r/Arena • u/Super_Environment828 • 18h ago
Advice
Wanna get into arena at some point aswell as daggerfall but I’ll find a daggerfall subreddit either way wanna get into arena eventually what are some thing to expect apart from the low graphics and animations but I can deal with that been playing old games my whole life just is there any thing to look for or might find difficult or confusing I have tried daggerfall once and found it really confusing and hard to navigate where I was meant to go
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u/DuckofHumakt High Elf 17h ago
-i recommend reading the manual, this wont give you all the info you want but it will answer some, uesp Arena is your next place for info.
-The controls are old, in daggerfall you can adjust the controls to a modern setting but in arena you have to mod it. Personally i don't mind the controls but some people hate them.
-Arena is pretty straight forward actully, you escape the first dungeon and start asking random people untill they point you to your next destination. The dungeons are flat and hidden doors shows on the map so its hard to get very lost. The same goes for levling, you get xp and you get random hp and a random number of attribute points.
While it can take some time to get into, Arena is still a very approachable old game, for example i loved might and magic 3 isle of terra jut it took me way longer to get into.
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u/NeridNac 17h ago
My lifesaving discovery was the “Crystal of Healing.” If you have a character class with low health, getting items such as healing crystals, marks, rings, bracelets, bracers, or other enchanted jewelry that restore health can be incredibly useful. Even when things go badly, I could always heal myself as long as I had one of these items.
When the relevant crystal is equipped, you can activate its effect from the panel in the bottom-right corner by pressing “I” (or by clicking the hand icon holding the hilt in the bottom-center of the screen). It instantly restores your health.
Don't forget to visit the Mages Guild to find out what enchantment unidentified items you find in dungeons have.
Also, l advice that trying to read about universe, ERA's and different stories and history of the world of Tamriel ❤️
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u/MikalMooni 17h ago
Be prepared to take some notes. The quest log kinda sucks, so make sure you at least give your saves really good names.
Gameplay is going to split into two primary activities. The first will be information gathering and gear/spell management. You'll be given a general direction to go, and then it will be up to you to find out where in a province or region your quest objective will be. Once you find out the right region, you'll be told to do a favour for the locals in order to gain the information on where your primary objective is. The main quest dungeons are TOUGH. You'll want good gear, plenty of consumables, and you'll want to make sure your weapons are in peak shape. Getting these things takes gold. You'll probably want to take advantage of one of the main quest dungeons to grind out for some good gear, or at least to find some valuable enchanted gear to sell for resources.
Sleeping in dungeons is very tricky. You will often get accosted in the middle of the night, so I'd rely more on being able to escape the dungeon if need be. Dungeons are all mazes, and you can find spells or enchanted items that destroy walls and floors to help you navigate these spaces with ease. These are essential - otherwise, you will probably get lost trying to find the one specific path that the devs want you to take. Enemies respawn too, so oftentimes you can take 4 or 5 in a row, but the longer stretches will force you to fight 15 or more in a row, which is harder to manage.
Early on, you may also find that you can do some miscellaneous erranding for townsfolk to get just a little more coin. However, you can get MUCH MORE from burglaries, particularly of shops and especially palaces, although this is a MUCH harder ask. In the late game, capital usually isn't an issue, but not being careful with your inventory management and consumables is a great way to land yourself in hot water.
Ask locals for rumors. Sometimes, You'll be given a tip on powerful artifacts that you can use to bump your power levels up immensely. One to look out for is the Ohgma Infinium, which gives you massive amounts of bonus stat points and can really help push the balance of your build early. Arena is punishing, so you need every edge you can get. There are two types of NPCs; one will have not much to say, and the other will be a gossip. If you gind a gossip, keep spamming the rumors button until they tell you they have heard about some powerful object. This is how you find these items.
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u/Super_Environment828 15h ago
Good to know tysm I will make a note of this and any other helpful comments in my notes book
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u/froz_troll Burglar 17h ago
The controls are very dated and can't be remapped like in Daggerfall, I'd suggest using the mouse movement if you want an easier time navigating. Left click around the borders of your view screen to move, J to jump, hold right click and make circles to attack.
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u/Coltrain47 Spellsword 16h ago
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u/froz_troll Burglar 15h ago
When I say can't be mapped like in Daggerfall, I mean there's no menu option that allows remapping.
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u/arturocan Assassin 13h ago
For both daggerfall amd arena you truly need to read the manual since the game mechanics are based of og tabletop rpgs with their stats and dice rolls.
Also might want to check out the uesp wiki for classes and races since they explain them more in depth what the manual is barely descriptive about.
As to where to go, you only need to pay atention to the text and cinematics. Maybe install a refont mod since arena's original font is dogshit and barely readable.
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u/gtc26 17h ago
1) Definitely get Arena from GOG instead of Steam.
2) Although I almost always suggest playing a game vanilla for the first time without any mods, I'd suggest you look into a mod that remaps the keybinds (unless you're ok with using the arrow keys to move instead of WASD)
3) Focusing on your point about getting confused... there's no shame in looking at UESP for help!!!
4) Heads up in advance... I don't remember which dungeon specifically, but there's a part in the main questline where you are caught by a ghost as you traverse underground water passages, and you're unable to move or fight... just save yourself the trouble (here and so many other places) and get something with the passwall enchantment!!!