I. Prague
The Silver Mines (Part One):
The game begins in the church here. After a short combat you are asked to save
the mines of the city
from evil. Choose to do so and you can leave the city. At this time roam the
city and locate the barrels
that you're able to attack. If I recall correctly there are a total of 5 in
the city iself. These may drop
some weapons and rags for you. Once you've collected all of these items make
your way to the inn and
pick up the healing potion on the counter. (You should do this as often as possible
while human, it's
free and an easy way to live or make money.) After visiting the four stags head
for the weapon smith
and purchase a buckler (and any other nifty items you may afford).
Once you've finished with the blacksmith you can visit the gypsy for a bit
of lore or you can head to the
mines for a bit of action. When you hit the mines you should be much more capable
than any of the
monsters within. Walk carefully, but you needn't be too cautious. Your goal
is two fold while you're in
the mines: First, loot everything and maximize your profit down there. Second,
treat holy water and
healing ointments like gifts from god. (As they are, I suppose.) If you play
this dungeon correctly you
should burn only one or two ointments and have a full inventory when you leave.
(You may even have to
leave some items behind. I'd recommend leaving the rats first myself.)
Two monsters are of note in the mines, the war ghoul and the vampire at the end.
The war ghoul is the biggest monster in the mines prior to the vampire at
the end. Dealing with the
ghoul is relatively easy. Use the switch to activate the water wheel to lower
the water level. Move
forward until the ghoul aggros, then dart back so that you can fight it on the
land bridge. Move forward
and attack the ghoul, then move back and let his swing miss. Repeat this process
for a while and you'll
beat the ghoul. Admittedly it's not the most heroic tactic, but you're mortal
damn it - you'll live with it.
The head vampire is a relatively easy fight as far as vampires go since she
doesn't use disciplines.
You'll want to fill your quick inventory slots with one holy water and healing
potions. As soon as you
see the vampire throw a holy water at her, run to the other side of the circle
and repeat the process.
Once you're out of holy waters move in for some toe to toe action (if needed)
and finish her off with your
blade. The fight should be fairly easy. When the fight ends you'll see the character
manipulation screen
for the first time. (Unless you choose to access it before now in the church.)
I strongly recommend you
spend all available experience raising your strength to 35, then raising manipulation
score. At such low
levels you have option to learn disciplines and your other stats are of no inherent
importance.
After setting your stats, collect the change below her portrait and head back to Prague.
A Night In Prague (Part Two):
When you return to Prague you'll find out that you're now serving as a night
time guard for the city of
Prague. Leave the church and hit the inn to snag the healing potion (more money),
then head for the
blacksmith. On your way you'll bump into two baddies. Dispose of them quickly,
then head for the
blacksmith. You'll notice that your increased score in manipulation has bettered
your prices with the
merchant. You should be able to upgrade your armor and get a better weapon than
the broadsword (if
you didn't get one in the mines.)
Once you're done with the smith make your way to the gypsy (if needed), then
move toward the church.
Near the south end of town you'll run into three ghouls who would like nothing
more than to paint the
town red with your blood. As soon as the dialogue ends, run quickly to the small
alley on the NW side
of the street and head for the end. This should allow at most two, though generally
just one of the
ghouls to beat on you. Once you finish beating down the ghouls head towards
the scream in the church
and save Anezka from evil once more. (Two ghouls and a lesser floor mite.)
After this scene Christof is sent to be embraced and ends his life as a human.
The Monks (Part Three):
After a bit of animation and furthering of the plot, you're left with Wilhelm
to explore the monastary on
the Western side of town to recover a stolen nod fragment. When you're returned
to the city enter your
haven and choose to rest. If possible raise your blood healing. If not, add
what you can to manipulation.
Once you exit the haven, wander the city snagging rats (you are fairly low on
blood), then make your
way to the gypsy. It's time to sell all those healing potions, you'll never
use one again. On your way to
the gypsy you'll feed on your first person on the bridge. (Too bad you scare
the drunk off, he's never
there again.) After they gypsy it's time to hit the monastary. (Note: I recommend
buying a scroll of
Walk the Abyss.)
One thing should be noted about the monastary - this is the one place to feed
freely in Prague. The
guards will not come while you suck the monks down. This is true for both those
inside the monastary
and those out. So, once you get low make a trip here and bleed a few monks.
You'll feel better and
you'll do it in safety.
Search the top floor for the goods it has, then make your way downstairs.
You'll meet two aggro monks
downstairs. Beat these two impudent fools to dust and pick up the leather on
the floor. (Wilhelm
definately looks good in leather.) Make your way down and proceed through the
monastary.
The monastary is mostly an easy trip. Stay on your toes and don't pull rooms
full of baddies and you
should meet with much success down here. The loot is much better and the exp
is much more liberal.
Zombu, skeletons and robed males and females are your foes. The Zombu's are
by far the weakest,
then the skeletons and the vamps.
Work your way through the dungeon. This dungeon is full of minor puzzles and
only one major foe,
Mercurio. I recommend you use the Walk the Abyss scroll just before entering
Mercurios room. (I
recommend keeping 3 of these on you at all times, they're your best way to save
the game and train
before big combats.) This is a good time to train in blood healing if you can
for Christof, though you
should also remember to raise your manipulation. (Your first goals are 35 str,
100 manipulation, 5
feeding, 5 blood healing.) Wilhelm should train ignore manipulation, prioritizing
blood healing and
feeding. Ensure you have several holy waters (3 to 5) and head back to the monastary.
Pay Mercurio a
visit and bath him in the water. If he's any fight left after you burn through
the divine dousing it should be
a quick melee session. Be sure to keep both characters out of his disease breath
and you should do
fine. (If you use the femur here, which I don't recommend, there are better
weapons, I'd recommend
banking it after this.)
The Golem (Part Four):
After hitting the haven, the smith and the gyspy again you'll head for North
Prague to lay waste to a
golem gone awry. This guy is tough and generates a large number of posts on
the message boards.
Fortunatley, the game saves as you enter the zone. For what it's worth I've
tried blunts and slashers
against him. I've yet to win with blunts and I've bested him 3 times with swords.
(No, I refuse to disclose
how many times I've lost. :P) The best strategy that I can concoct for the golem
is to have both vamps
ready to celerity as soon as you enter the golem area. When his intro is done
playing, celerity both
vamps (use Tab to switch between the two), then run Christof forward and attack.
As soon as the
golem hits one of the vamps, switch to that vamp, run away a bit and heal up.
Be sure to keep both
vamps in celerity, relatively high in health and you should win the fight. It
may take a few goes. This
guy is rough. Arguably the hardest mob in the game in my opinion. You're low
level, don't have fully
functional disciplines and he's got a lot of health. Endure and you will prevail.
After killing the golem take the tablet to the monestary and pick up your
third coterie member, (NAME).
If you've got some cash hit the smith and equip her, then head for the haven
and train.
The Tomb (Part Five):
When you wake you're given the quest to head to speak to the Nosferatu head
in the cemetary. (Note
that while you're speaking to the prince if you choose to be persisitent and
contrary he will punish you
by restoring 10 humanity.) Head there and listen to his request for blood. Head
back to the university,
get the blood and return to the cemetary. Then head down for the tomb.
The tomb is full of rats, nosferatu and more zombie like creatures. All are
relatively easy mobs, though
the latter two have a tendency to go invisible. Of course, you'll find that
you get way too many heighten
senses scrolls, so keeping track of the baddies shouldn't be too hard.
Proceed with mild caution through the dungeon keeping in mind that the NPCs
don't hit too often, but
they hit very hard. The first monster of significance appears on the second
level of the caves. You'll
come to an area where you travel up a ledge and go through a hole in the wall
to a long hall with two
coffins on one and and two vamps and an axe wielder on the other end. The combat
here is tricky.
(Note: This is a good place to use a walk the abyss scroll.) Disband your party
at the end of the ramp,
leaving only Christof (or whomever you choose to pull with) in the coterie.
Then head up the ramp and
inch into the doorway. Your goal here is to pull just one of the guys down the
hall. Once he begins to
move toward you run down the ramp. As you're running active the other two coterie
members, then
horde the enemy once he hits the base of the ramp. If you do this right you'll
sandwich the bad guy,
then demolish him in a matter of seconds. The axe wielder is a mildly difficult
fight using this method.
His ability is to berserk your characters quickly, so keep the heals ready and
be prepared for the worst
case scenario: One of your characters goes berserk and starts sucking on the
other. The axe he drops
is high damage, but low speed and the effect is a pretty big drawback. I really
recommend that you sell
it.
Push down the hall after this and you'll see two halls. One leads to Golden
Lane (allowing you to sell to
the gypsy and pick up vitae if needed), the other leads to a maze / puzzle of
sorts. In the maze, read
the plaques and choose the door with an icon that matches the story slightly.
If you're still having
trouble picking the correct path then trial and error should lead you to the
last level.
This level is a cake walk. After progressing a ways into the tomb you'll come
to an arch that leads to a
room with a counter with two piles of coins and a single tomb. Entering this
room summons Vaclav, a
wraith. I've yet to lose the battle here, it is faily easy, but he hits hard
so be on your toes. Once you
best him, enter the next room and reclaim the requiary and some items. Head
back to the city after
completing this quest for the prince and present him with the requiary.
Tremere Chantry (Part Six):
One enters Ardan's chantry through a shop in Golden Lane. Work your way through
a couple of doors
and you'll find yourself heading down into the world of the mage. These are
by far the hardest non-boss
type monster in the game (casters). Casters can do massive amounts of damage
quickly and alter the
way your characters resond in a situation via spells. (Ex: Berserking your characters
quickly, icing
them to prevent movement or awing them to eliminate the threat.) Treat casters
with great amounts of
care. You can expect to run into Temere casters, hoppers, elementals and wraiths
down in the chantry.
As you travel through the chantry note the glyphs on the floor. As you approach
these something will
spawn. You can get a bloodstone, a hopper, an elemental or a wraith.
On level 3 of the chantry you will find Erik strapped to a pipe about to be
turned into a golem. He
quickly joins your party. This is a good time to either walk the abyss and equip
the brute or toss him
what you've gathered so far.
Proceeding further in the dungeon you eventually come to Ardan. Ardan is one
of the easiest bosses to
beat in my opinion. Celerity up and it should be an easy fight. About the most
annoying thing I've seen
Ardan do is us awe to disable a party member. This can be quite frustrating
right after celeritying and
clawing . :)
After besting Ardan you're off to Vienna in search of Anezka and the slaves.
II. Vienna
Orsi's Dirty Work (Part One):
You arrive in Venice at the grounds of a worn church. This is your haven. Enter
the church, pop the
switch and descend to your home in the snow. Once you've acquianted yourself
it's time to hit the
town. The outer courtyard is host to the weapons shop, the east end of the city
holds the local gyspy,
Orvus, and the green frog inn. Visit the merchants, if needed, then make your
way to the inn. You'll see
a group of vamps here. Talk to them and they invite you to Count Orsi's gathering.
Take the invitation
and make your way to the west side of the city. Enter Orsi's estate and follow
the dialogue. Once you
finish here it's time to head off to slay a man of the church. If you're worried
about your scroll or vitae
supply, this is the time to hit the shops and stock up. The next two areas do
not allow you to use walk
the abyss, so your supplies need to be well stocked.
To enter the church head for the inner ring of the city, make your way to
the inner house door and go
upstairs. At the top of the stairs exit the window and follow the rooftops until
you see the entrance to
Stephasdom. The first two areas of this level present a unique problem - sunlight.
You're venturing in
the day and the blazing day star is aching to turn you to ash. Navigation is
the trickiest part of the
game here as the NPC variety is fairly easy. (Ghouls and rats). I suggest disabling
the group after
killing the first two Lasombra ghouls, then moving each character individually
past the sunlight in the
hall. After that, open the door and single pull the NPCs in the next area to
the hall, regrouping once the
baddie arrives for a hasty treatment of death. (Alternatively, if your feed
is high on a character I'd just
walk in, kill the rats and feed on the ghouls one by one. Time consuming, but
as safe as can be.)
After disposing of five ghouls you'll come to an area that requires you to
dash through quite a long
stretch of sun. Be sure to disband all party members from the coterie (I have
a bad habit of leaving
Christof in, forcing him to run through the light 3 times, hehe.) Move the first
character down to the base
of the clock structure. Use this character and explore the area gathering the
loot. Then use the scroll of
mist to move past the swinging arm. Now move the three others down to the clock
tower. By this time
the first should be in vamp form again. Have that character press the switch
to stop the swinging arm.
Once you're past the base of the clock tower navigate to the large area with
three switches on the wall.
(Do not cross the sunlight to get the rat and two ghouls, you'll get to them
in a bit.) Once you've got all
four coterie members down here you can form the group again and head into the
hall. Clear out the
gathering of ghouls, collect the loot, then move up the stairs and finish off
the rat and ghouls. Once
you've finished disposing of the ghouls, proceed to the switches again and open
the door to go to level
2.
This is a fairly short run packed fairly tightly with ghouls and loot. Have
fun as you make your way
through the area. There are two patches of sunlight in the area you should be
wary of: One is in the loot
cubby hole before the ramp to enter the church, the other is the lit area just
before the door to the
church. Be mindful of your party in these areas and you should have no issues.
Once you've entered the compound the ghoul slaying fest continues, punctuated
only with stops for
loot. You'll eventually come to a gate that won't open. To open the gate use
the five switches that sit
over the fireplace. I believe the order to press the switches changes each time
you enter the level, and
I'm happy to see that. Once you have the gate open, kill the ghoul and move
into the church.
Things change in the church a bit. You have the ghouls, but now you also have
dark hunters to deal
with. The hunters are hard and can take a long time if you're using standard
swords. I recommend you
have a character using celerity and claws. Such a character can quickly cut
through several ghouls and
hunters generally. Make your way to the top of the church and you'll find Luther
Black laying on his
silver cross. After a bit of dialogue you have two options, kill the wimp or
don't kill kim. If you choose to
kill him move up one level to the roof and use celerity to flip the two switches
quickly. (You have 5
seconds to get both.) The sun pours in a cooks the martyr. If you chose to leave
the man to his own
end he curses you and sends the sun in while you stand in the room. Get your
party out of the room
quickly and you'll note you've gained 10 humanity. Heal up and make your way
downstairs.
Escape! (Part Two):
After the interaction with Orsi you'll find yourself in the basement of the
Teutonic base. This is my
favorite segment of the game honestly. I love the death animation on the Teutons
and I really enjoy a
solid hack and slash level. (Though most of the game appeals to this game style,
this level makes not
pretenses. Heavily armored vampires vs. heavily armored humans.) The level contains
three types of
Teutons: Knights, Lord and Captains. Knights being the easiest and Captains
the hardest. A few
Tremere float about, but not enough to present a substantial front in any room.
You'll also have your
first ghoul spiders and the occasional rat.
Stay on your toes and remember that your opponents only real advantage is
numbers. Remove that
from them by carefully entering rooms and you can easily work your way through
this level with minimal
effort and maximum fun.
Two areas present reasonable challenge. The first is the first room you encounter
with a captain in it.
This room also has 2 lords and 3 knights. (Perhaps 4 knights, my memory is a
bit hazy.) Be careful
with your pulling here. A good party can take 4 or 5 Teutons, but if they get
lucky you're toast. The
other area I recommend you be particulary mindful of is the storage area. This
is a group of 5 closely
grouped rooms. If you're not careful with your moves in here you can end up
attracting the attention of
many Teutons very quickly. Move into the rooms carefully and dispatch your foes
quickly and you
should be more than fine.
As you progress through the levels you'll discover an amulet you need to deliver to Orvus in Vienna.
Once you've killed the last captain, looted his exquisite axe and dispatech
of the Tremere upstairs you
can flip the switch and escape the Teuton clutches.
(Note: One of my favorite weapons, the Ainkurn sword, is obtained here.)
The Haus De Hexe (Part Three):
The Haus is a fairly straightforward run. You must travel through each of the
three doors and obtain a
piece to the floor piece near the entrance door. Once you have all three of
those pieces, the door
upstairs opens and allows you to retrieve the journal and battle Etrius. (Note:
After defeating each level
and placing the piece in the floor I recommend you exit and re-enter the Haus,
saving the game.)
I recommend you travel down the left most door first, which takes you to an
area filled with gargoyles
and Tremere. After clearing the area you'll meet Virstania. She's an easy kill
with no special combat
tips. Attack! Get the piece and move on once she's dead.
The second area I recommend you go through is the middle door, which leads
to the laboratory. This
area is filled with Tremere (ranging to Lords) and hoppers. A few areas contain
more than one Lord and
these you should be particularly leary of. Lord are very rough; they're fond
of the lightning damage spell,
fire damage and have a fairly impressive hand to hand attack. When you combat
one dispatch it
quickly. Once you have the floor piece for the entry puzzle move to the next
area, the Library. (Note,
the first time I ever found gold bullion was in the Laboratory. With 96 manipulation
I can sell each bar for
over 1k.)
The library is fiarly straightforward. The three hardest rooms by far are
the three on the bottom level.
Lords abound down here. Base in the large central area and use one party member
to pull the Tremere
one or two at a time. So long as you're careful and attentive things should
go very smoothly for you
(though you will still take quite a bit of damage from the Lords.)
Once you've completed the floor puzzle strip Erik of all his gear, then head
up the stairs to grab the
journal and face Etrius. Etrius is a fairly difficult fight, but one that can
be managed. You must first fight
Erik, though the equipment free version can easily and quickly be dispatched
with celerity and claws.
Once Erik's fight is over immediately charge Etrius. Space out your characters
and be SURE that you
do not group them together. If you group Etrius will rain fire on you and do
MASSIVE damage. If you
keep your characters well spaced he won't cast this spell and the fight is fairly
easy. I recommend that
you send two character after Etrius at the start and leave one to dispose of
the elemental. With claws
and celerity I can usually dispose of the elemental in one to two rounds of
combat. After that with care
and discipline the fight against Etrius can be fairly easy.
Once Etrius is dead hit the city and restock on any items you may be lacking.
You're on your way
back to Prague but won't have access to vendors while you're there. Once you're
finished, head by the
church, save if needed and make your way back to Prague.
III. Prague
Vysehrad Castle (Part One):
Returning to Prague, it's time to end the battle and beseige a castle (WOO!).
Make your way to the
south gate and you'll see the castle. Approach the castle and you'll enter it.
You'll note something
about the guide from here, it gets shorter. That's because your coterie is a
machine of death and
disgrace, so working through the dungeons is much more an exp harvesting foray
than a cautious
plunge into perilous depths.
You'll find Tzimisce, Szlatchta, rats, Premysl Revenants, War ghouls and wolfs
throughout both levels
of the castle. The war ghouls are by far the hardest, but should be easily dispatched.
Sometimes their
attacks will do large amounts of damage though, so be wary of your party's health
while you're in
combat. Aside from that, this is a plunge for the large double doors on the
second floor. Through these
doors lies your first exposure to a Vozhd, a HUGE war ghoul. I recommend walking
the abyss before
opening to doors to ensure the combat goes smoothly, and that you use the exp
points on Wilhem and
Serena (since you don't get the chance again and they should be at their best
for the combat.) (Note:
You should put some good gear in your vault at this time. When you get to London
items from your
vault and Christof's inventory are carried with you. This also means you should
bail on the crappy gear.
I have one specific suggestion - a heart shield. I know it sounds hokey, but
I've not had any other armor
carry through with me and the shield definately helps the near naked Christof
when battling hordes of
stake bearing lab workers and soldiers.)
I've played two types of parties against the Vozhd. In one, my character had
lots of disciplines and
some stats, being somewhat effective in combat and very effective with spells/abilities.
In this coterie I
played Serena and used the fire line of disciplines to nuke the hulking mass
of flesh down while Christof
and Wilhem did their best to keep it busy. In the second coterie type, I had
tremendously high stats for
combat and no damage oriented disciplines. In this group I played Christof,
using my maxed celerity
and feral claws before entering the room, then going crazy on the Vozhd.
The second combat type was much more effective. Later in the game you meet
such a beast (the
Vozhd) twice more. By the late game he was still a minor challenge for the casting
coterie, but was
often killed in one to two rounds with the combat oriented party.
Once you've defeated Vozhd, move through the doors and you'll see Anezka (your
goal, remember?).
Standing at her side is Libussa, the vampire bent on raising Vukodlak. After
a bit of dialogue and
cinematics, you'll enter a long topor. (Note: When you do return to the game
you'll have 10 less
humanity. Apparently the long slumber has put you more in touch with your inner
beasty.)
IV. London
Escape from the society of Leopold (Part One):
The modern era greets you when you are risen from your slumber. Christof, a
bit disenheartened after
the course of events, rises a bitter man from his coffin and enters the new
world. Search the room for
various bits and items and collect them. Equip yourself and head through to
door to make your way
through Leopold's building.
Two types of baddies wait to stop you from entering London, lab workers and
soldiers. Each has
advantages and disadavantages. The lab worker is a holy man, he has the ability
to cast a damage
spell at will and will carry either holy water, a tazer or a stake. The tazer
worker is the weakest. The
others can both be difficult. If you are staked chances are you will die. Generally
I'll attack those with
stakes first. On the other hand, those throwing holy water can do large amounts
of damage, though
they generally do that damage slowly. All lab workers can be drained of their
blood, thankfully, so when
presented a room with soldiers and lab workers one should generally kill the
soldiers, heal up, then
drain the lab worker. In terms of the soldiers, they can carry stakes, guns
or flame throwers. The gun
bearers are there for decorative purposes as near as I can figure. The stake
and incinerator soldiers are
the true threats. I recommend going for those with stakes first, then disposing
of the fire throwing
freaks. (For reference, when you're staked you fall to your knees and can do
nothing for a VERY LONG
time. Being staked sucks. Have I mentioned it SUCKS? It really, really, really,
really sucks.)
After making your way through the facility and the mansion you'll run into
father Leopold. He's a very
easy fight, (most likely due to the fact that you have virtually no equipment
still) though you may want
to take the safe option and return to the previous level before the fight to
get a quick autosave. Once the
fight is finished, return to the first room of the mansion and a door will have
been opened. Move through
the door, kill the remaining NPCs and make your way to the streets of London.
The Streets Of London (Part Two):
Now is a good time to become familiar with London. East London houses the gypsy
and a vitae store
(full of girls to suck down if you're not in the mood to actually pay for the
product.) This vitae bar is also
where you pick up Pink. West London holds your haven (a building near the water),
the weapon/armor
vendor named Otto in a van, the tower of London, the boat docks and the brothel
the Setites call home
(another area full of people to safely feed on.) The brothel holds Lily, another
to add to your coterie.
When shopping for equipment I recommend you avoid guns. They're inaccurate,
do very little damage
and require you to carry massive amounts of ammo. Nothing quite beats the good
ugly stick, even in
the modern day.
Once you have your coterie assembled and feel comfortable with their gear
it's time to move deeper into
the borthel. Enter the building, take a left at the intersection and follow
the hall to it's left. You'll enter a
storage room. On the east wall near the floor is a switch you can press to open
a door. This door leads
to the Setite temple.
The Setite Temple (Part Three):
This is essentially a straightforward hack fest, though you won't be able to
walk they abyss in this
temple. Two types of NPCs wait throughout the temple, vipers and Setites. Setites
are generally weak,
though they have a tendency to awe your party members, causing a bit of disruption
in combat. They'll
carry stakes, guns, incinerators and machetes. You should have some armor by
now, so even the
stake wielders are a relative non-threat. There are a few rooms in the temple
in which 4 or more Setites
can attack you; these are the areas in which you must be on your toes and aware.
If you attract the
attention of a massive baldie horde, then it's time to do as much damage as
quickly as possible. If the
coterie member you're controlling gets awed, quickly switch to another and resume
combat using tab.
Proceed through the dungeon and solve the minor puzzles that lie within. You'll
eventually find Lucretia
(who, I do believe, has a VERY revealing transparent green dress on.) If you
choose to defend Lily as
the dialogue progresses you'll gain 10 humanity points. Eventually, you'll be
forced to combat Lucretia
(my reflection.) Both times I've fought Lucretia I've gone with combat oriented
gameplay, using claws
and celerity with the characters spaced around her. Both times she's fallen
very quickly and easily.
Once you've beat Lucretia, make your way through the temple again and head
for the tower of London
near your haven.
The Tower Of London (Part Four):
The tower of London reminds me much of the Teutonic base, you push your way
from room to room,
beating on a few monsters that possess no threat left to small numbers and only
really gather an
impressive display of force when they horde the coterie. The tower holds ghouls
spiders (both the large
and small variety), vipers, and wraiths.
The biggest threat are the wraiths, and they truly gather force when in groups
of 3 or more. To easily
dispose of the wraiths I recommend you pick your primary combat character and
keep this character in
celerity and feral claws. This coterie member should easily be able to demolish
wraiths while the rest of
the coterie plays cleanup.
Enjoy the large amounts of exp and push your way throught his fairly easy
area. At the top of the tower
you'll find Lucretia's heart and be forced to fight a few annoying vipers. Make
your way from the tower to
return to London.
The Return Ro London (Part Five):
As you exit the tower and make your way to return to the haven area you'll be
attacked by a werewolf.
The werewolf is capable of dealing massive amounts of damage very quickly, though
learning to fight
the werewolf is a good way to learn to fight Vukodlak at the end of the game
(if you're going to melee
him.) Claws and celerity definately help here. The best method I've found (and
it's still shakey, this guy
is MEAN) is to move Christof forward after buffing, then dash back. Have the
coterie attack when he
nears them, then push Christof forward and attack. Use the tab key to quickly
switch to the coterie
member last hit and back off to heal. Your goal at this point is to survive
the attack, nothing more.
Survive long enough and the two people beating on the wolf should eventually
take him down.
Fortunately, if you fail the autosave is but a matter of feet away. :)
The Return To The Setitie Temple (Part Six):
On returning to the temple you're greeted by a Setite at the door and sent down
to Lucretia. After a bit
of bitter dialogue you'll do combat with her once more, though this time she
assumes the form of a
large snake. Treat this combat exactly as you did the last and she should be
of no worry whatsoever.
Once she's dead, you can either drain the heart and lose some humanity or destroy
it. (Note: Choosing
to destroy the heart does not raise your humanity, or it won't raise it from
90.) Either way Christof gains
the discipline of Serpentis. (A GREAT discipline, train theft of vitae to full
as soon as you possible can.)
Boarding The Magdelena (Part Seven):
Board the ship on the docks, fight the two Nosferatu there and you'll begin
you journey to the States.
V. New York
Once you arrive in New York you'll want to talk to the agent on the sidewalk.
After finishing his dialogue
move along the sidewalk. Note the warehouse to your right, then move toward
the Nosferatu up the
street. These 3 are picking on a poor guy named Samuel. Show them what a real
vampire can do, then
take Samuel into the party. (I think I like this guy for one reason - he looks
cool when using the
shrivelled hand.) Once you have Samuel, finish exploring downtown New York.
You'll find the gun shop,
a cab that leads to uptown New York, the entrance to the sewers and a ladder
leading to Dev/Null's
apartment, your new haven.
The spare bedroom has a coffin for you, the save game ankh and a vault. The
computer room houses
Dev/Null, whom you need to speak to. Dev/Null gives you a transponder uplink
to attach to FBI CC line
#204 in the sewers. While a bunch of the standard Dev/Null gibberish, the important
bit of information to
glean is "in the sewers", so it's time to crawl down that manhole
just outside the window of Dev/Null's
apartment.
The Sewers (Part Two):
New York begins a new element to the vampire game, domination. Your coterie
will absolutely crush
anything that steps in their way so long as you don't allow massive hordes of
beasts to beset the
group. Keep claws and celerity on Christof in every dungeon from the sewers
to the cathedral of flesh
and you will be able to press through anything other than the "bosses"
with marginal difficulty at best.
(Note, using claws, celerity, healing to full, then theft of vitaeing a mob
is a great way to keep Christof
full of vitae and buffs at all times. It's even damn addictive.) :)
The sewers are filled with rats, ghoul spiders, Nosferatu, and albino alligators.
The only mildly difficult
creature of those on the list are the gators, and there are only 4 of them,
so don't worry too much until
you see the skiff. For the rest just show them a whirling machine of death and
flying heads and you'll
find the exp and loot pour in quickly.
After moving through the dungeon and solving a few minor puzzles you'll come
to an area with a small
lake and a small skiff to cross the lake. I recommend walking the abyss here
to ensure the combat on
the other side will go smoothly. Then hop on the skiff and watch the cinematic.
You'll meet the gators
on the other side, all four. If you're careful you'll face one at a time, if
you're not you can get all 4 at
once. I would imagine 4 at once is certain death for nearly any party, though
one at a time is faily easy.
The gators are fairly comparable to beefed up war ghouls - they have attacks
that can do massive
damage and quite a bit of health. Don't underestimate the gators ability to
do damage and you should
be fine here.
Moving down the hall past the gators leads you to the Underprince, the head
vamp of the sewer
dwelling Nosferatu. There are two hard elements to the underprince fight, first
he likes to go invisible.
Second, lots of rats get in the way. I suggest quickly stealing all of the princes
vitae with Christof, then
rebuffing if needed and clearing out the rats. (Yes, the rats first.) The prince
will be berserk at this point
and will pop out to suck some blood from your party members. This is when you
attack him. He's not
got a lot of health, so the combat should be a fairly straightforward process
for you.
After the Underprince is dead, move down the halls and you'll find a box that
you can place the
transponder in. After doing so, head back to Dev/Null's using the elevator (which
drops you off in uptown
New York. Here you'll find Barclay south, Orsi's factory, the cathedral of flash,
the gypsy shop, the
Barclay storage room and the cab to downtown NY.)
Giovanni's Warehouse (Part Three):
Once you've finished with Dev/Null enter the warehouse in downtown New York.
Giovanni's crew
consists of Giovanni's (vamps) and wraiths. The wraiths are the hardest here,
though the Giovanni's can
occasionally carry some mean weapons. Push through this in standard late game
fashion (claws,
celerity, theft of vitae, a bit of caution, but lots of daring).
After slaying enough baddies to put the death count from the invasion scene
in Saving Private Ryan to
shame, you'll arrive at Allesandro Giovanni's desk. It's time to strip Pink
of his goods and pawn them off
on others. Approach Giovanni, watch Pink go to work, then pick up the Shrivelled
hand, the ledger on
the desk and equip Wilhelm with Pink's old gear.
Once you're finished, use the elevator and head uptown.
Uptown (Part Four):
It's time to visit the Barclay south. Enter the building, go through the dialogue,
head up the elevator to
Orsi's penthouse and locate the artists palette on the floor. Leave Barclay
south and make your way to
the streets by the gypsy shop. The street heading north holds the door to the
Barclay storage area.
Enter this area and find Alexandra. After her dialogue is over you'll be attacked
by two Ventrue.
Dispose of them easily, grab the painting and make your way to Orsi's factory
on the NW side of
uptown New York. It's time to show that fool that bad business never pays.
Orsi's factory (Part Five):
The factory is on par with the warehouse, though I feel it's easier on the whole.
You'll run into Ventrue,
war ghouls, Tzimisce, and Szlachtas here. So long as you don't let 4 or more
of these get on you
(aside from Szlachtas, it's safe to ignore them), you should be fine at all
times. Your characters are
really coming into their own by now, and your abilities in combat should be
impressing you.
After wading through several levels of the factory you'll arrive at Orsi's
office. He won't attack on sight,
he waits for you to initiate dialogue. Orsi does only one thing that's annoying,
he likes to dread fear
coterie members, removing them from combat. Aside from that, he's a pushover.
A few hits from
anyone and the fight ends rather dramatically.
Having disposed of Orsi, move on to the last remaining area, the Cathedral
of flesh on the West side of
New York.
The Cathedral Of Flesh (Part Six):
Another instance of total party domination. The cathedral is filled with war
ghouls, Tzimisce, Szlachta,
two Vozhds and demonhounds. The only one of these that should give you even
mild difficulty are the
Vozhds. Work your way through the cathedral using claws, celerity and theft
of vitae. The first Vozhd
you'll run into shouldn't present much of a challenge. His company is fairly
weak and the Vozhd himself
should be fairly weak when compared to the coterie.
As you move through the dungeon you'll meet Libussa on level two. She tells
you Vukodlak has risen
and you're too late. (Too bad you can't kill her for such insolence, eh?) Continue
the descent and you'll
find the second Vozhd shortly after. This room is a bit harder as he has four
demon hounds for
company. You should be able to pick off most of the hounds before facing the
Vozhd, and I would
recommend doing so. Once the room is mostly clear head in and show the big brute
that size really
doesn't matter.
After you've finished the second Vozhd, I recommend you walk and save the
game. (Yes, actually
choose to save it.) Around the corner is Vukodlak, and he's really not that
happy to see you.
The most effective combat strategy against Vukodlak is to use prison of ice
repeatedly on him (if you
were fortunate enough to get the discipline, I didn't in my second game.) You
nullify him from being
anything other than a target for your group in donig so and can easily ensure
the only person to die is
Vukodlak himself.
The other strategy involves a lot of patience. Charge forth, do what damage
you can after draining his
vitae, and when left with just one character (hopefully Christof or Wilhem)
keep celerity and claws up
while running forward, tagging Vukodlak for some damage, then running away and
healing. This gets
old fast, but you are doing damage. Eventually, if you get lucky enough, you'll
kill him with melee
damage. (Of course, if you're really lucky you will kill him in the initial
charge and not have to resort to
this, though it's highly unlikely.)
(Note: If you walk the abyss at any point to leave the cathedral and heal
your party, (you can't use
awaken in different areas from the corpse) Vukodlak keeps the damage. This means
you can leave,
heal your party, restock on items and damaging scrolls (black death, athrophy,etc...),
then head down
to dispose of the fiend.)
With a lot of luck and a lot of persistence you'll see the end to the game
and have finished what is on
the whole an entertaining game. Congratulations. :)