The pack that brought it up was petardo8´s "superior silence" pack on page 222, but i´ve seen others differ from the 9 emotion baseline too, which is why I thought it was worth asking to see if there were some additional rules I wasn´t aware of.
Oh, then besides Petardo's extra expressions I do know CSDEV had an addition where "smug" and "used" could be added to a chosen's forsaken pack, I'll quote the details of it for you from a previous update (R37)
" Other: When portraits titled "smug" or "used" are in a Forsaken's folder, she will now use those portraits in place of "joy" and "lewd" respectively."
Other than that there's no extra rules for you need to consider if you're making your own pack or portrait!
Is it meant to be impossible to have three chosen on distortion's and be unable to have them finish as friend's?
I tried breaking all 4 minor vulnerabilities then distorting the core one, I tried distorting the minor abilities then breaking the core vulnerabilities and I tried distorting the minor vulnerability then distorting the core one but each time it drove them to become enemies.
On a side note would it be possible to add a future teammate relationship which guarantee's that the chosen that have it will appear in the same run when their is a run they could both appear in? So that when I make a team of custom superior chosen they don't appear one by one.
On a side note would it be possible to add a future teammate relationship which guarantee's that the chosen that have it will appear in the same run when their is a run they could both appear in? So that when I make a team of custom superior chosen they don't appear one by one.
Yeah honestly this is one thing I hate about setting relationships, they force the Chosen not to be together. Like, I get it'd be a lot of work to do since it'd mean rewriting a bunch of scenes to account for it, but it is kinda disappointing that you cant say, have a pair of sisters on the Chosen team that you can corrupt together and stuff like that.
Send an ordinary (no Punisher, Defiler, or Suppressor) Commander out with 5 captures, max turns, and Flight. Use this Commander as if you were setting them up for an Orgy, but instead of performing an Orgy, get one of the two you want to raise in an Inseminate action and the other one in Broadcast. Royal you should Force. Then, once Extermination is finished, keep Royal surrounded first. One or both will Striptease, they'll both use Fantasize often, but they can't use the same move twice in a row and they'll want to free their friend so that the fight ends. Use your remaining 2 Captures on her as well, then Surround each of the others in turn.
I enjoy the game's content and all, but I'm very bad at it. I simply don't understand how to play despite going through the tutorial 3 times, so I struggle in the mid-game when it wants you to reach X points in a category or break some harder to reach vulnerabilities. I can't even figure out how to perform the step by step guide missions sometimes.
I hope the tutorial gets reworked or expanded on, because as it is its not very clear to me? Its just telling me what to push but not reeeeaaally telling me why. It's kind of like playing a fighting game and being destroyed online. Yes I know how to play the game, in that I know what the buttons do. But I don't know how to play effectively, in that I don't actually understand what to do. I know X is punch but I don't know how to string together attacks to do a combo, sort of thing.
Could someone please help teach me how to play this game? I can't really see the strategy or gameplay I'm supposed to go for here, and i don't understand the systems enough to understand how you're supposed to cause the millions of trauma needed to create vulnerabilities.
I enjoy the game's content and all, but I'm very bad at it. I simply don't understand how to play despite going through the tutorial 3 times, so I struggle in the mid-game when it wants you to reach X points in a category or break some harder to reach vulnerabilities. I can't even figure out how to perform the step by step guide missions sometimes.
I hope the tutorial gets reworked or expanded on, because as it is its not very clear to me? Its just telling me what to push but not reeeeaaally telling me why. It's kind of like playing a fighting game and being destroyed online. Yes I know how to play the game, in that I know what the buttons do. But I don't know how to play effectively, in that I don't actually understand what to do. I know X is punch but I don't know how to string together attacks to do a combo, sort of thing.
Could someone please help teach me how to play this game? I can't really see the strategy or gameplay I'm supposed to go for here, and i don't understand the systems enough to understand how you're supposed to cause the millions of trauma needed to create vulnerabilities.
Sure, I'll take a shot at a beginner's guide to the basic game. There are several others, but it seems like writing one myself might be interesting. I'm gonna assume you're playing a Classic game without stuff like Items and Forsaken, for simplicity's sake.
There are two things you're progressing in a basic single run of the game, which both reinforce the other: Your upgrades, and the Chosen's corruption. More/better upgrades makes it easier to damage the Chosen more which makes them easier to corrupt and makes them generate more EE, which you can spend on more upgrades.
A quick terminology reference (to be expanded on later):
"Break" means breaking one of a Chosen's 4 Vulnerabilities, and Breaking a Chosen permanently renders them more vulnerable to both associated damage types - i.e., breaking DIG will leave them taking more SHAM and EXPO damage for the rest of the campaign. Breaks are divided from T1 to T4, with different conditions for each. T1 and T3 Breaks involve the Chosen adapting to what you do, and can be triggered more or less accidentally (though it is possible to control them). They also can briefly make the Chosen harder to corrupt by unlocking new options for them. T2 and T4 Breaks are only triggered by certain actions on your part, and have no associated strengthening effect on the Chosen.
The game can generally be divided into a few stages, which can overlap with each other to some degree. For the purposes of explaining the basics, I'm gonna ignore Distortions when it comes to these stages. Distortions are an optional mechanic you can also ignore for now. First, let's lay out the stages. Then, we'll discuss how to approach them - goals, tools, and challenges
Stage 1: From Day 1 to whenever the third Chosen shows up. In this stage, you're limited in your ability to make major progress by the lack of available targets. Sometimes, you can get significant work done here, but mostly, it's a preparatory stage and you shouldn't expect to achieve major corruption. Your Chosen are probably generating 1 EE/day here.
Stage 2: From whenever your third Chosen arrives to when you've managed a couple T2 Breaks. In this stage, you're probably most limited by lack of EE/upgrades to use powerful Commanders against the Chosen. Your Chosen may be generating between 1 and 5 EE/day here.
Stage 3: From whenever you've managed T2 breaks on most/all Chosen to when you start achieving T3 Breaks. Your Chosen will be generating 5-15 EE/day here, probably. This is probably the shortest Phase, depending on how you count it!
Stage 4: From T3 Breaks to T4 Breaks and the Final Battle. Your Chosen will reach 50 EE/day by the end of this stage.
You progress through each Stage slightly differently, but some aspects are common to all of them. EE is good. Commanders are powerful, but expensive enough you can't use them recklessly. Days are a valuable resource, so saving at the start of each day is important. Multiple attempts at a battle - even to the point of reloading the day and changing your upgrades/commander around - are normal and important. Angst is important, but rarely your top priority. Some Chosen are more vulnerable to certain strategies than others. Long-term planning is valuable.
That said, it can be hard to put those larger strategic ideas into practice without a focus on the details, so let's get into some of those.
In Stage 1, there are three rules for your play that you should follow unless you have a very good reason to break them, in order from least to most important, more or less:
1: Always maximize the length of each fight in terms of turn count. This is best achieved against 1 Chosen, usually, by setting up a Surround in the early turns by inflicting 1 level each of DISG, PAIN, and SHAM, using Slime, Attack, and Taunt then activating that surround the turn before the fight would otherwise end. Depending on the Chosen's vulnerabilities/stats, you may only be able to inflict 1 level of 1 or 2 of these, but the strat generally still holds. Against multiple Chosen, you may have to sacrifice a turn here or there to follow the next rule.
2: Get 1 EE/day from your Chosen whenever possible. This is achieved by maximizing the trauma you inflict to them. 200/Chosen/fight is generally enough, but occasionally you can get away with less, especially on the second Chosen, because of group activities. This has the helpful side effect of increasing their ANGST, which increases their damage taken. Missing 1 EE in a day is a good reason to reload and try a different strategy for the day.
3. Don't buy Commanders without a very good reason. Getting one +2EE bonus from bringing a Core Circumstance to level 2 is probably not a good enough reason. Getting 2 of them you otherwise wouldn't get that day probably is, if the Commander is only 1 or maybe 2 EE. Getting a T1 Break might be. Getting a T2 break (fairly unlikely, but possible) almost definitely is, unless you're saving that break for later (there are reasons to delay Breaks, which will be covered in Stage 2 - this is never required, but it can make the game easier later).
All of these rules are about maximizing your EE income and setting you up for an early and explosive start to Phase 2. Your ability to progress corruption here is limited by your lack of upgrades and targets, so we're not primarily concerned with it. If you can get a nice +2EE from a Core "T0 Break" (not a real thing, just a way to think about the extra objective on Core Vulnerabilities), do so. Otherwise, be patient. Rules 2 and 3 are good to follow at the start of Stage 2, as well!
As an additional resource, I'll play a quick game alongside writing this guide and note down the day by day strategy. It'll be Classic, ignore Distortions, and try not to go for anything too finnicky (limiting myself on lengthy reloads/retries).
D1: Axiom is my first Chosen. Thanks to the Retry button, it's easy to determine that she's weakest to SHAM, followed by PAIN, followed by FEAR, followed by DISG - and even the last of these would only take 3 rounds to achieve level 1. I can't quite achieve level 1 on all 3 before Extermination ends, so I attack twice, taunt 4 times, then take a 2-round surround. She's left with 840 unresolved trauma and I get my day 1 EE.
D2: I make a save, then grab Fast Breeders, since I think it'll give me an extra turn pre-extermination, which will give me an extra surround turn as well. It does - I attack twice, taunt twice, slime 3 times, then do a 3-round surround. She's left with 2769 unresolved Trauma this turn.
D3: Another save, then Wide Deployment, which may give me another turn pre-extermination. My second Chosen, Void, shows up on Round 5. She's fairly vulnerable to FEAR, DISG, and SHAM (all take 2 turns to hit 100), so I can get a surround on both of them this time. I do 2 attacks, 2 taunts on Axiom before Void shows up, 2 slimes on Void, then capture Axiom. One Threaten on Void (unfortunately can't get 2 in), then a 1-turn Surround. Not sure that's better than another Slime or Threaten, but it's enough to get my +1EE from both, so it's fine.
D4: Another save. First, I grab Psychic reading to verify what I expected: Void has a pre-existing T2 MOR break. It's also MIN, and so is her CON - which makes her extremely vulnerable to CON breaks. I could probably get T1 or even T2 there before the third Chosen, but for the sake of the guide, I'll wait on that. I reload to the start of the day, and grab Enhanced Polymorphism to hopefully get some slightly longer surrounds. I hit Void first, get Fear, DISG, and SHAM to level 1, then delay surrounding till I can get Axiom first. I'm only able to get a 1-rounder on her, but it sets up Void for a 3-rounder. Another easy 2 EE.
D5: I save. Since neither Psychic Reading nor Focus benefit me this week, and I can't afford any on the next level, I hold my EE. This week's fight is a carbon copy of the last one, and leaves both Chosen hovering at around 3k unresolved Trauma.
D6: I save the game! I'm not sure if there's a chance I can have the third Chosen show up yet (it may not have been enough rounds), so I grab Psychic Reading and Weakness Sense (leaving me with 1 EE left) and get to experimenting. It quickly turns out Freedom shows up on Round 5. Since Axiom is a little easier to set up for a 3-turn surround, I start with her, use the first 4 rounds to get the Surround ready, and then work on Freedom. She has no pre-broken vulnerabilities, but her MOR core is so strong a single Threaten is enough to set her up for a surround. I have plenty of turns to build Trauma on Freedom to get her past the 1EE threshold, but if I were struggling, I could have reloaded and gotten Coordinated Deployment or Eager Breeders instead.
That's the end of a nice and quick Stage 1.
This has taken a while to write and has gotten kinda long, so later Stages may have to wait for another time. It's been an interesting exercise, though, so I probably will come back to it.
I enjoy the game's content and all, but I'm very bad at it. I simply don't understand how to play despite going through the tutorial 3 times, so I struggle in the mid-game when it wants you to reach X points in a category or break some harder to reach vulnerabilities. I can't even figure out how to perform the step by step guide missions sometimes.
I hope the tutorial gets reworked or expanded on, because as it is its not very clear to me? Its just telling me what to push but not reeeeaaally telling me why. It's kind of like playing a fighting game and being destroyed online. Yes I know how to play the game, in that I know what the buttons do. But I don't know how to play effectively, in that I don't actually understand what to do. I know X is punch but I don't know how to string together attacks to do a combo, sort of thing.
Could someone please help teach me how to play this game? I can't really see the strategy or gameplay I'm supposed to go for here, and i don't understand the systems enough to understand how you're supposed to cause the millions of trauma needed to create vulnerabilities.
To be fair, as useful as the Guide text file is, it doesn't really help you know what to do, just what the mechanics are. Sure that's definitely very important in learning the game, but it doesn't really matter if you know what modifiers you get from the circumstances if you don't know how to effectively raise them and manage surrounds in the first place.
I don't know if people have created more portrait packs or not, as I've not been following this thread.
I do know that I currently have other things occupying my time and it doesn't look like that will soon change. This means that I won't be able to keep the portrait pack post updated.
If someone else wants to take responsibility to make a new one and keep it updated be my guest. This also means I won't update the suntorn dawn to comply with the newer versions. My apologies and best wishes to all, including csdev and all the people that were so active in making packs.
Forsakens from the same team will like/hate each other if they liked/hated each other when they were alive, I don't think there's currently a way to change it after they're corrupted
Like Mathiau said, there are no ways to change the relationship between Forsaken. Forsaken can have relationships with Chosen in other teams however either through them having pre-established relationships (having an unknown sibling/friend/etc listed in their info page), or by setting them to the Bait position which will make them friends with one of the Chosen. But beyond that there is no way to my knowledge to change a Forsaken's relationship with someone once it's set.
It was very useful for getting me up to speed on the early game, but I'm struggling in mid-game. I tried playing again using your advice and I'm at day 38 now, but I'm struggling to get tier 2 breaks and I can't reach tier 3 yet at all. On top of that, I can't seem to control which break I get, its very odd to me while I keep getting sodomise or forced orgasm and I can't get the others nearly as often.
Also, am I right in assuming you want to target core vulnerabilities and ignore minor ones? For some reason minor ones want to break faster than core. I know this affects chosen friendships, so you want to break a core on one chosen but not a matching minor on another right? I'm not sure why I'm finding difficulties in targeting which vulnerability breaks. Also my understanding is that significant vulnerabilities are "safe" and you can do whatever with them, is that right?
It was very useful for getting me up to speed on the early game, but I'm struggling in mid-game. I tried playing again using your advice and I'm at day 38 now, but I'm struggling to get tier 2 breaks and I can't reach tier 3 yet at all. On top of that, I can't seem to control which break I get, its very odd to me while I keep getting sodomise or forced orgasm and I can't get the others nearly as often.
Defiler actions (T2 breaks) require 10,000 damage in the associated circumstance. Presumably the reason you're getting Sodomize and Forced Orgasm more often is either the Chosen has very little resistance to PLEA and INJU, or you're mainly using Caress and Pummel as Circumstance attacks. However, a 4-2 Commander should be able to get T2 Breaks pretty easily aside from potentially the Core Vulnerabilities.
Also, am I right in assuming you want to target core vulnerabilities and ignore minor ones? For some reason minor ones want to break faster than core. I know this affects chosen friendships, so you want to break a core on one chosen but not a matching minor on another right? I'm not sure why I'm finding difficulties in targeting which vulnerability breaks. Also my understanding is that significant vulnerabilities are "safe" and you can do whatever with them, is that right?
No, the only reason you should care about break order on human Chosen is if you want to make them Rivals. If you're not trying to make them Rivals then do breaks in whatever order you want, and especially target the Minor Vulnerability as it's the easiest to Break and getting a fast T2 Break is important for increasing EE generation. As for making Chosen Rivals, you only need to break the Core Vulnerability first, after you do the T1 Core Break you can do the matching T1 Minor Break without effecting the relationship. However, if you're new to the game and are struggling to get T2 Breaks by day 38, you should not be worrying about manipulating relationships, as struggling with T2 Breaks and not having any T3 Breaks by day 38 is basically an unwinnable situation. Also yes, Significant Vulnerabilities have no effect on relationships, however that doesn't mean they're completely safe as if you assign them a Distortion that disallows breaking that Vulnerability then breaking it will still ruin the Distortion, granted you shouldn't be worrying about Distortions anyways in your current situation.
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if later down the line when there is more fan art someone makes portrait packs for the characters from this anime, it'd be pretty fitting considering what the anime is.
Sure, I'll take a shot at a beginner's guide to the basic game. There are several others, but it seems like writing one myself might be interesting. I'm gonna assume you're playing a Classic game without stuff like Items and Forsaken, for simplicity's sake.
There are two things you're progressing in a basic single run of the game, which both reinforce the other: Your upgrades, and the Chosen's corruption. More/better upgrades makes it easier to damage the Chosen more which makes them easier to corrupt and makes them generate more EE, which you can spend on more upgrades.
A quick terminology reference (to be expanded on later):
"Break" means breaking one of a Chosen's 4 Vulnerabilities, and Breaking a Chosen permanently renders them more vulnerable to both associated damage types - i.e., breaking DIG will leave them taking more SHAM and EXPO damage for the rest of the campaign. Breaks are divided from T1 to T4, with different conditions for each. T1 and T3 Breaks involve the Chosen adapting to what you do, and can be triggered more or less accidentally (though it is possible to control them). They also can briefly make the Chosen harder to corrupt by unlocking new options for them. T2 and T4 Breaks are only triggered by certain actions on your part, and have no associated strengthening effect on the Chosen.
The game can generally be divided into a few stages, which can overlap with each other to some degree. For the purposes of explaining the basics, I'm gonna ignore Distortions when it comes to these stages. Distortions are an optional mechanic you can also ignore for now. First, let's lay out the stages. Then, we'll discuss how to approach them - goals, tools, and challenges
Stage 1: From Day 1 to whenever the third Chosen shows up. In this stage, you're limited in your ability to make major progress by the lack of available targets. Sometimes, you can get significant work done here, but mostly, it's a preparatory stage and you shouldn't expect to achieve major corruption. Your Chosen are probably generating 1 EE/day here.
Stage 2: From whenever your third Chosen arrives to when you've managed a couple T2 Breaks. In this stage, you're probably most limited by lack of EE/upgrades to use powerful Commanders against the Chosen. Your Chosen may be generating between 1 and 5 EE/day here.
Stage 3: From whenever you've managed T2 breaks on most/all Chosen to when you start achieving T3 Breaks. Your Chosen will be generating 5-15 EE/day here, probably. This is probably the shortest Phase, depending on how you count it!
Stage 4: From T3 Breaks to T4 Breaks and the Final Battle. Your Chosen will reach 50 EE/day by the end of this stage.
You progress through each Stage slightly differently, but some aspects are common to all of them. EE is good. Commanders are powerful, but expensive enough you can't use them recklessly. Days are a valuable resource, so saving at the start of each day is important. Multiple attempts at a battle - even to the point of reloading the day and changing your upgrades/commander around - are normal and important. Angst is important, but rarely your top priority. Some Chosen are more vulnerable to certain strategies than others. Long-term planning is valuable.
That said, it can be hard to put those larger strategic ideas into practice without a focus on the details, so let's get into some of those.
In Stage 1, there are three rules for your play that you should follow unless you have a very good reason to break them, in order from least to most important, more or less:
1: Always maximize the length of each fight in terms of turn count. This is best achieved against 1 Chosen, usually, by setting up a Surround in the early turns by inflicting 1 level each of DISG, PAIN, and SHAM, using Slime, Attack, and Taunt then activating that surround the turn before the fight would otherwise end. Depending on the Chosen's vulnerabilities/stats, you may only be able to inflict 1 level of 1 or 2 of these, but the strat generally still holds. Against multiple Chosen, you may have to sacrifice a turn here or there to follow the next rule.
2: Get 1 EE/day from your Chosen whenever possible. This is achieved by maximizing the trauma you inflict to them. 200/Chosen/fight is generally enough, but occasionally you can get away with less, especially on the second Chosen, because of group activities. This has the helpful side effect of increasing their ANGST, which increases their damage taken. Missing 1 EE in a day is a good reason to reload and try a different strategy for the day.
3. Don't buy Commanders without a very good reason. Getting one +2EE bonus from bringing a Core Circumstance to level 2 is probably not a good enough reason. Getting 2 of them you otherwise wouldn't get that day probably is, if the Commander is only 1 or maybe 2 EE. Getting a T1 Break might be. Getting a T2 break (fairly unlikely, but possible) almost definitely is, unless you're saving that break for later (there are reasons to delay Breaks, which will be covered in Stage 2 - this is never required, but it can make the game easier later).
All of these rules are about maximizing your EE income and setting you up for an early and explosive start to Phase 2. Your ability to progress corruption here is limited by your lack of upgrades and targets, so we're not primarily concerned with it. If you can get a nice +2EE from a Core "T0 Break" (not a real thing, just a way to think about the extra objective on Core Vulnerabilities), do so. Otherwise, be patient. Rules 2 and 3 are good to follow at the start of Stage 2, as well!
As an additional resource, I'll play a quick game alongside writing this guide and note down the day by day strategy. It'll be Classic, ignore Distortions, and try not to go for anything too finnicky (limiting myself on lengthy reloads/retries).
D1: Axiom is my first Chosen. Thanks to the Retry button, it's easy to determine that she's weakest to SHAM, followed by PAIN, followed by FEAR, followed by DISG - and even the last of these would only take 3 rounds to achieve level 1. I can't quite achieve level 1 on all 3 before Extermination ends, so I attack twice, taunt 4 times, then take a 2-round surround. She's left with 840 unresolved trauma and I get my day 1 EE.
D2: I make a save, then grab Fast Breeders, since I think it'll give me an extra turn pre-extermination, which will give me an extra surround turn as well. It does - I attack twice, taunt twice, slime 3 times, then do a 3-round surround. She's left with 2769 unresolved Trauma this turn.
D3: Another save, then Wide Deployment, which may give me another turn pre-extermination. My second Chosen, Void, shows up on Round 5. She's fairly vulnerable to FEAR, DISG, and SHAM (all take 2 turns to hit 100), so I can get a surround on both of them this time. I do 2 attacks, 2 taunts on Axiom before Void shows up, 2 slimes on Void, then capture Axiom. One Threaten on Void (unfortunately can't get 2 in), then a 1-turn Surround. Not sure that's better than another Slime or Threaten, but it's enough to get my +1EE from both, so it's fine.
D4: Another save. First, I grab Psychic reading to verify what I expected: Void has a pre-existing T2 MOR break. It's also MIN, and so is her CON - which makes her extremely vulnerable to CON breaks. I could probably get T1 or even T2 there before the third Chosen, but for the sake of the guide, I'll wait on that. I reload to the start of the day, and grab Enhanced Polymorphism to hopefully get some slightly longer surrounds. I hit Void first, get Fear, DISG, and SHAM to level 1, then delay surrounding till I can get Axiom first. I'm only able to get a 1-rounder on her, but it sets up Void for a 3-rounder. Another easy 2 EE.
D5: I save. Since neither Psychic Reading nor Focus benefit me this week, and I can't afford any on the next level, I hold my EE. This week's fight is a carbon copy of the last one, and leaves both Chosen hovering at around 3k unresolved Trauma.
D6: I save the game! I'm not sure if there's a chance I can have the third Chosen show up yet (it may not have been enough rounds), so I grab Psychic Reading and Weakness Sense (leaving me with 1 EE left) and get to experimenting. It quickly turns out Freedom shows up on Round 5. Since Axiom is a little easier to set up for a 3-turn surround, I start with her, use the first 4 rounds to get the Surround ready, and then work on Freedom. She has no pre-broken vulnerabilities, but her MOR core is so strong a single Threaten is enough to set her up for a surround. I have plenty of turns to build Trauma on Freedom to get her past the 1EE threshold, but if I were struggling, I could have reloaded and gotten Coordinated Deployment or Eager Breeders instead.
That's the end of a nice and quick Stage 1.
This has taken a while to write and has gotten kinda long, so later Stages may have to wait for another time. It's been an interesting exercise, though, so I probably will come back to it.
Okay, it's time to get into Stage 2. Now that we have access to all 3 Chosen, our progress is considerably less dependent on just letting time pass - we can make an awful lot of progress in one day, with a strong, well-targeted setup. It's time to start using Commanders and breaking Vulnerabilities!
Before we get into how to do that, let's address something I glossed over previously: Chosen Relationships. Whenever you break a Core or Minor Vulnerability on a Chosen, it will impact their Relationship with the Chosen with the opposite Vulnerability. Breaking Core first pushes the Chosen towards rivalry - this generates extra EE, and changes the Final Battle to be easier to get a basic victory in (at the cost of making it sometimes a little harder to capture the Chosen for use as Forsaken). Breaking Minor first pushes the Chosen towards friendship - this is much easier to do in the short run, and it has additional benefits in Campaign play that aren't immediately important here.
Both methods are viable, honestly, but it's better to make a deliberate decision than it is to just let the chips fall where they may. Be aware that pre-broken Minor Vulnerabilities make it considerably harder to get rivalries going.
With that out of the way, let's discuss some of the factors that make Stage 2 distinct from Stage 1:
1. Your EE income is going to be much more variable and potentially inconsistent than in Stage 1. Not only can you push the Chosen to significantly different levels of corruption in this Stage, you also get large chunks of EE for breaking T1 Vulnerabilities.
2. Just passing days without managing new Breaks doesn't benefit you nearly as much as it does in Stage 1 - you control your pace of progress here, not the third Chosen clock.
3. You will probably be reloading more here than in any other stage. It can be not immediately clear whether or not you can break a certain Vulnerability in a given day, and you can't afford to waste EE on Commanders if you aren't breaking Vulnerabilities.
4. Your capabilities will progress significantly over the course of the Stage - Breaks that would be impossible early will become very doable after some progress.
Exactly which Chosen to target which Vulnerabilities on in which order is going to be run dependent, but here are some general tips:
T1 Breaks are not *that* much easier than T2 Breaks, and it can sometimes be easier to break both at once.
Significant Vulnerabilities have no impact on Chosen relationships, and can sometimes be fairly easy to bring down.
Core Vulnerabilities can be very hard to break first on a given Chosen - you'll usually have an easier time after you break at least one of their Significant or Minor Vulnerabilities.
The easiest target to go after first is usually whoever has the lowest combined MOR/CON - though if you're trying to reserve one of their Minor Vulnerabilities for Rivalry-building purposes, it can be easy to accidentally break one on them.
Piling a bunch of Breaks on one Chosen has advantages and disadvantages - you'll potentially bring them up to 5 EE/day quickly, you'll get some one-off EE from Breaking their vulnerabilities, and they'll be a good secondary target when breaking the other Chosen, but you're gonna have trouble Rivaling them to at least one teammate, they may generate less EE than their max due to group activities (though this can be true all the time), and you'll be neglecting opportunities to get multiple breaks at once on other Chosen, in all likelihood.
So, once you've chosen a target, how do you actually get the Breaks to progress at a good clip through Stage 2? It's all about chaining captures and dealing the right types of Circumstance damage.
Because of the escalating requirements to increase damage levels, it's basically impossible (in the early Classic game, anyway) to reach even moderate levels without combining HATE, INJU, and EXPO (on a different Chosen).
The magic number to aim for in this Stage is 3 Captures/Surrounds on your primary target. You start the fight by targeting her with a Commander, make sure you raise her Circumstance multiplier as much as you can, bring her Trauma high enough you can recapture her quickly, surround/capture another Chosen (ideally one weak to EXPO, at least not Core DIG), then make sure you Surround the first Chosen before Extermination ends. Then, as long as you have one Chosen captured on the turn your Surround ends on the target, you should be able to capture her a third time.
As for your Commander, before you get some Breaks under your belt (and even after, for a bit), you'll probably want to aim for a lightly upgraded Commander in the 3-5 EE range - no Suppressor, 2-4 turns duration, 1-2 Captures. Again, save before actually using a Commander, and reload if you can't achieve any good Breaks with them. Use the cheapest commander who gets the job done, too - no point in paying 5 if 4 will do. As for Suppressor upgrades, don't even buy them until you've achieved breaks on at least 2 Chosen, and probably refrain from using them alone at all - once you can afford Versatility, it can be useful to go INJU/X, HATE/INJU, or EXPO/X to break any stubborn Vulnerabilities, but you can and should make significant progress before this point, and sometimes you might even manage full T2s without ever touching Suppressor upgrades.
Here are some recommendations for upgrades to get early, potentially before you get any breaks:
All the 1-cost Upgrades
Enhanced Polymorphism
Weakness Sense
Cunning
Perception
Persistence (and Patience as a prerequisite)
This leaves Coordinated Deployment and Eager Breeders at 2EE, and all 3EE+ upgrades available. If you really need them, you can snag the remaining 2EE upgrades, but at this point, you should be getting breaks with a 5EE 4-2 Commander, even if it means wasting a week or two saving up EE.
Once you've started to get some T1 Breaks, you should be picking upgrades with an eye towards eventually getting Networked Consciousness and Synthesis, two extremely powerful 20EE upgrades. Along the way, you'll almost certainly make use of Versatility, to make 2-Suppressor commanders, which are generally sufficient for all T2 and some T3 breaks.
Now, let's continue the guide playthrough:
As a strategic note, I've decided to try to make Void friends with both other Chosen, but make Axiom and Freedom rivals. In this phase, this means that I want to break Void's CON before Axiom's, Axiom's INN before Void's, and Axiom's DIG before Freedom's. Breaking Axiom's DIG before Freedom's will be considerably easier once I've broken her CON at least once, so Void's CON is definitely my first target (which is convenient, because it should be very easy).
D7: I'm fairly confident I can't get any breaks with a 1-cost Commander here, so this day is a wash. I focus on dealing Trauma to Freedom since she's got the lowest ANGST. It ends up more effective to get a 3-turn capture on her with the help of a 1-turn capture on Axiom than to just spam trauma attacks (this is probably almost always going to be the case)
D8: I save after I pick up Focus and Perception, mostly out of laziness, then I try experimenting a bit with a cheap 3-1 Commander. It's unlikely to work, but it's great tempo if it does. I target Void first because she's the most vulnerable, with Broken Minor MOR and Minor Con. Commander Ambush, Pummel, Grind, Caress looks a little promising, since it's enough to set up a surround with a level in each, but I can't make the turns work out for 3 total captures on her. Still, I have 2 EE spare, so I reload, pick up Eager Breeders to solve that problem, and go again. Even getting 3 total captures on her, I don't have the damage to get any breaks - the highest Circumstance I can manage is 4218 INJU. My lack of ability to inflict EXPO on the other Chosen thanks to only having one Commander capture is an issue. I do get her to 1k PLEA for the +2 EE, but just getting one of those bonuses when I had to pay 2 EE for the commander and commit 2 EE to Eager Breeders isn't worth it (even after accounting for it dealing enough Trauma to her that she could theoretically yield 2 EE, if she weren't doing group activities). So I reload, don't take a Commander or Eager Breeders, and pass this turn like the last one.
D9: I save, then evaluate what to do with my 7 EE. There are some interesting options - the obvious choice is to wait and save towards a stronger commander next turn or the turn after, which is probably where this ends up going. But I can also pick up Patience and Persistence, which would let me use a 2-2 Commander with my remaining 3EE, which has enough potential to at least try. This turns out to be a terrible idea, and I can't get any traction with it, so I reload. Next is Cunning + a 4-1 Commander, with optional Eager Breeders (which I ended up skipping). This ends up being pretty effective, so I'll go through the fight turn by turn to explain.
D9 Continued: So, this yields 2 EE for the T1 break, 2 EE for the PLEA threshold, and pushes Void into theoretical 2 EE range, though she's doing group activities instead. It leaves me with 9 EE next turn, which is exactly enough to unlock and run a 4-2 Commander for a probably considerably more effective day. Had I just skipped the turn, I'd be at 10EE without Cunning, and so unable to run a 4-2, but I'd have 4 more 1-time EE available to me. This is kind of a tight decision. Basically, this was only worth it if I get good snowball results out of the increased corruption and stronger commander available this turn - otherwise I just spent 3EE to move 4 EE up 1-2 turns. (Worrying about this is valuable optimization, but either route is totally good enough to proceed with, turns aren't *that* tight, it won't be the difference between winning or losing the run)
D10: I choose to proceed with the above run. As I said, it's good enough, and I think it's more interesting to push for a fast pace here than to delay. Save, Patience, Persistence, 4-2 Commander. I don't really want to target Void again - breaking her INN would hurt my friendship plan. So instead I take a shot at Axiom.
She proves fairly vulnerable, even with Sig MOR and Core CON, thanks to the power of a 4-2 Commander and having a +14 to damage from ANGST. Pummel, Grind, Caress, Humiliate is enough to bring her to full level 2 Traumas and full level 1 Circumstances. I then burn one turn waiting for another Chosen to show up, then capture Freedom with my second Commander use. After this, I have 2 turns to work on Freedom before I have to recapture Axiom or risk her flying away before a third Capture. I go with Pummel -> Humiliate to maximize my chances of getting a level 2 EXPO on my second time capturing her, then Surround Axiom on the last turn of extermination.
From there, Pummel -> Grind on Axiom, Surround Freedom, Humiliate Freedom is my fastest way of escalating Axiom's circumstance modifiers. I Caress Axiom to reduce the damage penalty from her Traumas on her Circumstances, Slime Void, then Surround Void on the last turn of the Surrounds on Axiom/Freedom, to give me an opening for one last Surround on Axiom. She's in a rough state here, with 7640 HATE, 11.7K PLEA, 5083 INJU, and 121 EXPO, with a teammate with level 2 EXPO. This is enough that Pummel->Grind->Humiliate->Caress triggers all 4 level 1 breaks in a row. I then waste some turns till the last turn of her Surround, at which point I have to pick which (if any) Defiler to use. She's only over 10k HATE and PLEA, which is fine, because I go for the Morality Break - breaking the same Core/Minor twice in one battle is generally inadvisable, since it means you miss an EE-generating break event post-battle.
After this, Axiom and Void are corrupt enough they'll do 2EE downtime group actions together, and Axiom is almost halfway to 3EE actions. There's also Break events between Axiom and both the others - a friendship event with Void for the Minor Inno Break, and a rivalry event with Freedom for the Core Dignity Break.
This has been so effective, I'm almost certain the decision to continue play from the aggressive route yesterday is correct.
D11: All told, yesterday netted 26 EE and made Axiom more vulnerable to further corruption. It also leaves me open to break all the remaining T1 Vulnerabilities without messing up my relationship plan. I make a start of day save, then plan my EE spend. I have a lot to play with, after all. I suspect I can get use out of another day or two of 5 EE commanders, maybe more, so I'm not too concerned with Suppressor upgrades or Versatility. I do think that Coordinated Deployment and Eager Breeders are both worth the cost, now that they're such a small portion of my bank. I'm looking towards making a rush towards Networked Consciousness in the relatively near future, since it's looking affordable, but I'm not ready to commit to it yet. I might want to make a Versatility play before that instead. There's also an argument for Vengeful Reconstitution (which can help simplify battles).
I decide to just roll with the cheap upgrades and roll over 17 EE till tomorrow, unless I see good value from an alternative today. Some experimentation finds that if I took Nursery Hives, I could get an extre turn pre-extermination and probably improve my results for the day, but I don't think it's worth the 8 EE to get Mania and Nursery Hives, when neither are required for Networked Consciousness. If I end up wanting to go Versatility including Mania later, this might be worth reloading to?
For now, I do without, and playing in much the same way as on previous days, I achieve level 1 breaks on everything for Freedom. No level 2s, unfortunately, but that's not surprising given her lower ANGST going in and fairly robust circumstance resistance.
D12: 4 more Level 1 Breaks and a friendship vignette later, I'm at 37 EE, and all Chosen are up to 2EE/day. Today I hope to get Void's remaining level 1 breaks, and maybe level 2 CON or DIG. Out of curiosity, I check how close I am to Networked Consciousness - I'd need 17 EE more to afford it and still run a 5 EE commander. That's a bit away yet, but we'll see.
Void proves a tougher nut to crack than last time, thanks to her adaptations from her T1 Break, and I struggle to get both breaks happening. I decide I might as well brute force things a bit here instead of rushing Networked Consciousness. I pick up Versatility, Hunger, and Anger, then send out a 10EE commander using both Hunger and Anger, targeting Void. It blows through Void and Axiom's defenses, and I pick up T1 Inno and Dig breaks on Void, T2 CON on Void, and T2 Dig on Axiom.
I get a friendship event between Void and Axiom, a rivalry event between Axiom and Freedom, and push Axiom into 5EE/day territory.
D13: Between the costly Commander and the required upgrades, yesterday broke even and I'm back at 37EE. Second verse is the same as the first, this time targeting Axiom. I also decide to go ahead and pick up Causal Projection, since it's a requirement for Networked Consciousness and I should be able to start generating a bit of EE with it.
The fight ends up taking a bit of iteration this time, because I want to break Freedom's CON and both INN and CON on Axiom. I have plenty of turns to make it happen, though. One attempt ends after getting all my desired Breaks with 14 turns to spare on my surrounds, which is unfortunately 1 short of getting another EE from Causal Projection, so I replay to get another. If I really wanted to here, I could focus hard on PAIN on Axiom, and set her up for a T3 break next battle, which would be fairly productive, but for simplicity, I'm going to avoid doing so.
D14: To recap, here's my current Chosen state:
Axiom: Full T2 Breaks
Void: T2 MOR and CON
Freedom: T2 CON
I have 34 EE, and would need to spend 38EE to get Networked Consciousness - I know I keep bringing it up, but it's really very strong. Synthesis, the other really notable 20EE upgrade, is a little further away, and in practice much further away given the cost required to actually use it. I've reached a point where T3 breaks are within reach, but I don't quite have everything I'd like to set up several at once. This turn, I'd like to get 2 Breaks on Freedom, and maybe 1 on Void. Ideally, this will push one or both to the 5EE/day Trauma range, which will help with getting those powerful upgrades (and sustaining my EE, using these more expensive Commanders.)
I use the same HATE/INJU commander as usual, targeting Freedom. Unfortunately, even with a CON break, she's fairly durable, and I can't push her circumstances high enough to get a Defiler action off on the second capture. In the end, I break her MOR and Void's DIG, hopefully setting me up to finish them off next turn. This also pushes Freedom into 5 EE/day territory.
D15: 37EE today - we're slightly positive using these 10EE commanders now. Hoping to finish off T2 Breaks today.
It ends up being fairly easy to do so - the extra Breaks significantly improve my turn tempo, and I end up Broadcasting Freedom on the second Surround with turns to spare, which was the uncertain goal.
After the day is over, the Day 15 extended event fires, giving a total of 8EE for the Chosen's corruption levels. Today also finally pushed Void into 5EE/day territory, bringing my income up to 15.
That wraps up Stage 2, with full T2 breaks and 51EE in the bank. Next Stage, we set up T3 breaks with the power of the Orgy command.
