Tides of Oblivion

The Tides of Oblivion is the story expansion of Pascal's Wager. It takes Terrence and his companions to Ichthyosauria, a forgotten, cursed land inside a giant creature, together with the new hero Jerold, who calls it home. The English name is confirmed in the game text: the expansion's store entry is titled The Tides of Oblivion and the code refers to it as Tide (IapData.DLC_TIDE_1, GetEnterTide) and as the "DLC" story (story id 9).

How the expansion starts#

Based on the store text (summarised): you accept Jerold's request at the bottom of the Holy Tower in Katib. Later, once you have finished the stories of the Edith chapter, you go to Jerold by Edith's shores and he joins your journey to Ichthyosauria. The expansion adds seven quest-log entries (UIQuest 10901 to 10907). The first, "Ichthyosauria", is only a header with no text. The second, "Proceed to the abandoned wharf of Edith", describes Jerold offering Terrence the option of using the Scarlet Meteor to rouse his hometown of Ichthyosauria (paraphrase). The remaining entries (all DLCQuest 1) are: finding Glenn and Jerold after a storm, finding the source of the Soul River, catching up with a boy, breaking through the Wall of Silence and climbing the Tower of the Origin. They chain on the quest flags 55091, 95179, 95181, 93005, 95182 and 93019, and the last one completes on flag 99103.

Seven base-game dialogues change depending on whether you own the expansion (DLCShow 1 in five rows, 2 in two rows, in the Edith, Katib and Colossal Grave chapters). Rows marked "have DLC" appear only with it and rows marked "no DLC" appear only without it, which is how Jerold's invitation scenes are added to the base chapters.

What belongs to the expansion#

The three bosses reappear in two other modes:

• In Obsession Challenge, rows 13 to 15 are these bosses (arenas in area 5, 6 and 4). They have DLCBoss 1 and are unlocked by quest flag 91209, that is by killing Handel in the expansion's story. The Jerold hero button in that mode is greyed and inert without the Tide flag.
• In Arcade mode, stage-select stages 2002 (Guderian), 2003 (Treasure Thieves) and 2004 (Handel) are blocked with a message "add-on content The Tides of Oblivion is required" when the flag is off. Jerold is also in the arcade hero list (without any Tide check), and the arcade enemy table carries rows for the expansion's new enemies and for the three bosses.

Achievements (tab 4)#

The ten achievements and their goals are listed in Achievements#The Tides of Oblivion. Three are boss kills (Handel 40001, Guderian 40002, Treasure Thieves 40003). Four are finds and story milestones: Pieces of Old Days (28 ancient memories), A Lad from the Depth, The River Shall Flow and The Answer. The rest are Jerold's maxed talents (40008), the four Siflers (40009) and the five Heggies with the treasury key (40010); see Collectibles for the counters. Only 40009 and 40010 can be earned on Casual.

Hidden mechanics#

• Where the game checks the Tide flag (IapData.GetEnterTide): the map destination list, the dialogue filter (DLCShow), the lobby logo (only when the DLC_Elena constant is false, which it is not in this build, see Dance of the Throne#How the game gates it), Obsession Challenge's Jerold button, Arcade stages 2002 to 2004, and the Dark Mist maze hero check. In this build's Lua files the flag starts as true, so every check passes (details in Dance of the Throne#How the game gates it).
• One quest flag unlocks all three bosses. Quest 91209 is completed by Handel's death, and Guderian and the Treasure Thieves reuse it as their challenge unlock, so you can fight them in Obsession Challenge as soon as Handel falls even if you skipped them in the story (inferred from the shared flag).
• Standard Mode strength. In the preset mode these three bosses lose a lot of HP (Guderian -2,500, Treasure Thieves -4,000, Handel's second phase -4,400), comparable to the biggest cuts of the base-game bosses (Edith's second phase loses 5,000). See Obsession Challenge#hm-standard-mode-bosses-lose-hp-at-level-5.
• Names with no English entry. Several expansion enemies appear in the data only with Chinese internal names, so they cannot be named reliably here; see Enemies.
• Expansion naming. "Tide" is the code name; "dlcstory1" is the store id; the English title is confirmed from the text sections. Nothing in the files uses a different English name.

Sources#

• GameText: UI_DLC_ITEM_NAME_dlcstory1, UI_DLC_ITEM_DETAIL_TITLE_dlcstory1, UI_DLC_ITEM_DETAIL_INTRO_dlcstory1, UI_DLC_MSG_dlcstory1, UI_ARCADE_NEED_TIDE, UI_ARCADE_STORY_NAME_2002 to 2004.
• luascript/sdk/iapdata.lua:4-7, 457-463; luascript/sdk/sdkhelper.lua:660-675; luascript/ui/controller/mapviewctrl.lua:1418-1428; luascript/ui/controller/dialogctrl.lua:612-626; luascript/controller/controllerstorymode.lua:5828-5845; luascript/structdata/fs_savestory.lua:2970-2982; luascript/structdata/ms_storyquest.lua:9; luascript/ui/controller/challengectrl.lua:224-258, 645-666; luascript/ui/controller/arcadectrl.lua:484-492; luascript/ui/controller/lobbymainctrl.lua:4850-4856.
• Tables: ES_StoryArea rows 1 to 6 (story 9, StageId 11012 to 16012); ES_StoryChallenge rows 13 to 15; ES_StoryMonster rows with story 9; ES_StoryDialog rows with DLCShow 1 or 2; ES_UIQuest ids 10901 to 10907 (DLCQuest 1); ES_HeroData ids 20046 to 20057, 90008, 90011; ES_Achievement ids 40001 to 40010; ES_StoryQuest 91209 (completed by monster 20053).