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Hello adventurers! 0. Introduction Let me first introduce myself : I have been playing Baldur's gate the day it was released. I was young and innocent, and I never could finish it as a kid as it looked impossible to me. Since they re-released it last year, I totally jumped on the opportunity to avenge myself and I managed to solo it. I absolutely wanted to accomplish the same challenge for this awesome game that is Pillars of Eternity. So far, I managed to reach the final boss in normal mode with absolutely no companion, and with a Rogue, and as it seems to be a challenge that a lot of you want to realize, I decided to share my experience with you all so you could try on your side. Don't expect me to detail every fight of the game or on how to get each item, 'cause they are numerous and because the behavior of monsters are random. I will try to explain you all the tips, tricks and ideas i used to get this far. 1. Why chosing a Rogue? I always loved the Rogue of 4 mains reasons : - If you have the initiative of the fight, you can quickly 1 shot a mob (Especially with Crossbows) - Mecanics and Stealth allow you to gather a lot of treasures fast and overstuff your character - Mecanics that allows you to remove Traps and use them before starting a fight - The Vanish in combat that allows you to run out of a fight (extremely useful late game when you have scripted fight and you need your placement to be perfect before starting the fight again) 2. What stats to take during the creation? - Main stats: I maxed out the STR and the DEX. But to be honest, if I had to do it again, I would probably balance them a bit more with some more defensive stats - Secondary stats: As explained above: Mecanics above all > Stealth secondary 3. Cap'tain Obvious tips and tricks before starting your adventure This is common sense, but still a small remider to think all along the adventure: - Buy food at the tavern. This is not expensive at all and gives you great bonuses for each fight (I personally prefer the Chicken as it lasts 5 minutes and gives you Resistance and Endurance bonuses) - Sleep at the tavern. Small bonuses make the difference - Gather potions, love them. They will save you and allow you to win fights more than anything else - Don't forget to get tents - Try to do as many side quests as possible. They are your main source of XP and Magical items, and you know how much it matters 4. Your adventure has just started! What gear should I take? Hi fellows, now that your rogue is created and ready to fight! I will try to detail here the different gears I used all along my way. - First rule: Even though it's tempting to sell all those shining armors for coins, I would hardly recommend you to keep 1 Copy of each specific amor / weapon / necklace and such in your storage, and expecially the magical onces as they will be usefull in a situation soon or late (trust me on this). - Second rule: ALWAYS use a shield. I know this can be frustrating not to use 2 handed weapons, or Dual weapons. Unfortunately, you are playing solo, and this means that you will have to tank a minimum. The Shield offers ones of the best protection for a few drawbacks: You will lose a tiny bit of accuracy which should be compensated if you have a high DEX. > I used the Round Shield for the most part of my adventure as it offers a good protection for a minimal accuracy loss. - What main weapon to use? For here, you have the freedom to use the 1h weapon of your choice. I would highly recommand swords that benefits for the Life Leech enchant (20% of your damages restored as Endurance) as they greatly increase your survivability. I used the Oidhreacht until the end of the game : Life Leech + Reduction Damage + High attack speed (more interruptions, more possible actions) are one of the best combo for a weapon in solo. - Secondary weapon? For the first part of the game, I highly recommand you to get an Arbalest as soon as possible. You will find one of good quality in Anslög's Compass that I kept for a long time. Why that? Because for engaging groups of monsters, this is simply the best early game: get into stealth mode, initiate the fight with your Arbalest, one shot a monster (you can hit up to 70 dmg if you crit, perfect initiation), then swap to your shield / dagger stance before the mobs get at your contact. (it will be all detailed later) - Armor / Rings / amulet ? The rest of the gear is totally up to you, but here are some suggestions of items i used all along my adventure: * I prefered the Leather armor as it is protects you enough against physical attacks and doesn't slow you down too much. * Belt: I highly recommand the classic Blunting Belt, especially early game to compensate the lack of defense * Ring: Contextual: I mainly use the Ring of Protection in addition to the Ring of Deflection for an optimal defense, but also use the Bartender's Ring when having to face hard CC's packs * Coat: Contextual. Try to get the Amulet of Summer Solstice as soon as you reach Dryford as it will greatly increase your AoE cleaning capability early / mid game You have to keep in mind that those items are contextual: the 1h weapon can be swapped with a blunt weapons if you fight skeletons, you can use the cloak of Cold Protection if you have to face shadows (sorry i forgot the exact name) and so on. Be smart, if you play solo you need to have a huge gear arsenal and use it wisely. 5. Combat mecanics : How to face huge packs of mobs This is the most tricky part of the solo game. You will have to face packs of mobs, and some of them won't give you a single second of rest because of their CC's. But you are a thief! You are smart, and you need to use your brain. There are currently multiple ways I fought packs of mobs, and it all depends on the environment you're fighting on. Initiation This is the most important part of the fight. It will probably define the success or failure of the rest of your battle. You absolutely need to initiate your fight to get a significant advantage on your opponent! How to pefectly initiate: - Analyse your environment and chose the right place to fight before starting the battle (Explanations about this point right after) - Set up traps that you gather all along your adventure thanks to your mecanism. Set them where there is most likely the chance that mobs will walk on it when they'll be packed - Use stealth mode and your Arbalest at max range on the mob that you wanna see dead first (i recommand mages if there are some) - Pray for a crit - Swap weapons, run to the spot you prepared with the trap - (Optionnal) Drink buff potions if needed before the mobs touch you - Fight to death The right spots to fight : * In dungeons / houses / Caves The first thing to do before starting a fight is to study your environment and looking for the narrows corridors: Example : the places circled in green are the good places to fight. Those are the pefect places to fight because all the monsters won't be able to be at your contact in the same time, they will stack and eventually allow you to hit them thanks to some spells like Sunbeam graned by the Amulet of Summer Solstice. *Outside The outside fights are the tricky ones. You can't really cheat because there aren't usually many narrow places to fight. But this is where your Vanish skill will be the most useful. You will notice that the mobs in a pack are not totally linked to each other. Which means that if you can attack a mob that is far enough of the rest of the pack, you have a good chance that the other ones won't come to his help. Here are the steps to make some isolated victims before fighting the rest of the pack: - Set up a trap where the monster is most likely to walk on it - Use stealth mode - Use your arbalest to pull a mob at max range - Pray for a crit > There is a good chance that at this point for the monster you pulled to be dead. A arbalest shot + a trap are most of the time enough to kill any common monster of this game. If not, I advice you to reload the game and to try again. - See how many mobs are running to you. If you pull from far enough, only a part of the pack may come to fight. - If the monsters are too numerous, use Vanish, run away, and start again from the first step. Conclusion And it's over for my tiny guide (for now!) I hope you liked it and I hope that it will give you inspiration to handle this game in Solo which is a super huge challenge. As explained, for now i'm stuck on the final boss so I can't really give you advices on him, but if some of you like it and comment it, I will probably edit this guide and add more details about other bosses or quests ! Good luck :D ( And sorry if my english is not perfect, i'm French )