How long does it take to trigger a campfire scene?

[Jivebot]

I've been playing for a while. Leveled quite a bit. I talk to my companions frequently. I have yet to get a single campfire scene. My companions just keep regurgitating the same old lines. Approximately what "level" before the scenes start triggering? Most of my characters are in the level 8-10 range

Also, do Custom Created Companions and Enemy Recruited companions have scenes too? Or can I safely ignore them and just focus on chatting with the "real" companions?

[Amateur Nitpicker]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/486720/discussions/0/358415738198062204/

[Noranum]

It's a little complex to start with.
As much as I understand, it depends on how long you have that companion in your team. Or more specifically: How often they got XP. It seems to be tied to the maps you finished with them, not the actual amount of XP earned. That said, I would advise to run some low level maps with your to-be-bond companion in your group, and go back to the stronghold after two or three maps, then repeat until tha mood ring says that they are ready to bond. Campfire scenes will only trigger when you leave your stronghold.
So, in short: NPC needs to be in your active party, needs to earn XP multiple times (amount/level up means nothing) and needs to be talked to frequently. Some characters seem to need some special events to happen, and I haven't found a way yet to bond with animals/mindless monsters.

[Jivebot]

So does re-doing a map i already cleared(after monsters respawn there) count? And does this also apply to recruitable "monster" humans(like bandits and such) and Custom Created companions? Or just the "official" companions?

[Noranum]

Yes, it does count. Sometimes it may take a while. I don't know the actual math behind this, but this is my personal strategy.
And yes, it also includes human-like monsters and random roster characters. You could say, as long as that monster/person talks to you, you can bond. I am not sure about animals and mindless thingies, I had a clay golem in my team for some time, and it did not want to bond (while 5 other thingies did).

[Amateur Nitpicker]

Originally posted by noranum:

Yes, it does count. Sometimes it may take a while. I don't know the actual math behind this, but this is my personal strategy.
And yes, it also includes human-like monsters and random roster characters. You could say, as long as that monster/person talks to you, you can bond. I am not sure about animals and mindless thingies, I had a clay golem in my team for some time, and it did not want to bond (while 5 other thingies did).

Animals and Mindless creatures or MUTE characters cannot be bonded officially unless by using an exploit

It can also be used to have faster bonds
1) Going to the fundaments shrine and reset them to level one
2) Giving them a love potion
3) Doing higher leveled maps so they will level up 4-7x faster
4) Bonding with them within 2-4 dungeons

[Jivebot]

If level doesn't matter and it's just about the number of times they earned Xp(as previous posts and the other linked thread indicate), why would resetting their level at the Fundament Shrine make any difference?

[Amateur Nitpicker]

Originally posted by Jivebot:

If level doesn't matter and it's just about the number of times they earned Xp(as previous posts and the other linked thread indicate), why would resetting their level at the Fundament Shrine make any difference?

It's an exploit, I think it removes all the rules and base it on the levels??? even the dev didn't notice it. Maybe it will be fixed on the next patch

[Unsuspecting Prey]

I've been going back to my stronghold and talking to each of my companions after any experience gain, and I've been keeping track of how long it take to bond with them.
So far, it's taken exactly 20 exp gains each time. This remained consistent between multiple characters and band sizes. There also seems to be a threshold of at least 5 maps before you need to talk to them(I.E. the first five maps you do with your rescuer will count towards your bond if you immediately claim the march marina and talk to them) Any longer than that and you risk angering them. According to Captain, companions will not like you if you adventure with them frequently but never talk to them.
It did not matter what the exp gain was from or how much exp it was, or if the map had been cleared, or even if they were level 99. I was able to bond with Beauregard by just going to the brine rush and doing the repeatable labor challenge there over and over. It was extremely tedious, but it did eventually work.
The only exceptions to the 20 map rule were when love potions were involved. Love potions seem to make them bond after the next exp gain, but I think you might have to get them angry at you before they work. I've only used two love potions, and I reset the companion to level 1 before I used them.

I also noticed that talking to companions who did not gain exp did nothing. It didn't matter if you talked to them a bunch or completely ignored them before you started taking them out on missions. Either way they still took 20 maps to bond.

[Haba]

Either there are bugs or then the whole thing is not that well thought out. My initial two bastards bonded fine, but since then I didn't get a single bond. And this is with me talking to them every time I visit stronghold, rotating teams every map etc. Literally 15h of playing with no new bonds.

In the end I did the bonds with love potions, which is tedious enough (grinding back 40 levels takes quite long when you do it over and over again).

And when you consider the fact that bonds are more or less required to complete the game...

So yeah, this "exploit" doesn't need to go anywhere.

[Amateur Nitpicker]

Originally posted by Unsuspecting Prey:

I've been going back to my stronghold and talking to each of my companions after any experience gain, and I've been keeping track of how long it take to bond with them.
So far, it's taken exactly 20 exp gains each time. This remained consistent between multiple characters and band sizes. There also seems to be a threshold of at least 5 maps before you need to talk to them(I.E. the first five maps you do with your rescuer will count towards your bond if you immediately claim the march marina and talk to them) Any longer than that and you risk angering them. According to Captain, companions will not like you if you adventure with them frequently but never talk to them.
It did not matter what the exp gain was from or how much exp it was, or if the map had been cleared, or even if they were level 99. I was able to bond with Beauregard by just going to the brine rush and doing the repeatable labor challenge there over and over. It was extremely tedious, but it did eventually work.
The only exceptions to the 20 map rule were when love potions were involved. Love potions seem to make them bond after the next exp gain, but I think you might have to get them angry at you before they work. I've only used two love potions, and I reset the companion to level 1 before I used them.

I also noticed that talking to companions who did not gain exp did nothing. It didn't matter if you talked to them a bunch or completely ignored them before you started taking them out on missions. Either way they still took 20 maps to bond.

Can I ask if you were using the "leader scaling" or the "band scaling" because this is really useful information. Throughout my gameplays didn't use the leader scale since it may have a lot of bugs.

As for the band scale, it really depends on how you large or long your band mates are in your team (as in the first row was easier to talk to) than the last members as seen in this image http://i.imgur.com/YXgIDBr.png but I noticed this is the earlier version because it has the generic bond token image

[Amateur Nitpicker]

I think level has something to do with it? tested it out with 2 new characters
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=727101189

[Amateur Nitpicker]

Okay don't know how the trigger number works, here is a character recruited from level 10
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=727135218

[FroBodine]

Mood ring? What mood ring? Where is this mood ring, please? How does it work, please? I don't think this was ever explained in the game at all.

[Amateur Nitpicker]

Originally posted by FroBodine:

Mood ring? What mood ring? Where is this mood ring, please? How does it work, please? I don't think this was ever explained in the game at all.

That is the reward you get for completing the quest at Isolated Forge

[FroBodine]

Thank you. My follow up question is - what is the purpose of getting the bonding cut scenes with the various characters? Is it absolutely required to get through the game and beat it?

I realize that's the name of the game - bonds, bonding. But, what purpose does it serve? Just to get the items the characters give you? I got some strange item from Nazar (I think that's his name, the big sumo looking dude), but I have no idea what it's used for.