Puzzle Quest 2

This is how to beat the Dragon as a Barbarian below level 50 (personally I was level 42) and is also how to perform one of the Barbarian's long/endless (with some luck) damage combo chains making the game much easier.

Firstly, stats wise just so you know that you're in and around the right area. I had 407 HP, a natural 84 defence, +8/7/6/6 (I think) on red/yellow/blue/green gems and 8 damage on skulls from leveling and equipment. (There is a necklace that adds +5 to all stats when upgraded to epic and Scalemail items have a lot of defence). Ideally you want Daemonic items as these add to skulls damage, +2 at epic level (I only had one of these, the fight can be made much easier with several). You want a one handed sword (personally mine was about 20 to use and 30 damage but I never used it once in the fight) and an Epic large healing potion (costing around 10 action for 19 healing points) just as backup in case your combo fails or you have a 'dead' turn you don't want to waste. When a combo ends you should have masses of action points if needed.

For skills pick Barbaric Roar, Tribal Mark/Brutality, Enrage, Luck and Warcry. When the battle starts try and get 3 green as soon as possible if you don't have +3 starting green from stats. Cast luck and now when you match yellow gems you get an extra turn (hugely useful for keeping the combo going). After this set about getting yellow and blue mana, you only need 4 red to start the chain really so you can pretty much ignore this and purple is entirely useless to you unless it's as a 4 grouping for an extra turn.

The Combo: Cast Enrage followed by Tribal Mark when there are at least 16 reds on the board (this will get you a further +4 skulls damage bonus). It can take a few castings of enrage but you should have little problem keeping the chain going. Alternatively, if you went with Brutality (this is by far the better choice if you have a high base skull damage) simply collect a few extra blue and cast it (you want about 15 after casting brutality before starting the combo chain). After this collect mana again if needs be and just cast Enrage followed by Warcry. Simply repeat over and over. (Make sure you have 25+ red mana so casting Warcry does not end your turn, shouldn't be a problem after any enrage) Make sure the dragon's defence is always down with Barbaric Roar (It only costs 3 yellow and doesn't end your turn). In between casts of Enrage match up all non-red 4-5 gems as well as any yellows (as these don't end your turn) and of course any groupings of 4-5 skulls.

Enrage very rarely covers +5 skulls so once you get a few up with Warcry there is little space and you should get a 4 in a row 95% of the time. Also when the +5 skulls explode they should keep you topped up enough in blue mana that you need not worry about it. Always use Warcry if you have 9 or more yellow mana (red should always be maxxed unless you've just cast warcry). If you have 8 or less then Use enrage again to try and get a good board to boost it up.

The only way this combo can end really is if you get unlucky with an enrage that fails to connect 4 reds or (more likely) you run out of yellow/blue after a few bad turns. If this happens (it probably will a few times in the long battle) try and match up the red 4 in a rows hoping for a lucky cascade or simply take the biggest matching damage group and return to step one or even use your healing potion/sword if there is nothing better available.

In many cases you can hit the dragon for 90+ damage on one good cascade alone during the combo and you can even stop him using his poison breath if you get this going quickly enough. (I just missed out on this) Personally I kept him locked in for around 700 damage before my combo failed and only needed a second chain to finish him off, leaving me with 242 HP left when he died after 34 turns.




Summary/Quick guide:

Skills - Barbaric Roar, Tribal Mark/Brutality, Enrage, Luck and Warcry. Cast Luck followed by Tribal Mark or Brutality to get your skull damage up then repeatedly cast Enrage followed by Warcry matching any non-red 4/5-in-a-rows as well as any yellow gems for a long/endless combo.

Once you are allowed to enter the Dwarven Laboratories (after killing the 3 Necromancers in the main quest), you may go back to Valoren. Bram One-Eye, the same character giving you the "Greater Challenge" quests, will now give you the quest you need to fight the Green Dragon.

***Press LB and press Right until you get to the "?", then press A. Set your active quest as the Green Dragon. Follow the silver markers to him.***

No real secrets to beating the Green Dragon. He has a LOT of health, so pull out all the stops--mana shields, poisons, etc.

Took me a couple tries, but nothing too terribly difficult. If you're having trouble beating him, have a look at some of the other great guides here. Good luck!

40 Assassin. 189 rounds. 3rd try

wasn't the prettiest fight, but it worked

Stealth
Weaken - kept him from gaining mana
Burning Strike - damage
Freezing Strike - damage
Bandage - healed when i needed.

only wish i had disarm to keep him from biting, since that was all he could do, since i basically kept him from casting using Weaken. Could replace Bandage w/ Disarm for a possibly faster fight.

Defeated him as a level 50 sorcerer with 372HP with him only getting a few turns overall.

You will want Mana Blast, Charm, Mana Siphon, Wild Mana, and Dark Channels.

Start the fight and make sure he doesn't do a lot of damage or get a ton of mana on his opening turn. If so, quit game and fight him again.

Your damage will mostly come from Mana Blast. Charm used for healing when its needed, Mana Siphon to lower his green mana total, Dark Channels for raising a certain type of mana (Mainly the green ones he likes to clear off the board) and Wild Mana for making 4-gem combos and getting mana up quickly.

You need to get to 30 mana for everything but purple (However, macing out purple is recommended). I'd recommend matching green first as he will start wiping those from the board at some point. Once you're ready for Mana Blast, make sure that you will get either 4-skulls or 4-action gems matching after the blast so you can go next. After that, start using Wild Mana to create 4-gem combos raising your mana. If you can use mana blast again, do it! While fighting it, I was once able to use mana blast 4 times before he was able to get a turn.

If you cannot do any more Wild Mana 4-gem combos, then its time to use Charm to wipe out the skulls and heal you a little bit (usually 10-15 damage). Not much but it helps and prevents him from using skulls. Plus oftentimes after using this, it would drop a 4-gem combo and I was able to continue my turn.

Each time you do mana blast, you will do about 92-100 damage to him, plus whatever bonus damage from skulls. The most damage I ever did to him in one attack was 154.

I was able to beat him in 74 turns using this method, most of them being from the initial mana collection.

Level 41 Templar (440 HP, +5 damage from skulls, 70 armor)

Legendary Hellfroged Falchion (18 AP to use and 28 damage with +5 to weapon crit.), Legendary Hellforged Tower Shield (10 AP to use, 11 turn duration, and 64 defense with +5 weapon crit.), platemail helm, chest, and boots with addtion to spell resist and defense.

Spells:
-Defensive Wall
-Shield Bash
-Brace
-Fist of Light
-Reinforce

-I played the endurance game (275 turns) while trying my best to keep all the purple gems from his mana pool. Once he casts his Breathe Poison, I used Shield Bash to avoid the 100 turn damage over time. He usually casts this spell early on so you'll probably get it off without having to drop Defensive Wall.

-Make sure to have Brace up the whole match. With Defensive Wall up and the consistency of blocking, this will keep you blocking at 75% instead of 50%. The most damage he did at one time was with a tail whip for 21 damage.

-Cast Reinforce with a lot of AP gems on the board. This will heal you while keeping his Massive Claw and Massive Bite attacks at bay.

-Cast Fist of Light when you're absolutely positive that you will achieve a four or five of a kind. This will give you more chances to collect AP for attacks, cast reinforce, and cease him from collecting the AP gems.

-When there are no important gem matches to make, strike with your weapon, or with a shield bash (only if you know he can't attack you his next turn. Just make sure you recast Defensive Wall).

-In time, and with a dash of luck, you will endure all of his heavy hitting attacks and emerge victorious. It's just a shame that the voice from the first puzzle quest won't be there to tell you you did so. ( you are VICTORIOUS!)

-Hope this guide at least gives some insight and assistance. GOOD LUCK!

The Brutal Way of Slaying the Dragon:

lv50 Barbarian (HP 479)

armed with 2x upgraded two-handed Legendary Draconic Great Hammer (action points 32 damage 46) and Epic Daemonic Pendant (which gives +5 passive bonus to all five characteristics)

After "almost win" 5 experiments my proven spells:

Barbaric Roar
Luck
Enrage
Tribal Mark
and
Berzerk Rage (the most effective barb spell)

method:

1) after collecting more than 12 Red, Yellow, Blue and Green Mana as quick as possible

2) spell Luck to keep your turns as long as possible

3) spell Barbaric Roar to weaken the opponent

4) spell Enrage several times

5) spell Tribal Mark in between

6) if you see enough same colored stones, spell Berzerk Rage for a massive damage

Repeat the above.

If you drop out of the above combo, do not forget to use your weapon!

As far as I remember, it took 121 turns to kill the Dragon.

I hope I could help!

This is the hardest achievement in the game period! It took me a good 100 or so tries over the course of a few nights to beat the Dragon. I was not expecting this kind of difficulty so I was playing the game nonchalantly until I found him. To start the Dragon has a staggering 1100+ HP. It has a slew of attacks that can devastate you quickly. I had to change up my tactics multiple times. It took me 200+ rounds to win. This was the spell combo that finally worked for my Assassin with 228 HP on normal difficulty.

Spells
-------
Calm - To remove poison
Charm - Destroys skulls to heal you
Blackjack - Stuns enemy for 3 rounds
Weaken - Cuts one enemy mana reserve in half of your choice without losing a turn
Shadowstrike - Destroys purple gems which damages the enemy

Weapons
-----------
Epic Hellforged Longsword (16/23) - 46 HP Crits
Epic Glyphic Wyrven Poison - The blade applies a 14HP poison DOT for 8 round (112 HP Damage when said and done)

Character stats
------------------
Strength - 48
Agility - 14
Intelligence - 2
Stamina - 1
Morale - 28

My Tactics
------------
1) You will get poisoned very quickly, cure it with CALM as soon as you can and you will be fine for the rest of the match. Otherwise you will take 3 damage for 100 rounds. That will be 300 damage if you live that long.
2) You will have to do your best to prevent the Dragon from acquiring purple gems and gauntlets.
3) Use BLACKJACK to stun in conjunction with CHARM, SHADOWSTRIKE, & a poison strike when possible (The Dragon will resist your spells from time ti time).
4) Use WEAKEN to manipulate the board to your advantage as it destroys the single gem color you choose to cut the enemy reserve in half. Use this to keep the enemy's purple reserve under 5.
5) Use WEAKEN on the other reserves as long as purple is under control. Destroying all the purples on the board with SHADOWSTRIKE will help you work the other gems to set up 4 gem clears giving you extra turns, thus manipulating the board to your advantage.
6) Cast CHARM when you don't want to make a move on the board or if there are a good deal of skulls in play to heal yourself. Healing is better then damaging the enemy with 3-5 skull combos.
7) Gather gauntlets to build up your poison blade attack. For me it meant 20 gauntlets for 112 HP of damage
8) Use the 2nd blade for a possible 40+ HP critical strikes as long as you have enough gauntlets in reserve to be able to use another poison strike again. You don't know when you will be able to gather another 20 gauntlets and you want poison working on the Dragon every round. So poison over critical strikes always.

To sum up, build your gauntlet/gem reserves so you can damage with poison, SHADOWSTRIKE, & critical stikes. Heal with Charm. Stun with BLACKJACK so you can damage & heal.

Good Luck