My experience on Impossible

[dli2k3]

Finally finished on Impossible last weekend, first time I finish the game as well. Pretty low score due to the fact I took too many days switching between regions. But, I killed everything that could be killed and completed every quest that I believe can be found. Was surprised I still didn't achieve lvl 30 : ( I have 1 point into "Learning" and put it as soon as possible in the game to maximize the effect.

Money wasn't an issue in my game, finished with more than 2.5 millions even after I bought most of the artifacts from stores. Basically I bought anything that was part of a set. I had 1 point in trophy and trade.

As for magic crystals, it wasn't possible to upgrade all spells to lvl 3 even with alchemy at lvl 3 before scribing any spells. Also, it might be luck, but I found at least one scroll for every spell in the game. Maybe the random generator always generate a scroll of a spell in the game?

As for strategy, maybe someone else already thought of this, but I found that in the later part of the game. A good strategy for mage is to go into battle with only 1 set of unit and use the armageddon/ressurection combo with glot armor on whenever possible. With only 1 set of unit, it's easy to res them and minimize losses. I used knights, because there was a horde available and they are highly resistant to physical attack. With this strategy, I lost like 6 knights fighting all 7 incarnation of Haas in the labyrinth and it's quite fun to play since sometimes it can be challenging to keep the knights alive. In order for this to work, you'll need to prioritize intellect over anything else and have a large pool of mana (fenora wife with 30% mana child really helps). If towards the end of a battle, there's no more mana and the knights are not fully resed, I would used rage draining and chargers rage skills to replenish mana while evading enemies (I always keep some melee enemies with speed of 2 alive).

Anyway, this game has been the best I played in a long long time and I think I'll restart another game and improve my score this time. Does anyone have tips to minimize the number of expiring days?

[Zhuangzi]

Yep, Armageddon + Glot's Shield is always good. Time Back works nicely too. I kinda feel like Armageddon is cheating a bit though. It makes the game too easy.

I never got to level 30 in four games either, so I can't help you there. I guess you need to max the Experience skill early in the game, which is easiest for a Paladin.

In terms of winning faster...the experts can finish the game in less than 15 days. It takes me about 30 days and probably 20-25 if I was focused on time above all else. Some general points:

Travel between continents takes up all the time. Try to minimise this. You must have travelled between continents a lot. Also, when you travel, time goes to 7am. So if it's 6.50 am when you travel, it's virtually instantaneous. With this in mind, you can cut the time down to 30 days or less quite easily. To get it lower still, you need to manipulate the fights so that you have full mana and rage at the end. This saves waiting around for mana to regenerate between fights. sector24 and MajorS are the experts on this. Have a look at sector24's 'No losses challenge' thread for tips.

[Smash]

Oh man 300 mana? How?
Btw i used same strat as you but instead Knights i had Demons, i think they are better.

[dli2k3]

Had a child giving +30% mana, another that gave +10% and another with +10. Almost all my equips are either +int or +mana or both. Maxed wisdom, took either +int or +mana at lvlups. I think 300 is a bit overkill, 200 would've been enough if Lina's chargers is at a high lvl.

I know knights are not the ideal choice, the only reason I chose them is because there's a "horde" available so I was sure to never run out of supply, but seeing how well this worked, I might even use archdevils this time around.

[Trevarion]

Why not use a stack of black/red dragons?