PLAYABLE CHARACTERS

CLARET SPENCER

Claret is a mechanic who fixes airships. She's honest, kind and brave, and will stand up for people when necessary. :)

RED SPECTRE / SULLIVAN B CHESTERFORD

Sullivan is the brawns of the party. He's charming, daring, and helps rescue mixed race characters from being unjustly jailed, kidnapped, tortured or experimented on by prejudiced Skyborn. He gets on Claret's nerves, but the rest of the party likes him. He's the son of the owner of Blackstone Industries, Silas Chesterford. He's brilliant at fencing with a slim fencing sword. You can equip him with fencing swords, you won't regret it.

CORWIN

Corwin is the mage of the group. He's quiet, kind, and thoughtful, and his spells pack a powerful punch. He also learns awesome healing spells. :)

CHASKA

Chaska is a kid. She's living in the mines, in the Industrial District. She's so adorable!!! We learn about her origins later on, and it's really interesting!

ALDA KIMS

Alda is a blonde Skyborn lady with wings. She's the best friend of one of the antagonists. She joins the party to find answers of her own, about her people.

DHACIAN

Dhacian is a high powered, scary antagonist. He is playable for the maze part of the game where Alda talks about her past.

NON PLAYABLE CHARACTERS

SILAS CHESTERFORD

Sullivan's dad. He loves Sullivan and Sullivan's half sister Jillian very much.

JILLIAN (JILLIE)

Jillian is Sullivan's half sister. She's the bubbly redhead. :) She's really nice and friendly. You meet her when Sullivan introduces you to the other rebels.

ATLAS

Atlas is the older man who you meet for the side quest The Diminutive Chemist. He's really likeable and wants Claret and her party to gather some golden Nordenwald flowers so he can make a potion that'll give him extra strength. If you gather more than ten flowers and bring them to him, he'll give you some left over potion that will boost one of your characters' health and skills in fighting.

CLARET'S BROTHER

He's a well meaning guy who wants to make sure Claret is taken care of. He needs to involve her in decisions about her life though.

SHYNN

One of the scary side antagonists. She's a Skyborn soldier who works with Dhacian.

SAEHRAL

A woman with green hair and a red coat who mysteriously gives Claret's party some meat to level up in the desert. You can fight her in the final level as an optional boss. Losing to her doesn't make you lose the game, as she lets you continue on to fight the main boss if you lose to her.

MAIN STORY OF THE GAME

Claret, a gifted mechanic, works in a city for her brother as their parents have left them for reasons that are unknown until you play on. You play as Claret for most of the game. Claret gets a new customer - Sullivan - who just damaged his own airship accidentally through his own driving, and is peeved about having to fix an airship he damaged so badly. Sullivan is basically being the charming silly guy of the day, joking around and Claret is having none of it. I love them all already.

Skyborn soldiers turn up at Claret's workshop, threatening to arrest Corwin for being mixed race (they call him a half breed. Not sure if they meant it as a slur as Claret and Corwin use that word too, but I'm guessing the Skyborn soldiers mean it as an insult). Basically they're harassing Claret's employee Corwin and being creepy. Claret loses her temper, tells them they have no grounds to arrest Corwin and yells at the Skyborn soldiers to get out of her workshop.

Claret goes outdoors, armed with her rivet guns for protection to buy parts for fixing Sullivan's airship.

She buys the airship part, then finds Skyborn soldiers outside the door. She fights them briefly when they attack her, they leave, she returns to her shop. Her brother tells her he sold their shop and home without telling her, apologises for not telling her, and she panics, telling him off. I don't blame her.

Also, her brother tell her he had to wheedle Sullivan into agreeing to marry her as part of a business deal without her permission. Sheesh. No wonder she's so mad.

Claret runs off in Sullivan's ship as payment, as she doesn't want to lose her home and workplace, and doesn't want to marry Sullivan. Turns out Sullivan was in the airship without her knowing. She explains her harsh situation to him, and they agree for Sullivan to sign the paperwork in Uptown city so Claret will legally own the ship.

Mechanical drones start a battle with them, and Sullivan helps Claret win the fight. Woo!

Claret sees the Red Spectre (a rebel who goes around rescuing mixed race people from the Skyborn torturing and kidnapping them, played by Jillie. Although the Red Spectre is usually Sullivan) escaping Skyborn soldiers. She gets wrongfully arrested, Dhacian is sinister and forces her to spy on fellow inmates to find out who the Red Spectre is.

Claret is then taken to a prison cell where some other innocent people including Corwin are held. Red Spectre (Sullivan) busts out the prisoners and helps them escape. Claret agrees to help him save other people from the Skyborn. And the story begins!

OK, basic gameplay for a Windows computer:

Press X on your computer keyboard to save game progress, see what level your characters are on, view how many more experience points they need to level up, equip weapons, accessories and armour for characters, augment or upgrade weapons and armour with gems, Puffin feathers or Arcane Dust. :)

Use the arrow keys (up, down, left and right) to move your characters around and walk onto exploration nodes (the small sparkles on the ground) to level up. You don't have to walk onto exploration nodes, but I recommend it because they help you level up faster.

Use the space bar on your keyboard to select a combat move while fighting enemies.

You can also use the space bar to talk to other characters, and press buttons to unlock different parts of a level location (like in the Nordenwald forest, or the maze in Alda's retelling/flashback/memory).

There's no voice acting, but the character dialogue and story plot is awesome. Plus the music rocks!

You can select whether to play the game in full screen or windows small screen mode. Just go to the menu by hitting X, select System or Settings, then choose windows mode or full screen mode.

You can choose whether to play the game on easy, normal or hard difficulty. You can do this by going to the Settings or Systems menu on the right hand side when you press the X key on your computer keyboard. Try playing the game on normal first, and if it's too easy or hard, you change the difficulty level anytime. For the end level, I recommend playing on easy or normal first, because hard is for people who are very used to role playing games.

Steam achievements don't show up unless you play on Normal or Hard difficulty, I think.

LEVELING UP

It's much easier to level up if you play the tech level of the Venom Depths (the one with the mechanical drones who are monsters). This is found by going to the star shaped portal on the ground on the left hand side of a main building with stone doors in the Industrial district. Once you finish the three main parts of the Venom Depths, fight monsters in the Iron Mines in Uptown and come back and battle opponents in the Colosseum. The Colosseum is in Uptown.

It'll be much easier and save you time. I'm not sure how you reach level 71, but I've watched partial play throughs online, so I know it can be done.

I reached levels 40 to 50 by clearing all three levels of the Venom Depths, minus the Spades cards arena.

Use Alda's Fortify to strengthen her defense, then choose the top left special move that cuts down an opponent's magic defense. Keep Corwin and use him to heal the entire party continually with his Regeneration spell. It's not a fail safe, but it helps a lot. Alda is super powered, so let Corwin use buffs like haste to increase her speed or blood lust to increase her strength, it helps a lot!

Chaska deals a lot of damage to opponents with moves that can blind, stun or poison an opponent.

Sullivan uses heavy attacks and Command Aura, which can increase the party's strength and attack damage.

Claret uses her guns and is great for technological enemies (like drones and machines) and sniper shot, for enemies that are fast.

WEAPONS AND ARMOUR

Weapons can be made by Claret at any forge on the different levels and locations. This is much cheaper than buying them.

Whether you buy or make a weapon for Alda is optional as she's an incredible fighter. She DOES deal a lot more damage if you make weapons for her, so I recommend making weapons for her and equipping them on her. She uses glaives (spears). She starts out with a Platina glaive, so once you find obsidian, make an obsidian glaive and equip her with it. This will deal a lot more damage than a Platina glaive, and will help her defeat enemies quickly until she reaches the final level and unlocks a special glaive.

You don't have to buy armour, as Claret can make armour for the party whenever she finds a forge and enough iron, coal, platina or obsidian. Making armour is much cheaper than buying it. You can also sell armour you no longer need. This will help pay for useful accessories, armour, and healing potions later in the game.

Make sure to make light clothing and light armour for Claret and Corwin as they're small, and heavier armour for Sullivan as he's the muscles of the team. You can equip Claret, Corwin and Chaska with medium armour later on, but never equip them with heavy armour. If you equip Claret, Corwin and Chaska with heavy armour, they'll be too slow to escape enemy hits and lose health points much faster.

I think Alda can deal with medium or heavy armour, but she fights best in medium weight armour.

In the beginning, just equip Claret and Corwin with light armour or clothes made from iron and coal (so that Corwin has a hat, common tunic, gloves). His silken tunic has more advantages and protection than a common tunic though. Corwin learns how to heal injuries with magic early on in the game, you don't have to worry about that.

In the beginning, you'll just have Corwin, Claret and Sullivan as your party. This is normal. Chaska joins your party when you meet her in the Industrial city mines, and Alda joins your party in Nordenwald forest.

As you progress throughout the game, rarer items like Platina and obsidian will become more common. Platina is in the Iron Mines and Nordenwald forest. Obsidian can be found in the Iron Mines in Uptown (once you unlock the Return Laryn's Ring side quest by talking to Laryn), and the Venom Depths.

Equip Sullivan with Platina, then obsidian fencing swords, and Claret with an obsidian gun in later parts of the gun. You can also equip Chaska with an obsidian claw, as metal/stone claws are her main weapon. She does get a special claw if you make enough progress in the Colosseum though, or if you use a star portal in the later level of a Skyborn city in the sky.

BOSSES

At the beginning, you only need Sullivan, Claret and Corwin. Make sure you use Corwin's Cure or Regeneration spells to heal health damage. Use ethers to restore his magic, so he can keep healing people. Corwin is especially useful for fighting higher level bosses. His fight moves don't deal much damage at the beginning unless you are playing the game on easy mode.

Make sure you keep Corwin and Alda alive at the bare minimum to fight the end bosses. Corwin is the healer and Alda deals the most damage in physical and magic attacks. You can use Sullivan to deal out buffs that increase the party's strength or lower the enemy's defense.

In the level where you have to fight mechanical drones in the Venom Depths and Blackstone Industries, you need Claret to be alive and in good health at the very least. She has an awesome move called EMP that knocks out technological power of machines, and other technology related attacks that are best for defeating drones.

For the big boss (main drone) in Blackstone Industries, have at least 10 potions and or other healing items, because Corwin won't be able to join you (there'll be a horrible noise from the Big Boss that cancels out his magic). Use Claret and Chaska for main attacks and Sullivan to guard Claret from attacks. Claret can use poison nails or sniper shot. Sniper shot won't take up any energy, magic or health points. Poison nails, napalm also work well but use more energy. Use EMP or the equivalent move to knock out the Big Boss in Blackstone Industries at least twice.

Saehral - Oh man. She's an optional boss, but she's so hard to beat. I've watched playthroughs where the player was on level 71 and they still couldn't beat her. I couldn't beat her on level 50. You can remove the bloodtap curse she puts on your characters, by using either Corwin to remove this damage (if he has the skill), or by using herbs. The blood tap curse makes characters lose health much faster, so remove blood tap as soon as possible. Otherwise you won't have a chance of beating her. She deals a lot of one hit knock outs.

For a list of full achievements, see Fallen Kal's awesome guide. There are plenty of brilliant guides for this game on Steam, but Fallen Kal's guide is the one I like best.

Once you win the achievements on normal or hard, the achievements should pop up in Steam automatically.

I haven't won all achievements, so I'll just go through the ones I won.

A DAB HAND WITH THOSE GUNS

This is at the beginning of the game. Beat the Skyborn Patrol drones with Sullivan and Claret on Normal or Hard mode. Equip Claret with both guns prior to battle. On Normal mode, use Sullivan to deal most of the attacks while Claret uses Guard to defend herself. Towards the end, Claret can use her gun to deal damage. Otherwise, if Claret attacks the drones too much, the drones will knock out Claret with a one hit knock out.

DEFEATING FAFNIR THE DRAGON

This one occurs in the middle of the game if you beat Fafnir the dragon in the Nordenwald Subterranean (the pretty garden caves under Nordenwald forest) on Normal or Hard mode. I've beaten him on Normal mode.

Use Corwin's Regenerate magic spell to heal all of your party continuously. Keep on using Fortify for increasing Alda's defense and her special move Mystic Sabre, which cuts down enemies' magic defense. Mystic Sabre is in the top left of her special magic skills menu. The important thing is to keep Corwin and Alda alive as Alda deals the most damage and Corwin heals everyone.

You can also use Corwin to grant Alda a buff like extra speed from Haste or more strength from Bloodlust. Blood tap from Corwin is also helpful if he has it.

If Corwin can't be revived make sure you have plenty of potions for everyone (at least 10 in total).

Keep on using Claret's Expose Weakness (a special move, costs 0 MP) to reduce Fafnir's defenses. You can also use Sullivan's Command Aura to increase strength attacks.

Chaska also deals a lot of damage with her usual attack and her special moves - you can use her Poison, Blind and Stun moves.

THE DIMINUTIVE CHEMIST

This is an optional side quest, but fun and really helpful, as the chemist Atlas can give you a potion that provides extra health and strength. Collect ten Nordenwald flowers with golden petals on the ground. See Fallen Kal's guide for more details. :)

DEFEAT THE LAMIA

The Lamia is the lady with snakes for hair in the Coal Mines. She's blocking a cave entrance. Use Corwin's Regenerate magic spell to heal all party members continuously. Use Chaska's Stun/Poison/Blind special moves and Claret's usual gun attacks or sniper shot move to deal the most damage.

Sullivan can guard Claret from attacks and provide buffs. He deals the most damage with his normal sword attacks in general, but you can also use his special skills like Taunt and Equalizer to reduce enemy strength and speed, and Command Aura to increase party strength. You can also use Corwin's special magic spell (the one with the crystal picture) to reduce Lamia's speed. I think that spell is called Debilitate. It's listed on the top left hand side of Corwin's special magic skills menu whenever he's in an enemy battle.

TOTALED THE TITAN
This one occurs when you beat the Titan main drone in Blackstone Industries on Normal or Hard difficulty. I beat him on Normal mode.

Use Claret for technological attacks. If she gets knocked out, use a Branch of Life to revive her, as Corwin can't help with healing here. Make sure you use EMP or Eliminate, the gun attack equivalent that uses the most of Claret's magic/energy points. When it comes to class change to gaining skills, it doesn't matter which class (gunner or technology expert) you choose as each one will provide a badass move allowing her to take out the Titan.

You only need the second class change to win this battle.

You can deal damage by using her other special technological attacks, just make sure you use EMP/Eliminate, otherwise the battle might take much longer.

OUTSHONE SHYNN

This happens if you defeat Shynn twice - once in the peaceful forest village, and once near the end of the game before you go into the Nexus. Make sure you're at least level 17 for the first battle and on Normal or Hard mode to get this Steam achievement. Use Corwin's Regeneration spell to heal all party members continuously. Equip Chaska with the Stylish hat and make sure she has light armour. I dealt the most damage against her with Claret and Chaska. Use Claret's usual gun attack and her special attacks (either gun attacks or technology attacks are fine). Use expose weakness from Claret repeatedly to reduce Shynn's defense much faster.

For the second battle with Shynn, make sure you are on at least level 35. Use Alda for attacks and Corwin for healing and giving party buffs like haste for speed and bloodlust for extra strength in dealing enemy damage. Use Corwin's Regenerate magic spell at the beginning of the battle, and Alda's Fortify spell continuously, as spells wear out over time. Fortify will prevent Shynn from dealing too much damage to Alda.

DEFEAT DHACIAN

Fight him on Normal or Hard mode in the Nexus to get the Steam achievement. Use Corwin's Regenerate spell to heal everyone repeatedly. Keep using Corwin to grant other party members haste or bloodlust to deal more damage. The first person you grant bloodlust or haste to should be Alda, as she deals the most damage.

Sullivan is pretty much there to grant buffs like increase party strength, slow enemies down or reduce their defense. He also guards Claret.

Make sure all party members have obsidian armour and obsidian weapons at the very least. Claret can forge these weapons as it's much cheaper than buying them. Obsidian can be found when you rescue the miners from the Iron Mines in Uptown, or the Venom Depths.

EPIC LOOT ACHIEVEMENTS

You get this by finding and unlocking treasure chests in the Coal Mines of the Industrial District (the Industrial District is the really smoggy place) and other levels. See Fallen Kal's guide for more details. :)

In the jail at the beginning of the game, find the huge treasure chest, hit space bar to open it. The chest will reveal Sapphire braces, which can be worn on the arms for protection. Equip Corwin with the bracers. You'll need to fight some monsters to reach this treasure chest. Use potions or Corwin's Cure or Regenerate to heal him and Claret's gun attack or sniper shot to deal damage to monsters.

One giant treasure chest in the Coal Mines unlocks the stylish hat, which protects a character's head and boosts their health, agility, attack power and statistics. Ride 2 mine carts, go up a path to a small patch of land surrounded by water, and press space bar on your keyboard to unlock the giant treasure chest. Claret, Corwin or Chaska can wear this hat.

The other large treasure chest is on the right hand of your computer screen in the Coal Mines unlocks the Circuit Breaker gun, which deals powerful damage to enemies. Equip the gun on Claret, as she's the only one of the party who knows how to use it.

St Teresa's Armour in the Nexus is on a floating platform in the Nexus (final level) and can only be worn and used by Alda. It's powerful armour which protects her from huge enemy damage. Go around the Nexus, hit space bar on your keyboard to turn the red crystal balls blue. This will connect the floating platforms with paths, so you can travel between the platforms. Travel along the stairs to reach the platform with the huge treasure chest. Hit the space bar key on your computer keyboard to open the chest. Equip Alda with the armour.

The combat menu can be used whenever your characters are in battle. It's located at the bottom of each character's picture, on the bottom of the computer screen. It contains: ATTACK, SKILLS, DEFENSE/GUARD, ITEMS.

To use the combat menu for special magic skills like healing magic spells and stronger defense moves and attacks, use the arrow keys on your computer to move to the SKILLS part of the combat menu, select the skill you want by hitting the spacebar key on your computer keyboard.

You won't need the Skills part of the combat menu much at the beginning of the game, but you'll need it more often as the game progresses. Special skills help you defeat enemies much faster.

The skills that appear depend on what class or skills you choose for your characters for each Class Change (for instance, you can choose for Sullivan to focus on being a Gladiator like soldier or General, Claret can focus more on her gun skills or tech skills, Chaska can choose to be a rogue, Alda can choose to be a Blade mistress, Corwin can choose to be an Inquisitor or an Apprentice in magic). It doesn't matter which class you pick, as it's possible to win the game on any class you select for the Class Change.

You only need two class changes to win the game.

The third class change unlocks if you beat the Colosseum opponents. Because you need to level up by using meat for more health, and other foods for speed (the onion helps with dexterity and agility).

Before you go to the harder battles (the gold round battles) in the Colosseum for the final class change: win the Trial maze with Alda and Ryler in record time (more time than you started with), collect all the exploration node sparkles on the ground. This will give you 10,000 gold and Spark of Creation. Use the 10,000 gold to buy more special foods at the Colosseum to boost character speed and agility. I haven't won the Trial in record time yet, but I plan to.

Buy the time keeper accessory (hour glass) from the Colosseum, and equip one character with it (I chose Alda). I managed to win all Colosseum battles except the final one without the 10,000 gold from the Trials by receiving gold for fighting monsters in the Iron Mines, Coal Mines, Caladori Desert, Nordenwald Forest, Venom Depths (the lava level, magic/glass level with elementals, and the tech level with drones). But I think you will need the 10,000 gold from winning the Trials quickly to buy more special food to boost character stats (health, magic, speed, agility).

Equip all characters with accessories that boost speed and agility. This will make your characters win Colosseum battles much faster, especially with higher level opponents.

Use the puffin feathers to augment or improve armour or weapon lightness. This will help your characters move much faster and dodge enemy hits. Puffin feathers are found in small treasure chests in different locations like Nordenwald Forest and can also be bought at the Colosseum.

You can only buy food and accessories at the Colosseum once you win some battles there and are rewarded with the Keys to the Kingdom.

You can also win extra money by completing the side quest for finding Laryn's wedding band/ring. This is done by fighting monsters in the Iron Mines (located in the house in Uptown that has door with a sign. The sign has a picture of an anvil, representing a forge) to reach her fiance. Her fiance will apologise for stealing the ring and give it back to you. Return the ring to Laryn to receive extra gold (at least 6000 to 8000 gold)

Finding the trapped miners in the Iron Mines by blowing up the rocks blocking the exit, with dynamite that will allow them to escape. The mine owner will provide you with dynamite. Find the mine owner at the entrance, tell him the miners are safe, and he'll reward you with at least 6000 to 8000 gold.

Use the extra money to buy special food at the Colosseum to boost health, agility and speed. Grapes of Alacrity cost 10,000 gold each - buy at least one or two of these.

Speed and agility are the most important stats to increase to defeat Colosseum enemies for the final class change - have at least 1 or 2 characters with at least +1 extra speed, or at least one character with +2 extra speed.