Look to the Heavens: Constellations in People of the Stars (Patreon)

Last week we took a look at the rather flawed; but interesting, concept of Saviors. So this week (and next week) we get to look at successful versions of 'super survivors' and we start with my favorite group of people, the nascent dragons known as Constellations. Each one just a single step  short from effective immortality.

Spoilers will abound in this, so here's Daddy D to protect you from them.

Constellations are the penultimate step in a survivor's destiny to becoming a new Dragon King (the final one requiring the heart of the Tyrant in order to ignite their spark), and the journey getting there is expressed through something that the community has affectionally called 'Star Bingo' and before we go into this in detail, lets look at how this process works because it's more challenging than saviors who are 'just born with it'.

(Note: The grid should say Weapon Master, but this typo has always amused me).

This 4x4 Grid has 16 different "triggers" on it, and whenever you achieve one, you get to cross it off and it remains removed even if you later lose the trigger. This means survivors can get both surnames marked off (Reincarnated & Noble) and don't need to keep Destined to benefit from having had it.

Once you hit 4 in a row (vertical or horizontal) you unlock that constellation and you cannot unlock any others. If you hit two at the same times (happens a lot with Storm/Sculptor) you get to pick which one you are going to achieve.

In general strategic terms, your first 4 constellations should be put into the settlement and protected like precious cinnamon rolls. Because you cannot win without having constellations at the end of the campaign, so you do not want to spend their lives meaninglessly. Later on, as you get more constellations, this becomes less of an issue overall and you can start picking the best ones to get out there.

Storm is, of course, an exception to this rule, because Storm benefits the settlement a massive amount by gaining Weapon Masteries at a high pace.

Now we'll look at each constellation separately and inspect how you can be using them once you're at the point where you have some to spare. We'll start with the dud.

Goblin 

Requirements: Oracle's Eye/Unbreakable/3+ Base STR/9+ Courage

Difficulty to Unlock: Medium to High

We'll get the non-Constellation out of the way first. Goblin is only worth mentioning because it is a classic example of bad game design. The Goblin exists purely as a piece of world building, because its mechanical existence is absolutely abhorrent and goes against everything you are taught when you learn game design. 

This kind of event, which outright kills the constellation survivor with no counterplay apart from "just don't complete this 4Head" exists entirely to "gotchya" player the first time it's drawn and afterwards it is just 'the card you never touch'. In a shorter game, one played over 15 mins or so, this kind of character elimination is absolutely fine, but in a campaign game, where the survivor being slain by the Goblin has spent weeks or months getting to that state. It's just cruel and pointless. Relevant quote:

"It's not best practice to punish the player because of things they have no control over." -- Benjamin "Yahtzee" Crosshaw; 2019

Fortunately it is actually very hard to complete Goblin because you have a lot of control over avoiding getting Oracle's Eye, and even if you do have it, you can avoid getting Unbreakable or just slow gaining courage as much as possible until you hit another constellation.

I have never personally triggered the Goblin, and seen it triggered exactly once. So it is in almost all aspects a waste of cardboard and words. Let's move onto the interesting stuff.

Witch

Requirements: 9+ Understanding, Reincarnated (Surname), Scar, Oracle's Eye

Difficulty to Unlock: Medium

Getting everything unlocked for the Witch is a bit of a challenge because you need to take Oracle's Eye - that also sets you on a potential path to get the Goblin (Oracle's Eye is only gained in very specific circumstances) so you have to walk a bit of a tightrope.

The ability gained however is very simple to use and activate. Because of the existence of the Cat's Eye Circlet and similar HL scouting decks you will always have a successful activation. That's basically it, just combine the witch with CEC/Wisdom Potion/Trash Crown and reap the rewards.

The +10 Strength and +3 insanity is nothing to sneeze at, but the truth is that these abilities are at their best against late game nemesis monsters, so typically the Witch is a survivor type I stop using (unless Ageless) and save for the final stretch to help ensure a win.

Rust

Requirements: Destined Disorder/Frozen Star SFA/Noble/Unbreakable

Difficulty to Unlock: High

This one typically requires peeling the Tyrant's onion to the correct level because without stacking up portals and controlling the dangerous moods, getting Frozen Star can only otherwise be achieved via the dangerous use of the high tech tree innovation Arena. As such you tend to see Rust later on in the campaign rather than early, but it is possible to trigger it with the right gear loadout at the time you hit the first Tyrant showdown.

In combat Rust really requires a lot of specific support to be effective, if you are counting on the monster passively bleeding your survivor that's not a good plan. But self bleeding is not an easy thing to achieve, especially because Story of the Young Hero cannot be gained by an experienced survivor.

Typically a Rust survivor wants Unconscious Fighter and will also carry Bandages, but there are additional synergies with Nightmare Blood (Lonely Tree), Red Ring (Spidicules), Bloodskin (White Speaker Promo) and the Muramasa (though that weapon is quite suicidal). They have a lot of combos that have to be considered also, the most obvious of which is Last Man Standing, which can let you 'lock' the number of bleeding tokens you have to a fixed number when you are the only survivor on the board. There is a strategy there where you can use Run Away + a Last Man Standing Rust survivor to create a powerful, evasive single threat. You can even stack Muramasa onto the build for the ultimate in memes. It's very hard to do, but it's damn amazing and a fun trick to have up your sleeve for the final nemesis fight.

Storm

Requirements: Fated Blow/Iridescent Hide/Weapon Master/3+ Base Strength

Difficulty to Unlock: Moderate

The power on this constellation is incredible, and it also has a huge amount of fun factor. In addition to giving you a quick route to multiple weapon masteries and a huge pile of specialisations stuck together, the Storm constellation also produces iron in a consistent matter. It is also, thanks to Iridescent Hit and an easy way to get Unbreakable onto them, a very tanky, tough and powerful survivor, someone you absolutely desire to get ageless on. 

My personal preference is to use these survivors as brusiers with blood paint, because you can then wield two different one handed weapons and have a bunch of fun activations, they are also great with Gorment Armor + Lantern Glaives or with Green Armor and whatever weapon you desire.

This constellation along with Sculptor should be the main ones you are aiming to make.

Reaper

Requirements: Pristine/Champion's Rite/1+ Base Accuracy/9+ Courage

Difficulty to Unlock: Hard

Reaper/Psychovore is simply an amazing ability, in an Accept Darkness settlement this makes every member of the hunt effectively immune to death by brain trauma because you can eat those disorders away. It also allows you to strip off things like Vestiphobia (which is sometimes gained when a constellation awakens) and keep the mental health of your settlement in tip top condition.

The downside to this ability almost never triggers, because it is rare that every survivor loses all their disorders during the hunt. However, to be safe, it's probably best to not send out a Psychovore if you do not have disorders on 2-3 other survivors. They also cannot heal themselves, but two Psychovores can do that.

Excellent survivor to have, but you typically won't be able to use them every showdown and you can't use them to help survivors who have retired from Fear of the Dark (time for trepanning!) 

Gambler

Requirements: 9+ Understanding/Destined/Fated Blow/Pristine

Difficulty to Unlock: Moderate but time consuming

One of the most fun constellations for dice chuckers and literal gamblers, Gambler isn't a very strong constellation, but it has a very high ceiling for damage. You will often consider using this one with paired weapons and/or that have Perfect hit triggers (not auto wound ones). Build for a luck based DPS, stack some extra speed on it, get Timeless Eye and go crazy.  It's also fun with spears, timeless eye and the Death Mask.

Not the best constellation, but a fun one.

Absolute

Requirements: Reincarnated (Surname)/Frozen Star/Iridescent Hide/Champion's Rite

Difficulty to Unlock: Moderate to Hard

A superb support ability, with two ways to use it.

If you are running pure support and not planning to attack, Absolutes should be left to act last in each round. This means they have a permanent Blue Ring on tap and the amount of damage they will prevent each round is incredible.

As an alternative they are also amazing when they are attacking with a 1 speed weapon. Absolutes are masters of slow weapons because of how strongly they can 'prune' the AI deck with the combination of their ability and selectively grinding cards away. However if you are going to do this, you want a DPS/Support hybrid following them up (or surges) in order to re-attack or restack the AI deck if the Absolute misses.

They are also VERY tanky because they always have Iridescent Hide, so you can build them into a Tank/Support/Grand Weapon user very easily.

Sculptor

Requirements: Scar/Noble/Weapon Master/1+ Base Accuracy

Difficulty to Unlock: One of the easiest, but time consuming.

If there was any single constellation that one should always be aiming for, it is Sculptor. Sculptor gives you an almost exact, clone duplicate of the original survivor (minus the constellation). They are missing your surname and scar, and gain Unbreakable instead. 

This is incredibly powerful, because it's an increase in population and also a survivor who is very close to gaining Sculptor again (you can manage it by fighting the Tyrant and/or visiting the throne) so you want to trigger Sculptor before the end of the final fight of against the Tyrant (L3).

In addition to getting this immediate replacement survivor & population gain, you also get access to the Sculptor's limb replacement ability. This isn't as strong as you'd think, because Pristine is a thing in Stars:

But for survivors who do not have pristine, being able to fix a lost limb (arm or leg) and gain a resource is amazing. So don't forget that it is a thing.

Overall you want as many sculptors as possible, and the exceptional way that they share weapon mastery with Storm means that you can concentrate on these two constellations very well. I have often chained Sculptor into Sculptor or Storm and it is a lot easier than you'd think.

So to type a bow in it all, my personal rankings of the best constellations to aim for unlocking are:

• Sculptor
• Storm
• Absolute x1
• Reaper
• Gambler

There is obviously no reason to ever bother with progressing towards Goblin apart from Oracle's Eye (which is good on one survivor per hunt - check it in the attachments below, it can be a life saver against certain monsters). In respect to the other two, they're fine but Witch is very limited in what it does (it's fine, it's just a low skill floor, low skill ceiling constellation) and Rust which more than any other constellation is very heavily dependent on gear.