Incline Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children - isometric tactical Korean SRPG

[Reinhardt]

We knowapologize that the beasts are not strong enough to kill you, but please get poisoned, then please get exploded, then please get frostbit and then please take 3 turns instead of 1 to kill everything, because darkness hunter and therefore responsive attacks don't work, please, please, please

fixed

 

[Sjukob]

Wtf guys, bicrons are awesome! Seeing them shoot rockets into a crowd of white tiger gangsters made my pepe hard, and their machine guns shoot piercing bullets too! I really need to have that thing in my party.

 

[notpl]

Is this mission where (I assume?) we recruit Heixing supposed to be, well... possible? I'm getting one-shot through cover on round 1 no matter what I do by enemies half my level. I can't reload or change difficulty, either, since it's a story mission you aren't given any way around.

 

[Zumbabul]

Is this mission where (I assume?) we recruit Heixing supposed to be, well... possible? I'm getting one-shot through cover on round 1 no matter what I do by enemies half my level. I can't reload or change difficulty, either, since it's a story mission you aren't given any way around.

The short answer is yes.

Which mission do you talk about? If this is Ch. 3.3. (the one that starts with a fight between Marco and spoonist), then you don't need to rescue everyone. To win this mission you need to rescue at least 1 policeman, everyone else could die. You can also kill everybody, even if you without overleveling ('limit growth' playthrough).

If we are talking about Ch.3.5 (the one that starts with a duel), it is usually considered easier than 3.3. You can make the duel easier by choosing Carter, and you can make the main fight easier if you call the white tigers first. The mission is totally doable with any of the choices. You need to reposition fast to avoid being surrounded and use some smokes.

If you fail or restart the mission, nothing bad will happen. You can just try it again.

 

[notpl]

It appears to be 3.4 - I have no idea how to tell other than seeing what the last thing in my case record is, which is 3.3. Heixing, Albus, and Sion against 20 or so generic gang units and a boss. Cruel, High Risk/High Reward, and Limits to Growth, which I'm guessing is the problem, but from the way people in the thread talked I thought this was a pretty normal configuration if you're not an idiot? Albus and Sion are locked at level 18, Heixing is 22, but if anything Heixing is the weakest of the group. Generally gets killed in a single melee hit from one of the axe gangbangers, or two bursts from the ranged guys. The boss one-shots anyone unilaterally. Up to this point Sion has been carrying us by one-shotting the enemies right back, but even a crit from sion's black mage overcharge special barely does half his HP.

Is higher difficulty meant as more of a replay thing and I just got the wrong impression? The game doesn't really have enough depth on the tactical layer that I can see anything I could do differently - enemies just shoot us straight through cover and it's a total wipe in a couple of rounds after a dozen tries, and if I get super lucky with dodges long enough for the boss to reach the group then that's where things invariably conclude.

 

[Sjukob]

notpl
It's weird that you struggle with this scenario after beating the previous one, which is way tougher in my opinion.

Cruel, High Risk/High Reward, and Limits to Growth

Yeah, you cranked up the difficulty way too high. High Risk/High Reward gives big bonuses to every elite unit and cruel difficulty turns all enemies into elites, together with limits to growth you will absolutely get clobbered down unless you really know what you are doing, especially early on, when your options are limited. I recommend that you disable High Risk/High Reward, and Limits to Growth or at least one of them. Drop screenshots of your stats and masteries here if you want, I'll try to help.

 

[Zumbabul]

It appears to be 3.4 - I have no idea how to tell other than seeing what the last thing in my case record is, which is 3.3. Heixing, Albus, and Sion against 20 or so generic gang units and a boss. Cruel, High Risk/High Reward, and Limits to Growth, which I'm guessing is the problem, but from the way people in the thread talked I thought this was a pretty normal configuration if you're not an idiot? Albus and Sion are locked at level 18, Heixing is 22, but if anything Heixing is the weakest of the group. Generally gets killed in a single melee hit from one of the axe gangbangers, or two bursts from the ranged guys. The boss one-shots anyone unilaterally. Up to this point Sion has been carrying us by one-shotting the enemies right back, but even a crit from sion's black mage overcharge special barely does half his HP.

Is higher difficulty meant as more of a replay thing and I just got the wrong impression? The game doesn't really have enough depth on the tactical layer that I can see anything I could do differently - enemies just shoot us straight through cover and it's a total wipe in a couple of rounds after a dozen tries, and if I get super lucky with dodges long enough for the boss to reach the group then that's where things invariably conclude.

Your difficulty settings are fine. If you are having troubles, you can disable High Risk/high reward. But I think you can do this without lowering difficulty.

In chapter 3.3, the game takes off its gloves and treats you like an adult. After this point, you need to think about your builds and your tactics. In this mission, you are outnumbered, but the enemies are divided into small groups. You need to make sure to engage them one by one. This mission is about positioning and killing enemies faster than reinforcement arrives.

 

[notpl]

Just disabling limits to growth and doing one more mission was enough. Heixing was level 22 for this mission, albus and sion were level 18 (because that was the limit for the plot mission immediately before) but it was trivial when I came back with them each at 20.

Albus remains completely useless. Is there any way to make him decent without some random grind-locked mastery tucked eight layers deep in the research menu? Every value on his character sheet is 2-300 points higher than Irene's but he does roughly half her damage, and despite having 50+ block and dodge chance he drops like a sack of potatoes halfway through every mission. He also runs out of vigor constantly and I haven't found anything that refills him on kills/dodges/anything else the way all the other characters can. Right now I have every possible block/dodge mastery active on him plus the bleeding-related attack ones and all the counterattack/forestallment-related stuff.

 

[GhostCow]

Albus was probably my best character throughout the entire game. I used him as a dodge tank and 90% of his kills came from counter attacks

 

[notpl]

Albus was probably my best character throughout the entire game. I used him as a dodge tank and 90% of his kills came from counter attacks

I have no idea how you could possibly build albus and sion such that sion isn't killing 3-4x as many enemies per mission. What you're describing is how albus *should* work, although I have him favoring block over dodge, it just isn't the reality for me. His kills still mainly come from forestallment and counterattack, there just aren't very many of them and he dies after a few turns.

A big difference is just that it's way the fuck easier to pump ESP than ATK. More equipment slots affect ESP, there are more masteries that boost it outright (that I've found, at lease) and Sion can channel for +30% more damage virtually for free. Albus's ATK is 396 right now, versus Sion's ~900 ESP

 

[GhostCow]

Albus never had the highest kill count or anything. That's what Scion and Heixing are for. Albus was my MVP because I could send him out to draw so much fire that he'd never get any turns and he'd stay alive tanking like crazy forever. I'd show you my build but I cba to reinstall the game and you probably don't have most of the masteries that I'm using anyway

 

[Zumbabul]

I have no idea how you could possibly build albus and sion such that sion isn't killing 3-4x as many enemies per mission.

Give Albus 'retaliation'/'blood bath'/'forestallment. Pick great swordsman as an advanced class, and pick masteries that will give 100% chance to inflict bleeding. With this setup, Albus will regain 2AP when he kills a bleeding target. For example, if you hit white tigers axe guy, you will hit him for 50% hp (impulse field), axe guy counters, Albus will counter back, kill him, and regain all AP. His double attack or his 4hit ultimate basically a free kill. The first hit will inflict bleeding, the second will kill and refund AP. You can mix upgraded frag grenades (75% chance) with turn over the leaf for more blood bath combos. The Albus gameplay is about mobility and chain killing. Treat him not as a tank but rather as a ninja.

After you get Heixing, add one shot one kill to Albus for better chain killing. When you get more training points, add roar of victory and inner peace for better vigor management and to charge sp more quickly. Later on, add Life draining for healing, bladestorm and catharsis to improve chain killing.

For reference, this is a guide with all the mastery sets:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1349483727

 

[Sjukob]

I have no idea how you could possibly build albus and sion such that sion isn't killing 3-4x as many enemies per mission. What you're describing is how albus *should* work, although I have him favoring block over dodge, it just isn't the reality for me. His kills still mainly come from forestallment and counterattack, there just aren't very many of them and he dies after a few turns.

A big difference is just that it's way the fuck easier to pump ESP than ATK. More equipment slots affect ESP, there are more masteries that boost it outright (that I've found, at lease) and Sion can channel for +30% more damage virtually for free. Albus's ATK is 396 right now, versus Sion's ~900 ESP

Albus is not the type of character that kills the whole screen the way Sion does, at least not at that part of the game. It's much easier to build him defensively early on:

Take a look at defensive choice mastery set - Patience + Tactical Sense + Sentinel + Survival Training, which gives you a ton of block.

For basic damage and HP boost check out combat training set - Survival Training + Concentrated Fire + Muscle Training + Body Training. Thanks to body training and muscle training it will give you a big bonus to HP and damage

Another mastery set that is very strong early on is retaliation - Counterattack + Sharp Blade + Swordmaster + Alacrity. This will ensure that anobody stupid enough to melee Albus will get slapped super hard in return.

If you really want to keep him alive, then take a look at final resistance set - Indomitable Will + Will to Survive + Survival Training + Body Training. Thanks to will to survive and indomitable will, which reduce damage by 20% and 30% when your HP reaches 33%, and 100% block on top of that it will be very hard to actually finish him off from low health.

You should also prioritize gear which boosts his dodge and block chances, because unlike Irene, Albus can't stack a lot of it without gear. My Albus looks like this and I don't even have a good idea of what I am doing. Also, check out his opportunist individual mastery, which is very easy to stack in a fight, and wind veil ability, which gives him a bunch of stats on top of additional 20% dodge against melee attacks.

 

[notpl]

I have no idea how you could possibly build albus and sion such that sion isn't killing 3-4x as many enemies per mission.

Give Albus 'retaliation'/'blood bath'/'forestallment. Pick great swordsman as an advanced class, and pick masteries that will give 100% chance to inflict bleeding. With this setup, Albus will regain 2AP when he kills a bleeding target. For example, if you hit white tigers axe guy, you will hit him for 50% hp (impulse field), axe guy counters, Albus will counter back, kill him, and regain all AP. His double attack or his 4hit ultimate basically a free kill. The first hit will inflict bleeding, the second will kill and refund AP. You can mix upgraded frag grenades (75% chance) with turn over the leaf for more blood bath combos. The Albus gameplay is about mobility and chain killing. Treat him not as a tank but rather as a ninja.

After you get Heixing, add one shot one kill to Albus for better chain killing. When you get more training points, add roar of victory and inner peace for better vigor management and to charge sp more quickly. Later on, add Life draining for healing, bladestorm and catharsis to improve chain killing.

For reference, this is a guide with all the mastery sets:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1349483727

I have all of those masteries and bloodbath doesn't trigger off of multi-hit ablities (IE first hit bleeds, second hit kills, action refunded), which is a pretty weird thing for you to not notice. Is it supposed to? Am I bugged? Also, since none of those abilities reset Albus's cooldowns, I'm not really sure what the use of getting him to chain kills is since he's going to run out of abilities to use (not to mention vigor) after two chaff enemies.

If you're going to do ninja albus, it seems like it'd be smarter to use Mage Knight, since its combined ESP/ATK will produce higher raw damage numbers, has more active ability slots to stick wind shot in, and he can equip Avalon to ameliorate Albus's dire Vigor situation.

I assume gear is a limiting factor at this point, since the highest I can get his defensive stats (using everything mentioned already) is ~60% in each value. This isn't enough for him to survive out in the open against white tigers, and he gets instagibbed by any elite swordsman counterattack straight through a block thanks to castle crash.

 

[Zumbabul]

I have all of those masteries and bloodbath doesn't trigger off of multi-hit ablities (IE first hit bleeds, second hit kills, action refunded), which is a pretty weird thing for you to not notice. Is it supposed to? Am I bugged? Also, since none of those abilities reset Albus's cooldowns, I'm not really sure what the use of getting him to chain kills is since he's going to run out of abilities to use (not to mention vigor) after two chaff enemies.

I'm 100% sure that bloodbath is triggered by multihits. If the first hit inflicts bleed, the target survives the first hit, and the second hit kills, then you will get 2 AP. Most likely, you misinterpret something. You are the first person who reports such behavior.

In the middle of the game, Albus will get tools to lower abilities cooldowns. Before this point, Albus can kill 2-3 targets per turn. Refunding 2 AP also helps for repositioning. You can kill somebody, move to cover and conceal. Or move to cover and throw a grenade. Or kill, reposition, and then standby to recover vigor with inner peace. Or kill, and then move to the next target in the action queue and kill it with forestallment.

Playing Albus as a ninja is most common. However, if you don't like it, it is ok. You can try your thing, and most likely, you will make it work.

 

[notpl]

I have all of those masteries and bloodbath doesn't trigger off of multi-hit ablities (IE first hit bleeds, second hit kills, action refunded), which is a pretty weird thing for you to not notice. Is it supposed to? Am I bugged? Also, since none of those abilities reset Albus's cooldowns, I'm not really sure what the use of getting him to chain kills is since he's going to run out of abilities to use (not to mention vigor) after two chaff enemies.

I'm 100% sure that bloodbath is triggered by multihits. If the first hit inflicts bleed, the target survives the first hit, and the second hit kills, then you will get 2 AP. Most likely, you misinterpret something. You are the first person who reports such behavior.

In the middle of the game, Albus will get tools to lower abilities cooldowns. Before this point, Albus can kill 2-3 targets per turn. Refunding 2 AP also helps for repositioning. You can kill somebody, move to cover and conceal. Or move to cover and throw a grenade. Or kill, reposition, and then standby to recover vigor with inner peace. Or kill, and then move to the next target in the action queue and kill it with forestallment.

Playing Albus as a ninja is most common. However, if you don't like it, it is ok. You can try your thing, and most likely, you will make it work.

Are you *absolutely certain* you mean Tornado Slash, the Swordsman General Ability, and not just Storm Slash, the SP ability? Because I just tested Tornado Slash 20 times in a row on White Tiger Butchers (good enemy for this since, thanks to Impulse Fields, they'll never get 1-shot by the first part of the slash) and not once did it trigger action point renewal when one-shotting them. And by one-shotting them I mean one use of the ability, but both "hits," obviously. This ability applies Bleeding with 100% chance when it deals damage, so there should be no element of RNG involved at all.

I don't have the masteries set up to farm SP on albus, so I didn't test the SP ability, maybe it works with that one only?

 

[Zumbabul]

Are you *absolutely certain* you mean Tornado Slash, the Swordsman General Ability, and not just Storm Slash, the SP ability? Because I just tested Tornado Slash 20 times in a row on White Tiger Butchers (good enemy for this since, thanks to Impulse Fields, they'll never get 1-shot by the first part of the slash) and not once did it trigger action point renewal when one-shotting them. And by one-shotting them I mean one use of the ability, but both "hits," obviously. This ability applies Bleeding with 100% chance when it deals damage, so there should be no element of RNG involved at all.

Yeah, I'm sure. During my 800+ hours that I spent on this game, it worked as I described. Also it worked as I described for everybody else in the troubleshooter community.

The results of your tests look strange. Unless they changed something during the last two months, this is not how it should be working. I will make some tests in the evening. Have you ever managed to trigger bloodbath?

 

[Zumbabul]

Are you *absolutely certain* you mean Tornado Slash, the Swordsman General Ability, and not just Storm Slash, the SP ability? Because I just tested Tornado Slash 20 times in a row on White Tiger Butchers (good enemy for this since, thanks to Impulse Fields, they'll never get 1-shot by the first part of the slash) and not once did it trigger action point renewal when one-shotting them. And by one-shotting them I mean one use of the ability, but both "hits," obviously. This ability applies Bleeding with 100% chance when it deals damage, so there should be no element of RNG involved at all.

Ok, I made tests. Bloodbath works with multihits. Devs didn't change anything. Something is wrong on your end. Can you share your mastery board?

 

[PrK]

I’ve been trying to make deep sea escape work on Albus, with forestallment, bladestorm, counterattack plus avoiding anything that reduces action time when it’s not his turn, and the few times it worked it was great fun, but 300 action time is a bit much. I don’t have the last mastery for the can’t wait anymore set, that would solve that issue, but is there in general any build that uses deep sea escape effectively?

I’d also like to try for fun an infinite turn build for any character before the devs nerf it, anyone has some?

 

[Zumbabul]

I’ve been trying to make deep sea escape work on Albus, with forestallment, bladestorm, counterattack plus avoiding anything that reduces action time when it’s not his turn, and the few times it worked it was great fun, but 300 action time is a bit much. I don’t have the last mastery for the can’t wait anymore set, that would solve that issue, but is there in general any build that uses deep sea escape effectively?

I assume that you miss 'waiting' mastery. To get it you need to finish Anne's route in the mission 'Scent of the Past' (the one where Anne fights pervert bird). In my opinion, deep sea escape doesn't really work with counterattacks or fire support builds. GS Albus has a lot of -AT, fire support builds have means to reduce AT, and you can make martial artists to actually reduce their AT on their counterattacks. However, I never tried this idea, so maybe you can make it work.

The effective deep see escape builds that I'm aware off are based on another principle. You make a slow character (around 70-80 AT), make some move that gives him extra 20-30 AT and leaves 1 AP (due to 1s1k, chain-fire, or something like this), and then you press restore vigour (which will give you extra 100 AT). This combo will push you above 200, and you will gain a free turn with overcharge. This combo was nerfed in the past so you cannot make an infinite loop.

Few examples of this:
1) You can make a slow hacker without cast delay masteries. Her protocols will cost 1 AP. You move with move protocol, cast attack protocol, then restore vigor and trigger deep see.
2) Slow Gisele without cast delay equip or masteries. Use chain fire, then non-basic shooting ability, then restore vigor.
3) Sweeper Heixing without cast delay equip or masteries. Just shoot stuff, restore AP with 1s1k, when you feel that your chain will break, press restore vigor and continue shooting stuff.

I’d also like to try for fun an infinite turn build for any character before the devs nerf it, anyone has some?

The thing is with 0 AT build is that they are fun to build, but not fun to play. You will have a feeling that you broke the game. Anyway, these are a few examples of such builds:

1) Irene. Just use 'joy of burning' and spam 'justice power'. You can apply this approach to fire dorori. His sp move creates a lot of fire tiles. You can use his ultimate, wait a couple of turns and then use his ultimate again.

2) Irene. Use her as battle mage with twilight of pain (-20 AT at low hp), phoenix, wandering brawler (-10 AT when alone), and a battle mage set that gives -6AT at the end of the turn. Drink death potion at the beginning of the battle and have fun. With luck 7 you can rewind turns to for luck nukes.

3) Irene/Sion. Battle mage set (-6 AT), Best condition (-10 AT), wandering brawler (-10), hide me please + hide your self well (-10).

4) Anne. White mage. Death potion + second heart + twilight of pain (-15), gathering (-10), prosperity (-10). It is not exactly 0 AT, it is 1 AT. However, due to her aura, she will give - 5 AT to everyone around her. So, everyone else around her will be moving 5 times faster.

5) Ray/grenadier. Best condition(-10) + reckless charge (-30). You can run around the map spending 0 AT. If you add overwhelm, you can kick somebody at the start of the turn. This is probably the most fun infinite turn build.

 

[belated]

When (how?) do you get Bianca & Alisa? My guys are lvl 40-45 now and I'm wondering if I missed an option somewhere.

 

[GhostCow]

When (how?) do you get Bianca & Alisa? My guys are lvl 40-45 now and I'm wondering if I missed an option somewhere.

You don't get them until the dlc that comes after the main game

 

[Sjukob]

Fuck, I hate everything about pet management, it looks like it was purposefully designed to be annoying.

1. Taming process is bullshit. Not only you have to get a fragile character close to the enemy, but she also needs to stand still for a while, and if the beast gets harmed in any way the process fails. In this game AOE shit and responsive attacks get spammed left and right, and 95% of attacks that connect oneshot the target, unless it has impulse fields or something;
2. Who the fuck thought that it would be a good idea to hide a bunch of important hunter masteries behind Jeff? You meet him way after Giselle joins and I can not think of any reason to do it other than to annoy the player. I didn't even bother with pets at all until I got them. Having his masteries allows you to tame legendaries, massively speeds up beast leveling and allows you to tame them 2 times faster. All of it should've been available to Giselle from the start. I am getting sick of this mastery gatekeeping bullshit!
3. Beast leveling and mastery acquisition. Certain masteries, not even just the ones specific to the beasts, can only be acquired by taming beasts and leveling them up. Great, just fucking great, more grind on top of already existing grind! Thankfully Ashuram has a good video about beast leveling, which helped me a lot;
4. A very big number of important masteries for beasts is hidden behind end game enemies. This is a big issue for characters as well, but the beasts just have it way worse in general, also they can't equip gear, aside from trinkets, so they have no ways to compensate for their downsides until they get the masteries. Oh and all of the good trinkets are late game exclusive;
5. Loyalty is also annoying. Characters motivation is very simple, if it gets low you simply buy some food for them or take a break from the game. With beasts however you are absolutely recquired to sucussfully complete the missions, there's no other way to raise it.

Right now I am looking at my electric bullfrogs, mutant spiders, fire breathing timas and other abominations. But I have no idea how to deal even with simplistic things, like raising their hit chance to adequate levels or stacking enough defenses. They can't use gear or cover, so they are a free kill for enemy gunners or even melee dudes, especially bosses, also I can't imagine them killing shit with high dodge, like those white tiger dudes with knives, for example.

Surprisingly I've been very sucessful with building a tank ice tima, it has frost mane ability, which functions exactly like iron wall does, and being an ice user it has a good selection of defensive masteries, the beasts have some very good defensive masteries in general, so it's almost like having a second Irene on the field. But aside from that I have no idea how to use any other animal.

 

[Sjukob]

 

[InSight]

Fuck, I hate everything about pet management, it looks like it was purposefully designed to be annoying.

1. Taming process is bullshit. Not only you have to get a fragile character close to the enemy, but she also needs to stand still for a while, and if the beast gets harmed in any way the process fails. In this game AOE shit and responsive attacks get spammed left and right, and 95% of attacks that connect oneshot the target, unless it has impulse fields or something;
2. Who the fuck thought that it would be a good idea to hide a bunch of important hunter masteries behind Jeff? You meet him way after Giselle joins and I can not think of any reason to do it other than to annoy the player. I didn't even bother with pets at all until I got them. Having his masteries allows you to tame legendaries, massively speeds up beast leveling and allows you to tame them 2 times faster. All of it should've been available to Giselle from the start. I am getting sick of this mastery gatekeeping bullshit!
3. Beast leveling and mastery acquisition. Certain masteries, not even just the ones specific to the beasts, can only be acquired by taming beasts and leveling them up. Great, just fucking great, more grind on top of already existing grind! Thankfully Ashuram has a good video about beast leveling, which helped me a lot;
4. A very big number of important masteries for beasts is hidden behind end game enemies. This is a big issue for characters as well, but the beasts just have it way worse in general, also they can't equip gear, aside from trinkets, so they have no ways to compensate for their downsides until they get the masteries. Oh and all of the good trinkets are late game exclusive;
5. Loyalty is also annoying. Characters motivation is very simple, if it gets low you simply buy some food for them or take a break from the game. With beasts however you are absolutely recquired to sucussfully complete the missions, there's no other way to raise it.

Right now I am looking at my electric bullfrogs, mutant spiders, fire breathing timas and other abominations. But I have no idea how to deal even with simplistic things, like raising their hit chance to adequate levels or stacking enough defenses. They can't use gear or cover, so they are a free kill for enemy gunners or even melee dudes, especially bosses, also I can't imagine them killing shit with high dodge, like those white tiger dudes with knives, for example.

Surprisingly I've been very sucessful with building a tank ice tima, it has frost mane ability, which functions exactly like iron wall does, and being an ice user it has a good selection of defensive masteries, the beasts have some very good defensive masteries in general, so it's almost like having a second Irene on the field. But aside from that I have no idea how to use any other animal.

One should consider them as additional layer of mechanical exploration. More things to toy around with in the game.


Its been a long time since it been played thus the following may be invalid due to failure in memory or the info is outdated.
Game advice on which one pet to use if one has not known/discovered/found already:

Spoiler

One can recommend the orange/rock/earth large spider monster. Them and another type, the black one perhaps, are capable of placing cobweb that greatly increase their defenses/dodge if they remain inside them, making them waste enemies turns on them.

They should also include a jumping strike which if recalled, is Aera of Effect which does not need hit chance and grants a turn of untargetability. In addition their should be an attack that can heal them.

With these, one could safely send them away to preoccupy 2-3 enemies over large distances away from the team and survive.

The large rainbow bat creature should have a buffing ability which was of use once or twice.
There are also the dragon pets near the end. Some of them with the iron wall ability if its the one that grants cover.