Diablo 2 Steemit retro-gaming project! Steemcules the Strong Act 2, Episode 1 - There is sand in my boots!

This is the tale of Steemcules the Strong. A Steem exclusive playthrough of the iconic Diablo 2 hack n slash game.

Last time on The Tale of Steemcules the Strong Steemcules completed Act 1 by defeating the Demon Andariel. In fact the loot was so good that he killed her a whole bunch of times!

After that it was time to continue with the story of Steemcules the Strong and go to the Next Act.

Act 2 - Intro

Steemcules arrives in a new location: The desert city of Lut Gholein. The first thing you will notice is that there is a lot of sand. Traveling into the town you will see that Cain followed you there, to advise you and to identify magical items for free.

There are also new NPC characters of which Fara is the coolest, seeing as she is the blacksmith in the town and also a healer. So really a nice combo for when you are doing cash out runs between active play areas and you need to pick up more shiny stuff.

The Quests

The quests in this Act, besides the first are all so very interconnected that they will open each other up or stay open till almost right to the end and then all of a sudden all of them get done within a short time.

There are the following :

• Radament's Lair
• The Horadric Staff
• Tainted Sun
• Arcane Sanctuary
• The Summoner
• The Seven Tombs

A quick explanation is this:

Radament's Lair

Go under the sewers and take care of a mummy. Only real stand alone quest.

The Horadric Staff

Find three pieces of quest items in three locations and use them to craft a magical key.

Tainted Sun

The sky goes dark. Fix it by killing the Summoner

Arcane Sanctuary

Go under the Palace to find the Arcane Sanctuary where the Summoner is.

The Summoner

Kill that effing Summoner! Open a portal to the Valley of Magi where Tal Rasha's tomb is.

The Seven Tombs

So If you got the magical key mentioned earlier and you killed the Summoner and read his book, you will know which of the Seven Tombs is the real one. So you take the key, which is a staff, and you open the tomb and fight the boss of the Act: Duriel...

... Actually I do not really know what the hell he is... but he is probably from hell... and he is basically a big demon bug.

Steemcules' Progress

I found another of Hsarus's set, but it's a shield so it cramps my style. Still using the boots though because +20% faster movement is lit!

As you can see the Barbarian is still an outright BEAST. The stats he has at this level of the game is more than enough to deal with groups of foes.

Radament (that Great Mummy in the sewers) saw his ass within a couple of landed attacks and spoils to the victor! Another free skillpoint from that quest which are always nice!

After that I rolled him through the Halls of the Dead to find the Horadric Cube, Sliced and Diced his way down and through the Maggot Lair to grab the Staff of Kings and defiled... or re-filed the Viper Temple obtain the Amulet of the Banana King... ahem the Amulet of the Viper.

Combining those make that handy key... which is the Horadric Staff.

Cube Matters

So what is a rather important permanent addition to your tools in Diablo 2 is the Horadric Cube, otherwise just referred to as the Cube. You need to use the Cube for your quest but then it becomes a un-sellable item for you to hold.

The cube has many wonderful uses. Chief among these is the ability to TRANSMUTE items. This is used for upgrading gems and runes to higher levels of quality, for combining certain items like potions and other things into handy items and for creating some of the easter egg items such as the Portal to the Secret Cow Level. - More on that later!

The main sure for a noobie is to upgrade your gems like so:

• 3 chipped gems of a specific kind --> 1 flawed gem of a specific kind
• 3 flawed gems of a specific kind --> 1 "regular" gem of a specific kind
• 3 "regular" gems of a specific kind --> 1 flawless gem of a specific kind
• 3 flawless gems of a specific kind --> 1 perfect gem of a specific kind

In the picture above you will see a collection of Chipped, Flawed and Regular Gems. These were made mostly from chipped gems I picked up in Act 1.

I will include more Cube Recipes in the future as they become relevant to the level. Right now there is no need for me to try crafting more stuff as I am already overpowering all my foes. So the best bet is to gather as many gems and runes as I can for later when I actually need them.

Next time on Steemcules the Strong

Next time I am finishing off this Act!

As I have mentioned before the end piece of this Act pretty much falls in together.

Once the Summoner falls it clears out the Sun problem and I get to read a book that tells me where Tal Rasha's tomb is. That is the end-game of this Act.

Oh... who is Tal Rasha? Steemcules can only remember Cain say something about some wizard who was locked up for all eternity with some evil guy called Baal. He wasn't really listening.

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