The time limit only looks harsh on the first glance, but actually is pretty generous - I think I could easily win with a 10-15 day limit. No luck needed, just plain game mechanics.
You can sacrifice people at the altar to gain days (15% of a day per character level). You get upgrades to have recruited people start with additional levels. I just unlocked the upgrade that they start with level 4, so each day I recruit someone to sacrifice, which gives 60% of a day - already more than doubling my time.
I'm on my first playthru, have 31 days left and only googled a few things, nothing spoilery... and think in some days I either can upgrade my memorial enough to use rain pearls to respec my lvl 12 diver into picking the lvl 11 trait where they can sacrifice two people per day at the altar if manned. He could easily switch between altar and diving when burning an item in the memorial for him, which gives the permanent trait that switching doesn't cause fatigue. Or i could wait up to 30 (~70 with daily sacrifice) days until my normal altar-guy gets to level 10 for that. This will net me 1.2 bonus days per day - might even get to 1.5 bonus days if I can increase the starting level once more. I also could leave my diver at the altar and nurture a new diver, as time is endless now.
There's also a late game idol which increases the new recruit level even more, so maybe one sacrifice a day will be sufficient. Recruiting 2 people per day is easy with all those coming from expeditions tho.
So yea, the time limit is quite nonexistent. I regret not starting on hard.
Small tip on the side: make the first guy you find with the iron lungs trait to your main diver, this lets you "sprint" without increased O² consumption, essentially giving you +70% speed for free. Other good options are passion: diving for more xp, electrical device stuff to use the scooter more.
In mid/lategame, get your living armor upgrade. This one heals you when missing sanity. Burn an item on the diver to get the trait which lets him also lose some sanity when losing hp or near enemies, so you're never full there. Burn also the item where he gets sanity when collecting minerals or recovers when being in man-made-structures - this way you can top your sanity if it gets too low. This alone made my diver almost immortal - I knife all enemies now. Make sure to always equip the idol which gives you a huge speedboost on demand to flee when necessary. The pacifying one is also great to safely knife all common threats before acquiring the living armor.
Another thing: the game doesn't tell you, but the balanced+adamant boni you get from manning a station with a high enough HP or sanity aren't fixed on the characters - they simply have to be at 60+ for balanced and 200+ for adamant - which you can get by leveling them up - they don't need the other stats as they don't dive. Having 60+ sanity+hp is also great for your expeditions, as both give +5% success chance. Which station needs what stat can be easily memorised: only the diving spot and the three bottom buildings (list on the left side) need HP, all other need sanity.
Edit: oops, quite a lot of text. But hopefully it takes away some fear about the time limit (I hate those too - but most games with those have mechanisms to not leave you stranded) Edit2: fuck it, I started over on hard :D Plan: level first diver to 11 asap and pick perks for the altar. Then after level 11 put him into the altar and sacrifice 2 ppl/day. Edit3: 11 days in and I'm getting 0.9 bonus days each day. 2 more days and it will go to 1.2. Could have been a few days earlier, but my diver got crippled twice and needed rest. Furthermore I wasted a level-up-when-bringing-idol-buff for lvl 10, not knowing that the goal is actually 11. Edit4: GG, never went below 19 of the 30 starting days. q.e.d.
I played the latest patch (not the version on this page). I never got one insane, unfortunatly. Is insanity=death or just a condition to be cured?
Never felt it to be grindy. All the gathering stuff happened as a side to doing the next progression (next idol or unlocked serpents). Crewleveling is also easy - just replace them once you got good ones from expeditions (getting a skill II recuit for a building is quickly a instant skill IV once you got your libary up for higher recruiting-lvl. And more isn't needed on the majority of the buildings.) Also, in the lategame, you can easily get all recruits to instantly maxlevel (burning rainium on your highest char or having the last(?) idol - but then who cares, just finish the run). Also, diving nets crazy amounts of xp - if you really need one to level up fast (good for foragers - they level really slow with expeditions). Just burn a buff on them which increases next dive's xp by 100%, load em with ammo or meds, maybe 1-2 oxy bottles and let em hunt and loot one dive.
Also, if your diver comes with iron lungs and you give him obsessive as trait (via memorium) you can carry unlimited loot if you have high enough weight stat or use white drug once at the start of a dive (to double your weight stat) and you can dash around like crazy - with normal oxy consumption. I could very often striploot most of the map in a single run.
I finished my hard run in 31 days/dives. I could have completely ignored the hassle with getting my starting diver to level 11 asap and use him for the altar as I never needed to sacrifice anyone or anything to prolong my time. 31 is bigger than 30 you say? Yea, but you get a free day every time you sacrifice one to bless a biome - so I needed only 26-ish days.
Oh, one huge thing i did was screenshotting the maps I discovered (in the library) and putting them on my 2nd screen to navigate more easily and to mark which serpents i already used and empty serpent spots (those red fleshy spots) where they will appear after some progression. This made the game much easier for me, as orientation isn't one of my strengths.
you wont progress a shit in 40 days
for what they are saying play endless mode your first time so you became familiar with the game features
You can sacrifice people at the altar to gain days (15% of a day per character level). You get upgrades to have recruited people start with additional levels. I just unlocked the upgrade that they start with level 4, so each day I recruit someone to sacrifice, which gives 60% of a day - already more than doubling my time.
I'm on my first playthru, have 31 days left and only googled a few things, nothing spoilery... and think in some days I either can upgrade my memorial enough to use rain pearls to respec my lvl 12 diver into picking the lvl 11 trait where they can sacrifice two people per day at the altar if manned. He could easily switch between altar and diving when burning an item in the memorial for him, which gives the permanent trait that switching doesn't cause fatigue. Or i could wait up to 30 (~70 with daily sacrifice) days until my normal altar-guy gets to level 10 for that.
This will net me 1.2 bonus days per day - might even get to 1.5 bonus days if I can increase the starting level once more.
I also could leave my diver at the altar and nurture a new diver, as time is endless now.
There's also a late game idol which increases the new recruit level even more, so maybe one sacrifice a day will be sufficient. Recruiting 2 people per day is easy with all those coming from expeditions tho.
So yea, the time limit is quite nonexistent.
I regret not starting on hard.
Small tip on the side: make the first guy you find with the iron lungs trait to your main diver, this lets you "sprint" without increased O² consumption, essentially giving you +70% speed for free. Other good options are passion: diving for more xp, electrical device stuff to use the scooter more.
In mid/lategame, get your living armor upgrade. This one heals you when missing sanity. Burn an item on the diver to get the trait which lets him also lose some sanity when losing hp or near enemies, so you're never full there. Burn also the item where he gets sanity when collecting minerals or recovers when being in man-made-structures - this way you can top your sanity if it gets too low. This alone made my diver almost immortal - I knife all enemies now.
Make sure to always equip the idol which gives you a huge speedboost on demand to flee when necessary. The pacifying one is also great to safely knife all common threats before acquiring the living armor.
Another thing: the game doesn't tell you, but the balanced+adamant boni you get from manning a station with a high enough HP or sanity aren't fixed on the characters - they simply have to be at 60+ for balanced and 200+ for adamant - which you can get by leveling them up - they don't need the other stats as they don't dive. Having 60+ sanity+hp is also great for your expeditions, as both give +5% success chance. Which station needs what stat can be easily memorised: only the diving spot and the three bottom buildings (list on the left side) need HP, all other need sanity.
Edit: oops, quite a lot of text. But hopefully it takes away some fear about the time limit (I hate those too - but most games with those have mechanisms to not leave you stranded)
Edit2: fuck it, I started over on hard :D
Plan: level first diver to 11 asap and pick perks for the altar. Then after level 11 put him into the altar and sacrifice 2 ppl/day.
Edit3: 11 days in and I'm getting 0.9 bonus days each day. 2 more days and it will go to 1.2. Could have been a few days earlier, but my diver got crippled twice and needed rest. Furthermore I wasted a level-up-when-bringing-idol-buff for lvl 10, not knowing that the goal is actually 11.
Edit4: GG, never went below 19 of the 30 starting days. q.e.d.
What a great game, had a lot of fun.
your crew easily become insane and turns extremely grindy to progress
Never felt it to be grindy. All the gathering stuff happened as a side to doing the next progression (next idol or unlocked serpents). Crewleveling is also easy - just replace them once you got good ones from expeditions (getting a skill II recuit for a building is quickly a instant skill IV once you got your libary up for higher recruiting-lvl. And more isn't needed on the majority of the buildings.) Also, in the lategame, you can easily get all recruits to instantly maxlevel (burning rainium on your highest char or having the last(?) idol - but then who cares, just finish the run). Also, diving nets crazy amounts of xp - if you really need one to level up fast (good for foragers - they level really slow with expeditions). Just burn a buff on them which increases next dive's xp by 100%, load em with ammo or meds, maybe 1-2 oxy bottles and let em hunt and loot one dive.
Also, if your diver comes with iron lungs and you give him obsessive as trait (via memorium) you can carry unlimited loot if you have high enough weight stat or use white drug once at the start of a dive (to double your weight stat) and you can dash around like crazy - with normal oxy consumption. I could very often striploot most of the map in a single run.
I finished my hard run in 31 days/dives. I could have completely ignored the hassle with getting my starting diver to level 11 asap and use him for the altar as I never needed to sacrifice anyone or anything to prolong my time. 31 is bigger than 30 you say? Yea, but you get a free day every time you sacrifice one to bless a biome - so I needed only 26-ish days.
Oh, one huge thing i did was screenshotting the maps I discovered (in the library) and putting them on my 2nd screen to navigate more easily and to mark which serpents i already used and empty serpent spots (those red fleshy spots) where they will appear after some progression. This made the game much easier for me, as orientation isn't one of my strengths.