The Chaos Saint: How Codex choice can affect your game

[Torchwood]

Do you wish to be flawless and transcend the weaknesses of your mortal flesh? Or do you want to tests your X-Piratez skills with some high-risk high-reward midgame missions? X-Piratez has just the right thing for you: The Chaos Saint Challenge.

How do you become a Chaos Saint? Simple. All you need to do is have all four ideas at the same time.

This is achieved by picking any of these captain/codex combinations:
Lazyass + Red Codex
Dumbass + Gray Codex
Soreass + Gold Codex
Jackass + Green Codex

Once your codex is awakened, the journey towards sainthood begins. If you are not ready, you should hold back on researching VooDoo and prepare first.

Be warned, this is not recommended for beginners. Furthermore, it is highly recommended you branch out and do not rely on gals if you wish to become a Chaos Saint.

(SPOILERS AHEAD - you have been warned! Do not read further if you don't want spoilers!)

But what exactly does Sainthood do?

First, you cannot get gifts from the Demon Gods. Ordinarily, if you have the right codex and/or a personality aspect that pleases a particular shadowmaster, you have a chance to get a gift from them. Instead, you get a different kind of gift: Your saintly aura has 2 chances per month to attract a new recruit, someone much more competent than your average hire - high end options like human heroes, gnomes and girl-guides are possible.

Secondly, and most importantly, the witch quests are enabled. These missions are much easier if you've seen them before and know what equipment to bring, and have experience winning difficult missions without the power of ubers. It is possible to handle most of them with midgame tech, if you are prepared. All of them have a few things in common:

-Gals and vehicles cannot be used. You will need to rely on other soldier types and train them well. Peasants work well, since can partake in all but one of the missions.
-There is no escape, and your craft does not appear on the map. So you could just roll up with big convoy, if you can deal with the following:
-You have 48 hours to attend, this cannot be extended by targeting the site. If the mission despawns, you get a 500 score penalty.

Now, good news. Other than score, the witch quests are highly lucrative in terms of loot. Possibilities include enough lasguns to arm a platoon, rare high-end VooDoo materials.

On a tangential note, I have reasons to believe Dioxine really wants players to try dumbass+gray. It's got some events unique to that path.

[balam]

So THIS is what it means! I've been getting opposite codex/aspect since I started playing cuz I read about special missions and such but I've been wondering why I never got anything... thought witch missions were normal.

Another thing to add, most (if not all) witch missions will have an neutral cat (probably the witch familiar?) just looking around. Try to keep it alive for 500 score. Those missions can be very lucrative point/lootwise but unless you are well prepared you are gonna get creamed. Tried the one with cyberdiscs without defender/lok plate once. It was not fun at all.

[Torchwood]

Whoops, forgot to mentioned the cat. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Iazo]

Nocturne in Red is significantly difficult, so I do not mind spoiling this for you. One should bring a bunch of SS in crusader armor, and if at all possible, dig into walls turn 1 and create artificial chokepoints. Your SS crusaders should protect the peasant nuns, or the peasant Linux EP submachine gunners.

If this sounds too zAngband for you, remember thst the missions are not fair, so you need not be fair.

[balam]

I've literally just done that mission for the first time and aqua suit did the trick for me. Dunno if it was dumb luck, but the map already had conveniently placed alcoves on both sides so I didn't have to dig at all.

[Nalca]

That cat will really hurt your score when you accidently blow it with a mortar / rocket.
Or when it sit under a cyberdisc facing you on your starting position on the first turn.

[balam]

Stun and bag the cat

[Dioxine]

Yes I admit, Nocturne in Red is mostly about realizing the Zombies <> Aqua Suit link. Like all Blue Witch quests usually are, it is based on knowing a cheap trick to turn them from teeth grinding hard/autistic to reasonable

[Torchwood]

The Theban aqua suit is a piece specialized equipment that gets underrated a lot because it is terrible against most early game threats and tempts you to dismiss it as worthless when you lose an assault clone to a double-barreled shotgun. But it actually fares better against laser fire than most peasant armors, gives you good odds to survive a plasma bolt and helps in CQB where most people swing for daze. And if you try fighting enemies like zombies who usually don't have guns, that's where it excels. There's something deeply satisfying about cutting down zeds with just a tech knife.

[balam]

Aqua suit and the clones trivialize so much missions (hot pursuit, organ grinder, aquatic + deep ones in general, zombies, etc) that the Theban start almost feels like a cheat... almost. The clones themselves help a lot on witch missions as well.

[Torchwood]

From my experience in testing, I'd recommend going saint on the peasant path, if you are familiar with the witch quests. The loot is top notch, highly relevant to a peasant army, and 20 well-trained peasants can in fact handle all but one of them. Though I'd recommend you have access to legion armor and aqua suits, depending on the quests those help out a lot, especially the latter.

[gunderson]

Is there an optimal captain choice for no codex and/or special mission access for no codex?

[Torchwood]

There are no special no codex missions per se, however you will deal with gnome-related much earlier due to getting a bunch of them via event. By the time you get them, the best move is probably converting most of them into brainers, to give you an edge in tech and research hellerium powered craft to make up for not having shadowmaster craft to fall back on. Rumors say we might see a special new ending exclusive to those who reject the power, but I can neither confirm nor deny that.

Which captain is best for a no codex run, I cannot say, just choose whichever you are most comfortable with. Jackass is high intensity by design which runs counter to no codex lowering pressure a little (ninjas do not attack your hideouts directly until you are crowned or declare war), dumbass negates some of the research advantage of more brainer gnomes and fewer esoteric topics to research, but it all comes down to preference.

[Iazo]

I would advise Lazyass for no codex. Jackass puts way too much pressure on a start that already is askew. Dumbass has the whole entire schtick with no Analytics room, so it makes research painful exactly at the time you would want to keep up the research uptime to shore up your weaknesses in craft and weaponry. Soreasss is....fine, but will ruin your chances of getting good recruits from events.

As for the path, Peasant Revolution has, of course great strategic and tactical benefits, ehile Gals are Superior are just plain good.

But of course, you have to go Male Touch for the extra secret 7 heroes event.

[Psyentific]

I've done a few Dumbass/Gray Chaos Saint runs recently. Overall I like it, the extra challenge of witch missions is enjoyable and managable. The only real flaw is that it's easy to get bottlenecked by needing CBT Champion from the CBT Tournament event chains, and from there you may also get bottlenecked by the VIP Club's requirements. It synergizes well with Peasant Revolution.