Voidspire Tactics: Blood Quarter Optional Puzzles

I have been playing Voidspire Tactics by Sean Hayden. I got stuck in the optional area of Blood Quarter. Blood Quarter is the place with undead lurking in the darkness. If you cannot beat the undead outside, the optional area is going to be too difficult for you. The optional area is to the right of the first part of Blood Quarter, starting with a corridor that fills with poison gas. I could not find any walkthrough that covered that area. Once I figured the puzzles out, I decided to post what I did here.

Note:
It was very satisfying to figure out the solutions to the puzzles on my own. They are not very difficult. Having said that, I highly recommend that you try to solve the puzzles yourself. Read the hints/solutions below only if, after a few days, you still have not figured out the solution(s).

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Still here?

Okay, here goes!

Here is the entrance to the optional area:

The start of the optional area.

I placed an undead corpse at the entrance, right where a door will shut. In the event I accidentally trigger the trap, the corpse will block the door, allowing me to escape.

The trap is triggered by a Pressure Plate on the floor in the middle of the corridor. The Pressure Plate is plain compared to the other tiles. Hovering the cursor over the Pressure Plate will reveal its label.

I used Dash to run past the Pressure Plate. I used it a few times so my party members will also jump forward. Otherwise, someone might stroll forward and trigger the trap. I think other abilities that allow rapid movement may also be used here.

Dash through the Pressure Plate.

At the end of the corridor, I placed another corpse to block the other door.

A precaution in case the trap is triggered.

The next puzzle is to unlock a Stone Door later in the next room. The door can be opened by pushing the buttons in the previous room in the correct order. I tried each possible combination in order and eventually opened the door.

Push the buttons in the right order to unlock a Stone Door later.

Later, I figured out the meaning of the Scribbled Note left in the room. The other clue were the four objects in the room that could not be moved. The note obviously referred to the book Necromancy Revealed.

In the book, there are several words that started with capital letters. Four of those words correspond to the four unmovable objects in the room. Pushing buttons in the same relative position to those objects in the order they are mentioned in the book will open the door. I think.

If you need the book Necromancy Revealed, there is one at the end of this optional area. If you cannot wait that long, buy Morin's copy. You know Morin, I assume. He is the scavenger who sells stuff early in the game.

The next puzzle is a Bone Wall before the Stone Door mentioned above. The wall is easily destroyed with Ruin Touch. Dispel also works.

The Bone Wall is not much of a puzzle.

The Strong Barrier after the Bone Wall is a tougher challenge. This is where a Bomb is handy. I have found few Bombs in this game so I hope you have saved one. A merchant somewhere may also have one in stock.

Strong Barrier may be destroyed with a Bomb.

The puzzles in the second area are much simpler compared to the first. You may want to stop reading this and figure it out yourself.

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Still here?

Okay.

In the second area, the bridge on the left may be triggered by any lightning attack. I used the Scholar's Bolt ability.

Bolt may be used to trigger the bridge.

The bridge on the right is a little more difficult. It requires the Gatekeeper's Passive Gate Hand to pull the lever from a distance. The lever can also be shot with a ranged weapon. After this bridge is a locked Stone Door. If you cannot figure out how to open this Stone Door, you have no business in this optional area!

Gate Hand is required to pull a lever at a distance.

Do I have to tell you to use a Lockpick?

That is the end of the puzzles. The rest is combat. You may stop reading now.

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Still here?

I shall not give a walkthrough on what to do since everyone develops their characters in their own way. I shall just give some details on what I did.

After the puzzles is a tough fight against five strong undead. Two of them even have thrown weapons. Undead are very vulnerable to Bonemeld. Thus my strategy was to survive long enough for my Unmaker to use Bonemeld on all the undead. I increased my Unmaker's Ruin Skill as high as possible through class, Necromancy Passive and equipment. I set a Guardian to protect her and a Sage to provide healing and replenish MP. And I had an extra character.

Undead are vulnerable to Bonemeld.

The strategy failed miserably. I only managed to defeat one undead while they knocked out most of my party. The extra character had to carry the day.

The extra character used Hide and speed to keep attacking the undead from a distance. At the same time, the extra moved the body of the Unmaker to a safer location. After defeating enough undead that the rest were far enough, the extra revived the Unmaker. While the Unmaker pwns an isolated undead, the extra got the rest of the party together to win the fight against the remaining opponents.

After the fight is the third and final area where the second and final fights are. The second fight of this optional area is against a lot of fast undead. It is possible to avoid fighting the undead if you can avoid looking at any of them in the eyes. However, it is much more convenient to fight since this fight is way easier than the first. In addition, the fight is worth a lot of XP.

My Unmaker could one-shot an undead with Bonemeld. And since the fight was on bones, Bonemeld had the added effect of creating walls to block the approach of the undead. I used Bonemeld on the nearest undead to start the combat. I had to do it twice to get their attention.

The second fight against a lot of fast undead was easier.

The final fight is against Volkyre and another five of the tough undead. This fight is easier than the first fight since the undead cannot come all at once.

Volkyre is annoyed at the intrusion.

The poles that block the way may be triggered with the lever near Volkyre with Gate Hand or a ranged weapon. However, the poles work on a two-stage system whereby the two sets in front opens while the other two at the back closes. Thus, someone has to stay behind to operate the lever while the others pass through the poles. Then they have to reach the lever on the other side to let that someone who stayed behind through.

Rather than divide my party, I slowly built a siege ladder out of Lattice Weed to attack Volkyre's fortress.

Beating the stuffing out of Volkyre.

Volkyre kept running and sniping and healing himself. Using Mug knocked the Splints out of his inventory so he could not heal. Eventually, I had Volkyre surrounded and proceeded to beat the stuffing out of him.

I could then loot the powerful equipment and useful items in the place.

Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Final Part

My main expedition, along with the Planetnik, went to the east to clear the creature lairs there. There were a lot of wandering baddies in the area too.

There were creature lairs and wandering baddies in the east.

With the Planetnik, it was easy to handle the 5-Skull Dragon Lords baddie group, who were convinced to leave the area. According to the text, the Dragon left some loot behind. Interestingly, it left Dragon bones instead of Dragon leather. I wondered where it got the bones from.

The Dragon left behind Dragon bones but not Dragon leather.

A Holy Hog appeared in my village and blessed all villagers everywhere with Bless of Health. I read online that this was part of the new content after the main quest was completed.

A Holy Hog appeared in the village.

Later, another Event occurred where a number of villagers were blessed with permanent attributes. I also gained two Malicious Spiders. The bonuses I received in the Event were probably related to my choice in the Divine Quest. I considered trading Malicious Spiders for an Elf at Silveroak where 4 'people' were required. However, though I had another 2 Malicious Spiders in the village, one of them had since become indispensable because it had gained 3 Craft.

More blessings from the gods.

While clearing the lands in the east, I discovered that having the Planetnik allowed my expedition to deal with other Giants through a Social Challenge.

The Planetnik could convince other Giants.

After clearing the east, more lairs appeared to the south-west. It is possible that lairs will keep appearing so I will always have something to do.

Lairs appeared to the south-west.

I visited Silveroak again. This time, I brought a lot of food. I selected the option to meditate with the Elves and my people received Bless of Attractiveness. When I started another session in Silveroak, the option to meditate was replaced with a beckoning Elf. The Elf gave me a map to an old shrine.

The logbook kept records of what had occurred in Silveroak.

I had brought enough food for two training sessions. On the first session, my expedition received the Bless of Magic and Animal Kinship as before. On the second, I had a better outcome. My people received Folklore and Will in addition to Animal Kinship.

Training with the Elves gave a different result the second time.

I visited the 'Place of interest' marked by the map that the Elf in Silveroak had given me. When my expedition investigated the shrine, the Beasts in the party were poisoned. Some experience that turned out to be! The expedition later made a trip to the Herbalists hut for healing.

Was this The Shrine of Beast Poisoning?

The Holy Hog in the village gave random bonuses once in a while. One bonus I had was where a Child grew into an adult instantly. I find it interesting that, in the text of the Event, the adult appeared before the Child disappeared.

Children should be kept away from the Holy Hog.

The Child turned into a Hunter, a good class to have.

The Child turned into a Hunter.

My expedition found the skeleton of a Dragon again. Unlike the last time, they met a Baba Yaga. After defeating the baddie through a Hex Challenge, the Planetnik in my party gained a variety of good attributes, including 3 Magic. Veles was mentioned in the option for the Hex Challenge. Including him, three deities were mentioned in this Event - the other two deities were Lada and Morena.

The Planetnik grew stronger.

Just for laughs, I equipped the Planetnik with a complete set of Dragon bone equipment, excluding tools (which did not accept Dragon bone in any of its recipes). I had done this before with Enchanted bones.

The Planetnik with a full set of Dragon bone equipment (excluding tools).

My village had been robbed of precious resources by bandits. I confronted the bandits and took whatever they still had. Unlike a previous game, one of the bandits decided to join me.

A bandit joined me.

I got bored with the game shortly after. The map had been completely explored and there were no goals to meet other than unlocking Lada's last bonus. On the other hand, it was getting tedious to micromanage the crafting and the gathering to be done by my many villagers. Thus, I decided to end the game. Below is the final score summary.

The final score.

I had unlocked Lada's fourth bonus.

The bonuses of Lada, version 1.20.1921.0.

Lada's final bonus will be a Sage. Note that Veles also gives a Sage, but as his third bonus. As a final bonus for Lada, I hope that her Sage will be much better. With the Sage and Lada's other bonuses it will be easier to win in Social Challenges.

Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 1
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 2
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 3
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 4
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 5

Thea: The Awakening, Contents

Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 5

The Blessed Tree Symbol is another building new to the game. I constructed one with the best resources I had. I was curious to know what effect better materials would give.

Building a Blessed Tree Symbol out of Diamonds and Granite.

Later, I would find out that the Blessed Tree Symbol performed as it was written in the description. Using better material would not give any better result.

Meanwhile, I had decided to include my Child Wraith with my gatherer expedition. Its combination of Poison and Leech would be deadly.

The Child Wraith could do a lot of damage to wounded baddies.

I received news of the Elven city of Silveroak. Silveroak was also the surname of the guardian Elf that helped in the Cosmic Tree Quest. I wondered if the city appeared as a result of my choice of replanting the Cosmic Tree seed in the first main quest.

My village received word of an Elven City.

I checked the location of Silveroak. It was at the end of the north-west corner and it happened to have a Giant standing over it.

A Giant was standing over the city of Silveroak.

My expedition talked with the Giant, who thought she was a Troll. My people told her the truth based on what they had learned and it calmed her down. Unfortunately, she did not have the information I sought about Planetnik Giants.

Talking with the Giant.

With the Giant taken care of, my main expedition entered Silveroak. The city was still being rebuilt. Like the Goblin Village, there were a number of things I could trade. In my village, I had a lot of food, which could be traded for precious Ancient Wood and training. Ordinary Bones were normally useless so being able to trade them for something useful was good, if I could gather large amounts of them.

In previous games, I had lots of Children who refused to grow up. Being able to trade them for Elves was a tempting option. Unfortunately, the Cabbage Patch in the current game still refused to bear any Child. The opportunity to trade members of my village would have been helpful earlier. I could have traded the weak Beasts for an Elf. However, I had grown attached to my Beasts, with the exception of one of the Malicious Spiders.

Some of the possible trades in Silveroak.

Since I considered Magic important, and my expedition could spare the food, I paid for lessons in Magic. Unfortunately, the result was only the temporary Bless of Magic. When I pressed for more training, my villagers learned Animal Kinship instead. At least that attribute was permanent.

Training with the Elves resulted in Bless of Magic and Animal Kinship.

After checking a couple of clues, I stumbled upon the Planetnik Giant I was looking for at the north-west of the world.

My expedition found the Weatherer, the first Planetnik Giant.

The Weatherer, the Planetnik Giant, was frustrated because he knew he had a job to do but could not remember what it was. After briefing him on what I had learned, it turned out that the Giant could not remember what needed to be done. I was to seek out his lieutenants who might help.

Perhaps his lieutenants had the password to his hard drive.

The other Planetnik Giants, the lieutenants, were at the south-west. The game seemed determined to have my expedition travel back and forth between the north-west and the south-west. If I had enough competent people, I could have two expeditions cover these corners of the world.

The Giants I sought were at the other corner of the world.

Meanwhile, my expedition met with more Dwarf Bandits. My two Warriors, still armed with Claws of Veles, easily convinced another Dwarf Bandit to join my people.

Another Dwarf Bandit joined.

My expedition met up with the Planetnik Giants and convinced them of the truth with evidence and logic. As a result, the Beasts in my party could then permanently talk.

The Bear's ability of speech was then permanent.

Meanwhile, I decided to unlock Jewellery. If I was going to avoid fights, I would need bonuses in attributes that were good in alternative Challenges. Jewellery were a good provider of those attributes. In previous versions of the game, only Coal and Diamonds were accepted as Catalysts in the recipe. It was a good thing that Wicker had since became a possible Catalyst because Diamonds were rare and I found no gathering spot for Coal in the present game.

Wicker is now acceptable as Catalyst for Jewellery.

In the final location of the Giants Return Quest, I met with the big baddie that was the Umbrage Lord. The Weatherer joined my expedition to confront the big baddie.

The Weatherer joined the expedition for the final battle.

Using the handy 'View My Group' button, I checked the Weatherer's attributes.

Look at the level and attributes of that guy!

I decided to challenge the Umbrage Lord in a Social Challenge with the Weatherer's authority. As it turned out, the Umbrage Lord had even greater level and attributes than the Weatherer. It was a good thing my party outnumbered the opposition so I could sacrifice weaker people to keep those with high Speech talking and those with useful attributes supporting.

The Weatherer confronted the Umbrage Lord.

After I beat the Umbrage Lord, I discovered that there was a lieutenant in the same Challenge who was also very dangerous.

The Mroki was also a powerful foe.

After a long Challenge, my expedition was victorious. The Umbrage Lord submitted to the Weatherer and they would deal with the Giants in time. Meanwhile, the Weatherer assigned a Planetnik Giant to join my expedition.

Planetnik Giant acquired!

The score summary appeared again. I was still far from unlocking Lada's final bonus.

The score after completing the Giants Return.

I decided to continue with the game since I had people (especially the Planetnik) to try out. The Planetnik was about half as great as the Weatherer, which still was very great. In addition, he could use equipment. He would be helpful in dealing with any Giant that popped up.

Despite his size, the Planetnik needed both hands to equip a 2-Handed Sword. Since he naturally had Blunt Damage, it would be best to equip him with a weapon that has high Damage.

The attributes of the Planetnik.

I had read that content had been added for play after the main quest had been completed. I was curious to see what else could be found, aside from the appearance of Silveroak. In the short term, I still had those creature lairs to deal with at the eastern part of the world.

Lairs to clear up in the east.

The 5-Skull Dragon Lords baddie group was still around somewhere too.

Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 1
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 2
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 3
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 4
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Final Part

Thea: The Awakening, Contents

Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 4

Since I had more competent villagers, I sent my expedition to the village to return the Craftswoman I had temporarily assigned for the Divine Quest. I took the best people (and weird creatures) I had for Hex Challenges and embarked on the main quest, the Cosmic Tree Quest.

The quest location was at the south-west of the map. The location it sent me after that was at the north-west. As stated before, there was no direct route through the west of the map, my expedition had to take the long way around. At least the game was set on a Small World Size unlike that other game.

The next location for the Cosmic Tree Quest appeared as far as it possibly could.

Along the way, my expedition met an Elf cursed by the Darkness. After fixing her up, I got a reward (which included 3 Crossbows) and the Elf joined my expedition.

An Elf joined the expedition.

Two of my villagers decided to get married with Lada's blessing. They were the Warrior who had joined my village and the Craftswoman I had taken along for Lada's Divine Quest. The marriage ritual seemed like it was a lot of work.

Two villagers decided to get married.

Of course there was going to be over-consumption of food and alcohol during the marriage celebration. The Sickness Challenge to withstand the ill effects of over-consumption was easy and a number of my villagers received Bless of Attractiveness. Strangely, a few villagers who were away with my expedition also received the blessing as if they had taken part in the party.

A few villagers not in the village were also blessed.

My expedition met with a group of Dwarf Bandits. After convincing them to share in a meal together, one of them was attracted to Lada and would join, if my best fighters could beat his.

A Dwarf Bandit was interested in Lada.

It was an easy fight since both my Warriors, equipped with Claws of Veles, were chosen to fight two Dwarf Bandits. As a result, the Dwarf Bandit joined my expedition. The Dwarf Bandit had high Strength and some good equipment but no Dragon's Bane, unlike in the Early Access.

A Dwarf Bandit joined my expedition.

With people (and weird things) that could do Magic, I attempted the 4-Skull Hex Challenge of the Baba Yaga's House Quest. It was a long fight but I was successful in freeing the Baba Yaga. Unlike in another game, I did not get a Baba Yaga. I wonder if the outcome was random or if I was missing some other requirement.

Instead, I received two Children as a reward. They were precious since my Cabbage Patch still had not attracted any Child.

The end of the Baba Yaga's House Quest.

Near the Baba Yaga's House, I saw that a few creature lairs had spawned at the eastern part of the world. As I moved to clear them, I noticed a 5-Skull Dragon Lords baddie group sitting on what I had seen earlier as a 2-Skull Spiders' Nest lair. Chances were that I would have to camp to recuperate from wounds if I fought the Zmey and the Dragon in that group. With the time ticking on the Bless of Intelligence, I decided to leave the lairs for now and go complete the Cosmic Tree.

5-Skull Dragon Lords sitting on a 2-Skull Spiders' Lair.

Meanwhile, back at the village, I had the Beasts cook food. That must be a normal occurrence on Thea. The Beasts were good cooks too.

Giant bugs cooked food for people.

My expedition made it to the north-west for the Cosmic Tree. After doing what was necessary there, they had to return to the south-west to report. Then the next location again appeared at the north-west. At least the location to report to after that was midway, near the village.

Positions of my expedition and the Cosmic Tree locations.

The people in my expedition had acquired various blessings that gave temporary boosts to stats. A few of them had large amounts of blessing. One of my Warriors had 60 turns worth of Bless of Attractiveness and 39 of Bless of Intelligence. The latter blessing increased the Warrior's Intelligence to a great 20.

The Warrior was a smart one with a lot of Intelligence.

My Bear had 75 turns worth of Bless of Attractiveness. It also had a blessing that gave it speech.

I should call it Pretty Bear.

It was good that I had built a Totem in my village. The building gave my villagers the Magic necessary to handle the curse on a Child.

A Child was ill with a curse.

The Child turned into a Child Wraith. While the Child Wraith could not equip anything and had low Damage, it did have a lot of Leech and even more Poison, allowing the Ghost to deal serious damage in a fight. In addition, it had Medic and Magic.

The Child Wraith had Medic and Magic.

While I was on the Divine Quest, I had met the Kostey and the Oracle. One fine turn, they visited the village with a warning. It was the beginning of the Giants Return Quest, a second main quest that was added in the DLC. Before this, I had random Events that suggested that the Giants were awakening.

The Kostey and the Oracle visited the village.

The location of the Giants Return Quest was near the Cosmic Tree Quest so I could check it out after I was done with the latter.

The locations of both main quests were close together.

After convincing a Dragon to give the Cosmic Tree Shards in the Cosmic Tree Quest, my villagers acquired more blessings. The Bear then had a ridiculous amount of Bless of Attractiveness and looked like it would keep talking for quite a while.

The Bear was sparkly and chatty.

I visited the location of the Giants Return Quest to learn what was happening and what would have to be done. As it turned out, having a Ghost in the expedition made it easier to gain information. I think the Dola from the Divine Quest also counted as a Ghost.

Having a Ghost made it easier.

Unlike the Cosmic Tree Quest where I could delay my decision in the method of completing the quest, in Giants Return, I had to make my decision immediately.

There was a decision to be made early in Giants Return.

As Lada was a peaceful goddess, I decided on the less violent approach. The next location for the quest did not appear immediately so I set about to complete the Cosmic Tree. On my way back, two locations for the Giants Return Quest appeared where I had just left.

Quest locations appeared where I had just left.

Though the locations for the Giants Return were close, I decided to complete the Cosmic Tree first. I was almost done with the latter quest and from past experience, I knew what would be involved. Reporting in with the Cosmic Tree Shards revealed the final quest location for the Cosmic Tree. It would be at the south-west, totally the opposite direction of the Giants Return Quest locations at the north-west.

The final location of the Cosmic Tree Quest at the south-west.

Meanwhile, my village finally crafted a Dragon's Bane, which had high Damage and Leech. The high damage would be useful to Elves and other creatures who naturally have Piercing Damage.

Crafted a Dragon's Bane.

I completed the Cosmic Tree Quest. With all the varied blessings my expedition had, it had been easy to convince the Zmey to let me have the Cosmic Tree seed. In order to bring prosperity back to Thea, I decided to replant the Cosmic Tree.

I decided to replant the Cosmic Tree.

As before, I liked to take a screenshot of the late Elf to the party.

The Elf was late again.

After the quest was over, the score summary appeared. I would unlock Lada's 4th bonus with the score I had. As I had not completed the Giants Return Quest yet, I decided to keep playing the game.

The score after completing the Cosmic Tree.

The Forest Elf Druid was late, but she was not too late to help with the Giants. She had Magic, Medic and Curse and was more capable than my own Medic. The Elf even had a bunch of other useful Attributes like Animal Kinship and Folklore. Her drawbacks were her Health and her Strength, which were low at this point of the game.

The Forest Elf Druid had Magic and Medic.

I would reassign the villagers with Medic that I had. The Forest Elf Druid, who had the most Medic and was the most competent, would follow the main expedition. Since I had enough villagers to form a gatherer expedition, the human Medic would be assigned to them when they were away from the village. That Medic also had points in Gathering so she could help collect resources. I was considering whether to send the Child Wraith with the gatherers to make use of its Poison and Leech or to leave it to protect the village with its Magic and Medic.

I still had the Giants Return Quest to complete. I had not decided if I would like to unlock Lada's final bonus since the situation looked like it would involve a lot of work.

Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 1
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 2
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 3
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Part 5
Thea: The Awakening, Lada 2, Final Part

Thea: The Awakening, Contents