Larian Studios Forums Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis (English) Help/Tips/Tricks To side quest or not to side quest...

Hi

I just bought Ego Draconis for the Xbox 360 and have tried it for some hours now, and I can't figure out how much XP 'grinding' I have to do.

Very very minor spoiler warning


I know this is the beginning of the game, but is it mandatory to do all / almost all sidequests in order to stay alive during the main quest line?

(btw thanks for a so far very promising game. We don't get a lot of good rpg's for the xbox )

Its most of the time like that...

Beast 2 levels above character level or higher -> hardly able to kill, causes huge damage, hardly a chance, huge experience
Beast 4-5 level below character level -> beast does no more damage, one gets hardly any experience

so its kinda needed to do lots of sidequests...i dunno whether its possible to do the mainquet without much sidequesting.. i did all the sidequests i could and still had problems with some fights...

Can I ask you one stupid question?
Why in the hell did you post your question in GENERAL D2 section, not in Help/Tips/Tricks?

@skodone: Thanks - I guess sidequesting is the way to go then.

@Kein: Perhaps because I registered here today and haven't had time to scrutinize the forum? But it was not posted in Hell - thank God. Hell is where the forum police hangs out...

Maybe somebody of the admin of this forum can replace this topic under Help/Tips/Tricks ?


I do all the quest I can do and had also problems with enemies, but that's the game, because in other case the game will be to simple!!
I play on "easy" now ... and woow, what a nice difficult game is D II! But on this moment, I 'm in the Maxos Temple, I think I can play on "easy" to the end of the game (I hope).

And when I can't win from an enemie, I go first to other places and there are many hidden dungeons and more ... !

There's really no XP farming, for once you kill them, they are gone forever.
You should do the side-quests for the XP, and the weapons and armour you'll get from them.
You also need to level up(by doing the side-quests), for the mobs have a set level which will always be higher than you if you don't level up fast enough.
I guess you could go through all the caves and dungeons without any side-quests, but wheres the fun in that?

BTW I just love System Shock 2. Nice avatar there SHODAN!

I made it through the first part of the vales, and I am now level 8. I been doing every side quest I can find and things are a little easier now.

What bothers me a little about doing all sidequests is that the replay value drops. I probably will go through a second time, but it won't be as much fun since the frontier exploration side of the game is diminished.

Ah well - I will have a great time anyway.

@Conan1 - Yeah I loved that game too. Still have it and it even has had some texture redone by the modding community. System Shock 1 can be obtained in a portable version. Great game too, but the keymappings are a pain these days. Changed my signature so it goes with the avatar.

Have you entered every buidling, read every mind? Made sure your lockpick skill is as high as possible right now? If so, you'll sure to be find A LOT of extra quests, loot and XP points. I'd highly recommend it, it's great fun.
I'd suggests you go and play now, discover the rest of the world, become a dragon and finish the game. Then start over again with a new type of character and EXPLORE everything, do every quest (whether it is 'good' or 'evil') and experience EVERYTHING.
That's how I'm doing it right now (lvl. 11 second character) and it's really fun. Gives you some reason to play again. =D

I haven't read every mind, since I'm too afraid of loosing too much XP (I don't want to cheat and use a mindreading guide in order to find out whom to read minds on).

I have 2 in lockpicks and can open about ½ of the locked chests. I try to go into every building and talking to every NPC. I go into every trapdoor I can find.

Sure I will miss some sidequests, but as far as I know, I have taken the vast majority of them until now.

Still I play as a Wizard and the game will probably play very differently with a Warrior.

You can use the cost of mindreading as an indication of the probable value, and skip mind reading any NPCs with a low experience cost. There is still the possibility you could get a shortcut that you wouldn't want to use (ie if it skips over subquests or tasks that would have given experience or decent loot), but you could either trust that on average you should still come out ahead, or save before talking to new NPCs and reload if you a mindreading attempt gives poor results.

There are lots of branching sidequests, so if you make different choices in subsequent playthroughs, you will get different quests available. Some quests have up to 20 possible solutions, though as the game progress there are fewer branching quests, as it starts t focus more on the main plot.

I mindread everything and still had lvl 34 at the end. A lot of additional skill and stat points comes through mindreading, as well as very powerful items

I usually do a quick save before mind read, if its not worth it just quick reload and it settle. But usually high exp mind read do prove useful.

Its just... saving before mindreading is cheating. Why have the mindreading ability if you save before doing it? Then there is no point to have it in the game in the first place. Furthermore I don't think I can quick save in the Xbox 360 version.

...but since it pays out in the long run ( thanks for that statistic ), I'll probably start mindreading every NPC with a high enough cost.

Well I wont consider quick save before mind read cheats, as its just a feature available in game, and its not an exploit of bugs or what. Even without quick save, one can save normally and reload normally before the action as well. I dont know how the 360 version save work, but for pc one you can save any time any place you like. Quick save is just binding the function to the key without the need to call out the menu and look for the save tab only.

Cheater!

Yes you can save before going into battle, but to call that cheating? Then there would be no need for a save function at all - and no I don't save before attacking every single goblin out there.

Btw when you play the Xbox 360 version, you have to go into the menu and scroll down to the save menu item in order to save. Maybe a quick save function actually makes people cheat / cheese save more?

I dont think there a need to save before attacking every single goblin, that would really be pathetic honestly. To me quick save is handy for mind read, and boss fight, since I usually bit lazy to call out the menu for normal save.

I think we are really bit out of topic, as it bout side questing or not.

well i quicksave when fighting bosses or bigger mobs...
but hardly when i read minds cus wheres the thrill if u know u got nothing to loose...

lol and yeah btt...

I do all quests I can do !
Now I play D II again because the first time I do too many wrong things (but nothing about mindreading or quests)...
I play on Xbox 360 and I save if I think that's a wize decision.
Sometimes I save before I speak a NPC because I will first know his/her reaction. But I continue my way by the decisions I make in quests! And I keep in Mind what things I will do "in another way" if I play D II all over again

On first initially/place I spoke with possible NPc's without mindreading! After that I take a personal decision which NPC's I will help out (I read my Logbook first )...

I have now the experience that when I first speak to many NPC's some Mindreading costs are much lower!! Try it!! And sometimes you can better "wait" to do mindreading as well !
Summarized I can say that each of your actions have another effect most of the time! When you will not have high mindreadingcosts, speak first with all NPC's in Brocken Valley Village and surrounding you can find! That's my experience now .


Edit NOTE: the cost(s) of a mindreading are not always depending of how great the reward can be!! I have more than one time a mindreading for 33 à 40 XP that have a nice reward AND even more: sometimes also a new side-quest!

A moment off-topic
I play now with a new second avatar, also beginning as a warrior, but this time, all things go better, especially in combat because I try other skills and combatmode ... play a combination between a bow and a sword (or mace ..) & Magic Missile, for me a pretty good way

Iv played this game now for a solid 8 days, with atleast 12 hours playtime each day, not to mention having to restart it from the beginning because i saved over a save that was created before entering the room to fight Divine. Iv done 98% of side quests and im currently level 34, but no matter what i do i just cant seem to get higher than that and Divine is physically impossible to beat in a dual (even if somehow you kill everyone else).

I have around 700 mana and my hitpoints are around 1300 and he still hammers me in a few shots, i finally had to beat him by hiding behind walls hoping he would stay where he was so i could pick him off slowly with my Magic Blast Lv12.

I thought the ending was appalling although it does leave the game open for another... however the fact that you put all the hard work into it and all you get is some stupid achievement worth 99G is atrocious, it could have let you finish your quests in a free roam or something.

Great game though to be honest, iv never seen an RPG on 360 (apart from oblivion) that is like this 1, especially a game that gives you the ability to turn into Dragons or other massive monsters/animals.

I found out painfully that if i mindread everyone in the start of the game, i would level slower than i wanted and i started to find higher level mobs faster than i wanted


A good balance between side-questing and mindreading is needed, and i realy think the proportion is well made on the game