u/tiringandretiring

I’m really enjoying the game -I just started Chapter 9 and well over 100 hours, and feel there is still a ton of stuff to see and do.

One thing I am noticing a bit is the discrepancies in different areas and interactions.

For example, almost of the NPC interactions are just “implied”. Someone mentions a letter, or a reward, of a gift, but they don’t even bother with a half assed animation, it just shows up in inventory. Sometimes they don’t even mention a letter, but you are somehow expected to know.

But…I just did a quest where I went to a marked location that was a window. I interacted with it, and the window actually slid open, with an NPC behind it.

The NPC suggested a bribe…and Kliff actually dug into his pocket and handed over an actual sack of coins! (Hopefully a Paltry Sack of Copper)

Then, the NPC actually handed over a scroll through the window! It was pretty cool.

I wonder now if all interactions were supposed to be this detailed, and they ran out of time.

1. I had a lot of Abyss Artifacts, it turns out!

2. It didn't refund my materials for Health or Spirit...and I realized I'd have to do this twice more (to respec Kliff), so I just didn't give Damiane those, lol (I didn't need it)

3. I'm not *sure* but it's possible I could have taken on her boss without re-specing. I was just curious about how tedious the process would be, and it turns out it's kinda tedious. Now I have to re-re-Spec Kliff again, and the thought of sitting thru all those animations again has me putting the game aside for a bit.

4. You might just want to try doing Damiane's quest without respec just to see, if you aren't planning on using her again. One issue is I ran into a *ton* of enemies on the way-I actually got two Abyss Artifacts before even reaching the boss.

5. I wish I had practiced more with her beforehand-but I just didn't really see any reason to at the time, and when I tried she wasn't even available.

You get a lot of bounties at the start. Some of them are easier to do once you have progressed the main quest line a bit and cleared some areas. There is no real hurry to complete these, and from what I can tell there is nothing special about completing them all unless you are a completionist. Also you will get more bounties.

Feel free to explore and do sub-quests of course, but...following the main quest until at least Chapter 5/6 really does open up a lot of stuff that will help you with your exploration and sub-quests.

You will get a main quest to visit a place called Scholastone Institute. My advice is to follow the main path to this place, lol. I visited it by climbing over the mountains, which was fun, but there is something on the main path I missed that is pretty important, and I had to backtrack to get it later.>! It's a great skill called Focused Force Palm, and you'll run into a tutorial for it on the main path.!<

If you have the Pre-order armor, you might have already shelved it in favor of a better looking set. But it has one special feature-it doesn't count towards your inventory. So one fun thing to do with it is to load it up with very situational Abyss Gears. I have gears that give extra timber, and gears that help with climbing. This way you can keep your drip, but also use some of the very situational gears without having to also carry around extra armor.

Also, I dyed them a bright red, so I remember when I get into combat to switch back.

Check the dates on any hints or tips you might Google-there have been a *lot* of patches since the release, and some of the information might be outdated.

Anything else you can add?

edit: one more tip

Can't believe I was cranking that thing right and left to the max every damn time, lol.

I get that on your end, the only real thing is 'remembering' what each person told you, so you aren't solving anything, but how do the quest givers come to their conclusion with the paucity of information you give them?

"The blacksmith seems proud of his work"

"Yep, he's guilty. Go arrest him, Greymane!"

1. Those annoying flying shadows-the common suggestion is to Blinding Flash them, as one hit kills them. However-you have to activate Blinding Flash, target them with the crosshair as they fly around, and press L1, which can take a bit of time while you are getting attacked.

2. The other common suggestion is to use charged shot them with your bow-this does work well when you first approach the Sanctum-you can pick off a few from a distance before they converge on you. However, you have to be a decent shot, especially once they surround you.

3. The third option I just found out by accident-Crows Pursuit works on them! This Abyss Gear sends a flock of crows at your enemies, and I was surprised it knocks the irritating flying shadow guys out as well! It also doesn't need a lot of aiming-the crows seem to have pretty good homing instincts.

So if you have this Gear, install it before taking on the Sanctums. (It's a cool gear anyways).

PS:
Also, I'm sure everyone must know this by now, but after you cleanse the sanctum, there is a little mini-game you can play for an extra Abyss Rock thing. The little circular dial with metal tabs-you use Blinding Flash on the center, then as each metal tab passes the top indicator, you press Blinding Flash in time with it. Hit them all in proper timing, and a rock appears above the Sanctum you can grab and store.

Earlier mentions of this mini game had complaints it was very difficult to do on a PC, but with my PS5 controller it is pretty trivial to accomplish. They may have fixed it.

I have no idea what the extra rocks do, lol. But I'm saving them just in case.

Has anyone else experienced the Memory in the Abyss: The Loop of Life?

It is pretty cool! Makes me wonder why they didn't do more with the Memory Helmet like this.

Spoiler:>!The memory reveals a floating path of cubes that no longer exist leading to a floating island, but within the memory you can traverse the path to a secret chest! !<

I have tamed a bunch of dogs and cats for the camp, but never seriously used them while adventuring-it was just fun to make the camp feel more lively.

But, I found a crow, tamed it, and man, that bird picks up a lot of stuff, lol.

How are people managing this?

I have to make constant trips back to camp to unload the swords, shields, axes, *branches*, and tons of food stuff. It's great for resources, but really makes you have to do a lot of back and forth traveling.

And the big battles? (The ones with percentage completed?) Insane amounts of loot.

I'm on Chapter 8, and spent a bit of time over the last couple of chapter trying to run into this guy, and then gave up (I even tried the "save at camp at 11:59" trick).

Finally ran into him at the camp entrance, which was great! Got his loyalty up, got the fishing rod and the Abyss Artifact...

Now I have run into him *four times* in one evening running around different areas, lol. Dude is stalking me, and he doesn't even have anything good left to sell!