Exile: an advanced guide for frustrated adepts

Detailed instructions on achieving every possible Exile ending.

Intro

Greetings to you, fellow frustrated adepts. I would like to talk about Exile Legacy today.
Yes, I'm addressing specifically those of you who flinched on seeing that name, and who got tired of its unforgivingly random ruthlessness. Those of you who spend many hours with it and found it too unbalanced, too wild, maybe even to the point of unplayability. Frustrated ones, I ask of you to let me steal an hour of your lives. I hope this is not too much, as it is six thousand times less than a standard year.

This piece exists for two major reasons.

The first one is my hubris, which caused an ill-guided belief I can accomplish something where many before me have failed — to collect many odd pieces of knowledge and wayward insights into a single document that enables deeper and more systemic understanding of Exile mechanics and allows adepts to reach even trickiest of its endings (relatively) easily.

The second one is my passionate love of Exile game. It hurts me to see so many people get frustrated by it, to see it compared to the main CS game and found worse. I cannot shake a feeling of Exile being approached with the wrong mindset too often, with too many expectations taken from the main CS experience and not being questioned critically enough. So, a disclaimer: this piece is not only a guide to Exile, but also an apologia for it. I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience.

Another disclaimer: I will assume the reader is seasoned in Cultist Simulator at large as well as in Exile Legacy in particular. This is why I will occasionally skip over certain basic details that can be easily found on the fan wiki (i.e. how to obtain Temptation: Defiance card or what Foe Weaknesses are) and WILL NOT mark any spoilers to Exile below, since I assume the reader already knows them all and is only interested in enhancing their strategy. If you have not played Exile long enough to know where to get every ally or pentiment and do not want this information to be dropped on you — please stop reading right here.

Final disclaimer: I am sorry for any factual errors I have surely committed while assembling this piece. Readers are more than welcome to correct me in the comments.
(also sorry for subpar English)

Part I. Each torment is a lesson

(mindset and expectations)

I believe, the correct mindset is of critical importance when playing Exile. You need it to be good at the game, and, more importantly, you need it to actually enjoy the game. The issue is, being presented as just one more CS Legacy without any warnings on a tin, Exile sets a vicious trap of breaking expectations established by all previous CS experience. This is exactly what happened to me, actually. My first few runs of Exile were extremely unpleasant, even painful. I needed a several-month break before I could actually touch it again and acquire the taste it deserves.

Traditional CS experience, regardless of Legacy or chosen ascension path, is mainly of slow and steady growing your pool of options. New followers, new tools, new lore, new rites — all those things add to your options incrementally, not costing you anything to have them. You may take as long as you want to explore and experiment. Nothing really rushes you. Yes, there are some mechanics that must be mastered — restlessness, despair, visions, hunters — but once you know what to do with those scary cards, it becomes nothing more than housekeeping you must do to stay away from losing, and quite an easy one at that. Especially when it turns out that some options appearing later in the game make it even easier, for example, spending Ill Health influences to summon minions. There are sustainable strategies that allow you to avoid spending (or even risking) any non-renewable resources.

This standard flow was somehow challenged by adding the immortal enemy mechanics in Apostle Legacies (which foreshadowed many elements of the Foe mechanic). A constant source of problems that are gradually growing in options along with the player was a really cool and truly frightening idea. Still, as with everything else in traditional CS — it is very tame when learnt thoroughly. You may quite easily finish your ascension before the immortal enemy can really hurt you and long before they feel like confronting you directly. Also, you may provoke them to grow fast and then defeat them in a quite anticlimactic way by hurling followers or summons at them in direct confrontation.

Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing bad with this slow-and-steady gaming experience. I enjoy it and still play non-Exile Legacies. It's just that Exile is totally unlike it, and there is much beauty in it to be discovered if unfitting expectations are set aside. So, these are the points of an Exile mindset:

1. The game is very much finite in both space and time.

You start with seven decades and seven years on the board, and there won't be any more. You will spend the years as you go, coming closer and closer to zero.
You will burn bridges as you run. There is no going back to a place you ran away from. Everything you missed there is gone forever. Your pool of options will shrink with your every move.
Embrace the finiteness. All things end, so do our foes, and so do we.

2. Having a resource will often cost you.

It's obvious that obtaining something useful and shiny costs you. But in Exile, having things you obtained can be a pain in itself.
Weapons, curios, and money make you clumsy and increase your packing time.
Being able to choose from multiple destinations bars your way to all of them you drew but didn't go to.
Amassing obscurity makes it impossible to fight reckoners.
Do not hoard resources to no end. Balance between power and freedom carefully. What do you want more, really?

3. Being visible is dangerous.

The very moment you start acting you risk being discovered. Simple asking people around may lead the pursuit to you. Do not expect to be able to do something and not to be seen.
Acting means being visible. Being visible means being vulnerable.
Be vulnerable, or hole up and die.

4. Feeling safe is a luxury you can't afford until you win.

Sooner or later they are coming for you, no matter how careful you are.
All plans are chancy. The better ones are somewhat less chancy than the worse ones, but still.
Something can always go awry. You must react to changing situations.
Sometimes you are prey running away. Sometime you make a stand and hope you won't regret it.
Do not desire to feel safe. Relish existing on the Edge.

Part II. The Wheel Turns

(gameplay loop and critical mechanics)

Traces are entropy

They will overwhelm you eventually, and there is no point in fighting this.
They are too easy to gain and too hard to get rid of. Yes, you can Relinquish a Trace with two Assists Deception cards, but you will, statistically, get more than one Trace while procuring those cards. In most cases, you will Relinquish a Trace to gain Obscurity; it's almost never a good idea to do it just for the sake of destroying a Trace. Do not fight the tide.

Reckoners and phases of residing in a location

Every time The Wheel Turns action completes with no Reckoner verb on the table, there is a chance of Reckoner Informants arriving. Fan wiki[cultistsimulator.fandom.com] says there is a 10% chance of this happening with no Traces present, 30% with one Trace, and 70% with more than one. Moving to a new location destroys all present Traces and initiates

• the quiet phase. Reckoners will inevitably appear in the long run, but it is quite unlikely on every given turn (and even if they do — you might get lucky, and they will just leave), which means you will likely have time for anything you can do without generating Traces. This includes: sending discreet messages from your current location to obtain new destinations (not even once generated a Trace in my experience, despite the action description saying otherwise), sending Cash to your next location, running a Caper (initiating it has a small but non-zero chance of creating a Trace, though), running operations you have resources for. You may get away with several runs of Reconnoitre before it generates the first Trace. If you get lucky having two Assists Deceptions cards on the table, Relinquish the first Trace right away, and no Reckoners arrive on the next turn of the wheel — you might prolong it a little, but sooner or later first Trace will spawn Reckoner Informants (or maybe the other way around) and will initiate
  
• the low-level reckoner phase. While there is only one Trace on the board, you will most certainly have some time until Underboss enters the picture. If you get an Assassin — you might choose to ignore his attacks and receive Wounds, to perform one more operation, for example. Ignoring an Operative will be much more painful. There is a problem, though: you always risk getting an Operative, and in most cases you really do not want an active Operative without having a Connection that can be used as a defense against theft. So, if you want to be really safe, you should Reconnoitre one, and this may rapidly increase your Trace count up to 3+. But if you get an Assassin or happen to have an appropriate Connection with 1-2 Traces on the board, you have an option to safely go for a kill, since the first reckoner will hang around for some time before they have an opportunity to create more Traces and summon reinforcements. Killing an Operative is easier: defending with a Connection guarantees one Reckoner Wound, and attacking with any weapon along with Lore guarantees a second one; killing an Assassin will take more time and is more chancy. You might run an Operation or a Caper and have a good chance for them to finish before things get too hot. You might get lucky and kill several low-level reckoners in a row (this usually requires high-level Lore and a couple of weapons). Letting a low-level reckoner hang around for too long or killing them will generate Traces, which brings us into
  
• the Underboss phase. If you are not running away right now — you'll need Connections to defend against thefts. You will most probably have no time for anything but hasteful Reconnoitring, selling Stolen Years, and buying things. It is very hard to kill an Underboss because they need four Reckoner Wounds to die, and you will almost surely not have enough time to inflict them before more Traces get generated by the Underboss or your attacks and them bringing the Foe, which starts
  
• the Foe phase. The upside of this phase is you can forget about Traces altogether, i.e. do Reconnoitre non-stop or defend from Underboss attacks with Allies without a second thought. This is the only upside. The Foe is very quick and lands two Wounds by a single attack, so if you do not have a way to hold him off reliably, you should be packing already. To reliably hold him off, you need high-level lore, an Ebrehel, and matching Distractions in your location. If you can pull that off — you might hang around until you Reconnoitre anything you need from this location, run a few more operations, or even go for a kill (if one is suitable for your chosen ending).

Reckoner actions

Reckoner action is chosen every time when the reckoner verb finishes "The Search" 10-second long phase. Informants, Assassins, Operatives, and Underbosses all do it (Foe doesn't). There are two basic reckoner actions: aggressive and passive. Their exact meanings depend on reckoner rank and how many Traces are currently present on board.

• Informants
  
  • Aggressive
    
    • No Traces present: Widening the Search..., creating a Trace.
      
    • At least one Trace present: Reinforcements!, upgrading the verb to Assassin or Operative.
  • Passive
    
    • No Traces present: Undiscovered!, removing Informants verb altogether.
      
    • At least one Trace present: Hesitation, no effect.
• Assassin, Aggressive. A Hostile Move!, attempting to wound you.
  
• Operative, Aggressive. Theft or Sabotage, attempting to destroy a random Asset.
  
• Assassin/Operative, Passive.
  
  • Less than three Traces present: Widening the Search..., creating a Trace.
    
  • Three or more Traces present: Reinforcements!, upgrading the verb to Underboss.
• Underboss, Aggressive. Randomly chosen (I'd say with an equal chance) between A Hostile Move! and Theft or Sabotage.
  
• Underboss, Passive.
  
  • Five Traces present and no Foe: Reinforcements!, summoning the Foe.
    
  • Otherwise: Widening the Search..., creating a Trace.

Please note that for Informants, Aggressive actions are the ones that generate Traces and summon reinforcements, but for all other types of reckoners, it's Passive action that does that.

Part II (cont). The Wheel still Turns

Reckoner actions deck

The action is drawn from a four-card deck containing three aggressive actions and one passive action. The deck is reshuffled and started anew when depleted.
And here's the kicker: this deck is shared for ALL reckoner verbs in your run: ended with Informants leaving the city, killed off in a fight, or left behind in a location you ran away from (the draw does not happen before "The Search" is completed, so if you got away or killed a reckoner mid-search — the deck remains as it was before "The Search" started). The deck IS NOT reshuffled when new Reckoner Informants appear. This has some important implications.

• There can be no more than two passive actions in a row, one being at the very end of one deck and the other being at the very start of the next one (aaap|paaa). That means that if Reckoner Informants arrived in your city with no Traces and left by Undiscovered! twice in a row (lucky you!) — they are guaranteed to generate a trace on their next time. And then, call for reinforcements without hesitation since the two following draws are aggressive.
  
• If you had a feeling that odds of Assassin or Operative calling for reinforcements immediately after appearing (given enough Traces are present on board) are not 1 out of 4, but actually higher — congratulations, you got it right! (It's 31.25%, to be precise, almost 1 out of 3) This is caused by them appearing only after Informants consume aggressive action from the deck, which increases the probability of getting a passive action during the next draw.
  
• You can turn on full steam reckoner mode yourself and take notes on all actions that reckoners do against you. This way, you can predict their actions better when nearing the end of the deck (i.e, if two aggressive actions were drawn and two actions remain, you have a 1 out of 2 chance of drawing a passive one, not 1 out of 4 general estimate). You can choose a time for killing a reckoner or leaving a location so that the chance of following action being passive is higher, which is good since passive informants do nothing and give you more time to exist. I am completely sure such deck counting is not cheating since it does nothing except use open information, but you may argue this is too Lantern-ish and not Edge-ish at all and destroys all the fun, and I'll not object. But still, it might help you win (is there anything more Edge-ish than winning?), so think about it.

Note: the very first action at the very beginning of a game, before you have moved to a first location, is a prerecorded hostile move; it happens without preceding "The Search". Ignore it for the purpose of deck counting.
Note: if Reckoner Assassin is along with a Foe on the board, his actions don't appear to be dependent on the actions deck (while still consuming cards from it, though). He also seems to never call for reinforcements, never upgrading to an Underboss. I still haven't figured out how this mechanic works in this case, and I often find myself in need to start locating myself in the action deck and begin counting from scratch after such an encounter. If anyone can share more info on that — please do.

Experience

Your Allies get experience every time they get exhausted (defending against a hostile move, being part of a Caper or an Operation, or generating a False Trail). Three experience points can be turned into +1 of their corresponding aspect. It may be a bug, but this experience bonus is accessible even when Ally is exhausted. You may want to drop your Allies into Operations or Capers where they are not really needed just for the sake of gaining an experience point.
Please note that companions do not get experience as Associates, only as Allies. It means you'd like to avoid putting an Associate into Caper that fetches their desired item. No experience, but still a two-minute cooldown before you can talk to them and secure an Ally.

Reckoner Corpse is not Asset, but is Supplies

Not being an Asset means it travels to new locations with you while adding nothing to packing time (as strange as it is if you think about it, but ok). It is useful to remember if you are going to a location with a Ligean. You may not get lucky enough to murder someone directly on site.
Expired Reckoner Corpse becomes a Trace, so make sure it does not happen during the quiet phase. The easiest way is to Relinquish it along with Edge Lore, but if you do not want to do that for some reason — you may drop it into any Caper or Operation, and it will just turn into Husk because of its Supplies aspect, no Traces attached.

Abandoning Assets

When you are packing to leave for a new Destination, Relinquish verb changes its behavior for Assets. Instead of selling them (30s, turns an Asset into a quantity of Cash equal to its worth), you abandon them (1s, just gets rid of an Asset). Abandoning can be used to decrease packing time rapidly. Also note that this way you can dispose of Assets that can't be sold — Assets with no worth, as well as Cash units.

Aspects

Wounds have 4 Winter and 4 Knock, making these aspects the easiest to amass in large quantities for Capers.
Employing anything with a Comfort aspect gives you Contentment, which has 2 Heart and 2 Lantern aspects. Some portable assets have a Comfort aspect on them, and you may Employ them without any issues if they do not have a Supplies aspect as well. Just remember you have this way to generate those last points of Lantern you need for a tricky Caper or dropping on those Cats to find a Misty Nook.
Also, don’t forget Obscurity has 2 Moth and 2 Winter. It's Supplies, though, and will be consumed if used for its aspects.

False trails

False Trail secures you from new Reckoners appearing on board for 360 seconds (six cycles of The Wheel Turns).
You get a False Trail when you complete Assist an Uprising Operation.
You may send an Ally to a Destination to create a False Trail via the Travel verb.
The destination must be substantial: not Dash Cross-Country, and not something on Map's Edge.
The destination is consumed, and Ally gets stuck in an operation-like Working on a False Trail verb that has a 30% chance to spit out a False Trail every 60 seconds. It will succeed sooner or later and generate another operation-like Returning... verb that has a chance to bring back your Ally or deliver you news of their demise. It may take some time for them to return. There is an approximately 19% overall chance they will die and an approximately 81% chance you will eventually get them back, exhausted but alive and well.
There may be only one Working on a False Trail verb on the table at every single moment (i.e., you may not send more than one Ally to make False Trails), but the Working on a False Trail verb may coexist with Returning... verb. So, you can send the next Ally to a new Destination as soon as the previous one is done with creating a False Trail and starts getting back.
There may be only one Returning... verb on the table at every single moment. If the Working on a False Trail verb completes while there already is an existing Returning... verb — a funny edge case happens, and you just get your Ally and Destination back along with generated False Trail.
While I call them operation-like because of their icons, these are not operations. Neither Working on a False Trail verb nor Returning... verb disappear when you change the location of residence; you are safe to move while your Allies are away without risking losing them (more than you already do).
Often overlooked, this mechanic is indispensable for reaching endings where you are especially dependent on being in a single location for a long time, especially while maintaining large amounts of Obscurity.

Part III. What has been broken can be reforged

(resources you need to manage)

Stolen Lifespan

As scary as it seems, the 'seventy-seven and no more' part is largery an illusion. This finiteness is something you have to just note, accept, and stop being afraid of.
In most of my runs, I have around thirty to forty years left the moment I reach an ending. Seventy-seven years will suffice for everything you need, and you don't even have to be particularly tight-fisted, except for one little thing.
Do not spend whole decades. It's almost never worth it.
Reckoners should be killed off or left eating dust, not bribed.
Healing with a decade requires reconnoitering for a very fleeting Dawn opportunity and generates a Trace — it's easier to obtain Vitality generally, and most of your Wounds will just go away with time anyway.
Connection to a ruler gives access to a lucrative operation that may yield a property, but it's definitely not ten times better than an official or underworld connection.
Ligeans will accept a Reckoner Corpse as a gift, which is renewable and quite easy to obtain.
So, that leaves us with spending discreet years.
Do not hesitate to purchase non-ruler connections. They cost only one year, and opportunities for them are not that frequent. Underworld connections are the most useful, officials and radicals go a second place, and holy man is the least useful. It's almost always a good idea to have several connection cards on the table, except if you are already packing and are absolutely sure you will not have a chance to use them.
Do not hesitate to sell years for cash directly if you need buying power. Around thirty units of cash are needed to achieve the most luxurious victories, and, I remind you, you have seventy-seven years. One-to-one is a completely acceptable ratio. If you feel too light on cash — sell away a couple of years every time you are going to leave a location when one more Trace will not make much difference.
Operations give you better pay for the years, but their prime allure is not leaving any Traces. With luck, you can earn up to twenty Cash in a single location without generating a single Trace. But then again...

Assets

Each portable asset extends your packing time by ten precious seconds, which may not feel like much, but tends to accumulate really fast. Six things are a minute, twelve things are two — you get the point. Since every single Cash unit counts as a full asset — you should really consider what you value more, being rich or being alive. Most of the time, you won't need more than four Cash cards when entering a new location. When getting ready to set up an operation — you want eight to be able to buy a Secluded Villa if it is the first thing you Reconnoitre. And yet, Cash has the merit of being able to be sent ahead to a Destination you plan to head on next. It's a painful sixty seconds for a single Cash unit, but it can be done before you actually depart (and before generating any Traces), lessening the impact on your packing time.
On non-Cash assets: carry only what you really need. Do not cling to Pentiments if you are not going for a Kinship ending. Do not hoard weapons if you are going for an obscurity victory. Sell curios as soon as you get an Ally strong in the corresponding aspect. You should treat every portable asset as a little vampire who wants you dead and tolerate them only if there is absolutely no other way to go. Liquidating an unnecessary asset to Cash is generally better because Cash has the option to be sent ahead.
There is probably only one Asset that will be handy in absolutely all runs regardless of the desired ending: Ebrehel, the Ragged Sword. You can get this weapon from Vault in Krakow, which you get instantly upon arrival. Its Caper requirements are E4/W4/H4; W8/M8/L8; W12/H12, which means it can be completed with three Wounds. It makes Krakow the absolutely best possible starting location for any run.
Grese Guitar, Moth curios, and pages from the Book of Suns are especially useful for recruiting Allies.
And, of course, do not buy things you do not need. No, really, do not buy useless things!

Lore

This is one pleasant exception to a nagging rule 'you pay for having it' — higher leveled Lore is always better than lower leveled one, and having it costs you nothing. You can upgrade Lore card at Shrines or by disposing of Reckoner Corpses, and this should be one of your early-game priorities regardless of the desired ending since it helps in achieving all of them, though in different ways.

Shrines

Before you get consecrated to a specific deity, you can use any Shrines to upgrade your Lore. Even more, such upgrading does not yield Rage or Wound. So, it makes sense to delay consecration a little bit, especially if you are not going for Eternal Enmity endings.
For endings other than Eternal Enmity, consecration still may make sense as a first step for upgrading your Lore to specific Colonel or Lionsmith form (which has 50s cooldown instead of 60s on the highest level), and for procuring one-time use sacred weapons.

Weapons

You need two Weapons (one of which may be profane) to kill low-level Reckoners effectively and quickly. The more, the merrier, but only while you are still in need of upgrading your Lore or preparing for a showdown with a Foe. As was already noted, Ebrehel is the best one to have since it cannot be broken by your Foe and, along with the highest-level Lore is a very effective method of keeping him at bay after he arrives to the party. Having accumulated four non-profane weapons is usually a sign you are ready for the big fight.
If you have leveled up your Lore to its max and not going to kill your Foe — sell them all except the Ebrehel and the profane one. I understand it's hard, but really, they are useless in this case.

Foe's Weaknesses

Three Unknown Weakness cards you get when creating Temptation: Defiance are always ordered in a specific way. The first Weakness is always Cats/Faith/Heights, the second one is environmental (Snow/Heat/Sea), and the third one is an Hour Shadow. When obtaining intel from a Ligean, you must explicitly choose one of the Unknown Weaknesses, so do not mix them up to be able to choose willingly.
Intel can be obtained in the following ways: from a Ligean (bring a gift to ensure success), from a Shrine when activating with the highest level Lore, or by trial and error.
IMO it makes the most sense to ask Ligean about Hour Shadow's weakness at first since it is hardest to figure out by trial and error.

Part III (cont). and reforged, and reforged...

Allies

One more thing that conveniently does not cost you anything to have. Allies do not affect your packing time and do not hinder you in any way, just giving you access to big chunk of corresponding aspect that can be increased with experience. As with Lore, having Allies will help you with achieving all endings one way or another, and you should put effort into gaining an Ally every time you arrive into location that has one. All potential Allies start as Local Contacts available right after arriving to a location. You can instantly talk to them to receive a Vault, running a successful Caper in which results in an item that can be used to turn them into Ally. With correct equipment and a little luck, all of this can be done during quiet phase of residing in a location, without having to deal with any reckoners at all.
Here is the list:

• Jannings, the Vivisectionist. Aspect: Heart. City: Munich. Caper: E4/M4; E8/M8; W12/E12/H12.
  The easiest way to complete is having strong Edge since it resolves all three complications. Another viable way is having 8 Moth and at least 6 Heart that can be complimented by Jannings himself to resolve the final complication. Underworld connection can really help.
  
• Vasil, the Fivegoer. Aspect: Grail. City: Tiflis. Caper: L4/K4; E6/M6; L10/M10.
  The trickiest one of all. You'll need strong Lantern or Moth, which are usually hardest to get aspects. In worst case you will have to Reconnoitre for two underworld connections or two official connections, which is likely to fail.
  
• Zulfiya, the Barber. Aspect: Moth. City: Stalingrad. Caper: W2/G2; L8/M8/W8; L12/M12.
  Having higher numeric requirements for third complication, it is actually easier than previous one since Zulfiya herself has 6 Moth on her, which means you can complete it with her, an underworld connection, and a Wound (or a Corpse).
  
• Mireya, the Visionary. Aspect: Lantern. City: Granada. Caper: F2/H2; E8/G8/H8, W10/L10/H10.
  This one requires a lot of Heart (which may mean hunting for properties if you do not have a certain guitar with you), or, alternatively, Mireya herself along with a Lantern curio and strong Edge Lore.
  
• Orsolina, the Delver. Aspect: Forge. City: Venice. Caper: L2/F2; E8/W8; K10/F10.
  Can be completed with three Wounds and a little Lantern or Forge, which can be relatively easily provided by Contentment, Cash, or Orsolina herself.
  
• Lalla Chaima, the Huntress. Aspect: Edge. City: Rhenish Aachen. Caper: L4/K4; W6/F6/H6; E10/M10.
  This is a tricky one since it there are no overlaps of aspects on different stages — you'll need a collection of already accumulated Allies, assets, and leveled Lore, or being lucky to have Ebrehel on yourself.
  
• Dominykas, the Baker. Aspect: Winter. City: Kaunas. Caper: L2/K2; M6/F6/K6; W12/H12.
  Probably the easiest one, can be completed with nothing more than three Wounds (best acquired before arriving to Kaunas).
  
• Giorgiou, the Smuggler. Aspect: Knock. City: Avignon. Caper: L2/F2; E8/G8/M8; E10/M10.
  This one requires strong Edge or Moth. Both can be provided by underworld connection if not available otherwise.

Information

To have full grip on what is happening in the game, you need to remember certain things that are part of its hidden state, i.e. cannot be deduced from actual cards you can see on the board. This is why you should take notes on following:

• Destinations that were drawn by Send discreet/hasty messages. It does not really matter if you actually visited them, used to create a False Trail or just lost them when moving. The most important thing is drawn Destinations cannot be drawn again, and keeping track of them can help you understand what are possible draws in your current location, which opportunities are lost, and, generally, how many places to escape to you have still left.
  
• Locations where you have reconnoitred Opportunity: Purchase a Mutilated Manuscript? It is necessary to understand where you can and cannot find more of them.
  
• Failed attempts to distract your Foe. Even if you eliminate two of three possible Distractions in one Weakness class (i.e. you tried both Cats and Heights and failed) — Unknown Weakness card will not become revealed. It is alo possible to distract your Foe and actually uncover a Weakness, but leave a location before its 30s hesitation period ends, in this case your Unknown Weakness card also remains unrevealed. So, take notes.
  
• Reckoner Actions. See section "Reckoner actions deck" in Part II.

Do not miss missed missables

For most of possible endings, there are no must-have locations or items. If you got unlucky with initial Reckoner spawning shrinking your quiet phase to nothing, or first five Reconnoitres spawning five Traces — just get out of there and do not mind it. You can afford leaving a curio behind. You can afford leaving a potential Ally behind. You can afford leaving a weapon behind. You can afford leaving a Shrine behind. You can even afford to leave a Pentiment behind (two of them, actually). Yes, it is very unpleasant and prolongs your run, but more often than not you can tolerate it, really.
There is exaclty one ending that absolutely requires you finding some precise things in some precise locations with no room for alternatives, but we'll get to that. As a general rule — do not miss missed missables.

Part IV. Patience defeats strength

(reaching specific endings, ranging from easiest to hardest IMO)

A Life of Rare Delight (Foe Slain)

Run around, accumulate Allies, sell years for cash as soon as you need it, collect weapons, consecrate if you can, kill Reckoners and upgrade your Lore. Have no regrets.
I prefer consecration to Lionsmith aesthetically, but Colonel's consecration is more convenient pragmatically (Wounds are easier to manage than Rage).
When you have at least four non-profane weapons (Ebrehel is escpecially good, since it is a reliable defense, a couple of sacred weapons can help too) and at least one fitting Distraction at your current Location — call in your Foe and kill him. Some fighting tips:

• Reconnoitre non-stop. With Foe already present it costs you nothing except some attention. Farm for Distractions, Connections, and profane weapon opportunities which can be used to refresh your profane weapon cooldown for free. Connections, profane weapon, and Distractions that do not match Weaknesses are useful to hold off lesser Reckoner attacks.
  
• Defense before offense. Use your Lore as often as you can — having cooldown of 50s it can fend off half of Foe's attacks at its own). Weapon-only attacks land often enough. Ebrehel should be your second priority defensive resource. Then Distractions, then Allies, then Weapons.
  
• Use sacred weapons only when all other Weapons are on cooldown.
  
• Facing the Foe in a location with a Ligean is one bonus wound on him. If you have visited Amsterdam earlier with at least one Pentiment and obtained Bone Flute from Mme Matutine, and are facing the Foe near the sea — you may call her in just to throw her into the fight.

When the dust settles, you should have no trouble arriving to a good spot with expensive properties available, earning all the Cash you need, and buying everything you need for 30 Comfort.

Eternal Enmity (Colonel/Lionsmith)

Almost the same as previous one, but with a little more work on your Temptation: Defiance card, which may require you to travel around a bit even after you already have sheer power to put your Foe down. You will need seven Marks of Defiance, which you get by:

• obtaining Temptation: Defiance in the first place
  
• relinquishing a Reckoner Corpse with Temptation: Defiance card
  
• consecrating to your Hour of choice at a Shrine
  
• taking an oath at a Shrine
  
• summoning your Foe into your current location
  
• sending a non-profane weapon as a defiant gift (one-use sacred one will do)
  
• assisting an Uprising (when consecrated to Lionsmith) or betraying it (when consecrated to Colonel)
  
• making a mess of an Uprising with the Wolf Divided's Shadow — this is the only method that gives you two Marks instead of one; may provide Marks more than once
  
• Lionsmith-consecrated only: defending with your Temptation: Defiance card; may provide a Mark more than once

To get two Shrine-related marks and fully upgrade your Lore you'll need three Shrines of your chosen Hour, which can be tricky to get in a single playthrough (I advise prioritizing Marks over upgrading Lore). There are many Colonel's Shrines in Russia and many Lionsmith's Shrines in the Middle East.
When all seven Marks are in place — face your Foe, but do not land seventh wound on him (it would be very frustrating way to miss desired ending).

Kinship

For this ending, you need to collect seven Pentiment cards and give them to Mme Matutine. So, you either need to arrive to Amsterdam having all of them with you, or to obtain Bone Flute from her to call her later from somewhere near the sea. Please note: this is only possible when you arrive in Amsterdam having at least one pentiment, if you draw Amsterdam not having a single Pentiment (which may happen out of sheer ill luck if you start in London) — you are not getting this ending, sorry, you must pursue another one or restart.
Despite this being aesthetically an obscurity victory, you can actually achieve this ending after killing the Foe, and I think it is the easiest way to do it (this is also the reason I rank this ending as a significantly easier than the next one). With no pursuit on your tail you can safely travel to all places with Pentiments, which are:

• Krakow: Ebrehel, The Ragged Sword. I have already described how to obtain Ebrehel above.
  
• Candia-Heraklion: Half-Smoked Cigarette. Visit the Fane of Owls.
  
• Marrakech: Labhitic Memento OR Sun-Kissed Stone. There are many quest branchings here, but main thing is you need to get to Marrakech and contact Echidna. You will receive exactly one Pentiment in every possible case.
  
• Tripoli dell'ovest: Kirqa-Caul. Complete mini-quest of Last Antaean Initiate.
  
• Budapest: My Unhealing Wound. Encounter a sneaky Ligean.
  
• Rostock: 'Green as Remembered Rain'. Cash in an Opportunity.
  
• Avignon: Grese Guitar. Cash in an Opportunity.
  
• Kyiv: Stained Gloves. Receive a gift from a Ligean.
  
• Many cities: The Book of Suns, Reassembled. Obtain all three pages, reassemble. Page locations: Alexandria/Istanbul/Samarkand; Kraków/London/Tiflis; Marrakech/Tripoli.

There are nine in total. The math is simple — you can afford losing two of them. Be careful, if three are lost (due to being missed, used as a Supplies, stolen by Reckoners or sold) — this ending is not possible. Get ready you may not get lucky on the very first try, but it will unlikely take you more than three.

Part IV (cont). Patience never hurts

A Life of Rare Delight (Foe Lives)

Pure obscurity victory that explicitly requires you not to kill your Foe. This means accumulating large amounts of cash and buying lot of property while still enduring pursuit and not being able to tolerate even lesser Reckoners in the endgame, which makes this one so tricky.
At first you play as usual, collecting a couple of weapons and killing Reckoners to level up your Lore, maybe even consecrating and imbuing it with power of an Hour, collecting Allies and Assets with aspects (Heart, Forge, and Lantern are especially valuable). You may look up expensive Assets that cost more than one Cash to have your worth tightly packed for quick escapes. No need to reveal Weaknesses, although obtaining Temptation: Defiance may still be useful to launch Uprising operations.
When you decide it's time for an endgame, you focus on earning Cash and, more importantly, Obscurity, while remaining in quiet phase at all times (single Trace you can't get rid of immediately on the board means you should pack). Needles to say, just after arriving to a new place of residence and obtaining next Destination, you should be constantly sending Cash there to minimize your packing time. If Reckoners arrive too early by chance — drop excess Cash since it is easier to get than Obscurity. Obscurity is most conveniently gained in following ways (everything dependent on Reconnoitring correct cards is even more luck-dependent):

• Destroying Traces with Assists Deception cards.
  
• Arriving to Remote locations or Strasbourg.
  
• Downgrading your Lore in Misty Nook when in locations featuring Cats (Lantern aspect can be taken from Contentment easily procured if you have an Asset with Comfort aspect).
  
• Running a fully subtle Medical Practice or Sanatorium. For this you need a Medical License, 12 Heart and a non-warehouse property. Rostock is especially fitting for this as you start with a townhouse there. With luck, you can run the Operation multiple times and get several Obscurity cards. Also, in several locations you have an opportunity for a connection with a ruler right from the start — purchasing it while having 12 Lantern yields you a property you can run medical operations in without Reconnoitring a single time.
  
• Betraying an Uprising with three Subtlety. There are several locations where you start with Connection:Radicals and are able to do it from the start. You then get connection to a ruler that can be used to run one more three Subtlety operation with 12 Heart.
  
• Possible in theory, but not quite practical: giving up seven Pentiments at a Misty Nook will give you whooping NINE Obscurity cards and an enhanced False Trail-like card with double lifetime (720 seconds), which may be enough to get away from pursuit, spend money on Comfort properties and get away. Still, I think collecting seven Pentiments while under pursuit is much more bothersome than pulling off False Trail trick described below.

It's best not to stop at seven Obscurity but get as much as possible while you have patience for it (I usually stop somewhere around twelve). Redundant Obscurity cards buy you precious time you can tolerate a Reckoner on board.
When you've accumulated all Obscurity and (almost) all Cash, send an Ally to create a False Trail and depart for a location with expensive properties available for sale. This will be your final place of residence. Ideally it should have three non-Map's Edge neighboring Locations you have not yet drawn.
Having arrived there, draw all neighboring locations, and, having obtained a False Trail — start Reconnoitring non-stop for properties with Comfort aspect. You will spam huge amount of Traces, but do not mind them.
With approximately 240 seconds remaining on your False Trail — send another Ally to create a new one. You can do it up to three times if there are three neighboring Destinations.
With enough luck, False Trails end excess Obscurity will buy you enough time to accumulate 30 Comfort before Reckoners appear and spoil the fun.

Eternal Enmity (Wolf Divided)

Remember I mentioned an ending that requires you finding some precise things in some precise locations with no room for alternatives? So, here we are, and it is exactly the reason it is at the end of the list.
This Eternal Enmity is just the same as the other two — get seven Marks of Defiance, bring your Foe to the verge of death, but set up perpetual hate dance instead of landing a killing blow. What makes it different, though, is that you may not consecrate to either Colonel or Lionsmith, and it means you are four ways of obtaining Marks short compared to Lionsmith's path and three ways short compared to Colonel's one. What you are left with is:

• Temptation: Defiance card's initial Mark (1 Mark)
  
• celebrating a victory (1 Mark)
  
• defiant gift (1 Mark)
  
• defiant summons (1 Mark)
  
• mutilating an uprisinng (2 opportunities x 2 Marks = 4 Marks)

It's eight possible Marks total, and that means you can miss any one single-mark method, but absolutely must throw the Wolf's Divided Shadow into two uprisings. There are only three non Map's Edge Locations that have the Wolf's Divided Shadow available — Kaunas, Stalingrad and Tiflis, and only Stalingrad and Tiflis are Troubled and can host an uprising. So, either you manage to Reconnoitre both Connection: Radicals AND the Wolf Divided's shadow cards, launch an Uprising, and remain until its very end in BOTH of those cities, or you are not getting this ending. This is quite a tightrope to walk on.
This is why you should in no way just hope you will be able to pull that off while remaining in quite phase just because you'll get lucky twice in a row. You won't.
So, you either need to accumulate enough power to reliably hold your Foe at bay while he tries to bite a piece out of you (seventh level Lore, Ebrehel, large supply of other Weapons or Allies, Freezing Winds or Heights Weakness) before you arrive at critical Locations, or, a more practical option, have three or four Allies and perform same False Trail spamming technique described in obscurity victory part. It helps that Stalingrad and Tiflis are neighboring Locations, since you can benefit from False Trail received from completed Uprising in the first Location while Reconnoitring the second one.

Thank you for reading!

Hope it helps you with the game.
All things end, so do our foes, and so do we. Minding that, may your foes end sooner than you, just as this guide did.

[araT]

"also sorry for subpar English"

My guy, you have an great grasp of the english language.

"The first one is my hubris, which caused an ill-guided belief I can accomplish something where many before me have failed — to collect many odd pieces of knowledge and wayward insights into a single document that enables deeper and more systemic understanding of Exile mechanics and allows adepts to reach even trickiest of its endings (relatively) easily."

This is an amazingly written paragraph.

[Contamination]

This is an absolutely amazing guide, I finally feel confident enough in order to experiment with different endings rather than just running away. Thank you!