Please post PRO tips here for a noob :)

[Fido[c]]

Long time heroes of might and magic player here but decided to give Kings bounty a shot. This is the first version ive ever played so I was wondering if any long time players can give me pointers on the must have skills/magic or anything else a beginner might miss.

I already started a game on medium and beat the spider boss but I am planning to start again on hard or impossible so any pro-tips would be appreciated.

Fun game btw..soundtrack is sick!

[Handel]

1. If you want to enjoy the game don't try to beat the game with 0 losses.
2. Get the wings for the horse ASAP.
3. Getting the 2 and 3rd Valkyrie ASAP will help you to get meaningful upgrades for your rage skills (who cares if your wall have 10 or 20 points defense; although you may lose some troops).
4. At Greenwort get the as first guard quest to secure the HMS ship from the skeleton pirate. This will give you a ship to return to the viking islands.
5. Don't kill the rebels at Greenwort. You may get precious troops from them later.
6. If you get Ancient Knowledge scroll buy thorn seeds and use the raven a lot (read my post about it). You can get +50% XP for every 5 from 6 battles through it.
7. Keep the artifacts some1 mentioned about them in a post. Although you may prefer to battle the dragons instead (clay pot is needed to skip the battle and get free black dragon egg).
8. When you get the Demon world artifact do not hurry to turn it to the prince. You will lose access to the world for a long of time. Also you may decide to stockpile paladins.

[ckdamascus]

Handel, do you feel it is worth using Ancient Knowledge scroll non-stop? They do cost about 5 crystals per shot so it gets sort of expensive?

[Fatt_Shade]

@Fido[c]
Welcome to our company, have fun :-)
As for guidance here`s some tips from top of my head :

1) depending of your class try to focus on certain things, not to lvlup all skills from start - expl for viking class dont lvl all skills, but try to take those that would help you most : rage is best for viking due to large rage pool and high rage inflow but dont take destroyer from magic tree for him it`s waste of runes (or spend all might runes you get with soothsayer for some might skills and then cant take chaos magic 2/3 lvl or initiation). So viking is best with high crit% and rage skills , skald have huge army and can have best moral for his troops , soothsayer can be great in buff/debuff spells, or put all you have in high intellect hero and blast enemy with high dmg spells.

2) dont keep same items all game change them depending on what you have at disposal and enemy composition. Expl - on start pure lds bonus items can be great like marshal baton for +1000 leadership is great until you cross 15000 total leadership with hero, after that item gives you less then 6% additional lds on your army.
Here each attack point in stats give you 3,33% more dmg output , and every defense point reduce dmg taken by 3,33%. So consider that when picking items, because some item that give +1000 leadership might look great, but comparing it with item that gives +5 defense=16% les dmg taken is like having 16% bigger army = +5defense better then +1000lds after some time.

3) also for army composition , if you lead bunch of low lvl units pure bonus is better then %. Expl - for 1/2 lvv unit +3attack/defense is better then +30% to some stat because +30% bonus is to their basic stat value and that is most often lower then +3 from item. Same goes for high 4/5 lvl units (dragons and such) +5 attack here means almost nothing comparing to some +20% attack (for dragons +20% =+10stat pure bonus), or if you lead 5th lvl melee(giant , trolls, jotuns and similar) drill is imba item pure +25% dmg that is like +8attack item. here is no item in game that gives +8pure bonus to any stat.

4) spells dont lvlup all spells you have in book. Take 1 lvl of each and test it in battles, to see how it works for you. If it`s useful upgrade it further, if not dont waste crystals on it. They are in limited supply. And about spells percentages work here also, expl - casting defenseless on huge stack of enemy low lvl units is waste of mana because that spell lower enemy basic defense which is low to begin for low lvl units, better to cast oily mist or pugmy. For enemy high lvl units defenseless is great, as is plague. And so on ... try different combinations, to see what works good with what.

That`s some of basic, basics. Just play and have fun :-D

[Handel]

Handel, do you feel it is worth using Ancient Knowledge scroll non-stop? They do cost about 5 crystals per shot so it gets sort of expensive?

Crystals are secondary; XP + runes are priority. Besides if you want fine-tuning you can fight the weak and very-weak battles w/o scrolls and use them to fight 5 hard battles in a row, especially battles with heroes - they give most XP.
Also if you find students belt recipe you basically can exchange 4.000 gold for 1 crystal - and you can get a lot of additional gold from the Valkyrie skill )use it to get gold instead of as a trap).

[Nirual]

-Quicksave often so you can backtrack on bad quest decisions or fights that turn out to be way too hard. Especially when you plan on battling keepers to upgrade your items, because there is no way of knowing how though a keeper battle will be but trial and error. Also, it saves frustration if the game decides to crash (still seems to happen every know and then).

-Check your medals every know and then. Some of them require some conscious effort on your part to advance and you'll be glad to have them in later stages of the game. Especially Guardian if you don't normally use those protective spells often. As for Favorite of the Valkyries... Use Christa's and Regina's ability as often as they are available, but save the others for though battles.

-quite a few stores in the game will not be available after completing certain quests, so don't wait for too long to buy items or scrolls from any of them that you really want.

-don't destroy any item lv 4 or higher until you get Artifactor in the magic skill tree high enough. You might miss out on additional runes otherwise.

[Tianx]

1. Try out different combo of units for different fight, depending on their resistance. Remember you have 2 reserve spots and money in WoTN should not be an issue for extra troops. You can even have 5 slots with Mod.

2. If you can, don't wait too much for the rage to die down before another fight. Extra rage is like having extra mana.

3. You can skip some enemies if they prove to be too tough and come back later.

[Razorflame]

If you haven't played before i recommend starting with legend first

but if you don't want that

i would refer to my guide
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=10311

(Note there are news units and spells) this was written for TL
but you get the rough idea how this game works

[DennisBergkamp]

Some of the strongest troops in the game are ones that can resurrect or summon other troops. Paladins, Warrior Maidens, Inquisitors, Royal Griffins, Demonologists, Royal Thorns to name a few. These units also become a lot stronger in conjunction with the spell Phantom, which creates a copy for a few turns, allowing to resurrect + summon again.

[Fido[c]]

thanks a lot for the tips, they helped quite a bit.


one question though, how can I tell if it's day or night??


Cheers!

[Nirual]

;485027']thanks a lot for the tips, they helped quite a bit.


one question though, how can I tell if it's day or night??


Cheers!

there is a indicator on the bottom left showing sun or moon etc. If you hover your mouse over it, it'll tell you what time of day it is. If you are inside a cave or so, its always considered to be night as far as I can tell.

[Fido[c]]

great very helpful so far..few more questions if you don't mind



1) sometimes when I try to buy a scroll from a vendor its greyed out and wont let me because I have too many or something. Even after deleting a bunch of scrolls from my spellbook it still won't let me buy it...thoughts?


2)whenver you try to upgrade your items or "suppress them" how can you tell how hard the battle will be or is it random?


thx

[ivra]

1) Not sure about this. When you open your spell book it should show how many scrolls you have and how many you can carry. Remember that Wanderer Magic scrolls count as well, so you might have too many scrolls even if you sell/delete all the regular scrolls.

2) Those battles are not completely random. The item.txt file typically has 5 or 6 different setups for those fights, listing unit types and tower type. On top of that there is probably quite a bit of random that can make the battle harder or easier. I have found it practical to just save the game and try. If that particular fight turned out to be too tough, just reload and come back to it later when you have leveled up a couple of times.

[Razorflame]

;485954']great very helpful so far..few more questions if you don't mind



1) sometimes when I try to buy a scroll from a vendor its greyed out and wont let me because I have too many or something. Even after deleting a bunch of scrolls from my spellbook it still won't let me buy it...thoughts?


2)whenver you try to upgrade your items or "suppress them" how can you tell how hard the battle will be or is it random?


thx

1. you have to look at your magic skill(IIRC normally you are allowed to hold 2 scrolls (without the magic skill) and with it you can have 6 if i am not mistaken
upgrading it allows for more scrolls and as noted above wanderer scrolls count too

2. The battles are quite random and if i am not mistaken level and skill based just save and try it

[Handel]

;485954']great very helpful so far..few more questions if you don't mind

1) sometimes when I try to buy a scroll from a vendor its greyed out and wont let me because I have too many or something. Even after deleting a bunch of scrolls from my spellbook it still won't let me buy it...thoughts?

thx

You can have a certain number of magic scrolls stored in your spellbook. You can use the stored scrolls to cast the spell directly w/o mana needed, or to learn the spell from it (one time only is needed and one scroll is used) or to sell them to a castle. If the number of the scrolls you have is greater then the number you can store you cannot buy any scroll (but you can loot scrolls and get them as a reward). If you have a reason not to sell the excess scrolls then a possible decision is to look and buy an artifact which allows more scrolls to be stored. The best artifact I know allows 20 more scrolls and you can buy and equip more then one. Of course they are needed only when you want to buy a new scroll from a shop; after the purchase you can replace them with your preferred artifacts.

[Fido[c]]

thanks again for the tips, very helpful

sadly I'm having trouble following your "forget about zero loses" that you gave me Handel, if I lose a unit I can't help but reload.

Is there a spell that can resurrect fallen units? so far I have only found one unit that can resurrect and if I wait more than two turns it wont work anymore :(

[Pug of Stardock]

There is a Resurrection spell in the game and there are other units that can resurrect fallen troops.

Finding spells is based to a large extent on luck and you won't likely find this spell until much later in the game.

Units that can resurrect include Paladins and Demonologists. Again, when and where or even if ever, you find these units is luck dependent. Also, these units cannot resurrect every creature in the game. For example, Black Dragons and, AFAIK, Ice Dragons and Ice Spiders cannot be resurrected by Paladins or D-ologists.

[Handel]

;488140']thanks again for the tips, very helpful

sadly I'm having trouble following your "forget about zero loses" that you gave me Handel, if I lose a unit I can't help but reload.
:(

The viking soothsayers can rez units too (and not only for the last 2 turns).
Basically to reduce losses (or play with no loss at all) is very helpful to use summons and use them as cannon fodders.
As a matter of fact if not for the bad AI it would be impossible to play w/o losses. But the AI often makes stupid moves - for example when I don't need a spell this turn I cast stone skin to gain the corresponding perk for my hero. And guess what - the AI adores to dispel those stone skins although they are cast on an unit on the other side of the battlefield.