Released on December 3, 2001 for Playstation 2, October 22, 2002 for Xbox, and November 20, 2002 for Gamecube, Dark Alliance annoyed Baldur's Gate fans by turning their beloved epic RPGs into a hack-and-slash action game. Players pick between three fantasy archetypes and set out to vanquish a vague evil.
Best time as the Archer: easy 0:59:04 by Patrik 'Cremator' Salonen on 2008-01-13 in 21 segments.
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Author's comments:
Commenting time... okay, so instead of writing a huge block of text that really doesn't say anything, I'm just going to tell the less obvious parts to aid you see what's going on.
- The contents of the various containers, like barrels and chests, are randomized as they're opened. The content is picked from a batch of pre-made sets; this made available for me to get the first recall potion from the secret chest
- Some chests have fixed content, like the one from which I got the Morning Star of distruption +1
- In the Bugbear Chieftain fight I utilize a glitch to disable (most of) BC's minions. To do that, I have to attract their attention before triggering the cut scene. This is done by hurting the Bugbear I dragged with me into the room. I kill it, too, since it would pose a considerable threat in the BC fight
- Apparently, the hp-regeneration operates at sub-hp levels, so I'm seemingly dead in some points of the run (the health gauge goes empty some times). However, I'm still very much alive
- Fastest method of traveling is jumping, which is done thoughout the run
- Repulsion is a handy method to make way, but since I have to wait before moving again, I used it only in a few selected places
- Alternative way to cross the dropping platforms is to either jump very fast, jump on platforms that are already falling or jump from the very edge of the platform, effectively crossing a gap between two distant platforms
- While the Onyx Sword might be the best thing for killing Eldrith by default, killing the Onyx Golem to get it takes way too much time. Bastard Swords, Great Swords, etc. have high enough damage rating to rival the Onyx Sword so I pick one up on the go. The Onyx Tower isn't exactly too packed with such weapons, to I took segment 20 as it is, even though one of the minotaurs managed to head-butt me. I saved a lot of time by getting the weapon in this segment instead of segment 21.
Here's some parts that could be improved to get a better time:
- Do segment 1 & 2 better; most timeloss in the run occurs here
- Do segment 9 in two parts to get better co-operation with the two bosses
- Do not get hit by any ice spell or attack
- Buy Exploding Arrow at the same time as you buy Repulsion
- Make sure you have arrows & mana potion before you enter the dwarven mines
- Get more criticals
- Get luckier
- Get less "damaged & recovery" animations
Seeing this is the first run of the game to be actually finished, I'm content with the tricks and route I came up with from scratch. I got some help from Lag.Com and ZenicReverie, and credit from the ideas about crossing directly the platform jumping part in the Thieves' Guild and using Exploding Arrows against Illvarra goes to them, respectively.
If you want to contact me, I can be found in the SDA forums by the username of "Cremator", or you can use email. My address is cremator AT mail DOT com.
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