Merchants

Those who brave Ehb’s many dangers would do well to secure the best possible gear. Each time you meet a new merchant, take stock of your current equipment and sell off all unwanted items to build funds for fresh arms. (Don’t worry; you can’t sell anything that’s equipped to a character.) Then browse the merchant’s selection of goods afterward—the character portrait that appears behind each item’s name tells you which legionnaire can use the item. Note that merchants always offer a random selection of gear, so you never know what they’ll have. Merchants also regularly receive new stock, and some offer unique artifacts that you won’t find anywhere else—so check back often!

Equipping Gear

Equipping weapons, armor, and special items is the primary way to increase your legionnaires’ statistics and make them more formidable. A new and valuable piece of gear can have a tremendous impact on a hero’s combat prowess, so take stock of your equipment regularly. Keep an eye out for exceptional items that greatly enhance your party members’ skills. Note that the color of an item’s name gives you a clue as to its potential value—from least valuable to most, the colors are white, green, blue, and bronze....

Chaos Effects

Some gear will bestow special effects that can either weaken enemies or grant benefits to legionnaires. Such chaos effects are always noted in the item’s statistical breakdown. Note that a chaos effect’s value determines the bonus damage that the effect will cause per second over the duration of the effect—for example, a sword with 10 Fire would inflict 10 points of bonus damage every second for six seconds, totaling 60 points of added damage. This list describes the various chaos effects that items might bestow.

Bloodletting : This effect grants every attack a chance to inflict bleeding wounds that deal bonus damage over six seconds. Items that can inflict Bloodletting have a 33 percent chance to do so each time they deal damage.

Fire : This effect grants every attack a chance to set enemies on fire, dealing bonus damage over six seconds. Items that can inflict Fire have a 20 percent chance to do so each time they deal damage.

Ice : This effect grants every attack a chance to freeze enemies, dealing bonus damage over nine seconds. Items that can inflict Ice have a 20 percent chance to do so each time they deal damage.

Lightning : This effect grants every attack a chance to electrocute enemies, dealing bonus damage over two seconds. Items that can inflict Lightning have a 10 percent chance to do so each time they deal damage.

Poison : This debilitating effect grants every attack a chance to poison enemies, dealing bonus damage over nine seconds. Items that can inflict Poison have a 15 percent chance to do so each time they deal damage.

Vampire : This welcome effect grants every attack a chance to drain additional HP from enemies, which is then transferred to the legionnaire in the form of healing. Items that can inflict Vampire have a 15 percent chance to do so each time they deal damage.

Weakening : This debilitating effect grants every attack a chance to reduce the enemy’s Attack DPS by a full 50 percent as well as deal bonus damage over nine seconds. Items that can inflict Weakening have a 20 percent chance to do so each time they deal damage.

Withering : This useful effect grants every attack a chance to deal bonus damage over nine seconds and lower the victim’s Armor rating by 20 percent, causing them to suffer significantly more damage from subsequent attacks. Items that can inflict Withering have a 20 percent chance to do so each time they deal damage.

Developer Commentary

Chaos effects are most effective on weapons that hit multiple targets (each target has a chance to suffer the effects) and weapons that attack frequently (more chances to inflict a status effect per second).

Also note that each character has a “big weapon” stance and a “two-weapon” stance. Chaos effects of the two-weapon stance stack. So Anjali could have one Yantra with Chaos: Lightning and one Yantra with Chaos: Stagger, and each fireball has a chance to inflict both.

– Matt MacLean, Senior Designer

Item Management

Nearly all treasure is doled out at random in Dungeon Siege III , so many of the items you’ll find won’t be useful until you’ve recruited the appropriate party member. Fortunately, your legionnaires can carry a tremendous amount of gear around with them—every item that isn’t equipped to a character is stored in the Items menu, where you can review all of the gear that you’ve found but aren’t currently using.

Transmuting Items

When legionnaires can carry no more, it’s time to hightail it back to a merchant and sell off all unwanted goods for top coin. If no merchants are about, consider transmuting less-valuable items into gold so you can make room for fresh loot. Transmuting items is less profitable than selling goods to merchants, but anything’s better than nothing. Simply visit the Items menu, accessed through the Party menu, to view your complete list of stored items. Transmute gear that has a white name first—these are the least valuable, so