Battlespire:Hints

Below are some hints, tips, and maybe even a little bit of a cheat to help in Battlespire.

General Game Playing Tips

Choose your starting equipment wisely, because it will make the difference until you reach Level 3.
Be sure to check every Sigil when looting. They look exactly the same as Sigils of Entry, which are essential to progress.
Occasionally, unequipping an item can cause the game to freeze. Instead, simply equip the new item over the old one, then get rid of the old one.
When picking up arrows after a fight, drag them to over your second weapon slot. They will be added to your quiver (or your inventory if not the same type).
You can bypass the maximum weight you can carry when it comes to arrows. Equip them directly onto your character. Although you will be overstrained you can use an unlimited amount of different types of arrows this way.
You can fall through relatively small cracks (like in the wooden bridges in Level 1) if you move too slowly. Either jump across (and build your jumping skill) or walk quickly.
When jumping, be careful not to hit something between the start and end of the jump (either the roof or a nearby obstacle). You'll land far short of your goal and possibly in a not-so-nice place. 
Using any sigil, which can be found very often on the remains of dead daedra, makes you ethereal (take/deal no damage) for a short period of time, this is especially useful in when entering combat at a distance with high level enemies that can cast magic.
The Spell Reflection spell is pretty useless in Battlespire. No spellcaster will use magic to attack you as long as the spell is in effect, instead they will engage you in close combat. Once the spell expires, they will start to use spells. It makes sense to only use this spell shortly before a magic blast hits you. In that case, it will be reflected back to the caster. However the caster won't use any further magical attacks afterwards until your reflect spell has expired.
A Coffer of Restoration restores the health of any item (normal or magical) to 100%, but each coffer can be used only once. You can even pick them up and carry them with you; they weigh 5.0 kg. If you use an item which you normally could use only once (e.g. a potion or a sigil) you can use this item ten times after you have put it into a coffer of restoration.
Be aware that the in-game clock doesn't stop when you're looking at your inventory—time-based statuses like spell effects and the amount of oxygen left in your lungs will not stop counting down. If you're diving, you'll suffocate when exiting the inventory should you remain for too long.
When (especially) in narrow dungeons, you can take advantage of the game's AI and collision detection: Make the enemy walk against a corner (towards you), while you're firing arrows towards it (the wall will not stop your projectiles).
On vehicles: To control a vehicle (boat or balloon), click on the seat surface and steer with the usual movement keys, plus the additional "up" and "down" keys when steering the balloon. The balloon will fly away if left for about ten seconds to moor at its original position.
Use every single potion and sigil you find, even if you don't need them, it will increase your skills.
If you finish/start a level with an item that increases a certain skill then during the level increase screen you can reduce those skills and get lots of extra points to add to other things. It is best to find two items that increase swimming and jumping as these are the easiest to increase through spamming the button or swimming around. So wear the items that boost those skills, reduce those skills to one (1) during the level increase screen and add those extra points to things you need then in the next level you can bring your swimming and jumping skills back up easily.

Undocumented Keys

CTRL-X - Exits the game immediately 

CTRL-P - Saves a screenshot file in the PICS directory. The file is a RAW format which can be converted to a PCX file using the   utility. 

CTRL-C - This starts to take continuous screen shots. Be warned that this eats up disk space like crazy and slows everything down to a crawl (~70MBs of files in around 10 seconds). There does not appear to be any way of shutting this off.


Class Creation Cheat

When you first start the game and create or edit a class, if you select any and all the potions, save the class, reload it, then deselect the potions, you will get more build points than they are worth. This can be done as much as you want by saving the class. You can create a very powerful class doing this. (This doesn´t work anymore in patch 1.5)

Level-Up Cheat

If, during transition between levels, you're wearing one or more skill-increasing items, those skills can be decreased, giving you additional build points. So, you can raise some easy to train skills like Jumping (stand in a doorway with low ceiling to jump really fast) or Destruction (find a regenerating mana crystal and fire projectile spells at nothing) up to 100 points, wear the item before crossing the next level, then decrease them to 1, use given points as you see fit, and on the next level you can train those skills again for another boost.


If you finish/start a level with an item that increases a certain skill then during the level increase screen you can reduce those skills and get lots of extra points to add to other things. It is best to find two items that increase swimming and jumping as these are the easiest to increase through spamming the button or swimming around. So wear the items that boost those skills, reduce those skills to one (1) during the level increase screen and add those extra points to things you need then in the next level you can bring your swimming and jumping skills back up easily.

Level 1 Secret - The Mock Turtle
thumb|right|The Mock Turtle
After you open the Star Galley door, walk a short bit out on to the runway, turn about 120 degrees left, look down and walk off the bridge. Climb up and there is a hidden teleport that takes you to a square room in the NE corner of the level map. Inside is a gigantic turtle! You can actually go left of him, jump up and climb over him. Really a blast, although nothing there, but cool nonetheless. Talk to the Mock turtle, get secret password (eltrut kcom). Use it in the NW corner of the room to gain access to a chest containing an item of "Precipitous Travel".