0
General Hints
Before you head out on your quest to recover the Crown and unite the Clans you
should pause for a moment and consider a few things. First of all, what
character
type do you want to play? There are four clans you can represent in the game.
The
default characters each have their own strengths and weaknesses. But trust me,
don't use the defaults.
Creating Your Character
Which clan you pick isn't as important as customizing your character. Hard
experience has led me to conclude that no matter which clan you pick, you're
better off with a balanced character. What that means is you'll want at least a
12 rating in the four primary values of Strength, Life, Agility and Magic. Don't
waste time with pick locks, you won't be able to anyhow as far as I could tell.
Even better would be to generate characters until you have at least a 15 in life
and magic. That should let you do pretty well. Life is less important than you
might think at first glance, so don't go crazy assigning all your points there.
That's because your character never improves with experience. Each new area (six
times in total) your life will reset to the maximum if you are not at full
health. What that means is that for each point you spend on improving life when
customizing your character you gain at most six points of health. That's just a
bit less than a Health Potion. Not bad, but not earth shattering. The biggest
advantage of having a higher Life rating is that the first level will be much
easier to complete as will a few battles in the game.
Having a high Magic rating on the other hand can be a boon. Being able to chain
fire spells and kill your opponents before they reach you is a life saver.
Especially when you consider that Magic slowly regenerates whereas health does
not!
I finished the game pretty easily with a character that started out with the
following stats: 14 Strength, 15 Life, 12 Agility, 16 Magic, 14 Sword, 10 Axe, 8
Lockpick. I never used the Axe except to open things that required it.
Combat Tactics
Unlike games like Diablo, Clans is divided into small areas. Monsters don't roam
around unless you walk in on them. You can use this to your advantage. If you
stumble upon a room with a lot of enemies, try backing out of the room and then
using magic on the bad guys as they come through the opening. If they are really
tough continue retreating through areas you've cleared (use the map overlay to
help you navigate) and recharge mana to repeat this. This will let you take on
large clumps of bad guys that would otherwise whittle your hit points down.
It's vital to conserve hit points. Health Potions are rare, you get very few
extra lives, and you'll be fighting a lot. Try to avoid fights that don't get
you
anything. Use your save game slots to save before a small section of rooms. You
may find that a tough battle is in a dead end with no treasure. You can then
restore a saved game that avoids the needless loss of hits you'll need later on.
The other thing to remember is that Magic recharges. Take your time and get to
maximum before entering a new room. Then use your magic up and switch to hand to
hand to finish off anything still standing. Always remember: Magic is Cheap,
Life
is Dear!
Some rooms you enter will have monsters of more than one type. They will attack
one another before attacking you. You can either let them fight and take on the
winner(s) or help the weaker monster to dispatch the stronger. This lets you
divide and conquer to make these battles more manageable than they would be
otherwise. Don't use area effect spells in these rooms, it will irritate all the
monster types so they stop fighting and gang up on you!
Buying From Vendors
Each section of the game has a vendor with four items you can purchase with the
gold you find in the game. You can also sell items back to the vendor you don't
need, although you won't typically get much for them. What you buy is up to you,
but don't ever buy armor. You will find better armor as you go than you can buy,
so it is a waste.
Be careful with spells also. There are some interesting ones like lightning, but
I finished the game using only Fireball, Explosion and Confusion. On the other
hand, always buy the Health Potions if you can afford them and you have room in
inventory. Hoard them like a miser, you'll need them for the final battle.
Managing Inventory
You may often have too many items to carry, especially when you are retrieving
quest items or have keys that you aren't sure where to use. Go ahead and drop
Magic and Health Potions and mark on the map where you did (use the "." key and
it will highlight that square). When you have room be sure to head back for your
loot. Be sure to keep in mind that you can't go back to a level you left. You
can
move between sections of a level if you need to though.
Before you head out on your quest to recover the Crown and unite the Clans you
should pause for a moment and consider a few things. First of all, what
character
type do you want to play? There are four clans you can represent in the game.
The
default characters each have their own strengths and weaknesses. But trust me,
don't use the defaults.
Creating Your Character
Which clan you pick isn't as important as customizing your character. Hard
experience has led me to conclude that no matter which clan you pick, you're
better off with a balanced character. What that means is you'll want at least a
12 rating in the four primary values of Strength, Life, Agility and Magic. Don't
waste time with pick locks, you won't be able to anyhow as far as I could tell.
Even better would be to generate characters until you have at least a 15 in life
and magic. That should let you do pretty well. Life is less important than you
might think at first glance, so don't go crazy assigning all your points there.
That's because your character never improves with experience. Each new area (six
times in total) your life will reset to the maximum if you are not at full
health. What that means is that for each point you spend on improving life when
customizing your character you gain at most six points of health. That's just a
bit less than a Health Potion. Not bad, but not earth shattering. The biggest
advantage of having a higher Life rating is that the first level will be much
easier to complete as will a few battles in the game.
Having a high Magic rating on the other hand can be a boon. Being able to chain
fire spells and kill your opponents before they reach you is a life saver.
Especially when you consider that Magic slowly regenerates whereas health does
not!
I finished the game pretty easily with a character that started out with the
following stats: 14 Strength, 15 Life, 12 Agility, 16 Magic, 14 Sword, 10 Axe, 8
Lockpick. I never used the Axe except to open things that required it.
Combat Tactics
Unlike games like Diablo, Clans is divided into small areas. Monsters don't roam
around unless you walk in on them. You can use this to your advantage. If you
stumble upon a room with a lot of enemies, try backing out of the room and then
using magic on the bad guys as they come through the opening. If they are really
tough continue retreating through areas you've cleared (use the map overlay to
help you navigate) and recharge mana to repeat this. This will let you take on
large clumps of bad guys that would otherwise whittle your hit points down.
It's vital to conserve hit points. Health Potions are rare, you get very few
extra lives, and you'll be fighting a lot. Try to avoid fights that don't get
you
anything. Use your save game slots to save before a small section of rooms. You
may find that a tough battle is in a dead end with no treasure. You can then
restore a saved game that avoids the needless loss of hits you'll need later on.
The other thing to remember is that Magic recharges. Take your time and get to
maximum before entering a new room. Then use your magic up and switch to hand to
hand to finish off anything still standing. Always remember: Magic is Cheap,
Life
is Dear!
Some rooms you enter will have monsters of more than one type. They will attack
one another before attacking you. You can either let them fight and take on the
winner(s) or help the weaker monster to dispatch the stronger. This lets you
divide and conquer to make these battles more manageable than they would be
otherwise. Don't use area effect spells in these rooms, it will irritate all the
monster types so they stop fighting and gang up on you!
Buying From Vendors
Each section of the game has a vendor with four items you can purchase with the
gold you find in the game. You can also sell items back to the vendor you don't
need, although you won't typically get much for them. What you buy is up to you,
but don't ever buy armor. You will find better armor as you go than you can buy,
so it is a waste.
Be careful with spells also. There are some interesting ones like lightning, but
I finished the game using only Fireball, Explosion and Confusion. On the other
hand, always buy the Health Potions if you can afford them and you have room in
inventory. Hoard them like a miser, you'll need them for the final battle.
Managing Inventory
You may often have too many items to carry, especially when you are retrieving
quest items or have keys that you aren't sure where to use. Go ahead and drop
Magic and Health Potions and mark on the map where you did (use the "." key and
it will highlight that square). When you have room be sure to head back for your
loot. Be sure to keep in mind that you can't go back to a level you left. You
can
move between sections of a level if you need to though.