Favorite teams?

[Mr. Bear]

Recently i managed to beat the game for the first time with Anna, Maria and Kiwi (the Girl Power Team... i guess)

But what's your favorite team combination? Also, while we are here, any tips to take into consideration when assembling a team? Should i focus on a single emotion or should i spread my team's utility to cover all emotions?

My lady only team was kind of a "mixed feelings" team and i had some trouble at times with it, maybe i just don't understand the game completely or maybe i am missing something that is blatantly obvious.

Thanks!

[The BlackVision]

Heh, there's a lt of different methods. Best is to try a few and see what works for you. It seems a generally accepted thing that single-emotion focus is often very difficult, but a two or three way emotion team can play very well.

Two emotion teams would tend to switch to whichever of the two is best against that particular foe you're facing, while three emotion teams will switch regularly between them to maintain the best mood for both damage and defence.

Other considerations include healing and damage synergy and tactical approach - if you have a tank character, a healer and a support, that's one method (in which case you're looking for chokepoints to maximise the tank's ability and allow focus-fire) while high damage teams are about maintaining distance, maximising mood damage and maintaining positive emotional states.... etc.

For myself, I love having one team member set up to be the skill-roller, who I foist all the bonus skills onto and do my best to maximise token gain from rolls, usually whichever of the three actually gets a bonus token for rolling in their leveling.

After that, I usually take one dedicted healer or AoE debuffer that can disable or counter enemy damage efficiently (Generally a scientist or talker with a friendly focus), one heavy-hitter and one reasonable tank and offset damage or debuffer.

Which I take totally depends on which captain team I want to run with. Eg. If I'm taking Bia as captain, she will be the heavy-hitter and, with the bonus grit, eventually also a tank, and then look at other fame-focused companions.

Other considerations include avoiding the same skills (unless using a captain or aiming for a treasure that benefits from it), generally wanting a mix of speakers and fighters, and either going glass cannon/tank/healer or moderate-to-good defences with debuff + heal combos to just outlast them.

Then there's the strategic element too - I always focus on just one resource per trip, which seems to do reasonably well. There's arguments that might suggest a balanced combination coud work, but... not in my experience :P

[Mr. Bear]

Thanks for the insightful reply!

I guess i wasn't wrong with a mixed feelings team.

[The BlackVision]

For some people (me included) it works like magic. Others, not so much. Personally... I tend to bounce between moods almost every other move, if not more often, but... that's me. (Hence I like Victor for peace treaty for a quick change of mood- and he's more versatile; and Bia for the stealth-kills when you don't want aggressive!).

Hope it's at least something to give a few more ideas to play with, heh. Some of my greatest challenges have been scout-based non-gold trips and scientist/talker based aggressive trips, though some of them are surprisingly good at it. The scientists definately have the aggression, but they don't have both good aggressive AND tanky characters, which the other class-types do. Phillippe is the closest to it, but his skills don't hold up to it when that's his only focus.

[The BlackVision]

Another fun one to go for is the double-hit teams - those you focus on one character maximising damage with a double-hit skill (any of the characters with the 2nd level up getting a double-hit) and then using another character to inflict the debuff to maximise it's damage. Bia's fun for that too, though tbh, I still think everyone should ALWAYS choose the 4th level one for proccing off enrage, since an extra 1 hit on terrified targets is pretty pointless given than 3 hits on a foe with armour reduced that much will always give a higher damage...

Alternatively, there's always Hilde and her absolutely terrifying double-inspire, which is simply THE way to spirit-break 90% of the enemies in the game (exceptions being the Count!), given how the first hit also procs the amplified damage on the second, and she can reach massive speech damage, AND it's got range AND leaves them vulnerable to any other speakers afterwards too AND breaks any positive buff on them.. AND can be used to heal up to max (albeit with a debuff).

Those mixed with AoE debuffs and a choke-point tank and healer can't really fail so long as you keep your gear up to stratch and the mood in the right spot. (again, peace-treaty for immediately after is always helpful vs devious foes)

[Mr. Bear]

Wow, thanks for taking the time to write this much information about team compositions.

From what i can gather there isn't really an OP or UP character in the game as long as the team he/she is in has great synergy.

I think what made things so difficult in my last game was the lack of a tank. I don't think neither of the gals i mentioned is prepared to be a tank.

[Lord Reliant]

I'm a huge fan of Agatha, Bia, and Emilia, but not necessarily on the same team. Kiwi can be a great powerhouse with controlling large groups of enemies (and fighting Rivaleux at the end). Dolore's captain perk is fun to play, and Harry's a blast (literally) when he gets the attack that makes a cone for his attacks.

All that to say, I like a lot of the characters but don't have a preferred party. The characters' play styles are so unique (with a few exceptions) that I find that to be one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game.

[Poto_Oil]

I recently finished a Harry/Charles/Earl game. Charles' unique campfire card makes London as powerful as Mumbai, so combining that with Harry's captain perk means you can afford legendary equipment for at least two people before your fourth expedition. They also have great synergy in encounters - you can do extreme amounts of damage with Charles tanking in aggresive mode, but they can also all do devious mode well if that's what you need. Also, having both a rogue and an engineer means that you know you can deal with any technique challenges that come up.

Essentially, Harry/Charles/Earl = kick ass and get rich

[Mr. Bear]

Originally posted by Lord Reliant:

I'm a huge fan of Agatha, Bia, and Emilia, but not necessarily on the same team. Kiwi can be a great powerhouse with controlling large groups of enemies (and fighting Rivaleux at the end). Dolore's captain perk is fun to play, and Harry's a blast (literally) when he gets the attack that makes a cone for his attacks.

All that to say, I like a lot of the characters but don't have a preferred party. The characters' play styles are so unique (with a few exceptions) that I find that to be one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game.

Originally posted by Poto_Oil:

I recently finished a Harry/Charles/Earl game. Charles' unique campfire card makes London as powerful as Mumbai, so combining that with Harry's captain perk means you can afford legendary equipment for at least two people before your fourth expedition. They also have great synergy in encounters - you can do extreme amounts of damage with Charles tanking in aggresive mode, but they can also all do devious mode well if that's what you need. Also, having both a rogue and an engineer means that you know you can deal with any technique challenges that come up.

Essentially, Harry/Charles/Earl = kick ass and get rich

Thanks for the advice guys, lots of diverse team combos from what i see.

[The BlackVision]

Well, I'm afraid I can't give advice with the campfire cards until I get that bug sorted (stuck with only the five original ones), but depends if you're looking at high scores for a lot of it. Captain skills really make a big difference there - before the DLC, you basically had to take Anna for the highest scores. Now it's Charles (Basically has Anna's buff but with fame without the nerfs) or Harry (who, with the treasure choices now is stupidly OP as you can get sooooooooooo many treasure tokens from them).

However, that's a- volatile environment, and the weekly challenges rapidly cause adjustments to anything too OP. (looking at you for the next patch, Harry!)

Also, the best strategic characters aren't necesarily great in the tactical battles. Bia, for example, is utterly lethal in the tactical, but so-so strategically unless you can maximise campaign tokens early and stack skills on the other explorers.

Also depends on the luck of the draw sometimes. One run I've got going, they're getting Secrets on every wheel roll for 2/3 explorers, and each secret is worth between 200-300 status. In another, the campaign tokens are worth 50-75 each as well as 10-20 gold and 5-10 research; and those are following similar paths with similar characters.

[Kallac]

The fun thing is, every character plays differently plus can fulfill a completely different role depending on who's the captain.

For example, Yvonne as a captain really wants to go all-out on the Devious path. However, with someone else as a captain, she's actually really flexible since all her abilities are 100% to-hit. Kwame really wants to be as Friendly as possible when he's the captain, but in other teams he can go for a Devious strategy, or even be a supporting character in an Aggressive group.

In the same group of 3 explorers, just switching who's the captain can change the way you want to play entirely.

[The BlackVision]

Yup :)

[Lord Reliant]

Originally posted by Kallac:

The fun thing is, every character plays differently plus can fulfill a completely different role depending on who's the captain.

For example, Yvonne as a captain really wants to go all-out on the Devious path. However, with someone else as a captain, she's actually really flexible since all her abilities are 100% to-hit. Kwame really wants to be as Friendly as possible when he's the captain, but in other teams he can go for a Devious strategy, or even be a supporting character in an Aggressive group.

In the same group of 3 explorers, just switching who's the captain can change the way you want to play entirely.

And combine that with some of the random treasure you get, and things just get crazy (and fun).

[panurgy]

My favorite team is probably Pedrinho, Maria, Emilia, with any of them as captain. But it's definitely not an optimal team.

Previously my best runs were with Anna (Captain), Bia, and Earl. But I just had one with Anna, Yvonne, and Molly that was super fun. They were strong in combat, they did great in skill challenges (after receiving a lot of custom perks), and they were a fun team to play. I almost laughed out loud when I installed the necromancer as a dictator in the Andes. I think part of the reason why I like Anna is that I wouldn't do that with any other character, and I tend to play friendly teams so it's refreshing to go crazy once in a while.

I also like playing Bia with friendly teams, like Kwame and Emilia. I realized while playing that team recently that I kept sliding Bia over into the corner for stealth kills, while the other two were dancing around being perky and making friends. There's no reason to go into a corner away from the main action, but I did it subconsciously out of guilt or a desire to be hidden.

[Spidren]

My personal favourite is Bia, Molly and Earl. Bia as the leader grows in power every boss kill, which means with Earl's enrage and Molly's flank shank, endgame bosses become chumps. Molly is also a fountain of gold so end game equipment isn't that difficult to get. If you're interested in mono-emotion this could be a group to try.

It does mean some missions are terrible choices (you can't stab a ghost) and your entire team is slightly more squishy than usual, but the upside is enough single target damage to finish any boss within walking distance in a single turn. At worst two.

Basically rush the boss whenever possible.