Eyestabber's in-depth guide to DR/AoD mechanics

[the_shadow]

I have been experimenting with a few different builds.

I tried a high perception, high dex, high cha, low con, low strength character. I pumped sword and critical in the hope of doing critical targeted attacks (critical head knocks down for two turns), and also gave Marcus high hammer and moderate block. I breezed through the ants, but hit a brick wall at the Dredger fight where you face the axeman with the bomb and the two longbowmen. The bomb usually knocks down my PC, and then it's history. Pumping your attack skills to hit reliably just makes you a glass cannon. Retreating to the campfire is just delaying the inevitable, it's just a matter of time.

So I decided to try a different build. High con, high strength, 4 dex, 4 perception, and sinking all my points into block early on. My PC is essentially a tank who expertly blocks almost everything, and who can't hit shit. I then took two ranged companions and split points between attack/defense by 70/30. And...

the game is way easier. Fights are drawn out, but as long as I aggro all enemies with my main PC, almost nothing can stop me. I can even tank the damage from bombs because losing half my health isn't a big deal. The only fight where I was getting hit were against Yngvar and Democritus, but Democritus was easy once I used a liquid fire and bomb while just spraying everyone with ranged fire.

 

[Shadowfang]

I have been experimenting with a few different builds.

I tried a high perception, high dex, high cha, low con, low strength character. I pumped sword and critical in the hope of doing critical targeted attacks (critical head knocks down for two turns), and also gave Marcus high hammer and moderate block. I breezed through the ants, but hit a brick wall at the Dredger fight where you face the axeman with the bomb and the two longbowmen. The bomb usually knocks down my PC, and then it's history. Pumping your attack skills to hit reliably just makes you a glass cannon. Retreating to the campfire is just delaying the inevitable, it's just a matter of time.

So I decided to try a different build. High con, high strength, 4 dex, 4 perception, and sinking all my points into block early on. My PC is essentially a tank who expertly blocks almost everything, and who can't hit shit. I then took two ranged companions and split points between attack/defense by 70/30. And...

the game is way easier. Fights are drawn out, but as long as I aggro all enemies with my main PC, almost nothing can stop me. I can even tank the damage from bombs because losing half my health isn't a big deal. The only fight where I was getting hit were against Yngvar and Democritus, but Democritus was easy once I used a liquid fire and bomb while just spraying everyone with ranged fire.

Thanks for sharing your build, i cant imagine how i never thought of that one.

Thanks to you i am replaying DR with Drussus - 8 - 6 - 8 - 6 - 4 - 8. The second fight was so easy with me tanking everything with my shield, Marcus getting the kills and Ardomir weakening them with the shooting. I am going to have a lot of fun.

Btw, is it me or Marcus looks a lot like Jonathan Pageau:

Spoiler

 

[the_shadow]

Yet another build: A high crit dagger build (High perception, intelligence and dex, low strength and con) with 2 companions.

Honestly, I'm really struggling with this one, especially since I got up to the constructs. The chance to hit even with my high perception character is still way too low, and all my dodge PCs feel like they are made of glass. This may also be because I attempted to focus on raising Ismail's alchemy to 10, which means less SP spent on combat skills for Marcus now that I've swapped him back in. Targeted shots would be nice if you could hit reliably, but those things have ridiculously good dodge.

Also, does anyone have a surefire way of winning the second dredger fight (ie. the one with the axeman with a bomb, two archers and a spearman?) That fight is the first real stumbling block in the game IMHO. Even tanking the bomb damage is risky since it might crit and knockdown, and then that character is effectively dead anyway. You can feint and box the axeman in so they can't move and throw the bomb, but then you're exposing your back to 2 archers and a spearman with real good accuracy. The only times I've beaten the fight without multiple reloads was with a high block high con PC to act as a meat shield, and my high int alchemy/crafting character who allowed all my other characters to have decent crafted items and 7 damage poison.

 

[Butter]

Does anyone know how turn order is determined in AoD/DR?

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Does anyone know how turn order is determined in AoD/DR?

From Steam:

Vince [developer] 10 Aug, 2017 @ 3:13pm

The priority is determined by your DEX, PER, and weapon skill, in this order. Whoever has highest DEX goes first, if they have the same DEX, then whoever has highest PER goes first, etc.

If you initiate combat, but your opponent has priority, then he'll go twice after your turn.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Yet another build: A high crit dagger build (High perception, intelligence and dex, low strength and con) with 2 companions.

Honestly, I'm really struggling with this one, especially since I got up to the constructs. The chance to hit even with my high perception character is still way too low, and all my dodge PCs feel like they are made of glass. This may also be because I attempted to focus on raising Ismail's alchemy to 10, which means less SP spent on combat skills for Marcus now that I've swapped him back in. Targeted shots would be nice if you could hit reliably, but those things have ridiculously good dodge.

Also, does anyone have a surefire way of winning the second dredger fight (ie. the one with the axeman with a bomb, two archers and a spearman?) That fight is the first real stumbling block in the game IMHO. Even tanking the bomb damage is risky since it might crit and knockdown, and then that character is effectively dead anyway. You can feint and box the axeman in so they can't move and throw the bomb, but then you're exposing your back to 2 archers and a spearman with real good accuracy. The only times I've beaten the fight without multiple reloads was with a high block high con PC to act as a meat shield, and my high int alchemy/crafting character who allowed all my other characters to have decent crafted items and 7 damage poison.

Constructs are a pain the ass. They are practically invulnerable against most builds. Roxor said this was bad design. He is right. The wise thing to do is save all your alchemical ingredients and bombs, and use them against the damn constructs. I also got the impression that dagger builds are subpar in DR. They are particularly weak against a mixed team of heavy armored and light armored enemies, and alchemists. The low con is practically a death certificate. If you think this is hard, try playing lone wolf with a bowman.

 

[Butter]

I just did the Bandit Camp fight, and it was pretty tough until I noticed that my Arterial Strike THC was in practice way higher than listed. It always showed 40-50, but I was hitting a solid 80-90% of them.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

The lack of ammo is actually a good thing, because it shows you that solo ranged isn't viable very early into the game. If there was enough ammo, you would play all the way up to the facility (with tons of reloads), only to realize your archer character has no chance against the crossbow constructs.

The secret of an early viable solo ranged build is a sensible use of whirlwind attacks mixed with ranged attacks early on. The high perception helps a lot in that regard.

 

[Fenix]

Staring guide needs an update.
Every time I come back to DR, I always stumble over question - how the *** can I drain out SP from Ismail fro solo run?
Is it even possible? What dialogue option should I pick?
Eyestabber be a man and update the guide with this tiny things.
Also, sword's bleeding passive inflict now 3 damage, total 6.


OK, TOTALLY.
Ismail doesn't give ANY SP if you eliminate him. NOTHING.
To knew that this cost me ironman run.

PPPPPPPPPPS Please put this in guide.

 

[Fenix]

Sup Codex.
Doing duo run - it's only PC and Marcus, and of course Hieron and Ali-Baba too.
The problem is (my concept) is simple - crossbows, and crits without any defence, and I need to take Hieron/Ali-Baba with me, but I don't have defence skills.
Right now I'm before the rised bridge fight (fight after first Roxana appearence), so Hieron has Crafting 7, and I want to take him vs scorps in Rock Bottom (where first stat canister is).
It's very low chances he will survive, but on the other hand - there is no simple fights further in game at all.

So, what's your thoughts about that bullshit. Ironman and all that.

 

[Fenix]

OK, managed to get this far (before berserk fight) on Ironman with this.

Spoiler

 

[Fenix]

OK, died in fight with 3 Scolopendras, my mistake was I tried to pull it off with Hieron lol, and he lcan only withstand 3-4 their strikes lol.
Also, I could use Liquid Fire but decided to keep it.
Don't try to rise Craft past 8 next time...

Anyway, I had no idea how to win flowers fight lol. They have no blood/can't bleed, so at best I can eliminate 1 per turn.

 

[Fenix]

Tried Eyestabber's build only with swords... what can I say - unlucky crit from bomb dropped my down and few arrows/hits followed...
It's not what it was.

 

[Fenix]

Well, I have another run going right now, and I can say, that Hieron feels himself perfectly fine in combat with flowers, and there is nothing unealistic in winning that fight as solo builds coul do that, and I did too.
The only thing is sometimes RGN could f*** you p badly - I won it withoug even slight shadow of problem (lost Hieron in fight with worm lol) and next time with same build I almost lost it caus flowers sudenly start to hit me instead of "dodged-miss".

A bit ashamed to say, I'm doing the same build Eyestabber did for his Ironman run - spears and 9 Str.
And I can say Str cause A LOT of diffrence lol, where I struggled with my 4 Str spear build, here I went like a knife through the butter.
The only difference I didn;t want to repeat it completely and choosed the difficult path - it's 2 man party instead of 3, and that have huge impact.
For example, you can't safely haul Hieron to every fight - PC is the one who need to defend him, no expendable partymates (well, in my previous run Marcus died in fight before Reainard-berserk fight, so there I used Silas and won surprisingly easily, Silas even deflected 2 blows of berserk with his shield), and you should just see that fight with Roxana were on some builds (which don't have weapon's reach to hit her) I need to get back to enrty pont with Hieron, eliminating everyone except lat one enemy, waiting/cripling his legs and then running to Roxana and trying to eliminate her quicklier than she did it to you.

Also, it's easy to compary changes made in last update to what it was - before Hieron in 3 men team could get to 9 Craft before Reinard fight lol, now in 2 men team where I took him to every fight except 3 fights past Raxana, and I only get to Craft 10 on first blak Scolopendra. which is right after the worm.
Differnce is huge.
Now I dropped Hieron and took Ismail and he barely could be useful at all lol.

Also later I'll try sword build like that in 2-3 men party. Spears ar edefinitely less RNG dependant then swords because of less spiky damage nemies can deal (interrapts). It's easy to win with spear scorpion fight when first canister is with just steppng back and letting interrapts doing all the work.

 

[vazha]

I never finished this (killed the emprah as a hammer-smasher brute and then had utterly depleted health/resources in the next fight), for which I'll be forever grateful to Mr Vault Dweller . No sarcasm. It's quite rare for a man of my age, and dare I say experience, to rage-quit a game because it beat me fair and square and I could not rise up to a demanding (yet in no way unfair) challenge it throws at you.

More games should be like this.
P.s. The storyfag in me was screaming for story and quests tho, the setting literally begs for some intrigue & blackmail plots.

 

[Fenix]

killed the emprah as a hammer-smasher brute and then had utterly depleted health/resources in the next fight

Do you mean solo?

Btw doing 2 men tea swordsman - while it lack damage mitigation and control spears have, it could do more damage cause shamshit's fast attacks cost only 4 AP, unlike spears where you can often do 2 with trident, and 3 fast attacks with poison and sharpened buff - that's usually more damage then 2 from slow but damaging.
Or not? Also bleeding lol.
But in srious fight I think you can't allow yourself to wait that long to allow bleeding to do any damage.
Still nice early to mid-game.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

I never finished this (killed the emprah as a hammer-smasher brute and then had utterly depleted health/resources in the next fight), for which I'll be forever grateful to Mr Vault Dweller . No sarcasm. It's quite rare for a man of my age, and dare I say experience, to rage-quit a game because it beat me fair and square and I could not rise up to a demanding (yet in no way unfair) challenge it throws at you.

More games should be like this.
P.s. The storyfag in me was screaming for story and quests tho, the setting literally begs for some intrigue & blackmail plots.

You should try again with a spear/dodge build. It's the most efficient build playing solo. Well, in fact, is the most efficient build, solo or not. If you can't beat playing solo, invest in charisma, and put together a team. It's doable.

 

[vazha]

I was playing solo. And yeah, I know the spear dodge build is the way to go for solo, but muh aesthetics! I wanted to smash things with a hueg warhammer and had a blast doing it. I did beat the game with a party, which was incomparably easier.

 

[Fenix]

I just doubt solo is possible after last update, honestly.
You have no Craft, no Alchemy, so no good gear and nothing to inhale.
I did swordsmen yesterday - he was fine, but then Democritus blow the sh** out of him, also I possibly screwed up my tactics, but anyway.

 

[vazha]

Well, I dont know. You think it not possible, raise your hands in frustration and then along comes an autistic genius like Eyestabber here and shows you that its actually doable. But once again, I had great fun.

 

[Fenix]

...And my swordsman run instantly went to a shit when Ismail desintegrated Hieron with a bomb...
What an asshole.

EDIT: and after that without any thoughts I tried daggers (I finished DR with them first time but not in Itonman I think), and... for example I didn't lose any hp in fight with with Reinard lol, and in fight before fight with Ingvar.



It's like... you know, something really different.
BUT! i expect to smash my face to the wall when armored dudes with vsCS defence will show up.

 

[Fenix]

Also - right now my spearman dude is awaiting fight with Democritus...
Previous spearman dude cased to exist in exactly this fight...
And I have no idea literally how to win it except spaming the bombs which is no go - it's not a tactics at all, not interested (and I need those bombs for constructs/Imperor anyway).
Ehh? Ismail is my ballast in team, cause of it initiative I can't safely fall back to the corridor, and staying there in hope that spear interrapts will defend me is the reason previous spearman failure (totally not my fault! :D).

P.S. Actually, all the attempt I made this time with different characters are failed in Democritus fight lol.
This time I even - think about it - won Reinard fight with Hieron as a tank, and don't want to fail.

 

[agris]

My recollection from my solo spear play through waaaay back in the day involves netting Democritus, taking out his crony in the left, running across and taking out the one in the right, and using the boxes that you find yourself surrounded by at that point for positional advantage while targeting his arms and legs.

I didn’t do Iron Man and this was definitely before the big rebalance patch. Your mileage may vary.

 

[vazha]

I think the Democritus fight was where my brute build really shined though. Just casually stroll up to him, bash his brains out with your hammer (which might or might not be superior to the hammer he himself is wielding), nonchalantly dispatch his entourage in the same manner. Such an "I got this" moment. So satisfying and rewarding. Little did I know everything would go all kinds of worse from there on.

 

[Fenix]

For pure fun reasons I decided to play with full party, with those 3 campfire poor lads - Quintus, Silas and Syrus, my PC is 4\4\4\10\10\8.
As such I decided that no need to feed exp to Marcus, and I need to finish first 2 fights alone.
At first I though I need to do only first fight solo, and second will be easy with Marcus who will accidentally die there.
Then I found out the door is locked lol, but it was nothing as Ardomir expressed a desire to protect me.
First build was like 4\7\7\4\10\8 it it was impossible to win anything with it solo.
At first I chose throwing weapon at start, but it was bad idea, instead I chose sword lol, and with wirlwind even 4\4\4 build second fight was easy, first time I even failed first time cause Ardomir survived the fight lol, elminated enemies too quickly.
And then, proud of what I did, I led poor bastards to the ants, and in second fight Silas died lol.
I understood this was a bad idea .
And decided to have little fun with simple straightforward sword build - 10\10\10.
And that was fun - he was completely nude all the ay till Ingvar fight.

Adventurers of psycho Fizkulturnik (Physical education teacher).

Spoiler

He died at Democritus lol. Reloaded save and defeated this shmuck with basic mushroom brew - retreatin to boxes, eliminating spearman there, then net Democritus, drink brew, neurostim and chop him down like a tree.

Right after that loaded spearman two man party, problem was Ismail was almost the last to act there, so in order to survive you need to block corridor with liqud fire, then retreat, and repeat.

involves netting Democritus, taking out his crony in the left, running across and taking out the one in the right

You mean solo? It's now not possible - net only distract 6 AP, you can't eliminate spearman in one turn - at least I have no idea how it could be possible.
Also, there is something with their initiative, cause after your first turn they have two turns in a row - that's strange. Also happen in fight with Reinard, I found that ot today as swordsman didn't want to spent liquid fire on such trivial fight lol, and Reinard had two turns in a row.
And sometimes enemies zrcs liek your turn-->their turn-->your turn etc.

I think the Democritus fight was where my brute build really shined though. Just casually stroll up to him, bash his brains out with your hammer (which might or might not be superior to the hammer he himself is wielding), nonchalantly dispatch his entourage in the same manner. Such an "I got this" moment. So satisfying and rewarding. Little did I know everything would go all kinds of worse from there on.

Well, I had another build, called it Veteran Cripple - naturally 10 Str, 4 Dex, 10 Con, 4 Per, 10 Int...
Reloaded save rigth before Drmocritus (failed Ironman run).
With 10 Block and 10 Hammer and 10 Str/Con I coudn't do a shit to him - he bashed me with almost every hit and eliminated quickly.