Drat...This series of texts/pages is intended for the newbie player of "Vampires! A Dark Alleyway" so that they can learn about the powers available in game and go about getting them without a lot of time-wasting mistakes and failures.
Full details on getting every power available in the game should be here and now include the Neutrality power as well. Even though I hate that power and it's really well defined on the game server pages (half my thieving money gone for no good reason, what bullshit).
The power 'Second-sight' is also not included because you have to donate to gain it and it is not available at all in game.
Madeye Note: These texts were written some time ago and do not include descriptions of some of the newer powers such as Perception. If anyone is interested in contributing the missing texts, please register and post a comment below.
The purpose of this text is to give you a good idea of what ought to be the best order and manner in which to attain the given powers within the Vampires! A Dark Alleyway game. I hope new and old players alike may find it of some value and worth. If not, oh well. Enjoy the game regardless.
Yours,
~ Brent "Andronicus" Elskän (jmoc714).
Firstly, let me state this: The following suggestions are just that. Suggestions. Take into consideration that my own point of view has been the main source of logic surrounding these tips, and this document should not be considered definitive for all players or styles of play. I recommend you familiarize yourself with the game as a whole and come up with a system you feel works best for your style of play.
Also, I have just learned of the new power Telepathy. I have yet to work this into the scheme, but I think it ought to fit well into the 'optional' category. I will revise this page to include the power when I find the time.
Of particular note I recommend you read all the Powers Texts, as this document assumes you understand at least the basics of what the powers are and how they function. Of course, I suggest you begin by reading my own, linked here, and any additional materials you may find in the FTA files section. Also invaluable to the new player are, of course, the in game FAQ, How To Play and News sections. Virtually everything I know about the game came from first reading all the How To, the News and FAQ, then playing.
There is really no reason one cannot become equally knowledgable to most of the 'ancient' players out there like myself, Sasquatch, creperum, Wander, Devil Miyu, Lady Ravven, Retro Johnny, Xeneri and many others, with the same information and the added help of the various texts I and others have put together.
Alright, now I'm sure many people will have objections to my ordering, but like I said: This is my personal view. I'm open to hear arguments for the reordering of this listing, just contact me using email me.
I'm sure some of you have taken note of the lack of a given power as well. Neutrality. This is because I find the attainment of the other powers more interesting and entertaining, and because Neutrality, in my view, does one thing more often than all the other things it does: Reduces my thieving by half! I love thieving, so fuck Neutrality. And yes, I've been 'zeroed', so I can see why others might want it. I just can't stand to see what could have been a 6,000+ coin score get halved for the off chance that I might one day get splashed with holy water. Now for the why and such.
Second-sight comes first because you only get the power by donating and I wholly advocate people support a game they play so much that they read any text of this nature. Besides, you kill the pop-up advertisements and shit, are not going to be setting off some script issues by accident and can get what is arguably the most difficult power to attain, and next on the list, as your one other power for donating.
Thievery. The power which pays for all other things. Thievery one is, by the design and nature of the game, the most difficult power to get. As a fledgling pire you have but two ways to receive the funds needed to buy this power: biting humans and in-game coin gifts. If you are not in a clan or in contact with a decent sire or a friend who also plays and has a bit in the bank, the second option is out. And it takes forever to get the coin needed to pay for Thievery 1 just by human corpse-molesting.
Therefore, the first real suggestion regarding powers attainment is that you donate at least $5 US and request your freebie power be Thievery 1. More on donations in a moment.
I know it takes a great deal of time to go from Thievery 1 to 2 and then 2 to 3, but it's well worth the preparation. Besides, once you have the first level, the second isn't too hard, really, from there 3 is pretty easy, and the whole time you're biting humans to stock up on BP for the future. So have patience and keep at it. Thievery 3 kicks ass.
Suction, while a seemingly hefty cost to the new pire, is a rather important power to get early in the game, as it can also be considered a power which pays you back in the long run. Adding an extra pint each time you bite only lessens the time it takes for you to gain the needed cost of other powers in the only other currency of the game: Blood Points (BP). Besides, after running about to TG2 and then 3 only to click and get a power with no fanfare, the Suction quest is really rather entertaining.
Celerity 1 continues the questing fun and is obviously useful. I know many new pires grow impatient waiting for AP to rebuild when they have some goal in mind, so the attainment of this power ought to at least temporarily relieve some of that 'must- -play- -MORE-!' thirst we are all guilty of at times. This also gives you something to work on while you build BP to learn the first level of Stamina.
Shadows 1 gives the player a little break from severe costs and sometimes tiresome questing. It's cheap, requires no BP or questing, and, like Celerity 1, helps build BP as you nibble humans to go get it.
Locate 1 is in here because... Er... I don't know. Why not? It's pretty cheap, entertaining as quests go, not too high on the BP cost scale and you gotta get it some time if you plan to help a group where people sometimes either look for each other or attack people. I don't much care about Locate, but the levels of various powers effect what powers you can get when you donate.
Surprise is pretty useful, as you don't need to scroll banks or guilds and therefore don't need to carry more than a couple SoTurns with you for a favour. This reduces your overhead costs. Yay! Of course, it costs a boat-load of coins, but I think this is good for two reasons. 1- It sets a goal which is challenging but not unattainable for a pire which has done the all the previous powers as suggested, and 2- it once again creates a BP building lapse of time between the BP costing powers.
Stamina 1 is probably the power I cringed at the hardest when I got it and is probably the power type with the largest overall sting. That massive drop in your hard-won BP count is a blow to the ego and really takes time to rebuild. This is where I mention donating again.
Because of the cost in BP for this power, and its progressive levels, I suggest you just make another donation and ask RB to make your next power this one. And if possible, go ahead and get Stamina 2 now as well. It only makes things easier. This lets you save those BP for some other power and gives you all those proud, warm fuzzies for being a decent vampire. Eh, decent human, that is.
Celerity 2 is another questing power, so you shouldn't be getting too bored with the non-quest powers being mixed in with the quest ones, and will once again satiate the '-play- -MORE-!' monster when it kicks in. And while you're at it, you can hopefully have pubs within reasonable distances of one another so you can be part-time-thieving your way from one quest point to the next and making a little bank. Not a terribly costly power, either, to be honest.
Shadows 2 and 3 are thrown in here only because you might as well take a little breather from high-ticket shopping and the somewhat long quest prior to this. I suppose the drop into shadows in 24 hours thing is kind of neat in coupling with level 2 Celerity, as by the time you get the last two levels of Shadows, you can log out, take a day or three to actually not use your computer for a change, maybe even read, and then come back to a fully charged max-AP level and a hardly nibbled pire. Besides, after the next power, you'll want all your other leveled powers already at level 2.
Locate 2 is really a lot like Shadows 2/3 above in that it's pretty cheap, only a little useful for now and also because it will play a roll in how you can get some powers when donating. Since you need to have all level-based powers at level 1 before you can donate to get a power up to level 2, or at level 2 before you can get a donation power up to level 3, you should have Locate 2 before you, hopefully, donate to get Stamina 3.
Stamina 2 represents a huge chunk of BP to lose, so I hope you can see the importance of both Suction and donations. At this point I actually would say donate to get Stamina 2 and 3 at the same time (just to simplify). Since you've already gotten all the other level-based powers to level 2 (or better), you can now get not only level 2 Stamina, but also level 3 via donation. This is a nice avoidance of the loss of not just BP, but also all those little +1 Max-AP bonuses you've enjoyed by doubling your BP count thus far.
Celerity 3 becomes the last important power to get, if you went ahead and donated for Stamina 3 as mentioned above, and is definitely a long and usually difficult quest. With any luck, by the time you can get to this power, you can afford a few SoTel to help you if you really need them. And once complete, even if you didn't donate for Stamina 3, the speed increase to AP gain is really useful.
Locate 3 is actually supposed to be the end of the list, due to it's near uselessness, but if you didn't/couldn't donate for Stamina 2/3 it will be easier to go ahead and just get this over with before the whopping BP cost of Stamina 3. Locate 3 is more a matter of convenience and entertainment than a real power, IMO, but is still one step closer to having a 'fully-charged' vampire. And while you build up the 15,000 coins this dumb power costs, you can rebuild those BP... yet again.
Stamina 3 will be, if you didn't/couldn't donate like mentioned above, your final goal in powers. It represents the most tear-jerking in-game cost and is certainly something to be proud of getting if you have to, or choose to, do it through the Guild. I think this power was the most discouraging one to see happen, yet I find it extremely useful, so I suppose it must be done. Who doesn't want +10 to their base Max-AP?
Now, unless my sleep deprivation is deceiving me, you ought to have the full powers set except Neutrality, which is a shitty power. Ok, so it's actually a really good idea, the way Raven has tweaked it since it was first created, except for that whole cutting my thievery proceeds in half bullshit.
Pat yourself on the back and have a smoke if you read this segment from start to finish. You deserve it.
Like I said in the introduction, this is by no means an ideal way for every player. Some may decide only to get a few powers they think useful. Some may decide that, for whatever reason, they don't need certain powers, but still want the majority. The idea is that you see the logic to the ordering, the sequence being a relative one to the value you place upon a given power.
If you think getting Stamina 3 isn't as important as Celerity 3, fine. If you happen to pick up all three levels of Shadow while you get the three levels of Thievery out of convenience, great idea. Think through the path you want to take and don't be wary of changing your mind. I've had many pires in my time and not all of them progressed as I show above. Some were bred to gather specific Guild info, then passed along. Some were just made to be 'sold' and
followed a system far less inclusive to make them cheaper to create and build. Some were only meant to be theft drones.
What style of play you decide upon will surely differentiate how your main pire and your secondaries (if you have any) are constructed. Role Players may decide to have a segment of their clan which only thieve, never build BP and never buy items, in order to generate a money source. A secondary army of funds creation for the soldiers. Some may be into information gathering and therefore create pires with seemingly incomplete power sets so that they can get very specialized Guild info. Any of these and a hundred other ideas may
change the way you build your pire.
The point is to enjoy a game. I hope the recommendations I've made here help in doing that for you.
Adieu,
~ Brent "Andronicus" Elskän
Available at: Travellers Guilds Cost: Celerity 1: 4000 coins + 3 items. Celerity 2: 8000 coins + 6 items. Celerity 3: 17500 coins + 12 items. Effect: Celerity reduces the time it takes to gain an action point by five minutes for each level. For example, Normal AP gain is 1 every 30 minutes. With ... ... Celerity level 1: AP +1 every 25 min. ... Celerity level 2: AP +1 every 20 min. ... Celerity level 3: AP +1 every 15 min. DO NOT RIDE TRANSITS ON YOUR QUEST (it cancels the quest) USING SoTelep OK.
Each level requires a quest to "run" from the guild to a series of specific pubs and collect items by getting them from the bartender. The bartender will give the item and instructions when you purchase Blood for 100 coins, so use your maps to plan the route to an intervening bank to get money for the Blood (100 coins).
12-05-03: A fellow player, parelle, has just told me that buying Blood is not actually required: That any drink will do. I have not tested this theory, but have little reason to believe she would attempt to misdirect me. If you take the quest, make sure you have at least 101 coins on you and try buying just Beer and see if you still get the item. If parelle is correct, you should still get the item and be sent on your way to the next pub. If not, you still have the money you need to buy the Blood, so no harm done.
Since someone always asks, yes, you have three days to get to each new location you are told of... Meaning you pay the cost, have three days to get to the specific pub, buy the blood, get the item. Then the bartender says you need to go to the next pub, and your new three day
limit begins then. And so on.
Use the latest maps to figure out how far to your next location, available here.
You cannot use transit stations to get to the pubs. If you do, you see the following message...
The barman shakes his head. "Weren't you listening? You were told to run here, not ride the city's transit system. Try again when you're less lazy."
The kicker is that if you do use the transits, you lose the coin you paid to do start the quest, and must go repay it and begin again Drat...
However, for some reason, you can use teleport scrolls... Odd. Perhaps the reasoning on this is because you have to pay so much for the bloody things, that you spend a huge amount more, in effect, to get the power.
Luckily, if you happen to lose your way, forget where you're going or whatever while you are on your Celerity quest, and can't remember or don't know where the next pub is, you can just check the My Vampire screen and it tells you your next Quest goal.
But be careful. Some pubs can be huge distances away from each other, and there is only your My Vampire screen lacking the info as notification if you fail your quest. If you don't notice that, the next time you go to the bar to get an item, you just get the usual bartender blurbs. Such is the game.
The first sample is a general format of the initial guild reply, the rest are from a specific quest by a fellow player.
~Format of Initial Quest Text~
"To gain a level of CELERITY, you must collect a series of 12 objects
from different pubs. 'Run' to (Name of Bar), at (Location), and buy a drink of blood - the bartender will provide you with the first object and more directions. You have three days to get there."
~Actual Quest Text~
"To gain a level of CELERITY, you must collect a series of 12 objects from different pubs. Run to The Moon, at Dogwood and 78th, and buy a drink of blood - the bartender will provide you with the first object and more directions. You have three days to get there."
"You drink the Blood.
The barman hands you a granite box.
He tells you now must run to The McAllister Tavern, at Hessite and 97th to buy blood from the barman there, for the next object."
"You drink the Blood.
The barman hands you a granite stone.
He tells you now must run to Pelter's Tavern, at Turquoise and 71st to buy blood from the barman there, for the next object."
"You drink the Blood.
The barman hands you a granite bone.
He tells you now must run to Marbler's Tavern, at Ragweed and 78th to buy blood from the barman there, for the next object."
"You drink the Blood.
The barman hands you a strange fossil.
He tells you now must run to Draper's Tavern, at Pilchard and 48th to buy blood from the barman there, for the next object."
"You drink the Blood.
The barman hands you a fossil.
He tells you now must run to The Hanged Man, at Unicorn and 92nd to buy blood from the barman there, for the next object."
"You drink the Blood.
The barman hands you a light fossil.
He tells you now must run to Butcher's Tavern, at Kyanite and 19th to buy blood from the barman there, for the next object."
"You drink the Blood.
The barman hands you a petrified box.
He tells you now must run to The Gunny's Shack, at Obsidian and 54th to buy blood from the barman there, for the next object."
"You drink the Blood.
The barman hands you a bracelet.
He tells you now must run to The Sunken Sofa, at Eagle and 34th to buy blood from the barman there, for the next object."
"You drink the Blood.
The barman hands you a stone.
He tells you now must run to The Whirling Dervish, at Sycamore and 89th to buy blood from the barman there, for the next object."
"You drink the Blood.
The barman hands you a multicoloured bone.
He tells you now must run to Ten Turtle Doves, at Anguish and 98th to buy blood from the barman there, for the next object."
"You drink the Blood.
The barman hands you a strange gem.
He tells you now must run to Carpenter's Tavern, at Diamond and 1st to buy blood from the barman there, for the next object."
"You drink the Blood.
You feel something brush past your pocket. When you look round, nobody is there, but the items you've collected are gone! You are momentarily angry, but then you realise that you've got what you wanted out of the deal - you feel faster."
Available at: Allurists Guilds Cost: Charisma 1: 1000 coins + have 3 vampires say "sent me". Charisma 2: 3000 coins + have 6 vampires say " sent me". Charisma 3: 5000 coins + have 9 vampires say " sent me".
Charisma (3 Levels Available): A vampire with Charisma can get directions from humans more quickly, and discounts on purchases
(in pubs, 10%, 20% and 30%; in shops, 3%, 7% and 10% as level increases).
*QUESTING POWER*
The quest for this power requires you to get OTHER vampires to work with you in obtaining it. When you pay for the quest, you're told to convince a
certain number of "prestigious" vampires (any vamp with over 500BP) to go to a specific pub and say "
NOTE: DO NOT GO INTO THE PUB YOURSELF OR YOU WILL FAIL!!!!!!
"The Allurists Guild informs you that business near
has been slow lately. Persuade 3 prestigious vampires (with at least
500 blood) to visit {Pub Name) there and tell the bartender "
You must not set foot inside the pub yourself during the quest - drunks give us a bad name."
--------------
When someone in the pub says your vamp sent them, they get this message:
The barman says "Excellent."
A shadowy figure in the corner smiles, and makes a note.
--------------
When someone is the last one needed says you sent them, they see:
The barman says "Excellent."
A shadowy figure in the corner smiles, makes a note, and leaves.
--------------
When they see that, and the "shadowy figure" leaves, your quest is complete. The next time you log on (or move if you're already playing)
after your quest is finished, you will see this text:
You feel a rush of confidence course through your body. It's as though
you have become more comfortable with yourself and those around you.
You have gained a level of CHARISMA.
Available at: Empaths Guild. Cost: Locate 1: 1500 coins + 40 BP [4 x 10]. Locate 2: 4000 coins + 60 BP [4 x 15]. Locate 3: 15000 coins + 100 BP [4 x 25]. Effect: Locate tells you the location of another vampire. The accuracy of the location increases with each level. Locate 1: Tells the number of squares away a vamp is. Locate 2: Tells the direction, and number of squares away. Locate 3: Tells the exact location of the vampire. QUESTING POWER Infuse your blood with four specific points of the city.
NOTE: If you have both Locate and Second-sight, use 2nd-site to get the location. Using Locate takes 1 AP, while 2nd-site takes only half an AP, but still gives Locate information equivalent to your Locate level as a part of the 2nd-site info.
Locate is a fairly useful power, but a rather involved quest. The process is to go infuse your essence into various areas of the city. For level one it is the corners, level two middle streets and level three the center areas. Always four locations (different for each level) and always the same phrase must be said. Check-Point.
When you go to the Guild, you pay the guild master and you are told to go to a specific location and say Check-Point. When you do, you lose the required BP and are told another location. You repeat this at all four locations and then you get the power.
Note that the locations given are meant to be the exact intersection. Not the South-Eastern black square like the Guild locations are given, but the gray cross-street intersection. You should be in the same square with the green street sign showing the location you were told to say Check-Point in.
When you pay for the Guild cost you see:
"To complete your LOCATE ability, you need the center of the city to know you. Spill twenty-five pints of your blood at each of four specific points in the city center. First, go to the corner of Sycamore and 38th and say 'Check-Point'. Make sure you say it exactly as I did. You will have five days to reach each checkpoint."
Andronicus says "Check-Point"
Andronicus kneels on the ground, and gently tears open a wrist with a daggerlike fingernail. Blood flows forth, and half-seeps, half-crawls into the paved ground.
Next you must say 'Check-Point' at the corner of Sycamore and 63rd.
...
Um. For some reason I forgot to include the last part of my Locate quest text when I was making this original text. Heh. Sorry. Ur... Look, you'll see what it says when you're done. Happy hunting.
Available at: Peacekeepers Missions Mission 1: Emerald & 67th Mission 2: Unicorn & 33rd Mission 3: Emerald & 33rd Cost: Neutrality 1: 10000 coins Neutrality 2: 10000 coins + 500 BP Neutrality 3: 10000 coins + 1000 BP Effect: Neutrality designates your vampire as "non-violent." No Neutrality: SoTurn/HW against you have full effect and you may use both. ANY Neutrality level: SoTurns cause you no BP damage but still move you. ANY Neutrality level: You may use a SoTurn to move vamps but it takes no BP. Neutrality 1: HW against you have less effect. Neutrality 2: HW against you have little effect. Neutrality 3: HW against you are nearly worthless.
As stated in the News on the game server, when you get Neutrality (any level), you are rendered immune to the damaging effects of Scrolls of Turning, though you can still be moved. You can use SoTurns as well, but the mirror event happens when you do: the pires you Turn are movable, but take no BP damage.
You take reduced damage from Holy Water; the amount of reduction increases the more blood you have. At level 3, you take only one damage from holy water - less than being drunk from by a vampire with Suction.
Unlike the other powers, Neutrality can be removed, for a price.
Neutral vampires are highlighted in pink. Neutral vampires can't give money to non-Neutral vampires, since that would be a breach of Neutrality. Also, each time you steal as a Neutral vampire, half your take goes to the Peacekeepers; the same applies to normal vampires stealing from Neutral.
Available at: Allurist's Guilds (All) Cost: 7,500 coins + quest. *No levels for this power. Once only cost.* Perception lets a vampire see what vamps have money and gives warning of hunters.
Perception is obtained at the Allurist's Guilds (any of them), and is a
one time quest.
Perception performs two separate functions:
1) It gives early warning of all Vampire Hunters (humans with attitude). If you have Perception, when you would normally see a "white" Human in a nearby square, you will see them as green with a black background. This does *NOT* mean that they are "run down and available for destruction." It just means that they are a hunter. If you choose to enter the square with them, prepare to deal with them just like anyone else (i.e. chase them down and lose potentially hundreds of BP).
2) It gives you a CHANCE of knowing if vamps who share your square have "a lot" of coins. There is a lot of speculation as to what the threshold for "a lot" is, but generally speaking, if a vamp is yellow, they'll have more coins than if they are white.
If you have both Perception and Thievery, this decreases your chances (but does NOT eliminate) seeing "You fail to steal from XXXXX"
Once you pay your 7500 coins to the Guildmaster, you see the following:
To gain PERCEPTION, you must find and kill a vampire hunter
within the next ten days.
You drink the human's blood. You extracted XX pints of blood.
You feel as if a veil has been lifted from your eyes. Your hearing is sensitized; you hear your own heartbeat, the clink of coins, and the distant sound of an Allurists Guild member speaking her congratulations, knowing you will hear it.
From now on you will be able to tell when a human is a vampire hunter from a distance, and if you hear a vampire's coins clinking that vampire will be highlighted in yellow.
You also found XXXX coins. Nice.
Simple enough, so long as you manage to come across a hunter in the allowed 10 days. Vamp_Sas came up with the following idea :
1) Put off paying the guildmaster until after you find a hunter (be sure to write down where the hunter was!);
2) Using a SoTel, transport yourself to the bank nearest the guild;
3) Withdrew 7500 coins;
4) Walk to the guild;
5) Pay the Guildmaster his fee;
6) Use a second SoTel, transport yourself BACK to the hunter;
7) Chase the hunter until you win.
This method requires that you have a decent amount of AP before you begin and that you have 2 SoTel's (and maybe a SoTurn or two for the bank/guild). Your only risk is if someone else finds the hunter while you're doing steps 2-6, so don't dawdle!
Available at: Thieves Guilds. Cost: Shadows 1: 1000 coins. Shadows 2: 2000 coins. Shadows 3: 4000 coins. Effect: Shadows decreases the number of days it takes for a vampire to fall into shadow by one for each level. Normal time to fall into Shadow is 4 days of inactivity.
Shadows is the state of being "invisible" on the game board. A vampire in this state cannot be seen by the "naked eye," as it were, and yet still can add to the number of pires in a given square. So, feasibly, a square could be blue/impassable, yet not show any vampires in it, because they all dropped into shadows.
RavenBlack did us poor old bastards who have been attacked a small favour and made it impossible to harm a vampire who is lost in shadow. Previously, a pire could be in shadow and others could still throw HW on him/her or, if the attacker knew how to use the links in a none too honest fashion, still rob or bite the shadow-lost vampire.
Nowadays if you're lost in shadows, you are essentially impervious to harm, invincible. And believe me, many of us thank the RavenBlack for it, too. Many of us old pires were around getting sprayed and robbed while in shadows before anyone had ever even thought of the Neutrality power.
Coming out of shadows requires little or no effort. Simply log in and move. Do something. Anything. Anything that takes AP to do should bring you out of shadows. Including too many hits to the script, BTW.
If you go into shadows too long, you can get consumed by them and your vampire will disappear. Actually, it's the clean-up script segment deleting vampires who haven't donated and who've been inactive for three weeks. Only a vampire with second-sight can overcome being consumed by shadows. (Meaning that your pire can't be deleted because you gave a donation.)
Getting the power is simple. Go to the guild and pay for it. The end...
Available at: Immolators Guilds Cost: Stamina 1: 1000 coins + 500 BP. Stamina 2: 2500 coins + 1000 BP. Stamina 3: 5000 coins + 1500 BP. Effect: Stamina increases your total maximum AP level by 10 points and increases your ability to resist a Scroll of Turning (SoTurn) effect. So, with... ... no Stamina levels: Standard AP, all SoTurns move you & -10 BP ... Stamina 1: Max AP +10 to standard, SoTurn sometimes resisted ... Stamina 2: Max AP +10 more, SoTurn often resisted ... Stamina 3: Max AP +10 more, SoTurn usually resisted QUESTING POWER Go to guild, pay coins to get a password + location. Go to the location, say the password, loose the BP and gain the power.
At the guild, click the button to pay the required coins for the location of a secret place and a special password, just for you. I recommend you copy and paste it into a text file so you can use it later EXACTLY how it was given to you.
You go to the new address [don't worry, you have 10 days]. You use the "More Commands" option below the map to input the EXACT password (hence the copy paste) and click [Say It]. This means if the password was shown to you as Kai-Kai, you cannot say it kai-kai, or Kai Kai. It pays attention to capitalization and the dash is supposed to be included.
Note that you will need to be in the INTERSECTION of the location given to you, not the usual South-East black square one goes to for the usual Guild ones given in the game. So when the IG tells you go to Pine & 45th or wherever, you need to be exactly on the spot where those two "streets" cross to say the password. That is, where you see the sign for the two streets.
This is when you pay your Blood Points cost. The lost BP are the damage it causes when they brand the power into you. Pretty kick ass, but damned frightful to loose so many BP at once. Congrats. You will now have the Stamina upgrade.
If by chance you accidentally lose track of where you need to go, which address you need to find when you pay for the power, you can always check the My Vampire screen and it should tell you everything you need to know to complete your quest.
Another point on the AP increase: When RavenBlack added a special feature to increase Maximum APs little by little (a single Max AP up for each time you double your AP after a certain base level is reached), it ended up sort of effecting how Stamina boosts to your Max AP works out.
You have a base AP of 50. Under 50 BP, however, it is reduced by grades. So a pire with only 5 BP has only 35 AP. And, when you get some of those extra one point of Max AP bonuses, it is based on your BP counts doubling.
So, as it used to work, Stamina 1 raised Max AP to 60, Stamina 2 up to 70, and 3 up to 80. Now, however, you will see your "little bonus one-off" Max AP points drop, due to the loss of blood.
For example, one player had a Max AP of 74, got Stamina 3, and their Max AP went to 82. So 8 points, she'd think. But, what had really happened was, the two little extra Max AP points she had gotten for her BP doubling was dropped when she paid the huge 1500 BP cost of Stamina 3. So, when she gets back up to her old level of BP, it will read a Max AP count of 84.
When you pay for the Guild cost you see:
"To gain a level of STAMINA, you must go to the corner of
[location] and say '[password]'. It will cost you 500 blood.
You have ten days."
When you get to the correct location and say the password you see:
<vampname> says "<password>"
Shadowy figures burst from the darkness all around. Before <vampname> can respond, the vampire is immobilised, held pinned to the ground. Another silhouette steps forth, holding out on the end of a stick a piece of platemail strangely visible in the dark. Then you realise - it's glowing with red heat. The platemail is pressed against the chest of <vampname>. With gritted teeth, <vampname> bears the pain without a sound, other than the sizzle of flesh and bursting blood-vessels. After what seems an eon but is probably more like twenty seconds, the figures depart as slickly as they arrived, taking their armour with them. <vampname> looks weakened, and yet, strangely, strengthened.
NOTE:Not that it effects getting the power at all, but anyone else in the square with you when you gain the power sees that same text as well. Not really crucial to getting the power, but a fun little curiosity, none the less.
I've thought about creating a vamp with the name of Yo' Mamma, just so I can hope to one day perform this little power gaining act in a square with a bunch of other pires. No, seriously... Imagine it:
Yo' Mamma says "Clean up that damn room!"
Shadowy figures burst from the darkness all around. Before Yo' Mamma can respond, the vampire is immobilised, held pinned to the ground. Another silhouette steps forth, holding out on the end of a stick a piece of platemail strangely visible in the dark. Then you realise - it's glowing with red heat. The platemail is pressed against the chest of Yo' Mamma. With gritted teeth, Yo' Mamma bears the pain without a sound, other than the sizzle of flesh and bursting blood-vessels. After what seems an eon but is probably more like twenty seconds, the figures depart as slickly as they arrived, taking their armour with them.
(Here's the best part...)
Yo' Mamma looks weakened, and yet, strangely, strengthened.
Man... That kills me every time I read it. Heh heh heh. Ok, fine, don't laugh. I'm done. (*walks away muttering '...got no sense of humour, i tells ya...'*)
Available at: Immolators Guild (ALL/ANY). Cost: 7500 coins + quest. No levels for this power. Once only cost. Effect: Suction drains an extra pint each time you bite.
Suction is obtained at the Immolator's Guilds (any of them), and is a one time quest.
Suction effects how you bite. When biting vampires, you get two pints instead of one and when biting humans, instead of getting 1 to 3 pints, you get 2 to 4 each time.
It costs 7500 coins and then you set on a quest to put the blood of 20 other pires with higher BP than you into a wine flask like thing.
When you begin, you have a three day timer to bite someone with more blood than you. Once you do, the timer resets and you have another three days. Once you reach 20, you are done and you gain the Suction power.
During your quest, you gain no BP by drinking from those pires, and they lose about 5 (some say 6) BPs. They get little messages and so do you, each time you find the right level of pire and bite them.
This isn't hard to accomplish if you have a fairly low BP level. But higher level pires, say 2000 and more, have trouble finding pires who have more BPs than they do, so the three days is useful if you want to keep high BPs and still get Suction.
Some vamps are deciding to get Stamina levels first, which can severely lower your BPs in buying, so they are at low enough levels to easily find people with higher BPs to help them get Suction faster. This is the case for people with already high BPs.
However, if your pire is low in BPs, Suction is rather important to get, to help quickly get as many BPs as possible in order to pay for Stamina or other BP costing quests.
When you pay for the Guild cost you see:
"To gain a level of SUCTION, you need to fill this bag (the
guildmaster hands you something that looks like a wineskin) with the blood of
powerful vampires. You must bag blood from at least one powerful vampire every
three days, until the bag is full, or it will lose its power.
"(To bag a vampire's blood, simply drink from a vampire whose
blood count is higher than yours.)"
When you bite, you see:
"You drain much more blood than you usually could from (Name of Vamp), syphoning it into the bag as you go. Again, you have 3 days to find the next victim."
When you bite, they see:
"(Name of Vamp) sucked blood from you. You were temporarily paralysed, unable to do anything but watch as the blood was drained - more blood than you would usually expect. As if to add insult to injury, (Name of Vamp) isn't even drinking, instead spitting huge mouthfuls of your blood into some kind of wineskin."
When you have finally bitten the 20th pire, you see:
"You drain much more blood than you usually could from (Name
of Vamp), syphoning it into the bag as you go.
"The bag is finally full. You upend it into your mouth. The blood burns as it goes down, but in an almost pleasant, if slightly unnerving, way. As the last drop passes your lips, you feel a new strength in your lungs and in your fangs."
Available at: Empaths Guilds (ALL/ANY). Cost: 20,000 coins. No levels for this power. Once only cost. Effect: Surprise lets a vampire enter a "blued" (blocked or overcrowded) square.
Surprise is a very simply defined power. You can get into squares with so many pires that they "blue" out, and are normally impassable. When you encounter such a "blocked" square without Surprise you must either go around or use a Scroll of Turning (SoTurn) to "clear" the square.
Since the power of Surprise eliminates the need to use SoTurns, it saves you a great deal of money in the long run. Also, because there is no quest to obtain the power, you save the common immediate costs that one encounters when questing, such as time, purchase of transit or pub drinks or whatever, and there is no blood cost at all.
One note though. It is rare to see it happen, but it is possible for a square to get so full, that even a vampire with Surprise cannot pass into the square. Just in case, carry a few SoTurns with you while you travel.
Obtaining the power at the guild is extremely straight forward. Get into the right square while holding the right amount of money, then click the button to learn the power. Tada. Done.
This text made possible because of the extra help offered by Parelle. Thanks, hon!
Available at: Travelers Guild Cost: Telepathy 1: 2,500 coins + 10 AP Telepathy 2: 5,000 coins + 10 AP Telepathy 3: 10,000 coins + 10 AP Effect: Telepathy lets you send messages to other vampires regardless of location. The power uses AP to send the message at the following rates [half AP cost for communicating with sires or childer(family)]: Telepathy 1: 10 AP (5 for family) Telepathy 2: 6 AP (3 for family) Telepathy 3: 3 AP (1 for family)
Thus far, the News on the game server is the most accurate info and is as follows.
Telepathy (3 Levels Available): The vampire is able to send telepathic messages to other vampires, no matter where they are. At level one it costs ten action points to send a telepathic message. At level two it costs six. At level three it costs two. Sending a message to your sire or one of your childer costs half the action points of communicating with other vampires, ie. it costs only one action point to communicate with one of your childer using level three telepathy.
So, yes. The same thing as above. The lovely and ever-informative Parelle of the Sun Clan had this to say in the Lost In Shadows community:
Mon, Feb. 16th, 2004, 05:04 pm
parelle
If you're curious, here are the messages that pop up:Power: Intensive training, lasting several hours, leaves you feeling very tired. Your mind, on the other hand, is feeling especially alert. You have gained a level of TELEPATHY.
Message: You concentrate, and send a telepathic message to the vampire _____.
Indeed, I messaged one of my childer (i do have so few!) and it cost half of what it could have.
Additionally, be aware that the reduction of AP costs does not apply to your "extended pack." That is, using Telepathy to talk to your childer will be half normal AP cost, but your childer's childer still cost the normal AP to send a message to, and the other way, presumably as well (your sire =1/2 normal AP cost; your sire's sire =full normal AP cost).
Of note is the fact that there is no quest for this power. You simply go to the correct guild and buy the power. Additionally, the moment you click the button to buy the power at the guild you will be down ten AP, as the idea is that you spend a lot of time and energy "studying" to obtain the power.
A very big thanks to Parelle of the Sun Clan for her invaluable information sharing on this power. This info wouldn't be up if not for her help.
Available at: Thieves Guild . Cost: Thievery 1: 2000 coins. Thievery 2: 5000 coins. Thievery 3: 10000 coins. Effect: Thievery robs a pire of... ... up to 25% of their coins at level 1, ... up to 50% at level 2, and ... up to 75% at level 3. Chances of success increase with each level.
Thievery is probably the most important power to get. But, unfortunately, it can also be the hardest to get the first level of. As a vampire without Thievery, you can only get your funding two ways... Either from Humans, or from other pires being nice enough to pay for it for you.
Of course, you can always just donate enough to get you a level or three of Thievery, but that isn't what this text is for. Actually, I recommend you do donate to the game, just because of the principle. Besides, getting level 1 Thievery by paying to get rid of those banners and supporting the game is in no way a bad thing. I encourage the idea wholeheartedly.
The reason Thievery is so important? Well, it pays for everything else like transits, pubs, items, powers... Come on, do I really need to tell you why?
A note: You don't "rob" humans. They fork over their cash as soon as you drink them up and kill them. Only other vampires can be robbed from. And no, you can't rob the bartenders. Or the banks... Or shops. Shit.
Like the quick and dirty says, the different levels of Thievery work like so:
Am I getting through to you on the UP TO bit? So you won't be emailing me or posting to a message board with some complaint about T3 not working, right? Good. See, Thievery won't always rob a pire of exactly that amount. Also, you can fail. With each level of Thievery you gain, you increase your chances of a successful robbery, but it is never 100% going to work every time. Besides, some vampires don't have any money on them, the cheap bastards who know how to use banks. Ahem. Pardon me. Moving on...
Once you have the funds, actually *getting* the power is simple. Go to the guild and pay for it. The end...