Divinity: Original Sin 2 Spoiler-Free Survival Guide

Divinity: Original Sin 2 lets you come up with all kinds of solutions to the problems and enemies you face, whether you want to construct a ridiculous character designed to lob furniture at foes via telekinesis or simply cook up some delicious pizza in privacy. However, many of the core mechanics can be daunting to a first-time player – especially someone new to the world of PC RPGs. Here are some tips to get you started on your path to divine ascension.

Don’t feel bad about setting the difficulty to Explorer. Classic difficulty may be too much for someone digging into the complex battle interactions and systems of Divinity: Original Sin II, and the Tactician setting is overtuned from a difficulty perspective. It should be considered only for a significant challenge.

Save. Save often. You should have around 20+ different saves at any given time in addition to autosaves, and you may even wish to save multiple times in the same battle on some of the longer, multi-phase encounters.

You can respec your characters completely as often as you wish upon reaching Act 2, so don’t fret a few misplaced points at the beginning of the game (or ever, really).

One of your characters should spec for maximum Loremaster. This will allow you to identify all the sweet loot you find, which is essential for success. If you are having trouble in fights, better gear makes a huge difference.

One of your characters should spec for maximum Lucky Charm. This is the character you should have open every chest and explore every cabinet (even after you unlock them with a different character). You can score tons of rare and better loot via Lucky Charm.

One of your characters should spec for maximum Thievery. This is the character you will use to unlock doors and chests via lockpicking. This is a good fit for an undead character (if you want one), as their bony fingers function as unlimited lockpicks, which is incredibly convenient. Note that your unlocker is not necessarily your looter (as that character should have Lucky Charm, in the perfect world.) If you are having difficulty gaining skill books or cash, pickpocketing is an excellent source of income. Rob every merchant and pick up every painting and goblet you find.

One of your characters (or more) should spec for maximum Persuasion. This will give you a huge edge in influencing critical dialogue paths when you need it most. Use this character to initiate conversation with everyone you meet. Note that each character can perform separate persuasion checks in some circumstances – if you fail with one character, you may be able to try your whole team out for different dialogue options depending on the situation.

One of your characters should pump tons of points into strength. This will allow you to lift heavy objects you find like sarcophagi lids and more, giving you access to areas and quests you might not be able to handle otherwise. This character can also be your mule to carry around all that additional loot, so bartering may be a convenient pairing.

One of your characters should have lots of points in wit. This will highlight and uncover secrets as you walk by them with a sound effect and yellow marking. Some areas require this to be found, including those essential to completing questlines (even if you know where it is, wits may be needed to show the secret). If you have any lizards in your party, they can dig up mounds of earth easily without needing to carry around a shovel, but that’s not a big deal.

If you are playing with multiple origin characters, they may squabble and fight, as the story dictates some friction between them. It’s important to speak with your origin characters talk to your main character often and gain favorable reputation with them, or they may leave at various junctures in the game (especially if they are not getting along with you).While you can replace them with a new character, nothing beats having their stories unfold.

A mixed-race party will offer you many more opportunities than a pure one. Characters in this world are quite racially focused, and having them around can get you into certain places and start quests you can miss otherwise. Racial skills can also be immensely useful so do not ignore them. For instance,  Elves can eat body parts from the dead to discover information about the deceased’s life and death, and Undead can survive lethal Deathfog to get to areas that would normally kill off your entire team.

Get teleportation and mobility skills like flight, teleport, or gateway. They’re all over the place and can make some of the tougher areas in the game extremely accessible. Teleport is also useful in combat and allows you to setup huge plays, fling enemies out of the arena, or rescue allies from perilous positions. The base level teleport has very low requirements and is one of the most useful skills you will come across in the game – get it on everyone.

Get Pet Pal on one of your characters. Talking with animals can give great hints and unlock quests.

In Act 2, you gain the ability to use a new source power that has many out-of-combat applications (I won’t say what it is for the sake of keeping this purely spoiler-free). Use this everywhere and anywhere, you will find all kinds of interesting things with it.

Healing is nice to have as an auxiliary thing but you do not need a “full-time healer” as you would in other RPGs. Almost everyone has access to some abilities that restore physical and magic armor – these are critical. When your physical and magic armor is depleted, you are open to knockdowns, stunlocks, mind control, and many other terrible things. Try to keep your armor values up in a fight and toss some heals sparingly, because if your armor is depleted you are in for a world of hurt.

Resurrection is a critical ability and scrolls can get pricy. You’ll need every one you get. Get the Comeback Kid talent on every character and you will save a ton of money and win fights that would have been close losses.

Check out our review of the game here!