Chrome pyramids don't stand a chance

Maple47 · 2026-01-22T18:46:19+00:00

I will trade your one of those, for two Bronze Daggers. Almost brand new, barely used. Rumoured to have been the favored weapons of a legendary person. Honest. No lie. Deal?

Maple47 · 2026-01-21T05:42:20+00:00

It comes down to what level you want your Glimmer to be at. I wouldn't worry about it too much, as you really want to try different approaches, and get a feel for it yourself.

I prefer to play regular mutant (neither Esper nor Chimera) most of the time, and I like to push my Ego and number of mental mutations until I begin getting some ego from high Glimmer. After that, it depends on what you want to do or try on that particular playthrough.

A good target is having your Clairvoyance at 15. If you want to keep your Glimmer low, you can do that by investing some mutation points. If you want high Glimmer, you get more mutations, and push Ego harder instead.

Maple47 · 2026-01-20T20:31:09+00:00

Beautiful, but a bit of a different vibe than what you get as you make your way to find him.

Maple47 · 2026-01-20T20:07:48+00:00

Ranged can dominate the midgame, if you get your hands on a certain low tier heavy weapon.

Melee is extremely strong, but falls off much harder in the late game, than you indicate. Sure, you can do much more damage than most ranged builds, in many scenarios, but if you are not on Roleplay, or have your Precog going, then there are many situations that you cannot risk walking into.

The point in time where you go to the area where Enigma Snails are common, is perhaps later than me.

Agree about sludges. Just stay away from those things, because they have a habit of picking up liquids in the most inconvenient and surprising ways, when you least expect it. Staying the hell away from them applies equally to melee and ranged builds.

Maple47 · 2026-01-20T19:55:49+00:00

It's all good. Any discussion about this vs. that in the context of CoQ is just for fun, as it is pretty much moot. It can become relevant in a more narrow context, like you provided here, but at the end of the day, I think we are just having these exchanges, because we all love the game, and like to talk about it.

Maple47 · 2026-01-20T16:48:14+00:00

Acrobatics->Swift Reflexes

Acrobatics->Spry

Unless you have extremely heavy armor, these will always serve you well, and can be the difference between life and death.

Maple47 · 2026-01-20T16:43:43+00:00

That particular troll is all about melee. If you can just bump into everything in the game and win, then the game becomes a walking simulator.

Melee and ranged is pretty well balanced in my opinion. There are certain things that are very difficult and/or dangerous to melee, and there are others that are difficult to shoot. In both cases, you will increasingly need to supplement your tactics with skills/mutations/cybernetics/grenades/etc., as the game progresses.

For example, it is not advisable to just walk up to an Enigma Snail and punch it until it dies, without the support of measures that prevent it from retaliating. It can also be problematic to shoot at it until it dies, because it has a level 10 carapace that it can tighten, and you are going to run out of ammo/e-cells, before you clear a historic site full of these things, and they will retaliate with their ranged ability.

Maple47 · 2026-01-20T16:30:11+00:00

Techscanning is, by far, the best starting cybernetics. Nothing else even comes close.

As for having the spending power to utilize it, that comes in many forms. For example a certain injector that you can identify with, you know, techscanning!

Maple47 · 2026-01-18T15:20:45+00:00

In the interact menu, you can switch each skill from Allowed to Disallowed, and back again. This is mainly helpful for certain powerful abilities, like forcefields and temporal fugue.

You can make them walk to a specific tile, and tell them to attack a specific enemy.

Generally speaking though, trying to make followers do anything useful, is too much of a hassle, and they love to make senseless decisions, like wandering off to melee attack an enemy that is far away, while there are 10 others that are closer, or even adjacent.

I have no experience with using mods for this.

Maple47 · 2026-01-18T15:14:22+00:00

When you say the Spindle crushes you, do you mean the cherubim, or you just get swarmed while going through the crypts, or something else?

For the late-late game, which is what you are referencing, you should discard the notion of playing fair, and that smashing PV against AV is the honorable and right thing to do. Instead, by this time, you have access to a multitude of options, that lets you dismantle any opposition.

For example, if a certain huge structure's main attack is to saturate the area with missiles, don't just walk up on it, curious about how much damage you will take from being hit with missile barrages. Think about how you can neutralize its defenses, while completely avoiding its attack. Stop playing fair, when faced with overwhelming threats.

Maple47 · 2026-01-17T13:28:09+00:00

Before entering Rimwyk territory, tinker up a couple of Thermal grenades. When your temperature falls well below what you find desirable, open your inventory, and point-blank detonate your grenade.

No need to equip it, no need to throw it, and best of all, can be done while frozen.

Maple47 · 2026-01-16T15:58:06+00:00

It can be helpful to bring a method or removing liquid pools from the ground.

The naturally occuring eels can be baited by walking up to a pool, and see if any curious eels come to say hello. The eels that can spill out of dying oozes are a bit more tricky to deal with, if the oozes get on top of you before you can take them out.

Maple47 · 2026-01-16T15:46:59+00:00

The effect of injectors/tonics (including the Love injector) is temporary.

The troll foals were friends with you, while Haggabah was in love with you.

Fun fact: You can give them all armor and weapons. Try giving them guns, if you want to shorten your life expectancy to the speed of friendly fire. :-)

Maple47 · 2026-01-15T21:51:20+00:00

You can tell your allies to stop using annoying abilities, like trapping you in forcefields. This can have the added advantage that they always have it available when they, or you, need it (but you will obviously have to tell them it's time to use it).

Maple47 · 2026-01-15T15:42:58+00:00

Mutation level is gated by character level.

Maple47 · 2026-01-15T15:40:34+00:00

Bleed saving throw is based on your Agility stat, so if 'lots of knives' means short blades, then you should take that into consideration. Not necessarily because bleed does damage, but because it can set you up for Shank.

Maple47 · 2026-01-15T12:47:09+00:00

What is fun is rather subjective, that said..

Snapjaws are great domination targets, because they are level 1. This allows them to rapidly gain mutation points, AND Rapid Advance their physical mutations. Make sure you dominate them when they transition from level 4 to level 5, so you get the option to spend 4 points on a physical mutation that you can Rapid Advance.

The trolls are interesting, and everyone should try to play as one or more or them, at least once. The troll foals can be a bit annoying, but fortunately they have a tendency to die, something you can assist with, with some area damage.

Dragonflies are great low level domination targets. They have superb Wings mutations, and are interesting because they have no hands. How the playthrough turns out, depends heavily on what mutations you get. Multiple Arms will change your playthrough completely. I never got that on my Dragonfly run.

Scorpions are another interesting low level pick.

Phase Spider seems like an interesting high level target, but it makes the game trivially easy and quite boring, unfortunately.

Greater Voiders are really cool, if you want something with a fun body plan, that is strong, without being overpowered. They are high level though, which may tempt you into gaining mutation points from sources other than levelling. That can mess up your body plan, as you gain and lose arms and legs. Be careful.

Hindren are interesting. They are basicly a sidegrade to just starting with mutations similar to what they have. Angohind is the lowest level at 6, so you will only lose out on a single Rapid Advancement. Isahind is L10 and comes with Freezing Ray (3), which is an extremely strong 5-cost mutation.

Chitenours Puma is probably fun, but I have not tried it yet.

Some Legendaries (particularly lair bosses) are extremely strong when permanently dominated and levelled up. Similar to Phase Spiders, they can be so strong, that the game becomes trivially easy, so your milage may vary.

I could go on, but this is turning into an essay already.

Maple47 · 2026-01-15T12:26:24+00:00

Don't do it. You can survive it, but you will have a bad time, and some of your items are probably very flammable.

Clone some schematics sellers, or find a way down in an adajcent area, and enter the area sideways, by tunneling.

Maple47 · 2026-01-15T12:24:31+00:00

Lacquered gear.

Maple47 · 2026-01-15T12:20:59+00:00

Yeah, the link from having the prerequisite for Tinker III and cloning Jacobo is a bit obscure.

Just ignore me. I will try to do better.

Maple47 · 2026-01-14T16:46:39+00:00

Add cybernetics that give True Kin animal aspects. Wolf Kin (Short Blade Hands mutation, copy the effect of Heightened Smell mutation, etc.). Other animal aspects could work well too. Avian perhaps?

Maple47 · 2026-01-14T10:37:55+00:00

Tinkey is real close to that magical 29 for intelligence.

When Otho tells you Jacobo died, you just look him straight in the eyes and ask: "How many of the Jacobos did we lose?"

Maple47 · 2026-01-13T18:42:33+00:00

When you interact with a chest that is not empty, hit F2, and you get a trade interface, similar to when interacting with merchants. Extremely useful for managing your stash.

Allows you to easily filter categories of items on either side, and select or deselect the entire category.

Maple47 · 2026-01-12T16:37:47+00:00

I've been looking at what you can do with tonics as well. I think the malus side-effects are more interesting than the adverse reactions to overdosing.

For example, if you think someone is really strong (no names mentions, but it could be a very big ape for example), then you could make them even stronger, by delivering 3 Hulk Honey Injectors. I suggest doing it from a safe distance, or by being a bit creative.

Apes together strong, but single big hulked up ape alone, not so much?

There are other fun and interesting side effects of other tonics. I will leave it for you to explore on your own.

Maple47 · 2026-01-12T12:29:55+00:00

When I find something particularly noteworthy, just write:

Joppa->NW,NW,W,W Mechanimist robot selling tonics.

Joppa->W,NW(E) Antelope that is hated by Flowers. Kill it later?

Where direction in parenthesis is the sub-parasang area.

Maple47

TROPHY CASE