Stoneshard – Non-Obvious Mechanics and Useful Tips

Some of those are stated on the game’s wiki, but some of those are not. Keep in mind, that this thread is not about complicated formulas, it’s about simple, but not-obvious things.

Tips and Mechanics Explained

All credit goes to Tam_Soloveiko_Shebetav!

There may also be some inaccurate or outdated tips, so keep that in mind too.

And there may also be spoilers, so be careful!

• There are quickbinds with alt, ctrl and shift modifiers that can be very usefull. The known quickbinds are:
  • Ctrl+LMC (left mouse click) on item = drop the item on the ground
  • Shift+LMC on item = trade the item between the opened backpack and container/purse/merchant/etc.
  • Alt+LMC on item = use/equip/unequip the item
  • Alt+LCM on stacked items = open the amount-choosing tab
  • Shift+LCM on NPC (non-playable character) = open the details window. Be carefull to not miss the character while hovering the mouse!
• If you are planning to start a second playthrough, planning the build is very important. If you are the first timer – you will probably not get what all of that means anyway, but if you already have some experience – it is a reminder for what you need to keep in mind. The important things for the build are:
  • What weapons are you going to use (it determines your talents)
  • How do you cap accuracy / fumble / stun res / move res / (as well as backfire change / crit chance / bleed res if needed)
  • How do you regen hp and energy
  • How do you deal with pain, injuries, morale and sanity change
  • How do you escape
  • How do you survive melee enemies
  • How do you deal with ranged physical enemies
  • And how do you face mages

Every single aspect need to be covered, otherwise it would be pain and death in certain situations. Even if you are a mage with ultimate crowd control – there would be t4 enemies, that will charge/blink to you through walls and hit like a truck, so you should be ready for heavy injuries. If you are melee – you gonna need at least one (or better few) abilities or consumables to close a gap between you and the ranged enemy

• In Osbrook most of the items can be sold freely to the main merchant, but the clothes and leathers (pelts, armor) are extremely profitable to sell to the clothes merchant
• In Mannshire there are two blacksmiths – the old one and his apprentice. Somehow the apprentice can repair armor more cheaper than old man does, and the apprentice can also repair the woven armor, while old bum cannot
• The most profitable merchant in Brynn for valuables is Armuz (elven merchant, living in the house next to the church) and the most profitable for jewelry (including gems) is Letar (jeweler in the south-west district). Books from over the world can be profitably sold in Brynn’s library
• Most traders restock their stuff every 3 days, but some of them do that much more often
• Dungeon’s reset occurs only after 4-6 days after completing (or failing) a corresponding contract bound to it. The distant dungeon’s reset is bound to it’s boss chest, that must be looted
• Dungeon contract’s requirements must be met in time, but after it’s cleared – you may fullfill the return part of the quest without any time limits
• Besides floor traps and secret rooms, an Examine Surroundings ability also allows to see the hidden snakes in the grass. Spam it well and fear of snakes no more!
  • At the Plague Village POI (point of interest) there is a well in the center of the town that can be ‘repaired’ using a rope. Doing this will allow you to enter a secret cave under the well, that contains an artifact. There is also a building with a door nailed with some wood planks, that can be broken. There is also a hidden grave next to the leftmost burnt house
  • At the Burned Watermill POI there is a hidden stash behind the nearby dry tree. The stash existence (but not the location) is mentioned in the diary, found inside the watermill, but let us be honest, we never read those D:
  • At the Abandoned Homestead POI there is a burried stash with some decent loot in it, located near the rightmost building
  • At the Tailor’s Homestead POI there is a building with a cellar under it. The entrance to it is hidden inside the building – under the carpet, that must be turned over.

Keep in mind that this POI is only rumored as “Tailor’s Homestead”, but after the reaching it becomes renamed into Ransacked Homestead

• Weapons with some low-chance effects, like 2% stun chance or 3% bleed chance, can still inflict those effects with considerably higher chances if used against injured or otherwise weakened enemies, or when they crit. For example, dazed target with zero initial resistances will have -25% control and -25% move resistance, so a Mace with 2% daze and 2% stun chance will actually have 54% chance to stun that target on hit
• Spells (not attacks) have their own accuracy and armor penetration, both of which can be increased with talents or by investing in Precision stat and cannot be increased with items or by any other means. Keep in mind, that accuracy (and dodge) only affects 5 spells: Fire Barrage, Jolt, Bolt of Darkness, Desecration and Spectral Haunting. Also most targeted spells can be reflected with Seal of Reflection ability from the Magic Mastery tree, while most aoe spells cannot be resisted, dodged or reflected at all. If the spell lands a hit, it’s damage will be fully or partially absorbed by armor, but it’s lingering effects, like the curse, cannot be resisted
• Do not mix drugs with potions, alcohol or itself, because doing so will waste both and lead to a Bad Trip!
• All drug aftermaths, except Abasa’s aftermath (which is mostly just Drunkness), can be fully dispelled with a Will to Survive ability from the Survival tree. The Drunkness status cannot be dispelled that easily
• You can catch a butterfly by clicking on it when nearby. It counts as an ingredient and costs 1 coin. You can also let it free
• Some lootable objects, like bookshelves, nightstands, sarcophages or graves, have their loot predetermined and generated once and forever (until looted), but the loot dropped from “red” destructible objects, like barrels and crates, as well as loot from chests and enemies, are randomly generated upon it’s “opening”. This means that you may acquire a bedroll or two, use it before the chest or the enemy with some required loot inside, and then perform an unforgivable act of SHAMLESS SAVESCAM, reaching the best output you want from these. Thinking about it is extremely disgusting by itself, so do it only on your own risk!
• Throwing Nets can be worn in both weapon slots. Throwing Net by itself is an extremely usefull tool: it is highly reusable, cheap, inflicts heavy debuffs on the enemy and can truly save the life. It can also be repaired at the tailor
• Dodge is not as effective as armor against direct damage, but instead provides some extra protection against negative physical effects (bleeding, knockbacks, pulls, dazes, etc.)
• A burning tile can be extinguished in several ways:

1. Pouring the water from an item with such option on it (filled Waterskin, filled Drinking Horn, filled Bucket, etc.) (keep in mind, that you can’t pour just a little sip, you will always pour the whole container)
2. Stepping directly on it (or skipping turns while standing on it (standing method seems have much less chance to work)) with a character with high elemental or/and fire resistance
3. With a Seal of Cleansing ability from the Magic Mastery tree

You can’t extinguish a burning tile by throwing items at it, even if it is a bucket full of water you throwing. If you try to summon a Boulder or Spikes onto the burning tile, you will also fail to extinguish it.

This info came in handy after a new vampire miniboss arrived – a so called Brander.

• Books, papers, clothes, most food and some medicaments will be irreversibly burned to ashes if dropped or thrown into the fire. Keep that in mind while looting near the burning tiles and especially while fighting the pyromancers!
• If you are traveling far from the settlements, remember, that eating Rhubarb will increase your immunity and provide some food, using a Mindwort will increase the morale and sanity levels, and your empty waterskin can be filled at the river, lake or even at the sea. Dealing with the pain, injuries and fatigue is still hard though, but the First Aid talent and good old sleep can take care of it
• Not all settlers can provide a rumor about some POI. For example, there are a lot of people in Brynn that can be talked to, but only few of them can actually provide a rumor. Those several are: six merchants on the main district, one general merchant near the docks and so called Skinflint Homs – a man, that has some requirements to be met in order to be found.

Guardsmen in Mannshire and Osbrook are the best source of local rumors

• There is a maximum amount of total rumors about the POIs that settlers around the world could provide. If there are still present any unmentioned POI at the moment of reaching the so called “rumors cap”, those will never be told. The only exception to this rule is Skinflint Homs, who can provide the information about all unmentioned POIs until every single one of them is mentioned
• There is a Witch in this game. Once per playthrough she can curse all the equipment, carried by the player. But not all curses are bad! Most of them can be considered as an enhancement. Also regular and uncommon items may become rare upon being cursed, which provides those items with two stat enchantments plus the curse’s enhancement itself. Besides that, the enchantment’s part is 30% more potent comparing to the uncursed item’s enchants. If the player wants to enhance himself by doing so – he may consider buying several copies of the equipment he wants to curse in order to get as many stat combinations as possible to be able to choose between. Besides the pile of equipment, that can be carried up to the Witch’s doorstep, my advice is to take a bedroll or two as well, that can be used to savesca… experiment with the results! In the name of science of course!
• Witch Hat and Witch Staff can be found at the Witch’s Hut. Those can be exchanged for a considerable amount of reputation with the Rotten Willow. Besides those two unique items, Rotten Willow’s reputation can also be raised by exchanging morions and some non-generic occult items (mostly quest items and rare unique items, dropped from high level undead and vapmire mages)
• There is a so called Boulder Circle in the steppe biome. It is a unique POI, that can only be generated once per playthrough. Some permanent stat bonuses can be earned there if all the requirements been met (you need a knowledge from a certain book, found in another steppe’s POI called Order’s Prison, as well as a corresponding gem, which should activate the Boulders)
• Seal of Finesse talent from the Magic Mastery talent tree not only usefull for casters, but for rangers and melee characters as well (at least at the start of the game), because it can compensate a huge chunk of the initial 20% fumble chance
• Warcry talent in the Warfare talent tree is very usefull for all characters, especially at the beginning of the game. It provides heavy crowd control via Confusion, which also provides some heavy debuffs onto melee enemies, if the affliction were made (keep in mind, that Confusion is oftenly resisted by high-level enemies because of the high control resistance of theirs). Warcry itself also provides a decent buff for a brief period of time, which is very usefull for characters with the physical builds
• Enemies will always try to walk around the visible traps, as well as around the burning, corroding or otherwise dangerous tiles if possible. This makes a talent called Ring of Fire from the Pyromancy talent tree be very usefull. It may zone most melee enemies, including the biggest and the most dangerous ones
• Enemy may still decide to walk right into the flames. By doing so it will be ignited with a pretty high chance. Besides considerable amount of damage, burning also inflicts some heavy debuffs, which are especially painfull for melee characters
• If you are playing with a knocking back build (mauler, geomancer or electromancer) one of the best placing against enemy in the open world looks like:

-----YOU--
--ENEMY TREE--
BUSH------

With a placing like this you can always knock enemy back on the bush, or push him with a Boulder against the tree. You can also kite the enemy around the tree in case of emergency

• You can put a Bear Trap in the narrow corridor right before the enemy’s approach. A smart enemy will probably try to disarm it and will probably succeed, but you can always reactivate the trap by right-clicking on it and choosing the corresponding option. This skilltrade may continue for a while, but remember, that sooner or later the enemy will brake his arms or legs, because disarming a trap is dangerous, while reactivating it is 100% safe
• Sarcophages inside undead dungeons may contain a strong ghost within it. The chances are about 3% for poor ones and ~50% for rich sarcophages, and those are generated upon opening. This means, that if you die and reload – you will have the same tileset, but the ghosts’ spawns will change. Always be prepared to be ambushed by them!
• Throwing daggers and 2-slot axes is more lethal than throwing anything else (the only exception may be the Potion of Harm). Throwing can be usefull against enemies with a Raise Shield ability, because dealing some ranged damage as a melee character will make them to preuse and waste it
• Throwing potions at enemies will cause enemies to become covered in alcohol as well as probably inflict the potion’s effect on them. The inflicted effect may be much less potent, have lower chance to be inflicted and will be much shorter than the drinked version. I found throwing almost all potions being completely useless, except few, like Potion of Harm and Potion of Blindness, which are still need to be thrown accurately, while the infliction chance seems only depend on luck
• Graves can be dug with bare hands (it takes a random amount of turns somewhere between 31 and 39), but it is surely done faster with a shovel
• The sea can be swum around with bare hands without dying if it’s done with high enough energy regeneration. Beware of Leviathans while doing so! (Just joking, there are no Leviathans! But there are other habitants, so beware anyway)
• Clam has a ~3% chance to have a sea pearl in it
• Enemies and red destructable objects can be autoattacked by bumping into them with directional movement buttons
• Currently there are no ambushes in the wild, so you can safely sleep in any bed you want, except the one inside the Ruined Manor POI. That one is nasty!
• Ranged enemies will always try to keep the save distance between yourself and the player, but there is a trick. They will always keep the N tiles distance on straight directions (east west north south), but that number is lower on diagonal directions. This means, that approaching the rangers and mages with a melee character will be easier if done diagonally. Also the running away enemies can be cornered, if “directed” to the occupied tile. They only think on 1 turn ahead and can not run around the occupied tile until it’s to late
• Hostile Brigand Geomancer’s Runic Boulders can and should be destroyed. They have ~50-55 HP (depends on magic power of the caster), they have very high nature resistance, but very low physical resistance, which means those can be even one-shotted with a good melee or ranged weapon
• The unpleasant effects of burning, netted and webbed can be worn off much faster by performing a skip turn