The Let's Play Archive

Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga

by Stabbey_the_Clown

Part 21: Game Mechanics: Enchanting Items

Game Mechanics: Enchanting

Earlier I discussed the enchantments which you could apply to items. Now that we have an enchanter available, I’ll go into more detail about HOW to apply them.

The formulas for enchanting seem complicated at first. Here are examples:

Weapon Enchantment (WE) - FIRE CURSE: (X) chance of igniting your enemy on a successful hit doing (Y)
damage over (Z) second(s).

1: Crystal x1, Iron x1
2: Crystal x1, Iron x2
3: Crystal x1, Droxlerite x1, Fossil x1
4: Crystal x2, Droxlerite x2, Fossil x2, Red Ore x1
5: Crystal x2, Gold Ore x1, Red Ore x1
6: Crystal x2, Gold Ore x2, Red Ore x2
7: Crystal x3, Droxlerite x1, Red Ore x2
8: Crystal x3, Droxlerite x2, Red Ore x3
9: Crystal x3, Black Rock x1, Red Ore x3
10: Crystal x4, Black Rock x2, Malachite Ore x1, Red Ore x4


Armour Enchantment (AE) - Life Line: Increases your hitpoints by X.

1: Pearl x1, Iron x1
2: Pearl x1, Iron x2
3: Pearl x1, Droxlerite x1, Fossil x1
4: Pearl x2, Droxlerite x2, Fossil x2, Venom Stone x1
5: Pearl x2, Gold Ore x1, Venom Stone x1
6: Pearl x2, Gold Ore x2, Venom Stone x2
7: Pearl x3, Droxlerite x1, Venom Stone x2
8: Pearl x3, Droxlerite x2, Venom Stone x3
9: Pearl x3, Black Rock x1, Venom Stone x3
10: Pearl x4, Black Rock x2, Malachite Ore x1, Malachite Gem x1, Venom Stone x4


Jewellery Enchantment (JE) - MAGIC DAMAGE AURA: Enemies that harm you with magic have a (X) chance of
suffering 1 shock of (Y) magic damage.

1: Topaz x1, Gold Ore x2
2: Topaz x1, Gold Ore x2
3: Topaz x1, Gold Ore x3
4: Topaz x2, Gold Ore x3
5: Topaz x2, Gold Ore x4
6: Topaz x2, Gold Ore x4
7: Topaz x3, Gold Ore x5
8: Topaz x3, Gold Ore x5
9: Topaz x3, Gold Ore x6
10: Topaz x4, Malachite Gem x1, Gold Ore x7

But the formulas are still relatively simple. You need a gemstone (or two) for the base effect, and additional ingredients for the potency. The enchantments section already has the list of base effects, so I’ll omit that and only show the potency ingredients.

Weapon/Armor Ores (Potency Ingredient):

Rank 1-2: Iron
Rank 3-4: Droxlerite, Fossil
Rank 4-10: Red Ore (Weapons ONLY)
Rank 4-10: Venom Stone (Armor ONLY)
Rank 5-6: Gold Ore
Rank 7-8: Droxlerite
Rank 9-10: Black Rock
Rank 10: Malachite Gem, Malachite Ore

Jewellery Ore (Potency Ingredient):
Rank 1-10: Gold Ore
Rank 10: Malachite Gem
(All Jewellery enchantments (except spontaneous combustion) require Gold Ore.)

I think someone goofed up somewhere, and they meant to put Fossil as Rank 7-8 potency ingredient instead of a Rank 3-4 one, as that makes the Rank 3-4 ones harder to get than 7-8. They also goofed up with the Spontaneous Combustion Jewellery enchantment – that one doesn’t follow the normal pattern for jewellery, and instead uses the formula for a weapon.

To do any enchanting, we’ll need ore and gemstones, but where do we find those? They’re scattered in deposits all over. They typically have only 5 items at most, some combination of Ore, a common gemstone, a rare gemstone, or nothing.

Honestly, it will be hard to scrape together enough ingredients to do much enchanting until about halfway through the game, because we’re relying a lot on random loot to find our ingredients. But after the halfway mark, ingredients are much easier to obtain for reasons which would be spoilers to elaborate on at this point.


Iron Ore


Produces:
(Iron Ore, Amber, Diamond)

Iron Ore is extremely common. It can be found all over, both above and below ground. The ore itself is worthless, it’s only good for Rank 1 and 2 enchantments, which are obsolete before you can even reach the enchanter.

Amber is useful for the Life Leech WE, but it’s no good to Yara.

Diamond is the most valuable gemstone that you would want to sell. Each one sells for 180 gold. It’s also useful for the Increased Magical Damage WE and the Spontaneous Combustion JE


Red Ore


Produces:
(Red Ore, Moonstone, Ruby)

Red Ore is pretty common in many underground caves. The ore is for weapons, making it useless for Yara, except that it is also used for the higher levels of the Spontaneous Combustion JE. It’s used in all WE’s from Rank 4 to Rank 10.

Moonstone is the Increased Normal Damage WE. Useless for Yara.

Ruby is the Magical Protection AE, so gathering some of these might help. Armour isn’t super, but it can’t hurt.


Venom Stone


Produces:
(Venom Stone, Emerald, Tiger’s Eye)

Venom Stone is somewhat common, but only after Broken Valley. It’s used in all AE’s from Rank 4 to Rank 10, and any poison damage enchantment of any kind.

Emeralds are for the Mana Leech WE.

Tiger’s Eye is for the Static Charge Aura JE, so this is on my list of gems to hold on to.


Droxlerite


Produces:
(Droxlerite, Spinel, Opal)

Droxlerite is used in both Rank 3-4 and Rank 7-8 WE’s and AE’s. It’s pretty common as well.

Spinel is used for Retribution Auras of any kind.

Opal is used for the Increased Mana AE. I’ll be looking for these for that purpose.


Gold Ore


Produces:
(Gold Ore, Quartz, Crystal)

Gold is not common, but not rare. It’s used in all JE’s except Spontaneous Combustion, so Yara will need a ton of the stuff.

Quartz is for the Ranged Protection AE.

Crystal is for the Fire Curse WE. Pyrania will want to grab up all of these.


Fossil


Produces:
(Fossil, Topaz, Sapphire)

Fossil ore is very rare – the rarest in the entire game, in fact. It’s only in one or two places that I have found. We’ll need to rely on stores and random loot. It’s used for Rank 3-4 WE’s and AE’s.

Topaz is for Damage and Magical Damage Auras for AE’s and JE’s, which makes the rarity of the ore unfortunate. Stores and Random loot.

Sapphire is for the Healing Aura JE. That one is more limited by requiring a Malachite Gem. The rarity of Sapphire-bearing ore is nothing in comparison to this.


Black Rock


Produces:
(Black Rock, Obsidian, Pyrite)

The ore is fairly common, but it is used for Rank 7-8 AE’s and WE’s. It’ll be a while before we can find those, so this is no good early on.

Obsidian is for the Butcher WE.

Pyrite is for the Melee Protection AE.


Malachite Vein


Produces:
(Malachite Ore, Aquamarine, Malachite Gem)

The number of Malachite Veins in the entire game can be counted on two hands. The ore is only used for Rank 10 enchantments. It’s the most valuable ore, but it’s not useful early on, so go ahead and sell any chunks of it you find before the second half of the game.

Aquamarine is used in poison WE’s and JE’s. The rarity of Malachite means that you’ll be hard-pressed to scrape together enough Aquamarine to do much with poison.

Malachite Gems are special. There are only a finite amount of Malachite Gems available in the game. Unlike all other ingredients, they aren’t found in stores, or in random loot. They’re used in most Rank 10 Enchantments, and all Healing Aura enchantments. Don’t spend these lightly. Malachite gems are the only thing in the game that I will use save-scumming (offscreen) to get.

Sprite141 posted:

I haven't been exactly fighting at range. Only in that one area as it's very hard not to die, but it's boring as all hell. My main issue was getting in close and crushing the enemies. I'd always die soon after rushing and fire walling. Maybe I'll switch shield to dual wield, and add one point of life leech/mana leech for regen. I'm afraid that if I put in points for magic missile again, I'll start ranging again. So maybe I'll go for magic blast instead, to limit my ranged options and give variety to my gameplay. And if I'm melee-ing I might want to add one point of whirlwind or bleed, so I'll mess around with that for a bit and see how it works out.

Magic Missile is meant for spamming, and you can't do that any your normal attacks at the same time. Magic blast is a good single-target damage spell, but if you want to fight in melee, pick skills that compliment that.

Given you have points into both strength and intelligence, you might want to look for weapons which are pretty even on normal and magic damage - perhaps a bit more toward magic damage, since you have higher intelligence.

Those points into Strength won't go to waste either, since it gives a bonus to health regeneration.

quote:

I wasn't going to use any set armor, as it really one-sides your defenses. But before this LP, I didn't know that defenses don't matter that much. As such, I will totally be using it. I also didn't know that the magic damage on weapons work based on int, so that really helps out too. That was essentially the only reason I was putting points into str, but now I can just look for magic weapons and focus on those. And maybe use the rest of my stat points into vit, or str to boost what melee damage I do get.

So thanks! I really didn't know anything about the defenses, or how many things int affects. That bit alone really helps out, though it's good to know my skill strategy wasn't foolish to begin with.

I don't know how the armour formula is calculated exactly, but the X resistance in your stats screen is your damage reduction. Armour isn’t completely worthless, but it’s not the most important thing to worry about in gear. The other benefits from a set outweigh the lower armour values from other stuff.

Definitely don't try to max out all your attributes just for the sake of increasing your resistances, it can’t really be done.

quote:

1b- Early on bracelets don't mater much but  If that +1 to unarmed is an enchantment, and not a charm, you can steal it for your enchanter by disenchanting it. This allows you to put it onto any other bracelet or jewelery later on  Also EXP this early on doesn't get anywhere near a necessary boost from wisdom to validate putting points into it, and you might find a better one later on.

No, the +1 Unarmed can't be removed from the item.

Hammer Backspace posted:

1C and 2C.

I'm not really sure about the ethics of some of Yara's actions. I mean, she's generally nice to people and all, but she is also taking orders from the ghost of someone she were meant to kill and is now acting as a limb harvester for the assembly of her pet Frankenstein's monster. It strikes me as a little... dodgy.

Yara isn't exactly racing to the tower like Talana wants. And Talana's goal is to kill Damian and defeat the Black Ring, and the Dragon Slayers do consider the Black Ring as enemies as well, so it's more "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" type thing. She's also stuck with the Dragon Knight powers Talana gave her.

Necromancy is definitely one of the less ethical branches of magic. Some of the other necromancers in the game are much less pleasant to deal with than the man with hostile skeletons and human corpses in his cave.

There are definitely more questionably ethical things to come...