Grimoire gameplay and hints thread

[Piotrovitz]

Just finished the Dirge puzzle - that was a pretty cool one. Now heading towards the famous turtle ride.

I've caught second wind and started to enjoying the game as in the beginning.
The only thing that bums me out is that I'm so early in the game and most of my chars are at the end of their multiclass paths and have all the relevant weapon/spellcasting skills maxed out.
It's kinda like you would hit level cap in BG2 in the middle of chapter 2 and the only thing to look forward to is better loot. And plot of course.

While I'm here, couple of more questions:

1. One of my saur berserkers reached end of his multiclass path as an assassin - the second one I'd like to make a pirate, just for diversity, but I haven't stockpiled enought skillpoints yet.
Is there any tangible difference between those two classes, beside stat requirements, i.e is there some pirate-only gear?

2. The shield icon being grayed out even when it's equipped - I assume that this is because char is wielding 2H weapon?

3. If above is the case, that means I can give shield to my unarmed Naga assassin. The question is - while carrying a shield won't she loose some of the extra attacks? Are those tied to second hand being free?

4. Are perk keys needed anywhere else then Samhain Mausoleum, or can I dump them like the locksmith ones?

 

[Lady Error]

Maxing out skills doesn't mean much. It is supposed to happen by the mid-game at the latest. The level and the attributes play an even more important role, eg. speed.

1. Check the manual or the Grimoire wiki for the differences. Don't know if there is any specialized gear.

2. Haven't tried that.

3. You can throw them away.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Yeah, I noticed that cranking SPD on melees is the way to go and leads to more lethal blow galore.

I'm wondering where to put points for casters - since SPD doesn't affect initiative, then the best bet is DEV for more spell points I guess.

Thanks for all the tips Lady :3

 

[Lady Error]

I'm wondering where to put points for casters - since SPD doesn't affect initiative, then the best bet is DEV for more spell points I guess.

Yeah DEV is probably the best one. Cleve said somewhere that with enough SPD, spellcasters can be faster than melee characters, though I haven't seen that myself.

 

[Gunnar]

I'm wondering where to put points for casters - since SPD doesn't affect initiative, then the best bet is DEV for more spell points I guess.

Yeah DEV is probably the best one. Cleve said somewhere that with enough SPD, spellcasters can be faster than melee characters, though I haven't seen that myself.

High SPD makes casters multi-cast some spells, provided you have enough mana.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Great info, thanks Gunnar.

I think I fucked up my casters builds a bit by not investing anything in Arcanum, but instead pumping the skill relevant to current class (e.g Alchemy when they were going through Thauma stage etc). Since they all ended as necros, all those points are wasted. They are lvl 5-6 now, so there is small room to fix this, but damn, should've think about it earlier

Bummer that casting-related skills are not growing with use like everything else - guess what was the reason behind that mechanic.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Think I asked this before - is there any way to dump already used quest items?

Bane of Hobknob, Mistral's bones, Prayer Shawl from Dirge puzzle, harness from Ukluk mines - I just cannot get rid of this damned shit, as they're all marked as critical.

 

[Dorateen]

There is a setting in the configuration options called "Critical Lock". If you uncheck this, you should be able to drop items marked as critical.

 

[Lady Error]

Bane of Hobknob, Mistral's bones, Prayer Shawl from Dirge puzzle, harness from Ukluk mines - I just cannot get rid of this damned shit, as they're all marked as critical.

One of those you shouldn't drop yet.

 

[Piotrovitz]

I've just reached the open world part and feel like I've gained momentum and second wind

Just finished barrows and got the second tablet - I cranked the difficulty to master and must say that thankfully the game gets harder. Fights with packs of druid archmages/wicker cultists/dark faeries lasted longer than anything before, but then again, I don't bother to use enchanted blade or magic screen yet.

On the other hand, the Wicker Man didn't survive even two rounds. That's what pisses me off the most, that bosses aren't immune to lethal blows.

One interesting thing - I mentioned that I fucked up by not raising Arcanum. It appears that while casting Read Magic, and trying to scribe the Hermetic Gag (dropped by every druid archmage), the Arcanum skill (not Scribe) goes up, even if I fail. That way I raised all of my casters skill to 40-50, until they could successfully scribe the gag spell. What is weird is that it didn't work for my wolfin templar - failed attempts to scribe did not raised his Arcanum skill, even though he already had invested ~30 points there.

 

[Piotrovitz]

QQ - will there be any place where you can spend your gold on something worthwhile?

I just made a trip back to Crowl to sell some junk I've accumulated, and right now I have something around 500k.
Is there any good and expensive stuff to be bought somewhere, or all the best weapons/armors are to be found as loot?

If it's the latter, I'll just stop hoarding every spellbook/scroll/ring/etc and just keep only the necessary stuff with me.

 

[Gunnar]

QQ - will there be any place where you can spend your gold on something worthwhile?

Gold is mainly for buying levels later on, you'll want to hoard as much as possible.

 

[Lady Error]

I just made a trip back to Crowl to sell some junk I've accumulated, and right now I have something around 500k.
Is there any good and expensive stuff to be bought somewhere, or all the best weapons/armors are to be found as loot?

There is some stuff you can buy in the big town, some of it expensive too.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Just found Destroyer Vortex spellbook - holy fuck, it looks powerful on paper, let's see how it will do in practice.

I kinda abused the skill learning mechanic, where after unsuccessful scribe attempt, Arcanum goes up (does it work the same for other spell schools? Is this implemented intentional?)

Now my two main casters and bard have >90 in Arcanum. Makes me feel bad, but since I messed up and unnecessarily maxed out transition classes spell skills, I wouldn't have enough skill points at this stage to use eldritch spells, which seem to be the most interesting ones, as you can learn them only from books and can be treated as a loot.

 

[Piotrovitz]

There is some stuff you can buy in the big town, some of it expensive too.

Are you talking about Kublai Axis here?

So far I haven't found any stores there - only empty rooms with and Vanguard facilities. Which is a bummer, since my inventory is full again and I want to dump it somewhere, and backtracking to Crowl is not an option.

Is general consensus that alchemy and mixing potions is not worth it and can be totally skipped?

I pickpocketed shitload of ingredients from the werewolf guy (didn't want to kill him and hoped that I'll get the ring (or whatever the proof was)), but it seemed he only had unlimited supplies of plants and other alchemy stuff. Reading wiki article on crafting I see there's nothing spectacular there, so I guess I can just dump all those weeds and not bother with them anymore.

Holy shit, the open world is huge - I think I have to draw some kind of a map to keep a track of which locations are accessible from where etc.

 

[Lady Error]

So far I haven't found any stores there - only empty rooms with and Vanguard facilities. Which is a bummer, since my inventory is full again and I want to dump it somewhere, and backtracking to Crowl is not an option.

You can buy armor from the Vanguard captain after fulfilling some tasks. There are also a couple of stores in the market area and a couple more hidden places in Kublai Axis where money might come in handy.

I pickpocketed shitload of ingredients from the werewolf guy (didn't want to kill him and hoped that I'll get the ring (or whatever the proof was)), but it seemed he only had unlimited supplies of plants and other alchemy stuff. Reading wiki article on crafting I see there's nothing spectacular there, so I guess I can just dump all those weeds and not bother with them anymore.

I'm not sure if anyone figured out all the stuff you can do with alchemy. The wiki only lists some of the beginner level stuff.

Holy shit, the open world is huge - I think I have to draw some kind of a map to keep a track of which locations are accessible from where etc.

Yeah. There is a map on the wiki of how the locations connect, though I wouldn't use it yet due to spoilers.

 

[Piotrovitz]

I'm just wandering from one location to another and getting more and more lost - definitely need to draw a map and keep notes on puzzles that will need backtracking (deep well in some wilderness. bell tower, lots of locked doors etc).

I stumbled upon Ahriman demanding the first tablet and he seems to be hard as fuck - is it even possible to defeat him at this stage?

Another thing that pisses me off is that my bard's music skill goes up VERY slowly through usage, even though she has high INT/WIS.
Weapon skills OTOH, even on some low INT mongoloids, seem to be increasing almost after every single fight.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Does anyone remember how to get behind closed skull doors in Acme Vending Company, the ones just near the entrance?
I've combed the whole map and there's no key/switch.

btw. goddamn, this game is awesome.

 

[Lady Error]

Does anyone remember how to get behind closed skull doors in Acme Vending Company, the ones just near the entrance?

One with a lever nearby and one by answering the correct password to the stone face.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Dunno how I missed this, thanks!

Also, I gave Moongate Crystal to Shrike - as far as I've gathered it is used to teleport between monoliths, so pretty neat stuff.

Tried to steal is back from him, but the only things I get are the ones he has for sale (weapons/armors). Is there any other way to get it back?

 

[Lady Error]

Tried to steal is back from him, but the only things I get are the ones he has for sale (weapons/armors). Is there any other way to get it back?

Killing or stealing.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Does killing him leads to any long term repercussions?
I've tried to pickpocket him for half an hour and all I got was only the stuff he's selling, like I've said. Maybe just bad luck

As for Acme Company - I gave the stone face the password and cleaned out the whole area, but couldn't find any lever anywhere.
Went there here again to comb the entire area and still no lever. Hopefully it's not early onset of my dementia.

 

[Lady Error]

The lever is supposed to be at #15:

Killing NPC's can make other NPC's dislike you or attack you. Though I killed him as well and just dealt with it.

 

[Piotrovitz]

The lever at #15 is behind the doors I'm trying to open (the ones near the main ladder from Kublai, to the right).

Looking at this map and the two ladders to the right, it seems that there are multiple ways to enter the Acme Company - maybe I'll snoop around Kublai and find some alternative way in.

 

[Snafaru]

Grimoire Items List Spreadsheet

Hi. I created an items list spreadsheet in Excel .xlsx format with all the items' attributes.

http://www.zimlab.com/grimoire

Snafaru