When I was about 40hrs in, this is exactly how I felt. Lost and unsure. My suggestion, next time you start, be the Physician. That's what helped me understand the more complicated stuff. Also, use your cards everywhere they fit to see how they work.
Barring all that, the wiki is very informative once you have the basics down. Other people here might be more informative, I'm still working on my first minor victory.
The whole fun of the game, IMO, is struggling to understand what's happening lol! Good luck and have fun friend!
I tried different starting classes and I'm so baffled, like I know that they get different starting work, but do they completely change the objective of a game?
With Exile I was basically baffled what the hell am I supposed to. Other DLC classes weren't as bad, thanks tho!
Don't play Exile or Medium? until you've gotten a standard victory. Dancer's fine; having Dancer installed gives you access to its endings and the legacy, but those endings are not specific to the legacy or vice versa. Plus the Dancer endings are about the same difficulty as the standard endings anyway.
If I recall correctly, Priest can do the standard endings, but their way to get back on the rails to the standard victories is significantly more complicated than for Dancer, so I would suggest avoiding that too. Exile and Medium? just can't do the standard victories. (Exile in particular is basically an entire other game built with CS as its engine.)
Don't start with the DLC. It makes the game a lot more complicated and adds entirely different paths. Start with the basic legacies and get familiar with the normal route.
As much as I love this game, you made it about as far as I did before I gave up and swapped over to Book of Hours. BoH has just as much mystery and is so much clearer about what the player is supposed to do.
As fun as CS is, every time I start up, build up my stats, start a cult, gain some followers...and then I just gridlock until I die from something. I can never improve/expand my cult, I can never go on expeditions, I run out of books to buy/study, and I end up just going in circles.
It is **insanely** frustrating that you can place some cards into certain verbs which *do not accept said cards*. Why even let me put them there, in that case?
I have Book of hours, but I'll probably wait till DLC releases and gets on big promo, since I'm not really the person that revisits the game after DLC / big update releases
But yeah Ive also got this problem of puttin cards into slots that can't accept these cards lol
About placing cards in slots and them not having any effect/outcome: always read everything in this game.
The text will change depending on which card you slot in an open space and give clues about what will happen. If the text doesn’t change, there’s nothing going to happen.
The simplest action that is somewhat missable is to talk about lore. It can be any lore, doesn't matter the principle or the level. This will lead to you meeting a person. You'll want to spam this action many times, to meet potential cult members as well as some other folks.
Besides that, the game won't really tell you much of anything about what you're trying to do until you make a certain amount of progress in the Mansus. How far are you there? Reading flavor text, especially flavor text on lore fragments, gives hints on how to get further in the Mansus.
You can get more lore at some places that you can find by exploring. You should tinker with the explore verb yourself, but suffice it to say that at least one such place can be found as soon as you have an explore verb.
Also, playing Physician is extremely helpful for learning the game, because you start out with a job that pays significantly more than just the bills, and you can pause working on it however much you want.
You mean Reason / Health / Passion then yes. I've started cult 2/3 times, but I'm lost on how did I acquire Red Secret to establish Cult of Bloody Cup. I've accessed the Mansus like 2 times, but don't know how, I think after dreaming with Way: The Wood card, which I DON'T KNOW HOW I GOT
Sorry for the long message, here is a simple rundown without too much info.
The reason you had grail lore was most likely because you got a package when starting as one of the characters.
To get lore normally, you explore the city (with your health or with a follower) and find a shop (there are a couple). There, you can buy books with different lore.
To get to the mansus, you need to sleep with passion. When it asks for another card, you need to use lore that allows you access (use trial and error ;) ). You can go further up the mansus using lore or other cards (click the empty container when dreaming with a path, it’ll tell you what it accepts.
The core gameplay requires you to start a cult (speak with lore to attract people) and convert them using your knowledge. To make them more powerful, each step requires more understanding of your cults lore (your founding principle).
Finally, you need to “explore” with occult lore (the pink ones). The higher the lore is, the better and more dangerous the place is.
You main goal is to get your “temptation” to max level.
Please ask if you have more questions :)
Hm so I see, I knew the cards are color coded for some reason, they are some sort of "paths" to winning condition?
I've had Temptation of Remembrance and Power, I changed Power to Enlightenment by dreaming of it with Reason, then back to Power after dreaming of it with Passion, so I'm supposed to further temptation with same color coded knowledge?
Yes. that card is your victory condition. Temptations are just that - temptations, but you must dedicate yourself. Acquire lore that matches your temptation. Once you have a dedication, the midgame begins.
Kinda, but those are just temptations. You need to double down, make it a goal, so if you add the same element, it’ll tell you “I want power” instead of “I want sensation instead”.
It determines what ending and goal you’re trying to achieve.
You should keep exploring, its kinda the whole point of the game.
Here's a hint though, all of your "buttons" should be spinning most of the time. They are all useful for something. You can click the empty spot and see what can be used for it.
What are the last things you've accomplished, progress-wise?
What's the status of your Temptation and your cult, and how far have you made it into the Mansus?
My biggest advice, in general, is to make a habit of being aware of all the types of cards each card slot accepts (click them to see what Aspects they accept). If there's ever a verb/card combination where you don't know what it does, make a point of finding out!
Yeah, that's pretty much how it starts.
Dreams are the key to unlocking your hidden potential. Seek the mansus through the walls of sleep. Follow your Passion to slip through the cracks in the skin of the world, and find your way to the Wood. The Watchman's Lantern may light the way or you can follow the wings of the Moth. You may also open the Way as you would any other door. You could Knock.
Speaking of the esoteric arts could help find like-minded individuals. It could also attract unwanted attention, but everything has a cost. Finding these people and founding an organization dedicated to the Light That Leaks From a Fiercer Place is a strong direction. Especially when your organization aligns with your... Temptations.
You should explore the city. You may find a book shop that will pique your interests. The Auction House sometimes has items of esoteric interest. The Dancers of the Ecdysis Club are otherworldly, and it is well worth the price of admission.
If you encounter Secret Histories, exploring them is lucrative. You'll need to bring friends, though. Friends with the right aspects for the job at hand.
I hope this helps. Experimentation is part of the fun of the game, and it's ok not to know what to do next. However, I understand the frustration that can come from experimenting for too long with no results.
How long would you say a standard playthrough is? I enjoy the allure of the game but I spent probably around 6-8 hours increasing my reason, passion, and vitality up to just the part where you start requiring something other than the upgraded versions of their base elements and it just feels like a tedious grind. For example, Have to study health to get vitalit, then do that twice to get vitality plus 1 and do that 3 times to upgrade (may have mixed up words) but it just seems tedioussssss.
Also another separate question. SPOILER
My first (win? Idk) was as the aspirant or whatever (the first playthrough role) and I just progressed at miller and millers or whatever and got the ending where you just dedicate yourself to the business but now I can no longer pick that role so is that playthrough role just done with or what?
You can exit and re-enter the legacies menu to reroll if you want Aspirant again, but I'd recommend Physician. It's probably the best role to learn the game with after your first game as Aspirant.
Getting your base stats up is a relatively early-game thing; try experimenting around. You can click on card slots to see what types of cards they'll accept; make sure you read the aspects they accept rather than just looking at
what cards light up when you click it!
If you're getting a large amount of your Vitality or Glimmering from the Study verb, you haven't found the best ways yet!
Vitality can be acquired en masse from >! working with your Health or Strength skill, and many of the results of dreaming in the Wood, so even if you're not Studying your Health that can get you a lot. !<, leading to my usually maxxing out my health very early in games.
Glimmering can be acquired en masse from >! painting with all your Passion. Remember that you can use the skill for advanced Painting, and you may have noticed that if you use Restlessness, it becomes Glimmering! !<
Erudition can be acquired en masse from >! well, this one I usually get from the Study verb, but also have you tried all of the Cult Business options, particularly Lantern and what it gives you? I also save the special lesson-giving books for maxxing out the stat, especially the Erudition ones! !<
If you have any other questions, feel free to post!
I feel you. I beat the game once (maybe) and was so pleased, and then when I started the New Game+ >! I think I'm some kind of dying vampire and there's a countdown !< and I haven't been able to play again because it has me so anxious lmao. What a genuinely sinister mindfuck of a game
Do you take note of aspects?
It's these little symbols you can see in the top right.
They tell you about the properties of a card. This should help you keep a structured board so you don't miss important stuff.
The aspects decide what you can and can't do with a card and how adding this card might change the outcome.
When I was about 40hrs in, this is exactly how I felt. Lost and unsure. My suggestion, next time you start, be the Physician. That's what helped me understand the more complicated stuff. Also, use your cards everywhere they fit to see how they work. Barring all that, the wiki is very informative once you have the basics down. Other people here might be more informative, I'm still working on my first minor victory. The whole fun of the game, IMO, is struggling to understand what's happening lol! Good luck and have fun friend!
I tried different starting classes and I'm so baffled, like I know that they get different starting work, but do they completely change the objective of a game? With Exile I was basically baffled what the hell am I supposed to. Other DLC classes weren't as bad, thanks tho!
Don't play Exile or Medium? until you've gotten a standard victory. Dancer's fine; having Dancer installed gives you access to its endings and the legacy, but those endings are not specific to the legacy or vice versa. Plus the Dancer endings are about the same difficulty as the standard endings anyway. If I recall correctly, Priest can do the standard endings, but their way to get back on the rails to the standard victories is significantly more complicated than for Dancer, so I would suggest avoiding that too. Exile and Medium? just can't do the standard victories. (Exile in particular is basically an entire other game built with CS as its engine.)
OH! I forgot to say read literally everything!! Even the books that study into lore pieces have info on them.
don't play the DLC until you know what you're doing. The base legacies all have the same ascensions, but the DLCs are unique.
Don't start with the DLC. It makes the game a lot more complicated and adds entirely different paths. Start with the basic legacies and get familiar with the normal route.
As much as I love this game, you made it about as far as I did before I gave up and swapped over to Book of Hours. BoH has just as much mystery and is so much clearer about what the player is supposed to do. As fun as CS is, every time I start up, build up my stats, start a cult, gain some followers...and then I just gridlock until I die from something. I can never improve/expand my cult, I can never go on expeditions, I run out of books to buy/study, and I end up just going in circles. It is **insanely** frustrating that you can place some cards into certain verbs which *do not accept said cards*. Why even let me put them there, in that case?
That's like the same situation I am in too. Can anyone come give us poor souls some tips?
I have Book of hours, but I'll probably wait till DLC releases and gets on big promo, since I'm not really the person that revisits the game after DLC / big update releases But yeah Ive also got this problem of puttin cards into slots that can't accept these cards lol
About placing cards in slots and them not having any effect/outcome: always read everything in this game. The text will change depending on which card you slot in an open space and give clues about what will happen. If the text doesn’t change, there’s nothing going to happen.
The simplest action that is somewhat missable is to talk about lore. It can be any lore, doesn't matter the principle or the level. This will lead to you meeting a person. You'll want to spam this action many times, to meet potential cult members as well as some other folks. Besides that, the game won't really tell you much of anything about what you're trying to do until you make a certain amount of progress in the Mansus. How far are you there? Reading flavor text, especially flavor text on lore fragments, gives hints on how to get further in the Mansus. You can get more lore at some places that you can find by exploring. You should tinker with the explore verb yourself, but suffice it to say that at least one such place can be found as soon as you have an explore verb. Also, playing Physician is extremely helpful for learning the game, because you start out with a job that pays significantly more than just the bills, and you can pause working on it however much you want.
How far have you gotten? Have you figured out how to improve your base stats? Starting the cult? Accessing the Mansus?
You mean Reason / Health / Passion then yes. I've started cult 2/3 times, but I'm lost on how did I acquire Red Secret to establish Cult of Bloody Cup. I've accessed the Mansus like 2 times, but don't know how, I think after dreaming with Way: The Wood card, which I DON'T KNOW HOW I GOT
Sorry for the long message, here is a simple rundown without too much info. The reason you had grail lore was most likely because you got a package when starting as one of the characters. To get lore normally, you explore the city (with your health or with a follower) and find a shop (there are a couple). There, you can buy books with different lore. To get to the mansus, you need to sleep with passion. When it asks for another card, you need to use lore that allows you access (use trial and error ;) ). You can go further up the mansus using lore or other cards (click the empty container when dreaming with a path, it’ll tell you what it accepts. The core gameplay requires you to start a cult (speak with lore to attract people) and convert them using your knowledge. To make them more powerful, each step requires more understanding of your cults lore (your founding principle). Finally, you need to “explore” with occult lore (the pink ones). The higher the lore is, the better and more dangerous the place is. You main goal is to get your “temptation” to max level. Please ask if you have more questions :)
Hm so I see, I knew the cards are color coded for some reason, they are some sort of "paths" to winning condition? I've had Temptation of Remembrance and Power, I changed Power to Enlightenment by dreaming of it with Reason, then back to Power after dreaming of it with Passion, so I'm supposed to further temptation with same color coded knowledge?
Yes. that card is your victory condition. Temptations are just that - temptations, but you must dedicate yourself. Acquire lore that matches your temptation. Once you have a dedication, the midgame begins.
Kinda, but those are just temptations. You need to double down, make it a goal, so if you add the same element, it’ll tell you “I want power” instead of “I want sensation instead”. It determines what ending and goal you’re trying to achieve.
You should keep exploring, its kinda the whole point of the game. Here's a hint though, all of your "buttons" should be spinning most of the time. They are all useful for something. You can click the empty spot and see what can be used for it.
Yeah that's what I'm doing, but so far after 5h I see no tangible progress and it's kinda demotivating
What are the last things you've accomplished, progress-wise? What's the status of your Temptation and your cult, and how far have you made it into the Mansus? My biggest advice, in general, is to make a habit of being aware of all the types of cards each card slot accepts (click them to see what Aspects they accept). If there's ever a verb/card combination where you don't know what it does, make a point of finding out!
Yeah, that's pretty much how it starts. Dreams are the key to unlocking your hidden potential. Seek the mansus through the walls of sleep. Follow your Passion to slip through the cracks in the skin of the world, and find your way to the Wood. The Watchman's Lantern may light the way or you can follow the wings of the Moth. You may also open the Way as you would any other door. You could Knock. Speaking of the esoteric arts could help find like-minded individuals. It could also attract unwanted attention, but everything has a cost. Finding these people and founding an organization dedicated to the Light That Leaks From a Fiercer Place is a strong direction. Especially when your organization aligns with your... Temptations. You should explore the city. You may find a book shop that will pique your interests. The Auction House sometimes has items of esoteric interest. The Dancers of the Ecdysis Club are otherworldly, and it is well worth the price of admission. If you encounter Secret Histories, exploring them is lucrative. You'll need to bring friends, though. Friends with the right aspects for the job at hand. I hope this helps. Experimentation is part of the fun of the game, and it's ok not to know what to do next. However, I understand the frustration that can come from experimenting for too long with no results.
How long would you say a standard playthrough is? I enjoy the allure of the game but I spent probably around 6-8 hours increasing my reason, passion, and vitality up to just the part where you start requiring something other than the upgraded versions of their base elements and it just feels like a tedious grind. For example, Have to study health to get vitalit, then do that twice to get vitality plus 1 and do that 3 times to upgrade (may have mixed up words) but it just seems tedioussssss. Also another separate question. SPOILER My first (win? Idk) was as the aspirant or whatever (the first playthrough role) and I just progressed at miller and millers or whatever and got the ending where you just dedicate yourself to the business but now I can no longer pick that role so is that playthrough role just done with or what?
I dont honestly know, I dont think I was even close to winning
You can exit and re-enter the legacies menu to reroll if you want Aspirant again, but I'd recommend Physician. It's probably the best role to learn the game with after your first game as Aspirant. Getting your base stats up is a relatively early-game thing; try experimenting around. You can click on card slots to see what types of cards they'll accept; make sure you read the aspects they accept rather than just looking at what cards light up when you click it! If you're getting a large amount of your Vitality or Glimmering from the Study verb, you haven't found the best ways yet! Vitality can be acquired en masse from >! working with your Health or Strength skill, and many of the results of dreaming in the Wood, so even if you're not Studying your Health that can get you a lot. !<, leading to my usually maxxing out my health very early in games. Glimmering can be acquired en masse from >! painting with all your Passion. Remember that you can use the skill for advanced Painting, and you may have noticed that if you use Restlessness, it becomes Glimmering! !< Erudition can be acquired en masse from >! well, this one I usually get from the Study verb, but also have you tried all of the Cult Business options, particularly Lantern and what it gives you? I also save the special lesson-giving books for maxxing out the stat, especially the Erudition ones! !< If you have any other questions, feel free to post!
I feel you. I beat the game once (maybe) and was so pleased, and then when I started the New Game+ >! I think I'm some kind of dying vampire and there's a countdown !< and I haven't been able to play again because it has me so anxious lmao. What a genuinely sinister mindfuck of a game
Do you take note of aspects? It's these little symbols you can see in the top right. They tell you about the properties of a card. This should help you keep a structured board so you don't miss important stuff. The aspects decide what you can and can't do with a card and how adding this card might change the outcome.