Going for the third fireball is way too inconsistent unless there's another 24 gold outside the cavern that's easy to get, otherwise you can just get absolutely murdered by spiders. The Holy Water to kill all the skeletons is super nice though you can kill Mortan before his first shield spell runs out if you're fast enough and it gives a vial of holy water to use when meeting Bain in the Eastern Fens.
I've found how to make Mortan less shitty. In the cavern going to Ravenscar there's a box directly across from the stairs up to Ravenscar it has 2 Vials of Holy Water. This means no more skeleton wrangling.
Also picking up all the herbs along the normal route, 1 near the hex in Madrigal, 2 at the cavern entrance, 1 on the way back from the mines, taking a quick trip over to the Ravenscar entrance before going to Jake's and looting the shelves that drop gold, the Thardolin Red from Jake's, and the potion outside of Barthelago's gives enough gold to buy the third Fireball from Elric. I haven't timed this yet but at worst I think it'll break even but make Mortan infinitely less frustrating.
Killing the Thardolin Soldiers on Rainbow Rock and getting arm chest and leg armor saves about a minute on Crux alone so if we can find a manipulation to guarantee them dropping it would be rad.
I've tried it and the only split that worked for me was the first one, the pauses during loads and menus were functional though.
I did some messing around today and tried the Salamander Skin Coat strat but used the exploding pots that would have been used for the captain to kill the 6 soldiers on Rainbow Rock instead. Getting Thardolin helm arms legs and chest made Crux, Lightstealer and Chimera all significantly easier. Crux so much so that I could ignore all the assassins and just kill him grab the key and leave. Chimera was easily done with only 1 potion.
That guy 100% is broken, which is a shame. If he wasn't I could see buying fewer potions and getting an extra Full Heal out of it but it seems like all leaving the traps on would do is let you get in front of the Captain which wouldn't save more time than it takes to pick up the coat which is unfortunate.
Side note, I've been having a really hard time with Mortan. Is there some trick to making that fight more consistent?
Unless I'm forgetting something wouldn't the second soldier also die to the traps when he goes to follow you?
Would it be worth it to pick up the Salamander Skin Coat from the hex? It reduces the amount of damage the traps in the Tomb of Alvaris do down to 5, which tick for 50's on the thardolin soldiers. I haven't tested this yet but maybe only having to throw one potion at the Captain would be enough of a time save to justify it. Heck the traps might even just kill him if the experience isn't enough to make a difference.
