Getting Started -- General Hints

Deciding how to set up your initial characters is a lot easier once you've had the chance to look at the skills and magic tables on this site. use the character planning worksheet you can download from the "Initial Character Development" page.

Here are a couple additional hints that could help a lot:

• Make sure that you give an initiate the Light Magic skill if you want to be able to heal!
• In the first area of the game, you will get (for free!) both a Disarm and an identify item skill. That means you can skip these two vital skills when developing your initial party, and add two other skills!
• Consider giving the bow skill to every party member. Ranged attacks are critical early in the game, and you won't be able to purchase the bow skill for players in the first couple areas.
• Add the great paladin you will find in the Sturmford Church. He is a POWERFUL addition! (Don't waste time with the "basher" NPC in the Sturmford training area.

Altar locations

These need to be "cleaned" so Town Portal will work.

• Sturmford.: Jaarl's entry
• Drangheim: Jaarl's room
• Guberland: House in east central part of town
• Thjorgard: Jaarl's hall
• Lindisfarne: None
• Thronheim: Temple of Ratanosk
• Frosgard: Back of Magic Shop
• Yorwick: None
• Arslegard: None

Restoring dungeons by deleting "minisave" files

Here's a great hint (Thanks Kreegor!) If you really goof up a dungeon then you can delete the "minisaves" file 3DO creates for that dungeon. This is not your saved games files. When you delete a minisave, the dungeon is respawned in it's original state, so you can do it again without restarting the game (or even having to restore from a prior save.

(Note: This is also a tacky way to grub experience points and extra treasure -- by respawning dungeons over and over. Kinda cheap for a "real" RPGhead, don't you think? BTW: Kreegor totally agrees!)

NPC Locations

Here is a list of some NPCs you can add to your party thanks to DvuS, Hipshot, Honour_Shogun, and Mads)

• Basher (Basic Fighter?) - Sturmford Training Center
• Assassin - Drangheim Tavern
• Healer - Frosgard tavern
• Paladin - Sturmford Church <--- Awesome Addition!
• Mage - Thjorgard tavern
• Spearman - Thjorgard house (W side of city)
• Gladiator - Outside Thjorgard Tavern
• Merchant - SW Guberland
• Repair - The Gathering
• Gatemaster - Near Guberland Tavern
• Banker - Near Drangheim Bank
• Identifier - N Thronheim

Changing NPCs

(Kickermania suggested adding this!)

You cannot dismiss Forad Dare. He is part of a mainline quest late in the game. However, for all others, just press their "number" twice to call up a dialog with them, and then you can select the "dismiss" option.

Your party is #1-4, Forad is #5, and the other NPCs are in positions 6 & 7.

Training Locations (Thanks Claus, JAC, Anjalena)

• Sturmgard - Level 15 (Cheap)
• Drangheim - Level 20 (Expensive -- 10 times the Black market or Frosgard, and 4 times Sturmford!!)
• Guberland - Level 40
• Thronheim - Level 60
• Frosgard - Level 100 (Almost as cheap as the Black market)
• Thjorgard - Level 100 (Rip off!)
• Arslegard - level 100+
• Black market Thjorgard - Level 25 (Cheapest training)

Added note: In playing through a 2nd time, I found that Frosgard and the black market in Thjorgard are 1/10th the cost in Drangheim!! Sturmford is less than 1/4 the cost of Drangheim! So:

• Early in the game: Don't train in Drangheim! It is worth the trip back to Sturmford to train. A $40 boart ride is much less than the hundreds or thousands (each player) for the added cost to train in Drangheim.
• Later in the game: (especially once you get master-level town portal) whenever possible train in Frosgard or the Thjorgard black market.

Blade Grandmaster (assassins)

Be sure to check the manual, or the on-CD PDF to see what Grandmaster Blade means for the three characters who can achieve it. For Gladiators and paladins it is the normal added bonuses to damage, armor, and/or attack ratings. But, for assassins, it is extra attacks only if he/she is using daggers!

Learning Skill

This often overlooked skill is POWERFUL!! Invest in it early for your party -- even if it means giving up a boost to armor, spells, or weapons. It causes you to gain experience, and therefore level up, much faster. Many have reported that their Lich, with GM in learning, achieved twice the levels of any other party members! That is one very powerful lich!

Chest Respawning

Most of the chests, including black chests, respawn when you leave "the area." That gives you the chance to loot them many times. Even on the 1st time through the Isle of Ashes, try it on the chest down on the beach where you start, the dragonfly chest, the chest inside the Verhoffin Ruins, and the chest behind the door in the book room. Later in the game, when you discover a black chest, leave and return!

Note Alpha's diabodical cheat: Use Lloyd's beacon as an easy way to exit and re-enter a dungeon to loot the re-spawned chests. This is great for black chests. In the dragon cave (once the dragon appears) if you Beacon into the cave, the dragon does not show up but the chests are re-filled.

Sharing the Program (Legally!!)

Not really a hint, but a good piece of information for couples RPGers! After all, the family that Slays together Stays together! :)

Dreamcatcher and her husband were both playing MM9 (with different save files) and discovered that doesn't work! Because of the minisave files, when a person clears out a quest, the minisave is read by the next person to enter and the quest is no longer available. The solution --> install on two separate locations on your drives.