Faithless

Faithless
Has lost hope to ever return from this expedition. Continuously loses loyalty.
Effect	Loses a point of Loyalty at regular intervals.
Source	whenever explorer suffers a mental exhaustion ailment
Cure	impossible

Faithless is an incurable mental ailment that can afflict humanoid companions in RIVALS mode. It will be applied to all your humanoid companions whenever your explorer suffers Light, Medium or Strong Mental Exhaustion.

An afflicted companion will lose Loyalty at regular intervals (around 30 days), similar to an alcoholic who is not regularly provided with whisky.

Tips

• Essentially, this ailment exists to make it harder to snowball with numerous high-level companions in RIVALS mode, because it will make your companions eventually betray you one way or another.
• Deserting companions may also steal some of your items, especially if all of them desert at the same time.
• It is not easy to get around it, but here are some suggestions as well as their caveats:
  • Continuously raising your companions' Loyalty using items such as native trinkets or purple mushrooms - this requires items that are scarce and usually need to be bought;
  • Promoting them while your explorer has the careerist perk - this is luck-dependent (75% chance), requires exploration points, and cannot be used once they reach maximum level;
  • Getting them addicted to alcohol and keep giving them whisky - this requires a reliable supply;
  • Having a yeti companion, whose unique perk continuously raises the Loyalty of all your companions - a yeti can only be reliably obtained from a very rare crate;
  • Dismiss companions once their Loyalty drops and keep getting new ones from native villages or missions that have been taken over by cultists - requires Standing, perks and/or a specific companion. Bear in mind any new companions will also get the ailment when Medium/Strong mental exhaustion sets in, so you will eventually need to replace them as well; in addition, new companions always start at Level 1;
  • Use only animal companions - you will be unable to upgrade your companions unless you also have the Animal Whisperer perk, and you will have few challenge dice.

Ailments