Ways of Alchemy

Не играйте в неё сразу же после культиста - управление покажется вам топорным. В остальном, та же идея - творим хтонь, познаём тайные знания, скрываемся от закона. Менее душная, никуда не торопит. Свой вайб присутствует.

I've been enjoying myself; have spent a large amount of time just potioning along. :) This takes the same sort of swing at things as Cultist Simulator, but without the crazy hidden lore. That is both a positive and a negative - there is no interesting crazy hidden lore (sad), but you also aren't bound to figuring out the crazy hidden lore in order to advance (relief!). You objective as an Alchemist is (as you might guess) alchemy. So far in my run, this has meant a lot of [i]making potions[/i] and all of the steps leading up to that - sending out adventurers to gather potions (don't risk your own skin!), processing those ingredients, and then building up stock. If the goal was truly stated, I don't recall it - this has left things vague beyond "take over for dead granny and advance and discover more". That the goal is vague, though, feels appropriate for something as vague as alchemy, and hasn't negatively impacted my enjoyment of the game. I know there's more to figure out, and I'm working towards that, and that's enough. Recipes can be hint-and-trial-and-errored, or can be obtained through sending adventurers to gather recipes. If you can keep the adventurers alive, the latter is very much more reliable, but that's not outright required. The game even includes a "grimoire" to lay out all of the information about cards you've seen, before - even if you saw the card, lost the card, and don't currently have one, you can look in up in the grimoire and get information on how to obtain it ("Oh, the Inquisitor? Don't worry - [i]he'll[/i] find [i]you[/i].") and what text was on the card when you had it. This also includes potion hints and how to brew a potion without necessarily following the recipe. As a downside, it's a bit grindy - though from Stacklands and Cultist Simulator, I rather [i]expect[/i] that from this genre - since you need to build up an inventory of ingredients, often from growing them from seeds you obtain from sending out adventurers that you often need to keep alive via potions you make from the ingredients you built up. The grind doesn't feel [i]unfair[/i], though, and there are always enough hints and clues to give you information on advancement. I suppose that downside has an upside, though - this isn't a quick couple-hours-and-it's-over game. You'll be getting your money's worth on this one, instead of quickly finishing it and then debating if it's worth another playthrough.