Fans of Divinity: Original Sin 2 know the game for its highly immersive take on narrative fantasy RPG experiences. After all, this Larian Studios title retains its signature franchise charm of immensely-tactical battles and an extremely open-ended world. Why, players can kill virtually anyone - major NPC or otherwise - and open a completely new storyline, and close entire questlines.
Moreover, players of Original Sin 2 can do almost anything in the world and affect their overall playthrough in different ways. Sadly, this factor does mean too many wrong decisions can ruin someone's playthrough. However, how can players avoid this bad outcome?
10 Skipping Tactician, Honour Modes
In Original Sin 2, players have the option of playing through various difficulties - the chill Story and Explorer Modes, and the standard Classic Mode. However, players looking for a challenge might instead want to consider playing through Tactician Mode and even Honour Mode once they feel more comfortable with the game's systems.
In Tactician Mode, enemies have smarter AI and have higher statistics in general. This immediately turns the game against the player, and makes for a more genuinely challenging experience. Meanwhile, Honour Mode only gives players a single save file that gets erased upon death. Granted, these two modes seem overkill, but they do increase the value of risk versus reward in the game.
9 Creating A Custom Character
Granted, who doesn't love creating a personal character for a first RPG playthrough, right? In Original Sin 2, players have the option of using a premade character or create their own. While the latter seems attractive, they should consider opting for the former first. That's because all premade characters in Original Sin 2 come with a unique story and internal dialogue.
Of course, the stories of premade characters are almost identical to when players encounter them as Companions or other NPCs. However, reading the Red Prince's internal monologue is eternally more satisfying than simply talking with him. And the Red Prince is already captivating as a Companion.
8 Optimizing The Cheese Builds
Players, RPG fans or not, can easily determine which builds work best in Original Sin 2 after a few rounds of combat. For instance, anything that creates oil puddles (Geomancer) and fires (Pyrokinetic) can hurt pretty quickly. Moreover, anything that can target multiple enemies at once (Warfare, Huntsman) or from behind (Scoundrel) can end battles in a few turns.
Granted, acing through every combat encounter in Original Sin 2 can be fun. However, the lack of any challenge might reduce any meaning behind the game's more emotional encounters. Death is always a threat in Original Sin 2, and the apparent lack of risk on the part of the Player Characters might lessen the impact the story's themes as a whole.
7 Paying Everything In Cash
Players who sit through a few hours of Original Sin 2 might realize that merchants carry some of the best loot in the game. After all, merchants "shift" their wears whenever the player levels up. In turn, their goods almost always match the player's needs. However, players shouldn't always depend on their cash to secure the game's greatest goods.
In fact, a lot of players might forget that the game has an in-depth Crafting System. Players can obtain recipes for this Crafting System all around the world, and players should try to get used to this feature. Remember, one of the rarest item sets in the game (Vulture Armor) can only be obtained via crafting.
6 Abusing The Respec Option
Unlike the first Original Sin game, characters can respec in Original Sin 2 anytime they want courtesy of a special magic mirror in the Fort Joy Arena and the deck of the Lady Vengeance. In turn, players can easily allocate Skill Points, Ability Points, Talents, and even base appearance to their heart's content.
Of course, this feature implies that players can always mix and match builds without ever having to make a new game. However, players who always use this might ruin the authenticity of their playthrough. After all, players eliminate the risk element of "adjusting with the wrong stats" if a magic mirror always saves them, right?
5 Exploring Everything First, Town Hub Later
In MMOs, it has become customary for players to get all the quests in a zone in order to do them all at the same time. After all, securing all quests in the area means being able to plan them in the best order, right? There should be no need to go the town hub.
However, such a strategy isn't always helpful in Original Sin 2. Players should go to Driftwood to the west, as the questlines in the town eventually have players explore the entire region. Unfortunately, players who start exploring the map from the east and going counter-clockwise would theoretically end up doing the latter half of Act 2's quests and skip the build-up from Driftwood's first half.
4 Always Going For The Diplomacy Route
Who doesn't want to avoid fights, right? Thankfully, there's almost always a way to avoid fights in Original Sin 2 unless it's an in-story battle. However, characters with good Persuasion could talk their way out of angry NPCs. Even better, a high-enough Persuasion could theoretically skip the last boss fight altogether.
As awesome as this may sound, the so-called diplomacy route can ruin the emotional impact of the main plotline. In Original Sin 2, the player's characters strive to attain Divinity - actual godhood - to make an actual change in their lives. Unlike other RPGs, each main character has something at stake. These characters lose their raison d'etre if they fail to attain Divinity - and the lack of any conflict with the diplomacy route can dismiss their struggle in the narrative altogether.
3 Pleasing Everyone They Meet
Aside from the diplomacy route, some quests in Original Sin 2 actually conflict with one another in terms of intention. For instance, some questlines would have players decide if they want to side with the Magisters or the simpler folk of Rivellon. Chances are, players might get stuck for hours trying to find a compromise that would complete both quests "successfully."
However, in cases where two quests conflict with each other, players should settle on an outcome they want. In Original Sin 2, the narrative takes into account that not all sides will be happy in any situation. Players need to get used to this, as harder choices become more apparent when they need to tackle each of their Companion's stories.
2 Killing Everyone On Sight
Interestingly, Original Sin 2 boasts something other RPGs don't have: the ability to kill all NPCs and still get an ending. In other games, killing a crucial NPC can prompt wandering a "doomed world" (Morrowind) or outright end the game altogether. However, in Original Sin 2, killing even the most major of NPCs simply unlocks a different ending.
This sheer level of detail and realism implies that the impact of life is as huge as life itself is fickle. Theoretically, a player's choice of saving or leaving an NPC to their death can lead them to an ending that surprises them. However, players who try to kill everyone "for the lulz" may end up wasting their playthrough. After all, this route will simply lead to an unsatisfactory ending because of the absence of all major players in the narrative.
1 Following The Script
In most RPGs, scripted scenarios happen to shape the course of the narrative. However, cutscenes are almost absent in Original Sin 2, with everything happen during dialogue. Moreover, players can notice that dialogue that progresses the story only happens between the NPC with the script and the nearest character. Chances are other people involved in the script also hang out nearby. However, players don't always have to follow the script if they don't want to.
In fact, it seems the game accommodates instances where players "get technical" and tinker with the script of some events. With the right reload, players can know exactly where enemies appear before a dialogue turns into a combat encounter. Additionally, the right use of Teleport (Aerotheurge) and synergy of Talents and Skills can skip entire combat encounters and undesirable situations entirely. Doing this offers a ton of flexibility to how players want to progress through their story.