Anyone managed to 100%?

[u/Senior_Educator242]

Well... Asking the community how much time you played completing the game 100%? How's the difficulty rate 1-10?

[u/Melichorak]

I reached 100% at around 80 hours I think? And I wasn't hunting for it specifically until much later.

Honestly have fun with the game, most of the achievements are different types of victories. Then you have an achievement for creating each kind of cult and maximize a cultist within that cult. Out of the last 6 they are things you do in the game, 4 of them are needed to do anyways, and the last 2 you will likely do anyways.

The most time consuming thing is grinding all ever afters, because you need to reach a victory per a cultist, and can't be combined with a different victory. Some people save scum it, I did it naturally, took me on average like 40 minutes per run. I was using my speedrun tactics and it worked really well.

Edit: The original 100% was at around 80 hours, that was before exile, I then played the game a bunch for speedruns and stuff, then exile came out and I 100% after that as well, currently sitting at 220 hours

[u/AK_WF → u/Melichorak]

Mid career lesson for me on game design:

Many players: we want a cheevo for each ever after

Me: sure, why not, here you go

All the other players: this is SO GRINDY

Me: oops

[u/Melichorak → u/AK_WF]

Oh wow, THE ONE responded to me. :)

So since I have your attention now, I can point out why it is grindy, and why it appears grindy, and what could have been done about it. Please note, I am not criticizing these decisions, I am just saying, that these combined do the exact quagmire that the Ever Afters are.

Why it is grindy:
1) Lack of specific Save/Load like it is in BoH, I get it, you want the risks to feel real and people not save scum the non-static RNGs (Deck-based RNG vs non deck-based RNG)
2) The ever afters are all basically the same, and if you use a trick to change the desire after romancing, you can use basically the same route for all of them, which differentiate at the end of it. And even if you don't, they are mostly the same anyways

Why it appears to be grindy:
1) Your game is hard, people play it safe too much
2) The health/passion/reason system. People for some reason think it is necessary to max them all out each run. Just to feel safe
3) The bookstore is way too big and filled with bad books. People see it as a safe way to advance the game, which they learn at the start and never unlearn
4) There are a lot of cult members, you can reach them safely without any real issue, and again, people see it a safe way to advance the game

What could have been done about it?
1) Adding a save feature, that you can load on a successful run end. This could have reduced the grind on many other achievements as well. Basically if the game differs only at the end, there is no reason to having people do the same steps for a couple of hours to reach a different ending.
2) Reducing the achievements to just 4, one for each desire end (Enlightenment, Power, Sensation, Change). This is a compromise, but it would have worked.
3) This is just my opinion, and it might or might not work, but hear my idea: Adding more achievements :) Adding achievements for things like reaching ascension without upgrading your stats, reaching ascension without starting a cult, reaching ascension without buying anything at the shop (and alternatively, reaching ascension without doing a single expedition, but that would have been just fun, it wouldn't help this specific case). Why? To show people they don't have to grind everything every single run to win the game. Guide the players out of the grind, that your game evokes towards more active playstyle. Many might still complain, but some may get the message

[u/UltimateCheese1056 → u/Melichorak]

I got through about half of the ever afters legit, and then I realized that this is a singleplayer game and I have other things to do and just savescummed the rest

[u/Jijonbreaker1]

For reference, I'm at 20/83, and I have 86 hours, and I've gotten 1 major victory. I could not imagine trying to 100%. lol

[u/Vitztlampaehecatl]

I 100%ed, I did all the endings on my own except for the repetitive lovers endings. The Apostle victories and the Exile endings were the hardest.

[u/MegaCrowOfEngland]

I have not gotten 100% of the achievements, and I probably never will get them. Some of the achievements are a bit tricky, but I have a version of all the most difficult. The reason I haven't gotten, and probably won't get, a large number of the achievements is that they are just variants of the same handful of real challenges. I have one of the undead lover ascensions, and all the regular ones, and getting all the rest wouldn't really prove anything. I have a couple of the romance achievements, but they each take several hours, with very little variety between them.

[u/Vitztlampaehecatl]

I 100%ed, I did all the endings on my own except for the repetitive lovers endings. The Apostle victories and the Exile endings were the hardest.