Ludern - Cursed Village of Lethyre

[ahsanford]

(Obvi full of spoilers below, not going to flag it)

Okay, someone needs to make a guide for this mini-game. It's not me -- I haven't cleared it.

But here's what I've learned:

1) Yanking armor/weight off of your characters absolutely reduces your noise. This is key if you want to bring your melee dudes because...

2) ...80 willpower minimum is a RIDICULOUS margin. Forces you bring too many people = gets noisy. (Make it a tradeoff! Go with less people --> more chance of losing your nerve and you give up and run away or something?)

3) I don't understand how to reset your noise, so it looks like a get as much as you can on one visit? So I'm torn between going for the Purple/plot quest of finding the missing person or going for the lute (wherever it is). Not sure I can do both without setting off the noise meter.

4) There are some quick decision calls on killing a solo cursed one quietly, stopping a slamming door due to a draft, and propping up a falling bookcase. It's not a certainty I don't think, but I chose high dex (ranger), high dex (ranger), high str (melee guy) and I got a green 'proceed without much fuss message'

Here's what I don't know and would love some feedback on:

1) Can you reset noise, visit again, etc? If so, how?

2) Why be quiet? Can you just roll in full party and kill everything there? Or is it endless cursed dudes?

3) Haven't had to fight/escape yet. Is there a trick to it? Any point in fighting? Should we just make a break for it?

I don't need to be a completist in this village. Heck, it might not even be possible. But tips/tricks would be appreciated.

- A

[Sarda]

With the 80 willpower thing I just said screw it and took my entire 16 man team, because it was noisy regardless

[ahsanford]

Also:

1) What's the point of going in silent if there are already a thousand noise raising triggers?

Pick a lock --> noise
Random events --> noise
Open or do anything --> noise

Shouldn't there be a way to stay low noise if you go with a silent (effectively: unarmored) team?

2) Any way to raise willpower with food/items? I found a waist wearable for Willpower +1 but other wise I am not aware of a boost that might help in a meaningful enough way to enter with 1-2 less people.

3) Would hate to have to blow one full team leveling of attribute points on willpower for 1 mini-game. Without spoiling too much, will this stealth mini-game happen elsewhere/again?

4) And even if I do this, +2 per person at leveling doesn't really move the needle.

If everyone is a 12 willpower, I need 7.
If everyone is a 14 willpower after leveling and spending points, I need 6. Hardly a noise game changer.

Again, I don't need to be a completist here, but all I see are hard, terrible tradeoffs here. I aborted going in after 4 terrible attempts and I'm waiting for an object, food, item, etc. to make this less horrible. Is it even out there?

- A

[ahsanford]

Originally posted by Sarda:

With the 80 willpower thing I just said screw it and took my entire 16 man team, because it was noisy regardless

And what happens when you do that? Instant combat in each room? I'm game to grind out those battles if I must, but man, those cursed dudes blow.

- A

[Sarda]

Originally posted by ahsanford:

Originally posted by Sarda:

With the 80 willpower thing I just said screw it and took my entire 16 man team, because it was noisy regardless

And what happens when you do that? Instant combat in each room? I'm game to grind out those battles if I must, but man, those cursed dudes blow.

- A

Yup, but its vs a 2 zombies, then you get half a bar of run away, then 2 more zombies that you ignore cuz you brute force the other half the bar

[drake_hound]

The trick is to balance it out...

So you equip people with cloth (which is nowadays gone, since refugee still doesn't drop armor) so next best thing is light Armor.

Basically you want to be silent as possible. so your events gets people SILENT trait.
this lowers their noise even more. (for future silent village)
You want to have people who have tyrannical and confident. those max their willpower to 20.
Basically equiping light armor, or wearing no armor solves a lot of issue.

Yeah if you are noisy then might as well take the whole party. and brute force your way trough the encounters.

[drake_hound]

So basically the Cursed village encounter are a different kind of fight.

Where controlling the enemies and finding a way out is the trick.
So hitting search for a way out, while sacrificing the Base Attack is the key to ending the encounter faster.

The Fights goes on and on, till you are outnumbered and swarmed by the Zombies and Creepers...

Once you get a Swordsman with hardcore training the encounter is a lot easier.
Then pre Swordsman without hardcore training.

But all in all, limiting your party to few, makes it fun, since most people go beyond what is a optimal party, and having limited people, makes it funny to explore different tactical options.

[drake_hound]

The noise meter reset after escaping a fight, so usually you roughly trigger 2-3 fights in Silent Village, cause those lockboxes are Top Tier annoying Lockboxes. (unless you use longer lasting lockpicks)

Those lockboxes usually contains JUNK, but it is a way for people to replay Silent Villages.
If they just keep breaking locks and making noise.

[ahsanford]

Trying the stealthy way right now.

Drop all armor and keep all weapons and I can get in at Silent (29) with 80 WP and 7 people. Might be 5-6 for you depending on your party level and how much you put into WP in general (I was much more into prime attributes + movement).

LOTS of reloading if you want the good stuff without a fight. You need to be able to pick locks with 2 picks max, and a huge FYI: they make you 'attempt' again after each pick break as it pulls you out of the lockpick sequence to bump noise for each broken pick. AND THEY MOVE THE TUMBLER LOCATION EACH TIME. I was 95% on target for the tumbler, broke my pick, they brought me back in after a 15 noise bump and that same location was no longer correct. So frustrating.

And +1 on folks getting the 'silent' trait. Could be huge if there are more of these places, which I am guessing there must be? Don't tell me on that front.

- A

[ahsanford]

Originally posted by drake_hound:

The noise meter reset after escaping a fight, so usually you roughly trigger 2-3 fights in Silent Village, cause those lockboxes are Top Tier annoying Lockboxes. (unless you use longer lasting lockpicks)

Ooooookay so that's huge. You can loot the entire town if you are prepared to suffer through it. Got it.

Okay, I'm pretty zen about this as this point.

Got both lockboxes (and two pretty important items), skipped the apothecary noise and just triggered the auto fight with the quest (missing person thing). Now I know I can go back for the apothecary, though the reward for doing so isn't that useful compared to the townhall and blacksmith lockboxes.

- A

[drake_hound]

Originally posted by ahsanford:

Originally posted by drake_hound:

The noise meter reset after escaping a fight, so usually you roughly trigger 2-3 fights in Silent Village, cause those lockboxes are Top Tier annoying Lockboxes. (unless you use longer lasting lockpicks)

Ooooookay so that's huge. You can loot the entire town if you are prepared to suffer through it. Got it.

Okay, I'm pretty zen about this as this point.

Got both lockboxes (and two pretty important items), skipped the apothecary noise and just triggered the auto fight with the quest (missing person thing). Now I know I can go back for the apothecary, though the reward for doing so isn't that useful compared to the townhall and blacksmith lockboxes.

- A

well thanks for telling me, that they change the lockbox contents.
Maybe cause I am always too early with those stuff, I get ZIP rewards in all those testing.
Mine Lockboxes usually contains Gold (150 gp-200) and some random common trinkets to sell.

Same happened in Dumbach County, both lockboxes had again nothing in it. :P

[Sarda]

Only thing of value in the town is the Lute recipe I think its in the market building

[ahsanford]

The blacksmith building gave me a belt item that gives you +50% damage, but that character can only perform a base action if you are wearing it.

Not useful at all for barrage archers or backstabbers, but potentially very useful for tanky meatshields (would theoretically boost primary + all ripostes) or single big attack types.

- A

[ahsanford]

Ugh. Top tip. Don't just pile your armor back on right before you trigger the quest building with the missing person in it. The normal quest dialogue *starts but does not finish* and the battle ensues, but (I guess) because the zombies are triggered by 100% noise upon your arrival, *winning/escaping that fight doesn't count for quest progress*.

The noise meter resets as Drake says, but you walk back in to that same dialogue all over again, and -- yes -- even with a 0 noise meter, it's fight/escape time again.

- A

[drake_hound]

Originally posted by ahsanford:

The blacksmith building gave me a belt item that gives you +50% damage, but that character can only perform a base action if you are wearing it.

Not useful at all for barrage archers or backstabbers, but potentially very useful for tanky meatshields (would theoretically boost primary + all ripostes) or single big attack types.

- A

Ah the small Gauntlet , yeah I remember that one.
Piece of junk :P .. unless you play with Prisoners with base attack only.

Well it gets usefull for Blocker Prisoner in the endgame, with Comforting Shield and Peacekeeper Axe. so it always hits for 100% more damage and attacks 2-3 times.

[Sarda]

O ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Theres a 2nd cursed village.