Party help - have difficulty w clearing

[Atomzed]

Hi, i just started the game recently, and just currently cleared AD3 (though with Amiri dying in the last act, sigh).

 

I realised that i have been consistently failing (or losing characters, though with no permadeath on, its manageable). 

 

My difficulties lie in closing locations and clearing traps & obstacles, and i begin to wonder whether I need to reconfigure my party.

 

My party consists of

- Seoni (alt)

- Kyra (alt)

- Merisiel (alt)

- Amiri 

 

To explain more about my difficulty, if the location has a few traps/obstacles, i only have Merisiel to clear it, and I need to position her to the location to help out, and eventually lose time.

 

For locations which requires Wisdom, my best bet is Kyra, which again poses a lot of problems, as i have to move around. If Seoni, Kyra or Amiri encounter a henchman early, and i cannot close the location, then i will need to spend time to empty out the location deck, before i can close again. That again takes a long time.

 

At normal difficulty, i already have so many fails... i wonder whether i can still manage when i reached the higher difficulty.

 

Any advice for a newbie? Should i just restart again?

 

[Jenceslav]

Hmmm, that is interesting. It is hard to tell if you are doing anything wrong (tactically, I mean). The barriers (traps etc.) in lower ADs can be overcome even with totally unsuitable character. Many of them require skills that even Merisiel does not have and are quite diverse. You will have some more problems with Wisdom than with traps, I think.

You have to consider several things:

1) Not all barriers must be defeated at all costs. It is okay to leave the strange locked chest alone or take some damage from Explosive Runes. Most "Cache" barriers can be banished, so do that if you fail to defeat them.

2) Your characters can help each other with blessings. If you did not find how to do it, I'm surprised you got to AD3. Short version - on some check, click on another character's icon and you can play blessings from there. Sometimes even allies or items.

3) Blessings of Calistria and Abadar are your friends (or even better, Milani and Cayden Caylean), so keep them around. I usually throw away even Calistria, but it could help you a lot.

4) Remember these nice items for Thieves Rogues? Thieves Tools and Masterwork Tools can defeat many barriers even in the hands of the most clumsy Kyra just by discarding / recharging them.

5) Under no circumstances should one character just 'sit' at one place without exploring, unless it is required by the tactical decisions just before cornering the Villain. Feel free to move the characters where needed.

6) Some items allow you to 'see' what is next in the deck - Spyglass and Magic Spyglass (AD4) and many others. And one of the overlooked spells is perfect for that scouting - Augury from AD 0 (B). Or Scrying later. That way, you may be prepared for what comes ahead.

7) If you have trouble playing on Normal, take your time and upgrade characters by playing further. I started Heroic scenarios only when I finished the adventure above them (e.g. Heroic B after Normal AD1) and Legendary 2 ADs after (e.g. Legendary B after Normal AD2).

Keep some (a few, not more than 1) armors on hand just in case. So you just got hit by 7 Fire damage from the Runes? He, he. Here is my trusted leather armor, which just became a slightly burnt armor (banished or buried), but no damage for me. Yay.

[Sigurd33]

I will also add that's normal at the beggining. It will be better when your characters will receive some advancement, meanwhile the thing that will help you will be your deck.

At the begginig, I often played adventures not for winning them, but to grab some cool stuff that i could add in my deck(s). And i never hesitated to sacrifice some blessings to grab the most interesting ones.

At some point (and sometimes with a bit of luck), you could be able to win some adventures, you will have advancement, and things will become easier. Some adventures remains though anyway, but that also why it's interesting.

[Atomzed]

Hmmm, that is interesting. It is hard to tell if you are doing anything wrong (tactically, I mean). The barriers (traps etc.) in lower ADs can be overcome even with totally unsuitable character. Many of them require skills that even Merisiel does not have and are quite diverse. You will have some more problems with Wisdom than with traps, I think.

You have to consider several things:

.

2) Your characters can help each other with blessings. If you did not find how to do it, I'm surprised you got to AD3. Short version - on some check, click on another character's icon and you can play blessings from there. Sometimes even allies or items.

 

4) Remember these nice items for Thieves Rogues? Thieves Tools and Masterwork Tools can defeat many barriers even in the hands of the most clumsy Kyra just by discarding / recharging them.

 

6) Some items allow you to 'see' what is next in the deck - Spyglass and Magic Spyglass (AD4) and many others. And one of the overlooked spells is perfect for that scouting - Augury from AD 0 (B). Or Scrying later. That way, you may be prepared for what comes ahead.

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

Regarding no 2, i really didn't know you can help others with blessings? Is it for checks? How do i do that? Must the characters be in the same location? Hmm, is that why there is an "!" Mark over my characters sometimes? I read that some characters (like the dwarf) who can help 'sniped' people, but because my Merisiel doesn't have bow specialty, i think i can use that ability.

 

Up till now, i have been mainly spreading the characters out in 1 location each. I try not to bunch them up.

 

On another note, is there a way to know which kind of cards are in which AD? So far, i have only tried a few rounds of looting, but not the cards i would like.

[Hannibal_PJV]

For blessing you don`t have to be in the same location. Some power requires that, like Lem and some requires that They Are different location like the dwarf.

For help, just click another character portrait and chose blessing or character power to help in the check.

[Atomzed]

Oh wow, now that i know that blessings can be used by other players to perform checks, it makes it much much easier! previously i only used the characters to perform the check themselves.

 

i also found out that players in the same location can play items to help other players. Using the wand of erivation to help others with their checks is awesome.

[Longshot11]

Oh wow, now that i know that blessings can be used by other players to perform checks, it makes it much much easier! previously i only used the characters to perform the check themselves.

 

i also found out that players in the same location can play items to help other players. Using the wand of erivation to help others with their checks is awesome.

Wow. Respect for finishing AD3 in hardcore mode (without knowing about Blessings) :D

 

That said, all of Jenceslav's points are great so keep them in mind. Also, stock up on every Blessing of Shelyn you can get your hands on, you'll thank me later (around AD6, to be precise   )

 

Some additional hints:

 

Augury and Scrying are some of the best spells around  - in a monster-heavy location they are almost certain to be equal to auto-defeating 2-3 monsters! (search for monster, and choose to put any monsters found on the bottom of the location)

 

Merisiel's power to leave evaded cards on top of the location is great for "locking" Villains - evade them, leave them on top, and return when you're ready to kick the Viallin's butt (with people spread to temp-close other locations as needed).

[Atomzed]

 

Oh wow, now that i know that blessings can be used by other players to perform checks, it makes it much much easier! previously i only used the characters to perform the check themselves.

i also found out that players in the same location can play items to help other players. Using the wand of erivation to help others with their checks is awesome.

 

Wow. Respect for finishing AD3 in hardcore mode (without knowing about Blessings) :D

 

That said, all of Jenceslav's points are great so keep them in mind. Also, stock up on every Blessing of Shelyn you can get your hands on, you'll thank me later (around AD6, to be precise   )

 

Some additional hints:

 

Augury and Scrying are some of the best spells around  - in a monster-heavy location they are almost certain to be equal to auto-defeating 2-3 monsters! (search for monster, and choose to put any monsters found on the bottom of the location)

 

Merisiel's power to leave evaded cards on top of the location is great for "locking" Villains - evade them, leave them on top, and return when you're ready to kick the Viallin's butt (with people spread to temp-close other locations as needed).

I knew how to use blessings for the individual characters. I just never knew that i could stack blessings from other characters! It's a huge, huge difference now!

 

Thanks! I have merisiel's "delay" skill now, and it does come in handy!

 

I got a few good loot run, getting the following cards:-

- Wand of fireball x2! (Omg, the +12!!)

- wand of enervation (omg, the reduce in checks!)

- Charmed red dragon (very cool, add 5 deg and fire trait. Feels great to have a dragon pet!)

 

I also learnt to just forfeit if i have a very bad run. Save my time, and will keep my loot. Makes me feel less stressful.

 

Is there any guide on the few good cards for loot? I been wondering whether some cards are worth keeping (like reflecting shield).

[Jenceslav]

Wow, I would also like to congratulate you for surviving up to AD3 without blessings from other characters. Great job!

There are many boons that are astonishingly great (Wand of Enervation, Revelation Quill, B. of Lamashtu+Gozreh, AD6-Mountaineer!!!), but there are even more boons that may be mediocre for most, but are great in some character's hands. For example, Blessing of Iomedae feels ... rather weak (disclaimer: I own Skull & Shackles game with two-stat boosting blessings like Milani or Sivanah, and I like those much more), but if you have Seelah, you will want as much of these as possible. Lini likes her pet Velociraptors as well, and even the hands-off-this-dangerous-ally Ilsoari Gandethus can be of help for some characters such as Merisiel (can evade the Devil of Sandpoint) or Valeros. The boons allowing you to automatically succeed in some test are also very good, especially the Crown and Amulet of Fortitude.

You can look at the possible boons to encounter in the Collection, where you can find almost every card there is in the game (e.g. most Figher's Tale cards are not included). And I like some of those not shown - Quartermaster (again, from Skull and Shackles ).

Some new cards can be added through treasure chests, but sometimes they are just OK, sometimes great. It depends. Lem loves one armor that adds +2 for revealing into any non-combat charisma checks (his Divine and Arcane and Diplomacy).

Generally, the order of effects from the best to the worst is something like: reveal > recharge / return to top of the deck (reload) / shuffle > display > discard > bury > banish.