Hmm. Not gonna think this through too hard, just gonna go for a generic social spread for now.
More Letrizia because I'd like some detail on possibilities with this thing.
I guess I'll go with Zee, for succinctness.
[X] Plan Your Trip
[X] Speak with Gisena I
[X] Speak with Letrizia I
[X] Speak with Letrizia II
[X] Zee
E: Also, sigged. Low-posting version, since I barely post in other quests and mostly lurk, and otherwise only post in the FGO thread.
There is still a way to kill monsters somewhat safely despite your not taking any healing effects. But it requires you to develop some new skills!
Get in the robot, hero.
(To be clear, it's entirely viable to win this mission without substantially developing your piloting skills. However, not developing piloting while also trying to greed the combat-focused journey part of this mission while also having no healing is probably not the wisest decision. There's already some degree of risk from the monsters you'll passively be attacked by for traveling with Verschlengorge in the first place!)
Btw, you guys can write in tactics to increase your survivability. Both in and outside of combat. Second Thoughts is also an entirely valid option! Would allow you to better control the tempo of fights so you can play to your strengths (prepped fights with research) rather than being forced on the defensive. Letrizia has already given you plenty of context about this place and the Human Sphere, and Gisena needs a tank and dps so she'd stick with you.
Someone with one of the most powerful mechs, even if it is injured and weakened, in this setting is undoubtedly Important. We'll pilot it yet! Preferably after learning to in the middle of an important fight. She's also a Duchess, so her support could mean more resources inclined in our direction when we join civilization.
Letrizia is actually a very important person! Her rank alone, plus being one of the few Armament pilots. Too bad her first on-screen social combat was against Gisena Allria and the hero!
Curse Mitigation (especially Apocrypha) as soon as possible is a gimme. Plus we're going to we companions for a fairly long time, so we should start getting to know her better. But not so quickly as to come off too easy!
Interesting, Seram needed a title to unlock Presence: Intimidation, since social skills were beyond the remit of his Progression. Looks like the differences between Cursebearers aren't just cosmetic.
Tactics... the sleep needs to be uninterrupted to trigger Repose, but maybe he can learn to sleep in-transit if he doesn't already have the skill? The Forebear's Blade can be called back to his hand, so boomerang throws are possible, might extend his engagement range and reduce risk of wounds. Gisena could open with Tide of Nullity before we leap into the fray in the future, we could try a sparring match to develop the resistance if and only if she's confident about not doing permanent damage, etc.
Also, there's the hope that the Decimator's Affliction can be more directly weaponized by controlling its hunger, but that'll have to wait. It is a bit annoying to have Force Unto lose and suddenly encounter problems it would've solved, but maybe this update wouldn't have gone so smoothly without the charisma boost. So it goes, live and learn.
Putting our charisma focus to use. Letrizia is apparently a bigwig, so having her around might help us jump start our conquest.
[ ] Learn to Pilot [ ] Errantry [ ] The Name of the Curse
The third option, however, is a bit harder to decided. Piloting seems to be a skill of utmost value in this world where mecha vastly outstrip our own power, Errantry gives us that all important Accretion Rank and Curse mitigation is always a priority.
With that in mind:
[X] Learn to Pilot
I think that piloting is just too important to pass upon, especially since our build focuses more on mental stats.
Rihaku, is there synergy between Learn to Pilot and Seek Out Worthy Foes? Would it allow us to train Piloting by fighting using the mecha?
Interesting, Seram needed a title to unlock Presence: Intimidation, since social skills were beyond the remit of his Progression. Looks like the differences between Cursebearers aren't just cosmetic.
It is a bit annoying to have Force Unto lose and suddenly encounter problems it would've solved, but maybe this update wouldn't have gone so smoothly without the charisma boost. So it goes.
Potentially. Learn to Pilot alone is still pretty basic, you can of course raise the piloting skill in actual combat as well once you know the basics. Communing with the mech could also be important to the process if you seek true mastery.
Our mecha throws a punch at a Kaiju. However, while Kaiju is bracing for the hit Verschlengorge's fist opens and two crazy humanoids come flying out - for Verschlengorge Punch is actually a throw! We get thrown to Kaiju's face where we proceed to cut our way inside through Kaiju's eyes, nostrils, mouth or whatever the convenient orifice it may have, fighting our way to it's brain where combined power of Null magic and a sword can bring us the victory!
Negation Punch!
Provided that Gisena's Null Magic doesn't harm Verse much, we could find a way to situate her inside mecha's hand, and have her blast her Null Aura, turning Verse's right fist into Negation Fist! Try regenerating from THIS you foul monster!
Mecha Tackle!
Just fucking have Verse tackle target and keep them pinned while we go full Shadow of Colossus on them
Potentially. Learn to Pilot alone is still pretty basic, you can of course raise the piloting skill in actual combat as well once you know the basics. Communing with the mech could also be important to the process if you seek true mastery.
Non-combat tactics can be relevant too! For example, is there anything you might be able to do right now while you're in this city to reduce the risk of injury in the future?
Non-combat tactics can be relevant too! For example, is there anything you might be able to do right now while you're in this city to reduce the risk of injury in the future?
[X] Plan Your Trip
[X] Speak with Gisena I
[X] Speak with Letrizia I
[X] The Name of the Curse
First priority, IMO, is understanding the actors and situations around us in greater detail. For instance, does the Human Sphere generally run on civilian governments having supreme authority over military assets, or does the local culture lean towards mecha-pilot nobility all the way up to supreme emperor? Meanwhile IC, Hunger needs to learn about Gizena's capabilities, and tie her to him more closely. Thus, interacting with both Gisena and Letrizia.
Beyond those concerns, though, the matter is less obvious. Hard to really push for doubling down on one of the social directions without actually having any meaningful idea about what result that might have. But we do know that our Curse is actively killing people right now, and we have an opportunity to do something about that.
Well, we could spend a bit of time reinforcing our legend in this town. We've saved them in a highly visible manner, so it would be the easiest place to do this. And just gather information, no need to rely solely on Letrizia for knowledge about this realm.
Non-combat tactics can be relevant too! For example, is there anything you might be able to do right now while you're in this city to reduce the risk of injury in the future?
Well, we could spend a bit of time reinforcing our legend in this town. We've saved them in a highly visible manner, so it would be the easiest place to do this. And just gather information, no need to rely solely on Letrizia for knowledge about this realm.
Anything but Letrizia for Letrizia name votes smells of a route unlock, I'm not commenting on those further. I bolded the ones I thought seemed interesting(1473 Words of Combinatorics and analysis, the 19 I either especially liked, found safe, or semi-tempting are in a spoilered list up top, not factored into word count due to redundancy).
Learn to Pilot+Commune with Verschlengorge+The Name of the Curse - EXTREMELY TEMPTING
Speak with Letrizia I+Learn to Pilot+The Name of the Curse - Extremely tempting, lets not go all in on a single waifu just yet and get some curse mitigation/robot skills too.
Speak with Letrizia I+Speak with Letrizia II+The Name of the Curse - Lore, making connctions, and curse mitgation? Wow did I change my mind quickly compared to earlier. This is seriously tempting.
Speak with Letrizia I+Sleep Heavily+The Name of the Curse - Networking, level grinding, and curse mitigation. Tempting
Speak with Gisena I+Speak with Letrizia I+The Name of the Curse - Seems like it has better odds of making Speak with Gisena I go well and starts networking with the world.
Speak with Gisena I+Learn to Pilot+Commune with Verschlengorge - Curse Mitigation and grasp of a foundational mystery of the worldbuilding. Tempting. Lower returns probably compared to doing it after speaking with Letrizia though. Lower Medical Risk.
Speak with Letrizia I+Learn To Pilot+Commune with Verschlengorge - Tempting. Goes big on Giant Robots and I am tempted. Pity for the lack of curse mitigation though.
Speak with Gisena I+Learn to Pilot+The Name of the Curse - Explore all curse mitigation prospects and get started on piloting, lowering risk of medical incident
Speak with Gisena I+Speak with Gisena II+The Name of the Curse - Maybe this gets better results, maybe it doesn't, I'm not sure but can't rule it out completely as an option
Speak with Gisena I+Speak with Letrizia I+Learn to Pilot - May get bonus returns to piloting training especially when apocrypha procs, start on curse mitigation hopefully, networking, possibly safer.
Speak with Gisena I+Errantry+The Name of the Curse - Vaguely tempting. Also may help us get out faster and give us a better chance of good results on Speak with Gisena I.
Speak with Gisena I+Learn to Pilot+Seek Worthy Opponents - Maybe???
Speak with Gisena I+Sleep Heavily+The Name of the Curse - Curse Mitigation and Sleep based level grinding. Has potential.
Speak with Gisena I+Sleep Heavily+Seek out Artifacts - Maybe??? I'm kind of tempted.
Errantry+Learn to Pilot+Sleep Heavily - A semi decent albeit antisocial level grinding route with no curse mitigation
Errantry+Learn to Pilot+The Name of the Curse - Maybe??
Errantry+Sleep Heavily+The Name of the Curse - Relatively safe grinding with curse mitigation. Semi-tempting
Errantry+Sleep Heavily+Seek out Artifacts - Doesn't seem too bad, albeit antisocial and non curse mitigating.
Learn to Pilot+Sleep Heavily+The Name of the Curse - Training and Curse Mitigation, not bad albeit antisocial.
On Second Thought - I am not particularly tempted by this and cannot see what this has to recommend it at the moment. Apocrypha is probably going to happen anyway.
Plan your Trip Builds:
Speak with Gisena I+Speak With Gisena II+Speak With Letrizia I - Start Gisena Curse Mitigation. Also possible Gisena Route Unlock. Start Networking and Learning more about the world.
Speak with Gisena I+Speak with Gisena II+Errantry - Curse mitigation, possible route unlock, and level grinding.
Speak with Gisena I+Speak with Gisena II+Learn to Pilot - I might consider another formulation of this without Speak with Gisena II. Maybe. I get erratic on remembering to talk about curse mitigation in speak with Gisena I builds past this point but it's implied ok. The Medical Risk is lowered
Speak with Gisena I+Speak with Gisena II+Sleep Heavily - Maximum Route bait. Also level grinding by sleeping
Speak with Gisena I+Speak with Gisena II+The Name of the Curse - Maybe this gets better results, maybe it doesn't, I'm not sure but can't rule it out completely as an option
Speak with Gisena I+Speak with Gisena II+Seek Out Artifacts - Route Unlock+Roll the Noble Phantasm Gacha?
Speak with Gisena I+Speak with Gisena II+Seek Worthy Opponents - High risk level grinding due to risk of injury and a Route unlock.
Speak with Gisena I+Speak with Letrizia I+Speak with Letrizia II - Start on Curse mitigation if things don't go wrong, Lore, and Networking with the world time.
Speak with Gisena I+Speak with Letrizia I+Errantry - Start on Curse mitigation if things don't go wrong, Level grinding, and Networking with the world time.
Speak with Gisena I+Speak with Letrizia I+Learn to Pilot - May get bonus returns to piloting training especially when apocrypha procs, start on curse mitigation hopefully, networking, possibly safer.
Speak with Gisena I+Speak with Letrizia I+Sleep Heavily - Networking curse mitigiation and sleep level grinding.
Speak with Gisena I+Speak with Letrizia I+The Name of the Curse - Seems like it has better odds of making Speak with Gisena I go well and starts networking with the world.
Speak with Gisena I+Speak with Letrizia I+Seek out Artifacts - Curse mitigation(Hopefully), artifact hunting, networking, I am for whatever reason skeptical of the returns of this plan though I haven't fully realized why yet.
Speak with Gisena I+Speak with Letrizia I+Seek Worthy Opponents- Maybe? Don't know why but I'm tempted.
Speak with Gisena I+Errantry+Errantry II - Curse Mitigation and what seems like too much level grinding for my tastes. On the other hand it may help us get out faster with greater probability than just an Errantry I build. Who knows.
Speak with Gisena I+Errantry+Learn to Pilot - Piloting time combined with doing dangerous quests may lead to greater returns for Learn to Pilot. Also as said curse mitigation.
Speak with Gisena I+Errantry+Sleep Heavily - Curse Mitigation and level grinding in two directions if it works. Also maybe we get out faster?
Speak with Gisena I+Errantry+The Name of the Curse - Vaguely tempting. Also may help us get out faster and give us a better chance of good results on Speak with Gisena I.
Speak with Gisena I+Errantry+Seek out Artifacts - Risky power hunting but not quite as risky as seek worthy opponents. Also curse mitigation.
Speak with Gisena I+Errantry+Seek Worthy Opponents - Curse Mitigation and high risk grinding.
Speak with Gisena I+Learn to Pilot+Commune with Verschlengorge - Curse Mitigation and grasp of a foundational mystery of the worldbuilding. Tempting. Lower returns probably compared to doing it after speaking with Letrizia though. Lower Medical Risk.
Speak with Gisena I+Learn to Pilot+Sleep Heavily - More returns on learning to pilot+curse mitigation?
Speak with Gisena I+Learn to Pilot+The Name of the Curse - Explore all curse mitigation prospects and get started on piloting, lowering risk of medical incident
Speak with Gisena I+Learn to Pilot+Seek Out Artifacts - Not sure what I think here
Speak with Gisena I+Learn to Pilot+Seek Worthy Opponents - Maybe???
Speak with Gisena I+Sleep Heavily+The Name of the Curse - Curse Mitigation and Sleep based level grinding. Has potential.
Speak with Gisena I+Sleep Heavily+Seek out Artifacts - Maybe??? I'm kind of tempted.
Speak with Gisena I+Sleep Heavily+Seek Worthy Opponents - Sleep may help reduce risk odds, I dunno
Speak With Letrizia I+Speak with Letrizia II+Errantry - I think I'd rather get my lore from someplace closer to the source for a lore route. Semi-tempting for the networking prospects and possible rank boost getting us out faster? No Curse Mitigation though and that sucks.
Speak With Letrizia I+Speak with Letrizia II+Learn to Pilot - I imagine we'll get a lot of returns out of mech piloting this route.
Speak with Letrizia I+Speak with Letrizia II+Sleep Heavily - Networking and Level Grinding. Tempting if one is willing to procrastinate curse mitigation
Speak with Letrizia I+Speak with Letrizia II+The Name of the Curse - Lore, making connctions, and curse mitgation? Wow did I change my mind quickly compared to earlier. This is seriously tempting.
Speak with Letrizia I+Speak with Letrizia II+Seek out Artifacts - Doesn't seem worth it
Speak with Letrizia I+Speak with Letrizia II+Seek Worthy Opponents - No. Just. No.
Speak with Letrizia I+Errantry+Errantry II - Networking with the world and maybe a chance of getting out faster if we're willing to take the extreme risk, which I am not.
Speak with Letrizia I+Errantry+Learn to Pilot - A Fairly balanced learn to pilot route in spite of the lack of curse mitigation which makes it bad.
Speak with Letrizia I+Errantry+Sleep Heavily - Training and Networking with the world, no curse mitigation, not sure what else to say that hasn't been said
Speak with Letrizia I+Errantry+The Name of the Curse - My gut says no but I don't know why.
Speak with Letrizia I+Errantry+Seek out Artifacts - No
Speak with Letrizia I+Errantry+Seek Worthy Opponents - Double no.
Speak with Letrizia I+Learn To Pilot+Commune with Verschlengorge - Tempting. Goes big on Giant Robots and I am tempted. Pity for the lack of curse mitigation though.
Speak with Letrizia I+Learn to Pilot+The Name of the Curse - Extremely tempting, lets not go all in on a single waifu just yet and get some curse mitigation/robot skills too.
Speak with Letrizia I+Learn to Pilot+Seek Out Artifacts - Maybe???
Speak with Letrizia I+Learn to Pilot+Seek Worthy Opponents - This seems like a safer route for seeking worhy opponents
Speak with Letrizia I+Sleep Heavily+The Name of the Curse - Networking, level grinding, and curse mitigation. Tempting
Speak with Letrizia I+Sleep Heavily+Seek Out Artifacts - Gut says no. Don't know why.
Speak with Letrizia I+Sleep Heavily+Seek Worthy Opponents - Too much medical risk
Speak with Letrizia I+The Name of the Curse+Seek out Artifacts - Dunno. Maybe?
Speak with Letrizia I+The Name of the Curse+Seek Worthy Opponents - Nope. Too risky
Speak with Letrizia I+Seek out Artifacts+Seek Worthy Opponents - NOPE
Errantry+Errantry II+Learn to Pilot - Some mitigation of risk of Errantry 2, if it works we may get out faster, no curse mitigation
Errantry+Errantry II+Sleep Heavily - NO
Errantry+Errantry II+The Name of the Curse - NO
Errantry+Errantry II+Seek out Artifacts - NO
Errantry+Errantry II+Seek Worthy Opponents - NO
Errantry+Learn to Pilot+Commune with Verschlengorge - Lowers the risk of errantry and gets lore, but probably better option than this
Errantry+Learn to Pilot+Sleep Heavily - A semi decent albeit antisocial level grinding route with no curse mitigation
Errantry+Learn to Pilot+The Name of the Curse - Maybe??
Errantry+Learn to Pilot+Seek out Artifacts - We're better off trying to add a mech to our panopoly if we take a pilot route, so pass
Errantry+Sleep Heavily+The Name of the Curse - Relatively safe grinding with curse mitigation. Semi-tempting
Errantry+Sleep Heavily+Seek out Artifacts - Doesn't seem too bad, albeit antisocial and non curse mitigating.
Errantry+Sleep Heavily+Seek Worthy Opponents - NO
Learn to Pilot+Commune with Verschlengorge+Sleep Heavily - The Synergy here doesn't seem too good, nothing that could conceivably lead to better returns
Learn to Pilot+Commune with Verschlengorge+The Name of the Curse - EXTREMELY TEMPTING
Learn to Pilot+Commune with Verschlengorge+Seek out Artifacts - Nah. Maybe Errantry in conjunction with seek out artifacts leads to greater odds of success?
Learn to Pilot+Commune with Verschlengorge+Seek Worthy Opponents - This would either go awesomely or horribly.
Learn to Pilot+Sleep Heavily+The Name of the Curse - Training and Curse Mitigation, not bad albeit antisocial.
Learn to Pilot+Sleep Heavily+Seek Out Artifacts - Given my Earlier realization about Errantry possibly rising the odds of success this doesn't seem good
Learn to Pilot+Sleep Heavily+Seek Worthy Opponents - This doesn't seem too enticing
Sleep Heavily+The Name of the Curse+Seek Out Artifacts - No for reasons I've already gone into
Sleep Heavily+The Name of the Curse+Seek Worthy Opponents - Too Risky
Sleep Heavily+Seek Out Artifacts+Seek Worthy Opponents - NO
The Name of the Curse+Seek out Artifacts+Seek Worthy Opponents - NO
