TIPS FOR WINNING AT MICROPROSE'S "DARKLANDS" by Ken Fishkin Ross has asked for articles going beyond "reviews", articles which, among other things, give "hints" or "tips" on current games. As someone who just finished spending many many hours playing "DARKLANDS", I will volunteer to take a crack at this new genre, sharing some "tips" on how to win at Darklands. I will try not to give spoilers, focusing on general techniques rather than specific "here's how to defeat the " tips. I'll assume that you already own, and have started to play, the game: I won't spend any time describing the game itself. PARTY CREATION TIPS In "Darklands", all your party members will have to fight sooner or later - you cannot always "park" your weak alchemist in the back while your fighters do all the combat. You will often be attacked from the rear, or outflanked, or up against many enemies outdoors. Especially when you factor in the effects of aging, it pays not to neglect Strength, Endurance, or even Agility, no matter what the occupation. I put those 3 qualities at "30" for Alchemists/Clerics, and at "35" or so for fighters. Don't neglect the "free gift" that 5 or 10 years of seasoning will give your character. A 20 year-old character has _no_ advantage over a 30 year-old character, and many disadvantages. Aging starts to set in at age 35. I found an age of 30 for a fighter, and 40 to 45 for an alchemist/cleric, worked quite well. For clerics, I found the "Hermit" path worked quite well. The "Hermit" profession has the singular advantage amongst holy avocations of giving a "+1" to strength, which reduces the effects of aging. Some of your skills will go up drastically with adventuring (namely weapons skills), but many of the others will go up very little if at all. Pump the maximum possible into virtue, healing, and alchemy - you use them constantly, and they very rarely increase, and then only a little. I had all characters, regardless of profession, pump "virtue" to the max, and it worked well. I found it pays to have your party members specialize in different types of weapons. One in edged weapons, one in impact, one in pole, and so forth. First of all, some potions/saints only help one type of weapon. Second of all, rescued merchant caravans will reward you with a _very_ nice weapon, not of your choosing - it is a terrible waste not to be able to use it. SAINT TIPS As the rules suggest, "spread the wealth", sharing your saintly knowledge amongst all four members. Firstly, four people can pray four times more often than one. Secondly, you reduce the effect if your cleric dies - all that hard-wasted study gone forever! Some of the more useful saints are Clare (great at healing), Dunstan (armor), and especially Raymond Lull (alchemy). Try to have knowledge which spans a variety of categories - one who helps against flame, one who helps cross water, one who is good against satanic foes, one who helps with charisma, etc. Don't forget about Saints days. Potion making on June 30th (Raymond Lull's day) is highly recommended. If you give a florin to the monks at the Kloster, any Request for study becomes a sure thing. This is expensive, but in later stages of the game, when you are rolling in clover (I had well over 300 florins), it's worth it. ALCHEMY TIPS Alchemical potions fall into 4 classes: damage-enemy (Thunderbolt, Breath of Death), weaken-enemy (Fleadust, Sunburst, Noxious Aroma), strengthen-self (HardArmor, IronArm, Deadly Blade), and healing (New Wind, Essence of Grace). I found some of these definitely preferable to others: DAMAGE-ENEMY. I was disappointed in how little damage "Thunderbolt" and "Breath of Death" do. "Breath of Death", especially, which is hard to learn, hard to make, and expensive to make, doesn't really do that much damage when all is said and done. Don't get too carried away with these. WEAKEN-ENEMY. These potions don't help that much either. First of all, they only last for a very limited time. Second of all, unless you time things just right, the potion will "spray" some of your own party members in addition to the enemy. A notable exception to this is "Sunburst", a truly wonderful potion. Your party is not affected by it, and it is tremendously useful against enemy alchemists. If you stock up with many Sunbursts and Thunderbolts, you can lob Sunburst-Thunderbolt-Thunderbolt at the enemy, repeating the process until the enemy alchemist keels over. This is very expensive, but in some important battles it's worth it. Against heavily armored foes, "Eater Water" and "Fleadust" can be very useful. They both have their problems, however: "Eater Water" _permanently_ corrodes their armor. Keep this in mind, in case you think you'll want it for yourself. "Fleadust" is great, but has a limited range, temporally and spatially. "Stone-Tar" is worthless in combat, but very useful in getting out of traps - use it for that. STRENGTHEN-SELF. These are great! If at all possible, use them before entering any major combat. IronArm is probably the best of the bunch, if you have a choice. HEALING. I found "Essence of Grace" a better 'bargain' then "New-Wind". It heals much better, and doesn't cost that much more to make. If you are entering a major combat, I found it paid to go in with as many healing potions as you can possibly make - 40 is a nice number. Once you enter a major combat you will fight many, many combats without a chance to leave - you will really need all those healing potions. Try to wait to buy a philosopher's stone until you have found a reasonably-sized city that sells a good one - otherwise, your earlier investment is wasted. I wouldn't buy a stone that costs less than 2.5 florins. If you decide to "hole up" for a while in a city and make a bunch of potions, make sure that first you have (a) bought the necessary ingredients, and (b) have something for the other party members to do - you've gotten tutoring at the appropriate places. If settling in for a long stint, it often pays to have a party member pray to an alchemical saint at the start - the stay will be long enough the recover the divine favor incurred, and the alchemical benefit seems to last for 2 or 3 days when you pack it together in a concerted burst like this. COMBAT TIPS There are a few techniques to keep in mind when slugging your way through a fight: -) party members may transfer inventory between themselves at all times, even when in combat, even if not physically adjacent! This is a bit of a bug, but you can exploit it if you wish to. Run out of healing potions? Transfer one over from another character. -) similarly, party members can change their armament at any time, _including_ in the middle of a combat! If your character gets splashed with an armor-corroding potion, or takes an "ironarm" potion and becomes super-strong, you can have them switch suits of armor while in the middle of combat. This is particularly useful when fighting certain powerful opponents, who will strip the armor off you while you're fighting them. Nice to have a spare suit of plate mail in your hip pocket. -) Line-of-sight blocks arrows and potions. This is generally a big pain for your side, but there is a time when you can turn it to your advantage. When you meet hostile alchemists, dodge behind cover immediately. There are usually plenty of nearby trees and walls, which will prevent the alchemist from lobbing his potions at you. Wait for his bodyguards to engage you and kill them - you can then charge the alchemist, suffering minimal damage. DUNGEON COMBAT TIPS When fighting in a castle or a subterranean dungeon, _use the doorways_. I would commonly station my party as follows: |--door--| A B . . . . C, D Where A and B are fighters, and C/D are alchemists/bowmen. The enemy will come at you through the doorway. If you are careful about the placement of A and B, you can intercept the enemy one at a time. If you are lucky, you can have all 4 party members attacking just one enemy character. If the enemy attacks "A", have "B" go "Berserk", and vice versa. Using this technique, You can kill rooms full of enemy fighters with much more success than if you had engaged them directly. TIPS ON WITCHES I'm going to try not to give spoilers here. A few general pointers: -) If you go to a Witch's Sabat, remember who speaks at it - this knowledge will be useful later. -) There is no reason, it turns out, to go to more than 1 Sabat, or clear out more than 1 evil Monastery. -) At the evil Monastery, you may find that a certain piece of knowledge is held by the "captain of the outer courtyard". There is no way to meet this captain (that I found), let alone to get this knowledge from him. Try to guess it for yourself. -) Before going to meet your "Ultimate Fate", make sure your party is well-stocked with saints which are good against flame and satanic foes. -) . If you succeed at the ending quest, your party will not have any money. Go on a spending spree before you go in: it's all going anyway! RANDOM TIPS/POINTERS: -) Whenever possible, charge to the rescue of merchant caravans. If you win, you get some good money, and a wonderful weapon. -) Whenever possible, escort pilgrims. This provides one of the rare ways to improve your virtue, and costs only time. -) don't forget that each town has two sources of _different_ alchemical ingredients. The pharmacist has his set, and the foreign traders have theirs - each may offer things the other does not. I found it was worth the book-keeping effort to keep a "master chart", indicating which ingredients were available from whom in which city. -) Similarly, remember which cities know about which Saints. If you get a holy relic belonging to St. Gabriel, it's very handy to know where knowledge of St. Gabriel can be acquired! -) demons are wimps. Don't waste potions on them: just kill 'em. -) in order to kill the most possible bandits in one evening, use the "grove of woods". Go to it and then immediately leave it along a side street. In this way, you can fight a combat each hour. If you are lucky, you can fight 8 battles in one evening. 32 suits of armor, and 8 opportunities to raise weapons skills, are not to be sneezed at! -) use the "letter of credit" from the Fuggers - only keep 5 florins or so cash on hand. A number of the prices in the game (studying at the monastery, buying an alchemical recipe, and others) vary depending on how much cash you have on hand. happy adventuring!