What order does everyone do the major quests in CH2?

kryptix

Just curious because I find myself starting similarly too often. It's almost always D'Arnise keep first because of FOA, stronghold or because it's easy, then Planar Sphere or Shade Lord, then Firkraag, for some reason I don't like doing unseeing eye early even though theoretically MOD early would help a lot, I guess I'll try unseeing eye early this time but I think sometimes it's to put off getting keldorn until I'm ready to fight kangaxx...

Arcanis

I usually do the class-quest first, followed by motivation or whatever I want for my chars as equipment..
but I also wait with the keep till I'm back from the Underdark. Why? I hate those annoying Trolls and sending someone in with Crom Faeyr makes it much more tolerable

But the Unseeing eye isn't that hard.. you only need to make sure to get magical weapons for
a couple of enemys, I found it waaay easier than the Shade Lord. Mostly because you don't actually need
to really fight the stupid Eye, since you can destroy it's defence magic and 99% of its hit points via quest item... But should the adventurer group be a problem, just go around them.

Mojo

Well, I always go D'Arnise first, simply because its quite easy and you get the quest right at the beginning. Then I mostly go for Firkraag, although unless my party is really strong for some reason I'll end up saving the actual Firkraag battle for later or just cheese him with Cloudkill or something. Then I'll usually do the Shade Lord and the Murders in the Bridge District mission, as well as some of the other smaller things, like taking out the other Adventurer parties and such. The Planar Sphere and the Unseeing Eye are usually the last on my list, donno why exactly. I'm probably forgetting something here, just finished my BGEE run and I'm currently debating whether to just go for BG2EE or wait for the next patch, which I hope will add some additions to importing.

[Deleted User]

Mostly it depends on what NPCs I'm planning on recruiting in the game; if I'm getting Mazzy, I'll do the Umar Hills early, but I'll usually put it off otherwise. Stronghold only makes a big difference if I'm a Fighter or a Bard, as you need to do those early if you want any chance of finishing them before Spellhold (not that you can't pick them up afterwards).

My usual strategy is to do a bunch of the more minor quests floating around Athkatla (Slavers, Bridge murders, Mae'Var, etc.) before dealing with the bigger ones. Cult of the Eyeless always waits until I have the Shield of Balduran due to those beholder spawns. Firkraag is usually the last major quest I do before Spellhold, because I like to do the quest and kill Firkraag in one go.

kaffekoppen

My latest playthrough (so far I've used more or less the same order every time):

De'Arnise (easiest by far) -> easiest city quests -> Planar Sphere -> Umar Hills -> Trademeet -> sewers, some city quests -> Firkraag -> hardest city quests (liches).

kryptix

I'm debating when to pick up Rashaad because I want to keep the Wilson option open but I've kind of settled on F/I, Jaheira, Viconia, Hexxat, Neera and Nalia as my Spellhold party... Actually, if I finish Jaheira's questline and take Rashaad instead, will Jaheira be available in TOB? I'm always hesitant to drop her because she is so touchy about being dropped...

koalabob

I agree with @Kaigen, it depends on the NPCs I'm looking for. This time around I have Jan, Neera, Valygar, Cernd, and Keldorn. I've actually been jumping around a whole lot more than I usually have done. After grabbing Jan I did the first part of the Free the Slaves to unlock Bernard's new inventory, then grabbed Neera and went Umar Hills and did the first pit (the part with the Ogres) on my way to Valygar. Then it was to Trademeet where I grabbed Cernd and finished all those quests. I swung by and did most of Neera's quests before heading back to the city.

I'm debating whether I want to do the Planar Prison quest (MC is a Blade so the Melodic Chain will be nice) or just grab Keldorn and do the Unseeing Eye. I'm not sure of the beholders though as I'm intentionally not using the Shield of Balduran and those eyeballs terrify me.

velehal

Yes It depends on the NPCs. But the general order with SCS (and aTweak...) is roughly: thief´s stronghold, Trademeet (druid´s stronghold), then everything is more or less doable except mage´s stronghold (even Planar Sphere can be done but it is very annoying at lower levels) provided that you evade dragons and liches. Bard´s quest (Planar Prison) can be rough. To sum = evade high level mages and liches, than everything will be fine.

Lathlaer

koalabob said:

I'm debating whether I want to do the Planar Prison quest (MC is a Blade so the Melodic Chain will be nice) or just grab Keldorn and do the Unseeing Eye. I'm not sure of the beholders though as I'm intentionally not using the Shield of Balduran and those eyeballs terrify me.

You must endure it for Keldorn's sake and his Brawler Gloves

Me, I don't like unfinished quests, so when I start something, I finish it. Part of the reason I try not to pull things like "visit just the first level of Watcher's Keep and go away". No, when I'm there, I'm there.

That said, my order: Mae'Var guild (you can easily solo it) for quick cash boost, then maybe Copper Coronet, de'Arnise hold and then some various fights within the city of Athkatla (lich in the gates, guys in the sewers, guys in Delosar's - both also good source of armors). Then, usually depends on the mood: Trademeet is mostly first, Unseeing Eye and then Umar Hills and Ruined Temple. Then Sphere (order changes when I play a mage). Windspear Hills I leave for last because I don't like cheesing Firkraag. I want a straight glorious battle, deserving the accompanying music. Also, I don't like having Carsomyr too early in the game.