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.