Solo games in Might and Magic games
Solo games in Might and Magic games
I would like to open a new thread where everybody can post their achievements playing solo games in any of the MM games. Solo game means you are playing with only one character. In MM8 it's easier because you can hire or dismiss 4 party members. In MM6-7 and MM9 it is different - you will have to kill the other party members to start a solo game. Usually the player himself can make any rules he wants (no use of NPCs, can't use the backpacks of the dead characters, walking backwards etc). The whole idea of soloing is to have some fun while setting the game much harder.
I've done several soloings in MM games so I would like to post the walkthrough of two here. I'll repost what I once posted at TELP's tavern.
Level 0 solo peasant knight game (MM6)
Rules: simple - finish the game with all possible means, don't use the other characters, don't train and start the game with all stats nulled to 0.
Part 1
Party consists of a lonely knight named Killer who for some reason is dumb enough to understand that a party and training would help him to save the world. Oh, those heroes.
The beginning:
[1] Got master 7 of bodybuilding (from horseshoes) - planning to master also sword skill to use two swords.
[2] Completed Cavalier promotion
[3] Completed two Council quests - end winter and find Kilburn's shield.
[4] Completed Goblinwatch quest
[5] Visited Shrine of the Gods and used NPCs (Gate Master, Wind Master, Cartographer). Planning to mix potions ASAP.
Killer now has about 200 HP, a ring of HP regeneration and is wearing the best armor except plate and using a +13 spear.
I believe I won't experience serious problems till Oracle quests...
Part 2
[1] Mixed black potions to boost stats
[2] Champion promotion completed
[3] Completed all 6 council quests
[4] Learned expert sword and perception (already master bodybuilding)
[5] Exposed Slicker Silvertongue
[6] Received memory crystal quests
[1] Quite simple – in the NWC building I used the unlimited money chest to get 10000 gold, bought potions from the unlimited potions desk, mixed all stat essences and also about 15 divine cure potions (restore 100 HP)
[2] Champions promotion was quite easy – with NPC Gatemaster to Silver Cove, hired another Gatemsater, with Windmaster to Warlords fortress, killed several thugs inside the dungeon in TBM, run through the dungeon, grabbed the key and the discharge papers. With gatemaster out, that’s it.
[3] After the end winter and retrieve Kilburn’s shield quests which require only NPC Windmaster, I run through the sewers in Free Haven to capture prince of thieves. Then an easy fix of prices of stables (useful to combine the task with grabbing all the horseshoes). Retrieve demon plans was a little harder since I had to deal with Devil of Baa. I stopped in the lobby, pushed TBM till it was very close. Also in TBM with saves after every successful hit I killed it, grabbed the plans and fast exit. I left the hardest council quest as last one. Before that I had to get the Gharik’s key from the Silverhelm Outpost, of course what I did very fast. Before entering the forge I boosted all stats +256 and got Day of protection from local temple. In Gharik’s forge I had some minor problems with moving the bridges since I didn’t remember the correct combination plus the fire elementals around them were quite nasty. Also crossing the largest hall full with warlocks and fire elementals to reach the final room was quite hard but several divine cure potions solved it. Grabbed the hourglass and with NPC Gatemaster (of course!) out. In total to be able to complete all council quests, I had to kill only two monsters (Devil of Baa and one sorcerer in Gharik’s forge – he was blocking a lift I was planning to use).
[4] Before doing the traitor quest, I had to boost my perception skill since almost all doors in Superior Temple of Baa require about 15 points of perception which can’t be done only with NPCs Scout and Psychic (11 in total). I had to visit Castle Kriegspire, and sneaking past minos had a result of 7 horseshoes (then Gatemaster to get out) which was enough to improve the perception skill up to 5 expert. Then with Psychic I was able to open all doors in the temple I needed. Expert 4 sword probably was a bad idea – I don’t see where I will get 26 extra skill points. Of course, I could wait for area respawns but that will be the last try if anything else will fail.
[5] Slicker Silvertongue quest was kinda hard – I hired NPC Windmaster to get safely to the temple and get out (actually the bad part of this plan was that I forgot that Windmaster can cast fly only once per day and when I would exit the temple, the spell duration already would be over). Probably I should have used Gatemaster but then I would have some problems to get in (minos and earth elementals with ranged attack). Anyway, inside the temple I had to find the two Priests of Baa who wear keys of High Cleric and High Sorceror. After quite lot of tries (as you probably have guessed – I had forgot where exactly they are!) I got them. Used some Divine cure potions to heal fully to be able to run past the minos and earth elementals who guard the temple. Successfully.
[6] So I received the memory crystal quests. I expect to have no serious problems with Castle Alamos and Supreme temple of Baa, Castle Kriegspire may require some luck and monster kills but Castle Darkmoor probably will be very hard. I have heard that there’s a shortcut which could save a lot of time (and nerves!). Anyone knows it?
After the memory crystal quests will be Tomb of Varn. I expect it to be the hardest and most frustrating quest in the game and probably I will divide it in several parts – getting the codes. In Hive the only problems could be that TP and LB don’t work there and it’s not advised to save before the Demon Queen is killed (queen disappears after reload). Some tricks probably will do the thing.
Part 3
I have done a significant progress in the game:
[1] Memory crystal quests completed
[2] Tomb of Varn completed
[3] Got blaster skill and a blaster
[4] Got Ritual of the Void from Archibald
[1] The memory crystal quests were a lot easier than I expected. To my great surprise, I have to admit that the biggest problems I had with Castle Alamos even if I knew the password. The warlocks were very nasty and not to mention that I had forgot where to find that crystal! Finally after some reloads I sneaked past all warlocks and got it. The only trick I used was: to cross a large hall full with monsters, run a few meters, immediately push TBM and save. Reload, run few meters, push TBM, save and reload etcetera. That was the main trick also in Tomb of Varn where around me were standing about 30 Sentinels of Varn (see the screenshot). In Supreme temple of Baa I just run through it, hit the shrines for bonus, and in TBM got past devils guarding the crystal. I also killed Slicker Silvertongue, because there has to be justice after all (plus I didn’t like too much his villain speech in the council). Castle Kriegspire I completed in 10 minutes. I reloaded already a completed game, had a look where to go, where is the button, where to go next and then did it in my current game. One jump scroll to reach the button, jump down and run to the newly opened area, jump through the window to get the crystal and with Gatemaster out. In Castle Darkmoor I used Vilx’s shortcut (thank you very much!) and completed the last part as a yawn. I needed only one jump scroll to be able to complete it.
[2] Tomb of Varn was very hard but not as frustrating as I expected. As I told before, I divided the quest in 5 parts. Each part – getting one of the codes (in library I took 2 in one visit, of course). I used a LOT Divine Cure potions (in total about 30 or so), the trick with TBM and Gatemaster. Both Gatemaster and Windmaster can be found in Abdul’s resort in Dragonsands so I used them everytime I needed. Hint: there’s a small trick with them: after you dismiss them, they return to their houses AND offer to cast the spell once again! So, after hiring a Windmaster it’s advised to dismiss him immediately, hire again and he will offer one more fly cast for use later. I like that NPC’s in houses are fixed so I noticed where live Gatemasters in almost every town, reducing the time of reloading. Very hard part of this quest was answering the passwords in the pool (not as simple as you think!) because there were already swarms of Varn monsters around so I had to save and reload after every successful step.
[3] Nothing special, just run in the Control Center to learn the skill and grabbed one blaster from the nearest chest.
[4] Getting the Ritual of the Void doesn’t include any danger, only knowledge of Third Eye location. Released Archibald and he knocked my reputation to bad. Thanks at least for the scroll.
So, the last quest…Currently I have no plan how to complete it but probably what I will do:
. Explore the Hive in one of my completed games to figure the fastest shortcuts and where are all the levers.
. Will use the well +30 levels temporary
. Will use the +256 stat booster (my knight should have around 700 HP then).
. Will have some NPC’s with me (I am considering, which ones)
. Will have to find at least two Lloids Beacon scrolls to be able to come from New Sorpigal directly to save the +256 boost.
Part 4 - Killer saves the Enroth!
Wohooo, I did it!!! The Hive was hard but not as nearly hard comparing with Tomb of Varn. My walkthrough for the Hive:
[1] Reload at item shops (Blackshire, Kriegspire, Eel Infested Waters) to get at least 2 Lloids Beacon scrolls. I got one from Blackshire and another one from Kriegspire shop.
[2] Made a trip to Sweet Water and set a beacon very close to Hive (duration over 30 days), then with Gatemaster to Blackshire.
[3] From Blackshire to Kriegspire for wells of +30 levels temporary and +40 to Armor Class. Immediately with Gatemaster to New Sorpigal and NWC dungeon via the teleporter for +256 stat boost. Now my knight had ~670 HP. Also I made about 25 Divine Cure potions.
[4] On my way completed the obelisks (no real need for it actually) and the statues quest. As a reward I got … Conan the Devil Slayer!!
[5] Now with second LB scroll back to Sweet Water and enter the Hive. In Hive I had to explore all holes to activate the levers. I had absolutely no problems to do it, devils could do ridiculously little damage. And BTW, in Hive in one of the tunnels there is also sort of well which restores HP.
[6] I cleared the room full with devils before entering the one with Reactor, took some 2 hours or so. Reactor was done very easy, and so was the Queen (successful hit, TBM, save, reload, successful hit, TBM, save…). Btw, it was funny that right after destroying the Reactor suddenly all of my chars were resurrected and then three of them again made dead! The good part of it was that my knight was suddenly fully healed but the bad part … devils dispelled all my boosts including the +256 one and my knight had only 350 HP (as a maximum). The Queen was quite resistant to even Conan’s attacks, besides, take a look at Killer’s HP when Queen is close to destroyed! Luckily Queen didn’t disappear after game reloads (from my previous experience) so killing her was just a matter of time.
Anyway, I am happy this is over and I think it’s enough for me with MM6 for a while.
P.S. Don’t be confused seeing a priest in my party (dead, of course! ). I completed the quest to be able to heal also in Free Haven temple.
Some screenshots:
Minotaur solo on level 1 (MM8)
Arturchix the level 1 minotaur
Total time: 0 years, 10 months, 17 days
Score: 5242 (!!!)
Stats
• 213/213 might, 87/87 intellect, 87/87 personality, 116/116 endurance, 110/110 accuracy, 100/100 speed, 98/98 luck.
• Hit points – 215, Spell points – 16, Armor class – 94
• Experience – 1,657,016 (eligible to train to lvl 58), attack +24, damage – 30-48; shoot +26, damage 15-20, age 20.
• Resistances: fire 10/10, air 0/0, water 24/24, earth 0/0, mind 5/5, body 5/5
• Skills: bodybuilding – master 10, plate – master 7, disarm trap – ekspert 4(bonus +12), axe, bow, spirit, mind, body magics, armsmaster, merchant, perception, alchemy, leather, chain normal on level 1.
• No deaths
Artifacts used:
• Berserker’s belt (+100 might, -30 accuracy...)
• Longseeker (+50 accuracy, swift, Bow +4)
Also i had many others, but i didn’t use them. I had some rings, one of them was a ring of regeneration (HP), and some rings of health and defence.
Quests completed:
1. Give powerstone to Fredrick Talimere
2. Rescue Isthric the Tongue
3. Stop the yellow fewer
4. Deliver Dadeross’s Letter
5. Get the Dragonbane flower (both)
6. Deliver the blackmail to the wererat leader
7. Get the Annointed Herb potion
8. Rescue Cauri Blackthorne
9. Witness of the Lake of fire
10. Place the Vilebite’s ashes in the tomb
11. Make an Alliance with necromancers
12. Make an Alliance with minotaurs
13. Make an Alliance with dragon hunters
14. Deliver the false report
15. Sink the Regnan fleet
16. Win the Arcomage tournament
17. Get all four hearts from elemental planes, build Conflux key
18. Get the prison keys, rescue all elemental lords
Walkthrough
Comparing to my sologame with lich on level 1, the lich game was ridiculously easy (since air gm always did the job). I choosed minotaur because it’s the weakest char in mm8. Yes you may say that he can cast magic spells and he’s not the weakest. But my minotaur had only 16 SP, but he couldn’t use helms and boots (but AC is important in a solo game).
Creating character: I lowered my intellect to 5 (i think), lowered to minimum luck (then i got it all back from a well), all ekstra points added to might, and then to endurance.
Dagger Wound Island: so, i grabbed all the stuff from crates near the starting place, sold visky (other things sold in Ravenshore and Alvar), used all barrels, got Fredrick in my party, took his stone and dismissed him. Also completed the yellow fewer and rescuing of Isthric Tongue quest on my way. It was quite hard without wizard eye, but i got all components to get the black potion of speed. I even didnt enter the Abandoned temple – i simply made the shortcut to the ship, once i used the red potion to heal myself. Trip to Ravenshore.
Ravenshore: at first I delivered the letter to Elgar Fellmoon. Then my next tasks were: to boost up all the stats as much I can and to get a good armor. So I travelled around the Jadame, got the 4 black potions (Alvar, Murmurwoods, Shadowspire, Ravage Roaming but there was no potion of endurance or might among them), got plate armor +34(I think) from Garrot Gorge, also empted the flower chest there. After all this my HP were about 100 and I was ready for more.
Getting skill points: after boosting up my stats and after I found Berserkers belt and Tournament Bow (also Longseeker) and buying some stat boosting white potions in Shadowspire alchemy shop, I won at all the pedestals (including challenge pedestals in Ravenshore and Shadowspire) pretty easy. So, then I got master bodybuilding level 10 but it was not easy since mastering requires 50 endurance and I didn’t have it. So I was trying to use all the barrels in Ravenshore, Shadowspire, Ironsand Desert, Alvar and Wererat Smugglers Cove and got endurance 40. Then I bought some rings of Vigor and master bodybuilding was mine. Of course horseshoes, and life buoys in DWI (two of them, total 7 skill pts) and Ravenshore (near the Smugglers Cove) gave me many more skill pts. Then I decided to make plate master since it gets only ½ from all physical attacks. Done. At the end I found amulet of disarming (+12 bonus) so I decided to spend all rest skill pts to disarm skill – got expert 4. I even didn’t use the transmutter tree in Murmurwoods since I didn’t need it.
Quests: on my way of boosting the stats I completed the Dragonbane flowers quests, rescued Cauri, won all the Arcomage games in all taverns except Regna, of course and found the Annointed Herb potion in Smugglers Cove. The blackmail quest was done simply. At that moment I had about 190 HP, so I run to the leader, spoke to him and that’s all (Well, on my way back I cleared some, OK all, of their chests to get some cash). Then returned to Elgar, then to Loudrin and then to Ironsand Desert.
Ironsand Desert: there I got three artifacts with one invisibility scroll. Two of them I found in that Dragon Cave, and I was lucky on time to get the rock chest artifact before the duration of invisibility ended. The ashes quest was very easy at this point: entered the tomb, run forwards to the end then right, right and again right…(akh I think you know the path), placed the urn and returned to the troll. Then to Alvar.
The Alliance: I choosed necros, minotaurs of course, and dragon hunters in my Alliance. The Necros quest was easy: entered the temple, dismissed Leland, took the Brazier, and entered TBM, waited till the desk will move down, then jumped down there and back to Shadowspire. The clerics even didn’t hit me.
Minotaurs quest was much harder, I had to prepare for it and all the following quests. This was my tactic: I got some wands of Berzerking (really cool!!) and fire bolts. So the Berzerked tritons killed each other but I had to defeat maximum 10 of them (range weapons also useful there). Rescued the Lair, got them in my Alliance and then bought the black potions of endurance and might from the alchemy shop. Important note: it was really necessary to loot the magic shops all the time during the game. Invisibility, fly, Lloids Beacon were the spells I was trying to get all the time, requires lots of game reloadings for sure. The dragon egg was easy. First I cleared that first area outside the Fortress, Berzerking did all the job (*lol*) while I was standing on the top of those crates (got an artifact there, of course), I had to kill only one ogre, killed him with bow. Inside the fortress all the job did one invisibility scroll. I pushed the button, went to the chest which holded the egg (again a secret button but that was no problem for me). I took it and then beaconed out of there (I made a LB earlier, so I should have at least two LB scrolls). Then a trip to Garrot Gorge, then to Ravenshore. One more important note: TBM all the time was really handy when moving with lifts, flying up or just looking around where to go. Especially this was useful when I was invisible since one scroll gives only 50 minutes. Used before entering a dungeon.
Sinking the Regnan fleet: used one fly, two invisibility and two LB scrolls. I travelled to DWI, with invis entered the keep on island, made my way through to Blackwell Cooper. So, here I should fight since in MM8 is no stealing skill to get the key. I did it simply: with a paralyse wand (I bough and found many wands during the game, never sold them) made to stay Blackwell calm, killed all his helpers with my axe (one blow and they’re dead, hehe), then killed Blackwell himself. Opened the secret door with the key, rested there to get my HP back. Then in front of the ship turned TBM, travelled to Regna and made a sight around. Yeah, lots of pirates were waiting for me already. But since I was in TBM, I found the quickest way with eyes to run, and run, run…With some luck I got out of there. First I did in Regna, was delivering the false report to that old pirate, won the last Arcomage game in the tavern and used all the barrels on the central island. Also bought some scrolls from magic shop. The fleet sinking was really easy – I did it in real-time 5 minutes and with only one invis scroll, and two LB. I didn’t use the door bug in MM8. I entered the castle invisible, just run through it, then run through the tunnels under the Regna, then in Abandoned Pirates keep. I found what I needed, LB out of there (to Regna), and then …boom. A trip with the ship back to Ravenshore.
Elemental planes: all the same here, invisibility, LB and fly scrolls. So lets start with plane of Water (the easiest one).
• This was really easy, only one fly scroll required. Before entering the plane I turned TBM, had the fly ability. When entering, flied up and went (swimmed? Flied?) forward. All the monsters shoot at me but that was silly. When I found the final place (Warning, look at your SP to be sure if you can fly, it drains SP!), entered TBM and moved down slowly. Took the heart of Water, flied up, out of TBM and back to the entrance.
• The next was plane of Air. I used one invisibility and one fly scroll there. So, entered the plane, went as close as possible to the Air castle, got invisibility, and entered the castle. Then avoided all the air elementals, found the secret door and then out of there. Only then in TBM returned to get extra 100,000 exp.
• Plane of Earth. This was a little harder. I should have one invisibility, one fly (or water walking), and two LB scrolls. One I placed in Ravenshore before going to DWI. So entered the plane, made my way to the right of the entrance, found the lift (and pushed TBM to save time) and then avoided all monsters there on the stairs (wasn’t easy!) Got the stone (already visible!) and beaconed out of the hell.
• I left the hardest plane as the last. There I spend one fly, two invisibility, and two LB scrolls. entered the dungeon invisible (simply flied to the castle and found a safe place near it to cast invisibility), made my way through the castle (lots of savings and re-loadings), made to move the lift down near the entrance and then exited (invisibility was near to end), used invis scroll again, entered the castle and used that lift (again in TBM, you just never know…). Then with the second lift down, pushed the button, went through the teleporter, avoided all the beasts in that flaming tunnel, took the heart of Fire and beaconed out of there. Then a trip to Ravenshore, the Conflux key making.
Rescuing the elemental lords: of course this was the hardest part of the game. I needed there about 5 invisibility scrolls, two fly scrolls ,a town portal scroll, two LB scrolls and many wands. First: invisible I went through the Crystal, solved the teleport making and teleported to Plane between planes. Second: entered the Escaton’s palace and killed that Plane guardian with Paralyze wand and my axe (I used paralyze wand almost everywhere on the last part of the game). Pushed all the levers, used the wand of Berzerking many times (geez, how I like that wand!). Then I used a invis scroll in a safe corner of the palace, run to the Escaton and got the ring of keys. When I exited the palace, I had left two minutes invisible. So, with my last fly scroll I moved up, and flied to the Prison of Fire lord.
• This was the easiest one, invisible I avoided all the monsters, rescued the lord of Fire, and exited the prison.
• Rescuing Lord of Air was the same. One invisibility scroll, run through the caves, rescued the lord and exited the prison.
• At this moment I had left only one invisibility scroll. When I entered the prison of Lord of Earth, I had about 7 minutes to be invisible. I quickly jumped forward all the time, but then I got visible. This was like in a hell. With the jump scroll (I got it early in the game and didn’t sell it!) I jumped to the final ledge, pushed TBM and I had only 13 HP left. But then there was a small surprise for me – a Plane Overlord was waiting for me already near the cell of lord of Earth. With my 13 HP I luckily avoided him, rescued the lord, jumped down and in TBM exited the prison with my 13 HP.
• The last quest of minotaur soloing on level 1 for me was rescuing the lord of Water. To solve it I did the following: put a LB in a safe area of plane between planes, turned invisible and in TBM entered the prison. Since I wasn’t vampire and I didn’t have levitate scroll, I took the damage from fire floor all the time. I was trying to walk on walls to semi – avoid the damage. With about 20 HP left I rescued the Lord of water, beaconed out of there. And then the most exiting moment of this game – TP to Ravenshore. The nice cutscene and the diploma made me really happy. I really enjoyed this soloing and I would like to advise all the die-hard fans to try it, you wont regret it!
Troll solo on level 1 (MM8)
Brent the level 1 War Troll
Total time: 10 months and 2 days
Score: 7615
Gold and experience: approximately 750k, eligible to train to level 70.
I finally finished it and it really wasn’t that hard as I expected. At the beginning, to add more challenge, I reduced all seven stats of the troll to 0 plus removed all equipment and gold. Just for fun I also reduced troll’s actual amount of HP to 1 so that it looked more miserably. I decided to write down some description for those, who would like to try a similar game. At first, I shared my big plan to smaller points:
[1] Boost all 7 stats
This was pretty easy, at first I used some wells which boost a certain stat, then lots of barrels (plenty in Ravenshore, Shadowspire and Alvar) and finally I got all possible black potions from huts except one (pure might I think). Later in the game some of my stats reached even 200 mark because of some nice artefacts.
[2] Get a good equipment
When it was possible, I immediately bought better weapons and armor, a good start was at Garrot Gorge. Later on I didn’t need it since the troll’s backpack was full with artefacts. Save and reload worked fine as always.
[3] Level up some vital skills
Before I started to boost up any of skills (bought all possible), I had to consider which skills I should level up and which not. Pretty quickly I choosed to grandmaster Bodybuilding skill which boosted troll’s permanent amount of HP up to 550. Of course, before that I had to promote my troll what I did very quickly. I had some problems with basilisks (since I didn’t have Wizard’s eye) but with the help of turn-based mode I run in and out of the cave to get the promotion at my first visit in Ironsand Desert. Remaining skill points I spent to master Sword skill (can use with left hand), and expert Mace and Leather Armor skill. The necessary skill points I got from:
• Horseshoes
• Pedestals
• Buoys (1 in Ravenshore and 2 in DWI)
• Transmutter tree (diamonds exchange to horseshoes)
[4] Get as much artefacts as possible
This was fun, near the end of the game I had almost all of them. I won’t mention all places I got from but the main places were Ironsand desert (5 artefacts), Garrot Gorge (4 artefacts) and Plane of Fire (4 artefacts). As extremely useful I found out the Noblebone bow – it was a real killer machine when fight went ranged, it was SO handy in Balthazar’s Lair and Escaton’s Palace. And since the trolls was wearing artefacts Breaker and Havoc, with some blessings he was able to do even 100 damage points in melee. All of unneeded artefacts (usable for one race) I sold but others kept in Merchant’s house storage room.
[5] Get useful spell scrolls
Mostly they were Invisibility (50 minutes duration), Town Portal and Lloid’s Beacon scrolls. The difference between the troll and minotaur (my previous solo level 1 game) is that troll doesn’t have any spell points and that’s means he is unable to use Water Walk and Fly scrolls. The first problem I solved with lots of Water Breathing potions but the unavailability to use the Fly spell was pretty painful, it cost me lot more Invisibility scrolls. During my travels between areas I always looted magic shops for the three ultimate scrolls I mentioned above, and some other like Telekinesis (access Yaardrake’s cave) and blessing type ones. Invisibility and Town Portal was possible to loot everywhere except DWI, but Lloid’s Beacon was most easier to get in Shadowspire and Balthazar’s lair, later in Regna. In total to be able to complete the game I needed about 20 Invisibility, 20 Town Portal and 6 Lloid’s Beacon scrolls.
[6] Get useful miscellaneous items
Mostly they were wands and potions. Usually I carried with me at least 3 Divine Cure potions and at least 2 wands – paralysis and incineration. Plus, as I told before, I always tried to get as much diamonds as possible to exchange to horseshoes.
[7] Complete main quests
This was the last point of my big plan I started to do when the troll was completely ready. I run through Smuggler’s Cove, cleared the Troll Tomb, run in and out of Temple of the Sun, cleared out Balthazar’s Lair (Noblebone bow!) and barbarian fortress in Ravage Roaming. After that I cleared Pirate’s outpost, run through the submarine cavern, run through pirate chambers to get the charge for cannon and started the Conflux key building quest. The hardest was Plane of Fire where I had to secure the entrance doors of the Castle of Fire to come back later to recast Invisibility, in Plane of Water I used Telekinesis scroll in TBM, then running, in Castle of Air I needed only 1 Invisibility scroll to run past all the guards plus emptied ALL chests. Plane of Earth was a little harder but before that I had put a Lloid’s Beacon in DWI to teleport out of there. Then invisible through the crystal, cleared out the main corridors in Escaton’s palace, with that securing the lobby to be able to cast Invisibility before going to prisons of elemental lords. The long corridors were good for plane guardians (Noblebone bow) but the fighters learned how works a paralysis wand. I didn’t have any problems in prisons and with Lloid’s Beacon I travelled back to Ravenshore. The end.
Comparing troll with minotaur (once there was a debate, what solo is harder to play) I have came to conclusion that minotaur solo is harder. There are some points from my view, why:
1. Troll has about twice more HP than minotaur has
2. Troll takes less damage from traps than minotaur (strange but true)
3. Troll can wear helmet and boots while minotaur can’t. Though minotaur can wear a plate, that’s not enough IMHO when talking about using artefacts and boosting stats.
The only plus for minotaur is that it has SP which means he can cast Fly and Water Walk but these spells aren’t THAT necessary. Looking at these points and remembering both solo games, I am absolutely sure – minotaur solo is harder.
Last word, this game was an interesting experience and I recommend to try it for everyone who thinks that they have tried all possible challenging MM8 games. While playing this game, I used many things I never had to in all my previous MM8 games (of course, except minotaur solo). For example, before I never used any potions, wands, the Transmutter tree etcetera. MM8 has so many opportunities to play I never used before, so it was worth to try one.
There are at least several other MM fans as well that have tried peasant solo level 1 or 0 games but for example Fander Treespook has finished all MM games with solo ranger! Though in MM8 it was a bit problematic because there ain't no rangers.
I've done several soloings in MM games so I would like to post the walkthrough of two here. I'll repost what I once posted at TELP's tavern.
Level 0 solo peasant knight game (MM6)
Rules: simple - finish the game with all possible means, don't use the other characters, don't train and start the game with all stats nulled to 0.
Part 1
Party consists of a lonely knight named Killer who for some reason is dumb enough to understand that a party and training would help him to save the world. Oh, those heroes.
The beginning:
[1] Got master 7 of bodybuilding (from horseshoes) - planning to master also sword skill to use two swords.
[2] Completed Cavalier promotion
[3] Completed two Council quests - end winter and find Kilburn's shield.
[4] Completed Goblinwatch quest
[5] Visited Shrine of the Gods and used NPCs (Gate Master, Wind Master, Cartographer). Planning to mix potions ASAP.
Killer now has about 200 HP, a ring of HP regeneration and is wearing the best armor except plate and using a +13 spear.
I believe I won't experience serious problems till Oracle quests...
Part 2
[1] Mixed black potions to boost stats
[2] Champion promotion completed
[3] Completed all 6 council quests
[4] Learned expert sword and perception (already master bodybuilding)
[5] Exposed Slicker Silvertongue
[6] Received memory crystal quests
[1] Quite simple – in the NWC building I used the unlimited money chest to get 10000 gold, bought potions from the unlimited potions desk, mixed all stat essences and also about 15 divine cure potions (restore 100 HP)
[2] Champions promotion was quite easy – with NPC Gatemaster to Silver Cove, hired another Gatemsater, with Windmaster to Warlords fortress, killed several thugs inside the dungeon in TBM, run through the dungeon, grabbed the key and the discharge papers. With gatemaster out, that’s it.
[3] After the end winter and retrieve Kilburn’s shield quests which require only NPC Windmaster, I run through the sewers in Free Haven to capture prince of thieves. Then an easy fix of prices of stables (useful to combine the task with grabbing all the horseshoes). Retrieve demon plans was a little harder since I had to deal with Devil of Baa. I stopped in the lobby, pushed TBM till it was very close. Also in TBM with saves after every successful hit I killed it, grabbed the plans and fast exit. I left the hardest council quest as last one. Before that I had to get the Gharik’s key from the Silverhelm Outpost, of course what I did very fast. Before entering the forge I boosted all stats +256 and got Day of protection from local temple. In Gharik’s forge I had some minor problems with moving the bridges since I didn’t remember the correct combination plus the fire elementals around them were quite nasty. Also crossing the largest hall full with warlocks and fire elementals to reach the final room was quite hard but several divine cure potions solved it. Grabbed the hourglass and with NPC Gatemaster (of course!) out. In total to be able to complete all council quests, I had to kill only two monsters (Devil of Baa and one sorcerer in Gharik’s forge – he was blocking a lift I was planning to use).
[4] Before doing the traitor quest, I had to boost my perception skill since almost all doors in Superior Temple of Baa require about 15 points of perception which can’t be done only with NPCs Scout and Psychic (11 in total). I had to visit Castle Kriegspire, and sneaking past minos had a result of 7 horseshoes (then Gatemaster to get out) which was enough to improve the perception skill up to 5 expert. Then with Psychic I was able to open all doors in the temple I needed. Expert 4 sword probably was a bad idea – I don’t see where I will get 26 extra skill points. Of course, I could wait for area respawns but that will be the last try if anything else will fail.
[5] Slicker Silvertongue quest was kinda hard – I hired NPC Windmaster to get safely to the temple and get out (actually the bad part of this plan was that I forgot that Windmaster can cast fly only once per day and when I would exit the temple, the spell duration already would be over). Probably I should have used Gatemaster but then I would have some problems to get in (minos and earth elementals with ranged attack). Anyway, inside the temple I had to find the two Priests of Baa who wear keys of High Cleric and High Sorceror. After quite lot of tries (as you probably have guessed – I had forgot where exactly they are!) I got them. Used some Divine cure potions to heal fully to be able to run past the minos and earth elementals who guard the temple. Successfully.
[6] So I received the memory crystal quests. I expect to have no serious problems with Castle Alamos and Supreme temple of Baa, Castle Kriegspire may require some luck and monster kills but Castle Darkmoor probably will be very hard. I have heard that there’s a shortcut which could save a lot of time (and nerves!). Anyone knows it?
After the memory crystal quests will be Tomb of Varn. I expect it to be the hardest and most frustrating quest in the game and probably I will divide it in several parts – getting the codes. In Hive the only problems could be that TP and LB don’t work there and it’s not advised to save before the Demon Queen is killed (queen disappears after reload). Some tricks probably will do the thing.
Part 3
I have done a significant progress in the game:
[1] Memory crystal quests completed
[2] Tomb of Varn completed
[3] Got blaster skill and a blaster
[4] Got Ritual of the Void from Archibald
[1] The memory crystal quests were a lot easier than I expected. To my great surprise, I have to admit that the biggest problems I had with Castle Alamos even if I knew the password. The warlocks were very nasty and not to mention that I had forgot where to find that crystal! Finally after some reloads I sneaked past all warlocks and got it. The only trick I used was: to cross a large hall full with monsters, run a few meters, immediately push TBM and save. Reload, run few meters, push TBM, save and reload etcetera. That was the main trick also in Tomb of Varn where around me were standing about 30 Sentinels of Varn (see the screenshot). In Supreme temple of Baa I just run through it, hit the shrines for bonus, and in TBM got past devils guarding the crystal. I also killed Slicker Silvertongue, because there has to be justice after all (plus I didn’t like too much his villain speech in the council). Castle Kriegspire I completed in 10 minutes. I reloaded already a completed game, had a look where to go, where is the button, where to go next and then did it in my current game. One jump scroll to reach the button, jump down and run to the newly opened area, jump through the window to get the crystal and with Gatemaster out. In Castle Darkmoor I used Vilx’s shortcut (thank you very much!) and completed the last part as a yawn. I needed only one jump scroll to be able to complete it.
[2] Tomb of Varn was very hard but not as frustrating as I expected. As I told before, I divided the quest in 5 parts. Each part – getting one of the codes (in library I took 2 in one visit, of course). I used a LOT Divine Cure potions (in total about 30 or so), the trick with TBM and Gatemaster. Both Gatemaster and Windmaster can be found in Abdul’s resort in Dragonsands so I used them everytime I needed. Hint: there’s a small trick with them: after you dismiss them, they return to their houses AND offer to cast the spell once again! So, after hiring a Windmaster it’s advised to dismiss him immediately, hire again and he will offer one more fly cast for use later. I like that NPC’s in houses are fixed so I noticed where live Gatemasters in almost every town, reducing the time of reloading. Very hard part of this quest was answering the passwords in the pool (not as simple as you think!) because there were already swarms of Varn monsters around so I had to save and reload after every successful step.
[3] Nothing special, just run in the Control Center to learn the skill and grabbed one blaster from the nearest chest.
[4] Getting the Ritual of the Void doesn’t include any danger, only knowledge of Third Eye location. Released Archibald and he knocked my reputation to bad. Thanks at least for the scroll.
So, the last quest…Currently I have no plan how to complete it but probably what I will do:
. Explore the Hive in one of my completed games to figure the fastest shortcuts and where are all the levers.
. Will use the well +30 levels temporary
. Will use the +256 stat booster (my knight should have around 700 HP then).
. Will have some NPC’s with me (I am considering, which ones)
. Will have to find at least two Lloids Beacon scrolls to be able to come from New Sorpigal directly to save the +256 boost.
Part 4 - Killer saves the Enroth!
Wohooo, I did it!!! The Hive was hard but not as nearly hard comparing with Tomb of Varn. My walkthrough for the Hive:
[1] Reload at item shops (Blackshire, Kriegspire, Eel Infested Waters) to get at least 2 Lloids Beacon scrolls. I got one from Blackshire and another one from Kriegspire shop.
[2] Made a trip to Sweet Water and set a beacon very close to Hive (duration over 30 days), then with Gatemaster to Blackshire.
[3] From Blackshire to Kriegspire for wells of +30 levels temporary and +40 to Armor Class. Immediately with Gatemaster to New Sorpigal and NWC dungeon via the teleporter for +256 stat boost. Now my knight had ~670 HP. Also I made about 25 Divine Cure potions.
[4] On my way completed the obelisks (no real need for it actually) and the statues quest. As a reward I got … Conan the Devil Slayer!!
[5] Now with second LB scroll back to Sweet Water and enter the Hive. In Hive I had to explore all holes to activate the levers. I had absolutely no problems to do it, devils could do ridiculously little damage. And BTW, in Hive in one of the tunnels there is also sort of well which restores HP.
[6] I cleared the room full with devils before entering the one with Reactor, took some 2 hours or so. Reactor was done very easy, and so was the Queen (successful hit, TBM, save, reload, successful hit, TBM, save…). Btw, it was funny that right after destroying the Reactor suddenly all of my chars were resurrected and then three of them again made dead! The good part of it was that my knight was suddenly fully healed but the bad part … devils dispelled all my boosts including the +256 one and my knight had only 350 HP (as a maximum). The Queen was quite resistant to even Conan’s attacks, besides, take a look at Killer’s HP when Queen is close to destroyed! Luckily Queen didn’t disappear after game reloads (from my previous experience) so killing her was just a matter of time.
Anyway, I am happy this is over and I think it’s enough for me with MM6 for a while.
P.S. Don’t be confused seeing a priest in my party (dead, of course! ). I completed the quest to be able to heal also in Free Haven temple.
Some screenshots:
Minotaur solo on level 1 (MM8)
Arturchix the level 1 minotaur
Total time: 0 years, 10 months, 17 days
Score: 5242 (!!!)
Stats
• 213/213 might, 87/87 intellect, 87/87 personality, 116/116 endurance, 110/110 accuracy, 100/100 speed, 98/98 luck.
• Hit points – 215, Spell points – 16, Armor class – 94
• Experience – 1,657,016 (eligible to train to lvl 58), attack +24, damage – 30-48; shoot +26, damage 15-20, age 20.
• Resistances: fire 10/10, air 0/0, water 24/24, earth 0/0, mind 5/5, body 5/5
• Skills: bodybuilding – master 10, plate – master 7, disarm trap – ekspert 4(bonus +12), axe, bow, spirit, mind, body magics, armsmaster, merchant, perception, alchemy, leather, chain normal on level 1.
• No deaths
Artifacts used:
• Berserker’s belt (+100 might, -30 accuracy...)
• Longseeker (+50 accuracy, swift, Bow +4)
Also i had many others, but i didn’t use them. I had some rings, one of them was a ring of regeneration (HP), and some rings of health and defence.
Quests completed:
1. Give powerstone to Fredrick Talimere
2. Rescue Isthric the Tongue
3. Stop the yellow fewer
4. Deliver Dadeross’s Letter
5. Get the Dragonbane flower (both)
6. Deliver the blackmail to the wererat leader
7. Get the Annointed Herb potion
8. Rescue Cauri Blackthorne
9. Witness of the Lake of fire
10. Place the Vilebite’s ashes in the tomb
11. Make an Alliance with necromancers
12. Make an Alliance with minotaurs
13. Make an Alliance with dragon hunters
14. Deliver the false report
15. Sink the Regnan fleet
16. Win the Arcomage tournament
17. Get all four hearts from elemental planes, build Conflux key
18. Get the prison keys, rescue all elemental lords
Walkthrough
Comparing to my sologame with lich on level 1, the lich game was ridiculously easy (since air gm always did the job). I choosed minotaur because it’s the weakest char in mm8. Yes you may say that he can cast magic spells and he’s not the weakest. But my minotaur had only 16 SP, but he couldn’t use helms and boots (but AC is important in a solo game).
Creating character: I lowered my intellect to 5 (i think), lowered to minimum luck (then i got it all back from a well), all ekstra points added to might, and then to endurance.
Dagger Wound Island: so, i grabbed all the stuff from crates near the starting place, sold visky (other things sold in Ravenshore and Alvar), used all barrels, got Fredrick in my party, took his stone and dismissed him. Also completed the yellow fewer and rescuing of Isthric Tongue quest on my way. It was quite hard without wizard eye, but i got all components to get the black potion of speed. I even didnt enter the Abandoned temple – i simply made the shortcut to the ship, once i used the red potion to heal myself. Trip to Ravenshore.
Ravenshore: at first I delivered the letter to Elgar Fellmoon. Then my next tasks were: to boost up all the stats as much I can and to get a good armor. So I travelled around the Jadame, got the 4 black potions (Alvar, Murmurwoods, Shadowspire, Ravage Roaming but there was no potion of endurance or might among them), got plate armor +34(I think) from Garrot Gorge, also empted the flower chest there. After all this my HP were about 100 and I was ready for more.
Getting skill points: after boosting up my stats and after I found Berserkers belt and Tournament Bow (also Longseeker) and buying some stat boosting white potions in Shadowspire alchemy shop, I won at all the pedestals (including challenge pedestals in Ravenshore and Shadowspire) pretty easy. So, then I got master bodybuilding level 10 but it was not easy since mastering requires 50 endurance and I didn’t have it. So I was trying to use all the barrels in Ravenshore, Shadowspire, Ironsand Desert, Alvar and Wererat Smugglers Cove and got endurance 40. Then I bought some rings of Vigor and master bodybuilding was mine. Of course horseshoes, and life buoys in DWI (two of them, total 7 skill pts) and Ravenshore (near the Smugglers Cove) gave me many more skill pts. Then I decided to make plate master since it gets only ½ from all physical attacks. Done. At the end I found amulet of disarming (+12 bonus) so I decided to spend all rest skill pts to disarm skill – got expert 4. I even didn’t use the transmutter tree in Murmurwoods since I didn’t need it.
Quests: on my way of boosting the stats I completed the Dragonbane flowers quests, rescued Cauri, won all the Arcomage games in all taverns except Regna, of course and found the Annointed Herb potion in Smugglers Cove. The blackmail quest was done simply. At that moment I had about 190 HP, so I run to the leader, spoke to him and that’s all (Well, on my way back I cleared some, OK all, of their chests to get some cash). Then returned to Elgar, then to Loudrin and then to Ironsand Desert.
Ironsand Desert: there I got three artifacts with one invisibility scroll. Two of them I found in that Dragon Cave, and I was lucky on time to get the rock chest artifact before the duration of invisibility ended. The ashes quest was very easy at this point: entered the tomb, run forwards to the end then right, right and again right…(akh I think you know the path), placed the urn and returned to the troll. Then to Alvar.
The Alliance: I choosed necros, minotaurs of course, and dragon hunters in my Alliance. The Necros quest was easy: entered the temple, dismissed Leland, took the Brazier, and entered TBM, waited till the desk will move down, then jumped down there and back to Shadowspire. The clerics even didn’t hit me.
Minotaurs quest was much harder, I had to prepare for it and all the following quests. This was my tactic: I got some wands of Berzerking (really cool!!) and fire bolts. So the Berzerked tritons killed each other but I had to defeat maximum 10 of them (range weapons also useful there). Rescued the Lair, got them in my Alliance and then bought the black potions of endurance and might from the alchemy shop. Important note: it was really necessary to loot the magic shops all the time during the game. Invisibility, fly, Lloids Beacon were the spells I was trying to get all the time, requires lots of game reloadings for sure. The dragon egg was easy. First I cleared that first area outside the Fortress, Berzerking did all the job (*lol*) while I was standing on the top of those crates (got an artifact there, of course), I had to kill only one ogre, killed him with bow. Inside the fortress all the job did one invisibility scroll. I pushed the button, went to the chest which holded the egg (again a secret button but that was no problem for me). I took it and then beaconed out of there (I made a LB earlier, so I should have at least two LB scrolls). Then a trip to Garrot Gorge, then to Ravenshore. One more important note: TBM all the time was really handy when moving with lifts, flying up or just looking around where to go. Especially this was useful when I was invisible since one scroll gives only 50 minutes. Used before entering a dungeon.
Sinking the Regnan fleet: used one fly, two invisibility and two LB scrolls. I travelled to DWI, with invis entered the keep on island, made my way through to Blackwell Cooper. So, here I should fight since in MM8 is no stealing skill to get the key. I did it simply: with a paralyse wand (I bough and found many wands during the game, never sold them) made to stay Blackwell calm, killed all his helpers with my axe (one blow and they’re dead, hehe), then killed Blackwell himself. Opened the secret door with the key, rested there to get my HP back. Then in front of the ship turned TBM, travelled to Regna and made a sight around. Yeah, lots of pirates were waiting for me already. But since I was in TBM, I found the quickest way with eyes to run, and run, run…With some luck I got out of there. First I did in Regna, was delivering the false report to that old pirate, won the last Arcomage game in the tavern and used all the barrels on the central island. Also bought some scrolls from magic shop. The fleet sinking was really easy – I did it in real-time 5 minutes and with only one invis scroll, and two LB. I didn’t use the door bug in MM8. I entered the castle invisible, just run through it, then run through the tunnels under the Regna, then in Abandoned Pirates keep. I found what I needed, LB out of there (to Regna), and then …boom. A trip with the ship back to Ravenshore.
Elemental planes: all the same here, invisibility, LB and fly scrolls. So lets start with plane of Water (the easiest one).
• This was really easy, only one fly scroll required. Before entering the plane I turned TBM, had the fly ability. When entering, flied up and went (swimmed? Flied?) forward. All the monsters shoot at me but that was silly. When I found the final place (Warning, look at your SP to be sure if you can fly, it drains SP!), entered TBM and moved down slowly. Took the heart of Water, flied up, out of TBM and back to the entrance.
• The next was plane of Air. I used one invisibility and one fly scroll there. So, entered the plane, went as close as possible to the Air castle, got invisibility, and entered the castle. Then avoided all the air elementals, found the secret door and then out of there. Only then in TBM returned to get extra 100,000 exp.
• Plane of Earth. This was a little harder. I should have one invisibility, one fly (or water walking), and two LB scrolls. One I placed in Ravenshore before going to DWI. So entered the plane, made my way to the right of the entrance, found the lift (and pushed TBM to save time) and then avoided all monsters there on the stairs (wasn’t easy!) Got the stone (already visible!) and beaconed out of the hell.
• I left the hardest plane as the last. There I spend one fly, two invisibility, and two LB scrolls. entered the dungeon invisible (simply flied to the castle and found a safe place near it to cast invisibility), made my way through the castle (lots of savings and re-loadings), made to move the lift down near the entrance and then exited (invisibility was near to end), used invis scroll again, entered the castle and used that lift (again in TBM, you just never know…). Then with the second lift down, pushed the button, went through the teleporter, avoided all the beasts in that flaming tunnel, took the heart of Fire and beaconed out of there. Then a trip to Ravenshore, the Conflux key making.
Rescuing the elemental lords: of course this was the hardest part of the game. I needed there about 5 invisibility scrolls, two fly scrolls ,a town portal scroll, two LB scrolls and many wands. First: invisible I went through the Crystal, solved the teleport making and teleported to Plane between planes. Second: entered the Escaton’s palace and killed that Plane guardian with Paralyze wand and my axe (I used paralyze wand almost everywhere on the last part of the game). Pushed all the levers, used the wand of Berzerking many times (geez, how I like that wand!). Then I used a invis scroll in a safe corner of the palace, run to the Escaton and got the ring of keys. When I exited the palace, I had left two minutes invisible. So, with my last fly scroll I moved up, and flied to the Prison of Fire lord.
• This was the easiest one, invisible I avoided all the monsters, rescued the lord of Fire, and exited the prison.
• Rescuing Lord of Air was the same. One invisibility scroll, run through the caves, rescued the lord and exited the prison.
• At this moment I had left only one invisibility scroll. When I entered the prison of Lord of Earth, I had about 7 minutes to be invisible. I quickly jumped forward all the time, but then I got visible. This was like in a hell. With the jump scroll (I got it early in the game and didn’t sell it!) I jumped to the final ledge, pushed TBM and I had only 13 HP left. But then there was a small surprise for me – a Plane Overlord was waiting for me already near the cell of lord of Earth. With my 13 HP I luckily avoided him, rescued the lord, jumped down and in TBM exited the prison with my 13 HP.
• The last quest of minotaur soloing on level 1 for me was rescuing the lord of Water. To solve it I did the following: put a LB in a safe area of plane between planes, turned invisible and in TBM entered the prison. Since I wasn’t vampire and I didn’t have levitate scroll, I took the damage from fire floor all the time. I was trying to walk on walls to semi – avoid the damage. With about 20 HP left I rescued the Lord of water, beaconed out of there. And then the most exiting moment of this game – TP to Ravenshore. The nice cutscene and the diploma made me really happy. I really enjoyed this soloing and I would like to advise all the die-hard fans to try it, you wont regret it!
Troll solo on level 1 (MM8)
Brent the level 1 War Troll
Total time: 10 months and 2 days
Score: 7615
Gold and experience: approximately 750k, eligible to train to level 70.
I finally finished it and it really wasn’t that hard as I expected. At the beginning, to add more challenge, I reduced all seven stats of the troll to 0 plus removed all equipment and gold. Just for fun I also reduced troll’s actual amount of HP to 1 so that it looked more miserably. I decided to write down some description for those, who would like to try a similar game. At first, I shared my big plan to smaller points:
[1] Boost all 7 stats
This was pretty easy, at first I used some wells which boost a certain stat, then lots of barrels (plenty in Ravenshore, Shadowspire and Alvar) and finally I got all possible black potions from huts except one (pure might I think). Later in the game some of my stats reached even 200 mark because of some nice artefacts.
[2] Get a good equipment
When it was possible, I immediately bought better weapons and armor, a good start was at Garrot Gorge. Later on I didn’t need it since the troll’s backpack was full with artefacts. Save and reload worked fine as always.
[3] Level up some vital skills
Before I started to boost up any of skills (bought all possible), I had to consider which skills I should level up and which not. Pretty quickly I choosed to grandmaster Bodybuilding skill which boosted troll’s permanent amount of HP up to 550. Of course, before that I had to promote my troll what I did very quickly. I had some problems with basilisks (since I didn’t have Wizard’s eye) but with the help of turn-based mode I run in and out of the cave to get the promotion at my first visit in Ironsand Desert. Remaining skill points I spent to master Sword skill (can use with left hand), and expert Mace and Leather Armor skill. The necessary skill points I got from:
• Horseshoes
• Pedestals
• Buoys (1 in Ravenshore and 2 in DWI)
• Transmutter tree (diamonds exchange to horseshoes)
[4] Get as much artefacts as possible
This was fun, near the end of the game I had almost all of them. I won’t mention all places I got from but the main places were Ironsand desert (5 artefacts), Garrot Gorge (4 artefacts) and Plane of Fire (4 artefacts). As extremely useful I found out the Noblebone bow – it was a real killer machine when fight went ranged, it was SO handy in Balthazar’s Lair and Escaton’s Palace. And since the trolls was wearing artefacts Breaker and Havoc, with some blessings he was able to do even 100 damage points in melee. All of unneeded artefacts (usable for one race) I sold but others kept in Merchant’s house storage room.
[5] Get useful spell scrolls
Mostly they were Invisibility (50 minutes duration), Town Portal and Lloid’s Beacon scrolls. The difference between the troll and minotaur (my previous solo level 1 game) is that troll doesn’t have any spell points and that’s means he is unable to use Water Walk and Fly scrolls. The first problem I solved with lots of Water Breathing potions but the unavailability to use the Fly spell was pretty painful, it cost me lot more Invisibility scrolls. During my travels between areas I always looted magic shops for the three ultimate scrolls I mentioned above, and some other like Telekinesis (access Yaardrake’s cave) and blessing type ones. Invisibility and Town Portal was possible to loot everywhere except DWI, but Lloid’s Beacon was most easier to get in Shadowspire and Balthazar’s lair, later in Regna. In total to be able to complete the game I needed about 20 Invisibility, 20 Town Portal and 6 Lloid’s Beacon scrolls.
[6] Get useful miscellaneous items
Mostly they were wands and potions. Usually I carried with me at least 3 Divine Cure potions and at least 2 wands – paralysis and incineration. Plus, as I told before, I always tried to get as much diamonds as possible to exchange to horseshoes.
[7] Complete main quests
This was the last point of my big plan I started to do when the troll was completely ready. I run through Smuggler’s Cove, cleared the Troll Tomb, run in and out of Temple of the Sun, cleared out Balthazar’s Lair (Noblebone bow!) and barbarian fortress in Ravage Roaming. After that I cleared Pirate’s outpost, run through the submarine cavern, run through pirate chambers to get the charge for cannon and started the Conflux key building quest. The hardest was Plane of Fire where I had to secure the entrance doors of the Castle of Fire to come back later to recast Invisibility, in Plane of Water I used Telekinesis scroll in TBM, then running, in Castle of Air I needed only 1 Invisibility scroll to run past all the guards plus emptied ALL chests. Plane of Earth was a little harder but before that I had put a Lloid’s Beacon in DWI to teleport out of there. Then invisible through the crystal, cleared out the main corridors in Escaton’s palace, with that securing the lobby to be able to cast Invisibility before going to prisons of elemental lords. The long corridors were good for plane guardians (Noblebone bow) but the fighters learned how works a paralysis wand. I didn’t have any problems in prisons and with Lloid’s Beacon I travelled back to Ravenshore. The end.
Comparing troll with minotaur (once there was a debate, what solo is harder to play) I have came to conclusion that minotaur solo is harder. There are some points from my view, why:
1. Troll has about twice more HP than minotaur has
2. Troll takes less damage from traps than minotaur (strange but true)
3. Troll can wear helmet and boots while minotaur can’t. Though minotaur can wear a plate, that’s not enough IMHO when talking about using artefacts and boosting stats.
The only plus for minotaur is that it has SP which means he can cast Fly and Water Walk but these spells aren’t THAT necessary. Looking at these points and remembering both solo games, I am absolutely sure – minotaur solo is harder.
Last word, this game was an interesting experience and I recommend to try it for everyone who thinks that they have tried all possible challenging MM8 games. While playing this game, I used many things I never had to in all my previous MM8 games (of course, except minotaur solo). For example, before I never used any potions, wands, the Transmutter tree etcetera. MM8 has so many opportunities to play I never used before, so it was worth to try one.
There are at least several other MM fans as well that have tried peasant solo level 1 or 0 games but for example Fander Treespook has finished all MM games with solo ranger! Though in MM8 it was a bit problematic because there ain't no rangers.
- Bandobras Took
- Genie
- Posts: 1019
- Joined: 06 Jan 2006
It's simply the knowledge you've done it. That you know the game so well that you can win with a situation the designers thought impossible.Oggums wrote:I guess I don't see the point in imposing these restrictions on yourself, when you have to exploit every known trick as well as save/reload in order to complete it.
Also, when you can essentially sleep through the game, it adds a little extra zest to have such a challenge.
Personally, I've never done the solo MM8 game, though I've tried several times. I did manage the all-Knight MM7 game, though.
Far too many people speak their minds without first verifying the quality of their source material.
- HodgePodge
- Round Table Knight
- Posts: 3530
- Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Peasant Game …
I tried the Peasant Game in MM7 and I knew I was in trouble when my entire party got killed by one Dragon Fly.
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- Peasant
- Posts: 50
- Joined: 06 Jan 2006
- Bandobras Took
- Genie
- Posts: 1019
- Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Out of curiosity, how do you avoid having your entire party paralyzed in the Crystal Tower?JurK wrote:every newbie can end mm8 with lvl 1 char ^^
lvl 1, get dragen, quests, more dragon, more quests, more dragon -> win 8D
Far too many people speak their minds without first verifying the quality of their source material.
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- Peasant
- Posts: 50
- Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Re: Peasant Game …
why boycott starforce???HodgePodge wrote:I tried the Peasant Game in MM7 and I knew I was in trouble when my entire party got killed by one Dragon Fly.
- HodgePodge
- Round Table Knight
- Posts: 3530
- Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Re: Peasant Game …
Click on the links in my signature to read up on why. Also read the Ubi & Starforce thread in the Heroes V forum both here and in the old Round Table to get an understanding of what the dangers are & damage that could occur to a computer if a game with the SF copy-protection included is installed.starlady11 wrote:why boycott starforce???
http://www.forumplanet.com/strategyplan ... id=1725343
http://forums.ubi.com/groupee/forums/a/ ... 1761013693
http://www.tgdaily.com/2005/10/01/the_w ... index.html
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/her ... pid=927207
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- Peasant
- Posts: 50
- Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Re: Peasant Game …
re starforceHodgePodge wrote:I tried the Peasant Game in MM7 and I knew I was in trouble when my entire party got killed by one Dragon Fly.
thanks for the heads up is there games out there with it already?copyprotect only stops the crooks, i need to backup my games, and already have enough prolems with my computer,as i said before i have to have someone hunt for my gamebooks now so i can't play them when i want and the rings are eatable by dogs,[not my homework, my ring for ssi game,like i said copyprotection won't stop crooks and only hurt us honest ones who buy them and it breaks my heart they my use this in M&M as i love them all, but will NOT buy it if it has this in it.
your still my hero hodgepodge:)
- Gaidal Cain
- Round Table Hero
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- Location: Solna
Re: Peasant Game …
Not saying SF isn't the bad thing you make it out to be, but so far, none of the closed beta testers have reported any problems with it, and the open testers' "only" problem seems to be to activate it.HodgePodge wrote: Also read the Ubi & Starforce thread in the Heroes V forum both here and in the old Round Table to get an understanding of what the dangers are & damage that could occur to a computer if a game with the SF copy-protection included is installed.
You don't want to make enemies in Nuclear Engineering. -- T. Pratchett
- HodgePodge
- Round Table Knight
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- Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Re: Peasant Game …
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Secondly, even if the "only" problem was with activation, someone DID report that their DVD drive was destroyed by StarForce.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/her ... pid=927207
http://forums.ubi.com/groupee/forums/a/ ... 1761013693
And even if the problem was resolved later, after many aggravating hours online with UbiSoft/StarForce customer service, how can any intelligent person find it acceptable to even have these problems in the first place?
First of all, the closed beta had a very strict non-disclosure agreement. Therefore, no one knows whether or not there were SF related problems in the closed beta.Gaidal Cain wrote: Not saying SF isn't the bad thing you make it out to be, but so far, none of the closed beta testers have reported any problems with it, and the open testers' "only" problem seems to be to activate it.
Secondly, even if the "only" problem was with activation, someone DID report that their DVD drive was destroyed by StarForce.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/her ... pid=927207
http://forums.ubi.com/groupee/forums/a/ ... 1761013693
And even if the problem was resolved later, after many aggravating hours online with UbiSoft/StarForce customer service, how can any intelligent person find it acceptable to even have these problems in the first place?
- Gaidal Cain
- Round Table Hero
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Re: Peasant Game …
I know. I was in, and have had the NDA partially lifted to be able to answer such things as these.HodgePodge wrote: First of all, the closed beta had a very strict non-disclosure agreement. Therefore, no one knows whether or not there were SF related problems in the closed beta.
Open beta. Lots of more people there. And it's still the first I've heard of that have had such problems (I'm not following the debate as closely as you seems to).Secondly, even if the "only" problem was with activation, someone DID report that their DVD drive was destroyed by StarForce.
How can any intelligent person find it acceptable to be forced to use Windows in order to play Heroes 5? Seriously, it's one user of several tenthousands. Is it bad for him? Yes. Is it pardonable? I think so.And even if the problem was resolved later, after many aggravating hours online with UbiSoft/StarForce customer service, how can any intelligent person find it acceptable to even have these problems in the first place?
You don't want to make enemies in Nuclear Engineering. -- T. Pratchett
- HodgePodge
- Round Table Knight
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- Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Re: Peasant Game …
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Well maybe you should before you go insinuating that SF hasn't caused any problems for anyone!Gaidal Cain wrote:
Open beta. Lots of more people there. And it's still the first I've heard of that have had such problems (I'm not following the debate as closely as you seems to).
The Windows analogy is so totally unrelated to the SF issue that it can be seen as a smokescreen. Go ahead, keep sticking your head in the sand!Gaidal Cain wrote: How can any intelligent person find it acceptable to be forced to use Windows in order to play Heroes 5? Seriously, it's one user of several tenthousands. Is it bad for him? Yes. Is it pardonable? I think so.
- Gaidal Cain
- Round Table Hero
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Re: Peasant Game …
I didn't. All I said was that I never saw any problems in the closed beta, and that I hadn't seen any "computer-destroying" problems in the open one either. What I was trying to say was that any problems might be so rare as to be negligable. Unfortunate, yes, but not something to worry about when bying the game.HodgePodge wrote: Well maybe you should before you go insinuating that SF hasn't caused any problems for anyone!
Actually, Windows could be seen as a worse problem, with all it's security holes and whatnot. And I'm not sticking my head in the sand- I've read up some on SF and believe that the rumors for most part are hearsay or overblown. You obviously don't, but that's not the matter.The Windows analogy is so totally unrelated to the SF issue that it can be seen as a smokescreen. Go ahead, keep sticking your head in the sand!
You don't want to make enemies in Nuclear Engineering. -- T. Pratchett
- HodgePodge
- Round Table Knight
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Re: Peasant Game …
True, the original topic of this thread was Solo/Peasant Games in Might & Magic. I just answered a question asked by StarLady11. Maybe I should have answered it in a PM instead.Gaidal Cain wrote: … but that's not the matter.
Anyhow, back on topic:
I played a Peasant game in MM 7 and knew I was in trouble when my entire party was killed by one Dragonfly.
- Marelt Ekiran
- Peasant
- Posts: 50
- Joined: 06 Jan 2006
I myself am currently working on a M&M9 solo game. I killed off all my other characters in the pool in Ravenshore and dismissed Forad Darre, using the MM9Editor.
The character started as an initiate and is currently a Scholar whom I plan to promote to a Lich. His name is Lorfez, named after the Archlich in my D&D campaign.
So far, it's turning out to be interesting. In M&M9, characters who are dead do not get experience... however, the amount of experience that is given to the party is still the same. This means that Lorfez is getting XP at 4 times the usual rate. However, I am severely limited in my selection of spells and skills, because most things don't open up until he upgrades to a Lich. So for now, I'll invest skill points in elemental magic and learning until he becomes tough enough to take the promotion quest. From there on, I expect things to be easy. GM learning gives a ridiculous amount of extra XP, so I'm expecting to level him up to godlike powers. Who needs a sword when you can kill demons by shooting lightning from your eyelashes?
The character started as an initiate and is currently a Scholar whom I plan to promote to a Lich. His name is Lorfez, named after the Archlich in my D&D campaign.
So far, it's turning out to be interesting. In M&M9, characters who are dead do not get experience... however, the amount of experience that is given to the party is still the same. This means that Lorfez is getting XP at 4 times the usual rate. However, I am severely limited in my selection of spells and skills, because most things don't open up until he upgrades to a Lich. So for now, I'll invest skill points in elemental magic and learning until he becomes tough enough to take the promotion quest. From there on, I expect things to be easy. GM learning gives a ridiculous amount of extra XP, so I'm expecting to level him up to godlike powers. Who needs a sword when you can kill demons by shooting lightning from your eyelashes?
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- Lurker
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That´s the spirit
There is always a new challange if you make it yourself . Im impressed how you can variate the game in this way. And oh. Keep that starforce newschool crap out of here will u guys
SSSSSWORDS!
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