Walkthrough for Ascension of Limbs (v1.0) (by AKheon) ----------------------------------------- Ascension of Limbs is a heavily randomized game of discovery and survival. The game becomes easier once you know what to focus on during your playthrough. Knowing the correct order in which to do things and what risks are worth taking is also important. This guide contains large gameplay spoilers, so read sparingly and only if you really need to... okay? Alright, so I'd list the various challenges and opportunities a player faces during their playthrough roughly like this: Early-game: ----------- - managing cash - building customer interest - getting first unique items - getting first tools Mid- to late-game: ------------------ - managing sanity - managing infamy - managing customers - avoiding arrest - getting enough resources to win the game I'll go through these point by point, listing some pointers for each. 1. Managing cash - You only start with 5 cash, and it's depleted surprisingly quick. Be careful with your shopping. Don't bother getting a worker to your store until you are more financially secure. There's no need for an insurance either if you don't have much infamy. - The main way to get cash in this game is by serving customers. You always get the most benefit out of serving a customer if you have wares. Without wares, a shop transaction will generate less cash and there's also a chance that the customer will leave purchasing nothing. - If worst comes to worst and you're about to run out of cash, there are a few different ways you can delay a game over. Getting a loan is the most obvious choice. It nets you 5 cash instantly, but you have to pay it back during the next 7 weeks (or "upkeeps"). It will get you out of immediate danger but leaves you at a disadvantage. - You can also talk to the seer about "cash" if you're in good terms with her. This makes her donate 2 cash to your store. This can be done over and over again if you keep talking with her regularly while you're low on cash. - A somewhat risky but effective way to gain cash is to intentionally build up infamy and then get your store insured. At high infamy levels there's a 12% chance per turn that vandals will strike your shop; each time they do so, you get 5 cash. - Being a robber is a desperate option: slaying customers and searching their bodies will yield a random amount of cash. Doing this is bad in the long term since the game only has a finite amount of customers. There's always the risk of getting arrested too. 2. Building customer interest, a.k.a. How to attract customers - The game has a variable called "customer interest" that you can see whenever you examine the store. It's helpful to keep this value high in both short and long term. The game will re-calculate this value once per upkeep (7 turns). So, how to raise customer interest? Here's a list of things that increase or decrease this value: - promoting store (plus 2 or 3) - having at least one promoted unique item (plus 1) - having at least three promoted unique items (plus 1) - having at least five promoted unique items (plus 1) - having at least 2 infamy (plus 1) - having at least 5 infamy (plus 1) - owning the tool "sign" (plus 1) - if there's more than 1 junk or a distasteful item is promoted (minus 1) - if troublemaking customers are around (minus 1) In other words, remember to promote the store to get an edge in the early game. Promoting unique items as soon as you find them is a good idea in most cases. Getting some infamy isn't a bad idea either, if you can keep it under control. 3. Getting first unique items (and also: how to search more effectively) There are three ways to get unique items: either by searching the store, having the creep drop an item in your store or purchasing an item from the seller. Searching the store is purely random. At the start of the game, your chance of finding an unique item from the store is (roughly) 15% per search, but this chance will increase if you have insight OR have found the unique item "shoe" OR own the tool "light". Every point in insight gives you a 1 in 9 chance of reversing bad fortune, guaranteeing you either wares or an unique item if you are about to fail a store search. In other words, with 9 Insight, every single store search will end in success. The tool "light" and the unique item "shoe" are calculated separately, and they both give you an additional 2 in 9 chance of reversing your fortune. Meanwhile, the creep's item drops are completely predetermined. First time around he will drop the unique item "egg" which generates curses. Second time he will drop "Beril" which generates infamy. After these two items he will only drop meat. Sometimes it can be beneficial to allow the creep to drop his items, but it really depends on the situation. To note, these two unique items cannot be acquired any other way - one way or another, you'll have to get them from the creep. Finally, the seller will always have an unique item with him when he enters the store if there are 0 unique items in play. Otherwise there's a 10% chance that he has an unique item to sell. This item will be a random item from the same item pool as the other store items, and it will cost 2 cash, which can be a bit pricey in the early game. Good starting unique items: I would say "Tulus" is one of the best ones since it allows you to play more aggressively than normal and gain insight quickly (at the expense of bodies piling on your doorstep). One drawback is that it will obsess customers, slowing down your cash flow later in the game. "Reed" can be used to get a lot of insight quickly if you have cash to spare. If you use it more than two times, though, it will leave the store, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. You can also break this item for a small amount of cash, if you're desperate. "Verum" is another good item for gaining a lot of insight, especially if you own the tool "thesaurus" which counteracts your words becoming blocked quite well. "Shoe" is the ultimate item for quickly finding more unique items, although it does have its price. Bad starting unique items: "Fasil" is one of the worst starting items since it will drain your mind unless you can generate a steady amount of infamy, which can be difficult early game. You can get early game infamy by discarding someone from your store (even yourself at 3 or less mind). Note that once you have at least 1 infamy, you can keep promoting it over and over again to increase it as high as you want. Although keep in mind that too high infamy = game over. The "black box" is also a fairly bad item. It doesn't offer a significant benefit when promoted since it's distasteful, and opening it can waste many turns. Even if you do manage to get it open, you only get 1 insight at the cost of 1 mind. Oulent has randomly generated properties, and so it can potentially be the worst unique item in the game. On the other hand, it could be harmless or even useful too. You should always consult the seer when you get an Oulent to learn what it does. 4. Getting first tools You can get some tools by using SEARCH or TALK verbs with the catalogue. The first purchase will be free, but after that all tools will cost 1 cash. All of the tools have passive benefits and generally no real drawbacks. You can also convert a tool into wares by discarding it, so that's one alternative way to get wares if you really need them. The best starting tools in my opinion: "Axe" gives a 33% chance of converting a junk into wares when you WRECK it. This is mostly useful early game, since late game your sanity might be so low that using WRECK is a liability. This tool will also be automatically equipped in physical altercations, giving you an edge in combat and allowing you to play more aggressively. "Tape" gives you a 33% chance of automatically converting a found junk into wares. Makes your searching more efficient, so it's good to have as early on as possible. "Sign" increases customer interest, which is something you sorely need in the early game. "Light" makes your find wares and unique items more often, so it's another good item early on to make your searching more effective. The less optimal starting tools: "Bell" makes obsessed people and rambling man snap out of their obsession. It can be very helpful mid-game, but usually not so much in early game. "Thesaurus" unblocks blocked words faster. It's extremely helpful in some situations, depending on your playstyle, but again mostly in mid-game though. "Wheelbarrow" allows discarding two junk at once, and it also gives a 100% chance of getting rid of meat from the store. The meat benefit is very helpful, but again mostly in mid- to late-game if your sanity has gotten low. 5. Managing sanity It's almost inevitable that your mind starts taking a hit sooner or later. To make things worse, your most recent verb is always blocked for several turns when you lose mind. It's helpful to note that the rules of some of the verbs change slightly if your mind goes below 4. For instance, you will randomly start finding meat when searching the store. Also, trying to wreck junk will sometimes increase it instead of destroying it. (For this reason it's generally always better to use the verb DISCARD rather than WRECK to get rid of junk if you're low on mind.) The most obvious way to regain sanity is to try to "search mind". "Promote mind" also works. However, this only has a 33% chance of success. If you're at 1 mind, certain actions that would normally cost mind like "talk self" will instead increase it. So, as long as the verb TALK is available, you can avoid a loss of mind game over. Talking to the seer at low sanity when you're in good terms with her can also help - she can restore a bit of mind to you. 6. Managing infamy If infamy starts rising, it can be hard to get it back down again. Random vandal attacks make infamy rise, which on the other hand prompts more vandal attacks... it's a vicious cycle. Easiest way to get rid of infamy is by promoting store. This lowers infamy by 2. Infamy also slowly depletes by itself. One last way to reduce infamy is to talk to the seer about it if you're in good standing with her. 7. Managing customers You're likely to have a steady supply of customers during mid-game. Getting one or two to become regulars ensures a good cash flow for the rest of the game. However, there are a few things to keep in mind... Any items with corrupting influence may obsess customers. Obsessed customers are a liability; if left to their own devices, they may offer to buy or even steal the corrupting item. You can de-obsess people by getting them out of your store. Discarding is the fastest option, but it's a bit unreliable as people will try resisting it. Calling the cops and talking to the police officer about the obsessed person is a 100% reliable way to get them out, but this arouses slightly more infamy as well. Finally, if you own the tool "bell", any time the store door is opened, obsessed people may snap back into reality. Promoted distasteful items or the rambling man will not only lower customer interest for the week, but they can also make regular customers leave faster, interrupting cash flow. Finally, any disturbing actions that happen in the store will repel or shock customers, causing them to leave. An escaped shocked customer will spread word about the horrors they have seen, giving you a one-time boost to your infamy. 7. Avoiding arrest (and about the police officer in general) You can manually call the police officer into your store via the directory. Besides that, he can randomly appear at your store if you have recently gained some infamy. There are a few situations where people may end up dead inside your store. If this happens but you are not the culprit, you are free to call the police to have them take care of it. The game will continue, but you will get a bit of a cash and infamy penalty for that whole mess. If, on the other hand, you are the culprit, and the police find the body inside your store, they will have no choice but to arrest you. You only have one turn to avoid arrest. There are three things you could do at this point: 1, talk to the cop about "cash". If you have more than 3 cash, they will take ALL of the cash you have, but they will also turn a blind eye to your activities for the time being. 2, there's a random chance of gaining the perk "slippery" when you use the unique item "Ecame". This allows you to avoid becoming arrested (just once). 3. accept defeat. Besides being a risk to the main character, there are some useful things you can do with the help of the police officer. If you talk with him about people in your store, you can have him arrest them, getting them out of your store 100% reliably, although this will generate 2 infamy. You may also talk with the cop about curses. He is a very grounded "anti-magic" person, so somehow he makes the curses deplete slightly faster. Finally, you can subvert the seer by giving the cop her number. 8. Getting enough resources to win the game There are three main endings to the game. All of these endings are Ending C. First is reached by having 6 unique items promoted at once. Second is reached by amassing at least 20 cash. Third is reached by acquiring 6 Insight. Besides these three endings, there is a higher ending - Ending A - if you fulfill all three of these goals on a single playthrough. Not all three conditions have to be fulfilled simultaneously - it's enough that you've simply reached them at some point during the playthrough. Finally, there's one last ending - Ending S - if you do the above but have also subverted the seer. To subvert the seer, you need to either give her number to the cop OR you can destroy the root in her presence. 9. List of achievements 1. Meeting Seer. Very easy to get, as it is a part of the tutorial. The main menu also unlocks after this point. 2. Ending I - Inevitable. Game over from losing all mind. 3. Ending I - Impoverished. Game over from losing all cash. 4. Ending I - Infamous. Game over from too much infamy. 5. Ending I - Incarcerated. Game over from being arrested. 6. Ending I - Itinerant. Game over from abandoning your store. 7. Ending C - Community. Win the game after promoting 6 unique items. 8. Ending C - Calling. Win the game after acquiring 20 cash. 9. Ending C - Clarity. Win the game after acquiring 6 insight. 10. Ending A - Ascension. Win the game after fulfilling all Ending C conditions. 11. Ending S - Supersession. Like Ending A, except seer is also subverted. 12. Ascended. Awarded after acquiring all other achievements. --- Other general hints and notes about the mechanics: - The corrupting effect of various items such as Tulus does not directly harm your character, so if there is no one else inside the store, there is no downside to promoting them. - A few of the unique items are "historical". This means that they increase the chance of the two troublemaker customers creep and rambling man appearing at the store. - Having a worker costs 1 cash every upkeep, but they perform the same tasks around the store as you do, essentially allowing you to multi-task. You can also ask the worker to focus on some particular action by talking to them. This can be helpful if you have a blocked verb and need to outsource some action to your worker. A worker has a 66% chance per turn of doing something. What they do depends on what the situation inside the store looks like and whether you have suggested them to focus on some particular action, but there is still a bit of randomness to it. Normally when firing a worker, you have to pay them the week's pay in advance. You can fire a worker without having to pay them by throwing them out of the store instead with DISCARD, or having the cop take them away, but there's a chance they will become disgruntled, refusing to work for you again. The agency only has two different workers to offer you: Helena and Bert. If both of them are disgruntled (or dead), then you cannot get a worker to your store. --- Alright, that should be most of the info. Hopefully this will help you get more out of Ascension of Limbs.