Khaos Bibliotheca

This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong.
====== Frag's Guide to Hall of Pawnsmoor ======

To be written soon.


===== Easy Path =====

It’s not easy at all if you don’t know what path to take first.

This is probably the hardest stage of the entire game. Your lack of equipment and better characters is going to stress you a lot.

Go for the center route first. Why? One reason: Flay. In Hard and Very Hard Difficulty, his poison is extremely dangerous. Not purgeable by Clover N°9; requires a strong dispel like Laila’s Eleison or a Dispel scroll.
Fighting Millia is enough pain in the butt, so please, just avoid taking the center route as second or third run. Take it in your first run. Be careful with Millia’s ult.

In Very Hard difficulty is almost impossible to beat this room without at least one or two Black Tonic, so you’re forced into using them (except if RNGesus blesses you and nobody dies at turn 0). Millia always goes for Petal Burst, which instakills most characters bellow 60-70HP. Snaring Millia or both of them is always appreciated. They don’t have a lot of HP, so there isn’t a lot of risks involved. Focus Millia.

After that, the right route is hard if you let Ningrum hit you, so bring Theo with you and do this: snare Ningrum and any other target, then tear her down immediately. Pray to RNGesus a bit, so Satriyaksa doesn’t crit in your face (near 500 damage on Very Hard, 300ish on Hard. Basically, instakills you in every difficulty except Easy).
Let Terra buff your party’s DEF immediately, and hit Ningrum. Just ignore Satriyaksa until he’s alone on the board.
The left route is by far the easiest, so any strat might work here. No particular recommendation. Just be careful with Clara.

The final room on the first run contains only Terra Erde. She hits hard, and tanks decently. For god’s sake, don’t let the battle last past turn 4 because she’ll channel Gaea Strike, probably instakilling your whole party in one turn. If you’re in the turn 3-4 mark, snare her immediately.

The second run contains Terra Erde and Charon. Try to damage both targets at once (Richter and Terra can do this naturally), but try to take Charon first, since her ult (again, after turn 4) might kill all your party. To avoid both ults, try this:
If Terra is in the top, move to the bottom; if she’s in the bottom, move to the top, If Terra is at the center, stun/snare/freeze her immediately when she starts channeling.
Charon is almost complete luck. Disperse your characters throughout the board; don’t keep them near in a 3x3 radius. Or just snare her.

The third run contains Terra Erde, Charon, and Terra Verde. The same as before, but unexpectedly, Terra Verde hits slightly lower than the other two. Try to snare more than one target at the same time. Or get rid of all three fast. No exact strategy besides hitting multiple targets at the same time, which is not hard at all since enemies tend to stay close to each other.

===== Characters =====

==== Starter Party ====
**Richter:** a defender that can deal a lot of damage to multiple enemies. Has a low-cooldown heal that applies a shield to the targeted ally, and the ability to share all damage/heal among near allies. Building STR and Armor on Richter might be preferable rather than plain damage, but is possible to build him as a main source of damage in Normal difficulty (Hard and Very Hard difficulty might punish you for this).
Whenever you’re struggling with one character being focused or receiving a lot of damage, you might consider sharing damage among all allies, and shield that character to help their survivability. Having Laila Ai self-cast Faith with soul-binded party, heals 60HP to every ally, so it’s also possible to heal your entire party without using items. Just remember to keep your characters close to each other, or else the soul-bind won’t bounce to them.

**Theo:** a striker with overall good damage and very good crowd-control skills, but low base HP and low Armor. His in-built snare is hard to hit sometimes, but not impossible. In certain encounter you might want to cast snare bellow an enemy first, then Fatal Bind that target and the next one to it. The fatal-bound debuff shares any buff/debuff between both targets, but gets dispelled after receiving damage.
His Everlasting Bond is a last resource, or an opportunity skill depending on the situation. Frontal Strike is the skill that you’re probably going to spam all the time, so remember to bring some plain MP equipment (don’t build INT, since he doesn’t benefit at all).

**Aluna:** special ranged unit with an AoE debuff that reduces defense on hit targets. Can also buff allies damage (actually, adding an extra damage separately), force enemies to move with Shatter, and a low-cooldown ultimate that lets Aluna hit slightly harder in area, and also reduces speed (or defense, I don’t remember exactly. I’ll change this part when I look at it again).
Also very fragile. You’re probably only going to let her Strange Jar the enemy party, buff your own party with Magic Touch, and then let her auto-attack. If she dies, depending on the situation, maybe is worth resurrecting her if the fight lasts more than 3 – 4 turns.

**Laila Ai:** best healer in early game. Has a built-in Resurrection, a magic damage amplification debuff on enemies, and a buff/debuff purge skill with very low cooldown. Her Faith is unreliable, but also good enough to actually cast it.
During the early game, you might use Faith when your party is soul-binded via Richter. Very, fragile as well, but with better elemental resistance in comparison to Aluna and Theo.

==== Unlocked casually ====
**Nella:** somewhat good healer. Her Metabolic Boost is good for short battles, her healing skill is also better than Laila’s, and her ultimate Retribution, it’s a decent AoE nuke that also heals near allies for a short MAX HP%. Her best weapon is Almashield. Use it on your most important ally (or Nella herself if she dies a lot). Negates any healing/damage on the affected target, so be careful when the duration ends.
Ultra fragile. Might die at turn 0. Might die when revived. Not desirable to bring with you at all. But hey, if you manage to keep her alive for at least one turn, her Almashield is completely worth it.
Unlocked after healing yourself for a decent amount (iirc, 300 healing in total).

**Terra:** one of the best Defenders in the entire game (probably the best). Has an incredible AoE DEF buff, a built-in self-heal, and a self-cast Damage Reduction buff. She can take a lot of damage (except from her weaknesses) and survive without struggling. She hits hard to the targeted enemy and surrounding enemies as well, and also forces them to move (knockback).
Unlocked after clearing Easy Path once. Change Aluna for Terra whenever you can.

**Clara:** overall very low base HP, but has very decent Damage and Armor. Has a passive that lets her revive with 1HP, which sometimes is a lifesaver. Bring her as a bait in second run for Easy Path. Ningrum is prone to target allies in the back rows.
There is nothing else to say about her. Is just that, a bait for enemies. Bring her if you really need to get past turn 0 in a particular encounter.
Unlocked after beating her in Easy Path left route.

**Charon:** quite niche pick. Relies heavily on her Nilfbladz (which takes up to 4 actions to completely charge), and her skillset is somewhat mediocre. Does a decent amount of damage, but that’s all. Her ult is pretty decent, tho.
Bring her if you want to unlock another character (exact name will be brought later).
Unlocked after beating her in Easy Path second run.



===== Stats =====

This is basically a ripoff from Dota mechanics which are actually mechanics taken from Warcraft III.

STR: gives you more HP.
AGI: gives you armor and speed.
INT: gives you more MP.

Defenders are likely to build more STR, Strikers AGI and Casters INT.

Equip yourself with items that give you stats AND other perks, like damage reduction, more damage, damage block, magic resistance and armor. Is waaaaaaaaaay better to stock up plain numbers (compare +10 armor vs 30 agi to get the same amount of armor) than stats. And honestly, this game kind of handles stat distribution with items very poorly.



===== Artifacts =====

You get them along with achievements. And there are like 3 or 4 useful ones. All of them come with a downside that most of the time is not worth it. You can test them and if it doesn't work, reset the game. Or you can forget about them.


{{tag>project chessmasters_challenge guide}}