all other checks but this bitch asks for a poisoned cake.

...yeah it's 14, with 3 possible +1 disposition: etiquette or lore & "To make fame for myself" or something like that
a shit lot for starting quest