So since the journey revamp I have not taken the time to go through each and every one of them.
One good thing about the journeys are that there is a lot of them and take time. But this can be a caveat depending on the way you look at it.
I think it can go without saying that the journeys are a tutorial for new players. It does teach you how to make things, understand a means of workflow and the potential for understanding a lot of the core mechanics behind playing the game.
So for an experienced player I technically don’t need the imparting of this knowledge. But, any I usually complete are for an advantage such as certain armours, benches, recipes or items; so very picky on which ones I choose to spend my time on. Some of the rewards are valuable, my favourite being the spiderclimb boots.
This is mostly my opinion but also an analysis.
Resources, Time & Risk vs. Reward
Hoooooo boy. My biggest gripe with it all.
The worst one by far is High Priest. Now, if you’ve ever summoned an Avatar you know that it is a project.
You construct the T1, T2 and then T3 altar. You need the materials to do all this AND religious components from either treasure chests or sacrificed human NPCs with a religious tool created at the altar.
So farm the wood, stone, iron, plant fibre, resin, hides, bark, fuel, branches and NPCs. Convert the various materials into T2 and T3 equivalents as well. Convert the acquired religious components on the altar (commonly called favour or zeal) into Manifestations of Zeal x500 for the True Name token.
Then you need to find an arch-priest. Except wait… what are the tiers of the priests exactly? Priest is a T1, High Priest is a T2, Arch-priest T3 and named T4.
Now arch-priests no longer summon Avatars. They haven’t since about 2021 ish. Arch-priests became the quintessential requirement for bubbles, while named could still bubble, all you needed was that arch-priest.
T1, T2 and now T3 priests are useless other than being decorative, animated meat puppets. Why? Because the majority of the bonuses given for armor and weapons are broken. It even says it in the damn wiki XD
Arch-priests became useless when protection/bubbles were removed during AoW. I hope that with the assumed Age of Gods that these are all resolved.
These are all the steps to complete the High Priest:
You get this:
10 to be precise. Incense burners. WHAT?!
What exactly is an incense burner? It’s a placeable. That’s it. It doesn’t give anything special. It’s easily made on an Artisan table with the Potionmaker knowledge or dropped from NPCs and chests.
In the past there was quite a bit of confusion with this particular journey because it was misleading:
Ok fine, there’s a theme going on here so naming it “High Priest” shouldn’t mean that you need to acquire and summon an Avatar with a High Priest. It was fixed later because the steps did imply it. But now it still states to assign an Arch-priest.
OF COURSE players are going to be confused by this if they don’t know that arch-priests can’t summon the True Name Avatar! I kind of feel a little gaslit here XD
Then you’ll have to search for a named T4 priest. I suggest going with Set or Mitra to complete this journey because the T4’s spawn frequently. In Sepemeru in Temple Quarter for Set and Sinner’s Refuge for Mitra.
But really, is a stack of 10 incense burners the appropriate reward for such a huge undertaking, one of which can be easily confused? Wasting time, effort, resources, possibly followers and gear?
The second on my list is Adventurer:
12 steps. Some of which can be quite difficult depending on your playstyle or experience. Not only do you expend a fragment of power in this but your reward is a… fragment of power. Why not a tablet of power?? 1 fragment. That’s it. (I mean thanks I guess? I can go to Unnamed City naked and get a bunch running around.)
These are the items you get directly into inventory when completing all of the journeys, I believe the supply packs might be random but it’s mostly easily farmed stuff:
Gives the following recipes:
Excellent reward
• Improved Tanner’s Table
• Perfected Exile Armors
• Purple Lotus Orb
• Spiderclimb Boots
• Improved Dismantling Bench
• Ranger Armor
Poor to decent reward
• Prying Kit
• Perfected Steel Light Weapons
• Perfected Hardened Steel Light Weapons
• Repairing Grindstone
• Reinforced Wooden Box
• Ratcatcher’s Whistle
• Slaver’s Hood
• Reinforced Lance
• Charcoal Kiln
• Golden Stygian Raider Epic
• Ironstone Siege Boulder
• Acheronian Legate armor
• Silver Jewellery armor
• Valeria’s Sword
• Brawler Handwraps
Lack of continuity
While I tend to have a more organic view of things, in general I do appreciate order and logic. The steps of each journey can be confusing or don’t follow a certain recipe.
For instance, a lot of the steps require you to “acquire” a processed resource from a specific bench. Except if you already have it the step completes. Ok good, I like that. But in others it hard locks you into having performed the step in that very specific way. Such as convert a warrior in Thrall Taker. I take issue with this because you can cheese it or not, there’s a lack of continuity here. I’m conflicted because I like being able to bypass stuff if I have a better workflow but lacks sense in others.
Here’s another example - craft an orb in Raider. It lets you complete it by placing an orb in your inventory. You don’t actually have to craft it? Ok ya, it’s going to benefit someone new. Still.
Bugs
Here’s the ever-present difficulty with the game.
Especially in consideration of Cartographer and Dungeon Delver. Great journeys because it encourages exploration so for new players it can create an adventure all on its own.
Except, the game doesn’t always allow you to “discover” each area. You sometimes have to weave back and forth for it to recognize your position. If you forget while on your adventure and go through the dungeon/camp without having discovered the initial spot you’ve lost all progress and have to start over.
Not to mention that some players are having issues completing them.
Other Considerations
I find the UI clunky and uninspired. I appreciate the design that went into it though however could use more imagination instead of repeating screenshots. Warrior, Soldier, Rogue, Archer, Sharpshooter all share the same image, for instance. Lazy? Didn’t have enough time to implement it fully?