AI bots

[Blue Candle]

Is it even worth it to play with the AI bots seeing as they don't even try to hide the fact that they cheat? Both with how "lucky" they get and "unlucky" you are? I understand that games like this need rubber banding AI or ways to play catch up but the AI seems to know what its doing without the rigged RNG.

[Xuande]

The AI has several significant flaws at all of its difficulty settings that make it exploitable, and no amount of 1-spinner rigging is sufficient to compensate for them. I can play with a "no buying/no stealing from any shop including Kira/Risque" house rule and still consistently beat sets of 3x Sneaky AI.

I'll spoiler the following, as it goes into meta considerations that you may not be aware of yet, and I'll assume Story Mode as its the closest to a balanced experience, but here's a partial list of AI flaws:

* Bad stat management. Their level ups aim for slightly randomized "balance" which is a bad idea in a game that incentivizes investing in exactly one of AT or MG (with a healthy dose of HP for the former and an endgame plan like Soul Fire for the latter), dumping DF entirely, and generally at least not falling behind in the SP race too much. Their job changes are essentially random, and its not uncommon to see them master all three starting classes as their first three, which is never a good idea.

* Bad goal priorities. While its been coded to do a few "smart" sidequests such as going after a few specific decent Locked Boxes (including one hidden from map view, to teach the player that they exist) or forcing a Show Ticket, most of the time they're putting too much effort into taking towns - and worse, generally working on the weakest defender towns (earlier chapter locations). This puts them way behind in powering up their character, and in fighting for a lower early/midgame ranking - which is valuable not only for Darkling, but for dodging/profiting at various other events like Risque and not being the target of AI field magic as often. At some point you do want to be in 1st, but...

* The AI doesn't understand win conditions beyond "owning towns", such as Local Item Value (Alchemist), Speedrunning chapters (typically Ninja), etc. It will harass the player who's "winning" that shares a map with them via field magic, and its opportunistic enough to PvP battle in some correct moments, but that's about it. Given enough time, they'll pursue advancing the chapter, but at a pace around 50-100% slower than a competent human player (Sneaky will do it soonest, but not by a large margin - I've tested AI-only games.)

* It will never steal from anything except a Weapon Store, and that will only happen if its both broke and several chapters behind in a gear slot. Stealing from an Item Store is one of the stronger things a player can do in Story Mode especially in the early ($$$) and late game (quick extra lives for endgame/PvP, costumes to re-steal with), and the AI will never do it. Likewise, they will never land on a Red Loot Space unless absolutely forced to, which is mainly caused by a combination of Roadblock Rock+Blistering Feet, and there's plenty of times where its correct to seek out a power spike from Red Loot.

* Darkling being threatened? You can count on the AI to play extremely passively and make no real progress for several weeks, as it scrambles to buy and use Vanishes, refuses to fight even when its very safe (such as being on a different map than the Darkling), and spams Give Up in those same situations even when on a different map if forced to fight. While all of this can occasionally be correct, the AI is far too passive most of the time. Oh, and enjoy watching it rig some 0s while on places like the Coliseum or a random shop, which may keep it "safe" but accomplishes nothing else. The AI is also fairly random as a Darkling, often buying many of those middle-costed Dark Arts that don't end up doing much as a whole.

* It doesn't know how to shop. Buy most expensive weapon regardless of class/stat fit -> Do that for shield-MAtk-MDef...but often there's a cheaper/better weapon to buy, most shields aren't as relevant as the AI thinks, and M.Def prices are very misleading as most of the best options aren't even the most expensive in their own shops. It doesn't visit Item Stores often enough, nor buy enough 3-Spinners when it does, instead opting to buy half the possible "utility" items before filling on spinners. It likes to land on Item/Field Magic spaces when those are among the worst spaces to land on, most of the time.

* It doesn't know how to come back from being hindered by PvP bullying. If you strip it of its current weapon and put them at low money, they'll spend 10s of turns accomplishing little, rather than doing what's needed to become relevant again (and this is way, way worse in the Switch spinoff game where I've seen a Sneaky player be Lv4 on Week 30+...seriously). Don't take their shield, as they'll receive pity gear that's ~1 chapter behind if missing both their weapon and shield, but as long as you've stripped their weapon, they're helpless for a long time.

The AI is great at looking competent, but it actually isn't a strong player, merely a decent one against new players. Once you've finished a Story Mode run or two, you'll already be better than it, and maybe even during that first run if you've got experience in other resource management games.