.Exitilus: Strategy / Tactics

Starting the game
When you enter the game the first time, you have to create a character. You will have to select two races (mothers and fathers), two classes (childhood and teenager days), a profession and then either join a kingdom or start your own (if there are still free kingdoms left in the game).

Races
Races range from human to gargoyle plus you can be a mutant, too. Ok, according to my personal experiences, race doesn't matter that much. There is a slight difference in how much your attributes increase with each level, plus your starting attributes differ, but I did never notice that the race plays a decisive role. Just one hint on this: I'd recommend that you stay with one race, i.e. choose the same race both times. This is the only way that the difference between the races really could matter. If you must mix, try to mix races with similiar attributes, e.g. Orcs with Trolls or Orcs with Dwarfs. One of my players has an Elf/Dwarf mixture and is doing well, but I can't see him having any advantage from his race, while my own Gargoyle/Gargoyle seems to have a marginal advantage in hitpoints and constitution.

Classes
The opposite holds true for classes. I have never seen a player choosing the same class two times and I don't think it would do any good. Class selection is VERY important, so choose carefully. All classes have certain advantages, some of them are easier exploited while I'd recommend others only to experienced players who know how to get the maximum from them.

The Alchemist and the Paladin belong to the later type. The Paladins runes come in too slowly and the Alchemists poison doesn't really matter as long as it isn't very strong, because it is useless in monster fights. Later in the game, though, when the Paladin finally has a full set and the Alchemist has one of the strongest poisons, it could come in quite handy.

You should think about what kind of character you want to create, before choosing classes. If you want a fighter, second question is if it's gonna be a lone fighter (then include the Ranger) or if you want to engage in organized warfare (rebellions or inter-realm wars), then go for leadership and choose Soldier as one class. If you want to create a wizard, then you HAVE to have either the Sorcerer (black magic) or the Sage (white magic). If you don't, you will not have access to those two guilds and therefore you will not be able to buy good spells. Monk and Cleric class are worth a thought, too. Monks can spend evil deeds (see below) to meditate, which sometimes brings in one of the following rewards:
+3 monster fights
+5 hitpoints
+2 defense
+5 hitpoints AND +2 defense AND +3 monster fights
+5 hitpoints AND +2 defense AND +10 monster fights AND +2 divine favor
+20 monster fights
+20 hitpoints AND +5 defense AND +40 monster fights AND +3 divine favor
Because of the divine favor and combat advantages you get by meditation, I would recommend the Sage/Monk as the ultimate spellcaster combination.
Clerics have a full set of runes to start with, yes that means runestrikes from the very beginning. This can very well decide some of the early player fights. Plus Clerics have good healing abilities, i.e. they use up less potions than most other classes.

Profession
This is another important decision. I have never selected Hermit so far, so I cannot elaborate on that. Knighthood is (of course) recommended for all fighting classes. If you made a Sage or Sorcerer, than you are FORCED to select Sorcery (could be that Hermit works, too, but Knighthood and Criminal sure don't!), because if you don't, they won't let you in in the guilds! Criminal sounds bad, but is quite a good selection if you are not looking for titles. Criminals get more advantages with training than other professions IN THE BEGINNING. Somewhere in the middle it turns, though. But the huge advantage of Criminals are the two places in the back ally that only Criminals can use. These things ARE devastating if you concentrate on one enemy at a time. I once did so and with five evil deeds I accomplished to have him assasinated, his properties burned AND his bank account destroyed, all in one day. He came crawling begging for peace the next day. :-) Criminals are also good partners for rebels. If you start to plan a rebellion, try to get a Criminal into the ranks of the rebels. He can severley damage the kings financial position, which makes your job much easier.

Your daily turn
Pay attention to the order in which you do your different actions each day.
Mine is as follows:
(King commands)
Quest
Evil Deeds
Player Fights
Monster Fights
Quests do not affect anything in the game itself, so you should do them first to earn some XP and gold, UNLESS your quest is tough and you are not sure if you can do it, then you should first try to get up a few levels and go on the quest later in the day. Evil deeds should ALWAYS be done before player fights, because if you loose a player fight, you will not only loose all player fights, but also all evil deeds for the day. You get five evil deeds each day. As I said - if you loose a player fight, that's it for the day, no more player fights. Therefore, fight your enemies the weakest first. You get three (some people say four, though I'm sure three is right) player fights per day. Monster fights are last, because you can die and if you're unlucky you'll not be found and loose the rest of the day. In the very beginning, having only played for a day or two, I once went to the monster fights first and was promptly killed in the second. Because I was not resurrected, that was it. I could not do a quest, could not spend evil deeds, no player fights. It was almost as if I hadn't played at all that day.

BASIC ACTIONS
These are the actions every player should take every day.
Quests
Although they look like nice additions, quests are actually an important part of Exitilus. They give you money and XP without wasting monster fights, plus you usually get a nice reward when you finish them (like the Extaliagus, the best armor in the game, more than twice as good as the best one you can buy!) Therefore ALWAYS be on a quest. Try to take one that's not too easy, but don't overestimate your powers. You cannot buy healing potions during quests, so if your survival depends on them potions, be careful. Start a new quest the same day you finish the old one. And - encourage your sysop to put in more quests. I wrote some five or so until now for my players and writing one is really not that difficult. You should be able to find my quests at the same location you found this FAQ. If not, I always have an archive of quests on my BBS for frequest or download. It usually has the name of EXQUESTS.RAR
Evil Deeds
Another important part of the game. Do not underestimate these, they can be used in a number of very usefull ways. Criminal actions are one way to use evil deeds, but if the crime prevention in your kingdom is high, it's just a waste. Unless you are a Criminal, then you should never take the criminal actions, but go to you guilds instead. The chances there are much higher and they don't seem to be affected by the kingdoms crime prevention. Still, each action takes away one evil deed. Some actions ask for more than one deed. Illegal emmigrations takes five deeds, robbing the church does too (plus you need a password - which is OanCitadel :-) ). Attacking the palace (starting a rebellion) takes three evil deeds. Other usefull applications of evil deeds are in the back alley: The power body builders (+ strength, - mental), drugs (+ high XP, - mental) and the whores (+ mental, + magic points). Also, rallying serfs to join your rebellion takes away one evil deed each. Further on, you can use evil deeds to cheat. Go to the church and cure a disease. The monk asks you for the name of the disease. This is a complete list of these diseases:
INSANITY (+3 monster fights)
HERPES (+1 player fight)
AIDS (+3 dexterity)
malaria (+3 magic points)
plague (+5 high XP)
cancer (+3 hitpoints) [thanks to Jonathan Roberts]
Monks need evil deeds to meditate, and Clerics and Paladins need evil deeds (3 of them?) to try to obtain new runes.
Player Fights
Batteling other players is another important part of the game. If your enemy is of a higher level than you yourself, and you beat him, you get a huge amount of XP. The winner also gets all the money the looser had on hand, so deposit your money in the bank or depository before initiating player fights. This is a good way of crippling someone financially - just play the day before he does, beat him in a player fight and you have all the money he earned through commercials. If you destroy his bank account as well and probably burn some of his properties, you can really ruin someone this way. Death matches make a huge amount of damage to the looser plus the winner can take away the loosers equipment. Combine this with what I said above about attacking someones finances and you have a very good recipe for pissing someone off. If you engage someone more than 5 levels lower than you, the "wrath of the gods" falls on you. This means that your rewards when you increase your level decrease. The effect doesn't seem to be devastating, to be honest, I didn't notice any effect at all. But I have only done so a few times and more testing is needed to be sure. Not fighting, i.e. selecting an opponent and than answering "no" to the question "really attack xyz?" DOES take away one player fight! The price for backing out, I guess. If you loose a player fight, not only do you loose your on-hand money, but also all player fights and evil deeds for the day. Strategic hint: Try to finish all fights in the first round. Buy the most powerfull spell you can afford and cast it. Make runestrikes if you can, berserk if you are of the right class. Alchemists can employ a different tactic: Go fully defense and wait for your poison to do its work on the opponent.
Monster Fights
Easy enough: The higher your playing ground is, the higher the reward. Therefore, try to find out, what you can risk. If the monsters in your current area don't manage to hurt you - go to the next one, no matter what the levels say. I sometimes fight in those areas recommended for level 90+ while I'm still around level 60. It is risky, but well worth it. Strategic hint: Buy one or two powerfull spells, so you can finish off single monsters in areas far above your other capabilities before they strike. Run if there's more than one enemy. That's what I do when I do what I said above. The monsters have some 6.000 HPs, six times the amount I have, and would do a damage of some 3.000 HP which I would never survive if only they would get to strike in the first place. :-)
Level Ups
Do not accumulate XP and go to the level master at the end of the day. Rather, go there every few fights. Especially if you employ the tactic I talked about above, because you will need every hit- and defensepoint you can get. Also, go to the training hall as soon as you have enough high XP. One of the most difficult questions is which training to take. It really depends. It depends on what weaknesses your character has to cover up, what advantages you want to go for, which races and classes you selected and more. Decide on the spot and try them out.
Equipment
This is an IMPORTANT part of the game. You can be level 200+, if you have no equipment, you are dogfood. Always try to have good equipment on hand, plus a financial reserve in case someone beats you in a death match and takes away your stuff. Try to have equal armor and weapons. Roughly, at least. The worst extrem I had so far were 13,000 points of armor with only 3,600 points of weapon. You guess it - I was a spellcaster and killed my enemies of with spells, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten very far with that. Spellcasters should have more armor, warriors should always have the best weapons they can afford. The intention in both cases is that you kill your enemies off quickly. Go for rings and necklages, too! Most of the rings do not only increase your armor rating, but give you hitpoints, magicpoints or other advantages. Necklaces give hitpoints and divine favor. Here are some rings with remarkable features (only those you can buy - those with "2" as price are only obtainable via quests):
Blue Ring (+100 armor, +120 wisdom, +120 intellect, +150 magicpoints)
Purple Ring (+200 Armor, +200 wisdom, +100 intellect, +300 magicpoints)
Garnet Ring (+1500 armor)
Phoenix Ring (+200 armor, +600 hitpoints)
Jade Ring (+2000 armor)
Dragon Ring (+800 armor, +800 hitpoints)
Exitilus Ring (+1500 weapon, +1000 armor, +300 hitpoints, +80 strength,
+40 divine favor, +100 wisdom, +100 intellect,
+300 magicpoints, +80 defense)
Diamond Ring (+3000 armor)
Life Ring (+1500 armor, +1500 hitpoints)
Nemesis Ring (+5000 weapon, +3000 armor, +800 hitpoints, +100 strength,
+50 divine favor, +400 wisdom, +500 intellect, +600 mp)
I think, this is the ultimate ring. Even those you cannot buy have mostly worse features. Exceptions on hitpoints and magic-wise. Ring of Qilin Master gives 2000 armor and 2000 hitpoints and the Ring of Ultimate Magic gives 2000 weapon, 2000 armor, 500 hitpoints, 1200 each wisdom and intellect and 1500 magic points.

Ok, let's sum this up. The best equipment combat-wise you can buy is:

Soul Gauntlets 190 armor
Guardian Boots 180 armor
Exitilus Armor 3000 armor
Exitilus Helmet 2500 armor
Mystic Pants 500 armor
Aegis Straps 700 armor
Exitilus Shield 4000 armor
2x Nemesis Ring 6000 armor 10000 weapon
Aura Cape 650 armor
2x Nemesis Sword 200000 weapon

Making a total of 210,000 weapon and 17,720 armor. Most of the stuff is not that expensive, but the shield, the rings and the swords are. (The Nemesis sword is not even on the list, but you can buy it, it's number 343 and it costs 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 gold. Don't even ask me what that numer is called. The best equipment you can ever get would total to the same weapon (there are no non-buyable weapons and no ring gives more weapon power than the nemesis ring), but 28,200 armor.

Magic
Spellcasters should try to obtain at least one very powerfull spell, so you can hopefully kill monsters and players in the first round of combat, before they even can strike at you. Pure warriors should posess at least one spell, too (take the most expensive one at the public guild, it's still a waste compared to the real spells, but the others are truly worthless). But don't usually use that spell, because casting inhibits your following attack. If your enemy seems to have heavy armor and your attacks don't do much damage, then try your spells. Mixed classes with fighting and magic abilities have to carefully judge how far to rely on each type of combat.

FURTHER ACTIONS
The following parts of the game will not always apply to you.
Being King
The position of king is a rewarding one - you get high XP for just being king plus you can steal out of the treasure, which you should heavily do. But, it is dangerous and nobody can make himself more enemies than the king more easily. Just being king gets you into the crosshairs of nearly everybody. To secure your position, build up a strong army, full cannons (30), full knights (100), full equipment (1000), and NEVER forget to train your army! Rebel armies have 70 training by default, your army will start with 20 and you can only increase it by 1% each day.
Further on, try to get a few loyal players and pay them for their loyality with titles of nobility. Nobles will receive high XP, too - something which is nearly invaluable.
Try to have a Criminal in your ranks of noble players to ruin rebels financially. If a rebellion is taking off, i.e. you see your enemies recruiting huge amounts of soldiers, increase taxes to the maximum. Send some money to your loyal people, so they don't get pissed at you. The trick here is that with 80% taxes on commercials and 60% on monster kills, YOU always get more money than your enemies from their own sources, so your army will always be stronger than theirs. Also, increase rebel prevention, illegal trade prevention and crime prevention early.
In dealing with other kingdoms, ally with the strong and beat up the weak. Buy forts, but not land until you have a strong army to protect it. There is nothing like a huge country with a small army to make the other kings lick their lips.
If you yourself are not going to start a war, go for the highest diplomatic proposals. If you are neutral, it takes only one day to go to war, which doesn't give you much time to increase your army. Three days should give you time enough.
One more note on the army: At the moment, my local game is out of soldiers! In a long and still ongoing struggle for the throne, we have managed to recruit all serfs as soldiers. Watch out for this to happen. If it does, whoever plays first the day can recruit some soldiers (the population increases) and knows for sure that nobody else can do so the whole day, no matter how much money he has.
As a king, you are able to steal money out of the royal treasury, and unless you urgently need the money (e.g. to build up your army), you should do so. The serf's won't like it, but you can rebuild your popularity for a fragment of the amount you took away.
If you know your throne is secured, you can set taxes to max and take most of it into your own pocket. This is what our local king did until we finally revolted. Nevertheless, he made some 10 billion gold each day for nearly two weeks. His armor and weapon ratings are nearly twice that of the next ones and his commercial properties are beyond anything I've ever dreamed about.

The dual kingship trick:
Ok, here comes a special trick to make your throne as safe as it can get. You will need one friend whom you can really trust. One of you is king, the other one is prince and dual kingship is activated. This way, both can use all palace functions like training the army or buying equipment, changing taxes and (off course) stealing from the treasury. BUT there is one huge difference. As king, you cannot build up a rebel army (of course not - who would you want to rebel against?), but the prince can! So, while both of you are clinging to the throne, one builds up a rebel army (with money stolen from the royal treasurey - yeah!). If someone else starts a revolt and wins, his army is most likely heavily decimated from the civil war and the former prince immediatly starts his own rebellion, becoming king and putting the former king into the position of prince - and the game starts again.

Being Rebel
I have been king, I have been rebel, and I can't say which position is more interesting. The ultimate goal of every rebel is, of course, the throne. But most of the times, that way is long and dangerous. Dangerous mostly because you cannot recruit soldiers nor rally serfs without it being postet to the world news, therefore as soon as you start to build up your rebel army, the king will know of your intention and can begin to work against you. And don't expect it being just an increase in the royal armys strength! When I am king and I see a rebel emerging, I throw anything on him I have. I kill him in player fights (death matches, if he's close to my own level), burn his properties, raise taxes to dry out his financial sources and more. Being a rebel is dangerous, and you should not be one just for the fun of it. If you start a rebellion, you should have a number of things straightened out BEFOREHAND. You need a source of finances, better some of them. You will have to recruit a strong army in as short a time as possible. If you are broke on the second day of your rebellion, you've had it, because the king will never be broke, he gets taxes every day. You will also need at least a few friends. I have only one time seen a solitary rebel succeed in taking the throne, and that he was level 60 when he took it while all other players where level 50 or less. Plus the king was weak financially and combat-wise. You should also look out for alternate ways to engage the king. Player fights, if you are stronger, criminal actions if not. Use your evil deeds for rallying. There is a huge random factor in it, and I guess it depends on your charisma, too. Therefore, if you only gather 2 people with your speech, don't give up. You could get some 200 next time, at least exactly this happened to me not too long ago.

The Merchants Way
If you are sick of all the power-games, and if you live in a kingdom with low commercial taxes, you could become a merchant. All players will have more or less commercial properties, but these are only ways to make money for equipment or spells. The merchant makes money for its own sake. He invests most of his money in further properties. It takes a while, but as your properties become more extensive, you will become a deciding factor in your kingdom, because your money could boost the rebels army or strengthen the royal troops enough to decide the civil war. The way to success is a difficult one. You need to make friends with the king so that he doesn't raise commercial taxes, you should make friends with all criminals in your kingdom, because they are able to burn your properties rather easily. In most cases, you should be loyal to the king, not only because of the taxes, but also because you will want to have a strong royal army, because if your country looses a war and the victor goes plundering, you will loose a lot of your properties. Therefore, the more safe your kingdom, the more secure your properties. You should also distribute your investments. Go for ship yards and illegal trades. Buy bordells ONLY if you can be sure there will be no tax changes. If the king one day decides to raise commercial taxes to 80%, you will do best to immediatly SELL all your legal properties and invest in illegal trades instead (no taxes for drug dealers ). Bordells sell for 50 gold each. Keep excess money in the bank as long as your kingdom is not engaged in any wars. Move it to the depository as soon as a war starts. Also sell your marketplaces and other properties which are easily looted. Do NOT invest much money in equipment. Try to get along with as cheap an equipment as possible. If you are a wizard, you can nearly make it without any weapons. Try to obtain equipment via death matches or quests. Most of your money should be invested into further commercials.

Various hints
Giving to the poor may increase your divine favor.
Blessings at the church can yield one to fourty(!) billion gold, but I have no idea under which circumstances. Voting at the voting booth will bring you one of the following: + 6 high-XP, +5 hitpoints, +1 foundry, +50 marketplaces or +3 agility. Stealing from the church will get you 2 mio. gold. Never more, never less.

Known Cheats
There are a number of cheats in this game, some are surely deliberate, some are bugs. The "Cure Disease" option in the church allows you to turn evil deeds into certain advantages. Look above at the chapter "Evil Deeds" for more details. This is a deliberate cheat. Second option at the church, donating to the church takes you to the cellar where you are asked for a word. The word is "OanCitadel". Afterwards, you are asked for the amount of money you want. Don't get greedy or you will not get any. There is the number of 9 mio in the code, so I guess this is the maximum you can take. This, too, is a deliberate cheat.
[ripped from Delusion's short-FAQ] The commercials cheat is a bug, I'd say. It works this way: Take all your money and buy properties. If it says, you can afford, say 2105, enter 2999. You got the idea - leave the first number and select 9 for the others, so if it says you can afford 18947, enter 19999. It will give you this number, but it will not charge you anything, even if it says different. One of the patches for the game disables this bug for most commercials. In my version with patches up to #5, it still works with the illegal trades. Another bug works in the monster areas. Simply buy potions. Buy 0 if you have a full 200, doesn't matter. Every five times or so, it will give you a random event, mostly potions which increase your HP, dex, magicpoints etc. or money. It does so even if you have no monster fights left. Someone said that this only works in the higher areas, but I have seen it happen in the lower ones, too. Could be that the chances for random events are higher in the higher areas.
[again from Delusion] Ever notice how when selecting the place you want to go outside of the kingdom it goes from like 1-30. Well it seems they skipped #29. Or then again, more than meets the eye. Try it if your sysop registered it or the trial isn't up yet. Pretty neat place. 1 HP characters with over a million gold each! WATCH OUT THOUGH!!! They're powerfull. When you have spells, the ones that take the most power are all the way to the right. But, when the last on isn't available anymore, and they have one or two left. Look at the number you have to enter to activate the spell all the way to the right. Type the number right after it. For instance, if it was 2 enter 3 and you will cast the other spell which would make you go into negatives. Pretty cool for those high costing spells!