Sacred 3 Advanced Tips

Yesterday, we covered the beginner’s tips for Deep Silver’s Sacred 3, a Diablo-esque role-playing action game where you guide one of four warriors on a quest to recapture a missing relic before an evil figure uses it to destroy the world. You have your hands full with this quest, as hordes of goblins and other enemies attempt to rip you apart.

We already covered how to get into this adventure, but now we have some tips that will help you score more gold along the way, as well as survive encounters with some of the most dangerous opponents.

Complete secondary missions and preserve special attacks

As you proceed through Sacred 3’s story mode, you’ll find secondary missions opening up on the map. You’ll notice they aren’t lit up like the main story missions, meaning you don’t need to complete them to finish the game. However, you may want to tackle them anyway, as they provide the chance to clean up on some extra gold, which you can use to unlock items and new special abilities.

The main side missions in Sacred 3 are survival maps. Here, you’ll fight off waves of enemies in an enclosed area. There’s a good and bad side to this. Obviously, the bad side is that you’re going to become surrounded – quickly – and taking everyone on by yourself can be suicide. Conversely, you don’t have to wander all over the map to find enemies, since they’ll come to you.

When taking on these hordes, save your special attacks. Your basic melee attacks should be able to subdue the early enemies, and your defensive technique will easily knock bigger ones for a loop while you work in some extra hits. Only when the situation becomes dire should you use your special techniques, and use them sparingly – they take quite a while to charge up, and you don’t want to be left empty-handed when you’re overrun.

Survive long enough and you’ll be able to clean up on gold after each wave, with a good amount dropped after the final round. You earned it.

Finding hidden treasure chests

One key advantage to exploring an open map in Sacred 3 involves finding treasure chests. Here, you’ll score a number of gold pieces, along with green orbs that will restore any health you lost. If you’re playing solo and need to recover energy, help yourself. However, if you’re playing with a group, try to save some for the other players.

As far as finding these treasure chests goes, the best thing you can do is look for areas not clearly marked on your map. These could be little areas, like one located behind a cottage or off the beaten path in a small town. It never hurts to explore and track these down, as the payoff is well worth it.

If you prefer to just hunt for small pieces of gold, feel free to break objects in the environment, including crates, barrels and wagons. You might be surprised just how much gold you find – as well as a few convenient health orbs.

The bosses are intimidating, but not invincible

Throughout your journey in Sacred 3, you’ll run into some particularly nasty bosses, including a large fire demon that likes to dash and leave a flame trail behind him, and other devastating forces that can mow you down if you’re not careful. However, each one has a technique that’s easy to learn.

When facing these monsters, you’ll be able to see their attacks from a mile away. In this situation, you can do one of two things. The most effective maneuver is to roll out of the way. Most of the time you’ll evade the attacks, and you can strike back with ease, hitting the creature multiple times.

However, gutsy players may try to unleash a special move on a creature before it attacks. Eight times out of 10, it’s likely to hit you anyway, but you’ll do sufficient damage to it. We can’t recommend this long-term, though, since you’ll eventually lose a significant amount of energy.

Stick and move, stick and move. While this may grow repetitive over time, it’s a safe maneuver guaranteed to keep you alive until the very end, and you’ll be able to cash in on your success as a result.

In addition, don’t forget the Power Move! Once you weaken a boss enemy enough, you’ll be able to activate this and keep it restrained for a limited amount of time, enabling your allies to chip away at its health. Even if you’re on your own, however, it’s quite useful.

Combos are key

Finally, when it comes to defeating large groups of enemies, one tactic that works extraordinarily well is a combo. By chaining together smaller hits into your special attacks, you can knock down even the largest enemies.

Case in point, shielded foes. Your smaller strikes won’t do much good, as they’ll bounce off the shields. However, strike with a defensive blow, then lead in with a few quick melee strikes, then finish off with a devastating special attack and they’ll be done for. You can even catch two shielded enemies this way, killing them both at the same time.

Good luck! Now go kick some goblin butt.

Sacred 3 is available now for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.