Got a full options clear today: https://imgur.com/a/rEnicMH

https://youtu.be/TF84Gv72db8?si=MbjANNopPBRVi0-x

That's really impressive, I'm still just getting the hang of clearing Despair Mode alone consistently. I had a streak going with an ironman challenge inspired by the way Jorbs challenges himself in Slay the Spire, and made 10 starting pairs of investigators without repeating any. I originally planned to do this in the base game but I didn't think it would be very hard so I revived the idea when I started playing your mod. I streaked the first 3 runs but got sick and started losing a lot to my own misplays after that, so I'm just focusing on clearing with all of them for now before I try to 10 streak it.

Here are the current clear screens of the attempt, I'll update as I make progress:
Hein/Huz[i.imgur.com]
Joey/Narhan[i.imgur.com]
Sizz/Phoenix[i.imgur.com]
Trisha/Pressel[i.imgur.com]
Miss Chain/Ilya[i.imgur.com]
Lian/Johan[i.imgur.com]
Helia/Selena[i.imgur.com]
(I felt like I really got the hang of it around here so I started messing with more options. For the sake of an all clear I just added Vanilla Curses.)
Azar/Silverstein[i.imgur.com]
Charon/Momori[i.imgur.com]
Ironheart/Leryn[i.imgur.com]

So far it feels like every character is still very good and able to clear Despair Mode just fine, but for the first time I feel like I have to put a lot of thought into how to build each comp, and playing out each combat requires a lot of precision. It's fun, very much where I wanted the difficulty of the game to be.

UPDATE: And finished!

Yo thanks, glad to hear you're enjoying it. Despair Mode + Chaos Mode is the amount of difficulty I'd consider fun, and full options is something I just did to challenge myself.

I wasn't sure I could reliably beat the final bosses with a normal comp, so I thought of an infinite that could bypass BM2's shuffle limit, and I eventually came up with Pursuit Spam with Lightning Slash - Draw. The game is actually quite good at punishing draw spam, so some challenges to consider were Joker's repeated stuns and Azar's Ultimate Storming Blade. I was able to get around them by stacking CC resist on Miss Chain, and slotting in Ironheart and fishing for Absolute Defense to tank the storming blades. Obviously this setup has some RNG involved so it took a couple tries to land it.

I will eventually try clearing full options with a non-infinite comp, but I have some stuff to take care of IRL so it'll have to wait a week or two.
Besides that, I want to add a custom clear border for ExpertPlus, I was thinking either Red or Purple color.

Got another full options clear today: https://imgur.com/a/DLzI4j0
https://youtu.be/ayAR1GufTlw

No infinite this time.

Nothing could have exceeded my expectations more than a Maroon 5 singalong over Phoenix Kick comboing.

I've cleared Despair Mode with all investigators now, clear screens edited in above. I don't think I can contain my feedback to one comment so I'll organize it in its own thread later when I have the time. Overall that was very enjoyable, it felt like I was learning Chrono Ark for the first time again.

It took me dozens of test runs to get used to the changes, but now I can't really imagine playing the game without them, as this is about the difficulty level where I feel like my decisions and mistakes really matter. After I got used to it, I ended up adding Vanilla Curses which felt very manageable. I messed with the other options, but decided against them for now because they felt a lot more transformative. Cursed Bosses is for when I'm a little bit more insane and Chaos Mode is a really fun idea, but I felt that its difficulty was a bit inconsistent, as it sometimes gave me brutal fights in Misty Garden 2, but would also sometimes turn a CW gunner into a clown girl and trivialize the fight. But I like the idea in theory, and similar to getting to fight TFK regularly again in BM4, I miss fighting Sanctuary enemies when I regularly go the other way. (Speaking of TFK, if at all possible, I'd love if End of Light played in this fight instead of the area boss theme. I mute it to play End of Light in the background every time anyway.)

Only main complaint I have is that Dorchi behaves strangely if he doesn't spawn first. No Final Leaf Slash which is fair, but you also don't get Dancing Leaves Protection, and the Sword of Forest minions in phase 2 don't apply the doubled damage from their passive regarding attacks with Ignore Taunt or AoEs. This can be really brutal with the addition of Berserk to him, as it can be slow to push through them all while Righteous Stab doing 22 base + bleed can kill a lot of investigators from full health. If possible, I'd like it if he always spawned first if only for his fight to be consistent.

I'm aware there are some BGM issues, and I'll look into the Sir Dorchi issues as well.

If you'd like, we can chat over these things on discord, whether on DMs or on the official Chrono Ark discord server. I think that'd be more constructive but it's up to you.

ID: windypanda1

I've cleared 5 times with all options, but it's a shame I can't post a picture

Posting here my first clear with full options, chaos is fun and bring novelty to normal encounter.
https://files.catbox.moe/2obvge.png

I cleared expertplus full options with every character!

https://imgur.com/a/iBzB38u

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF84Gv72db8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayAR1GufTlw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_KIMoNI60c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD4YSTRt-GE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pi0MUvx2so
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_CFEbW7ZCU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qELJBuiP_cc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMRjTq5DMas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GGV5sDiAEY

Working on getting more clears, but I got Pain Twins recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM5wa9prncc

https://i.imgur.com/sfO7Wvz.jpeg
Full options BM4+CW clear. I almost wiped at TFK, but after that, it wasn't so bad.

https://imgur.com/a/pjbAnVC

After many failed attempts... full options BM4!

Playable Lucy Clear: https://imgur.com/a/FhYSnTJ

Run 2 concentrated blow if you want to replicate. I didn't find a second one unfortunately but it would have helped save Mobius turns. The deck shuffle limit can get real pesky.

Touhou Special Clear: https://imgur.com/a/touhou-special-clear-hnflS3p

(just a fun run to see what exactly 'full options bm4+cw' looks like and to enjoy 'slightly' less balanced characters :P -still took many attempts- ^^..)

Playable Lucy Clear: https://imgur.com/a/azar-lucy-clear-JvKLn7V

(pure luck this cleared, had many attempts die to less than this run survived...
big fan of parrying tactics now, as i only got regular illusion flash after TFK on lvl 6 lvl up... xD)

Playable Lucy + Leryn clear: https://imgur.com/a/7PzW5QL

Don't mind the 8 hour clear time, I was just enjoying the infinite Auto Focus shenanigans. I will surely try do a full options clear with a less broken comp later (I was trying out the mod so for this one vanilla curses and chaos mode weren't enabled).