So, randomly saw Grimoire on GOG recently. I was surprised to see v3.0 plastered over the box. Decided to do 100% run on Superhero Rare encounters cuz difficulty can't be changed afterwards. Seems like encounter table burned into the game state permanently at the game start, but rate of trash mobs can be adjusted at any point. Superhero is the only way that gameplay stays relevant after the early game and progression to the higher levels within a single class realistically achievable.
Ok, to the point now. I looked through Steam and Codex to file the most common unsolved questions. I ranked top 5 yet undiscovered or very obscure bits:
1) Bottle Djinn name hint - he gives you really cryptic tip if you ask him something along the lines of "WHERE WISHES" or "WHO WISHES". He answers: "In order to draw on my powers you must know the word for what it is you desire in the ancient tongue". I had decrypted files for the version 1.0, and in-game pressed 5 on every single non-generic tile. The ones you can activate I used 2 times. Rhattu language doesn't help either. But even at 3.0 the only decrypted part of Resources file is unique ID's that grant you the proper answers. v3.0 altered generic responses for Khan Raji exclusively, so I'm sure they are not hidden in the in-game dialogue anywhere.
2) The Entity Easter Egg - you have to beat him in Mind Read competition, which is pretty hard, but Meditation helps. You can train Meditation in Hator Sogg temple to 20 and then amass enough gold to train up to 80 via Kroodengraff if you are Templar, or simply dump those points in the starting Sage since there are not a lot of useful skills in the game anyway.
You gonna receive the Bling Ring and after that point you have to ask Entity for Help. You will be transported to Oblivion (the same part where Ahriman sends you) and given 3 choice of unique very powerful items no one catalogued yet AFAIK.
3) Light Switch miniquest - 10th minquest in the game I didn't see anyone mentioning. Hold 5 to press it proly like 50 times in Tidal Pumps Station to complete this quest. Thats the hardest to find mini-quest unlike Demonhead Coin that provides you ton of tips on Improved Identify.
4) Captain Krone's alternative quest solutions for 2nd and 3rd quests - you can break eggs by taking falling damage, but what if you lost all 4? At any point in the quest if you killed 40 or more Rocs you are good, so no softlocking your progress on this one. As for the 3rd quest: if Morraha alive you can get one of the random quotes on Exiting talking where Green Mandarin sudjests to spread rumors about his death. Go to her and say "Green Mandarin is dead". Alternative solution that leads to the same outcomes and new dialogue for the Lord Ahriman on the topic.
5) Very rare flavor texts in Loch Titan location - you have to reload the area many times before you get flavor texts 2 squares down buoy on the path to Zephyr Islands. Even more exclusive are Clang Clang flavor text on top of the bell parts locations.
Nasty bugs related to NPC's disappearance:
1) I don't know what triggers this, but after quest, some global variable set or visitng certain locations if Little Rosy is not in your party she can enter Crowl Supply Store. At this point she will be lost forever.
2) Mistral can't be found if you Exit or Dismiss him.
3) Black Pierre dissapears from the game and can be summoned by triggering Little Daisy's cage and his chest, which is enough to exhaust all content related to him without murdering. I didn't see anyone mentioning that you can say "Are we there yet" 5 times to send him in coma, the only way to peacefully steal Kraken mind control helmet and his chest key.
4) Q'Orl goes in his Castle located in the Astral Plane (inaccessible location), but he doesn't play portal animation, doesn't teach you Astral Vision and can be found on the Bestiary floor again, but not in the Astral Dimension.
5) Kroondergraff dissappears forever on Exit and Dismissal. Never mentions that he can teach skills, most of his texts moved to Green Mandarin tho.
6) Elias (werewolf) dissapears if goes to Kublai Axis prison, but that one might be intentional similar to Codex Troll.
7) Renfeeld doesn't help you with Ichor or any other mini-puzzles like he supposed to, also doesn't have anything to say at all and can leave Skullheim castle with the party, At least I'm pretty sure he increases encounters rate and buffs Sheela while in party. Supposedly ringing the bell debuffs them and properly triggers Ahriman reaction unlike calling the seahorse Chariot.
8) Sword and Axe Ego's doesn't break the Web automatically. Flute Ego bugged since you can't summon him, his description is still in the game, and I assume he wouldn't be alternative way to summon Chariot in any case.
9) Boondoggle and Nefarge are impossible to recruit in v3.0 as far as I know. Probably related to mix up in all the checks related to them (Nefarge possibly wasn't available in v1.0 despite what code suggests). Doesn't react to individual Bell parts either. Ahriman doesn't react to some major items he supposed to as well. None of the NPC's who give important dialogue on viewing Owl magazines doesn't recognize them, which is a shame.
10) Balderdash disapperas on the Exit, but can be found in Kublai Axis if dissmissed. Same goes for Paladar.
11) Medea dissapears from the game on Exit and Dismissal. At least 2nd option shouldn't be the case simialr to Mistral. Surprisingly Xerxes and Parasmus are fine on the Exit and Dismissal.
12) Prophetess dissappears after the first meeting. Similar to Chiang some content related to her was cut. Chaing still has stealable Forged Papers in his inventory tho. Some Rhattu critical Pyramid items were cut, but at least repurposed in the other forms. Krellspar has 0 reactions in Gideon related areas.
13) Nick turtle lost easter egg related to feeding Red Hot Chilli tuna to him. Playing Majestic Pipes on Piper still works tho.
14) Qix, Mr. Nebulon and Mr. Zyrinx are absent in the version 3. Therefore 1 ending is gone, much of endgame explanations and unique dialogue too. I can post it here if someone is interested.
Other than that there are some minor issues like NPC's not reacting to Adjectives modifiers, not having certain random answers implemented, not reacting to items, but thats ok. Also, steam walkthrough is pretty comprehensive for the early and midgame stuff, but they miss interesting info you can get by using WHY, WHERE, WHO modifiers in the dialogues + most generic keywords related to locations (almost every has text tied to it). 2 Fatal Crashes can be encountered on Sheela's location (1 piece of the wall missing, so you can jump off to trigger it) and in ALien barracks (when glass breaks and you jumping off into the abyss). Famous crash on Exiting Tabernacle of Music (if not doing it backwards).
On shield skill: its pretty okay and irreplaceable unlike Deflection and Iajitsu (simply cast Armor Plate 2-3 times). You can put mage and Shield tank in the first row, issue Shield command (goes up instantly before any other actions) and move either Tank or Mage in the backrow (press on the name to shuffle character positions between combat rounds). Shield will be applied and often forces critters to bite at mage (damage goes to Tank) instead of casting on the first round. Or thats an easy way to shield mages from focus fire in boss fights or against tough reachy opponents.
On deaths and evasion: evasion skill works every time if its possible to run away from the monsters participating in the encounter (even with 1 point in SPD and 1 point in Evasion). No matter the SPD evading character always acts last in the queue. Deaths can't lower you CON past 10, and it restores on resting in Save place. Its really hard to get party wiped in this game due to evasion and protective effects stacking. Don't reload if you die. CON is only relevant when you want to class change for effetively into Bard, and you cant simply spam Sleep to return to racial defaults. Other than that you are better with lower Vitality, since losses are % based, so its harder to recover later in the game. Extra resist gains procs are exceedingly rare and generally not worth it anyway even on the Superhero unless you are willing to grind. Ressurection related effects are very easy to come by. Buy/Steal Raise Dead from Argosyre and teach it to Little Rosy. Raghilda will be getting Resurrection in no time.
On NPCs: if you don't want to grind more than 3-4 class changes they are incredibly powerful. I beat Superhero with 6 starting characters (3 are early game buffer specked into HP bonus and Breath attack). Remember that when you Dismiss NPCs they forget all spells you tought them. Doesn't apply to your created characters that always can be found in Raptor's Shrine. Sometimes you want to grind Ore Worms as 4-5 members party to get them initial levels on the new characters faster. Easy accessible powerful NPCs that stay that way through the whole game:
- Little Rosy;
- Raghilda (replace later, put Pro Magic ring on her);
- Mistral (can keep him until late midgame)
- early game only temporary NPCs acting more like HP buffers e.g. Gorlo, Sir Coeffergus, Junga Din.
- Lilith - free great NPC you get at Skulheim entrance, Necro and special attacks casts Hold instead of Charm.
- Kroodengraff through Blackspire Mountains north passage. (you can run away from all encounters).
- Easy to get Chuckles (very decent Jester) by touching Diabla's bookshelf (or attacking her which is not adviced) or dropping in the hole in Aviary Park.
- temporary NPCs replacing early game ones like Elias (werewolf), Greech, Snivers;
So after leaving early game you want your party to look like: 3 PC characters (2 Wolfin Rangers and 1 Aeorb Sage with Pro Magic Ring), Little Rosy, Lilith, Chuckles, Mistral, Kroodengraff.
Later on Medea, Drat Serat, Balderdash, Codex Troll, Olaf are all great replacements. For dialogues you want Philchit in Tubernacle of Music (3-4 prompts), Greech for Pyramid (2 pormts on the entrance), Snivers for Pyramid (4 prompts), Count Orloch (2 prompts) on his floor, Glib Glub (2 prompts) in Saltwyrm Caves. Others are mute for the entire game besides dialogue prompts.
Start the game in the Eerie Wastes. Hator Sogg Temple spawns all the best Arcane Books like Dimension Door, Teleport, Recharge, etc. You can use save editor to get Owl Statue for the content. Other starting areas content is completely replaceable. But another inventory editor allows you to teleport there for 99% global maps completion (100% impossible in the game due to some map bugs).
EDIT: noticed that I wrote 4 Rocs instead of 40 Rocs. Forgot to add that to get the special item from Neriad without stealing you have to fully heal Nick (turtle) and combine hermit crab with shell.
). Good to know about the fact that that supposed bug has never been reported. That's helpful -- thanks, Cleve. It's entirely possible that he's gotten it and dropped it somewhere. He did that with the Bane of Hobknob (knowing that he had gotten it and dropped it somewhere), and had to use Locate Item to find it. The suggestions about maybe it's on the tile where the Green Mandarin is and about Shrike are good ones. Somehow, one of those must work. Thanks again, all!
