#Route Simulation

[rosykims]

i genuinely love love love the iconoclast path in rogue trader SO MUCH. its one of the things that ultimately enamors me to the warhammer franchise as a whole despite empathy being so antithetical to its world and genre. its not just because iconoclast is the Nice Person route or because it subverts the foundational principle that In The Grim Dark Universe There Is Only War............ but mostly i love it because its the best way to actually engage w the morality system presented in 40k and explore it the way it deserves to be explored. its so unique parsing through the choices of the game and navigating how one might actually ACHIEVE goodness through - or more accurately without - the lens of liberal modern morality. because adhering to what we presently would call morality is arguably crueler than some of the dogmatic choices - or at least the game wants you to reflect on that and decide if that kind of morality still has value or not. and i like that they give you the opportunity to do that. youre rarely rewarded for kindness in this game and in fact your oftentimes actively punished for it (void shadows was a TRIAL for my iconoclast rt) which presents another question: are you being good because of a reward you believe you'lll be entitled to, or are you being good for the sake of goodness itself??? in saying that i do LOVE how there IS payoff in the iconoclast route eventually - when youve bleed and suffered for it enough. but theres a quality to it thats so..... so BITTERSWEET, because yippee you Empathed your way to the top - but also what IS the top?? congratulations, you are the kindest autocrat in the most bloodthirsty fascist regime in human history, sitting on your throne on a voidship run by all your slaves and serfs who die by the hundreds every time you make a warpjump for some dumbass sidequest. what the fuck. can you actually call that goodness ????? is whatever goodness-adjacent thing youve achieved worth it even if you cant change the system in the ways that matter ??? lastly - the iconoclast ending is both so wildly universe-altering to the point of feeling like a heretical ending - but also kind of. not mattering really lol. because even though its hopeful, the "good" ending still feels soooo tentative with the likelihood that its very likely not going to last. but that in itself is my favorite take away from playing this game as The Last Good Guy in the Galaxy: because the love DIDNT change anything. and it DOESNT save anyone. but ohhhhhhhhh my fucking god does it absolutely matter that it was there.

[sillygoofyqueer]

P-PART TWO. (Part one here) PART TWO OF LIU QINGGE AND LEVIATHYUAN. OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD- So Liu Qingge has just woken up, swaddled in the skin of an animal that Leviathyuan had easily tossed around like a toy, and he's obviously disoriented. Cheng Luan is laid down beside him, blood mostly wiped off it (did Leviathyuan lick it off?....................NO. He used his raggedy-ass robes. Probably), and very pleased that its master is awake and alive right now. In the background, Leviathyuan is pattering around with raw meat and random plants he found in The Depths, trying to remember everything that other creatures from The Depths had told him about humans and what they needed to survive. They needed to eat, they needed to sleep (the human was already doing that!) and....they liked being warm! Obviously, having something leaking out from their body was also bad - although, this human's blood was a strange colour. Whatever!! The plants that help him when he's being attacked in his humane form by some cocky land demons should be able to help the human. They taste funky though, so the human can wash it down with the meat from the beast - surely humans can eat meat, right? It's really plain as well, he's pretty sure that there isn't any poison with this beast; they like to roam around The Cavern sometimes, so he gets into scuffles with them when he's bored, and they do basically no damage. Liu Qingge is being hand fed by this demon creature thing that has not once tried to kill him, and is even grinning at him (with blood-soaked teeth. No, this does not affect him in any way). It's hard to have any sort of conversation with it because the creature doesn't seem to understand his language, trying to communicate through different sounds instead of forming words - which is fine, because he hates talking. He's also swooning because like "...dude....you're providing for me and helping me?" He immediately asks Leviathyuan to come back to CQM with him, and the creature is just like "aight bet" (<- he has no idea what's going on). Something something, they get back to CQM and everyone is like "Liu-shidi, is that a fucking DEMON?!?!" and he's just like "yeah" and then goes about showing Leviathyuan the sect and doing whatever is necessary to accommodate him. This creature needs to eat? They have a lot of interesting times trying to figure out what he can eat. The creature likes to watch the disciples and clap for them? Let him join in the training sessions! The creature needs somewhere big enough to accommodate his leviathan form?....SHANG-SHIXIONG!!!!!!!! Oh god, someone's- someone's gotta stop Liu Qingge, he's lost his mind!! Surely Zhangmen-Shixiong- no...no, he seems far too pleased that Liu Qingge is learning what it's like to have to keep a feral person on a leash when they just accidentally destroy everything and want to go everywhere. Plus, it keeps Liu Qingge on the mountain more, so he's in meetings and actually training his disciples, even if it's just so this strange demon will smile and pat his head. What about Shen Qingqiu? He seems to despise demons, so surely he'll have something to say about this?- Ah, no, no, he was irritated by the demon at first, but then he found himself getting frustrated that nobody was trying to forge communication with this demon that Liu Qingge had KIDNAPPED (in his eyes). After some taunting from a certain source when he points it out (Qi Qingqi), he becomes determined to teach Leviathyuan how to speak and read and learn- Okay, but like, Mu Qingfang can think about the dangers of having a demon in the mountain sect??? Oh, he's far too busy following the demon around and trying to figure out how the fuck this creature works. He cries with each new baffling discovery he makes because he just wants to learn more about the other species that live in their world with them but nooooo, of course they have to be super confusing and make him want to give up and have a tantrum all at once.

[breezyzephyr]

POKEDDEXY DAY 22: CLOAK TYPE

Normally this day is "Eeveelution" so i went with another multi-evolution, Burmy and Wormadam!!! which cloak would you choose?

[matchanon]

you know that doomed apocalypse isekai plot had given me some thoughts too and as the inspirator for this im holding u responsible for these ideas so im dumping these in your inbox (im sorry haha)

<<being isekai'd into an rpg-like otome game>>

- first of all, unlike the other reader, this one had lowkey highkey been playing this game and all its routes so they KNOW their shit. maybe this game is notorious for its difficulty and bad endings, maybe it's rng bullshit all together, who knows but the reader lmao

- the moment they wake up they either go panic mode until they realize what world is this or they excitedly roam around and figured out which faction they had woken into.

- if they had awoken into castrum kremnos, it's the hardest faction to stay alive and keep yourself afloat in the original game. it has so many hard events and scenarios, not to mention even meeting the main guy of this route (mydeimos) is a task and a hurdle. but wooing him is probably the easiest when you can prove yourself worthy and stay by his side.

- waking up in the grove is the easiest place you could start at as the beginning stages are the best places to level up and grind, only at the end is where the big harder events come in (and in game by the time you get there, you should be fully equipped and leveled) the hardest part about this route is no doubt the guy (anaxagoras) as he takes nearly as long as the entire route even for him to begin acknowledging you as he's much more interested in uncovering the secrets of the tide.

- the third route in okhema seemed to be the most balanced out of the three. There would be random battles and scenarios that would be hard when you are unprepared but it's nothing brain-numbingly hard like in castrum kremnos. and the main guy (phainon) isn't half bad or too easy to go for either! no, the main game isn't the hard part--it's the endings he would pursue. care too much and he becomes the villain deadset in only caring about YOU and not the world. care too little and why would he bother with anything else except for his revenge? make a minute mistake and he ends up as flame reaver rather than the deliverer. forget to do something and he fails his final trial.

so, what where would reader end up in and what route would they choose?

i didn't want to air out this ask cuz we were VERY close to anaxagoras banner, so i waited a bit for it, though it doesn't make particular difference in this case, the outline remains pretty much the same. anyways... have you ever watched overlord? i personally find it fun when game translates terrifyingly into reality :3

since we don't have an actual otome plot to go off from, i will be free balling this.

————

you, the reader, do not have the luxury of choice.

and of course you don't have a choice. if you did, you wouldn't be here. you would've never chosen this world from all the games and novels you could've chosen. you wouldn't have chosen to transmigrate, period. in this reality that should've remained a game, you do not choose the hows, the whys, the whens, or the whats.

games are games, novels are novels, they are fun to play or read after 8 hours of work, but the real thing is decidedly not fun.

in fact, it’s downright horrible.

no matter where you start off, it’s a very horrible world years (in the two digit numbers at most) away from utter annihilation. the people are on edge. the regulations are strict. the food is managed and the population in each city kept an eye on. the monsters are hideous and smelly and terrifying. they have dinosaurs for pets and one of them almost crushes you beneath its foot. this world sucks balls.

a world based off an otome is still a shitty world. you are not protected by a screen nor do you get to go back and redo your mistakes. you work, eat, sleep, except this time you're utterly alone. you're also kind of useless in stuff except game knowledge.

you can't use swords or bows. you don't know how to plant corps, sew a straw basket, or even skin an animal. you don't know the protocols and unspoken rules set in place. you only know that the world is real. you bleed. you hurt. you can die (or worse). a seven year old here has more survival skills than you do and had even comforted you when you had broken down like, twice, patting your back like your mom used to do when you were small (and what humbling experience that had been).

no one knows you. no one cares about you. you are truly, horribly, indescribably alone. you are terrified, and you must fight for your very survival now. the world is going to end soon. you are going to die if you don’t do something, but what can you do?

if “you” try to “wander” around, you are going to die either by monsters or fellow humans. if you stay without doing anything, the world marches to destruction. any day there is danger of corruption swallowing the place you live. what is knowledge worth when you had been a law-abiding civilian form the modern era and cannot act, fight, or survive on your own?

you know the characters. you know the routes. you know the items, the cheats, the lore. things you used to pour over in forums and discussion groups for fun are now things you desesperately try to recall and depend on for survival.

after mere weeks living in this game world, this knowledge is exactly why you can understand just how fucked you are.

the world is infamous for its bad ends, fights, and rng (oh god, the rng is the worst, you are NOT lucky), and so far none of it looks pretty in person. you certainly haven't been very lucky. if a single dromas can almost accidentally send you to heaven (not a fun experience, 0/5 stars review, despite the cuddle afterwards that left your face wet from licks), what makes you think you can survive fighting by the capturable targets' side and aid them?

drastic circumstances, you think, call for drastic measures.

ROUTE #1: YOU WAKE UP IN 《 "MURMURING WOODS", GROVE OF EPIPHANY》

one of the most hated routes ever because the gameplay used to have math problems in real time :) in the real world, it's even shittier.

after you transmigrate, you suddenly have to cram religion, quantum physics, history, agriculture, arquitecture, magic voodoo, alchemy, and math. you are not going to survive. might as well lay down and wait for death.

time is ticking. you don't have the time - nor the brain cells - to get into any of anaxagoras' classes. just thinking about studying masters degree levels of stuff makes you want to pass out. he might think you are lying, and by the time you can for sure prove you're not, you are pretty sure it's going to be late and you're all going to die.

this is the real world. you are not constrained to routes and choices in a screen. you must use think outside the box. think hard, and realize this: your only option is not professor anaxagoras.

instead, before doom decimates the grove of epiphany and you become a faceless face amongst the statistic, you must find a way to attract the gaze of cerces, the titan of reason residing at the core of the academia.

alriiiight, time to prep yourself to spout some of the biggest bullshit in your two lives.

gods, you can't believe all those hours pouring over game lore for shipping purposes is going to save your life.

(of course, your other option is to shoot all your subjects to hell and get yourself expelled, but that runs the dangers of being sent to a city that is not okhema.)

ROUTE #2: YOU WAKE UP IN 《 "BLOODBATHED BATTLEFRONT", CASTRUM KREMNOS》

simply put, you are fucked.

figuratively speaking, the dynasty of castrum kremnos had long since become an abandoned fortress by the time you meet the warrior of okhema, mydei, in the main storyline. it becomes a plot device used to bond with mydei and something many fans had gushed over and cried about. despite being a mere plot device, there is enough lore on castrum kremnos for you to know enough and understand that when you wake up in the still standing city of castrum kremnos, you are in deep, deep trouble.

the city was not felled by the black tides, instead, it had been taken down in rebellion against its current king eurypon by the banished and presumed dead crown prince, mydeimos. by the timeline of the main story, castrum kremnos is only an abandoned wastelant of madness and rubble.

(you don't know, you don't know when and where mydeimos is...!!! what year did castrum kremnos fall? when did he finally leave the sea and meet his comrades? how many years did he spend wandering? how long did the rebellion last? has aglaea already sought him out in alliance?)

it is not a kind city for the weak. glorious though its walls and warriors might be, its customs are steeped in might and war. people die for pride, glory, and senseless slaughter, something you have read in the game but cannot truly understand when seeing it with your own eyes.

even now, lurking in the whispering crowd, you watch as men and women venture into a labyrinth and come out as mangled corpses. more keep going in, and just as many come out. the kremnoan warriors are proud and seek glory through strife. your problem here is not the supernatural forces that will destroy the world, but the human civilization you find yourself locked within, like prey surrounded on all sides by predators.

you have to survive until the rebellion. you must.

but hey, at least you didn't wake up in the castrum kremnos ruins of present day, right? you would've died five minutes in, either because of titankins mobs or the boss monster itself, lmfao.

ROUTE 3: YOU WAKE UP IN 《 "ETERNAL HOLY CITY", OKHEMA》

you spill the beans to aglaea.

before aglaea decides you're a threat and kills you, you seek her out and swear to help okhema reach the most optimal ending to the prophecy. you would've even fall to your knees if necessary (it doesn't come to that, gratefully). of all the characters, she's the one you know will believe your words because you cannot lie to her strings.

all routes, all hidden endings, all enemy weaknesses, all hidden npcs, all the tricks, all the hidden items and weapons, all the knowledge you can remember-- you will offer it all up to the flamechase prophecy. you have seen the endings and the devastation of the world. you cannot presume to be smarter than aglaea or tribbios or even crown prince mydeimos, but by the gods, you will offer everything and also use your tiny brain to pour through everything like a good, obedient, obsessed fanfiction writer and seasoned reader of novels and games.

you do not even consider taking phainon's route. his routes are infamously easy to enter and just as infamously hellish to progress. even on other routes, he is the epicenter of the game and is embroiled in all manners of political nitpicking and conflict.

of all the targets currently stationed in okhema, he had been one of your favorites otome targets ever, but the fondness for character does not translate well to reality when you realize this is the very same man involved in approximately 325 endings (both his and the others'). haha, no, you are not touching him. you don't have the brain cells to deal with him. get out.

no, no, your best bet is the golden weaver, aglaea.

she's beautiful and smart and scary as hell. you regret not taking her seriously in the game. she is your most dependable benefactor for survival in this world-game. her goal is the completion of the prophecy and the era nova of amphoreus. just as well, they coincide with your survival.

no, your survival depends on her.

ironically, despite your allegiance to aglaea, anaxa might be interested in you if you land first in okhema, because you can't lie your ass about your faith and aglaea's strings pouch for it. your knowledge (which is affirmed as your truth by aglaea's strings) will also keep him close.

.

[halfnemu]

Watching gameplay of Class of 09 The flip side so here’s my sketches throughout the first route

[froschli96]

Finally finished Pathologic 2 for the first time! And on intended difficulty too!

Death count: 2 Casualties: 7:

Anna Angel - got infected at the first opportunity and immediately died the next night even though i used the good antibiotics on her. RIP.

Big Vlad - got what he deserved. didn't have the time to try and save him from his punishment and honestly didn't really care to.

Young Vlad - got infected after his father's death, managed to survive one night even without me treating him but then succumbed the next night bc his infection level was too high even with treatment. Oh well….

Rubin - this fucked me up so bad. he just randomly fucking died on day 7. i felt so bad because i didn't go look for his hideout when i had the opportunity and thought he died bc i missed his questline. but apparently he always dies if you haven't made your first panacea at that point?? didn't even know that was possible. Was really demotivated by that but still decided to try and salvage what i could.

Alexander Saburov - survived two nights after getting infected but died in the third. shrug pretty resilient tho, props.

Aglaya - said i'd run away with her but didn't manage to get there in time… tbh i thought she meant the next day…. 🙈 but from what i've read it's actually impossible to save her? so… kind of glad i didn't waste time there… lol. also don't really know how i feel about her like immediately falling in love with Artemy and wanting to run away together… she felt like a bit of a downgrade from her P1 counterpart ngl… but maybe that's bc we only have one route and a certain meta layer that was a really interesting part of her character is basically absent aside from some comments from grief and the children…. also miss the smizing of her old model tbh.

Aspity - Kind of pissed about losing her at the last opportunity. She was infected on day 10 when i was running around trying to save all of my children. tried giving her antibiotics but that didn't help unfortunately. the worst part is i did have one more living blood but not enough time to brew another panacea bc i never upgraded my alembic. like? another toolkit? seriously?? i needed a whole side quest for the first one! (also never repaired the repair table so all of my tools were busted LMAO)

i think all in all i was mostly just REALLY lucky on all the dice rolls. always took care to give everyone a (+) tincture as prophylaxis and that worked out pretty well most of the time.

Notkin also got infected at the first opportunity (tho it seemed like that's unavoidable?) and survived two nights with just antibiotics. After that it felt like i was honestly tempting fate tho and so i healed him with a shmowder, and this kid had the GALL to tell me i shouldn't have used it on him?? like, i'm sorry i CARE ABOUT YOU and don't want you to DIE, kid. GOD.

But i had like 3 shmowders at that point so… even tho i fucked up that one hide and seek game where you probably also get a shmowder……….. i didn't realize you could trade with the children immediately after finding them and of course the first one i found was the teensy and then i just ran off to try and find the others, sobbing

i also didn't really engage with the whole children's cache thing, like, at all. and apparently that's also a pretty good source of shmowders……… oh well.

in general i feel like there were a lot of mechanics i didn't really engage with as much as i would have liked bc I WAS JUST CONSTANTLY ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSING AND/OR STARVING. only ever slept in 1 hour increments. tho i think i once slept two whole hours in one go. obscene.

i was also a total coward for most of the game and RAN from every single combat encounter lmao! i just got a little careless after rubin's death and tried my luck with a mugger in a burnt district…. and immediately died Lklasjdhfjklds. like, i knew about the death punishments and wanted to avoid it at all costs, that's why i was scared shitless

anyways, at that point i realized: if there ever comes a point where i'm unable to run from a combat encounter, i'm cooked. and i knew there was a notoriously difficult combat encounter late in the game. so i did something… maybe a little cheaty? but not really imo...

what i did is, i paused my playthrough and started a new game and then played through the first day and night and just went absolutely HAM on both the patrolmen on day one and the muggers in the night to practice combat. and turns out? it's actually kind of fun not being a coward all the time LMAO. I didn't even die so I feel like it wasn't too cheaty

at that point i felt like i was at least somewhat more prepared and went back to my actual playthrough and also started killing muggers in the night. AND THEN THE FUND REWARDS WERE SO MUCH BETTER HOLY SHIT??? actual fucking life saver. (unfortunately tho i ended up getting so dependent on the fund that i sacrificed a shmowder on clara's hospital quest to get the fund reward the next day…… felt kind of dirty ngl)

i actually managed not to die during the abattoir sequence tho! but there was a lot of sneaking around and punching and running away until they de-aggroed involved, ngl lasdjf idk why but the worms are so scary when they're running at you…. i think bc you can only see their eyes and so they seem to have this singleminded focus on bashing your head in?? lol

my second death instead was another really stupid one that i'm honestly actually not quite sure what exactly happened? i was fighting a mugger in the night but while i was waiting for my stamina to refill he suddenly starts running away and i just hear a slicing sound and i'm dead? so i'm wondering, bc the only other npc i could see beforehand was an army soldier - do the soldiers attack you when they see you fighting someone? even if it's a mugger? or maybe i was just a little too cocky and didn't scout the area enough. it just seemed strange that the mugger suddenly started running away bc he actually managed to land a hit on me beforehand, so it didn't really seem like he was running from ME? oh well, whatever, it's not like the consequences were EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATING (lara, i'm so sorry 😭)

another one of my favorite moments tho was on day… three? or four? don't remember, it's when you plan a meeting with lara, rubin and grief at midnight. i really didn't want to miss it but over the course of the day i totally ended up forgetting about it. but then some time after midnight i wanted to go to big vlad's house to sleep and on my way there i went to grief's hideout to save. and then i saw that he wasn't there. and it took me a few moments but then i went OH SHIT! and then ran in the other direction towards the steppe. and then there, in the distance, was a bonfire! and my friends!!! sobs and they weren't even angry at me for being late SOBS HARDER that was such a nice moment. and they even brought a sleeping bag, so i could instead sleep there instead of big vlad's house - under the stars! next to a nice crackling fire! with my friends!!!!!!! that made me so emotional for some reason…. probably bc it felt like it happened so organically with how i saw grief wasn't home and then remembered the meeting and then rushed there and stuff….

anyways, i can finally stop avoiding spoilers for P2! like, i didn't go in totally blind bc of P1 pre-knowledge and wasn't able to TOTALLY avoid spoilers so i knew about some plot points and the death punishments and stuff. but i am glad i could go in at least SOMEHWAT blind.

having played it to completion i do have some thoughts on the story and especially the treatment and depiction of the kin but i feel like i have to properly sort out my thoughts first…

[collinthenychudson]

"Uphill Hustle"

Western Pacific GP35s No. 3003, 3019. 3008 and 3010 lead an eastbound trailer train through the Feather River Canyon towards Salt Lake City, Utah as a rainstorm passes over the canyon.

[silverstormsxx]

Au where kid ayano falls into the underground.

pacifist route would be her slowly learning how to love and feel with the help of her new friends, while genocide route would be.. fascinating, to say the least

Feel like the dynamic between her and flowey would be.. interesting

Also would be cool if chara was there lol

[lomotunes2008]

Poor Thomas bumped into some trucks and derailed them :(

[isekyaaa]

An interesting story idea that's been floating around in my head from playing Fields of Mistria is the idea of someone that has a rough job full of stress and drama suddenly calling it quits and moving to the country side to become a farmer. And at first, everything is great. Their neighbors are nice. Everyone in the town gets along.

But the more time they spend there, the more... eerie it gets. Like everything is perfect. Everything. Their crops grow perfectly. Their animals never get sick. There is no drama within the town. And as much as it is eerie, it's also... boring in a way. Nothing new happens. Nothing ever changes. Things keep going as they should. Everybody continues on with their perfect little lives as if they never faced a day of trouble within their life.

And the when you sit down and really think about it.... You realize. You're fundamentally different from these people. From this little world they created. You're from the real world. You've faced and are aware of real world problems. Your life isn't perfect, even if the tiny world around you is. You're still mentally ill. You still have family problems. Your friends from out of town have their dramas.

And, in a way, you find yourself longing for what you left behind. At least that world felt real. At least your actions had real weight to them. At least you knew how to navigate the world.

And that's all I got.

[crystalpallette]

the fact that rafisol is weak to ally's puppy eyes is crucial information. sega please port puzzle pop so I can have this information forever thanks

[kako-tsukumo]

I do love route 0 but the eito reveal is objectively Bad. I understand why it’s framed the way it is but holy shit I feel like it was Designed to get people to write angry essays about the how utterly ableist Eito’s character is after playing approximately 1% of the game

[famewolf]

finished act 3 of kentucky route zero!

the music continues to be indescribably beautiful and the vibes are utterly eerie but in a strangely comforting way.

i find myself both unnerved but at home within the dialogue and the audio is perfect.

idk what it is about this game, but i'm totally drawn in. just spent 20 minutes on an in-game phone call learning about the strange ecosystem of a river (and also how to talk to a snake).

[thesecondsanctuary]

Tomorrow we kill

[akechi-stole-my-heart]

wooooo let's gooooo the robot sisters are fightinggggg

[beautifulsnake2162020]

Apostle Obsonate Victory (Major Grail Victory)

Can't believe I actually did it! I can now let go of my Cultist Simulator life now that I have finally achieved the Major Grail Victory.

To those who wants to do this route here are some things I'd like to share after hurdling this route (If you don't want spoilers look away now) :

1.) The main hurdle to victory is the battle with the Long. I'm not sure if there is an apostle run that won without killing the Long but in my run it was near inevitable no matter how many times I restarted the run. So don't escape your fate and focus more on battling it;

2.) You will want to build your cult and upgrade your followers as soon as possible. Especially those who are Forge, Edge, Winter, and Heart. Since this is the Grail route make sure you keep a Cyprian among the spies to the Long;

3.) At the midpoint of the game (wherien you are summoning your demon buddies) use them as spies since they have two aspects. Make sure to protect your followers because in the battle with the Long, they are your only soldiers (no demons or hirelings);

4.) Ideally before the major battle with the Long, make sure you convert your excess Reason or Passion into Health. I don't know if there's a pattern for how many Winter, Edge, or Forge disciples it takes to defeat the Long but make sure you have all of them. Only followers with disciple status can wound (and in my case eventually kill) the Long;

5.) After defeating the Long it's back to a laid back but attentive type of game in the standard run. At this point take your time to collect all you need before you do your major thing to help your past character. For Apostle Obstinate it is to collect ingredients to prepare for a major feast;

6.) Not sure if this applies to other Apostle runs but you don't need to explore all locations. Most of what you will need is in the Port Noon locations, so a large part of the later part of the run is collecting Secret Histories from the Mansus (mainly the Peacock door and the Stag door) and then fusing them together to make Port Noon Secret Histories;

7.) You cannot remove marked from your followers so make sure you've got some standby mystique (especially before the battle with the Long). If there's any follower you don't want to be marked it's the Heart followers because they are vital to your protection.

And so now that I have joined the Names serving the Red Grail and the Flowermaker is my usher to this delight I bid thee adieu.