Just got this last night and am working on a blind LP of it. Was curious if anyone here is also into it and if they have any hints I should keep an eye out for.
For those that haven't tried it or seen it, Reus is a sort of 'god simulator' game. It takes inspiration from games like Populous and Black and White, having you play (as far as I can tell) a god, or just the planet in general, in control of multiple giants that can affect your world/you in various ways. Terraforming mountains, oceans, and forests. Creating wildlife and minerals. Things like that.
The major focus is that, as you start doing things, humans will pop up and start settling on the world. You have no control over them whatsoever, but you can affect their development and actions with the resources you choose to give them.
I've only done the two tutorials so far, but it looks like there's a fair bit of strategy. "Leveling up" the giants to unlock new abilities down the line, deciding what to give and what not to. What really caught my attention are the 103-or-so achievements that are incredibly goal-based and diverse. There's plenty of "I just unlocked this", but there's also the "beat the game with this condition" which seems very cool and similar to Binding of Isaac (which the developer also cited as an inspiration).
I've given this a little more time. It's feeling a little more like a strategy/puzzle game to me. I say that because the game will randomly throw an upgrade at you, and you have to figure out a good combination to actually unlock it. But you're also balancing things like upgrades on your giants, relations between villages, things like that.
I also find that I'm spending about a 1:1 ratio of pause:play on it.
I just finished uploading two episodes of actual non-tutorial gameplay, so that may help in seeing how the game actually plays.
I'd also recommend looking at JSmithOTI's quick look here and Northernlion's Let's Look At here, if you're looking for a flat-out review and first impressions idea. I just flat out went and started playing.
I'm kind of curious how in depth it's going to be when I hit the second tier of gameplay.
I checked your Let's Play to figure out where I could give you the best advice. After watching I did notice a few things I think I can clarify for you, by the way you have a nice voice for Let's Play commentary.
Think of Reus as a sandbox game whose tech tree you have to unlock to get to the different transmutes. Each achievement serves the purpose of unlocking some transmute. Thus the achievement hunting really becomes the game mode for the game.
This brings me to my number one tip for you: When you establish your villages you only need one resource available, contrary to what the tutorial led you to believe, you do not need food for every village. (Unless of course you are working on the achievement where every village needs X amount of food. >.<) Anyways, you only need that one resource to get the village started. Until the village pops the project, no development is needed. This is the key part to determining your strategy for the era. Check the specialization on the project. Whatever specialization that's been chosen will be the theme for your village's future projects.
Now If I understand correctly you were still level 1 achievement wise when you began that sixth LP. You will probably pop the last 3 achievements at the end of that LP and reach level 2. Level 2 is important for you due to level 2 unlocking 'level' 2 for your giants. Level 2 also unlocks 60 minute game play times for you as well. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The reason I told you to focus in on the specializations is due to you only being able to get about 6 ambassadors in a thirty minute session. So if you're aiming for achievements then you'll need specific aspects later on to complete the later projects to earn the ambassadors that will allow you to unlock other transmutes to help you complete other projects. Vicious cycle, I know.
Don't worry too much about the specialization. For now just get into the mind set of the villagers. Example: Forest biome pops the granary project with animal specialization. In this case you know the forest village is going to need the ocean and swamp giant (depending on whether it's full food focus or food and gold focus). With that project you then know you will need a swamp ambassador for the ocean giant to unlock the herd aspect, and you will need a desert ambassador for the swamp giant to unlock the predator aspect.
Referencing this same example you now need 3 villages: the forest which you're in, a desert, and a swamp. Completing the forest project will pop your forest ambassador, which in this case should probably go to your Forest Giant to unlock the fruit aspect. This is due to symbiosis.
Symbiosis is the glue of this game. Utilizing symbiosis and a town's specialization will usually allow you to complete all first projects by using usually just 2 tiles. The 2 tiles with proper symbiosis triggers a large quantity of either 1 or 2 resources. If you chose the right resource to plop down then the project itself will provide the rest of the requisite resource. You actually did this in one of your LPs, though I think it may have been accidental. I'm referring back to the swamp village with the druid project. This is an example of two tiles and the project being enough. The tech plant by the tech mine generated something like 24 tech on their own due to symbiosis. The project's specialization yielded 15 tech per mine within the town's boundaries (limit 3). Utilizing symbiosis and specialization is the key to later achievement hunting as well as 1000+ prosperity villages.
To answer a question you had in a LP about mountain villages: You cannot have a true mountain village, that is to say a village that settles on a mountain. What you can do is create a 'mountain' segment that is 14 tiles long. 5 for raising a mountain, 4 for the village to plop down, another 5 for raising a mountain. In this sense you end up with a desert canyon village that will utilize the mountain tiles. You can force the same type of village for fishing in swamp or forest biomes.
That's another fact to keep in mind when you want to try and manipulate village placement to encourage expansion in a certain direction. The village plot takes up four segments. So if you want placement in a forest near the center then you should place the first resource on the 3 or 4 spot away from the water to force the village to place next to the resource while leaving room to expand.
For early level achievement hunting you'll want to utilize the fertility boost of the forest giant and the monsoon ability of the ocean giant to power up your aspects for the extra bit needed to complete the projects.
Once you have level 2 though things become a little bit easier as you can upgrade the resource placement abilities of your giants. For example the Rock Giant will have level 2 placement of both minerals if it has both a desert ambassador and a swamp ambassador. This means precious minerals will drop an improved version of the resource. Basically increased resource value, increased symbiosis value, and 2 aspect slots at 'tier 1' as you put it in one of your videos. Also note that certain transmutes can only occur from the greater form of a resource.
Remember to use your animals if you need to sneak extra food into a village and can't afford to replace an already existing tile. Most animals have a range of 2 from where you place them. This means you can easily sneak in 10 extra food from the village's borders by placing an animal on the edge to bleed two tiles into the village. Just remember to trigger the symbiosis to get that boost.
Ah, coming back to symbiosis. I noticed a few times you would transmute everything as high as you could get when it came to plants. Don't do this, you break the symbiosis when you do this. I saw several times when you would have a blueberry triggering symbiosis with a strawberry, but then you would break it by transmuting the blueberry into a strawberry. Using three tiles with beginning Giants you can go blueberry, strawberry, blueberry. This will yield 38 food on its own with three aspect slots open.
Now I don't want to give everything away about symbiosis pairings in case you want to explore that for yourself. Do know however that you can do things easier than what I did by going to the wiki page for the game. When I first started the game I assumed that since there was no in game tech tree to look through that part of the game was creating your own notes on these synergies. As such I ended up with about five pages of diagrams and tables listing combos that I discovered throughout the course of the game.
Oh, last thing I can think of: Natura is the plant version of danger/animal range. That is to say it enriches the tiles within its zone to help trigger higher symbiosis as well as bonuses from the aspects you place. And just in case danger is a resource that helps to keep greed in check. If a village has enough danger to be in the middle zone then greed will not progress no matter how much of a difference is going on.
Let me know if you have any more questions. Oh, and very very last thing I promise: I find I like to start off two desert villages from the start since they're easier to form in a shorter amount of time then the other villages.
Just recorded a new session for the first time since... Well, several days ago. Used a lot of your hints to build off of, and you got a shout-out in the video for it too. Thanks much, Murphy.
Two-Star gameplay feels interesting. I still only did a 30-minute Era, since I"m not sure I'm ready, yet, for a 60 minute one. It only took me 45 minutes to complete the era instead of the usual 60, so that's something. And the tier-2 drops (great drops, the game calls them) are awesome. So being able to re-drop items and rearrange the way I have my plants/minerals/animals laid out will be a very interesting thing to explore to set up my strategies.
I'm having trouble actually forcing greed to the point of war. I found it in free-play at the tail-end of the second episode I recorded, but it seems like you need 5 greed to actually go to war, which requires something like 100 extra resources. Seems hard to do in a normal 30-minute run.
Also, how is town expansion decided? I've been unable to nail down the actual rate of expansion. I though it was per 50 possible resources, then 50 realized resources, but I had a town I didn't touch that expanded too. Is it seriously just time?
I'm still at the "Play whatever to get achievements" stage. By the way, the fact that they've integrated achievements as the major part of their game advancement is brilliant - they do a nice job getting each game to play differently based on those objectives. It's so seamlessly integrated that I'm not sure they even should properly be termed achievements.
I've been working on it for a while, did some more work on it tonight. Something like... 48 episodes worth. Some of the later achievements are very hard, and you can so easily screw yourself up on 120 minute eras.
For those that haven't tried it or seen it, Reus is a sort of 'god simulator' game. It takes inspiration from games like Populous and Black and White, having you play (as far as I can tell) a god, or just the planet in general, in control of multiple giants that can affect your world/you in various ways. Terraforming mountains, oceans, and forests. Creating wildlife and minerals. Things like that.
The major focus is that, as you start doing things, humans will pop up and start settling on the world. You have no control over them whatsoever, but you can affect their development and actions with the resources you choose to give them.
I've only done the two tutorials so far, but it looks like there's a fair bit of strategy. "Leveling up" the giants to unlock new abilities down the line, deciding what to give and what not to. What really caught my attention are the 103-or-so achievements that are incredibly goal-based and diverse. There's plenty of "I just unlocked this", but there's also the "beat the game with this condition" which seems very cool and similar to Binding of Isaac (which the developer also cited as an inspiration).
My helpdesk should you need me.
I've given this a little more time. It's feeling a little more like a strategy/puzzle game to me. I say that because the game will randomly throw an upgrade at you, and you have to figure out a good combination to actually unlock it. But you're also balancing things like upgrades on your giants, relations between villages, things like that.
I also find that I'm spending about a 1:1 ratio of pause:play on it.
My helpdesk should you need me.
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I'd also recommend looking at JSmithOTI's quick look here and Northernlion's Let's Look At here, if you're looking for a flat-out review and first impressions idea. I just flat out went and started playing.
I'm kind of curious how in depth it's going to be when I hit the second tier of gameplay.
My helpdesk should you need me.
Think of Reus as a sandbox game whose tech tree you have to unlock to get to the different transmutes. Each achievement serves the purpose of unlocking some transmute. Thus the achievement hunting really becomes the game mode for the game.
This brings me to my number one tip for you: When you establish your villages you only need one resource available, contrary to what the tutorial led you to believe, you do not need food for every village. (Unless of course you are working on the achievement where every village needs X amount of food. >.<) Anyways, you only need that one resource to get the village started. Until the village pops the project, no development is needed. This is the key part to determining your strategy for the era. Check the specialization on the project. Whatever specialization that's been chosen will be the theme for your village's future projects.
Now If I understand correctly you were still level 1 achievement wise when you began that sixth LP. You will probably pop the last 3 achievements at the end of that LP and reach level 2. Level 2 is important for you due to level 2 unlocking 'level' 2 for your giants. Level 2 also unlocks 60 minute game play times for you as well. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The reason I told you to focus in on the specializations is due to you only being able to get about 6 ambassadors in a thirty minute session. So if you're aiming for achievements then you'll need specific aspects later on to complete the later projects to earn the ambassadors that will allow you to unlock other transmutes to help you complete other projects. Vicious cycle, I know.
Don't worry too much about the specialization. For now just get into the mind set of the villagers. Example: Forest biome pops the granary project with animal specialization. In this case you know the forest village is going to need the ocean and swamp giant (depending on whether it's full food focus or food and gold focus). With that project you then know you will need a swamp ambassador for the ocean giant to unlock the herd aspect, and you will need a desert ambassador for the swamp giant to unlock the predator aspect.
Referencing this same example you now need 3 villages: the forest which you're in, a desert, and a swamp. Completing the forest project will pop your forest ambassador, which in this case should probably go to your Forest Giant to unlock the fruit aspect. This is due to symbiosis.
Symbiosis is the glue of this game. Utilizing symbiosis and a town's specialization will usually allow you to complete all first projects by using usually just 2 tiles. The 2 tiles with proper symbiosis triggers a large quantity of either 1 or 2 resources. If you chose the right resource to plop down then the project itself will provide the rest of the requisite resource. You actually did this in one of your LPs, though I think it may have been accidental. I'm referring back to the swamp village with the druid project. This is an example of two tiles and the project being enough. The tech plant by the tech mine generated something like 24 tech on their own due to symbiosis. The project's specialization yielded 15 tech per mine within the town's boundaries (limit 3). Utilizing symbiosis and specialization is the key to later achievement hunting as well as 1000+ prosperity villages.
To answer a question you had in a LP about mountain villages: You cannot have a true mountain village, that is to say a village that settles on a mountain. What you can do is create a 'mountain' segment that is 14 tiles long. 5 for raising a mountain, 4 for the village to plop down, another 5 for raising a mountain. In this sense you end up with a desert canyon village that will utilize the mountain tiles. You can force the same type of village for fishing in swamp or forest biomes.
That's another fact to keep in mind when you want to try and manipulate village placement to encourage expansion in a certain direction. The village plot takes up four segments. So if you want placement in a forest near the center then you should place the first resource on the 3 or 4 spot away from the water to force the village to place next to the resource while leaving room to expand.
For early level achievement hunting you'll want to utilize the fertility boost of the forest giant and the monsoon ability of the ocean giant to power up your aspects for the extra bit needed to complete the projects.
Once you have level 2 though things become a little bit easier as you can upgrade the resource placement abilities of your giants. For example the Rock Giant will have level 2 placement of both minerals if it has both a desert ambassador and a swamp ambassador. This means precious minerals will drop an improved version of the resource. Basically increased resource value, increased symbiosis value, and 2 aspect slots at 'tier 1' as you put it in one of your videos. Also note that certain transmutes can only occur from the greater form of a resource.
Remember to use your animals if you need to sneak extra food into a village and can't afford to replace an already existing tile. Most animals have a range of 2 from where you place them. This means you can easily sneak in 10 extra food from the village's borders by placing an animal on the edge to bleed two tiles into the village. Just remember to trigger the symbiosis to get that boost.
Ah, coming back to symbiosis. I noticed a few times you would transmute everything as high as you could get when it came to plants. Don't do this, you break the symbiosis when you do this. I saw several times when you would have a blueberry triggering symbiosis with a strawberry, but then you would break it by transmuting the blueberry into a strawberry. Using three tiles with beginning Giants you can go blueberry, strawberry, blueberry. This will yield 38 food on its own with three aspect slots open.
Now I don't want to give everything away about symbiosis pairings in case you want to explore that for yourself. Do know however that you can do things easier than what I did by going to the wiki page for the game. When I first started the game I assumed that since there was no in game tech tree to look through that part of the game was creating your own notes on these synergies. As such I ended up with about five pages of diagrams and tables listing combos that I discovered throughout the course of the game.
Oh, last thing I can think of: Natura is the plant version of danger/animal range. That is to say it enriches the tiles within its zone to help trigger higher symbiosis as well as bonuses from the aspects you place. And just in case danger is a resource that helps to keep greed in check. If a village has enough danger to be in the middle zone then greed will not progress no matter how much of a difference is going on.
Let me know if you have any more questions. Oh, and very very last thing I promise: I find I like to start off two desert villages from the start since they're easier to form in a shorter amount of time then the other villages.
Two-Star gameplay feels interesting. I still only did a 30-minute Era, since I"m not sure I'm ready, yet, for a 60 minute one. It only took me 45 minutes to complete the era instead of the usual 60, so that's something. And the tier-2 drops (great drops, the game calls them) are awesome. So being able to re-drop items and rearrange the way I have my plants/minerals/animals laid out will be a very interesting thing to explore to set up my strategies.
I'm having trouble actually forcing greed to the point of war. I found it in free-play at the tail-end of the second episode I recorded, but it seems like you need 5 greed to actually go to war, which requires something like 100 extra resources. Seems hard to do in a normal 30-minute run.
Also, how is town expansion decided? I've been unable to nail down the actual rate of expansion. I though it was per 50 possible resources, then 50 realized resources, but I had a town I didn't touch that expanded too. Is it seriously just time?
My helpdesk should you need me.
Anyone else playing this? I'm enjoying it a ton, and at $10 it seems like too good a bargain to pass up for the quality of the product.
My helpdesk should you need me.