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Here is my guide to Act 1 up to the end of Fort Joy. This guide is based upon the content available in Early Access. There are a few instances where I explain that killing certain NPCs is fine in EA but not advisable in release due to removing possible quest NPCs.

Disclaimer:

It should be obvious, but there are spoilers in this guide. I do my best not to spoil the overarching story line, but obviously this is going to spoil how to complete quests. I do try to avoid explicitly telling you which choices to make in each situation but I will advise you how to obtain the most XP it is up to you how you want to role-play each dialogue. Also I am morally ambiguous in this run. Chaotic Neutral (Is that a thing?) I suppose.

What this guide is not:

I do not go into specifics on party composition, perfect builds, and min/maxing. I do not explain cheats, exploits, or how to abuse the in game mechanics. If that is what you want there are other guides and videos around, personally it detracts from my “fun” so I don’t do it.

What this guide is:

It is my attempt to show new and experienced players how to obtain the most XP from quests and situations. I also try to give advice on fights, but I do not hold your hand. In fact I don’t show any fights from start to finish. Half of this game’s appeal is its combat system. Some of the most satisfying fights are when you are outnumbered, outclassed, underpowered, and yet using your knowledge of enemies weakness can bring about some amazing victories leaving you wondering how in the hell that even worked.

Some tips before starting and general pieces of wisdom:

"If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole." Same applies to this game... you can usually talk your way out of most fights. *with a high enough persuasion.


I try to focus each member of my party on a particular civil skill. My main character will usually focus on persuasion. It is beneficial for the character that focuses on persuasion to have pet pal. It is not necessary though. Then barter usually to a human because of their innate +1 barter, thievery to my rogue, and the fourth can fill any gaps. I recently was told, and I verified, that lucky charm at 5 now allows for epic drops from crates, barrels, boxes, chests. I am still not sure how useful this is going to be long term. But it does give you the warm fuzzies when it procs and you see epic gear.

Every merchant refreshes their gear every 2 hours and when you level. It is imperative that you keep your gear especially weapons within 1-2 levels of your character’s level. There are some steep jumps in difficulty start at level 4. I highly recommend you do not kill any merchants. You are removing a valuable asset when you do.

My typical group always has a mage, and a rogue. I rotate the other two roles between ranger, mage, and warrior depending on how I want to play. In explorer and classic there really isn’t a whole lot of punishment if your group comp isn’t perfectly synergized, and each class except for summoner can solo Act 1. At higher difficulties I imagine careful consideration will be given to composition.

Learn effective combos between each characters skill set, and how to set up big damaging combos between the group. Pay attention to the saving throws text on each skill. It will tell you if those extra effects will land based on if an enemy has magic or physical armor in place.

With that said here is my guide I hope it helps:

If you have any tips, or questions please feel free to list them below.

The Boat

Shipwrecked to the end of Fort Joy

If you enjoyed those guides you can check out a few other guides I made below:

Act 1 Dig Sites

Exploration XP

I am in the process of making a guide on killing Dallis at level 2, and how to remove all party members’ collars by level 2 if the community is interested.

Joined: Aug 2017
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stranger
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Joined: Aug 2017
This is really great. I enjoyed the "Some tips before starting and general pieces of wisdom" section the most. Keep it coming!

Joined: Sep 2017
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stranger
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Joined: Sep 2017
Fantastic!

Thank you for all your hard work with this. It's much appreciate!

And YES any other guide you wish to do would be wonderful! And yup... a collar guide. Definitely!

Thanks again!

Joined: Dec 2017
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stranger
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Just wanted to bump this guide since it is so awesome for a new person to get the hang of the game. I recommend your first and second play through's to use no guide but do as you please of course.


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