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[CuddilyWuddily]

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[pinkamedic]

Marcoh is also a pretty decent character at the start. hes decently strong without needing any weapons (as he attacks twice with his bare fists) aswell as him having skills that buff passively buff is character (and choosing what stat you want to be raised at the start of his story) but you will have to rely on RNG to get the skin bibles if you want spells

[Goust]

Yellow Mage, pick ancestral studies (I think that's what it's called) to get meditation at the start, which trivializes many early game enemies and remains powerful the whole run. Get affinities to sylvian 2, gro-goroth 2 to get the combo of blood golem and pheremones as well as healing whispers. Get spice forge to destroy all game balance. Put the green spice in blood golem to summon it for free on turn one of every combat. It is an absolute tank with 200 hp and deals otherworldly damage which can kill ghosts. Put the red spice on black fog to get massive aoe damage. Put the blue spice on Healing Whispers for a whole party heal that only costs 12 mind. Combine with betel's stone which is guaranteed to drop from the hanging woman's corpse in the church rafters and you have become completely unstoppable. You can use any combo of party to any end from there, or just use zombies and blood golem and still wreck every encounter. Getting all the items for this to work out can take a while, but its worth it and meditation + bear traps can take you far in the early game. If you get small thing's amulet, it's near impossible to lose. Yellow mage is completely busted with these combos and I can't wait to try hard mode with him.

[Serulin]

Originally posted by CuddilyWuddily:

Originally posted by Goust:

Yellow Mage, pick ancestral studies (I think that's what it's called) to get meditation at the start, which trivializes many early game enemies and remains powerful the whole run. Get affinities to sylvian 2, gro-goroth 2 to get the combo of blood golem and pheremones as well as healing whispers. Get spice forge to destroy all game balance. Put the green spice in blood golem to summon it for free on turn one of every combat. It is an absolute tank with 200 hp and deals otherworldly damage which can kill ghosts. Put the red spice on black fog to get massive aoe damage. Put the blue spice on Healing Whispers for a whole party heal that only costs 12 mind. Combine with betel's stone which is guaranteed to drop from the hanging woman's corpse in the church rafters and you have become completely unstoppable. You can use any combo of party to any end from there, or just use zombies and blood golem and still wreck every encounter. Getting all the items for this to work out can take a while, but its worth it and meditation + bear traps can take you far in the early game. If you get small thing's amulet, it's near impossible to lose. Yellow mage is completely busted with these combos and I can't wait to try hard mode with him.

Sadly, I'm pretty sure you can't get any hexen stuff in hard mode. You start on the final night. I remember my first sleep in that mode resulting in my death due to death rays from moon.

Thanks for sharing! Just what I was looking for!

there is a non-rest hexen in the orphanage near the boss.

[Nobdi]

Originally posted by Serulin:

Originally posted by CuddilyWuddily:

Sadly, I'm pretty sure you can't get any hexen stuff in hard mode. You start on the final night. I remember my first sleep in that mode resulting in my death due to death rays from moon.

Thanks for sharing! Just what I was looking for!

there is a non-rest hexen in the orphanage near the boss.

No there isn't, unless it's for some reason hard mode exclusive. It's a broken table that might not even be fixable.

[Goust]

The building with a blue door past the church effigy passage has a working hexen (at least in normal difficulty).

[Nobdi]

Originally posted by CuddilyWuddily:

Yeah i can't find it either. Is it hard mode exclusive?

There's a broken Tes'tich table. Is that it? If so how to fix it?

Yeah, that one. So far, I have not heard anyone say anything about fixing it. It's most likely just a prop and has no use in either normal or hard mode.

[Lionel]

Originally posted by Serulin:

Originally posted by CuddilyWuddily:

Sadly, I'm pretty sure you can't get any hexen stuff in hard mode. You start on the final night. I remember my first sleep in that mode resulting in my death due to death rays from moon.

Thanks for sharing! Just what I was looking for!

there is a non-rest hexen in the orphanage near the boss.

it's not near orphanage it's near the museum inside the purple house door called Donnovan House, you can use it all the time

edit: i'm on normal diff though

[Vermillion]

Best weapon is still the black steel katana and the yaga amulet that goes with it.
Both of these items allow for 1900 crits and about 300+ normal damage.
Black steel is with a boss in the mushroom caves which is found by going into the sewers and into the sewer treatment facility and solving the box puzzle on the east end.
The amulet you can buy from I think pocket cat or another rare vendor or you can steal it from the museum behind the glass cases.

[Serulin]

Originally posted by Lionel:

Originally posted by Serulin:

there is a non-rest hexen in the orphanage near the boss.

it's not near orphanage it's near the museum inside the purple house door called Donnovan House, you can use it all the time

edit: i'm on normal diff though

there is one in the orphanage in the upstairs, but could have been easy mode only. Restarted on normal will check.

[Serulin]

On a second note, if power gaming as mage, would you give greater meditate to a party member, wondering if meditate is enough for revving spells and rather than going up one tier have another character go from nothing to full meditate may be useful.

[Voroclu]

Originally posted by pinkamedic:

Marcoh is also a pretty decent character at the start. hes decently strong without needing any weapons (as he attacks twice with his bare fists) aswell as him having skills that buff passively buff is character (and choosing what stat you want to be raised at the start of his story) but you will have to rely on RNG to get the skin bibles if you want spells

he can even start with +25 body which is amazing for your MC

[Serulin]

Originally posted by CuddilyWuddily:

Ok i think I got the perfect start strat
1. Start as Marina, Choose Sylvan as your god

2. Restart intro until you start with Gro-goroth bible

3. Avoid combat until you get to mayor's house and the sewer keys.

4. Backtrack, kill everyone, and cut their heads off, raising those you can raise asap (don't cut those heads off). Soldier corpse is a freebie. Sickle Villagers are virtually a freebie. That should be 3 ghouls.

5. Don't heal status effects except maybe bleeding on yourself until all of the villagers are dead. I got 15.
Ghouls -> Go straight for the body.
Pipe villagers-> I went leg leg head. But I might just go for body. Not sure. Don't know about sickle but Kassara (randomly found weapon) two shot the bodies.
Knife Villagers-> I went hand hand leg leg head.
Shotgun Villager-> I don't know. I just went straight for the body.

6. Go to the ritual circle on the map below the woodsman area. You can reach it from the train by going left instead of right. LOTS of green and blue herbs around. PIck em all up to heal yourself. The only thing you can't heal is bleeding so make sure you don't bleed, or use toilet paper/cloth fragment to stop it.

7. Draw a Gor-goroth sigil and Sacrifice a Ghoul (maybe after cutting his arms off too) on it.

8. Offer the heads to the altar to get 15 soulstone shards. Transform them into 5 soulstone shards and sleep. Select Hurting, Black Smog, Phermones, Loving Whispers, and Healing Whispers.

9. Enter the sewers, pop out near the church, and go to the church, then go to the church ceiling, drop the woman body, and finally get the betel stone off her body.
Kill the Neighbors by guarding (for rev point) and then using black smog.
If you want to recover mind, fight doors and guard while wearing the betel stone.

10. Go to the confessional. Confess your sins. Kill the yellow mage by guarding and then black smog. I noticed he used Mischief of Rats which knocks you out for 2 turns. Thankfully he didn't use hurting on me. Maybe next time I'll use pheromones on a ghoul to ensure I don't get amputated.

11. And that's it! Get 9 more heads somewhere (yellow mage drops a soulstone, i killed 3 neighbors in the sewers) and sleep to get Spice Forge and Blood Golem.

Afterwards my goal is to get the fear hunger bible, get 2 more affinity, and then get flesh puppetry. And I'll see if that can get me all the way to the end.

Which corpses are you using for ghouls, there is the one in the courtyard and another in the church, but sounds like you found more.

[Goust]

Originally posted by CuddilyWuddily:

Ok so I guess it's between Marina and Yellow Mage.
Is it easier to get 2 sylvian 2 grog or is it easier to get spice forge?
Marina starts with a random skin bible and max affinity to 1 god so she starts with 2 sylv and ability to hit 2 grog. But she has to kill yellow mage.

Yellow mage needs RNG to find the bibles or kill 6 contestants to trade with pocketcat before he hits the staircase cause pocketcat is found at the endgame afterwards.

I still think Marina because of pocketcat's lack of accessibility.

Spice forge can be bought for 1 soul stone as yellow mage, it comes after meditation. The sylvian and gro-goroth circles in the school guarantee you at least one level of sylvian and two of grogoroth after you get the radiant soul (blood sacrifice and masturbation skills) so that at least gets you blood golem + pheromones which is insanely strong even if you don't get healing whispers through rng. Don't forget to use blood sacrifice before sacrificing a party member though. I think sacrificing a ghoul gets you affinity, but I haven't confirmed it. This method does require you to kill Samarie, but otherwise you can go any path you want from there.

[Serulin]

Originally posted by CuddilyWuddily:

Originally posted by Serulin:

Which corpses are you using for ghouls, there is the one in the courtyard and another in the church, but sounds like you found more.

The house with the rifleman and villager sitting at a kitchen table that reacts to you when you step on glass.

That sickle villager is ghoul no.1

Past that house you get attacked by a sickle villager. That sickle villager is ghoul no.2

Nearby that fight, there's a soldier corpse on the ground. That soldier is ghoul no.3

In front of the double locked gate, there's another sickle villager. Ghoul no.4

There's a soldier corpse in Tunnel 7. That's ghoul no.5

I remember there being a 3rd soldier corpse somewhere.

Yeah did not know sickle villagers were allowed thank you. So many enemies were not, thought at some point maybe only corpses or members of the contestants.

[Nobdi]

Originally posted by CuddilyWuddily:

16 agility gives double actions permanently and Fear Hunger tree + Fear Hunger engrave lets you hit that with no equipment. On top of yellow mage not being able to use guns I think it's very clear Marina is the strongest character in the game.

So yeah. Marina gives
Permanent double actions
Access to Black Smog, Blood Golem, Pheromones, Loving Whispers, and Black Orb 100% of games with 0% reliance on RNG.
Ghouls to fuel Gro-goroth affinity AND to steamroll the early game.
Ability to spam Black Smog on your first turn (advanced occultism)
Use Trench Gun or Rifle to kill all death masks with 0 risk to yourself and get their sweet +20matk helm.

And the literal only thing she's missing is spice forge which is easily obtained by one shotting Ossa with a black smog.

Alright, with that out of the way. which is the strongest character for Maso mode XD. Without hexen I don't think marina is strong at all.

edit: Just to be clear, start with sylvian affinity, gro-goroth bible, and trade 3 contestant heads to pocket cat at staircase to get all 3 trees.

I think Marina is still a very strong in maso mode if you get little lucky and play your cards right. Only mandatory boss to access the hexen table in donnivans house is the Sergal beast, you can just run around other enemies, collect effigies and scavenge. All you need to know is where enemies are and how to avoid them.