Tips & Tricks thread

When you enter Clockwork Mansion realm, do me a favor when you turn on the hyperdrive inside it use quicksave then quickload.
I wish this was possible outside of it.

Does anyone know the formula for actual hit chance?

After so much playing time…

My main is undead. I have Shackles of Pain spell since before entering Fort Joy I think, noticed if I cast it on a trashmob, all hostiles will ignore my main and attack sidekicks, I mean, of course they will, AI in this game is not stupid.
But I'm the one who is stupid!

My main is undead. And me, an idiot, did not (ab)use that fact properly.
All I needed is to (first destroy trashmob boss phys armor then) shackles of pain on the boss then:


What's even worse in my stupidity, my main is a spellcaster while the other three characters are physical damage based.

Ah well… Tactician mode replay here I come. Unless Larian removes this spell from the game completely.
I'm even thinking on doing what we agreed in the other thread - making a full dump stat CON only, sack of health character who'll only lollygaggin' on the combat field.

Shackle of Pain + Last Rite (on necro):
it res a party member to full health, damage you for lots of HP, damage person with Shackle of Pain for lots of HP and then heal you for lots of HP.

Also, there is a single boss immune to being transformed into a chicken in the game. Turn into chicken and then you apply rupture tendon on them and they kill themselves running around.

Necro is pretty OP and the passive scale if you put points into Necro and Hydro.

I don't have nor ever used the chicken spell. Thought it was silly.
And silly it might be, but as I said, took me over 100 hours to realize I have a boss instakill mechanics already on me, probably would take 100 hours more to even try the chicken thing.

Last Rites appears in stores only when you hit level 16, not before. So it's not viable earlygame as pots.

Man, the chicken spell is my bread & butter. For enemies without or low physical armor it works wonders. I have it in my rogue, tele-backstab (one point), attack (backstab 2 points), only bosses usually still have any armor left after this combo, chickenize. Enemy's turn chicken runs away and gets another backstab AOO from the rogue.

So, here's a tip whose importance has annoyed me in Act 1: Stingtail is your pyrokinetic spell vendor in act 1. Do not let a certain npc kill him until you have all your level 1 & 2 spells.

Originally Posted by Drithius
So, here's a tip whose importance has annoyed me in Act 1: Stingtail is your pyrokinetic spell vendor in act 1. Do not let a certain npc kill him until you have all your level 1 & 2 spells.

There is another pyrokinetic spell vendor in act 1, in the Sanctuary of Amadia.

In fact, all acts have at least 2 spell vendors for all skills.

Yeah, there are two in Driftwood as well, but the 2nd set of vendors are in a fairly high level elf camp, so don't kill any skill vendors off (such as the dwarf guarding the cellar in the tavern).

I say - don't kill vendors till you rob them first.
Since the amount of gold you can rob depends on thievery level, that means you shouldn't rob vendors till you've leveled it enough (basically till you've cleared the area completely).

Note that you may rob them once with a character. Means, each party member can rob them.
Even more - don't ever drop superrare unique +1 thievery dagger.

Okay, to be honest, with just one thief (and one high barter and one high luck sidekick) I had enough gold for everything in my normal difficulty playthrough. However on tactician, IMO you should check vendors every hour for new better equipment.

Well I'm playing without stealing, so that doesn't apply to me

On hardest difficulty? My condolences.

Stealing was the only way I came even close to being able to outfit my four melee group. If I had no avenue to thieve, at least two of my party would have been practically naked.

Not sure if I should, but this is actually a tip from Larian themselves.
Yes you can solo the game or play as duo lonewolves. However this is Larian's official gif that is IMO the best tip possible:



No it doesn't mean you should play exactly these 4 people. Any 4 will do.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Stealing was the only way I came even close to being able to outfit my four melee group. If I had no avenue to thieve, at least two of my party would have been practically naked.

I never used thievery and I finished the game with 250k gold…no issue outfitting anyone during the course of the game.

I didn't even have lucky charms.

You sure can finish the game with tons of unused $.
I'm now on the 4th island with party completely equipped with divine stuff and with over $200K in my pockets I don't have anything to spend it on. I've even made numerous best runes for my crew. Most of frames and superior pixie dust for those I've bought, not steal.

The "thou shan't steal" problem happens when you're not able to buy all the skillbooks you (desperately) need in Fort Joy.

Aye I don't steal either and haven't had much trouble getting what I need. Lots of loot drops. I may not be able to buy everything I want instantly but then that wouldn't be much fun if I didn't have things to look forward to.

Well okay then, another tip in these moral cases.
You don't steal but I bet you kill.

Do buy everything from a store and sell everything back to that vendor till they're clean of $. Then kill it.
All items you sold will drop and can be looted. And you keep what you bought.

I can't play this week since my travel computer is linux but when I leave an island can I return?

Originally Posted by you
I can't play this week since my travel computer is linux but when I leave an island can I return?

No, the game warns you about it before you leave.