Escorts
Note: wiki talents are not kept up to date and many are inaccurate. You should use https://tometips.github.io/ for information on talents instead of relying on wiki pages. All escort rewards available (but not necessarily the pages on those talents and skill trees) are accurate as of 1.6.0
In each game of the Maj'Eyal: The Age of Ascendancy campaign you will find exactly 9 escort quests, spread across the zones of Maj'Eyal. These escorts are randomly chosen from all the available types, so there is no guarantee that you will meet any particular escort in one game.
Escort quests can also appear in the Infinite Dungeon campaign. Needs verification The equivalent to escorts in the Orcs: Embers of Rage campaign is the Mystery of the Yetis quest.
Contents
Locations
The location of escort quests are determined at your character's birth, but can only appear on levels within the following zones:
- Starter dungeons
- Trollmire floors 2 and 3
- Scintillating Caves floors 2 and 3
- Ruins of Kor'Pul floors 1 and 2
- Norgos Lair floors 2 and 3
- Heart of the Gloom floors 1 and 2
- Higher level dungeons
- Old Forest floors 1 through 4
- Daikara floors 1 through 3
- Dreadfell floors 1 through 8
- Reknor floors 1 and 2
Each escort quest will be generated when you enter the level where it is located.
Escorts cannot plot their paths through closed doors. If all routes to their destination portal are blocked by closed doors, then neither the escort nor portal will spawn on that level. The player will have to open the doors and revisit the level for the escort to spawn.
Additionally, if an escort is assigned by the game to spawn in a level, and upon entering it there are no immediately visible unoccupied floor tiles on the same turn that you enter the level, then the escort will not spawn until you can enter the level and immediately see at least one unoccupied floor tile on the turn that you enter.
Escort Behavior and Management
Escorts will attempt to walk directly towards their destination portal. The path chosen depends primarily on the terrain, and generally ignores any creatures along the way. Players can thus stand in the path of the escort to stop them from moving. Escorts will only try to step around the player if doing so would be bring them just as close to their destination as the tile being occupied by the player is. On levels in which there are friendly or neutral NPCs, the player can enlist their help to block escorts (e.g. neutral cultists in the Shasshhiy'Kaish event). Summoned creatures can also fulfill this function. Blocking an escort will allow the player to gain valuable rest time and refresh cooldowns.
The player can ask the escorts to "wait a few turns" through the right-click context menu or the appropriate hotkey. This order will cause the escort to stand still for 10 turns, and the command itself has a 30 turn cooldown. One relatively safe way to protect an escort is to order them to wait, rush ahead to clear a few enemies, and then quickly run back to block the escort's path again before they move too far, rest to refresh cooldowns, then repeat. It is much easier to carry out this procedure if the player has access to movement speed buffs (e.g. movement infusions), or can summon friendly units to block the escort's path.
With appropriate terrain and sufficient movement speed, it is also possible to make an escort back up. The player just has to quickly move behind the escort, then walk into the tile the escort is standing on, forcing them to exchange positions with the player. Repeating this procedure will allow the escort to be placed in almost any arbitrary position.
Another way to reposition escorts is to use a knockback talent, then heal them up afterwards. This can be done, for example, with a torque of gale force (lower level for less damage) and a totem of healing.
Escorts can be broadly classified into melee and ranged types. Melee escorts have a higher health pool, but they will also happily run straight into enemies along their path and start fighting them. Ranged escorts are more frail, but they will attempt to move away from enemies they see while calling out for help.
Beware that the escort's line of sight for checking threats can be blocked by the player. This is particularly noticeable if the escort is following behind the player in a one tile wide corridor, as they will happily tailgate the player, leaving no room for the player to back up. In these situations, it may be necessary for the player to first step aside, so the escort can see the threat ahead and back up. Some digging may be required for this maneuver to work.
Betraying to Zigur
You may betray escorts with arcane abilities to Zigur for an alternate set of rewards, as long as you meet both conditions below:
- Your current or any previous characters has read the sign at Zigur and learned its lore.
- Your current character does not know any spell talents or have any runes equipped.
Rewards
The rewards that can be obtained from escort quests are detailed below. Upon completion of each escort quest, you may select one reward from the appropriate list.
You will have the option of giving the selected reward to a party member that satisfies the following conditions:
- It is not dead, and it is on the current map
- It may be fully controlled by you
- It is not a summoned creature with a time limit
More specifically, Alchemist golems, Worm That Walks, and Mecharachnid pets are allowed to receive escort quest rewards.
All stat improvements are added to your base value.
The option to learn or improve a talent will only be available if that talent has not been maxed yet, so it must have less than 5 talent points invested in it.
Learning a talent in a category that was originally hidden to you will set its mastery level to 1.0, even if you cannot see it.
Category rewards will reveal the category as locked and set its mastery level to 1.0. A category point will still be required to unlock the category. If a category has already been revealed by a previous escort its option will not be present.
Alchemist (Arcane)
| Stats | Talent | Categories |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Rewards | ||
| Dexterity +5 | Stone Touch +1 | Spell / Staff Combat |
| Magic +5 | Channel Staff +1 | Spell / Stone Alchemy |
| Staff Mastery +1 | ||
| Betray to Zigur Rewards | ||
| Dexterity +5 | Psiblades +1 | Wild-Gift / Mindstar Mastery |
| Willpower +5 | Thorn Grab +1 | |
| Spell Save +12 | ||
Defiler (Arcane)
| Stats | Talent | Categories |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Rewards | ||
| Magic +5 | Curse of Defenselessness +1 | Corruption / Curses |
| Cunning +5 | Curse of Impotence +1 | |
| Curse of Death +1 | ||
| Betray to Zigur Rewards | ||
| Willpower +5 | Resonance Field +1 | Psionic / Feedback |
| Cunning +5 | Conversion +1 | |
| Spell Save +12 | ||
| Mind Save +12 | ||
Loremaster
| Stats | Talent | Categories |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Rewards | ||
| Strength +5 | Disarm +1 | |
| Dexterity +5 | Spit Poison +1 | |
| Constitution +5 | Mind Sear +1 | |
| Magic +5 | ||
| Willpower +5 | ||
| Cunning +5 | ||
Seer (Arcane)
| Stats | Talent | Categories |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Rewards | ||
| Magic +5 | Arcane Eye +1 | Spell / Divination |
| Willpower +5 | Premonition +1 | |
| Vision +1 | ||
| Betray to Zigur Rewards | ||
| Willpower +5 | Earth's Eyes +1 | Wild-Gift / Call of the Wild |
| Cunning +5 | Nature's Touch +1 | |
| Mental Save +12 | ||
Sun Paladin (Arcane)
| Stats | Talent | Categories |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Rewards | ||
| Strength +5 | Chant of Fortitude +1 | Celestial / Chants |
| Magic +5 | Chant of Fortress +1 | |
| Betray to Zigur Rewards | ||
| Willpower +5 | Telekinetic Leap +1 | Psionic / Augmented Mobility |
| Cunning +5 | Skate +1 | |
| Physical Save +12 | ||
| Spell Save +12 | ||
Temporal Explorer (Arcane)
| Stats | Talent | Categories |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Rewards | ||
| Magic +5 | Precognition +1 | Chronomancy / Chronomancy |
| Willpower +5 | Foresight +1 | |
| Betray to Zigur Rewards | ||
| Willpower +5 | Sleep +1 | Psionic / Dreaming |
| Cunning +5 | Dream Walk +1 | |
| Spell Save +12 | ||
Note: Learning Precognition will also grant you the Spacetime Tuning talent if you did not already have it. This will allow you to set your desired paradox level when you rest.
Thief
| Stats | Talent | Categories |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Rewards | ||
| Dexterity +5 | Track +1 | Cunning / Survival |
| Cunning +5 | Heightened Senses +1 | Cunning / Scoundrel |
| Lacerating Strikes +1 | ||
| Misdirection +1 | ||
Tinker
| Stats | Talent | Other unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Rewards | ||
| Dexterity +5 | Craftsman's Eye +1 | "Ask where to learn tinkers crafting". In main campaign, makes Ancient Cave appear on the world map. In Infinite Dungeon campaign, gives you a Teleporter to the Tinker's Cave. Inside the zone you can pay 1 category point and 500 gold to the Ancient Automated Teacher to learn Steamtech / Physics and Steamtech / Chemistry both at 1.00 mastery and gain 1 free generic point into Smith and 1 free generic point into Therapeutics. |
| Cunning +5 | Last Engineer Standing +1 | |
| Endless Endurance +1 | ||
| Innovation +1 | ||
Note: Only one tinker escort can spawn per game.
Note: The Tinker escort must be unlocked.
Note: Tinker escorts will never spawn if you have Steamtech / Physics or Steamtech / Chemistry, locked or unlocked.
Warrior
| Stats | Talent | Categories |
|---|---|---|
| Normal Rewards | ||
| Strength +5 | Vitality +1 | Technique / Conditioning |
| Constitution +5 | Unflinching Resolve +1 | |
| Exotic Weapons Mastery +1 | ||
