Tutorial: it is crap. It gives you informations you can figure out yourself, while not giving you any information you want. The popups also stop the game, making you grinding your eeth.

Keys of note:
- TAB brings up the minimap. Pressing it again makes it the useful size and placement. You want this on to spot hidden rooms (action button gives access to them)
- unfortunately you can not make the mouse's roller moving the camera. This is stoopid.
- the mouse-roller rolls through your spells (even if you don't have one)
- rightclick to move, leftclick is attack, left-shift + leftclick is spell.
- X is to pick up items. This does interfere with moving, what is stoopid.
- I is the inverntory. While when you level up the L key will appear flashing, that's a one-time thing, you'll reach that menu through Inventory too.
- 1 is for the healing potion, 2 is for mana potion

WATCH OUT for saving pedestals. Oh, ye, you can't just save, because this game is stoopid. Now the pedestals' other problem is, they can block you from picking up loot.

Character creation: there is none. You can choose from 3(+1) pre-generated character.
Also, before you start adventuring, visit the shopkeeper, and sell ALL yur useless clothes. They are just encumberance. The character-models are not bad by the way...
Oh, and no, the archer does NOT start with a bow. I think there's a fixed drop for him in the first (and for a long while only) hidden room.
Oh, oh, and the Sorceress can not use these weapon classes:
- warhammer
- battle axe
- halberd
- bastard sword
- great sword
This is not STR-dependency, this is class-restriction.

Item-drops are random.

At the start you get 2 quests.
You can leave the inn through the door - I assume later areas will be there. Head to the cellar, and start bashing everything you can. There will be no repercussion.
Gold will be picked up if you walk close enough, the rest must be picked up with the action-button (X).
Do NOT use Recall-potions (accessible from the Pause Menu), unless your inventory is filled!
Your first ~miniboss are 3 spiders. they hit hard, so save before confronting them. Of course there's no save-spot nearby...
Gemstones are simply for sale.

You'll reach a point you can not advance further. You'll have to return to the Inn for the key to unlock the door.
You'll level up once up till this point either by already returning for quest-completion, or buy slaughtering monsters. This'll give you 1 skillpoint.
Oh, there's no roleplaying thing in this game.

Ranged enemies are a pain, because they tend to run away, and especialy when you have nothing but melee attacks (which you probably will use at this point, independent from character, but the fighter will gain no real alternative at all), they are a real pain.
And they'll appear in goups. Soon there'll be a bnch hiding behind crates. You'll be able to go around though, which the dwarf definitely should. This is a point where your character can loos exp: some enemies will try to walk into the steam of the steampipes, and defeat themselves.

You cann ot climb on the roofs (despite at one or two place you definitely should be), cann ot descend to that place (you'll know), and you might run into the miniboss here without warning - if you do, just run away, it'll stop chasing you eventualy.
Here if you reach the line of spearmen, there's a pushable cover. It cann ot be destroyed. Use it to get near them.
The orc (the miniboss) is not too much problem for the dwarf, but a pain for the sorceress. You'll want to use a healing potion or two here, so set the hotkeys.

There comes some platforming puzzles. They are independent from the core game, so whatever.
Then there'll come a big pool with a save-pillar in the middle covered with a bunch of archers. There's no trick just rush in.

When you reach the Bugbear Chieftain (I total thought these are orcs), you'll reach clvl 2, and gain +2 skillpoint. this means you'll have +3 skillpoint. For this though you have to fight the Rat God. For the dwarf it's straight melee, and the sorceress has enough space to cast her inferno (DiabloTM) effectively. The ranger has trouble though, his only real chance is to lure it to the entrance of the ally, jump to the other side of the crates, and shoot arrows from there. You guessed it: arrows are present in the game in enough supply to not have to regularly buy them, so you better spare them? Though given the limited view-distance, low damage, speed of the enemies, this feels like trying to use bow in Lionheart.
After beating it, go up to the town, and pick up the next quest. But before that, mention the problem between the Sorceress and the Bugbear Chief. That thing is simply too hugh for a 1 point Infrno (Burning Hand), so lure it to the alley with boxes, leaving only the small ones at the entrance. Hop in, and shoot your magic from there. You will be out of its reach, but can harm it. Still need like 3+ full manabar to deal with it, so quaff some potions.
A couple of steps further you'll find Ethan, so oyu can go up again, and pick up yet another quest, and some quest rewards.
There appears another character in the Inn, giviong you a quest to some orb.

In the starting room of Sewers lvl 2 there is a weapon-rack. The item you loot from it can stuck on the top of it, becoming inaccessible. UPDATE: ok, you can jump, and grab the item while you are in air.
Let's also mention here, oyu can only hit enemies who are at your ground-level. Water counts as floor for this instance, but you'll hit nothing if you are standing on a box, or terrace.
This area is filled with bigger monsters (initialy bugbears, then oozes and cubes), so save after every room, or something. Your goal is to click three switches, so eventualy you'll discover the whole complex (likely). Then you can descend to the Crypt, and that means even more stoopid design: a whole cinematic, and immediately gets attacked by some undead. After you died and reloaded, with this knowledge you won't go afk right after entering.
Here you'll soon gain another level, and you'll have to spend 1 stat-point. This is obligatory, you can not put it away for later.

Orb Glitch?
I could not reveal what this glitch exactly is, aside the obvious, but it seems if Jarek shows up (Ethan's companion in the Inn), and you can enter the Thieves Guil, it is avoided. Here is what to do to ensure progress:
1) destroy every single undead in the two levels of the Crypt.
2) save, when you reach the Orb's room. It'll be obvious (no enemies, the orb is in the middle, etc.)
3) get close to the Orb to activate the event
4) win the fight
5) collect any loot you want, then leave the room, and use a Recall Potion (the game did not allow me to use one inside the room)
6) speak with ETHAN first. You can sell your stuff to the shop before that and stuff, the point is, do NOT speak Jarek first. The barmaid also has some flavour-dialogue.
7) enter the Thieves Guild. The entrance is on Sewer Level 1, that "crack"o n the map you could not do anything with previously.

Now let's talk about the shop: it never refreshes. And there is no other shop in the game.
At this point, it becomes obsolate. You can buy the top equipment, and for the Crypt the scale mail stuff helps a good portion. The weapon-section of the shop is entirely useless, because you have a guaranteed find on Crypt Level 2, and that matches the best weapon of the shop in damage, deal pure physical damage instead elemental (the later can be resisted), AND is a blunt damage weapon, which means, it won't be resisted either unlike edged weapons which deal half damage to undead.

HOW TO FIGHT THE ORB:
--------------
Fight it melee. Well, definitely do not fight it with magic, it barely scratches it.
The mage can fight the Orb pretty easy with the Mace of Disruption found on the same level (Crypt 2), and use her starting spell on starting skill-level effectively against the waves of undead. You'll need like 10-20 potions each (lesser HP/MP), but it's a pretty safe run.

There is also an exit to the town near the entrance to Crypt Level 2.

The Dwarf has some serious trouble fighting gelatinous cubes - they hit very hard, especialy if you have no armor.
Another factor on the amrour front, the dwarf does not have the elf's charisma, thus the real difference here is, has to wait a bit more before buying all the scale armor's parts.
And yes, the dwarf will run out of "space" (encumberance) in the crypt, even if you spent your statpoint on STR.
The orb at least goes down adequately easy, though some undead type can hit like a mule (critical hit?).
The real miss here is similar to the first line-of-archers encounter. There the sorc obviously supposed to use her fireball, but lacks enough skillpoint to do so. Now against the orb's mobs using whirlwind sounds the skill the whole encounter got designed around, but again: not enough skillpoint.

For the Archer:
against the owlbears you better try to block, at least sometimes. I'm not confident in my blocking skills, but thi9s seems to be how it works:
- you can only block with a shield, or if you have improved block with a weapon
- you can not move while blocking
- you can only block the enemy in front of your character. Not from behind, not from sideways
- the enemy seems to be so fast, it'd need some points in faster weapon skill?
- owlbears seem to have a damage-pattern: the first strike always seems to be big, then 2 lesser strikes comes, then a big one again. But this is just guessing.
- you can not block condition brought by the attack (poison, chilling)

Cubes and oozes can be shot from a distance as they don't like to move in melee. They can actualy be shot from out of their sight!

Spells:
- magic missile: this is almost identical to Diablo's Teeth, only this one is made to work: the missiles seek out a target instead of spreading in all directions. Still, its delay is longer than for Acidic Arrow, and that is reported to not be resisted/immuned by enemies, so though luck.
UPDATE: actualy, this spell is awesome. On a normal playthrough our character will reach clvl 17, that means +8 missiles. That comes out spending 1 point here nets you the same result as spending 60(!) point on Melf's Acidic Arrow! Sounds nice, isn't it? Well, THE MANUAL enlightens us, that the maximum number of missiles are 5 :( Still, for 1 point, this is dirt cheap long distance auto target spell.
- poison arrow: single projectile spell, spammable
- fireball: single projectile spell, with blast radious nowhere even close to the original BG version. It is also suicidal, so skip.
- snowblind: a different element burning hands. Skip.
----------------
available before the thieves guild bosses:
- lightning bolt: this is supposed to be the lighning variant of the Burning Hand, but it is so much better. First, it makes a spark all through the screen, aka. it has DISTANCE. Second, it deals 75 dmg per second. With the second point it becomes chain lightning (might only hit +1 target). this spell might be the result the designers realising these spells require too many skillpoints.
- Otiluke's Icy Sphere: by the look of it, this is the ice variant of the fireball spell. Lame. At least this one does not hurt self.
- Mordekainen's Sword: it creates a summoned sword, which lasts ca. 25 seconds.
NOTE: Ball Lightning was obviously designed to not be accessible at this point yet.
----------------
Available after starting Act 2:
- ball lightning: thught will be a fireball-clown, but this is Diablo's Frozen Orb
- fireshield: this is bad. Creates a circle under your feet, which does not move with you. Only the duration goes with the spell-level.
NOTE it is funny, Armageddon was specialy designed to not be available at clvl 7 yet.

Fighting the undead: they are relatively safe to fight until you don't get sorrounded. They attack rarely, and you'll push them away regularly - in which case you should just press block, because you can't prevent them getting the next move.
Regular arrows are entirely useless against them, considering the Orb. So just bring 20+ health potions, and go melee with the Archer.
You should also know, instead of buying full scale gear at the shop, you should only bu8y the body armor, then buy the best bow he offers. Anything else is welcomed, but not mandatory.
Beating the Orb you'll gain the next level, and accumlate 10 skillpoint finaly. This means you can buy ANY of your skills at 1st level - get the highest elemental damage of course, and start using bows!
Make note, that Enchant Arrows is a PASSIVE skil,l, but Hail of Arrows is not. Btw, Hail or Arrows is exactly Diablo's Multishot skill, so it does not seek target, and spreads. Given the nature of this game, it still can be an ok crowd-control skill.

On jewelry: you can have 1 amulet and 2 rings the same time worn.

The thieves guild has annoying platformers (yes, with every reload they set randomly) and thieves. Thieves can do ranged, but if you get close, they are though melee. Also, the very least the dwarf has melee range problems - the thieves can do melee while the fighter remains out of reach. So watch out.

At the end of level 2 you'll face the Helmet Guy (not sure where we know his name). He can do ranged, but that's the lesser problem. The melee is veeery hard hitting. He also can teleport- beats me why when he is stornger in melee.
Bring ca. 30 healing potions for this.

The 3rd level is tiny, practicaly a single bossfight. Meleeing the creature worked fine with the soldier.

Then we start Act 2
---------------------------
Welcome to a place with no chance to adjust the camera, or save your progress! What we do have though are gnolls and trolls.
Then you reach a town, and it has a new shop! Not much it offers on the defense department, but definitely offers an improvement on the weapons side. Too sad all the high-end warhammers/axes are cold damage, and a sneakpeak tells me, there will be icy, and not fire area in this act.
Great Swords turn out to be twohanded, but definitely has the most damage. Of course this is the most expensive item too. Here is the list of equipment might worth your attention from the shop:
- Frost Masterwork Hammer +2: 8-44 frost dmg (definitely not ideal) 9,793$
- Ice Burst Masterwork Battle Axe +2: 14-52 frost dmg. 24,679$. (a wee bit more expensive option, again cold dmg, and twohanded.
- Masterwork Morningstar of Disruption +1: 18-26 dmg, 13,493$. A definite, clear-cut improvement on what you found in Crypt level 2. But as there seem not to be any undead in this Act, you can go for a higher damage.
- Flaming Burst Masterwork Long Sword +1: 8-30 fire dmg (the element seem good for this act, probably ends up doing more damage than the morningstar).12,035$
- Flaming Burst Darkwood Staff: 6-36 fire dmg. 7,790$. For the sorceress the added distance might worth this to consider.
- Mithral Scimitar +2: 21-27 physical dmg. 15,838$. Seems to be the best all-covering one-handed option.
- Masterwork Great Sword of Speed: 20-48 dmg, twohanded. 26,525$. I feel the substantialy higher price, the same min dmg as the scimitar, and that this is far from the endgame, makes this a less attractive option
------------------
Jewelry n the shop:
- amulet of +1 STR
- ring of +1 CON
- amulet of DEX +1, +2
- amulet of +2 INT
- ring of prot +3 (gives AC)

Will-o-Wisps:
- they do electric damage for a period, then recharge
- they must be hit to be eliminated

Btw, if you are at your carrying capacity, and get a reward, it'll be dropped on the ground.
Come to that, the dwarf you find alive is a #&@ and drops the flask of oil on the ground inftead of giving it to you.

NOTE: until the Thieves Guild I just kept spare potions on the ground. This turned out to be a mistake, the potions got gone.

NOTE ON SAVING: This game's saving method is horrendous. The classes saves should be separated, or the very least the last reloaded save should jump to first place. Also, while enemies are nearby, saving should not be possible.
I've lost 2 hour progress with my dwarf, and that +2 regeneration amulet did speed up the game, so I'm extra pissed for it.

Onto sorceress progress: 1 point in Burning Hands start to be not enough against the thieves. I'll have to come up with something new soon.
Yep, Magic Missile is adequate. Not that far behind Melf's, I expect it to hurt everything, dirt cheap, and on top of everything no need to bother with aiming. Perfect against the Thief Boss. Avoid melee, and step away from his daggers. He'll eventualy aim ahead of you, so don't run around like headless chicken either. Bring 20+ rjuv potions, and 15+ healing potions.
Fighting the Beholder as sorceress is a bit more complicated than for a fighter, namely because it can randomly deal out massive melee damage, and if it does it twice in a row, you're toast. Instead be just outside its melee range (do beholder females exist?) , and spam Burning Hands. On bgger monsters it seems to work more efficiently.
Spells the beholder has:
- magic missle with negligable dmg
- throwing 2 will-o-wisps: they are too far to do any real harm
- some green spiral / red lines on the floor: the red is more dangerous covering more area. If you see these, MOVE.
- ember: run away like heck! It hurts!
I think I had no more than 15 each potion, and survived without much fuss.

In theory, trolls/giants/ogres (sources name them differently) are the easiest monster in the book. Get rid of the sorrounding units, have enough space before them, wait until they pick up a rock, then go full on melee on 'em. Except when there's not enough space, or just the AI goes wrong, and they hit you anyway.

You know, if the AI would work as intended, the yetis wouldn't be that bad. In theory if you stand the right distance they would use ranged, but the projectile would swoop above your head. Of course this is not what happens for a lot of times.

I've slugged until now to try out the Meteor Storm spell. It is as expected like Diablo's Armageddon spell. Has very short area of effect, practicaly can only hit what's right next to you. It also has no duration - the rocks fall, and that's it.
There's also a ca. 5 second timer after casting when you won't able able to cast absolutely anything.

Stats for the sorceress: INT seems obvious to cast spells, and stand around for minimal time. Yes this is such a game you spend the majority of the playthrough just standing by. Now there's this thing, that you'd like to wear heavy stuff (and sell stuff etc.). Until now that's not that big of a deal, but sooner or later give it a thought.
Sorc has 13 STR, and each point gives you 10 carry weight. Given later armour weight a ton, 200 lbs sounds attractive, that'd be 20 STR. You only get points every 3 levels, that's 5 point, whatever, point is, with 2*3 STR jewelry, you'd be covered, so 1 point into STR seems reasonable. SPOILER: the act 3 shop does sell those! Of course you can just buy the +1 STR amulet in Act 2. But the maulet-slot can be used better, no?

The archer has some semi-seriousproblems with its things.
One: the tergeting only works after you shot at least once, for like 5 seocnds, and there is no "holding the shot", so good luck with your abilities.
Two: yes, your special shots are magic. This means they require more than just leftclick, and consume mana. A lot of mana, Still better than nothing, I guess.
The thief boss is teeth-grinding, but eventualy manageable.
The beholder is just a lot of running, and quaffing potions. Much easier.
Thought if something fails, I could Recal, or the very least walk back to Act 1 for arrows and stuff. Well, neither option is possible.

Bow upgrade in Act 2 shop:
- Frost Masterwork Shortbow +2: 14-44 cold. 15,299$ (not worth it)

Minor notes:
- do not stand in campfires, they hurt
- will-o-wisp is immun to lightning
- 2 point in lightning ball (sorc) will carry you through Act 2, do not overdo it, Act 3 is the lightning realm

There is some avdnatage playing in an emulator. I think at least that's the reason I can just switch window, and my HP/MP still gets regenerated.

Btw, I'd be interrested the testers setting the controls. They must had at least 3 arms to reach all buttons.
My setting is:
right hand: mouse
left hand: y/z: magic, x: jump, c: switch weapon (mandatroy for archer), v: action
d, f: rotate camera
e, r: potions

A good news: if you cast a magic requiring a weapon, it automaticaly switches to that weapon. Given the nature of the Archer, this benefits that class good.

Mines lvl 1: you can't see squat, on the othe rhand the enemy can't navigate well through the narrow spaces. Melee and ranged, no additional dmg from the drows. There are some "small" psider too again.
Mines lvl 2: drow mages. They cast rarely, and don't like to move. The poison missile does not cause DOT, but the freezing one's chill lasts forever. You might try to use exploding kegs. During the 2nd half of this you'll meet lizardriders (impressive, but nothing special), and repeating crossbow units, which are dangerous.
Oh, and there are chasms. I was walking over them without any problem for like half an hour when the program finaly decided I'll just fall into them. Avoid those.
Also: while you can adjust the camera, it also moves now by itself, reminding me there happened no secret room since the first one, so I get the feeling this "game" is actualy some engine-tech-demo?
Mines lvl 3, aka. Underdark: the new enemy is the umber hulk. It always comes solo, except the last one is sorrounded by some minions, which made me figuring out if a monster explodes another monster, you still get the exp. On this note: drow mages' spells can blow up ignition barrels, so blow them up yourself. So, umber halks are a "bit" bigger than in the original games, and do NOT confuse you. Instead they are big. Play it safe: block - get closer - block - hit once - block, repeat.
The local boss is entirely random, definitely save before. If she starts spamming magic missile, you'll be toast. Otherwise, her animation is totaly risky, almnost worth playing the game!

The sorc using weapon becomes pretty useless from the point of entering the Mine.
Watch out, your own spells can blast up kegs too. But your magic arrows can not!
The drow priestess has a shielding spell, don't cast when that's up.

Archer is the most ill-prepared for umber-hulks, fortunately the AI is dumb, so lead the critters to some narrow space, and shott them. You'll have to stand around for a long while recharging mana, but otherwise you'll quaff an unsubstantiable amount of potions.
Fighting the drow boss: shoot her with normal, unenchanmted arrows as much as you can. Run away from magic missiles. Step away from other spells. Use shock arrows to get rid of the summons. So it is actualy way more important to bring healing potions. And arrows. I've used 100+ arrows just in this fight.

Question: if there's 0% chance to find anything better than in the shop(s), why don't we just find gold?

With fighter I hate Ice Cave giants with passion. The displacement-beasts are annoying, but dumb, easy to deal with them, at worst, time-consuming. Giants without range is basicaly impossible: you can't block their thrown stuff, and can't block their stomping, which is one of their two melee attack, and they can spam it. Even their axe-attack is horrendous, but combined with stomping... It would help if attacking could overrule blocking, so when I see it trying to stomp instead of axing, could counterattack, but this is a crappy game. So save, save, save, and try again. Also prepare to spend a ton of potions, because the stomp can rmeove 80% of the DWARF's HP in one go...
For the giant spider: just attack it head-first, and run away if your HP gets low. Also bring TON of HP-potions.
The dragon has very cheap moves, but his shower tend not to hit, and you just have to realise, you have at best 3 hits before it stomps, so you know you must run away after 1-3 hits.
Here the game drops a very cheap move: you can not go back to the shop for refill, or just for a good save. Just so you know.
On this note, when you leave Act 2, you'll immediately face some undead, so if you think you have the spare mones, buy that morningstar.

It is rather unfortunate there's not a normal weapon-switch. You could equip a very low warhammer on switch, and rely on that Clangeddin's Fist. But we can't have nice things.

Act 3 shop:
--------------
jewelry:
- ring +3 STR, 6,000$
- ring +4 DEX: 8,800$
- amulet +2 DEX 3,500$
- amulet: +3 CON 5,000$
- amulet +4 INT 6,000$
- amulet +4 AC 4,600$
armor:
- scale mail+
- full platemail 39 AC 25,000$ 50 lbs
- full plate boots 12 AC 3,300$ 6 lbs
- full plate gloves 12 AC 3,700$ 4 lbs
- full plate helmet 12 AC 3,000$ 8 lbs
weapons
- Mithral Morning Star of Disruption +3: 33-45 dmg, 47,533$, 12 lbs
- Flaming Burst Mithral Morniing Star +1: 30-57 fire dmg, 40,519$, 12 lbs
- Icy Burst Darkwood Shortbow +3: 24-69 cold dmg, 44,838$, 2 lbs (there's a normal dmg bow too with half the damage, so pick this)
- Icy Burst Mithral Long Sword +1: 12-63 cold dmg, 33,189$, 4 lbs
- Icy Burst Masterwork Battle Axe +2: 14-52 cold dmg, 24,679$, 7 lbs
- Shocking Burst Mithral Battle Axe +3: 24-117 electric dmg, 97,921$, 7 lbs (WARNING: the boss in Act is immun to lightning!)
- Adamantite Halberd of Speed +3: 20-108 dmg, 154,288$, 18 lbs
- Adamantine Bastard Sword +2: 40-80 dmg, 43,335$, 10 lbs (twohanded)
- Shock Masterwork Warhammer +3: 10-70 electric dmg, 23,850$, 8 lbs (the only warhammer in this shop)
There are more options, all inferior to my judgement to these.
NOTE: this shop does not offer any shield!
NOTE: sorceress is just too easy at this point. Sidnote: your skills get put on the spell-conveyor-belt in the order you buy the first point in them. Keep that in mind when planning the character.

Swamp zombies and regular ones: zombies might fall appart as you keep hitting them. Two option is relevant: without head they might stumble away, which is annoying. Without legs they'll keep crawling to you - in this form they can avoid missiles.
Swamp zombies on top of normal zombie behaviour when truly dead, will explode to a poison cloud. The Dwarf laugh on this, but not the others.

My archer's equipment weight, when leaving the shop is ca. 200 lbs. I'm carrying 200 arrows. STR-rings are very useful because of this.

Adderspine Road East (first real act 3 area) is disgustingly big, and easily lethal for a melee fighter - if you get hit by a shaman's poison cloud, probably for everyone. And if 3 hits you ate once...
Also a WARNING: do NOT get close to the map's invisible border! The contolrs get switched near it, and I needed 20 minuted to somehow get back to the normal reality!

Cherlimber's Crown is pretty tolerable in size and design. Big, not overtly, and pretty straightforward. On the other hand Cherlimber's Keep Exterior is again a big mess.
Then the Interior turns absurd, throwing 2 Umber Hulk on you at once. Not to mention the boss, who is simply ridiculous. On this sidenote: polearms are NOT axes. Doesn't matter too much, because YOU STILL CAN'T buy it - you have to spend a lot on healing potions here. The only other tip with the fighter is, to chase his tail. You can't get behind, but can get beside, and there he can't hit you until you hit once or twice.
After the fight do not forget to visit the shopkeeper. He has things to say. I'm not sure if this effects anything, but we definitely want to avoid an Orb Glitch, right?

The Rotting Bog: the next area is to the left. Be cautious with the waypoint near that exit.

The Sinking Temple has horrible design-problem: the minotaurs. They can hit you with the bull-rush attack for 50% HP. Of the Dwarf. While it is blocking. And they can spam this attack.
On mapping: initialy, the passage to the right is a dead end.
At the next junction the passage to the left is a side-corridor. It has minotaurs in it, but otherwise empty.
And when you have to make a choice the third time, the right way is leading to the exit.
Btw, the minotaurs turn ridiculously hard, so abouse the technique done against the Lizard King.
When you reach the end of this, the lizardman shopkeeper will wait you there. This does not interfere your journey here, you could teleport out for shopping! SELL EVERYTHING YOU DON'T NEED AND BUY AS MANY STUFF YOU CAN CARRY. Why? This is the last shopping in the game, so as well can make it count.

The Sorc just walks through everything. The burrowers mean some challenge, but 2 level in Ball Lightning, and running away solves that dilemma.

Heeey, why none told me about the 2nd point in Shock Arrow giving a mini Ball Lightning effect? On the sidenote: it also blows up kegs now.
Another note: Archer chucks down magic potions like none else. The amount of mana available and the amount of mana needed is really not on the balance here.

The Archer is a disaster to fight the Lizard King, and can only do themelee option - but maybe there is another chance. Read somewhere someone put all the explosive barrels - the only movable furniture on the map - at the door, and did a hugh hit on the king's HP. My idea is an alternative: make a narrow from the kegs, and do not use Shock arrow 2+, aka. do not blow them up, just barricade the entrance. The monster should stay close, and you just make it a pincushion.

Ok, I'm skipping the Archer's last section, and simply finish this thing with the Sorc.
Onyx Tower lvl 0 is a big labyrinth, but dense enough that you'll remember where you were and were not.
Onyx Tower lvl 1 is ring-shaped.
Onyx Tover lvl 2 is ... I didn't even care. I did not get lost, and that was enough.
Onyx Tower lvl 3 is again made out of ring(s)
Onyx Tower lvl 4, aka. The Black Forge is again ring. The Giant Golem means no challange for a ranged character. Just lure it to any of the side, you'll reach a doorway of human size, so it'll simply be unable to follow. It drops the Onyx Sword, 90-120 dmg, onehanded. This is sooo a middle-finger for the twohanded dwarf...
IMPORTANT: while you'll ikely find multiple parts of armour better than sheer full plate, there is no shield drop after Act 2. Also note, that within the Onyx Tower, potion-drop is VERY generous - arrow drop on the other hand might be a problem. Also laso, while armor is likely, weapon is NOT guaranteed to be found better than the shop's especialy not bows.
Tip for mages: go for +5 of Defense weapon, plus a shield. Those all give you AC. Btw, it is totaly ridiculopus that a mage can wear full plate.

Disproving a myth: some walkthroughs mention the Golden Armor Set (no shield) which can be found on the level before the final boss where are the friendly ghosts, and the strategywiki mentiones but does not list a "special body armour for Adriana (the sorceress)". This/these item(s) DO NOT EXIST.

The final boss is actualy pathetic with a ranged character. Stand at a distance, and block when she drops her sword. Do not attack while she is growing (lightning flashes all over from her body), she is invincible during that. When she is at her final form, she'll make blades fall from the sky, but those can be blocked the same.
She is immun to lightning, but otherwise all other elements work perfectly fine.
She does have some lightning-spell, but I'm not sure what are the conditions for that to happen..

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THE GAUNTLET
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This "mode" features Drizzt Do Urden, whacking himself through 8 rooms:
- horde of spiders
- kobolds (the shamans are the worst)
- umber hlks (lure all three or whatever to the alley, stand before the first, whack 2 times, get closer, repeat)
- giant spiders + small spiders
- gnolls + kobolds
- gnolls
- gargoyles
- spiders + drow (1 archer), + 1 iron golem at the end of the room

You find RANDOM potions (HP or MP) in chests, and have 15 minutes to demolish every monster, so at the end the game lets you save, and thus bring your lvl 16 (not 17 like you end up with the other chars!) Drizzt to normal games (either as player 2, or solo even in Extreme Mode).

While in the Inventory menu, time does not pass. As Drizzt is without armor, it seems reasonable to enter it occasionaly and equip what you find.

The real problem here is, the Gauntlet is super-hard, I say as hard as Tofu Survivor in the original Resident Evil 2, and that took me YEARS to accomplish, so no, this is not a good mode, and as there's no cheatcode (invincibility, extra potions- something, anything -, I hereby give up on this.

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UNLOCK EXTREME MODE WITHOUT DRIZZT
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Obviously I don't know why you'd want to do that, but if you are here just for the difficulty setting, here is how it's done:
1) start The Gauntlet
2) bring up the PAUSE menu
3) choose Import character
4) bring in the character you finished with Easy/Normal/Hard. It'll even be fully geared!
5) do the Gauntlet
--> Extreme Mode is unlocked

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Extreme Mode Act 1 Shop (prices with sorceress):
Jevelry:
- extra MP/HP potion
- recall potion
- ring of prot +2, 1,835$
- amulet of intellect +3, 3,705$
- ring of DEX +3, 5,446$
- amulet of prot +6, 7,380$
- ring of DEX +4, 7959$
- amulet of DEX +5, 10,334$
- ring of prot +8, 11,878$
Armor
- padded helmet +1, 412$
- scale gloves: 1,215 $
- scale gloves +3
- half plate gloves +1
- full plate boots +3
- scale mail +3
- chain boots +5
- half plate helmet +5
- scale boots +5
- half plate helmet +5
- full plate boots +5
- half plate boots +5
- chain boots +5
- scale mail +5
- half platemail +1
- chainmail +5
- chain gloves +5
Weapons
- arrows
- long sword, 389$
- halberd: 2,244$
- long sword +3
- keen battle axe +3
- adamantite long sword
- spiked fine morning star +1
- flaming mithral long sword +1, 11,005$
- keen adamantite spear +1
- wounding great axe +5
- wounding adamantite scimitar
- frost morning star +3
- icy burst mithral lt. mace
- mithral dagger +5, 20,406$
- frost mithral battle axe +2
- frost fine staff of defense +3
- serrated masterwork long sword of defense +3
- serrated mithral scimitar +3, 24,5559$

EDIT: found a Drizzt playthrough of the campaing on u2b, seems he got the race-less (human) treatment. No special dialogue anywhere. The dwarf leader does not recognise him as a drow, neither has the drow leader anything special to say.

Extreme Mode with Sorceress:

- I immediately regret not putting all my points to STR. You advance lightnng speed on equipment, and collect tens of thousands of $$$ with this character which needs like none of it - but better gear is heavier gear too.

Enemies immun to lightning (on Extreme Difficulty):
- gelatinous cube
- will-o-wisp

Act 2 shop:
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weapons: the most expensive stuff is ca. 75K $, but what a sorc wants is the Frost Masterwork Short Sword of Defense +5. Obviously for the AC. This costs 43K $, so maybe buy instead the Flaming Long Sword of Defense +5, which only costs 29K $.
jewelry:
- ring +9 AC
- amulet +12 AC
- ring +9 DEX
- ring of rejuv +12
- amulet of regen +14
- ring +14 STR
armor:
- helmet: 16 AC
- gloves: 15 AC
- boots: 14 AC
- body armor: 42 AC

Ya know, every was talkin' 'bout how hard Extreme Mode is, and even the game demands you import and not create a character. But I'm just walking through it, like walkin in the park.

Act 3 shop
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jewelry:
- amulet +15 regen
- ring +15 STR
- ring +15 rejuv
- ring +15 DEX
- BUG: another +15 STR ring (you can buy any equipment in infinite amount)
armor:
- helmet: 17 AC
- gloves: 15 AC 2 lbs (elven plate +3)
- boots: 17 AC
- body armor: 42 AC
weapons:
By the look of it, the items are the very same as were on Normal!

Spells to use if you want to preserve kegs to block the Lizard King:
- obviously any Burning Hand-like spell is out
- also any fireball-like spell is out
- the fire shield thingy is not good either
- the chain lightning spell does hit and blows up equipment.
- this leaves Mordekainen's Sword and Melf's arrow, as well as Magic Missile.
The problem with Magic Missle is its low damage, and the missiles like to spread and be wasted, especialy if the enemy gets melee.
Melf's arrow is equaly useless for damage. There is a hidden 5/second DoT on it besides to pure damage, just so you know. It still takes millions of years to finish one off, but seems it hits directly the enemy, so applicable.
Mordekainen sucks, pure and simple. the sword barely does anything, and the enemy just doesn't care to attack it (I suspect lakcing a HP-bar can do that to the AI). Also: you can only have 1, and you can not re-cast it until it evaporates.
So what's the solution? I dunno.
UPDATE: Magic Missle and Mordekainen does absolutely negligable damage here. They aren't necessarily bad skills, and MM does worth that 1 point early game absolutely, but for Exreme Lizard King if you can to finish today, you'll need MAXED Melf's. That's the only thing that does noticable damage AND does not endanger the environment. Btw, you only need 1 barrel. Moveable furnitrue can be found ONLY in the two big cobold siderooms on the left, the first (closer to the entrance) has only 2 ignition kegs, and one will probably be detonated by the kobolds themselves. But truly, oyu only need ranged damage and a thing that blocks the entrance, and normal barrels are prefet for this. Bring two just to be safe. Then tank up with a gazillion mana-potions, and just spam Melf when you can.

Aside the above problem, as you can see NOTHING is immun to the momst devastating spell in the game aside 2 culprite, which won't even horde you. So Ball Lightning pretty much everywhere, and buy the mana regeneration skill for convneience. Some point in the HP-bar also relieves you from carrying around even more potions than you absolutely have to. 2-3 point in HP-regen will solve your problem refilling your HP-bar by itself between two fights.

The swamp part, where the diggers come out from the ground: why bother? You are done with the shop, bought everything, and you are already OP, and you best skill is maxed a long while ago. RUN!

The final boss didn't do the rainstorm, instead when she grew, exclusively used her electric attack, so definitely bring 20-30 extra healing potion along 30-50 mana potion, otherwise you are toast from that.

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Normal, Onyx Tower, Archer:
Surprisingly, arrows were not an issue. Still bought the enchanted quiver perk - from then on, I could carry QUADRAUPLE amount of arrows.
The only problem can be, this character drinks mana like no tomorrow, so have 30+ on you.
Not-Amelyssan cast a lot of lightning on me, so consumed like 20 HP-potion too. Otherwise, blocking is slightly more compicated than for the mage, the extra button can mean some reloads until you don't mess it up, but that's it.

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Archer Extreme

Annoying, but you soon get over it.
Rats have way too many HP, but are only dangerous in packs.
Kobolds will hurt you on the other hand, so fight them one-by-one.
Even if the random does not favour you, don't worry, in the secret room in the Cellar you'll find a guaranteed bow. That likes to oneshot a lot of things.
Oh, skills: more critical and better critical does help until you find your bow. I've maxed them out. Also have 4 in shock arrow, cold arrow maxed (because of Not-Melissan), and 9 unspent skillpoint. If you are cheap, because how the saves work, you can just go ahead with 5 in shock arrow instead.

The Orb:
Begore the orb, in the crypts you'll stand around a lot, unless you constantly hop to the city buying porions, and that potentialy will get in your wait collecting loot to be able to buy potions. So get the faster manaregeneration skill, and max it to your best ability.
Sill, you'll wait around a lot, so I went watching some videos - but bewar! Some monsters like to wander way out of their place just to fist you up, so stand at least two rooms from where you did not esplre yet.
Somewhere along the way buy the 30 dmg dcimitar form the shop, else you'll have problems - if you remember the orb is immun to magic.
You'll also need a lot of arrows: carry around 2-300 at least in these areas, and from time to time you'll still have to hop the town for resupply.
Also also, start the Orb-fight with 30-40 mana potion, or you'll run dry.

Beholder + reaching the dwarven city:
Well, to deal with the beholder will consume like 15+ HP-potion and 25+ mana potion, plus I brought in like 300 arrows, as I was at my limit of carrying power, so I started to run out of arrows (37 left) when reaching the mid-level savepont to the dwarves. I suggest picking as man in the extra carrying capacity as possible. You other potion is standing around doing nothing, because you'll have to melee. On this other option's favour: when you do around to the dwarves, you'll be able to buy STR-rings.

In act 2 I went for buying potions, but very fast realised this is not sustainable.

During the cave filled thundra, with the constant abush-at-enter I felt some AC or HP wouldn't hurt, but there are so little to be gained from those skills, I simply couldn't bother, just like for any remaining skills.
Anyway, inside the mine, you'll use your sword a lot, it simply does not wirth standing around that much. Also, the dark elf mages have terrible aim, so they won't hurt that much, and the archers are less dangerous when you get up close and personal tbh.

The Drow Queen:
tookk 25 health potion and 50(!) manapotion to deal with her. I also swear, the AI cheats, and many times puts up her invulnerability just to mess with you.

I suggest buying the flaming burst adamantite long sword +5 at least for the final part of this act.

The Dragon, and the swamp:
I was not sure about this, but 25 mana potion was just enough to pass this, despite the annoying flying it does.
Also, even with the crypt-or-whatever and the swamp to reach the next shop, 600 arrows is more than enough for this section (the dragon + the swamp). And as it is mostly zombies, even if you run out of arrows, it won't hurt you much. Though when exiting to the swamp, you better have like 20-30 arrows to deal with te lizardmen mob.

Oh, skills: Repulsion is a horrible spell which doesn't work on bosses anyway, so skip that.
You are also covered with the two arrow skill (lightning and cold), so why invest there more.
Combat Reflexes also won't help you without mana, unless you plan on shooting unenchanted arrows, which don't even work with Hail of Arrows as far as it can be known from the guids you find, so who cares.
But all the other skills I could max out at this point, and have 10 points left.

The Lozard King
Dunno who designed this, but went a bit overboard if you ask me.
450 arrows, and 70 manapotions went onto this. I'm not joking.

The Obsidian Tower
I have not much idea how you'd stand if you'd search thoroughly, cleaning all rooms. But if you just go straight to the exists, you'll have plenty of consumables accumlating. I started with 100-100 HP/mana, and climbed those to 150-150. I was also busy throwing away arrows, I mean I still had 1,000 on me, and that's really an amount.

Not-Amelissan
Well, she only used here electric attack, not the sword attack, and it made negligable damage.
Also, only took less than 50 mana potion to win. Kinda disappointing.

Dwarf, normal, Onyx Tower

The spinning-blade golems hit hard if they do not do their spinning-blade thing, so attack when you do. Just do things headfirst (excet the ,minotaurs).

Golems:
- weapon-flashing golem: see above
- iron golem: these do nothing interresting
- gold golem: if it starts spitting poison, that's kinda good, you can flank it for free shots. Otherwise, just stand there and hit-block.
- tall ebony golems: rush in to do close combat, and do hit-hit-block. Well, if your weapon speed is maxed like for me. Anyway, there CAN be a problem: turns out they can spit fire. Nothing much to do then, you can'zt go away, so might as well try to fling your weapon.
- the boss-golem: these is pathetic. Just go in, and hit-block-hit-block until it is finished.

Not-Ammelissan
I forgot to pick up the ubersword, but she went down fast anyway. Ye, she can kinda do melee, but with the dwarf's HP, it's sufferable.

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Dwarf, Exztreme
Well, this can tank out even the kobolds. Seriously. I tried, and it worked jumping through the boxes where you get the first group of throwers, and whirlwind them.
The whirlwind skill is more of a flavour, but speeds up things occasionaly, so I kept it.
The ogre-bear-things are though still too fast, no matter the weapon, bad design. Just keep whacking them, don't try to block - and don't use axes, they are way too slow.
IYou get a guaranteed axe in one of the first chests btw, before you even find the bow, but it's not very useful.
I'll tell when you get the first hammer. You sure can never buy one in the shops... How freakin' awesome, isn't it?
Talking about shops, Act 1's shop has an oddity, and it is related to dwarves: the Frost Mithral Battle Axe +2. Sure, it's an axe, but its 21-78 dmg-range is way above the Act 1 norm. And it's affordable even. If you care the slightest for xes, buy this. I could afford it after beating the ogrebear boss. Later there will be onehanded weapons with the same damage, but you know, those are not axes. and from oce-dmg dwarf weapon, nothing comes close from the shops' selection.

Warning: you can not block crawling zombies! Plus they are fast, so can stunlock you - in which case jump backwards.
The drawback is, after each spin, there's a 0.5 sec interval you are defensless, so casting this in a crowd is a bad idea. It helps against 2, max 3 enemy fights, or against ogre-bears / gelatinous cubes.

Clangeddin's Fist is a quest-related skill, so you'll HAVE TO pick it up, and you better have a warhammer. The quality of the hammer is not important the slightest, as they do not effect the damage this skill does. It takes forever to cast, then it hits everything ~on the screen, and even put them into stun (most of them anyway). The bad news is, it takes forever to execute, and is interruptable.

The thieves still have their range-advantage, and they are good fighters, so single them out.
For the Giant Spiders - you either become pro at vircling, or use Vlangedin's Fist to get rid of them. That'll be a fuss against the one on that looong corridor (lure it all the way back to the wypoint where the spider-cttle-pens are).
You'll have to drink mana potions regularly, so stock up at least 10 all the time.

The Thief Boss
I dunno what's here, we need a more viable strategy than just bringing 100+ HP-potions, 20+ mana potions, and Clngedin hm to the ground (push him to a wall with it, and when he teleports in an open direction just stand blocking).

Bull Rush is pretty useless, but if you consider it, you should know, it is not spammable, neither can you combine it with other spells. It prevents you casting anything for 3 seconds.

Act 2 Shop:
there is a 64-100 fire dmg axe to buy. It will be available in the next act too, so why not buy it now, and is the best fire axe for the swarf. Act 3 will have the electric axe, which has worse dmg by the way (18-102, the final boss is immun to electricity, so dunno why you were not allowed to buy this in Act 1, and get the cold in Act 3, but whatever).
And because you have to carry around many different heavy weaponry, some points in Endurance (extra carry weight) still might be required along your statpoints.

In Act 2 the dwarf is surprisingly effective, with the exception of drow archers, which hit like a mule.
Also be cautious around yetis.
Wolf and gnoll ambushes on the other hand not very dangerous, spam whirlwind in those siotuations. At the yeti ambush though, your only option is to focus on 1 yeti, and escape the cave when things get dangerous to your health.
The drow queen goes down suprisingly fast, and only eats like 25-30 HP-potion.

At lvl 22 you'll be able to afford even such minute skills as the +AC one, so do so.
What you do not need are the archery skills, the bull rush, and the stupid +AC if you have a shield. This last one is so miniscule, and specific, and hard to fulfill its condition, I don't get why it exists. Especialy that it's only good for consideration with the über-sword, and that can only be used against 1 enemy, the finaly boss. It's ridiculous.
Btw, it's probably best if you don't bother with the ice cave giant spider. It has way too much HP, turns too easily, and its venom is just too strong. Plus as all spiders it falls back at every hit of yours, so no whirwinding here. Also no Clangeddin, as there's no thight spot to distance yourself.

The Lizard King
It's actualy not that bad, just annoying. First, pile all the explosive barrels at the entrance of his throne room, and block the space with a normal barrel. Luring him in, and blowing up all 8 barrels while he is in position with a Clangeddin will take almost half his HP.
Then lure him to the first side-room where he can be obstructed by the table, so you can Clangeddin him to ath.
Dwarf Warrior is definitely the hard mode, but in the end if you have the patience to play all race/class through in the right (easy -> hard) order, it's ok.