Starting tips

[Hentaika]

Wanted to share a few things for those starting out since game doesn't explain most things when char creating:

Difficulty - can only be chosen at start, BUT maximum difficulty can be chosen only if you play up to golden core(can technically rush pretty fast if you focus on story) and then start a new character. By default you can only choose easiest. Honestly even hardest is easy if you are playing with my advice so I don't recommend restarting for higher one unless you rush it specifically, it won't really provide you with better challenge anyway, mostly just slower grind.

Starting choices:
Pick 'Tianyuan state' > 'great cultivation clan' - that's highest total stats of 30, with 17 of them being 'main' stats which are generally better value.

Stats:
17 power(often named Sea of Qi) is generally best choice.
Don't take other stats if you plan to follow my choices since some other stats are lost in certain choices a bit later in char create but if you have them at 0 - you lose nothing.
The faster you kill stuff the better, nuff said.

Secondary stats:
If you want to unlock all talents(mostly for fun, not much gameplay profit) - you need 50 in each stat. Quite a lot of points are given for alchemy first crafts. Each recipe gives 1 secondary stat point you can spend anywhere.
And those are generally given with big values if some adventure gives those as reward.

Gameplay wise - those are nearly entirely pointless.
Eloquence - I would throw some points here since events(adventures) sometimes need it. At least ~5 here for now and generally try to not let it be too low.
Alchemy - alchemy itself is important but skill points in it are useless, you can do everything without this stat.
Excavate - decent if you plan to build in sect as talents for faster mining swing slightly help getting ores to upgrade sect hall and then mines to automate those for you.
Gather - meh.
Forge - crafting is kinda pointless until you reach end game. Clearing all dungeons of your rank guarantees a full set of new equipment as first clear reward. You also get some stuff from quests, usually weapons.
Realms change too quickly to bother with forging basically. By end game you want this at 50 ideally to craft the final set at top quality. Use save/load for that not to waste time.

Important stat info:
Every major breakthrough gives quite a lot into each main stat + a lot of attribute points for both main and extra stats.
You can get a lot of those in adventures too so honestly the choices hardly matter. Adventure would likely require save scumming - there is a limited amount of adventures and you can only see each once. Most adventures have a way to increase some stat via certain options. Often via unobvious stuff like running away too.
Usually best choice is the 'stat check' option BUT that is not always the case.
Another thing that gives stats are brothel girls - each girl gives 1 of both main and secondary stat first time you 3 yellow heart her. Also exhausting some of the girls dialogue can sometimes lead to extra stat points too. That's usually simply 1-2 visits in total.

Talents:
Most stuff from talents is useless or only useful early game. Here are talents which are 'always' good even if they do lose some power ultimately.

3 best talent list:
1) Record of Floating Life(Red) - by far best talent. Initial spirit power +1, attack/def +10, all roots/weapons +10. Roots/weaps don't matter but spirit power is good from start to end, it's your 'turn' generation and it can't be increased aside of breakthrough.

2) Innate Talent(yellow) - initial spirit power +1, that's the only other talent with this. Even without anything else it's top tier.

3) Thunderous wind and lightning(yellow) - action speed +100, move speed +60
Both are very hard to raise stats.
Action speed determines who moves first in battle. You start with 100 and it barely increases over the game. So a +100 boost is essentially ensuring you always move first which also saves extra time some easy but fast enemy would waste on it's animations.

4) Son of Heaven's Will(red) - If you are lazy to reroll the 3 above and get this - I would say go for it. 50 energy/100 movement. Decent hard to increase stats.


Spiritual root choice:
Doesn't matter - you can get those up to 30 really easily from any sect without even swapping sect.

Optimal Fate Choices;
It's important to note that those apply BEFORE the 3 'special' talents you have chosen above. This means if you let's say have 0 divine from stat creation, get -2 here and get +2 from some talent choice - you will get +2 from talent just fine afterwards when game starts.

1) Luck or power. Not sure if luck does anything. But neither of those do much, so in case luck actually helps with some stuff like drop rates - I would choose it.
Other ones are +3 to certain stat out of which power is best.

2) Seek help - +3 Eloquence, more than other options. It's secondary stat but it's fine

3) Caress - qualification +3/-2 to divine(you have it at 0 and it remains 0)

4) Hide - divine +2

5) Pages or Leave - those do nothing good(root) but the other option is penalty.

6) Release - Vivacious +1

7) Annoying person - wisdom +3 and -2 constitution(should be at 0 still)

That's maximum stat combo provided you have chosen to start with full power(or at least not having the negative penalty stats)

Weapon Choice:
Once you start the game you almost immediately get weapon choice - choose the 'Demon Core/Pill', it's by far best weapon in the game. Technically choice here doesn't matter at all and you can master all weapons easily without even rejoining sects though as all sect shops are open for everyone.

But you get the default basic attack for chosen weapon and demon pill is one of 2 best choices here. A simple 1 energy attack with no cooldown.

Why Demon Core weapon?
By far best basic attack(1 energy spammable with vampirism starting from golden core)
Basic attacks for all weapons are at: Default > Golden Core > Apotheosis.

Technically that's already enough to beat game without challenge. But if you want more power in one turn - here are some great skills:
1) Overdraft Curse(demon core weapon at golden core stage) - restore up to 5 energy(you need to spend to 0 then it restores 5) for free. You gotta end battle OR end turn with 1 energy left however, otherwise you lose -20% HP(hardly ever matters honestly)
5 basic attacks for free? Essentially a free extra turn.

2) Soul Returning Spell(demon core at golden core + apotheosis stage) - a skill which is free if you use it at 5+ energy. Can be used immediately after overdraft curse for guarantee free trigger for example.
Pretty much a free damage button.

None of the other skills are worth mentioning. There are a few quirky interesting ones, but all of them are mostly waste of time. Honestly you can even just basic attack to victory even on hard.

Are any elements worth it? Thunder has one decent one when paired with above if you want to bother.
'Intermediate speed method' - a 0 cooldown nuke for 2 energy at Nascent+Soul formation - reduces cooldown of another skill by 1 while being a decent powered nuke.
Can spam overdraft once per turn with this pretty much.

Nothing else is worth but roots do give elemental DEF so they aren't pointless.

Sect Choice:
You can technically join before main story but main story will also lead you into joining one of 5 sects.
In terms of gameplay - choose your prefered weapon. In the case of my tip list - Wolong.

While you can swap freely with no penalty and even get everything you had back in original sect once you rejoin it - it's still more comfortable to play as your main weapon sect.

In terms of story - story changes slightly based on sect you choose.
I didn't test it all but changes are very minor however. Whom you fight against in a few battles and a few dialogue changes.

Wolong and Qingmen are 'evil' sects. With wolong being demon cultivators.
The other 3 are righteous.

That being said - you are ultimately treated as 'righteous' in terms of story regardless of your sect. Gameplaywise you might be in Wolong sect but in terms of story - you eventually reach the point where Wolong sect is your enemy even if you are the leader of the sect ironically.

Sect buildings:
If you want to bother with those then you want to:
1) Resources > Stone + Forest buildings and assign 3 people into each. One of each is more than enough to never worry about stone/wood.
2) Recruiting > Poor Child Museum. This allows you to recruit 'builders' up to your limit. Can stay level 1 forever as it hardly gains anything from levels and it's easy enough to always get workers capped.
3) Population > Fireworks Pavilion - this increases the limit of builders, mandatory to improve hall as it requires loads of workers.. You can build multiple instead of upgrading if you want to, doesn't really matter considering how many slots sect has. If you are upgrading then you won't need too many.
4) Crystal Ore x3 with 3 workers in each - if you plan to actively build you will need the resources from here to upgrade buildings. You initially have to gather enough for main hall + first crystal ore building to actually start earning a new currency passively however.
If you aren't lazy - you can even pick/submit quest in those, there is no penalty for failing anyway.
5) Function > Tianbao Pavillion - this is how you get spirit stones into sect so people don't leave. Ensure you put 'sell for high price'. This will sell items for massively overpriced cost.
I generally recommend donating old/unneeded equipment to warehouse in the sect and then selling it via this building. As you climb ranks in sect - you will be getting insanely huge salary and if sect money is becoming a problem - simply spend your own cash to buy equipment from some town and donate/sell it via sect.

That's the 'starter pack' you need to start growing sect.
What's actually worth in the sect/what is it for?

Honestly not much - forge is fully pointless. Resources are kinda neat but you need to farm a lot without using them to actually start getting the new ones.

Herbal garden is a neat addition - allows you to craft older alchemy stuff(side attribute points for first time craft of any alchemical recipe) without bothering having to get the resource for pill manually even if you didn't get lucky when first time clearing the dungeon.

[Saturday Panorama]

agreed to most of them but i like banner more