Gay-Lussac
Arcane
I'm planning a second playthrough and google has so far not yielded reliable results on two specific points, so I'd appreciate some help:
1 - What backgrounds have access to the sphere?
In particular, I saw two comments from VD dating back to 2014 saying they'd let praetors loot it off of Bass's dead body in the pass instead of automatically going into a vignette, but I'm guessing this idea was dropped for some reason as, after countless reloads, I beat the encounter only to get launched straight into the vignette anyway.
2 - What are the requirements for reaching Al'akkir in order to have access to the machinery necessary for the ritual?
One thread had an answer from one of the developers stating Al'akkir was only accessible to praetors, merchants and the imperial guard. So if I rolled, say, a thief or assassin, there's no way I could reach it? If so, does that mean that thieves and assassin's have access to the sphere but aren't able to get real use out of it?
3 - Bonus question: how on earth do I get to Meru's secret star chamber?
All threads about it just mentioned "playing your cards right" or being on good terms with him. As a praetor, I saved his preacher in Madoraan (got mentioned in the city epilogue of consequences, but never anywhere else) and played along with all of his zealots that I encountered in Ganezzar only to get cockblocked by a random charisma check when I probe him further about his revelations, with no further opportunities to get in his good graces. This got me pretty miffed, because I thougth keeping the helm of destiny would allow me to perfectly live out my character fantasy of being a cultured yet ruthless praetor, being loyal to his lord(s) only to discover and abuse these ancient artifacts in order to ultimately seize power for himself.
Not being able to complete the ascension on this character wasn't that big of a deal, as the bittersweet ending I got maybe was an even better fit for how much of an arrogant prick he was (basically shat himself and kneeled when he was confronted with an actual god - Balzaar - after being led to Al'Akir in the hopes of furthering his goals and then took Agathoth's offer and sort of reached his dreams of power, while in fact becoming a glorified sock puppet). Not being able to use the helm at all was a pretty big letdown, though, specially when the Madoraan epilogue teased me by saying I kept it in order to claim the destiny for myself; very frustrating that I "wasted" probably the only playthrough I'll do where I'd keep the helm and then not being able to use it just for not investing in a single specific stat.
(Loved the game overall by the way, it's been the sole focus of my attention for this entire past week.)
1 - What backgrounds have access to the sphere?
In particular, I saw two comments from VD dating back to 2014 saying they'd let praetors loot it off of Bass's dead body in the pass instead of automatically going into a vignette, but I'm guessing this idea was dropped for some reason as, after countless reloads, I beat the encounter only to get launched straight into the vignette anyway.
2 - What are the requirements for reaching Al'akkir in order to have access to the machinery necessary for the ritual?
One thread had an answer from one of the developers stating Al'akkir was only accessible to praetors, merchants and the imperial guard. So if I rolled, say, a thief or assassin, there's no way I could reach it? If so, does that mean that thieves and assassin's have access to the sphere but aren't able to get real use out of it?
3 - Bonus question: how on earth do I get to Meru's secret star chamber?
All threads about it just mentioned "playing your cards right" or being on good terms with him. As a praetor, I saved his preacher in Madoraan (got mentioned in the city epilogue of consequences, but never anywhere else) and played along with all of his zealots that I encountered in Ganezzar only to get cockblocked by a random charisma check when I probe him further about his revelations, with no further opportunities to get in his good graces. This got me pretty miffed, because I thougth keeping the helm of destiny would allow me to perfectly live out my character fantasy of being a cultured yet ruthless praetor, being loyal to his lord(s) only to discover and abuse these ancient artifacts in order to ultimately seize power for himself.
Not being able to complete the ascension on this character wasn't that big of a deal, as the bittersweet ending I got maybe was an even better fit for how much of an arrogant prick he was (basically shat himself and kneeled when he was confronted with an actual god - Balzaar - after being led to Al'Akir in the hopes of furthering his goals and then took Agathoth's offer and sort of reached his dreams of power, while in fact becoming a glorified sock puppet). Not being able to use the helm at all was a pretty big letdown, though, specially when the Madoraan epilogue teased me by saying I kept it in order to claim the destiny for myself; very frustrating that I "wasted" probably the only playthrough I'll do where I'd keep the helm and then not being able to use it just for not investing in a single specific stat.
(Loved the game overall by the way, it's been the sole focus of my attention for this entire past week.)
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