MM4 Building Strength is provided to help you find the best grind spots and the best gear for your heroes. This is how you get started in Clouds of Xeen. Need help building your party? Check Party Planning.
“The greatest adventures are born from the pages of the learned.”
Merchant of ancient tomes
Quest or Grind
When I was young I played Clouds first and then later played Darkside. Playing as such, there are only trainers to train you up to Level 20 on the cloud-side. You can find some Permanent Level Boosts to get above 20 (assuming you wait to collect them until after you are maxed at 20). If you complete quests and clear out most of the dungeons and caves there is plenty of XP available to reach 20 without any special grinding.
Looking over Map Details, you can get an idea of what areas are good to tackle at lower levels and which ones you should save for later. If you are interested in questing, take a look at the Guide page for a full list of quests along with initially obfuscated solutions.
Gear
Gear is broken up into 4 groups and each group has a different set of modifying bonuses that may appear on it. Prefix modifiers have variable strength where more potent modifiers will appear in higher level areas.
Resource: Gear Database
Spells
With 96 spells split between Cleric, Sorcerer, and Druid classes, your journey in mastering the arcane is a long one. Many powerful spells are not just learned with level gain but instead you must seek out trainers and scrolls to learn many spells.
Resource: Spells Database
Secondary Skills
Secondary skills are found in towns, on the surface, and in dungeons and castles-sometimes free and sometimes for a fee. There is no limit to how many secondary skills each character can have.
Resource: Secondary Skill
Statistic Boosts
Boosts are an important mechanic for gaining strength. Boosts can be permanent or temporary and each is useful is various ways. Boosts are located all over Xeen but sometimes they are only available before you statistics get too high so it can be beneficial to find them early.
Resource: Boost List
Attribution
How to obtain a copy of this game:
eBay link – PC version (1992)
GOG link – Digital PC version (includes games 1-6)