************************************* Wizardry VIII v1.7 Walkthrough - Part 2 ************************************* April 9th, 2002 Written by: Jack Leung Email: bullions27@yahoo.com URL: http://jbullions.topcities.com ***************************************************** D. Some Gameplay Strategies & Tips ***************************************************** Save a Lot: ---------- The most important thing to remember in every RPG you can think of: Save often! Know it, learn it, live it. In general you should REALLY save before and after every major fight, save once before you enter a new zone, save in another file when you enter a new zone, and save before you confront a treasure chest. You will never know when suddenly your band is waylaid by some Uber mobs or you underestimated someone and they wipe you out. Always save. Make it a habit. Increase the Gamma/Brightness Setting: ------------------------------------- I find that increasing the Brightness setting from halfway to about two-thirds really helps me in seeing the environment and the horizon. There areas in the game that are VERY dark and VERY difficult to see what is approaching from the distance. Exploit Terrain: --------------- Monsters generally come in groups or more, and nothing is more frightening than to be surrounded. Always fight with a wall, or a rock, or any obstruction, on a flank or behind, or better yet, fight in a corner. If there is a doorway, fight under the door. Monsters will single file and you can fight them one at a time. Archers can still hit you (major gripe) but they may shoot their own friends (rarely). Mages will always hit you unfortunately. Buying/Selling: -------------- Your faction and Communication skill determines prices on items. Treasure Chests: --------------- This is probably my biggest gripe about the game. Items, within chests, are randomly generated from a certain large set when you first enter the area and will remain that way thereafter. Nothing is more frustrating than to fight many battles, come to a chest, and open it to find rocks and mundane arrows. Knowing this, you might want to make a save before you enter a new area, then a separate save while you're in that new area. Monster Generation: ------------------ Like Chests, each area or zone has a specific set of monsters it randomly generates from upon your arrival. Each monster has a specific level range of difficulty. The level of difficulty rises as your party becomes stronger. Skill Distribution: ------------------ There are two ways for you to gain skill points. One via gaining levels, and the other by using them constantly in real time. Points from gaining levels will only take your skills, magic and combat and excluding bonuses from items, up to 75. From that point on, the only way to increase them is by using them. Knowing this, you would want your primary skills to reach that 75 cap as quickly as possible. The faster you can reach that cap, the more time it has being exposed to consistent real life usage. Everquest Pulling: ----------------- If you played EQ, then you know what pulling is. When you agro monsters (they come chasing you), you can backpedal and lead them into an area where you want to fight (like an area with Friendly NPCS to help fight with). As long as the Combat doesn't come up, they can chase you around all day and night, unless you disappear from sight. This is a good tactic to use in Trynton and Arnika. Keep Protection Spells Active: ----------------------------- AT ALL TIMES. These include Armorplate, Enchanted Blade, Magic Screen, Missile Shield, Light, and X-Ray. No point in wasting a round casting them while in combat. I generally run them at Power 2 when I'm still low level, then progress up to Power 4 or 5 as I increase in Levels. If you have a Bard and Gadgeteer, their personal items which can also cast those spells, can help lighten the mana load on your caster(s). When Camping: ------------ I never once had to camp outside of Arnika, but if you have to, remember to camp in places you can fight from since monsters can and will hunt you down. These places include corner spots and rooms with doors. Formations (Good): ---------------- See below for bad. Need more characters to melee close- range? Simply get rid of the front rank, and just use center, flanks and rear. Fast Money: ---------- You can make money ridiculously easy if you have some sort of Alchemist in your party (true class or Ranger, Ninja). All you need is at least a Skill of 15 for Alchemy. Find shops that sell Potions of Light and Mod Healing (Arnika is a good place). Buy an equal amount for each type as much as you can afford. Have your Alchemist combine them to create Potions of Hv Healing. Sell them back for a hefty profit. Camp 24 hours for the shop to reset their inventory, then repeat. Higher skill levels allow you to combine better powders and potions which turn in a even larger profit. Fast Skill Building (Psionics/Music): ------------------------------------ Learn Mindread and Knock Knock as soon as possible. Once you hit Arnika, proceed to cast Mindread over and over on any talking NPC to build up your Psionics and Mental magic skills up. The room with the 10 tumbler lock is an excellent place to cast Knock Knock to progress Earth skill. The Viola D'Amore instrument can be used over and over like Mindread to quickly build up Music skill. A female Bard with two Necklaces of Endurance (both found in Arnika) can recover stamina extremely fast. ***************************************************** E. Pick-Pocketing ***************************************************** The latest patch, if installed, increases the difficulty of the Pick-Pocket skill exponentially. If you use earlier patch versions, you can pretty much Pick-Pocket to your hearts' content by doing the Save/Re- Load method when you fail. If not, it becomes a bit tricky. Results of Pick- Pocketing will stick in your game regardless how many times you reload over and will remain that way until a time period has passed. So if you fail, just reload, and don't pick-pocket the NPC for awhile. ***************************************************** F. Annoying Things and Gripes ***************************************************** Do Not Underestimate Initiative: ------------------------------- Nothing is more annoying than watching mobs of monsters make their move quicker than you. This is especially annoying against low HP mobs like Soldier Ants and certain Fishes in Sea Caves that can do high damage and have multiple attacks. You can fix initiative by working on your Speed attribute. Your Magic vs. Their Magic: -------------------------- Whereas your spells are limited by range, the same spells cast by your enemies are not. This is a major pain if you begin combat against spellcasters that are far away from you. Combat this by getting them hostile, then hide in a corner so they will come closer. Monsters Can Hit Through Wall Corners: ------------------------------------- They can hit you but you can't hit them. This happens in a few places but regardless it is annoying. Formations (Bad): --------------- Formations have no effect on enemy long range attacks. Archers, throwers, et cetera can hit any of your characters with no penalty. Anyone with common sense will find this very annoying. Speaking of long range attacks, enemy archers and throwers can fire THROUGH their friends to hit any of your party members with extraordinary accuracy. This is twice as annoying. Hence why Missile Shield is so invaluable. Next issue we'll start the walkthrough - o -