MM6: Maxed out level 1 party
Michael Kim
Just for the heck of it, I tried to see just far I can get in the game
with a level one party. The answer: quite far indeed.
This is going to have a lot of spoilers.
Anyway, I started a new party of C/S/S/S and grabbed the fly scroll. Then
I went to NWC to raid their cash register and grabbed the horeshoes in the
volcano. The fly spell will last enough for you to get about 40k out of
the cash box (deposit in bank of course). That's all you will need for
pretty much the rest of the game, cause cash will be plentiful.
I then went to Dragonsands where there is a gatemaster. Used her to get
to Freehaven. There's a duper/merchant combo there right next to each
other. Grabbed them and bought a beacon, fly, three fireballs, and
some sparks. If you run low on cash you can get some more in the sewers
easily. I trained one character to water expert with the horseshoes
which will let you set three beacon for 11 days with NPCs.
I then went to Kriegspire and set a beacon next to the +30 well, and I was
ready for business.
The key here is setting a beacon at Freehaven, because there is a
gatemaster, a duper/merchant and a spell master/mystic combo there in
convenient locations. The gate master lets you travel to most of the
places you need to go. I usually towngate somewhere, set a beacon, go
back to freehaven and grab the spell master and return to the dungeon to
do some adventuring.
Anyway, doing the promotion quests for sorc and clerics is pretty easy as
you all know. Once you promote, your characters will have about 250 hp/sp
w/ NWC stats boost and +30 well and there are enough horeshoes lying
around to train two characters to lv 4 air experts and one lv4 water
expert. You can get to about 300 sp after you find items that boost
points. Once you do the archmage promotion, you can train to lv4 air
master, which is key because sparks at even level 4 with +7 npc boost is
still incredibly effective.
I then went to Castle Kriegspire to get more horeshoes. The minataurs are
tough, but definitely killable. It took a few tries, but I grabbed most
of the horeshoes in the dungeon. That let me train two more characters to
level 4 dark magic. I became masters of dark, and I was ready for
business.
Once I outfitted this level one party, I was able to do all of the
promotion quests and council quests with ease. No dungeon took me more
than an hour or so. The toughest was Dragon riders, but even that wasn't
so bad. Just spark the cuisinarts then sharpmetal them once they close
in. It took about two hours. I even cleared out Paradise valley of all
the titans and dragons w/o too much difficulties. The Temple of Baa is
your friend in the Valley. They were so helpful, I donated to them to get
to notorious....
The Devil's outpost was kind of tough, but luckily, the demon you have to
kill is right up front, so I killed him and ran.
Gharik's forge was a push over. I just dragon breathed the warlocks
and (each of my characters by then had dragon breath and nothing can
survive eight dragon breaths) that was that. The fire elementals go down
quickly with ice/lightening bolts. I was going strong, wracked up 1.3
million exp. but then I ran into a problem. You need expert perception to
finish the Superior Temple of Baa. Well, it was only January 20 for me,
year one. It's going to take forever to rest for six months when the
horeshoes at NS regenerate...
This game is definitely playable with lv 1 characters. I think
the only dungeon that might give me some trouble is Darkmoor. But once
the horeshoes regenerate, I should be able to train three dark masters and
three air masters. I think that should let me tackle that dungeon w/o too
much difficulty. Varn and the Hive might be tough, but I think they might
be possible.
Anyway, playing with low level characters allowed me to make some
interesting observations. Using the Spell master/Mystic combo and a party
of 4 spell casters makes the game soooo much easier. Don't pick up any of
the treasure, though because they take up 30%. (You could raid NWC for
infinite gold, but there's no need). Just leave the bodies lying around,
and chests unopened in a dungeon until you kill everyone. Dump your
NPCs and get all the treasure. Then portal back to freehaven and grab the
Duper/merchant combo. Sell everything for a major profit. Then you can
grab the Spell Master/Mystic again, because they go straight back to their
house. It's really painless, and you can maximize your cash that way.
I would really recommend the spell NPCs because as I have discovered, you
really don't have to be that high a level to play this game. So exp.
doesn't matter that much, and consequently the Instrucutor/teacher is kind
of unnecessary. The Bankers are also unnecessary because you can maximize
your cash better with a Duper/Merchant combo when you sell your stuff.
Thus, the only NPCs you will need are the SM/Mystic, Duper/Merchant and
gate master. If you want to minimize travel time, then of course you use
the pathfinder/track nav/sailor. They can all be found in Paradise
Valley.
Another item that is unnecessary is all other skills except for spells.
I'm doing just fine with all my skills at lv1. Repair is kind of nice, I
know. But when you have all spell casters, you don't really have to
repair anything in combat. Just let it all break, and return to town to
fix it. Ids can all be paid for, since cash is plentiful if you use the
proper NPC combos. It can be a pain when equipement breaks at night, but
there are only a few areas where a high degree of breakage takes place.
Do those areas during the daytime so that you can portal back to fix them.
The weapon skills are also unnecessary, since I cast spells all the time.
And the spell don't have to be all that high to be effective. Air Magic
and Dark magic can be mastered at lv 4, and with the NPCs and an all spell
casting party, you can decimate just about everything that comes at you.
I think what makes a lv 1 party viable is sparks and sharpmetal. Both
spells have fast recovery rates at master level. That means most monsters
can only get one or two swings at you at point blank range before they
die. This makes low hps not much of a problem. Oh yeah, fireball is
also nice because it will soften up big bunches with low spell point
cost. If I run into a particularly difficult room, then I just unleash
four dragon breaths, which is guaranteed to wipe out everything. So the
secret to survival is don't let the monsters attack. Use spells with fast
recovery. One more important tip is to pause the game before you open the
doors. That way the monsters stay frozen in the middle and you can either
fireball them or dragon breath them. Otherwise, you have to enter the
room to get the wall huggers. That can be deadly if you have low hps.
Anyway, playing with a lv 1 party is definitely feasible. You might
want to touch the obelisk early at Kriegspire, becaues you will be using
that well often, and if you wait too long, a hoard of drakes will be
generated over there....Playing w/o using the training centers
balances out the +30 lv well and the NWC stats boost, which make the game
riddiculously easy to finish, and presents one of the more interesting
challenges in the game.
Joe Phelps
Michael Kim wrote:
I am a relative newbie and I have a few questions. What is the NWC and
how do you raid the cash register? is there any other way of getting
into the volcano other than flying?
