Does calm last forever ?

[BlackfeatherTQ]

Looked at the description and didn't find anything related to this so decided to ask it

[Elendil / Redshift]

No, all such spells last for some turns, depending on the strength of the spell.

[Ezdra]

Calm does last as long as mobs don't respawn. You can easily avoid most battles that way. It's a great trick. Also, if you visit an area within 7 days mobs won't respawn there after 7 days.

[BlackfeatherTQ]

I guess my theory was correct after all thank you

[Prickett]

This topic makes me wonder if you could do a perfect pacifist run. If not, what’s the least number of enemies you must kill to complete the Main Mission?

[Ezdra]

Prickett, I tried it. You can't finish the base game until you get at least level 14, which will require hunting. You'll also have to kill the Transport Leader and then town portal. Other than that, you don't need to kill humanoids in the base game as far as I can remember.

Calm works in high-level expansions too, even in the classic version I calmed assassins in Hero of Lukomorye3. It's very hard to calm mages though, but if you cast Calm repeatedly on them, it'll mostly work.

[Prickett]

What stops you from completing the game before level 14?

And good to know that it is still useful later on.

[Ezdra]

Prickett, it's required you reach level 14 to go to the north-eastern island where you finish the Main Mission quest.

What I like doing to avoid getting this quest is starting the game as a seiry or force-quitting the game before closing Bryl's dialogue and then loading auto-saved game.

So I'm thinking about trying a low-level challenge in expansions. I assume it'll require playing many expansions simultaneously. I wouldn't refrain from getting armor from high-level expansions as soon as possible. I won't need any weapon very often. It's a good skill in real life to take only that what you'll need, so it feels right to do try it in the virtual world - I'd take what I can equip and a couple of things to sell and leave the rest on shelves as it might not respawn, rendering playing great expansions like HoLIV later on somewhat difficult (I can't and wouldn't play expansions based on quests from supernatural beings like goddesses and too much interaction with spirits even though you may find truth in them by seeing how long quests end - happily or grimly. Given that last point, don't listen to me and play what you like. If you can do it thoughtfully you're lucky because little can go wrong)

The hardest thing would be is getting to know the quests you can skip and those you can't in guilds. For example, you don't have to kill two pirates in Jalena's bower to help Jalena in HoLIII, but you'll have to fight Natasha Aramova in Jalena's bower to finish the main mission if I remember correctly, or you might be able to skip all three fights perhaps? Boris Badenoff is also completely optional. The best bet would be to do everything possible to solve each quest as soon as you get it. Two difficulties arise - you'll sometimes need to know NPCs you need to talk to to solve that quest beforehand and the stats required to solve it.

Overall, it's not about perfection but about having fun doing moral choices.

P. S. If you have little RAM (e. g. you play on an iPhone 4s) you may experience more crashes since it's data on so many calmed monsters.

[Prickett]

I never knew that about the main mission, I guess I just always got to at least lvl 14 naturally based on the way I play the game.

Good luck on your low level run!

[BlackfeatherTQ]

We need somebody to stream this game on twitch fr

[Prickett]

I stream at twitch.tv/MachineResolve . I might play on stream sometime. I have streamed myself creating my expansions on the editor before. Those may still exist on my channel.

[BlackfeatherTQ]

Nice.İt would be cool for you to stream a the quest Speedrun.

[Prickett]

I might could arrange that. Stay tuned!

[Ezdra]

Try this:
1. Dash to Vastares. Now the trickiest part: go to the magic shop in the center of the city and be ready to reload up to a hundred times to get a wand of Calm. I tried it thrice and got only the wand, but a spellbook might appear there too I think. ALSO buy at leas a scroll of Town Portal.
2. Calm Expert Archers on your way to the Big Wall and dash to Ancestors' Bay - East Shore, ignoring all enemies and avoiding damage. Now cast Town portal. Teleport is faster than enemies' attacks. You're in Mithria already.

Now you can get the best armor there is from high-level expansions. You can take stuff in Lukomorye 4, talk to Kolobok, calm the wolves, train in Shipbuilders' Union Hall and go back to Freymore. I think it's essential as you're still level 1.

Enjoy.

[Ezdra]

This topic makes me wonder if you could do a perfect pacifist run. If not, what’s the least number of enemies you must kill to complete the Main Mission?

Prickett, so I just did the HoLIII almost perfect pacifist run. I put to death only 6 monsters.

List of unavoidable story fights:

1. Fairy Godmother. You'll have to lure her out, put to death, then retreat before her army fireballs itself to its demise.
2. Shocker Croc
3. Shocker Croc
4. Shocker Croc
5. Shocker Croc.
You have to destroy 4 Shocker Crocs around Castle Oborot to enter it. Don't forget that you'll need 96 Stealth to enter it.

Casualties:
1. The first Lost Ghoul in the Tomb of Skulls - fireballed to death by undead eyes and I couldn't heal it. Can be left alive, but it's the hardest calmable monster to leave alive in the game.

Tips:
1. Don't forget to drink fortify personality potions and raise your personality when you get to Lady Snaasa in Tomb of Skulls Crypt.
2. Don't take Cat's quest. Just give her Catnip.
3. Focus on doing only main quests. Read the books in Floating University carefully as they reveal what main quests are. I finished 32 quests and cleared the active quest list. You can solve even more quests while turning down all quests that require fighting.
4. Use mark/one step back/calm/recall to bypass mobs in narrow paths. It worked even in the hardest place in Kozney's Lair - remember that you need to turn left when you arrive there, not right.

It's very fun and addictive, plus it requires more thinking than the usual hack/slash way

[Prickett]

Your tip #4 technique is very interesting. I bet it works well in narrow hallways too. 6 deaths isn’t too bad, all things considered!

I wonder if there is enough XP to be gained from other quests in expansions such that we can reach the level 14 requirement in the main game.

[Ezdra]

Of course there's enough. I got from level 1 to 17 in Lukomorye III. First levels require quite little xp to reach.

[Ezdra]

Ok, HoLIV perfect pacifist run done. Monsters defeated... one. The final boss. If your goal is to just solve all main quests, you may even skip killing that... monster. But if you want the ending, you'll have to fight. You'll need all fortify melee you can get because hp or armor is high on that final battler

You need 7 quests to get to the ending, they are: Find Dr Vlad for Basn2, Cure Madness for Cfsdoc, Find the artifact, Self-playing harp (I bought it from Phredd, Ice witch's castle has too many monsters and little space to lure them out) , Kozney's base, Find Kozney's Death and Find the sword. Get them at the start (self-playing harp one is in the Underwater Kingdom) and it'll be enough. The reward for solving all quests in the guild is nothing big

Now I think I should try finding the cure for Kozney's Mallor. It was a somewhat tiring run, HoL 3 without killing anybody was much more fun - but overall you can see how HoL 4 is a peaceful expansion. Just lots of snowmen, ghostly monsters and witches in a very beautiful snowy land. And the long and hard but thrilling main mission.

I don't recommend a pacifist run in HoL 4.

[Ezdra]

So I tried the pacifist run in the old "classic" version of HoL 4. I hardly managed to get to the very last floor of the very last dungeon, killing only 3 enemies in the process:
2 Kozney's little helpers near the entrance to Kozney'/s Castle. Teleport magic doesn't work there, so no mark/step back/calm/recall on first floor.
1 The Deathless (dragon). No mark/recall on second floor, and no calm whatsoever. That is harsh.

Update: I finished the game, but in the last battle you can spare only 3 mobs. The classic version is much harder, but it's a nice challenge after you have completed the game in HD at least once (if you like hard difficulty in games)

So it's still possible to do pacifist runs in the old version of the game, but it calm is not working as fast as in the HD version - the chances of calming are lower.

And yes, it's totally possible to solve every main quest in HoL4 HD without fighting a thing - resulting in zero deaths. Not bad.