The good news is you can be Grognak! All you have to do is find the holotape of his game. After you have it you can load it onto any terminal to live out the Grognak fantasy.
Holotape Location
The Holotape isn’t too difficult to get, but it can be easy to miss. First head over to Goodneighbor. Once you’re there, make your way into the Memory Den.
Once inside head to the back and take the stairs down to the basement, usually where doctor Amari is working. On the left side of the room there is a desk beside a memory pod chair.
The comic is on the short desk, and picking it up will give you the Grognak comic, along with the holotape that will let you play Grognak and the Ruby Ruins.
Characters
When you first start up the game you will have to pick your party members, all of whom have different traits and abilities in battle. The catch is you can only choose two heroes to aid you in your quest.
Grognak
You play as Grognak, a furious barbarian whose temper is only matched by his strength.
Ability: Furious Rage - Grognak rages forth, attacking three times in one turn.
Maula
Maula is a war-maiden from Mars. Her high defense and determination lets her protect her allies.
Ability: Aegis Stance - Maula strikes a well-defended stance and attacks her enemy, taunting them to focus on her. Any damage she receives while aegis stance is active is halved.
Swift
An elven adventurer who has been forced to quest by his mother. While he is not eager to adventure out with Grognak, his elven salves help protect the party from harm.
Ability: Ironskin Salve - This special salve can be applied during combat. When cast it affects your entire party and reduces damage taken by half for two attacks per person.
Bloppo
A quick attacker, Bloppo strikes his enemies before they can see him coming. He also takes care of the children at the local orphanage and needs gold to help out the little tikes.
Ability: Dazing Strike - Bloppo will flank the enemy, dazing them so that they take bonus damage from all other attacks. Combined with Grognak’s furious rage, dazing strike can be fatal to even the strongest of enemies.
Zaxtar
A mysterious warlock who weaves and unweaves the fabric of reality. Not much is known about him, but he warns Grognak not to interrupt his spell casting… or else.
Ability: Sleep Spell - This does exactly what it sounds like. Zaxtar puts his enemies to sleep for two rounds. The first attack on a sleeping target will do substantial bonus damage.
Party Advice
All of the heroes abilities are very useful in aiding Grognak in a unique way.
Bloppo’s dazing strike can lead to devastating combos when combined with Grognak’s furious rage. Swift’s Ironskin salve is very useful if you do not have Maula in your party. Maula can soak damage if you don’t have any other way of preventing big damage spikes. Zaxtar’s sleep spell can help you recover your parties health or focus, and later on can deliver some serious damage when combined with Grognaks attacks.
Game Mechanics and the Overworld Map
Items, leveling up, and stats
In Grognak, your characters don’t level up. Instead, they become stronger by finding equipment from battles or buying them in stores. Every time you give a hero an item, their stats will increase. There is no limit to how many items you can give to one hero, but there are only three categories of items: damage, initiative, and health.
Damage increase items are a good idea to give to Grognak because he is the only one who can attack three times in one turn. Initiative stat items allow the hero to act before the enemies. Health items are pretty straight forward and increase the heroes health.
Focus, healing, and revival
Every special ability requires focus to perform. If you don’t have enough focus, you can’t use them. Focus can be regenerated by meditating in combat, or by buying focus potions from stores.
The overworld has several places you can visit that are differentiated by their icon. The first place you’ll see besides the tavern, is the church:
There are three churches on the map, and they are there to revive any heroes that have fallen in combat, for a price.
You do not have to visit the church to heal your characters. Your party will heal to full health after winning a fight. The churches only exist to revive dead heroes.
Dungeons
You have a few types of dungeons on the map which look like these:
Cave icons like the first image will contain weaker enemies. Forts contain even stronger enemies, and so forth. Defeating the enemies in dungeons will earn your party gold and sometimes items.
If you’re finding enemies too strong for your party, try clearing some of the weaker dungeons to increase the strength of your party with the items found.
Overworld bosses
There are two bosses that roam the overworld map, and if you are unprepared, facing them can mean your death.
The first overworld boss is a giant snake who will constrict your party and make it hard to run away. This guy is located right near the beginning of the game, so be careful!
The second is a Stormlord on the far north-west corner of the map and he is just as tough as the snake.
The loot you get from killing these bosses is quite worthwhile, but not necessary to complete the game.
The Quest and how to defeat Grelok
Defeating enemies is not enough to make progress in Grognak. The main goal is to defeat the dark wizard Grelok, but you can’t do that without accomplishing a few things first.
Getting to the conjurer’s tower
Before we can do anything story-wise, we need to head to the conjurer’s tower. From the tavern at the start of the game, head west until you’re at the edge of the map. Head north and nestled in the mountains you will find the tower, it is the only building that has a star.
Once you speak with the conjurer he will tell you that in order to defeat Grelok, you will need the Tome of the Duskborn and the Dawnlight Locket.
The boat and the lighthouse
Now that we’ve done this, a boat will appear at the dock, just east of the tavern from the beginning of the game.
Talk to the captain of the boat and she will tell you to investigate the lighthouse in the north-east. After this conversation, the lighthouse will unlock allowing you to enter it and defeat the ghosts within.
Defeating the ghost will grant you access to the ship, letting you travel to the northern most part of the overworld.
Finding the Tome of the Duskborn
Once you have taken the ship north, you will find several dungeons with tough enemies.
Keep walking west until you find a bridge. Talking to the bridge guard will let you lower it, allowing you passage to the north and south parts of the map without the need of sailing.
Next, head a little north into the woods above the bridge.
You will find a mercenary camp where warlord Mingyel will challenge you to a fight.
Defeat warlord Mingyel and he will give you the Tome of the Duskborn.
Finding the Dawnlight Locket
After your fight with Mingyel, head west - following the coastline on the north side until you reach the battle pit.
You will have to fight Bramble and Zil, and they are no pushovers. Zil will attack with her rain of arrows which deals heavy damage to your whole party, so make sure you are prepared.
After you defeat the duo you will receive the Dawnlight Locket.
Defeating Grelok once and for all
Now that you have the Dawnlight Locket and the Tomb of the Duskborn you must head back to the conjurer’s tower. Take the bridge down and present the conjurer with your artifacts. He will remove the barrier that protects Grelok’s lands from Grognak’s wrath.
Head back north across the bridge and keep going north-east. You will encounter a dread wraith, now blocking the open path to Grelok.
Once you have defeated the wraith, nothing left stands between you and Grelok.
Head past where the dread wraith was guarding and you will find the ruby ruins, where Grelok awaits.
This is the best part, where you get to crush your enemies and see them driven before you!
Congratulations on beating Grognak and the Ruby Ruins!
