Great game with some very minor flaws! Hints and Tips.

[Ancestral_Spirit]

I just got done with my first playthrough, and managed to get a majority of trophies and reloaded my last save to change a decision to get 3 of the endings.

I'm going through a second playthrough now, but i'm keeping my eye on two different walkthroughs:

One of them is a guide on trueachievements, which lists how to get all your trophies in a very basic and easy to understand manner.

The other guide is from neoseeker which is an excellent in depth guide, especially if you want to know what different options through gameplay that'll give you different dialogue results.

 

I would HIGHLY recommend a completely blind playthrough at first, since this game is a real trip, and you'll probably wrap up quite a few trophies while you're at it  

 

With that being said i have a few hints, tips, and trophy warnings i want to give people before you start this slightly flawed masterpiece:

 

This game has NO CHAPTER SELECT. It also does not change save slots, and i haven't found a way to change save slot once you've started a playthrough. The game also frequently autosaves. Bear this in mind when you go for a trophy playthrough, as certain decisions and actions can be accidentally screwed up due to RNG, and can potentially mess up your chances at certain trophies. Grab a USB stick or your Playstation+ and keep a backup if you know you're about to enter a potentially trophy breaking run.

 

There is a levelling system of sorts in place. For anyone that's ever played a Call of Cthulhu board game, you'll probably be quite familiar with the skills at your disposal. This is also where, in my opinion, the games greatest flaw lies.

Your skills of Investigation, Spot Hidden, Occultism, Medicine, Psychology, Eloquence and Strength have set levels they can reach, the maximum level being 5.

However they also have a percentage listed, and it's the percentage that's the real kicker, especially in regards to skills like Spot Hidden and Investigation.

You see for every action that requires a 'check', it turns into a game of RNG. While you may have your investigation skill at level 3 of 5, it doesn't really mean much of anything when in reality you only have a percentage chance of unlocking something using that skill. If you fail that check, the game autosaves and you've just screwed yourself out of getting into that locked door/chest.

I wouldn't worry about this during your first blind playthrough of course, just play the game how you'd play it if you weren't taking trophies into account 

 

When doing your second playthrough, i'm being recommended by many guides to max out your Spot Hidden skill first and foremost, then follow up with Investigation. Obviously, this does cut short quite a few dialogue options that you can only have access to with higher levels in Psychology or Eloquence.

Spot Hidden however, can also work on a percentage from what i can gather. Certain guides are saying you only have to get the skill at a certain level in order to see the hidden items, but i have found this not exactly to be the case. In one of the earlier investigation scenes, i knew where i hidden item SHOULD have been, and i had put every skill point thus far into the Spot Hidden skill, and the item still did not appear. I reloaded the check point, and lo and behold, suddenly the item was there, so this also appears to work on a percentage basis. And no, plenty of items are literally unobtainable unless you boost that Spot Hidden skill. So even if you know where the hidden item SHOULD be, you can't see it or pick it up without that Spot Hidden skill boosted.

 

My last point in regards to skill points, revolves around Occultism and Medicine. Right at the start of the game, you're asked to put some skill points into your preferred stats, as a nice little boost to start the game with. This is the ONLY time you'll be allowed to allocate skill points into Occultism and Medicine. If you want to boost Occultism and Medicine further, you'll have to look for books and other items during your playthrough that will automatically give you points in these skills.

 

When you complete your very first playthrough, and reached one of the endings, you'll be able to reload the last chapter to change your final decisions and (more than likely) obtain 2 other endings. If we're talking trophies, the rarest ending, is probably the one that you're missing and will require another playthrough.

 

This game is an absolute blast, and as i stated, defo give this a blind playthrough first. You won't regret it, especially since the game isn't particularly long, and it doesn't feel like much of a chore to go back to to get the rest of your trophies   

 

Edit: I just finished my second playthrough and got the 'Nameless Cults' trophy as my final ending. I'm going to try and keep this as spoiler free as possible, since i don't want this spoilt for anyone. There seems to be a massive amount of confusion regarding what gets you certain endings in this game, and some people have done pretty much the exact opposite to others and got access to the same 3 of 4 endings. For all the variables there are in the game, from what i can gather, there are only 2 variables that should really concern you.

Your sanity

And saving Drake.

You need have Drake alive and well for one of the endings, there's no two ways about it.

One of the endings will be available to you ALWAYS, no matter what options you pick.

As for the other 2, for me i'm pretty sure it comes down to Sanity. High sanity for one and low for the other.

So obviously for one ending, do things that keep your sanity high: No looking at certain books, no speaking R'lyehian, picking the options that go against what Cthulhu would want, being polite and generally not being an asshole.

And for the other do all the naughty no no's. Read all the nasty books, speak R'lyehian at every given opportunity (you need to do this for a trophy anyways), be an asshole, and look at and do all the naughty things that you think an evil, mind bending, ancient deep sea god would want you to do.

 

As an aside i did read something that might be a little worrisome for those going for certain trophies.

Remember how i mentioned that the skills play a percentage game?

Now, while this didn't happen to me, i did read a guide writer that said this happened to someone, so be forewarned!

Much like the game XCOM, percentages, even when they're 100%, don't mean shit! The guide writer mentions a certain locked chest in late game, and when the person tried to unlock said chest with 100% maxed out Investigation skill, they failed the lock....... This particular locked chest has a trophy attached to it, and the game autosaved after he failed the lock. So just be sure to back up your save before unlocking pretty much ANYTHING!  

 

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

Edited May 3, 2021 by Ancestral_Spirit
Added info about endings and locks