Overview
This tutorial is about how to keep as many allies alive as humanly possible in LISA which is something probably hard to do for new players since the game can be unforgiving sometimes.
The beginning
This tutorial is about how to keep as many allies alive as humanly possible in LISA which is something probably hard to do for new players since the game can be unforgiving sometimes.
(This tutorial will not mention characters that may die or end up being unavailable after certain events in the overworld and will exclusively talk about about characters that may die after they join Bradley, if you wish to recruit everyone before previously mentionned events happen, refer to this tutorial or )
(WARNING MAY CONTAIN SOME minor SPOILERS)
Area 1
When you first start the game you will be greeted by your first partner, Terry Hintz, who will automatically join your team. Later on, Columbo and his crew will drive over Bradley scarring him for the rest of the game, not only that but they’ll also give you the choice between:
- Give him everything you own.
- Give him Terry.
I gave him Terry on my first playthrough, but you obviously want him to stay in your team as this guide suggests, so give Columbo your inventory, if you had the rusty knife or the quarterback helmet, then unfortunately they’ll be lost forever.
The first things you’ll notice are the rest spots in the open which should NEVER be used, unless of course you want your ally kidnapped or your entire team suffering from poison (If your ally gets kidnapped you can still get him back, but you’ll have to pay 100 mags, you can also choose to fight against the kidnappers, but they’ll kill your ally, so yeah you are pretty much ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up). It is also possible that the ally decided to leave you, so yeah be careful (at least he is still alive, isn’t he?).
A few kilometers later there will be your first safe rest spot which is a green tent with a weird guy making a soup right outside, you can rest here since you don’t risk anything (Needs confirmation, but on my first playthrough nothing bad happened to me so).
There is another safe rest spot in the New Roads where you first encounter Rando, the safe rest spot is located inside of the biggest cavern in one of the tents. Unfortunately, to use it you’ll need to pay 10 mags
The next danger that can put your allies at peril are Punkert and Charmy, two joy mutants who both have a perma-kill move, that being said it is very unlikely that they will ever use it (they CAN use it though). Punkert is optional, so don’t bother with him, he’ll just waste your time and your energy. For Charmy, before fighting it, go to the dark cave and grind experience, so Brad and his crew are strong enough to deal with it (I suggest you to make them go to level 10), then pray your god (if you are an atheist, pray the god of RNG and video games) to reduce even more the chances that it uses its perma-kill move and afterward go and smack that little b*tch. Early in the game you can’t prevent enemies from using perma-kill moves by making them unable to attack (stun/asleep) and you can’t give them the debuff “pissed”. You can paralyse them using beastborn, however it happens every blue moon and some enemies are immune to “fallen”, so don’t waste your time tackling them.
Between area 1 and 2
This is probably the worst part of the game if you plan to get all the characters available in the game and keep them alive. This is literally when the serious ♥♥♥♥ starts.
First thing first, at some point you’ll enter a dark cavern, where Buzzo and his crew will await you, he’ll ask you whether you want to kill your second party member or let him cut your limb, normally I would give him Fardy, but since this guide is about having as many partners alive as possible, then you will have to give him your limb, it will have many disastrous effects on Brad, but unfortunately you don’t really have a choice. You can fight Buzzo, but the game is programmed to make you lose, so it’s basically a waste of time, if you actually manage to kill him through cheating or turnarounds, Buzzo will say something along the lines of “I will destroy the world” and then pulls a and show you the beautiful game over screen.
Buzzo is not the worst part yet, you will have to come through a mandatory russian roulette minigame and most of the time you will see most if not all of your allies die due to this thing and the worst about this is that to recruit Buckets (If you ever plan to beat the game with all the characters recruited), then you have to play this minigame ten times in a row and without losing a single party member, this is possible, but it is arguably harder than beating the game in pain mode with Brad lacking limbs, without any party member and without ever using joy, I’m not even kidding, at least the latter is skill based rather than luck based.
Hint: If you lose any ally you can click on exit in the character select screen to return back to the title screen, since you don’t have access to the menu during this minigame.
Past the russian roulette, you are no longer in danger from losing your party members (For now), so just save the game and continue later.
Area 2
First thing first, don’t give your dynamite to the two losers that will block your way because they’ll destroy karate town (Or whatever it is called) which will make it impossible for you to recruit a few new characters (If you want to recruit the characters, follow the aforementioned guides), after recruiting them I guess you can give out the dynamite since it won’t make a big difference.
There are many more joy monsters that deal an enormous amount of damages and that also have perma-death moves, most of them are optional though. The nice neighborhood with the creeps inside of the houses is also optional, hell to continue the game you just need to go to Wally’s, beat the clown, then to the contruction area and collect enough dynamites to go to the third area.
If you need to take a rest, after the cavern that I will call “the banana cavern” (a.k.a the cavern that leads to the construction area) there is a house, you can ask the dude in there to let you take a rest for 10 mags.
It has to be noted that in area 2 you can access the muddy waters, in there you can fight against purple snakes, those can give you the deep poison debuff, I heard that this specific effect could kill your party members in the overworld (Needs confirmation).
There is also an island called the Dismal island where you can fight Jim the slave master and Jonathan (a joy monster), you can go safely there as Brad only since if he gets knocked out by Jonathan he’ll just be sent back to the overworld (Jonathan has a perma-kill move so I recommend to not bring anybody on this island besides Bradley).
Between area 2 and 3
The two unique notable things are:
-If you give Terry to Columbo he’ll show up there and attack you, he has a perma-kill move, that being said if you followed this guide in its entirety that should not happen. Either way by now you probably have Nern or Garth who can piss him off to prevent him from using his perma-kill attack.
-Buzzo and his crew of losers will also await you again and this time you can choose between hurting the girl or letting him kill 3 of your allies. You know what to do! One screen later he’ll let you choose between giving him a limb or giving him your entire inventory, it’s up to you to choose! Don’t choose the third option which is “Asking him why he is doing this” or you’ll regret it.
Area 3
Probably the most dangerous area of them all (especially in pain mode) since ALL THE BOSSES HAVE AN INSTA-KILL MOVE, ALL OF THEM! So to continue the game, it is highly recommended to have either Garth or Nern at all times somewhere in your party to piss them off and maybe having in your party other characters who are capable to cripple them even more such as Fly Minetti and Carp.
There are 3 enemies that will abuse their perma-kill moves, two of them are joy monsters, they are specifically Beady, Peter and Satan, all 3 of them are optional, so don’t waste your time with them.
In area 1, campfires/rest spots were risky, but in area 3, they are literally dangerous, so don’t ever dare to use them, if one of your party members gets kidnapped, they will immediately die and it is of course irreversible (it has to be noted that a new joy mutant will show up after the kidnapping).
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Once you have done everything to go after the girl using Tardy’s boat all your party members will be wiped out of your party which means they are technically dead to the game, only 3 of them will be remembered by the game and will be sent after you. At multiple occasions you’ll be able to save at this point in the game, I suggest you to save on another save slot.
Anyway if you have managed to get there without losing a single party member (which is unlikely due to the horrendous roulette), then congratulations you followed this guide to the perfection!
Closing thoughts
If you want to beat the game with all your characters alive, that’s how you do it.
That’s all folks!
I hope you liked this guide and I hope that it will be very helpful, this guide is especially aimed at beginners, so if you haven’t learned anything new, then I guess that you know how to beat the game without losing any party members.