Changing the Balance of Power?

[The Rose With Many Thorns]

Among the available paths is there a possibility to convince the minor factions to form a (reluctant) alliance against the Brotherhood, Protectors, and Church for them to maintain their independence and have the game end with none of the three major factions being able to assert themselves over the rest of the ship? Alternatively, is there a possibility to cause the three major factions to collapse without turning the ship back to Earth?

[grraf]

Sort of ... hint 1)it can happen if you support Jonas in the pit and then later on broker an alliance between the 'small fry' and get the protectorate to recognize their freedom(hint 2)you will need a very good protectorate reputation to get it done)

[stadtpark-hartmut]

Once you played a whole game, you might want to read the different Steam Achievements to get an idea which things can be done.

I guess I should work on my own achievements myself, considering I haven't played in a month or so...

[The Rose With Many Thorns]

Originally posted by grraf:

Sort of ... hint 1)it can happen if you support Jonas in the pit and then later on broker an alliance between the 'small fry' and get the protectorate to recognize their freedom(hint 2)you will need a very good protectorate reputation to get it done)

You will need to be specific on this, there's multiple "small fries" he can broker an alliance with and they don't necessarily end well for him depending on the choices made in-game.

Originally posted by stadtpark-hartmut:

Once you played a whole game, you might want to read the different Steam Achievements to get an idea which things can be done.

I guess I should work on my own achievements myself, considering I haven't played in a month or so...

Well, steam achievements don't necessarily give hints to everything you can find in-game.

[stadtpark-hartmut]

How much of a spoiler do you want?

There is an Achievement called "Freetown". You can talk the Habitat Army to withdraw from moving on the Pit (this is actually after the fight, where suddenly an opposing faction is invading the armory), thus keep the Pit independent for the time being. Or you can talk Jonas into joining the Habitat Faction (- there are Achievements for that as well for each faction).

Yes, you can keep the Shuttle Bay free and aligned with Jonas - doesn't matter wether you choose Moses or Nico. Although you only get the Achievement "Free Bay", when you stay with Moses. (There are also achievements for granting the Shuttle Bay to the Protectors or the Church iirc).

So yes: when you talk to Moses in the Shuttle Bay, you can mention that Stanton and Jonas will stand at his side / form an Alliance of the independents, but in the end, this will not matter much. See spoilers. Nico will stand by his word and join up with Jonas alternatively; not that it matters in the end.

You befriend the Grangers in Hydroponics pretty much automatically in every game (- since you will have to go to Hydropoincs Yellow and Red and do their quest in every game). They are not exactly sharing the fate of the Pit, as they are really important for the future of the Ship, thus will end up working for / with the Monks / The winning faction, independent of what becomes of the Pit.

The Heart is / the Mutants are also not directly sharing the fate of the Pit. Although they have a role to play, considering the possible End-Game decisions / Slides.

Major, major Spoilers: If you directly want to land the whole big ship unprepared and quarreling, you have to kill the Great Mother and help the 1st Daughter on the Throne. The alternatives are: keep the Ship in orbit for the Monks, until everything is united and the landing is properly prepared; similar if you help a Habitat faction to win: it will take time, until the takeover of the winning faction is complete, and then it will also take time to prepare a planned settling of the planet. Alternatively you can send the Ship back to Earth, dooming the Ship, but saving the Planet from contact with quarreling / colonizing humans; or you sneak away to the lander and leave the Ship to itself and just go down by yourself. Nothing is said of your fate down there.

Major Spoiler for Monks win: If you (in the end) deliver the Machine to the Monks (- which by the way is the only Pacifist Run option / purely talking solution, as the Monks will put up a fight when you choose to stick with a Habitat faction and not hand overe the machine), they will shut off the energy for the Pit (as a kind of demonstration of might in order to intimidate the other factions into complying and to also save energy for the ship, but you can convince Jonas and the Monks that Jonas himself and the population of the Pit settle in ECLSS with the Monks and be a kind of Major Officer for them / helpers to them - and I would assume also pool for future Cyborgs (- it's just a talk and a slide; so it's not really a quest, but it is the Endstate for Jonas, if you don't deliver the Machine to one of the Habitat-Factions.

Major Spoiler for Habitat Faction wins: If you (in the end) deliver the Machine to one of the Habitat factions, you have a chance of convincing Jonas to have the Pit join them. There is an achievement for that for every Habitat faction, as already mentioned. The chosen Habitat Faction wins and unites the Ship, and then takes time to prepare settling the planet


As you might have noticed: there is no version, where Jonas directly wins on his own / where you can directly hand over the Ship to Jonas.

He can join either of the winning factions, or stay independent until (minor spoiler) the Monks shut off the Pits power, and the Pit has to evacuate (=disperse) or relocate together under the lead of Jonas to ECLSS and serve the Monks..



P.S. There are different Speech / Disposition requirements depending on which solution you try, but a high Charisma / Diplomat playthrough should not have too many problems. For example I had 8 Charisma and 9 Persuasion and the Disposition Chip and the Master Trader skill, and was only 1 Disposition short of convincing Jonas to join the Brotherhood (=archenemy). - If I had 9 Charisma or 10 Persuasion it should have worked, I think. - I haven't done all versions / achievements myself yet, but I read that other endings were possible with less. (Edit: The Monk ending was easier / directly accessible with Per 9 iirc).

https://steamcommunity.com/app/648410/discussions/0/3954784199556942748/?ctp=5#c4036976070302323081

[The Rose With Many Thorns]

So aside from recalling the ship back to Earth you always have to ensure a habitat faction (or monks) construct a sort of hegemony over the rest of the ship? There's no list of actions that can be taken to ensure none of them succeed in this endeavor (aside from decline on the way "home" to Earth)?

[Wrath of Dagon]

You can land the ship, then power is up for grabs.

[stadtpark-hartmut]

Originally posted by Wrath of Dagon:

You can land the ship, then power is up for grabs.

Haven't done that yet myself. Will do in my next playthrough.

The thing is: the Machine has to be delivered to either the Monks or one of the three Habitat Factions, which ensures their Hegemony.

(tbh; I don't quite remember what the slides said about the fate of Jonas / the Pit in the playthrough I did "Freetown" (and delivered the machine to the Brotherhood). It didn't seem like "winning", or else I would have remembered.)

[The Rose With Many Thorns]

Originally posted by Wrath of Dagon:

You can land the ship, then power is up for grabs.

This is probably the closest ending I will find to what I'm looking for at the moment, though it's unusual the ending text doesn't explain what happened to the factions after the abrupt turn of events.