This guide is provided as a tool for new
players to the Realms of Arkania series.
Veterans can also benefit from the tips.
I noticed there wasn’t a lot of guides out
there that touched upon what skills to use,
what the stats really do, and what spells
are truly useful. This isn’t a walkthrough;
this is a guide to character building and
general tips from a pro who has beaten the
game many times. I hope that this guide will
be useful for you the player. You can agree
or disagree, I'm just trying to help out.
PS: My personal favorite game was Star Trail
out of the three.
You can reach me at www.IssaSoft.com.
You may reproduce this document as will as
long as you keep my website in it and don’t
change anything.
~~~ 50 General Tips (Yes I know its a lot, but
its helpful so read it!) ~~~
1) Carry more than one weapon for each person
in case they break.
2) Carry a couple pairs of boots (only if you
are playing Realms of Arkania 2).
3) There are some magical weapons like the weapons
Antherion and Mages wand that have a plus modifier
to hit; this is very useful against enemies
that are resistant to weapons (like water
elemental).
4) Set up guards when sleeping to prevent an
ambush or your stuff being stolen.
5) The front most person is your leader, they
must have good navigation skills, perception,
street knowledge and survival. This will
help to disarm traps, find hidden walls
or collapsing ceilings, and to avoid falling
down cliffs when outside. Make sure they have
the right status!
6) The best way to make money is by pick
pocketing or selling herbs. Don’t waste your
time with acrobatics or instruments.
7) Winter coats are an easy way to increase
defense, put them on everybody instead of
robes and just ignore the sweating
party members when outside. It adds weight
but I found the extra defense is worth it.
8) You can revive your guys at the temples
by praying but its best to just reload if
anybody dies. Try TSA.
9) Use the Inns, they are a cheap way to
fully recover your party, especially for
magic users.
10) Take advantage of poison, if you can
afford it, carry some around and use it
on your weapons, even ammo.
It can add a lot of damage. Don't bother
with fear, why do you want the monsters
to run away?
11) Carry around a lot of whirlweed,
they stack and heal 10 points each time.
12) Carry around some super magic potions
for your mages to easily fill up their
astral points when needed.
13) Each member should have its strengths;
if you plan ahead you can have a very strong
and able party to adventure
with. For example, one person to pick locks
one person to haggle, one person to cure
disease, one person to navigate, etc.
14) If you have a mage make sure you charge
their wands!
15) Make sure every person has a sleeping bag;
it’ll help prevent colds and heal better
during resting.
16) Carry a whetstone with you to sharpen
your weapons to prevent them from breaking,
and always repair any damaged
ones when necessary. In Realms of Arkania
3 using it once with a character and the
whole group uses it; in Realms
of Arkania 2 you must do it for
each character.
17) In battle, send two guys for each enemy,
remember, everybody can parry only once per
round (except some large monsters),
which means the second attack and third or
fourth will always hit. This works against
you too!
18) When saving, make incremental points.
For example, in dungeons, use 3 save points
called Dungeon1, Dungeon2, and Dungeon3.
Same goes for Outside areas and Town.
19) Some items you definitely should be
carrying around are: Shovels (2), rope (if
you don’t have a Mage), Torch with Tinderbox.
I have found no use for a hammer.
20) A high armor rating decreases damage
taken by enemies.
21) There are some jewelry around and rings
that can increase magic resistance, always
try to use them.
Some are totally useless though.
22) You should always play in Advanced mode
so you can choose where to put your stats.
23) In Realms of Arkania 2, always have one
or two guys searching for food, and have your
best herb person
searching for herbs.
24) A lot of items in the game are useless,
so either just drop them, don’t pick them up,
or sell them
(a great sell are elixirs). If you don’t know
just keep it, you don’t want to get stuck!
25) You can find walkthroughs for the games
online, even maps. Try Google.
26) Doing stuff like finding hidden walls,
digging dirt to get through a path, gives exp.
27) The first time you encounter monster
you get more exp for it.
28) Use a keychain to hold keys - it saves
weight.
29) If you have extra money buy tons of
magic potions for your wizards.
31) When you have extra cash, try out every
temple and pray. Donate about 10D first
though and save
just in case. Sometimes you get permanent
upgrades.
32) In battles stay away from the line
of site from those mages/archers. Keep
your weak guys hiding
behind your stronger guys.
33) I've noticed the room type doesn't
make a different, just get the cheapest
room there is.
34) If one of your guys is diseased,
heal them IMMEDIATELY! Otherwise it'll
increase and they'll die.
35) In autobattle battle, press ESC if
its starting to go downhill.
36) Spend all your money if you have at
least 100D (you want 100D just in case
of quests). You don't
need money, so don't try to save it, just
spend it on stuff, especially poison and
magic potions.
38) Stack items if you can. For example,
if two characters have herbs of the same
kind, merge them so
you save item space
39) Archers are awesome. Although they
only do little damage, they can kill
enemies from afar without
getting hurt. I usually keep two of them.
I find this is especially useful for
Realms of Arkania 3 where
you cannot reach some monsters.
40) Try to keep multiple weapons in case
some break. Also, its good for archers
in case they get surrounded
or run out of bullets.
41) Autobattle can give mixed results.
If you lose just reload and try again.
42) Fulminictus is great for the last kill.
If you have a good wizard, it will always
hit, and it only
costs a few mp for a kill because the monster
has only a few mp left.
43) Sleeping can restore lost attributes.
For example, if you're guys are dirty
and lost charisma,
sleep for a few days and they'll restore
they're stats.
44) When prompted to enter a number, you
can enter a large number that will default
to the maximum.
For example, when casting Ignifaxus, if
the maximum is 8, you can click 11 and
it'll default to 8, saves
time instead of clicking up 7 times when
default is 1. Try it and it'll make sense
45) Send in a warrior by themselves if you
need to fight a large group, they have
tons of armor and
can last longer
46) Star trail - girls can keep shirts
in lowan. so keep their clothes!
47) Star trail - get water skin before
turning wheel in dwarf dungeon
48) Don't run out of food or water!
49) Make sure you use weapons that the
character is optimized to use. For
example, if the character
has good polearm skills, get polearm
weapons.
50) If one of your guys is weak, flee
from the battle. This will protect
them while your other guys
finish off the enemies. You can always
regroup after the batte.
~~~ Stats - Main ~~~
Courage = Used for battles, high courage
will mean a better fighter and the
character will not run away.
It will also increase your attack and
increase your magic rating. (You want
this to be 13 for everybody).
Trust me, its worth it for the magic
rating.
Wisdom = Used to cast spells, the higher
it is the better your spells do. Also a
high wisdom will
increase your magic rating. (You want
this to be 13 for magic users.)
Charisma = I have not seen any use for
this through the game; I find its best
to make this your
lowest value and lower it to the lowest
possible. It supposedly makes you
better when talking to
others but I haven’t seen any noticeable
affects when it’s not high. (An 8 is
just fine).
Intuition = Another useless skill.
Make this a low value as well. Players
guide says it affects
spells however I haven’t noticed.
(An 8 is just fine)
Dexterity = Used to cast spells, the
higher it is the better your spells
do and the better they
will hit. (You want this to be 13
for magic users, 8 is fine for fighters)
Agility = Used for battles, the higher
it is the better you do in battle
and hit. (You want this
to be 13 for everybody). It makes
them attack better and dodge better.
Strength = Only used to carry items.
The higher the more you can carry
and more movement points
you can potentially have, however,
as the game progresses and if you
play right, you can do without
high numbers for every character.
(You want this to be 13 for fighters,
10-13 for others). Find a
strength belt for each character
and add +5 easily. Strength gives
more movement points. If you
have magic users this is great
because it costs 5 to cast a spell
- They can move a few steps then cast.
Note: For fighters, max out your
Courage first, then Agility. For
magic users, max out your Wisdom
first, then Dexterity. Anything
left over put it in Strength.
~~~ Stats – Attributes ~~~
Superstition = Used to raise magic
rating and lessens effects of spells.
(You want this to be 2
for everybody). This is definitely
a attribute you want to decrease
every time you level up until
its reached its lowest point.
Arachnophobia / Claustrophobia /Avarice
/ Curiosity / Violent Temper =
These really don’t mean much,
just keep them around 5 for every
character, no higher. If a character
has a higher value than 5 it
may cause problems, for example,
they might want to steal something,
or they might get scared in
tight corners, or they might attack
somebody for no reason, or they might
touch something they
aren’t suppose too. But I find that
the consequences for high values in
these stats don’t matter
much, and in some cases the game makes
one of your characters do something
even if its low.
Necrophobia = I find that its good to
keep this low, it protects against
undead, and there’s plenty
of them in the game. (Good to keep 2-4
for every character, 5 is pushing it).
If they are afraid
they will run away - dont want
that do we?
~~~ Weapons ~~~
Unarmed = Always put a point in this
for all characters (except mages they
have a pole arm that
never breaks, and archers since they
should never use a close range weapon).
You want to make
sure they can fight if you happen to
lose your weapon!
Other Weapons = Always put a point in
the weapon you want to focus on,
edged and swords are best
since they do the most damage. Use
missiles for bow users. Also, make
sure a bow user can fall
back on a weapon if they run out of
ammo (up to you, if you keep track
of ammo you should never
have this problem).
Swords = I love swords. So if you cant
decide, I'd say this is the average
weapon to have. It
has good protection and damage.
Use what the character already has!
If the character already has
a 5 in a weapon, but -5
in another, then try to use
the weapon type that has a 5.
Why waste 10 levels to get
the -5 to a
5? For example, dwarves must
always use axes.
Note: It’s best to focus each
character in one type of weapon,
and it depends on the class.
Usually pick the best weapon
they can yield. For example,
for the warrior it’s a Goupillon,
so focus on Edged Weapons for
a warrior. For mages it’s
obvious, use Polearms. Throwing
weapons
are absolutely useless!
~~~ Skills ~~~
Climb = You need to be able to
climb, so get everybody high on
this, around 6 is a good time to
stop. However, if the person has
a lot of weight make this higher.
For example, fighters with a
lot of weight need to have it higher.
Swim = Every person should have a
6 in swim, otherwise they will drown.
The more weight the person
will carry the higher this should
be, heck, maxing it out can be
good to avoid drowning all together.
In realms of Arkania 3, you wont
be able to escape the water dungeon
with items unless you have a high swim.
Physical Control = All your fighters
(and possible everybody else) should
have high values. Helps to
prevent fumbles in battle.
Stealth = Good for the lead character
in case you need to not make any noise,
for example, when
following somebody.
Self Control = Useful in combat to
prevent your guys from running away,
again 6 is good. Make it
higher for fighters. I have not
noticed a huge difference if its
low though.
Hide = Good for the lead character
in case the party needs to hide.
Danger Sense / Perception = A must
have for the lead person, helps them
spot danger; they are
both good to have. I give all my
character high perception, why,
because then they can all
help out finding traps and other
stuff.
Haggle = Get one person with a
very high haggle rating, it will
help when buying and selling
for discounts. It’s not uncommon
to achieve 50% discounts. The person
with haggle should
have good charisma too.
Streetwise = Good for the lead person
when navigating town. Although
I haven’t seen much
consequences when it’s low.
Track = Use to track guys, can be
useful at times, make the lead guy
have it.
Orientation = A must have for the
lead guy, helps them know where
they are going in dungeons.
Again, not too many consequences
when it’s low. I found in Realms
of Arkania 1, low orientation
prevents you from using the map
correctly.
Herb Lore = Use for the disease person,
helps them find herbs and know how
to use them.
The higher the better.
Survival = Again, use for the
lead person, helps your party out,
although there are not too
many consequences if it’s low.
Tactics = A must have for everybody,
makes your guys a better fighter in battle.
Arcane Lore = A must have for magic
users, makes your magic users better.
Tongues / Ancient Tongues = Keep one
guy with a high value in this so you
can read everything.
You don't really need to read
everything but its fun to be able too.
Alchemy / Read and Write = Use it
if you want to make potions, I find
this useless but its
fun sometimes.
Treat Poison = Use only if you don’t
have a mage that can cast cure
poison with the cure poison
spell. Its very rare to be poisoned,
and most of the time its because
of a fumble with your own
poisoned weapon, so I don't use this.
Treat Disease = Keep one person high
on disease, and a backup person
(in case the diseased person
is diseased). Druids, Warlocks,
and Green Elves are great for this.
Treat Wounds = Very useful to heal your
guys, use this or use items, up to you.
This is an easy
way to heal but remember can only be used
every 24 hours, and if you use it you cant
treat disease
until 24 hours have passed either,
so it can be good or bad for you.
Locks = Keep one guy updated on locks,
the higher the better, but you only
need one guy.
Pickpocket = A must if you want
free money, keep one guy upgrading.
Don’t use anything else like
instrument or cheat or acrobats,
pickpocket can get you 10D each
time or more.
Note: If I didn’t mention a skill
it’s because I found it’s totally
useless and waste of a point.
(Yes you can disagree, this
is my opinion)
~~~ Spells ~~~
Domination = Useful for the rare
case that your guy is controlled
and you want to undo the control.
Illusion = You will need this in
the game so get one guy with it.
(At least 5)
Somnigravis = Excellent spell to
take down any foe! Makes them
fall asleep for a little while.
Evil eye = Very cool spell, turns
an enemy against the rest for
some time, useful in groups.
It helps those outnumbered
battles greatly.
Confusion = Another cool spell
that lets you confuse the enemy
into attacking others for a
short while.
Skeletraius = Revives a dead
enemy to help you, useful if
you are outnumbered.
Heptagon = Summons a very strong
demon guy to help you (Be careful
they can turn against you!)
Blood and Furor = Summons this
lesser demon guy to help you,
he’s weak but can help as cannon
fodder (Be careful, they can
turn against you!)
Conjure Elemental = Summons a
powerful fire elemental. Again,
they turn against you after
a while.
Foramen = Good spell to unlock
anything, even when pickpockets
wont work.
Transversalis = Lets you teleport
just about anywhere, so useful
in caves! I find that in Realms
of Arkania 3 if you don’t have
this you cannot beat the game,
as its buggy and you need to
go through
places. I have also found that
if you're MP is low, this spell
will never work.
Pure and clear = Cures poison,
get one person on this.
Balm of Roond = Good for mages
because they can heal with
little magic, also useful in
battle
when things get bad. (You need
to be right next to the guy
to use this spell)
Astral Theft = Lets you steal
magic points from other magic users.
Penetrating = Lets you see a radius
around you, cool if want to see
everything on the map.
You can then teleport to the
new area.
Camouflage / Eagle Wolf = Lets
you turn into something else,
useful for when you encounter
situations
where individuals don’t like
members of your party (for
example Elves).
Lightning = Get this spell! Blinds
any enemy and stops them from
acting. Works on every enemy!
Darkness Power = Lets you make a
double of yourself to fight.
Good in case you're outnumbered.
Iron Rust = Destroys an enemy’s
weapon. Useful against tough
knights and such, but remember you
won’t get the item if you
destroy it after battle!
Fulminictus = Great spell that
does great damage, however,
every point of damage takes away one
Astral Point, so can be costly.
Ignifaxus = Simply the best
spell in the game, get every
magic user on this. Each level you gain
makes this more powerful.
No weapon or spell can do more
damage, 50+ and it wont cost much magic.
Banish Spirits = You will
need this once or twice.
(No more than 0 in this)
Melt Solid = You may need this
in the game so get one person
able to use it. (No more than 0 in this)
Note: If I didn’t mention a spell
it’s because I found it’s totally
useless and waste of a point.
