XPiratez Information Compilation, Starter Guide & NPC Guide (N11 UPDATE!)

[Dioxine]

You write:

"Personally, RNG's hate me with a passion, so when I'm faced with such insanity like having to research a specific NPC you have to work hard to get in a specific mission and then... there's a chance you get a useless result and have to DO THAT AGAIN 20 or 30 times, I'm just like NOPE. NOPE. NO EFFING WAY."

This is misinformation. Rare captures usually only have a handful of rare researches and usually no more than one unique (engineers could be said to be an exception except they're not exactly rare). If you *don't* savescum research early and devote some of research effort to interrogate common prisoners (commonly referred to as 'thinning out the lists), you won't have this issue of having to redo difficult and rare missions. Ie. you propose a solution to a problem you have created yourself. And this is not even issue of IRL time, as you are bound to capture many enemies anyway; it's an issue of cheating early to be stronger faster in game-time terms... I mean it's not my place to say 'savescumming bad' just don't use such misleading justifications.

Next... you write "After 2 mandatory defenses...". I have no idea where you got that from. They're neither 2 or mandatory.

Next... it's actually very unlikely to get the Smooth Captive early. To get 'The Academy' topic just interrogate a Nurse (and it's guaranteed)...

Next, Humanist Leader... apparenly by this point you get savescumming to such routine that you didn't notice simple fact: Yes, he can give you Origins of Dr. X as a random, but if you interrogated him and got a different result, the topic is unlocked for your research anyway...

In any case I'm not criticizing your research methods, and this is immensely useful reference; just I wanted to point out arguable advice.

[eharper256]

WOW!  Very much appreciated. I was waiting for something like that for a long time. Now I know what I missed during previous runs.
I hope you will continue to update this document when new versions of XPiratez will come out.
Again, big thanks! 

Yep, your request was one of the first replies here, I can still see it on the front page, haha. I was actually tempted to ping you on it in fact.

Early in the game (June) you get the notification about the Ninja Jetbikes, while the ingame description says they are dodgy, I think an infromation about how to deal with them would be nice. Like what would be the fastest weapon to get so your interceptor can handle them? I'm guessing Buckaroo with 2x14mm will not do?

No I imagine Buckaroo will do in that circumstance, simply because the rapid fire will help. More rolls mean more chances to hit. It's not a thing you want later when the dodgy thing ALSO has shields, but early on, you don't need to worry too much.

Also might want to add information to Faust - that if you rush it, you're standard 14mm will not be usable (as per their description).

I actually mention precisely that on the Aircar, literally just above the Faust.

This is misinformation. Rare captures usually only have a handful of rare researches and usually no more than one unique (engineers could be said to be an exception except they're not exactly rare). If you *don't* savescum research early and devote some of research effort to interrogate common prisoners (commonly referred to as 'thinning out the lists), you won't have this issue of having to redo difficult and rare missions. Ie. you propose a solution to a problem you have created yourself. And this is not even issue of IRL time, as you are bound to capture many enemies anyway; it's an issue of cheating early to be stronger faster in game-time terms... I mean it's not my place to say 'savescumming bad' just don't use such misleading justifications.

Hi boss, thanks for checking the guide out again, I really appreciate your input.

But... I dunno, early captures are bound by three big problems: that it's a pain in the butt that often puts your gals in danger when you could just kill them, that you have very limited early prison cells, and that everything else pressing on your time is just far more important. I definately do them; to clear the cells more than anything else, but they're never a priority. It's so important to rush for more strength.

By the mid-game, sure, I can have a seperate base that specialises in Documentation and Prisoner researches (and I do), but main-base and main facility absolutely cannot waste time (nor base space, you need so much there!) on heavy interrogations.

I've mentioned before that I don't save scum a lot. I'll roll with the dumb misses and crazy hits and occasional deaths in the battlescape especially. It's only when I get a pure seething turn of hatred from RNGJesus that I re-start a whole turn or enemy phase.

But science, nope, I am quite firm on that not even being cheating. "Thinning the lists" is not even an argument. Looking at my relatively late-game list on say, Academy Esper, I STILL have 12 topics that they could give me. I HAVE been clearing the lists, because theres 36 less topics there. But if I didn't have ESP Secrets at that point, that's still a max-roll on a D12, hardly a chance I would ever bet on. But then, I've never been much of a gambling man, and I'd always prefer ending all missions in a hail of laser fire over faffing over prisoner captures repeatedly.

Personally, I'd like to see the #number topics and pure lore topics to be flat out removed from interrogations at the very least. Even though it's more score, those are an absolute kick in the balls when you're fishing for actually useful topics. Which is a shame, since I enjoy reading them each time and then sighing and reloading because it's a time waste. But that's just me, I can't abide by pauses in progression due to chance. I also hate games where they do things like locking starting options behind achievements for the same reason. So take that with a pinch of salt.

Next... you write "After 2 mandatory defenses...". I have no idea where you got that from. They're neither 2 or mandatory.

They're not? I assumed that since you need [Hideout Search Orders] and [Fugitive Search Orders] for progress, those two missions would have a guaranteed spawn chance. Huh. Well, I'll get that statement removed then. Seemed to be the case back in N9.5.6 or so, but do you find them a different way now?

Next... it's actually very unlikely to get the Smooth Captive early. To get 'The Academy' topic just interrogate a Nurse (and it's guaranteed)...

I honestly forgot how I got this way back in my game, and when I'm looking at the XPedia wiki for reference it's got a problem in that it makes no distinction between "Unlocks" and "Requires", so I've interpreted that as needing all the Academy Staff. I should have checked it with the in-game tech tree viewer! Will get that corrected, ty.

Next, Humanist Leader... apparenly by this point you get savescumming to such routine that you didn't notice simple fact: Yes, he can give you Origins of Dr. X as a random, but if you interrogated him and got a different result, the topic is unlocked for your research anyway...

Quite so. Again, I got this condition AGES ago iRL (like 5 months ago since I went on hiatus for a while with my playthrough) this was my memory failing on me for that one, thanks for the correct.

I'm actually glad it's relatively minor issues considering how massive that TXT document is! I was certain I had made some glaring mistake somewhere haha.

[shinr]

They're not? I assumed that since you need [Hideout Search Orders] and [Fugitive Search Orders] for progress, those two missions would have a guaranteed spawn chance. Huh. Well, I'll get that statement removed then. Seemed to be the case back in N9.5.6 or so, but do you find them a different way now?[/size]

Fugitive Search Orders you can get from three Academy Airbus missions in the first month.

Hideout Search Orders you can get from shooting down Armored Ambulances (or do they land too?).

[eharper256]

Fugitive Search Orders you can get from three Academy Airbus missions in the first month.

Hideout Search Orders you can get from shooting down Armored Ambulances (or do they land too?).

Thanks for the information. I've updated the TXT document with the corrections from yourself and the big boss.

The attachment is still found BY JUMPING TO THIS POST (there was 35 D/L's before and you'll see it's now 0 again).

[ontherun]

Thanks for the information. I've updated the TXT document with the corrections from yourself and the big boss.

The attachment is still found BY JUMPING TO THIS POST (there was 35 D/L's before and you'll see it's now 0 again).

Thanks again! But for sake of semplicity, better attach to the very topic's first post, maybe for the next update....?

Edit: in the guide, might be worth mentioning the usage of food (uber whetat chocolate and so on) some of the are quite important, eg chocolate for appeasing mad gnome

[Vakrug]

{KNIGHTHOOD} => {CHAMPION}
>> If at this point, you rejected Codex and are on Male Path, with the Knights of Cydonia joined, you have a extra Martian Mission which gives a secret route to kill the Alien Brain.

I am pretty sure there are no such requirements. https://xpedia.netlify.app/##STR_GDX_135_EVENT If you beat Zander you will get the extra Martian Mission eventually.

[eharper256]

Thanks again! But for sake of semplicity, better attach to the very topic's first post, maybe for the next update....?

Edit: in the guide, might be worth mentioning the usage of food (uber whetat chocolate and so on) some of the are quite important, eg chocolate for appeasing mad gnome

The TXT file was a test-bed really. I'll convert it to Word-Doc and PDF in a few days, but it was easier to make this way initially. I wanted to be sure everything was right of course before proceeding to do prettier formatting. So when the PDF version is done, I'll add that to the front page.

I mean, my natural hoarding instinct has some food around anyways since I like to RP the fact the base needs some (lol). Alot of it is fairly limited though, besides Apples, Coconuts, the one-time research needing Wheat, and Chocolate as you mention.

I am pretty sure there are no such requirements. https://xpedia.netlify.app/##STR_GDX_135_EVENT If you beat Zander you will get the extra Martian Mission eventually.

Hm, you must get the "Original Knights of Cydonia" topic from a Bootleg Laserdisc if you don't get it from them joining, and those are pretty rare in my experience, but yep, I guess you're right. I'll correct that.

[Vakrug]

https://xpedia.netlify.app/##STR_ILLEGAL_DATA
0.0013 looks like low number, but during my champagnes I always were able to hoard all laser discs needed.
Also you can trade ‏‏‎"‎Nuclear Battery" for a disc. A trade once debated as very unprofitable.

[eharper256]

Alrighty, I've converted the route supplement TXT file (containing the Dr. X, Aurora/Ilyasviel and Red Mage/Rin routes through the game with their various prerequisites and benefits) into a proper PDF with lots of pretty pictures and formatting so it matches the main guide.

You can now get to this by CLICKING HERE

It's updated with a couple more corrections, and with an additional small sub-section detailing the fourth princess as well (i.e. Witch Princess and being a Chaos Saint).

The main page link has also been updated to this version.

As before, if you spot anything that looks wrong, please let me know. THANKS AND ENJOY!!