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[twillight]

I went to Silver Cove as a sidetrip for master learning and merchant (there is no enchant item for me to gain money) and of course picking up quests (especially the stable-visiting one), then I thought I'll go for the swords in the rocks, so I hired a windmaster to be able to get all three.

It turned out that the swords in rocks gain their attributes (but not their quality!) when you pull them out. So now I have 3 sowrds with elemental damage (one has of the dragon attrib., what really helps as spells can not boost my stats, and remember: excalibur requires 200 might), so I don't have to worry that much because of oozes and diamond gargoyles.

I also managed to defeat Snergle. The library in the Iron mines require 50 intelligence (spellbooks are still good for selling). The Throne Room was kinda fun: I was only lvl20, but with almost all the potions on me, I managed to cut myself through the dwaves who appeared behind me (appart from that the quest is really a cakewalk).

Also here is how statuses overwrites themselves, as only the highest level status affects you:
weak / cursed / paralysed / drunk - insane (yes, even if you're paralysed you can act as normal IF you're insane) - poisoned - diseased - dead - eradicated

I still didn't get these conditions, so I have no idea where they fit in the above order, but I suspect they are below insanity: sleep, afraid

One last thing: if you spend a day without sleeping, you still eat 1 food. I'll have to keep this in mind as I'll have to go to Dragonsands for the Varn (there is no Inn to sleep, no church for direct healing, so I'll have to eat&sleep many times I bet because of the many strong monsters there).

I also decided that at some point I should fire my NPCs, get a windmaster and a gatemaster to get bow mastery more easily. Those pesky minotaurs sure look bad along the road!

[twillight]

I had a lot of things to do, not being abe to concentrate on this game. But I made a progress, although most of it is just a planing now, but I'm sure these will be the right thing to do:
- I'll stay in Silver Cove for the knight promotion quest. It'll be very hard with all the cuisinarts, but I see no other choice.
- travell is still a nuisiance, so I have to keep in mind dates. Prince Nicolai is one thing, but now the first druid-promotion is a pain in the ass as I missed the first equinox in march, so I'll have to wait until june. Darn.
- after getting the promotion I'll try to keep myself still in the already visited maps. The rest will become harder. I already start to think swapping my Banker to an Enchanter would be a good idea.
- the next thing I should do is to aquire Master Bow. For that I want level 40 first. And I'll have to clean Frozen Highlands. Darn, I find that map annoying and hard. But it will be a must.
- with level 40 (and possibly Master Bow) I'll try the knight level of Arena, the paladin promotion quest, and killing the Minotaur Lord while aquiring the Chalice for the temple of Free Heaven. Then I'll do all the remaining stuff on the already visited maps (like killing everything on islands, touching summoning-wells, visiting the stables and the Dragon Towers etc.), and only then move further.

I already decided no visiting the hardest of maps (like Paradise Valley), but I think the Fountain of Youth will still be a must (I already have some +10 years on each knights of mine). Hermit's Isle will need a quick rush, I have no real idea what to do there with all the devils and no resting-place. At Mire of the Damned at least is a Temple to be healed, and in the Varn will be plenty of space to sleep (I hope my food-supply will be enough). Kriegspire although has an inn, the distances look hugh. Sweet Water will be almost a joke with its healing-well compared to the rest of the game. (Eel Infested Waters is also a map to leave out mostly, but fortunatelly there is a Temple right at the dungeon you have to visit. And remember: if you can kill at least 1 enemy, you do progress!)

I wonder how good will I end up with all the melee-weapons I have and how much the blasters will help. I bet I won't be able to clear all the dragons of Dragonsands But currently when I get the chance to melee, I do pretty nice damage. (Too bad I can't use enchant even from scrolls (that's bug), so I have no bow with elemental damage - or any attribute to be honest. I can also hardly wait for artifacts! As there is an artifact-limit in the game and none from the obelisk-quest would be useful to me, artifacts will realy come late in the game this time.)

A hint to all who try an allknight party: as elemental-damage weapons are hard to come by (especially if you don't go shopping too much), buy all the weapon-skills you can for each of your characters. Ok, maybe you'll be forced to use weapons at level 1 skill, but it is still better then having a skill at lvl10 and still doing no damage to that pesky obsidian gargoyle or ooze.


I'll report my progress if I'll finish what I've described here

[Oskatat]

the most important thing about blasters, specially the small ones, is that they fire fast. basically, most enemies dont even have the time to move before one or another thing hits em, making them flinch. I've only played M&M 6, 7 and 8 a bit, mostly 7, and i do remember that, when you got good ranged, it all didnt matter that much anymore. maybe it was a bug, but you could stay out of agro and still hit with ranged attacks

[twillight]

Thx Oskatat, but the problem is, there is no "flying" for knights, and especially in MM6 when you get the blasters you'll have to face monsters that still do big damage to you while you're shooting on maps where you can' be healed (no temples, and knights don't have magic of their own).
Btw the speed of the blasters was a hidden stat - and therby not a bug but a feature - what depended on your skillevel: it at a percentage forgot recovery-time.


Anyway I went playing a lot for now, here are my experiences:
- Cuisinarts on lvl30 are just a little bit too strong to handle without additional magic. Healing scrolls (or NPCs), magic wands with some strong spell are really a must against them, and it'll still not be life-insurance (fortunatelly in turn-based mode you can pass around wands, don't forget that). Remember: you don't have to feel shame just because you walk back to the town for another healing before trying yourself against these walking armors. (And never forget that most of the enemies here can be killed through doors, so you won't suffer damage. Also pushing golden plate armors out of the corpse of cuisinarts worth some reload)
- next place to visit is Frozen Higlands. Master dagger with Mordred in your hand can heal you a LOT, not to mention other useful skills here (like master repair, master disarm). Magyar Matrons although are VERY strong, so when you plan to stay on this map longer (just a little while it'll happen), change your banker to an Enchantress for the extra resitance. (You'll gather ca. 500K gold preserved cash anyway, and there are no spells to shovel your gold into.)
- in Frozen Highlands you have a teleporter! That will really help. So enter there, go to Free Heaven, capture the Prince of Thieves, get your promotion, do whatever you left here in general (like fixing stable-prizes). Don't forget to repair the Temple! Then return to Frozen Highlands again, hire a WindMaster, and fly through the mountains, and finish this map. Don't forget to drink from fountains for permanent staboosts (the Temple will summon back your eradicated partymembers. Sadly at the two other locations like this - namely Kriegspire and Dragonsands - do not have temples). The main importance here is to collect the DragonTower quests.
- hire air-transport again, and through the teleporter end up in Castle Ironfist. Do an Arena-visit if you feel like it (and have the time), then let Nicolai escape from view. What to do now depends highly on how much time you still have from April, as bringing back the Prince overwrites all your needs. Let's assume you have little amount of time, but I hope you still have so much to be able to visit Mire of the Damned to end the Snergle-quest (and possibly kill the local dragon. With your boosted hp you have at least the chance to do it).
- the time has come to hire a gatemaster before we run out of time and have to wait until August for Nicolai, what'd be a GREAT pain. So just teleport to Blackshire (after some leveling up if possible). We won't do much here: picking up quests, picking up Nicolai, and picking up Lord Kilburn's shield (run in if you lack the strenght, but remember: the local Temple can heal you).
- now that I don't have to worry about time until July (the equinox is there for the druid promotion-quest), it's time to go for Master Bow. It's really the time to gain that. So hire a WindMaster AND a GateMaster (There are no NPCs on the streets of Kriegspire and we won't collect treasures now anyway). Do some levelups if you don't have the required amount of skillpoints. Go to Kriegspire, close the Keep, fly up, and learn the skill. Fly out. Now if you feel lucky do not use your GateMaster yet, instead go to Sweet Water and put the required statue on the pedestal. Teleport back to Frozen Highlands, from where use the local teleport to Castle Ironfist. Do whatever you still can here (I still had here Corlagon's estate besides giving back Nicolai and the Shield. Had to save regularly as specters can take away ALL your hp at one hit, and there are lots of them). Go to New Sorpigal to agree with the stable and the dragontower (and possibly cleaning the islands). Travel on boat to Myst to give in the Crystal of Terrax. Travel on boat to Bootleg Bay, and clean the island. Travel to the other island by ship. Clean the island, including that pesky minotaur lord (that'll be a hard fight, hope you have high enough level). Fly to the pedastal (and if you still have time and will and there are some monsters on islands, kill them too).

This was a lot for today, I think I'll make a break. But I realised something I forgot until now: there is a teleporter between the Hermit's Isle and Free Heaven. That'll come in handy later.
Oh, Eel Infested Waters is impossible with this party, so just forget about killing all the sea-monsters.
Also don't forget while travelling around t improve your skill-levels.

[Oskatat]

if you want to level a lot in MM7, dont kill wormthrax

everytime you go to sleep in his cave, 1 to 3 dragons will spawn. If you manage to get into a safe area they will go back to the cave entrance where they will get stuck, Kill them at leisure, just get some repair skill to repair your weapons. It basically will allow you to reach unlimited heights. One of the patches adressed this, so it may not work

M&M 7 spoiler

otherwise i usually found that, unless you're on a schedule it pays not to rush, get more xp, items and such. in 7, visit the barrow downs a lot, the creatures generate there almost every day. want to kill goblins?

theres a fire beacon in harrowdale map, if you dont unmask the traitor, it will summon a bunch of reinforcements (outside the fort btw). easy xp, usually

goblin invasion

[twillight]

A minor but important thing: on the last day of the months the Circus is not where it should be. (I've just tried this out.)

Also as the very next thing is evidently Blackshire with its werewolves I'm glad I have disease-immunity for all of my knights. And the constantly summoned werewolf-teams behind our characters give me the feeling that a GateMaster would be a good idea for that quest despite the magic-rejection of this party... what is fun. The early parts had - in my opinion - 7/10 (10/10 being most easy), and the middle-game was 8/10. There were some rare hard moments, but those just gave a spark to things. (And if you think you'd face money-problems in training, just hire a merchant right before you'd level up. That literally saves you thousands and thousands of gold. Not that you'd have anything else to spend it.)
And no, it is not boring to "just attack". With spells it is usually the same: you set your spell, and press spellcasting until you run out of mana, so there is not too much difference here. The difference comes at the point of the need of prebuff: you rarely need it, and you have to consider carefully what you need when, and always try to refresh your supplies

In Blackshire the map is divided by half by mountains. But these mountains are climbable unlike the others. To climb from the city-side go until the Temple of Baa to find the right place. To climb from the desert go to the bottom of the mountain reaching into the desert on the western side.

Also I went around the Inns to check how much food you can lay your hands on. The Inn that offers the most is in Blackshire desert with 60 rations.


EDIT: This just doesn't worth a new post: I just went to Kriegspire, and as I flight to the local pedestal I've come across a chest, and found an artifact in it. As I didn't like what I got I reloaded and tried again, lacking to find artifact there again. But I've made some other discoveries too:
The experience-well does NOT work if you save then reload the map.
The Devil's Outpost isn't too hard (I'm lvl 40 currently), and can be reached without difficulty if you go around the volcano along the edge of the map.
Just things to keep in mind.

[twillight]

Ok, I start a new post to avoid hughness.

This time I can add these with my All-Might-Y party:
- minor thing, but nice: you don't have to go back when finishing the druid promotion quests. Preserves some time (or money).
- I don't know what are the requirements churches putting spells on you when you donate money. Any info on that would be nice.
- although flying is always an option (by hiring NPCs), don't forget that you CAN swim (you loose hp, but everything has its price, so it is ok).
- After revealing Silvertongue being a traitor the ship Queen Catherine in Caste Ironfist on each sunday offer you to carry your team not just to Hermi's Isle, but also on two islands of New Sorpigal. The route that takes 14 days will put you down right at Gharik's forge.
- if you refuse to use any magic no matter the source, there is 1 quest you would not be able to complete (placing the statues on the pedestals), and you could not master the plate and bow skills. So just get used to swapping NPCs regularly.
- in Dragonsands there are fountains that can give you permanent boosts but kills whoever drinks from it. But if you have a wind master AND a gate master, you can easily go back and forth between Dragonsands and New sorpigal (remember the teleport on the top of that building).
- not just dead, but even simply unconscious patymembers do not gain exp. Be aware of that.
- the "cursed" status seems to affect not just the spellcasting abilities, but also the attacks with weapons, although I'm not sure. Not that you could do anything with this as cursing monsters keep cursing you (even groups with casters can remove this only between battles).

Blackshire:
Surprisingly little to say here. The ground above is simple, just force melee combat with the lizards and shoot down imediatelly the whirlwinds. And of course if you start to be low on hp run back to town.
The Temple of the Snake is as usual. I hope you were already visited the Temple of the Moon where you can find a lot of Stone to Flesh scrolls. If you didn't, or you're just of of 'em, then save to avoid the rare effect. Now one thing I've checked: when you go through the Golden Dragon's romm with pushing the button there the corridor where the nasty ice-spell appeared regularly turns out that feature. So go back on the sideway, and kill the blasted dragon once and for all. Sadly I'm still not able to beat out from it more then one artifcat - it must be a sepcial monster despite its look. (Oh, of course getting to this island means you'll have to swim.)
The Werewolf's lair is still hugh and nasty. don't even try it without having disease-immunity on all your characters.
Now on this map NPC is an interresting question. As even lizards don't hit too hard (in hp. They do break your equipment, but that's another story) I advice hiring the local armsmaster (lives in a house. I've noticed that not all kind of NPC can be found on every map, not even when you try the stree-NPCs). But when you enter to the werewolves it might be even better to hire a healer. So even if you're low on health, you will be able to get out alive (monsters do appear BEHIND you in this place).

My idea is, that healing NPCs were originally ment to places where you can encounter with life-nulling monsters. But the save/load spell counteracts that
Oh, and healing-NPCs are bugged (at least the "pure" healer). Even though they give back your hp, you remain uncoscious if you were unconsious when they casted their ability!

Nah, lastly for now some things about Kriegspire:
So, this is our first visit when we actually want to do something here. That something is not that obvious: drinking from fountains. This is the leading string for now as here is no temple to heal us up from being dead.
Now what we'll need: use the coach company between Kriegspire and Free Heaven. That takes 6 days, so we'll have a full day in Kriegspire to kill things. One of the fountain is guarded, not to mention we have a quest to do here: revealing Silvertongue as a traitor - and that is NOT hard once you get in the building, as you only have to clear a couple of rooms by strickt means, and Baa priests are not at all though, especially on the level you'll reach here (I'm level 60 currently).
Now to make things as fast as it can be hire a MASTER healer, as one of the fountains "only" kills you (the other one eradicates you, and only temples can fix that if you don't have magic of your own, and I've never seen a resurrection scroll. I've also never seen a tooth (theoreticly there is someone in Free Heaven who collects those)). Also don't forget that at least one of your partymember shall be always alive or you'll lose a whole year, and that'd be bad news. If you can't manage to hire a master healer, you'll have to do one more trip, and with that using up one more game-week. Not the end of Enroth, but it looks so pathetic, eh?

EDIT: actually in Kriegspire lives a Master Healer. And if you hire an NPC from a house, then dismiss it, you can immediatelly find in its house again. (This healer and its expert counterpart can help you out if you plan to attack the whole local Temple of Baa.)

Well, there seems to be some mistakes on the mapped detailful walkthrough of MM/ (link: http://www.the-spoiler.com/RPG/New.W....1/mm6.html#ks ). In Kriegspire it points a fountain what gives you 10 magic resistance on the cost of eradication. Sadly only the eradication-part is true.
Also the chest long the southern side of the mountain is positioned falsly (it is in real more to the east).

[twillight]

I think - or shuld I say hope - that this will be my last post on MM6. Will expand of course, but not much new things I think will appear:

- only the temple in Free Heaven can heal eradication. So when you do the statboost in Dragonsands hire a windmaster and a gatemaster in New Sorpigal, go to Dragonsands via the portal, get whatever you can, town portal to Free Heaven where you swap your gatemaster (one lives next to the alchemy shop), portal back to New Sorpigal, and repeat as needed.
- I've found a wand "of blasting". I have no idea what spell it contains, but it is just like sparks (or shrapmetal) but sends the projectiles (fire element?) horizontally. But if you bend forward (looking downward) it has a good use against big mobs of oozes.
- no matter how much I've shopped I've never found things giving immunity to being stoned or paralisation. They seem to be excusive on artifacts.
- while NPCs from houses immediatelly return to their places, streetNPCs seems not to. I don't know their refresh-rate, but sometimes this can rise difficulties.
- next to Gharik's forge lives a healer. So you can swim here, no need to wait for getting access to Queen Catherine. But you can also prefer to bring other NPCs (enchanter is most advisable and I just like the cartographer) and heal by eating your food. Also let ALL of your party go insane - every little bit helps clearing the room at the bottom of the lift.
- When you go to Eel Infested Waters aim the southern island for the obelisk. Then just get the local ship to go to the northern island. Don't forget to turn at least the character with the most might to insane - if you're not already - by the help of the fountain in Silver Cove (that's the only place from where you can travel there) for a hugh statboost - makes a lot easier to pull out the Excalibur.
- Getting the crystals from Eel Infested Waters is easy with the local temple. Also from the Hermit's Isle you can activate the teleporter to Free Heaven (will work both ways from then), so that is also accomplishable with only minor planning. And of course when you'll get blasters you'll be able to come back and wreack havoc!
- In Mire of the Damned you'll suffer, but at least the town is nearby, so if you run low on health, just go out and sleep (the place is too hugh to rely upon your own food I say). In Kriegspire the town is a bit away, but maybe the "Curator" can be your source of healing (on the cost of LOTS of money and reputation - this later has no use for you anyway, but be cautious to avoid being jailed. But money can be regathered from the obelisk-quest). As these two are not a little harder then the previous ones I suggest to gather the quest-exp for the first two crystals and levelup as far as you are able before going in. Also do a levelup (no matter how minor) before going for the VARN.

[lordinsane]

Originally Posted by twillight

and MM9 was crappy in all sense if you ask me.

Not strange. That is the game whose lead developer described its 'beta phase' as its alpha phase, and who was 'finished' two weeks after it entered 'beta', after all - plus it was understaffed for the first three months of its development, and suffered common shifts in personell even afterwards.

[twillight]

I'm in Castle Darkmoor, and that place is a big time-waster. The real problem is not that you got hit, but that fact that you need to use bow almost exclusively, so you don't deal damage yourself! So just forget about the eyes, and go streight for the big prize. I'm lvl75 here, and have no problem (appart from eye-caused boredom).
The best thing is to find maddening eyes as soon as possible - then you don't have to worry about things like being afraid, or worse: sleeping.

I wish I had some good idea for the VARN. Even if I'd leave out as much as possible from it, that place is still hugh with badass monsters. Maybe I'll do some nasty NPC-trick with the last 3 scrolls ... namely I'll return to civilisation, go to New Sorpigal, change my chartographer to a GateMaster, and just run for the scrolls (and when I'll have them I'll just teleport out to well-deserved calmness). But my monsterous (actually I'm notorious, but that doesn't sounds that good) insane all-might-y party WILL SAVE ENROTH! (I'm lvl 83 when going to the VARN.)

Meanwile I've found on some random monster (so not in shop) a random ring that prevents being paralyzed, and found an NPC that suggested to find an item with charges (so scroll or wand) that allows to cast me L'loyd's beacon (this kind of items seems to be left out of the game in the final version though).

Now as I have 100 food, and no place for at least a WindMaster (to come from New Sorpigal), and I'm late in December, Blackshire's road is the place I suggest to all as enterance-point to Dragonsands when you go against the VARN. Then it's a personal taste wether you want to clear your way to the NWC-dungeon, or just go streight into the VARN. Either way don't forget that you have limited resources and you don't have the nifty spells (appart most probably some good wands), so stay strickt on the absolutly necessary roads. That's the only advice I can give you. Then when you'll have blasters finally you'll have literally hundreds of skillpoints to invest in it (so maybe rise your armor and weapon levels further then the strickt minimum), and you'll be able to solve all the leftover things if you want (like agar's lab, the dragonriders' cave and the Baa initiation what comes to my mind). The final quest needs no mention as it isn't that difficult, and won't differ the solution from the usual.

Ah, just got into me: did you notice you can't cast L'loyd's beacon inside the Hive?