Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind – Guide to Busenari Light Finder

Guide for Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind – Guide to Busenari Light Finder

Introduction

Busenari Light Finder is probably the easiest ritual in the game (not to say that you can’t fail at it!). This is good, because it’s also the most vital. 
 

Grazing Stress

No matter what, your pastures will eventually become overgrazed, and your herds will start to die off as a result. This happens faster the larger your herds become.  
 
There are two ways to deal with this. The worse way is the Restore Pastures Venture, which has to be conducted at least two years in a row to deal with the issue—meaning you’ll have herds dying for at least a year while you fix the problem. 
 
Busenari Light Finder is the better way. If you successfully enact the ritual and choose it as your reward, the goddess can instantly restore your pastures. 
 
You do get a bit of warning before the stress sets in, so you can prepare for a ritual before you actually start losing cows. 
 

Learning the Ritual

You can start the game knowing this ritual if you choose the Milk Contest of Busenari as your Famous Event in Clan Creation, and your ancestors were the best herders. (Knowing the ritual right to begin with can let you use it in the first or second year to get a reward other than the eternal "restoration of your overgrazed pastures"!) 
 
Otherwise, you can learn it by sacrificing to Busenari. 
 

Rewards

In practice, you’re going to be using the ritual almost exclusively to deal with Grazing Stress. That said, other rewards exist and some are nice, if you can afford to go after them… 
 

• Cows. 
  Gives up to a hundred cows, depending on whether herd members died during the ritual. This is the largest amount of cows you can get from any ritual by a significant margin (Ekarna’s gives you 75 but makes you pay 25 goods for them; Nyalda’s gives only 50). 
   
• Strengthening of the quester’s abilities. 
  Food and Leadership increase by one level each. 
  If either skill was already Heroic, Busenari will also grant a point of Clan Magic the next several times you choose the quester to lead a mission.  
   
• A magical treasure. 
  Grants some magical treasure sacred to Busenari. 
   
• A blessing to bring calm to the clan. 
  Must be unlocked with choices within the ritual. Helps the clan mood; not sure if it also has a Harmony Magic effect. 
   
• Aid Beren when dealing with Redalda, whose image he saw in the mirror. 
  What it sounds like. Useful only when Beren’s wedding negotiations are on the horizon, and must be unlocked with choices within the ritual.  
   
• Protection from cold and winter. 
  Helps you with all tests during Dark Season for a minimum of 5 years, potentially much, much longer if you did well in the ritual overall. Really helpful if you make a habit of, say, doing your rituals in Dark Season… 
  Must be unlocked by successfully fighting the Cold Sun during the ritual; the option to do this does not always appear. 
   
• A blessing to your pastures. 
  Helps your herds. 
   
• Restoration of your overgrazed pastures. 
  What you are going to be using the ritual for 90% of the time. Removes Grazing Stress.

Preparation

Timing

If you perform a given ritual twice in less than five years, you’ll suffer a penalty that makes the ritual harder and other clans less likely to help. Normally, I recommend avoiding doing this. However, Busenari Light Finder can be an exception—for two reasons. 
 
The first is that, if you have sufficiently large herds, your pastures may wear out in less than five years. (If this happens, you might want to consider selling cows—but you may well decide that the advantages of having a ridiculously large herd, such as wealth and reputation, outweigh the downsides.) 
 
The second is that, if you want to get any other reward, you’ll have to repeat this ritual within the penalty. And a couple of the other rewards are great! 
 
Luckily, this ritual is dead easy and you can generally succeed even with the penalty. But it’s something to be aware of, particularly if your potential questers or diplomatic situation aren’t very good. 
 
If you decide to do the ritual with the too-soon penalty, try to compensate for it with sacrifices and Sacred Time magic.  
 

Sacred Time

 
As always, you must put two points or more of magic into a given area to have any effect in the Gods War. 
 
A variety of Sacred Time magic allocations can come in handy in this ritual. Ritual magic can help in three stages; War and Harmony in two each; and Diplomacy, Pastures, and Wilds magic can help in one stage each. 
 

Choosing a Quester

 
This ritual can only be undertaken by a woman who is not a shaman. Past that, the game recommends picking a worshipper of Busenari who is strong in Food and Leadership. 
 
As usual, skills should be given priority over religion. Combat, Food, and Leadership can all get a quester through three stages or so if that is her only good skill. 
 
Personality can also have an effect—though unfortunately in many cases I can only say that a particular trait is checked for, but not whether it helps or hinders the quester. The Matriarchal personality trait, though, does seem to be useful in a lot of places. 
 
(Note that high Combat is necessary for getting the protection against cold and darkness reward!) 
 
 
The hero Ayvtu is meant to have an advantage at a couple of warlike options in this ritual. (I say "meant to" because there’s currently a bug, but it ought to be fixed on the next release.) Even without the bonus, she’s likely to get through well on a nontraditional Combat + Magic path. 
 

Stage 1: The Wolves

 
The quester finds herself in the unguarded celestial pastures. Wolves menace the herd that are Busenari’s daughters, and no Emperor defends them. How does the quester respond to this threat? 
 
Note that in this section, multiple options test BestSkill. Rather than a combination of skills, this takes the best out of some subset of roughly applicable skills 
 

Attack the wolves.

• Test: Combat vs Duel 
• Magic: War 
• Personality: Warlike, Daring 
• Other Bonus: Ayvtu; Bear Spirit

Make a deal with the wolves.

• Test: BestSkill (out of Bargaining or Food) vs. Customer 
• Magic: Diplomacy 
• Personality: Waffler (penalty?), Daring 
• Other Bonus: Trade Wind’s Assess ability. 
• Notes: If the quester is unsuccessful and gets the impression the wolves may be lying, she may choose another option.

Seek the bones of devoured cows, to make them whole again.

• Test: Food vs. Divine 
• Magic: Pastures 
• Personality: Matriarchal, Peaceful 
• Reward Unlocked: blessing of calm 
• Notes: If resurrection being a Food check seems odd to you, try thinking of it as an anatomy test; before bringing the cows back to life the quester must arrange their bones in a lifelike order.

Sing the cows a calming song.

• Test: BestSkill (out of Food, Leadership, or Poetry (probably Leadership + Lore)) vs. Divine 
• Magic: Pastures 
• Personality: Matriarchal, Peaceful, SongQuoter 
• Reward Unlocked: blessing of calm 
• Notes: No, Singing is not an option for BestSkill even though singing is what the quester is trying to do.

Stage 2: Gathering the Herd

 
The herd is scattered. A single cow alone is vulnerable; relatively safety lies in the herd. How does the quester gather Busenari’s daughters together? 
 

By cowing them.

• Test: Intimidation (Combat + Diplomacy) vs. Fear 
• Magic: Harmony 
• Personality: Matriarchal, Harsh, Merciful (penalty?) 
• Other Bonus: Successfully sang a calming song? 
• Other Penalty: Patriarchal personality chief?

By inspiring them.

• Test: Oration vs. Fear 
• Magic: Harmony 
• Personality: Daring, Optimist, Pessimist (Penalty?) 
• Reward Unlocked: blessing of calm

By promising them a new way.

• Test: WedCultures (Diplomacy + Magic) vs. Skepticism 
• Magic: Ritual 
• Personality: Intuitive, Optimist, Pessimist (penalty?) 
• Other Bonus: Spread Cenala Revelation; Elmal chief 
• Reward Unlocked: This unlocks both "Help Beren with Redalda" and the blessing of calm reward

By rea*suring them.

• Test: BestSkill (out of Food, Leadership, Poetry) vs. Fear 
• Magic: Harmony 
• Personality: Matriarchal, Peaceful, SongQuoter 
• Reward Unlocked: blessing of calm

Stage 3: The Journey

 
The celestial cows cannot stay where they are. Ultimately they must rejoin the pantheon, but what direction does the quester start out in? 
 

North, to fight the Cold Sun.

• Test: Combat vs. Duel 
• Magic: War 
• Personality: Warlike, Daring 
• Other Bonus: Ayvtu 
• Reward Unlocked: Protection against cold and winter 
• Notes: Failure here can kill the quester. Also, this option does not always appear.

Skyward, to the Sunpath.

• Test: Magic vs Darkness 
• Magic: Ritual 
• Personality: Optimist, Daring, Pragmatic, Pessimist 
• Other Penalty: Elmal not on ring; Patriarchal chief?

South, the Right Direction.

• Test: BestSkill (out of Food, Lore, Exploring (Bargaining + Combat)) vs. Elusiveness 
• Magic: Wilds 
• Personality: Intuitive, Xenophobe

Toward the sound of hooves.

• Test: Exploring (Bargaining + Combat) vs. Elusiveness 
• Magic: Wilds 
• Other Penalty: Gamari not on ring, PureHorse ring member (could technically be a positive, all I know is it’s checked, but it seems unlikely to help matters in a cow ritual…)

Stage 4: Meeting with Gamari

 
Having reached the other gods, what does the quester do? 
 

Heal those among the daughters who are hurt.

• Test: Magic vs. Divine 
• Magic: Ritual 
• Personality: Merciful, Arbitrary 
• Other Bonus: Erissa on ring

Take the daughters to be received by Elmal.

• Test: Leadership vs. Resentment 
• Magic: Harmony 
• Personality: Matriarchal (penalty?) 
• Other Bonus: Elmal chief, Yelm first god, patriarchal chief? (NB: That last could be a penalty instead.) 
• Other Penalty: Elmal not on ring 
• Reward Unlocked: Help Beren with Redalda

Take the daughters to Nyalda.

• Test: Leadership vs Resentment 
• Magic: Harmony 
• Personality: Matriarchal (bonus?) 
• Other Bonus: Nyalda first god 
• Other Penalty: Nyalda not on ring; Patriarchal chief

Urge Gamari to give the daughters her joy in wandering.

• Test: Diplomacy vs. Bullheadedness 
• Magic: Harmony 
• Personality: Intuitive, Matriarchal 
• Other Bonus: Gamari quester 
• Other Penalty: Gamari not on circle

Hey there, thanks for checking our blog. I hope the information you found about Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind – Guide to Busenari Light Finder helped you. If you believe we forget something to add or want us to add extra on the post, please let us know via comment below. Thanks, and see you soon!