Hi all,

I'm currently playing MM2. I finished the quest of Nordonna (visit all the towns) and got the castle key. I'm level 7-8. I figured since I get the castle key I need to go to one of the castles and headed for Castle Pinehurst. It's okay, but I still get killed sometimes. A few questions just to know I'm on the right track:

- is my level high enough to start exploring and doing stuff or should I level up a bit more?
- is castle Pinehurst the best castle to visit first?

I know its an old game so hopefully someone still knows the answer :)

There are easier areas than Pinehurts to explore.
The Druid's Cave, and dungeons near Tundara and Sansobar are quite easy IIRC.

As a general rule, if you are struggling in one place, try another. That's the beauty of an open ended world that is partially area scaled.

Thanks! Another question, are hirelings worth taking?

I would say some are worth taking simply because every spellcasting hireling already knows every spell of that type. (With that said, they might not be able to cast higher level spells until higher levels, unless you can find a way around that.) Given that some spells aren't that easy to find, this can prove to be quite useful.

Hirelings only charge you money when you rest; you can avoid paying hirelings if you never sleep. (Of course, there's the small issue of figuring out how to deal with SP if you choose to take this route.) As far as I can tell, the amount you need to pay a hireling only increases when you level them up, despite the manual saying that other things may affect it.

One more thing: There is a puzzle that requires a hireling to solve, so you can't avoid them entirely.

Definitely.
The more the merrier, and more characters to distribute all the loot to.
And with two hirelings you can have all eight character classes represented, and do all the class specific quests.

Thank you both.

Final question: is there any problem when you rest too much? Apart from aging, which you can reverse and it seems a long way to being, I don't know, 70 years of age.

Supposedly, there is a time limit of 100 years (you learn about this in one of the castles), but I believe that mechanic was not actually implemented, or if it is, it's nonfunctional because of a bug. In any case, even if it *is* implemented, you are unlikely to run into it in normal play. Also, resting is not even close to being the fastest way to pass time if you want to actually test this.

On the other hand, be aware that resting does end spell effects and force you to pay your hirelings (if you can't pay your hirelings, the game will not let you rest).

If it's like MM1 which is fresh in my memory.
Resting doesn't age you.
Training ages you one year. Being Eradicated and brought back ages you 10 years. Ditto for casting Divine Intervention.
But there are way of reversing old age, so it's not really a problem.

The numbers are a bit different here.

Training does not age you in this game; it doesn't even take any time.

Being restored by the Resurrection spell, I believe, only ages the caster 1 year. It does, however, lower the target's Endurance (both base and current) by 1. (This spell can revive both Dead and Eradicated characters; the drawbacks are the same either way.)

I forgot what the consequences of Raise Dead were. It might age the target (I don't remember), but I am pretty sure there's no stat loss.

Divine Intervention (usable once per battle) ages the caster only 5 years; those revived by the spell don't suffer any aging or stat loss.

In the DOS version, Holy Word does *not* age the caster. (Bug?) Note, however, that this spell will fail if Turn Undead has been cast earlier in the same battle.

In the DOS version, Frenzy only lowers the character's current Endurance by 1; this is effectively meaningless as the character's current Endurance isn't actually used for anything (*base* Endurance is what affects level up HP gains), and the stat will return to the base value at the end of the battle anyway. (Bug?)

Also, none of these causes time to pass, so these won't cause you to come any closer to running out of time (if that time limit is even correctly implemented in the first place, which I believe it isn't).

Thanks for all the help!

Also, one word of warning:

There is one situation where, as punishment for stealing something, your stats will be permanently lowered to very small values. Even worse, because the effect only lowers your base stats and not your current stats, the effect won't be immediately visible. If you suspect this has happened, rest and check your stats *before* you save the game by going to the inn. Failure to do so will cause your horrible stats to be saved, and this is the sort of thing that can ruin the game and make it no longer fun. (It is possible to recover from this due to the way permanent stat boost events work, but it can be tedious.)

By the way, if a message suggests that a stat has increased, and you don't notice the increase, it's likely that only the base value increased; to see the increase, you need to rest or fight a battle. (Note that maximum HP is special, as it will only be fixed when you rest.)

Thanks for the heads up. Just one question, how can I check my (base) stat?

You can't check your base stats directly; you can only check your current stats.

However, if you rest, your current stats will be set to your base stats; this also happens after every battle. (Exceptions: After a battle, a character who individually runs away will not have their stats reset (this can allow you to carry Heroism's effect to another battle), and max HP only gets reset when you rest.) So, you can see your base stats by resting and then immediately checking your stats.

Remember that the game only saves when you enter the Inn in town (the place where you can change your party); if you turn off the game before doing so, progress will be lost. (If something really bad happens, of course, you may want to turn off the game without saving on purpose.)

Okay, another question.

I have explored Corak's cave to the extent of the barrier. I suspect his body is behind the barrier. I understand that to pass I may only have clerics in my party. How am I supposed to do this effectively? My cleric alone will get killed in most battles, and I need to pass a few to get to the body. Can you bring hirelings?

Thanks in advance for all the help.

You can bring Cleric and Robber PCs and hirelings.
So with enough hirelings you can perhaps make a full party.
Robbers don't have their own class quest, but can join all the others.