Chezni's Walk-thru

Spoiler Warning: This page contains spoilers which may affect your IVAN experience negatively

In this walkthrough, I will attempt to cover every aspect of Ivan that I encounter myself. Since my play-style will be different than others, there may be methods of play or even parts of the game that I don't include here. Please feel free to contact me if you would like additional information on any aspect of playing the game.

For starters, I'm going to assume that you've played IVAN and that you have a general understanding of the game's stats, as well as being somewhat mediocre at the game.

As a last note, I have to admit I don't know how to use HTML. If someone sees this who knows HTML and would like to format it and make it more organized, please feel free to do so.

YOUR MISSION

For starters, you have to understand that 99.9% of all IVAN games end in death. If you are not playing the game with this in mind, you'll quickly become frustrated and quit. You're not here to play a game in which you are going to win. You're not here to play a game in which you're going to save the world and get the girl. You're here to play a game in which you respond to your surroundings with whatever tools and skills you've been randomly given--and use your wit and what you know about your abilities and skill to do the best you can in any situation. Not every situation is winnable. Luck plays a very large part of any game. You're not here to win--you're here to see just what adventure awaits you, and how you will adapt to that adventure. The journey is the reward, not the destination.

YOUR CHARACTER

No two characters are created equal. When you start the game, you are given a character with random stats. Sometimes your stats are high, sometimes they are low--sometimes they are average. This is not the end of your character however, as there are "hidden stats" for your character's growth potential. Some characters will gain experience points faster in "Arm Strength." Other characters will more quickly gain exp in "Intelligence." (etc.) The same however is true of the reverse--some characters will progress slower in "Wisdom," or "Perception." (etc.) This is a variance in stat progression exists to simulate that your character has natural talents and potentials to excel in certain areas, and lacks the natural ability to succeed in others. It's a fairly realistic concept that applies to people in real life. Albert Einstein wasn't super buff. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't a world genius. You'll have to learn as you adventure to play to your strengths and avoid situations that expose your weaknesses.

WEAPONS CHOICE

There are a nice selection of varied weapons in IVAN. Ultimately, you're justified in choosing almost any weapon type in the game to become proficient at, because each weapon is circumstantially useful. Thus I won't tell you *not* to choose a weapon type--instead I will tell you what you can expect from each choice and what you should probably do *if* you choose a certain weapon type.

--Daggers--

PROS: Extremely easy to use--almost every character should be able to dual wield these with ease. Extreme accuracy makes them most useful when taking down small evasive enemies like magpies, rats, hedgehogs, bats and floating eyes. Dual wielding is an easy choice for double the fun.

CONS: Low damage pool. In the beginning this doesn't pose much of a threat, aside from the occasional armored zombie but ultimately if you sport daggers you'll find yourself in a bind later on in the game when you run into enemies with high HP values. Daggers used to be my weapon of choice until I found that even dual wielding enchanted and hardened daggers didn't give me enough stopping power.

ADVICE: If you want, use daggers in the beginning of the game when accuracy is more important than damage (I'm looking at you hedgehogs). They can be a good stepping stool for a player who wants to use some of the bigger swords later, but doesn't have the STR stat to wield them now. About the time you enter the Gloomy Caves, you should really consider trading up to the big-boy weapons like a bastard sword, long sword etc. Simply put, the Daggers great early on, but lose their edge the longer you play. If you really want the accuracy that comes from daggers for those situations when accuracy is the key (such as a magpie threatening to steal your wands) then just keep them in your inventory to switch to in clutch situations. Otherwise, as a staple weapon later on you'll be hurting too much if you rely on them exclusively.

--Short Swords--

PROS: A great starting weapon that most characters can equip at the beginning. They have good enough accuracy to not encounter trouble with smaller enemies (hedgehogs and rats) while still maintaining a bit of damage to contend with your tankier foes. Dual wielding is also a simple task with these light weapons.

CONS: Short swords will eventually lose their steam half-way through the Gloomy Caves. You can keep them going for quite some time with hardening and enchanting scrolls, but ultimately they suffer in the same way that daggers do--low damage pool. They also aren't "extremely accurate," and so when it comes to extremely agile enemies like bats, magpies and floating eyes, you aren't as guaranteed to land your hits as you would with daggers.

ADVICE: Ultimately, I see short swords as a trap. For a very long time, I used short swords exclusively, powering them up to +10 if I got the chance. The problem is, they aren't much better than daggers. The trap resides in that they are a good enough early game item to lead you out of the Underwater Tunnels with ease and into the first few levels of the Gloomy Caves but not good enough to carry you through some of the more challenging monsters--mainly those with high HP pools. They also lack the extreme accuracy of daggers, and so you cannot rely on them as much to one-shot that annoying magpie that just stole your wand of mirroring. Go ahead and use short swords early on, either to train up your sword-skill if you are going for the better blade weapons later, or use them if you just can't find anything better at the current time you come across them. But really, don't invest in them. They're heavy enough to be a nuisance if you want to clutch-switch to them in times of needed accuracy and to be honest, daggers are a better choice for accuracy anyway. Go ahead and use them until you get something better (if you want to train your character in swords) but just like the daggers, make sure you trade up when you are ready.

--Long/Bastard Swords--

STARTING OUT

It may not seem like it, right at the very beginning of the game, you have a few options to choose from that prepare you for the Underwater Tunnel dungeon. Some are more time consuming than the others and none of them are mandatory. They are just merely ways to raise stats that you may want depending on your playstyle.

--Agility-- This is the stat I always raise in the beginning. It's very quick to do and requires little effort, and gives you that little bit of extra running speed to escape from strong monsters early on in the game (not to mention a boost in your ability to dodge attacks). Simply run around on the overworld map until you raise your agility to 12-14. Since one square of overworld counts as 10 in the normalworld, you're basically going for miles of jogging. Careful if your character is slow to level up in agility because you'll go hungry before you even reach 12. If you excel in agility leveling up, you might push it to 16, but I don't find this to be necessary. If you do accidentally go hungry by running too long, it doesn't hurt to grab a few bananas from the shop before proceeding to the underground.

--Sci Talking-- This is my least favorite method of starting out. My knowledge of this technique is mostly non-existent. The concept is that you can raise your Wisdom and Intelligence stats by using the "Chat" command on specific NPCs over and over and over again. If you want more information on this technique, check out the "Science Talking" link on this wiki's homepage.

--Trap Collecting-- Slob recommends that you hang out in front of the Sumo Wrestler and gather the banana peels he leaves behind after eating bananas, so that you can then use the banana peels afterwards as traps by placing them on the ground and allowing monsters to walk into them. While I suppose there might be some benefit in this strategy, I really see no reason to go through so much trouble. If you like traps, go ahead. If not, you're not really going to miss out on much.

--Spider Eating-- You will have to enter into the Underwater Tunnel to start this preparation, but it half-way occurs on the overworld. The idea is that you dive into the dungeon with a full stomach, eat your dog, find a couple of spiders (or other poisonous corpses), take them to the overworld, eat them one at a time, and then rest as the poison damages you. This may seem like suicide, but it will give you an early boost in Hit Points. I find this to be the most risky method of preparation, as more often than not I die from hunger later on since I can't find any food. Of course, if you're willing to blow all your money early on for bananas from the shop, then you're a little safer from dying from hunger, but still this is a risky move.

UNDERWATER TUNNEL Because of the variable nature of this game, I cannot possibly account for every possible situation you might encounter. However, I can equip you with knowledge for what you generally might encounter, and how to counter it. Thus you cannot follow each of these instructions to a "T" every time. They are more like guidelines, or ideas to help you get your brain thinking. The ultimate idea to become a good IVAN player is to be able to assess what resources you have at any moment and adapt to the situation at hand with them.

--Enter the Tunnel--

• LIGHT: Grab and equip the lantern on the wall
• WEAPON: Feel free to experiment with whatever weapon styles you wish. However, here are some pros and cons of the weapons you may find in the game.