First P20/Adamantine Seal Win + detailed insights
Would love to provide a detailed write-up on everything I just did, still high from the win from my very first, both P20 and Adamantine Seal run, while my memory is still kinda fresh and maybe hopefully give you some of insight on how I did it.
First off, I played this game a year back, stopped, and went back again around DLC. Back then I wasn't that great and my limit was maybe around P5. Now my upper enjoyment limit is probably P9, but largely I'm a P2 enjoyer. This game scratches that itch of those early parts of 4X's where you create a system from resources you get or the info provided to you, but without the slog of the late game once you've essentially self-sustained everything. You solve the problem from the game, and then you get to immediately move on. During this time around, i started stalking this reddit, gaining some tips while watching youtube videos and also applying them/making a habit of stuff I learned.
I loathe anything beyond P10. Having amber just gives me plenty of leeway into doing a playstyle I want. P10 beyond just limits that option, which i don't enjoy. But that I think is the only major problem, any other nerf beyond P10 is kinda okay. This time however, maybe I wanted to take a shot so l could say "hey, I actually did a P20" as a personal achievement and also show my love for this game by being able to beat "most" of its content.
If anything during this post doesn't add up just know that this came purely from my memory. You're welcome to add anything and if i can jog more of my memory, sure, let's discuss it.
Intro stuff down, I've screenshotted also my pre-Sealed forest stuff I was able to obtain:
- 20 Amber was a good pickup. Really just helps alleviate the early glade tax and it helped a lot for the first two years of my settlement.
- Insects, moreso Eggs (This was the insect attack event and stealing stormbird event) gave me an influx of food to also help out the first year, and also gave me more access of Pickled Goods (i'll call it PG for short), which was my initial diet for my villagers.
- +2 villagers is probably the most essential. This connects to helping with a situation where I developed a playstyle maybe around 5 settlements before. I'll explain more on this in a bit.
- I don't really fully remember the embarkation points of the farthest circle (maybe it was 2 or 3?) and the bonus supplies. There were i think villagers, and the others didn't have any. What I do remember is it was plenty of foxes and a few Humans. thought process on this was they synergize also very well with porridge and religion (which THE GAME GAVE ME NONE) and with the PGs I can essentially contain the resolve issue with foxes, humans practically don't care about the storm the first few years anyway.
- From this run also I only got a +7 points. Had to do plenty of vision range to get to events or modifiers, and also enough to get the seal fragments while doing the least amount of P10s/P15s. The things I brought were extra villagers and Training Gear. I always bring the training gear on sealed forest, regardless of villagers, because it opens caches, which solves the first order instantly, and i can have the extra for trade routes later on
Year 1 stuff and insights:
3 wood camps -> 2 in clearance. No issues in woodcutters in sealed forest. just mark the trees from time to time and don't think too much about it.
Put rainwater collector. Remember the 2 villager additon I mentioned? Bam. that gets checked without ever worrying about manpower. Blightrot and piping was also a pivotal goalpost of my run.
Green mystery was definitely a good pick. Double yield during drizzle for housing. also kinda negates Hailstorm debuff as well so no issue on that. Cloudburst (-5 resolve with no housing/clothing) didn't bite as hard, the only one time I didn't have clothing for 1 storm were my Humans, which again they are pretty hardy. The contamination debuff (more impatience per blightrot cyst) on Hostility 4 was literally the most stressful, and heart pounding mystery because of my last push. If you have a keen eye, you'd probably know what I'm about to do, but more on that stuff later too.
Really bad cornerstone pickup. Frequent Patrol very irrelevant because it was pretty much useless. then the ancient tablet per resolved glades. very weak but it did help with trading later on.
Blueprints I remembered was Apothecary and Lumber Mill (vs Kiln). Figured I'd need planks over coal since it's the early game.+ Trade goods for Dyes + Sea Marrow would do the fuel issue before 2nd hearth. Apothecary was also a great pick for Jerky, and since I have Harpies and Humans I would needed to produce dyes for coats later on (leather isn't a problem in sealed forest either). Unfortunately I didn't have any way to receive meat/insects.
First order was probably the most important goalpost of my run. Fox resolve for 5/min mushroom. This would semi resolve the PG diet in the early years while hopefully i can find an alternative resource when i open glades. all I needed was a container. in order for me to get to 18 resolve (I think) was putting foxes on FK (field kitchen) and makeshift post for comfort during clearance, then favoring for a quick resolve push. Other orders were mid-game-y like opening any glades and deliver 5 crystal dews. figured I could possibly just buy it on traders, but eventually I got orders getting crystal dews also so it went to a two-bird-one-stone thing. Held off my first blueprint from rep to see what info i could gather on the dangerous glade.
Resources wise it pretty much looked like I'll have a huge issue on food supply the earlier years and it was leaning more of an infrastructure + blightrot playstyle. my FK held down my village for a couple years. Also realized that trading (trading goods) from lumber mill would be essential later on so i had to lean towards a trading playstyle as well.
Also opened a small glade to see where the seal is, and it thankfully was literally pointing to the next glade over. got there copper veins and a geyser. drizzle i think.
Clearance I focused more on getting hearth bonuses and resolve via housing. Decided to hold off opening the sealed glade because I have a Harpy. even though they brought coats. I had to conserve it as much as i could while i don't have any coat blueprints just yet.
Storm was typical. got an okay negative mystery. when the PG line started, i restrict the diet to ONLY that food.
Year 2 stuff and insights
Generous Rations (+5 resolve but villagers may eat twice during break) was my ace gambit, had to do it to survive the next storm (hostile 1 with no food for harpies and only a housing. also i think foxes would be shaky as well). By now I still have no means of a workflow of food besides the shaky pickle production, so this might hurt me. But at the same time, this also meant i could hold off on coats again for this year's storm.
beelined to open the sealed glade. Event was cemetery with 5 tablets, also found caches that solved my fabric for the rest of the game (harpy buildings and housing). one of the blueprints i held was the herbalist camp, place and practically the whole run was filled with berry resources, so in future years that would sustain the pickle production. Thanks to Fox, the event was dealt with before the storm. also marked that place as my second hearth area. clearance geyser came up too. so that's 2/3 geysers which leaned again towards blightrot.
At this point I realized I will be needing pipes this game. Orders would give me a ton of crystal dews thankfully. but the copper veins from the glade earlier i would Mine it for potentially copper bar later (didn't get any blueprints for this either) but in the meantime this meant i could get a dye production going (berries I needed solely to produce pickles because i had shaky consumption). Also having a lot of 2-man buildings so weirdly enough i have a few excess manpower to allocate accordingly.
trader came, had to lose so much (this is what i hate) of my precious resources so that i could buy a measly few potteries just so i could feed my colony. Eyed a potential third hearth area so i also saved a few ambers for taxes. tablets won't make it in time for this one.
that hearth area needed to be opened via a small glade first, opened that, and found soil. Eventually got a blueprint for herb farm. Sure, for provision packs so i could start trade, maybe porridge as well later (STILL NOTHING). unfortunately it was almost tail end of drizzle so i only got a few herbs in.
By this time (i'm still not used to this) I needed to up a blight post because the blightrot stacks up pretty quickly. I consumed all my embarkation coal then i placed a pin on that (wood was out of the question, running low because i had to sell a lot of them from the trade)
Storm wasn't an issue, another easy sealed mystery that didn't change my playstyle. But it was also in this time that i had just discovered that there were 2 insect mounds on one of the glades i opened. lol. Finally a Jerky recipe for now! Switched harpies to Jerky diet when that got going.
Year 3 stuff
This is usually the year that I need to start the snowball. still my eyes were gunning for porridge (NOT A THING), but since i have jerky now i'm able to get a few resolve in and foxes starts to trickle in as well. Another problem pops up: Fuel. Sea marrow chopping wouldn't be consistent since i now have two hearths + Jerky is using it too. Luckily, game gave me another chance at a Kiln blueprint, so i took it. but then now my lumber will be fighting between planks and coal. Then, I don't often use forsaken altars, but this is a P20 game and i have to win. Building and infrastructure is also my weakest playstyle. So I have to find a way to get this done to help alleviate concerns, so allocated back to 2 woodcutter camps. Pinning fuel issues for as well.
Started my trade goods production. over last year's storm i have gotten some provisions as well so started sending off trade routes.
On clearance, I Called in Trader. Opened my 2nd glade... It was good. At first.
Open Vault. okay. Unfortunately i have the beaver trader, so he cannot provide me with anything. saw that one of the ways to solve it was tea. I can do that next year (during storm i'll make apothecary make tea, now it's creating 3 things on a 2 man building lol. Pipes are so handy!). calculated the time and i can scrape by before it does its thing and i can make it. bought pipes, barrels, anything that i needed.
that glade had 2 caches as well with this i'm able to finish the first sealed order. some notables were fabrics again, A few bars for pipes, dye and flour. Pies. Biscuits. Okay. something for my humans. staved it until the storm. Speaking of which, Looked at the seal and saw that this year's mystery was Plague of Darkness, which makes the storm longer. Actually not bad. Just need to have a shaky resolve. which i'm still at Hostility 1, just need to hold villagers from coming.
Allocated blightrot fighters, and- oh hey, Planks are overflowing (i set it at 40 because why the heck not), 300% blight and I cannot make another one. so instead I upgraded with the -5 second burn using pipes and building materials. then hearth level 2.
Storm hit, the upgraded post did its work surprisingly. took note of that. then waited the storm out. I had to make sure i also had enough resources for the resolve. now had to use coats for the harpies halfway, humans ate the biscuits then eventually the pies on future storm, then ramped to hostility 2.
Then it hit me. Another wrench: The Vault. the storm was longer. i looked at the threat. It kills all villagers in big area with a miasma. The mystery changed the timing so bad that I wouldn't be able to work on it on Drizzle/Clearance as the killswitch triggers by then. Then I can't ever do it on a Storm because the resolve hit on either choice will kill me (300 Hostility or -16 resolve LOL), so this means that it's near impossible to ever work on the glade event of itself.
But remember when i said this was my potential 3rd hearth? because of that, it was ways off that the AOE was teetering over the edge of the herb farm from earlier. it can touch some paths villagers may walk on. Will put a pin on that later too, but generally it won't touch my capital or my sealed hearth. Which also meant i can practically ignore the kill switch for the remainder of the game. I just have to always keep an eye on it whenever the timer goes to under 1 minute, then move a few workers. herb production will take a hit. then i abandoned the idea of making this glade a village. By the end of the game, there was a small window I could solve this event but even then it was too late to allocate resources.
Year 4 Stuff
Had to pick rooty ground. my farm would take a considerable hit at this point but i need the lumber, and thankfully herbs isn't that pivotal during the run. Opened up a small glade near my 2nd hearth (Seal glade). It thankfully had clay (bricks for altar, and beacon tower, warehouses, etc.) and also found my final storm geyser. 3/3 now it really felt like a blightrot game.
With rooty ground, between the coal the planks and altar fighting for it, got finally resolved. submitted the mid game orders i mentioned earlier and this is where i got cobbler. eventually started making Boots for foxes and harpies, major resolve boost + building materials here and there and upgraded some houses as well.
Trading went a little haywire from here on out. from this point i can make a near endless amount of dyes while all just selling everything with trade goods. the trade routes from last year started also coming this year. Eventually was able to get the mysterious box trader and got +1 trade route which meant gold is now going nuts (bought other stuff like scales for boots, then also containers). Potentially I can now just buy witlessly containers to keep anything related to that production line going.
from the fox and harpy resolve trickle, snowball continues, I will eventually solve the 2nd sealed event (earn through resolve reputation), the 3rd seal event i'll do via 100 amber. some of my trade orders were now giving 30 amber and giving it to me next year. i'm getting around 300% cysts as well so i knew that wouldn't be a problem now.
Storm hit. This year's mystery was interesting. 3 villagers will be killed if i don't open 2 glades. I mean, i can open glades, so i started working on a pathway through one (some right to my capital, facing away from the vault). Got the altar up. This is also probably the final note of cornerstones, I think the rest afterwards were either irrelevant or too little too late from the grand scheme of things. Stormforged conerstones: Upgraded generous rations? instant pick. no more worries about food anymore. And then.... Cannibalism. death for a ton of meat and Jerky.
Welp. that settles Harpies' food issue itself (they are cannibals!). my 3rd hearth glade still needs to open though so i kept pushing.
Hostility atp was 2-3. Storm was survivable now without a worry. I just have to make sure that i don't make it to 4, it was debilitating to let that happen with my blightrot strategy. It was this at point too that i need to evaluate my impatience as well since I'll be taking deaths. I answered that by moving a Human to the Hearth.
Year 5 Stuff
3 died. replaced them with 4 incoming villagers. got a ton of meat and jerky. Basically at this point my settlement is starting to become self sustainable. Opened the last glade of this run. fuming machinery, with parts if I disassemble it. Some caches with flour again, with traders i thought i could make a shaky line with biscuits now (noted too that the last glade had copper veins and salt veins, eventually migrated the mines to there)
Flawless cellar was there too, finally an upgrade to pickles and provisions,
Some blueprints i got: foragers camp (there were 2 huge root on the final glade, but then didn't bother since it was again a little too late). called traders, got some stuff for to resolve, Tavern for level 3 hearth (also the +3 resolve and the humans comfort building). Bakery so i could finally make pottery as well and biscuit/pie. Also got press (potential flour and paste) and artisan (mostly for coats)- again too little to late. sort of. with coats it's now easy to survive potentially the next storm. Submitted here the amber too. Year 6 is where i plan to burn 40 blightrot cysts. Timed it because that year also spawns the P3 cysts. All production buildings i have are now just piped, then just gonna activate beacon's resistance to hearth to avoid the corruption. Hostility teetered to 3 and 4. needed some form to lessen it. 3rd hearth was made.
Some random villager died from the miasma but nothing too hard.
Storm mystery was blindness, which has a 50% to break a yield. a little devastating, but by this time also I now have a surplus of needs.
Storm hits. lost too many potential dyes, and trade took a very slight dip (still insanely strong)
Year 6
Start of season I cranked up all my buildings to make cysts, and the global production speed buff in beacon. This pushed me to a very high resolve, which just in case the blightrot didn't work (it did), I will do the resolve thing instead. Made 2 other blight posts with tier 1 upgrades before the storm.
at some point too I filled the tavern with humans, they're not doing anything and just chilled there.
This where things got dicey.
During drizzle/clearance I summoned a trader for the final push. 2 and 4 impatience gained. by that time i was almost at 13 impatience. Halfway through Clearance i decided to check the debuff: Plague of Mystery. Negative Forest mysteries requirement will lessen. by 3 points.
Well Shit.
I will not be able to control the impatience per blightrot debuff anymore, so i had to find a way to at least lessen my impatience. I have a few reps to go thankfully, and the last trader also had the -0.5 impatience every rep perk. and i had at least 3 orders i have saved/can submit. That was very lucky.
On Storm the impatience increase went from 0.15 to a whopping .80 something. i have around blightrot % by the thousands. I think i was at 12 Impatience by that point. while my workers are burning cysts I said to myself "get me the hell out of this game", eyeing as the impatience was trickling down. It didn't get to the timer but it was stressful either way.
As the final cyst i needed got burned i instantly clicked the seal order. Finally I was done and Sealed my very first Adamantine and P20
Final TL;DR thoughts
- I didn't get to do my porridge/religion goal LOL. still bitter about it but it was the fun part about the game.
- because of that, nothing from my colony synergized besides boots/coats by mid game, so i had to slog through whatever i can early game, which for me are always the most stressful part
- in higher prestige, rainwater and pipes becomes king. extra production and double yield really just shoots up whatever you're planning to do in the early years.
- discovered the full crank of pipes will get you to the 30s and 40s on villagers. very specific type of resolve snowball push, but I guess that's noted
- lots of perks/cornerstones become clutch for me in this run. you'd really have to be observant on the resources given to you, and what playstyle you could adjust to when picking stuff.
- Trading on high difficulty is way harder, but given the right situation it would look like as if it wasn't. on P10 up, There are other times when I can't even produce amber, which was frustrating. Yeah just spilling my guts out on why i loathe it so much lol.
If you ask me if I would do QHT next, don't. I would probably try it, but no, not anytime soon. Let me bask in this win in the meantime !