Soloing Grimlock with the savegame editor

[Darklord]

This is damn cool, thanks for posting up how to do that!

Daniel.

[lothario]

My pleasure, sir.

Although, after messing around with playing this game on solo for a while, I have to admit that it IS quite a bit different from the standard party of four (duh?)... obviously, you are in more peril -- as all of your eggs are in one basket, so to speak. What I really mean is that traditional builds for team members fulfilling a role as mage, archer, etc., start to "not be so great" compared to some counterintuitively styled builds that count on the character in question being alone.

For example, if you solo as a fighter, it behooves you to drop quite a few points (I suggest maxxing it) at char creation into willpower. Why is that? Simply put, you are the only one attacking and doing damage, so fights last much longer (again -- duh!) but unless you've gone solo for a while, you may not realize how fast your energy bar drops during those lengthy exchanges, and the special attacks like jab, slash, etc., need energy points to proc! Those abilities are going to be quite important for your solo character... the creation of dead bad guys is pretty much the most important thing for you to worry about for quite a long time -- defense in terms of evasion and protection means nothing if you can't quickly eliminate threats.

Dexterity is also important -- simply because of the accuracy boost, and nothing more. When you swing and miss in combat, it eats large chunks out of your energy bar, and this is very bad. Fighting styles that raise dex will shine on solo -- this means swords and unarmed. Mace and Axe guys will meet with a bit more player frustration going solo, as your attacks are slower, more likely to miss, and you will spend more time dancing around and trying not to get hit while you pray that the next swing will finally hit something... ARG!

As for races, Minotaurs will be the most challenging to solo, as they have penalties to dex and willpower... the two most important stats for soloing! They have such nice str and vit, this is true... but strength (and the head hunter trait) doesn't really help all that much compared to having skill (which raises both damage and accuracy) in a chosen weapon type. And the minos have the lowest starting skillpoints! If you absolutely HAVE TO play a solo minotaur fighter, I would caution you against playing on hard difficulty -- they are very gimped to start off with... no need to give yourself an aneurysm from frustration at having to reload after dying for the five hundredth time!

Also, at char creation, don't be tempted to think defensively in terms of traits -- I know everybody already knows how awesome having a high evasion is, but wasting a trait on getting evasive (+7 evasion) will not pay off as much as getting the agile trait (+2 dex). You'll still get +4 to your evasion from the dex, but more importantly, you'll get +2 to accuracy, which is very good. Having the other trait be aura or strong mind is not a terrible idea, either. Both of these traits give you a bonus to energy, and while aura is a large immediate boost, you'll end up with more energy around level 11 (12?) if you get the +2 to willpower instead. It might be better to go for the big early boost, to be honest... at higher levels, you won't be missing swings as much, so you won't be draining out your energy so quickly. The only other option worth considering for a solo fighter is the skilled trait... I certainly like it, and if playing a mino fighter, it is just about necessary IMO. Humans can get away with skipping this one, but having 7 points to drop into a weapon skill at level 1 is nothing to sneeze at. Remember that your first special attack ability comes at rank 10 in a weapon skill... if you get the skilled trait, all of the races except minotaur can have their special ability ready to go before ever descending the staircase at the end of the dungeon's starting level! Minotaurs, as stated earlier, are quite gimped as solo fighters, and will need to wait until they reach char level 3 -- even with the skilled trait -- before they can do any slashes or bashes or whatever... if you are playing a mino WITHOUT the skilled trait, then you will need to be char level 4 -- Yeesh!

I've also found that putting points on the armor skill is a tremendous waste for a solo fighter. 99% of your defense in this game will come from not being around when the enemy attacks you, meaning that you have already sidestepped with a strafe key and avoided being a target in the first place. Wear as heavy an armor as you can manage to carry, if you wish... screw your evasion stat! Or... go "naked" and rely on evasion instead. You can use a shield and the lurker gear as a fighter, and that should be plenty -- especially if you are an unarmed fighter. Due to the game's combat mechanics, having a high health (or vitality) is not all that super-important for survival. I consider a fighter's high starting health valuable for jumping into pits, and that's about it. As a result, putting points into Athletics is almost as big of a waste as the Armor skill.

All of your skillpoint expenditure (and I do mean ALL) should religiously be put into the single weapon skill category that you are going to use for the whole game, until it is at 50. Then, and only then, should you be playing about with extra skillpoints somewhere else.

-Loth

[Darklord]

Interesting info, I'll bare that in mind when I do a solo run.

Daniel.

[glyn_ie]

Here's another cool thing you can do:



At the end of the save data you'll find the PRTY header. The first three Double entries below this indicate the party's location (level number, X position and Y position respectively). This screenshot is from a new game. The values 1, 2, and 8 are the default dungeon's starting location.

[Darklord]

Nice find!

Daniel.