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After playing through Ultima Underworld, Thief, and System Shock 2, I decided to boot up Arx for the first time tonight.
>Any builds you recommend?
>Things to avoid?
>Favorite quests?
>etc
Arx General. Try to remain spoiler free.
Showing all 26 replies.
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I played it back when it came out, all I can remember is baking pies, some catacombs, and the goofy magic system. I tried playing it again recently after playing Dark Messiah (loved it) and it’s a moderate pain in the ass to get running on modern PCs
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>>3978713
Is your PC from 15 years ago? Why would you play this trash?
I watched Lobos play Arx Fatalis and the combat was extremely jank. It's like, even $10 indies aren't that awful. Aged like stale cum in the sun.
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>>3978713
there is a lore-friendly reason why the MC has amnesia and is so autistic
there is a quest involving baking pies and making someone shit themselves with one
using just bows softlocks you, also get the Arx Libertatis patch so you may actually use the rune system
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>>3978713
-beat it halfnaked with an archer like pic related for fun.though in my case i halfassed it because magic is just damn useful.
-and you need a certain amount of STR to wear the free Ylside armour which boost all your stats.
-save often .bugs might make some subquests unbeatable? but maybe latest patch fixed those.
-last patch also nerfed Fireball spell so you can't cheese a mage build anymore. you can probably still find an ISO with an older version.
-the earliest version actually allowed you to enchant the endgame plot weapon but i doubt you can find that version anymore. those early versions also allowed multiple enchantments on a single weapon, so you can make a super duper weapon even without doing the hidden jokese "Chicken" subquest.
-like i mentioned above, the most powerful weapon is from a joke subquest, read a walkthrough for instructions. but you need high STR to get the better 2-handed sword, otherwise you get the bow that shoots fireballs, but the bow-fireballs aren't that strong.
-best armour for a mage is suppose to be the mithril armour pieces mostly found in the Liches area, but that's harder to clear than the actual main plot so you can just ignore them. getting high enough STR to wear the Ylside armour is more practical since that increases your magic-related stats anyway. there's also a spell to buff your stats so you can have enough STR to wear the Ylside armour even if you play as a pure mage with crap STR.
-Harm and Mana Drain spells are useful in all cases. with magic-using enemies, they seem to run away from you if their mana is low. good for backstabbing with bow+arrows when they run away.
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1: Balance is ass so everything that isnt magic is ass too and borders on unbeatable sometimes.
2. Get Libertatis. Running Fatalis on anything that is not coal and steam driven is like trying to assemble your own functioning AI gf android out of tin cans and half finished mayo glasses.
3: Magic is crazy good and even If you are not a full mage you want some for its utility like flying, telekinesis, snuffing torches, invisibility, speed, healing and most importantly antimagic options.
4: Vendors do not refresh inventory the whole game. Everything you sell is stored with limited capacity, so if you keep selling bread and water bottles to them their buy inventory gets full very early and you wont be able to vendor anything else.
5: If you see a bunch of cultists FOLLOW them immediately unseen and save before you do.
6. Generally have several saves, save before doing quests, dont be afraid to look shit up. The leveldesign and the Story are 10/10 but there are dozens of bugs, softlocks and general ways to fuck yourself over during super obscure and convuluted questlines with the most unintuitive mechanics and ways which you sometimes wont even notice that break them and factions constantly.
7: Be generally careful what you do. There are very few safeguards in place that keep you from interacting with the world in a way that will break your save. You can also essentially just murder every single NPC that exists.
8: XP is scarce so you will only have like 8 level ups without using infinite XP loops. Act and skill accordingly. There are several trap abilities that dont do shit.
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>>3979359
>You can also essentially just murder every single NPC that exists.
i did that just before the endgame for the lulz.
>8: XP is scarce so you will only have like 8 level ups without using infinite XP loops.
IIRC there is a summon spell that can summon a golden giant rat that gives good XP, but it's also hard to kill and might kill you if you're unprepared.
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>>3978713
>Ultima Underworld,
what mantras do you recommend? I started as a fighter and it seems really strong, i'm already level 7 on the first floor and only just found the place to level up. I only know the three mantras at that shrine
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>>3981554
just read a guide for the mantras if you really wanna spoil yourself on that mechanic.
oh well the codex wiki has it.
> https://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Mantra/Ultima_Underworld_Mantras
AMO is for sword skill.
Attack is not really needed unless you wanna play around with different weapon types. Defence is sometimes useful when you're running away with you weapon for readied, or you get hit by magic/missile weapons when you least expect it. Weapon skill basically raises both Attack+Defence while you're in combat mode.
Don't raise Casting until you reach Level 6/Mages area, if you start as a non-magic class. because you can get a free Casting skill of 13 by doing a subquest there.
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>>3978891
>>3979359
OP here, just finished it...Holy shit that ending fight was atrocious. The only way I could beat it was by standing on the pillar so he couldn't target me and just blast him with fireballs. Horrible.
>>3981554
I beat it as a pure sword wielding fighter. I put everything into Attack, Defense, and Sword. The fights were a breeze. You'll hit a certain point where you max those three skills out and have room to dump into other stats of your choice. Read books & talk to people to learn mantras for specific skills. If you don't mind spoilers, you can always look them up. Some of the game was pretty much designed for you to call a hotline so don't feel bad if you need a walkthrough. You can hard-lock yourself from completing the game if you accidentally bump an NPC into lava.
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>>3978720
here's your youtube video praising Arx.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Valmsq_Ku90
>Arx Fatalis is an underrated immersive sim game from Arkane Studios buried beneath RPGs like Morrowind and Neverwinter. It deserves the recognition of being Ultima Underworld 3 and more.
>Arx really deserved more attention in its day but it’s still a great experience now!
also System Shock Remake review.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBhfMNewip8
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