Best way to learn 4 star and up content

[Scriptus]

Hello Explorers,


I'm after a little advice if anyone is happy or willing to give it? First a quick breakdown.

I've played this game a lot over the years, it's been out I still play it from time to time. If I want I can beat the game and score 2500 easy whenever it's not difficult anymore.

I've grasped the concept of the game enough to do that and the earlier levels.

Over the years of playing on and off I have bested Anagogic Archipelago once.... and I think I've bested The lost island once..... but I may have lost can't remember it was years ago. Shangri'la is a nightmare and I avoid at all costs as I don't want to ruin a run. I've barely scratched the surface I think I have one treasure and I haven't even bothered trying the Holy Grail.

I really enjoy playing this game, from time to time jumping in and having fun even after so many years.

My question is how do you play the harder expeditions or more to the point how do you learn what you do and don’t need in order to succeed on these levels. The encounters, the special bosses, the rare treasures etc.

Is it wise to play the game on Normal, save and repeat the expedition over and over again, (this is what I’m currently planning to do)

Or Is there an external Wiki which can help with this information or Youtube person that can let you know what you’re going to encounter and what skills are the best for each specific campaign.

I don't want to cheat my way through but it would be good to have some more guidance, such as how much gold, tech and status you should have acquired already before attempting this level. Also what attitude the enemies are likely to throw at you. I try and have a mixed playstyle but sometimes I’ll play mono and not knowing that most enemies in the level are the complete opposite attitude is again a death sentence and a little frustrating. Plus I've been playing for years on and off I barely remember any encounters from the harder campaigns some refreshers would be nice.

Should you always use an OP team to learn, if so what is it? I usually just press random and have fun.


So in conclusion what I’m asking is what’s the best way to learn how to beat the harder star levels on a regular basis.

Thanks for any suggested advice appreciate it.

[The BlackVision]

There's several resources available, and plenty of advice we can offer ;)

Useful Tools/Links

https://renownedexplorers.gamepedia.com/Renowned_Explorers_Wiki has good info for the characters and entourage, (spoilers)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=522008957 has all the info you'll ever need on the treasures and how to get them all (Massive spoilers alert!) - except the Holy Grail ones.

Use https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1732749716 for the Holy Grail treasures. (Again, massive spoilers)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=928074790 has a full list of the items in shops, etc and some general advice regarding them, but it's more useful as a reference.

Discord

If you want to chat or ask questions directly, can recommend this discord server for all the AbbeyGames, including Renowned Explorers: https://discord.gg/DeGEPAy

Advice/Suggestions

There's a lot with this game to develop and work with - some you probably already use, some is a lot less obvious, and it's hard to cover even part of it in one go. I also don't advise you try to read all this in one sitting - dip in and out!

Generally, there's two parts to getting through the 4 and 5 star locations. First is getting a powerful enough income of resources to support it - it's *very* difficult to survive them if you haven't got the gear for it - and most of that comes from maximising your early resources so you can earn more out of them for the end-game.

Secondly, there's the actual encounters - how to approach them in a manner that'll make sure you make through that particular encounter, and how to get the most out of them.

To make the most of the long-term strategy though, you also want to be able to survive the short-term encounters: once you can do that well enough, you can begin to ease off the spending on 'survival' and put those resources into 'investments' :P

Short-term Tactical Encounters

Lots to cover here, and a lot of it kinda depends how you're already playing it, so I'll just cover a few things - I wouldn't expect everyone to know/use *all* of these, but even just a few can massively improve your game:

• Who you target first in encounters - everywhere (except some boss battles) you'll want to pick off lone enemies first - that way they won't ruin your day by all attacking on mass later. That, and if they're alone, you can frequently finish them without even taking a hit provided your party can all reach them.
  
• Buff-up moods: whenever possible, you want your team buffed. Excitement on Speech users/Healers and Confident on your Attackers. Definitely buff up if you're far enough away from enemies that they can't reach you this turn (even if just to increase your crew's mood bars so they're harder to debuff!) or when your crew needs a heal or to remove a dangerous debuff - or sometimes, even just to minimise a negative mood bar on your crew members. You can even use Inspire to increase the mood bar provided you can overwrite it with Excitement/Confident afterwards.
  
• Debuffing enemies: When there's a particularly high-damage, dangerous enemy, it's well-worth putting Terror on them if they use physical attacks or Saddened on them if they use Speech - it will massively reduce incoming damage from them - though bear in mind, if you can simply finish them off, that reduces damage even more!
  
• Focus targets - if you want an enemy to go down, focus it with everyone. The only times you may not want to is if there's something else important to do - be that Heal, debuff an even more dangerous foe (like a boss) or use the various crew skills.
  
• Use the terrain - This is a *big* one - if you can funnel your foes so only one or two can reach you at a time, that's *way* more important than actually hitting with all three of your characters - especially if those at the back can be pumping heals into the front-row. The absolute ideal is to find a spot where you can occupy 3 hexes around a single enemy's position while the others are bottle-necked behind them. Obviously, it's not always that easy, but always check out the options when you enter a difficult encounter for how to best use it.
  
  Even just bottle-necking two spots so you can tank/damage with two crew members while your third sits safely behind them healing and buffing/debuffing at range can make a massive difference.
  
  Failing that, do the opposite - spread in a line to block access behind you. This has the advantage that (provided the enemies are all in-front of you!) they can only hit each individual crew member from one or two positions, making it *much* harder for them to focus-fire on one of your crew (and potentially even stop all of them being able to hit you because of it!).
  
  This is assuming you don't have a dedicated 'tank' character who can soak up all their hits - if you do, you want to end each turn with them being the only (or only easily reachable) target for enemies.
  
• Mood Control - Another vitally important one: always control the mood where possible. On the first few expeditions, that's relatively easy - enemies will happily stay in a mood where you have all the defence or offence advantages. As you go on though, high expedition enemies will always try to switch mood if it's a bad one - usually this takes one/two turns in a bad mood, then they switch as they take their next turn. That said, any given location in 4-star expeditions will only use two moods (except bosses), so there'll always be a mood that is generally better to be in cause that way you won't be under a debuff. (Eg. in Transylvania, the villagers will only go Friendly or Aggressive, so if you stay Aggressive, you never get a debuff from their mood)
  
  Part of that's a matter of practice, but you can rapidly see when enemies change around what moods they use - if you save prior to any encounter, you can see what they'll do and act accordingly if you don't succeed the first time.
  
  Along with that goes the requirement that your team can - at least to a degree - use all three moods. That's not to say they should use all three well - typically, you'll be *really* good at one or two moods and so-so at the last, but if you can at least switch into it when necessary, it means you can mitigate the downsides of enemy moods.
  
  I hasten to add that doesn't mean you shouldn't be using non-matching mood skills - you absolutely should be using your greatest damage ones, etc, but there's ways to manipulate the mood counter (the pips that show on the top left)
  
  If you use a skill and hit an enemy with it (at all), it'll count for 1 pip towards switching to that style (Friendly/Devious/Aggressive). If you *also* finish an enemy off with it, that's another pip for each enemy finished. If you use a skill of the current emotion, it'll slowly count out the pips from the other styles again, though in general, it's much quicker to switch moods, then switch back (though be cautious of Aggressive switches to Friendly, they take *five* pips, where most take only 3) - and the most important thing is to not get caught in a bad mood when it comes to the enemy turn (or let them switch into one)
  
  That said, bosses are a different matter, particularly the 5-star ones, who can switch or use most moods worryingly well - but each boss has their weakpoints, and provided you can handle the rest of the encounters in a location without too much trouble, you should be able to manage the boss without losing more than 1 or 2 resolve to them (which you'll gain each expedition anyway) once you get used to their individual mechanics and weak points.
  
• Correct use of Defences :Armour, Speech Defence and Grit. Armour counters attacks, Speech def counters Speech, so far so good. Grit is a complete evade on a chance - so needs to combine with the others for best effect, but can help massively when fighting large swarms of enemies.
  
  which is pretty straightforwards. The tricky bit is which defences are best used where - some locations double-down on Speech or Attack, most have at least a degree of a mixture, and each crew member has slightly different stats.
  
  A simple starting approach is to give any Scout boots (they're the most well-rounded defence, and work a treat regardless). Everyone else, give them an Armour defence item if they have high speech defence (eg. Most scientists/Speakers) or a Speech defence item if they have a high natural armour (eg. Most fighters). That means they're reasonable well covered regardless.
  
  That said, if you plan out your route in advance and know that you're going to areas with mostly physical foes, for example, you may just buy everyone armour regardless - and it'll work great, but it does require the fore-knowledge to do so, and if you're not certain, I'd stick to the rule above.
  
  Offence items should match what the person is doing - if it's Speech, always give them the various books for it. If attack, the gloves.
  
  But what order to prioritise equipment when it's so expensive? Rule of thumb:
  1-2 star, maybe upgrade 1 weapon on the team to the 3rd grade if you can afford it, and don't buy more than the first grade of armour/speech def items.
  3-4 star: you should be transitioning to the 3rd grade defence items and a minimum or the second grade offence items, preferably at least 1 to the 4th grade offence item.
  4-5 star: aim to shift into the 4th grade defence items and if you can, one legendary offence, minimum 3rd grade offence. If you can get more, absolutely do.
  
  Prioritise upgrading your defence item on your main skills rollers first as it improves their skill rolls too (and a lot more than the Offence ones do)
  
  Obviously, it's heavily dependant on your gold, but it's a good rule of thumb for how ready you are to head to the more dangerous locations. If you find you're not generally equipped enough for the 4/5 star locations as they come up, that's fine - you may need to tweak your longer-term strategy to get more resources in future, but that doesn't mean it's a wasted trip - you can still do another lower star location and then head to 4 or 5 star spots last and take the change to gear up in advance and learn a bit more about the expeditions in question.
  
• Sometimes it's better to retreat than to attack. If you can get away and enemies won't be able to even hit you the following turn, it's almost always worth doing so - you can heal up, buff up, increase your crew's mood bars, find better terrain, etc. Just make sure to check where the enemy can reach and what their attack's range is first!
  
  This goes double when you're playing defence - doesn't matter if they hit first... provided they only get a couple of small hits in or they leave themselves open to your full force attacks - if you can heal up all their damage from one turn with one character, you basically got 2 free hits with the others.
  
  It also applies to shuffling your crew's positions - if one crew member takes a lot of damage, it may take valuable time to heal them up - time you don't always have. In which case, just get that crew member to a spot the enemies can't reach you, then shuffle your other ones in to body-block any access to them. If you can offload damage or heals while you do so? So much the better, but you only lose resolve if someone goes down, so if you can prevent that happening every turn? You've already won!
  
• Always click on the enemies and Check their stats/details. You can't see their special skills, but generally the descriptions will hint at them if they have any - and you can get a lot of info out of it - be it which emotions they're immune or resistant to or that they have loads of Speech Def buy no armour, etc.
  
• Lastly, Pick your crew with care - you want ones that compliment each other, but without too much overlap in buffs/debuffs/skills, otherwise any weaknesses they have will only be the worse because you've nothing to cover for them. I generally would recommend focusing on any two of the styles (Friendly/Devious/Aggressive) and usually trying to keep in one (or switch between them lots!) in encounters, it tends to make matching which locations you're going to and dealing with the various foes much easier than either covering all bases (where you end up never having enough of the right type of damage) or focusing a single one (where you're always going to be weak to one style, since you've got 5 whole expeditions to get through!)

Lots in there - sorry if it's a bit long, and there's always more to talk about on the subject, but hopefully there'll be a few things you hadn't considered before!

[The BlackVision]

Long Term Strategy

Big thing here is maximising early resources - take your time in the earlier expeditions, make sure you scoop up all the most worthwhile things. General rule of thumb is: 1st Expedition, visit every single node before finishing - you'll get a couple of hunger penalties, but shouldn't be hard to deal with at this point.
2nd expedition onwards - generally avoid nodes with no or only 1 token showing on them - the rewards tend to be paltry for those. Obviously, you still won't be able to avoid them *entirely*, but better to prioritise other locations first (especially treasures if you know how to get them or encounters because they earn a nice amount of tokens and experience for the crew!).

That said, there are some locations where the single-token things *are* important - notably, some of the Emerged Island (for a treasure) and some events, but I wouldn't generally bother exploring those and learning them until you're more confident with what you're after on each expedition.

The absolute *best* way to learn which nodes you want and which you don't, of course, is to save, enter a node, find out whether it's worth it (a couple of tokens on their own generally isn't) and then either load if it wasn't worth it or carry on if it was, but it's also lengthy, slow and rather demotivating unless you like reading through all the text, so wouldn't necessarily encourage doing that.

Also worth noting that Highlands in particular can be very misleading - a lot of the map has no tokens on the nodes at all - that's not to say there's not something there, just that there's not something there at the start - later you can get a lot out of them. I won't spoil it if you haven't found out what happens with them, but suffice to say you want to bring enough of the Wits skills in your crew (Tactics/Beguiler/) and experiment a bit with those checks to see what happens.

Lastly, if you're having trouble winning in encounters, I'd generally recommend you focus mainly on gold, since that means you'll get better equipment to deal with nastier encounters. You shouldn't ever skimp on any of the resources, but it's worth focusing on a single one to make the most out of it - both score-wise for renown and generally so you can make the most of whichever your chosen resource is.

Oh, and don't go to the Holy Grail - it's basically a difficulty grade above even other five star ones, with... somewhat questionable rewards at that. It's worth having a look in there, but only once you feel comfortable with the other places available!

I would say that if you managed Anagogic, you should be alright with Emerged or Transylvania with the right tactics and team suited to them, given practice - Anagogic is generally regarded as being harder than those.Of course, it may also have been a particularly good run for you and you may have had exactly the right crew, so not to say they *must* be, but it's a good starting point for them!

Obviously, you'll want to change that up sometimes, but gold's a good starting point. The better you get with encounters, the more you'll find that you may not always need the heftiest equipment for them, but while you're learning the best tactics, it's worth having the better gear (and less stress!).

Summary

Phew - sorry to drop all that text on you! Hope some of it's helpful, and feel free to ask for more specific advice if there's any one thing/encounter/regular problem you have with encounters or strategies, and you can always nip onto the Discord to quick advice as needed if you wish.

Also say if you feel you're doing those - there's always more things worth considering (the whole black magic of aggroing enemies, for example!), but hopefully this'll help you get rolling onto new expeditions.

Have fun exploring!