install game,

google search for latest Gothic 2 steam fix, install that,

open C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Gothic II\system\Gothic.ini (or whatever your path is)

change-

scaleVideos=0

and

playLogoVideos=0

save.

if you are playing on a laptop, switch to dedicated graphics before running the game.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

now the game should run! (worked for me at least)

credits to some german video out there on youtube

- enter khorinis city without talking to guards for extra exp from Lares ( strafe sideways near guards and enter city without looking at guards directly. save/reload if u fail )

- always complete the quest chain to join mercenaries regardless of what faction you want to join, it gives quite a bit of exp early game. but before doing this, ask Lares to help you to join mages guild, to be able to get the statuette of innos quest for Daron, for exp.

- you can pray & donate 100 gold once per day to a shrine of innos to gain 1 random stat point (dex/str/mana). when guildless, you can gain +10 str +10 dex and +20 mana in total this way (4k gold total required for them all). its pretty random, so save before praying each time. after that u start getting hp points pretty much indefinitely. if you join a guild then use the shrine, you won't get all of them ( you will only get one or two of the stats on praying ).

- save permanent bonuses for late game if that matches your build type. ex : if you are making a STR build then save dragonroots, sorrels for late game

- never tell Lares to take you to Onar's farm, he may bug out and won't take you anywhere else.

- give Daron donations of 50 gold each time till he stops accepting it ( u get 85 HP, 1 LP, 2 MANA total )

- bandits at jack's lighthouse are tough shooters so don't approach from the front. walk around the shadowbeast cave then down the slope to behind the lighthouse. then slowly crawl next to the hut, and SAVE!, then hit the nearest with arrow/spell to kite, then kill 1 by 1.

- the northernmost mining site in valley of mines where u meet Grimes, kill off the Paladins first before talking to grimes, as doing that triggers spawning of snappers which the paladins kill off denying u exp.

- after gathering report from Fajeth's mining site, kill them all. in act 4 orcs spawn there and those paladins can kill a few orcs, denying u some exp points.

- after reporting Marcos' to Garond, talk to Marcos again for some exp, then kill his group.

- how to do Cipher's quest (joining mercenaries) : first of all beat the guy guarding the weed package in harbour, get the package, go to Onar's farm, talk to Cipher, then talk to Bodo, then talk to Dar, beat up Dar, loot him, talk to Dar again, talk to Cipher and tell him Dar did it, Cipher will beat up Dar, ask Cipher if he feels better now, then give him the stalks of swampweed he asked u for, then finally give him swampweed package. If you give him package before stalks, he might not accept stalks of swampweed then, keeping that quest hanging.

- before talking to Dexter, make sure you have talked to Cord about his missing buddy and are ongoing the quest to join the mercenaries, and drive the militia back quest. then go and kill off the militia at Bengar's. also make sure that you have 1 fire arrow scroll and 1 fire rain scroll. then fully talk to dexter, walk out of his hut, position yourself in between the bandits, hit the guard bandit with fire arrow, then immediately use fire rain scroll. this way you can get the best amounts of exp.

- to join the thieves guild without killing Atilla, there are 3 incidents that work towards it. First, let Rengaru go after you catch him and ask for Jora's gold back. Second, let Halvor off the hook after u get the 'stinking note' from the bandits. Third, ask Kardiff for a 'special' work, and he will redirect you to Nagur, do that quest, sleep till next day, then talk to Nagur again. Lastly talk to Kardiff again, he will say a fellow wants to talk to you. then talk to Atilla, and he hands you the key without fighting. this way Cassia doesn't charge you gold for training Dex and pickpocket (probably).

- at 5:00 ( in-game-time), when guildless, Wulfgar gives you free 2% one-handed training.

i'll add some more points later on.

hi guys,

as u know Gothic 2 is a fairly tough game, and most of your actions are unchangeable , so there are a few things to take care about,

as u start the game,

- DO NOT join the mage guild yet

- DO NOT tell Lares to take you to Onar's farm ( the game might bug out and he might not offer to take u anywhere else )

- tell Lares u want his help to join the mages guild BEFORE u take on the quest chain to join the mercenaries guild, to be able to get the statue quest from Daron ( u should do this regardless of your guild choice ).

- tell Lares you want to return the ornament with him, and complete his quest so u 2 can go together

- after you return the ornament to Saturas, return to city asap and tell Lares you want to go to the dense jungle ( this helps you to level up faster in early game. remember to take a few fire arrow scrolls to kite wargs, the orc elite, and other tough creatures to u on the way, which Lares can kill easily. he waits once u fall behind a bit. use that to kite monsters to him. once u reach the stone circle, Lares will wait there until you activate the switches, so remember to go out and kite more wargs and monsters to him. do save between kills with Lares on screen, or he might disappear). down the stone circle slope and a few steps away are 5-6 wargs, a good chunk of exp ).

- DO NOT give Daron 50 gold donations yet

- train only mana, nothing else

- DO NOT use LP to train str and dex, train ONLY mana. do 10-29, then 29-34 in a single dialogue, then do 34-59, then 59-64 in a single dialogue. train mana till 64, then give Daron the 50 gold donations.

- use shrine to train str+10 and dex +10, and nothing else.

- focus on gathering stone tablets and dragonroots

- learn ancient language lvl 1 and 2

- eat all dragonroots and goblin berries u get, and use all stones tablets except mana tablets.

- save all kings sorrels and fire roots.

- focus on getting a better weapon than current (duh), and fully clearing chapter 1 of doable quests and all monsters.

- start the 'joining the mercenaries' quest for extra exp, but don't talk to Lee in the end.

- fully clear monsters in chapter 1 ( i will post a small guide on how to kite single wargs from packs 1 at a time)

- when guildless, and your mana reaches 64, give Daron the 50 gold donations till you can ( probably total 1k or 1050 gold )

- keep 20 LP in reserve before joining mages guild ( i think you can break your game if u join mages guild with 0 LP's and if you've fully cleared Khorinis, because u need 5 LP(mandatory!) to
learn fire rune to progress to mage class ) rest points will be for summon goblin skele rune,circle 2 training and ice lance rune at chapter 2

- now you can join the mages guild

i may add more points later on.

going full mana/str/dex build means saving LP's for main stat only.

so as a mage, only go for following spells:

chapter 1
-fire arrow (required)
-summon goblin skeleton (extremely useful for single target early game when you are fairly weak, remember to spawn a lot and swarm the enemy)

chapter 2
-ice lance (i think its way better than fireball, and it pretty much becomes your core spell until chapter 4
- clear the orc infested pass to get the heal lesser wounds rune for free( located near the stones where the shaman sits )

as you start Chapter 2 , pick up every ice block spell scroll you can find, and go to valley of mines, and fight your way to the tomb next to the ice region where a skele mage resides.
SAVE.
DO NOT engage him before you finish off the skeleton warriors.
DO NOT use spells to kite skele warriors to you, just crawl inch by inch until they aggro you.
when finally the last monster left is the skele mage, SAVE again. continued...

important note : the spell casters in the game also use runes. whichever spell rune the caster starts off with, or cycles to, you won't be able to get with the ice block damge-over-time kill trick.
for those who don't know what the trick is, beat down the caster (skele mages / seekers) until they are within an inch of their life, then freeze them with ice block spell, and wait for them to die. when they die, immediately loot their corpse. u will get spell runes that they haven't used yet. keep that in mind.

...now continuing, aggro the skele mage, and immediately ice block him, then beat him to extremely low life, then wait for damge over time to kill him. use multiple scrolls if necessary. see what runes u get. if the skele mage cycled to ice block spell, then he won't give ice block spell rune on death.

load and repeat until u get the ice block spell rune, which saves you 10 LP.

there is another skele mage in khorinis too, near dexter, but u probably won't be able to finish off skeleton warriors before you aggro him. chapter 2 skele mage is easier to do so.

chapter 3
learn no spells, just get ice block using the trick written above ^

chapter 4
learn no spells ( using the ice block trick, u can get fire rain, lightning, storm, cry of the dead, small firestorm )

i am still in chapter 4, (actually i just triggered it) so can't say anything about chapter 5 and chapter 6 spells yet.

- keep the 'inventory cursor' on wand and quickly unequip-equip the wand to get 20 mana. useful for blasting ice lance early game. tap inventory button, click twice ( since cursor was on wand it would equip and unequip ), tap inventory button again, and use ice lance or summon gobin skele. extremely useful early game.

- mages don't need to fight every monster out in the open. when far away from any monster, equip any single target spell, like ice lance, and direct at the enemy, if you are able to aim the enemy, keep stepping back until u can't. then with spell equipped crawl towards the enemy till you just can target it. now release the spell and wait until the spell almost reaches the enemy, then take back 1 or 2 steps (out of range of targeting). what happens is the enemy takes spell damage, but doesn't aggro you. note that for packs, only target the monster that is closest to you.

- single target spells don't miss stationary targets, but can miss moving targets, especially the ones walking away from you. if a monster aggro's you, and walks through a rough terrain, your spells might miss.

Wargs are tough beasts which usually stay in packs and fighting even 2 at a time can be lethal, early to mid game. but a single warg is same as killing a single wolf, just with a lot more hitpoints.

Note that every warg threatens you with a growl-like-bark (or whatever the word is), 2 or 3 times before charging at you, when u approach one. if they are in packs, when 1 charges, almost all of them charge.

when u approach a pack, SAVE. draw your weapon, and slowly crawl towards the outermost warg, and let him start growling at you. the others will join the growling ( if they are not too far away from the pack). the trick is, to have ALL the other wargs to start growling a split second later, than the initial outermost warg. hence, the warg that starts growling first, is the first to charge at you when his 'growling period' is over. when the first warg charges, instantly start backing off, until you are far away than the pack, with 1 charging at you, while the rest haven't finished the 'growling'. that way the rest of the wargs will still be growling and won't charge even after finishing growling, since at that point you are far away from their targeting area, and the one that has finished growling is the only one charging.

easy, simple,
train 10-29, then 29-34 in one go,
train 34-59, then 59-64 in one go,
train 64-89, then 89-94 in one go,
finally train 94-124.

DO NOT use LP for str and dex, or anyting else, other than summon goblin skele, circle 2 training,ice lance, and ancient languages lvl 1, 2 and 3.

after fully clearing Khorinis, Valley of Mines and Jharkendar in chapter 3( yes i started Jharkendar quests after triggering chapter 3 and clearing seekers from Khorinis ), i fought Raven after training mana to 124. so its possible totally.

DO NOT apply any mana bonuses like tablets, and elixir of spirits before training 124 mana.

After the Raven Fight, you can trigger Chapter 4 by entering Valley of Mines, then go back to Khorinis, and clear the seekers that have spawned. This way you can learn elixir of spirit recipe too, and reach 360+ mana ( without wand and amulet, rings) before starting the dragon encounters.

below is my stats screenshot in chapter 4 starting point. haven't touched any monster in Valley of Mines after Chapter 4 trigger, but i have cleared Khorinis yet again. i am not wearing any amulet, and i have Str 4 Dex 4 ring from Lutero equipped, a Str 5 ring , a Str 10 belt, and Master Sword Equipped.




if i equip wand and priest set amulet and rings, i will get another 60 mana i think.

first off, spamming clicks wont work in this game. spamming clicks will only lead to your character getting stuck in animation at the end of the swings, and u being open to attacks.

CLICK for EACH swing or block.

Tapping the back button does a 'step back'. when u take a 'step back', u dodge the hit that was incoming, doesn't matter the hit source ( watch out for multiple hits!!! ORC FURY SWIPES!!! ).

so, when you are about to get hit, tap the back button to take a 'step back'. if you time it properly you will dodge the hit. blocking with swords only works against weapon holding opponents (humans, skeletons,orcs, lizard people). for beasts, just time a 'step back'.

'step back' animation is different with one-handed weapons and two-handed weapons. with one-handed weapons, the 'step back' is quick and only 1 back-step is taken. with two-handed weapons, the 'step back' feels slower and clunky, and actually 2 back steps are taken.

one-handed weapons are fast but stay in block animation for a shorter duration. so to block 2 incoming back-to-back hits u need to right click 2 times. you need to practice the timing or else your character will get stuck in block animation ( see animation cancelling title to how to get out of that), and leave u open to attacks.

two-handed weapons are slow, but stay in block animation for a slightly longer duration. so against 2 incoming back-to-back attacks you need to time your block to take on both the hits with a single block.

for orc fury swipes (3 hit combo), with a one-handed weapon, u need to block twice and then immediately take a 'step back'. u need to time it so that the first 2 swipes are blocked by your weapon, and the third swipe is dodged by the 'step back'. successfully blocking 3 fast hits with a one-handed weapon is pretty unreliable so the 'step back' is required. but hey, feel free to try it !

for orc swipes with a two-handed weapon, u need to time the block. block the first 2 hits with a single block, then block again immediately to block the third hit. no need to 'step back' here.

if some more points come to my mind i'll add them later on..

hit one with a spell and when they get ready to blast you with a fireball, get behind any nearby obstacle (pillars, trees, big rocks etc). they will start running towards you, and will stop after going a certain distance. then, with the obstacle between you and the shaman, take a step back. u will see the shaman taking a step forward too. keep moving back until the shaman is literally next to the obstacle. then with the obstacle still between you and the shaman, run forward, until the point when he 'sheathes' his spell, and gets ready with his axe.

important note : when the shaman starts to sheathe his spell, immediately dash back a little. what will happen is he will take out his axe and freeze in place. at this point you can blast him with spells or arrows, and he won't do anything, except flinch a bit. also when he flinches, he steps back a bit. so take a step forward to keep that distance constant between you and him. if he gets too far he will take out his spell back again, and start blasting at you.

just be enough lvl'd up that you can take on 1 skeleton warrior easily, then go near any skeleton mage, and let him try to freeze you, dodge that, then let him hit you with ice arrows(run left right to dodge those), in between the arrows he will constantly summon skeleton warriors, which u can keep killing for 300xp a pop.

i did this in act 5 when my mage armor took no damge from ice arrows, and i kept 1 shotting the skeleton warriors with lightning spell shown below(in monastery after opening lamp switch in act 5):

first of all, NEVER tell Lares to take u to farm, he bugs out at that point in most versions.

When Lares is taking you to the excavation location, he waits on some places, and asks if you are able to carry on or not, and you are given a dialogue choice of 'Lets Move on'. at that point, if u don't select that dialogue, he waits there indefinitely till u do so. at this point, you can move away from him, and kite any monsters to him from far and wide, which he will kill, and give you exp. he is immortal, and can kill any monster fairly easily.

When Lares is taking you to the dense forest location, and when he reaches at the end point next to the stonehenge, he will tell you to "hurry up" coz he doesn't want to be there for much longer. THIS is where he will wait indefinitely till u press the switches and summon the guardian. DO NOT summon the guardian, and keep kiting monsters to him from anywhere, and he will kill them and give you exp.
you can kite wargs, orcs, skeletons, shadow warriors from the dragon slicer cave etc etc for ez exp.

whenever you attack with a melee weapon, at the end of each swing, your hand stays stuck in animation, leaving you open to attacks. to get out of that animation, quickly tap forward / left / right / back.

humanoid enemies are also open to attacks at the end of their attack animations, at which point you can hit them safely. be careful of their 'short' weapon swings though, they recover quickly after those, and can surprise you if you go in for a hit after those.

obviously do this when you are not going full dex-

when guildless, use the shrine to donate 100 gold once a day to get +10 total to dex.

keep aside 1 goblin berries, and consume the rest, and keep consuming all dexterity potions that you can get. keep using all dexterity tablets. this way starting at around chapter 4, your dexterity should be around 58. go to Constantino and Sagitta after triggering chapter 4, and get more goblin berries. then, go back to Onar's farm, and talk to the mercenary Dar, he will give you a quest. finish his quest, then choose the amulet as the reward. that is an amulet of +10 dexterity.

then, equip the dexterity amulet, 2 x rings of dexterity(+5 each), and belt of dexterity(+10). that should make your dexterity goto 88-89. then consume the remaining goblin berries. as soon as u reach 90 dex, acrobatics will be unlocked permanently, even if u remove the dexterity amulet and rings and belt.

from a far distance, when your hero can't target the monsters, using ranged weapon / any arrow spell, slowly crawl towards the pack, until your hero auto targets the outermost monster. then move just 1 step forward, and hit the monster ( or keep trying to hit until u do ). that way when the hit connects, only the monster that was hit would charge towards you, and not all. this will get tricky on narrow terrain though.

there are four potion (health / mana) tiers :

- essence ( heals health / mana for 50 points );
- extract ( heals health / mana for 70 points );
- elixir ( heals health / mana for 100 points );
- pure ( fully heals health / mana ).

pure potions are the best potions that u can get / craft, coz they do 100% recovery, no matter the value. they are crafted using 3 x essence potion, 1 meadow knotweed, 1 lab bottle.

during early to mid game, try to use only extract and elixir potions, and save all essence potions for later crafting to pure potions.

oh and for this reason, save/buy all meadow knotweeds that you can get.