Additional tips for the game

A lazy, unfinished list of tips from me, happy reading.
Everyone knows the trick about combining Nails with Boots to avoid slipping on ice. But not everyone knows that in the Fort Joy Harbor, you can collect a ton of Nails and combine them with a Hammer to craft 50+ Lockpicks. Collect every nail you see, and you’ll never have lockpicking issues.

Just combine Fire Essences with Empty Potions Bottles to get potions that instantly cure Muted and Blind. It costs 1 AP, and your mage is back in the fight.

Buy all the Arnica you find and combine it with flasks to get a potion that cures Decay. Yes, it deals about 70 damage to you, but you’ll be able to heal and forget about the decay debuff.

You don’t have to use only your own consumables. If the inventories of other players are open, you can use any item from their bags even during combat.

On the Lady Vengeance, in the Captain’s Cabin where Tarquin stays, there are cabinets along the walls filled with flasks. You can loot 40+ Empty Potions Bottles there, which is enough to last until the end of the game.

How to steal:

F5 (Quicksave) > Have a companion enter Dialogue with the target so they don't get distracted > The Thief enters Sneak and steals > The party flees the area for 5 minutes so the NPC doesn't search them > F5.

Other companions can distract other NPCs with dialogue or even turn them around so they don’t look at the Thief.

Don’t sell items that give Thievery bonuses; swap them onto your character right before the theft.

If you are playing with Gift Bags enabled, you can use the Fort Joy Magic Mirror at Level 4 to respec and pick the All Skilled Up talent and Thievery (or Divine Talents) to rob all the vendors in Fort Joy for Skill Books. You should do this at Level 4 because that’s when additional skill books become available at the traders.

Glass Cannon

Don’t ignore the Glass Cannon talent; it’s very viable if played correctly. It’s enough for the character to have the highest Initiative in the party and be an Undead for the Play Dead skill, or learn Chameleon Cloak from Polymorph.

At the end of their turn in the first round, the "glass" player goes invisible or plays dead. In the second round, they should Delay Turn (the shield icon to the left of the health bar). This way, the player takes two turns in a row: at the end of the second round and the start of the third. You don't necessarily need to move after going invisible; the detection chance is minimal.

Greedy Vessel

By activating the "Divine Talents" Gift Bag, you get access to a seemingly unremarkable talent called Greedy Vessel. It gives a 20% chance to recover Source whenever someone in combat casts a Source skill. In the second half of the game, this talent is absolutely broken (OP). If everyone in the party has it, each companion can recover 3–6 Source points per fight and use 2–3 times more Source skills even without Apotheosis.

Even if only one player has it, you can still recover 1–3 Source in a fight. This allows a Thief, for example, to use Daggers Drawn from Warfare more often for an extra heavy hit.

Best buffs:

The most useful buff skills to keep on you are: Peace of Mind, First Aid, and Armour of Frost.

With these, players can cure the worst crowd-control effects. First Aid cures: Knocked Down, Atrophy, Blind, Muted, and Crippled. Armour of Frost cures: Petrified, Frozen, and Stunned. Peace of Mind cures: Blind, Charmed, Sleeping, Taunted, and Terrified.

It’s better to spend 1 AP and give your teammate a chance to act than to ignore it. These skills are worth it.

There are 48 hidden skills in the game that aren't sold by vendors but can be crafted. There are 24 regular skills and 24 improved Source versions. To craft the Source version, one of the books used in the combination must be a Source Skillbook.

Here are the most useful ones:

Aerotheurge + Huntsman (Source): Evasive Aura (Also obtainable by putting a Source Orb into an Amulet slot).

Hydrosophist + Scoundrel (Regular or Source): Vampiric Hunger (+50% Life Steal).

Hydrosophist + Necromancer (Source): Blood Storm — amazing for a Necromancer.

Pyrokinetic + Necromancer (Regular or Source): Corpse Explosion — a must-have for a Necromancer with Teleportation.

Pyrokinetic + Warfare (Source): Master of Sparks — the core of the "Sparkmaster" battlemage build.

Pyrokinetic + Huntsman (Regular or Source): Throw Explosive Trap / Deploy Mass Traps — huge for Pyro builds.

Mage leveling advice:

You can learn all elements up to Level 2 to get access to most skills, and use gear to reach those requirements for optimization. After that, your task is to level what increases damage for all elements: for every point in Polymorph, you get an Intelligence point. After Polymorph, level Huntsman (for the High Ground bonus). However, it's better to put 2 points into Huntsman early for the Tactical Retreat skill.

Thanks to the Elemental Affinity talent, you can use a discount chain: Water > Earth > Fire.

At the start of the fight, cast Rain on yourself for 1 AP to discount 2–3 Hydrosophist skills. After using them, cast Contamination to turn water into poison, which discounts all Geomancer skills. Then cast Dragon’s Blaze or Ignition to switch to Pyro skills.

If you don't want to pump Memory to 23–28 for a huge skill bar, learn Skin Graft to reset the whole chain.

Don't bother leveling weapon skills; spell damage doesn't scale with weapon damage. You can safely use a Shield or dual-wield any items that increase your Critical Chance. With the Savage Sortilege talent, this will significantly boost your damage.

Archer advice:

Buy all Arrowheads and Arrow Shafts.

Combine an Arrow with an Oil Barrel to get Slowdown Arrows with increased physical damage. Honey Jars should be combined with arrows to get Charming Arrows. Empty jars can be refilled at Beehives infinitely. Beehives are found in Act 2, west of Meistr Siva along the river on the north side.

To maximize damage, level Warfare first, then Ranged (only put 2 in Huntsman for skills).

Use the Flesh Sacrifice (Elf) + Elemental Arrowheads combo for a massive damage boost.

Thief advice:

To maximize damage, level in this order: Scoundrel to 2 (for skills) > Warfare to 10 > Scoundrel to 10.

Dual Wielding is a garbage skill. It’s a mistake to think Wits is useful for a Thief's damage (backstabs are guaranteed crits).

Useful Warfare skills for a Thief: Battle Stomp, Battering Ram, Whirlwind.

Use the Chicken Claw (Polymorph) + Rupture Tendons combo, and add the Opportunist talent for extra effect.

Other tips:

In Arx, on the pier near the Cathedral, an unnamed Elf sells a sword called Truthseeker (+25% Crit and permanent Blindness). However, the mask from the Vulture Set gives Immunity to Blind.

The most useful rune for everyone (except Thieves and Summoners) is the Flame Rune in the weapon for the Crit Chance.