I managed to get an overwhelming victory against Kalloi's Resplendent Tones team (using subli and Kalloi's setups). I'm starting to sort of understand the game although I'm not comfortable with pre-broken vulnerabilities yet.
Anyway, I decided to check out the Distortion mechanics and, first off, I'm just stumped on how to pull them off within the restrictions. Even using various Commander setups, I just wasn't generating anywhere near enough EXPO or PLEA for the T2 breaks.
So then I used cheat mode to get more powers and I sort of pulled it off but I ran into a few things that I wasn't sure were working as intended or not:
1) Defiler+ Actions and Orgies don't trigger T2 breaks (e.g. Broadcast+ won't break Dignity T2).
2) Character with no Morality breaks. I use Ambition (HATE/PLEA) Commander to get some Hate without worrying about the T1 break. She hits 10k HATE and gets a T2 break with T1 still unbroken.
3) Reloaded and avoided that break. Same character has a T1 Confidence break but not +2 (it's her Core) or T2. I get an Orgy going and she gets so much PAIN that now she's Detonating even without her T2 break.
Are these WAI? I don't mind the first one so much although it was counterintuitive but the second two seem extra counter-intuitive and make Distortions way more difficult. I was also very underwhelmed by the payoff of Tempt compared to just being able to use all four torments.
Congratulations!! I'm glad my custom team as well as my and Subii's guides were so helpful for, especially since you wiped the floor with them, I hope the victory helps with the other run you mentioned here. Since you're making way through distortions, personally I think you've reached the next threshold of the game's learning curve, at least based on my experiences.
Distortions are certainly difficult to pull off, and it requires you to pay even more attention to your team's dynamic and their specific vulnerabilities.
First off I'll answer some of your questions as best as I can
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1.) If Defiler+ Actions aren't actually breaking T2's then try to upload that save if you can since that seems like a bug to me.
Orgies on the other hand I believe are supposed to work that way. The main reason I say that is that is it would make impossible to have a team where you tempted one chosen as well as do the aversion distortion on another without it working like that. Since Tempted Chosen can't be sodomized or inseminated and Aversion Chosen can't be broadcasted or force orgasm. I actually learned orgies didn't do this recently after I did some testing since I always assumed it broke T2's. I think that should definitely be added to the guide or tips.
2.)This one can vary in utility with what you can do but some things I've done is as such:
-Versatility is an excellent ability in the sense that you can make HATE/INJU combination commander since there isn't a defiler for this combo, also for your scenario you can make a commander with same combo of HATE/PLEA that wouldn't activate a defiler since it's two suppressors. And a really nasty combination I've started to use when I'm going for distortions on a team is
the Versatility 4+ HATE/INJU commander with another capture charge+ Reality sealing. From there I target the chosen with an ambush and use all that time there being captured to barrier and get the percentage up as high as I can until the next chosen arrive. It has become such a decent strategy that sometimes I prioritize getting reality sealing instead of networked consciousness in some runs/loops.
-This is where it really helps to understand how T1 breaks happen it the first place. When the chosen thinks they'll reach 10k damage in from that surround action, that when they trigger their T1 break and retaliate for the first time. (ie- if you have them at 5k Hate with several multipliers active and they're surrounded for 5 or so turns, they'll trigger it as soon as you do it)
It's also why it might not even happen right away from the action, something like raising the EXPO level on their teammate might increase their Multiplier and that difference will cause them to do it. Where I'm getting with all this is that if keep in mind those factors you have a rough idea when or why they'll do it
Lets keep things simple. For example, say I'm trying to avoid getting the t1 morality broken on this chosen, she's already on HATE (5k HATE) level 2 but her INJU is only level 1 and I have her surrounded for 5 turns. If I immediately pummel to get her to level 2 I'm fucked, since grind and pummel are the two actions for T1 morality breaks. So what I do instead is wait until the last second to pummel her and get her INJU up to level 2. Since the turns she's surrounded for is one of the factors for how she calculates if she'll reach 10k damage that just means I'll wait until the turns she's surrounded for is a number I don't think will trigger retaliation, so maybe when 2-3 turns in. Looking at how much damage she takes during her surrounding really comes into play, at least it's better to me, rather than reloading the save every 5 min lol.
-Just as versatility comes into play for this the same can be said for synthesis. Being able to raise their circumstance damage without fear of breaking t1 is always a plus. But also the turns you don't have spend choosing a surround action can be used on the chosen other than your target and exploit their EXPO or raise their values in general. Specialty commanders in general are good for this purpose so I think their viability are heightened more than the tried and true generic commanders that are better in most cases usually.
3) ...This has happened to me far more times than I'd like to admit lmao. Personally I think the reason why it works like this is because tempting chosen is something that is supposed to be methodically, even more so than standard gameplay, we seduce over to our side so overloading them with 8 turn orgy and breaking them wouldn't make any sense, the same can be said about breaking their members all the way yet since they may break one of those vulnerabilities in an event depending on if the vulnerability is core/minor this caution had me keep in mind the damage I needed to do so I would start to do 2-3 turn orgies to raise angst without completely destroying them. The good thing is once a chosen has their initial tempt path started, you don't have to worry about breaking their t1 or even their teammates breaking their t2's, meaning the only real worries are going overboard with the orgies or the angst or the accidental miss-click. Aversion Chosen don't break their innocent or disgrace t3 in my experiences so you don't even have to worry about that with them.
4)(Bonus I suppose?) Two tips very helpful for the current distortions. For tempt, a good strategy I learned from here (tpk I think?) for getting the initial tempt is to get her to her t3 innocence break where she begin using fantasize in battle. Get her to above 10k PLEA damage and able to surround her again but wait until she fantasizes and raises her own PLEA to 100k, getting all that's needed to tempt.
-For Aversion, maybe it's not really a tip but more so a good thing to keep in mind, When it says orgy for 10 turns or more to activate aversion it doesn't necessarily mean 10 turns of a orgy, if the other two are part of a Defiler + action and you add the chosen you want on the aversion path, it will still trigger aversion for her as long as you could have surrounded her for 10 turns or more when you add her to make the orgy.
This means, even if the other two chosen are going to escape in a turn you can still get a last minute aversion as long as she's the last one to be added. Otherwise this tip won't work if she's one of the two you begin the defiler + action with
Overall though your feelings about distortions are justified in my opinion, they require more effort and planning than just the quick and dirty breaking all vulnerabilities and making the team hate each other and finishing them off with a t4 and antipathy.
I do enjoy them since they require a different approach to a team once you get well acquainted and can make full use of all the mechanics well.
But the true usefulness for them comes into play with two ways. Forsaken and Campaign Mode.
With forsaken, distorted chosen get benefits like 50% PLEA and EXPO damage for tempted chosen, 50% HATE and INJU damage for aversion chosen, as well as the recent addition of them having special defiler actions only they can use. Those things really shine in campaign mode, since the increasingly shorter deadlines, reduced damage, and trauma resolving makes runs/loops almost impossible to complete with your typical upgrade path and commanders. Speaking of campaign mode and the hurdles it can have, it makes defeating distortions more worthwhile when you're nearing the final battle and you don't think you can make it towards enough of the "+ actions" to do resolve damaged or their resolve is really high. you can insta-defeat chosen with a tempt or an long enough orgy and just knowing you have a good way of knocking out 1 or two chosen already means you don't necessarily need to pick up some of the final upgrades in the game
These come with their own checks and balances of course, but I enjoy the distortions and campaign mode overall because it adds another layer of things that plays into the mechanics already in place and gives new meaning to them.
Once you know how to play the game, it becomes incredibly easy at times to defeat a team, corrupting them and making them hate each other, snowballing to the point where the final battle is a joke where their resolve is at 20% and their t3 actions ironically makes them child's play to defeat. The game really makes you end up feeling like a demon lord and you're making the heroes dance in the palm of your hand, Then campaign modes comes in and fucks your shit up with deadlines like final battle at day 38 with 150% trauma resolution and a superior chosen. Then you start to look at your options and reevaluate what you used to do to steamroll them. Making them enemies like you used to means you have less leverage when you train them as forsaken, less leverage means more of a possibility of breaking them and making them useless with the more extreme training measures, especially the ones that grant defilers to your forsaken. Corrupting them all over and without thought will fuck up their relationships as well as ruin potential distortions. To be a corny bitch and come full circle, The game really makes you feel like a demon lord where your hubris and poor planning leads to your own downfall which I think is pretty neat-o imo
Sorry for the random tangent at the end, might be tired from just getting off work but I hope some of this helps you and anyone reading in what I believe is the next step of this game's difficulty
