Branching Out: Moving Outside of the Core Campaign - Sun Edition (Patreon)

So over on the discord, user Inlandmurmur wrote the following request.

"I'd be interested in a more anecdotal article on the alternative campaigns. I haven't played through any of them yet, and have yet to finish PotL, and I'm curious about these. Seems like they're significantly less flexible than the base game in terms of xpac inclusion, but are more fun/interesting. Are there any builds you recommend? I'm just sick of the base quarries and want to play a new campaign with less lion/lope once I finally finish PotL. "

I completely get where you are coming from in this, as great as the core game is, the experience of playing it lacks in the quarry department. The Phoenix is a very fiddly quarry to hunt and most players avoid it (which is the correct choice from a purely statistical viewpoint, but also pretty right when you consider fun - the Time Chicken is pretty anti-fun). In fact the core game has this weird balance of 5 nemesis monsters and 3 quarries, with three of the nemesis monsters only turning up once (Hand, Watcher & Gold Smoke Knight).

That leaves us with 2 quarries (White Lion, Screaming Antelope) and 2 Nemesis Monsters (Butcher, King's Man). However the prevailing opinion is (quite rightly in my opinion) that the King's Man is an absolute drudge to deal with at best and a fun vacuum at worst. This means we're in a situation where you've got 3 likable, balanced and interesting monsters turning up in a regular fashion, and while an increase in their level does add wrinkles to their behavior. The difference between a L1 and a L3 White Lion is smaller than you'd hope.

So, for a player looking to refresh their experience, they have two places to turn to, expansions and alternative campaigns. We're going to look at the two alternative campaigns and discuss briefly the benefit/role of each monster in that campaign. There will be spoilers ahead on what monsters turn up in the campaign, specifically when looking at the final nemesis, I'll do what I can to avoid being too specific/spoilery, but things might creep in a bit.

Before we go any further I'm going to write this here in bold for everyone.

Put whatever expansions you like in any campaign, it will change the experience, but they are absolutely fine. Ignore what the expansion rulebooks say, especially People of the Stars/Dragon King - it's nonsense!

To start with we're going to look at:

People of the Sun

This campaign shifts all the nemesis monsters to the end of the campaign, creating a 'boss rush' style experience, you essentially have 20 years to set up ready for a bunch of quite powerful nemesis monsters and then the final boss. The wrinkle added to this is from The Sun settlement location, which will cause an automatic failure if you lose a single nemesis fight during the campaign.

In short, getting to the final nemesis monster to win this campaign is not guaranteed, but you are given powerful campaign specific gear and probably the most powerful 'special survivors' in the game in order to reduce the risk factor you face. You also get an alternative 'Faith' innovation tree that replaces Inner Lantern/Surge (you can get it via a Secret Fighting Art) and you can't wear Heavy gear (armor) without another Secret Fighting Art.

This extreme shift means that the campaign is more powerful and you are encouraged to hunt bigger and badder things. However, the limitations and the crafting requirements of the campaign specific gear do limit how many expansion monster fights you have.

All of that written, let's look at each monster in turn and see what they bring to the campaign.

White Lion

In addition to being one of only two Lantern Year 1 monsters, the White Lion is also key to building the campaign specific gear. The resources which matter are:

• Golden Whiskers
• 2 x Elder Cat Teeth

The Whiskers requirement is a little awkward, because you absolutely want a Whisker Harp crafted by the time that you face the boss rush section. The Butcher in particular has some dominating moods that need to be removed, but that's not the only fight you'll want it.  The Elder Cat Teeth are gained in a non-random fashion by beating the L3 White Lion, and the item you craft from them is amazing fun to use. So that means you're typically going to be hunting a White Lion at least 3 times in your 20 hunts (and probably more if you want the Cat's Eye Circlet).

The White Lion Armor is essentially a hard pass in this campaign, it requires the SFA to work, and it's not good enough to support the requirements of that SFA.

Rating: 4/5 & Essential

Gorm

Our other Lantern Year 1 Monster is very viable in People of the Sun, this is because the Gorm 'fixes' the early game pathways by rounding out the roster of possible weapon types. However, this monster comes with a downside that can make your experience a little tricky. It brings in an oppressive climate that will stick around until you've innovated far enough up the Music innovation tree to remove it. This isn't too bad, because the Music tree is the most powerful one in the game at the moment, but it can feel a bit oppressive for newer players. 

Note: It's absolutely fine to keep Gorm Climate out of the game if you are playing with new players, the balance of the expansion is still fair.

In exchange you get some of the best early game weapons outside of Bone Darts, Lion Beast Katars, King's Spear and the Bone Club. The Gorm brings good axes, daggers, grand weapons, shields and even a rarely seen super powerful club. However its armor is heavy, and again not worth crafting for use with the SFA.

The biggest benefit that comes from the Gorm is the Wisdom Potion that comes from the Gormcymist location. This potion (which is balanced by its mechanics and the addition of deck bloat from the Gorm innovations + Chance of getting saddled with Hovel in LY1) means that you don't have to endlessly farm White Lions to get some hit location scouting in the early game.

Rating: 4/5 (5/5 without Gorm Climate)

Screaming Antelope

I don't think there's much that needs to be said here. The Danger Deer comes with Acanthus, Blood Paint, one of the best early game armor sets, it provides access to the Barber Surgeon location and much, much more. However, in addition, the following items are required for building campaign specific gear.

• 1 x Bladder
• 1 x Legendary Horns (L3)

So at an absolute minimum you're going to be hunting at least 2 Screaming Antelopes in every campaign, and honestly given the power of Blood Paint, you're likely to hit more than that.

I'm going to move on, because this monster is the second best one to hunt in the entire game and you should all be familiar with it's myriad benefits.

Rating: 5/5 & Essential

Spidicules

Ok, so you cannot follow the 'recommendation' in the expansion book and have Spidicules replace the Screaming Antelope because the Screaming Antelope is pretty much campaign essential. So we have to ignore that here (I don't have a SIP adaptation at this time to fix this issue either).

Additionally Spidicules has a few other issues, now the Young Rivals & Taken mechanics are just as much of an issue as they are in People of the Lantern. But Spidicules also has some very campaign specific problems when included in Sun. The fights at L2+ can become absolute slogs because you are not packing Surge most of the time, this means the board can get flooded with a potentially unlimited number of Spiderlings and that requires a huge amount of evasion building + heavy reliance on the Amber Scimitar to clear through them.  

Also a lot of the Spidicules specific items require a LOT of Spidicules fights to craft. Each of the Rings needs Spidicules to be 'balled' (cut off all 8 of its legs) and multiple resources that are singleton in its resource decks. Typically you're going to hunt 4+ Spidicules just to craft one ring.  Finally, the Silk Body Suit, which can be picked up early on, is also absolutely insane in People of the Sun, because its limitation is less of an issue.

I just can't recommend Spidicules in People of the Sun for new players to the campaign.

Rating: 2/5

Flower Knight

My feelings on the Flower Knight are fairly well known by now, there is no other monster except for the Screaming Antelope that comes so close to distorting the campaign. Additionally the Flower Knight's Vespertine Bow treads all over the toes of the campaign specific bow.  So, I'm going to save time by saying that this one is a hard pass at all levels. It's anathema to People of the Sun.

Rating: 1/5 & Avoid at all costs

Phoenix

There's quite a surprise to come here for people who follow my writing in general. The Phoenix is highly recommended in People of the Sun. In fact you should be hunting it in a fairly regular fashion.  This is because the Phoenix is the one place that you can get a Katana for your inevitable Katana survivor and it's essential for all of the campaign specific gear. You need the following resources:

• Phoenix Crest (1 or 2 if you also want a Crest Crown)
• 1 x Phoenix Whisker
• Pustules (2 per gear)

For the Katana you'll need:

• 1 x Hollow Wing Bone
• 1 x Muculent droppings
• 1 x Phoenix Beak
• 1 x rainbow droppings

Making a Katana master in this campaign is absolutely something you should be trying to do, and because the other two Katanas are a lot harder to get (one is chance based, the other requires the Slender Man - more on that later).

Also Phoenix Armor is one of the best armor sets you can get in this campaign, there is an interesting interaction you need to watch out with it when fighting the final nemesis, but that's for you to find out.

So the Phoenix is likely to be the monster you hunt the most in People of the Sun and honestly, it's worth it here.

Rating: 4/5 & Essential

Dragon King

The Dragon King absolutely shines in People of the Sun and it's my favorite place to hunt it as a quarry.  This is because:

• The People of the Sun have sufficient strength to make use of the weapons
• The scythe & mastery gives you something unique and interesting compared to the rest of the options
• The special survivors really bring the weapons to life
• The Dragon Armor is the toughest non-heavy armor in the game with good affinities.

It's just a perfect storm that makes a below average quarry become an amazing thing. Normally the problem with the Dragon King is that it's a punishing hunt with an amazing fight and bad gear. So the risk/reward ratio is skewed. But like the Phoenix, People of the Sun shifts the goals enough to make the gear powerful and interesting. 

Two thumbs up.

Rating: 5/5

Dung Beetle Knight

If you are not going to be hunting the Dragon King, the Dung Beetle Knight is another great staple. It brings the best late game Katars and some of the best non-Sunstalker late game Grand Weapons to the table along with an armor set that's not technically armor, so it can be worn in People of the Sun.

However, I think that as good as the Dung Beetle Knight is, People of the Sun isn't the place for it because you should be using People of the Sun to make Phoenixes and Dragon Kings your target.

Rating: 4/5

Sunstalker

You should not be hunting Sunstalkers in this campaign. Stoppit! No!

Rating: 0/5

Lion God

This bad "boi" has become a bit of a chase expansion since the Silver City made he/she the new hotness. It's pretty much the ultimate splash 'challenge' monster because you can get most of what you want from it in one or two fights.  (L1 and then a single L2 or L3 if you feel fruity).

The gear cards that come from from the Lion God have interesting build applications and are very powerful with the campaign specific survivors. So there is a lot to be gained from this monster. It will scare the heck out of you initially however. 

Rating: 4/5

OK so that's the quarries, lets look at the nemesis monster options.

Manhunter

If you put the Manhunter in you are creating an extra level of challenge for yourself. If you lose to the Manhunter even once then its game over. Now it's rare that you will lose to the Manhunter once you are experienced with fighting him (because he's kinda similar to the Butcher in power), but I'm not convinced that People of the Sun is the place to go learning all about him. 

Rating: 2/5

Lion Knight

Ugh, the Lion Knight has the same issues as the Manhunter above in that it turns up 3 times and can cause your campaign to fail. However, in People of the Sun, without easy access to Surge you'll have to beat the Lion Knight without the ability to manipulate the costume changes. Which removes part of the fight mechanics and makes it just a straight slog.

TBH, the general rule with the Lion Knight is this. Take those hybrid armors and put them into your collection of armor sets, then craft them when you feel like it (don't worry about unlocking them). Then leave the Lion Knight in the box until its time to play with the Green Armor. 

Rating: 1/5

Slender Man

Slender Man turns up early in the campaign (once) and can cause you to lose right there and then. However, you can just introduce Slender Man as a direct replacement for the King's Man, and then it'll turn up in the post LY20 years.

It does make the final part of the game harder, so you probably want to hold off on adding it in. 

Rating: 4/5 but not for first time experience.

Lonely Tree

Out of all the nemesis monsters available to add into the game, the Lonely Tree is the on that fits into People of the Sun with the least caveats and issues. This is because you don't ever have to face the Lonely Tree unless you want to (and feel ready for it). You're not forced into the showdown, it has to be triggered by ingesting the fruit (This will kill the person who eats it, so make sure it's a 'homebrewer' survivor who does the deed).

The fight is not easy, but if you do not feel confident you can run the entire campaign without ever facing it and just letting it be a neat bit of terrain.

Rating: 3/5 & Very Risky

Green Armor

Green Armor is a very intensive campaign goal that requires you to focus on hunting the Gorm, Flower Knight and Dung Beetle Knight while also dealing with the Manhunter and Lion Knight.

This means you get all the advantages and disadvantages of the specific expansion monsters above.

Rating: 2/5 & Not for newer players.

Next time we'll look at People of the Stars!