What do you want in a guide?

[SayyadinaAtreides]

I've been thinking about writing up a guide for this game, since there isn't a ton available yet and I'm really enjoying it, even when playing over things I've seen before (do agree that a skip button for later playthroughs would be nice, though). There's quite a bit to cover, though, so I thought I'd ask the community what you guys would find the most helpful and start there. I'll definitely cover things like finding coins and manuscripts; I'm not planning on doing a full-on walkthrough with all the possible options, but if there's enough interest and people willing to help, I could.

So! What would you like a guide to contain? If relevant, please do use spoiler tags in your replies--I'd like this to be noob-friendly as well as relevant to more experienced players.

[darthbob]

Honestly if i were looking for a guide for this game, It would be a decision tree. Detroit become human style decision tree.

[SayyadinaAtreides]

Not sure what you mean by your last sentence, but I was thinking about something like that. Are you thinking of a major plot decision tree (like whether you stay with Washington/Emily by the fire or eat with Sir Holm/Cardinal Piaggi/Eizabeth, or whether you spend the night with Emily vs. visiting Elizabeth), or a super-detailed one that goes through all the conversation options?

[zellychan]

Agree, major decision tree sounds good, although....I think it's too early to really judge the best way to make a guide. Wish we knew how many different endings there are...

I think the most important parts are 2 way decision times (like the first one: act / trust her) and what happens if you win/lose confrontations. As long you win, I don't think it matters if you used manipulation vs etiquette options.

I want to start a playthrough where Louis is an idiot. Make social blunders, fail puzzles, annoy everyone.

[Gadien]

I've played the first 2 chapters a total of 3 times. Doing 3 different kinds of saves.

If you want help or pick my brain about what I've found out let me know? I can email you or something if you like.

I've played so many damn play thru's and while I tend to only take 2 diverting paths (for now) I am hoping to do more once the game ends, and/or we get cut-scene skips.

I really want to do a "can't get anything right" Louie play thru.

I'm also experimenting on which is the most efficient way to gain as many levels/get the most exp/get the most points in a play thru. I really want to figure out how to min/max stuff.

I really want to do some research on not only doing a "most powerful" version.

But perhaps a version of Louie that through levels and book-reading manipulation, gets key skill levels at the most appropriate time.

half a dozen times I've been left with 1 point shy of a level, or having several skills being 1-2 points over a level and not really wanting them to be any stronger than what they are.

Anyways I have 3 saves currently.

Save 3 = Play first and make choices I wouldn't normally make. To see various things I might miss, take paths less traveled. I decided to level physiology to three with some occult skills. I sadly have to have this as my first play through because several times playing this game it ropes you into a cut scene whether you're done searching or not. So I sadly have to play this as an alternate file to warn me of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Save 2 = Occult Mastery w/ Jack of all Trades secondary

This one is a shadow of my main file, with Occult being my main mastery, getting jack of all trades for 10% EXP boost. I make similar choices to my main file, but perhaps in the future I might deviate.

Save 1 = Canon Playthru - Occult Mastery w/ Jack of all Trades w/ Coin Mastery

I am taking large amounts of time to invest in coin finding. I am also putting all my points into getting the coin exp mastery. Cause I really want to find out if its really worth it or not.

Erudition is really nice, and while etiquette isn't really my thing it needs to be at 3.

I'm wondering if this would give me 1 or even 2 levels worth of exp. I've found over 4 coins.

If for some reason the coin pay off isn't good I might just restart this and just reinvest all the points I put from etiquette into more interesting skills. But that will be a good chunk of time wasted.

[alexmustafa]

skip button? i dont think so they design for this game or either for Vampyr. You have to endure it.

[IronHat]

there are two main challenge in the game, dialog trees and puzzle.

The skills are critical to the dialog trees and in many case give you access to content otherwise unavaible. I would suggest an leveling guide on the best starting class to pick and the best leveling choice for the dialogs tree.

Skills are less important for puzzle and in most case act as an in game hint for the solution. In those cases just stating the solution would work.

puzzle solution are most likely the more practice guide at this point. We still don't know which choices are actually important and which one is just red herring.

[SayyadinaAtreides]

Okay, thanks for the feedback thus far. :) I'm just getting home now from Europe, so give me a couple of days and I'll put up a (very incomplete) beginning of a guide. :) I hadn't thought too much about skills, but you're right that timing them can be very important, especially in Episode 1 where you're still fairly limited in your effort points. I actually have not finished Episode 2 yet, nor the more recently released things, so I'll probably start by trying to address Episode 1 in detail.

One thing that I know I want to include that is tricky to do alone/would take a lot of playthroughs is to figure out what all the different traits do and how you acquire different ones (e.g. Scarred vs. Trusting from the intro). I've found a couple of posts on discussions like this one, which is a very good start, and I know some of the details of acquisition not listed there, but I'd love to hear your input on some of the ones I don't know (e.g. how you get Immoral or Boxer in Episode 1). That'll probably be easier once I put up the first draft of the guide and you can see which I don't know.

Good ideas re: puzzles as well. Like I said, I haven't finished Episode 2 yet (been lollygagging exploring variations of Episode 1, and playing too much Path of Exile, if that's possible), so puzzles from then on I can't write up yet. If somoene has a good description of it and/or can get some screenshots of relevant choices (for instance, there are several checks you can make in the Gorgon puzzle to get more information, a screenshot of the 'conversation' with each statue could be helpful), please send me a message on Steam or post in this thread with spoiler tags.

I guess that's what would be most helpful in general at this point, actually, so if you can send me any of the following, I'd very much appreciate it: screenshots or a description of what choices unlock traits; screenshots or descriptions of conversation options that require skill usage (e.g. the ways to get the letter from Piaggi, the various options you have to find out information from the mailbox on the dock, different choices and their consequences in the Peru-Adams confrontation); puzzle solutions and how you can use skills to help; and any known ways to uncover vulnerabilities and immunities (e.g. reading the Latin inscription on the way up to the manor or using logic/manipulation/questioning/etc. on a servant).

Once I have a draft/outline of at least part of the guide, I'll post it and we can work from there!

[Niwa]

Something I'd like is what skills characters are immune, weak, as well as neutral to (possibly unknown atm also). As well as how to find immunity/weakness. I found one that had weakness and immunity, but since it seems like there's additional weaknesses and immunities besides those I started to try out other skills as well and write them down just to be sure that the guide hadn't missed anything when I had found the traits the guide showed but still hadn't found out everything about the characters.

And as you said, traits, as well as more precisely when you get them and how would be nice.

[Avitel]

Books, keys, traits.