I appreciate obsession as much as anyone (perhaps more!), but there really isn’t any ‘best’ playthrough for Zeniths. All of the big stuff on the Zenith path will happen in Part 3, and you will successfully upgrade yourself regardless of your stats, I promise! I couldn’t very well have people fail at that point and ask them to start over.
I’m spread thin on time these days, but if I get some time before Part 3 is published, I might be able to do a guide. It’s something on my back burner for now.
Great to know, many thanks!
Okay, I’m going to ask the really important question here.
How many pugs are in this game? I found three (the two imperiled pugs in New York and Tater the neighborhood watch pug). Did I miss any?
I don’t think I managed to squish anymore pugs into it. (Our) Tater was still alive when I started writing the game but he had passed by the time it was published. He lives on forever (or at least until Hosted Games folds).
Any chance we’ll see the neighborhood watch again in part 3? I want to see Tater take down a supervillain!
I’ll get right on that! 
So many possibilities: the sharp little claws, the ability to get underfoot at precisely the right moment, a well-timed face sneeze that distracts one of the Dozen just long enough for Quickie to come swooping in …
Or my personal favorite: the villain menaces the pug in a supreme act of evil, preferably while twirling his mustache and monologuing, whereupon the pug does what Pistachio always did when he was scared and releases a buttload of toxic gas.
I’ve been playing CCH since I was 15 years old.
I’m now 22.
I always loved the series. From right when it first came out. But I never came to fully appreciate the series and how well it is written until recently.
My 22nd year on this planet hasn’t been going too well. From heart scares, infected wounds, COVID, financial woes, losing two cars, to rationing the last of my water with my fiancé because we couldn’t afford to go to the store that week, my views and mentality have all come a long way since I was a bright-eyed, overly nervous ADD-raddled freshman in high school. When I first played the game, I was always swapping between Detective and Soldier, experimenting with many character options and unable to decide what I liked being more in the game: edgy, brooding and intellectual or a heavy hitter. I found myself romancing Tress mainly, appreciating her “girl next door” vibes and personality and found a relative charm to her maturity that surpassed even that of the older Crook.
My first character concept that became fully realized was Nightwatcher: a basic, archetypical detective dressed in all black, complete with trenchcoat and full mask. I thought he was going to be my character until the end; I reveled in his simplicity and thought it was a nice contrast to the super colorful, creative cast of heroes that accompany you at Speck. I was a growly and gruffy pre-suit Batman clone, and unapologetically so.
Then, years went by as I waited for CCH 2. Life was so chaotic, I only got to playtest the early chapters without an account and dreamed hopefully of continuing Nightwatcher’s tale.
Fast forward half a decade, and I have changed.
Gone is that desire for simplicity, from it born anew a will and want to harken back to the days of my overactive childhood imagination, biting and clawing for every cool scrap of an idea that would come to my tortured mind. These days, I find myself wanting more than ever to be unique and original, to stand out among my peers or even competition and let the world know who I am. I long to feel as youthful, hopeful and free as I once was during this dark period in my life. I’ve had moments thinking I would die, lost a lot of my friends, strained my relationship with my immediate family, been through a lot of jobs in search of my passion, and had my nerves tested more times than I care to remember. I’ve been through a lot already, so I also want my character to reflect that. I don’t want to be a playful power-fantasy anymore: I want to struggle and triumph, and lose every once in a while. I want to not be the strongest or fastest, the toughest or the biggest. I want a character who has to use their wits, will, and whim to win, wordplay intended, as Dean Tolly would say.
And so I stuck with Detective, knowing that was the only right choice I made with my previous concept. I now just had to make this character mean something.
To me.
I thought long and hard about who he would be, tapping into my life experiences and trying to find what to pull from.
And then it hit me.
What got me through high school? What helped me go from a dull, shy introvert into the tested man I have become today?
My best friend. And we both met online. One of her favorite games a game that gave me so many memories I will cherish forever. That game was Destiny 1. I played a robot character called an Exo who’s design was based off Optimus Prime, and he was a ferocious Titan class that took me a long time to master. But playing a themed robot character who’s backstory made him a lonely human consciousness trapped inside a mechanical soldier showed my lifelong love for the sci-fi genre.
And so it was to be. My character would become a grey-colored detective with a new visor helmet and cartoony belt named Exo, and his name was now Dezmond Hitchens. A powerless boy who disguised himself an inhuman; a robot. The subconscious reasoning is that he is trying so hard to mask from the world just how powerless he is. He doesn’t want to look like the non-Zenith.
And his new personality became a mix of Brooder and Jokester; I’m no longer the edgy boy who sat alone blaring metal in the back of the class. After actually going out and experiencing life, I can now laugh at the ridiculousness of a lot of it. In that regard, I’ve become stronger. But I wanted to keep some of the past in my new concept and so decided Dezmond tries super hard to be the Rorschach of the group but can laugh and even show affection and appreciation towards his friends often. He is now more…human. And no longer a walking trope.
He also becomes leader now. Before, I always allowed Tress to become the role, thinking leaders weren’t “cool” and have to be fake to perform their duties.
As an adult, I couldn’t agree more how valuable and strong leaders are.
I put in the work and figured out how to win everyone over while still earning all the upgrades and stat increases I wanted.
Oh, and I now romance someone else entirely.
I now romance the troubled and wild Mallory, AKA Dirty Girl. I’m now drawn to characters with more depth and realistic struggles, and her RO arc nailed that for me.
So what is all this to say, and why now?
Today, I completed my “perfect” Exo run for CCH Part 2. And I couldn’t be happier. 5 years and two characters in, and I just now realized how intertwined I have become with this series. It has become synonymous with my growth as a real person all these years, and encapsulates many different genres and concepts I have loved all my life into one great, big, badass journey of just that: personal growth, hope, and the need to fight on through this harsh reality, whether for yourself or the ones you love.
I know CCH 3 is still coming, and I can’t wait for it. Thank you, @Eric_Moser.
It’s kind of a strange coincidence to be sure, but I recently completed my own version of a perfect run (as close I’ll get for the moment anyhow) and had a similar change to my main love interest as well. I pretty much always pursued Tress until recently as well, and I still really like her character, but I found myself thinking she was better as a friend, than a romantic partner. I could overlook the subtle undermining and annoyed looks whenever my character got something right when I was younger, because I was in a different place back then, where it didn’t bother me that much.
But roughly a year ago I nearly got committed to an insane asylum, and I though I dodged that, it gave me a fear of putting myself under the authority of a psychiatrist ever again and led to whole lot of other stupid decisions. I quit the antipsychotics and antidepressants I’d been on for over a decade cold turkey, overnight. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, to put it mildly, and I regret it, because once the withdrawal ended, all the symptoms the medications had been suppressing returned. Only now I was afraid of doctors, and couldn’t get more pills or therapy. During the spells of crippling apathy that followed, CCH was one of the only things I could bring myself to play, and my whole approach to the game has changed.
I couldn’t be a hero, or even a good person really, in my own life. So I became one in Speck Nebraska. I refused to steal secrets, or harm anyone I didn’t have to, and did every good deed I could. Even to my own detriment, like never getting any upgrades because my GPA was tanked by taking the high road all the time. And I didn’t romance Tress anymore, because I didn’t need to feel like someone was plotting against me in that world, as well as my own. Not Dirty Girl either, because she needed someone stable, to lift her up, not circle the drain with her like I would. My last play through was with Stoic, maybe because she was so counter to the chaos in my own life, and even though it’s not really a romance per se, it felt right.
It’s funny how things turn out, but I’d like to add my thanks to @Eric_Moser as well, for providing a harbour in the storm.
Wow I was just about to start my hiatus from the forums but I happened to see these posts and I’m so glad I did. I’m humbled that you both shared your stories. I wish you both the best in all of your adventures, including those in CCH. Posts like these can serve as a reminder (to all of us!) of the importance of the vast unstoppable power of our imaginations!
You both take care of yourselves!
I’m signing off for a few weeks! But I’ll be back.
You too! We’ll miss you!
You too! Best of luck to you as well.
So the other thread is closed I think but just wanted to say at authorman I hope it didn’t come across as discouraging or negative I really did like the monologue book I was trying to give my perspective and you did bring up good points back about the things i mentioned. Anyways all your books are pretty fricken good and looking forward to whatever project you work on next. @Eric_Moser
I hope we get can get a possible Downfall romance in book 3. Especially considering that it looks like she will be somewhat more important to the plot in this one. Maybe something similar like with what happened with the Hedonist. ( minus the sexual coercion and power imbalance of course) I could see her doing more of a one night stand or something like that instead of a long term relationship.
How to make the hedonist and combat wombat die together in the final battle
Ask for Hedonist to stay with you instead of helping the California guy, then when the fire lady ask who is the leader keep quiet
What @Urban said! (I thought you might be the same redditor I spoke with, but just in case you aren’t!)
I was just wondering what happens to Uni? It’s like she’s just written out of the series after. Not even in book two. I’m sure this has already been answered and I missed it. Can someone help me out here?
She’s still around! She appears in CCH 2.5 (Lake Monster story) and will reappear in CCH 3.
That’s great to hear! 
She was already one of my favorite ROs, and then I saw this fanart of her and absolutely fell in love! 