Incline Age of Decadence - Tips, Tricks and Spoilers

[Absinthe]

If you use skymetal you won't have much ore for self-repairs but you can still repair it with money at a blacksmith.

 

[Gnidrologist]

So, i'm at the infamous Agatoth place and want to fight him, obviously (haven't tried the other options yet and don't want to cuz muh pride).

Break down of my char:
I chosen Merc background 888666 (now, with Aga fight use power armor in dex mode, which gives me 8118666)
I didn't realy mean to join thiefs, but it happened organically as i wanted to kill that arrogant prick after defending him from two thugs and take 250 moneys instead of 70 or whatnot.
Thought i could just make side jobs for shady characters like in other games, but this is AoE! Wanted initially to join Imperial Guard, but only much later realized i cannot.
All good, don't care. I'm merc, ya know. Can work for whoever pays good and thieves pay good, give SPs okay.
Didn't have much trouble executing their quests either as they don't need sneak/steal/lockpick skills anyway. Did need critical strike, especially to assassin Galeus flawlessly. Had it already on 4 for combat reasons so upping it to 6 was no prob.
Overall played the game with all possible quests exhausted an am p. invincible in fights all over. All the arena dudes and Samedi guardian were silly once i had at least 7/7 in sword/block + 8 in crafting/alchemy to modify my sword.
Btw. does anyone agree that the blue gladius with +24THC you buy in Madoraan is the beast sword in the game? I have save with 10 craft and made some meteor swords and they don't seem better in any way in acual fights and cost skill points better used on your primary weapon skills anyway.

This is my sheet before the Aga fight:

I tried with sword/block/crit in 10/10/8
tried with 8/10/10
also tried to use 5 bombs i have, to wither him down
Tried to use couple of bolas/nets, they do nothing at all.
Tried to hit his arms, never get hit, because THC is miserable

Does tower shield protect better from hins tantecle attacks? because i have that unique one on the stash. Btw, to reiterate, do anyone else thinks that spending huge amount of points in crafting in this game has very very diminishing returns, unless very specific builds? All the unique, background checked armor/weapons in Madoraan are basically best there is. You can craft only marginally better sacrificing huge amount of SPs at 10. Alchemy feels the same. Only marginally better stuf at AL6. Probably worth it to go all out to 10 for non-combat sneaky-thiefy char. Otherwise just buy everything. Craftings best bonus is +4-5 to damage from whetstone at 8-10, but i'd wager you get better damage output and 'luck' in hard fights, if you invest all the crafting points in critical strike (besides your main weapon/defense) instead.


Anyhow, what do? Halp! Think i can't fight Aga with this build. Is it okay to just give up or just gather more chemical bombs? I don't like bombs, because it makes fight feel cheap and cheesy. I have good body count and had an ease in combat, so would like to kill him with style. Unfortunately nether nets or bolas work well on him. Maybe got nerfet?
Great game btw. Haven't been so engaged in vidya for years.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Btw, sometimes i can't even throw bolas/nets, because game doesn't allow this, despite me having enough APs. Do you need to be at certain distance to do it?

 

[Technomancer]

I have save with 10 craft and made some meteor swords and they don't seem better in any way in acual fights and cost skill points better used on your primary weapon skills anyway.

What that sword has? Better accuracy? Meteorite weapons get more turns of sharpening buff as well as greater damage while not being that much more inaccurate. So there are still trade-offs.

 

[Technomancer]

Anyhow, what do? Halp! Think i can't fight Aga with this build. Is it okay to just give up or just gather more chemical bombs? I don't like bombs, because it makes fight feel cheap and cheesy. I have good body count and had an ease in combat, so would like to kill him with style. Unfortunately nether nets or bolas work well on him. Maybe got nerfet?
Great game btw. Haven't been so engaged in vidya for years.

Aga was made to be extra hard (I still killed him in one hit though ). But no, unless you have godlike combat stats, you can't easily slay them. Maybe if you dice him with bullshit rolls for two hours straight but where is fun in that? Don't think your stats will cut it against demigod, even if they are groggy from cryo and naked. Otherwise yeah, you are stuck with cheese. Firebombs in particular, since chars can't go through firewall. Burning one would work even better. So its firevial, then bomb spam. At one point before you could also find a poisoned canister that you could use to severely weaken him before waking him up. That would skip the dialogue but all his stats would be nerfed. In Maadoran you can also gain immunity to psy attacks at a great cost.

 

[ItsChon]

I was able to beat him with ten spear and really high block using power armor and the OP spear you get from the arena. Even then it took forever and I think I used a bola.

 

[Gnidrologist]

But no, unless you have godlike combat stats, you can't easily slay them.

What would be 'god like combat stats'? 10+10(primary weapon+block)+8(crit) is still shit? 8+8+8st/end/dex is still shit? Need 12=12+10 or smth? I understand the guy is mean't to be huge pain in the ass, just wanting to know, if maybe i'm doing some silly mistakes. I know that high qual bombs with anubis or whatever PA mode that gives me 13 APs would probably deal with him, but i've sen lot of talks here people beating him with their combat builds and not resorting to bomb/bola cheese. And to reiterate once more, were nets/bolas nerfed at some point? Seen people say "just throw bola at his face". Did that and nothing happened. Like nothing at all.
Maybe switch to 11 ST mode? My thc would become shit then though.

 

[Technomancer]

What would be 'god like combat stats'? 10+10+8(crit)

Maxed out defense stats at the very least. Maxed out melee weapon of choice. 10 STR 10 DEX 8 CON base stat line with 2 point shuffled depending on build. You don't need everything absolutely maxed of course but it helps. Also alchemy. Mushroom brew and eagle eye. Dunno about bolas, never tried on him, always killed him without it.

One time I killed him with only 4 STR, without power armor but my dodge was maxed both by stats and all training opportunities.

 

[Gnidrologist]

I have maxed block and sword and 8 crit. 888 in physical stats. Had absolutely no problem with anyone for most part of the game. Had to wait a bit before beating Arena champ due to his ridiculous crits, but am p. much invincible to mere mortals. As i shown, i have still bunch of SPs to shuffle around, if needed.
Haven't been playing since yesterday yet. Maybe can fuck him up on a lucky roll. The closest got was getting him to something like 40hps. The main thing that fucks me up is his crit, which throws me away and knocks of feet. 10block rarely helps against that. Wondering if imperial blue steel armor and that unique red tower shield from Maadoran bazar would be more effective than PA.

 

[Technomancer]

Had absolutely no problem with anyone for most part of the game.

As vince said it, its not enough to be merely a good warrior. Agathoth requires a legendary warrior figure like Conan. That's why you have option to poison him. Because beating him fair and square and unnerfed is only for exceptionally gifted characters.

Btw, wanna visit our discord Gnidrologist? I'm only one voice and AoD forum is pretty dead on the codex. In discord several people would jump in with advice to help you.

 

[Gnidrologist]

I didn't find any poison options (read that there is possible 'weakaned state'). Guess my char doesn't have any social/intellectual skills to have that option, because i explored all areas thoroughly.
Tbh, i don't even know what discord is. never used it. If one can just make an account and log into it, i'd gladly join as i'll probably play this game with different build soon.

 

[Technomancer]

Tbh, i don't even know what discord is. never used it. If one can just make an account and log into it, i'd gladly join as i'll probably play this game with different build soon.

Its basically IRC platform with servers about stuff, ours is build around AoD and CS. Best part of it is quick and easy screenshot or file sharing. Codex has a separate server as well. I forgot the registration specifics but should be straightforward enough. No need to download the app on mobile or pc since it works as a browser version too. Devs are with us as well.

https://discord.gg/juqK5pnpEc

I didn't find any poison options (read that there is possible 'weakaned state'). Guess my char doesn't have any social/intellectual skills to have that option, because i explored all areas thoroughly.

Nah you missed it or never was there. Need to have a quest item. But I don't recall where you get it. Pretty sure it is in the monastery chamber behind the huge wall safe. You need to click on something. And to get there you need to explore the well in Maadoran slums and fix the portal inside. I think at least one other portal leads there too. So it is well hidden. Game has many secrets. Even nefring Aga is not easy, supposed to be a reward in of itself.

 

[PlanHex]

But no, unless you have godlike combat stats, you can't easily slay them.

What would be 'god like combat stats'? 10+10(primary weapon+block)+8(crit) is still shit? 8+8+8st/end/dex is still shit? Need 12=12+10 or smth? I understand the guy is mean't to be huge pain in the ass, just wanting to know, if maybe i'm doing some silly mistakes. I know that high qual bombs with anubis or whatever PA mode that gives me 13 APs would probably deal with him, but i've sen lot of talks here people beating him with their combat builds and not resorting to bomb/bola cheese. And to reiterate once more, were nets/bolas nerfed at some point? Seen people say "just throw bola at his face". Did that and nothing happened. Like nothing at all.
Maybe switch to 11 ST mode? My thc would become shit then though.

Bolas to the head used to significantly reduce his defense rating, so you can get big hits in even with thc reduction from berserk potions.
At least that's how it used to work.
Might have been nerfed, can't remember.
I seem to recall there was no real indication whether it hit or not aside from his defenses being lower. Could be he blocked it when you tried last?

You can put some points in daggers for the synergy if you still have some left. Extra chance to hit can't hurt.

I think you could switch between dex boost and str boost on the power armor during your round at one point, so you essentially had both the extra AP and the extra damage, but not sure if that was nerfed too.

With that, you should be able to just arterial strike crit him to death, which I think I remember being one of the gladius attacks?
One annoyance is that swords passive is not very useful without poisoning him, since he will just stop the bleeding every turn...
You might be screwed on that count.

 

[Absinthe]

Anyhow, what do? Halp! Think i can't fight Aga with this build. Is it okay to just give up or just gather more chemical bombs? I don't like bombs, because it makes fight feel cheap and cheesy. I have good body count and had an ease in combat, so would like to kill him with style. Unfortunately nether nets or bolas work well on him. Maybe got nerfet?
Great game btw. Haven't been so engaged in vidya for years.

You can boost alchemy and get better neurostims and poisons (if you have ingredients), as well as a variant berserker potion that gives DR. You can also just raise sword and block further and get dagger up for synergy bonus. I assume you don't have the whetstone to spend on improving your sword's damage?

Crit and swords is generally not a good combo because a weapon attack can either trigger weapon effect or a crit but not both. Typically popular melee weapons for crit are daggers and spears. There's also the axe but the axe's special effect is generally pretty pointless since it doesn't help you obtain a crit and if you have reliable critting odds are you are already killing your enemies handily anyway (especially ever since plain crits got buffed to ignore all DR, which I think was a bad decision).

I didn't find any poison options (read that there is possible 'weakaned state'). Guess my char doesn't have any social/intellectual skills to have that option, because i explored all areas thoroughly.

Alchemy skill has just about zero effect for the special poison option on Agathoth, sadly. It's a special item and you need to explore a totally different area to obtain it.

Tbh, i don't even know what discord is. never used it. If one can just make an account and log into it, i'd gladly join as i'll probably play this game with different build soon.

Tbh I don't use discord either and to my understanding they demand phone numbers now? I wouldn't really trust Discord with your information. They have a bad record on privacy and it's highly plausible one of their enterprises is selling user data.

 

[Technomancer]

which I think was a bad decision

Why?

I don't use discord either and to my understanding they demand phone numbers now?

Not in browser I think. Not enforced or demanded there, because not leaving options is a sure way to drive people away. The app actually maybe needs it, was long enough that I don't recall.

 

[Absinthe]

which I think was a bad decision

Why?

Because it makes crit too good once you get it going and removes tactical decisionmaking from combat once you get your crit high enough. It also penalizes high AP dodge builds because they have a worse time getting vsCrit and as such are liable to get crit the moment they fail to dodge and receive massive damage. It also generally devalues DR imo. I understand crit was a bit weak before but there were better ways to fix crit, like by giving minor combat bonuses for every rank-up (like minor THC, vsCrit, an extra bonus to aimed strikes, +1 dodge/block per rank, maybe some bleed interaction, poison interaction, etc), as well as letting people get both a crit and a weapon effect on the same blow. Instead crit just feels like an autowin skill if you have enough ranks in it, doesn't play nice with most weapon types, and makes the game feel more RNGish.

I don't use discord either and to my understanding they demand phone numbers now?

Not in browser I think. Not enforced or demanded there, because not leaving options is a sure way to drive people away. The app actually maybe needs it, was long enough that I don't recall.

Yes, in browser. They want your phone number now.

 

[Technomancer]

Just checked. Yes, in browser. They want your phone number now.

Must be ways to go around it or people would not talk about it online.

Spoiler

Visit the Discord website on your browser.
Click on the “Login” button at the top.
On the “Login” page, click the “Register” button at the bottom.
Fill in the “Create an account” form by adding your credentials and email address to be used for verification.
Click the “Continue” button once you’ve confirmed your details.
Fill in the Captcha on the next screen. Once you do, Discord will open, and you will get logged into your newly created account.
At this point, you will note that your account is yet to be verified. Click the settings icon at the bottom to open your “User settings”. Click on the “My Account” option. Click the “Resend Verification Email” at the top.
Access your mail address associated with Discord. Locate the verification message, open it, and click the “Verify Email” button.
Click the “Continue to Discord” button.
That’s it. Your Discord account is created and verified without adding a phone number. The only catch is that you must add a verification option; in this case, we’ve used an email address to verify the account. Provided you have verified your email address; you don’t have to add a phone number to create and use a Discord account.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Few questions after my first completed run:

1. Is there a reason to go exploring in the towns/areas after I already finished the chapter there. This doesn't include going back because a quest mentions it (ex. finding someone in Ganezzar to fight the construct) or going back for something specific (ex. if I increase lock picking/stealing and remember a place I want to try it out). After I killed Meru, I went back and talked to the new leader and saw the library. Obviously, because I wanted to see what happened after a huge decision, but should I still take a look around everywhere else in case I'm missing a change that was added after a new chapter? I did it a couple of times and didn't really find any new quests.

2. I failed my check with Agathoth where I wanted to be the chosen one because Ganezzar fell after Meru's death. If I kept him alive would I have succeeded in the check? (I forget the specific name of it, but it was about how I was convincing people I'm some sort of Chosen One, for example the preacher in Teron)

3. Can't find this on google for some reason, I'm retarded, but I failed a check in Ziggurat with the generator (behind the tomb). It was Lore & Crafting (I believe), my Lore was 10 and I was able to get my crafting up to 6 with remaining SP, but failed it. How much was needed to succeed in that?

Also lol about the criticisms of being soft locked/having to metagame. I'm sure it's possible but you really need to fuck up and ignore the multiple warnings the game gives you. I fucked up and wasted many SP on shit that was useless to me and still got through. I was "stuck" at one point but all it took was a little bit of exploration to find the proper person to help me out (was kind of lost after finishing Ganezzar, couldn't get past Hellgate or the Dead River due to checks/missing items and lack of combat but all it took was listening to what I was told and searching for a mf to kill the construct for me)

 

[Technomancer]

Is there a reason to go exploring in the towns/areas after I already finished the chapter there.

There is some modest additional content. Teron gets a merc you talk with and he comments on your special eye if you have one. Ganezzar has multistage Meltiades quest you need to wait until you sort the siege to finish it. Maadoran you can return to it after third city to finish arena and arena district protection racket quest, return the armor etc. Clearly there was more planned due to various loose ends but they run out of time.

If I kept him alive would I have succeeded in the check?

Yes, Meru is key figure in the fledgling religion you are trying to exploit. Without his influence in spreading it and his protection as a city leader and a lord, it quickly dies out because people that fill the power vacuum don't care to believe in that bullshit. And the 'faithful' are mostly powerless rabble of beggars, thugs and vagabonds.

How much was needed to succeed in that?

18, so crafting should be 8.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Yes, Meru is key figure in the fledgling religion you are trying to exploit. Without his influence in spreading it and his protection as a city leader and a lord, it quickly dies out because people that fill the power vacuum don't care to believe in that bullshit.

Well, that's what I get for being greedy and sabotaging him because I wanted to be the chosen one and thought he'd get in the way lmao

18, so crafting should be 8.

fuck me, i would've reached that if I didn't do some of my stupid level ups.

Thanks!

 

[Jrpgfan]

Btw, sometimes i can't even throw bolas/nets, because game doesn't allow this, despite me having enough APs. Do you need to be at certain distance to do it?

You can throw nets from the belt and from any distance.

Bolas, IIRC you have to have it equipped and need to be atleast one tile away from the target.

 

[TheDarkUrge]

Went back to AoD after finishing colony ship. Never managed to beat this hard-ass game with a combat character. Tried mercenary and coincidentally it turned out to be the one I rage quit my combat playthrough on, the same fucking throne fight. I had to restart entirely to change my build because it was unsalvageable and never close. This time I went with swords instead of an axe, bought an explosive bomb and decided to risk it all rushing at Antidas.
Surprisingly all of those turned out to be good decisions, and yet I only survived the fight with one (1) HP remaining!

I am probably going to get stuck on another part further along so any general tips would be much appreciated, but minimal spoilers please

 

[AbounI]

Maybe visit the healer before meet and greet a nice guy near the commercium. He has good shit for a fair price. Everyone around knows him.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

any general tips

Pick one form of defense, not both.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Went back to AoD after finishing colony ship. Never managed to beat this hard-ass game with a combat character. Tried mercenary and coincidentally it turned out to be the one I rage quit my combat playthrough on, the same fucking throne fight. I had to restart entirely to change my build because it was unsalvageable and never close. This time I went with swords instead of an axe, bought an explosive bomb and decided to risk it all rushing at Antidas.
Surprisingly all of those turned out to be good decisions, and yet I only survived the fight with one (1) HP remaining!

I am probably going to get stuck on another part further along so any general tips would be much appreciated, but minimal spoilers please

Chokepoints are your friend.