Gothic II Gold Edition: Mercenary Guide

Our goal is to have relatively easy playthrough from the beginning without struggle required to max statistics that in a long run won’t be relevant at all. This straightforward build uses one-handed weapon and a crossbow. We are going for 90% of proficiency for each as the end game value. Mercenary has the ability to smith ore weapons, that’s why at this point we are going to use Ore Battle Blade and Dragon Hunter’s Crossbow which requires 150 Strength. On top of that we are going to utilize all Thieving skills, Alchemy and certain Hunting skills.

90% proficiency in one-weapons is already high value thanks to 10% from Ore Battle Blade and with Morgan’s Ring we can reach 100%, but that is your personal choice whether you want every single hit to be critical. At that point the game starts to get too easy. When it comes to crossbows, case is a little different. Distance is taken into account which means you will miss even with 100%, in fact misses on close distance will occur as well. 90% is already high value, but we have enough LP to make it happen. Be aware that damage from a Crossbow adds Dexterity to outcoming damage. Yet at this point we are going to 2-shot Lizard Man which will be our main enemy. Smithing allows us to create Ore Battle Blade and Ore Dragon Slayer later, for which we will require only 10 LP. Other blades we are able to learn are generally weaker than ones we can find, that way we also preserve more LP. Thieving skills merge into Mercenary class nicely, that’s why we are going to utilise all of them. For alchemy we are going to learn Strength and Dexterity Potions to increase our main statistics. Out of hunting skills the only relevant ones are: Skins, Shadowbeast’s Horns and obviously Dragon pieces in the form of Scales and Blood. Unless you are into collecting trophies nothing else has a decent price to make a difference. Lastly, we are spending 30 LP on Languages from Jharkendar.

Note: Throughout the leveling process Strength and Dexterity values will be kept at values ending up with either 0 or 5 (usual weapon requirement, mostly esthetical, optional). Since Mana has limited usage we can consume 50 Dark Mushrooms (at once) or other Mana providing bonuses from the very beginning. If you are not familiar with efficient way of learning attribute, we are putting 19 points into new stat then use 5 worth of LP to reach level 34 saving 4 LP points in the process. Additional information below allow to get the most out of certain situations and avoid unpleasant surprises.Important: make sure to have few backup saves to avoid unpleasant situations in form of buggy quests and experience waste.You will find all important Herbs and Tablets maps in here: http://www.worldofgothic.com/gothic2/?go=g2addonkarten

LP distribution till level 9.

1.1. Beginning is quite challenging, thats why I am going to provide detailed guide for the first part, reducing additional informations the further you get. Game is quite immersive and listening to dialogs quite thoroughly helps find directions. Loot all there is in Xardas tower and behind it (you need to get down from top of the tower). Direct you next steps towards pond next to which is a cave leading to little valley with Lester. After that get on the main track to the city. Talk with Cavalorn but before going after bandits straight away, you can talk with the bandit and by using diplomatic dialogue options you can gain additional experience and informations. While dealing with Brago, you will come across Sword that requires Dexterity to be wield. While our endgame will revolve around strength based weapons. Great chunk of our beginning will be marked by usage of Dexterity one-handed weapons which at this point are superior. We can’t use it till we meet Dexterity teacher. Work for Lobart (mention support for farmers). Important: You have to grab Goblin Berry close to the stone circle behind Lobart’s farm [1] before talking to Zuris, it’s optimal to do it at this point. Give Greg your newly acquired clothes and make sure you killed everything on your way, excluding lower ground on the left. To maximize experience gained for entering the city find a way to get into city by avoiding the gate for now. You can drop Digger Meat close to the lowest point of the wall and climb up. Run to the port avoiding everyone, jump to the water and swim towards Lares who will greet you with 500 worth of experience. At this point you should have level 3, learn Dexterity up to 27 (that’s the furthest we go with LP), so you can start wielding Sword. After talking to him run back towards the gate, jump out of the city and get in properly. Make sure to utilise Lares’es advice on how to get free gear on the beginning. Start working on becoming citizen. Build assumes becoming student for Bosper, that is why we are learning how to skin animals at this point. While going after Darron’s blessing make sure to have as little gold as possible. Tell Constantino that you want to work for him, after talking to Zuris you will get additional herbs to be harvested. Important: do not give 1250 worth of gold herbs to Constantino. Talk with people around and figure out the place but try not to complete side quests just yet, we are going to do that in Chapter II what will provide us with additional experience (+50 per Chapter). Important: If you are willing to buy Master Sword, do not talk to Martin (he will equip it after first talk then you would need to sell him Torturer’s Axe first). There is no good reason to stay in Chapter I, especially when you are choosing the Mercenary path. Talk to Vatras, then help Lares with the ring so you can start the grind. Important: keep all the apples you will find and buy them on sight.

Purple circles represent relevant places you will wander to by yourself.

1.2. Important: before you will start first journey with Lares, make sure to have 4x Fire Ball scrolls and few Snapperweeds. Also make sure not to ask Lares for taking you to the farm or you may risk a bug in which case he won’t take you to the forest later. Relevant checkpoints of the journey are marked with orange circles on the map. Lares is your tool to gain free experience and resources, there is not much on the way you could lure to him additionally. Before crossing wooden bridge grab a Crossbow [1] then continue till the pyramid. Lure everything alive from the area near the entrance to the ruins to the Lares except Shadowbeast. At [2] you will find Lizards that you can lure with the help of a speed buff from Snapperweed. In the ruins you will be greeted with rats and Goblin Skeletons which can be easily evaporated with Fire Balls. You don’t need to buy map of the Khorinis, you will get one from Nefarius while delivering the Ornament. On your way back, use the teleporting stone but don’t even try engaging Orc in the cave, just run towards the city.
1.3. Important: it’s recommended to get speed potion or Snapperweeds and few missile based scrolls before another journey with Lares. This one is going to be way more tricky and will require skillful luring to maximize experience and open our path to certain herbs. Also make sure to keep backup saves since Lares likes to wander off when we are not close enough. Checkpoints for that journey are marked with red circles. [1] is optional at that moment, but you can lure 2 out of 3 Bandits to let Lares deal with them. While getting to crossroad, grab a cheap range spell and search for Ork-Elite [2] in front. Lure him to Lares (make sure to use melee weapon to parry incoming attacks, while Lares will do the damage). Next and this is optional you can try to lure 3 Wargs [2] with the help of Snapperweed or Speed Potion if you bought 2. Carry on with the journey, not much to be lured anymore till the final destination where Lares stops. Before activating the circle, use the speed buff and lure the Wargs and Wolfs from behind the circle [3], then lure the Lizards from the north [4]. Important: If you are using the Speed Potion make sure to carry out it all without loading the game otherwise you will lose the buff. After letting Lares deal with Lizards get back to the area and grab Hunting Crossbow which is the first one you will potentially use. Do what needs to be done with the Stone Circle then make sure to grab all relevant Herbs and start your way home. Get into cave [1] and deal with the last (or all if you didn’t lure any) Bandit and head towards the city. Before the stairs drop lower to terrace above the cave with Orc, where you will find Ring of Force [2].
1.4. In the city and carry on utilizing LP on one-handed weapons up to 34. Wulfgar can be your teacher. Important: since we are not going to reach close to the next threshold with LP, you can already make use of Wulfgar’s 2% early morning bonus. At this point its best to wander left after city gates and head uphill, kill the Boars then keep on heading up hill. Next to stump [3] you will find Light Crossbow. Head further uphill killing Scavengers next to Nicolas, grab King’s Sorrel from the top then head back down towards the city to gather all Herbs and clear the cave with bandits [4].
1.5. Whole time we were avoiding encounters with Shadowbeasts to get ability to remove their Horns first (Buster quest in III Chapter). That’s why we are going to make a journey towards Grom [5]. Important: before you set off, make sure to have Snapperweed, Ham, Bread and Milk (you can steal the food in the city). Avoid getting out of the road at this point, you can kill all the monsters when your character will get stronger. On your way, don’t go to the Onar’s farm just yet. You can help Fester (Important: make sure to kill Field Raiders in the cave first to get all the experience). In the cave you will find Dexterity Potion. Then straight to Grom [5], make sure he gets the food and teaches you how to extract Shadowbeast’s Horn. Move further into the valley, kill the Wolves, approach Trolls closer, eat the Snapperweed and charge towards rock with loot. Grab King’s Sorrel and Rapier and run away. Rapier is going to be your main weapon as soon as you will reach 50 Dexterity. Head back to Khorinis.

1.6. Bartok will be your last free experience tool (Yellow Circles). Pay him for the hunting trip then hit the road. Before approaching Wolves, make sure to lure 3 Snappers [1]. Carry on further and after Bartok kills the Orc, lure 5x Black Goblins [2] towards him, then let him go. Before going back to the city, you should kill relatively easy enemies in form of Bandits in cave close to the arch [7]. If you struggle, you can come back later.
1.7. From now on, we will be working on putting our character into shape. Now we have all we need to become apprentice for Bosper and cash out for skins. Recent voyages should already allow to gather decent amount of coin. Start praying to Innos with 100 gold pieces offers. Save before praying and load if not granted Dexterity. You will need 1000 gold to get 10 points of Dexterity over 10 days (travel to shrine on Lobart’s farm or ones close to the Orlan’s tavern). To significantly ease our money and experience gaining ability we will pick Thieves Guild route for now. Next LP we get, will be put into Picking Locks, Sneaking and Pickpocketing. Important: Make sure to keep 10 LP for Picking Locks first. You can learn this ability from Thorben or wait a bit to learn it from Ramirez for 50 gold pieces less. Jora from marketplace will complain about Rengaru which we will approach first. Make sure to extract whole gold out of him, but let him go. Next Halvor, confront him about your fishie findings from the Bandit’s cave, but struck a deal with him. Last Thieves Guild member we can approach is Nagur. Struck a good deal with him and get to work. Important: to maximize experience pay 10 gold to Mika on the way to Akil’s farm. Check around what’s up on the farm and get back to Mika. When he stops, don’t approach him or he will start whacking. Lure Mercenaries one by one with holding a spell. Take each far behind the farm and kill. After you are done, approach Mika and demand nothing from Akil to get additional experience. Now back to Nagur, cash out then talk to Kardiff. To Attila we go, be nice and take the key. Figure out the entrance to the severs and in you go. Make sure to learn/know already how to Pick Locks and Sneak. Earn Cassia’s trust then learn Pickpocketing as soon as you get free LP.

Consume Dexterity Potion and after 10 days of praying, you should sit at 40 Dexterity. That allows to carry out every easy pickpocketing operation in Khorinis, which in turn means plenty of additional experience and gold. Show off to Rengaru for +1 Dexterity then consume 4 raw Goblin Berries. Buy Ring of Dexterity from Bosper, what will allow wielding Rapier which at this point is very powerful. Investigate port district a little in case of Missing People, grab additional experience, visit the brothel to enjoy some kinky stuff and pixels then swim towards Pirate camp and talk to Skip (don’t deliver him Baltram’s package till Jharkendar). At this point you should be around level 9. For now invest 12 LP into Strength, so with Amulet of Strength (Erol sells it for 1000 gold after you help him), Ring and Belt of Force you can finally handle Light Crossbow. You can invest last 4 LP in learning a little about Crossbow from Dragomir (hunting camp near Orlan’s tavern).

LP distribution till level 17.

2.1. Goal for this stage is to get ready for Jharkendar. But first we need to become Mercenary already. Optional: At this point, before the departure, you can get Maria’s Golden Plate from chest in the barracks. Head out to Onar’s farm start working on it. Keep farmers quests for later, when you are already working there yourself and focus on interacting with Lee and Mercenaries. Super Important: don’t ask Thekla for food and most importantly don’t fight with Bulko before becoming Mercenary. If you will fight him first you will lose opportunity to ask Thekla for food, same time losing one Thekla’s Goulash that provides +1 Strength. Out of Torlof’s trials, pick beating the Militia first. Talk with Cord, ask for help to get additional quest but do the trial by yourself anyway (shortest way to Bengar’s farm is to move up the rocks near Buster then keep on climbing towards the buildings). Before starting the fight make sure to pickpocket both of the Militia Guards. Get rid of them for good and get back to the farm. Make sure to please all Mercenaries you can then make preparations to join the squad. Don’t bother Onar with additional questions or you will get lower wage. 50 gold pieces for now is best you can get, and by giving Golden Plate to Maria, it will increase to 60. Now to make sure you are getting paid every day, it is best to start your day by cashing out, heading out for the entirety of a day then getting back to sleep in the house. Talk around with others, ask Thekla for food then go back to Khorinis. There is barely anything that gets to waste before getting into Chapter II, but among those things, is getting prophecy from Abuyin (you have to visit him every Chapter). Right after that we are ready to start Chapter II.
2.2. Make sure to check all the Merchants for new stuff. Especially Potions and Herbs. Ask around for new quest, because at this point we are going for all bits of experience. Get back to farm and do the quest for Torlof, that will allow you to get Medium Mercenary Armor. When you will finally get more Strength, you can buy the Belt of Mercenary for extra protection since we are going to use Dexterity based weapon for now. From now on, you get relatively free hand with exploring. You should be capable to deal with most areas and if you won’t that means that it’s natural progression border. Places you are struggling with right now, will be easy to clear even after returning from Jharkendar. Generally I advise to avoid fighting Wargs (they are always in numbers and difficult to lure), group of Orcs, Fire Lizards and visiting caves with Skeletons. Although I recommend clearing valley below the route from the city to Orlan’s tavern. There is Tablet of Strength, that will be helpful in Jharkendar. I recommend to eat single Snapperweed and get rid of the Wargs and Shadowbeast with Fire Rain spell. If you are tryhard enough you can also change into Dragon Snapper and kill off harder to deal with enemies. But be mindful of: making sure to have best possible weapons equipped (getting back to human form may mess your weapon hit chances), you don’t get HP increase in case of levelling up, can’t save/load the game and you can’t loot anything). Try to collect all the relevant statistics increasing Tablets and Herbs at this point (you may struggle with getting Dragonroot next to a pack of Wargs on the way to the lighthouse from Akil’s farm, I recommend using Speed Potion). Additional tips: to avoid waste of experience you can clear Greg’s cave before starting the quest. When dealing with Till (demand only up to 50 gold), make sure to pay 5 gold pieces to Bronko first. Make use of summoning type of scrolls to deal with big groups of Bandits, required to investigate Weapons Dealer quest. Also don’t finish the quest till Chapter III, otherwise you will lose experience for quest concerning Valley of Mines information. To kill all Bandits (15x Bandits, 2x Guards) in Dexter camp (talk to him before whacking), you have to position yourself in the entrance and face left towards the tower. Eat Snapperweed then use Fire Rain and run towards the tower (usually Dexter needs to be killed traditionally unless Greg won’t steal the experience already). Be not afraid of Lutero’s quest, you don’t need to have that hunting skill learned to finish it. Before carrying out a great heist in Upper City, make sure to have high Dexterity first to steal the keys from house owners and make picking locks easier. Give 1000 gold to Darron to get 1 LP and additional bonuses.

2.3. To achieve this particular stats, first I recommend to get Crossbow proficiency to level 34. That will provide us with an effective range skill to fight flying targets and weaker enemies. Next thing we want to do is reaching the desired value of Strength with LP, so we can start adding bonuses to the mix. We are learning Strength up to 46. From now on, you can pray for 10 days to get additional points. Get Erol’s +1 Strength buff. Buy Potion of Strength, then burglar into the ship (through the rope) to steal another from below the deck. After learning Potion of Strength (you need to use 1 LP on Essence of Health first) you should have 11 Potions (9x made, 2x found/bought). Drink them all, and you will sit at 90 Strength already. By consuming 7 Goblin Berries and another found Potion of Dexterity (Bandit camp behind Sekob’s farm) you will sit at 55 Dexterity, that with Belt of Skill (bought from Bosper/Orlan) and Ring of Dexterity will allow you to get 65 Dexterity that is required to carry out every risky pickpocketing in Khorinis (make sure to steal from Lothar in this Chapter). When you can finally afford it, buy Book increasing proficiency in One-Handed weapons (5000 gold) from Lutero. As soon as you reach desired statistics you can either wield the Fine Long Sword (pickpocket Ruga, then visit the left tower of the Marketplace gate. There is an issue with closing the doors, so you may need to use a certain spell on Guards after or they will attack you later) or buy Master Sword (2400 gold) from Martin (with taking into consideration our respective Strength and Dexterity they will provide a similar outcome). When it comes to the range department, get yourself a War Crossbow from Rossi (Sekob farm).

LP distribution till level 34

Before you cross the portal equip yourself with: Leather Armor (one you got from Matteo’s backyard or other Citizen clothes), 2x Transformation spell (agile monster at least Snapper), 1x Oblivion spell, Statistic increasing Tablets (Strength, One-Handed, Health, Dexterity), Baltram’s package and keep all found Swampweed.
We are choosing the journey into Jharkendar first simply because the area is so much easier at this point. Problem with Valley of Mines is that after completing it, you suddenly find yourself fighting against Seekers and those are quite challenging enemies for character still in development. Jharkendar basically allows to boost our hero into super competitive status.
After reaching maximum LP levels with Strength and Dexterity, it’s time to make the same with One-Handed weapons. If enemies still gives you hard time I recommend to start adventure with Pirates straight away. You don’t have to buy a map of the area, you can find it with treasure location marks in Greg’s hut. Go hunting with Jack and while on it, search area [1] for 2 dead Pirates. One of them will have Morganor’s Ring (+10% in One-Handed). Carry on with Jack, make sure to talk with Malcolm on the way. He will have a quest for you, but you also have to pickpocket him at this point. With Baltram’s package you can get into Pirate’s Camp for free (with other side quests obviously). Find Morganor there and learn One-Handed till 49% (56% if you already read the book and used Wulfgar’s bonus). You can give the ring away to him for experience, beat him up, take it back and use the Oblivion spell. Right after that you can go after our next weapon in the progression line, so you can get back to quests in Pirate’s camp later. From the Mage’s Camp head south and on the crossroads stay one the path South (right under the troll, there is an easy to miss cave with relevant Tablet). Our actual goal is to reach building by the collapsed bridge [2]. Use transformation spell then jump from the upper ground to the other side. Among treasure you can find there, will be our next weapon: Ruby Blade. When meeting Hermit, exchange Leather Armor for Tablets.Next relevant informations to mention revolve around Bandit’s camp. I recommend to decimate Swampsharks population first, especially in the northern part of the Swamp (make to sure to check the corpses, one of them will have Key to Lou’s room). While working for Franco, you will be sent to the southern parts of the Swamp where you should look for Swampshark’s Teeth [3[ (you will need them to help Snaf). While in the camp, help Snaf with Goulash first, so he will give you information for free. Buy Ring of Strength from Huno, you can lower the price on Heavy’s Bandit Armor by helping Fisk with his package. While dealing with Juan, you may need to buy missing Grog bottles for Skip, since you can’t get it out of his corpses for some reason. Even though we will finish main quests in the area, do not help with Fortuno’s amnesia just yet (you will get learn how to extract Bloodflies String from Note in the Castle in Valley of Mines later). You can give him all your Swampweed plants. [b]Important:[/b] Buy 4x Bloodfly Stings, they disappear from Fisk in next chapters. After dealing with Esteban, go to Tom’s cave [4] and let him know he is free to come back. On his way back though, accident occurs in which Tom dies. At this point he will be irrelevant for the story, so we can whack him. The reason we are doing so, is our next in line weapon of progression: El Bastardo which is the best choice till we will learn how to smith in Chapter IV. Important: Do not give Stew away to Pardos in the mine.

While preparing to mine some gold, make sure to not waste any LP for such trivial cause. If you want to get the highest possible proficiency in the field before starting mining operations. Ask every expert around the camp how to mine, then in the mine itself (also applies to no name Diggers). You will get the most of it by giving Red Tablets away to: Finn, Lenar and Logan. Learn all the Languages and if you still have LP, start working on Crossbow. On the way to Raven, you will find additional Tablets, so right before the last fight you can upgrade your attributes. You will have all Strength Tablets at this point (+22 Strength), eat Stew you got from the cooking Bandit, Fire Stew and 1x Thekla’s Stew. That will make you sit at 115 Strength. Increase Dexterity by another 10 points from Tablets and learn all One-Handed and Health Tablets.
When it comes to what to do with Beliar’s Claw, the choice is yours.Personally I give it away to Saturas. Weapon itself scales to the level you prayed to Beliar. It may have additional damage but it’s ultimately inferior to El Bastardo (also take into account additional +8% bonus to One-Handed that El Bastardo provides) and future options.You can make backup save, test it out and make a decision. Before departing from Jharkendar, get yourself a Heavy Crossbow from Garett and make a stock of Hast Hering from Samuel.

Right now you can deal with places in Khorinis you struggled with before, at this point you should already be a formidable warrior. When it comes to Valley of Mines, in Chapter II we don’t really need to fight a lot of Orcs. In fact we will try to avoid them at this point.

After entering the colony, grab the teleportation rune and start following the Red lines. Enemies on the way will be quite weak, it actually applies to all the presented rountes, except Turquoise one which we will travel with Diego at the end. Purple circles present areas you should cleanse on your way throughout the Valley. Important: make sure to search corpses of all Paladins you will find, there is a chance for Goblin Berry in their inventory and you will in most cases find some. If you are totally not familiar with the area, head down and talk to Jergen and move on through [1]. Keep on the Red line through the river then desant at the coast of a forest [2] which consists of easy to deal with enemies. Get into the castle, get another teleportation rune. Important: Buy the Belt of Strength from Sengrath and get the Note about Bloodflies’ Venom from the Paladin’s chambers. Important: use speed buff and collect Tablet of Dexterity in the northern side from the castle (you don’t have to fight Orcs yet, just evade them). Increase Dexterity for +10 worth of Tablets, that will make you sit at 75. With that and other equipment we can pull off pickpocketing on Milten (requires 80 Dexterity). Do not release Gorn just yet, Diego will give you more gold for the cause when you will finally meet him. You don’t have to buy a map, Garond will give you one. It’s your choice where you want to go first. To reach two Mining Camps in the south, use the Yellow line, on the way you can exterminate a flock of Snappers [3], then you will reach the whole relatively easy to clear area [4]. While sightseeing next to Xardas’es tower make sure to grab another Ring of Dexterity [2]. Important: using Bilgot’s information about Snappers around Fajeth’s Camp is required to finish the quest for Lutero (again, you don’t need to learn how to extract claws). Also while helping him to get out of the place, make sure to use the safest routes. This guy has no use in the actual fight. You can choose the Yellow line, then through the forest back on to the Red line (at least Bilgot can swim) in the direction of the Pass. To reach the last northern mine, use the Red first then Orange line. On the way you will meet Talbin (cheese is in the chest). After finding the Magic Ore, clear the area near the Cavalorn’s hut [5] (don’t forget to grab Cavalorn’s bag) and port out. After reporting back to Garond and getting everything done in the castle, get back to Diego. We will utilize his combat prowess to deal with monsters in Blue Circles on the Turquoise line. Try to get done as much as possible but be aware that there are places he wants to avoid. [3] is optional and a little out of the route, but there are few Orcs that won’t respawn later. Since we didn’t go that way before, chose path next to the lake and grab Goblin Berries [2] on the way. Swim across, clear 2 caves and carry on to the Pass. You will meet a significant amount of stronger enemies in the forest [5] that will provide a lot of valuable experience. There is Purple circle [6] with a big flock of Dragon Snappers. I like to kill them in this Chapter but they are dangerous in that amount to fight them with Diego (he triggers them all by using a bow). So either make him stay further away while luring one by one, or use Fire Rain on them now (with Diego further away) or come back here later. You will be taking Diego to the main Pass entrance for more experience. Important: make sure to get his bag with gold from the wooden boards.

Get back to Khorinis and go to Onar’s farm first and buy Heavy Mercenary Armor. Udar in the Valley could teach you Crossbow only up to 59 (don’t forget about thresholds), so now go to Dragomir and level up to 70% when you will get enough LP. After 70% start using Tablets. After all, Crossbow is really handy against Seekers. Important: buy Ring of Power from Lutero, from now on you will wear that piece till the end it will be included into calculation rounding up attributes. With Ring of Power, 1x made Potion of Strength and 3x Thekla’s Stews (you will get another for helping Bennet), you will sit at 125 Strength, which means that with Ring of Strength, Belt of Strength and Amulet of Strength you will be able to carry Dragon Hunter’s Crossbow. Buy Dexterity Potion from Salandril and head down to Jesper in the canals (Thieves Guild Hideout). He will give you the key to the room with a master chest which contains another potion. Drink them both, what will put your Dexterity to 85 (with the Ring of Power). At this point Bosper will have Belt of Dexterity which will allow you to pull off even more pickpocketing attempts. Important: make sure to buy everything relevant from Salandril before turning him in to the Monastery. Important: there is a quest for Malak (Lobart farm) and his Stick, which is located in the Stone Circle. Don’t kill the Shadowbeast (or you will bug the quest for Buster, this Shadowbeast must be killed at the end) sneak to get the Stick instead. Get back to Malak and get info about Bandits. If you won’t get that option, the Leader of the Bandits won’t be having an additional bag of 300 gold pieces. Important: Before you cross to Valley of Mines and trigger Chapter IV make sure to clear all caves out of original inhabitants, if you didn’t do that already. Chapter IV will spawn Lizard-Man in the caves that may inevitably kill them on sight resulting in waste of potential experience.

This is actually pretty inconvenient but Chapter IV is starting after crossing the Pass but relevant things happen in the main zone. That’s why we are getting right back to Khorinis after Chapter starts. Get back to Onar’s farm and spend 10 LP on Smithing, 2 LP on regular Sword then 8 LP on Ore Battle Blade. Kill Orc-Warlord on the way to Pyramids right after the wooden bridge and exchange his Ring for Amulet of Dexterity with Dar (on the contrary to popular belief, items decreasing attributes do not make your training any cheaper, so there is no point in keeping the Ring for later). Visit all Merchants offering Herbs and buy relevant ones. What I recommend to do now, is to visit Jharkendar again. Chapter IV is the last time monsters spawn there and we could probably use more experience to achieve level 34. Important: make sure to have all the ingredients to brew a Potion for Fortuno. That’s the only quest to do and the rest is just mindless whacking, but Crossbow significantly speeds up the process of clearing the entire Jharkendar again. Riordian can teach you how to brew Potion of Dexterity as soon as you have 20 LP to spare. Make 5x Potions of Dexterity, that after drinking will make you sitting at 100 Dexterity. By equipping the Amulet of Dexterity and Belt of Dexterity, you will be able to pull off every single pickpocketing there is, so you can start doing so in Jharkendar to have no reason coming here back again. At this point you should be level 34 already with 6 LP still to spend. Now it’s the time to start actual Dragon Hunting. Important: Do not port to the castle, move down the path and interact with Dragon Hunters. Godar will teach you how to collect Dragon parts and our objective is achieved. If you followed all steps, your relevant statistics should look like ones posted in the Objective section.

At this point you are all round capable of dealing with all encountered dangers. What begs the question: now what? Our statistics already allow us to wield the best equipment there is. What I suggest is to make our statistics more independent from artefacts. Technically even in Chapter IV, we don’t really need to fight hordes of Orcs just yet and there are specific thresholds that makes it a lot easier later. Next LP you make you can invest into 20 points of Dexterity then read the remaining tablet and craft 2x Potions of Dexterity (you can make that in between fighting Dragons, you can kill 2 of them, go back to Bennett to buy better equipment and meanwhile learn more about Dexterity from Lares or Cassia). 130 points of Dexterity will allow you to 2 shot Orc-Warriors and 3 shot Orc-Elite with crossbow. No matter what attributes or weapons proficiencies you will desire to develop after are not going to make a huge difference in gameplay anymore. Another thresholds will be simply too far to reach at this point. There is still a possibility to reach above level 50 before starting Chapter VI, so you are free to put those (no longer precious) LP into some use like Strenght or resource providing Health potions.