No. This is just the final season update. From now on, it’s supposed to cycle indefinitely between the six seasons.
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I’ve managed to get most distinctions, but the pages one still eludes me. Just doesn’t feel like I can outpace the elusiveness fast enough. How did the wiser folks here go about it?
Sounds like only 2 or 3 people have managed so far. I have failed a few times.
Apparently you need Teeth and Roots and just hope to get lucky with draws and Counterplay.
Oh geese, I almost had a heart attack after thinking it was going away like Knife and Candle. I still envy all those ancient players who attained a wax-wind knife.
Seriously, this really bears repeating.
I don’t even mind the penalty, I just find the following incredibly obnoxious:
“Ok, I have 2 cards in my hand in the early to mid game, both of which are useful… but not right this second. I’ll just refill my ha-”
WHACK
“Ok, let’s try that ag-”
WHACK
“CAN I JUST DRAW A SINGLE CARD PLEASE??”
WHACK
EDIT: And now that distinctions are a thing, can I now just mulligan terrible draws? This business of forcing me to complete one full round with a trash-tier hand before being allowed a do over wasn’t that big of a deal while there was no real incentive to win beyond hoarding fun-sized trophies.
Now though? Can we not just rule that the 4 actions it takes to draw a useless hand are enough actions spent on a fruitless errand to just let players try again if they want?
Just posted in patch notes:
Now you can use any support character (Priests, Queens, Fool) with a Page for a Page run.
With characters able to generate Preparations, it should be substantially easier to get a Page distinction.
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I can actually use Preparations in a page run; praise be! I was super confused when I tried to do two pages and their priest, since their priest both doesn’t give prep and only makes checks that require it easier, so I was straight outta luck.
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It’s possible to use the King of Motley to assemble a team including every single accomplice. That’s not the funny part.
The funny part is, I’m pretty sure that’s optimal. Because the only action that doesn’t give Exploits is the one that starts a run, longer runs means higher EPA. And the longest run possible is one where you spend twenty five actions picking your team before you even begin the first round.
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Starting my way up, and the game seems impossible to get a trophy now counterplay is a thing. Preemptive congrats to everyone who will end up getting the rare items, because I sure as hell won’t.
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It’s not so hard if your character at endgame. And if not, just get one trophy in the season to get distinction of that season and continue to enjoy other parts of the game.
With the advent of the embalmer’s mark?
They honestly feel like a hat on a hat. The base version of <3’s game is hard enough for non-endgame players who haven’t memorized all the optimal builds, and the mark gives players an optional difficulty spike.
The counterplays… yeah they didn’t need to exist. They just feel like a constant and unwanted interruption of play (which also turn the game into Darkest Dungeon for midgame players).
The King of Motley’s persuasive-based options are almost guaranteed wins with all accomplices recruited. Only issue is having the luck to draw him with so many cards in the deck.
Later edit: Won a 7/10 run in the very last action of the last round with a team composed of everybody. The distinction of Motley at least is doable. Used a bunch of second chances though.
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You have more confidence in me than I do, even though I’m “endgame” enough to own a firkin of Hesperidean Cider, Vake-steed, Discordance stone and most recently a Heptagoat (and Ubergoat). Currently trying to beat the King distinction. The main thing that keeps tripping me up is counterplays necessitating I play aggressively early game before shuffling the deck starts making the game harder to win. Which leaves me at the mercy of RNG on whether or not I can eek out a win or get stalled beyond hope.
And we should ALL know how sadistic the RNG is by now.
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Gave it another go and unfortunately, the next team I made was bad. I spent the one round trying to learn more about counter play. Of course, the wiki was updated by then. You might have to scroll down a bit and expand the section, but see here if you like: https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Menaces_(Guide)#Hearts’_Game
The next time, I got somewhat lucky with my team and got the King of Knuckles. The reason he’s great is that the “advanced” options scale with elusiveness, making the low level counter play card not that bad.
After many close rounds with liberal use of second chances and RNG luck, I went 7/1 which included a tie. Did this with the embalmer’s mark, so it should be much easier on a normal run.
I’ve managed to get everything but the pages distinction, mostly due to drawing hands of nothing but kings and knights when recruiting. I did my embalmer run in 7/2 with Skin, Tallow, and Flame. I don’t mind the counterplay too much, but to me I feel like the counterplay at 3 making you lose progress is more desirable than raising evasiveness or resistance. Gotta go lose my current run so I can actually try for the pages, and maybe get that nod soon.
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It seems that addition of counter-attacks moved meta even more in favor of kings. Because counterr-attacks affect them less and preparation moves do not generate counter-attacks.
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Counterplays are the worst. As if trying to assemble a workable team from the huge RNG pool wasn’t hard enough already, the definition of “workable” is now further narrowed. Nothing like getting three counterplays in a row to spice up the process of trying and repeatedly failing to draw even one card from the single team member that can give you any decent progress.
I get that you don’t want to make the game too much of a walk in the park, but when the “difficulty” is all based on luck and having to play with one trash team after another until you finally draw a decent one, it’s not really a fun challenge, just frustrating.
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And Winking Ilse already exists. There’s no remaining reason to annoy players for its own sake. It’s already been done.
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I like the idea of Counterplays in theory, they make the game feel more like a competition between you and your target, but their current execution isn’t the best. Maybe if they were standard frequency instead of frequent frequency, and just clogged your deck instead of being auto plays then that would allow for more strategy allowing you to choose when to play the cards would be better?
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Having given it another go and about to win my first trophy uh…tomorrow, when I wake up from sleep soon and my action pool refreshes, my conclusion is that you’re incentivised to be hyper-aggressive in the opening round. Take short term progress where you can get it, THEN scrounge any Poisonous Preparations you can, AND keep some “heavy duty” progress cards in reserved. Haven’t played with Flames yet so not sure how much lowering poison tolerance affects the game.
And I don’t know about the other kings, frankly they seem like dead weight, but the King of Knuckles is the GOAT for the game in it’s current state. Increased progress turning the Elusiveness gain into a blessing in disguise? Yes please