Walkthrough (spoilers) for ironmaning.
Dec 6, 2016 2:52:14 GMT -5
Swami, En1gma, and 2 more like this
Post by matrim on Dec 6, 2016 2:52:14 GMT -5
Having run this game many dozen times trying to nightmare ironman it, I can honestly say there is one thing that kills me more than any other. I don't know where monsters are! Some Orcin will come out of the black and just smoke Kjartan or I will be moving Tamilin to what I think is a safe range and *bark*...I spawn another group of monsters and they mob murder my poor thief. There are just too many encounters for me to remember and, unfortunately, in an ironman, it just takes 1 mistake. With that in mind I want to try to put together a picture walkthrough of this particular trip through Steel. It will be spoiler heavy. My main goal is to help someone who wishes to ironman the game on any difficulty.
I took a picture of every fight right where I spawned it (Where Tamilin is standing, except in the first and third picture, which is where Kincaid is standing) and give rough numbers of what can spawn (from memory and this particular runthrough). My most common tactic for using the knowledge of where spawns are is to trigger a high risk fight while I am in another fight. This has the benefit of guaranteeing that I will not be surprised by the monsters (because they cannot surprise you while you are in a fight) and has dramatically improved my success. Main areas of interest are Ratkin storerooms (high monster spot, hard hitting bowrats and shamen), Underforge (1 unfortunate surprise by a host initiate instantly kills you and they have high spot to boot!) and some of those tough necromancers spawns in CoD (same deal as host initiates but I usually have high enough sneak by this point. Skeletal obelisks can suck too if they somehow get the jump on you) but it can be applied to anything. It is basic but I started with the Red hill escape, tell me what you think! Level caps are the levels (your level not the monsters) at which monster stop gaining levels despite your characters levelling (on nightmare difficulty). Tamilin is always the trigger unless otherwise stated.
Numbers of enemies on the encounter is an estimate based on multiple playthroughs. Your playthrough may have more or less enemies than indicated or different enemies entirely. These numbers are just to give you an idea of what you are facing if you cannot see the spawn. Also note that on a lot of the encounters there is a roll on the number of total monsters that can appear. So 2-4 Bowrats, 2-3 Ratkin Warriors might spawn as 4 Bowrats one game (due to the total monster roll being 4) but next playthrough may have 3 Bowrats and 2 Ratkin Warriors (5 being the roll that time). This might not be exactly how it works but without seeing the specific math and based on multiple playthroughs this is how encounters appear to spawn to me.
Level cap unknown - Red Hill escape Level cap 5 - Krellin Deeps + Oskahold Ambush Level cap unknown - West Road + Warm Cavern + Muddy Cave Level cap unknown - North Vault + Korvain's Trench Level cap unknown - Nordhall + Nordhall Trench Level cap unknown - Vermin Under Tunnels + Vermin Warrens Level cap unknown - Vermin Lair + Cursed Temple Level cap unknown - Torrent Watershed + Excavation site + Temple of 13 Level cap unknown - Kern's End + Spy's Path Level cap unknown - Red Hill Dungeon + Red Hill Depths Level cap unknown - Red Hill Barracks + Gatehouse + Officers Barracks Level cap unknown - Inner Keep + Groth's Lair + Throne Room Level cap 17 - Storerooms Level cap 17 - Lowland Crossroads + Brellim Pass Level cap unknown - Darkmoss Ironwood + Darkmoss Wetlands Level cap 19/22 - Brellim Peaks + Waning Moon Pass Level cap 22 - Glacial Wetlands + Frozen Lake + Icy Caves Level cap 24 - Vast Cavern + Orcin Stronghold Level cap 22/unknown - Ironwood Ridge + Bone Pass (Braeys) Level cap 22 - Cult Underhouse + Underforge Level cap 22 - Construction Depths + Underforge Pits Level cap 22 - Great Forges Level cap 24 - Smith's Hoard Level cap 24 - Temple of the Arachnid Level cap 24 - Great Maker's Workshop
I took a picture of every fight right where I spawned it (Where Tamilin is standing, except in the first and third picture, which is where Kincaid is standing) and give rough numbers of what can spawn (from memory and this particular runthrough). My most common tactic for using the knowledge of where spawns are is to trigger a high risk fight while I am in another fight. This has the benefit of guaranteeing that I will not be surprised by the monsters (because they cannot surprise you while you are in a fight) and has dramatically improved my success. Main areas of interest are Ratkin storerooms (high monster spot, hard hitting bowrats and shamen), Underforge (1 unfortunate surprise by a host initiate instantly kills you and they have high spot to boot!) and some of those tough necromancers spawns in CoD (same deal as host initiates but I usually have high enough sneak by this point. Skeletal obelisks can suck too if they somehow get the jump on you) but it can be applied to anything. It is basic but I started with the Red hill escape, tell me what you think! Level caps are the levels (your level not the monsters) at which monster stop gaining levels despite your characters levelling (on nightmare difficulty). Tamilin is always the trigger unless otherwise stated.
Numbers of enemies on the encounter is an estimate based on multiple playthroughs. Your playthrough may have more or less enemies than indicated or different enemies entirely. These numbers are just to give you an idea of what you are facing if you cannot see the spawn. Also note that on a lot of the encounters there is a roll on the number of total monsters that can appear. So 2-4 Bowrats, 2-3 Ratkin Warriors might spawn as 4 Bowrats one game (due to the total monster roll being 4) but next playthrough may have 3 Bowrats and 2 Ratkin Warriors (5 being the roll that time). This might not be exactly how it works but without seeing the specific math and based on multiple playthroughs this is how encounters appear to spawn to me.
Level cap unknown - Red Hill escape Level cap 5 - Krellin Deeps + Oskahold Ambush Level cap unknown - West Road + Warm Cavern + Muddy Cave Level cap unknown - North Vault + Korvain's Trench Level cap unknown - Nordhall + Nordhall Trench Level cap unknown - Vermin Under Tunnels + Vermin Warrens Level cap unknown - Vermin Lair + Cursed Temple Level cap unknown - Torrent Watershed + Excavation site + Temple of 13 Level cap unknown - Kern's End + Spy's Path Level cap unknown - Red Hill Dungeon + Red Hill Depths Level cap unknown - Red Hill Barracks + Gatehouse + Officers Barracks Level cap unknown - Inner Keep + Groth's Lair + Throne Room Level cap 17 - Storerooms Level cap 17 - Lowland Crossroads + Brellim Pass Level cap unknown - Darkmoss Ironwood + Darkmoss Wetlands Level cap 19/22 - Brellim Peaks + Waning Moon Pass Level cap 22 - Glacial Wetlands + Frozen Lake + Icy Caves Level cap 24 - Vast Cavern + Orcin Stronghold Level cap 22/unknown - Ironwood Ridge + Bone Pass (Braeys) Level cap 22 - Cult Underhouse + Underforge Level cap 22 - Construction Depths + Underforge Pits Level cap 22 - Great Forges Level cap 24 - Smith's Hoard Level cap 24 - Temple of the Arachnid Level cap 24 - Great Maker's Workshop