Saturday, November 21, 2009

Dragon Age: Journeys Help

Well, here it is. I couldn't include the basics and all that jazz for fear of making it too large. It's already pretty big, and a fully inclusive one would be at least double the size. I hope it's okay for my first Blog Post xD


Dragon Age: Journeys Basic Walkthrough

So, this is my first walkthrough. Pretty impressive, huh? :D

Anyway, this isn't a technical walkthrough, with precise information for every battle and whatnot, if you find someone willing to make that, he'd probably die playing the game. THIS is the basic tactics and plans for playing the game, and beating it on Hard, whilst acquiring all the badges.

Also, a final note, this is what worked for me, and some variation may happen. Don't follow this guide like a Bible, just use it to nudge you in the right general direction.

Anyway, first off, your character. I was a Human Rogue, although I don't think the Race makes a massive difference. You'll want Stealth straight away, and that's all that's important really. I also initially picked Below the Belt, but I used it once or twice to try it, and never again. After this, you want to get Deadly Strike. Then, when you hit Level 4, get the next Stealth Skill. At Level 5, get the one after Deadly Strike, and then, at Level 6, get the one after Below The Belt.

Now, you know what to do with your Rogue (I finished the game at Level 6.), but do you know how to use him? That's what I'm here for :)

Equip him with the strongest melee weapon you can find. And a decent bow for back-up.
Your basic tactic is to pummel them long-range with a bow, until they approach you. After that, step back, use Stealth, step back to them and attack. Hopefully, you'll get a Backstab damage bonus for being Stealthed. That's the whole point of Rogue, you use your skills to get massive buffs. Plus, this is FREE, because you always get discovered after an attack, and don't use it over the duration of the enemy turn, when it subtracts the Stamina.
For Armour, I suppose you could try Heavy, I stuck with Medium, but I don't see why not.

Now, for Ardum. He's the primary mage of your group, and, as such, the main healer. Good fun for him. Equip him with the strongest staff you can find that has decent stat boosts, and items boosting his “Creation Spellpower”, or just general spellpower or Mana.
His aim in the game is basically to keep your team-mates alive by constantly healing. Especially the Rogue.
You'll want this guy to have Revival for the final fights, and I also got the two at the very top. His most valuable asset is his Healing, so don't be afraid to mix it up if you want, as long as you keep Revival.

Alas, Martine was poor, IMHO. She came in useful when you got her, if you used her Passive Skill (Shortcut Key 3, Precision Strikes or something like that) before attacking, but it's not worth the large amount of Stamina really, as it's pretty rubbish.

Now we come to Ryanth, the Bard. You definitely want him in your team towards the end. What he lacks in Attack Power and his feeble amount of Glancing Blows, he makes up for with his skills, or, really, one of them – Pinning Shot. He's an archer at heart, so make sure one of his Weapon Sets is a decent Bow, and fire this away on those bosses when you're taking out their minions. It lowers their movement range drastically for a few turns, allowing you to easily out-run or out-manoeuvre them.

In case you're wondering, the Bard is the guy standing by the Inn in the main part of town, that always says he has no time for Strangers. Once you hit a certain point, he'll become available to talk to and recruit.

So, that's the tactic. You might be wondering about some of the harder battles.

Since I'm so nice, I'll tell you the tactics as well as I can remember them.

The first difficult battle is the 2 Alpha Genlocks. These are especially annoying for 2 reasons.
1 – That stupid rock throw attack they do, which is ridiculously over-powered, and random.
2 – You have to fight the Emissary IMMEDIATELY afterwards.

Once you kill one Alpha Genlock, and get the other down to relatively low health, keep your distance and heal up, ready for the Emissary. Kill him at Range, then proceed to the next fight.

Now, for the Emissary, that foul scum that did so slay your father. Show no mercy, attack constantly with your Rogue's Stealth, heal him up with Ardum, and attack from range/near with Ryanth/Martine.

Once this is done, you have 3 more “difficult” fights. The 3 ogres guarding the Darkspawn Machines. What's that I hear you say? “Urgh?” Actually, they're not that bad. Well, the bottom left and bottom right caves aren't.

The basic tactic is:
1 – Pinning Shot with Ryanth on the Ogre.
2 – Kill his minions with stealth/range.
3 – Stealth ambush him with range from Ryanth, and keep healing your Rogue.
4 – When Ardum needs to refill his Mana, use the skill you got after Deadly Strike to incapacitate the Ogre, whilst Ardum uses his potion.

The top right one, however, is much worse. 2 Alpha Genlocks and an Ogre. You might want to save this one 'till the end.
You have to get quite lucky, I'm afraid.
It's the exact same tactic as the other two, just with stupid interference from those Alpha Genlocks rather than easier enemies. You'll want Ryanth alive until those are gone, even if he dies fighting the Ogre. (meatshields FTW?) Then Stealth Attack the Ogre repeatedly, incapacitate him once so Ardum can cast Revival on Ryanth if you want, and keep up the attack until he goes down. And there you have them, all the badges :)

I hope this helps. If you encounter any problems, please don't hesitate to contact me on here, or, preferably, on Kongregate, via my Profile – “GHEZ119”. Thanks for reading :)

8 comments:

sellyme said...

Noez! A spy be sappin' ma guides!

GHEZ119 said...

Right, guide is up now :)

Anonymous said...

It is extremely interesting for me to read this article. Thank you for it. I like such themes and anything connected to them. I would like to read a bit more on that blog soon.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
GHEZ119 said...

Regarding the second Anonymous comment, I'm keeping it there to show your contradiction and stupidity. One, if he has "no life", how come he isn't the one flaming people on a flash gaming review/guide site. Two, this guide was not written by wiggles96, it was written by me, GHEZ119. And thirdly, anyone who needs to use derogatory obscenities to make a point obviously lacks the intellect or maturity necessary to either deal with it or do something about it, ie, say something to him. If the Admins wish to remove either of our comments, or both, it's their choice, but you're doing much more harm to yourself than wiggles96, in my opinion, and most of those with a brain.

Anonymous said...

This should help, thanks a lot.

One short note: I have played many RPG's and from what I know stealth doesn't work when you are wearing heavy armor. Not since 1999/2000, that is.

I love sneaking and backstabbing anyway, so I'll try the hard mode (I want all the badges after all) as a rogue with your hints in mind.

Sarah said...

Heya - I thought Martine was actually pretty great! If she has 'mighty blow' (for 2-handed weapons) and one of those SRS BZNS Dwarven axes, she can inflict upwards of 70-80 points of damage in a single swing. Which is awesome.

Also shield stuff is cool for her, b/c she can shield allies in a melee fight, and in some modes w/ a shield equipped ppl cannot get flanking bonuses on her.

Pinning shot is good; also great for a group of enemy archers is 'suppressing fire.'

GHEZ119 said...

I wasn't really expecting stealth and whatnot to work with heavy armour, but when I played this ages ago, I think I just wanted him to have a decent movement speed/range/whatever it restricts. xD

And I get that, Sarah, but I'm pretty sure I recall easily hitting near 100 or more with Stealth. It's been a long time since I played, but I definitely remember getting some really high numbers at the time. xD

I suppose that's what's best about games like this though. xD Everyone can try it out for themselves. :P This was just how I got the badges personally, and just in case anyone else wanted what I considered an easy method to use.