People of the Stars: Part 2 – The Campaign (Patreon)

This piece is going to be a mixture of lore/thematic discussion interspaced with strategy and tactical segments; with the larger chunk going to the latter portion. Stars is by far and away the most complete and satisfying of the three campaigns we have access to at the moment due to it having a well written narrative and engaging mechanics that ask you to complete objectives throughout the sessions. The task in front of you; which is awakening sufficient survivors to become Children of the Stars, can be a daunting one; but all the tools are available to the player and by focusing on one step at a time you can progress in a very satisfying manner (with one trollish exception).

Before we start I'd like to quickly talk about the quarry choices in this campaign; the rulebook says that you should not play with any other expansions. Toss that out of the window as soon as possible, especially if you are tired with the Lions, Antelopes and Phoenixes oh my. There are a few monsters that do not mesh well with the campaigns mechanics, or can make the experience harder – but to help you with any decisions here's a quick bit about each one.

BEWARE SPOILERS AHEAD

From this point forward; here be heavy spoilers about both the objectives in this campaign and the methods you can employ to achieve them.

The Expansion Discussion

Gorm – Provides variety; doesn't impact on the campaign much outside of the usual Gorm effects. It does potentially provide access to an early club which is useful; but most of the gear you want before the first Tyrant fight is White Lion based. Recommended.

Spidicules – As this is a campaign where individual survivors have to survive and become stronger or you'll lose. As such the Taken rules are very frustrating at times. You can play this with the campaign, but I would leave it until after you've reached the final event/showdown at least once. Juggling rescue operations for the red shirt who's been abducted can greatly complicate the process. Also because the armor set is so awkward to craft and the weapons are mostly mediocre the reason to play with these is to build the rings. Getting what you need for the rings will interfere greatly with your progression elsewhere. For Experienced Players.

Flower Knight – Since the 1.6 Update there has been few reasons to hunt the Flower Knight outside of gaining an Acanthus Doctor and True Blade survivors. They're still both fun survivor archetypes; but most of the time I skip on them because it's too much power for too little work. This expansion won't harm things though and you can play with People of the Bloom mixed with People of the Stars – mechanically it all works; thematically don't ask me. I guess the Flower Knight and Tyrant are fine sharing survivors in some sort of weird polygamous triad. Not Recommended anywhere outside of Green Armor campaigns.

Manhunter – This monster gives you special showdowns, that provides more time to achieve some of the objectives. The showdown can be brutal at times with severe injuries being more common than normal. So on the whole this one is fine, it makes some elements a bit easier while also adding some challenge. The normal issue with the Manhunter is the tools that beat the Butcher also beat the Manhunter, but in Stars you're looking for different tools to manage the Tyrant and they don't all overlap with the Manhunter's weak spots. This means the Manhunter is a bit more challenging than it is in Lantern. Soft Recommendation.

Lion Knight – The Lion Knight absolutely stands opposite to the Stars objectives; and while it does give access to Hybrid Armors and more showdown fights, because you have to bring at least one red shirt survivor to a the showdown (usually more) this one doesn't help your progression most of the time, it harms your population and that's something you might want to avoid until you have more time under your belt. There are helpful elements for sure here, but the showdown is so awful and dull that you're better off leaving this for when you want to build Green Armor. Not Recommended outside of Green Armor campaigns, just add the Hybrid Armors directly if you want to enjoy them.

Slender Man - This is a great monster, however as we'll discuss further on in this piece, The Hand is a very important piece of the puzzle for Stars and as unengaging as it is to sit there while tanking The Hand's hits until applause triggers, The Hand gives access to +1 Accuracy, which matters a lot. Also, because you get to often choose your nemesis from Butcher/Hand/King's Man and the King's Man never turns up naturally the biggest benefit for cutting the Slender Man isn't present. So save this one for later play throughs and pick The Hand or The Butcher if you are seeking Scrap/Mask Maker. Recommended for experienced players who want to switch things up.

Dung Beetle Knight - An excellent quarry monster, but one I've cooled on over time. It is a decent option to have instead of hunting the Phoenix (which also harms your survivors in ways that make success more challenging). There's nothing wrong with putting this one in here; though in the future when we have more Node 3 options I can see the Dung Beetle Knight spending more and more time on the shelf. Recommended

Sunstalker – Without a doubt the best quarry you can hunt in People of the Stars (echoed by the Dragon King being the best quarry for Sun). This is a fun place to have this monster because it has a huge variety of viable weapons, armor that synergises with the campaign abilities and it can be exhaustively hunted over and over at all levels to make really interesting gear. Highest Recommendation.

White Gigalion – It's a White Lion with busted gear, might as well just slot it in and enjoy. Even if you have the new nerfed Dense Bone Arrows they're still broken as heck. It's just going to add variation to your Lion Hunts while also rewarding you. Apathetic Recommendation.

Lion God – Not recommended, but you can easily slot it in just to hunt it once at Level 1. If Earthquake was a well designed card then we'd be having a different discussion, but alas, as sure as there are Youtube Shill Channels for Kickstarter Board Games, the Lion God will sometimes just automatically kill a survivor without any form of reactive mitigation. As usual, not recommended until Silver City/Campaigns of Death does something to address how poor the rewards are for this fight.

Green Armor – This is a bit much for your first campaign, but maybe after three or four successful runs you may consider trying to juggle this alongside everything else, it's a challenge with a worthy reward. You can also just add portions of this to the campaign if you have Gorm + Relevant Quarry Monster. Not recommended for players who haven't succeeded at the campaign already.

That turned out to be a lot more than I was planning, but lets get onto the campaign itself; we're going to break it apart into chunks so you can have a good idea of what's happening. Be aware that I'm not going to dive into the Tyrant fight here, but I will write about what you're looking for in preparation for the “training bouts” against your beautiful bald mentor.

The Beginning

Our story starts after the initial showdown fight against Perry the Prologue Lion. We won't tread over the various strategies you can employ there except to note that this is a campaign where throwing the Founding Stone for +1 Strength does have an impact on your odds of success.

Having slain the Lion, your weary survivors will be gathered up by their potential savior and taken to join other survivors that he has gathered together for his plans. The usual guidelines apply here, avoid innovating until you have a good base of gear and prepare for the first Nemesis Showdown. This is going to be against The Tyrant and it represents a third of the opportunities to get a lot of progression towards completing Star Bingo.

Your Pre Lantern Year 3 Gear check list is;

• Whisker Harp for tech vs. The Tyrant (it helps so much in unlocking constellation ticks during the fight - more on this in the Tyrant fight deep dive).
• Clubs or Heavy Weapons
• Rawhide Armor
• Hit Location control
• Classic Good stuff (Katar, Cat Gut Bow, Rib Blade, Greater Gaxe, Monster Grease, Lucky Amulet)

So while the shopping list is somewhat similar to The Butcher's there's a hard lean into how useful the Whisker Harp is; it's more or less my number 1 goal because when you have it you can unlock constellations in the very first Tyrant fight – I've been sat at a table more than once where someone has achieved that seemingly mammoth task thanks to the Harp.

Between the First and Second Tyrant Encounters.

At this point you should have at least some Dragon traits on lead survivors; and at this point you want to pay close attention to preserving them. The first four survivors who achieve a full constellation should be immediately benched and kept safe. They are your key to winning, without them you are going to do absolutely nothing at all. For everyone else it's time to pay attention to how you're going to preserve the valuable bingo players; mostly by throwing all the plebian red shirts in the way of anything really dangerous. Having a Murder Bait survivor as well is very important, so this is an area where the Phoenix can help out, hunting it a couple of times for valuable gear (Sonic Tomahawk, Arc Bow etc) with Plebians will work out if you're seeking defense from Murder and that's something you should always be working around. Speaking of Innovations:

Innovations & Principles

During this period is where you'll optimally start developing your settlement's backbone support of innovations/principles. There are some campaign specific alternatives, including a really amazing replacement for Clan of Death in Bloodline. Clan of Death is something you can usually live without; but both Empire and Bloodline are absolutely key for this campaign and it changes the value of Hovel a huge amount. Normally Hovel is a mid game pick, but in Stars it is absolutely right to grab it as early as possible due to how strong Pristine, Surnames and Iridescent Skin are (Oracle's Eye is a bit of a tricky one, you don't need a lot of it and it has a rather huge downside).

Symposium remains as powerful as it has ever been, but it is also extra important because not only are you looking to hit Nightmare Training, but that innovation unlocks access to the Arena – a campaign specific source of so many important hits for your Bingo Grannies.

This is all a part of what makes Stars so interesting; the normal tier list of Symposium > Drums > Paint > Inner Lantern > Hovel > Lantern Oven is turned on its head a little due to Hovel having stuff that you want early in the game instead of in the middle portion. I still don't have the exact order I want to switch to sorted out, but I suspect that Hovel might be second now (ahead of drums and behind the ever wonderful Symposium.)

In respect of principles you have some choices to make for your Birth Principle, Conviction and Society (Cannibalize remains an awful death principle) – there are benefits to each side, picking Survival of the Fittest for Birth means you can reroll visiting the Obsidian Throne (see below) and try to score more scars or free innovations; however in Stars Protect the Young + Hovel gives you a 20% chance of scoring a favoured child who will be born with either Oracle's Eye or more often Iridescent Hide (Hide is an INSANE ability). I favour Protect the Young because otherwise getting Iridescent Hide is a little tough.

For Conviction we're looking at benefits for either choice, a large population is always rewarded by collective toil, but given this is a campaign about individual survivors and making them as strong as possible Accept Darkness's Mental Trauma protection is absolutely massive. I personally don't believe there is a right answer between these two; whereas in other campaigns I'll always default to Collective Toil.

Finally with your Society choices I still err on the side of picking Romantic because of its general utility, but Barbaric can be the right call because 3+ base strength is a Star Bingo choice for Storm. It'll be a case-by-case situation depending on what's right for you – 3+ Base Strength is also required for The Goblin and we absolutely do not want that trash darkening our doorstep.

The Obsidian Throne

A quick side mention of this special settlement location. This is where your lord and master dwells and it is a place where you should be sending a Plebian every year you have a spare innovation. If they gain a Scar then wonderful, you can start sending them out to Tyrant Fights to work on Sculptor/Witch. It's also something that makes Male survivors a bit more viable on hunts because if they get neutered by the Manstealer hunt event you have a chance to fix their junk and pass on traits (Note that I'll still default to mostly females because of how Bloodline works).

You can only do this once per settlement phase and it's a lot cheaper than innovating, so don't miss out. On an average campaign this will result in approximately 4 dead survivors, 8 Scars, 6 Junk replacements for infertile survivors and 2 innovations in exchange for the survivor's life. It's a great deal – especially when you turn a dead survivor into an endeavour with Graves.

Midnight's Children

This moment acts as the “Hands of Heat combined with Armored Strangers” of the campaign and on top of giving you this campaign's “Lantern Oven” it also help define how personally important the plan is to The Tyrant and gets you on track towards unlocking constellations in Lantern Year Nine. If you're not getting a constellation or two after this event (and before Lantern Year 10) then you're way off course and need to adjust.

The gear you get from this event is always great, as are the Dragon Vestments you gained from beating the first Tyrant fight. Dragon Vestments mostly exist to grab Pristine, Fated Blow and Champion's Rite. Pristine is the best of this trio, but it doesn't have the optimal location on the Bingo (also if you lose one of these you still keep the tick, so don't be afraid to cycle). Dragon Vestments is best on a tanky character, but you should be shifting it to any survivor who is going to hit an age milestone after a showdown.

On the whole however you're a lot freer with your plans and actions at this point, because without expansions there are no other Nemesis monsters turning up before LY9's showdown fight with your benefactor and you need similar tools to the ones you wanted for the LY3 showdown – just aim for better armor and weapons while also keeping a keen eye on the Whisker Harp, Club/Heavy weapons and Hit Location control. You should also work on Spear Mastery because winning the L2 Tyrant Fight will give you an excellent Spear, something which often can be lacking in the pre-Blacksmith period (depending on quarry monsters).

The Level 2 Tyrant & Constellations to aim for.

Here at this point after this showdown if you're not scoring some full constellations then you're really way behind the curve. Typically you should have at least 4 constellations benched safe and be working towards getting more achieved so you can take advantage of constellations like Storm who want to be out in showdowns generating more and more weapon masteries + iron. One of the best constellations to aim for in order to ease the passage of gaining more constellations is Sculptor, which will give you a copy of the Sculptor survivor (missing Scar + Nobel surname). Often it's easy to build a survivor who is almost at Storm & Sculptor, trigger Sculptor and then have the stone copy survivor achieve Storm instead.

Any constellation you can achieve is fantastic, except for Goblin, which should be avoided at all costs – but it is worth noting that there is still a tier list for them which I'll pop here below. The tiers are based on how powerful they are plus how

• Sculptor Tier – Sculptor
• S Tier – Storm, Absolute
• A Tier –Witch, Reaper (First copy only, later Reapers are C tier)
• B Tier – Gambler
• C Tier – Rust
• Goblin Tier – Goblin

Some of these constellations you don't really need more than one of (if you had the choice) for example there's no benefit to a second Absolute in a showdown and multiple Reapers can get in each other's way. Rust and Gambler are just very medium but the addition of 100 Insanity and Immortal for the Gambler constellation pushes them ahead.

Most of the time though aim for as many Sculptors as possible, more population and more potential constellation unlocks are massive benefits for your settlement.

After the Level 2 Tyrant

If things are not going too well at this point it's not a huge deal breaker because you still have the third level Tyrant coming in lantern year 19 so you should focus on preparation for that fight by trying to prime as many different survivors as possible with traits. There are a few spots where you can aid this and a large one is in Lantern Year 16 where you get a choice of the three core nemesis monsters. The Hand offers +1 Accuracy; which is a Dragon Trait – so that is an easy, if boring choice. Of course if you want something more exciting and you have enough Dragon Traits the L2 Butcher is a solid option to gain more scrap and another shot at the Mask Maker location.

Lantern Year 10 – Unveil the Sky

This is another opportunity to get somewhere, what you want to do is look at survivors who might get closer to a constellation because they already have something next to one of the options and go from there. A survivor who is just one slot away from a constellation is probably better not risked here unless you have access to rerolls (I rarely have rerolls because as mentioned above I prefer Protect the Young in Stars due to how important and powerful Iridescent Hide is).

The Grind until the Level Three Tyrant

After that event you're into the dullest stretch of years in just about every single campaign. While early on there are interesting Node 3 monsters to hunt, you might hit some L3 Node 1/2 monsters as well, but unless you have specific crafting goals most of the time you're digging through this section collecting scrap/iron and whatever monster specific items you want for your builds. The Sunstalker is always a good filler here because all three versions of it feel somewhat different and ramp up in both challenge and rewards without slotting you into a situation where Deja Vu obliterates your campaign.

This is the largest lull in the campaigns story and it is the place where you get to prepare for one last shot at doing well against the Tyrant. If you do not already have it, the Whisker Harp remains absolutely key to success and you may even want to consider constructing a second one because of the sheer danger that the L3 Tyrant Moods will represent (more on that when we discuss the Tyrant in specifics later). You might not realise it; but this stretch up to and including the final Tyrant fight is the last area where it is “easier” to unlock constellations, after your final tussle with your Fallen King there will be few opportunities left and if you don't have four survivors with constellations then you're going to have a rough time with the finale.

After the Level 3 Tyrant

If you have not hit multiple constellations by this point in the campaign then things are going to be very difficult for the players, because the post L3 Tyrant period is the end game for Stars and things become very crushed, rushed and filled with urgency. You have only a few opportunities to score some last unlocks – most notable of which is the L3 Choose your own Nemesis encounter at Lantern Year 23. This can be the L3 Hand; who is an absolute beast to weather against, but it is virtually your last chance to score Dragon Traits with the +1 Accuracy.

At Lantern Year 24; you have one last, final hunt before the end, and this is where you will need to make a serious decision. If you have at least 4 surviviors with Constellations then you must keep them as safe as possible. However, if you have less than that number, be aware that only Constellations may face the final nemesis and even though it is not the most powerful of foes (at the moment, hopefully CoD readdresses that); it is still a monster scaled for 1 v 4; and a lower number of survivors may struggle to succeed and achieve their rebirth.

That means when departing for the final hunt, you may want to consider hunting a L3 Phoenix with as many ageless constellations/survivors as you can manage. Intending to trigger Deja Vu and reset the timeline, so at least some of your progression isn't lost and you can go again with a head start on the campaign. There is nothing more galling than having to enter the final showdown with nothing but a single survivor alive or not having a single survivor left alive (as non-constellations die when they hear the utterance of the native tongue of the Dragon people – only Dragon Kings and People of the Stars can survive as they are now made of the stuff of stars, just waiting priming for ignition).

I'm not going to go into huge details about The Tomb Parts 1 to 4 because there are no real strategies here at this point; you will gain one of the best shields in the game at no cost, and a lot of additional temporary luck to help you in showdowns, but you'll also loose access to basic resources as all of them are archived every year (Ignore the rounded down text, it's a legacy from an older version of the text and a victim of good old Pootlish). What you will notice is you're constantly punished for not having at least 4 constellations in your settlement – this is a large signpost towards the situation I wrote about above and it's why you should be considering 'exit plan Deja Vu' during this period if you do not have enough constellations for the final showdown (3 powerful constellation survivors can win, but that's not fun if you're four players).

Part 2 is worth a brief mention only because it has a chance of giving returning survivors +1 strength on an 8-10. That's worth a punt if you have survivors that would unlock Storm through the 3+ Base Strength dragon trait.

So, if you do reach the final fight with a decent number of constellations and have gear powerful enough to handle L3 Node 3 Monsters; the final fight should be exciting but not really a true challenge.

The journey and the constellations we made along the way are the true victory.

Note just before posting: Black Friday has landed, so I'll be looking at the new Halloween content and the Black Friday update over the coming weeks, we'll get to the Tyrant showdown at some point where I can squeeze that in. There's always a LOT to get through when Black Friday lands and this is no exception.