I lost a lot of escorts in this game. They really do need a level / power indicator or the ability to abandon those quests when it is obvious you can’t do them.
Yes, there should be a sign saying “IT’S A TRAP” over the bulletin board in the Inn. I mean, the first escort quest it gives is Reynard to the Greatwall Encampment. The first. That’s a trek for characters in their mid-to-high 20s, much less the newbs wandering into Gran Soren for the first time.
The Madeline escort quest is basically a tutorial quest (it’s from the start village, Cassardis, to the encampment right up the road) in both escort missions and vendor relationships.
This is a trap set for people dumb enough to voluntarily do escort missions in a videogame. (Okay I did the Madeline one.)
What I’m doing with escorts is this: I check out the boards, see the destination (there are often two escort quests going to the same place). I take note. I don’t take the quest. I leave.
While exploring, when I find one of the destinations, I drop a portcrystal, go back to Cassardis/Gran Soren, pick the quests, ferrystone to my portcrystal, quest done.
That worked pretty well so far with the Shadow Fort, the Bloodsomething beach, and the healing spring. Now I need to find the Capesomething Beach or something to do the last escort quest before I move on with the main quest. It’s been really fun, BTW.
First time I picked and escort quest I might have been 7 or something, and I believe I was closer to 19 by the time I finished it.
Also had to reload the game a billion times; and run away from a dragon… many many times.
Escort missions:
1- Place a teleport gem in the destination.
2- Take the quest.
3- Teleport there.
Done.
A lot of them are on that beach on the southwest.
Unlike in other games, DD don’t mind if you teleport to the destination with the npc.
Anyway theres plenty of content or sources of xp. Maybe they need to be completed to get affinity with some npcs.
Easier now that I’m 32 and have the teleport stone than when I was 6 and picked up the quest with no idea where I was heading :-)
But good suggestion about marking the location first. I should consider that. Wish I had 300.000 so I could copy the teleport stone I already have so I could get more of them.
Portcrystal forgeries don’t work anyway. But there are 4 extra portcrystals to find in one given playthrough. Check the wiki if you want to know where they are, but most are in places you visit during the main quest, IIRC.
Man, the content AFTER the dragon is the hardest yet, and so much fun! Try walking from Cassandris to Gran Soren, instead of teleporting - holy cow - the dragon was easy compared to that!
Sweet. From my very limited peeking at the wiki, it doesn’t sound like there’s much reason to do NG+ unless you need more guaranteed items and plan to zip through to post-game again.
Without spoiling, does that sound about right to the veterans?
Do you need to find the Port Crystals or are some available in your inventory reserve as part of the Dark Arisen add-on?
-Todd
You need to find them.
You have to find them - what you’ll find in your inventory once you reach Gran Soren is the Eternal Ferrystone.
You’ll find the first port crystal when you go down into the Everfall for the first time. Then there are 4 more, one of them in the Bluemoon Tower.
Thanks Bateau and rhamorim, very helpful! I did find the Eternal Ferrystone, but I have been away from the game for several days and started wondering if maybe I missed the Port Crystal(s) in my inventory. This clears that misconception up.
-Todd
I did NG+ for the following reasons:
[ul]
[li]Port Crystals. The regular game nets you ~5 of them. In NG+ you can buy them, for a total of 10 port locations. You get rid of almost all travelling if you stick to the quests.
[/li][li]Missed quests and achievements (a lot of them).
[/li][li]Collectibles (Badge of vows)
[/li][li]Playing other classes
[/li][li]Guaranteed dragonforge
[/li][li]Better preparation level wise for Bitterblack Isle.
[/li][/ul]
I regret not playing on hard though.
Im not talking about NG+. I’m talking about what happens after the Dragon. There is a LOT of game still there. Some call it post-game and its pretty crazy.
I am also having a lot of fun in the post game. I killed the guy at the bottom of the Everfall on offline mode, and got some nice rewards. Then I figured I would get some licks in on the online version, and when I zoned back in online, he was already in grace period, and I got a killing blow! Ended up with Ascalon, 3 pieces of the Abyssinal set, An Angel’s fist, Heaven’s Keys, a mask, and another sword I can’t recall atm from that one kill. The was the most Monty Hall this game has been for me since the start!
I am still struggling with the DLC content, but now I feel like I am geared enough to get through it. I guess we shall see tonight. I am glad everyone is still playing this. It is pretty cool seeing all the friend pawns in there.
Wow, that’s a nice haul! I’ve only attempted that fight once, and it was online, so by the end of the encounter I wasn’t even sure if I had put so much as a dent in it.
Agreed on the pawns. I’ve played through the game using nothing but friends pawns, including many QT3 guys/gals. It’s been fun to see them progress and it’s always nice to see my warrior Xarte report back from one of you guys.
My pawn gets checked out quite a bit, which is awesome but I haven’t had the chance to use too many friend pawns lately due to OCD out leveling on my part this weekend =) Although I do see one person in the pawn list crazier then me who is about 20 levels above me! Is there much of a penalty for taking lower level pawns, outside of just lesser stats? It doesn’t seem like level makes a huge difference in this game. Like I don’t think there is a level scaling penalty/bonus system of any kind. Is that correct?
You’ll note I used the word “post-game” in my post. I’m with you! Sounds fun.