The catacombs at the start of the game can be fairly challenging, especially for melee characters. The game gets easier as it progresses, though. Following are some general hints and tips, without references to any specific quests, items or events in the game. If you are re-doing the beginning of the game, or don't mind spoilers, there are links to a some other posts below.
Increasing your
gamma (Options menu, Video, Gamma) will brighten the screen and make it easier to find your way around, especially underground. A higher gamma will help you spot the
levers (which open some locked doors in dungeons), loot, and other points of interest.
Place
notes on the map when you receive a quest or find something of interest. In the first town this is not really required, but after that if you forget exactly where someone who gave you a quest was, it can be a pain to try to track them down so you can report it completed. Some people/places will get marked on your map by the game.
Save before talking to new people or
trying to steal; re-loading is a lot easier than trying to build up their opinion if you get caught. You can also try out new skills, etc. and re-load if you don't find it useful.
Save frequently; before starting off on a quest, before an expected tough fight (use the mini-map), after completing a quest, after finding some great equipment, after leveling up, etc. The saved game folders are fairly large, but older saves can be zipped to free up quite a bit of hard drive space, and really old ones deleted.
Save under unique names. Quick saves are convenient for frequent saving as you are battling and clearing out various areas. The latest
patch rotates between two (by default) quick saves, and disables saving when you are dead (which you really do not want to do). If you are playing the un-patched version, you can
change the hotkeys assigned to quick save and quick load in the game options (main menu, Options, Keys), to make it harder to accidentally mix them up in the heat of the moment.
If you make a mistake, realize you missed something or run into a bug, you do not want your only save to be after that point. Saving the game under a unique name will give you the option to
go back to specific moments. Don't abbreviate too much with names, like I did. I have looked for old saves to check something, get screen shots, etc. and names like 'e4' don't help find the right save very fast.
Even if you never make a mistake or encounter a bug, I have backtracked quite a few times to
try something different, see if another choice would result in more experience or reputation, etc. Having just a quick save from 10 minutes ago severely limits your ability to
experiment.
Save before you enter each building in Aleroth (and new buildings in general). If you quick save before clicking on a chest/bookcase, hitting the alt key or running your mouse over it, you can quick load to see if you can get something better. In most cases this just wastes time for little benefit, but early in the game and for a few key pieces of equipment later, it can really help.
Hit the
R key to always run.
There are
keys to many locked doors and chests, usually in the general vicinity of what they open. Try to look for keys/levers before using a
lockpick. Locked barrels/vases can be smashed open if you click on them in combat mode; no need to waste lockpicks on these.
To
split a stack of items, drag and drop it somewhere, but hold the control key down before you drop. A split stack pane will pop up, where you can set how many items you want to transfer.
If you see a
pile of something, move it out of the way. Often there will be something under, behind or between whatever is piled up.
Some people find it helpful to use a
bow as (or in conjunction with) their main weapon for at least awhile at the start of the game (you do not need to use/find/equip arrows, you just need a bow).
At least the first level in
Repair will come in
very handy. You don't necessarily want to run away from a big fight to find someone to repair your equipment, and repaired items are worth more (so if you can at least partially fix something, it will help when trading).
Once you get your vitality and mana above 80, you may want to put a skill point in
Alchemy and start using restoration potions (health+mana). See
Restoration potions.
After you go up a couple levels and do not see any available skills that look good, start keeping a couple
spare skill points. This can be handy if you realize you could use a skill you do not have, or you need a higher level in one you do.
Loot; steal anything of
value that isn't nailed down. Then sell it back to them. Always,
always save before trying to loot, enter back rooms of buildings or anything else that
might get people ticked off at you. Some back rooms look like private quarters, so there is advance warning, some do not. Some merchants do not care if you wander around or move things, some do.
If you attack a cat (even accidentally), all cats everywhere (except the one in Aleroth you can talk to) will
become hostile towards you (same goes for dogs).
Get the second teleporter stone.
When you acquire the first one, save the game, then
drop and use the teleporter. Be prepared to fight;
assign hotkeys to potions (open the potion bar, hover the mouse over a potion, then press the function key you want to use) and skills, and use the space bar to pause the game.
Picking up the teleporter stone (or books, letters, chests...)
Stand close to the second teleporter stone and open your inventory pane. Click on the stone (holding the mouse button down) and drag it over the inventory pane, then release the mouse button to drop it in. Now use the teleporter stone (without dropping) to get back to the first one.
Setup a home basePlace one teleporter stone
near a bed, and carry the other with you, so you have a quick way to sleep, drop off loot, buy potions / equipment and get back to where you were. Set up a couple chests; keep a chest for valuable stuff or anything
unique or different that you may need latter, but do not know what to do with now.
Trade with items you do not need, rather than gold. Keep one chest for stuff that has full durability and can be traded for the
maximum amount, or divide these into the crappy / broken stuff, and stuff that is worth more. Optionally, toss all the stuff with less than full durability in another chest to be repaired and sold later. I found more than enough broken or full durability equipment at the start of the game; my
needs-repair chest became rather full before I was able to max that skill.
Keep a chest for spare
food and potions, so you don't carry around too much weight. Meat / bread (health) and chicken (mana) were the only food I kept; other stuff can temporarily increase stats (ie alcohol increases strength and drops intelligence, fish increases intelligence). Some find this handy to use before a big fight; I sold them.
If you find anything with a spell bonus in
Repair, Alchemy, Identify, Pickpocket (need level one or two later) keep them. I had 2 levels in Repair, and three items with a Repair bonus, so I could batch repair things completely, and toss them in a chest to be sold for their maximum value.
[color:"yellow"]Quest Breakers[/color]
In Aleroth, George will ask you to do something for him; agree or you will break a later quest (though not an essential one).
Do not enter the castle by using the teleporter stones before getting an invitation. This could break a quest required to complete the game, forcing you to re-load a save from before you entered the castle the first time.
See also
QUESTBREAKERS AND MAKING DIV LIFE DIFFICULT (spoilers)
differences between classes - the most obvious is the special move
Warrior:
Swirl Attack - Lets you spin around, hitting all of the monsters surrounding you; useful for clearing out mobs.
Survivor:
Sneaking - Lets you crouch down and move around undetected. Effective at the start of the game, but AFAIK it does not do as good a job fooling higher level monsters. This can be used to loot, giving you a much better chance of going undetected by nearby NPCs.
Wizard:
Swap location - Useful for strategic relocation during battle. It can also be used to swap places with merchants to get them out of their shops. In most cases, if they can not see you, you can loot without getting caught.
A much greater influence due to class is the way secondary characteristics are calculated. There are a couple stats which are generic; everyone gets 20 weight per strength point and 300 stamina per constitution point. Other secondary stats are calculated as follows:
| Warrior | Survivor | Wizard |
| Vitality per constitution point | 6 | 5 | 4 |
| Mana per intelligence point | 3 | 4 | 6 |
| Damage per strength point | 0.4 | 0.14 | 0.1 |
Offense and Defense are slightly more complicated, and based on agility (Ag);
| Warrior | Survivor | Wizard |
| Offense | 0.8*Ag | 0.7*Ag - 1 | 0.7*Ag - 1 |
| Defense | 0.7*Ag - 1 | 0.8*Ag | 0.7*Ag - 1 |
When a calculation results in a fraction, it is rounded down for the display. I would assume/hope it would be carried through the game's calculations with greater precision. Aside from voice and appearance, the only difference between male and female characters are the starting skills. The secondary stat calculations are the same.
See also;
Starter Tips? and
Early Starting Tips (spoilers)
Kiya's
