Pillars of Eternity: Prima Official Game Guide Hardcover – Special Edition, March 26, 2015

A very solid guide. It covers all of the quests in the game, with detailed information on all of the reactivity (IE the consequences of each potential choice). It also has detailed lore and timeline information, as well as a comprehensive list of all of the weapons, armors, accessories, spells, abilities and items in the game (complete with art and lore descriptions).If you have played Pillars of Eternity, you may have noticed that the map screen is effectively useless (it mirrors the game world, so it will display the same lighting conditions including the fog-of-war)... This guide has large, colorful maps of each area--which (at least up until/if Obsidian fixes the map in a patch) is very, very welcome.I should also point out that is unlike many guides, the language used in the Eternity guide is simple, succinct and clear--which makes it that much more worth using and referring to.And, as a harcover collector's guide, this book exhibits high production values all-round. The book itself is big, the pages are thick and glossy, and it is filled with high resolution images and full color illustrations and concept art.That said there are a few problems with the guide ; first, there is some incorrect information (Ex., Waidwen's rebellion is stated to have occurred 200 years prior to the game... When, in fact, it has only been appx. 20 years); many of the item/weapon/armor entries omit the lore text, referring players to the in-game Cyclopedia instead--this may have been done to avoid spoilers, but even if that is the case it leaves the guide feeling unfinished; also speaking of spoilers, the guide will spoil future events for some quests when outlining the reactivity of others--I therefore strongly recommend you do not follow the walkthrough completely, at least not on your first play through. The end of the guide also contains a list of the 77,000-odd awesome-people who crowd funded the game--unfortunately several names are missing (like mine) and many suffer typographical errors. The same can be said of the backer credits in the Pillars of Eternity, but unlike in the game itself, the guide's errors cannot be fixed by a software patch.

The Book offers a bountiful of information, detailed fully with art and concept art that went into the game. It has a walk through as well as a Monster's Compendium and Weapons, Armor and Spells that you can acquire. It also includes Pets, Food, and Quests, Bonus Quests, and Side Tasks that you can gain and benefit from. The book does include the list of all the Backers from the Kick Starter. This book goes over all the little detailed information that one would expect from a Walk Through Guide. The Authors of the book did an amazing job including all the detailed Maps of each little area that you come across in the game. Including some Garrison Recommendations for Allies and Recruits. The only little very minor con that I can point out, is that the book is not 100% perfect in it's spelling. There was a few typo errors in the book. Not sure if people know how to use a spell check anymore. Or if they just missed it somehow when going through the book before publishing. Aside from that the book was a very reliable source of information and helpful guide for taking you step by step throughout your journeys while diving into the Pillars of Eternity.

I've finished the game and played, according to Steam, 141 hours. Obviously, the book came out with the game and a few things are different - the number and types of enemies encountered in several fights, for example. Otoh, excellent for getting the back story and great at helping to avoid overlooking side tasks and quests. I recommend refraining from using it as a "how to", as you'll take away some of the discovery fun - I enjoyed finding my own paths and making my own decisions about what to say. (As a result, one NPC companion "failed" his story arc - never liked him much, anyway.) Since you don't get XP for killing, completing tasks and quests is important for advancement - alerting you to where they can be picked up is the real advantage of this book (and, if you are as obsessive as I am, it's maps are great at identifying where the loot is even when you don't really need it.)

Very important to note: If you purchased the Royal Edition of the game, you already have this in a pdf file that comes with the game. It is identical. (I will also note here that the other book available, Guidebook Volume One, is also a pdf file included with the Royal Edition.)That said, it is a gorgeous hardcover book with beautiful artwork and all the information at your fingertips instead of in pdf format. It was well worth the money I paid for it, and I don't regret it for a moment. If you don't care to have another copy of something you technically already own, then don't buy this. If you want a physical copy you can have in your hands while you're playing the game, then you won't be disappointed by this book.All information is laid out as you might expect to find in a D&D book -- tables and charts for everything that has stats, organized paragraphs of information and lore, pictures of gear (though many descriptions do not fit the images), and walkthrough information of the game including more pictures and quest objectives. It doesn't tell you how something might work in the game, though. They really let you pick and choose what you want and figure it out for yourself. No examples given to help you make decisions. I imagine this would be far more than 500+ pages if they included that, too, so I'm not complaining!