This is a forum for any general questions or help. However, it originally started as a question about getting the Light Fantastic/Heart of Darkness achievements. So, here’s a guide on how to do that:
Light Fantastic:
[spoiler]When you reach the final cave and choose to be reincarnated you’ll need the following.
Have a cunning over either 60 or 80 (still not completely sure on that and sorry).
Have done ‘good’ things throughout the entire game and have helped people. Also, don’t be a jerk.
Choose ‘go into the darkness alone’. If it’s successful it’ll say the shadows shy away from you when you approach.
Choose ‘make peace with the black wolves’ and ‘tell him the gods taught peace as well as war’. If successful it’ll say the tribes begin to unite.
Choose ‘command them to stop’. If successful it’ll say that one god throws down his/her sword while another remains kneeling.
Sit in the white throne and be reincarnated. If you’ve done enough good, then you’ll be reincarnated. If you passed all test, but haven’t done enough good you’ll just get the god’s blessing.
WARNING: If the trickster god approaches you at any point you CAN NOT become the good god. Your best bet is to sit in the black throne and either get a blessing or possibly become the evil god. Sitting in the white throne at this point kills you and your tribe will be destroyed by the Black Wolves.[/spoiler]
Heart of Darkness:
[spoiler]To get Heart of Darkness you will need the following when you reach the final area.
A high dominance/glory (again either 60 or 80) and have committed some bad deeds (murder, slaving, destroying the citadel, etc.).
‘Take the lantern and hunt down the shadows yourself’. If successful the shadows will feel fear and flee before you.
‘Tell the tribes to go to war’ and ‘strike him down’. Success or failure doesn’t matter here.
‘Strike him/her down’ or ‘kill them both’. Success doesn’t matter.
The trickster will approach you. React however you wish.
The final trial can possibly be skipped for some apparent reason (thus, 3 is skipped and you’re taken directly to 4). Either way, you’re taken directly to the thrones. Sit in the black one. If the trickster has approached you at all you will DEFINITELY get a blessing. Hopefully, you’ll be reincarnated.
Either way, as long as the trickster has approach you you will always survive. He will either cut the other gods down or you yourself will kill them.
WARNING: If you sit in the throne without being approached by the trickster, then the same warning as above applies. You will die along with your tribe.[/spoiler]
I haven’t done this yet, but I think I know how you can be reincarnated as Perun:
[spoiler]On the night before your tribe faces the Tribe of the Black Wolves in the Valley of the North Wind, you’ll dream of a cave and several ominous figures within. When you wake up and meet with your advisors on how to proceed into battle later in the day, one will suggest meeting your enemies head-on, one will suggest fleeing, but then a third option will say “There is another way.” If you select that, you and your companions will follow you to the cave from your dream. Above the entrance, there’ll be inscriptions or something: center, left and right. Examine the center one, then you will come upon a room, in which you’ll be given the option to examine different things in the room. Examine the circle of light in the center. Then, you’ll step into the circle, and the gods will communicate with you. They’ll tell you (and this is based on my story so I’m not sure if there’s more to it than this) that they believe you are the reincarnated mortal form of Perun. Then, they’ll offer you several choices: lead your tribe into Domorvost, resurrect one of your ancestors from Domorvost to aid you in the coming battle, be reincarnated as Perun and become a god, or you could refuse all of their offers and lead your tribe into battle without any aid from the gods (which is what I did). There might be another option but I’m not sure. I’ve only played through once, so I haven’t tried to be reincarnated as a god, but I’m sure if you just choose to become Perun in godly form again, that’s just what’ll happen.
I was satisfied enough refusing the gods’ offers and defeating the Black Wolves anyway (earning the “I Did It My Way” achievement like a badass), but I can’t help but wonder what being a god would be like.
Also, I think it’s worth noting that, throughout my playthrough, I tried my best to think with a morality and conscience concerned with the wellbeing of others, like offering myself to die in place of my fellow captives (in the beginning when captured by the Black Wolves), then letting the surviving Black Wolves go free when my tribe ambushed their camp and freed me, and offering myself in my friend’s place when they’re captured by slavers. Dominance being my highest stat, I did still kill plenty of people though, not just for the sake of killing them, but mostly out of survival.[/spoiler]
What I’m about to say does affect some of the stuff in the game and how to handle it, so spoilers.
What freelance is partly right. It depends on a lot more than just that. You can start the trial but be found to be unworthy, or have the potential but not actually meant to be, and so on. Something the author does very well is creating situations that still require a lot of thinking and consideration to get through, and even so there are multiple ways to handle just about every situation. So even if you pick the option to be reincarnated you could wind up fighting on your own terms (happened to me on my second playthrough. Let’s not speak of the first. It went well until the end just kicked my ass). There’s also a good element of RNG which makes copy playthroughs difficult from what I’ve noticed. My recommendation is pick a stat (like Charisma) and a god and play completely to those, no matter what you do, because often you can make up battles where you won’t get Svarog with high morale for your tribe. Same with that god ascension trial. You have to play it to your strengths to the fullest or you might be found to have potential but not be the one.
You get the staff by going east when you first enter the swamp, then calling upon Ziva to cure the village you find of its plague. The leader of the village will give it to you. Then, just go back west and go north. There you’ll find the woman. You might need the spiritual adviser to like you, though.
So no unity if you’re seeking to romance… has anyone discovered who is romanceable? I keep getting super close to reincarnation, but always fail one test. Sigh.
Um well. I’ve been making some very wrong decisions and at least one good one, because, just not my aunt. A god would have been fun though. The trickster god.
To get piety above 90 you need to revere the gods every chance you get (choices like the gods will lead us, the gods sent us here, show the tribe the gods can sate their hunger, etc.), make an offering to the gods (not necessarily a large one) every chance you get, call upon the gods whenever the option presents itself (getting talismans whenever you possibly can will help you call upon them more), and close the portal that leads to the eight at the Citadel and when asked why answer ‘only the steppe gods are worthy of reverence’. That’s about all I can think of.
It’s easier if you go after Vanya/Thiana, but I think you can do it with Kral and Seramet. Whoever gets captured with you when you go into slavery (preferably after sacrificing yourself) will be the one who has the highest approval with you and the one you can get a romance with. Talk to them before going to bed every night while in slavery, then when you’re in the cave together (if their approval is high enough) they should rest their hand on yours.
Obviously, don’t move your hand away or they won’t pursue you. Finally, before the battle they’ll come to your tent. Stop them from leaving and you’ll have officially romanced them. So far, I don’t think you can romance your aunt without her having an extremely high approval (since she, thankfully, didn’t turn on the incest charm when she ended up getting captured with me) and the slaves have to be talked to after every fight and Meng (I think) can’t be romanced because she’s still upset about her dead husband. So, I’d suggest trying Vanya/Thiana first just to see where the conversation should start and what branches lead to a romance.
When you’re in the swamps a party of slavers will attack you (unavoidable), but you can decide whether or not to go looking for whoever’s missing (someone else should tell you “‘x’ is missing and I didn’t see them being taken by slaves”). If you don’t look you won’t be taken into slavery (kind of), but if you go looking for them you’ll find them being taken by slavers. Choose ‘offer yourself instead’ and you and the person who went with you to look for the missing person will be taken into slavery.