NEED HELP ! Please Road to Arneka.

[the_young_one]

Nakago,

Road to Arnika is a tough challenge, especially as your characters are still learning which spells to cast and melee skills still weak. Some suggestions:

- monsters respawn wickedly so you have to plan the battles carefully. I prefer to take the left fork after the monastery to get the treasure chest and essential eqpt for your bard. You can camp here fairly safely - the next big encounter will be at the clearing next to the house - you always come across three or more monsters - make a run for the house and use the terrain to limit the number of enemies (eg have the house to your left). You can camp behind the house fairly safely, but when you wake up, you'll probably find the monsters have respawned again. Battle your way through and when you reach the next fork, left takes you to arnika, right to the northen wilderness. I suggest you make a run for arnika to stock up on better weapons and buy spell books

- party formation is important and you don't want to be surrounded and atacked from behind. Enemies generally fan out form the closest point, so have your tough fighters nearest at the front and ranged characters further back. Spellcasters are going to be soft targets, best to put them at the back or even in the middle. Also take advantage of the ability to change positions in mid-battle, so if your fighters have disposed of their target, you can have them move to the side or back without walking or running

- spells are very useful. Sleep and terror work reasonably well against a few of the bandits (easier to take on 5 instead of 8), giving you valuable turns to take on the remaining foes. For those who are asleep, if you hit them, they wake up, so not advisable. Insanity is also a very good spell to use now. Defensive spells such as bless, enchanted blade and armorplate will improve your odds too. Offensive spells will mete out only 10-20 points of damage - good for softening up opps, but not that powerful

- running away is necessary skill
- use heal and stamina spells or potions
- if this is the first time you're playing, I suggest that you change the setting to easy - if you are replaying, you'll discover ways of toughening up your characters as well as better battle tactics
- practice makes perfect, so save after each battle

Good luck,

[Grellan]

i discovered a wicked spot which is as good as it gets (defensively) for taking on large groups of enemies who are relatively strong. it's right up in the left hand corner on the opposite side to where the house is situated (when you come out from the sandy area into the open space where the greenery begins).

it's quite a deep little alcove that lets about 3 enemies in at a time but only wide enough for one. it also slopes down into the back of it so when you're right in there you're hidden from view from the "valley" below. this way when there are several bunches of wandering enemies, usually what happens is when you defeat the first group no-one else attacks 'cos you're totally hidden so you get a chance to heal up, re-equip etc. before sticking you head out and luring the next group up into the narrow entrance.

[Oruboris]

Am a big fan of running like he**! Once you've passed the house, its possible to make it all the way to arnika without a single encounter if you run and stay OFF the road, clinging to the mountains on the north side, since this seems to offer more good defensive positions.

Also, remember to use your passive/aggressive spells: the ones that prevent the enemies from attacking all at once. Fairy dust, so useless in the rest of the game, can make a big difference in these early encounters.

Oru

[Klymaxy]

*MINOR SPOILERS*

I found that AR was actually pretty tough. But you get so much exp there. Had I known camping didn't affect the course of the game, I would have rested after every big fight. But I prolly rested twice in AR and cleared out all the encounters each time save for the Hogar (which I later killed going back to the Monastary). After the last camping, I ended up using 90% of all the dusts and potions I had in my inventory just to clear the place out. But I got ton's of exp doing it.

And Fairy Dust is not useless after AR. If you have the Alchemy skill at 50, you can merge it with Flash Powder and sell it for a HUGE profit. That and Renewal potions are where I get most of my money from.

[el_kalkylus]

Can't mix faerie dust, sorry. You are thinking of sneeze powder. Faerie dust can be good against creatures with low air resistance, but how many monsters have low air resistance? Those fishes in the water always fall asleep, at least that's good.

[Matthew Daly]

I can't totally agree that camping has no effect on the game, especially when you're trying to wade through to Arnika. Seems to me that the zone is usually restocked while you rest, which makes it harder to get past the T-junction. I say pull the one or two groups into battle in the niche that Grellan mentions, then run to the T and south to freedom!

[otter]

Yah, sometimes you can camp for just a little while (interrupt by touching any input) and that'll get you up enough to go on. If you camp the whole 8 hrs almost anywhere, you're likely to get respawns. The game has no time limit, though, so camping has no effect in that sense.