So there are a bunch of guides for days 1-15 but there aren't as many for the later stages. I keep getting stuck or having my progress grind to halt which leads to me potentially not having fully corrupted anything by the end battle. Are there any tips or guides for the later mid to endgame? I'm aware that because of the various personalities and vulnerabilities its difficult to give a play-by-play, but I've experimented with a bunch of stuff and feel like I'm hitting my head against the wall. Even when I get everyone's t3 done by like day 30 and I have the newspaper item to give me a boost, I just make bad decisions around my next actions.
You're right, there's not much for later. Here's some suggestions for midgame that will get you some T3 Vulnerability Breaks in the low 20s or earlier. I'm going to assume you can reliably generate T2 breaks and not try to hand-hold too much. I'm also not going to talk about Distortions and assume you can do all breaks to all Chosen.
Grab all the 2-cost upgrades.
You need some 5EE upgrades: Intelligence, Nursery Hives, the one that increases Evacuation requirements.
Your eventual goals are Networked Consciousness, Passion Release, Determination, and possibly Genius so that you can get a long Orgy off, which will open up all available T3 breaks.
Since this section of the game is really limited by energy, another goal is to get all the Chosen doing 5EE Downtimes so that you gain 15EE per day. The best way to accomplish this is either with Defiler+ Actions or long Inseminate actions. Inseminate is the best at building up Trauma as it hits both the Circumstances that raise Trauma damage.
You'll be using standard Commanders for most of this with no Suppressors or Defilers. Use two captures and as many turns as you can (up to 6 turns if you have Tomorrow's Newspaper or Genius unlocked).
Your combats will be focused on building up long Insemination or Inseminate+ Actions. This can be accomplished by the following:
First turn--start Pummel.
Second turn--start Grind
Third turn--start Caress
Fourth turn--start Humiliate.
When the second Chosen arrives, Capture them and:
Start Pummel
Start Humiliate
Start Caress or Grind (depending on which hits harder)
At some point during this the third Chosen will probably come in and the first Chosen will leave their capture--ignore this for now.
It should now be turn 8. Go back to the first Chosen and Surround them. You're looking to first target any Circumstances below 1000 (level 2). This is necessary to avoid an unbalanced Circumstance penalty. When the second Chosen is free, Surround her again immediately and target whatever Circumstance you didn't target the first time, and any others below 1000. If you've got all upgrades above, you should be able to still get a third Surround against her as long as Extermination isn't finished.
Pile on your Surround actions aiming to build HATE (or the Circumstance you're targeting for a Defiler+) over 10K on one or both. If you notice that they will come free on the same turn or you find yourself with a free turn, spend a turn hitting the third Chosen with a basic attack so that you can Surround her the final turn and prevent the end of Combat. If one of the Chosen gets above 10k Circ during this second Surround, go ahead and take the action offered if you've got more than 2 turns of Surround remaining as it will help you build up Trauma for a longer final Surround.
Watch the two Chosen that you've Surrounded and see--they should be coming free somewhere around the same turn. If you've managed to get them up to where you can hit them both with a long Defiler+, do that. Otherwise the first Chosen should be ready for a long time Inseminate, or nearly so.
Sometimes you can use standard attacks on the second Chosen while the first is finishing up the second Surround (or vice versa) to build them up to a similar number of Surround turns. Just don't let any of them that are free Regenerate to below 10K Circumstance damage or you'll undo your hard work.
These kinds of Surrounds will generally be what you need to bring you into +5EE Downtimes from each Chosen. Sometimes it can also bring you to T3 breaks, which provide bonus Evil Energy that can really help with these expensive purchases. Either way, these total purchases and prerequisites run around 80EE so you may need to save up for a few days once they're all at 15EE.
Then, once you have all upgrades above, you'll need to send out a 6-turn 3-capture standard Commander and get the Orgy, which requires basically the same tactics but also Capturing the third Chosen when she enters. If you don't have Genius or Tomorrow's Newspaper, adjust the below for 5 turns. This situation varies too much to give a turn-by-turn like above, but some general tips:
Try to start with a Chosen who doesn't have any of her teammates joining Turn 7 (earlier or later is fine), as that's when your Demon will release her.
Here's one possible map through the first 8 turns assuming the second Chosen comes in Turn 5 and doesn't have Core DIG, and the third shows up Turn 6. For Under 1K, pick a Circumstance under 1k. If none are under 1k, pick whatever Circumstance you're targeting for the Orgy.
Code:
1st--Pummel--Grind--Caress--Humiliate-------------------Under 1K--------------------
2nd------------------------------------Humiliate-----------------Pummel-------------
3rd-----------------------------------------------Pummel----------------Grind-Caress
Your goal for first Surrounds is to raise all 4 Circumstances of the first Chosen, Humiliate and 2 other Circumstances for the 2nd Chosen, and all but Humiliate for the third Chosen. Notice on Turn 7 you need to go back to the 1st Chosen as she'll be free.
Your second Surrounds are focused on getting all Circumstances (possible exception, EXPO on third Chosen may be unnecessary) above 1000 and whatever your targeted Circumstance is above 10K. Surround each one as soon as they're free, unless that would create a situation where all 3 are free at once. Take whatever Defiler actions raise the correct Circumstances.
Your goal is to start the Orgy around the third Surrounds after Extermination finishes. It might last for 6 or more turns if you're careful--this should bring some circumstances to 100M and unlock the first Tier 3 Vulnerability Breaks if they were all still locked.
The above is what I use for Loop 1 and 3. After that point I have at least one good Forsaken that's better at opening up at least one Circumstance than a standard Demon Commander.
Game's hard, man. I don't know how beatable a Devil is without solidly built Forsaken to be honest. Try playing some of the Clash scenarios if you want to get good at winning without your Forsaken. Please note that you basically have to use Forsaken at some point because the Devil's T3 moves are all based around you using them.
I think Devils are a noticeable step in difficulty. I don't know how many players get to that point (I think it's a small percentage but don't have much data for that). Splendor also makes this section of the game very hard if you beat her first. When I commented on the difficulty of this section in the latest patch,
CSdev basically said that I picked all the options that made the game as difficult as possible: Splendor first, and as my Second-in-Command, with a trimmed roster due to Warping past a lot of earlier levels . So I don't know what to say other than that there are other choices that make the game a bit easier. You can fight Victory first in Loop 10, and then when you get Splendor you can turn her motivation drain off since you've already beaten another Boss. Or you can plan for how difficult things are with Splendor on your roster and have tons of extra Forsaken around to throw into the Pit or put on Grand Concerts. And, the difficulty may need to be adjusted at some point, I don't know. Currently
CSdev is most interested in completing the game by adding planned features--maybe after that they will add an easier mode. Or you can always play with cheats enabled.
I posted a guide of sorts to making powerful Forsaken--the kinds of questions to ask, when to ask them, and specific answers based around one possible set of choices
here. Kalloi posted a more general guide
here. But the basic idea of building them well is pretty simple--you want to stack on bonuses that are helpful for what that Forsaken can do. An ideal lategame Forsaken looks something like this in the later loops:
Code:
Final EXPOdia (formerly known as Returned Saint Memory)
Real name: Fujimori Rin
Stamina: 23.6%
Motivation: 100.0%
Expertise
HATE: 17.8k (x0.947 dmg)
PLEA: 27.8k (x1.049 dmg) (x1.335 dmg from Queen Pleiades Indigo's hypnosis)
INJU: 28.4k (x1.052 dmg)
EXPO: 70.5k (x1.185 dmg)
x8.500 trauma dmg from Ritual's parasitism
Combat Style: Flashy (1000% EXPO)
Focuses on putting on a show for any onlookers, usually by attacking the target's clothes or by sabotaging a stripped target's attempts at modesty. Can be used to demoralize an entire team.
Training Plan: Flashy (1000% EXPO)
Increases EXPO expertise only
Defiler Specialty: Tempt (PLEA)
Can switch mid-battle to a high-PLEA combat style with an extra damage multiplier at low Disgrace, can cause and intensify Morality/Confidence Distortion against valid targets
Trait: Undead Forsaken
One-third motivation gain, 1/4 Evil Energy cost, Distortion trait changed
Trait: Eager Partner (Vitality Addict)
Regardless of Obedience, 1/4 Motivation cost to deploy and +50% PLEA and EXPO damage
Restore 1% Stamina per Trauma level inflicted on targets, can spend 100% Stamina to Capture flying target
Trait: Personal Paradise
Fully restore Motivation every day and deal +10% damage (from wings of EXPOdia)
First Hypnosis: Queen Pleiades Indigo (+33.5% PLEA damage)
First Parasitism: Ritual (+750% trauma damage)
Investigative Hypnotist (+3.9% own PLEA damage per Hypnosis)
Hostility: 11% (Optimistic about humanity)
Deviancy: 73% (Fetishizes aberrant actions)
Obedience: 42% (Obeys out of fear)
Disgrace: 61% (Viewed with contempt)
What would you like to speak to Final EXPOdia about?
She's still being trained so her Expertise is low right now as I just got her. She's an experiment. What makes her ideal?
She was Tempted, which gives her a bonus to PLEA (and EXPO) damage. You can't view this in the above shot, but she's also got a Punisher that buffs her own PLEA. Since I just got her in the last Loop she hasn't used it yet but she'll be able to continually build her PLEA damage as she Breaks more Forsaken as my Hypnotist. And she had her Total INN break from a Forsaken that gave her a bonus to PLEA damage also.
She was also converted with what I generally find to be the most useful Punisher for Total DIG Break, and got a +750% Trauma damage modifier so she can start building up large Surrounds right away.
She's Undead. Her cost is 4EE, so I can send her out Day 1 with my set of items. I would have liked for this to be higher to build her self-buffs more, but Tempted Forsaken start out with high Disgrace so this is unavoidable.
And, the part that makes this an experiment--she was converted along with my first Angel Chosen, who I broke through Temptation to make her restore this Forsaken's Motivation every day.
Now, you can't get all these bonuses right away. You have to build up to them by building your roster of Forsaken. But I get them by taking at every chance the opportunity to build the single most powerful single Forsaken every Loop. You take that one and stack all the bonuses you can on it.
As soon as I get Psychic Reading, I examine the Chosen and do a Forsaken Preview. If any of them have good Punishers I don't already have, I break them through Temptation or Negotiation. If any of them have self buffs to damage (Trauma or a Circumstance), I convert them through whatever Distortion maximizes that buff or those buffs. If I have a Forsaken Punisher that provides buffs to the same thing, I use them to to the Total Break. If the Chosen doesn't have any of these, I designate them as worthless and use them to build up all Total Breaks for both Achievements and self-buffs on my other Forsaken that I'm currently building. And right now I'm interested to see what I can do with Angel and Devil Chosen because I haven't really used them heavily, so I use those to try out new things.
