The Great Departure – The Gaming Experience

The Great Departure is part of the “Prologue” of the game Greedfall, falling under the main quest A Cure for Malichor.

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Character Creation – Appearance

Before we set off on the The Great Departure, we’ll need to actually be somebody that people will recognize as someone important.

While the character creation screen is pretty interesting, you can’t make your character terribly unique in comparison to other games. They have a limited supply of choices, and not many of the styles differ all that much.

Gender – Of course there’s the usual gender selection, and it’s not hugely detrimental to gameplay.

Preset – Choose from a variety of character presets to see which you like best, and then tinker with the other settings from there.
Face – Basically the facial structure. No, you can’t remove the markings on the face, as it’s part of the Malichor.
Hair – The hair styles aren’t too different. I don’t suppose people in these days took fancy to long hair?

Facial hair – For the male gender only, I believe.
Eyebrows – Change the shape of them. Neat and tidy, disgruntled, a fat mess?
Skin color – Pretty usual for these types of creation screens.

Hair color – Your hair color actually changes your eyebrow color as well.
Eyes color – The color of your eyes. They seem to always have a glazed look about them?

Character Creation – Skills

You’re able to start out as one of three classes–Warrior, Technical, and Magic.

I’d choose the one that’s more suited to your playstyle in most games like this, but don’t worry about being hyper-focused on it, because you can later unlock other skills as you continue game progression.

Personally, I’m more of a Technical or Magic user, so either or really worked for me.

Obviously, as shown by the screenshots, the different classes have suitable attributes and talents you may want to hone in on, but again–user discretion.

Character Creation – Attributes

I won’t go into detail of these attributes you’re able to choose from. Instead, I let the screenshots speak for themselves. The higher you go in a tier of attributes, the better it’ll be for you, maintaining that first icon you chose in the chart.

Character Creation – Talents

The talents section of your character creation will help you with different objectives in your playthrough.

Lockpicking – You’ll be able to pick locks and see enemy traps easier. Regarding locked areas–a lot of places may actually have keys you can find within a given vicinity, but a lot of chests don’t have a key option. So if you like loot, you may like this talent.

Science – You’ll need this talent if you plan on creating potions of any kind. You’ll also find areas with weak walls you can blast through–sometimes these are good for the stealth type of player. Alternate routes to entry or combat, if you will.
Charisma – If you see yourself purchasing from vendors often, this will be good for reducing prices. It also improves your companions’ combat abilities, and your fellow comrades are pretty crucial at times. As a plus, some dialogue choices have an increased success.
Vigor – Accelerate your regen rate of both HP and mana outside of combat while also giving you more ammo capacity. Perfect for a variety of gameplay options, really. Plus it allows better balance in passing through certain areas.

Craftmanship – Unlocks crafting for weapons and armor upgrades, in case you don’t want to rely on meandering the world to find better equipment. I found some equipment gives a boost in this talent.
Intuition – Easier to detect gatherable items in the world, plus more loot from gathering and plundering enemies. You also unlock dialogue options.

The Great Departure Guide

Go and say goodbye to your mother

If you’ve got your tutorials on, then the game will mention the compass in the top part of your screen. From here, you can actually choose between side quests and your main mission–very interesting.

For now though, we need to say goodbye to our mother–in more ways than one.

Equip the gear that you’ve acquired, because there’s going to be a tutorial battle coming up, and your newest gear will help in winning.

There’s nothing to do and nowhere to go except the path that the game lays out for you. So head straight, make a left down the ramp and then another left. In this open arena area, you’ll learn how to fight and keybind different abilities.

Don’t worry if you flunk with the main dude. You’ll enter a second tutorial fight with two other guys. Even if you do win, you’ll get the chance to go more in-depth with the tutorial.

Once that’s out of the way, you’ll learn he’s coming with you. There are two choices to go with, but it doesn’t matter what you pick. It’s all based on what you want to hear. After the conversation, go forward to the door your mother is behind for another emotional cutscene.

Meet Kurt in front of the palace

After you tell your mother goodbye (Is she actually even your mother? It doesn’t necessarily say so in the character glossary…), you’re transported out into a hall/alley. Don’t forget to equip your newest gear if you forgot beforehand! Straight ahead you’ll want to speak with Kurt in order to recruit him to your team.

Whether you want to or not.

But really, take the time to look Kurt as well as upcoming characters over. Their stats are beneficial and intriguing to read up on. And these companions are very helpful in fights.

Notify the Bridge Alliance ambassador about your departure

At this point, you might want to explore the area a bit. Check chests that glow for different ingredients (for Science mixtures), or gold, or even equipment. Everything you don’t want, you can later sell, because you’ve got an inventory weight limit, much like in the Witcher and Assassin’s Creed series.

If you ever don’t know where you’re going, even with the compass pointing to your destination, you can always check the map of the area (not the world map). You can then find the paths to go.

So direct yourself to the ugly green door where one of the ambassadors awaits.

Notify the Theleme ambassador about your departure

Once you’re done speaking with ambassador Sahin, you’ll need to head to Cardinal Antonius.

Head out the door and turn to the left. It’s a straight shot to the other ugly green door. You’ll know it’s the right one if you see someone praising the sun next to it.

Present yourself to Captain Vasco

Captain Vasco is going to be the captain of the ship you’re going on.

Hear that? Ship. Not boat.

To get to the captain from the building you left, it’s almost a straight shot, but does have a left turn at some point before you can run down a ramp to the man in question.

During the conversation, there are going to be a lot of dialogue options coming at you. It’s from these dialogue options you’ll find where Constantin is (as well as the heretics and missing deck hand, but those are different missions for another time).

Discover where to find Constantin

Ask about Constantin’s absence.

Now you’ll learn that Constantin has been seen at the Inn. Head back up the ramp, then turn left and shortly after a right. You know what? The road to the Inn is pretty simplistic. Check the map if you get lost following the compass and street paths.

Take notice that by the Inn is also a workshop bench for you to craft things, if you’re capable of doing so and have the right ingredients.

Speak to the Innkeeper and ask him about Constantin.

Compensate the innkeeper for the damage Constantin caused (OR) Repair the damage caused by Constantin

I bet you’re liking this cousin of yours already, aren’t you?

There’s a bench that’s been broken. You can go about fixing the damage through two different ways.

Pay the Innkeeper
Repair the furniture

It’s at this point you’ll realize sometimes you get multiple ways to complete a task. Which way you decide to do so is up to you. If you have enough cash on you and aren’t worried about losing coin (which you can easily get back), then pay him. If you’ve got 4 metal dowels, then you can do some repair work (by choosing “Don’t pay now”).

Turns out your cousin insulted some people he shouldn’t have.

Free Constantin

Leave the Inn. Take a right into the alley and at the first turn go right. On toward the end, you can turn left and see the area to walk toward.

A short cutscene where you’ll hear your cousin yelling will occur.

Okay, there’s two ways you can go about getting in and freeing Constantin.

Jump into the lower area and destroy the door.
Head forward to a group of enemies (and learn stealth).

In order to destroy the door, you’ll need level 1 Science and Alchemical preparation of elemental damage. With the former, it would be one of your talents/skills you chose. With the latter, you shoulc have the preparation if you’ve been sifting through crates. But you’ll also need to ingredients to make the mixture.

Most of the time, I was always missing something. (But I also didn’t take Science.)

If you can’t blow the door up, then you’ll need to meet the enemies. You get a prompt about stealth when close enough, so here’s your chance to brush up on it. No, your companions won’t be spotted while in stealth mode–it’s only if you’re seen. Go about ending them any way you want. Stealth kill the guy up top, then go all out on the others.

One of the enemies will have a key.

Go inside and find the staircase leading up. At the top, to the left and forward should be keys to Constantin’s cell on the table. Leave and go into the locked room to the left of the barrel stack.

Find Constantin’s clothes and bring them to him

I got stuck on this part of the mission for the longest time.

Go into the room across the hall and in the back corner you’ll find a chest with an Old Embroidered Doublet. You’ll need to equip it onto Constantin in order to complete this task. It’s not enough to have it in your inventory.

Tell the captain that you’re ready to raise the anchor

At long last you can return to the captain.

If you want, do all the side missions you have or are capable of having by looking at your minimap. Also, don’t forget to plunder chests for goodies and to sell things you’re probably not going to need for a while. Keep in mind you do get a storage box coming up, so keep some goodies in there when it’s available to be had.

Once at the captain, choose “Ask permission to come aboard.”

Screw that deck hand, right?

Follow the captain for a nasty surprise…

Defeat the creature

This guy look amazing as a monster. Definitely reminds me of Bloodborne beasties.

If you’re a magic user, then you can stay at range and attack with your spells. Just watch your mana usage and don’t get caught in his jump. Warriors and technicians need to keep watch over its sweeping arms move and keep to the back of the beast while attacking. Lay traps if you’re capable of it, and shoot the thing, if you’re capable.