ah great OK
Daring is a great default difficulty setting. Keep it there.
Act 1 goes on way too long and is actually the worst part of the game, because the combat has not gotten very complex at that point and mostly just feels like endlessly stacking debuffs on trash mobs. It does get a lot better — but be prepared for it to feel very dry at first. Also, veil degradation is a huge problem in the early game and almost not at all thereafter, it makes Idira hard to use effectively. The merchant “shops,” when you finally get to them, are 100% free; the way that Rogue Trading works is that your merchant rank goes up the more cargo you sell them, and everything in their stock up to that rank is yours for the taking.
Sniper rifles are really good in Act 1 because basically none of the enemies can evade them for shit even with your characters’ low stats. I made my main a mental/pyro psyker who just spent most of Act 1 sniping even with almost no aptitude for it because Idira made psyking a liability at first.
When you get to Act 2 and can start developing your colonies, make sure you’re doing so whenever you have the resources for it — I spent half the game thinking you had to fly to the colony planets to do that rather than just being able to do it from a menu. Likewise for trading with the merchants; you should have enough junk to max out your relationship with 2 or 3 out of the 5 by the endgame, and they give you really good high level gear. Get the Heavy Bolter for Argenta (it’s in one of the merchant stocks) as early in Act 2 as possible and she’ll use it for most of the rest of the game. Also, do not finish Act 2 without finding Nomos (you’ll know when you get there).
Cassia is extremely, extremely powerful from the moment you get her and you will basically never remove her from your party for the whole game. Do Eurac V first when you have the option to.
If you use all your combat options the game is really fun and interesting, the writing is really good throughout and there’s plenty to do.
