I think I will only play this when more details reveal themselves. I have a hunch some unpleasant surprises and twists await the players.
Anyway, I’m currently starved for actions to do other stuff.
Yeah, it definitely feels like endgame “did everything else already” content. Requires a POSI specialization, >=15 KT for reasonable chance of success, lot of actions.
1 Like
Oh boy, here I go killing again!
I feel like I’d enjoy this more if the preparation worked a bit more like preparation in scientific experiments or built up faster, so you could take risky actions early on or build up preparations to make them easier and more certain. As it is, you have to throw actions to unlock bigger risks, but as you do you make those risks less effective (because elusiveness builds up) and everything is equally uncertain anyway so you might just gain nothing. It seems sort of counter to making those big roles exciting, which means I haven’t even tried them in three runs round. If you could unlock them all at the same level and they just got harder without prep work, I feel there’d be a lot more excitement to them.
I like the concept here and I’m going to try and get to 7 wins, but it feels really odd that every roll is basically a coin flip, sort of removing any sense that there are ‘risky big options’ and making them all feel kind of samey.
Yes. My best stats are Watchful and Persuasive, and I’m floundering as a result, I think.
1 Like
According to the patch notes Heart’s Game has been tweaked, Kataleptic Toxicology difficulty has been adjusted, amongst other things.
Has anyone done a KT-based run after these new adjustments? I’m currently trying a Shadowy run, but failing two 93% challenges in a row had me literally screaming.
1 Like
I’m not doing a KT based run (yet), but just judging by the modification in chance of success for me I can say it’s already kicked into effect. At KT 16 I had 70% chance of success earlier today on the King of Tallow cards (idk if it varies by accomplice) and now I have 90% chance of success. This makes me very happy as I will be able to reach 100% with the new KT weapon available once I get my 7th win on this first run. (I was already a Nemesis Licentiate when this begun so I feel somewhat vindicated for Knifegate now)
Also, not sure if this is a bug as it was not mentioned in the patch notes, but earlier in the day new rounds in the same run began with the hand of cards that were left from the previous round and now when I begin a new round I redraw all 3 cards. I mention this because it slightly changes strategy : for example, I used to save Page of Teeth cards for the beginning of the following round because their basic action is most effective before elusiveness kicks in.
1 Like
I also did 2 more KT-based runs after the change. They bumped me from 70% success - where I was mostly winning but barely, by the skin of my teeth - to 90% success which led to relatively straightforward wins.
That completed my 7-win run and I switched teams to try a shadowy+dangerous one, and man, that one is so much easier I think because I picked guys that have good options at 2 preparation, and that one guy with an option that gives +2 preparation, instead of requiring me to get 6 cp of preparation one point at a time before I made any good rolls.
I lost 3 runs in a row, changed team according to wiki recommendation, and lost yet another one. I have no idea where is the problem.
1 Like
Now that it’s a 90% chance for a KT run (I have the King and Page for KT and the Queen to refresh my hand), and it seems to work a little easier.
For me, it really wasn’t the difficulty, but the fact that you basically needed to play Nemesis to have a chance at winning.
But I’m going to forgive: It needed tweaking. I hope that we’ll get more stories like these for all the MAGCATS. I already had some Cantigaster Venom so the hook is not as useful (it might be useful for something later though, so I’ll pick it up.
But I’m really liking the fact that we have a way to get Compendiums and Damarks. Maybe they’ll be more useful now.
Some days I truly regret what I picked for my Ambition, and this is definitely one of those days.
If I was just a little bit more mechanically minded I’d have the Monstrous Anatomy instead of Player of Chess, one of which is infinitely more useful for hunting, my favourite activity.
Now this event has me wondering if I even should’ve had a horse in that race in the first place and gotten the Kataleptic Toxicology in another Ambition altogether.
Oh, London. I want to roleplay but these success percentages are giving me the side-eye. I think I’ll have a lie down, I’m feeling dizzy.
Fourteen 78% sucess chance actions should not be failed altogether. It’s enough to make a man sick thinking of the actions he’s wasted, forgetting the Poisonous Preparation to even get there.
I suppose what I’m trying to say is, Ace of Spines can go f___k a d____-_____, _____ of ____ with his _____ ___ __ Duke of Yorkshire, _____ with _____, ___, __, ______ -, ___ _______, __ ______ ____, BLOATFINGER.
3 Likes
Jeez this is hard! I think I failed about 10 times in a row before finally coming up with a team that works, and I’ve got 15 KT! Page of Roots, Knight of Livers and Queen of Loins has been working pretty well for me. You’d think I’d have gotten frustrated enough to hate it before then, but weirdly, I’m actually enjoying it pretty well. Though considerably moreso now that I’ve started winning sometimes.
I never played Knife and Candle, and I generally avoid social elements as much as possible, so it’s not suffering from comparison for me, but I’m pretty chuffed to get a creepy new element unexpectedly like this. Hopefully they’ll settle on some balancing that makes it workable for most people (without killing my current strategy!).
I’m liking it so far, but I know I got lucky with my KT gear. My team really relies on getting Roots with any combo of the Queen or the two Knights. Wish Shadowy wasn’t my weakest stat though. Can only get 75% with slight modification to my KT build. Still don’t think that’s enough to be able to use Spines reliably. Tallow seems like a trap because of the higher prep needed. Without Livers, I doubt you can get to 5 prep in time.
I have a feeling that when the “seasons” change, they’re going to update all the accomplices to mix up which stats are being checked. That way any ambition/profession will have an edge at some point.
While I do like the game and mechanics, I’m really frustrated with the randomness when picking Accomplices.
I had a team I liked - (Queen, King of Spines, Knight of Livers) - but after the first 10 runs the game forces me to pick a new team, and the accomplices I wanted wouldn’t show up. So I’m forced to pick a team I can’t win with as my KT is nowhere near high enough. Then waste 15 - 20 actions to fail a run, start over and try make a new team.
Where again the accomplices I want don’t show up and I have to waste another 20 actions to rinse and repeat.
This has been going on for four or five runs now.
78% success chance, fail 8 times out of 9. Classic FL right there.
How are you even supposed to scrape 5 preparations together without running out of time before you finish the actual poisoning?
I have mixed feelings about this experience.
God knows. RNG seems to decide whether you even pull the prep cards you need, and the Queen of Loins (har-har) is the only deck-clearer, while all her other choices are just a bit useless later on in the match if you don’t have the monstrously high Toxicology to tank through. I will say, I love the premise. And it isn’t a complete action sink with the rewards.
BUT I’ll have to be spending my weekend’s actions scrounging some extra shadowy together for another 2 or 5% on Spines so I don’t ACTUALLY murder someone over my luck.
SeVenTy-eIghT PerCent! SevEntTy-eiGht pErcenT!
I’ve played this game for long enough. I should know better by now.
1 Like
So far I’ve had success with a few different strategies. I have +9 KT so my first run was KT-focused since those came up - I had, I think Roots, Talons and Loins. My strategy was to get Preparations 6 times to get up to 3 one CP at a time, then use the roots/talons cards to cash out. Before the rebalance, these KT checks were at 70% for me; I barely scrounged out a few wins and had a loss, but could have easily had all losses if 1-2 more of those 70% checks or card draws had gone against me each time. After the rebalance they were at 90% for me and I finished up the run with a win.
My second approach was to focus on Shadowy and big preparations. I had Livers, Spines and teeth. My strategy was to use one action for single-CP prep, then use Livers’ 2-prep card as often as possible to get my Prep up to 4 (allowing one more one-CP prep action). Once I was at 2 prep I would play the cash-out options that required 2 prep over the ones that gave one CP of prep; if I had good draws, I would draw Livers a few times early and then win big with Spines; mediocre draws would have me getting up to 3 prep and then playing Six of Spines; bad draws would leave me stuck at 2 prep, but even those I would squeak out by playing Nine of Livers and ten of teeth. For these runs I had 90% success with shadowy checks and 82% with dangerous checks.
Now I’m trying a “no skills and no prep” run and, so far, it seems to be working. I picked up Loins, Roots, and Teeth; my strategy is not to do ANY prep, and always pick the options that give the most progress, right off the bat. It seems to be playable - I got two wins with it so far. My strategy is that early on, I pick the options that give progress but do not give Elusiveness. Then, once all actions give elusiveness, go to the ones that are slightly better but always give elusiveness. Finally, finish with the Roots cards that give progress regardless of Elusiveness. I think I can do the whole thing with no stat checks. I’ve played two run with this setup and won them, so I think this game IS winnable with no stats with the right cards. This strategy, I think, very much relies on getting ahead early and fast, and then has to limp over the finish line with Roots cards. Loins can help cycle the deck though.
Will report back if I successfully get to 7/10 wins with that strategy.
3 Likes
That’s why I think the King of Tallow is a trap. You think its going to get you a ton of progress, but all that prep needed pretty much requires you to have the Knight of Livers for his advanced action that gives 2 CP instead of everyone else’s actions that just gives 1. Even with Livers, I don’t think you’d be able to catch up to all the elusiveness gained while wasting actions on prep unless you got lucky.
1 Like
The only thing I’ve concluded with any definiteness so far is that the actions that check KT give MUCH more progress if you manage to succeed with them.
Not doing too well-- a change in accomplices has meant mostly losing by one or two CP than the 9 or 10 I was before-- but I’ve managed to win a few rounds by now.
I did manage, in the last run, to get both Progress and Elusiveness to hit 8 at the same time-- at least for me, and presumably (hopefully) everyone else, Progress took precedence and it gave me the win.