PocketMine
Savant
Is it just me or is Thea 2 extremely formulaic in comparison to the first game?
In the first game, I remember happily exploring my surroundings while also taking care of my village, but you could essentially play as you want.
In Thea 2, you get lured into thinking that you can settle anywhere because there are such distinct islands and have different experiences on each of them, but you couldn't be more wrong.
If you even try to make your settlement anywhere except the starter island, you will be rushed by the Lightbringers, against which you have absolutely no defense. In 90% of cases, you only get a "faith" combat option, and unless you are pretty far into the game, you won't have the means to win that. Party wipe.
So the only working strategy is settling on the starter island and slowly (oh, boy, ever so slowly) increasing in power until you eventually have a team that can actually deal with faith challenges - and then you can go explore other islands.
Unfortunately, the islands are all absolutely tiny in comparison to the Thea 1 world, so there isn't really too much to see, either. You just go there mostly for the different resources (which also never change, every island on every playthrough will have the same resources, only their locations are random).
The combat is also a mess, what a downgrade in comparison to the first game, in which I really liked the combat.
You get a shitload of abilities, but the only thing that really matters is armor, health and damage - everything else you'd only use if you have already used the highest armor/health/damage units. I think later in the game, when your non-standard abilities have actually become useful, it might open up, but that's a tad late for enjoying a game.
And because it's such a mess, you just auto-resolve 90% of challenges - which ends up about as well as you would yourself.
I'm barely 10 hours in, but I already have trouble finding the motivation to continue.
The starter island has become boring, the other islands still require me to build up a team of high-faith characters (of course, levelling children up is mostly random so you can't really plan for that, either). So meanwhile I just gather, craft and wait.
The only thing I really like are the events themselves, as those are still rather unique among games.
I used to settle on main island but lately im only settling on other islands or dont setlle at all. If you plan not to settle at all there is a Nature card you can unlock and start with increased gathering range this is important beacuse when you dont settle at all after geting many followers food starts to be a problem. As for other islands i tend to use other faction settlements as safe space. If you have any amount of + standing with faction you have access to instant healing up to 6 spaces around settlement you just have to leave some1 with spare AP at settlement ready to access healing options before you end turn and rest of your group can recklesly engage any strong group aslong as you can weaken them significantly or defeat them. this way even average party can get stronger fast or get to resources nearby.
As to getting better tier material and equipment i find farming tier 3 materials and then converting to tier 4 mats a slow and inefective unless you do it in your settlement. There are better ways to getting good gear or tier 4/5 mats tho. Farming demon circles via red option is absolutely top option how to farm tier 5 materials. Trading with friendly(50+ rating) main settlement of dwarfes,shadow elfs or even goblins often leads to some top tier armor,rings and ocasionaly even weapons. Dragons also drops amazing equipment but not always what you need.