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Welcome to the third installment of Arkady’s on-line guide to Vampire. Yes friends, this is the installment where I explain in explicit detail how to finally kill that skank Mercurio. I know that this is holding a lot of gamers up, so if you feel you still need help with it, I will take any questions you have. Always willing to answer whatever it is you need. Let us begin.

Prague – We left off with Christof falling into despair over becoming a vampire. We now resume where we left off with …of course…another cutscene of you talking to Ecaterina and Cosmas about who you are, what your purpose is, and how things are going to be. Lay the smack down Ecaterina. You go girl. *ahem* Anyhow, during the conversation Wilhelm comes in to save your rear end from endless blather and convinces Ecaterina to let you accompany Wilhelm on his mission to recover the Nod fragment.

Wilhelm is going to become your best bud for a while so get to know him and how he plays, because each vampire plays differently up to an extent. Once you leave the University, Wilhelm will briefly discuss "the beast" which is basically the feral side of your new form. The best is basically what overtakes you when you frenzy. In case you have no idea what to frenzy is, I will explain. When you frenzy you lose all control over your character and he becomes a beast, attacking whomever or whatever he chooses. Your character in frenzy will most often feed off anything that is nearby, including your other characters. The lowest bar on your character is the frenzy bar. When you take damage, or when you get dangerously low on blood, you begin to frenzy, and trust me, it’s not pretty and can very well screw you over. Be careful not to frenzy, if you DO start to frenzy, you can use the discipline blood healing and that should reduce it considerably.

Right after that conversation Wilhelm talks to you about your haven. Your haven is basically your sanctuary, your safe place during the day. You do not regenerate life or blood while in sanctuary, but while in your sanctuary, you can save, advance your character, or stash unnecessary items in the vault. Once you have explored the Haven thoroughly, leave and go to the blacksmith to equip Wilhelm properly. When you receive Wilhelm, he has a Halberd, a bow and some arrows, two scrolls of awaken, and four bottles of vitae. Neither of the weapons given to you is a wise choice. The halberd has no accuracy and is two handed therefore restricting you from a shield, which is always an added facet for defense. I always recommend one handed weapons because defense in VERY important in Vampire. The Bow and arrow is basically worthless unless you are the one using it. The other members of your coterie don’t know the difference between friend and foe and will try to shoot at an enemy you are fighting, and most often hit YOU in the process. Go to the blacksmith, sell the halberd, bow, and arrows, and get Wilhelm a one handed weapon of some sorts, a shield, a helmet and some armor. If you don’t have the cash for this, sell things you don’t need, things you should have picked up in the Silver Mines. It is very important that you equip Wilhelm properly because you need all the help you can get in the fight to come.

Your Coterie members aren’t too smart in a lot of ways, one of these is very important to remember. Wilhelm himself wastes blood like a drunken vampire and you very often have to let him use bottles of vitae. Keep in mind that if you let his supply get too low, he can’t heal, or even worse, he could frenzy and hurt both you and himself. Keep him well supplied with blood, or suffer the consequences.

After you leave the blacksmith, exit out the gate leading to the bridge where Wilhelm will talk to you more about the beast and where you will "officially" feed for the first time. You don’t get that much, so if you can, feed off the old man once more before he disappears.

Also, if you don’t seem to get the blood fix you want, don’t worry, once you get to the Monastery, there are several monks outside and in the first rooms who are more than willing to supply blood. =] Now, once inside the bowels of the Monastery and you start fighting Cappadocians, remember that these guys are smarter and stronger than Szlachtas. It is always a good idea to take things VERY slowly so you don’t become surrounded by 5 enemies and end up wasting valuable resources.

I won’t talk much about fighting the Cappadocians except for these VERY important tips. Never ever get surrounded, it will inevitably be your death. Always always always take out the archers first, their accuracy is much higher than the others and they can easily pick one of your characters off from a good distance. Remember that if you are good, you can feed off the Cappadocians and the Zombu. All you need do is cast Awe on them, then feed while the spell is still in effect. Remember not to waste your vitae. Use your disciplines effectively. Celerity is always a good discipline, and blood healing is a definite must.

There are several rooms where you must hit switches, but remember not to just bust into a room and think you are Rambo because in great numbers, the enemies will make quick work of you. Also, remember that Cappadocians are known for burying themselves, and even though these guys are just the same as the others, they can sometimes sneak up on you if you just run past an area.

If for some reason one of your characters enters Torpor like in one of these screenshots, remember that Wilhelm is carrying two scrolls of Awaken indefinitely and you will most likely have picked some more up on the way. Just right click on the scroll then right click on your fallen member.

The room with the double stairs will be your hardest fight without a doubt. You have to be VERY careful in this room because it is very easy to get a foot shoved up your…. Anyhow, it is wise to not fight the enemies on the stairs, because Wilhelm has a tendency to attack the same enemy you are, and there is no room for him to pass you on the stairs.

Once you defeat the enemies in this room, there is a key to Garinol’s chamber on the right hand of the picture of death. Here is a close-up of it.

Once you get into Garinol’s chamber, you will pick up his journal where you first hear of this "Mercurio". Remember to take that funky looking skull with you. It is in fact the key to Mercurio’s door and I doubt that you will want to double back to get it. Now, before fighting Mercurio, I would highly recommend using an acquired scroll of walk the abyss in front of his chamber so you can save and power up before you fight him, because he is in fact one of the hardest bosses you will face.

Once you think you are ready to fight him, take a deep breath, pump yourself, and a little prayer wouldn’t hurt. Once inside his chamber and after some talk, the battle begins. He will start with Beckoning to call a Zombu to help distract you from him, he will then cast a Plague Wind and direct it at Wilhelm which will hurt Wilhelm, A LOT. Now, if you did not kill ALL the enemies in Monastery 3, THIS could happen. During the fight, several enemies could come from behind you to jump you, so make SURE that you killed everyone or else you are just signing your Death Warrant….IN INK! There are several strategies to fighting Mercurio and it is up to you to figure out which works for you.

The first is to whack him a few times with Christof, then hit tab to switch to Wilhelm, you will most likely need to Heal yourself, then hit tab, to switch to Christof and smack him some more, then hit tab again to switch back to Wilhelm, then smack him some more. The point of this strategy depends solely on the fact that most often Mercurio will attack the character you are not using, so by constantly switching between the two, you will make the damage even out and will let you fight him longer and hopefully defeat him.

Another strategy is to RUN as soon as the fight begins. He will follow you. Run to the door that leads to Monastery 2, and fight him there, then when he is kicking your butt into the ground, but before he kills either of you, go into Monastery 2. He can’t follow you and this gives you all the time you need to heal or refill your blood level or whatever you need to do. This strategy plays on the fact that all damage done to him will last no matter where you go. You could take a 5 week vacation to the Bahamas and he would still maintain the damage you dealt him earlier. This is the strategy that worked for me.

Or, the one that is a sure win, is to mix the two. Switch characters at the door leading to Monastery 2. This is the one I used. If you for some reason still can’t kill Mercurio, email me and I will help you as much as you need.

After he dies, pick up the Nod fragment, check the chest for goodies, then get your butt out of that horrible place. Once you leave the Monastery, Wilhelm will talk to you about the daytime and about letting you go to see Anezka. The screenshot of Christof talking to Anezka isn’t that good, but that is what it is. It is just another one of those story-related cutscenes. Somewhat interesting, so grab some popcorn and have fun. After that, return to the University, or go to the blacksmith, haven or wherever, but eventually make your way to the University.

That’s it for this installment my faithful followers. Hope this helped in some way. Remember that if this didn’t answer your questions, just email me and I will answer it the best I can. Come back next time for "The Golem & Serena". Have a beautiful and wonderful fantastic magnificent excellent day. Aw hell, just leave! =]