SleepyTemplar

I feel like the Watcher should just form his own magic club which will be much more awesome than the one with the folks responsible for most of the spells you use.

I believe you get a free Skaen doll on an island instead of having to perform impromptu surgery on one of your companions to extract the doll from their twitching corpse in Skaen's murder temple if you sided with Woedica. NOTE: The doll isn't very good from what I understand.

Maia deep down really wanted to shoot her boss. Since you put her in a position where the both of you were going to be killed since you knew too much, she finally got to act on it.

The think the Huana are overall the best faction, but Castol-led VTC is pretty close. RDC is good if you ignore the corpses. Each side has its flaws though.

Lol. "You know, for the greater good." It's kind of interesting hearing someone actually aim for the bad endings. That basically sums up the RDC questline.

That depends on how evil you want to be. I offer Serafen to slavers which has him leave the party and get chased by said slavers so he's... unavailable. Maia quitting the navy is her worst ending, but only appears to happen if you side with the Principi (and romanced her and did all her stuff), but doing this keeps her in the group. I murder the Watershapers guild before leaving for Ukaizo which causes Tekehu to leave the party. Aloth will die in his ending if you meet him at the Engwithan ruins but don't let him join then or when you encounter him again in Port Maje (you can still recruit him in Port Maje, but if you visit the Wahaki his corpse will be in their building) so you can't take him either. So pretty much Eder, Xoti, Maia, Pallegina are available for the end game (but Serafen and Tekehu can be used until you want to lose them). I played the first game trying the same thing. Sided with Woedica, broke promises to the other gods, left the Doemenels in charge (with them being public about it), and ensured my companions had a bad time. It was quite fun after being a super nice guy. I think siding with Aeldys is slightly more evil and probably more problematic for fixing the Wheel in the long-run (plus Pallegina dies), but Alvari is pretty hardcore. I haven't finished it because I've run into a bug getting the Splintered Reef undead take out restaurant courtesy of Crookspur ending slide to work. If you're going to be evil, you have to give 100%.

Apparently it's determined by which faction you've helped the most but didn't choose to side with. I agree that it comes off as a bit silly in some cases, but, uh, gotta have end game bosses in an RPG, I guess? Besides the dragon? You know, they could always have had X faction show up riding the dragon for extra style points. Especially since a faction showing up after the dragon is very anticlimactic. It would have been nicer if you could use social skills to get them to stand down.

I went with Aeldys and pretty much did everything to ensure people suffered. The Gullet starved, ships were lost at Splintered Reef, slavers kept going despite Aeldys, and all the companions either died or were miserable (except Tekehu, who went off to do art, so I guess he made out okay while the Watershapers guild was slaughtered by the Watcher). Bonus points for feeding Kana to the blood pool, not telling Maia, romancing her, and getting her to quit the navy for a bad ending. Then I sided with the Huana leaving Castol in charge of the VTC and Pim in charge of the Principi, the Gullet fed by the queen, slavers and Splintered Reef wiped out, and in general everyone happy. Except Tikawara because they have no happy ending with the Huana winning. Third time was Royal Deadfire Company all the way. We brought peace to Deadfire by murdering everyone in our way and building a new civilization over their corpses. You know, for the greater good. Still got to do endings for a happy Castol-led VTC and an evil Alvari-led VTC. I look forward to new ending slides with the DLC.

I've considered using "Ngati's ***" ...bass?

What a cop out! They should have had her attack you no matter what excuse you gave. I know, it is kind of a let down that openly boasting to doing a pretty evil act in the first game just to rub it in their family's member face (for a small amount of power at the time, no less) doesn't have Maia turn on you or attack you for being a complete monster. Or Eder, Aloth, and Pallegina not particularly caring beyond expressing shock that Kana's death was no accident. I wouldn't have minded an addendum to Maia's personal quest to have another secret missive targeting the Watcher. Or even an ending slide similar to beating Thaos without dealing with the Eyeless to get a slide that you don't have to worry about calm weather sailing home because Maia shot you.

I played with the RDC path albeit trying to make it as good as possible (although that path is more "the greater good" at best) as a Kind Wayfarer paladin. I wanted the Crookspur slide where the RDC wipes them out, which means they have to be active. But I couldn't get the final RDC quest until I did the Crookspur quest due to how I had progressed. So I wiped out the Wahaki and finished with the slavers intact. Atsura's sputtering disbelief that my Kind Wayfarer (who had otherwise maxed out benevolence dispositions) would side with slavers purely for an ending slide was worth the entire run. I felt like I was doing some chessmastering right back at Atsura. All for the greater good. But yeah, Atsura was a fun slimy character.

Do you really have to let him die? I was watching a walkthrough, and it seems like with a high enough diplomacy skill, you can pressure the Rauatai lady in Port Majae to take the scroll despite the stalker. She doesn't die but she has to leave early, which I *assume * saves the governor. Yes, that will complete Maia's quest but the assassination won't occur (although I think someone mentioned a bug occurring where the assassination went off anyway, hopefully it's been fixed).

Sadly she doesn't appear to have a slide reflecting this other than the one that plays if Kana died. I didn't complete the game with her knowing although I did complete a super evil Aeldys playthrough where I sacrificed Kana to the blood pool, never told Maia, romanced her, and convinced her to quit Rauatai's navy to make her have an awful ending. I suspect if you *did* tell her then her refusal to speak with you probably gets her "happy with the RDC" ending slide. But whenever the Crookspur/Splintered Reef undead takeout restaurant ending slide is no longer bugged I'm shooting to do an evil Alvari-led VTC playthrough, so I'll tell her in that playthrough and see what ending she winds up with.

Is your character a priest? Well, I may have been channeling a bit of Durance's personality in naming it, so that's like a bit of priest. Plus I was playing a Bleak Walker and paladins can be sort of priest-like. So maybe 64% of a priest. I'm sure the math adds up but correct me if wrong.

Named my junk The Filthy Whore.

Other than refusing the final mission with the RDC and killing them, I could only convince Maia to stay with me after siding with the Principi and talking to her and only if I maxed her reputation and did all the events of her relationship (this led to her quitting the navy and getting dishonorably discharged). If I spoke to her after siding with the Huana or VTC she wouldn't stay even if I had max rep/romance completed. Not speaking to her when siding with the Principi didn't get the discharged from the navy slide if I remember correctly. I also did have her stay in the party if I had her waiting on the ship and then blew up the powderhouse, which had her just glare at me whenever I tried to talk to her (and I got a normal ending slide for Maia). Not sure if that was a bug. Maia is pretty finicky if you go Huana or VTC.

That's what happens if you tell her you sacrificed her brother to the blood pool.

Hello, Resolving the quest "A Paradise of the Mind" by offering to have slaves delivered to Splintered Reef appears to have an ending slide associated with this outcome, but offering to have slaves sent from Crookspur causes an alliance to form with Mezzenago but no ending slide with slaves being sent to Splintered Reef occurs (Crookspur has its normal ending if they are left alone and no Splintered Reef ending slide plays). Speaking with Mezzenago after offering this alliance has him remark you haven't delivered through on the bargain, but talking to Master Kua or the auctioneer on Crookspur gives no dialogue options to request they send slaves. I had already completed "Tip of the Spear" for Crookspur and Master Kua's dialogue continues to let me tell him over and over I've dealt with the Wahaki without any new dialogue options. Completing "A Paradise of the Mind" this way still grants one access to the Lifeless assisting the Watcher in the final navy battle outside Ondra's Mortar. It's just the ending slide that appears unaffected.

Yeah, I thought I heard that something bad happened if you did and having played to try and break as many promises as possible with my super cruel run I was curious if anything was there.

Is there any way to break your oath to return the blade? Any negative consequences? I tried just giving the sword to the ghost ship lady (nothing to say to the death guard in the crypt), exchanging the sword for the ship (the death guard in the crypt gets pissed and attacks), and going back with the sword after getting the ghost ship and I can choose to return the blade (or decline for now, which he suggests bad stuff will happen if I don't give it back soon). But I then went to Ukaizo with no apparent ill effects. So rather curious about that.

It essentially says "too bad" and then sucker punches you before merging with you. Or at least that's how it should go, since my lost portion was going on about how much more evil it was than me.

That might happen, but I had RDC become my rival after refusing their last quest and killing their admiral when they went hostile. I had avoided their quests other than what was needed to get to their final quest to refuse and kill them so that I could prevent Castol from being framed for the sabotage the queen tasks you with.

That sounds like a pretty good outcome to me. Getting really tired of the imperialist, socialist sharks. Did Maia leave you? How did you handle Sayuka? I skipped Sakuya other than to turn in A Matter of Import and finish Serafen's quest. Maia did not leave me (she seemed pretty chill with murdering her bosses) and said nothing.I tried accepting Karu's offer of allegiance and then refusing to go through with it (so I had to murder everyone in the RDC HQ) and when I spoke to Maia afterwards she left. I did complete the quests at Sayuka - I killed the druids (only because I couldn't side with them) but I flooded the machine at Cignath Mor. I also completed Maia's quest but unwittingly helped her assassin buddies. However, when I spoke to her after she completed her own assassination, she seemed to admire the Huana for picking up right where their ranga left off, so I thought maybe I could reason with her. Yeah, I didn't talk to Maia as I did not want her to leave. I only convinced her to stay when I had max rep, romance, and sided with Aeldys-led Principi (got her dishonorable discharge ending doing so).

That sounds like a pretty good outcome to me. Getting really tired of the imperialist, socialist sharks. Did Maia leave you? How did you handle Sayuka? I skipped Sakuya other than to turn in A Matter of Import and finish Serafen's quest. Maia did not leave me (she seemed pretty chill with murdering her bosses) and said nothing.

So I finished a playthrough siding with the Huana, killed Furrante and Aeldys to put Pim in charge, did the VTC quests to ensure Castol remained director, and killed the Royal Deadfire folks after refusing their final quest to assassinate the queen to ensure Castol stayed in his position. My strongest rival turned out to be the Royal Deadfire Company (which was ideal for the ending I was shooting for) but I have no idea how I got them as my rival instead of the VTC, since I resolved Poko Kohara in favor of the VTC (I couldn't get Castol to remain as director otherwise) and only did A Matter of Import to push their questline to offer A Final Maneuver (although Atsura did congratulate me on taking out the slavers that I did for the Huana quest A Fruitful Alliance). I did do Maia's personal quest (but ensured both agents the missives were for couldn't do the assassinations, either by being tailed or catching a mild case of death). So not sure what quests impact this formula exactly. But if someone is trying to figure it out that's how it played out this time. I am likely going to try a VTC/RDC playthrough trying to go for as positive an ending as I did playing Huana and will try to post what rivals I got.