1. Characters
2. Skills
3. Player Types
4. Spells
5. Items
7. Ember
8. Pets & Fishing
9. Walkthrough
Torchlight is a Diablo/Fate-like game that incorporates many of the
better qualities of both. This FAQ only covers the vanilla, no-code
version of the game. Torchlight has several mods available that can
greatly change your play experience.
When you start your game, you can select your difficulty, character
class, and pet. There is no difference between a cat or dog in
Torchlight. Your class does make a huge difference, however. The
difficulty determines the strength of your foes, and also determines
whether or not your character can die permanently if they die once
(hardcore mode).
There are three classes of characters in Torchlight- the melee
warrior Destroyer, the archer Vanquisher, and the magic-heavy
Alchemist. All three can do well in the game, although the
vanquisher is probably the most difficult of the three. You can also
play these characters against the grain of their stereotype, for
instance a magic-heavy Destroyer or a melee Alchemist are both
possible.
The alchemist is the strongest mage, initially. He has the largest
boost to magic, and has several skills which either serve as spells,
support him with summons, or even call up battle talents. In general
for a summoner, ranged, or caster alchemist you will want to boost
magic first, defense second, and either strength or dex last. You
can also play the alchemist as a melee fighter, in which case
specialize in the battle tree and boost strength and defense. A
caster will want to prioritize magic, and find elemental-damage
boosting wands.
The destroyer is your strongest melee fighter, initially. He has the
largest boost to strength, and has several great attack skills. He
also has some summons spells, and a few more-magically oriented
attacks. He also has two aura spells as well, which are unique
amongst the three classes. You will likely want to prioritize
strength if you're going to be fighting hand-to-hand, and defense,
with likely magic after and pretty much ignoring dexterity. If you
choose to focus on special attacks, don't neglect magic so as to
boost your elemental damage.
The vanquisher kills things from a distance. She is the best ranged
fighter, initially, though her skills are a bit weak to begin with.
Once she gets exploding shot, that is no longer true, and the
vanquisher becomes overpowered. She has the largest bonus to
dexterity. She has access to rogue skills, and if you want to play
her as a melee fighter, it is possible, though more difficult than a
ranged fighter. The traps add intriguing tactical potential for the
vanquisher. If you choose to play as a ranged attacker, focus on
dexterity and defense, then on magic. Ignore strength. Melee
fighters will want the opposite.
NOTE: Defense increases your armor, and your resistances. Your
resistances are increased by 1% of the base per point invested. So
if you have on a piece of armor that gives 100 fire resistance, each
defense point increases that by 1. You can not add health to your
character, except by leveling up, using a specific boss item, and
===================2. Skills===================
There are two sets of skills available to players- common skills and
class skills. Common skills are available to all players, and are
passive skills. Class skills must be used, usually as a right click
(though any can be set as your main attack- I'd go for something with
low MP cost), and can devastate your foes with a variety of attacks.
I discuss my opinions on these skills as best I can. You can survive
the story dungeon with extremely weak skills, so if you disagree with
my assessment of some of these skills, try them out in the shadow
vault. Additionally, with the right set of equipment, you don't
really even need any active skills to finish the story.
-------Common skills-------
Advanced Spellcasting: This skill decreases the requirements of
spell (in terms of level required) and increases your mana
regeneration rate. The regeneration boost is nice, and can be quite
useful depending on your character. This skill isn't that impressive
for spell requirement reduction since by the time you acquire this
skill, you can also equip nearly every spell. If you find yourself
needing more mana, pursue this skill with a bit more zest.
Armor Expertise: This skill increases the defense value of your
armor, increasing your durability, and also decreases the
requirements (e.g., lowers the level, strength, dex, etc.
requirements) of a piece of armor. This skill can be useful as a
default (e.g., those times when you go "I don't know what to do with
my skill points") skill. Everyone probably should aim on maxxing
this skill out.
Aventurer: Increases the rate at which you gain experience, fame,
and increases the potency of potions. A skill worth maxing out
immediately as it becomes available if you intend to play your
character for a while (in other words, take them through several
levels of the shadow vault), it will increase the rate of gaining
future points, and make you much more effective. The bonus to potion
efficiency also makes weak potions much more useful, and is a major
perk of this skill late in the game or on tough difficulties.
Bartering: Increases the selling price and decreases the buying
price of goods. Your pet also benefits from this skill, when you
send him back to town. If you find money to be an issue, get this
skill. If not, then don't bother. You'll get quite rich if you max
this skill out, but money isn't an issue so much in the last part of
the game, so don't bother with this one too much.
Block and Parry: Gives you a small chance to block all incoming
damage, without using a shield. Not too bad, consider it effectively
gives a 2% reduction in damage per point. I'd still recommend armor
expertise first, as armor expertise is more effective per point, as
it also reduces armor requirements.
Charm Spell Mastery: This skill increases the level at which you
cast charm spells. Charm spells include summon spells and a few
others. Increasing spell levels tends to increase strength and
duration of spells. If you enjoy casting a lot of spells, this skill
may be of use to you. Pets also get benefits of this skill, meaning
they will cast more powerful charm spells, especially summons.
Critical Strikes: This skill increases the damage your critical
hits do, as well as the likelihood of a critical hit (1% for each
point). If you find yourself participating in combat or casting
damage spells, get this skill- it will affect them all. Critical
strikes are common and can make a big difference.
Defensive Spell Mastery: This skill increases the level at which
you cast defensive spells. Defensive spells include healing spells,
and buffs. Increasing spell levels tends to increase strength and
duration of spells. If you enjoy casting a lot of spells, this skill
may be of use to you. Pets also get benefits of this skill, meaning
they will cast more powerful defensive spells, like heal all.
Dual Wielding: Increases the damage done by dual wielded weapons.
It doesn't matter the type of weapons (e.g., ranged or melee), this
skill benefits them all. Very nice if you use two weapons. Using
two weapons gives you the benefit of both weapons- so if one has life
leech and the other mana leech, than whenever you attack you'll steal
both life and mana.
Magic Weapons Expertise: This skill increases the damage done with
wands and staves, and decreases the requirements of these items, as
well as the requirements of rings and amulets. While that decrease
in ring and amulet bonus is nice, it's not worth grabbing this skill
unless you are using wands and/or staves.
Martial Weapons Expertise: This skill increases your melee weapon
damage as well as decreases the requirements to use them. This skill
is great if you want to use melee weapons.
Offensive Spell Mastery: This skill increases the level at which
you cast offensive spells. Increasing spell levels tends to increase
strength and duration of spells. If you enjoy casting a lot of
spells, this skill may be of use to you. Pets also get benefits of
this skill, meaning they will cast more powerful offensive spells.
Pet Mastery: This skill increases you minion and pet damage and
armor, and decreases the time it takes for your pet to go home. If
you use summons, this skill is invaluable. The bonus perk of quicker
pet trips is nice but not very important if you're patient.
Ranged Weapons Expertise: This skill increases your ranged damage
and decreases the requirements for using these items. If you used
ranged weapons, this is a very useful skill, otherwise skip it.
Treasure Hunter: Increases your gold find and magic find traits.
You'll get more cash and better items with this skill. It's worth
boosting occasionally, after maxing out your character's more
important skills.
-------Class Skills-------
Below are the skills available to individual classes. As with any
Diablo-like game, each skill will have its fans and detractors. I'd
recommend experimenting to find skills of interest to you.
*****Alchemist*****
The mage of the group, the alchemist has a choice between casting
spells, calling on summons, or becoming a melee battlemage. The
easiest is without a doubt the summoner.
++Arcane++
Ember Bolt: Casts poison bolt(s) at your enemies. A staple of the
early game, leveling it up as you proceed still provides you with a
decent skill even in late game, as multiple bolts hit for more damage
with time. This spell benefits from bonuses to poison damage, and by
equipping a poison-damage weapon. Bolt ends up stronger than ember
lance and lightning by the very late portion of the game (level 40
and higher).
Iceshock: Casts a frozen ball at foes, doing ice damage and
freezing them. The freezing effect will slow your enemies. Good
early on, weak later. You will not be able to use this skill to the
end of the game. This spell benefits from bonuses to ice damage.
You may find a frost spell to be more useful, given that you can
always replace the spell if necessary, instead of devoting skill
points to this skill.
Ember Lightning: Casts a lightning bolt at foes, doing electric
damage. Good early on, weak later. This spell benefits from bonuses
to electricity damage. You're better off going for ember lance
instead.
Ember Lance: Casts a continuous blast of ember energy at your foes.
This skill is great through the story dungeon, though is weak if you
try playing through the shadow vault. It's a staple of caster
alchemists, regardless.
Pyre: Casts a fireball at foes, doing fire damage. Has a blast
radius making it useful for crowd control. This spell benefits from
bonuses to fire damage.
Ember Strike: Great for crowd control, ember strike does a fair bit
of damage to enemies it hits. It takes a while to cast, so it's hard
to cast repeatedly. Couple with the web spell to keep enemies in its
damage zone.
++Lore++
Nether Imp- This is the staple of a summoner alchemist. The nether
imps are strong little buggers that must be summoned from a corpse
(cast the spell on the dead bodies of your foes to get one of these
fellows). Summoner alchemists will want to max this skill out to get
all 6 imps to join them. They will make short work of most mobs,
especially when you cast burning bind. NOTE: You can completely
forgo the imps and add to charm spells, and replace them with
skeletons- skeletons will tend to do more damage, and you can have
more of them (keep multiple summon skeleton spells on your character)
for an alternative to imps.
Thorned Minions- This spell protects your summons, pets, and
friends with a thorn shield, reflecting damage back onto the
attacker. This is not a strong spell, and I'd recommend this only
for dedicated summoners. Even then you can skip it and won't notice
that it's missing. You might be better off boosting your charm
school and casting summon spells instead of getting this skill.
Summon Alchemical Golem- This spell summons a healthy golem to
fight (in melee) at your side. Well worth it for all alchemists, the
golem will take a lot of heat off of you. As you increase this
skill, the golem gets more health, strength, and gets a few new
attacks.
Terror- Frightens your enemies. Skip it. Just kill them instead.
Burning Bind- The best spell for summoners, this spell increases
the attack speed and damage of your minions. Grab this spell early
and keep it active constantly. Your summons will kill everything
nearby with ease.
Summon Beam Golem- The ranged equivalent of the alchemical golem,
the beam golem attacks your foes from a distance. All alchemists
will probably want at least a point in this skill to get the added
firepower. The golem also casts electric retaliatory damage on your
foes.
++Battle++
Ember Shock: Loads electricity damage into your next attack. Has
some area-of-effect potential as well. Not bad.
Ember Shield: Absorbs some damage and prevents knockback. Can keep
you alive, but doesn't block against elemental damage (hence it's not
that useful in the late game).
Infuse: If you intend to use your alchemist in melee, get this
skill! You'll do a lot of damage with your weapons, making you much
stronger. If you're not intending on fighting much melee (e.g., are
using wands exclusively), then skip it.
Fraility: A debuff skill, primarily useful on hard-hitting late
enemies. Early on debuffing your enemies doesn't help so much, so
try this one later in the game. You have to be fairly close to the
enemy to cast this spell.
Ember Phase: A teleport skill, the only one available in the game.
Want to teleport? Then this is your skill! The biggest bonus comes
from a single point, so you're okay to just leave it at that.
Ember Sentry: A floating grain of ember follows you, zapping your
enemies. This little guy doesn't seem impressive, and is best for a
default companion.
*****Destroyer*****
The warrior of the group, the destroyer has abilities that augment
his melee abilities (the berserker tree), give him some spell-like
abilities (the Titan tree), and give him some summons and auras (the
Spectral tree).
++Berserker++
Slash Attack: The generic attack for destroyers, slash attack
attacks multiple enemies directly in front of the destroyer. It's a
good attack to start with. In terms of magic cost vs. damage, one
point will be all you need here.
Stampede: Your destroyer rushes forward, damaging all in his path.
This attack can knockback your foes. Great for closing in on ranged
foes, but the haste spell and devastate are much more versatile.
Chain Vortex: A stunning attack that does some small damage to your
enemies. You're okay skipping this one.
Spectral Echo: A ranged melee attack. It's pretty weak, and I'd
say just to run in and kill them instead.
Devastate: A constant cost spell, this skill makes you a dervish of
destruction. Pair it with the dervish spell and you'll move faster
than you can keep up. The major over-powered spell for destroyers.
NOTE: devastate breaks your aura spells, so don't use them both
together as that's a waste of skill points.
++Titan++
Soul Rend: Useful on bosses and named monsters. Not really useful
on general foes. Typically considered to be a one-point wonder.
Titan Stomp: Stuns your enemies, knocks them away, and does ice
damage. The disabling effect makes it situationally useful.
Doomquake: An offensive spell that hits foes with earthquake
damage. No knockback/stun makes it less tactically useful than titan
stomp. Consider Doomquake if playing on easy-hard, and Titan Stomp
if playing on very hard. Scales with your weapon damage.
Frost Shield: Casts a frost spell on enemies that hit you. The
damage isn't that great, but freezing the enemy slows them down.
This skill is a great defensive skill for melee destroyers.
Seismic Burst: weak damage (in late game- in the normal story
dungeon it's more than sufficient), but with a knockback. This is a
one-point wonder at best. It should not be relied on as your main
damage source, but can be used to toss a foe away from you, giving
you some breathing space. That's best done with just one point
investment. If you can couple this with aura of thorns, you'll do a
lot more damage by keeping enemies away and having your thorns hit
them constantly.
++Spectral++
Shadow Armor: A summon skill that calls up a suit of armor that
fights for you for a short time. The armor is pretty weak and
doesn't do much damage. Also, when summoned, it increases your block
chance (but not for the full extent of its casting?). Worth having
for the bonus to defense.
Entropic Aura: Slows your enemies down and may stun/interrupt them.
For non-devastate destroyers this skill can be useful.
Shadow Bowman: Summons an archer who launches missile attacks.
Also increases your damage and decreases missile attack damage done
to you. If you're interested in summons, this and the armor are the
way to go.
Aura of Thorns: Does damage to your foes as they approach you. If
you can couple this skill with a knockback skill, you'll be able to
kill your enemies from a distance.
Spectral Decay: Increases the damage monsters take, hits them with
knockback, and gives a chance to stun. This is great for melee
fighters, and allows them to charge in and weaken all of their foes.
Worth having for bosses.
*****Vanquisher*****
The archer of the group, the vanquisher has options to explore
archery, tactical melee fighting, or trap summoning. Melee
vanquishers are possible but not powerful compared to destroyers and
alchemists. They excel at ranged weapons, and can have some mightily
potent traps.
++Marksman++
Ricochet- Your arrows or bullets bounce around, doing more damage
when bouncing off of walls. These projectiles also go through
enemies, which can make them fairly useful. Some investment is
needed in order to get them up in power. Note that these attacks
have better range than your normal attack. Early on this skill is
great, though it's passed in time by seeking shot and explosive shot.
Frost Pilum: Your shots get frost with their attacks, and can
travel through foes. The frost damage slows the enemies, although I
find it unimpressive when compared to the next few abilities.
Seeking Shot: Fires three weak shots which seek out your enemy.
This is a good single opponent skill, as it triples any effects your
shots may have (like knockback, armor degradation, or health drain).
If all three hit then you have done more damage than with a single
shot. The shots are slow though, so this one is best used for a one-
on-one battle, like with a boss.
Explosive Shot: A sweet skill which does a lot of explosion damage
over and over again (for cheap!) for you. It has a blast radius,
doing great damage to groups of enemies. If you want to use the
marksman tree, use this one to deal with crowds of enemies. Use
seeking shot against solo enemies. Ricochet is great early on as
well.
Arrow Hail- causes a rain of arrows to fall down over the location
of casting. This is a versatile spell that can hit past differences
in elevation. Very recommended for at least one point. Cast a few
times on enemies waiting for you below a ledge, and they'll die
quickly. Treat this effectively as a spell and don't consider it to
be a physical attack. Notice that you will burn through mana using
this skill.
++Rogue++
I've not tried rogue skills yet extensively. Rogue skills tend to
require melee weapons, which requires a different equipment setup.
Needle Arc: Shoots out a bunch of needles in front of you. If the
foes are organized well, you can do a lot of damage. Otherwise,
you'll miss with most of them. These weapons do a bit more damage
than a regular attack. Follow up attacks with needle arc do more
damage too, which makes this skill of interest even to non-rogues.
Stab: Attacks with a powerful melee attack. This is a staple of
rogue vanquishers. Has a good chance to stun, and gives some
knockback, which makes it useful as crowd control for melee
vanquishers.
Wind of Justice: Knocks enemies away from you, stuns them, and does
some ice damage. Good for setting up a needle arc.
Venomous Dirks: A summon spell that summons poisonous daggers that
attack your foes. These do a percentage of your damage per second,
so they may be useful through the entire game. You will need to
increase your poison damage to make this skill useful, though.
Hamstring: A debuffing attack which does a bit of damage, makes you
move real fast, and slows down the foes. It's part of the melee
vanquisher build, but I don't know how well it works.
++Arbiter++
Traps are unique in that they grow with your level. So your level 50
vanquisher summons up level 50 traps. They do not benefit from your
weapon's dps, but can serve you through the story dungeon quite well.
A pure arbiter is possible, but traps are best augmenting other
skills, like marksman. A good route to choose is to pull on two main
trap types as support for your character.
Lightning Bomb: A nice early trap that does decent damage
throughout the early levels of the game. This trap benefits decently
from your magic score- increase your magic stat, and this bomb also
grows in strength.
Flame Trap: A little trap that shoots out flames at your foes.
Pretty weak, especially against fire-resistant enemies. Can work
wonders on non-resistant low level mobs, but that said, I'd skip it.
Flechette Trap: A trap that shoots bullets at your enemies. They
can bounce and hit enemies many times. Worthwhile if you're going
for a trap-heavy vanquisher. Pair it with the devouring trap to do a
lot of damage.
Devouring Trap: A debuffing trap which stuns and reduces the armor
of your enemies. Worth having for many vanquishers, the debuff
effect can be quite helpful, especially if paired with other traps.
Note that this only reduces armor, and not resistances. Best for
non-trap focused vanquishers.
Shock Trap: A little trap that lasts a few seconds and sends out
powerful bolts of lightning at your foes. This spell is quite
powerful, killing foes in one shot when you first get it, and only
improving from there.
===================3. Player Types===================
There are ~4 types of main types of characters. As a general rule of
thumb, for every 15 stat points you have, devote 4 to defense at the
least, then devote 6 to your main weapon of choice (Str for melee,
Dex for ranged, and Magic for wands/spells/staves). Devote 3 to your
second main state (e.g., magic for elemental damage users, strength
for staff users, dex for wand users), and 2 to the last stat. By the
end of the game you should be able to equip about half of all
equipment. Be sure to save up ~5-10 stat points in case you find
something extremely powerful (the game recommends not doing this, but
you will want the bonus if possible). You can play as any
combination of 2-3 of these classes, but not really all 4.
Summoners- If you want to play as a summoner, your best bet is
definitely the alchemist. The alchemist has access to Golems and
Imps, and can very easily be played as a hands-off sideline warrior.
He also has two spells which buff the summons, making them impressive
to behold. You can also play as a summoner for Destroyers and for
Vanquishers, with destroyers being easier. Destroyers get two summon
skills, whereas outside of traps, vanquishers get none. Everyone can
summon with spells, though. If you want to be a summoner, be sure to
max out pet mastery as the bonuses to armor and attack will double
the strength of your summons. Also prioritize gear with bonuses to
minion armor and damage. You will probably want to max magic for
spells, or whatever weapon you're using. Note that most summon
spells are charm spells, so if you want to choose a school to
maximize, charm is a great one.
SKILLS: Pet Mastery, Charm Spell Mastery
Casters- Casters burn mana to do lots of damage to foes. Their
primary stat is magic, naturally. They will tend to employ either
spells to do damage, or skills. Advanced spellcasting is a very
useful skill to have for casters, and depending on your spell setup,
one of the spell masteries may be quite helpful. Critical strike
will greatly enhance your spells too, so think about that spell.
Tanks- Tanks charge in, take lots of damage, and deal lots in return.
Their primary stats will be strength and defense. With these focus
on skills like armor expertise, block, critical strike, and the
weapons skill of your choice. You can either use a one-handed weapon
and shield, two weapons (the strongest, but less defense) or a two
handed weapon (least powerful in the long run, but still completely
playable). Great equipment for tanks includes anything that does
bonus damage, life leech, and, if you use skills frequently, mana
leech.
Cannons: Engage in ranged attacks. Glass cannons max out damage at
the expense of defense. Cannons will try to kill their enemies
before they even reach them. You can either use a one-handed gun or
wand and shield, two one-handed weapons, or a two handed weapon
(which can be about as strong as two one-handed weapons). Emphasize
either dexterity (guns) or magic (wands) and defense. Don't worry
about strength. Choose as your skill either magic weapons, ranged
weapons, perhaps dual wielding, critical strike, and a skill to boost
damage.
SKILLS: Ranged or Magical Weapon Expertise, Critical Strike
===================4. Spells===================
Spells work a bit differently here than they do in other games. You
can have four spells on your character. These four spells are of
offensive, defensive, and charm varieties. There are six ranks of
most of these spells- the higher the level, the stronger the spell
(and the harder it is to cast). You can also increase the level of
spells (all classes) by adding to a spell class mastery. When I
refer to "level" of a spell, I mean if you add points to a spell
class, the following are the effects.
Note that you can remove a spell by pressing control while left
clicking on a spell in your spell sheet.
Note- you can have multiple copies of the same spell if you equip
different levels, and they can stack. So you can cast elemental
overload 6, 5, 4, and 3, all in a row for a huge bonus to your
elemental damage. Similarly, you can summon up lots of skeletons by
the same means.
-------Defensive Spells-------
Draining Touch- an offensive defensive spell, draining touch
reclaims a portion of the damage you do back as health. Fairly nice,
I'd recommend considering this spell. Increasing the level and rank
of this spell increases the health stolen per hit.
Elemental Resistance- Gives you a bonus to your elemental
resistances, decreasing damage received. There are better spells out
there in general, but you may find it useful depending on your play
style. Increasing the rank and level of this spell increases the
resistances buffed.
Repel- I've not found this spell yet, but supposedly it exists
somewhere. Forces all foes back away from you. In Fate this spell
could be quite awesome, but I don't know how it is in Torchlight.
Retribution- returns some of the damage received back onto the
antagonist. I've never been a fan of thorns aura, so I'd skip this
as it doesn't help like other spells will help. Increasing the rank
and level of this spell increases the percent of damage returned to
your foes.
Heal Self- restores some of your health. Since potions are
plentiful in the game and almost inevitably more powerful than this
spell, I'd recommend not wasting a spot here other than early on in
the game (when saving a bit of cash by selling potions is helpful).
Increasing the rank and level of this spell increases the health
restored.
Heal All- restores some of your health, and the health of all your
allies (but not spell summons). This one is a fair bit more useful
than heal self, but really shines when your pet has it. I'd put it
on your pet and upgrade as you advance in levels. Increasing the
level or rank of this spell increases the health restored.
Haste- Increases your movement speed and your attack speed.
Increasing the level of this spell increases the speed boost and
duration of the spell, but the bonus to attack speed is limited by
the spell rank (I-VI). This is a useful spell for nearly everyone.
Silence- prevents your enemies from casting spells. Situationally
useful, I'd recommend this in levels with blood disciples.
Increasing the level of this spell increases the duration of the
silence, and increases the rank of the spell increases the radius of
effect.
Summon Aloe Gel- a rare spell that summons a little slime that
heals you and your allies. I think this spell is broken as it
crashed my game a few times, but others haven't had a problem. It
also isn't very reliable as a healer. Skip it- give your pet a heal
all spell instead.
Web- a rare spell that inhibits your enemies with a web. Similar
to what spiders sometimes hit you with. This is a great spell to
have on your pet. Follow a web up with any of a number of spells to
completely shred your enemies. Web immobilizes weak enemies, and
slows named and teleporting monsters. Probably one of the best
spells in the game from a tactical perspective.
-------Charm Spells-------
Charm- forces a foe to fight for you. Not a bad spell, you will
probably find it to be more helpful to summon help instead of this
spell. However, this spell probably holds better strategy than the
summon spells. It can work well on a pet, especially if you are
improving the charm school. Increasing the level of this spell
increases its duration and the rank decreases its mana cost and
cooldown.
Identify Item- acts as an identify scroll. If you find this, I'd
recommend equipping it as you can then sell off all your identify
scrolls and won't have to worry about lugging them around anymore.
The cost for each identify is dirt cheap in terms of mana, and you'll
save a lot of money over the course of the game, and won't have to
worry any more about IDing something in the middle of the dungeon.
Town Portal- A useful but rare spell that removes the need for town
portal scrolls. I wouldn't worry about this spell unless you're in
the mood to explore the shadow vault substantially. Scrolls are
useful and common enough in the main dungeon that you won't need this
spell. However, in the shadow vault you'll want to cast this spell
at the beginning of every level, if not more frequently so as to keep
the level available to you easily if you die. Having the spell gives
you much more leeway in your explorations.
Summon Archers- This spell summons 3-8 archers to defend you. They
are immobile but can provide a good distraction. At high ranks this
spells is fairly weak in terms of damage, but no other spell gives
you this many summons willing to annoy your enemies. Probably the
best of the distracting summon spells, but not the best for damage.
Increasing the level of this spell gives the archers improved damage,
and increasing the rank increases the number of skeletons received
and their duration.
Summon Blood skeleton- this spell gets you a skeleton who heals you
when it damages your foes. This spell can be useful, but I prefer
zombies. Increasing the level of this spell increases its damage.
Summon Skeleton- this one gets you a skeletal warrior. The
skeletal warrior isn't that powerful, but you can summon a lot of
them and they'll last for a decent time as well. You can get more
summons with this spell than archers, but it'll take you a while.
Increasing the level of this spell increases the damage of the
skeletons, and increasing the rank of this spell increases their
duration. This spell really makes summoners shine.
Summon Zombies- calls up three zombies to fight at your side. They
are fairly powerful, the most powerful of the charm summon spells
I've found, and they also heal the summoner (e.g., you or your pet) a
portion of the damage the do. Increasing the rank of the spell
improves the zombies, and the level of the spell increases the health
restored by them. My favorite summon spell.
-------Offensive Spells-------
Bee swarm- Summons bees to fight for you. Oooo bees!
Dervish- This spell greatly increases your attack and cast speed,
but has a long cool down. It's great for melee fighters (and
archers) and stacks with haste. Increasing the rank of this spell
increases the duration, and increasing the level increases the boost
to speed. The cool-down time is a bit of a bummer, though.
Elemental Overload- Increases the elemental damage you do by a
direct percent. If you do elemental damage (e.g., are a caster or
use wands/staves) then this is an excellent spell. You can have two
or more of these scrolls on your character, so long as they are at
different ranks, and can cast them all (and they stack!), making this
spell extremely useful for element-focused characters. Increasing
the rank of this spell increases its duration, and increasing the
level increases the percentage boost.
Fireball- launches a fireball at your enemies. Does fire damage.
Increasing the rank and level of this spell increases the damage.
Use this if you like fire damage. I prefer having more tactical
spells.
Frost- shoots three frost shards at your foes. Does ice damage,
and slows an enemy. Increasing the rank of this spell increasing the
duration of slow, and the level increases the damage done. Use this
if you like ice damage. Great for pets, probably the best offensive
spell for pets due to the slowing effect.
Poison Cloud- Launches a poison cloud at your foes. Foes take
damage by sitting in the cloud, but otherwise unremarkable and
doesn't improve with level. Note that I have not found this spell
yet, or tried it.
Summon Flaming Sword- this spell summons a sword to fight by your
side. It's fairly strong, and can do good damage. Increasing the
level of this spell gives the sword a chance to critical hit your
foes and degrades their armor with each hit. Increasing the rank
increases the duration the summon is active.
===================5. Items===================
There are five classes of items, although one of these classes
overlaps three other classes. These items can make or break your
character, and the proper equipment setup makes a huge difference.
These five item classes are normal (white text), enchanted (green
text), rare (blue text), unique (gold text), and set (purple text).
Note that set items are enchanted, rare, or unique. Some set items
are quite common (like Gorgon's and Midas's). If you collect a few
set items, they will give you bonuses. It's hard to collect full
sets of armor, so be happy when you find two of a kind.
Note that items have a level requirement which can be reduced by
increasing certain passive skills. Also note that if an item has a
level requirement, that influences where you can find it (in other
words, a level 10 unique item isn't going to be found in a dungeon
filled with level 50 monsters). In order to complete low level sets
you will have to go back and play a lower level with a low-experience
character.
To maximize your inventory, first of all, decide what type of
damage you'd like to have (e.g., physical, or elemental- if
elemental, then fire, ice, electricity, or poison?). Try to select
items that augment this damage, preferably as a percent. Stat
bonuses are also nice on items, but you can make it so that you can't
equip a nice piece of equipment if you become too dependent on items
with stat bonuses. Resistances are also nice but can always be
socketed into an item. Armor bonuses are also common, and can make a
difference. Reflect missile damage is common, but not so useful
(though having a high rate of reflection is- you can become
invulnerable to some of the most annoying enemies in the game if you
have 100% chance to reflect missiles on your armor!). Reflecting a
few melee damage is basically a waste of a magic ability.
Magic find, gold find, and experience gain are fairly common on
rings and necklaces, and can be good bonuses to accrue. Casting
speed is also fairly common and affects all of your skills. Attack
speed and movement speed bonuses are rarer, but nice on equipment.
Rare bonuses include fear casting on hit, charming on hit,
increased range of attacks, bonuses to skills (e.g., + 1 to dual
wielding- you only get this if you have invested one point already in
dual wielding though, but these items do make it worthwhile to do
so), bonuses to critical hit chance (fairly nice). Bonuses to pet
armor and damage are rare but critically valuable for a summoner
(mainly because they act as percentages, meaning your summons become
hugely more powerful).
NOTE: Mana leech and health leech only work on normal attacks, and do
not benefit special attacks (like explosive shot). If you need to
boost HP, go for a normal attack.
NOTE 2: You can enchant your items using either enchant shrines, or
Goren. Enchant shrines work better and have a smaller chance of
removing all enchantments.
NOTE 3: Faster attack speed applies only to normal attacks. Faster
casting speed applies to all spells and skills, so if you use skills
(which you likely will by end-game) then go for casting speed
bonuses.
More bizarre and rare are bonuses to selling prices, increases in
fishing luck, and a few that seem to be jokes.
===================6. Ember===================
Early in the game you will run across items with sockets. Into these
sockets you can place a variety of objects, the most important and
abundant of which is ember. You may also socket chaos gems or bits
of fish, both of which are fairly weak relative to fully upgraded
ember.
Ember comes in nine different transmutable varieties: Cold, Core,
Deep, Eyeballs, Fire, Flow, Life, Pure, and Skulls. These have
different effects, respectively, and I refer you to kirbob's great
FAQ on these effects.
Ember comes in 10 different qualities. These have distinct effects
on your socketed items (again look at kirbob's FAQ).
You can either purchase these from the ember merchant or from random
dungeon merchants, find them in your explorations, or get them from
transmuted goods.
In general, merchants will sell cracked or dull ember, rarely
offering much better than that. Still, as money becomes plentiful,
which it will for any second play-through character, go ahead and buy
it occasionally. The Torchlight merchant gets new inventory whenever
you explore the dungeons.
Monsters will also occasionally drop ember. The only ones that do so
repeatedly are Medea, mimics, and the ember beast (level 24). You
will also occasionally find ember in secret areas of the map.
Of these I'd strongly recommend the transmutation route to getting a
supply of ember. You will find a lot of junky magic items in your
journey. You can either trade them for a few hundred gold (often
much less!), or you can transmute them, saving several hundred in
ember purchases (and also building up your socketable items). Four
green magical items will transmute to a random piece of ember,
usually of dull quality, though sometimes of cracked quality (most
often for skulls). Four blue magical items will also transmute to
the same quality of ember. Note that both blue and green items
include fish pieces like ember fish eyes and chaos gems, so you can
get ember from these items as well. If it has an outlined boundary
it will give you ember. If you decide to transmute four unique items
you will get a piece of vanilla (blank) ember.
If you're a perfectionist, you'll probably want to socket the best
ember you can find in your goods, especially your heirloom. That
likely means a piece of unique ember. However, note that making a
piece of unique ember will require a total of 512 cracked pieces of
the same ember. Start collecting early if you want to go this route!
Given that Triya will stock around about 3 pieces of cracked ember
each time you visit her from the dungeons at that there are nine
varieties of ember, that means that to make the finished ember piece
you will need to visit her 1500 times. Alternatively, you will need
to break down 9000 magic items, which corresponds to about 1800 full
inventories from dungeons. Better get cracking!
You have the option of having either a cat or a dog as a pet, with no
difference between the two, or an imaginary pet (which doesn't fight
for you but which can still take your junk back to Torchlight). The
pet is an invaluable companion, often doing as much or more damage
than you. You can change your pet by feeding it fish, and can send
it home to sell junk to merchants in torchlight. Pets will take 10
seconds per level of dungeon to sell your items, to a maximum of 2
minutes. You can greatly improve your pet by taking the pet mastery
skill, if you find that to be of interest. Your pet will NOT sell
quest items.
Pets (and all minions) can be set to an aggressive stance (attacking
all enemies on screen) by clicking on the sword icon beneath their
name on the upper left side of the screen. Clicking on the shield
makes them attack only when you are attacked. You will want the
aggressive stance most of the time, especially if playing as a
summoner. The defensive stance is more useful if you are annoyed by
increased monster aggression.
Pets can equip two rings and an amulet. I'd recommend rings or
amulets that improve damage (+ elemental, especially electricity),
health, and possibly resistances. Pets also benefit from magic find
and gold find bonuses, but not from experience gain bonuses.
Increase the power and strength of your pet and summons with items
with bonuses to minions (+ health, + damage, + armor, among others).
These are very useful for summoners.
You can change a pet by feeding them fish. You can go fishing in
holes encountered in the dungeon and one in Torchlight.
Fishing is done by pressing the hook button when the two circles meet
and flash red briefly. If done properly you'll grab a fish. Fish
are fairly useful and fall into a number of categories. Your success
here is proportional to your level- you will not get great items
fishing at level 1! The deeper in the dungeon you are, the more
likely you will be to fish up something nice.
Pet Shapechanges: Some fish will change the form of your pet.
Simple fish will change your pet for 2 minutes, giving them a number
of special abilities (like dashing attacks, poison attacks, spells,
and other goodies). Big fish change your pet for a full hour. Giant
fish will change them permanently. You will typically find these
three types of fish in a 100:10:1 ratio, with weaker forms more
common. I found it quite useful to transfer a giant fish (in my case
an ice angel- transformation to ice elemental) to a new character,
giving the pet a huge boost. You can also buy a catfish/dogfish to
reverse a transformation (though I wouldn't- just feed them a cheap 2
minute transformation to remove the effect). Note that if you feed
your pet a giant fish, then feed them a normal or big fish, they will
revert back to dog/cat form after the duration has ended.
Pet Buffs: A few, rarer fish will give your pet a boost to their
stats- making them better in combat or better at finding good items.
Boots: Yup, you can sometimes pull boots out of the water. They
tend to be rare quality or better, and will be close to your level.
Fishing for boots gets you some about one time in 50 or so.
Fish Meat: Two varieties of fish meat can be procured, which act as
joint health and mana potions. With consumables fish meat is the
second most common item you'll pull during fishing, making up about
20% of what you dig up.
Consumables: A bit rarer, you may find some consumable fish. These
include ember fish eyes (bonus to experience gained for a few
minutes), bearded fish (armor bonus for a few minutes) and others.
Many of these also count as rare items, allowing you to get dull
ember from transmuting them. Note that you may even be able to claim
a few very rare permanent stat boosting fish, though they are
exceptionally uncommon.
Socketables: You can also find some uncommon items that can be
socketed, but not improved. These include fish scales, fish teeth,
and other goods. The bonuses these give aren't that great, but make
for good options while waiting to improve your ember.
Other: You may occasionally grab a gold fish (good value for
selling) or some other, more bizarre items. Four unique items can be
found, and may even be transmutable...
The game is fairly straight-forward. Kill your foes in the story
dungeon, and have fun in the random ancillary dungeon(s). If you've
played any sort of Diablo-like game you'll probably recognize the
monsters that attack you too, so I won't give you too many hints for
how to beat them. Upon completion of the story dungeons, the Shadow
Vault opens with an endless supply of levels to explore and loot.
You can also access random levels by purchasing maps, pursuing
quests, killing phase beasts or using the Ember Scholar's map levels.
-------Torchlight-------
Your main hub in the game. You can find a lot to do here.
Vasman-talk with Vasman to start the ember quests. He will want you
to find a piece of ember in each major region of the game. Ember
will be found on levels 1, 5, 10, 18, 23, 28, and 33. Be sure not to
miss them, as Vasman will give you a unique map scroll which takes
you to a new dungeon. Your first reward is a chaos gem.
Duran- the transmuter. Duran provides a valuable service of
upgrading your goods. Give him two equal ember and he will upgrade
them to the next level. Give him four and he'll upgrade them two
levels higher (no difference either way). Give him four magic items
(green or blue boundaries) and he'll turn them into either a cracked
or dull ember. Give him four unique items and he'll turn them into a
plain (4th level) ember. Other tricks you can do include turning
three magic rings into a random ring, three magic necklaces into a
random necklace, 3 potions of one level to one of the next level, and
a few weirder things (google it!). NOTE: If you try to transmute 4
chaos gems, you will get a random dull/cracked ember in exchange- the
chaos gems can not be upgraded!
Gorn will destroy an item to retrieve the jewels socketed within.
That allows you to reuse valuable ember and other items.
Furl will destroy gem and other things socketed into an item. If you
placed a low-level jewel into a high-level item, this is the way of
remedying that mistake.
Duros is a gambling man. You can buy overpriced unidentified items
from him to see if you get something very powerful. I have typically
found extremely rare or unique items in about 1 every 20 gambles.
Kolos is the smith. He sells weapons and armor. Occasionally he
will stock set and unique items, but not often. Check with him
frequently to see if he has anything valuable, and to upgrade your
wares through the main game. You'll soon surpass his wares if you
explore the shadow vault for a while.
Tarn sells minor items like potions and scrolls (identify and town
portal) and occasionally fish (only cat fish or dog fish though).
He's your best friend for selling to begin with, but if you find the
identify spell you'll probably never speak to him again.
Goren enchants your items for a fee. Each time you enchant, there is
a chance that the item will lose all of its enchantments. There is
also a chance that the enchantment will fail, wasting your money.
I've found that failing to enchant occurs most often when your item
already has a lot of enchantments on it. I've also found that
failing to enchant can increase the likelihood of removing all
enchantments. Goren is similar to shrines of enchantment, although
the shrines have a much lower chance of having a bad effect
(dispelling all enchantments, or not enchanting), and the effects
from Goren aren't that strong. Still, he is useful.
Triya is the ember merchant here, and if you want to perfect your
items, or cast spells, she's your best friend. She also sells rings,
amulets, wands, and staves. She will tend to sell only cracked ember,
but you may occasionally find some better than that, usually for much
cheaper than two cracked ember, making it worthwhile if you're trying
to build your equipment up.
Stash: Your stash is a large chest capable of holding your items.
Store whatever you like here- I tend to keep items possibly useful at
first, and switch to ember later in the game.
Transfer Chest: You can share items between characters here. This
is a great place to put set items that have become obsolete, giant
fish, and odd spells for your characters. You can also exchange
ember here, and this is really the only way to grow you collection to
perfect and greater ember in the normal game.
Hatch will give you a series of quests to retrieve artifacts from
long forgotten portals. You get a quest to do so every time you
enter a new zone after the mines. Beat Brink to get the first quest.
These levels are tougher than the story levels, but more rewarding as
well. They are two floors each.
Trill-Bot 4000: Also talk with Trill to get a second set of story-
dungeon quests, to kill unique monsters. Do so for gold, fame, and
loot. The monsters are on levels 1 (sometimes skipped), 3, 5, 6, 7,
10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, 30, 32, and
33.
-------Story Dungeon-------
Go west as you enter, kill the few foes, and Torchlight is freed of
difficulties. Talk with Syl to start the main quest- to go find her
friend Brink. Talk with Trill and Vasman to begin other story line
quests.
-------Mines-------
Go down the mine. The next four levels are mine levels. Scrolls,
primarily town portal and identify, but sometimes spells, can be
found on Foreman's tables. Also, use any plungers you see to blow
open a secret area full of goods. Watch out for holes and chutes as
rat- or bat-people will often storm out of them. You will encounter
Brink on level 2. He will be an undying companion until level 4. If
you want to buff up your character a bit, use some purchasable maps
while you have Brink for the added firepower.
On level 4 you find Master Alric. He mutates Brink into an enemy.
Kill Brink, and grab the potion he drops for a permanent boost to
your defense skill. Syl will appear and tell you to continue to
explore, heading into the crypts to find a cure for the corruption in
you. Loot the area and activate the nearby way-point so as to return
to this area without hassle.
-------Tomb of the Awakened-------
The crypt level. Scrolls can be found here on lecterns. Also, be on
the lookout for levers. They tend to open secret passages or secret
doors. Other times secret paths also slide out as you approach them.
You may encounter a group of three levers. Use them in the right
order (watching lights come on) to open a secret area. There are
lots of traps here as well, where if you attempt to open a chest,
you'll be swarmed by undead. Kill them and take their stuff.
Level 6 is the Lair of the Sisters. It starts out as a normal level,
but ends with a boss fight. Read the book at the end after grabbing
all the items, and kill the sisters. GO down the stairs. Level 7 is
normal again.
Level 8 is the overseer's chambers. Light the brazier, and kill him.
He drops an eye which will permanently increase your health by 25.
Now activate the waypoint across the bridge and Syl will come to talk
with you.
-------Estherian Ruins-------
The Obligatory swamp level. These are my favorite levels. Head to
speak with Syl, and you have three options to explore. Do them from
top to bottom to do them in order (and this way you don't have to
worry about missing a quest).
These ruins have lots of secrets. Keep your eye out for vine-covered
walls. You can usually go through these. If you see an open area in
the walls on your map, sometimes if you wait patiently, a path will
rise out of the swamp water for your to explore a secret area. You
will usually encounter at least one area here that holds a bunch of
fish, which is a nice addition to your pet's repertoire.
The final level (16) of this region holds tu'tara lizardmen,
elementals, and others. Head to the SE to leave the final platform
and continue to the next region. Trigger the waypoint, and Syl will
come and ask you to kill the earthquake-causing monster.
-------Tu'Tara -------
This is the waterfall/floating island level. There are fewer secrets
here, at most a bridge will lead to an island with some coins on it.
Tu'tara are lizard men. They come in three colors- red, with shield
that block your attacks, orange who are shooters or melee warriors
with a rush attack, and blue who lob magic energy at you and can heal
their friends.
You may encounter phase beasts here who on death, summon a portal to
a secret area. The secret area will hold lots of treasure and tough
enemies.
Level 20 holds the ember giant. Kill it for a lot of ember.
-------Goblin Dungeons-------
The obligatory lava level. Goblins will dominate this region. The
most dangerous goblins I found were the hunters. These launch
dynamite at you which can explode and remove half of your health.
This region introduces horns. Blow on the horn to move a bridge and
access a secret area. You may also find phase beasts, kill them to
explore their secret portals. Note that the beasts behind the secret
portals will be tougher than those on the main level.
24 is the prison stronghold, and holds a waypoint. It is guarded by
a nasty troll named Krag. Kill his trollmasters to make him weaker
(and claim some fame), then kill him. Syl comes and chats with you.
-------Lost Fortress-------
Dwarves roam this area. Here you also encounter traps in the form of
spikes that pop up from the ground. Secret areas aren't too secret
here, so you shouldn't have too much difficulty finding them.
Ballistas here do damage to anyone in front of them. They aren't
otherwise helpful.
On level 27 Syl will use the ember forge and clear you of corruption.
Alric of course kidnaps Syl.
Level 29 holds a waypoint and the cat-monster Medea.
-------Black Palace-------
This is one of the more annoying areas as it's hard to see where to
go next and the levels are also quite large. Dragonkin and dark
servants/disciples are the most common here. Two things of note here
include blue portals which summon cat monsters (about 4 each) and
teleporters, which are red circular platforms on the ground.
Teleporters usually take you to a secret area with loot, so be on the
lookout for them. Phase beasts may also be found in this region.
On floor 31 you'll find Syl guarded by a boss. Free her and follow
her to a waypoint.
Level 34 holds Alric. Hit him until he runs away.
Level 35 holds Ordrak. This is a tough fight, so keep up your
defenses. He summons dragonkin as well as enslaved skeletons. Hit
him with your strong attacks. When he falls, Syl congratulates you.
New things open up back in Torchlight for you to explore.
-------Purchasable Maps-------
You can acquire a number of maps whose names are succeeded by numbers
from random merchants in the dungeons or from the ember merchant.
These maps open a new level for you to explore. The number after the
map name describes the maximum level of the foes you will find on the
level. A map described as 1-10 will have foes of max level 9 (I
think), which will also be of similar level to you (so if you are
level 4, they will also be around level 4). These levels are a great
way to get a lot of loot and fame, since they inevitably will have at
least two unique foes on each level. Each map opens a level with two
floors. Note that if you die and choose to resurrect at town you
will lose access to the map level. You can return if you use an
identical map scroll, but that's not guaranteed. I would suggest
trying at least one of these maps when you have recruited Brink, just
to get a bit of experience for the coming fight.
-------Post-Ordrak-------
Goldenrod will now let you retire. If you do so, then you can
bequeath an heirloom to your ancestors. An heirloom is an item that
gains 10% to all of its stats, or +1, whichever is greater. So if
your ring gives you 200 resistance to fire, then your heirloomed ring
will get 220 resistance to fire. Alternatively, if your bow gives
you a 1 m greater firing distance, you will get a 2 m greater firing
distance. Note however, that you probably shouldn't heirloom any
item that gives a bonus to health, as it starts going crazy if you do
repeatedly. Also, elemental damage bonuses (as integer increases,
not percents) can also be quite buggy.
The Shadow Vault has now opened, and three questgivers are associated
with it:
Vasman now gives you a quest to recover ember from a floor below in
the Shadow Vault. There is one of these quests for each floor of the
Shadow Vault.
Valeria wants you to kill a unique enemy a floor below in the Shadow
Vault. There is one of these quests for each floor of the Shadow
Vault.
Gar wants you to find an item a floor below in the Shadow Vault. Be
sure you don't sell it! There is one of these quests for each floor
of the Shadow Vault.
-------Secret Maps-------
These maps are given to you by Vasman for completing his ember
quests. They open up unique dungeons with puzzles. They can be
tough as they are filled with foes of your level (on normal
difficulty), as well as traps. Equivalently, they are highly
rewarding.
Crypt- Your goal here is to fill up the central pool. First head
south and pull the lever. GO north then and pull the lever. GO
through the central room. Head past the flame throwers and use the
levers to open a bridge. Your reward is an enchantment shrine and
bunch of stuff.
Swamp- Squishy walls! Watch out and time your run to make it through
the squishy walls and get to the end. Your pet and summons will
likely get squished, which will kill your summons and scare your pet.
Use the lever, then go back to the front. Go up the stairs, use the
levers, then through another set of squisher walls.
Lava- this one is all about the levers and doors. You will have to
pull the levers sequentially so as to open the final door to a
bridge.
Dwarven fortress- your goal here is to use the nearby levers to open
up the central spiked-floor passage. First put them RLR to get to
the left passage. Pull the lever, then do LLL. Pull the lever.
Finally do LRL to make it to the center, and leave the map.
-------Shadow Vault-------
The shadow vault is a series of random levels that are chosen from a
variety of the areas in the story dungeon. There's no rhyme or
reason, but these levels can hold secrets just like the story level.
The shadow vault opens up after you finish the story level, but
remains open for all your ancestors. There are three quests
available for each board of the shadow vault. The main purpose of
these levels is to test your mettle against tough, constant foes.
You can find some excellent items, and get a lot of fame.
