Just to make thing simple I guess I'll note here my experience. All new data will be edited in this first post.

I. Character Creation:

Make a Custom Character. It doesn't matter what your gender is (male/female/child).
Classes: of course everyone can learn everything, but note this:
- spells cost a ton, and regeneration while exists is slow. And you rpogress will be slow. So forget it.
- while lockpick can have its place, it is only used for random sutff. And random stuff is lame. So best starting combination is Warrior/Warrior, as that gives you Repair option.
Difficulty Setting: go with the official strategy guide: start the game Very Easy, so you get 2 skillpoints to start with. As soons as the game started change the difficulty to Hardcore. While you can not lower the difficulty from this point like ever, you gain some advantage: you have a chance to get an extra skillpoint every level. This means save before leveling up, and reload if you only get1 skillpoint.
Stats: lower everything to 0, add 10 CON, 4 AGI. Dump all points into AGI at the start, because the enemy is way higher level than you. When clvl 4 I had only 1 point to spare on my main char which went into STR, because you gain 5 stat per clvl, and the twohanded sword has the requirement of 16.

Exp works the old stupid way: monsters give less exp as you level up, while quest exp incirse.
There are 3 quests in Prison Level 1:
- give water to prisoner
- kill Fergus/TortureMaster (this is unavoidable). Do NOT kill his imp - better exp that way.
- free whassisname's soul.
All optional quests only happen when you choose to finish them, so don't worry that just because you have the right item the NPC will disappear. thisis important, because wassisname-ghost is a teacher.
Oh, and when you meet the first rat choose the option to attack it. It gives exp,and you need that. There are no negative consequences.

Teachers work stupid. Books work the same. They don't incrise your skill, only let you incirse your skill. It is as dumb as it sounds. Btw, don't bother with the skill system, only when you'll have to. there are some utility spells (repair, identify item, alchemy, sharpen weapon, luck), but it is mostly a fight-oriented game.
The only good news is, both books and teachers unlocks trees for both characters the same time.
The ghost-teacher takes 60 gold,and that's seriously cheap, so while they are wizard skills, get them.
Teachers in the main game are much cheaper than thier battlefield counterpart. Although keep note that for skills more than one teacher might exist. So if you don't need a skill right there, you might pass on the low level teacher and wait for the later one.

Partying: you have 2 characters. They are stupid. They don't keep formation, the "leader" don't take first place (not necessarily), so it is all clunky. Just tag both as active,and move them manualy during fights.
Beware, that arrows are not infinite, you must find supply for them. They don't seem to be too rare, but still.
Though you can set ambush. This means leave one character afar, and lure ONE enemy close. If one of your char gets one hit from death move it away, so the enemy targets the other, and hope this way you have enough health.

Food&sleep:
- food no longer works as stimpack. And you can't sleep infinite. Every sleep consumes 1 food, and always fully heals you.

II. Level Guide:

Prison Level 1, aka.Torture Level:

You should kill everything around and be lvl 2, put all points into AGI for both characters, thus with like 2 healing potions you should be able to beat Fergus. This in theory gives you a health and mana shrine - too bad youdon't use mana, and the health shrine does not refil.
One of the rooms (aside Fergus) has an imp - kill it first to prevent it fleeing.
As you lack healing, you'llstand around a lot. The level isn't hard per se, but boring because of this.
Oh, and at least one of the lvl 6 ghosts is a summoner, meaning it can replace its lvl 5 ghost if you kill that. The funny thing in this is, the summoned ghost does exp, which at this point is very convenient.
You'll find your first Battlefield key here, but I'm not sure how that works at the moment. One thing is sure: everyone suggests dolls as portable containers, and it is common knowledge battlefields have their own merchants. So as far I see you NEED the dolls, and can't just hop every second to the battlefield to sell the extra stuff, meaning do not enter this first field until you're done with Prison lvl 2 (aka. Pit Level), where you get your first doll.

EDIT: it is definitly some respawning issue. Maybe you should defeat all enemy in a room to prevent it. Too bad unles you want to respec, you cann ot incrise your efficiency on this level, because both twohanded and onehanded + shield option are infintely better than the simply onehanded skilltree, what is just dumb. Or I'm missing something.

EDIT: so, battlefields are time-sinkholes, every section of the battlefields have 3 subterranean level too, each feeling already infinite. This means there are an unreasonable amount of exp, gold and items there. In theory they are finite, but they are WAST. I suggest leave the option as Last Resort in case you hit an unreasonable wall. Like in Act 1, with the 1st key I got a level (practicaly the whole clvl 7) from the battlefield, and it felt useful given how strong immediate monsters are, and I did cleansweap as I went. But it is really boring to do

Prison Level 3, aka. 1st Maze Level

The imp disappears as soonas yousolve its riddle. This means you get 1 chance to learn thief skills (poison weapon is considerable bare minimum for the extra passive damage), and trade with it.

With the imp's riddle solved I got clvl 8. This was enough to dealwith the two stone demon even with 1 point in healing. As both my characters have 200+ vitaity, I started to try to accumlate stats for later use. Agility is till indemand though (22/25 respectively). Mana is no problem to cast healing once, with 0 intelligence I have enough maximum mana for that.

Tip: you can walkaround the ending portal to get the water crystal now.
Tip: as after game loot will definitely be infinite, and actualy did not seen any locked chest on the battlefield (doesn't mean there can't be, but who cares), teach lockpick to the DeathKnight if you want to use that skill. Oh, by the way, you're only allowed to have 20skill learnt.

Prison Level 4-7, aka. 2nd Maze Level

This is a teleport-maze. Well, not maze, just some area sequenced by teleports because they can. Three things became obvious here:
#1 you won't spend your life reloading for equipment. you go with what you find right there. Well, maybe the set/unique items will be something when it comes to that, but those are far away.
#2 if youdon't like dungeon crawl, youchose the wrong game. It's not boring, but the game IS a dungeon crawl.
#3 even if you don't have skill in it you NEED ranged weapons. On both of your characters. I gave 10% critical hits,and 5 point reload speed for the DeathKnight making it an archer. The problem is: every enemy can run,and dran skeleton mages are hugh annoyance with their "keep distance" policy. And you'll meet a 6-pack of them here. Ye, you can't pass drinking potions there with your front character here (although might worth trying adding another point of healing).

Training Grounds, aka. Drill Grounds

You should take the advice of the DK and wear the local armor. Why? Because dead people don't give quests. Ye,you want here first do the quests, and only later do the killing (the only things you could attack otherwise are too high level).

To start you have to dispose FOUR death knight, not five whatthe strategy guide claims. They also move adequiatly fast so positioning is hard, AND they run some steps towards you even if both your arrows miss, soyou have to back constantly. It IS doable though.

The parcour is a joke, no matter what everyone says ingame. But th traps leading out of the living quarters are not: my "hero" with 216 HP and the gem bag could die for the traps on the corridor, so save regularly.

Hm. The game either lies here, or has Unfinished Programming. In theory to levea the level you should be able to pass through illusionary walls. But they can't be passed, instead you must kill the guards youshould be able to avoid knowing this information.
But before that SNEAK and dispose the Death Knight patroling their room. Else you'd have tofight the DK along the soldiers, and that's not fun.

Barracks

You are still supposed to wear the fake armor of the previous level. Most enemies will still be hostile though, but aside the weight you probably don't have anything better yet.

Tips on Summoning Dolls: while they suck, it has no consequence if one dies - when oyu recast it it'll be back with all its stuff. Also, whenyou enter combat the program neglects the "you can not move" condition and replaces it with simple "you can't run" condition, and even instantly refills the stamina of the character to be able to use secondary attacks (whirlwind).

For this level the Official Strategy Guide says you can't unlock chests. Well, none told me that, I unlocked EVERYTHING.
Also, smehow all those letters of soldiers are not in the game.

Note on the bathroom (aka. lavatory): you can not get inside, period. There's no key, and maximum possiblelockpick won't make you pass.

Maybe you need some tips to choose the weapon class?
- swords are again overpowered, although there might have been intention to make The Weapon for this game axes. As bothare slashing weapons with STR/AGI related damage, who cares, they're the same.
- wands, clubs and staves are considerably faster than sword/axe, but have a bit less damage, and are a bit less frequent.
- hammers are a lot less frequent than sword/axe, offer slightly bigger damage, but are slightly even slower thenthose whatis bad news.
- daggers while all nice and flunky, have no unique version, meaning you get no guarantee for anything.
- usualy twohanded weapons offerlike double damage, and shields are not that great. There is one option though.
First: the unique stuff don't seem to come with random attributes, so random stuff will be an alternative, and gives all weapon class potential
Second:: while twohanded damage is superior for the most part, the unique club (can be found in Act 3) comes close to them, so if you want to use shields, that's where I'd aim for.

When you enter General Bram's room and unlock his chest, it worth to save&reload for a Bone Armor. No need to look for "nice attribs" though.

Leaving the level for Samuel's Lair is wee bit problematic,given that here is another of those 4*lvl 9 soldiers fights,and they definitely have the advantage now. To make this encounter toleratable send your troops in the northern room,one character hit the gong and escape ASAP. This leaves 3 soldiers at the gong, 1 inside. Kill the one left behind, then lure the others to the room.
A tip for this massive fights: put your archer other character to agressive and give it explosive arrows (or maybe splitting arrows). You don't have to worry about arrows at this point, as you should have killed a couple of merchants,so you should have ten thousand normal arrows, plus hundreds or even thousands of special arrows of each kind.

The only question remains for this act (don't forget to flow the place with lava!) wether to dealwith Samuel's Lair first, or that ghost you can summon the level before?
While sources differ on the levels of Samuel's personal guards, they agree they are considerably lower level than the ghost, so leave the ghost last.

Minor adjustment to Act 1: I'm not sure if you need to have the skills tosummon up a doll. Should try out if it pops up without or not. If it does, then why waste gold on learning the skill. Not that gold would be an issue, if you're like me and never buy a single thing and find everything on corpses as loot.
I actualy considered rising my speed stat in this chapter, but then I found a nice -3% speed twohanded axe with other nifty stats (and 30 STR requirement), so I didn't have to. I had like 2 statpoints in store, at clvl 11 on my main. Doesn't realy pay attention to the DK though.

III. Dolls

Mentioning dolls: if you plan on playing after the storymode, for all sake try this:
- right before the DK leaves the party, unlearn all its skills, and put each and every point into doll-skills! Pick your favourite doll, and give it levels and extra skillslots.
While resistances would be nice there are too many of them, while the respawn duration and extra radious are entirely useless.
Of course this scenarioassumes,the transfered levels and skillslots arepermanent, and won't go away with the character who has the skills initialy. I'm not evensure how that "skill slot"thing works. Does that transfer the skillslot with the skill you learnt with, or it is just an empty skillslot? Or a single skillpoint?
At this point I can only tell that dolls not just spawn with some stats, but they also have som unspent(!) skillpoints. The Act 1 doll on hardcore has 4. This amount does not incrise when the doll levels up.
Each time a doll gains a level (must level up manualy) gains 5 stat point though which you can distribute yousee fit.
Boththe skill and statsetup is preserved whenyousummon the doll later.
They can unlearn skills. Unfortunately you have to pay the price here too in pure gold, you can't pay in items.

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Act 2:

Citadel Sorroundings:

- do NOT attack neutral life forms (unless you really want to maximize exp for after-game battlefielddoll use). There are too many, and they run away a lot (must use bows if you try).
- to start go NORTH. You'll meet 2 Drunken Soldier stealing some of your exp, so join in. Clean the immediate area. After that takea step north to see 2 larger turtle creature (in hardcore. 1 otherwise). Do NOT make them attack you, make them attack the Drunken Soldiers! The reason is, they hit hard being levels above you and all. Beware: they harm the DeathKnight a lot harder for some reason.
- you can't kill the soldiers unless you have some area magic I assume. I won't bother. Their teaching also should be useless.
- the Magic Sword unique item is way crappier than the Official Strategy Guide claims. It has way lower damage, no boost on secondary stats. Only the resistances are there, which are dubious at best (half of them are negative).
- because Lazy Programin do NOT leave the island by yourself finding passage through the lava. You HAVE TO enter the prison and find the guide, else you'll meet bugs.
- there are 2 mages around. They do some area attack spell, so position your team accordingly. They are dangerous, so do your best.

Citadel Prison:
- this is a dungeon in the Sorroundings
- it is almost emptyaside some puny guards, 1 harmless monster, 2 friendly imp,and 2 lvl 23 monster. I was lvl 12 fighting the 1st, lvl 13 atthe second. The DKhad some knife, both of us had 30 AGI (maybe the DK a bit less), me my precious axe. Against both needed heal,and all our HP ran out. But in general these monsters fortunately suck.

Imp Village:
- all sources tell if you touch the Strange Chest for mushroom tripping you get "another" whossimp. In reality the imp comes in from the outside.
- all sources tell youeither open the merchant box to make the DK pink, OR deliver it. You actualy can do BOTH.
- good news is,youdon't have to bother putting away your weapon, neither anyone cares what items around you take

Abbey (Necro's First):
- watch out for paladins,they canhit hard, especialy if there are 4 or more
- youshould always send out someone and lure 1-2 enemy out, else you'll be easily overwhelmed
- whirlwind sucks, don't try it anymore
- in a cabinet found a Shadow Bow. It is awesome
- shadow weapons seem tocause some kind of poison damage. Idon't know how it works, but if it deals poison damage that's bad news, Imeanmakes the "poison" passive skill useless (poisonfrom sources do not add up)
- I have no idea how stamina works. Better forget the whole stamina/stamina potions thing altogether
- add like 5 point to CON and have ca.250 HP here, so healing is more reliable (sill 1 point is enough).
- I still did not spend any point into weapon skills. I have like 20 in the bank and Idon't miss it. As weapon stats in the Official Strategy Guid is mostly hogwash, you could understand why I hold back.

Spider Forest:
- spiders have good ears, meaning they'll come afar. that's a problem, because they're not weak. If there a group is attacking you (no realchance to lure things out) try to use Exploding Arrows, they work nicely.
- don't forget to pick up the anti-poison crystal. It isn't worldchanging, but you know.
- some things must be done in order to happen: talk imp hero -> kill spider, talk exiled spider -> kill spider priest
- the demon doll seems suxor. The charactersheetsays it has 0 damage, and can't wear weapons.
- if you have trouble know that you can easily outrun the spiders. Then just pummel them with arrows.As especialy around the Octorrs your speed will suffer, this is something to keep in mind.
- when returning to the village leave the DK somewhere,and ONLY move the "hero" nearthe imp hero. Getting close to it activates its speech, so no need manual clicking on it,which proves useless. If the DK/both characteris present the game willbe stuck. So send forth the "hero", get close, and everything should be in order.

Earth ElementalForest (aka. Mushroom Forest)

The heck! Pretty unlikely you can melee here,as this giants will mob on you like no tomorrow.
Also, they have (semi-weak) area attack, but at this point the DK dies so quickly if you made it frontline I bet you lost. That's about him wielding a sword.
No to mention there is some weird earthquake-effect which seems simply kill my characters for Why Not. the heck?
Either way:
- get the imp's ring and kill the ghosts
- ask gold from the tree, everything else is available elsewhere (the only other semi-option is to get the crossbow here&now, if you're into crossbows)
- when you get the imp's key just give it back to 'im. The only noticeable item in the chest is a standard Shadow Bow, aka. nothing special what youwon't get soon/can't buy in the nearest shop.And I bet you get reputation too this way.
- fire elementals are punny.
- going back to the sisters does nothing aside killing those twocharacters. Why is this in the game?

Item properties: Most of themare punny +1 stat, or +20 HP/MP. They realy isn't worth their existence.
What DO worth its two cents are resistances (you need them,and those items thathave them offer a ton) and speed on your weapons.
If you go for shields (they might compensate for the lack of speed heling to avoid being hit, thus suffer animation) those might worth a damn which offer at least 15 blocking. I got a Strong Shadow Shield, and while I don't know whatthe "strong" attrib does, it has 15 block. Although for the moment I use a 10 luck lesser shield because I can with the water-sword. Usually though use a twohanded +2% speed high dmg sword.
Crossbows did not appear in Act 2, and clubs/maces/wands/hammers are very rare, neither have unique elemental damage variant which the swords have. Though I still not spent any skillpoints aside identify item (which is still lacking, as I have some lvl 6 items), repair, 1 point healing for both characters,and 6 point in lockpick on the DK. And those bow skill for the DK.
I'dpick some resistances maybe, if the skills were passive which they are not.

Note on dolls: they share skillpoint-pool. The initial 4 is not expanded when you find a new doll.

Shaman
I HATE this guy., and I HATE every walkthrough-writer! The friggin frig they could not warn for this friggin frig!

First: you have to suffer some unscippable cutscene before the fight starts. Genoius. Wel,, you have a second or so to save the game before the imp shaman reach you. don't scratch your head, even the Official Strategy Guide LIES IN YO FACE, the fight actualy happens instantenous.
Fine. Whatever. Nextthing: your chance to hit. It's repugnant. Nonexistent. Combine this with the bugger's INFINITE MANA. Ye, I bet he regenerate it, or have literaly infinite amount, as he NEVER RUNS OUT of it! And I fought it once to the last of my potions! And that was only Round One!
Did I mention it can cast Heal? From its infinite mana? Repeatedly? And this is a hardcoded thing related to its HP!

But you know what's the BEST part? Well, not even thatyou have to fight it twice. Oh no. The c00l part is ITS RESISTANCES, You know, you think if you can ONLY HIT IT WITH PGHYSICAL DAMAGE,it'd worth to mention. Actualy you could hit it with etheral damage or maybe spiritual BUT THOSE ARE IN SEPARATE SKILL CATEGORY! Who was the genious coming iup with this friggin crap?!?
So here you MUST dump like 20 skillpoint into a single weapon skill. I took slashing with shield. You must picka weapon skill and max the currently possible accuracy, damage, and likely critical hit and "deathblow" (which means "extremly critical hit") just to pass this fight. Oh, and I hope you stored an appropriate weapon. Because all those elemental damage craps are dealing ELEMENTAL DAMAGE exclusively, not just add elementaldamage to the basic weapon type. For fok sake, I'm pissed.

Oh, and to make things even more difficult, during Round Two you must enter the room where the shaman starts, get the speech, then RUN AWAY LIKE DEMONS ON YOUR HEEL, because they are. Aside the extra damage and their sheer number, they even throw Slow on you - big help when you try to defeat this anjnoying shaman, who casts its spells even stronger this time.
Fortunately running back enough only the shaman will come to you, leaving the demons for another day.

Act 3

Don't fuss about Asmodeus, there's nothing tobe gained there (though try to get the right answers). Oh, and get the first chance to get to this act, as I have no idea under what condition you get new invitations (I suspect a bug, which leads to never).
When getting on your way go into the temple (gate is a bit northwest). Sign in for the scoring.

Here is the way how to do things with the least amount of chance confusing things:
- clicking the billboard ONLY gives you the missing expedition quest (click until you get it). In theory you should get to the church inside the complex to be sent to the Gaurdianof Scores, but that's only decoration. Get the quest from the transformed warlock Do the merchant&mutants quest. Kill all mutants. Don't worry about the merchant, he reapears inside the temple. [+1500 score]
- get back in the temple. Get the quest from Barnabus, get the quest from Sigurd (you can get a decorative conversation near the tavern, but that's just for flavour), rob Cassandra's house, get the quest of the man turning into crystal. Also, in this street is a locked house: pick the lock&grab the loot. Probably a good idea to get the Prince of Fire gloves (nice fighting bonuses), then go and finish Sigurd's quest (for Sigurd's favour). Beware, his goons hit hard, prepare to drink medium health potions. [+1500 score]
- time for some old fashioned grave-robbery (battlefield key amongst the loot). Also pick Raze's quest. Get Cytha's quest. Get the quest(s) from the eastern shop. Loot the warehouse. Do the quest for Fred (kill the frog). Buy yourself a house. [+500 score]
- finish the talking timbar, aka. transformed warlock quest [+2500 score]
- finish Barnabus' quest. Beware of the Blood Knights, they are #&@ strong, so separate them at all cost. Another trouble related to that that despite being melee they just lub running around. And as on hardcore 2 are right on each other, you might want to know this trick: as soone they start tochase you summon the dolls,and make them attack one of them while runnig away with your duo :) Oh, but they just might suffer from the Act 1's Respawning Bug :( [+ 2500 score]

Crystal Forest

- This shall be the next area, being (at least told to) lower level than the others. Check out the north part. Inside the army camp dump the merchant for +1 rep. Note: actualy the camp-crew is only lvl 9. Note 2: in theory you can kill the camp-guard if you don't wearthe proper equipment, but that's stupid, but then later you can't kill him. Don't go to far first, only to the Imp Cave, then back to the Cursed man [+500 score].
- the Cursed Man puts another mark on your map, go there. A witch will be there stealing your exp of the local monsters. Kill the monsters and start gathering herbs for her. Along the way you can find the missing expedition. On your way back to the town you should activate the teleporter on this isle [+ 2500 score]
- right before you could ask for your scores rank #1 will make a challenge. Forget it for a moment and finish the Cursed Man quest (gather plants, make potion,deliver potion) [+ 3000 score]
- go back where you came and deal with Ogren&TheImps (side with the imps), and the altairs quest. Let's deal with Miss Chaos Score. The trick is to ensure at the entrence the DK who use explosive arrows, then park the"hero" ahead. Both agressive. The "hero" needs to heal, otherwise it is automatic. Give false answer to the sarcofagi. Kiya isn't that bad at all. Sure,she's some mage, but just keep up the HP and don't let her melee range of the DK. The dolls help just by their sheer amount. Then you have to do some imp-killing for Necro (lure them by pairs, more would be too much). Now we have all the scores we needed, and the competition is eliminated- only thing left to avoid the Bishop like plague and do the remaining quests. Then kill those bloody Blood Knight as loot their stuff.

Ranaar Ruins

The best way to determine what area go next, is the number on the battle keys. Seriously.
For The Riddler you better kill it. Learn if you want anything from his crappy skills before youanswer. It drops a crapload of stuff (mostly charms). To deal with "Zandalor" the problem is, he attracts attention. So don't mind 'im occasionally stealing some exp, do cleart he immediate area before doing.

Rebel Forest

Best is to put the DK agressive with a bow,and don't move around a lot-similarly to the previous area. This time it is eveneasier as the minor things are melee.

Teleport Forest

This is a whole big nightmare. You can't tell where the borders are, and the monsters are not just too big and too many, but also attack both characters, only this point you'll have a definite frontliner and a support character, and the later simply can't stand the heat.
Add to the above nightmare instantly being ported into the middle of mass groups, and earthquakes thrown you from every single bloody earth elementals, and you have a problem. Especialy as the crystal sack don't effect the whole party, only who wields it. Bugger. So don't rush in the shortest rout, but use Bow with all the splitting arrows, and babystep around.

Darn, where is the rebel leader? I wish to move on.
With alot of fuss, found it (they really need to code this better). But then as went to the Church inside the Temple, one of the ghosts (there are only a handful) appeared inside the wall, and can't get it out. As all ghosts have to die to advance, this is a major problem, especialy as this can occure any time and this act is looong.

Btw, to hit the Blood Knights reliably,you need EIGHTY agility, and 5 point (no more available atthis point in the game) in hit chance for shield + onehanded weapon. Don't even think on hardcore touse anything else, and the pure onehanded option is never competitive (it can help early if you unleanr later of course).

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EDIT: somehow the game fixed itsel. I don't ask questions, instead continue.

The Bishop make his quest rolling. In the cave the prisoner sends you isa chest with opportunity to reload for agod item (mostly armor, but maybe ring or necklace). These occasions are rare, so maybe use it. Item-level worth squat, don't settle for an item justbecause it has high ilvl.
In the Catacombs lvl 2 is a joke: they say "do not attack unarmed things". The "unarmed" things are called Unarmed Soldiers,and they of course attack You. And everyone else. And everyone else attack them. And they have no HP. And you get "fail"message if ANYONE makes them die. Fortunately there is no conseqence.
lvl 3 is another joke on your expense. The ranaar ghost/instructor/hologram says don't loot treasure,and if you do, you get to another level. Which has nothing in it - no loot, no monster, no puzzle, so you might as well skip it. The funniest thing is, if you turn back when you get the message and leave the room the door you came in, you immediately get the "good" message.
Next level has some reward for (not) completing the non-quests above. It isn't realy involve wisdom, though backward-engineered it makes semi-sense: gold = gold, stone = hammer, metal = plate armor, wood = wand. The trouble is, these items are not unique in any way, just basic in their category, so who cares. And if they'd be unique that'd suck, as you can't sell or put on dolls unique items, so you yourself have to carry them for a whole act, and they tend to weight a ton and accumlate. Random attributes would be nice on them.

The "Catacombs Armor" makes no sense - I suspect this whole place (the whole Catacombs) is some leftover from a previous version of the game before release.Whatever. The two siderooms to the room you fight the Bishop (not hard if you summoned your dolls) are unreachable.
Do NOT go to the southernmost room as that'll cause bug.
The last level is actualy part of the puzle of this level. It has the Ranaar Language Book Part III. I hope you had one of your teleporter stones before you entered the complex, as there are 3 ranaar books which cannot be carried over! Or just read them as I put all that here. Oh, and get this ~skillbook before you gain the symbol on that level else you can't return etc.
Another thing: there is a (golden) chest on the bottom level, which contains A WEAPON. So in case you want an upgrade or something, prepare to reload. Btw, it is realy sad you can't use wands because they require magic to hold in hand, but to hit anything you need a crapload of agility, and to wear armor you need a lot of stregth too. So that weapon class is a failure.

Ranaar books:
- "Wise man, your realy make me laugh" <the book contains a conversation between a wise man and a fool>
- The Portal of Ryxx : it tells the solution how to break the Seering Stone. Comes too late I guess.
- a speculation says opening too many portals the same place might dissolve the space-time continuum [unless you switch the polarity of the nautron field of course]
- a book which says a ranaar was once summoned by a demon. Would be nice forshadowing WAAY EARLY BACK THEN
- "statisticaly more ranaar died traveling on foot than traveling through rifts" [an obvious reference to the flying by plain marketing tagline]
- some ranaar comlpains that human wine is few, dwarven ale is piss, elven wine is to sour
- "We will all go down into the dungeons, surely it is better to seek our fatethere than to cower and wait for our cruel tormentors. When I came to the Academy to become an ElderI never thought I would end like this- torn apart by some evil monster! But maybe we can do it... maybe we canfind the key to escape from this cell. I would rather die in a fight against Samuel's army, than tarve to death in this hole!" [carried this manuscript from Act 1!)]
- "If you want to carry outyour plan to lead us downwards, this would be the ideal time, as I have no wounded ranaar who need treatment. May Raan guide you with all your decisions. Please tell me in advance when we can go, so I can remove all secret relics from our sanctuary..."
- - "Raan be with your Marossar. If you ask me, our people are as ready as possible. Because we don't have enough weapons for everyone, we've been training more in unarmed combat recently. Our young warriors are now beginning to refuse to use any weapon at all. They claim that they don't want to honour our enemies by fighting them armed..."
- "Marossar, that's it! I'm finally joining you downwards. The skeleton in my waste disposal was the last straw... First this dwarven food, then the rats, and now this... this thing! The dmeons in the upperlevels are saturating this place with their evil magic. If we don't leave soon, I'm going to quit and who'll make your damn dinner then?"
- "I have given up on the hope that our people will come and free us. Most of them must have left by now. All we can do is sit here and wait for the dmeons to come and rip us to pieces, or go downwards. Curse Samuel and his sadism! His motives are so obvious. Even if he did really leave the rune key to the upper levels down there, he'll make sure that we never find it. So we will doe for his amasement, but we will die with honour, with the smell of enemy blood in our nostrils!"
- "Failed the Academy test? Many who've tried to enter the Academy have failed. Have you ever considered a satisfying career as an Imp Trianer?" [I assume this is from that tower on teleport island]
- "Raan, the godess of honour, war and wisdom: this book describes the concept of honourable warfare... You always thought the most honourable thing in war is victory, but this book disagrees..."
- "Ka - myth or reality? Does this caste of thieves exist in ranaar society today? If yes, why did they leave the right path laid out by Raan? And if no, where has all my gold gone lately?"
-

Ranaar books continuation:

- "Batlle of Raan and Tuur by the High priestess: It is a rare event when mortals witness battles between gods. In the night of the great fire, the whole of Nemesis was woken up by the sound of battle and we were able to see the great victory of our godess Raan over Tuur, the evil stone god guardian of the underworld. The battle has lasted 400 years already and it is far from being over. But on this night, Raan was able to break off a piece of Tuur's body with her mighty spear and it fell from the sky. The holy pilgrims have found the stone in the forest, but it is still full of evilness of Tuur. Only the strongest believers will survive the act of simply seeing the stone. The ones who touch it have no hope of survival. This part of the forest is dead, cursed and unholy until the time of Nemesis and removes all evilness from here..."
- The castes of the ranaar society: The foundation of the ranaar society is in the value of wisdom, guided by the principles of honour. To reach this goal, ranaar became specialised in one fieldof interest. These fields of interest are divided intocastes. The Do are the caste-less, the ranaars whohave not chosen a particular field of interest. Many ranaar never choose a special caste in their whole life, and they die as Do-ne-cho, the ones who never choose.
The merchant caste is called Be, and they are the only onethe principles of honour allow to make profit. Be is often considered as a lower caste.
Warriors are part of the Xe caste. Most warriors are male, but there are a few females who also join.
Mar is the caste of the mages. Magic is considered a natural force, not necessarily brough into the world by the godess.
Ra is the caste stricktly for female priestess. The Ra devote their lives to Raan,the godess of war, wisdom and honour.
An are the scholars and scientists,oftenadressed as Elder. There is only one High Elder, the leader of the community. therefore the An caste is considered to be the highest caste, even higher thanthe Ra, although the Ra strongly debate this.
There are rumours of a secret caste named Ka, the caste of the thieves who have dismissed the basic principles of honour. Because of this, most Ranaar refuse todiscuss their existence at all.
- The Good Imp Guide: Part 1: Imps may seems small and insignificant, but given the correct treatment and care, they canbecome loyal and affableservants and give years of valuable service. When choosing your imp, be sure you look for any defects. Their skin should be reddish in hue, neither pale nor too bright (bright red skin can indicate infection). The skin on the imp's feet should be tough and slightly hairy, which will save on footwear costs. The ears should be twice the length of the nose ideally, but this is not always the sace with younger imps. Be sure tocount the toes at least twice.
- The Good Imp Guide: Part 2: After you've selected your imp, make sure you start it off with small, basic tasks to build up its strength and get it settled within a routine. Fetching and carrying tasks are appropriate,as well as simple household chores. If you want your imp to flourish,make sure you keep it with others of its kind,as this will ensure that your imp does not become lonely or depressed. Once your imp is establishedin his or her sorrounding, you can give them cooking and bedding materials and they will look after their basic needs. Groups of imps will often form their own hierarchical colonies and for imp groups of 6 or more, a full-time overseer should be appointed."
- Opening rifts in time by Elder Annakisam, Notes 1: The first time rift I opened during my latest experiment took me to back to the dawn of this land, when the earth pulsated beneath my feet with emerging life. I saw the battles overhead between the gods and the demons, their weapons tearing the skies, raining fire and brimstone down upon the earth. I didn't dwell too long in that place, for I feared I would never get back. Who would have though thatsuch violence could have shaped our world?
- Opening rifts in time by Elder Annakisam, Notes 2: I could not tell wether this second rift of mine led to a place within our world or not. It was certainly somewhere that I'd never read about in all the Academy's history books. I thought the shaping of our world was brutal, but this place... such violence, such horrors. I saw creatures (I took them for humans) slaying their own in great numbers... imprisoning them like animals, flattening town after town with great metal beasts and flying machines. I pray to Raan that this is some other world, far,far away and not a vision of our own future.
- Opening rifts in time by Elder Annakisam, Notes 3: Thankfully my third rift didn't lead me to a place of violence... or rather it seemed to be a little island of calm sat within a sea of violence. I found myself in a smallvillage of healers,which I guess was situated in Rivellon. I skulked around, making sure none saw me and noticed a strange figure (who I had apparently been found unconscious in the wilderness) wandering about talking to the healers. I sensed some importance in this person. I must look them up in the library when I get back.
- Opening rifts in time by Elder Annakisam, Notes 4: The fourth rift of mine took me to what is probably the most interesting place I've travelled toso far. Again, this seemed to be a world of humansandI arrived in a vibrant, bustling city, full of life and colour. Here the rich dressed in ornate robes, rode in horse-drawn carriages through the slums where the poor begged for coins in the dirt and otherhumans displayed creatures of deformed hideousness for the entertainment of the crowd. But although their morals might be dubious, these were creatures of great inventiveness and something they referred to as science. Yet I saw an amazing sight where humans spun a cylinder filled with light and displayed moving pictures on a wall,so they must have harnessed the power of magic too! Perhaps I can replicate this back at the Academy.
- The Birth of the ranaar by rashasam, priestess of Raan part 1: Back in the distant past, when half the land was molten rock, the gods and demons fought long and hard for their share of the hearts and minds of thecreatures thatemerged from the primordial soup beneath them. Where their blood fell, new races spring forth. When the god Arharis struck out with his great sword, forged of thunderbolt iron, and slashed the thick, scaly skin of the ancient arch-dmeon Morlock, the resulting drops of blood (for it was onlya mere scratch to the dmeon) gave birth to the imp race. As Morlock struck back with his trident of flame, he caught Arharis a glancing blow across the neck and, as the blood fell, so the race of the humans came being.

Note: the unmovable books are just duplications.

TAKE OFF ALL ITEMS from the ranaardoll! While it was useful, you'll loose it here!
Note: the doll will disappear FROM YOUR BACKPACk, but if it is summoned will linger around. This isn't useful though as if it moves too much, or you change place (which will happen whenyou touch the crystal) it disappears for good.

Act 4:

THE IMP is not allowed to pick the chest during the Test of Endurance. You are.
Beware the sleeping room: they hit VERY hard. The same is true for the imps in the Test of Faith, so better let them live. I bet from now on this is a tendency,, so make the witches killed. But kill the deathknight too, don't make it suffer. And for the last test of Faith pass the left door: you won't loose anything, the godess was only joking.
NOTE: ye, it is more profitable to pass the tests. But failing at least one presents a hidden story-part, so check it out and reload.

The Maintenance Level is annoying. It is full of hard-hitting enemies (I rised constitution to 25) and illusionary walls and other yummies. In theory you should speak with the ghost-ranaar to do the statue-quest, but that's only flavour, you'll likely solve it without.

Do NOT look after Nixflix's key, you likely already used it up (the key is beyond the shadows&guitar room, the chest is at the other imp).

The West Wing of the Tunnels lvl 2 last only to the door marked on the OfficialStrategy Guide #2.

During the 2nd summoning don't give a squat to whatyou are supposed to do: youcan pick ANY of the resistance-pillars and get a super-crystal. In case you realy need a resistance.

For me at least the guard of the Training Room was waaay inside the (locked) room, so had to grab a hex-editor to get to it. This is the method you need:
0) position the "hero" close to the wall of the room, and make a distinct save. The wall shall be on the left from the character.
1) open data.000 of that save
2) search "AgentsV"
3) search "Start Agent Save"
4) Click on the "a" in "Save"
5) Immediately below that "a" (hex value "61") the character coordinates begin. It'll be 40 ?? 00 00 ?? 92. The "40 ??" is the north/south axis. If the wall is on your left we want to go "north" (north is at northwest). To go north we need to lower the number. This is how you do it:
- take the "??"from "40 ??" and convert it to decimal by a calculator.
- whatever the number, substract 1 from the decimal you got.
- transform this new decimalnumber to hexadecimal.
- write over the "??" of the "40 ??" to this new number.
Save the file, and load the game. Now you should be inside, the NPC should react and do its stuff (in this case: unlock the door).
For your troubles you gain the 4th (3rd permanent) doll,the skeleton raanaar.

For the last summoning you can fight Samuel, or do it the proper way: lead it out of its circle. To be able to lead it out, first you have to lead it in, because it likely spawns at a false location. Ye, programming, heh. Although this situation is pretty unlikely given how big the circle is (and it didn't happen to me).

lvl 3 (Philosophy level)

The "truth" puzzle is bullcrap, as the golems wander around. You know, they would have to be stationary for this to work. Also, both directionhas exactly 1, same quality monster, only one is already visible on the automap. Ye, could it be more obvious: chose the demonic lavapit, or the cozy room with friendly dotts?

For the Cave Ghost's teleporter maze (don't use the teleporters) we have the problem of Too Narrow Corridors. This means mobs of semi-high level monsters will rush to you, thus you'll get a point in potion addiction :)
The good news is, they do pure shadow damage, so if you can rise this on your frontliner to 50%+ you'llhave much less problem.
And if you are in deep trouble, at least for a good portion can lure the creatures to the instructor, who'll help (and stealyour exp, but who cares). And there are the dolls. Also, if you manage to pull them in one-twos you should use bone arrows with the DK, but if a mob is already on you, switch to explosive arrows for crowd control.
Also, whenever you run out of HP and MP, sleep. Or just stand around. This maze takes forever, sospare on the resources.

The main quest otherwise is working for the level's shopkeeper, but to hold your sanity you should alternate between mazes and questing ;) The basic order for this major sidequest is: shopkeeper -> dreaming imp -> rift maze -> fairy dust -> water -> quest solved. Also in the store room you find the solution for the Rift Race.
WARNING: DO NOT FINISH THIS QUEST! Else all future save of yourse when progressing in the playthrough GOES CORRUPT!

The Consequences maze is a row os simple tasks. For the last of the ~puzzles it is a funny clue that the prisoner is called "succubus" when you bring the mouse on the face-icon.

Sharpen Weapon:
This is how the skill works: it adds minimum damage, maximum damage, and sgility requirement (statistics told in the Official Strategy Guide).
It automaticaly sharpens to the maximum level,and if you add additional levels later,using the skill again rises the stats without consequences. For better understanding:
- you can sharpen any weapon once, if you don't rise your skill level
- you get the same changes if you sharpen a weapon with 1 lvl in sharpening then 2 lvl in sharpening, compared to using lvl 2 shaprening only.
- you can not sharpen certain weapons, like: most tools, twohanded quarterstaves, wands dealing spiritual damage (etheral, bone and shadow variants are ok), any kind of ranged weapons

Skills I used and recomend:
- 1 lvl in individual healing for both characters
- DK 11 lvl in lockpick (I liked the occasional extra potion as I never did shopping)
- DK: bow: reload time 5, accuracy 0-5 (only need to rise against Samuel), critical hits 3+, deadly hit 0+ (it is easier to find a good bow, but lategame you might find an awesome heavy crossbow. Unfortunately those come with STR requirements)
- "hero": repair 5 (you haveto be able fix equipment in the middle of fights)
- "hero": identify 7 (this was the highestlvl item I found in the regular game. It is comfortable to have this skill on the permanent hero instead on a doll you use as infinite container, or the DK which goes away)
- slashing and piercing weapons:accuracy 5, damage 5, critical hits 5, deadly hit 5 (yes, with reloading-for-skills-on-hardcore I had enough to invest into 2 type of weapons. One is enough though. Swords and axes come in good variiety. Their drawback is, they share bonuses from STR and AGI instead of pure AGI, and I found a totaly rocking dagger lategame)

How to make a keeper Summoning Doll?

WARNING: no points invested into Summoning Dolls skills can be unlearned!

- level upgrade: for every skillpoint the doll gains 2 levels, which equal 10 statpoint. The best news is, any main character can have this skill multiple time with effect, so if you have the training to reach 20 skill level in this, you can invest 2 skillslot with 20 points (40 in sum),and the doll gains 80 levels. Unfortunately only ONE doll gains these points, meaning once you rised one doll's stats you can't do the same for the others.
- resistance upgrade: don't do it, this is a bottomless cup
- extra "skill slot": they wanted to say extra "skill point". The dolls again get this in a pool. The sad new is, only one slot applies for this. The good news is from both main characters they cangain points, what means your dolls can have up to 35 points of skills.
- extra radius: the dolls can get only so farf rom the point they were summoned. At the start this is ca 1 screen. But if you want to bother sending your doll into war, there might be another, better option:
- respawn duration: this skill also has the maximum lvl of 20, but only 10 are useful as that reduces the summoning delay to 0! If you put this skill on the doll, the doll in the inventory willstill count back, but that's only a visual glitch, you actualy can re-summon the doll immmediately! If their mana would refill by summoning, oh man. But it doesn't.

In additon any skill related to dolls can be teached to the doll itself, so if you want to add lower duration, extra radius, you don't have to use your own skill slots!
Another use of the solls can be to relieve you form utility skills after-game. Sure, the DK will vanish, but can leave behind its precious skillpoints, 15 of it spent freely on the dolls (with the original 4 free point of the doll pool that's 19).

Fighting Samuel
At this point I had 30 constitution, and 100 agility (equipment included). Sharpened my weapon at slvl 10.
The demon has a crapload of HP, infinite MP, and 90% resist all. Keep drinking potions.
Fortunately doesn't hit great most of the times, so keep casting Heal from mana, don't waste healing potions.

Ending
Somehow this time I could simplydump all the DK's skillpoints straight to the dollpool.
Also, to beat Damien needed Berserker buff. Had to unleanr Sharpen for skillpoints - and becaome totaly overpower for that anticlimactic ending.