Komikero: The Crystals of Truth

The Crystals of Truth (or COT) are items dropped by enemies when they are killed which you can use to identify Unidentified items. You can also buy COTs from the in-game shops.

Unlike Diablo where Deckard Cain will identify your items for free, here in Drakensang-Online you need to collect COTs to do the same. And no, it doesn't take one crystal to identify an item. Improved items take around a hundred COTs to identify. Magic Items take around 160. Extraordinary items take around 260-600. Legendary items take around 1,000.

How often do COTs drop? Well, monsters would occasionally drop 7 COTs and that number will increase up to around 10 COTS as the levels of your enemies increase. Playing Slifmoor for around 30 minutes can get me around 50 or 60 or so COTs. Granted it may not seem much, especially when you constantly find unidentified items left and right.

Some players get frustrated, fretting that you need to use real money to buy Andermant which you use in-game to buy COTs so you can identify the items you have.

I used to get really frustrated myself, but as time went on, I just adjusted to how the game is played realizing that I didn't need to identify every single Unidentified item I came across. In fact, I learned to be patient and collect these Unidentified items to craft much better items. I ditched Unidentified items that have levels lower than me, opting to use only higher level items and identifying only the best items my character can use.

For instance, I spent several weeks (I play only an hour or so a day) collecting Unidentified items of only Level 37 and above and crafting better items out of them. I eventually came up with an Extraordinary Duria Mace. In the time I spent collecting the items, I managed to accumulate more than 1000 COTs. It was more than enough to identify the mace. I never had to spend a single peso or real money to get it.

Right now I'm collecting COTs again, because I've managed to craft an even better weapon, a Legendary Broad Sword, and I need a lot of COTs to identify that.

Komikero: I Almost Took Out Khalys Solo

One of the big challenges of the game are the three huge bosses: Khalys, Sigrisimarr Frostclaw, and Herald of the Anderworld.

When my Dragon Knight was at Level 19, I encountered Khalys for the very first time. I died even before I saw her. She hit me with some kind of energy beam that followed me where I went. It killed me instantly. Khalys herself is a Level 26 Unique enemy but, even if I went back as a Level 26 Dragon Knight weeks later, I still couldn't beat her.

Even at Level 32, which is 6 levels above Khalys, I still couldn't beat her. And as with how the game is designed, I can no longer gain experience points when enemies I encounter are more than 5 levels below me. I find it ridiculous that even when I can no longer gain experience points if I beat her, I still can't beat her.

Worse, the stun skills simply won't work on big bosses like Khalys. "Paralyzing Onslaught" simply doesn't work on her at all, the skill that I use to stun enemies as I hack away at them keeping myself free from damage.

I started to think that perhaps I wasn't meant to beat her alone.

Click on thumbnail for a larger image.

Grouping up with other players would probably be my only option, but since it's hard to find the time that syncs with Jonas and Ysa's free time and not wanting to group with people I don't know, I just went on playing the rest of the game. Unlike Diablo where you absolutely need to kill the big boss before you can progress into the next area, in Drakensang-Online you can actually skip killing these big bosses and play the rest of the game, allowing you to level up and come back when you're strong enough.

And so that's what I did. When I hit Level 37, armed with polished gems that made my armor stronger and weapons more powerful, I returned to face Khalys once again.

Frustratingly, some of the new stun skills don't work on her as well. Along with "Paralyzing Onslaught", "Iron Brow" and "Ground Breaker" don't seem to affect her at all. So my technique of stunning enemies almost perpetually with a combo of those three skills simply will not work. I would just have to go toe to toe with her.

As it turns out, the new skill "Smash" proved to the most useful, as it gave me 200% weapon damage. Since my Extraordinary Duria Mace already gives me a maximum of 111 damage, helped along with a couple of "Essence of War" boosts, I find myself remarkably strong enough to really go toe to toe with Khalys. The perpetual presence of the Powerful Health Drops around the battle area help me sustain my health long enough to keep fighting.

It took a long time of going at it, but I managed to whittle down Khalys' health to around 5%. Unfortunately, I got careless and got a little overconfident. Just as I was about to beat her, I got killed.

I thought, no problem! I could just resurrect myself and keep on fighting. This is when I discovered something even more frustrating about fighting big bosses. Unlike lesser bosses, Khalys' health returned to 100% after my resurrection. Holy crap. I couldn't muster the energy and the will to go toe to toe again right at that moment for another 15 minutes of fighting so I just allowed her to kill me.

I'll just recover, psych myself up for it, and I'll try again next time. Now that I'm level 38, going on 39, I hope it gets easier.

I mean... there's still Sigrisimarr and Herald to go!

Komikero: My Awesome Weapon

And I don't mean that. I mean THIS.

Although I was hoping for Legendary, I'm perfectly and deliriously happy with this awesome Extraordinary Duria Mace. I did not pick this up. I've had to painstakingly collect Level 37 Unidentified Items and then craft them into this beauty.

In the game, you can collect Unidentified Items of 4 classes: Improved, Magic, Extraordinary and Legendary. If you manage to get 4 Unidentified Improved items, you can craft them into one Magic item using the work bench (which you can find at any Urban Area). Four Unidentified Magic items will give you one Extraordinary item and 4 Unidentified Extraordinary items will give you one Legendary item.

Now the item you get from crafting is completely random. You have no choice what the game will give you when you craft those 4 items in. Basically, it's a gamble. The best way to get, at the very least, good results is to place only high level items.

You have no idea how difficult it was for me to ditch some really cool Magic and Extraordinary weapons and armor because they were level 35 and below. I couldn't let them lower the overall level of the items I will be crafting.

Grinding Liar's Lair on Difficult setting allowed me to collect, over time, only level 37 and above items. It took a while but I was finally able to collect enough items to start crafting. I held my breath each time I clicked the "Combine" button on the work bench. I was hoping for a good weapon, like an Extraordinary Broad Sword or something like that.... what I got was beyond anything I had expected. Whew!

Bring on them monsters!!!

Oh yeah, I've never tried crafting 4 Legendary items yet. Since there is no level higher than Legendary...who knows what will happen.