Larian Studios Forums Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga / Flames of Vengeance (English) Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga Walkthrough for Maximum Value? [SPOILERS]

While there are a lot of walkthroughs for DKS, most of them seem to be along the lines of "do this if you want this, do this if you want this", especially when it comes to the choice of the servants for the dragon tower.

I am convinced there is an optimal path through this game. That is: Not only discovering all the secrets, but also choosing your skills in the optimal way, facing all the enemies at exactly the right level, choosing the right servants, mindreading only when necessary, and making all the quest choices such that they provide maximum benefit with regard to experience- and skill points.

So in this thread, I'd like to work out, together with you, that optimal route through the game. I hope we can create some kind of ultimate walkthrough this way: Rather than just telling where everything is, it should contain the perfect order in which to do all these things.

The focus is on the optimal sequencing; for the details on which action leads to which possible result, there are already plenty of other sources.

Consequently, this thread will be full of spoilers, so probably not something you'll want to look at when playing Ego Draconis / Flames of Vengeance for the very first time ;) .



Here's what I have so far:


Farglow
- Kill all the bunnies you can find.
- Mindread Edmund, Sarah, and Gerald before going into the arena for the first time. Gerald lowers his prices.
- Give Gerald the book Sarah's thoughts told you he wants to make him lower his prices a second time. Only now start buying weapons and/or potions.
- Start as a wizard, but pick a bow as your primary weapon. Most enemies you encounter at the beginning can only engage in melee combat, but do a lot of damage this way, so it's best to keep the distance.
- Go into the arena. If you did everything in this order so far, you will only have to fight the goblins once.
- Take Edmund's key from the fireplace and jump up the rocks to collect the skill book. Invest the skill point into picking locks.
- Now you can open both chests in the village and buy as many potions from Gerald as possible before you leave.

Now, since to my knowledge, the amount of experience you gain from combat is determined based on your level relative to that of the enemy, when in doubt it's better to kill enemies first and complete quests later.

Broken Valley
- Kill the boars and goblins along the road to the farm.
- Pull the lever where Max is, and mark on the map that you did so.
- Find the shrine at the chapel.
- Go into the small cave with the goblins, which are all around level 1 or 2. Make sure you kill these before doing any of the quests in the village. You can save Quentin while on the way.
- Prioritize picking locks as a skill whenever leveling up, so you don't miss any of the chests.

Village
- In the tavern: Get the quest from either Tim or Elsa. Chase away the soldiers, but don't betray them to the Lieutenant, so they will tell you about his secret lair later. Now, talk to Stan and Ollie; they tell you about the key to the miller's cellar.
- Mindread Locke to make him lower his prices, and get the money from Kunrath before buying from Locke for the first time. You can still get the password to his cart by mindreading it.
- As soon as your lockpicking skills are high enough to access all the rooms, go looking for Tim's series of books. Mindread him to gain access to his purse hidden in the bushes next to the church.
- Do not mindread Robin yet; 400 XP is a lot at this early stage, wait till you actually get to his lair. With the deserter, you're best-served with blackmailing him into giving you his gauntlets and not betraying him to Richard.
- Richard: Mindread him before giving him the first goblin heart, so you don't miss out on any money. Talk to him and Folo to gain both quests for the farm.
- The mill: You can mindread the soldier at the door if you want his mace (it's not really worth it, though). Is it necessary to mindread Linda to make her purse visible, or can it already be found in the church anyway? Whether you should keep the gold or give it to her and gain experience is up to what you're in greater need of at that point. Do not mindread the miller, it's not necessary. Just take the key from the cauldron, go down to the cellar, talk to Abanayabar, and then to the miller and to Linda to gain the assassin quest. Once again, you can postpone mindreading Abanayabar until you actually get to Buad's lair.
- The farm: Make sure to get Dana's letter and bring it to Derk, plus mindreading him, before you buy anything from him. Do not mindread Dana, it is not necessary to find the key inside Karl's home. Also, make sure Dana runs away to Derk before you deal with Karl, so that Derk can actually be thankful to you for it.
- Now go into Karl's cellar. Once you find his diary, it will probably give you more experience to kill Karl, rather than turning him over to the guard, since the quest can be completed either way.
- Both in Karl's and in Derk's cellar, there are chests which you may not be able to open yet, so leave a mark here for you to come back later.
- Mindread Lomax to chase him and his troops away, then talk to the pig Kevin and tell Max he can steal the grain.
- The barracks: Do not mindread Martis, and definitely do not ever tell the location and the password of the bandit camp to the Lieutenant. That guy really seems to be a quest-destroyer on legs! :) Get the bandit quests from the captain; go upstairs, find out about Ludwig's lair from the seekers, and climb to the top of the tower to get Pawel arrested.
- The merchant: Mindread him so you can buy the two malachite gems cheaper once you have enough gold.
- Talk to the priest to hear the information about Lovis and about the sight of the dragon. Talk to Folo's wife to find out the location of the assassins.
- Go out and kill the goblin tribes in the small part of the valley, including Hjalmar.
- Fight the assassin at the chapel to enable the encounter with the other assassin in the mill.
- Go up to the cave with Naberius and dispose of his skeleton guards.
- Now on the way back, you should also be ready to deal with the skeletons in Karl's dungeon where he hid Berold's dead body. Make sure to find the button at the last stone wall to get into the room behind.
- Return to the village, go into Ludwig's lair and deal with the skeletons. Then go into the mill and deal with Antumbra the assassin.
- Go back to the chapel and save Martis from his cell. He will tell you the password, but once again, do not tell it to the Lieutenant!
- Return to the village and tell Rhode about the whereabout of the dragon; go into the church and face the ghost of Lord Arben, so that you can proceed into the bigger part of Broken Valley.

To be continued...