Shadowheart's Hidden Score | "Nightsong Points" Explained

This was all tested and recorded on Patch 6, version 4.1.1.5022896 (just in case anything changes, in the future)

I cannot even fathom how complicated this game was to script. So many flags, so many paths, it must have been a nightmare.

Every time I play I just trust her with high approval and she spares the nightsong

I had to click just for the thumbnail of Shadowheart calculating how badly guiding bolt will miss.

@8:34 "Tav, why are you dropping the spear?" "It's a surprise tool we won't need later"

THIS is why it was so much easier to convince her on my first run??? Damn, I couldn't figure out what I'd done differently, but now I'm fairly certain I got the bugged wound glitch in that second run

Note that even without meeting the threshold for nightsong points, it still only takes 40 approval for her to spare the Nightsong on her own (ie going down the "say nothing" or "trust her" path). Moral of the story: SH just needs moral support from someone she trusts, and she'll do something good for herself.

7:36 if you are a Selûnite, you get access to two other dialogue options. BOTH of them result in Shadowheart killing the Nightsong regardless of her approval or Nightsong points. Source: I’ve romanced this woman as a Selûne cleric 10+ times.

Shart: "This is my sacred duty to shar i need that spear to become a dark justiciar!" Me: Ok, ok, i gotchu Also me: Oopsie poopsie butterfingers am i right haha.

my first playthrough I let shadowheart decide whether to kill the nightsong or not. She choice not to. Did realize I had done so much to make outcome happen.

This is a nice, detailed analysis. While you mention that you don't need to collect/trigger all of the points to work, AND the "ooops I might have misplaced that spear somewhere" cheese, I feel it needs to be emphasised that it's easier than it seems. Her taking the shiny path is triggered by you playing nicely overall and being nice to her, which'll trigger her Selunite inheritance.

2:32 2 ways. If you select selune as a deity it also auto-passes.

Love code diving and checking internal flags like these. Always disliked how people say dialogue trees when in reality implementing them as trees would be horribly bloated, and pretty much all games do dynamic checks to enable and disable events. How did you find these, data mining guides somewhere?

I always figured she had more going on than just the influence points. Very cool. Throughout my playthroughways, I've noticed similar quirks with other characters as well. Very neat stuff,

Actually these kind of In-depth analysis on how mechanics work in games interest me a lot. It reminds me of Illusory wall's Darksouls analysis on its mechanics and how things function in general. Helps understand just how detailed and appreciate the work of development people put into games, be it in unconventional ways or just plainly obscure mechanics that almost no one understood for a long while.

Thanks, I was frustrated why Shadowheart didn't want to kill the Nightsong on her own in my evil playthrough. I told her how cool Shaar was and everything the entire game, but in the end, it's clearly not what actually determines her choice. I guess we shouldn't be surprised that Shadowheart will basically always do the right choice, even when we actively try to make her do the bad one, she is genuinely just a good aligned character, making it weird she even followed Shaar for more than a second.

I see why she kills the night song in some playthroughs but doesn't in others i've played for seemingly no reason

I'm here to do Shadowcute research! Thanks for the video 😊

Geez louise, with all these bugs it's a miracle I convinced her on my first playthrough.

3:26 Since I just happened to stumble onto this video, I thought I’d mention something I also happened to stumble into in blighted village. Because I’m an absolute incurable loot goblin, I found two books, one of them a journal, in a bookcase behind Lump the Enlightened. Reading it triggered something with Shadowheart similar to what triggers at the statue behind the windmill. But if that journal scene triggers, the scene behind the windmill doesn’t trigger. Not sure if that’s interesting or useful info in the slightest, just thought I’d pass it along. 😄