[MOD] The Guardians

Are you looking for fun Custom Dungeons that you could play or do you want to share your mod with others? Then this forum is for you!
Banaora
Posts: 162
Joined: Wed Jun 05, 2013 9:39 am

Re: [MOD] The Guardians

Post by Banaora »

Thanks Pompidom,

pleasing the goddess was surprisingly easy once I knew that I don't have to put everything on one altar.
Pompidom
Posts: 497
Joined: Sun May 06, 2018 9:42 pm

Re: [MOD] The Guardians

Post by Pompidom »

SpoilerShow
I'm stuck on the 9 letter word you have to form with the 9 letters.

Shrine of the .t.z.ax..
AHYRSUXT
are the letters available

I seriously dislike riddles like these :(
Banaora
Posts: 162
Joined: Wed Jun 05, 2013 9:39 am

Re: [MOD] The Guardians

Post by Banaora »

I solved this letter puzzle earlier.
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You can already see the position of 4 letters here .t.z.ax.. Then you find 5 notes that give you three positions each for the other letters. I just started filling it out and it worked first try.
Btw. I also solved my first problem with the
SpoilerShow
demons and the dead to restore peace in the Hall of Peace. It was skulls but not on the altar but in the alcoves. Though if I put one on the altar both demons also look at it, but oh well...
Pompidom
Posts: 497
Joined: Sun May 06, 2018 9:42 pm

Re: [MOD] The Guardians

Post by Pompidom »

Damn, I was totally clueless about that. Btw just pm me the word plz, I rly dislike this sort of riddle.
Pompidom
Posts: 497
Joined: Sun May 06, 2018 9:42 pm

Re: [MOD] The Guardians

Post by Pompidom »

After some runs on Hard getting totally rekt, I decided to get a proper run on Normal.

Getting much further and deeper now. Hard difficulty is agonizing hard because of default difficulty differences in damage received from monsters + rapid food depletion.
Normal feels like a breeze and a walk in the park now :)

Pyramid dungeon map forced me to spam rage potions again however even on normal. They just keep comming!
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Didn't feel like getting cursed by the mummies one hitting them when closing off other corridors with a forcefield. Basically everything on that map had to be dispatched fast. The key master was cancerous! No idea how you can survive that without rage bottle spam.
Not sure if unlimited monsters that drop food on that level was a smart idea. Especially when you have a farmer. Didn't have a farmer in my party so there was no point in farming experience there.

Very low on mudwort though so I hope I'm not facing a rage bottle spam encounter soon.
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RMariano
Posts: 287
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2012 1:16 pm
Location: Florida, USA
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Re: [MOD] The Guardians

Post by RMariano »

THIS is a fun map..... one of the good ones!
Regards,

RMariano
knr
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Apr 21, 2019 7:04 pm

Re: [MOD] The Guardians

Post by knr »

Completed a bad ending, 30h playtime, 98 secrets and obtained all 4 essences. An amazing dungeon, so many inventive puzzles, the maze being a particular standout, with the shrine, temple and Goldhaven also each having some really memorable setups.

Playing on hard, the balance has been just right for the most part, with the notable exception of
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the mummy fight in the pyramids, which took lots of forcefielding and frost bombs, and any fight with the new shadow elementals.

You can dance around them in open spaces easily enough (making the first encounter with them the keymaster room, where the proper way to fight them is run through them, push the button and run out to an open room, was pretty mean), but the New Species fight took an opening bane devastate crit instakill on one of the acolytes to even begin being manageable. If you ever let a shadow actually sit on you you're already dead, but even getting a hit in is extremely dangerous, since blind doesn't seem to have any cure except rare and expensive crystals. A blind on my ethereal dagger wielder and my damage output vs them plummets.
Otherwise many fights here are expertly designed to make full use of the enemy moveset and the environment, such as
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the cursed coast ghoul ambush, the 2 ghoul loop in the maze :D, the scavenger gauntlet in the pyramid, and cute setpieces like the livingrock ogre (bashing his way in outside before) or the Gorge entrance.
Economy wise, I'm glad I didn't take a farmer. They're terrible and seem completely unnecessary since you get the 2 skills super soon and past the very early game I always had more gold keys than I wanted. The gem balance seems decent for the most part, with the notable exception of the teacher being awful. Firearms still fall behind melee, even with the Arquebus+3, and ammo is also too expensive if I wanted to use one of the rapid-fire guns. The additional local traders are cute but seem mostly superfluous, though the rag trader gives some great stuff.

Enchanting seems brokenly powerful (even if the best bonus wisely uses the most valuable resource), and the new set bonuses made me take up a shield on my light weapons user. Of course I've still got plenty of unexplored levels where that broken power may prove not broken enough. Only found one hidden enchantment material, giving resist all. Are there more?

Where I'm stuck on:
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My next step should be the elemental shrine in the Gorge, but to I enter that I think I need the 12th statue. I've got the snail, crowern, ice guardian, skeleton, ogre, grail, deity, ancient one, dragon, globe and crown.

I've no clue where the last one might be, except maybe the Top Way. For that I'm only missing the 4/4 letter, but it could be damn near anywhere. :( Well, the other 3 were in the westmost row, but I'm only missing one secret in that row, in gorge, which I've combed over multiple times already. Though 2 of the letters I've found weren't in secrets. If the last statue is not in top way, I've no idea where it might be.
Pompidom
Posts: 497
Joined: Sun May 06, 2018 9:42 pm

Re: [MOD] The Guardians

Post by Pompidom »

My hat off for genuinely playing this mod on Hard. I had to restart on Normal to keep it enjoyable :)

Can you share your party composition and strategies used?
Banaora
Posts: 162
Joined: Wed Jun 05, 2013 9:39 am

Re: [MOD] The Guardians

Post by Banaora »

You can cure blind with the antidote potion. I discovered this by accident.

But still yes, knr, those fights you name are a bit too difficult imo. Had to cheat in the new species room and I'm playing this mod on normal.
knr
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Apr 21, 2019 7:04 pm

Re: [MOD] The Guardians

Post by knr »

Pretty much the usual, a minotaur fighter with heavy weapons, a lizardman rogue with starting 50% resist all with strength light weapons, ratling alchemist with guns and insect mage.

Both frontliners max their weapons and armor (the lizard taking some athletics for porter and some health to match the fighter, the minotaur some accuracy), sprinkling some crit inbetween for 5 by the endgame for both. The alchemist really just needs guns and alchemy, then porter and crit. Gave him light armor for the mirror set for the resistance and as offtank when in a corner. The mage focused on air 5 for early game damage, then spread out to 3-4 in every school and concentration for shields, light and heal, no real damage from him for the endgame, just utility.

For most of the game blooddrop caps were the bottleneck herbs, troll's blood helped by being much more efficient for healing. For early-midgame bosses the rogue went bear form to dual wield claws. Heal took some pressure off blooddrops, but at ~550 energy even big energy potions don't do much so now I'm resting more (where 50 will and +50% energy regen helps). Still running out of herbs so some of my remaining gems might go here.

Gemwise, never used any on the tome room. Besides the mandatory picks and mattocks, gems went mostly on the forge, some on food (though the rats supply most extra food, + porters can eat raw food), ammo and herbs, some on spells. Still sitting on like 8,8,25 RGB gems.

As I said, for the very end,
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the lizard got the meteor set and stopped dualwielding. Kind of a waste of the rogue bonus but worth it imo.
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