Incline Dark Heart of Uukrul Discussion Thread

[octavius]

There's only a few combat difficulty spikes you have to overcome. The first is when Black Orcs appear quite early in the game, and the next one I can remember is The Pyramid where there's lots of Sorcerors. The Pyramid is largely optional, so I skipped most of it myself.

 

[EldarEldrad]

I get used to Caverns and put my way through two or three doors in, beside exploring many side rooms. Party is level 5 now and all seems hard but beatable with small chunks.

Got plagued the first time, it cost me 150$ to cure at hospital in village. Then battle with some Fuming acid mess that I barely hit and it heal back. After 10 minutes I kill it and get 2000 exp per party member, which is really huge. Other random encounters with 20-80 exp are not rewardable.

Unfortunately, running away sometimes is not an option because enemies block a way out.

How exactly fighters work? Their damage output seems random and sometimes they hit for 4 or 8 hit points. Is it okay?

 

[Fowyr]

How exactly fighters work? Their damage output seems random and sometimes they hit for 4 or 8 hit points. Is it okay?

Yes, the damage is often quite random. Wait for that nice flaming sword (or was it a glaive?) from the village's shop.
Have you seen these secret doors in the Temple?
Just endure. Soon it will be easier. Frankly, it took me eight years to finish this game, but it was sooo worth it.

 

[bandersnatch]

This game is one of my favs. There I said it.

 

[EldarEldrad]

I meet Kestafor damn lizard, get 1000 exp per person and lose a lot of equipment. Gosh, that's tough.

I found secret doors in Temple, but can neither force or look for device for them. Guess, I need to return later.

P.S. Okay, equipment losing worth me 2000$, so I just backup my save

 

[Butter]

Elementals are a good way of dealing with him.

 

[EldarEldrad]

Okay, here is my update, I reach URSHAS sanctuary. URLUSAM was really tough until I get used to caverns and black orcs, but as soon as party reached 5 level it became easier. "Fear alone is the hangman" puzzle was cool, but I solved it in ~10 minutes as soon as I realized that those poems are basically irrelevant for solution.
URRAN is pretty straightforward. Almost no challenge, but I still does not explore fully second 5x5 rooms where automap does not work. I'll finish with it, hopefully leveling up to 7 and continue with URSHAS.

 

[EldarEldrad]

Damn crossword. I solved 5 words myself, then I tried "covered with cold wet spikes". I tried all synonyms known to me for 'rained on' but nothing. After that I go to google and find out there is a word 'icicled'. Damn. Need to solve 6 more words.

The one of the good points of modern games is that all these word-puzzles reduced to minimum. They are literally pain in the ass for non-native players.

 

[Butter]

I only got 11/12 words, and I refuse to use the Internet to find out what the last one is. It will be a mystery for the rest of my life.

 

[Strange Fellow]

I only got 11/12 words, and I refuse to use the Internet to find out what the last one is. It will be a mystery for the rest of my life.

Which one didn't you get? I promise I won't tell you the answer

EldarEldrad, don't worry if you find them tricky, those riddles are devilish even by regular crossword standards, and punishes non-native speakers particularly by relying on wordplay. I liked them a lot, but I can see why someone wouldn't.

 

[EldarEldrad]

Okay, I give up with total count 8/12. 'within or inside' (pretty lame in fact), 'backward liar' (still don't get why loud), 'avenger is moved' (wtf puzzle) and 'covered with rain' where googled. 'give up a short recess' was solved via bruteforce, not thinking. Time to move on!

 

[Butter]

I only got 11/12 words, and I refuse to use the Internet to find out what the last one is. It will be a mystery for the rest of my life.

Which one didn't you get? I promise I won't tell you the answer

Gives up a short recess to get a word in. R - N - - N - - S

 

[Strange Fellow]

Crossword stuff

'backward liar' (still don't get why loud)

The verb "to rail", i.e. complain loudly. At least that's my guess. "Weak" I think is supposed to make you think of "frail".

'avenger is moved' (wtf puzzle)

It's a simple anagram. It's not the thing itself but the letters that move. "Carve two points where the dead lie" means you need to add two letters to the word for "where the dead lie", i.e. "grave", so it's essentially two clues rolled up into one to make things more confusing.

'give up a short recess' [to get a word in]

This one I had forgotten, and had to think about for a bit just now.
First, "a short recess", which is simply the word recess shortened by one word: "reces". Then there's the "to get a word in" bit, which implies that you have to put a word into the other (bit of a stretch, but this trick is pulled in crosswords sometimes). "a word" is "noun", which is a class of word, thought I'll agree that this one is borderline unsolveable unless you have filled in a few of the letters already from solving some of the other riddles.

There's no "covered with rain" but rather "covered with cold wet spikes", which IMO is a fairly straightforward description of icicles. Then the way the riddle is formulated makes it clear that the answer is supposed to be an adjective, so what I did was just adjectvify the word (and now I just verbified the word adjective ). I wasn't aware either at the time that "icicled" is a word, but "cold wet spikes" was just too strong a hint to ignore, so I did what I thought was violate grammar rather than give up on it.

But as I said, they're tricky as shit, and I don't mean to flaunt my leet crossword skillz. It's just that I happen to enjoy this stuff, and I thought this puzzle was extremely well done. Absolutely loved it.

I only got 11/12 words, and I refuse to use the Internet to find out what the last one is. It will be a mystery for the rest of my life.

Which one didn't you get? I promise I won't tell you the answer

Gives up a short recess to get a word in. R - N - - N - - S

Yeah, with those letters already filled in I managed to solve it, but without them I wouldn't stand a chance.

Anyway, I didn't manage to solve all twelve by myself either. The one that stumped me was the "infinite ethereal realm" one.

 

[octavius]

I had to check what I wrote about the crossword puzzle when I played it. I thought now that it was optional, but I don't think I would have cheated if it was:

And I cheated with half the crossword puzzle. I was able to figure out the basics of it, but some of the words were just too obscure for me, especially since English is not my native tongue.
There is a reason why I don't play Adventure games anymore - I just don't have the patience for word games, and try and fail puzzles anymore. I much prefer the more visual kind of puzzles that Chaos Strikes Back provide.

 

[Butter]

The crossword is technically optional, but if you skip it then you'll have to brute force a door code later that isn't optional.

 

[EldarEldrad]

The Twisted Paths are tough. Spend all evening exploring it and come to two doors. One need to say the word (which I don't know, I guess a bunch of incomplete maps with letters and hammer and/or strains with intendations are the keys, but I have no idea what they means), one need to fight. And I stuck at second fight with 4 golems. I have no energy, no food and zero chance to win it right at the start. Medal of escape was swallowed (I guess, I need to rub it? Or it does not work in this area?). So, tomorrow I will load backup and start this area from the scratch.

 

[Butter]

The fighting is pretty tough, but if you're stocked up on food you can walk back and forth to recover virtue and psychic points, wait out any poison, heal everyone up.

 

[EldarEldrad]

I came to Pyramid and now I really want to drop the game, it's so incredibly frustrating in every aspect. Fighters are useless, enemies move multiple times and all these maneuvering is pretty stupid because enemy always have 1-2 steps after you position your party. Priest suddenly stop to invoke any of his spells. Encounters happen every step and enemies drain your resouces pretty fast

 

[EldarEldrad]

Okay, maybe I overreacted a bit and after small break managed to get second card, but I still very frustrated by combat. Weapons break often and movement/fighting break leads to very strange tactics. No diagonal strikes seem stupid too.

 

[octavius]

Well, there was a reason I skipped most of The Pyramid...

 

[EldarEldrad]

Well, there was a reason I skipped most of The Pyramid...

I think I technically skipped second level because I do not explore all rooms and switches. I guess there is more of them than 8 + small room with card, but nevertheless. Other levels I fully explore.

I just see that my Fighter' strength dropped to 15 from 17. It seems like permanent effect. Don't know what happened, any ideas?

 

[Strange Fellow]

I just see that my Fighter' strength dropped to 15 from 17. It seems like permanent effect. Don't know what happened, any ideas?

Has he been killed and resurrected? That can lower stats, IIRC.

 

[EldarEldrad]

Has he been killed and resurrected? That can lower stats, IIRC.

Nah, no one was killed in my party

 

[EldarEldrad]

I've reached the Cube and here I find most battles just unbearable. Random encounters take 5+ minutes to beat due to zero damage from fighter and paladin, randomness of priest. Moreover, mage barely can do any damage for some reason. I guess many enemies immune to magic or have resistance. Running away from every fight is the best option.

 

[EldarEldrad]

I've reached Adron's palace and started to navigate it. The gargoyles are serious problems, I meat a couple of them and they ask some riddles which I can't solve now, thus they send me to oubliette. It looks like they have no exit. So, no chance to return from there without medal of escape? I used the last one and loadind backup is my only choice I guess. Moreover, if I stuck at gargoyle I can't return, either answer correctly or banish to oubliette, it is a bit frustrating.