Posted May 07, 2021
Initially, you will not have enough gold to buy a full set of Blood items before Christof and his initial party members start to gain new ranks. However, every additional bloodpool point counts. Do not even spend money on buying weapon or armor or any other item. Buy as many blood item as you can afford before Christof or Wilhem gains a rank for the first time. Pass the blood items among your party members when one is about to gain a new rank.
Here is when a character gains a rank, and how much bonus bloodpool and health he earns with each rank:
5,000 XP = Neonate (+20 to bloodpool, +20 to health)
10,000 XP = Ancillae (+20 to bloodpool, +30 to health)
50,000 XP = Elder (+30 to bloodpool, +50 to health)
20,000 XP [editor: 200,000 XP] = Methuselah (+40 to Bloodpool, +100 to health)
When you have a full set of blood items, you can then go ahead and grab a pair of Rings of Manipulation.
6. You can use the Awake discipline to revive a dead enemy -- and kill it for extra XP, again and again.; and you want to keep Awake at level 1.
Early in the game, the two best enemies to exploit with Awake are Elemental (300 XP per kill) [editor: 400 for me] and Tremere Lord (500 XP per kill).
It takes 16,255 XP for Christof to reach 80 Manipulation, and 24,705 XP to reach 90.
I took Christof to 4,995 XP (all XP spent on Manipulation, resulting in just over 50) before I torpored him so he would no longer earn XP. I only Awakened him to sell off accumulated spoils, then promptly torpored him again. This made for amusing cutscenes as Christof sprang to life to participate. This started roughly after clearing the Mines, around the introduction of Wilhelm. Wilhelm became my workhorse, and soon ranked to Ancillae after I purchased my first piece of Blood Jewelry. Serena was later introduced, and I could afford only three pieces of Blood Jewelry by the time she could rank to Ancillae. I could have torpored her too, but she became my Awakener, so I decided to suck it up and advance her along with Wilhelm. I ended up purchasing the Manipulation rings so that I could better accumulate wealth, but as it stood, I was roughly halfway through the first level of Ardan's Chantry before I could afford all five pieces of Blood Jewelry. Perfect timing as I had left the ritual circles untouched, and then farmed them to level-up Christof on his official return from torpor. Incidentally, I noticed the Elemental was earning me 400 XP per kill.
This method involved a lot of save-scumming to improve loot drops based on their gold value. I was trying to average around 40gp per inventory space sold. Religious artifacts (crosses, stars of david, and statuettes) were a god-send. They were numerous, and clocking in at about 200gp per inventory slot once identified. For MObs, I had to settle for any ring, or poignards, or moro daggers The save-scumming could end once Christof arrived in full Blood regalia.
Thank you for the guide! It's been timeless.
Post edited May 07, 2021 by rapscallion