NeoQuest: Getting Started

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First of all, NeoQuest is a great game, but as much fun as it is, it takes some practice just to play. It's sort of complex, too, and with so much to cover I'll only be explaining skill points in this article.

It's as important as any part of the game, though. Just by playing, do you know how to wisely spend your skill points? Experience will help, but so will this guide. Here, I'll advise you on how to spend your skill points. But remember, this guide has just my opinions; they're only suggestions for you, so if you prefer a different skill set, then go with it. Otherwise, read on.

Levels and Skill Points

In this game, you have to beat monsters to gain experience points. When you're on level one, you have to gain 1000 experience points to reach level 2, and after that, you have to gain that amount plus 100 more to reach next level. That is, you always have to get just as many experience points as you needed for your current level, but plus 100 more. So you need 1100 points to reach level 3, 1200 for level 4 and so on.

As you keep playing and gaining levels, you start getting skill points; one for each level you gain, plus seven free points at the beginning of the game. Skill points let you power up your character in the game, like increasing the damage you do, or strengthening your defence, or paralyzing enemies or some other useful things. There are only a few different categories to place them in, but you have to be careful deciding which to invest in, because once you use a skill point, it can never be put into something else. Now let's look at your choices.

Fire Magic

It's offensive magic, but not one of my favorites. But before you choose it or skip over it, let's look at all of its options.

- Fire Weapons: A weak skill, though it works frequently. For each skill point put into this ability, your wand will deal 1 or 2 points of fire damage.

- Fire Power: A good accessory to Fire Weapons. It increases the damage made from fire if you already have it.

- Fire Ball: For each skill point spent here, it does about 5 damage points when activated. It seems very good in the beginning, but during the later game 5 damage points will be nothing compared to the damage your enemies can dish out. You'll have to spend many points to make your fire balls strong at that time, and it'll cost you in other categories.

- Wall of Flames: Every time your enemies hit you, they'll receive 4 damage points for every point you've put into this ability. Like Fire Ball it's very good in the beginning, but if you don't reinforce it, it'll be just as weak.

Note: It's important to know that you can only invest in one skill if you've already invested an equal amount in the one before it. To put it simply, if you put two ability points into Fire Weapons and another two into Fire Ball, you can't invest any more in Fire Ball until you put more in Fire Weapons.

Ice Magic

Little power and with a Freeze limited power, I think it's the weakest magical set in the game. But freezing has its advantages -- with some luck.

- Ice Weapons: It's the same as Fire Weapons except with a different name. Not too useful.

- Heart of Ice: For each point spent here, it gives you a bigger chance of freezing the enemy you attack with it. With one skill point, the chances are five percent, or a one-in-twenty chance.

- Snowball: It's the same as Fire Ball. For each skill point spent here, it does about 5 damage points.

- Glacier Strike: For three turns you can't use normal attacks, but after you've charged it, it'll hit the enemy for a lot of damage. Even so, it's risky to wait so long and it's not even guaranteed to hit. You can use other special attacks while it's charging, though.

Shock Magic

In my opinion, this kind of magic is the best. It increases your attacks' damage and it can leave your enemy stunned, meaning they can't attack you then.

- Shock Weapons: Very good in the beginning, but it's worth it to upgrade and keep it strong. It frequently leaves your opponent stunned for a turn so that they can't attack you.

- Disable: This skill just reduces the defence of your enemy a little. Worth it just to get to the next two skills.

- Fortitude: This is awesome! Fortitude helps you resist fire and ice attacks, stuns, enemy Life Steal and poison. With 1 point spent in it, you have a 30% chance of resisting. With 2 points, it raises to 40%.

- Shockwave: One of the best skills. With 1 point spent in it, it will dish out 6 damage points and leave your opponent stunned 30% of the time. Amazing when facing bosses.

Spectral Magic

Spectral Magic is defensive. It raises your defence, obviously, and increases your chances of dodging enemy attacks and reflecting their damage back at them.

- Spectral Weapons: If you put a lot of points here, you'll notice a difference in your defence, but it's still not a huge boost.

- Evasion: A good skill, just as nice as the next. With one point put in it, you have a 10% chance to dodge an enemy attack.

- Absorption: When activated, your enemies' attacks won't affect you completely and they can even give you life points. For each point spent here, this ability can take 2 life points from an enemy and give them to you.

- Reflex: As the name suggests, when your enemy attacks you, the damage he'd normally hurt you with can be completely reflected back at him. Unfortunately, it's a little random, but still powerful.

Life Magic

This kind of magic simply heals you. I advise you to put some skill points here right at the beginning of the game and after, let it like this. You might not get far without it, but you still don't need to spend too much in it.

- Life Weapons: For every point you put in this, potions will heal you 1 extra life point.

- Field Medic: Every few turns out of battle, you will recover some life points. Only a few life points, but they always help.

- Lifesteal: Each turn in battle, you steal a few life points from your opponent. It's like a mini Absorption that's always active.

- Resurrection: With this, you have a small chance of retaining 50% of your health points instead of dying when you otherwise would. Honestly, it's an almost useless ability. After all, you just go back to the city at the beginning of the game when you're defeated (except in InSaNe mode); better to do that and level up some more on your way back to where you were than keep dying against the last boss because you didn't invest your skill points elsewhere.

Distributing Your Skill Points

As you only get one skill point to spend for every level you gain, with a level cap of 50, there are too many abilities to evenly distribute your points with. So, I suggest that you focus on building up only the best and making those alone as strong as you can. My combination should easily get you the avatar (yeah, this game has an avatar!) and to the end of the game, as long as you take the time to really level up.

To me, the best combination is Shock, Life and Spectral Magic, because they'll deal damage to your opponent, leave him stunned and still keep you nice and healthy. This combination is also probably the most used by experienced players. But which ones should you get first and last? Here are my suggestions.

- Beginning of the game: You receive 7 free skill points when you start the game. You should put 1 point into each Shock Magic ability and 1 in the first 3 abilities of Life. (You also have to pick a wand then, but choose any you like; those particular ones are no different from each other except in name.)

- Levels 2 to 23: As you're getting skill points, reinforce Life Weapons until you reach level 5 (which will cut your potion usage by a third, at first). After that, put one point in each Spectral Magic ability, one more in Field Medic and one more in Lifesteal and reinforce all Shock Magic abilities until level 24.

- Levels 24 to 34: Put one more point in each Spectral Magic ability. Reinforce Field Medic until it's at 4 and Lifesteal until it's at 3. Finally, put one more point in each Shock Magic ability.

- Levels 35 to 42: Just reinforce the abilities of Spectral Magic until they're each at 4. The more you avoid damage and pay it back to your enemies, the better, of course.

- Levels 43 to 50: Now you're just about top of the line. Just reinforce all Shock Magic abilities to 7 each. You'll be attacking without letting your enemies do a thing pretty frequently.

If you spend your skill points as suggested in this guide, you should finish NeoQuest fairly quickly and easily. This combination always works if played properly and in my opinion is the best. So, I hope I've helped you out a little. Have a good game and have fun!

Proofread and edited by visorak_commander.