Kingdom Under Fire II (Part Six)

Crafting
Crafting in Kingdom Under Fire II is actually a fairly simple affair. All you need is to gather the appropriate ingredients and the rest is up to luck. There's totally no skills training involved or required, as far as I know.

Typical stuff you can craft include armors, weapons and accessories that your hero would use, consumables like potions, troop job transfer items, troop badges and magic stones that you insert into equipment with sockets.

Ingredients
So how and where do you find these ingredients needed for crafting? Well...as far as this is concerned, there's three ways that I know of.

• Loot
  
  
  
  You can loot them off monsters you've killed. Just remember to pick up these boxes before you leave the mission zone (or they're lost forever).
  

  The grander-looking the box, the rarer the items found inside.

• Disassemble
  
  
  
  You can also acquire them by disassembling unwanted items that you've looted (though I would much rather you sell them off for gold...which is more practical and much much more needed).
  

  When hunting for ingredients in this way, its best to take apart stuff that's similar (in category, grade and level) to what your intending to craft.

• Produce
  
  
  
  Or you can simply choose to produce the ingredients yourself.
  

  Its the quickest and easiest way to get what you require.

  However, the raw materials needed to produce these ingredients (for crafting) are entirely disparate and cannot be obtained via typical looting/disassembling (of stuff) means.
  
  To get them (the raw materials), you will typically have to rely on sending "Production Workers" out on production runs (much like SWTOR's mission runs).
  
  The "catch", though, is that workers may only get raw materials specific to certain "Production Unions" (that the hero have joined). And as the hero may only join in two out of the four available unions, you might have to be a little "selective" here...depending on what you would prefer to craft more often (weapons, armors, potions, accessories, etc).
  
  For example, I chose to join the "Gathering" and "Mining" unions just so that I could produce "Topaz Pieces" (an ingredient used in the crafting of recovery potions).
  

  Note though, that this won't really limit your ability to craft anything in KUF2. In fact, so long as you've got the right ingredients, you will be able to craft the item.
  
  The joining of production unions and sending of workers out on production runs is just a "hassle-free" way to "obtain" more of the ingredients (even while your asleep and logged off) necessary to craft something...rather than having to go out hunting for them via the two alternative methods previously mentioned.

  
  
  But even if you've dedicated yourself to any two particular production unions, that does not mean that its impossible for you to get your hands on "raw materials" of the other unions (so as to produce ingredients that make use of them).
  

  Just that it will be much more troublesome only.

  If you so desire, you can actually take up quest board stuff or open level 1 royal gifts (by donating rank 1 troops) to get those raw materials still. However, it will be pretty time-consuming (for doing it the "quest board" way), costly and random (for doing it via the "level 1 royal gifts" method).
  

Upgrading Equipment

Ever saw this NPC called an "Item Enhancement Master", while your visiting one of the city zones, and wondered what he could do for you? Well...what he actually does is upgrade your hero's equipment and make them better.

If you ever come across some worthwhile equip that you plan to use for quite some time, this is where you can up their stats to make them last even longer.

But to do so, you would need either of these two stones, "Hironeiden Enhancing Stone" or "Hexter Enhancing Stone".

The "Hironeiden" one is usable on weapons and armors of up to level 23 only while the "Hexter" one can be used on all below level 30.

Once you do, you can then pay a visit to the master, drop that equip into the appropriate box (like as shown) and upgrade away.

Magic Stones

Over the course of your adventuring, I do believe you will occasionally come across colored magic stones (red, blue and yellow) like these (be it in the mission zones, player auctions or even craft them yourself).

What these actually do is to make your weapons and armors stronger (or rather, the hero's stats)...via the various bonus effects inscribed upon them (the magic stones).

Red magic stones are for weapons, blue magic stones for armors and yellow magic stones for the "third socket" of a weapon (if it has any).

But the premise is that the item must have sockets. And not only that, the socket itself must be of the "appropriate level" (strong enough to house the magic stone) too, or it won't fit in.

Once that is satisfied, you can then just click on the "Equip" button to insert it into the item (free of charge).

If you wish to remove an inserted magic stone, you can also do that by clicking on the "Unequip" button. However, you will need to pay a certain "fee" in order to do so.

Do remember though, that one cannot put two of the "same kind" of magic stones into the same item.

Although I'm not entirely certain to what extent the system would classify two magic stones as the "same kind", but its safe to assume that you shouldn't be able to do so for identical stones (exact copies) as well as for stones which provide the same kind of benefits.

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Kingdom Under Fire II (Part Five)

Troops

Troops. What are troops? Troops are basically soldiers that you bring with your hero into a mission zone to help you fight against the hordes of enemies, of course.

They are your buddies and your lifeline. Without/Losing them, and you might most probably end up six feet under.

I'm sure your hero is strong. However, when the odds are heavily stacked against you, even the strongest will fall. Eventually.

Choose the wrong ones to bring with you and the exact same outcome will happen.

Which brings me to my next point.

What kind of troops are there in KUF2?

Well as far as I know, there's quite some variety of them to be found in the game. There's light infantry, heavy infantry, spearmen, cavalry/riders, riflemen, musketeers, mortars, cannons, axe throwers, regular archers, magic archers, magicians and priests (just to name a few).

And that's only the variety. In terms of species, there's elven troops, dark elves, humans, orcs and orges too.

Additionally, each of them also appear to have their own uses or purpose as well as strengths and weaknesses.

Infantry are for tanking, mortars and magicians for nuking, archers and musketeers for long range attacks, cavalry/riders for mobility and spearmen to counter them.

But regardless of their uses, variety or species, I've found that troops can generally be classified as either "Melee" or "Range" (for simplicity's sake).

The reason for this classification is actually very simple too.

Melee units are useless unless they manage to close in on their enemies while range units become very ineffective when they're forced into close combat (their damage capabilities are reduced and their skills get disabled).

Which is exactly why I always jam myself in the midst of ranged units...to disrupt their formation, reduce their attack power and "seal off" their nasty skills/spells.

Recruiting Troops
So how do you get these troops? Well...there are a couple of ways to get them.

• Troop Recruiter
  
  By paying some "fee" (gold), one can recruit regular troops from a troop recruiter.
  

  Though these troops may have nothing special to them (yet), the beauty is that they are at the very "bottom" of their ranks and thus have the possibility to transform into something else (if you set them down the right "path").

  However, your hero must achieve a certain level of "reputation" first...before the recruiter will allow you to recruit certain troops.
  

  Reputation with the factions can be gained by completing quests and clearing mission zones related to them (the faction).

• Troop Recruiting Letter
  
  
  
  Alternatively, you can also gain troops via using consumables such as a "Troop Recruiting Letter". These letters allow you to gain a specific kind of troop as specified in the letter's description.
  

  These letters can be obtained as a reward from clearing mission zones, looted off monsters or bought from other players.

• Gatcha
  
  With some "Troop Exchange Tokens", one can also head to a "Troop Exchange Quartermaster" and roll for some troops.
  

  These tokens can be acquired via "royal gifts" (that you get from donating away your troops to the system) or from daily logins (have to be claimed manually via the "Diary" button in between the "PVP" and "Cash Shop" ones).

  The troops obtained in this way is totally random and at the whim of Lady Luck. You might get some very rare troops (that can't be found in any other way) or you might get plain ones (that can be derived from the regular troops found off the troop recruiter). You may find yourself with some "high ranked" troops or perhaps something which is at the bottommost rung.
  

However, although it might be very fun to keep recruiting troops (to see what you can find), do note that there is a limit to the number of troops that you can have simultaneously.

Once you hit this limit, the only way to continue recruiting is by "donating" off your existing ones or to spend cash to "up" your limit.

You can access this Troops List by pressing "B" on your keyboard.

Troop Leveling And Job Transfer
Perhaps the most exciting part about having troops in KUF2...is the fact that you can level and job change them.

By bringing the troops into battles or by giving them the experience points that you've accumulated in clearing the mission zones, you can make those troops level up and become stronger (in terms of their stats like HP and Attack Power).

Upon reaching the right levels, you can then have them undergo job transfers to further enhance their powers or even make them go through radical transformations (into something else entirely).

For instance, a "Trainee Light Infantry" troop can opt to become a "Veteran Light Infantry" (maintain present "path"), a "Trainee Infantry" (change course and become outfitted with Chain Armors) or a "Trainee Musketeer" (change course and get equipped with Shotguns).

And if you chose to...let's say...make it become a "Trainee Infantry", then you will start to notice that certain new "options" had become available for your next "job transfer" (for that particular troop).

In this case they are to either become a "Veteran Infantry", "Trainee Spearman" or "Trainee Heavy Infantry".

Naturally, this will go on (and branch out) until they no longer have any other options left but to become the "expert" in what they do ("Elite XXX").

However, depending on the "rank" of the job transfer (especially from "Rank 3" to "Rank 4"), you might need certain "exotic" ingredients too.

Another use of "rank" is in ascertaining what level of "royal gift" that you will get from donating that troop. If its "Rank 1", you will get "Level 1 Royal Gifts", "Rank 2" will get you "Level 2 Royal Gifts" and so on and so forth.

The "Level" of your troop will determine the quantity of royal gifts that you will get. Level 1 will get you 1 while level 20 will get you 10.

Lastly (I believe), the higher the level of the royal gift, the higher your chance of getting those much needed "gold medals" for your high-ranked job transfers and the better the rewards obtained when you open them (although its still gonna be random).

Note: Performance of these (job transfer and troop training) can be done at any "Barrack Manager" NPC.

Troop Skills

At its very essence, troop skills are actually just skills that the troop has learnt (because of their job), that could be used to aid the hero during battles.

These skills could be anything from passives (no need to do anything to gain the effects), actives (needs the player to cast actively), active toggles (hit hotkey to activate/deactivate) to active autocasts (the troop's AI will determine when to use them on their own and the player has no control over it).

At the most basic level, a novice or trainee troop (at their job) will hardly have much skills to put forth to use. However, once you've done enough job transfers...so much so that they've become an "Elite" in their jobs, you will start to see much much more of them.

And while most of these skills are immediately acquired once you've performed the job transfer, some of them can only be unlocked (for a fee) at your local troop skill trainer.

Sadly though, these skills are also dependent on the troop's current vocation and will be lost straight away once they've performed the next job transfer. As such, be sure to always check at the troop skill trainer (whenever you've made a transfer).

Now if only they could keep the skills that they have learnt. That would have made the game way more interesting in my opinion.

Anyway, my very last piece of advice for you is to always...always...always read a troop's skills ahead of time (before you bring them with you into a battle). Know what each of their skills are meant for and what they will do.

For instance, the "Spearman Line Change" troop toggle. With this skill, you can order your spearmen to enter "regular" or "double file" formation.

In "regular" formation, the troop is able to move and fight normally (infantry-like). In "double file", however, the troop will edge forward slowly...one step at a time (which is useful for fending off charging cavalry and riders, but useless when you want to move fast).

For active troop skills that you can use, the "C" represents "Ctrl". Therefore, "C1" would mean that you press "Ctrl + 1" to use the skill and "CA" would mean "Ctrl + A".

Troop Badges

Troop badges are auxiliary stuff meant to boost and improve the stats of your troops. You can typically find them as loot off monsters, as rewards for clearing dungeons and as end-products that you can make via crafting.

They come in three shapes, "Square", "Hexagon" and "Circle", have different potency (eg. Class 1 to Class 4) and comes with all kinds of random stats.

However, as each troop can only equip one of each type (1 square, 1 hexagon & 1 circle), you will actually need to be very selective in what you put into your troop.

To equip one, you can just drag it from your inventory and place it into the troop's badge slot like as shown above.

Press "O" to access the above "Troop Info" window (for your deployed troops). "B" for those on standby in your barracks.

But be warned. Once you've inserted them, you will need to pay a cost to remove them afterwards (right click on equipped troop badge I believe). Furthermore, your inserted troop badges will be lost and gone forever if you make the troop undergo a job transfer with them equipped.

As such, I'll usually only put the badges on troops that have been "maxed" and won't need to undergo another job transfer.

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