Overview
This guide is dedicated to helping new players find their way through the early game and difficult learning curve as a Mercenary.
I. Intro
The Age of Decadence pulls a lot of its gameplay mechanics and inspirations from old-school cRPGs. It is a tough game, and on your first playthrough you will die. Probably a lot. The fact that there’s an achievement for dying over 100 times and reloading speaks for itself; however, if you look at the achievement charts for people who have played this game, the most acquired achievement comes from dying in the tutorial fight, and the least acquired achievements come from actually completing a game ending.
A lot of people give up on the game based on how difficult the combat is, so I decided to write this guide in hopes that it will help ease newer players through their first playthrough; that way, when they play through it again they have a level of meta-knowledge.
II. The Mercenary: Stats and Combat Skills
The first question is: Why Mercenary?
The game’s preliminary message encourages you to try and avoid fights whenever possible, which is only half correct: you should avoid fights that you KNOW you can’t win, but in fights you CAN win you’ll be mopping the floor with your enemies’ bodies. By the end of the game, it’s highly possible that you will have accrued around 200 kills. In this guide, you’ll be joining the Imperial Guard, whose storyline mostly consists of killing people – what the mercenary excels at.
The stats I have chosen are:
8 strength
9 dexterity
9 constitution
6 perception
4 intelligence
4 charisma
For combat and civil skills, we’ll be starting with:
4 sword
3 block
3 critical strike
2 alchemy
2 trade
Strength, of course, will give you a damage boost. You may wonder why dexterity is higher than strength, and the reasons are this: dexterity determines how many action points you have per turn, where you are in a combat’s turn order (sometimes being able to move first will determine how successful you are in a fight), and provides a boost To Hit Chance (THC) for swords, daggers, and spears. Constitution determines your health and affects your block skill (if you want, you can take 7 strength and 10 constitution, but I personally prefer 8 and 9, respectively).
Perception will give you a bonus to your THC past 6, but we’re going to leave it as is. Intelligence and Charisma will remain at 4, since they are dump stats for a Mercenary – they are amazing for a non-combat character, but as a mercenary will be solving our problems with our sword (and occasionally intimidating the bejeezus out of potential foes).
For our combat skills, I will be focusing on sword-and-board tactics with critical strike. All weapons in AoD have unique abilities; the sword is an “all-around” weapon that comes in many different forms, but its unique ability gives its wielder a chance to cause its opponent to bleed. While the damage may seem negligible at first, it stacks with itself AND with critical strike’s bleed. Don’t be surprised to sometimes see enemies bleed for 9 damage per turn. Critical Strike itself is an “okay” skill – sometimes it will feel like it procs when you don’t need it to, and never procs when you need it most. However, like your attributes, it can be used for some skill checks, and we will actually be using it liberally in this guide.
For our civil skills, we will only be starting with 2 alchemy and 2 trade. An alchemy skill 2 will allow you to brew poisons from Kadura Leaves, and Healing Salves from Emoryl Root. Keep in mind that you cannot use healing salves during combat. 2 points in trade is sufficient for our mercenary – you won’t be achieving any skill checks, but the amount of extra money you’ll make from the spoils of your enemies will build up over time.
III. The Beginning
The mercenary starts their adventure working as a bouncer for Teron’s inn. The innkeeper is going to beckon you over to speak to him, but first we’ll talk to the Storyteller to see what he knows. Next, talk to the nearby alchemist who will sell you a kit of reagents for only 50 gold pieces.
Now we’ll talk to the innkeeper, who will give us a job to guard a merchant who just rolled into town. However, instead of doing the job right away, tell the innkeeper that you need to get better gear. You will be teleported to the Merchant’s Plaza – buy a bronze shamshir from the vendor. You may ask yourself, “Why use a shamshir instead of a gladius?” While the shamshir’s fast attack costs 4 AP versus the gladius’s 3 AP, it slices through unarmored opponents quite nicely, and does a fair amount against armored foes too – we currently don’t have the luxury to grind through armor (yet). Once you’ve got the shamshir, go over to the alchemist merchant and buy 1 Kadura Leaf. Open up your alchemy inventory, use the Kadura Leaf to make a poison, then apply the poison to your new shamshir. Poison stacks with bleed, applies to 20 successful strikes per application, and even if you don’t damage your opponent in a strike, you can still poison them.
Equip your shamshir and your buckler. Put your dagger and nets in your belt slots. Don’t equip the helmet – while helmets will prevent the enemy from performing strikes to your head, many helmets will actually penalize your THC – always check the stats before equipping them. Head back to the inn to start the job.
An assassin will jump through the window and shoot the guy you’re supposed to guard before attacking you. Now, there’s two ways you can go about fighting this guy. You can either charge him and fight him where he’s standing, or you can literally back into a corner and wait for him to charge you. Since this dude is only using a dagger, it’s evident that he’s a dodger. Something that the game doesn’t really explain is that dodgers get a +3 chance to dodge for every open tile. Even with your shamshir, which gives you +10 THC, he might be hard to hit. Also, if you lose, your game does auto-save before every fight, so reloading is a totally acceptable strategy if RNGesus chose to curse you that day.
Kill this loser, then strip him, the merchant, and his chest of everything valuable. If you were badly hurt during the fight, brew up some healing salves with Emoryl Root. Equip the assassin’s hood, since it gives a DR of 1 and no THC penalty and leave the room to inform the innkeeper. Even though you failed your job, your employer is a benevolent boss and helps you sell the dead merchant’s belongings. Go with your connection, a merchant named Vardanis, to the thieves’ guild and sell your dead client’s belongings to Cado. On your way back, you’ll be jumped by two thieves who will accost Vardanis and tell you to just walk away.
Another footnote: There are times in Age of Decadence where the game will give you an “out” by fleeing from an event, but by doing so you will lose out on points. For a fighter like ours, we will get a lot of skill points by fighting, killing, and most importantly, winning. While retreating might seem like the easy option, we’re going to clobber these two idiots instead. Start combat and engage the thief closest to you. Both thieves will usually focus on Vardanis – if he dies, it’s honestly no big deal, because you can just loot his body. Wipe them out, loot everything, then go back to the innkeeper.
You’ve just completed the prologue quest for the Mercenary. Rest up and see Feng the Loremaster in the morning. Feng is a cantankerous but lovable huckster who loves to dupe stupid nobles selling them refurbished garbage as “ancient artifacts”. Mr. Feng will ask you to kill Cassius, a young, rational, ambitious loremaster who is trying to take his job. Feng will offer to pay you 50 gold – use your weak trading skill to haggle it up to 100. It will fail, but Feng will instead pay you 60 gold. Go back to the Inn and talk to Cassius, who is near the door. Lure him to an abandoned shack to kill him. Cassius is a scrub who can’t fight, but we will use our critical strike skill check to 1-shot him. Loot everything from his body, then return to Feng. Feng will try to sell you a necklace, the Eye of Thor-Agoth, and Glabrio’s Ring, for 100g each. Don’t buy them – the Eye of Thor-Agoth is only useful for characters with high crafting and lore skills for an end-game solution, and Glabrio’s Ring is a useless trinket that characters with a modest lore skill can use to pawn off on Lord Antidas.
Next, go to the nearby blacksmith and sell all of your acquired loot. Use the extra money to upgrade to an iron shamshir. Also, buy an iron lorica segmentata to replace the rusted sheet metal you’re presently using as armor.
Make sure you’re healed up, either with salves or with the local healer, and then head towards the western wall. You’ll soon run across a gang of hobos drinking hooch and cussing at passersby. Walk towards them, then approach their leader, who will say something slick to you. Use your critical strike skill check to 1-shot him, which will cause his buddies to scramble for their weapons and become hostile.
Now, another footnote: When combat starts, we don’t *run*, we tactically withdraw! One the first turn, run backwards to the wall of a nearby house, and stand in between the canopy and ladder. In combat against multiple foes, enemies will often try to swarm you and attack from every direction, but in this case they will now be forced to charge you from one direction. To some, this might seem like a “cheap” tactic, but we don’t fight honorably, we fight smart. After all, this is the Age of DECADENCE, not the Age of Honor; we’re not virgin lawful good paladins, we’re Chad mercenaries, and we fight to win. Another thing to note is that sometimes, rather than ending your turn, you can “wait” (the hourglass icon at the bottom) for your enemies to perform their moves before doing your own actions. The big boy with the bronze hammer will likely attack you first, so focus him down before killing the other two. Collect their loot, sell it to the blacksmith, and heal up if necessary.
Next, open up your map, and teleport to the city gates. Walk forward a bit, and you’ll be prompted with an event where a family of beleaguered refugees are trying to enter Teron.
IV. Joining the Guard
Now we must move out of our mother’s basement and get a real job.
Apply more poison to your shamshir, then teleport to the Imperial Guard barracks. Talk to the guard and get recruited, which will start your first job of raiding a caravan disguised as a raider. This fight can be particularly tricky, so you may need to reload the fight a couple of times. Two of your “allies” are going to run off to kill the slaves, but the other two will remain behind to help you. When the fight starts, back up a bit (1 tile is fine), and let your allies run in first. Work in tandem with them to kill targets – if they die themselves, don’t worry about it too much. Once the fighting is finished, loot the merchant, then loot the rest of the bodies for anything valuable. Take the cavalry shield and equip it for yourself – this will be your go-to shield until you reach Maadoran. Before you leave the area, heal up with salves!
Now, remember the two cowards that ditched you during the raid? You will have to kill them both in order to secure your position with the Imperial Guard – that’s why we healed up. Luckily, both of these guys only have 20 HP. Kill them and you’re in. The barracks quartermaster, Shorty, will give you a bronze helmet and lorica segmentata as a reward. Be sure to re-equip your iron armor. There will be more missions with the guard, but for now we’ve got bigger fish to fry.
Save your game, teleport to the blacksmith to sell your loot. Re-poison your sword if necessary. Outside of a house, there will be a gray-haired man in rich robes standing by – it’s everyone’s favorite backstabbing, lying, conniving, sophistry-spewing scoundrel, Miltiades.
This is another tricky fight – the guy with the sword isn’t so bad, but the raider with the axe hits like a truck. At the beginning of battle, run to the wall and stand next to the desk chair. The sword bandit will charge you and swing, but the axeman will pull out throwing axes and waste them on you before attacking. Relieve them of their belongings and head for the door. Miltiades will pop in, thinking that you’re dead. Fight down the urge to kill him – he may be a backstabbing prick but he’s a lucrative one. He’ll make you an offer – accept the deal, and he will ask you to wait in the house before running off. A nobleman and two Daratan guards will arrive and ask for money you don’t have because Miltiades has double-crossed you – again. Rather than fighting them in a difficult battle, we’re going to intimidate them with a body count check, which will net us some more skill points.
Leave the house, sell to the blacksmith, have him repair your armor if it’s damaged, heal up with the healer. We’re going to look for Miltiades, who is busy cowering near a house by the thieves’ guild. Miltiades will pay you some of what he owes, but *promises* you that he’ll pay you the rest next time he sees you. Don’t worry – it’s not the last we’ll see of him.
Head down the alleyway between the house and the thieves’ guild. We’ll be interrupted by another event where a young woman, Livia, is being accosted by an incel bandit. Livia will beg you to pay off the mercenary, who claims she owes him money – it doesn’t matter what choice you make, Livia will swipe some of your pocket change.
It’s time to go infiltrate the palace.
V. Sneaking into the Palace
Before you go in, make sure you have at least 5 points in critical strike, then save your game.
Approach the palace. We’re not going to talk to Dellar (yet). Instead, do this:
1. Approach the guard by the stone wall. 1-shot him with critical strike.
3. Investigate the Stone Tower, and critical strike the guard polishing the sapphire.
4. Climb up, and move past the centurion and two archers. Don’t fight them.
5.In the next room, ask the servants for their robes and a wine jug with “the hard way” option. They’ll tell you to piss off before grabbing their weapons for a fight. Focus on their leader, then take down the rest of his cronies. This can be a tricky fight since they will mob you from all cardinal directions. If you need better positioning, unequip your shield, then use your shamshir’s “feint” ability on the leader to swap tiles with him. Re-equip your shield and take them down.
6. Approach the next guard disguised as a servant, then kill him with a critical strike.
You’ll now find yourself face to face with Antidas, who will be pretty pissed at you When he asks why he shouldn’t just kill you and be done with it, use the body count option to impress him since he’s not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. Don’t bother to swear fealty to his House.
Dellar will take you outside and give you two more side quests to do: saving a noble from a bandit camp, and clearing out the Aurelian soldiers from a nearby mining facility. Before you leave, make sure you ask Dellar about where the Aurelians are getting their supplies.
VI. The Bandits and the Aurelians
Both of these fights can be difficult, so don’t get too tilted if you have to reload.
First, we’re going to go to the bandit camp. There are two ways to solve this quest: an easy way, and a hard (but more rewarding) way, and I will go over both.
Easy way: Approach Esbenus and speak to him. 1-shot him with a critical strike, then use the intimidate option. The rest of the bandits will run off, and you will take the captive back to Teron.
Hard way: Approach Esbenus and speak to him. 1-shot him with a critical strike, then enter combat with the rest of the bandits. Once combat begins, run to a corner behind the tent. The bandit next to you may or may not hit you with an attack of opportunity.
VII. The Aurelians
Next, we’re going to have to get rid of the Aurelian soldiers from the mining facility. But before we go there, warp to the Merchant’s Plaza and ask the vendors for the supplier’s name. Pay 50 gold for the information, then warp to the slums. Before we talk to Rhaskos, the supplier, go to the kebab merchant and buy a snack.
As you’re paying, a vagrant is going to rush you and snatch 20 imperials. Run after him. The thief is going to stop by a nearby guard and tell him that you are trying to rob him. A body count check will get the guard to smack the thief and return your money to you (and more importantly, you’ll get +2 skill points out of this little event.)
Talk to Rhaskos, and tell him you want to poison the Aurelians’ food supply. He’ll agree if you pay him 100 imperials. However, we’re going to use a body count check to scare him into doing it for us for free. Go back to the Merchant’s Plaza, talk to a merchant and buy some rat poison for a staggering five imperials. Warp back to the slums and talk to Rhaskos, who will then teleport you to the Mining Facility.
Make sure your sword is poisoned and your health is full, and approach the camp. The poison will have taken its effect on the soldiers, who now have their health pools cut in half. Approach the guard, and 1-shot him with a critical strike check.
Now we’re going to tactically withdraw, because even though these guys are weakened, they still hit pretty hard with their iron weapons. Start running south, away from the camp and towards the trees as if you were trying to leave the map. Once you get close, wait for the enemies to get close enough. The maceman will attack first, but I believe he only has 15 HP so he should fall relatively quickly. Next, depending on positioning, I recommend focusing the decanus then the crossbowman last.
Once these three guys are dead, heal up with more salves and head towards the mines. The last two guards and the workers will be standing inside, waiting for you. Instead of charging in and getting mobbed, we’re going to kite them back outside, and we’ll stand in between the mountain and a big pile of wood so they get filtered. Kill the guards first, the workers are no real threat with their shovels and pickaxes.
Inside, towards the back of the cave, there’s a chest with a black powder bomb. This guide will not specifically use it; instead, I encourage you to hang on to it as an “emergency item”. Once you’re done, head back to Dellar for your reward.
VIII. Turning Point: IG
We’ve just about done everything there is for us to do in Teron, so it’s time to report back to our Centurion at the barracks. Before doing so, head to the town square and talk to the preacher. While we lack the necessary civil skills to pretend we’re the Chosen One, speaking positively to him will net you some House Crassus reputation.
The centurion will take you to the big boss, Legatus Carrinas, who tells you that he’s sick of sitting around and wants to take Teron for the guard. The first part of his plan requires capturing the guard towers surrounding the town, so he will send you and some of the bois to get them. You’ll be prompted with another event where Daratan’s archers are firing on your cohorts. Select block, then pick the option to run up the stairs to deal with the archers. This is a relatively simple fight, as the legionaries will deal the brunt of the damage. Once you’re finished, you will immediately be teleported back to the barracks.
Before we get our last quest from Carrinas, make a separate save file named “Antidas/Guard fork” or something to that affect. I will go over the choices of both dialogue options, but this guide will only expand on what happens if you kill Antidas and allow the Imperial Guard to conquer Teron.
Brokering a deal between Antidas and Carrinas
Before talking to Carrinas and marching towards the palace, check your skills. By this time, you ought to have at least 6 sword, 6 block, 5 CS, 2 trade and 2 alchemy. Use your leftover points to increase your Persuasion and Trade so they make a sum of 5. I would recommend 2 persuasion and 3 trade. Talk to Carrinas, go to the palace – instead of provoking Lord Antidas, attempt to negotiate with him. Select the options where persuasion and trade are highlighted and he will relent. Return to Carrinas and do the same thing, and you will have successfully negotiated an alliance with House Daratan and the Imperial Guard.
Killing Antidas
Make sure that your weapon is poisoned before speaking to Carrinas. Go to the palace with your cohorts and provoke Antidas. Then, select the option to rush him and 1-shot him with a critical strike.
The good news is that Antidas is dead, and you won’t have to worry about him in the fight. The bad news is that you’re standing in the middle of his pissed off guardsmen.
When the fight starts, weave your way around the guard closest to you. Watch out for Dellar, because he hits pretty hard.
Overall, this fight is not too challenging. Your fellow legionaries, once again, will do most of the work for you.
IX. Journey to Maadoran
Now that Teron is promptly in Imperial hands, Carrinas will congratulate you. Unfortunately, House Aurelian has launched an investigation on your actions, and you now have to be brought to him as a captive. Big Boss is going to give you a way to escape the prison wagon, though, by hiding a dagger in an empty wine amphora and making your chains loose.
However, we will not be breaking ourselves free. We will go as a captive (it’s easier this way, trust me).
We arrive in Lord Gaelius’s court, and discover that he is not pleased with our actions. We have no way of talking our way out, so we will have to request a trial by combat, which he bemusingly accepts.
We’re brought out to a training arena with 4 other captives. The guard will give us a weapon of our choosing, so we will take a gladius and a shield.
When the fight begins, we’re going to move backwards, stand next to the pile of wood, and equip our sword and shield. Thanks to the physical obstruction, we only have two captives attacking us at a time instead of four. If you somehow find yourself having trouble with this fight, you’re also given a neurostimulant which will increase your AP for 4 turns.
After we win, Lord Gaelius will release us, and we’re our own free person again.
X. Makin’ Bacon in Maadoran
The final stretch of this guide will focus on getting enough cash to deck ourselves out in some really swanky gear. Specifically, we will need about 6,400 gold – 2,000 for the gladius Dreamweaver, 400 for the tower shield Impenetrable, and another 4,000 for a special set of blue steel armor.
Gaelius’s boys will drop you off at the main gate. Open up your map and teleport (DO NOT WALK!) to the fort. Introduce yourself and speak to Pavola, who will give you a quest to go speak to Strabos, a jowly, scowling merchant who runs the Commercium in the Merchant’s District. However, I will not be covering that.
First and foremost, we need to get our stuff back. Talk to the quartermaster in the fort. Once we are re-armed and ready, go to the Merchant’s District. Speak to the shield vendor, and buy the tower shield, Impenetrable, for only 400 imperials. This tower shield will have a slightly larger THC chance than your regular cavalry shield, but at this point it’s virtually negligible, especially with how good Impenetrable is.
Next, open up your map and teleport to the Arena. Start moving towards the gates, and you’ll be interrupted by an event where a caravan is entering the city and a local merchant is being pulled away by some hooligans. Follow them, kill the bandits, loot their stuff. If you are hurt, you can teleport to the healer in the Merchant’s District; if you use her services three times, she will give you a side quest to investigate a mountain monastery.
Once you’re healed, teleport back to the arena and start walking towards the slums. You will be interrupted by another event where an angry mob is trying to break down a house to get at some preachers. Offer to help the guard and pick the dialogue option that will let you kill the mob – they’re trivial fighters. Talk to the young man by the Slums entrance and get another quest to deliver a package. Go into the Slums, take Leon’s offer for a “guide”, which will result in you being jumped by him and other bandits in an alleyway. Back into a corner and kill them all. Loot their bodies, teleport to the healer, get healed, then teleport back to the Slums.
Start walking straight down the street, and you’ll be interrupted by the shouts of a very familiar voice.
Looks like our “friend” Miltiades has gotten himself into another jam, so we’re going to free him. The thugs are relatively easy to kill, but beware the one that by the door that has a poisoned khopesh. Loot everything, then speak to Miltiades for another “get rich quick” scheme. Agree to it, and you’ll be teleported outside a noble’s house. Once you’re ready, enter the home and kill Varus and his two sons as Miltiades requests. Our scoundrel friend will actually uphold his end of the bargain and give us a whopping 2,104 imperials. Loot the dead noblemen; one of them has a nice masterwork shamshir.
Leave the house and go to the imperial merchant in the center of the District. Buy Dreamweaver from him for 2,000 imperials. Dreamweaver is an extremely powerful gladius that gives you a whopping baseline +30% THC.
Go to Carpet Diem, a store a bit north of the Commercium and near the blacksmith. The shopkeeper will give you a quest to retrieve a gem from Silvanus, a noble in the Palace District. Go to his house, speak to him, use a body count check to get the gem back. Return to the shopkeeper and receive another 1,000 imperials.
We should be pretty close to achieving our final goal. Go to the arena, win each fight until the arena master tells you to speak to Basil, the proprietor of the bar right next to the arena. Guard his bar for 400 imperials, loot everything, then help his friend Quinton at the brothel for another 400g.
Return to Basil, who will point you in the direction of Kemnebi near the gates for another quest. You can also continue to fight in the arena. At this point you should have enough money to buy the blue steel armor.
You are now a well-equipped, well-trained Mercenary. The world is your oyster. Good luck, have fun, and make Feng and Miltiades proud.