Geneforge 5 FAQ/Walkthrough
By Matt P
Email: Elementalizard@aol.com
Geneforge 5 and all names are copyright Spiderweb software 2008.
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Table of Contents
0. Quick Hints
1. Character Creation and Development
-Classes
-Statistics discussion
-Creations
-Resistances
-Spell discussion
2. Construction Places
-Recipes
-Enhancements
3. Walkthrough
4. Teachers and trainers
5. Notable item list
6. End Note
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0. Quick Hints.
What items should I hold on to?
Hold onto Swamp Herbs and Research Notes.  Other than that, try to hold
onto ingredients if you'd like to make a few good items (I'd recommend the
artifacts).
The artifact items:
Mandrake Tincture
Demon Bile
1-2 Shaped belts, gauntlets, greaves, boots, and maybe a fiber cloak
Perfect fyora/drayk/drakon Scales (and gold rings for the fyora scales,
and platinum ones for the drayk/drakon ones)
Vlish tentacles, roamer fangs, rotghroth fangs, artila eyes, glaahk
eyes, eyebeast eyes
Some Gemstones and herbs, some sticks
Artifact ingredients:
Crystalline Fibers
Essence-infused Iron
Mandrake Tincture
Pure Quicksilver
Solidified Flame
Ur-Drakon Skin
Unmelting Ice
Should I hold off using a canister until I find a trainer?
No.  Unlike Geneforge 2, using canisters does not affect the extent you
can train a skill.  You should, however, hold off on using skill points in
melee skills, magic skills, and shaping skills if you'd like to purchase these
points from a few sets of trainers.  Note that they are made available in
towns in this order, so don't hold off too much if you use a certain skill
How many canisters can I use before getting bad effects?
Because of the way Geneforge 5 is set up, using more canisters won't
really change too much for you.  Use as many as you need.
Is it OK to steal?
Stealing- it's not a crime if you don't get caught.  Even when it is a
crime, it's often worth it (ooh- look at that juicy mandrake tincture).  Take
anything that isn't bolted down if no one can see you and provided it's worth
money (at least initially).  Boldly steal very valuable items, up to 5 each
level.  Try not to get caught very much or the town might go hostile on you.
Shaper or Rebel?
Do them both.  The game is entertaining enough to merit at least two play-
throughs.  In terms of powergaming, if you try to maximize your return from
quests, stick to the middle.  I tend to do pro-shaper quests as the rewards
are a bit better, but give pro-rebel opinions when asked.  Fence-sitting is
quite possible, especially since various checks are made with leadership taken
into consideration.
Which faction?
There are five total factions which give significant endings- Astoria,
Alwan, Litalia, Ghaldring, and Taygen.  Of these, three are rebel (Astoria,
Litalia, Ghaldring), and two are shaper (Alwan and Taygen).  The quests are
not completely exclusive, so you can do several of these without overlap,
especially at the beginning.  If you want to maximize your reward, you can do
several quests for a single faction, then change factions when things start to
get hairy.  Note that Rawal's "faction" provides an ending, but it's pretty
weak.
I'm a powergamer.  What's the best route to ALL POWER?
Unlike Geneforge 4, the game doesn't need too much fence-sitting to be
highly profitable.  Three of the five factions will give you the time of day
if you're moderately a rebel.  You can get Alwan to help if you have a nearly
neutral attitude when in his lands, which opens up an area or two.  Taygen is
the only stickler, only talking to moderately pro-shapers.  By the time you
reach his lands, most of the quests are pretty cut and dry.
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1. Character Creation and Development
Classes: You can survive with any class in the game.  Some are easier than
others, and which you finally go for will depend on your playing style.
Here is a summary of the characters.  Under HP/SP/EP which correspond to hit
points, spell points, and essence points I give a rating on the growth rates
of these characters, with 1 being great, and 3 being bad.  There are some
differences between identical stats at low levels due to different starting
values, but these are fairly minimal at high levels (with the exception of the
guardian, who starts with a lot of essence points- enough for an extra clawbug
or two- but has a slow growth rate)  HP is a function of level and endurance.
SP and EP are functions of level and intelligence.
HP   SP   EP    Battle      Magic     Shaping
Guardian           1    3    3     Top         Low        Mid
Warrior            1    3    2     Top         Low        Mid
Infiltrator        2    1    2     Mid         Top        Low
Agent              2    1    2     Mid         Top        Low
Shaper             3    2    1     Low         Mid        Top
Lifecrafter        3    2    1     Low         Mid        Top
Sorceress          3    1    2     Low         Top        Mid
Servile            1    3    3     Top         Mid        Low
Shock Trooper      2    1    1     Mid         Low        Top
What is the most powerful class?
Shaping is quite powerful in GF5.  Magic is also quite powerful, and battle
skills tend to be a bit weak comparatively.  That said, I feel a balance
between everything can be taken.  My personal favorite classes are magic-heavy
with some shaping, so the sorceress goes well with my play style.
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Statistics: Statistics are the bulk of what makes up your character.
Statistics affect the strength of your spells, your creations, and melee
damage, determine how much damage your character can take and give out, and
your success in dealing with traps and people.  I divide statistics into five
main sets- Major statistics, combat arts, spell casting, shaping, and "other."
Major Statistics:
Strength: Affects the amount of armor your character can carry, the damage
your character does, and your character's stun resistance.  You should only
invest in it when you need to wield a bigger weapon or use nicer armor without
suffering an AP penalty.  Each point of strength increases your to hit with
melee weapons by 5%, and gives one more damage die.  A total of about 13
points is all you will ever need to use the heaviest, big items.
Dexterity: Affects your ability to dodge (5% increase per point), your
attack position, your to hit % with missile weapons, and your acid resistance.
This one may be more useful if you like using missile weapons, but can be
safely ignored.
Intelligence: Affects the mental resistance, energy and essence of your
character.  For any and all magic-users or creation-makers, this skill is
essential and greatly affects your strength and longevity.  It's no good to
run out of spell points in that critical battle, or to not have enough essence
to make the help necessary to survive.  Nearly every character will want to
invest in this skill so as to be able to act beyond melee weapons.  I'd
recommend about by end game 20 for magic/creation heavy characters, and above
10 for all others, just to be able to cast spells and be supported with a
decent sized army.
Endurance: Affects HP and poison resistance.  A bit less necessary than
Geneforge 4, I'd recommend about 8-10 points by end game for those characters
with a substantial creation force, and maybe a few more for meleers.
Combat Arts
Melee Weapons: Determines the damage and to hit % for hand-to-hand weapons
like daggers and swords.  Each point provides one more hit die and a 5%
increase in your to hit %.  Hit dies for weapons can be calculated by taking
the higher number from a weapon and dividing it by the lower number.  So a
weapon that does 5-25 damage has a hit die of 25/5 = 5.  Each point of melee
weapons increases its damage range by this amount.  So a weapon with 5-25
would increase in damage by 1-5 per point of melee weapons.  Weapons tend to
be weaker than spells in this game, but you never need to worry about running
out of energy with melee weapons.  If you're not playing a melee-focused
character, you may want to wait off till you can buy some points in this skill
from Guardian Manola.
Missile Weapons: Determines the damage and to hit % for missile weapons.
Most characters will find spells to be superior to missile weapons, but for
characters with poor spellcasting abilities, you may want to use missile
weapons to take out dangerous things like turrets and enemies that like to run
away from you.  Batons are very powerful in the late game, so consider buying
some points in this skill from Guardian Manola.
Quick Action: Gives a chance to do two attacks in melee, and also makes you
act faster in combat.  If you're not engaging in melee attacks, this one isn't
useful except for the bonus to initiative- buy the two points from Guardian
Manola and leave it at that.  If you are a melee-focused character (and there
are some great swords out there) then buy the two points early and increase
this one to 10 or so.
Parry: Reduces physical damage, and gives a chance of completely avoiding
all damage from a single attack (approximately 1% per point, depending on the
strength of the enemy).  This one is moderately more worthwhile to purchase
from Guardian Manola for everyone, as the added defense doesn't hurt, any
money can be plentiful by the end game.  The chance of parrying is pretty
small, so I wouldn't make this skill a focus of the game.
Spell Casting
Battle Magic:  The main damaging spell class, battle magic is a potent
school of magic whose spells include the lowly firebolt to powerful kill
spells.  As such, in general this spell class is mainly useful for those
characters who intend to do damage with spells- those who don't want to depend
on creations/missile weapons/other people to do their dirty work from far
away.  This school of magic tends not to be very essence-intensive, though
several of the spells are energy-intensive (like ice spray).  Increase this
skill to access more spells and increase the damage die of those spells.
Don't bother if you're going the melee or missile route.  Some of these spells
are mimicked by wands and crystals.
Blessing Magic: The buffing spell class, this group includes shielding and
blessing spells, as well as haste, a few aura spells, and a few multi-casting
spells.  For characters that use creations this spell group is among the most
useful, and they will want to invest at least up to accessing speed.  Increase
this skill to access more spells and to increase their duration (and strength
of effect for some).  For magic-weak characters, buy the points from Quothe
then try boosting this group with items.  A certain artifact will be quite
helpful here.
Mental Magic: The "other" spell class, this group includes a buffing spell,
some debuffing spells, charm/stun spells, and the unlock spell.  Solo
characters will love the spells offered by this group, especially the "daze"
family of spells.  Getting enough points to use daze and strong daze is
preferable for many characters, although it's not necessary.  Unlock is
helpful, but also not critical.  The debuff spells can be good for occasional
use, and I would recommend boosting up you skill to at least use wrack.
However, some of these spells are mimicked by crystals and wands, hence you
can get by without buying much here.
Spellcraft:  Makes every spell you have more effective- a longer duration,
greater damage, and stronger blessing.  Very nice.  Expensive for most
characters, it is easiest to improve this by training with Quothe, and
snatching the free points as they come.  If you're playing as a shocktrooper,
guardian, or warrior, this skill is probably too expensive to invest skill
points in outside of purchasing from Quothe.  Otherwise, invest in this once
you've maxed out the spells you want.
Shaping
Fire Shaping:  Allows you to craft fyoras, cryoas, roamers, pyroroamers,
drayks, cryodrayks, kyshakks, burning kyshakks, drakons, and ur-drakons.
These creations are a versatile group with potent attacks, and 7 points will
allow you to make everything.  You can also get several points from items.
Shaper-friendly characters can train in this skill in the third region of the
game.
Battle Shaping: Allows you to craft thahds, corrupted thahds, clawbugs,
plated clawbugs, battle alphas, battle betas, rotghroths, corrupted rotghroth,
war tralls, and shock tralls.  These are your meatshields, able to take a lot
of damage and give it out in kind.  They are a melee-focused class (other than
the tralls), and have received a boost in GF5.  7 points will allow you to
make everything.  You can also get several points from items, and friends of
shapers can add to their skill here in the third area.
Magic Shaping:  Allows you to craft artilas, plated artilas, vlish, charged
vlish, glaahks, ur-glaahks, wingbolts, unstable wingbolts, gazers, and
eyebeasts.  These creations are generally fragile but very powerful.  Many of
their attacks have ancillary effects.  As before, 7 points will allow you to
make everything.  You can also get several points from items, and friends of
shapers can add to their skill here in the third area.
Healing Craft: Allows you to cast healing spells of all sorts.  Generally a
necessary group, this spell set is made very interesting by the inclusion of
regeneration aura, my personal favorite aura spell.  Healing spells like
banish affliction remove nasty effects like lightning aura.  Cleanse group
will do it all, too.
Miscellaneous
Leadership: Leadership addresses your skill at talking to people, getting
them to do what you want, and controlling creations.  You will want 5-6 early
in chapter 1, and 8-9 by mid-chapter 2 in order to do most everything.  Beyond
that, fewer points are required, and you should have enough equipment to
augment your leadership (+2 in chapter 2) as required.  11 is the most
leadership I've seen required.
Mechanics:  Mechanics addresses how skilled you are at unlocking, disarming,
and breaking things.  Living tools can be rare in the game, but aren't quite
as critical.  Powergame option:  You will want about 8 points by the first
area, and probably 10 by the second region.  Augment further with items like
infiltrator equipment, heading first to Kratoa-Kel to grab the tinker gloves.
This may make some areas a bit more difficult, but will save you several skill
points.  Items requiring more than 14 mechanics are few and far between.  Easy
option: Increase to 12 by the second area. Items will offer bonuses beyond
that, and that gets you a lot of good loot early in the game.
Luck: Increases your resistances by a healthy portion (about 3% per point),
increases your dodging ability by 2%, and your to hit by 2%.  May influence
the drop rates of enemies, though this effect is much more difficult to
measure.  I recommend investing two points in the beginning of the game, but
holding off on further investment till you have enough skill points to cash
them in elsewhere.
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Creations:
Fire shaping:
Fyora: The intro creation, the fyora does fire damage.  They have a fair bit
of fire resistance, making it good against certain foes.  It's great for early
on, but won't last much in area 2.
Cryoa: Three points in create fyora gets you this critter, so you can actually
make one as soon as you get to Isenwood's Spire.  Cryoas hit their foes with
ice damage, with few things are resistant to.  For those things that are
resistant, the cryoa's bit can do a healthy amount of damage as well.  I've
had one survive to the end game with me- if you make one early and keep it
alive, they can be useful for a long time.  You may find these to be too weak
after area 2, though, so it depends on how much you keep it healthy.
Roamer:  Roamers are squat little dog-like creatures shoot acid blobs.  They
are ok as mid-level creations, as they are on par with artilae in missile
strength but are better at melee.  They cost more essence than artilae,
though.
Pyroroamer: With three points in create roamer you can make exploding roamers.
I haven't quite found a use for these things, other than novelty.
Drayk: Drayks are winged lizards with a fire attack, and decent resistances
against fire.  They aren't too bad at melee, either.
Cryodrayk: Ice attack, strong against ice
Kyshakk: These stegosaurus imitations are quite powerful.  They shoot a blast
of essence lances, which does lightning aura damage over time.  Hence these
creatures can be quite useful against magic-weak foes. They are also strong
against magic, so they can duke it out with some of the nastier magic shaping
creations.
Burning Kyshakk: Unstable, lots of damage
Drakon: Fire attack
Ur-Drakon: Fire attack
Battle Shaping:
Thahds: A generic meatshield, thahds do physical damage and can take a fair
bit as well.  They are quite cheap, but are weak against most damage types.
Charged Thahds: Get three point in create thahd and you can make these
creatures.  Charged thahds are unstable creations, so they will slowly lose HP
through time, unless you cast regeneration aura which will keep them around
for a full screen.  They do a fair bit of acid damage, and also have good
resistances against poison/acid, making them fairly useful in certain
situations.  If you have to face acid-spraying creations, make some of these
and let them take out your foes.  These guys can clear out entire levels so
long as you have regeneration aura up.
Clawbugs: Scorpions that do poison damage.  You can get clawbugs pretty early
in the game and they can do a lot of damage.  If you want to completely shred
through the demo, head first to the testing halls, boost your battle shaping
skill to 4-6, and make three of these guys.  You can even decrease their
intelligence to give you more essence if need be.  They will kill everything
without problem in the first area.
Plated bugs:  Three points in clawbugs gets you these guys.  They have 10 AP,
so they can attack twice in one round, though they do physical damage rather
than poison.  They are the earliest fast creation you can get (you can get
them by Haria-Kel), and are quite worthwhile as shock troopers, or are worth
using as upgrades to clawbugs.
Battle Alpha: A strong fighter, the battle alpha is fairly durable and cheap
to make.  That said, I've actually found my early-game clawbugs to be better
fighters, if you can keep and make them as soon as possible.  Still, when
creations die, these are good to fill in the gaps.
Battle Beta:
Rotghroth: These guys are where battle creations really start to shine (though
clawbugs are great).  They have acid attacks, and are strong against physical,
poison, and acid damage.  They act quickly in combat, and have several points
in quick action, so they will often hit twice during combat.
Rotdhizon: Three points in rotghroth will get you these beasts.  They are
improvements on rotghroths in nearly every way.  They still have acid attacks,
and are strong against physical, poison, and acid damage.  They also have 12
AP, and are great as melee support.
War tralls: Missile
Shock tralls: 12 AP, upgrade, unstable
Magic:
Artila: Artilae are little worms that shoot magic bolts that also poison their
foe.  They aren't very strong in melee, and will die pretty quick.
Plated Artila: You can shape these with 3 points in artila.  They are upgrades
to artilae in terms of strength and health.  I've kept one of these to the end
of the game, though I wouldn't recommend it- they don't do that much damage,
though they are a lot more durable than artilae.
Vlish: One of the most unique creations is the vlish.  These squids shoot a
poisonous, cursing attack.  They are great throughout areas 2 and 3.  Battle
creations and most fire creations will fall to these guys pretty quickly.
They are weak against physical damage.
Charged Vlish: These creations are unstable, so they will only last for a
single area even with regeneration aura active.  They are slightly improved
vlish, and have a poisonous, slowing attack.  Few things can mimic the slowing
attack, making them useful in certain encounters, especially boss fights.
Otherwise there are better creations to have, and slowing wands (which slow
everyone on screen) aren't all that rare.
Glaahk: One of the few melee creations, glaahks have a very useful magic
stunning attack, which if an enemy is hit with twice will effectively keep
them from attacking the second round.  You can unfortunately only get these
guys starting in area 3, unless you're really really good at being stealthy.
Glaahks are strong vs magic, and not bad with other resistances.
Ur-Glaahk:  It's very difficult to make these guys as you need to sneak into a
zone that is hard to beat at low-moderate levels.  By the time you can do
this, usually these guys aren't useful any more.
Wingbolts: The big guns in magic shaping, wingbolts launch what amounts to a
kill spell.  The spell is not useful against magic-resistant foes, which are
more common in the latter half of the game.  You can make these guys pretty
early, which I'd recommend doing.  They are strong vs. magic, as expected.
Unstable Firebolts: Lightning aura, 12 AP, unstable
Gazer: A beefed-up wingbolt, gazers are a lot of fun.  Make one near the end
game and watch it kill almost everything.
Eyebeast: If you can get these guys (only available in the late game), these
things are terrific.  They have a flaming aura spell which does massive damage
to everything nearby.
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Resistances: These determine the amount of damage you receive from a specific
attack.  In general, higher numbers are better.  However, it's usually better
having a single item with a massive bonus rather than several items with
moderate bonuses given the way the game calculates damage.
Resistances are affected by stats and armor/equipment.  Below is a table of
resistance bonuses given per point of a stat or of armor:
Resistance Str    Dex    Int    End    Luck    Armor (Bonus per point)
FR                                             +1/2
CR                                             +1/2
ER                                             +1/2
SR         +5                          +3
MR                       +5            +3
PR                              +5     +3
AR                +5                   +3
Note that Stun, Mental, Acid and Poison resistances give a chance to
avoid damage completely, and are not damage-decreasing resistances.
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Spells
Battle:
Firebolt: The staple of all mages, firebolt does fire damage and costs no
essence.  It's the ultimate spell to fall back on if you don't have a missile
attack.  It will serve you well for the full first chapter but once you get
ice spray you probably won't use it again.
Burning Spray: An acid attack.  This is a potent spell to use against many
types of more-resistant foes, especially if they are resistant to cold attacks
Searer
Ice Spray: The staple of mages throughout the rest of the game, ice spray
does cold damage and costs no essence.  It's much more expensive than
firebolt, but kills things quickly enough so as to not have to worry about
that, usually.
Lightning Aura: An odd new spell.  This spell does energy damage to an
opponent, and continues to damage them for the next few rounds.  It's kind of
similar to poison/acid in that respect, but does more damage.
Essence Orbs
Acid Shower: Bathes all of your nearby foes in acid.  Doesn't do too much
damage at the beginning, but continues to damage everything else thereafter.
Still, watch out as most enemies will attack you since you hit them with a
potent spell.
Kill: Damages a single enemy with a very potent magic attack.  This spell
is very expensive to cast, but does huge damage.  Mages can cast this one in
lieu of ice spray and will do a lot of damage.
Aura of Flames
Blessing:
War Blessing: You gain a bonus of 20% to your to hit, and probably add four
levels of damage with this spell.  Its duration is determined by your
spellcasting strength.  A staple of spellcasters and creation lovers, cast
this cheap spell before every battle if you can.
Protection: With this spell, enemies are 10% less likely to hit you and the
spell recipients.  This spell seems to last significantly longer than war
blessing, so cast it before every battle as well.
Essence Shield: Acts as a permanent (for a single map) bonus to armor and
to HP.  Very useful for solo characters, who don't have anything better to
spend their essence on anyway.  Those characters should cast this spell (or
its higher level equivalent) on themselves every time they enter a hostile
area.  With this spell, the recipient gets a bonus of ~30-50 HP, and enemies
are 30% less likely to hit you.  Note that you can only have one essence spell
active at a time.  This suffices at lower levels, but you may want to consider
essence blade later.
Speed: Speed is less useful in GF5 than GF4.  This spell gives you a 25%-
33% chance of having an attack only cost 3 AP.  It doesn't have that large of
a blessing magic requirement, so most characters should be able to cast this
spell before every battle.  Do so and you'll increase your effectiveness by
about as much as war blessing.
Thorny Aura:  Cast this spell and all of your party now does damage when it
gets hit.  This is an aura spell, and since you can only have one active at a
time, its use is limited.
Battle Aura:  An aura spell that increases the damage done by your
creations.  Worth considering at times, though I still find regeneration aura
to be more versatile.
Essence Blade: A spell that significantly increases the damage done by a
character for an entire level. I've seen increases in damage of about a factor
of 1.5.  My favorite essence spell.  You can only have one essence spell
active at a time, so choose wisely.
Essence Armor: Gives a stronger boost to armor for the target for an entire
level.  I haven't tried it too much yet, so I can't say for certain.
Elemental Aura: Decreases damage received by non-physical attacks.
Consider this one in lieu of regeneration aura, depending on the
circumstances.  You can only have one aura spell active at a time.
Battle Roar: Casts a low level war blessing, curing, and protection on the
recipients.  Though not as effective as some other spells, these bonuses are
still excellent.  This is a very potent spell in the hands of shocktroopers.
Mental:
Daze: Stuns low level enemies, preventing them from acting until they are
attacked or until you 2-3 turns have passed.  The staple of solo characters in
the early game.
Mindshield Aura: Helps protect your characters from daze, terror, and charm
spells and abilities.  Useful for some circumstances.  You can only have one
aura spell active at a time.  I find the regeneration aura to be more useful,
since enemies that try to charm or terrorize your creations aren't too common.
Wrack: Increases the damage done by an opponent.  Acts as a curse spell.
Use it on bosses in conjunction with essence shackles to significantly weaken
them.
Unlock: Unlike previous games, the unlock spell is less critical than
before.  It still has its uses, but you can get by with lots of mechanics and
living tools instead.  In fact, that's somewhat preferred, as otherwise you'll
lose out on a bit of exp.  I've made it through the whole game with a
shocktrooper, never once casting this spell.  However, once you get to the
later regions of the game, conserve your living tools and use this spell on
doors with 1-2 living tool requirements.  Living tools are always in short
supply, especially if you want to loot Ghaldring's supply cabinets.
Terror: Does some damage and scares enemies.  Scared enemies will either
freeze in one spot or will run away.  For mentally weak enemies, this spell is
quite nice.
Dominate: Takes over an enemy's mind, forcing it to fight on your side.
Use it on strong foes to get a potent ally.
Essence Shackles: A slowing spell.  Highly useful on tough, one-on-one
fights.  Cast this a few times on an enemy, and they'll lose half of their
turns, enabling you an effective doubling of your attacks.  Coupled with
speed, it's great.
Strong Daze: A boost to daze, strong daze keeps more foes immobile,
allowing you to slaughter them in the meantime.  Don't mix this with an acid
splash spell, or its effectiveness will be wasted.
Charm: A stronger version of dominate, charm will take over even more foes.
Use it as you see fit.
Mass Madness: A bit less powerful than GF4, this spell will charm weak
enemies, daze stronger enemies, and slow even the strongest enemies.  As such,
it's great to cast when you're being swarmed (like in a few key shaper forts).
It's quite expensive to cast, so you'll only get a few uses out of it before
you have to flee.
Healing:
Minor Heal: Restores a few HP.  Great as a low-level healing spell.  When
you get heal, switch to it as it has better returns for the essence point.
Cure Affliction: Removes some level of acid/poison on a character.  You may
need to cast this spell a few times to get it to remove all the acid, though.
Essence Infusion: Adds a healthy amount of HP to the target for as long as
you stay on the map where the spell is cast.  Adds ~60-80 HP.  Only costs
essence.  You can have only one essence spell active on a given character, so
choose wisely.
Heal:  Restores several HP.  Good in the middle game.  Keep using it until
you get major heal, then switch to that.
Regeneration Aura: An impressive spell, probably my favorite that's good to
cast when you need to heal in between combat.  This spell will heal you a ~30
HP every round, which may be enough to keep you alive during combat.  The
essence cost for this spell is great for casting outside of combat when things
are calm.  Use this and be patient in place of group heal out of combat.  You
can only have one aura active at a time.  This spell will keep unstable
creations alive for an entire level.
Group Heal:  Casts a heal spell on everyone in your party.  Good for
emergencies, but lower level heal spells are less expensive in general.  Also,
consider using spores in lieu of this spell as they are plentiful and will
allow you to attack again.
Banish Affliction:  A useful spell that removes nearly all nasty statuses
on a character or creation, including lightning aura (which makes this spell
invaluable), charm, and terror.  You will want to get this spell for every
shaping-focused character.
Major Heal:  Gives a substantial boost to HP.  Use it as necessary in
combat in the higher difficulty levels.
Cleanse Group: Removes all poison and acid from your creations.  Very
useful when fighting acid-splashing foes.
Mass Restore: Casts a nice healing spell on everyone, in addition to
removing nasty statuses.  Great as a panic-button spell, though it is energy
and essence intensive.
Summary: Use regeneration aura outside of combat to heal as you'll become
fully healed in less than a minute of waiting.  Use the appropriate healing
spell in combat instead.
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2. Construction places: Enchanted anvils are potent artifacts that allow you
to modify your weapons and equipement significantly.  You can also make some
extremely powerful items on them.  There are four anvils- Testing Halls (A4),
Eastern Shadow Road (S1)
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Recipes:
Blessing Crystals
Perfect Fyora Scale + Gemstone     = Runed Ruby
Roamer Fang+ Gemstone              = Spray Crystal
Artila Eye + Gemstone              = Runed Amethyst
Gemstone + Vlish Tentacle          = Tiny Orb of Mist
Gemstone + Eyebeast Eye            = Golden Crystal
Wands (all require a Gemstone and a Stick)
Rings
Gold Ring + Perfect Fyora Scale  = Shielding Band
Platinum Ring + Perfect Drayk Scale
= Armor Band
Platinum Ring + Perfect Drakon Scale
= Impervious Band
Artifacts these items are among the most powerful available, though
they are quite difficult to make.
You must first perfect the gauntlet, belt, greaves, or boots using a purifying
elixir (mix mandrake tincture + demon's bile).  Then you must make a first
level artifact:
Gauntlets + Solidified Flame = Smoking Gauntlets
Bonus +3 to all magic skills except spellcraft
Gauntlets + Pure Quicksilver = Lifeforce Gauntlets
Bonus to all creation stats (str, dex, int, end) +2
Other
Mandrake Tincture + Demon Bile   = Purifying Elixir
Shaped Boots, Belt, Gauntlets, Greaves + Purifying Elixir  = Perfected Armor
*** A perfected cloak is made from a shaped fiber cloak
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enhancements:
Item                  On Armor             On Weapons
Blessing Crystal      Armor bonus          To hit bonus
Runed Amethyst        +5 AR                Acid Damage
Charging Stone        +5 CR                Ice Damage
Runed Ruby            +5 FR                Fire Damage
Ivory Skull           +10 TH (for all)     Curses Opponent
Tiny Orb of Mist      +10 to dodge         Quick action bonus?
Runed Onyx            +5 ER                Slows Opponent
Steel Spine           damage attacker      Bonus Physical Damage
Ethereal Bindings     +5 SR                Vampiric Touch
Golden Crystal        +5 HER               Large damage and to hit bonus
Early and middle game:
Early equipment (stuff found in the demo, and most of Haria-Kel region) should
be outfitted with whatever gems you happen to find.  I recommend against using
a blessing crystal on your weapon though, instead using a fire or ice crystal.
I'd use blessing crystals on armor in the first part of the game, as the bonus
to armor helps everyone.
Of damage types, I find magic damage (blocked by the runed onyx) to be the
most common through the game, especially in the middle-late part of the game.
Hence these gems are always useful until you start getting golden crystals.
Steel spines can be useful on armor on normal difficulty.  They will do 10-20
damage each one equipped, meaning that if you are all decked out in steel
spines (which is not easy due to their rarity), you could do more damage to
your foe than your foe does to you.  Naturally they're useless against ranged
foes.  Given resistance to physical damage is rare, these items can also be
decent on weapons, though I still prefer runed amethysts.
Ethereal bindings on weapons sounds cool, but really isn't helpful.  Go for
bonus damage instead.
End game:
Of these, I recommend putting golden crystals on all of your game-end
equipment (e.g., final artifacts, powerful armor, etc.).
For your weapons, the ivory skull is very useful, as is the runed amethyst as
the acid damage bonus is pretty big.  Golden crystals can also be used as
desired, though the bonus to hit isn't that impressive as by the time you're
able to use golden crystals, you'll already be hitting almost everything.
The runed onyx can be used on a weapon if desired, but the slow effect isn't
that powerful.
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=============================================================================
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3. Walkthrough
Name of Area
Q: Quests available
I: Items of Note
S: Skills and spells available (If a character's name is provided, then he/she
is a trainer and will train a skill for gold)
O: Opinions available (talking to these characters will influence your
rebel/shaper standing), or quests which change the opinion of rebels/shapers
towards you.
$: Merchants who will buy from you, notable items on sale
Text description of level.
AREA 1- The Demo
Map:
A6
/| \
A7 A0 A5
|  |  |
A2-A1-A3-A4
|
A9
|
B0
Pacification Fields (A0)
Q: Escape the Fields, Enter Minallah, See Rawal
S: Firebolt, Minor Heal, Create Fyora
O: Mehken
You wake up, disoriented.  Proceed forward, grabbing everything of value (if
it says a value greater than 0, grab it!  For instance, grab the crystals and
tools where you're attacked by bugs).  You'll need a lot of money early on to
procure training in the various arts.  Get equipped when the demo tells you,
then proceed south.  You'll find Mehken, a servile who will help you through
this area.  You're then attacked by some bugs, kill them.  Continue on, and
you'll gain a point in firebolt.  Hit Thrasher with this spell, and he'll calm
down.  You'll be rewarded with a point in minor heal, and can heal at the pool
to the north.  Continue east, and you'll get a point in create fyora.  You can
make one if you'd like.  Continue east through the door, grab the living tool.
You can use it to open the door east, or you can just boost your mechanics up
to the point of going through without any issue.  Your reward is a speed pod.
Continue south, and go through the doors.  Calm the few creations if you can
(add to your leadership if you'd like better success), and continue south.
Fight off the worms, and continue.  You have a choice now to get past the next
obstacle- the mechanics/stealth route, and the fighting route (such options
are typical for Geneforge).  The mechanics route entails you turning on the
crystal in the room near here, which turns on a pacification pylon and makes
the roamer peaceful.  The other route has you fight a bunch of bugs.  Try to
do both routes as you'll gain some minor loot and experience.  Continue west,
and Mehken will talk with you, giving you the option of changing your opinion
towards rebels and shapers.  Note that the best route to go for opinions is
moderate, so that most options are available to you.  Continue west, and
you'll face the boss of the area- a vlish.  Kill all the things you can, and
Rawal will break in after a bit, killing everything else.  You'll then be able
to go to Minallah.  First grab whatever loot is around, then head south.
Minallah (A1)
Q: Twixx, Thahds in the Workshop, Workshop Mines, Shrouded rogues, Mad Flaming
Fyora, Private Kahl
I: Thirsting Gloves, Shielding Band, Polar Fur Cloak
O: Roamer Calming, Twixx, Captain Valenta
$: Barcott, Lazzaria
You mostly want to head west to Isenwood's Spire prior to attempting much
here, as most people won't talk with you until you talk with Rawal.  You're
blocked briefly along the way by a reputation encounter.  Calm the roamer if
you'd like, then head west to Isenwood's Spire
On returning from Rawal, talk with everyone here.  Keeper Cooper would like
you to find a servile for him, Twixx.  Twixx is hiding to the NW.  Go there
and calm Twixx down (or kill him for shaper rep).  Barcott will trade with
you, and also gives you a quest to clear out thahds in his workshop.  Lazzaria
is the town blacksmith and will sell you stuff.  She also gives you a quest to
clear out her workshop of exploding mines.  With adequate mechanics these
mines should present no problem for you.  Then go south and touch the sporebox
to disarm the pylons.  Lazzaria gives you a bronze shortsword and chitin
shield for your troubles.  Two quests can be found to the SE- to defeat some
shrouded rogues (look at the sign to get this quest), and from captain
Valenta, to kill a mad, flaming fyora.  Valenta will also ask you a reputation
question.  Completion of Valenta's first quest (the mad fyora) gets you 200c.
He then gives you a quest to find Private Kahl, who is in the west foundry
core.  Doing so gets you a shielding band and some pods.  The locked rooms to
the SE hold several nice items.  The room with the clawbugs has a lever you
can pull which nets you some thirsting gloves, which gives you the ability to
steal HP from foes (rather, you regenerate when you hit them).  You can also
head to the east and kill some rogue thahds.
Once the presence is cleared, Mind Shimp will tell you to attempt the
training halls.  Do so for a polar fur cloak, and some pods.
Isenwood's Spire (A2)
Q: The Presence, Storeroom Rogues, Crystal for the Forge, The Shadow Road,
Agent Micheline, The Shadow Road, The Canister Book, Kill Platano
I: Vat Shoes, Shaper Robe
S: Intelligence, War Blessing, Daze, Essence Infusion, Guardian Manola, Shaper
Bruel, Sage Fefer, Create Battle Alpha, Terror, Create Wingbolt, Major Heal
O: Rawal, Agent Alurha
$: Tinker Thule
Gevik leads you to Rawal.  Along the way you get attacked by some thahds,
kill them.  Rawal will talk with you, then puts you in your place.  A central
objective of the game is to break Rawal's control.  Then Rawal gives you an
option- to betray Mehken.  Do so for the maximum benefit (gives a bonus to
intelligence).  If you don't Mehken will accompany you through the demo of the
game, though her help isn't that useful.  He then unlocks for you the spells
war blessing and daze.  Rawal then gives you a quest- to defeat the presence.
Ask for supplies, and you'll get 500c.  Rawal then unlocks two trainers-
Shaper Bruel and Sage Fefer.
Continue along, picking up quests here.  Agent Alurha asks you about your
opinion of the shapers, but won't do anything for you until you finish the
quest for Rawal.  The locked doors nearby hold minor goods including some vat
shoes.  Shaper Bruel asks you to clear out the nearby storeroom of rogues.  Do
so and you'll be able to keep what you find (cheapskate).  You can talk with
Tinker Thule, who will let you use a canister of essence infusion.  Sage Fefer
asks you to deliver a crystal to a blacksmith.
There are a few challenging areas here.  To the NE is a vat that spits out
fyora.  Kill them, and the last drops a perfect fyora scale.  Combine it with
a gold ring at the forge to make a decent protection ring.  South of Alurha is
a wingbolt.  If you can time it right, you can get past it and enter an area
where you get some info about your origins.  The room to the south holds
several excellent items, however you'll need a lot of mechanics to grab them
(12 or so).  Additionally, unless you want to fight some wingbolts, you'll
have to claim them one at a time, grabbing them and running out.  Come back
later and claim your shaper robe!
Once you have beaten the Presence, come back and talk to Guardian Manola.
She will train you in melee skills, though at significant cost.  Rawal will
give you training in create roamer, essence shield, and searer in reward.  He
also opens up the area beyond the demo by giving you some papers, and a quest
to find the shadow road.  Alurha will also give you a quest to find agent
Micheline.  Return to Rawal after finding the Shadow Road to get points in
create battle alpha and terror, as well as 800c.  Rawal then wants you to
steal a tome about canister creation from Alwan's storeroom.  As a reward he
teaches you create wingbolt and major heal, and gives you 1000c.
Additionally, Guardian Manola will charge you less for training.  Your next
quest from Rawal is to kill Platano.
Foundry Promenade (A3)
Q: Three Pylons
I: Student's Belt, Blessed Bauble
S: Create Fyora
O: Krog
Talk to Private Savage.  He asks for your help in pacifying the rogues, by
reactivating the three pylons.  From the soldiers, head into the central rock
area, then reactivate a pylon.  Kill the rogues around it for added
experience.  Do this for all three pylons to clear the level.  The soldiers
give you some minor loot as a reward.  Nearby the thahds you will also find a
book of create fyora, which helps.
Other things of note here include a shrouded thahd to the NW.  Kill it and
grab the student's belt for a bonus to your intelligence.  Pull the nearby
lever and head to the building slightly east.  Kill the fyorae, including the
shrouded fyora for a blessed bauble necklace.  The last foe of significance is
the shrouded worm to the SE.  Kill it, then head to the building to the SE.
Krog the thahd has taken up residence in Barcott's workshop.  You can either
chase them out (rebel option) or kill them (shaper option).  Naturally killing
them gets you more loot.  The final item of note is the path to the forge to
the NE.  The path is blocked by two fyorae.
Testing Halls (A4)
Q: Herbs for Phipps
I: Grounded Robe, Shielding knife
S: Finish the testing halls
$: Master Phipps
Here you will find an anvil.  It is guarded by two roamers who get agitated
as you get close.  You can kill them for more experience than calming them, so
go ahead and do so.  Master Phipps is the master of the forge.  Give him the
crystal for a runed ruby.  He will buy your stuff from you, and will let you
use the forge if you're suitably convincing.  He will sell you decent stuff
too when you've beaten the presence and told Rawal about it.  He will also
give you a quest to get some saltweed and wiremoss for him, telling you about
a recipe in exchange.  Go ahead and enter the forge for some nice goods.  Use
all you blessing items, as you'll get better stuff eventually.  You can also
steal his stuff, you'll find a perfect drayk scale in his room.
If you want to (or are told to by Mind Shimp), head into the testing halls.
Talk with the mind to be allowed entry.  You are presented with two options-
mechanics path and the battle path.  The mechanics path makes you maneuver
around some pylons to tap a spore box. The battle path makes you fight a
spawner.  Try to do both if you can.  Next you choose between battle and
stealth.  Stealth forces you to get past some roamers.  You can kill them if
you'd like, you can claim a grounded robe as a reward if you do.  The battle
path takes you to some worms that poison you.  If you haven't bought cure
affliction, then you might find this fight to be a bit tough.  You get a
discipline wand and a shielding knife for your troubles. Your last challenge
is to upset a thahd.  Talk to the furious thahd and tell him that the other
thahd wanted to have you laugh at it.  It will charge off and fight the mauler
thahd.  Kill the winner.  You can now access the control panel for a reward.
Choose between healing spells (cure affliction, essence infusion, heal),
battle arts (searer, speed), or shaping arts (create fyora, create clawbug).
I strongly recommend taking the shaping arts, as clawbugs will wipe the demo
area clean of foes.  Speed is not nearly as useful as it used to be so there's
not too much of a reason to go for it.
Foundry Core East (A5)
I: Fyoraskin cloak
S: Wrack
The presence starts out here.  I'd recommend first hitting everything south,
then going through the doors.  They close behind you.  Head north, and kill
the fyorae.  Two of them dropped fyoraskin cloaks, though I don't know if
those are consistent drops.  Continue to the NE, and you'll find some mines.
It's actually better to let them explode with their contents than disarm them,
so go ahead and do so.  Head to the control area, and disarm the pylons.  Head
to the control panel which allows you to weaken the boss of the area.  You can
sabotage the power supply (2 tools), getting a lot of experience, and making
the coming fight a fair bit easier (it's not that tough, so don't fret if you
can't do it).  Continue west, and again you cace some hostile machines.
Either turn the machines off by touching their crystals, or kill the monsters
they summon (the latter is better, as the monsters have a fair bit of loot).
Grab the canister of wrack and continue to the center, heading a bit north to
reach a healing pool.  Then head south, and you'll find the presence-fyora.
It'll attack you, damage it enough and it'll try to grab the controls.  If
you've sabotaged them, the fyora receives a lot of damage.  Kill it for a
wand.
Foundry Core (A6)
I: Coated Cloak, Ironwood Shield, Grounded Shoes
S: Create Artila
The foundry core holds the third appearance of the presence.  Prior to