| On hunting Hobbes:
The other advantage of getting the Master Greatsword is you can start crafting what I have termed my ‘Hobbe Killing Stick’. In Greatwood Gorge you will find a Flame Augmentation, you can buy another one in Darkwood Camp, and you’ll get a Lightning Augmentation at Darkwood Weir. Hobbes are vulnerable both to Flame and Lightning making this an extremely powerful weapon for dispatching them.
I’ve seen it said bandits and guards are weak to Flame, but that’s not been my experience. If you don’t believe me, try it for yourself. Take a weapon, hit a bandit a couple times and watch the numbers in the lower left hand corner to see how much damage you are doing. Put a Flame Augment on the weapon and hit them again. You’ll see that the damage doesn’t change. On the other hand, for Hobbes the damage goes up for each augmentation.
Hobbes give you a decent amount of XP and are relatively easy to kill, especially if your next two stops are the Hobbe killing Contest and the Hobbe Cave. You’ll be killing all of the shorter hobbes in just one hit, and the big one in two. Cast Berserk and you’ll mow them down like grass.
On Hobbe Cave:
I’ve found that the number of enemies you face and the amount of experience you get changes based on how you walk through the caves. The standard route is to rescue the bandit, and offer him up as a replacement for the boy, either leaving him to die or killing the Imp as you see fit. This will actually spawn less enemies and get you less XP.
You can skip saving the bandit, raid the Cave Larder, and make your way to Focus Chamber. You meet the Imp who says you need to provide an alternative sacrifice. At this point, I run over to the circle of flowers to dig up the silver key. The Imp will just float there waiting for you. I then charge up my bow again like we did with the Stone troll, but for not as long, and kill her in one shot. This makes it easier to kill her than when you’ve got hobbes running around your feet. It also seems to piss them off, and spawns a lot more hobbes for you to kill on your path back. This can make the quest more difficult, but more lucrative, and if you are using the ‘Hobbe Killing Stick’ it’s not that hard.
I’ll often do a Hero Save at the Hobbe Cave so I can get an extra couple of silver keys and another Will Masters potion. If you really get in a groove, you can go through the Cave four times, get your silver keys up to 20 and get the Murren Greathammer before even going to the bandit camp. But that can get pretty boring. With just one Hero Save though, I’m ‘Good’ enough and have enough experience to master Physical Shield, get a level or two in Slow time, some ranks in Multi-Strike, and some levels in Berserk.
On finding the Bandit Seeress:
I always chose the Bandit Blood Boast because I know I’m going to be killing a lot of bandits to get a lot of XP. Some people have posted a couple ways to make getting through the gates easier. One way is to hide behind the rock and use Slow time to race around and through the gate when no one is looking. This usually works best. However, I have discovered another way. With the Master Greatsword and Slow Time, and a little arrow sniping, you can actually kill all three guards before they raise the alarm. It takes good timing and a lot of speed, but it is possible to do.
At this point in the game, we’re looking to accumulate as many ‘Evil’ points as possible so we can master Berserk. Step one is to buy the store out of Crunchy Chicks, but don’t eat them quite yet, just hold on to them like you’ve been doing with any found along the way from other traders. Step two is you can kill the game dealer to get your Bandit Pass. Don’t forget to raid the southern nook for an Ages potion and a buried silver key.
Make your way to the showdown with Twin Blade. We’re going to want to kill him for evil points, but not too fast. After you’ve defeated him, you can cast Slow Time and run around killing all the other bandits. This way you won’t have to face both them and Twin Blade when you attack him. After they’re all dead, finish off Twin Blade and raid his tent for loot.  |