can't use stratagems

[Richter Hammockslam]

I've progressed to the endgame, but shortly after the stratagem bar gets coated with nurgle rot, I found that I couldn't use my stratagems anymore. Not just the 2 that are blocked off, but any of them. The stratagem selection bar in the knights screen is grayed out, I can't access it in battle, and in the Libris, there's no option to even view the unlocked stratagems.

[HozzMidnight]

Same. I think this is by design. I think it is supposed to be understood that Vakir is behind the Stratagems, if you read the flavor text on them it's her commentary.

[Richter Hammockslam]

Originally posted by HozzMidnight:

Same. I think this is by design. I think it is supposed to be understood that Vakir is behind the Stratagems, if you read the flavor text on them it's her commentary.

the walkthrough for the bosses that I read talk about the stratagems to use during the fights, including Morty. Couls something have changed?

[Gamle]

No Vakir = No strategem

[bryan_cs_liew]

Spoiler Alert: I'm assuming that you are at that stage of the game based on the description. Basically, Vakir gets preoccupied and unavailable for 'certain reasons' during and after banishing Kadex all the way to the end.

As much as I agree it fits the narrative that she was the one behind the strategems, sort of sucks that the one thing research is useful for gets screwed to hell for the last and albeit tougher missions, especially a certain section which requires a fair amount of trekking. Wish that at least SOME of the benefits could be carried through for the endgame so research didn't end up being a waste of time and resources. Sadly Vakir didn't think to teach these to anyone else aboard the Edict it seems :/. Gonna spend less time trying to max out research next time

[NzFox]

Its not very clear, but as others said if Vakir is in anyway not available you cant use them, this could be story related or due to her receiving damage in a mission (due to her being human she doesn't heal faster from the upgrades)

[Player]

I noticed that too, thought it was the corruption on the planet or something? If its story based thats lame, punishes player for spending resources researching them, another hidden punishment the game doesnt tell you about

[[GOO]The_Happy_Hostage]

Yeah, strategems are a huge part of the game and then they just go away once you start getting some interesting variations. Perhaps have the purifier on the bridge take them over, maybe after Vakir explains them to him via a new research node...

[Unsavory]

Does it ever come about where you get them back? or is this play through essentially hobbled going forward. I'm not that far into it so if I lose stratagems sort of removes a huge portion of the game really. Do they come back later?

[Bazinga]

It's partly why you only bother researching 2-3 stratagems at all during the game and spend the rest on seed cost reductions/collection increase...

By the time you reach morty, you are able to have fully upgraded items such that stratagems are benign and not needed.

[bryan_cs_liew]

Originally posted by Bazinga:

It's partly why you only bother researching 2-3 stratagems at all during the game and spend the rest on seed cost reductions/collection increase...

By the time you reach morty, you are able to have fully upgraded items such that stratagems are benign and not needed.

While the argument is sound, wouldn't say the stratagems are benign during morty's fight. Would have very much liked the orbital laser for the support waves or some AP boosts for Draigo for his room-wide treks . Would have helped to know that strategems get cut out completely to avoid incorporating it into endgame strategies and dedicating so much research into it. Think a better research tree would have been unlocking passives for the troops rather than something that gets completely nixed towards the end. Hard Lesson learned I guess..

Also, @Unsavory, at this stage of the game, it never comes back. So, Spoiler Alert

Don't banish Kadex till your troops are ready for 2 months worth of Planet missions and multiple boss fights WITHOUT Strategems. Equipment and abilities will be the only saving grace. Nix the Equipment if you're going for the "No Mastercrafted Gear for the Final Mission" achievement too now that I think about it

[Bazinga]

Originally posted by bryan_cs_liew:

Originally posted by Bazinga:

It's partly why you only bother researching 2-3 stratagems at all during the game and spend the rest on seed cost reductions/collection increase...

By the time you reach morty, you are able to have fully upgraded items such that stratagems are benign and not needed.

While the argument is sound, wouldn't say the stratagems are benign during morty's fight. Would have very much liked the orbital laser for the support waves or some AP boosts for Draigo for his room-wide treks . Would have helped to know that strategems get cut out completely to avoid incorporating it into endgame strategies and dedicating so much research into it. Think a better research tree would have been unlocking passives for the troops rather than something that gets completely nixed towards the end. Hard Lesson learned I guess..

I dunno, I mean I did it on legendary today and my squad really didn't need em, they just seem to be more of a nice bonus for levelling lower ranked knights. Also noticed that Draigo doesn't benefit from bonus AP (tried giving him some from Justicar but he received none, not sure if bug or what).

On Ruthless+ I guess it's all about making sure you are setup correctly for the final mission and do it as quickly as possible, you're better off saving seeds for upgrades and important research after getting the only 2 strategems that are any good (crit/teleport) as they benefit you in the mid game.

Late game you just trainwreck most missions, librarian has the same teleport/stuns for morty, justicars feed the AP and interceptors at that stage have more crit than they know what to do with. I think it's balanced for morty.

My only gripe is why draigo has 3AP cost skills at all, since he needs to be constantly moving to reach the roots it just seems counter productive - he gets massive WP from cutting them but he never spends enough to justify it... teleport is the only spell of his I used.