Flux Advice

[Neoshade]

Sigh. Advice for consideration. Regarding the new Flux DLC, you only get one shot at this Drive. I'm not going to reveal details but BEFORE you start this DLC Drive, please make sure you stocked up on all your items. I'm not going to tell you what items, just stock up on everything before you start. As the DLC states, this is for end game. You really need to finish everything before starting this. As stated above, you only get one shot. If you've enabled Cloud save and didn't save your Save file, there is no way to go back and "try again". I understand some people will be of the mind, "that's the way it goes, you should have been better". I get it. Really, I do, but after spending over 20 hours on this character and this game, and to fail this one Drive, it sucks that I don't have a way to go back and try again. My only recourse is to start completely over, and really, I just don't have the energy to go through all of this over again. So be warned. If you are of a mind to do so, back up your save file before you start the DLC. If you aren't? Have fun and enjoy the consequences of your choices. Great DLC by the way!

[JumpOvertheAge]

Just a little reassurance: failing a drive doesn’t mean you did a bad thing, it just means things will play out a little differently from here when it comes to episode 2! Don’t give up hope :) sometimes a bad outcome somewhere pushes things in interesting ways…

[Neoshade]

True, but I'm a completionist and perfectionist, so it stung a little. I thought I got everything but then the Drive requirements expanded. I resigned myself to not completing it.

[Crazy Crazy Doctor]

I felt very similarly. To be vague, there were more tasks to do than I thought, and acquiring one of the items I needed was nearly impossible for my character in the allotted time, I agonizingly got 7/8 of this item despite this, but wasted way too much time (at least 3, maybe 4 cycles) on it.

My frustration here might be that I wasn't quite aware of the full breadth of tasks until the last day. One task, upon completion, unfolds into three more tasks, and while the story mentioned all three, for some reason, I thought mechanically it would be taken care of by the original task, and so spent time trying to get 8 of the aforementioned items, only to find out on the last day that I was very wrong.

The result ended up feeling like a critical failure that will have far-reaching repercussions because I misunderstood the options presented in the game, not the actual events of the story. Not sure if anything can be done to alleviate this or make it more clear, but I figure I should explain how the result of the chapter made me feel.

The story other than that is great though! And it does make me feel better to know I might not have completely messed up the storyline.

[Dailao]

I do agree it feels quite difficult compared to the rest of the game. If you have bad luck with dice and not many stabilizers (to keep all dice) then it will be pretty much impossible. If it was a little more lenient it would be better in my opinion. A good balance could be to tune it to having 3 dice overall, or allow for more cycles.

Having said that, I completed it on my first try, but I already had most skills at that point, and I had like 2/3 of the items needed without knowing I would need them.

[Prophet_01]

Thanks for the heads up.

Is it actually clear when you're about to activate the drive or is there a point at which I should hold back a little on the exploring?

[Dailao]

It is clearly suggested that you should do it near endgame in the text.

[JFSOCC]

the warning should tell you that it is a timed quest, not (just) that it is late game content. Anyway I can succeed but am now wondering if I should, and it's a hard choice.

[Gaeel]

I dived into Flux without knowing what to expect. To note: I was fairly stocked-up already, and I'd finished all the drives from the base game (living as a citizen aboard the eye, sharing my time between Moritz' workshop, Tala's bar, and the Hypha commune).

I found that the difficulty was "just right". Mechanically, I had to take a risk on the last day to complete the clocks, but I also wasted some time and resources because I forgot some of the mechanics and how to manage energy and condition. If I'd played this while still fresh, I could easily have succeeded without any risks.

That said, I can see how the timer would be an issue if I had other timed events going on.

I do think this episode could have benefited from a less binary "success/fail" framing, allowing for some murky middle ground, perhaps.
Also, part way through, when you're asked to stop what you're doing, it would be nice to have some mechanical ways to do so that aren't just stopping and waiting out the timer. It seems Eshe is dead set on breaching the cordon no matter what, so your only option is to let her fail, which would be catastrophic. Having a way to convince her to wait, or perhaps being able to find a different way to resupply the flotilla would make this a meaningful choice, but as it stood, I could really only just make sure Eshe's plan wouldn't backfire.

[Hiroshi Mishima]

I agree that there should have been a better way of warning the player about the time limit and required items. Simply saying it's "late game content" in a game like this doesn't so much translate into "having lots of resources" as it does imply you just need better stats. That was how I interpreted anyways.

With regards to the story, I'm mildly put in mind of Ankhita and how none of the possible choices you can make at any time actually impact the outcome with Ashton. For a game about making choices, it stood out as not having any meaningful ones. I redid that segment from every angle and it was always the same.

[Feuver]

The same happened to me. I thought I'd have time to do the Flux drive events between another time-sensitive drive (the Hub ship repairs), but I quickly realised I need to pick between FLUX and the other drive, and I made my choice. In the end, even if you were 100% focused on the FLUX, if does feel like one of the hardest challenges the game has so far. Several nodes you need to complete in 12 cycles, and if you aren't tip-top shape with stabilizers/conditions, it's going to be rough. All skills are required and you will need to be really careful with your rolls.

I failed it in my game, but I also warned them that I wasn't going to be able to help, so I'll see what happens. It doesn't bother me too much though, even if it sucks, because the game is written so wonderfully I'm also curious to see what happens then.