Fable: The Arena Fighting Guide Copyright 2007 - Jeffrey Riddle Current Version - 1.3 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ###### #### ##### ## ##### ###### ###### ## ## ## ##### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##### ## ### #### ###### ##### ## ### #### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##### ##### ## ## ## ##### ##### ##### @@@@@ @ @ @@@ @@ @@@ @@@ @ @ @@ @ @ @ @ @@@@ @ @ @ @@ @ @@@@ @ @ @ @@ @ @ @ @ @@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@ @@ @@@@ @@@ @@ @ @@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@ @ @ @ @ @@@ @ @ @ @ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ***************** Table of Contents ***************** 1) Intro 1.1) Copyright 1.2) Version Info 2) Getting to the Arena 2.1) Arena Preparation Area 2.2) Roth/Fighter's Advice 3) The Arena Rounds 3.1) Wasps 3.2) Hobbes 3.3) Balverines 3.4) Undead 3.5) Bandits 3.6) Stone Golems 3.7) Rock Golems 3.8) King Scorpion 3.9) Bonus Round vs. Whisper 4) Arena Redo Secret ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******** 1) Intro ******** Hello you reading this! This is my first FAQ I've written for a game, and I hope it's a good one. This guide is specifically for the arena in Fable. It's not a complete walkthrough for the game, but merely for the arena. Do not place this guide on your site, change it, take it as your own, anything like that. I hope you find this guide helpful in your plight in the arena! ************** 1.1) Copyright ************** This guide is copyrighted by Jeffrey Riddle, unauthorized reproductions, copying, or placing this on another site without approval is illegal. Now we don't want that, right? ***************** 1.2) Version Info ***************** @Version 1.0 - March 20-21 Started writing guide - Finshed Arena Preparation Room & Roth/Fighter's Advice @Version 1.1 - March 23 & 27 Added Strategies for Rounds 1-4 @Version 1.2 - March 28 Finished Round Strategies, Added Relative Round Difficulties @Version 1.3 - April 2 Added Arena Redo Secret ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *********************** 2) Getting to the Arena *********************** The arena is a great, fun place to fight at, even if you can only do it once per story(unless you use the secret to redo it over and over again - explained later). Now I bet you're eager to run to the arena, but wait, how the heck do you get there? Well have no fear, it's simple! For starters, you must be far enough along in the game's story to recieve the quest card from the guild. You get it after finshing the White Balverine quest in Knothole Glade. After you have the quest card for the arena, teleport back to Knothole Glade, and leave town to the north. Then continue through the lake and exit by the northern exit. Then go up to the arena doors, and talk to the guard on the left, and he'll let you in. Also notice the Title Vendor on the side of the path, if you want another title. Back to the guard. He'll let you in and have a cutscene of the Hall of Heroes. Nothing really special in that cutscene, but the guard does try to make himself sound like an engish scholar. Welcome to the Witchwood Arena! *************************** 2.1) Arena Preparation Area *************************** Now that you've made it to the arena, it's time to get familiar with this room you're now standing in. A man named Roth will be telling you the rules of the arena when you enter the preparation room, so you should listen up! After he sends in Chameleon to fight, you can walk around this area. If you talk to Roth afterwards, he'll tell you some pretty logical advice, and also tell you to talk to Shadow for advice as well. He gives logical advice as well. You can talk to the other two fighters in the room, but one tells you nothing really at all except a hint at what the final round will be; the other goes on and on about how he's going to do the arena without stopping to get loads of gold, then marry Lady Grey, and have a big family. ### All Advice/Talk from Roth & the fighters is listed in another section ### Now, after you've gotten your advice, some things to point out in the room. In the middle of the room, there is a large store which sells a large variety of stuff. You really ought to look around in the shop, it has nice things, such as a few different augumentations, most master melee & both ranged weapons, lots of health and mana potions, and the greatest ever(for good aligned) Bright Plate Armor! It is one of the few shops in the game that keeps a steady stock of full armor sets as well: Dark/Bright Chainmail and Normal/Bright/Dark Plate Armors, although I'm not sure if these will change per game file, though I doubt it will. It'd be a mistake to pass up this store, as you can't come back to it(Unless, once more, you use the secret to keep doing it - explained below) so buy everything that looks good! Other than the shop, there is a Blackjack Table game off to the side, even though it's a waste of time and a slow way to get gold if that's the reason you would want to play it for. There are some target dummies lined up to the front and back, no real use except where the other fighters stand. There isn't much else here, just the back gate guard who'll let you out, and the arena entrance. So after waiting awhile in the preparation room, (presumably)Al-The gate guard tells Roth that Chameleon apparently died. Great motavation for a first time arena fighter! The conversation is funny, the way Al and Roth say the lines. Well, now that you've prepared and bought everything, time to hit the arena! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ************************* 2.2)Roth/Fighter's Advice ************************* This is what the other fighters and Roth will say when talked to in the Arena. They might change depending if Chameleon has died yet as well. Talk responses are listed in order, with different talks starting with '@'. Note: After Chameleon dies, each fighter and Roth will have one more thing to say to you. Atfter they say this,they will say their repeating sentence again, with an exception to the Bandit Guy. He starts all his talks over and says them all again, then repeats his last sentence. #### Roth #### (Before Chameleon Dies) @Sorry about the lack of introduction. We have a full stadium and they want action. I'm Roth. I look after everything behind the scenes here. If you need any advice about fighting in the arena, come and talk to me. @First thing fighters learn here: buy potions. Lots of them. @Back for more advice? All right. Always make sure you please the crowd. If they like you, they might throw you a few goodies. @Only two Heroes have beaten the Arena without taking a break. Thunder and Jack of Blades. They could have bought most of Albion with the gold they got for that. They could have bought all the women too. Hur hur. @Always be ready for a few surprises. Expect the unexpected. Shadow has fought here a few times. Perhaps he can help you out? @Look you'll have to find some things out for yourself. -or- Maybe some of the other guys have a thought or two? (Subsequent Talks) (After Chameleon Dies) @Yeah, we all get first time nerves. You'll be fine. Either way, put on a better show than Chameleon. Pathetic. ###### Shadow ###### (Before Chameleon Dies) @Ah, hello there. Bet you're raring to get out there, aren't you? The ones who rush out are the first ones back. In pieces. I've seen Chameleon fight. He isn't going to last long, let me tell you! @Anyway, one thing you should remember: buy everything you need before going in. It's no good saving money now and dying rich later. @Use the traps around the Arena to your advantage. If they can hurt you, they can hurt your enemies. Remember that. @Please the crowd. If they like you they'll sometimes throw goods your way. And it's quite a boost to hear 5000 people chanting your name. @If you get to the later rounds, you'll be paired with another fighter. Work with them, let them take the hits, and get round the enemy's back. Or vice versa. @That's about it. But as I always say, if a round is too hard, leave. Sure, everyone boos you and you lose gold. But at least you're still alive and can get some rest. I'm through to the sixth round! There aren't many who have got that far and survived! @Good Luck. Fight well. -or- You know, I think you might just have a chance. (subsequent talks) (After Chameleon Dies) @No surprise with Chameleon then. The fool didn't even get past round three. What a waste of blood. I've been coming to the Arena fora few years and I might not be the richest fighter, or the most popular. But I'm still alive, and that's more than you can say for most of these idoits. ########## Bandit Guy ########## (Before Chameleon Dies) @Ommmmmm. Can't you see I'm trying to meditate? It might be me next, I have to be ready. @You are persistent, aren't you? Maybe you'll leave me in peace if I give you some advice. Sometimes they pair you up with another fighter. That always means something specially nasty is headed your way, so watch each other's backs. @Someone told me they saw a giant scorpion or something like it. If you meet anything like that, always go for the face. Less Armor there. I need to meditate now. So leave me alone. @Ommmmmm -or- Ommmm. Ommmm. Ommmm. (Subsequent Talks) (After Chameleon Dies) @Ha, that dumb bandit never stood a chance. Doubt you'll fare much better. Perhaps you should go talk to Flick. He seems to be your mental equal. ##### Flick ##### (Before Chameleon Dies) @Huh? Why Bandit go first? Me wanna kill! Me Flick, me training since child. Me gonna win Arena and marry Lady Grey. Me like Lady Grey. @Me gonna finsh Arena in one go. Get loads of gold. Me buy big house, me make big family. @Me gotta rest. Gotta be ready for Arena. -or- Me wish luck. Hope you get gold and buy house like Flick. (Subsequent Talks) (After Chameleon Dies) @Grr, why you go next? Why not me, Flick? Me wanna impress Lady Grey. She lovely. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************* 3) The Arena Rounds ******************* This section will describe each round, and the stratagy to win it. I will also provide a relative difficulty ranking for each round, comparing them to each other, with 1 being the hardest round, and 9 being the easiest round. Now, to begin the actual Arena fighting, wait around the preparation room until Al tells Roth Chameleon has died, and Roth makes fun of him. Then run over to Al and he'll let you in to the Arena. Now let's get it on! ########## 3.1) Wasps [Round Difficulty - 9] ########## Your first round at the Arena...bet you're nervous, huh? Scared at what you will have to kill? Well be very afraid, because it's the......WASPS!!! This is going to be the easiest thing you ever do for gold. A group of about 10-15 wasps will attack you each summon, and all you really need to do is either use Enflame with all the wasps surrounding you and they'll die, or just melee them which won't take long at all. After you kill all the summon groups, you'll get a whopping 100 gold! Now continue to the next round, the Hobbes. ########### 3.2) Hobbes [Round Difficulty - 7] ########### The second round in the arena is pretty easy, as long as you can kill the 2 long range shooters first. Just run up and kill them before the the melee guys really get into gear. Then just hack away, or back up constantly and shoot them with a bow. Magic might not bea good choice in the later summons here. After these guys all die, it's time for the next round, possibly the hardest round ever! ############### 3.3) Balverines [Round Difficulty - 2 to 3] ############### After you reach round 3, every round from now on will have Whisper helping you as a partner. This can help a little as it draws some enemies away from you, but she doesn't do that much damage as it seems she should. Nevertheless, she is a nice boost. Round 3 can be the hardest thing ever, or a mild challenge depending on your weapon. If you have a silver augumentation on your sword or bow, then you should be fine. If not, then you have a lot of work to do. With silver, just continuously fire or bash them in. You might have a slight problem with the second and third summons from the White Balverines. However, with a silver bow, just cock it back about 10-15 seconds and it should 1 hit kill them, if it's strong enough. Melee-wise, just try to block them in the corner and don't let it get away. This isn't as easy in the third summon, as there are 2 White Balverines, but it shouldn't be all that hard with a silver weapon. Now, when you don't have a silver weapon, you're pretty much screwed. The normal guys won't pose too toomuch of a problem, but the White Balverines will eat you alive. You might only do about 80 damage per hit with a melee, and bow might be like a little bit more if the bow is charged enough. It'll be an effort, but after one White Balverine dies and the other is still up, it turns to just time consuming, as you should be able to keep it on the defensive. And don't forget, this is a great chance to build up a crapload of Will Experience when there are like 1-4(depending on skill of lightning) Balverines left(Including White ones). Just cast lightning over and over again and will potion when needed. You can easily get over 200+ experience with a high enough combat multiplier. Well, after you've finished up te Balverines, pat yourself on the back. You've just beaten one of the hardest rounds in the game! Now what should we do...how about...one of the easiest rounds in the game! ########### 3.4) Undead [Round Difficulty - 8] ########### Easiest round after the wasps. These guys don't move fast at all, giving plenty of time to shoot an arrow, combo attack, or magic cast like crazy. You actually don't need a silver weapon too much here, although it makes these guys drop like crazy if you do. Just bow these guys down at the start, and if needed bash them up with a melee combo. Another round where will experience is easy to come by, just lightning and hold it. This round will be over before you know it! ############ 3.5) Bandits [Round Difficulty - 4] ############ Ever wanted to just kill criminals for no reason? Well here's your chance! The fifth round is bandits! This round might be a little difficult, depending on the type of enemies you are fighting. At the start of each summon, you need to focus on killing the bandits with bows out. It'll make this round a heck of a lot easier, as you won't need to keep dodging bullets throughout the round. Same basic principles as the Hobbes Round, quickly kill the ranged, then melee or constantly back pace while bowing the heck of them. The only enemies you may have a slight amount of trouble with is the leader types(The ones with a banner or something over their heads). They block most melee hits unless you have a fast weapon that can hit before they can block a second time. Another one to watch out for is the black hooded bandits. They are extremely fast and can also block most of your melee attacks. Will is also an option for last kills, as these guys drop fairly quickly after getting hit by lightning for a few seconds. Now, for the next round! ################ 3.6) Stone Golem [Round Difficulty - 6] ################ Ah, now starts the annoying rounds of the Arena! Whisper is completely useless beginning here, and you basically have to fight all by yourself at times. Round Six is two Stone Golems, and are apparently married. Both just chunk stone at you, which knock you down if you are hit by them. Also, if you get too close to them, they will duck down and cause a barrier around them which can knock you back and damage you if you aren't careful. But this round is a piece of cake if you have Physical Shield active the whole time. The rocks won't knock you down, and you can prepare yourself for what you are doing instead of having to think of everything on the spot. There are two ways to kill these Golems. First, also maybe a little easier, is to shoot them down with your bow. Since these guys aren't super armored(like next round!), bows work fairly well, if it is at least an Ebony Bow(Possibly even Oak). Next, and maybe requires a little practice, is the returning stone method. Get your melee weapon out and time your swings just right to hit the chunks of stone which, if timed right, will fly back and damage the golems for a nice bit of damage, as well as give you some Skill Experience. After killing both Golems, it's time to fight the real golems, Rock Golems! ############### 3.7) Rock Golem [Round Difficulty - 3] ############### Now for the really tough Golems! Once again there are two, and this time bows aren't going tobe as effective as last time. These guys are heavily armored, so melee won't do much for you either. These guys also do the rock barrier like the Stone Golems did if you are too close to them. To make matters worse, most of the time the Golems will completely ignore Whisper,so while you're attacking one of them both of them are attacking you. This makes this round extremely difficult without Physical Shield. The only real efficient way of killing these guys is to use the melee swing technique to return the rock chunks they throw at you. These rocks you hit back hit them for a large amount of damage, even with their armor. Just try to keep Physical Shield active here and you should come out on top. Now for the final round! ################## 3.8) King Scorpion [Round Difficulty - 1] ################## Alright, the final Arena Round! You're probably pretty cocky, since you just killed Bandits, Undead, Balverines, and Golems, what could stop you? Well, how about a......GIANT SCORPION?!?! Remember that bandit guy from the arena preparation room telling you about a giant scorpion? This is it. This guy is huge, and nicely armored to boot. Pretty strong as well, and if you get a good run of hits on him for damage, he'll dive into the ground and spew out tiny scorpions for you to kill before he comes back. His armor isn't a problem if you have a piercing augumentation, and it's on a pretty strong weapon(I used a Master GreatAxe, and The Sword in the Stone at Avo). If you do, then you can just hit him where ever you can and get damage on him. If not, then you're going to need to wait until he starts charging up a big energy blast-His stinger will slowly rise and a green ball of energy will start forming in front of him. That's your chance to slash his face a couple of times, to get good damage on it, but be sure to back away from it before it shoots its energy out. Just keep working at him, and possibly even use a bow if you aren't good with meleeing. Same concept, shoot rapidly, then aim for the face whenever possible. You'll eventually work it down and kill it. After you kill it, you've seemingly just beaten the Arena! Congrats!!! ############################ 3.9) Bonus Round Vs. Whisper [Round Difficulty - 5] ############################ %%%%%%% NOTICE: I have not yet confirmed what happens in the game if you kill Whisper! I will be doing the Arena a few more times to confirm the events that happen afterwards, such as Bonus Prize, Thunder's reactions, etc. Will post in a near update! - Jeff %%%%%%% WHOOHOO!!! Time to party now! You've just smashed everything in your way, and are on top now! But wait a second, Jack of Blades is here??? *Gasp!* He'll make a long speech about how he loves Albion and crap, and then proposes a final round. Another round??? Gah, do they ever stop? Well, you probably could have guessed what it would be, a round to the death against Whisper. Don't worry about your alignment yet, as you won't kill her now. Just fight her like normal as she isn't too hard. Bows might not be a good choice here as she can block them. Flourish her and smash her up, her use spells to finsh her. After you have her health bar down all the way, you are given a choice...Kill Whisper and get the Arena Bonus Prize(Unconfirmed what happens if you kill her), or let her live and walk out the Arena, and get tons of glory for sparing her. Don't worry, I've done the Arena about 10 times now, and you still will get to keep the gold you've earned from the previous rounds. Well, after you've made your choice, pat yourself on the back, you've beaten the Arena - For good this time! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ******************** 4) Arena Redo Secret ******************** Have you ever wanted to be able to relive those moments of glory in the arena one last time? Or maybe you just wanted a crap load of experience without having to just grind areas. Well this is how you do it! This secret allows you to rack up insane amounts of experience, gold, and renown. And it all uses nothing but the game itself. No codes. No passwords. No running behind something and jumping eight times. Just what the game allows you to do. I guess the technical term would be 'exploit', but that sounds like you're hacking or something. This secret allows you to save all aquired gold and experience and then just start the Arena over again, as many times as you wish. Here is the procedure: First, just do the Arena as normal, getting to the late rounds and try not to stop. If you don't stop, your gold winnings should reach above 28,000 gold. Now, after you kill the Stone Golem, the round before the Scorpion King boss, take a break and go to the preparation area. You should recieve your gold, and it should total 28,600 gold if you never stopped and quit before the final round. Now you have all that experience and gold, now this is what you do. Go to the start menu, and Hero Save. It is a very obvious loophole once you see it the first time. Now Hero Save over the save file you had before the Arena, probably an auto-save, or a manual save if you saved before you entered the Arena. Now, load your Hero-saved file, and you should be where you were before the Arena, and have all the experience and gold and renown you had during it. Using this, you can easily max your stats out fairly quickly, which is useful if you want to pull out the Sword in the Stone at Avo before you get better weapons than it. This secret can be done as many times as you want, resulting in large sums of gold, and experience, and can get you to the last renown rank fast. Using this secret doesn't cause ANY malfunctions, code glitches, or any problems actual codes might cause. Have fun with this! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~