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Ankhegs

buckbeachbuckbeach Member Posts: 63
in Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
Cautioned to limit hunting to four but the pests keep creeping up. What if more are killed coming back to region again?

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  • ChnapyChnapy Member Posts: 360
    edited May 2016
    Of note : most of the Ankhegs on that map don't actually count for the quests. Those that do are only found (to my knowledge) in the northeastern part of the map. Once you've killed more than one of those (but not more than 4) you can go back to the questgiver, who will hand you a little reward and leave.
    Afterward you can kill any number of ankheg you want. That is, if you're fine with endangering species :p

    If you talk to the huntress after killing too many ankhegs, you should get harsh words instead of praise and a reward, so that's not as cool.

    Edit : Don't believe me, Finn here has the right of it. The ten plagues of druids will fall upon you (and all of them are insect plagues). Then Ankhegs will feast on your entrails to resplenish their population.

    Edit 2:
    So I looked it up, and apparently :

    There should be a total of 6 Ankhegs that will work for completing the quest. Kill them all before handing it in and you deny yourself the reward. I'm not sure they all do spawn because two of them are at x=4500 which looks suspiciously like the edge of the map to me. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can enlighten us or I'll probably test it. These do not respawn.
    There are several respawning Ankhegs but none of them will count for Gerde, neither for getting the reward nor for going past the limit. Not that a player has any way to know that.
    Post edited by Chnapy on
  • alceryesalceryes Member Posts: 380
    FinnTheHuman said:

    Jahiera will turn on you for upsetting the balance. She will turn into a greater werewolf and vomit acid on you, instakill. It's actually worth saving right before killing your fifth, just to see the effect of the face melting of charname. Its the only time you can see that effect. :wink:

    Noooo, silly. Jahiera doesn't vomit acid.
    She summons a black dragon who uses it's acid breath on you.

    ---- OR ----

    Absolutely nothing. You still get the meager reward regardless of how many you kill. Ankhegs are a good early source of XP/gold.
  • DevardKrownDevardKrown Member Posts: 421
    buckbeach said:

    Cautioned to limit hunting to four but the pests keep creeping up. What if more are killed coming back to region again?

    in all seriousness , as far as i can tell the counter only starts somewhat after you talk to the Druid..then i just kill 4 walk back get my quest completed my 75 gold and the druid will leave the map , after that you can kill them until the cave bursts with cut off Heads.
  • rapsam2003rapsam2003 Member Posts: 1,636
    DevardKrown said:

    in all seriousness , as far as i can tell the counter only starts somewhat after you talk to the Druid..then i just kill 4 walk back get my quest completed my 75 gold and the druid will leave the map , after that you can kill them until the cave bursts with cut off Heads.

    In fact, there's actually another quest related to the Ankegs.
    When you get to Baldur's Gate, there is a dwarf who will buy Ankeg shells from you.

  • BillyYankBillyYank Member Posts: 2,768
    rapsam2003 said:

    DevardKrown said:

    in all seriousness , as far as i can tell the counter only starts somewhat after you talk to the Druid..then i just kill 4 walk back get my quest completed my 75 gold and the druid will leave the map , after that you can kill them until the cave bursts with cut off Heads.

    In fact, there's actually another quest related to the Ankegs.
    When you get to Baldur's Gate, there is a dwarf who will buy Ankeg shells from you.

    Not to mention Thunderhammer smithy and the chance to acquire armor light enough for certain medium strength half-elves.
  • ZilberZilber Member Posts: 253
    BillyYank said:

    rapsam2003 said:

    DevardKrown said:

    in all seriousness , as far as i can tell the counter only starts somewhat after you talk to the Druid..then i just kill 4 walk back get my quest completed my 75 gold and the druid will leave the map , after that you can kill them until the cave bursts with cut off Heads.

    In fact, there's actually another quest related to the Ankegs.
    When you get to Baldur's Gate, there is a dwarf who will buy Ankeg shells from you.

    Not to mention Thunderhammer smithy and the chance to acquire armor light enough for certain medium strength half-elves.
    And for one low strength drow, and it is simply very good.
  • FinnTheHumanFinnTheHuman Member Posts: 404
    Speaking of that armor, I'm not sure how well known is, I haven't seen it mentioned, but you can find some of that just laying around really early:


    In Nashkel. In a hole on the side of a plowed field in the far south west of the area.


    A pearl to you.
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,268
    You should be able to kill as many as you want. Gerde never gets mad at you for killing too many.
  • dunbardunbar Member Posts: 1,603
    @FinnTheHuman Re. your spoiler: I think most people know about that (as well as Evermemory) but they were still hard to "find" with your cursor until someone thought that was too challenging and developed the Tab "we'll show you where all the hidden items are" function.
  • GreenWarlockGreenWarlock Member Posts: 1,354
    @Tresset I have certainly been told off by Gerde in the past. I may have revisited the map several times between the first conversation and being told off though. I now make a point of finding and talking to here asap., although it sounds like I am being overly paranoid now.
  • FinnTheHumanFinnTheHuman Member Posts: 404
    dunbar said:

    @FinnTheHuman Re. your spoiler: I think most people know about that (as well as Evermemory) but they were still hard to "find" with your cursor until someone thought that was too challenging and developed the Tab "we'll show you where all the hidden items are" function.

    Ahhh, the good old days--clicking at every bed, table and kitchen sink. I play on the ipad and miss the tab key functionality. Your pinky is right there and its so simple to give a quick look around. It's a little more clunky to turn the "tab" on and off on the ipad so most of the time i have it on. Its cliche, i know, but its a lot more immersive without it.

    Anyway. I've seen evermemory mentioned quite a few times, but don't recall any posts about the armor stash. I'm not suprised it's well known.
  • BillyYankBillyYank Member Posts: 2,768
    FinnTheHuman said:

    Speaking of that armor, I'm not sure how well known is, I haven't seen it mentioned, but you can find some of that just laying around really early:


    In Nashkel. In a hole on the side of a plowed field in the far south west of the area.


    A pearl to you.
    Yes, but when I take Jaheira and Khalid, I like having a suit for each of them.
  • alceryesalceryes Member Posts: 380
    Chnapy said:

    There should be a total of 6 Ankhegs that will work for completing the quest. Kill them all before handing it in and you deny yourself the reward. I'm not sure they all do spawn because two of them are at x=4500 which looks suspiciously like the edge of the map to me. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can enlighten us or I'll probably test it. These do not respawn.
    There are several respawning Ankhegs but none of them will count for Gerde, neither for getting the reward nor for going past the limit. Not that a player has any way to know that.

    I've never had her yell at me. Even after killing 20+ ankhegs all over that map (over the course of several trips to Thunderhammer). Are the 6 tagged ones also mixed in with the random encounters and I just got lucky?
  • ChnapyChnapy Member Posts: 360
    edited May 2016
    Well if dumb me actually knew how the region files work this could have been solved faster =x

    Some creatures apparently appear according to a schedule? I suppose that's what Ulcaster's ghost use, too. And of course, these particular ankhegs have one. Two of them will only be there during the day, two others will be here from nightfall to 22:59 and from 3:00 to dawn. One of them is only there in the 2 hours before midnight and the last one is only there in the two hours after midnight.

    They all spawn in about the same spot, a few meters east of the road to Baldur's gate, in the northern part of the map.

    Talk about a byzantine way to spawn. Actually failing this quest can about only be done through sheer luck or carefull planning, especially considering that there is no way to wait more or less than 8 hours.
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,268
    GreenWarlock said:

    @Tresset I have certainly been told off by Gerde in the past. I may have revisited the map several times between the first conversation and being told off though. I now make a point of finding and talking to here asap., although it sounds like I am being overly paranoid now.

    You are right. I never remember that happening before. Huh...
  • GreenWarlockGreenWarlock Member Posts: 1,354
    Thanks for the analysis @Chnapy sounds like we need a 'duck season' achievement for those who actually manage to /fail/ this quest!
  • alceryesalceryes Member Posts: 380
    GreenWarlock said:

    Thanks for the analysis @Chnapy sounds like we need a 'duck season' achievement for those who actually manage to /fail/ this quest!

    ...with a vampiric wolf animation that pops out of the grass and laughs at you (right before it rips your throat out).
  • marzbarzmarzbarz Member Posts: 187
    SLAY. THEM. ALL!
  • The_CheesemanThe_Cheeseman Member Posts: 175
    Not being able to wait less than 8 hours at a time is one of the main reasons I always enable cheats. Ctrl+T allows you to advance time one in-game hour. Also great for characters with 20 Con to allow them time to regenerate some HP (just beware of fatigue) and to allow debuffs to wear off after a fight before proceeding. Also invaluable for any character that uses stealth, so you can maximize your nighttime hours.

    Any game with mechanics that are related to in-game time REALLY should have a wait function.
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