Divinity: Original Sin II: Difference between revisions

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== General Tips ==
== General Tips ==
* Save often, manually. The game is intended to be difficult, and certain things can instantly kill you and your entire party at once instantly. Do NOT rely on autosaves, as those are infrequent, usually happening either just before entering a point which will have a fight, or at the start of a fight.
* Save often, manually. The game is intended to be difficult, and certain things can instantly kill you and your entire party at once instantly. Do NOT rely on auto-saves, as those are infrequent, usually happening either just before entering a point which will have a fight, or at the start of a fight.
* If you play both co-op and single-player, create different profiles from the main menu to keep them separate, as quicksaves and autosaves made in the same profile will will overwrite themselves regardless of whether you are playing single-player or co-op.
* If you play both co-op and single-player, create different profiles from the main menu to keep them separate, as quicksaves and auto-saves made in the same profile will will overwrite themselves regardless of whether you are playing single-player or co-op.
* Be sure to save before trying something you suspect might be dangerous.
* Be sure to save before trying something you suspect might be dangerous.
* After finishing the first act, you unlock the abilty to respec your character and change their appearance infinite times for free at the mirror.  
* After finishing the first act, you unlock the ability to respec your character and change their appearance infinite times for free at the mirror.  
* After finishing the first act, you get an opportunity to change up your companions once, and if you don't like them, you can switch to hired mercenaries without stories, but they also don't have tags. There are also only a limited number of mercenaries, but you can resurrect them just like PC's.
* After finishing the first act, you get an opportunity to change up your companions once, and if you don't like them, you can switch to hired mercenaries without stories, but they also don't have tags. There are also only a limited number of mercenaries, but you can resurrect them just like PC's.
* Combat is in a round-robin order, players and enemies go one after the other, so Initiative is of highly questionable use. It's only particularly useful to have one character with high initiative, and that's only so they get the first turn in combat. Initiative for other characters does not matter very much. This also makes the Wits attribute mostly only good for spotting things (but this can be boosted by the spell ''Peace of Mind'', and for a slight increase to your Critical Chance, but this is generally of less use than investing into your damage-boosting attribute.
* Combat is in a round-robin order, players and enemies go one after the other, so Initiative is of highly questionable use. It's only particularly useful to have one character with high initiative, and that's only so they get the first turn in combat. Initiative for other characters does not matter very much. This also makes the Wits attribute mostly only good for spotting things (but this can be boosted by the spell ''Peace of Mind''.
* If a conversation is going to result in combat, you can stall it indefinitely by not clicking on (end) and freely reposition your 3 characters not in the conversation to places of tactical advantage. This is kinda cheesy though.
* If a conversation is going to result in combat, you can stall it indefinitely by not clicking on (end) and freely re-position your 3 characters not in the conversation to places of tactical advantage. This is kinda cheesy though.
* Status effects on characters in conversation are paused, so this can be used to pre-buff a character about to engage in conversation you know or suspect will end in combat, then you can buff someone else right before switching to the first to end the conversation.
* Status effects on characters in conversation are paused, so this can be used to pre-buff a character about to engage in conversation you know or suspect will end in combat, then you can buff someone else right before switching to the first to end the conversation.
* You should always engage enemies at your level or lower whenever possible. Enemies one level higher can be beaten, but are much more dangerous. Avoid fighting enemies two levels or more than you are.  
* You should always engage enemies at your level or lower whenever possible. Enemies one level higher can be beaten, but are much more dangerous. Avoid fighting enemies two levels or more than you are.  
* If you keep running into enemies too high a level for you, explore in a different direction until you find level-appropriate enemies.
* If you keep running into enemies too high a level for you, explore in a different direction until you find level-appropriate enemies.
* The game is tough, but you probably shouldn't be dying 2-3 times a fight for every fight. If you find yourself dying so often that you keep running out of resurrection scrolls and money to buy more, consider reloading your saves (which you are making often, right) and re-trying fights until you can do them without dying.
* The game is tough, but you probably shouldn't be dying 2-3 times a fight for every fight. If you find yourself dying so often that you keep running out of resurrection scrolls and money to buy more, consider reloading your saves (which you are making often, right) and re-trying fights until you can do them without dying. This not only saves you grief in the long run, but it helps you learn faster.
* Keeping your gear up to date level to level makes a HUGE difference. You always want an up-to-date weapon.
* Keeping your gear up to date level to level makes a HUGE difference. If you're a physical attacker, you always want an up-to-date weapon.
* The only difference between Tactician and Honor difficulties is that Honor has permadeath and deletes your single save file. It also autosaves when someone in your party dies. It is not recommended to play Honor mode as your first (blind) playthrough, there are lots of ways to get screwed by things you might not have expected, and then there goes your entire playthrough. You have been warned.
* The only difference between Tactician and Honor difficulties is that Honor has permadeath and deletes your single save file. It also auto-saves when someone in your party dies. It is not recommended to play Honor mode as your first (blind) playthrough, there are lots of ways to get screwed by things you might not have expected, and then there goes your entire playthrough. You have been warned.
* You can talk to NPC's to distract them, or turn their view cone for thievery.  
* You can talk to NPC's to distract them, or turn their view cone for thievery.  


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* Certain quests are unable to be completed without the Scholar tag. That is the only tag which has such a restriction. Red Prince, Sebille, and Fane all start with the tag, and having at least one of them in your group will help.
* Certain quests are unable to be completed without the Scholar tag. That is the only tag which has such a restriction. Red Prince, Sebille, and Fane all start with the tag, and having at least one of them in your group will help.
* Do not split your attribute points between two different damage-boosting abilities (Strength, Intelligence, Finesse), you can only deal damage in one way at a time (either physical or magical), and it cuts your damage output making you less effective at both than a specialist.
* Physical-damage parties are considered easier than magic-damage parties, because nearly nothing in the game resists physical damage. Magic is perfectly viable, though.
* Because of the physical and magical armor system, party configuration should be either 4 of the same type of damage, or 2 each of physical and magical damage. A party where 3 people do damage of one type and 1 person does damage of the other type is less effective because a single person won't chew through armor fast enough to be effective.
* Damage to armor is affected by resistances. For example, an enemy with 50 Fire Resistance and 0 Air Resistance will lose more armor when hit by an air-damage spell than a fire-damage spell of the same power.
 
 
== Attributes==
* Do not split your attribute points between two different damage-boosting abilities (Strength, Intelligence, Finesse), you can only deal damage in one way at a time (either physical or magical), and it cuts your damage output making you less effective at both than a specialist. Pick only one to focus on.
* There is a hard cap of 40 on attributes. Since they start out at 10, that means you can only put a maximum of 30 points into any one attribute (or 15 level-ups worth). There is only about enough XP in the game to reach level 21 or 22, so it would take the majority of your points to cap an attribute.
* There is a hard cap of 40 on attributes. Since they start out at 10, that means you can only put a maximum of 30 points into any one attribute (or 15 level-ups worth). There is only about enough XP in the game to reach level 21 or 22, so it would take the majority of your points to cap an attribute.
* Characters start out with 3 Memory slots and gain one free slot every two levels, meaning with no investment into Memory, at level 21, you would have a total of 13 Memory slots. Only one unique item in the game has a boost to Memory, it does not appear on any other item. All regular skills require only one Memory slot. Source skills which require 2 SP to cast require two Memory slots, Source skills which require 3 SP to cast require three Memory slots. Its up to you to decide how you want to balance spending points into Memory with points into Attributes which boost your damage or other things.
* Characters start out with 3 Memory slots and gain one free slot every two levels, meaning with no investment into Memory, at level 21, you would have a total of 13 Memory slots. Only one Unique item in the game has a boost to Memory, it does not appear on any other item.  
* Unless you're going for a very specific maximum criticals build, don't invest in Wits for the purpose of boosting critical chance (and therefore damage), that point is better spent on one of the primary Attributes (STR, INT, FIN) instead, as it always gives +5% damage on every attack).
* Because of skill cooldowns, casters will naturally want more Memory than physical attackers. Regardless, a Memory of more than 20-25 probably means you're not investing enough points into attributes which boost your damage.
* All regular skills require only one Memory slot. Source skills which require 2 SP to cast require two Memory slots, Source skills which require 3 SP to cast require three Memory slots, but those are the most powerful ones.
* Unless you're going for a very specific "maximum criticals" build (where you're trying to boost your critical hit chance as close to 100% as you can), don't invest in Wits for the purpose of boosting critical chance (and therefore damage), that point is better spent on one of the primary Attributes (STR, INT, FIN) instead, as it always gives +5% damage on every attack).




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* Healing from Necromancy's passive bonus and Mosquito Swarm is "neutral" and does not damage Undead or living under the Decaying Touch status effect. Bloodsucker DOES still cause damage like regular healing, though.
* Healing from Necromancy's passive bonus and Mosquito Swarm is "neutral" and does not damage Undead or living under the Decaying Touch status effect. Bloodsucker DOES still cause damage like regular healing, though.
* Avoid Retribution and Perseverance. They need to be maxed out to be of any use, which takes half your total Combat Ability points, crippling you everywhere else. Retribution is particularly crappy because enemies have much higher HP and armor than players, and even dealing 50% of their attack damage back to them isn't very effective. Perseverance is only triggered by a handful of status effects, and doesn't restore enough armor to matter without a crippling amount of points invested.
* Avoid Retribution and Perseverance. They need to be maxed out to be of any use, which takes half your total Combat Ability points, crippling you everywhere else. Retribution is particularly crappy because enemies have much higher HP and armor than players, and even dealing 50% of their attack damage back to them isn't very effective. Perseverance is only triggered by a handful of status effects, and doesn't restore enough armor to matter without a crippling amount of points invested.
* Leadership grants decent bonuses, but it does nothing for the character who takes Leadership, and requires other characters to be crammed into melee range of the leader to get the bonuses. That limits the usefulness, and like the other defense abilities, sucks up a bunch of points which will lower your effectiveness at dealing damage.
* Leadership grants decent bonuses to nearby allies, but it does nothing for the character who takes Leadership, and the 5-meter range requires other characters to be crammed very closely together. That limits the usefulness, and like the other defense abilities, heavy investment in Leadership sucks up a bunch of points which will lower your effectiveness at maximizing damage.




== Civil Abilities ==
== Civil Abilities ==
* Civil Abilities cap at 5 base points, but can be increased over the cap with bonuses from items. You only get a total of 6 Civil ability points throughout an average playthrough, so you can only max out one of them, and its advised to stick with a different one for each party member.
* Civil Abilities cap at 5 base points, but can be increased over the cap with bonuses from items. You only get a total of 6 Civil ability points throughout an average playthrough, so you can only max out one of them, and its advised to stick with a different one for each party member, and max out the chosen ability first.  
* If you plan on having your chosen main character talk to most of the people, it's advised that they take Persuasion as their chosen civil ability.
* If you plan on having your chosen main character talk to most of the people, it's advised that they take Persuasion as their chosen civil ability.
* With the Pet Pal Talent you can talk to animals, and sometimes they have persuasion checks, so Pet Pal is often suggested as a Talent for your Persuasion character, although perhaps not enough to make it mandatory.
* With the Pet Pal Talent you can talk to animals, and sometimes they have persuasion checks, so Pet Pal is often suggested as a Talent for your Persuasion character, although perhaps not enough to make it mandatory.
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