The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing - Walkthrough - part 2 - Markovna

This post has general tips and tricks for The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing played on the PC at Heroic Difficulty. For a list of all our Van Helsing posts, click here.

Part 2 - Markovna
(Hunter, Heroic Difficulty)
When Van Helsing first enters Markova, completing the task to talk to the guard should bring Van Helsing up to level 4. This qualifies him for second tier skills. Changing already allocated attribute and skill points isn't available until Croakwood is mostly cleared, but if you have the Scenario Mode DLC you can go to that HQ, sell some items for the required gold, and respec there.

• Kill a chicken with a sword for the achievement. Only one character needs to do this since Achievements are common to your profile rather than your individual characters.
• Catch a white chicken. You can't actually attack it, but if you get close enough and swing your sword at it, it will vanish and drop an egg.
• Read the notice board outside the church.
• Listen at the door of the house to the far east.
• Talk to the man seated near the statue on the hill to the east.
• The three gems for the statue are in the Croakwood roma/gypsy camp, the Markovna Ink Well, and Gallows Bog.
• Repeatedly click on the two-headed cow and Nutty Stefan.
• After the curse is lifted from the Alchemist, he offers a quest to get something from the well.

Initial Builds
It's still the early game, so experiment a bit (then restore an earlier save) with your skills, talents, and auras. Croakwood also offers you the chance to respec your character, so this is a good time to figure out what you want to do.

• For all builds, prioritize HP-per-hit and HP Regeneration items and Essences. Try to get a bit of Mana Regeneration as well and you can probably swap Icicle Shot for the basic Shoot. The Diamond Essence (% damage taken is converted to Mana) works well in the mid-game if upgraded to 20% or so spread over a couple of items.
• It is important to quickly get some sort of area-effect attack quickly as mobs can be quite large.
• For all builds, get Lightning with Thunderstruck.
• The cooldown is less than 6 seconds, which is the maximum duration of paralysis with Thunderstruck.
• The range and area it covers is basically to the edge of the screen. Just retreating will generally cause enemies to converge into a convenient column for you to zap all at once.
• Leave it at level 1 to reduce Mana cost.
• Don't worry too much about Magic Find. The chances of getting an epic are extremely slim.
• If you do get 2-3 epics, the game can get too easy on Heroic. In many ways, you really don't want random epics.
• Instead, focus on Essences. If you want an easier start through to Borgova, farm the Werewolf Lair and load up on Capacitative Essences and respec your attributes to unlock very good perks. Otherwise, focus on HP Regeneration and HP per hit, then Dodge.
• I recommend modding your C:\Program Files (x86)\The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing\Cfg\Artifact\loottypes.cfg file to make stores always sell rares. This saves some reloading to get a decent item to buy. Also tweak the Essence chances so you get more Capacitatives showing up. Finally, change the gambler to sell only epics. This way if you get an epic you can't use (e.g., a Thaumaturgist mask while playing a Hunter), you can buy another epic to replace it and that way won't feel so frustrated/cheated.

Blacksmith / Essence of Electricity
You can keep it and get an Electrical Essence, which is probably better overall since you can slowly upgrade it and split it to get even more, although the cost to do so is great (Capacitative Essences required) and it is really only of use if you are focussing on lightning spells and Spellpower.
If you give it away, you get the unique Scientist's Lightning Sword, which doesn't have the same potential.

BunnySlayer / Irrational Essence

After the mayor is rescued, the Blacksmith the blacksmith offers two quests: To get an electrical essence, and the use of his forge for 100 gold. Keep the blade you make and talk to Nutty Stefan about it. He offers either a BunnySlayer blade or an Irrational Essence. You can have both if you do an inventory duplication cheat.

• Neither are really a great reward so don't agonize over your choice. The Irrational Essence bonuses can be gotten from other Essences you can create with non-Epic Essences. Since the Irrational Essence is Epic level, only other Epic Essences, such as Capacitive Essences (which cost over 16,000 gold) can upgrade it.
• The BunnySlayer is an inferior sword that will come in handy later in one particular instance. It is necessary for a particular achievement.

Night Defense
After the mayor is rescued, you can receive a quest from the mayor to defend the town at night. From that night-time Markovna map, if you exit to the menu, when Van Helsing returns you will have to start all over again.

• You can therefore farm this map (which is very dense with enemies and elite enemies) for experience points and loot. There is no merchant on the map, but you can exit the game and use the merchants in Scenario Mode.
• Prior to receiving this quest, the only other place you can farm is the Werewolf Cave in Croakwood.
• By farming for gold, you can eventually collect enough Capacitive Essences when they show up with the merchants. Or, you could shortcut the process by using an inventory item duplication cheat.
• Even with gear loaded up with Essences, the clumps of minibosses encountered on the maps can still be troublesome, so this is not as game-breaking an exploit as it seems. However, overall the game is quite easy even on Heroic difficulty.