Insane Mode: Anybody Play It & Whats It Like?

[Rahn]

I'm playing through the game now from lv1 on in heart of fury mode with no cheats. I'll tell you its hell. Those goblins have more like 250hp and the beetles in the tavern basement in the easthaven bar have over 100 hp and crit for over 30 damage. I believe all mobs have around 3000-5000% of normal hp. It's not impossible but you have to do EVERY beginning quest and have a bard for extra quest experience. The bard is for singing to the siren in the western part of town which gains a full 6 member party another 500 to 800 or so exp PER character if you do all the options, and puts your party up to level 3 to 4 before you ever leave the town. You also need the bard for the combat and luck bonuses just to even hit the lowest level things. Once your bard gets his luck song keep it going all the time, it gives you an insane critical hit rate which is the only way you can hit half the stuff with its insanely low ac. As for mages, dont bother with sleep, everything is lv6 or higher starting. You must go cromatic orb, charm, and web all the way. Definitely remember the awesome power of charmed creatures in heart of fury mode, they are the only way I made it through the first goblin cave by easthaven, and were the deciding factor in many battles. Once you get to kuldahar you need to pickpocket the 2 rings of free action so you can use web truly effectively. I'm told theres a third ring of free action in the game but I have no idea where.

But the most important thing to remember about the game in heart of fury mode with a lv 1 party is that you MUST RETREAT. If you kill 1 or 2 mobs and you think you might die before you take down another retreat and zone out, then heal up and go back and slowly hack them down. As long as you kill them they aren't there when you get back and you've made progress, and if you hurt them enough they are still injured when you come back and you can wear them down. And because of the awesome experience given per kill by the time you hit the lv 6-9 area with a party of 6, if your good and using the right tactics, the game starts to get tolerable. Although don't let it get to your head as some 500hp skeletons with 50% resistance to all your swords will put you back in place.