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The level of customization possible in Divinity: Original Sin 2 is staggering, whether you want to focus on a smooth-talking teleporter with a ton of skills, an undead soldier who knocks down all enemies, an archer who summons corpses, or nearly anything else you can imagine.
In this guide, we're going to go over four epic Original Sin 2 builds with vastly different focuses, from a stealth assassin to a masochistic necromancer who revels in taking damage. With any of these builds, you could either co-op or even potentially solo your way through the game.
Rogue Assassin Build
With this build, you always want to be positioned behind an enemy for backstabbing and generally avoiding detection. On the attribute side, Finesse is probably a better idea than Strength. Don't discount Wits though, as you get a bonus to initiative and critical chance. For your ability points, you want to put your points into Scoundrel for the critical bonus, and of course Stealth for the sneaking.
On the skills, Adrenaline is a must for getting enough action points to kill with a backstab in one turn. Throwing Knife and Backlash also lets you deal backstab damage, while Chloroform can knock out an enemy at the end of your turn without breaking stealth.
If you go for a secondary ability beyond Scoundrel, oddly enough Polymorphing can be helpful, since it lets you fly around and avoid terrain or remove all negative status effects quickly. The Polymorphing skill Chamelon Cloak gives you two turns of pure invisibility without breaking stealth. Warfare isn't nearly as useful as you'd think, since many of the associated attacks aren't helpful for backstabbing and Scoundrel already gives you a bonus to Finesse-based attacks.
Pros
So long as you pick skills that don't break stealth and you have a weapon that benefits from the high Finesse, you can essentially cheese your way through any combat by staying hidden and then quickly backstabbing or knocking an enemy unconscious before they react. Getting items early that provide teleportation abilities will be a must so you have maximum mobility.
Cons
You will generally have lower armour ratings, since you are focused on staying hidden, meaning that status effects will hit you more often. The game is also a good deal slower and more tense if you are always sneaking and having to pay attention to line-of-sight cones.
Rogue Assassin Build
Solo Masochist Necromancer Build
Put either two points into the Necromancer skill, or one in Necromancer and one in Warfare for the bonus damage. When you level up, place your combat points into Retribution. For your weapon, you probably want a big two-handed weapon that does the most base damage possible with devastating criticals.
From the Necromancer side, you absolutely want the Bloodsucker ability, which lets you heal from the ever-present pools of blood on the ground. You may also want to invest in the Leech talent to automatically heal from blood sources if you aren't going the solo route. Mosquito Swarm is another one that both deals damage and heals. If you are mixing Necromancer and Warfare instead of straight necro, either Crippling Blow or Battle Stomp is the way to go.
Pros
Your idea here is to always be healing yourself while reflecting damage back to the enemy. Every point in Necromancer means you automatically heal damage when you deal it, and each point in Reflection increases the amount of damage you automatically deal back to anyone who hits you. In other words, just walking around getting damaged in combat lets you both kill and heal.
Cons
With the Necromancer skill, your vitality only heals when dealing damage directly to enemy vitality, so any enemy with high physical / magical armour will prevent you from healing.
It also takes several levels for the bonuses from Necromancer and Retribution to actually hit useful levels (starting at a measly 10% and 5% with only one point each at first level). However, this can be overcome by taking the Lone Wolf talent instead of Leech.
With Lone Wolf, each skill point is effectively doubled, which halves the amount of time for those skills to reach useful levels. Despite the name, Lone Wolf actually lets you bring along one companion in addition to your main character while still retaining all the benefits of the talent.
Necromancer Skills
Paladin Build
Your archetypal holy knight, this build revolves around battlefield control. You should be dealing out decent damage, knocking down opponents for control frequently, and then healing your party when necessary.
Hydrosophist and Warfare should be your ability picks, giving access to healing and armor boosting spells, in addition to the bonus to straight damage. For skills, your starting picks should be Restoration and Armour Of Frost (which removes negative status effects) -- and your Warfare pick should probably be Battle Stomp, since it gives battlefield control and doesn't affect allies like most area effect spells.
On the weapon front, either sword and shield combo or a two handed weapon focus compliment the build.
Pros
The Paladin build is excellent for your main character because it overcomes a lot of the weaknesses of the five other origin companions. While you won't be flinging fireballs and creating poison clouds, you can gain easy battlefield control and ensure the rest of the party doesn't go down in flames. There are a lot of combos you can do with other party members as well by first creating wet conditions using your Hydrosophist abilities and then creating electrified areas.
Cons
Outside of combat the build isn't nearly as useful, since a simple bedroll you can grab directly at the beginning of game in the ship prevents the need for healing items outside of battle. You also won't be the stealthiest.
Building a Custom Paladin
Elemental Mage / Summoner
Taking the Lizard class for this fire build is a decent idea, since you get the Dragon's Blaze bonus ability to breathe fire. However, you may want to go with Undead instead, since they heal damage from poison, and you will frequently be creating poison clouds.
Your attributes should be focused on Intelligence for bonus spell damage and Memory so you have a broad range of spells to use and are never in a situation with all your skills in cool down. For abilities, of course you want Pyrokinetic and Geomancer.
On the skills, Ignition is less useful than you'd think because it does damage around you, which can hit allies and of course set off oil puddles and end up hurting yourself or other friendlies. Fossil Strike pairs well with Searing Daggers to create a fiery battlefield -- and for maximum map controlling damage, don't forget Poison Dart creates a poison cloud.
For a twist, instead of Pyrokinetic, switch over to Summoning but keep Geomancer. Now pick Conjure Incarnate instead of Searing Daggers. If you summon your Incarnate in a poison cloud, he will deal tons of poison damage to your enemies for you, essentially acting as a bonus free companion.
Pros
AoE is the name of the game here, as you set large swathes of the battlefield on fire or fill it with poisonous vapors. Dual-wielding elemental wands is a great idea so you can deal bonus damage to fleeing enemies who are on fire or poisoned. Even when you aren't hitting, you will still be dealing damage due to everything being on fire.
Cons
It's incredibly easy to end up damaging your own team here with all the area fire and poison effects, and you don't have much of anything in the way of healing or physical armour.
Undead Wizard
These are the four best Divinity: Original Sin 2 builds we've had the most luck with playing through the campaign and dominating in combat. What's your favorite build, and what combos would you recommend for getting through different acts of the game?
If you're looking for more tips on this huge fantasy game, be sure to checl out our full list of Divinity: Original Sin 2 guides to get the most out of your roleplay.
There are 6 Companions in Divinity: Original Sin 2. They can be found at different locations in the game. In this Divinity: Original Sin 2 Location guide we have listed All Companions and Where to find them. Apart from the location details, we have also listed Divinity: Original Sin 2 Companions' Talents, Special Ability, Starting And Racial Skills, Class, Equipments and many other features. So let's start our Companions Location Guide. Before starting let's take a look at what exactly the Companions are in Divinity: Original Sin 2 - They are Party Members that can join the player during the course of the game.
Locations of all Companion
1: Sebille - Sebille is a Beautiful looking Elf in Divinity: Original Sin 2, and a former Lizard's Slave.
Location : Sebille can be found towards the South Gate outside of the Fort Joy. The Coordinates are X:180, Y:102.
Additional Info: Sadly for having a past history with Lizard, if your character is Lizard or even if you are traveling with The Red Prince, you will need to Persuade her to Recruit. And if you dismiss Sebille, she will constantly be stalking at Stingtail.
Stats
- Class: Rogue (Elf)
- Tags: Sebille, Outlaw and Scholar.
Skills
- Starting Skills: Throwing Knife, Adrenaline and Backlash.
- Racial Skills: Flesh Sacrifice.
Special Ability
- Flesh Sacrifice
- Break the Shackles
2: The Red Prince - The Red Prince is the First Potential Companion you will have to encounter if you have not selected him as an Origin.
Location: He can be found resting himself at the Seaside towards the South, closer to the Shipwreck, Standing at the Edge of the rock, overlooking at the Sea. The Coordinates are X:168, Y:279
Additional Info: Being a Lizards it will help you with digging up things. And when you dismiss the Red Prince from your party he will wander around the same location you found him earlier.
Stats
- Class: Fighter (Lizard)
- Tags: Red Prince, Noble and Scholar.
Skills
- Starting Skills: Contamination, Battle Stomp and Fortify.
- Racial Skills: Dragon's Blaze.
Special Ability
- Dragon's Blaze
- Demonic Stare
3: Ifan Ben-Mezd - Ifan Ben-Mezd has a unique Trait in the beginning, known as the Drudanae Addict, which helps in giving him additional AP per turn, while he is under the effect of Drudanae.
Location: Ifan Ben-Mezd can be found at the Fort Joy, near a group of some elf's and humans. The Coordinates are X:204, Y:136
Additional info: If you Dismiss Ifan Ben-Mezd from your party, he will wander around the Camp Kitchen.
Stats
- Class: Wayfarer (Human)
- Tags: Ifan, Villain, Outlaw and Soldier.
Skills
- Starting Skills: Marksman's Fang, Contamination and Fossil Strike.
- Racial Skills: Encourage.
Special Abilities
- Encourage
- Summon Ifan's Soul Wolf
4: Lohse
Location: She can be found behind the Camp Kitchen, by the Divine's statue in Fort Joy. The Coordinates are X:203, Y:166
Additional info: If you Dismiss Loshe, you will find her at her same place as early wandering at the Divine's Statue.
Stats
- Class: Enchanter (Human)
- Tags: Lohse, Mystic and Jester.
Skills
- Starting Skills: Hail Strike, Electric Discharge and Restoration.
- Racial Skills: Encourage.
Special Abilities
- Encourage
- Maddening Song
5: Beast
Location: You can find Beast at the Fort Joy, on the Beach, working on a wrecked Ship.
Stats
- Class: Battlemage (Dwarf)
- Tags: Beast, Barbarian, Noble
Skills
- Starting Skills: Yet To be Found
- Racial Skills: Yet To Be Found
Special Abilities
- Petrifying Touch
- Blinding Squall
6: Fane - Fane an Undead Companion in Divinity: Original Sin 2.
Get started making an animated video. Start or stop wiggle at specific time. Start or stop wiggle at a specific time in After Effects – Expression Example. You can use any expression in place of the wiggle expression used here, to begin and end the influence of any expression at a specific time. Apr 24, 2012 wiggle on a certain time. Direct your questions about Adobe After Expressions here. Adobe After Effects Expressions Forum. SUBSCRIBE LOGIN. Forums tutorials & features news blogs jobs services newsletter. FORUMS: list search recent posts. Wiggle on a certain time. Suppose you specified 2 seconds as the maximum time displacement. After Effects finds the luminance value of each pixel in the displacement map, and then it replaces the corresponding pixels at the current time with pixels from another time based on the maximum time of 2 seconds. Time-remapping overview. After Effects then interpolates intermediate frames and plays the footage forward or backward from that point to the next Time Remap keyframe. In the value graph, reading from left to right, an upward angle indicates forward playback, while a. After effects get specific time zone.
Location: You can Find Fane towards the North of the Fort Joy in the Hidden Alcove.
Stats
- Class: Witch (Human)
- Tags: Fane, Mystic, Scholar
Skills
- Starting Skills: Yet To be Found
- Racial Skills: Yet To Be Found
Special Abilities
- Play Dead
- Time Warp
Statue of Illusions Answers in Divinity Original Sin 2
As you progress through the story in Divinity Original Sin 2, you’ll eventually be led to a mysterious cave just north of the Seekers camp. The cave is full of illusions and puzzles, and you’ll soon encounter a Statue of Illusions who asks you a series of questions. Answer each one correctly, and he’ll give you a helping hand. Here are all of the Statue of Illusions answers in Divinity Original Sin 2.
There’s actually a trick to guessing the answer. For instance, the first question is, “BRACCUS is a bloody, rotten, thieving, very, very awful fellow. Some even call him a cur! A CUR is…?” There’s a reason why the words BRACCUS and CUR are capitalized. The letters in BRACCUS correspond with the words that the Statue of Illusions says after that.
So in this case, B corresponds with “bloody,” R is “rotten,” A is “thieving,” C is “very,” and so on and so forth. When he asks you what a CUR is, you’ll want to match the letters in CUR with the words he said in the first part of the question. With this in mind, you should be able to answer his questions fairly easily.
If you’re still having trouble with the Statue of Illusions, we have the answers below:
- Finish the sentence with “very awful, rotten.”
- A hex, a misery, a blight, a curse.
Answer them correctly, and the Statue of Illusions will open a path for you.
That does it for all of that puzzle’s answers in Divinity Original Sin 2. Be sure to check back with Twinfinite for more information on Divinity Original Sin 2. Here are some more guides for the game, for you to browse through:
Divinity: Original Sin 2's complexity can be daunting at first, and not everything is explained in detail. The good news is that a lot of early decisions can be taken back—you'll have a chance to respec later in the game—but just getting through the first few fights can be rough, even on Classic mode. To settle your nerves, we've compiled a few tips to help ensure you're set to adventure by the time you leave Fort Joy. (Speaking of, here's our walkthrough of all the ways in and out of Fort Joy, if you need extra guidance.)
Minor spoilers ahead for the first several hours, of course. These tips were last updated on September 29.
Pick an origin character
Original Sin 2’s robust character creator lets you cook up all manner of heroes and weirdos, but for the richest experience you’ll absolutely want to choose one of the origin characters. They are just as customisable as any other character you might make, but come with an origin story, extra voice acting and their own personal quests. The ones you don’t choose then become companions who can join you.
That said, don't fret too much if you prefer to play as a character of your own. You can initiate dialogue with non-party NPCs using any of your party members, meaning you'll have chances to experience some of their unique dialogue options if you want. It isn't quite the same, but you'll be able to follow their stories either way, and you'll pick up new character tags throughout your adventures that give your custom character a bit of unique personality.
Get a healer in your party
When you recruit new party members, you have the option to assign them different class presets than their defaults. If your character doesn't have any healing abilities, it's a good idea to request that one of them take the role of Cleric. Money is tight in the early game, so relying on potions to heal will make it tough to afford new armor and weapons.
Original Sin 2's class system is very flexible, so don't worry if you'd prefer your chosen healer be something else down the line. As a Cleric they'll get points in Hydrosophist and Necromancer, both of which support lots of cool, non-healing related spells. And you can completely change their specialization down the line and, say, build them into a rogue if you want.
How to earn money and gear up
First of all, click on everything. You never know who or what is important in Original Sin 2 at first glance. Every NPC could be a potential quest-giver, holder of important knowledge, or maybe they just have some hilarious jokes they’re waiting to rattle off. And a random piece of tat you find on the beach or in an otherwise empty barrel could be the key to solving a mystery, or maybe it’s just worth a few quid to the right buyer (but think carefully before selling items that might be quest-related). If it isn't red, you can snag it without being attacked for stealing. Essentially, you’ll want to treat it like an adventure game.
Also, remember to complete your quests. Even a simple thing, like talking down a few thugs, can result in earning experience, gold, and items—but you have to go talk to the quest giver to get your reward. Check your journal to see if you have any outstanding quests to complete.
All that said, money is going to be tight for a while. Quality armor and weapons are hard to come by in the early game. To help a little, check to see who in your party has the highest Bartering level, and make sure they cozy up to traders and get on their good side—even saving 20 gold here and there is worth it.
You can trade with many NPCs even if they don't offer
If an NPC is marked as a 'trader,' you won't always be able to get to the trade screen through dialogue. Even if you're on good terms and you've spent gold with them before, they'll sometimes get stuck repeating one line of dialogue, or just stop offering, which can be frustrating if you haven't yet noticed the easy-to-miss button on the upper left side of the dialogue box (see the screenshot above). Click it to open the trade screen.
Save money on lockpicks, get a skeleton
If you’re not going to play as Fane, the Undead origin character, then you should at least bring him as a companion. He’s excellent company, being the source of a lot of biting sarcasm and camp, pantomime menace, and his boney digits are unexpectedly handy. Fane, and indeed any Undead character, is a walking skeleton key, able to use their fingers to unlock doors and chests, as long as they have the appropriate skill level.
Get the Pet Pal talent
If you’ve got the Pet Pal talent (or someone in your party does) you can talk to animals, and it’s not just for laughs—animals frequently offer advice, spill secrets and occasionally give out quests. These conversations are also the source of many great character moments. Anyone can get the Pet Pal talent, and you can also choose it during character creation. If you recruit The Red Prince, he has it by default.
Protect the black cat
Speaking of animals, early on you’ll find yourself followed by a black cat. He can’t be harmed in combat, but if you walk past the guards in front of the gate to Fort Joy Prison, east of the camp, one of the archers will murder the innocent kitty. Keep him alive, however, and when you escape the camp, he’ll join the party as a summon, allowing you to switch places with him in battle.
Make liberal use of quicksave
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is hard. Even on the default Classic Mode, battles are brutal, and in the first act you’ll often find your squishy party a bit underprepared. Resurrection scrolls are also incredibly pricey, though you can occasionally loot them. This isn’t helped by an autosave feature that kicks in when a battle begins, not before, so you won’t be able to prepare any better. So whenever you think you’re about to duke it out, hit that quicksave button.
It's also a good idea to quicksave before entering a new area, or initiating any major quest dialogue. Unless you're going for a one life, no take-backsies game (in which case we salute you), you'll find that what you say and do can have big consequences that you may want to take back.
Retreating is fine
Alternatively, and especially if you're avoiding save scumming, you can always flee. Once a character is out of range of the enemy, you can click flee, and they’ll respawn at the nearest waypoint. In the middle of a battle, it can be tricky to get far enough away from foes, so it’s worth investing in tricks that make escape easier. Teleportation, flight and the Tactical Retreat ability are all boons when you just need to get the hell out of there.
Environmental effects are handy and deadly
Fights are often won by the group best able to manipulate the environment with magic and elemental weapons. Cast rain on a group of enemies, and then a spell that applies chill, and you might end up with frozen enemies and slippery surfaces. These environmental effects make great traps—and also obstacles—but they can help you as well as hindering enemies. A Necromancer, for instance, can make it rain blood and then cast a healing spell that soaks up all of the puddles to increase their vitality.
And don't forget: undead characters heal from poison. Be careful not to accidentally do them any favors (unless it's Fane) by leaving poison puddles around. You can use healing abilities on them to do damage, too.
Divinity Original Sin 2 Wiki
Grab a bedroll as soon as possible
While healing potions and spells are important when you’re in a fight, the best way to heal outside of battle is by taking a quick nap. That’s only possible if there’s a bed nearby, however, and you won’t find many of them out in the wilderness. That’s why it’s so important to pick up the first bedroll you encounter. You’ll be able to take it with you everywhere, and clicking on it heals every character almost instantly. You'll find one in the first beach area near the entrance to Fort Joy, on top of a ruined wall. There's a shovel there, too. You should grab the shovel.
Don’t forget to rotate the camera
It seems so obvious, but it’s easy to forget that you can rotate the camera to get a clearer picture of the area you’re marching through. Often, the angle can hide entrances, caves, chests and secret paths that become clear when you change your perspective. I spent about 30 minutes looking for a cave, only to discover that I’d passed it a dozen times, but until I changed the camera, I only saw the hill behind it. It's not a bad idea to have a character with high Wits, either, as they'll call out secrets when they see them.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is so expansive and elaborate that even with this list, there’s going to be a lot for you to learn, but the most important lesson is just to experiment. That might mean using the teleportation spell creatively to loot corpses that are out of reach, for instance. If it seems like you can do something, there's a good chance you can, so you may as well try.
Where some RPGs are a little bit fiddly, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is downright daunting. It’s got systems inside of systems inside of paradox barrels, and it gleefully throws you into the deep end with a minimal amount of explanation. If ever a game begged for tips, it’s this one. We’ve got you covered.
These tips are mainly focused on helping you get your bearings early in the game, giving you a foundation from which to build up characters and explore on your own, which I would argue is where the real joy of Divinity: Original Sin 2 lies. These tips are also single-player focused, so if you’re planning to play co-op, all I can really say is best of luck, and don’t drink the “health” potion your “friend” just handed you. Anyway, on with the tips!
Plan your party
Like its predecessor (whose great tips post by Kirk still applies, in many cases), Original Sin 2 is a game where skill combos often matter more than raw stats. You might be the same level as a bunch of holier-than-thou magisters you’re fighting, but if they’re charming your heaviest hitters into attacking their allies and dropping your weakest links into lakes of cursed fire, then all your precious experience points won’t do squat. It’s important to have a party that can competently counter situations like the one I just described, and a good way to do that is by figuring out which role(s) you want each of your four characters to take on.
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That’s harder than it sounds, because unlike many RPGs, which are more rigid in terms of skill selection, Original Sin 2 lets you multi-class right after your first level-up. Here are some basic tips to help give your party direction:
Focus.. at first: Pick an initial class for your main character, and whether it’s melee, magical, or ranged, put points into that class’ primary two stats for a few levels. Give yourself a strong base before going wild with experimentation. Original Sin 2 doesn’t let you re-spec until the start of its second Act, and if you spread yourself too thin, you might end up hitting a wall before you ever get there.
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Spend money on spell books. In Divinity: Original Sin 2, level-ups grant you better stats and new passive skills and talents, but not spells or abilities. Those come from spell books that you can find or buy. It might be tempting to drop precious dollops of early-game gold on better weapons and armor, but you’ll usually find better gear out in the field, and it’s important to establish some good skill synergies as soon as possible.
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Armor or magic armor? Enemies (and your characters) have two meters that guard their HP: armor and magic armor. You’ve gotta knock down one or the other before you can do direct damage, inflict many status effects, and implement your most elaborate strategies. I’ve found it most useful to make sure each of my characters is extremely efficient at bursting down either armor or magic armor. Most of my party is focused on regular armor, so that they can team up to down especially troublesome enemies in a single turn.
Keep roles in mind. My Divinity: Original Sin 2 party has a tank, DPS, ranger, and healer. They all do other things as well (my healer is also my primary elemental magic user, for example), but each one has a primary function. When thinking about new skills outside their original classes to teach each of them, the first question I ask is, “Will this skill help them perform their primary function better?”
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Here are some examples of that:
- My healer/elementalist has a point in Polymorph so that she can sprout wings and fly. This allows her to both escape from tricky situations and maneuver to allies who might need healing or buffs. I wasn’t trying to, but I basically made Mercy from Overwatch.
- My DPS, Fane, is primarily a Polymorph, but has a point in Scoundrel so that he can use “rupture tendons,” a skill that makes enemies take damage when they move. Combined with the Polymorph skill “chicken form,” this makes for a brutal combo in which helpless poultrified enemies flee across the map while bleeding profusely from their ruptured tendons.
- Since my tank, The Red Prince, usually absorbs at least as much damage as he deals, he’s got a few points in Geomancer so that he has access to abilities like “fortify” and “mend metal,” which allow him (and the rest of my party) to regen armor and shrug off status effects.
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Also keep non-combat roles in mind. There’s a lot more to Original Sin 2 than fighting. It’s good to have each of your characters specialize in one of the following: persuasion (for talking), bartering (for getting big discounts), thievery (for picking locks and pockets), and loremastery (for finding secrets and identifying items). Don’t have one character do, say, thievery and loremastery. That’s a waste of stat points.
Make sure your tank has a shield. This is kind of a no-brainer, but shields are seriously OP in Divinity: Original Sin 2, giving characters’ massive armor bonuses, a skill that lets them regen armor and magic armor in a single go, and access to a long-range shield throw skill that hits multiple enemies like a truck hitting multiple saplings.
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Heals pls. Early in Original Sin 2, especially, good healing abilities can be a life-saver. Make sure that a couple of your characters have points in either Huntsman or Hydrosophist, and keep an eye out for “first aid” and “restoration” spell books.
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Just give everybody a point in scoundrel. “Adrenaline” is a great scoundrel skill that gives you two extra ability points (basically, an extra attack) for a turn. I recommend teaching it to all of your party members. It can be a huge difference-maker when you’re trying to bring down an enemy quickly. The drawback is that you have two less ability points on the next turn, but you can fret about that after the biggest threat to your whole party is dead.
Don’t worry about which characters you choose to have in your party. When you recruit party members in Divinity: Original Sin 2, they straight up ask what role you’d like them to focus on initially. So don’t worry about traveling with somebody because you feel obligated and not because you’re interested in their story. Pick whoever and make them do whatever.
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Those basics out of the way, here are a few good early game builds:
- The Polymorphing Power Ranger. Start out with a Polymorph character and then branch them into Warfare. Both classes scale with your “strength” stat (even though the game implies that “finesse” is the Polymorph’s primary stat, which is weird), and each point in Warfare boosts your damage output pretty significantly. Go for stun abilities like “chicken claw” and “battle stomp” to make sure that you can control not only the tide of battle, but also the pace of it. Grab “spread your wings” and “bull horns” so that you can minimize the number of ability points you don’t spend attacking. As for weapons, I do this class with two-handers, but I’ve heard some people say that dual-wielding is just generally better in this game. It’s your call!
- The Life-Saver. This class combo isn’t the most exciting, but it is effective. A good healer in Original Sin 2 doesn’t just take care of HP; they keep your party topped off on armor and magic armor as well. Put a couple points into Geomancer, Hydrosophist, and Pyromancer for a buffet of buffs and heals with a side helping of explosions. Focus on grabbing skills like “restoration,” “fortify,” “soothing cold,” and “mend metal.” Also put a point in polymorph for flight, which hugely ups survivability and ensures that you can reach party members before they go down.
- Death From Above. Huntsmen (basically, archers) are mad powerful in Original Sin 2, mainly because the game includes a lot of raised surfaces, and high ground gives you a default damage percentage boost of 20 percent, which goes up by five percent for every point you put in Huntsman. Put points into both Huntsman and Scoundrel to boost your attack from up high and your crit rate. Make sure to get “cloak and dagger” so that you can leap to the top of towers and other raised surfaces without missing a beat. Also be sure to collect and craft plenty of elemental arrows, then examine enemies and take advantage of their elemental weaknesses.
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Now onto some more general tips.
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Get ‘pet pal’
This is the most important piece of advice I can give you. Get the “pet pal” talent immediately. It lets you talk to every animal in the game. Talk to dogs. Talk to cats. Talk to rats. Talk to birds. Talk to sharks. Talk to crabs. Mostly, it’s just amusing, but sometimes they’ll clue you in on quests or point you toward cool items.
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The elements are your friends
Elemental surfaces are a huge part of Original Sin 2's combat. Focus on making them an ally, rather than a liability. If none of your characters have high fire resistances, grab the Hydrosophist rain skill to put them out. If you’ve already done that, you might as well grab some Aerotheurge lightning skills so you can electrocute wet surfaces and potentially stun enemies. Always examine enemies to find out what their elemental weaknesses are and take advantage of them. Also, grab the Polymorph “terrain transmutation” skill as soon as you’re able. It lets you swap surfaces, meaning you can do things like drop lava or poison on crowds of unsuspecting enemies. It’s extremely powerful.
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Keep in mind, too, that elemental surfaces aren’t just good for doing damage. An angry, red splotch of fire can force enemies to take the long way around in order to get to your squishier characters, wasting precious turns in the process. You’re almost always outnumbered in Original Sin 2 combat encounters. Good crowd control is paramount. Speaking of…
Stuns, stuns, stuns
Early in the game, especially, stun skills are your best friends. Enemies capable of obliterating you in a couple hits can’t do shit if they’re lying on the ground, frozen, or transformed into a chicken. Must-have skills include “chicken claw,” “battle stomp,” “battering ram,” “global cooling,” and “hail strike.” During my early goings, I would have characters blitz down strong enemies’ armor or magic armor and then trap them in a stun prison. One would use knock them down for a turn, then another would turn them into a chicken, then another would freeze them, or what have you. They could never touch me, and I could take my time and whittle away at their HP pools.
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Mobility, mobility, mobility
Original Sin 2's battlefields are large and varied. Traversing terrain can take multiple turns, and obstacles can cause line of sight issues that prevent your characters from attacking or healing. Grab skills like “spread your wings,” “cloak and dagger,” and “phoenix dive” as soon as possible so that your characters can get where they need to be with minimal effort.
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Get the teleport gloves
In Original Sin 2's first main area, Fort Joy, there’s a quest called “The Teleporter.” You get it from a guy named Gawin, who sketchily approaches you and tells you about a vague plan to get off the island, but only you (and not your party) will be able to escape. Disregard that part, because it doesn’t end up mattering. What does matter is that this quest gets you a pair of teleport gloves, which give you a skill that lets you teleport enemies (or party members) great distances. They can be used, for instance, to send a powerful enemy to the other side of a map so that you don’t have to deal with them until you’ve cut down their cronies. Alternatively, they can help you reach weird spots when you’re exploring or cheese your way around or through tough battles. They rule.
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After you escape Fort Joy, go back and kill all the magisters
This is actually a specific example of a more general piece of advice, which is: If you start feeling under-powered or under-leveled, go kill some shit. Original Sin 2 doesn’t have random encounters or traditional no-name “grindy” enemies, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to grind sometimes. You’ve just gotta be creative about it. So in Fort Joy, there are five or six different ways of escaping, but you’ll probably only do a combo of one or two, perhaps with minimal violence. Well, good news: that means tons of leftover enemies and a couple leftover side quests. Go back and do those too. Reap the level-appropriate encounters and experience points before taking on challenges that are out of your depth.
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Also, a corollary: if you find yourself suddenly out-leveled by all the enemies you’re coming up against, you might be in the wrong area. Original Sin 2 technically offers you the freedom to go where you want in each act when you want, but it’s not always advisable.
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Separate your party
Speaking of cheesing, Divinity: Original Sin 2 lets you un-link your party members from each other, so that they can move and explore entirely independently. Start taking advantage of this immediately. See a bunch of enemies you know you’re gonna have to fight? Don’t just rush in as an easily dunked-on clump. Have your characters stealth in and surround them. Take advantage of high ground and other potential advantages. There are very few throwaway battles in Original Sin 2, so if you see an encounter on the horizon, treat it like a boss fight. Prepare and strategize, then strike.
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The other advantage of this tactic is that you can have some characters in battle and others out of it. Out of battle characters don’t have to play by the rules until they’ve hit somebody or gotten spotted, so send in just one character, then immediately switch to your hidden ones. Have each attack from out-of-combat. Boom. That’s three free attacks—enough to fully bring down some enemies. Is it kinda cheesy? Sure, but well…
When in doubt, cheese it out
A major part of the fun in Original Sin 2 is breaking the rules, or at least partially circumventing them. If you’re getting creamed and spread across artisanal avocado toast by a tough encounter and you have a weird, dumb, or crazy “what if” idea about how to cheese your way through it, go for it! There’s actually a good chance it’ll work. Case in point: the strategy I used to beat the game’s first big boss, who I stood no chance against otherwise. A little creative thinking, it turns out, goes a long way. And if that doesn’t work, then fuck it, turn everybody into chickens and die with your dignity intact. Or well, more intact than theirs.
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‘Spirit vision’ is rad
During Original Sin 2's second act, you gain the ability to glimpse into the spirit world. In any other game, it’d be a throwaway thing or a plot beat relegated to cut-scenes. In Original Sin 2, it changes everything. Spirits abound, some of whom will offer you quests or do wild things like solve their own murders. If you see a corpse or grave or noose or just want to press a skill button for the sake of it, use “spirit vision.” You never know what you might find.
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Teleporter pyramids rule
Right before the beginning of the game’s second act, you can find a pair of teleporter pyramids on a table aboard The Lady Vengeance, the ship you’re on. Take them. No matter where one is in the game world, you can use the other to immediately teleport to it. You can use this ability to do everything from shepherding your party through trap-riddled areas to cheesing your way into and out of boss fights. The teleporter pyramids compel you. Do not ignore their calls.
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Bring a shovel
There are buried treasures and other hidden items sprinkled all across Original Sin 2's world. Shovels are pretty common, so make sure to have one in your inventory at all times.
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Rob everybody
Have a character with a bunch of points in sneaking and thievery. Have them skirt the perimeters of encounters and take everybody’s best stuff before you fight them. It’ll make them a bit weaker and you a bit stronger. Also, stealing is fun. Quit school and be a criminal. You can quote me on that.
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Save the kitty
Near the start of the game, there’s a kitty that begins following you around. Mostly, it will keep out of the way of danger, but don’t let this one jerk-ass magister in the center of the town square kill it. Once you escape from Fort Joy, the kitty becomes a summon that’s not super useful, but is very cute.
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Fuck the chicken
Near the beginning of the game’s second act, there’s a baby chicken that begins following you around. Unlike the kitty, who is perfect, the chicken is a huge pain in the ass to keep alive, and you can’t complete its quest without a main story power you might not have yet. Anyway, it’s evil, so if it runs through fire like an insane idiot 13 times, just let it die. Let it die and laugh.
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Roll an undead character
Undead characters are so interesting that you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t have one. In Original Sin 2's world, people are repulsed by the undead, so they have to disguise themselves using magical helms or tools that tear people’s faces off. In addition, the rules of healing and damage are different for them. Healing potions and spells hurt undead characters, something that’s true for allies and enemies alike. Poison, however, heals them, meaning they can wade through puddles of the stuff like it’s nothing, and you can toss down puddles of it to harm your foes and help yourself. Undead characters are also immune to deathfog, a rare but pernicious substance that spells instant death for anybody else.
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You can travel to any waypoint from your minimap
This should be obvious, but I didn’t notice it until I was, like, 20 hours into the game. Once you’ve found a fast travel waypoint, you don’t have to physically be near another waypoint to travel to it. Just hit the little blue icon on your minimap to pull up the waypoint list. No more pointless hoofing it between locations! Thank goodness.
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Save early, save often
Original Sin 2 is not an easy game. It might be smooth sailing one moment, but then an enemy gets a big critical hit or focus fires down one of your people, and suddenly your ship is touching hulls with the Titanic. Save all the time! Save before big encounters, because you’ll probably lose the first time. Re-position your characters and then save again before trying again. Save when you’ve mostly got the battle in the bag, but you’re still not sure. Original Sin 2 is a video game, which means your most powerful skill isn’t biceps of magic; it’s the fact that you’re a goddamn time traveler. Use it to your advantage.
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Do everything
If you just mainline Original Sin 2's central plot, you’ll miss out on its best bits, and you’ll have a borderline-impossible time making it to the end of the game. Talk to everybody. Do every quest. Seek out every secret. It’s the Objectively Correct way to play the game.
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Experiment!
I’ve covered this a bit in other sections, but it bears repeating: Original Sin 2 is a game that rewards creative thinking and experimentation. If you hit a wall, don’t give in to frustration or defeatism. Instead, think about the possibilities. What skill combos haven’t you tried? Have you considered flying around an area and then using your teleporter pyramids to bring the rest of your party to a spot where enemies can’t touch them? It’s entirely possible for a battle that’s a one-way blow out in your enemies’ favor to become a lopsided trouncing on your part if you just reshuffle the deck a little. So do that! And never forget: it’s not cheating to keep an Ace or two up your sleeve. In Original Sin 2, it’s downright encouraged.