Location of Pain Skull
 

As far as I remember, I've only ever found it at the dwarven necromancer's house. In my latest game, I avoided all the weak enemies on purpose, hoping to get the skull later on. However, I did not. :mad:

Are there any other locations you guys remember finding the skull at?

I have found it only on 1 on my 3 games and it was at Necrocom (Karador), was same for my brother

I don't remember where I picked mine up, but don't forget item locations ( most of them anyway ) are randomised at the start of a new game. So if you find item X at place Y one game, it's not guarenteed to be there in your next game. It's possible that the chance of an item turning up in certain places is higher however.

Yes I don't remember any item sold to be in a constant place. But for the pain skull I remember the same location than Elwin but I'm not sure I remember well and didn't check. I'm using 1.7 version.

Dang, Necrocom is so far away for me on impossible, if the skull is indeed going to be there in the first place. If not, what a waste it's been saving up/avoiding all those weak/very weak stacks.

In the last game I played (mage hard) I found it at the very start of the game :)

Of course near the end i didn't find so many wonderful items :(

In my current game I found it in the dwarven necromancer house.

I don't understand how it is working ie what formula to have it fully charged so it becomes a dead skull?

Nobody know or is the rule just basic ie -1% at each fight? If this is the rule that makes the pain skull one of the worthless item of the game in term of efficiency, 100 fights with half mana to change it to dead skull is so vain, either you find it too late as it generally happen to me either it's worthless because the game is easier as you progress in any difficulty mode.

I don't know if the percentage depends on how tough the fight is or if it's wholly random. In any case, it's good to avoid those very weak stacks throughout the game, should you chance upon the skull somewhere. Then getting it down to dead skull is a breeze. Otherwise, it's very very painful on higher difficulties.

I know that the %age varies between 1 and 3%, but I don't know what determines which one it is. It could be based on army size, mana taken etc, or it could just be a random integer between 1 and 3, inclusive.

By searching about it that's what I read but I found nowhere more details. I noticed a -2% but no idea from what it comes if it's not random, that's clearly not the fight difficulty. 100 fights is a lot, even something around 60 is a lot. I'll try it a bit more and will throw it if the percent doesn't decrease faster.

I have found it in the undead ship you have to summon out of the pirate seas. It would be a lot more difficult to level later in the game; I have ignored it in those instances. On a lower difficulty you could probably get away with using it against armies you match up well against.

Yes I got it in previous game and always gave up using it. In my current game it's first time I get it sooner so I tried use it and get a bit disappointed how slow it was to go to dead skull.

Well it seems that now I get more % higher than 1 and I have to admit that the mana decrease isn't a burden yet with tactics I'm using, at worse I had to use some magic spring but that was rarely a bad choice.

I found it in the same place I've always found it, the Necromancer house, but have never given it a try until now with my Paladin; the half mana always turned me off.

Just started going to the Elven lands, level 17, the first fight dropped 3% off it. I don't use mana for much other than Resurrection with the occasional Mass Battle Cry, Blind, or Haste. We'll see how it goes.

You can find it very early in the game (if you are very lucky that is) at the graveyard castle in the Marshan swamps. My fighter found it (typical!)

I found it somewhere in mid-game (I think--I have not yet finished the game) and have been using it consistently, even in the fight with Karador. It's now down to about 12% and I can't wait to see what happens when it's at zero--if I can win the next couple of battles. I think it goes down at about 3%, at least for the larger kind of fights I've been in since I had it. It will be very nice to get full mana back.