Making Might & Magic VI Harder

[darknessfood]

Why would you make MM6 harder? It's probably the hardest game in the series. (Besides MMI and II which are only hard because they are old and confusing) I mean, wouldn't it be a better idea to make say, MM8 actually a challenge?

Well, to do that, you only need to nerf the dragons, they are WAY overpowered!!

[Roj]

About harder game. I play in MM6 with modified monster's damage. The physical damage is increased in at least 3 times or more. The magical damage is increased much more (for some monsters in 7 times). This is the hard play and I like it.

[rubiconiii]

Yes, I know this is a more than a decade old thread, but I just found it now, so for that I'm sorry.

The 5 days run in MM6 intrigued me and I have given it some thought. Roughly I believe to have figured out, how to do it, though I'd never want to try it out. Speedruns and insane high scores ruin the game experience as I see it - if I'm bored with one game, I switch to another Heroes or MM title.

! Read on with care - my brainstorm is crammed full of spoilers !

There are 15 overworld maps in the game - that we know - I'll boil down each area:

New Sorpigal
Here you begin your journey. Area is needed when fixing the prices at the stables and for acquiring the Hourglass of Time inside Gharik's Forge.

Castle Ironfist
This one's tricky, but you can reach this area through two of the four portals inside the Shadow Guild. Area is needed when fixing the prices at the stables and you need to visit the very Castle Ironfist to converse with Regent Wilbur Humphrey several times about his Council quest. You also need to converse with Prince Nicolai in order to find Tanir's Bell, which is needed to awaken Archibald Ironfist, so you can converse with him too and acquire the Ritual of the Void.

Mire of the Damned
You could try to reach this area via the stables, but it's lots easier on foot with the right npc's reducing travel time to 1 day only. Area is needed when fixing the prices at the stables and when visiting Castle Darkmoor to get the Memory Crystal.

Dragonsand
Area can be reached via the secret portal in New Sorpigal. Area is needed when visiting the Tomb of VARN to get the Control Cube. Some ppl. might find the area crucial for other things, but it's not needed for the story.

Hermit's Isle
Travel time to this area by boat is ridiculous, so it's lots easier on foot with the right npc's reducing travel time to 1 day only. Area is needed when visiting the Supreme Temple of Baa to get the Memory Crystal.

Misty Islands
Area can be reached by Town Portal so hire a Gate Master. Area is needed when visiting Castle Newton to converse with Lord Albert Newton about his Council quest and for acquiring the key for Gharik's Forge inside the Silver Helm Outpost.

Bootleg Bay
Nothing of importance here, so this area could be disregarded. Some might say you need this area to visit the Circus of the Sun to find Prince Nicolai here, but I think, I've read somewhere, that this part can be avoided? - so I'm not entirely sure, if this area can be skipped - if not, you could try to reach this area via the docks, but it's lots easier on foot with the right npc's reducing travel time to 1 day only.

Free Haven
Area can be reached by Town Portal so hire a Gate Master. Area is needed when visiting Castle Temper to converse with Lord Osric Temper about his Council quest and for apprehending the Prince of Thieves deep inside the Free Haven Sewers. Area is also needed when fixing the prices at the two stables. The High Council is also situated here, as well as the Oracle and the Control Center from which you can get powerful ancient weapons for the destruction of the Reactor, but more importantly the skill to use them is taught at this place. (there are also a few hand guns in the Tomb of VARN iirc)

Blackshire
Area can be reached by Town Portal so hire a Gate Master. Area is needed when fixing the prices at the stables and for acquiring Lord Kilburn's shield.

Paradise Valley
Nothing of importance here - not even a single dungeon to visit, so this area can be disregarded.

Eel Infested Waters
Area is reachable by boat only and with the right npc's travel time is reduced to 1 day. Area is needed when visiting Castle Alamos to get the Memory Crystal.

Silver Cove
Area can be reached by Town Portal so hire a Gate Master. Area is needed when fixing the prices at the stables and when visiting Castle Fleise to converse with Lady Loretta Fleise about her Council quest.

Frozen Highlands
Area can be reached by Town Portal so hire a Gate Master (a Wind Master might also be needed to cross the mountains). Area is needed when fixing the prices at the stables and when visiting both Castle Stromgard and Castle Stone in order to converse with Lord Eric von Stromgard and Lord Anthony Stone respectively about their Council quests. Also you need to visit the Shadow Guild to lend their portal system.

Kriegspire
You could try to reach this area via the stables, but it's lots easier on foot with the right npc's reducing travel time to 1 day only. Area is needed when fixing the prices at the stables and when visiting Castle Kriegspire to get the Memory Crystal. You also need to clean out the Devil's Outpost and retrieve a scroll with the Devil Plans. Atop the mountains lives a hermit who can help you stop the winter. Finally you need to infiltrate the Superior Temple of Baa to acquire a certain Letter from Zenofex.

Sweet Water
Area is reachable on foot only and with the right npc's travel time is reduced to 1 day. The Hive is located here and inside it, you need to destroy the Reactor and slay the Queen.

That's it - if you count the total travel days, it will reach 5 full days (6 days if Bootleg Bay is needed), but as it is mentioned you still have time to kill before you reach the 6th full day. 5 full days of travelling and still 23 hours and 59 minutes at your disposal to solve all the necessary Council quests and Oracle quests.
All promotion quests and side quests have been skipped to save time - some might still be doable within the time limit and will of course improve the high score in the end. If done this way, you can get a final score sheet showing only 5 days used.

Please correct me, if I made a mistake.

[Tomsod]

You won't trigger the Nicolai's quest if you never talk to him about "boredom". If you do trigger it, the Circus won't appear until April at least, so it would kill the speedrun. I've also heard that in old MM6 (or maybe MM6Patch) versions it was possible to teleport to Alamos by clicking on an unset Lloyd's Beacon, which could save a day and might have been used in that 5 day record if it was long ago enough.

[raekuul]

The big reason MM6 is so easy is because we've analyzed it to death (and also because NWC had to balance the late game with the assumption that the player was only doing the core quests - vanilla The Hive can and should be beatable at level 49 but if you Do Everything then you're level 62 at minimum)

0. a TPK costs you one in-game week, plus the NPC rehire costs. Additionally, any given Gate Master can only be used Once Per 24 Hours and they cost a mint to hire/rehire, so route your teleportings accordingly (the most important one is the port to Silver Cove on Wednesday to get to Alamos on Thursday)

1. As has been said before, you can skip the Finding Nicolai quest if you just never talk to him before getting the "Awaken Archibald" quest from The Oracle. With the Circus not being available at any sites in January it's detrimental to a low days run to uncork him anyway. With Nicolai never getting uncorked we have no pressing need to access Bootleg Bay.

2. The most important tool here is M. Town Portal, which is accessible via a Gate Master (low days means low levels and there aren't enough horeshoes on one pass for M.12 Water even with raiding Kriegspire for shoes). Brave/foolish players can grab the guaranteed one from Dragonsand by running towards Abdul's Discount Oasis Resort.

3. I believe there's a guaranteed book of Lloyd's Beacon in the bookshelves in the Library of VARN, but that's too deep in the game to be helpful with Shenanigans.

4. Of the Side Quests, the only one that doesn't cost the player any significant time is the Book of Liches (mostly just costing the time it takes to backtrack to Darkmoor Village). In theory you can fully promote a Paladin to a Hero without any real loss in days - Silver Helm Outpost is a mandatory visit anyway for the Inner Forge Key, and Longfang Witherhide isn't that far from Castle Darkmoor (though killing the dragon is another matter entirely).

5. You need to go to Frozen Highlands before Kriegspire - I made the mistake of doing this the other way around in a randomized game, lost a bunch of food to the mistake.

6. Blasters can not be found in VARN, only in the Control Center (and maybe The Hive? I have a vague, possibly wrong memory of finding blaster rifles in The Hive when I was a children). Fortunately, you only need one (and a couple scrolls/potions of Haste)

7. The best boat for Eel-Infested Waters sails from Silver Cove City Harbor no later than 5:59 PM on Wednesday. The Spoiler Centre puts the travel time at 1 day so we only need to bring the Gate and Wind masters for Castle Alamos, but it does mean that we basically get One Chance to grab Memory Crystal Beta.