Incline Age of Decadence - Tips, Tricks and Spoilers

[†††]

Is sneak penalty for armor ever checked in the game? And does the "reaction modifier" that CHA has have any significance, seems that CHA is only ever used for binary checks?

CHA affects faction reputation, which in turn affects endings. A character with low charisma will get shitty endings even if he did everything to please his bosses

 

[Parabalus]

Is sneak penalty for armor ever checked in the game? And does the "reaction modifier" that CHA has have any significance, seems that CHA is only ever used for binary checks?

CHA affects faction reputation, which in turn affects endings. A character with low charisma will get shitty endings even if he did everything to please his bosses

Another practical application is House Daratan rep, where with high Charisma(-->high rep) you can get both Cassius and Feng's training.

 

[Johannes]

Is sneak penalty for armor ever checked in the game? And does the "reaction modifier" that CHA has have any significance, seems that CHA is only ever used for binary checks?

CHA affects faction reputation, which in turn affects endings. A character with low charisma will get shitty endings even if he did everything to please his bosses

Not categorically true, my 4-CHA Praetor got what I assume is the best possible ranking ending working for Aurelian.

 

[Black Angel]

Is sneak penalty for armor ever checked in the game? And does the "reaction modifier" that CHA has have any significance, seems that CHA is only ever used for binary checks?

CHA affects faction reputation, which in turn affects endings. A character with low charisma will get shitty endings even if he did everything to please his bosses

Not categorically true, my 4-CHA Praetor got what I assume is the best possible ranking ending working for Aurelian.

Yeah, the faction reputation number is the one that has the final say for factional ending slides. I think it's possible to keep on pleasing a faction from the start all the way to the end even if you have low CHA.

 

[revealer]

For devs: clicking Transfer All when looting should close the window after transfer.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I just reached a place where you can get the dialogue line "I guess I've always been lucky when it comes to killing folks". "Unforgiven" reference greatly appreciated :D

 

[ScrotumBroth]

Just started this game, after the initial pleasant surprise, think I'm starting to discover deficiencies in design, much to my dismay.

So I'm playing as an assassin, and there's this mining outpost with various options to approach. I spiked the wine only to find out (after several reloads) that guards are impervious to dagger damage. Like, really? 4 skill points in daggers and critical hit, my dude can't find an opening in their armour with 10 dexterity and 8 perception. Alright, let's not be hasty, let's use the tools at our disposal. Fire bomb flask, poison (which for some reason doesn't stack with whetstone lol). Still nothing, fire bomb explosion is apparently + shaped and enemies jump out of fire during my turn, thus avoiding getting burned at the beginning of their turn. Poison is useless, because their armour absorbs all of my damage, I'm gonna say every 5-6th attempts actually hits them for one damage, which triggers 2 posion dmg on next turn. lol... healing salve doesn't heal during combat...another lol.
I've tried 4 different daggers, have this upgraded super cool leather armour from the blacksmith I've helped. Tuff shit, taking 15 dmg per hit, round three I'm dead. Honestly, I've tried even kiting behind barricades and splitting them up with fire and using nets, as much as I hate resorting to that shit, but it takes too fucking long to kill one guy when i can't even apply poison due to them absorbing everything.

Alright, okay, let's not overreact over one idiotic combat encounter. Let's reload and try impersonation. So, that only works if I can successfully guess the right combination of social skills, with intersection in convo hiding the skills required to pass, thus essentially acting as a reload wall. OK, whatever, reload, distribute skills as required (luckily I didn't spend all of them before), do the shit and all of a sudden I'm in next chapter with mini endings rolling. WTF? Are you kidding me? It's like the first mission outside of town I've randomly picked to do, no warning it's the last mission, nothing. I totes expected at least a convo option to return to the guy who sent me there, so I can speak with the main dude about the artifact. And then in new chapter, after a casual convo I'm now a member of some House instead assassins guild.

Honestly the mind boggles, this game suffers from multiple personality disorder.

I really enjoyed the first few missions, including secret ones and all of assassin guild ones, inside the first town, but all this purposeless ambiguity is so tedious. This is not a rant because game doesn't hold my hand, it's a rant about presenting as much as intended truthfully, so that I can make informed decisions. And I'm all good with my enemies using cheap tricks, but when a game uses cheap tricks that's a different story.
OK, assassin can't kill guards, idiotic but whatever. Maybe I just need to readjust my 20 years of cRPG gaming experience to this "reinvent hot water" line of thinking. I'm not rage quitting, just venting at stupid shit.

I mean, it's just weird how I've cleaned the inside of first town thinking wow devs really thought about everything, whatever I thought assassin should do in conversations or decision making, options are there, so cool. People reacted upon my reputation based on only few actions. Cool random encounters with muggers, hawkers and beggars. Siiiigh...

And I've just realized it's been a while since something triggered me this badly. Eat a whole bag of extra long dicks devs, I'm going back in.

 

[PlanHex]

Use aimed attacks on armoured opponents, should get better crit chance. Check your chance to crit on mouse over text.

Fire is mostly only good for splitting the battlefield.

When you're offered a job by a major faction that isn't your current one, that usually counts as betraying your employer.

Edit: been a while, but I seem to remember torso attacks can lower their CON on crits and thus make your poison more effective as well, besides reducing their DR? Might only be for some weapons though and not worth it for daggers.

Also, whetstone and poison should stack. Are you sure you didn't do those on two separate daggers/items? Use drag and drop to make sure you use them on the item you want.

 

[†††]

Use aimed attacks on armoured opponents, should get better crit chance. Check your chance to crit on mouse over text.

this is the correct advice. Even if you can't do much damage so far (and 4 in daggers at that point is a bit low), you can try hitting their arms so their accuracy drops down, or legs (if they don't have a shield) to have a better THC. Poison will do pitiful damage unless you upgrade alchemy and make some poison yourself.

It's your first time playing, ScrotumBroth ? assassin is generally seen as one of the hardest (if not hardest) backgrounds to play.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

So I'm playing as an assassin, and there's this mining outpost with various options to approach. I spiked the wine only to find out (after several reloads) that guards are impervious to dagger damage. Like, really? 4 skill points in daggers and critical hit, my dude can't find an opening in their armour with 10 dexterity and 8 perception.

The mining outpost is one of the hardest fights of the game. Most builds will fail, especially if you have an assassin jack of all trades. That’s why you have multiple ways to deal with this location without combat. Please, have the humility to acknowledge that is supposed to be that hard and try a frontal attack in another playthrough when you have a more combat focused character (e.g., a juggernaut mercenary). These obstacles are one of the coolest things in the game. I envy you for wanting to beat this fight for the first time. You are a lucky bastard.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Besides, not every build is intuitive or easy to play with. Dagger and spear builds are very tricky*, especially against heavy armoured enemies. As other posters already mentioned, you need to consider every option at your disposal. Torso attacks against armoured enemies are a necessity for dagger builds. Of course, you need to have the proper SPs because they are tough as nails, otherwise you are practically entering in the combat already dead.

* Sword, axe and hammer builds are simpler and more pratical.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Just started this game, after the initial pleasant surprise, think I'm starting to discover deficiencies in design, much to my dismay.

So I'm playing as an assassin, and there's this mining outpost with various options to approach. I spiked the wine only to find out (after several reloads) that guards are impervious to dagger damage. Like, really? 4 skill points in daggers and critical hit, my dude can't find an opening in their armour with 10 dexterity and 8 perception.

You won't find openings by hitting blindly and hoping for the best. Use aimed attacks, aimed: torso in particular. Or use bigger daggers and power attacks.

WTF? Are you kidding me? It's like the first mission outside of town I've randomly picked to do, no warning it's the last mission, nothing.

It's not the last mission. I assume you got the outcome where the local guards decided to take you to their leader which ended the current chapter for you.

I totes expected at least a convo option to return to the guy who sent me there...

The guy sent you to sabotage or kill the guards, did he not? Had you done that you would be able to return to him and continue the chapter. So you can kill the guards, you can use different types of poison, you can steal the power tube, or you can walk in like you did and offer to fix the machines but overheat the smelter instead and blow it up (tell the guards to go inside to witness the miracle as you walk out), or pay the raiders to attack the outpost.

This is not a rant because game doesn't hold my hand, it's a rant about presenting as much as intended truthfully, so that I can make informed decisions.

You walked into the mine and helped the guards fix the machine which made you valuable to them. So they took you to their leader. It's not the path we intended for your assassin but your actions have made it so.

OK, assassin can't kill guards, idiotic but whatever.

Use aimed attacks (the daggers are the best weapon class for that) and you'll kill them very quickly eventually, when you master the combat system.

PS. A word of warning, it seems you're playing a fighter/talker/loremaster, so you might be spreading your points too thin, so sooner or later you'll hit a point where your jack of all trades won't be good at anything. You can play a hybrid but once you know what you're doing.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Besides, not every build is intuitive or easy to play with. Dagger and spear builds are very tricky*, especially against heavy armoured enemies. As other posters already mentioned, you need to consider every option at your disposal. Torso attacks against armoured enemies are a necessity for dagger builds. Of course, you need to have the proper SPs because they are tough as nails, otherwise you are practically entering in the combat already dead.

* Sword, axe and hammer builds are simpler and more pratical.

I had zero issues clearing out the mine with a dagger-wielding assassin. I was investing all my points in dagger, dodge and critical strike, keeping these three at an equal level. I only spent my initial civic points on civic skills and from then on, all the general points would go into combat skills. I finished the game with 10 in dagger and dodge and 7 or 8 in critical strike, and about 89 general points which I eventually invested in streetwise, in order to save myself some trouble at Hellgate.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

I had zero issues clearing out the mine with a dagger-wielding assassin. I was investing all my points in dagger, dodge and critical strike, keeping these three at an equal level. I only spent my initial civic points on civic skills and from then on, all the general points would go into combat skills.

The mining outpost is one of the hardest fights of the game. Most builds will fail, especially if you have an assassin jack of all trades.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Now I want to play the game again just to beat the mining outpost and I have no time. Thanks a lot ScrotumBroth, you asshole.

 

[JarlFrank]

Besides, not every build is intuitive or easy to play with. Dagger and spear builds are very tricky*, especially against heavy armoured enemies. As other posters already mentioned, you need to consider every option at your disposal. Torso attacks against armoured enemies are a necessity for dagger builds. Of course, you need to have the proper SPs because they are tough as nails, otherwise you are practically entering in the combat already dead.

* Sword, axe and hammer builds are simpler and more pratical.

Spear is best tbh

Glorious spear masterrace

 

[ScrotumBroth]

You won't find openings by hitting blindly and hoping for the best. Use aimed attacks, aimed: torso in particular. Or use bigger daggers and power attacks.

I didn't realize there are aimed attacked. That changes everything. I think the main reason for feeling tricked was that you clearly left me this path of spiking wine and waltzing in there with a swagger and slitting the first guy's throat as a conversation option, so I couldn't figure out why was I struggling with 3 guys averaging 20hp.

The guy sent you to sabotage or kill the guards, did he not? Had you done that you would be able to return to him and continue the chapter. So you can kill the guards, you can use different types of poison, you can steal the power tube, or you can walk in like you did and offer to fix the machines but overheat the smelter instead and blow it up (tell the guards to go inside to witness the miracle as you walk out), or pay the raiders to attack the outpost.

Yeah, fair enough, not complaining about the lack of different approaches. I did note option to overheat the smelter, but I didn't know it comes with a delayed result (I thought that would blow my cover and leave me to fight my way out).
I mean, by that point I knew I was going to reload (no way I'd continue with 4 points wasted in lore), just wanted to see what happened.

You walked into the mine and helped the guards fix the machine which made you valuable to them. So they took you to their leader. It's not the path we intended for your assassin but your actions have made it so.

I appreciate that. By that point I was already raging that my intended path didn't work due to my incompetence in combat.

Use aimed attacks (the daggers are the best weapon class for that) and you'll kill them very quickly eventually, when you master the combat system.

Guess I should have done that combat tutorial. It's just that by the third pop up warning that the game is hard and tutorial is highly recommended it triggered me enough to say fuck you, now I'm not doing it just to prove a point.

PS. A word of warning, it seems you're playing a fighter/talker/loremaster, so you might be spreading your points too thin, so sooner or later you'll hit a point where your jack of all trades won't be good at anything. You can play a hybrid but once you know what you're doing.

Yeah, I started with points in hide, lockpick, impersonation and streetwise, because those seemed like something an assassin would be good at. Branching out to lore and persuasion was just an experiment.

Look, I appreciate your patient and helpful approach, clearly I'm the stupid shit here. But still, eat a bag of dicks.

 

[Vault Dweller]

You won't find openings by hitting blindly and hoping for the best. Use aimed attacks, aimed: torso in particular. Or use bigger daggers and power attacks.

I didn't realize there are aimed attacked. That changes everything.

It does and daggers' passive is a higher chance of critical with aimed attacks, so daggers work great with aimed attacks and Critical Strike skill. Also, there are other attacks such as Fast, Power, Flurry (daggers special attack), Arterial Strike, etc. Plus you can grab this nice unique dagger in an encounter near Maadoran's gate:

Yeah, I started with points in hide, lockpick, impersonation and streetwise, because those seemed like something an assassin would be good at. Branching out to lore and persuasion was just an experiment.

Keep in mind that assassin is more of a killer (someone who can fight alone against multiple opponents and kill them quickly) than a ninja striking from the shadows.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Besides, not every build is intuitive or easy to play with. Dagger and spear builds are very tricky*, especially against heavy armoured enemies. As other posters already mentioned, you need to consider every option at your disposal. Torso attacks against armoured enemies are a necessity for dagger builds. Of course, you need to have the proper SPs because they are tough as nails, otherwise you are practically entering in the combat already dead.

* Sword, axe and hammer builds are simpler and more pratical.

Spear is best tbh

Glorious spear masterrace

The hammer laughs at your glorified toothpick.

 

[ScrotumBroth]

Well, finally won against the guards, their gear is all top of the line ffs. And only after clearing the mine did I realize general skill points can be used for combat proficiencies... Honestly...

 

[Invictus]

Daggers is all about critical strikes, dodging, poison and going for limbs or torso... using the battlefield to your advantage by switching places when surrounded and using the spin to poison every attacker so by the time you finish up your first opponent they will have maybe 2/3 of their health left
Also use fire to keep your distance and manage the field to your advantage so you don’t get overwhelmed
With a good poison, bleeding through critical strikes and good crowd control (fire, bolas, nets) I found my play through as an assassin to be the most rewarding
Now you’ve done it... now I want to replay it again

 

[HeatEXTEND]

slitting the first guy's throat as a conversation option, so I couldn't figure out why was I struggling with 3 guys averaging 20hp.

To be fair slitting someone's throat out of nowhere can't really be compared to a stand-up 1v3 fight

now I'm not doing it just to prove a point.

But instead the game did

 

[ScrotumBroth]

slitting the first guy's throat as a conversation option, so I couldn't figure out why was I struggling with 3 guys averaging 20hp.

To be fair slitting someone's throat out of nowhere can't really be compared to a stand-up 1v3 fight

It wasn't meant to compare the two, just pointed out that it was obviously a legitimate path to walk up to them and use assassin's crit skill to initiate a fight.

Anyway, now that I'm getting the hang of it, it reminds me of Fallout in Roman Empire setting. It took my brain longer to adjust from all the recent Obsidian games.

 

[Void_Pickle]

Assassin/dagger was easily my favorite way to play. The bonus to accuracy for aimed attacks really allowed for a lot of options in how to handle fights. Nets and bolas can also be very effective for some of the more problematic ones.

This ended up being the game that taught me to appreciate...even esteem turn based combat.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

using the battlefield to your advantage by switching places when surrounded

This.

Fun fact. The two hardest fights (the bandit camp and the mining outpost) are easier for crossbow and bow builds.