Check Out Skill And Rune Crafting In 'Divinity: Original Sin 2'

Larian Studios’ Divinity: Original Sin 2 arrives in a little more than six weeks, but the development team is hard at work with updates and is showing off the progress with multiple videos. The latest footage shows off additional crafting mechanics, new Source abilities, and a confirmation on multiplayer and controller support.

When the game comes out on September 14 for PC, you can play it with a traditional mouse and keyboard setup or with a controller. In addition, you can have a friend play with you on the same monitor with split-screen gameplay. Two additional friends can join you with their own computers or via split-screen on a separate PC, too.

With multiple players in a party, each member can specialize their abilities in ranged, melee, or magic combat. As you and your party progress through the game, you acquire multiple skills through books. However, the new Skill Crafting mechanic allows you to create new skills by combining an elemental and non-elemental skill. One example is the Blood Rain ability, which is the result of combining the Water and Necromancy skill books together. If you use a Source Skill in the fusion process, you can create even stronger abilities to use in combat.

A similar crafting mechanic is also used to create runes, which are placed on weapons or armor for additional bonuses. You can create a rune from scratch by combining two items with pixie dust. For example, a fire rune is created by combining a wooden item, oil, and pixie dust. Runes come in three sizes—small, medium, and large—with the largest runes providing the most bonuses. If you have two runes of the same size in your inventory, you can combine them to create a larger rune of the same element.

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In addition to an arsenal of abilities and magical powers, the game also features Source Skills, which are powerful and require Source points to use. However, finding enough points to use a Source Skill is difficult because it’s a rare commodity. You can gather points through Source Vampirism, which allows you to take points from ghosts, although the action will make you increasingly evil. If you want to remain a lawful and noble character, you can find Source points in small puddles, items of power, or by consuming Source orbs.

These new features won’t be available for those playing the Early Access version of Divinity: Original Sin 2, as Larian Studios is focused on making final changes and polishes to it before launch. If you don’t want to get the game on Early Access, but still want to try it out before September 14, you can check it out at PAX West in early September.