Incline Age of Decadence - Tips, Tricks and Spoilers

[Stormcrowfleet]

Okay so now I'm stuck.

I did Teron, Morocco, and now I'm at Jerusalem. I did pretty much everything I could in both three cities. For example, I can progress further in the Arena because I'm not a fighting character; I couldn't complete the Commercium quest in Morocco because I didn't had enough skills (how much do you need seriously ? I had 6 Persuasion and 5 Streetwise and 4 Trading and I couldn't convince anybody); I can't get past the scorpions up north for obvious reason; I don't have enough crafting to operate any machinery; I don't have enough money to buy the merc/slaver protecting the Arch of Triumph; etc.

Am I missing something ? Because if the only answer you have is ''reroll you can't do shit'', I'm gonna unistall that thing right there. I won't waste another 4-5hours just to get back to the point I am but with one difference in my point allocation. It would make for a quite retarded game.

 

[hivemind]

6/5/4 is really not a lot of SPs to have in the third city for a talking focused character tbh

it seems you have fallen victim to premature hybridization friend, where instead of being good at everything your character ends up shit at everything

but I'm pretty sure that there is still one more path that you can progress through even with those stats, check out the Hellgate

 

[Tigranes]

There are so many SPs by late game (Ganezzar) that you shouldn't really be starving. What did you do, put up like 7-8 skills to 5 or 6? If that's not the case maybe there's some quests you've missed. The scorpions up north are endgame material. What faction are you with? And yes just visiting new locations gives SP by the way. Have you done the Miltiades stuff in each city? Have you done the religious zealots stirring shit up questline in Ganezzar? Have you spoken to Meru?

Taking Per as an example, if you want to be a good persuader passing most persuading checks, you'd want ~4 by end of Teron, 6 or 7 by end of Maadoran, and then possibly more if you want to pass the highest of late game checks. But a lot of checks work in tandem - e.g. I suspect 6 Per 6 Str with your high charisma (if you went for 8, especially) is enough for a lot of talking cases, though if you ever want to use Trading in late game 4 is very low (trading is given out as training in quite a few cases, such that it's possible to have 3 training with no SP investment - and anyway even without that, 4 is not a lot of SP investment).

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

I can't speak to Meru because it seems I'm not cool enough. I'm with the Commercium. They are asking me to speak to people. Unless I missed something, I went around town and didn't find anyone of interest (philosophers and merchants mostly).

EDIT : Also where do you find all those SP ? I'm pretty sure I did everything I could in Teron and Meroodan and I didn't get that much XP. I mean it's sure that I'm a noob and I missed some stuff, but I don't think I missed half the content of the game. How much playtime do you have when you arrive in Ganezzar ?

 

[Tigranes]

Tell us what your skills are, and we can gauge what you've missed. The game actually has a lot of content that is branched and gated in complicated ways so it'd take me a while to just list everything. Did you stick with the Commercium all the way from Teron, or did you switch sides at some point? I can't remember the Commercium branch very well at the moment...

Are you saying you never finished Commercium's efforts to manipulate Maadoran palace politics?

 

[Elhoim]

6/5/4 is really not a lot of SPs to have in the third city for a talking focused character tbh

Yep, one thing to keep in mind with AoD that the game tries to use the 1-10 scale. I know we are used to games in which you can take the skills up to 300 but everything after 80 is useless, and AoD aims to shake that up.

it seems you have fallen victim to premature hybridization friend, where instead of being good at everything your character ends up shit at everything

but I'm pretty sure that there is still one more path that you can progress through even with those stats, check out the Hellgate

Yes, Hellgate should be doable. Ask here if you need any help.

Am I missing something ? Because if the only answer you have is ''reroll you can't do shit'', I'm gonna unistall that thing right there. I won't waste another 4-5hours just to get back to the point I am but with one difference in my point allocation. It would make for a quite retarded game.

Even if you were stuck, don't get hung up on doing the same questline. Re-start, do the TG, AG or IG questlines, then come back to the merchant questline again. I agree that doing the same questline right now with just a different allocation would be fucking boring, but the other questlines are almost like playing a whole new game, and would be a pity if you discard them.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

Well I vanquished my hatred of rerolling and I rerolled a pure talker. It took me very little time to get to where I am at (and I even got more SP since I knew how to better finish and synergies the quests). AFAIK everything should be okay now.

 

[Elhoim]

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

A good thing about rolling a talker is that you can just catch-up to whatever you were doing in a very short time by just not reading dialogues and clicking responses that needs skills that you have.

 

[StaticSpine]

I have an old save of my character with 213 kills, it doesn't trigger the new achievement, I have to do this once again, right?

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

Hey guys I just finished the game with a lore-master full talker playthrough /w the merchants/chosen one ending.

What would be the coolest and most different playthrough this time ? I thought about going either Assassin with lots of sneak/lockpick to access some place I didn't go, or full Imperial Guard for different kind of experience (figthing instead of talking). Can you suggest both a build and some tips ? Which one would you do also ?

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

My second playthrough was a no-combat lore-master merchant playthrough to the ascension ending (and several others), following a non-combat House Daratan character. For my third playthrough, I tried a mercenary who joined the Imperial Guard with an axe/dodge build and had a lot of fun with it, although I think this build might have been nerfed by a recent patch. Anyway, my advice is to spend all your skill points on one weapon skill, one defensive skill (i.e. either block or dodge), and perhaps a bit on critical strike, but not on anything else until you're certain you've gotten ahead of the difficulty curve. Also, choose attributes according to your build.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

Somebody know where is whats-is-name that Levir tell you to see to get to Brassar or something after getting the nuke-cola from the merchants temple ? It's not even written as a quest in the quest log.

 

[PlanHex]

How do I get Al-Akia on the map? Seen some screenshots where people had it. From previous playthroughs and talk on forums, I assumed I could buy the astrolabus and get the coordinates from The Arch to find it, but the option to get the coordinates seems to be missing for some reason? What do I need to do to get that option? Pretty sure I got the coordinates at some point in previous playthroughs but didn't/couldn't use them for anything. Was it removed or do I need to have talked to someone first? Is it not possible to find it without being on a specific quest?

Somebody know where is whats-is-name that Levir tell you to see to get to Brassar or something after getting the nuke-cola from the merchants temple ? It's not even written as a quest in the quest log.

Should be a dude right outside the temple you can talk with IIRC

 

[valcik]

I think only some classes could get that map location. I've managed to do it just once, during my praetor run, no dice with any other class. Also, it was through interaction with Meru, not the astrolabus thingy.

 

[PlanHex]

I think only some classes could get that map location. I've managed to do it just once, during my praetor run, no dice with any other class. Also, it was through interaction with Meru, not the astrolabus thingy.

Huh. Daratan Praetor? I never got that option, he just seemed to know where it was and sent me there. Never appeared on my map in any playthrough and I've done them all (I think?) except the Aurelian Praetor that I'm doing now.
Also, if the astrolabus isn't for that, what the hell is it for?

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

I never got to see it on my map with the Loremaster, but I could still go through interacting with Meru.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

Okay I'm in need of help again. I'm at the end game /w pretty much every quest I know of being done. Now when I go to the Ziggurat through the Hellgate, I can't finish the game. I don't have enough lore/crafting to explode the thing, and I don't have enough combat to beat the boss (I have like 4 dodge and 4 bow). If I don't want to backstab Gaelius who sent me there to destroy the thing, what can I do ?

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

Just choose the option to leave the place alone when asked either when examining the sarcophagus or trying to use the elevator. IIRC it doesn't change faction endings.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

Kind of a fun-breaker but I guess I don't have a choice.

 

[Lexxx20]

What is your build then? Diplomatic without high lore or craft?

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

I was a thief actually, but a non-combat one.

Anyway I finished it and cleared a Mercenary/Imperial Guard one too now lol. I must say that the combat playthrough is easily the worst of them all. Combat ends up being boring, and since you are alone and have to min-max, your strategy doesn't change at all during the whole game.

My final verdict is that this game is GOTY. It's totally awesome; but not perfect. Fighting is boring, some more option sometimes would be cool (but I guess would be a scripting nightmare, so no biggy), a little bit more content/general side quests. But in the end I highly recommend the game, it's very good.

 

[Mozg]

Who is the person that says "whatever Antidas is paying you, it's not enough" after you kill Serenas and turn Madoraan into a riot-blasted hellhole? I forget.

Also did IT add a conventional (non-godbased) Antidas loyalist "good" ending at some point to follow up from that? I vaguely remember that being mentioned as something they might do.

 

[Lemming42]

Who is the person that says "whatever Antidas is paying you, it's not enough" after you kill Serenas and turn Madoraan into a riot-blasted hellhole? I forget.

Pretty sure it's just the ending slide after you leave Maadoran for Ganezzar.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Anyway I finished it and cleared a Mercenary/Imperial Guard one too now lol. I must say that the combat playthrough is easily the worst of them all. Combat ends up being boring, and since you are alone and have to min-max, your strategy doesn't change at all during the whole game.

Which build did you use? I experienced a lot more versatility in my assassin combat playthrough as a dagger/dexterity character with some alchemy than in my Imperial Guard playthrough with axe/dodge (before it was nerfed). In the former, I could take advantage of a large combat area to poison enemies and then run around while their health drained away, or in a fight against a smaller number of enemies make good use of aimed attacks. The combat system would be far more interesting with multiple party members, though.