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A SL1 run of Pillars of Eternity on Hard

S

StoppedInTracks

Member
Yeah so I love this game and just wanted to share my experience with this little "challenge".

I am doing a SL1 (Soul Level 1) run of PoE on Hard with Expert Mode - first playthrough as well. Yeah you read that right - no levelling up, just like in Souls games. I think I am near an impenetrable barrier - the Forge Knights riots in Crucible Keep (just can't manage it on SL1) but we will see.

Just now I have finally beaten the hardest battle encountered so far - the Aedalwan's Bridge Party battle. I must have tried it at least 25 times... but finally they are dead with no casualties on my side. The two mages dropped Mage Tomes with LVL4 spells - highest I have seen so far.

hardest_battlezfsmp.png


The rules of my gameplay are simple:

- no levelling up - you can see Endurace points on the Party pic above. Almost every LVL9 mob kills my whole party in one hit. LVL4 mob kills one character in 1-2 hits.
- no buying stuff in stores with the exception of Stronghold Unique Items and that one ring that gave me Second Chance
- no crafting
- no potions

My equipment - all found thorough the game (Od Nua, Quests) or bought (Uniques) in Stronghold:

hardest_battle_244s0z.png


And my main char. Note the Experience Points Gained/ Required to Level Up. I can level up 8 levels now :)

hardest_battle_3mes0o.png


This game is so fucking awesome that I am just having great fun with this challenge. I've cleared full 6 levels of Od Nua so far, almost all overworld maps excluding 2 Drakes in Pearlwood Bluffs and killed that bastard Banshee in Heritage Hill's NE house. Almost all side quests done that can be done at this point excluding Bounty Hunts. Also cleared the whole Raedric's Keep except the Raedric King himself!

Still to do:
- kill the Searing Falls Drake Boss (hard as nails)
- continue the Main Quest - Forge Knights attacking Crucible Keep. Now this is, I think, a major difficulty spike that is simply unbeatable at SL1 :(

There were major breakthroughs in my strategies:

a) Second Chance. Lifesaver for Eder and my main.
b) learning that Firing Squad means Death. So I equipped all of my mages with Pistols/ Arquebuses.
c) finding a Ring with Combusting Wounds (a LVL2 Wizard spell) - helped me A TON
d) finding the usefulness of the spell that makes you invisible for 20 seconds - you can block passages this way (could not beat the Sanitarium battle without this)
e) finding the usefulness of Halt Priest spell - to stop motherfuckers in their tracks for 8 seconds etc.
f) finding Adra Beetle Summon figure. It has 10x the health than my main tank Eder, lol.

On SL1 every single ability counts, EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Stuff that you normally don't even think about on SL4 or SL10 on SL1 is gamechanging.

Hardest battles so far:

- Temple of Woedica ending. Had to reload at least 15 times.
- Heritage Hill's Banshee and 4 Justicars encounter
- that fucking Bridge Battle posted above
- 2 Drakes at the same time - manged to kill them only once!

I am pretty sure the game cannot be beaten on SL1 as this is an "Excel RPG" where math rules - not skill like in Souls games - but I just want to see how far can I push it. Last boss would probably kill me by sneezing, heh. Still, I can buy some Exceptional Armors and Weapons to help me. Or Potions. There are options to push this on - that I did not use yet. Or I can snatch that 3 Shades Summon lLmp from the Embassy in First Fires - but I cannot now due to too low Mechanics, heh. Gotta use that one last +3 Mechanics scroll I have - first one used to push Raedrics Quest ahead.
 
S

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Niwa said:
this really sounds like fun, I might check the game finally out
Click to expand...

This sounds like pulling teeth. Once he hits the later parts of the game it's going to get absurd, and if he plans on doing the White March... yea.
 
P

Patryn

Member
People have been doing no level up runs of games long before Dark Souls was a thing.

Final Fantasy 8 and 9 were popular choices.
 
K

KorrZ

Member
I'm super impressed and wish you luck.

Pillars of Eternity isn't really an easy game in general, there were several fights just playing through normally that gave me a hard time. It's not really the same as Dark Souls either, because at least with that game you can entirely control whether or not you take damage.

Best of luck going forward. I'll be very impressed if you make it through some of the later game fights.
 
F

Fahzgoolin

Banned
Dang dude...that's super impressive. I'm 162 hours into the game and haven't finished Act 3...kinda burnt out at the moment.
 
S

StoppedInTracks

Member
Sinatar said:
This sounds like pulling teeth. Once he hits the later parts of the game it's going to get absurd, and if he plans on doing the White March... yea.
Click to expand...

It's maddening sometimes. I went to White March and kinda did ok with the Cave(?) Ogres in the frozen village over there? Pretty killable.

Now Cragholdt Bluffs on the other hand... cannot do shit there as a random Berserker automatically restores himself 25 HP each second... I just cannot counter this!

Game is pure fun and if you ate your teeth on IE games (BG1, 2, ID1, ID2, PS:T) like me especially on ID2 Ironman Mode then this challenge is kinda doable... so far!

Game is great, people who are hesitating should buy it ASAP.
 
S

StoppedInTracks

Member
Cleared the Skaen Temple under Dyrfood. Boss was kind of tricky because he opened the fight with Holy Pillars of Light (?) which killed my party outright a few times.

Now on to Raedric. Gonna waste him, I can feel it :)

I also found a Cloak that gives me Minor Magic Missiles so yay! another item I can use 3 times per rest (or encounter)! And it gives crush damage so it will be helpful against Drakes as bows are kind of worthless against them.

Almost managed to beat The Dweller hunt task yesterday but sucker killed last-woman-standing Sagani when he was Near Death for the longest time ever, bah.

You know the battles are not that bad now as I can summon:

- 1 Adra Beetle
- 3 Wood Beetles
- 3 Skeletons (if Kanas lives for that long)

for 20 seconds.

That gives me much needed fodder and interruption squad that deals with specific enemies. I can also use a +Mechanics scroll - but did not yet - in order to obtain the 3 Shades summon from First Fires. That would give me 7 temporary NPCs each battle - which is a lot.

SL1 run is all about prep, strategy and TONS of micromanagement during battles. I pause/ unpause almost every 2 seconds (manually). I must find a way to stand ground against Forge Knights as they are literally unbeatable with my current setup.
 
G

GeordieMark

Member
I'm surprised this is even possible. I wiped loads of times and I wasn't even playing on hard.

God knows how you will beat the Drake.
 
S

StoppedInTracks

Member
Drake Boss and Raedric Boss both down.

Drake was hard because I was running out of things that can damage him (bows don't really work) - had to use all spells/ rechargable items possible. For instance I have 2 items that cast Sunbeam 3 times per rest so I used those two items 6 times to kill the Xaurips/ Young Drakes behind the boss.

The reward for this fight is incredible. A flail that gives you +fire damage and +attack speed! When I got it, before RMB-on it to identify, I was instantly reminded of my favourite weapon from the Baldur's Gate series: Flail of Ages, remember that? A flail that you upgraded during the span of the game and each "head" gave you +5 elemental damage so in the end it had +5 fire, +5 ice, +5 lightning etc. Best weapon ever.


drake_deadhsl2q.png


Raedric was... simple. When I poured Combusting Wounds + Touch of Rot + Sunbeam on all his lackeys they were in Injured status in an instant.

raedric_deadyhawk.png


Funny, when I google Raedric Boss Fight now it seems people were having problem with him on SL4 even:

tipskilwp.png


It's all about prep time and proper strats...

I also have now enough XP to level up my party to SL9 :)

Fun game. I really missed the IE-type of combat "real-time with pause". It is incredibly strategic. I've finished all 3 Dragon Age games and I was even liking the combat in there but when I came back to IE-type of combat with Pillars I really understood what I was missing since Icewind Dale 2 and what possibilities it offers.

:bow Obsidian :bow2
 
S

StoppedInTracks

Member
Small update:

1) still SL1:

still_level_01fsq4h.png


char_01u4q8e.png


I have almost enough XP to level up to SL11... crazy!

2) I have cleared the majority of Twin Elms quests and its wilderness:

- Blood Sands
- Noonfrost
- The Maw
- Elmshore
- Northwead

3) Finally got a Superb Unique Weapon (Sword). And these are my best Weapons that I have found:

best_weaponsv7r4l.png


4) I was hit with a shitty, annoying bug that makes every weapon that has the +20% Damage restored as Endurance enhancement - this enhancement alone disappears. Now you cannot believe how SHITTY this is in a SL1 run. I had 3 weapons with this ability:
- a Unique Flail (Gaun's Pledge)
- a Unique Sabre (Souldrinker?)
- a Unique Spear that I crafted myself in the LLE A RHEMEN quest

Now as you might check in the OP I am trying a run without Potions/ Crafting. But this time I made an exception because fuck why not? The game cheated me by removing the +20% DMG restored as END from my QUEST SPEAR. So being that as I am only SL1 I have added 2 Enchantments: +25% Corrode Damage, +15% Damage to the Spear. I think that's pretty honest as I "lost" 3 weapons due to a bug.

5) I have obtained the Favour of 3 Gods already: Galawain, Berath, Rymrgrand.

6) Hardest battles encountered in Twin Elms?
- Ice Paladins in general and Ice Paladins Boss. Jeez this fucker was either Mass Confusing my entire party or killing my entire party in one spell. I had to reload a few times only to kill him in one shot by my Death Firing Squad. And those Ice Sorcerers can go fuck themself!
- the Blood Sands Archdruid. Killing him in one shot was necessary but did not make the fight any easier as I had 4 Keepers, 2 Chanters and 2 Elementals on my ass! Plus 3 Supplicants... jeez. It took some tries.

On the other hand the Lion Boss (Sul) in the Maw and High Ovate Boss were pretty easy. Did not even reload once for the Lion boss, weird.

7) Right now the encounters are really hard. It is basically resting after each encounter in order to refresh Adra Beetle and Wood Beetles summon.

8) What is my next plan:

- Od Nua 08 - with Fampyrs. Seems doable as these are the same Undead encounters as on Od Nua 06 with one Fampyr added on top.
- Sky Dragon - yeah gonna be tough as nails... I have to come up with some placement strategy. Luckily he is only 1 enemy (+1 Wurmling) so there are some options on the table even if he hits one of my party member with each hit. Problem is he has insane DR. Like 21 DR for Pierce!!!
- Burial Isle - lots of hard fights but then I killed so many Shades, Spectres and Menpgwras already... anyway it's the Main Quest are I have to go next as I did almost everything else :)
- Cragholdt - I managed to kite & kill almost every one up to the Iron Band boss. The kiting is necessary in this map as these are post-game (DLC) enemies. I was sure they would be dropping Superb Weapons but nooooooo. The Craghold Cave is a no-go. 14 Undead Beasts that kill me in 1 second. This is, for 100%, unbeatable on SL1.

9) What are my options for upgrade?
- I can still use the Scroll of Mechanics and obtain 3 Shades Summon Item in First Fires
- I can break my rule and buy 1 Widowmaker + 2 Widowmaker Spiderlings Summon Item
- I can break my rule and buy 1 Delegman Summon Item
- I can break my rule and buy some Uniques/ Exceptional Armors
- etc.

We will see. I guess after Burial Isle is the temple of Sun in Shadow which is the End Game?

If I manage to at least kill the fucking Sky Dragon then I will be really happy!

Also I am pretty annoyed that the Uniques in this game are... not really Unique. They get the same stats as your normal weapons after you apply some Enhancements of them like: Fine, Superb, +25% Burn Damage etc. The only unique Unique item I have is some shield that reflects back every Graze bow/ crossbow attack. Which is undeniably shitty and will NEVER come handy.
 
Lanrutcon

Lanrutcon

Member
Eh...it's more a test of patience, really. Game rolls its hits and misses. So you can reload until the dice go your way. I also imagine you can abuse the shit out of the items that summon things, since those have their own levels. There are plenty of those that work off daily charges, so are effectively infinite.

That being said, you're a crazy man and I hope you get through it all :) The DLC is going to be impossible.
 
O

One Foul Note

Member
Wow, I am playing in hard at the moment but with leveling and I can say that what you are doing sounds like my living nightmare. The complete best of luck to you.
 
S

StoppedInTracks

Member
Can you guys tell me is Sun in Shadow the end-game?

If yes then I am this close -> <- to the final dungeon then - only Burial Isle between it and me.
 
S

StoppedInTracks

Member
MattKeil said:
Nonsensical. It's like calling every extra life icon a 1up mushroom.
Click to expand...

You don't do that? :O

Lanrutcon said:
Eh...it's more a test of patience, really. Game rolls its hits and misses. So you can reload until the dice go your way. I also imagine you can abuse the shit out of the items that summon things, since those have their own levels. There are plenty of those that work off daily charges, so are effectively infinite.
Click to expand...

StoppedInTracks said:
7) Right now the encounters are really hard. It is basically resting after each encounter in order to refresh Adra Beetle and Wood Beetles summon.
Click to expand...

Basically, yes. No other way around at SL1, sadly. This is not Demon's Souls where you can perfectly time your every roll.

Mind that Summons are automatically de-summoned after 20 secs and that is a very short time for them to be useful. Still I would never arrive to where I am without the Adra Beetle and Wood Beetles summons. They made the impossible possible so far.
 
S

StoppedInTracks

Member
Well I reached the Last Dungeon on SL1. I think that is some small accomplishment, no?

beztytuu4frew.png


I managed to find first TRULY UNIQUE, fantastic weapon inside (25% chance for Destroy or 30 Raw Damage) but then it seems you cannot go back to the surface so I cannot enter it yet... :( Luckily first level are only Shades/ Spectres/ Animats so it's doable - but I cannot rest infinitely there...

Oh and the Sky Dragon is unbeatable at SL1:

- he crits even the Adra Beetle for 110 damage
- he has a AoE physical attack (Tail Swipe) that kills my party in one swing
- he cannot be damaged :( I tested and for 60 hits I registered only 2 against him: 2 grazes from Eder's Crossbow
- immune to Magic Missile
- etc.

I cannot challenge him - I understand this. Luckily he is optional.
 
S

StoppedInTracks

Member
I had to remove one person from my Party and get Hiravias on board in order to finish his questline in the Burial Isle and... he is damn good for a SL1 character?

After 101 hours of playing this game I decided to remove Sagani from my Party and got Hiravias instead.

What I lost:
- Ituumak with his measely 40 HP

What I gained:
- tons of Druid spells including few Foe AoE which are very important
- shapeshifting into Autumn Stelgear when shit gets tough
- AoE Heal (!)

Sagani and Hiravias have pretty much the same stats and wear the same exact equipment.

Had I decided to bring him in earlier he would help me so much in some of the tougher battles, bah.

I really think I will drop Kana as well as Pallegina seems much better (higher END/ HP) and has the Flamesword ability.

---

I did the Ondra's Lighthouse and Hiravias quest yesterday. That means I only have the following left to do:

DOABLE:
- Od Nua 8+
- Undead Raedric King - seems doable
- White March - killed some Ogres and Wolves already

UNDOABLE:
- Sky Dragon
- Cragholdt
- Hunts

Plus the endgame dungeon of course <-- big question mark? The first level seemed doable with Animats/ Shades/ Spectres.

I think I will try White March first. Maybe there will be some crazy loot/ drops in there :)
 
S

StoppedInTracks

Member
Small October update.

I am delaying going into last dungeon as much as possible and so I had two different tracks to follow: Endless Paths of Od Nua and Cragholdt.

Both went much better than excepted!

1) Endless Paths of Od Nua

I managed to clear levels 1 - 13 (clear means kill everything), 13 excluding this blocker of a fight:

z_odnuablockt4z29.png


Why blocker? Because even if I kite the Boss outside and kill him - which is not trivial - the combat scenario doesn't stop [reset]. That means I have on my ass 6 Adra Animats and 2 Banshees and I do not have on me any summons/ spells I used when killing the Boss and I cannot rest. Even if I would kite the hell out of them and kill those Animats one by one the Banshees without summons and full health are suicide. I know because I've killed like 16 of them already.

So there it is... I cannot venture to Od Nua 14 because of this one stupid boss fight. Will see if I can stealth around with Hirvanias after I use a Stealth scroll? I just need to reach the stairs behind them...
---

Level 8 was insane as well with the family of Fampyrs and gazillion of Darguls. And the boss fight... oh my god. That fucker and his 2 Death Guards... and his super annoying Second Chance enchantment.

---

The Blade of Endless Paths

What's funny is that I cannot obtain the Blade due to low Mechanics. I've got 2 pieces on me and know where the other 2 are but I cannot open those secret doors without super high Mechanics. Every once in a while I am levelling up Kana to LVL11 just to see what loot am I missing in chests/ hidden rooms and lo & behold 2 pieces of the Blade are hidden on Od Nua 5 and Od Nua 9. And this Blade seems to be fucking great: Superb and +20% Attack Speed. Eh. Not this time.

2) Cragholdt

Fuck these dudes:

z_deathguard4nac5.png


And fancy that: I am killing LVL14 monsters now:

z_algul95zg0.png


Cragholdt is KITE CENTRAL. Cannot believe how hard those enemies are here but at least you can separate them and kill one by one. Not all of course - there were instances where I had to fight two of them and it was goddamn crazy! And the Ogre... oh my god. He had like 1000 health.

All in all it goes quite well except two parts:

- those two motherfucking monks on the west side which SLICE through my party in 3 seconds without any weapons or armor. And they summon DOUBLES of themselves!!! Incredible!

z_mapnhymd.png


- this cave which is 101% suicide:

z_cragholdtj6as6.png


---

LOOT

Got a couple of great loot since last time I posted here:

z_inventorybdl3a.png


- the Od Nua 8 Fampyr's boss armor which is a 100% upgrade for Eder (cannot wear armor w/o Second Chance)
- a Superb armor from Cragholdt's mercenaries boss
- a Superb dagger received from the Vithraak's quest. Had to kill the evil Vithraak ambush - the one with Trained Crystal Eater - though.

Plus I was incredibly lucky and found a Scroll of Mechanics in one random chest so I immediately bolted to First Fires and got the Shades summon lamp! Shades are awesome because they hit with Freeze and Blind enemies.

---

Undead Raedric is sadly unbeatable. A Death Knight and 4 (or was it 6?) Fampyrs? And you cannot kite nor tunnel them? Yeah... no.

---

What next?

I will do as much Cragholdt as I can and then go straight to White March. I am trying to beat as much of the game as possible and find as best loot as possible before I try to tackle Thaos. Every single item counts, fellas. Every single item.
 
C

clockworkinyou

Banned
Damn OP, I skimmed through your posts since I haven't yet played Pillars (finishing Divinity OS EE currently), and I think you convinced me to jump to Pillars next!
 
S

StoppedInTracks

Member
White March is really awesome. It feels like I went from Baldur's Gate 2 straight to Icewind Dale 2 :) Seems way easier than Cragholdt for some reason???

1) Why hello there, Kangaxx (http://baldursgate.wikia.com/wiki/Kangaxx), err... I mean Concelhaut. Nice Ancient Death Guard bodyguards you have there...

z_concelhaut9wovb.png


Sometimes I wish I levelled up to LVL12 just to kick this motherfuckers ass as it's supposed to be. His 3 lackeys:

- Tanoss
- Sabel
- Pelden

all lie dead by my SL1 hand. Sabel & Pelden were the most difficult even one on one. As for Concelhaut: I am not even trying to kite him yet. Going to do as much of White March as I can before I come back to face him.

2) I've found this strange weapon and finally after 140 hours of playing I understand what Soulbinding is:

z_weaponyhojf.png


It makes my SL1 playthrough even more difficult as it requires Eder to put the final blow on enemies... really annoying but I appreciate the metagame with Soulbound weapons here. Some time ago I posted above that I really miss truly "unique" Unique weapons... well the Soulbind weapon(s)? deliver that in spades. Truly unique plus with a twist that forces you to literally "grind" them.

---

I managed to kill those fucking Monks in Cragholdt by kiting them and separating to 1-on-1 battles - still, even that was a mighty, mighty challenge. Just google "Drunken Orlan Cragholdt". They were near invincible and the moment they casted the Duality spell it was game over for me. I had to kill them BEFORE they triggered this spell (hint: Eder's Knockdown was key here)

The net result is that I gained:

- 1 Widowmaker Spider + 2 Widowmaker Spiderling Summon Figurine
- 3 Shades Summon Figurine

from doing Cragholdt before Thaos/ White March.

It should help with Guardian od Od Nua I think especially since I've also found a 2nd Adra Beetle Summon Figurine but I need to use the Mechanics scroll for that.

Maybe, just maybe, I can reach Thaos and beat him? I have so many potions after all and my SL1 Kana can use Lore 8 scrolls with +2 Lore rest bonus and the Adra Armor which are pretty damn powerful, no?
 
M

mrlion

Member
SL1 Dark Souls 1 is really easy if you know where the best weapons are which can be obtained pretty early. SL1 Dark Souls 3 however, is no pushover due to lack of non-linearity paths, pretty hard to obtain the good SL1 weapons and the bosses are pretty unforgiving if you do not have the proper equipment (Abyss Watchers
e5YuU.gif
)
 
Bl@de

Bl@de

Member
mrlion said:
SL1 Dark Souls 1 is really easy if you know where the best weapons are which can be obtained pretty early. SL1 Dark Souls 3 however, is no pushover due to lack of non-linearity paths, pretty hard to obtain the good SL1 weapons and the bosses are pretty unforgiving if you do not have the proper equipment (Abyss Watchers
e5YuU.gif
)
Click to expand...

See what you caused OP? Confused posters talking about Dark Souls in a Pillars of Eternity thread. It's not soul level. It's level.
 
S

StoppedInTracks

Member
Bl@de said:
See what you caused OP? Confused posters talking about Dark Souls in a Pillars of Eternity thread. It's not soul level. It's level.
Click to expand...

Ummm... okay, I see it. How can one confuse those games (Souls and Pillars) even when I post screens & shit.

If a mod will be so kind to modify the title to LVL1 instead of SL1 I will be grateful as it seems it DOES create confusion even if it is a label only!
 
Z

Zukuu

Banned
Why limit crafting and potions? Seems arbitrary.

Also, the only thing you need in the game is the petrify spell.
 
S

smashballTaz

Member
I've never played any of these classic isometric RPGs, though Pillars is definitely on my radar. I have done multiple SL1 playthroughs of Dark Souls 1 though..
 
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