Winter Voices Guide

Episode 4: Amethyst Rivers

This is still a work in progress, not everything is 100% accurate.

EXP values are listed as "base" values only (the number you would see within the save game file) and are not modified by your Memory.

  1. The Docks
    1. Glints
    2. Paths
    3. The Road
  2. The Boat
    1. The Bridge, I
    2. The Bridge, II
    3. The Invisible Kingdom
    4. The Well
    5. The Kingdom: Hall
    6. The Kingdom: Courtyard
    7. The Kingdom: Corridors
    8. Inner Sea
  3. Knots, Loading, Rhum Quests
    1. Day 3: Knots
    2. Day 7: Rhum
    3. Day 8: Loading

Episode 4 begins in an extremely tiny but friendly fishing village. There are only 5 inhabitants here, and none of them offer EXP when you speak to them.

The Docks

Glints (6000 EXP)

On your walk by the river, find the 7 glints. Use Detection to discover them.

There's only 1 enemy here, but he packs a bit of a punch.

Paths (6000 EXP)

Take the path you took months ago, if you did not forget it.

There are a number of hidden enemies on the road named Path. You have to be rather close and have a fair bit of Intuition to reveal them (using Pyre before you use Detect is good enough, even with a low Intuition heroine). They will repel you, so you'll need to discover a path that's free from being pushed backwards.

The Road (17000 EXP)

Reach the pontoon. In unknown territory, a lot of things are hidden - some are disappointing, some others can help you...

There are a few more hidden Path enemies to push you back, a few visible enemies that will sap your MP, and a few hidden yellow tiles that will give you +1000 EP when you step on them.

The Boat

Since you have no money to pay for passage on the boat, you'll have to do some small jobs as payment. There are 3 quests with 3 different possible scores. There are 2 achievements related to your score: Like A Hen On A Wire (get the worst score on all 3 quests) and The Cake Was A Lie (get the best score on all 3 quests).

Quest Rewards
Score Reward
Worst 1000 EXP
Average 7000 EXP
Best 10000 EXP

Day 1

Nothing will be asked of you today, so you're free to talk to the other passengers or retire below deck.

The Bridge, I (7000? EXP)

Escape the shadows for 10 turns

New Enemy: Vicsous Shadow (They reduce your resistance and their damages increase drastically with proximity.)

There is an orange tile that will turn you into the Pyre Princess for 5 turns, but you have to get past the shadows first and they pack quite a punch. The closer they are, the harder they hit. Even a high humor Weaver can get 1-shot if they hit you point blank.

There Is A Law

If you have Doors and Betrayal, this is quite easy to get 100% on. Set a Door down in front of you, use Flight, then pass your turn. Lower right shadow will come close enough that you can use Courage without moving, use Flight again and go as far to the left as you can and set the other Door down behind you. This will set up a nice loop where you'll be safe from being touched. One shadow will get through, just push him back and then he will be stuck in the loop.

Burning Violin

No idea how to get back to the Inferno without getting my ass kicked.

Day 2

Today's task is to help Jarkko prepare the meal in the kitchen and serve it to all of the other passengers.

The Bridge, II (7000? EXP)

Escape the shadows by fleeing to the West

Your standard escape counter with 3 Viscous Shadows to make things interesting.

There Is A Law

Doors, Betrayal, and Far Away From All of This make this encounter easy again.

Burning Violin

?

Day 3

Knots Quest

Clockwise starting from lower right corner
Description Worst Best
Port Side
Slips out of your hands Retie Leave alone
Leave alone Retie
2 Knots Retie both Retie one, then retie the other
No Risk - -
Leave alone Retie
Starboard Side
Won't retie properly Retie Leave alone
Slips out of your hands Retie Leave alone
No Risk - -

It is impossible to get the best score on this quest as any profession other than Huntress. The knot in the lower right corner cannot be left alone.

The Invisible Kingdom (7000 EXP)

Discover and activate the 3 seals that hide the kingdom entrance. Activating a seal allows you to come back to the center of the cavern.

New Enemy: Vicous Uncontrollables (They are able to pull you and to disable some of your base abilities)

We've this room before back in the Seid with The Man. The tiles you need to reveal are in each of the 3 corners.

There Is A Law

If you've got Doors, you can set up a trap for the shadows on your way down one of the paths, leaving you free to explore the other paths without persuit.

Burning Violin

?

Day 4

Your task for the day is to talk to all the new passengers (Saul and Kukka in the bunk room, Veijo in the kitchen). Once you're done, retire for the night.

The Well (18000 EXP)

Descend into the Invisible Kingdom. First, you have to find and eliminate the 5 Viscous Inhibitors.

There are 5 hidden Viscous Inhibitors that require quite a bit of Intuition to reveal. Ven's Pyre ability is enough to help you reveal the closer ones even with low base Intution and no Introspection. Every other Inhibitor that dies will cause a Viscous Shadow to appear (the first appears in the upper left corner, second in middle right?).

Descend into the Invisible Kingdom. You have to remain near the Well and use Detection with a high active Introspection. (200 or more)

Get as close to the well as you can and let Introspection build up until you're able to reveal the path.

There Is A Law

Using Doors, I was able to setup a trap in the upper left corner to keep 2 of the Viscous Shadows trapped.

Burning Violin

?

Day 5

Your task for the day is to help Peter in the kitchen. You will have a most unpleasant surprise waiting for you.

The Kingdom: Hall (8000 EXP)

Cross the Hall. "The Darkness" inflict constant damage every turn, but do not slow you down.

Use "Repulsion" to change place with the Forgotten Organs, visibles or invisibles. You take damage each try.

On this map, Repel makes you trade places with whatever enemy you target. Does not work on Uncontrollables. You'll need to reveal the organs so you have something to switch places with.

  1. Pyre
  2. Detection
  3. Repel
  4. Move 5 tiles to the lower right (without +MP skills, you'll need 2 turns to get here)
  5. Repel
  6. Repel (upper left, not with the shadow)
  7. Move 1 tile to upper right
  8. Repel (upper left)
  9. Without a +MP skill, you'll be 1 tile away from the end when you end Turn #2

Even though you can win in 3 turns, there is a bit of dialog that happens before your 4th turn begins.

There Is A Law

No special strategy here, you can basically follow the strategy for getting the I Can't Forget achievement.

Burning Violin

?

  • I Can't Forget

    Complete the Hall of the Invisible Kingdom in 4 turns or less.

Day 6

The captain gives you the day off today.

The Kingdom: Courtyard (8000 EXP)

Cross the Courtyard to the South-West.

Viscous Flagellants inflict high damage when they are nearby, plus damage over time depending on the initial damage.

You basically have 2 routes to take: Top and Bottom. The Top route looks more direct. The Bottom route has numerous Inner Path tiles that only stay revealed during your turn and are unpassable by both you and the shadows once they've submerged.

There Is A Law

If you take the bottom route, you can take advantage of the Inner Paths to block off the path behind you. Getting past the lower left Flagellant unscathed is a bit tricky due to the narrow pass it's sitting in.

Burning Violin

?

  • Summertime

    It was only a short moment...

Day 7

Rhum Quest

Someone has stolen the Captain's bottle of rum and it's your job to find it. The suspects are:

  • Suvi (on deck)
  • Kukka (outside the kitchen / near the hens)
  • Saul (sleeping quarters)

The key to getting the best or worst score lies in the barrels near Kukka.

Worst Score
Drink the rum and tell the captain the most outragous lie
Talk to the other suspects for extra hillarity
Best Score
Examine the bottle, then set it down.
Go to the captain's room and examine the nightstand. The bottle rolled underneath the bed

The Kingdom: Corridors (8000 EXP)

Cross the corridors. You will have to eliminate the 3 hidden Inhibitors.

First you'll want to work on revealing the shadows so they'll die. Then you need to work on getting through to the end.

There Is A Law

Getting to the lower left corner isn't too big of a deal, but you'll find the flagellant down there sitting in the narrow passage making it difficult to get by without being hit.

Burning Violin

?

  • Summertime

    It was only a short moment...

Day 8

Loading Quest

You and Kukka are in charge of moving cargo down into the hold. The list of items Kukka lets you choose from are listed from heaviest to lightest.

Heavy Items
Shopkeeper's stuff
Barrels and crates
Slightly Heavy Items
Stretched hides
Hanging hides
Light Items
3 Baskets
Piles of hides
Piles of hides
Piles of hides
Rope
Basket
Worst Score
  1. Heaviest item (it will be too heavy to do first)
  2. All but the heaviest 2 items
  3. Spend the rest of the mini game failing to carry down the heaviest item
Best score
  1. Take down the one of the slightly heavy items
  2. Take down one of the heavy items
  3. Take down the other slightly heavy item
  4. Take down the other heavy item
  5. Take down the rest

The Kingdom: Antechamber (7000 EXP)

There's nothing here to worry about killing you, you just have to figure out how to get through the teleporters to the end. Some teleporters are one-way.

Day 9

Once you've spoken to Saul about your dream, you'll discover your task for the day is to help one of the other passengers catch dinner. His other helper will cause your repressed memories to come flooding back.

Inner Sea (? EXP)

Some builds may find it impossible to do this encounter (either There Is A Law style, Burning Violin style, or both).

I- Climb down the cliff.

If you have at least 1 +MP ability, you can make it down to the bottom level with minimal damage taken.

  1. Turn 1 (on top level)
    1. Flight
    2. Walk as far to the lower right as you can go
    3. If you don't have The Fittest, use Anticipation 4 or 5 times on the Flagellant to the right (otherwise use Anticipation after you Repel)
    4. Repel to the organ
    5. Courage (slide right)
  2. Turn 2
    1. Flight
    2. Walk to the green tile
  3. Turn 3-6 (on middle level)
    1. Go as far up as you can and save up 6 MP
  4. Turn 7
    1. Flight
    2. Repel to organ
    3. Repel closest Flagellant
    4. Courage (slide up)
    5. Walk to green tile and use up your remaining MP on the ground floor
  5. Turn 8 (on bottom level)
    1. Flight
    2. Walk to tile right in front of the green destination tile
  6. Turn 9-11
    1. Save up 7 MP and make sure Courage is ready to use
II- Reach the other shore of the south waterfall. Take care of the hidden infernos. (or not, depending on your strategy)

This is the first time you'll have to actually pay attention to hidden Infernos and they take a fair bit of Intution to reveal (Pyre + Detect is enough to see anything within about 4-5 tiles). There are several Light Eater tiles (does about ~270 to a MMV). If you're working on There Is A Law, avoid standing in range of the Vicous Uncontrollables.

There Is A Law

This strategy worked for my MMV, and assumes you have 6 MP and Courage is ready. Watch the video.

  1. Turn 1
    1. Pyre
    2. Detect
    3. Walk to the lower right
    4. Courage (slide to the lower right)
    5. Anticipation 3-4 times on the Viscous Flagellant
    6. Repel x2 on the Organs
  2. Turn 2
    1. Flight
    2. Lesser Oblivion on the closest Flagellant
    3. Dump your remaining PP on the 2nd closest Flagellant with Anticipation
  3. Turn 3
    1. Flight
    2. Use whatever survival abilities you can (Anticipation/Lesser Oblivion/Far Away From All This)
  4. Turn 4
    1. Repel top Flagellant at least 2 tiles away
    2. Courage (slide to right)
    3. Repel right Flagellant 3 tiles away
    4. Walk to the right until you're standing next to the Flagellant you just pushed
    5. Pyre
    6. Detection
    7. Walk until you can Repel to the organ in the lower right corner
    8. Effectiveness
    9. Anticipation 3-4 times on the closest Flagellant
    10. Repel to the organ
  5. Turn 5 (You'll need at least 5 MP to get across to the end tile to do this part in a single turn)
    1. Detection (Pyre still active)
    2. Flight
    3. Betrayal - Liberty (+1 MP, requires "I Wasn't There")
    4. Walk to the Inner Path tile
    5. Repel to the organ
III - Standing still, hold the gaze of the man for 10 turns. (until the X turn)

This is a cake walk compared to the previous section. You just need to be able to survive a minor DoT every round for 10 turns (was about ~95 on my MMV) and don't move from the tile you are standing on.

Burning Violin

The objectives for the 3rd part of this encounter might be different than the ones for There Is A Law.

  • The Only Water In The Forest Is The River

    Achieve a 100% success in every encounter of the fourth episode.

  • Hard Luck Woman

    Achieve a 100% success in every encounter of the fourth episode while playing a Volva with a maximum memory

The EXP cap for Amethyst Rivers is 650000.