___________             THE
\    ___   \  ____           _   _
|  |   \   \| ___| ________| | | |
|  |    |  || |_  |__   __|| | | | _____   __   __
|  |____/  /|  _|    | |   | | | ||  __ \ |  \ | |
|         / | |__    | |   | |_| || |__/ ||   \| |
|  -----  \ |____|   | |    \___/ |  __ / | |\   |
|  |    \  \         |_|          | | \ \ |_| \__|
|  |     \  \                     |_|  \_\
/__\      \  \  ____             _______         ____
\__\/    \   ______ /___   ___\_   _ |  __|
/  __  \ |  ___ |    | |   | | | || |_
THE LORD  |  /  \  || |   \|    | |   | |_| ||  _|  RINGS
|  \__/  || |___      | |   |  _  || |__
\      / |  ___|     | |   | | | ||____|
\____/  | |         |_|   |_| |_|
| |
|_|
______    ___
\    /   /  /     __   __
|  |   /  /____ |  \ | |  ___
|  |  /  / \   /|   \| | / __\
|  |_/  /   | | | |\   || / ___
|   _  \    | | |_| \__|| | \ /
|  | \  \   | |         | |_| |
|  |  \  \ /___\         \____/
|  |   \  \
/__\    \  \
\__\
“Authority is not given to you to deny
the Return of the King, Steward!”
-Gandalf, in Return of the King
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~       The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King           ~
*                    For Game Boy Advance                       *
~ Smeagol FAQ by radagast416 (smeagolfaq [at] yahoo [dot] com)  ~
*                     Created 1/10/04                           *
~                           v1.12                               ~
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
-----------------
Table of Contents
-----------------
**Please note that the Search commands are in parenthesis. (Use Ctrl+f)
I. Version History (v/e)
II. Introduction (i/n)
III. Smeagol Frequently Asked Questions (s/m)
IV. Playing the Game (p/l)
-Playing in Bonus Maps
-Multiplayer
V. Statistics and Strategies (s/t)
-Smeagol Strategies
~Your First Kill
~Passive Smeagol
~Active Smeagol
~Mixture Smeagol
-Five Attribute Statistics (f/i)
-Efficient Money Making Strategy (e/f)
~Cheap Modifiers/Items
~The Exceptions
~Iron Neckwear- Why It’s So Special
~Valuable Modifiers
~Other Hints
-Bonus Map Strategies (b/o)
~Mines of Moria
~Helm’s Deep
~Fangorn Forest –SOON TO COME-
~Weathertop
VI. Skills of Smeagol (s/k)
-Passive Skills
-Active Skills
VII. Everything Else-Thanks, Credits etc. (e/v)
__________________________________________________________________________
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I. VERSION HISTORY (v/e)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
v1.12  (04/30/04)  Changed this formatting on the skills.  It took me a while,
so you better like it!
v1.11  (04/24/04)  More modifiers and whatnot.
v1.10  (04/13/04)  Two new things added today, the subsections “Iron Neckwear-
Why It’s So Special” and “Valuable Modifiers”.
v1.05  (04/02/04)  Miscellaneous things
v1.04  (03/17/04)  Woot for updates!
v1.03  (03/05/04)  Formatting and Fangorn.  I promise I’ll find a good
strategy for this accursed forest.
v1.02  (02/29/04)  Ugg...more formatting stuff.
v1.01  (02/28/04)  Added some stuff to the modifiers list
v1.00  (02/20/04)  Proofreading etc.  All that fun stuff.
v.99b  (02/06/04)  Minor spelling errors corrected
v.99   (02/03/04)  Fixed the map which was formatted wrong
v.98   (01/30/04)  Submitted to GameFAQS, the FAQ is practically finished,
only Fangorn is left to do
v.96   (01/27/04)  Started attribute section
v.95   (01/26/03)  Finished Helm’s Deep, Money Making, done with skills
v.85   (01/25/04)  Helm’s Deep ASCII map
v.83   (01/24/04)  Finished Moria, Started Helm’s Deep
v.80   (01/22/04)  Weathertop, started Moria
v.79   (01/20/04)  A little bit in almost every section
v.77   (01/19/04)  Passive skill notes, added some multiplayer stuff, other
things
v.72   (01/17/04)  Finished MLRs for Active Smeagol, did some of the MLRs for
Passive
v.70   (01/16/04)  Mixture Smeagol, Everything Else Section, more MLR/skills
v.60   (01/13/04)  More skills (mostly the notes and MLR), more Active Smeagol
notes
v.50   (01/12/04)  Attempted to do the Active and Passive Smeagol Sections
v.45   (01/11/04)  Worked on Section III, along with some skills
v.40   (01/10/04)  Started the FAQ, finished the ASCII Art, Section I-III
complete for now, started the skills.
__________________________________________________________________________
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
II. INTRODUCTION (i/n)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welcome to the Smeagol FAQ, which is also my first attempt at writing a
guide!  The point of this guide is to help you, the player, take Smeagol, who
is arguably one of the weakest characters in the game, and turn him into an
Orc eating machine.  This FAQ was made for The Lord of the Rings: Return of
the King GBA Game, made by Griptonite Games and published by EA Games.
Like I said above, this guide should be used to perfect the character
Smeagol.  Let’s face it, Smeagol is meant to be a challenge.  The people who
made the game gave him numerous downsides in an attempt to deter people from
playing with him.  I mean, he doesn’t have a quest, he can’t equip any items,
and when you look at him, the term “warrior” doesn’t exactly come to mind.
It will take a ton of diligence and patience just to get Smeagol to level 20,
let alone 52.  However, despite all of his faults, Smeagol is still one of my
favorite characters to play with.  And by the time you finish reading this
guide he will be a favorite of yours also (hopefully).
As mentioned above, this is also my first attempt at a guide.  You’ll have to
bear with me, because this FAQ is sure to have lots and lots of mistakes
until I finally learn what the heck I’m doing.  On that note, let’s move on
to the actual FAQ...
__________________________________________________________________________
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
III. SMEAGOL FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (s/m)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pretty self explanatory what’s here, that would be frequently asked questions
that pertain to Smeagol!  That being said let us start the questioning:
Q: Who is Smeagol?
A: Smeagol is one of the many characters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s
masterpiece, “The Lord of the Rings”.  He is best known as the character who
guides Frodo and Sam through Mordor.  For a more complete answer, go read the
books or watch the movies of the same name.
Q: Ok, we know who Smeagol is, but who is this Gollum character?
A: Smeagol and Gollum are the same person.  Smeagol was his name before he
was corrupted by the One Ring.  After that, he became known as Gollum because
of the noise that he made.  Frodo, who is more sympathetic towards Smeagol,
insists on calling him his real given name, while Sam, the less trusting one,
calls him Gollum.
Q: How come I can’t find Smeagol? I try to start a quest with him and he
isn’t there!!
A: First, you must unlock Smeagol by beating the game with any two of the
staring characters (Frodo, Legolas, Aragorn, Eowyn, Gandalf and Gimli).
After beating the game, go to bonus maps, and with an EMPTY SAVE SLOT keep
scrolling until you can play as Smeagol.
Q: I can’t equip any items to Smeagol; can he wear any of the items that he
finds?
A: Nope, Smeagol can’t equip anything, thus making him a challenging
character.
Q: What about Orc Heads, those affect his courage stats right?
A: Wrong.  Orc Heads do absolutely nothing for Smeagol.  Good news is that
Orc Drums (-5 Accuracy, sells for 500 gems) don’t affect Smeagol either!
Q: But whetstones effect him, right?
A: I’m pretty sure that they do, because whetstones add to your character’s
damage, not the damage that your weapons dish out.
Q: So, I played a bonus map with him and then saved the game under the save
slot.  But when I select “Load Game” and try to pick him the game makes some
weird noise and I can’t select Smeagol! Help!!
A: You can only play Smeagol under the bonus maps or multiplayer, sorry.
Q: So there is no level for Smeagol called “Anduin River: Anduin Banks”?
A: That is correct; there isn’t a playable level for Smeagol of that name.
Q: Why doesn’t Smeagol have his own quest?
A: Because the people who made the game decided that he would be a bonus
character instead.  Besides, how weird would a quest be if the goal was to
take the Ring?
Q: Why is Smeagol so scary looking?
A: All hobbits are scary.  Have you looked at Frodo recently?
__________________________________________________________________________
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
IV. PLAYING THE GAME (p/l)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
=====================
Playing in Bonus Maps
=====================
As mentioned in the Smeagol Frequently Asked Questions section, one of the
few places that you can play Smeagol in are the bonus maps.  The four bonus
maps in the game are: The Mines of Moria, Helm’s Deep, Fangorn Forest, and
Weathertop.  Here’s how to unlock the bonus maps:
1. Mines of Moria- Kill at least 2,000 enemies with one character
2. Helm’s Deep- Complete the game with one character
3. Fangorn Forest- Complete the game with ALL six characters
4. Weathertop- Collect all eight artifacts
The bonus maps will serve as Smeagol’s “quest”.  If you’re thinking to
yourself, “Well, this shouldn’t be very challenging because the bonus maps
are so short!” then might I suggest beginning a bonus map with Smeagol and
then you will see how difficult it can be.  For map strategies, see the
section entitled “Statistics and Strategies”.  For any other bonus map
information, for example, the location of the eight artifacts, please see
another FAQ at www.gamefaqs.com.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
===========
Multiplayer
===========
Not much to say about this.  All you need to know is that Smeagol, along with
the other bonus map character, Sam, is available to play in Multiplayer,
should you feel inclined to use him.  If you’re playing on Grueling make sure
that you are playing with a friend you trust, because friendly fire is on!
And odds are, unless your Smeagol is extremely good, or your friend’s
character sucks, you’ll lose in a one-on-one battle.
__________________________________________________________________________
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
V. STATISTICS AND STRATEGIES (s/t)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Every player needs a strategy for their character in order to be successful.
Smeagol is no exception to this rule, although his strategy will be
drastically different, as he cannot equip any items, and Orc Heads don’t
affect him.  Therefore, you are relying on Smeagol’s active and passive
skills to turn Smeagol into the warrior that he can become.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
==================
Smeagol Strategies
==================
There are three different types of Smeagols that you can build, as is the
case for most characters.  They are Passive Smeagol, Active Smeagol, and a
Mixture Smeagol.  Below are the pros and cons for each of the three types of
Smeagols.
---------------
Your First Kill
---------------
Ok, I lied.  First we have to talk about getting your first kill as Smeagol.
No matter what type of Smeagol you decide to use you’re helpless if you can’t
kill anything.  And unlike the other characters in the game, you don’t get
your first kill for free from one of the computer’s characters.  So here’s
what you do.  First select the bonus map Moria, as it’s the easiest to play
(for more information see the Bonus Maps Strategies later on in this
section).  Go straight down and then left until you see a large pillar.  Now
go near the pillar and up until you trigger the Orcs coming down the pillar.
Once they’re reached the ground, draw one out from the group by running away,
and then turn around really fast and just start pushing the “B” button like
there’s no tomorrow!  Pretty soon it should die, and you’ve got your first
kill!
Don’t worry if that was a bit of a struggle because the first kill is the
hardest.  Ok, I lied again.  The next kill is tougher because if you die you
now have something to lose (experience and gems if you have any).  But do not
fear! Simply save your game but don’t quit, then use the same strategy to
kill a second Orc.  If you die, just turn off the game and turn it on again.
Repeat this process until you feel you can go on playing like a normal
character would.
---------------
Passive Smeagol
---------------
Passive Smeagol is just what he sounds like.  He uses his passive skills to
survive.  Passive skills are the skills on the left hand side of the skill
screen.  They are skills that are in effect all of the time.  A Passive
Smeagol is recommended for the average player who wants to develop Smeagol to
a point where he’s a pretty good character, but doesn’t want to go all the
way to level 52 (the maximum level). He is one of the easier Smeagol types to
build.  A maxed Passive Smeagol would only need 41 skill points, and a
minimum level of 23.  Neither is that difficult to achieve.  For the former,
by the time you are at level 23, you would have only have had to bought 18
skill points, which is pretty cheap considering every item that you pick up
you sell.  As for the latter, the more difficult of the two, level 23 may
seem far off, but using slick bonus map strategies you can accomplish that
goal easily (see the Bonus Map Strategies section).
So what are the pros of a Passive Smeagol?  We’ve already mentioned in the
above paragraph that it’s pretty easy to have a maxed Passive Smeagol.  Not
only that, but Smeagol’s maxed skills are definitely some of the better ones
in the game (take a look at some of the other character’s passive skills).
Third, you’re going to have trouble playing as Smeagol without using any of
his passive skills.  Fourth, no need for spirit points, which means no need
to waste your precious attribute points on courage.  And fifth, the very
nature of passive skills, which is that they’re always in effect.
Now, the cons of playing as Passive Smeagol.  The first is you have nothing
to take out enemies from a long distance.  An active skill like Rock Throw is
useful in taking out archers from a distance, instead of having to run up to
them, taking damage as you go (and at 10 missile armor, that’s not good).
Second, you don’t get any instant power ups if you’re fighting a particularly
difficult enemy.  The Active Skill “Gollum” is a good example of an instant
power up (+5 Strength, Accuracy, Defense/Level, 80 Spirit).  Third, while
playing as a Passive Smeagol the only attacks that you have are your physical
attacks, which could get boring after a while.
--------------
Active Smeagol
--------------
Active Smeagol uses his active skills...imagine that.  Active skills are the
skills on the right hand side of the skill screen.  These are the skills that
are in the shape of an upside down pyramid.  Active skills are ones that use
the “A” button, and use Spirit Points.  Active skills for Smeagol can be
power ups, actual attacks, or distractions, among other things.  These skills
are only in effect for a short time, though you can use them repeatedly, as
your Spirit Points replenish.  Beware!  You must watch your Spirit Points
Meter, because without them, an Active Smeagol is in serious trouble.  A
maxed Active Smeagol would be in the normal-harder range as far as building
the character goes.  Although it should be said that maxing an Active Smeagol
requires less “work” then a maxed Passive Smeagol, it might require more
time.  Read on to see why:
The first pro to Active Smeagol is he can use the cool active attacks that
can take out enemies from a distance, and distract them (and other nifty
skills), giving Smeagol an advantage.  Second, you wouldn’t need to use
attribute points on strength and accuracy, since you’ll be using your active
skills.  The last pro of playing with Active Smeagol is how quickly he can be
maxed.  There are only six active skills, and one of them (Herbal Healing) is
already maxed.  This means that you only need to be level 20 and have bought
a measly 5 skill points (this is assuming that you’re not using any of you
skill points on passive skills).  So you might be saying, “Well why would a
maxed Active Smeagol require more time then a maxed passive?” Prepare to
become enlightened, by reading on.
One major con of Active Smeagol, is exactly what his name implies, he doesn’t
use passive skills!  This makes things considerably harder for you, because
you’ll have no missile/melee armor, no dodge, and little speed for starters.
The first levels of the game will be extremely difficult without these
passive skills, since your courage is low enough already.  This leads us to
our second con, the aforementioned fact that there will be a time when
Smeagol’s active skills won’t work, as he will have no Spirit Points to use
them.  Again, the first levels will present a problem; many times they will
end in your death.
I should mention that if you are planning on using Active Smeagol, you should
use the Quick Skill Select System, so you can switch between skills easily.
To do this, go to the Option’s Menu and then turn the Quick Skill Option
to “On”.  Then simply assign an active skill to a button.  The buttons that
you can assign them to are “A”, “B”, and the “R” buttons.  Thanks to Horklump
for the following information on changing quick skills, and removing quick
skills that you no longer need:
“Changing Quick skills: Highlight an active skill and press SELECT. Pressing
SELECT again while the same skill is highlighted will cycle which button it's
assigned to.
With Quick skill turned OFF, highlighting an active skill and pressing SELECT
will remove it from the normal queue cycle. This is great if you've put
points into a skill that you no longer use, but you are using more than three
active skills regularly.”
---------------
Mixture Smeagol
---------------
Mixture Smeagol is in most people’s opinions the easiest to play as.  This
Smeagol build uses a mixture of passive and active skills (bet you didn’t see
that one coming!).  The above descriptions of the Passive and Active Smeagols
were geared towards the average player’s wants, which was usually playing
with a character into they are in there mid 20’s (by then both of the
different types of Smeagols should have their skills maxed).  Therefore, the
average Active Smeagol player will have an interesting mixture between maxed
active and passive skills, while some skills will be left completely
untouched.  For the EXTREME Mixture Smeagol Player, they could max every
skill, both passive and active.
The first pro to a Mixture Smeagol is it combines the best of both worlds,
creating a very powerful, balanced character.  The last pro of Mixture
Smeagol is that it cancels out the other two types of Smeagols’ weaknesses.
That probably didn’t make much sense, so here’s an example: Most of Passive
Smeagols’ weaknesses are because he doesn’t use active skills; the same goes
for Active Smeagol.  So Mixture Smeagol shouldn’t have any cons...right?
Unfortunately, Mixture Smeagol comes with its own set of weaknesses.  One is
that you can’t use all of the cool, pretty, skills, instead you have to rely
on the most important ones (this could be a pro or a con; sometimes I like to
use skills that do absolutely nothing just because they look cool).  Second,
you’ll never have the satisfaction of having both passive and active skills
maxed, unless you plan to go all the way to level 52.  Third, if you’re
really bad with buttons, Mixture Smeagol might take a little getting used to
(although it’s only 2 more buttons; see the Quick Skilling paragraph in the
Active Smeagol section).  And finally, you’ll have to raise the five
attribute statistics (Accuracy, Courage, Defense, Health, and Strength)
somewhat equally; as opposed to if you were doing Passive Smeagol you could
neglect Courage.
The skills that you use for Mixture Smeagol are up to your own discretion.
In the “Skills of Smeagol” section I have made notes on which passive and
active skills I believe are the most important, but ultimately you have to
choose how much time you want to spend with Smeagol, and if you will
distribute your skills equally to both passive and active skills, or favor
one over the other.  It’s your decision.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
==============================
Five Attribute Statistics (f/i)
==============================
The five attribute statistics are the stats that are on the same screen that
shows your level, experience, gems, enemies slain, etc.  These five statistics
are: Strength, Accuracy, Health, Defense, and Courage.  In this section,
you’ll find a brief explanation of what these stats do, as well as
suggestions as to where to spend your attribute points.
Personally, I like to raise the stats Strength, Accuracy, and Defense,
relatively equally, while putting a few points every so often into Health and
Courage.  This is because I believe that a fairly well-rounded character is
the best.  Many people feel that they should raise one stat until it’s pretty
high (usually over 100) and then work on a second.  The basis for their
argument is usually something like this: “If you have 150 in strength, it
will only take two hits to kill them!”  And then another person will respond
with, “Why do you have points in strength if you never even hit the
enemies!?!”  Nevertheless, in the end, most people agree that your character
should have stats that are relatively close to each other (within at least 30
points).  So in reality, you get to decide if you want to raise the stats
pretty equally, or pour all your points into one stat, then work on the
others.  Anyways, on with the analysis of the stats:
STRENGTH- For every 4 points put into this skill, your maximum and minimum
damage goes up by 1. For every 1 point, your HP is increased by 1.  Strength
is a nifty little statistic because putting points in it will increase damage
and health.  This statistic has the second highest amount of points in it on
my Smeagol (although it’s only about 5 behind the first).
ACCURACY- Your chance of hitting you opponent (before Defense is factored in)
goes up by 1 for every point you put here.  It’s pretty simple to understand
accuracy; the higher it is the better chance you’ve got of hitting the
enemy.  This only applies for weapons, so if you use only active skills, you
have no need to put points here.  Accuracy is the highest stat on my Smeagol.
HEALTH- HP goes up 4 and SP goes up 1 per point.  A sure fire sign that your
health is too low is if you get killed by an Orc in 3 hits.  Health is
important for Smeagol, because he can’t use the Meditative Elf Rune (which
allows you to recover HP by standing still), so once you’ve been hit, the
only way to heal if food and herbs.  However, health is the lowest stat on
the author’s Smeagol (about 10 behind courage).
DEFENCE- Putting points in this skill raises your defense.  Defense is more
like defense against your opponent’s accuracy.  The higher your defense, the
less likely your enemy will hit you.  Although you can’t see any change on
the stats screen, defense works, as it acts similar to dodge.  For my
Smeagol, defense is the third highest skill, about 3 points behind strength.
COURAGE- Raises your SP by 4 points and your HP by 1 every point.  For Active
Smeagols, courage is a necessity.  For Passive Smeagols, don’t even bother
with it.  But for Mixture Smeagols, courage gives you the chance to perform
more active skills quickly, while adding to your HP.  Courage is second
lowest on my Smeagol (it’s 10 behind defense).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
====================================
Efficient Money Making Strategy (e/f)
====================================
We’ve already covered the fact that Smeagol can’t equip any of the items that
he finds.  Therefore you should be raking in the gems (currency in the game)
with Smeagol!  This is a good way to buy a whole bunch of skill and attribute
points, and whetstones.  Don’t bother buying any runes though, they won’t
work.  So you’re playing through the game, and naturally your inventory is
full.  But you see this item called “Bronze Smallsword”.  Wow!  That sounds a
heck of a lot better then my “Rusty Smallsword”.  I mean, the prefix “Bronze”
is good right? Wrong!  “Bronze” is one of the many prefixes that make you
item sell for less gems.  In the description of the item, you will see the
word “Cheap” at the very end.
While I was playing, I compiled a short list of some of the modifiers that
are cheap, and items that are almost always cheap.  NOTE! This is not a
complete modifiers guide.  Just something that the reader can look over and
make mental notes of which modifiers make items cheap.
-------------------------------
Cheap Modifiers and Cheap Items
-------------------------------
These prefixes usually sound like they are cheap.  However, there are
exceptions to this “rule”.  The items, like the prefixes, have exceptions, and
both of the exceptions are under the exceptions list, entitled “The
Exceptions”.  Confused yet? The exceptions list is right below this list.
And on top of all of that there’s the whole “Iron Neckwear” situation.  But
let’s take things one at a time.  Here are some of the cheap modifiers found
in the game:
Arrows* **
Bronze
Corroded
Cheap
Clogs*
Dirtied
Easterling
Knobbed
Inferior
Iron***
Manflesh
Moldy
Rugged
Shoddy
Sloppy
Smelly
Used
*Item
**Includes the modifiers that generally are names of races.  Example:
Gondorian Arrows. Some of these modifiers are: Elven, Gondorian, Orcish, and
Uruk-Hai.
***Please see the “Iron Neckwear” subsection.  It’s right below “The
Exceptions” subsection.
--------------
The Exceptions
--------------
There are exceptions to almost any rule.  Surprise!  There are exceptions to
the two above rules regarding prefix names and items.  The following may
sound cheap, but in reality they aren’t:
Ancient
Arrows* **
Burned
Cumbersome
Foul
Goblin
Half-Eaten
Old
Ragged
Rotting
Rusted
Rusty
Stained
Tainted
Tarnished
Uruk
Warped
Worn
*Item
**Arrows with the modifiers of elements are usually not cheap.  These include
the following prefixes: Fire, Sun, and Moon.
-----------------------------------
Iron Neckwear- Why It’s So Special
-----------------------------------
It occurred to me recently as I was playing this game, trying to add onto the
cheap modifiers list that some of the items that still had the modifier
of “Iron” on it, weren’t cheap, rather they were like normal items.  I
noticed three of these items, and looked what they had in common.  As of the
writing of this particular subsection, I can hypothesize that neckwear items
with the modifier “Iron” aren’t cheap items.  This hypothesis is subject to
change of course, as I encounter more of these items.  But for right now, I’m
including yet another list; this one shows the “Iron Neckwear” items:
Iron Clasp
Iron Collar
Iron Necklace
Iron Talisman
If I find anymore items with the “Iron” modifier, and they aren’t cheap I’ll
add it to the list.  And if the item isn’t a neckwear item, then I guess I’ll
have to change my hypothesis.  The same goes for if I find some more neckwear
items, but have a different modifier.
-------------------
Valuable Modifiers
-------------------
Once again as I was playing this game, I had an enlightening experience
regarding this FAQ.  This time it was that having a “Valuable Modifiers”
subsection is probably just as important as a “Cheap Modifiers” subsection.
It’s useful to know which items are valuable, just in case you inventory is
full, but all of the items in there are just your normal, basic items.  So,
without any further suspense, the “Valuable Modifiers” list:
Cavalier’s
Consecrated
Engraved
Fine
Flawless
Gemstudded
Nobel
Towerstone
White Diamond
This list is a work in progress.  I’ll add more modifiers when I encounter
them.  OR WILL I?!?  Thank you for your patience.
-----------
Other Hints
-----------
Here are some general tips to ensure you get the most gems possible:
-Avoid cheap items.  See the lists right above to know which to avoid.
-Red items usually sell for the most, followed by green, and then the base
items (yellow text).
-Of all of the different items, items that you wear on your neck (necklaces,
pendants, keepsakes, charms etc.) generally sell for the most.  Sometimes a
base neck item, will sell for more then a green item.
-If you are debating which item to keep, as a general rule, items with the
higher minimum level requirement sell for more.  Keep in mind the rules about
neckwear, and cheap items though.
-The valuable and cheap modifiers in the description are always at the end.
-Orc Heads, which are a backpack item that give +1 Courage, should be sold
immediately.  They sell for 300 gems.  Smeagol’s stats aren’t affected by
carrying these around so don’t try.
-Orc Drums, which do -5 Accuracy while in the backpack, sell for 500 gems.
Again, Smeagol’s stats aren’t affected.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
==========================
Bonus Map Strategies (b/o)
==========================
Ahhh, the bonus maps.  Most people play through their character’s quest
first, and then venture into this exciting little world.  (Un)Fortunately for
you, Smeagol doesn’t have a main quest, yay!  So you get to play through the
bonus maps in order to level Smeagol up.  And for that, you will need
strategies for the bonus maps.  As a reminder, the four bonus maps are: Mines
of Moria, Helm’s Deep, Fangorn Forest, and Weathertop.  So here are the
strategies (and a bit about each place):
--------------
Mines of Moria
--------------
“Moria.  You fear to go into those Mines.” -Saruman
And why shouldn’t you fear?  Moria, seen in “Fellowship of the Ring”, was a
mine that the Fellowship passed through on their perilous journey.  The Mines
were a massive Dwarf graveyard with Orcs running amok, killing at will.  But
the greatest foe of all could be found in Moria.  The enemy against whom
Gandalf the Grey perished in an epic battle, atop the mountain of Zirak-
zigil.  The Balrog.
The Mines of Moria makes a return appearance in The Return of the King, from
last year’s game, The Two Towers.  Lucky for you, you aren’t going to fight
the Balrog at all.  But there are still many other enemies that can put a
swift end to your journey.  Including a full size troll, several half trolls,
and swarms of spiders.
The basic strategy of Moria is to take the whole map slowly.  Moria has
several levels in it, making it the longest bonus map.  Go through a level
until your HP is pretty low, and then save your game, exit and restart.  Yes,
you’ll be at the beginning of the Mines again.  But this time, you should be
stronger, and know the locations of enemies, shrines etc.  When you play
through this time, you should get a bit further.  And so on, until you have
completely passed through the Mines of Moria.  At the end, awaits your prize,
Runes that Smeagol can’t even use!!!
To help you get started, first go straight south, and then west (assume that
the top of the screen is always north).  When you see the pillar, start
heading north, but just enough so that you “trigger” the Orcs coming down the
pillar.  If you’re strong enough, kill these four Orcs, if not, then draw
them out one at a time before killing them.  Repeat this process with the
three other pillars closest to the Moria entrance.  Then, go to the furthest
pillar, which is near a chest, and get ready to kill these Orcs, which are
archers.  The archers are generally weaker then normal Orcs, but if they
spread out, you could be dealt a lot of damage from the arrows.  You’ve now
cleared the very top of the first Moria level.
It’s pretty hard to get lost in this level, but near the end, the enemies can
be difficult for a weaker Smeagol.  At one point in the level (approximately
half-way through or so) you’ll go by a whole bunch of archers, who are
standing on the next level above you.  You should also see a bunch of
barrels.  Don’t worry about taking the time to get the items inside the
barrels, because the arrows from the archers won’t hit you.
If you kill all of the enemies in the level, then you get to fight five Green
Orcs at the end of the level.  There is also a shrine about 40% of the way
through, and a forge about two thirds of the way through.
This is just a glimpse of what is to come!  In my opinion, the Mines of Moria
is the most entertaining of the four bonus maps to play.  On the next map,
there are swarms of spiders to fight, and there is even a well where an
infinite supply of spiders will come from.  What happens after that map is up
for you the player to find.  You might even find the secret Moria room.
Overall, Moria is the easiest of the four bonus maps to play.
-----------
Helm’s Deep
-----------
“If the wall is breached, Helm’s Deep will fall.” –Saruman
Helm’s Deep is the great fortress of Rohan, where the people fled to for
protection in “The Two Towers”.  Its outer wall was solid rock, and it was
said that no army could penetrate it, as it was one of the most fortified
places
in Middle-Earth (Minas Tirith was said to be the most fortified).  It was at
this fortress where Saruman’s Uruk-Hai army challenged Rohan in a massive
battle.  A fighting force of 10,000 against 300 men of Rohan.
There are two sections in the Helm’s Deep bonus map, the beginning of the
battle, and then the fighting after the wall has been breached.  The
beginning of the battle map has pretty easy enemies, basically Uruk-Hai,
Uruks with two swords, and some of the suicidal Uruks that have the fire
explosives attached to them.  To complete the level, destroy all of the
ladders that the Uruks are using to get over the wall.  This will trigger the
breach.  The hardest part will be avoiding the flying arrows and traps that
you encounter while walking around.  The traps will take a decent amount of
HP away, especially if you run into several in a short period of time.  This
can leave you with about a fourth of your health, with Uruks charging over
the wall to kill you.  I’m pretty sure that the arrows are random, but there
are places that I seem to get hit with arrows more often then others.  I’ve
included those places, along with traps, ladders, and barrels on the
following (very rough, NOT TO SCALE) map:
_____________________________________________
MAP A                  /---------------------------------------------\
|MAP LEGEND~ Helm’s Deep, Beginning of Battle |
|Entrance|                |                                             |
|__    __|                | [-]   Barrel   X   Explosive Trap           |
\===\                  | |=|   Ladder   ->  Common Arrow Place       |
\===\                 | \=\   Stairway ---> Arrow showing direction |
___\===\___              \-------------------------------------------/
|        [-] *
|              *
*     X      [-]*_|=|____|=|________
*                  ->     ->       *
\==\*    ->                         *
\==\ *                    ->         *
* X[-]->[-] [-]X  [-]   X  X [-]*
------------------- [-]          *
*   X  X       *
* [-]          *_|=|_________|=|_____
*                    [-]
* [-]           X      SEE MAP B
*  X                  --->
*[-]       X              [-]
*     [-] -> [-]      [-][-]
*---------------------
MAP B
__|=|__
*         *
* [-]     X[-]*
*                *
|     X  X         |
|                  |
___|                  |___|=|______|=|___
SEE MAP A                           The level ends here
ladder that you’ve seen.
[-][-]     [-] [-]
----------------------------------------
After you have destroyed all of the ladders, the breach of the wall will
occur.  You get to go down some stairs, and fight a bunch of Uruks.  This
area has a bunch of tree stumps, and also has a forge in the northwest
corner, and ranger hollow in the south eastcorner, and a shrine on the west
side.  After you’ve killed the Uruks, some Uruk-Hai Archers come, followed
later by shield bearing Uruks.  Once you’ve defeated them, be prepared to
fight two half-trolls, and finally a full size troll.
Helm’s Deep is the second easiest bonus map to play.  It’s also one of the
better ones as far as items and gems go, as there are places to sell and
store your precious little finds.
--------------
Fangorn Forest
--------------
“What madness drove them in there?” –Gimli
Fangorn Forest is according to Legolas, “Very old, and full of memory”.  It
is also to home of Trebeard and the other Ents, who were seen in the second
movie/book “The Two Towers”.  Overall, Fangorn is a mystical forest, where
one can walk through the forest and encounter trees that can, to quote
Merry, “Talk, and even move”, water which makes you taller, and wizards sent
back to complete their task.
-STRATEGY SOON TO COME-
----------
Weathertop
----------
“You’ve met him before.  He stabbed Frodo at Weathertop.” -Gandalf
Weathertop was featured in “The Fellowship of the Ring”. It is where Aragorn
leads the four hobbits to stay for the night on their long journey from Bree
to Rivendell.  It is also the spot where the Witch-King of Angmar stabs Frodo
with a Morgul Blade, then in typical heroic fashion, Aragorn, armed with fire
comes and scares off the Nazgul.  Thus setting up the great horse race to
Rivendell, where Glorfindel (or Arwen for the movie fans) races the Nazgul to
the Fords of Bruinen.
How appropriate it is that Weathertop is one massive Nazgul fighting level.
What is poor Smeagol to do?  Luckily, there is a strategy, courtesy of
Tarravan.  Without further ado: “Tarravan’s Amazing Five Levels in 2
Minutes!” (his name, not mine).
“Nazgul take damage from the fire in the middle of the arena.  Simply run
around like a madman trying to make the wraiths stay in the fire.  They'll
die after spending maybe 4 seconds in it.  Not only can you level up to level
5 in 2 minutes this way, you can get a head start with good items you find in
the arena.  I do not advise trying this on Hard/Grueling, because although
you get more exp, the wraiths take longer to kill.  As a result, often two or
more are summoned before you can kill even one, and you die.”
Of course, the above is just one strategy to playing Weathertop.  Like
Tarravan said, it’s difficult to execute that strategy on Hard and Grueling
mode, so if that doesn’t work for you, then an alternate strategy is to
simply treat the Ringwraiths as a whole bunch of bosses (which they are in
fact).  Active skills are definitely your friend while playing Weathertop.
Also running around in a circle around the Wraiths is helpful because
(especially if you have “Fleet of Foot” maxed) Smeagol can usually
outmaneuver the Ringwraiths.
Weathertop is definitely one of the harder bonus maps to play.  In my
opinion, it is harder then Helm’s Deep, but a bit easier then Fangorn Forest.
__________________________________________________________________________
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
VI. SKILLS OF SMEAGOL (s/k)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Every character in the game has active and passive skills, both of which will
be explained in this section.
**Please be aware that everything in the “Notes” Section of the skill
analysis mostly applies to those doing Mixture Smeagols.  This is because the
average player who goes for either an all Passive or all Active Smeagol will
have all of their skills maxed.  However, the notes will give you a general
idea of the importance of the skill, letting you know if you should max this
particular skill before maxing another skill.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
==============
Passive Skills
==============
Let’s refresh our memories by asking, “what are passive skills?” Passive
skills are skills that are in effect all the time.  Once you put a point into
a skill, that skill never goes away.  Putting more points into a skill
increases the power of the skill. Skills also have a minimum level
requirement, so that the best skills can’t be maxed first, and then you max
some of the weaker ones.  When you put a point into a skill, the minimum
level requirement for the next point that you can put into the skill goes
up.  Up to five points can be put into a skill, with two exceptions for every
character.  Two skills can only have one point be put in them; though only
one is a passive skill, which will be talked about here.  That passive skill
is one that always has a minimum level requirement of 20.  In Smeagol’s case
(and in Frodo’s) that skill is The Precious.
Now comes the analysis of Smeagol’s passive skills.  It’s pretty easy to read
(or so I hope) and the format is like so:
-=-=The name of the skill=-=-
Minimum Level Requirements (MLR): -Usually five numbers, which show the
minimum level your character has to be in
order to put points in the skill. It was
just explained in the above paragraph.
Description:                      -The game’s description of the skill
Notes:                            -What I think about the particular skill,
including how fast it should be maxed,
importance etc. (please see the notice in
the Skills of Smeagol introduction, if you
have not already read it)
-=-=NIMBLE=-=-
MLR:                -2,4,6,8,10
Description:        -You are agile and dodge your foe’s attacks easily.
(Gives you a 4% chance of dodging blows per level.)
Notes:              -Dodge is always a nice last defense against your enemy’s
attacks, especially now in Return of the King, unlike
Two Towers, Defense doesn’t raise your dodge.  It always
makes me feel good knowing that maxed 1 out of 5 times
I’m not going to get hit(and Smeagol gets hit a lot)!  A
few points in this skill is nice, and if you have
extras, you can put them here.
-=-=WHY DOES IT HURT SMEAGOL?=-=-
MLR:                -2,4,6,8,10
Description:        -Years of torture have hardened you. (+4 melee
toughness/level, +2 missile toughness/level)
Notes:              -I got a laugh out of the torture reference in the
description...anyways, ALL of you melee and missile
armor is going to come from this skill.  Max this skill
as quickly as you can.  Random fact that you don’t
really care about: This skill is one of the few in the
game that has 5 words in its name.
-=-=DIRTY CLAWS=-=-
MLR:                -2,5,8,11,14
Description:        -You can attack with fierce claws. (+4 damage/level)
Notes:              -When you first get Smeagol, his damage is 2-2, so the
VERY FIRST skill point that you earn should go into this
skill, or the “Why Does it Hurt Smeagol Skill”.  If you
don’t get hit that much by enemies, I’d advise you to
put the point in this skill first.  Max this skill
fairly quickly.  Be aware that this skill’s Minimum
Level Requirements doesn’t go up by 2 levels each time,
like most skills do.
-=-=LUCK=-=-
MLR:                -2,4,6,8,10
Description:        -You are incredibly fortunate. (Adds +1 all
attributes/level)
Notes:              -Maxed this skill is +25 more attribute points, or the
number of points that you would gain after 5 levels.
Put a couple points in this skill, then come back later
if you have time and max it.  (If you’re in the 2-8
range as far as levels go, put points into skills
like “Why Does it Hurt Smeagol?” and “Dirty Claws”
first, instead of this, if you can.)
-=-=ORCSLAYER=-=-
MLR:                -8,10,12,14,16
Description:        -Years of fighting Orcs has benefited you. (+1 damage to
Orcs/level)
Notes:              -+1 damage to Orcs.  Wow.  I am so impressed.  Unless for
the life of you, you absolutely cannot kill an Orc, I
would not put points into this skill.
-=-=IRON WILL=-=-
MLR:                -8,10,12,14,16
Description:        -When severely injured, you regain health. (+10%/level)
Notes:              -I put five points into this skill, and hadn’t seen a
difference while I was fighting.  So, I had to stand
there while severely injured and watch my health meter
slowly move just a little bit.  Therefore, it is my
personal opinion, that you should NOT waste any of your
skill points on this skill.
-=-=FLEET OF FOOT=-=-
MLR:                -8,10,12,14,16
Description:        -You are fast and quick. (Footspeed is increased by
5%/level)
Notes:              -This skill is more for your own personal enjoyment then
Turning Smeagol into a warrior.  Because you’re selling
all of your items, it’s nice to be able to move to a
forge quickly.  Also useful in running from an enemy,
but you don’t want to do that...right? Put a few points
in (or max) if you are annoyed at Smeagol’s lack of
speed, or if you’re having trouble with swarms of
enemies.  If not, then it’s not necessary to have any
points in the skill.
-=-=BERSERKER=-=-
MLR:                -15,17,19,21,23
Description:        -You gain fury with each enemy slain. (+4/level hit