#Wizardry8 #TLDR #Tactics 10: Beating the #Rattkin #Breeders

rattkinbreeder

In Trynton, you probably want to help the Trynnies to get rid of the Rattkin Breeders. Now these are monsters doing monstrous damage; but they also have good loot available. Around Level 10, even earlier sometimes, you could be able to beat them (on expert); depending on your group and equipment it may be easier – or harder.

They are in a room with 3 Rattkin Archers, but these are no problem compared to the Breeders. So, I’m not going to write anything about the archers. Basically, if you have the Breeders under control, you have won the fight. So here goes:

They are weak to Fire and Mental Magic, so you should really try to spam higher level Insanity or Fear on them to keep them under control while killing them. (If you have the Jack in the Box for your Gadgeteer or the Siren’s Wail for the Bard, that is mostly a safe option). You can watch an example fight on expert difficulty here.

Otherwise they are doing really good melee damage and can knock your guys unconscious as well as poisoning them or paralyzing them – so watch out, kill them quickly and keep them under control. If you cannot kill them quickly, don’t take a chance and try to remove all negative status effects from you party as soon as possible as well as heal up. It will help you survive the fight.

It is recommended you use special equipment you found in this fight. Especially buffs will work well, like a Scroll of Haste. Also, distribute potions and sneeze powders on your party members in case of hp troubles or someone going unconscious.

Have fun beating the rats

Happy gaming!

Immanuel-Can

 

#Wizardry8 #Monster #Manual : #Monastery

For your convenience in your adventures – a Manual to the Monsters of the Monastery – their strengths and weaknesses, how to kill them and how to defend against them.
I have marked some remarkable/dangerous static spawns and interesting items on the Monastery maps. After the maps, the Monster Manual will give you detailed descriptions of the Monsters of the Monastery.

Lower Monasterymonastery-map

Upper Monastery
monastery-map-upper

…if I missed something, please tell 🙂 Or if you want something else mentioned too! This guide is based on the monsters I’ve met in the Monastery in my playthroughs – so if you have encountered others, please add! Same goes for the pictures – if you have any missing ones, please contact me 🙂

 

Low Level (1+2)

Animals

roach
Roach
Some resistance vs mental spells, otherwise weak to spells. Single digit hp. Large Swarms. Hits single digits. Don’t let yourself get surrounded. Kill low hp ones first.

crab
Crab
Some resistance vs water, earth and mental spells, otherwise weak to spells. High single digit hp. Hits single digits. Kill low hp ones first. No problem to get them one by one waiting in a doorframe.

softshellcrab
Softshell Crab
Same resistances as Crab, vs water, earth and mental spells, otherwise weak to spells. Low double digit hp. Hits high single digits. Kill low hp ones first. No problem to get them one by one waiting in a doorframe.

Rat
Weakness to Fire/Water/Divine spells. Low single digit hp / low single digit hits. Kill low hp ones first.

lesserseeker
Lesser Seeker
Weakness to Fire/Water/Mental spells. Double digit hp. Ranged attacker. May nauseate so prefer to kill in mixed encounters to non-special attacking monsters.

bat
Bat
Resistant to Air Spells. Low hp, low damage.

Slimes

greenslime
Green Slime
Weakness to Fire/Water, Resistance to Mental Spells. Good drops. Single to low double digit hp. Can hit pretty high single digits. Easy to hit.

Languid Slime
Weakness to Fire, resistant to Mental. Good drops. Ranged attacker with Sleep effect. Easy to kill, do it first. Single digit hp usually.

 

Medium Level (3-5)

Animals

swarmingroaches
Swarming Roach
Resistant vs Mental Magic, weak to all other forms of magic. Up to low double digit hp. High single digit damage.
May have multiple roaches attacking you even if space is limited – so be careful not to get surrounded by these if they have a high number. Easy to hit and to kill. Area damage wrecks them.

smallspider
Small Spider
Resistant to mental magic, weak vs other magic. Low double digit hp. Ranged combatants with low damage but a high chance to paralyze your party. Can poison in close combat. If other monsters are present that you cannot kill quickly, try to remove the spiders first.

Wolf Spider
Resistant to mental magic, weak vs other magic. Low double digit hp. Ranged combatants with low damage but a high chance to paralyze your party. Can poison in close combat. If other monsters are present that you cannot kill quickly, try to remove the spiders first. Yes, there is not much difference – Wolf Spiders are higher level and usually have less hp in my experience.

Hardshell Crab
Resistant to Water and Mental Magic, weak vs other magic. about 30-60 hp. Low chance to poison you – high damage up to around 15. Extended Range, so protect your backline! Tough opponents for their level; try to control them quickly by spells like Blinding Flash or even the high level Sleep spell of your Bard’s Poet’s Lute.

venomcrab
Venom Crab
Resistant to Water, Earth and Mental Magic, weak vs other magic. Around 15 hp. High chance to poison you – poison may collect stacks so try to cure quickly at least after combat. High single digit damage. Easy to kill, so kill them and save your crowd control for other opponents. Collect the Venom Crab Shell they drop for Antone Rapax.

gnawerrat
Gnawer Rat
Resistant only to Water and Mental Magic. Low double digit hp, single digit damage. Easy to kill.

seeker
Seeker
Only resistant to Earth magic. Lower double digit hp. Single digit damage, ranged attacks. May nauseate your characters so in mixed encounters, try to control (sleep, insanity, etc) or kill.

duskbat
Dusk Bat
Resistant vs Water and Air, weak to Fire. Low double digit hp, high single digit damage. When mixed with normal bats, control them with a mental spell. Dusk Bats are hard to screenshot – this one refused to show her hp :-p

tanikafish
Tanika Fish
Resistant vs Water, weak vs Air. Low double digit hp, high single digit damage. Control and kill one by one.

Slimes

noxiousslime
Noxious Slime
Weakness to Fire, otherwise pretty resistant to magic, especially to Divine / Mental. Low double digit hp, ranged and melee attacks with a high chance to nauseate and some chance to poison your characters. Good drops, relatively easy to hit with physical damage.

Pustulant Slime
Weakness to Fire, resistant vs Mental Magic. Double digit hp. Melee combatant with high single digit damage and the unnerving ability to cast a nauseating cloud on your party. Eliminate quickly, or will wear you down in a multi-monster encounter.

Undead

undeadhead
Undead Head
Resistant against Divine Magic. Double digit hp. Casts crowd controlling spells and Energy Blast. Attacks low single digit hp in melee. A nuisance if encountered paired with other monsters – eliminate quickly then. Otherwise harmless and easy to kill.

Humanoids

higardibandit
Higardi Bandit
Water/Earth resistant. Good drops. Low double digit hp, good damage in melee and ranged too. Easy to kill but may run around and cause you to lose turns that way. May flee, being a nuisance later.

higardiraider
Higardi Raider
Somewhat resistant to Earth magic, otherwise average. Double digit hp. Good drops. Throws Death Stars, thankfully without their Kill-%. Tough for his level, but not dangerous.

higardicutpurse
Higardi Cutpurse
Water/Earth resistant. Good drops. Low double digit hp, good damage in melee and ranged too. Very easy to kill, but may run around or flee, being a nuisance later.

 

High Level (6+)

Animals

rabidrat
Rabid Rat
Strong resistance vs Water, some vs Mental Spells. Double digit hp. Up to double digit melee damage. High chance to nauseate on attack, some chance to drive insane. If the rats get to surround your characters, they can be a problem. One by one they are easy to deal with.

Slimes

Slithering Slime
Vulnerable to Fire only. High double digit hp, melee damage in the double digits too. High chance to nauseate your party. Tough opponent at early levels. Good drops.

Metallic Slime
Vulnerable to Fire only. High double digit hp; melee and ranged attacker up to double digits. May cause unconsciousness. Takes only 50% damage from physical sources. If they are too tough for you, you can always run, as they usually don’t do much damage and don’t follow quickly.

Undead

Screaming Head
These ones or the Shrieking Heads are waiting for you in the Grave in the Monastery. Vulnerable only to Divine Magic. Double digit hp.
Cast all sorts of spells to control the combat, but not much else. If your party is insane, run around until it wears off or only your low damage party members have it and then hack these things down. If you have Bishops with you, command them to the grave. Dangerous combined with other monsters only.

 

Bosses

TLDR-tactics-3-kingcrab
King Crab
Vulnerable to Fire, resistant to Water/Mental. Irritating Skin is a good option against it. Around 100 hp. Extended Range, attacking twice per round with single digit damage usually. An opponent that you have to endure, otherwise not that dangerous. Be careful about your weaklings in the back row: The King Crab can reach / attack them if you go too close!

gregor
Gregor
Highly Resistant to Water / Mental Spells, somewhat vulnerable to Fire. Irritating Skin may work. Around 120 hp. 3 Attacks with mixed damage, ranged and melee. High chance to paralyze or poison. A really hefty opponent – don’t hold back on him and I’d recommend to use items you collected in this fight too, like a Scroll of Haste, to help speed up the fight.
The longer the fight lasts, the tougher it gets. Don’t be down if one or two of your party members die – this is quite normal, as he can one-round many characters due to the paralyze/melee combo.
If you’re the type to save before tough encounters, you should do that. Even if you’re not, do it anyways, at least if it’s the first time you encounter him. Significantly stronger on higher difficulty levels. One of the toughest fights in the early game.
You can avoid him if you run around like a madman though, and proceed to the next level anyways, as he will go back to his room after a some time running around edges and jumping off cliffs, not pursuing you anymore.

Shopkeeper

burz
Burz
A nice guy, friendly but greedy. Use to get rid of stuff you don’t need anymore. Great source of ammo or minor upgrades. Also has some resurrection powder. Sometimes has a Longsword or a Short Staff and Daggers: All of these you will need to access the retro dungeons later in the game so you may want to stock up on that stuff as it isn’t sure you’ll get it later and it isn’t expensive at all.
I’d recommend you don’t sell your resurrection powder, as it can be really helpful if you don’t want to reload sometimes and don’t want to save the game like a paranoid madman 🙂

#Wizardry8 #TLDR #Tactics #9 : A Crabton of damage Ant more

tldr-tactics-9-crabs
When leaving the Monastery, you will likely encounter a group of crabs not that easy to beat: Venom Crabs and Hardshell Crabs. Here’s how you deal with them:

  • Venom Crab
    Usually around 10-20 hp, needs close range to attack, will add up poison stacks on your party members (-AC / -hp per round).
    These die easily, but there is usually a big number of them. Fortunately they are vulnerable to mental magic, so your bard’s lute as well as spells like Terror or Insanity will be great against them.
    Also, they take good damage from fire realm spells, as expected.
    If you have a source of area damage, that too will be a good idea.
    And as you probably thought they would be: They are pretty resistant to water magic. So if you are just so-so with your paralyze spell, spare your round and your spell points.
    Kill them whenever you have time for that in the group after the Monastery. They are not a number one priority, but they are bothersome nonetheless!
  • Hardshell Crab
    Going up to around 40 hp these are harder opponents and should be your number one targets as they have extended range. If you have casters or other weaklings in the second row, you should not come close to them but rather kill them from extended range.
    They can hit pretty hard, usually double digits and are generally not easy to deal with when your party is still low level.
    As for spells, go with the Venom Crab advice above: Weakness to mental and fire spells. Insanity is great on these.
  • Soldier Ant
    Usually only around 20 hp and in large groups, they hit pretty hard and can fit into one spot easily. Their models don’t need much room, so on a minimal door, there would even fit 2 or 3 of them, like you encountered with the roaches and other bugs. They can hit pretty hard and you should kill them quickly because it is so easy and they do some significant damage for their low hp score.
    You will likely have some source of area damage right now; use it against them. Also, mental spells will be great against the ants.
    Don’t let yourself get surrounded, as this will likely be fatal for your casters or other back row characters. Use at least the “your back to the wall” tactic!

Have fun gaming!

Immanuel-Can

#Wizardry8 #Shredder #Speedrun 14 : Oh-oh – it’s magic :D

Deal with it: Two out-of-reach sorceresses paralyzing your party while a bunch of mindless morons and troublesome thugs supplies you with a thorough beating!

Also: Locations of the starting items in Trynton (as we’re reaching it).

Playing that part was a bit of a nailbiter 😀

So have fun watching & happy gaming!

Immanuel-Can

#Wizardry8 #Shredder #Speedrun #12 : Insane Graverobbery

Where we deal with flying heads in an ancient grave and get all the good stuff.

A guide on how to deal with Insanity in certain fights: Avoid your characters hitting each other 🙂

Also: Various fights on the way from Arnika and more combat tactics.

Have fun watching and happy gaming!

Immanuel-Can

#Wizardry8 #TLDR #Tactics #8 : Squatting Spiders! (Don’t tell PETA)

tldr-tactics-8

As for our 8-legged friends we encountered in the Monastery, that’s how to get rid of them:

  • Small Spider (level 4 usually)
    They have pretty low hp but are usually encountered in groups. Good to meet them though as they are easily disposed of – if they are alone and don’t have other monsters to help them.
    You can just give them any damage and they will die quickly. If there are other mobs, by all means kill the spiders. They will ranged-attack you and have a high chance of paralyzing your party. So: While harmless if they’re your only opponents they are a menace if you have some high hp opponents to accompany them.
  • Wolf Spider (level 6 usually)
    Low hitpoints, great XP. Don’t run from them if they are alone, you’ll be able to kill them with any party. If you have problems getting damage done, try to lure them to an edge and a doorway to avoid being constantly paralyzed.
    That said, as with the small spiders: Beware of other monsters adding up. This will be dangerous.

See you around,

Happy gaming for you!

Immanuel-Can

 

#Wizardry8 #TLDR #Tactics #7 : Metallic slimes – good for your iron value?

Metallic Slime

Some of the last “slimey” encounters we had on our “bad last day” at the Monastery. Kill with care!

  • Metallic Slime (around level 8+)
    These blobs have around 100 hp and will shoot at you, but can attack in melee too (and will do more damage then). They can drop your party members unconscious and, if the party member is already unconscious, there is a chance your hero will just die. Just like that. Though the chance is low.
    So while they are not dangerous for their damage, they are dangerous for their special effects. And because it takes forever to kill them: Their received melee damage is reduced by 50% – so good for you if you have magic damage (like the Lightning Rod for your Gadgeteer)!
    It’s pretty easy to run from them after you’ve killed one or two and come back later when you have replenished your reserves.
  • Pustulant Slime (around level 4-6, mostly 5)
    Hard to kill because they tend to nauseate(-4 AC / – 4 to hit / may miss a turn) your whole party with a green cloud, and nauseates and poisons (-AC / -hp per round) when attacking too. About 50 hp and you may meet them as early as level 3-4 if you’re unlucky. If you’re at that level and meet 4+ of them, you can try to kill one of them and then just run. Later, it’s a slugfest trying to kill them and it will deplete your resources – so make sure you’ll get no additional mobs if you encounter these. Lightning Rod or high spell damage helps here too.
  • Poison Seekers (around level 7-9, red texture)
    If you meet these still in the Monastery, you may not be able to identify them but contrary to the usual green seekers, they have a reddish look on them. They’re pretty nasty opponents because they’ll have around 60 hp, stand around you, may still nauseate you but will poison you with nearly every shot. Especially your characters with low VIT will be affected, which is dangerous on its own.
    The Poison damage per round can also ADD UP, so be careful when you get that hefty 6 or sometimes even 9 dmg per round in addition to their damage. Don’t underestimate them, make sure to lure them to a position where you can confront them one by one or at least not more than two at once (a door would be ideal).
    Remember your Potions of Poison Cure, burst these seekers down and good luck if you meet them early 🙂

May you find fortune on your journeys,
have fun gaming!

And see you soon,

Immanuel-Can

#Wizardry8 #Shredder #Speedrun #9 : The Great Outdoors!

…where our party goes on a rampage on the way to Arnika. Featuring maneuver tactics in the outdoors (as in the previous post) and: Using the Bard’s Piercing Pipes to the fullest.

Have fun watching, and: happy gaming!

See you,

Immanuel-Can

#Wizardry8 #TLDR #Tactics 6: The great outdoors – maneuver tactics

tldr1-tactics

…again! Our basic tactic! What is there left to say?
Up until now we were just running around in the Monastery, a pretty easy place for placement tactics. Just go to a door or an edge and you’re set.

But what about the outdoors? Now?

tldr-tactics-6-tactics

This is a schematic on what you will encounter in the outdoors. Red = Party, Green = Monsters that can attack your party.

A small guide to tactic safety in the outdoors.

You should always at least walk near a wall, so you can use the minimum defensive setup where at least your backline is safe (A)

If you are up against Monsters that will come to you, try to always move into optimal defensive positions even if this means you have to run (B or D) – as you can see, the area where the monsters can attack you is very small. This will be a great advantage for your party. In these cases, the monsters can only attack your direct frontline.

Even in the case of C, you are better protected than just against the wall, as only up to two monsters will be able to attack the sides. In A, the monsters can focus your side protectors which can be quite deadly for them.

And if you find any landmarks that will block opponents, use them too: Make trees, stones and edges your friends. They will block at least one of the monsters and so prevent the dreaded one-round-deaths.

Please share any more tactical tips and tricks you have on the Thoughtful-Gaming pages, I’m eager to know more!

And if you’re playing Wizardry 8 right now, have fun with these TLDR tactics 🙂

Happy gaming,

see you,

Immanuel-Can

#Wizardry8 #Shredder #Speedrun #8 : We won’t back down (or we will – but we will be back!)

…where our party meets all kind of crazy monsters. The Monastery does its best to keep some tension in the air. So we’re showing off some slick fleeing and “salami” tactics in this one.
Of course also getting all the nice items in the Monastery by breaking the glass, including a very often overlooked and powerful cloak (+2 AC +5 Senses).

Monsters featuring: Metallic Slimes, Poison Seekers (Level 8 what the…?!) 🙂

Story featuring: A robotic messenger of the Cosmic Lords and Phoonzang and his dark counterpart.

Will we finally get out?

Have fun watching & gaming

See you,

Immanuel-Can

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