Divinity: Original Sin exploration thread

Edit history:

ogam: 2014-07-12 03:51:07 pm

2014-07-12 03:48:06 pm

level 12, hmm which means you'll have to kill the goblin village, sacred stone and hunter's edge to get there minus any persuasion conversations. This is starting to make getting incara more worth while. Though killing a village is quick as long as you don't get caught.

Onin

2014-07-12 03:50:43 pm

Just gotta find a way to handle the fight before the lake. Should be able to invis into Boreas's castle, kill him during conversation, break the staff for free, etc. Just getting into that place with low experience is a difficulty.

ogam

Edit history:

ogam: 2014-07-12 10:24:52 pm

ogam: 2014-07-12 04:44:02 pm

ogam: 2014-07-12 04:30:59 pm

ogam: 2014-07-12 04:27:04 pm

2014-07-12 04:24:08 pm

Found a way to get through the puzzle gates at the wishing well, so you don't need to go through the white witch's house. Grab a bunch of crap and stack them next to each other to form a line, put a pyramid on top of one. Toss it next to the door, if you can't put it on top of another object to form a 2 height object. Your pyramid should clip through the door to teleport through. I'll get a screen shot of what I used to test.

http://imgur.com/a/e5YSa

I used a bunch of barrels and boxes from the beach when you start the game. Stacked them all into one box then broke it to get that shape but should be easier if you just make something yourself on the go compared to that mess.

You can do this with 3 boxes, just make sure the pyramid clips through, but the random bunch of boxes is fun to see come out of one box when you break it :).

So killing Arhu for Cassandra will give you the soul reforge spell, this is pretty tedious but you need a tenebrium weapon to destroy Cassandra's skeleton. Also you can kill Arhu right infront of the immaculate church in silverglen, he's vulnerable to throwables at that point and in dark forest.

Found a way to get through the puzzle gates at the wishing well, so you don't need to go through the white witch's house. Grab a bunch of crap and stack them next to each other to form a line, put a pyramid on top of one. Toss it next to the door, if you can't put it on top of another object to form a 2 height object. Your pyramid should clip through the door to teleport through. I'll get a screen shot of what I used to test.

http://imgur.com/a/e5YSa

I used a bunch of barrels and boxes from the beach when you start the game. Stacked them all into one box then broke it to get that shape but should be easier if you just make something yourself on the go compared to that mess.

You can do this with 3 boxes, just make sure the pyramid clips through, but the random bunch of boxes is fun to see come out of one box when you break it :).

So killing Arhu for Cassandra will give you the soul reforge spell, this is pretty tedious but you need a tenebrium weapon to destroy Cassandra's skeleton. Also you can kill Arhu right infront of the immaculate church in silverglen, he's vulnerable to throwables at that point and in dark forest.

Onin

2014-07-13 03:49:54 am

The skeleton can also be destroyed by spells, and I'm pretty sure basic Staff attacks count for that. But either way you're gonna be entering the phantom forest, so fireball rains. Meh.

ogam

2014-07-13 05:18:40 pm

Did a run today to get an estimate, killing Arhu instead of skeleton and going through source temple to avoid doing 1 fps OOBs, came to an hour with deaths left and right. Skeleton is starting to look a lot faster since it's easier to setup than making a LoS fort to kill Arhu since you can't kill him during dialogue. Should be around 40 minutes, less if you go OOBs from homestead to first garden.

Onin

2014-07-13 05:21:13 pm

Does that include saving Icara through the wishing well, or is getting the spell enough to flag the conversation to get Leandra out of the way?

ogam

Edit history:

ogam: 2014-07-15 08:02:44 pm

ogam: 2014-07-13 05:29:16 pm

ogam: 2014-07-13 05:28:37 pm

ogam: 2014-07-13 05:22:37 pm

ogam: 2014-07-13 05:22:08 pm

2014-07-13 05:21:55 pm

This includes saving incara through the wishing well.

Having the soul reforge spell only will not flag leandra to go away, she'll still have death knights around, she'll start with weak debuff though, but that won't make a difference against a keg.

Recent patch today made void dragon harder, I guess as intended. http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=519960#Post519960

Astarte was nerfed a bit, less health and action points. Void dragon's minions now spawn at level 20 instead of level 10. We might be fine still with proper wine barrel placement before she dies but I'll check when I get a chance.

Onin

2014-07-17 05:35:23 pm

I'm checking out the earlier route and there's still a bunch of stuff I need to see how to optimize;

1. Where to get a shovel fastest. The one on the beach may not be optimal because picking it up prevents you from sneaking past the guards in one invisibility cast.
2. How to properly set up for Boreas. I can't get your vulnerability during dialogue thing to happen, so thus far the best I've gotten is triggering the conversation with a barrel toss, getting good positions, and manipulating not getting frozen turn 1. Not entirely sure if a turn 1 kill is consistent.
3. How the forge dialogues interact. When I tried it, the fire elemental didn't give me his rune at all, so I couldn't melt the white witch. Maybe I have to visit her first before doing the forge thing?

In other news, fuck floor ice. Worst idea anyone has ever had.

ogam

2014-07-17 06:11:17 pm

You can craft shoes to avoid slipping with shoes and nails, not sure how high of crafting you need.
Shovel I grab is at the graveyard after I pick up the pyramid, splitting the party up so there isn't any down time.
Boreas is annoying to setup, you have to start the conversation then mash invisibility so you hide before the fight starts. He'll patrol normally like no one is there until you hit him with a barrel.

You need to talk get to frozen incara first to get the fire elemental to give his summoning crystal.

Onin

2014-07-17 06:17:14 pm

I like to grab the wine barrel before triggering the first blood stone, leaving one of my characters immobile from that point onward. Might need to reconsider where to get barrels if there's any reason to use two, though.

Far as characters go, I start with Wizards using 8 dex, all the rest in speed, with points in Scoundrel, Marksman, Telekinesis, Sneaking, and a random extra, and talents in Lone Wolf and Speedcreeper. Other talents just go in more points for higher TK and speed. Don't really see what else would be worth bothering with.

ogam

Edit history:

ogam: 2014-07-17 06:47:27 pm

2014-07-17 06:43:27 pm

I picked up madora and jahan, not sure if it's faster but it's easier to manage weight problems when you need to split up your guys up.
You can get a small keg in at the inn, you can grab 1 at silverglen town, 2 under the inn, 1 at sacred stone.

Starting stats I go for is 8 dex, rest into speed, 1 scoundrel, 2 telekinesis, 1 sneaking, speedcreeper and +2 perception bonus ( forgot what it's called ).

Late game I go for 8 speed, rest into con. Ability wise telekinesis and left over into body building to avoid getting knocked down even though it won't make much of a difference. Talent -> glass cannon, ability up. Ability up is probably useless, only other thing is to get one extra stat point to go into con.

Onin

2014-07-18 03:11:57 am

I doubt picking up mercs saves time anywhere, considering it costs time to get them and then even more to handle everyone properly, have longer turns in combat, etc.
Do any of the talents increase throw damage?
And why stop speed at 8?

ogam

Edit history:

ogam: 2014-07-18 03:44:13 am

ogam: 2014-07-18 03:43:40 am

2014-07-18 03:32:21 am

I stop speed at 8 since with glass cannon you exceed your max AP per turn with 5 con. Companions do increase turn times but having them with telekinesis also allows you to have more AP per turn for focused attacks; also picking them up can be done on the way while getting the pyramids with one character while the other gets the waypoint.

Anyways you'll mainly have 1 guy moving around then micro the others when you need to save time, such as breaking incara out of her prison or if you take the death knight spell route you would split up to get the leandra's blood and get to the mines.

Setting up invisibility before void dragon is a bit risky if you want Astarte to do all the tanking with 2 characters, especially now that the summons start at 20 (haven't had a chance to try again). Running an earlier version or release would fix that issue anyways if it comes to it. Also since we haven't destroyed the giant blood stone, there's a bit of RNG if your characters get hit with a random fireball from the siege to remove their buff so you can get screwed that way with only 1 guy left instead of 3.

Forgot to note, since glass cannon doesn't apply until the next turn during combat if your are in combat, you can plan this ahead of time for which ever character that needs to tank. Glass cannon only applies to recovery ap and max hp / 2. Since initial turn is affected by perception, this can give you a little more health leeway.

I stop speed at 8 since with glass cannon you exceed your max AP per turn with 5 con. Companions do increase turn times but having them with telekinesis also allows you to have more AP per turn for focused attacks; also picking them up can be done on the way while getting the pyramids with one character while the other gets the waypoint.

Anyways you'll mainly have 1 guy moving around then micro the others when you need to save time, such as breaking incara out of her prison or if you take the death knight spell route you would split up to get the leandra's blood and get to the mines.

Setting up invisibility before void dragon is a bit risky if you want Astarte to do all the tanking with 2 characters, especially now that the summons start at 20 (haven't had a chance to try again). Running an earlier version or release would fix that issue anyways if it comes to it. Also since we haven't destroyed the giant blood stone, there's a bit of RNG if your characters get hit with a random fireball from the siege to remove their buff so you can get screwed that way with only 1 guy left instead of 3.

Forgot to note, since glass cannon doesn't apply until the next turn during combat if your are in combat, you can plan this ahead of time for which ever character that needs to tank. Glass cannon only applies to recovery ap and max hp / 2. Since initial turn is affected by perception, this can give you a little more health leeway.

Onin

2014-07-18 03:59:21 am

You don't have to get the north gate waypoint, you get it for free.

Did you test out what happens if you shield Astarte with barrels to block LoS?

ogam

Edit history:

ogam: 2014-07-18 04:12:46 am

2014-07-18 04:06:44 am

When I mean get the waypoint (I should have clarified my bad), I mean going to cyseal->silverglen waypoint since there's a bloodstone there and you'll reuse that waypoint right after rescuing incara.

Blocking Astarte's LoS with the dragon will stop the dragon from attacking unless it can see one of your characters. Summons are weird, some fights they go crazy on astarte even if there's a barrel in the way forcing them to use more AP, other times they destroy one of your guys with CCs.

Onin

2014-07-18 04:13:31 am

Ah yes, that makes sense.

Onin

Edit history:

Onin: 2014-07-19 09:40:03 am

Onin: 2014-07-19 09:39:49 am

Onin: 2014-07-19 09:37:16 am

2014-07-19 07:54:40 am

So unless I'm missing something, the route would be something like this:

- Invis past the first cultists and the guards
- Enter combat with Retreat so you're in range, wreck the ogres with fireballs.
- Invis to skip the fish thief and the fab 5 guy, steal a crate and the barrel, maybe recruit the mercs
- Run other guy to silverglen road waypoint, then use him to talk to everyone and get the pyramids (don't forget to chain them together again)
- North gate waypoint, get pyramids, silverglen waypoint, run to the well
- Clip pyramid through the door with the crate. (Should figure which crate has the best orientation to make the clip easier)
- Get castle waypoint then go south to get into the prison
- Back to castle waypoint, stealth and pyramid clip inside, trigger Boreas's conversation from stealth, get a good position, then juggle the barrel till he's dead
- Grab staff, castle waypoint, run up to the forge. Retreat your overburdened guy into the conversation.
- Break the staff, talk to fire elemental, go to prison waypoint
- While running over to the witch, finish the forge conversation and quickly teleport to prison waypoint
- Free Icara, back to prison waypoint, chain up, double stealth, silverglen waypoint
- Make the entire hike up to phantom forest
- Stealth past the ogre, move down to the cliff, Retreat up it
- Put the pyramid on the teleport pad, then run/stealth up to the north waypoint
- Run and invis through the catacombs, dig up Cassandra's body
- Wack it with a stick repeatedly
- PF North waypoint, position both characters close-ish to her, trigger her combat with a barrel
- Juggle barrel till she's dead, make sure to keep enough AP to flee both characters, don't forget to bring the spell
- End of Time, travel OOB to the last area, soulbind Leandra
- Barrel juggle the final bosses down. Eventually. Don't die.

This puts you at level 6, with 1 barrel and pretty much nothing else useful. Silverglen has 2 more barrels but they're pretty awkward to get.

Other notes:
When I say barrel juggle, I mean don't pick it up, just move it on the ground, which is easy with 3+ points TK. I don't think you can easily get 3 points TK on mercs, which would make them not as useful.
Level 6 leaves you with only 1 talent point. If you put this into All Skilled Up early, you can get your 3pt TK for Boreas, making that fight trivial. In addition, I think Lone Wolf and 10 Speed pretty much equals getting Glass Cannon.
Oh. And there's a fireball casting zombie in the Cassandra fight. I guess you could block his LoS, but with Lone Wolf you can just tank him.

Am I missing something here?

Edit: Oh, great. I tested the route going through the temple instead, and the game crashed on me as soon as I tried reforging their souls. Why won't this game let us speedrun it? >.<

So unless I'm missing something, the route would be something like this:

[hidden]- Invis past the first cultists and the guards
- Enter combat with Retreat so you're in range, wreck the ogres with fireballs.
- Invis to skip the fish thief and the fab 5 guy, steal a crate and the barrel, maybe recruit the mercs
- Run other guy to silverglen road waypoint, then use him to talk to everyone and get the pyramids (don't forget to chain them together again)
- North gate waypoint, get pyramids, silverglen waypoint, run to the well
- Clip pyramid through the door with the crate. (Should figure which crate has the best orientation to make the clip easier)
- Get castle waypoint then go south to get into the prison
- Back to castle waypoint, stealth and pyramid clip inside, trigger Boreas's conversation from stealth, get a good position, then juggle the barrel till he's dead
- Grab staff, castle waypoint, run up to the forge. Retreat your overburdened guy into the conversation. 
- Break the staff, talk to fire elemental, go to prison waypoint
- While running over to the witch, finish the forge conversation and quickly teleport to prison waypoint
- Free Icara, back to prison waypoint, chain up, double stealth, silverglen waypoint
- Make the entire hike up to phantom forest
- Stealth past the ogre, move down to the cliff, Retreat up it
- Put the pyramid on the teleport pad, then run/stealth up to the north waypoint
- Run and invis through the catacombs, dig up Cassandra's body
- Wack it with a stick repeatedly
- PF North waypoint, position both characters close-ish to her, trigger her combat with a barrel
- Juggle barrel till she's dead, make sure to keep enough AP to flee both characters, don't forget to bring the spell
- End of Time, travel OOB to the last area, soulbind Leandra
- Barrel juggle the final bosses down. Eventually. Don't die.
[/hidden]

This puts you at level 6, with 1 barrel and pretty much nothing else useful. Silverglen has 2 more barrels but they're pretty awkward to get.

Other notes:
When I say barrel juggle, I mean don't pick it up, just move it on the ground, which is easy with 3+ points TK. I don't think you can easily get 3 points TK on mercs, which would make them not as useful.
Level 6 leaves you with only 1 talent point. If you put this into All Skilled Up early, you can get your 3pt TK for Boreas, making that fight trivial. In addition, I think Lone Wolf and 10 Speed pretty much equals getting Glass Cannon.
Oh. And there's a fireball casting zombie in the Cassandra fight. I guess you could block his LoS, but with Lone Wolf you can just tank him.

Am I missing something here?

Edit: Oh, great. I tested the route going through the temple instead, and the game crashed on me as soon as I tried reforging their souls. Why won't this game let us speedrun it? >.<

ogam

Edit history:

ogam: 2014-07-19 11:47:12 am

2014-07-19 11:44:13 am

That's the main idea for saving Incara. For Boreas you can split up your guys to 3 and get to forge/prison and prep for kill boreas at the same time. It's a bit annoying.

Crate orientation shouldn't matter too much, just grab a few on the way make a double + pyramid and toss it on a single facing the door.

The companions only needs 1-2 to toss wine barrels since for void dragon the setup is pretty much Units->Barrel->Dragon.

Onin

2014-07-19 11:51:49 am

Well it all doesn't matter if the game just crashes as soon as it noticed it's missing important flags. I wouldn't even know what it'd be missing to make everything work out properly.

So the only method that doesn't crash for me is taking the OOB route through the end of time and using the vulnerability spell on the death knights. I think. At least I reached that spell properly and triggered the fight properly. Stupid game.

ogam

2014-07-19 11:59:58 am

I haven't had crashes repeated crashes in the game in the same section yet so not too sure. I won't have time to test again for a while :\.

Death spell wise, you can always slaughter cyseal (on the way), sacred stone and hunter's edge to get to 12, doesn't take long since that'll skip saving Incara. Killing story soft npcs on the way nets you a decent amount of exp also. This will most likely require you to have 1-2 character killing while the other grabs the blood -> mines to save time.

Just needs a way to get exp faster to make it worth while.

Onin

Edit history:

Onin: 2014-07-19 12:11:23 pm

2014-07-19 12:10:15 pm

I dunno how you've been testing but I'm pretty sure these crashes are simply due to the script encountering an error due to things happening out of order. Cause I've never had the game crash in any other circumstance, and it happens just as I trigger a story-vital interaction.

It may be possible that I could avoid these crashes by triggering something, somewhere along the line, but there are so many options that I really can't be arsed going through everything just for that small chance. Maybe I need to trigger the soulforge quest in advance of getting the spell. Maybe I need to trigger a Trife cutscene. Maybe I need to trigger an Arstate cutscene. I can't tell.

ogam

2014-07-19 12:15:19 pm

Could you put up your save file right before your crash, let me check if I'll crash as well.

Going through sacred temple I didn't crash when I did a estimate run last week.

Onin

2014-07-19 12:25:03 pm

The temple didn't crash this run, probably because of the saving Icara flag.

Save file attached.

Attachment:

rip.rar

ogam

Edit history:

ogam: 2014-07-19 12:50:31 pm

ogam: 2014-07-19 12:44:13 pm

2014-07-19 12:42:36 pm

Your client might be broken, I was able to start void dragon fight with your save.

Lots of CC hell with the summons starting at 20, Trife being able to summon minions as well.

Looks like they fixed Trife so you can't hurt him while he's in a dialogue after reloading, probably adjusted a flag similar to other npcs.

Astarte does look like she gets destroyed in a few turns, every little bit of AP is needed, so haste before starting void dragon.

Kickstarter stuff does give you some money (grail) and purple and white polka dot panties, doesn't look like they affect anything in a run though :). Undies are nice though.

Onin

Edit history:

Onin: 2014-07-19 12:50:18 pm

2014-07-19 12:45:57 pm

I'll try reinstalling, see if it helps.

Should probably time whether it's faster to do the oob stuff or killing the fire demon and going through the temple. Logic says oob is faster but man those framedrops, and the added fireballs risk...