Eragon (GBA)

Ghostwheel

Edit history:

Ghostwheel: 2013-03-18 12:06:07 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-03-18 12:04:39 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-03-17 11:22:37 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-03-17 01:20:43 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-03-17 01:15:54 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-03-17 01:14:52 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-03-17 01:09:39 am

2013-03-16 12:25:03 am

The artist formerly known as Qxy

So I'm on the train, rifling through my obscure GBA games to find one that doesn't use the L/R buttons, and I went through a sizable portion of this one again, hitting the stealth portion in Teirm before calling it a day.

I tried to go through doing as little as possible, fighting only the fights that were mandatory or would merit a significant reward like a good piece of equipment. This game is merciless. Not being able to trigger any of the focus based events is pretty much a given, and your physical attacks aren't ever going to reach levels that outpace the brutal assortment of encounters ahead. I gave Eragon Hunting focus (higher speed for running, and priority, I figured endurace won't help him live with that little an investment) until he could use magic, then gave everyone magic focus. I think late game this will be extremely helpful, especially when I get some AOE magic at level 18 and when Arya shows up. But for now, the paincasting is very dangerous. Healing spells are useless, and only poison and brisingr are helpful offensively. I'm trying to ration the Heath 4s you get very carefully.

Does anyone else know this game? Not one I want to run seriously for a while, but something I feel like casually routing and talking about. Sooner or later I can probably cut 4 hours and make a submittable (probably segmented) run out of this. All I can say is thank god for the failsafe of public verification.

Edit: Now I've made it to Dras Leona, still with crappy magic, no way to heal, and a very basic mandatory Urgal encounter sitting in my way walling my progress. Come to think about it, this is where I got walled last time. I'm very afraid of the ambush in the church, as I will have no way to escape and the enemies more than double in power. Its a long dungeon too, with the Ra'zac waiting for me at the end.

Knowing full well that I'll watch this thread slowly slide all the way to the bottom (obscure newer games are even worse than older ones I guess), I'll explain it a bit for anyone who is curious. Its turn based paper mario style combat fused with something more high fantasy. Upon leveling up, you gain points in your chosen "focus". and important stats for the focus.
Magic - blue bar stabilizes and less life is lost upon casting. Min levels for learning new spells.
Herbal - Each plant has a certain minimal herbal level, and to get expendable items like heath potions or revival salts requires specific combinations.
Weapon - Strength and learned melee combos. Min levels for duels
Endurance - Defense, and at lv. 20, natural heath regeneration. Min levels for breaking boxes
Hunting - speed and bow combos, and min level to follow tracks.

On your tun, a normal attack can be executed, in which you can input a certain string of B and A attacks, the former being slightly more powerful and the latter more accurate with faster animation. If your character uses BABA, and he has learned the combo attacks BA which deals 1.5x damage, BAB which deals 2x, and BABA which deals 1.5x with a 50% chance of stun, you deal a total of ~6x damage and the last hit can stun. On your opponent's turn, a well timed block or dodge can mitigate your damage to about half. You don't know the turn order, so they can jump out of nowhere sometimes. Magic is special in that when you cast it, a blue bar goes crazy when you try to use a spell. When you press A it stops at a certain level which determines the power of the magic and the damage you take as a result of the casting. At low levels this is about a 1:1 ratio, making healing spells almost worthless, while at higher levels its completely busted. My goal in this run is to find the line, and see if I can make use of some of the Area Of Effect spells in a real run.

Thread title:

So I'm on the train, rifling through my obscure GBA games to find one that doesn't use the L/R buttons, and I went through a sizable portion of this one again, hitting the stealth portion in Teirm before calling it a day.

I tried to go through doing as little as possible, fighting only the fights that were mandatory or would merit a significant reward like a good piece of equipment. This game is merciless. Not being able to trigger any of the focus based events is pretty much a given, and your physical attacks aren't ever going to reach levels that outpace the brutal assortment of encounters ahead. I gave Eragon Hunting focus (higher speed for running, and priority, I figured endurace won't help him live with that little an investment) until he could use magic, then gave everyone magic focus. I think late game this will be extremely helpful, especially when I get some AOE magic at level 18 and when Arya shows up. But for now, the paincasting is very dangerous. Healing spells are useless, and only poison and brisingr are helpful offensively. I'm trying to ration the Heath 4s you get very carefully.

Does anyone else know this game? Not one I want to run seriously for a while, but something I feel like casually routing and talking about. Sooner or later I can probably cut 4 hours and make a submittable (probably segmented) run out of this. All I can say is thank god for the failsafe of public verification.

Edit: Now I've made it to Dras Leona, still with crappy magic, no way to heal, and a very basic mandatory Urgal encounter sitting in my way walling my progress. Come to think about it, this is where I got walled last time. I'm very afraid of the ambush in the church, as I will have no way to escape and the enemies more than double in power. Its a long dungeon too, with the Ra'zac waiting for me at the end.

Knowing full well that I'll watch this thread slowly slide all the way to the bottom (obscure newer games are even worse than older ones I guess), I'll explain it a bit for anyone who is curious. Its turn based paper mario style combat fused with something more high fantasy. Upon leveling up, you gain points in your chosen "focus". and important stats for the focus.
Magic - blue bar stabilizes and less life is lost upon casting. Min levels for learning new spells.
Herbal - Each plant has a certain minimal herbal  level, and to get expendable items like heath potions or revival salts requires specific combinations.
Weapon - Strength and learned melee combos. Min levels for duels
Endurance - Defense, and at lv. 20, natural heath regeneration. Min levels for breaking boxes
Hunting - speed and bow combos, and min level to follow tracks.

On your tun, a normal attack can be executed, in which you can input a certain string of B and A attacks, the former being slightly more powerful and the latter more accurate with faster animation. If your character uses BABA, and he has learned the combo attacks BA which deals 1.5x damage, BAB which deals 2x, and BABA which deals 1.5x with a 50% chance of stun, you deal a total of ~6x damage and the last hit can stun. On your opponent's turn, a well timed block or dodge can mitigate your damage to about half. You don't know the turn order, so they can jump out of nowhere sometimes. Magic is special in that when you cast it, a blue bar goes crazy when you try to use a spell. When you press A it stops at a certain level which determines the power of the magic and the damage you take as a result of the casting. At low levels this is about a 1:1 ratio, making healing spells almost worthless, while at higher levels its completely busted. My goal in this run is to find the line, and see if I can make use of some of the Area Of Effect spells in a real run.

Elren

2013-08-03 08:01:41 am

It's been overdue that someone responds to this thread so I'll take my time to write as much as I want, be it useful or not.
I finished a playthrough of this game yesterday and doing a run of this without fighting/training sounds cool but will cost an enormous amount of time since the needed encouters will be unimaginable longer, especially dras leona.

To the focus of the characters:
Eragon should get magic focus from the start, because its necessary that he hits lvl 50 magic(the value where magic gets totally broken) before he reaches dras leona.
Brom should be focused on hunting for running away and being able to fight.
Angela doesnt rly matter now, one could raise her weapon or magic to be able to train better or even raise her speed by going for hunting for better fleeing. My guess is that magic is best, cause two high int prisms should kill most encounters easily and she is more useful in the final fight.
Saphira doesnt leave you a choice and goes for weapon.
Anya gets a full magic focus without a doubt. Just too useful.

Murtagh is a special case. There is a glitch. The moment he joins you after the cutscene you'll automatically enter the menu. Here you can distribute points to him, do that and save, then reset and load. The cutscene will start anew and murtagh has now 15 more points you can give to him.
This prob happens cause the game takes the distributable points from the momentary lvl of your second character. Since this is the level of your last murtagh(15 base+ points) you'll gain 15 more points than before.

I just have to hope this glitch still falls under the SS+Resets category.

For leveling murtagh:
Every point in strenght gives him +1/1 dmg.
Every stat is capped at 255 points.
he reaches his max HP before he reaches max Toughness. Around 240 points is needed(not completely sure about the value since i dont know exactly how HP rises- it's definetily not linear)

Based on that you should be fine with 90 points(or 2 resets) to max out your speed and toughness, as well as reaching the necessary Weapon focus to the needed lvl for BABB combo. (Prob 1 or 0 reset is better since they cost time, but you will have to adjust things then)

Magic for the run:
The needed ones:
HEILL(received automatically)
PRISM(First AOE magic, found in Teirm)
BLINDED(Found in Teirm castle, strategically useful)
THE TOXIC SPELL(Forgot the name and where to get it, might be changed against VENOM FLOOD, needs testing)
FLOOD(cheap and totally broken magic in GilLead 3rd Floor, it will win the finals alone)

Maybe Useful ones:
LIFE ENERGY(For healing purposes in dras leona if prisms too weak or in finals for goup battles, found in Teirm)
VENOM FLOOD(If it does more dmg than PRISM or comparable its useful, found in church)
BURN(High single target dmg, but prob useless)

Useful Equipment:
I would recommend getting the solid starlight for eragon(You need to talk to a guy in Teirm and then pick it up on your way to northern cavern) since it boosts his int(+18) or "Lost Destiny" with regen 25 INT and 30 DEF found when escaping Dras Leona. And the Knight armor wich has really high base defense and can be enhanced in that aspec very well too so that eragon becomes useful and safe.

Now for actual strategies:
I recommend picking up all 17 Health 4s in the intro(10 in tutorial chest and 7 at the start of one of the caves in a chest)
For training before dras Leona a good spot is prob Teirm Castle since the lower lvls have the Weaker Spear type encounters and the highest level has high level encounters so you can adjust by going on.
For the escape from Dras Leona it would be optimal if one Prism could take out every encounter, the needed INT-value has to be tested for that.

The Razac in the cave:
This introduces the "best" startegy for this game. Blind the enemies to let their accuracy fall below 50%. And inflict poison on them. From that point on eragon can concentrate on healing the group and murtagh can hit on both enemies. Dont concentrate on one enemy to much since they have Revive 5 as well as Health 5 and the item to nullify ailments. (and a lot of boni items, if used focus on that enemy)
They wont use too many heal items.
The Razac are immune against blood, i dont know about fire but i think they are immune to it to.

Durza:
Same strategy here. Blind him, inflict poison and hit him with Zac'roc to inflict blood(and fire if modified), then heal.

Every battle in between razac and durza: FLOOD.

The Status ailments:
Poison does 10% of the current HP as dmg, so you can see when to finish them of.
Blood and Fire do fixed dmg based on the enemy inflicted with it. final Durzas f.e. get 1000 blood and 500 fire dmg after every action.

Pocket Forge:
I used it two times, one time to raise the defens before the razac fight since they do enourmous dmg.(1k~2k)
and a second time to modify Zac'roc and give it fire dmg(volcanic stone needed is found lategame IIRC in one of the ruins)
The first use should be needed, the fire dmg prob evens out the time needed to get it. Only recommended if you need to train before the final for whatever reason.

I hope at least one thing i wrote is useful to someone who wants to run this. And i would be glad to help routing this game further.

It's been overdue that someone responds to this thread so I'll take my time to write as much as I want, be it useful or not.
I finished a playthrough of this game yesterday and doing a run of this without fighting/training sounds cool but will cost an enormous amount of time since the needed encouters will be unimaginable longer, especially dras leona.

To the focus of the characters:
Eragon should get magic focus from the start, because its necessary that he hits lvl 50 magic(the value where magic gets totally broken) before he reaches dras leona.
Brom should be focused on hunting for running away and being able to fight.
Angela doesnt rly matter now, one could raise her weapon or magic to be able to train better or even raise her speed by going for hunting for better fleeing. My guess is that magic is best, cause two high int prisms should kill most encounters easily and she is more useful in the final fight.
Saphira doesnt leave you a choice and goes for weapon.
Anya gets a full magic focus without a doubt. Just too useful.

Murtagh is a special case. There is a glitch. The moment he joins you after the cutscene you'll automatically enter the menu. Here you can distribute points to him, do that and save, then reset and load. The cutscene will start anew and murtagh has now 15 more points you can give to him.
This prob happens cause the game takes the distributable points from the momentary lvl of your second character. Since this is the level of your last murtagh(15 base+ points) you'll gain 15 more points than before.

I just have to hope this glitch still falls under the SS+Resets category.

For leveling murtagh:
Every point in strenght gives him +1/1 dmg. 
Every stat is capped at 255 points.
he reaches his max HP before he reaches max Toughness. Around 240 points is needed(not completely sure about the value since i dont know exactly how HP rises- it's definetily not linear)

Based on that you should be fine with 90 points(or 2 resets) to max out your speed and toughness, as well as reaching the necessary Weapon focus to the needed lvl for BABB combo. (Prob 1 or 0 reset is better since they cost time, but you will have to adjust things then)

Magic for the run:
The needed ones: 
HEILL(received automatically)
PRISM(First AOE magic, found in Teirm)
BLINDED(Found in Teirm castle, strategically useful)
THE TOXIC SPELL(Forgot the name and where to get it, might be changed against VENOM FLOOD, needs testing)
FLOOD(cheap and totally broken magic in GilLead 3rd Floor, it will win the finals alone)

Maybe Useful ones:
LIFE ENERGY(For healing purposes in dras leona if prisms too weak or in finals for goup battles, found in Teirm)
VENOM FLOOD(If it does more dmg than PRISM or comparable its useful, found in church)
BURN(High single target dmg, but prob useless)

Useful Equipment:
I would recommend getting the solid starlight for eragon(You need to talk to a guy in Teirm and then pick it up on your way to northern cavern) since it boosts his int(+18) or "Lost Destiny" with regen 25 INT and 30 DEF found when escaping Dras Leona. And the Knight armor wich has really high base defense and can be enhanced in that aspec very well too so that eragon becomes useful and safe.

Now for actual strategies:
I recommend picking up all 17 Health 4s in the intro(10 in tutorial chest and 7 at the start of one of the caves in a chest)
For training before dras Leona a good spot is prob Teirm Castle since the lower lvls have the Weaker Spear type encounters and the highest level has high level encounters so you can adjust by going on.
For the escape from Dras Leona it would be optimal if one Prism could take out every encounter, the needed INT-value has to be tested for that.

The Razac in the cave:
This introduces the "best" startegy for this game. Blind the enemies to let their accuracy fall below 50%. And inflict poison on them. From that point on eragon can concentrate on healing the group and murtagh can hit on both enemies. Dont concentrate on one enemy to much since they have Revive 5 as well as Health 5 and the item to nullify ailments. (and a lot of boni items, if used focus on that enemy)
They wont use too many heal items.
The Razac are immune against blood, i dont know about fire but i think they are immune to it to.

Durza:
Same strategy here. Blind him, inflict poison and hit him with Zac'roc to inflict blood(and fire if modified), then heal.

Every battle in between razac and durza: FLOOD.

The Status ailments:
Poison does 10% of the current HP as dmg, so you can see when to finish them of.
Blood and Fire do fixed dmg based on the enemy inflicted with it. final Durzas f.e. get 1000 blood and 500 fire dmg after every action.

Pocket Forge:
I used it two times, one time to raise the defens before the razac fight since they do enourmous dmg.(1k~2k)
and a second time to modify Zac'roc and give it fire dmg(volcanic stone needed is found lategame IIRC in one of the ruins)
The first use should be needed, the fire dmg prob evens out the time needed to get it. Only recommended if you need to train before the final for whatever reason.

I hope at least one thing i wrote is useful to someone who wants to run this. And i would be glad to help routing this game further.

Ghostwheel

2013-08-03 04:34:18 pm

The artist formerly known as Qxy

Excellent. My suspicions about flood in GiLead were correct. How much grinding is required to gt to level 50 magic?

Not surprised about Murtagh glitch at all.

From equipment to magic use, everything you said mirrors my initial route impressions, but with a lot more clout than I can give at the moment. The real trick is going to be figuring out where and how much to grind to hit Prism/Flood benchmarks. I will do more research later in the week. Thanks for the help and info; I might actually finish routing this now!

Elren

Edit history:

Elren: 2013-08-04 03:59:38 pm

Elren: 2013-08-04 02:38:46 pm

2013-08-04 10:57:48 am

I dont think much grinding will be needed since the enemies give exp based on your level and try to keep you close to an average. The average level for Dras Leona is ~57-63, razac in cave have lvl 65.
I'm also pretty sure about the 50 magic being the broken point. at 38 magic Prism still does a recoil dmg of 950, to high to ignore, at magic 50 flood only does a recoil of 500, two or three levels before that it was still 1000. Prism should stop doing dmg to you a bit sooner so we prob need a bit less for dras leona than 50 magic. Testing will show.

Now for new info. I tried running the intro with a bit of testing to see how well it goes and found a lot of useful chests i overlooked.
Outside there is the tutorial chest with 10 Health 4s and from your starting point a bit left one with 5 Health 4s. Next to the left cave is one with 3 Salt 3s.
In the caves there are a chest with 7 Health 4s(close to the entrance), one with 5 Health 4s(on the way to armory), another one with 5 Health 3s and one with 3 Salt 5s.
Except for armory one, all chests are directly on your way. They add up to a pretty nicely.
Also your speed is so high you can escape from every fight easily.

Since I didnt find a list i wrote an Errand list with rewards:
Hide and Seek- 5G+fresh String+5G+Brass Tongs
Lost Child- 50G+Miller's Armor
Horst- Sharpening Stone+Coarse Stone+ forged "Bronze Sword"
Bandit Group- 27G+Bronze Knives
Trap&Chest- 20G+Strengh Stamp+Light Coif
Herbal- 2G+ 2 Health 1
Chest in the Forest- 25G+Light Chain+Iron Sword
Hunting Thief- 1G+20G+Iron Hammer+5G+Taunt String+Sturdy Draw
Chest in Warehouse- 10G+3 Salt 1+Peasent Boots+Oil
Chest at Butchers- Fathers Knives
Spine Chest 1-5G+Iron Tongs+Steel Knives
Spine Chest 2-5G+Steel Bands+Hunting Helm
Spine Chest 3-5G+Ribbed Cuirass+Ribbed Helm
Weapon 7- 5G+ Learner+Jeweled Sword
Endurance 5- Hardened Hide
Endurance 8- Horsts Hammer
Grass Blade(Hunting 10- 11 needed)- grass Blade+Delicate Oil
Hunting 14- i dont care
Endurance 14- i dont care either
Fights give 0 to 6G, in Spine 3-6G

The Errands arent enough to get the 200G you need to repay so you have to fight.

Based on that info i made a preliminary route for the errands:
Run down, talk to herbal(It's necessary to activate the quest before picking up the ingridients)
enter butchery, take chest
talk to hide and seek kids
talk to worried mother, enter warehouse and grab the chest
~~pick up the dusky roots then~~ talk to Horst
Menu time(Equip "Bronze sword" and "Father's Knives", set focus to Endurance for Eragon and Weapon for the others)
Go straight to the bandit group and finish them, grabbing the chest afterwards
go upwards talk to the child and grab the leaves and roots next to him
go to the second child(direction of horst) and talk to herbal afterwards
Make as many Heal 1s as possible(4 IIRC) and heal if needed
Now go Thief Hunting
Afterwards we can finally go to the forest
Talk to the Hunter and do Trap&Chest(on the way 4 enemies will run to you, kill at least 3 of them)
Go to the Spine and dodge all enemies and talk to the child(go below the first bush, then move diagonally to the top and run alongside the hill down, open the chest if you have enough space its useful) then flee the spine
Now that you've rescued the chld the forest Chest appears(don't ask me why), pick it up kill the enemies if they touch you
Menuing the second(Equip Eragon with "Iron Sword","Light Chain","Light Coif"; Ronan with "Iron Hammer"[or Miller's Limit if you got this drop], "Miller's Armor"; Katrina with "Ribbed Cuirass","Ribbed helm" when you got the chest before)
Go back to the Spine, Pick up the chests and train till Katrina gets level 8.(When you didnt get the chest equip the things now and also equip hunting helmet for eragon)
Now go and make Weapon 7
Pay back the money, finish.

Now i'll explain some of the choices i made:
The focus for eragon is endurance and not weapon since the additional toughness will help him out midgame(Teirm,dras Leona)
The other get Weapon since its the strongest early on.
I'll pick up Father's Knives since it'll make the start easier and ensures the win against many enemies.
I'll take my time to make more Health1s so can heal at the start, since we'll be training and the robbers have a higher chance of picking these now.(I dont think going out of the way to pick up more ingredients will be useful)
I want jewel sword since it does more than double the dmg of Iron Sword, and since we'll be training on the way to Teirm it will be of good use.
If there is still something unclear just ask.

For combo usage- Eragon BB, Ronan AA(BB would be okay too but i prefer the higher stun chance), Katrina AB(instant Kill!!)
An actual run will definetly be sub 28 min at this point.(My test was at 33 min and i was still checking things)

For Training from here on i would just kill the enemies on the way to teirm to see what level i get, i want prism before i enter Teirm Castle so if I'm too low I'll just kill a few bandits in the northern cave, exp should be fine
The testing will show how good that'll work.
(If possible i want to reach level 55 before reaching dras leona since the encouters there suck so much)

When testing recoil dmg at razac cave prism did unexpected much dmg to them. 1450~1750
As mentioned above i had 38 magic and didnt have any INT boosts so i have about 30(or 40) INT less than in a speedrun, i'll have to look into that as soon as i reach this point in the testrun.

EDIT:
Notes for the Ice Path:
It's sadly not possible to dodge all 3 encounters. Since Eragon is low level you need to open the chest and hide below it to be able to open the menu. Equip "Jeweled Sword","Heavy Chain", "Hunting Helm" and "Woolen Robe", it adds up to ~150 defense. Now it's necessary to do the 1st and 3rd encounter(not dodgeable or good fleeable, just fight; use health1s after 1st fight and a health3 in 2nd if needed)

Since Brom cant hunt (>.<) I gave him Weapon focus and Angela got Hunting.

The Training on the way to Teirm didnt go as well as I thought. By just killing the things on the way I reached lv16 and had tough fights in Teirm as a result.
I changed the plan to grinding till lv 17 close to Draws(IIRC) the second resting city(the one close to the ruins)
There is a spot a bit to the southwest with a little niche between two mountains. Around that spot only Bandit/assasin encounters spawn, which are much faster done than knight encounters. So I trained with these in the testrun.
Next to the ruins you get urgal encounters, they could be even faster, noticed it too late.
At lv 17 then I do the ruins. More dmg for Saphira and defense for Brom is appreciated at this point.
Now either train next to the ruins/Mountain Spot, or on the way(dont prefer on the way cause of the knights) to reach lv 20 till Teirm.(maybe 22 would be better)
At this lv northern cave encounters are at a reasonable strenght. Train here at least till 18 magic focus(lv 27~28)
Teirm castle sadly isnt as good for grinding as i hoped for and Prism doesnt rly help at this point(It costs all HP and doesnt finish the encounters). So fleeing is the better plan. Maybe Training longer in northern cave is a possibility. I start searching for good training spots from now on.

PS: I should multipost from now on, I wirte too much.

EDIT2:
Found a good training spot. It's north of the northern cave, the curve on the coast where you have a ruin in the upper right corner of the screen is the perfect spot.
There you get an Urgal Type encounter(2 Warriors, 1 archer and 1 Shaman) which gives constantly 600 Exp. The fight is easy and there is a refill city close by so you can cast Prism at the start of each fight.
From a certain level it will drop by 30 Exp per lv. At 44 it falls sub 500 Exp that means i'll have to search a different spot from there on.
Also in the ruin is a rly good armor for eragon and for saphire a sattle.(Use Blind and Poison to get it easily)

Another note, on magic 31, prism only costs half your HP at max bar.

I dont think much grinding will be needed since the enemies give exp based on your level and try to keep you close to an average. The average level for Dras Leona is ~57-63, razac in cave have lvl 65.
I'm also pretty sure about the 50 magic being the broken point. at 38 magic Prism still does a recoil dmg of 950, to high to ignore, at magic 50 flood only does a recoil of 500, two or three levels before that it was still 1000. Prism should stop doing dmg to you a bit sooner so we prob need a bit less for dras leona than 50 magic. Testing will show.

Now for new info. I tried running the intro with a bit of testing to see how well it goes and found a lot of useful chests i overlooked.
Outside there is the tutorial chest with 10 Health 4s and from your starting point a bit left one with 5 Health 4s. Next to the left cave is one with 3 Salt 3s.
In the caves there are a chest with 7 Health 4s(close to the entrance), one with 5 Health 4s(on the way to armory), another one with 5 Health 3s and one with 3 Salt 5s.
Except for armory one, all chests are directly on your way. They add up to a pretty nicely.
Also your speed is so high you can escape from every fight easily.

Since I didnt find a list i wrote an Errand list with rewards:
Hide and Seek- 5G+fresh String+5G+Brass Tongs
Lost Child- 50G+Miller's Armor
Horst- Sharpening Stone+Coarse Stone+ forged "Bronze Sword"
Bandit Group- 27G+Bronze Knives
Trap&Chest- 20G+Strengh Stamp+Light Coif
Herbal- 2G+ 2 Health 1
Chest in the Forest- 25G+Light Chain+Iron Sword
Hunting Thief- 1G+20G+Iron Hammer+5G+Taunt String+Sturdy Draw
Chest in Warehouse- 10G+3 Salt 1+Peasent Boots+Oil
Chest at Butchers- Fathers Knives
Spine Chest 1-5G+Iron Tongs+Steel Knives
Spine Chest 2-5G+Steel Bands+Hunting Helm
Spine Chest 3-5G+Ribbed Cuirass+Ribbed Helm
Weapon 7- 5G+ Learner+Jeweled Sword
Endurance 5- Hardened Hide
Endurance 8- Horsts Hammer
Grass Blade(Hunting 10- 11 needed)- grass Blade+Delicate Oil
Hunting 14- i dont care
Endurance 14- i dont care either
Fights give 0 to 6G, in Spine 3-6G

The Errands arent enough to get the 200G you need to repay so you have to fight.

Based on that info i made a preliminary route for the errands:
Run down, talk to herbal(It's necessary to activate the quest before picking up the ingridients)
enter butchery, take chest
talk to hide and seek kids
talk to worried mother, enter warehouse and grab the chest
[s]pick up the dusky roots then [/s]talk to Horst
Menu time(Equip "Bronze sword" and "Father's Knives", set focus to Endurance for Eragon and Weapon for the others)
Go straight to the bandit group and finish them, grabbing the chest afterwards
go upwards talk to the child and grab the leaves and roots next to him
go to the second child(direction of horst) and talk to herbal afterwards
Make as many Heal 1s as possible(4 IIRC) and heal if needed
Now go Thief Hunting
Afterwards we can finally go to the forest
Talk to the Hunter and do Trap&Chest(on the way 4 enemies will run to you, kill at least 3 of them)
Go to the Spine and dodge all enemies and talk to the child(go below the first bush, then move diagonally to the top and run alongside the hill down, open the chest if you have enough space its useful) then flee the spine
Now that you've rescued the chld the forest Chest appears(don't ask me why), pick it up kill the enemies if they touch you
Menuing the second(Equip Eragon with "Iron Sword","Light Chain","Light Coif"; Ronan with "Iron Hammer"[or Miller's Limit if you got this drop], "Miller's Armor"; Katrina with "Ribbed Cuirass","Ribbed helm" when you got the chest before)
Go back to the Spine, Pick up the chests and train till Katrina gets level 8.(When you didnt get the chest equip the things now and also equip hunting helmet for eragon)
Now go and make Weapon 7
Pay back the money, finish.

Now i'll explain some of the choices i made:
The focus for eragon is endurance and not weapon since the additional toughness will help him out midgame(Teirm,dras Leona)
The other get Weapon since its the strongest early on.
I'll pick up Father's Knives since it'll make the start easier and ensures the win against many enemies.
I'll take my time to make more Health1s so can heal at the start, since we'll be training and the robbers have a higher chance of picking these now.(I dont think going out of the way to pick up more ingredients will be useful)
I want jewel sword since it does more than double the dmg of Iron Sword, and since we'll be training on the way to Teirm it will be of good use.
If there is still something unclear just ask.

For combo usage- Eragon BB, Ronan AA(BB would be okay too but i prefer the higher stun chance), Katrina AB(instant Kill!!)
An actual run will definetly be sub 28 min at this point.(My test was at 33 min and i was still checking things)

For Training from here on i would just kill the enemies on the way to teirm to see what level i get, i want prism before i enter Teirm Castle so if I'm too low I'll just kill a few bandits in the northern cave, exp should be fine
The testing will show how good that'll work.
(If possible i want to reach level 55 before reaching dras leona since the encouters there suck so much)

When testing recoil dmg at razac cave prism did unexpected much dmg to them. 1450~1750
As mentioned above i had 38 magic and didnt have any INT boosts so i have about 30(or 40) INT less than in a speedrun, i'll have to look into that as soon as i reach this point in the testrun.

[b]EDIT:[/b]
Notes for the Ice Path:
It's sadly not possible to dodge all 3 encounters. Since Eragon is low level you need to open the chest and hide below it to be able to open the menu. Equip "Jeweled Sword","Heavy Chain", "Hunting Helm" and "Woolen Robe", it adds up to ~150 defense. Now it's necessary to do the 1st and 3rd encounter(not dodgeable or good fleeable, just fight; use health1s after 1st fight and a health3 in 2nd if needed)

Since Brom cant hunt (>.<) I gave him Weapon focus and Angela got Hunting.

The Training on the way to Teirm didnt go as well as I thought. By just killing the things on the way I reached lv16 and had tough fights in Teirm as a result. 
I changed the plan to grinding till lv 17 close to Draws(IIRC) the second resting city(the one close to the ruins)
There is a spot a bit to the southwest with a little niche between two mountains. Around that spot only Bandit/assasin encounters spawn, which are much faster done than knight encounters. So I trained with these in the testrun.
Next to the ruins you get urgal encounters, they could be even faster, noticed it too late.
At lv 17 then I do the ruins. More dmg for Saphira and defense for Brom is appreciated at this point.
Now either train next to the ruins/Mountain Spot, or on the way(dont prefer on the way cause of the knights) to reach lv 20 till Teirm.(maybe 22 would be better)
At this lv northern cave encounters are at a reasonable strenght. Train here at least till 18 magic focus(lv 27~28) 
Teirm castle sadly isnt as good for grinding as i hoped for and Prism doesnt rly help at this point(It costs all HP and doesnt finish the encounters). So fleeing is the better plan. Maybe Training longer in northern cave is a possibility. I start searching for good training spots from now on.

PS: I should multipost from now on, I wirte too much.

[b]EDIT2:[/b]
Found a good training spot. It's north of the northern cave, the curve on the coast where you have a ruin in the upper right corner of the screen is the perfect spot.
There you get an Urgal Type encounter(2 Warriors, 1 archer and 1 Shaman) which gives constantly 600 Exp. The fight is easy and there is a refill city close by so you can cast Prism at the start of each fight.
From a certain level it will drop by 30 Exp per lv. At 44 it falls sub 500 Exp that means i'll have to search a different spot from there on.
Also in the ruin is a rly good armor for eragon and for saphire a sattle.(Use Blind and Poison to get it easily)

Another note, on magic 31, prism only costs half your HP at max bar.

Ghostwheel

2013-08-04 05:10:52 pm

The artist formerly known as Qxy

Lots of good data there. Daret does seem like a good place to grind, but you'd need to train a bit to take out Urgals. The bandit spot/training on spine encounters while getting cash could help.

You can dodge all 3 ice path encounters, its just difficult. You usually need to get the chest anyway so you can manipulate the first guy around the rock. But I've done it; that type of enemy just sucks to avoid. Yelmwood's the same way, I can't afford to fight them but they're tough to dodge in close quarters.

I don't think you need the health 1 potions. The tutorial takes a lot of time. Everything else matches my Carvahall route nicely though.

Is there a way to use Slayer and/or Learner? One fight in Arya's tutorial gives you both, and in test runs I've picked them up just to see if I run into an impass. If I can get past the urgals in Draz Leona, are there other forced fights? If not, then I can use the Murtagh glitch to carry the rest of the game and I might be able to cut grinding altogether.

Does Eragon need Magic Focus? What Level does Arya come in at? Is it enough to give you Flood?

Lots of good data there. Daret does seem like a good place to grind, but you'd need to train a bit to take out Urgals. The bandit spot/training on spine encounters while getting cash could help.

You can dodge all 3 ice path encounters, its just difficult. You usually need to get the chest anyway so you can manipulate the first guy around the rock. But I've done it; that type of enemy just sucks to avoid. Yelmwood's the same way, I can't afford to fight them but they're tough to dodge in close quarters.

I don't think you need the health 1 potions. The tutorial takes a lot of time. Everything else matches my Carvahall route nicely though.

Is there a way to use Slayer and/or Learner? One fight in Arya's tutorial gives you both, and in test runs I've picked them up just to see if I run into an impass. If I can get past the urgals in Draz Leona, are there other forced fights? If not, then I can use the Murtagh glitch to carry the rest of the game and I might be able to cut grinding altogether.

Does Eragon need Magic Focus? What Level does Arya come in at? Is it enough to give you Flood?

Elren

Edit history:

Elren: 2013-08-04 05:26:49 pm

2013-08-04 05:23:05 pm

You mean the urgals in the warehouse in dras leona? That was your problem fight?
The good thing comes after you sneak into the church and try to escape. Angela leaves your group and you have 6 fights in a row against strong knight types with mages who can cast Flood as well as Burn The Sky. That is the end for a not grind run.

Arya did come in at 77 in my casual play. Thats more than enough for Flood.

And yes Eragon needs magic focus. at least for the Final. How is he supposed to fight underleveled with an underleveled angela against hords of strong enemies? Sure blind and poison should work but it takes long and is risky.

But if you manage to beat the dras leona escape without leveling then you can beat the game like that. Dont try to SS this stunt XD

EDIT:
For no grind run, using learner on the razzac comes in mind. They give a scripted 2500 Exp. It's basically a free level if it works.

Ghostwheel

2013-08-04 05:31:10 pm

The artist formerly known as Qxy

This game is going to be segmented for me anyway. Carvahall made sure of that..

So the mercs are forced fights, what a drag... Yeah, the Warehouse Urgals were my problem. The Mercs are way overleveled though, even for a casual playthrough. so I should get a ton of experience from them if I managed to win.

The Razac learner idea is nice, but I think it would be better spent trying to get prism earlier. I can't see why learner wouldn't work though, but it'd be a real crapshoot to try slayer

Elren

2013-08-05 12:48:21 pm

UPDATE!
Yesterday I tried doing dras leona at lv 46. The thing is I rushed through and finished the game way too easily. So today I tested out how much training I could cut.

For SS lv 40 is good. The only problem I encountered was that Brom had shitty defense and died too easily in the Merc forced fights.(especially in 3)
The solution I found is a Guy named Leroy(gamefaqs: Weapon 15) who wants to duel you, gives armor and helm for Brom and a pocket Forge, which is incredibly useful.
Also I found a glitch with Leroy. After beating him mash the A-Button to talk to him again and beat him again, gaining another pocket forge. Tried to recreate it and could duel him 4 times in a row easily.
In a run i would fight him 2 times to get a 2nd pocket forge to refine Zar'roc which is very useful against durza.(Pain Oil, good stuff)
Cause of te forges i add the 3rd Screen escape chest to the pickup list since it has Vanyali Tongs in it.
with the refined armor and perfect sword(found in teirm castle top floor last chest) Brom has over 200 Arm and good dodge and def.
(eragon is incredibly durable at that time)

For a segmented run with the added armour and taking on the northern ruins, it would be possible to luck manipulate the fights at level 30, maybe even 27. The razzak could be manipulated as well to hit the strong murtagh before they're blinded. The Jagged Blade(northern Ruins) adds bleed in this battle and saves a good amount of time.(1200 bleed dmg per turn)

My testrun using SS routes cut the 3h mark already and has more than 20 min of improvement. (entered farthen dür at 53. And noticed that I can run from the twins fight O_o)

A little mistake I did before. The Chest in the forests is accessible before rescuing the child. This one is meant with nearing from the south...
So I put it after Trap&Chast and before the child so that i can directly enter the spine after talking to the child.

That's it for now. Finally not a wall of text.

UPDATE!
Yesterday I tried doing dras leona at lv 46. The thing is I rushed through and finished the game way too easily. So today I tested out how much training I could cut.

For SS lv 40 is good. The only problem I encountered was that Brom had shitty defense and died too easily in the Merc forced fights.(especially in 3)
The solution I found is a Guy named Leroy(gamefaqs: Weapon 15) who wants to duel you, gives armor and helm for Brom and a pocket Forge, which is incredibly useful.
Also I found a glitch with Leroy. After beating him mash the A-Button to talk to him again and beat him again, gaining another pocket forge. Tried to recreate it and could duel him 4 times in a row easily. 
In a run i would fight him 2 times to get a 2nd pocket forge to refine Zar'roc which is very useful against durza.(Pain Oil, good stuff) 
Cause of te forges i add the 3rd Screen escape chest to the pickup list since it has Vanyali Tongs in it.
with the refined armor and perfect sword(found in teirm castle top floor last chest) Brom has over 200 Arm and good dodge and def.
(eragon is incredibly durable at that time)

For a segmented run with the added armour and taking on the northern ruins, it would be possible to luck manipulate the fights at level 30, maybe even 27. The razzak could be manipulated as well to hit the strong murtagh before they're blinded. The Jagged Blade(northern Ruins) adds bleed in this battle and saves a good amount of time.(1200 bleed dmg per turn)

My testrun using SS routes cut the 3h mark already and has more than 20 min of improvement. (entered farthen dür at 53. And noticed that I can run from the twins fight O_o)

A little mistake I did before. The Chest in the forests is accessible before rescuing the child. This one is meant with nearing from the south...
So I put it after Trap&Chast and before the child so that i can directly enter the spine after talking to the child.

That's it for now. Finally not a wall of text.

Ghostwheel

Edit history:

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-06 08:14:22 am

2013-08-06 08:07:50 am

The artist formerly known as Qxy

Great stuff! I wonder if all duels work the same way. The Jeweled Sword guy might be helpful to fight again.

I'm still being worked to the bone, so I'll branch off what you have at the end of this week.

Ghostwheel

Edit history:

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-14 12:19:26 am

2013-08-13 10:38:29 am

The artist formerly known as Qxy

Ok. I'm going to try a prism rush, low level run now that I'm back. It's clear to me now that having prism is a requisite to beating the game. Level 18 could be a nice number for recoil and magic damage too.

My investigation at this time will be centered on using the 2 learners you can get to maximize grinding efficiency. Unfortunately, you can't use slayer to kill the Kull in the northern ruins, but blind/poison could work well. I'll poke around with it elsewhere and see where it helps. If the return is great enough, I'll pour Eragon into weapon focus in carvahall for the sole purpose of getting rider's strength and letting slayer hit all enemies for a turn. Do you remember what level he learns it? Anyway, I'll be back later with an update.

Eragon learns Rider's Strength at Weapon Focus 12. With one level in hunting to get poison oil, and about 5 levels in weapon after you get access to magic, you get the technique, letting you inflict poison on all enemies with your blade. Oil, Poison oil, and Magic oil make a great combo on Solid Starlight. I can poison and stun all enemies at the same time, and be decent with a sword while my magic is garbage

For Brom, I delay choosing focus to give him more experience while Eragon levels. If I let him have 5 levels in magic, I can spike him to 18 before Teirm, enough for prism. I then put him on endurance to give him some tankability.

I've put Angela on Herbal for now for the stats, but it might be better to put her on hunting for blind sided. I just need to figure out what level that is reached. She hits a decent herbal level, though, so i could probably get some use out of that.

Still trying to figure out the best balance, I'm ready to head to Drs Leona, I'm at level 20, and I haven't used my learners or killed the Kull yet.

On a separate note, I haven't ever been able to use Slayer effectvely, even to kill the most basic enemies. How do you actually get kills with it?

Ok. I'm going to try a prism rush, low level run now that I'm back. It's clear to me now that having prism is a requisite to beating the game. Level 18 could be a nice number for recoil and magic damage too.

My investigation at this time will be centered on using the 2 learners you can get to maximize grinding efficiency. Unfortunately, you can't use slayer to kill the Kull in the northern ruins, but blind/poison could work well. I'll poke around with it elsewhere and see where it helps. If the return is great enough, I'll pour Eragon into weapon focus in carvahall for the sole purpose of getting rider's strength and letting slayer hit all enemies for a turn. Do you remember what level he learns it? Anyway, I'll be back later with an update.

Eragon learns Rider's Strength at Weapon Focus 12. With one level in hunting to get poison oil, and about 5 levels in weapon after you get access to magic, you get the technique, letting you inflict poison on all enemies with your blade. Oil, Poison oil, and Magic oil make a great combo on Solid Starlight. I can poison and stun all enemies at the same time, and be decent with a sword while my magic is garbage

For Brom, I delay choosing focus to give him more experience while Eragon levels. If I let him have 5 levels in magic, I can spike him to 18 before Teirm, enough for prism. I then put him on endurance to give him some tankability.

I've put Angela on Herbal for now for the stats, but it might be better to put her on hunting for blind sided. I just need to figure out what level that is reached. She hits a decent herbal level, though, so i could probably get some use out of that.

Still trying to figure out the best balance, I'm ready to head to Drs Leona, I'm at level 20, and I haven't used my learners or killed the Kull yet.

On a separate note, I haven't ever been able to use Slayer effectvely, even to kill the most basic enemies. How do you actually get kills with it?

Ghostwheel

Edit history:

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-14 11:30:57 am

2013-08-14 11:30:01 am

The artist formerly known as Qxy

Ok, after checking a walkthrough, I refreshed my memory on the forced fights in Dras Leona. Here's my new proposed route:

Brom gets to be Weapon Focus this time around. With the Loss skill, moss/sharpening stone, red oil, and poison oil on A Freind's Gift (Mil Slayer), he might be able to man through the encounters. I have a feeling he'll need endurance after he gets Loss, though.

Eragon gets sacrificed in the early portion of the game to level magic. This means minimal leveling in Carvahall, a rough time with the Magic Tutorial Urgal and a few early game fights. He'll need to hit level 18 by the time we need to leave Teirm (I plan on using blinded and skipping prism). Brom will be 6 levels higher and really strong, so I hope he can take out the Militia.

The big swing point will be my detour to the Valley of Blades for my Red Oil. This costs a lot to forge, but gives fire and +15 damage. With my Mil Slayer, I should be able to grind Teirm Castle to get the money and levels I need to fight that ruin. If possible, though, I'd like to be able to get the Valley of Blades out of the way before I hit Teirm. Slayer and Learner are not behaving, though, so we'll see.

Angela will probably get Hunting, but she doesn't matter till the end. Then she sucks anyway, and I'll use this run to test whether I can get some blinds out of her.

Most of my late game leveling for Eragon should come from using Arya as a leash to get him to reasonable flood levels. I'll have to see what level she comes in after I kill the Razac (May require more Murtagh abuse than you use)

Ok, after checking a walkthrough, I refreshed my memory on the forced fights in Dras Leona. Here's my new proposed route:

Brom gets to be Weapon Focus this time around. With the Loss skill, moss/sharpening stone, red oil, and poison oil on A Freind's Gift (Mil Slayer), he might be able to man through the encounters. I have a feeling he'll need endurance after he gets Loss, though.

Eragon gets sacrificed in the early portion of the game to level magic. This means minimal leveling in Carvahall, a rough time with the Magic Tutorial Urgal and a few early game fights. He'll need to hit level 18 by the time we need to leave Teirm (I plan on using blinded and skipping prism). Brom will be 6 levels higher and really strong, so I hope he can take out the Militia.

The big swing point will be my detour to the Valley of Blades for my Red Oil. This costs a lot to forge, but gives fire and +15 damage. With my Mil Slayer, I should be able to grind Teirm Castle to get the money and levels I need to fight that ruin. If possible, though, I'd like to be able to get the Valley of Blades out of the way before I hit Teirm. Slayer and Learner are not behaving, though, so we'll see.

Angela will probably get Hunting, but she doesn't matter till the end. Then she sucks anyway, and I'll use this run to test whether I can get some blinds out of her.

Most of my late game leveling for Eragon should come from using Arya as a leash to get him to reasonable flood levels. I'll have to see what level she comes in after I kill the Razac (May require more Murtagh abuse than you use)

Ghostwheel

Edit history:

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-15 01:27:36 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-15 01:23:15 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-15 12:19:00 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-14 11:57:20 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-14 06:10:13 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-14 05:37:24 pm

2013-08-14 05:19:37 pm

The artist formerly known as Qxy

Updates:

-I'm under the impression that learner and slayer are not functional in my game.

-Getting Red Oil is Easier than I thought. The segmented run will probably just fight the Urgals in the first Ruin, then head straight for the Valley of Blades. Saphira gets better equipment, and everyone wins.

-Training the party to Eragon Level 27 seems reasonable. I can pick up prism (even if it still isn't so practical) and leave with a decently damaging Brom.

-I'm at the Dras Leona forced fight section at the moment, and I'm getting through, but not easily. The 5th encounter (mages, pikemen) seems very brutal, however, and will take a bit of effort to get past. Eragon is slightly tankier than Brom at this point, but is magic is still piss poor. Brom's physicals are average damage here, and the fire + poison pressure really helps here.

-I forgot to fight the blind man in the church who gives Brom better armor (forged corded plate atm) I don't know what weapon focus I need to fight him, though.

-Going forward, I don't think a revised route picking up rider's strength and loss at level 12 each, then switching to Magic on Eragon and Endurance on Brom would be bad. This would let me take Dras Leona earlier, but it would be much more practical if I could find a way to work mass bleed into the equation. I'm not coming up with any weapons that will work; I'm wondering how out of the way Bloody Stone is.

Edit Got to the end of the game at an inflated 4 hours (I left the game on idling for a bit). Magic doesn't seem so necessary toward the end of the game. The thing about Tronjheim is that you can rush the commanders. The Urgals will not break the base in time if you just fly around in a circle. Only in the edge cases where and Urgal pops out of a station the instant after a commander dies will you ever have to fight one. Flood wrecks, but I need to grind a bit to get to level 53, or another safe level. But If I'm not having to worry about Westwinds, I'm content with trying Weapon Focus as a late game option. Zaroc is just as OP as magic is after all. Next run, we cut more corners, and maybe try to use Surter's Strength or the Giant's Stone.

New plan:

Carvahall - Train Hunting 4, Weapon 6-7
Get Angela to Level 13 Magic and sink the rest in Hunting, have her fetch blinded. Another option in a more magic focused route is to get her herbal to 20, and get ingredients in Dras Leona for tons of Health 3 potions. Getting her to 13 could be tricky, though, so I amy have to spend a bit more time in Carvahall (not bad with this route)
Brom and Eragon can probably stay on Weapon, but a switch to Endurance after 12 might be prudent. Then again, neither is ever going to pump it up to level 20, so it may not be worth the loss of strength. With Eragon as muscle, Brom may not need Loss anymore, so a full investment could be nice.
Arya gets 67 points in Magic and grabs all of the good magic in GiLead
Murtagh is probably fine on Endurance, since he's not great at inflicting mass status or tons of damage. He can't even find a really accessible bow.

Eragon is probably fine with the Forged Solid Starlight Stun/Fire/Poison combo. We'll see how well the stun works out for us, otherwise, I'll have to go with a worse forged Lost Desitny without one of the statuses. Brom can either go with our favorite Mil Slayer or try for the Chest in the Church with Leona's Judge. Either way, he's less important now, but segmented Kill abuse sounds awesome. Once we have Za'roc we run with the game.

I'll probably stick to the Endurance focus side of things, because even though our shift from magic will naturally increase our Tuf, the lowest survivable level will probably hit this way. Besides, our main damage will be in status, so damage from the weapon isn't crucial. I'll probably stream tomorrow to test things out.

Updates:

-I'm under the impression that learner and slayer are not functional in my game.

-Getting Red Oil is Easier than I thought. The segmented run will probably just fight the Urgals in the first Ruin, then head straight for the Valley of Blades. Saphira gets better equipment, and everyone wins.

-Training the party to Eragon Level 27 seems reasonable. I can pick up prism (even if it still isn't so practical) and leave with a decently damaging Brom.

-I'm at the Dras Leona forced fight section at the moment, and I'm getting through, but not easily. The 5th encounter (mages, pikemen) seems very brutal, however, and will take a bit of effort to get past. Eragon is slightly tankier than Brom at this point, but is magic is still piss poor. Brom's physicals are average damage here, and the fire + poison pressure really helps here.

-I forgot to fight the blind man in the church who gives Brom better armor (forged corded plate atm) I don't know what weapon focus I need to fight him, though.

-Going forward, I don't think a revised route picking up rider's strength and loss at level 12 each, then switching to Magic on Eragon and Endurance on Brom would be bad. This would let me take Dras Leona earlier, but it would be much more practical if I could find a way to work mass bleed into the equation. I'm not coming up with any weapons that will work; I'm wondering how out of the way Bloody Stone is.

[b]Edit[/b] Got to the end of the game at an inflated 4 hours (I left the game on idling for a bit). Magic doesn't seem so necessary toward the end of the game. The thing about Tronjheim is that you can rush the commanders. The Urgals will not break the base in time if you just fly around in a circle. Only in the edge cases where and Urgal pops out of a station the instant after a commander dies will you ever have to fight one. Flood wrecks, but I need to grind a bit to get to level 53, or another safe level. But If I'm not having to worry about Westwinds, I'm content with trying Weapon Focus as a late game option. Zaroc is just as OP as magic is after all. Next run, we cut more corners, and maybe try to use Surter's Strength or the Giant's Stone.

New plan:

Carvahall - Train Hunting 4, Weapon 6-7
Get Angela to Level 13 Magic and sink the rest in Hunting, have her fetch blinded. Another option in a more magic focused route is to get her herbal to 20, and get ingredients in Dras Leona for tons of Health 3 potions. Getting her to 13 could be tricky, though, so I amy have to spend a bit more time in Carvahall (not bad with this route)
Brom and Eragon can probably stay on Weapon, but a switch to Endurance after 12 might be prudent. Then again, neither is ever going to pump it up to level 20, so it may not be worth the loss of strength. With Eragon as muscle, Brom may not need Loss anymore, so a full investment could be nice.
Arya gets 67 points in Magic and grabs all of the good magic in GiLead
Murtagh is probably fine on Endurance, since he's not great at inflicting mass status or tons of damage. He can't even find a really accessible bow.

Eragon is probably fine with the Forged Solid Starlight Stun/Fire/Poison combo. We'll see how well the stun works out for us, otherwise, I'll have to go with a worse forged Lost Desitny without one of the statuses. Brom can either go with our favorite Mil Slayer or try for the Chest in the Church with Leona's Judge. Either way, he's less important now, but segmented Kill abuse sounds awesome. Once we have Za'roc we run with the game.

I'll probably stick to the Endurance focus side of things, because even though our shift from magic will naturally increase our Tuf, the lowest survivable level will probably hit this way. Besides, our main damage will be in status, so damage from the weapon isn't crucial. I'll probably stream tomorrow to test things out.

Elren

2013-08-15 03:02:19 am

Lots and lots of interesting info and I don't even have the time to think about all of it. Cry

Since I can't watch you stream only a fast piece of advice so that your routing goes right.
Level 53 for the finals is not necessary, in fact my SS strats reach that point at a lower level. In segmented you should be fine with any level there. (Guess 40 should already be enough)
The thing about Tronjheim is that you can luck manipulate the breachguards.
I know of 4 possible Guards: Captains, Pikemasters, Immortals, Gaia Crushers. Captains being by far the weakest of them should be manipulated. I had one final with 5x Captains and 1x Immortals, so a 6xCaptains fight should be possible too. Also naturally manipulate no reinforcements(runkiller) and no breach reopeners.
Now about the info I told you I was holding back:
You don't have to win against final Durza!
You can flee from the first round and loose the other two and the game still ends as if you've won, there's no difference.
Does that mean that SDA timing stops now at the final hit against you? Or after the few textboxes you have to push away? Have to ask an admin for ruling later. Well gl for your stream.

Lots and lots of interesting info and I don't even have the time to think about all of it. :'(

Since I can't watch you stream only a fast piece of advice so that your routing goes right.
Level 53 for the finals is not necessary, in fact my SS strats reach that point at a lower level. In segmented you should be fine with any level there. (Guess 40 should already be enough)
The thing about Tronjheim is that you can luck manipulate the breachguards. 
I know of 4 possible Guards: Captains, Pikemasters, Immortals, Gaia Crushers. Captains being by far the weakest of them should be manipulated. I had one final with 5x Captains and 1x Immortals, so a 6xCaptains fight should be possible too. Also naturally manipulate no reinforcements(runkiller) and no breach reopeners.
Now about the info I told you I was holding back:
[b]You don't have to win against final Durza![/b]
You can flee from the first round and loose the other two and the game still ends as if you've won, there's no difference.
Does that mean that SDA timing stops now at the final hit against you? Or after the few textboxes you have to push away? Have to ask an admin for ruling later. Well gl for your stream.

Ghostwheel

Edit history:

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-16 12:17:30 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-15 08:32:56 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-15 08:32:53 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-15 08:32:51 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-15 08:32:14 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-15 07:38:58 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-15 07:32:43 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-15 02:59:52 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-15 02:59:33 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-15 12:17:46 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-15 12:16:34 pm

2013-08-15 12:15:23 pm

The artist formerly known as Qxy

Lol about final Durza. I actually died to him in my run, but he died to status on the same turn. I got the defeat screen, but I won anyway.

I'm at Dras Leona Church at level 22 now. I'm really going to have to get used to juking enemies in narrow corridors if I'm going to run this game. Between this and Yelmwood cave, I'm really getting annoyed.

I'd say timing stops after the text boxes. You still have control after all.

With Zar'roc/status, which breach guard I get shouldn't matter, as they die in 4 turns anyway.

Edit What I'm learinng today:

-I can get to Dras Leona and fight in the Mid 20s at about the same reliance level as my last run, but without as much strength. I haven't gotten through yet, but I probably can.

-Between finding an Epic Armor on Leroy and finding myself with different forge items this time around, I have a feeling random item drops off of enemies are going to be a problem, because due to the nature of the obscurity of this game, there's no completed list around. On the other hand, we could find something new and useful for segmented at any time.

-Leona's judge may be worth the investment, especially in segmented, but at the moment, I can't get it. You have to fight 2 cultist encounters for it, with 3 green mages between them. If at any time they decide to use burn the sky, you get nuked, no questions asked. More investment in Angela's Hunting could push the boundary into winning the fight, though.

-Blinded is still necessary for the Ra'zac but getting 13 magic may be out of the way for me. I'll have to pick the right character to do this. Maybe Brom can get 13 magic, get Loss by the time we finish escaping, and then Eragon can have his weapon focus while angela can have hunting.

-I'm going to do what I can to get out of here so I can test the Weapon endgame and find the min level.

-If I bring more Health Potions to Tronjheim, I should be able to get through it. I got lazy this time around and cut some corners, but last time with similar tactics I had 6.

Edit 3: Route 1.3 planning

Time to get serious and risky, going for segmented level strats here.

I want to abuse Leona's Judgment to murk all of the important Dras Leona fights. To do this, Brom needs Loss, and Angela probably requires lot of Hunting. To hit Level 13 magic for Blinded (still necessary), I'll either need to get Roran to a high level (around 10-12) or keep an extremely low Carvahall level and train Eragon in magic. Both are promising options late game, but which will require more work?

Route 1:
-Do Carvahall by taining through ~1 full room of the spine and all the enemies of Trap and Chest. Train Eragon in weapon focus. Manipulate good Forge items
-Keep Brom at level 6, buff Saphira
-Fight Urgals in the Ruins, then Valley of Blades, possibly using Learner to keep HP up for Fred
-Fight Fred, one northern cave guy each way, and dodge all Terim castle enemies. Buff Brom to lv 13 magic, and what I can guess will be ~7-8 Weapon Focus. Round off Exp to get Eragon to level 20, so he can fight Leroy and manipulate Epic Armor.
-Angela -> Hunting all the way
-Head to Dras Leona, get Leons's judgment, and hope for the best

Route 2:

-Lowest possible Carvahall level upon escape, Eragon gets switched to magic focus ASAP (Hopefully level 7)
-Get Eragon to Level 20 before Teirm castle, Brom gets Weapon and Endurance, Angela gets hunting.

Either way, it looks like I have to get Eragon to level 20, which might be faster if I stay in Carvahall longer. The way to get around this is to give Angela Magic Focus and Brom Weapon Focus (taking my chances with the cultists), or Brom Magic and skipping Leroy (taking my chances with his defenses). With Kill abuse I can save Health potions and hopefully take Tronjheim at the mid 20s.

I could also try to cut Blinded for the Razac fight, but ot combine this with low level would eith make me reset too many times for Murtagh or be impossible. I'm outside Carvahall with a new file, I'll try again tomorrow

Lol about final Durza. I actually died to him in my run, but he died to status on the same turn. I got the defeat screen, but I won anyway.

I'm at Dras Leona Church at level 22 now. I'm really going to have to get used to juking enemies in narrow corridors if I'm going to run this game. Between this and Yelmwood cave, I'm really getting annoyed.

I'd say timing stops after the text boxes. You still have control after all.

With Zar'roc/status, which breach guard I get shouldn't matter, as they die in 4 turns anyway.

[b]Edit[/b] What I'm learinng today:

-I can get to Dras Leona and fight in the Mid 20s at about the same reliance level as my last run, but without as much strength. I haven't gotten through yet, but I probably can.

-Between finding an Epic Armor on Leroy and finding myself with different forge items this time around, I have a feeling random item drops off of enemies are going to be a problem, because due to the nature of the obscurity of this game, there's no completed list around. On the other hand, we could find something new and useful for segmented at any time.

-Leona's judge may be worth the investment, especially in segmented, but at the moment, I can't get it. You have to fight 2 cultist encounters for it, with 3 green mages between them. If at any time they decide to use burn the sky, you get nuked, no questions asked. More investment in Angela's Hunting could push the boundary into winning the fight, though.

-Blinded is still necessary for the Ra'zac but getting 13 magic may be out of the way for me. I'll have to pick the right character to do this. Maybe Brom can get 13 magic, get Loss by the time we finish escaping, and then Eragon can have his weapon focus while angela can have hunting.

-I'm going to do what I can to get out of here so I can test the Weapon endgame and find the min level.

-If I bring more Health Potions to Tronjheim, I should be able to get through it. I got lazy this time around and cut some corners, but last time with similar tactics I had 6.

[b]Edit 3: Route 1.3 planning[/b]

Time to get serious and risky, going for segmented level strats here.

I want to abuse Leona's Judgment to murk all of the important Dras Leona fights. To do this, Brom needs Loss, and Angela probably requires lot of Hunting. To hit Level 13 magic for Blinded (still necessary), I'll either need to get Roran to a high level (around 10-12) or keep an extremely low Carvahall level and train Eragon in magic. Both are promising options late game, but which will require more work?

Route 1:
-Do Carvahall by taining through ~1 full room of the spine and all the enemies of Trap and Chest. Train Eragon in weapon focus. Manipulate good Forge items
-Keep Brom at level 6, buff Saphira
-Fight Urgals in the Ruins, then Valley of Blades, possibly using Learner to keep HP up for Fred
-Fight Fred, one northern cave guy each way, and dodge all Terim castle enemies. Buff Brom to lv 13 magic, and what I can guess will be ~7-8 Weapon Focus. Round off Exp to get Eragon to level 20, so he can fight Leroy and manipulate Epic Armor.
-Angela -> Hunting all the way
-Head to Dras Leona, get Leons's judgment, and hope for the best

Route 2:

-Lowest possible Carvahall level upon escape, Eragon gets switched to magic focus ASAP (Hopefully level 7)
-Get Eragon to Level 20 before Teirm castle, Brom gets Weapon and Endurance, Angela gets hunting.

Either way, it looks like I have to get Eragon to level 20, which might be faster if I stay in Carvahall longer. The way to get around this is to give Angela Magic Focus and Brom Weapon Focus (taking my chances with the cultists), or Brom Magic and skipping Leroy (taking my chances with his defenses). With Kill abuse I can save Health potions and hopefully take Tronjheim at the mid 20s.

I could also try to cut Blinded for the Razac fight, but ot combine this with low level would eith make me reset too many times for Murtagh or be impossible. I'm outside Carvahall with a new file, I'll try again tomorrow

Ghostwheel

Edit history:

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-15 07:31:20 pm

2013-08-15 06:13:32 pm

The artist formerly known as Qxy

Speaking of item drops, I just found a Volcanic Stone and a Blade Oil from the Dras Leona forced fights. This is huge. I will use and continually update this post as I find more item drops. A catalog should start somewhere, right? Tongue

Dras Leona Figth 1,2 (2 Archers, 2 Veterans) Sliding Stone (GameFAQs doesn't have it but my god file does, +5 Str, +5 Spd, Weapon Freeze), Stim 2 or 3, Blade Oil, Hadaraac Tongs
Dras Leona Fight 3 (3 Pikemaster, 1 Archer, 1 High Mage)
Dras Leona Fight 5 (2 Grand Magi, 3 Upgraded Pikemaster) Volcanic Stone
Razac Poison 5, Blade Oil

Elren

2013-08-16 05:36:14 am

Glad to see you're making progress. About your two questions:

First its definitely faster to train Roran to level 12 than a low level strategy. Even segmented it shouldnt be possible to leave Carvahal lower than level 6 and the encounters in spine are fast and give loads of exp. (In my last casual playthrough i trained to level 24 there so yeah)

And I dont think Leonas Judgement will save time, especially not if you get slayer to work. You get 2 additional encs and a weapon with a killing-chance(IIRC) that you wont keep for long. Also there are only 2 hard escape rounds(number 3 and 5). Slayer has a 100% chance to kill all tragets hit in a turn so it could brush away one of the hard encs(take number 3, three pikemasters take forever).

Also for the end it is important to manipulate the breach guards.
Gaia Crusher deal several thousand dmg even if you block, they'll oneshot your team^^
Immortals have ~25k health whats no problem but they deal still ~1,3k dmg while blocking with good armor.
Captains are by far the weakest with the lowest health ~6-7k so maipulating these on at least arya for fast floodkills and murtagh so he can finish them off a bit faster than usual makes perfectly sense, especially in the last segment.

Good thing you start this catalog, I'll make sure to pay attention to drops from now on. Wink

Glad to see you're making progress. About your two questions:

First its definitely faster to train Roran to level 12 than a low level strategy. Even segmented it shouldnt be possible to leave Carvahal lower than level 6 and the encounters in spine are fast and give loads of exp. (In my last casual playthrough i trained to level 24 there so yeah)

And I dont think Leonas Judgement will save time, especially not if you get slayer to work. You get 2 additional encs and a weapon with a killing-chance(IIRC) that you wont keep for long. Also there are only 2 hard escape rounds(number 3 and 5). Slayer has a 100% chance to kill all tragets hit in a turn so it could brush away one of the hard encs(take number 3, three pikemasters take forever).

Also for the end it is important to manipulate the breach guards. 
Gaia Crusher deal several thousand dmg even if you block, they'll oneshot your team^^
Immortals have ~25k health whats no problem but they deal still ~1,3k dmg while blocking with good armor.
Captains are by far the weakest with the lowest health ~6-7k so maipulating these on at least arya for fast floodkills and murtagh so he can finish them off a bit faster than usual makes perfectly sense, especially in the last segment.

Good thing you start this catalog, I'll make sure to pay attention to drops from now on. ;)

Ghostwheel

Edit history:

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-17 12:49:26 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-17 12:30:15 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-16 11:31:31 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-16 11:31:06 am

2013-08-16 09:32:55 am

The artist formerly known as Qxy

The only tough (read - level limiting) encounter I've seen is 5. The two grand magi can use flood and prism to wreck your team. If i got slayer to work, this is the encounter I would use it on.

On the plus side, I did get learner to work. it just works globally even though it's just used on one character.

I leveled to 10 in Carvahall this time; that's where the exp output dips to less than 500 per spine encounter. It is also the magic number for boosting Brom's magic focus to the required amount. Even segmented wants you to stay to level 8, else you don't have jeweled sword for the magic tutorial and the two ruins you fight before Teirm.

I just got through Yelmwood cave without fighting anything, but heading backwards is even harder than forwards. Nice to know its possible though

I still think Leona's Judge is worth trying because depending on the kill chance, you can repeatedly grind easily in the streets if needed. I'm also worried about Brom's survivability at these low levels, so picking off a few enemies repeatedly may be the only (and fastest way) to get through. I also cut out all extraneous grinding in and around Terim, so those two extra encounters might be just what I need to get Loss. If not, I go even lower, give Angela the magic focus, and have her snipe the green guys with aduna.

Edit: OH SNAP! So I'm dumb, and you don't need to fight the Fanatic Revenants to get Leona's Judge. You can come in from the back and grab the chest (Actually the "cutscene" placeholder minion acts as a real, stationary random encounter, which is funny) Now to test this weapon. It's Stone + Stone + Oil. For maximum lethality, I may want to manipulate a volcanic stone, but to do that, I'd already have to be able to beat an encounter like Escape 5, so there's a nice redundancy. I've forgone status and used Blue oil instead, which I found on a 2x Minion 1 encounter.

Now I know that Angela is worth jack to me, so she can get the Magic focus (and one level of hunting for utility) This puts my Carvahall investment at level 13. At that level, Brom has Loss and Eragon is at level 10, getting Rider's Strength from the 6 forced fights and 2 ruins fights in a minimal route. Brom can take a couple levels of endurance focus, eragon can spread the status, and Brom can either dish it out or go for the kill manipulation. Another low level test run will happen tomorrow, this time, giving Brom the Weapon investment he deserves.

Testing Kill on my god file weapons gives me a pretty solid 20% after about 500 attacks. The chance could be linked to a stat or level difference, though, but I doubt it. In the field, however, my Brom hasn't gotten a free kill yet with about 20-30 attacks of trial. I'm going to try this again, but with a weapon/endurance Brom, especially now that the only thing stopping me from picking the weapon up is a couple of annoying to dodge enemies blocking the door. Good night.

The only tough (read - level limiting) encounter I've seen is 5. The two grand magi can use flood and prism to wreck your team. If i got slayer to work, this is the encounter I would use it on.

On the plus side, I did get learner to work. it just works globally even though it's just used on one character.

I leveled to 10 in Carvahall this time; that's where the exp output dips to less than 500 per spine encounter. It is also the magic number for boosting Brom's magic focus to the required amount. Even segmented wants you to stay to level 8, else you don't have jeweled sword for the magic tutorial and the two ruins you fight before Teirm.

I just got through Yelmwood cave without fighting anything, but heading backwards is even harder than forwards. Nice to know its possible though

I still think Leona's Judge is worth trying because depending on the kill chance, you can repeatedly grind easily in the streets if needed. I'm also worried about Brom's survivability at these low levels, so picking off a few enemies repeatedly may be the only (and fastest way) to get through. I also cut out all extraneous grinding in and around Terim, so those two extra encounters might be just what I need to get Loss. If not, I go even lower, give Angela the magic focus, and have her snipe the green guys with aduna.

[b]Edit[/b]: OH SNAP! So I'm dumb, and you don't need to fight the Fanatic Revenants to get Leona's Judge. You can come in from the back and grab the chest (Actually the "cutscene" placeholder minion acts as a real, stationary random encounter, which is funny) Now to test this weapon. It's Stone + Stone + Oil. For maximum lethality, I may want to manipulate a volcanic stone, but to do that, I'd already have to be able to beat an encounter like Escape 5, so there's a nice redundancy. I've forgone status and used Blue oil instead, which I found on a 2x Minion 1 encounter.

Now I know that Angela is worth jack to me, so she can get the Magic focus (and one level of hunting for utility) This puts my Carvahall investment at level 13. At that level, Brom has Loss and Eragon is at level 10, getting Rider's Strength from the 6 forced fights and 2 ruins fights in a minimal route. Brom can take a couple levels of endurance focus, eragon can spread the status, and Brom can either dish it out or go for the kill manipulation. Another low level test run will happen tomorrow, this time, giving Brom the Weapon investment he deserves.

Testing Kill on my god file weapons gives me a pretty solid 20% after about 500 attacks. The chance could be linked to a stat or level difference, though, but I doubt it. In the field, however, my Brom hasn't gotten a free kill yet with about 20-30 attacks of trial. I'm going to try this again, but with a weapon/endurance Brom, especially now that the only thing stopping me from picking the weapon up is a couple of annoying to dodge enemies blocking the door. Good night.

Elren

Edit history:

Elren: 2013-08-19 01:01:54 pm

Elren: 2013-08-19 08:57:53 am

Elren: 2013-08-19 08:55:55 am

2013-08-19 08:44:31 am

Lots of special info today.

I found out how HP increases based on Tuf.
For every full 4 Tuf a character gains his level as HP.
f.e. eragon level 14 has 26 Tuf => 26/4(rounded down) * 14 = 84 HP increase due to Tuf

Second is my part on the drop table for today. Will update it later.
Axeman x 3, Legend(Intro-Leader) - "Dawn Flicker"
Rober x 3, Bandit Fletcher x 2(Forest) - "Cape", "Armored Band"(Spine)
Rober x 2, Bandit Fletcher x 2(Forest) - "Leather Cuirass"
Thief x 3, Bandit Poacher x 2(Forest) - "Protection Stamp"
Thief x 4, Robber (Forest) - "Health 1"
Robber x 3(Forest) - "Peasant Boots"
Bandit x 3, Bandit Fletcher(Spine) - "Miller's Helm", "Cape", "Armor Apron"
Scout x2, Hunter - "False Fate", "Iron Sword(Brom)"
Brigand x 2, Raider, Bandit Sniper x 2 - "Yellow Cape", "Steel Helm", "Health 1", "Riding Boots"
Brigand x 2 - Cape
Vice Fanatic x 2, Black Hodd Hitman x 2 - "Mortar", "Woolen Robe"
Archer x 3, Shieldman - "Riding Boots", "Stim 3"
Veteran x 3 - "Chain Coat"
Warrior x 2, Axeman, Shaman -
Warrior x 2, Shaman, Archer - "Leona Trinket", "Blind Cloak", "Assassin Shoes", "Hadarac Tongs", "Health 4", "Ranger's Band", "Sliding Stone"
Raider x 3, Raider Archer x 2 - "Scale Helm", "Sharktooth Shell", "Teirm Boots", "Health 2", "Mail Cloak", "Light Sabre", "Riding Boots"
Raider, Raider Archer -
Vice Fanatic - "Blocking Stone"
Vice Fanatic x 3, Vice Sniper x 2 - "Mortar"
Dune Archer x 3, Dune Mage - "Dwarf Cmpnd", "Star String"
Bowmaster x 2, Pikemaster, Sharper x 2 - "Shell 3", "Ceunon Gullion"
Elite x 2, Archer, Legionnaire - "Stim 2"
Elite, Shieldman x 2, Legionnaire x 2 - "Stim 2", "Stim 3", "Glyphic Stamp"
Elite Mage, Pikemaster x3 - "Stim 3", "Ramr Fob"
Slaver x4, Slaver Archer - "Blind Cloak", "Assassin Shoes", "War Plate"
Legend(lv 90), Flesh Render x 2 - "Sunduvar Freohr", "Dwarf Cmpnd", "Reisa Stamp", "Tent", "Spun Starlight", "Vanyali Boots", "Urû Leather", "Pocket Forge", "Barb 4", "Knight's Helm", "Foresight Helm", "Narda Tear", "Riding Helm", "Mortar", "White Oil", "Urû'baen Band"
Duster x 2, Bone Caster x 2 -
Minion1 x 2 - Tonic 2, Salts 2
Minion1 x 2, Minion3 - Tonic 2, Barb 3, Stun 3
Minion1 x 2, Minion2 - Tonic 2, Indurate Tongs, Poison 2, Salts 2
Minion1 x 3, Minion2 - Tonic 2, Salts 2, Poison 2, Blue Oil
Elite x 2, Minion2 x 2 - Belatona Chain
Minion1 x 2, Minion2, Minion3 -
Minion2 x 2, Minion3 -
Minion2 x 2, Minion3 x 2 - Oldman Sword
Minion3 x 3, Minion2 - Epic Armor, Barb 3,
Grand Magi x3, Pike Master, Shield Master - "Fortune's Charm", "Jeweled Stamp", "Ramr Fob", "Marna Bead", "Sung Staff", "Salts 2", "Runic Hammer", "Regal Cape", "Toark Band", "Switch Stone", "Perseverance", "Cure 4", "Fanatic's Robe", "Obsidian Helm", "Solar Helm", "Well Worn", "Epodic Stamp", "Perfect Bastard", "Worn Mail"

The last one looks strange and I dont even know wether I got all possible drops from it yet.

I tested how Stun works as weapon ability(forge mod).
It has a 100% chance of stunning the enemy(as long as the attack hits and the target is not immune)[group stun possible] as long as your level is higher than the targets. If its lower or the same the chance drops right to 0%.
At least its easy to understand... stun is useless in a speedrun but op in casual.

Next is the information i strived for - our favorite enemy
Grand Magi (lv 70):
Fire dmg=85 -> ~1700HP
Spells: Brisingir(253-613), Prism(150-553), Flood(559-1551), Aduna(263-648), Red wobbly thing(114-274), Curve Arrows, Heill(1694-2143), Mind Wall, Skolir, Stone Thingy
380HP meditate use(highest seen)

Now for a little explanation.
As soon as grand magi drops below 380 HP it is very likely that he uses meditate the next turn. If he's still lower than 380 he can continue to use it about 50% of the time(or more).
The numbers behind the spell names are damage ranges min-max. The min number involves normally the ability "wall" which reduces magic damage greatly.

Now to dras leona segmented.
In dras leona is the mission of the retired soldier. As reward you'll get Talisman Stamp, Fine Stone, Memory Blade(wall), Brom 4 attacks
Needed is Hunting 10. And two forced fights.
Now my thought is giving Angela Hunting focus points to get this item. Brom gets 13 magic points to get blinded.
With wall brom can attack one or both of the grand magi in round 5 and spread status without needing to heal in the first round even at low level. Then rushing one magi to the 380 mark so he becomes weaker.
This could work and should be tested.

EDIT: I just read that there is a memory blade pickup in the church. And a Redwater Bow hunting. Have to check that later

EDIT2: There is really a Memory Blade Pickup in the church next to the little girl manda. So forget what i said about focus and get this one instead.
Updated Encounter/Drop table a bit. Someone should make a google doc of this... ahem, ghost ahem... Cheesy

Lots of special info today.

I found out how HP increases based on Tuf.
For every full 4 Tuf a character gains his level as HP.
f.e.  eragon level 14 has 26 Tuf => 26/4(rounded down) * 14 = 84 HP increase due to Tuf

Second is my part on the drop table for today. Will update it later.
[u]Axeman x 3, Legend(Intro-Leader)[/u] - "Dawn Flicker"
[u]Rober x 3, Bandit Fletcher x 2(Forest)[/u] - "Cape", "Armored Band"(Spine)
[u]Rober x 2, Bandit Fletcher x 2(Forest)[/u] - "Leather Cuirass"
[u]Thief x 3, Bandit Poacher x 2(Forest)[/u] - "Protection Stamp"
[u]Thief x 4, Robber (Forest)[/u] - "Health 1"
[u]Robber x 3(Forest)[/u] - "Peasant Boots"
[u]Bandit x 3, Bandit Fletcher(Spine)[/u] - "Miller's Helm", "Cape", "Armor Apron"
[u]Scout x2, Hunter[/u] - "False Fate", "Iron Sword(Brom)"
[u]Brigand x 2, Raider, Bandit Sniper x 2[/u] - "Yellow Cape", "Steel Helm", "Health 1", "Riding Boots"
[u]Brigand x 2[/u] - Cape
[u]Vice Fanatic x 2, Black Hodd Hitman x 2[/u] - "Mortar", "Woolen Robe"
[u]Archer x 3, Shieldman[/u] - "Riding Boots", "Stim 3"
[u]Veteran x 3[/u] - "Chain Coat"
[u]Warrior x 2, Axeman, Shaman[/u] -
[u]Warrior x 2, Shaman, Archer[/u] - "Leona Trinket", "Blind Cloak", "Assassin Shoes", "Hadarac Tongs", "Health 4", "Ranger's Band", "Sliding Stone"
[u]Raider x 3, Raider Archer x 2[/u] - "Scale Helm", "Sharktooth Shell", "Teirm Boots", "Health 2", "Mail Cloak", "Light Sabre", "Riding Boots"
[u]Raider, Raider Archer[/u] - 
[u]Vice Fanatic[/u] - "Blocking Stone"
[u]Vice Fanatic x 3, Vice Sniper x 2[/u] - "Mortar"
[u]Dune Archer x 3, Dune Mage[/u] - "Dwarf Cmpnd", "Star String"
[u]Bowmaster x 2, Pikemaster, Sharper x 2[/u] - "Shell 3", "Ceunon Gullion"
[u]Elite x 2, Archer, Legionnaire[/u] - "Stim 2"
[u]Elite, Shieldman x 2, Legionnaire x 2[/u] - "Stim 2", "Stim 3", "Glyphic Stamp"
[u]Elite Mage, Pikemaster x3[/u] - "Stim 3", "Ramr Fob"
[u]Slaver x4, Slaver Archer[/u] - "Blind Cloak", "Assassin Shoes", "War Plate"
[u]Legend(lv 90), Flesh Render x 2[/u] - "Sunduvar Freohr", "Dwarf Cmpnd", "Reisa Stamp", "Tent", "Spun Starlight", "Vanyali Boots", "Urû Leather", "Pocket Forge", "Barb 4", "Knight's Helm", "Foresight Helm", "Narda Tear", "Riding Helm", "Mortar", "White Oil", "Urû'baen Band"
[u]Duster x 2, Bone Caster x 2[/u] -
[u]Minion1 x 2[/u] - Tonic 2, Salts 2
[u]Minion1 x 2, Minion3[/u] - Tonic 2, Barb 3, Stun 3
[u]Minion1 x 2, Minion2[/u] - Tonic 2, Indurate Tongs, Poison 2, Salts 2
[u]Minion1 x 3, Minion2[/u] - Tonic 2, Salts 2, Poison 2, Blue Oil
[u]Elite x 2, Minion2 x 2[/u] - Belatona Chain
[u]Minion1 x 2, Minion2, Minion3[/u] -
[u]Minion2 x 2, Minion3[/u] -
[u]Minion2 x 2, Minion3 x 2[/u] - Oldman Sword
[u]Minion3 x 3, Minion2[/u] - Epic Armor, Barb 3,
[u]Grand Magi x3, Pike Master, Shield Master[/u] - "Fortune's Charm", "Jeweled Stamp", "Ramr Fob", "Marna Bead", "Sung Staff", "Salts 2", "Runic Hammer", "Regal Cape", "Toark Band", "Switch Stone", "Perseverance", "Cure 4", "Fanatic's Robe", "Obsidian Helm", "Solar Helm", "Well Worn", "Epodic Stamp", "Perfect Bastard", "Worn Mail"

The last one looks strange and I dont even know wether I got all possible drops from it yet.

I tested how Stun works as weapon ability(forge mod). 
It has a 100% chance of stunning the enemy(as long as the attack hits and the target is not immune)[group stun possible] as long as your level is higher than the targets. If its lower or the same the chance drops right to 0%. 
At least its easy to understand... stun is useless in a speedrun but op in casual.

Next is the information i strived for - our favorite enemy
Grand Magi (lv 70):
Fire dmg=85 -> ~1700HP
Spells: Brisingir(253-613), Prism(150-553), Flood(559-1551), Aduna(263-648), Red wobbly thing(114-274), Curve Arrows, Heill(1694-2143), Mind Wall, Skolir, Stone Thingy
380HP meditate use(highest seen)

Now for a little explanation. 
As soon as grand magi drops below 380 HP it is very likely that he uses meditate the next turn. If he's still lower than 380 he can continue to use it about 50% of the time(or more).
The numbers behind the spell names are damage ranges min-max. The min number involves normally the ability "wall" which reduces magic damage greatly.

Now to dras leona segmented. 
In dras leona is the mission of the retired soldier. As reward you'll get [u]Talisman Stamp, Fine Stone, Memory Blade(wall), Brom 4 attacks[/u]
Needed is Hunting 10. And two forced fights.
Now my thought is giving Angela Hunting focus points to get this item. Brom gets 13 magic points to get blinded. 
With wall brom can attack one or both of the grand magi in round 5 and spread status without needing to heal in the first round even at low level. Then rushing one magi to the 380 mark so he becomes weaker. 
This could work and should be tested.

EDIT: I just read that there is a memory blade pickup in the church. And a Redwater Bow hunting. Have to check that later

EDIT2: There is really a Memory Blade Pickup in the church next to the little girl manda. So forget what i said about focus and get this one instead.
Updated Encounter/Drop table a bit. Someone should make a google doc of this... ahem, ghost ahem... :D

Ghostwheel

Edit history:

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-19 09:37:35 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-19 09:36:43 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-19 07:49:46 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-19 07:49:02 pm

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-19 05:59:43 pm

2013-08-19 05:47:48 pm

The artist formerly known as Qxy

Holy shit! You've been busy. Memory blade has wall? I can't believe i forgot that. I could have told you that it was next to the girl, though. It may be useful to get the girl out and get Aria string as well if Eragon's going magic.

I know that level 25 13 magic/12 weapon Brom can survive the onslaught even without wall, though, so the only way to go lower is to either have Eragon invest in Magic or give it to Angela.

IIRC, Redwater bow requires a hunting focus in the 30s. (edit: just checked the only pair of tracks I could see, its 45 edit 2: actually wait that one is probably sacrifice bow for angela, let me look again.) I'll check the tracks in the church, I happen to have a save there. I'll also pick up memory blade and go all out on the same weapon focus file. I know you get Epic Armor from minion 3, but GameFAQs tells of a better armor for Brom (War Armor) that I don't have without saying where to get it. Either its in an endurance box, or its a drop. Keep you eyes peeled, cause I'll be looking out too.

Today I've been trying to beat the Dras escape again, and I keep coming close. I get to round 5 consistently. Wall may be just the thing I was looking for.

How do you know Grand Magi is level 70? Do you know the level of the Lancemen surrounding them in enc 5? If you give me the system, I can check Murtagh levels for a possible fast late game ruins fight.

Since you poured so much into this table, I'll make the google doc. Thanks for all the help!

Edit 2: AAAAAAAAAAAAGH. This fight is pissing me off! I know I can win, I know I can. Its the rule of a tempo based match like this, there's always one big turn where you need to take a big risk to ensure future stability. So i kill one enemy on health where I can't take damage from 5 enemies if I heal, but I can maybe take damage from 4, then win the fight. Then the grand magi come out after 4 fucking encounters and sometimes wreck my day, even with wall. At least wall gives a chance, now, but these damn linemen are no picnic either.

Edit 3: Screwed by stun off Flood twice now, but I'm now CONVICED that with enough resetting, this fight is winnable. This is the lowest possible level, save for the fact that I want to fight an extra encounter for a good EXP phase shift on the escape fights. The only way to drive it lower is to forgo blind on the Ra'zac, which I'm pretty sure is not faster. I'm thinking I want to get the best possible item here, and that's probably Epic Armor from a weak minon encounter, minion 3 + 2x minion 1 or 4x minon 3 for instance. Factoring in an optimized Carvahall, i may be ready to actually start this segmented run.

Holy shit! You've been busy. Memory blade has wall? I can't believe i forgot that. I could have told you that it was next to the girl, though. It may be useful to get the girl out and get Aria string as well if Eragon's going magic.

I know that level 25 13 magic/12 weapon Brom can survive the onslaught even without wall, though, so the only way to go lower is to either have Eragon invest in Magic or give it to Angela.

IIRC, Redwater bow requires a hunting focus in the 30s. (edit: just checked the only pair of tracks I could see, its 45 edit 2: actually wait that one is probably sacrifice bow for angela, let me look again.) I'll check the tracks in the church, I happen to have a save there. I'll also pick up memory blade and go all out on the same weapon focus file. I know you get Epic Armor from minion 3, but GameFAQs tells of a better armor for Brom (War Armor) that I don't have without saying where to get it. Either its in an endurance box, or its a drop. Keep you eyes peeled, cause I'll be looking out too.

Today I've been trying to beat the Dras escape again, and I keep coming close. I get to round 5 consistently. Wall may be just the thing I was looking for.

How do you know Grand Magi is level 70? Do you know the level of the Lancemen surrounding them in enc 5? If you give me the system, I can check Murtagh levels for a possible fast late game ruins fight.

Since you poured so much into this table, I'll make the google doc. Thanks for all the help!

Edit 2: AAAAAAAAAAAAGH. This fight is pissing me off! I know I can win, I know I can. Its the rule of a tempo based match like this, there's always one big turn where you need to take a big risk to ensure future stability. So i kill one enemy on health where I can't take damage from 5 enemies if I heal, but I can maybe take damage from 4, then win the fight. Then the grand magi come out after 4 fucking encounters and sometimes wreck my day, even with wall. At least wall gives a chance, now, but these damn linemen are no picnic either.

Edit 3: Screwed by stun off Flood twice now, but I'm now CONVICED that with enough resetting, this fight is winnable. This is the lowest possible level, save for the fact that I want to fight an extra encounter for a good EXP phase shift on the escape fights. The only way to drive it lower is to forgo blind on the Ra'zac, which I'm pretty sure is not faster. I'm thinking I want to get the best possible item here, and that's probably Epic Armor from a weak minon encounter, minion 3 + 2x minion 1 or 4x minon 3 for instance. Factoring in an optimized Carvahall, i may be ready to actually start this segmented run.

Elren

2013-08-20 08:11:43 am

Gamesfaq mentions War Plate as armor for Brom, its a drop from Slaver x4, Slaver Archer as you can see above. I can't test it right now cause the only file where i own it doesnt have Brom anymore. IIRC that enc can appear on the way to dras leona if not there it appears a bit east of dras leona for sure.

The system I used to determine what i call level was just having a stun/poison/fire weapon, fight encounters with the same enemy and look at which level(of the attacking char) they dont move anymore. Afterwards defined the number i got as enemy level.
I dont know which level Lineman have sadly. I know Pikemasters are in the ~60 range and Minion1,2 are <lv50. I guess lineman are somewhere in between.
Testing this for every enemy is a whole lot of work and wont help speedrunning so I will stop with that.

I wouldn't recommend starting a segmented run right away considering how much we dont know yet.
For example yesterday I tried double Learner on the Razak figth and got 5624 Exp(Thats not a typo), what is basically 2500*(1.5)^2-1
A way to get a lot of learners would completely break the game now.(10 learners stacked would be ~57.6 times exp)
I would rly love to see level 50 in carvahall. Cheesy

Now for SS routes update:
I retested double magic strats and it works out now that I have Combustion(Magic 29) and wall.
I tested at Level 35 and have to see now if I can go for the lowest possible level. What would be 30(or 29) cause Brom is 2 levels higher than eragon. This completely cuts out my second training trip and lowers my time to sub 1:30 before entering dras leona.

Also I was trying to 100% the game but sadly missed two weapon quests and two spells(One Fire and one Curse). I dont know where they are and gamesfaq doesnt even know they exist.
The only reason I know they exist is cause of a display glitch. The spell signs appear if you abort the magic bar(no you cant use them)
Can you tell me where they are?
I have Brisingir, Combustion, Burn the Sky(Fire) and Haina, Blinded, Cripple(Curse)

Gamesfaq mentions War Plate as armor for Brom, its a drop from Slaver x4, Slaver Archer as you can see above. I can't test it right now cause the only file where i own it doesnt have Brom anymore. IIRC that enc can appear on the way to dras leona if not there it appears a bit east of dras leona for sure.

The system I used to determine what i call level was just having a stun/poison/fire weapon, fight encounters with the same enemy and look at which level(of the attacking char) they dont move anymore. Afterwards defined the number i got as enemy level.
I dont know which level Lineman have sadly. I know Pikemasters are in the ~60 range and Minion1,2 are <lv50. I guess lineman are somewhere in between.
Testing this for every enemy is a whole lot of work and wont help speedrunning so I will stop with that.

I wouldn't recommend starting a segmented run right away considering how much we dont know yet.
For example yesterday I tried double Learner on the Razak figth and got 5624 Exp(Thats not a typo), what is basically 2500*(1.5)^2-1
A way to get a lot of learners would completely break the game now.(10 learners stacked would be ~57.6 times exp)
I would rly love to see level 50 in carvahall. :D

Now for SS routes update:
I retested double magic strats and it works out now that I have Combustion(Magic 29) and wall. 
I tested at Level 35 and have to see now if I can go for the lowest possible level. What would be 30(or 29) cause Brom is 2 levels higher than eragon. This completely cuts out my second training trip and lowers my time to sub 1:30 before entering dras leona.

Also I was trying to 100% the game but sadly missed two weapon quests and two spells(One Fire and one Curse). I dont know where they are and gamesfaq doesnt even know they exist. 
The only reason I know they exist is cause of a display glitch. The spell signs appear if you abort the magic bar(no you cant use them)
Can you tell me where they are?
I have Brisingir, Combustion, Burn the Sky(Fire) and Haina, Blinded, Cripple(Curse)

Ghostwheel

Edit history:

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-20 10:16:16 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-20 10:16:13 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-20 10:16:12 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-20 10:11:34 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-20 09:01:20 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-20 09:01:19 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-20 09:01:05 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-20 09:00:06 am

Ghostwheel: 2013-08-20 08:59:24 am

2013-08-20 08:58:26 am

The artist formerly known as Qxy

There's also Fred. If Slavers but not Slaver Archers drop the War Plate, I can just grab it from him. A whole group of slavers is tough to deal with, though.

I was going to test double learner on my next runthrough, thanks for beating me to the punch

I could have sworn I saw the Legends drop Learners too, which is why I said very early on that picking up slayer also gave you learner. (Edit: After about 50 tests on 2x legend encounters, they only drop Pocket Forger, Mortar, Tent, and Dawn Flicker) If it's possible to pick up 4 learners, we would have ~5x exp for a fight. Assuming 1000 EXP, the first 3 learners net you a level, but every one after that nets you at least two, and it blows up quickly. 7.5, 11.3, 17, 25.6, are the next 4 points on the curve. This would definitely make Carvahall a lot faster

Anther good option would be to wait until you leave Teirm and head toward the northern ruins. You have all the learners you are going to get there, and access to magic focus. It may be a bit redundant for segmented, though. If I'm picking up Domia, then I may not need levels. The third option is obviously to power at the Razac to make the endgame easier and make Magic focus more viable.

Combustion is a great idea for SS. You're right, I'll hold off on segmented for now. I'll check the legends for learners.

If anyone ever wants to run 100%, ginseng root and sparkling dust synth learner and are found at herbal 45 in Dras Leona. This would be nice for a great endgame.

I'm missing those spells, too, sorry.

There's also Fred. If Slavers but not Slaver Archers drop the War Plate, I can just grab it from him. A whole group of slavers is tough to deal with, though.

I was going to test double learner on my next runthrough, thanks for beating me to the punch

I could have sworn I saw the Legends drop Learners too, which is why I said very early on that picking up slayer also gave you learner. (Edit: After about 50 tests on 2x legend encounters, they only drop Pocket Forger, Mortar, Tent, and Dawn Flicker) If it's possible to pick up 4 learners, we would have ~5x exp for a fight. Assuming 1000 EXP, the first 3 learners net you a level, but every one after that nets you at least two, and it blows up quickly. 7.5, 11.3, 17, 25.6, are the next 4 points on the curve. This would definitely make Carvahall a lot faster

Anther good option would be to wait until you leave Teirm and head toward the northern ruins. You have all the learners you are going to get there, and access to magic focus. It may be a bit redundant for segmented, though. If I'm picking up Domia, then I may not need levels. The third option is obviously to power at the Razac to make the endgame easier and make Magic focus more viable.

Combustion is a great idea for SS. You're right, I'll hold off on segmented for now. I'll check the legends for learners.

If anyone ever wants to run 100%, ginseng root and sparkling dust synth learner and are found at herbal 45 in Dras Leona. This would be nice for a great endgame.

I'm missing those spells, too, sorry.

Ghostwheel

2013-08-22 09:04:06 pm

The artist formerly known as Qxy

Back with an update. I have completed a test run of my segmented route, and now I'm ready for the real thing. Here is a detailed version of the route for anyone who cares (including me, probably just good to take this down)

Segment 1: Du Weldenvarden. Get all health 4s, use magic on the bosses. Do east cave first. Try to get at least 1-2 tents. Pick up salts 5 x 3, barb 3 x 2, and Salts 3 x 4. Save after Katrina's Tutorial in Carvahall's main square.

2: Carvahall. Get items, do first menu, manipulate good fights on the thieves, including a Drubbing Hammer off the Raider. Do bandit ambush, gain a level, get the south chest, do second menu, save in the spine. Maybe break this in the Forest after the hammer

3-9: Manipulate 7 good fights with 3 x Robber, 2 x Bandit Fletcher. Maybe 8, I don't remember. I just need enough to get to level 12. Hopefully I get a bunch of gold along the way.

10: Clean up the Spine, head back to Carvahall, fight the Bully, pay horst, sit through a cutscene, get the Military Helm, do a perfect ice path, get Poison Oil, leave, assign focus points, save.

11: Rest at Therinsford, Fight the Magic Tutorial, and walk a decent distance, save.

12: Fight The Urgal Ruins, and manipulate good fights and encounter luck. Probably save at Daret.

13-15: It'll probably take 3 segments of walking to get to the Valley of Blades

16: Valley of Blades

17-18: 2 more segments of walking. On the 18th, do everything up to just before Fred.

19: Manipulate a War Armor off of Fred.

20: Get to the Northern cave without an encounter

21: Run the the cave dodging everything. May need a separate segment fo the way back, this cave is annoying as hell.

22: Head back to teirm and do everything up to castle infiltration

23: Do the first two floors of the castle

24-25: 3rd floor, savewarp, go back. Get Learner chest, Perfect Sword.

26-31: Head to Dras Leona. Do cutscene stuff

32: Fight Sam + Max and manipulate a Battering Hammer.

33: Fight Urgals and Sam and Max 2

34: Go in the church, dodge stuff, get Memory Blade. Save

35: Do more difficult dodging, and get to the next checkpoint

36: Get Leona's Blade Chest by dodging extremely difficult encounters. savewarp

37: Run through the city, pick up the pocket porges, save.

38: Forge menuing segment

39: Escape encounters

40-42: Reset twice for a boosted murtagh, on the third one, fight the Razac

43-End. Be a god, manipulate good fights, and run to the end of the game. Forge Domia plate somewhere in there, and get a lot of Captains in Farthen Dur.

Back with an update. I have completed a test run of my segmented route, and now I'm ready for the real thing. Here is a detailed version of the route for anyone who cares (including me, probably just good to take this down)

Segment 1: Du Weldenvarden. Get all health 4s, use magic on the bosses. Do east cave first. Try to get at least 1-2 tents. Pick up salts 5 x 3, barb 3 x 2, and Salts 3 x 4. Save after Katrina's Tutorial in Carvahall's main square.

2: Carvahall. Get items, do first menu, manipulate good fights on the thieves, including a Drubbing Hammer off the Raider. Do bandit ambush, gain a level, get the south chest, do second menu, save in the spine. Maybe break this in the Forest after the hammer

3-9: Manipulate 7 good fights with 3 x Robber, 2 x Bandit Fletcher. Maybe 8, I don't remember. I just need enough to get to level 12. Hopefully I get a bunch of gold along the way.

10: Clean up the Spine, head back to Carvahall, fight the Bully, pay horst, sit through a cutscene, get the Military Helm, do a perfect ice path, get Poison Oil, leave, assign focus points, save.

11: Rest at Therinsford, Fight the Magic Tutorial, and walk a decent distance, save.

12: Fight The Urgal Ruins, and manipulate good fights and encounter luck. Probably save at Daret.

13-15: It'll probably take 3 segments of walking to get to the Valley of Blades

16: Valley of Blades

17-18: 2 more segments of walking. On the 18th, do everything up to just before Fred.

19: Manipulate a War Armor off of Fred.

20: Get to the Northern cave without an encounter

21: Run the the cave dodging everything. May need a separate segment fo the way back, this cave is annoying as hell.

22: Head back to teirm and do everything up to castle infiltration

23: Do the first two floors of the castle

24-25: 3rd floor, savewarp, go back. Get Learner chest, Perfect Sword.

26-31: Head to Dras Leona. Do cutscene stuff

32: Fight Sam + Max and manipulate a Battering Hammer.

33: Fight Urgals and Sam and Max 2

34: Go in the church, dodge stuff, get Memory Blade. Save

35: Do more difficult dodging, and get to the next checkpoint

36: Get Leona's Blade Chest by dodging extremely difficult encounters. savewarp

37: Run through the city, pick up the pocket porges, save.

38: Forge menuing segment

39: Escape encounters

40-42: Reset twice for a boosted murtagh, on the third one, fight the Razac

43-End. Be a god, manipulate good fights, and run to the end of the game. Forge Domia plate somewhere in there, and get a lot of Captains in Farthen Dur.

Elren

2013-08-25 09:19:13 am

Looks pretty solid so far. There are a few things I noticed and wanted to ask about.
Why are you doing eastern cave first in the tutorial? Based on the item pickups you're closer to western cave and it is easier to maximize flood dmg on first leader. You just have to manipulate 0 hits on arya on second leader fight(or heal her and flood). With low health durza oneshots her so you can even meditate.
In Carvahall what quests are you doing? It is important to know what you decide to skip and what not.
Is 3x Robber, 2x Bandit Fletcher the best training enc? Could Raider Archer+ Raider be faster?
Since you didnt mention it I assume you'll do Throne of Cronn(northern Ruins) before entering northern cave to minimize running distance?
Also you dont mention picking up blinded.
What dras leona escape chests did you plan in? The vanyali tongs chest has 300 Gold in it so it would be more usefull than the leona's judge chest if it wasnt planned to be picked up.
For the Murtagh glitch only one reset is necessary. With Jagged Blade(Bleed), Wanderer Helm, Domia Plate and Lost Destiny and murtagh ~lv55 the razak are beatable easy enough and would save nearly a full minute. (assuming full weapon focus on murtagh)[SS strats has ~lv55 murtagh so yeah]
Aside from that everything looks just fine.

For interest I've started doing a list of all Quests/Ruins/Focus searches I could find. I still want to add a bit of data(Like location or Focus needed) and it has yet to be sorted but here's what I have till now(I have left out the carvahall quests i posted above):

Carvahall Hunting 14- 40 gold, Freedom Chain, Evasion Shoes
chest(carvahall razak) - 50Gold, Mail Cloak, Military Helm
Hunting Ice path - 50 Gold, Composite String
Hunting Farm - Poison Oil
Yazuac Ruins(Scout x2, Hunter x2) - Iron Spikes, Ring Mail, Ring Coif, False Fate
Valley of Blades(Vice Fanatic x3, Vice Sniper, Vice Technician) - Slender Stroke, Hardened, Studded Saddle, Red Oil
Hunting Teirm Outside (H16) - Marine Stamp
Hunting Teirm Inside (H22) - Ironwood Bow
Leroy teirm outside(Weapon)[Slaver] -Pocket Forge x1, Bronze Sword, Corded Plate, Corded Helm, Banded Boots, Potent Tongs
Sergeant Quint Teirm inside(Weapon)[Pikeman] - Learner x1, Perfect Sword(Eragon), Mariner's Mail, Epic Helm, Strands Mantle, Sharpening Oil
Shady Dealers - Iron Staff, Boots, Helgrind Thirst
Teirm 3F Chest north-west - Obsidian Etched
Teirm 3F Chest south-west - Learner, Moss Stone
Teirm 3F Chest south - Magic Oil, Kull Splitter
Teirm 3F Chest near east - Crystal Armor, Perfect Sword
Teirm 3F Chest far east - Magic Oil, Freedom Helm
Teirm 1F Chest mid - Finest Bow
Teirm Hunting 30 - Runic Leather
Throne of Cronn(Axeman) - Jagged Blade, Domia Plate, Dragon Saddle, Urgal Stone x1
The Talon - Steel Spikes, Banded, Leather Band, Sharktooth Shell, Ancient String
Bone Spire - Black Carver, Blackiron, Ghost Band, Regal Cape
Ancient House of Hel - Silent Silence, Resonate Helm, Merc Boots, Midnight Oil
Scorpion's Hole - Burning Wheel, Dwarven, Expert Saddle, Maul Hammer
Blifrost Shard - Eclipse Mail, Spun Starlight, Urda's String
Dras Leona Hunting water(Hunting 30) - Tall Bow
Retired Soldier(Hunting 10) - Talisman Stamp, Fine Stone, Memory Blade, Brom 4 attacks
Wesley - Silk Bow, Runic Band
Dras Leona Hunting Entrance(H25) - Perfect String
Dras Leona Crate Entrance - Compound Hammer, Aged Helm
Dras Leona Crate fountain - Heath3 x 2, Heavy Coif
Dras Leona Crate East - Strands Mantle, Ivory Staff
Dras Leona Crate Bridge - Foundation Tongs, Comp. Bow
Dras Leona Crate West - Leona Boots x 1, Bluesteel Hammer
Dras Leona Church Hunting altar - Sacrifice Bow
Dras Leona Church Chest Northeast - Pocket Forge x1, Memory Blade
Dras Leona Church Heretics - Tarot Saber
Dras Leona Church Chest east - 250 Gold, Bone Mail, Leona's Judge
Dras Leona Church Hunting Northwest - Redwater Bow
Dras Leona Church Blind Man(Weapon 45) - Blind Blade, Ghost Leather, Bone Helm, Blind Cloak x 1, Bloody Stone
Dras Leona Little Girl Manda - Aria String
Dras Leona Escape Chest 1 - Ranger Leather, Cursed Bow
Dras Leona Escape Chest 2 - Pain Oil, Mariner's Helm
Dras Leona Escape Chest 3 - 300 Gold, Vanyali Tongs
Dras Leona Escape Chest 4 - Wandere Helm, Lost Destiny
Dras Leona Escape Chest 5 - Knight's Mail, Masterwork
Dras Leona Escape Chest 6 - Hunting Armor, Resolute Tongs
Dras Leona Escape Chest 7 - Mortar x 3
Dras Leona Escape Chest 8 - Pocket Forge x 3
Gil'lead Base Crate - 130 Gold, Ogham Stamp
Gil'lead 3F Chest north-east - Royal Chain, Royal Helm, Saving Grace
Gil'lead 3F Crate - Belatona Helm, Self Reliance
Broms House - Varden Bow, Shur'tugal Plate, Shur'tugal Helm
Fishing Teirm - Recurve Bow
Teirm weeping girl - Kantele, String of Torment
Teirm Silk - White Silk
The Legend of the Ashen Sky - Before the Sun(unlocking Ice Path), Abyss Tongs, Flying Helm, Flying Chain, Vanyali Bow, Slayer x2, Sorrow's Edge, Harmony, Blood Helm, Sunduvar

Freohr, Black Rose Stamp, Murtagh 5 Attacks
Du Weldenvarden western cave - [Mortar x5, Friendship] chest, Snowfall, Airbending Edge, [Pocket Forge x5, Aeon Plate, Varden Blades] Chest, Skuld's String(Hunting 100),

[Sunduvar Freohr x1, Runic Stone, Dueling Band]Endurance100
Du Weldenvarden eastern cave - Midnight Storm, Arya 5 attacks
Velden Wood - Midnight Storm, Pregnant Chain, Wytesteel, Ancient Cape x1, Vanyali Oil
Andivias Ruins - Glory Reaper, Dervish's Dance, Singing Blades, Pocket Forge x4, Aiedail
Ancient Battlefield - Cmpnd Recurve, Vanyali, Intractable, Sunduvar Freohr x1, Ebrithil Hammer
Desert Catacombs - Sand Sail, Riding Leather, Aeon Helm, Shur'tugal Boots x1, Vigilant Stamp
Whitebone Gulch - Mortar x1, Jagged Blade, Blood Mail, Dueling Band, Windcutter String
Winding Way(Slaver x3, Slaver Master, Slaver Archer) - Wanderer Bow, Wanderer Mail, Gedwey Helm, Nrda Tear x1, Fractal Hammer
Bleeding Tree(Dragon Hyde Hunter x2, Bowmaster, Shield Master, Water Mage) - Jagged Blade, Razor's Oil
Urgal Staging Area(Westwind x4) - 5000 Gold, Ruthless, Gedwey Stenr., Urû'baen Helm, Giant's Stone

And since ghostwheel asked me to, even though its not finished yet, my preliminary SS route:

1. Do Intro picking up first 5xHealth4 chest and 7x Health 4 Chest, 4x Salts 3, 3x Salts 4, do western cave first.
2. Carvahall, skip Herbal, skip upper boy. Rest as planned.(Focus all Weapon)
3. Go in Spine run an infinity sign to southeast fighting the 3 encs on the way. Doing Trap&Chest beating 4th encounter there, doing hidden chest then equipping and beating the 5 encs that spawned.
4. In Spine try to dodge everything picking up the two bottom chests and talk to the kid, the pick the top chest and beat the last two encs that rush at you. Beating soldier and repaying horst.
5. Get Military Helm, in Ice path grab chest, directly equip and then try to dodge. If not possible fight.
6. Give Brom full magic focus and move to Training spot number 1(southwest of Daret the niche between the mountains where the tree apears in your bottemright corner.
7. Train to lv 17(riders Strenght) then do Yazuac Ruins, change eragon to magic focus. Train next to the ruins to ~lv21.
8. Escape from everything on the way to Valley of the blades, fight one enc in the brown woods before the ruins.(merc encs without mages)
9. Do Valley of Blades and fight an additional 1~2 encs in the woods
10. In Teirm Forge the jeweled sword with fire/poison. Complete Teirm picking up Prism, Life energy, Blinded, Learner Chest, Perfect Sword
11. Go To Throne of Cronne, equip Domia Plate, Pefect Sword.
12. Go To training spot no 2(strangely curved coast southwest of ruins) and train to lv 32
13. Go to dras leona, pick up Combustion, Memory Blade, Vanyali tongs, Lost Destiny, Pocket Forge
14. No Murtagh(weapon focus) resets
15. Arya magic focus picking up Flood in Gil'lead.
16. Then head straight for the end.

Thta's about it. I want to change my start so i can fight Leroy then i dont need the pocket forge chest.

Looks pretty solid so far. There are a few things I noticed and wanted to ask about.
Why are you doing eastern cave first in the tutorial? Based on the item pickups you're closer to western cave and it is easier to maximize flood dmg on first leader. You just have to manipulate 0 hits on arya on second leader fight(or heal her and flood). With low health durza oneshots her so you can even meditate.
In Carvahall what quests are you doing? It is important to know what you decide to skip and what not.
Is 3x Robber, 2x Bandit Fletcher the best training enc? Could Raider Archer+ Raider be faster?
Since you didnt mention it I assume you'll do Throne of Cronn(northern Ruins) before entering northern cave to minimize running distance?
Also you dont mention picking up blinded.
What dras leona escape chests did you plan in? The vanyali tongs chest has 300 Gold in it so it would be more usefull than the leona's judge chest if it wasnt planned to be picked up.
For the Murtagh glitch only one reset is necessary. With Jagged Blade(Bleed), Wanderer Helm, Domia Plate and Lost Destiny and murtagh ~lv55 the razak are beatable easy enough and would save nearly a full minute. (assuming full weapon focus on murtagh)[SS strats has ~lv55 murtagh so yeah]
Aside from that everything looks just fine.

For interest I've started doing a list of all Quests/Ruins/Focus searches I could find. I still want to add a bit of data(Like location or Focus needed) and it has yet to be sorted but here's what I have till now(I have left out the carvahall quests i posted above):

[hidden]
Carvahall Hunting 14- 40 gold, Freedom Chain, Evasion Shoes
chest(carvahall razak) - 50Gold, Mail Cloak, Military Helm
Hunting Ice path - 50 Gold, Composite String
Hunting Farm - Poison Oil
Yazuac Ruins(Scout x2, Hunter x2) - Iron Spikes, Ring Mail, Ring Coif, False Fate
Valley of Blades(Vice Fanatic x3, Vice Sniper, Vice Technician) - Slender Stroke, Hardened, Studded Saddle, Red Oil
Hunting Teirm Outside (H16) - Marine Stamp
Hunting Teirm Inside (H22) - Ironwood Bow
Leroy teirm outside(Weapon)[Slaver] -Pocket Forge x1, Bronze Sword, Corded Plate, Corded Helm, Banded Boots, Potent Tongs
Sergeant Quint Teirm inside(Weapon)[Pikeman] - Learner x1, Perfect Sword(Eragon), Mariner's Mail, Epic Helm, Strands Mantle, Sharpening Oil
Shady Dealers - Iron Staff, Boots, Helgrind Thirst
Teirm 3F Chest north-west - Obsidian Etched
Teirm 3F Chest south-west - Learner, Moss Stone
Teirm 3F Chest south - Magic Oil, Kull Splitter
Teirm 3F Chest near east - Crystal Armor, Perfect Sword
Teirm 3F Chest far east - Magic Oil, Freedom Helm
Teirm 1F Chest mid - Finest Bow
Teirm Hunting 30 - Runic Leather
Throne of Cronn(Axeman) - Jagged Blade, Domia Plate, Dragon Saddle, Urgal Stone x1
The Talon - Steel Spikes, Banded, Leather Band, Sharktooth Shell, Ancient String
Bone Spire - Black Carver, Blackiron, Ghost Band, Regal Cape
Ancient House of Hel - Silent Silence, Resonate Helm, Merc Boots, Midnight Oil
Scorpion's Hole - Burning Wheel, Dwarven, Expert Saddle, Maul Hammer
Blifrost Shard - Eclipse Mail, Spun Starlight, Urda's String
Dras Leona Hunting water(Hunting 30) - Tall Bow
Retired Soldier(Hunting 10) - Talisman Stamp, Fine Stone, Memory Blade, Brom 4 attacks
Wesley - Silk Bow, Runic Band
Dras Leona Hunting Entrance(H25) - Perfect String
Dras Leona Crate Entrance - Compound Hammer, Aged Helm
Dras Leona Crate fountain - Heath3 x 2, Heavy Coif
Dras Leona Crate East - Strands Mantle, Ivory Staff
Dras Leona Crate Bridge - Foundation Tongs, Comp. Bow
Dras Leona Crate West - Leona Boots x 1, Bluesteel Hammer
Dras Leona Church Hunting altar - Sacrifice Bow
Dras Leona Church Chest Northeast - Pocket Forge x1, Memory Blade
Dras Leona Church Heretics - Tarot Saber
Dras Leona Church Chest east - 250 Gold, Bone Mail, Leona's Judge
Dras Leona Church Hunting Northwest - Redwater Bow
Dras Leona Church Blind Man(Weapon 45) - Blind Blade, Ghost Leather, Bone Helm, Blind Cloak x 1, Bloody Stone
Dras Leona Little Girl Manda - Aria String
Dras Leona Escape Chest 1 - Ranger Leather, Cursed Bow
Dras Leona Escape Chest 2 - Pain Oil, Mariner's Helm
Dras Leona Escape Chest 3 - 300 Gold, Vanyali Tongs
Dras Leona Escape Chest 4 - Wandere Helm, Lost Destiny
Dras Leona Escape Chest 5 - Knight's Mail, Masterwork
Dras Leona Escape Chest 6 - Hunting Armor, Resolute Tongs
Dras Leona Escape Chest 7 - Mortar x 3
Dras Leona Escape Chest 8 - Pocket Forge x 3
Gil'lead Base Crate - 130 Gold, Ogham Stamp
Gil'lead 3F Chest north-east - Royal Chain, Royal Helm, Saving Grace
Gil'lead 3F Crate - Belatona Helm, Self Reliance
Broms House - Varden Bow, Shur'tugal Plate, Shur'tugal Helm
Fishing Teirm - Recurve Bow
Teirm weeping girl - Kantele, String of Torment
Teirm Silk - White Silk
The Legend of the Ashen Sky - Before the Sun(unlocking Ice Path), Abyss Tongs, Flying Helm, Flying Chain, Vanyali Bow, Slayer x2, Sorrow's Edge, Harmony, Blood Helm, Sunduvar

Freohr, Black Rose Stamp, Murtagh 5 Attacks
Du Weldenvarden western cave - [Mortar  x5, Friendship] chest, Snowfall, Airbending Edge, [Pocket Forge x5, Aeon Plate, Varden Blades] Chest, Skuld's String(Hunting 100),

[Sunduvar Freohr x1, Runic Stone, Dueling Band]Endurance100
Du Weldenvarden eastern cave - Midnight Storm, Arya 5 attacks
Velden Wood - Midnight Storm, Pregnant Chain, Wytesteel, Ancient Cape x1, Vanyali Oil
Andivias Ruins - Glory Reaper, Dervish's Dance, Singing Blades, Pocket Forge x4, Aiedail
Ancient Battlefield - Cmpnd Recurve, Vanyali, Intractable, Sunduvar Freohr x1, Ebrithil Hammer
Desert Catacombs - Sand Sail, Riding Leather, Aeon Helm, Shur'tugal Boots x1, Vigilant Stamp
Whitebone Gulch - Mortar x1, Jagged Blade, Blood Mail, Dueling Band, Windcutter String
Winding Way(Slaver x3, Slaver Master, Slaver Archer) - Wanderer Bow, Wanderer Mail, Gedwey Helm, Nrda Tear x1, Fractal Hammer
Bleeding Tree(Dragon Hyde Hunter x2, Bowmaster, Shield Master, Water Mage) - Jagged Blade, Razor's Oil
Urgal Staging Area(Westwind x4) - 5000 Gold, Ruthless, Gedwey Stenr., Urû'baen Helm, Giant's Stone
[/hidden]

And since ghostwheel asked me to, even though its not finished yet, my preliminary SS route:

[hidden]
1. Do Intro picking up first 5xHealth4 chest and 7x Health 4 Chest, 4x Salts 3, 3x Salts 4, do western cave first.
2. Carvahall, skip Herbal, skip upper boy. Rest as planned.(Focus all Weapon)
3. Go in Spine run an infinity sign to southeast fighting the 3 encs on the way. Doing Trap&Chest beating 4th encounter there, doing hidden chest then equipping and beating the 5 encs that spawned.
4. In Spine try to dodge everything picking up the two bottom chests and talk to the kid, the pick the top chest and beat the last two encs that rush at you. Beating soldier and repaying horst.
5. Get Military Helm, in Ice path grab chest, directly equip and then try to dodge. If not possible fight.
6. Give Brom full magic focus and move to Training spot number 1(southwest of Daret the niche between the mountains where the tree apears in your bottemright corner.
7. Train to lv 17(riders Strenght) then do Yazuac Ruins, change eragon to magic focus. Train next to the ruins to ~lv21.
8. Escape from everything on the way to Valley of the blades, fight one enc in the brown woods before the ruins.(merc encs without mages)
9. Do Valley of Blades and fight an additional 1~2 encs in the woods
10. In Teirm Forge the jeweled sword with fire/poison. Complete Teirm picking up Prism, Life energy, Blinded, Learner Chest, Perfect Sword
11. Go To Throne of Cronne, equip Domia Plate, Pefect Sword.
12. Go To training spot no 2(strangely curved coast southwest of ruins) and train to lv 32
13. Go to dras leona, pick up Combustion, Memory Blade, Vanyali tongs, Lost Destiny, Pocket Forge
14. No Murtagh(weapon focus) resets
15. Arya magic focus picking up Flood in Gil'lead.
16. Then head straight for the end.

Thta's about it. I want to change my start so i can fight Leroy then i dont need the pocket forge chest.[/hidden]

Ghostwheel

2013-08-25 01:05:55 pm

The artist formerly known as Qxy

I use magic on the western cave boss, which is why I go there second. i get the salts when I head there as well. In either case, Arya getting hit is bad, eastern cave first just puts that choke point earlier.

I only skip the Sine chests in Carvahall. Every other sidequest is worth the time.

Bandit, Raider Archer only gives less than 250 exp even at level 7, so it's not faster.

I do Throne of Cronn after I get Binded, which I do immediately after I get angela and pump up her magic. Unless of course you can kill that Kull sans blinded.

I get Vanyali Chest, Resolute Tongs, Mariner's Helm, Lost Destiny, Memory Blade, and Leona's Judge.

Good to know on Murtagh. I like sinking it 50-50 into endurance and hunting. I may want to sac the Weapon Focus investment, but I'll still only reset once.

Thanks for the info

Elren

Edit history:

Elren: 2013-08-26 07:53:48 am

2013-08-26 07:53:23 am

It should be possible to beat him even at low level. Saphira should be strong enough to take one hit and with poison/fire/bleed you just need to survive 5 rounds. It may be necessary to use a health potion, I'm not sure about that since i cant estimate exactly how strong you are at that time.(manipulating a miss could help a great deal and isnt too hard)

Now for general info. Ghost and me did magic focus testing and this is the result.
The recoil/damage ratio is lowered by ~2% per focus level. That goes on till 50mf, where it stays at 5% till the end. This applies for Singletarget as well as multitarget Spells.
Here are the numbers for all who care:

Brisingir testing(mf-dmg-rec-rec/dmg)
3-122-120-0.9836
4-226-219-0.969
5-286-271-0.9476
6-299-278-0.9298
7-253-230-0.9091
8-283-251-0.8869
9-333-289-0.8679
10-378-321-0.849
11-389-322-0.8278
12-360-291-0.8083
13-438-346-0.79
14-350-269-0.7686
15-281-210-0.7473
16-408-297-0.7279
17-355-252-0.7099
18-399-275-0.6892
19-486-325-0.6687
20-435-282-0.6483
21-424-267-0.6297
22-517-315-0.6093
23-471-277-0.5881
24-537-306-0.5698
25-608-334-0.5493
26-522-276-0.5287
27-557-284-0.5099
28-535-263-0.4916
29-573-269-0.4695
30-720-324-0.45
31-764-328-0.4293
32-660-270-0.4091
33-560-218-0.3893
34-604-223-0.3692
35-646-226-0.3498
36-871-287-0.3295
37-721-223-0.3093
38-761-220-0.2891
39-732-197-0.2691
40-882-220-0.2494
41-823-189-0.2296
42-779-163-0.2092
43-822-156-0.1898
44-923-156-0.1690
45-829-124-0.1496
46-875-113-0.1291
47-910-100-0.1099
48-662-59-0.0891
49-842-58-0.0689
50-1022-55-0.0538
51-1185-56-0.0473
52-919-45-0.049
53-1039-51-0.0491
54-904-45-0.0498
55-1048-52-0.0496
100-2317-117-0.0505

Prism:
18-575+531+20+6+4(1136)-797-0.7016
25-741+826+317+115+9(2008)-1115-0.5553
35-1033+1135+789+734+664(4355)-1531-0.3515
50-1133+922+1217+572+914(4758)-238-0.0500

It should be possible to beat him even at low level. Saphira should be strong enough to take one hit and with poison/fire/bleed you just need to survive 5 rounds. It may be necessary to use a health potion, I'm not sure about that since i cant estimate exactly how strong you are at that time.(manipulating a miss could help a great deal and isnt too hard)

Now for general info. Ghost and me did magic focus testing and this is the result.
The recoil/damage ratio is lowered by ~2% per focus level. That goes on till 50mf, where it stays at 5% till the end. This applies for Singletarget as well as multitarget Spells.
Here are the numbers for all who care:

[hidden]
Brisingir testing(mf-dmg-rec-rec/dmg)
3-122-120-0.9836
4-226-219-0.969
5-286-271-0.9476
6-299-278-0.9298
7-253-230-0.9091
8-283-251-0.8869
9-333-289-0.8679
10-378-321-0.849
11-389-322-0.8278
12-360-291-0.8083
13-438-346-0.79
14-350-269-0.7686
15-281-210-0.7473
16-408-297-0.7279
17-355-252-0.7099
18-399-275-0.6892
19-486-325-0.6687
20-435-282-0.6483
21-424-267-0.6297
22-517-315-0.6093
23-471-277-0.5881
24-537-306-0.5698
25-608-334-0.5493
26-522-276-0.5287
27-557-284-0.5099
28-535-263-0.4916
29-573-269-0.4695
30-720-324-0.45
31-764-328-0.4293
32-660-270-0.4091
33-560-218-0.3893
34-604-223-0.3692
35-646-226-0.3498
36-871-287-0.3295
37-721-223-0.3093
38-761-220-0.2891
39-732-197-0.2691
40-882-220-0.2494
41-823-189-0.2296
42-779-163-0.2092
43-822-156-0.1898
44-923-156-0.1690
45-829-124-0.1496
46-875-113-0.1291
47-910-100-0.1099
48-662-59-0.0891
49-842-58-0.0689
50-1022-55-0.0538
51-1185-56-0.0473
52-919-45-0.049
53-1039-51-0.0491
54-904-45-0.0498
55-1048-52-0.0496
100-2317-117-0.0505

Prism:
18-575+531+20+6+4(1136)-797-0.7016
25-741+826+317+115+9(2008)-1115-0.5553
35-1033+1135+789+734+664(4355)-1531-0.3515
50-1133+922+1217+572+914(4758)-238-0.0500[/hidden]