History VideoGame / SunlessSkies

* TheDreadedDreadnought: The Enduring Dreadnoughts, big blue locomotives maneuvered exclusively by Her Enduring Majesty's most loyal officers. While not necessarily amongst the strongest enemy locomotives roaming the High Wilderness, the same cannot be said about the glowing Glorious Dreadnoughts and the glass-encrusted Deranged Dreadnoughts. While the Glorious ones do not attack you if you are on good terms with the London loyalists, the Deranged ones, which are found flying near the [[MechanicalAbomination Clockwork Sun]], shoot you on sight regardless of your affiliation.

* TheEmpire: The British Empire is expanding once more, this time across the stars.

* GuideDangIt: The quest to find the Chamberlain at the Masoleum will stall when you search the catacombs, with the game informing you that "bright eyes and a cold hand around your heart" are needed to progress. What does this translate to? [[spoiler:50+ Terror and two Visions of the Heavens.]] The game gives no hints as to the actual requirements needed here (the option to progress isn't even visible), and unless you look it up, you'll probably only figure it out by accident.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: There are a few difficulty tweaks the player can do to make the experience a bit easier. Those being bullet speed, aim assist, and the rate at which resources deplete. The game allows you to change such options too whenever you start a new character in the lineage.

* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] by the trading system: by taking advantage of Bargains (opportunities to buy certain goods for significantly lowered prices in certain ports) and Prospects (quests which allow you to sell requested goods for much higher prices than normal), you can sell goods for up to five times what you paid for them. The random nature of these means it's entirely possible to acquire a Bargain for goods you need for a Prospect in the same town, meaning you can buy cheap goods and sell them at an inflated price without even leaving the city.

* ReadingsAreOfTheScale: The various engine modules all use an image of a pressure gauge, and with each upgrade, the pressure level on the gauge increases. When you obtain the Devourer of Distance, a special engine acquired through a story event after you've acquired the best standard engine, its version of the gauge has completely passed the red line and [[IncendiaryExponent is on fire]].

** In the Forge of Souls you can find The Custodian of the Forge, the first person to pass through the Avid Horizon. Apparently he had a zee-captain companion before the Clerk of the Sevens (Implied to be the [[VideoGame/FallenLondon Northbound Parliamentarian]]) took over their job out of sympathy. All signs point to him being the Merchant Venturer, who you can help breach the Horizon in VideoGame/SunlessSea.

* NotSoAboveItAll: [[spoiler: The Judgements. Despite giving the appearance that they are in fact above it all, the Judgements are at war against one another, proving that they are just as capable of pettiness, disunity and strife as mortals. One can infer that this is greatly embarrassing for them since they will hunt down those who discover this truth.]]

* EatTheDog: Starvation can force you to turn to your engine's mascot for nutrition, including the [[BigFriendlyDog Inadvisably Big Dog]].
--> "A sad, silent meal. How quiet the engine is, now. How empty."

** The Uninvited, a weapon that fires EldritchAbomination parasites as AbnormalAmmo but whose unpredictable spread and random bullet patterns make it difficult to use, especially against smaller and speedier opponents.

** The Medea-class destroyer, one of two endgame ships (alongside the Moloch-class luxury liner). Costing 20,000 pounds to purchase, the Medea is specced entirely for combat, able to mount two large-size weapons and three shields, and can have over 200 hull. Unfortunately it is massive, its side-mounted vents are underpowered, and it has the exact same heat gauge as the other locomotives and thus tends to overheat if you try mounting two large weapons in it (who often have 50+ heat per shot). On top of this it has ''pathetic'' cargo space for its size, low crew space and only a single auxillary slot, which makes it lousy for hauling cargo and long-range exploration. It can also only be purchased in Pan, which is a pain to reach in the first place.
** The Moloch-class luxury liner is the StarshipLuxurious of the game, unrivalled in crew space and with decent cargo-hauling or exploring ability plus decent offensive and defensive stats... Unfortunately, for a price of 20,000 it isn't all that much better than the Altani-class outrider, which outside of being only found in the Eagle's Empyrian is almost entirely as good in every way (and has a higher potential cargo space) at half the cost.

-->[[spoiler:One is timeless. One's dominion is history itself. Chronology bows before one. One is Eternity's Mistress.]]

-->''Time offers no surety against Death.''

* BerserkButton: Eleutheria presents you with a MortonsFork of these. Dousers are fanatically devoted to the Liberation of Night and will try to kill you if you so much as light your front lamp anywhere near them, and Grievers are trying to sleep and will try to put any lights out nearby even if it means taking the entire locomotive out along the way. Empyrean Outriders, of the Eagle's Empyrean, are trying to keep the dark at bay and will quickly get pissed off if you ''don't'' have your lamps on where they can see you.

** The Altani-class Outrider engine is one of the most practical engines in the game. While ''getting it'' requires braving the very dangerous region of Eleutheria and it costs as much as the more accessible Agravain-class Juggernaut, it's less expensive than the Moloch Luxury Liner or the Medea-class Destroyer and sits perfectly between the two: it has the same armament as the Juggernaut and the Liner, only slightly less Hull (70 as opposed to 90), the second-best hold space in the game (a mere two less than the Liner), and its three Auxiliary slots (better than any other engine) allow it to be customized for pretty much any task. While it lacks the sheer firepower of the Destroyer and isn't quite as tough as any of its peers can get, it can do pretty much everything whereas the others have trouble filling certain roles. It's also one of the most agile engines in the game.

* BoringButPractical: Most of the top-tier gear requires similarly top-tier stats to use it, and as a result, you're likely going to be using the lower-tier gear instead. You might not have the ''best'' engine, or the ''most powerful'' gun, but you won't need to worry about grinding out your stats to use those and can focus on other matters instead.
** The Empyrean Outrider engine is one of the most practical engines in the game. While ''getting it'' requires braving the very dangerous region of Eleutheria, and it's not cheap, it's less expensive that the Moloch Luxury Liner or the Medea-class Destroyer and sits perfectly between the two: it can mount one light and one heavy weapon[[note]]compared to the Destroyer's two heavy weapons and the Moloch's one light weapon[[/note]], has a good amount of cargo space[[note]]less than the Moloch, more than the Destroyer[[/note]], and can mount both armor and cargo space upgrades. Getting the Moloch or the Medea is impractical and forces you into a specific playstyle, while the Outrider continues to let you do everything. It's also one of the most agile engines in the game.

* BrickJoke: At the very beginning of the Parliament quest chain, you learn that a bill is being voted on by the [=MPs=] that defiantly renames "Victoria Sponge" to "The People's Cake"; at the end of the quest chain,[[spoiler:The Parliament somehow blackmailed Queen Victoria into letting the legislature function again... but she will NOT tolerate this talk of "People's Sponge" nonsense!]]