How do you deal with rivals?

[diji]

I made the mistake of engaging in a romance with a follower without knowing how it works and they subsequently got upset with me (why?) and became a rival. It ruined a game where I had gotten pretty far in because I couldn't figure out how to get rid of them. I couldn't send followers or summons after them and my snares were pointless since they never seemed to bother with any of the many vaults available. The one time I saw them go to a vault, my snare had just expired!

Then bam, they ended the game on me, pretty frustrating. So how do you get rid of them?

[Maina]

They get angry if you ignore them during the Season of Romance.

The snares aren't pointless. They are your main method for dealing with them.

You can also recruit them if you are lucky enough that their anger settles down before they win.

You can also win before them.

You can also poison or assault them.

You can also just not let it happen in the first place, which is the easiest method. There are only three ways to make rivals and all three take action on your part to happen.

[Mr W]

Does this include the Rivals you constantly need to deal with as Detective?

[Maina]

Yes. Which are best avoided by doing the Detective legacy once for the achievement and then never touching it again. Every Rival it makes is a Follower you can't recruit. So best to just not do that one. It's only a handicap.

[diji]

Originally posted by Maina:

They get angry if you ignore them during the Season of Romance.

The snares aren't pointless. They are your main method for dealing with them.

You can also recruit them if you are lucky enough that their anger settles down before they win.

You can also win before them.

You can also poison or assault them.

You can also just not let it happen in the first place, which is the easiest method. There are only three ways to make rivals and all three take action on your part to happen.

Oh I must have missed the season thing in my cluttered board. I was wondering why nothing happened after I invited them for a walk!

By assault do you mean like how you can use your physical skill on hunters to personally attack them? I somehow didn't think to try that. I haven't figured out poison yet so I'll keep experimenting.

[shoopy]

Originally posted by Mr W:

Does this include the Rivals you constantly need to deal with as Detective?

Originally posted by Maina:

Yes. Which are best avoided by doing the Detective legacy once for the achievement and then never touching it again. Every Rival it makes is a Follower you can't recruit. So best to just not do that one. It's only a handicap.

Detective has probably the best way to deal with a rival: watch for the Season of Ambitions ahead of time and always be investigating the rival when it comes out to get their card. The rival will never do anything. Ignore any evidence you produce but try to keep at least one evidence alive in case you actually need it.

For this to work you need to let time get at least 10 seconds ahead of your work verb, because the hook has another ten seconds to suck in the rival when it goes off, so if you finish work before then, the rival will be grabbed.

Edit: I bet you can also keep them busy by talking to them about nothing. I normally don't because the talk verb is really valuable.

Edit edit: also just in general you have to watch your seasons and timers when there's something dangerous around.