Torchlight Torchlight FAQ/Walkthrough By Matt P 1. Characters 2. Skills 3. Player Types 4. Spells 5. Items 7. Ember 8. Pets & Fishing 9. Walkthrough Torchlight is a Diablo/Fate-like game that incorporates many of the better qualities of both. This FAQ only covers the vanilla, no-code version of the game. Torchlight has several mods available that can greatly change your play experience. When you start your game, you can select your difficulty, character class, and pet. There is no difference between a cat or dog in Torchlight. Your class does make a huge difference, however. The difficulty determines the strength of your foes, and also determines whether or not your character can die permanently if they die once (hardcore mode). ===================1. Characters=================== There are three classes of characters in Torchlight- the melee warrior Destroyer, the archer Vanquisher, and the magic-heavy Alchemist. All three can do well in the game, although the vanquisher is probably the most difficult of the three. You can also play these characters against the grain of their stereotype, for instance a magic-heavy Destroyer or a melee Alchemist are both possible. The alchemist is the strongest mage, initially. He has the largest boost to magic, and has several skills which either serve as spells, support him with summons, or even call up battle talents. In general for a summoner, ranged, or caster alchemist you will want to boost magic first, defense second, and either strength or dex last. You can also play the alchemist as a melee fighter, in which case specialize in the battle tree and boost strength and defense. A caster will want to prioritize magic, and find elemental-damage boosting wands. The destroyer is your strongest melee fighter, initially. He has the largest boost to strength, and has several great attack skills. He also has some summons spells, and a few more-magically oriented attacks. He also has two aura spells as well, which are unique amongst the three classes. You will likely want to prioritize strength if you're going to be fighting hand-to-hand, and defense, with likely magic after and pretty much ignoring dexterity. If you choose to focus on special attacks, don't neglect magic so as to boost your elemental damage. The vanquisher kills things from a distance. She is the best ranged fighter, initially, though her skills are a bit weak to begin with. Once she gets exploding shot, that is no longer true, and the vanquisher becomes overpowered. She has the largest bonus to dexterity. She has access to rogue skills, and if you want to play her as a melee fighter, it is possible, though more difficult than a ranged fighter. The traps add intriguing tactical potential for the vanquisher. If you choose to play as a ranged attacker, focus on dexterity and defense, then on magic. Ignore strength. Melee fighters will want the opposite. NOTE: Defense increases your armor, and your resistances. Your resistances are increased by 1% of the base per point invested. So if you have on a piece of armor that gives 100 fire resistance, each defense point increases that by 1. You can not add health to your character, except by leveling up, using a specific boss item, and ===================2. Skills=================== There are two sets of skills available to players- common skills and class skills. Common skills are available to all players, and are passive skills. Class skills must be used, usually as a right click (though any can be set as your main attack- I'd go for something with low MP cost), and can devastate your foes with a variety of attacks. I discuss my opinions on these skills as best I can. You can survive the story dungeon with extremely weak skills, so if you disagree with my assessment of some of these skills, try them out in the shadow vault. Additionally, with the right set of equipment, you don't really even need any active skills to finish the story. -------Common skills------- Advanced Spellcasting: This skill decreases the requirements of spell (in terms of level required) and increases your mana regeneration rate. The regeneration boost is nice, and can be quite useful depending on your character. This skill isn't that impressive for spell requirement reduction since by the time you acquire this skill, you can also equip nearly every spell. If you find yourself needing more mana, pursue this skill with a bit more zest. Armor Expertise: This skill increases the defense value of your armor, increasing your durability, and also decreases the requirements (e.g., lowers the level, strength, dex, etc. requirements) of a piece of armor. This skill can be useful as a default (e.g., those times when you go "I don't know what to do with my skill points") skill. Everyone probably should aim on maxxing this skill out. Aventurer: Increases the rate at which you gain experience, fame, and increases the potency of potions. A skill worth maxing out immediately as it becomes available if you intend to play your character for a while (in other words, take them through several levels of the shadow vault), it will increase the rate of gaining future points, and make you much more effective. The bonus to potion efficiency also makes weak potions much more useful, and is a major perk of this skill late in the game or on tough difficulties. Bartering: Increases the selling price and decreases the buying price of goods. Your pet also benefits from this skill, when you send him back to town. If you find money to be an issue, get this skill. If not, then don't bother. You'll get quite rich if you max this skill out, but money isn't an issue so much in the last part of the game, so don't bother with this one too much. Block and Parry: Gives you a small chance to block all incoming damage, without using a shield. Not too bad, consider it effectively gives a 2% reduction in damage per point. I'd still recommend armor expertise first, as armor expertise is more effective per point, as it also reduces armor requirements. Charm Spell Mastery: This skill increases the level at which you cast charm spells. Charm spells include summon spells and a few others. Increasing spell levels tends to increase strength and duration of spells. If you enjoy casting a lot of spells, this skill may be of use to you. Pets also get benefits of this skill, meaning they will cast more powerful charm spells, especially summons. Critical Strikes: This skill increases the damage your critical hits do, as well as the likelihood of a critical hit (1% for each point). If you find yourself participating in combat or casting damage spells, get this skill- it will affect them all. Critical strikes are common and can make a big difference. Defensive Spell Mastery: This skill increases the level at which you cast defensive spells. Defensive spells include healing spells, and buffs. Increasing spell levels tends to increase strength and duration of spells. If you enjoy casting a lot of spells, this skill may be of use to you. Pets also get benefits of this skill, meaning they will cast more powerful defensive spells, like heal all. Dual Wielding: Increases the damage done by dual wielded weapons. It doesn't matter the type of weapons (e.g., ranged or melee), this skill benefits them all. Very nice if you use two weapons. Using two weapons gives you the benefit of both weapons- so if one has life leech and the other mana leech, than whenever you attack you'll steal both life and mana. Magic Weapons Expertise: This skill increases the damage done with wands and staves, and decreases the requirements of these items, as well as the requirements of rings and amulets. While that decrease in ring and amulet bonus is nice, it's not worth grabbing this skill unless you are using wands and/or staves. Martial Weapons Expertise: This skill increases your melee weapon damage as well as decreases the requirements to use them. This skill is great if you want to use melee weapons. Offensive Spell Mastery: This skill increases the level at which you cast offensive spells. Increasing spell levels tends to increase strength and duration of spells. If you enjoy casting a lot of spells, this skill may be of use to you. Pets also get benefits of this skill, meaning they will cast more powerful offensive spells. Pet Mastery: This skill increases you minion and pet damage and armor, and decreases the time it takes for your pet to go home. If you use summons, this skill is invaluable. The bonus perk of quicker pet trips is nice but not very important if you're patient. Ranged Weapons Expertise: This skill increases your ranged damage and decreases the requirements for using these items. If you used ranged weapons, this is a very useful skill, otherwise skip it. Treasure Hunter: Increases your gold find and magic find traits. You'll get more cash and better items with this skill. It's worth boosting occasionally, after maxing out your character's more important skills. -------Class Skills------- Below are the skills available to individual classes. As with any Diablo-like game, each skill will have its fans and detractors. I'd recommend experimenting to find skills of interest to you. *****Alchemist***** The mage of the group, the alchemist has a choice between casting spells, calling on summons, or becoming a melee battlemage. The easiest is without a doubt the summoner. ++Arcane++ Ember Bolt: Casts poison bolt(s) at your enemies. A staple of the early game, leveling it up as you proceed still provides you with a decent skill even in late game, as multiple bolts hit for more damage with time. This spell benefits from bonuses to poison damage, and by equipping a poison-damage weapon. Bolt ends up stronger than ember lance and lightning by the very late portion of the game (level 40 and higher). Iceshock: Casts a frozen ball at foes, doing ice damage and freezing them. The freezing effect will slow your enemies. Good early on, weak later. You will not be able to use this skill to the end of the game. This spell benefits from bonuses to ice damage. You may find a frost spell to be more useful, given that you can always replace the spell if necessary, instead of devoting skill points to this skill. Ember Lightning: Casts a lightning bolt at foes, doing electric damage. Good early on, weak later. This spell benefits from bonuses to electricity damage. You're better off going for ember lance instead. Ember Lance: Casts a continuous blast of ember energy at your foes. This skill is great through the story dungeon, though is weak if you try playing through the shadow vault. It's a staple of caster alchemists, regardless. Pyre: Casts a fireball at foes, doing fire damage. Has a blast radius making it useful for crowd control. This spell benefits from bonuses to fire damage. Ember Strike: Great for crowd control, ember strike does a fair bit of damage to enemies it hits. It takes a while to cast, so it's hard to cast repeatedly. Couple with the web spell to keep enemies in its damage zone. ++Lore++ Nether Imp- This is the staple of a summoner alchemist. The nether imps are strong little buggers that must be summoned from a corpse (cast the spell on the dead bodies of your foes to get one of these fellows). Summoner alchemists will want to max this skill out to get all 6 imps to join them. They will make short work of most mobs, especially when you cast burning bind. NOTE: You can completely forgo the imps and add to charm spells, and replace them with skeletons- skeletons will tend to do more damage, and you can have more of them (keep multiple summon skeleton spells on your character) for an alternative to imps. Thorned Minions- This spell protects your summons, pets, and friends with a thorn shield, reflecting damage back onto the attacker. This is not a strong spell, and I'd recommend this only for dedicated summoners. Even then you can skip it and won't notice that it's missing. You might be better off boosting your charm school and casting summon spells instead of getting this skill. Summon Alchemical Golem- This spell summons a healthy golem to fight (in melee) at your side. Well worth it for all alchemists, the golem will take a lot of heat off of you. As you increase this skill, the golem gets more health, strength, and gets a few new attacks. Terror- Frightens your enemies. Skip it. Just kill them instead. Burning Bind- The best spell for summoners, this spell increases the attack speed and damage of your minions. Grab this spell early and keep it active constantly. Your summons will kill everything nearby with ease. Summon Beam Golem- The ranged equivalent of the alchemical golem, the beam golem attacks your foes from a distance. All alchemists will probably want at least a point in this skill to get the added firepower. The golem also casts electric retaliatory damage on your foes. ++Battle++ Ember Shock: Loads electricity damage into your next attack. Has some area-of-effect potential as well. Not bad. Ember Shield: Absorbs some damage and prevents knockback. Can keep you alive, but doesn't block against elemental damage (hence it's not that useful in the late game). Infuse: If you intend to use your alchemist in melee, get this skill! You'll do a lot of damage with your weapons, making you much stronger. If you're not intending on fighting much melee (e.g., are using wands exclusively), then skip it. Fraility: A debuff skill, primarily useful on hard-hitting late enemies. Early on debuffing your enemies doesn't help so much, so try this one later in the game. You have to be fairly close to the enemy to cast this spell. Ember Phase: A teleport skill, the only one available in the game. Want to teleport? Then this is your skill! The biggest bonus comes from a single point, so you're okay to just leave it at that. Ember Sentry: A floating grain of ember follows you, zapping your enemies. This little guy doesn't seem impressive, and is best for a default companion. *****Destroyer***** The warrior of the group, the destroyer has abilities that augment his melee abilities (the berserker tree), give him some spell-like abilities (the Titan tree), and give him some summons and auras (the Spectral tree). ++Berserker++ Slash Attack: The generic attack for destroyers, slash attack attacks multiple enemies directly in front of the destroyer. It's a good attack to start with. In terms of magic cost vs. damage, one point will be all you need here. Stampede: Your destroyer rushes forward, damaging all in his path. This attack can knockback your foes. Great for closing in on ranged foes, but the haste spell and devastate are much more versatile. Chain Vortex: A stunning attack that does some small damage to your enemies. You're okay skipping this one. Spectral Echo: A ranged melee attack. It's pretty weak, and I'd say just to run in and kill them instead. Devastate: A constant cost spell, this skill makes you a dervish of destruction. Pair it with the dervish spell and you'll move faster than you can keep up. The major over-powered spell for destroyers. NOTE: devastate breaks your aura spells, so don't use them both together as that's a waste of skill points. ++Titan++ Soul Rend: Useful on bosses and named monsters. Not really useful on general foes. Typically considered to be a one-point wonder. Titan Stomp: Stuns your enemies, knocks them away, and does ice damage. The disabling effect makes it situationally useful. Doomquake: An offensive spell that hits foes with earthquake damage. No knockback/stun makes it less tactically useful than titan stomp. Consider Doomquake if playing on easy-hard, and Titan Stomp if playing on very hard. Scales with your weapon damage. Frost Shield: Casts a frost spell on enemies that hit you. The damage isn't that great, but freezing the enemy slows them down. This skill is a great defensive skill for melee destroyers. Seismic Burst: weak damage (in late game- in the normal story dungeon it's more than sufficient), but with a knockback. This is a one-point wonder at best. It should not be relied on as your main damage source, but can be used to toss a foe away from you, giving you some breathing space. That's best done with just one point investment. If you can couple this with aura of thorns, you'll do a lot more damage by keeping enemies away and having your thorns hit them constantly. ++Spectral++ Shadow Armor: A summon skill that calls up a suit of armor that fights for you for a short time. The armor is pretty weak and doesn't do much damage. Also, when summoned, it increases your block chance (but not for the full extent of its casting?). Worth having for the bonus to defense. Entropic Aura: Slows your enemies down and may stun/interrupt them. For non-devastate destroyers this skill can be useful. Shadow Bowman: Summons an archer who launches missile attacks. Also increases your damage and decreases missile attack damage done to you. If you're interested in summons, this and the armor are the way to go. Aura of Thorns: Does damage to your foes as they approach you. If you can couple this skill with a knockback skill, you'll be able to kill your enemies from a distance. Spectral Decay: Increases the damage monsters take, hits them with knockback, and gives a chance to stun. This is great for melee fighters, and allows them to charge in and weaken all of their foes. Worth having for bosses. *****Vanquisher***** The archer of the group, the vanquisher has options to explore archery, tactical melee fighting, or trap summoning. Melee vanquishers are possible but not powerful compared to destroyers and alchemists. They excel at ranged weapons, and can have some mightily potent traps. ++Marksman++ Ricochet- Your arrows or bullets bounce around, doing more damage when bouncing off of walls. These projectiles also go through enemies, which can make them fairly useful. Some investment is needed in order to get them up in power. Note that these attacks have better range than your normal attack. Early on this skill is great, though it's passed in time by seeking shot and explosive shot. Frost Pilum: Your shots get frost with their attacks, and can travel through foes. The frost damage slows the enemies, although I find it unimpressive when compared to the next few abilities. Seeking Shot: Fires three weak shots which seek out your enemy. This is a good single opponent skill, as it triples any effects your shots may have (like knockback, armor degradation, or health drain). If all three hit then you have done more damage than with a single shot. The shots are slow though, so this one is best used for a one- on-one battle, like with a boss. Explosive Shot: A sweet skill which does a lot of explosion damage over and over again (for cheap!) for you. It has a blast radius, doing great damage to groups of enemies. If you want to use the marksman tree, use this one to deal with crowds of enemies. Use seeking shot against solo enemies. Ricochet is great early on as well. Arrow Hail- causes a rain of arrows to fall down over the location of casting. This is a versatile spell that can hit past differences in elevation. Very recommended for at least one point. Cast a few times on enemies waiting for you below a ledge, and they'll die quickly. Treat this effectively as a spell and don't consider it to be a physical attack. Notice that you will burn through mana using this skill. ++Rogue++ I've not tried rogue skills yet extensively. Rogue skills tend to require melee weapons, which requires a different equipment setup. Needle Arc: Shoots out a bunch of needles in front of you. If the foes are organized well, you can do a lot of damage. Otherwise, you'll miss with most of them. These weapons do a bit more damage than a regular attack. Follow up attacks with needle arc do more damage too, which makes this skill of interest even to non-rogues. Stab: Attacks with a powerful melee attack. This is a staple of rogue vanquishers. Has a good chance to stun, and gives some knockback, which makes it useful as crowd control for melee vanquishers. Wind of Justice: Knocks enemies away from you, stuns them, and does some ice damage. Good for setting up a needle arc. Venomous Dirks: A summon spell that summons poisonous daggers that attack your foes. These do a percentage of your damage per second, so they may be useful through the entire game. You will need to increase your poison damage to make this skill useful, though. Hamstring: A debuffing attack which does a bit of damage, makes you move real fast, and slows down the foes. It's part of the melee vanquisher build, but I don't know how well it works. ++Arbiter++ Traps are unique in that they grow with your level. So your level 50 vanquisher summons up level 50 traps. They do not benefit from your weapon's dps, but can serve you through the story dungeon quite well. A pure arbiter is possible, but traps are best augmenting other skills, like marksman. A good route to choose is to pull on two main trap types as support for your character. Lightning Bomb: A nice early trap that does decent damage throughout the early levels of the game. This trap benefits decently from your magic score- increase your magic stat, and this bomb also grows in strength. Flame Trap: A little trap that shoots out flames at your foes. Pretty weak, especially against fire-resistant enemies. Can work wonders on non-resistant low level mobs, but that said, I'd skip it. Flechette Trap: A trap that shoots bullets at your enemies. They can bounce and hit enemies many times. Worthwhile if you're going for a trap-heavy vanquisher. Pair it with the devouring trap to do a lot of damage. Devouring Trap: A debuffing trap which stuns and reduces the armor of your enemies. Worth having for many vanquishers, the debuff effect can be quite helpful, especially if paired with other traps. Note that this only reduces armor, and not resistances. Best for non-trap focused vanquishers. Shock Trap: A little trap that lasts a few seconds and sends out powerful bolts of lightning at your foes. This spell is quite powerful, killing foes in one shot when you first get it, and only improving from there. ===================3. Player Types=================== There are ~4 types of main types of characters. As a general rule of thumb, for every 15 stat points you have, devote 4 to defense at the least, then devote 6 to your main weapon of choice (Str for melee, Dex for ranged, and Magic for wands/spells/staves). Devote 3 to your second main state (e.g., magic for elemental damage users, strength for staff users, dex for wand users), and 2 to the last stat. By the end of the game you should be able to equip about half of all equipment. Be sure to save up ~5-10 stat points in case you find something extremely powerful (the game recommends not doing this, but you will want the bonus if possible). You can play as any combination of 2-3 of these classes, but not really all 4. Summoners- If you want to play as a summoner, your best bet is definitely the alchemist. The alchemist has access to Golems and Imps, and can very easily be played as a hands-off sideline warrior. He also has two spells which buff the summons, making them impressive to behold. You can also play as a summoner for Destroyers and for Vanquishers, with destroyers being easier. Destroyers get two summon skills, whereas outside of traps, vanquishers get none. Everyone can summon with spells, though. If you want to be a summoner, be sure to max out pet mastery as the bonuses to armor and attack will double the strength of your summons. Also prioritize gear with bonuses to minion armor and damage. You will probably want to max magic for spells, or whatever weapon you're using. Note that most summon spells are charm spells, so if you want to choose a school to maximize, charm is a great one. SKILLS: Pet Mastery, Charm Spell Mastery Casters- Casters burn mana to do lots of damage to foes. Their primary stat is magic, naturally. They will tend to employ either spells to do damage, or skills. Advanced spellcasting is a very useful skill to have for casters, and depending on your spell setup, one of the spell masteries may be quite helpful. Critical strike will greatly enhance your spells too, so think about that spell. SKILLS: Advanced Spell Casting, Offensive Spell Mastery (for elemental overload) Tanks- Tanks charge in, take lots of damage, and deal lots in return. Their primary stats will be strength and defense. With these focus on skills like armor expertise, block, critical strike, and the weapons skill of your choice. You can either use a one-handed weapon and shield, two weapons (the strongest, but less defense) or a two handed weapon (least powerful in the long run, but still completely playable). Great equipment for tanks includes anything that does bonus damage, life leech, and, if you use skills frequently, mana leech. SKILLS: Melee Weapon Expertise, Armor Expertise, Critical Strike Cannons: Engage in ranged attacks. Glass cannons max out damage at the expense of defense. Cannons will try to kill their enemies before they even reach them. You can either use a one-handed gun or wand and shield, two one-handed weapons, or a two handed weapon (which can be about as strong as two one-handed weapons). Emphasize either dexterity (guns) or magic (wands) and defense. Don't worry about strength. Choose as your skill either magic weapons, ranged weapons, perhaps dual wielding, critical strike, and a skill to boost damage. SKILLS: Ranged or Magical Weapon Expertise, Critical Strike ===================4. Spells=================== Spells work a bit differently here than they do in other games. You can have four spells on your character. These four spells are of offensive, defensive, and charm varieties. There are six ranks of most of these spells- the higher the level, the stronger the spell (and the harder it is to cast). You can also increase the level of spells (all classes) by adding to a spell class mastery. When I refer to "level" of a spell, I mean if you add points to a spell class, the following are the effects. Note that you can remove a spell by pressing control while left clicking on a spell in your spell sheet. Note- you can have multiple copies of the same spell if you equip different levels, and they can stack. So you can cast elemental overload 6, 5, 4, and 3, all in a row for a huge bonus to your elemental damage. Similarly, you can summon up lots of skeletons by the same means. -------Defensive Spells------- Draining Touch- an offensive defensive spell, draining touch reclaims a portion of the damage you do back as health. Fairly nice, I'd recommend considering this spell. Increasing the level and rank of this spell increases the health stolen per hit. Elemental Resistance- Gives you a bonus to your elemental resistances, decreasing damage received. There are better spells out there in general, but you may find it useful depending on your play style. Increasing the rank and level of this spell increases the resistances buffed. Repel- I've not found this spell yet, but supposedly it exists somewhere. Forces all foes back away from you. In Fate this spell could be quite awesome, but I don't know how it is in Torchlight. Retribution- returns some of the damage received back onto the antagonist. I've never been a fan of thorns aura, so I'd skip this as it doesn't help like other spells will help. Increasing the rank and level of this spell increases the percent of damage returned to your foes. Heal Self- restores some of your health. Since potions are plentiful in the game and almost inevitably more powerful than this spell, I'd recommend not wasting a spot here other than early on in the game (when saving a bit of cash by selling potions is helpful). Increasing the rank and level of this spell increases the health restored. Heal All- restores some of your health, and the health of all your allies (but not spell summons). This one is a fair bit more useful than heal self, but really shines when your pet has it. I'd put it on your pet and upgrade as you advance in levels. Increasing the level or rank of this spell increases the health restored. Haste- Increases your movement speed and your attack speed. Increasing the level of this spell increases the speed boost and duration of the spell, but the bonus to attack speed is limited by the spell rank (I-VI). This is a useful spell for nearly everyone. Silence- prevents your enemies from casting spells. Situationally useful, I'd recommend this in levels with blood disciples. Increasing the level of this spell increases the duration of the silence, and increases the rank of the spell increases the radius of effect. Summon Aloe Gel- a rare spell that summons a little slime that heals you and your allies. I think this spell is broken as it crashed my game a few times, but others haven't had a problem. It also isn't very reliable as a healer. Skip it- give your pet a heal all spell instead. Web- a rare spell that inhibits your enemies with a web. Similar to what spiders sometimes hit you with. This is a great spell to have on your pet. Follow a web up with any of a number of spells to completely shred your enemies. Web immobilizes weak enemies, and slows named and teleporting monsters. Probably one of the best spells in the game from a tactical perspective. -------Charm Spells------- Charm- forces a foe to fight for you. Not a bad spell, you will probably find it to be more helpful to summon help instead of this spell. However, this spell probably holds better strategy than the summon spells. It can work well on a pet, especially if you are improving the charm school. Increasing the level of this spell increases its duration and the rank decreases its mana cost and cooldown. Identify Item- acts as an identify scroll. If you find this, I'd recommend equipping it as you can then sell off all your identify scrolls and won't have to worry about lugging them around anymore. The cost for each identify is dirt cheap in terms of mana, and you'll save a lot of money over the course of the game, and won't have to worry any more about IDing something in the middle of the dungeon. Town Portal- A useful but rare spell that removes the need for town portal scrolls. I wouldn't worry about this spell unless you're in the mood to explore the shadow vault substantially. Scrolls are useful and common enough in the main dungeon that you won't need this spell. However, in the shadow vault you'll want to cast this spell at the beginning of every level, if not more frequently so as to keep the level available to you easily if you die. Having the spell gives you much more leeway in your explorations. Summon Archers- This spell summons 3-8 archers to defend you. They are immobile but can provide a good distraction. At high ranks this spells is fairly weak in terms of damage, but no other spell gives you this many summons willing to annoy your enemies. Probably the best of the distracting summon spells, but not the best for damage. Increasing the level of this spell gives the archers improved damage, and increasing the rank increases the number of skeletons received and their duration. Summon Blood skeleton- this spell gets you a skeleton who heals you when it damages your foes. This spell can be useful, but I prefer zombies. Increasing the level of this spell increases its damage. Summon Skeleton- this one gets you a skeletal warrior. The skeletal warrior isn't that powerful, but you can summon a lot of them and they'll last for a decent time as well. You can get more summons with this spell than archers, but it'll take you a while. Increasing the level of this spell increases the damage of the skeletons, and increasing the rank of this spell increases their duration. This spell really makes summoners shine. Summon Zombies- calls up three zombies to fight at your side. They are fairly powerful, the most powerful of the charm summon spells I've found, and they also heal the summoner (e.g., you or your pet) a portion of the damage the do. Increasing the rank of the spell improves the zombies, and the level of the spell increases the health restored by them. My favorite summon spell. -------Offensive Spells------- Bee swarm- Summons bees to fight for you. Oooo bees! Dervish- This spell greatly increases your attack and cast speed, but has a long cool down. It's great for melee fighters (and archers) and stacks with haste. Increasing the rank of this spell increases the duration, and increasing the level increases the boost to speed. The cool-down time is a bit of a bummer, though. Elemental Overload- Increases the elemental damage you do by a direct percent. If you do elemental damage (e.g., are a caster or use wands/staves) then this is an excellent spell. You can have two or more of these scrolls on your character, so long as they are at different ranks, and can cast them all (and they stack!), making this spell extremely useful for element-focused characters. Increasing the rank of this spell increases its duration, and increasing the level increases the percentage boost. Fireball- launches a fireball at your enemies. Does fire damage. Increasing the rank and level of this spell increases the damage. Use this if you like fire damage. I prefer having more tactical spells. Frost- shoots three frost shards at your foes. Does ice damage, and slows an enemy. Increasing the rank of this spell increasing the duration of slow, and the level increases the damage done. Use this if you like ice damage. Great for pets, probably the best offensive spell for pets due to the slowing effect. Poison Cloud- Launches a poison cloud at your foes. Foes take damage by sitting in the cloud, but otherwise unremarkable and doesn't improve with level. Note that I have not found this spell yet, or tried it. Summon Flaming Sword- this spell summons a sword to fight by your side. It's fairly strong, and can do good damage. Increasing the level of this spell gives the sword a chance to critical hit your foes and degrades their armor with each hit. Increasing the rank increases the duration the summon is active. ===================5. Items=================== There are five classes of items, although one of these classes overlaps three other classes. These items can make or break your character, and the proper equipment setup makes a huge difference. These five item classes are normal (white text), enchanted (green text), rare (blue text), unique (gold text), and set (purple text). Note that set items are enchanted, rare, or unique. Some set items are quite common (like Gorgon's and Midas's). If you collect a few set items, they will give you bonuses. It's hard to collect full sets of armor, so be happy when you find two of a kind. Note that items have a level requirement which can be reduced by increasing certain passive skills. Also note that if an item has a level requirement, that influences where you can find it (in other words, a level 10 unique item isn't going to be found in a dungeon filled with level 50 monsters). In order to complete low level sets you will have to go back and play a lower level with a low-experience character. To maximize your inventory, first of all, decide what type of damage you'd like to have (e.g., physical, or elemental- if elemental, then fire, ice, electricity, or poison?). Try to select items that augment this damage, preferably as a percent. Stat bonuses are also nice on items, but you can make it so that you can't equip a nice piece of equipment if you become too dependent on items with stat bonuses. Resistances are also nice but can always be socketed into an item. Armor bonuses are also common, and can make a difference. Reflect missile damage is common, but not so useful (though having a high rate of reflection is- you can become invulnerable to some of the most annoying enemies in the game if you have 100% chance to reflect missiles on your armor!). Reflecting a few melee damage is basically a waste of a magic ability. Magic find, gold find, and experience gain are fairly common on rings and necklaces, and can be good bonuses to accrue. Casting speed is also fairly common and affects all of your skills. Attack speed and movement speed bonuses are rarer, but nice on equipment. Rare bonuses include fear casting on hit, charming on hit, increased range of attacks, bonuses to skills (e.g., + 1 to dual wielding- you only get this if you have invested one point already in dual wielding though, but these items do make it worthwhile to do so), bonuses to critical hit chance (fairly nice). Bonuses to pet armor and damage are rare but critically valuable for a summoner (mainly because they act as percentages, meaning your summons become hugely more powerful). NOTE: Mana leech and health leech only work on normal attacks, and do not benefit special attacks (like explosive shot). If you need to boost HP, go for a normal attack. NOTE 2: You can enchant your items using either enchant shrines, or Goren. Enchant shrines work better and have a smaller chance of removing all enchantments. NOTE 3: Faster attack speed applies only to normal attacks. Faster casting speed applies to all spells and skills, so if you use skills (which you likely will by end-game) then go for casting speed bonuses. More bizarre and rare are bonuses to selling prices, increases in fishing luck, and a few that seem to be jokes. ===================6. Ember=================== Early in the game you will run across items with sockets. Into these sockets you can place a variety of objects, the most important and abundant of which is ember. You may also socket chaos gems or bits of fish, both of which are fairly weak relative to fully upgraded ember. Ember comes in nine different transmutable varieties: Cold, Core, Deep, Eyeballs, Fire, Flow, Life, Pure, and Skulls. These have different effects, respectively, and I refer you to kirbob's great FAQ on these effects. Ember comes in 10 different qualities. These have distinct effects on your socketed items (again look at kirbob's FAQ). Cracked --> Dull --> Discolored --> (Plain) --> Cut --> Polished --> Star --> Flawless --> Perfect --> Unique You can either purchase these from the ember merchant or from random dungeon merchants, find them in your explorations, or get them from transmuted goods. In general, merchants will sell cracked or dull ember, rarely offering much better than that. Still, as money becomes plentiful, which it will for any second play-through character, go ahead and buy it occasionally. The Torchlight merchant gets new inventory whenever you explore the dungeons. Monsters will also occasionally drop ember. The only ones that do so repeatedly are Medea, mimics, and the ember beast (level 24). You will also occasionally find ember in secret areas of the map. Of these I'd strongly recommend the transmutation route to getting a supply of ember. You will find a lot of junky magic items in your journey. You can either trade them for a few hundred gold (often much less!), or you can transmute them, saving several hundred in ember purchases (and also building up your socketable items). Four green magical items will transmute to a random piece of ember, usually of dull quality, though sometimes of cracked quality (most often for skulls). Four blue magical items will also transmute to the same quality of ember. Note that both blue and green items include fish pieces like ember fish eyes and chaos gems, so you can get ember from these items as well. If it has an outlined boundary it will give you ember. If you decide to transmute four unique items you will get a piece of vanilla (blank) ember. If you're a perfectionist, you'll probably want to socket the best ember you can find in your goods, especially your heirloom. That likely means a piece of unique ember. However, note that making a piece of unique ember will require a total of 512 cracked pieces of the same ember. Start collecting early if you want to go this route! Given that Triya will stock around about 3 pieces of cracked ember each time you visit her from the dungeons at that there are nine varieties of ember, that means that to make the finished ember piece you will need to visit her 1500 times. Alternatively, you will need to break down 9000 magic items, which corresponds to about 1800 full inventories from dungeons. Better get cracking! ===================7. Pets & Fishing=================== You have the option of having either a cat or a dog as a pet, with no difference between the two, or an imaginary pet (which doesn't fight for you but which can still take your junk back to Torchlight). The pet is an invaluable companion, often doing as much or more damage than you. You can change your pet by feeding it fish, and can send it home to sell junk to merchants in torchlight. Pets will take 10 seconds per level of dungeon to sell your items, to a maximum of 2 minutes. You can greatly improve your pet by taking the pet mastery skill, if you find that to be of interest. Your pet will NOT sell quest items. Pets (and all minions) can be set to an aggressive stance (attacking all enemies on screen) by clicking on the sword icon beneath their name on the upper left side of the screen. Clicking on the shield makes them attack only when you are attacked. You will want the aggressive stance most of the time, especially if playing as a summoner. The defensive stance is more useful if you are annoyed by increased monster aggression. Pets can equip two rings and an amulet. I'd recommend rings or amulets that improve damage (+ elemental, especially electricity), health, and possibly resistances. Pets also benefit from magic find and gold find bonuses, but not from experience gain bonuses. Increase the power and strength of your pet and summons with items with bonuses to minions (+ health, + damage, + armor, among others). These are very useful for summoners. You can change a pet by feeding them fish. You can go fishing in holes encountered in the dungeon and one in Torchlight. Fishing is done by pressing the hook button when the two circles meet and flash red briefly. If done properly you'll grab a fish. Fish are fairly useful and fall into a number of categories. Your success here is proportional to your level- you will not get great items fishing at level 1! The deeper in the dungeon you are, the more likely you will be to fish up something nice. Pet Shapechanges: Some fish will change the form of your pet. Simple fish will change your pet for 2 minutes, giving them a number of special abilities (like dashing attacks, poison attacks, spells, and other goodies). Big fish change your pet for a full hour. Giant fish will change them permanently. You will typically find these three types of fish in a 100:10:1 ratio, with weaker forms more common. I found it quite useful to transfer a giant fish (in my case an ice angel- transformation to ice elemental) to a new character, giving the pet a huge boost. You can also buy a catfish/dogfish to reverse a transformation (though I wouldn't- just feed them a cheap 2 minute transformation to remove the effect). Note that if you feed your pet a giant fish, then feed them a normal or big fish, they will revert back to dog/cat form after the duration has ended. Pet Buffs: A few, rarer fish will give your pet a boost to their stats- making them better in combat or better at finding good items. Boots: Yup, you can sometimes pull boots out of the water. They tend to be rare quality or better, and will be close to your level. Fishing for boots gets you some about one time in 50 or so. Fish Meat: Two varieties of fish meat can be procured, which act as joint health and mana potions. With consumables fish meat is the second most common item you'll pull during fishing, making up about 20% of what you dig up. Consumables: A bit rarer, you may find some consumable fish. These include ember fish eyes (bonus to experience gained for a few minutes), bearded fish (armor bonus for a few minutes) and others. Many of these also count as rare items, allowing you to get dull ember from transmuting them. Note that you may even be able to claim a few very rare permanent stat boosting fish, though they are exceptionally uncommon. Socketables: You can also find some uncommon items that can be socketed, but not improved. These include fish scales, fish teeth, and other goods. The bonuses these give aren't that great, but make for good options while waiting to improve your ember. Other: You may occasionally grab a gold fish (good value for selling) or some other, more bizarre items. Four unique items can be found, and may even be transmutable... ===================8. Walkthrough=================== The game is fairly straight-forward. Kill your foes in the story dungeon, and have fun in the random ancillary dungeon(s). If you've played any sort of Diablo-like game you'll probably recognize the monsters that attack you too, so I won't give you too many hints for how to beat them. Upon completion of the story dungeons, the Shadow Vault opens with an endless supply of levels to explore and loot. You can also access random levels by purchasing maps, pursuing quests, killing phase beasts or using the Ember Scholar's map levels. -------Torchlight------- Your main hub in the game. You can find a lot to do here. Vasman-talk with Vasman to start the ember quests. He will want you to find a piece of ember in each major region of the game. Ember will be found on levels 1, 5, 10, 18, 23, 28, and 33. Be sure not to miss them, as Vasman will give you a unique map scroll which takes you to a new dungeon. Your first reward is a chaos gem. Duran- the transmuter. Duran provides a valuable service of upgrading your goods. Give him two equal ember and he will upgrade them to the next level. Give him four and he'll upgrade them two levels higher (no difference either way). Give him four magic items (green or blue boundaries) and he'll turn them into either a cracked or dull ember. Give him four unique items and he'll turn them into a plain (4th level) ember. Other tricks you can do include turning three magic rings into a random ring, three magic necklaces into a random necklace, 3 potions of one level to one of the next level, and a few weirder things (google it!). NOTE: If you try to transmute 4 chaos gems, you will get a random dull/cracked ember in exchange- the chaos gems can not be upgraded! Gorn will destroy an item to retrieve the jewels socketed within. That allows you to reuse valuable ember and other items. Furl will destroy gem and other things socketed into an item. If you placed a low-level jewel into a high-level item, this is the way of remedying that mistake. Duros is a gambling man. You can buy overpriced unidentified items from him to see if you get something very powerful. I have typically found extremely rare or unique items in about 1 every 20 gambles. Kolos is the smith. He sells weapons and armor. Occasionally he will stock set and unique items, but not often. Check with him frequently to see if he has anything valuable, and to upgrade your wares through the main game. You'll soon surpass his wares if you explore the shadow vault for a while. Tarn sells minor items like potions and scrolls (identify and town portal) and occasionally fish (only cat fish or dog fish though). He's your best friend for selling to begin with, but if you find the identify spell you'll probably never speak to him again. Goren enchants your items for a fee. Each time you enchant, there is a chance that the item will lose all of its enchantments. There is also a chance that the enchantment will fail, wasting your money. I've found that failing to enchant occurs most often when your item already has a lot of enchantments on it. I've also found that failing to enchant can increase the likelihood of removing all enchantments. Goren is similar to shrines of enchantment, although the shrines have a much lower chance of having a bad effect (dispelling all enchantments, or not enchanting), and the effects from Goren aren't that strong. Still, he is useful. Triya is the ember merchant here, and if you want to perfect your items, or cast spells, she's your best friend. She also sells rings, amulets, wands, and staves. She will tend to sell only cracked ember, but you may occasionally find some better than that, usually for much cheaper than two cracked ember, making it worthwhile if you're trying to build your equipment up. Stash: Your stash is a large chest capable of holding your items. Store whatever you like here- I tend to keep items possibly useful at first, and switch to ember later in the game. Transfer Chest: You can share items between characters here. This is a great place to put set items that have become obsolete, giant fish, and odd spells for your characters. You can also exchange ember here, and this is really the only way to grow you collection to perfect and greater ember in the normal game. Hatch will give you a series of quests to retrieve artifacts from long forgotten portals. You get a quest to do so every time you enter a new zone after the mines. Beat Brink to get the first quest. These levels are tougher than the story levels, but more rewarding as well. They are two floors each. Trill-Bot 4000: Also talk with Trill to get a second set of story- dungeon quests, to kill unique monsters. Do so for gold, fame, and loot. The monsters are on levels 1 (sometimes skipped), 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, 30, 32, and 33. -------Story Dungeon------- Go west as you enter, kill the few foes, and Torchlight is freed of difficulties. Talk with Syl to start the main quest- to go find her friend Brink. Talk with Trill and Vasman to begin other story line quests. -------Mines------- Go down the mine. The next four levels are mine levels. Scrolls, primarily town portal and identify, but sometimes spells, can be found on Foreman's tables. Also, use any plungers you see to blow open a secret area full of goods. Watch out for holes and chutes as rat- or bat-people will often storm out of them. You will encounter Brink on level 2. He will be an undying companion until level 4. If you want to buff up your character a bit, use some purchasable maps while you have Brink for the added firepower. On level 4 you find Master Alric. He mutates Brink into an enemy. Kill Brink, and grab the potion he drops for a permanent boost to your defense skill. Syl will appear and tell you to continue to explore, heading into the crypts to find a cure for the corruption in you. Loot the area and activate the nearby way-point so as to return to this area without hassle. -------Tomb of the Awakened------- The crypt level. Scrolls can be found here on lecterns. Also, be on the lookout for levers. They tend to open secret passages or secret doors. Other times secret paths also slide out as you approach them. You may encounter a group of three levers. Use them in the right order (watching lights come on) to open a secret area. There are lots of traps here as well, where if you attempt to open a chest, you'll be swarmed by undead. Kill them and take their stuff. Level 6 is the Lair of the Sisters. It starts out as a normal level, but ends with a boss fight. Read the book at the end after grabbing all the items, and kill the sisters. GO down the stairs. Level 7 is normal again. Level 8 is the overseer's chambers. Light the brazier, and kill him. He drops an eye which will permanently increase your health by 25. Now activate the waypoint across the bridge and Syl will come to talk with you. -------Estherian Ruins------- The Obligatory swamp level. These are my favorite levels. Head to speak with Syl, and you have three options to explore. Do them from top to bottom to do them in order (and this way you don't have to worry about missing a quest). These ruins have lots of secrets. Keep your eye out for vine-covered walls. You can usually go through these. If you see an open area in the walls on your map, sometimes if you wait patiently, a path will rise out of the swamp water for your to explore a secret area. You will usually encounter at least one area here that holds a bunch of fish, which is a nice addition to your pet's repertoire. The final level (16) of this region holds tu'tara lizardmen, elementals, and others. Head to the SE to leave the final platform and continue to the next region. Trigger the waypoint, and Syl will come and ask you to kill the earthquake-causing monster. -------Tu'Tara ------- This is the waterfall/floating island level. There are fewer secrets here, at most a bridge will lead to an island with some coins on it. Tu'tara are lizard men. They come in three colors- red, with shield that block your attacks, orange who are shooters or melee warriors with a rush attack, and blue who lob magic energy at you and can heal their friends. You may encounter phase beasts here who on death, summon a portal to a secret area. The secret area will hold lots of treasure and tough enemies. Level 20 holds the ember giant. Kill it for a lot of ember. -------Goblin Dungeons------- The obligatory lava level. Goblins will dominate this region. The most dangerous goblins I found were the hunters. These launch dynamite at you which can explode and remove half of your health. This region introduces horns. Blow on the horn to move a bridge and access a secret area. You may also find phase beasts, kill them to explore their secret portals. Note that the beasts behind the secret portals will be tougher than those on the main level. 24 is the prison stronghold, and holds a waypoint. It is guarded by a nasty troll named Krag. Kill his trollmasters to make him weaker (and claim some fame), then kill him. Syl comes and chats with you. -------Lost Fortress------- Dwarves roam this area. Here you also encounter traps in the form of spikes that pop up from the ground. Secret areas aren't too secret here, so you shouldn't have too much difficulty finding them. Ballistas here do damage to anyone in front of them. They aren't otherwise helpful. On level 27 Syl will use the ember forge and clear you of corruption. Alric of course kidnaps Syl. Level 29 holds a waypoint and the cat-monster Medea. -------Black Palace------- This is one of the more annoying areas as it's hard to see where to go next and the levels are also quite large. Dragonkin and dark servants/disciples are the most common here. Two things of note here include blue portals which summon cat monsters (about 4 each) and teleporters, which are red circular platforms on the ground. Teleporters usually take you to a secret area with loot, so be on the lookout for them. Phase beasts may also be found in this region. On floor 31 you'll find Syl guarded by a boss. Free her and follow her to a waypoint. Level 34 holds Alric. Hit him until he runs away. Level 35 holds Ordrak. This is a tough fight, so keep up your defenses. He summons dragonkin as well as enslaved skeletons. Hit him with your strong attacks. When he falls, Syl congratulates you. New things open up back in Torchlight for you to explore. -------Purchasable Maps------- You can acquire a number of maps whose names are succeeded by numbers from random merchants in the dungeons or from the ember merchant. These maps open a new level for you to explore. The number after the map name describes the maximum level of the foes you will find on the level. A map described as 1-10 will have foes of max level 9 (I think), which will also be of similar level to you (so if you are level 4, they will also be around level 4). These levels are a great way to get a lot of loot and fame, since they inevitably will have at least two unique foes on each level. Each map opens a level with two floors. Note that if you die and choose to resurrect at town you will lose access to the map level. You can return if you use an identical map scroll, but that's not guaranteed. I would suggest trying at least one of these maps when you have recruited Brink, just to get a bit of experience for the coming fight. -------Post-Ordrak------- Goldenrod will now let you retire. If you do so, then you can bequeath an heirloom to your ancestors. An heirloom is an item that gains 10% to all of its stats, or +1, whichever is greater. So if your ring gives you 200 resistance to fire, then your heirloomed ring will get 220 resistance to fire. Alternatively, if your bow gives you a 1 m greater firing distance, you will get a 2 m greater firing distance. Note however, that you probably shouldn't heirloom any item that gives a bonus to health, as it starts going crazy if you do repeatedly. Also, elemental damage bonuses (as integer increases, not percents) can also be quite buggy. The Shadow Vault has now opened, and three questgivers are associated with it: Vasman now gives you a quest to recover ember from a floor below in the Shadow Vault. There is one of these quests for each floor of the Shadow Vault. Valeria wants you to kill a unique enemy a floor below in the Shadow Vault. There is one of these quests for each floor of the Shadow Vault. Gar wants you to find an item a floor below in the Shadow Vault. Be sure you don't sell it! There is one of these quests for each floor of the Shadow Vault. -------Secret Maps------- These maps are given to you by Vasman for completing his ember quests. They open up unique dungeons with puzzles. They can be tough as they are filled with foes of your level (on normal difficulty), as well as traps. Equivalently, they are highly rewarding. Crypt- Your goal here is to fill up the central pool. First head south and pull the lever. GO north then and pull the lever. GO through the central room. Head past the flame throwers and use the levers to open a bridge. Your reward is an enchantment shrine and bunch of stuff. Swamp- Squishy walls! Watch out and time your run to make it through the squishy walls and get to the end. Your pet and summons will likely get squished, which will kill your summons and scare your pet. Use the lever, then go back to the front. Go up the stairs, use the levers, then through another set of squisher walls. Lava- this one is all about the levers and doors. You will have to pull the levers sequentially so as to open the final door to a bridge. Dwarven fortress- your goal here is to use the nearby levers to open up the central spiked-floor passage. First put them RLR to get to the left passage. Pull the lever, then do LLL. Pull the lever. Finally do LRL to make it to the center, and leave the map. -------Shadow Vault------- The shadow vault is a series of random levels that are chosen from a variety of the areas in the story dungeon. There's no rhyme or reason, but these levels can hold secrets just like the story level. The shadow vault opens up after you finish the story level, but remains open for all your ancestors. There are three quests available for each board of the shadow vault. The main purpose of these levels is to test your mettle against tough, constant foes. You can find some excellent items, and get a lot of fame.
Amazing Games. Many Cheats. Such Wow.
