Exile 3: Early Game Walkthrough

Early game

Level up near fort emergence, getting strength at every level for most chars, but making sure to get 15 mage lore sometime before or around level 5. get the magic buckler and major blessing. towards level 5, retrieve statue from goblin hideout. don't bother with bandit hideout. around day 7, head out onto the surface.

Engage slimes and bandits, make sure to clear out the unicorn cave for both XP and horns. Around level 7 on your fighters, maybe level 8, head to agate tower and clear it out. etc etc.

Agate Tower

Suggested melee fighter levels, 6 to 10. Suggested time frame, between 8 and 20 days. basic strategy: bless/haste warriors, hide mages, send warriors through. Only real threats are the very few apprentice mages or jordan himself. For jordan, bless/haste two fighters and beeline towards him, using your hidden casters to heal them and ignore any summons he creates until he is dead. don't forget to loot the steel halberd in the storage area.

build up a bit more, concentrating on getting your mages to 3 INT each . very helpful to engage weaker enemies, then using your melee warriors to block ala "Parry" maneuver, sleep cloud the enemies, then let your mages beat them to death with their bare hands/knives.

once casters have 3 int and are around level 5 each, fully outfit everyone with armor. mages should have at least vannatai robes or leather armor, and leather helm, leather gloves and boots, giving them at least 5 armor. give 1 caster the magic buckler, giving them 11 armor. make sure your melee fighters have at least 10 armor. priests can wear heavier armors too, so keep that in mind. etc etc.

The Slime Pit

On your way to the slime pit, stop at Colchis. There is nothing particularly dangerous here, just more annoying slimes. Make SURE to visit here before day 20. If you do not, you will not be able to speak to the Ghost in the hidden room in the southeast corner of the map and therefore not get the two very nifty artifacts. The artifacts inside are a magic Necklace and a Helm of Alertness. The Necklace reduces the damage the wearer takes from Acid, which is useful when fighting Acid Slugs and other acid-spraying creatures. Since acid does damage every round and can stack very easily, it's a good artifact to hang on to. The second artifact is even more useful. The Helm of Alertness helps protect you from falling asleep, but since all your characters should have the Alertness perk anyway, that's not important. What is important is that it has a defense of 5 and an encumberance of 0. This makes it perfect to stick on your mages, giving them defense equal to an Iron Greathelm while still being able to cast spells.

Main floor of the slime pit

Several steps into the slime cave you are ambushed by 2 mauves and several lesser slimes. Make sure to take out the mauves quickly.
Near x20, y28 is a small pack of Poison Fungis. They look just like the deadly Shamblers but are far weaker. They are hiding a rock which turns out to be a diamond. Good change for that.
There are 5 button positions in the center room to open each door. It doesn't matter what order you do them in.
The 1st button opens the door at x2, y61. Inside is a very long hallway that is populated with many Mauve slimes. Trying to move your whole party up will just be an annoyance and might get your casters killed. Instead, bless and haste your melee fighters and send them blitzing up the hallway, re-hasting as needed. There is a false wall to the east of x6, y14 that leads to the slime pool.
The 2nd button opens the door at x6, y55. In this section you must use a boat to go across an underground lake. There are several islands with packs of slimes on them. Getting past the Mauve slime island can be difficult. Do not try to pass without killing them first, as they will toss Flame Clouds and whatnot at you, and when in the canoe it will damage your entire party. A single flame cloud is ignorable, but three of them stacking up per round when you cannot defend yourself can spell trouble. The easiest way to kill them is to kill the Amber slimes on their island, land on it then hurl fireballs towards the mauves, which will be offscreen. On the other side of the lake near the slime pit is a slime zombie.
The 3rd button opens the door at x31, y53. It is a very short jaunt to the slime pool, though upon reaching it you will be accosted by a horde of slime zombies. You can flee them if you wish, but they really aren't that tough if you are following the level reccomendations for the guide. Plus, you can bottleneck them at the hallway next to the slime pool so your fighters can just mow them down one by one.
there is a secret passage to the west at x26, y46. Inside is yet another false wall southwest of x15, y51. Navigating through these false walls puts you next to a fountain that will heal you. You can only use this fountain 3 times, afterwhich it will harm you.
At x55, t57 is the entrance to a ruin inside the slime pit. Even with 20 strength you will have a hard time bashing the door open, so use the Unlock spell on it. At 3 intelligence, it may take a while. Inside is a chest with a scroll (lei umina) and another locked door. Do yourself a favor and after unlocking but before opening it, toss a Major Blessing on your party and step in while in combat mode. A Wight will appear, and at low levels the fight can get out of hand. But with 2 blessed/hasted warriors it should die within a single round. In the room will be a wand (lei) and a Tome. If you have enough mage lore (which following the guide you should at 20 mage lore), you'll get the spells Wall of Force and Flame Arrows. The latter is fairly worthless but the former has some very interesting applications.
There is a false wall to the west of x39, y62. This leads to a slime-free labratory area. There is a door beyond a force barrier north of it. Inside is a Null Bug. If you bless/haste a fighter before heading in, and maybe send a caster in behind them to help out, you can kill it in a single round. Don't make the mistake of getting your entire party in there. If you step in without being in combat, the null Bug will see you and bring up its anti-magic field. The poison it emits is pretty nasty for your level, so it can easily kill a frail caster. The treasures inside are well worth it: Iron Greathelm, a Steel Rapier, 2 sapphires and a Brew of Ironskin (Aera)
x8, y10 marks the Caverns of Muck. Inside here are some creatures that can prove to be very lethal if you go in unprepared. Inside are Spore Beasts, slightly tougher than a Poison Fungi, and an Acid Slug. The Acid Slug is the real danger here. Every round it can spray someone with acid, and the acid can do an incredible amount of damage. The necklace you picked up in Colchis will help protect you from this, so give it to one of your fighters that will be attacking it.
In the cavern filled with bodies, stepping on or searching certain bodies will disease you. The body south of x56, y7, south of x54, y9 and south of x58, y12 will all disease your entire party. Most of the effects are ignorable, but if you get diseased it is important to Cure Disease them as fast as possible. This is because one of the more common effects of Disease is Dumbfound, which is permanent until cured. At this point you do not have the capacity to cure it, and it will cripple your casters.
The 4th button opens the door at x50, y23. This is without a doubt the most annoying of the five pools to reach. Here you have several scattered monsters, including a lot of mauve slimes, separated from you by chasms that you must walk around. The slimes can cast at you with impunity while you are slowly making your way around. You could use magic to kill them from afar or missle weapons if you have them. I would choose to save the mana and instead haste my fighters and make them rush across. There is an empire archer you can free here that supposedly will go on a rampage and kill the slimes, but after waiting for 120 moves he was still in the same spot for me.
The 5th button opens the door at . Inside here, but before the portcullis, is a rune guarded by a bunch of slimes and zombies. You can step on the rune to recharge your mana. As with the healing fountain, though, you can only use it a few times before it begins harming you instead. Aside from that, this is the easiest and shortest of the 5 pools to reach. Once you go through the door, you're there. That's all.
There is a false stalagmite at x46 and y12 and a false wall south of that. Inside is a large number of bodies of empire soliders. It has quite a bit of loot in it, including a Strong Energy Potion (awesome) on the floor and on the bodies: Leather Armor, Bronze Broadsword, Bronze Chainmail, Leather Armor, Bronze Rapier (all on Sasoal), Leather Armor Brozne Bardiche Iron Studded Armor (Lei) and Cursed Greatsword (oh boy!) (Bane).

After destroying all 5 slime pools, you can bypass the barrier at the end of any of the slime rooms and go into the chamber where the Alien Slime awaits. The battle will be with the toughest creature you've attacked so far, but overall it is very straight forward and very easy. Bless/haste both your melee fighters or (even better) Major Blessing your party before entering the room. Then rush in and begin attacking the creature. Have your priests toss down a curse or a stumble, and have your mages throw a web or slow at the creature, then follow it up with flame clouds or a Wall of Force for extra damage. Following this procedure, it should die fairly quickly, within 2 to 3 rounds.

After killing the slime creature, go into the hidden section in the north of its lair to find Runes, which you can report to Anaximander to continue the quest (You present the evidence to Berra). You actually don't have to do this.

During this walkthrough HC run, I exited the Slime Pit on Day 14, with both my melee fighters being level 11, my priests level 5 and my mages level 7

Upon returning to Fort Emergence, talk to Anaximander, collect your reward from Levy and show your evidence to Berra. Your reward is extremely useful: A strong skill potion. This will give 8 skill points to any character who drinks it - That's more than a level and a half for free. Give it to whomever you want, though I usually give it to one of my mages and use it to give them a level in priest and another point of strength. After showing your evidence to Berra then talking to Anaximander again, he'll tell you to go talk to Erika. So, head down to Upper Exile. Try to have a good chunk of change, 3000 or so, to buy some beautiful spells from Erika and Soul Trap / Simulucrum from the Vanhatai's if you didn't already. While speaking to Erika, she'll offer to grant a boon on you. It changes the outcome of the game towards the end. Just get the boon. If you can afford it, buy Kill for one of your mages. I couldn't afford it because I was broke as fuck by that point.

First head to the Portal Fortress and talk to Solberg. He'll give you Ice Bolt and Venom Arrows. These spells really aren't that useful, but they are free, so whatever.

Shayder Isle and the Roach Plague

stone circles: x101, y295

at the cost of diseasing your entire party, you get a BROADSWORD(lei) at x27, y302 x67, y308 - happy talking spiders cave x76, y311 - you get a WAND (lei) east of here and attacked by a group of spiders for your trespass. x103, y283 - pack of roaches here x105, x281 - hidden in a forest is a mages hut. he'll sell you powerful scrolls. too bad scrolls are nigh-on worthless except for selling.

x99, y274 - option side dungeon. at first you can just circle the area and slaughter some weaker undead. After you clear out the first wave and push all the buttons to let you exit, you can head right on back down and slaughter more undead.

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