u/Vg65

Here's a playthrough where the trio took their suffering under Balio and Sunder personally, and decided to get big.

Ryu and Nina have both been getting swole under Fahl from their first level-ups onwards. Momo's also apprenticed to Fahl, but she's had 7 D'Lonzos first to get through the contest and help against the bullies and Stallion. I don't plan on using Garr much for this run, so he was used to get skills from Bunyan and Meryleep. Peco's untouched.

Ok, so the babies are not game-wrecking monsters yet, but they're trying.

Looks like Nina took that kiss personally. Oh, and Momo at least got in a shot as well (meanwhile, Ryu's just there for the XP).

Nina's still apprenticed to Bunyan since level 5, while Momo's had some changes (12 levels of D'Lonzo, 8 Meryleep, 14 Fahl plus another with this battle). Ryu's still under Deis since lv11 (with 500 life shards and 200 proteins thrown in).

Man wanted some Nina. He got it.

(I tried to give mighty chop some spotlight, but it still sucks even after all these buffs. 😞)

Here's a Rei who's been on Hachio since level 19. I know Bunyan's better, but Nina's already there (and I didn't want two characters on the same master for too long on this save).

Ryu's been on Deis since level 11 and is the only party member I've used stat items on (500 life shards, 200 proteins), because his HP and defence are getting slaughtered by his mistress.

Garr's a mage here, and he's finally become useful after Ryu's shared his spoils from Deis. Silly sea creatures never stood a chance against Chef Reimsay and friends.

Here we have a Nina who's been under Bunyan since level 5 (she's been surprisingly good even before being overlevelled for fights), and a Ryu who's being kept for Deis (I think lv11 is the earliest). He's been under Meryleep for the 6 unavoidable levels from Garr. I'll farm stat-items to help with Deis's HP and defence losses (mostly via the faeries), but I'm not looking to farm too much. Just one or two stats per character, maybe.

I've removed my previous two videos (Mikba and Shroom) as I didn't want to spam the sub. Also, that save had a Giotto Ryu from lv1, and while it was a good challenge, I became more interested in the idea of as much Deis as possible.

Anyway, with Rei down (and no ammonia on hand) and Ryu being underlevelled, it's up to the princess to step up and deal with the big bad Mikba here.

Got tired of seeing Momo shoot like she's downed one too many shots, and since Shadowwalk's already taken, I decided to go a different route with her.

Momo's had over ten levels with D'Lonzo to power past the contest, Raphala section, etc. Now she's been on Meryleep for a while, and she's also had over 200 swallow eyes, thanks to the faerie gift shop. Her agility is around 300 with gear.

No more needing D'Lonzo and Artemis caps to help aim that bazooka. Beware the jumping Grassrunner!

Big devil jerk vs the princess who got swole under Fahl since childhood.

I got lucky with some minor save-scumming in the village. Got an inn inside the building and two exploration shops set to distant. One faerie brought back a spirit ring but the other brought back beads.

Thing is, you can get a well-built village as soon as you get access to building it (older Ryu section). You just need to get through enough battles to let the faeries hunt, clear, build, research, etc., and you can even get everything unlocked before fighting Mikba, if you want (this screenshot is at the plant section in my game).

Just recently, I save-scummed at camp outside the village to make sure that both faeries survived their trips, and I've had some crazy returns. Both of them came back with force armour, and some time later, they both came back with ivory charms.

I'm doing a mage Ryu run and don't plan on using the force gene much (I've used it a lot in the past). Those armour and accessories will help a lot.

Faeries are boss. 👍

Myria must be so disappointed in her great guardian over here ...

This is from my latest run, where I'm going for as much Emitai as possible on Ryu. You can beat Garr like this at level 1 even without save-states, but it's very frustrating. I used states to avoid having to run through Angel Tower and repeat the blocks puzzle every time I failed (and there were lots of failures here).

Thumbs down to those ungrateful settlers across the 'Wealth. I give them a fancy settlement, high defence, comfy beds, good gear, Minutemen patrols, and usually blow up the Institute as well, and those settlers just whine most of the time. Meanwhile, even though the people of Far Harbor can also be rude, those badasses at least go the extra mile to help you. The vibes are like:

Commonwealth settler: please help! We're being harassed and can't take this anymore!!! Do all the legwork and stop it yourself, aaaa!!!!!!

Islander: we're getting harassed and are fed up of this crap. Mind if I come with?

Hermit crabs? Fog crawlers? Super mutants? Trappers? Your island settler buddies got your back. Thumbs up for the brave men and women of the Island who go the extra mile to support this stranger who helped them take back their land, as opposed to the 'Wealth whiners. Poor general's then gotta use the flare gun if they want some kind of help out there.

Chad Islander > whiny wastelander.

(Yeah, the Minutemen are the help, but that's your militia that you've done the hard work in building up. The settlers just send you on your way.)

When I went for my first ending (Railroad), it meant having to assault the police station (RIP Haylen, lmao Rhys) and then go for the hydrogen tanks on the Prydwen. At that point, I'd already maxed Danse's affinity due to having completed Blind Betrayal a while back (and I avoided Kells like the plague thereafter). I'd then left Danse to chill in his X-01 at Taffington Boathouse (which also happened to be Mercer Safehouse). Most of my companions were hanging out there anyway.

After doing The Nuclear Option with Deacon and friends, I dismissed Deacon and went to go check up on Danse. He just gave the occasional talk about his personal feelings, and I reminded him that we're best friends. Then he was like "Ready to continue our mission, soldier?" and I agreed.

Next thing you know, Danse and I were heading off on jolly adventures and riding the Railroad vertibird. He had no issues in helping me kill the odd BoS patrol out and about, and also doing the Lost Soul quest (radiant quest to find a lost gen-3 synth and give them a care package). We also rocked up and occasionally helped a Railroad checkpoint or two against attacks.

So here's Danse living his new life and having a new purpose out there. He can't be made to join the Railroad, but this is about as close as it gets. I'm just surprised that he didn't give a damn about the Prydwen being scrap.

Mine was during a survival permadeath run where the main rule was no reloading to get out of deadly situations. I could reload to get different quest dialogue, get around severe bugs, etc., but not something like taking too much damage and about to die.

At this point, I'd already failed a few other survival permadeath runs. One was early on to a Molotov in the Museum of Freedom, another was to some nukatrons in the Galactic Zone (those quantum launchers are no joke), and another was to a really dumb death in the water. That water one was because I was wearing power armour but using Oswald's tophat for more speed, but then I ended up jetpacking into water (somewhere near Scrap Palace) and was busy drowning (didn't take Aquagirl). That was a level 50-ish run or something with lots of work already done on the save.

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Anyway, the *really* butt-clenching moment came during Rocket's Red Glare. I was level 100 on this run and had done lots of work for all the factions before going Railroad all the way (and had built up all the settlements in the base game already). I wore full Railroad T-51f when assaulting the Prydwen (this was a Commando build that mostly used Splattercannon, but I felt like using an automatic Righteous Authority and lots of chems here).

It started off cool. Deacon and I landed and kicked ass on the exterior, then we returned fire to the BoS soldiers firing up from the airport. Had some epic VATS shots from the Prydwen down to the ground forces. But then my smartass decided to lob two plasma grenades at them.

Lmao, both grenades detonated a few metres or so in front of me. They wrecked my T-51f's arms and legs, and sunk my health. I had over 1,200 or 1,300 HP or so here and immediately clicked VATS out of panic (plasma grenades don't just damage you, they also drain a chunk). I was like: "Shit, do I have to start this silly, self-imposed rule thing over again? Damn."

I'm not sure why, but my Sole survived with around 10% or so of her health. It could be because I put emergency protocols on the torso piece (+25% movement speed and -50% damage taken if below 20% health) and/or maybe because I just had so much endurance and HP (and Life Giver 2). I immediately took a glowing blood pack, stimpak, refreshing beverage, and even popped a mysterious serum for whatever reason.

Real clutch moment there from the HP. I survived and went on to storm the place (and levelled up and took Life Giver 3 at some point), and later stomped Maxson with Righteous Authority. Good thing my endurance and stuff became the real deal to save my permadeath run from some skill-issue dumbness with grenades.

(This run was actually the first time I beat the game, by the way. Didn't feel like going for the ending until making it a permadeath one.)

Anyone else have some clench moments?

(Generic Brandis image taken from the wiki, because I didn't take a screenshot of the church attack.)

I remember having got a neat little surprise on my first run through the whole game. I did a lot with all the factions but went Railroad all the way, and that meant that Brandis showed up to attack the church during Precipice of War.

Thing is, I didn't even know that it was him at first because he was in full BoSV power armour. I was level 99 and just mowing them all down with Splattercannon, and I only realised that it was Brandis when he groaned and died. I believe he shows up during the BoS's Nuclear Option as well, but my first run was Railroad, so I obviously didn't get that.

It's too bad that the BoS troops don't have special dialogue to acknowledge a Sole Survivor who went from BoS to Railroad. Would've been cool if they yelled stuff like "Kill the traitor!", "No-one betrays Elder Maxson!", etc.

RIP Brandis. At least you died in combat like the rest of your squad.