Somehow, by dint of Gambits and Lures having more synergy than I thought with Smiths, I’ve won every Distinction bar Motley and Embalming. Now, only one question remains.
…is going for Motley unironically the best way to get Embalming too?
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Going for Kings seemed the easiest for me, but to each their own really.
I would say no. The mark makes your checks more difficult. Motley makes it difficult to focus on one attribute to limit the loss (though I saw a post mentioning a persuasive build with motley?).
My 2 cents is that it’s better to focus on normal stats (vs advanced ones) which you can boost with boons/moods and 2nd chances. Best accomplices are the usual heavy hitters, such as gambit or knuckles.
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My motley run is 3 for 4 right now. Just won my fourth in 7 actions with a single attack. Motley went from 0 to 8 in one go. 
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I never did until today, trying for the embalmer’s mark, though only once or twice-- until a few times in round 10 just now, trying for win 7, culminating in a moment with both Elusive and Progress needing 2 CP (or maybe it was 1 each) to get to 8. The second chance failed, so I lost the round, and the run (6 wins of 10), so no Distinction. I’m a little annoyed about it.
FWIW the team with King of Knuckles, Knight of Skin, and I think Knight of Livers. (For that last draw of cards, the Knuckles card I was hoping for-- there was one slot free-- didn’t come through so I had to something with a lower chance of success.)
And of course they now made it easier for those going for the Motley distinction
I wonder why FBG decided that it was necessary to implement a way to force-draw the King of Motley.
If my math is correct, the probability to draw Motley in at least one of the three drafting hands is 42%, high enough that you should draw him naturally every few rounds anyway. And most of the teams with Motley are going to be viable for a win.
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King of Knuckles, Queen of Cod, Priest of Smiths was an easy 7/7 run that yielded the The Distinction of Kings. And (now?) free of the nasty Counterplay.
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That was with Spines, Cod, Briar. Easy enough, spent the first few actions gathering the two Aces and eight Preparations and then it was a straight line to victory with Spines doing all the work.
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… I somehow won my Motley run, but long time my heart is probably too weak for pure luck luck situations like this … too much excitement.
Mine is on three losses now, dunno if I can pull it off. It indeed seems extremely swingy and luck-based. I repeatedly find myself falling into a trap where I spend the latter half of the round drawing only prep and low-progress cards with no chance to land the killing blow. I have yet to draw a single hand reset card all run aside from the guaranteed one in starting hand.
it indeed is quite fickle - I won two rounds without any Motley cards at all but dumb luck on low-percentage Knuckles / Spines / Gambits …
Just dipped into the new season finally. My first run I got hit with four autofire menace card things in a row, which doesn’t seem like a very fun mechanic, and I see from this thread that I guess this is typical. Do people just get used to it, or is there supposed to be something that I should be doing to manage or limit them? I don’t see any in-game pointers on this new mechanic or how it works and I didn’t see anything obvious on the wiki.
Yeah, all you can really do is work through the counterplays. They definitely don’t become any more fun with time, they just suck in general. You can try to reduce the amount you get by playing less low-value attacks and trying to avoid drawing cards when possible but that’s about it.
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I don’t. I’ve blown a big chunk of my Second Chances in several categories in the Game since the Season of Duplicities started.
Words cannot describe my hatred for the RNG and counterplays right now. I’m this close-THIS close-to beating Embalming only for both of them to suddenly go “Oh, what’s that? You like drawing poisonous preparations? How about you KEEP DRAWING THEM UNTIL YOU MAKE NO PROGRESS” after somehow managing a winstreak.
It is somehow more insulting to get so close to victory only to have it cheated by some uppity random number generator I no longer trust to deliver the stated statistic, than it is to feel like Embalming is actually impossible.
Its still RNG so some will have better luck drawing his card than others. In all the runs I made to get the distinctions, I only ever saw it twice.
Edit: I’m also not sure about most runs with him being viable. If you make your team real large, sure you’ll deal a ton of damage with him, but you’ll rarely draw his cards. The distinction requires a team of nine with him, but I believe I did it with one more just because that final draw brought another accomplice that also had Persuasive challenges. I still lost some rounds due to bad luck and not getting his cards.
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Basically any of the first options that give progress and don’t have a challenge raise counterplay. So you need to avoid using them as much as possible to keep it low.
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Well, got my distinction of motley. Which means I did knights with embalmbers (easy), pages (took two tries), motley (two tries but between gambit and motley kinda hectic) and now kings which is horrible.
Currently given up my Embalmer run to test the theory that bringing EVERYONE is optimal for Motley and…I’m pleased to say I’ve gotten his card right on the first turn! Just need to build enough Poison Preps and the game’s as good as won.
Truly, RNG giveth and RNG taketh away.
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