I've already done all the distortions in my various loop 1 runs to familiarise myself with the gameplay (and what I wish the game told you was "don't try to do Negotiation in a run where you do any non-Negotiation temptation") but it took me until today to realise that the cor/sig/min vulns on a chosen ALSO influence their starting Forsaken stats. It's just a lot of mechanics and setup that feels very unintuitive to use or learn how to use (because most forsaken will have a crushingly high EE cost that you would spend an entire loop's worth of days training down if you so desired).
Imo that's my main issue with the forsaken, it's just three layers of complexity that only kick in after you already have spent multiple hours working through a loop
so far it has been completely "forsaken don't work for me at all and I don't even know where to start unfucking this" for me, which is a shame because I can see the appeal of the system, I just feel like I'm seperated from it by a pane of glass
Ok, let's try this.
There are a lot of things a Forsaken can do that are expensive or inconvenient to do with Commanders.
Your job is to pick something you want and design around that.
Here's a good starting place: EXPO damage. This is a very useful type once the whole team is out. Your Forsaken hits the first Chosen and sets her up. Then she hits the second Chosen even harder, which also makes your follow-up surround on the first Chosen even better. Let's look at what would be an ideal EXPO-focused (1000% EXPO) damage first Forsaken. Let's get one that replaces that early loop of buying a bunch of commander upgrades before you can use a Commander that's worth much of anything. Let's start stacking!
There are two distortions that raise EXPO damage by 50%: Rampancy (Demon Knight) or Temptation (Eager Partner). Let's see what the good and bad of each one is. First, each one has an associated Defiler.
Rampancy's Defiler is the ability to break off early (Release) or Rampage (stuns self, adds some amount to surrounds).
Temptation's Defiler is the ability to switch to doing PLEA damage (also can count as Tempt action, if the Chosen has high enough PLEA).
These two types also come with special traits that have to be considered.
Rampant Forsaken take all your EE when deployed, but can be deployed for any EE cost. They also gain Motivation when deployed and lose it when they're idle.
Tempted Forsaken cost 1/4 of the regular Motivation cost to deploy as long as their Obedience stays below 40%.
But wait, there's a third set of things to consider; the type of distortion will have a significant effect on her corruption stats.
Rampant Forsaken will have extremely low Obedience (avoiding t1 CON breaks), low Deviancy (avoiding t2 INN breaks), and moderate-to-high scores in Hostility and Disgrace. This means they will recover Stamina very quickly and gain Expertise quickly to match whatever damage type you're doing. Low Obedience and Deviancy means they start out refusing a lot of training actions. High Hostility means you'll have to send them out every so often or they'll fuck up your other Forsaken, because these bitches is crazy. Rampants lose Motivation resting, and when Motivation gets below Hostility a Forsaken goes and beats up everyone at your base. Their natural cost will be low, so you'll want to use them at the beginning of a loop and use Demons or other Forsaken later in the loop.
Tempted Forsaken will have extremely low Hostility, low Obedience, and moderate-to-high scores in Deviancy and Disgrace. They'll recover stamina quite quickly (though not as quickly as a Rampant Forsaken). They'll be able to be sent out a lot of times (this Forsaken is not ass-backwards, so it costs her Motivation to go out--but the cost is reduced to 1/4 because of the trait above). Even if they lose a lot of motivation, the low Hostility means when they fuck shit up around your base no one really gets mad, they throw little foot-stomping tantrums that just make everyone else roll their eyes (low Motivation damage). They'll be hard to train in different damage types because of the high Deviancy. They may refuse some training actions because of the naturally low Obedience, but they won't be as difficult on this front as a Rampant Forsaken.
Both types will be on the lower end of the cost spectrum because of the high Disgrace value--so we won't compare these directly.
OK, so decision time. Put those advantages and disadvantages next to each other and see which one gets to live outside of the Breeding Pit!
|
Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Tempted | consistent, predictable EE cost, like using a class of Demon
Can do PLEA damage once EXPO stops raising
Easy to manage--low hostility and low Motivation cost. | sucks at gaining Expertise--can't retrain easily
Can't send her out until you have some EE
often "stuck" in later turns, since EXPO is difficult to raise high without HATE/INJU |
| Rampant | Easy to send out in the beginning with low EE
Can fuck up multiple Chosen, not stuck to one for 5-8 turns dealing 2 damage at the end cuz all she do is strip them
Can train/retrain quickly for other needs | Occasionally fucks up your other Forsaken cuz she bored
High difficulty in accepting training actions
Wants to take all your money (EE) which is a lot at the end of a loop
|
So, I think that Tempted is better for this purpose. Switching to PLEA damage partway through a Capture is incredibly helpful for making sure that their Traumas get high. If you agree, let's talk about how you build one. Think of the end first. We need:
1) We need her to consent to doing a Grand Concert to get the associated Defiler. If her Disgrace is high, this will be easy--if not, we will have to raise it. I'll put a little training index at the end of this for stats.
2) We need her damage type to be EXPO only, but we still want her to have PLEA experience so that she does damage with Tempt.
3) We need her disgrace to be somewhere between 70 (8 EE) and 80 (4 EE). I'd recommend shooting for the lower end of this.
4) Important: we need her Obedience to stay BELOW 40%, or she loses most of her benefits because of the Tempted trait.
So, with this, we can come up with some sort of plan.
1) Earning the Grand Concert (if needed)
2) Raising Disgrace (probably)
3) Getting the correct damage type (1000% EXPO, then STOP training)
Okay, so how do we train? We can train for Corruption, for Expertise, or for Motivation.
To train for Corruption, the four % stats, you'll want to pile on trainings with Disgrace. If you're wanting to increase Obedience you'll always start with Drain Soul (check to make sure if you're training our Temptress here that this doesn't make it go to high). If you're wanting to increase Disgrace, you'll start with Grand Concert if she consents to it. Either way, pair the stat you want to raise with Disgrace, as Disgrace training makes actions not go up in cost. If Disgrace is the stat you're trying to raise, pair it with any of the others except Hostility (Hostility raises future training costs in the same session). Go from tier 4 trainings on down for the biggest results, just make sure they aren't too big.
To train for Expertise, the damage types, you'll want to pair Hostility and Deviance on the first two levels of training actions, then pick the action in the third tier that gives you the most experience in the type or types you want. If you're trying to make one of your current damage types disappear, make sure that you don't train that one as your third-tier action. Example, if you're trying to get our Temptress here to go from "100% PLEA/EXPO" to "1000% EXPO" you'll want to not use the Tentacle Show.
To train for Motivation, pair Deviancy and Disgrace on all three tiers, then pick whatever gives you the largest Motivation increase (without increasing corruption stats, unless you want those too).
Or, use a trainer. It's slow, but you'll always get exactly what you want, eventually.
