Karkarov

Depends on your flag. If you use the Obsidian Order flag be aware this means you are flagged as belonging to the Huana faction, so slavers and principi will be on you like white on rice. Same is basically true with the Watcher Flag, at least until you build up your reputations.

She is a hilariously cool designed character who serves no purpose at all! Okay that isn't true. She is a potential important NPC during one major side quest, think something equivalent to like Raedric's Hold. But yeah, she has an incredibly well designed portrait for a character that is this minor.

Yeah, Legendary is also not the last rank. Well maybe it is for normal crew, but there is one rank past that for captains, I know because I am that rank. It is odd that the achievement also calls it "master captain" but technically master is rank 4 not 6.

I don't know specifically what it does, as the crew ranks have no tool tips or real explanation in game. Someone would have to dive into actual game files to find out. That said, I believe it just gives a bonus to all crew actions. Just so you know, this is a pretty lack luster bonus. Expert is only the third rank, novice being the first, and seasoned being the second. It is not very hard at all to reach this rank in game through normal means. To give you an idea, I am a Master Captain (the highest rank) and I have sunk maybe... 10-13 ships, and explored less than half the map.

Lol funny, the one upgrade I thought was straight forward enough to not personally test in game was not clear either.

Okay, so I see lots of posts about Berath's Blessings, lots of questions, some with good info, most with nothing. I decided to actually look into it and put together a full comprehensive list of what Berath's Blessings is, how it works, and what the options are as a result. That way all the info is in one thread, not 52 random scattered ones. First up, what is Berath's Blessings? Berath's Blessings are points that are awarded to you for getting achievements in the game. For example creating a custom adventurer will give you 1 Berath's Blessing. Berath's Blessings can be used to buy perks when you start a new game with a new character, it is NOT a new game + system. Also it is only perks, there are no penalties you can buy. How many Blessings can you actually earn? As of Patch 2.0 with Beast of Winter installed the answer is... 83. The points required to purchase all Blessings is 82, so this means you will be able to purchase all existing blessings in the game if you get all Achievements and have the expansions installed. Note, there are multiple 1 point Achievements, so you could in theory get all Blessings without "Platinuming" the game. This information will be continuously updated as the game is patched and/or new achievements or Blessings are added. Key fact! Berath's Blessings is 100% optional. You do not have to use it, so if you don't want to take advantage of it, you don't have to. To even access the menu you must click the Berath's Blessing icon in the New Game menu, so it is fully possible to build a new game without ever even looking at it. So, what are these Perk's anyway? Below is a full list of all the perks available at this time via Berath's Blessing. I am going to break it down by point cost, then the in game "name" of the Blessing, and lastly a description of what it actually does because some of them are very vague and unclear. 3 points - +5000 Starting Money: Begin the game with 5200 copper, remember you always have 200 copper at the start, if both money perks are taken you can start with 55,200 copper. 3 points - Bonus Skills: Gain +2 to all skills from your Class such as Mechanics or Arcana, it also applies to all characters that join your party. Bear in mind, it is class only, background skills get no bonus. I say +2 specifically, because multiclass characters can potentially have only 1 point in a Class skill, which if doubled like the toop tip says implies you get 1 bonus point, but you will get 2. Obsidian has not said if it was meant to be Watcher only but I assume this is by design, since the Stats perk specifically says Player Only. 4 points - Experienced Ship Captain: Start as an Expert rank Captain. Captain rank determines turn order in ship to ship combat, but has no other impact. 5 points - Fine Equipment: The wardrobe at the beginning of the game will contain a set of Fine armors (Brigandine, Robes, Leather, and Breastplate), and a set of Fine weapons based on your proficiency/class choices. 5 points - Unique Item Vendor: A unique Vendor appears in Port Maje, see below for an item and cost list. 8 points - Upgraded Ship Sails: Begin the game with two Ship upgrades, Stormwind Sails which give +15% combat speed and +15% travel speed, and Improved Warship Reinforcements which give +15 hull health. Both items work like any other ship upgrade and can be removed from the starter ship, additionally they can be purchased from in game vendors. 12 points - Start at Level 4: Begin the game at level 4 instead of level 1. 12 points - Explored World Map: Begin the game with the World Map fully exposed with no "fog". 15 points - +50,000 Starting Money: Begin the game with 50,200 copper, remember you always have 200 copper at the start, if both money perks are taken you can start with 55,200 copper. 15 points - Bonus Attributes (Player Only): Begin the game with a +2 bonus to all stats, these bonus points cannot be seen or modified in character creation, and as stated only apply to the Watcher. So about that item Vendor, he appears in Port Maje right in front of the Market area. He is standing at one of the carpets, can't miss him. Another added bit of trivia, he is also unique in that he is the only character in game you can initiate a real conversation with (dialog window) that has no water color portrait (or at least he was, until this was fixed in the 1.2.2.0033 patch I believe!). But what does he sell? Credit goes to Lunattic for putting this list together. While I don't personally think it is a spoiler, I will spoiler flag it anyway just to be safe. I do also want to add one thing, all of the items this vendor sells can either be found as loot, or in many cases, purchased from other vendors in the game. However, he will sell them for significantly less than the normal in game vendors will. So for those concerned a "unique" item may be hidden on the Unique vendor, don't be. I hope someone finds this info useful, it was a pain putting it together but I feel like it was worth it.

This ^ Blessings of Berath is 100% optional, you could have 100 points and still elect not to use any of them. You are not forced to pick perks when you make a new game. Also people act like they are huge? Starting at level 4? Getting some bonus stats? Getting to start the game with fine equipment? Hardly god mode.

There is already a beta patch you can opt in on which fixes that. You will have to start a new game though.

Cannon can be fired regardless of their optimum range, they are just far more likely to miss. It gets nasty with the real high end ships though, I ran into one where they had 350 meter range guns, and still hit me at 550 meters 50% of the time. All because the gunners were all expert except for one.

The ship combat sucks, until you learn how it actually works, get a good crew, and master it. Like I said in another post, I have sunk galleons with the starter ship, and did it fairly quickly, (maybe 8 minutes). There is no real tutorial for it, which is a problem. But the key things are this - Level your crew, your crew is actually the most important aspect of winning ship battles. High rank crew members in their positions will simply be better at everything. Shoot more accurately, reload faster, more likely to catch the wind, increase your odds to not suffer side effects like flooding, etc etc. Best way to level your crew? Take on small ships like other sloops or voyagers. Do not ram to board, as this reduces your rewards and crew exp. Get better guns, and specialize them! The starter guns suck, BAD. Get either guns that are really close range, or really long range. Try to maximum their damage. Learn to stay at the hairy edge of your optimum range (like a 600 max gun stay at 550), but outside your enemies optimum range. Learn how to time your jibes/full stops/repair orders/brace commands to maximum effect. There is no point in bracing if your enemy still needs two rounds to reload, never do a full stop unless you are firing the next turn, etc. etc. Fire at the sails first using chainshot. You break their sails they basically can't move, which means you can force optimum shooting conditions for the rest of the battle and they cant run. force close, or try to escape.You do those four things and ship combat will be a lot more fun, easier, and faster.

Just a protip to everyone playing, boarding is absolutely NOT the way to go. Your ship gets screwed up every time, even if you do it the hard way, you can get crew injuries easily, you actually get less loot, and your sailors gain less exp. The benefits are much higher to playing the ship battles out traditionally. Once you get good cannons and learn how to really do the battles it isn't that time consuming or hard. I have sunk a galleon with the starter ship for example. It is all about getting good guns (either close range or long), leveling up your crews skills, then staying within your optimum firing range but outside your enemies. As far as the accuracy thing goes, I think it is the chance to hit, not be hit, not that it matters. The key things to hitting is good cannoners (Cannoneers? Cannon Guys?), and being in optimum range with your guns. You have that, and you do a full stop before firing, you are going to be getting 100% shots.

And I feel kind of stupid for reading your post. If you have found nothing to fight, and you are 10 hours in, HOLY CRAP are you trying hard to not find any combat. Why don't you try I don't know, leaving Neketaka or doing something that is not crit path for an hour? Also again for all those who lack reading ability, or the power to do even basic research. POTD has been confirmed, days before release even, as being easier than intended and will likely get patched very soon.

Fluffle, there is a reason you should ignore user reviews for all games that aren't indie. As much as I may bash games "journalists" they at least have to maintain some level of writing quality, bias control, and go through some form of editorial process. They at least have some standard they have to meet. User reviews? They can write any tripe they want, have to meet no standard, and can be talking out their rears and it is all good. Why is indie an exception? Simply because most real indie games don't get anything but user reviews, so you have no choice.

Yeah he offers you 4 cannons, at 1000 for 4 it is below market price. That said, this isn't the bug forum

You can respec at any tavern. It is the rolling dice icon, called "retrain" in game. To add on to the Grimoire thing, basically each Grimoire has two spells in it per level. Your character can also learn various spells. So ideally what you do is choose a Grimoire that has different spells than the ones you choose to learn for that level. This way you maximize the number of spells you can access per spell level. It is also handy to keep multiple Grimoires around in case you find battles you need to approach differently, because with multiple Grimoires you can change a chunk of your spell selection on the fly.

Nah it doesn't work right, last night I watched some early game streams and companion quests had skulls on them. In my game (scaling on, up only), the companion quests have no skulls even though I am only around level 5 and the streamers I saw were level 3, and had 3 skulls. Also I have run into fights clearly beyond my abilities (like three eotens at one time, who could one shot Aloth on a non crit and 2-3 hit Eder) and the area had no skulls associated with it.

All they said is they are "working on a solution". I imagine what will eventually happen is they will just wait a month or so (maybe less) then make those items a free dlc.

Jesus people. The narration in this game is just like it was in Baldur's Gate/Eternity 1. It is only during key critical path scenes, the vast majority of the game (assuming you aren't doing a speed run) you will not hear the narrator. Yes I wish they had not directed her to narrate stuff like "Eothas rubs his chin thoughtfully", but it is not that big a deal. Also I would have preferred if the narrator had remained consistent with the same guy from Eternity 1. The narration is also in a slow heavy sort of monotone, which is the exact same way it works in every game where Obsidian has used a narrator, so I can only assume this is by design. That said, is it "annoying"? No, no not really. The comments insinuating this professional voice actor was someones niece or payed someone off to get the job? Those are kind of annoying.

So turns out my starting party is Cipher/Fighter (my watcher) Fighter/Rogue (Eder) Wizard (Aloth) Priest (Xoti) Barbarian (Sarafen) Why? Because these were the first companions I found.

I am suspecting she isn't in my import either, because I am now at the "head to neketaka" stage and haven't seen her. This bug seriously blows.

So basically he admits he fanboi'd on the first game and gave it a score it didn't deserve. Well at least he is honest.

SPOILER ALERT! Sonic (while not a horrible bad person) has been guilty of posting more pre release negative stuff than every other forum user combined, and loves clickbaity titles. It has been clear for a long time for some reason he is predisposed to not liking Deadfire. So him scouring the internet to find the one guy who didn't like the game is not exactly shocking, nor is his making it a single post instead of adding it to the reviews thread where it would be surrounded by tons of positive. My point? Take this review, and the thread, with a huge grain of salt. Also just having read this review partially, I can already tell it is average at best. Too long, wayyyyyy too many words, heavy focus on what they did not like, basically skips or ignores any positives. The name of the site doesn't help much. Long story short, if a review only takes one tone, it probably isn't well written, and is likely highly biased.

So almost all the Deadfire extras are available now through the backer portal, including a huge download of the deadfire archipelago known map. Funny story it is in PNG format, but for work reasons, I own real adobe acrobat muahahahaha. So export to PNG and some editing later... I turned it into what I think is a pretty awesome desktop BG. Feel free to use it if you want, I do have a 4k monitor so it is in that format, but you can scale it as needed. No spoiler here, as this is intentionally not the full map.

I hope not because Obsidian has said those achievements will not be in game at launch.

You can play Deadfire without the first game and it will work fine. There may be some plot elements or events that won't make as much sense without experiencing the first game, but that is about it.