When launching Exile III, you can hold the space bar down to do a limited launch. This eliminates the opening fades and music, and sometimes makes the game go faster.
Beware when using the Long Rest feature in dungeons. Monsters are taking advantage of those pauses to get reinforcements.
One nice shortcut: typing capital 'M' has whoever cast your last mage spell cast it again. 'P' works the same way for priest spells.
Have to go through a dungeon, but you keep getting killed? Stock up on potions. Buy scrolls. Learn alchemy. Go in, kill a bunch of monsters, and leave to rest (if you can).
Game too slow? Look in the Preferences menu. There are several options to speed things up.
Beware when using the Long Rest feature in dungeons. Monsters are taking advantage of those pauses to get reinforcements.
One nice shortcut: typing capital 'M' has whoever cast your last mage spell cast it again. 'P' works the same way for priest spells.
Sometimes you'll find a place where you know there's a dungeon, but you can't see or enter it. That's because someone somewhere else needs to tell you where it is. Go talk to people in towns.
To make a character active (and see its inventory) quickly, type '1'-'6'.
To cast spells quickly, click on his/her name on the upper right, and select the spell from the Mage Spells or Priest Spells menu.
If you need a hint, look in the online documentation. There’s a full hint guide for Valley of Dying Things. When you register, you get a full hint book for Blades of Exile.
If you get lost, be sure to use the automap. It can tell you where you have and haven’t been.
Some dungeon trips are long, and require lots of healing and endurance. It is at these times that Alchemy can be very useful.
Make sure everyone has a strength of at least 3. Make sure mages have plenty of intelligence. Make sure everyone who does a lot of melee combat has a high dexterity.
Have a tip, bug report, question, or comment? Send it to SpidWeb@spidweb.com.
Be sure to talk to everyone in town. This is often your only route to important tips. For example, in Valley of Dying Things, Avizo, in the first town, knows something very important. You just have to find out what to ask him.
Trapped in a scenario? You can often leave it by returning to the town you started in. If you’re trapped, run the Blades of Exile character editor. It can pull you out of a scenario (even when unregistered).
Low on gold? Look around for side adventurers. For example, Valley of Dying Things has several other dungeons.
Someone important not there? The friendly people in the town suddenly mad at you and you're not sure why? You may have clipped them with Mass Charm or Shockwave. Visit a few other towns and return, and you'll have been forgiven.
The Blades of Exile Editor can help you out in a lot of nasty situations, even when it's unregistered. Take a look!
Can't cast a mage spell you've learned? Make sure your Mage Spells skill is up to at least the level of the spell. Then make sure you're not dumbfounded (Restore Mind cures this). Then make sure you have enough spell points.
Move Mountains and Dispel Barrier are very useful spells. Haste will save your party from many a nasty fight.
Items need to be identified before you can sell them. In the first scenario, Axel (in Sweetgrove) will identify items cheaply. Also, there are people in plenty of other towns who will perform this service.
Some scenarios have horses in them. Buy some, if possible. Traveling outdoors is slow, and you'll use up a lot less food when you don’t travel on foot.
To play a customized scenario, copy it into your Blades of Exile Scenarios folder, run the game, and click Custom Scenario on the title screen. You can find new scenarios at www.spidweb.com.
It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
Want more adventures? Go to www.spidweb.com, and download a new Blades of Exile scenario!
Casting repeated blesses multiplies the effect. Two bless spells on somebody are more than twice as powerful as one.
Having trouble reaching somewhere? Walk into the walls/barriers/trees/whatever is in your way. Some things have secret doors or entrances.
Low on gold? Read the Blades of Exile documentation. The Hints on Getting Started section has a plethora of hints for finding loot.
Need a hint? Run the Blades of Exile Instructions program. It has a full hint book for the first scenario.
Be sure to look for Exile: Escape From the Pit, Exile II: Crystal Souls and Exile III: Ruined World: the hit award-winning trilogy that spawned Blades of Exile. http://www.spidweb.com.
Drinking many, many cups of espresso often greatly heightens one's Blades of Exile experience. The author recommends a nice iced latte. Double tall.
Although it costs no gold, hold off on buying this until your level is high. Luck can help A LOT, but at low levels other things help more.
You really only need 3-4 levels of this. More helps, but not too much.
Wait on this. It's very effective when your level is high.
Not necessary, but very useful. Unlock Door spells are expensive, and bashing is slow, damaging, and very unreliable.
Traps are deadly in Exile. Have only one character buy this, but get a lot.
Expensive, but very useful. Knowing what items are when trapped deep in a dungeon can save your life.
Have only one character buy this, but get a lot. Alchemy is very useful.
Spread this around the party. Don't buy more than 25 points total (over the whole game).
Try to start with at least one character with level three in this.
Try to start with at least one character with level three in this.
Buy a few levels for anyone in heavy armor.
Bows are expensive, and so is this skill. However, poisoned arrows are extremely powerful.
Thrown missiles are common and many are magical. Also, this skill is cheap. However, thrown weapons cannot be poisoned.
Pole weapons are, in general, the most expensive, the most rare, and the most powerful.
Bashing weapons are common and cheap.
Edged weapons are the most common.
If the character is going to cast spells, make this skill at least 4. If not, ignore it.
Before a character does ANY fighting or fires any missiles, this skill should be at least 3.
When below 4, the health the character gains at each level will be sharply reduced. Also, more strength enables you to carry more stuff.
