Daggerfall (Hints & tips)
THE ORDERS
If you chose a character that has certain attributes, and juggle it just right, you
can theoretically join up to 6 orders. They include the Mages Guild, Fighters Guild,
Thieves Guild, the Dark Brotherhood, a Knightly Order, and a Temple. Of course joining all
of these orders will subject you to a great amount of expectation from each faction, so it
is quite a juggling act. You ask how can you join the Dark Brotherhood and a Knightly
Order at once? Just don't let the Knightly Order find out. After all, the Dark Brotherhood
is a secret organization, and your membership should be secret as well.
TEMPLES
Chose a Temple wisely. You can only join one, and your membership is permanent. Pick
the Temple that has access to certain exclusive benefits that will suite your needs. What
if you find out you don't like the Temple that you have joined and want to join another
one? There is a way to do it: get kicked out. Do things which will rile the feathers of
the Temple you joined, and they will eventually disassociate you. Once you are kicked out,
you will not have access to all the benefits that they offered before. Note that getting
kicked out is not an easy task to do. You have really work at it.
INGREDIENTS FOR POTIONS
Need more ingredients to conjure up your next batch of magical potions? Certain
enemies tend to carry more ingredients. If you kill them, you can search their body.
Harpies and Imps tend to carry a number ingredients.
MAKING MAGICAL ITEMS- SOUL GEMS
It is possible to use a soul gem to increase the magical potential of an item. First,
make sure you have a soul gem in your inventory. Cast Soul Trap on a monster. Kill the
monster while the spell is still active. Now carry the soul back to a guildhall that has
an Item Maker. When making the item, select the special advantage Soulbound. You will be
shown a list of available souls to use.
COMBAT- IMPACT
Some enemies are considered light in weight, such as skeletons and rats. When
attacking these creatures, try to fight them when they are against a wall. Your attack can
strike an enemy and send it flying back from the force of your attack . If it hits the
wall from the force, it can take on extra damage. It's quite amusing to see a particularly
extra light enemy take a hard hit, fly back a few feet, hit a wall and die from the
impact!
COMBAT- AVOIDING IT
The higher your skill in communicating with particular creatures, the more likely you
can avoid deadly combat and can go about your way in peace. This skill is listed under
Miscellaneous Skills in your Character Sheet screen. In order to communicate, you must
have your weapon put away (who would want to talk to someone who looks ready for combat?)
If you successfully convince a monster not you attack you, they will go about their own
business. However, if you are truly the devious type, you can attack with its back turned!
Your success in communicating is the % rate listed by the specific skill. Thus if your
skill % rate is 80%, you have an 80% success rate in attempting to communicate. Every time
you attempt to communicate with other creatures, even if you fail to successfully do so,
your skill in communicating with that particular creature will improve. Language skills
increase at a greater rate if your intelligence is higher.
CLIMBING DOWN PITS
You see a big pit before you, and you want to enter the abyss. Unless you know that
you can survive a long fall, it is best not to jump straight down. For those that can cast
a Slow fall or Levitate spell, your descent will be easy. For everyone else, you are going
to need a magical item or potion that will grant you the ability to get down there safely.
Often times, there is more than one way to get to a certain area. Try looking for another
way down before jumping into a pit. Also make sure you can get back out!
DUNGEON SECRETS- TRAPDOORS
All trapdoors that you find cannot be opened directly. You have to find a lever, or
solve a puzzle to open them. Most of time, the lever is evident and can be easily found.
Other times, the lever could be a chain hanging from a ceiling or a floating skull. There
are one or two dungeons where lever is one of the torches hanging on the wall! Trying to
find the right torch can be downright mindnumbing!
DUNGEON SECRETS- SECRET DOORS
Secret doors and chambers are often hard to find in dungeons. Unless you check your
automap. Secret doors to hidden areas are shown as empty spaces in the automap. Rotate the
dungeon around to look for these anomalies. This is also a good way to locate the exit to
the dungeon if you get lost. The exit is indicated by a green marker. It's hard to see, so
you have to look carefully.
DUNGEON AUTOMAP
You can left click on a piece of the dungeon to make it flash. Clicking on the gray
bar at the bottom of the screen produces a cursor. Whatever you type in there is attached
to that piece. To see the description again, click on the dungeon piece, and its
description appears in the bar at the bottom of the screen. You can right click on a piece
of the dungeon to hide it temporarily. If you are having trouble seeing parts of the
dungeon, this is a good way to reveal the solution to the maze.
ARGH! TOO MUCH INVENTORY!
You may be a burly man/woman/thing, but in the end you can only carry so much
inventory. A wagon can be bought to carry many things, though it doesn't come cheap.
Instead, what you can do is rent out a room from an inn for a long period of time. This
way, you can store excess inventory in the room while you go out and adventure. Obviously,
in the long term, this isn't very cost effective. One day, you will have to get a wagon,
or a house, or a ship to store all the treasures you gathered from your adventures.
Remember that gold is heavy. Your encumberance will be high, even if your inventory is
low, if you are carrying around lots of gold. One way to lighten your load is to trade the
gold into credit at a bank. There is a small transaction fee, but a letter of credit
stating you have $100,000 in gold is much lighter than $100,000 in gold!
TAKING PICTURES
For those that want to capture the moment, there is a way to take BMP pictures
anywhere in the game. Simply create a PICS subdirectory in the DAGGER directory that is
installed on your harddrive. Now whenever you play the game and see something truly
spectacular, all you have to do is press the / key (backslash key) and a BMP picture is
taken and stored into the PICS subdirectory. To view the picture, simply exit the game and
click on the file in the PICS subdirectory. You can now document your adventures through
Daggerfall and share them!
DATE: 10/01/96
TRAVELING- TIP 1
You have several methods of traveling, ranging from foot, horse, to ship. Each one has
a distinct advantage and disadvantage. A wagon is not considered a mode of traveling, but
it can reduce your encumbrance whether on foot or horse.
FOOT
Walking around can be a leisurely activity, however it can become tedious, especially in
large towns and cities, and can also drain your character of energy and leave you
fatigued. This goes double for running around. However, running around does build your
running skills. This results in faster travel, when on foot, and is particularly useful
when questing in dungeons and castles, as you cannot ride a horse in these environments.
Your Speed Attribute affects how quickly your running skills increase.
HORSE
Having a horse can make travel much quicker, especially when you are in large towns and
cities (i.e. Daggerfall, Sentinel are Wayrest are especially large cities.) Though buying
a horse is expensive, once you own one, it will never die nor will it get sick or
fatigued. You can mount a horse in any outdoor environment. Riding a horse, however,
prevents you from building your running skill, as you are not running on foot.
SHIP
Needless to say, buying a ship is extremely expensive. However, owning a ship has two
advantages, besides being a status symbol! First, a ship can reduce travel time across the
ocean. If you own the ship, travel is free across the water, otherwise it is quite costly
if you use it regularly. Second, a ship can be used to store all of your belongings and
treasures. You need not worry about pirates and thieves, as your ship cannot be attacked
at sea or docked in a harbor.
TRAVELING TIP- FAST TRAVEL
When you travel from town to town, and from province to province, you can fast travel
to get there quicker.
CAUTIOUS VS. RECKLESS
Traveling cautiously takes longer, but your character always arrives in daylight, when the
city gates are open.
INNS VS. CAMP OUT
Camping out is always free. However, it increases travel time a bit to account for the
need to hunt for your food.
BREAKING DOWN DOORS
When a door has nothing to fear from you, it means that your lockpicking skills just
don't cut it. But there is a way around this. You can break the lock on the door by
beating on it! Use your weapon or foot/hand and continually pound on the door til it
opens. It may take quite a number of hits before you succeed. There are some notes of
precaution. Using your weapon to break a door open will degenerate your weapon, and
eventually render it useless (then you will have to find a blacksmith to repair it.) Use
your foot/hand as often as possible. However, this method will take longer to get results
compared to using a weapon, and it also leaves you vulnerable to attack since your weapon
is not ready. Be caution in monster-infested dungeons and castles when attempting to break
open a door. Also, magically held doors will not break down by this method.
BREAKING AND ENTERING
If you want to be a thief at least think like one. Break into houses during the night.
Check around to make sure as few people are around to see your activities. You may
successfully break into a house, but stealing may set off alarms to the household, and the
guards will come after you. Remember that breaking into a house, and stealing are two
different skills. Also, if a house has a second floor, there might be a door into the
house from the second floor. Breaking and entering from the second floor will attract less
attention.
BAD BEHAVIOR CAN BE COSTLY
It sure is fun to break into people's houses or steal from stores. Or you may be the
immoral type that kills innocent people for no reason. Either way, you should know that
your behavior can have harsh consequences. If you are caught too often and brought into
court, you could be banished from a town. The result is that you cannot get in for a long
period of time. If you are the type that likes to run away from the law, you can outrun
the guards, and escape from the town. If you do, you can enter back into the town and the
guards will not recognize you. That is, if you do not pull anything criminally excessive
off, like kill a dozen innocent bystanders. The guards will recognize you if you exit and
enter the town again, and they will chase you down.
STORES AND MERCHANTS
Pay close attention to the text that appears whenever you enter a store. If the text
indicates that the store is of good quality, you want to look around to find rare items
for sale which are hard to come by. There tends to be high quality items in these stores.
However, you should never sell your inventory to these stores. These merchants tend to be
shrewd business folks, and can often negotiate better than you. However, if the text
indicates that the store is of shoddy quality, you want to sell your inventory. The
merchants that run these stores tend to be worse at negotiation, thus you will be able to
get more money for the things you sell. Note that if you want to purchase merchandise from
a store, click on the shelves where the merchandise is located.
When buying and selling items, a COST bar appears above your character portrait. The first number is the base value of the items being exchanged. The second number is how much gold your character is carrying. Beware! You will never buy or sell items for the price shown here. However, you can find out how badly you bargained or how dramatic the economic conditions of the region are influencing prices. Even in the best of circumstances, there will be a significant difference between the buying and selling prices of items.
TAVERNS
If you rent a room in a tavern for many days, you can leave your stuff there safely.
So long as you return before the time expires, your stuff is safe. When you enter a town,
a message appears on the screen if you have a room at any tavern anywhere in that town.
Once every four hours you can buy food or drink at a tavern. This will restore a small
amount of health.
QUESTS- EXTERMINATION
Some quests will have you out to kill creatures that have infested a house or a
tavern. When you attempt to kill these creatures, be aware that there could be a variable
number of them infesting a certain location. Do not let them gang up on you! You do not
have to kill all of the creatures to successfully complete the quest. Generally, the quest
is completed once you kill about 2/3 of all creatures. Text will generally appear to
indicate that you have successfully completed the quest.
QUESTS-YOU'RE A HITMAN/HITWOMAN
You may be called upon to kill someone. When you discover where that person may be
hiding out, note that the door may be locked. It's locked for a good reason. He/she knows
that hitmen are out there! You may have to break the door down. Also, you may not find
your victim at certain times. They too have lives, and may be located at different
locations at different times of the day. Often times if you wait at your victim's hangout,
they will eventually come in. One quest has you going after someone who sleeps in his
house at night, works during the day, and drinks at a tavern after work. He can be found
at one of those locations. If you ask around, someone might be able to direct you to him.
QUESTS- DON'T ALWAYS BE A HERO
Often times, a quest giver will threaten you if you do not take a quest. Do not take
his/her word too harshly, as ultimately his threats will have little consequence in the
game. Make sure that your skills are advanced enough, and that you have the proper
equipment before you accept a quest. Failing a quest will have a greater negative effect
on your reputation than turning a quest down.
COMBAT- ARCHERY TIP 1
Using a bow and arrow as a weapon can be extremely useful in avoiding hand to hand
combat, especially against creatures that can paralyze you. You do have a limited supply
of arrows, and the number of arrows you can carry depends on how much encumbrance you can
take (check encumbrance level on your Character Sheet screen.) What do you do when you are
deep in a dungeon and run out of arrows? Try searching the body of dead enemies which you
killed with an arrow. Chances are you can successfully find the arrows and reuse them.
This also goes for arrows which are shot at you. Check your inventory, and see if you
managed to pull the arrow out to reuse! Now that's recycling! There is a distinct
disadvantage when using a bow and arrow. When enemies manage to get close in and attack
you, it will take a few seconds for you to switch to close range weapon, thus leaving you
vulnerable to the first attack.
DATE: 09/25/96
STARTING OUT AND EXPLORING CITIES
There are over 16,000 locales in the game Daggerfall, ranging from dungeons, towns,
farms, castles, to cities. Some of the most impressive sites are the main cities in each
province. Take some time to explore the cities of Daggerfall, Sentinel, and Wayrest, each
located in their prospective province by the same name. The main quest will have you
visiting these cities one time or another, so explore them at your leisure, and enjoy the
sites. Of particular visual beauty are the central castles in each city. It is not
recommended to visit the city of Daggerfall at night. It is haunted by the undead, which
are difficult to kill. You can avoid these creatures by staying indoors at night.
CONTROLS
When you start the game, experiment using the View Interface. This is the interface
used in many 3D action games including Terminator: Future Shock and the other game
equivalent to "Ground Shaker". Basically, your movement forward and backward are
controlled by the keyboard, and your ability to look around is controlled by the mouse.
Most of us here at Bethesda prefer the View Interface, though Julian Lefay and a few
others prefer the Cursor Interface. Since you are going to be sitting down with the game
for a long time, get comfortable with an interface which you think will be the most
effective and efficient for you in the long term.
BUILDING YOUR SKILLS: TIP 1
Never do anything normal in Daggerfall, because it doesn't build any skills.
Daggerfall is designed so that when you use a skill more often, the better you get at it.
Even simple things like exploring a town and dungeon can become training grounds. When in
a town, always run around. This builds your running skill. When in a dungeon, sneak around
since this builds your stealth skill.
BUILDING YOUR SKILLS: TIP 2
Always try to build your primary and major skills. Your advancement in level directly
depends upon how quickly you build up your entire group of primary and major skills. There
is a specific formula that is used, but to go into detail of how it works is like math
class. However, what I can tell you is that since skills advance at a decreasing rate as
you become more proficient at that skill, it will take more effort into building that
skill. However, there are certain skills which you do not use often and will naturally be
lower. Train in guilds to build these skills. They will initially advance faster, and the
faster you advance in overall primary and major skills, the faster your level advances.
Remember, it is the sum of skill points in the primary and major skill categories that
advance your level.
WHO KNOWS WHAT ABOUT WHAT
It can be trying attempting to get information you need from someone. You just have to
know who to talk to. Certain types of people tend to have more information about things
than others. Folks walking around the streets tend to know more about specific places in
towns and locations. Scholars in guilds tend to know more about specific objects.
Merchants and the underworld (thieves, prostitutes) tend to know the gossip about certain
people. By the way, prostitutes are generally found in taverns. And no, you cannot partake
of any unscrupulous activities with them.
ETIQUETTE/STREETWISE SKILLS
These two skills play a factor in several things.
TONE OF COMMUNICATING
When communicating with others, you can speak to them in several tones, which include
polite, normal, and bluntly. Your etiquette skill influences your ability to speak to
others politely. The better your etiquette skill, the more likely those well received from
polite conversation will address your needs. Nobles and knights are just a few examples of
those that demand polite conversation. The more you use polite conversation, the more your
etiquette skill will develop. Your streetwise skill influences your ability to speak to
others bluntly. Thieves and other uncouth sorts will respond towards this tone better, and
in fact prefer it. The more you use blunt conversation, the more your streetwise skill
will develop.
STANDING BEFORE A JUDGE
There are several instances where you must appear in court (i.e. killing a townsperson,
and then surrendering to a guard.) If you deem yourself not guilty, you have the option to
debate or lie to clear yourself. Your etiquette skill influences your ability to debate.
The better this skill, the more likely the judge will set you free. The more often you
debate, the more your etiquette skill will develop. Your streetwise skill influences your
ability to lie. The better this skill, the more likely the judge will buy your story. The
more often you lie, the more your streetwise skill will develop.
COMBAT: TIP 1
When engaging in close combat with an enemy, you should move back and forth often.
When you swing your weapon, move in close to strike, then move back out to give you time
to ready your weapon again and to dodge the enemy's attack. Note that enemies will only
engage in combat when you are close to them. They will not react and swing their weapon if
you are out of range. Of course this only applies to enemies that do not have long range
attacks.