HotU any% FAQ

HotU any% FAQ:

Q: What's your build? Why?

A: 3 Wizard / 30 Monk / 1 Rogue

(Wizard for Summon Familiar, True Strike & Invisibility, Monk for Monk Speed, Rogue for class skill Appraise)

Race: Human						(extra 1st level feat & skill points)
Alignment: Lawful Evil 			(Monks need to be lawful)

Abilities: (final scores in parentheses)

STR 18 (26)
DEX 8
CON 16
WIS 8
INT 12
CHA 8

18 STR for maximum chance to hit. 12 INT for level 2 spells & some extra skill points. 16 CON for hit points.

Skills:

Appraise 2 (37) 				(buy/sell trick at stores)
Concentration 4					(got some extra skill points)
Discipline 2 (36)				(avoid getting knocked down)
Lore 4 (36)						(need to identify items fast)

Feats:

Power Attack					(for Great Cleave)
Skill Focus (appraise)			(for the first store / buy/sell trick at stores)

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Blind-Fight						(+25% chance to hit concealed enemies)
Toughness						(extra hit points)
Great Cleave					(extremely good feat)
Weapon Focus (unarmed strike) 	(+1 to hit)
Impr. Critical (unarmed strike)	(damage)
Great Fortitude					(no real reason, just quickest to get)
Epic Energy Resistance I & II	(able to tank the Fireshields of Valsharess & last Guardian of the Path)
Epic Prowess					(+1 to hit)
Epic Weap. Focus (unarmed str.)	(+2 to hit)
Epic Toughness I & II			(duh)
Overwhelming Critical			(damage)

School of Magic: Illusion 		(+1 extra spell slot per level)

Spells:

True Strike						(+20 to hit for 9 seconds)
Expeditious Retreat 			(haste)

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Invisibility					(duh)

Familiar: Panther				(3 familiar clips)

Q: What's with the Familiar spawning behind the colourful pillars?

A: He has no space to spawn elsewhere. This skips the whole Undermountain Level 1.

Q: How do you... walk through doors??

A: This is due to the game mechanics. The game lets the player go inside a door and only then tries to push the player straight back from where they came. However I change my direction 180 degrees rapidly so that instead I am able to walk through (most) doors.

Q: Hello hello? What's up with Halaster?

A: He-he-he-he-hello hello... This is an experience glitch. The quest completion is coded such that if a player accidentally exits the conversation they still get their reward. However I abuse this by pausing the game and starting a new conversation so that the previous one is exited, netting me 7500XP each click. To be as optimal as possible with my time I do this for exactly 26 seconds for a level 34 character.

Q: How did you turn invisible all of a sudden?

A: Escaping cutscenes is buggy... and this bug is a big hindrance throughout the run.

Q: Why didn't you just outright bash the doors @ the Flesh Golems?

A: Normally I don't have the glitch where I turn invisible, so walking through these doors is a walk in the park. This time it goes really awry. I should bash the doors on the way back if I get this bug again.

Q: WHAT?? How did you teleport to Valsharess without doing the rest of the Chapter 2 quests?

A: Placing planar bindings with the Relic of the Reaper is the key. You're able to place one before the first Valsharess cutscene starts. The trigger for starting Chapter 3 is killing Valsharess, so I do just that and Chapter 3 begins.

Q: Why did you buy the helmet? What's with buying and selling it all over again?

A: My Appraise is so high that with this particular merchant and this particular item I get 6247 GP each time I sell & buy back the helmet. I generate enough money for a +10 STR belt, +10 attack gauntlets, few healing potions & Mephistopheles' True Name.

Q: Why did you first kill the Guardian of the Path and THEN Familiar Clip through the snow blockade? Couldn't you have skipped fighting him altogether?

A: Unfortunately I have to kill him in order to get the Sensei Amulet to work. I need Earth Elemental form exactly once at the very end of the game to throw a catapult over a lava river (29:03 in the video).

Q: Why do you switch armour before entering The Mimic's Nest?

A: She steals whichever armour you currently wear. I don't want her to steal my hasted robes.

Q: Wait WHAT??? You don't have to fight the third Guardian of the Path at all?? How is the portal already there???

A: This is due to some really poor coding in the game. There's a trigger (https://imgur.com/AldfTJv) in the beginning of The Mimic's Nest. When you walk over the trigger it creates a 180 second timer after which a user defined event 4444 fires in the area you are currently at. This is a helper tool for those who don't understand that you need to equip & unequip the Puzzle Ring in order to get through the blue force fields in that area. If you watch carefully, at 20:27 I carefully line myself in order to avoid another trigger (https://imgur.com/xurvPgt) that CANCELS this timer. The timer stays there and lo and behold, after three minutes user defined event 4444 gets triggered at Puzzlers' Sepulcher (23:32 in the video). This coincidentally is the same trigger you get for defeating the third Guardian. Neat, huh?

Q: Why do you take so long to converse with Knower of Names?

A: I just want to make sure I actually don't fail this conversation. The conversation is simple (Mouse1-1-8-1-8-1-1-1-8), but it's easy to fail somehow, for example, if you accidentally talk to some NPCs on the way here you might get a different conversation path. I just want to be sure.

Q: Why do you unequip/equip your Robe after the Knower of Names?

A: Unfortunately I think I got a bug where after switching to Earth Elemental form my Monk Speed or Haste (or both) are not functioning properly. This fixes it somehow.

Q: What a coward!! You should fight Mephistopheles!!

A: Unfortunately it's way faster to learn his True Name. It's entirely possible and quite easy to fight and kill him to finish the game.