Endeavoring for Success: Part 4 - "Home" Monsters (Patreon)

Last time we looked at the exciting category of quarry based location endeavors, these types of endeavors tend to be in the minority as most monsters actually give via innovations. However there is another category of monsters that give out knowledge and they are far more important than the quarries that get slaughtered by our favourite book character savages. 

So, I've talked about this before, but survivors are just not capable of innovating and conducting various forms of development very well without direction. In every (current) campaign, there is a monster at the heart of their settlement and that monster is the key inspirational trigger for innovating and also settlement location construction. Without these monsters, survivors would likely die out in the darkness, alone and helpless. 

Unfortunately, these monsters always have an ulterior motive and it is rarely of benefit to the survivors in the campaign...

Innovate

Cost: 1x endeavor, 1x bone, 1x organ, 1x hide

Type: Permanent, Random (semi)

Effect(s): Gain innovations, you know the drill.

Included for completeness, and to highlight how it is the monster which is the driving point of knowledge. This is where the Watcher seeds the survivors with the ability to survive and grow (for a more filling harvest), where the Tyrant ensures that its potential new Dragon Kings learn about technology/philosophy/science/art and where the Sun leaks out knowledge to better help the foolish survivors protect the cuckoos in the settlement.

Innovating is important, it's not something you should do the first 2-3 years, but after that it represents the most important steps for improving your hunt party capabilities. Just remember, you should skip a few years early on in favor of gear and you can make up for that skip by saving the required resources for the years where the Butcher/King's Man/Hand turn up. Gear is the largest indicator of success in the early game.

Rating: 4/5

Shared Experience - Watcher / Lantern Hoard / People of the Lantern

Cost: 1x endeavor

Type: Permanent

Effect(s): Give +1 hunt xp to a survivor

Yeah there's a load of caveats, but in essence what this incredibly thematic endeavor does is allow survivors to train up other survivors with additional hunt xp. Now one of the issues with this is hunt xp < weapon proficiency,  

Rating: 3/5

Various - Dead Watcher / Exhausted Lantern Hoard / People of the Lantern

Cost: x1 or x2 endeavors

Type: Permanent

Effect(s): Various

So I'm putting these together simply to save time and because this is something that would be looked at in full elsewhere due to how integral it is to the main campaign. Lantern Research is your new version of innovating (digging it out from the final lantern instead of having the ideas 'dreamed' into your head by the watcher) and it is very powerful, but has a cap on where you would go and how efficient it is. Oxidation has been discussed in the past (see tags) and is likewise variable (but essential) in what you get from it.

The Survivor's Lantern is an interesting addition, because survivors now have to always use a lantern when they explore, good lanterns really matter. But if you do not have any (Blue, Sunspot, Pulse) the survivor's lantern is an example of how good, well structured affinities can make even a weak item useful. You are forced to use a lantern in your grid, but through having this gear as an option it is still able to contribute to builds in some manner.

Rating: 5/5

Investigate - Dead Watcher / Exhausted Lantern Hoard / People of the Lantern

 Cost: 1x endeavor

Type: Permanent, Temporary

Effect(s): This is how you get your hands on the various oxidation resources, by raiding the now empty lantern hoard for parts of the Watcher's cocoon and the tubes that lay/transmit the Lanterns across the land.  It is another one of those 'randomly you could die' tables, however the addition of the Legendary Lungs mitigation makes this one a better design than others. There is an option for safe exploration of this table, you don't just have to send Plebians every time.

This is another essential action for PotLantern and I feel it's a well designed one that should be used as much as you can manage.

Rating: 5/5

Purification Ceremony - Sacred Pool / Sunstalker / People of the Sun

Cost: 2x endeavor, cannot depart

Type: Permanent, random

Effect(s): Purify a survivor, give them Protective and +1 to an attribute (usually strength/accuracy)

One of the core elements of PotSun, this ceremony is something you want to be doing early and often despite it's extraordinarily high endeavor cost. Purified survivors are better than normal survivors and they can also lead down the path to Sun Eaters/Children of the Sun, who in turn help create Warriors of the Sun further down, and those bad boys and girls are the main focus of the campaign. Also, having 2x Purified survivors early on in the campaign gives you quick access to Partnership via the Sun Dipping Event. 

So learning how to manage your endeavors and trigger this event as much as possible is a huge part of PotSun, and with the addition of the stat boosts, this is a very rewarding task.

Rating: 4/5 (deducting a point because of that high activation cost)

Sun Sealing - Sacred Pool / Sunstalker / People of the Sun

Cost: 1x endeavor, cannot depart

Type: Permanent

Effect(s): Gain Hellfire SFA

Ok, so Hellfire is good. It's like REALLY good. The 'you die' portion of the Secret Fighting Art (SFA) can feel as scary as heck. But this SFA packs a ton of power and flexibility into a serious package and gives access to using Heavy Armor. This SFA is the ONLY way you can wear Green Armor in PotSun for example.

I adore having a Hellfire Warrior of the Sun in particular, and if you can get Abyssal Sadist in combination, you'll almost never have to worry about the downside.

Short version, ways to tutor powerful fighting arts are always exceedingly valuable. This is no exception - Hellfire is a game changer for Sun. Love it.

Rating: 4/5

Sacred Water - Sacred Pool / Sunstalker / People of the Sun

Cost: 1x endeavor

Type: Permanent, Random

Effect(s): Intimacy!

Getting a guaranteed roll on Intimacy every lantern year in addition to any you can squeeze out of Augury is H U G E gains. In combination with Collective Toil, Cooking, Tinkers and any Matchmakers this is how you grow your population huge during Sun in order to get as many Life Strings as possible.

It's also why Sun is rarely lost before the Boss Rush section, you shouldn't be running out of population in this campaign unless you've been very unfortunate or very unwise.

Rating: 4/5

Fear and Trembling - Obsidian Throne / The Tyrant / People of the Stars

Cost: 1x endeavor

Type: Permanent, Temporary, Random

Effect(s): 20% die / 40% gain Scar / 30% cure all waist injuries / 10% die and gain an innovation.

So right off, this is a 30% chance to die endeavor, so you should NOT be using anyone of value here. But if you are at this point using survivors of value for any settlement phase things that could kill (outside of specific goals); you're a lost cause I'm afraid. :) Fear & Loathing in Los Tyrantos is something you should be aiming to use every single year, either you convert a useless plebian back into an endeavor (therefore recycling them into more chances at breeding a Iridescent Hide survivor via Graves), get a scar on them which can make them more useful, or you might even recycle them and get a free endeavor.  As long as it's properly controlled, this endeavor is a huge benefit for a settlement and should be a main focus of your strategy.

Just don't go sending anyone who matters unless they desperately need a scar; and even then make sure you have lifetime rerolls and maybe even Otherworldly Luck on them. It's very rough to lose a constellation in Stars.

Rating: 4/5

Skull Ritual - People of the Skull

Cost: 1x endeavor, 1x skull

Type: Permanent

Effect(s): 4 survivors get +1 to all attributes permanently

One of the single most busted endeavors in the entire game, this variant campaign ability is paid for by the cost of the survivors in the campaign being unable to wear anything that isn't bone. While they have massive stats and a huge amount of offense, the People of the Skull are almost exclusively glass cannons (even if they get Crystaline Skin).

However, it cannot be understated, this ability is THE reason why you play PotSkull in whichever campaign you want to play and every single skull gained should be spent for this benefit.

Don't forget that any resource with the word 'skull' in the title counts, so this includes the Black Skull (Phoenix) and the Handed Skull (Gorm).

Rating: 5/5