=============================================================================== CodeZebra's Guide to FATE =============================================================================== Version History: Current Version: 1.00 This version should have everything you need to play the game. It will be improved on, however... see following: Planned updates: Adding little bits of information to all parts of the guide as I am able to... Appendices - specifically, a FAQ section if I get any questions, a list of spells, a list of items and information about them (basically, trying see if DoomRooster will merge his guide with mine or something), a list of spells, and other lists of stuff in the appendices (requests welcome). Oh, and a more detailed table of contents. =============================================================================== Contact: CodeZebra - codezebra@gmail.com =============================================================================== TABLE OF CONTENTS: INTRODUCTION STARTING A NEW GAME YOUR PET CHARACTERS IN TOWN RANDOM THINGS THAT I CAN'T REALLY CLASSIFY AND DON'T FEEL LIKE CLASSIFYING PLAYING THE GAME END GAME APPENDICES (NOT HERE YET! COMING SOON!) =============================================================================== INTRODUCTION: Fate is basically a clone of Diablo and Diablo II and other RPGs. If Fate is your first RPG on the PC or you just need a quick fix, it will suffice. However, I must say that if you consider yourself a "hardcore gamer" or have played Diablo and Diablo II, Fate will really annoy you because it's a clone that doesn't quite meet the standards of what it tries to imitate. Still, for a game that is inexpensive and easy to obtain, Fate is a decent game. It was even rated 7.9 on GameSpot, which is pretty good. The game is pretty easy overall, but I recommend starting on a lower difficulty to get the hang of the concepts and mechanics of the game. As you play through the game, you will find your own style of play. Everything mentioned in this FAQ is here to supplement your own knowledge and give you my view on many parts of the game. This guide isn't meant to be definitive in any way, but it is here to try and help you if you are new to the game or are looking at a certain aspect of it that you are uninformed about. Also, please take a look at the help file provide with the game. It may be a bit difficult to find, but just look in the game folder for FATE and you will find a file named 'help.pdf' that is the help file. It provides some useful information. This FAQ attempts to replace the help file, but I may overlook things that the help file covers, or cover things in a different way than the help file does. Therefore, I suggest looking at the help file first, and if that doesn't answer your question, search here. If that doesn't give you an answer either, just send us an e-mail and we'll do our best to answer your question. If there are mistakes to correct or things to add, please feel free to contact us. (Note: Unless noted otherwise, all information here is gathered from playing the game or digging around in the game files.) (Another note: Due to the randomized nature of the game, no true walkthrough can be made. However, this guide should have everything you need to know to beat the game from start to finish.) Enough of that, though. If you are looking at this FAQ, you must want to play the game, so let's get to it. STARTING A NEW GAME: Choose the "New Game" option. You will be prompted to choose a name and features for your character. It is possible to randomize this, if you wish. Next up, you get to name your pet and choose whether you start off with a dog or a cat. I would recommend a dog, however, because I tried a game with a cat once and the noises the cat makes are really annoying. There are no differences in starting stats. When you start the game, you will see a button with a cross on it with "View Help" under it. Click on this and it will display an overlay on the screen that tells you what everything on the screen indicates/does. If you are new to games like Fate, I would recommend perusing this help screen. Otherwise, you can just skip it by selecting "Close Help" at the top of the screen. Now you are ready to play the game. You start the game with a hand axe equipped, a town portal scroll, a scroll of identify, 3 health potions in your belt, and 250 gold. There isn't too much to do in town at this point, so I'll start out by explaining a few things. Experienced players can skip the next paragraph and go to the next section. Town portal scrolls (the scrolls with a blue ribbon) create a portal that instantly teleports you back to town. This is handy when you need to sell items or do something else in town, and really handy when you find yourself in a losing battle and need to escape and regroup. Identify scrolls identify magic items, which can have properties like additional damage or increasing your movement speed and such. The only way to find out what a magical item does is to identify it (and also, the only way to sell a magical item for what its truly worth is to identify it). Health potions heal you, that's obvious enough. You can get better potions later, and also healing charms. Healing charms are handy because you get more than one use out of them. In the long run, they are better because they can be stored longer on the belt. Now, the belt... it's where you can store usable items to be used instantly when pressing the number of the slot it is in (see the number in the top left?). This is helpful in the midst of a battle when you can't be caught messing around in your inventory. Tip: Inventory space is very important in this game. A way to save inventory space is by carrying only 1 town portal scroll at a time. Any time you use a town portal, you must replace the scroll used, otherwise you'll be stuck without one. If this sort of micromanagement is inconvenient, go ahead and buy books of town portals (basically, multiple use scrolls). Your pet can be used as a mule anyway. I'll explain in a second... YOUR PET Your pet is an invaluable ally in your quest. It has its own set of stats and can fight too. It can also wear 2 rings and 1 amulet to boost its powers. You don't have as much control over your pet and its stats, but it can level up and prove to be the extra distraction you need to survive a large battle. If you find fish in the game, either by fishing (see fishing guide available on GameFAQs for a more information) or from loot dropped by enemies and crates and such, you will find that you can feet it to your pet (using the fish just like a potion) will transform it into a totally different creature with much improved stats from your original pet. This is interesting and all, but honestly as you play the game, there will come a point when you will be way stronger than your pet and it won't be anything more than a decoy and a pack mule. Still, a brain beast of a wyvern for a pet is much cooler than a little terrier, I think. (Oh, and if you can find flawless fish... such as a Flawless Grouper or something... you'll find that they transform your fish permanently into another creature. Don't worry, it's not irreversible. However, these flawless fish are rare, and if you find a good one, rejoice! Alas, it can be cancelled out by using a Dogfish, or using another fish that isn't flawless. So be careful!) The true advantage to having a pet is to use it as a pack mule. Your pet has its own inventory, and you can use it to store items that you cannot carry yourself. Also, you can send your pet back to town (the button with the right arrow and the up arrow under the pet icon) where it will sell any goods it is holding and return to you with the revenue. This is an extremely handy feature, and really is the only reason the pet is tolerable at all because more often than not, it will be a terrible fighter compared to your character. The catch is that it will take 10 seconds for the pet to return, times the level you are in. So if you are in level 4, it will take 40 seconds. There is an upper limit, though. The pet will never take longer than 2 minutes to return. This is handy when you are in level 30 or so, where it should technically take 5 minutes or more. Tip: Sending your pet back up to town heals it completely. If your pet ever "dies" (your pet can't die, but if it loses all its health, it will "flee"), send it back to town and it will come back fully healed. Also, it's an easy way to sell items if you are preparing to go back to town anyway. Send the pet back up, wait a few seconds, and go back up yourself. The pet will meet you in town with the gold it made from its sales. Tip: Anything you can do, the pet can do if you hold Shift while clicking. For example, instead of you trading with a vendor, you can have your pet trade with its inventory by Shift-clicking. Similarly, you can have your pet pick up items or drink from fountains by shift-clicking. CHARACTERS IN TOWN: =Bartleby Bartleby will sell you potions, scrolls, and charms. He is best used to get healing items and scrolls. Anything else is really useless. =Getts the Traveler Getts usually has an assorted variety of items that are randomly generated. You've gotta look at his inventory to find out what he has. Getts is useful in that he can show up in some levels of the dungeon, so you can sell loot off and restock on potions and such. =Gann Gar Gann Gar will extract gems from items, but will destroy the item you extracted the gems from. Use him if you really want to use the gems you had on a previous item in a new item, and you know for sure you won't be needing the old item. =Dell Arness Dell is the vendor for warriors. He deals in weapons and armor that a warrior- type character would most likely use. He also has ranged equipment as well. =Samwen Samwen is probably Gann Gar's brother. He can remove gems from an item, but will destroy the gems in the process. This is useful if you need to re-socket an item with better gems. =Zim Zim deals in gambling. Gambling is basically where you buy a potentially magic item without knowing what it is exactly. You may or may not get a magical and useful item, hence the term gambling. I don't particularly like gambling, but you can find good deals here occasionally, so if you ever have more money than you know what to do with, try gambling. =Jin the Seer (staves, amulets, rings, gems, spells, magic stuff) Jin is the vendor for the mage-type characters. Jin has staves, amulets, rings, gems, and spells (basically, magic stuff) in his inventory. Also, he may have some scrolls and potions if Bartleby happens to run out of what you need in a particular instance, so check just in case. =Rollo the Minstrel Rollo can increase your fame, but for a cost. Essentially, this lets you buy skill points. Also, you need certain fame levels to wear higher classed items (such as legendary items). =Dreya the Healer Talk to Dreya, and she can heal you for free. =Rikko the Enchanter Rikko can enchant items. Basically, give them more enhancements or sockets. However, there is a small chance that he can remove all the powers of an item (the chance is REALLY small, though... so far, it has happened to me only a few times and I like to enchant a LOT). The higher level and fame you have, the better the enhancements can be. Enhancing items is really helpful, so if you ever have extra money, go to Rikko and try enchanting stuff. It can be expensive, though, and only gets more expensive as you enchant an item over and over, so be warned. =Pikko (spelling?) the Fisherman (not actually in town!!) Pikko sells fish. Simple, really. However, he only shows up in random levels of the dungeon. I included him here because it seems Rikko and Pikko are siblings... and because I can't think of anywhere else to put him. =Bremen Bremen comes into play when you defeat whatever your randomly assigned final boss is. More on him in the section about the game's end. =Storage Trunk Not really a character, but you can store items here. I've never particularly found a reason to store items, but it is there if you need it. =Seever, Torvus, Gavido, Gimbo Tel, Beregor, Dimo Nor These characters provide quests for you to complete. This is the meat of the game. More on quests later. RANDOM THINGS THAT I CAN'T REALLY CLASSIFY AND DON'T FEEL LIKE CLASSIFYING =Quests When you started the game, you were given an overarching quest that you are trying to accomplish. It boils down to defeating a unique monster at whatever level it tells you (it's random). Not much to it, and doesn't come into play until you reach the level specified. Certain characters (as mentioned before) can give you quests as well. Of these quests, you can have 3 at a time. These quests are always "Oh I lost my item on this level, would you please get it for me?" or "There is a monster I don't like on this level, so go kill it and its minions." Or "Oh my, my item was stolen by this monster and its minions. Kill it and get it back please!" Although the monsters, items, and levels may vary, the quests are invariably one of these three kinds of quests, basically. The advantage to doing these quests is that they provide fame, experience, and gold rewards. Also, you can get items. A neat thing about the quests is that if you find a quest item that you find appealing, you can keep it by canceling the quest associated with it. No hard feelings, either. I tend to do whatever quests I can find, but if you are picky look at the rewards and see if it seems like its worth it. You can always refresh the quests available by going down to level one and coming back up (or Save and Exit-ing, then coming back into the game). =Death in the Game If you happen to die, don't fret. You can come back to life pretty easily and with little or no consequence, depending on what you choose. You get 3 choices when you die. 1) You can re-spawn on the spot at full health for a cost of experience and fame. I would say never, ever choose this choice because the cost is too much... 2) You can re-spawn at a random level close to where you died at a small cost of gold. Choose this one if you feel lucky, but be warned that you can end up dieing again because you ended up at a deeper level than where you died. 3) You can re-spawn 3 levels above where you died, but at the cost of dropping all your gold on the spot you died. The best choice is either 2 or 3. If you are really attached to your gold, I would say go with 2 because wherever you teleport, you can town portal out immediately (assuming the reason you didn't town portal out in the first place is because you were killed too quickly... that is, you actually have a town portal scroll). Otherwise, go with 3. You can quickly travel down to where you died and pick up the gold. Also, this way you get a little bit more experience too, so you'll be stronger when you go back down to where you were. My favorite choice is 3. Tip: This is something I did not know until I read the manual, but you can select "Quit" to go back to the last time you saw a 'Loading...' screen. Handy, I think, and another choice for you, if you wish. I still think Choice 3 is best because it gives you the chance to get more experience if you find any levels that have respawned. =Leveling Up If you get enough experience from killing monsters or quests, you will level up. When you level up, here is what happens: +5 stat points that you can distribute among your stats +2 skill points to distribute to skills +4 life +1 stamina +1 mana =Fame Fame is basically like experience, except a separate pool. When you "level up" in fame, you get 4 stat points and get boosted up to the next fame level. This is important for wearing higher classed items (they have Fame Requirements) and finding better items... the better your fame and level, the better items you can find in stores and from monsters. You can get fame by buying it from Rollo, or by doing quests and killing unique monsters. =Magic and Mana This isn't a detailed description of all the spells available and such; just a quick note about magic. Magic can be handy because some of the spells are useful, obviously, such as healing. Magic is even handier when you consider that mana regenerates. It regenerates so fast, in fact, that in 99.9% of cases, you will NEVER need a mana potion. (Although I suppose that assumes you play like we do...) =Magic Anvils Magic Anvils act like Rikko, but are free. The catch is that they are one-time use thingies, so pick what item you want to enchant wisely. From my experience, Magic Anvils don't do anything negative, but I would say treat it like Rikko just to be safe, and so that you don't have any dashed hopes and dreams or something. =Fate Statues Will you tempt fate? That's what Fate statues ask you. There is no reason to choose no, so go ahead and tempt fate. If you're lucky, you'll find some decent gems. If not, you'll get a Gem of False Hopes. If you are really really lucky, you will get a monster. Why is that really really lucky? Because a monster from a fate statue is usually a unique monster, which means much more experience and fame as well. I find that more useful than gems anyway. Still, it's your choice. =Shrines (Learning Shrines?) These shrines that you can find can improve your stats or add points to your skills. However, they can also take away points. Still, the risk is worth it, so always go for it when you find these. =Crates, Barrels, and Other Breakable Things Always break them. The more you break, the more gold you will find and the more chances you have of finding items to sell for money. =Character Classes (Note: Look at DoomRooster's guide to find item requirements so you are able to plan your stat distribution accordingly... I will try and get those tables on here too, but since DoomRooser did it first, I will need his permission, I presume.) Fate doesn't have character classes directly, but you can play the game different ways to essentially emulate certain basic archetypes. Here's how: ==Warrior For a newbie to RPGs, or just a newbie to Fate, it is easiest to play as primarily a warrior. In terms of stats, the character you start out with seems to be designed to become into a powerful warrior. Here is what I recommend in terms of stats: Put 2 into strength, 2 into dexterity, and 1 into vitality. This is good for a little while. Now after the first few levels, think for a second. Do you get hit a lot? Do you find yourself low on health often? If so, keep up this point distribution. However, if you find that due to a combination of defense and skills you aren't getting hit enough to get low health often, you can take a point from vitality and put it somewhere else. I would say 3 strength and 2 dexterity if you don't care for magic, or if you have some piece of equipment that you are shooting for requiring more strength than you have. If that isn't the case, and you are doing enough damage and all, I would say get 2 strength, 2 dexterity, and 1 magic. Even as a warrior, having a bit of magic will help you. For example, at level 18 I believe, you can get the Minor Heal spell, which allows you to forego the use of healing potions by healing yourself when all is calm. (Potions are still a necessity for the heat of battle, however... it takes time for spells to work, and without specializing in magic, it isn't terribly effective.) Other than Minor Heal, it can be handy to be able to summon some rats to use as decoys or use the identify spell or town portal spell in certain cases to save expenses. In terms of skills, first decide what kinda weapon you will be specializing in. You can choose from a variety of different weapon classes, and it's really up to you. If you don't know what they all are, and you plan on playing through the game again, I suggest specializing in swords or axes, as these tend to be the most common and better-known weapons. Now, when I say specialize, I mean putting skill points into that weapon and no other weapon classes. This means you'll do more damage with that weapon and hit more often with that weapon. Specializing is important. Next up, you should put skills in Critical Strike. Critical Strikes double the damage you do if you get one, and they can help out a lot when dealing with tougher foes or when you need to dispatch many weaker enemies quickly. Besides weapon specialization and Critical Strike, there are two other options you can choose from: Shield Battle or Dual-Wielding skill. Dual-Wielding is interesting, but I find that it is ineffective, at least for my play stile. Dual-wielding weapons reduces the damage dealt considerably (especially in the left hand... I figure it's the off-hand for the character in the game) and you lose some defense that you could have had with a shield. This means you get hit more, which can be bad. You can go for it if you'd like, but I would recommend Shield Battle. Don't go crazy in assigning points into Critical Strike and whatever other skills you choose. The important thing is your weapon specialty. Besides that, Critical Strike, and either Shield Battle or Dual Wielding, you can put a skill point in any other category. If you don't care to use magic or any other thing, then I would say just stick to those three skills. If you want to spread your skills though, there's no problem in doing that after putting maybe 10-20 points in Critical Strike and Shield Battle/Dual-Wielding. Because of diminishing returns, increasing the levels more than that gets you less than at lower levels, and having even 5% critical strike percentage is significant. Also, items can boost the percentage. Equipment is not so important for a warrior because they tend to be able to withstand a lot of damage and can kill enemies quicker than any other 'classes.' However, always try to have the best type of weapon and armor possible. Make sure to balance the quality of armor or weapon with the magical enhancements it has. Sometimes it may be better to keep a weaker weapon for its stat enhancements or something along those lines. ==Ranger Rangers (ranged weapons... bows and crossbows) will have a little bit tougher time than warriors because there are less items that cater to rangers, and the initial stats of the character are more skewed to become a warrior. Still, a ranger is a perfectly acceptable choice and with a little time is just as powerful as a warrior. In terms of stats, the most important one is dexterity for a ranger. Strength still plays a strong role, but not as much. I suggest starting out the same way (2 strength, 2 dexterity, and 1 vitality) and then deciding on what course to take as you play the game and get a feel for your character. If you find that you are dealing decent damage, but getting hit a lot, then shift your points accordingly. Or if you find that you aren't getting hit at all, shift accordingly once again. The idea is to put stat points where you need them. If you can't really notice anything, I suggest just continuing with the 2 strength, 2 dexterity, and 1 vitality distribution. When it comes to skills, rangers have it easy. The only weapon specialization they need is Bows and Crossbows. Besides that, the only real thing that affects the damage they do is Critical Strike. Because bows and crossbows are two- handed, dual-wielding and shield battle are totally useless to a ranger. The advantage of this is that a ranger can afford to skip putting a point into Critical Strike for a point in say, Charm Magic for healing or something if they have some magic points. ==Mage Ah... this is simply the most annoying class to try and follow. Unless you are looking for a challenge, I wouldn't recommend primarily being a mage. It isn't so bad on the easier difficulties, sure, but you want to play on a harder difficulty at some point, right? In any case, I will tell you what I can about being a mage. The most important thing to remember is that there are 3 kinds of magic (Attack, Defense, and Charm) and you can learn up to 6 spells in each category. You can forget an old spell to learn a better one if you need to. Attack magic generally consists of spells that damage opponents. Defense magic generally consists of spells that bolster your defenses. Charm magic deals with summoning monsters, healing, town portals, and identifying. Part of the reason it is so hard to be a mage is because the starting stats of the character are so unfit to be a mage, and it takes a while to change it to a mage's stats. To begin with, I would recommend getting 3 magic, 1 vitality, and 1 strength at first. Don't worry about dexterity because you can make up for any loss in defense with better armor thanks to strength. At least, that is the idea. Generally, you'd be better off making sure you can heal yourself. If you play it right, monsters won't even come close to harming you. As always, you should adapt your stat point distribution depending on how you are playing. Once again, if you have no idea, I recommend this distribution. Since a mage character won't be doing much melee fighting, the skills to focus on for a mage are Spell Casting (increasing spell casting speed), Attack Magic, Defense Magic, and Charm Magic. (Info: Putting points into these skills generally increases the duration of a spell if it is timed, or increases damage if it does damage... read the spell description for more information. I will have more information on the spells in an appendix later on when I find time... it's a pain to extract it from the game files or find every spell in the game.) For a good, all-rounded mage, I would suggest skipping Spell Casting because spell-casting speed tends to be insignificant in the game (and you can boost it with items... an item or gem that boosts spell casting speed by 5% does the job of putting 3 or 4 skill points into Spell Casting, which is much more efficient). Instead, pick a category of magic to focus on and put 1 point in it every level. Then with the other point, alternate between the other two types of magic you didn't focus on. After a while of playing the game, if you find that you tend to focus on one type of magic or two types of magic, you can reassign distribution of skill points accordingly. The first time I played as a mage, I focused on Charm magic. I ended up using mostly Charm Magic and Attack Magic, so ended up focusing on those two. By this time, though, I had about 10 points in Defense magic, which worked out quite well. Equipment for a mage is very important. Mages need to equip staves. Staves can boost Attack Magic, Charm Magic, or Defense Magic, or all 3. Pick your staff according to your play style. (Look at DoomRooster's guide for information on what all the staves can do specifically... I'll try and get that in an appendix here too.) Armor-wise you normally won't have the strength to wear the tough armor a warrior can, but mages have special armor that they can wear that only requires magic, generally (although higher level mage armor requires a little bit of strength). PLAYING THE GAME This is the easiest part of the guide. Playing the game itself is very, very simple. Get some quests from town, go down into the dungeon and clear out every level until you finish all the quests you are willing to complete, making sure to make visits back to town if you need to retreat or have other business in town Once you are done with the quests, town portal back to town, collect the rewards, get new quests, go back through the portal, and continue downwards. Lather, rinse, repeat. Or whatever the expression is. Basically, this is all you'll be doing. It's pretty simplistic, but it can be a lot of fun killing a buncha monsters and finding items and stuff. =General Strategies Don't be hesitant to run away. Monsters don't heal, but they can kill you. If you find yourself in a situation where you are swarmed or are getting clobbered by a tough boss, just run away and regroup. Run far away and then town portal if you have to so you can restock on healing items. Explore levels thoroughly. Every bit of experience and every bit of gold can help (especially the experience) so make sure you explore a level completely to get as much experience as you can. END GAME When you finally defeat the end-boss you were randomly assigned, you have 2 options. You can continue going down and doing quests from the town folk, or you can retire. Here's what happens when you retire: Your character is taken out of play, and you can choose to create a descendent. If you don't choose to create a descendent, your game is over, basically. However, if you do choose to create a descendent, you get to create a character that has several advantages. First, the character will start out at level 2. Also, you start out with more fame. The more times you retire, the more fame you gain each time you make a descendent. Also, you can pass down a family heirloom - basically, an item you want to keep as you play. This item will increase in grade (from normal to exceptional, for example) and all properties on it will improve by 25% as well. Keep in mind that the descendent you pass down an item to may not be able to wear the item immediately. Oh, and the descendent can also play on a higher difficulty. And that's that... that's all about the game I can think of so far. APPENDICES (COMING SOON)