Never played the original but enjoying the new release. Only problem is it is quite hard at times. Every 500 turns or so I get horribly, frustratingly stumped. So far the only way I've found to get a hint on moving forward is scanning through Let's Play's on youtube, which is a pain and spoiler-y.

Know of any other early hints/tips/walkthroughs on the new version? Searching for walkthroughs only turns up stuff for the original series of releases.

Talk to the skull - he gives you hints.

There's a walkthrough on Steam for Master.

Also, I've played through the game on each difficulty - so if you have something specific you'd like to ask me - fire away.

I not quite stuck on anything at the moment, but I might take you up on the offer later. That walkthrough looks hard to navigate one piece at a time without spoilers.

But out of curiosity, do you happen to know why the banshee's curse kills you immediately when entering the catacombs below Duggan's throne? Normally I was dying around turn 600 or so but the died in the catacombs just over 400, suddenly, without the normal warnings. Also, looking at yourself while the curse is on mentions the weight of the shield--any idea if having the shield equipped makes the curse kill you faster?

The curse kills you after a certain number of turns - so it doesn't matter what turn number specifically, it's based on how long it's been since you revealed the banshee. I don't believe the Catacombs escalate the curse, but you should definitely find some way of dealing with it before you start wandering around down there. I'm pretty sure the shield doesn't have anything to do with it either (I could be wrong though).

Also, which difficulty are you on?

I understand its turns since the banshee, had that taken into account. Playing on Master, and maybe it was a bug but after entering the catacombs I died on the next turn no matter what I did, no warning just the text from dying because of the curse. I had to reload a save in Duggan's chamber to avoid it and happily got in 200 more turns as usual before the curse set in.

Hm. Anyway, my point still stands - You want to deal with the curse before going into the Catacombs.

Make manual saves, there's only a handful of places where the game gives autosaves for you. Also, if you don't create manual saves, you can get into situations where the game becomes unwinnable.