Finishing game without joining a faction

[AeonsLegend]

Is this a thing or do you always have to join a group at the end so you can get to the island? Is there a way where you can just go to the island yourself? I haven't done any testing.

[Tick]

You can absolutely go by yourself.  I've never done it, but there's a (kind of terrible) ending for it.  I think you need to upgrade your ship and crew to handle it by yourselves.

[Celan]

You need the dragonwing sails and blackwood hull, and an experienced crew. I think it was a deckhand and a boatswain skill check.

[aktivb]

I just took the ghost ship and left Aeldys hanging

[Tarlonniel]

The "go it alone" ending is my default, but I always take the ghost ship first, even if I don't use it. Ghost ship!!

[wRAR]

Is this a thing or do you always have to join a group at the end so you can get to the island? Is there a way where you can just go to the island yourself? I haven't done any testing.

Even the journal says you can (it also says how).

Edited June 26, 2018 by wRAR

[omgFIREBALLS]

You need the dragonwing sails and blackwood hull, and an experienced crew. I think it was a deckhand and a boatswain skill check.

Deckhand and helmsman, so you don't need a ship large enough for a boatswain slot. The skill check for each is 3 (expert). I also recall reading that even if you fail those, you just get injured crew. Can't slack on the hull/sails though. Whatever else might look good, Blackwood Hull and Dragonwing Sails have plot armor and nothing else you can simply buy does.

[Zap Gun For Hire]

You can absolutely go by yourself.  I've never done it, but there's a (kind of terrible) ending for it.  I think you need to upgrade your ship and crew to handle it by yourselves.

Terrible, like many things, is in the eye of the beholder. 

 

Also, when taking into to the fate of your companions, the go it alone ending is one of the few (only?) endings where there aren't terrible repercussions for at least some of them.

 

Then again, I tend to put much more weight into the fates of my friends and the local communities/people I helped along the way than the big picure.  I tend to think the 30,000 foot look at things will get overwritten by the next game anyway sort itself out in the fullness of time.

[Tick]

 

You can absolutely go by yourself. I've never done it, but there's a (kind of terrible) ending for it. I think you need to upgrade your ship and crew to handle it by yourselves.

Terrible, like many things, is in the eye of the beholder.

 

Also, when taking into to the fate of your companions, the go it alone ending is one of the few (only?) endings where there aren't terrible repercussions for at least some of them.

 

Then again, I tend to put much more weight into the fates of my friends and the local communities/people I helped along the way than the big picure. I tend to think the 30,000 foot look at things will get overwritten by the next game anyway sort itself out in the fullness of time.

 

Lol, that last bit.

 

The companion part is hard. I was able to avoid it with a loophole, but otherwise it sucks.

 

I just feel worse letting things get worse because I threw up my hands and gave up. Goes back into that argument about whether inaction is better or worse than flawed /potentially bad actions.

[Tarlonniel]

I tend to think the 30,000 foot look at things will get overwritten by the next game anyway sort itself out in the fullness of time.

 

Yeah, that's what really gets me about the end game choices. They sound all grandiose, with important and far-reaching effects, but come the (theoretical) next game, it won't matter whether you gifted the Vailians with animancy heaven or crowned Aeldys as Storm Queen or just decided to let the idiots fight it out among themselves - nothing will change except a few lines of dialogue and maybe a quest or two. Such is life in RPG land.

 

Goes back into that argument about whether inaction is better or worse than flawed /potentially bad actions.

 

That depends on whether an action is good or bad in and of itself, or only in relation to some ultimate goal.

Edited June 27, 2018 by Tarlonniel

[Mannock]

Is this a thing or do you always have to join a group at the end so you can get to the island? Is there a way where you can just go to the island yourself? I haven't done any testing.

I did on my first playthrough and it worked perfectly fine. And it is clearly stated how to achieve it, when you get that far in the game.

[kmbogd]

In one of the recent interviews, one of the developers was saying that they were surprised by the large number of people that decided to get to the island without joining any faction.  So, not only that it is possible, but also it looks like an important part of the player base has decided to do so.

[Mannock]

In one of the recent interviews, one of the developers was saying that they were surprised by the large number of people that decided to get to the island without joining any faction.  So, not only that it is possible, but also it looks like an important part of the player base has decided to do so.

Yeah, though I'm surprised that Obsidian was surprised. All of the factions are unpleasant (more or less) and there is clearly not a "good" faction option. And I'm not complaining about it, but for me it's obvious that you'd have to roleplay a pretty fanatic character to stick with a given faction to the end.

[bugarup]

 

In one of the recent interviews, one of the developers was saying that they were surprised by the large number of people that decided to get to the island without joining any faction.  So, not only that it is possible, but also it looks like an important part of the player base has decided to do so.

Yeah, though I'm surprised that Obsidian was surprised. All of the factions are unpleasant (more or less) and there is clearly not a "good" faction option. And I'm not complaining about it, but for me it's obvious that you'd have to roleplay a pretty fanatic character to stick with a given faction to the end.

 

 

Not necessarily -- it could be  a cynical character who just wants to throw in with the winners, an entrepreneurial  character looking out for profit, an indifferent character who's all "whatever if it takes me where I want to go", a diplomatic character who understands there's time for compromises, etc, etc...

 

Obsidian might have been surprised because Deadfire's "loner ending = downer ending", but that's somewhat a novelty -- usually loner endings in RPGs are pretty cool, like in New Vegas, or (my personal favorite) VtM: Bloodlines. Chances are a lot of players picked it out of inertia, expecting the cool to happen again...and then it didn't. 

[Mannock]

Not necessarily -- it could be  a cynical character who just wants to throw in with the winners, an entrepreneurial  character looking out for profit, an indifferent character who's all "whatever if it takes me where I want to go", a diplomatic character who understands there's time for compromises, etc, etc...

 

Obsidian might have been surprised because Deadfire's "loner ending = downer ending", but that's somewhat a novelty -- usually loner endings in RPGs are pretty cool, like in New Vegas, or (my personal favorite) VtM: Bloodlines. Chances are a lot of players picked it out of inertia, expecting the cool to happen again...and then it didn't.

I have no data on this, but I get the feeling that most people want to do the "good" or "right" thing and there is no faction that complies with that. So I think that is why the loner ending got big numbers this time around really. Just speculation though.

[Tarlonniel]

I wouldn't call it a downer ending. If you decide to abandon the factions, it's probably because you don't care all that much about what happens to them, so the fact that they keep on doing what they've been doing isn't terribly heartbreaking.

 

I found it interesting that there wasn't a Steam achievement for going it alone.

[Mannock]

I wouldn't call it a downer ending. If you decide to abandon the factions, it's probably because you don't care all that much about what happens to them, so the fact that they keep on doing what they've been doing isn't terribly heartbreaking.

 

I found it interesting that there wasn't a Steam achievement for going it alone.

I agree.

 

I actually found it surprising how few achievements there were overall. Seems like there was a potential to have a lot of cool and odd achievements if Obsidian had wanted to.

[wRAR]

Designing achievements properly is hard.

[Suen]

I wouldn't call it a downer ending. If you decide to abandon the factions, it's probably because you don't care all that much about what happens to them, so the fact that they keep on doing what they've been doing isn't terribly heartbreaking.

My reason was that I couldn't see a way to even attempt to broker a treaty between some of them. 

Nothing in the game allowed me to improve the situation, and whenever I was "helping" I felt I was only making everything worse.   

 

Have you got anything without spam?

Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.

I don't want ANY spam!

 

The ending was a downer, but having read all the possible endings on the wiki, I'd say you can only get bad endings no matter what you do. I'll keep my apocalyptic ending, at least it was grand. 

[wRAR]

The ending was a downer, but having read all the possible endings on the wiki, I'd say you can only get bad endings no matter what you do. 

Huh.

[aimlessgun]

I just took the ghost ship and left Aeldys hanging

 

Yeah personally I think this is the most stylish way to do it

[aimlessgun]

I have a question: when you don't choose a faction, why do you have to randomly fight one of them after turning off the storm? What even selects who shows up for that?

 

In my game the Rautai showed up, didn't acknowledge the fact that I was on extremely good terms with them, and for some reason felt we had to fight because....why? I wasn't claiming the island for any other faction, just there to deal with Eothas. Seems like there should have been a dialogue like "ok good job winning the free for all and making it here, do your thing, I'll be over here talking to the giant adra statue who may be about to end the world"

 

 

I wouldn't call it a downer ending. If you decide to abandon the factions, it's probably because you don't care all that much about what happens to them, so the fact that they keep on doing what they've been doing isn't terribly heartbreaking.

 

Is that what people are talking about when they refer to a 'bad' or 'downer' ending? I was confused because there was nothing in the loner ending which seemed 'bad' caused by you going alone. Factions fighting is like a neutral ending, if you don't personally step in and murder some of the factions of course they will fight. 

Edited June 27, 2018 by aimlessgun

[Celan]

I think what people mean by the "bad ending" is that there's a certain amount of chaos in the Deadfire due to the Huana's decentralization and no faction getting a leg up on any other.

 

For instance in my ending which also had the Principi taking over food supply to the Roparu, the Gullet becomes a hive of piracy and Neketaka sounds like it turns into a free-for-all.

[Tarlonniel]

I have a question: when you don't choose a faction, why do you have to randomly fight one of them after turning off the storm? What even selects who shows up for that?

 

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?

[SleepyTemplar]

 

I have a question: when you don't choose a faction, why do you have to randomly fight one of them after turning off the storm? What even selects who shows up for that?

 

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.