Overlord II

• On PC, don't play with a Mouse and Keyboard, if you can plug in a X360 controller and use that, your life will be A LOT easier.

• Browns are your meat shields, they have high defense but do poor damage. You almost always want to send them into a fight first.

• Red do high ranged damage, but are physically very weak. Try and keep them shooting, but out of the melee. Most enemies won't fight back when they're on fire.

• Greens have the highest damage output of any minion type, especially if attached to a creature, but are barely any tougher than reds. With lone, large enemies (like Pandas and Eradicators) a good tactic is to put all the rest of the minions somewhere safe, then hide the greens on a flag between you and the enemy. Then run up the enemy and kite him past the greens, who'll repeatedly jump on and attach to the target, killing it very fast. Make sure you kill any bugs/rabbits/parrots first though, otherwise the greens will unstealth to attack them.

• Blues are pretty much useless for combat, they have the same damage output as browns, but very low toughness. In big fights, just put them on a flag nearby and they'll automatically run in and resurrect any minions that die. Generally enemies will never attack blues if there are other minion types around. If you want blues to actually attack something, then lock on to it and send, otherwise they'll just blink through.

• Magic can seem kind of useless at first but used properly can make a big difference in fights. The most powerful spell is the Halo minion boost, which increases damage output and defense, cast it just after your minions are engaged. The halo area of effect attack is also powerful, but it does not affect most formations, the minion missile spell does. Sacrificing a minion gives you a protective shield if you have to fight yourself. Casting the presence spell (lightning) might not kill enemies, but it will slow them down making them easier for your minions to kill.

• Domination alignment makes you better at magic that involves letting go of the spell button early (subduing people, minion missile and minion boost). Destruction alignment makes you better at magic where you keep the button held down (killing people with lightning, minion sacrifice and the halo area of effect spell).

• Formations are weakest at the back and strongest at the front. Best general technique to kill them is: Reds on a flag nearby, sweep in all browns, then sweep in all greens, then cast the halo minion boost spell before wading in yourself.

• If you keep dying while trying to do something, the chances are you're not supposed to be doing it. See if there's another way round to attack your target, or something in the level that can help (like a ballista, explosives or friendly NPC)

• On the spider elevator, you don't have to press all the buttons at once, you can sweep a spider up to difficult to reach buttons and leave him there on a flag. When you go to do the puzzle properly, those buttons will automatically be pressed letting you skip them out with the spider you're sweeping.

• Wolf mounts have a good chance of knockdown, spider mounts will paralyze enemies they attach to and red mounts are mobile flame throwers. Red mounts are probably the most effective for doing the final section of the game.

• To do the Overlord's finishing move on an opponent, you have to lock onto him while he's knocked down before striking.