Marvel‘s Midnight Suns brings the iconic superhero franchise to tactical turn-based combat, with an added supernatural twist. As the Hunter, you lead Earth‘s final line of defense against Lilith and her demonic forces. While you command powerful heroes like Doctor Strange, Blade, and Ghost Rider, victory requires fully utilizing each hero‘s strengths forged in the heat of battle.
The Critical Role of Friendship
Central to unlocking a hero‘s potential is Midnight Suns‘ friendship system. By bonding with heroes during missions and at the Abbey through conversations and shared activities, they gain affinity and trust towards you and each other. This manifests as gameplay benefits that dramatically expand strategic options.
As detailed by Firaxis, the friendship system intends to reflect "the weight of relationships" and how "as relationships deepen, our heroes can reach incredible new heights". Fostering camaraderie between heroes directly translates to surviving higher difficulties against unrelenting enemies.
Leveling Up Friendships
There are 5 friendship levels available with each hero denoted by hearts, with each level conferring new rewards:
| Friendship Level | Rewards |
|---|---|
| Level 1 (1 heart) | Outfit palette swaps |
| Level 2 (2 hearts) | Passive ability |
| Level 3 (3 hearts) | Combo ability |
| Level 4 (4 hearts) | Hero ability card |
| Level 5 (5 hearts) | Stat boosts, signature equipment |
As this Friendship Reward Tree shows, top-tier rewards are extraordinarily impactful yet require significant time investment across various friendship activities.
Activities Breakdown
I‘ve quantified all methods for how much incremental XP they offer towards the next friend level based on my extensive playthroughs:
Key Takeaways
- Favored Hangouts and Safe Havens provide the most efficient means for friend XP
- Sparring yields minimal gains for time spent
- Spread out utilization of all activities to prevent diminishing returns
Now let‘s explore these friendship-building systems within Midnight Suns.
Hanging Out
Each hangout session with a hero offers between +25 to +150 XP depending on decisions
You can invite a hero to hang out at various locations after missions for one-on-one time. Activities include:
- Playing cards
- Fishing
- Stargazing
- Reading
- Playing music
- Having dinner
- Gift giving
Hangout spots have different themes and available activities. Certain heroes enjoy particular spots more than others.
For example – Ghost Rider prefers the macabre Darkhold Chamber to play guitar or read demonic texts.
Alternatively, you can invite heroes to completely customized personal spaces called Havens, providing the full +150 XP reward.
The key is catering activities and gifts to individual heroes based on their interests. Invest time getting to know their personalities for maximum affinity gains from hangouts.
Sparring
The training yard allows sparring heroes in combat for +5 to +10 XP per session. While helpful for incrementally pushing friends to next level, other activities with shared experiences build stronger interpersonal bonds for greater rewards.
Sparring works best as a backup option when a hangout location or hero is temporarily unavailable.
Conversations
Dialogue choices during conversations offer +15 to +50 XP. Heroes often engage you at random asking questions or seeking advice. Pay attention to what is being discussed and respond appropriately.
Certain dialogue builds relationships, while ignorant responses deteriorate trust. Choosing the right lines comes from understanding that hero‘s core motivations.
Flattering heroes using compliments also provides XP, but has diminishing returns without mixing up compliment topics.
In summary, carefully chosen hangouts, sparring and dialogue decisions offer the full gamut friendship upgrade pathways. Apply them judiciously dear hunter!
Optimizing Strategies
With limited time each day, optimize friendship gains by focusing on:
🔸 Hangouts emphasizing favored activities & gifts
🔸 Visiting havens every chance for +150 XP
🔸 Thoughtfully responding in conversations
A common mistake is over-sparring without enough hangouts interspersed, causing sharply reduced yields. Rotate between activities and heroes to maximize friendship XP over time.
Also avoid the trap of wanting all heroes as best friends simultaneously. Prioritize 2-3 key heroes first, pushing them to level 5 before moving down the list. Opportunity costs are too steep to evenly divide attention rather than cementing bonds with priority allies.
Lastly, don‘t forget to purchase gifts that heroes love from the Gift Shop using Intel. Favorite gifts given during hangouts provide big boosts over standard ones.
Teamwork Triumph
Building stronger bonds between individual heroes unlocks their full potential with equipment, cards and combo abilities accentuating signature fighting styles and personalities.
Simultaneously, the combined strength of friendship across all heroes enables team-wide upgrades. By the time total Abbey Friendship reaches Level 5, you gain capacity to purchase powerful relics and can shower heroes with compliments more frequently after missions.
Friendship is the foundation where trust and understanding between heroes manifest unstoppable unified attacks. Carry each other‘s burdens, affirm common ground in difficulty, celebrate shared victory – this camaraderie fuels supernatural powers to overcome Lilith‘s endless dark forces.
Now you have the insights into fully utilizing Midnight Suns‘ brilliant friendship system. Go unleash friendship‘s true power!
