Lords of Xulima is tough

Based upon this thread and other positive reportages on this game, I nabbed it on Steam recently and have put in about 10 hours over the last week on old-school difficulty.

So far I don't mind it actually; the combat is regularly challenging, the presentation of which reminds me of the old Phantasie games. The atmosphere in dungeons has also been solid and the music is nice. I'm not rolling in funds early on and I've had to really stick at it to find the new areas where I should be exploring even if the game indicates to you whether an encounter is winnable or not.

Food consumption is something I haven't had to worry about in a game for some time (a welcome addition)

My party: Paladin-Gaulen-Thief (front line) with Divine Summoner-Mage-Cleric in the rear.

I contemplated going back and trying a more melee-centric group after not really liking my Paladin's damage output, but have stuck with it and are currently exploring the Temple of Febret after finishing up the Prince Nengroth area. So all in all, not bad so far.

Has anyone got a boxed version yet (from Indiegogo or Kickstarter pledges)?

Originally Posted by Pessimeister

So far I don't mind it actually; the combat is regularly challenging, the presentation of which reminds me of the old Phantasie games.

Reminds me of Phantasie, too. All the characters lined up at the bottom. I've been playing for about a week, and can say it is a solid old school game. The combat is the best part. Party make-up and strategy make a big difference along with knowing your enemies. My party is Soldier, Theft, Mage, summoner, cleric.

Yeah, regarding knowing your enemy in battles. A nice feature that should have been enabled in Xulima is the ability to consult your Bestiary from within the battle screen, since your party compiles useful information about resistances, attack tendencies, etc. on enemies as you encounter them. Maybe there's a way to do it, but I haven't figured it out yet if there is.

OK, I admit that I suck at these games. However, I am finding this game much too hard. Right now my set up is:
Goulin, pally, thief
Cleric, Mage or summoner

My problem is that I am usually low on gold unless my party has a summoner. If I don't, I can't kill certain mobs such as mushrooms with one or two friends especially if any of the shrooms have an aoe poison. I am also on the quest where I have to kill these in order to get 20 spores. So, I have a problem. PLEASE HELP . What group should I use and what should I do to kill the mushrooms. I can't even kill the main guy in the mausoleum in the main town.

Taxguy, you may need to go to another area like I said in the other thread. The game does not hold your hand, so the game allows you to get yourself in trouble with higher level content. Maybe try exploring a different area of the map that has enemies you are able to kill.

I haven't played the game, just read some reviews and interviews with the developers. If the enemies are too tough in an RPG, generally you are in an area you shouldn't be yet. Gain some more experience, get stronger and come back later.

If you're in the virtual minefield of shrooms, your goal is not really to kill them early in the game, merely waltz between them…

But, as for the inevitable combat, I found a bard with aoe sleep/stun (or whatever it was) to be of immense help.

Fluent, the problem with beefing up my levels in order to do the next job/quest is that I wipe out an area. Thus, there are no mobs at my level to kill.

Drithius, I have found the bard's stun to be very underwhelming. Usually mobs are immune. Even if they get stunned, they attack soon thereafter.

Drithus, I am not in the minefield of Shrooms. There is just one AOE shroom and two non-aoe buddies

AoE Sleep then. And concentrate fire on the shroom. Standard panic die die die tactics w/ stunning attacks to lower their combat order.

DRithus, First, thanks for the help and reply. However, I don't have aoe Sleep. I don't know what you mean "standard panic, die, die, die tactics." Also, I don't have a bard, which didn't help anyway. I restarted with mage and summoner.

I would not do pally. Go with Barbarian or soldier. Take speed every lvl with all characters. Your God choices need to increase initive or speed esp. with casters and bard. I did my play thru with summoner but I think bard may be better.

If you do pally you need to play a certain way. Has to do with his avoidence spell. You will die a lot at first with summoner because with your group set up you need to have cleric in front line. 4 players in front and mage and summoner in back with his pets. Is a very hard game at first but then gets much easier after 10 lvls or so. If you go speed every lvl gets much easier.

There is a very good guide in the Steam forums. You should check it out.

I would think the best party is Goulen, Barb, Rogue, Cleric, Mage, Bard. There is a lvl 30 Bard song that is amazing I have read. Also the bard song buffs will do wonders for you melee characters. I would also go all 2 handed weapons when you are high enough lvl.

I'm the OP and felt your pain too, but really the solution is to go somewhere else. If the enemies are classified as challenging or above, chances are there is another area you haven't visited that has more 'level appropriate' enemies. Maybe some path that you couldn't go through before is open now, maybe a dungeon you missed, something.

I hated that in the game, others may like it, but I hate that part of this game, that you have to go all over the place to find your next 'level appropriate' area. I wish quests had a recommended level so you don't waste your time with so much going back and forth (if you don't like that level of "hand-holding" then make it an option you can disable/enable in Lords of Xulima 2).

The game gives you indications on the general strength of fights at every turn; so it's not that difficult to gauge where you need to be and where you need to return to later. The maps are editable so you can easily take note of such things too.

I probably had the toughest time from the transition after defeating the princes and then to the titan battles. I had to do quite a bit of grinding and "world touring" to become ready to even take on the first titan and many of the demon mobs whopped my party into oblivion every time. I found revisiting temples and cleansing them completely, quite useful. The artifact quests for the permanent buffs were handy too. It's amazing the difference even one level can make in this game; particularly in the later stages.

Keep at it Taxguy - it's a rewarding game when you start finding some success. I can also echo Hastar's sentiment on the Paladin - whilst I had one, he was a bit disappointing and didn't quite become the DPS bread-winner that I imagined, but rather became more of a "survivorist" defender type.

I finished it with the following party: Gaulen - Paladin - Rogue - (1st row) Summoner - Priest - Mage. (2nd row)

It's a tough learning curve plus party composition is important.
1st time completed with Gaulen, Arcane Warrior, Thief and Mage, Paladin, Cleric
Leveled the Paladin's polearms a bit late. Only took 2 points in learning

2nd play through I have Gaulen, Paladin, Thief and Mage, Bard, Divine Summoner.
MUCH easier, partly because I know the game better now and partly because I am maximizing learning (even on the DS). The Golot summon and Bard mercantilism double up nicely and the cash is spent on skill points.
Most fights go: Bard sleeping foes, Golot making money and then party killing.

I've played this game for more than forty hours and I still don't know if I'm enjoying it or not.