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The Search for Cain:
Recommended Level: 8-10
Quest Given By: Akara
Location: Stony Field to Tristram
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Reward: Free Item Identification, Wirt’s Leg
Objectives: Locate and Rescue Cain
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Preparations:
Before embarking upon the search for Cain, it is recommended that you have killed Blood Raven and explored the crypts in the Burial Grounds. This allows you to hire a mercenary, which proves to be quite useful, especially for spellcasters. Throughout the quest, you’ll get plenty of items, so keep town portal scrolls handy and use them whenever your inventory gets full. The quest is quite long, and is set in four different areas.
Finding the Tree:
Remember the second exit to the Cold Plains? Now is the time to take it. Upon leaving the Cold Plains, you’ll find yourself in Stony Field, which looks pretty much the same with the exception of some extra boulders. The monsters here shouldn’t prove to be much trouble, consisting of Fallen, Carvers (Tougher Fallen), Foul Crows and Skeleton Archers.
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| The Necromancer let his minions do the work as he explores the Underground Passageway. |
Scout the area thoroughly, there are four features that you should find before moving on. The first is a Runestone formation found around the center of Stony Field, this will teleport you to Tristram Later. The second is a Tome on a stand, which one read, will give you the fourth quest (more on that later). The third is a waypoint, which should be activated. Finally around the far edge, you’ll find an entrance to the Underground Passageway that’ll lead you to the ‘Tree of Inifuss’ Once you find all three, take the passageway.
The Underground Passageway looks similar to the Den of Evil, this time populated by Misshapen, Skeleton Archers and Carvers. A few random hero monsters are also around, but most of it is simple hack and slash. Navigate through the caverns till you find a second exit or an entrance to ‘Underground Passageway Level 2’
The second level to the passageway resembles the second level to the caves and is entirely optional, however it does offer some nice magic items and experience. There are two random hero monsters in the center, and so the battle isn’t too easy, but worth your time. After getting the treasures, take the second exit, which will lead you to Dark Wood.
Dark Wood is well populated by Vile Hunters, Vile Lancers, Carvers, Quill Fiends (Quill Beasts that shoot 3 spikes) and more Undead. You’ll find area of effect spells to be most useful here, as they make short work on monster swarms. Explore the area till you find the Tree of Inifuss, it should be located somewhere near the far end.
Using the Tree:
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| Woodfist is a tough opponent, but what can’t reach you can’t hurt you. |
Guarding the tree of Inifuss is ‘TreeHead Woodfist’ and three Brutes, heroes and tougher variations of the Gargantuan Beast. Watch out, although these guys are not exceptionally tough, they deal out a lot of damage. Spell casters and Amazons should keep clear of their huge fists. Your mercenary comes in handy here, and makes excellent cannon fodder. Warriors should use their skills to enhance their damage.
When the guardians are all dead, click on the tree and get the scroll. It is a massive 2x2 in size and can’t be used till you bring it back to Akara. Before you cast a town portal, make sure you have activated the waypoint to Dark Wood. You’ll need to come back here later and you don’t want to waste time going underground again.
Freeing Cain:
Once you’ve talked to Akara, your scroll will be translated to decent numerals that you can read. Now travel back to Stony Field and relocate the Runestones. Click on each Runestone in the order that is prescribed on your Scroll. Once done, you’ll be treated some spectacular lighting effects as a portal to Tristram is conjured. Step through the portal
Tristram is a small area, and looks nothing like what it was in Diablo 1 (When did the creek that that big?). Now avoid that dead cow you see next to you, or it’ll explode, dealing significant damage to spellcasters.
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| Travelling has never been so spectacular. |
You won’t have to take more than a few steps before meeting up with the whole swarm, Carvers, the Returned (Tougher Skeletons), Skeleton Archers and Night Clans (tougher Goatmen). Leading them will be a Night Clan and a Skeleton Archer hero. As you start fighting, Griswold, now an undead, will also join in to kill you.
Thankfully, Griswold is nothing more than a Zombie with a few hundred hit points. He’s slow and deals little damage, so you can ignore him while you deal with the other monsters. Both of the two random heroes don’t have much hit points but deal a lot of damage, so target them with all you’ve got first, then proceed to get rid of the Carver Shamans and everything else. Don’t worry too much if your Rogue Mercenary dies here, she served her purpose.
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| A Level 3 Frost Nova explodes amongst the monsters of Tristram, and with deadly effects. |
Once only Griswold is left lumbering towards you at zombie speed, pull out a missile weapon and shoot him from range. While weak in everything else, Griswold has hell of a lot of hit points, even in singleplayer. But his slow speed makes him of little threat. (Think of him as an Ultralisk in SC, doing little damage but sucking up your fire).
Once Griswold is dead, proceed to the town center. Kill the Skeleton Archer and Carver Shamans there and free Cain. The Sage will take the initiative and transport himself to the Rogue Encampment. However before you portal back to get your reward, make sure to explore the rest of Tristram.
On the Top left of the burnt town, you’ll find the dead body of Wirt, the boy who always ripped you off in Diablo (Now it’s your turn). Clicking on him will reveal a whole cache of gold as well as his Pegleg, a unique item! While the Pegleg is nothing more than a slotted mace, it is required for you to enter the secret Cow Level, so keep it safe in your stash. Now back to Akara for your reward.
Class Specific Tips:
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Bone Armor and a Tough Clay Golem are your best bets. Keep your minions in front at all times as you explore through the underground passageways and out the other side. Use ‘Amplify Damage’ at any monster you find, it costs little and allows you minions to deal double the normal damage. Weaken will also help when going against ‘Woodfist.’
As you level up, put a skill on Corpse Explosion, this is extremely useful in Tristram due to the number of dead bodies, giving you the freedom to target almost anywhere. Just keep back and let your minions be the cannon fodder, support them with various curses and Teeth. Use Corpse Explosion to clear large amounts of Carvers and Skeleton Archers. Switch to a missile weapon when fighting Griswold.
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| Griswold travels too slow to do any damage, but a bow is required to kill him unless you want to waste a few mana potions. |
Frost Nova and Ice Blast are the two primary spells you should use, make sure you have them at 2nd level or higher. Use Frost Nova whenever surrounded, they’ll not only kill your enemies but also slow them so you can retreat to a safe distance. Use Frost Blast against ‘Woodfist’ and other heroes. It slows them allowing you to run back and keep shooting.
In Tristram, run right into the center of the Carvers and god knows what else and unleash Frost Novas till all is quite. Then finish of the heroes with Ice Blast. A Bow is handy against Griswold, as his high hit points will drain all your many numerous times before he’ll die.
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As always, just charge into the fray. By now you should have plenty of Sword or Axe masteries to make yourself a formidable opponent. Whenever surrounded, such as in Tristram, use ‘Howl’ so you can challenge the heroes along. Use Bash against ‘Woodfist’ but simply hack your way through Griswold.
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When faced with so many monsters, a Paladin’s most powerful offensive weapon is his aura’s of might and holy fire. Make sure you upgrade these skills. Kill the hero archer with Sacrifice and run around Tristram, burning random enemies using the Aura of Holy Fire. Once the normal monsters are dead, use might to kill Griswold. The same technique can be applied to ‘Woodfist.’
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The Amazons best bet here is to stay as far away from the monsters as possible. Simply shoot fire arrows and retreat whenever monsters near you. ‘Woodfist’ won’t even have a chance to score a hit. In Tristram, first knockout the archers and apply the same technique.
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