2021-02-05
Written by: Mogh
Views: 7116
Most Tibian adventurers look forward to some exciting discoveries. But discoveries don’t come out of the blue. It is hard work that leads to learning the secrets. How can we bring previously unknown Tibian knowledge to the public? There are three main ways to do this. The first is to observe and interact with the game environment. The second is an analysis of the available knowledge. And the third and perhaps most exciting way is to talk to NPCs.
In this article, we will show you how important it is to talk to NPCs when it comes to learning secrets. We will share with you some tricks to speed up your research when it comes to NPCs.
I’ll start by quoting perhaps the most popular Cipsoft employee – Knightmare. Here is what he said about the hidden quests in the game in an interview with the no longer existing TibiaHispano fansite:
Knightmare: „This question is somewhat missing the crucial point of this issue. Let me put it that way: If you are not interested in a 'treasure hunt’ (in some way) for the hunts sake, you can just as well let it be. The problems start with the question: what is a quest for you? What if there is a secret that King Tibianus wears pink underwear and nobody knows about it yet? You could probably figure it out by talking to dozens of NPCs and follow their leads and in the end the only reward would be that you know about it. Figuring out what versions of Tibian history might be the truth, what the motivations were of certain shakers and movers in Tibian history might be a riddle – a quest – something you could put work into to figure it out. There would be no substantial reward whatsoever though. Would that still be a quest in the context of the question then?
Consider the age of quests, too. For example, there could be an incredibly old quest, that nowadays would hardly be considered a quest anymore. The reward might be something that is common loot in our days. Would that still suit the taste of the treasure hunter? Just imagine that the reward might only be gold. Perhaps a veritable fortune in the past, but not even a weeks loot today. You would probably even fail to claim the fame to have solved the quest. As soon as you announce it, a dozen others would claim to have known it all along and even accuse you to have spoiled the secret.
What I want to explain is: If you have fun in exploring, experimenting, reading and talking – then have fun, regardless of the outcome. Then the question really is irrelevant for you. If you are interested in the reward mainly, and an answer to this question is substantial for you in order to follow the leads, then rather do your hunting routine and simply get it when it’s common knowledge and you are interested in it. There is simply no guarantee in Tibia that your efforts will always pay off. Some might not be rewarded at all, you might even reach a dead end at one point or chase something that does not exist. If you enjoy the hunt, that does not matter.
By the way, I honestly doubt that most of the people who want more mystery quests in Tibia today have actually solved the dream challenge or the desert quest completely on their own. It’s even unlikely that they found the way to the paradox tower at all without hints from some true explorers. So I would advise everyone not interested in exploring to wait until something becomes common knowledge rather then to waste time in a wild goose chase, and I wish all others lots of fun on their adventures and exploration tours.”
From Knightmare’s words, we can clearly deduce that if there are any secrets in the game then NPCs are one of the keys to solving them. Even if the secret is King Tibianus’ pink panties An experienced mystery hunter cannot afford to ignore such an important clue.
If that doesn’t convince you to talk to NPCs, I’ll write that our team managed to discover:
And that’s just the stuff we’ve published so far. These may not be discoveries on the scale of decode the Bonelord Langauge but aren’t they exciting? These things have been hidden from players for years and were waiting to be discovered through a properly conducted conversation with an NPC.
Especially for this article, we will go on a little walk through Tibia and discover some mini secrets. We hope that the following examples will also make you like talking to NPCs. Please treat the examples below as an Explorer’s Diary Special. You will not find them on any of the fansites.
In the beginning, we will go to Oramond and ask NPC Graham for his name.
Graham Balfour. Interesting. I think there was such a man somewhere in the real world… Of course. That’s an allusion to this person.
Now let’s visit good old Talphion. Let us ask him to heal us.
Let’s poison ourselves and ask to be healed again.
Interesting, isn’t it? NPC’s respond to our requests depending on what state we are in. If we are fired up then Talphion will also say something interesting. There is something else hidden in one of Talphion’s statements above. But it is very difficult to discover. We have succeeded only now after many years. Talphion has a blue uniform. This is very unusual for a dwarf. Have you ever wondered why he has that particular uniform colour? Turns out it’s an allusion to the Star Trek character Dr. Leonard McCoy. Where did this conclusion come from?
In one episode, Dr. Leonard McCoy says this line:
„I’m a doctor, not an engineer.” (see for yourself in the video below)
I’m a doctor not an engineer – YouTube
Very similar right? What is important is to whom he is directing his words. This is Montgomery Scott usually called Scotty. Who is standing near Talphion on the same floor? NPC Scutty! If you’ve been carefully reading our article about Star Trek and Tibia then you probably already know that Scutty is some incarnation of Montgomery Scott in Tibia. For a Star Trek and Tibia fan it’s an exciting discovery but let’s move to a completely different place.
At tibia.fandom.com and tibiawiki.com.br we can read transcriptions of NPC Lothar. Look below at how Lothar should respond to the word „Arkarra”.
Now let’s ask him the same thing but in a game.
Intriguing right? The developers of the game changed the dialogue probably after many years. For what purpose did they do this? Is there a secret behind it? Anyway, this particular example proves that transcripts available on the internet may be outdated.
At the end of our trip, we would like to tell an interesting story. During one of our investigations, we discovered that you could return the research notes to NPC Wyrdin an infinite number of times. I am posting the screenshot below as proof.
After returning the research notes, our questlog was updated each time, meaning we could complete the In Service of Yalahar Quest multiple times. Obviously, this wasn’t a critical bug but finding something like this is also an interesting experience. Today we can safely write about it because after several months from our report Cipsoft finally fixed this bug. As an interesting note, spoilers on the Internet used a word other than „research notes” to complete the mission. That’s probably why this bug has survived as long as 10 years in the game.
The four mini secrets above prove one thing. NPCs are definitely hiding secrets that no one knew about before or have yet to be revealed. I don’t think anyone doubts that anymore.
Since we already know how important NPCs are, in this part of the article we will give you some tips on how to question NPCs in order to do it well. It’s certainly good practice to make your own transcriptions of conversations with NPCs. It’s natural for a human being to forget something. What is written once will survive ages. Therefore, if you research an NPC, at least write down the words you discover. The second important thing is to choose the right words/sentences for the conversation. There is a certain list of words that most NPCs react to. The list could look like the following:
These are very basic words that most NPCs will have an answer for. The location of the NPC under research is very important. For example, if you talk to an NPC from Kazordoon, it is a good idea to ask for names related to this city. Here are some examples:
It is always a good idea to ask the NPC under research for the names of other NPCs standing near him/her/town. Sometimes an NPC can answer us to a name that we have just read on some sign or statue.
Therefore, observation of the environment is equally important. Always ask the NPC about the words he or she is saying. Even when they are not highlighted in blue.
Remember that this is a very important rule when researching NPCs. Most NPCs will react to some of the words that they themselves say.
Learning the mechanics of conversation is also important and can speed up our research. You should know that NPCs react to parts of words/sentences. Look at the example below.
During the conversation, I typed the word „Beregarium”. Does this mean that the NPC responded to that particular word? Of course not. The right keyword is „Beregar”. The second important thing to know when it comes to conversation mechanics is that NPCs respond to words according to a set priority. If you enter two words in NPC Chat that the NPC knows, he will respond to only one depending on the priority. Look at the example below.
The NPC responded to the word „minotaurs” although he knows the answer to the word „elves” as well. The last important thing to know about the conversation mechanics is the character limit we can enter in NPC Chat. This limit is 255 characters. This makes it possible to test an NPC with more words in one try.
The above example shows the NPC’s reaction to the word „castle”. If you use this method, remember that if an NPC reacts to a set of words, you must determine which word it reacted to and test the other words in the set.
We hope we have given you some insight into the mechanics of the conversations. We strongly encourage you to take an interest in NPCs and create your own transcriptions. Our team only tested a small percentage of all the NPCs in the game, yet we found tons of hidden references, allusions or other interesting facts. We encourage you to visit our forum where we post high-quality NPC transcriptions – I can safely say that you won’t find better across the web. We have talked with 20 NPCs so far. All transcriptions can be found in this section.
There are probably still many secrets to discover. If you would like us to professionally analyse any NPC in the game – please let us know in the comments.
| Name | TC Amount |
|---|---|
| Sabin Rene | 1000TC |
| Cavaleiro Kyon Efusa | 600TC |
| Anonymous | 550TC |
| Hegal | 500TC |
| Pala Thebs | 250TC |
| Acolyte Rain | 250TC |
| Vall Astaoldana | 150TC |
| Parrilla | 100TC |
I love how articles uncover more content in Tibia and help me understand Tibian universe better.