Sacred:Prism's SP Masterguide, SP Tips & Tricks

Published at DarkMatters for review and discussion

Prism’s Masterguide to SP

This guide is intended merely to show starting players all the features of the game as they exist and how to use them to optimize Single Play to the heart’s content. Everything in this guide is legitimate…cheating is for losers, using the system leads to a Multiplayer environment with yourself as the only player.

The first time you play the game simply pick the character type that looks the best to you and don’t worry about being new…just play. Save all the yellow, gold and green items that drop. Be sure to do all the quests (people with the ?! symbol over their heads), these quests can drop set items (green) as a reward.

After you’ve managed to get a character to about 25-35 level you can start the rest of this system. I do feel it’s important to have played the game and get a feel for it before trying these techniques as it will give you a solid idea of what to plan for and look for in building the characters of your choosing.

TIP #1: The Advanced Configuration Tool.

This is one of those wonderful little tool programs. It is NOT a cheat, it simply allows you the freedom to adjust your starting skills, make the darkness less dark, etc. Note that I am in no way affiliated with the designer of this software and cannot answer questions about it. I do use it and have never had an issue because of it.

This tool’s most important feature for an SP player is the option to not use the default starting skills. In using this option, you’ll be able to tailor make your character from the beginning of every game in the way you think best. I play a lot of hybrid Seraphims…instead of using Magic Lore (default skill) I’m able to substitute it with Concentration which is of more use to my Sera build.

TIP #2: LAN Dumps = Rich starting characters.

Save all set items (green name), unique items (gold name), socketed high stat rares (yellow name, and only for classes you intend to play) and try to save up about 28 runes of any class. When your chest is full of this stuff head into Multiplayer LAN (Local) and start a game with the Exported version of the character. Choose Cooperative from the drop down menu and Create. Drop all the items on the ground in the opening area (the military enclave in Bellevue). I divide the items up by class and leave them in different areas, I also keep a tally of how many items for each character type. Don’t drop the runes we’ll set that up in a minute.

Once everything you want to drop is down, Save the game. Mark it however you want. What I do is use the character name and level, then a series of letter number combos to tell me at a glance what is inside. D for Dwarf, S for Seraphim, etc followed by the number of items I dropped for each. This allows fast access by providing the approximate level, class and item amounts just by scrolling down the saved games list. It also allows you to double check that the save has loaded properly. LAN games are famous for “losing” items on Load. The items are still there, it may just take 2-3 Loads to get them all visible.

Once you have the game saved, Quit. DO NOT Export! And…DO NOT ever save to this game again! This ensures that the items will be there forever. Everytime you quit a LAN game your character is automatically Exported. Which means you can bring a character into one of your saves…pick up whatever you want…and Quit without Saving or physically Exporting. The character you just Quit the game with will have all the items AND they will still be in the Saved Game as well. Over time you can see how this will lead to a hoard of items to use. This technique allows the SP player the MP advantage of being able to trade and be given items by other players. You essentially are playing MP with yourself and sharing your benevolence on your future toons.

Once you have the first Drop Save made start another LAN Co-op game. This time drop 2 piles…one will be all the gold you have on you, the other will be the 28 or more runes you saved. The gold, obviously, gives your next L1 toon some starting cash (also a possibility in MP online play…another balancer). I’ll explain the best use for this gold later on. This also allows the L1 toon enough runes to Exchange for 7 starting runes (or however many you want dependent on how many trips you want to make).

Obviously, you can put as much or as little as you want in this one. I keep about 2.5 million and close to 30 runes plus 10 3% LL (Life Leech) Vamp runes in my “Starter Materials” Save Game. Do what works best for you. As a final note, don’t forget to pick your gold and runes back up and Quit without Saving if you plan to continue playing your current character.

TIP #3: What you start with isn’t what you’re stuck with.

Once you’ve loaded up your L1 toon with cash, runes and carried over equipment head into a Hack n Slash LAN game. This starts you on the same isle that Open and Closed MP Players start on. On this island is a merchant, a blacksmith and a runemaster…all the things you need in one handy spot. You can pop in and out of the Hack n Slash game…each new trip resets the wares at the merchant. This does require some time but you can find a decent amount of starter equipment for your new toon. If you run out of cash just go make another withdrawal. Once you have what you want socket all your socketed items at the blacksmith then head to the runemaster to trade in your runes for whatever starting skills you want.

Two words of Caution:

1) Socketing an L2 or 3 ring/amulet in an item increases the items level to that of the socketed ring/amulet. Meaning you may be a bit slow until you hit L3 but don’t worry the first few levels are fast and you’ll be strong enough to survive them.

2) When setting up your runes be sure not to get your regen times too high or they will be useless. Also, I tend to keep a couple extra runes for skills that can go up rapidly such as Ghost Meadow, Heroic Courage and Greed. That way if the game is slow giving you runes you have something to hold you over.

TIP #4: Tip #3 isn’t actually the best way.

NOTE: You MUST have the Advanced Configuration tool and have default skills turned off to use this tip. The BEST way is to first get a character that can get to Braverock and do the double merchant quest. Returning to the questgiver afterwards to turns him into a merchant. You’ll now have two merchants right next to each other. Save the game while you’re standing between them.

Now hope that you’ve found a ring/amulet with a + to Trading. If not you’ll need to spend some time at the two merchants until you find one…and one is all you need to use this tip. Once you have one, take this into a LAN game, drop it, save, PICK IT BACK UP and Quit. Come back in the game, you now have one on you and one on the ground. Drop the one you have, save, Pick BOTH up and Quit. Keep doing this until you have as many as you want.

Once this is done start a DWARF and run him into Hack n Slash LAN games, buying only equipment with sockets…the more the better, mine has 17 total but you may be able to get more. You will only be using this character as a Trader so don’t worry what the equipment is. Once you have the equipment socket every slot with a + Trading item. Go into the Double Trader Saved Game. If you saved with your original toon standing next to the two merchants than that is where your Trader toon will start at. When you enter you’re skills will still be unchosen…but Trading will be an option. Take Trading and watch the number skyrocket from all the gear you have on him. The higher Trading is compared to your character level the better items it produces at the merchants. This will generate tons of magic (blue) and rare items. Cycle through the merchants until you have all the starting gear you want for the character you intend to play then Quit without saving. Start a new Co-op LAN game…drop the items and Save then bring in the new toon and make a pickup before heading them into Hack n Slash for smithing and rune exchanges.

TIP #5: The Master Character file.

Inside the Sacred folder on your hard drive make a New Folder titled Builds. This will not interfere with the game in any way. Once you finish building a starting L1 toon according to the above steps Quit the game and go to the Sacred (or UW) “save” folder and copy/paste the toon you just built into your Builds folder. I keep a separate folder for each inside the Build folder titled with the characters name and class. Doing this means you don’t have to rename the Herox.pax file which means faster time re-inserting it if needed. Also, copying the character this way allows you to reset to this exact spot if you think of ways to tweak the build, find some stellar equipment you wish you’d had from early on, some freakish accident happens and you lose your save game, etc. How to tell which Hero file goes to which export. When your in the Character Selection screen (Exported characters) there are 8 stone (slots) available. The one to the farthest left is 0. The one to the farthest lower right is 5 and the two behind that are 6 and 7. Grab the Hero file that matches the slot number the Exported character is standing on and you’re all set. If you want to test it the first few times take the one you think it is and rename it by changing the Hero “x” number to 0 through 7 to an unused Export slot. If you get the same character in the new spot you know you grabbed the correct one. After some time you’ll be able to do this easily without worry.

Now when re-inserting one of the builds you’ve saved you can rename it using the above information to any slot you wish (this also works with existing character if you want to see your Export from a different angle, by placing them on a different “stone”).

==== Final Note: ==== Using all of these tips will definitely give you an easier start in the game, although the longer you play the character the more they will be defined by their individual game (drops, stats, skills, CA’s, etc). I hope this guide is helpful, feel free to post any of your own tricks and tips as well…knowledge is power.