Strategy Guide - Guide for Archangel
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--------------------------- Archangel Game-Guide by Koi --------------------------- ---------- Disclaimer ---------- Hi all, this is my first guide, so please don't go hard on me! Also please don't put this document on any site without asking me first, thanks! -------- Foreword -------- I know exactly, that this game is not the best that was ever made or game of the year or even a good game at all. But if you looked up this guide, it means that â for some, unfathomable reason â you like it as well. For this reason I tried to write this guide in a way, so you can get the most out of your gameplay (e.g. you can Rambo your way through the game with using and upgrading your chosen form only, but whereâs the fun ânâ challange in that :D). Secondly Iâve played the game in normal and this has two reasons: first, you donât get any benefits, form playing on hard (extra Essence, etc.) and the easy game was too easy. Normal is challenging enough to be able to use your other skills, but not too hard to be forced to use only the âformsâ. Thatâs all. Oh, and use a lot of Quick Saves!! ---------------- About this Guide ---------------- As this is my first guide (ever), I'll try to explain how I choose what to put in it and what not to. What you'll find here is o) Skills o) Weapons o) Quests explained. What you won't however, are hidden items/places, maps, or generally what you'd consider a walkthrough. I think the game is pretty linear, so it's difficult to get lost, or get stuck, there aren't any skull-breaking puzzles either, so no need for a walkthrough. If you happen to get lost though, you may email me about it, but please be very specific and try it yourself first. ------ Skills ------ As you make progress, the protagonist, Michael Travinsky, evolves, goes through transformations, which affect his look, but most importantly his skills. With each transformation he gains new skills and a new look. You can add a new level to a skill by gaining enough 'Essence' (basically experience points), which you have to spend manually. Each skill has 3 levels and each level costs more exp. than the previous. You gain Essence by killing evil creatures or completing quests. o) 1st transformation (at the very beginning, by the Lord of Light himself) Here you have 2 choices, either choose the ghost form or the warrior form! The main differences are: - Ghost form: attacks with energy bursts, which deal are-of-effect damage, is almost invisible and very silent (adds with level of skill). The description says, your physical abilities are lower but your spiritual, higher. Actually this does not affect your "normal form" abilities, so you won't get more energy when choosing Ghost form or more health by choosing Warrior. Ghost form is just as (almost) invincible as Warrior, however the Ghost has same movement speed in EVERY direction!! This is a big difference, because you always walk slower backwards, except with this ability! Notice, you cannot float over water or anything, although it might seem like the Ghost is floating, so don't try it :> Also notice that with ghost form you wonât really need invisibility or silent motion. - Warrior form: it's basically a brute. Invincibility and high damage output, nothing special. Actually this one is the more useful form of the two. You also get a set of skills with your first transformation: - Regeneration: you should get this skill as your first! Itâs extremely useful and although points added will only increase the speed not the effectiveness of the life/energy conversion, you SHOULD upgrade! You will spend a LOT of time standing and waiting for your spirit energy to recover, so the faster you use this skill, the faster you energy can start regenerating. It might seem stupid to put points in it just for that, but believe me itâs not! - Holy Protection: the description to this skill is very unspecific. Actually as I've observed it, it works to protect against the following special attacks: - WORKS vs: Poison Vulture, Small Spectres, Fallen Angels (méele & ranged attack), Former Human (poison dagger) - NOT WORK vs: Dark Angels's burst attack, Naakratal's energy-ball, Evil One's lightning projectile, Spectre's poison attack, Keron's self destruct explosion. Which means this is a pretty useless skill to buy, because: fallen angels can only be killed with the Sword of Light, Former Humans can (and will) attack with guns as well and finally thereâs only ONE small spectre in the entire (!) game! This leaves the vulture the only reason to purchase this skill. NOT RECOMMENDED!! - Darkness Vision: this skill illuminates dark areas it can be useful in caves or other dark places. It can't hurt to have this skill, especially because it also highlights living beingsâ aura! You can upgrade it to lvl 3, you wonât loose that much essence and you may be able to use it throughout the entire game (especially if in act II in great spaces, where you wonât be able to tell where enemies are, because of the detailed environment). o) 2nd transformation (after beating Aklesiah in the swamps) - Hypnosis: this skill will paralyze a foe, if: first you turn it on (consumes energy), you hit it with the Sword of Light (also consumes energy) and it only lasts for about a second at level one and only adds +2 seconds with each level. Yet itâs not as bad, as one would think: at level 3 you can use Hypnosis on enemies youâd anyway have to kill with the sword of light (like bosses or Fallen Angels), hit âem till you run dry, then wait till your energy regenerates and repeat. You can also combine this with Spirit regeneration later: you do what I described earlier, then turn on Spirit Regeneration and repeat. Notice that while enemies are in Hypnosis, they can still attack you. (!WARNING! only use this if you have a lot of medpacks or in a serious bossfight) Recommended in Act II & III. - Light Shield: reduces damage by 25% with each level; consumes energy when active. So why not use one of the 'forms' instead? They are invincible! But: it takes time to transform, this only takes a second to activate. Still, you won't get full invincibility, only about 75% damage reduction, which is pretty good, especially if you don't plan to invest into the 'forms'. It will also become mighty good, once you get to New Berlin, where everybody will be shooting at you from afar and you don't want to transform every time you encounter someone. Definitely a must!! o) 3rd transformation - Silent Motion: it reduces the noise you make while running. It is very useful if you want to sneak around and once itâs fully upgraded you can walk up completely to an enemy without being noticed. This makes instant sneak attacks very easy (especially in Act III where you will encounter lots of Dark Archangels and killing them in one blow is⦠priceless :D). It's not as great as Light Shield or regeneration though. - Spirit Regeneration: converts life into energy. You can use it in combination with Hypnosis (see exact method above). Otherwise itâs pretty useless, but Iâd still recommend it to Holy Protection for example. You can wait with it till Act III where it will truly shine in the boss fights or vs enemies you can only kill with the SoL. You also need to consider whether to upgrade or not, because if you donât you can turn it off so it wonât cost you too much HP, but if you want to use it with the Hypnosis-technique it is recommended to upgrade, because you want to do the procedure as fast as you can, so you can continue to fight with Hypnosis. o) last transformation - Invisibility: itâs almost completely useless, although it has some scouting purposes (if you donât play as the ghost). In Act II it is superfluous because of the many narrow spaces you will be fighting in as this skill does not eliminate the sound only your appearance (and enemies will start looking for you if they hear you, so you wonât be able to ambush them like this). Effect wears off if detected (this is actually good, cause you wonât waste energy). Not recommended. ------- Summary ------- Iâve managed to acquire 15â600 Essence points to the end of the game and the amount that comes from completing quests is Act I (1550) + Act II (2500) + act III (1750) = 5800. This is 37% of the Essence you can gather, the remaining 63% comes from defeating enemies. Iâd choose these skills, with these âformâ combinations: Warrior: First you put one point into Regeneration, then max out Darkness Vision, then max Light Shield (so it will be lvl 3 in Act II), here you will need one more into Regeneration, then max Silent Motion, +1 Warrior , +1 Regeneration, +1 Warrior and finally max Spirit regeneration. Iâve found this to be the most optimal and once you reach the really tough bosses in Act III, you can spend in Hypnosis from your remaining Essence. Ghost: +1 Regen, +3 Darkness Vision, +3 Light Shield, +1 Ghost Form, +2 Regen, +3 Hypnosis, +1 Ghost form, +3 Spirit Regen ------- Weapons ------- Old Ages 1.) Sword of Light: this weapon will accompany you throughout the entire game. It uses energy, so you can't just swing it around all the time, it ainât that strong either (about the damage of the short sword), but there are certain boss monsters, you can only kill with this particular sword (gets an upgrade later in Act I, after you take Zealeth's potion to Manalah; you'll get to swing 2 more times, than before) 2.) Knife: standard knife, this has the least damage of all the weapons (4 hits for a Jaws, 'bout 6 for Naakratal). Use it in the beginning but as you get others, don't use it any more. 3.) Short Sword: good at the start, but will become weak later. (2 hits vs Jaws, 4-5 vs Naakratal) 4.) Axe: this is a little better than the short sword, but still takes 4 hits to kill a Naakratal. 5.) Heavy Sword: the strongest méele weapon in the game. Takes 3 hits to kill a Naakratal or a Furred monster. 6.) Bow: slow, but strong ranged weapon, difficult to aim though. It has cold and fire arrows beside the regular ones. It can be useful later in Act I (catacombs for example) to freeze a standing enemy, then hit 'em with a normal arrow. This'll kill most enemies (and you won't be able to use the cold arrows for anything else really). 7.) Crossbow: the description says it's stronger, but actually it's not. It fires in a straight line and it doesn't goas far, as the Bow and it only has one type of ammo. Use it to quickly dispatch Keron's before they explode, or hit Ghost Monks before they come close. 1 hit with crossbow, then 2 with Heavy Sword, this way they just wont be ably to cast their spell. Berlin 2039 1. Sword of Light 2. Knife 3. CUW-9 Pistol: great throughout the entire Act II, especially once you get the silenced version. 4. CUW-9 with silencer: once you get it, donât use the normal one anymore. It might happen that even if you donât see anybody around, once you fire your pistol, they will swarm at you. Itâs great for taking out enemies even if they are crowded, because they canât hear you. 5. pump-action shotgun: your regular shotgun. Slow rate of fire, but greater damage. Avoid use (only if you run out of other ammo) 6. Sniper: use it sparingly. If thereâs a rocket-man or something powerful, take it out first, then handle the rest. 7. GMS-30 rifle: best weapon in Act II. High rate of fire and high damage output, although you can run out of ammo pretty fast, so donât waste it! 8. Liberator Rocket Launcher: itâs great for cleaning out rooms at the end of Act II (especially in combination with Light Shield), but donât waste it on single foes. It also uses heat seeking rounds, but I didnât find use of tehm⦠Forgotten Place 1. Sword of Light 2. Axe 3. Shotgun 4. Pi-U energy concentrator: itâs like a spirit energy - rocket launcher. It uses your spiritual energy as ammo. Very effective but use it sparingly. Does NOT replace the SoL, so donât try to fight bosses with it!! ------ Quests ------ I'll not explain every quest, but only comment on those, that need to be handled otherwise, than one would think (important is, who gives them). Quests are not necessarily done in the order, as they are numbered (I just figured it'd be easier to write 'em down like this :D). Essence reward in brackets. Act I 1.) from: Abbott of the Azure Order (100) Your first quest, given right at the beginning. Youâll get this as you make progress. 2.) from: Dirkon, the Librarian (50) kill 10 evil creatures, the return to him (reward: Bolts). Itâs as easy as it gets. 3.) from: Ivy Rose (300) Find the three stones. Youâll get this as you make progress. 4.) from: Monkâs ghost (50) No matter which path you choose at the crossroads, the Forest or the Village path, youâll come across obelisk-like stones, which if you strike with the SoL, you can free the Monkâs ghost trapped inside (although the one in the forest is more hidden, whereas the other is right in the middle of the road). No matter which one you find first, heâll tell you, that his brother is trapped inside the other, so go free him. (hatâs where you get another quest) 5.) from: Zealeth (250) You find this hermit on the village path at a solitary tower in the wilderness. He tells you to get some Flowers (which of course only grow in the Cave where you canât go yet), so he can make a potion, thatâll strengthen your Sword! Once you are in the Cave of the Seven Signs, you need to look for a place, where there is a ledge, with water underneath it and with teeth-like spikes on it. You need to make a big jump over the water â better save before you try. Here youâll have to make a choice later, whether to do this quest for the upgrade, or do the quest the normal way. This involves going into the Cave of the Seven Signs and breaking the ice, that holds the heart stone. If you find the flowers in the cave and apply the upgrade through Manalah, you donât need to find the seven signs, only the stone. If you couldnât find the flower, youâll need to find the seven signs (both are equally hard to find, now that you know where the flowers are) and melt the ice. The last sign is at the ice. This quest is more lucrative in more ways: you get to swing your sword 7 instead of 5 times (!) and you get 250 instead of 200 Essence for completing the quest that you anyway need to do, to progress in the story. So CHOOSE THIS OPTION!!! Donât choose the normal way, because itâll not only net you more Essence, but also the Sword upgrade. 6.) from: Village Elder (100) Dispose of the leader of the Bat People, this Nâgath. Go to the cave on the other side of the river to do this. 7.) from: Nâgath (100) Nâgath tells you that the Elder is possessed by evil and needs to be put down. 8.) from: a lady in the village (after you defeat the demon that possessed the elder) (200) to get the heart stone you need to place the seven signs into seven altars in the Cave of the Seven Signs. This will melt the ice prison it is held in. ***WARNING*** do NOT do this quest, ecause you will get less Essence than with the Zealeth quest (see above). If you acquire the upgrade, you wonât be able to do it this way anyway (because the last âaltarâ is at the stone and when you enter the chamber youâll automatically break the ice, so putting in the last set of Signs wonât matter anymore). 9.) from: Brother of the Monk (that you freed) (50) Heâll tell you, that there is something hidden in another runestone somewhere nearby. It can be found near the Cave of the Seven Signs entrance. Look around, youâll only get an axe though, but itâs worth for the Essence. 10.) from: Navaya (150) Dispose of Aklesiah. 11.) from: Aklesiah (after you defeat the demon who possesses him) (100) He tells you that Navaya is evil and to dispose of her. 12.) from: Nâgath (50) Visit Manalah (this one, after you defeat the Elder in the village and return to Nâgath with the news, then he sends you off with this quest) Defeating Kreyah: the boss of Act I will spawn ghost monks, until you donât kill those, you canât harm Kreyah. You can hurt them with conventional weapons though, so donât waste energy using the SoL. Once you defeat the ghosts, hit Kreyah with the SoL. He will spawn (now less) ghosts, so just repeat till heâs finished. Act II This act is very linear, so you donât need to âfindâ the quests, they will be given to you at the end of the previous one. I only wrote them down, because I wrote the ones fro Act I as well (:D) and because you can calculate with the Essence/skill purchase. 1. from: hotel clerk (100) 2. form: Arquan (300) the blue moon hotel is on Black Rose Square. You can get there via train. 3. from: monk (250) the Crash Test Dummies bar is also on Black Rose Sqr. 4. form: Anna Polansky (100) the K.E.O.S. Plaza is on K.E.O.S. Plaza :D â itâs like the square, you can get there via train. 5. form: Samuel van Dorn (200) 6. from: Mark Houser (?) 7. from: monk (after you bring him the Phantom Device) (200) 8. form: Ivy Rose (once you killed van Dorn) (100) 9. from: Mark Houser (at Arquanâs Bookstore) (300) 10. from: Jack Oshinava (200) 11. from: Leslie (350) 12. form: Mark Houser (via phone) (400) Act III This Act is even more linear than the previous two. There arenât many quests either, but Iâll include boss fights this time (it might be necessary against some of them). 1. from: Kramath Citizen (300) 2. from: demons in the bar (200) 3. from: returning to the demons (50) 4. from: Garret (500) 5. from: Ivy Rose (700) defeating Phear: first of all, watch out for the turning blades in the room. Hit his shield with shotgun rounds, till it is destroyed. Then heâll use AoE attacks (I didnât manage to find out how to avoid those) just hit him with the SoL and heâll be down in no time (especially if you have found the sword upgrade in Act I). defeating Astaroth: heâll spawn Dark Archangels to aid him. Ignore them, just run around trying to hit him and as you do, immediately dodge his retaliating attacks. Once heâs down, finish his servants and off you go! Defeating the Warrior: this is your spiritual Warriorâs reflection, so if you played with this, youâll be familiar with itâs strengths and weaknesses. If you have Spirit regen and Hypnosis itâs hight time to put it to use! Sneak into the room (not to waste energy turning on Hypnosis too soon), once you see him turn on Hypnosis and charge at him. Once your energy runs dry, quickly turn on Spirit regen then Hypnosis again. Remember that while enemies are in Hypnosis, they can still attack, so keep your distance! Repeat until he dies. Defeating the Ghost: same sh*t here as before. Except that the ghost has an AoE damage!! This will make things worse if you donât have enough medpacks (you need to go sparingly about medpacks in Act III for this single fight, no kidding). Donât be surprised if youâll be using medpacks like crazy. Try to do the same as with Warrior except without Hypnosis (as he can attack you with his ranged attack) because it is just a waste of energy vs the Ghost. Youâll use up a lot of medpacks but donât worry: if you do this, youâre through with the worst part. Defeating the Lord of Darkness: you saw the door behind you in the cutscene? It has a bar on it. Attack that till itâs broken. While you wait for spirit regeneration, just run around and try to kill the two Dark Archangels while avoiding the shots from above you. Donât care if you canât kill them till you get your energy back, just run back to the door and start hitting it, youâll do it with the second ârefillâ. Congrats, youâve beath the game!! :)