Drakan: The Ancients' Gates for Playstation II FAQ (2/24/4) by Zauron TABLE OF CONTENTS: ==================================================================== INTRODUCTION I. BUGS AND WARNINGS ABOUT DRAKAN A. The BUGS B. The Warnings II. GENERAL GAMEPLAY INFO A. Review of the game B. Basic Controls C. Advanced Controls D. Stats, Skills, and Leveling III. COMBAT TACTICS A. Melee techniques B. Bow techniques C. Magic and being cheap D. Mid-air combat IV. TIPS AND FUN STUFF V. SECRETS AND SIDEQUESTS A. Surdana B. The Islands C. The Northlands D. The Valley E. Final Map F. Other secrets VI. STUCK AND NEED HELP FAQ's A. Surdana B. The Islands C. The Northlands D. The Valley E. Final Map F. Other Frequently Asked Questions VII. CONTACTING THE AUTHOR VIII. CREDITS IX. VERSION HISTORY X. LEGAL STUFF ==================================================================== INTRODUCTION ==================================================================== Hi. This is NOT a walkthrough for Drakan. This is a FAQ whose purpose is to help people that are stuck on the game and to provide a list of side stuff you don't want to miss out on but are not going to waste time trying to find on your own. It's intended for those people that mostly want to figure out the game on their own but either get stuck from time to time or that hate looking in every nook and cranny to find every side quest there is to do yet don't want to miss out on the rewards for doing them. It's not intended to hold your hand and walk you through step by step potentially ruining the game for you. If you want something like that, there's a guide you can get from the store (plus I'm sure someone will write a complete walkthrough online at some point). Also, note that I often use the wrong name for an area. This is on purpose. I feel names like "The Islands" are fine because it's enough that people will know what I'm talking about, but it doesn't give anything away about the game itself. I try hard not to spoil things for people, although it's pretty hard to do. I do use as generic terms as I can while still describing things accurately, and try very hard to avoid revealing anything about the main plot, but I'm sure a few things slipped in there that you might not want to have known. You've been warned. ==================================================================== I. BUGS AND WARNINGS ABOUT DRAKAN II ==================================================================== ------------------------------------------- I A. The BUGS ------------------------------------------- There is a bug in this game that causes you to lose your dragon. The bug is caused by going into certain caves where the game intended you to take the dragon with you but you go in alone, and then there's an area transition in the cave and when you pop out the other side, the dragon is gone permanently. The really bad thing about it is any time you do one of these area transitions the game forces you to save the game, so if you only keep one save slot (understandable with each slot taking 1.5MB of space!) than you will have to start the game all over again if this happens! It doesn't happen every time you do this and there aren't many places that it can happen (actually only one that I know for sure, the tunnel between the two main sections of the Northlands map) but it does happen sometimes so it's best to avoid it if you can. It can also (very rarely) happen randomly when saving the game when outdoors. To avoid this bug, just follow these rules: Rule #1: If you want to go in a cave, first see if you can take your dragon in with you by landing the dragon and walking in with the dragon. If the dragon can't fit, then you're safe to jump off and go alone. Rule #2: If the game suddenly asks you to save while you are going somewhere, it means it's an area transition. If you press Triangle to cancel, you will be bumped back (you can't continue unless you do actually save it). When this happens, before saving it think to yourself "Is there any way I could have taken the dragon with me to this point?" and if there is, cancel the save and go back and fetch the dragon. Rule #3: If you're about to save the game manually and you are in an area where the dragon should be available, ALWAYS make sure your dragon is on the ground near you or that you are actually riding the dragon before you save. If you're in a cave or other area where the dragon can't go, don't worry about it (although if you're in a shop or something it might be a good idea to exit the shop and make sure he's nearby before you save). What to do if this bug happens to you: Other than loading a previous save game, the only thing we think MIGHT work is to go through a long cave that's in the same area as the dragon was last seen, and that doesn't require a transition to another area. For example, the Yeti cave in the Northlands or the farmer's wife side quest mushroom cave in Surdana. If you go through the cave from beginning to end the dragon should be waiting for you as you exit the cave. This only works on caves that don't require an autosave and a transition to a different area. Also, sometimes if you're lucky you can still spot the dragon, way high in the air seeming to be stuck too high in the sky - if you get directly below him and call for him you can sometimes get him unstuck. NOTE: This bug was found and fixed by the developers, and thus should not be a problem in the PAL/European release of the game. Other bugs: During the quest for the Blade of Gold, if you complete the dungeon and kill the enemy you are supposed to kill before talking to the Northland warrior to officially be given the quest, you won't be rewarded for doing it - which in turn means the game can't be completed as you need the quest reward. Sometimes for some reason the game will lock up when saving or you won't be able to complete a quest because you did things out of order. This normally will only happen if you try to race through the game and skip things by using guides (like this one) and doing things you aren't even supposed to know about yet. I've never had this happen to me personally (even when I do skip stuff) but have had a few others report it. Take it slow, try to do quests in the order the game gives them, and use backup save slots to prevent this. Another slight bug is sometimes you will get stuck in a wall or barrel or something. Usually holding X and rolling left or right will get you unstuck. Sometimes pressing Start to go to your inventory and then back out again will get you unstuck as well. ------------------------------------------- I B. The Warnings ------------------------------------------- The other thing you should know about this game is that there are many times when you will not be able to return to an area once you are done with it, even if there is stuff you missed while you were there. This will never prevent you from finishing the game, however, there are often fairly significant side quests or special items you will never be able to get after you leave the area. As such, I suggest that you A) keep multiple save slots if possible, B) explore every inch of the place if you're worried about not being able to return and C) consult section V. of this guide to see if there are any secrets or things you don't want to miss in this area before you leave it. The sections that you can't return to include the swamp section after leaving Surdana the first time, The Islands map after beating the boss there, Kragmoor after beating that section or after opening the second Gate in the Northlands, some of the short dungeons after completing them, and the entire rest of the game once you get to the Final Map (actually, you can't go back after a door closes behind you shortly after marching your Dragon through a large room in the last dungeon of the Valley section of the game - when you see your dragon again after doing the first part of this dungeon, be sure to use him to go back to a Blacksmith before marching him through the room you just cleared as you will have no other chance to repair or sell for the rest of the game soon after that part!). ==================================================================== II. GENERAL GAMEPLAY INFO ==================================================================== ------------------------------------------- II A. Review of the game ------------------------------------------- Drakan: The Ancients' Gates is a third-person action/RPG/adventure game staring a female warrior that rides around on a dragon. It shares similarities with Nintendo 64 Zelda titles but with more in-depth RPG elements like weapon stats and leveling up. It's not nearly as deep as most other RPG's, however, with only minimal character customization and only one playable character (well, two if you count the dragon). It is a very good blend of various gameplay elements, incorporating melee combat, ranged combat, a unique spell casting system, traveling around on the back of a dragon, mid-air combat, lots of quests to do and treasure to find, and a very diverse set of locales including snowy mountains, deserts, swamps, caves, crypts, etc. The graphics are very nice, the sound effects are spot-on, and the music is pretty good (although it doesn't play very often, but it does come in at key spots to pump up the intensity). I am most impressed with the layout of the levels in Drakan, as they are varied and make you seem like you are going to be lost at any moment, yet you almost always press on continuously, rarely having to search hard to figure out where to go next. Paths often cross each other, and it makes you feel like you are really exploring some dangerous caves or a big open swamp, even though you really are often subtly being led along a well- designed path. Some of the levels are just awesome, some of the best adventure levels I've seen in a long time. The enemies are also pretty good too - some are just downright scary (one even made me jump when I rounded a corner and found myself face-to-face with the huge jaw of a giant Grull). The combat system is great, it provides for a lot of strategy and gives you a good sense of satisfaction when you successfully kill a difficult enemy unscathed. The only complaints I have with the combat system is that you can't use the Parry move when wielding a weapon with magical charges until you use up the charges (since Parry and the magic charges both use the same button) and that certain cheap magic spells make the combat ridiculously easy if you use them, but I try to save those spells for emergency use only if possible. Also all the side quests really feel like you are doing something useful, and they are almost always quite involved, some even including very unique interesting levels just for that one optional quest. None of those stupid tedious side quests that many other RPG's have come up with recently (if you've tried the Chocobo Race in Final Fantasy X, you know what I mean). Unfortunately the game loses some points for having some bugs and also the fact that you can't return to previous areas at some points is a real pain. I would recommend buying the game instead of renting as it does take a long time to experience everything it has to offer (and believe me, unlike many other games you really do want to experience all the various side things you can do in this game!) My rating: 8/10 ------------------------------------------- II B. Basic Controls ------------------------------------------- On foot: Left Analog - Move forward and back, turn left and right Right Analog - Move camera/Pitch up/down when swimming Digital Pad - Used for special combat techniques Triangle - Jump/swim up Square - Attack Circle - Magic/Block/Parry/Zoom-in with bow X - Duck/Roll/Swim down L1 - Talk/pick up nearby items/call for dragon L2 - Hold to strafe/Switch targets R1 - Cycle through hot slot items R2 - Lock on to nearest target Select - Access inventory/spells/etc. Start - Pause/save/load Riding the dragon: Left Analog - Move forward and back, turn left and right Right Analog - Pitch up/down Digital Pad - Used for special combat techniques Triangle - Fly straight up/take off Square - Use primary breath attack Circle - Use secondary breath attack X - Fly straight down/land L1 - Switch breath type L2 - Hold to strafe/Switch targets R1 - Use primary breath attack R2 - Lock on to nearest target Select - Access inventory/etc. Start - Pause/save/load ------------------------------------------- II C. Advanced Controls ------------------------------------------- NOTE: I will use D-Up, D-Left, D-Right, and D-Down to refer to presses on the Digital directional pad. Just plain Up/Down/Left/Right refer to pressing that direction on the Left Analog Stick. Drakan is unique in that both Analog sticks AND the digital pad are all used and for different purposes, so it might take a bit to get used to! Advanced movement: Sneak - just press lightly on the left analog stick to move more slowly - this will make it so you make no noise and can then sneak up on enemies, which is useful because hitting an enemy in the back before they notice you does major damage! Back flip - Hold back and press Triangle. Side Jump - Hold L2 and press left or right + the Triangle button to jump sideways. Or, lock on to an enemy with R2 then press left or right + the Triangle button. Side Roll - Very useful to dodge projectiles, hold L2 and press left or right + the X button. Or, lock on to an enemy with R2 then press left or right + the X button. Reverse Jump - Makes you jump forward while flipping around to face the other way - thus you can jump over an enemy and land facing their back. Press D-Down, D-Up, Triangle to do this. Advanced combat moves: Triple combo - Press Square three times in a row to do a triple combo hit - your most basic attack. Thrust - Press any of the 4 directions on the digital pad then press Square and you will stab in that direction - forward, back, straight left, or straight right. Often stuns enemies and does good damage, is also quick to execute. Side swipe - Press D-Left, D-Left, Square or D-Right, D-Right, Square to do a side slash that will often knock small enemies down. Downward slash - Press D-Down, D-Down, Square to slash downwards. This move will also knock many enemies down and is also good for killing smaller enemies where regular slashes go over their heads. Spin move - Press D-Down, D-Up, Square to spin. With small weapons you will step forward a bit and do a wide spinning slash, knocking down enemies (often more than one). With large weapons you will stand in place and swing the weapon in a circle three times. Dragon riding: Mount the dragon by bumping into him. Call him to you by holding L1 down for a few seconds. Land with X and then press X again to dismount. The dragon can walk around on the ground when you've landed. When you're on the ground press D-Up, Square to do a bite attack. Hot-slot items: When in your inventory (press Select) select an item and press X to hot-slot it. From then on, you can cycle between all hot slotted items without having to go to the inventory screen by tapping R1 until you see the item you want, then pressing Square. You can hotslot potions and can drink them using this method (and can even run while drinking!). You can also hotslot weapons and shields this way to allow you to quickly switch weapons. If you choose the weapon you already have in your hand with this, then you will put the weapon away (so you can use magic). Note that if you have only one weapon hot-slotted, than all you have to do is tap R1 once to immediately pull it out, and tap R1 again to immediately put it away. This is quicker than having to cycle through and pick it, but has the disadvantage of not allowing you to use potions or swap to a different weapon (like a bow) as quickly or while running. Going to your inventory does NOT pause the game, so keep that in mind... Casting spells: There's two methods to cast spells - 1) Put your weapon away, press Select, go to the spell list, pick the spell you want, and press Square. 2) Put your weapon away, hold Circle, and trace the proper spell pattern using the digital pad or the analog stick, as shown in the spell screen. For example, to cast Fear hold down Circle and press Left, Up, Down Left. For attack spells, you only have to do this once and then you will have the spell ready to go - just press Square at that point to fling it at an enemy, and you can keep pressing Square to fling that same spell until you either equip a weapon or press Circle again to cancel it. For other spells like Fear and Time Slow, the spell is cast immediately and has a set duration; after the spell is cast you are free to pull out a weapon without interrupting the spell. Locking on: Press R2 to lock on to an enemy, and press R2 again to cancel the lock. Left and right on the analog stick will change to strafe, and you can roll or jump sideways while in this mode. You will face the enemy constantly while you are locked on to it. Also, the enemy will have two lines circle around it to indicate which one is targeted. You can press L2 to switch targets. While the enemy is targeted, all attacks (including bow and magic projectiles) are sent toward that enemy. Also, the color of the lines circling the enemy indicate its health - yellow=healthy, orange=injured, red=seriously injured, black=near death, blue=invulnerable. ------------------------------------------- II D. Stats, Skills, and Leveling ------------------------------------------- There aren't a lot of stats and skills to keep track of in Drakan, fortunately, so let's go through them quickly. Health - Represented by the red circle in the lower left hand corner. Your character shares her health with her dragon, so if either is injured (or healed) both are affected. As you are injured your health goes down, when it is empty you die. You can heal it through various means such as potions. Note that your maximum health is the same throughout the game. Experience - A bar to the left of the Health indicator is an experience bar. As you kill enemies with either Rynn or the dragon, your experience bar will go up. Harder enemies will raise it more, and it fills slower at higher levels. You get the same experience for killing an enemy no matter how you kill it, including using the dragon. When the experience bar gets full, it empties and you are fully healed and gain an Experience Level and one skill point. Mana - This is the blue circle on the right side of the screen. It gets lower as you cast spells or use the Dragon's breath weapons. It regenerates naturally over time. It regenerates faster on the Dragon and faster as you have higher Magic Skill. It can also be restored with Mana potions. If it runs out, you can't use spells or the Dragon's breath weapons until it goes back up again. Sometimes a number will replace the mana indicator - this means you are using a weapon that has a magical ability, and the number represents how many more times the weapon can use its ability. Also the mana indicator doubles as a compass that points in the direction you are facing (so if it is pointing to the right, it means you are facing East). Experience Level - This only affects which armor and shields you can equip. Higher-grade armor and shields require a higher experience level. It has no other affect on your character whatsoever - not even on your health or mana amounts. It can be used as an indication of how many skill points you've earned so far though (you get 1 skill point every time you get another Experience Level), as well as how slow your experience bar will raise (it raises slower when you have a higher Experience Level). It is believed the maximum Experience Level you can get is 12, giving you a total of 11 skill points to split among your skills. Damage - This number appears on weapons and spells and indicates very directly how much damage that weapon or spell will do. This number can be modified by the Armor Rating of any enemies you fight (i.e. if they are wearing armor, you will do less damage). However, sometimes the damage number will have the indicator "AP" after it. This stands for "Armor Piercing" and means that the weapon will always do full damage as if the enemy had an Armor Rating of 0. Speed - This number appears on melee weapons and indicates how fast they swing. Range - This number appears on bows and indicates how far they can accurately shoot. Arrows - This indicates how many times you can fire this bow before you need to restock on arrows (you can restock at the blacksmith in the same way you repair stuff). This number goes down by 1 every time you fire an arrow. When you restock on arrows, the maximum arrows this bow can use goes down by 20 (don't ask me why). Armor Rating - This number appears on armor and shields and affects how much Health is lost when Rynn is hit. The higher the Armor Rating, the less damage Rynn will take. Note that the armor rating on Shields only takes affect only when the shield is blocking the hit (by holding Circle) and its number is added to the Armor Rating on your armor at that time. Thus Shields can greatly reduce how much damage you take when you use them, however, they can't block a hit completely like Parry can (you Parry by pressing Circle while holding a melee weapon, no shield, and the weapon has no magical charges on it). Durability - This number appears on armor and weapons and indicates how many times you can hit an enemy with it before the weapon breaks (NOTE: The weapon is NOT destroyed when it breaks, it just can't be used until you repair it. There is no other penalty for letting a weapon break). Every time you hit an enemy with this weapon, no matter what move you use, this number drops by one. However, this it is not affected by hitting walls, barrels, boxes, floors, etc., only by hitting enemies. Armor durability goes down by one point every time you are hurt. When you repair the item at the blacksmith, the Maximum Durability of that item drops. Note that the amount of Maximum Durability lost when repairing is NOT affected by how damaged the item was - you lose the same amount if the item is barely damaged or if it was completely broken, thus, it is always better to wait as long as possible before repairing an item, to get maximum use out of it. Weapons lose 30 Maximum Durability when they are repaired, and Armor loses 15 Maximum Durability when it is repaired. Note that some items, such as Rynn's starting dagger, are listed as Indestructible and will never break. Duration - This appears on spells and indicates how many seconds the spell will last. Mana cost - This appears on spells and indicates how much mana it takes to cast them, represented as a percentage of your maximum mana. Thus if it says 25%, you can cast that spell 4 times before your mana will be empty. Skill Needed - This appears on weapons and indicates how much Skill of the appropriate type you need in order to use that weapon. For bows it refers to Archery Skill and for other weapons it refers to Melee skill. Exp. Level Required - This appears on armor and shields and indicates what Experience Level you need to have in order to use that item. Spell Level Required - This appears on spells and indicates how much Magic Skill you need in order to use that spell. Note that many spells have three different versions, which stronger versions requiring a higher Spell Level. There are three Skills you can spend Skill Points on. You get 1 Skill point every time you gain an Experience Level. Each of these three skills start with a value of 1, and can reach a maximum of 8. Melee Skill - The number in this skill affects what melee weapons you are allowed to use. That's it. Archery Skill - The number in this skill affects what bows you are allowed to use. That's it. Magic Skill - The number in this skill affects what spells you can use, as well as which versions of those spells you can use (each spell has higher versions that are more powerful and require more Magic Skill to use). This skill ALSO affects how quickly your mana regenerates. ==================================================================== III. COMBAT TACTICS ==================================================================== ------------------------------------------- III A. Melee Techniques ------------------------------------------- Parry timing technique - This technique requires that you have a melee weapon, no shield, and that the melee weapon doesn't currently have any magical charges on it. It centers around the Parry skill. To Parry, just tap the Circle button while you have the weapon equipped and you aren't using a shield. Rynn will then temporarily raise her weapon in defense. The great thing about Parry is that if it successfully blocks a hit, you will take NO damage (unlike blocking with a shield) and it will also stop the enemy's attack combo and leave them stunned for a bit. So, the tactic is pretty simple - find the enemy, press R2 to lock on to him. Press forward to approach him (or let him approach you). Watch for him to pull his arm or weapon back to take a swing at you, and immediately press Circle. Rynn will block the hit, then you can use any attack you want to counter attack, such as the Triple Hit (Square,Square,Square). You can combine this with the "Kill them before they hit you" technique below. Doing this will mean you can kill many enemies without even getting hit - although it doesn't work as well when you have more than one enemy! The only difficulty with this method is the timing involved hitting the parry button, but it is worth it to master it. Kill them before they hit you technique - The idea behind this method is to use moves that prevent the enemy from ever taking a swing at you. These include the Thrust (press the D-pad in the direction of the enemy, usually Up, then press Square) as well as the various "knock-down" moves (D-Down,D-Up,Square or D- Left,D-Left,Square or D-Right,D-Right,Square or D-Down,D-Down,Square). Generally, you wait until the enemy walks within range and use the forward Thrust move. This makes the enemy back away from you, holding their gut in pain ((even skeletons!). Take this opportunity to charge forward and use one of the knock down moves to knock them down (NOTE: Larger enemies won't be knocked down by knockdown moves unless you are using a large enough weapon. Thus large two- handed hammers can knock enemies down that a short sword could not. The thrust move almost always works though, even on large enemies). While they are on the ground, use the downward slash (D-Down,D-Down,Square) to finish them off. If it doesn't kill them, back off and repeat. For weaker enemies, you can sometimes start off with the spinning slash(D-Down,D-Up,Square) or downward slash (D- Down,D-Down,Square) to immediately knock them down and kill them. This technique is useful for times when you can't Parry because you have a shield or a magic charged weapon. A variation on this technique if you do have Parry is to do the stab move, then do a Triple Hit combo (Square, Square, Square) as they back away, then immediately Parry their attack (they will almost always attack right after the third hit of a Triple Combo) and counter with another stab or a knockdown move. Roll back technique - This technique is useful for when you can't Parry or don't have the timing for it. Basically you lock on with R2 and then march up and use your Triple hit combo (Square, Square, Square) then hold back and push X to roll away and thus dodge their counter attack. It's the basic method to use when you can't get the Parry method to work. Dodge technique - This technique is for enemies that attack at range. What you do is hold down L2 and press left or right and the X button (or Triangle if you prefer to jump) to dodge to either side, just before the projectile hits you. The idea is to dodge the projectile by rolling left or right, then advance a few steps, then roll to dodge the next one. Eventually you will close in on the enemy and kill it. Parry won't work on projectiles, although the shield can still help reduce the damage from them if you want to just charge straight at them. ------------------------------------------- III B. Bow Techniques ------------------------------------------- Straight shooter - This is the basic bow technique. Take out your bow, lock on to a target with R2, then just mash the Square button to plug it with arrows until it dies. If it runs toward you, either un-lock and run away (press R2 again to unlock) or if it's slow try to dodge around and get more shots in. Don't bother trying to shoot it at close range if you can help it, and if it runs fast you should probably give up trying to hit it with arrows while it is charging you. Another idea is to just plug them with arrows until they start to close in and then switch to a melee weapon and use a melee technique to finish them off. If you do this, it may be best to put the melee weapon, and ONLY the melee weapon, on your hot-slot (press X while in inventory to hot-slot an item). Then, when you want to use the bow, manually equip it from the inventory screen. When the enemy closes in, a quick tap of R1 will bring out your melee weapon. It's best to do this with a melee weapon that can Parry to help you defend against the enemy (i.e. one that doesn't have magic charges on it). Sneaky sniper - This technique uses the Zoom-in feature of bows. To Zoom-in, take out your bow and press the Circle button. You can now aim the bow with the left stick and fire it with Square or R1. Press Circle again to cancel this mode (which you will need to do before you can equip another weapon using R1). While in this mode, you can use the right analog stick to strafe left or right. The idea behind this technique is to find a box or ledge or something you can hide behind. Then, go into zoom-in mode. Use the right analog stick to very slowly inch towards the side of the box. As soon as you can see a body part of your enemy, plug arrows into him until he dies. The AI of this game is very vulnerable to this technique - if the enemy doesn't see you completely, they will just stand there and take the shots until they die. This is a very cheap way to kill bosses and such. It's also legitimately useful against certain enemies such as the automatic arrow shooting devices in the Swamp - you can hide behind a tree then inch out slowly and take the device out with two arrows of your own. With really great bows with long range, you can also use the zoom-in mode to kill enemies that are so far away that you don't even need to hide as they couldn't possibly get to you before they are dead anyway. ------------------------------------------- III C. Magic and being cheap ------------------------------------------- Magic in this game is both very weak and very powerful. The attack spells are pretty straightforward, and are used in basically the same way as the Straight Shooter method with a Bow - lock in with R2 and keep pressing Square until it dies. However, the spells are disappointingly weak at low levels, can't be aimed in zoom-in mode like the bow, are pretty slow to fire and leave you vulnerable to attack, and drain your mana much too fast unless you reach a very high magic skill and spend lots of money on upgraded spells. On the other hand, the non-attack spells are massively powerful even at low skill, and can totally trivialize the game, making even the most unskilled able to destroy enemies and bosses with little effort. The spells I'm referring to are Fear, Time Slow, and Clone. These spells are considered very cheap by many, and can often be used to get past any difficult obstacle with ease. Here's what they do: Fear causes any enemy affected by it (not all are) to just stand there, trembling in fear. Completely defenseless, most enemies won't even try to run away. They'll just stand there. If you stab them, they will still just stand there. They will continue to just stand there until they are dead. Fear lasts a pretty long time, especially higher versions of it. It can be refreshed while it is still in affect if you time it right. You can waltz through entire sections of the game killing the enemies without them fighting back at all using this spell. It doesn't work on most bosses, however, and a few regular enemies too, which is where the other two spells come in. Time Slow gives you the incredible power to slow down time for everyone but you. This means you can effortlessly dodge any attack, and slice enemies to bits before they even can react. It works on EVERYTHING, and is the best way to take out bosses that Clone doesn't work on. It has a shorter duration than Fear but is still long enough that you can keep it going a long time if you refresh it just as it wears off. Clone has two effects - first, it makes a clone of you appear where you were standing when you cast the spell. This clone will call out to your enemies, taunt them, and generally try to get herself attacked, but she is invincible. Second, it makes your own character invisible. Thus, while all the enemies are trying to attack your invincible clone, you can stand behind them and just stab them to death, completely undetected. Clone has a much shorter duration than Time Slow and Fear but is very effective on certain enemies and bosses. Note that all three of these spells, even Clone, can be used while riding Arokh and will affect him too if you cast it right before you hop on. This can help with some of the Dragon fight bosses. So, magic is very weak as a main attack force (unless you put a lot of skill into it), but is extremely powerful when combined with Melee or Bow in that it can very effectively disable your enemies, allowing you to just walk up and slash the heck out of them. With Time Slow, Fear, and Clone you can go through large and very difficult areas killing everything with just your measly starting Dagger weapon - it's slow going but possible. Personally, I suggest most players avoid using these spells whenever possible, saving them only for levels that you are too weak to really be in or for fights you are having a lot of problems with (or, as once happened to me, suddenly the only melee weapon you had with you breaks and you're halfway through a level and have to cut your way to the end using the aforementioned dagger...). If you use them all the time, you will quickly find the game to be too easy and you'll probably get bored with it (as well as being out of practice for those few fights when they don't really help you). The other spell worth mentioning is Rejuvenate, which at the minimum requires 4 skill and can heal you, saving on potions. Of course even though it's one of the fastest casting spells, it's still slow enough that you won't be able to use it in battle, so it's only useful for healing in between fights. Also, it doesn't heal a whole lot, it takes several casts to fill you up. Thus, if you only plan to use magic for healing and the three cheap spells listed above, 4 points in magic is all you need, and is little enough that you still have enough points left over to reach the max of 8 in Bow or Melee (or 4 in each) by the time you reach max level. Of course, 8 magic with all the spells owned will make you a very formidable caster without the real need of weapons, but if you plan to use a combination of magic and weapons than 4 skill should be plenty of magic. Also, with the number of potions you get throughout the game, even 4 may be too much - the healing spell is useful but by no means necessary. ------------------------------------------- III D. Mid-air combat ------------------------------------------- Mid-air combat involves riding your dragon and fighting other dragons, catapults, and the occasional boss. The basic technique is to lock on to an enemy with R2, then try to dodge their bolts while blasting them with your own. For ground targets (catapults), just circling while firing will work most of the time because they can't move to dodge your shots. Fighting dragons, however, is much more difficult because they can dodge your shots. The key here is to remember that this is a 3D environment, and use that to your advantage. Just circling around your enemy while firing at them won't work - you'll miss just as much as they do. Instead, try using Triangle and X in combination with left and right to dodge their bolts by flying under or above them as well as to the sides. Also, take note of your enemies firing rate - most enemy dragons fire at a fixed rate. After you've dodged a shot, stop for a second to fire your own to make sure it actually hits, then quickly move in a different direction (say, drop down with X or something) to dodge their next shot. If you know how fast they are going to be shooting at you, it's easier to time your shots in between theirs so that yours hit and theirs don't. Often they don't really try to dodge your shots, it's just that if you shoot while moving your shot will often miss its mark even though you are using the lock-on feature. Also, be sure to get as many of Arokh's breath weapons as you can and learn how their secondary shot works as it can be useful. (Always keep your eye out for floating sparkle things that you can fly into, as they will either heal you or grant you a new breath weapon - mostly you get breath weapons after a side quest, a boss (even bosses that don't use the dragon), or occasionally after a mid-air battle, but they are always scripted to appear - the random ones just heal). For instance, lightning breath is very fast and thus can be used while you are moving at full speed and will still hit, however, it takes a lot of mana so you have to fire it pretty slowly and it doesn't hurt much. The Sonic shot, on the other hand, can be fired often and is extremely powerful, but not as fast as lightning. Lightning's secondary fire is useful against multiple enemies, but Sonic shot's secondary fire is worthless against flying enemies because it moves to slow. It's excellent to use against ground targets, however, because it has a large radius and can often take out lots of enemies in one hit. The ice breath has tracking ability and can freeze enemies in their tracks. Learn the strengths and weaknesses of each breath type and use them to your advantage! Finally, remember that you CAN heal while on dragon back by pressing select and selecting a potion, then pressing Square to drink it. I wouldn't recommend trying it in the middle of a fight though, since they can still hit you while you are messing with your inventory. You can also use invisibility and invulnerability potions while riding the dragon and they will affect him as well! ==================================================================== IV. TIPS AND FUN STUFF ==================================================================== - Try to let your weapons get as damaged as possible before repairing them. The penalty to the item's maximum durability is the same no matter what, so you will actually get much more life out of a weapon if you let it drop to 0 durability before you repair it. Be careful that it doesn't break at a bad time with no backup weapon, however. - You may notice right away that you have a limited inventory, but you often want to keep an item until later and not sell it. Well, there's no bank feature in this game, however, you can just drop stuff on the ground and it will stay there forever. Just be careful to drop it somewhere that you can get back to, like the blacksmith shop in the first town (although even there are certain points in the game where you won't be able to go back there for a while until you complete some quests to open the way back). This way you can free up inventory space but still hold on to items that are too powerful or not needed at the moment without having to sell them - you just need to go back and pick them up when you need them again. - Try to figure out the difference in appearance between exploding barrels and normal barrels as soon as possible. Normal barrels look like fat round barrels, but exploding ones have a smaller top than bottom and have designs on them. Note that exploding ones never have treasure in them, so there's no need to break them open other than to get them out of the way or to use them to hurt an enemy. You can set off an exploding barrel by shooting it with arrows if you need to, just be careful to stand far back as the range on the explosion is larger than it appears. Note that you should try to break open every normal non-exploding barrel you see, since for some odd reason about half the treasure in the game is stored in random barrels... - Learn to use the L1 button to more rapidly loot treasure. Just tap L1 while in the vicinity of treasure, and any and all treasure nearby you will magically pick itself off the ground and float to you. This makes collecting treasure very easy, and you will often find yourself just running around a room for a bit after a big fight repeatedly tapping L1 to gobble up all the treasure. It's sometimes pretty funny to see 8 bags of gold chasing you down the hallway flying through the air... ;) - If you drink a potion, you can quickly exit the status screen and run around, and you will drink the potion while running away from an enemy! This also works if you hot-slot a potion and select it that way, but be careful that you don't waste potions by accidentally clicking on them while cycling through your hot- slot items. - You can't hurt friendly NPC's at all, so go hog wild if you feel like it. However, you CAN hurt your dragon; so watch where you're swinging when he's nearby. If you hit him you hurt yourself, since your life force is linked to his, plus he'll get pissed at you. - You can jump up onto boxes that seem too high by using the side jump. Rynn tucks her legs in during a side jump and thus can land on higher surfaces than a regular jump. Hold down the L2 button, then push left or right on the analog stick and Triangle to do a side jump. The back flip move also works (hold back and press Triangle). ==================================================================== V. SECRETS AND SIDEQUESTS ==================================================================== This section is for those of you that want to do all the side quests and find all the secrets, but hate having to search around and find them yourself. I know you're out there...you don't want the whole game spelled out for you, you just don't want to miss out on any of the cool stuff you can do. This section is for you, although be warned that it still can spoil some of the game for you. ------------------------------------------- V A. Surdana ------------------------------------------- ----The spiders in the house sidequest ----Reward: Cash and experience ----When can be done: Anytime while in Surdana (including return trips to Surdana later on) To get this quest, look for a guy standing shivering outside of a building in Surdana. Talk to him with L1 and he asks you to kill spiders that have gotten into his cellar. Go into the cellar, kill all the spiders and while you're at it break open everything and loot his house :). Now go talk to him after it says all the spiders are dead and he'll give you more cash. ----Blackwing Eggs sidequest ----Reward: A piddling amount of cash (as far as I know) ----When can be done: Anytime after getting the dragon and in Surdana (including return trips to Surdana later on) To get this quest, just talk to the Alchemist in Surdana. Now while traveling around the world, look for Blackwing nests. They look like circles of stones. Land near one and have Rynn jump off and collect the eggs. Then take them back and sell them to the alchemist for a measly 50g per egg. The sidequest in your journal won't be checked off, however. It's suspected that if you find every egg in the game, the sidequest will get checked off and you may get another reward. There is supposedly at least one nest in each of the 7 main areas. This is unconfirmed however. The only Blackwing nest I know of is to follow the small river in Surdana that flows under the tall bridge of the castle (the one going from the elevator to the main part of the castle). Follow the river South and explore the valley it leads to and the nest is on the right side of the valley. This the only one I've bothered to find, but I suppose eventually someone will find all the locations and give me good descriptions of them and maybe we can discover if there's any real point to this so-far unrewarding side quest. ----The farmer's wife sidequest ----Reward: Bitter Touch sword, cash and experience ----When can be done: Anytime while in Surdana (including return trips to Surdana later on) To find this quest, look for a small cottage in the hills with a man and some chickens. You can get there by dragon or by foot. To get there by foot, walk out of the main city over the bridge that leads to the swamp. Carefully slide down the hill toward the house you see down in the valley. This is not the one we need, but if you go behind this house to the East and follow the valley around a bend to the left, you should eventually find the cottage. Go to the cottage and talk to the man to get the quest. Now backtrack to the first house, and go straight North from it to find the Mushroom Cave. While traveling through the cave killing the monsters, follow the right wall and look for a large reddish mushroom. Behind it is a walkway leading down to a pond. On the opposite side of the pond is a small cubbyhole with glowing bluish mushrooms and the Bitter Touch sword. This sword is a great early game sword; 1 skill, Very Fast, 8 damage, Armor Piercing, and can freeze enemies. Now continue exploring and near the end of the cave you'll find the farmer's wife. Use L1 to talk to her then continue on past her and you'll find an alternate exit blocked by a boulder. Just push the boulder out of the way and walk out. The wife will automatically follow you out of the cave and then run back to the cottage. Follow her and talk to her husband to get your reward. ----The Inquisitor sidequest ----Reward: Cash and experience ----When can be done: Anytime while in Surdana (including return trips to Surdana later on) Go to the Tavern in the main town and talk to the guy sitting at the table to get this quest. You need to find the cave behind the waterfall that falls off the cliff at the edge of town. Cross the bridge that goes over the river and half way across, go ahead and jump off into the river (and watch Rynnn do a cool dive move!). No swim down the river toward the waterfall and go underneath it to a cave. This section is easy if you do it after you've returned to Surdana, but if you do it at the beginning of the game it can be VERY hard. The best advice I can give is to get the Fear spell and use it. If you don't have the dragon yet, you can still get the Fear spell by climbing up the hill that leads to the sorceress's tower and buy it from her. The path to get up the hill is across the water from the waterfall. Anyway, using fear and some deft dodging, make your way through this cave until you get to the inquisitor. Unfortunately, fear won't work on him (although Time Slow will if you have it). He shoots very fast homing shots that are impossible to dodge unless you hide behind an obstacle of some sort. The best way I know to kill him is to just charge in, target him with R2, and then just circle strafe around him (hold left or right on the analog stick) while slashing him rapidly with your Triple Slash. If you're lucky, he'll die before you do. Talk to the villager here then return to the surface and claim your reward from the guy in the Tavern. ----Saving the villager sidequest ----Reward: Cash ----When can be done: During swamp section When you first enter the swamp, keep your eye out for a guy standing by a railing on your left near the beginning. Talk to him with L1 to get this quest. Later on during your swamp travels, look for some ruins on the ground level. One of these sets of ruins will trigger a cut scene when you get near it. Kill the three Trogs here after the cutscene. Now on your way out of the swamp after you've achieved your goal, talk to that same guy again to receive your reward. ----The Earth Blade ----Reward: The Earth Blade ----When can be done: During Swamp section While trasping around the swamp, keep your eye open for some stone ruins on one side of the path. One of these ruins will contain an NPC who is very arrogant. Talk to him and continue on your quest. Now, after you've seen the item you're after (but haven't got it yet) and have made it to the Trog city, keep your eye open for a room with some prison cells in it. Pull the switch here to free that same guy, and talk to him again. Finally, after you've gotten the Rune and killed Toadfist and are heading out of the swamp, you should hear a bunch of Trogs shooting lightning at the guy. Go kill the Trogs and save him. He will give you a book. Continue past him and ignore the ramp that leads out of the swamp (stay on the ground level) and look for a stone platform with some pillars on it. Stand on that and watch the cutscene. Now go in there and you'll see the Earth Blade, but don't grab it just yet. When you grab it, you'll be attacked, and the fight's pretty hard. If you want to avoid it you can. To do this, line yourself up with the sword, so that you are behind the pedestal and can see the door on the other side of the pedestal from you. Run, jump over the pedestal thus grabbing the sword in mid air, and dash toward the exit. Do a Roll (X button) under the gateway and you should roll out just in the nick of time. If you do this, you won't have to fight the enemies and can just make off with the sword. The Earth Blade requires 1 Melee Skill, does 15 damage, has 300 Durability, is Fast, and has 10 charges of a spell that spikes a single enemy with a earthen spike. ----Toadfist's Helm side quest ----Reward: Cash ----When can be done: During Swamp section To get this quest, talk to the Blacksmith immediately after your Dragon drops you off at his door before the Swamp section. Now, after you have received the item you are after in the Swamp, make your way back the way you came. You will soon get a small cutscene where a grate opens and two Trog's run through to attack you. After you kill them, go through the gate that they came out of. Follow this path and keep your eye open for an elevator somewhere on the left wall. If you go past the elevator, you will eventually be lead to a shortcut out of the swamp, which is where most people go. Instead, take the elevator down to a new path, which leads directly to Toadfist. Kill him and pick up his Helm. Then take it back to the Blacksmith for your reward. ----The Monastery side quest ----Reward: Cash, Flamestrike sword, experience ----When can be done: Anytime after completing Swamp section while in Surdana (including return trips to Surdana later on) To get this quest, just fly to the Monastery. If you look on your map, the Monastery is located on the middle bump of the three on the bottom edge of the island (so, to the South and in the middle). Go inside and talk to the monks there to get the quest. One of the monks will open a door for you leading to the catacombs. Make your way through here and kill everything to get to a boss. Kill the boss and you get his flaming sword, the Flamestrike. The Flamestrike has 15 damage, is Armor Piercing, 300 Durability, Fast, requires 3 Melee Skill, starts enemies on fire whenever it hits them, and has 10 charges of an area of effect flame spell. Talk to the monks again to get a cash reward as well. ----The Necromancer side quest ----Reward: Lestat Sword, Sonic Breath, one free spell, cash, experience ----When can be done: Anytime after completing the Monastery side quest while in Surdana (including return trips to Surdana later on) To get this quest, complete the Monastery side quest as outlined above, then go talk to the spell-selling woman in the tower near the main town. She will give you the quest. Now, fly with the dragon to the Northwest (upper left) corner of the map. Here you will have to fight some bone dragons. These can be tough, especially if you are doing this on your first time in Surdana. Their homing shots hurt a lot, but they have a short range, so try to keep your distance. I recommend healing up with a potion and saving the game after each dragon. Once the bone dragons are gone, fly to the floating evil-looking tower thing and drop Rynn off. Go inside and you will be teleported to an alternate world. Work your way through this section until you find a cave in the back of a large open area with trees, graves, and lots and lots of skeletons. Don't go in the cave yet though! Instead, continue past the cave to the edge of this large area, and look for a sword that's stuck inside a tree. This sword is the awesome Lestat sword, and is one of my favorite swords. It has 22 damage, is Armor Piercing, and every time you hit someone with it you get healed! Unfortunately it also requires 5 skill in Melee. Don't worry, there's another sword that's similar (but slower and has lower durability) that you can get later on that has the same effect but only requires 1 skill. Anyway, once you have the sword head back to the cave you saw and go inside. You'll see the Necromancer's body floating above a pit. Don't attack it just yet. Instead, circle around the perimeter and kill the two skeletons that burst out of the walls at you. Then, get in the cubbyhole that the skeleton on the left side popped out of (the one closer to the back wall) and from there, pull out a bow and target the body and start shooting at it. As soon as it dies, retarget and keep shooting at it anyway! It immediately pops back to full health and a floating undead guy bursts out of the back wall. The floating undead is invincible until you kill the body a second time, but he won't be able to hurt you right away since you're hiding in this cubbyhole. Once the body is dead the second time, run out and kill the undead in the same fashion as you killed the Inquisitor (if you did that quest). Once he's dead, go to the back room and collect the quest item as well as the other treasures back here, and follow the back path to get to a teleporter to get out of here. Once you leave, look around the outside area with the dragon and find the floating sparkling ball that's in the area where the bone dragons were. Touch it to get the very very powerful Sonic Breath attack. Whoo! Now go back to the magic seller and claim your reward - one free spell of your choice! You can wait as long as you want to pick what spell you want, so if there's none you can get right now you can just come back at some later point. ----The giant chicken ----Reward: Cash and exp ----When can be done: Anytime while in Surdana (including return trips to Surdana later on) Look for a cave in a very low but long cliffside in the Southeast part of your map. The cave is right near the path leading to the islands. Just search around the area with the small rivers and bridges and such East of the main town and you should see it if you keep your eye low to the ground. Go in this cave to find a giant chicken and kill it. It's easiest to kill it by standing back and a bit around the corner and use Combust or arrows or something to kill it from a distance. It drops a golden egg worth a decent amount of cash. ----Kragmoor side quest ----Reward: Experience and loot ----When can be done: After opening the first gate but before opening the second one After you open the first gate go through it to return to Surdana. After the short cutscene, talk to the general using L1 to get this quest. He should mark the spot to go to to enter Kragmoor on your map. Go there and enter Kragmoor with your dragon (don't leave him behind!). Now you fly through this section, kill everything (get the lightning sword while you're at it, see below), then enter the cave at the end, go through that (harder than it sounds) and kill the boss. When he's dead you can leave (also harder than it sounds), although note that you can never return once you leave. NOTE: After you fight the first large beast in the cave (where the door locks behind you), you have the option of going up a path to the left, or going down a bank into a pond area. If you wade around the pond you will notice some submerged stones, and if you look closely there is a small hole through which you can swim! You can then resurface and claim a level 5 composite war bow on a little island in the cave. ----The Lightning Blade ----Reward: The Lightning Blade ----When can be done: Only during the Kragmoor side quest When you first get into Kragmoor, head toward the middle pillar of smoke and keep flying in that direction until you see a henge. Have Rynn run along the path and touch each stone and they will light up. Then the sword will appear and you will be attacked. This sword has 15 damage, 300 Durability, and 10 charges of a lightning spell. ----The four hidden switches ----Reward: Lots of cash (~9000G) ----When can be done: After opening the second gate but before opening the third gate Go into the house in Surdana of the man who wanted you to kill spiders for him. Go into his cellar and look for a wall that sticks out slightly. Hit it with your weapon a couple times and it breaks open. Go inside and pull the switch here. Now go back upstairs to the main part of his house and a door opens revealing another switch. Pull that one. Now go to the Blacksmith's shop and another door in there will open revealing a third switch. Pull that. Finally, when as part of the main plot you are asked to search the castle for something, keep your eye open for another wall you can break in the depths of the castle. Pull the switch there. Now in the other wing of the castle a locked door will open revealing several chests containing lots and lots of gold! ----The ultimate sword ----Reward: The Mournbringer ----When can be done: After getting the Fire Blade, Earth Blade, Lightning blade, and Ice Blade but before marching Arokh through the sentinal room in the final dungeon of the Valley Put the Fire Blade, the Lightning Blade, the Earth Blade, and the Ice Blade into your inventory (in any condition, even broken) and talk to the blacksmith in Surdana. He will have a new sword for sell, the Mournbringer. This sword has 30AP, medium speed, two-handed, and heals you when you hit enemies, has 500 Durability, but requires only skill 1 to wield. It's considered the game's ultimate melee weapon by most people. ------------------------------------------- V B. The Islands ------------------------------------------- ----The captain's charts sidequest ----Reward: Cash and exp ----When can be done: Only while on the islands and when it's raining In the area you start at in this section of the game, look for a boat docked on the other side of the village. Go on board and talk to the captain there to get this quest. Fly to the tiny island north of the larger island on your map. Go to the Northern end of this small island, then turn East and fly toward the mainland. Look around the beach here for a small campfire. It's hard to see, but it's in front of a cave. You may have to comb the beaches a bit to find it. You'll know you have the right cave if there's lava in it. Reach the end of this cave to find the plans. ------------------------------------------- VI C. The Northlands ------------------------------------------- ----The cave and the bow ----Reward: Hoarfrost bow, cash, and experience ----When can be done: Anytime while in the Northlands From the dock where you start this area, you fly North towards the main village you're trying to get to. Partway through this valley, look for a cave next to a red enemy flag. Go in this cave and kill everything in it. At some point you'll come across a strange forcefield that you can't get past. Don't worry about it, continue to explore the cave until you come to a part near some ruins where Rynn comments that the floor seems weak. There are some exploding barrels here. Stand back and shoot one of them with an arrow and they will explode, making a hole in the floor. Fall through and you will end up inside the forcefield. The Forcefield will open and a small blue light will whiz out of it. Follow the blue light and it will form a bridge for you. Cross the bridge to get the Hoarfrost bow. This powerful bow requires 5 Archery skill, does 11 Armor Piercing damage at Medium range, starts with a 500 arrow payload, and has the power to freeze enemies and shatter them. It can thus kill many difficult enemies with ease. ----The sealed water cave ----Reward: Clineschmidt's Blade, small cash and exp ----When can be done: Anytime while in the Northlands From the dock where you start this area, you fly North towards the main village you're trying to get to. Partway through this valley, look for a cave well hidden behind some trees with a statue in front of it (look across the water from the cave in the above secret). This statue has four buttons, representing the four cardinal directions. It's a puzzle, look around the various areas of the Northlands for stones with red markings on them. Each stone shows a cardinal direction, as well as red marks on the side showing which one in the sequence it is. Using this info, you can figure out what order to push the buttons in. Or, you can just align the buttons using your compass so you know which one is North, and push S,E,E,W,S,N,N,S. If it doesn't work, be sure you're pushing the right buttons - when looking at the South button, your compass should be pointing Up. When looking at the North button, your compass should be pointing Down. When facing the East button your compass should be pointing Left, and when facing the West button your compass should be pointing Right. If you still can't get it to work, I'm sorry, I guess you're just unlucky or inept, but don't even think about asking me for more help on it 'cause I'll just laugh at you. Anyway, once you get in the cave, you'll see a pool of water. At this point I highly recommend you save the game, as it is very possible to drown while trying to find what you're after here. Swim into the pool and search under water (remember you can use the right analog stick to swim up or down, and Triangle to go straight up and X to go straight down). Find the small underwater passage. Now, there are 4 exits from this underwater maze. The first one looks like a sloped exit you can walk out of the water. It leads to the exit to this cave, which is guarded by some Grulls and Wartoks. The next also looks like a sloped exit you can walk out of the water, and in fact is often mistaken for the first one. It leads to your goal - a large room with a platform in the middle of it. I'll come back to that in a second. The other two are just breathing holes - one a large circular one, and one a small stone square one that you can also later jump into from the large room. To get air, just hold Triangle to hold Rynn's head above the water and wait while the air meter slowly goes back up (I have no idea why it takes so long for her to get air). Now, once you find the large room with the platform, go and claim your sword. Many skeletons will attack you when you pick up the sword, so get ready. Once they are dead, make your way back out of the cave. The sword you received is one of the best swords you can get if you only have 1 skill in melee. It's a large two-handed sword that's Slow and only has 200 Durability, but it does 25 damage, is Armor Piercing, and heals you every time you hit someone with it, and it is large enough to knock down bigger enemies with knockdown hits - truly a powerful weapon for only requiring 1 skill in melee! It also serves as a decent backup weapon to those who use the better Lestat's Blade. ----Kragmoor side quest ----Reward: Experience and cash ----When can be done: After opening the first gate but before opening the second one After you open the first gate go through it to return to Surdana. After the short cutscene, talk to the general using L1 to get this quest. See the Surdana Side Quests and Secrets section for more information. ----The Ice Blade ----Reward: The Ice Blade and cash ----When can be done: Immediately after opening the second gate in the Northlands Once you have successfully activated the second gate, return to Shiverbane with your dragon. Fly North from the arena over a hill. Look downward and locate a blue glowing fire next to a lighthouse. Hover over that lighthouse and turn to straight West (compass pointing to the Left) and look near ground level for a cave. Go to that cave and enter it with Rynn. Take the left path down into the cave. Cross the bridge that previously collapsed and you can now reach a teleporter but don't step on it! It just leads back to the prison area. Instead, collect the treasures here. If you explore to the end of this area, on a pedestal you will find the Ice Blade. The Ice Blade is 15 damage, fast, 300 Durability, requires 1 melee skill, and has 10 charges of a spell that makes an ice shield appear around Rynn. After you get the sword you will be attacked, but you can just leave the area and ignore them if you wish. ------------------------------------------- V D. The Valley ------------------------------------------- ----Rescue the boy sidequest ----Reward: Cash (8000g), experience, Tempest sword ----When can be done: Only immediately after finding the boy in the wartok base as part of the main plot After you have rescued the boy as part of the main quest, you get an optional side quest to bring him home. To do this, remember to walk slowly so he can keep up with you, or stop every few seconds. His pathing is not great, so be careful around corners and such. Also, he will keep saying things like "Yeah, this way!" when you are going the right way, and will stop following you if you go the wrong way. The correct path is to grab the prison key from the table behind you when you first rescue him, then backtrack through the cave until you get to the gate that was previously locked. If you end up back at the entrance to the base you missed the proper exit. Use the prison key to open this gate. Now go across the bridge and up into an enemy camp. Go through a cave near this camp and when you pop out on the other side, go left into another cave and go through there. Finally go across the bridge at the other end of this cave and you will be at your goal. Talk to the father to get your reward. Be careful during this trip to defend the boy as best as possible from the various enemies that will be in your way (even if you cleared the area out already previously, more enemies will be there during this sidequest). Your reward is 8000 G and a sword called the Tempest, 7 skill, 28 damage, Armor Piercing, Medium Speed, 300 Durability, and I don't know of it has any secondary effect when hitting enemies. ----The three stones ----Reward: The Fire Blade ----When can be done: After getting the lower ruins key but before marching Arokh through the sentinal room in the final dungeon of the Valley In the valley, look on your map and locate the "bump" of land going south near the middle. Go to the southern tip of this "bump" and you will find some ancient ruins with some strange stones. Go there and you will be attacked. Kill the attackers and three stones will appear in the middle of the ruins. Pick the stones up. Now fly around the entrance to they valley, hugging the South wall and look for some more ruins with Grulls hanging around them. Go there and you can deposit one of the three stones in a special place there. Next, while in the Wartok Base section, look for a stair-step formation of wooden boxes near the area where the cage is. Using side jumps and backflips, you can make your way up these boxes and jump and grab the edge of a cliff above them. Up here is another place where you can deposit the second stone. Finally, once you are in the lower ruins area, look for a tiny graveyard section right before you see the throne. On the right hand side of this graveyard is the third spot you can deposit the stone. Now, when you can leave the ruins go and look for another set of strange stones and crumbled wall on the Southern part of the sand area (the upper right section of the valley map). Land here and the Fire Blade will appear, along with some enemies to try to kill you. You can quickly run and use the dragon to kill them if you need to since you are outdoors. The Fire Blade requires 1 Melee Skill, does 15 damage, 300 durability, fast, and has 10 charges of the same area affect fire spell that the Firestrike sword did. ----Items of the Order ----Reward: Bow of the Order, Armor of the Order ----When can be done: After getting the lower ruins key but before marching Arokh through the sentinal room in the final dungeon of the Valley Use the gate to return to Surdana and go to the first blacksmith, and he will now sell these items. The armor is indestructible and is believed to be the most powerful in the game. The bow requires 8 skill and features arrows that home in on your target. Be sure to get them before you complete the ruins in the valley, although you can get an Armor of the Order from a corpse at the end of the Flesh Mage's dungeon at the end of the Final Map. ----Darkness breath weapon ----Reward: Arokh's Darkness Breath weapon ----When can be done: When arrive at the lower ruins When you go to the lower ruins as part of the main quest, you will be attacked after a short cutscene. After you beat this battle but before you go into the ruins, fly around the outside of the ruins and look for a black ball floating in the sky above them. Touch it to get Arokh's final breath weapon. This weapon will cause purple beams to fly out of any enemy it hits, and if you touch the purple beams you will get healed. ------------------------------------------- V E. Final Map ------------------------------------------- ----Armor of the Order ----Reward: Armor of the Order ----When can be done: At the end of the Flesh Mage's dungeon At the end of the Flesh Mage's dungeon when you're fighting him one of the corpses is wearing an Armor of the Order. Be sure to grab it if you didn't get it before. ------------------------------------------- V F. Other Secrets ------------------------------------------- ----Arokh's Breath Weapons Here are the locations of all of Arokh's Breath Weapons: *Fire - start with it *Lightning - Defeat the large boss just before entering the lair of the final boss in the Islands map - look above where it died. *Ice - Defeat the last boss of the Northlands map - look above where it died. *Sonic - Defeat the Necromancer side quest in Surdana, then look in the air around the Necromancer's tower. *Darkness - Defeat the boss that you have to fight when you get to the lower ruins in the Valley map, and look in the air around the ruins. ----The Chicken weapon There is a secret weapon that costs 1 gold, requires only 1 Melee Skill, does 30 Armor Piercing damage, has 100 Durability, and is a chicken. Literally. It's a chicken you hold in your hand, that squawks and everything. How do you get it? It's entirely random, but it's bought from a store. ANY store. The blacksmith, the alchemist, the shop in the Islands, etc. It will appear at a random shop at a random time and may not appear at all for most people. It's been said that you will hear a chicken make a sound when you get near a shop that it has appeared in. ==================================================================== VI. STUCK AND NEED HELP FAQ'S ==================================================================== WARNING! This section may contain spoilers, read at your own risk! I suggest only reading this section if you are actually stuck at some point in the game. Browse through the section that you are in and see if your question is there, then read the answer and don't read any further than that, otherwise you may ruin future parts of the game. I tried to give as little spoilers as possible but sometimes just knowing the solution to a good puzzle ahead of time is a pretty big spoiler in my opinion... ------------------------------------------- VI A. Surdana ------------------------------------------- Q. How do I find the Monastery? A. After you have gotten out of the swamp, you can ride your dragon and fly there. If you look on your map, the Monastery is located on the middle bump of the three on the bottom edge of the island (so, to the South and in the middle). Q. In the Monastery Catacombs I come to a room with a big crack in the middle and no way to get across. What now? A. You actually can jump this crack, and need to. Just make a running jump straight down the middle of the room. You need to make sure you are exactly center, and jumping towards the high flat edge in the center of the other side. Run towards it in a straight line, jump at the last second, and hold the Triangle button down and Rynn will grab the edge of the tall ledge and pull herself up. You might want to save it just before you do this as it sometimes takes a few tries. Q. How do I get into the powder mines in the swamp? A. Wander around the walls of the hermit's hut - the key is hanging on a hook on the wall. Go to the mine entrance, equip the key as a weapon, and press L1 or Square near the lock to open the gate. Q. How do I find Toadfist? A. After you have obtained the item you are seeking in the swamp, make your way back the way you came. You will soon get a small cutscene where a grate opens and two Trog's run through to attack you. After you kill them, go through the gate that they came out of. Follow this path and keep your eye open for an elevator somewhere on the left wall. If you go past the elevator, you will eventually be lead to a shortcut out of the swamp, which is where most people go. Instead, take the elevator down to a new path that leads directly to Toadfist. Q. How do I defeat Toadfist? A. It helps if you have a large weapon. If you do, you can use the D-Down,D- Down,Square attack to knock Toadfist to the ground. Keep doing this over and over so he never gets back up. If you have it, the Time Slow spell can really help out here. If you get too far away from him, he'll shoot you with very quick homing bolts, and there are not many places to hide and use the Sneaky Sniper method. If he does his spin attack, use a Parry and it will stop it short. Beyond that, all I can say is try your best to avoid his attacks through dodging or parrying and attack him with whatever method you can. Q. I can't kill those skeletons that appear when I get the Earth Sword. Can you help? A. You don't have to - before you get the sword, position yourself behind the sword so that you are facing both the sword and the doorway. Run, jump over the pedestal such that you grab the sword during your jump, and keep running toward the doorway. Do a roll under the gate (with the X button) and you should be able to get out just before the gate closes. Then the skeletons just don't appear at all! :) Q. Once I've opened up more than one Gate, how do I choose where I want to go when I use them? A. All gates lead back to Surdana, but the Surdana gate has four crystals outside of it. Walk up to a crystal and push L1 to activate it. This will change the picture on the gate to a new destination. Try each crystal until one reveals a picture of where you want to go, and then fly on through. ------------------------------------------- VI B. The Islands ------------------------------------------- Q. How do I find Sevoth? A. If you pay close attention during the scene where you talk to the first guy you meet in this section, the game briefly shows you the cave Sevoth is in. Wander around this first village and look for several white lean-to type huts. Near them are some trees and a cave hidden behind the trees. Enter this cave and take a right to find Sevoth (just talk to the guy there). Q. Where is Sevoth's pouch? A. Look for a cave (should be marked on your map) a bit north of the spot where you blew up the catapults. Go through this cave and eventually you will see a cutscene involving a Wartok and a human. After the cutscene kill the wartok and he will drop the pouch as part of his loot. Q. I have over 100 extra Mana crystals after giving the ones for the quest here, what do I do with them? A. Nothing, as far as anyone knows, other than sell them to Olag, the merchant in the back of the cave (past the guy you gave the crystals too). No one has found any other use for them. Q. Where are the charts the captain wants? A. Fly to the tiny island north of the larger island. Go to the Northern end of this small island, then turn East and fly toward the mainland. Look around the beach here for a small campfire. It's hard to see, but it's in front of a cave. You might have to comb the beaches a bit to find it. You'll know you have the right cave if there's lava in it. Reach the end of this cave to find the plans. Q. Where do I go to kill the boss of this section? A. First, get the lightning spell from Sevoth. If you look on your map, the top (Northern tip) of the map forms a kind of sharp hook. Go into the bend of that hook with your dragon to find the source of the storms. Or just fly North as far as you can and look for a large tornado looking thing and fly towards that. Either way when you get near the source of the storms, you will automatically begin a sequence leading to the main boss of this section. Q. How do I kill the two-headed dragon boss? A. Usually just locking on to one head with R2 and then just circling around it shooting at it with your primary attack works fine. The homing lightning balls are slow enough that if you keep circling you should avoid getting hit by most of them. If you happen to have the Sonic Breath weapon, try shooting it's secondary attack, as it will do massive damage to this boss. Q. How do I kill the boss of this section? A. Equip the Lightning spell, then target each of the three crystal eyes on the edges of the room. Two blasts of lightning will kill each of them. After all three are gone, the boss is no longer invincible and you can kill it in any method you desire. ------------------------------------------- VI C. The Northlands ------------------------------------------- Q. How do I find Jerris? A. After talking to the scout in the main town, a spot will appear on your map called "To Northern Tundra." Go there and you'll see a large cave. While still riding your dragon, go through the cave (NOTE: If you go through on foot instead of on the dragon, you could permanently lose the dragon! See the BUGS and WARNINGS section above). Now, fly through this section and about halfway through it on the right side is a camp that looks like an enemy camp, but it's actually a good guy camp. You'll fine Jerris in the cave at the back of the camp, behind a desk. Q. Where is the golden blade? A. Talk to Jerris (see above). He'll give you a sidequest to kill a certain enemy in exchange for the blade. Use your map to find the cave he wants you to go to. Q. How do you kill the Wartok? Q. Other than just being persistent, the only really good way I know to kill him is to be cheap and use the Clone spell or an invisibility potion. Q. How do I get the ashes of a warrior? A. Talk to the blacksmith who will now be available in Ravenshold. Then go to the Yeti hunting ground and find the cave there. Go through it, kill the Yeti, and get the journal from the cave. Bring the journal to the Blacksmith and he'll give you a key and mark a Crypt on the map. Go to the crypt and solve the puzzle inside to get the ashes. Q. How do I kill the yeti? A. One way is to use Time Slow (while hiding behind a tree or something), then just run up to him (dodge his iceballs with side rolls), target him with R2, and just circle around him while slashing rapidly. If you're quick he won't be able to grab you and you can just slash up his legs. When he is about to die, get away from him, because when he collapses onto the ground he can squish you and kill you instantly. This method works particularly well if you have a life- sucking sword like the Lestat Blade. Q. Where is the journal after I kill the yeti? A. Go into the cave where the yeti came out of, and look around for a bunch of corpses. The book is on the ground there. Q. The Forgotten Tomb wasn't marked on my map, where is it? A. This happens sometimes, I'm not sure why. It's South of the entrance to the Northern Tundra. There's a big statue standing out in front of it. Q. I'm in the Crypt and I can't see anything! A. Equip a torch as your weapon. The blacksmith should have given you one. Q. I've located 3 of the 4 items I need to solve the crypt puzzle, but the last one seems to be behind a locked grate I can't open! A. Find the room right next to that one and look for a hole in the corner of that room. Go through the hole to get to the room you're after and get the 4th item. Q. How do I get the blood from a pagan alter? A. Find the Grull Base from your map (talk to the Scout in Ravenshold to get it to appear on the map). Find the cave there and go through it. At one part of the cave, there will be a lot of blood around and some bodies hanging from the ceiling. Search the pots and the tables around here using the L1 button and you should find the vial with the blood in it. Q. How do I get the visionary amethyst? A. Find the friendly camp in the Northern Tundra (see the Golden Blade question above). Talk to everyone in the camp and someone will mention his friend getting dragged into an ice cave. He will mark the ice cave on your map. Go to that cave and enter the teleporter. Now you will have to progress down a forested path filled with mechanical monsters that shoot deadly ice beams that hurt and can freeze you in place (often spelling death). Time Slow will really really help in this area, by allowing you to dodge the ice beams much easier. Get to the end on this section and look carefully for a half buried statue. Make your way onto the snowy bump next to the statue and press L1 to pull a crystal out of it. This is the amethyst, and taking it will destroy all the enemies in this area. Q. How do I open this gate with the four switches in front of it? A. It's a puzzle; look around the various areas of this section for stones with red markings on them. Each stone shows a cardinal direction, as well as red marks on the side showing which one in the sequence it is. Using this info, you can figure out what order to push the buttons in. Or, you can just align the buttons using your compass so you know which one is North, and push S,E,E,W,S,N,N,S. If it doesn't work, be sure you're pushing the right buttons - when looking at the South button, your compass should be pointing Up. When looking at the North button, your compass should be pointing Down. When facing the East button your compass should be pointing Left, and when facing the West button your compass should be pointing Right. If you still can't get it to work, I'm sorry, I guess you're just unlucky or inept, but don't even think about asking me for more help on it 'cause I'll just laugh at you. Q. I got all the way to a big wooden gate with a hole in it that my dragon can't fit through, what now? A. Go through the hole yourself as Rynn. After you've done EVERYTHING in the area beyond the hole, you will eventually get to a switch on one of the lighthouse structures that opens the gate. However, it will be a long time before you can do this, it only happens after you've killed everything in this section including the boss, so don't worry about it. Q. I killed what I thought were two evil floating bosses, but the room beyond is just a dead end. What do I do now? A. After you defeated these two and collect the booty in the caves, you will have to go back out the way you came in. Then go North and you will go through two more caves. After the second cave you have to follow a narrow walkway around until you get to a bridge. Cross the bridge and there is a dead end cave there. Turn right before entering it and keep going until you see two bridges. Climb up so you can cross the bridges. One of them will lead to a cave that has two paths - one going down and one going up. Take the path going downward. Q. I'm stuck in a prison cell with no items, how do I escape? A. Use a magic spell (you should have Lightning if nothing else) to kill the guard outside your cell, and you'll get the key. Use the key by tapping L1 lightly while facing the lock on the left (be careful not to get too close to those bars!) and you'll get out. Proced through the prison until you get to a room covered with blood, there look immediately to the left to find a rusty scimitar weapon on a small stone block. Get the weapon, then using a combination of that and magic make your way out of the prison. Alternatively, you can just run through the level avoiding as many enemies as you can (fear spell helps) and eventually just before you exit you'll hit a room with all your stuff just lying on the ground. Tap L1 to pick it all up, then you can go back and kill all the enemies you avoided. Q. How do I kill the boss of this section? A. He's tough isn't he? Other than just being really good at parrying, dodging, etc. you can use spells like Time Slow and Clone effectively. If you have been saving them up, you could also use an invisibility potion or an invulnerability potion. Q. I opened the second gate here, what am I supposed to do now? A. Go to Surdana and go into the palace using the elevator and talk to everyone there - it should become apparent what you're supposed to do next pretty quickly (use your quest journal and map if you need to). ------------------------------------------- VI D. The Valley ------------------------------------------- Q. How do I get into the Wartok base? A. First, go into the cave that's just behind the third gate. In a large room here on a table is a key to the base that you need to get. Once you get that, you need to find the fairly hidden entrance to the base. It's actually in a cave at the base of a river. Look in the area on the opposite side of the third gate from the cave you were just in for another cave that's over a river in the side of a very low cliff. Go in there and use the key you got to open the door, and now you're in the base. Q. How do I rescue the person I'm looking for in the base? A. First look on the tables in this area for a prison key. Then look for a lever near a pulley with ropes and pull it using the L1 button. Now if you want to actually return this person to their home for a big reward, remember to walk slowly or stop every few seconds to make sure they catch up. Return to a locked door you saw earlier in this level and use the prison key to open it. Now slowly walk across the bridge, into the enemy camp, through the cave near there, through the next cave after that one, across the next bridge, and there you are. Q. Where are the lower ruins I'm supposed to go to? A. Fly above the cave that is behind the third gate (the cave where you got the key to the wartok base) and notice that there is a small hole in the mountain range above it that you can fly through to get to the sandy section. Now head to the right hand side of this section of the map (as far East as you can go) and you will see a cutscene and have a fight on your hands. After the fight, find a door on the left hand side of these ruins and open it with your lower ruins key. Q. How do I beat the bosses I have to fight when I arrive at the lower ruins? A. Back far away from them and try to lure one out at a time. Use your Ice Breath normal shots since they are fast and have a slight homing ability. The shots the bosses fire at you are pretty slow so if you move around a lot they should not be hard to avoid, although they also have a slight homing ability. If you really get in a pinch, you can use invulnerability potions and such to give you the edge. Q. Okay, I have they key, but I don't see how to actually get IN the ruins, just a room with laser things blocking my path. A. Ignore that room. While facing that room from the outside, turn to your left and follow the outside wall until you find a door. Use your key on this door, as it is the actual entrance to the lower ruins. Q. I defeated a boss in the lower ruins, but now I'm stuck, what do I do now? A. In the area where you fought the boss look for a key. Backtrack a ways and a new wall will open on your left leading to a teleporter. Use this to go back to a room with large strange doors. Use the key you got to open the door. Q. How do I get rid of the laser beam looking things? A. First, you have to get the two sentinel keys. Each are found at the base of a large statue shaped like the boss you defeated earlier. One of these is in a high room with large pillars you should have passed on your way to the laser beam room. The other is underneath the laser beam room - look for an elevator nearby to take you down to it. After you have both keys, look for a block you can push around in the laser beam room. Push it to intercept one of the laser beams thus turning half of it off. Then roll under the other beams. Now look to your left and your right to see doorways that can be opened with those two keys you got. Open each and pull the switches to turn off the beams (watch out for enemies that attack you from behind while doing this. Now that all the beams are off you are free to fetch your dragon and march him through the room to the cave beyond. WARNING! Soon after this section a door will close behind you and you will never be able return to any previous point in the game, and will have no access to a blacksmith! So take this last chance to use your dragon to get every thing you missed, repair your stuff, and buy whatever you think you'll need for the final section of the game. Q. I'm in a large open pit room with some pillars in the middle and there doesn't seem to be any way across, and I don't have my dragon, what do I do? A. Backtrack and look for a switch that makes a magical bridge appear in this room. ------------------------------------------- VI E. Final Map ------------------------------------------- Q. I need a blacksmith! Where is one? A. Soon after you march Arokh through the room that used to have laser beams in the dungeon just before this one, a door will close behind Rynn while she is exploring the next section. After that door closes, you can no longer go back to any previous point in the game and there are no blacksmiths from now on. When a weapon breaks, just drop it and try to find another one. (If there is a blacksmith in the final map somewhere someone please let me know). Q. How do I defeat the enemy involving the urns? A. Shoot the rope holding the chandalier to the cieling using arrows or the lightning spell. When it falls the answer should become apparent. Just attack the other target. Q. How do I get into the area with the pink/red barrier that leads to my death when I enter it normal? A. Go to the island in the upper left and talk to the NPC named Goob. He will give you details you need, including a location on your map for an island you need to go to. Do what he says to get an item that will get you past this barrier. Q. How do I defeat this huge boss guy? A. Hover right above his head and he can't shoot you. The key here is to notice there are two targets - the main one, and a smaller one within the main one. The main one is invincible. Target the smaller one. When the boss raises his arm to swing at you, shoot the smaller target with ice or darkness breath. Then retreat and repeat that procedure until the smaller target dies. If you need to during the battle you can land between the boss's legs and rest and rejuvinate without being harmed. Also, if you hover right below its arms you can use soul steal on the dragon and repower in relative safety. ------------------------------------------- VI F. Other Frequently Asked Questions ------------------------------------------- Q. Where do I learn magic spells? A. Buy them from the magic shop in the tower near the main city of Surdana. If you don't have the dragon yet, you can still get there by climbing up the hill that leads to the tower. The path to get up the hill is across the water from the waterfall that is coming off the edge of the main town (you can get there by jumping into the river off of the bridge leading out of town, then swimming up the river). The tower itself should be marked on your map and is easy to get to with the dragon. Q. Can I get back the charges on the elemental blades? A. You can recharge them by repairing them at the blacksmith. Q. What do you recommend I put my skill points into? A. 5 Melee 5 Bow 4 Magic or 3 Melee 8 Bow 3 Magic - here's why: Well, first, I think that unless you are going for full mage, you should not need more than 4 points in Magic absolute max. This will get you every spell in the game at some level or another, including heal, time slow, clone, and fear. However, if you're needing more points elsewhere, any number below that would be good too. If you do 3 points, you don't get healing, but then the healing spell isn't THAT great since you generally should have plenty of potions and near infinite cash to buy them with by halfway through the game, and potions work better (heal much faster and can move while doing it and drink them while on dragon back, don't have to stand there and wait for a spell animation). With 3 points you get Clone and second tier Fear and Time Slow (they last longer). Even 2 points is viable - you get Time Slow and Fear, but no clone - but clone is the least used of those 3 anyway due to its very short duration. And if you're really pushed for points, 1 point in Magic is enough to get you through the game - it gives you Fear and the spells you need to get through the points where you need spells, and Fear is the most powerful one. It would be a real shame to miss out on Time Slow for certain sections like bosses, but it's doable if you aren't afraid to use potions at some parts and have good reflexes and/or a high bow skill. For Melee, keep in mind that there are a lot of awesome swords that only require 1 melee skill. You got the 8AP freezing Bitter Touch sword, then the four 15AP Elemental blades, then Clinschmidt's 24AP vampiric Blade, the 30AP Chicken, and the 30AP vampiric Mournbringer. Of course, most of these are hidden/secret blades. You also have the second most powerful weapon in the game in my opinion, Lestat's Blade (fast, 22AP, vampiric), which requires 5 skill. So I'd advice against going above 5 - sure there are some pretty good weapons higher than that, but they aren't THAT great and these ones are better all things considered. If you can't spare 5 for Lestat's, you might still want to get at least 3 for some other good blades like the Wyvern's Claw (14AP, from the Surdana blacksmith) for those times when you don't have these other ones available. If you really want points elsewhere, you can get away with 1 point in Melee, but of course, this assumes that you use this guide to get these great 1 skill secret swords - if you miss out on them, having 1 skill is really gonna hurt! For Archery it really depends. If you skimp on the other two, you can get 8 skill which is enough to get the Bow of the Order, a very powerful bow that makes it all worthwhile. Other bows before that are powerful as well, such as the 29AP Demise Bow. If you plan to use archery at all seriously, you'll want to get 5 points in it to use the Hoarfrost bow and some other powerful ones. Many bows have special arrows, and combined with the ability to aim in first person view a powerful bow can take out enemies very easily and quickly once you start getting some good ones. I've been told the Hoarfrost can take out a giant grull in 3 shots, for example (haven't confirmed that). If nothing else, you can at least put 3 points in it to have a halfway decent bow for those times when you really need one even if you don't plan to use it regularly. It's also totally possible to get through the game with only 1 skill in bow if you never plan to use one (there are a few parts where it's required but a 1 skill bow will suffice). Honestly, you could probably get through the whole game without too much difficulty keeping 1 skill in all three of these, as long as you got all the secret weapons and such! Now keep in mind that the most points you will get is 11 (your max level is 12) and remember that you won't reach that until just before the end of the game. Each skill starts out with one point as well. So at max level, my suggested configurations are 5 melee, 5 bow, 4 magic or 3 melee, 8 bow, 3 magic depending on if you are more interested in the Bow of the Order or Lestat's Blade. The first gives you the power to use Lestat's Blade, Hoarfrost, and Rejuvinate, Time Slow, Fear, and Clone. The second gives you all bows including the Bow of the Order and the Demise Bow, some decent blades like the Wyvern Claw (14AP) and all the secret very powerful 1 skill swords I mentioned above, plus Fear, Clone, and Time Slow. So it really is just a toss up between the best bows (Bow of the Order and Demise Bow) or the second best sword (Lestat's Blade) - keep in mind that the bow is better for the late game as it's the best bow you can get, and the sword is better for the earlier game and is not the absolute best you can get (the best ones requiring only 1 melee skill). This is all just my opinion though, so don't treat it like gospel. And don't write me and tell me how wrong and stupid I am, 'cause I'll just ignore you. Q. Do you have a list of all the weapons and armor in the game? A. No, but there's a Weapon FAQ now available on www.gamefaqs.com written by bcarl. Try that. Q. Are there cheat codes in this game? A. Yes. Q. Well..? A. Well what? Q. What are the cheat codes?!? A. I'm not going to tell you. Q. Why not?? A. Mostly because I don't know what they are, but also because I think using cheat codes is lame, and ruins the game for you. I don't think they should have even been included personally. Come on, this game is not that hard anyway, and I'm probably already ruining a lot of it for you by writing this guide as it is. If you want to be a lamer and use cheat codes, go find them yourself - I'm sure they are plastered all over the internet by now. ==================================================================== VII. CONTACTING THE AUTHOR ==================================================================== Please do NOT send me questions on this game, if it's not in the guide I probably don't know or don't remember the answer. I'm not really an expert at it or anything, I just compiled what info I could find into a guide. Please DO send me corrections, new info I don't have, including secret stuff, tips, and even "I think other people might get stuck on this part" (but don't expect me to actually help you get past it, only send that in if you know the solution as well). I can't guarantee I will actually respond to any submitted e-mails, but I will include your information in the credits section (be sure to include whatever information you want in the credits as part of your e-mail, including what name you want to be known as and whether or not you want your e-mail address included in the credits listing. If more than one person sends me the same info, I will only give credit to the first person that sent it in (judging by the date/time stamp on the e-mail). Yes I know I sound like a jerk but last time I did one of these I got so flooded with e-mail, most of it asking for help on something that was ALREADY IN THE GUIDE that I had to cancel that e-mail account! Don't make me do that again! >:(. Also don't ask if you can post my guide on your site, the answer will most certainly be no - see the legal stuff section below. That said, you can reach me at Zauron zauron net and you can view my homepage at http://www.zauron.net ==================================================================== VIII. CREDITS ==================================================================== All the various posters on the GameFAQ's message boards. Coppertp1 - detailed info on the Mournbringer sword LINKIN717PARK87 aol com - Lightning blade info MARKMARKTEXAS aol com - Tips on final boss Jennifer (yellowdragon HotPOP com) - Golden blade quest bug Mark Rideout (wrongwhale yahoo com) - Hidden bow in Kragmoor cave Vigilant Dragon - Armor of the Order in flesh mage's dungeon ==================================================================== IX. VERSION HISTORY ==================================================================== 0.1 - (2/10/2) First version, included only the stuff I knew from first hand experience and not even all of that. Mostly just the preliminary groundwork. 0.2 - (2/11/2) Added some more FAQ's, added the Surdana Secrets and Side Quests section, fixed some spelling errors and minor tweaks here and there. 0.3 - (2/12/2) Fixed more errors and some minor tweaks, added a couple more FAQ's, added more stuff to the Surdana secrets section and did the Islands and Northlands secrets sections. This guide now contains all the knowledge I have of this game, the rest of it will come through my continued playing of the game (I just barely opened the second gate in the Northlands) and submissions from other people. 0.31 - (2/12/2) Added a couple more FAQ's and added into to a few of the secrets. 0.4 - (2/13/2) Added what I have regarding the Valley section so far, and a tip regarding jumping onto tall boxes. Reformatted guide to the proper number of characters per line (80). Fixed lots of spelling errors. 0.5 - (2/14/2) Added more information on the Valley sections. Added the Final Map and Other Secrets sections. Proofread the whole guide (again) for grammer/spelling/etc. 0.6 - (2/25/2) Improved the melee techniques section, added Kragmoor sidequest, Lightning blade, mounbringer sword. Added info on the fact that you can't go back to any previous point in the game once a door closes behind you during the last dungeon of the Valley section of the game. Changed contact section to no longer state "don't send me info" so people can send me info on any part of the game they want now. Modified introduction. 0.7 - (2/26/2) Added a few FAQ's on parts people were getting stuck on (judging from questions asked on the gamefaqs message boards). Also modified some FAQ's to be more clear. Added a warning on spoilers to top of FAQ section. Did a bit of spell check and grammar check. Added some questions to the Final Map section and added the Other Questions section including my take on where you should spend skill points. Renamed HINTS AND TIPS section to TIPS AND FUN STUFF which made more sense for what was in it. 0.8 - (6/18/2) Added various information submitted to me via e-mail: more bug info, tips on the final boss, a few hidden items, etc. Also I found out myself that you don't need to kill the giant chicken to get the chicken weapon, and you do need to pull all the switches to get the hidden Surdana treasure, so updated those. I think this guide is pretty much done, but I have 2 more version numbers to go before 1.0 to add any last second corrections or additions. Final - (2/24/4) No new information has ever been submitted or found since the last version so I'm assuming this FAQ is as complete as it ever will be (despite not having a walkthrough but I don't think one is necessary). ==================================================================== X. LEGAL STUFF ==================================================================== Unpublished work Copyright 2002 Taron Millet (aka Zauron or Rubikant) This document is protected by US Copyright Law, and the Berne Copyright Convention of 1976. It is for private and personal use only--it cannot be reprinted in part or in whole, or reproduced in any way or in any form (written or otherwise). It is a free document that cannot be used in any sort of commercial transaction, including selling it or giving it away as a gift. This FAQ cannot be referenced, altered, or used by anybody (including webmasters, publishers, and magazine staff) without my express written permission. This FAQ was created and is owned by me, Taron Millet . It can be found exclusively at (www.GameFAQs.com) and (www.zauron.net or whatever my current homepage is). All copyrights and trademarks are acknowledged and respected that are not specifically mentioned herein. I expressly forbid the following publishers/publications from using this FAQ, namely: Cheat Code Central (www.cheatcc.com) Ziff-Davis Video Game Group (publishers of Expert Gamer), Future Publishing, Ltd. (publishers of PlayStation Power, Official UK PlayStation Magazine, etc.), IDG Media, Game 13th Magazine, Brady Games, and Prima Games. Remember, plagiarism is a crime and is punishable by law. In other words: "No, you may not post this guide on your web site, so don't even bother asking. This guide is to be found on my own personal web site (currently http://www.zauron.net) and www.gameFAQs.com ONLY." Drakan: The Ancients' Gates is for Playstation 2(r) is (c) 2002 Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. and was developed by Surreal Software, Inc.