All God Challenges Theorycrafting Thread

[Zenzen]

Hi Folks!  Happy Holidays!

 

I recently completed my fourth run of Deadfire, and I want to attempt to complete every god challenge at once to spice up the difficulty.  I was hoping players more experienced than I could chime in and provide suggestions in this thread on strategies to make this challenge work.

 

NOTE:  A 12^th challenge will be released at some point.  I will likely update this thread whenever it gets announced.

 

Magran's Fires, for reference:

Abydon: Equipment will degrade over time and must be repaired through Enchanting.

Berath: Any party member Knocked Out for 10 seconds is Killed, you cannot flee from combat.

Eothas: Complete each critical path quest by specific dates or the game ends.

Galawain: Beasts gain random powerful effects.

Hylea: Vela follows the Watcher and must be kept alive or the game ends.

Magran: The game cannot be paused or slowed.

Ondra: Storms are larger and more dangerous, ships are more experienced and sail faster in pursuit.

Rymrgand: Food items spoil after a certain amount of time. (5 days?)

Skaen: -7m Fog Reveal Radius at night and indoors, held light sources increase reveal radius.

Wael: All numbers except item count, party attributes, skill, and level are hidden.

Woedica: Per Encounter resources become Per Rest, Party health no longer regens between combats, only prepared meals will recover health, injuries and resources.

 

Obviously, this is going to be monumentally difficult.  This post is also going to have a monumental amount of information in it.  After thinking about the challenges over the past week, I’ve broken up my thoughts into three big questions I need help with in order to succeed.  1) What can I do to minimize the effects of the challenges? 2) How can I maximize quest xp and minimize battle difficulty and travel time? and 3) What kind of party handles these challenges the best?  Are there essential items that we need along the way?

Countering the Challenges:

Abydon: monks and casters are good.. This is mostly an inconvenient money sink more than a large-scale problem.

Berath: Reload whenever a party member gets KO’d until you get revival spells. “Cannot flee from combat” could actually be useful to us. Its still possible to split pull enemies with Berath’s challenge, but you will be locked in combat with them (this needs testing beyond the first island).

Eothas: We will have to carefully route a strategy to get through the game while accruing as much EXP as possible in the shortest possible amount of travel. More on that later.

Galawain: Really not a big deal after the first half. Having charm effects on nasty beasts (who normally have a lower will on average) can turn the tides, though.

Hylea: Vela follows around the Watcher, and has minimal defenses and HP. Spam Withdraw/Beetle Shell/Stasis Shell on her to keep her out of combat.Make the Watcher a ranged character so she’s further from the action. Avoid ship boarding where she could get instagibbed by an opening pistol barrage.

Magran: automate your characters as much as possible. Hotkey everything. Practice starcraft???

Ondra: Ships are still a pushover with a good crew. Get Lord Darryn’s Voulge early to breeze through storms. The main problem with this one is increasing travel time and burning up the Eothas clock.

Rymrgand: Not too terrible. Leave food standing on the map if you aren’t going to use it right away. Use merchant ships to purchase supplies on the go.

Skaen: Haven’t played with this one much yet, could use insight on it. Using St. Drogga’s Skull and Xoti’s lantern seems like a good idea, though.

Wael: The wiki is your friend. Not knowing how long CC is going to last and the accuracy of the attack you make is going to be very annoying.

Woedica: Build a party with sustained healing and sustained damage. Use lots of consumables. We want to minimize resting to deal with Eothas’ challenge. Maybe split pull enemies and use passive in combat healing from a Chanter to heal up to avoid the regeneration-between-combats penalty.

Quest Routing
This section is entirely untested for now, but we want to get as much XP as possible while minimizing travel time incurred by Eothas’ challenge.  I borrow heavily from Dorftek’s guide on getting early XP, which you can read here: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/103025-guide-grow-strong-before-fighting-anything/.   Here’s my plan so far:

Part 1: Solo stealth through start island (might not be possible with Vela?) -> Grab Eder, Xoti and Serafen (for quest xp) -> Rush to Fort Deadlight to kill Benweth -> Kill Ora the Mad -> Do Cave of Xaur Tuk-Tuk -> Oathbinder Sanctum (maybe?) -> Neketaka

Part 2: Neketaka: Do all Queens Birth quests peacefully -> Bathhouse fetch quest/Serafen advancement -> pick up Arkemyr quest -> Head to Palace -> Pick up Magranite burial quest -> Head to Gaun temple, advance Eder and Xoti, finish Magran quest -> Animancy tower quest-> Brass Citadel (for Arkemyr), and advance RDC questline -> Steal from Arkemyr -> Hasongo.

I skip the Gullet for now because I want to do the underground area and Delver’s Row all in one go, and I don’t have the quests or the levels to take on the worm. I might be wrong though?

Part 3: Hasongo: ->Sayuka to finish Serafen’s quest (Don’t do anything else in Sayuka) ->Bounties around Rikuhu Islands ->Pick up Lord Darryn’s Voulge -> Black Isle Bastards/Hall of Unseeing -> Ashen Maw.

Part 4: Turn in all bounties -> do all Gullet/underground quests -> Finish Xoti -> temple of Berath catacombs ->Finish Eder-> do the remaining faction quests required -> End the game.

Stuff I want to do but I don’t know where it fits in: Oathbinder Sanctum, Temple of Tangaloa Ruins, Forgotten Catacombs. Would love to pick up Lord Darryn’s Voulge earlier as it trivializes Ondra’s challenge.

 

Party Composition

The good news is that we get to play with a full party, and I'm not so masochistic as to attempt this on Solo or Ironman Mode.  The bad news is that, well, combat is HARD.  Broadly speaking, these are things that I want my party to have, in rough order of importance:

1) Withdraw spells/scroll spam to keep Vela safe. Watcher should be a ranged character so she stays further out of the fight.

2) Access to the Brilliant Inspiration to allow me to regain resources Per-Encounter instead of Per-Rest, getting over Woedica’s challenge. Ciphers, Tacticians, and Blood Mages are all appealing.

3) Access to constant regeneration. Probably want a Chanter with Ancient Memory to top my team off during combat. Steel Garrote and Kind Wayfarer paladins are self-sufficient and provide group healing as well.

4) Ability to swap Eder, Xoti, and Serafen in at times to complete their personal quests. These quests require minimal backtracking and are worth a good chunk of xp and rewards.

5) Characters who don’t fall apart when their weapon breaks mid-combat.

The Party Thus Far

1) Ascendant Cipher: Ideally going to spam Brilliant on as many characters as possible when ascended. Probably a ranged character. Single classed to get access to key abilities quicker.

2) Some kind of Priest: Withdraw for safety on Vela, salvation of time to extend brilliant, barring death’s door if I need to get really cheesy. Open to suggestions on a multiclass. Swaps with Xoti for story sections to get her quest XP.

3) Some kind of Chanter: Ancient memory saves us from having to rest to regain health out of combat. Herald (Kind Wayfarer/Troubadour) is probably the way to go but I’ve done that two times already, would love to mix it up.

4) Low maintenance tank: Somebody I can automate entirely with AI so I don’t have to worry about him. Unbroken/Trickster with a ton of engagement slots maybe? Steel Garrote/something for the passive self-heals? Barbarian using weapon modals to AoE debuff enemies? Swaps with Eder for his story xp.

5) Low maintenance damage dealer: Somebody who can do good single target or AoE damage. Arcane Archer looks appealing. You can get Watershaper’s Focus + Driving Flight + Imbue:Fireball for some AoE, and you are already stacking Arcana so using Withdraw scrolls is easy. Blood mage is appealing but I don’t know how well I would be able to automate it. Rogue might be solid because sneak attack does decent damage even when low on class resources. Devoted/Monk is neat for the bonus penetration on fists, which can’t be destroyed by Abydon. Heck, single class monk looks pretty solid.

 

That’s where I’m at right now.  Here are my questions: 1) Anybody have tricks or tips on handling specific God Challenges?  Am I underestimating how annoying Abydon and Skaen are?  Has anyone completed Eothas’ challenge yet?  2) Could I improve my route through the game to get more XP?  What faction should I side with to make the challenge easier?  3) Give me your favorite character ideas.  What builds on the forums handle Magran’s challenge well?   What AI settings have you used that are effective?

Looking forward to your ideas!   

 

 

[guildwriter]

• Make a dialogue/stealth focused character.

Sneak through content, talk to whatever you have to resolve as all critical paths can be resolved through conversation only.

Make sure to release the water dragon completely.

Get to Ukaizo on your own, just have a ship/crew upgraded enough.

Let the water dragon fight the Guardian for you.

Sneak past the last fight.

Congrats, you beat the game with all challenges and TCS.

[Marigoldran]

If you aren't going to sneak through everything and actually fight my advice is LOTS AND LOTS OF HERALDS.  

 

Make every single character a tanky herald in heavy plate armor and large shield (a build which has infinite regen and can solo the game).  In combat, they spam summons and have the summons (and the use of brand enemy, which never disappears until the target dies) slowly wear the enemies down.    One super tanky herald runs into the room.  Initiates combat.  And all of the other heralds stand back and sends in their summons (thereby protecting Vela) and that's what you do for every fight.  

Edited December 25, 2018 by Marigoldran

[Zenzen]

Is it possible to use dialogue to get through the final fight at Ukaizo?  I know you can handle the Guardian, but I don't remember being able to skip the battle against the opposing faction leader.

[msyoung]

The faction leader fight has always been an easy fight for me in Ukaizo, but this thread does lead me to a question. The first thing my Herald does in a fight is to call up three Wurms and he does this automatically. So if you have five Heralds, does that mean 15 Wurms in the fight? That could be somewhat overwhelming especially if all your Heralds have the Ancient Memory chant. 

[Yosharian]

 

• Make a dialogue/stealth focused character.
• Sneak through content, talk to whatever you have to resolve as all critical paths can be resolved through conversation only.
• Make sure to release the water dragon completely.
• Get to Ukaizo on your own, just have a ship/crew upgraded enough.
• Let the water dragon fight the Guardian for you.
• Sneak past the last fight.
• Congrats, you beat the game with all challenges and TCS.

This seems like by far the most interesting method, if it's actually possible.

[Harpagornis]

 

• Make a dialogue/stealth focused character.
• Sneak through content, talk to whatever you have to resolve as all critical paths can be resolved through conversation only.
• Make sure to release the water dragon completely.
• Get to Ukaizo on your own, just have a ship/crew upgraded enough.
• Let the water dragon fight the Guardian for you.
• Sneak past the last fight.
• Congrats, you beat the game with all challenges and TCS.

 

 

You have forgotten about the 12th challenge: Beat ALL encounters including the DLC´s!

[Zenzen]

If you aren't going to sneak through everything and actually fight my advice is LOTS AND LOTS OF HERALDS.  

 

Make every single character a tanky herald in heavy plate armor and large shield (a build which has infinite regen and can solo the game).  In combat, they spam summons and have the summons (and the use of brand enemy, which never disappears until the target dies) slowly wear the enemies down.    One super tanky herald runs into the room.  Initiates combat.  And all of the other heralds stand back and sends in their summons (thereby protecting Vela) and that's what you do for every fight.  

 

This seems like a reasonable (although boring) plan.  I'm pretty sure you can't stack multiple instances of the same chant or paladin aura though, so would it make more sense to do like 3 Heralds and 2 Ciphers?  This way, you get all 3 enhanced auras, still summons on a bunch of dudes, and some damage dealers with infinite resources to close fights out.

[Harpagornis]

Are there some news what the last god challenge will be? Maybe Obsidian should let the Community vote on this one...

 

Will the "Ultimate" achievement include beating all Mega-Bosses? If so i can already hear them calling about "Chanters".

 

Has anyone played the game - with party or solo - using all god challenges? Any feedback on this on is welcome!!

 

As i still havent finished the game (too much modding) i fear a little bit that time will be running out cause of Eothas.

Or is there more than enough time doing all DLC´s and world exploring?

 

The most disliked is still Magrans no-pause madness cause i never ever use the AI. If i wanna have some good AI fighting i prefer watching chess games...