Keeping up mana in battles

[loreangelicus]

Originally Posted by Shadowdrake

As a mage I'm supposed to have loads of mana. But 54 just isn't enough when I have to cast Resurrection, Phantom, etc. every round. Is there any way to keep up mana in battles APART from Concentration, Chargers and Mana Spring abuse? (note: I do not have Emeralds yet )

We have to take your mana in context with your level; what level are you, and at what point of the game are you right now?

Concentration/Chargers/Mana Spring/Emeral Green Dragons are the only way of increasing your mana while in a battle.

As for your maximum mana, there are two items that you are sure to get in the game: 1) Image of Sorcery (+20 mana) sold by the artist after the near completion of the griffin king's painting quest, and 2) Old Skull (+3 intellect/+10 mana) given by the shaman at Ellinia.

As a mage, you should also have chosen to start a game wherein the Ancient Amulet (+4 intellect/+15 mana) is sold at the temple beside King Mark's castle; it's a big help, especially at the start, but no need to fret (too much) if you didn't do this.

[Shadowdrake]

thanks guys! I'm level 14 right now, INT 19, and NO image of sorcery, old skull or ancient amulet. I'm in the Taron Mines, doing ok so far but there's some pretty big armies there. I don't have sprites and there's nowhere to get them. As for destructive spells, well the only spell that seems worthwhile is my 1400-2400 damage, 10M lvl3 Trap spell. Compared to that, the rest of the spells seem expensive in comparison ( like Ice Snake, 1100 damage, 15M, lvl2). I don't have any of the spells you mentioned, neither do I have Time Back. By the way, I have no idea how you guys get to Demonis at Day 3 - I'm at Day 14 currently o.O

[loreangelicus]

Your mana is at an acceptable level at that point of the game.

I hope on your initial visit to the Islands of Freedom you went ahead and killed Duke Sov to comlete the Griffin King's 1st quest; only in completing the Griffin King's 2nd quest would you have the chance to buy the Image of Sorcery.

Since you have Distortion magic at level 3, you might want to give Slow a try as well. Only level 2 Slow is needed, and try it out on movement 3 melee enemies.

Don't worry too much about the days/time, as well if you missed out some quests/steps. The people who could finish the game in 10 days or less, even at level 30 and no casualties, are those who have probably finished it multiple times already. Just enjoy the game, especially on your first run, then challenge yourself afterward once you are more knowledgeable. KBTL is a great game in that it has very good replay value.

[bucazaurus]

You go to Demonis in day 3 by avoiding battles. Here is a method.
Day 1 start doing as many quest as you can in Darion and fight only the fights
you need to advance with the quests. Around morning but not after 7:00 you kill the turtle.
Day 2 continue with the quests.You can start clearing all enemy stacks in Darion if you like. I myself left them alive in case ,later,i find items who need a certain number of fights to give extra bonuses.(pain skull,intelligence ring ,Banner of true faith, etc.).Around morning but not after 7:00 you go to Freedom Island. But before you go there leave all army in castles having no army at all with you.
Day 3
Once you are in freedom Island stick with the main quest and leave the islands unexplored for now.The route is :Scott Thomas - Mirabella-Captain Black Eye (Anga's ruby quest) - Lucky James.
At this point pay 100k for the map ,look for an enemy stack and enter the battle .Having no army you lose .So the game will teleport you back to the king's castle.From here continue the main quests but not forgetting to take a route to Marshan Swamp for the Holy Indulgence (Anga' Ruby).Once you got it go to the Dwarfs. From there go to Demonis via Underground Sea.Once you are in Demonis start exploring around avoiding the enemy.With enough luck you will find the spells you need it.Before you leave you may want to look for a stack of dwarfs in a prison near Baal's castle . They are around 400-500 and they will join you for saving them.Use them to storm King's son castle even if they will be out of control in the battle.The strategy to do this is simple. Have them and a troop with no retaliation and enough speed to outrun them. Start the battle casting Invisibility on the "No retaliation" stack. The demoness from enemy's army will use Infernal Exchange on your dwarfs. The dwarfs will kill all the enemy for you.All you have to do is to cast Pain mirror on the dwarfs and keep your other stack invisible.Combine this with Poison cloud from rage spirit Sleem. Once the enemy are dead you can start fighting the remaining dwarfs until they return to your control.
So here you have it. Return to King Mark,witch usually is before 7:00 in the morning , take the boat to Freedom Islands finish the Holy Indulgence Quest and start killing. After that you can be in Ellinia in day 5.

[Zhuangzi]

Thanks for that, you explained how people get to Ellinia on day 5 really clearly. That's always confused me and I've finished the game 5 times. Playing the game through without any tricks to save time, it seems to take at least 20 or so days to complete the game if you defeat everything.

The other thing is, when you say you are going to Demonis on day 3, you mean that you are dodging a hell of a lot of enemy stacks, right? I have gotten quite good at this too, and it is possible to get into Demonis, but there is a fair bit of reloading involved, especially if there is an enemy hero at the gate to Demonis in Underground Sea.

[loreangelicus]

There is a different approach though; you could still do the no-army-suicide trick to go back to Darion from Islands of Freedom, but you really shouldn't be avoiding battles, especially if aside from a 7 Day game you also want a high score.

Attached is a screenshot of my paladin at Ellinia, Day 5, level 20 (since I killed practically everything in Darion and Islands of Freedom), with Demonesses with High morale that only Anga's Ruby could provide; this is also on Impossible difficulty and a no-casualties run as well.

I'm not yet finished, still clearing out Ellinia, then will proceed to the Death Lands; I might create a detailed FAQ after and post it to show how to do this.

[Shadowdrake]

Thanks guys! Really nice info there, especially on day 5 ellinia run. By the way, I already have Slow lvl1 and with Boots of the Mystic I think they're called, its the same as Slow lvl2.

[Shadowdrake]

@loreangelicus: how did you get 900K by Day 5?!

[bucazaurus]

If you go for a no casualties game that amount of money is normal to have in day 5.

[loreangelicus]

Originally Posted by Shadowdrake

@loreangelicus: how did you get 900K by Day 5?!

I have read in other posts that money might be a problem on impossible mode, but even using a paladin, I did not actively increase money-generating skills and never had problems with gold.

Here are the things that contributed to my money:

1) As bucazaurus said, on a no-casualty run, you won't be losing money replenishing troops due to casualties.

2) I went with Marauders early on, but I did drop them after buying the Ancient Amulet and Gladiator Sword.

3) By some sheer luck, I picked up Sacrifice on a battle at the marshes. As such, I don't even need to buy new troops.

4) I killed everything; well almost everything. Before leaving for Ellinia, the following are the only enemies left alive:
* Island of Freedom: all dead except for one enemy near the starting castle used for the no-army-suicide trick
* 4 areas of Darion: all dead except for last two fights of the warrior test
* dwarven lands: all dead except for the two "double" battles which is best done with Dryads from Ellinia, and at the highest leadership and level possible to generate more XP
* Demonis: pretty much intact, except I killed off two enemies to save travel time later on (I had extra time to kill before I headed off to Ellinia; of note, these are the toughest battles that I fought against because I wasn't really in a position level-wise and leadership-wise to take them on)

5) Keeper of Light level 3 (as a supplement to Learning level 3), but that was done more for the added XP in killing the undead and demons.

6) I use suppressable items that run contrary to what complements them. For example, been using King's Hammer in a non-dwarven army; that generates 12,000+ gold every suppression battle (aside from 2,080 XP).

Currently cleared all enemies in Ellinia that could only be reached by boat, half of Magic Valley, the whole of Great Forest, and finishing up on Grey Wasteland; I'm up to 2,200,000+ gold, so money really isn't a problem in this game.

*** update 10-10-2009***
Just attached a screenshot wherein I have 2,465,000 gold, and I'm essentially just a bit past clearing half of Ellinia and Death Lands. That's a big jump from the 976,000 gold I had at the start of Ellinia. Bigger and tougher enemies mean more gold/XP.

Nothing gives you more gold than fighting battles; also, no quest reward could supplement the XP you get from killing enemies. So don't skip battles, it is possible to kill these enemies if you just try; I think my going this far in the game on impossible mode without casualties is proof enough. And that's using a paladin, which most people on these forum consider as the weakest of the 3 classes.

Skipping battles sets you up to be even weaker as the game progresses, forcing you to skip even more battles.

NOTE: Well, I did skip ONE battle; the Emerald Green Dragon in the tutorial missions at the very start. Not such a big gold/XP loss though, especially in light of the 30 Black Dragons stacks I'm fighting late in the game.