Hard West 2 Loyalty System: How To Increase & Benefits

Hard West 2 is a turn-based RPG similar to XCOM and Wasteland. The game is a sequel to the Hard West. In this game, the player is running away from supernatural beings with their posse. The posse fights and hunts different Wild West foes and supernatural beings such as the Copper Vultures Gang. The player can interact with the posse using the Loyalty System of Hard West 2. We’ll tell you all about it.

What Is Loyalty System In Hard West 2?

When walking around the world of Hard West 2, you’ll get to visit different towns and outposts. There, you’ll interact with the residents with the text-based dialogue system. Oftentimes, these dialogues provide you with the opportunity to take posse members’ side. That increases the loyalty of these members.

You get the members by talking to different NPCs around the game. You’ll find these NPCs as you’ll go around the world of Hard West 2. These NPC party members vary from a literal dead man walking to a priest. They all have different abilities.

Hard West 2 Posse Members’ Loyalty Skills

Each of the Posse members has different skills that they get as their loyalty increases. These skills come in handy when your team members are either at low hp, or they are dying. The skills that posse members get are:

Gin Carter

Gin Carter is the leader of the gang, so he doesn’t have any loyalty skills. That is because other characters are making their loyalty ‘towards him‘.

Old Man Bill

Old Man Bill has some interesting skills at the Ally and Friend level of Loyalty.

Loyalty – Ally

When loyalty is at ‘Ally’ level, Old-Man Bill gets the skill ‘Refreshing Wounds‘. The skill gives Bill a +10% bullseye increase if, at the start of the turn, his health is below 50%.

Loyalty – Friend

At Loyalty level ‘Friend‘, He gets the skill ‘Post-Morthem‘. At the start of the turn, if Bill’s health is below 25%, he will get a +1 increase in weapon damage.

Flynn

Flynn is an interesting NPC that you can add to your Posse. She gets the following skills as you upgrade Loyalty with her.

Loyalty – Ally

Flynn gets the ‘Pocket Full of Chips‘ skill at ‘Ally‘ loyalty. With this skill, she gets a 25 boost in luck stat if her luck is at 0.

Loyalty – Friend

As her loyalty gets to ‘Friend‘, she gets ‘Dead Draw‘ skill. She gets a +1 bullseye damage multiplier. It happens as long as you have Bravado status. 

Laughing Deer

As for Laughing Deer, he gets these skills thanks to the loyalty system of Hard West 2.

Loyalty – Ally

If Laughing Deer’s Loyalty level is at ‘Ally‘, and the turn starts without a cover, he will get a 5% increase in speed.

Loyalty – Friend

When Laughing Deer is at Loyalty level ‘Friend‘, and he has less than 25% health at the start of the turn, he will get a Patching up status.

Cal’Lish

Cal’Lish gets some interesting skills as you increase her loyalty level.

Loyalty – Ally

When you get her loyalty to ‘Ally‘, she gets the ‘Fireproof‘ skill. It makes her highly resistant to the burning effect.

Loyalty – Friend

As her loyalty level increases to ‘Friend‘, she gets the ‘Fate Foretold‘ skill. when you have 100 luck in your turn, you get a +1 increase in weapon damage.

Lazarus

As you increase Lazarus’ loyalty level, you get these skills.

Loyalty – Ally

In the Loyalty Level, ‘Ally‘ Lazarus gets the skill ‘An Eye for an Eye‘. If one of your party members falls at the start of the turn, you get a +10% bullseye chance.

Loyalty – Friend

When loyalty level gets to ‘Friend‘, he gets the ‘A tooth for a Tooth‘ skill. He gets +1 weapon damage if half of the party falls at the start of your turn.

How To Increase Loyalty In Hard West 2

If you want to maximize the loyalty of any of the members, you’ll have to take their side in these choices. Take their side at least 8 times during the playthrough. This is tedious work, and it can take a lot of time for you to maximize loyalty to one character. Now imagine that with all the characters, how long will it take to maximize?

As for us, while we were testing out the loyalty system, we weren’t able to maximize our loyalty with everyone in our playthrough. That’s why you should select a few of the ride-or-dies and focus on them. Side with them at every point and turn, and max their loyalty to you to maximize the skills.

Increasing loyalty is hard, so it makes you wonder if the loyalty will go down if you don’t interact or take sides with a certain person. That’s not the case in Hard West 2’s Loyalty System. If you don’t take side with a member, say, Bill, then his loyalty towards you won’t drop.

It makes the loyalty system in Hard West 2 easy. The system is easier to navigate. That comes in handy as the choices given to you are limited. All you have to do is pick up a handful of people to that you want your character to get closer. And then, all you have to do is to side with them as much as possible. And in the case of maximizing loyalty, only 8 times is more than enough.

Benefits Of maximizing Loyalty In Hard West 2

The Loyalty system is quite important in Hard West 2 if you want to get better in fights. When their loyalty gets higher, you’ll get access to better perks and skills of the posse members. Not only that, in certain situations, you’ll have access to new dialogue options for the posse members. If you are interested in the backstory of these members, then that’s the only way.

This might be important for players who are interested in the lore of the game. Or those who want to learn more about their favorite posse members. As soon as you unlock the new loyalty level with the members, break camp on the open road. And then, you can talk with them to learn more about their past lives.

Final Words

Loyalty in Hard West 2 is hard to increase. That’s why you should pick a few of the members and work on their loyalty. If you maximize your loyalty, you’ll get access to new dialogues and different skills. So go through this guide, and decide which skills you want for your posse.