The Curse of Feldar Vale Beginner’s Guide

This guide is mainly intended to help beginner players to the game, but could also be useful to other players with some of the suggestions and tactics.

Introduction

The Curse is a classic RPG game where you create your party & then venture forth to save Feldar Vale.

After the game boots, you will be presented with the Main Menu. There are a number of choices, but for now, we are only interested in “New Adventure”. This Main Menu page can be accessed any time in-game with the “Menu” button if you wish to look at the “Player Guides” or “Options”.

New Adventure

When you click “New Adventure” you are presented with 3 options:

“Set Advanced Rules”, “Game Save Settings” & “Create Your Party”.

You can simply go with the default settings for the first 2 & the game plays fine.

However, in “Set Advanced Rules” there are 2 settings you may wish to alter – game difficulty (“AI Personality’) & “Experience Allocation”. Experience can be allocated to just the unit performing certain actions or that experience can go into a shared pool or a mix of both. Make your choice. (“Set Advanced Rules” can be accessed at the end of any turn during gameplay if you wish to change any settings later). Then “Close” the page.

In “Game Save Settings” you may wish to decide how/when you want to save games.

Create Your Party

You can either go with the default party or create your own. To become fully involved with the game I suggest you create your own party – and this is where it gets very interesting.

There are 8 ‘party points’ allowed for any party. Each single class, level 1 unit uses 1 point. A dual class unit, (having 2 classes) & level 1 uses 2 points. If you raise any unit to level 2 then you double the points used; for level 3 (maximum starting level allowed) you triple the points used. There are so many possible combinations of classes, levels & number of units to the party. Don’t just think of 6 single class, level 1 units as this only uses 6 of the 8 allowable points. Get creative!

Don’t be overwhelmed by all the stats when rolling a unit. There are a total of 45 things you can change in ‘Attributes’, ‘Combat’ & ‘Protection’. But when rolling your unit there are only 2 attributes that will change with each roll for non spell casters (like a warrior) – ‘Hit Points’ & ‘Intelligence’. While for spell casters, ‘Mana’ also changes. All other stats remain the same with every roll. The starting gear also changes with each roll, as do the starting spells available to arcane spell casters – mages & battlemages. So, you might want to check these out too when rolling your unit. If you like the unit rolled, then ‘Save/close’ to add them to your party. If you change your mind later you can ‘Dismiss Unit’ to remove them from the party. If you don’t like the rolled unit, then just ‘Cancel’ to go back to the ‘Create Unit’ page & try again. ‘Species’ & ‘Unit Class’ selection can also affect 1 or more of the stats, especially the Rogue. But this change is constant for every role.

You now have to decide upon the makeup of your party. As you will need healing often, a cleric type (straight cleric or dual class cleric) is almost essential. It helps even more if you have 2 cleric types. There are many traps & secrets to detect, so a rogue, or a unit with some searching & disarm traps abilities is also essential. A bonus of the rogue is its ability to gain experience points every turn while ‘hiding’. If you use the pooled experience option, then all party members benefit from this. A rogue is a relatively weak fighting character, but coupled with archer as a dual class, archer/rogue, it becomes a much stronger fighter. The rest of the party makeup is in your hands.

There are so many different ways to create your party! Do you make a level 3 unit? Do you go with 4 level 1 units & 2 dual class level 1 units (to make your 8 party points)? Do you go with 4 dual class level 1 units? How about 2 level 3 units & 2 level 1 units? Or even 2 dual class level 2 units?

Once you have your party assembled, you are not yet ready to venture forth. For each unit, under ‘Profile’, you will see they have ‘Character Points’ available to distribute through those 45 stats to improve each unit. Each stat costs between 1 & 20 points to improve it by 1. Just click ‘Allocate’ & distribute the points.

Spell casters also need to choose the spells they want as their starting spells. From the ‘Profile’ page, click on ‘Memorized’ along the top of the screen & then click any spell level where you have spells listed (eg 2/2). This will show you the spells you have already memorized, but you can replace them by clicking the ‘Replace’ button for each spell. You can replace spells at any time through the game after you have rested for 8 hours or more.

The final thing you can do is click ‘Combat’ along the top of the screen & then you will see a ‘Weapon Specialization’ blue button on the lower center of the screen. Unless a unit rolled a really good starting weapon & you want to make that weapon type your specialization (gain bonuses for the weapon), I would suggest you wait until you get to know the damage & strength bonuses for each weapon type before you choose a weapon specialization.

Combat

Now that you have your party ready & raring to go, begin adventuring. Very soon you will encounter enemy. By hovering the mouse pointer over an enemy unit you can gain info on it – like how many hit points it has & how many squares it can move. This can be useful in deciding tactics. It is also handy to see when spell casters have used all their mana & no longer pose such a threat to you.

Another interesting feature of the game is the use of height advantage in fights. If you hover the mouse pointer over any square you will get info on the square, including an ‘H’ value, where ‘H’ is the height of that square. You will usually see H:0, but if there is an object like a table on that square, you will see H:1, meaning it is 1 level higher than base 0. Bonuses to attack & damage are awarded from an elevated location. So, always check out the free squares you can reach around a fight to see whether you can use any raised location to your advantage. Always check for this advantage. Every advantage you can use is a bonus.

Another useful tactic to use in fights, especially if you are suffering badly, is to move out of sight of the enemy. If they can’t see you, then they will not follow you. You now have time to heal your injuries and even camp! This ‘hit & run/hide’ tactic is very useful against very strong opponents. However, the opponents will also heal over time, so camping for a long time may undo any damage you had inflicted. Use the tactic wisely.

Adventuring

There are many secret doors & chests in the game as well as hidden traps, so take your time & search carefully. If you suspect a trap or secret door may be hidden in an area, it is worth spending several turns stationary & just searching. Each turn there is a percentage chance of hidden objects appearing, depending on each unit’s search number. Be patient & search until you are satisfied.

There are also hidden objects that don’t appear from searching. You have to move onto the square where the object is hidden (like in a wardrobe, under a bed, etc).

NEVER open a door to a room unless all units have all their move points & action point available.

If you have a rogue, if they are doing nothing else in a turn, then have them try to hide. When they are hidden, they gain experience every turn. They also do extra damage (increasing with level) if they attack while hidden.

Mages don’t get spells automatically like clerics. If a spell is not in their initial starting few, then the spell scroll for a spell they want needs to be bought at the shop or found while adventuring & ‘used’ (scribed) into their spell book.

Apples are used as food. Always try to ensure you have plenty of apples (60 max). If you run out then you will suffer.