alhoon

At 10 canisters. So, since they are addictive, stop at 2-3. So if you succumb one more time to be below 5. Well, I plan to go to 6-7 canisters and be the slightly-inhuman and not-so-sociopath version. It may not be what we want but I will be what we need. And I am the player. I am totally trustworthy with the power. No, no, it is not Hypocrisy! Well, it is, but not too much. I am not Bazhral nor I intend to be. I am sad when I "have" to kill my faithful creations because I need to make better creations. (Honestly, I wish we had the ability to let them go, even if it cost something. Pay a keeper. Put up something to keep them from going rogue. Not kill them with the blood staining the floor where a totally loyal creation that has saved my life and fought for me several times was.) I keep my first Fyora even when I don't need her because she's the first Creation I made. And the original evil didn't use Self-Shaping. That's a different evil, that in the case of the Barzhites surpassed the original evil in evil-ness. That different evil, in the case of the Takers is... well, road to hell with good intentions. Some but not all Drakons lose their way, sure, but not all. Their hate for the Shapers doesn't come from Canisters but because the Shapers cannot let them exist. As long as a Shapers exist, the Drakons (and Drayks and Gazers) will not be safe. Or Geneforged persons despite the assurances you get in GF4. I don't believe them. Some Shaper will try to end you.

😢I sold it... Steel javelins do more damage than my firebolt. And I find lots and lots of "2 missile!" batons and I have a couple of Guardian Weapon Shapings that should be usable with missile weapons.

And you are absolutely right! Which is why I join the Awakened when possible. Even if I find them foolish, passive and naive. I want to bash Shaper heads and cause their empire to collapse. BUT... I also don't have what it takes. Targeting the Awakened in GF2 is indefensible for me. Not just side-casualties or pressure. But outright war and putting them in the same camp as the Shapers. And as you said, their leaders are hyper-arrogant hypocrites. So... I find myself as a disgruntled Awakened and not a moderate Taker. I wish there was another path. Convince the two to work together, find some common ground. Get the Awakened to bring forces to fight the Barzhites at least. ACTIVELY fight. Not tell you "Sabotage them". Aaaaand... kinda but not completely introduce more Shaping to the Awakened. They see Tuldaric, the greatest hero of the Rebellion going... well, you know. And they pull the plug on cannisters and self-shaping. 😕 I partially blame Carnellian for that. The Awakened have a lot of ex-Obeyers. If Carnelian and Tuldaric both said "a little self-Shaping is not that bad... 2-3 cannisters", the Serviles that still find the Shapers uber-wise would follow suit. Things would be much better for them.

Not all of them. And while the Drakons do show some Shaper-ish mentality, they do try to free the Serviles. They are Lifecrafters, not Shapers. They do not enslave their creations. They want to treat them as second-class citizens but not as slaves. The Shredbugs first and the Unbound Second are the low points of the Rebellion, I give you that. I can defend the creation and use of the Unbound - the Rebels were pushed to the corner with a hand squeezing their neck. But the Shredbugs... no. That was too far. Destroying people's food to make them cave? By bugs too powerful to be easily eradicated, bugs that would literally cut farmers to shreds? That was too far. Only Litalia was worse.

Heck no! The Takers are much more realistic than the Awakened and have much more on the side of justice than the Servants. The Servants are aware that the Shaper Council will eradicate everything and spread the ashes to the wind, hiding even the existence of this group of Serviles. The Shapers actively suppress knowledge of Rebellions. When you go to Mehdab, you are told about children playing. You meet one. The Shapers will kill them all. Lying Zackary the Deceiver, probably the person I respect the less and dislike the most in the game series (Rawal comes second) had to smuggle a kid, then a baby, from the purge in Sucia. Because the Shapers were killing even Obeyer babies, children too young to even speak, let alone "catch some dangerous ideas" from their obeyer parents. THAT is what the Shapers are. THAT is what the Servants support. Not even The Barzhites go that far. The Takers are dangerous and violently insane, I give you that. But you cannot raise and Take your Free if you are NOT violently insane. The most you can do is... keep a bunch of mountains away from the horrible tyranny of the Shapers, confined in your land till overpopulation brings you down. No, it takes the insane and the Visionaries for the world to progress and in this case, to tear down the Shaper oppression. The Awakened claim they want justice, but they just want to be left alone, and perhaps help a servile here and there. Nothing about saving the Drayks that are hunted down for the crime of existing. No justice for the thousands of Serviles that perished in Sucia, even those that worshiped the Shapers. The Awakened are weak. They don't have what it takes and they don't seek the power the Takers seek, and only the geneforge and self-shaping would give the Takers a fighting chance to bring down the Shaper Empire and liberate Creations. BUT... they are indeed dangerous lunatics. Understandable, but when they ask me to start butchering Awakened for the crime of not-thinking-like-I-do... then, they lose me. And ... have you played the future games? I don't want to spoil if you haven't. And the Barzhites? They are like Shapers on Steroids. They actively torture Creations, they are as buttholery oppressive as the Shapers and they are also violently mad. They bring the worse from both sides. Barzhal is IMO clearly the villain of GF2, a villain you can align with.

Wait, I have to buy missile weapons before I can actually use missile weapons? One level is enough or you should have bought as many levels as the weapon you use? For Shaping... I had Battle Shaping 2+1 from jerkin and I could create iron clawbugs that require 3. Same for spells. I have the Carnelian gloves and they allow me to cast level 3 spells.

Thanks, but I will stay with the Awakened for this playthrough although I may join the Takers in the next if they are not too horrible.

My advice? Save. Then do a fight with Zora which is not a creation. If your character sheet then says "You have attacked 1 times" or "You have a creation in this game" then I think you need to load. Be that as it may, using Zora to make attacks because you didn't create her may indeed break the pacifist or solo runs.

Analysis from my very own run: Drayk compared to Fyora: A Drayk with haste, cone, fast recovery costs 26 essence. I have Drayk training 1 because Drayk prices are high. A Fyora with haste, cone, recovery AND 2 magic upgrades to be equal level with the Drayk and Fyora training 3 is 16 essence. The Drayk has hp like 2 Fyoras and does 50% more damage than a Fyora thus boosted. Long story short: At least in early-mid game, 2 drayks are ballpark as good as 3 Fyoras. And 2 drayks cost as much as 3 such Fyoras. I am pretty sure that is not optimized, but I love it regardless.

That is the answer to my question.

Well, then I will rep Jeff!

Sholai in Drypeaks? Sholai? 🤣 Which of you guys suggested that quest? I will +rep you several times! Man, this is much better than the original, and the original was good. Shaper Robe in Sharon's: Do I need mechanics 7 to bypass the plate? Not that I can take the turrets, mind you. While my creations can deal with the first one, the second one always shoots for my char once I step in.

ooohhhh... So I could Lie to Lying Zackary the Deceiver, brow beat that weak old man to allow me training, and then abandon them and join the Awakened. I can't believe how giddy that ... deception... makes me feel. I will make sure that it will be a Drayk that kills Lying Zackary the Deceiver. That said, and that great plan formulated: It still leaves me in the conundrum of whether I should join the Awakened or it will make my life difficult in the Barzite and Taker camps. But I WILL get Drayks that way. And I will feed Zackary to my drayk. I will have the Drayk kill him with a bite attack, or I will load and load and load till I manage to feed Lying Zackary the Deceiver to the Drayk he will help me learn how to Shape. I can't thank you enough for this, Mechalibur. It is a Pity you can't go all Litalia / Monarch and start spamming rogues. I wish I could spam a dozen Drayks in Drypeaks Warren and release them to unleash hell as I ran. I.e. more or less what I will do to the Barzites with that switch. But back to the other question: Will joining the Awakened make my life difficult with the Barzites and the Takers? I remember I had to kill practically every Taker till I reached Syros the first time around - and it didn't get much better after I did. Most of the Takers viewed me as an enemy.

I have not fought the demon in the O-GF2, and I don't know if the Emissary quest is faction-specific. Should I be Barzite to give that report to this Emissary?

If I don't want to join a faction yet, what is the fastest path to Drayks? Alternatively, if I join the Awakened without setting foot anywhere else, will I be given quests from other factions? Will the Takers attack me if I don't go far? I think as an Awakened, I am not allowed in the Radiant College. Could I sabotage that horrible torture-submission machine of the Barzites if I am not a Barzite?

Which of these can I get without joining the factions and which are "quest-locked"?

O_O My question now changes to: If I find that thing and put it in my junk bag, would it hit me with that horrible penalty?

Helix Ring: 30% faster cooldowns... 3 turns still remain 3 turns or do they drop to 2 turn cooldown, meaning every other turn? Does it give the bonuses in all things? Or do we choose where the augmentations go? I.e. does 1st augmentation gives Bmag+1, 30% less cooldown and +1 melee? Or we choose? And if we choose, how? Is it possible to have all those? I.e. are there two Glaahk Scales, 2 purified essences and 2 claws of infernal? Are there items that give a big bonus to Shaping? Like +3 to Fire Shaping? Not that +1 is not good, but the items that give the +1 are meh otherwise.

A wasted opportunity... Well, I will still go for that. But that's because the Takers are horrible to other Serviles for not supporting unconditionally a world to the bitter end. I can always hope that at some point the Awakened will Wake up and work to take down the Shaper Empire and liberate the Serviles everywhere. Or at the very least that they will build Shadow-Road like things to siphon suffering serviles to Drypeaks. What you describe sounds a bit like Alwan's ending in GF5, where the Rogues are allowed to keep the Ashen Islands. Mechalibur is right, I think. I want to fight Shapers, I want Shapers to stop being ... what they are. Honestly, Shanti had to go too. I liked her but it is not personal. She was an instrument of oppression, like the rest of them. Shanti would never allow the Serviles and Creations to be free and pursue power. I am 100% against the Barzhites murdering her for the laughs and giggles, but Shapers must die by the hundreds for the Serviles to be free and the Drayks and Drakons to have a chance to live. Wyx the Drayk said it best. He did everything well and the Shapers decided he had to die just because. The Awakened never wanted to take down the Shaper Empire, they want peace too much for them to actually achieve it. And while they find justice for what was done to them in Sucia, they will never get justice for all the other Suffering Serviles. The Awakened philosophy suits me less than the Taker philosophy, I see that now. BUT The Taker leadership suits me less than the Awakened. If only the Takers were not THAT extreme... I want something like Blade - ?? that we meet in the path to Mehdab. The one that is suspicious of Shapers, opposes Shapers but doesn't automatically attacks me.

What is the Essence eater? I have found and sold the Puresteel Blade, because I am a Shaper that can't use it. I have unwisely sold an item that gave me +1 missile weapons because I discover a lot of batons etc that do more damage than my firebolt does.

Pinner wants to take over the valley but do they try to expand out of the Valley? When I said "defense" that's what I meant: Whether they take over the valley and other sects and then wait for the Shapers to consider them Commons OR whether they actually push outside, setting the Shapers on the back foot. IIRC from the original, they crushed the other sects and... stalemate. Stayed in the valleys they could defend.

Rhakkus was female in Mutagen? I missed that.

Good. So Tuldaric works.

I don't know what the frost annulet is but I do know that from what you describe, 500 damage in a single round is quite reasonable for you.

I did and... stalemate. Defense of the valley. Like the original ending from the sounds of it. I have to finish it to see the actual wording. But from the synopsis it seems like the original stalemate for 20 years.