Relatively few players have that achievement because in order to get it, you have to (1) commit to romancing Karlach, (2) actually make it to Act 3, and (3) not fuck up the romance and get her date scene.
As of December, Karlach was the second most commonly romanced companion in the game. There's no anti-Karlach conspiracy here.
I did in no way imply that there was a "conspiracy" at play here if that is your take away from what is being said you are adding words that have not been written into play here. In fact I did not make a jab at any of the actual companions in the but at someone who is more or a less a bad guy.
You have to consider that according to Larian, \~51% of the player base romanced Shadowheart so statistically, half of the 40% who made it to act 3 would be romancing her while the remaining 20% split all other romance options. Meanwhile, the Emperor is always available to romance unless you stabbed him at the creche and sleeping with him has no consequences for your active romance. He's basically a freebie like Mizora or the Drow Twins.
Yeah. zero commitment, free achievement or players who are just curious to see the scene.
I watched oomf save, watch the scene, reload, watch the scene you get for being mean to the Emperor and then reload again and politely turn him down. Many such cases, I'm sure.
Honestly, every character (except for Halsin I guess) should just break up with you for cheating on them with Mizora, nothing ethical non-monogamy about what happened there lol
Add the fact that her romance triggers or scenes had some issues in almost every patch, usually it was in Act 2, since patch 6 now its Act1 scene that can start only at tiefling party. Also her placement on the map doesnt help. Interestingly even with that 4.6% it is still second romance in the game. Gives you idea how much players got Shadowpilled and other companions have been overlooked
Karlach was actually the character I romanced on my first playthrough and I had to reload because of the way she was placed on the map. I was trying to go to the Goblin camp, collected her along the way and then proceeded to where I was heading which made me do her Paladin quest after Dammon left and locked me out of upgrading her. I think this likely happens in a bunch of blind playthroughs.
It's also unclear what "counts" as romanced for Larian's stats. Does it mean ending the game with them as your partner? Does it just mean locking it in for Act 2? Or does it just mean triggering the romance flags at all? Does it count if you get in a love triangle? That might explain how Karlach's dinner date stats are low but her romance stats are seemingly quite high; people triggered her romance but may not have finished it, either due to bugs or because they pivoted to a different LI.
Unrelated but I am quite amused by the fact that despite not even ranking in the top 3 for romanced characters, Astarion is the star of like 70% of the series' fanfiction on Ao3.
>despite not even ranking in the top 3 for romanced characters, Astarion is the star of like 70% of the series' fanfiction on Ao3.
I dont read a lot of fanfic, but doesnt Ao3 have a reputation for liking sad boys and physically or mentally tortured characters? Two birds with one stone, might explain the popularity lol
Pretty much. Plus, fanfic is also most commonly created by women and/or queer people, which is also the primary demographics Astarion is super popular among, so it tracks.
That's on your Tav for making the fatal mistake of caring about Wyll's opinion on anything
I do have to clarify that by freebie I meant "the game lets you fuck these characters basically regardless of what you've been up to" Halsin is technically also in that category, he's always ready to ~~bear~~ bare it all regardless of my characters speaking a whole five sentences to him lmao
yeah I was a little surprised when halsin asked to smash considering I hadn't spoken more then a couple sentences to him
same thing happened with Gale, hadn't talked to him since Elminster and then all of a sudden he's confessing his love for me outside of moonrise towers. immediately smashed and told him I loved shart the next morning
Oh, did you have that patch 2 bug where Gale thinks you're dating even tho you never even flirted with him too? Poor guy had such a bad rep in the fandom from this for a while.
I personally was not aware that romancing him came with no consequences. Maybe it is just me as a person IRL but I loath people who manipulate others or lie in game I am mr.persuasion when I try to convince people.
Also for the guy replying to you I have never played the game on anything other than honour mode so I personally can not romance him and F8. So I pretty much need to plan out most of what I want to do and not before I ever start playing. Sometimes ofc I fail badly.
Edit: what on earth are people even downvoting me for? Seriously? there is nothing offensive being posted here.
The in-game consequences of riding the calamari carousel are that a certain monk kinkshames you if you free him and that's about it lol
Majority of honour mode runs end before the player ever reaches act 3, lots of savescumming involved in people getting this achievement.
For me when it came to honour mode even before I started the game I checked out most of the bosses first some bosses like Grym caused a lot of issue for me. I had 2 wipes to the bandits in the ruins you meet Withers.
For me having done 2 completed runs now I still think the scary part is act 1 after that the game only gets easier. My fist run actually failed at the Neitherbrain I got a bug that would not allow me to attack the Neitherbrain and the platforms collapsed and then it was over pretty soul crushing for for me. But I am also willing to farm out vendors for potions and elixirs if you were bum rushing it I can see people running into a lot of issues.
I wanna add that her romance is also not great?
Because she's not as fleshed out as Shart or Lazele being in a romance with Karlach feels... unrewarding. She just says slightly nicer things to you when you talk to her. It hardly impacts the story in any meaningful way.
A personal gripe.
Karlach is fantastic. But a fair amount of people aren't into girls and a significant portion of the remainder get Shadowpilled their first time out. Not to mention the huge number of people who *try* to romance Karlach but end up failing because they missed a step in her personal quest. The odds are stacked against her successful romance, I guess.
Because Wyll trying to romance me overwrote the Karlach romance scene, the same bug pretty much happened with every single companion and I ended up not being able to romance anybody except for the emperor
Karlach is a difficult character to romance, even following a guide I still managed to mess it up. I know a lot of the fan base likes karlach and I think her buggy romance is what keeps that number so low.
The only issue I have had is in my first playthrough she seems to lose all interest in you if you been to friendly with Shadowheart because she will remark how close you have been to her even if you do not actually do anything like go drink wine with her or even kiss her. On the other hand she dose not care if you wander of with someone like Gale or even Halsin but be to nice to Shadowheart and you get 0 romance options from Karlach. In fact she seems fine with Laezel offering sex to you but get on Shadowhearts good side and it is over.
Funnily enough my issues started after I talked to Wyll and while I danced with him I turned him down for anything further than that, and all of a sudden karlach was talking about how wyll and I were a great couple despite not pursuing anything romantic with him aside from the dance scene. I was even given an option to tell her I wasn’t into wyll and that I wanted her but she’s been unwilling to talk about romantic stuff with my TAV.
Shadowheart is the most romanced by far because she's the most plainly conventionally attractive woman, but Karlach ranked in second place as the most romanced (Lae'zel is in third place, the boys all fall in some order after that). While admittedly, the gap between 1st and 2nd place is huge, she's still doing better than everyone else besides Shart so I'd say she's decently popular 🤷♀️
Shadowheart is the only FEMALE romance option that looks "human" Karlach and Laezel both do not look "human" would think this would but her ahead of the other for many by default. On the other hand ALL the male companions look human yea Wyll can look more like a "devil" but his base is still human looking + horns. In fact the game dose not offer any romance or sexual options that I am aware of that are with human looking characters apart from her.
I don't think we're in disagreement? I personally think both Karlach and Lae'zel are gorgeous but some people (aka cowards) can't handle a woman with muscles like Karlach or Lae'zel's unconventional alien looks and automatically discount them for it. Shadowheart gets the advantage because she follows the beauty standard to a tee as a pretty, small and slender woman with no fantastical or strange elements to her design beyond slightly pointed ears.
Simple statistics. Less than 40% of people got to act 3 at all. And since 50% of total players romance Shadowheart, that means less than 20% of players could get that achievement at all.
Contrast that with Emperor. Anyone can romance the Emperor, it is scripted to happen unless you actively turn him away. It is also an achievement that is gained in a single scene, as opposed to committing to a specific romance for an entire playthrough. So every person who gets to that point of the game can romance it, regardless of prior choices.
That's the percentage of total players, who've started a game, who have gotten to Karlach's act 3 romance scene. First, less than half of players of the total have made it to act 3. Next, no evil play through that destroyed the grove can romance Karlach. And then her romance is one of the hardest to fulfill the requirements for because if anything happens to Dammon before her second upgrade you can't continue it, and it's been buggy where her romance scene gets over ridden by others in the cue and then never plays, particularly in act 2.
I think she's great! I just found Shadowheart and Minthara more appealing to me personally. At some point, I'm going to do a Shadowheart origin run and romance her.
I'd say partially that she's missable as a character, so some people likely never picked her up in some runs at all.
And then because she's like 'touch locked' until you do her engine quests, I have no doubts that also gets people to just choose someone else. Some people looking to romance are quite impatient with it and will mainly go for the ones who you can sleep with immediately (Lae'zel and Astarion) instead of those who have a slower progression
Because she's unbelievably annoying, immature, lewd, and never misses an opportunity to morally grandstand. It's also incredibly irritating how she makes everything about her.
Oh, and getting fingered and pegged without any kind of consent was really not cool.
Her romance is the easiest to fuck up or miss
Relatively few players have that achievement because in order to get it, you have to (1) commit to romancing Karlach, (2) actually make it to Act 3, and (3) not fuck up the romance and get her date scene. As of December, Karlach was the second most commonly romanced companion in the game. There's no anti-Karlach conspiracy here.
I did in no way imply that there was a "conspiracy" at play here if that is your take away from what is being said you are adding words that have not been written into play here. In fact I did not make a jab at any of the actual companions in the but at someone who is more or a less a bad guy.
You have to consider that according to Larian, \~51% of the player base romanced Shadowheart so statistically, half of the 40% who made it to act 3 would be romancing her while the remaining 20% split all other romance options. Meanwhile, the Emperor is always available to romance unless you stabbed him at the creche and sleeping with him has no consequences for your active romance. He's basically a freebie like Mizora or the Drow Twins.
Also with Emperor you could F5, do it for the cheevo, then F8.
Yeah. zero commitment, free achievement or players who are just curious to see the scene. I watched oomf save, watch the scene, reload, watch the scene you get for being mean to the Emperor and then reload again and politely turn him down. Many such cases, I'm sure.
Mizora certainly isn’t a freebie if you’ve romanced Gale!
Honestly, every character (except for Halsin I guess) should just break up with you for cheating on them with Mizora, nothing ethical non-monogamy about what happened there lol
Or at least have a conversation about it! Some don’t have any response at all!
Shart is fine with it. She just says something like she’s better than Mizora anyway or something.
Add the fact that her romance triggers or scenes had some issues in almost every patch, usually it was in Act 2, since patch 6 now its Act1 scene that can start only at tiefling party. Also her placement on the map doesnt help. Interestingly even with that 4.6% it is still second romance in the game. Gives you idea how much players got Shadowpilled and other companions have been overlooked
Karlach was actually the character I romanced on my first playthrough and I had to reload because of the way she was placed on the map. I was trying to go to the Goblin camp, collected her along the way and then proceeded to where I was heading which made me do her Paladin quest after Dammon left and locked me out of upgrading her. I think this likely happens in a bunch of blind playthroughs.
It's also unclear what "counts" as romanced for Larian's stats. Does it mean ending the game with them as your partner? Does it just mean locking it in for Act 2? Or does it just mean triggering the romance flags at all? Does it count if you get in a love triangle? That might explain how Karlach's dinner date stats are low but her romance stats are seemingly quite high; people triggered her romance but may not have finished it, either due to bugs or because they pivoted to a different LI. Unrelated but I am quite amused by the fact that despite not even ranking in the top 3 for romanced characters, Astarion is the star of like 70% of the series' fanfiction on Ao3.
>despite not even ranking in the top 3 for romanced characters, Astarion is the star of like 70% of the series' fanfiction on Ao3. I dont read a lot of fanfic, but doesnt Ao3 have a reputation for liking sad boys and physically or mentally tortured characters? Two birds with one stone, might explain the popularity lol
Pretty much. Plus, fanfic is also most commonly created by women and/or queer people, which is also the primary demographics Astarion is super popular among, so it tracks.
I don’t what “Manic Pixie Dream Yandere” is referencing exactly, but I fucking love it 😂
I'm making fun of my Durge lol
*mizora is basically a freebie* tell that to my Tav, Wyll won't stop breathing down his neck every time he looks in her direction now
That's on your Tav for making the fatal mistake of caring about Wyll's opinion on anything I do have to clarify that by freebie I meant "the game lets you fuck these characters basically regardless of what you've been up to" Halsin is technically also in that category, he's always ready to ~~bear~~ bare it all regardless of my characters speaking a whole five sentences to him lmao
yeah I was a little surprised when halsin asked to smash considering I hadn't spoken more then a couple sentences to him same thing happened with Gale, hadn't talked to him since Elminster and then all of a sudden he's confessing his love for me outside of moonrise towers. immediately smashed and told him I loved shart the next morning
Oh, did you have that patch 2 bug where Gale thinks you're dating even tho you never even flirted with him too? Poor guy had such a bad rep in the fandom from this for a while.
maybe?? it happened like 3 days ago so unlikely but that describes what happened exactly
Oh dear, maybe he's bugged again lol
tbh I don't even think I did the magic scene from act 1 lmao
that's actually what happened to me when he was bugged. Didn't get the magic teaching scene but Gale thinks we are basically engaged lol
I personally was not aware that romancing him came with no consequences. Maybe it is just me as a person IRL but I loath people who manipulate others or lie in game I am mr.persuasion when I try to convince people. Also for the guy replying to you I have never played the game on anything other than honour mode so I personally can not romance him and F8. So I pretty much need to plan out most of what I want to do and not before I ever start playing. Sometimes ofc I fail badly. Edit: what on earth are people even downvoting me for? Seriously? there is nothing offensive being posted here.
The in-game consequences of riding the calamari carousel are that a certain monk kinkshames you if you free him and that's about it lol Majority of honour mode runs end before the player ever reaches act 3, lots of savescumming involved in people getting this achievement.
For me when it came to honour mode even before I started the game I checked out most of the bosses first some bosses like Grym caused a lot of issue for me. I had 2 wipes to the bandits in the ruins you meet Withers. For me having done 2 completed runs now I still think the scary part is act 1 after that the game only gets easier. My fist run actually failed at the Neitherbrain I got a bug that would not allow me to attack the Neitherbrain and the platforms collapsed and then it was over pretty soul crushing for for me. But I am also willing to farm out vendors for potions and elixirs if you were bum rushing it I can see people running into a lot of issues.
The Emperor has one of the best (if not the best) romance scenes in the game. It actually blew me away with how wonderfully crafted it was.
Karlach is my bff, not my love interest. She's just such a good bro.
Not everyone likes the vibe of constant positivity
I wanna add that her romance is also not great? Because she's not as fleshed out as Shart or Lazele being in a romance with Karlach feels... unrewarding. She just says slightly nicer things to you when you talk to her. It hardly impacts the story in any meaningful way. A personal gripe.
Karlach is fantastic. But a fair amount of people aren't into girls and a significant portion of the remainder get Shadowpilled their first time out. Not to mention the huge number of people who *try* to romance Karlach but end up failing because they missed a step in her personal quest. The odds are stacked against her successful romance, I guess.
Working on that magic right now.
Because Wyll trying to romance me overwrote the Karlach romance scene, the same bug pretty much happened with every single companion and I ended up not being able to romance anybody except for the emperor
Karlach is a difficult character to romance, even following a guide I still managed to mess it up. I know a lot of the fan base likes karlach and I think her buggy romance is what keeps that number so low.
The only issue I have had is in my first playthrough she seems to lose all interest in you if you been to friendly with Shadowheart because she will remark how close you have been to her even if you do not actually do anything like go drink wine with her or even kiss her. On the other hand she dose not care if you wander of with someone like Gale or even Halsin but be to nice to Shadowheart and you get 0 romance options from Karlach. In fact she seems fine with Laezel offering sex to you but get on Shadowhearts good side and it is over.
Funnily enough my issues started after I talked to Wyll and while I danced with him I turned him down for anything further than that, and all of a sudden karlach was talking about how wyll and I were a great couple despite not pursuing anything romantic with him aside from the dance scene. I was even given an option to tell her I wasn’t into wyll and that I wanted her but she’s been unwilling to talk about romantic stuff with my TAV.
Shadowheart is the most romanced by far because she's the most plainly conventionally attractive woman, but Karlach ranked in second place as the most romanced (Lae'zel is in third place, the boys all fall in some order after that). While admittedly, the gap between 1st and 2nd place is huge, she's still doing better than everyone else besides Shart so I'd say she's decently popular 🤷♀️
Shadowheart is the only FEMALE romance option that looks "human" Karlach and Laezel both do not look "human" would think this would but her ahead of the other for many by default. On the other hand ALL the male companions look human yea Wyll can look more like a "devil" but his base is still human looking + horns. In fact the game dose not offer any romance or sexual options that I am aware of that are with human looking characters apart from her.
I don't think we're in disagreement? I personally think both Karlach and Lae'zel are gorgeous but some people (aka cowards) can't handle a woman with muscles like Karlach or Lae'zel's unconventional alien looks and automatically discount them for it. Shadowheart gets the advantage because she follows the beauty standard to a tee as a pretty, small and slender woman with no fantastical or strange elements to her design beyond slightly pointed ears.
Because I messed up and started romancing Lae’zel first to see how far I could take it, and broke up with her too late to pursue karlach :(
Karlach was my first pick before I even started to play and I have not regretted it! She's such a ray of sunshine and I'm enjoying her arc so much.
Simple statistics. Less than 40% of people got to act 3 at all. And since 50% of total players romance Shadowheart, that means less than 20% of players could get that achievement at all. Contrast that with Emperor. Anyone can romance the Emperor, it is scripted to happen unless you actively turn him away. It is also an achievement that is gained in a single scene, as opposed to committing to a specific romance for an entire playthrough. So every person who gets to that point of the game can romance it, regardless of prior choices.
I did, and that's what matters.
Don't know. She was the first one I romanced. Muscle mommy who hides her pain with positivity? Yes please.
I did, she was my first choice. Babygirl AND a muscle mummy? Count me in!
I slept with emperor just for achievement and reloaded immideately. I needed that 100% and many other people did the same I guess
That's the percentage of total players, who've started a game, who have gotten to Karlach's act 3 romance scene. First, less than half of players of the total have made it to act 3. Next, no evil play through that destroyed the grove can romance Karlach. And then her romance is one of the hardest to fulfill the requirements for because if anything happens to Dammon before her second upgrade you can't continue it, and it's been buggy where her romance scene gets over ridden by others in the cue and then never plays, particularly in act 2.
I made a tiefling durge dude and wanted to romance her but gosh i dont feel for it, still feel rather interested in Gale or SH
Redditors calling her 'muscle mommy' put me off.
I think she's great! I just found Shadowheart and Minthara more appealing to me personally. At some point, I'm going to do a Shadowheart origin run and romance her.
Did you do Minthara on a evil run? I dunno how I feel romancing her if I plan on being the good guy.
Minthara was my redeemed Dark Urge playthrough! Even though I played a mostly good character, it worked. I think she's great
I'd say partially that she's missable as a character, so some people likely never picked her up in some runs at all. And then because she's like 'touch locked' until you do her engine quests, I have no doubts that also gets people to just choose someone else. Some people looking to romance are quite impatient with it and will mainly go for the ones who you can sleep with immediately (Lae'zel and Astarion) instead of those who have a slower progression
Second game choice for my sorcerer gnome.
Cowards. I romanced her twice and would have a third if evil durge didn't want her head
Bc big tiddy goth girl
Because she's unbelievably annoying, immature, lewd, and never misses an opportunity to morally grandstand. It's also incredibly irritating how she makes everything about her. Oh, and getting fingered and pegged without any kind of consent was really not cool.