Pathfinder Kingmaker

[Dmdork]

Anyone out there playing RPG video game Pathfinder Kingmaker? I'm at my wits end and about to return the game, as I cannot figure out how to advance the storyline...

[The Glyphstone]

Where are you in the storyline,?

[GrayDeath]

Just saying, it might be a bug. There is for example a mod that allows you to force advancing to the next part.

Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/pathfinderkingmaker/mods/29

[Dmdork]

Chapter 1. I failed the Tarrtuccio pursuit. I'm told Kesten might be another way to advance the story line, cuz he'll show u how to get to the Pine Patch. Keston is supposed to be at Olegs at the bar, but he's not not there. I have only 15 days left. What a buggy game, but I will continue if I can make it outta this mess. I've explored just about every area....

[Narkis]

I have no idea what's gone wrong in your case, or how you managed to spend 75 days in chapter 1. If I remember correctly, the sequence of events for the Main Quest is supposed to be:

Kressle's bandit group OR Tartuccio's expedition at the ruins
You have to do both, but things change depending on what you do first. By "failed the Tartuccio pursuit" I assume you mean you attacked the bandits first, which causes Tartuccio to finish his job at the ruins and move to the Old Sycamore. After you've done both, the next stages are

Temple of the Elk OR Old Sycamore
Jhod, whom you've saved from the bandits, sends you to the Temple of the Elk. Tartuccio is at the Old Sycamore. Again, things change depending on the order. If you do the Temple first, you recruit Tristian there. Otherwise he's injured and will join your party at the start of Chapter 2. I don't remember exactly what changes with the Old Sycamore but I think in any case you deal with the Kobold/Mite war and fight Tartuccio. The next stage is

The Stag Lord's old home
It's in the top left of the map. The Guardian of the Bloom tells you the Stag Lord's backstory, and after you've cleared the area she lifts some of the fog to the far south. Final stage is

The Stag Lord's Fort
The lifted fog reveals its location. You attack it, deal with the rest of the bandits in a number of ways and Kill the Stag Lord. Chapter 1 ends when you then return to Oleg's.

Depending on what exactly you haven't done yet, 15 days may not be enough.

[Dmdork]

By "failed the Tartuccio pursuit" I assume you mean you attacked the bandits first, which causes Tartuccio to finish his job at the ruins and move to the Old Sycamore.

Temple of the Elk OR Old Sycamore
If you do the Temple first, you recruit Tristian there.

This is the order I did things in, I think. I think since I failed the pursuit, and did things in the wrong order, I'm stuck. Im trying to get to the Pine Patch by talking to Kesten, if that's even possible, but he's not at Olegs.


thanks anyway for your time. Yeah, even if I figure it out, 15 days may not be enough considering I have to deal with Tarrtuccio, lift the fog and deal with the Stag Lord stuffs

[Narkis]

This is the order I did things in, I think. I think since I failed the pursuit, and did things in the wrong order, I'm stuck. Im trying to get to the Pine Patch by talking to Kesten, if that's even possible, but he's not at Olegs.

No, there is no wrong order to do things. You just get some different consequences. If you've recruited Tristian (edit: and talked to Jhod about it, I think), it means you need to head to the Old Sycamore next and clear it out. It's directly south of Oleg's, close to the southern edge of the map. Huge tree on the world map, can't miss it. Biggest area and dungeon in Chapter 1. And Kesten has nothing to do with anything, he only becomes important after Chapter 2.

[Dmdork]

No, there is no wrong order to do things. You just get some different consequences. If you've recruited Tristian (edit: and talked to Jhod about it, I think), it means you need to head to the Old Sycamore next and clear it out. It's directly south of Oleg's, close to the southern edge of the map. Huge tree on the world map, can't miss it. Biggest area and dungeon in Chapter 1. And Kesten has nothing to do with anything, he only becomes important after Chapter 2.

Well that gives me hope, but Old Sycamore is cleared out. Forgot what was there (so many locations in this game) but I haven't found Tartuccio. I see no other way to advance the story line. U say Kesten has nothing to do with it, but I keep hearing that he can tell u where the Pine Patch is, which may not help but it's all I have....Kesten is supposed to be at Olegs at the bar I'm told. Hey thank you all for trying to help...All hail Giantip!

[VexingFool]

Well that gives me hope, but Old Sycamore is cleared out. Forgot what was there (so many locations in this game) but I haven't found Tartuccio.

Obviously you haven't 'Cleared out the Old Sycamore' or you would have found Tartuccio. What side did you take in the mite/kobold war? Did you recover the missing companions from beneath the Old Sycamore? Did you recover the Relic and use it on the door near the mite Queen's chamber?

FYI - There are 2 phases to the Old Sycamore, so if you showed up too early some events don't trigger until you return later. You run into Kesten at the entrance of Old Sycamore and he'll give you the Pine Patch location before he heads to Oleg's. You don't even need to go to Pine Patch if the kobold/mite war is going.

[Destro_Yersul]

The Old Sycamore dungeon is enormous, confusing, and has two levels to it. It's entirely possible to miss the area you need to go to. Several times. You do get a map, but the game doesn't tell you this. It's basically the worst dungeon in the entire game.

[Dmdork]

Ok ur right guys. Went back to Sycamore. Kesten is there, told me about pine path. I never even entered the tree/dungeon. I figured it out. Too late though, as I only have 9 days left lol. Can do tree dungeon and kill stag lord in that time? Do I have to travel back to Oleg to stop the clock?

[VexingFool]

It could be done but it would be close and yes you need to go back to Oleg's after Old Sycamore to trigger the 'fog is lifting' message.

So:
1 day to Oleg's after Old Sycamore
2 days to Stag Lord fort
1 day to take out the stag lord
2 days back to Oleg's

That leaves 3 days to complete the Sycamore depths. I can usually do all of Old Sycamore, surface and dungeon, only having to camp once in the middle. Since you already cleared the top and are probably very close to level-4 you should be able to clear the bottom levels and only rest two or three times. Make sure you go back to the surface so you can hunt while resting. On dungeon level-2 keep an eye out for an exit that goes directly to the surface that way you don't have to backtrack as much.

Since you have had a lot of time wasted I think you may be camping wrong. I think the game does not do a good job of explaining camping and many new players end up wasting a ton of time camping.

• Always carry rations. I like to carry 2x the number of people in my party.
• Always check the 'Use Rations' box, otherwise you will hunt until you forage enough rations for the party. This can waste hours of in game time. If you use rations you will hunt for 1 hour and supplement whatever you don't forage with your carried rations. This means a rest will take 9 hours total.
• Always put 2 people on Hunting duty. Obviously your highest Nature lore and one person to assist. This gives you a much better chance of foraging enough rations for the whole party in the 1 hour.
• Next most important is the stealth/camp concealment. If your stealth is high enough you will never have a camp encounter. Watches are pointless unless you just have extra people with no job.
• Cooking can be handy. I usually 4-man the game and have 2xhunters, 1xconcealement and 1xcook
• If you use Ekundayo put him into his special camp slot as he lowers the number of rations needed.
• Make sure use healing magic on rest is checked not Natural healing. If you still aren't at full health use some spells and potions but don't waste another 9 hours.
• Try to stay at light group encumbrance. The more encumbered you are the faster you will tire on the overland map and the more you will have to camp. Drop stuff if you need to in order to keep under Heavy load.
• Only pick up stuff that is valuable. I think a 1-2gp per 1lb is a decent rule. A 30lb armor that sells for 5gp is not worth it vs 10x3lb shortbows that sell for 30gp each. You can always come back for the stuff later if you are really desperate for money, the loot never disappears.
• Sometimes it is better not to rest when you first get tired. I usually like to push travelling until the first person gets exhausted before resting. This can be dangerous but if you have a good perception and decent stealth you should be able to see and avoid any random encounters that come up.

That's all I can think of for now. Hope some of it helps.

[Dmdork]

Thanks. I've decided to start from an earlier save point, like much earlier. My other choice was to return the game, but you talked me out of it with all this good info, plus I've put time in already......you know how it is lol. Thank you much. Let's shut it down, maybe I'll be on again to bother you guys about this silliness. Giantip FTW

[Narkis]

Glad to hear you're giving the game another chance. It's the best of its kind to have come out in recent years imho. VexingFool's advice is very solid in general, but I slightly disagree with some of it.

• Always carry rations. I like to carry 2x the number of people in my party.
• Next most important is the stealth/camp concealment. If your stealth is high enough you will never have a camp encounter. Watches are pointless unless you just have extra people with no job.
• Cooking can be handy. I usually 4-man the game and have 2xhunters, 1xconcealement and 1xcook

I like to carry even more, 15-18 or even 20-24 after some point. Encumbrance becomes less and less of an issue as you get strength-raising belts and bags of holding.
I've never bothered with stealth. Camp encounters are a somewhat decent source of xp and loot. If those on watch succeed on the perception check they wake up everyone in time for the ambush, otherwise it's gonna be only them on the first round.
I usually have the biggest party I can, and the camp roles I prefer are 1 hunter, 1 cook, 1 special (usually Linzi) and the 3 people with the heaviest armor on watch, the highest perception by himself and the lower with someone assisting him. Perception is extremely important in the game, and something that you should max on everyone who can spare the skill point. Lots of hidden nooks and crannies out there. And cooking is more than just handy, some of the recipes you get later are extremely beneficial, like giving you 4 more hours before your party gets tired or giving a +3 Fort on everyone.

A couple other things about Chapter 1 for your second try:
If you head to the Ancient Tomb before going after Kressle, there's a more difficult fight but you also get the chance to recruit either of the two people that went with Tartuccio if you pass a persuasion check. He still escapes and heads to the Old Sycamore.
A lot of the optional locations have real tough enemies. You don't have to clear everything the first time you encounter it.
You did recruit Octavia and Regongar from the Technic League encampment, right?

And a couple things for later on:
On the world map, there's an option to "show location names". It should be always turned, for two reasons. One is the obvious, showing the actual names. The second is that some locations change some time after you first visit them. With the names visible, those locations will be marked with an exclamation mark so you know to visit them again.
Contrary to every other cRPG out there, after Chapter 1 you should always finish the main quest first and then explore and do all the out-of-the-way side quests. The game is not kidding when it starts telling you "X Is a danger to your kingdom, you should investigate". As the main situation of each chapter remains unresolved your kingdom will be taking more and more damage, until it is eventually destroyed. After you've resolved each problem, you will have almost all remaining days in the quest-log timer to explore, do the out-of-the-way side quests and improve your kingdom (except for the last two weeks. You should be back at your capital and available with 14 days remaining). Kingdom building most important, as it will take most of your in-game time and will give you huge benefits (special artisan-crafted items) if you do well in it.

And don't worry about "bothering us with your silliness", as you can see we're pretty chill about helping a newbie with a game we enjoyed.

[Seerow]

My biggest issue with the game personally is just how easy it is to miss major things by complete accident. I got through to the end of chapter 3 a year or so ago, got stuck, took some time away. About a week and a half ago I started it back up and have been going hard. My main takeaway? Not to be afraid of googling for help or what the ramifications of a decision are. It's very easy to permanently miss out on party members, cool sidequests, and unique loot. Then again that may just be an issue with how I approach games, I really don't want to miss out on content on my main playthrough for a game that is easily 100+ hours long. Like I am hugely unlikely to play through a second time to catch anything I missed, so I want to make sure I get it all now. If I approached it more like a typical D&D game and the mindset of "Yeah you can mess up and it has implications on the story" I'd probably be happier with it.

But despite that I've been having a lot of fun with it, especially with the turn based mode making for a much truer to tabletop gameplay experience.

[Destro_Yersul]

My biggest issue was that I wanted kingdom management with a side of fantasy and maybe a quest or two, and what I got was questing with a side of kingdom management. I'd be much happier without timers on the main quests, and my party members bothering me to go on sidequests every couple days. I got up past... whichever chapter it is where the main quest ending immediately starts the main quest for the next chapter, and just decided I wasn't having fun anymore.

[LibraryOgre]

I found that the best way to get through the game was to hard-charge through any story quests... then sit back and run the kingdom, picking up NPC quests as they come up.

[KillianHawkeye]

I found that the best way to get through the game was to hard-charge through any story quests... then sit back and run the kingdom, picking up NPC quests as they come up.

I might give this game another try using this philosophy. It's certainly not what years of gaming experience would/did lead me to do.

[LibraryOgre]

I might give this game another try using this philosophy. It's certainly not what years of gaming experience would/did lead me to do.

Basically, the story quests have that time limit, and you want to get them taken care of. But, there's the "chapter" time limit, represented by the curse on the hilltop. Soon after you beat that, the next chapter's problem will present itself. But between your main quest and that hilltop, you're more or less free to take care of other things... including kingdom management, side quests, and, if you're feeling it, the various delves you can do.

[Kish]

My biggest issue was that I wanted kingdom management with a side of fantasy and maybe a quest or two, and what I got was questing with a side of kingdom management. I'd be much happier without timers on the main quests, and my party members bothering me to go on sidequests every couple days. I got up past... whichever chapter it is where the main quest ending immediately starts the main quest for the next chapter, and just decided I wasn't having fun anymore.

I can relate to that.

Unfortunately, as such the only fair answer for this is the blunt one: that's not what this game is. It just plain isn't. I think it's a pretty awesome CRPG...but the kingdom management is secondary and that's all there is to it, and Owlcat's response to complaints about "yarg I suddenly lost the game because an unexpected crises made my kingdom collapse" has been to make it easier to ignore the kingdom management aspect altogether.

[Destro_Yersul]

Yeah, that's my problem. The game wasn't what I wanted. I'd rather have systems that let me ignore everything else, and just do the kingdom stuff.

[LibraryOgre]

Oh, and the part of the story where you go way east, to help the kingdom next door? The dungeon at the end of it is straight-up bull****, with one of the bull****iest encounters to ever bull****.

[Seerow]

I found that the best way to get through the game was to hard-charge through any story quests... then sit back and run the kingdom, picking up NPC quests as they come up.

For what it's worth this isn't 100% always right.

Spoiler: The Twice-Born Warlord

Show

It is how I was doing things, and as a result I permanently failed Amiri's companion questline. After taking care of the battle at the Barbarian Camp, you apparently need to go with her to check on her friend basically immediately. I went ahead and finished the Armag questline, figuring I could do companion quests after during the downtime, and didn't notice until after that my quest had been marked as failed. Sadly I didn't realize it had been marked as failed until 10 hours of gameplay later and even if I had a backup save there I really didn't want to go through and do it all again.

Oh, and the part of the story where you go way east, to help the kingdom next door? The dungeon at the end of it is straight-up bull****, with one of the bull****iest encounters to ever bull****.

Oh yeah. That dungeon is intense.

Spoiler

Show

Vordakai himself is almost disappointing after that grind of a dungeon. But I know I have seen many complaints from people who did not stock up on camping supplies basically bricking their save file here because you get locked in.

And I hope you're talking about the optional encounter guarding the rubies for the biggest bull**** encounter. The one with like 4 Thanadaemons and 2 of something else, all of whom are spamming either ranged -4 levels, or full attacks with -2 levels per hit? Because yeah that encounter sucked. Like had to reload outside the room, rest, put Death Ward on my highest DPS party members, and let them solo the encounter then rez everyone afterwards sucked.

....and then after all of that I had to reload my save file from before entering the tomb and redo the whole thing, because I did not bring Tristian with me, and it turns out actually having him in the tomb the whole time is required for the good ending, even though he pops in randomly regardless if you leave him behind

Also I am surprised to hear there's that much desire for a bigger focus on kingdom management. The game is still a Pathfinder game, and frankly the kingdom building aspect of the game is pretty weak. I think if I play through again I am going to just set kingdom management to auto and ignore it.

[Destro_Yersul]

Also I am surprised to hear there's that much desire for a bigger focus on kingdom management. The game is still a Pathfinder game, and frankly the kingdom building aspect of the game is pretty weak. I think if I play through again I am going to just set kingdom management to auto and ignore it.

I think this is mostly me. I'm really into city builders, and there just aren't any fantasy ones that I know of. Which is weird, you'd think that'd be a niche somebody would have filled by now, but basically everything has ssome other main component, be it RTS or - as here - RPG. By the time I gave up on Kingmaker, I'd already done everything I could to make the questing trivial, and it still wasn't enugh, what with the game's insistence on throwing quests at me instead of letting me do the fun part that I care about.

[warty goblin]

Fantasy city builder wise about the only things I can think of are the Majesty games, and the somewhat odd Driftland, which I should really play more of.

[Kaptin Keen]

God I hate the Sepulcher of Forgotten Heroes. It's just needlessly convoluted, not fun, not even difficult, just boring and time consuming - and I'm color blind, which means I generally hate any and all color coded .. things. Bah.

[LibraryOgre]

God I hate the Sepulcher of Forgotten Heroes. It's just needlessly convoluted, not fun, not even difficult, just boring and time consuming - and I'm color blind, which means I generally hate any and all color coded .. things. Bah.

Once I got a handle on it, it was ok... but I'm also not color blind.

Besides, I find something to hate even more, soon after.

[Seerow]

Once I got a handle on it, it was ok... but I'm also not color blind.

Besides, I find something to hate even more, soon after.

The worst dungeons for me were:

1) The Bloom Flower Grove.
2) The House at the Edge of Time
3) Sepulchre

I can't think of anything that remotely compares to those. The Bloom Flower actually was the dungeon that killed my run years ago. The whole alternate dimension/mist/lantern mechanic was just really not intuitive and I never quite got the hang of it in the bloom grove. In the House, it was a little better because there were more obvious signs of which version of reality you were in so you could kinda landmark yourself and figure out where you were and hadn't been, but the mechanic still sucked. Sepulchre was just obnoxious and required you to split your party to hit switches on two opposite sides of the dungeon at the same time, which is not something you're expected to do at any other point in the game, even if you ignore the color issues.

I actually didn't mind any of the other dungeons. Armag's tomb was alright. Vordakai's Tomb was probably the best dungeon in the game. While it also featured by far the most unfair encounter in the game, it was also a totally optional encounter so I give it a pass for that (and it is still doable if you cheese it with spamming Death Ward before going into the fight). I really enjoyed Old Sycamore and Trobald. Irovetti's Palace was 'meh' (and honestly that whole chapter was kind of a letdown), but all in all I enjoyed it.



Sorry I'm in kind of a reflective mood, I just beat the game earlier today, with the secret ending. Which in case anyone else happens to read this and is on the fence as to whether to do it or not: Absolutely it is worth doing. I went in expecting a secret boss then roll credits. What I got was effectively an entirely extra bonus chapter, a lot of extra content and story that is all top notch (including a cameo from most of your old villains. Irovetti's reappearance instantly made me love him as a villain so much more than I had through the entirety of the rest of the game)

[The Glyphstone]

The end-sprint in the capital was by far the worst for me, simply from the over-abundance of Hunt Archers spamming their death-arrows. I basically had Valerie soloing everything, slowly grinding down enemies one by one with an unbeatable AC and Missile Shield.

The Bloom flower would have infuriated me if I wasnt already using a guide to solve it, most likely - I knew there was a secret ending that was absurdly complicated to complete, plus the secret romance that was the obvious perfect fit for my MC.

[Destro_Yersul]

Yeah, I was using a guide to try for the secret ending as well. I had turned the difficulty down to story, so I wasn't really having any trouble with the encounters, it was just a slog to get through them all, and it would only have been worse if they were actually hard. I just burned out on the game before I ever got through it.