This is a beginner's guide to unlocking the Rogue's Tale heritages. It contains basic information about each heritage, followed by tips and tricks to help you unlock it in mere dozens rather than hundreds of deaths.

A heritage is a type of achievement which unlocks permanent benefits for all your characters the instant the conditions are fulfilled (even if you only do so briefly). Some will only benefit subsequent characters, while others will benefit the unlocking character too. A few of the dog heritages will also require Woof to level up before they take effect.

Take note that the entire guide is more or less one big unmarked spoiler. If you choose to keep reading, you will learn a lot of things that are more fun to find out on one's own. Of course, if you're a munchkin after every single possible advantage (read: a typical Rogue's Tale player), this probably won't bother you one bit.

There are three terms that are worth establishing up front, because they'll be used a lot. A STR build starts off with points allocated 8/6/8/6, and puts points in STR whenever possible, followed by STA. An AGI build starts with 6/8/8/6, and does the same for AGI. A mage build starts with 6/6/8/8, and puts points in STA whenever possible, followed by CHA (although when you have a lot of heritages, you might want to put your first point in CHA in order to sell your starting gear for more money, as being able to buy something like an amulet of ghost form straight away may well be worth delaying +1 to your STA modifier).

The following is a rough list of when you might want to go for the various heritages, divided by how long you've been playing. It's based on my estimation of how valuable their benefits are versus how hard they are to get. Needless to say, if you see an opportunity to get a heritage earlier than I suggest, go for it.

- Early -

Defile This/Healthy Diet/Mighty Hulk/Loose Weight/The Wanderer/Three Tails/The Pink Order/Big Bada Boom

Sword and Buckler/Bow and Arrows/Leather Armour Set

Potion of Antidote/Potion of Healing

The Interface Dog/The Silver Spoon

Arcane Gimmickry

Lightning Reflexes

Canis Woofus/Familiaripathy/Traps are Bad/Hardened Skin/Winter Fur Coat/Arctic Fur Coat/Rare Breed

Craftalicious

Patron of Arts (w/Hoard DLC)

Aurelius Fever

(Hoard DLC) Plague Reserve

(Hoard DLC) Transbat Cutie

Tragical Gathering

Booster Pack I/Booster Pack II

Premade Deck

- Middle -

Throwing Knives

One Strange Trip

Blissful Ignorance

Enchant Knowledge

Over 9000

Ferocious Bite/Sharpened Fangs/Epic Breed

Bestial Vigour

Leader of the Pack

That's Grizzly

Lupine Grace

Vampiric Bite

Monster Chow

Second Amendment/Rise of Fairies/Wester Worshipper

Balthar's Day

(Hoard DLC) Dingbat's Doom

(Hoard DLC) Expanded Mind

(Hoard DLC) Spike Proteins

Booster Pack III

Soulhunter's Bag

Scrap Pouch

(Bloodlines DLC) Infernal Bloodline and perks

(Bloodlines DLC) Demonrat Bloodline and perks

(Bloodlines DLC) Draconic Bloodline and perks

(Bloodlines DLC) Scavenger

(Bloodlines DLC) Vermin Lord

(Bloodlines DLC) Suffering

- Late -

Wizard's Staff

Heroes of Hallwood

Fire Resistant/Shock Resistant/Frost Resistant/Poison Resistant/Disease Resistant

Amulet Knowledge/Ring Knowledge/Wand Knowledge/Scroll Knowledge/Potion Knowledge

The Seventh Talent

The Pandamonium

Celestial Mastery/Draconic Mastery/Infernal Mastery/Arcane Mastery/Bestial Mastery/Abyssal Mastery

Swords 'n Stuff/Just Smashing/Heavy Hitters/Flying Tithril/Complex Tension/Solid Protection/Hardened Skull/Smart Clothing/Cry On My Shoulder/Brace For Impact/Hairy Handguards/Don't Tread On Me

Elemental Arrows/Elemental Bolts

Spiritual Guidance

Gurmur's End

Ursus Horribilis

Blood Frenzy

Face Muncher

The Shroom Brawl

Skaldir's Fate

Spaulder Collector/Vambrace Collector/Glove Collector/Boot Collector/Amulet Collector/Ring Collector/Charm Collector/Rune Collector

Patron of Arts (w/o Hoard DLC)

Hail the Pooch

Booster Pack IV/Booster Pack V

Foiled Precious

Bebe le Frog

Card Collector

Boomerax

Ghoulbane

G'awdmer

Bloodletter

Wolfsbane

-

Finally, this guide is a work in progress. Please post any additions or corrections in the comments, so that together we can make it fully comprehensive.

Requirements: Learn the Literacy: Common, Literacy: Celestial, Literacy: Draconic and Literacy: Infernal talents with a single character.

Reward: Start with a staff in your main weapon slot (or in your inventory if you also have Sword and Buckler selected)

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate to high

Priority: Low

All four talents are learnable from magic altars.

Although first on the list, this achievement is the hardest of the equipment heritages. None of these talents are useful in a fight in and of themselves. Common Literacy lets you use wands and scrolls, and while those will save your life time and again as part of a broader strategy, they are still rare and expendable. The other talents rely on spell tomes, which are also rare, and of limited use in combat without the Focused Cast talent, which is needed to cast spells at range. All of this means that you must survive until level 12 (and find four altars) with little to keep you alive. In addition, it's low priority because the orb spell the staff teaches you is far from enough to be able to play as a mage--that'll need quite a few more heritages.

Use an AGI build, since heavy armour will interfere with all non-Celestial spells (check your gear's max cast modifiers--don't forget that armour limits STA-based spells and helmets limit CHA-based spells, and shields interfere with everything). Learn whichever literacies you find tomes for. Don't rely on orb spells (Flaming Orb etc.) unless you also find the Draconic spell Amplify Magic, since without that or Focused Cast they're little better than melee weapons (and can't be enchanted). You may want to consider picking up Blade Flurry before anything else, since with a decent weapon it can one-shot a lot of things at early levels. If you do, be sure to stockpile wands and scrolls for levels 12-15, when enemies will have their deadliest talents available (and you'll need ways to deal with monsters). With that said, never hesitate to use an item if you think you might die without it. It's far better to waste a valuable item than to risk death.

Getting this heritage is very much a gamble based on which spells you find. Renewing Touch or Mirror Image, for example, can give you a huge advantage, while Release Soul or Cure Disease will be useless.

If you're not desperate to become a wizard, note also that waiting until you get the Seventh Talent heritage will make this one vastly easier.

Requirements: Learn the Aimed Shot, Multi Shot, Quick Shot and Dark Vision talents with a single character.

Reward: Start with a bow and twelve arrows in your secondary weapon slot

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Low to medium

Priority: Low to high (depending on playstyle)

Note: The bow and arrows will always go in your secondary weapon set no matter what, and are thus unaffected by the Silver Spoon and Interface Dog heritages.

The first three talents are learnable from archery targets, while the fourth is learnable from wells.

Use an AGI build. If possible, get Dark Vision first, since at low levels your accuracy will be a much bigger issue than your damage (the reverse is true at high levels). Stick with bows, or recurves if you can get them, unless you're lucky enough to find a repeater. When you do get a recurve, enchant it. Don't bother with crossbows as they have far worse damage output--sure, their damage may be twice that of an ordinary bow, but half the shots means you apply your AGI damage bonus half as often, as well as any enchants on your bow. YMMV if you have the Hoard DLC and access to the Slow and Steady talent.

Be very wary of using Quick Shot in melee after the early levels--a lot of melee enemies learn Heroic Charge, after which Quick Shot just becomes a way to take extra damage.

Consider taking Silent Move. In addition to generally keeping you alive by letting you scout doors and staircases, you can use it to make sure you're at maximum distance from your enemies before opening fire. Besides, opening a door to find an enemy with Heroic Charge on the other side is particularly lethal to archers.

Don't switch weapons when an enemy reaches melee range. That extra turn is better used trying to kill them before they kill you (remember, your arrows can't be dodged or parried), rather than giving them a free hit in the hope that your weapon's parry will save you.

Requirements: Learn the Blade Flurry, Deadly Throw, Silent Move and Dual Wield talents with a single character.

Reward: Start with three throwing knives in your inventory

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Low

Priority: Low

Blade Flurry is learnable from training dummies, Silent Move and Dual Wield are available from campfires and Deadly Throw is available from archery targets.

Use an AGI build. Get Blade Flurry as early as possible, since at early levels it's very powerful (and at all other levels as well, for that matter). Be sure to enchant your weapon, since you'll be triggering the enchant multiple times each use.

I recommend Silent Move second for survivability. Use it to scout new rooms and floors (activate it before opening the door or going down), to duck out of sight to heal (a safe thing to do since you can never be detected at range) and to close the distance to enemies if the terrain is favourable (i.e. you can move between spots outside the enemy LOS rather than risking being caught in the open). Note that to use its backstabbing function, you have to use it on an adjacent enemy from stealth. Blade Flurry will not benefit from the backstab bonus. Note also that adjacent pets will happily expose you to the enemy if you don't have the Hail the Pooch heritage, so keep them at a distance if you have any. Of course, giving them orders breaks stealth (actually my fault, sorry), so they don't work well with a sneaking-centred strategy.

Dual Wield is good not only if you're actually planning on dual-wielding, but also to increase your parry bonus. If you're planning to take advantage of this, make sure you have a high-parry weapon like a sword. If you *are* dual-wielding, don't forget that you only use AGI when doing so with two small weapons.

Deadly Throw is mostly useful to soften up targets before entering melee, rather than as a playstyle foundation, since most throwables have low base damage. Note that it's an active ability like Blade Flurry, not a passive one like Dual Wield. Throwable weapons do not break on hit like arrows do, but they can still be shattered if they miss and impact against a wall or other solid object.

Requirements: Learn the Heroic Charge, Crushing Blow, Sweeping Blow and Shield Bash talents with a single character.

Reward: Start with a sword in your main weapon slot and a buckler in the off-hand slot

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Low

Priority: High

Heroic Charge is learnable from campfires, while the other three are learnable from training dummies.

Use a STR build. Both sword and board and two-handed are viable options, since each has a talent which boosts it. I personally think sword and board is better for increased survivability, and is worth more than the extra damage.

Crushing Blow and Heroic Charge are your top priorities. The former is your basic damage-dealing talent, while the latter is essential for closing the distance to archers and casters. Note that it will never cause you to trigger a trap.

Shield Bash is a very weak active talent. Unfortunately, because shields go in your off-hand slot, attacks with them suffer from dual-wielding penalties, meaning they're less likely to hit, and do less damage (and, of course, you can't apply Crushing Blow to them). The passive bonus, on the other hand, increases the extent to which they protect you from arrows, bolts and spells, and this is a very handy thing to have since there is no other way to evade ranged attacks. Shield Bash is also noteworthy as the only way to move enemies in a controlled fashion. All its downsides may yet be worth it if you can use it to knock an enemy into a spiked pit.

Sweeping Blow isn't that great either--you never want to be in a position where you're surrounded by multiple enemies. If such a disaster does arise, and you're unable to retreat to a suitable bottleneck, your priority should be to take one out as soon as possible with Crushing Blow, not do reduced damage to both. On the plus side, the passive +1 bonus to min. block and max parry helps mitigate the two-handed user's lack of defences (though you probably won't have the AGI to make use of the parry bonus).

Requirements: Kill a monster

Reward: Start with leather armour and a leather helm equipped

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: High

Monsters are the rare, particularly large enemies which can spawn at level 10 or above. Mamalobs, the giant spider monsters, can also randomly spawn instead of giant spiders next to someone caught in a spider web trap, at any level. Monsters have characteristic howls or other noises that they make if they're nearby (including in other rooms).

To have a chance against a monster, you need good gear for your level, including, ideally, an enchanted or double-enchanted weapon, and high-tier gear like rings of haste or amulets of ghost form (except against caster monsters). This is also your opportunity to use all those scrolls, wands and poisons you've been saving up. Of course, an effective damage-dealing talent like Crushing Blow, Blade Flurry or Aimed Shot is essential. While all monsters are tough, some are tougher than others. Also, some monsters emit light (like adventurers) while others don't (like animals), so you can get ambushed by them if you aren't listening for their roar.

Observations on individual monsters:

Banshees (slim, angry-looking blue humanoids): Can teleport, can cause fear, emit light. One of the weaker monsters.

Cave bears (big brown bears): Naturally hasted, obscenely tough, have Dual Wield and Heroic Charge (and can use the latter through closed doors, breaking them in the process), do not emit light. But they do have a weakness. If you polymorph a bear and feed it cheese, you will successfully tame it. Of course, this doesn't count as killing it, but it gives you space in which to come up with a plan and lead it into a vulnerable position. Or you could just keep it as a pet and enjoy the massive advantage (until one of you gets confused and hits the other and the bear goes hostile and kills you). Command Beast will also work, but is likely to take several casts, during which the bear will kill you.

Daemonrats (giant vermen): Tough. Do not emit light. No special powers that I've noticed. Maybe cause disease? Vulnerable to Command Beast. If you find the MAGA Cap charm, make sure you ditch it first.

Drakes (blue dragons): Naturally hasted, can cast Frozen Orb twice a turn as a ranged attack, have frost breath, emit light. Amulets of frost ward make a massive difference against them in terms of damage mitigation. Vulnerable to Command Beast.

Elementals (giant versions of "living X" enemies): Immune to one damage type, have a 2-tile damage aura, deal elemental damage. Certain death to an unlucky caster who only has that element, and to followers because of the aura.

Floaters (D&D beholders): use ranged magic attacks, can charm.

Glutopods (giant giant snails): Can damage equipment, high resistances.

Infernals (giant daemons with whips): Have Dual Wield and Killing Blow. Cause bleeding. Instakill immunity recommended. Vulnerable to Enslave Daemon.

Lurkers (tentacles that appear next to creatures in water): Tough, can throw rocks for high damage. Stationary, so easier to escape/hit-and-run than other monsters.

Mamalobs (giant purple spiders): Naturally hasted, poisonous, have Heroic Charge, do not emit light. See through invisibility. Wear a ring of immunity or get the battle over with quickly so you can gulp an antidote.

Papalobs (giant yellow spiders): No functional difference from mamalobs.

Treemen (giant brown humanoids with mushroom heads): Poison aura, heal from poison damage. Emit light.

Trolls (giant green humanoids): Regenerate each turn. Throw rocks for high damage. Emit light. Extremely vulnerable to fire damage.

Wraiths (giant purple ghosts): Effectively extra-powerful undead mage ghosts. Can teleport and use Heroic Charge, take half damage from physical/poison/disease and double from magic/fire/frost (like the amulet), can curse you, emit light. May have magical melee attacks. Can apparently use wands, potentially including instakill wands (reported by Setzway).

Pear reports that all monsters are naturally hasted, even if not listed above.

Requirements: Reach level 7

Reward: Start with a potion of antidote in your inventory, and the corresponding knowledge

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Low

Priority: High

A STR build is best so you don't have to worry about getting killed by pits. Look for Crushing Blow and Heroic Charge to help you kill things quickly. Wear the heaviest armour you can find, and consider keeping backups for when armour or weapons break. Use a medium weapon and shield to increase survivability further. Enchant your weapon if you can afford it, or spend your money on a decent amulet or ring if they're available (e.g. haste, ghost form, reflection, free action, regeneration). In the long term, trying to gain XP fast is a bad idea, but for this heritage try to rack it up as fast as you can--kill snails, search for traps with every step, light torches, disarm/unlock things instead of breaking them and so forth.

Requirements: Reach level 14

Reward: Start with a potion of healing in your inventory, and the corresponding knowledge

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Low to moderate

Priority: High

Level 14 is a different issue altogether from level 7. Even with the easier requirements (they used to be levels 10 and 20), it is still tough enough to serve as a rite of passage of sorts. After level 10, monsters start spawning. After level 12, enemies get their deadliest talents. This time, counter-intuitively enough, you want to slow down your leveling as much as possible, to give yourself time to get decent gear together. Note that this is a good policy for the game in general.

Whatever your build, your first couple of talents should aid your survival and killing. Dark Vision and Aimed Shot for ranged types, Crushing Blow and Heroic Charge for STR, Blade Flurry and Silent Move for AGI. Keen Eyes is also a consideration if you're having trouble with traps. Meanwhile, stockpile scrolls and wands, because you're going to want to get Literacy: Common around level 9. Scrolls of teleportation, dislocation and summoning, among others, will be essential in dealing with the steadily more powerful enemies. Be sure to get into the habit of using them early and often, as it's easy to forget about them until it's too late. To reach level 14 consistently, you'll need to develop the practice of stopping when you're in danger, and slowly and systematically assessing all your options to make sure you haven't missed any. Above all, if you have doubts of your odds of winning, don't be afraid to retreat and rest at an inn or put a boulder over the stairs, and then reset the dungeon. Silent Move is worth its weight in gold for revealing this sort of situation while leaving you free to escape.

Requirements: View all tutorial entries (does not have to be with the same character)

Reward: Your starting weapon is blessed (equipped weapon only)

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Low

Priority: Moderate

Most of these are fairly self-explanatory, and you can use /dog from the chat to check which ones you still need. You can also use /resetdog to reset the list.

Note that you need a crossbow to get the "reload weapon" entry, and to step on a bear trap to get the "search for traps" entry. Tame an animal by throwing it the right type of food (e.g. meat for a dog, cheese for a rat, egg for a snake) to fulfil the "friend" requirement.

Requirements: Have 11 enchanted items equipped at any one time

Reward: Your starting weapon receives a random enchant, and you gain the corresponding knowledge

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Low to moderate

Priority: High

The easiest way to get this heritage is to find/buy an amulet of enchantment, get some rations and/or mushrooms together, and then just hang around in a safe area until you've had time to enchant all your gear. You'll need both a weapon and a shield (or two weapons) to reach the required number, and if you enchant something you're wearing for the seventh item, you'll need to take it off and put it on again for the heritage to trigger.

If your amulet rolls a critical fail when casting, it will become worn. If a worn amulet rolls a critical fail, it will shatter, but you can repair it by using a scroll of blessing before that happens.

If you're having no luck with the amulet, you can also enchant your gear manually, for a total cost of 1100 gold. If you have Literacy: Common, there are such things as scrolls of enchanting as well.

Requirements: Learn the secret seventh talent

Reward: Start with the Literacy: Common talent; this does not cost you a talent point

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Very high

Priority: Moderate

The seventh talent is an item of knowledge. It is possible to receive it randomly by reading a scroll of knowledge, but the chances are very low, because said scroll chooses randomly from all the knowledge you don't yet have. To maximise your chances, you need to first gain all the knowledge and spell mastery heritages. Then read a scroll of knowledge, and the seventh talent is all yours.

In addition to unlocking the heritage, the character will also receive an extra talent point. Once the heritage is unlocked, this cannot be done again AFAIK.

Requirements: Reach level 20 without eating anything other than blood cap mushrooms

Reward: You may eat blood caps without suffering any ill effects

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: High

Subsisting solely on blood caps is difficult. First, harvesting them has a chance of poisoning you, meaning you should avoid doing so unless you have a ring of immunity or you've already cleared out the floor and can fast-travel to town in an emergency. Second, eating one has a chance of randomly paralysing, confusing or blinding you, or sending you to sleep. This means you have to make sure you clear the area you're in of traps and enemies before eating. You also have to send pets away, ideally putting a closed door between you and them, since hitting them while confused will turn them hostile (except Woof as of 1.08, but then make sure you're bare-handed so you don't kill him by accident).

There is, however, something that will help a lot--the oft-overlooked rings of clarity and control, which between them make you immune to everything but the sleep effect. Aside from those, rings of sustenance are worth looking out for.

You should also make sure to be careful with any other edibles in your inventory, since eating one by accident can instantly ruin a run for the purposes of this heritage.

I haven't tested whether fried caps count for the purpose of this heritage, but I suspect they violate it (since they're a completely different item in game terms, and couldn't even be created from blood caps when the heritage was implemented--and they don't result in any strange trips either).

Requirements: Reach level 20 without doing any physical damage except unarmed

Reward: You may use Blade Flurry, Crushing Blow, Sweeping Blow, Killing Blow and Shield Bash while unarmed

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low

To clarify the requirements, you may deal non-physical damage as much as you like. But the second you deal physical damage with weapons of any sort, or presumably with wands, you fail. As such, this heritage is best accomplished by mages. As of 2.0, the Wizard's Staff heritage gives you a staff with an orb spell, so use this (and other spells as you get them), and be very careful not to bump anything with your staff by accident. To be safe, you may want to consider getting rid of your staff when your accuracy gets high enough, which you can boost with high STA, Divine Reach, and Silent Cast.

I do not yet have this heritage, so input from people who do is welcome.

Requirements: Find three magic traps using the Search button with a single character

Reward: The Trap Master talent now works on magic traps as well as bear traps

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Very low

Priority: Low to high (depending on whether you use the talent)

Trivially easy. Just make sure to search every step, and use the /search command to make sure you search several times in a row to increase your odds (usage: /search [insert number between 1 and 6 here, without brackets]). Searching for traps works off STA.

The heritage does not unlock from passive searches by the ring of searching or the Keen Eyes talent, so avoid using those (confirmed - Setzway).

Requirements: Pass three or more reflex checks with a single character

Reward: +1 to all reflex checks

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Low

Priority: Moderate

Reflex checks run off the higher of STR and AGI.

The obvious source of reflex checks is the boulder trap. However, boulder traps are rare and often triggered by enemies before you can find them. Instead, find a level with a prison. You will also need a pet. Stand beneath a portcullis and activate the switch. You should either pass a reflex check or die horribly. If still alive, repeat. If your daring leap to safety has placed you inside a cell, tell your pet to use the switch to raise the portcullis and repeat.

Requirements: Examine and/or defile the graves of all nine heroes of Hallwood with a single character

Reward: +1 physical resistance

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: N/A (all you can do is check every grave and not die)

You can find the list of heroes under the heritage listings (F3). Whenever you find a hero, they will be removed from the list.

There's not much to this heritage--just check every grave you find, and be aware that in all probability, you will hit level 20 and be forced to go through a number of extra dungeons after that before you finally find all nine. Note also that if you kick a hero's grave, they will immediately spawn as a ghost and try to kill you. However, despite their unique names, they appear to have the same stats as normal ghosts.

Requirements: Have 15 or more points of fire resistance at any given time

Reward: +1 fire resistance

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate

Your options:
Studded/chain/plate armour or helmet enchanted with the Sign of Fire= +4
(Blessed) amulet of fire ward = +5/+8
(Blessed) ring of the underdog = +5/+8 when your health is low enough
(Blessed) ring of the underdog = +5/+8 when your health is low enough
(Blessed) ring of the elements = +1/+2
(Blessed) ring of the elements = +1/+2
Divine Might = +1
Mage Armour = +1/+2
Other Sign of Fire enchants = +1 each

Note that armour and helmet resistances do not stack with each other.

During the early to mid-game, hold on to any blessed amulets of fire ward, rings of the underdog, and rings of the elements. If you live long enough, learning Divine Might from clerics is just a matter of time, as long as you don't have any pets that make neutral NPCs go hostile.

You can cycle through the shop for 50 gold at a time (by resting at the inn) until you get suitable armour. Just make sure you don't clear any dungeons once you start doing this. Dungeons can't be cleared until you've revealed all the spaces on the bottom floor, so take care to leave at least one space dark until you've confirmed that the current floor has stairs.

From there, it's just a matter of cycling items/enchantments until you get the right ones, and Mage Armour helps if you have a free talent point for Draconic magic. You'll almost certainly hit level 20 long before you complete the heritage, since it'll take a huge amount of money.

Requirements: Have 15 or more points of shock resistance at any given time

Reward: +1 shock resistance

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate

Your options:
Studded/chain/plate armour or helmet enchanted with the Sign of Shock= +4
(Blessed) amulet of shock ward = +5/+8
(Blessed) ring of the underdog = +5/+8 when your health is low enough
(Blessed) ring of the underdog = +5/+8 when your health is low enough
(Blessed) ring of the elements = +1/+2
(Blessed) ring of the elements = +1/+2
Divine Might = +1
Mage Armour = +1/+2
Other Sign of Shock enchants = +1 each

Note that armour and helmet resistances do not stack with each other.

During the early to mid-game, hold on to any blessed amulets of shock ward, rings of the underdog, and rings of the elements. If you live long enough, learning Divine Might from clerics is just a matter of time, as long as you don't have any pets that make neutral NPCs go hostile.

You can cycle through the shop for 50 gold at a time (by resting at the inn) until you get suitable armour. Just make sure you don't clear any dungeons once you start doing this. Dungeons can't be cleared until you've revealed all the spaces on the bottom floor, so take care to leave at least one space dark until you've confirmed that the current floor has stairs.

From there, it's just a matter of cycling items/enchantments until you get the right ones, and Mage Armour helps if you have a free talent point for Draconic magic. You'll almost certainly hit level 20 long before you complete the heritage, since it'll take a huge amount of money.

Requirements: Have 15 or more points of frost resistance at any given time

Reward: +1 frost resistance

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate

Your options:
Studded/chain/plate armour or helmet enchanted with the Sign of Frost = +4
(Blessed) amulet of frost ward = +5/+8
(Blessed) ring of the underdog = +5/+8 when your health is low enough
(Blessed) ring of the underdog = +5/+8 when your health is low enough
(Blessed) ring of the elements = +1/+2
(Blessed) ring of the elements = +1/+2
Divine Might = +1
Mage Armour = +1/+2
Other Sign of Frost enchants = +1 each

Note that armour and helmet resistances do not stack with each other.

During the early to mid-game, hold on to any blessed amulets of frost ward, rings of the underdog, and rings of the elements. If you live long enough, learning Divine Might from clerics is just a matter of time, as long as you don't have any pets that make neutral NPCs go hostile.

You can cycle through the shop for 50 gold at a time (by resting at the inn) until you get suitable armour. Just make sure you don't clear any dungeons once you start doing this. Dungeons can't be cleared until you've revealed all the spaces on the bottom floor, so take care to leave at least one space dark until you've confirmed that the current floor has stairs.

From there, it's just a matter of cycling items/enchantments until you get the right ones, and Mage Armour helps if you have a free talent point for Draconic magic. You'll almost certainly hit level 20 long before you complete the heritage, since it'll take a huge amount of money.

Requirements: Have 10 or more points of poison resistance at any given time

Reward: +1 poison resistance

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate

Your options:
Studded/chain/plate armour or helmet enchanted with the Sigil of Poison= +4
(Blessed) amulet of protection = +1/+2
(Blessed) ring of the underdog = +5/+8 when your health is low enough
(Blessed) ring of the underdog = +5/+8 when your health is low enough
(Blessed) ring of immunity = +1/+2
(Blessed) ring of immunity = +1/+2
Divine Grace = +1
Mage Armour = +1/+2
Other Sigil of Poison enchants = +1 each

Note that armour and helmet resistances do not stack with each other.

During the early to mid-game, hold on to any amulets of protection, rings of the underdog, and rings of Immunity. If you live long enough, learning Divine Grace from clerics is just a matter of time, as long as you don't have any pets that make neutral NPCs go hostile.

You can cycle through the shop for 50 gold at a time (by resting at the inn) until you get suitable armour. Just make sure you don't clear any dungeons once you start doing this. Dungeons can't be cleared until you've revealed all the spaces on the bottom floor, so take care to leave at least one space dark until you've confirmed that the current floor has stairs.

From there, it's just a matter of cycling items/enchantments until you get the right ones, and Mage Armour helps if you have a free talent point for Draconic magic. You'll almost certainly hit level 20 long before you complete the heritage, since it'll take a huge amount of money.

Requirements: Have 10 or more points of disease resistance at any given time

Reward: +1 disease resistance

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate

Your options:
Studded/chain/plate armour or helmet enchanted with the Sigil of Disease = +4
(Blessed) amulet of protection = +1/+2
(Blessed) ring of the underdog = +5/+8 when your health is low enough
(Blessed) ring of the underdog = +5/+8 when your health is low enough
(Blessed) ring of immunity = +1/+2
(Blessed) ring of immunity = +1/+2
Divine Grace = +1
Mage Armour = +1/+2
Other Sigil of Disease enchants = +1 each

Note that armour and helmet resistances do not stack with each other.

During the early to mid-game, hold on to any amulets of protection, rings of the underdog, and rings of Immunity. If you live long enough, learning Divine Grace from clerics is just a matter of time, as long as you don't have any pets that make neutral NPCs go hostile.

You can cycle through the shop for 50 gold at a time (by resting at the inn) until you get suitable armour. Just make sure you don't clear any dungeons once you start doing this. Dungeons can't be cleared until you've revealed all the spaces on the bottom floor, so take care to leave at least one space dark until you've confirmed that the current floor has stairs.

From there, it's just a matter of cycling items/enchantments until you get the right ones, and Mage Armour helps if you have a free talent point for Draconic magic. You'll almost certainly hit level 20 long before you complete the heritage, since it'll take a huge amount of money.

Requirements: Learn six talents with a single character without any of them being Literacy: Common

Reward: You can always use wands, even without Literacy: Common

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Moderate

The easy way to do this is with a cursed scroll of time warp, which resets your talents, at level 18 (reminder: you can use Bestow Curse to curse it yourself).

Alternatively, here is the old, hard way:

If you already have the Seventh Talent, you'll need to turn it off at the character generation screen before attempting this.

Since a discussion of how to get to level 18 (which you'll need to) is outside the scope of this guide, instead I'll just give some general observations.

In sacrificing Literacy: Common, you are losing a number of wonderful things, and you will need to find ways of compensating for them or living without them. These include:

- Mobility/escape. You can no longer rely on teleportation or invisibility. Instead, you will need at least one of Heroic Charge and Silent Move to be able to reach ranged enemies without being turned into a pincushion/smoking pair of boots in the process. You also have no means of quickly disengaging from combat, and thus need to avoid engaging in dangerous battles if you can (for which I recommend the scouting utility of Silent Move). Potions of healing and swiftness will help you here, as will other haste effects. You can also use Trap Master's bear traps to set up impassable choke points to delay your enemies while you make a hasty escape. Overall, playing an AGI archer is very tempting under these circumstances.

- AoE and burst damage. Without wands, you have no sources of area of effect damage other than Multi-Shot and Sweeping Blow, and no emergency means of killing powerful enemies quickly. This means you need to get better at luring enemies into chokepoints and manipulating ranged enemy LoS to avoid dealing with multiple attackers at once. You will also have to rely on disabling techniques to substitute for burst damage.

- Disabling. Without tools like the wand of crippling or the scrolls of dislocation or summoning, your means of taking enemies out of combat quickly without having to kill them are limited. Instead, you'll have to use poisons, especially against powerful or numerous enemies, and try to get enchants such as Paralysis or Blind.

- Escaping snares. With no teleportation options, unless you have high STR, you can easily die in a pit even at high levels. If you can't find an amulet of ghost form or a ring of regeneration (not that the latter is infallible), you may want to consider investing in Keen Eyes and/or a ring of searching.

Requirements: Learn all Celestial spells with a single character

Reward: You start knowing a random Celestial spell (but not the corresponding literacy skill)

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate to high

I recommend this as the first of the spell mastery heritages, because it's easiest to aim for with a variety of builds, and the starting spell it gives you is likely to be useful on its own for a lot of builds as well. In addition, you can learn three of the ten spells you need from friendly NPCs (as opposed to one each for Draconic and Infernal).

It is generally unwise to make a beeline for Literacy: Celestial just because you've found one or two Celestial tomes. Celestial has no offensive magic other than Turn Undead, and man cannot live on buffs alone. Instead, get one or two combat talents first (e.g. Blade Flurry and Silent Move) so that you can subsist on ordinary combat until your magic is well-developed. Preferably build your primary combat stat and STA until you're ready to switch to relying on spells for combat, and then focus on STA followed by CHA. Celestial magic is also the easiest to use for a hybrid character, because it does not suffer from shield penalties, only has limited armour penalties (min casting cap 2, even if the armour cap is lower), and can take you a long way even without investing in Focused Cast.

Be aware that you'll likely need to cycle through the shop a bit in order to find the last few tomes you need. Also be sure not to read any unidentified tomes just because you can. If they're cursed, they'll make you forget a random spell.

Buy and read scrolls of knowledge whenever possible. They can teach you spells. Note that while the wand of scripting can't copy them (you just get scrolls of amnesia), the Scribe's Tools charm can, provided you have blank scrolls.

Requirements: Learn all Draconic spells with one character

Reward: You start knowing a random Draconic spell (but not the corresponding literacy skill)

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate

It is generally unwise to make a beeline for Literacy: Draconic just because you've found one or two Draconic tomes. Draconic has plenty of combat magic, but you'll need Amplify Magic and Focused Cast to make use of it, until which point all those shiny orb spells will be fairly useless compared to normal weapons. Instead, get one or two combat talents first (e.g. Blade Flurry and Silent Move) so that you can subsist on ordinary combat until your magic is well-developed. Preferably build your primary combat stat and STA until you're ready to switch to relying on spells for combat, and then focus on STA followed by CHA. The good news is that all the non-offensive Draconic spells are very useful, even the generally underrated Telekinesis (which prevents lockpicking and disarming critical fails, and lets you open doors from a safe distance; it will, however, lower loot quality for locked chests for some reason).

Be aware that you'll likely need to cycle through the shop a bit in order to find the last few tomes you need. Also be sure not to read any unidentified tomes just because you can. If they're cursed, they'll make you forget a random spell.

Buy and read scrolls of knowledge whenever possible. They can teach you spells. Note that while the wand of scripting can't copy them (you just get scrolls of amnesia), the Scribe's Tools charm can, provided you have blank scrolls.

Requirements: Learn all Infernal spells with a single character

Reward: You start knowing a random Infernal spell (but not the corresponding literacy skill)

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate

Infernal magic is a seriously mixed bag, from the glorious Plane Shift (never die in a pit again) to the feeble Demonic Visage (which is great when it works, but never seems to trigger when you need it). As it lacks Amplify Magic, and quite a few things resist poison and disease, it's also not reliable as a source of damage unless you can put together the wonderful Capture Soul/Release Soul combo (which is also an amazing income source as you can kill things and then enchant their gear before sale). Since many of its spells are also narrow-purpose (Enslave/Banish Daemon) or can fail disastrously if your stats are insufficient (Summon Daemon), it's generally best to save Infernal until you have one or two of the other schools for your bread-and-butter casting.

Be aware that you'll likely need to cycle through the shop a bit in order to find the last few tomes you need. Also be sure not to read any unidentified tomes just because you can. If they're cursed, they'll make you forget a random spell.

Buy and read scrolls of knowledge whenever possible. They can teach you spells. Note that while the wand of scripting can't copy them (you just get scrolls of amnesia), the Scribe's Tools charm can, provided you have blank scrolls.

Requirements: Learn all Arcane spells with a single character

Reward: You can now learn Arcane spells with any amulet, rather than needing an amulet with the same spell

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: High

You'll need to obtain the Second Amendment heritage in order to unlock Arcane spells. Once you do, your priority is to collect the ten spell amulets (which you can find listed in the in-game manual, accessible via F1). Don't forget that you can get the tome for Arcane Missile, and the corresponding amulet, from the same quest that got you Second Amendment. Also don't forget that worn amulets shatter on a critical fail when casting from them, so don't use a worn one if you don't have its Arcane spell yet. They can, of course, be fixed with scrolls of blessing.

Arcane Mastery is seriously OP, containing spells which were never intended to be cast at will when the game was originally being balanced. Identify Item, Enchant Item, and Transmute Item alone are worth pursuing the heritage for. Note that while Arcane spells benefit from blessed amulets, a critical fail when casting will permanently erase the blessing. Especially for spells like the above, you may want to have a spare amulet that you swap in when casting, and then wear in safer areas (like when retracing your steps after a trip to town) to reset the cooldown.

Be aware that you'll likely need to cycle through the shop a bit in order to find the last few tomes and amulets you need. Also be sure not to read any unidentified tomes just because you can. If they're cursed, they'll make you forget a random spell.

Buy and read scrolls of knowledge whenever possible. They can teach you spells. Note that while the wand of scripting can't copy them (you just get scrolls of amnesia), the Scribe's Tools charm can, provided you have blank scrolls.

Requirements: Learn all Bestial spells with a single character

Reward: You can now learn Bestial spells without levitating

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate to high

You'll need to obtain the Rise of Fairies heritage in order to unlock Bestial spells, and the Fairy Jizzed Bull Horn in order to learn them, as well as a source of levitation. By far the easiest way to do this is by from the quest that gave you Rise of Fairies, but you can also get the horn as a random charm drop.

Bestial spells are an extremely mixed bag, and cover a lot of different bases, from DoT to debuffs and summoning. Notably, Fairy Flight makes you immune to traps and lava (until you forget to refresh it and die horribly), Insect Swarm is a brutal debuff that makes Bestow Curse look like a joke, Big Bear Slap is a nice melee panic button, and Command Beast is permanent and works on all animals, including spiritual wolves, vermen, and even daemonrats (it can also work on cave bears, but in my experience it takes several castings for them to fail the mental check, and by then you will be dead).

Be aware that you'll likely need to cycle through the shop a bit in order to find the last few tomes and amulets you need. Also be sure not to read any unidentified tomes just because you can. If they're cursed, they'll make you forget a random spell.

Buy and read scrolls of knowledge whenever possible. They can teach you spells. Note that while the wand of scripting can't copy them (you just get scrolls of amnesia), the Scribe's Tools charm can, provided you have blank scrolls.

Requirements: Learn all Abyssal spells with a single character

Reward: You can now learn Abyssal spells without a black soul gem

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate to high

You'll need to obtain the Wester Worshipper heritage in order to unlock Abyssal spells. Getting black soul gems from enemies (devourers and ghosts) is very luck-dependent, so it's in your interest to learn the Consume Soul Infernal spell as soon as the opportunity arises. If you have Infernal Mastery, consider restarting until you get it, and then using that character to pursue the heritage.

Abyssal spells are similar to Infernal ones in that they are a mixture of great spells, highly situational spells, and borderline useless spells. Mass Dismissal wrecks daemons, and is also worth its weight in gold for the Balthar boss fight. Repelling Smite fills the much-needed role of letting casters get out of melee. Spectral Gateway is both convenient for travel and the ultimate escape tool, though you'll need Sacrificial Circle as well. On the other hand, Abyssal summons are hostile to the caster, and more dangerous than daemons, so are to be used with great care. You'll also need the Abyssal spells Sacrificial Circle and Ritual Sacrifice if you want to face one of the Hoard DLC bosses.

Be aware that you'll likely need to cycle through the shop a bit in order to find the last few tomes you need. Also be sure not to read any unidentified tomes just because you can. If they're cursed, they'll make you forget a random spell.

Buy and read scrolls of knowledge whenever possible. They can teach you spells. Note that while the wand of scripting can't copy them (you just get scrolls of amnesia), the Scribe's Tools charm can, provided you have blank scrolls.

Requirements: Identify or buy at least one of each amulet type with a single character

Reward: You start knowing all amulet types (but not their cursed/blessed/worn status)

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate to high

It will take you forever to find one of every single amulet in the field. Instead, where possible, buy unknown amulets from the shop (they'll have a (?) next to the name), and sell them back if you're not expecting to use them. Note that cursed amulets like the amulet of asphyxiation will never turn up in the shop, so those will probably be the last few entries you need, and can take a very long time to find. Take note of how many cursed amulets you've found so far, so that later on you'll know whether there's any point in continuing to cycle through the shop.

Buy and read scrolls of knowledge whenever possible. Note that while the wand of scripting can't copy them (you just get scrolls of amnesia), the Scribe's Tools charm can, provided you have blank scrolls.

Don't forget that cycling through the shop raises the special encounter rate, so stop clearing dungeons (rest at the inn instead) once you start doing this.

Requirements: Identify or buy at least one of each ring type with a single character

Reward: You start knowing all ring types (but not their cursed/blessed status)

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes
Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate to high

It will take you forever to find one of every single ring in the field. Instead, where possible, buy unknown rings from the shop (they'll have a (?) next to the name), and sell them back if you're not expecting to use them. Note that cursed rings like the ring of thirst will never turn up in the shop, so those will probably be the last few entries you need, and can take a very long time to find. Take note of how many cursed rings you've found so far, so that later on you'll know whether there's any point in continuing to cycle through the shop.

Buy and read scrolls of knowledge whenever possible. Note that while the wand of scripting can't copy them (you just get scrolls of amnesia), the Scribe's Tools charm can, provided you have blank scrolls.

Don't forget that cycling through the shop raises the special encounter rate, so stop clearing dungeons (rest at the inn instead) once you start doing this.

Requirements: Identify or buy at least one of each wand type with a single character

Reward: You start knowing all wand types (but not their cursed/blessed status or number of charges)

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate to high

There are no inherently cursed wands, so you can eventually get everything you need from the shops (the (?) sign indicates that you don't have that wand knowledge yet). On the other hand, wands are overall the most expensive item type, and blessings and high potency levels can make them cost over 1000 gold. If even remotely possible, buy them anyway. You'll regret not doing so when you find yourself spending hour after hour desperately looking for that one remaining wand type which you could have bought before by saving up.

Buy and read scrolls of knowledge whenever possible. Note that while the wand of scripting can't copy them (you just get scrolls of amnesia), the Scribe's Tools charm can, provided you have blank scrolls.

Don't forget that cycling through the shop raises the special encounter rate, so stop clearing dungeons (rest at the inn instead) once you start doing this.

Requirements: Identify or buy at least one of each scroll type with a single character

Reward: You start knowing all scroll types (but not their cursed/blessed status or potency)

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate to high

It will take you forever to find one of every single scroll in the field. Instead, where possible, buy unknown scrolls from the shop (they'll have a (?) next to the name), and sell them back if you're not expecting to use them. Note that cursed scrolls like the scroll of amnesia will never turn up in the shop, so those will probably be the last few entries you need, and can take a very long time to find. Take note of how many cursed scrolls you've found so far, so that later on you'll know whether there's any point in continuing to cycle through the shop.

The ring of scholars will make your life a lot easier if you can find one.

Buy and read scrolls of knowledge whenever possible. Note that while the wand of scripting can't copy them (you just get scrolls of amnesia), the Scribe's Tools charm can, provided you have blank scrolls.

Requirements: Identify or buy at least one of each potion type with a single character

Reward: You start knowing all potion types (but not their cursed/blessed status or potency)

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate to high

Poison and sickness potions aren't sold in the shop, so this could take a while. You can identify any potion just by drinking it, which will at least save money, but make sure you're at the town entrance or on a cleared floor, with no traps or enemies within a one-mile radius. If you have one, the Ring of Immunity will make this process much more painless.

Buy and read scrolls of knowledge whenever possible. Note that while the wand of scripting can't copy them (you just get scrolls of amnesia) the scribe's tools charm can, provided you have blank scrolls.

Requirements: Identify items with at least one of each enchant with a single character

Reward: You start knowing all enchant effects, and enchanting items in town costs 80 gold instead of 100

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate to high

Priority: Moderate

Make sure to identify any item with an enchant you don't yet know, even if it's not worth selling afterwards. Buy items with unknown enchants (with a (?) sign) from the shop whenever you can afford them. Spaulders and the like are often cheap even when enchanted. If you have the Patron of Arts heritage, you can mass-produce cheap gear for random enchants. Finally, the amulet of enchantment is your friend, but don't forget that it's capable of destroying pre-enchanted items on a bad roll (in which case you don't gain any new knowledge).

Requirements: Randomly unleash a wraith by defiling a grave while wearing a black shirt or robe and no armour

Reward: Your black shirts/robes can now be enchanted

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Low

Priority: Low

Shirt/robe colour is selected at the character creation screen. Be sure not to have any armour on when trying to trigger the heritage condition.

Use a STR build and go around indiscriminately defiling graves (by moving into them with at least 1 energy until they are destroyed). The wraith which emerges when you complete the condition is a powerful monster, so do this with either very powerful or very disposable characters.

Requirements: Eat meat while wearing a red shirt or robe and no armour

Reward: Your red shirts/robes can now be enchanted

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Very low

Priority: Low

Shirt/robe colour is selected at the character creation screen. Be sure not to have any armour on when trying to trigger the heritage condition.

Meat can usually be bought in town. If you have no money, sell your starting rations. Fried meat doesn't count. Gaining the heritage summons a cave bear to eat you, so do this with either a very powerful or very disposable character.

Requirements: Throw an item at a wall (successfully) while wearing a green shirt or robe and no armour

Reward: Your green shirts/robes can now be enchanted

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Very low

Priority: Low

Shirt/robe colour is selected at the character creation screen. Be sure not to have any armour on when trying to trigger the heritage condition.

To throw an item, right-click on it in your inventory, then click on the target space. A few item types can't be thrown. Stand next to the wall when you do to reduce odds of missing. Gaining the heritage summons an orc warband to dismember you, so do this with either a very powerful or very disposable character.

Requirements: Enter a water pit, then drop an item while wearing a blue shirt or robe and no armour

Reward: Your blue shirts/robes can now be enchanted

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Very low

Priority: Low

Shirt/robe colour is selected at the character creation screen. Be sure not to have any armour on when trying to trigger the heritage condition.

Self-explanatory. The item type doesn't matter. This will definitely kill your character, so use a disposable one.

Requirements: Equip a sword in both the main and off-hand slots while wearing an orange shirt or robe and no armour

Reward: Your orange shirts/robes can now be enchanted

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Very low

Priority: Low

Shirt/robe colour is selected at the character creation screen. Be sure not to have any armour on when trying to trigger the heritage condition.

Both swords must be equipped simultaneously, i.e. not in main and secondary slots. Gaining the heritage summons a squad of mercenaries to dismember you, so do this with either a very powerful or very disposable character.

Requirements: Use a stack of gold to flip coins until you get three tails in a row while wearing a yellow shirt or robe and no armour

Reward: Your yellow shirts/robes can now be enchanted

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Very low

Priority: Low

Shirt/robe colour is selected at the character creation screen. Be sure not to have any armour on when trying to trigger the heritage condition.

Left-click on a stack of gold in your inventory until you trigger this heritage. If you have no gold, sell your starting rations. Gaining the heritage summons a drake to devour you, so do this with either a very powerful or very disposable character.

Requirements: Type "I love pink" (without quotes) in the chat while wearing a pink shirt or robe and no armour

Reward: Your pink shirts/robes can now be enchanted

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Very low

Priority: Low

Shirt/robe colour is selected at the character creation screen. Be sure not to have any armour on when trying to trigger the heritage condition.

Press G to open the chat window, then type "I love pink" without quotes, and press ENTER. Gaining the heritage summons the hallowed Pink Order to punish you for your irreverence, so do this with either a very powerful or very disposable character.

Requirements: Use a soul gem until it explodes while wearing a white shirt or robe and no armour

Reward: Your white shirts/robes can now be enchanted

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Low

Priority: Low

Shirt/robe colour is selected at the character creation screen. Be sure not to have any armour on when trying to trigger the heritage condition.

You can get soul gems from devourers and from ghosts (which can appear when defiling graves), or with the Capture Soul spell. You need a normal (pink) soul gem. Use it from your inventory until it explodes. Note that unlike most of the shirt/robe heritages, this is survivable if you have decent HP.

Requirements: After unlocking the eight shirt/robe achievements, achieve a score over 9000

Reward: Your shirts and robes are blessed and can thus be enchanted twice

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate to high

Priority: N/A (you don't have to do anything specific to increase your score, nor can you avoid doing so)

You can check your score at any time with /score.

An incomplete score formula follows below:

- 1 point per XP earned

- 1 point per gold piece gained (no matter what you do with it afterwards)

- 10 points per knowledge entry gained

- 25 points per spell learned

- 50 points per ability point gained

- 100 points per talent learned

- 25 points per point of physical resistance

- 125 points per point of chromatic resistance

Note that equipment does not give you any points, except insofar as it modifies relevant stats, and non-equipped items never give you any points. Note also that the above list is incomplete and the rules may have exceptions (e.g. an Amulet of Shock Ward gives you 250 points when worn, not 625).

Requirements: Complete the cultist quest and kill Gurmur

Reward: None

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: High

Priority: Minimal

The cultists will turn into tentacles on death, and cultists and tentacles are hostile to each other. However, the latter are more dangerous, so it may be in your interest to kill the cultists one by one and help them take out the tentacles. Tentacles don't move, but can throw stones for quite a lot of damage. Retreat and heal as necessary. They are also vulnerable to the Abyssal spell Mass Dismissal (credit: Pear).

Push boulders into the wells the cultists were guarding to weaken Gurmur.

Gurmur himself spawns tentacles and drops boulders. Make a beeline for him so as not to get tied up in minions.

There is no reward for killing Gurmur other than bragging rights and lots of loot (which, however, you can't sell until you complete the quest), and the quest is very dangerous, so there's no point going for this if your character still has other heritages they can potentially unlock. You will, however, have to kill him before you can challenge the final boss.

Requirements: Kill a Dread Wolf

Reward: Start with a unique dog pet named Woof

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Low to moderate

Priority: N/A (unless you're extremely careful, you'll have to face the Dread Wolf sooner or later no matter what you do)

The Dread Wolf is a special encounter. Special encounters occur when you clear the lowest floor of a dungeon (unless you're too close to the stairs up when doing so), with a probability based on how often you've rested at the inn (starting at 3%). You can see your current probability in town--it's the number next to the crossed swords icon. Until you get this heritage, your first special encounter will always be the Dread Wolf.

You'll know that the encounter has started when you see a message in red telling you that the Dread Wolf howls. The Dread Wolf is simply a bigger, stronger dire wolf, with no special features or abilities beyond that, but it also comes with a sizeable dire wolf pack. As such, retreat immediately to a corridor or other chokepoint to force the wolves to come to you one at a time. Since wolves do not emit light, unless you're in a very well-lit space you probably won't be able to target them from long range. However, if you make your stand at the far end of the corridor from them, you can horrifically abuse wands that fire in a beam, and the wolves are generally easy to manoeuvre into position for AoE attacks. Just make sure you know exactly where the AoE ends--I've killed myself that way before in this very context.

Unless faced at an extremely low level, wolves use Heroic Charge. They are also naturally hasted, potentially giving them two attacks a turn (which is a special problem for dodge/parry users, and another reason not to get surrounded). If you don't have utterly bulletproof defenses, you'll want some means of healing lest you die by attrition. If all else fails, remember that getting the heritage does not require you to survive the encounter, only to kill the Dread Wolf before you finally go down.

Requirements: Press V to look at Woof when he is badly hurt or almost dead

Reward: Woof's health bar is always visible

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Very low

Priority: High

Note that all dog-related heritages are only relevant to Woof. They cannot be earned by, and cannot benefit, any other dog you encounter.

Self-explanatory. If you don't want to risk Woof actually dying, have him attack snails and take damage in return, and kill the snails yourself if it looks like he's in danger. Ideally, make this your first Woof-boosting heritage, as otherwise he will quickly become too powerful for snails to hurt him enough. Note that you can also damage Woof yourself, and as of 1.08 he will remain your friend. So you can use a weapon guaranteed not to one-shot him and get this heritage quickly.

Requirements: Swap places with Woof while he is in a pit

Reward: Woof now treats snares as ordinary floor tiles for the purposes of movement (though he can still take damage if he keeps standing on them)

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Very low

Priority: High

Self-explanatory. Note that all dog-related heritages are only relevant to Woof. They cannot be earned by, and cannot benefit, any other dog you encounter.

Requirements: Have Woof reach level 3

Reward: Woof starts with +1 physical resistance

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Low

Priority: High

Note that all dog-related heritages are only relevant to Woof. They cannot be earned by, and cannot benefit, any other dog you encounter.

The key to getting this heritage is to make sure Woof gets as much XP as possible without getting killed. Yes, this is an amazing revelation and clearly well worth reading this guide for, but here's what it breaks down to in practice:

- Let Woof kill all the snails

- Let Woof kill all animals except snakes and spiders (you can recover from poisoning much more safely than he can)

- Let Woof kill other enemies whenever possible, but position yourself to tank so that you take as much of the damage as possible; with tough/armoured enemies, damage/disable them first

- Have Woof disarm all visible traps (tell him to move over them)

- Have Woof disarm pit traps by pushing boulders over them; put Woof in position, then tell him to move onto the boulder; repeat the command whenever the boulder gets pushed or Woof takes damage for any reason

- (optional) Have Woof break all locked doors and containers for 3 XP each by telling him to move onto them; repeat the command whenever Woof takes damage

- Keep an eye on Woof to make sure he doesn't stop on top of any pit traps; as of 1.08, he will do this and eventually get killed by the damage

- Try to keep your level close to Woof's so that you are strong enough to tank for him and not facing overlevelled enemies

Requirements: Have Woof reach level 6

Reward: Woof gains 2 physical resistance and 1 chromatic resistance at level 3 (replacing Hardened Skin)

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Low

Priority: High

Note that all dog-related heritages are only relevant to Woof. They cannot be earned by, and cannot benefit, any other dog you encounter.

The key to getting this heritage is to make sure Woof gets as much XP as possible without getting killed. Yes, this is an amazing revelation and clearly well worth reading this guide for, but here's what it breaks down to in practice:

- Let Woof kill all the snails

- Let Woof kill all animals except snakes and spiders (you can recover from poisoning much more safely than he can)

- Let Woof kill other enemies whenever possible, but position yourself to tank so that you take as much of the damage as possible; with tough/armoured enemies, damage/disable them first

- Have Woof disarm all visible traps (tell him to move over them)

- Have Woof disarm pit traps by pushing boulders over them; put Woof in position, then tell him to move onto the boulder; repeat the command whenever the boulder gets pushed or Woof takes damage for any reason

- (optional) Have Woof break all locked doors and containers for 3 XP each by telling him to move onto them; repeat the command whenever Woof takes damage

- Keep an eye on Woof to make sure he doesn't stop on top of any pit traps; as of 1.08, he will do this and eventually get killed by the damage

- Try to keep your level close to Woof's so that you are strong enough to tank for him and not facing overlevelled enemies

Requirements: Have Woof reach level 9

Reward: Woof gains 3 physical resistance and 2 chromatic resistance at level 3 (replacing Winter Fur Coat)

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Low

Priority: High

Note that all dog-related heritages are only relevant to Woof. They cannot be earned by, and cannot benefit, any other dog you encounter.

The key to getting this heritage is to make sure Woof gets as much XP as possible without getting killed. Yes, this is an amazing revelation and clearly well worth reading this guide for, but here's what it breaks down to in practice:

- Let Woof kill all the snails

- Let Woof kill all animals except snakes and spiders (you can recover from poisoning much more safely than he can)

- Let Woof kill other enemies whenever possible, but position yourself to tank so that you take as much of the damage as you can; with tough/armoured enemies, damage/disable them first

- Have Woof disarm all visible traps (tell him to move over them)

- Have Woof disarm pit traps by pushing boulders over them; put Woof in position, then tell him to move onto the boulder; repeat the command whenever the boulder gets pushed or Woof takes damage for any reason

- (optional) Have Woof break all locked doors and containers for 3 XP each by telling him to move onto them; repeat the command whenever Woof takes damage

- Keep an eye on Woof to make sure he doesn't stop on top of any pit traps; as of 1.08, he will do this and eventually get killed by the damage

- Try to keep your level close to Woof's so that you are strong enough to tank for him and not facing overlevelled enemies

- At higher levels, retreat Woof at once if he is injured to reduce risk of one-shotting

- Get Literacy: Celestial if you can; being able to heal Woof instantly will make your life much easier, especially with decent CHA

Requirements: Have Woof reach level 12

Reward: Woof's damage gets upgraded to 1d6 (from 1d3+1) at level 9

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Moderate

Note that all dog-related heritages are only relevant to Woof. They cannot be earned by, and cannot benefit, any other dog you encounter.

The key to getting this heritage is to make sure Woof gets as much XP as possible. Yes, this is an amazing revelation and clearly well worth reading this guide for, but here's what it breaks down to in practice:

- Let Woof kill all the snails

- Let Woof kill all animals except snakes and spiders (you can recover from poisoning much more safely than he can)

- Keep Woof out of sight of enemies unless you're confident of his safety (e.g. they are already heavily wounded, out of arrows/energy, disabled or unarmed), and never let him be an enemy's primary target; at these higher levels, the risk of him being killed before you can intervene is significant

- Have Woof disarm all visible traps (tell him to move over them)

- Have Woof disarm pit traps by pushing boulders over them; put Woof in position, then tell him to move onto the boulder; repeat the command whenever the boulder gets pushed or Woof takes damage for any reason

- (optional) Have Woof break all locked doors and containers for 3 XP each by telling him to move onto them; repeat the command whenever Woof takes damage

- Keep an eye on Woof to make sure he doesn't stop on top of any pit traps; as of 1.08, he will do this and eventually get killed by the damage

- Get Literacy: Celestial if you can; being able to heal Woof instantly will make your life much easier, especially with decent CHA

Requirements: Have Woof reach level 15

Reward: Woof receives an extra 1d3 damage at level 12

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: High

Priority: Low

Note that all dog-related heritages are only relevant to Woof. They cannot be earned by, and cannot benefit, any other dog you encounter.

The key to getting this heritage is to make sure Woof gets as much XP as possible while not getting killed. Yes, this is an amazing revelation and clearly well worth reading this guide for, but here's what it breaks down to in practice:

- Let Woof kill all the snails

- Let Woof kill all animals except snakes and spiders (you can recover from poisoning much more safely than he can), while you stand by ready to tank damage and/or finish them off if Woof looks in danger

- Keep Woof out of sight of enemies unless you're confident of his safety (e.g. they are out of arrows/energy, disabled or unarmed), and never let him be an enemy's primary target; at these higher levels, the risk of him being one-shotted is significant

- Have Woof disarm all visible traps (tell him to move over them)

- Have Woof disarm pit traps by pushing boulders over them; put Woof in position, then tell him to move onto the boulder; repeat the command whenever the boulder gets pushed or Woof takes damage for any reason

- (optional) Have Woof break all locked doors and containers for 3 XP each by telling him to move onto them; repeat the command whenever Woof takes damage

- Keep an eye on Woof to make sure he doesn't stop on top of any pit traps; as of 1.08, he will do this and eventually get killed by the damage

- Get Literacy: Celestial if you can; being able to heal Woof instantly will make your life much easier, especially with decent CHA

Requirements: Have Woof kill a dire wolf

Reward: Woof starts with +1 AGI and +1 STA, and learns Heroic Charge at level 3

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Low

Priority: High

Note that all dog-related heritages are only relevant to Woof. They cannot be earned by, and cannot benefit, any other dog you encounter.

This heritage is exceedingly straightforward. A dire wolf is just one of those white wolves that you periodically encounter during ordinary dungeon exploration. If you're tanking for Woof and/or have a couple of his armour heritages, he should easily be able to stay alive long enough to deal the killing blow (which is all you need to unlock this).

You can also deal damage yourself first, as long as it doesn't kill the wolf. Just avoid using swords (chance of 2x damage against low-physical resistance targets), two-handed weapons (high base damage), weapons with damage-boosting enchants or extra damage talents like Crushing Blow or Blade Flurry.

It's overkill, but disabling poisons like paralysing poison will also work to make the kill easier.

Requirements: Have Woof kill a monster

Reward: Woof starts with +1 AGI and +1 STA (stacking with Rare Breed), and learns Strong Will at level 6

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: High

Priority: High

Note that all dog-related heritages are only relevant to Woof. They cannot be earned by, and cannot benefit, any other dog you encounter.

Woof only needs to land the finishing blow; apart from that, you can contribute as much damage as you like.

You will need as low a level as possible, and as many as possible of the following, in very rough descending order of priority:

- Amulet of ghost form
- Plate armour/plate helm (the former is more important)
- Ring of immunity
- Ring of fortitude
- Weapon with a disabling enchant (e.g. paralysis); if you don't have an amulet of ghost form, make sure this is a ranged weapon
- Wand of crippling
- Wand of shifting or scroll of teleport (if you don't have the amulet, or Plane Shift)
- Disabling poisons (e.g. paralysis)
- Healing magic
- Buff magic
- Plenty of food (just in case)

You don't need them all; I've done this with just the plate, amulet of ghost form and disabling enchant (which only triggered once anyway). Make sure Woof is at least at the same level as you, and at full health.

Now go stand in a spider web. Spiders will start spawning periodically. If you have an amulet of ghost form, feel free to kill them yourself; otherwise you'll have to leave them to Woof (unless you have arrows to spare). This is a good way of leveling up Woof, although you run the risk of getting him killed by poison if you're unlucky. You may have to keep doing this for a very long time, periodically stepping out in order to heal any damage. Make sure to tell Woof to follow you again after every kill so he doesn't wander off. And try to stay fully satiated so that you can heal at least a few hit points when you're not attacking during the coming battle.

Eventually, a mamalob will spawn. It will spawn at the higher of your and Woof's levels, meaning that if you're low-level, it will be weaker than any monster you normally encounter, weak enough for the above items to make a big difference.

Get out of the web if you can, or fire at the mamalob from within if you can't. Apply any poisons and other debuffs you have access to. Make sure you stay next to it so as to soak as much damage as possible. Use V to bring up its health bar, and hit it for as much damage as you can without risking killing it. If you have anything that can heal Woof, use it as appropriate. Woof will periodically get scared off, but he should come back quickly.

This strategy is likely to take multiple tries, because Woof is fragile and is likely to die from poison or the mamalob's sheer damage output a few times. But it still gives you much better odds than trying to keep Woof alive until you encounter a monster normally, and then trying to help Woof beat it an a straight-up fight.

Alternative strategy (credit: Pear):

Use a lurker, one of the tentacles that spawn when a creature spends time in water. If necessary, you can spawn one by sending in a follower, using the Mirror Image spell, or by stepping in yourself (make sure you can get out quickly!). Since they're immobile, you can use a bow and a lot of arrows to weaken one to the point where it's relatively safe for Woof to fight.

Requirements: Complete the Leo Noerde quest

Reward: Unlocks the Artisans' Guild and crafting item drops

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Low

Priority: High

I have a confession to make. I never actually unlocked this heritage. I spent a few years away from the game, and then when I came back, it was v2.0 and I somehow already had this and a couple of other crafting heritages. At some point, I may come back and play with a fresh account to see the quest for myself.

Requirements: Craft a fine talon, fine sword, and fine claw

Reward: Fine daggers, fine talons, fine swords, and fine claws you craft will now be blessed

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

Schematic drops are completely random, so there's nothing much you can do to get those faster. Once you have them, you'll need tithril ore and scrap.

Tithril ore is dropped by orc miners, and can also be obtained by using a digger on boulders (STR build recommended, or it'll take forever and you'll go through a lot of diggers). If you have no boulders, use a digger on walls.

Scrap can be obtained by disarming an alarm trap with a critical success, or more easily by throwing an identified item at a wall so it breaks. I usually do this with my starting throwing knives.

Requirements: Craft a fine mangler, fine chopper, and fine crusher

Reward: Fine diggers, fine manglers, fine choppers, and fine crushers you craft will now be blessed

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

Schematic drops are completely random, so there's nothing much you can do to get those faster. Once you have them, you'll need tithril ore, hardwood, and scrap.

Tithril ore is dropped by orc miners, and can also be obtained by using a digger on boulders (STR build recommended, or it'll take forever and you'll go through a lot of diggers). If you have no boulders, use a digger on walls.

Hardwood can be obtained destroying a wooden object, such as a door or a container, with a critical success.

Scrap can be obtained by disarming an alarm trap with a critical success, or more easily by throwing an identified item at a wall so it breaks. I usually do this with my starting throwing knives.

Requirements: Craft a fine mace, fine flail, and fine hammer

Reward: Fine axes, fine maces, fine flails, and fine hammers you craft will now be blessed

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

Schematic drops are completely random, so there's nothing much you can do to get those faster. Once you have them, you'll need tithril ore, hardwood, and scrap.

Tithril ore is dropped by orc miners, and can also be obtained by using a digger on boulders (STR build recommended, or it'll take forever and you'll go through a lot of diggers). If you have no boulders, use a digger on walls.

Hardwood can be obtained destroying a wooden object, such as a door or a container, with a critical success.

Scrap can be obtained by disarming an alarm trap with a critical success, or more easily by throwing an identified item at a wall so it breaks. I usually do this with my starting throwing knives.

Requirements: Craft a fine hatchet, fine throwing knife, and fine throwing star

Reward: Fine spears, fine hatchets, fine throwing knives, and fine throwing stars you craft will now be blessed

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low

Schematic drops are completely random, so there's nothing much you can do to get those faster. Once you have them, you'll need tithril ore, hardwood, and scrap.

Tithril ore is dropped by orc miners, and can also be obtained by using a digger on boulders (STR build recommended, or it'll take forever and you'll go through a lot of diggers). If you have no boulders, use a digger on walls.

Hardwood can be obtained destroying a wooden object, such as a door or a container, with a critical success.

Scrap can be obtained by disarming an alarm trap with a critical success, or more easily by throwing an identified item at a wall so it breaks. I usually do this with my starting throwing knives.

Requirements: Craft a fine recurve, fine crossbow, and fine repeater

Reward: Fine bows, fine recurves, fine crossbows, and fine repeaters you craft will now be blessed

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

Schematic drops are completely random, so there's nothing much you can do to get those faster. Once you have them, you'll need tithril ore, hardwood, and scrap.

Tithril ore is dropped by orc miners, and can also be obtained by using a digger on boulders (STR build recommended, or it'll take forever and you'll go through a lot of diggers). If you have no boulders, use a digger on walls.

Hardwood can be obtained destroying a wooden object, such as a door or a container, with a critical success.

Scrap can be obtained by disarming an alarm trap with a critical success, or more easily by throwing an identified item at a wall so it breaks. I usually do this with my starting throwing knives.

Requirements: Craft a fine target, fine shield, and fine barrier

Reward: Fine bucklers, fine targets, fine shields, and fine barriers you create will now be blessed

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

Schematic drops are completely random, so there's nothing much you can do to get those faster. Once you have them, you'll need tithril ore, hardwood, and scrap.

Tithril ore is dropped by orc miners, and can also be obtained by using a digger on boulders (STR build recommended, or it'll take forever and you'll go through a lot of diggers). If you have no boulders, use a digger on walls.

Hardwood can be obtained destroying a wooden object, such as a door or a container, with a critical success.

Scrap can be obtained by disarming an alarm trap with a critical success, or more easily by throwing an identified item at a wall so it breaks. I usually do this with my starting throwing knives.

Requirements: Craft a fine leather helm, fine studded helm, fine chain helm, and fine plate helm

Reward: Fine padded caps, fine leather caps, fine studded caps, fine plate caps, fine leather helms, fine studded helms, fine chain helms, and fine plate helms you craft will now be blessed

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

Schematic drops are completely random, so there's nothing much you can do to get those faster. Once you have them, you'll need tithril ore, flexweave, bearskin, and scrap.

Tithril ore is dropped by orc miners, and can also be obtained by using a digger on boulders (STR build recommended, or it'll take forever and you'll go through a lot of diggers). If you have no boulders, use a digger on walls.

Flexweave can be obtained from spider webs, spiders, mamalobs, and papalobs. The spider cave quest is an excellent source.

Bearskin can be dropped by orcs or cave bears. Stick with the former.

Scrap can be obtained by disarming an alarm trap with a critical success, or more easily by throwing an identified item at a wall so it breaks. I usually do this with my starting throwing knives.

Requirements: Craft fine leather armour, fine studded armour, fine chain armour, and fine plate armour

Reward: Fine padded armours, fine leather armours, fine studded armours, fine chain armours, and fine plate armours you craft will now be blessed

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

Schematic drops are completely random, so there's nothing much you can do to get those faster. Once you have them, you'll need tithril ore, flexweave, bearskin, and scrap.

Tithril ore is dropped by orc miners, and can also be obtained by using a digger on boulders (STR build recommended, or it'll take forever and you'll go through a lot of diggers). If you have no boulders, use a digger on walls.

Flexweave can be obtained from spider webs, spiders, mamalobs, and papalobs. The spider cave quest is an excellent source.

Bearskin can be dropped by orcs or cave bears. Stick with the former.

Scrap can be obtained by disarming an alarm trap with a critical success, or more easily by throwing an identified item at a wall so it breaks. I usually do this with my starting throwing knives.

Requirements: Craft fine leather spaulders, fine studded spaulders, fine chain spaulders, and fine plate spaulders

Reward: Fine padded spaulders, fine leather spaulders, fine studded spaulders, fine chain spaulders, and fine plate spaulders you craft will now be blessed

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: High

In my experience, while the weapons and primary armour vary in value depending on your build (e.g. STR builds won't care about bows; mages will ditch craftable armour once they graduate to robes), there is no build that doesn't benefit from getting a full set of blessed/enchanted padded secondary armour early and keeping it until you complete your final set.

Schematic drops are completely random, so there's nothing much you can do to get those faster. Once you have them, you'll need tithril ore, flexweave, bearskin, and scrap.

Tithril ore is dropped by orc miners, and can also be obtained by using a digger on boulders (STR build recommended, or it'll take forever and you'll go through a lot of diggers). If you have no boulders, use a digger on walls.

Flexweave can be obtained from spider webs, spiders, mamalobs, and papalobs. The spider cave quest is an excellent source. If desperate, you could stand in a spider web and farm spiders.

Bearskin can be dropped by orcs or cave bears. Stick with the former.

Scrap can be obtained by disarming an alarm trap with a critical success, or more easily by throwing an identified item at a wall so it breaks. I usually do this with my starting throwing knives.

Requirements: Craft fine leather vambraces, fine studded vambraces, fine chain vambraces, and fine plate vambraces

Reward: Fine padded vambraces, fine leather vambraces, fine studded vambraces, fine chain vambraces, and fine plate vambraces you craft will now be blessed

Can be done on casual level difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: High

In my experience, while the weapons and primary armour vary in value depending on your build (e.g. STR builds won't care about bows; mages will ditch craftable armour once they graduate to robes), there is no build that doesn't benefit from getting a full set of blessed/enchanted padded secondary armour early and keeping it until you complete your final set.

Schematic drops are completely random, so there's nothing much you can do to get those faster. Once you have them, you'll need tithril ore, flexweave, bearskin, and scrap.

Tithril ore is dropped by orc miners, and can also be obtained by using a digger on boulders (STR build recommended, or it'll take forever and you'll go through a lot of diggers). If you have no boulders, use a digger on walls.

Flexweave can be obtained from spider webs, spiders, mamalobs, and papalobs. The spider cave quest is an excellent source. If desperate, you could stand in a spider web and farm spiders.

Bearskin can be dropped by orcs or cave bears. Stick with the former.

Scrap can be obtained by disarming an alarm trap with a critical success, or more easily by throwing an identified item at a wall so it breaks. I usually do this with my starting throwing knives.

Requirements: Craft fine leather gloves, fine studded gloves, fine chain gloves, and fine plate gauntlets

Reward: Fine padded gloves, fine leather gloves, fine studded gloves, fine chain gloves, and fine plate gauntlets you craft will now be blessed

Can be done on casual level difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: High

In my experience, while the weapons and primary armour vary in value depending on your build (e.g. STR builds won't care about bows; mages will ditch craftable armour once they graduate to robes), there is no build that doesn't benefit from getting a full set of blessed/enchanted padded secondary armour early and keeping it until you complete your final set.

Schematic drops are completely random, so there's nothing much you can do to get those faster. Once you have them, you'll need tithril ore, flexweave, bearskin, and scrap.

Tithril ore is dropped by orc miners, and can also be obtained by using a digger on boulders (STR build recommended, or it'll take forever and you'll go through a lot of diggers). If you have no boulders, use a digger on walls.

Flexweave can be obtained from spider webs, spiders, mamalobs, and papalobs. The spider cave quest is an excellent source. If desperate, you could stand in a spider web and farm spiders.

Bearskin can be dropped by orcs or cave bears. Stick with the former.

Scrap can be obtained by disarming an alarm trap with a critical success, or more easily by throwing an identified item at a wall so it breaks. I usually do this with my starting throwing knives.

Requirements: Craft fine leather boots, fine studded boots, fine chain boots, and fine plate sabatons

Reward: Fine padded boots, fine leather boots, fine studded boots, fine chain boots, and fine plate sabatons you craft will now be blessed

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: High

In my experience, while the weapons and primary armour vary in value depending on your build (e.g. STR builds won't care about bows; mages will ditch craftable armour once they graduate to robes), there is no build that doesn't benefit from getting a full set of blessed/enchanted padded secondary armour early and keeping it until you complete your final set.

Schematic drops are completely random, so there's nothing much you can do to get those faster. Once you have them, you'll need tithril ore, flexweave, bearskin, and scrap.

Tithril ore is dropped by orc miners, and can also be obtained by using a digger on boulders (STR build recommended, or it'll take forever and you'll go through a lot of diggers). If you have no boulders, use a digger on walls.

Flexweave can be obtained from spider webs, spiders, mamalobs, and papalobs. The spider cave quest is an excellent source. If desperate, you could stand in a spider web and farm spiders.

Bearskin can be dropped by orcs or cave bears. Stick with the former.

Scrap can be obtained by disarming an alarm trap with a critical success, or more easily by throwing an identified item at a wall so it breaks. I usually do this with my starting throwing knives.

Requirements: Craft a flaming arrow, a freezing arrow, a shocking arrow, and a knockout arrow

Reward: Start with one fire core and one water core stored in the Artisan's Guild

Can be done on casual difficulty: TBC

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to Moderate (depending on playstyle)

Crafting all four arrows will require four tithril ore, four hardwood, and a core of each element, as well as a little under 400 gold--they're surprisingly expensive. I don't generally play archers, so I can't really comment on whether this is worth the effort.

Tithril ore is dropped by orc miners, and can also be obtained by using a digger on boulders (STR build recommended, or it'll take forever and you'll go through a lot of diggers). If you have no boulders, use a digger on walls.

Hardwood can be obtained destroying a wooden object, such as a door or a container, with a critical success.

Elemental cores are dropped by living elements (e.g. living earth) and elementals. Your best bet is to go on elemental hunts after resting at the inn, as those will have exclusively core-dropping monsters.

Requirements: Craft a flaming bolt, a freezing bolt, a shocking bolt, and a knockout bolt

Reward: Start with one air core and one earth core stored in the Artisan's Guild

Can be done on casual difficulty: TBC

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to Moderate (depending on playstyle)

Crafting all four bolts will require four tithril ore, four hardwood, and a core of each element, as well as a little under 400 gold--they're surprisingly expensive. I don't generally play archers, so I can't really comment on whether this is worth the effort.

Tithril ore is dropped by orc miners, and can also be obtained by using a digger on boulders (STR build recommended, or it'll take forever and you'll go through a lot of diggers). If you have no boulders, use a digger on walls.

Hardwood can be obtained destroying a wooden object, such as a door or a container, with a critical success.

Elemental cores are dropped by living elements (e.g. living earth) and elementals. Your best bet is to go on elemental hunts after resting at the inn, as those will have exclusively core-dropping monsters.

Requirements: Donate 4 unique items to the Artisans' Guild

Reward: All items you craft will now be enchanted

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High, or Low with the Hoard DLC

Priority: High

One unique item can be obtained from the chronomancer quest. The other three must come from special encounters, a.k.a. boss fights. This is one of the most reliable ways to die in Rogue's Tale, so save them until your build is complete, or close enough, which will probably be after level 12, and you have a satisfactory stock of wands, scrolls, etc. to make up for your weaknesses.

If you have the Hoard DLC, you can get a second from the extremely easy crossbow delivery quest, at the end of which you get to keep the unique crossbow. Note that you have to have a free talent point, and be below level 10 (I think) in order to access the quest.

Requirements: Learn the Shapeshift: Wolf, Shapeshift: Bear, and Bestial Wrath talents

Reward: You can use spiritual totems to learn shapeshifting talents without having to kill cave bears

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: High

Priority: Low to High (depending on how desperate you are to shapeshift)

Until you have this heritage, each time you want to use a totem, you have to kill a cave bear first. That's three cave bears, which are one of the most dangerous monsters. All I can say is stick to ranged attacks and wands, and avoid letting them in Heroic Charge distance if at all possible. Ideally, lure them into fighting other enemies, and shoot them while they're occupied. If all else fails, don't forget that they can be tamed with polymorph + cheese (and will be untamed if either of you either accidentally damages the other).

If you are unable to find any cave bears, don't forget that resting at the inn will give you a random monster hunt quest.

Note that while you can use potions of wolf form to temporarily get Shapeshift: Wolf, thereby fulfilling the prerequisites for the other two forms (which is good for a STR build wanting to skip straight to bear form), it won't count for the purpose of this heritage.

Requirements: Heal 666 damage while shapeshifted and in combat

Reward: Receive free Renewing Touch when you shapeshift

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low

You can get Renewing Touch from learning Literacy: Celestial, or (if you're lucky) from Celestial Mastery, or (if you're astronomically lucky) from a scroll of knowledge. Since shapeshifting is for physical builds, and you can't cast spells while shapeshifted, this is not a great combination. The second option is probably your best bet.

This is not a priority heritage. A single Renewing Touch that you can't refresh won't do enough in the kind of battle where Renewing Touch is important, especially in melee where shapeshifters fight, and where you're likely to take a lot of damage fast. That said, it has use as a general healing ability for builds that don't take Celestial spells.

Requirements: Shapeshift while having six or more beast friends

Reward: Bestial Wrath heals beast friends when you shapeshift

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Low

Priority: Low

Get a shapeshifting talent first so you don't have to worry about keeping your friends alive in the interim.

To get a beast friend, throw the right food item at a beast. The known taming combinations are as follows:

Dog: meat.
Dire wolf: fried meat (throw normal meat at a campfire).
Snake: egg.
Spider: bread.
Giant rat: cheese.
Giant snail: potion of swiftness.
Dire bat: fried bloodcap (throw a bloodcap at a campfire).
Fire wurm: pepper.
Crab: fish.

Don't forget that you can buy food in town.

Or you can ignore all of the above and just cast the Bestial spell Command Beast, which permanently tames any beast it hits (assuming it fails its check), curiously including vermen and daemonrats.

The hard part of the heritage is keeping your beast friends alive. Find a safe area and tell them to stay put (X key, then click on them) so they don't wander around and encounter enemies.

The Hoard DLC makes this heritage trivial as it gives you the crossbow delivery quest, with a guaranteed population of crabs (and nothing but crabs) which drop fish with which you can tame other crabs.

Requirements: Have a STR modifier of 5+ when you shapeshift into a bear

Reward: +1 STR in bear form

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Low

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

If you want to shapeshift into a bear, you will naturally be playing a STR build. Just put points in STR whenever possible. Divine Might will get you +1 and can be learned from friendly clerics (if you see a human with a mace and cowl, and not wearing a red bandana, make a beeline for them before something kills them). Enchants will also get you +1 each.

Requirements: Kill a full health human with your bear bare hands in a single hit at level 20

Reward: Add an instant kill effect to your attacks in bear form

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: High

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

I haven't achieved this one. Write-ins welcome.

Requirements: Hit an encounter boss with a critical hit in bear form

Reward: Your crits in bear form now cast Renewing Touch on you

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: High

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

Your critical chance can be increased by items with the "increases your chances to critically hit" enchant. Wear as many as you dare.

I'm not going to go into detail on encounter boss combat. You can find some tips in Pear's excellent challenge guide. However, some are a lot more survivable than others. For example, Ice Queen Altara and her drakes only use Frozen Orb. Wear a blessed amulet of frost ward, and you should be able to tank her attacks long enough to land a crit. In general, drink alcohol to give yourself Divine Shield. Use scrolls of invisibility. Don't be afraid to retreat and heal before coming in for another round.

Requirements: Have a +5 AGI modifier when you shapeshift into a wolf

Reward: +1 AGI in wolf form

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Low

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

If you want to shapeshift into a wolf, you will naturally be playing an AGI build. Just put points in AGI whenever possible. Divine Grace will get you +1 and can be learned from friendly clerics (if you see a human with a mace and cowl, and not wearing a red bandana, make a beeline for them before something kills them). Enchants will also get you +1 each.

Requirements: Eat a dread bat that has leeched life from you in wolf form

Reward: Your attacks have a leech effect in wolf form

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Low

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

To eat a corpse, right-click on it (as if you were harvesting a mushroom patch) while shapeshifted.

The only hard part, really, is finding a bat, as by the time you have a shapeshifting talent, your level may be high enough that beasts are rare (presumably because they get killed by humanoid enemies). If you have the Hoard DLC, you can do the brewery quest for some guaranteed ones.

Requirements: Kill a full health human with a critical hit in wolf form level 20

Reward: Your crits in wolf form now cast Renewing Touch on you

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: High

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

Your critical chance can be increased by items with the "increases your chances to critically hit" enchant.

I haven't achieved this one. Write-ins welcome.

Requirements: Kill and eat three monsters without cancelling your shapeshift

Reward: Bonus health (equivalent to an extra health enchant) and 1 bonus energy while shapeshifted

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

The easiest place to find three monsters is the Gurmur quest, as the tentacles qualify. Try to kill the cultists and tentacles one at a time, as the tentacles' thrown rocks hit hard and you won't be able to heal easily while shapeshifted. Drink some alcohol before shapeshifting so you have a Divine Shield.

If you have the Hoard DLC, this heritage also applies to dingbat form.

Requirements: Donate an item from the future to the Artisans' Guild

Reward: You can learn Arcane spells with a matching tome and amulet

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: High

Arcane spells are great for everyone, as they are powerful and many of them don't key off a stat (so any build can use them to their full potential). You can unlock them by completing the chronomancer quest, available if you have Literacy: Common and any other Literacy.

The quest environment is a sewer connected by bridges. Expect to face a bunch of vermen, rats, and spiders. There are virtually no ranged enemies, with the exception of two darkseers in the rooms in the top middle, and no traps apart from the spider webs in the two cave sections. Use the narrow passages to your advantage and make the enemy do the legwork.

The special feature to watch out for is a grate at the far right of the level, behind which is a daemonrat. Vermen are capable of operating the controls and freeing it, though I've only seen this happen once. Keep moving right without stopping to loot the rooms (yet), and you should be able to get there first. After that, kill the daemonrat with ranged attacks at your leisure (if you don't have any, there are bound to be some ranged weapons lying around). The item you want (and your first Arcane spell as a freebie) are in the room beyond.

Completing this heritage will add Arcane tomes and armour to the loot tables.

Requirements: Attempt to donate an unidentified horn to the Artisans' Guild

Reward: You can learn and cast Bestial spells while levitating with a Fairy Jizzed Bull Horn in your inventory

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

Bestial spells can be summed up as "it doesn't matter if all your spells are situational if, between them, they cover every situation". Raptor Strike is a DoT that ignores resistances. Big Bear Slap is a panic button for casters in melee. Command Beast shuts down beasts and vermen, and can be combined with Summon Spirit Wolves to build an arbitrarily large army. While not all the spells are equally useful (Soothe Beast is flat-out worthless once you get Command Beast, for example), on the whole this may be my favourite school for sheer variety and versatility.

The quest, available if you have Literacy: Common and any other Literacy, takes place in a cave full of spiders and spider webs. Frequent searching for traps is recommended unless you have high STR or Plane Shift and are confident of your ability to break out. There are no other traps, and no sources of ranged or non-physical damage other than poison. Following the path upward, you will find a potion of floating. Following it right, you will find a tome of Fairy Flight, and then an unidentified horn (important: do not identify it). The two branches leading left from the horn go to a large cave containing a mamalob and a papalob, who will usually come out and greet you before you reach them.

A ring of immunity is recommended. Make sure you clear out the smaller spiders before you fight the monsters, and enough webs to make yourself a path of retreat if you think you need one. With the poison accounted for, the monsters are just melee heavy hitters. They have Heroic Charge, so stay either in melee or well out of range. As spiders, they are not blocked by webs. Make sure you don't fight both at the same time--retreat into the explored area rather than moving forward once the first one comes out.

Once you've attempted to donate the horn, drink the potion of floating and read the tome of Fairy Flight before you do anything else. You can use then use Fairy Flight to fulfil the levitation requirement for the rest of the run.

Note that the horn is a charm, meaning you can get it as a random drop, allowing you to effectively skip this quest (though you'll still want to do it for Fairy Flight).

Completing this heritage will add Bestial tomes and armour to the loot tables.

Requirements: Attempt to donate an unidentified pyramidion to the Artisans' Guild

Reward: You can learn Abyssal spells with an Engraved Pyramidion and a black soul gem in your inventory, and cast them with the Engraved Pyramidion

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

Abyssal is Infernal's big brother, and it shows. Many of the spells are situational (Ritual Sacrifice, Mass Dismissal) or flat-out dangerous to the caster (notably, the two summons, which are hostile), but a handful are flat-out amazing (Sacrificial Circle + Spectral Gateway allow you to escape anything anywhere; Repelling Smite is an effective melee panic button).

The quest, available if you have Literacy: Common and any other Literacy, takes place in a lava area leading up to a dungeon. The lava is extremely dangerous, as always, and to be navigated with care. If you have Fairy Flight, I suggest keeping it on. The enemies are all mace-wielding cultists, plus two warlocks (one in the sacrificial chamber on the left and one in the library in the bottom left). There are good odds that some enemies will spawn with scrolls to use on you. Additionally, the warlock in the sacrificial chamber can cast Abyssal Grasp, summoning a caster enemy you really don't want him to summon.

There are four traps in the dungeon part (plus a handful scattered outside). Most importantly, there is a boulder trap on the main approach. In addition, there is an alarm trap at the entrance to the storerooms in the top left, and an alarm and a magic trap in the storeroom in the bottom right.

The alarm trap is your friend. By tripping it deliberately, you can make cultists from the nearby training room and sacrificial chamber come to you one by one, instead of having to handle them en masse (although a melee build may want to take on the training room first to take advantage of the narrow entrance). The alternative is being blocked by cultists at the entrance to the sacrificial chamber while the warlock pelts you with orbs, curses, and abyssal hands.

Don't forget to grab the pyramidion (bottom right storeroom; don't identify it) and a black soul gem (bottom left of the main storerooms). You may as well get the Tome of Ritual Sacrifice from the library as well, though it's the most useless spell in the game.

Note that this quest is a really good source of income. I recommend getting a potent potion of insight (you can use a scroll of blessing on a diluted one if need be), and then, once you're done exploring the area, hauling all the items in the level to the town entrance, and identifying and selling them one by one. The cultists' robes sell well, as do their enchanted maces, and there's plenty of other valuable loot to be found.

Completing this heritage will add Abyssal tomes and armour to the loot tables.

Requirements: Kill Balthar the Familiar

Reward: Unlocks a stash box

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: High

Balthar is the first and easiest of the DLC bosses, with two gimmicks. First, his ranged attack is mana burn, which hits everyone within Balthar's line of sight for damage proportional to their current energy, and heals him for same. This can be a lot, so make sure you use up all your energy before opening the door to his room. This heritage is best unlocked as a caster, surprisingly enough, as Renewing Touch will allow you to use your spells freely while keeping mana burn damage low. Balthar does have a melee attack, though, so don't let your guard down.

Second, when his health is low enough, Balthar will turn the bookshelves into bearlings, which is your cue to retreat to the antechamber and kill them one by one at the chokepoint. Be quick, as his mana burn will do just enough damage to them to heal him up. Note that if you have Mass Dismissal, a few casts will wipe out the lot.

Once Balthar is dead, be sure to grab the Grimoire off one of the fallen librarians' bodies, and don't leave without looting the secret chamber hidden in the top right.

Requirements: Kill Ch'ri the Blingstealer

Reward: Unlocks a stash box

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: High

Ch'ri the Blingstealer has three gimmicks. First, at the start of the battle, he steals your rings. This is a ranged attack that will always succeed, and is a problem because this would be a great fight for a ring of immunity.

Second, as his health falls, Ch'ri will summon waves of shroomlings, which do melee damage and poison you. These are actually the greatest threat. Protecting yourself from their poison can be accomplished with an amulet of radiance (poison aura) or by binding a ring of immunity to a third leg of the imp which even Ch'ri won't want to steal (credit to Pear's challenge guide).

Third, Ch'ri has an enormous health pool that takes literal hours to wear down the old-fashioned way. Fortunately, he is very vulnerable to wands of torture: three charges or so should leave him ready to be finished off with a single deathblow. Failing that, swamp him with summons.

It is possible to throw rings at Ch'ri, doing high damage proportional to the ring's cost. This will also complete a challenge. (Credit: Calfax)

Requirements: Kill Skaldir the Timeless

Reward: Unlocks a stash box

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Moderate

The means of summoning Skaldir are detailed in the Grimoire you can find in Balthar's library. You will need to use a wand of wishing to wish for true love, put on an amulet of sacrifice, create a sacrificial circle (with the Abyssal spell or a wand of rituals), and then cast Ritual Sacrifice when your true love is standing inside the circle.

Skaldir is a simple boss. He has Heroic Charge, and will use it to get in melee range, where he will hit you with basic attacks that cause bleeding. You can outheal this with Renewing Touch (or a potion of troll blood), or you can use the Bestial spell Cure Bleeding. Relying on potions of clotting or scrolls of first aid is dubious unless you only expect to be hit a few times.

Skaldir has two gimmicks. First, every other turn he will be healed by damage, so you have to time your attacks. Try to get yourself into a mental rhythm of attack-something else-attack-something else. Haste effects risk messing up your timing, so avoid them unless you're absolutely sure you can tell when you're getting your extra turns (or use a blessed amulet of free action, which is ideal for this battle). Second, when he goes down to half health, he will summon undead dwarves next to the circle. Note that if you lure Skaldir away from the circle, that's extra distance the dwarves have to cover before they become an issue.

Skaldir's exploitable weakness is the Time Dilation Device, a charm that allows you to lock time to even turns only or odd turns only, effectively removing his special defence.

Requirements: Store all 16 kinds of spaulder in a stash box

Reward: Your starting leather armour set comes with leather spaulders

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low

This heritage is not so much hard as time-consuming and tedious, with a rather feeble reward. A single collector heritage will take up most of a stash box, so I suggest going for only one or two collector heritages at a time.

You will need Second Amendment, Rise of Fairies, and Wester Worshipper completed in order to have access to all armour types.

Don't forget that 5/16 can be crafted (padded, leather, studded, chain, plate), so if you're struggling for space, leave those until last, especially the cheaper ones. Generally, collecting everything will just be a matter of time. Don't forget to look in the shop whenever you rest, and cycle through it when you have the money. If all else fails, Archmage Gryffendal wears a full Arcane set and Ice Queen Altara wears a full Draconic set.

Requirements: Store all 16 kinds of vambrace in a stash box

Reward: Your starting leather armour set comes with leather vambraces

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low

This heritage is not so much hard as time-consuming and tedious, with a rather feeble reward. A single collector heritage will take up most of a stash box, so I suggest going for only one or two collector heritages at a time.

You will need Second Amendment, Rise of Fairies, and Wester Worshipper completed in order to have access to all armour types.

Don't forget that 5/16 can be crafted (padded, leather, studded, chain, plate), so if you're struggling for space, leave those until last, especially the cheaper ones. Generally, collecting everything will just be a matter of time. Don't forget to look in the shop whenever you rest, and cycle through it when you have the money. If all else fails, Archmage Gryffendal wears a full Arcane set and Ice Queen Altara wears a full Draconic set.

Requirements: Store all 16 kinds of gloves in a stash box

Reward: Your starting leather armour set comes with leather gloves

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low

This heritage is not so much hard as time-consuming and tedious, with a rather feeble reward. A single collector heritage will take up most of a stash box, so I suggest going for only one or two collector heritages at a time.

You will need Second Amendment, Rise of Fairies, and Wester Worshipper completed in order to have access to all armour types.

Don't forget that 5/16 can be crafted (padded, leather, studded, chain, plate), so if you're struggling for space, leave those until last, especially the cheaper ones. Generally, collecting everything will just be a matter of time. Don't forget to look in the shop whenever you rest, and cycle through it when you have the money. If all else fails, Archmage Gryffendal wears a full Arcane set and Ice Queen Altara wears a full Draconic set.

Requirements: Store all 16 kinds of boots in a stash box

Reward: Your starting leather armour set comes with leather boots

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low

This heritage is not so much hard as time-consuming and tedious, with a rather feeble reward. A single collector heritage will take up most of a stash box, so I suggest going for only one or two collector heritages at a time.

You will need Second Amendment, Rise of Fairies, and Wester Worshipper completed in order to have access to all armour types.

Don't forget that 5/16 can be crafted (padded, leather, studded, chain, plate), so if you're struggling for space, leave those until last, especially the cheaper ones. Generally, collecting everything will just be a matter of time. Don't forget to look in the shop whenever you rest, and cycle through it when you have the money. If all else fails, Archmage Gryffendal wears a full Arcane set and Ice Queen Altara wears a full Draconic set.

Requirements: Store all 30 kinds of amulet in a stash box

Reward: Start with a random non-cursed amulet

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate

A single collector heritage will take up most of a stash box, so I suggest going for only one or two collector heritages at a time.

25/30 amulets can be bought in the shop, so cycle through it when you have the money. However, the remaining 5 (asphyxia, exhaustion, pestilence, stone form, and submission) can only be found as drops, and those will be your obstacle long, long after you've managed to collect the rest. If all else fails, the encounter boss Ryan the Trickster has an amulet of pestilence. Other guaranteed amulets are abjuration (Archmage Gryffendal), protection (Ice Queen Altara), and wizardry (time traveller quest).

Don't forget that a worn amulet will shatter on a critical fail, so stop using them before that happens (or repair them with scrolls of blessing).

Arranging your amulets by colour in the stash box will make it easy to tell at a glance whether you already have the ones on sale in the shop.

A useful trick for someone with an amulet collection is to sell them all to a wandering merchant for massive income (buy his stuff first to make room in his inventory), then kill him to get them all back. They will all become unidentified, so if you happen to have a blessed amulet of divination, this is your chance to get a whole bunch of blessed amulets.

Requirements: Store all 30 kinds of ring in a stash box

Reward: Start with a random non-cursed ring

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate

A single collector heritage will take up most of a stash box, so I suggest going for only one or two collector heritages at a time.

26/30 rings can be bought in the shop, so cycle through it when you have the money. However, the remaining 4 (anxiety, grease, hunger, and thirst) can only be found as drops, and those will be your obstacle long, long after you've managed to collect the rest. Ch'ri the Blingstealer drops a mountain of rings if you kill him, so that's a good fallback source. In addition, if all else fails, the encounter boss Beartamer Gareth always has a ring of regeneration, and Swordmaster Logar has a ring of fortitude.

A useful trick for someone with a ring collection is to sell them all to a wandering merchant for massive income (buy his stuff first to make room in his inventory), then kill him to get them all back. They will all become unidentified, so if you happen to have a blessed amulet of divination, this is your chance to get a whole bunch of blessed rings (notably, this is one of the two ways to get a blessed ring of outcasts).

Requirements: Store all 30 kinds of charm in a stash box

Reward: Start with a Third Leg of the Imp

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate

A single collector heritage will take up most of a stash box, so I suggest going for only one or two collector heritages at a time.

While monsters in general sometimes drop charms, the quickest way to get them is from treemen, which spawn randomly when picking bloodcaps at level 20. You can increase the chance of them spawning by having more enchants that boost your critical rate (because apparently having monsters appear when you're trying to gather food is inherently desirable). Treemen have poison auras, so come with high poison resistance. They also heal from poison damage, so avoid wearing amulets of radiance for protection, or facing more than one at a time.

Note that the Hoard DLC adds two extra charms, for a total of 32.

In addition, you can buy charms with dust from the curio vendor, which is a great way to fill in your collection late-game when you're struggling to track down your remaining few.

Requirements: Store all 30 kinds of rune in a stash box

Reward: Start with a Rune of the Imp

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate

A single collector heritage will take up most of a stash box, so I suggest going for only one or two collector heritages at a time.

While orcs and vermen sometimes carry runes, and treasure hoarders always do, the only reliable source of these is trolls. When resting at the inn, you will be offered various monster hunting quests, so keep resting until you get trolls.

Trolls hit hard in melee, throw rocks that hit hard at range, and regenerate rapidly. They are also often accompanied by orcs. However, they are also extremely flammable. Flaming Orbs or fire enchants will utterly obliterate them.

Requirements: Contract dungeon fever from a bear trap, spike trap, or spike pit, then donate at least 100 gp to cure illnesses at the Shrine of Fubar in town

Reward: Lower chances to contract dungeon fever from bear traps and spike traps

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Low

Priority: High

This is a no-brainer. Clear out a level, make sure you're not wearing a Ring of Immunity, then step on a spike trap (not a bear trap or a pit, to avoid the risk of being snared), and heal and repeat until you catch dungeon fever. Then travel to town, and spend time hanging around in a trap-free area until you've accumulated enough illnesses. Presumably, you could accelerate the process by drinking a Potion of Sickness, but I haven't tried this.

Requirements: Kill Bierkoff the Dingbat

Reward: Start with a tankard of ale

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Moderate

This heritage sounds feeble at first, but a tankard of ale equals two castings of Divine Shield, which will save you from anything in the early game, from enemies to poison and fire.

Note that you do not have to complete this heritage in order to acquire dingbat form, which can be done without fighting Bierkoff at all.

Getting to Bierkoff will require navigating a cave full of bats and spike traps (unless you want to dig through the boulders in the caved-in main passage, which is generally not worth it). Before reaching him, you'll see several rooms with barrels of Cowrain Extra, which (being alcohol) gives you Divine Shield, and also instantly levels you up. Do not drink this unless you're OK with sabotaging the rest of your run, since it'll mean your other enemies powering up while your gear and spellbook stay the same. However, you might want to bring it to the fight just in case, since sabotaging your run is better than dying from damage that could have been blocked by a Divine Shield.

Bierkoff will attack you at the end of the conversation, but you can instead cancel out of it, in which case he'll stay neutral and you can deal the first blow at your leisure. You can even loot the chests behind him first, or use the well to acquire Shapeshift: Dingbat (note that it is virtually impossible to kill Bierkoff using dingbat form).

Bierkoff's abilities are as follows:

- Virulent Orb (disease damage)
- Bestow Curse (various curses)
- Virulent Aura (passive disease damage within 1 tile of Bierkoff)
- Drink Cowrain (gives him a Divine Shield)
- Summon Plague Bat

The first three can be mitigated with a Ring of Immunity, and the fourth with Dispel Magic or a Scroll of Dispel (or just a lot of damage). The fifth is your real problem. Bierkoff's bats also have a virulent aura, and both he and the bats absorb disease damage. In other words, for as long as they're adjacent, all your enemies will constantly heal each other, and hurt you. As such, prioritise taking out the bats as soon as Bierkoff summons them, followed by dispel (if available) and burst damage on Bierkoff himself.

Requirements: Kill 42 bats in dingbat form (bat swarms count as 9)

Reward: Dingbat form gains the Summon Plague Bat talent

Can be done on casual difficulty: No
Difficulty: Low

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

This is the single most powerful dingbat heritage, as inexhaustible friendly summons (2 at a time, or 3 with Transbat Cutie) are a huge asset, and the fact that they provide you and each other with constant passive healing while in range is incredible.

Finding 42 bats during regular dungeon-crawling is very hard, since they become increasingly rare as levels rise, but there is a trick to this. Use a STR build and get a digger (or don't use a STR build, and be prepared for this to take longer and potentially need multiple diggers). Go to the brewery, and instead of heading through the bat cave, dig up through the boulders. Note that the noise may attract bats. You don't want this to happen, so if you have Woof (or another friend), position them in the corridor so they block it off, and don't tell them to attack.

Once the passage is clear, go to Bierkoff's room, cancel out of the conversation, and get dingbat form. Note that if any bats have followed you, fighting them in front of Bierkoff may aggro him.

Assuming you've avoided this, now go to the bat cave, which happens to have exactly 42 bats total. Easy as that.

Alternatively, you can reroll monster hunt quests at the inn until you get a floater hunt, as those only feature bats as normal enemies (and it'll also get you Expanded Mind if you don't have it yet). Credit: Pear.

Requirements: Eat a floater in dingbat form

Reward: Casting Bestow Curse also casts Enlarge Orb on you

Can be done on casual difficulty: No
Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

You can find floaters by resting at the inn and getting monster hunting quests, but it's a lot easier to do Gurmur's quest, where there are six floaters behind portcullises. By exploiting lines of sight and the fact that the floaters can't move out of their cells, you can kill them in relative safety.

Requirements: Kill an earth elemental in dingbat form

Reward: Virulent Orbs cast in dingbat form ignore disease resistance on a roll of 5+

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

Finding an earth elemental with any speed will probably require resting at the inn until you get the right hunting quest. The fight itself will be a weird one. If the elemental gets you in melee, you will constantly be healing each other with your auras, and your Virulent Orbs will only make things worse. Instead, try to stay away from it and count on curses of agony to do the damage, ideally when it's already wounded from damage done before you shapeshift. If all else fails, kill it with melee attacks, but outdamaging your own aura might not be easy.

Requirements: Have a CHA modifier of 5+ when you shapeshift into dingbat form

Reward: Extra plague bat when using Summon Plague Bat, for a total of three

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Low

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

This is a priority heritage for dingbat shapeshifters, since it makes your most powerful ability 50% more powerful.

Most dingbats will be mages, so having high CHA shouldn't be difficult. Divine Grace can get you +1, as can enchants.

Requirements: Order Woof 88 times while hidden and using the Sign Language talent

Reward: Ordering Woof no longer breaks stealth, and he can't reveal you by searching

Can be done on casual difficulty: No

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low

First off, you'll need to learn Silent Move from a campfire, and of course you'll need the Canis Woofus heritage in order to have a Woof to order in the first place. Getting Sign Language requires drinking a cursed potion of literacy, which is a thing you should be able to create with Bestow Curse (though I found one before I could try this). Note that Sign Language replaces Literacy: Common, and will thus completely screw your run unless you have a talent point to spare on learning it anew.

Requirements: Win the Tragical Gathering training fight

Reward: Start with a Tragical Gathering album

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Low

Priority: High

You can find the album randomly in a container, and will likely do so quite quickly. After trying to donate it to the Artisan's Guild, you will gain access to a quest. Complete the quest, and you will always start with an album containing all your unlocked cards, which you'll be able to play against any pile of skulls (one exists on each normal level). I recommend doing this even if card games don't interest you much, as the gold rewards from winning are a great source of income, and the dust you get for collecting duplicate cards can be traded for charms at the curio vendor (and the epic bag of transmutation if you have the Hoard DLC).

Note that losing will deal the total damage you took, including any that you healed during the game, so once the going gets hard, I would pause until you have 60+ health (even if you end up carrying rings of fortitude to wear only while playing).

Requirements: Reach Tragical Gathering level 10

Reward: 5 bonus cards in the reward, at least one unique

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes
Difficulty: Low

Priority: High if you play TG, Low if you don't

You can see your current TG level by looking at the Booster Pack heritages (F3, near the bottom of the list).

Getting to level 10 should be possible with your starting deck, which you should be able to upgrade quite quickly anyway. If you're struggling, you probably have too many cards and aren't seeing your best ones often enough. Try to have a few "core" cards, and make the rest enchants (you can have up to seven, including one ring and one amulet) or cards that exhaust on playing. Don't forget to improve the deck as you unlock more cards.

Disclaimer: I'm only a moderately-skilled card game player. If an expert decides to make a Tragical Gathering guide, or you find one for another deckbuilding game with transferable tips, you should probably take their word over mine.

Requirements: Reach Tragical Gathering level 20

Reward: 5 bonus cards in the reward, at least one unique

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Low

Priority: High if you play TG, Low if you don't

You can see your current TG level by looking at the Booster Pack heritages (F3, near the bottom of the list).

By now, you may be starting to see the second tier of enemies, and things are getting harder. Make sure you have defensive cards as well as offensive ones, because you won't be able to burst enemies down before they get a few hits in. Don't underestimate the value of consumables, especially effects like Daze and Charm that take enemies out of commission while you cycle your deck to reach your best cards.

Requirements: Reach Tragical Gathering level 30

Reward: 5 bonus cards in the reward, at least one unique

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: High if you play TG, Low if you don't

You can see your current TG level by looking at the Booster Pack heritages (F3, near the bottom of the list).

By now, things are getting not only hard but dangerous. Don't hesitate to put your playing on hold until your health allows you to play safely, or to leave it until future runs when you'll be able to collect more uncommon cards to fill out your deck in relative safety. Look for synergies (such as Strength boosts if you play a lot of physical cards, or Focus boosts for spell cards) and cards which give extra draws. Make sure you have at least one powerful means of defence. Unless you're saving up your dust for the curio vendor, try to figure out where good cards for your build might be (they're arranged by type, then alphabetically, with upgraded versions keeping the same order lower down). A Ring of Immunity is great because it covers multiple types of debuff without having to clutter your deck with cards that'll only be useful against specific kinds of enemy.

Requirements: Reach Tragical Gathering level 40

Reward: 5 bonus cards in the reward, at least one unique

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes
Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate if you play TG, Low if you don't

You can see your current TG level by looking at the Booster Pack heritages (F3, near the bottom of the list).

If you're anything like me, around here is where you hit a wall. Enemies come in greater numbers that are hard to keep locked down with single-target cards, and the big ones have troublesome abilities (like the Infernal's immunity to incapacitating effects). Make sure your health is up to losing regularly, and then keep working to optimise your deck until it is both tight and powerful, and, equally importantly, can survive an unlucky initial couple of draws.

Requirements: Reach Tragical Gathering level 50

Reward: 5 bonus cards in the reward, at least one unique

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate if you play TG, Low if you don't

You can see your current TG level by looking at the Booster Pack heritages (F3, near the bottom of the list).

Cards that cycle your deck are what will get you here. You need a handful of very good cards, and you need to be able to get to them as fast as possible, every time, and then play them over and over without weaker cards getting in the way. Wands of Shifting, Potions of Swiftness, and Plane Shift are key, as is relying on speed and debuffs to let enemies have as few attacks as possible.

Requirements: Reach Tragical Gathering level 25 without changing your deck this run

Reward: Your Tragical Gathering album shrinks from 2x2 to 1 tile

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: High if you play TG, Low if you don't

You can see your current TG level by looking at the Booster Pack heritages (F3, near the bottom of the list).

By now, you're facing the second tier of enemies, and things are getting harder. Make sure you have defensive cards as well as offensive ones, because you won't be able to burst enemies down before they get a few hits in. Don't underestimate the value of consumables, especially effects like Daze and Charm that take enemies out of commission while you cycle your deck to reach your best cards.

Requirements: Play the Ring of Ebbin in a Tragical Gathering game

Reward: You can spend 160 dust to unlock legendary cards

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Moderate if you play TG, Low if you don't

You can see your current TG level by looking at the Booster Pack heritages (F3, near the bottom of the list).

The Ring of Ebbin is a legendary card that drops randomly after roughly TG level 40. It can also be created by playing a specific combination of cards during a game, in which case you'll need the following:

Upgraded Ring of Outcasts (card 178, 80 to unlock)
Scroll of Enchanting (card 205, 20 to unlock)
Upgraded Scroll of Enchanting (card 215, 40 to unlock)
Wand of Scripting (card 226, 40 to unlock)
Upgraded Wand of Scripting (card 236, 80 to unlock)
Any un-upgraded card

Make sure you have a free enchant slot (you can only have up to 7 amulets/rings/enchants total), or the ring will be discarded. You will need to play four scrolls of enchanting on the ring, two of which will come from using the wands on either scroll. Note that you will need at least one un-upgraded card in your hand when playing a scroll, or it will be exhausted with no effect. Once you do this, the ring will turn into the Ring of Ebbin, at which point just play it.

Requirements: Beat Bebe le Frog and her Hooklers

Reward: None

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Low

This boss battle, which happens at TG level 52, is actually nothing special. Bebe has 480 health, and her four Hooklers have 50 each. If you've come this far, then the latter is nothing, and Bebe has no resistances and can be stunlocked. I played an upgraded Shocking Orb each round.

Note: Beating Bebe le Frog ends the card game for that run. No more piles of skulls will spawn. Let yourself lose if you want to keep gathering dust with this character.

Requirements: Unlock the first 250 cards in your Tragical Album

Reward: Unlocks The Old Fart secret heritage

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Low

Just keep playing and you will accumulate both cards and dust naturally. To find a specific card you want to unlock, follow these tips.

First, the categories are as follows:

1-11: attack cards
12-20: defence cards
21-31: upgrades of 1-11
32-40: upgrades of 12-20
41-50: attack talent cards
51-60: enchant talent cards
61-70 upgrades of 41-50
71-80: upgrades of 51-60
81-90: Celestial magic cards
91-100: Draconic magic cards
101-110: Infernal magic cards
111-120: upgrades of 81-90
121-130: upgrades of 91-100
131-140: upgrades of 111-120
141-150: amulet cards
151-160: upgrades of 141-150
161-170: ring cards
171-180: upgrades of 161-170
181-190: potion cards
191-200: upgrades of 181-190
201-210: scroll cards
211-220: upgrades of 201-210
221-230: wand cards
231-240: upgrades of 221-230
241-250: legendary cards

Second, cards within a category are always in alphabetical order, so you can often guess what fits in a gap, especially with the magic cards.

Third, upgrades always follow the same order as their normal versions.

Trivia: this heritage could previously be acquired by converting your pre-2.0 account to 2.0.

Requirements: Buy the Soulhunter's Bag from the Curio Vendor for 1,600 dust

Reward: Start with the Soulhunter's Bag

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: High

The Soulhunter's Bag, a.k.a. the bag of transmutation, is a 2x2 item that opens into a 3x12 storage space, same as a stash or shop inventory. It also has a button that transmutes everything with a gold cost (including stacks of gold itself) into gold that goes straight into your bank account, minus a 10% commission (rounded up). The amount of gold is 25% of an item's base cost, which ignores "fine" status, blessings and enchants, and is less than you can get with a positive CHA modifier. However, it also ignores "damaged", "cursed", and "worn" statuses, and more importantly, does not require identification, meaning you can transmute nearly anything, including items that would otherwise be worthless. It is well worth the grind.

Dust is obtained by using duplicate cards received as Tragical Gathering rewards, 5 for common cards, 10 for uncommon ones, 20 for unique ones, and 40 for legendary ones. There is no way to speed up getting this heritage except to reach higher TG levels so you get bigger rewards per game. Alternatively, climb a mountain of bodies by starting fresh rogues, having them make a beeline to the nearest pile of skulls, and winning one game before committing suicide (the fastest way is unlocking Celestial/Draconic/Infernal Mastery and then casting from health until you die).

Requirements: Buy the Scrap Pouch recipe from the curio vendor for 800 dust, then transmute it in the Soulhunter's Bag

Reward: You can transmute crafting materials in the Soulhunter's Bag to send them straight to your crafting storage

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Low

While great for quality of life, in practice you won't need that many materials; a piece of fine gear, especially if it's blessed and enchanted by the relevant heritages, will comfortably last you the rest of the run unless it gets broken by extreme bad luck (and, again, it won't take that much to replace it).

Dust is obtained by using duplicate cards received as Tragical Gathering rewards, 5 for common cards, 10 for uncommon ones, and 20 for unique ones (I have yet to get a duplicate legendary). There is no way to speed up getting this heritage except to reach higher TG levels so you get bigger rewards per game. Alternatively, climb a mountain of bodies by starting fresh rogues, having them make a beeline to the nearest pile of skulls, and winning one game before committing suicide (the fastest way is unlocking Celestial/Draconic/Infernal Mastery and then casting from health until you die).

Requirements: Buy the Boomerax recipe from the curio vendor for 200 dust, then transmute it in the Soulhunter's Bag

Reward: You can transmute a rune of the imp, a blessed fine hatchet, and a blessed scroll of levitation in the Soulhunter's Bag to craft a Boomerax

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

The Boomerax is a legendary hatchet with axe damage and the Boomerang ability: "Always returns to main hand when equipped and thrown. Deadly Throw selects to use this if equipped."

Dust is obtained by using duplicate cards received as Tragical Gathering rewards, 5 for common cards, 10 for uncommon ones, 20 for unique ones, and 40 for legendary ones. There is no way to speed up getting this heritage except to reach higher TG levels so you get bigger rewards per game. Alternatively, climb a mountain of bodies by starting fresh rogues, having them make a beeline to the nearest pile of skulls, and winning one game before committing suicide (the fastest way is unlocking Celestial/Draconic/Infernal Mastery and then casting from health until you die).

You can find a Rune of the Imp randomly (trolls always drop runes, so that's your best bet), by completing the Rune Collector heritage, or for 100 dust from the curio vendor in town, obtain a blessed fine hatchet by completing the Flying Tithril heritage, and obtain a blessed scroll of levitation by using a blessed scroll of enchanting or casting Identify on an unidentified scroll of levitation with a blessed amulet of divination (1/6 chance if not cursed).

A trick to get unidentified scrolls of levitation or scrolls of enchanting is to collect a bunch, then sell them to a wandering merchant, then kill the merchant. All gear he drops will become unidentified. You can do this with any item on which you want to use a blessed amulet of divination.

Requirements: Buy the Ghoulsbane recipe from the curio vendor for 200 dust, then transmute it in the Soulhunter's Bag

Reward: You can transmute a rune of the imp, a blessed fine club, and a blessed potion of holy water in the Soulhunter's Bag to craft a Ghoulsbane

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

The Ghoulsbane is a legendary dagger with the Holy Wrath ability: "Deals magic damage and critical hits cause 6d6 points of extra damage against undeads and daemons."

Dust is obtained by using duplicate cards received as Tragical Gathering rewards, 5 for common cards, 10 for uncommon ones, 20 for unique ones, and 40 for legendary ones. There is no way to speed up getting this heritage except to reach higher TG levels so you get bigger rewards per game. Alternatively, climb a mountain of bodies by starting fresh rogues, having them make a beeline to the nearest pile of skulls, and winning one game before committing suicide (the fastest way is unlocking Celestial/Draconic/Infernal Mastery and then casting from health until you die).

You can find a Rune of the Imp randomly (trolls always drop runes, so that's your best bet), by completing the Rune Collector heritage, or for 100 dust from the curio vendor in town, obtain a blessed fine club by luck or by blessing a normal fine club (fine clubs cannot be crafted), and obtain a blessed potion of holy water by using a blessed scroll of enchanting or by casting Identify on an unidentified potion of holy water with a blessed amulet of divination (1/6 chance if not cursed).

A trick to get unidentified potions of holy water or scrolls of enchanting is to collect a bunch, then sell them to a wandering merchant, then kill the merchant. All gear he drops will become unidentified. You can do this with any item on which you want to use a blessed amulet of divination.

Requirements: Buy the G'awdmer recipe from the curio vendor for 300 dust, then transmute it in the Soulhunter's Bag

Reward: You can transmute a rune of the imp, a blessed fine crusher, and a blessed wand of tempest in the Soulhunter's Bag to craft a G'awdmer

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

The G'awdmer is a legendary hammer with crusher damage and the Chainspark ability: "Deals shock damage and chains it to all adjacent targets, friend or foe."

Dust is obtained by using duplicate cards received as Tragical Gathering rewards, 5 for common cards, 10 for uncommon ones, 20 for unique ones, and 40 for legendary ones. There is no way to speed up getting this heritage except to reach higher TG levels so you get bigger rewards per game. Alternatively, climb a mountain of bodies by starting fresh rogues, having them make a beeline to the nearest pile of skulls, and winning one game before committing suicide (the fastest way is unlocking Celestial/Draconic/Infernal Mastery and then casting from health until you die).

You can find a Rune of the Imp randomly (trolls always drop runes, so that's your best bet), by completing the Rune Collector heritage, or for 100 dust from the curio vendor in town, obtain a blessed fine crusher by completing the Heavy Hitters heritage, and obtain a blessed wand of tempest by using a blessed scroll of enchanting or by casting Identify on an unidentified wand of tempest with a blessed amulet of divination (1/6 chance if not cursed).

A trick to get unidentified wands of tempest or scrolls of enchanting is to collect a bunch, then sell them to a wandering merchant, then kill the merchant. All gear he drops will become unidentified. You can do this with any item on which you want to use a blessed amulet of divination.

Requirements: Buy the Bloodletter recipe from the curio vendor for 200 dust, then transmute it in the Soulhunter's Bag

Reward: You can transmute a rune of the imp, a blessed fine axe, and a pulsating daemon's heart in the Soulhunter's Bag to craft a Bloodletter

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

The Bloodletter is a legendary fine axe with the Gaping Wound ability: "Any hit that causes damage also applies bleeding for d6 turns."

Dust is obtained by using duplicate cards received as Tragical Gathering rewards, 5 for common cards, 10 for uncommon ones, 20 for unique ones, and 40 for legendary ones. There is no way to speed up getting this heritage except to reach higher TG levels so you get bigger rewards per game. Alternatively, climb a mountain of bodies by starting fresh rogues, having them make a beeline to the nearest pile of skulls, and winning one game before committing suicide (the fastest way is unlocking Celestial/Draconic/Infernal Mastery and then casting from health until you die).

You can find a Rune of the Imp randomly (trolls always drop runes, so that's your best bet), by completing the Rune Collector heritage, or for 100 dust from the curio vendor in town, obtain a blessed fine axe by completing the Just Smashing heritage, and obtain a pulsating daemon's heart as a random drop from loot hoarders or monsters (especially treemen, which spawn on a critical success when picking mushrooms at level 20), or for 50 dust from the curio vendor in town.

Requirements: Buy the Wolfsbane recipe from the curio vendor for 300 dust, then transmute it in the Soulhunter's Bag

Reward: You can transmute a rune of the imp, a blessed fine recurve, and a high capacity quiver in the Soulhunter's Bag to craft a Wolfsbane

Can be done on casual difficulty: Yes

Difficulty: High

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

The Wolfsbane is a legendary recurve with the Instant Elf ability: "Uses bolts instead of arrows and Multi Shot shoots all bolts at the same target."

Dust is obtained by using duplicate cards received as Tragical Gathering rewards, 5 for common cards, 10 for uncommon ones, 20 for unique ones, and 40 for legendary ones. There is no way to speed up getting this heritage except to reach higher TG levels so you get bigger rewards per game. Alternatively, climb a mountain of bodies by starting fresh rogues, having them make a beeline to the nearest pile of skulls, and winning one game before committing suicide (the fastest way is unlocking Celestial/Draconic/Infernal Mastery and then casting from health until you die).

You can find a Rune of the Imp randomly (trolls always drop runes, so that's your best bet), by completing the Rune Collector heritage, or for 100 dust from the curio vendor in town, obtain a blessed fine recurve by completing the Complex Tension heritage, and obtain a high capacity quiver as a random drop from loot hoarders or monsters (especially treemen, which spawn on a critical success when picking mushrooms at level 20), or for 50 dust from the curio vendor in town.

Requirements: Fill a blood grail with infernal blood

Reward: This character will receive the infernal bloodline, and it will be unlocked for all future characters

Can be done on casual difficulty: TBC

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

The infernal bloodline has three perks for STR-based fighters, two for warlocks, and two that aid survivability. Its significant downside is that it makes you a daemon, meaning you are subject to banishment spells (which do heavy damage and have a chance of instakill). If you take this bloodline, kill warlocks and clerics (including paladins) ASAP.

Your first step is to find a blood grail, which are dropped by loot hoarders. The most reliable way to get these is by using a wand of wishing after having already made three wishes. The overkill way is to bind a blessed ring of outcasts to a third leg of the imp, which gives you regular guaranteed spawns, but creating said ring is too much of a headache compared to cycling through the shop for wands.

Your second step is to kill an infernal. Remember that you find get these by resting at an inn until a hunt comes up. Don't forget instakill immunity. When you've killed your infernal, before looting the body, step on top of it and use the grail from your inventory to fill it with blood.

Requirements: Drink infernal blood infused with the appropriate scrip from the blood grail

Reward: All characters with the infernal bloodline will benefit from this perk automatically

Can be done on casual difficulty: TBC

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

To begin with, you need to meet the conditions to get the bloodline in the first place. To recap:

Your first step is to find a blood grail, which are dropped by loot hoarders. The most reliable way to get these is by using a wand of wishing after having already made three wishes. The overkill way is to bind a blessed ring of outcasts to a third leg of the imp, which gives you regular guaranteed spawns, but creating said ring is too much of a headache compared to cycling through the shop for wands.

Your second step is to kill an infernal. Remember that you find get these by resting at an inn until a hunt comes up. Don't forget instakill immunity. When you've killed your infernal, before looting the body, step on top of it and use the grail from your inventory to fill it with blood.

Once you have your filled grail, you need two more things. First, you need scrip with the perk in question inscribed on it. These can be found randomly or dropped by loot hoarders. Second, you need a black soul gem. These can be dropped by ghosts (random spawn when you destroy a gravestone), assuming you kill them before they use them up on Release Soul. More reliably, you can make your own by casting the infernal spell Capture Soul.

With the blood-filled grail, the scrip and the gem in your inventory, use the scrip, and then drink the infused blood. Note that you will need to do this separately for each perk (meaning a lot of dead infernals).

Requirements: Fill a blood grail with daemonrat blood

Reward: This character will receive the daemonrat bloodline, and it will be unlocked for all future characters

Can be done on casual difficulty: TBC

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

The daemonrat bloodline has two perks for AGI-based fighters, one for stealth, three buffs, and a unique shapeshifting talent. The downside is that your CHA will always be 7 for buying purposes in town. Note that this does not affect sell prices, so once you have the gear you want to keep, this will have very little impact on you.


Your first step is to find a blood grail, which are dropped by loot hoarders. The most reliable way to get these is by using a wand of wishing after having already made three wishes. The overkill way is to bind a blessed ring of outcasts to a third leg of the imp, which gives you regular guaranteed spawns, but creating said ring is too much of a headache compared to cycling through the shop for wands.

Your second step is to kill a daemonrat. Remember that you find get these by resting at an inn until a hunt comes up. When you've killed your daemonrat, before looting the body, step on top of it and use the grail from your inventory to fill it with blood.

Requirements: Drink daemonrat blood infused with the appropriate scrip from the blood grail

Reward: All characters with the daemonrat bloodline will benefit from this perk automatically

Can be done on casual difficulty: TBC

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

To begin with, you need to meet the conditions to get the bloodline in the first place. To recap:

Your first step is to find a blood grail, which are dropped by loot hoarders. The most reliable way to get these is by using a wand of wishing after having already made three wishes. The overkill way is to bind a blessed ring of outcasts to a third leg of the imp, which gives you regular guaranteed spawns, but creating said ring is too much of a headache compared to cycling through the shop for wands.

Your second step is to kill a daemonrat. Remember that you find get these by resting at an inn until a hunt comes up. When you've killed your daemonrat, before looting the body, step on top of it and use the grail from your inventory to fill it with blood.

Once you have your filled grail, you need two more things. First, you need scrip with the perk in question inscribed on it. These can be found randomly or dropped by loot hoarders. Second, you need a black soul gem. These can be dropped by ghosts (random spawn when you destroy a gravestone), assuming you kill them before they use them up on Release Soul. More reliably, you can make your own by casting the infernal spell Capture Soul.

With the blood-filled grail, the scrip and the catalyst in your inventory, use the scrip, and then drink the infused blood. Note that you will need to do this separately for each perk (meaning a lot of dead daemonrats).

To be completed

To be completed

To be completed

Requirements: Fill a blood grail with drake blood

Reward: This character will receive the draconic bloodline, and it will be unlocked for all future characters

Can be done on casual difficulty: TBC

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

The draconic bloodline has three perks for spellcasters and four for general utility. Its downside is the need to carry gold in your inventory, which amounts to four inventory slots sacrificed by level 20. You will need to make sure you store gold in the Workshop manually (drag and drop) rather than by CTRL-clicking, or set some aside in your stash if you have the Hoard DLC until you're done shopping.

Your first step is to find a blood grail, which are dropped by loot hoarders. The most reliable way to get these is by using a wand of wishing after having already made three wishes. The overkill way is to bind a blessed ring of outcasts to a third leg of the imp, which gives you regular guaranteed spawns, but creating said ring is too much of a headache compared to cycling through the shop for wands.

Your second step is to kill a drake. Remember that you find get these by resting at an inn until a hunt comes up. Don't forget frost resistance. When you've killed your drake, before looting the body, step on top of it and use the grail from your inventory to fill it with blood.

Requirements: Drink drake blood infused with the appropriate scrip from the blood grail

Reward: All characters with the draconic bloodline will benefit from this perk automatically

Can be done on casual difficulty: TBC

Difficulty: Moderate

Priority: Low to High (depending on playstyle)

To begin with, you need to meet the conditions to get the bloodline in the first place. To recap:

Your first step is to find a blood grail, which are dropped by loot hoarders. The most reliable way to get these is by using a wand of wishing after having already made three wishes. The overkill way is to bind a blessed ring of outcasts to a third leg of the imp, which gives you regular guaranteed spawns, but creating said ring is too much of a headache compared to cycling through the shop for wands.

Your second step is to kill a drake. Remember that you find get these by resting at an inn until a hunt comes up. Don't forget frost resistance. When you've killed your drake, before looting the body, step on top of it and use the grail from your inventory to fill it with blood.

Once you have your filled grail, you need two more things. First, you need scrip with the perk in question inscribed on it. These can be found randomly or dropped by loot hoarders. Second, you need a water core. These can be dropped by living waters and water elementals, both most easily findable by going on a hunt (same way as the drake).

With the blood-filled grail, the scrip and the core in your inventory, use the scrip, and then drink the infused blood. Note that you will need to do this separately for each perk (meaning a lot of dead drakes).