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Party Creation Tutorial

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2022-03-16 15:42:41

Note

This guide is adapted for the Hard difficulty but, obviously, whatever works on the Hard works on the Easy & Medium. Another thing is that Hard in this game means totally hard – even with the powerful builds one wrong step or fumbled micro-control action will often lead to your party getting torn to ribbons. It's fun to discover the proper sequence of actions for each battle, but keep in mind that there will be lots of save/loads. Ironmanning here probably demands perfect metagaming knowledge.

Also, if you prefer watchin to reading, I have a video version here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1KQg9KyhnE

1. Stats

So what do they do?

Strength: +0.75 damage to STR based weapons, + 2% fire resistance, +3 kilo carrying weight

Dexterity: +0.75 damage to DEX based weapons, +1 evasion, +2 accuracy, +2% lightning resistance

Vitality: +5 health, +2% poison resistance

Willpower: +5 energy, +2% cold resistance

These bonuses are gained if your stat is above 10 – if it is below, you suffer from equal penalties instead.

What's important to understand is that 3 out of 4 stats don't matter that much. For example, a 6 STR ratling has 6.75 less damage per hit than the 15 STR minotaur – but against the 300 HP monster and with the average damage of your weapon as 50, is that truly significant? Still takes 6 hits to bring it down. And even the starting foes have around 100 HP here, btw, so 300 HP monster is nothing uncommon.

75 health with vitality 15 is 50% more than 50 health with vitality 10, but later in the game that becomes 225 vs 200 – 12.5% difference. Of course, having the properly assigned stats helps in the very beginning, but what I mean is that you shouldn't fret about “oh, insectoid has only 9 vitality, he's never gonna be a tank!” And, even with the 6 base strength, ratlings can still use the heavy weapons without much problems. In terms of racial choice, basic stats mean much less than the available traits.

The only exception here is Dexterity – whereas other attributes don't scale that well (that's the reason why they don't matter that much), the accuracy from the DEX is applied to both STR & DEX based melee & ranged weapons. As the game proceeds, the foes become harder to hit and your damage output increases (naturally) so the accuracy bonus stays relevant – you don't want to miss often (that's if you're a warrior – for casters Dexterity is useless). And it's not like there are many other sources of it – only the Accuracy skill and, well, skill points are really precious in the game.

So when the time will come for brewing the permanent stat increasing potions, even for the STR-based warriors you'll probably want DEX-potions – the accuracy is that important. And see, one of the biggest advantages of the STR-warriors is that they can use Rage potions – they give +20 STR bonus and -20 accuracy penalty. And they totally stack with each other. So you can, say, brew 10 STR potions to give your warrior 7,5 extra damage or you can brew 10 DEX potions to give your warrior 20 accuracy which you then can transform into 15 damage via additional Rage potion used (while also gaining 10 evasion in the process).

Don't trust the evasion too much, though – it's not reliable. It's very good when it complements a solid Protection attribute (i.e., a good armor and a good armor skill so you don't get any evasion penalties), but on its own it can't really defend your character from harm. So you can't build an evasion only tank – that won't cut it even in the early game and later will become even worse as there are no late game evasion-based armors.

Despite what their descriptions say, Willpower & Vitality don't affect the regeneration. Maybe in the next patches they'll fix that. The health regeneration is rather slow and shouldn't be relied upon (either rest or use healing crystals) whereas the energy regeneration is quite useful – it kicks in after your spell/skill cooldown is over and, for example, it takes 40 seconds to regenerate 25 spell points (that's the cost of a basic spell – 1.5 basic spells per minute for you).

Finally, resistances are pretty important (and having 100% means being immune), but, when it comes to the stats, they're more of a pleasant bonus than a goal. One thing to say here is that the recent patch (that switches the fire resistance to Strength) makes Rage and Transmute potions even better – Rage gives you 40% extra resistance and Transmute makes you automatically immune.

2. Races

a. Human – surprisingly enough, the weakest race of the game. Usually, ordinary humans pwn all those magical folks, but not this time. It all boils down to the leveling system in this game – yes, you have 10% bonus experience and you can have 20% with the Fast Learner racial trait but that doesn't translate into 20% more levels. Not at all – each level here costs more than the previous one. At first, it's a simple progression – first level costs 1k XP, second 2k and so forth. But, after level eleven, it suddenly jumps up to 20k per level and then even 50k later on. So even with the 20% bonus XP you'll have just one extra level – the increased requirements are just too steep, they deflate your previously earned XP rather quickly. And, well, it's not like an extra skill point is useless (and with your other racial trait, Skilled, you can have two of those), it's just that the other races have much better power multipliers that are worth more than those two skill points. If you absolutely want a human in your party, do this Fast Learner + Skilled combo and make him into some skill starved class – those are mostly casters & Alchemy users. Well, maybe I'm overdramatizing here – the balance in the game is not that bad so humans are not that horrible, they're just not as amazing as other classes are. There also are human Farmers, of course, and they're probably the best use of the humans.

b. Minotaur – an ok race, but somewhat narrow (better than humans, though). As I've said, dexterity is very important so their huge 15 Strength is evened out by their innate clumsiness. You can invest in both, of course, but that way you have nothing to address your low Willpower and, surprisingly enough, having good Energy pool is vital for the Heavy Weapon warrior. Because it's the most logical picture – the huge minotaur wielding huge axe. Doesn't work that way – in reality, minotaurs are at their best with Throwing Weapons and STR-based Light Weapons, meaning they excel as Rogues and pretty much Rogues only. Well, also Alchemists if you want your Alchemist to use Throwing Weapons (which is a decent option). And they might be considered as Barbarians, but insectoids are better at that (the shame, the shame!) In terms of racial traits, Headhunter is a must – it makes the game much more interesting, adding the extra task of skull collecting, and by the end of the game you can have somewhere around nine of them (if you look carefully enough), so that's a 6.75 extra damage per hit. That's also lots of fire resistance – you start with the 20 strength and with this, you'll have at least 29 total – 38% base resistance. Pretty hot. BTW, the trait work even if you're carrying your skulls in a bag – no need to clutter your inventory with them. Rage is horrible, though – yeah, if you are a backrow rogue, you can try to get low and throw +7.5 damage shurikens with the relative safety, but that won't work against any kind of ranged monsters and you get ambushed by melee foes often. So staying that low is a sure way to dying – just take a much reliable & safer Aggressive instead. Minotaurs are also more hungry than your average race but, with a decently built party, you won't be resting that much so that's not a real flaw. And, as the Headhunter is their main advantage, there can be only one Minotaur in your party – not enough skulls for two.

c. Ratling – a middle ground race. Their main advantage is their unique Mutation trait – through the course of the game, they'll gain about 12-13 levels so that's pretty much +3 to all your stats. On the average – depending on how your luck goes, the spread might vary wildly. No use reloading, though - the spread of increases is generated at the moment of party creation so you can't save/load around it. But still, +3 to all stats is pretty solid and makes the Ratling a decent all-around character though, obviously, he's at his best with the Dexterity-based classes – the Knight and the Rogue. But he's also ok as the Missile Weapons using Alchemist, as the Fighter and the Battlemage. Another boon to the rat is that he has favored food – cheese. Consume enough slices of it and you'll gain +1 random stat. The first increase requires 3 slices and each further one demands 1 more than the previous one (so it's 3-4-5 and so on). If you're wondering, Humans & Minotaurs don't have any favored food (another reason why they're not that good). And cheese is the most common favored food in the game so you can easily expect to gain at least 4 more stat points from it. If you have more than one ratling, I guess you spread the love around and keep track of who ate how much.

d. Insectoid – one of the two best races. Having less body injuries is rather pleasant (rather crucial if you're playing with the 1-use healing crystals), but most of their power comes from their excellent racial traits. Chitin Armor is huge. One of the biggest problems of the party building in this game is that few classes are capable of standing in the front row – naturally, only the Battlemages and the Knights. But add Chitin Armor into the mix and suddenly the Barbarian and, on the normal difficulty, even the Rogue & Alchemist may join the frontline assembly. That's a huge increase of options. And Protection scales pretty well into the late game, but note that you must strongly focus on it if you wish to stay tanky. We'll discuss this later on. Quick trait is also delicious – it's useless for casters as they're too limited by their energy pools, but for any kind of warriors it's a solid 10% damage increase. And it scales pretty well and multiplies other damage bonuses you may have – that's why the insectoid is much better Barbarian than the minotaur, it's because he gains more from the Barbarian's extra strength (and, well, Chitin Armor is especially good when you start with 80 HP and gain 10 HP per level). In the end, Insectoids are rather diverse – they don't want to be Farmers and Wizards, but in all other roles they excel. Their racial treat is spiked fruit.

e. Lizardmen – another great race. Let's not be fooling around – 50% to all resistances is insane. Endure Element is a must have and is the strongest trait in the game – yeah, magic wielding foes don't show until the midgame, but once they do they make you wish for a 4 lizard party. 4 is probably an overkill as that deflates the value of various resistance-giving items and spell shields, but 3 lizards + 1 insectoid is probably the best party composition, race-wise (and the only one that's rivaling it is 2 insectoid+2 lizards). But that's only half of the tale – the Fast Metabolism trait is also immense for any kind of energy using class (Wizard, Battlemage, Fighter, Firearms Alchemist). In the non-boss fights, the most defining thing about your Energy pool is not its total amount but the speed of its recharge. That defines how much spells you can cast without resting. Or how many special attacks you may perform. And, well, the lizard can do 4 of those for every 3 spells/special attacks the other races will do. That's very convenient. And double effect from the potions also shouldn't be discounted – through the game, you'll find a lot of low-grade healing potions (75 hp – quickly stop being relevant) and gaining double HP from them is huge. Still, if you go for a lizardman Rogue, for example (i.e., something not that reliant on energy and standing in the back row), you may skip that in favor of something else. Poison Immunity is neat, but probably a bit of overkill as your starting resistances are already good – with 4 poison immune lizards, some areas get much easier, though. But that depends on your metagaming preferences, that's more for a second playthrough. All in all, lizards are so cool that they can be anyone. Almost forgot, their racial treat is eggs – not that much of them in the game, though, probably only +2 random stats (better than nothing, I guess)

3. Traits

I've already reviewed all the racial ones so here will be only generics. Note that racial traits are much better than these and only minotaurs & ratlings & non-casting lizards have the space for generic ones (1 each).

Aggressive – this one is somewhat incorrect. Instead of giving you +4 damage, it gives adds +2-4 damage (+2 to minimal and +4 to maximal) and, on the average, that's +3 damage. Still, as far as generics go, this is one of the best traits and it's decent for any kind of warriors. Also, it's the only thing that can increase the base damage of the Firearms (probably a must-have for the gunner),

Aura – can be considered for the Fighters. Mages have a big enough mana pool so +20 energy is no biggie for them (when adventuring, energy recharge speed is more important, and during the bossfights it's all about burning through your stash of mana potions), but for a Fighter building up a decent energy pool can be hard so this helps somewhat.

Cold-blooded – helps against ice elementals but, all in all, ice attacks are not that common. So it is rather forgettable.

Endurance – unless you waste a lot of time resting (which you shouldn't), food consumption rate doesn't matter. Carry weight is also not really significant. Some people try to combo 3x Endurance with one Farmer, but that's a real waste – you're not making your Farmer that much stronger but you do weaken your party considerable by taking triple of this trait. Maybe if you don't have a single STR-based character in your party, maybe then this can be considered.

Evasive – pretty much the ratling Knight-exclusive. For everyone else it's hardly worh it, but for the ratling Knight it is vital for his effectiveness as a tank – he wants as much evasion as possible.

Healthy – that's nothing but +10 health and +4 poison resist. There are better options for both of those so skip this.

Muscular – Aggressive is much better than this so don't bother.

Natural Armor – useless for everyone but Insectoid Battlemages. For them, it's golden, however – Protection works in such way that the more of it you have, the better it gets. And Insectoid Battlemages have ridiculous amounts of Protection.

Poison Resistant – probably the best of the +25 resistance traits as you really don't want to invest into earth magic to gain poison spellshield and poison enemies are very annoying. Still, if you're worried about poison, go lizardman with the Poison Immunity, not this.

Strong Mind – just take Aura, this is much worse.

Agile – probably the only +2 trait to consider. Even then, offensive characters will want Aggressive over it and defensive will want Evasive, so who really wants this?

Daemon Ancestor – fire resistance is way too affordable via rage potions and fire spellshield so this one isn't really needed.

Martial Training – decent for the STR-based melee warriors, Minotaurs first and foremost. And it scales pretty well into the late game. Very good option for the Heavy Weapon users.

Tough – something extremely HP deprived (like a Wizard or a frontline Rogue) might consider it, but it just doesn't scale that well into late game. So-so.

4. Skills Part I

You'll end the game somewhere around level 14 so that's 15 skill points to expects. And note that the level gain is not very even – you'll rise to level 7 in the first 33% of the game, to level 11 in the next 33% and the remaining third will give you the final 3 levels. That means that you shouldn't spread around an instead must focus your vital skills first and foremost. Also, there are three +1 skill point books hidden across the island – feed them to your most skill-starved characters.

Alchemy – a must-have for any party. Whether or not you're having an Alchemist, you'll still find a lot of the reagents and, well, healing and energy potions, speed potions (attack 50% faster with your main damage dealer!), rage potions, transmute potions (quite literally turns any Light Weapon user into a beast), permanent stat increase potions, frost bombs (the only kind of good bombs, actually), resurrection potions – all are too good to pass by. You definitely need this maxed out, the only question is on whom to place it. By the obvious reasons, that should be a character who isn't really skill starved.

Athletics – not that good. It's somewhat impressive in the early game, but this bonus is flat and doesn't scale that well into the late game. It might be considered for tanky classes and it's actually good for the one specific Battlemage build, but other tanks have higher priorities than this one.

Concentration – the most important skill for any kind of a mage. You see, what's not written in its description is that it is actually required to cast all the best spells in the game – Shield, Forcefield, Darkness, Darkbolt, elemental shields. All of them. It's also required to use certain magical items (like the wonderful Crystal Shield, for example). And it also gives you 20 mana per skill point invested. What's not to like? You casters are usually too skill starved to max it out, but 3 points into it are absolutely necessary and must be done rather quick.

Light Weapons – there is one thing to understand about weapon skill bonuses and one about dual-wielding. First, the weapon skills multiply only the basic damage of the weapon itself. The gains from stats or the Aggressive trait are unaffected. That's somewhat bogus, but there's a bright side to that – second, the dual-wielding penalty is also applied only to the basic damage of the weapon itself. And the gains from stats or the Aggressive trait are unaffected. So, while it may seem that only the Rogue may foray into the light weapons, in reality they're more flexible than that – the Barbarian is great with the STR-based swords (his STR-based bonus damage pretty much equals the bonus Rogue damage when dual-wielding) and the Knight can go the dual-wielding dagger route (switching into the dagger&shield in tough situations – his damage won't be as great, but he's a much better frontliner than the Rogue). Now, which school of those is better is a point of great discussion – on one hand, DEX is a better attribute and there are very good unique daggers in the game, whereas the best STR-based Light Weapons are rather disappointing (as the endgame weapons, that is). You also get to dual-wield & backstab with the daggers much sooner, just 3 and 3 skill values needed instead of 5 and 5 (a great plus and note that you always go for the Critical skill with the Light Weapons, no exceptions). On the other hand, you can get the best STR-based Light Weapon in the game, the Boneblade, pretty quickly, the backstabs with its special is a great source of healing and the STR school has much better synergy. Minotaurs have lots of Strength, Barbarians have lots of Strength, Rage potions gives lots of Strength – and Light Weapons are much better at utilizing this Strength than the Heavy ones. You see, best Light Weapons have the cooldown of 3.4 second, best Heavies have 5-6. So Light ones are 50-75% faster and thus use those STR bonuses more efficiently. Not to mention that on the backstab those bonuses are tripled. And, once you understand the tools at your disposal, backstabs are not hard to achieve. So they're pretty equal and it all depends on whether you need a frontline damage dealer (Barbarian excels at this) or a back row one (Rogue, obviously).

Heavy Weapons – are somewhat overhyped currently. You see, while they are great at the last third of the game and that can't be disputed, they're are very weak before that. Their damage doesn't differ that much from one of the Light Weapons, yet, as I've just said, they're at least 50% slower than their counterparts. 100% slower at some points. So, while a Heavy Weapon Barbarian makes sense fluff-wise, in reality it's not as efficient. So, for a long time, their damage is rather bad and not much can be done about that. Now, later in the game, once you start finding the top-tier weapons, the situation will change drastically and they will become extremely good at dishing out damage. But that won't be with their usual attack – that's gonna be with their specials which may cost up to 80 energy. Yeah, the barbarian with his +3 energy per level can totally afford that. So the Heavy Weapon user isn't really a pure warrior – he's more of a caster/warrior hybrid. That's what the Fighters are in this game and there are also Battlemage builds centered around Heavy Weapon usage. So this weapon school is great, but requires patience and preparation to be utilized fully.

Missile Weapons – when compared to the other ranged weapons, missile weapons have the advantage of being Dexterity-based (so you have a naturally high accuracy with them) and having access to an excellent disabling tool, the blowpipe. Oh, that thing does anything but blows – it puts the majority of the living targets into sleep and, unlike many other such effects, that can't be resisted. Many monsters are immune to that, true (mostly undead & elementals – they obviously don't sleep), but in some places it's just golden. The 25 armor negation is also pretty good, more so if you rush it quickly – the early golem fights get so easy in this case. Apart from that, Missile Weapons are somewhat mediocre – they're doomed by the horrible, horrible weapon progression they have. So you get your starting bow at the lvl 5 and, well, be prepared to use it until the level 13 or so. Somewhat better bow you'll find shortly is not that good because it has longer cooldown, crossbow is an absolute trash by the same reasons and, well, the final bow is not even that good (and demands 1 point in Air Magic to utilize it fully – something that your bow user probably won't have). That's annoying. I guess it's a decent option for Alchemist (as it is less skillpoint demanding as the Throwing school is), but for other classes it's not that great.

4. Skills Part II

Throwing – the king of the ranged combat. The reasons are pretty much the same as for the STR-based Light Weapons – best weapon in the school, the shuriken (well, the throwing axe is supposed to be the best, but shuriken is actually better) has the 3.5 second cooldown so gain any kind of significant STR bonus and it'll utilize it greatly. That's why you probably want to be either Rogue or Barbarian Minotaur thrower (and, with the low base damage of throwing weapons, Barb is probably the better option) – maximum synergy there. Note that the fifth level (which you certainly want to rush) has a somewhat annoying downside – if you put two of the same weapons in each of your hands, when picked up after throwing, they'll be automatically put into your left hand. So you'll have to redirect them into right hand manually. The solution here is simple, though – just use a different throwing weapon in each hand. Shurikens & Throwing Axes will be your late game combo. Another thing is that throwing is rather skill-point intensive – you want 5 points here, 5 points into Accuracy (so you actually hit stuff), then max out Critical. That's all your points right there. Oh, and answering the logical question – the throwing skill does nothing for the alchemical bombs.

Firearms – trash tier. Because of the high jamming chance, they're nigh useless until you max the skill out and, well, you won't get any good firearms until the last third of the game. Even then, you'll suffer from the huge ammo problems (I hope you haven't wasted the precious pellets on those worthless flintlock and arquebus shots) and the unwieldiness of Hand Cannon (that has insane weight). Yeah, the specials of it and of the Repeater are great but, once again, you're probably unprepared to have enough energy to abuse them. Another insulting point here is that Firearms gain no bonus damage from either Strength or Dexterity, but you'll still want to invest into Dexterity simply so you can shoot things – what a waste. On anything but easy difficulty, I wouldn't bother to use them.

Accuracy – 2 points of it are necessary for all the back row warriors (Fighters, Rogues, occasional Alchemist) and more might be necessary for the STR-based weapon schools (Heavy, Light, Throwing). Of course, as I've said before, you might circumvent the need for this by investing into +1 Dexterity potions, but even then you may have more than 1 STR-based warrior and, well, the second one will have to buy some Accuracy. Dextrous frontliners can just skip this – they're accurate enough already.

Critical – vital for Light Weapon users, extremely good if you find a certain hidden Heavy Weapon, good for all other kinds of warriors. You see, criticals in this game are very good because of the way armor works – it just gets subtracted from the damage. If your foe has 40 armor and you deal 50 damage, you'll take 50-40=10 of his hit points per hit. But on the critical you'll deal double the initial damage (minimally – there's at least one Heavy Weapon with 3x multiplier), so it's gonna be 100-40=60 health removed. As you can see, the double damage actually gives you more than double. So once you have your weapon skill maxed out and decent accuracy (not necessarily from the skill), you go for the Critical next. If you are a damage dealer, of course – tanks would also love to have it, but often they're just too spread between all the protective skills. And backstabs, well, backstabs are great by the same reason – it's guaranteed triple damage (and yes, you can critically backstab for the 6x damage and special attacks can also backstab). You just need to set it up – most monsters in the game are pretty agile so only against a couple of them you can simple get behind their backs. But there's an immense amount of tools for that – you can freeze them with the Frost Bombs (which is why they are the best kind of bombs), you can freeze them with the Frost Bolt (not as reliable, though, but not as finite), you can put them into sleep with the Blowpipe, you can trap them into the Force Field and wait at their back until the field disappears (really good because, unlike the other options here, this one can't be really resisted), you can cast either Invisibility or Darkness (Darkness is actually the stronger option here) and slash their back while they wander around aimlessly, you can do the same with the Darkbolt or with the Wand of Terror. That seems to be it and, well, that's a lot. The only real thing that can prevent you from backstabbing is that often you fight in the narrow corridors and there are no ways of getting around your foes. But, well, otherwise it'd be just plainly broken.

Armor – an absolutely vital skill for any kind of frontliner. On the hard difficulty, if you don't have at least 4 points of this in the late game you're just food for your foes. Even if you're a 300 hp barbarian, you just melt without sufficient armor. And, well, negating evasion penalty helps even the non-Dexterity characters – with the penalty enabled monsters will have almost a 100% chance to hit you, without it it's gonna be more like 90% (at least). Not a lot, but still extra 10% survivability (and that's in addition to the armor you gain). Generally, it starts to become relevant somewhere past lvl 8 (the Protection gains before that are not that significant), but dexterity-based guys will want to gain 2 ranks in it by level 2 just so they don't get screwed by the evasion penalty. Note that it's nigh useless for your rearguard – you just won't find enough good armor to make everyone tanky.

Dodge – vital option for the dexterity-based frontliners and can be considered for some backrow damage dealers simply for the 10% speed increase (which, when comboed with other speed increases, might become very effective). Though, generally, when it comes to the melee damage dealer it gets rather hard to find extra points for this, unless you're feeding them skill books. But then, that is the best kind of character to apply those books to, so probably that's how it should be done.

Fire Magic – it should be noted that, as strong as the Concentration-based magic is, the rest of the spells (i.e., all the offensive elemental ones) are rather disappointing. They max out quickly in the early to mid-game (and they surely are powerful there), but once it comes past that point they quickly degrade into oblivion. The mana costs of the high-tier spells are just too steep, the damage dealt doesn't really match that price and they're also quite easy to miss with when maneuvering (and, considering how dangerous the monsters are, you never stand in one place). So, while the initial Fireburst spell is rather decent (against couple of foes it's pretty much the only option that works so it's not decent – it's a must) and Fire Shield is almost necessity in a couple of places, I don't think you want to take this magical skill past 3. Past the mid-game, casters are much better at casting the crowd control spells than they are at dealing damage and for the early game 3 should be sufficient. Not to mention that best casters are Battlemages and, well, they don't want to delve too deep into magic so they can maintain their defensive capability. And, to access “best” spells of the fire schools, not only you need to have it high, you also need to splash for the air – Fireball demands 3 Fire , 1 Air ranks. Meteor Storm demands 5 Fire, 3 Air. Compared to the investment required, you don't gain any kind of huge returns so those points are better spent elsewhere. At the same time, the Fire Magic itself is too useful to be skipped altogether.

4. Skills Part III

Air Magic – somewhat similar to the fire, though here maybe 4 points are better. They give you an elemental shield (though it's less useful as lightning attacks against you are not too common), Invisibility spell (it's too easily supplanted by the Darkness, though), give decent damage to your Shock spell and, well, Lightning Bolt is sucky and overcosted, but at least it's a way for you to deal ranged damage. Still, I must add that this school is not that great and should probably be developed only if you aim for that “5 Fire, 3 Air” backrow caster.

Earth Magic – I'm somewhat torn on this one. On one hand, the Poison Shield is incredibly useful spell. On the other, everything else in this school sucks and it's not like there's a lot of it – you have the ultra-low damage Poison Cloud (which lingers on the same spot too long and hinders your maneuvers; it has the unique advantage is that it's the only spell that can be cast through the grates, but it's not that useful) and the surprisingly solid Poison Bolt. It deals ok damage and may even poison its target, dealing even greater damage, the problem is that half of the enemies in the game are the undead & elementals who are, quite predictably, absolutely immune to poison. So it's only occasionally useful. I guess it might be considered for the backrow casters, who don't need to invest into protection that much, and for the utility Farmers (who are probably the best generalist casters in the game, lol) and, if you hate poison that much, you can do an Earth Magic Battlemage (generally, Battlemages have only enough points to get 3 ranks in one school), but note that you really want to get these ranks early so you can use that Poison Shield in all of the hazardous areas.

Water Magic – you either dip here for 1 point just to cast Dispel (and it's a must if you don't want to get ambushed by those pesky Air Elementals) or go all the way in to abuse the Frostbolt properly (which also requires you to have 1 point in the Air Magic). Frostbolt doesn't do that great of a damage, but at the level 5 it has a 30% chance to freeze your target and the frost lasts long enough so you can backstab them in the process (though, of course, it also depends on the distance between you). Doesn't work on all enemies, though. Cold Shield can also be useful, but it requires a rather precise timing – you need to rush it by level 6-7 (that's 3 Concentration and 3 Water Magic at that point) to really profit from it. Ice Shards require you to have 1 point in Earth Magic also and the damage is rather bad so they can be skipped. All in all, probably a school for a backrow caster – Battlemages don't have enough points to invest into it properly.

5. Classes & Builds - The Alchemist

A very solid class. I've already showcased how strong the potions are and, depending on the quality of ingredients, you're getting from 25% to 50% to their total amount (more of the common ones, less of the rarer ones) so more potions for you. That's surely significant. Note that the generation isn't random – it's tied to the amount of steps you have. Each time you do a sufficient number of steps, if you have a herb in your inventory, you get +1 of it. For each herb there's its own number (the better the herb, the higher the number), but they all work simultaneously – no need to move low-grade herb out of your inventory in hope that it will help you spawn the better ones. Another thing that's important to consider here is your gaming habits – see, I had an Alchemist in my most optimized party, but I never could surpass that “no, I can't use this potion right now – later there will be a tougher battle, I'll need it then” so, obviously, by the end of the game I had several hundreds of reagents gathering dust in my inventory. Because I'll definitely need them later. I know that its a common problem so if you're a fellow overhoarder, maybe the Alch is not the best choice.

In terms of builds, the main thing here is never to go for the Firearms – as I've said, they are utterly putrid and, well, this 50% Alchemist bonus doesn't mean much. Even with it and at the level 4 of the skill, my arquebus still jammed way too often. And, as at lvl 5 the jamming chance is removed altogether, your class bonus to them vanishes. So, in reality, it's not like Alchemists affinity for the Firearms is worth anything – you're pretty much open to anything. But, as you need to invest 5 points into Alchemy, you really want something that doesn't demand that much skill points to be effective. The best choices here are either Missile Weapons or Magic. Throwing can also be considered, but you'll have accuracy problems with it. Heavy weapons are also an option. Oh, and since you have no tanking skills, you always stand in the back row.

The Vintage Shooter (kids with their noisy firearms nowadays, back in my days...):

Ratling – 5 points into Dexterity & Vitality – Mutation & Aggressive – Alchemy & Missile Weapons

Level ups: Missile > Missile > Missile > Alchemy > Alchemy > Alchemy > Alchemy> Missile > Critical > Critical > Air> Critical > Critical

You build your missile weapons fast enough so you're actually dealing some damage to your foes, then you max out your Alchemy – however the good skill is, you don't want to rush it from the very beginning. Afterwards you just work on your damage potential. Weird point in Air is for the best bow in the game. Note that if you're feeling your Alchemist suffers from the elemental attacks too much, you can always switch a couple of levels in Criticals for a couple of levels in the Athletics (or you can just make him a lizardman).

Love Potion Peddler:

Human – 5 points into Vitality & Willpower – Skilled & Fast Learner – Alchemy & Concentration & either Water or Earth magic

Level ups for Water:

Water > Water> Air > Concentration > Concentration > Alchemy > Alchemy > Alchemy > Alchemy > Water > Water > Air > Air > Air

Level ups for Earth:

Earth > Earth > Concentration > Concentration > Alchemy > Alchemy > Alchemy > Alchemy > Water > Earth > Earth > Water > Water > Concentration > Concentration

Human is decent here because without his extra skill points you just progress way too slowly. And we're doing less of a combat mage and more of utility caster here – these builds are oriented at providing the right elemental shield when you really need it (that's the reason why the Alchemy is delayed – you'll be happier to have 50 resistance there more than potions, believe me) and maybe at some disabling work, don't expect them to nuke your opposition. And keep in mind that the Alchemist needs a magical staff or want to cast, the first you'll find somewhere at level 2 but it's gonna be in the secret spot so watch those walls closely – there might be buttons to push.

Cracks Dealer (he deals cracks, not crack – kinda hard to explain that nuance to the police, though):

Lizardman – 5 points into Strength & Dexterity – Endure Elements & Fast Metabolism – Heavy Weapons & Accuracy

Level ups: Accuracy > Heavy > Heavy > Alchemy > Alchemy > Alchemy > Alchemy > Alchemy > Heavy > Heavy > Accuracy > Accuracy > Accuracy

You build up Accuracy so you can attack from the back row, then you get enough Heavy skill so you can use the special attacks and then, finally, you can focus on your Alchemy. Yeah, it's delayed a bit, but having a deadweight character is much worse than delaying it a little bit so sacrifices have to be made.

Note that if you want an Alchemy user in your party, but don't want to take an Alchemist – just transfer these builds to another class. Rogue makes a decent Vintage Shooter, Battle Mage can be an ok Love Potion Peddler, Fighter will mage a good Cracks Dealer.

And you can have more than one Alchemist in your party – more the potions, more the fun. Obviously, the second Alchemist has zero need for the Alchemy skill so just pick up a backrow build of some other class and emulate it. Proxy-Rogues and proxy-Fighters are probably the best choice here.

5. Classes & Builds - The Barbarian

Barbs have two very obvious advantages. They deal decent damage with all kinds of STR-based weapons and they have the highest starting Health pool and the Health gain in the game. Those advantages might be misleading in their obviousness, though – first, as I've explained in the skill descirptions, the Strength bonus is best used with the low cooldown weapons, the Throwing School and the Light Weapons school – not with the seemingly logical Heavy School. As a matter of fact, barbarians are rather bad with it as going heavy requires a decent energy pool and they really don't have the space to do that. At least not without sacrificing a lot of their utility. And, on the hard difficulty, health pool alone means nothing – it's an important keypiece, but if you don't build around it it'll mean nothing. So while on the normal something like this:

Dancing Cow:

Minotaur – 5 points into Strength & Dexterity – Headhunter & Martial Training – Light Weapons & Critical

Level ups: Light > Light > Light > Light > Critical > Critical > Critical > Critical > Accuracy > Accuracy > Accuracy > Accuracy > Accuracy

Might work, on the hard it'll just get torn into shreds. And if you put him into the back row, it just takes too much time for him to reach his backstabbing mode. Instead, you build like this:

Hardboiled Breakdancer:

Insectoid – 5 points into Strength & Dexterity – Chitin Armor & Quick – Light Weapons & Critical

Level ups: Light > Light > Light > Light > Critical > Critical > Critical > Critical > Armor > Armor > Armor > Armor> Dodge > Dodge > Dodge > Armor

Yeah, that's a lot of level ups but that's because you dump all those skillbooks in this build, essentially speeding up his progression and, at the end of the game, giving him extra 3 points in Dodge. You also dump all your crystal flowers in this guy, giving him lots of extra Dexterity and thus, accuracy. That's a big investment but it totally pays off – we have a character who is not only tanky, but also dishes out great damage (which is a rarity for your frontliners, mind you). Just give him enough love so he's all shiny and sparkly, baby. You can say that this is unfair comparison because the previous build didn't have these advantage, but see, even if you give him those skillbooks and trade 2 points of accuracy for 5 points of armor, he still won't be as tanky as this build. It's just that dextrous insectoids make for a really good barbarians.

On the other hand, maybe I'm making the things too complex here - sometimes the best solution is the obvious one. So I think that a simpler backrow build, without all these worries, can still be done:

Praying Mantis:

Insectoid - 5 points into Strength & Dexterity – Aggressive & Quick – Light Weapons & Accuracy

Level Ups: Accuracy > Critical > Critical > Critical > Critical > Critical > Light > Light > Light > Light > Accuracy > Accuracy > Accuracy

This way, we're rushing backstabs first and dual-wield later - you can do wonderful things with a quick enough backstab, even despite having just 1 weapon. And we're not investing anything extraordinary into this, letting it develop as it is. Yeah, barbarian's huge hp are sorta wasted on the backrow, but that may be arguable - they still protect you against those party-killing elemental attacks, for example.

The throwing version works in a similar manner. Note that I'm not a huge fan of backrow barbarians – yeah, having a tank in your back sorta makes you a bit less vulnerable to the ambushes, but the game really doesn't provide you enough armor to shield your enough party and without Protection, I'll repeat, that huge chunk of health is pointless. And while the frontline throwing may sound silly, it can work if you think you really need both another character and tank.

Caber Tosser:

Insectoid - 5 points into Strength & Dexterity – Chitin Armor & Quick – Throwing Weapons & Armor

Level ups: Armor > Throwing > Throwing > Throwing > Throwing > Armor > Armor > Dodge > Dodge > Dodge > Critical > Critical > Critical

Despite being a ranged character, you still build pretty tanky – lots of ambushes in this game where you'll pretty much get cornered so you have to be prepared for that. Some Dexterity potion to cover up your lack of Accuracy and you'll do just fine in both tanking & damage dealing department.

Finally, despite what I've said in the intro, there is one workable build for the heavy barbarians, however, it comes pretty late into game. It all boils down to the Scythe - it's a 3.5 attack speed heavy weapon (the fastest in the game and almost as fast as the Sight weapons) with decent damage, innate +5% critical chance bonus and 3x modifier of critical damage (instead of average 2x). But, normally, you find it at lvl 12 and that's too close to the end of the game to really benefit from it. However, if you know where it is and metagame around it, you can get it as early as level 6 and, well, that's a world of difference. The build here will be:

Harvester:

Minotaur - 5 points into Strength & Dexterity - Aggressive & Headhunter - Heavy Weapons & Accuracy

Level Ups: Accuracy > Heavy > Heavy > Heavy > Heavy > Critical > Critical > Critical > Critical > Critical > Accuracy > Accuracy > Accuracy

Yeah, that's a backrow build - you really want to rush the critical here and that's easier done from the backrow.

5. Classes & Builds - The Battle Mage

In a very unconventional move (which is somewhat of a pattern – most classes behave rather unpredictable in this game) the best tank of this game is a caster. Sure, theoretically, a Knight with a shield potion applied can do better than the Battle Mage, but not by much and that Knight will be almost a 100% defensive, without much offensive capabilities. Whereas the Battlemage does solid damage in the early game and, once the spell damage stops being efficient, he still remains a great crowd controller / healer / backstab enabler. Lots of utility in this one and many different approaches. One common pattern is that, without a doubt, Insectoids make the best frontline battlemages. Generic build there will be something like:

Schwartzeror:

Insectoid – 5 points into Vitality & Willpower – Chitin Armor & Natural Armor – Concentration & Magic school

Level ups for Air:

Air > Air > Air > Concentration > Concentration > Armor > Armor > Armor > Armor > Water > Armor > Athletics > Athletics

Level ups for Water:

Water > Water > Air > Concentration > Concentration > Armor > Armor > Armor > Armor > Water > Water > Armor > Athletics

Level ups for Earth:

Earth > Earth > Earth > Concentration > Concentration > Armor > Armor > Armor > Armor > Earth > Athletics > Athletics > Athletics

Level ups for Fire:

Fire > Fire > Air > Concentration > Concentration > Armor > Armor > Armor > Armor > Armor > Athletics > Athletics > Athletics

One important aspect I haven't mentioned before is tempo. See, this game is constantly and relentlessly hard so there is no moment where your party is developed and all suddenly goes smooth and effortless. The challenge level is constantly rising and you must keep your pace up with it or you will get crushed. And see, why tempo – theoretically, the battlemage has enough skillpoints to have 3 concentration, 5 fire, 3 air and 4 armor. So he's both tanky and a good offensive caster. But practically there's no good way to do that – you either develop your armor too late (so you can't tank until the very end of the game – that'll make the second half of it extremely painful) or you gain the access to Meteor Strike (the only point of going 5 Fire/3 Air) at level 14 – yeah, it'll see a lot of use then. It's all about gaining the right tools at the right moment and these builds are all about that (barbarians, for example, also showcase this – you dump all your good stuff into your Light Weapons barb but that's so he can reach his 5 Light/5 Critical combination ASAP because the sooner you get it, the more use you gain out of it). You can try to take human for those extra skill points, but that really breaks the synergy – the point of an Insectoid Battlemage is that you start with 15 protection. Once you equip a wand (first one is a secret around lvl 2, second one is somewhere at lvl 4-5), that rises up to 25. Once you cast a Shield spell (can do it from the start if you know/guess how), it gets to the 50. Yeah, fifty basic protection. And then you just invest into your protection so you can keep up with the monster's offensive. You also can cast elemental shield, some battle magic, Force Field, Darkness and Darkbolt. All that will mostly come from the Concentration. Actually, the concentration is so good that there's a build with it being the sole caster skill:

Trinket Mage:

Insectoid – 5 points into Dexterity & Vitality – Chitin Armor & Natural Armor – Concentration & Armor

Level ups: Armor > Concentration > Concentration > Armor > Armor > Armor > Concentration > Concentration > Dodge > Dodge > Dodge >Athletics > Athletics

You see, apart from the spells, this game features quite a number of magical trinkets that can be emulated by someone with the Concentration skill and those trinkets can be pretty good, vital even. There's also stuff like alchemical bombs, for example – someone has to spend their turns throwing them. And there's all the Concentration goodness so, while at the start of the game this character will be pretty passive, that won't last for long. It's a great utility tank and the build is focused on making him sturdy very, very early in the game.

One other curious side of the Battlemage is that he can try himself as a melee fighter. Specifically, Heavy Weapons – they always suffer from the low Energy pool of their users and, well, with inevitable ranks in concentration and 5 energy per level gained that should be less of a problem.

Arcane Basher:

Insectoid – 5 points into Dexterity & Vitality – Chitin Armor & Quick – Concentration & Heavy Weapons

Level ups: Heavy > Heavy > Concentration > Concentration > Armor > Armor > Armor > Armor > Heavy > Heavy > Armor > Accuracy > Accuracy

Learn up the Heavy first so you can use the specials, expand your Energy pool a bit, then work on your tankiness, master the Heavy so you can use the best weapons of the school, finally polish your hitting chance. One of the last accuracy points may be exchanged for Fire Magic if you wish to use a certain unique weapon. If you find it, that is. And, by the way, that's not the only way for a Battlemage to approach melee combat. There is also:

The Bugbear:

Insectoid – 5 points into Dexterity & Vitality – Chitin Armor & Quick – Concentration & Light Weapons

Level ups: Light > Light > Concentration > Concentration > Armor > Armor > Armor > Armor > Dodge > Dodge > Dodge > Armor > Concentration

The point here is the active Transmutation potion usage. It makes your character into a bear, transfroms his weapons into paws and gives him +50 strength. What's important here is that, if you use one weapon, you get one paw attack, but if you dual-wield you get two. Also the cooldown of paw attack is tied to the cooldown of weapons you wield. But not their damage, mind you, the damage is independent. So, instead of wielding the most damaging daggers, you want to have the fastest daggers you can find (meaning the 2.5 second cooldown ones – with your 20% speed bonus, that's gonna be just 2 seconds, that's the point of Dodge here, though extra tankiness also helps). Of course, this build works the best with an Alchemist in your party so you can have a steady potion supply.

Lastly, you can do a simple backrow caster Battlemage. I'll discuss the reason for this in greater detail in Wizard review but, to put it shortly, Battlemage is just better.

Softcore Battlemage red edition:

Human – 5 points into Vitality & Willpower – Skilled & Fast Learner – Concentration & Fire & Air

Level Ups: Fire > Fire > Fire > Fire > Air > Air > Concentration > Concentration > Water > Air > Air > Concentration > Concentration

Softcore Battlemage blue edition:

Lizardman – 5 points into Vitality & Willpower – Endure Elements & Fast Metabolism – Concentration & Air

Level Ups: Water > Water > Water > Concentration > Concentration > Water > Air > Air > Air > Air> Concentration > Concentration

Softcore Battlemage weatherproof edition:

Human – 5 points into Vitality & Willpower – Skilled & Fast Learner – Concentration & Earth & Water

Level Ups: Earth > Earth > Concentration > Concentration > Water > Water > Air > Fire > Fire > Fire > Water > Water > Concentration

The red build is aimed at achieving the good nuking power as soon as possible. Note that you won't find the rune combination for the Meteor Shower until the very end game, but, to be honest, I think the authors presumed you'll find most of the spells on your own. Many of them are more or less logical and can be guessed after a number of attempts. The blue build is more about ranged control and having relatively easy time in the Ruins of Desarune (which, believe me, is worth a lot). The weatherproof build is aimed at achieving 3 different elemental shields, all at the time you really need them. And you still can do some ranged damage & stuff.

5. Classes & Builds - The Farmer

A rather quirky character. First warning here is that the Farmer doesn't combo quite well with the Alchemist – the Alchemist loves to spend as much time as possible so he grows more herbs. The Farmer, on the other hand, doesn't want to spend any kind of extra time on doing nothing because every extra step is a tiny amount of food he has to share with the other party (so, whenever you struggle on some puzzle, save in the beginning of it then, once you're finished, reload and do it quickly). And the Farmer is greedy, really, really greedy. The only time when he wants to linger is for his own gains - he wants to catch all the fish out of the river, for example. But, as I've said, the XP thresholds in this game are seriously steep so don't expect him to level up that high - it depends on your effort, but he'll be, like, 4 levels higher than the rest of the party? And, since he starts with the 2 skillpoints less, that'll be more like 2 actual levels of advantage. At the same time, what's good is that he will be gaining his initial levels much faster than everyone else, so while he won't gain that much extra XP, he'll have a very good tempo with it. And the best character to profit from that is a caster, so farmers make excellent backrow casters. Probably better than both Wizards & Battlemages.

Lina Inverse:

Human - 5 points into Vitality & Willpower – Fast Learner & Skilled – Concentration

Level Ups: Fire > Fire > Fire > Air > Fire > Fire > Air > Air > Concentration > Concentration > Earth > Earth > Earth > Water > Water > Water

This is more of a nuker build, achieving good damage rather early and then splashing for the utility – eventually, you will have all the spells and all the elemental shields. Pretty helpful. You may choose to go for a more defensive build, however:

Princess Amelia:

Human - 5 points into Vitality & Willpower – Fast Learner & Skilled – Concentration

Level Ups: Earth > Earth > Earth > Water > Concentration > Concentration > Water > Water > Air > Fire > Fire > Fire > Water > Water > Air > Air > Air

Less emphasis on nuking here, more on getting the needed elemental shields ASAP and bein more controll-ish in your actions.

You can also build your Farmer caster into an Alchemy user – that somewhat spoils his tempo, but the reasoning here is that he can brew potions without losing that much of utility (as the average alchemist does).

Weed Grower:

Human - 5 points into Vitality & Willpower – Fast Learner & Skilled – Concentration

Level Ups: Water > Water > Water > Air > Alchemy > Alchemy > Alchemy > Alchemy > Alchemy > Concentration > Concentration > Water > Water > Air > Air > Air

The Farmer can also go melee (from the backrow, though). The only synergy he has is with Heavy, though – he has a decent Energy pool and they love that.

The Shoveler:

Human - 5 points into Dexterity & Vitality – Fast Learner & Skilled – Accuracy

Level Ups: Accuracy > Heavy > Heavy > Heavy > Heavy > Heavy > Critical > Critical > Critical > Critical > Critical > Dodge > Dodge > Dodge > Accuracy > Accuracy > Accuracy

Something like that. If you feel like you miss too often, just change the order of dodge/critical and Accuracy.

5. Classes & Builds - The Fighter

Is a good class, but rather limited. So he has a great synergy with the special attacks of the melee weapons and, well, there's only one melee school that has great specials – Heavy Weapons. He also lacks any kind of defensive capabilities so he should never go frontline – backrow is his permanent home. And he greatly benefits from any kind of extra energy. Once you understand these factors, not a lot of build option remains:

A Special Person:

Lizardman – 5 points into Dexterity & Willpower – Endure Elements & Fast Metabolism – Heavy Weapons & Accuracy

Level Ups: Accuracy > Heavy > Heavy > Heavy > Heavy > Critical > Critical > Critical > Critical > Critical > Accuracy > Accuracy > Accuracy

Weird starting stats, but that's because he really wants no Energy penalties and you certainly don't want to miss with his ultra-expensive special attacks. Otherwise, just a lot of special attack potential. I've thought about giving him some concentration but that's the wrong solution to his problem – the right one is to give him some Energy boosting item. It may look like a travesty, but he's a great person to give the Archmage item set to – makes him immune to magic and gives him plenty of extra mana.

If we brainstorm other options, I guess you can try to do a frontline DEX-based Fighter. Flurry of Slashes is a pretty cool attack, especially in the backstab mode. And Backbiter helps a lot with the early game tanking.

Slasherfest:

Insectoid – 5 points into Dexterity & Vitality – Chitin Armor & Quick – Light Weapons & Critical

Level Ups: Light > Light > Critical > Critical > Armor > Armor > Light > Light > Armor > Armor > Critical > Critical > Armor

The main benefit here is that you gain your backstab attacks really, really early in the game. As soon as possible, pretty much. Just set up the rest of your party so that you can fully exploit that factor.

5. Classes & Builds - The Knight

Good tank but he's rather counterintuitive in his builds. While you usually associate Knights with strength and power, in this game he's a totally Dexterity-based character. It doesn't even matter which kind of weapon he builds – you still pump up Dexterity on him because that's the main enabler of his tankiness, it is the combination of Protection and Evasion that makes the Knight so great. Let's start with the less obvious build:

Drive B:

Insectoid – 5 points into Dexterity & Vitality – Chitin Armor & Quick – Heavy Weapons & Armor

Level Ups: Armor > Dodge > Dodge > Dodge > Armor > Armor > Heavy > Heavy > Heavy > Heavy > Armor > Dodge > Dodge

As Heavy weapons are pretty weak at the start of the game, we don't even bother to build up our weapon mastery quickly – instead, we focus on taking as much punishment as possible. Later on – that's where it'll be hammertime. Sure, this Knight will never have a good enough mana pool to use his specials often, but that's why he has 20% natural attack speed bonus – so he can whack those moles without much precision.

If you want your Knight to be a little bit more proactive then I suggest this:

Master Splinter:

Ratling – 5 points into Dexterity & Vitality – Mutation & Evasive – Light Weapons & Armor

Level Ups: Armor > Light > Light > Critical > Critical > Critical > Armor > Armor > Light > Light > Dodge > Dodge > Dodge

Obviously, you dual-wield dagger here. Yeah, you lose the Knight's shield evasion bonus but that's not such a big deal – best shields in the game have very low evasion anyway so you're not losing much. And, if it comes to worst and you really need extra tankiness, nothing prevents you from switching into the sword & board mode temporarily. Sure, you're not doing as much damage as the Rogue, but, once again, because of how the dual-wielding works you're not losing that much – about 6 damage with each hand. And, unlike the backrow Rogue, you don't have to waste points on Accuracy and you're actually putting your good evasion bonus to use. It's also probably the only way of putting your ratling into frontline – I'm sure some people will appreciate that.

5. Classes & Builds - The Rogue

A decent backrow damage dealer. Unfortunately, no matter what race you choose and what traits you give him, you can't make Rogue a frontliner. Not on the hard or not without sacrificing most of his damage potential, at least. But then, you're still dealing a lot of damage so who cares? The build here is pretty simple:

Plissken:

Lizardman – 5 points into Dexterity & Vitality – Endure Elements & Aggressive – Light Weapons & Accuracy

Level Ups: Accuracy > Light > Light > Critical > Critical > Critical > Light > Light > Critical > Critical > Dodge > Dodge > Dodge

Very straightforward progression – 2 Accuracy so we gain reach, then we work on our backstabs, then we take Dodge not because we plan to take any hits, but because that's the last way of increasing our damage remaining. You can also go ratling here (mutation & aggressive), but I prefer lizardman as he compensates for the Rogue's low health pool – the rat will suffer too much from the elemental attacks.

Of course, Rogue also gives a ranged bonus and that's pretty much the only aspect of the game where the minotaur shines. Boy, he's awesome at this:

Horny Ninja:

Minotaur – 5 points into Strength & Dexterity – Headhunter & Aggressive – Throwing Weapons & Accuracy

Level Ups: Throwing > Throwing > Throwing > Throwing > Accuracy > Critical > Critical > Critical > Critical > Critical > Accuracy > Accuracy > Accuracy

Great starting damage (the rocks he throws hit like they are a two-store buildings), decent scaling through the rest of the game, lots of Accuracy to abuse the Rage potions and more or less decent energy gain to use those Volleys of Stars & Power Throws. Just keep an eye out for those shurikens and you'll do great with this build. Other ranged weapons don't work that well with the Rogue – Missile Weapons are only ok if you go for the Alchemy and, even with the great critical bonus, Firearms are still bad.

5. Classes & Builds - The Wizard

Is utterly useless and bad, just use Battlemages & Farmers instead. Let's just compare the Wizard to the Battlemage - at the start, he has 15 less Health, but 10 more Energy. Then, through the course of the game, he gains +2 energy per level, but -2 Health. So at the level 14 he'll have 36 more Energy, but 41 less health than a Battlemage. He also won't have the Protection/Resist bonus and the armor wearing bonus (which, btw, is great for a low Strength characters) and he has nothing to compensate for that. And see, 36 energy is a joke – it's just one mid-tier spell, that doesn't matter that much. 41 health is serious, though – unless he's a lizardman, he'll just die over and over again. And even as a lizardman he'll suffer so what's the point? No point here, unfortunately. Still, if you want to have a Wizard in your party, just copy the Softcore Battlemage builds – there's no principal difference between these two (apart from Wizard dying from any loud sound) so those should do ok.

6. Party Composition

While building individual characters is tricky, building parties follows a set of rather simple rules:

a. There are no shops and no crafters in the game so your party composition is limited by the loot you will find. For the majority of the weapon schools, there's only enough good loot to support one character – so you can have one and only DEX-based Light Weapons user, one STR-Based Light Weapons user, one Missile Weapons user, one Throwing Weapons user. Spellcasting and Heavy Weapons are more plentiful – you can have up to three of each, but I don't really suggest that. Heavies are weak in early and mid-game so you'll suffer a lot, two is the maximum here and even that will sting. And spellcasting becomes weak in the late game and while the crowd control spells remain good, three crowd controllers is probably an overkill. Well, three caster party can be done, but only with a specific build.

b. You need to have at least one STR-based character in your party simply so he will drag all the food. There is a place you can return to relatively easy to store food, but that's still a chore.

c. You want a character with Alchemy – it's just way too important to skip.

d. You want your frontline to be really sturdy – only the Insectoid Battlemages, Knights, Insectoid Barbarians and maybe the Slasherfest Fighters may stand there. It's not that big of a problem as you've seen that these classes have plenty of builds so you'll find something you like anyways, but no one else truly belongs there.

e. You want at least one caster and, if you have only one, either Air or Fire magic is an absolute must for him, else you'll get stung to death by the Mosquitos. Also take 1 point in Water magic somewhere around lvl 10 so you're not afraid of the Air Elementals.

f. If you have a backstabbing character, make sure you have enough enablers for him – generally, 1 Alchemy user and 1 Concentration 3 caster is enough.

h. You want at least one ranged character – some situations demand that you kite, no matter how tanky your frontline is.

And that's all. Not that scary, is it?

7. Example Party Builds

'll mostly use the builds I've already described in this guide so, if you've skipped straight into this part, just CTRL+F them.

Balanced Party I:

Schwartzeror - Drive B - Plissken - Love Potion Peddler – Schwartzeror is Fire here and Peddler is Water.

Balanced Party II:

Hardboiled Breakdancer – Slasherfest - Softcore Battlemage red edition – Cracks Dealer

Balanced Party III (with farmer):

Master Splinter – Schwartzeror – Weed Grower - Horny Ninja – another Fire Schwartzeror

Balanced Party IV:

Caber Tosser – Bugbear – Vintage Shooter – Softcore Battlemage weatherproof edition

3-Caster Party:

Trinket Mage - Hardboiled Breakdancer – Love Potion Peddler – Softcore Battlemage red edition - Peddler is Earth in this one

Full Caster Party:

Bugbear – Schwartzeror – Love Potion Peddler – Lina Inverse – Schwartzeror is Earth here, Peddler is Water. Caution! Because of how this party is built, you don't need to go for the Earth & Water splashes on Lina – just max out her Concentration instead and past that you may just give her Athletics. Or, if you already know how to rush a spirit mirror pendant, i.e., how to have a very fat farmer, you may give her Alchemy, thus freeing up Peddler's skills for whatever he likes. You may also wish to switch your Peddler's learning order for a bit, rushing up the Alchemy 4 so the Bugbear comes online asap.

Ranged party:

Caber Tosser – Schwartzeror – Vintage Shooter – Softcore Battlemage blue edition – schwartzeror is Fire here.

P.S. Making such guides is a hard job. You can always thank the author by upvoting his project: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=388625087 - I'm a game designer and I wish to make full-blooded RPGs, but at the moment hybrids is all we can do.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=330809837

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