Incline Age of Decadence - Tips, Tricks and Spoilers

[†††]

I'm having a hard time at the mine outpost fight in act one.

Just use some tactics. For the first half of the fight, kite the melee enemy and force the crossbowman to come down to engage you. He can't move far, reload and shoot you on the same turn, and you can kill him easily by either basing him every turn or wait for him to run out of arrows. For kiting the melee, focus on fast attacks and poison to help you kite.
For the second half of the fight, use the worker fodder to shield you from the two soldiers. There are some choke points where you can get the worker to block the way so that you can't get hit by the soldiers.
Note that you want to do both fights one after another since if you leave and come back, the 2nd fight will be much more difficult.

Also use Rhaskos in the shanty town (you'll have to ask in the merchant plaza to find him) to poison the soldiers from the mine. More alchemy points = stronger poison, which make things easier

 

[Technomancer]

Also use Rhaskos in the shanty town (you'll have to ask in the merchant plaza to find him) to poison the soldiers from the mine. More alchemy points = stronger poison, which make things easier

Or just ask Coltan to give you the most powerful poison if you are with the boatmen.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Has anyone made a list of the changes to the endgame that were done in the "final content update?" I can't seem to find anything. All my playthroughs were before that update, and I'm curious.

 

[Absinthe]

So...I didn't listen to this game's advice, and tried making a hybrid character. Mostly combat, some streetwise.

I'm having a hard time at the mine outpost fight in act one.

Is there a good metric on where my combat skills should be? I have bows at, like, 74, and dodge at 70.

Well, this is a late reply, but what the hell. The mining outpost fight is one of the most difficult fights in Teron if you don't soften it up ahead of time with poisons (which is stupidly easy tbh). You also didn't mention your character's stats and armor, and those tend to make a difference. Odds are you should be using Crafting to get a decent armor with solid DR. For bow builds you'll typically want to use the piercing missiles in the mine fight. If you have 2 ranks of Alchemy you can also poison projectiles for some extra damage.

It's also possible to buy some basic bombs off of the vendor in front of the inn, iirc, and you can buy some nets from the merchant's guild weapon salesman. Those will help you out. Just put them in your belt bag slots so you can use them immediately. Liquid Fire can also be thrown in order to render tiles in front of you inaccessible for a brief period of time, so if you hole yourself up well and toss a liquid fire in front you can temporarily make yourself unreachable to melee attacks.

 

[procrastinator]

Trying to minmax stat/skill checks without consulting wikis feels like Groundhog Day

 

[Marat]

If you were walking down the street and suddenly made the fateful decision to stab the guy coming from the other direction you'd pull out your knife and thrust... you'd have no way of knowing whether this guy spent his entire life dodging knife blows. Appropriately, in AoD, if you dumped a lot of points into Critical Strike, you'd have a reasonable expectation of success, perhaps adjusted slightly based on the in-game description of a target. And it's perfectly feasible to go through the game like that without any sort of min-maxing if you're willing to accept that your character is capable in some narrow range of skills and has to rely on them to overcome obstacles ahead of him. But if you expect to meta-game, optimizing the sequence of skill checks for maximum gain, don't go bitching that the game doesn't bend itself over for you like some reality warp.

 

[Kedar]

Trying to minmax stat/skill checks without consulting wikis feels like Groundhog Day

As it should be.

 

[Ternius]

Trying to minmax stat/skill checks without consulting wikis feels like Groundhog Day

I am on my third playthrough trying to get into all of the ancient sites as a loremaster. The pain is real. I have spent all day calculating my funds and skills, treasuring every penny like a beggar just so I could afford to buy 3 power modules.

 

[Salvo]

My friend who I convinced to buy the game beat the Arena and ascended on his first playthrough as a loremaster hybrid

Am I just a scrub?

 

[Zariusz]

My friend who I convinced to buy the game beat the Arena and ascended on his first playthrough as a loremaster hybrid

Am I just a scrub?

Heh that was also my first playthrough, with tons of save scumming but still.

 

[Zanzoken]

Did they increase the difficulty of the combat encounters at some point? I'm trying to get back into Ganezzar after visiting Al-Akia as an IG and I can't get past either the smugglers or the Aurelian legionaries to re-enter the city.

Spoiler

I know my attributes are shit for combat and I am probably wearing too heavy of an armor, but I beat the IG questline back in the day and do not recall having much trouble, especially at this point in the story.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Did they increase the difficulty of the combat encounters at some point? I'm trying to get back into Ganezzar after visiting Al-Akia as an IG and I can't get past either the smugglers or the Aurelian legionaries to re-enter the city.

Spoiler

I know my attributes are shit for combat and I am probably wearing too heavy of an armor, but I beat the IG questline back in the day and do not recall having much trouble, especially at this point in the story.

Think they tweaked the mechanics to be more in line with Dungeon Rats at one point.

 

[Gnidrologist]

What are the pros and cons from not/killing Cyrus in the end of assassination quest, when working for Levir? Doesn't give anything SP wise, just dialogue from Levir and takes a lot of boatmen reputation. I assume i don't need boatmen charity, but don't see any reward from thieves either.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Okay, i'm past the point of my previous question, but would anyone pls explain the difference between the gladius and knopesh sword. I'm now in situation, where i can access hellgate, but don't want to go in to Temple as i have unresolved things in Ganezzar. My build is tough as hell so i can kill all the constructs without incident. I assume that the stat decrease i can cure with alchemical liniment i can make (alchemy 5, will probably do to 6 and then stop). So i get the "sky metal" and thinking whether to make galdius or knopesh with my 10 crafting skill. Used the Maadonar trader blue steel unique gladius till now, which has served me well, but it's +23THC will soon be irrelevant once i progress my sword skill even further. Knopesh seems objectively better, because of passive skill (bleed?) bonus. Gladius has all the same attributes without this bonus. Both have +3 THC. So what's the deal? Only diference is that gladius sword will be 70% hardness, while knopesh 60%. Never understood the hardness stat. Does additional hardness to weapon metal makes me hit harder, bypass armor? In my thinking the +8% passive will be more impactful, because i cause bleeding on every other hit, which drains most human oponents fast at this point. Hardness will probably be better against extra tough fuckers like Samedi guardian (yes, i've been there and decided to leave it for later). As my build is 8Dex i wont be using any 5AP swords, unless use power armor, which i already have in my stash.

Speaking of power armor. It seems like good thing for non-combat orientated chars, but i'm 8-8-8 sword-block char, who can make perfect blue steel armor-helmet with 10 craftsmanship. Thinking now (i still have the save), of better to give up power armor for 20lb blue steel or keep it and use 3 power module in it. +3ST or DX sure feels compelling and regeneration combined with magic lotion depending on situation, but my char basically hacks away all difficult combat situations anyway, apart from Arena champion and Samedi monster (7sword, 7block). I'm also weak in all social/lore skills, so it appears that putting the tubes in armor is my only choice as i probably couldn't use them in machinery that requires lore/INT checks.
What say you?

 

[Technomancer]

gladius sword will be 70% hardness, while knopesh 60%. Never understood the hardness stat. Does additional hardness to weapon metal makes me hit harder, bypass armor

This stat is the likelihood of the weapon to passively dent and damage enemy armor, effectively reducing their DR and making your loot cost less. Hardness of the weapon is compared vs hardness of armor to calculate the likelihood of denting.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Okay, then hard weapon basically does what these constructs in Hellgate does to you, hack away your DR. The same as hardness of armor will protect your from such damage. Makes sense.
Still can;'t decide between sky metal galdius or knopesh, because most human enemies are trivial fro me now, not that much strong armor. Prolly make knopesh for that bleed bonus, which will be inneffective for non-humans, but i can make both knopesh and gladius anyway and use them accordingly.
What about power armor. I'm good shield char with blue steal helmet from that arena fight. Seems hard choice between +3 in stats or better protection.

 

[Technomancer]

give up power armor for 20lb blue steel

What makes that deal particularly enticing is that its not just mere blue steel but rare meteorite metal. Its the only way to make meteorite Imperial Armor and have enough metal for murmillo helm and a weapon. One minor thing to consider with power armor is that force shield it uses is impossible to damage.

 

[Beggar]

I say no to drugs

 

[Gnidrologist]

give up power armor for 20lb blue steel

What makes that deal particularly enticing is that its not just mere blue steel but rare meteorite metal. Its the only way to make meteorite Imperial Armor and have enough metal for murmillo helm and a weapon. One minor thing to consider with power armor is that force shield it uses is impossible to damage.

Okay, this just make decision even harder. Damn. I thought it's just standard blue steel. But does it combine with the standard one? I can already make a blue steel imperial armor with +2 AP, which is exactly, what i need for my 10ap char, if i buy amd decompose the 4k armor from the bazaar. The steel from Vallo is different then or it's just meteor metal?
Have used power armor only for experimental fight with Arena boss and it didn't make much difference so decided i stash it for now, but can still reload save before Vallo decision.

edit: okay, i checked, so you get 20lb sky metal from Vallu. I can get enough sky metal from Hellgate constructs (and, if needed from tough fight with Samedi monster) to make both imperial +2Ap armor and probably a sword. Would that be be more optimal solution for my 888 char than to keep power armor?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Okay, i'm past the point of my previous question, but would anyone pls explain the difference between the gladius and knopesh sword.

Other than hardness, gladius does more damage with power attack, khopesh with fast attacks. So while both gladius and khopesh have the same base damage (5-8), gladius does 3-6 and 8-11 with fast and power attacks, khopesh 4-7 and 7-10.

 

[Technomancer]

But does it combine with the standard one?

Wdym? Every metal is its own thing so you can't combine metals from different tiers. Meteor Imperial Armor is better if you rely on DR but if it gets damaged, its reload because very soon you won't be able to fix it since you will be out of meteor metal. It has decent hardness so it should happen only sometimes. Power armor has 250 hardness which coupled with shield immune to damage should make it even more resistant to denting.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Okay, i'm past the point of my previous question, but would anyone pls explain the difference between the gladius and knopesh sword.

Other than hardness, gladius does more damage with power attack, khopesh with fast attacks. So while both gladius and khopesh have the same base damage (5-8), gladius does 3-6 and 8-11 with fast and power attacks, khopesh 4-7 and 7-10.

Thanks, i didn't realize that. It doesn't seem to be articulated in UI. Knopesh would probably be better for me, as with 10 AP i can make two fast and one regular attacks. 3 attacks per turn seems better than two powerful attacks, especially given the THC penalty to power ones. Probably different with 9 or 11 Ap guys. This is what i also like about this game, very neat design that makes you think about optimization of your current char while other of them don't feel bad or nerfed, just different. Good work, guys. Josh Sawyer should take lessons from you on the 'balancing' shit.

 

[Gnidrologist]

But does it combine with the standard one?

Wdym? Every metal is its own thing so you can't combine metals from different tiers. Imperial Armor is better is you rely on DR but if it gets damaged, its reload because very soon you won't be able to fix it since you will be out of meteor metal. It has decent hardness so it should happen only sometimes. Power armor has 250 hardness which coupled with shield immune to damage should make even more resistance to denting.

Damn, yeh, i realized i wont be able to repair it properly. Good point. Seems like better way to use meteor metal is on weapons, while using power armor for it's sheer increase in stats. +3 in either st or dx is very noticable in this game. It's protection isn't that great and inability to use helmet/custom shield is a drawback, but my char is good blocker already and will be fine at max points.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Seems like better way to use meteor metal is on weapons, while using power armor for it's sheer increase in stats.

Depends on the armor, I suppose. I remember having enough for a sledgehammer and a manica/ whatever that one arm gladiator piece was called.

 

[Gnidrologist]

I could make imperial armor and gladius or knopesh as a 10ap sword user with 10 crafting. The argument about repairing issues kept me away from choosing to take sky metal instead of PA. Unless it's so hard it never breaks, but haven't checked that.