Is "farming" cults worth doing?

[Vakrug]

Considering I never even end up fighting them due to just being able to fly past and attack their base, that is quite funny to know.

I also avoided them until I realized that training for pilots shooting down alien crafts is actually a thing. Shooting accuracy an reaction training are negligible, but bravery training is important. (You need 40 bravery for an agent to make that agent the best.)

[Juku121]

IMO, bravery is far, far easier to train with medical items.

You do get clear skies for a while and a tiny bit of score from killing manor aircraft.

[Vakrug]

IMO, bravery is far, far easier to train with medical items.

This requires getting shot or healing downed enemy units. Both activities are situational and dangerous. I am not saying that bravery training from shooting sown enemy's craft is a game changer, but an option that should not be forgotten about.

You do get clear skies for a while and a tiny bit of score from killing manor aircraft.

Actually you will get clear skies anyway, even if you allow crafts to return to a manor. That is why many think it is useless to combat those crafts at all.

[Juku121]

Both activities are situational...

So is shooting down cult aircraft. And milk run missions tend to be more plentiful than manors. Once you have some Shadowbats to provide wounds and sufficient armour to largely ignore cultist weaponry, medical bravery training scales better than piloting.

A 10% chance to get +10 bravery per interception is comparable to a single wound healing during a mission. And if you're getting any healing done at all, you're likely doing it more than just once. I mean, it's a cute little bonus, but it's absolutely not worth going out of your way to get it.

You know what's the actual ultimate means of training bravery? Pepper Spray. Trains reactions as well, and stuns enemies in an AOE.

Actually you will get clear skies anyway, even if you allow crafts to return to a manor. That is why many think it is useless to combat those crafts at all.

True. I'd play around with huntMissionMaxFrequency if I were Solarius. 'Realism' is fine, but a feature that can be easily bypassed is pointless. Do note that fighter jets are pretty fast, so this trick doesn't apply to those as easily.

[Vakrug]

Once you have some Shadowbats to provide wounds...

Are those bats suppose to bite enemies or my own agents? In 1-st scenario I will run out of bats soon. In 2-nd scenario I will run out of agents.

A 10% chance to get +10 bravery per interception is comparable to a single wound healing during a mission. And if you're getting any healing done at all, you're likely doing it more than just once. I mean, it's a cute little bonus, but it's absolutely not worth going out of your way to get it.

I didn't know about percentage. And no, I am definitely not leaving cult mansions for bravery training through piloting. It is for overall training. And fun.

You know what's the actual ultimate means of training bravery? Pepper Spray.

Yes, I know and use it. But it is definitely not "ultimate". I actually had a suspicion about if it trains bravery at all...

[Juku121]

Are those bats suppose to bite enemies or my own agents? In 1-st scenario I will run out of bats soon. In 2-nd scenario I will run out of agents.

Either works, but enemies are preferable. Bats are very good at melee evasion (and thus also CQC), so an isolated melee-only enemy is ideal. There's lots of cultists running around with clubs and baseball bats, plus monsters.

If you can disarm two non-surrendering enemies, you can torture them (and possibly others) to death at the end of a mission in the name of science bravery training. Bats are best there because of their wound/HP ratio. Not applicable in all missions, but still.

Anyway, if a bat bites everyone else (once you have sufficient armour) for minimal damage and a few days of bed rest, you can get a pretty much guaranteed +10 bravery per mission. If enemies line up for bat bites, all the better.

You can also use the same old 'sacrificial rookie' gameplay of old, except now it's against enemies weaker than you and the rookies get bitten, not blown up. Requires one of the non-tiny transport craft, of course.

Yes, I know and use it. But it is definitely not "ultimate". I actually had a suspicion about if it trains bravery at all...

You're not using enough of it, then. And there is no better method for bravery that I know. Healing is riskier, as you yourself said. Piloting specifically for bravery is an exercise in frustration. Just shoot off a cloud of pepper sprey a few times per mission and the odds stack up. Or you can concentrate on training a specific soldier like with nothing else. Getting 3 or 11 sprays in mission after mission is much more viable than doing 3 (or 11) healings.


I am not saying all this is always viable or makes bravery training easy, but these tools are a lot better than trying to go through dozens of 10% lotteries for just one or two soldiers via piloting.