Legend of Grimrock II

BIG POINTY TEETH

Mushrooms! GRAARRRGH!

If you are trapped at work like me and can't play you can at least watch a lot of the game on Youtube.

Mathas's walk through of the game bugs the hell out of me because so far he's just kept quick pushing onwards through each zone without actually stopping to do anything and ending up getting in over his head because of it. Up to where I've watched he still hadn't realized what the elemental temples or those power stones are for! Drives me nuts!

I played a ton last night, spending quite a bit of time backtracking to open some chests that I had to leave locked due to lack of lockpicks. This game is funny in that no matter how thoroughly you feel you've completed an area, you always feel like you've got to be missing something. Reviewing my stats last night I realized I've found 0 of the supposed 16 epic items so far... Hrrrrrrrrrrm.

Oh yeah, and one of the areas I backtracked into and finally finished was the Herder's Den... so I feel your pain Quintin.

This is the only game I think of where a sizable amount of your time is spent staring at walls and it's enjoyable

Jow wrote:

I played a ton last night, spending quite a bit of time backtracking to open some chests that I had to leave locked due to lack of lockpicks. This game is funny in that no matter how thoroughly you feel you've completed an area, you always feel like you've got to be missing something. Reviewing my stats last night I realized I've found 0 of the supposed 16 epic items so far... Hrrrrrrrrrrm.

Oh yeah, and one of the areas I backtracked into and finally finished was the Herder's Den... so I feel your pain Quintin.

There's a "trick" to the herder's den that makes it pretty easy.

Spoiler:

Run in, just run around killing the monster generators ignoring all the mushroom men (if you're quick only a handful of mushroom men with spawn), then run around for a moment until the gate opens. You can now run off to the save crystal and return to kill the remaining mushroom men at your leisure

Spoiler:

That's exactly what I did... Ran around in there just long enough to whack the buildings, fled and licked my wounds, then went back in and dealt with the rest of them piecemeal. It's still challenging trying to move your way through a bunch of shambling fungi. For the hub key alone it was worth going back and finishing it all.

DanB wrote:
Jow wrote:

I played a ton last night, spending quite a bit of time backtracking to open some chests that I had to leave locked due to lack of lockpicks. This game is funny in that no matter how thoroughly you feel you've completed an area, you always feel like you've got to be missing something. Reviewing my stats last night I realized I've found 0 of the supposed 16 epic items so far... Hrrrrrrrrrrm.

Oh yeah, and one of the areas I backtracked into and finally finished was the Herder's Den... so I feel your pain Quintin.

There's a "trick" to the herder's den that makes it pretty easy.

Spoiler:

Run in, just run around killing the monster generators ignoring all the mushroom men (if you're quick only a handful of mushroom men with spawn), then run around for a moment until the gate opens. You can now run off to the save crystal and return to kill the remaining mushroom men at your leisure

That's what I did, but not until I was able to brew anti-venom potions.

I'm a little confused about the Runemaster's Trial in that area though. Doesn't seem to be any indication of what I'm supposed to do.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

I'm a little confused about the Runemaster's Trial in that area though. Doesn't seem to be any indication of what I'm supposed to do.

Spoiler:

You have to re-create to rune pattern of the spell the shooty thing is casting.

Ah, hmm.

Spoiler:

There's probably some patterns you've not yet learnt

Spoiler:

The last one was one of these for me. I had to start with the button known for being that element and experiment a bit.

I telefragged a rat man.

I watched this guy play Legend of Grimrock 1 and his playthrough of #2 is fun. If you like me have more time to watch than to play you should check it out.

As I am watching I wonder; how is the gun? It seems like you don't get the bullets back after you shoot them which considering how scarce ammo can be would make me think a bow or darts would be better since you can reused them.

farley3k wrote:

As I am watching I wonder; how is the gun? It seems like you don't get the bullets back after you shoot them which considering how scarce ammo can be would make me think a bow or darts would be better since you can reused them.

My wizard uses a gun when out of mana. So far his/her (insect, can't remember gender) ammo has gone steadily up because bullets are found in 10 packs and the gun is a backup. My archer has only found 13 or so arrows so far, the wizard has about 200 bullets.

yeah I've never had ammo issues. Used the gun for a while but switched back to bow and arrow because of the modifiers. Actually got to the point where I had so many bullets I had to ditch them, they were weighing me down.

My alchemist only ever uses firearms. Although I've never run out of bullets I am consistently on the low side (between 10 and 30-40 remaining).

Cool. I think it is too tempting to try out the new weapon type so I will have to have one character use guns.

The guns are good in so far as ammo is very, very plentiful and also terrible in as much as they don't really do enough damage and fights are never really long enough for it to matter that bows are ammo-limited.

Holy crap this game took a turn from potential game of the year to me to crazy frustration mode way quicker than I expected. I think I'm gonna be shelving this for a while.

Part of the problem, I think, is my team composition. After playing through the first game with 2 front-line fighters, a mage, and a missile-weapon backline rogue I decided to go with one less fighter, shift the rogue up to the front line where he dual wields, and roll an alchemist to do the back line ranged stuff. The fighter (a minotaur barbarian) is an asskicker and takes a beating and does probably the next highest dps after my mage. The rogue, however, has pretty much been a failed experiment as even with some decent rogue/evasion gear plus going 5-bars in both light weapons and Critical Hits he just does not carry his weight, doing barely more damage than my firearm alchemist and generally going down crazy fast. Alas, I've spent so much time speccing him in that direction that it's pretty much too late to start changing direction without starting completely over and needless to say I'm loathe to do that.

I also have learned that after slogging through the first game I have no patience at all anymore for the crazy "fighter's challenge" type combats that depend more on getting lucky giant hits to avoid being surrounded and cut down than any actual tactics or interesting gameplay. Right now I'm stuck

Spoiler:

fighting the big ratguy with the cannon and I'm so completely frustrated with having to reload over and over despite starting the fight with a full load of potions.

I'm at the point where I'd just rather skip it and come back in 5 levels when the fight doesn't necessarily hinge on having to play perfectly, but the problem with this area is that I don't think there's anything else I can to do to progress until I beat this.

I put off that fight, Jow:

Spoiler:

The only boss fight I've finished is the fungus one; I've skipped the other two I've found. I don't think anything bottlenecks on the rat boss; I think you can get enough info to go to the Hamlet and to the Cemetery without killing him.

This is a real good game. Very pleased with it. Lots of hours per dollar.

Malor wrote:

I put off that fight, Jow:

Spoiler:

The only boss fight I've finished is the fungus one; I've skipped the other two I've found. I don't think anything bottlenecks on the rat boss; I think you can get enough info to go to the Hamlet and to the Cemetery without killing him.

This is a real good game. Very pleased with it. Lots of hours per dollar.

Spoiler:

Problem is the rest of that area has a lot of blocked off passageways with no apparent way in. Not sure if I've got to keep digging through that area or go elsewhere.

There's one section in the sewers (south-east) that...

Spoiler:

Requires a key you get from the Rat King.

That was a really tough fight that I barely survived (had to use the couple of Resurrection potions I had by that stage and still had half the team dead by the end of the fight) but the way I did it was to use all his little rat buddies as a buffer to keep him away. Once the little guys were all cleared out I had room to breath and run around, heal up, etc. He seems to be fairly slow moving and I think he takes a good amount of time to load the cannon between shots as well.

Another section of the sewers (to the north-ish) can be reached...

Spoiler:

By dropping into the water near the fenced area and going through the gap underwater

I think everything else is pretty much open from the start though?

There are no fights like the fighters challenge in the 1st game. If you have a caster you can pretty much always crowd manage the multi-mob fights, it just requires a little lateral thinking.

I do think that 2 casters and 2 tanks is the optimal group here. I did the Tank and Rogue front row option in the 1st Grimrock and it was horrible also.

Spoiler:

Use the force shield/cube to block off one flank (and/or trapping a mob in the process). In the rat boss fights there are a couple of spots that allow you to do this and ensure that ratmen only come at your front face. It did take me a couple of tries to get it but I'm sure I could do it reasonably trivially now.

That said I'm now at the final fight at the very end and it is mind bendingly frustrating. Having checked a couple of youtube vids it's clear that I simply don't have the right equipment and skills to make the fight easy/achievable

I'm near the end with my team of Barbarian, Knight, Rogue, and Farmer. The farmer I turned into my mage of fire and air magic.

The farmer is a real annoying choice because normal eating does not keep up with the XP gain of the other classes. I over fed him a few times to level and ended up at times with no food reserves. (Respawning wargs and herders are a good source of food.)

I finished the easier ending and now I'm trying the harder ending. Oof, it's tough. I ran out of blooddrop caps before the end so I had no healing potions. Another run through every nook and cranny found me 3 more, so this time that might help.

I'm doing knight/barbarian/alchemist/mage. In retrospect, I wish I'd stuck with missile weapons for the alchemist, instead of firearms. I've started to find a few cannonballs lying around, so maybe he'll finally get a weapon that's really worthwhile.

The alchemist's auto-multiply thing is pretty useful; I've just about finished the pyramid now, and am thinking about going after the two bosses I skipped, and presently have something like 43 blooddrop caps in inventory, and everyone's got at least a couple greater healing potions. My big and perpetual problem is weight: I just can't carry everything I want to carry.

There's a necklace I found:

Spoiler:

that makes a character immune to being both overburdened and hungry, so I put that on the minotaur, and he hasn't eaten since. I think that one item cut my food consumption by about a third. He's constantly running around with like 128.8 pounds taken of 129; if I add one more thing, he can't move, but he's not slowed down at all until his weight limit is exceeded.

That might be the best item in the game.

edit: a few minutes later, I realized the necklace was kind of a spoiler, so I put it in tags. Post is otherwise unchanged.

Alchemist is a good idea, I think. You know how hoarders often finish the game with 100 potions? Grimrock 2 is not one of those games. Blooddrop caps run out a lot faster than the other herbs.