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Summary

Enemies	Plagued ones (melee, ranged, shaman), big plagued ones
Special	Map already explored, Eddin, enemies that kill in one hit, must return and kill everything
Saves	3 total: start, middle, end
Portal	End
Chests	16
Bosses	None
Exits	The Wilderness (previous area), the Great Glacier

Description

Before you get very far into this area, a guy named Eddin will speak to about the horrible plagued ones who have gained power from the Shard. Now they can kill you with one successful hit until you steal the Shard from the following area. You can change gears and start thinking like Solid Snake and sneak by them... but there is a better way (see below). When you have the Shard of Storms, you must return to this area (take the portal) and kill all the enemies before leaving the Plane.

The enemies can be lumped into two groups while they are enchanted by the Shard... those that walk around on patrol (the bigger ones are faster and tougher) and those that sit in one place. It is easy to avoid the stationary enemies -- just don't get too close. The map is already explored and you can see the exit at the portal if you go down the left passage. Look at the yellow triangles on your map. One might be another player in a multiplayer game but the rest are walking monsters. They are ones that are going to give you trouble. Just stay out of their line of sight by walking behind them and go into alcoves when they turn around.

These are the same things you encountered in the Plane of Disease and they can be stunned with any attack. You may want to sneak by some of the monsters, and kill other rather than trying to sneak by all of them, but this will alert the stationary enemies who will walk over and check out the noise. You cannot let the stationary enemies notice you as most have ranged attacks. To kill the patrols, you can use a continuous damage attack (such as fire, poison and even a potion will do) to knock them over and then hit them with one of your good attacks. Killing them is easy in multiplayer if you use the standard boss fight strategy of getting one person to block while the other attacks. Just make sure you don't get hit and it will die like every other monster. After you have the Shard, they are easy to kill and unlike most areas, you will have to kill all the enemies in this area.

The Better Way

You can do this area quickly and easily if you just run through it. The trick is if you get seen, you can gate out to make all enemies forget they saw you. This can be dangerous as you will return to the exact same location when you gate back. When you gate back in you should have enough time to move away unless you gated out in a very bad position, or if you are playing online and you are experiencing lag.

Save at each of the three save points (if clear of enemies) and do not save in the Plane of Tranquility in case you have to load. Before you try, make a backup of your save game in a new slot before you encounter any enemies as a "just in case" save you can go back to. Buy a bunch of scrolls (12 should do) and if you don't have a good spell that is quick to cast and does continuos damage, buy a few poison potions. Spells that incapacitate rather than damage (such as Root & Entangle) are also very useful. Then just follow the map. If there is an enemy in front of you, throw a potion or spell to stun him. If there are a bunch of enemies behind you, gate out. In no time you will be at the exit.


Most Efficient Route

Ignore all chests until later as you must return to this area anyway. Follow the obvious path until you can see a thin ledge off to the left, and take it to get to the portal. If at any point you have an enemy following you that is faster than you, or have alerted some stationary monsters, or are approaching a save point... gate out and then back in. After you have the Shard of Storms, return and kill all monsters in this area.


Fastest Route

Same as above.