Dealing with difficulty

So did you get your ass handed to you yet?  Probably.  That is the statistically likely outcome.  Canonically Summer will not know where to go, what to do, and there are a lot more ways she can screw up and get 'unalived' than there is to steal the day.  But that is kind of the point.  In order to overcome the impossible you must first face it.

Now that I have released the update that makes retrying easier, I would also like to drop a bunch of pro tips here for people who may be struggling, and looking forward to taking advantage of the new feature.  First off is probably the most obvious; the back button.  Is it cheating?  Yes.  Should you use it?  That is entirely up to you.  This is a game- the purpose of its existence is to have fun, if you will have more fun abusing the back button, then use the button.  If I REALLY didn't want you to use it, I would have programmed it out of the game entirely.  But its there for people to use.  Sure a lot of stuff is failed skill checks but there is also a lot of random chance at play, sometimes all you need to get around a problem is to just go back, re-select it, and thus re-roll the die on the RNG to land in your favor.

Dane for example- I am sure most people are going to try to go around the building to the back door, it is certainly a safer option than waltzing in through the front doors (although you absolutely can).  But then there is Dane at the back corner.  Quite the predicament, eh?  Well- it is if you don't know how his patrol functions.  When you go to either the back or tower from the side it rolls a 50-50... so, you might not even encounter him in the first place.  Or you do encounter him, hit the back button, re-select the option and keep doing it till you do not encounter him, lol.

But even if you do bump into the merc you have plenty of options.  Dane's encounter rolls up to 3 options from a pool of 8, the 8 options are based on your 4 stats... so, two options per stat.  Which options you get to deal with him is thus random, its possible you do not get an option you can actually use.  His skill checks are not especially high though- they are all lvl2... and depending on your build, you can have up to 3 stats at lvl2 potentially, making it impossible for you to not be able to deal with him.  Once Dane is taken care of you can strut around all you want.  Canonically Rine up in the tower is a titanic problem... mechanically, he doesn't actually move, you don't actually need to worry about him, lol.

Finding your way and discovering the nooks and crannies of the mansion is a lot of the fun, but in case you feel like you are still fumbling around blind after a while... have you tried finding the study?  One of the rooms on the second floor- and it contains illustrated floorplans for the entire mansion.  Having problems with the maze on the third floor?  Have you attempted the maze in the yard?  No time limit and it will help you solve the other maze.  If you are having trouble with the hedgemaze too- here is a cryptic clue for you.  L=+1L, R=+1R-1L, M=5L5R.  Yea.  Unlike the other maze, the hedgemaze is actually a math equation.  And if you really get stuck- you can bail whenever you want, it is a hedge maze after all, it has no roof, you can just climb over the walls to get back out.

Arrus on the third floor?  Similar to Dane- there is a way to just go around him, but also you have options to go past him via all four of your skills and the skill checks are not high.  Except for combat.  I mean, there is an option for combat but it doesn't end well so, don't do that.  You can also just avoid him entirely- he does not patrol in the maze, or you can just avoid that whole area of the third floor entirely.  There are routes for every build including no stats at all.  Just gotta find them.  There is currently a bug where Arrus doesn't seem to react to you wearing a disguise, even though he is supposed to- I think because its instanced incorrectly... anyway, that will be fixed soon-ish.  The disguise will still get you past the other mercs in the building.  You can walk in through the front doors wearing it and the guards at the door won't stop you.

And that brings me to the last point on how to make things easier on yourself- the equipment you are offered.  Mythril Dagger is a HUGE crutch in almost every fight in the entire game- you can nuke literally half of Abel's health in the very first turn before he has had a chance to do anything if you have the dagger- even if you have lvl0 Combat!  If you bring the Ward Stone you can effectively have lvl4 Sleight Of Hand with only actually putting a single point into SOH.  So you can put 3-4 other points into potentially mastering a second skill!  Universal Key?  Admittedly the worst item she offers you, but, it ensures even if you are garbage at SOH you can get at least one locked door open, no matter how high the lock level is.

The disguise?  Unbelievably useful.  You can literally walk in through the front doors of the building without anyone batting an eyelash.  As long as you don't rub cheeks with another servant- the hired muscle doesn't care about you if you are wearing it, which also means you can poke around all you want and explore the rooms on the first and second floor- because all the servants are in the ballroom and kitchen, and a few stragglers in the back yard.  So anywhere else is basically safe.  Seducing someone?  Three of the five seducable characters have an alternate version of their encounter if you are wearing the disguise, giving you a whole new sex scene to discover (although both versions of their seduction give the same romance rating, so they don't stack).

And then the Shapeshifter's Keystone.  If you train in magic and do not take the stone, your skill is useless.  If you take the stone but don't train in any magic- the stone is useless.  But together?  Transforming into animals allows you to skitter around in many areas undetected, evading what would have otherwise been a dangerous encounter.  There is even a few combat scenarios where you can transform into an animal in a fight to get a free hit on someone.  But the coolest application?  Hummingbird form can pick locks with its beak.  You only need lvl2 Magic to use the bird form, and its lockpicking ability is equal to lvl3 SOH.  There are points where you can simply fly to the roof of the building and enter via the roof, completely ignoring the yard and bottom floor entirely.  Even if you roll bad luck and get caught lockpicking- as a bird they will just let you go back outside, so you don't game over, you just reset to the front.  They aren't going to arrest a bird.

And here is a trick the story doesn't directly tell you- lvl4 Magic allows you to shapeshift as another anthro, allowing you to waltz in the front doors uncontested, and that is how you romance Roza Kolba.  She is one of the five seduction characters but instead of Deception you require lvl4 Magic.

So yea.  There is a lot of people gunning to take you down, and a lot of things that can go wrong at every turn.  But you also have a lot of tools at your disposal.  So every time you try, you learn a little bit more about the mansion and the people in it, and slowly you find sure-fire paths.  The story is not as long as you think it is, when you first set out.  Once you get the gemstone you don't re-navigate the building on the way out, you either end with a boss fight or an end sequence, which is more cinematic, with 2 points in each that fork multiple ways based on your skill build- it requires no navigation.  The free-roaming portion of the story ends when you get the gemstone.  So, don't give up- Summer wouldn't.