ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Hey hey!

Just started the game, couple of hours in. So far I really love it. I'm having a lvl4 Archer with nothing in particular interesting about his build yet!
anyway. To the questions!
1. what is the point of the save game? I mean the game is perma-death right? Even if you have couple of lives, you still die when they are depleted. So what is the point of saving?
2. Is there anything like a storage chest or something? I have loads of equipment I'd like to save for rainy day. <- probably its only junk
3. Any short handed tips for Archers? Should I use melee weapon as my off-set?
4. How easy/hard it is to fu..up the game by building your char wrong?
5. How long time does it take to finish the game?

ok, thats about it for now.
Hopefully someone can give me some insights

Good hunting!

Jasin wrote:Hey hey!

Just started the game, couple of hours in. So far I really love it. I'm having a lvl4 Archer with nothing in particular interesting about his build yet!
anyway. To the questions!
1. what is the point of the save game? I mean the game is perma-death right? Even if you have couple of lives, you still die when they are depleted. So what is the point of saving?
2. Is there anything like a storage chest or something? I have loads of equipment I'd like to save for rainy day. <- probably its only junk
3. Any short handed tips for Archers? Should I use melee weapon as my off-set?
4. How easy/hard it is to fu..up the game by building your char wrong?
5. How long time does it take to finish the game?

ok, thats about it for now.
Hopefully someone can give me some insights

Good hunting!

Hello and welcome!

1) The main point is that you can save and continue your game at a later date. Also, the game does have its occasional bugs, and having your game crash on, say, level 9 of Dreadfell is really painful if you didn't save in between.

2) Yes, there is a zone that you can use to store your items. It's not early-game though. As long as you don't have that yet, any vault (the areas that ask you if you want to open them) can serve as storage.

3) I don't play archers much, but iirc your arrows should do at least as much damage as melee weapons, especially if you don't invest a lot in Strength and Weapon Mastery. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

4) I think it depends on the race/class. There are very few, if any, combinations that absolutely require investing into certain talents. If you have the basics covered (escape, status effect counter, boss killer, crowd killer) then you can't do much wrong. Of course, that only really applies to the Normal difficulty.

5) It depends on how careful you play. I never really pay attention to how long I need, to be honest. Maybe someone else can tell you.

1. So when you stop playing for the day you can later reload the save and continue your progress until you win or die.

2. Yes but it's in a difficult tier 2 dungeon area and guarded by a difficult boss. On Normal I wouldn't attempt getting it before level 15. On Nightmare difficult I wouldn't go for it before level 20 unless you are really confident. Don't want to say too much and spoil the surprises for you. Most of the items you want to save are probably garbage unless they are unique items or random artifacts. As you get further in the game you'll find things that far surpass what you are getting at your level. By the time you get new characters to the shared stash they'll be ready to use Tier 4 and 5 items.

3. Use another ranged weapon of the type you are specializing in, bows or slings. That way you can switch over and keep shooting if you run out of ammo with your main bow & quiver. Alternately, you may want to equip a weapon that has a special extra ability, like summoning minions or casting a magic shield - acvtivate it then switch back to missile weapon.

4. Very easy! Your first several characters will die long before you realize how badly you - up their skill selection. By about the third run with a class you'll understand which skills are best and how many points to put in them. But experimenting and learning is part of the fun of playing a new game. Don't worry about it.

5. Speed runners have beat the game in several hours. As a new player your first win will probably take about 30+ hours. There is a lot of content in the game and not knowing the most optimal order for it or where to go will slow you down quite a bit.

Welcome to ToME and have fun here!

About your questions:

2. The storage area described by others is divided into two parts - one of them is for current character only, and the other is shared between characters. However, the shared storage is a donator-only feature, and the new character has to reach the storage before having access to it.

3. There is little point in having a melee weapon in an off-set - there are no close-range penalties for ranged attacks. Another weapon (or perhaps a weapon and shield) may be useful if they have an activated talent of some sort, as Coldbringer already mentioned.
As an archer, there are basically two choices - bows vs. slings, and Aim vs. Rapid Shot.
Slings seem to be slightly better at inflicting debuffs to single targets (blind and knockback), while bows are a bit better against multiple targets. Take your pick and stay with it.
Aim stance brings massive accuracy, damage and critrate boost at the cost of firing speed, while Rapid Shot stance is the complete opposite. Which of these to use is mostly a matter of personal preference. If you have a bow or sling with +attack speed, Aim might be preferable. On the other hand, having arrows or bullets with some nice on-hit procs might advocate the use of Rapid Shot - more shots equals more procs.
As for other talents, you want to attack at a distance. Heigthened Senses and Piercing Sight (Cunning / Survival category) deserve at least one talent point, the sooner the better (unless you have a very good light or infravision source). Some way to move away from an enemy is also desirable - Disengage or a Movement infusion are nice options.
You may want to check the Spoilers / Metaclass: Warriors section of this forum for character guides if you want to.

3) Don't melee as an Archer, even when out of ammo. It's better to pass your turn to reload than to attack in melee as an Archer almost every time. The only exception is when your target has like 6hp left and any bit of damage will kill it.

4) On Normal you can do just about anything and it'll work out alright. If you're unsure, look up winners in the character vault, especially on higher difficulties and copy their builds. Don't copy builds from people playing on Exploration mode though since that mode doesn't encourage smart and careful play.

5) Probably 20-30 hours for most people. I'm sure some people can win in under 10 hours but if you're new you should take your time. Also you'll probably die a lot before winning so don't worry about it.

A good strategy if you find yourself running out of ammo in tough fights, is to keep extra quivers of arrows/pouches of shots in your inventory and then take one turn to swap out the empty one for a full one.

Just remember that you have to re-equip the empty one later to reload it