[ACT II] SWAMP area question

[jkob]

[ACT II] SWAMP area question

hello everyone!well I've been playing withcer for some days now, on normal difficulty (alchemy might be useful). anyways there were some tough fights so far, but could manage them all. but now in the swamps area outside Vizima (the tower mission), I can't seem do to anything against those red plants that come out of the ground. I mean they always deal like 40' dmg so I die in some hits, but I only hurt them around 7 with each strike. anyway my damage isn't the problem, but why are they hurting me so much? and it's a 1vs1 fight, no more enemies than 1 around.regards, Jkob.

 

[Vattier]

Improve Your Igni and hit them with distance attack.You can also easily burn them with a torch (yes, a torch)or strong silver, Igni normal and potions (swallow for sure). Still I prefer distance Igni

 

[ifayra]

You can learn something about them herehttp://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/ArchesporeYou should use igniMaybe it helps

 

[Gamewidow]

I agree with what I've seen here. On my first run through the game, the archespore scared me nearly as much as the beast (which is saying a lot!) ... i was new to the game and the combat system, so then i'd use blizzard to help me along (i don't do that anymore, as it isn't necessary, but it does help) ... so does tawny owl at that point (to boost your igni)i am assuming that you meet the plant north of the clay pits (brickmakers' work area) ... that's usually the first place you meet it, but not necessarily. If so, before you go there, look for the place of power on the little island in the swampier area between the village and the work area, and perform the ritual of magic (which also boosts your sign use)one nice thing about that plant is that it /is/ rooted to the ground, so if your are about to die (things going grey -- audible heartbeat) -- RUN AWAY! just far enough to not get hit by the barbs (and typically BACK the way you came, not forward into yet more monsters) ... and rest, then dive back in and continueif you plan to use igni, try to make sure that you minimally have Level 2 "Incineration" ... this lets you light that sucker on fire, not just scorch him. I use igni first, then start hacking using a greased or otherwise enhanced silver sword and strong style. Any time he seems to "go out" i blast with igni again, then continue hackinghappy herbicidal rampaging! :wave:

 

[petra_silie]

There are several of these nasty vegetables in the swamp, the worst is Coccacidium which is also a trophy monster. Don't despair, this is just an exception. The other plants are easier. You won't defeat the Coccacidium in one take, you need to withdraw several times to regain life. If it is still too dangerous in melee combat against the Coccacidium you can use Igni only from a distance.

Spoiler

You need talents at least in Igni level 1 and 2 in Student and Apprentice. Then you are able to load a roasting fire bomb, right click and hold for the powerup. You will see a bar for the loading. Then release and set the vegetable on fire :evil: You will need a Tawny Owl potion to regain indurance. And a Swallow for life. Prepare them on Albedo base to keep your toxication level low.

Happy burning down the beast :evil:

 

[psychologicalshock]

There are several of these nasty vegetables in the swamp, the worst is Coccacidium which is also a trophy monster. Don't despair, this is just an exception. The other plants are easier. You won't defeat the Coccacidium in one take, you need to withdraw several times to regain life. If it is still too dangerous in melee combat against the Coccacidium you can use Igni only from a distance.

Spoiler

You need talents at least in Igni level 1 and 2 in Student and Apprentice. Then you are able to load a roasting fire bomb, right click and hold for the powerup. You will see a bar for the loading. Then release and set the vegetable on fire :evil: You will need a Tawny Owl potion to regain indurance. And a Swallow for life. Prepare them on Albedo base to keep your toxication level low.

Happy burning down the beast :evil:

That thing was the hardest boss in the game, everything else I either cheap shotted or just hacked to pieces but at that point I was still too weak for it. It took me like 7 tries and I had to use a rune stone, a few potions and quite a few igni blasts, I tried to wittle it down mostly with the sword though as I prefer using signs as merely secondary attacks. That might have been why that critter is always especially hard to kill. But yeah I killed that thing on hard without retreating, it was a pretty fast fight too since it either killed me in seconds or I killed it in seconds . It was over in about 6 seconds.

 

[petra_silie]

Agree... it is one of the hardest beasts in the game. My first encounter was a disaster. I examined the temple quarter (earned not much exp to gain a level) and thought 'let's see what's there in swamp' bumped into Gramps, accepted his quest and failed completely when Geralt encountered the Coccacidium... accompanied by drowners and drowned dead :dead:Clearing the area of these monsters before you take the plant is important too.

 

[tlazolteotl]

First game I played, that thing killed me repeatedly, too.Nowadays, how I deal with it depends a fair bit on what I used my silver talent (from the act 1 mutagen) on.If it's Strength 3 (which I most often put it in), I'll just run up, igni, strong silver beatdown, igni (it should be dead at this point), more strong silver.Use swallow just in case, but I wear a ribbon at that point (so drowners & drowned dead don't get involved)If I'm playing a mage, I'd just back off out of its range, then throw fireballs at it until it dies.

 

[thurauh1]

I have found that swallow and blizzard are good potions to use when fighting stronger or more enemies than yourself. If you have been to the cave (Leuwarden's quest) then you will know that using IGNI sign is very helpful in defeating the 'trees' there. So is it, it seems, for this quest. Strong style probably works best, I find. Remember swallow potions. They can be very helpful...

 

[rodgex]

Agree... it is one of the hardest beasts in the game. My first encounter was a disaster. I examined the temple quarter (earned not much exp to gain a level) and thought 'let's see what's there in swamp' bumped into Gramps, accepted his quest and failed completely when Geralt encountered the Coccacidium... accompanied by drowners and drowned dead :dead:Clearing the area of these monsters before you take the plant is important too.

Exactly the same thing happened to me, i died so many times...... killing the Coccacidium is horrible though and will take quite a bit of time, everything else u need to do has been mentioned already, have fun killing it :evil:

 

[Corylea.723]

I want to underline what Petra said.The normal red plants come in two varieties: Echinops and Archespore. If you completed the "Dead Hand From the Past" quest in Act I, you'll already have killed plenty of Echinops. They were a little tough, but not too bad, right?Archespores are tougher than Echinops.Coccacidium is a trophy-level Archespore, which means that it's much more difficult than your average Archespore. There's a trophy-level wolf, too, and you'll find that it's a lot meaner than a normal wolf. (If you haven't been told about the trophy animals yet, talk to Vincent.)So, while you'll see several red plants in the swamps, only one of them will be Coccacidium, at least, after you kill it. BEFORE you kill Coccacidium, it tends to stalk you -- you'll see the dratted thing popping up in more than one location. Treat this like a boss fight, because it is -- Coccacidium is one of the toughest fights in the game. Don't worry about saving your potions or endurance points or anything for later -- go all out and use anything you need to, just as you would for any boss fight.The others have given you some tips on general strategy, and I agree with them. If your Igni has incineration as an ability, drink a Tawny Owl, then a Swallow. When you get near the Coccacidium, drink a Blizzard. Igni the Coccacidium to set it on fire, then hit it with your sword (Strong Silver) until the fire goes out. Igni it again, and hit it some more until the fire goes out. Blizzard should make you blazingly fast on hitting the thing, Tawny Owl should give you enough Endurance to Igni it whenever you need to, and Swallow should prevent you from getting too low on hit points.If you do get low on hit points, run away! If your Blizzard is still active, you can run away quite quickly. As Game Widow pointed out, it IS a plant, and while it can shoot its thorns at you, that has a limited range. Run just out of range, let the Swallow heal you back up to full strength, then run back in and Igni plus sword until it's dead.Oh, and please remember to save the game right before you start this battle and right after you win it.Good luck! You'll make it -- we all did.

 

[username_2085276]

The hardest part about fighting the Coccacidium is that it catches you unprepared. By the time you realize what it is and how much damage you've taken, you're almost dead.Igni works best against it, but if you don't have that, you can also buff up with a blade oil and swallow when you're in the clay pits. It will go down reasonably fast if you beat it down quickly with strong silver.

 

[yenk0]

The hardest part about fighting the Coccacidium is that it catches you unprepared. By the time you realize what it is and how much damage you've taken, you're almost dead.

True. The first time I met the darn thing, it almost killed me ( I didn't even see it appear, since it spawned behind me, I just noticed my health bar plummet, my amulet was grinning, and I quickly backtracked, barely alive). Then I saved the game and noticed that, if I run too far away, the Coccacidium will bury itself and the next time it will respawn with full health. Not so if I stayed in sight range, but out of its shooting thorns range.Reloads proved to me that no way I could kill it toe-to-toe. Thanks God, it's rooted to the ground, so it was now just a matter of time: chugging Swallow, eating food and hit-n-run attacks chipping at the monster until it died.It's amazing how these boss/mini-boss attack are able to offer so different battles. In the sewers, for example, the C0ckatrice spawned together with a pair od drowners and, lo and behold, they started to duke it out without me even being close. I watched their fight for a while, and since noone was winning, i just waded in, took a strong combo on the C0ckatrice and down she went, no chance to even go airborne. Lame-ish, yes, but I was glad the monster was dead, since the drowners were already gnawing at my kneecaps

 

[grandempereor]

@ Yenko: As you have seen with the beast in the sewers, good timing with the sword is crucial for certain monster types, as they need time to start thier special attacks. Fleders, garveirs, wyvern and others fall into this category. If you time your combos right, they might not get a chance to your thier attacks (or at least not that often), as they are occupied with thier defense. This works best, if you can take on them one to one. Drowners can be annoying once they wont bring more than one xp, but at the same time also funny, if one of them joins a battle with stronger monsters. I had this scene in Act III, where I fought a number of togher monsters, and one drowner joined, always trying to hit me, but mostly failed. Once, he was able to score one point of damage, and the drowner animation kicked in, where they raised thier arms. It looked like a "happiness gesture", as if he was shouting "I did it! I hit thast nasty witcher, my precious!". He really looked happy. After the other monsters were beaten, I slowly turned around to him, waited a moment, then a slight click on the right mouse button, and there was nomore a drowner...(igni)

 

[yenk0]

This chapter II swamp looks better and better ;DGinatz acid sells for 15 orens and those azbars crystals for 40 orens. I've spent a night in the swamps and earned almost 1000 orens from ingredients only The best thing to do with the drowners would be:a) Use the red ribbon and forget about them (concentrate on more valuable beasts) orb) Run around, gather a pile of them around you and cut them all down with Igni+group silver

 

[grandempereor]

Forget the ribbon, it is actually more an annoyance than a help. Yes, the drowners and drowned dead won't attack you, but they do stay close enough that the game will count you as "in fight", meaning you can't pick plants or other thing, can't enter buildings or caves and so on. You have hunt and kill them, which is more difficult with the ribbon, or drive them back enough, so you can ran back to place where you want to do a different action.I don't know how you#ve spent your talents, but once you have silver group style to level 3, they can be easlly beaten with that (up to seven with one blow), Igni from level 3 on is also a good choice, as even a single click finishes one drowner of. If you don't have these levels yet, the best choice is, if bloedzuigers are near, is to let them group around you, lure them to the bloedzuigers, attack one of the leeches to the point you get the xp, then emidieatly run/jump awy from them. When the bloedzuiger explodes, its posionous cloud will kill the drowners instantly. If you have enough space to get clear, you won't even take damage yourself, otherwise, depending on your current vitality, the damage you take is in a range that you should be able to ignore for a while, allthough below level 15 to 20, a swallow might be helpfull.

 

[yenk0]

True: the ribbon sucks Just discovered: applied the Necrophage oil on my silver sword, and went at night into the swamps. Result: a miracle, all kind of monsters just start flying around cut to pieces in a splitsecond.The most annoying issue is actually collecting the loot, since the game has a mind on it's own how to position the clickable remains, grr. Now Aard in the Swamps is a waste of time: group Silver does wonders.Cleared the Vizima Cemetery Crypt in 5 minutes I am only lvl 11, and a ghoul drops dead after only one strong blow, not the sequence, only the first blow! It's amazing. For a grinder like me, obtaining the ingredients and especially the grease (from the dogs) is very easy and cheap, no alcohol needed. That +100% damage is really helpful. And it lasts through the whole night no problem. eace: Now I don't even need to use swallow, any kind of food will suffice I wish Geralt could use ranged weapons. Running after dogs & co. is boring sometimes. Igni is not eonugh....ranged for me right now (Normal diff.)

 

[petra_silie]

Ranged weapons would be nice but on the other hand the challenge too easy ;D@Grandempereor I use the Bloedzuiger's toxic explosion as well to kill nasty drowners ;D You can save Geralt from the toxic cloud if use as "final blow" Igni. When you see the red health ring is almost finished I use one of Geralt's evade maneuvers (double click on a distant place) and then use a Igni blast to kill the Bloedzuiger. When the timing was right and the maneuver as well, Geralt hardly get effected of the Bloedzuiger's explosion.

 

[yenk0]

Ranged weapons would be nice but on the other hand the challenge too easy ;D

Ha ha, i agree How about Geralt throwing one of his swords at the enemy? Then he would have to finish him off and collect the sword ;D

 

[grandempereor]

@ Petra Silie: I do it the other way round, first al blaze of igni, going in hacking, running back when the xp are shown on the screen and hardly get damage. This is more usefull when there are more than one bloedzuiher, as setting them on fire seems to slow them a little. This way, you can finish groups of three to five (if they are close enough to each other) a lot faster. But your way also seems to be efficient. I will try it next time.@ Yenko: Oils have an advantage, but they are limited to certain monsters (necrophage, insektoids, vampires, specters, ornithosaurus) or certain effects. In a place like the swamp, where you have a plethora of different types, these special oils are a bit limiting. The best oils for such regions would be cinfrid (increases pain) or argentia (increases effects of silver), but there are still monsters which have an immunity to these effects. So, although they are nice, don't count on them to much.If you get to silver talents, the special gruop oils might become obsolete with the expetion of some special quests, where you have to fight stronger monsters or groups of medium strong monsters. Without oil, it will take longer to finish them, and you will take more damage, but swallow and (if you got it) Quen will get you through most situations. What I find more difficult is when you have one human opponent (steel) and one monster (silver), as the other type is almost useless against one opponent, this mixupup can easily get you killed even with swallow. I had this once in non-human district. I was at the same time attacked by a thug and a fleder. When I used silver on the fleder, the thug was draining my vitality quite quick, so I turned on the thug and to steel. Meaning, the fleder could bite me and so restoring his vitality. I finally managed to killed them both off by switching weapons about every 15 to 20 seconds, and even with swallow, the screen began to grey out several times. It took more than five minutes to win the fight, but I did it 8)