Monsters' Den: Chronicles, Tricks I Learned

I recently had some free time on my hands so I decided to devote some serious time to Monsters' Den: Chronicles. One of the fun parts of the game is discovering tactics and tricks and then taking advantage of them in battle.

Croca with a two-handed weapon.

I had earlier equipped Croca the Captain with a Shield as a tank. I had even invested in Endurance. However, he originally started with a spear. So that had me thinking: What if I gave him a two-handed weapon?

As I feared: Croca was terrible at tanking without the Armor Rating given by a shield. Especially since he has that flashy Battle Standard of his attracting attention.

Then I discovered that the two-handed weapon does lots of damage. The trick is to beat up the baddies before they can hit Croca. It does take a little judgement to decide who to attack first. I would go for someone weak but with high damage-dealing potential like a Ghoul. The Doomcaller is also another target I would go for early.

A side note: since that Battle Standard attracts Enemy Attention, I usually have a Ranger ready to cast Nature's Balm.

Parthian Powering up.

I also found a quick trick to charge Parthian the Marksman's Power. It leaves Parthian unable to do anything useful for a short while but he may spam skills once he is ready.

First, I have him cast Swiftness on himself to boost his Quickness (Cost: 15 Power, 0.5 Action). On his next turn, I switch his Fighting Style to Hunter's Focus and cast Eagle Eye (Cost: 0! Power, 0.5 Action) on him. The latter two gives an additional +5 Power Regeneration as seen on the screenshot above.

I Pass each time it is his turn, giving Parthian 10 Power at each Pass. Pass costs 0.5 Action, which comes faster since I had Swiftness cast on him. And Eagle Eye stays until Parthian performs an action. So I keep Passing until Parthian has enough Power or an emergency emerges during the battle.

Swiftness is very useful!

I discovered that Quickness is very important. Higher Quickness means more Actions. The manipulation of Quickness can make a battle go very easy.

It is good to cast Swiftness on someone on Cooling Breeze.

For one, an early Swiftness spell at the start of battle on the right character can make the battle so much easier. Usually I cast it on the Ranger so he may cast Swiftness again on another character.

Casting Swiftness on a character standing on a Cooling Breeze terrain is also good. Since Cooling Breeze helps that character with Power management, Swiftness allows that character to spam skills more often.

A Rogue can keep baddies busy with Cripple.

Another thing to consider is reducing the Quickness of baddies. Less Quickness on their side means less attacks coming from them (good news for Croca above).

The Rogue's Cripple inflicts a heavy Quickness penalty on the target. A Rogue on Swiftness can easily hinder two baddies on the front with Cripple for quite a while, leaving the rest of the party free to beat up someone of significance.

I like to use Cripple on the big slow ones like the Bone Horror. They will hardly get to deal heavy damage.

Another skill to consider is the Cleric's Holy Light which will slow all Undead as a side effect along with the Accuracy penalty it normally inflicts. There is also the Mage's Freeze though the Quickness penalty inflicted is so-so.

Do note the target's resistance when applying Debuffs. Nothing is worse than wasting Power and an Action trying to Cripple an opponent with 100% Resist Wounds.

Only 50% Resist Wounds!

Lastly, something I found a little funny:

Someone woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning. :p