Rule with an Iron Fist: Tyranny Conquest Choice Guide

Tyranny, the surprise follow-up to Pillars Of Eternity that puts you in the role of enforcer for an evil overlord godling (read our full review here), offers a very different opening segment than many RPG fans will be expecting.

After picking the usual fantasy class and weapon skill options, Tyranny’s character creation system puts you into the overview of a years-long conquest, deciding where you focused your army’s attention and how you convinced the people of the Tiers to eventually surrender.

Each option taken doesn’t just shift your reputation with various factions (although that can have huge implications in-game later on), but can even drastically change whether cities are still standing or if NPCs are even alive and able to interact with you at all during the game.

By following the Tyranny Conquest choice guide below, you can strategically decide which battle plans to take to begin the game with the highest favor (or wrath), which faction you want to align with and which faction you want to alienate.

Looking for more Tyranny guides? Be sure to also check out:

• Complete Tyranny companion guide: Verse
• Complete Tyranny companion guide: Barik
• Complete Tyranny companion guide: Lantry
• Tyranny console commands cheat sheet
• Earning daily Tyranny item rewards

Conquest – 428 TR

The war begins with how you assault the Bastard City, offering two paths: the Gates Of Judgment or Infiltrate the Tiers. AAfterward you must decide how to take the city by siding with a faction. This first year’s choices have little effect on overall favor, with the choices of the later two years having much bigger impacts.

Gates Of Judgment

1. Join Battle Alongside The Disfavored – mildly changes dialog from Ashen Grave and gain title from Verse when she joins the party

2. Join Battle Alongside The Scarlet Chorus – mildly changes dialog from The Voices Of Nerat and gain title from Barik when he joins the party

        A. To Judge The Enemy (decide what to do with captive soldiers)

                  a. Enslave The Enemy To Disfavored – minor favor boost

                  b. Conscript Enemy To Scarlet Host – minor favor boost

        B. Feeding The Host (decide how to get needed supplies)

                  a. Confiscate Merchant Caravans  – offers dialog options later when seeing Disfavored bothering a merchant along the road.

                  b. Pillage Farmlands With Scarlet Chorus – makes the Disfavored repeatedly mention how captured soldiers rejoin the rebellion.

Infiltrate the Tiers

1. Aid Disfavored Scouts – mildly changes dialog from Ashen Grave

2. Conscript Enemy Fighters For The Scarlet Chorus – mildly changes dialog from The Voices Of Nerat

        A. Inside Agent (find an ally within the city)

                  a. Well-informed guard captain – offers dialog options with some soldiers

                  b. Fast-talking smuggler – offers dialog options with thieves and merchants and unlocks minions when you gain 1st spire

        B. Feeding The Fire (battle the city’s fire mages)

                  a. Lure to Disfavored ambush – minor favor boost

                  b. Lure to meeting with Voices Of Nerat – minor favor boost

 The time has come to pick a side

Taking The Bastard City

1. Assault The Main Gates – side with Disfavored and earn the Warriors Respite ability, which heals you over time but drastically drops your damage output while being healed.

2. Burn The City – side with the Scarlet Chorus and gain the Searing Palm spell, which deals fire damage over time.

3. Sabatoge The City’s Defenses – work with both factions and gain the Concealing Shadows ability, which causes enemy physical attacks to miss for a short period of time.

Conquest – 429 TR

First choose whether to assault Apex or take Lethian’s Crossing. Choosing Apex gives you positive or negative options with the rebels, while taking Lethian’s Crossing can give you positive or negative options with either the Disfavored or the Scarlet Chorus.

Apex

– Battle Of Edgering Pass

  1. Side With Disfavored – changes dialog options to positive when dealing with Disfavored soldiers

  2. Side With Scarlet Chorus – give Disfavored recruits to the opposing faction, increasing anger between the two and gaining negative dialog from Disfavored soldiers.

       A. Marriage Bed Armistice (attack during peace festival or wait)

            a. Choose Disfavored Plan – no major change

            b. Choose Scarlet Chorus Plan – some Scarlet Chorus operatives will be killed in the battle, resulting in negative dialog from their soldiers.

       B. Sword Of The Fallen (defend or punish soldiers stealing Disfavored armor)

            a. Punish Scarlet Chorus Soldiers – gain wrath with Scarlet Chorus

            b. Refute All Charges – gain wrath with Disfavored

– Denial Of Strength

 1. Slaughter Mages – side with Disfavored over Scarlet Chrous

 2. Capture Mages – major favor boost with Scarlet Chorus and changes dialog with Voices Of Nerat.

       A. Poisoning The Well (arbitrate dispute after Disfavored scouts are accidentally killed by Scarlet Chorus poison scheme). Taking this option will cause the companion Barik to be angry with you when he joins the party.

          a. Punish The Saboteurs – cause further strife between the factions

          b. Deny The Charges – gain major wrath from Disfavored faction and Archon Ashen Grave

       B. A Captive Captain (decide how to deal with a captive leader of the enemy forces)

          a. Free Captain To Send Message – gain bonus starting rings and have better positive dialog options with rebels

          b. Use Captain’s Body As Grim Warning – kill captain and gain no favor with the rebels

– Fall Of Apex

       A. Negotiate Surrender – better options for peace with rebels

       B. Challenge The Queen – gain the Queenslayer title, which causes rebels to attack on sight and both factions to revere you as a strategist

Lethian’s Crossing

– Cult Of Sirin

 1. Destroy Sirin’s Cult – cause problems later when Sirin joins your party

 2. Send Sirin’s Cult To The Vanguard – gain wrath from Disfavored

       A. Ancient Threats (select who will defend the forge)

          a. Choose Disfavored – Gain favor with Scarlet Chorus

          b. Choose Scarlet Chorus – Gain favor with Disfavored

       B. A Red Anvil (a forge mage swears fealty to the Scarlet Chorus, putting Disfavored secrets at risk)

          a. Enslave Renegade Mage – gain mild favor with Disfavored

          b. Erase Mage’s mind – gain wrath with Scarlet Chorus

– The Iron Must Flow

 1. Draw From Scarlet Chorus Recruits – gain wrath with Scarlet Chorus

 2. Conscript Tribe Of Beastmen – gain wrath with Disfavored and change dialog options with Kills-In-Shadow

       A. Pick Of The Armory (decide who will receive better armaments)

          a. Choose Disfavored – gain wrath with Scarlet Chorus

          b. Choose Scarlet Chorus – gain wrath with Disfavored

       B. A Guardian’s Due (decide how to handle tensions with mercenaries and the two factions)

          a. Segregate Mercenaries – cause problems with mercenaries

          b. Challenge Their Worth – gain wrath with Disfavored

Conquest – 430 TR

The final year of the war in the Tiers determines which Edict you will read – the Edict of Fire to destroy Vellum Citadel, the Edict of Stone to destroy the traitor Cairn or the Edict Of Storms to destroy Stalwart.

The options between the three cities become more labyrinthe and crazily interconnected in nature, so we won’t cover each and every one for year three, but rather explain which option will offer the most chances for favor or wrath with each faction.

Stalwart

The options leading up the Edict of Storms are fairly straightforward – if you punish members of a faction, you will gain high wrath with them, while if you force one faction to give up members to the other, you will likewise gain negative dialog options during the game.

During the Edict Of Storms you must decide whether to warn the locals, allowing some to escape, or not warn and ensure they all die, but also killing some of the Disfavored legions.

Proclaiming this Edict will change your dialog options with potential companion Barik, who is injured in the storm.

Azure

As with Stalwart, the paths here are clear: siding with one faction over another in any of these segments will result in larger favor / wrath bonuses.

The biggest lack of favor occurs when deciding which army to send to distract Cairn before you can read the Edict Of Stone – both armies will feel you are throwing their lives away needlessly.

A major change is available here depending on your final option. If you send either the Disfavored or the Scarlet Chorus alone to fight Cairn, the city will be destroyed. If you send both armies at once, the city will remain standing.

Vellum City

This option is very similar to Stalwart, in that you will obviously pick one faction over another and then decide whether to read the Edict Of Fire without warning or wait longer to let the Scarlet Chorus spies escape before the city is destroyed.

You have the opportunity to gain large amounts of favor with the Scarlet Chorus by consistently siding with them throughout this segment. Proclaiming this Edict will change your dialog options with potential companion Lantry, who was a sage working at Vellum.

Gain enough favor or wrath and you will unlock special abilities

What choice combinations did you pick, and what titles or future unlockable dialog options have you found that we missed? Let us know in the comments!