Hi there! It seemed like it would be good to try and collect advice for new players in one place, and I didn't see one yet, so I decided to start one!

Buying slaves

• Slave price is mostly based on two things, beauty and level. Other things (like Captured status, grade, or race) apply multipliers, but beauty and level are the foundation. This means you can get some pretty amazing slaves for very cheap, as long as you don't need them for looks.
• OTOH, beauty, as well as mental stats, are based on grade - higher grade slaves start with higher values. So while grade doesn't directly affect their beauty (and therefore price), it does affect it indirectly.
• When you're shopping for cheap slaves, pay attention to their traits. Having a negative trait reduces a slave's price, so check everything before you hit Buy.
• If you're extra lucky, you can find a cheap slave with a useful Specialization. It's only about a 10% chance, but it doesn't add to their price. Since specializations cost 500 gold, it pays to shop around!

New tip. You can slowly change a slaves height to whatever you want by alternately giving them maturing elixirs and youthing elixirs (Made in level 2 alchemy lab). It works because each potion will sometimes, but not always, change the slaves height. Just be careful with toxicity.

It's possible to take slaves from slavers or travelers without taking a reputation loss. Remember - word can only spread if there's someone left to spread it.

If you fight slavers, and Capture every slaver that's left, you won't lose reputation. Same for travelers - capture all of them, and no reputation hit. Then just quicksell the ones you don't want to keep.

If you want rare slaves from the Mountains (like Dragonkin or Seraphs), they won't spawn on their own like most others. For the Mountains, you have to take them from other slavers.

The same is true of Tanuki, in the Elven Grove - they only spawn as part of the Elven Guard.

A quick reminder - since base Beauty is derived from Grade, it can be worthwhile to hunt in Deeper areas for the slave of your pick, even if you'll bust them down to a low Grade. Remember, Beauty is hard to adjust, so accepting a few hundred gold cost to lower their rank pays off!

Hello im new here and just want to ask is there a better way to defeat hade? I think im on the last quest and i cant beat the thing grrr.......

my version is the public build 0.5.3.5d

PS: have to use programming skills to kill the guy but i would want to do it normaly.

PS: I also found a bug on this version it is the part where even after completing the game i still remain as journeyman mage.

As a tips and tricks thread, here is my way of 'breaking' a slave. Making them obedient and lovey-dovey.

1) Head out and find an innocent (or not so innocent) target that tickles your fancy.

2) Beat them half to death, gently, of course.

3) Throw them in jail, then force them to cosplay as a butler with handcuffs while yelling in their face about how bad they're behaving. (cosplay optional)

4) Scream about the mistakes they make daily until you feel they're safe to place in commons, or they're max obedience. About 2-3 days with cosplay, max. if they get used to servitude quick.

5) Put them to work, and keep them in the lap of luxury with a ring and new undies.

6) Eventually you'll have an obsessed stalk-I mean, perfect slave. No brand or anything required. Just the occasional scream in the face to keep 'em in line should do.

As you go, they'll slowly love you, so long as they aren't under the luxury requirement. I find that the best time to ask about sex is around when their attraction hits 'Shows great loyalty to you as his/her master' or whatever. If it's a no go then, just try again in a day or two. It's generally pretty quick.

This is how I usually treat my 'collection', and, aside from the high ranked ones complaining once in a while 'cause they need absurd amounts of luxury, they are generally no issue at all. I keep 'em high-ish ranked to get their stats as high as possible, when I hit the cap, I drop the rank to conserve resources and annoyance.

Taking too long for all the body pictures to load when customizing slaves?

Try moving all the body pictures (sub-folders n all) into a new separate folder. Next time you want to pick a new body image, open that new folder outside of the game, pick the one you want, and move/copy it back into the original bodies folder. You can assign it like normal with no load times after that.

Another benefit to doing this is being able to see the body pics in detail before deciding on one.

I keep shortcuts to both body folders next to the Strive.exe to save time. (Portraits, being smaller, don't need any of this)

I don't know if anyone will see this post now, in 2021, but I found it through Google so you might, too! Thus, here's my personal trick for this game~

Pretty early on, you'll get access to both Heal and Invigorate spells. Get these, they're both critical. This path involves a LOT of combat.. as much as you want, in fact, for your hero protagonist.

It's actually quite simple, What Invigorate does is, for 5 mana, you inflict some stress on someone in your team, of your choice, including captives, and will restore 50% of your max Energy. So, buy some rope, even one will do. Save your game, obviously, and go out. Fight, capture someone. They're an Energy battery now! Go out, fight more, gain exp, level up. Exercise "aggressive affection" on bandits you don't capture; at least you're not killing them, right?? And you need that mana! Heal and Invigorate.

Oh, you went back to the mansion to train and save, and it dropped off your captive? That's fine. You can get more. In fact.. the REAL way this shines is if you've also unlocked Sebastian. 

Sell him your untrained captives. Yeah, you'll take a reputation hit but you'll get money and Upgrade Points. Sweet, sweet Upgrade Points. And the money, well, you won't get much from loser bandits around Winborn but if you go ->Outskirts->Plains->Big Sea you can capture some free-range Scylla and Nereids and they are worth hundreds of gold each, with Sebastian. If your Reputation with a city tanks, just go wander around outside that city and beat up bandits who are Harassing locals.

See how this works? You have infinite Energy as long as you have people to use Invigorate on. Gear up your slaver, level them, max out their stats, keep fighting. As much money and upgrade points as you could ever want, without advancing the days counter. Then, when you're as powerful as you want, proceed at the pace you like. Get new slaves, train them, acquire the special named characters, etc etc, the world's your oyster~

The only trick is getting strong enough to actually win all these fights, which is a hump to overcome early on. Get your Agility up, it's super important, it governs hitting and dodging and lets you use swords. Upgrade your armor, level up, buy your skills in the Mansion, dominate battles~ Eventually you'll be wading solo through those ten-bandit forts, shrugging off a hail of strikes while you put them down one by one ^^ I just wish there were AOE attacks... Strive: Conquest is great for that!

Good luck everyone, and have fun ♥

how to make they join in battle with quickly ?