Karryn’s Prison: Empress Ending General Tips

The goal of this guide is to help you not only reach the Empress ending but also get the Aspiring Hero and Holy Empress titles at the same time.

Getting Holy Empress means saving both virginities and first kiss for marriage, and Aspiring Hero requires getting all four Hero’s Guidelines gifts.

Both require a very low desires playthrough, which is what you want anyway when going for the Empress ending.

Difficulty mode

Both the ending and related titles can be obtained in any difficultly mode so choose whatever you are comfortable with.
I did this run on Warden and after a while I started wishing I had chosen Secretary; not because it was particularly difficult but because it was so time-consuming.

Starting Title

I recommend Hardworking Tutor because Control+1 is very useful in a run where you want to minimize combat and because Fatigue recovery-12% is easily ignored by just upgrading the bed.

Extra Sensitive Body Part

The best options are either Puss-y or Anus since they are the easiest to protect. That said, if you keep your desires below 50 like you are supposed to, this body part choice doesn’t matter much.

Dormant Desire

I recommend either Mouth or Boobs, as the rings to reduce those desires (Double and Finger Claw) are the cheapest. That way you can regain control as soon as possible.

I strongly recommend going Agility+Mind.

Mind is a must-have in this run as you’ll need it to keep desires under control.

Agility is superior to Strength and Dexterity because it increases speed and dodge chance; both of which will help remain in control of fights.
High speed will let you take out the enemy before it can act. Dodge chance helps not only in regular fights but also in the Bar job.

A little stamina (mostly to dodge) and energy is fine, but you don’t need much in this sexless playthrough.

Since we’re going AGI+Mind the only thing you need to worry about while leveling is to only use thrust attacks.
The way to do this is to alternate a thrust attack with an energy skill. Most of the time this energy skill will be Cautious Stance, which is a skill/edict you’ll want to unlock as soon as you start the game.

Leveling Mind is easy and will be done automatically since you’ll be using Will skills almost every turn. Either using Ki to take out the enemy as quickly as possible or suppressing a desire if it’s getting close to 50.
Late game you can spam the See+Hear+Speak No Evil skills to ensure all desires stay down.

As soon as you get Taunt do use it all the time. Not only for the valuable Confidence buff but also because you want the enemies to be angry so they don’t try any sex attacks.

Your main worry will be the need to maintain Order with as few fights as possible. Outside combat that means doing the receptionist job.
In-combat, this translates as defeating enemies with as few hits as possible. This is because the more attacks you do, the more your Sadism will rise which means each hit will do more Pleasure damage to you, which means having to masturbate before sleep.
While that’s not as bad masturbating in combat, or getting touched by enemies, it will still give you some passives. This is particularly dangerous early on when you don’t have high Mind and Mind skills to block other sources of passives. Note that it is ok to occasionally let your Pleasure rise a little even it means having to masturbate at night (for example to put down a riot in a single day), just don’t do it if you don’t need to. And always avoid letting your Pleasure rise so much that masturbating will trigger an orgasm.
Returning to the point about attacking as few times as possible, that also means that Skewer is better saved just for the bosses. You can use it in a regular fight in a pinch but try to avoid it as it is unreliable. Also, you won’t be Countering much, unless you can be sure that your counter is going to be a thrust attack (or that the enemy is so weak that even a non-thrust will kill). For this reason do the Offensive path for your halberd.
And finally, always use Ki unless you’re sure a non-ki attack will one-shot.

By the way, never fight the guards outside your office. They will give you several passives right from the start and, specially early on, you won’t be strong enough to defeat them before they can fondle Karryn at least a little. Definitely not worth the risk in a run like this.

As mentioned in the previous section, get Cautious Stance as soon as you start. That way you won’t waste levels on STR and DEX, at least not anymore than what can’t be avoided.

Normally after that you want to get the super valuable (for early game) Red bracelet but in this playthrough keeping you sloot level low takes priority. Get the ring that lowers the desire of your chosen Dormant Desire body part instead.

After that, like in a normal playthrough, try to prioritize edicts that increase income (or lower expenses) to maximize profits. The exception are the Publish edicts in the Personal section. Those increase profits very little so only go for them when you have edicts/money to spare.

As with a regular playthrough:
– be very wary of any edict that increases enemy stats or the chances of rioting.
– when getting Control-increasing edicts, always go for the cheapest ones (in terms of maintenance) first.
– improve your bed as soon as you can, the well-slept buff is very strong.
– while leveling go for training edicts first, you can improve your halberd later.

Compared to a regular playthrough you’ll have a greater need for Control edicts, at least until unlocking the reception job (and increasing its reputation).

Around mid-game, make sure not to rush to buy the expensive last levels of training and halberd upgrades. Try to first get at least some of the cost-lowering Research edicts. Also, try to farm some money before clearing level 3 as the “problem” edicts which activate then are particularly annoying for a pure build (and you won’t be able to do the stripping job to keep rioting chances low).

Since we want to minimize combat, we’ll have to use and abuse both the Bar (to get money) and the Reception (to increase Order).

For the Bar, ideally you want to use the See and Hear No Evil skills every turn. That said you can start with the Bar earlier without too many bad side effects; just stick to short shift and be sure to get the mentioned Mind skills as soon as possible.
Don’t drink at all unless you are certain that it’s not going to make you drunk and that the Willpower hit won’t be big enough to endanger finishing the shift properly. If you need were unlucky and are running out of Will then just retreat behind the bar for a couple of turns.
Once you have the See+Hear No Evil skills, and preferably the Speak one too, you can make safely a lot of money safely. Just don’t do the bar too much while leveling or you’ll end up with a ton of Mind points (which isn’t too bad, just don’t level purely Mind).
As with a regular playthough, after a while you’ll want to buy glasses once or twice so you don’t need to spend so much time cleaning tables.
Note that thanks to See No Evil, you won’t need to fix your clothes.

The receptionist job is what will save you from having to fight more than one or twice a day.
There’s not much to say about this job, just remember to focus on the goal: raising Order while not letting goblins touch you. Always reject fans since they’ll just waste your time.
You’ll want to go for the longest shift possible to maximize Order.
I recommend writing down when a room will be free whenever you send someone to it. That way you won’t waste a turn and Karryn’s stamina having to check if it’s free.

The Hero’s Guidelines are the gifts that require having very low sloot level. All four have to be obtained to gain the Aspiring Hero title.

The requirements are the following:

• Hero’s Guidelines Volume 1 (lewd < 20)
• Hero’s Guidelines Volume 2 (lewd < 30)
• Hero’s Guidelines Volume 3 (lewd < 40)
• Hero’s Guidelines Volume 4 (lewd < 50)

The effects are suited for a playthrough like this, giving talk, sight and strip resist. And the last one giving a very valuable buff to Will regen.

Despite all I wrote, I have to say that, after the first hours, the number one threat to a pure run is tedium.
Mid-game grind is particularly boring without any sex to spice it up. Unless you really like the Bar and Receptionist jobs (without any sexy time, remember) I would recommend doing this playthough on Secretary. I did it on Warden and on top of taking a long time to finish, it felt like a chore after a while.
Now, that might have also been because I didn’t want to risk losing the whole run to the level 4 and 5 bosses and so I farmed as many edicts as possible before those fights. But I think that in a game mode with “kinda permadeath” playing it safe is to be expected.