Arc Philosophy & Knowledge: Part 2 Starting Knowledges (Patreon)

Spoilers for:

• Starting Knowledges
• Mention of Tier 1 Philosophies
• More detailed discussion around the Deadism Philosophy
• Mention of Forum Settlement Location
• Discussion of Collective Cognition Milestone 8

The four starting knowledges represent the beginning point for this system, they are randomly assigned to survivors during the prologue and they are a humble beginning to what will grow into a powerful and robust “levelling up system”. I'd like to take a moment here to once again highlight that I was very sceptical about this system when it was first announced; but now I am more concerned about future content being released without this system because I am not interested in going back to the previous form of Kingdom Death: Monster's levelling system. I have no problem admitting when my concerns were proven incorrect, this is a classic case here and I'm ecstatic to see that what I feared didn't come to pass and instead I think this image aptly covers my feelings:

Anyhow, let us get back to the matter at hand. Starting Knowledges. While we'll look at each of these four knowledges individually, it's worth considering their place in the system as a whole. They are here to help ease first time players into the system the same way that the White Lion works as “Baby's first monster”. They even have a mechanism to remove them from the Knowledge deck (if you want) when you reach a certain Collective Cognition milestone. It's a solidly excellent piece of game design all round and I really appreciate seeing how much the design team now known as Team Death have grown and matured. They've gone from being enthusiastic first time designers that can be uneven in their results; into a team that makes designs which are robust, thoughtful and offer a wide range of options rather than the more obvious paths to power that the first generation has. As an aside I am very excited about what Campaigns of Death will do to smooth out the original twelve (it is twelve right?)

Each of these starting knowledges doesn't even have much in the way of a mechanic other than an observation trigger, a number of boxes to tick and possibly a negative in the form of systemic pressure or torment. Whomever suggested this initial set of knowledges really got it spot on; we're looking at a gentle introduction where we only have to concentrate on a couple of things extra above the normal showdown (and the Crimson Crocodile mechanics of course, which are more complicated than the White Lion). There's no associated Philosophy, no additional knowledges coming in for a bit, instead you've just got these four tracks to complete and new cards to replace the old ones. Design Chef's kiss.

Lets look at each one shall we?

Darkness

Darkness is one of two starting knowledges with a negative attached to its first level. At Darkness I you'll have to suffer that +1 torment, which means you're 10% more likely to die if you get to brain trauma. However, it levels up through brain damage, meaning you can mitigate the torment by employing methods that give you insanity. The Blood Pool in the Crimson Crocodile showdown, Stone Noses and so forth.

On average this will probably take between two and three showdowns to complete, it depends on how much you employ the Crimson Crocodile/Pool interaction (a hard one to manage early on cause Crunk is an aggressive little lady). Technically you could get this one completed in the prologue showdown, though I have nothing but dread over the thought of a prologue showdown going that long (also as an aside this week I realised that I subconsciously nicknamed Crunk after Philomena Crunk, the Crimson Crocodile certainly does Pump Up the Jam.)

What we get at the end of observations is a solid Knowledge, thought it is a little expensive in respect to the Lumi cost for purchasing via the forum. This one is a great to support Deadism as the neurosis from that philosophy means you're very vulnerable to dying via brain trauma. If I have Deadism in the settlement this is one of the starting knowledges which I'll debate removing when given the option. We'll discuss that a bit in the end portion of this article.

Despair

Despair on the other hand is not as good as Darkness because of a number of factors, for a start in order to advance this you have to risk dying four times in order to complete it and on top of that the bonus +1 departing Insanity you get with Despair II means it takes even longer to get it advanced because against most early monsters that +1 insanity protects you from the first brain trauma roll.

In addition at the end you have a knowledge that is honestly kind of inferior to Stone Noses (except it doesn't take up a slot). When it is fully completed it costs 1, which means it is fine as an option to help with stuff like the Level 1 Crimson Crocodile. However, due to the extreme challenge in getting the level 3 version I'm not interested in focusing on getting Despair unlocked and this is always going to get culled at the point where it can be because for myself, while it can be useful early on, especially when considering the Crimson Crocodile's mechanics. It is still the worst of the starting knowledges by a long margin when outside of specific situations that ask for Insanity protection.

Fear

Fear is a quick one to reach maximum level with, it would be unusual to see this card not unlocked by the end of the first lantern year hunt and it's almost certain you would unlock it during the prologue fight. What you get is basically an "improved" single use “Dash-Cancel” for the cost of 1 knowledge (Dash Cancelling is where the monster targets you and you then cancel the monster's attack with distance). This is an easy way to assist in upgrading Deadism's Death Poet in a relatively safe manner and given how cheap the Lumi cost is this one is very accessible. (It's not great vs. the Crimson Crocodile of course).

While the value of this drops a bit once you have innovated Paint. Still, I can see settlements where I'd not remove this from the Knowledge deck because of how much stronger Flee is over the normal Dash-Cancel. I'm not sure if keeping it in is right yet due to how it dilutes the Knowledge deck a bit, but I do know I really like this starting Knowledge a lot.

Hunger

The other half of Fear & Hunger, Hunger is our survival based one and it's really easy to level up, you just need to survive the prologue fight and it convert into the second level (losing that +1 systemic pressure at the same time). At II it gives you a really welcome +1 survival when departing, but it also becomes a little tricky to level up.

Consuming isn't something you have a lot of access to early on in the game, the vast majority of it is based around hunt events, resources and terrain which mean it's semi-random. Our biggest early game hits are Brain Mint (Screaming Antelope, which has a single Screaming Brain to craft it), Frenzy Drink (White Lion, Hefty nuts), Organs and Love Juice. Though consuming a Perfect Organ is a very valid strategy to level up a Philosophy quickly – however that's not really a help for Hunger, it's more something I wanted to mention here because we've used it in Survival of the Fittest settlements. Consuming most resources however isn't something you'd want to do because resources in the early game are really valuable due to how important Gear is for winning showdowns.

In the end, I think Hunger's survival gain is great, but I'm just going to let this one passively tick up via hunt events/terrain and if it gets there, great I can put it on a front line character to who can use that extra survival to dodge attacks.

Collective Cognition Milestone 8

When the Communal Larder is unlocked, the settlement gains the option to remove the starting knowledges from the deck. I appreciate that it is optional, not forced, because that's allowing for interesting Starting Knowledge interactions to remain a part of the deck depending on your trajectory for the settlement's philosophies.

I am always removing Despair from the deck, it's unlikely to have completely levelled up due to how it plays against its own development and also requires dodging death via brain trauma multiple times. I don't think its great even when fully levelled up, 1 Lumi might not be much to buy, but I don't want to dedicate one of my precious knowledge slots into something that does so little.

Fear & Darkness both land within roughly the same space for me, if the settlement has Deadism I will probably want to consider keeping one or both of these around, Fear because it's easy safe access to a Brain Trauma once per showdown and Darkness because +1 to Brain Trauma rolls is great (just see the Tough Fighting Art). In fact I think I'm rarely going to remove Darkness in a Collective Toil settlement (I'm 100% cutting it if I choose Accept Darkness, as of course it is not a good Knowledge when the death result is a high roll not a low one), but due to its 3 Lumi cost I can see an argument for always cutting it. Fear's value drops off when you have Paint and I'm not sure if Flee is worth the knowledge slot and 1 Lumi cost, because it is only once per showdown, that needs more testing. We've left Fear + Darkness in the deck for the current run which reached CC8.

However, before Milestone 8 these knowledges can do some serious work and are able to help cover shortfalls in survival, insanity for the Crimson Crocodile and even ways of advancing/protecting Deadism survivors. This is just a couple of possibilities from my first few early game campaign plays (I'm replaying the early campaign a few times while I am waiting for the paints I need for the Gambler's Legion Ball to arrive because I am not playing a showdown against the core monster without it being painted. Also I'm in no rush to complete the Gambler's Chest, for me it's something to be savoured and enjoyed in a leisurely, fun fashion).

Summary

I honestly love the design and space where these four knowledges exist. Each one of them serves a purpose both in the learning experience for your first time playing with Arc Survivors and within the overall structure of the campaign as a whole. This is a “from humble beginnings” type situation with these four knowledges and I really do enjoy my time with them even if they are not as impressive as the higher tiers which follow.

Survivalism next!