Triple Crown Solo Pacifist Run

[tmoji]

After getting frustrating with sinking a ton of time into normal triple crown runs only to lose them near the end due to bugs or silly mistakes I decided to try to blaze through the game on a pacifist run. My first thought was that such a run was possible with 1 kill (Zihaa) and Slippers of the Assassin/Strand of Favor cheese. To take out Zihaa I figured an Assassin/Bleakwalker was the best option (and I thought it was a hilarious combo for a pacifist run).  It worked mostly according to plan, but I ended up with a few extra enemies collaterally defeated (Furrante, and I think some enemy friendly fire on Ashen Maw bridge), but also along the way I realized how much Shadowing Beyond trivialized the game.

So I started again with a SC Rogue/Trickster(which fits well, but doesn't really matter), and was able to blaze through the game on Triple Crown + Solo and beat it with 0 kills.

Build:

- 16 Resolution for Ashen Maw

- Max int to make invisibility last longer

- Enough perception and mechanics to stay safe from traps

- Enough stealth to do the starter island and later the Hanging Sepulchers

- Smoke Bomb then Shadowing Beyond then Enduring Shadows

- Diplomacy for Blow the Man Down and to get the Fonferrus

- Hylea's Bounty is nice of course

Nothing else matters as far as I can tell. One nice part is that you get some good +diplomacy and +stealth items without having to go out of your way.

I did all of the starter island then went straight to Hasongo, both of which can be easily resolved with stealth. After Hasongo I went Straight to Ashen Maw, and by the time I got there had Shadowing Beyond to get past all the enemies on that map. After getting shunted back to Neketaka I used diplomacy/stealth to do Blow the Man Down/Symbols of Death/A Dance with Death, siding with Furrante. For some reason letting Aeldys get hanged doesn't count as an enemy defeated, but convincing the council to hang Furrante does. I couldn't figure out how to get the ending where Aeldys agrees to takes Nissa's Voyage; I'm guessing there's a skill check the wiki doesn't mention or maybe I needed to do some of the tasks for her earlier. Then straight to Ukaizo.  The Guardian didn't show up (sadly I went through the scripted options to get through Ondra's Mortar too quickly to see why not), and like every other unavoidable combat on the critical path the final fight on the Promenade can be escaped from using Shadowing Beyond/Enduring Shadows.

Anyhow, I thought it was fun and I haven't seen much discussion about pacifist runs in Deadfire. It's also a fast and easy way to get the triple crown and solo achievements without feeling too cheesy. For some reason I can't get my screenshot to upload here, but you can see the character with 0 enemies defeated about to down the stairs to confront Eothas on my Reddit post if you want a modicum of evidence.

 

[Raven Darkholme]

You don't have to kill anyone for Strand of favor.

Just talk to the ghost "left" from the kitchen (the place where you dive) or alternatively have enough stats to beat the dialogue skill checks.

[Jayd]

9 hours ago, Raven Darkholme said:

You don't have to kill anyone for Strand of favor.

Just talk to the ghost "left" from the kitchen (the place where you dive) or alternatively have enough stats to beat the dialogue skill checks.

Zihaa is the naga in the Watershaper temple, not the Strand of Favor one (that's Sugaan).

[Boeroer]

Yes, but in order to get the Strand of Favor from Sugaan without killing him it's not a bad idea to talk to Yanass first (the "ghost 'left' from the kitchen") and bring her soul along to Sugaan.

Edited April 4, 2021 by Boeroer

[Raven Darkholme]

MAybe I just misread the post, my impression was:

Stealth was chosen over Strand of Favor, because you have to get a kill to aquire it.

Which you don't.