Crème de la Crème Discussion and Romance Guide (Spoilers Within)

Guaranteed if I follow this to the letter best i can? Because I’m always able to get Lady Renaldt fired and imprisoned, but my request for Miss Dalca to become headmistress is always ignored when i choose that option.

Ah, I’ve just checked - because she and Mr Blanchard have less experience/reputation than Mr Griffith, you need to have reached particular scores for Inspector Burgin to listen to you. One of Virtue 70+, Popularity 70+, or Grades at B or A.

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I will keep that in mind and try to achieve it my next game, thank you so much! :pray:t4:

I was wondering, I never can seem to get Lady Renaldt thrown in jail when I get thrown in the mine. Is that impossible, or am I just missing something?

Hello, welcome to the forum! There’s a post here with a walkthrough about that - good luck!

I’ve done it the double agent way- I’ve just never been able to make it work after being thrown in the mines.

Also, I’m the redditor you mentioned a bit above, the one that romanced almost everyone at the same time. I just finished a run where I managed to get them all. It was actually rather difficult to path out. I’d post an image showing it, but I just joined.

Ah, I get you - here:

Do the Karson choice as listed in the above post, then go through the mine section. When escaping, pick one of:
#Call upon the miners (high Miner Respect; this is a hidden stat)
#Tell the forewoman the truth (high Virtue)
#Use my popularity to convince them (high Popularity)
#Leave it to Blaise to convince them [if applicable] (high Blaise Relationship)

Then you should be able to follow the next steps in the walkthrough post, accusing loudly or quietly.

On my RandomTest trial, I’m not sure of the stats the program gained, but it worked when leaving it to Blaise to convince the miners, then talking quietly to Mr Griffith and Miss Dalca, then talking quietly to Inspector Burgin.

Also WOW, that’s incredible dedication - very impressive! I definitely wouldn’t be able to untangle all that myself, haha! The link’s here for those who want to admire!

Hmm. It never seems to work for me accusing publicly. I’ll fool around with it a bit more.

I have spent… a weird amount of time untangling this one specific thing. My benchmark was to at least kiss all of them, which a lot of the time requires getting the behaved affectionately status with as well, so I had to figure out a path to begin most of the romances in the first 3 or so chapters. Then I had to actually kiss all of them, and let me tell you, I’m sure you think you put a lot of opportunities to kiss the ROs in this game, it does not feel like a lot when you’re trying to kiss all of them (Especially since I’ve discovered that some of the kisses don’t actually update the stats screen). The real obstacle to the challenge was that I couldn’t figure out how to romance August and Rosario together, because you can dance with one of them at the winter ball, but if you take one of them to the Festival, it will trigger the more monogamous characters to end things. The breakthrough came when I realized that I could get either of their opinion high enough through the rare platonic interactions you can have with them that they would propose to you on a first date, so I chatted with Rosario once in chapter three, wrote them a letter over winter break, and beak them at fencing, and she showed up with a ring. Somehow, Hartmann and Karson will end things if you get tea with Rosario, but not if you’re engaged.

This did lead to me discovering another snag though, if you’re in a poly romance with Max and Delacroix, you automatically talk to them about marriage instead, and if you take either of them to the Festival by themselves, and are romancing the other one, you’ll be locked into romancing them together, or romancing one of them exclusively. This led to me having to restructure the entire thing, because you have no idea how valuable a resource getting to kiss two characters in one scene was for me. I ended up kissing Max after they tutor you in chapter 2.

This whole thing started because I kept getting bored sitting through all those terribly Blaiseless chapters.

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@Lolavs I am seriously so impressed! I didn’t even know it was possible to do at all, let alone managing to actually do it ingame!

I wanted to share some beautiful Karson fanart by zencaia on Tumblr: Journey to Gallatin Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5. I’ve greatly admired this artist’s Creme de la Creme and Royal Affairs fanart before and this series is truly gorgeous. Having people inspired by my work to make new art is just an absolute treat!

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Whattt? I’ve had a crush on Mr Griffith from the beginning, although I never pay much attention to the descriptions of people’s faces and always assumed he looked like an older, sterner Max Minghella.

And I can’t believe I’ve been a fan of this game for four years and I never knew you’d posted all the face claims!

I have a random question about this game: will Delacroix make it into HB? And if so, what ending should I give my Delacroix? I’m not a big fan of the older works’ PCs showing up (although I am waiting anxiously for my ruthless RA PC to be made the monarch at some point in some other game) but I adore it when other people turn up. Like Mr Griffith and his slightly grey hair in RA. Delicious. Thank you very much!

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An aged-up Max Minghella could totally work! The face claims are always just a broad-strokes thing rather than an exact science.

I’ve been sitting quietly on information about which previous characters do or don’t appear in Honor Bound, but I’m feeling a bit feisty this evening so here is a tidbit:

Spoilers for future chapters of Honor Bound here

Delacroix shows up during Honor Bound no matter what they ended up doing in Creme de la Creme.

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Oh my gosh, thank you, thank you, thank you for answering that question!

I literally just read the Delacroix Hearth light story and went through all of your asks, and now think they’re the best character ever.

And now, I’m off to look at face claims of all the HB characters and look up all the details you have already divulged. 🩷

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Can I not get engaged to say either Karson or Gonzalez if I poly romance Max and Delacroix and tell them to marry each other while i live with them?

Sorry I missed replying to this - I kept seeing the reply when I was on my phone and couldn’t double-check. No, you can’t get engaged to someone else while also being with Max and Delacroix. I could see it working with Gonzalez in-universe, but unfortunately the sections involved are pretty complicated and I’d have wanted to give the conversations about it breathing room, and I didn’t have the time or space for it.

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Thanks for the reply, however late, I don’t mind. Shame about Karson and Gonzalez, however, it seems i was able to get platonic engaged to Blaise in my most recent playthrough while poly romancing Delacroix and Max, so there’s that option at least. :slight_smile:

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What are the choices that make Hartmann more rebellious (since he goes to Gessner instead of teaching at Gallatin if he’s rebellious), without being a Starling? My new character Emma Graythorne is either a prefect or a Birchmeier Society member (like Quinn Moretti, who is officially Princess Quinn as of Royal Affairs), and she’s interested in going to Gessner and wanting Eugene Hartmann to be happy (and it would be nice for them to go to school together) and to do well in school while being virtuous and popular. Especially in Chapter 9 (verdancy holiday). Although I do like the ending in which she teaches at Gallatin after completing school at Gessner.

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It’s a bit fiddly, but:

Chapter 4: ask Hartmann to the ball.

If romantic, pick one of:

  • If I’m making things difficult, I’ll back off (Poise > 35)
  • You’re being unfair to me (Domineering > 50)
  • Persuade them to talk about it (Manipulative > 50)

If not romantic, pick one of:

  • Persuade them to talk about it (Manipulative > 50)
  • It’s your life to live (Spirit > 35)
  • If you were careful, you could have more freedom (Intrigue > 35)

Chapter 5: at the afterparty, go and talk to Hartmann and pick one of:

  • hug Hartmann (Manipulative < 50)
  • Party (Flair > 35)
  • Stop Hartmann talking (Intrigue <= 35, but Hartmann won’t like it)
  • Ask if they’re all right (Wit <= 35, but Hartmann won’t like it)

Chapter 6: Ask Hartmann for a date for the Festival of the Birds.

Pick one of:

  • They should let their hair down more (Spirit > 45)
  • Everyone makes mistakes (Domineering < 50)
  • It was embarrassing (Progressive < 50, but Hartmann won’t like it)

Then pick one of:

  • You’d be shutting the door after the horse is gone (Manipulative < 50, but Hartmann won’t like it)
  • I’m my own person (Domineering > 50)
  • I wish I could be recognised for my achievements (Progressive > 50)

Chapter 8: invite Hartmann to stay with you.

Pick one of:

  • Pretend to need Hartmann for something urgent (Intrigue > 45)
  • Talk back to Mrs Hartmann (Domineering > 50)
  • Nod along (Poise <= 45, but Hartmann won’t like it)

Good luck!

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Thank you so so much!

Also, what boosts Domineering? I have been trying to keep that stat up, but it seems to swing often.

There’s a bit much to be able to list easily, as increases happen a lot - in general, taking charge, calling people out, and exerting pressure on people (or being upfront about not letting them push you around) will increase Domineering.

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I only learned from a code dive that the teacher romantic relationship isn’t only Miss Dalca/Mr. Blanchard. While I like that particular pairing, I wonder how we can get Griffith/Blanchard or Griffith/Dalca. I also accidentally got the teacher triad to form by successfully arguing that the characters in the play (and Ms. Dalca) must do what it takes to be happy in class (is that the only way)? Also what should I do to see more of the teacher romance?

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