Purchasing Items

Along the top of the screen sits the item bar. Hit Tab until the red action box surronds this bar, or move your mouse up to highlight one of the items. This screen starts off displaying the available weapons, however, the armor and specialty items lists must also be viewed here. The armor and weapon lists will be randomly generated after every mission. The specialty item list includes whatever items you picked up in your last battle (see Spoils of War). Specialty items are lost as soon as you accept a new mission, so if you picked up any, this should be the first place you come after a battle. When you have decided on the item you wish to buy click on the selected item or press enter. Please note that only Wizards, Marksmen and Archers can purchase or use Bows, Crossbows and Wizard's Staves. Also, only Wizards can wear Wizard's Robes.

Current Equipment

One of the first things you should do when starting a new party and after every mission is look at the equipment for sale, and compare it to what your mercenaries are carrying. In the upper right corner of the screen is pictured the weapon and armor of the currently selected merc (pictured center left). You may move your mouse over these two pictures to get quick access to the current information on the equipment of the mercenary. If you are using the keyboard, you can go to Mercenary Detail (see below) to also get all the information on the current items. If you buy something, the picture will immediatly change as you make the purchase. Please Note!! Some different kinds of weapons and armor share the same picture, so the picture will not change if you buy something that simply looks the same with different statistics. DO NOT KEEP CLICKING!!! This will make you continually buy and rebuy the same two pieces of equipment, and can eat up your spare gold quickly.

Options

If you are looking at the item bar, you can press the left or right arrow keys to move between the different pictured items, or move your mouse along the line to select different items. The highlighted item's information will appear in the information bar in the middle of the screen and is a good place to look. If you want to scroll between weapons, armor, and specialty items and you are using a keyboard, simply press the up or down arrow keys to scroll between the different bars. If you are using a mouse however, please notice that there is a selection arrow located at the far right of the item box. Click on this arrow to scroll through the different sections available to you.

Hiring Mercenaries

Vital to expanding and advancing in the game is hiring new mercenaries to join your band. After most missions, a list of the types of mercenaries available for hire will appear in the center of the screen. If you are interested in adding someone to your party, press Tab until the red action box is around the group of characters, or move your mouse over them. The highlighted mercenaries information will be listed below in the information bar. To scroll through the list of available characters, you can either use the arrow keys or move your mouse over the different pictures. If you have the money and want the highlighted mercenary added to your party, press Enter or click. You will be switched immediatly to the large picture of them in your party, and we encourage you to view the Mercenary Detail on them before buying them new equipment.

Mercenary Detail

The Mercenary detail screen (pictured above), is where you can see all the information on any mercenary in your party in one place. If you are using a keyboard, press Tab until the red action box surrounds the character picture on the middle left of the screen. Press the left and right arrow keys to scroll through your party members. If there is any person you want to look at in detail, press Enter and this screen will appear. If you are using the mouse, click on the gray arrow keys located below the character picture on the middle left of the screen. If there is a character you want to see in detail, click on the actual large picture. Once in this screen you can look at the name and all the physical and item stats of your character. Press the arrow keys or move the mouse over the three buttons along the bottom to change selections. At any time you can hit Escape to go back to the Resource Management Screen. If you hit Enter or click, the highlighted button is the action which will take place. The most important option here is that of firing a mercenary, which you may want to do if your upkeep gets too high to handle, or if you don't have room in your party to buy a new higher level class. If you fire someone, they will leave your party completely, taking their equipment with them. There is no way to get a fired character back in any way, so only do it if you are sure.

One of our favorite parts about this game is giving life to your party through their names. Although we spent long hours on the random name generation ability which will give all of your characters names, you can if you so desire give them your own names as they grow to be mighty heros. If you click or press Enter while "Change Name" is highlighted, the current name will be erased. Simply type a new name, and then press Enter when you are finished and you will automatically be taken back to the Resource Management Screen.