More or Less Employees

[C2]

So my recent game I have been using only Single Employees per department and focusing on upgrading them and focusing abnormalities that they can work with but before I use to have an employee per Abnormality. Is it better for my current strategy or is there strength in numbers? Curious to what others think.

[NeedsMoreDoge]

The correct answer is: yes.

To be quite honest, you need both.

All abnormalities have their own personal foibles and so forth. Some will insist that they can only be worked on by strong employees, others will insist they can only be worked on by weak employees, then there are those that cannot be worked by the same person in a row, enjoy the scent of blood, don't like hearing other abnormalities fighting, hate being worked using a certain work type, start raising a ruckus when left alone for too long, and sometimes multiple of the conditions combined, because abnormalities are super fussy.

I would definitely want more than one agent per department, however. If you only have one agent in each department, then you are liable to end up with the following issues:

a) If multiple meltdowns occur per department, you may be forced to accept breaches because you can't clear all of the meltdowns in time with only one agent per department.

b) If the last agent in a department dies, all of the clerks associated with that department immediately commit suicide and the abnormalities in the department suffer a -50% success demerit to any works performed on them for the rest of the day. It's terrifying AF to watch and may also result in Breach-On-Death abnormalities getting out.

c) You are letting time go by that could be spent working abnormalities. Gotta make energy fast! More to the point, you could be training up newer members alongside your more experienced agents. There will be some days where you are best off eating your losses, and may need to replace your A-team members with some B-team members.

d) Later on, there will be days when you will need to have a large number of employees. There are certain challenges that require you to hit a certain meltdown level, and can be completed much more smoothly if you can quickly push by just sending as many people to work as possible. There's one challenge in particular that basically has this as a requirement.

However, you also don't want a facility that is 80% scrubs, either. If you have a stupid amount of characters but most of them are 1/1/1/1 and using ZAYIN Riot Stick gear, then they are going to die to a wet sneeze. Essentially, you should take on as many new characters, but only as you can reasonably keep training up, because there's no point having them just sit around acting as leech bait.

If I had to come up with a number, it would probably be three per department if possible. If you can field more strong agents than that, great, and you should try to aim to raise more - but for much of the game it is probably fine.

[C2]

Very neat. Follow up Question: Can you ignore most Abnormalities and do a run where you focus on only a select few? it would take longer but it seems like most you can ignore for the most part and try to get the gifts for your employees you want to have.

[Fridge Lord]

I am pretty new to the game and only on Day 10, but I personally would never go so low as to have 1 employee per department. I'm spending as much time as I can per day farming points on the abnormalities and everyone is training up really well. I could never extract this amount of points dealing with 6-8 emergencies on a qlipoth meltdown if I only had 1 or 2 employees per team.

I have sort of a funnel worked out where my toughies handle the newer, nastier anomalies, then I start noob employees farming Attachment on one sin/hundreds of good deeds. Then I'll probably spend 2 Lob the next day to give him hp & sp 2- I'll build his stats hp & sp a little more, then send him to the Teths to farm justice. Rinse and repeat.

So far I have no problem being spread too thin and have quite a few well equipped Lvl 3/4 employees.

[C2]

I'm working day 20 so far and 1 person per department, it's goes pretty well for the most part since I got lucky on the abnormalities especially with You must be Happy(T-09-94) in my Control team area. Edit: https://gyazo.com/4c0110fdf32861a46afc404272437954 this is my set up so far.

[Zephyr]

There is definitively strength in numbers. You need a lot of people to answer to the numerous meltdown which will occur, you need people with multiple levels of stats to be able to work on all the different anomalies you will encounter(like it was mentioned, some prefer low stat people, while others will murder anyone without not only high stats, but the proper gear), and when ordeals come knocking, you will need multiple types of damage, and the ability to pile up as much damage as possible in a short amount of time.

The way the game is usually stratified, is that the upper levels are a training ground to form agents to become strong enough to work in the middle levels and be able to handle ALEPH anomalies.

There is also what I call the buddy system. When an employee panics in a departement, you need a buddy to be able to hit him with white damage in the vicinity. This is why you will find that EVERY single of my departement has one person with a white weapon, usually a fast firing and long range one to shoot panicking employees trying to run away. This is a safety measure which has saved me quite a few times.

Focusing on some employees is well and good, but remember the guys at the top by the time you get Central command will be moved there. So they need to all be ready to handle it.

[elipod]

Deeper I go in game, less workers I use per department, down to one, if department in question does not hold anything worth grinding and meltdown proof.
Certain breaches and ordeals are way easier to handle, if there are no weaklings running around, dyeing in one hit.

[NeedsMoreDoge]

Originally posted by elipod:

Deeper I go in game, less workers I use per department, down to one, if department in question does not hold anything worth grinding and meltdown proof.
Certain breaches and ordeals are way easier to handle, if there are no weaklings running around, dyeing in one hit.

That works okay to begin with, and you definitely don't want people to die instantly. Unfortunately, there are Core Suppressions when you really, really need to have more than one worker per department. Even with the earlier ones, having the additional workers allows you to rush the meltdown level, which can be a big help. Also, several of the later Core Suppressions will strip your departments of their meltdown protection...

The Atziluth in particular are going to wreck your day if you go in to deal with their issues when you don't have enough employees to work stuff. Binah will flat out laugh in your face if you try fighting her with a skeleton staff.

Originally posted by MilieuXue:

Very neat. Follow up Question: Can you ignore most Abnormalities and do a run where you focus on only a select few? it would take longer but it seems like most you can ignore for the most part and try to get the gifts for your employees you want to have.

In most cases, yeah, you can just leave them be (other than meltdowns) if you don't have anything else you want or need from them. This is definitely the best policy later in the game, when your agents will be stronger and training with weaker abnormalities won't give enough stats or PE boxes to be worthwhile.

There are some attention-seeking abnormalities that want you to deal with them on a regular basis, but thankfully they are few and far between; the two WAWs out of the five are best MemRepo'd out of your facility after you have their data, but the two TETHs can mainly be ignored, and the ALEPH, while brutal, is well worth keeping if you can deal with it.

[Azazel]

Binah will murder you.

[MegaConfused]

I do not recommend 1 in every department.
It is really easy to survive this way and i doubt you would let anyone die regardless, however, you dont have the manpower to supress multiple threats at the same time, you also have to move them to other departments, leaving some departments defenseless. In certain events, meltdowns will overwhelm your forces, or they wont even be able to reach them in time. If you have a harmless facility, sure, but this is coward strat.
I suggest a small ammount of employees, though not 1 in all departments, focus the excess into relevant departments depending on your progress, having at least 5 extras in lategame will help you a ton. I play this way and can easily deal with everything, having multiple threats in my facility and beating the ♥♥♥♥ out of every one of them every day.

Your only massive wall playing this way will be binah, so look forward to that.

[Grim Purrr~urut]

I have at least 2 Agents per department, perfectly 3. In some departments I have all 5. With less than that it is taking forever to deal with Dusks and Midnights, and with many Alephs in departments.