"If His Will be done, let it be done quickly." - Neodogmatics 71.90

Hi all,

In this guide, we will talk about awakening gauge management. You want to slow down the tomb's awakening protocols so the end of the game does not come too quickly, and you want to "take your time" completing EVERY mission in the game. A few simple tricks should let you finish most missions with 0 / 1% awakening or so each time. It will be more in the beginning, but eventually you will be able to finish the game without letting the gauge reach 50%. I myself finished 18 missions in a row without having added a single % to the awakening gauge.

Your Tech-Priests will be swift and won't let the xenos awaken, but paradoxically, you will also spent more time playing with the tips I'll tell you here, so, I hope you're ready for the long run and that you really enjoy the game (personnally, I did).

Now, let's get started.

You probably noticed, but Mechanicus isn't exactly easy when you have only two Tech-Priests and lvl. 1 servitors during a fight against Immortals and Destroyers. The worst is you're going to spent more “time” on missions and the tomb will further awake.

Don't worry, just play the game and persevere. Once you've got your fourth Tech-Priest (Oriocus), that should be better. You just have to keep improving all of them with noctilith and, with a good build, there will be no problem. But on the first missions, the tomb will awaken faster given how weak and few your starters are.

Nonetheless, you're no common Dominus, so you'll make the best choices accordingly.

You should rush them, because only them can provide you with new Tech-Priests (and useful troopers as well).
The more Tech-Priests you have, the easier the game will be.

This one is all about saving.

Before starting a mission, save. Select your units and launch the mission. Once you're in the tomb, take a glance at the layout. Sometimes the mission objective is really faraway and there is not much rooms with red necrons inside.

On the contrary, you want not too far objectives and at least one room with red necrons (I will explain why later on).

Do not be fooled : the above picture is actually showing a special mission layout. You probably won't get that in most of the missions.


Tomb layouts are randomized and will be different if you load a game prior to mission launching. So, if you're patient, try out different layouts and once you think one will be good, save.

When you're exploring the tomb, you will come across different rooms. We'll prefer those below :


-Fight rooms (with red necrons). These rooms will initiate a new fight, hopefully with control pannels (see below for more). But the rewards are great : blackstone, restored health, and a -4 strokes in awakening gauge (sometimes it will be -3, but very rarely).

Be sure to :

- enter this room when awakening gauge is level 1 + one stroke (more ore less equivalent to 3 rooms already visited), otherwise you might spoil your bonuses ;
- finish the fight rather quickly, since delaying too much will result in a bad awakening gauge management. But you'll get there : fights in red necrons rooms are ALWAYS easier than mission objectives ones (unless I missed something).


Going into the room with red necrons will result in a fight (usually easier than objective rooms', like I said). You'll increase the gauge if you enter them, but...


... you can also reap substantial rewards.


- Missions objective rooms : you must think how you will get to them without exploring to much rooms. The best is when you reach the last one with a level 0 awakening gauge.


You'll have to enter them anyway, so save and make sure there's a at least 1 control pannel in there (see below why). But be warned : the last objective room isn't randomized and will always be the same.


- Exclamation marks rooms : you never know what will happen in there (unless you enabled “enhanced exploration", of course), but I'll let you know they sometimes offer choices resulting in a gauge's decrease (-4 strokes). They are quite rare, though, so feel free to experiment, but save before it and above all, don't hold your hopes too high : such choice consequences will not happen in every mission. See the screenshots below for an exemple.




Most of them won't help you decreasing the gauge, but you never know.



NOTE : Each time you visit a new room, awakening gauge will increase by 2 strokes (one awakening level = five strokes). If you backtrack and come back visiting a room you've already been into, the awakening gauge won't fill. Use this to your advantage.

1) Control pannels / To-be-scanned devices

While in battle, you'll sometimes come across necron control pannels. Some missions ask you to “scan or destroy” them. At first I always scanned them without really bothering with the destruction (we have necrons to kill, after all !).
But every control pannel destruction results in a -2 strokes in the awakening gauge. I recommand scanning them before systematically destroying them. In any case, destroying those devices will be one of your best assets in awakening gauge management.



A control pannel is always destructible. It usually is unarmored with 7HP, but can sometimes be armored with 15HP.


Contrarily to what you can think with the above picture (I forgot one and had to reload a save and replay a fight for a full exemplification), you always get -2 in awakening gauge if you destroy them (not -3).


2) Save before finishing a fight

You should do so because you will directly return to exploration mode after a fight, and often, you will have to make a choice (similarly to the exclamation mark rooms). If you choose poorly, you'll maybe increase the gauge by 2, 3 or even 4 strokes, and you don't want that, so save before dealing the finishing blow to the last foe.

NOTE : Sometimes ALL choices will result in penalties (I'm especially thinking about the very last level). This is rare but it can happen. If so, try to choose minor penalties and to avoid heaviest ones, comparatively.

If you followed this guide, you will unlock this with no trouble at all. Just defeat Szaregon before reaching 100% awakening and you're good to go.

I went for a full run in "very hard" and buying time can be a huge help to make the game easier : you can earn more noctilith, and thus upgrade you Tech-Priests even further. I'd even say I got every perk I wanted my Tech-Priests to have before the last missions. So, if you feel like it, choose a viable build and try it.

Watch out ! If you follow this guide "too well", well... maybe you won't unlock this. You could always try to increase the awakening gauge on purpose, but don't wait until the last mission to do so.

You really can unlock those two on the same playthrough if you manage your saves well. Just complete every mission and do not go further when Videx offers you "Into the Breach" and Scaevola offers you "The Verge of Omniscience". Save. Then you can choose which mission you'll do and the ending needed for the achievement you seek. Actually, I wasn't even denied Scaevola's last mission when I completed Videx's, and it was the same for the other way round, but I would suggest you do not take any risk and don't complete both missions before beating Szaregon.

(Skip this if you already have a consistent build - those are just suggestions, I intend to just share some thoughts here)


This section isn't related to awakening management, but I will put this here anyway since this guide tries to make life easier for you when you play the game. So, screenshots and comments :


1) Equipment


Details, from top to bottom, from left to right :

- Cog Occultaris lvl 3 : this one is pretty OP. It basically makes you invincible before you make an attack and increases your next attack critical chance to 100%, ignoring armor and dealing max damage automatically. For some reason, EVERY attack seems to become a critical when you equip this, not just the first one. You can unlock this by completing Tiresus' missions.

- Sanctus canister lvl 3 : this will require a lot of cognition (3 per use), but can also be invaluable since it adds +2 DMG to EVERY Tech-Priest for their next attack. Combine this with multiple "Bless" and "Angered spirit" (see below) and you'll hit like a truck. No, like a War Titan, even.

- Servo skull : you always have it and you can usefully upgrade it (see below how).

- Gamma pistol : a versatile weapon, and one of my favorites. Of course, its damage won't please everyone (1-2), but let's also take into account that it requires no cognition to use, and it completely ignores armor. It also benefits from "Angered Spirit" and "Bless", and those bonuses are cumulative. Sometimes I could almost one shot Lychguards with that thing, so it is not to be underestimated.

- Versatile weapon slot : on the picture you can see a Solar Atomizer, but I actually equip just one of my Tech-Priests with it. Three others had a gauss-gamma pistol (basically an enhanced gamma pistol, costing 2 cognition points to use), one other a Cognis Flamer, and the last a Heavy Grav Cannon / Torsion Cannon. The gauss-gamma is versatile and can be used for free with the perk "Cognition Freedom" ; the Solar Atomizer can get me rid of at least two annoying ennemies, more if I get lucky ; the flamer is useful because it can be used in melee for 2 cognition points and inflict "Burn" to each foe it touches ; finally, the Grav Cannon speaks for itself - it wrecks everything in a large radius, also benefiting for cumulative damage bonuses, the only downside being potential friendly fire.

- Tech-Auxilium head armor : useful, with its 2 energy armor points.

- Lexmechanic torso : good bulk in hitpoints (4) and a nice addition to physical armor (1).

- Secutor hands : +2HP, +20% critical chance. I don't know if it's redundant with Cog Occultaris, or if this makes my every attack become a critical. Still useful for HP nonetheless.

- Dominus legs : +3 mov, and more HP (+3). Great for resisting attacks and getting more movement.

- Cognition mechadendrite X2 : cognition is your lifeblood, so if you want to act as you wish, I would recommand two of them. The cooldown isn't that bad and it allows you to use big guns more often.

- And, of course, my huge power axe. Classy, powerful, and benefiting from criticals.



2) Perks



Explorator : "Noospheric scan" and "Escape" are must-have. "Angered spirit" is just convenient, but come in really handy when you use weapons summoning machine spirit often.

Secutor : I never really could make good use of that one, because I was more fond of upping my Tech-Priests and not really into troopers management tactics. I'm not a fan, although some pieces of equipment in this tree are great, and the "command fire" skill can wreak havoc if you use it well. If you're more curious about Secutor tactics, please see the comments section for more.

Tech-Auxilium : Everything here is awesome. "Cognition freedom" lets you use big guns more often and your basic guns for free. The servo skull defensive protocols seems to add permanently i physical ramor to your Tech-Priest in combat, but can also boost physical armor of others by 1 when using the servo-skull on your allies in combat. But the best is probably "Bless" : you can use a canticle for 1 cognition point, choosing between extra armor or damage. I Personally always choose damage : it's cumulative for each Tech-Priest using this and if you use a Heavy Grav Cannon rather late in a turn, with this perk it will just be apocalypse. A must-have, since if you use it well, you can basically steamroll nearly every fight.

Lexmechanic : "Enhanced analytics", granting you 1 cognition point when you have none, is a huge help, especially in the beginning. Get this ASAP.

Enginseer : Some people will tell you curatio mechadendrites are more useful than regen perks, but I prefer going for the latter. Combined with the first Xenarite Perk, you regenrate 2 HP per turn, which is awesome. The first perk is also useful if you quickly want to get rid of necron acids of heretek flames, alllowing you to survive longer.

Dominus : Having more range to use your guns is always nice. Having a servo-skull dealing 1 point of damage to finish off weakened foes is great. Having a second "Angered Spirit" perk grants cumulative damage bonuses with the first one and is also useful. All in all, this tree is pretty solid.

Xenarite : The first perk should suffice (+1HP regen each turn). The lexmechanic torso is more useful than the xenarite one in my opinion, but the latter could be useful in early game. Your choice. I just wouldn't go further, because you get penalties if you do so, and since the Cog Occultaris already grants you amazing critical power, the rest of the tree will be fairly useless.


Conclusion : It's not the best build to have, since I've made a few mistakes trying to figure out how some perks worked, but you look at a rank 25 Tech-Priest discipline pannel, so hopefully you'll get the more useful perks before that and avoid any mistakes. Remember what I said about "Cognition freedom", "Noospheric scan", "Escape", "Enhanced analytics" and "Bless", though : those will really be helpful during fights.

If you followed this guide, you should now manage efficiently the awakening gauge and have enough “time” to complete whatever mission you want.

Remember : proceed carefully and deliberately, choose the best way possible, save every time you're not sure if your plans will work, and smash those unclean xenos. You will struggle at first, but eventually, you'll manage. Thus the Omnissiah's will will be done.

This was a first guide. I do not pretend it's perfect and I do not know everything, so every additionnal and useful input is welcome in the “Comments” section.

In any case : happy hunting !