Factions

[Slariton]

So, from a plotless munchkin min-maxing perspective, what are the benefits at various points to siding with the Rebels or the Shapers?

 

Your 'reputation' seems to be controlled by a single variable that starts at 100. The game scripts have 82 calls that increment or decrement it, many of which do not trigger the little "Your reputation with the _ has increased" message. For example, if Shaila dies you get -5 towards the Rebels, and if you walk her to the Forsaken Docks you get +5 towards the Shapers.

 

There are 41 calls to look it up to determine what happens. However, most of those 41 are in a small handful of zones. It is also worth noting that many of those calls allow your Leadership to replace needed points in either direction on a 1:1 basis.

[Randomizer]

From a strictly experience point of view being an amoral mercenary and trying to help both sides gets you access to the most quests and item rewards. You have to be careful in order to maximize this because the cost for spell training from the Shapers depends upon your current score.

 

Some Rebels and Shapers won't help you if your score leans too much in one direction or towards neutral.

 

Betray the Shapers for both of the major quest in Chapters 2 and 3 and they cut you off completely. The Rebels are somewhat more desparate and will still help you to make the next area.

 

The pure Rebel path will prevent you from getting several quests and make it almost impossible to visit some areas. You need to do some Shaper quests in Chapter 2 in order to gain the Aziraph Pass to visit Shaper Camp Gamma.

 

Doing the main quest for the Shapers in Chapter 4 will restrict access in Chapter 5 to Khima-Uss.

 

Update - doing too much for the Shapers can cause you not to get the Kill Infiltrators quest in Chapter 4 until you do enough for the Rebels. Thur in Chapter 2 won't join you if you have helped the Shapers too much and check out the scripts for his reactions to you helping the Shapers if he joins you first.