Gnarl's Gameplay Tips

Gnarl musing about tips.

Gnarl, the Overlord's trusted advisor, does his profession justice, and provides a whole smiting of gameplay related tips, to help improve your overlording. Be sure to read them, to get the most out of Overlord II.

Note: These are actual quotations from the PC version from Overlord II while loading.

General Gameplay Tips

• "Get to know your forged weapons. Some have bonuses associated with special strikes."
• "To lock a target and keep it locked, press [Caps Lock]. Press it again to unlock."
• "Walking up to a Netherworld Gate will restore your Health and Mana."

• Very useful, always backtrack to the last available gate should either Health or Mana become low. This also works for the smaller Waypoint Gates.

• "Be good to your mistress, even if you have more than one, and she'll be good to you."

• Buy all the appropriate Tower Upgrades for her, for a romantic entanglement. This can be done for all three of the mistresses in Overlord II, just select the appropriate mistress as your "First Mistress" before you go shopping.

Looting

• "Revisit towns to collect the goodies that the townsfolk have produced."
• "Revisit conquered areas to harvest Lifeforce and treasure."
• "Collect plenty of Lifeforce! You don't want to use your best and most tooled up minions as weapon ingredients."
• "Explore the Netherworld. You might find some lost treasures the minions have forgotten about."

• Indeed, alone in the Netherworld Tower a total of five Dark Crystals are hidden.

Spells

• "Although the Target Spell (hold [Alt]) might not be enough to kill strong enemies on its own — it will slow them down."
• "Tyranny affects how your spells work. Destruction Overlords become better at destroying things. Domination Overlords get better are dominating weak minded individuals. "
• "Use the Shockwave Spell when being surrounded by lots of pesky enemies."

Minions

• "Hold the right mouse button to call back all your minions."
• "Don't worry about lost minions, they will automatically return to their Spawning Pit."
• "Utilizing different combination of minion types both on and off Guard Marker can be an effective tactic. Try sending both brown and green minions to attack a target. Or add Greens and Blues to a red minion Guard Marker."
• "You can control both the minions and the camera with the mouse. To control the minions first hold down both mouse buttons and then sweep them in the direction you want."
• "Boost your minions before sending them in a particularly challenging battle."
• "While having a target locked ([Shift]) you can switch targets with the [Z] and [C] key. This way you can quickly send your minions to engage multiple weaker opponents."
• "You can use the scroll wheel of your mouse to quickly select different types of minions."
• "Minions are always ready to be sacrificed (hold [Alt] and left-click the mouse) when the going gets touch for their Overlord."

• On several occasions your minions are the only source of Health, so before you die and lose the progress in the game, sacrifice a minion or two. Yes, we hate to do that... *snif*.

• "To change the minion and mount selection press their selection key ([1], [2], [3] or [4]) repeatedly. First press — all minions of that type selected. Second press — only mounted minions of that type are selected. Third press — only non mounted minions of that type are selected."

• Especially useful when you have a mixes tribe, i.e. mounted and unmounted Greens. When sweeping the unmounted minions will not be able to scale the walls "disturbing" the sweep. Or if you only want to attack with the much stronger mounted minions of a tribe.

• "Get to know all about your Minions by picking them up on the battlefield (hold [Alt], click the left mouse button, then select with [A] an [D]). Make sure you let go in time!"

Browns

• "Use Browns to pin down fast moving enemies and fleeing peasants."
• "Position Browns on a Guard Marker using [Q]. Do this in a bottleneck and they can stop enemies from breaking through and abusing your Dark Majesty."
• "Browns are melee fighters. Their policy is bash first, jump up and down on the carcass, later."
• "Try resurrecting your favourite minions at the Graveyard. You will need to pay the price in blood of lesser minions, however."

• Price = <Level and colour of Minion to Resurrect> x 2 — e.g. a level nine brown costs 18 Browns.

• "You can use the [1] key to select brown minions, [2] for Reds, [3] for Greens and [4] for Blues. Use ['] to select all minions again."
• "Sweeping wolves gives them a temporary boost and is useful for breaking through Legion Formations."

Blues

• "Sweep blue minions with the mouse to make them blink past enemies."
• "Blues can swim. Conquered levels might contain water-bound goodies that you weren't able to get with your other minions."

• Examples: The eastern part of Nordberg Town, two vases in Everlight Reef, and all the rest of the Wasteland.

• "Blues can swim and resurrect, but they're less durable, so only order them to do bashing as a last resort."

Greens

• "Greens are stealthy types. What they lack in hygiene they make up for in sneakiness."
• "Green minions on a Guard Marker will cloak; making them invisibly to enemies."
• "Spiders can be placed on walls using a Guard Marker. These ambush points are impossible to reach for most enemies."

• Though possibly true, there are almost no such spider webs handy for your Greens when you might need them.

Reds

• "Reds are fiery little blighters. Always handy if you fancy something roasted."
• "Keep your Reds out of melee and place them on high ground on a Guard Marker using [Q]."

Enemies & Peasants

• "Observe enemies carefully. Often they will signal an attack. Call your minions back in time to avoid damage and follow up if the enemy has a weak point."
• "The more fire damage enemies take at once, the higher the chance they'll catch fire!"
• "Subdue stray peasants (hold [Alt]), so they can act as an extra attack force or a handy diversion for enemies."
• "Empire units in formation receive a defensive bonus and can't be targeted individually."
• "Peasants under domination will slavishly follow you around and attack any hostile targets. Why waste minions when plebs are available?"

• Why indeed? Alas the plebs can not be swept, and are very slow at focusing and attacking enemies, plus the can not take much. But as a distraction, e.g. in the Empire Arena they help.

• "Some enemies can be directed to charge a target."

• The gargantuan is the best example, indirectly the yeti too.

• "Take out Centurions first to lower the morale of their formations. If their morale drops too low the formation will break up and the individual units will rout."

• This really might come in handy against the exploding fire gnomes, or when you get swamped by Empire Soldiers.

• "To fully conquer a town; hunt down all free townsfolk and determine their fate — death of domination."

• The peasants of Nordberg Town are also hiding in their houses (two per house), bash in the door without destroying the house. In Everlight Town some are hiding in the large "entrance areas" of the more prominent buildings (at least three per house).

See also

• Gnarl's Musings